It's been nearly three months since I posted. I knew I was slack, but this is ridiculous. So it's time for an update.

Firestar came back at the end of November with a suggestion for a rewrite giving more background on the Families. This makes sense. You have to distinguish your product from everyone else. So what unique things about the Families need to be brought out in the early part of the story so it isn't all spaceships exploding? If you want that, there's always the Honor Harrington stories (hats off to David Weber for them; I've spent many an enjoyable hour reading them). So that's in the works queue again.

Joshua said he'd be willing to see other things I've written, so off went Kassandra's Song. We'll see how it does, but personally, I've always liked that story.

I've been posting a related story (Kalliste) on Gina Marie Wylie's Beyond the Far Horizon. No real rewrites there (though I duplicated a chapter - since corrected).

I've been readying Cross Time Cop for submission, and to that end I've been taking it to the spin-off writer's group from the one in Woodinville. I've rewritten through Chapter 6, changed the names of some of the characters (thank goodness for Global Change - but watch out for spelling changes), and smoothed out a lot of rough spots.

I also posted an earlier version of Counterfeit Line on Gina's site, and have gotten some good feedback. That'll go back in the queue. I still think I can place this story somewhere.

And I completed a couple of more dryad stories. I think that makes 4 or 5, including one that's going to a contest for mystery/fantasy.

So much for what is done. What's in progress?

After working on the plot for Firestar, I decided that the events needed another story in the cycle: Morosini's Children. I'm up through Chapter 5. Slow going as other things have been taking my time (including a decrease in writing time due to real life). But this fits with other things, and, who knows, maybe I'll make this one I skip over and 'come back to'. Certainly Setosha is nearly done.

I continue to flog away at Body of Evidence. This one brings together Marge Bergeron from Cross Time Cop and Gina Stone from Counterfeit Line. I'm about to confuse Marge a bit with things; nothing says your characters can't reach the wrong conclusion. But this does mean that Different World will have to be completed, too. I wrote myself into a box there, and have to back up a bit and figure a way out. Or maybe have the characters do that. Hmm....

So I have been busy (see my Ober-Bindlestiff Blog for other things I've been doing lately). It is the season, and I find my writing schedule as busy as ever. But since I transitioned to graveyeard shift, my writing time is taken up with sleeping instead. I knew there'd be a penalty to pay for that decision, but there were real/life reasons for it.

And a review of The Black Whole

http://bookzombie.blogspot.com/2008/09/review-black-whole-jacqueline-m-jones.html

I even got a mention for Spiked! out of it.

My Brother Was Interviewed on the radio -

He had an interview on KONP radio in Port Angeles, WA. His writing partner was also on via phone. Here's a picture of the event.

He reported that the studio was "bloody hot", and that he could barely hear his writing partner so accidentally stepped on him from time to time.

All in all a nice interview (IMO) that covered the basics of the story Escape to Destiny, gave people reason to want to buy the book, got in that sales have been pretty good, and otherwise did a pretty good job of promotion.

There are more books in the series coming out, and the preliminary publication projection suggests next Spring. They have 16 or 17 of the series either done, or close to it. Now that's a writing machine.

I didn't check their website, www.konp.com, but I think they have archives and people can listen to them. The interview was at 1:00 PDT on 9/19/08.

The Black Whole published

The Black Whole is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Check it out at:

Barnes and Noble http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Black-Whole/Jacqueline-M-Jones/e/9780970943378/?itm=1

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Black-Whole-Jacqueline-M-Jones/dp/0970943377/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219342205&sr=1-6

If those wrap, just type in "The Black Whole" in the search bar.

Super cool.

I'm in it with Spiked!, the first of the dryad stories.

Good News!!!

I just learned that Spiked! will appear in The Dark Whole Anthology. Publication date is tentatively put as December 2008. The publisher is Down in the Country press.

Here's the link: http://www.press.downinthecountry.com/theblackhole.html

Woot! Woot! Woot!

Wow. I was pretty sure it'd make it into the anthology, but there's always that element of doubt. They wanted a fantasy with an element of darkness to it, and the ending of Spiked! gives that as the eco-freak is trapped in a tree that's about to run through the saw at a sawmill.

There's still work to do, galley proofs to check, mainly, and any editorial corrections the editor requests.

This feels kind of cool in a way I can't quite put into words.

Next Steps

After a brief email exchange with Joshua, I sent the first 57 pages of Firestar to him. Why 57 and not 50? The section ended with page 57. Now I cross my fingers. In the meantime I tweaked 17, 20 and 21 to remove references to Heather (Corey's sib-sister) being pregnant, and to give Corey some beginnings at political skill.

Why? Heather's pregnancy will be a stress element for Corey in the next book, and the political skill will come in handy farther down in the story arc.

So what is the next step? I've already alluded to Morosini's Children. I'm still working on the beginning of it. Read books on the racks at a bookstore or in a supermarket. You start off with a bang, either in the middle of the action (en media res), or with a puzzle. Three examples come to mind.

Crosstime Cop - Marge says "This is stupid." which makes you want to find out what is stupid, and why.

Counterfeit Line - There was nothing like a dead body to brighten up the day. Right away you need to know why that is. You turn the page.

A Perfect Murder - Sarah Hammond, in my writer's group, used a line: It was the perfect day for a murder. to get the action underway. You need to find out why, and who, and so you turn the page.

There's a phrase for this: "shoot the sheriff in the first page." In other words, get the novel underway right away. Don't do mood setting, gradually focusing in on the characters and action. I did this in the first draft of Counterfeit Line. During the Maui Writer's Cruise I was strongly advised to get to the action sooner. Four chapters became two, and at the end of chapter two the main character had been thrown through a mysterious doorway. The story reads tighter for it. Russian authors of the 19th Century have a lot to answer for (IMO). Much better is to study Chekov and other playwrights who get you involved right away.

So what is the line or opening in Morosini's Children? Damned if I know...yet. But as I see it, Corey has to state the problem early on so we know what her "must do" compulsion is. That's the McGuffin, the kernel of the plot, and everything revolves around it. Of course Corey has other problems:

1. her project is a research project, and that means a different level of funding and administrative support than a military project;
2. elements of her Family want all members out of Space, especially her, who is a real hero. They don't want her at home in uniform as that will inspire other girls in her Family to go into Space. So they want her to resign from the Navy (besides, she has three birthrights, so she might as well use them).
3. the Families Navy is gearing up for offensive warfare to put the Idenux away once and for all, and the Children go on some raids;
4. Sonia is revealed as having an important job that impacts Corey's work, and the complications that follow from that. Of course that revelation has to remain secret from the Family. Nothing is easy.

That might or might not be enough, but that's all that I extracted from the original source (which was the original version of Firestar).

But it all starts with a great opening. One person said you have only 5 pages to capture a reader, others think it's the first page. Nobody said writing is easy.

Some Changes & Things -

I've said several times that Firestar is done. Now I think it is. I've gone through suggestions from the edit team, and I've tweaked and added and foreshadowed. The conclusion leads inescapably to book 2, Morosini's Children. That will be sandwiched in before Setosha. I'm going to have to do a status of the various people before I go any further.

I'm nearly done with the synopsis, too. This is a critical piece that most people forget. And an email to Joshua.

On to other things - I'm plotting out the last half of A Different World. I've gone as far as I can plotting off the top of my head. We'll see how this shapes up. I know the ending, I'm just fiddling while I get there. In some ways it feels good to do DW for a change. We'll see how long I can hold off doing Morosini's Children.

Good wargaming this last weekend, even if I did go 1 and 1. I lost a HoTTs game, but did all right in galley fighting. The galley rules are shaping up, and I want to put them on some time and get the "ooh-wow" factor.

It's Off (or done, or whatever)!

Okay, this time more or less for sure. Firestar appears to be done and is off for commentary. The problem was the last two chapters.

You have to have the protagonist solve the problem. In this case it was two-fold, though only one was stated obviously: learn how to beat the Idenux; overcome the arthritis that cripples the Families Navy. Corey does so. And is sent to the next problem, beating the people behind the Idenux.

With that (temporarily) off my back, I turn to rewriting the synopsis and sending it to the agent.

And I am going back to revisit my earlier uncompleted story about Jen the Dryad.

Too bad Real Life is getting in the way of things.

Finished...again.

So I think I finally wrapped up Firestar. I kept getting hung up on the last two chapters. There was a lot I wanted to put in (at one point it needed an extra chapter). But I finally bit the bullet, asked myself who the story was about, and what was the question, and did it.

I think Chapter 20 may be a bit weak. We'll see.

I finished it, now I have to do the synopsis, and fire it off to the agent. When I double-checked the address on his website, I learned that Steve Mancino has left the agency and moved to Philly. Okay.

On other writing subjects, I may have sold Spiked!. An anthology was looking for fantasy short stories with an ending that was a little spooky. Having the bad guy still alive when he's sectioned on a sawmill is spooky. And I was true to the legend of creatures like dryads (and mere-folk): as long as you are with them, nothing bad can happen to you. She left him, he gets cut to pieces.

The pay isn't great, but a writing credit is a writing credit, and that's important. Now I can start focusing on the rest of the dryad stories. And writing new ones. There's this idea of a spindizzy, and...

Enthusiasms -

I fear I've fallen for temptation yet again. This last weekend was Enfilade!, the largest miniatures convention in the Pacific Northwest. It is organized/run by NHMGS, part of Historical Miniature Gamers Society, and includes people from Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia. A lot of games are put on, and one can get enthused by some game you were in. This year was a good example of that.

As usual, I put on, or helped put on, two games, both of which I wrote the rules for. The first was Little Big Battles, 6mm Napoleonics where two 3-figure stands are a battalion, one 2-figure mounted stand is a pair of squadrons, and a gun with 1-3 figures is a battery. You can run multiple corps with these rules. We use a form of competitive die throw first done in DBA for combat. Things feel right with the way things go.

The other (in the evening) was King's War, pike and shot, 1640-1695. Jeff did this one, I just helped. It's set in 1672 at the start of King Louis' Dutch War. This is always popular, and we drew quite a crowd. The scenario needs work, but people had a good time.

While the King's War game was in progress I found myself going over to watch Bruce McFarlane's Torgau game using the Humberside Extensions of DBA.

The Battle of Torgau was a clash between the Austrians and the Prussians in 1760. It took place just outside of Dresden, and the Prussians narrowly won. Frederick the Great tried to do what the Austrians had been doing to him: converge columns on the Austrians from two directions. He had one clumn, and General von Ziethen had the other. Frederick attacked early, and was very bloodily repulsed. He was trying to reorganize his forces preparatory to a defense, and the Austrians had sent off a dispatch claiming victory, when Ziethen showed up. He put in his attack, and was actually bogging down when one of Frederick's subordinates got his men up for one more assault, catching the Austrians from the flank and rolling them up. It kicked the Austrians out of Saxony (again) for the winter, and was a major step towards making them seek peace. It was also one of the bloodiest battles of the Seven Years War (only Zorndorf was bloodier).

Tony Barr of the Society of Ancients wanted a set of Renaissance rules for DBA. So he added sections to the rules, and they are known as the Humberside Extensions. They take DBA, or a form of it, up to 1900. For 20th Century and later, both Tony and others suggest using HoTTs (Hordes of the Things), a fantasy set of rules. I've played them, and they work quite well (tanks are behemoths, artillery and air power are Gods, staff are wizards, machineguns are shooters, and so on).

One of the complaints about DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) is that they didn't account for attrition. Critics would point out that two lines of hoplites would shove each other back and forth until somebody was unlucky. That turned out to be the case with hoplite warfare, but the critics displayed their enormous lack of understanding about the period with their claims. Success in hoplite warfare depended upon flanking the enemy, which became common with the pike-armed phalangites. But DBA was originally meant for a campaign game. The competition gamers grabbed it because all armies are 12 stands, and vary in strength from 20-60 castings, something that even casual gamers can paint. BTW, serious competition gamers play only historical match-ups. I've seen both the serious and the unserious competition gamers, and I know the difference!

Bruce McFarlane decided to fix this, and introduced variable morale. This becomes necessary for musket period games as attrition is a serious consideration (though you win faster and with fewer losses if you can outflank the enemy). He tested it, liked what he was seeing, and went forward. In DBA, if you out-dice your opponent in one of the match-ups, the losing stand recoils. Bruce McFarlane put a limit on the number of recoils a stand could suffer before it was removed. Not all stands are rated the same, so you have better troops and poorer troops, and that gives you something else to ponder.

This is all the genesis of the Torgau game at Enfilade! Using a scale of one stand=one brigade, he prepared an Order of Battle. Following successful games of the Battle of Friedland at the Fall-In Con, he brought this game to the Red Lion in Olympia for Enfilade! Six players volunteered for it; I was involved in King's War, so I couldn't play. But I lurked. And I liked what I saw. In 2.5 hours they had a result that was believable (and historical, i.e. very bloody). And they were talking tactics at the end, not rules.

One of the measures I use for how well a set of rules works at a Con is what the players discuss in the bar afterwards. I saw this at a Dragonflight back in the late 80s or early 90s at Seattle University. I'd put on a game of Warfare in the Age of Reason, one of the best SYW sets of rules around (IMHO - and no, writing the siege module for the rules didn't effect my opinion; I wouldn't have written them if I thought the rules were bad). Afterwards we all retired to a Red Robin just down the street. The players at the next table had been in the game, and they were talking about the tactics they'd used, not how they'd manipulated the rules. I'd followed my principles of a good wargames convention game, and they'd had a lot of fun. I incorporated that into a measure of success as a games master.

The three rules for a convention game:

1. Make the tactical problem relatively simple;
2. Have players throwing dice no later than turn 2;
3. Keep everything moving quickly so no one can possibly get bored.

So with that aside, it was quite refreshing that players were talking about tactical moves they made, not whether the dice had been favorable or unfavorable (I gave a demonstration of bad dice an hour later by losing 16-2 in a game of HoTTs; my Barbarian Queendom Army going down to thundering defeat at the hands of a Dwarven Army - but my tactics were bad also).

So since that game I've been researching everything I can about the Humberside Extensions, and even tried a solo game using my ACW troops. And I'm in a quandry that I hope to solve: what to base for them? My ACW troops, that's a given. But I've more or less made up my mind to base my SYW troops for Volley & Bayonet. But do I have any others? Funny you should ask that.

I have a veritable unpainted horde of figures for the 9 Years War. They look like Marlburians, but with floppy hats, not tricornes. So those'll go on DBA style stands. And still I'm tempted. Expect updates as I finally decide on what I want to rebase.

Another Update --

It's that time, but first a plug. I know Liz Lyon. I met her at the Maui Writer's Conference and Cruise in 2004. She has a new book out: Manuscript Makeover. It is chock full of excellent advice on how to revise your manuscript.

The process of writing can be funny. Some people go all the way through a chapter or short story, then go back and revise. Others use revision as a way to get going so they can write the rest of the chapter. Some write the entire book before revising. Some write the book, and then start all over and write the book again. We writers sure can make a lot of work for ourselves.

I think I'm in the second category, kinda-sorta. I write the chapter, or most of it. I revise constantly. I add, I move things around, and I finally finish it. I send it off for feedback. Then I revise. Then I print it out and copy-edit the thing manually and add my revisions/changes. Then, finally, I print it out again and make copies for the writer's group. If it's Woodinville, it is probably a short story. If it is Phinney Ridge (though we meet at Northgate), it's probably 9-10 pages of a chapter. These latter are read aloud.

Later, much later, I go through it again, first on the computer, and then by hand with a printed copy. Then I collect it all in a copy that once again is sent off for the editorial review.

The members of your editorial review come in a variety of flavors. You must pick them carefully. You don't want "Gosh wow, that was the greatest thing I ever read!" That's nice to hear, but doesn't make you a better writer. You need someone to look at the overall thrust of the story, and you need someone to get into the nuts and bolts.

Look at Wingman. The original draft was terrible. I showed it to someone that I worked with, and he pointed out where I'd gone wrong. I rewrote, then rewrote again. This time it went to my own editorial team. Semi-colons, commas, spelling, split and unsplit infinitives, and ellipses later, I incorporated the changes I wanted. I sharpened the ending (it's subtle). THEN I finally sent it off to the editor/owner of the whole story cycle. He had things that I fixed. I read it to the B&N writer's group, and a couple of other things were fixed. I finally submitted it to Stories On Line. Since then I've made a few more changes to it, fixing minor things that had escaped every one's attention until it was available.

I've gotten almost as much feedback on Wingman as I did on Three Valleys - Sammi. Woof.

There's a lot of work involved in all of this. So it makes perfect sense that Firestar, which I thought was nearly done, is not.

I ran it by one of the editorial team. He pointed out that Corey is mostly an observer in the last two chapters. This is wrong. She has a problem to solve, and she has to solve it. That's what a protagonist does. So I cut scenes, I rewrote scenes, and I am rewriting the last bit of the book completely. That meant I had to rewrite earlier parts of the book, adding scenes, changing others. A lot of work.

However, it is coming together, albeit slowly. Part of Corey's problem is she knows how to beat the Idenux, but she has to convince others that her solution is the correct one. The Families are almost Medieval in their approach to things, and Corey has made some enemies. And she is a neophyte at the political aspects of command. She has to learn how to move and survive (and prosper) in the political environment of the Families where a lot of things are personal.

Then I have to set up the next book, Setosha. But where do I put K-303? That will be interesting.

Are there other things? Engage the Enemy More Closely is on hold. I got to chapter 4, and hit a wall (called Firestar). So I've been copy-editing Different World. I can see changes I need to make in the latter. I also saw where I was working myself into a box, and I think I've backed out from that approach.

In the meantime, Spiked! may have been bought! We'll see. Let's not jeopardize things by talking about it too much.

And after a prolonged absence (or at least it felt that way), I've returned to the world of The Construct. More on that later.

More on everything later.

Nearly Done!

I'm down to the last few chapters of the rewrite of Firestar. The plot has changed around a lot, there's a bit more action, and I've taken the trouble to draw out Corey's problem: how to win the war. And the key point is that while she doesn't single-handedly do that, she serves as the catalyst for those who can change the policies. That has taken a little more work than I'd anticipated.

Of course when I'm done I'll have to go back through it and see where I have inconsistencies and so on.

I think the only other thing that's new on the writing front is Little Lost Dryad, a short story in the dryad sequence that includes potential child abuse, and the revenge for that. I had a rather lame ending, but some of the feedback was pointed and direct, and has resulted in my rewriting parts of the beginning to put in more detail, and rewriting the ending completely. We'll see how it turns out, I'm not totally satisfied with it in this form, either.

What would make me satisfied? Hmm, good question. The ending has to be something that could only come about because the narrator is a dryad, that the narrator does, and is emotionally satisfying (a short story, for me, is as much about emotion as it is anything else). I did have one idea that was completely off the wall, and I may go with it just to see how it fits. We'll see.

Frederick the Great Modifications and Errata


1) A garrison granted the honors of war must be moved to a non-besieged friendly garrison of the same nationality (which may result in the splitting of the garrison, if made up of different nationalities).

2) A demoralized force inside a fortress does not demoralize a friendly force outside the same fortress, and a demoralized force outside a fortress does not demoralize a friendly force inside the same fortress. You remember that forces on a hex with a fortress aren't automatically inside the fortress.

3) The captor has the choice of which leader to offer for exchange when an uneven number of leaders are held as prisoners.

4) The river hexsides between hexes 1730-1630, 1730-1731, and 1731-1830 should not be there; consider those hexsides clear.

5) On the CRT, the "25L" Attacker result for a modified die roll result of "7" under the 66-99% column should be a "20" instead (with no leader loss).

6) The towns of Cassel (1811) and Eger (1121) are fortified. Cassel is held by the Hanoverians (well, actually Hessians, but in game terms the Hanoverians) at the start of all individual year scenarios. Eger is held by the Austrians at the start of all individual year scenarios.

7) Minden is a "weaker" fortresses. All siege resolution rolls add 1 to the die roll on this fortress.

8) The Russians have no siege train. All Russian siege resolution rolls where the Russians alone are besieging a place subtract 1 from the die roll.

9) The Russians have bases in Poland. Starting in any year after the capture of Konigsberg, the Russians may move forces from Poland. They enter the map anywhere between hexes 2136 and 2356 inclusive. If they are coming they must enter no later than Turn 6, and must exit through those hexes no later than Turn 14. Russian forces doing this draw supply as if there is a supply counter in 2436 or 2236 (but not both). The Russian player must indicate where it is upon entering. This supply counter may not be captured and has an intrinsic garrison.

10) If Konigsberg is being besieged by the Russians and Winter starts, the garrison is automatically granted the Honors of War and the Russians occupy Konigsberg.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've adapted Frederick the Great to other maps. This is for earlier campaigning, or for campaigning with miniatures. These rules follow.

1) Roads are two types: solid lines (rare) and dashed lines (dusty lanes). Solid line roads add 1MP and negate terrain, but that can only be used once in a movement for that force. Dashed lines just negate terrain.

2) "Fortified Lines" - these were the Non Plus Ultra Lines and the Lines of Brabant from earlier wars. These are established with "intrinsic" garrisons that do not show on the map. They cost 1 extra MP to move through, cumulative with other terrain, if regular troops are not there. If regular troops are there, they increase the strength of the defending force by 50%. "Fortified Lines" may be destroyed by an attacking force moving through them. "Fortified Lines" hexes with destroyed fortifications can no longer provide any advantages for either side.

3) Conversion to miniatures: instead of having an SP counter in a stack, there are lettered counters. Each one represents specific units, and players must note the composition of that force. For example, Counter B is foot regiments Baden-Durlach, Baden-Baden, Baden-Overhaul, Horse Brigades v. Tinkelwasser and v. Eissenessen, and an artillery park of one brigade. This is 16 SP. Losses in battle have to be traced (I'm set up for Volley & Bayonet), or 8,000 men.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If it isn't obvious, I happen to think that for strategic warfare from 1640 to 1790, the game system in Frederick the Great can't be beat. It is an intuitive system where, after some experience, you only need the CRT chart. I've used the above modifications on other maps, and found them to work rather well. You can get a tense game with chances on either side.

HoTTs for Ancients





HoTTs is short-hand for Hordes of the Things, a set of fantasy battle rules by Richard Bodley Scott and Phil Barker. It's a fun set of rules. In my opinion, it is better written than the companion De Bellis Antiquitatis (aka DBA). Others disagree with me on this.



The army seen to the left is the Syrian City State Army I've put together for HoTTs Historical. Its composition is listed below.


We've been using HoTTs for ancient gaming. To do that, we've had to add a little to the rules. Herewith are the changes we made.


Troop Types:
Scouts
· Foot element.
· 40x20 base, 2 figs/base
· 300p movement. Mounted can pass through Scouts, or Scouts through any friends, which are facing in the same or opposite direction if there is room beyond the first element met.
· Combat factor +2 against anyone. If the Scouts are equipped with a shooting weapon, they can support Warband, Spears, or Blades against Mounted/Aerial (+1 factor) and suffers same fate as supported unit.
· No -2 if fighting in difficult or bad going.
· If beaten, destroyed by Knights, Riders, or Flyers in good going, otherwise recoil.
· If doubled, destroyed by Knights, Riders, or Flyers in good going or by Rangers or Scouts; otherwise, flee 600p.


Light Horse
· Mounted element.
· 40x30 base in 15mm, 2 figs/base
· 500p movement.
· Combat factor +2 against anyone. If the Light Horse are equipped with a shooting weapon, they can shoot 100p.
· If beaten, destroyed if in bad going, otherwise, flee 600p.
· If doubled, destroyed by Riders, Light Horse, or Flyers in good going, or if in bad going; otherwise, flee 600p.


Phalanx - Pikes - 4 fig/stand, same movement as Spears, count 2nd rank, +3 for each rank against all troop types. 2 AP/element.

Levy - "normal" spears (i.e. not phalangites like the Greeks developed). No 2nd rank allowed. +3 against all troop types. 2 AP/element.

Changes to Rules
Warbands - only count the 2nd rank on turns they initiate combat

Stronghold - both sides have strongholds.





In historical HoTTs, suppress the supernatural elements (i.e. magic users, dragons, Gods and similar).

We've used the above for the better part of two years, and the thing we've discovered is you need a "basic" army list like you see in DBA. Players would be free to add additional elements to suit their style of play, or campaign situations. Players would have a selected list of troop types to draw from. In all cases these would include Heroes. Let's look at some typical "basic" armies.



Hittite Army: 3xHCh as Kn; 2xLCh as Riders; 4xLevy; for 18 pts.


New Kingdom Egyptian Army: 2xLCh as Riders; 2xLevy; 2xBows as Shooters; 1xAxe, for 14 pts.

Notice that I don't list any maximums. So if a Hittite wants to include 3 elements of blades, or 3 of HCh, he can. Note that the "light" troops such as Scouts aren't normally included as "mandatory".

We've also found that playing on a 32"x24" deep table actually works quite well. We've also played on a 30"x30" table. This gives both sides at least one open flank.

We've also done "largee-battle" HoTTs games. This is 2 or more armies that could be historical allies on one side vs. 2 or more armies that would be historical opponents that could be allies on the other side. For example, I recently did a Hittite Army allied with a Trojan Army and a Syrian City State Army vs. three Egyptian armies. The various armies were:





Hittite: 4xHCh as Kn; 3xLCh as Riders; 4xLevy; 1xAxe


Trojan: 1xHero (in chariot); 4xLCh; 4xWarbands; 2xBows as Shooters


Syrian: 2xLCh as Riders; 1xAxe; 2xLevy; 10xHordes; 2xBows as shooters





Egyptians: 4xLCh; 4xLevy; 2xBows; 2xAxe



In the Hittite case the contingents had to be kept separate. In the Egyptian case the troops could be rearranged before the battle started into "commands". The CiC would roll first, then could "give" pips to a lower command. The resulting battle was frustrating to the Egyptians (who eventually won) because the Syrian commander used his troops as the anchor for everyone else (brought on by his being able to bring Hordes that had been lost back to the field). The Hittite Heavy Chariots just motored over the top of everything, but got pip challenged so they really couldn't get turned around. The rules in HoTTs for Big Battles work just find.



I'm gradually putting together a "base" army for all of the ones we normally use.



By the way, none of this is to denigrate using HoTTs as it was intended: as a set of fantasy battle rules.

More Firestar

Stories have sub-plots. In Kassandra's Song it's her flashbacks, and the same in Crosstime Cop. In Firestar it is Alan Young, an officer in the navy of the People's Star Kingdom.

Alan is there for a reason, and not just to pad the story to some wordcount. We get to see the Families through his eyes, and Corey gets to tell him things, which means the reader learns them. It adds 2.5 to 3.0 chapters to the story.

This changes the end of the story. As before, it ends with a battle in system K-303 (Families Catalogue). In this one there is no mention of Morosini's Children. Instead, Corey and Alan will work closely together, and that will be critical in winning the battle.

The battle won't be the end of the story, though. Because there will be the aftermath. After all, one of the themes is Corey trying to find a way to win the war.

Wingman on Storiesonline.net

I posted Wingman to Storiesonline yesterday morning. For those who don't know, this is a website where a lot of erotica gets posted, but so does a lot of non-erotica. I've put my share of erotica up there (Devlin's Story, Three Valleys - Sammi, and The Office stories. But I've also put the Kalliste extract stories there. You get feedback, and you get votes on the quality. It's a mixed bag at times, because it's all just impressions.

Take votes, for instance. I had someone really slam one of my stories because he didn't like the premise. He voted as many times as he could, and gave it the lowest ratings he could. Lazzo, the sitemaster, caught on, and stepped in. Your ego gets caught up in those votes, and you can get really depressed if the scores are going down. Especially because the technical ability votes remain high (that was apparently cued Lazzo in that something was going on).

You can also send e-mails to the author, and since there's a lot of erotica, the sender doesn't know the e-mail address of the recipient. When you're getting good feedback, and even praise, and scores that keep dropping, you know something's up. When Lazzo removed this troll's low scores, suddenly everything jumped up consistent with my other stories.

All that aside (you can tell it hit a nerve), Wingman has gotten a lot of responses. Apparently the story of someone recovering the body of someone he knew in 1968 resonated through a lot of the Vietnam era readers. I've gotten several very emotional responses.

Red Stevenson is a Vice Admiral in the Navy, and CNO/Aviation, which means he's the boss flier in the US Navy. A lot of what that office does is procurement, personnel moves, and so on. There's also a CNO/Surface, and a CNO/Submarine (I think there are a couple more). In 1968 he was a nugget (new aviator on his first deployment). In October of that year he was flying as wingman to Jack MacLean when the latter was hit by flak and shot down. Red ignored the FAC (forward air controller) and blew that gun away with his bombs, though it didn't do Jack any good.

Fast forward to 1997. Red Stevenson is temporarily heading a recovery team in Vietnam. He is specifically looking for Jack MacLean, whose body was never recovered. He finds him and brings him home. A year later, in a bar in Washington DC, another guy who was in the squadron in 1968, David Hughes, looks him up. The story proceeds from there.

Even though the story was posted on a site with erotica, there's no sex, or even nudity in the story. The characters do drink a good single malt, and in one scene, smoke cigarettes (which in Washington State would offend more people than the sex).

For those who haven't read Nick Scipio's Summer Camp stories, go to www.nickscipio.com and enjoy. These are erotica, but Nick has a deft hand at drawing characters. It is a 'coming of age' story that has garnered a large following and a very intense discussion group on Yahoo. David Hughes is one of the characters, as is Jack MacLean's widow, Susan. Nick very graciously let me use David, and provided some editorial feedback. He had me show the story to a public member of his Editorial Team, as well as several who aren't. And I'm sorry, my lips are sealed on who they were.

There was a personal element in working on Wingman, but I won't comment on it.

Now back to other stories.

Re-Thinking Firestar

It's amazing what time away from a story can accomplish. I was all set to start Firestar with Corey graduating from Command & Staff School. I wrote two chapters and part of a third. I then sort of dribbled out of energy.

I've learned that in my case, writer's block is an disinclination to work on a story. And the cause isn't energy or the lack thereof, but that I'm going down the wrong path. The usual cure is to not work on a story for a day or six, and then back up.

Now the trouble with Firestar is that I have all of this stuff written which I think makes a great story. Any substantial changes I make to it negates all of this work. And Corey's story is the story of the Families, too. But something I said to Joshua when he pinned me down on it reverberated last week.

Who is Corey Andersen? What drives her? What is her "got to fix" problem? I'd said, when questioned, Ulysses Grant. I'm not sure if I thought about it, or it was my subconscious finally getting fed up and providing me the answer.

Grant was a failure at everything he tried. Farming - failed. Clerking - failed. The only thing he was good at was the thing he hated the most: the military. And he was very good at the fighting part, though he learned (as 1861-62 shows) that he learned the logistics/admin side very well, too. And he was flexible. He didn't quite say "You look at a situation until it makes sense." He might as well have.

So why is Corey Andersen like Ulysses Grant? She looks at situations until she understands them. Sometimes she goes in with a pre-conceived plan. Sometimes she just takes advantage of what happens around her, and runs with it, just like Grant did. And she's lonely, just like Grant.

When Grant was posted to the West Coast it was no-dependents-allowed. Julia was his anchor. Without her he was alone, and he would drink. That's why he left the army in the 1850s. Corey is alone, too. There are her sib-sisters, shy Heather who opens up with colleagues, party-girl Sonia, and Corey, who is with the coyote packs, or reading, or running errands (alone). A party will find her on the sidelines, watching.

Corey most wants to be accepted. To be brought into a group. To be made to feel part of it. She gradually forms a group around her, which is the point of the story. And it's the stresses of combat that make that happen. People group around her, believing in her. She doesn't join a group, people join her. They accept her for what and who she is.

So that means I back up again. I go back to earlier in Firestar, back to Corey being a Squadron Lead. She is successful in combat. She goes to C&S. She goes on her Graduation Cruise (where she loses a hand) and is very successful there. She recuperates, and powers that be try to force her out of the Navy because people are looking to her, and they don't like the symbol she has become. When that doesn't work, she is posted to the de Ruyter so Edith Matsuoko can force her out of the Navy. Then comes The Raid. Does that end the story? Perhaps. I'm projecting 16-20 chapters out of this. I've got 6+ chapters done.

Other things now -
Two more short stories are in the bag. One I won't comment on for reasons that I'll reveal much later. The other is another dryad story, Heart of the Woods. Jen the dryad is married now (to her sweetie Andy), and while on their honeymoon to the Redwoods National Park, discover a body with a hand buried in a tree as only a dryad could do it. It's a sad story, and one of the people who read it called it lyrical. We'll see.

Don't worry, there's at least one more story about Jen before she marries, and I think Chloe the Hamadryad wants some attention.

I've got another porn/erotica story going, this time with an SF twist. It came from my brief introduction to online games where you inhabit and interact in a computer generated world. I want to finish it before posting it to SOL, so we'll see.

So, now it's back to the grindstone. Progress in some places is better/faster than I'd hoped for.

Time for more updates -

Off the top, my brother has a book coming out. Here's the link: http://tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60462-288-1

On to other things -

Dryad4 - in my whimsical way of giving stories working titles, this is the third Dryad story to emerge. Just finished its first draft last night. The working title is Hearts of Oak which is the absolute pits for a title, but we'll see. Jen the Dryad has married, and on their honeymoon they discover a dead body. The man was killed by an axe to the chest, and his hand is stuck in a tree (in a way only a dryad can do). Jen knows right away it was done by one of her relatives.

What of Dryad3? Well, we'll see. It turned into a story much longer than I anticipated, and I hauled it back into the shop.

Welded Wing is a short story set in the Scipioverse. Translation - this is a short story set in the same world as Nick Scipio's (http://www.nickscipio.com) Summer Camp stories. Nick's stories are erotica, and are a coming of age story about a young man named Paul Hughes. Even though erotica might not be your thing, these are well-written. He's 10 chapters into Book 4, with the central mysteries unresolved: who died, and who did Paul marry. I have my guesses, but so do a lot of people.

One of the characters in a prequel is Jack MacLean, a Navy pilot. We meet him in Nereids as he and his wife Susan become the best friends of David and Beth Hughes (Paul Hughes' parents). Jack was shot down and killed over North Vietnam in 1968 (he was an A-4 pilot). Welded Wing is about the recovery of his body in 1998. BTW, the US ambassador to Vietnam (when we opened diplomatic relations with them) was an ex-POW shot down during Rolling Thunder. The POV character is a senior Navy official who had floew with Jack MacLean and was with him the day he was killed.

One of the problems of working in another 'verse is that you have to follow the canons of that place, and you seek permission, and clear it, with the owner. Scipioverse is not an open 'verse, and Nick has some pretty high standards. A number of people have written stories in the Scipioverse, and I ran this past at least one of them before sending it to Nick. Another BTW - there is no nudity or sex in this story.

Firestar - Since I last updated this blog, there have been some changes. I had originally written three chapters of Corey doing well at Command & Staff, and then going on a 'graduation cruise' where she got some final polish. Then she goes to the carrier de Ruyter so she can be in place for The Raid. Well, my story sense said no. Instead, we start en media res. She's on her cruise, and it is combat at bad odds. Corey succeeds (and loses her hand). Then, during her recovery, we get the pressure for her to quit the Navy, and we get deliberate attempts to shuffle her off somewhere out of the way so she'll resign anyway (de Ruyter). The culmination will be The Raid, but I have to show Corey being successful so the reader sees her as one of the hopes of the Families, and see her skills as a tactician.

It's slow going at the moment, but I just did a final read-through of Chapter 1, and am nearing that for Chapter 2. The action will end about Chapter 3, and then we'll get into the non-combat consequences of decisions Corey and others made during the heat of battle. There shouldn't be any, but one of Corey's opponents is the Establishment. Bureaucracy has settled in, and the Navy is seen as a sinecure.

Danielle - a story set in Three Valleys, but without the lifestyle. Dani is from Zero Phase, and is moved there to get her out of a bad situation. She has no clue about a world that evolved from the 1950s without the heavy influence of socialism and left-wing ideology on our culture. I'm into Chapter 4, and it's interesting writing. No sex, but plenty of other things going on in her life, including a growing sense of her own self-worth.

Other works - sort of in abeyance while I grappled with the holidays, got in some gaming, saw some friends, and did some short stories as well as the one about Corey. I expect there'll be more time for Corey Andersen as I've gotten these other stories out of my system.