Hello ,
Welcome aboard.
I recently submitted Last Stand of the Werewolves to Chris Kennedy Publishing for its Talking with Strangers anthology.
Despite the title, this is not a story about actual werewolves.
The Werewolves are a mech platoon ordered to hold a bridge over the acidic River Nile while alien drones close in. They know what "last stand" means.
They hold anyway.
Last Stand of the Werewolves is one of my favorite short stories. It takes place in the same universe as When Heaven Gets Full, a standalone novel I wrote sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
That manuscript has been taking up space on my hard drive long enough to claim squatter's rights.
Working on the Werewolves again has been "encouraging" me to finish it. I use the word encouraging in the same way a drill instructor encourages recruits.
It may be time to get When Heaven Gets Full back into formation and finish the mission. After finally getting Sister, Sister off the hard drive, several of the older manuscripts have apparently decided escape is possible.
This could become a problem.
The Field Note - AI as a Staff Officer
My day job has been keeping me busy. I'm transitioning from working with the Citrix team to working with AI.
That has also changed how I'm managing my fiction.
Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of novels, short stories, unfinished projects, background notes, character files, and documents with useful names such as "Final," "Final Two," and "Use This Final."
I'm starting to use AI to catalog those projects and build a codex for each series: characters, timelines, technology, locations, unresolved plotlines, and the assorted bodies buried in previous books.
It isn't replacing the writing.
Think of it as a staff officer who remembers where everything was filed and doesn't complain when asked to search twenty years of notes.
That should make it easier to return to older projects without rereading several novels merely to remember which character lost an arm, betrayed the government, died, or accomplished all three before lunch.
One project that may benefit is Colonel Commissar, set in The Last Marines universe. I'm about halfway through Book Two of a planned three-book arc.
I would classify the series as dystopian military fiction.
The central character, Feng, creates another problem. I've never been certain whether he is a good man or a bad one.
He has done some terrible things. His loyalty to Wolf Mathison, however, was critical when it mattered most.
Apparently I'll have to finish the series to find out what I think of him.
Future War File - Drones Become a Combat Arm
At the Army's Maneuver Warfighter Conference last week, leaders discussed how unmanned systems are moving beyond reconnaissance and individual strikes.
They are becoming something commanders maneuver as a combat arm.
Drones can screen a flank, probe defenses, force an enemy to reveal weapons, create a diversion, or make first contact before a human fire team enters the fight. Small units supported by drones, electronic warfare, and remote weapons may be able to control ground that once required much larger formations.
Then somebody turns on a jammer.
The same Army discussion warned that communications and sensors can disappear quickly in a contested electromagnetic environment. Units still have to know how to navigate, communicate, and fight after the smart systems stop being smart.
That is the interesting part for military science fiction.
The future battlefield probably won't feature a flawless network providing perfect information. It will feature a flawless network that works beautifully for three minutes before the enemy finds it.
Read the Army's report on drones, AI, and contested operations.
War-Writer Rule
Every advanced capability should have a cost, a limit, and an enemy who has spent considerable time figuring out how to break it.
Murphy Was an Optimist
The network will fail immediately after everyone stops carrying paper maps.
Behind the Wire
Steeds of Courage, Book Three of Marines, Luck and Oorah, is now with the publisher. They have the adjudicated manuscript, and the book is expected next month.
The Dragon Guard series is also mostly finished, and another publisher is currently looking it over.
I've been working on the series website as well. You can take a look at The Dragon Guard.
Between that, When Heaven Gets Full, Colonel Commissar, and the other short stories hiding on my hard drive, I am not suffering from a shortage of things to write.
Time remains the primary logistical constraint.
Reader Fire Mission
What makes a morally gray character worth following?
Is it what he believes, the people he protects, or the line he eventually refuses to cross?
Hit reply and let me know. I'm still trying to figure out Feng.
Thanks for reading-and thanks for being here.
Until next Tuesday, keep your powder dry and your batteries charged.
-Bill
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