Oh Captain, My Captain

Posted on March 16, 2016 by BR

In Last Measure of Devotion, there’s a scene with Heskan and his officers enjoying a dinner together when they first arrive on Nessus. Stacey Vernay orders Hollaran bourbon and by the end of the evening she and Heskan have finished the bottle. Vernay starts talking in poetry, quoting lines here and there about a ship that has been in battle and emerged victorious, except with every line her mood turns more and more ominous.

The poem is “Oh Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman and is quite famous, yet I’d never given it much consideration before it was used in a commercial featuring Jonathan Toews, captain of the Chicago Blackhawks (and also nationally by Captain Morgan rum, paying homage to many NHL captains). The local commercial featured video of Toews’s various on-ice heroics, with a voiceover that very selectively pulled lines from the poem:

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won.

My wife and I are big hockey fans, yet every time this commercial came on the air, she would be infuriated. One day in particular she turned to me and said “Do you think Toews knows the captain is dead in that poem?” That’s quite a price to pay for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

So I looked the poem up, and the tie-in to Heskan’s journey in Last Measure of Devotion was both obvious and inspiring. It just goes to show you, writing inspiration comes from the strangest places. Thanks, Walt Whitman, and here’s a link to Oh Captain! My Captain! to help spread your good work.

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100K and Counting

Posted on March 2, 2016 by BR

The drafting of Hero of the Republic passed a milestone this week, crossing 100K words. The book is now officially longer than any of my previous books, but the end is at least in sight. If I had to guess, this first book of the sequel series will come in around 150K to 170K words. The books in Heskan’s series were 80-98K words. Why is Hero of the Republic so much longer?

First, there are many new characters to introduce. A couple of them are the focal points to the entire story arc, and some, sadly, won’t make it to the end. (That’s not exactly a spoiler given the first series, is it?) The new lead character begins by completing Officer Training School during the timeline of No Way to Start a War.

Second, there is a longer time span to cover in this Book 1 than has been covered in my previous novels. While Hero of the Republic starts during No Way to Start a War, it ends years after the end of Last Measure of Devotion. We’ll revisit a couple events in that timeline from alternative perspectives and experience battles that happened outside of Heskan’s vicinity, but also convene the new characters at a critical decision point in the Brevic Republic’s quest for revenge on the Hollaran Commonwealth. If you’ve read the first series, you know where that is headed.

Finally, Hero of the Republic is simply longer because I think I’m relishing playing with new characters, storylines, and scenes. The words are simply flowing, as are the ideas. We may do some streamlining in editing, and I may have to eventually post some deleted scenes here. For now, all ideas go on the page.

I’m targeting the completion of the draft by the end of April, which would mean a very late Summer release. Hang in there, it’s coming.

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Character Line Up

Posted on February 6, 2016 by BR

I’m pretty sure I’ve told the story about how Isabella Lombardi got her name. I am an avid computer game fan dating back to my Commodore 64 in the 80s. When the computer game XCOM was released in the early 90s, I spent a lot of my free time playing it.

For those of you who have a more satisfying social life than I did, XCOM is a turn-based strategy/tactical game where you defend Earth from an alien invasion. The turn-based tactical combat was simply fantastic along with its utter cruelty. I remember a mission where I sent my elite team of troopers to a UFO site. My Skyranger landed, I opened the loading ramp to get my troops out of the ship and there was an alien with the equivalent of a grenade launcher three tiles from the ramp. As soon as my first trooper moved, it reacted and fired a grenade into my Skyranger, killing everyone. Next mission, please.

So, when Firaxis created a game called XCOM: Enemy Unknown (and later, an expansion called Enemy Within), I was “all in.” They did a GREAT job bringing the game into the next century. Anyway, one of the things about the game (and especially the newer one) was how much you can customize your troopers and since death is permanent in this game, you tend to develop a stronger attachment to them because you know every shot fired at them could be their last moment. In one of the campaigns I played, one of the troopers I randomly received was named Isabella Lombardi and she ended up being a powerhouse in the campaign. Literally, she saved the lives of her squad several times with amazing shots or with her medkit (she was a Support-class character, for those of you who have played). I remember thinking that I really liked the name and would add it to my list of names to use, and Isabella Lombardi would be born with No Way To Start A War.

Well, Firaxis has done it again, this time with XCOM 2. The character customization is even more incredible and now you can create characters and add them to a “character pool” that the game will draw upon to use for your troopers, for engineers and scientists, VIPs and even as bad guy VIPs.

Here’s my list so far. And yes, there are a few obscure names from the original series along with some new names from Hero of the Republic. Oh, if anyone can think of good (or better) nicknames, send me a tweet, e-mail of facebook post!

TCOTUinXCOM2

Disclaimer: It’s possible that I may change an important name shown here before publishing Hero of the Republic.

Here is my first squad in action. (Characters were randomly chosen by the game). Go get’em Madam Minister!

FirstSquadXCOM2

Lt.Truesworth missed his calling. Sniper fire from Jack saves Lucy Holt from certain death. Note the “Happy Face” sweatshirt he is wearing.

TruesworthXCOM2

Adira Fane and Sebastian Brewer having a chat at the base’s bar. It’s unnerving how often these two are in the same room.

BrewerFaneXCOM2

UPDATE: 24 hours later, the team has grown up quickly:

TCOTU-XCOMprogress

 

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