Archive for the ‘War Dogs of Mars’ Category

Giving program some sure footing
By Lee Anne Hensley (Hilltop Times staff)

When Tech. Sgt. Joseph Throgmorton volunteered for a kennel master job at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, several months ago, he had no idea it would be what he describes as “probably the most complicated and the most stressful job I’ve had in my 13-and-a-half years (of service).”

The kennel master from the 75th Security Forces Squadron Military Working Dog Unit here did not know what his mission would be until he arrived at JBB last January. When Throgmorton arrived there with his dog teams, he quickly learned there were several missions, and the largest of those missions would be to stand up a kennel for the 332nd Expeditionary Security Forces Group.

“When I got there, I realized we were starting from scratch,” Throgmorton said. “We were the first Air Force dog teams to be assigned to Joint Base Balad.”

The joint forces base had an existing kennel operated by the Army military working dog units and the original plan was to build an extension to that kennel for the 332nd ESFG to operate from.

Read the rest of the article here:

I have a lot of respect for these guys. They’ve got a hard job, few resources, and they’re operating in a very hostile environment. It’s soldiers like Tech. Sgt. Throgmorton I’m writing about in War Dogs of Mars.

Well, I’m finished with my long break. I had a great few months with my daughter, a bout of sickness, and a sidetrack that took me into a far better understanding of a dimension of story I was never completely clear on. Now I have better clarity. Actually, I would say I have The Clarity that I’ve been looking for.

Armed with my new clarity, I’m returning to War Dogs with a new focus and I know where this particular story needs to go. There’s a lot of story possibilities for this world. However, there’s no need to try to cram them into one book! So this books focus will be on the Dogs and their Handlers.

If you want to follow my mundane thought process as I work through this thing, I’ve set up a special twitter feed just to blab on about my process. http://www.twitter.com/shawnscarber

Additionally, I’ve given myself a hard deadline of November 11th to finish this book. I think the hard deadline will keep me from getting sidetracked. So if you don’t see a post between now and then that says I’ve finished the book, feel free to publicly harass and badger me, because I have no excuses now.

Hey, world. I’m not dead. Just real busy. However, that should give me a lot of post about. I just recently attended Apollo Con in Houston. That was a lot of fun. However, I seemed to halt all progress on the novel at that time.

I think that’s partially because I’m reading Dara Marks’ book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc. All I can say is Wow! Things have gotten a little clearer for me story wise. This is like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant. I’m sure I’ll have to read it again when I finish. It’s a screenwriting book, but I can see how this could be incredibly helpful to anyone writing any type of story. So far, I’m only about a third into it, but I can already see a few glaring holes in my novel that will need repaired.

I’ve also had my daughter for the past month and will have her until mid-July. This has been a welcomed distraction from writing. I can accept not being quite as productive during the summer months for her.

When I complete reading Dara’s book, I’ll do my best to give a more thorough reporting. However, if you’re the type of writer who cares about the mechanics (which I understand isn’t a necessity to be a great writer) than you’ll likely want to add this book to your collection–and obviously, read it as well.

Oh, and when the novel writing does pick back up, I plan to use Twitter to talk through the process. I’m not sure if this would be of interest or help to anyone, but you can follow my struggles at War Dogs of Mars.

Well, I haven’t updated on the novel posts for a while. Right now I’m on chapter 15 of 40. I’m not sure how far along that is on the road to completion, but it does feel like I’m making some real progress.

I did finish my latest short-short. It came in right around 1200 words. I’m not sure if I’m absolutely crazy about it, but it’s interesting and should give me yet another short one to put out in there in circulation.

I have a lot I would like to say about what’s going on in the world right now. I think I’ll just focus on writing though. However, don’t mistake my silence for apathy.

I’m on chapter 9. I think I have the antagonist worked out, at least his goals and exactly how his revolution will work.

One thing I’m attempting to fix in my work that I’ve seen as a weakness in some speculative fiction is the smallness of the antagonist and his or her world. I see it a lot more in fantasy than science fiction. My bad guy will have a working plan and will not be an idiot.

In other writing, I’ve received a good deal of feedback on one of my short stories, so it’s getting a rewrite and getting tossed back out into the world this week. I’m falling behind there, but with the progress I’m making on the novel, I’m pretty much OK with that.

Come on, you can’t leave out the Martians. Surely, they would have rights to under Soviet law.

I’m still working on building my force of freedom fighters to push back the pigs of the USSR who have been seduced by the evils of the black market. Mac just isn’t happy with the young boys and outdated equipment. You can’t launch a real campaign with this crap! So he plans a new method. A new, smaller army of committed warriors. He will starve Mars. He will destroy their bridges, their unirails, their canals. He will beat the colonists back to the horse and buggy, only there are no horses on Mars.

I managed to get the dog to handler introduction scene down last night. I think it works. This is one of those scenes where it’s important to show the hero more than competent at his job. This is one of his strong points, so I’m exploiting his talents.

I’m now onto the antagonist’s point of view. He’s in an interesting place. He’s basically attempting to build up a liberation army with very little equipment. He’s well funded. I haven’t gone too deep into the people who are funding him, but it’s not real important for this book. It’s enough to know that Mac [the baddy] is not the top of the food chain.

It’s also fun to play in his head. This is a character I have a lot of sympathy for. He really wants to do what he thinks is right for The People. Granted, a few parades in his honor wouldn’t be turned down, but that’s not the only reason he’s doing it.

I’m working day job stuff from home today. I’m writing some technical documents that actually require some thinking and focus—two things I don’t get large stretches of at the office. I’m not criticizing my day job, I actually like where I work, it’s just a bit distraction heavy sometimes. I think tonight will be a dedicated writing night. I’ll do my workout during lunch so I can completely focus on getting a few more chapters phased.

Progress is slow going on the novel. That’s normal for me though. The schedule works in waves. My weekends with my daughter tend to be all about my daughter and I clear the headspace of anything unrelated to our activities together. So if there’s any progress on the novel it’s minimal.

The nose goes firmly back on the grindstone tonight. I’ve phase drafted up to chapter three, which is about seven or eight scenes. So far, I love where the story has taken me. This is partly because I’m paying a lot more attention at this stage than I normally do. It’s also because I’ve adopted the strange concept of having an imaginary writing partner.

Oh yes, as crazy as that sounds, it’s working out great. There’s nothing quite like going over a scene and asking what ‘so-and-so’ would do. It also has me thinking outside my normal boundaries, looking for places to take the scene or characters in a new direction, and gives me a strange sense of security—I guess a kind of confidence in the work that’s going down, because somehow what I write seems like something that ‘so-and-so’ would approve of.

The added confidence is a real boost. I know intellectually that there’s no one there in my head but me. I know that I might not even be thinking like the person who I imagine helping me. However, just the practice of stepping outside myself affords me some added comfort about the work.

Additionally, this isn’t going to be the typical military science fiction novel. I’m not certain yet if this is a good or bad thing. I’ve read a lot of military science fiction, and while I have a great deal of respect for the genre and those who write in it, I feel like it’s missing something.

I’m reading John Scalzi’s
Old Man’s War right now and it might actually have that extra Schtuff I’m looking for. I’m not too far into it, but I can tell you I didn’t want to put it down once I started reading last night, which is always a good sign. Plus, I didn’t realize until last night, that if by some miracle someone actually wants to publish my novel, it would most likely end up on the shelf right next to Mr. Scalzi. So far, I’m thinking that would be pretty good for me.

In other writing news, I got another rejection for my short story ‘Burnt Benediction’. I’m sending it right back out tonight.

Additionally, I’ll try to post more of my progress here this month. My posts here have been rare because it’s just too easy to say something quick in Facebook. I’ll quit being so lazy.