Posts Tagged ‘Military Working Dog’

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.

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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.

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.