Will Pushes the Button

Fine. Here. The Great Nuclear War of 1975 is available. 

There it is. Eighteen months or so after starting a short story to go in Seven Stories, 75 is published. The first of two, possibly three novels. How many? That all depends on you people, the reading public, doesn't it?

We feel nothing but fear and trepidation. You know that scene in MacArthur where the general is sitting on the wing of a cruiser and watching the landing boats take the marines ashore at Inchon - and MacArthur damn near has a panic attack? That. This is like that. Wingate had the same thing as the transports took off at the beginning of Operation Thursday. Peter O'Toole used to yak every night before he went on stage. 

We have nothing but questions. What if 75 doesn't sell? We'll know within days (see the tragic fate of To Survive the Earth). What if 75 sells but people think it sucks? What if 75 sells, people think it sucks, and find all kinds of things wrong? There will typos, they're there, we guarantee. No matter how hard one works typos get through. We await the crits from the nuclear war experts who will grognard 75 to death. 'Why everyone knows according to SIOP-68 the US would retained its secondary strike capability...'

Whatever happens The Great Salvation of 1976 will follow apace. We're too far along. Might as well finish it up, no matter what. Until then:

The Great Nuclear War of 1975

In a Different 1975…

Superpower relations breakdown and a nuclear war all but annihilates the Soviet Union and devastates the United States.

100 million Americans are dead.

After Washington is destroyed, a smalltown judge delivers the oath of office to Vice President Rockefeller.

Surviving American forces on land, sea and in the air await orders from the new president.

Americans across the nation climb out of the rubble looking for a homeland that no longer exists.

In surviving capitals across the globe, governments ponder the implications of a world without the superpowers.

In Britain, a rump cabinet meets in the Cotswolds to plan a way forward without the United States.

Commonwealth Prime Ministers in Canberra, Auckland and Ottawa look to the UK for leadership.

In Buenos Ares, a weak government plots the takeover of the Malvines.

As radiation sweeps down from Siberia, the Chinese government faces unprecedented famine.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wonders how she will feed India.

 

In Rhode Island, one man will start a trek halfway across North America to reunite with his family.

Click here.

In Which the Feds Occupy Their Own Capital

Yesterday we wrote a couple of British scenes for The Great Nuclear War of 1975 and thought, it's time to go back over the MS. We read 20 pages or so and found great scenes with smooth text and transitions.  We're quite pleased. We're also approaching the point where readthrough returns diminish mightily. 

We spent a good chunk of time Sunday re-reading Richard Norton Smith's excellent Rockefeller bio to get as much of his personality in the book as we could. That means more than having the president forget people's names and saying, 'Hi-ya fella' to everyone. We laid the groundwork for his daughter Ann to be found. Actually there's a plausible path to survival. She's really into Native Americans. So when it all goes up, Ann is on a reservation in Arizona or something.

In our head World War 1990: The Final Storm is a mess. No ju-ju or organization. So we'll set that aside for the week.

Sales of Nederland slowed but have now picked up. Sales of the other World War 1990 books also picked up and at the moment we're on a pace to match our best month in 2020. Arctic Storm is doing particularly well. That's the gateway book to the series, heh.

With Twitter purging and Parler nuked, Gab is surging. Heh, we rhymed. Those interested will have to be patient as Gab's servers are under immense pressure and were down at one point yesterday. Frankly we feared the worst. But no, Gab survives. Vive le Gab. As we said before, Parler relying on AWS was a huge, stupid mistake. Duh. 

John Hinderacker at Powerline asks 'Who's Reeling' and gives us a history lesson making many of the same points we've made here. Politics being what it is the pendulum will swing, and almost certainly decisively in just two years. Read the whole thing as professor Reynolds would say. 

A fascinating post by Steven Hayward, also at Powerline about the Deep State. They're 'rattled' he says. Scared it seems. 'Beyond the security question, this person told me the mob action has been a psychological blow on the DC bureaucracy which didn’t think such an open expression of tangible disrespect for the government was possible. In other words, the capitol mob was a blow to their status, and Washingtonians believe the entire protest represents more than just anger at the election outcome: the disrespectful spirit of the day represents a real threat to their power going forward. This is one reason for the paranoia of Democrats at the moment, and they worry that more such protests are not only possible but likely. Part of the reason there is such fury on the left to run Trump out of office right away is that DC is genuinely afraid of him and his followers. Machiavelli might approve.' 

Looks like the equivalent of an army division is descending upon Washington for the inauguration. Antifa/BLM can torch any small business they want but storm the corridors of power and the Deep State will deploy overwhelming force. Fear is the path to the Dark Side, Yoda tells us. We were already there, Democrats.  First slowly, then all at once.