Wither America Strikes, Enter Pershing's War

We still have no idea what we're writing in 2020.

We're working on an alternate history Pershing story for Sea Lion Press.

Pershing's War is something like 45,000 words. Why not finish that?

Hey, how about some of you people buy a copy of Pershing in Command?

Will's Good Idea for 7-7-19

We were going to limit the characters in the Battle of the Moselle and portray the entire chapter in the head of the German commanding general.

We always get bogged down in this colonel for that, and that captain for this. 

But someone's gotta hand the general the morning briefing folder. Someone's has to get Fortress Lorraine on the horn.

So we've given our general a driver, an intel officer, a supply officer, and so on. He's interreacting with some fortress commanders too.

Lots of guys with girzzled faces, missing arms, etc.

Pershing's War 1919

Okay...Pershing's War: 1919 is coming along swimmingly. We are experimenting with telling the Battle of the Moselle Heights through the eyes of the German general commanding Army Unit C. We'd like to do it without a lot of aides, colonels, chiefs of staffs, etc etc. We usually get hung up on this stuff and get sick of writing about it. 

We completed our American Air Service story for To Slip the Surly Bonds* and will be integrating it into Pershing's War. We are also expanding the story. At one point the AAS will spot a lot of Bosch divisions massing for a river crossing. Can you say Highway of death 1919?

Hmmmm....so far everything takes place in late 1918 and given the reality of things, can this even go on into 1919?

We might need a new title.

*Becuase of copyright issues this means Pershing's War 1919 will not be released until late next year.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 6-23-19

Part I of Pershing's War 1919 deals with the Battle of the Meuse Heights and the breakout onto the Woevre Plain.

Part II will be about the Battle of the Moselle Heights.

We think we'll tell the story from the POV of General Max Von Gallwitz, commander of the army group named for him, who opposed the AEF in the Meuse-Argonne and then in our fictional Battle of the Meuse Heights.

General Robert Lee Bullard

As alert reader(s) know, when we write we like to bounce around from place to place. One minute the reader is in Prague, the next Jerusalem.

Dear Tom Clancy (PBUH) we learned it by watching you!

We've been going through Pershing's War: 1919 and completely forgot that Part II follows General Robert Lee Bullard, commander of the American 2nd Army. 

The chapter is like one long tracking shot as Bullard goes from his Post Command in Toul to the front line, deals with problems of command, gets briefed, heads back to his PC, etc, etc. In this way the reader experiences the 2nd Army's offensive across the Woevre Plain toward Metz and the Moselle Heights.

Writing this way presents challenges, but it feels good to do something different.

Robert Lee Bullard was an interesting man. He was born  in Alabama just after the war and grew up with the children of his families' former slaves. He had a deep southern accent and picked up the linguistic mannerisms of his black friends. Bullard had a habit of cutting off the endings of words and could never pronounce the 'g' at the end of words like 'getting'. His attitude toward blacks was a mixture of realism, condescension and paternalism. As it happened the 92nd 'Buffalo' Division was in the 2nd Army. Bullard felt the division was dysfunctional and urged Pershing to send it home.