Ian Slater, 30 Years After

We mentioned author Ian Slater a few days ago and think it would be useful to delve into his World War III books. 

These are at once interesting and maddingly frustrating. The former because Slater's Third World War isn't as formulaic as his contemporaries, the latter because as the war goes on, it becomes more and more implausible.  

Spoilers ahead.

Slater's WWIII ends with a limited nuclear exchange. This is started because his Mary-Sue General, Douglas Southhall Freeman (what's up with that?) uses tactical nukes on his own authority in Korea. As we recall Seatlle and Detroit get nuked. Slater cleverly has Japanese auto execs being horrified because the American Big Three automakers will rebuild and surpass Japanese auto technology. 

General Freeman was fun, when we were 18. But we suspect he'd annoy us now. He's basically Slater's homage to Patton, George C. Scott's Patton. That's not a good thing.* Freeman turns things around in the foundering Korean theatre with a raid on Pyongyang, which was interesting. [And influential, no?-Ed] Quite right. A beleaguered president then sends Freeman to Europe to rescue the situation there. 

We'll give Freeman credit for spreading the war to the Aleutians [Once again, influential -Ed]. Yep. But this leads to a rather absurd scenario where in volume four of Slater's series, Siberia secedes from a defeated USSR and continues the war. After a really stupid battle around the Diomedes, the US sends an army deep into the hinterland. Another absurdity. Imagine the logistics involved. There are references at the end of the third book to NATO forces actually invading the Soviet Union. [You did-Ed] Yeah but on the periphery. [Crimea is the periphery?-Ed] Point taken. But we just don't think VII Corpe rolling into Ukraine is a workable idea.

We'll also say this for the man. Thirty years after having read Slater's World War III books, we remember a lot of the characters, especially a trio of siblings in various American service branches. Though not their names. There was the Marine guy, the navy sub guy on honeymoon with his limey wife. Oh, and the nurse sister. Heh, anyone else remember what the nurse got in trouble for? [What are you, 18?-Ed] No but we were then, and that scene always stuck with us. Hello nurse!

*That wasn't the real Patton. Not hardly.

School Board gets Scorched, also New Jersey

No gym for two days and we're still sore. Overdoing it? We didn't go yesterday because the street was repaved and we were trapped for 18 hours. Brutal. Totally worth it, though. We took our bike out last night to test it. The new street, all smooth and black, is so luxurious. 

A scorcher yesterday through Sunday, with 95 + temps and high humidity. August in the Northeast is usually gross. We're heading down the shore in two weeks and we're really looking forward to it. Then Autumn and back to school.  A lot of folks up north say they wouldn't move to Florida or Arizona or something because they like the seasons, but to be honest we're getting sick of the cycle. Also, blizzards that dump 18 inches of snow on you. Baaa...we've been alone for 2 weeks and it's getting to us.

Another solid day of editing The Great Nuclear War of 1975, we're 2/3rds of the way through. Here's the novel: cabinet meetings, Matt's trek across the continent, the Brits, the Falklands adventure, one-off scenes. We are on the verge of over-editing. This has to be the last round. In The Weser, we are on the verge of completing the final battle. We admit to being tired, but on track. To quote MC Hammer, 'Turn this mother out.'

Yesterday we wrote about how Air Force turns something mundane like flying across an ocean into an adventure. The film also uses these flights to recall moments that in 1943 would have been fresh in the audience's mind. First, as the B-17 flight approaches Hawaii, the crew of the Mary Ann get strange radio chatter in a foreign language. At first they don't understand what's happening then it hits them like a thunderbolt. Gee, that sounds familiar, doesn't it guys? Then on the flight from Hawaii to Wake, the crew listens in on President Roosevelt's war message to congress. It's chilling. Well done, Howard Hawkes. 

Here's footage of angry parents confronting the Williamson County school board and pro-mask doctors in Franklin Tennessee. This is an effective tactic. Mobs work. Just ask BLM/Antifa. Clay Travis also spoke at the board meeting talking about facts. Ben Shapiro likes to say that facts don't care about your feelings. The inverse is also true. The mask mandate passed. Travis later when on Tucker and had some interesting thoughts. He pointed out that the burden of virtual learning fell on moms. That's right. In this case, I'm mom, and I had to think of ways to keep the kids learning and beyond that, keep them busy. Spring of 2020 was the hardest I've parented since I did stay at home dad duty with the first born. Travis is optimistic. 

Saturday Updates

We had back to back dance recitals this week. Three blondes, ten numbers in all. Those of you who know us on FB may see the pictures and vids. We wake up with thumping dance music reverberating in our head. How about the lovely and talented Mrs. Stroock. Doing backstage mom duty ten days after a appendicitis. That is one strong-willed woman.   

Once again we didn't get to as much of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 as we would have liked. We still need to finish the Argentina chapter, just what happens to that Brit submarine? We had thought maybe the Soviets show up but it feels awkward. Why would they care either way? No, Britain and Argentina are going to have to settle things themselves. 

Right now The Weser is really coming together from a narrative point of view. We're having to move some things around but that's really no big deal. For example, Tiger 4-6 was going into action on the left of the 8th Infantry Division's front. Tiger 4-6, Colonel Tom Wilson, has some character development. But now we have them go into action on the right, where the decisive battle emerges? We basically want to get to a point where Tiger 4-6 is engaging a Soviet division, a flight of Cobras overhead, DIVARTY hammering away at the enemy.

We've spent a lot of time watching Apache gun camera footage from Desert Storm. Here you go. We're surprised how informal the chatter and back and forth is. There's a lot of, 'Larry, break left.' and 'Copy that Dave, firing.' Other tapes have more, 'Roger four-four-six engaging,' etc etc. Also, goddamn, if it doesn't look like a video game. Which is what they said back in 1991.

The Apache squadron will have some kind of decisive role. Maybe an attack on a Soviet follow-on battalion.  In the opener the Apache squadron commander takes his bird up for a morning aerial recon. In this way we show the reader what the battlefield looks like. From left to right: the field, the corridor, the farm. It doesn't matter if a Kiowa would do the scouting. We want to show the reader the battlefield.  Besides, we bet a commander would want to see things for himself. We are very good at what we do.

Right now the MLRS scenes are just there to be there. There's no there, there. The MLRS is surprisingly uncomplicated. Very modern. Basically three guys, one of whom drives, and a targeting computer. We have a book with a lot of hot MLRS action. So we're keeping them in there.

22,000 words. We're gonna get optimistic as fuck and plan to get The Weser to 30,000 by next Saturday.

[Don't give Kek that kind of material to work with, knobhead-Ed]

We'll make an offering to Kek later today. 

[A daughter?-Ed]

If we have to. Praise Kek.

Saturday Updates

We went to get a haircut yesterday. They said mask required. We said no thanks. 

A great video for Juneteenth:

There is no reason why Republicans should not embrace Juneteenth. None whatsoever. This is a Republican holiday.

Alert readers will see we've updated the Future Projects page. Time to put on an 80's training montage and get to work. Rocky III right? 

We are trying to set up a paid writing gig. We'd like to expand outside our Russian collusion. We'll see. 

The neighborhood block party was a smashing success. We had a second beer. We were supposed to be in charge, but about the only thing we decided was that we were having a neighborhood block party. After that, our suggestions were vetoed by the womenfolk. Soon the messages were going back and forth on the mom's WhatsApp group and they were planning the party. Nature took its course. Don't tell this blog the wives didn't enjoy the party planning. 

Moms: Ten different messages on macaroni and cheese.

Dads: I got some beer.

Another great week of World War Three creativity. The Weser stands at 16,000 words. We're knee deep in the 8th Infantry Division's counterattack. A Soviet tank battalion commander gives us their POV.  Next week we should be able to write the Apache scenes. This chapter should be completed by the end of the month. Should.

We didn't look at The Great Nuclear War of 1975 at all. We'll get back to it this week. The readthrough will be completed by the end of the month. In July we'll tie up the loose ends and in August, the editing process should begin. Should. We have nagging concerns. Nagging.  Those one-off scenes. At some point a man of our creativity, talent and innate handsomeness just has to trust his track record. We are very good at what we do. We shall all eat lamb in paradise. Inshallah.

We have decided that we will *plan* for the US/Iran war summer sneak in next year. The idea just gives us the warm fuzzies. Again, a massive US air/naval war in the Gulf, Hezbollah terrorism in the US, a US invasion of Lebanon, the Israelis standing ready across the border. This could be the first of a series of one-off modern war novels. After that we could do Putin's War. We shall see. 

We plan, god laughs. For as it is written: We plan, god laughs. Let us now drink our first cup of wine. 

Three Seas Progress

We uploaded and formatted World War 1990: Battle of the Three Seas and it's looking good. This is a very technical and precise job and always a deeply frustrating process for us. But it's done. 

Now the cover. We weren't sure if we were going to design a cover ourselves, like Polish Storm, or hire someone to do it, like Arctic Storm. Given the reemergence of physical books, a bi-product of screen-fatigue, we're thinking of handing the job off to a pro. We're still in touch with the woman who did A Line through the Desert for us, so lets see if she wants the gig.