Results and Timing

Things are going so well we're wondering about release timing. Nederlandse first or the short story compilation first?

We still need to write another short story so the obvious answer is the comp comes out in autumn. But we like the idea of the comp bridging Three Seas and Nederlandse.

What would that short story be? There's really no reason why similar ideas and even plot lines can't be explored and used in two different works. There's really only six story plots anyway, it is said. We don't need a space thingy we can novelize. We need a short story we can write.

As far as the stories already done, they go in as is. Art is a function of time and place and one really shouldn't eff with it fifteen years after the fact. So stupid alien hovertanks stay.

Nederlandse? Nederlandse!

We are beginning to believe that Nederlandse is even more ready than we thought. While a bit of a slog, the Klazienaveen chapter is looking good. After that it's on to Grote Tank Slag. We know that chapter is in fine shape.

At this moment we really need to come up with a short story idea or two. We have one that's derivative as hell, where an Earthman crashes on a planet of Lilliputians and goes Godzilla on them. As Lemmy said, 'Fuck that, it's all derivative.' We need another.

Of course that's how we got into the Great Nuclear War of 1975 mess. You haven't written about NATO attacking the Kola until you've written about NATO attacking the Kola in one novel, and then turned around and written about NATO attacking the Kola in another novel.

The Kindle version of World War 1990: Battle of the Three Seas is ready. We could press that button right now if we wanted. Why not? But also why? We promised May Day. We like May Day. We break out our Hammer and Sickle flag for May Day. Right now we feel nothing but fear and trepidation, like a bride stepping out of the bathroom on her wedding night...

[Oh my god...-Ed].

Our maid of honor has given us a few pointers. Maybe we just need to relax and let it happen. 

Nederlandse

All....right...now...baby it's....all...right...now.

Just finished reading World War 1990: Nederlandse PM scene. There's one or two tweaks and a slight timing problem worked out, but it looks good. 

We know for a fact that Grote Tanke Slag is in fantastic shape. We'll read it again, of course, but it looks good.

Klazienaveen chapter next. That one's a toughie.

We are really optimistic about getting the MS to Debbie in May.

Dutched

We will finish our review of Nederlande's naval chapter today. Then we'll have our (American) naval guy take a look. It has a different, more clinical feel than the other chapters, almost like Star Trek: TNG. We think that works...right? 

Have a little faith, baby.*

We realized we don't have an epilogue for the book and will have to write it. What happens after you fend off an invasion with WWII era guns, captured rifles, and fireworks?

*Reference.

Nederlandse

Yesterday we finished reading Grote Tank Slog. We're quite happy with what we read, though not 100% satisfied with the ending. It seemed to lose momentum and trail off, though we read that during the end of the day and it might just have been us. Overall though, it's in good shape.

We had no time whatsoever to read Three Seas, though with Grote Tank Slog done we should be able to knock off a section in a the net few days.

The Proofer has the proof, but at this point, given circumstances, we're thinking May 1...comrades. This is chilling and god bless our Soviet allies in the war:

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 3/8/20

Anavallen! Anavallen Oley! 

[Are you having a stroke?]

Speaking of strokes, anyone get a look at Joe Biden on stage? Ha! Thanks folks. Catch my matinee.

No, Anavallen is Dutch for attack. We worked through the whole Ruud Lubbers chapter and it looks good. No. It looks great. Like, we're ready to declare we have a viable rough draft and could send it to Debbie in...April. We need to tweak the naval chapter. We need some Dutchmen to read a few things.

So lets do that.

Nederlandse

We've wrapped up the Nederlandse naval chapter and have figured out why we're meh about it.

We had planned a swashbuckling sea battle. We just did that with Kamehameha's Navy. Instead we churned out a technical story. Maybe that's the point. If so we'll need to reinforce that. We have a (US) navy guy on standby. But the story is done.

From here we need to write an epilogue wrapping up all four chapters, Ruud Lubbers, Netherlands I Corps, the Battle of Klazienaveen, and De Ruyter.

Various Writing

Yesterday we wrote one speech and one vignette for our nuclear war story. So far, so good. This is some macabre stuff, man. Do not think about it at night.

That short story collection needs a name. For a while we've called it Centauri: and Other Short Stories. If we made Centauri the centerpiece, that would give us an excuse to put the other two Centauri stories in there. We'll see. 

We went through Nederlandse's naval chapter. Looks good, but meh. What's up with that? We don't know how it ends. We couldn't figure out how to spell De Ruyter's skipper's name, Vander Bilj or Van der Bilj until one of our South African fans wrote it this way: Vanderbilj. You'll never guess how to pronounce that. Maybe we'll just rename him Bob or something.

Welkom Dutch Bezoeker

Would any of the Nederlanders now stopping by this blog be interested in taking a look at the World War 1990: Nederlandse rough draft? Comment here or email, wtstroock@yahoo.com or look me up on Facebook.

Visserhaven

We are going through the naval chapter which follows RNN De Ruyter as she fights a ship to shore action in the small port Visserhaven. Things are coming along fine, it's well put together and...kind of meh. Maybe we've just written too many of these swabbies open up the gun locker and pass out the helmets scenes. How do we jazz it up, then? Do we even need to jazz it up?

Klazienaveen Feared Less

We'll finish our readthrough of the Klazienaveen Poleitei  chapter today. We won't be going over it again next week. It'll need some sit time. Yesterday after reading, we felt less fear and less trepidation. Still a little wordy if you ask us but overall...

Krauts of Nederlandse

Meet Colonel Gerd Shultze-Rhonhoff, acting commander, 3rd Panzer Division:

Boy does he do a great job of salvaging what's left of 3rd Panzer and gathering it to hold Dutch I Corps' left flank, north of Route-1.

Is World War Three Boring?

The Klazienaveen politei chapter reads like an episode of Adam-12, a couple of cops in a cruiser and the things they encounter. Except they encounter World War Three things. Belgian supply convoys, a shot down Soviet pilot, etc. etc. This is, we believe, the minutiae of the job in that situation. It's almost banal. We're wondering if this part of the chapter needs more snap, more pop more....crackle. Or is the banality the point? 

World War 1990: Nederlandse

The Nederlandse naval chapter is coming along nicely and the MS is threatening to grow to 75,000 words.

We were looking over chapter order. So far:

-Opening Blockbuster
-Klazienaveen Cops*
-Naval Chapter
-PM Lubbers
-Grote Tankslag

Hmmm....shouldn't the PM chapter come after the Opening Blockbuster? That said, it's a nice segway from PM Lubbers to Grote Tankslag.

*We're wavering on changing this to a fictional town.

Saturday Updates

Tendonitis! There goes a whole week of working out which we planned to combine with decent eating habits and maybe knock off a pound. Thank you cortisone. Thank you.

We've seen cover concepts and are quite pleased. Will post when done.

We are reviewing the Nederlandse opening blockbuster for the second and last time. We are quite pleased. Will review the PM chapter next week and expect to also be pleased once more.

We don't think it's possible to have a better week than the president had or a worse week then the Dems had, topped off by a congressional lawsuit thrown out and baffling debate about blacks and reparations, in New Hampshire. The laws of physics simply won't allow it. The Democrat Party is unfit to govern.

This is how things feel, vis a vis Three Seas and Nederlandse:

Nederlandse Notes

We thought it'd be interesting for readers to have a look at the notes our Dutch contact gave for the World War 1990: Nederlandse  opening blockbuster.

Enjoy:

• Do you have an editor? There's quite a bit of spelling/grammar/interpunction errors
• Especially mind the spelling of non-English
• It's polizei (German), not polezei
• For national flavour you might want to stay closer to Dutch unit designations: armoured infantry (pantserinfanterie) rather than mechanised infantry. Also tank battalion rather than armoured battalion
• 1 Division, 4 Division, 5 Division (in speak it would probably be 1st, 4th, 5th)
• I like the radio traffic, it works well. Call signs would use the NATO-alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Whisky, etc) but perhaps you chose a different pattern on purpose
• No more YP-408 in 1990! All YPR-765
• Jeeps (M38A1) would only be in use by territorial and some reserve logistic units; 51 Armoured Brigade had Land Rovers, called Laro for short
• According to doctrine brigades would normally not get extra units attached. But wait, by 1990 one of the bns from 101 Infantry Brigade might be used for that. Within the brigade battle groups would be standard. Also, "reserve battalion brigaded to us" is a bit strange since 51 Armoured Brigade was an all-reservist formation anyway
• I'm unfamiliar with your use of "shoulder" but that's probably just me
• Radio: "roger" or "roger, out" would be used rather than "copy"
• Dutch conscripts would not readily salute (limited obligation to salute)
• Code names for areas were often fruits or animals: apple, melon, cow, horse etc.
• Tank and recce companies were called squadrons (presently not applied everywhere)
• You might want to be more specific with equipment: Leopard 2 for example
• Some of the Dutch names might be a bit too perculiar: Smike, Crabben, Brauver. Might be Smid, Smit, Crauwel, Brouwer, Brouwers.
• In Dutch "Sir" is civilian speak, though it was used in the navy for some higher ranks. In the army people would be called by name or rank, or it would just be left out: "Not sure," said his young driver.
• I take it you object to cursing, but there would be quite a bit of it, especially amongst conscripts. If you want some Dutch-style cursing let me know
• 51 Bde would be commanded by a brigadier-general, called general in speak
• On a sidenote: 51 Brigade's emblem

Nederlandse Progress

Alllll-riiiiighhhhttttt.

We read the Nederlandse opening blockbuster this afternoon and it looks real solid. Needs a few editorial tweaks, but it looks good. We have a few things we can do to Dutch it up, cursing and what not. The Dutch curse in an impressive milieu of diseases and body parts. 

We continued on with the naval chapter and made solid progress. The MS in now 70,000 words. 

Wither Nederlandse Naval Chapter

At the moment we're just not feeling it. I dunno, how many times can we write about a destoyer or frigate close to shore, sailors and marines on deck, blasting everything on the shore line? 

Ennui or misfire? You tell me, people. The damn novel is already almost 70,000 words making Nederlandse the longest novel in the World War: 1990 universe. Do we just need a short Nederlandse break?

World War 1990: Nederlandse

Yesterday we broke our new no work on Saturday rule...

[Well that didn't take long-Ed]

...and worked through almost the entire Gote Tankslag chapter. This morning we're patting ourselves on the back and giving ourselves a well done. This thing looks good. Really, we're quite pleased. We have to touch up our all-hands-on deck aerial scenes and write the final airbase scene. We'd like to do one more vignette. We have an AT coy and a medic, what else?

So, write the naval chapter next month?

But really, we're in great shape here.

Grote Tankslag...

...Is coming along and looking good, looking real good...oink.*

We have to Soviet things up a bit. We wrote a vignette about a Dutch anti-tank coy and liked the way it turned out. We may write a few more vignettes.

At the moment we're so enthused we may reverse course and do the naval scene. Something where a Dutch destroyer has to close in and blast the hell out of the docks.

We have time. In our own view, should the Stroocks of New Jersey visit the ancestral nation, would it not make sense to wait to publish till after we've been there? We'd hate to come away thinking, 'Damn wish we'd waited to published till after we'd been there.'

*What's that from?