UPDATE - Iron Falls: The Enemy Within

I'm not going to reveal the cover just yet, though there are subtle clues present on my blog title and on my own website. But, the closer we get to the publishing date I'll let you all know. As to what the story's about, here's a clue: Random attacks against authorities occur throughout southern Africa, from Cohara Bassa to the safety zones in South Africa. Thrust into it all are two men; one the son of a Marine Corps general, and the other an uncle who is part of a movement to restore Afrikaner supremacy over a nation nearing confederation into a continental union. Both are manipulated by those behind the scenes, on a direct path to Iron Falls. November, 2100. Shock waves follow in the announced intentions of South Africa becoming incorporated into a neighboring continental union. Amid a media frenzy and general panic, as the country has managed to gain more displaced persons due to never recovering from the Third World War, the Afrikaner Freedom Front is determined to put a stop to this, and sends Emilio Heerdan out to test the resilience of emergency services throughout South Africa and neighboring Mozambique. Sergeant First Class Gene Bukowski, a U.S. Army Special Warfare operator, and his team are uprooted from a mission in Mali when Heerdan's group kidnap the daughter of the United Nations Energy Secretary. Yet his mission proves more dangerous than his team can handle. Bukowski is therefore forced to seek aid against the Afrikaner's sinister plot. Aid that comes at a steep price. It has a little of everything, and a lot of action.   I would also like to add however that the story isn't for the faint of heart, as I have some real racist and revengeful characters as some of the support cast. Please note that their views are not my views. More once I know more.

I'm a Grand Designer of Make Belief

Okay, so I know that writing fiction ought to be a piece of cake, right? Especially science fiction or fantasy. It's made up after all. There certainly is a degree of easiness, but it's also hard. Yes, we're making stuff up for a fantastic universe that most likely will radically differ from the here and now. For me there is always an element of research and creating stuff, sometimes making me feel as if I'm some sort of architect or grand designer.

Case in point being my current story, Iron Falls: The Enemy Within. Even now, as the story nears completion I'm still creating and researching best possible examples that I could use for the global policing agency that Gene Bukowski finds himself on "detached duty" near the story's end and then throughout Iron Falls: Enemy Mine and in the third and final installment (thinking of calling that one Iron Falls: In My Honor). Designing a futuristic version of an existing entity is pretty easy, just alter things here and there and tada! But the global policing agency, which I'm calling the United Nations Marshals Service, is completely made up. The question here however is, how does it look like and what are its points of origins? That, my friends, is a very good question.

Characterisations

I'm a few pages from finishing The Second Ship, first of a three-book Rho Agenda series by Richard Phillips, and thought it be a good time to talk about characters. People often ask me what I write about, to which I have two available answers. The first is that I answer that I write primarily science fiction, and that my current project is a mixture of military science fiction and a techno-thriller that follows on from Iron Falls. Then, if their eyes don't glaze over, I say that I'd like to think that I write about people and their experiences.

That's write, people. A good story isn't about the setting and the writer's ability to plot a good story, though they definitely help. It's about the people that live within the settings and are part of the plot (and, in a pretty good story, such as my friend's Black Donald, actually drive the plot forward). After all, some of the most popular shows on television and in the movies are the ones where the characters are individuals that we - as the reader or audience - can relate to. Another writing friend of mine, Shawn Kupfer, was blogging about becoming an instant fan of the short-lived Firefly series because of that - the main characters.

Having said that, I'm a tad guilty of glossing over the whole character thing in Iron Falls. Ok, ok, so it's a tad ironic that here I'm writing how important it is to have good characters that we as readers can relate to, and go about admitting that I just glossed over them in my story. Admittedly, I was experimenting with a style more or less used by the likes as David J. Williams and Matthew Reilly - where characters take second to action. With my next story, which will follow on from Iron Falls, I'm moving away from that and it'll deal more with such characters as Gene Bukowski, Kevin Yamakawa and Emilio Heerdan.

But what about you guys, do you have any favourite characters (whether it be from a book, movie or series) and why do you relate to them?

Iron Falls

The 22nd century was to be a time of peace and prosperity, while
humanity moved out beyond its cradle that is planet Earth . . .

It was to be an era where lessons learned from an earlier time were to
be humanity's salvation to go forth . . .

It was a time for peace . . .

It was a time for unity . . .

It was a time new lessons to be taught, and old ones refreshed.

___________

The weekend was pretty busy for my friends over at e-Quill Publishing, as they were releasing three new titles at the start of this month. One of these titles was Iron Falls, a near futuristic military science fiction novella set in 2115 in and about the African continent. It's also one of those stories that had taken me on what had been an interesting journey that had me rediscover the joy of writing, relearn the basics and pick up new tricks of the trade. The fact that I was doing it with one of my favourite characters, Gene Bukowski, made it all the more fun.

Bukowski had been the star of many a story that I had written, and am glad to see him in print. So, what is the story about. This is what it says on my website:

September, 2115. Shock waves follow in the announced intentions of South Africa becoming incorporated into a neighboring continental union. Amid a media frenzy and general panic, as the country has managed to gain more displaced persons due to never recovering from the Third World War, the Afrikaner Freedom Front is determined to put a stop to this, and sends Emilio Heerdan out to test the resilience of emergency services throughout South Africa and neighboring Mozambique.

Sergeant First Class Gene Bukowski, a U.S. Army Special Warfare operator, and his team are uprooted from a mission in Mali when Heerdan's group kidnap the daughter of the NorSec Energy Secretary. Yet his mission proves more dangerous than his team can handle. Bukowski is therefore forced to seek aid against the Afrikaner's sinister plot. Aid that comes at a steep price.

Not bad if I say so myself.

Please go check it out and purchase a copy over at e-Quill Publishers, as it's only $2.50 in Australian currency.

________________

So, where to from here? That is a good question. I've started working on the sequel to Iron Falls, and there's the whole Project Lucky 13 thing I'm working on as well. So the rest of the month is going to keep me busy with two first drafts and rewrites. Tomorrow I have a job interview as well, so add to it nerves of waiting if I get it or not.

So, what's next on the agenda?

Having submitted Iron Falls to e-Quill Publishing on Wednesday morning, I find myself at a loss as to where from here. The story had taken me up to eight months, if not more, of writing and had its share of ups and downs. It had been been an experience, and the amount of support I got from certain individuals taught me a whole new bag of skills that I'm keen to utilise for my next writing project.

But the question is now, where to from here?

One thing I'm confident about is that Iron Falls is going to be part of a series of books set in the same universe, and I left a few things hanging - such as "what happened to Kevin Yamakawa?" and "What do the Russians have to do with events in the African continent?", to "what will Gene Bukowski discover about his heritage?" and "Who are these SWORD guys?". For now I need to do some research before I answer those questions. This means I have some more creative juices left for something else to work on. Besides, I need to practice my writing so any excuse will do.

Now, last week I talked about the idea of how to go promoting one's own work. This next piece of writing will be available free for download so that you can have a taste of how I write. Now, I can't promise you if the story will be set in the same universe as Iron Falls and its planned sequel, or how long it'll be for that matter. What I can tell you is that neither Bukowski, Yamakawa nor Heerdan will be in it, and that it will be set on elsewhere other than Earth.

Until next time my friends . . .