The Day The Tanks Came

"Hans!"

Summer had come early and the shout was almost muffled by the torpid air.

"What is it?" Hans had been looking forward to a lazy afternoon with the family, little Addy was ready to work in the fields now and Anna had been making noises about a third child, a duty that he had been anticipating nicely.

"Hans, have you been able to get anything on the radio?"

Rudolf was a worrier, the whole village knew it, and had never been a ranking officer despite having been in the army almost as long as service allowed.  Old age had failed to take the edge from his concern but nor had it made him any harder to live with.  As a single man he was unusual but he was well-liked and a useful man to know in case of electrical repairs.  "No, Rudi, you know I don't bother with that thing."  Sometimes the music was nice, but lately it had become a little political for his tastes, "Besides, since when did we need it?"

"Hans, I listen to the radio always, and I tell you that it has gone. Now, what do you think of that?" Rudolf's face was flushed, he'd been running.

"I tell you that you spend too long listening to the radio and now there has been a break in the service and that it will do you some good."

"Hans... Mister Group-Leader, I-"

"Please, not now," Hans cut him off, the rank brought back a whole phalanx of memories that he had long ago grown tired of dealing with. "Rudi, you are a radio man, that is fine.  Go ask Konnie if he has anything and then work with him, yes?  For now, it is Summer, it is nearly harvest and I have 'duties' to perform for my family.  I do not expect you to understand but I do expect you to give me some peace."

"They were talking of the Front again-"

"And they always will, you know that.  Now, run along to Konnie, he may have more time for you."

Konrad was new to the village, recently discharged with distinction, and had a young family.  Starting was always hard, but the cameraderie of the Old Guard meant that he had been well-supported, and his aptitude with technology made him a natural appointment for the village broadcast and reciever station.  It saved him from running his own fields, something Hans doubted the youngster would enjoy, and meant that they had enjoyed the full benefits of the radio for some months, something Hans reflected on with some pained displeasure.

"Yes of course, Mis-"

"Oh, just leave man!"  Hans turned and walked off his porch as pointedly as he could, deliberately ignoring the obvious salute.  Rudolf was a walking testament to why men needed to be married: so that they could turn their worries and anxieties to real concerns rather than phantasmogorical ones.

Post-Apocalyptica

This is my own term for post-apocalyptic porn, that is a story that fetishises the situation following an apocalypse, not porn set after an apocalypse.  I'm not sure how the latter would be any different from normal porn, if I'm honest.

AFTERMATH

Cold. The wind whistled through the chain-link fence and smelt sweet through the gas mask. Unbidden, he checked the geiger counter hanging round his neck out of habit before grupping his rifle tighter. Smoke still rose in the distance, through the dust and the smog, and there was the muffled sound of flames crackling in the distance. Guard duty: the worst duty, but it was necessary; Daniels had already had to fire in anger and now the brass were worried that there would be more. Didn't see them pulling guard duty.

Boner said the motorways were the worst: cars frozen at the point of impact surrounded by melted tarmac with their occupants trapped inside. There was talk of missions to the countryside and into the cityh to gain the supplies of those that hadn't kept themselves shielded. Radiation was quick on foodstuffs and on the ready meals and tinned goods it was fast enough to leave the food virtually unaffected. Rations were good for the moment, the advantage of guarding the warehouses, and so this did not bother him much. Volunteers had been requested by Regional Command but so far no one had been willing to brave the maelstrom that had engulfed the centre to rescue some jumped up civvies with a radio. Fuel was short, vehicles at a premium, but they had been trained well enough to conserve ammunition. Sixteen rounds so far used had all been subject to the brass crawling up peoples' arses to make sure it was justified.

And the worst of them was Redbar. He and his unit had been caught topside at zero hour and he'd managed to get them all to safety, and he was bloody insufferable. He'd counselled waiting before going looking for extra food, until the poor sods had been killed by looters or at least until the majority of them had started to leave the shelters. Most, he said, would have fuck all but there would be some sad fuckers who had stored correctly and they would be fodder for the looters. Survival of the fittest. He wasn't certain what to make of Redbar, either he was a genius or the most evil fucker he'd ever known and there was simply no middle ground.

Regarding Bakunin

The Republic is Freedom!

Workers of the World, Unite! Join the Hands and Brains of the Republic as they build the road of Socialism through a dark future. Cast off your chains! Embrace the Republic! From all according to their contributions to all according to their needs!

In a world without crime, and where murder simply doesn't happen, Ben Jones finds himself on the run from the Plod, the Service and a terrorist organisation that may well have had a divine experience on an expanse of tarmac somewhere south of a small Middle-Eastern city. Whatever it is that he has that they want it is clear that they will stop at nothing to possess it. And these aren't the sort of people you can ask for clarification and so giving it up isn't easy.

Deals, blackmail, double-crosses, cross-dressing and prostitutes are going to be the least of the complications he'll face. Oh, and there's a small chance that it'll all end in nuclear armageddon.

Right.

So the world's screwed then...

The Day the Tanks Came

What if the Nazis had 'won', inasmuch as it were possible, the war in the USSR?  I recall Richard Overy saying that such a thing were possible in Virtual History in a rather well-researched 'what if' history.  He postulated that the organisation of the Ostmark that was to be created would have been cataclysmically badly done and chaotic, much like the Nazi state at large, and that the economics would have caused a collapse of Greater German finances in a few years.  Indeed, he seemed to suggest that the situation was critical even before the war had reached the turning points of Stalingrad and Guadalcanal.  In fact, the implication, made elsewhere in Overy's studies, was that the war prolonged the Nazi's power in Germany by allowing loot and pillage to fill the gaps left in the shoddy economic planning and fantasy-land ideas.
Anyway, I have an idea about writing a short story set in one of the NSDAP veteran farms in a place where that particular victory was run.  Greater Germany would be an almost anarchistic economic basket-case with some form or Nazi-dictatorship (there were no other politrical avenues open to the German people following July 1933) and that village would be created in line with the few clear organisational guidelines.  I guess Himmler would still be in charge too.

But what if the USSR, a more industrially minded country after all, had managed to survive along the border of perpetual warfare and created new factories utilising the mineral wealth of Siberia?  Ecological disaster almost certainly would have occurred but they may have lasted long enough to mount a counter offensive.  Against a pastoral economic basket-case like the Third Reich an ecologically bankrupt industrial USSR would have an intriguing relationship and reasons beyond ideology for fighting.  I'd love to explore that whole thing.

Anyway, when I have some time, that's an idea I would like to expand on this blog!

Historical?

I've always avoided proper historical fiction because of the research involved and the fear of not getting attitudes correct.  After all, we can't just port back the sort of behaviours we see in our society.  That said, I saw a series of images whilst pootling the other night that really makes me want to try for something about 1400AD.

However, my get out clause in any of this is 'alternate histories'.  Yeah, it's a cop out, I know, but part of me wants to try it some day.  Maybe not tonight though.

Random Ideas

One idea that constantly occurs to me, after I've got past the world building of most of my novel plans and the like, is the idea of having a main character who is not the character through which we view the story.  I don't just mean by having the story in third person omniscient either, I mean by having the standard third person view but multiple POV characters who all interact with the character about whom the story and plot is.

Put another way, it would be like reading Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books but from the points of view of Harris, Harper, Wellington etc rather than centring on Sharpe himself.  So you'd have the story of Sharpe's Rifles told by various members of his regiment, with Sharpe appearing at various points, then a gap until he appears to rescue Harper and the rest from the ambush and so on and so forth.  It would be very difficult to write but it would be really interesting.  Mainly to see if I could actually create that many realistic characters who would be 'real' enough to follow.  Each one would have their vignette and, slowly, it would become apparent that the plot was following someone else, someone who featured in all of the other stories.

I'd have to actually write it, though, and the lack of posting here would seem to suggest that this would be difficult.  However, the point of this blog is to spur my typing and I seem to get a groove on every year.  When it happens this year I just have a place to put it all.

Mission Statement

When I get this place up and running I suspect that I'll make this a page rather than the first post, but I'm conscious of the need to post something here so that I actually remember to post here with creative projects.

This is designed as a blog for me writing stuff.  An author's blog if you will where, instead of confessionals about my life and stuff, I blog about ideas and half-formed things.  There will likely be everything from half-baked plots and synopses through to scenes and conversations that serve as fragments of some larger pieces.  I hope to post a few short stories, too, the kind that are too short to ever really be published but may well provide somebody, somewhere, with a few minutes of interest.

It is designed to be public and open, so if there is strong language it will be plot related and I'll signpost it as such.  I may tackle more adult-y themes but not in a 'adult = porn' way - I mean my writings are designed for, well, me, and so probably not always appropriate for young'uns without some adulty guidance along the way.

Who knows, I may even garner a readership that will comment on what I write - even they just say whether or not they like it.  Anyway, that'll do for now.