Making myself write...

How to find the focus? How to find the time?

The ARC skimmed through the edge of the... What? Sure, I can get that for the patient.... Sergeant Lvov's chuckle rolled warmly through speakers of Gareth's helmet... Kids, anyone going to the amusement park needs to be in the car, now... Erm.... space... guns... bleh.

The Dynamics

The struggles are several in Gareth's world...

• Unified Kingdom (west) vs. Eternal Dynasty (east)
• This is the initial backdrop of the war, but it's bigger than a recon soldier. It's ideals that are well beyond considering, at least at the beginning of the story. For now, Gareth is following orders. We'll let the media and others ask the tough questions.
• Cybernetic augmentation vs. Genetic modifications
• This interacts with our protagonist on several levels, first the different levels of augmentation within his unit, and second with the enemy, as it's one of the cultural divides between UK and ED. UK doesn't condone gems (genetic modifications, GMs). ED has gemmed so far that particular segments of the troops are almost unidentifiable as human.
• Military vs. Civilians
• The common problem of trying to establish a beachhead on a populated world. Can't kill them all.
• Arty vs. Recon
• This one is minor, and more of a love/hate thing common to all infantrymen.
• Willet vs. Lvov
• These are the romantic interests, and will get their own post
• Role identity vs. Responsibility
• This is the personal growth of Gareth. The "I'm happy just where I am" as opposed to the "I need to step up because I'm the one that can."

More later, after this semester ends, likely...

Conventional War in the Future

So, how do we justify infantry in a future age of FTL drive and magnetic accelerators?

Not sure.

It's one of the things I've been struggling with. I know lots future war doesn't always justify it. Heinlein had more of the political elements. Card decentralizes it. I'm writing it off as cheaper to expend soldiers than neutron/whatever bombs.

I think it's actually more Sun Tzu. Can't scorch the earth, because eventually you want to live there, side by side with your former enemy.

Title reference

I wanted it nebulous a little, maybe it's about pages in a book, maybe it's about the foliage on the planet that these two powers are fighting over, maybe it's the splashes of blood from allies and enemies on that fallen foliage. Don't know if it works, but I liked it. And, yes, the U, because that's all I need to make it Britishy, right?

I'm hopeless, I know.

Unhidden sources

Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.

Richard Lovelace, “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars”

Original Concept

From my notes of last August....

I want to write Hammer’s Slammers for infantry. I want to avoid questions like Space: Above and Beyond raised on why fighter jocks were ground pounding. But I don’t want to sound like David Drake, not because I don’t love him, but I want my own voice. Gotta find Galen’s voice, and maybe a new name. While I love Galen, I didn’t think about the Chief in BSG.

Obviously, Galen became Gareth, at least for the moment...

Abbreviations/Acronyms

They come out in the first paragraph and I'm worried they'll alienate my reader, but I can't personally find any level of verisimilitude with a military story without them. Even our current vocab if filled with military terminology that's morphed over the years. High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle or HMMWV became Humvee and then Hummers.

So, will acronyms scare people or if I explain them in context and pseudo-subtly will I be OK?

Somehow this is bothering me less than trying to make Gareth's English more 20th C. Queen's English without being a bother to my online UK friends.