rlfj: Blog

Chapter 34 is the end of Martian Vengeance, the epilogue both to the story and to my contribution to the Greenies/A Perfect World universe. I can’t thank Al Steiner enough for allowing me to add to his brilliant tales. I certainly couldn’t have done it without his assistance. Now, all we need to do is hope Al completes some of his unfinished stories and round it all out. (Probably not going to happen. He is working in the Intemperance universe currently. Still, we can always hope.)

A few people have commented on the lack of ground combat or the one-sidedness of the combat in MJ and MV. I am living in Al’s universe. One thing he specified in APW was that after Martian Hammer, WestHem never came close to conquering the Martians. They never got near a city and the losses were massively lopsided. Ultimately, they agree to a ceasefire. I just tried to be true to his vision.

Get back to me with any edits and fixes. Once I have made the fixes, I will update the bookapy versions. Many thanks to all the readers who have supported my writing.

I got a very disturbing email the other day from a reader of A Fresh Start:

“My one observation to what you wrote as the 'prologue' is that IMHO you're hitting very close to the mark as far as how the attitudes are going to match your writing (did you catch the article about how many red state republicans are saying that their state would be better off if it seceded from the union and that some 'studies' are stating that we've become a 'federacy' of two factions, red & blue........”

When I wrote about the decline of America in the Prologue to A Fresh Start, it never occurred to me that the split between the red and blue states would be over abortion. I write the story in late 2010 and began posting it in June 2011. At the time we were still recovering from the Great Recession, and I figured the economic situation at the time would cause the country to crash. I wrote about the Tea Party and government shutdowns. It never occurred to me, not in my most fevered nightmares, that it would be because the Supreme Court decided to trash Roe v. Wade.

Yet that is what is tearing the country apart. Regardless of what the majority of Americans actually want, the red states are racing each other to the bottom. If one state bans abortions after six weeks, the next one must prove they’re more Christian and conservative and ban it completely. Then the state after that has to ban it in the case of rape and incest, with yet another state banning everything, even if the mother is going to die. Now they are going to ban chemotherapy and arthritis drugs that can also be used to treat ectopic pregnancies (methotrexate). Within the next year or two, some states will begin banning contraceptives (most contraceptives work by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus – if a fertilized egg is a person, IUDs and birth control will kill said person. Some states are threatening to arrest or delicense doctors involved in any form of obstetrics and gynecology. Women who have miscarriages could be arrested for manslaughter. Pregnant women could be forced into prison under a form of protective custody of their wombs. States would have the legal right to arrest people who do web searches for birth control and abortion. Meanwhile, bounty hunters will be able to travel across state lines to capture and return women who had abortions or who received medical care out of state, and the doctors who treated them, a new form of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Okay, some of that is extreme, but we are seeing state legislatures introducing and discussing these bills. Some will be voted on by state legislatures and fail, but sooner or later one will pass, and it will snowball from there. My wife was talking the other day about foreign countries where being an American can get you arrested, like Russia (just ask Brittney Griner.) I replied that there will be a huge swath of America, from North Dakota down to Texas, where being a woman can get you arrested. So much for the United States of America.

There’s a story here, but it would be very dark and ugly.

Several people noted that Thursday’s date was July 14, 2022. Why is that important? Check out the date on the prologue to A Fresh Start. FYI – I survived whatever happened to Carl Buckman!

As for the current story, we find out the real meaning behind the title of the story. Enjoy!

Götterdämmerung is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among the gods that ultimately results in the destruction and renewal of the world. It seemed appropriate as the chapter title. Enjoy!

I had a recent email: “I suggest that you make the combat more even. Think about WW2 and how the Nazis almost were victorious and how the Japanese rolled over the USA and allies for the first year or so. It makes the war more interesting. How about having WestHem have independent squadrons launch raids on Mars at the start.”

Interesting idea, but I am living in the Al Steiner universe. In Greenies, the Martians displayed a major advantage in cyberwarfare when they encrypted their GPS system, a system WestHem created. By the time A Perfect World occurs the Martians can run rampant through any computer system on Earth, military or civilian. It’s easy to win when you can read the other guy’s operation orders.

Additionally, the Nazis were not almost victorious. Yes, they were able to run roughshod over Poland, but then there was a five-month period called the Phony War where they had to rebuild their forces. By late 1942, they were bogged down in Stalingrad, where the Russians broke the German army. As for the Japanese, they were on the retreat after Midway, in June 1942, barely seven months into the war.

I’ve done some checking on turning The Grim Reaper series into printed paperback books. Not going to be happening! There would be two books, the original GR and a combo ASLE/RSC. A standard size GR paperback, with regular fonts and margins, would be about 1,400 pages long. That would be crazy! Even going to a 6x9 size paperback, with a small font and small margins, ends up at almost 800 pages. Such a book would run over $18 per book. Nobody is going to pay that for a paperback when they can get the ebook a lot cheaper.

In a lot of ways, Chapter 31 is a continuation of Chapter 30. I could have written them as a single chapter, but that would have been too long. If you liked 30, you’ll really like 31. Enjoy!

With Chapter 30, the invasion begins. This chapter is a touch short, but we’ll make up for it in 31. Enjoy!

Anybody have any experience publishing printed books? I’m thinking of maybe doing The Grim Reaper and its two companion pieces as paperbacks. I’ve never done that sort of thing, so I am curious whether there would even be a market for it. If you have any experience in publishing printed books, let me know. Thanks.