"One Day In A Very Long Dominion War": a fan project anthology has chosen two of my short stories!

 

Earlier this year, I saw that there was a short story anthology coming from the very cool fan outfit, Tranquility Press.  And they had been accepting fan submissions.  Oh, I wish I had known about it sooner, I thought.  Then I saw that the due date was in the future ... I had two weeks left!

I read the prompt: 

We are asking for pieces on events around the galaxy on the 11th of March 2375 – the same day as the baseball match between DS9's "Niners" and USS T'Kumbra's "Logicians." The rules are simple: you can talk about anyone, any group, anything in the galaxy that has been altered by the titanic struggle of liberty against the Dominion: except Primary cast members from any Trek show. We don't want to know what Jean-Luc Picard or Katherine Janeway were up to, we want you to tell us a story we haven't heard before. We want to know about Federation reservists on the ground on Chin'Toka, convoy duty near Minos Korva, or new Romulan fleets working up behind the neutral zone. 

We encourage you to consider stories beyond the front line, Starship crews, Marine Raiders, and Klingon Warriors. One Day in A Very Long Dominion War should be about the people's war too; the Federation factory worker, the Cardassian civilian, the Romulan intelligence attache.

Each story should be between 1500 and 3500 words.

With a burst of creative energy, I sat down and wrote four short stories, finishing them all just in time for the August deadline.  I didn't know if I could submit four ... but I did anyway.  In the end, they chose two.  (In my opinion, the best two.)  That is a huge honor ... there were so few slots, but they gave two to me?  Insane.  I'm very grateful.

Here are one of the judge's thoughts about my two stories, as posted by TP:

"naD tetlh" has an undeniable sense of 'trueness' about it that really left an imprint on me after reading. It's a remarkable, human story that presents as a slice-of-life, but it cleverly sneaks up on you with some great emotional moments. Short but by no means lacking, this story conjures up a great sense of place with economy of description and dialogue. Deft work here, a great 'war-at-home' tale.

"Jolan Tru All Over Again" speaks to my love of cold war spy thrillers, and there's something of a LeCarré feel to this locked-box narrative. It's like a one-act play, an echo of beloved DS9 episodes like "Duet" and "Waltz," with two characters sparking off one another as they fence and dig at the truth. There's no fat on this story at all, it's stripped back, lean and scalpel-sharp, and I enjoyed how it gets into the character of the Romulan and Vorta leads.

I'm not certain when the final anthology will be published, but I'll be sure to keep everyone apprised.  I will absolutely be posting links when it is.  And, when it drops, I will also post my two "leftover" stories: "Loading Torpedoes" and "To Be the First."

So.  Something to look forward to.

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing LONDINIUM, Part I: Maps and the first chapter!

 Finding time to write has been the difficult part of getting going for this book thus far.  And when I have a bit of time, I can sit and stare at the screen.  Sometimes I'm just not "feeling it" for whatever reason.  That sucks and there's little to be done for it.

Another obstacle?  What to listen to as I write.  Readers know I listed to the thirteen-plus hours of the Galactica/Caprica soundtracks over and over, totaling thousands of hours, but what to listen to as I write a story set in a modern Roman Empire?  Well, I started by listening to Roman and Greek music (or at least recreations thereof).  Eh.  Then I moved on to movie soundtracks, but those weren't terribly inspiring and I often got distracted thinking about the movies and scenes I was listening to.  I ended up back in the Galactica-verse.  Yeah, I'm listening to Bear McCreary's great music, over and over again, again, as I write.

Longtime readers know I love to map things.  It helps me immerse myself in the worlds I'm building and maybe it helps readers, too.  If nothing else, it shows the readers that I actually put some thought into the bullshit I write.  This time, since I am writing about our world in a different dimension, mapping our world with Roman lines and names on everything would be helpful.  So here you go:

 

Click to embiggen

 

I had to do a lot of reading on Roman history and indigenous languages to understand how the world might look.  Europe was called "Europe," the Atlantic "the Atlantic," and "Africa" to the Romans is what we would call "north Africa."  "Oriens" is Latin for "east" and I chose that for Asia's name; thus also the "Eastern Ocean" aka "Oriental Ocean" ("Oriental" not having been used as a slur in that universe).  Some of the other continent names come from an ancient map of the world by Crates of Mallus.  He called the land south of north Africa "Antoeca" while he also hypothesized a pair of continents on the other side of the world, Perioeca and Antipoda.  Thus, when my Romans went exploring, that's what they called these lands in the "New World."  Australia gets the name "Marege" from the Makassar people of Indonesia, who, centuries ago, spoke of the land to their south as "Marege," the "wild country."  

I had to map Londin a bit, too, so I started with the various police districts and I imagined greater Londin as a bit bigger than the London of our universe:

"Southwark" is a name used in London today, but it's a quite ancient name, so I kept it for the book.  Newfield and Broadhand are based on ancient Roman settlements in those areas and I just translated their Latin names into English.  If you Google "Londinium," you'll likely see a polygon settlement on the north side of the Thames; that's the "Old City" in the above map.  The "New City" is the provincial and city buildings (the governor's palace, the Senate house, magistracy, etc.) that function today on the south side of the River Tames (no "h" in that universe, and it rhymes with "aims").  "LIC" is the "Londin Intercontinental Skyport"; "The Star" is the massive railway and subway (called "underway") complex that got its name because the converging rail lines looked like a star.  "Portaper" is a neighboring city that handles a lot of cargo because it straddles the Tames; name derives from Latin for "port" and "opening."

The story of Londinium is set today, but in a world where the Roman Empire didn't go away.  (I wrote out a very detailed history of the world that I'll probably include in the book as an index.  I did it mostly to keep things straight in my head as ideas came to me and to provide backstory to the various cultures.)  The world is governed from Roma and all people born on Earth are citizens of the Roman Republic.  Londin has been associated with Roma for almost two thousand years.  The Normans never invaded, England never had its own kings or queens, English isn't spoken there ... neither is Italian, for that matter.  The language of the Republic is called "Roma," and it's probably some flavor of Italian, but not exactly.  (This is why some cities may sound Italian to our ears, like "Bonaventura.")  I'm writing in English because that's what I know ... I'm not JRR Tolkien over here inventing a whole new language.  Well, at least not this time.  The people of Brittan are not reserved ... they are wholly different than the people of Great Britain.  That's something I wanted to communicate in this first chapter.  These aren't Brits, so don't imagine them speaking with a Cockney accent or something.  Slang "yes" and "no" comes from corrupted Germanic, "ya," "na."  There's no "OK"; these people are more apt to say "Aye" in its place.  The Republic has existed in one form or another for almost three millennia.  It is ever-present in the people's lives and no one questions it.  It's a different world.  I'm curious if all of this is conveyed.

Read the chapter after the JUMP: