La-la-la-la-la-life goes on

6:45PM Central Afghan Time

So now I’m in the southeastern part of Afghanistan, at a place where there are mountains on all sides. It does funny things to the climate patterns. As an example, I’d seen it rain only three times in the past six months, but it rained steadily here for a day and a half, starting pretty much the moment I arrived.

I’ll spend a lot more time outside the wire than has been the case before now: one of the reasons for my being sent here, and one of my reasons for accepting. We’re not exactly chasing the Taliban (infantry and SF do that), but we go into villages where they’re active and try to pull people toward favoring the Afghan government. It appears that I’ll be out three to five days a week. Just waiting to see how that goes, and how I perform under those circumstances.

I did turn out a very short story (around 2,300 words) for which I haven’t yet selected a title. I did it because it was there and wanted to be written, but I don’t count it among the nine (still three to go) I committed myself to producing while in-country. Why don’t I count it? because it’s not Buffy or Angel; it’s an Alias fic. I’m not going to start writing Alias stories, this one was for love, and now I need to get back into my real venue.

I know the story I want to do next. It was the one I was getting ready to start when “Beg to Differ” (#6) suddenly claimed all my attention. Maybe I’ll begin this new one (#7) tomorrow, maybe tonight. And maybe I’ll do the one after that (#8) quickly enough that I’ll have it finished by the time I go to Germany for leave. And maybe I’ll set myself to turn out at least 500 words a day during leave so I’ll be able to finish #9 before we have to start packing up for return to the States.

Thanks for the good wishes from all who offered them. I’ll post the Alias fic as soon as I have time to key it in (and I hope by then to have selected a title as well). Meanwhile, we’ll just see what develops.