aadler | Entries tagged with afghanistan

11:00PM Central Afghan Time

Yes, I’m still continuing to write. A little under 1,500 words added to “Glass Ceiling”, including some things that I didn’t actually expect to happen. When a story starts moving itself, things get interesting. I’m Sergeant of the Guard tomorrow, which involves a lot of sitting at a desk, so — unless I opt out and take a paperback with me — I’ll have the opportunity to add even more than usual

Yesterday we had a conex (big metal shipping container) come in, holding lots of foodstuffs to be distributed to the locals to help them get ready for the winter. We were in a rush, so rather than using the big crane that would have lifted the conex off the truck, set it down in a vacant spot, and put an empty conex on the truck so the drivers could proceed with their business, we transloaded by hand from one conex to the other, ten guys and a lot of sweat. Cans of cooking oil, sacks of sugar, salt, beans and rice. Some of the sacks had the weave open up in handling, and in some the material was so thin that our fingers would go through it when the sack was tossed from one man to the next. Needless to say, stuff got spilled. At one point someone looked around at the loose beans and rice and said, “We’ve got the makings of a Cajun feast right here on the floor.” Ten minutes later there was some fast, urgent discussion as to whether a rat had been seen lurking among the sacks, and the same wit observed, “Hey, that’d just be meat for the stew.”

Sorry. When you make your own entertainment, you have to be a bit forgiving of the quality.

Yesterday I started watching my Firefly DVDs. (I had planned to do Veronica Mars first, but once I acquired a local copy of Serenity, I wanted to get Firefly out of the way so I could watch it.) Sudden, intense new interest. I saw a few episodes — three or four, I don’t remember for sure — when the show was on the air, but I could never fully get into it. For one thing, I was busy with this and that at the time; for another, I just have trouble appreciating something when I come into it partway through. Of course, now I know that everybody had to join it in the middle, thanks to the network’s oppressive and inexplicable decision not to air the series opener until after several should-have-been-subsequent episodes. Which was, as we know, only the opening offense in a systematic abuse of a good property. Why will people taken a proven commodity like Joss Whedon, screw around with everything he tries to do, and then dump the whole project when their meddling trashes the ratings that it might otherwise have garnered? After all, it only managed to generate enough of a fan base to justify a theatrical movie release, which — so far as I’ve been able to ascertain — has not lost money. Oh, yes, I’m definitely preaching to the choir here, and well after everyone else has dealt with it and moved on. It just astonishes me.

ludditerobot’s recent Tales of the Agents: Interrogation put me onto the track of

jgracio’s series of that name. Both are interesting and provocative. I had actually read “Congo Bar” previously, but hadn’t known it was part of a series. I may offer to do some beta work for

jgracio; as I understand it, he’s operating with the handicap of not being a native English speaker, and still turning out some effective storytelling. I wouldn’t have a chance of doing the same in any language other than my own.

I seriously miss beer.

10:30PM Central Afghan Time

“Glass Ceiling” is now past 11,000 words.

Stories seem sometimes to choose their own direction.

I’m tired.

8:30PM Central Afghan Time

The last three days, I’ve been dealing with a mild case of depression. For me, the principal symptom isn’t hopelessness and misery, but a substantial lack of motivation. Didn’t help that we had a mandatory height/weight check scheduled for today at the med shed, so I went a day and a half without eating or drinking to be sure I was safely under the margin. Hunger is not conducive to a sunny mood.

The funny part of that is that my writing was the part of my normal routine that these days of blahh affected the least. I didn’t write anything at all day before yesterday; aside from that, it’s been a steady 1,000 to 1,500 words a day. “Glass Ceiling” is now just under 9,000 words; it could go double that, though I have a feeling I’ve laid enough background and things are about to begin moving toward resolution.

In other news, I got further copy from sroni, a little over 1,000 words in addition to what she’d sent me previously. “Queen’s Gambit”, then, is also moving along, though not at the same pace as I do when I’m on a roll.

The high today at Kandahar Air Field was 71ºF, the low 41ºF. This is not what we’ve been dealing with for the past several months. The guys in the overflow barracks are asking for blankets now, where before it was a matter of whether or not the A/C was turned high enough. Winter months are usually a time of reduced Taliban activity; our field teams will keep going after them, trying to make their lives as miserable as possible in inhospitable weather, but in my more protected location there’s likely to be even less threat than usual.

bellatemple produced another chapter of “Fanon Fodder”. Fun continues. I won’t begin reading her “Mercy Seat” until it’s finished, but since I’m already involved in FF, I’ll continue reading new installments as they appear. (Same for liz_marcs’ work; I’d be happy to continue following “the Acme Heartbreak Repair Kit”, but she’s shelved that for now to work on “Water Hold Me Down”, which I won’t begin until it’s finished.)

Life goes on.

10:45PM Central Afghan Time

Well, I didn’t make it to the combatives class; some heavy brass were coming to visit yesterday, so the whole compound was turned out for preparatory cleanup, right in the middle of the time posted, and it wasn’t rescheduled afterward. Darn. Maybe later. Because of the time spent on that silliness, I fell short of my normal list of self-appointed duties. I compensated by doubling it today: two hours (instead of one) refreshing and extending my knowledge of Persian Farsi, and then a minimum of 2,000 words written on “Glass Ceiling”. The story is taking me by surprise; I know the basic shape, but not at all how it’s going to arrive at its eventual destination, yet it keeps turning itself out for me. At an average of 1,000 words a day (every time I type that, my fingers try to make it 1,000 pages), I’ll probably arrive there sooner rather than later. I tell you, it’s hard to be humble when you’re the glory that is me.

ludditerobot has offered to give me a few tips on using icons.

chrisjournal is continuing correspondence, on LJ and off. I just came on board because several people I admired —

liz_marcs was the spearhead — were so active, but I’m really finding myself enjoying it.

I’ve been watching Kolchak: the Night Stalker (the 1974-75 original) on DVD, trying to limit myself to one episode a day so I won’t fall behind on other endeavors. I’m close to the end, I think only five eps to go. Two things I must say. First: for something I enjoyed so much at the time, I was aware even then that the stories were pretty cheesy (and the special effects appallingly bad), but the character of Carl Kolchak as rendered by Darren McGavin remains as striking and enjoyable as ever. Second: you have to know there was an open Hellmouth in Chicago at the time, and (considering how many times Kolchak was frozen out of a story by the connivance of the authorities) one must suspect that the Demon Research Initiative might have been active in the vicinity as well.

Okay, bedtime. Even the mighty must slumber.

9:45PM Central Afghan Time

Busy the last couple of days, but not in a way that kept me from accomplishing anything. “Glass Ceiling” is proceeding reasonably well; 1,000 words yesterday, 1,200 today.

chrisjournal agreed to accept the Five Questions meme, and I just posted them for her.

There’s a brief combatives class tomorrow, and I’m interested. I used to be deeply involved in judo, and what I’ve seen of the military combatives system seems to rely heavily on judo techniques. If it goes well, I’d like to see about becoming the combatives instructor for my unit. I’d have to go to a school for that, when this deployment ends, but heck! can you imagine being paid to have this kind of fun?

“Glass Ceiling” looks to be longer than the stories I’ve been producing lately, but I always had a feeling that would be the case, one reason I didn’t begin it until I felt I had the right stuff lined up inside my head. Some parts are still waiting to come together, but I can feel the deficits and have some background idea of what will be needed to fill them. I’ve done this kind of thing before, it’s familiar to me and causes me no worry. I had more trouble with “the Still, Small Voice” because 1) I started off thinking I did have the story figured out, and 2) when I realized I had a problem, I couldn’t figure out just where the problem was. This one has a totally different shape to it; and, with due modesty, I’ve been getting better at this stuff for a while now.

Life is good.

9:05PM Central Afghan Time

(I had to back-date this entry because LJ tried to say it was already the 26th.)

I said I might get some writing done today. I went up to my room after dinner, sat down, and turned out 1,200 words on “Glass Ceiling”. This is getting almost scary. For the longest time I had so much trouble producing copy in quantity, I reinforced my motivation by reminding myself that, if I wrote one page a day — assuming approximately 200 words to the page — that would equal one medium-sized novel per year. But lately it’s just coming more and more easily. Getting myself to start now takes longer than writing once I do start.

If you have to have problems, I suppose that’s the one to have. But it still feels weird.

3:00PM Central Afghan Time

A couple of days ago I said I’d be starting on my next story soon. So far I haven’t. One thing and another, nothing major but enough to keep me off-balance. (Among other things, I’ve had to take delivery and/or arrange for shipment of 20,000 native language newspapers and 4,000 portable radios, some going as far as Pakistan.) I confess my failings and post progress reports here as a way of motivating myself to action.

Following up on

writercon, I joined the LJ community dedicated to it, and Friended

chrisjournal, the organizer/smiling face of the first such event. We hadn’t remained in contact, but she left a note here within 24 hours of my locating her online persona. Delightful lady.

She’s deeply into Veronica Mars these days (no, I haven’t watched my Season 1 DVDs yet; all in good time), and it occurs to me that a number of programs I’ve followed with interest since BtVS/Angel ceased original production — Wonderfalls, Lost, Tru Calling, Gilmore Girls, Point Pleasant, and of course Veronica Mars — seem to have something of a similar flavor to them, and definitely a similar dedication to quality. Gee, what could so many different shows possibly have in common? I’ll have to think on that for awhile.

LiveJournal apparently is run out of the West Coast, because I’ve noted that its default time is nearly twelve hours different from what the clocks show in my current position. Hence my recent habit of heading my posts with my time zone. What it mostly means is that I’m going to bed about the time people in the U.S. are just hitting their stride in the morning; and when I go in to check my account, any response postings are hours old and the respondents generally in bed themselves or headed that way. The time lag allows for deliberation, but makes immediacy all but impossible.

I haven’t heard anything back yet from

sroni. Not reproaching her — her schedule is far more exacting than mine — but contact from her is always such a delight that I miss it in the times between.

Maybe I’ll get some story work done today. Maybe.

8:00PM Central Afghan Time

I followed ludditerobot into this meme. Rules as follows, then the questions I was asked and answered.

Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.

I’ll reply and give you five questions to answer.

You’ll update your LJ with the five questions answered.

You’ll include this explanation.

You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed. And it just keeps going, and going, and going.

1) You’ve been to Iraq. You’re in Afghanistan. How do you think we’re doing?

My Iraq experience is from two years ago, and so may not be fully pertinent now. But when I compare my experience here with the reports I hear from there, I think things are going quite well in both places. Afghanistan just finished its parliamentary elections; Iraq just finished national voting on a constitution. These are the only two functioning Muslim democracies in the world, and you’d better believe the Al Jazeera target audience is paying close attention to how things are going in those countries. However much these people may dislike the notion of American forces on Arab soil, they’re also not crazy about being ruled by military despots, corrupt royal families, and 12th century theocracies.

As long as we’re here, there will be people fighting us. But both countries truly are coming along well enough that we won’t have to stay here.

2) You’ve been to Iraq. You’re in Afghanistan. Personally, I imagine Riley bouncing around all over there. Have you seen anything that might inspire Buffyverse fic?

Nope. I’ve seen one pretty effective story (“While the Women Came and Went”, by Mosca), but have had no ideas of my own. I hadn’t personally considered Riley in this venue, and would expect him to be active in the Middle East only if there were a supernatural threat requiring response. If I were doing a story about a Slayer over here … well, the American military females who can’t hack it are an embarrassment and give the rest a bad name, but the ones who do have what it takes are totally freaking awesome; I’d have our theoretical guest Slayer taking inspiration from these tough, unflinching, non-superhuman but indomitable women.

3) You’re a Reservist. What do you do when you aren’t using your language skills for Uncle Sam?

I fell into the military life almost by accident, and discovered that I loved it. I’m a Reservist because of age (only in the Reserves can I stay in long enough for retirement), but I do my best to stay on active duty orders of one kind or another. I got a Master’s in Health Information Systems in August of 2001, and watched the WTC towers come down a month later; I raised my right hand and took the oath on September 18th, and I’ve never looked back.

4) Which Buffyverse character do you find hardest to write? Which do you find easiest to write?

That’s not easy for me to answer, because I suspect that the hardest characters would be the ones it’s never occurred to me to tackle. Basically, whether or not I write about a particular character depends mostly on whether or not I have a story to tell about him/her. I’ve dealt relatively little with Buffy herself (it used to be a standing joke with my kids that I was a Buffyfic writer who avoided the title character), but over the last couple of years she’s found her way into this and that. Of the main core, I’ve probably used Willow the least; she was one of an ensemble in “In Ev’ry Angle Greet”, and I had a hard time capturing her vocal rhythm. I’ve had several characters express opinions about her, but she herself hasn’t really featured heavily in any of my stories. On the other hand, I’ve never used Angel at all (unless you count Angelus’ appearance in “All Ye Who Enter”).

Probably the biggest and most obvious absence would be Spike. I don’t actually dislike the character, but I got heartily sick of the monomaniacal focus on Spike in fanfiction. He’s made minor appearances (he was seen in my very first story, “Point of Focus”, and had a bit role in “Each Proud Division”), but nothing substantial. That might change, but I’m offering no guarantees.

Easiest … hmm. I find Buffy easiest to write if it’s action, because I love to do fight scenes, and there Buffy rules. Giles and Wesley are most natural for me in terms of dialogue, because they have a precision of language that I can easily reproduce. I probably identify most closely with Joyce, and have used her several times. Ethan Rayne, though — and my own independent development of Sheila — are the characters with whom I most enjoy working.

5) I am musically oriented and tend to think of characters in terms of what they listen to. When I visit someone, I'm bound to scan their CD racks first thing. What do you use to define characters?

I define characters by my best understanding of them from canon, and sometimes by the writing of my favorite fanfic authors. (But never the “authorized” writings. Every single authorized Buffy book I’ve ever read was competent and flat; none of them captured the least tinge of what I saw as the real essence of the people or situation.) In general, I follow the development of a character through the series, and use that as my benchmark.

On the other hand, though I never thought of using it to define characters, music has played a substantial part in my stories. No less than six — “Come to My Window”, “Twilight’s Last Gleaming”, “Morning’s Echo”, “Solitaire Till Dawn”, “Each Proud Division”, and “the Human Touch” — derive their titles from song titles or lyrics, and sometimes I’ll have a sense of tune or lyrics in the background to give me the mood of a scene. (For instance, the song Xander and Buffy were dancing to at the end of “Dusk Over Pompeii” — though I didn’t say so — was “Nights Are Forever Without You” by England Dan and John Ford Coley, released around 1977.)

That’s it. Thanks.

3:30PM Central Afghan Time

Well, let’s see. Recent events.

sroni2004 (to whom I have previously alluded) joined the LJ community, and surprised and pleased me with 1,800 new words on her sequel to “God Save the Queen”. If she continues at this rate, I’ll be starting my part of it by the end of the year.

News from WriterCon indicates that they might be ready to do a new convention by summer 2006. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’d love to see WriterCon II, but there’s a possibility that I might get extended in Afghanistan. I’d hate for it to take place at a time when I couldn’t attend.

I recently acquired — by PX purchase and from Amazon.com — DVDs for the only seasons of Kolchak: the Night Stalker and Firefly, plus the first season of Veronica Mars; and just today I got Afghan bootlegs of five movies, including Serenity. I have enough unwatched DVDs to keep me occupied for some time to come … but, if I want to continue turning out decent, consistent story copy, I have to carefully limit my indulgence. So it may be weeks before I see Serenity (being as I’ll want to go through the complete Firefly first) … and I’m due to get Season 4 of 24 in the next month or so.

Sometime in the next few days, I’ll look to begin a story I’m calling “Glass Ceiling”. This is the one I’ve had in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. Plus, it will lay groundwork for another big idea I’ve had lurking for about as long.

Oh, and I volunteered for one of the five-question interviews that ludditerobot is currently running. (He, and the other people taking part in it, call it a “meme”. What’s a meme? For that matter, what — in fanfic/television context — is meant by “meta”? I’m always needing to have terms and rules explained to me.)

11:55PM Central Afghan Time

Okay, rough day: we had a PR crisis (of a nature I would be unwise to describe), and my captain was unexpectedly tied up in meetings; I had to not only do my job, but quite a bit of his, including preparing our portion of the evening brief and then presenting it at the OpCen during shift change.

All that being so, I feel pretty darn virtuous at having turned out 1,500 words, and — in the process — finished my current story. I’m calling it “Dusk Over Pompeii”, and I’ll key it in and post it tomorrow. (I compose in longhand. Fell into it by accident when my laptop crapped out at the Kuwait/Iraq border, and kept it up because it works for me.)

So. The beat goes on.

10:45PM Central Afghan Time

Stuff going on the last couple of days. Nothing of great enough interest to post, but it kept me busy. Meanwhile, however, I wrote 1,000 words yesterday, and another 1,000 tonight. This was never going to be a big story, and I can feel it nearing completion.

(In other news, I rescheduled the sort-of-you-could-look-at-it-as-a-date, but we missed connections again. Don’t know why yet, I’ll check on that when I get the chance.)

Among my Friends, I see that

liz_marcs is continuing to produce copy on “Water Hold Me Down”. I’ll be happy to read that when she finishes, but not before; I’ve had my heart broken by too many unfinished WIPs. (Yes, even from the wondrous liz.)

10:05 PM Central Afghan Time

Difficult day. We had a rocket attack in the wee morning hours — impact about 100 meters from my hootch — and I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep after that. Woke up around lunchtime, spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch up. Then during the evening shift, when I was supposed to be consolidating sitreps from our teams in-country, we had some net connectivity issues and the sitreps weren’t arriving, so I was running behind on that as well. Bottom line, I was kept so occupied with one thing or another that I didn’t get any writing done at all.

(Also, I had a sort-of-you-could-look-at-it-as-a-date on schedule for this evening, but I wasn’t able to get to that, either. Shame. I’m a little scared of her, but I do enjoy her company.)

On the plus side, I got another story idea. Not that I have any shortage of those, but this one has the feel of something that’ll come together pretty well once I start to work on it; not just promising, but probably not hard to do.

All I have to do is finish the story I’m currently on, and then finish the one I have planned for after that (been postponed for a couple of years now, and that’s long enough). Maybe I can squeeze the new idea in after those two, and before the other one I’ve been dying to get to as soon as I had the proper groundwork set out. Or maybe it will have to wait until later. I need to write faster, the ideas are coming to me more quickly than I can process them.

Better than not having enough ideas. But a story isn’t a story until it’s written.

Another shift today as Sergeant of the Guard. Sometimes I get writing done during one of those, but not this time. Tomorrow is another day.

On the nicer side,

hpchick listed me as an LJ friend, and following her site I found a recommendation for A Girl Made of Light, which was simply delightful. I had already recced the Visitor’s Buffybot Adventures on my home site, so it was pleasant to discover something more by the same author … and a sweet, convincing and entertaining ‘something more’ it was! I’ll have to congratulate the Visitor personally.

It’s late. (In Afghanistan, almost 10:30PM.) I’m tired. I’ll take another look at things in the morning.

My son turns 18 today, which means no more court-ordered child support. I think I’ll celebrate by making the monthly check I send his mother about 60% larger. What the heck, he’s in college now, and it feels different now that I don’t have to do it.

After mulling on it for awhile, today I started on a new fic. This one shouldn’t be too long — it just has that feel to it — and I got 1,300 words done on the first round. Maybe a week, maybe less.

liz_marcs’ recommendation on her LJ got me attention I hadn’t expected (or at least not so quickly), including a few people with whom I had already corresponded in the past, or with whose work I was already familiar. Nice.

The weather is cooling here. I don’t think the temperature broke 85° today. After months of letting my blood thin in the Afghan heat, I have to start planning on how to deal with winter when it arrives.

So, the story I’m on right now; then another one when I finish (that one somewhat longer, between 20,000 and 40,000 words); then — assuming nothing has come up in the meantime — I can consider addressing another story I’ve had in the back of my mind for a few years now.

Anticipation is fun. Doing a story is even more so. Each in its own turn.

Hard to believe I let nearly two weeks go by without posting something here. To a large extent it was because I didn’t feel I had anything to say; but, honestly, that’s not quite so.

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago from SRoni, who’s working on the draft of a sequel to “God Save the Queen”, with the plan that I’ll collaborate with her once she has a completed story. (Bit of background here: SRoni is the cheerful young lady who accompanied me to WriterCon 2004. She had shown me the original concept of “God Save the Queen” a long time before, then got bogged down in the execution. I was so captivated by her central character that I appropriated her — with the author’s after-the-fact approval — in my own “Each Proud Division”. SRoni, in her turn, was stimulated by my use of her character, and went on to finish “God Save the Queen”. Then we agreed to do the sequel together.)

Unfortunately, her news was that she had lost the backpack containing the notebook that holds all her draft on the story. I don’t mean ‘misplaced’; the backpack fell out of a van in one state, and she didn’t find out about it until after reaching another state. I have some idea how that feels (I had half of “Perish the Thought” blow away while I was spending the night at an abandoned Republican Guard base in Iraq, and had to reconstruct the missing pages), but for someone who writes at SRoni’s speed, it’s catastrophic. I’ve been waiting a year for the sequel, and may have to wait another. I love the girl, but I wish she would learn to just sit down and write, every single day. Productivity is a product of steady consistency, simple as that.

liz_marcs acknowledged some comments I had posted on her LJ, and added me to her Friends list; I immediately returned the favor, so I’m suddenly less alone out here. That doesn’t feel bad at all. I haven’t specifically sought company, but I enjoy it, and if I could only have one LJ friend, it would be Liz.

I had told SRoni that, after finishing “Phase Shift” (which, once again, I owed to one of her original ideas), I intended to start on a story that I’ve had in the back of my mind for over two years, maybe longer. And I will get to it, but between then and now I had another idea crop up, and that little internal voice is telling me that I have to do the new story first. Shouldn’t be too long — I keep thinking that, and being surprised — and I’m almost (but not quite yet) ready to begin on it. My ambition is to be finished before the end of October. I sincerely believe I can do that … but it would be reassuring, maybe, if I ever got started on it …

So there we are. More as I know it.

I was right, I finished Phase Shift early this evening. Final total, something a bit under 6,500 words. It’s too late for me to convert and post the text, I’ll get that done tomorrow. In time for the end of the month, just as I predicted. Then I suppose I’ll have to start thinking about what I’ll be doing next.

I was right on another thing, too. It feels wonderful to have finished.

Today was impossible: guys coming in from firebases, guys going out to firebases, my CO heading off for a mission, and me supposed to cover down at camp while other people are having all the fun. (Okay, humping 45 pounds of weapons and gear plus a 50-pound pack at 7,200 feet elevation is a lot more fun after it’s all over.) Bottom line, I didn’t write a blessed word today. Still, I know myself and I know the feel of this story; I’ll finish it sometime in the next three days. Watch and see.

Busy today; I wasn’t able to work on writing till well in the afternoon. I did get more done, and I swear I swear I swear I’ll be wrapping it up very soon. Some stories take awhile; this one won’t.

I don’t have anything to show for it yet, but I did get more writing done on Phase Shift; as much as yesterday, in fact, I just don’t have time right now to key it all in and post it here. Have patience, all ye in my thus far nonexistent audience. Things are proceeding well, and an end will come soon.

A sense of obligation is a wonderful thing. I wasn’t really in the mood today to start the story I’d been thinking about, but because I’d said here that I would, I did, and after the first few pages it started to move along. I don’t have a title for it yet, but I feel that I have the most difficult segment out of the way. If it continues at this pace, I’ll have it finished by the end of the month. I love finishing a story.

On All My Motions

“All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.” – C.S. Lewis

Entries tagged with afghanistan

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