To Die of Myth

Targets and Intentions – Part 2

Somali pirates. Child-Soldiers. Civil War. Private Military Contractors. Corporate conspiracy to control valuable natural resources. Assassination. Remote-Control Military Drones.

I’ve just finished writing a very difficult chapter in Shift Tense, one in which the Eshu International team decides to intervene in a genocidal attack on a Somaliland town.The reason it was difficult wasn’t simply fight-choreography or word-choice, but that most of the scene’s details were lifted from actual events. It was heart-rending to research.

(Watch WORSE THAN WAR to get an idea.)

I know the aim of “fiction” is escapism and entertainment, but it occurs to me that my desire to maintain a gravity of real-world dynamics and settings, and my aversion to sparkly vampires, cute aliens, junior Jedis means I’m stuck with a measure of tragedy and grime.

I feel like I’m trying to write historical fiction set in the future.

Perhaps I’m succumbing to Dr. Coble’s accurately diagnosed “Medieval Morality Play Syndrome” on a sub-conscious level, but I have a very definite sense this series needs to continue in this vein.

The conviction prevails, in privileged circles that, if we study history without reshaping it to our contemporary prejudices, history will corrupt us. May I suggest that the opposite is true? Those who deny history die of myth. – Ralph Peters

ps. Have no fear. The good guys win.