rlfj: Blog

Welcome to a new story – of sorts. I wrote A Fresh Start beginning in 2010 and began publishing it in 2011. The original I published on StoriesOnline as a ‘much sex’ version; this is the PG-13 version. Writing it was one of the most amazing things I have ever undertaken. It’s a genre I had never tackled before, and it’s always a favorite - the classic “what if” story. What if I knew then what I know now? What if I could do it all over again? This story generated reader emails at a level easily ten times what I had previously received. There is something about the topic or the characters that seems to strike a chord (or in some cases, a nerve) with people. I had never seen anything like it before!

It is critical to realize that this story was written at a time when the Tea Party was the dominant political movement. You can read that in the Prologue, where Carl Buckman describes the Great Recession and the plans the Tea Party espoused to cure all our problems.

How did the future I describe come about? I simply listened to the Tea Party! I don’t care what your beliefs are; if you listened to their speakers and read their plans, the America of the future would be very, very different. They didn’t want to just ‘shrink’ the government. The true believers wanted to eliminate the Federal government! No taxes and no cabinet departments other than the ones listed in the Constitution. Give power back to the states. End all government programs and handouts. Corporations and businesses were all good. I never thought I would live to see the day when nurses and teachers would be pelted with garbage because of their jobs. I am not making this stuff up. It was a race to the bottom!

That being said, this is not a story about politics! I can’t repeat that enough! This is a story about going back to the 1960s and 1970s. Yes, there will be some political commentary, but it will be much later in the story. The important thing to remember about politicians is that they are all lying sacks of shit. If you’re a Republican, it’s not just the Democrats that are lying sacks of shit, so are your guys. And for the Democrats, just remember, your guys are lying sacks of shit too, just like the evil ones on the other side. I am an equal opportunity abuser.

Also, always remember that this story was written years and years before Donald Trump rode down his golden escalator and got into politics. Before that, I was a card-carrying Republican myself, since the days of Tricky Dick. That being said, there is nobody knowledgeable about American politics that can sit there with a straight face and say that the Republican Party of the 1960s and 1970s is the same as the Republican Party now. Things have changed, and to deny this is self-delusion. As Carl Buckman states in the Prologue, “My father was part of the ‘Greatest Generation’, and I am glad he never lived to see the mess us Baby Boomers made of things.”

As for Chapter 1, the biggest complaint anybody had was about Carl taking on the three older boys, and whether this was realistic. While I haven’t been in a fight since my own schoolboy days, the one thing I know is the line about, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog!’ This is totally true. Likewise, I know that the best way to deal with adversaries, in any arena or format, is one at a time, and not all at once. I’ll stand by the realism in the story.

Enjoy!

This is the end of Book 2. I am going to begin posting the PG version of A Fresh Start. I’ll be posting a couple of chapters at a time with that story. I plan to return to Grim in another month or so.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog note, in the 2003-2007 period Anbar Province was probably the most dangerous place on the planet, for both Americans and Iraqis alike. Far more Iraqis died than Americans, and far more died at the hands of other Iraqis than were killed by Americans. An excellent source for this portion of the story can be found in None Left Behind: The 10th Mountain Division and the Triangle of Death, by Charles W. Sasser. Much as the Fourth of the Fourth, Grim’s fictional battalion, was an extension of the very real Tenth Mountain Division, so the fictional Route Indigo was an extension of the very real Route Malibu.

I have had emails from readers who think Grim is being much too hard on himself, is overly dramatic, etc. He is obviously a hero, and he needs to recognize it and just get over his little problems. I understand that kind of thinking, but it is simply wrong.

Post-traumatic stress is a real disorder, and it can happen to anybody in a stressful situation. Some cases are worse than others, but it is a real issue. I have never been in that kind of a situation, but I have certainly seen it in others. I have seen it in a family member who did a tour in Fallujah. Many, many of my readers have reported it also, either in themselves or in relatives. Not everybody can get over it, either. One extremely useful reader became an important editor because he is a psychologist who works with veterans suffering from PTSD. Thank you to Michael-David for his help with PTSD. According to him, what will come up in Book 3 is accurate. What that is, you will have to read.

I would definitely like to thank my military editors for this section of the story. Thank you n12614, bumbyb, tangotulsa, and abac2856. I couldn’t have done it without you. Also, many thanks to the other uncredited readers who would often point out small pieces of trivia that needed to be examined or edited. That’s what makes this so fascinating to me.

We are very near the end of Book 2. That will end shortly. After that I will begin posting parts of another story.

Not a lot to opine on in this chapter. Grim gets a break from the war and spends quality time with his fiancée.

I am sure to hear some grief about the medals given out in this chapter. How come Grim only gets a Bronze Star and not another Silver Star, or maybe a Distinguished Service Cross? This mission was arguably tougher and required more leadership skills than the battles he earned his earlier medals in. One of the things I learned doing this story is that even more important than what you do in a battle is who sees you doing it. With the first Silver Star, Grim was fighting over the body of his captain, and in the second he was rescuing an international superstar. Nobody was watching this battle. That’s just how it works, and fairness isn’t considered crucial. Likewise, the proliferation of medals given to the REMFs was astounding. It got cracked down on, somewhat, but at one point you could get a Bronze Star, or at least a Commendation Medal, simply by flying over enemy territory in a helicopter! Lots of guys in the headquarters outfits did that.