I’ve added a PayPal button on my Buy My Books page, so you can now download my book in PDF format directly from me, cutting out ALL the middlemen! I will add more formats soon, I promise. More coming! New stories getting worked on!
I’ve written a short story called “Blackpowder Demons.” I hope it’s a fresh take on zombie fiction. It’s a period piece taking place in British India. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Everyone got to see segments on my Facebook page, so I’ll have to post some here after a while.
Also, I finished my second book and have submitted it with prayers and kisses to Tor books. I should hear back sometime after late July. Here’s hoping!
And here’s to updates!
This was my first real game, bringing out the US Paratroopers from the painting table to the fighting table. There was a sudden list change. One of the players, who was also new, needed us to change to mid-war for the evening, and we dropped point totals down to 1,000 pts. I quickly threw together what I could for my troopers. The list is close to what I’d normally use, minus five Shermans. I missed that mobility in the coming battle. My opponent was a kind woman whose husband Randy was nice enough to step aside (they had already set up for a game) and let me get my hands dirty. I sincerely apologize, I’ve forgotten your name, ma’am! Randy’s wife will have to do. 
The scenario was breakthrough, I chose to defend. I deployed one rifle platoon near the center, in a wood, with chemical mortars in the far corner. In the corner from which the objectives would be directly north of my position, I deployed the airborne mortars, the other rifle platoon, and my HQ. The airborne machineguns were in a smaller wood close to the table center. In the very center was a large hill, with impassable slopes on one side, and difficult slopes on the other. I elected to keep the bazookas with my HQ, as there was some confusion as to deploying HQ weapon teams amongst the platoons. My opponents deployed her Panzers on the same side as my HQ, with her HQ sheltering behind a wall, and her grenadiers mounted in trucks in the corner opposite my chemical mortars. Forgive me, I’m building my opponent’s list from memory and guess work. I was so excited that I’m afraid that I didn’t take a lot of time to make sure I got the lists down correctly. I may have picked the wrong varieties of Panzer IVs, for instance, but I believe this is pretty accurate. She also had sporadic air support, so I know I got the list wrong somewhere, but no worries. Forgive me for the rare unpainted models, it turns out mid-war paratroopers have two LTs in command of the rifle platoons so I had to fish up extra command stands. |
US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| Deployment, the chemical mortars are in the right front corner from this perspective, Germans in the right rear corner. |
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| Rifle platoon, center of table. |
US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:Realize none of my troops can actually see far enough out of the woods to do anything, move them forward. German Grenadierkompanie:Troop carriers advance, Panzers move towards the huge bunch of paratroopers in the corner and open fire, no result. No air support this turn. |
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US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:First platoon’s commander spots mortars on the transports, no casualties. Rifle platoon opens up on the transports, killing one with rifle fire. The lead trucks have come into range of the LMGs, unfortunately, poor rolling leads to not a single hit against the unarmored transports. Second rifle platoon advances to get spotters on the tanks. The spotters for the chemical mortars mount up in the jeep. German Grenadierkompanie:No air support this turn. Trucks advance towards objective. Panzers fire machine guns on second rifle platoon, no effect. Panzers stormtrooper back. |
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| Go on boys, they’re sitting ducks! |
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| Oh, crap! Panzers! Johnson, do something with that bazooka you’re always polishing! |
| The Amerikaners flee before our mighty German steel! |
US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:Second rifle platoon commander calls mortar smoke on the Panzers. First rifle platoon advances and fires on the transports, destroying another truck. They then launch an assault on the final transport they can reach, destroying it as well. The Germans fail their morale check, the final transport flees the field. The chemical mortar spotters make a move towards the big hill in the center of the map. German Grenadierkompanie:Air planes come and do minor damage, no reinforcements. Panzers advance from under the smoke and approach the the rifle platoon that destroyed the transports and open fire, exacting heavy casualties on the paratroopers. The panzers assault, losing one tank to bazooka defensive fire, to great effect. The paratroopers hang on, passing a morale check. They counter assault, hoping to take out the tanks that destroyed so many of their friends. Unfortunately, they lack the gammon bombs of their late war brethern, and fail to exact vengeance. Poor rolling does not help them any. The Panzers grind them down to the mortar team and the 2nd LT, who has the sense to try and disengage. They pull back. |
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| Why didn’t I bring any AA?! |
| There is the objektive! Move, men, move! |
US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:The remaining rifle squad begins to move out towards the objective. The HQ and associated bazookas move towards the Panzers. The chemical mortar spotters dismount and climb the hill. The last two men of the rifle platoon flee the field, failing a casualties morale check. German Grenadierkompanie:Planes! Reinforcements, a platoon of MGs, come onto the table and advance towards an objective. The planes strafe the ever loving crap out of the paratroopers, killing many men. |
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US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:The remains of the last rifle platoon double times and trots towards the objective. The machine guns move towards the objective. The American HQ continues their advance towards the Panzers. German Grenadierkompanie:Panzers advance and unload hot lead on the double-timed Americans, killing only one stand of infantry. The MGs do the same, but fail to score any kills. Planes strafe but fail to kill anyone, with only one plane die to roll the pilots just don’t have the killing power. |
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US Paratroopers
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German Grenadierkompanie
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| US Paratroopers:Americans move the remaining stand of rifles from the last platoon forward to contest the objective. Machine guns advance towards objective, but shots are blocked by the presence of friendly troops. The chemical mortar spotters call in a strike on the German MG platoon contesting the objective, killing one stand of infantry. The platoon leader of the final rifle platoon calls in the airborne mortars on the MG teams, to no effect. The American HQ advances, firing at the final two Panzers, destorying one with a strike against the side armor! American HQ assaults, losing the 2iC and two stands of Bazookas to defensive fire, leaving only the CC and a final stand of bazookas. Blows are traded, the HQ unit fails a motivation roll but CC re-rolls it to success, and a second round of assaulting bails and destroys the final Panzer, Americans win via insane assault by five teams of screaming bad asses! Final result: Hard-won US victory, 5-2 German Grenadierkompanie:Germans fail company morale check and flee the field. |
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| Everyone talks about the prevalence of US bazookas. TAKE THEM TAKE THEM TAKE THEM! They’re your only shot against those Panzers if you don’t have room for armor or other AT assets. I really respect the scariness of planes now, and plan to add some AA half traks to my list, since they’re so cheap. At 1,500 or 1,750 I will have more mobility, but I definitely felt the pain of slow moving infantry in this game. I made a deployment mistake, putting one of my rifle platoons so far away from the objective really threatened my position when my opponent’s reinforcements showed up. I wished I had brought arty instead of mortars, as I literally ranged in on the first try for every mortar attempt except the first. TOT would have been a big help. We both made some newbie mistakes, but both my opponent and her husband were kind and very helpful. I really enjoyed my first battle, and hope to see some more fighting soon!
UPDATE: I was reviewing the assault, transport, and spotting rules today, and discovered I won this game by making an illegal move. The CC cannot assault without a platoon to attach to, and further, the bazookas could not assault at all, as they are considered part of a leaderless platoon. Now, I think this is a poor rule. Military history is abound with stories about single soldiers or small teams making daring raids and assaults. There’s no particular reason I can see to have this rule. It’s not like the CC could not turn to the bazookas standing next to him and order an assault. HOWEVER! In light of my mistake, I am more than willing to offer my opponent another go, same scenario and set up and everything, and play it over. My mistake, and I sincerely apologize. |
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I’m bad about updating, I know. Seriously, quit calling.
Anyway, not much to report. Finished my latest novel, At The End of All Magic (thanks for the title, Megan!) She comes up with some good ones. 66,000 words, shorter but action packed.
I’m planning on some book reviews soon. I’ve almost finished The Doomsday Book which is an AWESOME sci-fi thriller, and I read Terry Pratchett’s Mort, which I didn’t like as much as other books. It was a bit of departure from previous Dicsworld books, but it was good nonetheless. It didn’t lose all of the whimsy of the others, but I’d call it a good deal more mature as a work. Eh, not sure what I mean, but it comes up more serious to me.
That, and I’m going to try my hand at a Read-Along with the Doom novels from the nineties. Oooh, yeah.
I’ve also started a new project doing commercials/propaganda bits for the excellent What Would Patton Do podcast News From the Front. They really liked my bit (I’ll post it here) and invited me to do more for the show! The ones I’ve got I need a parter for, but I have a friend who does a great old-timey accent, so we’ll finally record some of those soon, I hope!
Colonel Fitzgerald’s American Minute Episode 1
So, stuff’s happening, gonna start editing the new book, and maybe working on the next. It’s good to be writing (even though I am suffering from a little writer’s block right now.)
Watch the skies!
HA! Tonight I finished my second novel, With All the World’s Magic. It clocks in just above 66,000 words. I know it’s a bit short, but hey, not everything needs to be a tome, right? I’ll need to flesh out some elements, fold in a bit more of some of the themes and all, but there it is. A complete narrative, with that big old beautiful THE END at the end! Yes!
Sorry everyone! We were down for about a week or two there, but we’ve got the site back up! I’ve had some more time lately to do writing, and have brought All The World’s Magic up to an astonishing 60,000 words! I think the finished project will be around the 75,000 mark, very similar to my first book. It seems like so much more happens in this one! Perhaps it does.
Either way, it’s nice to be writing again. What’s spurred all this activity? My parents were nice enough to give me and the wife a brand new laptop! With the dreary winter months coming up, the supervisors at work have got a more lenient attitude towards certain things, so as long as I’m not missing duties or playing games I think I’ll get away with a bit of typing.
What does this mean for the site? Hopefully more book and some movie reviews, updates on my writing, sample chapters, and I’m even considering a In Which I Read, using the Doom novels from the 90′s. We’ll see!
Not much else to say in this update, other than I’m glad the site is back up, and I hope I can enjoy your support!
Oh! Actually, there is one more thing. I may have another radio interview, and possibly a podcast interview as well! Details as soon as I have them.
Watch the skies,
Jeff
Sharpe’s Triumph is the second in the Bernard Cornwell series of books, taking place during the Napoleonic (or Imperial, if you prefer) era of history. They follow the adventures of Richard Sharpe, a soldier in His Britannic Majesty’s Army, in India. This one takes place just before and during the Battle of Assaye, and follows a few years after Sharpe’s promotion to Sergeant at the end of Sharpe’s Tiger.
The major players are back, including the wicked Obadiah, who has conned out a warrant for Sharpe’s arrest. Too bad he’s too late: Colonel Caldwell of the East India’s Trading company has recruited Sharpe to hunt down a traitor to both England and the Company: a man named Dunn. Dunn deserted from the army, taking a company of sepoys with him, because he seeks both glory and cold, hard cash.
Sharpe and Caldwell chase the fugitive through a thrilling siege that lasts a mere day, and into the historical Battle of Assaye. Will they capture Dunn there? Only time will tell. All the while, Obadiah seeks to tighten the noose around Sharpe.
This book, like the first, was a joy to read. It is easy and pleasing to do so, and even with a number of Indian words interspersed with the English you are never left wondering what’s going on. The characters are vibrant and interesting, and the villains despicable and hard. I cannot speak to the accuracy of the historical parts of this novel, but it is my understanding the author is not far off. I’m not totally sure when these were written, and whether or not new facts have come to light.
Regardless, I really loved the novel. I had perhaps one complaint about how competent Sharpe is, but he suffers enough throughout the book that one instance of over-competence (perhaps) is easily forgiven. He’s not assaulting walls single-handedly or anything that ridiculous. The book ends with a wonderful battle, both thrilling and easy to follow, and it honestly had me turning pages with eager anticipation.
5/5 stars. Perfect for the history buff in me, perfect for the Napoleonic Era fan in me, perfect for the war nerd fan in me. Well done, sir!
Yes friends, the reviews are back on track. Keep an eye out every Wednesday for the newest addition, and I will strive to find and read newer books as well, since most of these have me arriving late to the party. Ah well, can’t have everything. Enjoy!
Well, the long awaited fifth book is here. As always, beware spoilers!
Enough spoiler space?
One more.
Okay, so in the fifth book of the Song of Ice and Fire we pick up where a Feast for Crows left us. Or would, but these are the other half of the view point chapters. Tyrion, Dany, Davos, Jon, Arya, and Theon are the main view points, with a few bits and pieces from other characters, but these are the major players.
Break down:
Tyrion is traveling, finds a Targaryen.
Dany is bad at running cities, cages dragons.
Theon gets the best chapters.
Arya does a clever assassination, gets sight back.
Jon Snow follows in his father’s foot steps.
Davos is under utilized as a sympathetic character.
This book is similar to the last, in that we are walking to get to a destination, and our heads are firmly down to avoid seeing anything interesting. As always, Martin’s writing is wonderful to read – which is lucky, because I got bored for the middle 50% of the book. It’s an excellent read, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t get a true sense of progress. Many chapters, Dany’s mostly, are really bad about this. Nothing happens, or I should say, not enough does. Characters change locations, a few pretty interesting reveals occur, and then everyone hangs tight for the next book. I will say that Theon’s chapters were amongst the best, watching him rise up from wretch to hero made it worthwhile.
It doesn’t end with a battle, which is strongly my preference in books like this, but all in all, it’s not a bad read. I didn’t hate it while I read it, which is more than I can say for some novels, and the pace did pick up in the latter quarter of the book. You could probably skip it and just read the next one, whenever it comes out, but why would you?
4/5 stars, if only because I like all the viewpoint characters and Theon’s arc is strong and a good read.
Yes yes, I know. Much too long between updates, and between reviews. We’ll get back to being regular soon enough. I am hoping that I will own a laptop soon, which will open up time for me to write while we have downtime at work. I started working on With All the World’s Magic again after this long break trying to get A Reflection of Glass out there, and that was an awesome feeling.
Sales for A Reflection of Glass have died off, of course, but thanks to the support of friends and family I can count around twenty books sold. Not bad! If nothing else, my name is out there, my book is out there, and it is a matter of time as it grows and is recommended to others. God willing.
Nothing else to add, I’m afraid. Take care!
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