Nachalnik

Reply on Nachalnik
Time travel using Scottish Druid stone rings and magic. 

Thank you, Rjjt456, for featuring this strange old story of mine.  

I hope you can make some allowances for the time-period when I initially wrote it. 2014-2015. I was trying my hand at writing a story that would resonate on current geopolitical concerns of mine, without getting overly political. 

But using living politicians and actual high government officials as secondary characters was a bad idea. I’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback on that. They always come with a lot of baggage. At the very least it hasn’t aged well in that regard, so please try to ignore that screwup.

Motivations…

One of my big worries at the time was the increasing conflict between Putin’s Russia and Ukraine. Worries which were confirmed during the following years and especially now. Not hard to see that one coming, although the shape of war is never easy to discern before it happens. 

Another worry of mine at that time was that the entrenched bureaucracy in most developed countries were smothering idealistic politicians in layers of ‘blubber’, blunting anything good (and bad) they could do, filtering what they knew and diluting their attempts to make changes. So I initially wrapped that ‘blubber’ around politicians in this story to make them incompetent. I didn’t want to make it political, other than to say that elected officials of all types are buried by an entrenched government bureaucracy (as I call it — those of a more conspiratorial persuasion might say Deep State).

But more importantly…

My wife and I had been watching the Scottish TV show Outlander with Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan, and I was intrigued by the way Scottish Druids (whose priests were all women) could facilitate someone traveling back in time. So I very ambitiously wanted to try and incorporate some of that into my story. 

And, of course, I’ve always loved the ‘beautiful alien superwoman’ meme, and have written a ton of speculative fiction about super-powered aliens infiltrating Earth and influencing events without the public knowing. (Although making the aliens Hobbit-sized was a new thing for me. My usual penchant is for tall, blonde women.) 

In this story, I wanted to have these invincible aliens make a very public ‘coming out’ that was central to the story. I wanted the aliens to be working for (and being bred) by the Russian government to enable Putin’s insane desire for world domination. Imagine the people of the world suddenly discovering such an amazing and horrifying thing — Russian superwomen — not to mention learning that there really ARE aliens out there — and living among us. That was an intriguing and scary thought for me, then (and now). 

I also wanted to incorporate a theme that said a portion of the CIA and US military was aware of and preparing to fight the Russian aliens, but without the US government being aware of it. Who would have believed them anyway? Basically, rogues with control of some of the nukes. 

And lastly, my POV character is a Canadian university professor, who views both the US and Russia through the jaundiced eyes of a Canadian academic. Who man who thinks both the US and Russia are crazy and dangerous. But also a man who becomes completely infatuated by the aliens, both professionally and personally, even as he is unsure whether to fear them or rejoice in them. 

Yeah… I know. WAY too much stuff to cram into anything shorter than a novella. But this is one of my classic flaws… creating a story bigger than I can finish. 
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As far as the yet-to-be-published ending goes… I have a number of ideas I want to incorporate in Act 2 and 3 of the story. And given I’m working on those other Acts now (thanks to Rjjt456), I’m going to keep those under my hat until I post them in a story continuation.   

My goal is to get Act 2 out by the end of November. And Act 3 — the conclusion — by Christmas.  

Well, maybe more of a Hope than a Goal.

I’m slow… sorry.

Shadar 

I'm glad that you liked the review!

I hadn't thought about the inherent politics of it at the time but I can see how they might be dragging the story down right now.

But to me the most interesting thing wasn't really the politics but rather Neya herself as her cute naivety speaks to me on some level.

I'm also more than happy that this managed to reignite your will to continue the story as the ending of it definitly left me with a "Wait, what is going on right now?"

Rjjt456 wrote:

I'm glad that you liked the review!

I hadn't thought about the inherent politics of it at the time but I can see how they might be dragging the story down right now.

But to me the most interesting thing wasn't really the politics but rather Neya herself as her cute naivety speaks to me on some level.

I'm also more than happy that this managed to reignite your will to continue the story as the ending of it definitly left me with a "Wait, what is going on right now?"

The sequels will be mostly free of references to political figures of the past. Or worries about 'deep state' or other kinds of conspiracies. But I still will dump on Putin and his plans (in my story, anyway) for regional if not world domination.  

The story now takes on a mix of Druid lore and time travel and current-day military actions and a deep dive into my thoughts on dealing with alien superhumans.

How do you deal with a 'hobbit' girl who can defeat any military force, and look damn good doing it?

Shadar 

 

shadar wrote:

Rjjt456 wrote:

I'm glad that you liked the review!

I hadn't thought about the inherent politics of it at the time but I can see how they might be dragging the story down right now.

But to me the most interesting thing wasn't really the politics but rather Neya herself as her cute naivety speaks to me on some level.

I'm also more than happy that this managed to reignite your will to continue the story as the ending of it definitly left me with a "Wait, what is going on right now?"

The sequels will be mostly free of references to political figures of the past. Or worries about 'deep state' or other kinds of conspiracies. But I still will dump on Putin and his plans (in my story, anyway) for regional if not world domination.  

The story now takes on a mix of Druid lore and time travel and current-day military actions and a deep dive into my thoughts on dealing with alien superhumans.

How do you deal with a 'hobbit' girl who can defeat any military force, and look damn good doing it?

Shadar 


 

I do hope Neya gets a chance to improve so she can match/excede her "sisters" at some point. I would be sad if she gets beaten as soon as she meets them again.

Shadar, Can we hope to see this act 2 released soon ?

I've actually been about to ask that question myself, but we might have to wait as the site is still being updated, so new stories to the site might be delayed.

I'm still working on it, so it's coming eventually. Delay has nothing to do with SWM site updates/repairs, just with me.

But I think I've got a good story continuation. Fun to write, at least.

Sorry it's taking longer than I expected (like everything else in my life lately). But I will get there. 

Shadar