rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2018-10-07 12:15 pm
rthstewart) wrote2018-10-07 12:15 pm
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POSTS AND REVEALS
WOW it's been a busy couple of weeks and I've got another story due next week. BUT
First, Narnia Fanfic Exchange and NFE Madness reveals are up and live. So many good stories this year. I owe reviews!!
I got a wonderful story from Rustedeaglewings, The Night Before Battle, with a Caspian pep talk by the Four.
I also received a group gift of the hilarious crazy Added to the chat by the incomparable WingedFlight.
I wrote two stories,
Rat Catchers, featuring Polly Plummer as a member of the Women's Land Army on what is believed to be the eve of the Nazi invasion of Britain, September 1940. Freudiancascade was a huge help as a sensitivity reader for the character of George. I discovered at the last moment that I'd miffed the dates of certain events in the story. VERY annoying but it was too late to change the action, so yeah, don't get your history of the most inept spies of WW2 from that story.
The second story is one I'd really wanted to tell about Thomas the polyamorous bisexual goose and I really wanted to write something forsyrena_of_the_lake who has gifted me with some wonderful things. Father Goose is here and it explores a number of things long hinted at, including Briony and Lambert (and hints of Briony's own story), the death of Mr. Noll the spy, Susan's romance with Rafe Linch, and then it makes a jump into solid Stone Gryphon AW territory.
Then, last night, I posted a look back at The Queen Susan in Tashbaan. Love and Rock Music (LARM) had seen this NSFW picture of an naked American airman in the midst of air-sea rescue in the Pacific theater during WW2. She wanted me to put Wing Commander Reginald Tebbitt in. There were some problems, obviously, and she had some ideas involving a hot air balloon accident and a convent.autumnia came to the rescue with the idea of involving HIs Lordship, Lord Halifax the Penguin. And so, Booze Cruise is the result, an insert into The Queen Susan in Tashbaan. Also, I, like Susan, had a strong desire to let all Congressional leadership drown. She's a better person than I am.
As I was working on this story, I realized how important that complex Narnnia conceit was in TQSiT. Using the fake Peridan and Queen Susan allowed me to insert real Washington DC people but filtered through several layers -- the Narnia code, Susan's own letters, and then Peter and Edmund's interpretations of them. Here, it's straight up DC story telling and I just couldn't insert the real people that were the inspiration for their Narnia/TQSiT counterparts. So, I just don't put their names in and use titles. It's awkward, and is far more fiction than historical.
SO, I have posted over 36,000 words in the last month.
First, Narnia Fanfic Exchange and NFE Madness reveals are up and live. So many good stories this year. I owe reviews!!
I got a wonderful story from Rustedeaglewings, The Night Before Battle, with a Caspian pep talk by the Four.
I also received a group gift of the hilarious crazy Added to the chat by the incomparable WingedFlight.
I wrote two stories,
Rat Catchers, featuring Polly Plummer as a member of the Women's Land Army on what is believed to be the eve of the Nazi invasion of Britain, September 1940. Freudiancascade was a huge help as a sensitivity reader for the character of George. I discovered at the last moment that I'd miffed the dates of certain events in the story. VERY annoying but it was too late to change the action, so yeah, don't get your history of the most inept spies of WW2 from that story.
The second story is one I'd really wanted to tell about Thomas the polyamorous bisexual goose and I really wanted to write something for
syrena_of_the_lake who has gifted me with some wonderful things. Father Goose is here and it explores a number of things long hinted at, including Briony and Lambert (and hints of Briony's own story), the death of Mr. Noll the spy, Susan's romance with Rafe Linch, and then it makes a jump into solid Stone Gryphon AW territory. Then, last night, I posted a look back at The Queen Susan in Tashbaan. Love and Rock Music (LARM) had seen this NSFW picture of an naked American airman in the midst of air-sea rescue in the Pacific theater during WW2. She wanted me to put Wing Commander Reginald Tebbitt in. There were some problems, obviously, and she had some ideas involving a hot air balloon accident and a convent.
autumnia came to the rescue with the idea of involving HIs Lordship, Lord Halifax the Penguin. And so, Booze Cruise is the result, an insert into The Queen Susan in Tashbaan. Also, I, like Susan, had a strong desire to let all Congressional leadership drown. She's a better person than I am. As I was working on this story, I realized how important that complex Narnnia conceit was in TQSiT. Using the fake Peridan and Queen Susan allowed me to insert real Washington DC people but filtered through several layers -- the Narnia code, Susan's own letters, and then Peter and Edmund's interpretations of them. Here, it's straight up DC story telling and I just couldn't insert the real people that were the inspiration for their Narnia/TQSiT counterparts. So, I just don't put their names in and use titles. It's awkward, and is far more fiction than historical.
SO, I have posted over 36,000 words in the last month.
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Haven't read these yet—brains, augh—but given the existence of Booze Cruise et al, I suspect you have some good recs for nonfiction about the WWII-era US intelligence services? Asking for a friend :)
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the issue really with non-fic WW2 recs is that there are SO MANY and the war was so huge. I've tended to focus on very, very narrow things -- a single person, a single battalion, a single operation. Where I've used outside sources (and I use them A LOT), it's always at the end of the relevant chapters and often cross-referenced in my DW.
Ben Macintyre is very good place to start and has several super engaging espionage books, including his books on Operation Mincemeat and Double Cross -- the D-Day double agents (he has several others that I will probably pick up when I start working on the conclusion of Stone Gryphon in earnest).
Women and the SOE, Rita Kramer, Flames in the Field and Marcus Binney's The Women Who Lived For Danger. There are many others about Vera Atkins and the women who worked for her, including Nancy Wake. I used these for Rat and Sword Go to War. I"m sure there are better ones than the ones I used. If you're interested, anything about Vera Atkins and Nancy Wake are great places to start.
I have Telford Taylor’s book on the Nuremberg trials which I’ve not read yet. He’s the inspiration for an important part of the Stone Gryphon to come, particularly Edmund’s story, and I’ve got more research to do there. He was also involved on the American side with Bletchley Park though I don't remember what precise book I used for his perspectives.
The Irregulars – Roald Dahl in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant, was the basis for Queen Susan in Tashbaan. It's a great read.
There are a bunch of books on Bletchley Park and the codebreakers and I know I"ve read at least one, so just google that if you're interested in Alan Turing and the women of Bletchley Park.
I’ve got two books on the U.S. women coders -- Jason Fagone’s The Woman Who Smashed Codes and Code Girls by Liza Mundy. Those are not read yet but look to be GREAT.
Stephen Ambrose’s Pegasus Bridge was for Rat and Sword Go to War and was all about the Ox & Bucks glider corps that crashed into two bridges as part of the first action on D-Day (and is partly told in the Longest Day film). It's not espionage -- it's straight up battle chronicle, though it gave me good information about part of the French resistance that was working in Caen.
Kladstrups’s Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure is something I used for Manead of the Maquis and returned to it recently for another story. It's WONDERFUL.
I used an online article from the Smithsonian about the Monuments Men, also for a recent story.
My recent Rat Catchers story was mostly online sources. I didn't feel like buying an actual book but there were several about the run-up to the anticipated Nazi invasion of England after Dunkirk and during the Battle for Britain. In the notes to that story I identify where I got my information about the dumbest Nazi spies ever.
I got information on the codes, etc. for my Pigeon story from the BBC.
So, that's what I can think of off the top of my head!
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