Chapter Text
So here are the first 3,500 or so words of what ought to end up a 90,000 to 100,000 word novel that is tentatively titled, “The Long Twilight Struggle” as you can see from what I called it here. Though I’m open to title improvements. In part because I just mentally shortened that to “Twilight” and I feel dirty. I’m also just calling the Chapters 1 through whatever.
That’s the structure of it.
No doubt you are here because you liked my last series well enough to subscribe to me…I see I have 15 of you. This is my first original work and if you liked “Agent” well enough to subscribe, this one is a little different. Not a LOT different. But I’m ACTIVELY soliciting feedback. Fanfiction readers are discerning readers, with experience about a range of issues…and that makes you great beta readers.
Beta readers come in two groups, general “Does this plot work? Does this character work? I’m confused about this point here, maybe you can make it clearer?” readers and subject matter expert readers. As you will see, if anyone out there is good at physics, I’d love to know if what I’m discussing is plausible (note: the story involves moving faster than light…so I’m not even going to USE the word “possible”). But further, if for example, in this first part, if you know 19th century literary movements, I’d love to hear as well. If you’re genderfluid and I’ve been offensive in any way towards the genderfluid let me know how and why and we can work to correct.
Anyways, long way of saying I welcome robust back and forth in the comments. I replied a LOT in threads in “Agent”…that’s going to go up to 11 here.
Some set-up: I’ve got about 10,000 words already written. I really thought I’d be at this point back in December. Guess what? I wasn’t.
First and foremost, I had work fall on my head in a big way, managing two major projects simultaneously, so that I really just came home mentally SHOT. When I was writing “Agent”, “Ceremony”, and “Plant” I’d come home from work, and to my wife, who’s publishing here under HBSailin, to her continual irritation, I’d write for about three hours and crank out, reliably 1500 to 2500 words. A day. But I didn’t have the mental energy from Nov through Mar to put out a subjunctive clause at the end of the day. That’s one.
Second, and related. The sprint to get “Ceremony” and “Plant” done burned me the fuck out. Even without work on my back, I wasn’t going to be able to write most of Nov through Jan.
Third. Original stuff is HARD. On “Agent” the plotting was done for me. Basic facts were laid out and less mutable than they are in “Struggle”…and even then I was always making small continuity errors (for example: In “Agent” Nora and Piper have Mirelurk Puffs at their Christmas Dinner, where in “Plant” Nora points out that crustaceans like Mirelurks have to be cooked rapidly to avoid bacterial growth and therefore she never uses them for food). I’m only a tenth of the way done, and I bet someone can find me refuting myself already.
But I’m back now. The story is outlined in my head. Just a few days ago the Antagonist finally came into focus and I know what I want to do with them.
So here is Chapter One, and to set it up, let’s talk where I’m repeating myself and where I’m not, and why.
The Protagonist is a spy…excuse me…Intelligence Officer…and was frozen for several hundred years. Why something so close to “Agent”?
Well, the structure of that Fanfic was such that there were some things about the difference between what you EXPECTED from life and what you GOT that I was unable to address and I really still wanted to explore some of them.
Spies and SF because if this turns out well, I might shop it to agents, and candidly, there is a TON of Urban Fantasy and MilSF out there now. Maybe SpySF is close enough to MilSF to be interesting without having to elbow its way past 200 other, very similar manuscripts.
In this case, as will become obvious, I wanted to talk about what happens when you can’t be what your benefactors want (and need) you to be, but you desperately need their help anyway. The basic premise here, the big idea, is, “How would George Smiley (of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) react if he found himself in a society that, for various reasons, has forgotten what inter-state conflict is like, and thinks something like ‘Bond’ is what spying is?”
“Agent” was about how would Bond act if he found him/herself in a world made of conflict. More nihilistic than he’d ever been. Would he (she) try to be a better person? (Bond is an ASShole, BTW) Why? And then having decided to be better, how would they make a real family, not a fake, for-public-consumption one.
This piece on the other hand is about how would George Smiley act, given the need to fight another Cold War but with a driving need to PRESERVE the basics of his formerly satisfactory life in a society that really doesn’t want to need him but does.
The main character is old, out of shape, married, and at the end of his life. Just to start with. He hates guns, has never had to actually use one (like real spies), and mostly talks his way through things. He’s morally compromised but not fatally so. And he’s stable, and comfortable with who he is, and what he does. He is very much UNlike Nora in that way.
And his name is Richard Jensen.