I will admit, the war in Afghanistan seemed to be more a war of reaction.

I’m reading a book about the Green Berets in Afghanistan called Gentlemen Bastards by Kevin Maurer (he also wrote about the Navy SEALs).  This gives me a good overview of the Special Forces Army in Afghanistan.  Although the men went out on patrol, they weren’t always hit by snipers, IEDs, or RPG’s.  There was often constant fire on their bases or constant threat of fire.  However, it didn’t happen all the time.  It was always a surprise.  They were always on edge.

I can only hope that I do this book justice.  I know I’m not a war correspondent, that I’m going entirely by research, that this probably won’t pass a military sniff test.  But I’m trying to not end up like I did with WW2, and have three bookcases full of books on the Waffen-SS.

I’ve gotten back together with Al and hope that we can collaborate on more book covers.  I’m redoing Grim’s book cover to be simple purple silk with gold sigils embossed over it.  The second book is Grim looking up at an old Victorian mansion (Dottie’s house).  I haven’t finished the third book so I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I’ve also commissioned the first book of the War Mage series, the one that will take place in Afghanistan.  It will involve dragons, a female Marine dragon rider, and the first introduction of the Black Lions (Al-Asad Sud).

I’m also commissioning concept art for War Mage himself.  He will have the usual Army armor, but I want him to have specialized weaponry.  The walking stick (aka “pimp stick”) is one.  The formal “dress robes” will be necessary.

I still haven’t gotten around to a conflict.  Well, I did have a conflict when push came to shove with Sarah’s boyfriend Boz, which I have to rewrite.  And I suppose Sarah was a conflict.  I’ve set up how Brent will be captured (oops, spoiler), set up another possible conflict with a vampire.  I’m trying to figure out how to involve a shifter.

In my world, shifters and vampires could work together.  In my world, vampires can come out during the day (though they prefer the evening because they don’t have to explain their complexions).  In Massachusetts, they have legal rights to exist, but it’s not federal.  In some parts of the country, they’re hunted down.  There are some asylum cities or states, such as California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, St. Louis and New York City.

Vampires work in different places.  Dr. Bates is a slightly unusual case in that he can be in a room full of blood and doesn’t go nuts.  He’s an old, old vampire, so the mere smell of blood doesn’t make him crazy.  Younger vampires, however, are not allowed to work in hospitals or as EMT’s, police or firemen.  That means a lot of them are entrepreneurs, managers, bouncers, you name it.

Shifters are mostly werewolves, although there are some werebears, wearleopards, or other were-creatures.  None are of less mass than the person they are shifting from.  So there are usually no were-birds or smaller were-animals.

So I’m staring at the Story Cubes that I bought, trying to see if I can shoehorn how Brent finds out Tony is a shifter…