For the next week (starting midnight PST on 20 SEP 2021) We Happy Few will be on sale for 99 cents.

The audiobook narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds is available at Audible.

Hey. It’s been awhile, I know. I have some news on the work front. I was recently promoted to a salary position. So, I’m now a cubicle dweller. I was an hourly aircraft inspector now I’m a technical writer working on the aircraft maintenance manuals. So far, so good. I like my job. My co-workers and my new boss have been great to work with.

This new job also has the benefit of of a 4×10 schedule, meaning I work 10 hour days, 4 days a week, giving me 3 days off a week. Now I can jump back into writing! I have missed it and I have a lot of pent up ideas to put down on paper. (Yes, I use paper, more on that in a bit.)

I want to talk about a news event that has impacted me professionally and personally. The Fall of Kabul.

I worked as an aircraft quality inspector for The State Department Airwing, first in Iraq then In Afghanistan. I worked with some great folks doing a job I enjoyed. (mostly) I spent over 2 years in Baghdad and almost 4 years in Kabul.

I worked and lived at Camp Alvarado at the Kabul International Airport. We were mostly self-contained, mostly contractor occupied and operated camp. It was the best place I was ever deployed. Also… by industry standards, we lived in near-luxury. I had my own room with my own bathroom. We all did. Not many other contracts in the Sandbox offer that.

How do people spend off time while deployed? Some become gym rats, some work on college degrees, many play video games, or watch bootleg videos from the MWR server. (shout out the the bestest I.T. guys ever!)

I wrote a book.

My first book, We Happy Few was written at Camp Alvarado in 2016 – 2017. Here’s a look at my barracks room. In the back, you can see my laptop and extra monitor.

I worked here. I rarely felt like I was in danger, even though there were plenty of bad guys in and around the airport. There were some fun and games when the goatfuckers figured out we were not a soft target. They never directly attacked us again. We would have IDF (indirect fire) land near or around us, but it was never very accurate. I mean, unless they were aiming for empty fields and mountainside.

I left that contract at the end of 2017. It was by far my favorite gig in the Sandbox. A few months later I was living in a tent in the Horn of Africa. That gig sucked so much that I quit overseas contracting and went back to aircraft manufacturing.

Then, this happened about a month ago…

I worked in this hanger. I sat on that stool they just walked past. I was so angry when I saw this. I still am to be honest.

Then I see this…

It makes my blood boil. Thank God that everyone was evacuated. I also heard many of the locals that worked for us managed to get out. I’m glad for that, though I’m sure not everyone made it, and that weighs on me.

We abandoned allies that risked their lives for the last 20 years. We left a hell of a lot of functional weaponry and equipment. And it didn’t have to be this way.

I can see that this will color the stories I have tell going forward.

I’m taking a fresh look at Into the Breach, the sequel to We Happy Few. And I’m trying to decide what to do with Crimson Sands (I’ve posted excerpts below) All these stories take place in the same universe, so some of them will tie together, or a minor character in one story may be the protagonist in another.

I’m looking to Kindle Vella. I might publish some short stories there. In fact, I might put Crimson Sands there. And I have a ton of other material I need to whip into shape.

Also, for the next week (starting midnight PST on 20 SEP 2021) We Happy Few will be on sale for 99 cents.

The audiobook narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds is available at Audible.