October is coming to an end and still no takers. I’ve signed up with Literarium, which regularly posts calls for submissions. I’m wrapping up the tweaks of my novel IX – New Millennium and hope to send it out this week. The Revolt on Mars, my second essentially complete WiP, is only 70.000 words but I plan to submit it to a couple of places that publish novellas. Then it’s back to flogging my short fiction while I work on either a sequel to IX or a prequel to Revolt. I’ve made a solid start on both of them.

I also have a WiP near-term military thriller about a war between North Korea and the USA. This one is based on a personal experience I had in the Navy. I was on a carrier sleeping at 2 AM when the General Quarters alarm went off.

BONG – BONG – BONG “General Quarters, General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations. Condition ZULU will be set throughout the ship in ten minutes.”

Usually if it was a drill they would precede the above with “This is a drill, This is a drill, …” Nope, just general quarters. As I grabbed my flight gear and headed for the ready room I wondered if WW3 was about to start. Fortunately it was a mistake. A watchstander on the bridge saw a lighted life vest go over the side into the ocean and tried to hit the Man Overboard alarm. Ooops.

It took about six hours to account for every sailor aboard. The last two hours were spent searching for a young sailor who had a mental health crisis and was in sick bay, lying on the floor under a bunk. The docs, never very military to begin with, didn’t realize it was their responsibility to make sure the ship knew he was there while we were doing a head count. Thank God it wasn’t WW3. But even then I thought it had the makings of a hook for a story. Time will tell whether I ever get it finished.