Spies

One point I am establishing in my ‘The Old Hand’ WIP novel is that there are two ‘enemy’ spy operations in Saigon with which my characters become involved, one Vietcong, with Russian assistance, and one Chinese. These two are working separately and, though they may cooperate on occasion, have their own agendas, often not knowing anything of each other’s operations.

To be sure, there was plenty more going on than just what I am including. None of that figures in the story, though it may be mentioned in passing. And there are the spooks on the American/Republic of Vietnam side, CIA and much more. I won’t be delving into them but do make note that my main protagonist, Wilk, has had a long history with American intelligence.

Or I should say he is one of two main protagonists. John Wilkins aka Jean Wilk has had the lead to himself in the previous two Wilk novels but here he shares equal billing with American reporter Mike Baines. I knew from the start I couldn’t tell the story just from one point of view. One main character would have been worn out trying to keep up with everything! I did consider including a third POV character for a brief while but soon realized two worked better. Mike was previously introduced in the novel ‘Wilk,’ where he interviews the elderly spy in the ‘flash forward’ scenes that frame the tale.

I’m chugging along after a fairly lengthy hiatus to attend to other chores. I’ll admit, I almost set the story aside to work on a different one, but it’s coming along now. That doesn’t mean I won’t do that yet, somewhere along the line. There is no schedule or deadline to concern me—and plenty of other ideas I can turn to. The only thing that is certain at the moment for this coming year is a new poetry collection, coming on April 21. That’s my birthday and I have resolved to release a collection on that date every year until I either run out of poems or kick the bucket. ‘Shallow Poet’ has already been put together, formatted and typeset, and is ready to go.

As for anything else, you’ll know when I do!

No News Is…

Since I got my Stephen Brooke website (stephenbrooke.com) established (but far from finished) and started up a personal blog (eggshellboats.com) where I hold forth on just about anything, I’ve not posted much here. This blog is essentially for news about my writing and there hasn’t been much!

I suppose I could write more about the world-building and that sort of thing. It probably belongs here as much as anywhere, though I do hope to have dedicated pages for that sort of thing somewhere. Maybe at the site, maybe at a separate location. Anyway, do know that I am writing, at least from time to time, working on the latest novel, producing the occasional poem, etc. Also, we (i.e me and Arachis Press) have completely updated all the books (those under my own name as well as those using pen names) with new typography.

Those books continue to be available in print ‘everywhere’ or directly from Arachis Press. The ebooks, however, are all now free downloads in EPUB and PDF formats from the AP site.