Military Eye Candy Monday: Nude Sleeping (Soldier) Beauty

To stay with the theme of sleeping soldiers, here is another one, presumably American. I wish the photo had not been cropped where it was.

Copyright remains with its copyright owner. Without permission.

Publication Announcement: Friendly Fire (short story) out now in US

Friendly Fire is a 6K short story, set in the current war in Afghanistan. British Sergeant Major Phil Mason, and American Gunnery Sergeant Jon Rivera, take part in friendly fire, only to encounter enemy fire, that forces them to work together to survive in the Afghan mountains.

In true Marquesate style, those two soldiers are alpha men, fuelled by aggression that finds an outlet in more than fighting. But they are also men who learn to understand that being comrades in arms is above and beyond anything else.

Military Eye Candy Monday: cocked or cock?

Mmmmm he might look like a brat, but who cares? :-p

Copyright remains with copyright holder. Without permission.

Military Humour Friday: Military vs Civilian Friends

I got this from a mate, a rather authentic (Infantry) mate. So … without further ado and without editing: enjoy!

MILITARY FRIENDS VS CIVILIAN FRIENDS

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Tell you not to do something stupid when drunk
Military FRIENDS: Will post 360 security so you don’t get caught

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs
Military FRIENDS: Call your parents Drunk as hell and tell them about the fat chick you tried to pick up

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
Military FRIENDS: Will be sitting next to you saying, Damn…we fucked up…but hey, that shit was fun as fuck!”

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Cry with you.
Military FRIENDS: laugh at you and tell you to put some vagasil on your pussy.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
Military FRIENDS: Keep your stuff until they PCS.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: know a few things about you.
Military FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that’s what the crowd is doing.
Military FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds ass that left you.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Would knock on your door.
Military FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, “I’m home!”

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you’ve had enough.
Military FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say, “Bitch, you better drink the rest of that shit, you know we don’t waste.. That’s alcohol abuse!!!”

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will say “I can’t handle Tequila anymore”.
Military FRIENDS: Will say “okay just one more” 2 minutes later “okay just one more”.

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will talk shit to the person who talks shit about you.
Military FRIENDS: Will knock them the fuck out!!

CIVILIAN FRIENDS: Will tell you “They’d take a bullet for you.”
Military FRIENDS: Will actually take a bullet for you.

Writing Wednesday: Emotional Writer’s Block

I have been pondering this phenomenon a few times before, but it struck me particularly through this difficult period of destruction and divorce: I am not able to write, not even able to imagine stories, when I am emotionally overwhelmed. As if all creative energy were then taken up by the need to deal with situations and break down emotions into manageable parts. The creativity and the imagination are then dead and dry, hibernating so to speak.

It always comes back, my stories and characters will never leave me, but they do hibernate when life becomes emotionally challenging. I still write when I am stressed, when I have no time at all, but I can’t write (not even edit) when the capacity for emotion is being taken up by life events. It’s fascinating, really.

I wonder how much emotions have to do with creativity and imagination, and I do believe they must be one of the vehicles for stories that are capable of gripping and in return emotionally touching readers.

How do others deal with this? Other writers? Readers? How do emotionally challenging times in your lives affect your ability to create and your imagination?

Military Tuesday: RAF Leuchars Airshow

Have some photos I took at the airshow on Saturday. It was an excellent day and the flight displays were magnificent.

The Red Arrows:

Red Arrows and Vulcan:

Vulcan:

All images copyright © Marquesate 2009

Military Eye Candy Monday: Sleeping Beauty

I got this one from a friend, isn’t it simply perfect?

Copyright remains with its copyright owner. Without permission.

RAF Leuchars Airshow

I am off to the air show now and am very much looking forward to it. I should be back with picturs of … planes? Well, maybe, but definitely of men in uniform!

http://www.airshow.co.uk/

The Sound of Silence – why I have been absent

This summer has been the worst summer of my life – and I don’t mean the abysmal weather here in Scotland. I have been silent on here and almost all other places that I frequent as Marquesate the author, because I am getting divorced. Completely out of the blue, with greatest shock at the realisation that (soon to be EX) Mr M is a cheating, lying bastard who proved himself to be a “typical” squaddie. So, I am separated now and he is gone.

I needed some space and time and energy to a) survive and b) deal with the enormous changes, paperwork, and sheer stress of sorting my life. I am now  starting a new life, which will hopefully soon feel normal, so that I can throw myself back into what I love: writing military gay erotic love stories as Marquesate.

Enough of this peek into my RL (there is a life behind every writer’s name, after all …) and some good news, because in the course of the summer I also had my novel Basic Training accepted by MLR (and am behind with the editing, as one can imagine) and a 20K short story For Queen And Country accepted by Slash Books, a new Canadian publisher, who is bringing out an anthology of military stories.

More on this soon, but I am right now in a train (don’t you just love wireless and netbooks?) and shall return to this blog and my life and editing/writing in a week’s time.

Take care, all, and I hope I haven’t miffed anyone with my silence, but alas, life really kicked my butt this year.

Marq

Writing Wednesday: Writing about what you know?

This age-old question is right now at the forefront of my mind. There are those who say an author should write about what they know (wouldn’t that make literature boring?) and those who say the opposite. Certainly, fantasy fiction wouldn’t exist if everyone wrote about what they knew.

I am one for a mix of both: write about what you know if what you know is interesting, and go on wonderful flights of fancy just as well, but most of all, research research research.

I find nothing more grating than badly researched stories, and I cannot suspend disbelief when it becomes too obvious that the facts just aren’t correct.

However, when it comes to emotions, how can we writers get those right? We can’t experience all of the emotions we are writing about, so we have to try and get that far into our characters and their motivations, that we will get it right – the extremes as well as the subtleties.

There is nothing more rewarding than a story where the author got it right and the reader can feel with the characters, isn’t there?

Military Tuesday: Chinook helicopter in flight

Remember my post about the Chinook helicopter, my favourite chopper? (how could one not love the big’un). Here is a lovely video of the Chinook in flight.

Military Eye Candy Monday: Nude Sleeping Soldier (the desert is hot …)

Do I need to say anything? A bear! And a strategically placed weapon. Fnar Fnar.

Friday Military un-Humour: Not Funny At All

I found these “jokes” a year or so ago, quite a while, isn’t it? I felt that today, after a month of horrendous death toll in Afghanistan, only set to get worse (19 British soldiers died in the last month), and 125 extra troops to be sent out imminently, to replace the fallen squaddies (gives new meaning to the proverb in the job world, to “take on dead men’s shoes”), I decided that I didn’t feel like a chuckle, rather like one that gets stuck in one’s throat.

Rec/Review Thursday: Goodnight Saigon by Billy Joel

Sue me, I have been amiss in my posting duties again. No, don’t sue me, just spank me. No! Hang on, that was a joke, I’m not into being on the receiving end and … *breathes* and anyway, I have been busy like mad with being on holiday and DIYing. Occasionally I get the bug and can’t stooooooop!

Anyway, I was listening to my Billy Joel greatest hits collection today while painting the hallway, and it occurred to me once more what an utterly brilliant song Goodnight Saigon is. It embodies for me the Vietnam War. Which I remember when I was a child, at least the end of it.

Military Eye Candy Monday: British Squaddies in Afghanistan

I hardly managed to get online over my weekend in Liverpool, thus apologies that there wasn’t a Saturday post. Two-and-a-half year old twin boys have a tendency to keep their “Gogoy” occupied.

However, I am back home and come bearing gifts: fresh pics from only a very short while ago, of some fairly delectable British specimens. Now, I won’t tell anyone where I got them from … so just enjoy and pretend I don’t know who they are. (and you may all guess who’s my fav)