Back at it

As most who follow this blog know, I am a writer. Gee Robert T., how could I have known that? Golly, not that all the book covers on the sides of the blog told me anything.

After the release of Ghost Fleet and the upcoming holiday season, I thought it was time for me to take a couple months off from writing. Well, the season is over and I have had time to clear my thoughts and relax, relax at least from the creative perspective. But it is time to get back to it.

Here are the opening paragraphs of Battlewagon, book three of the sci-fi Home World series. I hope you enjoy the offering and get your hopes up for another release in a few months.

Prologue

Captain’s journal: Theta 10- 5

“We have begun our trek home as ordered by Admiral Duley Connor, Fleet Main. We have both succeeded and failed in our tasks. Though we did not discover the origin of the Lorilon weapon, we believe we destroyed one of its major components, alas, at the loss of the destroyer Valiant. With that we are reduced by a third of our original number. Our success is not noted in the official orders as we have recovered Captain Joseph from the Lorilon.”

“This mission has given me a new insight into what it takes to command a starship, to command a fleet. As the second in command of the Parras under Captain Joseph I was confident that all my decisions were always correct, that my advice to Captain Joseph was the first to be heard. I would become infuriated if my suggestions did not measure up to his actions. I was headstrong. I had experience, more than nearly any other first officer in the fleet, in most of the nine Home World fleets.”

“What I have found is, I know nothing. Everything I thought I knew about command pales in the face of reality. The daily routine of life on a starship, of life aboard any ship is not command. Most crew go about their business because it has been drilled into them. Many could sleepwalk through their routines and at the end of the cycle, nothing would be the worse for wear.”

“No, that is not command. Command is the pinnacle, where there is nowhere else to look, no shoulder to turn to, no sage wisdom to rely on, it looks back at you with eyes that can pierce your soul. You are the final word when it comes to life or death, life of a crewman or death of a starship. It is a decision made in the blink of an eye. Right or wrong, it is your fate. Command is the single most lonely place in the universe. It is a place I have been, it is a place I want nothing to do with. It is a place I long for.”

“Close journal.”