Peter Hodges

Tom Kratman continues his dicussion with us this week, covering the topics of publication, his initial meeting with Jim Baen, and a brief discussion of his new book, Caliphate.

It’s been a riot corresponding with Tom over the past couple of weeks. I would encourage all of you to give his books a serious read if you have the opportunity.

Military science fiction is a crowded field. How would you differentiate your work from others in the marketplace? What makes your approach to story/character unique?

Frankly, for one thing, a helluva lot more knowledge and understanding of war, qua war, and the military as a broad human phenomenon, than just about anybody I know, in or out of science fiction.  And why not, I’ve been fascinated by them and studying them since I was two and half.  I practiced and lived them for most of my adult life. 

Lemme tell ya a story: Once, when writing the very first version of the series that would become A Desert Called Peace, et seq., I needed to do a couple of paragraphs involving someone being shocked that his mess hall coffee is spiked with high test rum.   (Yes, using that term shows my age.  I know full well it’s been “Dining Facility” for decades.  So?)  For seventeen days I did nothing except design a field combat feeding system that was calorically and nutritionally adequate, had forty-five distinct menus, in a foreign cuisine, didn’t bulk or weigh excessively or cost excessively, and included a rum ration.  Just so I could spike the coffee…in two paragraphs.

Yes, as a matter of fact, that was silly.

Less silly, however, is that if there’s an attack or a defense or road or air movement in one of my books?  You can reasonably trust that I’ve studied the map, done the full OPLAN or OPORD, that the fire support plan is pretty airtight, that time lines are accurate and reasonable, etc.  I suppose that’s a long-winded way of saying “realism.”

Some authors are passionate about a subject, while others view themselves as a storyteller. Still others view themselves as artists, with a blank page as their canvas. What drives you to write fiction?

Annoying the left?  (Why the left?  Because the extreme right is ineffectual.  Otherwise I’d probably take some potshots at them, too.)

Oh, all right!  I think we live in a terribly dangerous age.  I think the consensus for civilization is failing, worldwide.  I think that political and philosophical fraud is responsible for much of this.  I write to expose and attack the fraud. 

Collaborative fiction can be difficult. Can you describe some of your experiences in working with another writer? Did you find it difficult to match styles and voices in the works you co-wrote with John Ringo?

Sure: It doesn’t work for me. 

John and I tried to do the usual co-writer thing with a series to be called The Drift Road Wars.  He outlined it and it was a good outline and a good story idea. In the course of a year (2004) I had managed to write 14,000 words, every single one of which I hated.  Note here, that in 2007 I wrote nearly a million.  Eventually, John said, “You’re can’t do this, can you?”  “No.”  “Let’s try something else.  What do you want to write?”  “How about a Posleen invasion of Panama?”  That became Yellow Eyes.

Let’s talk about Caliphate, your new novel that is due in stores at the first of April. In it, you extrapolate the future Europe as a colony of Islam. How likely do you think this is? Can this be averted? Should it be averted?

It’s not certain but I think that’s the way to bet it.  I don’t think it can or will be averted.  I think it would be a waste of effort for us to try.

What do you say to critics who claim that you are anti-Islamic?

Normally I would say, “So?”   But, of course, I would say that expressly to piss them off.

On the other hand, if the critic were to say that because I am anti-Islamic I was therefore a racist I would answer, “You’re an idiot.”  And they are.  And they are legion.

Strictly speaking, however, I am not especially anti-Islamic.  I am anti any movement that is a threat to my culture and my country and my civilization. 

Many authors cite one or more people who have a large influence on their style. Who are your major influences? What three works of fiction had the most profound impact on you as a writer?

That’s a very hard question to answer because for most of life I’ve read about a book a day.  I’m not sure that any three sources had all that much influence.  Some of the more influential were:

Heinlein, Starship Troopers.

McCullough’s Rome series

Clancy, though a lot of that was in a negative way.  (He lost me when that goody two shoes, Jack Ryan, failed to personally kill the man who machine-gunned his wife and little girl.  Look, unlike some fictional characters, I did graduate from Boston College.  Despite my Jewish name I am culturally and genetically East Coast Irish, South Boston, MA, to be specific.  Failure of Ryan to take personal revenge was just unrealistic…or if it was realistic then that was a kind of character I wanted nothing further to do with.  You know…whenever I had a moral dilemma for Carrera in the ADCP-verse, I always asked myself, “What would Jack Ryan do?” and then had Carrera do the opposite.)

What types of fiction do you typically read? What types of non-fiction? What are you reading right now?

Mostly but not exclusively science fiction or historical fiction.  Military and cultural history.  Archeology.  I just finished Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day and I’m about to start Victory of the West which is concerned with events leading up to the Battle of Lepanto and the battle itself.  The last fiction I read, last week, was Lonestar Planet, mostly because John Ringo recommended it as being quite funny. 

What is your definition of a good book? What makes a book good? Can a book be well written, yet still be awful?

Well some of my critics seem to think so. 

A good book leaves you a different person, to some degree, at the end of it than you were when you began it.  I think that’s the crux of it.

When you are writing, are you organized and methodical, working off of an outline? Or do you have a general idea where you’re going to go and then let the words take you where they may?

No, no real outline.  I write in a spiral.  To begin, I generally have nothing but a title, a beginning, and ending, and some way points.  First cut I do little beyond plot and dialogue.  Then I go through again and add in descriptions, feelings, thoughts.  Then again, to tighten up points.  In all, I may go through a book two dozen times. 

The down side of that approach, A downside, anyway, is that you hate the book you’re working on almost the entire time you’re working on it, like it for a very short period of time as it nears completion, and then are so sick of looking at it you never want to see it again once it’s done.  Except that you MUST…to proof the galleys and then when the paperback edition rolls around.

How much research do you do in the course of writing a novel?

A truly vast amount.  You really wouldn’t believe (which does not mean I don’t make mistakes.  “SolitudinEm…wham.  SolitudinEm…wham).  But then…serendipity works, too.  Once upon a time I needed details of how a battleship is mothballed.  This was before google but my on line research skills were good and I still couldn’t find it.  Within about two days of admitting I’d hit a brick wall, into my law office walks a guy needing a will.  He’s wearing a BB-63 cap.  He took part in the decommissioning of the USS Missouri and he had my answers.  It was weird, you know.  Something like that happened about half a dozen times.

How long does it take you to write a novel-length manuscript?

There’s no rule.  A Desert Called Peace, roughly 275k words, IIRC, I wrote in about 3 months.  Similarly for Carnifex.  Caliphate, maybe 120k, I wrote from 17 July, 2007, to 15 September, 2007.  The Tuloriad, also only about 120k, took nearly five months.  My first book, which wasn’t even all that good, was about 105k and took over a year.  Watch on the Rhine, just over 100k, took about a year.

What is your philosophy of life? How does that influence the way you write?

Life is hard; work.  Life is a struggle; fight.  In the long run the only thing that you truly own is your integrity; be honest and truthful.

So, I work a lot, I fight a lot, and my books are as honest and truthful as I know how to make them.

What’s the best advice you can give authors who are just starting out?

Getting published is just about the hardest thing imaginable.  I’ve done Army Ranger School. I’ve gotten published.  Ranger School was easier.  That said, if you are truly determined, and strong enough to deal with the demoralization of regular, and remarkably cold and indifferent, rejection, it might work for you. 

Some other hard facts: The aspirant writer thinks he’s good but probably isn’t.  God knows; I wasn’t.  And he won’t be until he’s got about a million words under his belt.  People he asks to critique his work are usually friends; they will not give him honest answers because they want to stay his friends.  People who are not his friends will not want to critique his work because a) they expect it will suck so badly that it will be psychologically painful to read, b) they don’t owe him anything, and c) time is money and he’s asking for a handout.  (Took me a while to realize all that when I was trying to get feedback.)  Even if you get published, only about 5000 people in the United States, so I’ve heard, make a living at writing.  Keep your day job until you know you will.  (This is hard, by the way, because the way to make it is to have a lot of books on the shelves and it is hard to write a lot of books while working 9-5.)

How did you get published?

Pure fluke.  I was a member of Baen’s Bar and one of the barflies asked me if I was going to go to Stellarcon.  This was back in 2001, before the war started.  I wasn’t going to go but then he said that John Ringo would have some advanced copies of Gust Front.  So I went.  John and I ended up telling Army stories in the hotel bar to a fairly large audience.  Jim Baen came in.  I introduced myself, “Hi, I’m Tom Kratman.  Yes I write but no I don’t write science fiction.  So relax; I won’t try to sell you a book under the table.” 

 Later on, Jim and John left to get dinner.  About ninety seconds later, John came back to suggest, “Hey, why don’t you come with us?”

Me: “Nah, he doesn’t really know me…it would be awkward…”

John: “No…I don’t think so.  Jim sent me back to get you.”

Me: “Oh.”

Jim had an idea for a book and he wanted to ask me to write it, perhaps because I was articulate, outspoken, and somewhat obnoxious on Baen’s Bar.  I figured, what the hell.  And that book became A State of Disobedience, which, as I’ve mentioned, is nothing great.  And that just might be because, as I mentioned above, I don’t really do others’ ideas well.

On the other hand, it worked.

Apparently it did.  And speaking of work, tell us some more about your latest book, Caliphate.

I’ll do that but let’s save a few electrons.  Anyone has carte blanche to post the Afterword to Caliphate on line, with credit given to the author, me.  If you want to post it, I’ll send it to you.  The Afterword explains why I think Western Europe will almost certainly become majority Moslem, and a lot sooner than either the EU or Mark Steyn believe. 

In the main, though, the book isn’t about that.  It’s about what Europe would be like if it becomes not merely majority Moslem, but is controlled by the nuts.  It’s about what the United States would become like if we ever were attacked with results in the multi-megadeath range.  And, in the interludes, it’s about the liberal - and frightfully unrealistic - Euro attitudes that go into making Europe majority Moslem, and ensuring that it will be the nuts who end up in charge.

Some readers call it a horror story.  They have a point.  On the other hand, it has a reasonably happy ending.  For certain values of “happy.”

Thanks again to Tom Kratman for stopping by to have a chat with us!