Chapter five of The Bonny Blue Flag is a short one, so there will only be three posts this week. The second section appears Wednesday, and the conclusion of the chapter posts on Friday morning.
The same schedule applies to chapter six, next week.
08 October, 2019
07 October, 2019
Bonny Blue Flag 5.1
Previous First
“Now I know I’m at home,” Pickett said, shaking loose a clump of brick-red mud from his boot as he dismounted in front of the porch. “This is proof positive we’re in red-dirt country, Colonel.”
Walker nodded absently. Twelve hours we’ve been here, he thought, and still not a word from Wheat. And it took us nearly a half-day longer than it should have to reach here in the first place. We’re still moving too slowly. Show me, Lord. Show me how to move these wagons faster.
“Have you found any sign of Captain Wheat?” he asked. “Any indication that he’s on the proper road?”
11 MAY 1851
SHELBY COUNTY, REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
“Now I know I’m at home,” Pickett said, shaking loose a clump of brick-red mud from his boot as he dismounted in front of the porch. “This is proof positive we’re in red-dirt country, Colonel.”
Walker nodded absently. Twelve hours we’ve been here, he thought, and still not a word from Wheat. And it took us nearly a half-day longer than it should have to reach here in the first place. We’re still moving too slowly. Show me, Lord. Show me how to move these wagons faster.
“Have you found any sign of Captain Wheat?” he asked. “Any indication that he’s on the proper road?”
04 October, 2019
Bonny Blue Flag 4.5
Previous First
[Concluding chapter four]
He didn’t bother calling the roll; whatever the men might be feeling, he was pretty sure there would be no desertions while the column was still in Canada. A glance at the faces looking up at him in the fading light—he’d ordered all to dismount while he remained in the saddle—assured him that the full company was here.
“I would like to apologize,” he began softly. “I have apparently not been clear in my instructions, and for that I am sincerely sorry.” Now he raised his voice a little, but maintained the cool, steady tone.
“Allow me, gentlemen, to redress that failing.
[Concluding chapter four]
He didn’t bother calling the roll; whatever the men might be feeling, he was pretty sure there would be no desertions while the column was still in Canada. A glance at the faces looking up at him in the fading light—he’d ordered all to dismount while he remained in the saddle—assured him that the full company was here.
“I would like to apologize,” he began softly. “I have apparently not been clear in my instructions, and for that I am sincerely sorry.” Now he raised his voice a little, but maintained the cool, steady tone.
“Allow me, gentlemen, to redress that failing.
03 October, 2019
Bonny Blue Flag 4.4
Previous First
[Continuing chapter four]
Walker watched the mounted men pass through the gate of the low-walled fort, waiting until the large, heavy doors closed before he turned back down the road. The patrol had come from the direction of the river, and he was grateful now that it had taken so long to get his column separated into its three companies and moving out along their designated routes. If they’d moved much faster they’d have encountered the Canadian dragoons on the road, with possibly uncomfortable consequences. Not that he doubted for a moment the victory his men would have won over the dispirited-looking squadron of green-clad men—Canadians rather than British regulars. The sounds of fighting, though, would have been heard for miles around and would have brought the rest of the garrison, not to mention announcing the presence of an armed force on the border with Texas. No, it was much better that military entanglements be avoided just now.
[Continuing chapter four]
Walker watched the mounted men pass through the gate of the low-walled fort, waiting until the large, heavy doors closed before he turned back down the road. The patrol had come from the direction of the river, and he was grateful now that it had taken so long to get his column separated into its three companies and moving out along their designated routes. If they’d moved much faster they’d have encountered the Canadian dragoons on the road, with possibly uncomfortable consequences. Not that he doubted for a moment the victory his men would have won over the dispirited-looking squadron of green-clad men—Canadians rather than British regulars. The sounds of fighting, though, would have been heard for miles around and would have brought the rest of the garrison, not to mention announcing the presence of an armed force on the border with Texas. No, it was much better that military entanglements be avoided just now.
02 October, 2019
"One Big Giant Writing Workshop"
My exposure, as a beginning writer, to fan-fiction was not what I'd call a positive experience. And I probably came away from it with an unduly negative perception of both the concept and its execution.
This was a long time ago, though, and pre-internet. And it appears that while I wasn't looking, something interesting happened with fan-fic. (This probably comes as no shock to most of you, but I've led a sheltered life lately and am thus easily surprised.) I won't say much more here, simply urge you to read the interesting piece about it in The Atlantic this week...
...And mention that the quote that headlines this post is from an interview in the article, with multi-Hugo Award winner N. K. Jemison.
This was a long time ago, though, and pre-internet. And it appears that while I wasn't looking, something interesting happened with fan-fic. (This probably comes as no shock to most of you, but I've led a sheltered life lately and am thus easily surprised.) I won't say much more here, simply urge you to read the interesting piece about it in The Atlantic this week...
...And mention that the quote that headlines this post is from an interview in the article, with multi-Hugo Award winner N. K. Jemison.
Bonny Blue Flag 4.3
Previous First
[Continuing chapter four]
Walker stopped the column at a crossroads a few miles east of the Canadian military post at Fort Edward for a final conference with his commanders before crossing the Sabine. They’d made pretty good time, traveling nearly twenty miles despite the column’s being strung out along the tree-lined road. We’ll move faster once we’re out of the trees and onto prairie, Walker reminded himself. Maybe a week from now, if all goes well.
“How far do you want us to go today?” Fontaine asked before Walker had had a chance to invite the men to sit and sip lemonade with him. Walker didn’t mind; that was the man’s way.
[Continuing chapter four]
Walker stopped the column at a crossroads a few miles east of the Canadian military post at Fort Edward for a final conference with his commanders before crossing the Sabine. They’d made pretty good time, traveling nearly twenty miles despite the column’s being strung out along the tree-lined road. We’ll move faster once we’re out of the trees and onto prairie, Walker reminded himself. Maybe a week from now, if all goes well.
“How far do you want us to go today?” Fontaine asked before Walker had had a chance to invite the men to sit and sip lemonade with him. Walker didn’t mind; that was the man’s way.
Read It Now: Chapter One of A Tangled Weave
This is the second novel in the series the Toronto Public Library has dubbed "The French Intrigues," a name I'm rather pleased with. It is not quite a sequel to A Poisoned Prayer, but it's set in the same world, involves some of the same characters, and takes place just a couple of years after the events of that first novel. (Does that make it a sequel? I still don't think so.)
Chapter One begins below the fold.
01 October, 2019
Bonny Blue Flag 4.2
Previous First
[Continuing chapter four]
The failure of Lopez’s filibuster had left Walker, Wheat and Nelson with nothing to do. But it had provided for Walker a third captain—the cold, serpent-deadly Lamar Fontaine, a soldier of fortune recently home from fighting for the Holy Roman Emperor in Savoy. Walker considered his discovery of Fontaine, a natural soldier who was now second-in-command of the Texas expedition, as proof yet again that God gave everything, even a humiliating setback, a purpose that aided His Will. And it was while the four of them had pondered in New Orleans, on the verge of making a decision whether next to mount an incursion into California or the Central American isthmus, that God had intervened once more by introducing Walker to Preston Brooks and James Stewart. Now they were once again seeming to serve another man’s agenda. But by the Grace of God Preston Brooks’s plans for Texas coincided exactly with Walker’s vision for the republic’s great future. Now Walker was anxious to see that future come to fruition.
[Continuing chapter four]
The failure of Lopez’s filibuster had left Walker, Wheat and Nelson with nothing to do. But it had provided for Walker a third captain—the cold, serpent-deadly Lamar Fontaine, a soldier of fortune recently home from fighting for the Holy Roman Emperor in Savoy. Walker considered his discovery of Fontaine, a natural soldier who was now second-in-command of the Texas expedition, as proof yet again that God gave everything, even a humiliating setback, a purpose that aided His Will. And it was while the four of them had pondered in New Orleans, on the verge of making a decision whether next to mount an incursion into California or the Central American isthmus, that God had intervened once more by introducing Walker to Preston Brooks and James Stewart. Now they were once again seeming to serve another man’s agenda. But by the Grace of God Preston Brooks’s plans for Texas coincided exactly with Walker’s vision for the republic’s great future. Now Walker was anxious to see that future come to fruition.
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