Brett’s War Journal #3

This chapter in the war journal is a lengthy one, but for good reason. The Christmas delivery season, or Hell Season as I like to call it, is upon us. As most of you know, I make my living delivering for one of the Big Three delivery companies as a courier. It’s backbreaking, stress-inducing work, but it pays well enough, and the economy still sucks, so I’ll stick with it for now.

So, what does Hell Season have to do with my writing? Well, everything. During this crazy season I’ll be working around 60-70 hours per week, pre-dawn to well after dark five days a week. If I’m truly unlucky, there might be a mandatory Saturday in there at some point. At any rate, due to heightened stress and sleep deprivation, writing comes to a practical standstill until after Christmas. While I don’t plan to stop writing altogether for the next month, this newsletter is going on pause.

Hallowed Ground: a sequel to At All Costs

At the moment, I’m having a hard time getting myself back into the groove, so to speak. I went through At All Costs and cataloged all the important details to work into my first revision of Hallowed Ground. That’s right, Hallowed Ground is already done. Well, draft one, but it’s not all that bad. It’ll take some tweaking to get it ready for print, but I have at least a year to even begin worrying about final drafts. Honestly, what I have written will probably go through a series of restructuring, additions, and cuts. That’s just how it goes, and since that takes so much time and concentration, I’ll be putting off draft 2 until after my current project.

Current Project: The Patriot’s Burden

The Patriot’s Burden is the third book in my series and the direct sequel to Hallowed Ground. It literally picks up the day after Hallowed Ground ends. I won’t get into too much detail about this book since it might spoil Hallowed Ground’s story, but it’s more of a drama than it is an action-adventure story like its direct predecessor.

While the previous book explores themes of insurgency, ultranationalism, and rebellion against the state, this book will focus on the ‘war at home’ and the ‘war in the head.’ Basically, PTSD and survivor’s guilt will play a prominent role, as will the transition from years in the military to civilian life. It’s not going to be a very action-packed story, but that’s by design. I never want to write the same story twice, and At All Costs has always been a drama at its core. Therefore, The Patriot’s Burden will allow me to dig deeper into my characters while expanding the series beyond Poland’s struggle for independence. How do I plan to accomplish that? Well, if you read At All Costs or heard me blab about any of my stories, the names Gustav Hagen, Jens Groth, and Richard Rozek should chime some bells.

Other Current Project: Desperate Measures

Desperate Measures is one of my older stories and a later entry in the At All Costs series. While it’s a solid story, it needed quite the overhaul due to changes in my writing style over the years – thanks journalism school. While the story itself is on revision unknown, the overhaul is about 2/3 done. However, I had put it on the backburner a few months back so I could do the final revision/edit of At All Costs. It will remain there until I finish the Patriot’s Burden, or I get stress-induced writer’s block.

Despite being less of a priority at the moment, Desperate Measures is one of my favorite novels in the series. After Among Wolves and Honest Hearts focused more on the Marzahn Syndicate and Aleksey’s relationship with Audra, this book brings the Polish War of Independence back to prominence. As well, it starts a fresh story arc for my cast of heroes. Least to say, the gangsters are out of the picture, Aleksey and Aleksander make some major decisions, and Audra becomes an absolute badass in her own right.

The Status of the Series Explained

I’ve been writing stories for At All Costs for twenty years now- that’s pretty wild, aye? Funny enough, At All Costs (#1 in the series) is actually my second most recent novel written for the series. The very first novel I ever wrote was Killer Instinct (Book #8) followed by Among Wolves (Book #6, and originally called The Wolf), The Reckoning (broken down and rewritten to become Book #9, Blood of the Patriots) and Imperium (reworked it into Book #2, Hallowed Ground). For a couple of years I spent time writing other stories such as Outlawed: The Legend of Bloody Johnny, SMASH!, a zombie novella called PREY, a couple of short film screenplays, and an unaired television show called Terminal. That last one is definitely getting turned into a novel one day, but I have a good feeling SMASH! is going to be my success story, if At All Costs doesn’t do that first.

After college I decided the redundant revisions of my core series had to stop and I needed a real beginning to the series instead of the ‘drop you in the middle of the fight’ style I had used when writing Imperium. That led me to starting what became At All Costs in 2020 and Hallowed Ground in 2022, and now The Patriot’s Burden in 2024.

So, what’s going on with Killer Instinct? Being that it’s my oldest story, it very much needs some TLC to get it up to snuff with the others. My writing style, as well as the series lore, has progressed a great deal in the five or six years it’s been since I last tampered with that one. It’ll get the love it needs after Hallowed Ground launches in 2026.

As for The Quiet Professional, that’s the least of my worry. It’s a rather new idea I had while writing Hallowed Ground and revising Desperate Measures. What sparked the idea for another book was a huge time lapse in Killer Instinct. I literally started the book and jumped a year ahead for act 2. That’s a big no-no in my book. Like I said, I’ve come a long way as a writer. So, what I ended up doing was cutting the fourth act – yes, fourth - from Desperate Measures and the first act of Killer Instinct to create the first and third act of The Quiet Professional. What happens in the middle is a spy fiction story that tests the loyalties of my core casts and pushes them to one side of the Polish War of Independence. It also shows how Aleksander went from public enemy #1 for the rebels in every book up through Desperate Measures to field commander in Killer Instinct. It’s going to be a fun one to write.

Status of the At All Costs Series at the Moment

The following are in chronological order

At All Costs – Set to Release February 1st, 2025

Hallowed Ground – Draft 1 complete

The Patriot’s Burden – Draft 1 in progress

Honest Hearts – Final edit needed

Among Wolves – Final edit needed

Desperate Measures – Final revision in progress

The Quiet Professional – draft 1 is mostly outlined.

Killer Instinct – Overhaul necessary

Blood of the Patriots – Final revision and final edit needed