EternalEmperor.com/LeeRagans.com

Over the years, I have had eternalemperor.com for writing and other projects.  I recently acquired leeragans.com for my writing.  I have combined both sites and directed both domains. Eternal Emperor was the original title of the Empire stories.  With time the name evolved, but the domain name remained.  

I decided to depart from science fiction and write my take on the military/spy genre.  I always had an interest in the early terminus stories.  “Karen and the Boys” is about a bartender and two special operators in an unconventional relationship.  The idea of turning the traditional relationship on its side and having one woman with two men in marriage felt like it would only happen in a world with zombies.  

I was surprised when most people never second consider unconventional relationship.  As a new writer back then, I was nervous.  What if someone misunderstood?  What if they judged me for this?  It was ultimately stupid.  Writers make things up.  We read things that are not what we see daily because that is interesting. 

That led me to attack the spy genre by looking at the background characters in every spy story.  Who are the people that show up in combat gear and take up positions as snipers, kill a dozen people, and walk away?  What are they like every day?  What are their relationships like?

I was stationed at Fort Bragg in the late 80s, and I am sure my neighbor was a Delta Force Soldier.  I could list a dozen meaningless esoteric things, but when you add them up, he was not a soldier.  He was not Special Forces.  He was something else.

I wanted to write a story for what I thought that something else might be.  I will state clearly here that I know only the regular Army.  I know Artillery, Ordnance, and Signal Corps.  I have one friend in special forces, but I know only the stories he told and none of the truth.  If you have been around soldiers who tell stories, you need to know this universal truth:

“The difference between a War Story and a Fairy Tale is there is a small amount of truth in a Fairy Tale.”

I got that from a special forces soldier.  

The stories in the Operator series are complete works of fiction based on other fiction and a tiny grain of truth.  Are they based on real people?  No one in particular, but based on people I have worked around or read about.  

If you read this series for anything other than entertainment, you have wasted your time.  The stories could be based anywhere and on anything.  They have more uncommon with John Wick than the US Army.

They are currently being edited, and I expect the first three novellas to be released individually and combined as one novel by the End of summer.  The fourth story is already being mapped out.  When it is done, I will likely take a break and return to science fiction unless Tom Cruise decides to option the Operator stories for a movie or Apple TV Series. 

I have always struggled with the title Author.  By definition, if you write something, you are an author, but “Author” sounds formal and precise.  I picture a tweed jacket with elbow patches and pipe.  I see an author sitting with a tumbler and bottle of scotch, discussing philosophy and how their novel will change how the world thinks.

I am a reader who is writing something I want to read.  I started writing as an extension of playing Dungeons and Dragons in the 80s. It was pencil and paper then.  There were dice, but the story was what kept people coming back.  Contrary to popular belief, nerds had lives and would wander off if the story was not compelling.  A good Dungeon Master had to tell a good story.  How else could you get people to spend hours each weekend excited to see what happened next?

So when I write, I try to think of the reader.  What do I want to read?  I am not the most gifted technical writer.  Thanks to Grammarly, I now have commas mainly in the correct place unless I get in a fight with it and give up.  I am that person who watches a bad movie or reads an okay novel and thinks, “That could be perfect if they just said…”  So often, we can add one sentence and fix so many problems.  

I took up the challenge and thought, how hard can it be?  It is easy to come up with an idea.  It is almost impossible to get that idea to survive six months of writing and come out the other side looking anything like the initial thought.  Characters have a mind of their own and often refuse to cooperate.

Writing made me respect other creators.  I and willing to watch a movie about a good idea and forgive a weak special effects budget or subpar acting.  I will also forgive when someone tries a little too hard and falls flat.  If you are trying to create your own language to use in a movie or a novel, you might be spending too much time on that and miss the point of the entire story, but by all means, I can’t wait to read your subtitles for 2 hours.  It is fun creating.

I once wrote a novella that existed in three separate timelines.  Each one is identified by a different color font.  It was a train wreck.  I grew to hate it after just a few days, and it sits unfinished.  I still think it is a really cool idea.  I will likely never revisit it.  

I heard this recently, and I am stealing it.  If you are a reader, write something.  You have just as much right to be read as anyone else.   Write what you like to read and share it with the world.  

In short, it was a fun distraction. I found that it was driving advertising, but not sales. That time could be better used for editing and writing or even my day job. I will revisit the podcast when it makes sense in the future.