#2011 neves in “starting the first part of a series and never continuing it again” scandal

[nevesmose]

So like I mentioned before, here's something I originally wrote way back in 2011 for Deviantart's much smaller and less friendly 40k writing fandom. Current day 40k tumblr really is a chill and welcoming place and it's lovely to share it with you all.

Suffice it to say I would write this very differently now than I did then. And maybe I will sometime. It's alright technically but very stiff, I would say is the right word, and lacking in confidence both in myself as a storyteller and in the story being told. The characters are okay though, I've always enjoyed creating grotesque people in my head and then describing them.

It was hugely influenced by my interests at the time being mercenaries/PMCs and Second Empire France and the French military more generally. It's a lot more French than it needs to be.

Just as one example of how I feel about it now, the beginning is quite flat because I was trying to be like Raymond Chandler without being old enough and/or drunk enough to pull it off. Now I'd lead with the fact that the planet is a dry arid place and keep hammering on that because everyone can relate to being too hot. Things like that.

Oh! Proof that I've always been pretentious about titles, too - this one comes from the first stanza of A.E. Housman's Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries:

These, in the days when heaven was falling,

The hour when earth's foundations fled,

Followed their mercenary calling

And took their wages and are dead.

But it would be remiss of me not to also give you Hugh MacDiarmid's response from his Another Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries:

It is a God-damned lie to say that these

Saved, or knew, anything worth a man's pride.

They were professional murderers and they took

Their blood money and impious risks and died.

Aren't mercenaries interesting?