Author Topic: Lost Lady of Sorrow and Fury  (Read 2472 times)

Jaim Magnus

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Lost Lady of Sorrow and Fury
« on: 08 February 2016, 19:31:47 »
Writing has always been something I wanted to do, and BattleTech is one of my favourite sci-fi settings. I was quite happy that my first published work was for BattleTech. To date I have published four stories on BattleCorps: Righteous Fury, Sorrow of Eden, Lady of Steel, and I Was Lost. I’m going to talk about them all a little bit.
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The very first story I wrote for BattleTech was rejected. I just wanted to get that out there. Why? Because it’s one of those things that all aspiring writers have to prepare themselves for: rejection. It sucks, and it can hurt, but that’s the nature of the game. I won’t go into the details of the story, because it isn’t relevant except as a part of the learning process.
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The next story I tackled was ‘Sorrow of Eden.’ The Culling was one of those key points of Clan history that fascinated me, and I felt that it had to be covered. Truth to tell, I was nervous about embarking on this one. I emailed the then Line Developer asking if any fiction regarding the Culling had been done, or was in the process of being done, and found that nothing existed but those few pages in the Jade Falcon Sourcebook and Field Manual: Crusader Clans.

My very first draft was short, focused on the rebel leader and was entitled ‘What Sorrow We Have Wrought.’ It focused on the perspective and journal of the rebel leader, who at that time was Adam Calbot. Why? Because it was a random name that we knew nothing about.

Then Era Digest: Golden Century came out, and some of my facts became wrong, turning the story on its head.
So I went back to the drawing board. The title was shortened to ‘Sorrow of Eden.’ Mathieu Jae-Hyouk became the rebel leader. Adam Calbot became the loyalist who preserved the Clan despite his misgivings. The story went through four more drafts before I considered it ready for submission. Each draft evolved as I got feedback, resulting in a much stronger story. Just as an example, Jae-Hyouk’s daughter wasn’t present in my initial draft.

I pored over every sourcebook I could, obsessing over any tiny detail that might pertain to the Culling. The Jade Falcon Sourcebook, Field Manual: Crusader Clans, Operation KLONDIKE, Era Digest: Golden Century, and Betrayal of Ideals became my constant companions. Through these sources, I pieced together the story. The names of the reaved bloodhouses were contained in Era Digest: Golden Century. I whipped over to Op Klondike and looked up the founders of those lines, thinking that it would be best to use one of them. Mathieu Jae-Hyouk jumped out at me and began coming together as a character. I even got to sneak in that he was Quebecois!

The absence of a Falcon Alpha and Beta galaxy drew my eye as well. I wondered, why would they be missing? The answer seemed obvious… the Culling. A quick line in Era Report 3052 about the Falcon Guards being created as a showpiece unit after the Culling got me thinking about the actual fight itself. It made me think that the survivors of the fight were being honoured, and so that’s how that came to pass.

In the end, I think that the story came together very well.

Funny fact: Sorrow was my first story accepted, but my second published.
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While waiting for word on Sorrow, I began writing ‘Righteous Fury.’ This story came about largely because of the release of MechWarrior Online, and my wanting to tell a story set during the Clan Invasion.

I didn’t want to rehash the standard basic battle of the Invasion. So I read through the Jade Falcon, Wolf, and Invading Clans sourcebooks. And what stood out to me was the battle of Jeanette. Here we were at a time when ComStar was buddied up with the Clans and you have a whole unit refuse orders and go rogue. And hardly anybody knew. I thought; here was a story worth telling. Here were people who were willing to do what was right, no matter what their superiors were telling them.

And so enter the warriors of the Divine Light.

Of course, I had to get over laughing about a noble warrior named Kevin James first.

The story came together quickly after that. Noble ComStar, crazed Jaguar. The writing was on the wall, so to speak, but it was a fun story to write. It was one of those interesting experiences to have your second accepted story published first though.
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Lady of Steel’ was a different kind of experience. A call went out for stories focused on the Draconis Combine because the Handbook for House Kurita was going to come out soon. The only constraint was that it could not happen after 3067.

My original pitch was rejected, but the focal character of Henrietta Nashur and Tetsuko Lance survived to fight on in my revised pitch.

For this story, I wanted to look at one of those vague areas of BattleTech history. I chose the Second Succession war because we knew very little about it. And reading through Handbook House Steiner, I saw that Tukayyid had originally been a Steiner world. What could be better than telling a story on a world all BattleTech fans knew, but with a bit of a twist?

In writing this story, I wanted someone from the Combine, but not of the Combine. Enter Henrietta Nashur. She wasn’t a samurai, though she tried to follow bushido. Her family came from the SLDF, and as a woman, she was marginalized. She was the outsider who always did her best.

Overall it was a fun story to write.
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I Was Lost’ also came about because of a call for stories. The PTBs wanted fiction that looked at the time following the Battle of Tukayyid.

As I’d already written a ComStar story, I rejected that faction as a focus. I briefly toyed with the idea of a FWL focused story, but instead chose the FedCom, mainly because I felt that I wanted to tell it from the perspective of the invaded, and my last story was Combine focused.

A story about garrison duty, with the Clans of Damocles hanging over them didn’t appeal to me at the time. I wanted to look at something a little different. I chose to examine what the wounded soldiers of the FedCom must have been going through. The extent of the injury had to be severe, because medical science in BattleTech is much more advanced than ours. And so physical injury was a component, but the key injury was the damage caused by neural feedback.

In the course of writing ‘Lost’ I knew I would have to include a fight. It’s BattleTech after all, and so the flashback to La Grave came to pass. I also wanted to show a little slice of daily life in what was then a unified FedCom.
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It may seem funny, but the most difficult thing about writing for BattleTech is spelling. Not because I’m a terrible speller, but because, as a Canadian, I have to go back and change to the American spelling of many words, words that then look wrong when I’m editing.

The writing process itself is by turns easy and grueling, never more so than when you’re putting yourself inside the heads of characters whose life is vastly different than yours. And yet, for me, it is thoroughly enjoyable.

I will say this, research is your friend. There is a phenomenal team of fact checkers for BattleCorps, but be nice to them and do your research first. You may not find everything, after all there are a lot of BattleTech books and resources out there, but the more you do find, the easier your rewrites will be.

I really enjoyed writing these tales for BattleTech. I hope that some of you enjoyed reading them.

And with any luck, there will be more to come.

-Alan 'Jaim Magnus' Brundage
BattleCorps - Righteous Fury, Sorrow of Eden, Lady of Steel, I Was Lost, Forsaken : Legacy - The Forgotten Places : Shrapnel - Scavenger's Blood : ELH Chronicles - View from the Ground : Shrapnel - It Ends in Fire, Picking the Bones

mikecj

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Re: Lost Lady of Sorrow and Fury
« Reply #1 on: 09 February 2016, 06:36:31 »
Thank you, I've enjoyed all of your stories.
There are no fish in my pond.
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Jaim Magnus

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Re: Lost Lady of Sorrow and Fury
« Reply #2 on: 09 February 2016, 13:21:15 »
Thank you, I've enjoyed all of your stories.

Thanks! Always nice to hear.
BattleCorps - Righteous Fury, Sorrow of Eden, Lady of Steel, I Was Lost, Forsaken : Legacy - The Forgotten Places : Shrapnel - Scavenger's Blood : ELH Chronicles - View from the Ground : Shrapnel - It Ends in Fire, Picking the Bones

Dmon

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Re: Lost Lady of Sorrow and Fury
« Reply #3 on: 05 March 2016, 13:23:58 »
Nice insight.

I have two your stories already.

I will pick up the other two next time I buy some stuff from BC.

 

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