Repost of Ringo on Facebook 2

John just posted this,

"Sailors and Marines of the Empire," Roger said. "We embark upon a great battle. Be really aware of that. This is going to be a fight to tell the grandkids about. An old Earth general once said the job of a soldier isn't to die for his country, his job is to kill the other poor bastard. In this case, we're going to be killing our brothers. That is a sad, sorry, duty. A tough one. The thing to keep in mind is that the leader of those poor bastards, the guy they are following, was the son-of-a-bitch who ordered the rape of your Empress, my mother, and who killed my entire family. So mercy is a distant second to winning in this one. And win we shall.
"There are lots of rumors going around. Jackson has us outnumbered. We're going to be going in against a heavily fortified system. We're going to get our asses kicked.
"We, I, have been fighting battles for it seems like half my life. Most of you have at least had a touch on Marduk, whether you liked it for shore leave or not, and seen some of what We fought crossing that hellish planet. But we didn't just fight lions and tigers and bears. We fought battles against half the nations and barbarians of that world. And We won every single battle.
"So keep that in mind as well. Your leader has never lost a battle. Not a single damned one. We don't intend to lose this one or even take a hell of a lot of casualties. Why you'll just have to figure out later. There shall be battle upon this morn and as God is my witness, most of you shall see the sunset again. It is the other poor bastards who are going to be doing the dying.
"Because Jackson made the classic blunder: He pocked with a McClintock. Ask half the polities on Marduk what that means. Nobody does that and lives to tell about it.
"All ships: Transit."

Also on Facebook was,

Pop quiz: what's the name of the Marine general who was in charge of Jackson's forces in We Few? And did he escape/survive?
Gennaro, Genardo, something like that.

And,

John Ringo

4 hrs ·

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I've decided to just write the stuff I know is going to make it into the next March book then send it to David and let him figure out the rest. The 'other' stuff is mostly politics.

When David sent me the outline for 'March Upcountry' the first five chapters were Meet Roger, Travel on ship, toombie attack, fight Saints, crash-land on planet. Ran to about twenty thousand words of what was really wordy synopsis.

Then there was the following:

'Chapters 6-19, travel across the planet. John, this is your specialty so you figure it out. There should be lots of city states and probably a barbarian invasion. Chapter 20, taking the space port.'

Just that. That's all.

I've told the story at cons about what a JOY it was to have to figure 'my stuff' out. (Very long, very funny story when I tell it involving torn hair, rolling around on a floor moaning and a Dungeon Master's Guide.) Which, if you've read the books, was two thirds of March Upcountry, March to the Sea and March to the Stars. David didn't just sit on his hands, mind you, he contributed quite a bit to the books. But I pretty much had to 'figure that out.'

(Then there was the fact I kept sending emails to everyone involved saying 'I don't think this is one book!' After six months David emails me asking to see SOMETHING since I hadn't turned in the book! (Like, ten emails I'd sent to David alone.) When I sent it to him, and Jim Baen and Toni I got an email back from David saying 'John, I don't think this is one book.' Yuh think, David? Really? I was only up to 564k words! The 'one book' turned into March Upcountry and March to the Sea.)

(Another funny. David had just broken his wrist and was just starting to use voice-to-text to write. So at one point in an email I got the line 'I'm looking forward to senior manuscript.' Took me forever to figure out 'senior' was Dragon's attempt to translate a Southern accent saying 'Seeing your.')
smile emoticon

Anyway, most of the 'middle stuff' is politics. So I'm going to write what I know (blowing shit up) and send it to David then say 'David, this is your specialty. You figure it out. Looking forward to senior manuscript.'
smile emoticon

I'll probably end up writing it, Junior Author's job, but it will give David a skeleton to hang the 'politics' on and come up with some ideas.
smile emoticon

So the answer to 'what next' is Empire of Man. But don't get your hopes up. It will only be about half done when I'm done and currently the schedule is blocked with other stuff out to 2017. (Including the next 'real' Keldara book and three MHI books. Just got done emailing with Toni. Although if David and I could finish this up she'd probably figure out how to shoehorn it in.)

Wah-hoo!

Rod wrote:Also on Facebook was,

Pop quiz: what's the name of the Marine general who was in charge of Jackson's forces in We Few? And did he escape/survive?
Gennaro, Genardo, something like that.

His name was Larry Gianetto and he sort of disappears at the end of the book. I had recollection that some of the Fatted Calf counter coup members caught up to him before he could bolt and that might be the case but, I just finished reading the series today and did not see it.
It may be that my kindle turned two pages (last time I read it was in hard bound and... it is not as easy for me to skip a page that way)... at once at the worse possible time but... I think not.


Hey... I have been wrong before

C. O. Thompson wrote:

Rod wrote:Also on Facebook was,

Pop quiz: what's the name of the Marine general who was in charge of Jackson's forces in We Few? And did he escape/survive?
Gennaro, Genardo, something like that.

His name was Larry Gianetto and he sort of disappears at the end of the book. I had recollection that some of the Fatted Calf counter coup members caught up to him before he could bolt and that might be the case but, I just finished reading the series today and did not see it.
It may be that my kindle turned two pages (last time I read it was in hard bound and... it is not as easy for me to skip a page that way)... at once at the worse possible time but... I think not.


Hey... I have been wrong before

I went back into my copy of the book, and the final reference to Gianetto's location was this: " "Be sure you do, Victor." Gianetto's voice was bleaker than ever as he gazed into the pickup of the com unit aboard the inconspicuous vessel carrying him away from the planet. "The only way to keep everything from falling apart is to take out the Palace and all of these bastards from orbit." " This is when the order to bomb the Palace from orbit is given, right before Helmut shows up but after he gave the scatter order to the ships in Earth obit, and clearly he is on one of those ships, so he should have gotten away clean. This is the very last reference to his location, and I would read it as he got away from the Sol system and joined Prince Jackson at his home system. Hope this is of use to you.

His name was Larry Gianetto and he sort of disappears at the end of the book. I had recollection that some of the Fatted Calf counter coup members caught up to him before he could bolt and that might be the case but, I just finished reading the series today and did not see it.
It may be that my kindle turned two pages (last time I read it was in hard bound and... it is not as easy for me to skip a page that way)... at once at the worse possible time but... I think not.


Hey... I have been wrong before[/quote]

I went back into my copy of the book, and the final reference to Gianetto's location was this: " "Be sure you do, Victor." Gianetto's voice was bleaker than ever as he gazed into the pickup of the com unit aboard the inconspicuous vessel carrying him away from the planet. "The only way to keep everything from falling apart is to take out the Palace and all of these bastards from orbit." " This is when the order to bomb the Palace from orbit is given, right before Helmut shows up but after he gave the scatter order to the ships in Earth obit, and clearly he is on one of those ships, so he should have gotten away clean. This is the very last reference to his location, and I would read it as he got away from the Sol system and joined Prince Jackson at his home system. Hope this is of use to you.[/quote]

I bet you are right! The last reference I found was just prior the scene when Roger (standing on one leg) is holding the sword over his kneeling father and the prime minister is entering the room.
I missed the "inconspicuous vessel" a tendency to skim some passages on second or third reading, combined with a minor case of dyslexia...

Larry Gianetto is a Marine who got appointed after the Coup to the Chief of Staff position I believe. The Fatted Calf Conspiracy people take out a guy named Greenburg (who was a "snake" according to Pahner), the commander of the Home Fleet, and his executive officer was a paper pusher with no recent command experience nor any respect in the fleet. This allows Kjerulf, the Home Fleet Chief of Staff to assume control of the Moon Base and shatters the Home Fleet's cohesion. Command therefore devolved to the divisional commanders each of whom had to decide where they stood. And Gianetto's marine instincts had caused him to disperse the Home Fleet divisions so that they could not confront Helmut as a unified force. Where Gianetto went during this battle is anyone's guess at this moment. We know Adullah and Gajelis (his senior suborned divisional commander) managed to get away on a really damaged ship. But whether Gianetto allowed himself to be caught due to his own sense of honor (he was fighting for the Empire as he believed it should be), was killed in the fighting or escaped has not been stated in the novels to date.