Tag: military-fiction

What’s Going On?

Working on edits, rough drafts, and story selection while on a day job work trip.

Well, as I said last week, I’ve got stories in for two anthologies. And I had a work trip to Virginia Beach last week. Yeah, I know, of all the places I could have to go, there are many worse places. I’m familiar with quite a few of those worse places.

So, I’m working on what will be the 6th novel in the Burn and Bad Karma Series. The 5th is currently in edits, but to give you an idea, Bad Karma goes to Chicago with no adult supervision. In the 6th book, we’ll see how she handles things getting home when Burn’s in a bit of trouble. The next story involves them stealing a yacht back from some criminal.

Thus far on the anthologies, I’ve selected two stories for Tales of the E4 Mafia 2. Hopefully, I’ll get through the rest that I’ve received this and next week.

Terri’s birthday’s coming up, so we’ll take a weekend out to enjoy a new area we’ve been meaning to check out. From what the hotel says, there’s beer and whiskey, so we’ll be fine!

I hope you’re all doing well! Let me know how you’re doing!

Butterbars and Tales of the E4 Mafia 2 story selection starting this week!

Well, with the deadline for the anthologies I’m working on with Henchman Press being tomorrow, I’ll be starting in on story selection and sending out editorial notes for the stories I have. And I do have quite a few stories to work through.

On the up side, I’ll be on a work trip this week, so I’m on my own in the evenings. I should be able to get some significant progress on the story selection piece. On the down side, we don’t know how much work we’ll have to do on the day job. Hopefully, things will go well and the project will run smoothly.

So if you’ve submitted, you can expect to hear something soon. If you’re behind schedule, email me at keith@keithhedger.com and let me know what’s going on.

Wish me luck on getting these stories read. One of the coolest parts of this process is getting to see all these stories first, before anyone else does!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to post some great updates over the next few weeks!

Surprises when I’m Writing

One of the things that’s always fun for me is when things come together in stories based on a comment or piece of information that occurs when I’m writing.

I have nine long novels for the Burn and Bad Karma series sketched out. And, while I’m definitely a discovery writer, I generally know the outcomes for certain characters, major events that will happen, and plot items that need to occur.

As I’m writing the fifth of those novels, I’ve had a couple of things come up that are literally changing what I had in mind. In one case, a character will experience a development arc where they shift their loyalty. Another is that a major bad character will not be killed by the character I had originally planned to kill them (and the antagonist in question will survive at least one additional novel).

So, if you decide to take up writing, expect things like this to happen. Some times your characters will do things you didn’t expect. Some times whole plot lines will change.

But it’s so worth it to tell those stories!

Motivation

Sometimes, that’s how it works.

Like many writers, I get asked how I keep coming up with ideas. The truth is that I have a lot of ideas. I don’t have enough time to write all the stories those ideas are connected with, but I do have a lot of ideas for stories. And sometimes, some event or comment or action I see gives me an idea for a story.

What I do with this ideas is make a note of them. So, it gets jotted down in a notebook, or texted to myself, or added to a page in my Notion pages. In some way, shape or manner, I document that idea.

If the idea is good, it will be there when I have time to develop it. If it’s great, I build a lot more base for it, so I can act on it when there’s time and not a dozen other deadlines and projects going. Some, sadly, go to the great note page in the sky.

One other interesting idea happens with a few of those idea, though. A rare few show up when I’m working on a story, and they fit. Not usually in the scene I’m writing, but somewhere in the story. So, I work it in.

That’s where Pheobe the Tank came from. Someone else had made a comment about sentient tank stories and I was working on Sandblaster at the time. Since there were already tanks in the story, it was fun to go back through and add a sentient tank to this cyberpunk mercenary story.

From there, I was invited to submit to the Worldbreaker anthology. Which lead to Amarillo by Fire Fight, where Phoebe the Tank catfishing an infantry soldier while in a rolling tank fight.

So, there you have it. Most of the writers I know don’t have a lack of ideas. We really don’t. We have capacity to work on one or two stories at a time, and not nearly enough hours in a day to write everything we want to, but we generally don’t seem to lack ideas.

Thanks for reading through this. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my process!

Who Am I?

For those who don’t know me, or only know me from my fiction, I thought I’d introduce myself and let you know a bit more about me and my life, both in writing and outside of it.

First, I’ve been married for almost three decades to a wonderful woman named Terri, who puts up with my writing, day job, fitness and workouts and shares my love of adventure, enjoying food and finding new things. I’ve also got a daughter and three amazing grandkids who live near enough to us that we get to share a lot of fun, life and good time together.

Many years ago, after being largely sedentary after I got out of the Army, I was going through a bit of a mental mess, and that let to me getting back into fitness. At the time, it was specifically running and over time, the farther the better. It got to the point that I’ve completed 54 marathons and ultramarathons, the longest being a 100 mile race (The Long Haul 100 Miler). This led into me getting coaching and fitness training certifications which I use for my own fitness as well as helping and coaching others for their fitness. Unfortunately, I’ve got a messed up knee, so really long runs are largely off the table, but biking, swimming, lifting and other exercise forms are still in my wheel house!

As part of moving back to Iowa, I intended to get back into hunting and fishing, since I hadn’t done much of that when we lived in Georgia and didn’t make time. Now, if I’m not at a family event, a fiction event or working on a project, I’m likely to be in one of the local public hunting areas, or somewhere around Lake Red Rock hoping to catch a fish or two.

I’m also a beer and whiskey guy, which, like most things in my life has lead to me seeking out local breweries wherever I go, and learning about cocktail making techniques. I’ve now got a beer fridge with a nice variety of different beers, and I’ve put together a nice bar station to make cocktails of many varieties. Check out the recipe for the first cocktail I’ve created, the Iowa Twilight (Thanks to Green Frog Distillery for the excellent corn whiskey. I bought the glass ware from Ranger Up.)

Iowa Twilight

0.5 oz Pom juice

0.5 oz orange juice

teaspoon of simple syrup

splash of grenadine syrup

two dashes of orange bitters

2 oz of corn whiskey (4 year barrel aged Green Frog Corn Whiskey works very well)

maraschino cherry (fork and garnish)

orange peel twist for essence of orange and garis

Speculative Fiction Call: E4 Mafia & Junior Officers

I’m at it again. I’m doing edits and story selection for two anthologies with Henchman Press!

Tales of The E4 Mafia 2

We’re looking for more stories about those corporals, specials, lance corporals and petty officers!

Give us your best speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and urban fantasy) stories about those experience young soldiers, marines and sailors getting tough tasks handled, dodging overbearing leadership, show how and when to ignore their unit’s stodgy processes, and skirting the regulations and rules with the grace of a ballet dancer. A ballet dancer who happens to have access to a ridiculous amount of equipment and weaponry!

Please send your submissions to keith@keithhedger.com with a subject line of “Tales of the E4 Mafia 2”. Submissions are due by 31 March 2025. Please format your story in Times New Roman in 12 point font, and should be between 4000 and 12,000 words total.

Butterbars! Large and (Not So) In Charge

No one starts a job or career knowing everything. Junior officers, whether they’re 2nd Lieutenants or Ensigns, in any military bring some nuance to their position. They have education and are provided with training, taught to lead and make decisions in tough situation. What they don’t have is experience at their job, an understanding of how their unit operates, or the personalities and capabilities of their people. Combined with directives to make decisions, give orders and direct efforts, this can lead to, err, interesting results, to say the least.

What we’re looking are speculative fiction tales centered around these most junior officers and the situations they create or impact. We expect to see absurd outcomes, courses of action that are other than optimal, or humor as these leaders’ directives and orders create chaos, their troops adjust to avoid negative consequences, and somehow they still get the job done!

Please send your submissions to keith@keithhedger.com with a subject line of “Butter Bars!”. Submissions are due by 31 March 2025. Please format your story in Times New Roman in 12 point font, and should be between 4000 and 12,000 words total.

So, if you write military fiction, speculative fiction, or any brand of fantasy or science fiction, send me a story!

Tales of the E4 Mafia has arrived!

I’ve done a lot of cool things in my life. I’ve written stories and published books before. But Tales of the E4 Mafia is different. It was my concept and idea.

So thanks to Leo Champion and Henchman Press for backing this anthology. Thanks to the authors who submitted stories (I got to read a lot of cool stories for this), and thanks to the authors included Dan Kemp Author, Andrew Heymann, Barb Caffrey, Gaige Mosher, Scott Reichek – Author, Josh Hill, Chris Sommerkorn, Michael LaVoice, Charles R. Scott, Gail Sanders and the late Ray Daley.

I learned so much in the process of getting Tales from idea to a printed book delivered to my home. From working with authors, to developing my editing process and learning more about my craft by reading the stories these authors generously submitted. Several authors are first time published in this book, so I had the privilege of sharing that ‘first book’ experience with them.

I appreciate everyone who’s supported myself and the authors in this book, those that have shared our many posts about Tales, and let their friends and communities know about this book. We’re all grateful for your reviews and shares, and comments that have been made to us about our stories.

Thank you!

Tales of the E4 Mafia is Live!

Enjoy the cover of Tales of the E4 Mafia!

It’s finally out! Henchman Press has released Tales of the E4 Mafia!

This isn’t just a big deal because I have a story in the anthology, although Mob Rules is a cool story. Tales is a big deal, because it was my idea, and I did the editing and story selection for this. Well, except for Mob Rules. The publisher accepted my story and provided edits for it. Thanks, Leo!

That means you get to read 11 great stories from a variety of authors from all over the place. Here’s the story list:

Better to Beg Forgiveness by Scott Riechek

Short Supply by Michael LaVoice

Burping the Worm by Andrew Heymann

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise by Charles R. Scott

Mob Rules by Keith Hedger (yes, that’s me)

Into the Night by Barb Caffrey and Gail Sanders

Forever Young by Dan Kemp

Missing Man Formation by Ray Daley

Hardcore by Joshua Hill

Helmet by Chris Sommercorn

The Mafia is Eternal by Gaige Mosher

So, along with getting to read a bunch of cool stories, I learned a lot about the other side of writing. That space between writers and published fiction and the work, effort, and tasks that are required to get an anthology from idea to out in the world, available for people to read. I had to vet stories, make suggestions to authors who have churned their guts out to write a great story, coordinate contracts between the authors and the publisher, act as the information conduit between all parties, and become more than a bit of a project manager. In short, I learned a lot, and it’s my hope that you’ll take a change on us and this crazy thing we created.

If you’re into military science fiction, military fiction, science fiction and have a sense of humor, give Tales of the E4 Mafia a shot. It’s all tales from the soldier’s view, getting things done and solving problems in the way that only experienced enlisted soldiers can.

And if you enjoy the stories, please give us a review!

Tales of the E4 Mafia