When I got invited to play in Bill Webb’s Last Brigade universe, for the life of me I couldn’t come up with a single idea. I’d listened through “Standing the Final Watch” the first novel in the series and still couldn’t come up with anything. Hardcore Military Sci-fi has never been my thing to read or write. But to play in Bill’s universe was an honor, to say the least. The man has created this insane fanbase out of nowhere. What baby author doesn’t want to be part of that? Not to mention having one other place for my name to get out there.
The deadline was looming on the horizon three weeks away and I wasn’t sure if I could actually deliver an acceptable story or not. Bill was nice enough to get on the horn with me and go through more of the universe in detail about the initial fall and some of what was going on in the early years. That’s when it hit me like a lead brick. I didn’t have to write full blow Military Scifi, I could write Post-Apocalyptic where I’m more than comfortable playing in someone else’s universe.
Thus was born, “Billy and the Kid.”
Billy wasn’t from the best of backgrounds to start with, and in the original story idea, he’d been on the ragged edge of depression and insanity when he met Alvena, a homeless Native American girl who he’d befriended in Colorado just before everything went to shit.
This unlikely pair became better family than either of them had ever had, fighting against all odds to make it one more day.
So check out Standing Fast, the next installment of the Last Brigade universe.
Here’s the blurb from Amazon
New voices and new stories emerge in the first-ever anthology of the Last Brigade Universe.
Between the Collapse of America and the activation of Operation Overtime, lived heroes who kept alive the idea of freedom by standing fast against evil wherever they found it. They wouldn’t have called themselves heroes, they were simply people who knew right from wrong and acted on those beliefs, but of course, that’s the definition of heroism.
The stories here represent a cross-section of survivors of the world’s greatest civilization, represented by unforgettable characters who are right at home alongside Nick Angriff and Green Ghost. Find out how the Angriff family got their surname, what happened in Alaska after the nuke went off, and what happened when a group of disarmed police officers decided that chaos wasn’t their style. There are soldiers trying to get home, a dreamer wondering why the stars still look the same, and an old man who mastered the craft of gunsmithing, and used it to save his granddaughter.
Wedding Fun
Now besides my latest release, we had a good bit of fun attending one of my Best Bud’s wedding, where I some how managed to be chosen as the best man for the ceremony. It’s one of those rare occasions that I get to pull out the kilt and all the fancy extras. Even though the chaos of vests not fitting or broken zippers, we had an absolute blast.
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(BTW, I love this picture)
Until next time, Keep your heads up and your pens sharp.
~WJR~