superblysickgrubbies

[superblysickgrubbies]

Soviet Union Experts

Anyone who knows where I can find in-depth info on cultures, living standards in the various places of the Soviet Union, I'd appreciate it.

[superblysickgrubbies]

Writing The Hot War Novella, Part 1

In the interest of keeping my notes straight and myself on track, I'm gonna start keeping notes on tumblr and answer questions that get sent my way in the hopes they improve the experience.

First, the big three, Plot, Characters, and Setting. Setting, pretty simple. 60s-ish Soviet Russia post-German/Italian victory in WW2. France is in Africa, Reichskommissariats are established, Ireland is whole again, UK is on its own, Scandinavia is between a rock and a hard place. Independent, but definitely worrying. USA has not directly intervened, but elected to support the Germans in fighting off the Soviets during a much more severe red scare. Japan has ceased to be, since America needed not split its forces and could more directly fight the Japanese. China and the rest of the Eastern asian nations are more or less on their own and established something of a mutual bloc for security reasons, though the US has returned to dormancy. Plot, also fairly simple. Germany, now a massive and frankly unstable giant of a state, now is fighting the Soviets again after being fought to a standstill along the eastern border of Poland, the Baltics and the Balkans. Vaguely Korean War-type standoff? Story takes places as the war is declared and the characters are sucked into it. Characters, the meat and potatoes. Currently, I'm sitting with two main characters. Pavel and Rodion, married couple. Pavel, man with more country roots. Served in the war as a young lad, came back with some trauma, currently lives in a more urban area as an admin worker. Rodion, his wife, more urban, kinda tomboy-ish, if the name didn't imply that already. Backstory for her needs to be nailed down, but she's the main character of the story, even though Pavel narrates the first chapter. She takes over after that and administers the story of her enlistment and ensuing waging of war against the German war machine. Her story is, intentionally or not, going to take some inspiration from the stories of Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Mariya Oktyabrskaya.

That should work for now for basic stuff.

Current ideas include a potential Inter-Axis feud, a coup in Berlin, struggles in the Middle East between the USSR and Iran.

I like the Inter-Axis one, that could go a lot of ways.