News

Okay, it’s like a theme. First I have to give up my old computer, because it’s gone the way of all things tech. Now Blogger has changed on me. For those who are not tech phobic, this would be no big deal. But for those of us who have come only reluctantly into the computer age, it’s stressful. My level of unhappiness at blogger is hard to explain. Let’s just say that I really, really need people to leave my tech alone. Sigh.
The blog I was trying to put up last night, I’ll try to do today.
First, a gentleman from special forces asked why all the special forces guys we meet are crazy or bad guys. I’m not sure Edward qualifies as these things, but of course he is still an assassin and that’s not exactly a good guy occupation. First, I didn’t realize I had a theme going with the special forces guys. Second, I don’t have a plot yet where Anita would be called in to meet active special forces, and help them. They’re special forces, Anita’s help isn’t usually the kind of help they need. Anita is only likely to deal with ex-special forces. People who left, or were asked to leave, not people who are happily doing their job in the highly specialized world of special ops. Anita works with active duty police on a regular basis, but she just doesn’t have much opportunity to see active duty special ops that are good guys and just doing their job. She’s more likely to run in to people that were trained and didn’t stay exactly good guys. I’ve never stated that everyone she runs into was trained as regular soldiers. I’ve only stated, from her perspective, that they are special force trained, not that they were ever legitimate soldiers. Edward, Olaf, and Bernardo are ex-military, but some of the people we run into are trained by military, or ex-military, but that doesn’t make them military. It gives them the skills sometimes, but not always the discipline or the mind set that needs to go with it.
Your idea that the armed forces would welcome lycanthropes into special forces with open arms, well . . . You’ve been, or currently are in special ops so you would know more than I. But in talking to ex-special ops, and military and police, the feeling I’ve gotten is that lycanthropy in Anita’s world would be an automatic medical discharge. Early stage lycanthropy has it all, as far as medical and psych discharges go. For months, you are a danger to yourself and others. You fall down, have worse than grand mal seizures, and shift to an animal form. For God’s sake the military doesn’t even like you to look differently from everyone else, fur, I think that would go against the dress code. But the big thing for me is that lycanthropy is treated by the government and much of the population like AIDS. I think for the military lycanthropes would be like a combination of AIDS and gay for a solider. Maybe I’m wrong. But talking to people who have left the military for being different, I just can’t see the government embracing the furry. Also, remember even if you could get a furry into special ops, their super strength and super everything is highly contagious in animal or half animal form. So if the enemy was attacked, but not killed, you’d end up giving the enemy your super weapons come next full moon.
The military is a wonderful organization but it moves slow. There are still states in Anita’s world where you can kill a werewolf on sight under varmint laws, and if the blood test comes back positive, you don’t see a trial. In a world where your soldiers can be killed in the wrong state for simply being furry, I don’t see the military jumping onto he band wagon just yet. The military has had women in it’s ranks since WWI, or earlier, but in the current conflict in Iraq they have continually stationed women in forward areas but failed to requisition feminine hygiene products. Speaking as a woman, that’s a big oversight. Not to mention that the American military is still using many tactics that haven’t been successful since WWII. The military changes, it does, but it’s slow to seep down to all the edges. Maybe someday lycanthropy will be treated differently in Anita’s world, but in the book I just finished writing, THE HARLEQUIN, we have one young man facing the fact that if he tests positive for lycanthropy he will kiss any sport’s career or military career good-bye. The sport’s world treats lycanthropy like drugs to enhance. The military treats it like a communicable disease. Maybe I haven’t made it plan enough that Anita’s attitude is not the common attitude. That the people who come to the clubs are the exception and not the rule. You’ve actually made me think I need to show it more on stage how the common people feel about the lunarly challenged. Anita is okay with the monsters, but a lot of people aren’t. I guess I haven’t made that clear enough. Sorry about that. I’ll work on it. We also speculate on a rumor in THE HARLEQUIN about what the goverment might be doing with all those lycanthropes in the goverment “safe houses” where once you check in, you don’t check out. But that again would put the goverment and the special team as a bad guy thing. Sorry about that.