"With Her Majesty's Coast Guard" post-publication blog · 9:20am Aug 1st, 2022
It's been about two months since I published "With Her Majesty's Coast Guard," and I thought I would take a few minutes to go through my various random thoughts.
First, big thanks to everyone who read, commented, and voted. It's always great to know people enjoyed a story.
Anything below the cut has potential spoilers.
I had a throw-away beat in the prequel, "Luna's Daughters":
Celestia walked a few steps to the left, and pointed at a plinth that bore a marble statue of a tall pegasus mare wearing a life vest and helmet. "For instance, your eldest great-grandfilly, Gale Glider, born three days after Equinox's death, founded the Equestrian Coast Guard."
Celestia bowed her head in reverence. "Gale Glider died saving a colt from a shipwreck. Her body was lost in the maelstrom, but we raised this memorial here." Celestia raised her head and stood silently for a few moments, staring at the long-dead hero. "The colt she rescued created the spell, still used to this day, that cures gangrene in a wounded limb. Over the last nine hundred years, I imagine one million or more amputations have been avoided, thanks to your descendant's sacrifice."
Luna lay down and closed her eyes. "Had I known the price to be paid, I would never have accepted the elevation to royalty."
"Gale Glider's last words remain the Coast Guard's sacred oath for nine hundred and more years now: 'We have to go out. We don't have to come back.' You raised two incomparable foals, Luna, and your lessons rang across entire generations. Your legacy is not Nightmare Moon, your true legacy is this long line of heroes."
I never expected to actually circle back to that. However, I read some books from a few different series about the Age of Sail, and that got me thinking, sometime in late 2020, about actually writing this. I watched Finest Hours to see if I wanted to get into the mood to write this story, and the answer was "yes." (Then I watched Finest Hours three more times, 
.)
I hashed out a few story beats — East End, Venal Gladhoof — and got the skeleton of the story working. I reread Castles of Steel and based the story beat where Gale sends Petty Officer Post Card on a boondoggle to Canterlot so he can see his newborn on an actual WW1 incident where John Jellicoe sent an officer to carry a pointless message to London so he could see his newborn.
Brainstorming with some smart people on Discord gave us East End, who was so much fun to turn into a cockney cliche; but, as they say, "Tropes are Tools," and a cliche character can be fun and can work.
Ultimately, however, this story really languished, and I would go entire months without working on it. Oh, I would look at it; I would think about it; I would re-read what I had written.
But I couldn't find a way to finish it.
Then... then, I re-read Shadow of Saganami. In the Honorverse, Edward Saganami is a Gale-like figure: a hero from the early days of the Star Kingdom who is held up as an example of how an officer should serve. In fact, the naval academy in that series is named "Saganami Island."
But what's relevant here is the book Saganami is a lower-deck episode about cadets on their middy cruise, learning to be officers and to live in the tradition of the service — some at the cost of their lives.
I thought about the character of Officer-Cadet Red Sky, whom I'd thrown in the background of my story. I realized that a story about Gale's heroism wouldn't work; it was too simple, too straightforward, too... too linear.
But a story about Gale's mentoring? A story about Gale's first student, who could carry on her traditions?
A mentor/protege deuteragonist pairing? Everything came together in a hurry after that!
Why was Red Sky the scion of a Noble House, and not some random commoner? A more difficult question, but I felt that having the crushing burden of a House on the shoulders of a sixteen-year-old child would add some more conflict and give us a chance to explore his character, and being the only noble in the Coast Guard allowed for some conflict with the common-born officers. Ultimately, a lot of the story beats I outlined got cut for pacing, but I really liked how Red Sky turned out. I tried to leave the few most impactful beats to illustrate his character.
Further, the symbolism of a second generation of House MacIntosh Hills standing side-by-side with a second generation of the Line of the Moon appealed to me. So, "His Lordship" Red Sky became.
Ahhh, tropes. Reading TVTropes kinda warps one's ability to write — but not, I think, in a detrimental way. Let's try to list just a few of the tropes I used, either with malice aforethought, or accidentally and then identified later:
- Badass Creed
- Beyond the Impossible
- Blue Blood
- Mentor
- Military Academy — although a bit modified
- Plucky Middie
- Royals who actually do something
- Sinking Ship Scenario
- You are in command now
And plenty more I'm sure I'm missing.
And speaking of The Honorverse — there's an exchange in one of the later books (11?) where Honor's bodyguards talk. They're near the flag bridge on her superdreadnought flagship, and know that there's a reasonable chance they, and their charge, will be killed in combat. One of them comments that most other "Steadholders" (think duke/duchess) sit in their office back on the homeworld pushing papers around, not commanding strike fleets.
The older mentor-archetype bodyguard, who's been at Honor's side more than a decade, comments that she's a steadholder of the old style, leading her troops from the front.
That's where the final scene, where Post Card tells Celestia about how the Young Baron saved the passengers and crew of the Safe Harbour, came from.
Tropes are tools — yes, I took inspiration from elsewhere, but I think it worked.
Ultimately, I'm proud of "Coast Guard," although I don't think it hits quite as hard as "Luna's Daughters" or "Redheart's War" did. "Luna's Daughters" is my best-ever idea, and "Redheart" my best execution, and "Coast Guard" is somewhere close to "The Ponies in the Caves" behind them.
I'm not writing much serious stuff; mostly feghoots, stupid comedies, or lewds on my other account. This is because, not to put too fine a point on it, my job is shit and I'm depressed and my IRL sucks. I'm trying to work on a few more of my Big, Serious Fics™️ — particularly the Redheart/Dusky sequel — but I'm not doing much with them because I'm not in a headspace to do them justice. Hopefully soon.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed "Coast Guard" half as much as I enjoyed writing it.
You may not go into the serious stuff very often, but the amount of work you put into each one makes them truly shine. Thanks for the retrospective on this. It's always neat to see someone peel back the curtain and show some of their creative process.
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Thanks! Much appreciated!
You dont do "serious stuff" often but, when you do you kill it every time.
I'd say I even like this one more then Luna's Daughters. Tho Redhearts war is still the top.
The whole mentoring of Red Sky made the wole story. Just for then ending that left the legacy on his house for the people by leading from the front.
Coasties have my utmost respect, and the Honor Harrington series is wonderful.
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That you! Glad you enjoyed.
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I remember reading the climax of Honor Harrington 1 in a layover at O'Hare in 2006, and burned my way through the rest of the series as fast as I could. Reading the 4th "Crown of Slaves" sub-series book right now.
And, indeed, Coasties are heroes par excellence.
Didn't realize you had an alt account like... that! Not sure what to think of it, but probably I'll just put this info on one of the lower shelves in my mind. I mean, I mostly come for your more serious stuff, and considering just how good you're at it, this was a bit surprising. I'm not even sure why, perhaps it's too easy for me to put certain authors into genre "brackets", so to say. Expectations, and all that. But don't take this the wrong way, write what you want!
If this is any consolation (coming from a random nobody), although I'm often in the headspace to write, I just far too often don't have the time or energy to do so. (Yeah, my job is shit too, that's why). And I also have longer stories I should be making progress with, so heart goes out to you, mate.
Even still, I'll be here for Redheart's War II, or whatever it'll be called. Even if it'll be only half as good as the original, I'll still have another favorite.
Just finished this the other day. It was excellent, and I can't wait for the redheart follow up.
Do you find the honorverse worth reading, or that it gets better? I just read the first 100 pages of the first book and I couldn't stop thinking that the quality and clarity of the average fic on here from someone i follow is better.
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Thanks for reading!
And yes, AtomicClop is a separate account so that people can keep different expectations when it shows up in their feed.
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I call David Weber "The best bad writer in America." Is prose is kludgy, and gets better and worse depending on the book. I read him because I love the plots, the worldbuilding, the characters, and ESPECAILLY the action.
I've found the best hack is to get him audiobook -- if your brain futzes out on an info dump, you didn't miss anything, and once the missiles start flying, your brain will come back.