Hi. My name is General Madera.

I started writing the short story/ prologue. It could be its own novel. It could be. But, I am working to keep it manageable. Rather, I plan to mercilessly slash it down after I have it all done. It is around ten pages right now. I like editing down. I think this will be interesting. It is fun tweaking words, compressing information, and leaving what is important.

I am learning a lot of things about the world, and what happened. I actually had to take the time to write down a timeline of events. This involved flipping back and forth through a lot of material. It was worth it. I suspect the timeline for this world will become ever more detailed.

Oh, I didn't mention the really interesting part of this story. It is written in first person.... from General Madera's perspective. I started writing it in omniscient third person. Something was bothering me about it, though. It was reading as a really dry summary, in my opinion. I needed to spice it up, give it some personality. And the idea suddenly hit me. We have not met General Madera EVER. We only hear what other people think or say about him.

I rewrote it all. I am excited about this. But it made me realize something about my writing. I rarely use first person. Really. I cannot remember anything I have written in first person. I must have written in first person as part of a class, or something. I use first person in poetry, when I decide to make my sorry attempts. Rather, when I made my sorry attempts. I don't write poetry anymore. I don't really even like to read it.

Sidetrack. So anyway, I have a ten page short story written from General Madera's perspective, and we finally hear some firm information about what happened to the world, how he rose to power, and (drum roll) the Chihuahua rebellion. I am in middle of it right now.

I cannot wait to find out what happens.