A Blunted Sickle - Thread II
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Eric S. Raymond
Banned
I think I speak for everybody when I say we hope whatever is obstructing is you nothing more serious than writer's block.
You have lots of friends and fans out here, if that helps.
It is 2020. We, you avid followers, understand that pretty much everything is making it difficult to write at the moment.
Thanks guys. It's 90% motivation - I've got an idea of what I want to write, but with two small children and a fairly pressurised job finding the motivation to do so is hard. My youngest has also just started school and isn't adjusting brilliantly - acting up a lot, and getting me up at 5am most days - so I'm pretty tired.
My job's safe, everyone is healthy, etc. but mentally it isn't easy - for instance 70% of the people in my department have left since the start of the year, and we're expected to still deliver. What with everything else going on, it isn't the best of time to look for something better either.
Not quite epilogue - I've got about 90,000 words written and still to publish, the story so far goes up to 2004! The end of the war is happening a bit faster than I was anticipating, and needs quite a bit of detail so writing this bit is something of a chore.
I'm in a similar situation and it's probably the most dispirited I've ever felt in a job (outside of actually getting a redundancy notice). I work for a multi-billion pound multi-national where everything's getting cut to the bone. We've never failed a delivery run yet (I'm a transport supervisor) thanks to me and the other lads who work in the office plus a few of our drivers and a friendly local mechanic who've absolutely dug out blind at times to get us through some really close calls but they've cut and cut at our number of spare vans (and spare drivers) until we're almost certain to do it this week, next week at the outside. All because KPIs are apparently the only thing left that any so-called manager in our company gives a shit about. A lottery win or new job just can't come soon enough.
Take all the time you need, real life sadly trumps any internet site and you've got your health and your family to think about. We'll all be waiting when you're ready to start posting updates again!
OMG...
I just realised that this TL has gone on longer then WW2. 7 years and counting, that is some dedication, and I can not help but feel humbled by that...
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Now, there has been too little Yugoslavia on this thread!
Still, I do figure that chances that Yugoslavia (the Royal one) does manage to see 21st century are rather solid ITTL. First and foremost, we did not have the Free-For-All butchery of OTL, which poisoned the relations between the various nationalities, and without 50 years of enforced silence about such things, we will not see future generations poisoned by that. The formation of Croatian Banovina (Autonomous Area) is a great step towards federalization of the nation, as the Slovenes are going to be next, which is likely followed by Macedonians and then Bosnia. Sucks to be Montenegro, though...
We also do not have the 1 million+ casualties, 4 years of damages, with barely a bridge or railroad left standing, factories destroyed or carried off, peasants starving...This all adds up, and while it will never be a world bestriding giant, it still has enough human and other capital to make something of itself. Add in, that we are not going to see Commies liberating people (from their lives and property), building factories where there are no fucking roads, and relatively liberal economic policy, and we could be seeing a an actual decent place to live.
There are downsides however. Major one is that I am not going to be born, (my Great grandfather was an Italian soldier), and Italy is still holding on to Rijeka/Fiume, but considering that city sucks, its all not all that bad. Also, we are going to lose out on some ethnic cleansing, so more Italians, Germans and Hungarians around, which is not bad, since that lot steals a lot less then us.
Now, Italy is planning to chop up Yugoslavia, but there are some issues with that. It is simply too big to attack, Italy might be gearing up for war, but so is Yugoslavia, and trust me, Croatians hate Italians a bit more then they hate the Serbs, Hungarians, Slovenes, or other Croatians (damn Croatians! They ruined Croatia!). Ante Pavelić, an his merry band of butchering idiots (less then 200 men) are just that, idiots who have no chance at getting anywhere near into power, and are likely to be arrested (by Croatians no less!), if they come around. The war is winding down, which means that France is coming back, so that is plenty of war-surplus equipment of various types suddenly becoming availlable for next to nothing.
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Keep up the good work, and take as much time as you need.
I just realised that this TL has gone on longer then WW2. 7 years and counting, that is some dedication, and I can not help but feel humbled by that...
----------
Now, there has been too little Yugoslavia on this thread!
Still, I do figure that chances that Yugoslavia (the Royal one) does manage to see 21st century are rather solid ITTL. First and foremost, we did not have the Free-For-All butchery of OTL, which poisoned the relations between the various nationalities, and without 50 years of enforced silence about such things, we will not see future generations poisoned by that. The formation of Croatian Banovina (Autonomous Area) is a great step towards federalization of the nation, as the Slovenes are going to be next, which is likely followed by Macedonians and then Bosnia. Sucks to be Montenegro, though...
We also do not have the 1 million+ casualties, 4 years of damages, with barely a bridge or railroad left standing, factories destroyed or carried off, peasants starving...This all adds up, and while it will never be a world bestriding giant, it still has enough human and other capital to make something of itself. Add in, that we are not going to see Commies liberating people (from their lives and property), building factories where there are no fucking roads, and relatively liberal economic policy, and we could be seeing a an actual decent place to live.
There are downsides however. Major one is that I am not going to be born, (my Great grandfather was an Italian soldier), and Italy is still holding on to Rijeka/Fiume, but considering that city sucks, its all not all that bad. Also, we are going to lose out on some ethnic cleansing, so more Italians, Germans and Hungarians around, which is not bad, since that lot steals a lot less then us.
Now, Italy is planning to chop up Yugoslavia, but there are some issues with that. It is simply too big to attack, Italy might be gearing up for war, but so is Yugoslavia, and trust me, Croatians hate Italians a bit more then they hate the Serbs, Hungarians, Slovenes, or other Croatians (damn Croatians! They ruined Croatia!). Ante Pavelić, an his merry band of butchering idiots (less then 200 men) are just that, idiots who have no chance at getting anywhere near into power, and are likely to be arrested (by Croatians no less!), if they come around. The war is winding down, which means that France is coming back, so that is plenty of war-surplus equipment of various types suddenly becoming availlable for next to nothing.
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Keep up the good work, and take as much time as you need.
On this forum, there are Americans who don't particularily like their countrymen, Britons whose first post in any topic dealing with the early modern age is 'ooh, but we did some bad things in our Empire you know', probably a few Germans ashamed of being born there and so forth. Is a Croatian not exactly pleased with his peers really so unlikely?
For an ATL within this ATL....
Would significantly fewer Entente soldiers have died if the British/French had waited until April? While certainly the Poles are happier with the invasion at this point, is it being paid for in British/French blood more than if the Poles had waited (and had more of their countrymen freeze to death).
Would significantly fewer Entente soldiers have died if the British/French had waited until April? While certainly the Poles are happier with the invasion at this point, is it being paid for in British/French blood more than if the Poles had waited (and had more of their countrymen freeze to death).
At this point it's not so much freeing Poland but to end the war before the soviets make their moves.
Seeing as the German army basically collapsed almost immediately, I doubt there's really a significant impact on casualties by the earlier attack. While some higher ups might be a bit salty about the Poles forcing their hand, I imagine most people will just be thrilled that they smacked the Reich down so hard.
Driftless
Donor
I took it as: beat the hell out of the Germans while they're on their heels. Don't give them even two extra minutes to regroup, even in a meager fashion.
A North American metaphor: a hockey fight where one player pulls his opponents jersey up over his head and pummels him till the opponent collapses. Not nice, not sporting, but effective...
A North American metaphor: a hockey fight where one player pulls his opponents jersey up over his head and pummels him till the opponent collapses. Not nice, not sporting, but effective...