The Guardians--A Novel

After almost a month, people may wonder what happened. The short, unranting, calm response is that my laptop broke and I didn’t have the plot printed out. This experience has taught me to do two things. One is to buy a secondary laptop. The other is to learn to write using Sydney Sheldon’s method—dictate.
First, I actually bought a netbook and it is turning into my primary “laptop” writing tool. The digital recorder has become my primary writing tool. I wasn’t certain that I could “write” using it. Mostly, I hate my own voice. I have learned that the method does work for me.
As you may have noticed in the previous blogs, I have been struggling with the plot for this novel. Two nights ago, that all changed. I spent some time looking up information about a play on Wikipedia. The play I was looking up was The Phantom. It pulled up the old comic book, which I had no interest in. So, I went through the disambiguation list and discovered the old GHQ Phantom Regiment. Looking at the history of those brave men during WWII, the ideas I had been following and the opening scene I had been picturing finally came together like colliding galaxies.
Since that time, I have already laid down the basics of the plotline. Over the next few weeks I will be breaking out the details. So, what was the idea that came to me? Imagine a navy that had a patrol fleet dedicated to intelligence gathering and interdiction, operating behind the borders of other nations if need be. This task force would not be made up of cruisers or battleships, they would be too slow. What is being explored are fast ships used for scouting.
The opening scene will start with such a ship interdicting a pirate vessel attacking a freighter. There is more to this than meets the eye and from this event comes a spiral of a dangerous threat. What was the image I had that made this so hard to comprehend. The ship would decloak and interdict. Why would a naval vessel be cloaked? An idea of a Phantom Fleet fills the bill quite nicely.

Thank you for reading. Please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on the novels, short stories, poems, and articles that I write. (Note the website will be updated next week, when I have my website backup and the software I use back with my laptop. *signs of frustration* )