Lots of Progress with my Cold War / New Cold War stories…

… it has been nearly a year since I revealed that I was now writing a series of fictional stories and articles with a Cold War theme…

– although I have been quiet, a lot has been happening behind the scenes!

This is the current status of my writing projects:

The ‘Lissa Blackwood’ novels were paused so I could create other stories and materials around the books’ Cold War themes:

Book 1 – “Evil Eye” has been completed to third-draft stage.
Book 2 – currently unnamed – first draft in progress.
Book 3 – currently unnamed – plotted but otherwise not started.

‘Special Investigations Group’ (SIG) short stories: 4 stories based in the same setting as the ‘Lissa Blackwood’ novels have been completed:

* Craig Ballard on a covert mission in Crimea.
* Craig Ballard returns to Crimea.
* Craig Ballard and Lissa Blackwood on covert missions in the Ukraine Occupied Territory, Estonia and Latvia.
* Craig Ballard and Lissa Blackwood on a covert mission in Iceland

The first 3 of 6 short stories set within or around New Cold War nuclear bunkers have been drafted:

* Engineer Jon Barclay discovers a chemical weapon sabotage attempt.

* Hackers cause the release of an Orbital Nuclear Weapon – Engineer Jon Barclay helps to restore control of a UK Orbital Weapons Platform.

* Dr Jane Brady realises a psychotropic agent has been released in the bunker.

* The Start of War – Engineer Jon Barclay struggles to keep the bunker operational – news reaches them that a nearby civil defence bunker is in deadly trouble.

* Two Days after the Attack – a survivor in the bunker puts everyone inside at risk.

* Ten weeks after the Attack – trying to rescue survivors in the civil defence bunker.

A series of circa 33 non-fiction articles about the Cold War. With the exception of the curated links to videos relevant to each topic, first draft articles have been written for topics 1-4. I am currently writing articles for topic 5.

The final list of articles might still change a bit, but these are the current titles:

Topic 1: Assess & Rank Threats: Main Risks during the Cold War

1. WWII: Context for the Cold War that followed.
2. Weaponry: Nukes, Chemical, Biological, Conventional.
3. Photo Gallery: UK Combat Aircraft.
4. Paranoia.
5. MAD and the Doomsday Machine.
6. Nuclear Winter and Omnicide.
7. The British Military-Industrial Complex.
8. Potential Errors and Misunderstandings.
9. Proxy Wars.
10. Espionage.
11. Modern Technology and Computing.
12. Curated links to videos relevant to this topic.
13. Timeline and Examples.

Topic 2: Assess & Rank Threats: Current Perceived Risks – post Cold War

1. Current Technological, Ideological and Geo-Political Threats.
2. Are We Already in an New Cold War?
3. Curated links to videos relevant to this topic.

Topic 3: Public Perception of Risks during the Cold War

1. The Civil Defence ‘Lie’.
2. How Bunkers and Civil Defence Propoganda propagated the Lie of Survivability.
3. Comparison of approaches to the provision of political and military nuclear bunkers in the United Kingdom, United States and Western Europe.
4. Fallout Shelters: Types, Equipment, Survivability.
5. Curated links to videos relevant to this topic.

Topic 4: Understand Threats: Asymetric Warfare Risks in the 21st Century

1. “Little Green Men” – How and why Russia used unbadged troops to invade Crimea in 2014.
2. Proxy Wars taking place in the 21st Century involving Turkey, Russia, China and/or Iran.
3. The role of terrorism in proxy wars and the risk of asymmetric warfare in the 21st Century.
4. The state and nature of 21st Century politics, especially compared to politics at the height of the Cold War (United States, United Kingdom & Russia).
5. Curated links to videos relevant to this topic.

Topic 5: Understand Threats: Modern Warfare Risks

1. Land risks.
2. Air risks.
3. Sea risks.
4. Space risks.
5. Over-reliance on Technology, AI and Automation.
6. Did WW2 De-sensitise Global Society to the Horror of War and Immorality of Killing Civilians?
7. Curated links to videos relevant to this topic.

A lot of progress, and a lot of fun creating these stories and articles – the more I write to Cold War themes, the more I find to write about!