Jun 176 minWhat makes a Commodore?By David Flin I mentioned in an earlier article how each warzone acquires one, and generally only one, recognised neutral spot, usually b...
Jun 34 minThe Well-Dressed War CorrespondentBy David Flin We’ve all seen the pictures of war correspondents reporting from some war zone or other. The reporter talks to the camera, w...
May 205 minCoco and the GrenadeBy David Flin In the last article in this series, I referenced the grey African parrot, Coco, the most famous of all the guests of the Co...
May 64 minThere’s Always OneBy David Flin In Belfast during the Troubles, it was the Europa. In Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, it was the Commodore. In Dhaka ...
Apr 183 minCreative typosBy David Flin We’ve all done it. We’ve used a similar word to the one we intended, creating a different meaning. We’ve misspelt a word, a...
Apr 107 minSlang Yer 'Ook By David Flin Alternate History will often present modified terminology for things, to demonstrate how the world is different. Tom Anders...
Mar 135 minWhen Being Right is WrongBy David Flin You expect fiction to make adjustments to historical accuracy because “everyone knows” something different. In an earlier a...
Mar 64 minBig Historian, Little Historian.By David Flin Writing an Alternate History story involves picking a viewpoint. You can use different viewpoints, but generally, they are ...
Jan 184 minThe Write Stuff: Moral red lines By David Flin I confess that this particular article has been inspired by my recent reading of half of a book. It was one of those “reali...
Jan 136 minGoing Over The Top: Hail the Conquering Heroes. Some of them, anywayBy David Flin Charles Lewis was glad to be home. He’d been one of the 380,000 black soldiers who had served in the US Army during the Fir...
Jan 124 minThe Write Stuff: Plot-convenient Villains and Sidekicks. By David Flin We’ve all seen it. The plot requires something to happen, and the villain or a sidekick duly obliges with the necessary act...
Jan 65 minGoing Over The Top: Cry Havoc, and let slip the Pigeons of WarBy David Flin Of the seven American aviators who won the Croix de Guerre in the First World War, six were human. In the Smithsonian Museu...
Jan 53 minVignette Sunday - The Long WaitBy David Flin On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write vignettes on a specif...
Dec 30, 20196 minGoing Over The Top: Live and Let LiveBy David Flin Everyone knows about the Christmas Truce. This was not an isolated incident, although it is the best known. At the start of...
Dec 29, 20194 minThe Write Stuff: The gentle art of killingBy David Flin In the last article in this series, I wrote about the need to be prepared to kill off characters if the plot and tone requi...
Dec 23, 20197 minGoing Over The Top: Whizz-bangs, Mills bombs, and artillery. It was a Silent Night By David Flin It’s perhaps the single best-known incident from the First World War. The unofficial Christmas Day truce of 1914 where sold...
Dec 16, 20195 minThe Write Stuff: Playing Poker with Your ReadersBy David Flin There are people who believe that poker is just a matter of bluff, and that there’s no real skill involved. I like playing ...
Dec 15, 20195 minThe Write Stuff: Character or Cuddly Toy?By David Flin Sergeant Rock McHardman, a combat veteran of 26 action adventure novels without any redeeming features, looked down into th...
Dec 9, 20196 minGoing Over The Top: ConscientiousBy David Flin In the TV sitcom Dad’s Army, it is revealed that Private Godfrey had been a Conscientious Objector during the First World W...
Dec 5, 20193 minBut Won't The Other Side Notice?By David Flin “So, if from 1933, Nazi Germany starts building up its surface fleet, with aircraft carriers, and building lots of landing ...
