The Spindles Fairy Tale is finished! In all I wrote 4,303 words today, but the final word count of the story came out to be 3,825 words. Its title is now “Final Liberation.” This is a play on a few things, the first being that this takes place around the fifth anniversary of the liberation of Hong Kong at the end of World War II. It also is in reference to the liberation of the damsel in distress in the original story, and a liberation of the mind on the part of the main characters, all of whom are wounded veterans who get one last hurrah together as they go to save said damsel.

The Spindles anthology wants to have a focus on minorities and disabled individuals, and this tale managed to do both. The main characters are a diverse cast of individuals, many of whom received crippling injuries in the fight against Japanese occupation forces. The multiracial aspect of the cast reflects the multicultural effort that was involved in the defense of Hong Kong and its occupation resistance efforts. The cobbling together of remnants of Canadian, British, Indian, and Chinese units into teams of guerrilla forces led to the establishment of units that had no racial divide, a first in the British military but one that stuck following the war. At least in Hong Kong, from what I’ve read.

If nothing else this tale provided me with an excuse to read about a battle I had never heard of before. Some of the stories I encountered. There was brave Captain Mateen Ansari of 7th Rajput Regiment, who was tortured to the point of losing his legs for failing to renounce allegiance to the Queen, and who was later executed for his efforts to help fellow prisoners escape. And then there was Brigadier John K. Lawson of the Canadians who, after his headquarters was overrun by the enemy, gave his last orders over radio before facing the enemy with a pistol in either hand. His last stand was so heroic that the Japanese buried him with full military honors, a rare event. And the countless others who fought, bled, and died together in December of 1941 or in the following years while imprisoned.

Thank you all for your service.

With that said, April comes to a close with only one story completely finished. This was a disastrous month for writing. Much of it was beyond my control, but I’ll take the blame for a portion of it. Even on the worst of days there is always time to write. I just need to be better about finding that time and capitalizing on it, especially as we go deeper into Spring and outdoor gardening activities begin to take up more and more time.

• Blog Posts: 488
• Planning and outlining: 000
• Short Fiction: 4,303
• Novel Fiction: 000
• Salable words: 3,825

Total Fiction for Month: 13,628

Total Salable for Month: 3,825

Total Fiction for Challenge Year: 129,477

Total Salable for Challenge Year: 32,534