With the recent events in Iraq, as ISIS takes city after city and the Iraqi Army folds like a cheap suit, Hunting in the Shadows and Alone and Unafraid have solidly moved from “speculative fiction” into “alternate history.” It’s a risk that an author takes, writing fictional stories in real-world conflict zones, that events might very well overtake the story. In this case, they have, as a couple of my assumptions in setting up the story have proven erroneous: I figured ISIS would focus more on Syria until Assad was overthrown, and that the IA would show a little bit more spine than it has. Oh, well. That’s why it’s fiction. I’ll still push forward based on the story so far; for one thing, I’m not throwing out 80k words worth of work. It’s still a good story, it’s just happening in a world that’s not quite ours…