Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is it Stewart who approaches Cally at the bar at the end of the book?
Yes.

2. How much did John Ringo contribute to the book?
John wrote the outline and specified the beginning chapter and the reunion scene with Stewart, in addition to frequent phone calls and email exchanges discussing plot points and other details.

3. How did Julie wind up writing with John?
Julie met John at one of David Weber's book signings in Atlanta. She then started spending a fair amount of time posting to Baen's Bar, including in John's conference. John didn't particularly remember having met her, but started noticing a lot of posts on the Bar that he felt so strongly resembled his own writing style that he was initially confused as to whether he wrote the articles and just didn't remember having done so. So he'd scroll up to the top of the posts and ask "Who the hell is this Julie Cochrane person?" He then started telling Jim Baen that he needed to start paying attention to Julie's writing, that he saw the same things in her writing that Jim had said he'd seen in his writing. At some point, Jim apparently agreed, as he asked John if he'd be willing to do a collaboration with her, which he was. John then approached Julie and asked if she was willing to write _Cally's War_.

4. How did you get into writing?
Julie started writing her own stories in grade school, until she decided she didn't have enough life experience to write good stories. Later, a lot of her writing energy wound up poured into Usenet, particularly talk.politics.guns.Along the way she also did some music composition, although I'm not sure she still has copies of any of it.

5. What's it like to collaborate?
Every collaboration is different, even with the same partner. With _Cally's War_, John was very much a mentor, not just about how to write, but also on dealing with the publisher, dealing with Con staff, and dealing with fans. It has evened out some with _Sister Time_ and _Honor of the Clan_, although John is obviously still the senior author. Julie has to be very careful not to set precedents in John's world that John will disagree with, or that will limit John's future works. The reason _Hero_ is no longer true canon is that John realized recently that the vision he'd had for the universe when _Hero_ was plotted doesn't match his current vision, and he couldn't reconcile the two visions and still write the stories he wants to write in the universe. So it is limiting in that way, but it's also very educational, as Julie can learn more of the universe creation skills from working with John.

6. Do I need to read the other books to understand _Cally's War_ or _Sister Time_?
Julie tried to provide enough explanations that the other books are not strictly necessary to understand these books, but there are a lot of references that will be missed without them.

7. What happened to the sweet Cally O'Neal we saw in the first series?
She spent several years in a war that cost her her mother and contact with her sister and father, and was raised by a former Special Forces operative. In addition, she went to work for the Bane Sidhe, where her body was as much of a weapon as anything she was issued. If she's having to sleep with guys on the job, what point is there being chaste on her own time? In addition, it's a redemption story - she was bouncing around with various guys because she could tell there was a hole in her life, she just didn't know how to fill it.

8. Where do the Cally books fit in the Aldenata universe?
_Cally's War_ is set approximately fifty years after Earth is liberated from the Posleen invasion. _Sister Time_ is set seven or so years after that. _Honor of the Clan_ will be set soon after _Sister Time_. The next mainstream Mike O'Neal book will be several years after _Honor of the Clan_. Events and characters from the Cally books (and from Tom Kratman's books) will be directly referenced in the next Mike O'Neal book.

9. Any advice for aspiring writers?
Write. If you intend to write commercial fiction, look at the genres that sell. Publishers are in the business to make money, by selling what they think the fans want to read. If you write a good story, that's not in a narrow little niche, you have a good probability that SOMEBODY will want to publish it. Don't spend forever editing it, but make sure there are no glaring spelling or grammar errors, and send it out. Then write something new while you wait for feedback on the first one. Publishers want more than one story out of a new author, because they usually don't make any money on the first book. So one of the first questions they'll ask when considering buying that manuscript is "What are you working on now?"

10. I thought Cally was too much of a slut in _Cally's War_, why should I read the other books?
As mentioned above, Cally was trying to fill a hole in her life, and her head had been messed with by the Bane Sidhe shrinks. She doesn't have either of those problems in the next books, and, when not on missions, is fairly domestic, even if she hasn't told her family that her husband is alive. And even on missions, she's started a "pink flu" by refusing to use her body in that way if other options are available, and other female agents have followed her example. And, the events in the later Cally books directly set the stage for events in the next Mike O'Neal book.

11. Why haven't they told Mike O'Neal, Jr that they're alive?
The Bane Sidhe plan to end Darhel domination is very long-range, and telling Mike O'Neal, Jr all of what is happening would be very destabilizing, potentially causing the Darhel to panic and sacrifice some of their members to destroy Earth and other danger spots. Stewart disagrees with this, which is why he didn't join the Bane Sidhe, but he couldn't stomach staying in Fleet Strike either. Which is why he made a deal with the Tongs.

12. Does Julie have any other books in the works after _Sister Time_?
Yes. Julie has contracts for _Honor of the Clan_ with John Ringo and a solo book called _Echoes of Monsters_. There are other books, including collaborations with other Baen authors, under discussion.

13. I thought I heard that Julie was working on a role playing game in David Weber's Honorverse?
Julie was approached by David Weber to write some material for a game set in the Honorverse, and did so on contract. The company that contracted that work apparently did not deliver on the game within the contracted timeframe, so lost the rights to produce a game in that universe, and those rights were offered to another company. The work Julie had done was provided to that other company with the understanding that it was produced for the first company and that the second company would be responsible for negotiating with the first company about rights, since legally they owned the material (but couldn't use it). That was the last Julie heard about the situation.

14. Is this the same Julie Cochrane who has been quoted on gun control?
Probably. Julie was heavily active in talk.politics.guns for many years, and received a number of requests to quote her postings, and has also seen her quotes published in newsletters. The popularity of her postings was one of the factors that convinced her she should try making a living as a professional author.

15. Is Julie an expert shot?
Not really. She enjoys shooting, but isn't a gun expert. She mostly shoots pistols, and enjoys the instant feedback of steel plate racks.

16. What are Julie's interests outside of writing?
Julie enjoys playing World of Warcraft, playing her guitars and other instruments, martial arts (Tae Kwan Do and Hapkido), and reading. Her political advocacy includes opposing gun control and attempting to educate people about the "troubled teen"/therapeutic boarding school industry, and how they scam parents while abusing the kids. She understands and agrees with the need for proper mental health treatment, including inpatient, for those with diagnosed conditions, but there are a lot of scam artists out there, including a number who are actively abusive. Many of these places use techniques reminiscent of those used by the North Koreans and North Vietnamese on our soldiers and airmen they captured, and produce lasting problems with post traumatic stress disorder. We know someone who works or has worked at one of the legitimate facilities where they've had to treat PTSD in patients who had formerly been at one of the therapeutic boarding schools.

17. You mentioned that Julie studies martial arts, what rank is she?
Julie is a brown belt in Tae Kwan Do, she has had several injuries (outside of class) that have slowed her progress towards her black belt.