APB: LibertyCon 2016
Odd question for the general public.
Yes, this is an APB, not an AAR.
I recently asked this on Facebook and X, and I’ve had some interesting conversations lately. So, it’s time to bring it to Substack.
Ahem…
At LibertyCon, 2016 (my first), there was a panel on military SF.
Author Peter Grant opened by stating that you shouldn’t write MilSF unless you had served in the military.
At the time, on that very panel, he was sitting right next to David Weber, who may be the best known MilSF author of the last 30 years ... Who, IIRC, never served.
So, what happened next?
No, seriously, I’m asking you. Does anyone know what happened next? I fell asleep. I was coming down with a case of shingles at the time. Or, as Lou Antonelli said, “Forget shingles. You had full roof tiles.”
(And last year, I came down with legionella and pneumonia during LibertyCon, keeping me from going entirely. Yay!)
It sounds strange to ask what happened after so long, but I usually put it out of my mind. I tried looking for it on YouTube, but I guess Liberty goers don’t record panels? Either that or YT buries it even in searches.
Sure, I have my own opinion on the matter.
Tom Clancy exists—never served.
Unless I missed part of his CV, Blaine L Pardoe never served.
David Weber, again, hasn’t been doing too bad in the MilSf department.
Hell! I’ve had people come from police families and leave reviews insisting that I was either from a family of cops, or was one. That never happened. I only used a lot of research and a little common sense.
But about this panel… Personally, all I want to know is how that conversation went. Because between Peter Grant, David Weber, and David Drake (also on the panel) I figure it would have been interesting.
At the very least, it would be lively.
Again, feel free to ask me anything in the comments. If you get an email, you can ping me through the comment button at the top.
And please, feel free to buy a book, or leave a book review. Either would be greatly appreciated.
Declan Finn: This is my best recollection of what happened. Grant got gently and firmly corrected by a chorus of veteran authors, even before Weber got to reply. (If I remeber correctly. Kacey Azell was one of them and She was legit angry about the comment but managed to remain gracious and civil.) In fact, half of the vet authors had done beta reading/consultation for Webber. One swore he never would have published without Weber, who knows the ins and outs of writing novels, "which I did not learn in the military."
Another comment: " you are lucky John Ringo is not here. He would spend 3 hours telling you in triplate just how wrong you are." (somewhat paraphrased)
Weber himself was a Statesman about the whole thing and talked about the kinds of research you needed to make if you did not serve and wanted to write Mil SF. He also gave much Credit to his beta readers and fans who keep his fiction grounded in the kind of detail that fosters suspension of disbelief.
Basically that one comment stole the content of the entire panel. Granted, they found quite a bit of leeway in their various reactions.
I wish I could remember the whole Thing. But my attempt to record the panel (audio only) just ran out the battery on my phone. What existed was corrupted.
I’ve never served. I have 3 series that are milscifi or mil fantasy. It’s not hard to research, talk to veterans or research the doctrine.
The hard part is not over doing it.
One of my series is set in 1953, I have obviously never served in the army then. But the military doctrine is easy. The equipment is known lots of videos of it.
Saying you should restrict writers to only writing what they have experienced would limit so much of the great fiction. Heinlein would never have written stranger in a stranger land, there would be no Jurassic Park, my thought is write what you can envision, the world is more exciting that way