"The Wrath of the Wendigo" Points the Way

Organizational lessons from a "fictional" real cool zone

I take a fiction sabbatical whenever I begin a novel’s actual writing phase.

In 2022 Clay Martin was working on Wrath of the Wendigo when I sent him a sample chapter of (my now released) Faction: With the Crusaders - what is now the first chapter. I bought it upon release but, as I was working on my own book, no readie!

For more than a year I have been staring at this cover.

Last week, with my book released, promo copies shipped, and finding myself blessed with a little free time, I sat back in my comfy chair and read the Wrath of the Wendigo across two days. It deserves re-reads; several, in fact. Clay's outstanding polemic hands us the keys to a practical, replicable organizational model - no surprise, given his former profession and mindset.

Be the reason the forest is haunted

ORGANIZATION is the element that our people need guidance with right now, for which we have the greatest mental block. Clay’s Wolf Lodge concept makes for an excellent template, and the operational concept is sound STORY connects with people better than THEORY; emotion is all-powerful.

Stylistically, Clay's writing is lean and crisp, and describes the setting, characters and action precisely while avoiding excessive verbosity or extraneous, floral description. He knows his audience and what to focus upon to accomplish his goal. It pleases me to see another writer give the finger to the academic writers' workshop excessively-extrapolated "Show, Don't Tell" "rule" (a CIA op, for the record) Wendigo General Eric Hansen relays the majority of the story via dialogue, as did Edmond Dantès and the Abbé Faria.

"Retvrn to tradition" includes 19th century writing convention. It's a very comfy way to convey information vs. turning a deceptively-light polemic into a 1,600 page tome that never gets finished - one of the original, deradicalizing purposes of Show, Don't Tell from the old days.

Wrath of the Wendigo is on my must-read recommendations for all of Our Guys, from theorycels to ChudChads, and even the teenage boy reading list beside Dune and Starship Troopers. Yes, it's that good.

Buy Wrath of the Wendigo; read it, re-read it, and take notes.

KD