Jaycee Woods

One of the key milestones to be drafted in my Boudica and The Butcher novel is the attempt on The Butcher’s life by the assassin Mata. I hadn’t worked out the scene as I expected that it would be hard for her to get to him as he is surrounded by his army.

My placeholder idea was that she waited as a sniper within Pilgerruh for him to raid into the city personally, but that seemed too improbable. Also in a war, is that really an assassination attempt or just hiring a skilled sniper?

I have a short story drafted already in which the rebel leader Cleaver blackmails/hires her to assassinate The Butcher in exchange for her life, passage out of Pilgerruh where she was unexpectedly stuck, and gold.

Later, I woke from a dream with a better alternative as it is more plausible and adds to the horrific aspect of the war. To infiltrate The Butcher’s camp, she allows herself to be captured and enslaved by a Union raider into the city. He doesn’t like her attitude; so instead of keeping her for himself, he turns her over to be a camp slave for labor and subsequent auction. The sale of female slaves at auction by The Butcher helps him buy extra supplies for his army beyond allocations from the government.

Previously with characters like Boudica, Olga, Ella, and Asclepia, their storylines risk romanticizing slavery for the 50-Shades-Of-Whip-Me-Spank-Me market. Mata’s experience will be brutal as she is unwanted, forced to labor with the male slaves on the growing wall around the city, and destined to be sold at auction to a Union civilian unfit to fight. Her later attack on The Butcher would be more than fulfilling her deal with Cleaver but also a personal response to her mistreatment.

After the unsuccessful assassination that seriously injured The Butcher, Mata’s punishment is to be execution by flaying, her skin will be slowly cut away until she dies. After, her corpse will be fed to pigs so that her remains become pig sh*t.

As the Apache didn’t practice flaying, Chief won’t be the executioner (I can’t remember what western I saw with a memorable flaying scene by some Indians; maybe the series “How The West Was Won” (1976-1979) with James Arness?). However, as flaying was a medieval European practice, I will follow that cultural model.

This is horrifically brutal? Thanks, it is a civil war so I am trying for as much horror as I can think of. As Mata grows to an extended subplot within the novel, she will be portrayed increasingly sympathetically as had The Butcher. All that leading to her failed attempt on his life and her execution. By putting two sympathetic characters into a deadly conflict, I will try to frame the war as the villain with the ideas leading to the war as the ultimate villain.

The point? As our contemporary civilization races towards a cataclysmic plunge, there is no person or group of people to fight in order to course correct as the cause are evil ideas that infect corrupted minds. The fight should be a battle of ideas, not fists nor civil war, and both sides are effectively unarmed due to shared flawed premises. It isn’t meaningless that college professor Gideon Sheridan becomes The Butcher; as he failed to fight in the battle of ideas on campus, he later had to fight in the battle of blood.

Extra point: I already have a capture short story drafted (working title “Camp Slave”) that I can repurpose during editing by inserting Mata’s name, perspective, and goals. This is why I took the break to draft world building short stories; so far three are being folded into the novel and four others created back stories for characters in the novel. The unallocated world building short stories will be used as teaser promotional offerings before the novel is finalized.