About THE RED NIGHT
The WHAT IF IF Development of the Story
‘What if?’ is a two-word question that can drive imagination.
It certainly does mine.
[The following paragraphs are important from my story conception—framing—perspective, and a bit of ‘how I form story ideas’ info. Scroll down to get to ABOUT THE RED NIGHT if you want to bypass it.]
Much of my reading—like where the following quotes come from—is part of what ‘informs’ my ‘what if’ story planning in several genres, including developing THE RED NIGHT.
“It seems to me that one of the truths about history that needs to be made clear to a student or to a reader is that nothing ever had to happen the way it happened. History could have gone off in any number of different directions in any number of different ways at almost any point, just as your own life can. You never know. One thing leads to another. “Nothing happens in a vacuum. Actions have consequences... And just as we don’t know how things are going to turn out for us, those who went before us didn’t either. It’s all too easy to stand on the mountaintop as a historian or biographer and find fault with people for why they did this or didn’t do that because we’re not involved in it, we’re not there inside it, we’re not confronting what we don’t know--as those who preceded us were.” –David McCullough, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For
“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation. Now, it’s long been understood very well that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it’s possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited: that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage-can. At this stage of history, either one of two things is possible: either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community-interests, guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others; or, alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control. As long as some specialized class is in a position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole and, by now, that means the global community. The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass-communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely, to impose necessary illusions, manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena. The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival.” –Noam Chomsky
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-rimmed tide rolls everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” –W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
“I am a victim of introspection. I am a victim of contrasts, of shadows, of sounds, of voices. Everything is red now.” –Jean Rhys, from Good Morning, Midnight
Again, my varied, often eclectic reading—some of which contrasts with my opinions and beliefs—is essential to coming up with stories to tell and how to develop, plan, and write them. And when I read something that strikes me profoundly, I often wonder… What if?
Some ‘background on me’ context:
I served in the U.S. Navy as an Operations Specialist in the pre-Global-War-On-Terrorism (GWOT) era when my profession’s mission, my role in a command’s Combat Information Center, was to fight and defeat the Soviet Union’s naval and air forces: Anti-Submarine, Air, and Surface Warfare. Secondary threats were from China and regional non-state actors. Along with the warfighting disciplines, I had specific intel duties related to regional threats when deployed.
Fast forward to 2009, when I turned my–and my consulting company’s—focus to writing and publishing. Which began with working with high-ranking veterans of the U.S. military, who asked for my help in writing and publishing their books. That plugged me back into the military and national security mindset with men and women who had served at the highest levels in the military, our nation’s national security and intelligence apparatus, and senior presidential administration positions in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Directorates.
Post-9/11, the GWOT became paramount. But over several years, as that fostered ‘un-winnable’ (given the circumstances) situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, I had—and continue to have—discussions with my contacts and clients with deep experience, knowledge, and geopolitical concerns… that we had been ‘sleeping’ on countering growing Russian and Chinese militancy. Present geopolitical situations prove that truth.
One day, the phrase, a red night popped into my head, envisioned as a bloody, revolutionary moment. That night of tragic events triggers an epic shift and transformation in the people experiencing it. ‘Red’ also, for me—a child born during and veteran of the Cold War—always connotes with the Soviet Union.
And my storyteller’s ‘what if’ formed.
What if the United States came out of World War Two victorious but beaten up, weakened, and not the world’s first superpower?
What if the Soviet Union was equally battered but had accomplished what the U.S. had failed at?
What if the Soviets managed to capture—and use for their own purpose—the most brilliant Nazi scientists and advanced weaponry, including the recent, too late for the Nazi military to deploy, first atomic bombs. In this alternate history, the U.S. MANHATTAN PROJECT had failed, while the German Waffenamt, Army Weapons Agency’s nuclear weapon program, URANPROJEKT, succeeded, albeit too late for the Germans.
What if the Soviet Union then stopped helping the Allies defeat Nazi Germany and pursued Stalin’s ulterior—ultimate—agenda to take control of Europe.
This led to the development of the alternate-history story concept and premise for THE RED NIGHT.
What follows is:
The initial concept.
The refined premise.
An evaluation of why the story concept and premise works (and initial key story elements).
ABOUT THE RED NIGHT
A PULP NOIR ALTERNATE-HISTORY STORY:
Pulp noir, a subcategory of crime fiction rooted in the early to mid-20th century magazines (primarily for men), spotlights lone, hard-bitten protagonists confronting overwhelming odds. While these one-man armies lack extraordinary abilities, they persevere through grit and street smarts against all odds and enemies. Influential authors such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain helped define the terse prose, cynical worldview, and emphasis on survival that continue to shape modern crime and thriller narratives.
THE INITIAL STORY CONCEPT:
The story is set in an alternate 1948. The protagonist, John Devel, is a lamed World War Two veteran—who returns to his former job as a police detective —whose post-war years have not gone as he’d hoped. The same could be said for America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Here’s some context:
The defeat of the Nazis resulted in an even greater loss of American lives. The United States’s MANHATTAN PROJECT and OPERATION PAPERCLIP failed in 1945. The Soviets got all the brilliant German scientists and advanced weapons the Nazis were on the verge of deploying against the Allies. With the advanced weapons, Stalin destroyed Japan and neutered China, returning that country to fragmented, conflicting factions. He then rolled the dice to take control of Europe, too. And won… also seizing the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, northern Africa, and the Suez Canal.
Taking massive losses, American forces withdrew from Europe and the Pacific in a Dunkirk-esque exodus to Great Britain and Australia, which—with abandoned U.S. Forces embedded—became regional redoubts to stand off the Red Wave.
1946-1947 Stalin consolidates his gains. Great Britain and Australia remain balanced on the knife edge of invasion.
In America, the catastrophic turn of events results in shortsighted, war-weary, renewed isolationist thinking and an extreme ideology that grows and spreads quickly. Its leaders fearmonger their way into government, crippling—in some instances, eliminating—democratic principles and enabling an authoritarian structure. Soon, government controls initiated during the war grew stronger. An even more restrictive Prohibition returns, banning alcohol, and now includes certain music and literature.
By 1948, America is nearly three years into World War 2.5 against the Soviet Union and on the verge of a Second Civil War. To remain in power and control the unrest, America’s new extremist leaders cease their meager Cold War operations and enlist the help of the world’s only superpower, the Soviet Union.
And so, the Red Wave crosses the Atlantic to America’s shores.
On what became known as The Red Night, the Soviets brutally put down the rebellion within America. American leaders are now puppets controlled by the Soviets.
With that foothold, a subversion of Canadian democracy begins with an intent to annex Canada into a new America-centric Western Bloc.
The Soviets are determined to use America’s industrial base to serve their purpose and for America to be the staging area for further invasion. First, Mexico—an addition to the Bloc—then Central and South America, where rumors came—in intermittent pieces—about high-ranking Nazis, escaped German scientists, including followers and disciples of Kurt Blome, director of Blitzableiter (Lightning Rod), the Nazi biological weapons program, Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz Angel of Death, Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz, leading a team of geneticists and the most devout hardcore SS troops, who skulk in hidden bases.
But a flicker of resistance remains in America, and a cadre of men and women still stand. As Soviet airships patrol America and NKVD (the Soviet Secret Police) Istrebki—Extermination Battalions—control the cities and towns, the American Underground digs in for a long fight to reverse the fall of the United States.
And one man who came home from the war, not wanting to ever fight again—who wants no part of ‘resisting’—finds he must. All because he helped a woman he shouldn’t have. And she holds secrets both the Underground and the NKVD want.
What follows is a refinement of the foregoing concept.
THE PREMISE
In an alternate 1948, the world veered into a dark and treacherous reality. As THE RED NIGHT’s protagonist, John Devel, reflected on the recent world war and summed it up:
“Hitler was a Section 8, an angry-child psycho who hurt German military efforts more than helped. By early ’42, OPERATION BARBAROSSA had largely failed. And after the war, it came out that he’d assured his High Command that: ‘We have only to kick in the front door, and they will come tumbling down.’ But Russia ain’t France. The Reds held and, despite the slaughter, drove German forces back.
“After that, Hitler let his Prussian generals run things without his interference. So, D-Day was a ‘goat rope.’ I’m a city boy, and my buddy from Texas, Charlie Nunsach, explained what that meant. Yeah, ‘Nutsack’ had it right. June 6, 1944, was FUBAR. Though we managed to get a foothold—barely; the Nazis were better prepared in Normandy than intel claimed—shit went downhill from there. The German Luftwaffe and air defense were stout against the 8th Air Force. Once we established the beachhead and most of the invasion force moved inland, Rommel’s army rolled up our flanks and tore our ass up.
“Losses so bad then and after, Ike had to bring Black troops in to beef up depleted frontline combat units. That riled a lot of guys, not just grunts like me… unit commanders at all levels, but fuck, they fought as good as any white man. Some better. One replacement, Hammond Jones from Wrens, Georgia… we nicknamed him ‘Ivory’ though most long-timers didn’t want to get close with anyone. When he smiled, he had a rack of teeth that looked like piano keys. A likable kid who had to grow up fast.
“Ivory saved my butt twice; the second time when we were out of ammo and shagging ass from those sick, sadistic fucks in the 36th Waffen Grenadiers, fucking SS, The Black Hunters. Ivory tied off my stump, carried me and what was left of my left leg—why he brought it along, he couldn’t explain—twenty bloody miles through the Marais Vernier marshes and peat bogs to an abandoned aide station. Got me properly bandaged and jabbed with a couple of syrettes of morphine; I’m damn happy he found it, the real stuff—whoever was there must’ve bugged out quick. And then got me on one of the dinky-assed French Resistance extraction boats at Étretat. I learned later he died there before he could get out. The fucking Black Hunters. I teared up when I heard that; Ivory was a good man.
“I was in Britain, still getting used to my new leg, when the Soviets took Berlin. Shit, the Reds were rolling everything and everyone up by then. Couple of months later, I was on a ship back home when they dropped that superweapon called ‘A’ bombs on Tokyo and Shanghai. For a while, everyone worried they’d drop one on Britain… but what they learned in Asia—in Japan and China—about radioactive fallout… changed their mind. They didn’t want that shit too close to their backyard or over their conquered territories. Besides, they knew even with what was left of the Allied forces occupying Britain, there wasn’t anyone left to threaten them. The fuckers….”
—John Devel
Depletion of manpower and the failure of THE MANHATTAN PROJECT and OPERATION PAPERCLIP led to a Soviet-dominated Europe, the savage destruction of Japan, and America’s descent into chaos. The failed war effort to restrain the Soviet Union, growing isolationism, and the rise of extremist ideologies have reshaped the United States into an authoritarian police state where fear and silence rule.
Once the last bastion of freedom, America now bends to the will of Soviet overlords, its government little more than a puppet regime. Soviet airships loom over its cities, the NKVD’s Istrebki death squads enforce brutal order, and whisperers of underground resistance are met with execution. But in the darkened alleyways and shadowed corners of a Gotham-like New York City, corruption and crime thrive, and the war isn’t over.
In this new world, survival is everything. And for some, that means knowing when to fight, when to hide… or when to run… if you can get somewhere, the Reds can’t find you.
__________________________
THE RED NIGHT
A murder. A mistaken victim. A man no one wants. A woman too dangerous to live.
John Devel is a reader… a thinker… but a man without a future. Once a soldier, once whole, now a cane-wielding detective relegated to the department’s dead-end cases. His war wound makes him a liability, and his refusal to bend to the new order makes him a pariah.
When he’s assigned a routine murder in the city’s seaport district, he doesn’t expect the crime to be anything more than the usual underworld violence.
Then, he meets Ava Hammond.
Ava sings and bartends at an illegal nightclub, one of the few places where people still cling to the vestiges of the old world—where jazz, liquor, and insurrection mix equally. She’s seen things and heard whispers, but she keeps her head down, knowing that the wrong glance or the wrong word could make her disappear. When John questions her about the woman Ava saw murdered on the docks near the club, something doesn’t sit right. He understands Ava regrets calling it in; she’s closemouthed because she sings and slings booze in a dive that operates outside the law. And the case is supposed to be one-look-and-done. Just another casualty in a city that’s forgotten what justice looks like.
But Ava wasn’t supposed to witness the murder.
She was supposed to be the one taken.
Killing the woman was a mistake—in many ways—in the botched abduction meant for Ava. Her death complicated things for influential men who don’t like complications. Someone wants Ava. Someone powerful. And once determined to avoid any cause larger than himself, John finds himself caught in something bigger than he ever imagined.
Working on the story has also led to the development of a soundtrack. You can listen to the first four songs here:
WHY THE STORY PREMISE WORKS
A SUBVERSION OF GENRE TROPES & KEY STORY ELEMENTS:
1. A Noir Detective Who’s More Than Just a Hardboiled Cliché
John Devel isn’t just a brooding ex-soldier with a past—his injury isn’t just for show; it shapes how he moves, fights, and survives in a city that chews up the weak. His cane is more than a crutch; it’s a weapon, a shield, and a reminder of the war he left behind but can’t escape. Unlike the classic noir detective who operates in moral shades of gray but ultimately adheres to a personal code, John starts as a man who’s lost his sense of purpose. Only when he realizes that looking the other way will get Ava killed does he choose to fight again.
2. Not the Femme Fatale You Expect
Ava doesn’t fit the stereotypical look and isn’t the typical doomed love interest or a manipulative femme fatale—she has her own agency, moral dilemmas, and secrets. She wants to sing the music her father loved and introduced to her, which she loves. At first, she seems like another desperate soul in the city’s underbelly, but what she knows could change everything. She holds a key piece of information buried deep within her past that could bring the entire Soviet machine in the U.S. to its knees. She just doesn’t know it yet. And the Soviets—and their American collaborators—will do anything to keep it that way.
3. A Murder Mystery That Becomes a War for Survival
What begins as a simple homicide case becomes a full-fledged conspiracy. As John digs deeper, he uncovers a secret network of underground operatives, an assassination plot against one of the regime’s most powerful enforcers, and a betrayal so deep, it threatens the fragile balance of power in the city.
SUBPLOTS & TWISTS: SORRY, HIDDEN DETAILS HERE
THE STORY HAS:
1. Thematic Depth
The story isn’t just about murder and corruption; it’s about survival in a world where ideals are dead, where the line between collaborator and patriot is razor-thin, and where even the smallest act of defiance can have deadly consequences.
2. A Noir Aesthetic Rooted in a Larger Political Thriller
The neon-lit streets of a newly evangelized Gotham-like New York—a thin skin over underlying rot—Soviet airships patrolling the sky, the suffocating grip of Soviet rule, and the decaying grandeur of a lost America—all elements that build a striking, immersive world.
3. Character-Driven Conflict
John’s journey from a man just trying to stay out of trouble to someone willing to risk everything for Ava (and the truth) gives the narrative an emotional core beyond the action and intrigue.
4. Subverted Expectations
Instead of the detective solving the case and walking away, he finds himself pulled into something much bigger, forcing him to become part of the fight he’s spent his post-war years avoiding.
5. A Compelling Logline
“Chivalry ain’t dead... but in this city, it’s ugly, mean... and bleeding out in a back alley.”
WHY THE LOGLINE WORKS:
1. Captures the Core of John Devel
It reflects his reluctance to play the hero but also hints at his moral code—he’s not a white knight, but when forced to act, he does so in his own rough, unpolished way.
The phrase ‘ugly and mean’ sets the expectation that his version of chivalry is far from romanticized—it’s savage, driven by necessity. ‘Bleeding out in a back alley’ signals that it often comes at a cost. It defines John’s reluctant, hard-edged form of heroism.
2. Noir & Hardboiled Tone
The phrase ‘in this city’ grounds it firmly in the urban noir setting—this isn’t just a general statement about chivalry; it’s about a specific, brutal place and the moral decay of John’s world. The phrasing feels streetwise, cynical, and world-weary, fitting the hardboiled detective tradition.
It aligns with classic noir antiheroes like Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer, men who aren’t looking to save the world but end up protecting someone because they can’t walk away.
3. Foreshadows Conflict & Character Arc
John does not want to be a protector, but when he does step up, it isn’t clean or noble—it’s messy, violent, and begrudging.
It implies moral ambiguity. Again, he’s not the shining knight but one of the few left willing to fight in a world full of traitors and cowards.
4. The Poetic Noir Touch
‘Bleeding out in a back alley’ adds a visceral, tragic edge. It tells us that old-school values like honor and duty are nearly extinct in this world—dying, if not already dead.
5. Creates an Instant Mental Image
A reader instantly sees the world: dark alleys, corruption, a place where most good men are compromised or broken.
It paints John Devel as one of the last good, unbending men still standing, even if he’s barely holding on.
CONCLUSION
THE RED NIGHT isn’t just another noir detective story or alternate-history thriller. It’s a believable, unique story-world with a plausible, tense, character-driven narrative that weaves murder, espionage, and political intrigue into a brutal, fast-paced plot. Including favorite tropes (differently and deftly handled), a reluctant but compelling hero, a woman whose past holds the key to everything, and a world teetering on the edge of chaos make it an original, gripping entry into the genre.
More to come as I continue to work on this story.