[As usual, two weeks lag here, if you aren’t reading this on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/blazeward). If you’d like your news fresher, and the monthly Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef newsletter, all I ask is a buck to help keep the lights on around here.]
Winter.
I got a new standing desk, so I’m no longer looking into the kitchen when I write, but out the window at the wife’s barn. It snowed last Wednesday. LOTS. Still have some 4-6” of icy stuff on the ground, slowly melting as it has been a little above freezing during the days.
But (and this is the ^fun^ part), the furnace died on Wednesday also. Fortunately, I designed the house well. A single duraflame log in the flat-topped fireplace stove keeps things warm. That’s been useful.
Got lucky and a cancellation meant that the gang came out to fix it Thursday morning. But it turned out they didn’t have the right parts, when it was determined that the control board on the heat pump outside was bad/fried. They came back Friday morning first thing and I had heat again. And Cameron is a cool dude. The whole shop have been great to work with.
Because when I got back home Friday afternoon, it was dark again. (I have a computer panel on the wall for a thermostat.) Called the on-call folks after hours, and explained the situation to Mitch. He suggested a few things, based on me having been paying attention to Cameron when he worked. I was not aware, but my furnace has both a breaker (like in your circuit box on the wall) as well as a 3 amp automotive fuse. That fuse had cooked.
Cameron had put a meter on it early on and found it putting 17 amps through. I went to the auto parts store Saturday and got some more fuses. Blew a 3 amp immediately, so obviously, I have a power/ground issue somewhere. (I don’t do electrical work. Anything else, maybe.)
It’s 1030 am as I write. Tech due 12-4, and has been updated with all the everything. Hopefully, they can find the fault and fix it, because I paid for the more expensive repair the first time and it had been going great. But I got a power surge somewhere.
So I’ve been running through the duraflame logs (plus something called a Tacoma Log, which is not as good, but WAY cheaper). House is okay. I’m just stressed.
Put it this way. By the end of yesterday (the 4th of December), I was two days behind on word count. Slowly chopping away, but stressed. And having a pair of techs in the house soon means my mind is not focused on the writing.
Snow outside don’t help, unless it is melting faster. Just checked the outside thermometer, and it suggests 40F right now.
Yay.
Words.
Hope y’all enjoyed Gunderson. I could explain all the bits and pieces that it hints at, but that’s a three beer conversation, and you’re buying. (heh) I do plan to explore them all in a series of superhero and superagent short stories, going forward.
Still banging away happily on Ollie, book 2. At about 37,000 words, of a goal of 80k. Just introduced a character who is a JTD Mark 3 Assassin droid. Looks like a butler. Two-gun killer. He’ll appreciate it.
Story has little physical violence (so far). Lots of emotional. And the double-crosses keep stacking sideways, as different groups show up to ask what the hell Ollie and crew are up to, and how they can either get rich, or stop him from getting where he intends to.
Messy, which is my goal. This is a messy series, asking complicated questions and not offering pat answers.
Mostly, that’s writer-brain working out a lot of stuff on this side, before shifting over into some intended mega space-battle opera. Wanna start Heather at some point. Soonish, too. Simply got too many more RAN stories to tell, and not enough years to tell them in. (Hell, I can’t wait until I get to the point of Casey’s kids as grown-ups, because I have some fun planned there, as well.)
I figure Ollie takes me about 2 weeks more to finish. Then I will write a novella at the end of the year, either Stephanie or Tessa. Then more. And more.
And you folks, because you support me: What series would you like to see extended or whatevered, as I plan out 2023?
I am on track to publish something like 29-32 books next year, including BSQ and BWP, but also all twelve Tessa and a ton of things getting dumped out of the trunk. And I have had some interesting thoughts on the third (of five) Giles/Taft Station book, so that will happen at some point soon. So more RAN. More of this and that.
What is your favorite series of mine? Almost all of them are set up in such a way that I could extend them, including Star Dragon, Star Tribes, and Longshot Hypothesis. That’s my thing. Bring the story to a plateau, then rest. Phil Kosnett is the successor to Jessica. Heather will be Phil’s. Dunno who hers is, as that’s a matter of how long her arc takes in personal-years. Maybe Junkyard. Maybe someone entirely else.
What would you ask Santa for? 🙂
Hope your Monday is off to a better start than mine. I’m abiding, but that’s about as good as today gets.
Shade and snowy weather
b
West of the Mountains, WA
—————————-
Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!
If you’re reading the free version (which is published two weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.