20230109
[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.]
News, according to the second law of thermodynamics, is bad. Entropy, you see?
Monday.
The Fabulous Publisher Babe™ got up way early for an appointment in Seattle. I got up with her and am working way early. Or was. Power went out about fifteen minutes ago. Just came on long enough now for me to power the laptop back up and start typing, after resetting a couple of clocks and blowing out the kerosene lamps. (Made the mistake, after several days, of putting them away last night. Might just leave them out forever at this point.)
Bomb cyclone winds out there over the last several hours. Like sustained above 30mph and gusting to 60. If you know where I live, the geometry of the Cascades makes sense with the weather I get.
Monday.
Might go out for breakfast in a while. It is 657am as I type and my usual joint opens at 8, but looking at the outage map, they have had no power for a while, so I doubt that they are opening this morning. Might look at options in town. Or something else. Dunno.
Won’t say I’m emotionally fragile, because that’s the wrong end of the spectrum. Frustrated (yes, I will admit to being a control freak. Still the least of the four of us in one group, which amuses me and the various wives.) PTSD when the power blinks, because it has been so bad this year.
Previously, power would go out for a bit. Or a few hours. I’ve had two gaps of 21+ hours in the last two weeks. Double plus ungood. On top of the shorter outages, like ten minutes here when I was about to start writing a new novel.
2023. Gonna make some changes, but it will take me time. Chalk that up to my LAST NORMAL DAY being Oct 27, 2022 (reminder, today is Jan 9). And today is not normal.
The Fabulous Publisher Babe™ has determined that Saturday will be her crafting day. The last two have been dedicated to finishing a really cool quilt she started a while back, using material from her dad’s old shirts she stole out of his closet when he died. I do Tai Chi et al on Saturday mornings, so usually haven’t been writing afterwards.
Been trying to make up word count the rest of the week, generally aiming for 5,000/day instead. That has been stressful. Too much to do, with all the other crap. PTSD.
So my new plan is to write 4000+ each day, five days per week. Might write more. Might not. 90-100k per month, instead of 120. I would like to enjoy life, and I’m not really doing that much right now, but all of that is external. And makes this control freak grumpy.
But, in the interests of Anti-Stodgy, I spent Sunday way up north, training with a karate sensei I have known for several years, learning an Okinawan Spear/Pike form that he had to adapt some, because my long-pork boar spear weighs twice as much as his hooked pole, and had edges where his is something like a sai or jitte on the end of a stick. Went well. Learned it quickly, because I was a dancer, once upon a time. Been practicing it at home, plus I have a video of myself doing it.
Next weekend, will go further up north and show Hawk, then work with him on the form we’ve been creating, adding in new elements and figuring out what we’ve been missing.
Monday.
Words. Writer-brain wants to go ahead and start Heather Lau’s series now. A fan who has been ready the previous series and sending me typos and corrections wondered if I have given Zerzan short shrift with the way I ended Yaumgan.
Instead, after a certain passage of time (and I reread the necessary chapters last night to be sure of my timing), Zerzan will descend into a civil war and cause all sorts of damage that will require the Warlord of Yaumgan to sort out.
This will be her story.
And a lot of unexpected faces will show up, at least for cameos. After I finish posting this, I’ll be starting that, with occasional breaks to write all the other things that I produce in a normal month (newletters and short fiction).
Last Stand will start hitting readers in about 14 hours, so I’m looking forward to how folks like Tessa and the gang. Finished #10 last week. Will write 11 and 12 this winter/spring. First Readers have been pleased.
More later, when my humor improves.
Shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Windy 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.