20230306
[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.]
Finished Corsac #3 on Friday. (YAY!!!)
Also got a chance to incorporate some of the Tuckerizations from the Corsac #1 kickstarter, including a fun character in book three.
Originally, I’d hoped to be able to go back and change some of the names of ships in #2, but all the folks that took that level are friends, so I wanted to do something special. Some went into 3. Some will go into 4.
Brighter news: I spent three hours in the coffee shop yesterday loading Bookfunnel libraries for folks, so hopefully everybody got to spend all night reading Flight of the Corsac Fox before they stumbled off to bed too late to get up too early this morning. (Sorry not sorry.)
If anyone had problems getting their files, please lemme know. All new functions and tools at my end, and I’m still learning them. (And hoping I did it right, but I figure I’d have gotten cranky emails first thing this morning otherwise.)
Working on my new spy series character’s “origin” story today. Got about 5k done. Feels like it will come in around 10k. Will publish it at some point, and folks at the $5 level will get to read it in April.
Matt’s already posted the themes for Thrill Ride Year Two, so I’m planning what I’ll write. Gadgets just screams James Bond, which what set me to thinking these thoughts. Adventure and Lone Wolves simply reinforced it, so I’m planning three submissions with Chace, plus a Fatima story for Sisters-In-Arms.
Eventually (like two years from now), I’ll get the rights back to the first block of Fatima stories, which will be a novel-length collection. The goal is to do something similar with Chace, so I have a wide and deep Action-Adventure/Thriller catalog for readers. And I’ll probably end up writing several novels in the genre, if things work out.
I’ve already done something similar with both Harper Morita and Handsome Rob, so the big step is moving it all out of the realm of SF and putting it in the present tense and the modern world.
In fact, I sat down over the weekend to reread some old Raymond Chandler, just because Marlowe has such Voice about him, in ways that few writers did in those days. (Or even today, frequently.)
Voice is when the character has opinions on what they see, instead of merely cataloging the room. Adverbs instead of just adjectives, if you will. Marlowe had catty things to say about everybody and everything, including himself. Chace isn’t that bad, but this origin is me feeling my way through his world. His dynamic. Even his signatures.
And enjoying myself as I stretch into new territory.
Not sure what project I’ll start next. Actually, that’s not true. Need to write a bunch of short fiction. The next Boundary Shock Quarterly (Cyberpunks) is a story adjacent to the Owen Castle you’ve met. He appears, but it’s Geoff, a character based on an old friend.
The story due is “Tramp Freighter Captains” starring Hrothgar, and I plan to write a sequel for the issue after that “Science Fiction Holidays,” except that I’ll be focusing on Diwali instead of Christmas, because I’m expecting to be flooded with Xmas and Hanukkah stories, but I have warned folks that fantasy elements will get them bounced immediately. (Not sure how many of them think I’m bluffing, but we’ll find out. Might end up having to write more stuff myself to fill out the issue. Not the first time.)
Then whatever I send you folks after Chace. Dunno. TBD. Stay tuned.
Got Heather #1 done. Need to write more. Need to write Javier #13. Need to write Corsac #4. Need to write Last Stand #12. (Thank you for the lovely reviews on Last Stand. Some folks don’t get it. Or they are too wound up in the original to actually watch it and notice all the icky bits. I had that discussion with someone the other day, when I asked how long ago they watched the series. Many, MANY years, in her case.)
Hope your Monday is nice. Pissing down rain all morning. Went out for breakfast. Skipped shooting. Will be out of practice and sore when the weather improves, but I’ll survive. And I keep doing Tai Chi and weapon forms indoors, so I’m not in that bad of shape.
From there, back to the writing.
Chat more next week.
Shade and sweet water,
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.