20231016

[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.]

Got up this morning and took Fabulous Publisher Babe™ into town for breakfast. And errands first thing. Raining and still recovering from whatever I did to injure my shoulder. It only hurts when I try to lift something heavy with an outward motion, like a bird flapping. And only some of the time.

I’ll get a spot about 2cm on a side, where someone is driving a 30-penny nail into the joint. Someone suggested that my shoulder is slightly out of joint, and suggested some changes.

Step one was to buy an external monitor for my laptop, and put it on a shelf so that instead of looking down at the table when I type (like the last 15 years) I am leaned slightly back and looking straight across.

Upper back and shoulder blades hurt today, so probably a good idea. Nothing like teaching yourself an entirely new way to stand.

Past that, I took the entire weekend kinda off. As in, didn’t turn on my computer except to configure the monitor. No social media. No nothing, except what I could handle via my phone.

Kung Fu for several hours Saturday morning. Then a shower and up north to watch Bubba Ho-tep with a group of friends that do a monthly movie and themed meal event.

Long day out. Then as we’re close to home, a good friend calls and is having a really bad day, so I dropped the Babe off and kept driving south to meet him for an unplanned dinner in Enumclaw.

Except that I didn’t realize that “Witch’s Night Out” was going on, so 16-50 year old witches everywhere. All the restaurants and bars were basically packed, which is a good thing for the town but lousy when I need some quiet to get him back on an even keel.

Eventually, we ate and drank, then walked around the various stalls selling crap, before I headed home. Slept on the couch, because utterly wound up, ate crap, and exhausted, so I needed to be upright. Painful way to sleep, but it let my wife actually sleep, and I knew ahead of time that Sunday would suck.

Brainless. But able to take some more of Pastor Mike’s books to a friend of his and invite the guy to maybe play with my group sometime if he’s interested. Mike had tried to get me with that group, but my Sunday afternoons tend to be the only recovery time I have, so I couldn’t add ONE MORE THING and stay sane.

Then I went by and got more stuff from his youngest daughter to sort out for recycling. And give her money from the most recent batch. My job is helping that household unpack from all the crap they had accumulated. (Mike was a pack rat in many ways. Gonna take a lot of trips, but needs doing and I’m about the only person in a position to do it right now. More emotional work, but I’ll survive.)

On the writing side, the second Heather Lau book is underway. #1 was “Warlord of Yaumgan.” #2 is tentatively called “Ground Control” for now. Already setting up 3 and 4. Probably run about 6 by the time it’s done.

At that point (Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise), I think I am done with the Republic of Aquitaine books as you would understand them. One of the main characters in Heather is the granddaughter of Tomas Provt. Veronika. I’m kinda interested in who she will be when she’s forty (23-25 now) and what Casey and Vo’s kids will be line grown up.

Got notes. And all the things Denis Jež has warned everybody about for a long time. (Hint: Auberon opens June 26, 392 and Heather #2 opens January 11, 417. Lot of time has passed.)

And, one of these days, I still want to write about Suvi and John Pierre Orfèvre, which will take place some 1500 years after Jessica dies.

Not like I’m going to run out of story. Plus, with the exception of Jessica (her story is complete), I’ll listen if enough people demand more stories about other characters, beyond what you’ve got coming.

And Monday. Got several other novels to write yet this year. Corsac Fox 5. Science Officer 14. Some thriller stuff for next summer. The usual.

What are you up to this week?

shade and sweet water,

blaze

West of the Mountains, WA

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