[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.]

December. Corsac Fox One and Two available everywhere. I should finish Five this week. Then on to other projects.

No shooting today. Shoulder is getting close to healed, but it was pouring out there. And Fabulous Publisher Babe™ went with me this morning.

She needs a new process. We both do, but her more than me.

In case you haven’t seen elsewhere, Kiera the kitty died last Thursday. I have a blog post with details and pics, so I won’t revisit everything this morning. I don’t need to be crying right now.

Traditionally, the two ladies spent the weekend over here, then went back on Monday morning when I went out to breakfast. She’s emotionally a mess, because Kiera had been her companion for almost eighteen years. I’ve only been around for a shade more than ten at this point. They went to New Orleans for six months together. Did all things.

Until they moved out here, they were generally in the same house at all times while she was home. Only starting to send Kiera over here on Thursday nights was a night to herself.

At least it was pretty quick. And looked generally painless, at least from the outside. Monday night not doing well. Tuesday to the vet, where she got fluids and checkup and was much brighter on the way home. Wednesday, bloodwork showed that her kidneys had shut down. Thursday morning, she had a couple of hours of dying, but mostly laid there and occasionally gasped or made a twitch that she wanted scritches.

We made her as comfortable as we could. Pets so she knew we were there. Letting her know if was okay to go. Got a purr at one point. She could see us.

It was peaceful.

I’m a hot mess. Leah’s far worse. We knew it would come someday. Talked about things that would happen After Kitty, but it still hurts. Still losing a family member. One that I had complete conversations with, always on her terms.

So everything is kinda stuttery today. At least I’m in the final movement of Corsac Fox Five, so I can kind of autopilot. And Five and Six are part of a duology, so I’ll resolve some things then flow into the rest, but not until Jan or Feb, depending.

Some of you have been following The Scattered Tribes Chronicle. Hopefully, you’ve been enjoying Holden and Reilly. I’ll keep writing that in chunks, and eventually publish it all when I have 200,000 words of Book One. No idea how long it is. Long. Epic Space Fantasy Opera. The biggest kind.

And some more Gunderson and adjacent stories coming. Part of the 2000 CE project that flows out of Gunderson #10 and Captain Sapphire.

More news eventually, but this was kinda all I had to say.

How’s your Monday holding up? Able to bite through the ropes so you can escape?

shade and sweet water,

blaze

West of the Mountains, WA

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