[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 and been running all over creation for the last several hours. Breakfast. Bank (which is a haul because the closest branch to deposit a check is in Kent now), post office (voted), grocery store, gas.
Busy busy busy. But good. Gonna go north and study some weapon forms with Sensei Johnson tonight. Learning new things. Anti-Stodgy. Hopefully, you are doing the same.
Gotta keep the brain as flexible as the body. Listen to new music. Learn new things. Eat new foods.
Took a quick jaunt down to Portland to see my sweetie last week. She’s taking care of the niece (doing much better) but stressed. Couple days of me around helped. Will go back in another week or so. She’ll hopefully be home after that for the long haul.
Always knew that Jan 1 to about June 1 was going to be stressful. Mostly got past it. Didn’t bite a single person so far, which I will count as a win, all things considered. Writing is coming along, just much slower than normal. At 45k for the month, or about 25k behind my usual pace. Might make it to Pulp 1 (84k). Might not. Shit happens.
Mostly, it will show up in 2025, when I don’t necessarily have a full calendar of novels to deliver. Not sure what I will do instead, but I have several months to write more and maybe fill in gaps.
I have the product in the can, but it’s choppy. Two Giles. Two Heather. Two Shrike. A whole bunch of Book Ones that demand series behind them. At the same time, I have existing series I could extend. A few people have asked about more Last Stand. Ideas for more Marrakesh (it only pauses at 5. It doesn’t stop.) More Corsac Fox. Etc.
But next year might be messy. We’ll see. My job is to keep writing and keep my humor. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead, as it were.
Corsac 6 is coming along nicely. Will pick it up as soon as I post this. Sitting at 23k. Target 80k. Plus this is the sixth of seven in Block One, and I am slipping in foreshadowing of how 6 and 7 will flow, then come to a resting point. Got major plans, but there will be a gap of several years in between (years for Uly and Dan, not you).
Dunno what I write after that. Been researching early jet aircraft again, so there might be the next Red Branch on deck. Those are fun because 1949 was a year of ferment, when everyone was inventing the technology of the future, and jets went from toys to war machines. And there are so many cool designs to work with, because nobody really understood the best way to do things, so they were trying lots of things to see which worked best. Faster, higher, farther, except for the part where some idiot decided that the best way for two jets to dogfight involved getting a running start at one another, and performing a jousting pass with unguided rockets. HIGHLY inaccurate, unguided rockets. 1% hit ratio style rockets.
Guided missiles would change everything, but not for another decade or two. There’s a line in the original Top Gun where the instructor discusses the shitty kill ratios in Vietnam, and the need to train pilots better. The problem was the FFAR and the AIM-4, both of which were shit. And those lovely designers removed guns from the planes. All guns.
Even today, there are guns, because you might need to dogfight. I expect that drones will end the manned combat aircraft in another 5-10 years, and I have no idea if the next generation of UAV will just be intelligent missiles, survey platforms, or flying guns. Probably one of each, plus two dozen other things as needs evolve. Ukraine is a tipping point in weapons technology, much like World War II was.
So I’m thinking about fast planes. Because why the hell not? If any of you are knowledgeable about early jets or aviation in general and want to read Red Branch 1, please yell. I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be an expert. And I’m likely to start #2 soon.
But for now, more Uly and Dan.
Y’all have a lovely Monday.
shade and sweet water,
blaze
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.