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Woke up a little before sunrise and didn’t turn on the lights. Just sat on the couch watching things slowly brighten.
Then a flash as a critter hauls ass across the driveway, the septic field, and then into the trees. Gray on gray, so I have to get up to see what it was. Turned out to be a short white tail deer, but could have been a big bobcat from the way it was moving. (Dogs have a different running motion.)
Okay, all well and good. Watch the tail down but enough flash of color to identify.
Then a second one goes by. Hauling ass like she knows something I don’t.
Few minutes later, third one.
Fourth one was actually only walking fast, but I still had a morning where all my deer had the zoomies. How’s yours been?
Monday. Starting serious refinements of the talk I’ll be giving at Author-Nation in a few weeks. Got the B4B: Breaking Discoverability coming out just prior (Nov 10) and it kind of distills down where I’m at right the moment. Also 30k instead of 15k, because I had a lot of ground I wanted to cover. Only going to touch on about a third of it with the talk, as I only have about 40 minutes to ramble.
Buchman assured me that I’m going to break minds and ruin lives, because too many folks are still in the MFA program/TradPub mindset, thinking that they’ll get an agent, a six-figure deal, and be set for life.
Oh, buttercup…
It’s a lot of hard work. And we marinate in it, so I’ve tried to roadmap things. Got a pair of young writers I’m starting to work with as they get serious about the journey. Hoping I can save them a lot of heartburn. Maybe give them tools they can use to achieve success. Or at least happiness.
Think I mentioned that I finished Science Officer 15 last week. Wrote the second Forever City story. Started the seventh Beckett Fernsby, Apothecary tale. First six will come out as a collection in a couple of years (I don’t get the rights back until 90 days after I publish #6, which will be Boundary Shock 031.) #7 will be in BSQ 033, for comparison, because I’m having fun with those.
Trying to figure out how he gets into and out of each theme situation challenges me as a writer, and makes me better at craft. And that’s usually the key part.
After Beckett, I’ll write a short for Thrill Ride Magazine 011 “Sidekicks.” I had a Boston the Wheelman in 004. Circled back having fun there, as well, and have additional stories for 009 “Secrets” and 010 “Fast Cars,” so it only makes sense to do 011. Might do 012 “Spies” instead of a Chace Haig story. Or I might cross them over and have Boston supply a car for Chace.
How far can I push before folks push back? Dunno. Might find out.
Air Pirates #4 coming out November 10 and completing the series. Then Science Officer 14.
Next year, a bit fragmented, as I intend to clean out the trunk. Gunderson, Vol 2 in January. More Corsac Fox. More Science Officer. More whatever as I get it done.
Another day, another drachma.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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