[As usual, three 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.]
Happy Tax Day to all who partake. Or something like that.
Still getting used to Tuesdays, since they are not nearly as focused busy as Mondays tend to be. Usually have a Shadowdark game Monday afternoon, then go straight to the dojo for class.
And it’s weird in class, because Sensei has a lot of students, but right now only one person lines up above me. And she’s the other Sensei, with a Fifth Degree in Isshinryu. But I’ve just spent eight months digging in deep to GoJu, so I know that form better and am usually the other half of demonstration. Last night, had a dozen folks, but they were an even mix of white, orange, and purple, so all ranked below me at green. There will be some brown and other black showing soon, but this school is just getting warmed up.
And I’m learning lots. Newsletter later will talk about that in a little deeper detail. New thinking. New moving. New everything. On top of the years I’ve spent elsewhere, which have served me well getting here.
Writing front: I’m above 40k on Heather 4. Goal is 65, and I am in the middle of one of the major set piece battles that cover things as shit starts disintegrating. Lots of moving parts in this one, as I have three separate villain threads tracking and half a dozen major folks on Heather’s side.
After some thought, I am planning to finish and drop all four Ollie books next year (got 2.9 done right now and know how it goes) and all five Heather. Not exactly sure the sequence, but they will be even-odd so I have space to get ready and deliver them. That’s nine months covered. Want to circle back to more Marrakesh, once I have brain space, plus more Maddox (coming in June+) to extend that universe.
And I want to write more Scattered Tribes, as I’ve gotten amazing feedback from #2. (y’all have read #1, minus continuity edits and such.) And, as noted, I have a new swords and sorcery and starships universe spinning up, with #1 coming in Boundary Shock Quarterly in July. Kinda excited about where it will go, based on some of the crazy ideas I have had so far.
Red Branch 2-4 are coming shortly. #5 is done and being edited. And I’ve been digging deep into #6, so that might be the next novel project to get me a gap from epic military space opera for a bit. Gotta keep changing things up so the prose doesn’t get stale. Gotta keep myself interested more than you. That’s the secret.
WorldCon (SF and Fantasy convention that awards the Hugos) will be in Seattle in August. I’ll be there. If you are in the A’Zedi Survey Corps books with a Tuckerization, I demand that you make yourself available to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours. Preorder links coming soon, but I’m not sure when paper becomes available.
Past that, it’s a nice day outside and I have some yardwork that needs doing. Not mowing yet, because dandelions feed early bees, but the fun never ends around here.
What are you doing this spring to get ready?
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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