[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.]

And I just finished Heather 5.

• Warlord of Yaumgan
• Ground Control
• Tyche
• Chevalier
• Griever

Plan is to drop them next year starting in Feb, offsetting even months with Ollie starting in March and those two spanning nine months of 2026. January will be a couple more character collections. November MIGHT be Marrakesh 6 (done) or something else. Need to write December. Or bang on something. Got options like a next Survey Corps. And I figure three more Scattered Tribes, but not sure when and want those done.

2027 might be another (half++) year of Last Stand, as #13 will come out in July in BSQ, then be ready to repub 6 months later.

Dunno. Got options. And time. Writing blogs and newsletters today. Then back to the project you folks will start seeing as $5 Patreon stories in August. Three done. Hoping for ten to twelve as a book one of that series, written in between novels and the like.

Erotica continues. Book One (Two Against the Stars) is done and I’ve started Book Two (On the Wings of the Night), with everything being 6-10k stories serialized for collection into the novels and bundles later on. Mark is leaning towards a magazine and is now working out the details of how he wants to do it. Quarterly with possibility of bi-monthly and monthly as time progresses and everyone commits. I’m into #6 overall and will finish it this week. Got lots of world-building done, so I can keep writing these as long as I have fun. Eventually, I want to pivot back to more Stephanie. And a few other characters I have in my notes but never got to explore.

Lemme know if you have opinions, because I’m on my usual Lots Of Words Per Year™ pace and that won’t slow down anytime soon. And emptying out the trunk, which also allows me to circle back and tack on new stories to a few of the series that were set up as ongoing. Or start sequels in a few cases.

Indie means I can do whatever I want, as long as folks will purchase it and keep supporting me. That’s you. Thank you.

Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef Newsletter is next to be written and delivered, so y’all stay tuned.

Cheers,

b

==========

Oh: WORLD CON IS IN SEATTLE in August. Knight Errant (A’Zedi Survey Corps, Book One) is out and so is First In The Field. I will have a paper edition (it is sitting on my left on my desk). If I Tuckerized you into that book (all but a handful of the folks I got permission from at this point), and you will be in the Seattle area (WorldCon or any other reason), I would like to get you to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours.

Mark your calendars. I’ll also be in Vegas for AuthorNation in November, and am talking to the folks at Superstars for February.

Also happy to road trip to Portland to see you, but not any greater distance than that or Spokane or the Canadian border going north. You let me know.

More erotica in the background. If you wanna first read it, lemme know. If you write erotica or know folks who do, I suspect we’ll give serious talk to starting a Syndicate Magazine at some point, so we’ll be talking and recruiting. Film at 11, as it were.

Past that, y’all have a lovely Tuesday.

shade and sweet water,

b

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 three 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.