[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.]
One week from today: Reminder that the Kickstarter link is finalized and ready to go for the Make 100.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blazeward/make-100-2026-collection
Five volumes: 60 stories SF. 20 Fantasy. 10 Thriller. 10 Superhero. $25 ebook, $100 paper. Hell of a deal.
Those of you lagging three weeks will have to hustle if you are just catching up as it’s that close to done, only running three weeks. Tell all your friends because I’d like to make life-changing money from this one.
Pants are still overrated.
Holiday week, part 2. Last week this time I was driving way north to pick up half a cow. Filled the bed of the Nissan pickup. Damn thing was about 100# heavier than expected, but we locked in a DAMNED good price overall. Crap for hamburger. Fantastic for ribeye. It all averages out.
Writing. Gonna do this, then actually start something but these words are going into 2026 because emotionally I’m there.
Finished off the Shaw Lonagan novel and set it up for a fun series. The elevator pitch to myself was “Batman and Jim Gordon must stop The Joker from poisoning the reservoir.” From there, creating an Anti-hero who wasn’t a complete asshole, as well as and Anti-villain cop (the kind who colors outside the lines) and find a way for the big, bad level monsters to stack by killing a chief mook in book one and leaving the dragon and the boss for later books.
Think it turned out pretty well, but need to take some time away from it and let it settle in my head. Hard to write, because I wanted to get to a specific confrontation, but do it in such a way that the two don’t kill each other and it feels natural when they decide to become allies against the night.
Anybody who wants to First Read some political thriller and tell me what you think give a yell.
Starting up on the third and final Daughter of the Shogun book today. Quick and bright, so I can get really freaking dark with Kincaide’s War #3 (Ships of Heaven) next and finish that trilogy off once and for all.
Also, did a Swedish Death Cleaning around here over the weekend. Hauled a 50# bag of old clothes to one of the charity stores. Got about 100 books to haul to Half-Price plus some old maps. Have already burned two banker’s boxes of files with two more to go when the winds die down again (sustained 30mph gusting 50mph this morning). The office has been gutted, cleaned, and is in the process of being refactored, with a lot of that stuff hauled over to the Workshop that used to be Tiny House 1. More space here.
More mental and emotional space here, too. Needed that. And that jumped me into 2026 to kinda clean slate things this week. Without a job, days and weeks get a little squishy, so I run on P-time instead of L-time. Personal over Linear (what you have with alarms, bosses, and meetings).
Works better for me and keeps me happy. Need that, as I expect to outlive most of you. 8P
And remember, medical students are using ChapGPT to learn, so you should probably consider eating heathier and exercising now so you don’t have to deal with one of those quacks.
Y’all have fun.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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