[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.]
Mostly recovered from the trip. And June. And spring. Not gonna claim coherence, but you people should know better anyway.
Home. Mowing again briefly, as it will get hot and dry soon and the grass with generally die off until September, so my exercise mowing it drops. Also time to start watering the fruit directly, which is a July thing. Gonna be heavy on apples this year, and no cherries. Grapes and Aronia both mature enough to gimme wine and juice. Need to check the blueberries and lingonberries.
Mama and both Zoomies still around, though the boy keeps getting his sister in trouble by wandering around during the day, grazing my yard and the hillside. Everyone looks healthy, so win there. Haven’t seen the bunpersons much, but I have hawks and coyotes around here, so they might be hiding. And might have gotten got.
Or, knowing some of my rabbits, might be sitting on a throne of skulls and celebrating. (We had one around here we called switchblade for a reason, after all.)
Summer proceeds. Finished Corsac Fox 8. Working on finishing Harri 3 (and had an idea that might lead me directly into Harri 4 shortly). Still poking away at Derlyth and Mick, but went to town yesterday for a “normalish” Monday and started a new novel. Or something. Patreon folks will probably get it at some point, as it rounds into shape, so you might only get whatever I have done. Or I might romp through it and have a book one.
Got inspired by the old BBC SF show Blake’s 7 for certain elements of ST Cousteau and Mick. Then I discovered a novel written by Paul Darrow about his character Ker Avon from the show, telling a whole backstory that ended just as he was put on the ship that saw him introduced for S1E2. Haven’t read it. Only available out of print at eye-watering prices for someone who is not a fanatic about the show.
But Darrow also tried to get the show relaunched later, with Avon initially in exile somewhere like Napoleon, when a new generation of rebels breaks him out and starts a whole new series. That already matched some weird notes I had from the long drive, which included the phrase “Blake is dead, Avon.” in them.
So yesterday, I did that thing I have been enjoying this year, where I pull out the bones after stripping off the skin and muscle, and use that to tell a new story that you have to look really close to see. And not B7, because I never watched the show as a kid. My PBS had Tom Baker and later Peter Davison. Occasionally Space: 1999, but again, I grew up on Tom Baker primarily and only encountered B7 as an adult. And haven’t watched them all, but have done the research.
And I want to tell my own stories, but I’m happy to steal ideas from a variety of places to use as 2x4s to frame things.
Will finish Harri 3 this week. Just over 18k, and they have run 24k so far. Mostly, trying to get back to 18 months ahead of my publishing schedule with books in the can so I can get them adequately first readered and edited by professionals, which wasn’t entirely possible for a stretch there where my original main copyeditor ghosted me hard off and on, slowing down more and more until I had to fire her. (That’s when she came clean about all those things she hadn’t wanted to tell me. Got several replacements these days that are all working out well.)
Hoping to dive back into Last Stand, Scattered Tribes, or something along those lines in August. Again, build up a lead so I can work. Corsac Fox 8 kickstarter in the spring. Probably Kincaide 3 KS in the fall of 2027. Could publish things, but want to get three in any series before I do, as much as possible. Have an A’Zedi Survey Corps coming in November (#3) and ideas for a #4, so add that to the list.
Wanna stay ahead of you, so I have time to explore crazy shit and write more Action-Thriller, too. Kincaide ate my winter. Glad it’s written, but still a lot of work to finish. And heavy, so I’m writing a lot of shorter things to break out of that rut.
Hope you still have all your fingers and toes. And have a lovely week.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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