[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.]
Barbecue was awesome. About 40 folks showed up and we were busy all day. Probably walked 7-8 miles just roaming and hosting. Haven’t gotten a lot of writing done over the last several days, but that was going to get the tables and chairs, setup, and returning (Sat, Sun, Mon) and I’m only now starting to fully recover the brain. Body’s fine. Soul was kinda empty.
But it was awesome. Lots of folks got to meet new friends and talk business across wide ranges of things, which is the whole point of the barbecue.
Writing some obscure stuff right now. As part of a team kickstarter project this fall, in addition to Red Branch 1 and book 1s from several other folks, Matt wants us to include new short stories, preferably set in universe. As I am researching what will be Book Seven, I had to get a little creative with the first one. Conversation between Woody (Brigadier General Lockwood Carlyle) and Eloise Cutter (Aeronautical Engineer designer based on my MIL. BA, AeroEng, Purdue, 1948. Freaking genius woman).
Highly technical, but a good taste of the kinds of research behind the books. I showed an early draft to a fan who is LITERALLY the guy who wrote the book on airplane design. (I have never been able to find a copy of his book, even used, for less than about $90, so I ask him questions and Tuckerize his CIA spy pilot dad as bribery.) And I have ideas for two other shorts, staring Banshee and Beau respectively. Also planning on a “Red Branch Taste Of Home Cookbook” with several fun Ukrainian and Russian recipes, and I will have an entire spin-off book that I can drop next summer when Red Branch 6 (Iron Curtain) comes out.
The fun only stops when you do. Keep that in mind.
About halfway through Scattered Tribes 4. Holden and the gang getting serious about overthrowing the empire and killing yet more dark gods in the quest to make the galaxy a safer place. Lots of short fiction interspersed there, so hoping to write Giles 3 and move it forward, though Belle 2 & 3 might be necessary to push my publishing schedule out a ways. Dunno.
I’d ask you folks, but you’d laugh at me and shrug, having no clue what’s in the can at the moment.
But more coming. Finish off Heather and Ollie. More Maddox. Kohahu. Harri. More Corsac Fox. Belle. Holden. Giles. Whatever.
See you in the funny pages.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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