[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.]

The Anarchist came over yesterday and did a construction consult on the Tiny Greathall. Man was a General Contractor for a long time, before getting a regular job during Covid so he could get laid off and collect unemployment. Except that he was too smart and they kept him. Knows his shit.

Took him five minutes to fix the door latch problem and tweak the frame to hang perfectly. Dude’s magic.

Last week got a lot of trim and molding work done. Painted whiskey shelves and what will turn into a book case for gaming books perhaps this week. Framed both windows. Trim. Need to get to Home Depot and touch table legs so I can build/install both of them, but that might wait until after Author-Nation is done. But I’m really close to moving the bar in. And the fridge. Fix the wiring and install the light fixture. And calling it good enough for now. Little things left that can take all winter to finish.

Kinda excited about all that.

On the writing side, I don’t remember what I told you last week. Finished a Humboldt story. Sets inside the Boston universe, but off to one side because the story is for the Sidekicks Issue of Thrill Ride Magazine. That’s four Boston stories now, and I’m almost a year ahead on TRM stories, which I need because I also have BSQ and that is going to be eight writing deadlines every year. Throw in the need for something short for Patreon, and I’m a busy boy.

After that, I started the fourth Red Branch novel. First one is out this month. Night Strike. Wanted it available for Author-Nation because I’m on an Action-Thriller panel, as well as a historic research panel, and the Red Branch fits the bill. In the Store or Amazon.

Enjoy.

Next week, I don’t plan on posting. I’ll be BUSY all week, and largely taking that week off from writing, because I have to put on the Carnival Barker face instead. He’s fun, but exhausting. And I can’t write when I have to be ON all the time, which I will for a week.

Brighter side, at this moment I am over 900,000 words for the year, with seven weeks to go, so I’ll hit a million and change. Planning to write Corsac Fox 7 next. Don’t expect to finish Red Branch before AN, so Corsac will start around Thanksgiving. Then possibly Red Branch 5. Then maybe Science Officer 16.

Then it’s January or later, and I’ll figure that shit out when I get there.

Have a Monday.

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.

[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.]

Been raining all weekend. Autumn has arrived. Voted yesterday. Washington does everything by mail, so I can make a coffee, put my feet up, and read the voter’s guide on every candidate. Didn’t take long, but I’ve turned into a yellow dog this year. And probably for a few more cycles.

Shit’s gone weird. Not unexpected. Talked about it in a paper I wrote for a political science class in college in 1988. But I also studied meta-history.

At the same time, if you read me, you know I hate bullies. Just flat out will not tolerate that sort of behavior. Don’t miss ex-friends who didn’t know how to read that room.

Grumpy today, so I’ll keep this tight. Finished Beckett Fernsby #7 last week (they started appearing in Boundary Shock Quarterly 025 and will be in most of the next long run, because I’m generally writing to BSQ themes). Wrote a short for Thrill Ride Magazine 011 (technically a fourth Boston story, so issues 04, 09, 10, and now 11). Started the fourth Red Branch novel.

First block was a trilogy. Took a break. Shifting into a larger scope and more fun. Plus a lot more research on things that never get taught in history classes until college and even then you have to be deep into a particular major to see it. Makes me read a lot. A LOT. Currently setting it in Yugoslavia in 1950, so the middle of the Tito-Stalin split and the Informbiro period. Crazy shit, and I have a degree in international relations that didn’t more than wave at this sort of thing in the distance as we drove by.

Also working on research for a new series. Kinda the fourth block of Action-Thriller to finish. Set in the modern. I’m calling it an Assassin Procedural for the moment, because trying to establish a story arc pattern that can be repeated on a grand scale with a new novel each time. Plus, the character I have in mind keeps getting deeper and more interesting as I think about their past and how they ended up with a finger on a trigger and an eye to a scope.

How does one decide to become a killer? Nobody does, except psychopaths and serial killers. Trying to avoid gong there. Mostly. You still have to be somewhat broken to actually do it, and in that crack is a story I can wedge.

Think it will be awesome, just have to get there. Red Branch first.

Hope your monday is going pretty okay.

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.

[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.]

Woke up a little before sunrise and didn’t turn on the lights. Just sat on the couch watching things slowly brighten.

Then a flash as a critter hauls ass across the driveway, the septic field, and then into the trees. Gray on gray, so I have to get up to see what it was. Turned out to be a short white tail deer, but could have been a big bobcat from the way it was moving. (Dogs have a different running motion.)

Okay, all well and good. Watch the tail down but enough flash of color to identify.

Then a second one goes by. Hauling ass like she knows something I don’t.

Few minutes later, third one.

Fourth one was actually only walking fast, but I still had a morning where all my deer had the zoomies. How’s yours been?

Monday. Starting serious refinements of the talk I’ll be giving at Author-Nation in a few weeks. Got the B4B: Breaking Discoverability coming out just prior (Nov 10) and it kind of distills down where I’m at right the moment. Also 30k instead of 15k, because I had a lot of ground I wanted to cover. Only going to touch on about a third of it with the talk, as I only have about 40 minutes to ramble.

Buchman assured me that I’m going to break minds and ruin lives, because too many folks are still in the MFA program/TradPub mindset, thinking that they’ll get an agent, a six-figure deal, and be set for life.

Oh, buttercup…

It’s a lot of hard work. And we marinate in it, so I’ve tried to roadmap things. Got a pair of young writers I’m starting to work with as they get serious about the journey. Hoping I can save them a lot of heartburn. Maybe give them tools they can use to achieve success. Or at least happiness.

Think I mentioned that I finished Science Officer 15 last week. Wrote the second Forever City story. Started the seventh Beckett Fernsby, Apothecary tale. First six will come out as a collection in a couple of years (I don’t get the rights back until 90 days after I publish #6, which will be Boundary Shock 031.) #7 will be in BSQ 033, for comparison, because I’m having fun with those.

Trying to figure out how he gets into and out of each theme situation challenges me as a writer, and makes me better at craft. And that’s usually the key part.

After Beckett, I’ll write a short for Thrill Ride Magazine 011 “Sidekicks.” I had a Boston the Wheelman in 004. Circled back having fun there, as well, and have additional stories for 009 “Secrets” and 010 “Fast Cars,” so it only makes sense to do 011. Might do 012 “Spies” instead of a Chace Haig story. Or I might cross them over and have Boston supply a car for Chace.

How far can I push before folks push back? Dunno. Might find out.

Air Pirates #4 coming out November 10 and completing the series. Then Science Officer 14.

Next year, a bit fragmented, as I intend to clean out the trunk. Gunderson, Vol 2 in January. More Corsac Fox. More Science Officer. More whatever as I get it done.

Another day, another drachma.

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.

[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.]

Finished Science Officer 15 yesterday. Cliffhangared the hell out of it, but that’s fine because I’m planning to drop 15 and 16 a month apart. And 17 if I can get it done in time. Nov-Dec 2025. Maybe Oct as well.

Y’all finished book one of Scattered Tribes, so I am starting a new thing in November. Got #1 done. The Forever City. After this and a newsletter, I’ll start #2. Goal is to keep them all under 16k, because they want to run away and be novels. Which they will, just not immediately. Like Scattered Tribes, this lets me sidle into a series sideways. And keeps you folks entertained along the way.

I only have so many hours in the day to write. And I’ve consciously dialed things back from the old days. Still planning to hit 1,000,000 this year, but only barely. Taking at least a week off in November when I go to Vegas to the Author-Nation conference, where I’m giving a talk on “Breaking Discoverability.”

Wrote a B4B that will come out in November. The (call it a Ted) Talk is 40 minutes long, so I’ll cover about a third of what’s in the book. Mostly me distilling down what I know today. Buchman assures me that I’m going to break minds and ruin lives with this talk, mostly because too many young authors are still being told that they can have a TradPub career that is emotionally and financially fulfilling.

Oh, buttercup.

It’s all about hard work these days. Marketing. Business. And a lot of luck, which is part of the reason I got as far as I have, and hopefully I’ll get struck by lightning again at some point, when it could really help. I’m too feral for pants, let me assure you.

Tiny Greathall proceeds. We tiled, but it has been too cold for the mortar to set, so we installed the door, closed off the front, and put in a space heater. Probably fully cured tomorrow and we can grout it. At that point, molding and paint touch-up are the major pieces before we install the bar itself and hang all the shelves where the whiskey goes.

I inherited the worst third of the collection, after she took the best third and he drank the middle third. Still a lot of nice stuff here. And two gallons of cider and a gallon of wine, all home grown, got killed yesterday. I’ll decant them into different bottles today or tomorrow, then backsweeten them to my tastes sometime this week.

Tonight, we will have a toast to the Battle of Hastings.

BACKSTORY: The physical bar comes from the Piper’s Man-cave. He’s extremely Irish, so he did it as an Irish Bar. I’m extremely English, but replacing an Irish Bar with an English Pub is simply rude on a lot of levels. However, I’m technically Norman, when you got back on the Ward side, which is why this is a Tiny Greathall. Cider, wine, and I’ll make mead at some point. (Probably honey brandy, because why the hell not.)

Today, we celebrate the day in 1066 when the Normans beat the hell out of the Angles, Saxons, and Celts, and took their land. It is also Indigenous Peoples Day, marking Columbus as a rapist and cultural murderer. We’re kinda caught crossways here, but celebrating the Irish side of things (via the Normans) means less celebration of the English (and everything they did to the Irish). And yes, I am aware of how squishy that gets. I probably know more history than most of you. And I have come to develop a deep and abiding loathing of English culture over the last couple of centuries. They really leaned into the racism in their colonial efforts, when with just a little unbending on their part they might still have an Empire.

A lot of people celebrate kicking the English out. Even the Scots would like to.

Today, I also mark that I live on land that might be Snoqualmie, Puyallup, or Duwamish. (All those records got destroyed along the way, and I haven’t been able to find solid answers.) Ravensdale, WA, out SE of Seattle in the Cascades, just past the first north-south ridge.

At least here, everyone is welcomed as a citizen, once we manage to get rid of a subsect of racist shits that are still mad that black people and Native Americans were granted citizenship. At least they are dying off, and the kids coming up to replace them are a lot more everything in all the good ways. We survive this coming election intact, and I have hope for our future.

Get your asses out and vote. We have a republic, if we can keep it. Otherwise, you are looking at a return to monarchy and empire, which only ever profits a very small group of people, and you aren’t one of them.

We must forge a better future, so get off your ass and help.

And have a lovely Monday.

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.

20241007

[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.]

Monday. Not as much pain as I expected from a day of tiling. Got five colors and shapes (plus custom painted ones), so feng shui has been important.

We start at the front door. SW corner of the bay (north end of the old bar, so bay three, farthest end from her house). Inner wall is immediately on your right. Tiles four feet wide by three deep, done in a slate gray with hints of blacks. That’s what we call the mud room, and where there will be a mat to wipe feet.

In the opposite corner (NE), six weirdly oversized tiles run front to back. Three rows wide, so about 2.5 feet. Two runs long, so about six feet. That’s immediately behind where the bar will go. It will stick out from the back wall, cutting the overall room into a U-shape, if you will.

Forward from the front door are two rows of long black tiles (60cm each), with two rows of standard 12” white tiles between them. There is a window back in that corner (SE) and I’m planning a two-top table along that side. That’s also the (Inner) wall where we did the hardwood flooring. Pics in the November newsletter, if you aren’t signed up, so you might consider.

Same black edge wraps around the NW corner, where I plan a standing table (bar stool height), with white tiles inside that. I have about five painted tiles left over and am going to put those down in the front half, so they are more visible.

Will finish tiling Thursday, then grout over the weekend, maybe. Having some friends over Monday night to soft-open celebrate the Battle of Hastings. Still got a lot of work to do to get it all finished. Wiring. Front door installed and plugged. Molding.

Gonna be a winter doing it right, but I’m quite thrilled with the progress I’ve made with the help of some amazing folks.

Monday. Been running around all morning and only getting to the computer to write at 10. Science Officer 15 crossed 40k last week. Target 65k. Sometime next week will finish it, depending on a couple of side projects I need to write between now and January.

Getting busy planning for Author-Nation in November. Week for writers, plus Thursday/Friday for readers, if any of you are in or planning to be near Vegas that week. I’ll be crazy doing things, but having fun, one hopes.

Still ramping up my morning, so not a lot of words here yet. Probably need to send this and make some coffee

Hope you folks enjoyed Book One of the Scattered Tribes. Plan is to extend that story next year, just not sure if more shorts or one long novel. Or something else. Got a STUPID amount of world-building there that I want to tap into something epic. I mean, Swords and Sorcery and Starships? How much crazier can it get?

Y’all have a lovely monday.

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.

[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.]

More Weird Monday. Did the “BBQ, Beer, and Brats” thing at Enumclaw Fairgrounds yesterday. Competition barbecue is on Sunday, so we made sure to be there for leftover meat when everyone had done their turn-in. Good stuff. And a good learning experience for the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ who is deep into grilling and also writing it into a new series.

This morning, got a second gallon of paint. First gallon got absorbed by the dry wood. Second will cover everything. And had to stop at Freddy’s and buy new MicroSD cards. BOTH of mine registered failure errors yesterday, one of which was my backup, so I had a total panic until I managed to salvage my main chip. And establishing multiple backups because I’m not sure why the other failed.

Nearly 1030 and only now starting to write. Gonna be a weird and possibly long day. Just sent in my presentation for Author-Nation so that’s official. Got a few other things of crazy this week.

Tiling in the Tiny Greathall™ will be Sunday. Got some friends coming over to learn. Paint will be later today or tomorrow. We’ll build up the hardwood flooring stripe wall at some point after the paint it cured. After grouting the tile, handle molding and trim, then move the bar itself in and hang shelves. Have the countertop of one table, and plans to build the second. Need to get some chairs, but not sure what height yet.

We’ll be ready to soft open in 2 weeks. Gonna be awesome. Got power out there, so might move one of my computers out and write/work there occasionally. Also considering taking some space from either that bay or the one next to it and building a small dojo. Only need about 3-4 tatami floor space, which ain’t much.

Writing: Javier 15 is over 20k. Target 75k, but I’m planning to write 15 and 16 as part of one long story running 150k, with an emotional break in the middle. Not sure the drop schedule. Might go Nov/Dec 2025. Also have three Corsac Fox (two done) for 2025, if all goes well.

And started that new space adventure/exploration short series. #1 is 16k. Hope to keep all of them that tight, because it lets me bang them out pretty quick, send them to all of you for Patreon, then bundle them up for everyone else later, like Holden.

And hoping that October turns out to be a little less stupid than the summer has been. I’m still back to Jan 2023 and coming forward, so I’d like things to improve. For everyone. I’m in reasonable shape. Just exhausted. It’s everyone around me and all they have had to deal with that would be nice to escape.

We’ll get there.

The secret is to keep banging the rocks together.

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.

20240923

[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.]

Offbeat monday. Got up and went to work out with my buddy. He’s a fireman, so rotating schedule (24 on, 48 off, with random variations) that never stays the same. Instead, he pings me and we set up a morning. Get up early, go work with him for a few hours. Got breakfast on the way home. 11Am and just not settling in to writing, but will just flip my normal day backwards.

Writing has been going good. Since I started working out with him, I kinda offset it because the TaiChi class I had been taking has either ended or at least gone on long-term hiatus. That means that I usually write six days per week, then take one off (or short, like today). And I still stay largely on a monthly pace, which is what matters.

Tiny Greathall™ update: got the walls “done.” Inner wall (connected to middle bay, has “subsurface” and we’re ready mud and sand it, prior to painting and then building up stripes with the old hardwood leftover from other projects. Front wall is mostly done in the sense that I covered the existing parts and won’t put in the door, frame, and structure on the other side until the tiling is done. Outside wall got covered yesterday with half inch plywood to eight feet. Will add some trim in a while to the top of that. Back wall is done on the right and I need to do wiring before closing up the last bit of the left, but will attach the plug gang and cut the wall panel to fit today.

At that point, I’m taping. All the usual gaps you get. Then mud, dry, sand, and I’ll be ready to paint. Pretty sure I’m doing a faded mustard on the walls, reminiscent of aged maple rather than old white pine.

After painting, we’ll tile. Gotta lay out all the tiles I have currently and figure out my feng shui, but it will be pretty. Finish wiring and I’ll have lights and power for the mini fridge that goes under the bar.

After tiling is done, dried, and grouted, that’s when the front door goes in. Gap is 47” and the door is about 38, so I will frame in that side chunk. Don’t need a window, because the door is half-plexiglas, so I’ll have light inside.

Molding and trim and stuff last, but I like the progress I’ve made. And it’s worked on getting my core in shape, because lifting heavy wood at arm’s length and holding it. Plus an impact hammer to drive screws into 35 year old wood that has turned into concrete.

Writing: Finished the first Forgotten City story (the 15k SF that demanded I write it) and pivoted to the next Science Officer. Exile (14) is the start of an inner trilogy, running through 15 and 16. 17 will be the end of Season Two. Dunno what happens after that. Haven’t looked that far ahead. Know what that story kinda is, and it completes the long voyage.

Corsac 7 is out there somewhere, as 5 drops in February. Researching and planning Red Branch 4, with #1 coming out in November as part of me going to Author-Nation in Vegas. (I talk Action-Thriller and research, so I figured it was worth doing that one early, then dropping the rest on the back of it.

Hoping to complete a couple of series this fall, like Corsac block one. And getting Javier in a better shape. Etc. 2025 was always going to be weird because 2024 has been so mishmash. Hoping 2026 is cleaner. We’ll see when we get there.

For now, I write. All I can control. Hoping it will be enough.

Chat soon.

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.

[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.]

How do you make it stop???

Background: I don’t read much these days. Mostly non-fiction for research. Lots of Wikipedia and TVTropes for stuff.

We call it “filling the bucket.” Not everything turns into a story. Sometimes, I’m just contemplating the shape of story. Or something.

Recently, I’ve been comparing modern streaming (6-12 episode arcs as a single long movie instead of the old television days) to Serials in the wayback. Republic and a few others did this, where they’d play a new “episode” weekly at the cinema. Usually 15 (sometimes shorter) in an arc, somewhere betweeen 15-30 minutes long. Early Superman and Batman are there, along with westerns, private detective, and others.

I got to wandering down a rabbit hole. Bad. Ended up digging up the original version of “The Sentinel” by Clarke, then the official version of 2001 (which has almost nothing in common except concept). Then compared some of the horror elements to a few other things that weren’t obvious on the surface.

Then went to start taking notes about the shape of a story. Damned thing wanted to turn into a novel series on me, when all I wanted was to generate a short story for my Patreon readers. Might not be able to keep it short. Boundary Shock Quarterly runs a hard cap of 20,000 words, mostly because SF often requires that to get Setting right.

Trying to decide how much I let it germinate, and how much I just start with a blank piece of paper and run like hell until I get it out of my system. Got characters. Setting. Problem. Issues. Depth.

Grumble.

The second Maddox story crossed 20k last week. Target is around 45k, given the length of #1. Probably working on it this morning, with that second notes document open in the background where I pause and add ideas occasionally.

Young writers just starting out often ask “Where do you get your ideas?” (Hint: Schenectady, New York).

Old writers ask “How do I make it stop?” That’s kinda where I am this drizzly Monday morning.

Fall might be upon us. Gotta check the fruit today. Burned scrap wood all weekend to kill termites and carpenter ants. And make space. Not burning today. Harvesting, maybe. Dunno. Gotta write first.

Not a lot past that. Keeping busy. Hurt from all the physicality of the weekend. Getting back in better shape after that summer. Thinking thinky thoughts.

What’s your Monday looking like?

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.