[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.]

Spoke too soon. No sooner than I got the foot largely taken care of, something went weird.

Dunno what I caught, but last Saturday, (15^th) I started to break out in a rash. By Monday, it covered my feet, ankles, and thighs. Went to urgent care. He nuked me with prednosone.

Steroid. If I’ve ever been on it before, it’s been decades, so I didn’t know what to expect. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ at least warned me. Stomach all gurgly, which means sleeping upright instead of flat. (you know those acid burbs you get? Now have one wake you up from a dead sleep. Yuck.) And not sleeping worth shit.

Been on the couch for a week. Been nuking things with the steroids. Mostly worked. Not gone, but way down and declining. Spent most of last week sitting down to write, like today. Easier on the body.

And heat activated, so I haven’t worn socks in a week. Hardly anything but shorts, with the AC set to 70F (21C). And sun sensitive, so had to stay inside. Only been out twice in a week.

Grumble.

But getting healthy. Few more days of the drugs, then a few days to recover. July 1 starting point instead of June 1, but physical. Emotional and mental were June 1. Was good. Continues to be good.

Finished Scour 2 last week. Started Red Branch 2 this week. Just hit 13k, after taking the weekend off. On top of everything else, call it a 24-hour cold. Woke up Saturday and there was nobody home. Physically fine. Utterly empty brain. Managed a few words and gave up.

Instead, I spent the weekend bucketing. That’s where I pick a topic on either wikipedia or tvtropes and follow all the rabbit holes down. Shoveling ideas into the bucket. Let them marinate around.

Sunday afternoon, I finally had brain again, because I could start seeing where some of these ideas would go to. How I could use them in various projects.

What it meant.

Got a lot of stuff I want to do over the back half of the year. Lots of Thriller work, because Thrill Ride Magazine next year. Plus the Beer Walk in Enumclaw, in June. I need to walk in there will all sorts of Action-Adventure/Thriller books, because beer drinkers are different from wine drinkers.

And this year has been a mess, so next year will be patchy in terms of output. I still have novels into 2026 or later, but not series. After Science Officer 14 in December (Exile), the second Gunderson Case Files in Jan. Was going to be this year. Didn’t happen. Glad about that. Same with Owen, Pizzafarmer, Eva & Nik, and a few others.

2025, I plan to kind of empty out the trunk entirely. Some random. Some partial series. Mostly get the shit out there and stop worrying about it. SF, Fantasy, Spandex, and Thriller. Lots of stuff. Collections of patreon shorts that many of you have read already. Things previously only seen in BSQ, BWP, or TRM.

Lots of material. Then I’ll have some epic SF stuff for everyone. Hugely epic. Fun, even. Scattered Tribes, on steroids, if you will.

But first, lots of holes to fill in. Stuff to get done and ready for next year, so that I have it in hand when I need it. And can keep various pulses alive on the Amazon bots, because they care and will keep advertising for me.

Need more money. Not everything, but enough to live comfortably. Maybe scale that up a notch to have STAFF. Let them handle crap for me. More time to write. Finish some of these damned stories that won’t leave me alone.

Meanwhile, still working on https://writtenwell.com/ for stuff. Wrote a fun article about assassins the other day. Planning something on Villains this week. Need to wrap my head around a few topics, so I figure it is useful to share my logic with other folks. Somebody will find it useful.

Past that, knocking on with things. Birthday coming up this week and got a few things planned with friends, but mostly quiet.

Head down and writing while I heal.

Catch you next week.

shade and sweet water

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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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.

20240617

[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.]

At least the foot’s better. Took a week. Since Saturday, been dealing with other issues and down and snarly a bit this morning. Late start, so writing blog first instead of last. Not a lot of material here, mostly because other things to do.

Coming down on the end of the second Scour book. Probably finish it this week. Not sure which of several projects follow on. Probably sidestep and work on creating a bunch of short fiction for now, filling in slots. Got more Beckett planned for future BSQ. Well ahead there for reasons.

As of now, I am also taking over as Managing Publisher of Thrill Ride Magazine, beginning with Issue 09, early next year. I’ve been in all eight issues so far (06 coming later this week) and plan to keep that up. At the same time, I needed to hire an editor to herd the goldfish. Eventually, I plan to make him do everything, but he’ll need a year to get there.

More short fiction to write. Not enough hours in the day for all the stories I want to tell, but that’s the nature of the beast. Saw someone I generally respect comment that he thought the line where artists don’t say they are competing with each other was bullshit, but I wasn’t in the mood to go hammer and tongs with him over it. Finding more and more places where he and I diverge in our opinions, but that’s mostly him getting grouchier in his old age, as he apparently believes that he has found the magic handshake key to success instead of understanding that luck plays a tremendous role opening the door, after which a great many people pull the ladder up behind them. As I suspect he’s doing.

Personally, I find that to be a load of horseshit, but I have also found that many “Big Name Authors” turn into assholes. Or they always were, and reach a point where they stop pretending otherwise. Bill Murray always said that you had about 2 years from the point you got famous to determine how you dealt with it.

Some folks turn into bigger assholes. Good for them. My goal is not to, because that’s usually a symptom of deep unhappiness. I’d rather be happy, thanks.

Had a great Saturday night. Enumclaw did their Beer Walk (Wine Walk is in November) and folks go store to store shopping and drinking. Sold a bunch of books. Met a bunch of fans. Met a bunch of other local writers. Had a good time.

Next year, I need to bring my Thriller/Action-Adventure books, because beer drinkers are different than wine drinkers. All the more reason to write more Chace, more Gator, and more Sasha. And whoever else. Tomorrow night, we’re having the half-year corporate meeting, so I’ll lay out my publishing plans then. (Or she will.)

Got a bunch of individual titles, but not really complete series to drop at the moment. And the back half of the year to write more and fill in holes. We’ll see what we have when we get there.

Hopefully, y’all will stay along for the ride.

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.]

And Lords of the Endless Plains came out last night. Hope you stayed up way too late to read it. And a reminder that ebooks are usually available on the first instead of the tenth, if you need your fix early. That’s #3. #4 comes out in July. 5 and 6 are done, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise by telling you the titles. Need to write 7 and then take a break and move the plot forward several years.

Kinda brainless this morning. Did Physical Therapy massage and just got home. Messed up my right shoulder last summer and she’s slowly fixing it. Did something to my right foot (strained pretty good) over the last week and hobbling in a lot of pain, so she worked on that.

Got little brain left and most of it wants to dribble out of my ears.

Still working on Scour 2. Coming up on the halfway point. Having fun going deep into the world and setting, drawing parallels and contrasts for folks. Not sure when these come out as I’d like to have three of them for next year.

Not sure what’s the next novel. Need to write more Scattered Tribes, so I can bring book one to an end. Assuming I don’t just keep banging out shorts and let someone else find the natural break points. Hope y’ll be enjoying things up to this point.

Boundary Shock Quarterly will be coming July 1. Third Beckett Fernsby story (of 6 so far) and need to write more of those.

Been doing a lot of research on early jet aviation. Got a series that starts in 1948 and will be in ’49 for book two. Aviation mercenary company. We’ve talked about the Blackhawk comic as inspiration, but you know me and I went a little crazy with it, as I do. Trying to at least keep the technology roughly accurate, even as I play with politics and such. And history books are a pain in the ass, because the Korean war “just happened” one day. The whole background to the war usually involves a couple of paragraphs on page 1, when it really is a LOT more messy.

But getting there.

Also looking at the next A’Zedi Survey Corps book, so I have stuff for 2025. The slower writing this year will catch up with me next, but shit happens.

Got my foot elevated and it wants to fall asleep, so I’m gonna post this and go lay on the couch.

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.]

Ended up starting the next Scour novel after all. 10K in. Starting to think about what will be the next story after that. Brain seems to want to cycle back around to some Action-Adventure, so I’m not sure Chace or Red Branch. (No idea when I’ll pic Gator up again, or where I’ll go with that team.)

There will be a short story out later today. Weekend kinda got away from me. In a good enough way. Saturday, Kung Fu all morning, then drove into Kent to a street fair to see a friend who had a table. Used to be in Kent a lot, but now hardly ever. The world changes.

Sunday, did the usual bacon and eggs, then hydroponics. Then ended up on the phone with the Piper for 2.5 hours, talking about gaming stuff. We’ve moved past D&D 5e and started playing Shadowdark. Combination of 1^st ed and 5^th ed that plays fast and doesn’t have a lot of bloat. Only problem is that it is currently stripped down to minimal rules. And utterly linear, to the point that every fighter looks exactly like every other fighter, with only weapon and color scheme to identify them.

We came up with some variations to use as House Rules that let folks better flavor their characters, without significantly affecting power curve, which is low and smooth. Probably start testing them out this week with the group. If I ever get back to the other rpg I was working on last year before the world fell apart, I have some interesting new concepts to mine/steal/use, so that’s a benefit.

All the shrub we made a week ago turned out awesome. Took a can of cut pineapple (basically one ring) and shrubbed it. Used a half-gallon of chopped, previously-frozen rhubarb for the other. I didn’t grow up on rhubarb like she did, so it’s not a hankering. Plus, anything in the “add enough sugar to make it palatable” category ain’t for me.

However, shrubbing it flattens the taste out significantly (enough sugar and vinegar) and both the shrub and the candied leftovers have been yummy. Healthy, too. Useful.

And I got to introduce her to Mod Pizza last night. Chain. Functionally Subway sandwiches, but pizza, so fast and easily custom, which she needs with her allergies. Didn’t react last night or this morning, which is excellent. Adding it to the occasional out list for that reason.

Think I mentioned a few times that I’m working with the guys at Written Well (https://writtenwell.com). Been putting things over there (paywall, but a lot of material from three of us who are all professional writers, so I think worth your time if you are an artist. Or want to know how the sausage is made.

Got articles, forums, and details y’all probably find useful. It certainly helps me frame things when I have to explain it. Gotta know its right in my head before opening my mouth.

Similarly, First Tuesdays Indie Publishing in Enumclaw, where I’ve been trying to get a group of folks together to talk books. Been slowly growing, which is good. Hopefully it continues, though summer is often a down time.

Who knows?

I’m here. I’m enjoying myself. That’s most of what matters.

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 two 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.]

They say hurt dogs howl. Nice phrase for someone blindly lashing out when confronted on their bad behavior. Had a couple of folks surprise me by biting recently.

World of difference between “No, thank you,” and “Hey, fuck you, I don’t need anything from you!” when the question was “Need any help?”

Might be a bit grumpy. Might just be almost June. Anyone who’s been around here for a while should remember that I tend to reinventory things around June 1 and throw out things. Old trash. Bad ideas. Good ideas that never rose to claim any mindspace.

Something.

Kinda that week.

Changes, but that’s normal. Always learning means always looking at old things and either adapting them to new circumstances or chucking them onto the burn pile.

Monday.

Finished Felix. Wrote another Boston short story as the start of an arc of several such tales for next year’s Thrill Ride magazine.

One of May’s changes was me (quietly) taking over as owner and Publisher of Thrill Ride, starting with Issue 009 next year. Lots of prep work. Recruited a new editor to handle those duties for me. Recruiting a new syndicate to close submissions and make things work better. Probably have that done by mid-June, as I’ve been talking to the first tranche of folks and gotten a solid core to build on.

Short fiction for Swordmistress Zhen about halfway done this morning before I start. Traveler From The West (01) is out. Jade Tiger (02) is in Sisters In Arms (Thrill Ride 5). Writing a third story now, but not sure if I’ll put out individuals or collect them all up later. Don’t have to have answers today.

Not sure what’s “next” after Wan-Xian. Planning to write the second Scour novel soon. Some of you got #1 as a monthly a while back. Returning to the land of Duff, Red, and Lefty, because I have a lot of story there to tell. A whole long arc of post-apocalyptic railroad blues.

If you have any short fiction needs (some character I haven’t touched in a while), don’t hesitate to hit reply and let me know. I have a ton of open universes there to work with.

Or new stuff. Writer brain helpfully threw an idea at me yesterday that had a really interesting character backstory, if I wanted to pursue it. Might. Could be really any genre, though the idea itself was all set for modern action.

Simply don’t have the hours in the day to write them all, unless I have about another dozen folks knock on the front door and demand that they could handle editing/first reader chores. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ needs time off to do her things.

Not a lot past that. Next time we talk will be June, and things will have started changing. Got a lot of summer plans that come into focus. Farm work. Mind work. Future work.

That first pebble has started down the hillside.

🙂

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 two 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, two 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.]

A good Monday. The Fabulous Publisher Babe™ got home Friday. Utterly exhausted on all axes of motion, but recovering. Met some writers for lunch Saturday so she could see everyone. Stayed home but for random trips into town (grocery, hardware, etc.). Breakfast this morning at OPH instead of Krain because we both woke up early. Home to write.

Cloning Blues/Felix is approaching 40k. Feels close to 50, so I’ll finish it this week. Already reread Scour, Book One because writer brain wanted to work on it next and I left that story open for a series. Will start it by next week, I figure. Book one came in at 60k, so I’ll finish it in June sometime.

Got to looking at my spreadsheet this morning. Felix is novel #105. That doesn’t count anything less than 40k projects, so the first half of Science Officer or all of Last Stand are left off that count, as are other things. It matters because I originally targeted catching my friend Steve Perry for novels. He was writing in another era, where you couldn’t go zoom. And wrote for Hollywood for a chunk. Busy career, and generally “retired” these days, though still working on a few projects with folks like Dan Moran.

Reason that matters is that he had 65 novels to his credit at the time. Kinda blown by that, but knew that, so I’d looked at my next writing goal.

Joseph Haydn is credited generally with 106 symphonies. (The numbers get squishy, depending on who you ask and how things get classified, but 106 is the main number most folks agree on.)

Next project I start (Scour, Book Two) will be #106. Kinda nifty.

With that in mind, I have talked in the past about throwing a party to celebrate when I hit that mark. Because I slowed down I 2023+, it didn’t happen in January, as we once expected. Shit happens, and many of you know what my last 10 months or so have been like.

My birthday is coming up in June. Sounds like a good reason to combine the two, and have 106 on a birthday cake, just to mess with whoever makes it. Because why the hell not?

And with any luck, June 1 marks the beginning of an arc where things settle down some from the abject craziness of the last year, because I’m freaking exhausted and working hard not to bite anyone some days.

Gonna make some changes, but I do that every June 1, going back at least to 1985 as I pause to consider it. Maybe longer. That’s when I do it, on average, and the averages work in my favor this year.

Expect some changes. Mostly for the good, but I gotta sort some shit out.

Hopefully, y’all are along for the ride.

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 two 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, two 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.]

Almost sort of maybe recovered this week. Had a quiet weekend, after all the crazy. And still shoveling horse shit, but that just means that Jimmy is healthy, bored, and generally smart enough not to go beyond my yard in the middle of the night.

One of these days, dipshit might wander all the way to the bottom of the hill. Dunno if he’d get himself lost, but he might. I’m a quarter mile up the way, around a long curve, with ponds and streams on the north side, his home on the west, crazy drunk hillbilly on the south, and space east where he might go if he felt the need.

At least he’s not as stubborn as a goat. Always wonder if he’ll run off with one of the elk herds that come through.

Writing is going nice. Finished the sixth Corsac Fox last week. Need to write #7 and then Block One will be done.

Those of you who have been around long enough might remember a story set in a universe I was calling Cloning Blues. Notes say I wrote Kin in 2021. Think I sent it out to y’all at some point, but can’t honestly remember. (If I didn’t, someone remind me and I’ll insert it into the queue at some point.)

Anyway, picked it up and started to finally turn it into a novel series. Originally, I had intended to start in media res in a different place, but realized that I could simply tweak the end as written and start the rest there. So I did. Original story was right at 10k, so I’m just counting up from there.

Had a stupendous amount of world-building done. Got sidetracked on other projects, as usual. But writer-brain insisted that I dig it up, reread and polish it, then extend it finally. I’m not one to argue.

In this case, I think it was something a little more raw and rough than the Space Adventure/Opera I have been writing. And not military, which I’ve had a lot of lately as well.

Operatic in tone, I think, but a really twisted take on family. (IYKYK) And weird places I can go in a Roger Corman/SF kind of low-budget-feeling Setting.

Saw that Roger had died over the weekend. 98, so one hell of a run. And made some stupidly fun movies in his time. Battle Beyond The Stars didn’t inspire the Cloning Blues, but I will have it in the back of my head going forward. In a good way. Sort of.

Maybe.

I’m only a few days from getting the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ finally home. Went this morning and got groceries to last me the week, and have things for her to pick from when she arrives and collapses after six weeks away. Also bought beer, for the same reason.

I’m hoping that I can say, this time next week, that the crazy shit of the last year or so is finally over. I might be lying, but all the pieces appear to be coming to closure, so I can start a whole other realm of stupid, as it were. But new stupid, as opposed to ongoing drama (none of it our fault).

Summer coming. What grand plans do you have to celebrate?

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 two 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, two 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.]

Still working Uly and Dan. Just over 50k of an expected 80k, so that’s good. About to start the long set-piece that the front half telegraphed, which them splits the story into two big parts (Uly and Dan separated by ten thousand light-years, sort of thing), leading into book 7. Hadn’t really expected to do 6 & 7 as a duology, but what the hell do I know? Writer-brain doesn’t always tell me things ahead of time.

Then, as I’m falling asleep last night, a whole new story slams into my head. Big. Not huge, but something entirely new. Fun. Funky, but one of my first decision points is whether I want to write it as straight SF or roll it sideways into the erotica SF. (If anybody actually read the erotica I’d put out, it might be a most obvious point, but both of you don’t count, so I intend to leave it open for a bit.)

Whole damned book one. Possibly the overarching plot to a long Book One or a trilogy, with the back end open to all manner of follow-on stories, once I get the two main characters resolved.

Not Romance™, but assuredly following many of those same plot arc elements, which is extra weird for me. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl exchange fish out of water adventure sequences. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. HEA. Or something.

Now add a hundred thousand words of hijinks or something in the middle, and Bob’s yer uncle.

Or something like that. Writer-brain obviously wants some sort of break from the stuff I’ve been writing. And I’m ALMOST back to perhaps something approaching normal. Whatever that is.

Going down to see Fabulous Publisher Babe™ again this week. She comes home on the 17^th of May, and will be utterly exhausted. Niece is doing well, but the Babe is doing 100% caregiving, and her niece is as stubborn as she is.

Also working on what will be the third Swordmistress Zhen story, with #1 out and #2 currently available in Thrill Ride Magazine 05, Sisters In Arms. I’ll get the rights back this summer, so I’d like to be able to extend the series. Folks have responded well to Swordmistress Zhen and Archer Zhen. I had fun with them.

Should finish Corsac 6 in a couple of weeks. Then, obviously, on to something new. Not Science Officer 15 or Corsac 7, but maybe these new things. Got time to think. Busy taking notes on the new one, but no idea if it starts as a short story, or I just drop into novel mode and run with it.

I’m just looking forward to life somehow getting back to some sort of less stressful normal. If possible. I always knew 2024 was going to suck. Gotta keep grinding to get to 25 and hopefully we survive as a civilization. Because, unfortunately, that seems to be where we are, when one group has decided to burn it all to the ground if they can’t be in charge. And yes, I’m a little salty this morning. Comes of not enough sleep and being without my sweetie for several weeks.

More news when I know.

shade and sweet water,

blaze

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 two 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.