Category Archives: Handsome Rob

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[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.]

Finished Corsac #3 on Friday. (YAY!!!)

Also got a chance to incorporate some of the Tuckerizations from the Corsac #1 kickstarter, including a fun character in book three.

Originally, I’d hoped to be able to go back and change some of the names of ships in #2, but all the folks that took that level are friends, so I wanted to do something special. Some went into 3. Some will go into 4.

Brighter news: I spent three hours in the coffee shop yesterday loading Bookfunnel libraries for folks, so hopefully everybody got to spend all night reading Flight of the Corsac Fox before they stumbled off to bed too late to get up too early this morning. (Sorry not sorry.)

If anyone had problems getting their files, please lemme know. All new functions and tools at my end, and I’m still learning them. (And hoping I did it right, but I figure I’d have gotten cranky emails first thing this morning otherwise.)

Working on my new spy series character’s “origin” story today. Got about 5k done. Feels like it will come in around 10k. Will publish it at some point, and folks at the $5 level will get to read it in April.

Matt’s already posted the themes for Thrill Ride Year Two, so I’m planning what I’ll write. Gadgets just screams James Bond, which what set me to thinking these thoughts. Adventure and Lone Wolves simply reinforced it, so I’m planning three submissions with Chace, plus a Fatima story for Sisters-In-Arms.

Eventually (like two years from now), I’ll get the rights back to the first block of Fatima stories, which will be a novel-length collection. The goal is to do something similar with Chace, so I have a wide and deep Action-Adventure/Thriller catalog for readers. And I’ll probably end up writing several novels in the genre, if things work out.

I’ve already done something similar with both Harper Morita and Handsome Rob, so the big step is moving it all out of the realm of SF and putting it in the present tense and the modern world.

In fact, I sat down over the weekend to reread some old Raymond Chandler, just because Marlowe has such Voice about him, in ways that few writers did in those days. (Or even today, frequently.)

Voice is when the character has opinions on what they see, instead of merely cataloging the room. Adverbs instead of just adjectives, if you will. Marlowe had catty things to say about everybody and everything, including himself. Chace isn’t that bad, but this origin is me feeling my way through his world. His dynamic. Even his signatures.

And enjoying myself as I stretch into new territory.

Not sure what project I’ll start next. Actually, that’s not true. Need to write a bunch of short fiction. The next Boundary Shock Quarterly (Cyberpunks) is a story adjacent to the Owen Castle you’ve met. He appears, but it’s Geoff, a character based on an old friend.

The story due is “Tramp Freighter Captains” starring Hrothgar, and I plan to write a sequel for the issue after that “Science Fiction Holidays,” except that I’ll be focusing on Diwali instead of Christmas, because I’m expecting to be flooded with Xmas and Hanukkah stories, but I have warned folks that fantasy elements will get them bounced immediately. (Not sure how many of them think I’m bluffing, but we’ll find out. Might end up having to write more stuff myself to fill out the issue. Not the first time.)

Then whatever I send you folks after Chace. Dunno. TBD. Stay tuned.

Got Heather #1 done. Need to write more. Need to write Javier #13. Need to write Corsac #4. Need to write Last Stand #12. (Thank you for the lovely reviews on Last Stand. Some folks don’t get it. Or they are too wound up in the original to actually watch it and notice all the icky bits. I had that discussion with someone the other day, when I asked how long ago they watched the series. Many, MANY years, in her case.)

Hope your Monday is nice. Pissing down rain all morning. Went out for breakfast. Skipped shooting. Will be out of practice and sore when the weather improves, but I’ll survive. And I keep doing Tai Chi and weapon forms indoors, so I’m not in that bad of shape.

From there, back to the writing.

Chat more 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 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.

20221024

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[If you aren’t reading this on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/blazeward), obviously, there is a two week lag. If you’d like your news fresh, and the monthly Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef newsletter, all I ask is a buck to help keep the lights on around here.]

Fall has finally made it to the Pacific Northwest. Rained like hell on Saturday. Sunny and cold yesterday. Monsoonerating this morning when I got up. Went and got food. Skipped shooting. Will do Tai Chi and Cane form later. Came home and wrote.

I have been exhausted. Just worn down to a nub. Not sure why. Have had a hard time braining some lately, so I suppose a touch of mental instead of physical. Feeling old somedays, but that’s friends, not me. Know a writer who is just about twenty years older than me. Early seventies. Heard him talking about how he had reached a point where he had slowed down, mentally. Wasn’t as certain that he could write a full novel and have it all work. Have it all in his head and get it down on paper.

That he might have to finally retire from that thing that had been his joy for more than thirty years. Hope not. The man’s awesome, both as a writer as well as a person. We need more of his art in the world.

And it’s part of the reason I write at the speed I do. As I explained to someone a while ago, the only person I’m competing with is death, and he’ll be along for me soon enough. I’ve only got another forty or fifty years, and I’d like to be mentally productive for as long as I can.

David Drake finally admitted defeat and retired recently. Another one that the years had caught up to.

Like Elton John, I plan to have a lot of product in the trunk, ready to be delivered, if not already out somewhere.

Writing: finished the fifth Stephanie Machesky erotica and set up the sixth. Then I wrote a story for my upcoming Cyberpunks anthology (Boundary Shock Quarterly 022. Spring 2023). Less a gun fights and car chases story and more a meditation on the nature of wealth in an uneven future, where a few folks will control most of the world. (Worse than they do now.)

After that, I started the eighth Last Stand novella. Its all done but the epilogue at this moment, and I’ll write that tomorrow.

Not sure what comes after that. I don’t currently have a short story in mind that you folks haven’t read yet, without going back and looking through the stacks. Easier if I just wrote something new. Watch this space, because I’ll have one more blog post next week before November’s story goes out.

English Paul sold his house and is in the process of moving to SoCal. Somewhere in the Temecula/Hemet region, though I don’t think they actually have a new place lined up yet. It does mean that music gets a little weirder, but I did get all the equipment set up and now I need to learn the software. (Reaper is what those folks use to capture vocals and mix things, so I get to figure out how that goes together and record a few things.)

Also teaching myself new things musically. I never learned an instrument that could play chords, so this is all new to me. Slowly getting there, but that’s fine. I have some awesome friends I can ask when it comes time to make real songs, instead of the melody and lyrics I can kinda do now.

What are you folks up to? And what crazy new thing have you done lately?

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the rainy 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 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.

2020: The Plan

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So, in 2019, the final count was 20 novels and 21.5 short/medium/novella stories (finished Eva #5 on Jan 1, 2020 as the 22nd). 1,394,982 words because I damned well didn’t want to push that hard the last three days, thank you very much. Call is a shade under 1.4 million words.

Good enough. My goal had been 1.2+ or 100,00 words per month. (My goal is always 100,000. Sometimes easy, sometimes a hard stretch, but I’ve done it since May 2018 at this point and that’s kinda awesome.)

The only real target had been 20 novels in 2019. Managed that. Wrote a novella at the end of the year because that was NOT going to turn into a novel. Kept it at 19,000 but it is very obviously a book one in a new series of historic espionage/thriller. (set in 1977 with no more science fiction than Q provides to Bond, per se, and not even that much, except that I know where technology goes, so I can pull things forward a little.)

So now we’re looking at 2020. Second full year of writing for me as a full-time vocation. Making enough money that I generally don’t worry, except that this year I plan to dial back some expenses because of the crazy-ass election season coming up and all the other shit. Previous presidential seasons have seen entertainment sales Aug 1 – Dec 1 tank hard. This might run much wider and longer, depending.

I’d rather be proven wrong as a cynic than an optimist. I’m probably unemployable at this point.

So going forward. 100,000 words per month. That doesn’t change.

However, I’m only “planning” 14 novels. And 40 short stories.

(—WARNING MATH AHEAD—)

I have a patreon account and promise them a new short story every month long before it ever comes out to the general public. So that’s 12 new stories.

I am publishing Boundary Shock Quarterly 4 times per year and have a story in it.

I expect to do two new volumes of Blaze Ward Presents (#1 and #2 here) annually, plus strange ideas that need me.

Starting soon, I’m going to be offering new short fiction on my website every month, with exclusives that do not go up for sale anywhere else. Like, ever. Only get them here so folks get used to coming to my site for a new fiction fix for cheap. ($1 sort of thing.)

So as you can see, I’m already at 30 stories, and I haven’t even broken a sweat yet. Throw in the odd projects where someone asks if I can write them a short story to theme, weird shit that wakes me from a dead sleep, and whatever other silliness comes around, and I don’t see it being that hard to hit 40. It comes up to three and a quarter stories per month, basically.

I also have 3 business/technical books on the calendar this year. Those don’t count as short fiction, but generally come in around 12-15,000 words.

I’ll be busy. It will be a good busy. Writing books, writing novel series, writing short series serializations.

Not going to push as hard on the novel count also means that I can aim for some longer stories that unfold slowly. I enjoy writing crazy-fast stories that suck you in and hold you underwater, but occasionally I want to just sit back and let the world slowly enfold the reader. Or write a single volume that’s 175,000 words long if I can do it and not get bored.

Health has been good. Sales have been good. Life has been good. I’m still not rich enough to buy an island or build a castle, but those would be the long term goals if I was suddenly wealthy beyond a safe level.

Today, I blasted out my usual morning word count and then realized that I was all set to finish the current novel off (#1 for the year and #10 in the Science Officer series). Finished the morning session typing “Epilog” as a header, so that’s lovely and I’ll finish it Wednesday.

And looking forward to the next project. Need to write several short stories over the next week or two, and then I can go on and commit a next novel. Likely to flip a coin between Lazarus #3 and Taft Station #2 at this point, but that’s fine. Been reading the finals of the Star Tribes books. #1 & #2 are “done.” #3 is at the First Reader. Working my way through a final edit pass on #4 now, then on to #5. April-August release dates.

In case you missed it, the Handsome Rob books are up now for pre-order. Can’t Shoot Straight Gang is actually #1 and originally came out in Boundary Shock Quarterly #3 (Grand Theft Starship). Then Can’t Shoot Straight Gang Returns, which you might have read. Hunting Handsome Rob is #3. Handsome Rob, Assassin will be #4, sometime in the fall, most likely after Star Tribes is done (SWAG: September)

This blog will see less updating than it used to going forward, mostly because I plan to update the patreon news every Monday. Plus I have newsletters with more information than comes here. If you aren’t subscribed, this is your reminder. 🙂

Gonna be a busy year. Hope y’all are along for the ride.