Category Archives: Music

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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.]

Got a mild case of Mondays. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ came down with something and has the yucks, so I slept on the couch to let her have a quiet night. Need more coffee.

I will not say that I’m back, but I’m getting better. Wrote on Heather 2 last week, then took a side quest to write a silly story for the (way-distant) ‘First Contact’ issue of Boundary Shock Quarterly (out like a year and change).

Wardog Charlie and His Eminence Daniel, Duke of Los Angeles in Exile, make an appearance, though only across the parking lot of the burger stand. Had so much fun that I’m planning a small series of such tales. Just gotta figure out the overarching theme. And whether the Duke will actually send ninjas after me when he finds out.

Past that, I spent a lot of time thinking about the game for the first time in a while. Been mapbuilding as a driver to all other things, then history-building and letting that establish a context into which this setting will run.

D&D is basically an idealized 12th Century Anglo/French context, taking all of JRRT’s work from LotR and filing off enough serial numbers that his estate couldn’t actually sue them. (They reportedly tried.) Initially, I considered doing something East Asian (Fantasy China) in nature, and it has many of those elements to the rules and engine, but I settled on a geography vaguely like modern Poland, with swamps moved north and Plague Dragons running around.

Along the way, I occasionally encounter “things that need to be in the game” or “that’s a supplement” and I’m adding notes. Talking to a few artists about commissioning some basic line art to go in when it gets published. Probably grab Junior this week and actually build some characters and monsters and finally do some playtesting.

Was going to do it this summer, but the main gaming group disintegrated and we’ve only recently sort of put it back together. Still looking for 1-2 players. In person. Enumclaw, WA. 420 unwelcome (that was what broke it up before). If you know folks or are folks, reach out and we’ll have coffee.

Music: Got the first two Ward & Rogers songs up on the store. And English Paul has sent me a couple of versions of the latest instrumental track to review and comment on.

Backstory: I did a vocal solo in Junior High. Call it forty years ago. And about a year ago, the damned memory popped up and demanded I add it. So I found various versions, synthesized the lyrics I wanted (there are a LOT of versions) and we’ll release Skye when I can record final vocals (hopefully this week) and get everything produced.

Then, because Paul, he wants to lean in to something “sounding like” “Irish/Scottish/Celtic” music, without necessarily being the traditional folk, which tends to be a woman lamenting about a man that’s gone off to war and never coming back. Both of us are English by origin, so traditionalists will look down their noses at us, but that just makes the whole thing punker as far as I’m concerned, so I’m all in. Doing research on songs that we might record. Or write.

It’s nice when the mind kinda comes back, you know? Got time to actually do things. Think thinky thoughts.

Create, outside of the writing that is my livelihood. We’re never* going to get rich from the music (* – every time you hit publish, roll 10d6, target number 58.) but we have fun. It’s driven him to buy a violin and begin learning how to play. ANTI-STODGY!

Past that, end of the month and I’ve hit my word count, so I can goof off a bit today and tomorrow. Should be close to finishing Heather 2 by this time next week and moving on to…something. Not entirely sure. Don’t gotta know. Corsac Fox 5 maybe. Or more Holden and Riley.

Whatever, it will be fun. And that’s the difference. I’m having fun these days, instead of trudging and grinding.

Hope your Monday is a skip.

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.

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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.]

By the time most of you see this, the Kickstarter Campaign for Corsac Fox #2 Mistaken Identity) will be done, as it only runs to August 22. Then you gotta wait.

However, more music up everywhere. Time To Say Goodbye.

Monday. Chewy air everywhere. I haven’t checked, but someone said East of the Mountains was on fire, as usual. Air has a brownness to it this morning, but it finally cooled off. Hit 98F on Wednesday, after 94F Mon and Tues. 47F when we got up Saturday morning and went for a long walk because Sifu had a personal emergency and canceled class.

72F, a little after noon. Gonna be warm, but not stupid.

I planted three trees yesterday.

Down at the bottom of the hill there used to be a lake. One of the neighbors on the north side apparently backed a machine up in the mid-1990s according to the story, and tried to mine peat moss. They pierced the lining of the lake and it drained some eight feet as a result. I have a bowl with several distinct lips, and the bottom was classified marsh in a 1988 survey the former owner had done when he bought the place.

Fifteen years ago, I started clearing out all the blackberry, but then got sidetracked and let it go feral for a while. This summer, I have been clearing it again. At the top, I wanted to put up a hedge to create a visual barrier for folks out on the cul-de-sac, so we got three cypress trees. Two gold and one green. Got them in and will water them until the rainy season starts up again.

Eventually, I want a hedge all the way across, but there are easements, so I have to move precisely. But clearing that bottom and turning it back into a meadow adds significantly to my property value when I get around to selling the place. Plus, it keeps me in good shape, because this is all machete work for now. Later, I can go in with the brush cutter and the mower and keep it down, but neither work with a 6’ tall wall of thorns.

I’m in better shape than I’ve been in at least 25 years as a result. That is its own benefit.

Writing: I finished the first Chace Haig novel over the weekend, mostly because I wanted it done and out of my way. We also published the first/origin short story: Assumed Identity.

At present, there are three more short stories done and in the can, for submission to Issues 6-8 of The Thrill Ride Magazine. Specifically, Gadgets, Adventure, and Lone Wolves themes.

Personally, I enjoy action-adventure stories, but have been talking with Matt and most of the genre right now is filled with Ex-Special Forces trooper burned by the government and gone rogue. Then the President calls them up and secretly reactivates them to save the day because they can’t trust their own government to do the right thing.

Wish fulfillment, for a genre of men (4F, older, white, conservative, overweight, and riding around in a mobility scooter I presume) who want to be that asshole anti-hero who shrugs off bullet wounds and keeps going. Think Batman, without the cowl and more guns. Ultra high-profile, for being secretive assassins being hunted by everybody.

Yawn.

Personally, I enjoyed Bond growing up, both books and movies, but I can’t find any major series about professional spies/troubleshooters like that. Only burnout killers who somehow will throw everything away to help an old woman across the street, even in the middle of being hunted by every government on the planet.

Question for you folks: Anybody recommend me some books where the main character is a spy, rather than an ex-special forces assassin rogue bully killing machine? You know the character. And the formula. I’d like to wander outside that as a reader and a writer. Someone with style and elegance, who isn’t a punk or a bully in the real world. And a professional, rather than a wish-fulfillment amateur who somehow overcomes the entire world twelve books in a row. And counting.

Lemme know what you have in the way of ideas.

Anyway.

Started on the third Beckett Fernsby story this morning. Had been planning to write four in a row for Boundary Shock Quarterly, but might see about hitting eight as a challenge.

  • 25 Gulliver’s Other Travels (done)
  • 26 Future Crime (done)
  • 27 Cold Steel and Hot Blasters (begun)
  • 28 Space Horror
  • 29 First Contact
  • 30 Fading Empires
  • 31 Swords and Sorcery and Starships
  • 32 Zeroes and Ones

I mean, seriously, I can fit him into all of those situations without a lot of work. Got my notes for Space Horror roughed out, with a lot of world-building that I might spin off. The other four all lend themselves to a slightly cranky Apothecary on an exploration ship. And it lets me roam a bit with the novels, knowing that I have the short fiction largely covered. Plus, I want to spin back and write the rest of the first Holden and Riley novel. And a bunch of others.

So it’s Monday. What are you folks up to?

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.

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Reminder: the Kickstarter Campaign for Corsac Fox #2 Mistaken Identity) is live now and runs to August 22. Then you gotta wait.

Got up to drizzle this morning. And rain Saturday night, too, so Sunday had been humid and Monday is kinda fall-like.

We did a bbq over the weekend. Invited a bunch of artists to eat meat and bring sides and cross-pollinate. Writers, painters, lawyers, strippers, musicians, etc. Brisket, pulled pork, chicken, and one bacon explosion. (The other bacon explosion went home with my bass player to taunt the rest of the Stackable Clowns for missing the party.)

Lotsa fun. I enjoy doing this, because there are so many multi-hyphens involved when people start talking about their art. And the breadth and depth we’ve got is amazing. Plus, strangers get to connect with one another outside this and become dangerous combinations.

This is the summer thing, out at the farm. In the winter, we do the Wine and Chocolate Party at a friend’s house and get many other people together (Often, lots of overlap, but scheduling plays into it, as does geography, since that party is as far northeast as I am normally southeast.)

This morning, up early and haul the rented tables and chairs back to the place in Fife where we rent them.

When I first moved to Seattle in 1997, I lived in Federal Way, which is south almost to Tacoma, where I-5 and 18 intersect. I lived there until 2001, when I moved to Fairwood (a suburb east of Renton, up on the hill). Sold that place in ’14 and moved to the farm in ’15.

I don’t get down to Federal Way anymore. Like, ever. Special trip, because about a half-hour drive if no traffic, and there’s not really any there there. Just long strips of genericas that go on kinda forever. Fife, on the other hand, has gone to hell over the last however long since that used to be in my backyard. FedWay has gentrified hard, and Fife has turned into weekly hotels, homeless folks, and boarded up businesses. Sad, really, but life.

On the way, we skipped I-5 and went down 99, also know as Pacific Highway. (Not 101, but a spiritual descendant, of sorts.) You pass through Milton and there is a dive bar (Milton Lodge Bar and Grill) on the east side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. Back 20+ years ago, it was a restaurant/bar that didn’t mind us coming in for dinner on a Monday night and gaming over in the corner after we ate, because it was otherwise kinda dead.

Hadn’t been back in 20+ years, because we found better places to game. (More central to everyone.)

Drove by it on the way down and it was open. And new name. Looked them up and they do breakfast, so more diner/bar and less dive. On the way back, we stopped in.

Interior has been redone, but there is a sign on the door. “No gang patches or colors allowed.” so we knew it wasn’t that gentrified. Still, nice inside. Group of old farts drinking at a table. Woman tending bar was on her second day working there, so still learning everything, but way friendly.

Lots of food for the price. Pretty good, too. If it was closer or on my way anywhere, I’d probably add it as a regular stop, but hell of a haul for a dive burger.

But, the whole point of life is to have adventures. We had a 7-year-old and her twin 5-year-old sisters at the bbq and they had grand adventures with the various trails I maintain through the trees. Had to explain Anti-Stodgy to a couple of folks, because they knew the life, but never quantified it as a term.

So Monday. Fed and home. Back yard mostly clean, save for the pavilions. Smiling. Skipped shooting, but that’s “one thing too many right now” and I’m okay with it. Winding slowly up with non-fiction, because exhausted on a couple of dimensions and need to work into it.

Finished one Five-WuXia-Band story last week and got hung in the middle of the second. Put it aside and started a novel. Thrillerish/Action Adventure. A full Chace Haig novel, which seems to be what writer-brain wanted to write, so I’m running with it. I think I was too many ancient China things at once with the rpg design, so breaking it up into digestible pieces. Gonna work on that for a bit.

Also gotta write the next Milestone Indie Publishing Newsletter. The work never stops, but that just means I stay focused and stay on top of things.

How’s your Monday?

shade and sweet water,

blaze

West of the Mountains, WA

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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.]

Got the Mondays. Behind me, the pantry is closed up with a couple of big fans and a dehumidifier that have been going like hell since Thursday, so I’m reasonably confident that the floor is dry on top. Spare fan blasting the other side of that same wall since Friday. More gear in the crawl space. Sometime in the next few hours, I expect a call or text from the gang letting me know that they are inbound to inspect and probably collect everything.

It would be nice to have peace and quiet again. And figure out how soon I can finally start rebuilding everything. I still have bits and pieces left over from the bathroom remodel that keep getting pushed out by circumstances, so the house is a mess.

Been newslettering this morning instead of anything else. Got the BW monthly newsletter on publishing. Got the quarterly BSQ newsletter reminding folks that we put out another issue. Got this little tidbit of things. Probably won’t actually write fiction today, on account of it’s the last day of the month and I’m at about 96k words with what I’m writing here.

Last week, I finished the fourth Corsac Fox novel: Warlord of the Spinward Reaches. I am having a tremendous amount of fun with these. At some point (TBD), Kickstarter will finally approve the campaign for Corsac #2: Mistaken Identity and I can launch that.

At this point, I’m planning to drop 3-5 as part of the regular schedule, then save up ideas for #6 (or 7, if it ends up running that far) and aim for a big KS with a lot of swag. Mostly, that’s folks really liking this series and giving me great sales and reviews of #1, so I don’t want to stretch them out as long as I had originally planned to by only doing 2 KS campaigns per year.

After that, I have been working on the rpg. Got a lot of notes, and am slowly expanding things as I come across bits and pieces I need. The game is going to be set in a mythical Tang Dynasty China where all that magic that you read about in those stories is real. Gods, demons, whatever. At the moment, I’m working my way through a magic system that is not European/Tolkien/D&D in nature or scope, because I honestly expect everyone coming out with a new rpg to be making variants of Dungeons and Dragons (whichever edition was most formative for them) as WOTC pissed off a lot of people, first with the OGL debacle, and now by announcing that there will be no rule books.

Instead, you apparently have to sign up for a monthly subscription that lets you access the books. And lets them turn the books off whenever they want to. Sure, they promise that they won’t, but they make a lot of promises, and unless you own the book, you don’t own anything.

“The Cloud” is just a fancy way of saying “Somebody elses computer you don’t control.”

F#$% you very much, WOTC. I still have my 1st Edition books. I don’t play them, but I have consulted them in the last month for certain details. And my 2nd. And 3rd. Etc.

So I’m deep into Tang history. Wrote the origin story for Wan-Xian and her sister. That’s pure Action/Adventure, so no magic, because these are for The Thrill Ride Magazine.

However… (and I get to blame the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ here)

We are training for a long walk in England next year. Hadrian’s Wall. 80+ miles in a week. We walk trails here to get into better shape. We also talk about something other than sportsball.

Saturday morning, we talked about the game, and Chinese history (she hitchhiked from Beijing to Hong Kong in the early 90s, after taking the Trans-Siberian Railroad across.)

She reads a lot of fantasy, both modern as well as historical/epic. She suggested that I look at some WuXia books and see what tropes they use and how they run them.

Writerbrain engaged. It’s all her fault.

So I have a plan for perhaps some short novels or novellas in a series, vaguely inspired by Hua Mu Lan (Disney did not invent Mulan. They merely made the 179th movie about her, and did it animated with a dragon. She’d Robin Hood or King Arthur to the Chinese. Maybe both.)

In this case, I will be writing directly into this new game world, to provide an expanded universe of world-building. Hell, I planted a seed in English Paul’s ear for a musical soundtrack, so I’m hoping I can convince him to write me a short symphony and theme music to game by.

Welcome to my Multimedia Publishing Empire.

Speaking of Paul, sometime in the next day or three, song #2 should go live everywhere. Time to Say Goodbye. I should have links by next week, and will add it under the music tab on my website. All I ask it that you buy it, because the 30 cents I make from you 99c purchase is the equivalent of you streaming it every day for the next decade or so. Seriously.

Next song is a Scottish folk tune. I sent him the melody and demo vocals and instrument list. He’s noodling with composition at this point, and then I’ll rerecord my vocals when we have something better. Hopefully, it won’t take a year this time. (He got sick, then moved to Los Angeles since last September when we recorded the final vocals for #2.)

More news soon. More silliness.

More Monday.

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.

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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.]

Monday, middle of summer.

Fabulous Publisher Babe™ wanted to get up early this morning to start a writing marathon. Half-marathon. Something. Lots of words this week. Got up at 6.

Krain Corner doesn’t open until 8, so I went down to The Kettle in Enumclaw instead. Under new ownership, so still sorting out their menu. I’m working my way through it finding things I like. Lots of food. A bit overcooked, which was odd as I was the only person in there at 7am. Granted, Monday morning, but eggs over easy are supposed to be runny. Barely, today. Chicken fried steak was decent. Reds were overdone.

Still, good breakfast. And their scrambles are both huge and pretty good.

It’s the muffins that rock. Cranberry/Orange this morning. I still prefer blueberry, but damned good.

Then home and writing. About 47k into Corsac Fox #4. And mostly set up on the kickstarter for Corsac Fox #2. Need to write and record my video, and finish a few things over the next few days, then I’ll share links everywhere for folks that want to sign up for the launch.

This one will run about 80k. Like the other three. Still not sure if this block ends after five, six, or seven. Got a lot of notes, and it’s not like the story ends there. I could keep telling stories about Uly and Dan for decades of their lives. Might, since I’ve been getting nice reviews and comments from folks.

Don’t want to burn out on Uly, like I did Lazarus and Jessica Keller. Hard to think about continuing those.

Also, my game-designer partner went shiny/squirrel on me last week. I kinda knew it was coming. He’d found this new fantasy rpg called Shadowdark, which, to hear him explain, is a lot like D&D 1st edition, with elements of 2nd and 5th.

Much more grim, dark, and gritty game play, as you have ten slots for equipment, and a torch takes up one of them. Go in, do your thing, get out before the lights go out. Go back to town, buy more torches.

Or something.

He’s distracted, and let me know he’d be distracted, so I’m not upset.

Instead, I took everything he and I had done and put it aside for now. Went back to the “other” original idea I’d been pursuing, and went from there.

Because Wizards of the Coast announced that they won’t be printing rule books for “6th Edition” when it comes out (whatever they call it), you’ll have to rent those books. Monthly. Until hell freezes over.

As in, you don’t own them, and they can turn off their server any time they want, leaving you no recourse. I’m not opposed to spending money for books that last. I still have my first edition rule books from 40+ years ago. A few second. Some third. MOST of fifth.

Not renting Sixth.

And I’m not alone, because a lot of folks are coming out with their own takes on OGL and other rules to replace D&D 5 and 6. Lots of them will be Tolkien based, because face it, D&D is LOTR with just enough serial numbers filed off that the estate couldn’t sue. (They tried, btw)

I’m taking a different tack entirely. Setting it in a 7th Century Tang Dynasty China with magic, like a good wire-fu WuXia movie. And using only d6 instead of the d20 stack.

I’m always surprised when people talk about how much better games have gotten. Compared to 1990, D&D is much better these days. Compared to what I was playing in 1990, D&D sucks. Even 5th edition, which I like.

There were other games doing things. They fell victim to the usual bankruptcy problems of expanding too big too soon, and then crashing when the market turned. Or getting onto the treadmill of content and and and…

I’m going to build this, finish it, and publish it as part of my larger, multimedia empire. And it is an engine with a context and a setting, so I can do other settings and then branch out into other contexts. (Setting = Tang Dynasty China. Context equals Fantasy RPG. Modern Thriller Espionage would be another context, with James Bond being a Setting. Make sense? Good.)

Because I’ve thought about this a lot, I’m making good progress. Will probably sit down with Rich later this week and have him poke holes in what I’ve got. He’s good at asking piercing questions that way.

Then he and I will do some dicing at some point. And work out numbers. And and and.

Do I know any artists that work reasonably cheap? I’m looking for a bunch of Chinese fantasy type pencil line drawings. Eventually one cover wrap, but I need line art for the interior mostly.

Reach out. Or forward me to your friends. I’ll have a budget when I get there, but not for $100 per piece when I need fifty or one hundred pieces. We’ll do a second edition or special edition or something if the game takes off like that, and get some serious cash into someone’s hands, but I’ve got to keep this cheap today.

Not much past that. Still doing Kung Fu (Tai Chi Chuan plus Hsing-i at this point with Bagua coming in the fall, I think) and weapon forms. Learning lots. Staying in shape. Having fun.

Working with English Paul on song #3, and need to see what’s holding up song #2 (Time To Say Goodbye) from release.

What’s your Monday shaping up like?

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.

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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.]

I need more something. Sleep possibly, though I slept. Energy? Something.

Friday night, went to a 60th Wedding Anniversary party. Saw some folks I haven’t seen in ages. Ate, danced, talked, celebrated. (I might be almost too feral for that sort of thing these days.)

Saturday morning, got up and did three hours of Tai Chi et al. (Martial, movement, sword form, etc.) then drove way up north and sat in on a one-shot D&D game with some old friends. Ran kinda late on the back porch, then moved inside and they all ended up talking martial arts (which is usual with these guys.) Fourth Degree Black Belt in a Chinese set of folks (Taiji, Pa-Kua, Hsing-I). Fifth Degree in various Karate forms (mostly Isshinryu). Eighth Degree in Isshinryu. Serious big players with some combined century and change of experience in the arts. Ya learn a lot. Didn’t get to bed until 1am.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 6, like usual. Went out and sat in Johnson Sensei’s living room and had some coffee while the cat was on guard duty. (Seriously, 6 feet away, sitting up with her back to me, in case someone snuck up on her.)

Johnson Sensei woke up around 7, so we talked stuff. Sifu Stone woke around 8. Crane Sensei around 9. Eventually, we all went out to the dojo and worked until around 1, then drove home. Lots to do here because Fabulous Publisher Babe™ is having a long girls’ weekend. Spent all afternoon doing all the little things. And dealing with a grumpy, teenage (18yo) cat.

Still catching up this morning, but been busy. Went and had breakfast at Krane for some normalcy. Then answering some of the questions from the various senseis that were left over from the weekend.

I finished the fourth Marrakesh novel last week, then started the second Beckett Fernsby short story for BSQ. This one is a murder mystery whodunit, which is a new thing for me to learn to write. Practice. Always try something new with your craft.

Will possibly finish it today. Or tomorrow at the latest. Not sure what’s after that. Got a list. Need more caffeine.

Hope y’all enjoyed Reilly. I’m having a lot of fun with that series, and will catch back up with it soon, but June was kinda a wash in terms of writing. Did okay, but not great. Had too many other higher priorities, which is just weird to say but true.

More music coming. English Paul is waiting for me to finish the art to release song #2. And he’s working on instrumental tracks for #3, which will go pretty quickly. I need to record audio for 4-6 over the next month and get those whipped into shape.

Lots to do. Not a lot of energy this morning, but I have a mystery to solve and a villain to catch. Then a bunch of blackberry bramble to chop up with the brushcutter.

Hopefully, it doesn’t end up being stupid hot today, or I might just sit on the couch with the kitty and nap.

Y’all have a good week and don’t blow anything off you might need later.

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.

20230522

[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.]

Oh, hey, it’s Monday. Reminder just went off to do something for Patreon.

My day’s all off. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ wanted steak and eggs this morning, so we drove into Covington to eat at Nikki’s. Nice breakfast. Not my favorite place, obviously. Didn’t shoot, but did go shooting Thursday and didn’t do bad. Might go again this Thursday. See what the week’s like.

Since last we talked, that Epic Space Fantasy thing has kinda taken over. I have now written six stories in six writing days. All about 4500 words on average, I think. Or, about 28k worth of two storylines that are only just starting to wind up into a bigger novel. But Epic Fantasy tends to doorstops between 100 and 250k words each. Big.

I’ve got that much story. Worse, I’ve got seven-volume series worth, here. I’ll blame Sally. She started it.

Worse, I’ve been deep-diving and rabbit-holing various places, including tvtropes.org. If it is one of those weird fantasy/manga tropes (and there are a lot of them on tvtropes), normally, I try to stay away from them. This time, I’m just including it in my notes and trying to figure out how to add it.

Sword and Sorcery Fantasy. On starships. Because of course you do.

Y’all will get the first Holden story in June. Visitors. Sets things up. Then I have been going even/odd between Holden and Rafferty. Way complicated, but I’ve been pulling in Joseph Campbell, Arthurian Mythos, Magic Academy, Space Opera, Vikings, and everything else I could think of. Worse, The Babe has looked at my magic system, added a few tweaks and suggestions, and pronounced it solid.

High praise from that woman, because she LOVES creating new magic systems from scratch.

Had an interesting conversation with Mark last week. One of the outcomes was that we are going to start making my novels available on the website on the first each month starting in July, instead of the 10th, so you’ll get it a week earlier if you buy direct. (and I’ll make an extra buck or three along the way.)

He’s also considering something like a (Patreon-ish) Subscription service, where folks sign up for a set amount each month, and get the latest novel early. Like a month before it goes up for sale. Early supporters advantage, as it were.

How would you folks feel if we did something like that? You’re paying the bills around here, so you should have opinions.

If I went down that path, I might stop writing short fiction on a schedule for Patreon release, and shift folks around. Or maybe both. $5 for the short story. $10 for both short story and latest novel.

Opinions? Rejections? Enthusiastic embrace and here’s more money?

Amazon broke something. Several times. They screwed up the advertising system in April. Then screwed it up on the fix. Removed buy buttons from the app unless you are in KU (no, thank you). Etc.

I don’t know any author (and I’ve asked) who is doing even as well as last year on Amazon, let alone better. That includes me. Personally, I live in terror that I’ll have to go get a part-time job somewhere because I stop making enough to support things as inflation bites. Or the economy crashes because of fuck-wits in DC.

Y’all need to tell your friends to buy books. I’m too feral for real people and a job.

Past that, not a lot new. Keeping at the Darkened Phoenix Academy Chronicles this week. Maybe until I just give up and call it a novel, but I’m having fun with 4500 word short stories threaded sequentially in two paths that won’t meet until maybe the end of Book One. Whenever that happens.

Good news: All of Season One of Last Stand is up for preorder everywhere. The shop will have the rest this week. Wherever you get your books.

And I’m starting to build up to have the second Corsac Fox Kickstarter Campaign in July, with Book One coming out next month.

Past that, more writing. More game design. Occasional guitar. Tai Chi Sword and Polearm. More music soon.

Staying busy. Hope your monday isn’t sucking too bad.

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.

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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.]

Got the Mondays. But in a good way.

Last week, Jon mentioned the rpg I’d talked about creating, where I’d gone a reasonable distance in. He had a few questions, that turned into a lot of questions. That turned into ideas. Lots of ideas.

Been refining for about ten days. He called this morning about getting coffee, after I’d already gone out for breakfast and come home, but it’s Jon, so I went back down to Enumclaw. Several hours later, I’m finally home and writing.

Did get started on a new Chace story this morning. You might get it next month, or maybe I’ll tease you with a sample of something. Tempted to serialize Air Pirates 1, just because I don’t think more than one or two of you read it when it was available in the store. (Yell if you have opinions.)

So I’m moving suddenly forward on a new rpg. Like we might be playtesting character creation and basic combat in about a week, on the way to modularizing a magic system. Helps that I’ve played so many different engines over the last forty years, so I can pull in pieces I like and know work, while avoiding others.

Starting with fantasy, because that’s Jon’s thing, then on to some space opera or cyberpunk, which requires a slightly different take on the engine. Building some of the parts in now and explaining to him why, which means I have to have it straight in my head.

THEN (to top that off), there was a bit of a surprise on Saturday. I knew something was up, but not what. Three Lakes Martial Arts Academy (Enumclaw) does Saturday morning classes. Martial for an hour, then Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi 99, then open training.

This last Saturday, there were also promotions. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ knew, because she made it a point to go, after not being in class for six months with various ailments. And Jon and Lori (8th and 5th Dan in Isshinryu Karate were also surprise guests. (and old friends, obviously, if I’m making a game with him. Same Jon.)

I got promoted to 4th Ji (gray belt, four red stripes) which represents four years of busting my ass and outworking all the other students.

And Jon gifted me a Jian sword that he had been originally given in the very same hall in 1988. So I have that to do sword form with going forward.

Meanwhile, kinda behind on my writing today, because wonky schedule. But taking a pause on Air Pirates #4 at about the halfway mark (21k) and writing some Chace. Maybe a lot of Chace, just to get it off the list.

Also, pay attention to the newsletter, because I’m trying to figure out how to do a coupon for books in the shop, and then make it a regular thing going forward monthly. Mark does four days at the end of each month (last two+first two) but I think first four might work better, so that the code goes out with the newsletter. Thus, pay attention.

Kickstarter I think is officially done, having sent out download links to the big art files to folks last night.

BUSY, but almost time to break and recover.

How’s your monday? And how do we make it better?

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.

20230403

[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.]

Monday. I did not go shooting, because it snowed last night. WTF? Still had about an inch on the ground and thick drizzle this morning. FTN.

Instead, Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and I went out to breakfast and talked publishing. Mostly around the “Business For Breakfast” books and the Milestone Indie Publishing Newsletter (Non-fiction here: https://www.knottedroadpress.com/browse-krp-books/non-fiction/), and how we can synergize them.

Lots of crossover potential. Milestone articles are usually around 1000-1500 words. B4B books range about 14k+/-. I even have a basic B4B book I need to polish and publish. Handed it to S* the other day to test. “Okay, you have your manuscript. Now what?” and she’s working out all those details. A how-to for young writers needing to go Indie.

And Milestone Year Three is done (I think) and will be coming out as soon as we can organize things and get all the guest authors on board. Watch your inbox for news. Probably May.

Got home and got to work on Science Officer #13. “Dragoon’s Honor” is still my working title, as I strive to be somewhat alphabetical for Season Two. Currently at about 38k words, so halfway. Story coming together nicely. Maybe finish in about two weeks.

After that, I got a list. Last Stand #12. Thrill Ride Year Two (4 short stories due in the fall). Monthly Patreon short, but not sure what I’ll tackle this month and I hope you had fun with Chace, as I’m planning three of the four Thrill Ride stories being Chace stories.

GOT A WEIRD QUESTION for you folks.

Right now, $5/month gets you the new short story at least six months before publication. Maybe more, because I’m kinda lazy about getting those out.

Something some folks over in LitRPG are doing is to release a chapter of a novel each month for their patrons. You folks at the $1 level interested if I did that? I have several novel series partially complete, meaning not coming out in any form before 2024 and maybe later, as I want to get them closer to done.

Alternatively, since I’m writing “slower” this year, I might take that energy that goes into the monthly short fiction and instead focus it on longer pieces that get serialized. For instance, I’ve gotten nice response to Fugitives, but not enough sales to really justify writing more of Marcus’s tale. And in a week, I’ve got the first Dan & Stewey novel (urbanish fantasy) coming out, but I haven’t written the rest of the series yet, because I don’t know if folks are interested in following me over there.

But I could justify it here. Won’t unless you folks speak up, so hit reply and let me know your thoughts on the topic. Want me to dabble on the side with stuff that isn’t Science Fiction? Again, if I’d sped up instead of slowing down, I’d have space to do both.

Instead, I’m sewing (went and bought more jersey fabric yesterday), and learning to play guitar (blame English Paul, his idea, see attached image), while also getting serious with Chinese martial arts and some rpg game engine stuff. And a punk rock opera that I’m about halfway through writing at present. Because I can.

Your opinions matter, especially because y’all so rarely actually say anything. (Sometimes, I think I’m talking to myself, okay?)

Happy to rotate into a new way of doing things, but that means folks might not get their monthly fix of a complete short story, and instead I cliff-hangar your asses on a monthly basis.

Which might be more fun, just so’s you know.

What would entertain you the most?

Vote here

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.

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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.]

Sent out the Corsac Fox ebooks to everyone last week. Hopefully you got it if you backed. And enjoyed it. As noted last week, I finished #3. Six in the first block/series, I think. At least that’s how it is shaping up.

Also finished the Chace Haig “origin” story you will read in April, as I prep to write a whole series of shorts for The Thrill Ride. Plus at least one more Fatima. That’s between now and December, so I have time.

Closer to home, I started a new novel on Friday. The Science Officer #13. Working Title: Dragoon. I’d say a change of pace, but only compared to Heather and Uly. Lighter, but that’s because those two are darker by their nature. More Space Opera.

Javier is always space adventure. And snark. Sass. Attitude.

I’m about 5000 words in at this moment. Have framed the setting and hinted at issues, without diving too deep into what’s coming, because I want this one to slowly unfold, dragging you deeper and deeper before you realize it.

Like more Science Officer stories, when you think about it. Space exploration, in a galaxy where only Humans achieved anything like technological sentience. No aliens, not counting Suvi and her cousins. Vaguely Earth-based, only in the context of we talk about Earth.

I don’t always, you’ll notice. Sometimes, I talk about a galaxy where folks have been in space for so long that they only have theories as to where they came from. Flight Officer Brannon, for instance, takes place at least thirty thousand years in the future from us. Or eighty thousand. Dunno. Doesn’t matter, because there is no “Earth” at the center of things. Merely peoples in different groupings.

From here, more Javier and Djamila. Figuring we’ll come in around 50-60k. Longer than Alien Seas and Buried Among the Stars. Shorter than Captain Navarre. I think so, anyway.

At some point, I will write the twelfth Last Stand. Been watching as that series slowly starts to gain traction. Folks do not like you challenging their religion, which is weird considering who and what they worship, but that’s not my place. I’m here to entertain.

And readers who get past that variation have seemed to enjoy the series. Three of them out now. Up through six for pre-order. Eleven written. Notes on another twenty or more, depending. Hell, I might just keep putting out another Last Stand episode monthly for years if folks like it.

One of my first readers got back to me to complain as he was sending me back #10, because he was afraid I’d stop at #12 and he’s enjoying these characters and stories too much.

Tell all your friends, including Hollywood producers you know or folks in Japan making anime. I’ll do them a great deal on licensing. This series was always written to be visual. I’ve cast the actors in my head, and they are not the ones you think.

I used Zhanna Zhumaliyeva as my model for Tessa, except taller. (See pic, and drool.) The others follow similar patterns, to the point I have to stop and remember those other character names when someone asks, because I’ve moved so far beyond them in my head.

Past that, not a lot to say. Busy writing. Busy editing. Busy sewing. And martial arts. And music.

Spring is coming up and I’ll be spending less time at the keyboard this year and more time out doing stuff.

What’s your year going to be like?

Chat more next week.

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.