Category Archives: publishing

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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

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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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Woke up to drizzle. Not much. Mostly a heavy marine layer more than anything, but nice, after several hot days. Enough to skip going out. Plus, the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and I both work up at 5am Sunday, and ended up going out to breakfast at one of those farmer joints down in Enumclaw. Ate a third, had a third for dinner, had the last third for breakfast. Still have a muffin to go. Damned good food. Place called The Kettle, if you are local or traveling soon.

Working on a new project. This one has a deadline, so it might slip in somewhere shortly. The Thrill Ride magazine has posted the Year Two themes already. Those of you paying attention know about Chace Haig. First Chace story will go up in a few weeks, then I have three more for submission.

Same with a new project to fill that elusive fourth slot with Thrill Ride.

The “Five Man Band” is a common trope in adventure fiction. And boy bands, but we won’t go there today. Leader, Lancer, Heart, Brains, Brawn, and everybody fills a role.

I asked Matt about “low hanging fruit” for “Sisters In Arms” and he expected most of his stories to be female special forces troopers, or maybe cops. My original idea would have been slightly to the weird of that. The new idea is well to the weird of that.

The T’ang Dynasty ruled China from 618 to 907 CE. Often considered China’s Golden Age, and perhaps the most culturally advanced in their history. Certainly the most sophisticated place on earth at the time.

So, Five Man Band in 680-690CE. In T’ang China. No magic, but one mad scientist inventing things for the leader and lancer to use. Action/Adventure with a historic beat.

I’m having WAY too much fun studying history, and how all the pieces go together, because this is the end of the Merovingian Dynasty in France. And there is a Jewish trade network running from the French coast to the Chinese one. An early Silk Road before it collapsed for centuries.

So all sorts of crazy silly ideas, plus I get to read history in depth and pull up my martial arts studies as well.

Gonna write an origin story soonish. Got most of it in mind. That lets me settle the voices and the setting, then I can write a Sisters In Arms story. And more.

I’d like to have more Action/Adventure/Thriller in my catalog. Add another leg to my income. Derlyth doing well means I’ll write more Occult Detective stuff soon. Historic Thriller means that I can write exotic stories and most of the folks reading won’t be experts on most of it. (and if they are, I’ll recruit them as editors. Any of you into T’ang Dynasty or Migration Period history? Heh)

Better? I’m not the weirdest story he’ll read. The Babe™ is working on a story about a team of modern-day crime-fighting drag queens using Chinese Fan fighting forms.

Because why the hell not? Matt’ll never know what hit him, that’s for sure.

So it’s a Monday. And a weird one. I’m about to dive back into Corsac Fox #4. And I need to get my ass in gear on the second Kickstarter, but I’ve been a little overwhelmed with other projects that still aren’t settled. It’ll get there. And I’m having fun with my writing. Folks seem to enjoy #1, so that’s a bonus as well.

Y’all stay out of the sun. and the drizzle. Go walk around the block and get some exercise.

shade and sweet water,

blaze

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.]

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

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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.]

Monday. If you’ve been paying attention elsewhere, we’re sixteen days into the bathroom remodel. I’ve written one of those days. And this morning.

Did go out to Krain for breakfast. Had an almost normal time. Then home and about 3000 words on the fourth Marrakesh novel. Which was impressive, considering. Took most of the morning to find the groove again, but that’s the disruption of the reno.

I’ve written 23k words this month. Plus this blog post. That’s it. On the 19th. A little less than half what I might normally have at this point. And I won’t catch up, but I will likely return to something of a normal pace starting forward from here. Hopefully.

Dunno.

There will be more pics. Over the weekend we got the tub framed with baseboard and about half caulked, with the remainder happening in a bit. Got the vanity assembled, tiled, grouted, and caulked. Will turn the water on in a bit and make sure everything is good there.

Hung the two doors today and didn’t have to shave them. Did discover that both had little footies on the bottom. About the size of nickels. About a quarter inch thick. One set kept the door to the tub and shower from closing. Then I realized that they were there and removed them, and the door shuts. Front door already shut, but doesn’t yet have a threshold, so I expect I’ll have to pull the door again and remove them.

Today, we touch up the purple paint and caulk the rest of the tub. And that’s it.

Seventeen days of labor, taking off only this past Saturday. I’ll write about Saturday in the next Anti-Stodgy newsletter, because it was simply amazing beyond words. And Sensei Jon got one of the greatest compliments ever from someone he deeply respects.

Stay tuned and go “awwwww” next month.

Marrakesh 4 is at 13k words. Warlock At Large is about a third done, and I’ll circle back to it next. Need to work on three more Beckett Fernsby stories for the next four BSQ issues, because I had to much fun with the one for “Gulliver’s Other Travels.” Got themes and silliness to explore.

Next month’s story is also part of Warlock at Large, but the other main character, where things bounce back and forth between Holden and Reilly for a long while, before other POV’s come in. Gonna be fun.

This week is mostly recovering my sanity and my house. Getting back on track after being utterly discombobulated.

Vacation, of sorts. I’m just glad I chose to take off from the streak last summer, so having a month of 50-60k words didn’t freak me too badly out. That’s what June will be like. Might catch up some in July. And might not. Got a lot of other things that got put on the back burner in the process. They need attention next.

Y’all have a lovely week and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

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.]

Bathroom remodel, week 2. last week, we got the tiles on the floor and the walls painted. Today was tiling the tub. Floor was white 12” square tiles, about a quarter of them painted by hand at that party last summer. Tub is lined with three rows of 3” by 6” wide subway tiles, also about a quarter painted. Same amount of tiles put down, but less work, because we hit a rhythm where I prepped each tile and handed it to her.

You flip it over and do what is apparently called a butterback by using the jagged-edge trowel to smear a lot of mortar on and then groove it so it sticks well. Along the way, I had to commit feng shui by deciding when to insert the painted tiles and then orient them. Results were lovely. I’ll post a lot of pics somewhere in a week. Tomorrow, the tiles dry, and then get grouted on wednesday.

Tomorrow, we assemble the vanity, countertop, and sink, as well as hanging a new medicine cabinet on the wall. At some point, we also have to nail the baseboard molding back onto the wall (thank God for nailguns and compressors).

I can’t remember when I last committed fiction. Have written some newsletters and blog posts, but it might be Friday ten days ago at this point, and I’ve lost a lot of threads. This morning, I had about an hour, so I sat down with what I had written of Marrakesh #4 and tacked a few hundred words onto the back of it. Probably end up writing the rest of that one next, as that gets me almost out a year with completed novels at this moment, without digging out partial series to fill in gaps. I will write a few more Last Stand (Season Two) between now and whenever, but I can’t tell you when they might be written or come out. Marrakesh for the first four months. Air Pirates of Cyrenaica for four after that, presumably with a Corsac Fox or two tucked in there as well.

Had an artist draw five portraits for Corsac One for the kickstarter. Hired her to do a couple more for this one, but they will be stretch goals or bonus prize sorts of things, because delivering BIG art files turned out to be a freaking pain in my ass that I don’t wish to repeat.

Not much past that. Reminder pinged me to write something while I was tiling, so I pushed it out and circled back when I got done. Not going to have a lot of words in June, but major house projects are like that, and I’d rather get it done quicker and circle back to catch up writing.

How’s your Monday going?

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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.]

If you’ve been paying attention, I wrote the first nine stories in nine days. Averaging about 4500 words each. Flipping back and forth between two main characters who won’t meet until possibly the last paragraph of book one, or at least the last chapter.

Friday, the streak broke, but that was because I had other things to do. Got about 2700 words of it done. Wrote the other 2000 this morning (I always take weekends off writing these days for other tasks.)

That’s ten stories. Quick eyeball says 48k words. Maybe a third done. Epic Space Fantasy, so it’s going to be kinda big. Swords and Sorcery on starships, ya know? Rich and deep and a little crazy, because honestly, this is a new thing for me to write. And I’m leaning in on all the tropes I usually avoid. Because why the hell not? (Kinky Friedman used that as the basis of an entire campaign to be Governor of Texas, once upon a time.)

Y’all will get the first story later this week. I’m done with 10 and looking at 11.

My plan right now is that they have stopped being pure short stories welded randomly together, and have become somewhat serialized chunks of something much larger. The eventual novel from this will be assembled from these chunks, so a bunch of short parts, or possibly long chapters. Dunno.

It will be different from what you are used to, because why the hell not?

MIGHT be calling this series The Scattered Tribes Chronicle. And book one MIGHT be Warlock At Large. Don’t quote me, as there’re a lot of miles between here and there.

Didn’t go out this morning. Holiday in the States, so lots of folks would be off work and both the restaurant and the range will be zoos. (At least I remembered this year.) Also, I have an early D&D game today. (Start at 4 instead of 6pm, play late.) I am not the GM anymore, because three of the group decided to blow up my game last week, leading to several character deaths and everyone else arrested and thrown in jail prior to being hung as cattle thieves.

I closed up all my books, packed them up, and told the group that someone else was in charge. And I don’t honestly expect to GM for these players again. Hell, I’m not sure if this group still exists, after some things that got said to me over the weekend. Figure I’ll show up tonight and smile, because these are not my monkeys and this is no longer my circus.

And if they have reached the point of not wanting to be a group anymore, I’ll go find others to play with. Not like I don’t have a lot of friends out there I could contact.

Rest of the week will be weird, writing-wise. Keeping at Warlock At Large. World-building something entirely new for the next story I need to write for Boundary Shock Quarterly (“Gulliver’s Other Travels” due out in the fall). Might pivot over and write the rest of Marrakesh 4 while it’s fresh in my head. Dunno. Will update y’all as we go.

Also, the shop: Starting on July 1st, we’ll start releasing my books there on the first, and not everywhere else until the 10th. Get yours early if you’d like. I could use the extra buck or two as well, since I don’t have to pay the distributors that 30% of cover price as a fee.

Also working towards doing coupons for folks going forward. Haven’t worked out all the details yet, so keeping it vague, but watch here and the newsletter for updates.

Not much past that. Kinda monday. Gray and drizzly out there. House is set to cool rather than heat, so its currently about 65F in here and I’m wearing a sweatshirt, but expecting it to warm up later. (Or I’ll kick the heat on when I get home from game.)

Around Seattle, we frequently call it June-uary, when things get like this after heat in May. Might have come a little early this year.

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.]

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

—————————-

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.]

Didn’t shoot this morning. Going Thursday. Piper texted last night and wanted to work on engine mechanics for the game, so did that after breakfast. Probably building characters and starting arena combat testing next week, to see how things balance. Kinda nifty cool there, because we’re close to the basics, which means moving on to the context of magic next.

Got some interesting ideas on how to handle balance there, while keeping things as wide open and modular are possible. Will require players actually do more than have a set of numbers on a page, but min/maxers like that tend to either annoy or bore me, depending.

“You can do it, but it’s going to cost you” is our mantra for building things. And the Piper doesn’t mind me ripping out as much Tolkien as I can from fantasy roleplay because there is more to fantasy literature than that. MUCH MORE. And we’ll get to come up with our own settings to go atop context (and atop engine) for folks to play.

If you haven’t been paying attention, I asked my group that I GM what Contexts they’d like to see/play. Piper is always all about fantasy. One guy wanted to see Cthulhu as an option, so I pointed him at my Space Gods story from “After The Fall” and Stoyko, if he wanted something post-apoc. Otherwise, it would be more 1930s pulp, which is coming up on a century ago. Yikes. We’ll see what he has to say this week.

The fun part was the one player who wanted “Harry Potter Meets Star Fleet Academy” as a thing. And she’d like that.

Worse, as I thought about it, I figured out how to do it.

Worse, had a chat with the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ over the weekend and got some clues from here about Epic Space Fantasy™ as a genre. Not one I write in. Not one I read, but she’s all over the map and had things to consider.

And, to stretch myself, I’ll write at least the one I’m about to start after this in First Person, something else I rarely do.

Then, because me, I have spent the weekend worldbuilding something massively epic, just in case I decide to write a 7-volume epic space fantasy series. Because, I can.

Finished the 12th Last Stand (end of Season One, but not the end, as I have more to write). And started the fourth Marrakesh, but putting that one aside this week as I write some short stuff to get ahead again and give you folks your monthly fix. (and me places to experiment, as one does.)

Marrakesh should be Jan-Apr of 2024, followed by Air Pirates, with the third and maybe fourth Corsac Fox tucked in there somewhere. And maybe the third and final Kincaide’s War (Eden Package) after #2 comes out this summer.

Thanks for keeping me in business. Gotta GM tonight, so the Anti-Stodgy Newsletter comes out tomorrow and lets me start Holden Barick’s middle story. (in media res.)

Catch up next week.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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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.]

Didn’t go shoot this morning, though the weather was finally lovely enough. Hurt too much. Lots of things, including not sleeping all that well for several days. You ever wake up crunchy? That was my morning.

Also went up north Sunday and showed Sensei Johnson the first section of the spear form I’m creating. And got his approval. Then he helped me create a second section, as well as gave me some ideas for what will become a third section. Or a second form. Dunno. Physical Fitness, with heavy spear tipped with sharp steel thingee.

I wanna stay in shape until I’m in my nineties. Walking. Martial arts. Weapon forms. It keeps the brain as sharp as the body. Same reason I get up in the morning and ingest a series of vitamins and things. 8 different flavors, if you will, all intended to keep me from getting any worse than I am today, while maybe making things better.

Been working on slowly losing weight. Worst I ever got was around 225#. Not fasting or making radical changes, because those tend to fall apart. Instead, eating “better” and less.

Weighed in at 202 this morning. Goal is 195 for now, but that’s always a challenge, because summer is when I dig out the machete and ditching blade and work. Muscle weighs more than fat, so I might lose belly meat and gain shoulders. That’s typical in the summer.

But healthy, and that’s really everything.

Writing: finished Flight into Sunrise, which is the fourth Air Pirates of Cyrenaica and completes an arc. Like how and where it ended, as it leaves things open for more, if folks react well later.

Then I wrote two more Chace Haig stories for submission to Thrill Ride Magazine in the fall. That’s the three I need, plus an origin. And I still plan to write several more over the rest of this year, so that I have a pretty deep catalog of such fiction. Planning to go to Bouchercon in San Diego at the end of the summer, and need to have stuff up by then, in case fans want to read stuff.

Then I started the next Last Stand. Episode 12, planned for December, so I complete at least Year One. I still have notes on another dozen or more episodes, but I won’t be putting them out on a monthly schedule.

Instead (at present), we’re going to move the 2023 calendar around (everything is always written in pencil) to publish the three Marrakesh novels starting in January. Maybe a fourth, because I have some ideas there, and a full episode list to explore as well.

Sometime over the summer of 2024, the four Air Pirates books, probably wrapped around the third Corsac Fox novel. Lords of the Endless Plains should be part of a January kickstarter, like Flight of the Corsac Fox was this year (releasing in June if you missed the KS). Book Two, Mistaken Identity, will kickstarter in July-ish, and is on the calendar for general release in November.

In easy terms, I have up through August 2024 ready, in terms of novels and novellas in the can right now, and more coming. And that doesn’t count another batch of novels representing series I need to finish before publishing.

July will see the release of the next book in Kincaide’s War. Vehicles of Epiphany. I’ll start the final book in the trilogy in the fall, I think, with an aim of a 2024 release to complete that arc.

Always, more ideas than time to write them. That’s fine. Forces me to focus tighter. And leaves me time for all the other extracurricular stuff I’m doing this year. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Hope your monday is less crunchy than mine. Finishing this and diving back into Last Stand. Work never ends, but I also took the weekend off to do other things.

Now I need to recover. And chase chipmunks off the bird feeder.

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.]

RPG news, because Monday. The Piper wanted to meet for coffee, so he and I did that after breakfast (long story) and just spent 3 hours deep diving on what we’ve come up with so far and how the math and style work out. Kinda excited because it is coming together, and we keep managing to keep everything modularized to a level that it extends sideways.

Used the phrase “Game Engine” yesterday with a young woman who could not envision what I meant, because to her a gaming (note -ing) engine was Unreal or something, and that was what she did as an artist. Didn’t have the heart to tell her she was just painting skins on somebody else’s engine, but she could not grasp creating something entirely new. It’s like those companies that come out with supplements for D&D 5th edition. You didn’t create an engine, you are making stuff for someone else.

I’m making a new engine. New dice. New rules. Reaching back 35 years to things that some folks were doing in the late 80s that are still better than some of what 5th Ed does, because those wizards think they invented roleplaying games. (And they kinda did, 45 years ago. The world has moved on, and some of my things I played in the late 80s/early 90s are still more sophisticated.)

Anyway: Having fun. Working it out. Gonna playtest soon and that’s where the rubber meets the road.

Also: I am two epilogues from finishing the fourth Air Pirates of Cyrenaica novel. And the current arc, while leaving it open for more novels in the future if folks really like what I’ve done. We’ll see. Probably publishing about a year from now, give or take, on the current schedule.

And, last night, as I’m laying there going to sleep, the first 500 or so words of the next Chace story came to me. I’ve got three done, including the origin you’ve read. This will be #4, and might be that third submission for Thrill Ride Magazine. In any case, I want to have a half dozen or more Chace stories, so that I have a catalog available for readers, assuming I can place some of them in Year Two. Will probably do some novels at some point as well, presuming that folks are enjoying my Action/Adventure stuff (Fugitive and Pacific Force, plus that first Fatima story you read in Thrill Ride #1, hint hint). Thoughts?

Today is non-fiction day. This blog. The monthly newsletter. The quarterly Boundary Shock newsletter. Tomorrow finish Air Pirates and pivot to Chace.

More stuff. Tai Chi proceeds well. Learning to play a few simple songs on the guitar as my hands develop the skills and flexibility.

All in all, a pretty good Monday.

How’s your May Day going?

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.