[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. Knocking on wood, but the everything related to the new heat pump has been working since Wednesday. They had to come back and replace the thermostat and a transformer inside the air cycler, and I had four techs here until 6pm, but they got it done and it’s running.
I got heat. Haven’t had a fire in almost a week. Haven’t had to fire up the three kerosene lanterns. Small victories.
You’ve been seeing off-cycle notes about the Kickstarter. Those will continue, because this will go live when there are only about thirty-six hours left. As of now, we’re funded, and have hit the first stretch goal. Got my artist friend doing color awesomeness. Gonna be great.
Hoping that more folks come along and back. Never done one before, and would like to make a splash. Get folks engaged. Get them reading my catalog. Make some money to offset the huge expenses of replacing a heatpump and well-tank. Bad month here.
Writing continues. About 42k into Warlord of Yaumgan. No idea how long. More than 60. Probably less than 80. Getting there, and setting up the next several novels in Heather’s series.
Also been talking about Corsac Fox constantly, so kinda geared up to go write #3 of that one. Kickstarting #2 “Mistaken Identity” in the fall, with a release in 2024 sometime.
Did breakfast this morning. Didn’t go shooting. 33F out there and I’m still emotionally recovering from the last 12 weeks of shit dumped on my shoulders.
Have been working with a pair of spears lately. Working out the details of my understanding of Tokushin (Okinawan Pike form). Sensei Johnson doesn’t expect me to keep it pure and pristine, because I had different intentions, so I am adjusting a few things as I go. Plus, Vietnamese Kung Fu background instead of Okinawan Karate. Big difference.
Eventually, I’ll have five basic kata, done both right and left handed, plus Tokushin, plus a longer form that will function (in my mind) like a long form of Tai Chi. Yang-style Tai Chi is 24 motions. Long form is (I think) 108. I study Chen Pan Ling (Taiwanese form) that has 99 motions.
Looking for 60 things to do with a spear heavy enough to butt-stroke someone in the face.
My plan is a book and video for training, for folks interested. Maybe kickstarter it, but more likely just publish both and call it good.
One of my long stretch goals on the Corsac Fox kickstarter actually involves inventing a form of alien Tai Chi (Mazhin Sunflower Fist) so it’s a thing in my head. At the moment, I doubt we’ll get that far in terms of funding, but anything is possible, so tell your friends to all pile in at the end and kick me up to five figures (we’re just over $2000 last I looked).
Also kickstarter: the Open Gaming License brouhaha from WOTC is pissing off a lot of people. Rightly so, but most of those companies aren’t really gaming companies, because they aren’t creating a game. They are writing source material for Dungeons and Dragons. I’m old enough to remember when D&D wasn’t even in the top five most popular RPGs (back around 1990). Other game engines, in addition to settings.
Different rules.
What I’m up to is creating my own game engine. No d20 involved. Fantasy, but flexible enough for modern or Space opera as well. Might create source books for my various series as I go, because I’ll make myself one hell of a licensing deal.
Or someone else, if they have an idea and business sense. (Ping me later.)
Sometime in 2024, I hope/plan to kickstarter this new game system and compete directly with WOTC. Didn’t used to be able to do that, because they are the 900 kilo gorilla. It’s like competing with Disney, when they own Marvel and Star Wars. Losing battle.
But right now, Kickstarter means that we’re really in the late 70s, where anyone can create a game, get some funding, and distribute it into any game store that wants it. Or direct, because we live in the future, and WOTC and Disney cannot stop me from competing.
Almost back to the Wild West days of the early 80s, when a lot of games were created. I have a library of old stuff, partly for sentimental value, partly because I use it for research when engine building. (This is not my first attempt at a fully-formed game. The most recent was 1998, before Kickstarter, and we could have made it work. I will not, however, use any of that IP, nor talk to my former partner ever again. Nuff said.)
So more books coming. Thanks to everyone reading and preordering Last Stand. Hope you really enjoy it when we get deep enough to really know these characters and setting. Lost Dreams, of necessity, had to have many parallels with Firefly, because that’s the thing I was wanting to emulate emotionally. We’re done with that as of Ghost Towns, and going off in a new direction, never looking back.
As noted, I watched the first triple episode, then nothing else. Can’t stomach the characters, but that’s how Wheadon did things. And who he is. Tessa is her own person. And Last Stand is its own world.
Plus, a lot more Space Opera coming in the summer. Kincaide’s War #2. Corsac Fox for those of you who don’t want the collector’s edition hardcover (I doubt that we’ll have HC as an option when it goes wide). Marrakesh. And more.
So stick around. And have some fun.
And what are you up to today?
Shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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