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

Colder than shit around here, but getting warm during the day so a lot of the snow is finally melting off, up here on the mountain. Haven’t been snowed in (knock on wood) but haven’t gotten out much. Will blame the gang. Both gaming groups have had “issues” for the last couple of weeks, so a Thursday game this week might be the first time I’ve dropped dice in almost a month. Getting a little grumpy.

Do have a new game engine I need to find some folks to test with, but both groups are entirely wrong. One is a fantasy-only player and two rookies. The other is basically four chaos goblins and no mastermind.

Need a handful of folks who can take direction to test things cleanly, instead of me having to constantly field curve balls from them. But you cannot convey that without insulting them to their faces, and I’m not (quite) there yet. Yet.

Finished Science Officer 16 last week. Went out with one hell of a bang. And I know what the title and overall theme of 17 will be, but I’m taking a season break after 16 and letting Javier and the gang have some time off. It got big. And ugly. And repercussive.

As Javier usually is.

Have started a cute little series starring a Mexican Pygmy Spotted Skunk and a Striped Possum. Will finish that up at some point soon so I can send it to you in March.

Right now, I’m a few days into the next Scattered Tribes book. This one will be a full novel instead of collected shorts. That lets me twist threads around more as I go. Plus, I had a problem.

In Book One, I attempted to include every stupid trope and scam I could come up with from Epic Fantasy and Space Opera. No idea was too dumb or outrageous to use. As you’ve seen.

In planning #2, I came across a whole NEXT set of silly that I had missed. So we’re upping the stakes here. Scavenger Hunt/Plot Coupon book, with a prophesy and a dark god awakening.

As one does. And I have no idea how many books there will be in this series, but it will come to a conclusion at some point. Probably. Don’t quote me on that. I mean, I know what four stories I am using for inspiration here, and most of you won’t see that until they bite you in the ass about midway through the last book. Because.

Same time, I finally got through Corsac Fox Block One and Science Officer Season Two. Both will return. Not immediately.

Scattered Tribes will fill part of that niche. Then, because I could, I started on another mega-huge series. EPIC space opera sorts of stuff, where I already have 20,000 words of research pulled from wikipedia and other places, mostly for inspiration and because history, if you read it close enough, is usually weirder than people who write fiction for a living will lead you to believe.

So I’m Deep into the Bronze Age Collapse/Greek Dark Ages, plus the Cromwell Era of English Civil Wars. Because why the hell not?

Throw in a few other things that I haven’t sorted out yet, and I ought to be ready to write Colossus in a couple of months. There are not enough hours in the day for everything I want to write, so I have to plan.

Have been prepping everything for publication this spring/summer, so rereading Red Branch. Will write #5 at some point. And have started rereading Heather’s War (3 of 5 done) so I can plug that in. Probably next, because Scattered Tribes will be light enough and weird enough for me to get back to hard-core serious space opera. And everything else.

Just gotta get there.

You do the same.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

20250121

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

Tuesday. I hope.

Deep into the next Science officer. 38K before I start writing today.

Just wrote an intro to a new Chace Haig collection coming out in March. Got a lot of Action-Thriller shorts, so trying to get everything out of the trunk and earning rent. And I have a Chace novel that is currently being edited. Planning to write a few more of those this year.

Once Javier it done, it looks like the next Scattered Tribes might be a novel. Or a series of shorts. No clue, other than a lot of ideas to pursue, including a scavenger hunt/plot coupon book for #2. If shorts, you might get them. If not, something else.

Fan reached out about paper editions of the old Brak stories. Four of them. Kinda cringy to look at, but that was ten million words ago and I’m a lot better these days. Thought about extending that story, but the quality difference will be so jarring that anything will go into a Volume 2 instead.

And why the hell not? From Feet of Clay, the original campaign arc got REALLY weird. And that’s on top of a half-troll warrior. Best part, all five of those characters in the Brak stories were in the campaign. Brak the trollkin. Bob the Greedy. Princess the half-drow. Piper the wizard. And Sleipnir the Drider who tells Brak that he’s a special kind of centaur. Because he was. And Brak was that gullible.

It was one hell of a fun campaign, and the crazy shit is still coming. (“Flying Turtle Poop” is a potential title. Nuff said?)

got a lot of short material written in the early part of the month. Will continue to write more, as I have patreon and two magazines, so I have to add twenty new titles per year going forward.

Good thing I can.

Colder than snot outside. Staying indoors and writing and editing today. How are you getting through the winter?

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Ugh.

Fabulous Publisher Babe™ came down with a head cold last week, then gave it to me over the weekend. Mostly recovered today, but still sitting down to write. At least I have words today. Took a couple of days off and just let backbrain and rabbithole fill things in.

Just under 18k words into Science Officer 16. “G” for those of you keeping score at home. Like where it’s going.

War of the Pirate Clans, Volume 2, as Zakhar calls it. Now that you’ve read Exile, you’ll understand better when I tell you that this is part of an interior trilogy (14-16) that kind of wraps up Season Two (I have H for 17, and a rough idea of a plot, but might call 16 good for a time.

Mental break. Corsac Fox came to rest. Science Officer might need to rest at 16. Dunno. It’s 2025, and a few folks took the mask off yesterday, revealing who they had been hiding previously, so it you’re throwing Nazi salutes, even ironically, understand that I don’t want to know you anymore, because my friends include the sorts of people your friends want to put into work camps.

You know: Work will make you free.

It sounds worse in the original German.

Facebook will be going away. I’m dialing down my time there from regular to weekly to maybe monthly, mostly so nobody can squat on my account information and claim I support racist scum and cop killers.

You can reach me on Bluesky, at least until it gets enshitified next. Mastodon is a lovely idea, but the guy in charge went total fucking Nazi on me last summer, so I might not log in there more than enough to tell people I’ve left.

Www.blazeward.com is likely the only spot I will reliably be over the next decade. If you aren’t paying for admission, then you are the product. That includes eyeballs and outrage, and most of the major social media sites have decided to go all in on the sorts of stuff that caused Louis XVI to have problems. Or Nicolas II.

What do you stand up for?

If you read my books, you gotta pretty good idea what I believe in. Hopefully, you wake up to things before we descend into the sorts of ugliness that saw Octavian come to power. Or the Three Kingdoms period.

Also, obviously, Patreon, at least as long as they don’t turn into shits, then at some point I might have to move to a subscription model on my own site. Or find someone to load me $50 million dollars to start the sort of bank that lets undesirables not have to deal with puritans and race purists.

Hope your Tuesday is the worst day of the rest of your life, and that every morning from here gets better. I’m aiming for the same.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Tuesday. Been reading Corsac Fox 6&7, so quickly giggling that it’s a Tuesday. Hopefully not a Tuesday, mind you.

Six is at first readers. Seven will be ready in a day or two.

Meanwhile, writing short fiction for a variety of deadlines. Two Brother Jon stories done. First one is for Boundary Shock Quarterly 30 (Fading Empires) because I didn’t get as many words submitted as I wanted. Second one because I was having fun.

Assassin short (Rory) that helps me set up the character and see her in action, as I start into a novel. Maybe. Might write more shorts first, just for the hell of it.

Then, shit got a little weird. By now, you should know who Captain Sapphire is. And Eclipse. Bellerophon. Others.

Brain caught a throwaway line in there about Bolt’s niece taking up the mantle of his William Tell thing.

Never expected her to be a vampire. Seriously. Got an “origin” story there that’s kinda amazing, but probably not sufficient to submit to the Vampire anthology call R* is doing right now. Dunno. Writing #2 now. Might send her both and ask. Worst she could say was no, after all. And Wayne Gretsky always said you missed 100% of the shots you never take.

Finish this one up tomorrow, I think, then take a look at what deadlines I need to be working to. Got Javier 16 to write. A trilogy of Marrakesh stories I wanna tell, but might do those individually as part of a longer arc. Drawing on Napoleonic history, because why the hell not? Wellington and Nelson were assholes, but victors get to be painted in the best light. Got notes and ideas.

Also wrote a B4B that talks about how to sustain yourself across a career, after having that initial level of success, however you define it. Lots of folks will sell you a seminar, but few of those folks last longer than a couple of years, and then the world changes.

And then the world changes.

Had someone ask me to submit a short essay to their publication talking about how I could sustain writing 1,000,000 words every year and not burn out. They did not like my essay, because I basically said, Write. With tips on how to find joy in it.

Won’t bother submitting there again, because they think Generative AI is the future of literature, and I learned a along time ago never to argue with a fool. (Bystander can’t tell the difference.)

Past that, words. Fun. January. Had a massive bonfire after T* hauled off all the scrap lumber from the Tiny Greathall and a few other projects. Cleaning. House, too, as I found a new home for an old acoustic guitar and have a pile of stuff to go away.

If you are reading this in real time, I also have some model kits going to Value Village soon. Military, for the most part. Plus one Imperial AT-AT. Yell if you want. Folks seeing this in 3 weeks, Value Village at Southcenter, in Tukwila, because they will be gone by then.

What are your January traditions? We’re resetting our lives and regaining momentum lost in all of the 2024, and it feels pretty damned good.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Been writing shorts over the last week. Finished Corsac last week. Since then Brother Jon, a Rory short, and Xenia. You’ll get Xenia in Feb, as the other two are committed to BSQ and TRM.

I had not PLANNED to write a historic vampire superhero story. Kinda worked out that way. Part of the 2000 CE story arc that spins off from Gunderson as of the story Captain Sapphire (Gunderson Case File 010).

Worse, there is an open call for “Vampire as good guy” stories that a friend of mine is currently putting together (and yes, it might be my fault), so I plan to write another short for her for it. That will keep me busy for a few days. Same with another Brother Jon story, just because.

I have the start of a Rory novel. It might be next on my list to write. Dunno. Planning 2025 and trying to bounce around a lot to keep my sanity in the same general bucket, so I’ll write another Xenia and then let the muse distract me.

New year. Moving forward. Finished reading for Thrill Ride Magazine 009. Got BSQ 030 to read. And organize both. Hoping to hand off TRM to Jones, this time next year. We’ll see.

Also gotta look at my trunk and find something for August on the SF side. Rest of the year is mostly filled in at this point. Got things to put out. Just gotta get in motion and do them. And finish a couple of other series, which I have space for now that Corsac Fox has reached the first plateau. You’ll see what I mean in October.

Hope your winter is doing well. Mostly a pro forma here to keep things in motion myself and check in. Going to be a busy year, and I need to focus on certain productivity and publishing goals in order to stay in business for the longest term. Last thing I need is to have to go get a job.

Almost feral these days. But the world doesn’t care about us, so I have to push back.

And write.

Lemme know what your favorite short or medium story is? I might write more in that universe. Always writing. Always producing. This year, hoping to scale a few things back up and generate more titles and more fans.

Gotta get there first.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Tuesday. Having just completed Corsac Fox 7 on a Tuesday, and just realizing that, kinda giggling.

This brings Block One to an end and lets me take some time off and work on other projects. Got a lot coming. Natch.

Couldn’t sleep the other night. Bad reaction to a new medicine involved hard insomnia. Couldn’t turn the brain off. Like, went to bed and got maybe 90 minutes of sleep over the next 9 hours.

Laid there and meditated instead. Learned a long time ago that meditation is almost as good as actual sleep.

Had a concept.

Background: Boundary Shock Quarterly’s next issue deadline is coming up for “Fading Empires” and I have a bad feeling about the number of stories I’ll get. (have 5 stories in hand with a deadline tomorrow.)

Meditating brain goes back to a Mechwarrior campaign 30-odd years ago. Big mess of a thing, but the GM had us all create 4 characters. One pilot, one infantry, one mechanic, one whatever. That let us have battles, missions, all sorts of things. Lots of fun.

I have a spook/thief named Brother John. Crazy SOB. Was once tasked by the head mechanic with finding a large laser, a targeting radar, and a replacement knee joint off a Rifleman mech.

Walks out of camp.

Drives back two days later in a flatbed, with those three things on the back.

“Where did you find a dead rifleman to strip for parts???”

“Dead? It was supposed to be dead?”

Long pause.

“John, where did you leave it.”

Brother John points. “Thataway.”

They arrive to find the pilot superglued to the one working leg of his mech, with no idea how all the parts got detached and put on the truck, and I refused to tell.

That guy.

Fading Empires suggested the Mechwarrior/BattleTech universe of 3025, before the Clans.

Spent all night churning up ideas.

Spent the last couple of days filling a new notes document.

Planning to start writing it tomorrow. First of a new universe, but short fiction first. If I get enough words for BSQ, you’ll probably see it first. It not, it’ll go in there. And a lot of depth to play with, digging and exploring certain horror elements and tech ideas I’ve considered.

And Corsac Fox Block One is done. Need to write Science Officer 16 to round out that trilogy. Got ideas for an Assassin Procedural. Got this Brother Gion thing (changed the names to protect the guilty. Pronounced the same).

Going to go start making day-old lasagna for tomorrow shortly. Literally bake it, let it cool, maybe have a chunk, then warm it tomorrow for dinner. Been doing a lot of cooking lately. More recipes of weirdness coming.

But it’s Tuesday, and my 2024 is pretty much done.

See you on the far side.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Shift to Tuesdays on-going, as I adjust. Had a busy crazy Monday yesterday, so this would have been a Tuesday thing anyway. Xmas eve around here. Monsoons and 50mph winds all night. Kept expecting to lose power, but apparently all the trees got knocked down by the bomb cyclone, so things have generally been stable since.

New Year next week. Close enough, anyway. Lots of new things coming. Most of them are even good. Having a good day. Plans to spend the afternoon with friends tomorrow. Hope you’re doing something fun for the holidays.

You do not have to go put up with terrible people who are bad to you, just because they are family. I don’t even talk to most of my family these days, because they all went crazy and I don’t have to.

You don’t have to, either.

Corsac Fox 7 crossed 80k this week. Still feels like 100-120 until done. Probably a week and a half to get there, but that’s fine. I dropped the hammer on words in December, so I’ll end extra strong.

No idea what’s next. Probably another Laima Ghur story, because I have 3 and promised a 4. Scattered Tribes 2 calling my name. Red Branch 5. Rory the Assassin has a thousand words done or so, but that’s on a reclaimed cell phone and I type with a portable bluetooth keyboard as an experiment.

Been busy all day. And just got home from errands and a walk. Going out to see lights tonight with my sweetie, in the middle of putting homemade cinnamon rolls in the fridge over a second rise so we can bake them in the morning. Probably include her mom’s old recipe next month for folks.

Dunno.

Happy holidays, and that’s really all that matters.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Shift to Tuesdays in process. Possibly permanently, because I’ve started learning Karate and the sensei has access to a space Monday mornings bright and too fucking early. Easier to shift the blog back a day, but I’ll be a bit getting the mind around it, after years of Monday.

Gotta rebuild the whole schedule. Worth it, but still an adjustment.

And this week, he had something come up for Monday, so I went to his dojo this morning instead. Just got home after stopping at Krain Corner for breakfast, then trying to get my shit together. Might be harder than it seems. We’ll see.

I am a white belt, but only in this art, having studied several others over the years. Would have gone farther in kung fu, but I realized that I was four years in and that teacher didn’t have a single student more advanced than yellow belt. Including folks that had been there for six.

He has a LOT to teach, but seems to believe that a black belt involves learning everything he knows in 30+ years of training. Put it in these terms: I figured I was another seven to twelve years away from earning a black belt, and I’m pretty sure I was his best and most advanced student when I gave up bashing my head against that wall.

Most arts, you might earn a black belt in 3-5 years. I was looking at 10-15. Worse, that teacher isn’t the most organized, so we were starting to learn Modern Arnis. Which is utterly unrelated to his school, but is this shiny, cool, new thing he’s learned, and so everything was going to be stick for a while, when his black belt curriculum doesn’t involve weapons until second-degree black.

Uhm, yeah, time to rethink. Life happens. 2025 is going to be a bunch of changes, so we might as well roll with it.

Corsac Fox #7 just crossed 60k yesterday. Probably 90k to done, which is longer than most and puts it up around Lost Tribe for length. And brings Block One to a nice conclusion that lets me step forward several years for what happens next. ‘Cause a lot happens after this. And I don’t want to spoil the fun, because most of you haven’t even read Lost Tribe yet, to see where we’re going, let along 6 and 7.

You’ll enjoy it.

Past that, not a lot. Holiday brain, because everything churned sideways, but in a good way. Hope your various holidays are lovely and calm, and that 2025 doesn’t end up biting you too hard.

Y’all enjoy your Tuesday.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

Shift to Tuesdays in process. Possibly permanently, because I’ve started learning Karate and the sensei has access to a space Monday mornings bright and too fucking early. Easier to shift the blog back a day, but I’ll be a bit getting the mind around it, after years of Monday.

Gotta rebuild the whole schedule. Worth it, but still an adjustment.

Exile came out last night. Someone stayed up all night to 5-star it this morning, for which YAY! Glad it helps. 15 is done and 16 is next on my schedule in January, dropping both in the fall. HEAVY fall, with Corsac 6&7, then Javier 15&16.

Nice way to wrap things.

Finished a third Laima Ghur story this morning. Another 15k worth of universe exploration, and that gets me January to write more. And more Holden. And more Ivette. And more whatever else.

I’d like to generate 2 million words per year instead of 1, but that’s the amount of story I could tell if I let myself go. Don’t have the space to manage that at the moment.

Supposed to have lunch with a buddy tomorrow to talk RPG design. Have the engine I built a couple of years ago, before shit went sideways there. Probably needs a cyberpunk world with “magic” throw in (in the form of psychic powers, unless I really wanted to lean into Urban Fantasy somehow.)

Would folks play an Urban Fantasy RPG? Someone go ask their kids. And the Buffy fanatics. I wasn’t one, but it kinda fits, thinking about it. And any system better deal with magic at some level. Easier and more inclusive of ALL POSSIBLE GENRES to build it myself. The Engine handles it already, so it is mostly an expression of style and content.

Huh.

Might have legs. Will let you know next week after I talk to him.

Story: Finished Forever City #3. Monarch of the Stars. Because why the hell not? Got a half-dozen more titles to explore, en route to something possibly huge if you folks enjoy it.

Thoughts so far?

Back to Corsac 6. 34k at the moment. Probably longer than usual, so maybe 90. Gotta wrap up a couple of big arcs and bring Block One to rest to set up Block Two. Then more Javier, I think. Possibly Holden after that. And some Action-Thriller, just because. Got ideas for Red Branch #5, which will be a nice resting point for that series. And it might explode.

Every time you push the publish button, pull the lever and hope it comes up all 7s. That’s money. A forever career, if you will. I’d like that.

Sure beats the hell out of putting on pants.

In case I don’t see you before then, Happy Holidays and New Year. I got a lot of new things coming, some of which I’ll tell you about. Some just to improve my humor.

Y’all have a lovely Tuesday.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.

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

It’s fucking cold out there this morning. 28F with fog, when I went down to see the Piper and talk with him over coffee. Still defrosting as we spent some time outdoors working out.

Useful, but damned cold. Home now and getting warm.

Because of the holiday, only slowly recovering. Figure making it through November was a win. Stretched about as thin as I can get. Stressed almost to breaking.

Managed to not bite anyone, and I’ll consider that a win, all things considered. Although, truth be told, been a few assholes lately that really don’t grasp the whole “shut the fuck up” part of life and have to have opinions on EVERY topic. Loud ones.

Over on Bluesky, having greatly expanded my network, I have started unfollowing, muting, and occasionally blocking folks. They are not worth my time, even when they aren’t really shitposting fuckups like you find on ex-Twitter.

Just assholes who don’t have anything nice to say at any point.

Maybe, just maybe, learn that not everyone who disagrees with your deeply held instant opinions is wrong? I know, shocking. Maybe, just maybe, learn to shut up?

You’d be amazed what you might hear or even learn, if you aren’t the biggest ego in EVERY room. I know, shocking.

Maybe cold and grumpy this Monday. Maybe done with a lot of folks and their drama. Only warning, and some of those folks will never see it, because they don’t listen. Or learn.

Writing: Sent Science Officer 15 to first readers over the weekend. Will write #16 soonish. Probably by the end of Jan. Planning at this point to drop Corsac 6 & 7, then Javier 15 & 16 to end 2025 and go out big. Got a lot of of things, too.

Folks in the Patreon will get the second Laima novellete later today. If you aren’t there, you’re missing a lot. I’m working on ideas for Scattered Tribes #2, but not sure if Patreon gets it or it just comes out. They read all the parts of #1 over the last 16 months and change. Seemed to go over well.

Not much past that. Corsac 7 is over 20k, but it’s long because I have to wrap up all of Block One, so I’m guessing closer to 100k to finish it. Dunno. Got a story that wants to be told, and you’ll get it eventually.

Hope your monday is warm. Maybe add a dash of rum to the hot chocolate. You might need it.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.