[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.]

Next Pineapple Express coming through. Already gotten like 40cm of rain from the last one. Next one monsoonerated all night and promises more, with the potential for snow coming down the elevations on Christmas Day. We’re at about 770 feet elevation. Snow only SUPPOSED to drop to 2500 feet. Supposed to. We’ll see.

Reminder that the Kickstarter link is finalized and ready to go for the Make 100.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blazeward/make-100-2026-collection

Five volumes: 60 stories SF. 20 Fantasy. 10 Thriller. 10 Superhero. $25. Hell of a deal.

Those of you lagging three weeks will watch it go live, as that’s the first week of January. Running three weeks. Tell all your friends because I’d like to make life-changing money from this one.

Pants are still overrated.

Can’t remember what I told you last week and too lazy to look it up. Finished Survey Corps 3. About ¾ through a dark thriller piece with a new character. Evil looking for redemption by fighting worse evil. Starring thinly-veiled villains from the evening news that you would recognize if you follow politics.

Probably write the end of the RAN/Shogun trilogy next (bright and cheery) then dive into finishing the Kincaide trilogy (DARK) before whatever else. That’s out a couple of months from here at a minimum, as Kincaide will be around 175k words. Big.

About to drive way up north and pick up half a cow. We’ve run out, so time to get the next one, but this one came in way heavier than originally expected, so we had to pick up a spare coffin freezer for the meat. At least that was in the budget this year. I’d like it to be spare cash, one of these days. Tell all your friends to buy my books, m’kay? Heh.

Hope you have a lovely holiday and we’ll 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 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.

Sorry, gonna be a little annoying on all social media fronts for three weeks. But if we can make stupid money, I can play silly games with the writing, so encourage all your family and random acquaintances to get involved?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blazeward/make-100-2026-collection

Halfway funded in under an hour. I’d like to get back from errands tonight and be celebrating.

And sorry for the noise.

🙂

[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.]

More rain. First Pineapple Express finished by dropping something like 8 inches of rain in a week in places. Weekend was dry. Rain started again Sunday night with the second Pineapple Express.

Levy actually broke in Renton yesterday and folks reached out, but I’m WAY up in the mountains from Seattle. If you look on a map, find Kanaskat, WA, out southeast. That’s probably the closest town to me. And I’m up on a hilltop, up on the plateau. Snow is usually the only risk.

That and wind, because power lines are never buried, so when trees fall over in squishy soil, they take out power lines. Fortunately, the crews were hauling ass all fall taking out threatening branches, so until trees go, we should be good. And that damned bomb cyclone last year knocked a lot of shit over so we might have a couple of years.

Hoping.

Reminder that the Kickstarter link is finalized and ready to go for the Make 100.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blazeward/make-100-2026-collection

Five volumes: 60 stories SF. 20 Fantasy. 10 Thriller. 10 Superhero. $25. Hell of a deal.

Those of you lagging three weeks will watch it go live, as that’s the first week of January. Running three weeks. Tell all your friends because I’d like to make life-changing money from this one.

Pants are still overrated.

Finished Survey Corps 3 and working on the thriller. Plotting out next books, but writer brain really wants to dive back into Kincaide’s war and finish that epic trilogy finally. Target is 175k words, same as the first two, so a doorstop. And epic, because it will conclude things, though I haven’t worked out more than a couple of plot threads, plus the understanding that I have an immense crew of characters who need their various arcs concluded.

Also working on something that might dance the line between Magic Realism and Science Fiction, just because I had a weird idea the other day and want to explore it.

And I found a fun book in the book store yesterday. Time-Life did a series on aviation called The Epic Of Flight in 1980. Book store has them, and selling individual copies for $2. And they know to flag airplane books for me for Red Branch research, so I have gotten a few.

Yesterday, I found The Aeronauts and brain clicked. I had a story in Blaze Ward Presents #4 (Cloak and Dagger) about a pair of young women who ran away from life in the Post-Napoleonic Era (1820+) to have adventures as Aeronauts. Have a whole bunch of things planned that never got into the first story, but were set up for long-term.

Yesterday, I realized that they would work just fine as historic Action-Thriller, so now I need to look at upcoming themes for Thrill Ride Magazine. Because historic is just fine there. And all the tech toys are things that will be invented over the next 10-20 years anyway, so now we’re James Bond instead of The Skylark of Space.

Lots of science to confirm. Tech to research. Adventures to undertake as balloonists and renegades. Gonna be fun, because that one book covers a lot of the balloon tech I need.

So watch this space for more fun.

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.]

Pineapple Express all week. That’s where the rain forms a corridor connecting the Hawaiian islands with Seattle and they are expecting 8 inches of rain. That’s 20cm in civilized places. And more than we usually get in a month. Shit will be we. Not too cold, as it’s supposed to stay in the low 50s (low teens C).

Just kinda gray.

Got the Kickstarter link finalized and ready to go for the Make 100.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blazeward/make-100-2026-collection

Five volumes: 60 stories SF. 20 Fantasy. 10 Thriller. 10 Superhero. $25. Hell of a deal.

Those of you lagging three weeks will just have time to sign up for go live, as that’s the first week of January. Running three weeks. Tell all your friends because I’d like to make life-changing money from this one.

Pants are very overrated.

I have lost track of writing, but that’s me with half a dozen open projects as I try to finish them off. Shorts, plus a pair of novels I’m noodling on, trying to get into the mode of writing Action-Thriller at longer lengths, because I have spent too much time at 9k for Thrill Ride. Eleven Zach and company stories done at present, so you will be entertained.

Writer-brain finally wants to write the third and epic conclusion to Kincaide’s War next. Ships of Heaven. Concluding the monster that I’ve been thinking about for more than a decade at this point. Target is 170k words, like the previous two. Doorstops.

In between, starting a new thriller series intending to commit mass mayhem and political violence on grand scales. Not in the best of moods, to ax-murdering on paper is the safest outlet. And Anti-Stodgy in a couple of days, but I have to pause and think about what I might write. Might talk about the craft fair this last weekend where I helped out. Kinda like the table at WorldCon, but radically different experience.

Not a lot past that. Need more coffee this morning. Maybe a hit of Irish cream or eggnog.

Then some firefights in Tacoma.

How’s 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.]

Hope the USians among you had a lovely and quiet Thanksgiving last week. I did, but I POINTEDLY don’t deal with my blood family these days. Like, last saw most of them a decade ago when I married the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and some of them came. Not all. Try to talk to my sisters on their birthdays. Couldn’t tell you when I last talked to nieces and nephews.

You are not required to go hang out with horrible people. Honest. I’m not their cup of tea and vice versa. That’s fine. I have Donna’s family and Leah’s and both generally like me.

News: She spatchcocked and smokered a turkey. Holy shit did it turn out perfect. I made Stuffing Balls (a new to me recipe that’s extremely adaptable to sweet as well as savory). Made Graham crackers so I could make a pie crust with them to make the French Silk Chocolate Pie recipe you saw last month. Made her mom’s recipe cinnamon rolls with an overnight rise in the fridge to bake for breakfast Thursday morning. Mashed Sweet potato. Cranberry/Orange stuff.

Really good and just the right amount of leftovers.

Already sent out a newsletter and a lot of emails, so keeping this brief.

Third A’Zedi Survey Corps book is ¾ done. Finish it this week. Dunno pub date.

If you are in that series as a character, I would like to track you down IRL and get you to sign my copy. Or have you mail me a bookmark or something with your sig to include. And I’ll sign your copy when I see you. Will be at Superstars in Colorado in Feb. Probably will be at Norwescon (haven’t gotten confirmation on programming yet). Live Seattle-ish. Check in.

Also finished a villain story for Zach and Redlance, introducing a character I have described as a Gender-swapped Joker who lets me get inside her head and revel in chaos crazy. Those are the most fun, because she does weird shit for reasons that make perfect sense to her and not to anybody else.

Known too many authors who only write Lawful Evil, regardless. I enjoy dabbling in Chaotic Evil from time to time. More than one GM has regretted giving me permission to do that, but that’s a later story.

Also rereading Kincaide, because writer-brain might finally be ready to conclude that epic trilogy with ‘The Ships Of Heaven’ going back more than a decade to the original ideas that I wasn’t skilled enough to pull off at the time.

More next week. Not a lot of brain this morning.

Cheers.

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.]

Winter is getting close. Monday was a bout 35F (2C) as I left the house yesterday morning for an “All Day Monday In Town” day.

DND game. Workout at the home dojo with Sensei. Late lunch. Root beer across the street from the school dojo. Class. Groceries on the way home. Collapse.

Working on Iron Shirt, so letting an 11-year-old punch me in the stomach as part of training drills. (Block. Clear. Bap. Bap.) He’s learning to actually try to hurt someone (kid’s an artistic soul), and I need the practice. Don’t even hurt this morning, but can tell you he was punching the right side of my stomach and not the left.

Never got warm yesterday. I park the car at the middle of town, then walk down to a coffee shop a few blocks away after breakfast. Sit in there and write for an hour or so, then meet the nerd herd.

Walked by a pavilion on an empty lot that the city leaves up. Last year, this time, I was training under it at odd hours. Whenever Sensei had space in his floating schedule. Remembered a morning when it was snowing and we were bundled up doing kata. Had to write an essay, meditating on that day and on the use of violence itself as a tool.

I am literally writing a book called “My Blackbelt Journey” filled with these essays in real time as I learn things and as he adjusts his curriculum. (And I have lots of notes, so I can prove it when he denies changing anything, but that’s a different story for him to tell.)

Worse, he showed up and called when he saw my car, then walked down to the shop, and also had those same thoughts about the pavilion and cold weather. But it was a dojo day, and we talk dojo things in the spare time.

Writing has me working on the thriller a bit (slower going) and A’Zedi Survey Corps 3. Should finish that in a week or so, because those go fast. Lots of other ideas, and things to publish and write.

Heather 1 is out for preorder: https://www.knottedroadpress.com/products/warlord-of-yaumgan

There is also a unit patch for Shanhai Pass (Heather’s flagship). And those are easier to do these days, so we will be adding patches as merch in the store. Red Branch is the one I’m looking forward to, but also figuring out how to do an easier version of Auberon that looks better (the old one is pretty, but the CNC sewing machine can’t keep up.)

Not much past that. It’s Taco Tuesday somewhere. And it is November 25, which would have been Donna’s birthday. Lost her to breast cancer in 2008 and I miss her, but life goes on and she ordered me to make sure I enjoyed myself, so I’m working on that.

You do the same.

Chat more later.

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.

20251118

[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.]

Cold out there today. And gray and a little foggy.

I’m slow to grind up this morning, but didn’t sleep well and a little exhausted after the weekend. Did the Wine Walk in Enumclaw Saturday. There is also a beer walk in June.

Usually, I stand at the entrance to the back and do the whole carnival barker thing, distracting and misdirecting folks who are just here to get their wine and leave. Instead, they buy books. Lots of books.

But Wine Walk, so middle aged women. Lots of romance and fantasy, plus the guy that sells out of his True Crime books every year. I think I’ve sold like one book, each of the last two years.

Saturday went weird, but that was me hitting husbands and boyfriends. Sold out of my copies of Night Strike (Red Branch 1) and sold maybe 4 other books, so far and away the best event I’ve ever done. Hopefully, them folks turn into readers and fans.

Sunday, we crashed on the couch and introverted. Monday gone all day like usual. Still catching up this morning. More coffee shortly.

Started one project and put it aside almost immediately. Too nice, when I’m not feeling nice. Started an assassin series instead, based on a character coming out in the next Thrill Ride (Dec 1. Spies.) Main goal here is a high body count. Like, stupid levels of mooks.

At the same time, I started the next A’Zedi Survey Corps book (#3. Edge of the Map.) to have something to write on the phone tonight when I go into town for a write-in. Assuming the ladies actually shut up long enough for others to work. (“Xtraverts” as it were.)

Writing this as an excuse to type words on a page and somehow make sense of them. You should know that by now.

Not really a lot there. Time for coffee.

How’s your Tuesday 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 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.]

And the next Science Officer dropped yesterday. Fleets of Vengeance. Guardians of Tomorrow in a month and Season Two of the Science Officer is done. Won’s say Javier is done, because I already know the next title, but I needed some emotional distance from the gang, just like last time. Will be a break before I write the next one, and I’m currently deep into 2027’s release schedule with what I’m writing, so it will be a while.

You’ll survive, because Heather and Ollie and both gangs will get you through 2026. And I have a lot of other things to write.

Kohahu 2 is done. Daughter of the Dalou Shogunate will be a trilogy coming right after Heather, before I turn to Veronika. I have two Veronika series planned, the second of which includes Imperial Aquitaine as Denis warned you about. I need to write that because I need to know how it all goes down in order to write Suvi and John-Pierre, set some 1500 years AFTER Jessica.

In the meantime, I’m working on a lot of short fiction for various projects. A WarDog Charlie Tail for BSQ, along with another Owen Castle story then some more Beckett Fernsby. New things for Thrill Ride Magazine.

My goal with both is to stay at least a year ahead of publishing, so that I can pivot and write something at the last minute for the magazines if I have to. What pissed me off this year was having to do that three times. As a result, I fired a third of the Syndicate from Boundary Shock Quarterly and hired replacements who still have the fire to write. You’ll meet them starting in January’s issue, as I had invited guests that got invited to be members. Plus others.

I have to do this regularly enough. Folks don’t want it as bad as I do. Want to write one story and have it make them billionaires, without understanding that the world never worked like that. Life-changing money is about as common as being struck by lightning. Or killed by a cow. Happens, about that frequently. For the rest of us, it is a long saunter that lets me write all sorts of stuff.

So I have two other original members of the Syndicate left today besides me. But many new players.

And don’t get me wrong. As bad as this summer was, I considered shutting one or both of the magazines down permanently. It appears to be an annual kabuki around here.

I enjoy them because they force me to write into new themes. New sub-genres. New ideas I might have never pursued otherwise. Like The Apothecary, Beckett Fernsby. Or Boston the Wheelman. Or any of several others.

I have noticed that writers tend to get themselves into ruts if they don’t pay attention. They get Stodgy.

Fuck that. Seriously. Fuck that.

I have fun. And think new thoughts. Research weird and obscure topics. Write new things. And blow shit up. Because.

How do you keep life fresh, or have you let it grow Stodgy when you weren’t looking? What do you need to do regularly to stop that?

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.]

More Tuesday. More fun.

Those of you who have read Boundary Shock Quarterly Issue 029 (First Contact) have met WarDog Charlie. The real Charlie used to live with my friend Dan, who introduces himself as the Duke of Los Angeles In Exile. He’s now living with youngest boy Connor, but Dan has written stories from Charlie’s POV.

I got inspired then and Dan laughed his fool head off when I sent him the story. Yesterday, as it my wont on Mondays, I was in town all day. (I leave at 730 and get back around 730). I write in my down time, as I have gaps built into Mondays.

Wrote another WarDog Charlie stories yesterday. 2200 words, so fast and short, but still fun. And still in the zone. Gonna read it this afternoon and send Dan a copy. It will come out in Boundary Shock 036 (Furry Friends) next October. A WarDog Charlie Tail, because I couldn’t resist.

One of the joys of writing something like that is to never break character and look at the camera, but to play it deadly serious. Star Trek: The Original Series worked because they all treated schlock like Shakespeare, and forced the rest of us to do the same. After all, how many other SF shows in the 1960s can you name? How many had any cultural impact at all?

So I can have silly fun and tell stories about the WarDog to His Eminence Daniel, Duke of Los Angeles In Exile. Probably more of those, because just right out there at the edge of gonzo.

Meanwhile, you should have gotten the next Resurrection in Black story. And I’m well ahead of you in writing more. And likely to finish the second Daughter of Shogun novel tomorrow. It’s the first sequel to Heather (Feb-Oct 2026 on even months). Veronika will have two sequel series, but broken into two very distinct phases and pieces. I can do that because she’s young when you meet her and that gives me decades of personal time to work.

Had a conversation with another writer this week about how certain writers handle aging out characters. Jim Kirk was special, but everyone has decided that someone can be a major starship captain for decades now, when the USN would maybe give you ten years at most.

For me, Jessica’s story is done. Literally Finis. Not bringing her back. You got Phil instead. And now Heather. Kohahu and Veronika after that.

I’m writing Kohahu with the slugline “Autumn, Republic 419.” Auberon started in the summer of 392. Twenty-seven years have passed. And I’m about to take Veronika forward another twenty, rather than having an eighty-year-old Jessica somehow come back to command things.

I get that people fall in love with certain characters, but I get tired of writing them after a while, so I want to expand the sandbox. And we’re gonna. But that’s a story for another day.

Hope y’all been enjoying the new newsletter format. And signed up for Thrill Ride and Boundary Shock newsletters. Always news there, lagging a month after publication to remind you.

And the Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Newsletter coming next week for folks putting a buck in the kitty for this busker.

See you in the funny papers.

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.

20251028

[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.]

Fall has arrived. Had a Pineapple Express last week. Several days of high winds and monsoon rains, warm because they originate near Hawaii and connect like a beam to Seattle.

RAIN.

Most of the region apparently lost power over the weekend, but we blinked twice and that was it. We also had everything replaced after the bomb cyclone last winter. And the crews were out last week trimming trees like mad, looking at the forecast. Bless them.

Suggestions of snow tomorrow. Had grople (sp?) Sunday. For fifteen minutes.

Think little pellets of ice, not much bigger than BBs. Not hail. Not heavy enough to damage. Still ice. Usually, you get a squall line for a minute or so up here, then done.

This went on for a while, so we have the perfect conditions for it and they held, instead of blowing through. But never lost power, for which yay.

Good day yesterday at dojo. Green belt tests for three of the students. They all passed, so there are five of us now. I’m working on brown. Maybe by the end of the year. Maybe not. At some point. Not in any great hurry. Learning tremendous lots.

Just a little frazzled.

But having fun because I heard from an old fan that I haven’t talked to in forever. He’s an aeronautical engineer/aircraft designer who kinda wrote the book. And hasn’t flamed me for Red Branch, so I must have done something right.

Talking to him about his expertise on things. Because, duh, THE expert.

Red Branch Seven is next. Got ideas. Need exotic aircraft, either as prototypes or a new plane for Sasha and the crew to fly, representing yet another aviation revolution. Those happened annually from 1943-1957.

Annually. Seriously.

About halfway through the second daughter of the Shogun novel. Trilogy that follows Warlord of Yaumgan. And sets up the two series after that, one of which will (finally!) be Imperial Aquitaine.

More news this weekend when I send out newsletter. Looking at 2026 and what I do for 2027. Sent Scattered Tribes 3 off to one of my first readers last night. Other one gets it shortly. Might do all five of those. Plus other things.

I never stop pedaling. That’s the secret around 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 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.