20250902

[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.]

Gotten over August, I think. It was an ugly one, but not bad.

Just, as noted elsewhere, utterly exhausting. August anyway, plus the barbecue, then the Con, then the recovery.

I managed to not bite anybody in August. Most of you have no idea how important that is.

It is also the start of fall, so a lot of fruit to deal with. Drying it, fermenting it, distilling it in some cases. Took the leftover watermelon and added pineapple to make a wine and brandy it. All the yellow plums are fermenting now and will brandy soon. Got white lightning in a glass jar with oak flavoring pieces added to give it color and flavor.

Even making more shrub now, before all the grapes and apples ripen over the next few weeks, plus Nik and Bry are sitting on eight pounds of cherries they are supposedly getting back to me at some point as booze.

Gonna be a brandy kind of fall. Maybe with hot chocolate when the weather turns.

And shrub, because a hot summer.

Writing.

Hell, I’ve lost count at this point. Tasker is done. Phil and Alison is done. Still have open stories for Zach (8 & 9 I think without looking). Still have open erotica arc.

I am writing what I think will be the last chapter of Ollie 4. Actually hit that and took a break to write this, because I needed time to process how it ended. This is not a car-chase-and-gunfight kind of series, so the climax is entirely emotional and social, but I think it works. And the actual ending, several chapters later, needs to bring it all back to rest and circle it in to resolution.

At the same time, one of my endings actually leaves it all hanging out there, open for people to fill in their own stories, until such time as I actually circle back and write it. All of my series tend to end with enough of an open door that I could go back and write more. Science Officer and Jessica both got that. Captain Daring didn’t, but people have demanded more and I seriously don’t know where to take it in such a way that doesn’t throw out everything we already did for something else.

And I’m past it in my head.

Having finished Heather and about to finish Ollie, I’m facing forward. Heather has two spin-offs, one in the very short term and a second that is the actual sequel series (one of two for Veronika, as I’ve gotten into the details) building up to something that was promised all the way back in Auberon itself. And regularly hinted at since, but only a handful of you have read Heather to understand. (Phil contains all the clues.)

Because I’m having a lot of fun with the RAN books and might actually finish them off at some point, weird as that is to consider.

But I also want to tell Autumn’s story, and it takes place in 15004, or about 1600 years after Jessica. Because Suvi is the Last of the Immortals, and I can carry her forward through history as a narrator. Just gotta fill in the middle bits before permanently hopping into the future.

Busy tonight, so you’ll get Zach 002 tomorrow, I think. Back to normal week, but this is a busy Tuesday and I don’t have to spend all my effort accommodating everyone else.

So there will be more words. More worlds. More stuff.

Hope you folks are all tied in for the next phase, because Holden and the gang will be coming up soon.

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. The Exhaustion continues. Reread three weeks ago and man, August has been heavy. Mentally okay. (I have a reminder in my phone for Aug 1 to beware rage and depression issues. Those hit in June.)

Just pooped, and haven’t had a “normal” week since July to recover. Might also be coming down with something. Or getting over it. Nothing bad again, just temperature issues this morning.

Got up yesterday and gave myself permission to fuck the day off. And did. Usual Monday stuff, so breakfast, then meet the boys to game. Ended up hanging out with Jon all day, running more errands, and then dojo.

Except that dojo is weird right now. There is a bridge connecting Buckley (Pierce County) and Enumclaw (King County) and it is old and narrow. Iron bridge. Been hit several times. Got hit again.

Closed. Next closest car bridge is about a 40 minute drive, into Auburn. Folks are freaking.

HOWEVER, after years of the Buckley side bitching about taxes and refusing to support a new and expanded modern bridge, a private Rails-to-Trails consortium built a foot bridge nearby. Better, it is rated for fire engines (I know a bunch of fire people these days). People are parking a car on one side and walking to the other to get to work or whatever. LOTS of bikes and scooters. A few folks even polite about pushing their motorcycles across (laws say no vehicles with engines, and cops have been watching, but pushing means safe for pedestrians, which is the point.)

So Sensei and I walked across the bridge to meet the rest next to the river. Full class of folks, in the grass and shade, working. Gonna do this for a few more weeks, then a long break where Sensei is out of town for three weeks. One of the other black belts might do something. Or we might just work at home. Dunno. Don’t gotta know, as I’m not in charge.

Just gotta practice. And be Sensei’s sounding board and training dummy. Which helps me learn because he worked out last night’s training on me in the afternoon.

But tired. Got no spoons, and trying to keep the rage monster mostly chained. Mostly successful.

Writing proceeds. Been working on Ollie 4, but I’m gonna have to go back and do a hard pass at some point because of the long breaks in writing it. Usually, I just go. This time, I have had to pivot off several times. Or take a week off for the con. No writing, come back and try to remember where the hell I was.

Getting close. Think I’m past halfway at this point. Close to 45k if I recall. Got two more major chunks to tell to wrap up everything.

Also working on more Zach. More Altansarnai. More Motley. Most Tasker. Most stuff.

For now, more coffee. Then dive in and try to push Ollie closer to the finish.

Gonna be a long day.

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.]

Spent ALL of last week at WorldCon, here in Seattle. And owe y’all a newsletter, but I’m still recovering, so you get the Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef news with the WorldCon edition.

Now I just gotta go write it.

Back in a minute.

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 always useful to see the three-weeks-lag newsletter show up on Tuesday morning, so I can see where I was at that point. Plus, I open last week’s doc and save with a new date moving forward, so I can glance back.

I’m just over 30k into Ollie 4, which should be the end of the current series. As always, I have an amazingly rich and deep world here to play in. And made it big enough that I could set others here without ever spinning them off from Ollie and crew if I chose. Actually did that a while back with the Roland stories some of you might remember from several years ago. Don’t think I’ve every published all of them. Or maybe even any. I’d have to look.

It is August. My brain made the transition to Con mode midday yesterday, mostly because my normal Monday schedule got blown to hell. It happens. It’s also August, and I have a reminder in my phone to be wary of bouts of extreme depression or extreme xenocidal tendencies.

Woke up angry this morning. Understand that it’s all in my head. Mostly related to the heat and my preference for some rain. I moved up here for the rain. My perfect day is 62F and a little drizzly. That’s Seattle for large chunks of the year, so I’m happy.

Summer up here is hot and dry, generally ranging from July 4 to Oct 1. Hot. Nasty hot some days. Gonna be 90F+ today. Was yesterday. Might cool down some this weekend. Might rain.

This time tomorrow, I’ll be at WorldCon, downtown. We’re staying in a B&B not far from the lightrail line, so we can park once and take the train both ways after that. And be away from people when I’m done. Shortly, I will turn into the carnival barker. I pull him down off the shelf and put him on for cons when I have to people. Be up on stage giving good panel. Being extroverted.

Cost of doing business, and my father taught me how to do it by example. Pretty good at it.

Still a little grumpy.

Started a short story yesterday that I can write on the phone this week. DARK. Been researching the classical definition of Anti-Hero. In the 1990s, the “90’s Anti-Hero” was an asshole who eventually turned out to have a heart of gold. But an asshole still. Not someone I hardly ever wanted to sit down and have a beer with, and that’s the best working definition I’ve ever encountered.

If I don’t want to put up with that bullshit, why am I expecting my readers to? Right up there with folks who write TSTL characters. Too Stupid To Live. Always making dumb choices and SOMEHOW the Deus Ex Machina saves them enough to advance the plot. Dunno. I usually put the book down long before that, assuming I don’t throw it across the room.

Grumpy today. Tasker is a good character to explore, because he just executed three punks in the story. Has a reason. Good one, by his standards. Not a 90s Anti-hero. Maybe not even a classic Anti-Hero, because the definition there is simply a morally complicated character with doubts, hatred, and side hobbies, when the Classic Hero (see most Westerns made before Clint Eastwood) is Superman with a six-shooter. Never doubts. Never flags. Never questions good and evil. Cardboard cutout archetype in a white hat.

As you know, Bob, I write much messier characters. Not Byronic bitches, but messy.

Realistic. People with something interesting to say and more than a wind-up toy. More Batman than Superman. More Daredevil than Captain America.

Messy.

Eventually, you’ll meet Tasker.

And Phil, because the Ambassador made the mistake of DEMANDING more Kosnett stories. He wasn’t prepared for me to turn him and Alison into semi-retired government assassins in a new Action-thriller short series (The Agency, 001 done). Heh. Hopefully he forgives me at some point.

If you are reading this in real time, maybe I’ll see you this week at WorldCon. Otherwise, in three weeks I hope you caught up with me at some point. Got my book for folks to sign. I’ll even sign yours.

Gonna go Tuesday for a while.

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.]

Holy shit, I’m exhausted.

Sunday last, we had the Annual Art Colony Barbecue, where we invite all the artists we know. First Sunday in August, mark your calendar and remind me to invite you if you wanna come next year.

30+ folks showed up, including a bunch of writers and at least 4 professional chefs in the mix. Lots of meat, plus folks brought sides of various types. (The reason you make friends with chefs.)

Everyone networked. Phone numbers and emails got exchanged. At least one person got possibly recruited into a new job. Success.

Saturday, we have to drive down to Fife to pick up tables and chairs, so we ate at the Poodle Dogs. As one does.

Monday, had to return everything first thing, so left the house at a little after 7 and got home a little after 7, twelve hours later. In between, dropped things off, then drove back to Enumclaw and had breakfast at Krain. Then gaming with the boyz from 10-1. Then sat in the library and did some writing. Then went over to the brewery because they have really excellent root beer on tap, where I wrote an essay in my black belt journey book (that will, obviously, be a while in the writing stages). Then dojo. Then home and collapse.

I am just now digging out of the last several days. I don’t even remember Friday.

Oh, and the new story went out to everyone (Saturday?) night. Step One in a new arc of SF fun. Currently writing 008 and 009 (two different POVs) that delve really deeply into what might end up being a massively enormous story. And one I have wanted to tell for a long time, but didn’t have the right frame for the characters.

Zach started out as a character in a Villains and Vigilantes game almost 40 years ago. (Superhero RPG we played in the wayback because a lot faster and cleaner than any of the others that existed then. The new version of V&V is 3.0, and they went stupid with the math so we don’t play it. Plus, both of the groups I’m in are Swords and Sorcery Murderhobos™ these days, so they don’t have an interest in any other genre.)

I’m having fun. That’s the point that matters. Hopefully, you will, too. And if you are reading this in a few weeks and want to upgrade your Patreon to $5 (or join at that level), I plan to append each section to the doc, so you can start at the beginning. First seven parts run 45k, so already a first novel worth, but not sure if I break it there, or run to some other natural point. Seven will be a part, at least. An emotional resting point before things rotate into more craziness.

Similarly, also writing the erotica the same way, having just completed the third story of book 2 yesterday at the library.

As noted, just catching up. Those of you in real time on Patreon, I will be at WorldCon next week with a pretty damned full schedule. And I got roped into the dealer room by a bunch of writers selling books to fans, so you might look for me there. Or reach out and arrange something. We’ll be staying in town all weekend and taking the Light Rail back and forth instead of driving, so I’ll be local enough. And flexible in the evenings, thought I might be a little bitey by Sunday.

Not much past that. See you 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.

[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.]

Got a note last night from a fan/friend in Australia who is finally getting a chance to read Kosnett after he’s gone through some serious health issues over the last couple of years. And he’s really enjoying himself and reminding me of what I wrote.

A little secret that’s part of my success? As soon as I finish a novel, I tend to flush most of the plot out of mind, save for about an elevator pitch worth of stuff. That lets me go back later and edit as if a stranger, because I only start remembering bits as I encounter them.

But it also means that I completely forgot the “Cap, it’s Sam. On your left.” moment from Domain and he had to tell me what chapter it was in (48, by the way).

Also, I have finished Heather’s War, so I’m five books and about ten years past where he is, at least in my head. And setting up a spin-off that “should” be a single long book, though I reserve the right to change my mind later, as all I have right now is a title and a cast. (One that won’t make any sense to you until you start reading Warlord of Yaumgan next year.)

Main timeline will continue outward with Veronika Provst. Eventually, I want to write Kati Wiegand, but she’s got to grow up first. As they do. And as I have time and interest. After all, I’m twenty-five books into Jessica’s timeline so far. That’s a lot of galaxy-shaking content.

At the same time, I have blank spots on the maps to explore.

First Centurion Kosnett takes place in the galactic west from Aquitaine and Fribourg. The pearl that is the Balhee Cluster. Heather’s War moves all the way over to the arm that contains Zerzan, who is bigger than those two combined in overall size and population. About where the Holding of Man was before Moirrey and friends killed the God of Winter.

Along the way, we’ll explore that zone, then go beyond it on the other three sides (farther west, coreward, rimward) and meet people. I have vague notes about what’s well coreward and west of Buran, but have never detailed them. Similarly NovLao (far side of Buran somewhere) has exactly one representative, and a couple of lines of who they used to be before being assimilated.

As the map scales back, I have places to explore. And characters to do it, as the old crew ages out and retires and kids come along to replace them.

One of these days, luck and ability on my side, I have a whole set of notes for Suvi/Summer/Autumn that take place some 1500 years after Jessica. Just need to sort out better what happens in between, because the whole prequel issue is always a pain in the ass for tracking continuity.

If I do something in the future, then hop to the past, I have to keep it all in mind when writing what happened then, so I don’t end up contradicting myself. Suvi, much as I love her, was a bit of a pain to write, since Last of the Immortals was written and published long before I started writing Season Two of the Science Officer (Alien Seas coming forward to Guardians of Tomorrow).

And she’ll have to talk about “what happened?” when she appears on that day in the distant future. I’ll either have to know, or I’ll start painting myself potentially into that corner. With all the risks.

Side notes: Altansarnai and York (the space opera erotica) is up to 8 stories now. And I have about half a million words worth of ideas to explore, depending. Zach is up to 8 stories as well. You’ll meet him this weekend when I send out the Patreon story to everyone.

Both are serialized fiction. Not chapters, because longer, generally running 5-8k, but part of a much larger arc, in the same manner as Scattered Tribes. I’m enjoying the format, and it lets me write three novels simultaneously, which I understand would drive other people a little insane.

Finally, I started Ollie 4 this week. Capstone of that series, which also started out as a series of shorts, but turns into a novel about a third of the way into Book One and runs from there.

The plan (written in pencil as always)

• January: Marrakesh 6
• February: Heather 1
• March: Ollie 1
• April: Heather 2
• May: Ollie 2
• June: Heather 3
• July: Ollie 3
• August: Heather 4
• September: Ollie 4 (complete)
• October: Heather 5 (complete)
• November: TBD
• December: TBD

As you can see, busy.

I’m looking at January 2027 for Last Stand 13 (done and coming in Boundary Shock Quarterly in July 2026) and potentially writing another season there as part of a long story arc broken into episodic television. That might fill 2027 entirely, giving me space to write a whole bunch of other things to fill in/finish series and expand into Action-Thriller and such.

More as I know, but we’re getting there

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.]

Getting packed up shortly to go on a quick vacation to celebrate our anniversary. Been married ten years and it hardly feels like it, which is good. I still have six years to go to be her longest relationship (the kitty who was with her almost twenty years) but we’re on a roll. And taking her East Of The Mountains to see some things she’s never explored for all the time she’s lived here.

Mostly, she’s a city girl. Living with me has been an adjustment for her, because when she met me I owned 6 acres of trees, pond, and wilderness at the dead end of a dead end road, back up around the curve of the hill where I’d lived here for several years before most of the neighbors realized that there was a house back there. By design.

Taking advantage of space this summer to write a whole series of short pieces, all serialized in a way that will turn into book one of something later. Those will be your patreon shorts starting in August and running. Started #7 this morning, so gonna be a bunch. Think Scattered Tribes in shape but a whole different everything and a story I’ve been wanting to explore since I started writing fiction for money.

Additionally, I started book two of the space opera erotica this week. Five stories/40k words in #1. Started V2-2 yesterday in between game and dojo, hanging out in the library because that’s what my Mondays look like right now.

Target is still to start Ollie #4 at some point soon, in order to round off that series for publication next year. Letting it ferment in the back of my head at the moment, having reread #3 to remember what the hell I’d written. You know how it goes.

Also planning more Last Stand, having completed #13 for a future issue of Boundary Shock next summer and having fun. And coming up with a meta-arc that might run the entire season. And running into all sorts of complications and such.

I would greatly appreciate you telling all your friends to go buy my books. Several First In Series are $0.99, so not a big investment and I’m certain I can hook most of them as readers at that point. Every little bit helps me to not have to go get a real job.

Lots of folks have decided to use AI to do things these days. Had someone come up to me the other day utterly proud that he’d had some AI take his ideas and turn them into a story and wanted my help getting them published. I aimed him at a few resources and washed my hands of the man.

The LLM AI machines that people are using to create pictures, videos, and books were trained by stealing thousands or millions of pieces of copyrighted source material without paying the artists. And they’ve sued to keep from having to pay for their theft, because they’d go out of business if they actually had to pay me for the more than 100 of my books in their system.

If you use AI that way, I don’t want to even know you. Seriously, unsubscribe and walk away, because your actions have destroyed the careers of a number of artists and writers over the last year, with people like that flooding the publishers with mediocre crap. Because it is mediocre and beige. If you want to be a writer, learn to write.

If you want a secret handshake that tells a robot to create stories for you, I hope that you’ll be happy when all the creatives out there are put out of business. It is not all fun and games, even if you are intentionally obtuse about the costs to the rest of us.

Pay the artists you are stealing art and rent from.

Cheers,

b

==========

Oh: WORLD CON IS IN SEATTLE in August. Knight Errant (A’Zedi Survey Corps, Book One) is out and so is First In The Field. I will have a paper edition (it is sitting on my left on my desk). If I Tuckerized you into that book (all but a handful of the folks I got permission from at this point), and you will be in the Seattle area (WorldCon or any other reason), I would like to get you to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours.

Mark your calendars. I’ll also be in Vegas for AuthorNation in November, and am talking to the folks at Superstars for February.

Also happy to road trip to Portland to see you, but not any greater distance than that or Spokane or the Canadian border going north. You let me know.

More erotica in the background. If you wanna first read it, lemme know. If you write erotica or know folks who do, I suspect we’ll give serious talk to starting a Syndicate Magazine at some point, so we’ll be talking and recruiting. Film at 11, as it were.

Past that, 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.]

And I just finished Heather 5.

• Warlord of Yaumgan
• Ground Control
• Tyche
• Chevalier
• Griever

Plan is to drop them next year starting in Feb, offsetting even months with Ollie starting in March and those two spanning nine months of 2026. January will be a couple more character collections. November MIGHT be Marrakesh 6 (done) or something else. Need to write December. Or bang on something. Got options like a next Survey Corps. And I figure three more Scattered Tribes, but not sure when and want those done.

2027 might be another (half++) year of Last Stand, as #13 will come out in July in BSQ, then be ready to repub 6 months later.

Dunno. Got options. And time. Writing blogs and newsletters today. Then back to the project you folks will start seeing as $5 Patreon stories in August. Three done. Hoping for ten to twelve as a book one of that series, written in between novels and the like.

Erotica continues. Book One (Two Against the Stars) is done and I’ve started Book Two (On the Wings of the Night), with everything being 6-10k stories serialized for collection into the novels and bundles later on. Mark is leaning towards a magazine and is now working out the details of how he wants to do it. Quarterly with possibility of bi-monthly and monthly as time progresses and everyone commits. I’m into #6 overall and will finish it this week. Got lots of world-building done, so I can keep writing these as long as I have fun. Eventually, I want to pivot back to more Stephanie. And a few other characters I have in my notes but never got to explore.

Lemme know if you have opinions, because I’m on my usual Lots Of Words Per Year™ pace and that won’t slow down anytime soon. And emptying out the trunk, which also allows me to circle back and tack on new stories to a few of the series that were set up as ongoing. Or start sequels in a few cases.

Indie means I can do whatever I want, as long as folks will purchase it and keep supporting me. That’s you. Thank you.

Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef Newsletter is next to be written and delivered, so y’all stay tuned.

Cheers,

b

==========

Oh: WORLD CON IS IN SEATTLE in August. Knight Errant (A’Zedi Survey Corps, Book One) is out and so is First In The Field. I will have a paper edition (it is sitting on my left on my desk). If I Tuckerized you into that book (all but a handful of the folks I got permission from at this point), and you will be in the Seattle area (WorldCon or any other reason), I would like to get you to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours.

Mark your calendars. I’ll also be in Vegas for AuthorNation in November, and am talking to the folks at Superstars for February.

Also happy to road trip to Portland to see you, but not any greater distance than that or Spokane or the Canadian border going north. You let me know.

More erotica in the background. If you wanna first read it, lemme know. If you write erotica or know folks who do, I suspect we’ll give serious talk to starting a Syndicate Magazine at some point, so we’ll be talking and recruiting. Film at 11, as it were.

Past that, 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.]

Hot. Summer finally arrived this week, as it does in Seattle.

Over the last two weeks, we have also harvested some twenty pounds of cherries off the three trees. I have never gotten a whole pound from the three, and they’ve been in for a decade. All the elements aligned this spring for a LOT of happy tree sex. Got cherry juice, cherry shrub, cherry leather, and a bunch frozen for making booze.

Also got a batch of corn mash turning into moonshine and then whiskey because I have a (TINY!) wood cask to hold it, thus satisfying some of the technical grumps on the topic.

Conversation tomorrow with Mark on the erotica magazine. From day one, I have now completed a novel’s worth (5 totaling 38k words unedited) of stories for Book One. And started Book Two this week. Having a lot of fun, which is what matters to me.

Heather 5 has begun to spiral down into the massive final cataclysm that will wrap up five books of Heather’s War. Dropping next year on a schedule TBD. And setting up Veronika for a series after that, because I still have a LOT of blank spaces on the various maps to explore at some point.

Need to reread Ollie soon, so I can finish that series off as well. That gives me 9/12 of 2026. Wanna write some more Scattered Tribes, because that’s fun. Got Marrakesh 6 done for a slot next year. And more things planned.

Busy.

Dojo work continues to be challenging fun. BuDo. The way of violence, for lack of subtleties. But also reading a lot of that deeply philosophical stuff that you get with people who make it a lifestyle. Focused primarily on GoJu Ryu Karate, but also expanding into Naha-te and other things, because all martial arts have things to teach you if you are willing to listen. And you should be, because you don’t know everything. None of us do.

Work on the Tiny Greathall also brings me joy. Sat out there and had a phone call the other day. Need to move the refrigerator out and get it set up. Need to do a lot of things, but it is my space and I like it. Those of you coming for the bbq will get to see what I’ve done.

Not a lot past that. Keeping the pace. Keeping the faith. Keeping the dream.

Y’all hang in there.

Oh: WORLD CON IS IN SEATTLE in August. Knight Errant (A’Zedi Survey Corps, Book One) is out. I will have a paper edition (it is sitting on my left on my desk). If I Tuckerized you into that book (just about everyone I got permission from at this point, saving a couple), and you will be in the Seattle area (WorldCon or any other reason), I would like to get you to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours.

Mark your calendars. I’ll also be in Vegas for AuthorNation in November, and am talking to the folks at Superstars for February. Hoping to make it to Minneapolis in December for family holiday, but that’s not nailed down yet.

Also happy to road trip to Portland to see you, but not any greater distance than that or Spokane or the Canadian border going north. You let me know.

More erotica in the background. If you wanna first read it, lemme know. If you write erotica or know folks who do, I suspect we’ll give serious talk to starting a Syndicate Magazine at some point, so we’ll be talking and recruiting. Film at 11, as it were.

Past that, 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.]

Good morning.

Just finished rereading editor’s comments for an anthology I’m in that’s coming in the fall. Some of you will remember Eclipse and the gang from the 2000 CE (superhero) universe. Got a pair of stories about Bolt done, and #2 is in the anthology, so I’ll probably put #1 up for sale at the same time. Not one most of you have read, I don’t think.

Past the one-third mark of Heather 5. Second big chunk rumbling up, but I have blogs and newsletters to write this morning so might not get far on that one. Flip side, I write the erotica on a spare cell phone that got wiped and has no sim card, so I can take it anywhere and bang out words. About 6k into #5. And next week we’ll figure out if I just start publishing those or hold them for a new magazine.

Two newsletters after this, so please don’t scream if I show up in your inbox a whole bunch today, okay? 🙂 First of the month is both personal newsletter and I have two magazines so I trail each publication by 30 days to let them settle and generate a bump. Plus, Sloan Webber has a story in the coming issue of BSQ and it’s sequel is coming tomorrow in your inbox if you’re on the story tier. (Rest of you won’t see it for a LONG time.)

Health was a little yuck in June. Nothing bad but a string of little things that left me perpetually exhausted and emotionally wrung out, so I’m hoping that July turns into something a lot less trying. More words, more worlds. Probably a couple of weeks to wrap up Heather, then we’re off.

Farm News: Have had an enormous harvest of cherries this year. Put 8 pounds into the freezer last night, on top of 3-4 more pounds harvested to be eaten yesterday. Last week, Chef Bryan came out for several more pounds. I’ll probably still end up leaving 30 pounds on the trees at this point, to fall and rot and get eaten by critters.

When Bry was here, we talked about whiskey, so I put some Mexican ground corn in the carboy with brown sugar and have watched it bubble all week, where I can turn it into whiskey at some point. That and half the cherries turned into wine and then brandy are going to be fun in July/August.

But I’m a redneck and you knew that.

Hope your summer continues to be amazing.

Oh: WORLD CON IS IN SEATTLE in August. Knight Errant (A’Zedi Survey Corps, Book One) is out. I will have a paper edition (it is sitting on my left on my desk). If I Tuckerized you into that book (just about everyone I got permission from at this point, saving a couple), and you will be in the Seattle area (WorldCon or any other reason), I would like to get you to sign my copy. And I’ll sign yours.

Mark your calendars. I’ll also be in Vegas for AuthorNation in November, and am talking to the folks at Superstars for February. Hoping to make it to Minneapolis in December for family holiday, but that’s not nailed down yet.

Also happy to road trip to Portland to see you, but not any greater distance than that or Spokane or the Canadian border going north. You let me know.

More erotica in the background. If you wanna first read it, lemme know. If you write erotica or know folks who do, I suspect we’ll give serious talk to starting a Syndicate Magazine at some point, so we’ll be talking and recruiting. Film at 11, as it were.

Past that, 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.