[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.

[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.]

Monday.

Lost power last Tuesday at 430pm. Just about the time I was close to recovering from the week in Vegas. Never got that cold around here, so wasn’t as bad as last time. Mostly 40-50F.

Power didn’t come back until Saturday at 5pm. 5 days without the well, because finding an electrician out here who could wire a battery pack and generator switch is apparently a fool’s errand. If I had that, I have a well and toilets.

I did almost pee on a squirrel at one point, walking out to the blackberry bramble. He was hunkered down, then took off when he realized that wasn’t rain.

Another Sunday recovering. Figure I’m about 2.5 weeks of utter chaos at this point. Emotionally exhausted and snapped hard at a couple of folks this morning that had already had enough warnings about being dickheads.

My world is better off without them in it. Done with -isms from assholes, and have expanded my definition. Will be spring cleaning my life. It will be joyous.

And rude.

But buttercup, you’ve been warned.

Finished Red Branch #4 yesterday. The Free City. Set in Trieste in 1950, when it had the potential to turn into something like Monaco. Didn’t, but that was later. And Stalin screwed up there, IMO. Could had materially damaged Yugoslavia at a time when they were pissy at one another.

Anyway.

Started Corsac Fox #7 this morning. That will end Block One, but I probably have 30 novels about Uly and Dan before I finish. And, mind you, I know how the last two novels go, having planned them at the same time I planned Book One.

What I don’t know is how many novels are in between. And how many spin-offs, because I have such a rich and engaging universe here to play in, and a lot of characters who will never get to necessarily shake the pillars of heaven, but are the heroes of their own stories.

Once I finish Block One, there will be time and space to go a little sideways. Maybe some Isann explorations. Or Samuur games. Or Ononguli cattle drives.

Whatever works.

And, with the power out for five days, I ended up with about 20 pages of notes for two other series. Scattered Tribes is one some of you have read. I now have a plot and points for Books 2+.

Additionally, I started a novel in the spring, but had to put it aside when things went to shit. Partly, I kept trying to pull back from crazy big, and that was where the story wants to go, so I have notes on dark gods and pantheonic wars to explore.

Space OPERA.

There will be a dull zone next year, then shit will get crazy, because I also have notes on a new Marrakesh trilogy that will be the start of a Season Two from book six forward.

Now I just gotta find the time to write it all.

Back to the word mines.

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.

20241118

[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.]

Skipped a week, in case you didn’t notice. Also having issues with the damned auto-delivery function not sending out messages on time, so I have to kick it manually.

Got back from Vegas Friday LATE so I could sleep in my own bed and be ready for a whole second event Sat in Enumclaw, where they did the annual Wine Walk. Lots of traffic. Sold a few books. Made a bunch of new friends.

Met a bunch of folks last week. Still catching up on that. And hosted a meetup, was on two panels, and gave a Ted Talk sort of thing that seemed to be well received. There will be a watch party for folks in the spring and an AMA with it.

If I owe you something, email me, because social media is a deep in gators right now as I catch up.

Should finish Red Branch #4 this week. Then some short stuff before I go on to Corsac For 7 (The end of block one) and then I’m not sure. Still catching up this morning because been so damned busy and then trying to regain momentum. Gonna keep this short so I can turn around and write the newsletter I owe you.

Have a good 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.]

The Anarchist came over yesterday and did a construction consult on the Tiny Greathall. Man was a General Contractor for a long time, before getting a regular job during Covid so he could get laid off and collect unemployment. Except that he was too smart and they kept him. Knows his shit.

Took him five minutes to fix the door latch problem and tweak the frame to hang perfectly. Dude’s magic.

Last week got a lot of trim and molding work done. Painted whiskey shelves and what will turn into a book case for gaming books perhaps this week. Framed both windows. Trim. Need to get to Home Depot and touch table legs so I can build/install both of them, but that might wait until after Author-Nation is done. But I’m really close to moving the bar in. And the fridge. Fix the wiring and install the light fixture. And calling it good enough for now. Little things left that can take all winter to finish.

Kinda excited about all that.

On the writing side, I don’t remember what I told you last week. Finished a Humboldt story. Sets inside the Boston universe, but off to one side because the story is for the Sidekicks Issue of Thrill Ride Magazine. That’s four Boston stories now, and I’m almost a year ahead on TRM stories, which I need because I also have BSQ and that is going to be eight writing deadlines every year. Throw in the need for something short for Patreon, and I’m a busy boy.

After that, I started the fourth Red Branch novel. First one is out this month. Night Strike. Wanted it available for Author-Nation because I’m on an Action-Thriller panel, as well as a historic research panel, and the Red Branch fits the bill. In the Store or Amazon.

Enjoy.

Next week, I don’t plan on posting. I’ll be BUSY all week, and largely taking that week off from writing, because I have to put on the Carnival Barker face instead. He’s fun, but exhausting. And I can’t write when I have to be ON all the time, which I will for a week.

Brighter side, at this moment I am over 900,000 words for the year, with seven weeks to go, so I’ll hit a million and change. Planning to write Corsac Fox 7 next. Don’t expect to finish Red Branch before AN, so Corsac will start around Thanksgiving. Then possibly Red Branch 5. Then maybe Science Officer 16.

Then it’s January or later, and I’ll figure that shit out when I get there.

Have a Monday.

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 raining all weekend. Autumn has arrived. Voted yesterday. Washington does everything by mail, so I can make a coffee, put my feet up, and read the voter’s guide on every candidate. Didn’t take long, but I’ve turned into a yellow dog this year. And probably for a few more cycles.

Shit’s gone weird. Not unexpected. Talked about it in a paper I wrote for a political science class in college in 1988. But I also studied meta-history.

At the same time, if you read me, you know I hate bullies. Just flat out will not tolerate that sort of behavior. Don’t miss ex-friends who didn’t know how to read that room.

Grumpy today, so I’ll keep this tight. Finished Beckett Fernsby #7 last week (they started appearing in Boundary Shock Quarterly 025 and will be in most of the next long run, because I’m generally writing to BSQ themes). Wrote a short for Thrill Ride Magazine 011 (technically a fourth Boston story, so issues 04, 09, 10, and now 11). Started the fourth Red Branch novel.

First block was a trilogy. Took a break. Shifting into a larger scope and more fun. Plus a lot more research on things that never get taught in history classes until college and even then you have to be deep into a particular major to see it. Makes me read a lot. A LOT. Currently setting it in Yugoslavia in 1950, so the middle of the Tito-Stalin split and the Informbiro period. Crazy shit, and I have a degree in international relations that didn’t more than wave at this sort of thing in the distance as we drove by.

Also working on research for a new series. Kinda the fourth block of Action-Thriller to finish. Set in the modern. I’m calling it an Assassin Procedural for the moment, because trying to establish a story arc pattern that can be repeated on a grand scale with a new novel each time. Plus, the character I have in mind keeps getting deeper and more interesting as I think about their past and how they ended up with a finger on a trigger and an eye to a scope.

How does one decide to become a killer? Nobody does, except psychopaths and serial killers. Trying to avoid gong there. Mostly. You still have to be somewhat broken to actually do it, and in that crack is a story I can wedge.

Think it will be awesome, just have to get there. Red Branch first.

Hope your monday is going pretty okay.

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.]

Woke up a little before sunrise and didn’t turn on the lights. Just sat on the couch watching things slowly brighten.

Then a flash as a critter hauls ass across the driveway, the septic field, and then into the trees. Gray on gray, so I have to get up to see what it was. Turned out to be a short white tail deer, but could have been a big bobcat from the way it was moving. (Dogs have a different running motion.)

Okay, all well and good. Watch the tail down but enough flash of color to identify.

Then a second one goes by. Hauling ass like she knows something I don’t.

Few minutes later, third one.

Fourth one was actually only walking fast, but I still had a morning where all my deer had the zoomies. How’s yours been?

Monday. Starting serious refinements of the talk I’ll be giving at Author-Nation in a few weeks. Got the B4B: Breaking Discoverability coming out just prior (Nov 10) and it kind of distills down where I’m at right the moment. Also 30k instead of 15k, because I had a lot of ground I wanted to cover. Only going to touch on about a third of it with the talk, as I only have about 40 minutes to ramble.

Buchman assured me that I’m going to break minds and ruin lives, because too many folks are still in the MFA program/TradPub mindset, thinking that they’ll get an agent, a six-figure deal, and be set for life.

Oh, buttercup…

It’s a lot of hard work. And we marinate in it, so I’ve tried to roadmap things. Got a pair of young writers I’m starting to work with as they get serious about the journey. Hoping I can save them a lot of heartburn. Maybe give them tools they can use to achieve success. Or at least happiness.

Think I mentioned that I finished Science Officer 15 last week. Wrote the second Forever City story. Started the seventh Beckett Fernsby, Apothecary tale. First six will come out as a collection in a couple of years (I don’t get the rights back until 90 days after I publish #6, which will be Boundary Shock 031.) #7 will be in BSQ 033, for comparison, because I’m having fun with those.

Trying to figure out how he gets into and out of each theme situation challenges me as a writer, and makes me better at craft. And that’s usually the key part.

After Beckett, I’ll write a short for Thrill Ride Magazine 011 “Sidekicks.” I had a Boston the Wheelman in 004. Circled back having fun there, as well, and have additional stories for 009 “Secrets” and 010 “Fast Cars,” so it only makes sense to do 011. Might do 012 “Spies” instead of a Chace Haig story. Or I might cross them over and have Boston supply a car for Chace.

How far can I push before folks push back? Dunno. Might find out.

Air Pirates #4 coming out November 10 and completing the series. Then Science Officer 14.

Next year, a bit fragmented, as I intend to clean out the trunk. Gunderson, Vol 2 in January. More Corsac Fox. More Science Officer. More whatever as I get it done.

Another day, another drachma.

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.]

Finished Science Officer 15 yesterday. Cliffhangared the hell out of it, but that’s fine because I’m planning to drop 15 and 16 a month apart. And 17 if I can get it done in time. Nov-Dec 2025. Maybe Oct as well.

Y’all finished book one of Scattered Tribes, so I am starting a new thing in November. Got #1 done. The Forever City. After this and a newsletter, I’ll start #2. Goal is to keep them all under 16k, because they want to run away and be novels. Which they will, just not immediately. Like Scattered Tribes, this lets me sidle into a series sideways. And keeps you folks entertained along the way.

I only have so many hours in the day to write. And I’ve consciously dialed things back from the old days. Still planning to hit 1,000,000 this year, but only barely. Taking at least a week off in November when I go to Vegas to the Author-Nation conference, where I’m giving a talk on “Breaking Discoverability.”

Wrote a B4B that will come out in November. The (call it a Ted) Talk is 40 minutes long, so I’ll cover about a third of what’s in the book. Mostly me distilling down what I know today. Buchman assures me that I’m going to break minds and ruin lives with this talk, mostly because too many young authors are still being told that they can have a TradPub career that is emotionally and financially fulfilling.

Oh, buttercup.

It’s all about hard work these days. Marketing. Business. And a lot of luck, which is part of the reason I got as far as I have, and hopefully I’ll get struck by lightning again at some point, when it could really help. I’m too feral for pants, let me assure you.

Tiny Greathall proceeds. We tiled, but it has been too cold for the mortar to set, so we installed the door, closed off the front, and put in a space heater. Probably fully cured tomorrow and we can grout it. At that point, molding and paint touch-up are the major pieces before we install the bar itself and hang all the shelves where the whiskey goes.

I inherited the worst third of the collection, after she took the best third and he drank the middle third. Still a lot of nice stuff here. And two gallons of cider and a gallon of wine, all home grown, got killed yesterday. I’ll decant them into different bottles today or tomorrow, then backsweeten them to my tastes sometime this week.

Tonight, we will have a toast to the Battle of Hastings.

BACKSTORY: The physical bar comes from the Piper’s Man-cave. He’s extremely Irish, so he did it as an Irish Bar. I’m extremely English, but replacing an Irish Bar with an English Pub is simply rude on a lot of levels. However, I’m technically Norman, when you got back on the Ward side, which is why this is a Tiny Greathall. Cider, wine, and I’ll make mead at some point. (Probably honey brandy, because why the hell not.)

Today, we celebrate the day in 1066 when the Normans beat the hell out of the Angles, Saxons, and Celts, and took their land. It is also Indigenous Peoples Day, marking Columbus as a rapist and cultural murderer. We’re kinda caught crossways here, but celebrating the Irish side of things (via the Normans) means less celebration of the English (and everything they did to the Irish). And yes, I am aware of how squishy that gets. I probably know more history than most of you. And I have come to develop a deep and abiding loathing of English culture over the last couple of centuries. They really leaned into the racism in their colonial efforts, when with just a little unbending on their part they might still have an Empire.

A lot of people celebrate kicking the English out. Even the Scots would like to.

Today, I also mark that I live on land that might be Snoqualmie, Puyallup, or Duwamish. (All those records got destroyed along the way, and I haven’t been able to find solid answers.) Ravensdale, WA, out SE of Seattle in the Cascades, just past the first north-south ridge.

At least here, everyone is welcomed as a citizen, once we manage to get rid of a subsect of racist shits that are still mad that black people and Native Americans were granted citizenship. At least they are dying off, and the kids coming up to replace them are a lot more everything in all the good ways. We survive this coming election intact, and I have hope for our future.

Get your asses out and vote. We have a republic, if we can keep it. Otherwise, you are looking at a return to monarchy and empire, which only ever profits a very small group of people, and you aren’t one of them.

We must forge a better future, so get off your ass and help.

And have a lovely Monday.

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.

20241007

[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.]

Monday. Not as much pain as I expected from a day of tiling. Got five colors and shapes (plus custom painted ones), so feng shui has been important.

We start at the front door. SW corner of the bay (north end of the old bar, so bay three, farthest end from her house). Inner wall is immediately on your right. Tiles four feet wide by three deep, done in a slate gray with hints of blacks. That’s what we call the mud room, and where there will be a mat to wipe feet.

In the opposite corner (NE), six weirdly oversized tiles run front to back. Three rows wide, so about 2.5 feet. Two runs long, so about six feet. That’s immediately behind where the bar will go. It will stick out from the back wall, cutting the overall room into a U-shape, if you will.

Forward from the front door are two rows of long black tiles (60cm each), with two rows of standard 12” white tiles between them. There is a window back in that corner (SE) and I’m planning a two-top table along that side. That’s also the (Inner) wall where we did the hardwood flooring. Pics in the November newsletter, if you aren’t signed up, so you might consider.

Same black edge wraps around the NW corner, where I plan a standing table (bar stool height), with white tiles inside that. I have about five painted tiles left over and am going to put those down in the front half, so they are more visible.

Will finish tiling Thursday, then grout over the weekend, maybe. Having some friends over Monday night to soft-open celebrate the Battle of Hastings. Still got a lot of work to do to get it all finished. Wiring. Front door installed and plugged. Molding.

Gonna be a winter doing it right, but I’m quite thrilled with the progress I’ve made with the help of some amazing folks.

Monday. Been running around all morning and only getting to the computer to write at 10. Science Officer 15 crossed 40k last week. Target 65k. Sometime next week will finish it, depending on a couple of side projects I need to write between now and January.

Getting busy planning for Author-Nation in November. Week for writers, plus Thursday/Friday for readers, if any of you are in or planning to be near Vegas that week. I’ll be crazy doing things, but having fun, one hopes.

Still ramping up my morning, so not a lot of words here yet. Probably need to send this and make some coffee

Hope you folks enjoyed Book One of the Scattered Tribes. Plan is to extend that story next year, just not sure if more shorts or one long novel. Or something else. Got a STUPID amount of world-building there that I want to tap into something epic. I mean, Swords and Sorcery and Starships? How much crazier can it get?

Y’all have a lovely monday.

shade and sweet water

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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