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

Didn’t shoot this morning. Going Thursday. Piper texted last night and wanted to work on engine mechanics for the game, so did that after breakfast. Probably building characters and starting arena combat testing next week, to see how things balance. Kinda nifty cool there, because we’re close to the basics, which means moving on to the context of magic next.

Got some interesting ideas on how to handle balance there, while keeping things as wide open and modular are possible. Will require players actually do more than have a set of numbers on a page, but min/maxers like that tend to either annoy or bore me, depending.

“You can do it, but it’s going to cost you” is our mantra for building things. And the Piper doesn’t mind me ripping out as much Tolkien as I can from fantasy roleplay because there is more to fantasy literature than that. MUCH MORE. And we’ll get to come up with our own settings to go atop context (and atop engine) for folks to play.

If you haven’t been paying attention, I asked my group that I GM what Contexts they’d like to see/play. Piper is always all about fantasy. One guy wanted to see Cthulhu as an option, so I pointed him at my Space Gods story from “After The Fall” and Stoyko, if he wanted something post-apoc. Otherwise, it would be more 1930s pulp, which is coming up on a century ago. Yikes. We’ll see what he has to say this week.

The fun part was the one player who wanted “Harry Potter Meets Star Fleet Academy” as a thing. And she’d like that.

Worse, as I thought about it, I figured out how to do it.

Worse, had a chat with the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ over the weekend and got some clues from here about Epic Space Fantasy™ as a genre. Not one I write in. Not one I read, but she’s all over the map and had things to consider.

And, to stretch myself, I’ll write at least the one I’m about to start after this in First Person, something else I rarely do.

Then, because me, I have spent the weekend worldbuilding something massively epic, just in case I decide to write a 7-volume epic space fantasy series. Because, I can.

Finished the 12th Last Stand (end of Season One, but not the end, as I have more to write). And started the fourth Marrakesh, but putting that one aside this week as I write some short stuff to get ahead again and give you folks your monthly fix. (and me places to experiment, as one does.)

Marrakesh should be Jan-Apr of 2024, followed by Air Pirates, with the third and maybe fourth Corsac Fox tucked in there somewhere. And maybe the third and final Kincaide’s War (Eden Package) after #2 comes out this summer.

Thanks for keeping me in business. Gotta GM tonight, so the Anti-Stodgy Newsletter comes out tomorrow and lets me start Holden Barick’s middle story. (in media res.)

Catch up next week.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Didn’t go shoot this morning, though the weather was finally lovely enough. Hurt too much. Lots of things, including not sleeping all that well for several days. You ever wake up crunchy? That was my morning.

Also went up north Sunday and showed Sensei Johnson the first section of the spear form I’m creating. And got his approval. Then he helped me create a second section, as well as gave me some ideas for what will become a third section. Or a second form. Dunno. Physical Fitness, with heavy spear tipped with sharp steel thingee.

I wanna stay in shape until I’m in my nineties. Walking. Martial arts. Weapon forms. It keeps the brain as sharp as the body. Same reason I get up in the morning and ingest a series of vitamins and things. 8 different flavors, if you will, all intended to keep me from getting any worse than I am today, while maybe making things better.

Been working on slowly losing weight. Worst I ever got was around 225#. Not fasting or making radical changes, because those tend to fall apart. Instead, eating “better” and less.

Weighed in at 202 this morning. Goal is 195 for now, but that’s always a challenge, because summer is when I dig out the machete and ditching blade and work. Muscle weighs more than fat, so I might lose belly meat and gain shoulders. That’s typical in the summer.

But healthy, and that’s really everything.

Writing: finished Flight into Sunrise, which is the fourth Air Pirates of Cyrenaica and completes an arc. Like how and where it ended, as it leaves things open for more, if folks react well later.

Then I wrote two more Chace Haig stories for submission to Thrill Ride Magazine in the fall. That’s the three I need, plus an origin. And I still plan to write several more over the rest of this year, so that I have a pretty deep catalog of such fiction. Planning to go to Bouchercon in San Diego at the end of the summer, and need to have stuff up by then, in case fans want to read stuff.

Then I started the next Last Stand. Episode 12, planned for December, so I complete at least Year One. I still have notes on another dozen or more episodes, but I won’t be putting them out on a monthly schedule.

Instead (at present), we’re going to move the 2023 calendar around (everything is always written in pencil) to publish the three Marrakesh novels starting in January. Maybe a fourth, because I have some ideas there, and a full episode list to explore as well.

Sometime over the summer of 2024, the four Air Pirates books, probably wrapped around the third Corsac Fox novel. Lords of the Endless Plains should be part of a January kickstarter, like Flight of the Corsac Fox was this year (releasing in June if you missed the KS). Book Two, Mistaken Identity, will kickstarter in July-ish, and is on the calendar for general release in November.

In easy terms, I have up through August 2024 ready, in terms of novels and novellas in the can right now, and more coming. And that doesn’t count another batch of novels representing series I need to finish before publishing.

July will see the release of the next book in Kincaide’s War. Vehicles of Epiphany. I’ll start the final book in the trilogy in the fall, I think, with an aim of a 2024 release to complete that arc.

Always, more ideas than time to write them. That’s fine. Forces me to focus tighter. And leaves me time for all the other extracurricular stuff I’m doing this year. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Hope your monday is less crunchy than mine. Finishing this and diving back into Last Stand. Work never ends, but I also took the weekend off to do other things.

Now I need to recover. And chase chipmunks off the bird feeder.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

RPG news, because Monday. The Piper wanted to meet for coffee, so he and I did that after breakfast (long story) and just spent 3 hours deep diving on what we’ve come up with so far and how the math and style work out. Kinda excited because it is coming together, and we keep managing to keep everything modularized to a level that it extends sideways.

Used the phrase “Game Engine” yesterday with a young woman who could not envision what I meant, because to her a gaming (note -ing) engine was Unreal or something, and that was what she did as an artist. Didn’t have the heart to tell her she was just painting skins on somebody else’s engine, but she could not grasp creating something entirely new. It’s like those companies that come out with supplements for D&D 5th edition. You didn’t create an engine, you are making stuff for someone else.

I’m making a new engine. New dice. New rules. Reaching back 35 years to things that some folks were doing in the late 80s that are still better than some of what 5th Ed does, because those wizards think they invented roleplaying games. (And they kinda did, 45 years ago. The world has moved on, and some of my things I played in the late 80s/early 90s are still more sophisticated.)

Anyway: Having fun. Working it out. Gonna playtest soon and that’s where the rubber meets the road.

Also: I am two epilogues from finishing the fourth Air Pirates of Cyrenaica novel. And the current arc, while leaving it open for more novels in the future if folks really like what I’ve done. We’ll see. Probably publishing about a year from now, give or take, on the current schedule.

And, last night, as I’m laying there going to sleep, the first 500 or so words of the next Chace story came to me. I’ve got three done, including the origin you’ve read. This will be #4, and might be that third submission for Thrill Ride Magazine. In any case, I want to have a half dozen or more Chace stories, so that I have a catalog available for readers, assuming I can place some of them in Year Two. Will probably do some novels at some point as well, presuming that folks are enjoying my Action/Adventure stuff (Fugitive and Pacific Force, plus that first Fatima story you read in Thrill Ride #1, hint hint). Thoughts?

Today is non-fiction day. This blog. The monthly newsletter. The quarterly Boundary Shock newsletter. Tomorrow finish Air Pirates and pivot to Chace.

More stuff. Tai Chi proceeds well. Learning to play a few simple songs on the guitar as my hands develop the skills and flexibility.

All in all, a pretty good Monday.

How’s your May Day going?

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Got the Mondays. But in a good way.

Last week, Jon mentioned the rpg I’d talked about creating, where I’d gone a reasonable distance in. He had a few questions, that turned into a lot of questions. That turned into ideas. Lots of ideas.

Been refining for about ten days. He called this morning about getting coffee, after I’d already gone out for breakfast and come home, but it’s Jon, so I went back down to Enumclaw. Several hours later, I’m finally home and writing.

Did get started on a new Chace story this morning. You might get it next month, or maybe I’ll tease you with a sample of something. Tempted to serialize Air Pirates 1, just because I don’t think more than one or two of you read it when it was available in the store. (Yell if you have opinions.)

So I’m moving suddenly forward on a new rpg. Like we might be playtesting character creation and basic combat in about a week, on the way to modularizing a magic system. Helps that I’ve played so many different engines over the last forty years, so I can pull in pieces I like and know work, while avoiding others.

Starting with fantasy, because that’s Jon’s thing, then on to some space opera or cyberpunk, which requires a slightly different take on the engine. Building some of the parts in now and explaining to him why, which means I have to have it straight in my head.

THEN (to top that off), there was a bit of a surprise on Saturday. I knew something was up, but not what. Three Lakes Martial Arts Academy (Enumclaw) does Saturday morning classes. Martial for an hour, then Chen Pan Ling Tai Chi 99, then open training.

This last Saturday, there were also promotions. Fabulous Publisher Babe™ knew, because she made it a point to go, after not being in class for six months with various ailments. And Jon and Lori (8th and 5th Dan in Isshinryu Karate were also surprise guests. (and old friends, obviously, if I’m making a game with him. Same Jon.)

I got promoted to 4th Ji (gray belt, four red stripes) which represents four years of busting my ass and outworking all the other students.

And Jon gifted me a Jian sword that he had been originally given in the very same hall in 1988. So I have that to do sword form with going forward.

Meanwhile, kinda behind on my writing today, because wonky schedule. But taking a pause on Air Pirates #4 at about the halfway mark (21k) and writing some Chace. Maybe a lot of Chace, just to get it off the list.

Also, pay attention to the newsletter, because I’m trying to figure out how to do a coupon for books in the shop, and then make it a regular thing going forward monthly. Mark does four days at the end of each month (last two+first two) but I think first four might work better, so that the code goes out with the newsletter. Thus, pay attention.

Kickstarter I think is officially done, having sent out download links to the big art files to folks last night.

BUSY, but almost time to break and recover.

How’s your monday? And how do we make it better?

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Monday. Getting tired of scraping the windows on the car in mid-April. 35F at dawn. Warmest I encountered while out driving to breakfast and home was 41F.

Fuck that noise.

Stayed in. Sun’s kinda out, but I can see the clouds coming off the mountains, looking out my window. That means cold rolling back downhill. Staying in.

Finished Science Officer #13 last week. Quite pleased with where it came out. December. Probably go up for pre-order in July or something, just to build traction.

I have no idea what I am writing for May’s Patreon short. Have given thought to giving you the first few chapters of the Air Pirates of Cyrenaica, just to mess with you.

I have three of them done. And got about 5,000 words into #4 when writer-brain said no. Stop. Now.

Did.

Took a year, and writer-brain explained that I had the wrong ending. And here was the right one.

So this morning I started book four. Plan at present is to drop them all back to back next year sometime. They don’t complete the tale, but complete an arc and I can go back later and add more. Usual for many of my series, where the end is merely the “happy-for-now” moment before something else breaks.

Because I slowed my writing way down this year (and it was a good idea, in spite of getting jittery every once in a while), I might also hold off on releasing Marrakesh until January. Have three of those, all Monster of the Week Space Adventure like the old days. (ST:TOS or ST:TNG for instance, where each story is self-contained and builds, instead of being an ongoing mess of threads to tease out. You’d be able to pick up any one and understand, but starting at the beginning will give you more depth and richness.)

It is April (I’m pretty sure), so I might have a fourth or more by this time next year. Similarly, four Air Pirates means that I have at least half of 2024 in hand, and could fill up a significant chunk of the year while I keep writing ahead.

(I have a list of future episodes for Last Stand that amounts to at least a while second season without working too hard, so that might be a whole year of stuff as well.)

Always concerned about publishing, because the bots reward you for consistency, and I have a streak going back to 2017 at this point. Want to keep that going, but some of the longer projects take time.

Kincaide’s War #2 (Vehicles of Epiphany) is 158k words. Functionally three months of effort at the current pace. Thus, 40k Air Pirates and Marrakesh novels to offset. And 22k Last Stand novellas.

And, hopefully this fall, I’ll pick up the Taft Station series (1 and 2 done) and finish it as well (5). Plus more Heather and the other half of Corsac Fox block one.

Corsac is up for pre-order everywhere, if you missed out on the kickstarter. Folks been enjoying that one, and #2 will kickstarter in late summer, I think. Getting ready to hire Maria to do more alien art for me.

Past that, Monday. Need more coffee. Busy week ahead, mostly unrelated to writing and publishing.

Y’all try not to get arrested. Don’t have time to bail you out today.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Monday. Been monsoonerating for about 24 hours, so I got breakfast and skipped shooting. Gonna be so far out of practice when the weather finally starts getting nice. That, or start shooting on Wednesday or something. Used to shoot on Tuesdays, but the old farts at the gun range like to do their volunteer work Tuesday morning, and got offended that I wanted to use the archery range. So they literally close the range entirely Tuesday mornings until noon these days. Wankers.

Been focusing on Tai Chi and martial studies over the winter. Know the cane form my school teaches. Learning the sword form (about halfway I think).

I have a friend who is a senior sensei in Insshinryu Karate, (actually, several, but one in particular) who taught me a spear form he knows. I learned it, understood it, then switched hands. His is left handed, and I’m not. Plus, his uses a rattan stick with a gaff hook on the end, one tine forward and one back.

I’m using a Cold Steel Boar Spear that weighs at least twice as much. Three or four times as much as a bo. It does not move quickly. But it does have a stupid amount of heft, if I want to hit something. And a double-edged leaf blade with cross-bar below that.

Boom.

So I have been working on a series of motions that would be form #1. I’m about solid on it, and will demo it for Sensei in a week or three. From there, I will ask all the senior folks I know (a bunch) what I need to add to create a form #2, or to maybe add a second+ section as I go.

All of this is exercise. Upper body strength and flexibility that I’ll need in the future, because I’ll be 54 this summer. Take a lot of pills in the morning for various things, because I’d like to stay like this as long as possible. (Read an article online this morning suggesting pills would be available by 2028 that stopped aging. I doubt it, but at the same time, aging is mostly disease, and if you can delay/correct diseases, how long can you go? I’d rather be this healthy at 90 or 120 than how bad some of my same-age friends are right now.)

Anybody awake? Nobody ever replies, so I don’t know if this is actually being read. What’s the silliest thing you’ve seen this last week that made you laugh or go “awwwwww”?

Story work. Crossed 55k on Science Officer 13. Still feels 60-65, in that I’m close to the end and wrapping things up this week. Dunno what “next” is but will start thinking on that later. Maybe tonight. Got more Chace Haig. Got more Last Stand (“Prophet and Loss” just came out this morning. You finished it yet?).

Almost done with copy edits on Kincaide’s War #2. Vehicles of Epiphany. One more and that’s a trilogy done.

Corsac Fox #1 (“Flight of the Corsac Fox”) is up for preorder everywhere. Gotten some nice comments from folks who backed the Kickstarter and got their versions already.

Not a lot past that. Been busy. Been slow to ramp up today and still not entirely in motion, as of 1pm. Might be getting as far as I can and calling it good.

Hopefully, you’ve got more energy.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Monday. I did not go shooting, because it snowed last night. WTF? Still had about an inch on the ground and thick drizzle this morning. FTN.

Instead, Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and I went out to breakfast and talked publishing. Mostly around the “Business For Breakfast” books and the Milestone Indie Publishing Newsletter (Non-fiction here: https://www.knottedroadpress.com/browse-krp-books/non-fiction/), and how we can synergize them.

Lots of crossover potential. Milestone articles are usually around 1000-1500 words. B4B books range about 14k+/-. I even have a basic B4B book I need to polish and publish. Handed it to S* the other day to test. “Okay, you have your manuscript. Now what?” and she’s working out all those details. A how-to for young writers needing to go Indie.

And Milestone Year Three is done (I think) and will be coming out as soon as we can organize things and get all the guest authors on board. Watch your inbox for news. Probably May.

Got home and got to work on Science Officer #13. “Dragoon’s Honor” is still my working title, as I strive to be somewhat alphabetical for Season Two. Currently at about 38k words, so halfway. Story coming together nicely. Maybe finish in about two weeks.

After that, I got a list. Last Stand #12. Thrill Ride Year Two (4 short stories due in the fall). Monthly Patreon short, but not sure what I’ll tackle this month and I hope you had fun with Chace, as I’m planning three of the four Thrill Ride stories being Chace stories.

GOT A WEIRD QUESTION for you folks.

Right now, $5/month gets you the new short story at least six months before publication. Maybe more, because I’m kinda lazy about getting those out.

Something some folks over in LitRPG are doing is to release a chapter of a novel each month for their patrons. You folks at the $1 level interested if I did that? I have several novel series partially complete, meaning not coming out in any form before 2024 and maybe later, as I want to get them closer to done.

Alternatively, since I’m writing “slower” this year, I might take that energy that goes into the monthly short fiction and instead focus it on longer pieces that get serialized. For instance, I’ve gotten nice response to Fugitives, but not enough sales to really justify writing more of Marcus’s tale. And in a week, I’ve got the first Dan & Stewey novel (urbanish fantasy) coming out, but I haven’t written the rest of the series yet, because I don’t know if folks are interested in following me over there.

But I could justify it here. Won’t unless you folks speak up, so hit reply and let me know your thoughts on the topic. Want me to dabble on the side with stuff that isn’t Science Fiction? Again, if I’d sped up instead of slowing down, I’d have space to do both.

Instead, I’m sewing (went and bought more jersey fabric yesterday), and learning to play guitar (blame English Paul, his idea, see attached image), while also getting serious with Chinese martial arts and some rpg game engine stuff. And a punk rock opera that I’m about halfway through writing at present. Because I can.

Your opinions matter, especially because y’all so rarely actually say anything. (Sometimes, I think I’m talking to myself, okay?)

Happy to rotate into a new way of doing things, but that means folks might not get their monthly fix of a complete short story, and instead I cliff-hangar your asses on a monthly basis.

Which might be more fun, just so’s you know.

What would entertain you the most?

Vote here

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Managed to get all the paper shipped for Corsac Fox Book One over the last twenty-four hours. Or rather, Fabulous Publisher Babe™ rocks.

Anti-Stodgy, because we’d never done something like this before, but now we know how difficult it is to drop-ship books out, both paper and hard cover. (Not that bad, actually.) If you backed the Corsac Kickstarter at that level, I figure you’ll see books over the next two weeks. If nothing by May 1, give a yell so we can back track.

Spring continues to unfold. I took the weekend off from writing and focused on martial arts and sewing. I’m creating a (first) spear form that incorporates a lot of things. Plus, I need to go back and watch the videos I took of a black belt in Ishshinryu Karate doing a forms competition recently, to see what things he’s doing that I need to adapt or steal.

They use a bo, which is a staff about 5’-6’ long, and ¾” thick. Made of a light wood, they can move it quickly to block, poke, strike, etc.

I’m using a 6’ pole of ash (much heavier) with a 16” sharpened steel leaf blade with boar tines on it. MUCH heavier. Harder to swing quickly than the bo. Much more deadly when I hit you.

Mostly, I focus on shoulder and upper-body work. Spinning that beast and controlling it is reshaping my torso and keeping me in better shape, which is good since I’ll turn 54 this summer. Anti-Stodgy means learning new things. It also means being healthier than most of you so that I can keep doing stuff into my nineties. Because I intend to.

Kirk Douglass was spry and active until a stroke slowed him down at 93. He still lived another decade. I wanna be like him. Doing Tai Chi contributes. Doing sword, cane, and spear forms contributes as well.

Learning to sew is also good. I finished my first ever clothing project over the weekend (see image of my Ukrainian tunic in purple attached.) I’ve done little things before, but this was pattern to worn, with adult supervision because some of the things were beyond my ability, like attaching sleeves right on the first try.

But I learned a bunch. And spent last night meandering around etsy looking for patterns of things I’d like to wear and make. Hard to do. Partly, that asshole Beau Brummell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Brummell) and his stupid ideas on men’s fashion that still have Western civilization in a chokehold. BORING. DULL. Symmetric.

So I went looking for things with style. Bought a pattern for raglan shirts in long sleeve, which I will chop to ¾ sleeve in the making, because honestly that’s my preferred shirt, if the weather allows. I also have some western/cowboy patterns saved. Vests. Shirts. Jackets. All too complicated for me at this point, according to the Babe, so saved against rising skill.

Found a kilt pattern that looks easy enough, except that I’m not sure I trust it until she looks.

Harder, however, is size.

Discussion on FB this morning about health, weight, and BMI (which I rate right up there with criminal phrenology for scientific basis). I’m 5’10 with what that system considered a “large” frame (can’t wrap fingers around wrist and touch), but I knew that. 48” chest. 38” waist. Vee-shape. And getting worse as I work with a heavy spear in overhead motions to build muscle.

Most patterns tend to stop around 44”. Especially older ones. In ‘Designing for People’ by Henry Dreyfus (https://www.amazon.com/Designing-People-Henry-Dreyfuss/dp/1581153120/) he has a chart showing how people would get taller and larger, both men and women, over the course of the 20th Century. Page 32 in my old edition, with Vetruvian Humans.

We are bigger than we used to be, and I’ve always been built like a tree. Always.

So I have to look for patterns that scale up past me. And better, modern pattern-makers often sell you a pdf scaled to print on poster paper (A0) so I can send it to my print shop, pick up the poster, then cut it out and pin it to the cloth.

If I can find it big enough. Lots of the cool ones I was looking at last night ranged all the way up to “skinny Chinese guy” at their biggest. (I saw one at 38” chest for XL. Yeah, no.)

But I’ll get there. Anti-Stodgy. Make a few raglan ¾ shirts in various designs that are NOT symmetric, thankyouverymuch, then look for more advanced things, like color blocking. Again, nothing that would fit for all the coolness. Might have to buy a really basic pattern for something, then teach myself how to create the parts I need to add. Got the right library, because I am a fashion nerd. (You should have figure that out by now.)

Science Officer #13 is past 20k. Expecting it to come in at about 60k when done. TBD. Got an idea for a fun short piece. Or rather, got setting and character, now got to figure out how her problem works and gets resolved in a way to make it interesting.

More news soon, but mostly just Mondaying my day.

Hope yours rocks

Chat more next week.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Sent out the Corsac Fox ebooks to everyone last week. Hopefully you got it if you backed. And enjoyed it. As noted last week, I finished #3. Six in the first block/series, I think. At least that’s how it is shaping up.

Also finished the Chace Haig “origin” story you will read in April, as I prep to write a whole series of shorts for The Thrill Ride. Plus at least one more Fatima. That’s between now and December, so I have time.

Closer to home, I started a new novel on Friday. The Science Officer #13. Working Title: Dragoon. I’d say a change of pace, but only compared to Heather and Uly. Lighter, but that’s because those two are darker by their nature. More Space Opera.

Javier is always space adventure. And snark. Sass. Attitude.

I’m about 5000 words in at this moment. Have framed the setting and hinted at issues, without diving too deep into what’s coming, because I want this one to slowly unfold, dragging you deeper and deeper before you realize it.

Like more Science Officer stories, when you think about it. Space exploration, in a galaxy where only Humans achieved anything like technological sentience. No aliens, not counting Suvi and her cousins. Vaguely Earth-based, only in the context of we talk about Earth.

I don’t always, you’ll notice. Sometimes, I talk about a galaxy where folks have been in space for so long that they only have theories as to where they came from. Flight Officer Brannon, for instance, takes place at least thirty thousand years in the future from us. Or eighty thousand. Dunno. Doesn’t matter, because there is no “Earth” at the center of things. Merely peoples in different groupings.

From here, more Javier and Djamila. Figuring we’ll come in around 50-60k. Longer than Alien Seas and Buried Among the Stars. Shorter than Captain Navarre. I think so, anyway.

At some point, I will write the twelfth Last Stand. Been watching as that series slowly starts to gain traction. Folks do not like you challenging their religion, which is weird considering who and what they worship, but that’s not my place. I’m here to entertain.

And readers who get past that variation have seemed to enjoy the series. Three of them out now. Up through six for pre-order. Eleven written. Notes on another twenty or more, depending. Hell, I might just keep putting out another Last Stand episode monthly for years if folks like it.

One of my first readers got back to me to complain as he was sending me back #10, because he was afraid I’d stop at #12 and he’s enjoying these characters and stories too much.

Tell all your friends, including Hollywood producers you know or folks in Japan making anime. I’ll do them a great deal on licensing. This series was always written to be visual. I’ve cast the actors in my head, and they are not the ones you think.

I used Zhanna Zhumaliyeva as my model for Tessa, except taller. (See pic, and drool.) The others follow similar patterns, to the point I have to stop and remember those other character names when someone asks, because I’ve moved so far beyond them in my head.

Past that, not a lot to say. Busy writing. Busy editing. Busy sewing. And martial arts. And music.

Spring is coming up and I’ll be spending less time at the keyboard this year and more time out doing stuff.

What’s your year going to be like?

Chat more next week.

Shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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

If you’re reading the free version (which is published two 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.

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

Finished Corsac #3 on Friday. (YAY!!!)

Also got a chance to incorporate some of the Tuckerizations from the Corsac #1 kickstarter, including a fun character in book three.

Originally, I’d hoped to be able to go back and change some of the names of ships in #2, but all the folks that took that level are friends, so I wanted to do something special. Some went into 3. Some will go into 4.

Brighter news: I spent three hours in the coffee shop yesterday loading Bookfunnel libraries for folks, so hopefully everybody got to spend all night reading Flight of the Corsac Fox before they stumbled off to bed too late to get up too early this morning. (Sorry not sorry.)

If anyone had problems getting their files, please lemme know. All new functions and tools at my end, and I’m still learning them. (And hoping I did it right, but I figure I’d have gotten cranky emails first thing this morning otherwise.)

Working on my new spy series character’s “origin” story today. Got about 5k done. Feels like it will come in around 10k. Will publish it at some point, and folks at the $5 level will get to read it in April.

Matt’s already posted the themes for Thrill Ride Year Two, so I’m planning what I’ll write. Gadgets just screams James Bond, which what set me to thinking these thoughts. Adventure and Lone Wolves simply reinforced it, so I’m planning three submissions with Chace, plus a Fatima story for Sisters-In-Arms.

Eventually (like two years from now), I’ll get the rights back to the first block of Fatima stories, which will be a novel-length collection. The goal is to do something similar with Chace, so I have a wide and deep Action-Adventure/Thriller catalog for readers. And I’ll probably end up writing several novels in the genre, if things work out.

I’ve already done something similar with both Harper Morita and Handsome Rob, so the big step is moving it all out of the realm of SF and putting it in the present tense and the modern world.

In fact, I sat down over the weekend to reread some old Raymond Chandler, just because Marlowe has such Voice about him, in ways that few writers did in those days. (Or even today, frequently.)

Voice is when the character has opinions on what they see, instead of merely cataloging the room. Adverbs instead of just adjectives, if you will. Marlowe had catty things to say about everybody and everything, including himself. Chace isn’t that bad, but this origin is me feeling my way through his world. His dynamic. Even his signatures.

And enjoying myself as I stretch into new territory.

Not sure what project I’ll start next. Actually, that’s not true. Need to write a bunch of short fiction. The next Boundary Shock Quarterly (Cyberpunks) is a story adjacent to the Owen Castle you’ve met. He appears, but it’s Geoff, a character based on an old friend.

The story due is “Tramp Freighter Captains” starring Hrothgar, and I plan to write a sequel for the issue after that “Science Fiction Holidays,” except that I’ll be focusing on Diwali instead of Christmas, because I’m expecting to be flooded with Xmas and Hanukkah stories, but I have warned folks that fantasy elements will get them bounced immediately. (Not sure how many of them think I’m bluffing, but we’ll find out. Might end up having to write more stuff myself to fill out the issue. Not the first time.)

Then whatever I send you folks after Chace. Dunno. TBD. Stay tuned.

Got Heather #1 done. Need to write more. Need to write Javier #13. Need to write Corsac #4. Need to write Last Stand #12. (Thank you for the lovely reviews on Last Stand. Some folks don’t get it. Or they are too wound up in the original to actually watch it and notice all the icky bits. I had that discussion with someone the other day, when I asked how long ago they watched the series. Many, MANY years, in her case.)

Hope your Monday is nice. Pissing down rain all morning. Went out for breakfast. Skipped shooting. Will be out of practice and sore when the weather improves, but I’ll survive. And I keep doing Tai Chi and weapon forms indoors, so I’m not in that bad of shape.

From there, back to the writing.

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 two 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.