[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.]

Surfaced this morning (after shower, stretching, grumbling) and unlocked the back door so Fabulous Publisher Babe™ can come over later. (She has her own house, as you might not recall.)

A general reminder: Chipmunks make lousy ninjas. Don’t believe them when they try to argue the point, either. Got one adult and one youngling that like to run around and pretend to be invisible. Usually on her porch, (I think they live under the barn), but over the weekend, one wandered onto my back porch to see what was up. Sometimes, he’ll climb up the patio steps, stand up on his hind legs, and peek in the slider.

Caught him early this time. Middle of the bricks.

Opened the door and he scampered madly under the steps. So I put a broom down on one side, just to get his attention.

He takes off for the FAR side of the property, and I learned a whole new slew of chipmunk profanities. Not a wasted day, then.

Still waking up.

Finished Harri 3. Like how it ended. Still have 4 in mind, but other projects I need to pursue. Started that one inspired loosely by Blake’s 7 (and I mean WAY loosely, given last week’s conversation) and already 22k into it. Feels like it will come in right around 40+/-, which is fine. I like the shortest novels, because that becomes a challenge to tell an entire story and not have any places where it slows down. Series tentatively called Belle’s Fortune at the moment, so Belle 1.

Film at 11.

Happy Bastille Day, y’all. You know what to do to celebrate it.

Occasionally, I have attempted to read SF fiction lately, mostly to overcome the natural tendency to read critically. Lots of the old SF was plagued by the problem that Hugo and a few others liked to publish stories based on a really cool idea, with the actual craft of the story being a distant ninth in consideration. Things like Setting, Voice, and Characterization were haphazard at best.

I remember a major media tie-in from the 80s (a novelization based on Star Trek, but not any of the movies), where I was about two-thirds of the way through the book when the author casually mentioned that the woman scientist in charge was black. I could not remember that coming up at all, so I started over, looking for the thing I had missed. Wasn’t there.

Granted, useful to just assume things, but at no point had the author included ANY descriptions of characters beyond gendering them.

And Arthur C. Clarke is also NOTORIOUS for this. Grand ideas. No physical details about cast. Little about setting, which is usually “character opinion of sensory data.”

So reading the old stuff is dull, because even a mid writer these days has better craft than those old books. Maybe not better ideas, but more engaging, and that’s what keeps the reader reading.

Shaggy dog story short, I stumbled across Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire’s Fall series. First one generally worked for me. Into the second one now, which is kinda amazing, considering how little fiction I read these days. Different ways of looking at things, and he centers the story on two characters who are both outsiders sticking it to the man, which is honestly why I was able to read it. And he puts a lot of emphasis on the people as people, rather than cardboard archetypes delivering polemics for the Author™.

More coffee as soon as I post this. Need it. Then back to the word mines, because we are about to steal a warship out of harbor, having bamboozled the base commander with bullshit stories of secret missions and impending wars.

Bureaucracy can be defeated by defeating the minds behind it. Or playing to the vanity of the decision makers. Y’all keep that in mind when you finally meet Belle.

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.]

Mostly recovered from the trip. And June. And spring. Not gonna claim coherence, but you people should know better anyway.

Home. Mowing again briefly, as it will get hot and dry soon and the grass with generally die off until September, so my exercise mowing it drops. Also time to start watering the fruit directly, which is a July thing. Gonna be heavy on apples this year, and no cherries. Grapes and Aronia both mature enough to gimme wine and juice. Need to check the blueberries and lingonberries.

Mama and both Zoomies still around, though the boy keeps getting his sister in trouble by wandering around during the day, grazing my yard and the hillside. Everyone looks healthy, so win there. Haven’t seen the bunpersons much, but I have hawks and coyotes around here, so they might be hiding. And might have gotten got.

Or, knowing some of my rabbits, might be sitting on a throne of skulls and celebrating. (We had one around here we called switchblade for a reason, after all.)

Summer proceeds. Finished Corsac Fox 8. Working on finishing Harri 3 (and had an idea that might lead me directly into Harri 4 shortly). Still poking away at Derlyth and Mick, but went to town yesterday for a “normalish” Monday and started a new novel. Or something. Patreon folks will probably get it at some point, as it rounds into shape, so you might only get whatever I have done. Or I might romp through it and have a book one.

Got inspired by the old BBC SF show Blake’s 7 for certain elements of ST Cousteau and Mick. Then I discovered a novel written by Paul Darrow about his character Ker Avon from the show, telling a whole backstory that ended just as he was put on the ship that saw him introduced for S1E2. Haven’t read it. Only available out of print at eye-watering prices for someone who is not a fanatic about the show.

But Darrow also tried to get the show relaunched later, with Avon initially in exile somewhere like Napoleon, when a new generation of rebels breaks him out and starts a whole new series. That already matched some weird notes I had from the long drive, which included the phrase “Blake is dead, Avon.” in them.

So yesterday, I did that thing I have been enjoying this year, where I pull out the bones after stripping off the skin and muscle, and use that to tell a new story that you have to look really close to see. And not B7, because I never watched the show as a kid. My PBS had Tom Baker and later Peter Davison. Occasionally Space: 1999, but again, I grew up on Tom Baker primarily and only encountered B7 as an adult. And haven’t watched them all, but have done the research.

And I want to tell my own stories, but I’m happy to steal ideas from a variety of places to use as 2x4s to frame things.

Will finish Harri 3 this week. Just over 18k, and they have run 24k so far. Mostly, trying to get back to 18 months ahead of my publishing schedule with books in the can so I can get them adequately first readered and edited by professionals, which wasn’t entirely possible for a stretch there where my original main copyeditor ghosted me hard off and on, slowing down more and more until I had to fire her. (That’s when she came clean about all those things she hadn’t wanted to tell me. Got several replacements these days that are all working out well.)

Hoping to dive back into Last Stand, Scattered Tribes, or something along those lines in August. Again, build up a lead so I can work. Corsac Fox 8 kickstarter in the spring. Probably Kincaide 3 KS in the fall of 2027. Could publish things, but want to get three in any series before I do, as much as possible. Have an A’Zedi Survey Corps coming in November (#3) and ideas for a #4, so add that to the list.

Wanna stay ahead of you, so I have time to explore crazy shit and write more Action-Thriller, too. Kincaide ate my winter. Glad it’s written, but still a lot of work to finish. And heavy, so I’m writing a lot of shorter things to break out of that rut.

Hope you still have all your fingers and toes. And have a lovely 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.]

This time yesterday, I was in Montana somewhere. I was in Montana for a while, as we drove the North Dakota route Monday (Minneapolis, Fargo, Bismark, Montana) and stayed in Billings.

Tuesday, got up and got gone early (again) and stopped at an old market in Alberton, MT to visit the Montana Valley Book Store, promising over 100,000 used books. They were not kidding. People on the spectrum should not visit, because you will be screaming at the disorganization. Better, maybe a bunch of you can pool cash and buy the place, then spend a month organizing everything, labeling it properly into the database, and getting the contents online. Some prizes, but I was a blind squirrel finding acorns to get to them. Cute place. PACKED with books. You could spend a weekend (not that far from Missoula and modern hotels) treasure hunting. Probably worth it. Might go back sometime.

Didn’t do much writing this week. Two 13 hour days driving each way. Three busy days seeing family and a few old friends who live in the Twin Cities. And a mariachi band.

Did finish Corsac 8. Sailing Into Darkness, which is what I promised you at the end of 7. Currently planning a kickstarter campaign for the spring. Have a reminder to myself that we need to get the dust jacket hardcover editions caught up through 7 by then.

Not sure what we’ll do for stretch goals and support tiers. Probably the walk-on character and major-character options again, as this series is not done. Ebook, Paper, Hardcover. Catch up (all 8 ebooks) option, but not paper, because that’s a pain in my ass and you can order them now.

Also making notes on finishing Scattered Tribes. Holden, for those of you who have met him and the gang. Hoping to finish those this summer and fall, and have them as a big kickstarter event in Fall of 2027. Five books. Maybe all of them early, then monthly drops into 2028. Character art. Alien art. Crazy shit. Something. Those of you who have read book one here, I welcome your suggestions for what you’d like to see, understanding that Scattered Tribes was always intended as the entry point to a whole new universe of swords, sorcery, and starships.

Already know what the next series in that universe is, because that was the original idea, before I realized I had to write Scattered Tribes to set everyone and everything up first. Grand epic space fantasy opera craziness.

New Boundary Shock just dropped and I haven’t even updated the website yet, but this issue contains #13 in the Last Stand books. I’ll put it out individually next year, so this is your chance to start Season Two early. And see where I’m going, because I got something enormous planned.

Currently writing catch up. This. Newsletter shortly. A new Chace Haig short for Thrill Ride. Still working on Derlyth 4 and Harri 3. And other things.

Mostly, mainlining caffeine this morning and hoping to wake up. Good exhausted is still exhausted and I have a lot to catch up on, so if you need something from me and haven’t heard back by Saturday, poke me again.

Past that, go buy a bookstore and drag it kicking and screaming into the 21^st Century. The world needs 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.

20260623

[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.]

Those of you reading this in three weeks, this is your sign from the heavens to gimme $1 a month on the patreon side of things(https://www.patreon.com/blazeward), so your news is a little more fresh.

Tomorrow, bright and (fucking) early, we’ll be headed out. Another epic road trip, this time to the Twin Cities. My birthday is Friday (57?!?) , plus my BIL and SIL celebrating 25 year anniversary with a mariachi band saturday, and several other birthdays all falling around this weekend. Most of the clan will be gathering, and we decided to make the trip. Flying or train were both about twice the cost of driving, plus I love a good road trip. Will wave at you from SD as we zoom by. Some of you already know and we’ve made arrangements for this weekend, but if you suddenly went boop, email me or text between now and Saturday and I can get you details. We’re only going to be in town until Monday morning, then driving home. But I haven’t gotten to see the grand-niblings since 2019, and some of them are taller than me now.

Gonna be awesome.

Writing: finished the sixth Mick story. Having fun turning that into a novel of darkness and mental health. Working on Derlyth 4 slowly. Harri 3. And close to finishing Corsac Fox 8, so probably another week there. (A week after I get back. Taking the writing phone but not the computer, and I won’t write much between now and July after today.)

Saw Mama Deer and her two zoomies several times this last week. She’s bedding them down on the hillside below the septic field or over the ridge behind the barn, but brings them out. We all had breakfast together Sunday, as she was feeding them while the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and I fixed bacon and eggs. Squirrel and chipmunk babies are running around being dorks without adult supervision, so that’s been entertaining. Feeders have been emptied daily, and the gang is going to leave a 1-star yelp review when we’re gone for a week, but they do have the potential to eat other things. Even if the goofball Stellar Jays have learned from the Flickers how to eat from a suet feeder. (Always funny, because they don’t normally, so I’m introducing new evolutionary pressures around here. Heh.)

Past that, training continues apace. I’m probably in better shape today than I have been since I left Los Angeles in 1995, if that tells you anything. Test still likely sometime around the end of the year, if all goes well. I’m over 30k on a series of essays and articles currently (temporarily) entitled ‘My Blackbelt Journey.’ Sometime next year, I’ll sit down and organize it more into a descriptive text as a workbook to help training, by covering my interpretation of all the things that the curriculum contains.

Last night, learned (rough) the first half of a new kata. Seunchin (sp?). Core curriculum is Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseru. To that, after black belt he adds Tencho, Seunchin, and Suparempe, plus one sai and one bo kata for one of three secondary fields of study (kata, weapons, and/or grappling). I also know Saifa and Gekisai-dai-ich, but those are just for knowledge and never going to be on any test, as far as I know.

And swinging heavy weights, plus carrying them. As I said, the goal is better shape at sixty than thirty, because I’d like to still be doing this at ninety. Got the genes for it. All four grandparents were in their seventies when they died, and all smoked, drank, and ate crap. Mom made it to eighty. Dad is still full of piss and vinegar at eighty-six. I can do this. And that’s thirty more years of writing, so the heirs will inherit one hell of a catalog, and hopefully it makes a difference in their lives, both for money and showing them that they can be successful artists, because that side of the family are all into art.

Past that, on the road this time tomorrow. See you in the Twin Cities. Or not.

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.]

running a little late today, but that’s getting sidetracked first thing and the reminder just popped up. Usually, I see the 8am email go out, but I have a new phone and still getting things sorted out. Like alarms and reminders.

So anyway, hotter than snot these last few days. Like almost 90 in town yesterday, but I’d worn my kilt to prepare. And gotten up early to work out with Sensei, down on the river doing kata then back at his home dojo, before he cooked everyone breakfast and we played Shadowdark at his kitchen table instead of the book store. Just ‘cause.

I’m lacking adult supervision for a few days, with the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ out of town visiting her niece. Then, next week, another epic road trip, this time to Twin Cities for a major joint celebration. My 57^th birthday. BIL and SIL celebrating 25^th anniversary and they throw in their birthdays. Another friend turning 60. And the whole clan coming into town so I get to see folks for the first time since 2019 (last Xmas before Covid, and we’ve all gotten a little feral since then.

And I saw Mama Deer with two little zoomies bipping across the back yard this morning right under my writing window, so I’ve been smiling. Always enjoy when we get more deer. They live on property (I have 6 acres, mostly trees) so they have space. And Mama bedded them down on the hillside, so I’m staying away from that part of the property today. Expect to see her curled up for some Me-Time this evening, after she feeds them later. That’s normal with them. And got the big septic field with a lot of lines of sight and escape, so they feel comfortable.

And, as you know, they are utterly terrified of us. Utterly. More than once, they’ve looked up and kinda shrugged at me walking by. At least I won’t get mugged by them, unlike the rabbits.

And chipmunks, as you know, make lousy ninjas.

Writing: Corsac Fox 8 is past 50k, target 80. Rolling nicely along. Also working on more Mick Fitzpatrick, as I just finished story #5 and am starting to shape a novel with them. Also working on Derlyth 4 this morning. Only about a quarter done there, but that’s rolling slow because of his vocabulary and voice.

Am also on hold for the last whenever because they have an annoying system that pops up every ten seconds to tell me that I can have them call me back and then they start the exact same hillbilly guitar solo again. Heard fifteen seconds or so of it for half an hour. Annoying as fuck.

Which just makes me less and less likely to be nice to whoever I get on the other side, because while this is a store I like, they can make the sorts of decisions that make me shop anywhere else. Modern capitalism forgets that part. Or rather, they think that I have to accept their enshitification.

I do not. Am also grumpy at those fuckers. And building up to a good savage verbal mauling, because their enshitification has annoyed the fuck out of me before I had to call them to complain about something.

Hope your Tuesday is less aggravating than mine has been, but hey, I got trees, breeze, and zoomie fawns running around, so it ain’t all bad.

Also, just realized that I missed the reminder about Anti-Stodgy Newsletter, because new phone. Working on that next.

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.]

June-uary. Utter freaking monsooneration all night, loud enough on the roof to wake me us several times. Would have slept in, but for that idiot woodpecker tapping three times then departing.

At least the woodpeckers and flickers have learned to be more polite this year. Instead of attacking the chimney pipe, I have one dork who lands up there and tags it exactly once, then waits. If I open a door and I thump the gutters, he’s off. If I don’t about five minutes later he does it again.

Because, honestly, they are a little bored and want to play. And smarter than most folks appreciate. Trainable. Like the hummingbirds who know which windows to hover outside of when they have complaints to management about the feeder. (Mine and hers, both)

Then there is “The Littlest Ninja.” (BTW, chipmunks make lousy ninjas, but don’t tell them. They seem to be having fun.)

Last Saturday, the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ was vending books at the Kent Nerd Walk and had the pavilion outside overnight, along with a bag holding the sides and top. When I went to load the truck, the littlest ninja was sitting inside the bag, just hanging out like he wanted to go with. Utterly terrified of us, too, because he jumped out and ran about five feet to climb up on top of a shovel and watch me load the pickup. And stayed there as I went back and forth.

Might be the same dork that comes over to my house occasionally, climbing up on the back porch and standing on hind legs to be able to look in the slider and see what’s going on.

Seriously. Dorks. But most of the critters around here have that same level of utterly terrified. Helps that I keep two big watering troughs in the yard for deer and elk. And have bricks in one so birds can land and drink safely.

June, so lots of critters around, as everything is green. Bird feeders are being emptied at least daily, maybe twice, depending, as there are little ones needing food too. Should start seeing fawns shortly, as I have two does that live on the property and they had three last year. Little zoomies running around when they get comfortable.

On the writing side, I took the weekend off and didn’t write. Edited some, instead. There will be three new character collections coming in the fall. Eva and Nik, Brother Jon. Laima Ghur. All right around 55k and ready to go. Even have covers, but need to do print wrap covers.

These are over and above the novels coming out, as Matt suggested that we treat the fall like a presidential election year. Those are the autumns where folks stop reading fiction, instead largely focused on the news instead. Summer is always something of a down time, as folks might go to the beach and read, but are usually busy doing things and not reading. Then in September, summer is over and sales recover.

Except in presidential years. Planning ahead and battening down the hatches a bit this summer and fall, just in case. And putting out some extra stuff to maybe score a few bucks here and there.

Corsac Fox 8 continues apace. Right around 35k at the moment, on the way to a target of around 80k, like the rest of them. Also working on Derlyth 4 in the background, so that I can drop a large swath of urban fantasy sometime next year, as well as maybe several thrillers.

I’m generally about a year ahead in my writing. Or more. Try to keep a long gap, so that I can write at my pace and not have to be rushed to finish something. Would like to nail down Scattered Tribes 4 & 5 this summer/fall, so I can drop them next fall/winter and maybe go on to the spin-off series that was actually the original idea, before I realized how much world-building was needed there.

Hope you folks enjoyed The Gardener. As noted, got more Mick coming. More darkness, but I might lean into longer pieces now, similar to how Ollie (Shadow of the Ancients) started as several shorts and turned into novels. Same as Scattered Tribes 1 that many of you read here.

Mostly puttering. It’s Tuesday and I can. Hope yours is a little drier.

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. Coffee warming in the microwave. Need caffeine. Idiot woodpecker wanted to share the word about his dread lord Woody at 545 this morning. Joys of living in the brush.

Brighter side, just had a tiny bunny hop past my window a minute ago. Haven’t had buns around here in a while (coyotes and hawks).

Summer has begun. This weekend, accompanying the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ to one of her in-person sales events in Kent (Nerd Fest) to help her sell books and generally hang out. I’m getting better about peopling, but lemme tell you, I’ve gotten a little feral these days.

Hard time for creative artists. Average people have fallen in love with how easy AI makes it to create art and books, without ever asking where those machines learned. The folks responsible stole everything and didn’t pay a cent for the copyright infringement. Imagine me walking into your house and emptying the refrigerator, then leaving. That’s that AI is to writers and artists.

Known several folks who have seen their sales tank bad enough that they’ve had to go back to work. I live in fear of it, but that doesn’t pay the bills. If you use AI, understand that I consider you among the lowest forms of thief. You should stop. Or walk away from being around me. Either or. I’ve walked away from folks who were excited to tell me how they used AI to “write” their book and publish it. Last person, I’ve stayed in touch with since 1987. Won’t be talking to him again. Possibly ever.

I write. That involved thinking words up and putting them down, then selling them to people. How much effort did you put in?

Yeah, grumpy.

Past the quarter mark on Corsac Fox 8. Writing this one kinda into darkness, by setting up a scenario, populating it with some interesting characters and ideas, then letting them take me places instead of having a plot. All I know at this point is length. And got lots of story to fill to get there,

Also started the fifth Mick story. You’re getting #1 tonight, some of you. The Warrior In The Garden. Been slowly worldbuilding this out as I go, and have some interestingly dark places to take Mick, because Corsac Fox tends to be lighter and I just finished the Urban Fantasy about a thief and his Marxist Awakened Goat sidekick. Not exactly sober and serious literature, as you can guess.

Not a lot of news past that. Summer has started and that’s a mental and emotional transition for most US-ians. Since I don’t have kids in school or dayjob, it tends to blur, save that I’m mowing a lot right now until the dry season arrives in a month.

Y’all have fun and remember to read Thrill Ride Magazine (Assassins and Vigilantes just dropped) and Boundary Shock Quarterly (Space Westerns coming July 1). Keeps me off the streets, ya know.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

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

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

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

More Karate news, just ‘cause. Planted a makawara over the weekend. “Planted.”

Five gallon bucket. Upright 2×6. 60# bag of instant concrete. Assemble and add water. Let cure for a week.

Plant.

Training the fists involves punching things. Set in the ground, even a 100# anchor will give, and it is padded, so you practice without injury. Still raining and settling, so I won’t strike it for a few days, but it is there. Part of the black belt test, along with Hojo Undo (training with certain equipment. Hammers to swing. Jars to carry. Maces to crunch. Etc.)

But this is a lifetime sort of thing.

Writing: Finished the first Emmett McCall book. Urban Fantasy about a cat burglar and his partner, who happens to be a Marxist Goat. Yes, you heard me. First of a starting trilogy, right at 40k. Lots of fun and twists from what I usually write, but that was where writer-brain wanted to go.

After that, I sat down with Corsac Fox 6 & 7 and reread both. Then started 8, tentatively titled Sailing Into Darkness. What I promised at the end of 7, so making up new cultures and species as we explore Imperial Sector Thirty-Two, coreward from both 14 and 21.

Just started, so 7k in, but having fun. Got four Mick stories so far and sat down last night to actually start exploring where to take the longer arc. Gonna go dark, but that’s not a surprise.

I tend to bounce between emotional and genre extremes, as you have noted if you pay attention to these. Big, chewy space opera to little stories. Light to dark and back. Huge casts and small things.

Keeps me from writing the same story over and over again, which can happen to some writers if they aren’t forever stretching their minds. The ruts become channels of least resistance.

Ick.

Things like Marxist Goats. Or Zhyrgal Sulaymanov, all grown up now and doing things with Uly and Dan. Or Mick, dealing with his own skeletons while trying to uncover Andi’s. And why they both have ghosts. Got some ideas. Gonna be fun. Gonna be rude. Gonna be me.

Not a lot past that. Transition emotionally from Spring to Summer, but not a lot changes around here. Had a couple of strangers show up to the Writers Lunch.

Pardon. Couple of dork Robins running around below my window. Young adult male and possibly juvenile female following him around. Big brother little sister. Got lots of robins and I turned over an ant nest the other day to make a salad bar for them. HAPPY robins.

Back to story. And stuff.

Hope you survived the holiday mostly intact and not too badly hung over. Heavy drizzle here, so staying inside with coffee.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

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

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[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.]

Following on from last week, Mick has a lot of opinions. Have four of these done in a week. Longer than a chapter, shorter than a story, I’m calling them serialized vignettes for now. And making up the world-building on the fly, even as I maintain the Urban Fantasy story I’m about halfway through. Weird emotional mix, but apparently what writer-brain needed after finishing Kincaide. Little over ten thousand words across four of them.

And dojo last night was an interesting and novel experience.

I broke a rock.

In karate, some folks break boards to show off hands that should be registered as deadly weapons. Whatever. Sensei knows the technique for breaking rocks. In his case, either with the knife edge of the palm (outer edge by the pinkie) or the fist. He did both last night.

And he has had three of us training our hands by striking door frames and other things that don’t move. After a month, he sat us down with rocks and explained the technique. It isn’t a trick, but there is physics involved.

More importantly, it was about understanding that you could break rocks. Could hit something that hard and not hurt yourself, because most training in a dojo runs soft and careful, save for occasional moments where you warn your training partner ahead of time that you are going to step up EXACTLY ONCE then bring it back down. That lets both of you see what feels like.

So, I broke a rock. Kinda kewl. Will break other rocks at some point. Right now, the black belt test has started, and will run until December. A good teacher makes sure that the student learns it, learns it well, learns it right, and grows. Some teachers have to make things all about themselves, making the student look back during the test, and really making themselves look bad instead.

Here, I will be dialing things in and demonstrating proficiency, competence, confidence, and whatever knowledge. When he thinks I have it all, he’ll stand me up in front of the room and we’ll do the big test, but that’s an hour at most. Do the kata. Do the drills. Dance with a training partner.

Then I will have achieved a level that says I am ready to actually start learning. Because that’s all a black belt indicates.

Story: Emmett McCall is at 25k. Feels like 45k, in something of a weird 2-Act piece, but that’s fine. New everything here. Urban Fantasy with an Awakened Goat who is a Hegelian Trotskyite with an oversized keyboard, because on the internet, nobody knows you are a goat.

Mick, as noted, 10k. Have a couple of other stories out there in open states to go after as I finish things up, but I’m a full year and change ahead of myself writing, so I can dabble and wander from time to time.

And let writer-brain get a little hinky.

—–

seriously?

Stupid hummingbird hovering in front of me, about two meters away outside the window.

Normally, that’s complaints about the feeder, so I need to go check.

Pixie T-Rexs, man…

More soon.

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 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.

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[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.]

Occasionally, shit gets weird. And I mean by my standards. Coloring FAR outside the lines y’all folks are used to.

I am, however, both a professionally trained philosopher and a professional writer, so I have learned to roll with it.

Yesterday, the usual Monday morning DND game got canceled when the GM got held over at the fire station. (Usually, he gets off shift at 6am, but obviously someone called off sick and he was there until noon.) Had that message when I crawled out of bed at 7, but decided to keep my Monday as close to normal as possible anyway.

Went down and got breakfast as usual.

Went over for coffee and sat to write for an hour. As usual. Essay for an upcoming anthology where I got to guest-edit.

The usual would be to hit the bookstore when it opened and game. Instead, I had brought stuff with me to work on the tabletop game I’m designing, spreading my shit out all over the table and making notes here and there on a lot of papers.

Game is coming together nicely. Couple of playtests that revealed problems with the economic system. Changes yesterday made things flow faster (I think) and easier. Probably recruit a group and run a test at some point. Need to collect tokens and shit, but that’s easy enough.

But on the drive south, I had a nagging pain in my kidneys that turned out to be a new character poking me to get my attention.

You folks know me. I like playing (and writing) against type, because after 45 years of DND, I have played all the basic configurations of characters at least three times.

Same in the writing. Normal characters are boring, which is why so many writers invent Chosen Ones™ to have destiny thrust upon them with all of the Tolkien/Rowling bullshit thrown into the gumbo.

</Yawn>

But there was a meme I saved years ago about playing against type. Or casting against type. It was for Star Trek: Next Gen era. (Gotta be specific because the amount of time from Captain James T. Kirk (TOS, 2266 CE) to Captain Nahla Ake (Academy, 3195 CE) is only slightly shorter than the period between today and when William the Conqueror died in 1086.)

The Meme talked about playing against type. A Betazed Weapons Officer who was hungry to kick ass. A Klingon counselor who understood that mental health was just as much an honorable battle as anything in an arena. That sort of thing.

Driving, that little voice quoted the old saying, “It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.” He’s not Klingon, but they would adopt the guy. Broken. Recovering from naval service (and I know a lot of veterans that came out broken and more than a little crazy) by working in his garden. Embodying the warrior in a garden ethos.

Then somebody shows up to ruin his day. And recruit him back to active duty, helping someone else that needs it. Someone who has been there, and can understand. Someone who has a personal connection that will make things both easier and harder.

Putting it into a space adventure setting, because that’s me. It could just as easily be private detective fiction or anything else, because it will be a story about relationships and recovery. Burnout that doesn’t kill you. It merely makes you shift to doing the job on paper and nothing more.

We’ve all worked there. You want to make a difference and make things better. Eventually, most institutions grind you down and you are just there for the paycheck. HR is not your friend. They work for the bosses as boot lickers protecting the corporation from being culpable for how they treat employees.

Eventually, you are just treading water and don’t give a fuck.

We’ve all worked there.

That’s the sign you need a new job. A new employer. A new career. A new industry.

Something.

I was lucky enough to skip across several industries in my computer days, from property management to paratransit to health to legal claims settlement.

Every corporation reaches a certain mass and metastasizes into a beast that consumes lives and spits out profit.

And you can’t quit the navy. Not really. You can serve out your time and get honorably discharged if you want benefits later. Or lose your mind and get tossed into the corner like a broken doll. Known a few folks who danced that line. And were broken civilians.

So I wrote a story yesterday. Out of the blue. New universe, new setting, new everything. Literally writing story, then switching files to record details as they emerged from the subconscious. It’s short. You’ll probably get it June 1. Might be more of them, because Mick has opinions and will give us a really different take on the classical (semi-)military space adventure.

You have been warned.

🙂

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.