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

—————————-

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 Weird Monday. Did the “BBQ, Beer, and Brats” thing at Enumclaw Fairgrounds yesterday. Competition barbecue is on Sunday, so we made sure to be there for leftover meat when everyone had done their turn-in. Good stuff. And a good learning experience for the Fabulous Publisher Babe™ who is deep into grilling and also writing it into a new series.

This morning, got a second gallon of paint. First gallon got absorbed by the dry wood. Second will cover everything. And had to stop at Freddy’s and buy new MicroSD cards. BOTH of mine registered failure errors yesterday, one of which was my backup, so I had a total panic until I managed to salvage my main chip. And establishing multiple backups because I’m not sure why the other failed.

Nearly 1030 and only now starting to write. Gonna be a weird and possibly long day. Just sent in my presentation for Author-Nation so that’s official. Got a few other things of crazy this week.

Tiling in the Tiny Greathall™ will be Sunday. Got some friends coming over to learn. Paint will be later today or tomorrow. We’ll build up the hardwood flooring stripe wall at some point after the paint it cured. After grouting the tile, handle molding and trim, then move the bar itself in and hang shelves. Have the countertop of one table, and plans to build the second. Need to get some chairs, but not sure what height yet.

We’ll be ready to soft open in 2 weeks. Gonna be awesome. Got power out there, so might move one of my computers out and write/work there occasionally. Also considering taking some space from either that bay or the one next to it and building a small dojo. Only need about 3-4 tatami floor space, which ain’t much.

Writing: Javier 15 is over 20k. Target 75k, but I’m planning to write 15 and 16 as part of one long story running 150k, with an emotional break in the middle. Not sure the drop schedule. Might go Nov/Dec 2025. Also have three Corsac Fox (two done) for 2025, if all goes well.

And started that new space adventure/exploration short series. #1 is 16k. Hope to keep all of them that tight, because it lets me bang them out pretty quick, send them to all of you for Patreon, then bundle them up for everyone else later, like Holden.

And hoping that October turns out to be a little less stupid than the summer has been. I’m still back to Jan 2023 and coming forward, so I’d like things to improve. For everyone. I’m in reasonable shape. Just exhausted. It’s everyone around me and all they have had to deal with that would be nice to escape.

We’ll get there.

The secret is to keep banging the rocks together.

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.

20240923

[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.]

Offbeat monday. Got up and went to work out with my buddy. He’s a fireman, so rotating schedule (24 on, 48 off, with random variations) that never stays the same. Instead, he pings me and we set up a morning. Get up early, go work with him for a few hours. Got breakfast on the way home. 11Am and just not settling in to writing, but will just flip my normal day backwards.

Writing has been going good. Since I started working out with him, I kinda offset it because the TaiChi class I had been taking has either ended or at least gone on long-term hiatus. That means that I usually write six days per week, then take one off (or short, like today). And I still stay largely on a monthly pace, which is what matters.

Tiny Greathall™ update: got the walls “done.” Inner wall (connected to middle bay, has “subsurface” and we’re ready mud and sand it, prior to painting and then building up stripes with the old hardwood leftover from other projects. Front wall is mostly done in the sense that I covered the existing parts and won’t put in the door, frame, and structure on the other side until the tiling is done. Outside wall got covered yesterday with half inch plywood to eight feet. Will add some trim in a while to the top of that. Back wall is done on the right and I need to do wiring before closing up the last bit of the left, but will attach the plug gang and cut the wall panel to fit today.

At that point, I’m taping. All the usual gaps you get. Then mud, dry, sand, and I’ll be ready to paint. Pretty sure I’m doing a faded mustard on the walls, reminiscent of aged maple rather than old white pine.

After painting, we’ll tile. Gotta lay out all the tiles I have currently and figure out my feng shui, but it will be pretty. Finish wiring and I’ll have lights and power for the mini fridge that goes under the bar.

After tiling is done, dried, and grouted, that’s when the front door goes in. Gap is 47” and the door is about 38, so I will frame in that side chunk. Don’t need a window, because the door is half-plexiglas, so I’ll have light inside.

Molding and trim and stuff last, but I like the progress I’ve made. And it’s worked on getting my core in shape, because lifting heavy wood at arm’s length and holding it. Plus an impact hammer to drive screws into 35 year old wood that has turned into concrete.

Writing: Finished the first Forgotten City story (the 15k SF that demanded I write it) and pivoted to the next Science Officer. Exile (14) is the start of an inner trilogy, running through 15 and 16. 17 will be the end of Season Two. Dunno what happens after that. Haven’t looked that far ahead. Know what that story kinda is, and it completes the long voyage.

Corsac 7 is out there somewhere, as 5 drops in February. Researching and planning Red Branch 4, with #1 coming out in November as part of me going to Author-Nation in Vegas. (I talk Action-Thriller and research, so I figured it was worth doing that one early, then dropping the rest on the back of it.

Hoping to complete a couple of series this fall, like Corsac block one. And getting Javier in a better shape. Etc. 2025 was always going to be weird because 2024 has been so mishmash. Hoping 2026 is cleaner. We’ll see when we get there.

For now, I write. All I can control. Hoping it will be enough.

Chat soon.

shade and sweet water

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

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

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

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

How do you make it stop???

Background: I don’t read much these days. Mostly non-fiction for research. Lots of Wikipedia and TVTropes for stuff.

We call it “filling the bucket.” Not everything turns into a story. Sometimes, I’m just contemplating the shape of story. Or something.

Recently, I’ve been comparing modern streaming (6-12 episode arcs as a single long movie instead of the old television days) to Serials in the wayback. Republic and a few others did this, where they’d play a new “episode” weekly at the cinema. Usually 15 (sometimes shorter) in an arc, somewhere betweeen 15-30 minutes long. Early Superman and Batman are there, along with westerns, private detective, and others.

I got to wandering down a rabbit hole. Bad. Ended up digging up the original version of “The Sentinel” by Clarke, then the official version of 2001 (which has almost nothing in common except concept). Then compared some of the horror elements to a few other things that weren’t obvious on the surface.

Then went to start taking notes about the shape of a story. Damned thing wanted to turn into a novel series on me, when all I wanted was to generate a short story for my Patreon readers. Might not be able to keep it short. Boundary Shock Quarterly runs a hard cap of 20,000 words, mostly because SF often requires that to get Setting right.

Trying to decide how much I let it germinate, and how much I just start with a blank piece of paper and run like hell until I get it out of my system. Got characters. Setting. Problem. Issues. Depth.

Grumble.

The second Maddox story crossed 20k last week. Target is around 45k, given the length of #1. Probably working on it this morning, with that second notes document open in the background where I pause and add ideas occasionally.

Young writers just starting out often ask “Where do you get your ideas?” (Hint: Schenectady, New York).

Old writers ask “How do I make it stop?” That’s kinda where I am this drizzly Monday morning.

Fall might be upon us. Gotta check the fruit today. Burned scrap wood all weekend to kill termites and carpenter ants. And make space. Not burning today. Harvesting, maybe. Dunno. Gotta write first.

Not a lot past that. Keeping busy. Hurt from all the physicality of the weekend. Getting back in better shape after that summer. Thinking thinky thoughts.

What’s your Monday looking like?

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.]

Coming up on the end of summer. Got a lot going on. Got more fires in the iron.

Got confirmation last week that I have been invited to give a talk at Author Nation in November in Vegas. Convention for both writers and fans, so if you are in the neighborhood, come see. There will even be a signing room if you have books. And, (I have not figured out details yet) you can order some books, get them delivered to the con, and have me sign them.

A-N replaces the 20-to-50 convention. Last year was the last year. Joe Solari is creating something new, and I’ve been kind of associated via Matt, who is elbows deep right now. They want to make this a major annual thing, so you’ll hear me talk about it a lot between now and then. Can’t be helped.

I finished the third Red Branch novel yesterday. Red Branch Command. Got plans for #4, but not immediately.

Instead, I started a new B4B this morning on “Breaking Discoverability.” That’s the talk I’ll be giving at Author Nation, and I figures that A) I should organize my notes on the topic, and B) the best way to do that was to write a book.

Looks and feels longer than previous ones. My usual goal is 12-15,000 words of non-fiction. Bite-sized, as it were.

This one already feels like 25-30, and I’m only starting to sketch out my chapter titles. For you writers, it will come out Nov 1 and the 10^th, like usual, so that folks at the con can buy it if they like my talk. I’ll only be talking for 30 minutes or so, so I won’t cover it all. All the more reason to buy it.

Hell, I’d settle for being famous, if there was good money in it. Doubt that there is, but they’re spotting me the hotel and con ticket, so that’s a bonus, because I was already going.

Past Red Branch, I need to write a bunch of short fiction over the next month or so. More Boston stories for Thrill Ride. Got one published and a second written. Two more coming.

Scattered Tribes Book One ends at 16, so I need to decide if I write a full novel next time or stay with the format.

[[What do you think on that, those of you that have read Holden and Reilly?]]

More generic stuff. Got edits on Corsac 5 that I need to finalize. Then send 6 out to folks to read and prep to write 7. Science Officer 14 comes out in December and I promised a trilogy there, so I need to write 15 and 16 soon.

And more Heather.

Don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas. What I run out of is time to write them all down. And First Readers. I need folks to read the Action-Thriller stuff. Want to put down a second leg and make some money over there, since the erotica hardly sold anything. Enjoyed writing it. The work made me a better writer. Didn’t make much $$.

It all comes back to money. Gotta make money to survive, or I have to go back to a day job, at which point the output of books would drop PRECIPITOUSLY ( blackmail is such an ugly term, but tell your friends about me, okay?)

Past that, Monday. Pretty good one. Working on a barn remodel that’s making progress towards a goal of being complete by mid-October (8 weeks from start). Headed into town shortly to shop for windows for the back wall and the transom. And maybe a new side sliding door for the horse stall. Will post pictures when it’s pretty, but right now it is a lot of raw wood and a bit ugly, because all the work this past week has been reinforcing and repairing things.

Still, gonna be nice. Next summer, we’ll have the bbq in front of it as a way to show off.

Not a lot, otherwise. Summer ending. World getting better. Making some changes in things, but good ones, intended to keep my humor good going into the fall.

What are you doing to get ready for autumn?

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.

20240805

[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.]

Over the weekend, Flight of the Cerberus came out wide. Been out in the store since the 1^st.

Not military space opera. Not as many people pre-ordered. First review was a three-star, probably for that reason. Folks probably want to demand that I write nothing but that, which is a shame. I gotta write other things than giant space battles killing thousands of nameless npcs.

And Air Pirates is a lot of fun. I certain enjoyed writing it. And exploring all sorts of things.

Hopefully, some of you will meander over and buy a copy and say nice things about it.

It’s Monday and I’m hard at work on more Action-Thriller stuff. Third Red Branch, which I have no doubts will also cause certain readers indigestion. Usually, the ones who have somehow missed the entire point of my catalog for the last decade. It happens. Folks are suddenly deeply surprised and offended that both Star Trek and the X-Men are somehow “woke.”

Seriously?

I’m not in their league, but I am in their vein, and if you haven’t realized that by now, I’m not sure I can help you, bubba.

Same same, it is August of a presidential election year, and those are always terrible for sales. People start paying more attention to politics about now, and don’t read as much. Like clockwork, that way, and I’ve been through several such elections as a writer now, so we were prepared to hunker down and ride it out.

Been that kind of year, honestly. Or two, going back to when the furnace died in Jan 2023. Just gotta hold on.

I can control my writing. And lean into it to keep my sanity. Not a lot else I can control right now.

Got a second project that kind of oozed up sideways at me over the last few weeks that’s giving me some physical work to do, so it’s helping me rebuild my physical endurance.

Emotional endurance still not for shit, but it will come back too at some point. Just gotta hold on.

Red Branch #3 should be done next week. Lot of short fiction after that before the next novel, so not sure what I’m writing after this. Mostly, I want to finish off a couple of series so I can put them out and go after a couple of new ideas, rather than writing one-off book ones for you folks.

Sometime soon, the second and third Swordmistress Zhen short stories will come out, for those of you that have read Traveler From the West. Jade Tiger and Angry Ghosts.

Gonna put out a lot of Action-Thriller between now and May, to get ready for a June book show.

Also going to Author Nation in Las Vegas in November. It replaced the 20 to 50 convention, and there are suggestions that I will be giving a talk while I’m there, as well as possibly being on panels.

Film at 11, as they say.

Not a lot past that. Another week, another drachma. Or something.

Just gotta keep one foot in front of the other.

Y’all keep up.

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. Crazy Monday. Instead of heading down to Krain Corner, I had to return a bunch of tables and chairs to the rental place in Fife. We had a big BBQ yesterday. Invited a bunch of folks. Put out a sign marked “Art Colony” both at the bottom of the driveway and out on the corner.

Apparently, I was broadcasting on the right frequency, because a pair of ladies saw the sign at random, and decided to investigate. Functionally crashed the party, then discovered their tribe and stayed to be fed and meet a bunch of people.

Utter success as an event. Kinda awesome overall. Still a lot exhausted and recovering, over and above the last month. That means that I have a reminder in my phone to send out the next episode of Scattered Tribes tonight, because the last week had been “go like hell, they might be catching up…” And this week isn’t much better, in the scope of things. Fortunately, all good and fun, just a LOT of stuff to accomplish. It’s 1030 and usually I start writing around 8. Just catching up. And took several days off, so way behind on writing and won’t catch up with it. Maybe at all this month, because I’m not going to stress about it. Got the rest of the year to sustain something, and I’m ahead of where I thought I’d be when I planned 2024.

Writing proceeds. Currently working on Red Branch #3. 10k words in, having finished Heather #3 last week. Still looking for some folks who want to First Reader Thriller instead of SF, because they are different interest fields and not everyone wants to.

Goal is dropping a BUNCH of Thriller Lite next April. The first Chace collection (stories 1-4), the first Chace Novel, three Red Branch, at least one Gator (with ideas towards a second one), plus something SF. Not sure what the SF is.

Currently:

Dec: Science Officer 14

Jan: Gunderson 2

Feb: Corsac 5

Mar: Deadeye 2 (with an updated Deadeye 1 “Moscow Gold” going up shortly)

Apr: Gloryhound (Peter Najjar 1)

May: Corsac 6

Not sure past that. Got a lot of stuff in the trunk to drop out and start earning me money. And working to finish Corsac Block One (7), more Science Officer, Heather, and several others. Not enough hours in the day to write all I want to, and I knew that this year would create production problems that would show up next year in random publishing.

Can’t be helped.

Well, it could, but you need to tell all your friends to buy more of my books, so I can afford more employees around here. Get on that, okay? 🙂

More words shortly. Keep things in motion. This week won’t be all that good, so I need to hold whatever momentum I can. And write more stuff in existing series so that it all flows.

Looking forward to Heather leading to Veronika to Kati to I don’t know who, other than we’d be some thirty years after the end of Kosnett. Jessica Keller might be ancient or possibly dead of old age by then, because I’m tracking all sorts of dates in my spreadsheet as we move through time.

Hell, one of these days Jean-Pierre and Autumn, set some 1500 years after Jessica’s time.

Hope your Monday is adequate. As I told more than one person yesterday: “Your Fu is good, but still, mine is better.”

Heh

OH, AND: REMINDER: The pre-order for Warlord of the Spinward Reaches got nuked by Amazon. If you didn’t get your copy, this is your reminder to go find it.

Amazon

Knotted Road Press

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.