So on Sunday morning, Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) and I usually go to this lovely diner outside Enumclaw. Bit of a drive from the farm, but they’re lovely people and take good care of us. As in, we walk in and the Mom asks if we need menus as she pours me coffee. Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) will sometimes eat, depending on how her stomach is doing, and sometimes not.
When she’s eating, they have prime rib on Fri and Sat night, and you can get it as a breakfast after 12 hours of extra marinating. But she doesn’t get the eggs (allergic) or the bread (allergic) or the hash browns (bad carbs). She just gets a slab of meat. And then a full sized side salad with oil and vinegar. When she’s not eating, she skips the breakfast and gets a box of meat to go straight from the kitchen. Like I said, we’re regulars.
I once asked and they loved us, so they’ll take the normal breakfast sandwich (sausage, egg, cheese on english muffin) and swap out the sausage for a chicken fried steak. Like her, I skip the hash browns completely and swap in sausage links or bacon, if I’m hungry.
Mom smiles, nods, and magic happens.
Today, we had to plan for the fall. I’ve been sustaining Pulp Speed Two now for a few months, and will try to continue (September I might not, because I have travels and cons and craziness, so I’m expecting to lose as many as 10 writing days this month).
But going backwards, I just finished my 17th (!?!?!?) novel Friday afternoon. That means that I have ten novels published right now, and seven in the can. (CS-405 trilogy. 2nd Star Dragon. 7th and 8th Jessica. First Dave.)
Craziness. We had to take a computer to breakfast with us, so we could both be looking at the three control documents we use to keep track of things going back and forth, because she came within a whisker of hitting Pulp One in August, almost accidentally. Lots of stories.
But at the same time, we’ve had to keep the entire thing written in pencil (“the schedule is always written in pencil!“) because it can change so much so quickly.
For instance, the first Star Dragon novel (Awaken The Star Dragon) was supposed to sit in the can until next spring. But someone asked if I had anything new they could put into a story bundle, so it came out in August. (Have you gotten your copy yet?) And I have the second one in the can right now. Flight of the Star Dragon (pub date unknown). The eighth Jessica is also done, but not even off to first readers yet (so don’t email me with bribes for a few weeks).
A week ago, I got a bug. Weird as fuck inspiration. So I started world building onto paper, like I do. Keep notes. Add details. The works.
Star Dragon is it’s own universe unrelated to anything I’ve written to date. In response to the Fermi Paradox (“Where is everyone?”). Read it to see how I answered that question. You’ll laugh.
But I had another one. I know how writer brain works. I have been so deep into Jessica’s world lately (The Red Admiral, plus #7, the CS-405 trilogy, and #8) that I needed a mental and emotional break, but I don’t stop writing. (I cannot stop writing.)
So I just add worlds. Got a title I really love, but am not revealing yet, until other people with votes approve it. So we’ll call it “Dave” for now. Close enough and self-explanatory. #1 is done. Already know how #2 starts. And there is a whole universe to explore here, just like Star Dragon (there are currently six Star Dragon novels plotted out, plus some prequel stuff that you will see in Boundary Shock Quarterly Issues 006, 007, and 008, I think. At current plan. Something).
I’m writing a whole set of cyberpunk stories to serve as “Origins” for a novel I plan to write soon. Wanted all the characters worked out. What better way than to let them star in their own short story?
All Ahead Crazy. And now it is starting to catch up.
In Boundary Shock Quarterly 002, you had the first Carl and Deke story. In September, the second one comes out. Unintended Consequences. Dark present, as opposed to cyberpunk, but it has that same feel. Not sure how #3 will go. Will get there.
Coming in Boundary Shock Quarterly issue 005 will be the second Angus McIntyre story: Forgotten Paper Memories. (The issue theme is “Boneyard of Lost Dreams”). But first Daddy’s Girl sets up yet another SF universe I’m exploring. (Because I can, you already knew that.) So read this one immediately. #2 makes WAY more sense that way.
And finally, total freaking weirdness. One day, in a rpg gaming session, we wanted to steal a van. One of the mechanic characters was torn between transforming it into the A-Team van or the Mystery Machine. Then we asked what the actual Mystery Machine was, because its not obvious. Others have asked.
From the article
“An interesting side note is that if Scooby-Doo and the gang were a bunch of go-getter teens from a collective farm in the central steppes of the Soviet Union, a UAZ 2269 would likely have been the Mystery Machine, or тайна машины.”
Writer brain looked at that and said “Oh, like this?”
So I wrote a future, semi-post-apocalyptic world where the Russians got their shit together and kind of took over Eurasia when the EU implodes in about ten years. I did not include the dog, because I really didn’t want to figure out if it should be Magic Realism (nobody but the main character hears the dog), Urban Fantasy (talking dogs aren’t that uncommon), or cyberpunk (dog with enough cyberware to have intelligence). But it is SF. And a Mystery. And I’m hoping to write more, one of these days.
Phantom In the Factory. It reads like a Scooby-Doo mystery because I wrote it like one. On purpose and everything. Just not quite as corny. And Shaggy is a Russian Deep Cover secret agent. Think XXX starring Vin Diesel, maybe. Not quite, but you’ll get the picture when you read it.
It helps if you realize that this might be the same universe as The Rangers, and takes place half a world away. I’m not sure those folks will ever meet, but what the hell? Why not?
so that’s the news. More books for you to stay entertained. More novels coming in more worlds and spaces. More series planned, when I get some of these done.
What did you do with YOUR summer?
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