Category: Christmas

Colour | Epilogue

And that’s a wrap. 67,800 words of “Regent.” For those of you reading along from the beginning, congratulations. Anyone who has commented here or sent me a note, I appreciate your input and it all goes to make the story better.

I’ll be doing some editing and formatting for a day or two before dropping this load onto my copyeditor. At the same time, I’ll see if my cover designer has not frozen to death in central Germany to prod her into action. With chance and luck, I can have this commercially available by the end of January.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer! C’mon, it’s Christmas.

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Colour Strange Charm

Merry Christmas Eve. Level 3 storm warning here. My pharmacist at DayJob is literally dialing it in: logging onto EPIC from home. It’s too cold for the salt to work so the roads are a mess. Told me to stay home.

I think I can finish this MS today. That would have symmetry for me. It was Xmas Eve, eight years ago, just before midnight when I clicked “Publish” and changed my world.

And no, I don’t know what she is, either. Kalí first makes her appearance in “A Texas Naval Affair,” where another young man was trying to woo someone from the imperial family. Love will make a man do strange things.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

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Effing RMS

Here’s the last of the prototype chapters.  I am much older about peaks (Nichole’s sharp voice, here and there), valleys (Mackenzie’s, everywhere), and RMS (the relationship between those levels).  In learning such, I’ve also gotten the volume waaay up from where it was before.  Tanjed near burst my eardrums in the headphones…

With this complete, and taking in any constructive criticism y’all might have, I’m going to try making notes and writing some very raw ideas I have about Faustina and her third novel, “Goddess’ Crusade.”  It is setting the bar a little high, but I want all three of her books and the complete audiobook of “Friend & Ally” out no later than Christmas.  We shall see.

Bang Bang

Three thousands words today!  W00t!  I have the morning off tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but have to work second shift.  At least with now-teen daughters I don’t have to worry about them running screaming into our room at 0600 that “Santa was here!!!111!!”

Instead, I’ll work more on the Battle of Augusta.  Short and confusing but more engagements are.  We even catch a glimpse that our heroine is not nearly as composed as she thinks she is.  Lots to do…

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Coming Back to Life

I’ve never had much use for “the Holidays.”  I am asocial and dislike the dark of winter.  Even as an orthodox Catholic, Christmas is just a matter of “meh” for me.  And this year, things preyed on my mind.

  1. Would it be ready for Ohayocon?  “It?”  Wait & see, below the fold.
  2. With our family finances in tatters, I can neither afford a line-editor nor a book cover for Defiant.
  3. My wife silently badgers me to make my next writing project about her father’s oral history.  I want to do that; I’m committed to it.   But it’s not fun!  That’s work!  I want to SEE more of my friends and family in Machine Civilization!
  4. Day-job is becoming more and more oppressive, leading to my reaxion of coming home and immediately climbing into the bottle.  Very bad form.
  5. All combining into the past six weeks:  not writing a tanjed thing.  And, borderline psychotic as a result of it.  Hell, today, at day-job, I had to use scissors to cut out some QR barcodes.  My right hand shook badly enough that Friend Tracy asked if something was wrong….

Yes.  Yes there is:  in abandoning writing, I’ve abandoned myself.  I’m dying; at a rather astonishing rate.  I do not want this:  I’ve glimpses:  Gary & Henge, older, trying to talk out where and what to do with their love for one another.  Nichole5 stands with Togame atop the New Tokyo Tower, with its Reactionless Thruster crown, talking about off-world colonies.  Editing Pirate Twins into a light-novel-with-pictures or a graphic novel…

I’ve so much to do, and I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Lent and lighter evenings are upon me; I’m not one to “give up” as I’ve so little.  Instead, I shall take on:  my father-in-law’s history, Machine Civilization’s new stories, things I cannot imagine.

Clear the decks:  I’m engaging my enemy!

…

Apropos of this, below the fold is the utterly astounding artwork of Matt Michallow of StarArtWorks.  He, through me, the guy wearing his art, owned Ohayocon, the largest animecon of central Ohio, two weeks ago.  Over 350 pictures taken!

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