Filling in some details about who is who and where they are. While I’m a “pantser” not a “plotter,” I do like to know where the pieces are on the board before all the action breaks out.
The line, “Did you just make that up right now?” is precious. And, yes, I run with it. Full credit goes to my wife; when I was musing about where take the story, she said: “they stumbled into a stargate. Happens all the time.”
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Continue reading “Book 17. Part Two. 6”A new day brings new surprises. Aurie literally drills down into Eloise’s head to get better intel on where the two missing persons are. Hopefully Kalí was listening.
Otherwise, I do wrap up one hanging thread from the end of “Regent,” formalization of Aurie’s and Jimmy’s relationship.
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Continue reading “Book 17. Part Two. 5”Here I begin to go down a rabbit hole I had no intention of ever – ever – exploring. Time travel stories are not hard science fiction and also very dangerous from a causality standpoint. Time travel into the past is boring and stupid; as Larry Niven once noted, it is just a child’s wish fulfillment of “make it didn’t happen!” Into the future, with a presumed return to the present? Similar “Sound of Thunder” problems.
My work-around is my faith. As a Catholic, I believe God sees everything in His “unbounded now.” Past, present, future, to a mortal mind is just NOW to Him. So long as I keep close track of what I’m writing over the next few installments, I should make it out of this without sounding like a complete idiot.
BTW, “Lest Darkness Fall” is a spectacular book.
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Continue reading “Book 17. Part Two. 3”Hope everyone is having a fine Easter. Below, we drill down on just what has happened – that they know – to the Empress and her son, Bob’s older brother. Aurelia prays for a miracle. Hey, it’s Easter… I’m not going to disappoint! A wild Kalí appears.
Not really sure where this is going, to be honest. Carryover from “Regent:” Bob does not like his cousin’s new man. I wonder why?
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Continue reading “Book 17. Part Two. 2”As I still have no idea what the title will be, rather than flit from “New Russia” to “Factions” to something else, I’m just calling it #17. Given I started it nearly a year ago, as well as what is becoming an interesting episodic nature, as I’ll describe, I wanted to share where things have gone. In doing so, I hope to get an idea where they might be going.
I’ve played with episodic style before. In “Obligations of Rank,” the book is three parts, about three sons of Empress Faustina. Only in the Pro- and Epilogue is everyone together. In “Regent,” there are a couple of chapters in the middle where I go from Aurelia’s POV to Jimmy Burns’; and the last part of the book is from his POV alone.
B17 is something different. Which is good, as I enjoy trying new formats in my stories. I hate change in my personal life but revel in what happens in Machine Civilization. Anyway, Part 1 is about Sgt. Sergei Konev and his 20-man scout unit of the Imperial Russian Army. They start off just outside of Calgary, Canada, and end up, 21,600 words later, near Winnipeg. Part 2, still in process, switches to Centurion Bob Hardt, who shows up a couple of times in Part 1, and his expanded relationship with Lt. Eloise Patel of the Canadian Army. So far, that story has centered about resolving the crisis which is hinted at in “Obligations of Rank” and comes to a head in the last pages of “Regent.” It is roughly 10,600 words but nowhere near a conclusion. I think Part 3, for sake of completeness, will be back on Konev and Canada, but I have only the faintest idea what for and why. Ultimately, this novel will be about 60-70k words.
Rather than flood this blog with the 33,000 words which have come so far, I’ll start will a summary – punctuated by quotes – about Part 1. I may serialize Part 2 as I am not that far into it as yet. As always, comments and opinions will be welcome.
For Lent, it appears my body has given up “being healthy.” And it is mostly my fault through stress.
Even with my Little Legionary at home for a few months, I discovered that while I think about her when she’s deployed, I don’t worry about her as, what can I do? She is hundreds or thousands of miles away. But when she’s home and out past midnight at Planet Fitness or the gun range, I worry constantly. Then, Daughter #2 is graduating college in five weeks and packing for her internship in Hokkaido, Japan. It is also Tax Season here in the US, and I am increasingly angry about paying taxes to keep Country 404 – Ukraine – afloat as well as having the military and political might of FUSA exist only for the purpose of spreading gay sex.
And, worst of all, was my “three books in three months” personal challenge. I made it with two, “Regent” and “Imperial Entanglements” (which should be out by the end of this week), but could not complete the third. Worse for my health was that I broke the “write drunk, edit sober” rule as I was never not writing, thus I was drinking way too much.
With 3B3M over, I’m reverting to my more traditional format of waiting until they show me a scene I can write down rather than forcing things; some of what I wrote in the last month is pretty ungood. Further, I’ll be posting regular updates here as I have for years past. That will help both me and the pacing of the story.
Starting with that, expect a general summary of Part One of Book #17 shortly. I plan to backtrack and make posts of Part Two as it will allow me to both correct and flesh out the sections I rushed through.
Thank you for your patience.
Been awhile since I’ve mentioned what’s going on here, so there’s this. I’ve the proof copy of “Regent” in-hand and am about 1/3 through, looking for errors. A half-dozen, so far; a letter missing, a ” missing, that sort of thing. The MS for “Imperial Entanglements” is complete and my cover artist working on that. It’s format shall be similar to my other short story collection, “Empire’s Agent,” with a large, single image on the front and 2-3 on the back, all reflecting one of the stories. It may fly in the face of my “put a face front and center on the cover” policy, but we’ll see.
I got to about 23,000 words in “New Russia” and ground to a halt, again. I was able to get all three important characters, Sergeant Konev, Centurion Hardt, and Lieutenant Patel, together. And then they received orders to not be, due to politics in St. Petersburg, Ottawa, and wherever Regent Aurelia happens to be at the moment. That scene corresponds to the last scene of “Regent,” where Aurie gets shocking news from Russian PM Reina. Rather than continuing to follow Konev, and what may play out with their army politics and that odd demon they met, this will be a section shift to Bob Hardt’s (really Robert Hartmann, Crown Prince) perspective, as he and the rest of the family are called for by the regent.
I think he just abducted Eloise Patel, thinking her life in danger if she returns to either Canadian capital. I should know more later today. Hopefully another 18-22k words, then I’ll have to fold all that back into whatever the Russian are doing. No clue right now, of course, but they’ll tell me when they are ready.
Snowing out there like dogs and cats in a come-from-behind home run. In my unfortunately increasingly normal “wake up at 0500” moment, I recalled something about “New Russia” I tried to forget: mysticism. I do not play that game well. I’ll try to get past that scene and have Russians start shooting Canucks.
Musician Pedro (modeled on Rudy Sarzo, if you can believe that), from “The Fourth Law,” finally owns up what little he knows but what a lot he suspects about Kalí. From “Crosses & Doublecroasses,” the surname Barrett leaves most Texans speechless as they do not want to talk about it. She comes back from… hell, I’ve no idea, for some pillow talk with her husband. And yes, for you pedants, they get married before God tomorrow.
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Continue reading “Prophet (pt.6)”A rare weekend update! We learn who here mortal father is and then she yanks reality – such as it is – out from under everyone.
Now with this and “Regent” in the hands of my copyeditor and cover designer, I’m taking the rest of the the weekend off. I think I’ve been alternating tea-wine a little too hard and fast and have near-constant headaches and trouble sleeping. A pause is called for.
Two more installments of Prophet before I have to find something else to keep y’all entertained.
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Continue reading “Prophet (pt.5)”An almost normal conversation from a poorly clad Kalí. Hey, at this point, I’ll take what I can get.
I wonder what the expansion rate of the Texas economy is? Besides having Texarkana nuked and losing several of their inner cities until ExComm could clean out the Diversity, they weathered the Breakup pretty well. I know their trade with Mexico and the imperium is healthy but they have zero access to off-world materials and markets. Ah, that’s just me playing with ideas. I’d rather look at Kalí in her panties, too.
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Continue reading “Prophet (pt.3)”
machciv 