Civil Wars 2, 3

Speaking of medical matters, on my day off was up at 0630 to drop off a dog for teeth cleaning. The estimate was $700-900. TF? I told my wife “next time buy a damned toothbrush.”

A rare Tuesday update, I wanted to wrap up Graf’s foray into the park across from the hospital. I also wanted to re-point out what Pai calls his gift; something he nearly considers a curse. I’m too good a writer to get into “Mary Sue” territory, so things will happen shortly to keep him on a short leash.

For those who know my works, you’ll recognize the scraggly gal Graf sees in the background for just a moment.

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Civil Wars 2, 2

A quiet, transitional moment. I work PRN in a hospital and know how important it is to get patients out of their damn beds. With the shock of the moon attack in the past and his new throat installed, Graf also is ready to get out of his room and out of the hospital. I understand completely.

The next few segments will ease a reader back into their odd three-way relationship, with, of course, Robert Hartmann on the way; that’s likely in the segment after next. I do think Pai feels guilt for letting her husband get shot, but she’s not only hiding that from him, she’s hiding it from me. I’ll see what I can find out.

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Civil Wars 2, 1

Another small delay as I tried to die again. Was at hospital Emergency; apparently the overpriced bellhops who call themselves “MDs” never got round to mentioning that taking lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor, should be stopped after 5-8 years. When the ER doc found out I’d been on it for 11, I thought he would take a swing at me. Anyway, another angioedema attack and some IV meds followed by four days of prednisone. Slowly recovering. Again.

Recovering enough to get back to writing. As the Prologue started “in the middle,” as all good stories should, what will be the start of chapter one, below, backtracks to catch readers up on politics of the imperium and the Polar Alliance. There is an interesting backhanded mention of the main character.

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Nazca, 2

A bit of a “first contact” part of the story. I can just imagine what Salvy thought of an alien lizard next to him. Aleja is a clever girl and gets her visitor back to the shed where she was told to live. We do get a little foreshadowing when she sees an Anglo woman in this tiny, out of the way village.

Her uncle and aunt sound like real winners.

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Nazca, 1

Another short story project. This will be a submission for an anthology likely due out in the spring of next year. It is fairly contemporanious with my last short; both of these are, of course, a part of my future history, and, more specifically, the coming of the Civil Wars.

In the story, there is a reference to the goings-on on Mars. Also, later, we meet a minor character first introduced in my most recent novel.

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“Coming Back to Life”

Yes, it’s a Pink Floyd reference. As many know, I’ve been silent here for months, and that’s all on me. When I published my twentieth book, it was as if a switch was thrown in my mind: “you’re finished.” I wasn’t, of course. Irrational Pai is after all called the “first book of the Civil Wars,” implying several more. It’s just I didn’t care. And, there was a thousand last-minute things to do before selling a property in June; I’ve been sick on and off since last November – although I did give up hard alcohol at the start of July.

My reboot, as it were, came on Thursday evening at Imaginarium. I had commited myself and my fellow writers, the Lemurs, to five short stories based around the theme of “Underground.” Physically? Politically? Didn’t matter: stick to the theme, just as we did last year with our Cartaphilus theme. So, I hammered something out in just under three hours. It sucked, of course – we’re going for speed, not grace – but has since been flogged into something nigh-well respectable.

Further, it was enough to get past the reboot screen and keep going. I was asked to participate in another anthology, this one with the theme of “Captured!” In order to keep things close to me, I did what I did at Imaginarium: I wrote about something related to the coming Civil Wars (note the plural) in my future history. Selfish? Sure, but it works. And, it worked well enough I just finished the raw MS of another story.

It’s good to be back. My apologies for my absence. I shall begin posting segments later this afternoon. Deus vult.

Civil War, 3

Given what we know from the prologue, Pai is increasingly in a “shoot first, ask questions later” mode. Even Graf twice mentions her acting like her mother, the most ruthless person on earth. There might be a bit more with their team, then a chapter break. Still not really decided on how to carry this kind of story forward.

I’m playing with the idea of part one of three being on the moon, part two back on earth with Alix and the children, and perhaps part three off to Mars. Or maybe somewhere more exotic. I’ll know when I’m told.

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