A tiny update

Following attending Imaginarium in Louisville, Kentucky, I am older about submitting short stories for contests. I made some improvements to Tay’s story and sent it off to Mysterion Sunday before-last. I re-worked the opening chapter of Friend and Ally into a stand-alone story and it went to Writers of the Future this past Sunday. I’m now tinkering with Ceres for an anthology from Three Ravens Publishing. I’ve got some time for that one so am not rushing any ideas.

Hurty words and RealLife(tm)

Yes, yes: daily commitment to posting something. And now I’m about to lose my DayJob because some people of a certain gland and fake faith have decided that the last three male pharmacy techs at the hospital must go.

What? You thought a quarter-million (low end estimate) of hospital medical deaths per year just happen? There are people who work tirelessly to get rid of competent staff for the Good of the Narrative, comrade.

More importantly, in my last post of a story, I got Aurelia’s age way too high. She’d be closer to fifteen, not twenty, so I’m puzzling my way through that right now. Hopefully real content tomorrow!

Utterly Useless

To you, my content consumers, that is. I’m not going to take the time to look at the records, but it is quite possible that this January which just passed was the only time I did not post for an entire month. Yes, in the post preceding, I mentioned I would have much on my plate… But I’ve no excuse, so I won’t make on.

The most important news is that “Obligations of Rank” is now out and available. I have yet to port it over to Smashwords; if I did nothing here you can bet I did nothing there.

In novel news, my short story about Allen and Ryland is now not only a 48,000 book, but it is already in the hands of both my copyeditor and my cover designer. With chance and luck? Call it released in two months. It is my first romance-only story; no horror or anything like Cursed Hearts. Are there complications? It would be a damn poor story if there were not! Each of the four parts of the book are these two youngsters getting permission to marry; from his parents, from hers, from her cousin the empress, and from the Machines. Not to mention the huge problem this creates for the Texas Navy.

Podcasts? Yeah, sure. I did at least take the physical step of moving my mic and stand from my quiet corner in the freezing cold basement to here at my right, next to the laptop on the dining room table, where I work. The only excuse to not start talking is… again, I have no excuse. Apologies.

So, that’s the update. New book out; newer book already on the way. No reason to not inflict my voice on y’all again. Let’s get to it.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!

Christmastime

Bloody awful. By and large nice to have my girls home for a couple of weeks, but it seems around 18 December the wife and I got the Ohmygod! variant of ChiCom Kung Flu, so it has been a miserable time. Not as bad as the non-gengineered flu I had last February, I ran a fever for nine days, peaking, of course, on Christmas afternoon itself at 102F. My wife, with great consistency, has even the sniffles always turn into bronchitis, so she’s been hacking up her lungs for the same time.

Today is the first time I think I’ll be able to get back to both writing and making the final changes to “Obligations of Rank” to release commercially. I’m also due to report back to my DayJob on Monday, but I do not much care about that place anymore. Hospitals kill people for government money and my guilt in that complicity grows.

There’s much on my plate for January, including returning to making podcasts. Thanks to everyone’s support over this odd year and I look forward to it again, next year.

Podcast Delay

As regular readers & listeners may have noticed, updates have been few this week. Worse, Friday’s podcast will come out on Saturday. I have not been well.

Late Monday afternoon, after writing, I was unusually tired so took a small nap. To my surprise, I slept until Tuesday morning, around 0715! With light through the bedroom window I showered and made my usual breakfast of one fried egg and three pieces of bacon. I’d not read we were supposed to get morning storms, but it was getting dark outside. I took the dishes to the sink and turned about. The microwave clock was the only 24-clock around. It said 2035. I had the most amazing, unsettling feeling: I felt lost in time. With my wife not answering her phone, I called eldest daughter.

“What day and time is it?” I asked.

Used to me and my drinking, she played along. “Monday. Around eight thirty in the evening.”

Needless to say, I could not fall back to sleep until midnight. The next day, Tuesday for real, I had an early dinner of scallops and mushrooms. Making notes for the podcast just after, I realized had seconds to get to the bathroom. Three hours of puking my guts out later, I crawled upstairs into bed.

The next day, I went to DayJob. Yes: I’m that stupid to have some GI bug and go to work as a pharmacy tech in a hospital. I was able to complete my deliveries in three hours, only to have another puking incident, fortunately also making it to a bathroom. After that I went home and slept.

Today was less bad: was assigned to the IV Room but exhausted as my body was now running on two pieces of toast over 24 hours. Just made it so see my relief come in at 1300. Made deliveries then left again.

Now home at 1810, I look at the podcast notes and realize there is no way. I’ll flush out the notes tomorrow in my breaks and record, edit, and release Saturday noon-ish. Apologies, all.

Like my books? Nominate my books!

Superversive SF is having their annual Great Bookshelf Hunt: nominations for great scifi books published in 2020. I released three. If you read one or more of them and enjoyed it, I’d certainly welcome the mention as a nominee!

Crosses & Doublecrosses (January 13, 2020) – science fiction (technically political/espionage scifi, but that’s not a category)

Empire’s Agent & other short stories (March 11, 2020) – anthology

Princess’ Crusade (December 7, 2020) – military SF

Thank you, all my blog and book readers, for your constant support!