DayJob is nightmarish: all the of the IV rooms are, politely, “in flux.” “We’re all screwed” comes closer but we are all trying to KBO.
I was visited with Faustina’s next adventure last night. What I found entertaining was that when I sat down in front of the computer, I saw this, first. More Faustina and her legions next time. I promise!
I’m enjoying how this is turning out so far. I think I’ll have Faustina in hospital recollect everything right up until the rod dropped and she was badly injured. Things will all be real-time after that. And I have a suspicion where – one of the world’s functioning fusion reactors – she and this story might be headed. Two parts? Three? We shall see; I always knew she would get her own novel!
Ever since I met her in “Worlds Without End,” I knew that Faustina, Gary Hartmann’s slightly younger sister, would have her own novel.
I just didn’t expect to have her showing me things so soon.
Like all of my stories, as I learned from Jerry Pournelle, this is starting in the middle: set maybe five or eight years after WWE, Faustina has led her personal army from Knoxville over the mountains and down the river to take the important port city of Savannah. At great cost to herself.
I confess that, as always, I’ve no idea at all where this is going and am interested as you are…
I have a small, local Author Fair coming up on 9 November. What if, I wondered, I not only had “Worlds Without End” finished – in less than ten day from now – but what if I also had “Crosses & Doublecrosses,” the third novel I began but set aside over three years ago as 1) I was not old enough to write it, and 2) it is a god-awful story I hated living in, complete? Is that possible?
I just completed the basic MS. Grammarly is chewing through it in the the background while I write this. I have reached out to my current cover designer to sound him on this; that will likely be the determining factor.
Still… I would be something: a novel and novella, 100k words, all commercially out in less than six weeks. Irrational deadline drive me; can I make this one?
Below the fold is the last thing I wrote for C&DC: its Prologue. There’s closure for you.
With my copyeditor seeming to have some issues right now, I’m falling back on Grammarly and some proofreaders for the first edit of “Worlds Without End.” We’ll see how that pans out once I’ve a physical proof copy in my hands. Shame, really; Monica has been a source of strength to my works for four years now.
In the mean time, here’s the penultimate cover, from Jacoby Alley Designs. Professional, nimble, responsive. If any of my readers are self-publishing, please reach out to them for a talk and/or a quote. I’ve much to do: my deadline of 30 September is upon me.
Finally! And what a way to end! This 21k “short story” will be the anchor of my collection of similar for my book in the early months of 2020. Right now I think the shorts will be arranged chronologically, so this will be pretty much in the middle. To-date this gives me ~31k words for that book; I’ll try to flesh one of them out a little more and am sure I’ll have one or two come to my mind in the next few months.
This was a lot of fun! Unfortunately what comes next, besides the final edit of “Worlds Without End” is the last tweaks to the awful “Crosses & Doublecrosses.” Yuck.
Finally got Friday over for Arpad! I’ve already written when he picks up Lily and have them just to the park late Saturday morning. Which, unfortunately, is likely when I’ll have the next chance to finish the scene. It’s there, just needs writing! Making good progress for once!
I am, by many measures, a failure as a human. I have no empathy, no sympathy. I am not emotionally expressive. This past weekend we saw Daughter #1 formally off to college. My wife was a wreck. I gave my girl a hug and said “call or text if you’ve problems; later.”
It’s not that I don’t have and express emotions, it’s that I choose where to do it and even then can get blind-sided. I thought the short story of “Old Friends” was going to be a harmless reunion. Until I was more than halfway into the project did they show me that John Brunelli was unwell. Nichole’s reaction to that was so severe that I was unable to write. Yes, you read that correctly: a character’s reaction to a revelation in my own head was so strong I couldn’t function properly.
I was finally able to sneak up on it in pieces. I could split it, but why make y’all any more miserable than I was? Here’s the last part of “Old Friends.” I so need to write something light and fluffy next…
On fire for this short story, it seems. Wonder what they will show me tomorrow?
PS Spoilers for my novels ahead.
I’m aware the raw manuscript of C&DC needs attention. Screw that. I know I need a few more shorts for my short story collexion that will be three books hence. As a result, I saw something from having re-read a line from “Foes and Rivals,” where sergeant John Brunelli makes a promise to Nichole 5.
How long would that take? What sort or world would these people be living in by then? I made some notes (mostly questions to myself), sat down, and got this. About 1700 word; and this story is just beginning. I wonder where it will go?
machciv 