Tag: canada

PGA, 11

Smaller segment for going into a weekend. Things get a little odd their next morning and I am still trying to work through the details. Beyond that, I also need to do some research about South America. For ten years and nineteen books, I do not think I mentioned the place once. Mexico gets a little mention in Cursed Hearts and Martian Wonderland, but points south of that? I really have no idea. With the US dead and gone for over a hunderd years, and trade with Western Europe a zero, I suppose I’ll have to extrapolate what places like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile have done to survive.

Saying all that is to imply that updates might be sparce awhile. Plus, I’ll need to focus on the initial editing of our Lemurverse anthology.

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PGA, 10

Pai gets mistaken for a boy. That’s freakin’ hilarious. But, we see that, yes, there is some kind of religious sentiment about Ildi in this unregulated northern town. Unregulated towns and new religions, well, names such as Medina and Mecca spring to mind. Not something that either the imperium or other spokes of the Polar Alliance would appreciate.

Mark XXs. Might be a story there.

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PGA, 9

After a few scenes from Pai’s POV, we’re back to Graf. I’m not entirely happy with the timing and pace of this segment and will likely revise the heck out of it prior to sending to my copyeditor. Still, raws are raws, to get something down “on paper” to keep the story moving.

I take this time to educate a potential reader about Ildi, for anyone who has not read about here in my two short story collections. She sure takes after her mother when it comes to fecundity. I suppose I’ll have to know more about her family before all of this is over; I cannot really imagine her kids liking the idea of their mom being worshiped as a goddess.

Graf has never heard of a strip club. That’s hilarious.

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Ice Inundation Intelligence

Pleased to announce the release of both the paperback and Kindle versions of my latest book. Number seventeen of the future history that is Machine Civilization.

As with many of my other books, I am hoping to have it ported to Smashwords in a week or two, depending on how many times I bang my head against a brick wall for their kludgy interface,

***

Canada is dying. In a new ice age, one by one, their cities are falling. They occupied the empty US Midwest but Quebec wants out and the Russian Army is coming into their central provinces from the west. Leading a scout unit to divine the Russians’ intentions, Lt. Eloise Patel is captured and tortured, then rescued by the love of her life, Centurion Bob Hardt. The politics point to a three-way war.

Mars is being reborn. Terraformed by the Polar Alliance, the northern hemisphere is an ocean. But the Second Inundation has many worried. There to keep an eye on things, Empress Faustina and one of her sons stumble across an ancient alien artifact – and vanish.

While the politicians bluster and threat, Hardt, Patel, and Sgt. Sergei Konev of the Russian Army try to keep a peace on the ground and between one another and their three nations.

***

B17. Name and Cover

“Ice Inundation Intelligence.” This speaks to Canada, Mars, and the plight of Eloise Patel and the two men trying to keep her alive.

What is likely the cover is below the fold. The front is obviously southern central Canada. Sgt Konev on the left, Patel in the middle (love-sick for Hardt), with Hardt on the right. Who’s the guy on the cart in the back, I wonder?

From the blues and blacks of the front we see a still-red Mars, being terraformed. Empress Faustina – showing off without her helmet – and her son Edward look out at Arabia Terra (there will be a map page in the book), watching the inrush of water from the Second Inundation.

When I have my copyedit back, it will take several days to two weeks to implement the changes, get a proof copy, then release it to the wild. Thanks, everyone, for reading along and any suggestions. I’m playing with some ideas for two more stories and hope to start posting again, soon. Deus vult.

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Book 17. Epilogue. 2/2

This should have been broken into four parts, but the first part of the epilogue was a block, so this one is, too. Enjoy. There are a few places where I couldn’t be bothered to scroll back 200 pages for names, so I used placeholders. That’s what editing is for.

I started this manuscript just over a year ago, with Konev and his scout team at point of the Russian occupation of central Canada. Thus, it is fitting that it end with him, too. But what and end: being debriefed about what happened at the CSIS prison I expected. Writing my way further in, I realized that because of what Reina had learned from rooting around Bob’s mind – and then about the future of Mars – she would want to know everything Konev knew.

And they Ivan speaks up to claim him. I didn’t see and write that until about an hour ago. They always surprise me. It’s a gift, really: “The Adventures of Sergei & Ivan” would make a great novella; it would make a great graphic novel. That boy is made of mischief and I look forward to what trouble they get in (first idea: they travel to Mars and steal that ancient device).

Now comes the hard, sober, part: editing. A multistep process: a complete read thru, shuffling material around, chapter breaks, Grammarly. Then and only then I pass it off to my copyeditor. It’s about 65,000 words, or about 245 pages in a 6″ x 9″ book. A book with no name, still. At least I can reach out to my cover designer in a day or two with the basics of what I’ll want to see. The front will be Konev and Bob, with Eloise between them, all in uniform. What else? Reactionless ships, something evocative of Canada (a can of Molson’s?), Mars. And Cartaphilus.

I’d say I need a break, but we all know I’d be lying. I’ll be writing again within weeks once I get this to my copyeditor. Thanks, everyone, for putting up with this raw MS. Please buy and review the final version once it comes out in a month or two.

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Book 17. Part Four. 8

The penultimate scene from Part Four. We’re back to Bob and his team tomorrow. I’m about finished with the Epilogue, but that may have to wait until after the conference. Or, if I’ve a moment, I may post it from there.

It’s taken a year, but I am pleased as to where everything seems to be going. I wonder what my next project will be? I’m thinking of taking it easy and writing a few short stories for the rest of summer.

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Book 17. Part Four. 7

Back to Bob’s rescue mission. It starts well…

I’m already into the epilogue and may finish the raw MS before Imaginarium after all. I could copy it to a flash drive and hand it to my copyeditor, I suppose.

Would a highly trained soldier really steal a look at a girl in the middle of a rescue mission? Sorry, ladies, men are pigs.

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Book 17. Part Four. 5

These next few will be shorter as I’ll only be posting the immediate change of POV. In this case to Bob.

The C4 is an addition I thought of later: not all doors in a prison will be connected to an electrical system, certainly not one connected to the Net. More direct action will be needed.

Had to watch some old “Bob and Doug” on Youtube to get the accent right.

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