Faustina gets out of the hospital at last. We see a little more of her odd cult as well as a demonstration as to why she’s so good at fostering it. She takes a ride with her sister-in-law. More politics next then – I hope – a flight with her brother back to Savannah. Busy, busy!
Tag: family
A Mother’s Calm
I’ve actually put down about 2.5k words tonight… on a DayJob night! But the two parts are very distinct from each other. This is Faustina with her mother and niece. Next comes formal politics, domestic and foreign. Sometimes small updates are best updates.
A Father’s Love
Faustina gets some laps in the pool then a bit of shock about what she is turning into in the city of Knoxville… essentially, her image is outstripping who she really is. The question shall be: does she try to catch up, or go another direction entirely?
Either way, her dad thinks this is all a crock and is worried sick about his little girl.
Rehab
After not formally writing for a week and half, I feel as if I should be entering rehab; I have (looks about) five pages of notes from downtime at DayJob and quiet times about my house but when I just didn’t the time to sit down in front of the laptop.
That came to an end today. Daughter #2 off on a cancer fun-raiser, wife doing something about the house somewhere… I’d no more excuses. I fired up the pellet stove in the basement and came down thirty minutes later to write. So far, it’s working. 3k words of Faustina’s recover in the Knoxville hospital flowed right out. There’s much there: her physical condition, the reaction of her family to her injuries, and her fervent desire to return to “her boys” as soon as she is able. It will be a balancing act for her, in, I think, three parts. Here’s part one.
C&DC on Kindle
The Kindle ebook version is now available. I hope to flog things together and get “Crosses and Doublecrosses” up on smashwords.com this weekend.
In the meantime, with about twenty minutes of downtime between making chemos, I saw why Thaad chose to interfere in human affairs, specifically when it came to the Chinese military dropping more rods onto Savannah. Made about a page of notes… perhaps I’ll try to write some tonight?
Con Men
Sorry for the quiet… when the H1B’s at Kindle fixed one problem with the cover of “C&DC” they broke a different part. Trusting them not at all to not screw it up again, I used my very limited Acrobat skills to make a change and submit it. With chance and luck will hear something by Monday.
With that – hopefully – behind me, I’ll be looking about for a copyeditor and cover designer for my short story collection. I’m still tinkering with that MS a bit but still look to a publishing date in early March.
As for this weekend, it is once again Ohayocon here in central Ohio! As each year there are fewer and fewer panels that interest me, we’re only staying one night at a hotel next to the convention center. Daughter #1 in even driving down from college to attend; I believe she’s cosplaying Weiss from RWBY. Me? After sounding the waters on Instagram, I dusted off Elias Ainsworth from “Ancient Magus’ Bride,” for Saturday. Come Sunday PM, I hope finally to re-read my notes and start in on Part 2 of Crusade. Cheerio!
Savannah 3/3
Needs work. Couldn’t quite get into the proper groove of things this weekend: post Christmas and Daughter #1 back to college. It was nice to have her home for three weeks; of course she’ll be back in five days as she wanted to come with us to Ohayocon on the 10th-12th. That’s my weeb girl!
This is enough that when I rewrite it and edit it into a novel that it will work. As any regular reader knows, I keep things sparse and terse. It might be a little too terse here.
A personal look back
I am not normally a reflective or sentimental person but ARSH 2019 has been quite the year. Foes and Rivals went live 366 days ago, so I can call that 2019-ish. After losing over two months when my copyeditor of five years ghosted me, Worlds Without End came out in October. “Crosses and Doublecrosses” has been ready since just after Thanksgiving but the H1B’s at Kindle think the cover is flawed (it’s my cover! Publish the tanjed thing!). My short story collection is effective ready to go, only lacking a cover and copyediting, which I shall have completed in January.
In meatspace, my eldest daughter went off to college for Aminal Science/Pre-vet and is thriving to the point she’s spending part of May and June of 2020 at a college on Hokkaido. I changed employers for more pay and – more importantly – more time off to write.
Time which I have been using to write [working title] “Crusade”; 33.5k words since late October and the city of Savannah is only now about to be attacked. I suck at war stories, it seems. This shall end up either being a very large, 3-part novel, or I’ll break it into three distinct books. I’ll know when they show me the scenes.
Thanks to all who follow along. God willing, I’ve so many more stories to tell in the time I have left. Happy New Year!
Blood and water
Faustina is not one to avoid an issue or responsibility, to the point of taking on too much blame. Even with the minor casualties of Augusta their campaign must move on to their next and final stop. As such, her little army has much to do. Sleep, for her, will be a luxury over the next six days.
After Dinner
I close things out at the Hartmann Family Dinner. Henge has a random act of kindness for her new family; Faustina talks war with her father; Gary and Henge make another go or two at a sibling for Aurelia. Wrapping up lose ends, really. After this, Faustina and her legions are on the march!
machciv 