Tag: Mars

Colour | Epilogue

And that’s a wrap. 67,800 words of “Regent.” For those of you reading along from the beginning, congratulations. Anyone who has commented here or sent me a note, I appreciate your input and it all goes to make the story better.

I’ll be doing some editing and formatting for a day or two before dropping this load onto my copyeditor. At the same time, I’ll see if my cover designer has not frozen to death in central Germany to prod her into action. With chance and luck, I can have this commercially available by the end of January.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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A Colour to Trust

Largely back up and running. Not writing for nearly a week was horrible. There are still a few s/w sets I need to reload onto Rory (the new machine’s name) but I can at least type.

Getting back to the story, things, as you will read, and changing rapidly. Aurie is about to get a baptism of fire in international power politics, where who you think is a friend or rival could surprise you. Faustina had the advantage of putting together the imperium in something of a power vacuum. Aurelia is in it now, up to her neck.

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Colours, sights, smells

We learn a little more about the cultural differences between the Northern Federation and the imperium. My suspicion is that besides their Boston campaign, the NF has been in “glorious isolation” since the Breakup and learned to keep to themselves. I’m trying to imagine what the shock of Aurie’s army must be to the one’s who run their country.

Hmm. Who does run the NF? Who sent Colour and her team? Well, now; guess I had better figure that our before I go much further.

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Colouring the Facts

Sorry about the title; I cannot stop, it seems.

It seems Aurie really does want to get to know this new person better. But that new person pulls the discussion back to politics then challenges a demi’s command of information. Aurelia’s parents are lovely, quiet people. Unfortunately their daughter seems to take after her aunt.

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Ceres, part 2

While Minerva is off tending to those biologic parts of herself, and yes, I’ll get to that later, Laszlo reflects upon how they arrived were they are. As this is nothing more than a quick but total summary of Part III of “Obligations of Rank,” double-plus spoiler warning.

Personally, I seem to have contracted what is becoming my annual February bad cold. My wife came back from Galveston around 0100 Monday, so it is likely that the recirculating air on the plane carried something onto her which she was kind enough to pass onto me. Growing up, I was a sickly kid but grew out of it around puberty. Now 55.5, and drinking too much (hey, gotta keep these stories coming for y’all!), perhaps those days are returning. I hope not.

So, enjoy the flashback below the fold. More coming soon!

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New book, in process

Finally settled on a name: Obligations of Rank. Got the copyedit back and just now finished implementing those changes. Rattled the cage of my cover designer to move things from the back burner to front. All in all, coming together nicely.

Wasn’t sure if I needed to add maps to this one and ended up adding two: one of central Kentucky, as that story moves around a bit and I don’t want the readers to get lost. The other is just to illustrate the progress of the Martian terraforming project. I also had to update the stemma as there are just too many family connexions to keep track of.

If all goes well, it should be out for Thanksgiving in the US; the third week of November.

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Homecoming

The Russians are back home. I do not think that Kira will long consider the rodina her home; the compulsion in her to return to her new life on Mars is too great. Anastasia will be very busy in the coming years making sure no one comes between her and the throne… including her Prime Minister. What’s Nikita’s future, currently devastated for losing his lover? I’ve no idea.

After a week of never ending motion and happenings, Laszlo can at last relax and catch his breath before he, too, returns home. Wait… footsteps?

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Breaking and theft

A long addition today; in fact, the end of chapter 17. Things shall be busy for me as I’m 2nd shift tonight and work this weekend. While off Monday, the entirety of next week shall be spent on the road – family matters – and I expect updates to be sparse. Hence today’s larger portion.

I’m not really satisfied with this segment and shall likely rewrite it before submitting it to my copyeditor. Things always happen quickly in my stories but even this seems rushed. Y’all’s opinions are welcome.

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The Terraforming Project

Welcome to September! Lord, but where does the time go? Each year the sand in the glass goes pit-pat just a little faster. So many things I planned to have done when I thought of them in the spring are… not. At last I can still write and record. Another task taking more time than I planned. Friction, as Clausewitz aptly pointed out.

Below, Kira finally begins to talk about a little of what she was shown. As we’ve seen in other stories, yes, the Machines think very fast, but their minds are not our minds. The smart ones, such as Dorina and now Aqua, recognize that and will reach out to humans and demi-humans for points of view they literally cannot imagine.

Some chapters/posts back, we were shown the Martian Central space station, so there’s no reason to dwell on that, again. I think the next few scenes shall see them nearly back to Earth and the breaking of their little band.

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