A lot going on in this segment. Akky is true to herself in two ways: she recognizes she loves Nike and also that she’s willing to try anything to leave the Land Inside the Walls.
Following the mysterious conversation she has at the end, here, we start on something of a rollercoaster ride toward the end of her story. To quote Han Solo, “I’ve a very bad feeling about this.”
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Red Rain, 8/x”Found my way to the end. About 4400 words, so not a bad short story. What next?
Faustina, like Reina, is the type of person who you just have to shove the facts under their noses and they come ’round fairly quickly. Guess I need to update my family tree at the top of my blog again? I’ll wait until I’ve some idea how many kids they have.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 7/end”I’ve mentally finished the story. Parts 7 and 8 next week. I’m very pleased with it and expect Stephen to cut it to shreds come copyedit time.
In book 19 we will meet Stephen Johnston a few stories before this one. Quiet but very clever; I think that’s why Fussy’s eyes landed on him for her second husband. We get a glimpse of that here, just before the empress shows up to be an asshole.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 6/?”A tiny bit of backstory on Josh’s part. No doubt Liz knows most of it, but I’m old enough to know sometimes internal family lore has things which written records do not. Witness my father-in-law making me swear to never tell his daughter, my wife, what happened to him on the Eastern Front and in the AVO gulag.
On a personal note, it seems I may soon have a great deal more time to write.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 5/?”They are so darling together, aren’t they? Let’s hope this bottle of gin doesn’t have a Tragic End at the bottom of it. I usually don’t. Usually. The end of one of my books is absolutely horrible. The end of Foes & Rivals is tragic as regards what Nichole 5’s mission was, but not horrid, as we get to see many of the players in later short stories and with walk-ons in a few novels. I don’t think that is where this going.
Even in A Texas Naval Affair, Fussy was faced with her cousin wanted to wed a former thug. Not exactly an adornment to the imperial family, but that mostly turned out well. Mostly.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 4/?”One of the things I am just now realizing it that by being away from these people for just over four months, details that I knew better than my meatspace relatives become clouded or lost. In this case, while I knew Liz’s bio-dad dies in an accident (and her mom later remarries), I screwed up the dating. So, Liz cannot be 25; hell, she can barely be 18, and that still might be wrong. So, Josh is now just turned 23, while they were working on the moon.
So, when I’m starting to edit all of this into my third short story collection, I’d have to be very careful. I’ve made myself some notes in the Word file, so I don’t forget. Again.
Below the fold, Josh learns a little more about what is pending-wife is. And there’s a little romance for these kids who are now both years younger.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 3/?”A short story about the first child of Empress Faustina. Demi-human, she considers herself a scientist and engineer, most recently working for the Thinking Machine, Ninon, of tribe Tohsaka, on a radar search array on the other side of the moon. While there, a human man, a few years older, catches her eyes, her bright yellow eyes. They have much work to do, so she says nothing. Until it is time to go back to Earth.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Bright Eyes, 1/?”Strange week; much RealLife drama I do not need. Picking at another short story, but nothing really clicking yet. I shall be patient.
Most autocrats enjoy it when people stand up to them, just because it doesn’t happen very often. The imperium’s bureaucracy is very small, as Fussy can do the work of many humans and do it faster, but I’m sure they are rather obsequious. I doubt her legates are. Forewarned by Old Dysart, Stephen does not put up with her shit, either.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Annexation (5/4 End)”We start with more politics with the NorFed Executive Council before Colour pokes the wrong bear and gets her orders from Aurie. Part of this is fun for me: only by being middle-aged myself could I imagine “old folks” striking up a romance. What I would have considered creepy in my 20s is perfectly normal, now.
When Colour walks out of the meeting, I had to remind myself just how do you get ahold of someone in a tech environment equivalent to the 1970s? We all take our phones for granted. Fortunately, Loup must have realized that, too, so I had him hanging out in the area. We find out why he’s there.
Conclusion tomorrow. With the Henge-talk at the end of this part, I’m now thinking she should get a short story, too.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Colour of Maine (2/3)”Happy New Year. Yeah, sure. Buy precious metals: silver and lead. In the meantime, I am beginning book #19: my third short story collection. Especially after my last three novels, there are many, many threads which need to be tied off. One of which is Miss Colour Jansen of Maine, Northern Federation, who Aurie made off with in Regent and we see now and again in Ice Inundation Intelligence. I threw some words at the wall between Christmas and New Years to give her closure, and that’s what we’ll see this week.
After that, I really need to find out what the hell happened in Broken Child, a story in Imperial Entanglements. I’ve seen resentment about Aurie being Fussy’s successor, and I’ve a few other things buzzing in the back of my mind, as well.
My objective is to have all the shorts done by Ash Wednesday. As I’m sure my copyeditor is giving up booze for Lent, he can bill me after Easter. That leaves me the task of one more novel, to be written, edited, cover, published, by June, just in time for Ximaginarium. I can do that.
Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer!
Continue reading “Colour of Maine (1/3)”
machciv 