Tag: romance

Colour of Maine (2/3)

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.

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Colour of Maine (1/3)

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.

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“The Fallen” 3/4

A rare Saturday update. I’ll be busy Sunday through Tuesday morning, so I thought to get something out now.

We start in on international politics, with the Japanese consul in Neo-Yokohama getting the first word in. For a diplomat, I’d say he gets too many words in, so I think the slight to Anton is deliberate. Toward the end of this segment, he lays out his travel plans for some shuttle diplomacy.

Starting to wonder if I should pin that map of Mars to the top of this blog as a reference.

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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.

***

“The Fallen” 2/7

Dinner. I’m good with dinners. Surprised that Les ran his mouth there a little bit; as I mentioned yesterday, having those two alone for weeks and months might be changing how they act around others.

I’m thinking of wrapping up Part 2 by Friday, and then taking another multi-year step. We’ll have to see.

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“The Fallen” 1/2

After showing the interpersonal politics between Robert and Nadia, I quickly wanted to show that this is not just a marriage forced on them by their respective rulers. They met, talked, had a (small) chance to say “no.” Any marriage is work; constant day-after-day work. I’ve been at it for over thirty years. No time off for good behavior.

Even a crown prince must defer to their sovereign, so Robert makes a call. At this point in her life (Fussy is fifty now), I think she is a jerk just for jerk’s sake. St Petersburg to Huntsville in a few hours? I wonder how he’ll pull that off…

“I I I” isn’t even out yet and I’m already writing spoilers.

Mild content warning for what’s below.

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Book 17. Epilogue. 1/2

Part one of two of the story’s end. This wraps up Bob’s side of things. I’m edging out of “hard SF” here, but that’s okay. Their world is Changed and we know a helluva lot less about ours than we think we do.

Off to Imaginarium in an hour. Four to six hour drive, depending on weather and traffic. Nothing on the schedule tonight, so I’ll see what I can do for Konev’s wrap up. Obviously, Reina will be there. She’s always there.

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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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