Prophet (pt.3)

An almost normal conversation from a poorly clad Kalí. Hey, at this point, I’ll take what I can get.

I wonder what the expansion rate of the Texas economy is? Besides having Texarkana nuked and losing several of their inner cities until ExComm could clean out the Diversity, they weathered the Breakup pretty well. I know their trade with Mexico and the imperium is healthy but they have zero access to off-world materials and markets. Ah, that’s just me playing with ideas. I’d rather look at Kalí in her panties, too.

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Prophet (pt1)

I had to tell this story from the perspective of the lead of the wildcatter team. While I can guess at the political machinations of gals such as Fussy and Aurie, there is no way, NONE, that I could ever “get inside” the head of Kalí. Even when she says what she is, I don’t fully understand; and here I am, the supposed author.

For those few, you happy few, who have read “The Fourth Law,” yes, the opening paragraph is a clean lift of its opening paragraph. I have my reasons.

This represents in the final piece of the puzzle which is “Imperial Entanglements.” I have some introductory paragraphs to write and an editing pass to make but hope to have it to my copyeditor in no more than 48 hours. It represents book two of three of my “Three Books in Three Months” challenge.

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Culture Shock, (pt4;end)

Sky is pushed to her breaking point and briefly does. Fortunately her friends and new family are there for her.

This was a fun fish-out-of-water tale to get to know a secondary character from “Obligations of Rank” better. Many of my short stories are like that. I’ll reread part of a book, recall something, or have someone ask “what ever happened to…?” and off I go.

Speaking of, onto my next project!

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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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Shift of Colour

As promised, the camera is now back on Jimmy Burns. This picks up exactly where we last saw him: right after Aurie drops him off in his tiny backyard right after taking him to the edge of space. Given this will be a hundred pages on in the book, once finished, a short summary of events, masquerading as a police report, will get readers up to speed.

After that, we get to listen in to him as he tries to understand what happened to his life over the last 48 hours. Things will pick up fast after this as what is one thing in a tiny hamlet like Canso is a huge political crisis in Ottawa.

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Colourful Language

Okay, worked my way around the address. Not exactly “head-hopping” but I admit to fudging it a little. Remember: being a fiction write means you tell stories; you are a liar. Sometime you have to lie to yourself and your readers.

After being shamed by Colour, is looks as if Aurie is going all in and now willing to provoke a war with Canada. They outnumber the imperium by at least 3:1 if not more. Then again, the imperium is the only nation in history to use a fusion weapon in anger. It might be easier for them to pretend Jimmy Burns never existed and have him pushed across the border into Maine.

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Colour of a Dream

This concludes the ‘Nova Scotia arc.’ I lay 1:2 odds that when Jimmy walks into his house, the RCMP are waiting on him. Who knows?

Story-wise, I’ll be going dark for a while as I’m blind as to where this is going right now. There’s one conflict on the horizon: Aurie’s huge argument with the Empress. Fussy wants Aurie married now. Fussy is also still seething that Aurie’s demi-human brother married a “normie” of questionable genetics; Jimmy might be a step too far. On the other hand, as Aurelia will throw in her face: “There are less than ten of us! Are we some Semite tribe to marry our cousins?”

Minor conflict. These are great characters on the stage and they deserve great conflict. With Texas edging to the imperium’s side, does Canada sign a defensive agreement with Mexico? Suddenly Faustina is the one surrounded; she would not like that and likely respond kinetically. Does Liz, Fussy’s first child, switch on her listening array on the back of the Moon only to hear, “Humans look tasty. See you soon.”? Maybe old Empress Togame finally dies, provoking a succession crisis in the Japanese Empire while Aurie is there in a diplomatic capacity? A lot to think about.

If anything interesting happens, I’ll toss it onto here. I’ve an author meet’n’greet at the Heath, Ohio, Indian Mound Mall on Saturday. Hope to sell a book.

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Colour’s Dinner

I think Aurie is much more tired, and possibly traumatized physically and mentally, than she’s letting on. She doesn’t want Jimmy to cluck over her or the doc to try to restrain her (now that would be a disaster…) so she’d not telling the whole truth. I bet the conversation with her army’s chief medical officer will be quite revealing. We shall see.

After being gently reprimanded by Colour, Burns finally starts pushing back to this crazy girl’s suggestions. Recall he met her just shy of a day ago? It’s been a long 24 hours.

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Traitor’s Colours?

Similar to the short battle through Burns’ eyes, here two we simply hear his internal reflection on what Aurelia and the doctor are saying to one another. That prevents the “wall of text” of exposition which I hate so much.

Missed an update yesterday as I had guest over after work. Given the four Manhattans I had, anything coherent like posting was out of the question. After today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, I’ll be at the end of the Nova Scotia arc. I’m going to pause as I’ve written 38,000 words with no plot. That needs fixing.

In the meantime, I’ll be working on a plastic model of U-292. If anything interesting happens, I’ll toss it onto the blog.

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