20251028

[As usual, three weeks lag here, if you aren’t reading this on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/blazeward). If you’d like your news fresher, and the monthly Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef newsletter, all I ask is a buck to help keep the lights on around here.]

Fall has arrived. Had a Pineapple Express last week. Several days of high winds and monsoon rains, warm because they originate near Hawaii and connect like a beam to Seattle.

RAIN.

Most of the region apparently lost power over the weekend, but we blinked twice and that was it. We also had everything replaced after the bomb cyclone last winter. And the crews were out last week trimming trees like mad, looking at the forecast. Bless them.

Suggestions of snow tomorrow. Had grople (sp?) Sunday. For fifteen minutes.

Think little pellets of ice, not much bigger than BBs. Not hail. Not heavy enough to damage. Still ice. Usually, you get a squall line for a minute or so up here, then done.

This went on for a while, so we have the perfect conditions for it and they held, instead of blowing through. But never lost power, for which yay.

Good day yesterday at dojo. Green belt tests for three of the students. They all passed, so there are five of us now. I’m working on brown. Maybe by the end of the year. Maybe not. At some point. Not in any great hurry. Learning tremendous lots.

Just a little frazzled.

But having fun because I heard from an old fan that I haven’t talked to in forever. He’s an aeronautical engineer/aircraft designer who kinda wrote the book. And hasn’t flamed me for Red Branch, so I must have done something right.

Talking to him about his expertise on things. Because, duh, THE expert.

Red Branch Seven is next. Got ideas. Need exotic aircraft, either as prototypes or a new plane for Sasha and the crew to fly, representing yet another aviation revolution. Those happened annually from 1943-1957.

Annually. Seriously.

About halfway through the second daughter of the Shogun novel. Trilogy that follows Warlord of Yaumgan. And sets up the two series after that, one of which will (finally!) be Imperial Aquitaine.

More news this weekend when I send out newsletter. Looking at 2026 and what I do for 2027. Sent Scattered Tribes 3 off to one of my first readers last night. Other one gets it shortly. Might do all five of those. Plus other things.

I never stop pedaling. That’s the secret around here.

shade and sweet water,

b

West of the Mountains, WA

—————————-

Thank you so much for being my patron and for funding these essays!

If you’re reading the free version (which is published three weeks after the Patreon version), please consider joining the ones who do pay at https://www.patreon.com/blazeward. It’s only a buck and helps keeps the lights on around here.