[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.]

And the next Science Officer dropped yesterday. Fleets of Vengeance. Guardians of Tomorrow in a month and Season Two of the Science Officer is done. Won’s say Javier is done, because I already know the next title, but I needed some emotional distance from the gang, just like last time. Will be a break before I write the next one, and I’m currently deep into 2027’s release schedule with what I’m writing, so it will be a while.

You’ll survive, because Heather and Ollie and both gangs will get you through 2026. And I have a lot of other things to write.

Kohahu 2 is done. Daughter of the Dalou Shogunate will be a trilogy coming right after Heather, before I turn to Veronika. I have two Veronika series planned, the second of which includes Imperial Aquitaine as Denis warned you about. I need to write that because I need to know how it all goes down in order to write Suvi and John-Pierre, set some 1500 years AFTER Jessica.

In the meantime, I’m working on a lot of short fiction for various projects. A WarDog Charlie Tail for BSQ, along with another Owen Castle story then some more Beckett Fernsby. New things for Thrill Ride Magazine.

My goal with both is to stay at least a year ahead of publishing, so that I can pivot and write something at the last minute for the magazines if I have to. What pissed me off this year was having to do that three times. As a result, I fired a third of the Syndicate from Boundary Shock Quarterly and hired replacements who still have the fire to write. You’ll meet them starting in January’s issue, as I had invited guests that got invited to be members. Plus others.

I have to do this regularly enough. Folks don’t want it as bad as I do. Want to write one story and have it make them billionaires, without understanding that the world never worked like that. Life-changing money is about as common as being struck by lightning. Or killed by a cow. Happens, about that frequently. For the rest of us, it is a long saunter that lets me write all sorts of stuff.

So I have two other original members of the Syndicate left today besides me. But many new players.

And don’t get me wrong. As bad as this summer was, I considered shutting one or both of the magazines down permanently. It appears to be an annual kabuki around here.

I enjoy them because they force me to write into new themes. New sub-genres. New ideas I might have never pursued otherwise. Like The Apothecary, Beckett Fernsby. Or Boston the Wheelman. Or any of several others.

I have noticed that writers tend to get themselves into ruts if they don’t pay attention. They get Stodgy.

Fuck that. Seriously. Fuck that.

I have fun. And think new thoughts. Research weird and obscure topics. Write new things. And blow shit up. Because.

How do you keep life fresh, or have you let it grow Stodgy when you weren’t looking? What do you need to do regularly to stop that?

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.