October Fest

I’ve always liked October and November. The cooler weather. The changing leaves. Pumpkin pies. Fresh apples and cider. It usually invigorates me. I can feel it ramping up as September rolls by.

Status

Shackleford House
Not as much progress as I’d hoped, but not as little as I feared. I’m slowly (very slowly) getting the rhythm back. Fingers crossed.

Everything Else
No changes here. Tanyth is still in limbo. Ishmael and company are off doing whatever they do when they’re not on the page. Tanan and Suketai are – presumably – riding off into the steppes and might make an appearance early next year. EJ has been making some inroads on it but I haven’t seen it yet.

What Am I Reading?

I spent most of the month catching up with old friends in various series. Sarah Painter’s, Unholy Island series, a follow on series to Crow Investigations, took up a solid chunk of the month. I had two Bob and Nikki’s to catch up on. Honour Rae’s next All the Skills book.

In all that I picked up Shannon Eichorn’s debut novel, Rights of Use. An interesting story of alien abduction, political intrigue, and galactic conquest in a wrapper made of consent – or lack thereof.

I’ve known Shannon for a while. We’ve crossed paths online and at various conventions over the last few years. I’ve looked forward to seeing her fiction get out into the world. This book didn’t let me down. A fast moving story with a lot of parts, some great characters, and the intriguing setting kept me turning pages. I’m looking forward to book 2.

But, as always, don’t take my word for it. Grab a sample of Rights of Use and see for yourself.

A blue black sky filled with planets and stars makes up the background. A flying saucer zooms in from the upper left. The title Rights of Use takes up the center of the page. The author's name is at the bottom.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t
need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

Car issues dominated my focus in September. One car needed to be replaced. The other has a broken window and only eBay has window glass for 30 year old Plymouth vans. I’ll find out tomorrow if the replacement part works.

In spite of that, I’ve written more Shackleford House this month than last. It’s coming along. It feels good but getting back into the groove is still a work in progress. I’m feeling good about this story and think it’ll be a worthy successor to Butler.

The Cat is a hoot to write. I should write more of him.

But until next month, safe voyage.

-N

September Harvest

Car troubles resolved. Awnings installed, just in time for fall. Oh, and writing happened.

Status

Shackleford House
I’m still writing almost every day. “Don’t Think” has served me well so far. I think I’ll continue not to do it when it comes to thrashing words together for the Cat.

No Change
I’ve made no progress on getting the audio for Tanyth Fairport sorted, work on the sequel to Salt, or (obviously) any new Solar Clipper stories.

What Am I Reading?

I spent a good portion of my reading time working through my samples in August. Lots of pretty good but Sarah J. Hoodlet’s Way of the Wielder stands out for its excellence.

Great cast of characters. Loved the world-building, especially the magic system. The plot’s intricate folds opened at just the right pace to keep me reading and reading.

The only downside is that volume 2 isn’t due until late November.

But don’t take my word for it. Maybe grab a sample of Way of the Wielder and see if it works as well for you as it did for me.

A young woman with a flowing ponytail gazes raptly into a crystal sphere held in her right hand. She wears a gown and a gauzy cape. A shadowy village hides in the foggy background and stylized flowers adorn the cover's borders

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

The fires are out for now. The smoke has cleared. Autumn’s cool, clean air has begun pushing aside the broiling heat of summer. I expect we’ll still have a chance for more 90F weather but it feels like summer has moved on.

I’ve set a goal to get a draft of the Cat done by the end of November. I don’t know if I’ll make it. Life has a way of playing games with my focus. I’m also working on a way to salvage some of the old files from the Solar Clipper Diary without installing another WordPress instance, mostly to cut down on the number of hackable opportunities. It’s a different kind of writing, but one that massages the proper nodes in my brain. The little wins there translate directly into new words for the Cat.

Fingers crossed that it continues because I’m liking it. A lot.

Until next month: Safe Voyage.

Smokin’

Just when things started to settle down from getting the house painted (we’re still waiting on the new awnings), we’re now in the throes of automobile change. Yet, in spite of all the distractions of forest fires and car crashes, I’ve made more progress in the last two weeks than the previous four months.

Status

Shackleford House
I’m writing almost every day again. Sometimes not very much but it’s something. I’m much happier with the progress than before and, following Bradbury’s rule, “Don’t Think,” I hope I’ll be able to get to a satisfactory end to the critical first draft. When? I don’t know. I’ve made too many predictions that failed to materialize and don’t dare make any more.

Tanyth Fairport
Yeah. I need to deal with this. Apparently still have audio files that are flawed. Mea culpa. I want to write some new stories in that universe and work on the sequel to Salt, too, but my bandwidth seems to have narrowed from “fire hose” to “dripping faucet” levels.

Solar Clipper
So many great stories still left for me to tell there. I’ll get to them, probably sooner rather than later. Just not right now.

What Am I Reading?

I just finished the last book in Jenny Schwartz’s Delphic Dame series. If you were following that, the series ender is available now. That whole Xeno-Archaeology universe has been great fun and I hope it continues.

Most of the month was spent with Sarah Painter’s Crow Investigations series. A fun take on a fantasy noir detective agency that kept me turning pages. It would have been my main pick, if I hadn’t picked up Skylar Ramirez’s Dumb Luck and Dead Heroes series.

In The Worst Ship In the Fleet, Ramirez introduces an intriguing collection of characters including the washed-up, alcoholic war hero Brad Mendoza and the victimized and abused Jessica Lin. He brings aboard even more colorful characters as the series unfolds (keep an eye on Hayley Uvalde) and does a great job creating a rich and varied universe that kept me turning pages until I fell off the end of the series.

Warning: Book 1 is pretty short and Ramirez almost lost me at a cliff hanger ending mid-series, but I kept reading in spite of it. The series was just so compelling, I pushed on.

But, as always, grab yourself a sample of book one and see for yourself.

A gnarly looking, black spaceship powers out of a background of asteroids with a planet in the background.

About the Newsletter
I’m still publishing them on the 15th of the month. They’re not all getting delivered but you don’t need to subscribe to get a mid-month update from me. You can find them archived on my ConvertKit public page.

Looking Ahead

With multiple forest fires burning 35 miles west of me and trying to replace the totaled Taurus (just a fender bender that was enough to have the insurance company write it off), the last few days have been a bit hectic, but I’m slowly regaining my feet when it comes to writing.

I think the extra down time has given my wetware a chance to cool off and settle in. I’m not trying to force the writing into some kind of shape or pattern. Writing the daily haiku has let me continue to explore craft – even if it’s not fiction – and inspired me to take that same kind of energy back into Shackleford House and, I hope, beyond.

I can’t do much about the fires but the vehicle situation will be settled by next week. In the meantime, I’m just working with my word of the year – surf – to try to be in the moment, keep my balance, and ride the wave I’m on rather than be distracted by other waves or what other riders are doing.

Thanks for all of your continued support. I’ll try to pay better attention to comments so they’re not hanging in moderation for most of the month. Again. (Sorry about that.)

Until next month, safe voyage.

N