New Book is at 170 manuscript pages, 34, 280 words, and the plot is thickening. I’m limited in time for it right now, as the legally required reports must be done by their deadlines, but the book needs a daily or almost daily infusion of time and thought and energy…so while it’s not moving *fast* Read More…
Category: the writing life
Moving Forward
NewBook is now over 100 pages. It was chugging along fairly well, but then…it was delayed when my horse Tigger, who is a 14.3 hand Arabian with minimal jumping experience, decided to run flat out toward a five foot three inch pipe framed fence and jump it. Both he and the fence came off worse Read More…
Progress and Regress
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the new Vatta book has hit 50 pages, and though it’s going slowly, it’s still alive so far. Ky and Rafe and Stella sound like themselves, and the twins are a hoot. The bad news is that Audible has gone bananas, peanuts, and crazy-cake Read More…
Maybe…We Have Ignition
This is a tentatively-hopeful statement that the third Vatta’s Peace book may actually be alive. I can’t answer questions about it, and please do not, at this point, make suggestions (suggestions killed another book I thought was really coming alive), but I have a question for the Vatta fans. Of the military survivors of the Read More…
Mail Writers Get, Sad & Happier News, and Other Bits & Pieces
In reply to a much, much earlier post, someone happily explained to me that he could “change my life forever” because HE is a professional writer, and only he has the skills to help me. He claims a specialty in academic writing. This is of a class of mail writers receive that assumes if someone Read More…
Updates
The gorgeous but unpredictable little mare who bucked me off and kicked my husband (same maneuver; she probably didn’t intend to hit him) in mid-February finally sold to someone in California, hurray, hurray. Until she’s transported, she’ll be out of that barn and into another site to gain weight for the trip (she’s not bony, Read More…
Changes
You will have noticed, I’m sure, the new button on the front page for Privacy Policy. I hope it covers what it’s supposed to; I tried, but one never knows when a new government regulation shows up, and especially not from a government not one’s own. You may also have noticed that there aren’t any Read More…
Recognition
When I was in that stage of adolescence when you may (if not in angsty despair) daydream longingly about being famous someday so people will admire you and you’ll have tons of friends and all the people who think are being nasty to you now will be stricken with either remorse or envy (or maybe Read More…
New Vatta-verse Story
I have a new Vatta story in Infinite Stars, a new anthology edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt that’s out today. https://titanbooks.com/infinite-stars-9264/ . It fits between the end of Vatta’s War and the beginning of Cold Welcome, and is the story that I originally planned Ky’s first meeting with Jen–that I posted here or thought I Read More…
Copy Edits!
Copy edits arrived this morning. The work space is set up now, with dictionary and Chicago Manual of Style at hand, and several sharp pencils. This is the *next to last* step for me (checking page proofs is the last) and one that’s very important. Even so, if you find a typo in the final Read More…