It's Been A While (Updatery MK III)

Tomorrow, 11/29/2017, I have an author event of Facebook, where I am the 'featured author' for Chuck Gannon's anthology, Lost Signals. I aim to entertain, and talk about Crate 88, the short story I wrote for the anthology.

December 17th, the paperback edition of 1636: Mission To The Mughals, comes out.  Almost every SF book I had as a kid was in paperback, and much as I love the feel of a hardcover in hand, the arrival of the mass market paperback of my book is a source of true excitement for me.

My short story, Bank On It the first I ever submitted for publication, has been selected for the Ring Of Fire VIII anthology.

I have submitted another short, Alpha Gamers for yet another anthology, this one in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising Universe. Hopefully Alpha Gamers will see print in 2019 if not sooner.

So, for a writer of novels, it seems I am having some success with short stories...The irony flattens my ego, a bit, but it's good to be in print, so I am not complaining, not one bit!

Updaterage

The last few weeks have seen some major changes:

I went to advanced officer training last week. In past years, AO has stunk like BO. This year was a vast improvement, with useful classes taught well.

I did very well in FATS (FireArms Training Simulation). I found it interesting that I was among the best at it; not the shooting, necessarily, though I did well enough at that. No, I was able to regurgitate, with a greater degree of detail than anyone else in the squad, exactly what had gone on in each scenario. I'm not sure why. It certainly isn't being more used to computer screens and the like, as many of the squad were in their twenties, and surely played more games than I.  It might have been the roleplaying games, or the fiction writing, or it might simply be the ADD that shoves part of my brain into record mode as I game everything out in my head; one part interacting with folks, another analyzing their responses and attempting to predict and push toward the desired outcome. As I write this, I think it must be the ADD.

The week of AO ended on Thursday, beginning my vacation. Plans for said vacation include: playing some Star Wars Old Republic, some roleplaying, and generally goofin' off.

My writing is no longer represented. Things just turned out that way. My agent was unable to represent me in the way we both wanted. I say that without rancor or upset. I am saddened, but look forward to the future. So much so that I sent The Last Captain off to Baen books on Friday night. Work on the Fantasy project continues apace, and I think I am doing well at it. As in all things, we shall see.

Today was the first of the scrimmages that precede the regular season for the coed adult soccer league the Coolness and I are in. I made sure not to over do it and end up with another brutal hamstring tear like last year. As it is I played half the game and did well enough, pulling some pretty saves. I need to work on my punts and goal kicks, however. I shanked quite a few off course. Isabelle sat behind me in goal and gave encouragement, even when I blew it. The Coolness had a good game as well, though both of us need some serious conditioning.

Updates

Trying, very hard, to get ahead of my obligations and try and find more time to write here.

As part of the research I am doing for a short story I am writing, I'm reading 1632, by Eric Flint. An enjoyable read overall, intense in places and a bit of a romance in others. Writing even vaguely historical novels is hard, and he does it well. As the short I am working on is set in a relatively unused corner of his universe, I have a bit of leeway. Still, I have a lot of fact-checking to do to ensure continuity with my reading of the history of the region I've chosen and Flint's alternate universe.

The Last Captain is with my friend. He needed a few weeks to even begin an assessment of it. Waiting of this kind is far easier on me than waiting for word from the publisher was, mostly because I know I am imposing on his very limited free time. I have high hopes I will be able to fix what's wrong with the piece.

Soccer has been a mixed bag. The second game was a bit of a disaster for me as a coach, with my inability to get through to one player driving me to distraction. We have lost the last few games, but the girls are showing steady improvement, playing well and playing well together.

Gaming has been going quite well. The Greedy Little Bastards have been renewed over the last month, with old players returning to table and old friends joining the game. The characters have pulled up stakes, and at last arrived in the big city.

Work is, as usual, work. The childish behavior of adults never ceases to amaze.

Home life is good.

All in all, not so much to whine on about.

I would still like some cheese, if you please.

Updatery

Not much to rant about today.

I had a good weekend, watched UFC 126 at a friend's place with a bunch of his other friends, whom I did not know. 'Twas a very pleasant time, even if the fights held almost no surprises in their outcomes.

I wrote 2,ooo words this morning on Bridge of The Broken, a pretty mean feat for my slow typing ass. This is good as, due the stress of waiting and some financial difficulties, I haven't sat down to write with anything like my post-WFC zeal. I finished the first three chapters today and, for a miracle, I know where things are headed.

When tempted to whine and ask for some cheese to go with it, I consider those of my friends facing real hardship of late: Several are looking down the barrel at the break-up of their marriages, and two have their mothers in hospital.

Here's hoping that whatever happens, it isn't too much to survive, hearts intact.