Ghost Dog Teaser

This is a picture I took after seeing the sketch for the cover of Ghost Dog. It features Captain Tachikoma's CASE-2XC-Mod 2 Dog standing back-to-back with Master Sergeant Ferretti's Air Force security Buster CAS-C4P.

Just a tease.

I've just received back the copy edit of Ghost Dog and my plan for the week is to go through and review all the edits. Once done, I'll send it off to my specialist Beta reader, because no matter how good my research is, a real US Marine knows the gribbly details far better than me.

Health wise, things are improving, slowly.

Realistically, I'm faced with taking medication for more than a year. Therefore, I'm pretty sure that before the treatment ends, there will be days when it will feel like two-steps-forward and one-step-back. Other than that, things are good.

WIP Update

A Moon shot from our flat window taken by my partner Susan.

OK, a quick update and status report on yours truly.

Last week I went to hospital for a review of my rheumatoid arthritis and the long and short of it is that I'm slightly less well than I thought I was. My usual response to a flare-up of symptoms is to take an ibuprofen tablet (Motrin or Advil in the States) and suck it up.

This time it seems I may have underestimated my symptoms: as in my doctor gave me slow release corticosteroid injection, then ordered blood tests, a chest x-ray, and I left with a bag of medication to start on, with a second to be added in three to four weeks (two part DMARD therapy).

So it's been a bit of a week.

But the upside is that it has clarified a lot of things that were niggling me, like feeling constantly tired and unable to sleep because of being woken by pain. And, with the clarity that comes from twenty-twenty hindsight, I can see that the problem grew over about three months, because there was a drop in my productivity.

And I also note, my archery scores. Not to mention my inability to hold tools to make models.

It may take three months to get me back to "normal," for definitions of normal that are set by age and diagnosis, but I'm determined to not let this bring me down. For a start, I know that even at my worst I can still write. Frustratingly slow, but a little each day adds up.

Projects

1. The World of Drei Mission Two is now at my Beta reader. Strike Back, the next installment is now at 2,955 words (episodes run between ten and twenty thousand words apiece).
2. Two Moons, a Gate Walkers sidequel featuring Mr. Anderson, is running at 11,532 words.
3. Red Dogs, the next Tachikoma novel, is running at 6,458 words.
4. The Bureau, my first novel that has been side-tracked by writing combat armour goodness, is still ongoing with 55,134 words, which is within striking distance of being completed.

So there's a lot in the pipeline, all I have to do is keep writing a few words each day, and while I expect my treatment will slow me down, new stories are coming. I'm having too much fun to stop writing now.

Mission One Free

 

For five days Mission One is free on Amazon.

And the sequel Regroup is only 0.99 pence too.

Blurb

Sergeant Sergei Rozhkov chose to face adversity with stoicism. He was Russian and held to a simple truth that everyone dies in the end.

Besides, there was always vodka if things went really bad.

Rozhkov had lost good people in the war. But, he didn't think that the war could get any worse than it already was.

Now, faced with a tank controlled by an artificial intelligence, Sergeant Rozhkov learns that life holds frightening surprises.

Mission One, sequel to Terror Tree, unfolds the setting of The World of Drei series. This is military science fiction that asks, what will humans have to do to survive on the cyber-battlefield of tomorrow?

Keeping Fit

That is the look of the realization of how stiff I was going to be the next day.

We've been focused on life and health, because too often we take these for granted.

Part of not taking things for granted we've been doing things outside our comfort zone: as in outside of our regular routine. We'd met John Burns, aikido sensei, when we were on holiday in Provence and had been invited to attend a seminar he was holding at his dojo: Chishin Dojo.

So last Saturday saw us bright and early to drive to Coventry.

I used to be a very keen aikidoka, a practitioner of aikido, and I was once a sempai, senior student, to Tom & Maria Helsby of Brighton Airenjuko. After I went to London, I then practiced with Sue Smith and Chris Reid of Airenjuku Dojo.

However, I haven't practiced aikido for at least fourteen years. The last time I was on the mat was to go to a course led by the late Mr. Smith.

Therefore, it's fair to point out it's an understatement when I say, it was a bit of a thing to step back into a dojo and practice again. I have to admit that I did step off the mat on a couple of occasions to catch my breath and take a drink of water, because it was just a little bit demanding, and I'm older now and out of condition.

Otherwise I think I did OK. I don't think I did anything to embarrass myself.

We drove back late on Saturday and got up on Sunday to shoot in a short metric championship. Yes, that was a thing. We were both stiff as a board, and the weather was abysmal. Needless to say neither of us shot our best. I even recorded a personal worse score.

However, last week I did write words. My records show 2,744 words.

New words. Words so fresh that no-one has seen them apart from me. I've also worked through what was blocking my progress on the next installment of my The World of Drei series. So double yay!

Quick Update: It's Hot Outside

Stating the bleeding obvious, but Britain is having a bit of a heat wave. Something to do with the sun being in the sky and all. Fortunately, we have aircon, but I do find the noise of it running a bit distracting. However, this is a First World problem, and one I'm glad to have.

The picture above is from Provence. Here because it reminds me of the ending in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. What's that got to do with anything? Well, not a lot I suppose, apart from the metaphor of the world adjusting to what is happening on it I suppose.

Bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I've been a bit distracted by health issues, so I'm behind on my work. However, while I may not be typing words like there's no tomorrow, I am back writing. I've got three projects on the go, so that when I'm blocked on one I start writing on another.

The words must flow.

Anyway, enough of me whinging, got work to do. Keep cool, drink plenty of water, and I'll catch you all on the bounce.

Back From Provence

Enjoying the day.

I've been away from my computer. We went to Provence to stay with very generous friends of ours, who spoilt us both rotten. Had a great time doing absolutely nothing.

Well, we got up late, ate breakfast, then went for a swim, ate some more, read books, and had long conversations with our friends and their other house guests: John and Chung.

Went to La Coste, a village mostly owned by Pierre Cardin, and the site of the Marquis de Sade's castle. All the villages in this area were subject to raids in historical times and are designed to hinder any attackers by funneling them through narrow streets.

Very defensible.

We also went to Goult and Bonnieux sightseeing and for fabulous meals. The French and cooking are synonymous for a reason.

Recommended.

A Year On, A Reflection on Six Months

Walking the walk.

Last year I did a six-month reflection of my writing progress. You can compare and contrast what I said then to now by going here.

Like last year I've written a bunch of pieces for the Galactic Journey blog, which is in the running for Hugo this year.

The Big Freeze (news from a UK fan)
Still Snowing (an update on UK fandom)
March of Progress (the movie, Come Fly With Me)
Bully for Conventions (BullCon: The 1963 EasterCon)
More wooden acting (The British show, Space Patrol)
Damned if they do (the movie, The Damned)

This year I've been back writing full-time, though with caveats, as the writing also covers being my own publisher, which is something new I had to learn. Learning new stuff takes time, and I fear that I'm not as quick a learner as I imagine myself to be.

And I've got to admit, my energy levels aren't what they once were.

Anyway, I tallied my weekly running totals and double checked my figures against my two works in progress numbers. There was a slight mismatch, it seems I wrote a couple of thousand words more than I recorded.

Ooops.

Still, whether it's 68,000 words or 70,000 words, it really doesn't make a big difference in the greater scheme of things, as I've failed to meet my daily target that would've reached my target of 195,000 words.

However, I note that this is still more new words in six months than I wrote for last year. So a win for me since I have another six months to write more words.

My excuses.

Lost three weeks just down to life factors that were outside of my control. Far too many hospital visits both for myself and my partner who I accompanied for her tests, and results.

Editing Strike Dog and doing a structural edit on Ghost Dog. The former to Americanize the spelling, the latter to address pacing issues (stodgy middle). Both of these books took far more time and effort than I would have thought. Worse still, doing this put me into the wrong head-space to write creatively. They just did.

Strike Dog was 101,491 words, and Ghost Dog is 91,657. All the time I spent editing those words was time I lost writing new words. A lot of new words.

So, now I shall take my excuses outside and put them out of their misery.

Positive Takeaways.

Despite all of the above I did write some new words. I've started Two Moons, which means I'm 10,728 words into my next Gate Walker novel; a sidequel to the main Tachikoma narrative.

I've effectively written a short novel in The World of Drei series, which currently runs to 59,661 words: broken down into three novelettes and a novella. My plan is to keep writing standalone stories in The World of Drei series, and at some point I will make a print omnibus edition for those who don't like eBooks.

My ability to write a story in less drafts has improved. I think it would be fair to say that both my Alpha reader and my primary Beta reader have noticed a marked change in my writing.

I still intend to have completed three novel equivalents this year. I'm half way through the year and I've done one, and I've started on the second. Getting the third requires a Plan B, which mostly boils down to getting my fingers out and write more.

But if I fail to meet my target, at least I will have written a bunch of new words.