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Winter Dregs

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the last few days craptacular, but they’re far from splendid.

A few days ago one of my wife’s uncles passed away. In my own family that would be distant enough I probably wouldn’t know the fellow very well, but in her family I’ve met the man numerous times and stayed at his house. He was, simply, a fine human being and it’s terrible to lose him.

I discovered a different kind of loss a little more recently — my truck won’t turn over. A warning light with a lightning bolt is on, which informs me that the Electronic Throttle Control has a problem. The shop can’t tell me what that might mean, apart from the fact it means I’ve just had to call a tow truck to drag the truck away. I’m not a praying man, but I do have fingers crossed that it’s not going to be an expensive repair, as it’s been a while since I had either a royalty check or an advance.

Identity Thievery

Right before the end of the year in 2014 my wife and I went shopping at a department store and took advantage of an after Christmas sale to get her a necklace. It wasn’t tremendously expensive (I think it was under 50 dollars) but when the clerk asked if we wanted to save fifteen additional percent by opening up a store credit card, we said sure.

And that was our mistake. We weren’t to learn about the mistake for many months, and we’re still paying for it.

An employee at the department store’s call center had a very similar name to my wife’s, which apparently led her to believe she could steal my wife’s identity. With my wife’s information this stranger proceeded to buy two new cars and then went on a credit card rampage, signing up for whatever she could lay hands on. I was a little confused when I started receiving phone calls during the day in early 2015 asking if we had opened credit cards, but they sounded so much like phishing attempts (they usually asked for our personal data) I didn’t think the people I was speaking with were real company representatives.

Full Tilt Wednesday

Drafting this new, eh, draft, is going so well I didn’t want to take too much time out to create a post for the day, but I did want to stop and thank all of you who joined in the Conan re-read. Bill and I enjoyed sharing our thoughts with all of you, and exchanging opinions.

I also want to thank Bill, who’s simply a brilliant writer. His insightful comments were a huge factor in the success of this re-read. But then he’s a brilliant guy and it’s a pleasure to name him my friend. He’s been talking about getting back to fiction writing, and I’ve been trying to encourage him in that route. The rest of you should as well. The problem with being named “Bill Ward” is that there are apparently a whole lot of creative folks with the same name, which makes it hard to launch your writing career. If you perform a search for his work, you’re apt to turn up someone else. He may have to start drafting under a pseudonym.

January Wrap-Up

February’s here. That’s hard for me to believe. One twelfth of the New Year is already over, and it was a blur. But looking back I suppose it’s been a good month. I have managed to not be nearly as pedal to the metal and have been taking time to relax on many evenings, something that didn’t happen much the whole back half of 2015.

Over the weekend I finished my friend Ian Tregillis’ new novel in manuscript and found it delightful, and later I finished a short Merle Constiner novel. He has only a handful more that I haven’t read (well, 8 may not normally be considered a handful, but they’re all quite short) so I’m going to read something completely different and pace myself.

Captain Nemo Sails Again

We’ve had a few too many adventures here at Jones central lately. My son had a spin out on the highway on the way back to college. He was alright, thank goodness, but the car was damaged enough that we had to take him up the rest of the way, stay the night in his college town, then stop in the college town where he’d had the wreck and see about getting the car fixed. Fortunately no permanent damage was done, although the price of new tires was nothing to sneeze at, and then we headed home.

Bill Ward and I are getting close to the end of our great Conan re-read and after having to write essays about so many tales we’re going to take a little breather, but we’ll be back to read more great adventure fiction.

Cool Gifts

We had a nice Christmas here at our little tower upon the Sea of Monsters. I’ve been a bit under the weather for about a week, but it didn’t hit hard until late Saturday night, which meant I was free to enjoy Christmas with my family and extended family and spend some time with some close friends Saturday evening. Sunday I was laid pretty low, although I’m good enough now that I can climb up an old ladder to clean out some gutters. Yay for that.

Whilst lying around I did some reading for fun. I have a friend’s story to edit but didn’t feel clear enough headed to attempt that, so it is slated for this week.

I thought I’d share my gifts with the wider world. My wife and I really only exchanged a few this year, owing to the fact that the oven and the TV both went out recently. So, for instance, I got a new one of my favorite shirts (like the one I’m wearing in this photo at Kew Gardens, where we THINK Carl Sagan might have been sitting in the original Cosmos) but my wife actually ordered it for me way back in September when there was a huge sale at SCOTTeVEST. (Speaking of which, they’re running a huge sale right now, through January 4.) Not only do I like the fit and the look, it has scads of pockets, which is great for the traveller, and convenient regardless.

Web Thoughts

It’s always a little strange to me that I maintain a web site. It’s not something I ever planned to do, but I was told, some time ago, that a writer really needs to maintain a presence out here in the world wide web, and so I do.

I’ve come to enjoy it for the most part. I love the opportunity to meet other folks who enjoy the same kind of stuff I do, and to work with fine folks like Bill Ward and Chris Hocking and discuss some excellent forgotten fiction.

Occasionally I get a note from someone who really found one of my writing posts helpful, and that’s always quite nice. My most successful post, ever, seems to be the one I wrote about a prayer to the muses for inspiration, and it continues to pull in people who have no interest in anything else on the site, but who found that prayer of use. I’m glad of that.

Some days I’m just too busy to post anything, especially when deadlines loom. Some days I find I have nothing to say, and some days I actually have a WHOLE lot I want to say and am short on time. I guess I’m always short on time.

And then sometimes I go to bed feeling just fine and wake up with every joint aching. Like today. No fun, that. I sure hope this is a 24 hour virus so that I can get to enjoying some holiday time off when it hits. For now I’m going to get some food in so I can take some ibuprofen, and then get back to my “honey do” list.

I’ll try to be more entertaining later in the week!

For now, here are some interesting links:

First, James Reasoner looks at another great Leigh Brackett story.

Second, a great Savage Sword of Conan discussion. I laughed, I cried, well, I don’t think the latter, but it’s a neat place to visit if you’re curious about how well various stories hold up.

Ghost in the Cogs

Who has opposable thumbs and a story in Ghost in the Cogs, a steam powered ghost story anthology?

Well, me. Also some other fine and talented people, including my friend Liane Merciel. It’s the first time in years I’ve had a story published that didn’t feature Dabir and Asim or one of my Pathfinder characters. In this instance, it’s an alternate steampunk world with zeppelins and haunted temples and a sort of Robin Hood , Gentleman Jim, who adventures with his trusty second story gal Big Jane. They get into a scrape when they’re hired to steal a fabulous treasure that turns out to come with a few drawbacks.

I had a blast writing it and I might draft more in the same world with the same characters.

Anyway, I hope you’ll check out the book for all the stories, and if you do, I have fingers crossed that you’ll enjoy “The Ghost Pearl.”

Podcast Guest

Last week I dropped by The Once and Future Podcast to talk writing, gaming, Harold Lamb and other assorted fiction and nerd stuff with the incomparable Anton Stout. We had a great chat, and it’s a shame that Patrick Rothfuss has a hit out on him, because I’d like to get to know him better.

Anyway, the podcast is here. Hopefully I didn’t ramble too much. I talked a little about Dabir and Asim and my new Pathfinder novel, and a little about my writing process, and a little about my upcoming new series, and other things about gaming. And maybe I talked too much. Sometimes you give me a mic and I just won’t shut up…

Swinging Along

I’m still swinging through a number of sites on my tour promoting the new novel. Over the last few days I’ve appeared at two sites, answering some of the most detailed questions I’ve yet been asked over the course of the tour.

Over at My Bookish Ways I talked about a whole range of topics, including how I researched the novel and what I’m currently reading (or looking forward to reading) who my all-time favorite writers are. My laudatory comments about Leigh Brackett were cut for space, but regular site visitors can find my musings on her in other spots on the web, and even in a prior blog tour post.

GeekDad’s Ryan Hiller is a diver and asked a lot of great questions about how I approached the underwater scenes in the book. He also took a pretty thorough look at this web site prior to the interview so he could ask questions based on what he found. For instance, he got me to talk a little bit more about some of my writing techniques and my favorite role-playing games, even a little about some of my favorite characters. That interview is here.

So, have you bought your copy yet?