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Snow Dogs

Every morning I head out to feed the horses. Lately I not only feed the horses in the morning but muck the stalls, because my teenaged daughter is so busy with her school work and various team activities that she doesn’t have time to join me for afternoon mucking.

Anyway, this morning the snow had been on the ground long enough to be wet rather than dry, and the shelter dog we’re pretty sure is a husky/german shepherd mix was eager to play. She loves the snow and cold weather. She’s one of the brightest dogs I’ve ever owned, and understands dozens of human words. Yet she’s never really caught on to fetch. For her, fetch is more like seek and destroy, which makes snowball catch one of her very favorite games. She was actually waiting on the back stoop for me to come out, and then led me off towards the snow, in case I was too stupid to clue in (she does the same thing when she needs food or water).

Winter Update 2

I turned over my new book to my agent last week. The final third has some spots that are pretty rough yet, and I’ll be sanding those down after the next week. Right now I’m trying to catch up on some long overdue house organization. Thankfully gift shopping is nearly done, barring any sort of shipping shenanigans.

After being pedal to the metal on fiction writing, I hope to pick up some books I’d started and maybe start some new(isn) ones. I’ve also a friend’s manuscript to read. And I hope to do some gaming over the coming weeks. Speaking of which, I’ve picked up some great low-cost role playing books over the last month and I’ve been meaning to talk them up, because if you’re  a gamer, you need to be reading them. I like them so well that I’ll probably take the review over to Black Gate so more people hear about them. For the meanwhile, though, I’ll just say that these two products have really innovative ways to approach old school gaming, and that if you’re a fantasy tabletop gamer you really need to check them out:

Whitehack — the simplest way to run old D&D I’ve seen that also manages to accomplish all the things I was always frustrated that D&D couldn’t do. The one and only book is on sale for less than $ 7.00 through January.

The B/X Rogue — an elegant way to approach any Thief or Rogue or related classes. It’s simple, intuitive, and so clearly explained I’m simply astonished no one has ever done it this way before. Really impressive, and yours for only $1.50!

 

October Doldrums

This is launch week for my new book, Beyond the Pool of Stars. And it’s only a few days since my new adventure went to press in Pinnacle’s Savage Tales of Horror volume 3. I should be a relentless promotion machine talking about both things.

But I’m having a hard time mustering the enthusiasm.

I went in for a minor medical procedure early this morning and when I returned home I had a message that an old friend of mine had gone in for a minor medical procedure the night before. Ironic. Both things were so minor we hadn’t bothered to tell each other.

The parallel ends with me coming out alive and well. Something went wrong while my friend was under and his brain was deprived of oxygen. He died early in the morning, probably at about the time I was waking to drive in for my own surgery.

I can’t stop thinking about his child, and his sister, and his parents, and his long-time girlfriend, and her little girl, who was like a daughter to him.

The Lion of Lucca

I just finished the second Gardner Fox historical novel after loving The Borgia Blade. This one, The Lion of Lucca, didn’t thrill me nearly as much. Any time that there were tactics or battle scenes, it was great stuff. The rest of the time I was reading a romance novel from a guy’s perceptive, which meant that there wasn’t much about what anyone was feeling, just a whole lot of admittedly well-written descriptions of lovely renaissance women getting it on with the protagonist.

Beyond the Pool of Stars

I spotted this the other day. A whole slew of copies of my new book ready to be released. Not to the general public yet, alas, but to reviewers. These are advanced reading copies, or ARCs. It won’t be on bookstore shelves until the fall.

It’s so nice to have a new book just about ready to appear in print!

I’m preparing to dive back into another pass on its sequel at the same time I’m performing rather intense revisions on my new series for Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s. Much as I love the temporary title I’ve been using, I’m not sure it really works anymore, at least for the first book in the sequence. 

Letter from a Melancholy Land

Sometimes a small, everyday moment takes on special significance.

For me that usually happens after the moment has passed. For instance, a phone call with my father ended up being the last time I ever spoke with him.

Not all of those everyday moments have to be sad; sometimes they’re happy ones, like when something wonderful or funny happens when you’re engaged in day-to-day tasks.

My New Book

My new book, Beyond the Pool of Stars, is now available for pre-order at Amazon, although it won’t be in stores until October. I’ve been in love with the cover art since I saw a sketch of it last summer, but I can’t find mention of the artist’s name — something I’ll correct just as soon as I can this week.

Here’s the current draft of the back cover copy, from Paizo:

Mirian Raas comes from a long line of salvagers, adventurers who use magic to dive for sunken ships off the coast of tropical Sargava. When her father dies, Mirian has to take over his last job: a dangerous expedition into deep jungle pools, helping a tribe of lizardfolk reclaim the lost treasures of their people. Yet this isn’t any ordinary job, as the same colonial government that looks down on Mirian for her half-native heritage has an interest in the treasure, and the survival of the entire nation may depend on the outcome…

Link Man!

What with tax time approaching and me being super busy with writing, this Monday I’m just going to share some interesting links I’ve accumulated.

First up is a rather harrowing look at the terrible destruction waged by those fools from ISIS. It’s not enough that they’re killing anyone who doesn’t practice religion exactly like them. No, these tools are obliterating history because it portrays gods that haven’t been worshipped in thousands of years.

I’ve never visited Mosul in person, but in preparation for my Dabir and Asim stories and novels I’ve researched it in depth, and I feel strangely close to it as a result. I’ve been horrified to hear about the carnage carried out as ISIS has destroyed “idolatrous” statues in the Mosul museum. Now they’ve moved against the ruins of another ancient city. Because nothing’s more dangerous to your religious opinion than a bunch of old stone statues sitting in a desert. I hope some fall on them. Anyway, here’s the link.

Off and On

Today’s episode of Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 3 and the letter P.

Now here’s a special guest star to talk about OFF and ON!

It’s Been a Bad Night’s Sleep