Category: Patreon

Between the election (thank you, voting Americans) impinging on me across the Atlantic, tricky life stuff and happy surprises, writing’s been pretty rough this past month.Not stopped, or stalled out, but rough. Some good days were mixed in, and I’ll talk about the math of it all in a bit, but, the short version? This… Continue reading Remember remember there’s no 31st of November

It is really strange to be here after spending the lion’s share of the previous month writing actual story, instead of just working on endless streams of outlines. But, thankfully, thanks to Aconite Braid being a complete story in and of itself, I have actually managed to reach the end of outlines, and I’m drafting.Or,… Continue reading October Ghosts

  We’re now comfortably into September, and I’m almost three weeks into my September-January writing season.I finished up last season by putting together a series outline for my space opera project, Legacy of a Silver Age. The four books are stitched together with a lot of connections between them, and it is really close to something… Continue reading September Utterances

  This morning I got to do something very special: change my pen’s ink cartridge. It always feels a little auspicious – slinging that much ink is an achievement every time.(Also, when a cartridge-fed pen runs out, refilling it feels adult and responsible. When a disposable pen runs out, it’s always, ALWAYS frustrating. Get refillable pens!)So,… Continue reading An Update In August

  Once more, hello!So, last month’s main news was integrating my copy-edits from Jon Oliver (https://www.jonolivereditor.co.uk/), which you can see more about in the last peek over my shoulder. I’m very happy with the results and feel a lot more confident about my manuscript as a result, and, thank you all – it’s the Patreon support… Continue reading July Update

If you hadn’t noticed, and you might not have, some pretty serious allegations about harassment have been appearing across the entertainment industry. People in science fiction and fantasy publishing have been mentioned, along with the more prominent figures in comics and gaming, and... I really don’t know what to say about any of the allegations.What… Continue reading A difficult June past

  I may, or may not, have had Covid. Crazy, huh?The story goes something like this – earlier this month I developed a fever that hit me like a sledgehammer, then, thankfully, it went away. A very mild cough followed, along with some very kooky fatigue issues that haven’t entirely cleared up yet. Due to the...… Continue reading May things get better.

  I trust you’ve washed your hands. You haven’t? Go wash your hands – fingertips, backs of the knuckles, between your fingers. Lots of soap. Done that? Okay. Last time I updated you all on my progress, over here, we were at just under a million cases globally. We’re now past three million. It’s a scary number,… Continue reading April Disinfectant Showers

  Wash your hands. They washed? Okay. Chances are good that you, like an astonishingly high percentage of the global population, are in the middle of an unprecedented lockdown, or quarantine, or shelter in place. It’s a wild time to be alive. It’s a wild time to try and get ahold of groceries.Me and mine are doing… Continue reading Marching At Home

So. As my patrons know (thanks to the recent peek over my shoulder), I have been grinding my face against outlines for what is starting to feel like forever. So far, though, I find something useful to add or tweak every day, so I think there’s still a lot of forward progress happening.That’s good.Less good?… Continue reading Leaping past February

Just a quick announcement from here - as of March 31, the Patreon will - at long last - be unpaused. From now heading forward I will start to throw up snippets and whatever else I'm inspired to do alongside the work, just so there's enough of a lead-in period current patrons will have some… Continue reading Patreon back online (at last)

  So life’s getting kinda busy for me. Mostly in a good way – I’m getting hours and hours in at my keyboard, and while not all of that time’s spent writing (I just finished a 20 page world bible, for instance) it is all feeling productive and wonderful.In order to achieve that, rather than looking… Continue reading January Update (+ Thoughts about future Patreon efforts.)

  The thing about New Years’ resolutions, and why they fall by the wayside, is that they tend not to be decisions. They tend to be hopes and dreams. ‘I’ll go to the gym every day.’ It doesn’t sound like a hope and dream, but it is – it’s the result that’s the hope and dream.… Continue reading December Decisions

  Mistake tolerance. This is a term invented by Adam Savage in his book, Every Tool’s a Hammer. Naturally, as a lifelong maker and engineer, Adam Savage uses mechanical concepts as a way to frame his life philosophy. And I think it’s resulted in a very, very valuable perspective. Mistake tolerance is akin to mechanical tolerance.… Continue reading November News