No actual jetlag, but my January has certainly felt jetlagged – like my year only actually got started last week, or something. But it has, indeed, gotten started.
Quicker than Blood’s momentum has slowed down, but is still in motion – we are now looking like it’ll be completed between April and May, and wordcount should come in around 122 000 to 142 000 words. (I will attempt to write more succinctly!)
In some ways, Quicker than Blood is turning into something that connects interestingly both to Dog Country and to Mouse Cage – Erlnicht, from Edane’s MilSim team, has a fairly major role, and Troy’s Uncle Fred keeps showing up on the sidelines of the criminal goings on in Quicker than Blood. It’s interesting, the way I enjoy making all those links between distinct works.
(Of course, this may explain my love for Terry Pratchett and Iain M Banks – both authors who wrote book series built of episodic standalone books, and who loved threading things through the whole series. See the entire life story of Discworld side character Nobby Nobbs, despite him only getting to be a POV character in a few subplot scenes, or the echoes of the Iridan-Culture war that shows up in multiple Culture novels.)
My essay on generative AI – AI, the Algorithm, and the Attention Economy – which was previewed for Patreon members, has been finalized and is now up on my blog at: https://sinisbeautiful.com/ai-the-algorithm-and-the-attention-economy/
People have said kind things about it, for which I am grateful, and it was featured over at File 770 in their daily roundup for the 25th of January: https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-1-25-24-the-pixels-will-continue-until-morale-improves/This was a special thrill, since File 770 is one of my near-daily reads to keep an eye on what’s going on in SFF.
Otherwise, carefully crafting to-do lists and getting through them is the major effort in my life right now. And the more successful I am managing my time like that, the more often I get to start the day with Quicker than Blood as my literal number one priority. Sadly, things that have crawled to the top above QtB lately include everything from solder-repairing my stuff and making new years’ resolutions with my therapist, to rush-reading a friend’s manuscript and worrying about global geopolitics.
But, I’ve crossed over into my next idiosyncratic writing season, and right now, the top of my long-term goals list is Quicker than Blood. I’m looking forward to getting it done, and eventually out into your hands.
And as usual, thank you so much for your support – whether it’s being a member of my Patreon or just taking the time to pay attention to what I’m doing, it helps.
