Since it’s almost Christmas and the New Year is lurking just around the corner, let me take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays.
I’ve been busily working RoH3 into something other than a 300,000-word monstrosity, which is what’s staring back at me if I’m honest about what it would take to get everything in. So I’ve taken to Aeon Timeline to figure out which storylines I need to pull and which ones I need to focus on. Having too many ideas to work in is actually a good problem to have. So before I dive back into the Aeon, let’s look back at the past year.
Way back (yikes, it is way back) in June, the Robosoldiers: Thank You For Your Servos1 anthology came out from Baen Books. Resilience, my short story about a woman with an AI-implant in her brain for her PTSD is in there. I’m particularly proud of it. We get a lot of stories about heroes fighting on the battlefield, and far too few about what is often a far more extended fight, the one they fight after they come home. The Military Times reports that the real number of daily veteran suicides may be as high as 44. That’s 44 veterans a day taking their own lives. That is 44 too many.
My story is a hopeful one with a happy ending. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I hope that you will. And check out all the other great stories from the best names in mil sf. (Psst… I’m THE girl in the bunch. This makes me very happy).
I also had a short story in the The Haunted Library Anthologies: Volume 22. It’s called The Knowledge and twists the haunted library theme of the anthology a bit—okay, maybe a lot. There’s a reason we say “Ignorance is bliss.” It’s because there is a price for knowledge, whether it’s facts or wisdom, something we often forget. It is very much a character-driven story, i.e. no Hulk! Smash! in this one.
And then last, but not least, the best thing about 2022 writing wise:
My newest space opera, called Threading the Needle, will be published by Baen Books in October 2023.
Talia Merritt, a wounded veteran turned bodyguard, joins forces with her old sniper partner. Together, they help terraformers fight a rival who is trying to steal the secret that will bring the newly colonized planet of Gōruden closer to independence from the corporate nobility running Earth.
I don’t have a cover for you yet, so here’s one of CorgiSan right after he turned in all of “his” edits. If you want to stay up to date on when it’ll be available for pre-order or be notified when eARCs are available from Baen, please sign up for my newsletter here.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I started a Substack. That too is, technically, writing, and as we all know, technically correct is the best kind of correct.
Thank you all for your support, and a double thank you to the paid subscribers who’ve gone the extra mile. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate that you did.
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This is the best news I’ve heard all day, yes, that sounds Cliché on my end too, but it is the best news I’ve heard all day. Its Christmas time, I’m always busy at Christmas time. This year is trying to be crazier than usual, starting with the attempted bull release at Thanksgiving, which has snowballed, but I’ll post on all that later. The last two mentioning’s, are new to me, although I knew you were involved with other writing projects besides ROH. I’ll have to check out the short story, and put the other on my reading radar. You have several sub stack postings I’ve not listened to yet, and you know I will, at some point. Anyhow, I’m going to be unPC for a moment and wish you a Mary Christmas, however you might choose to celebrate, or even not celebrate the event. May you, Rich, your human kids, your not-human kids, be well for the rest of this year, and going into the next… at least that is my hope.
Congratulations on all your new work in print!