I have a new short story out right now.

Eric S. Brown and I sold a short story to Eric Flint’s Grantville Gazette, part of his 1632 series. The story is called Chosen of the Red God and is currently available on their site for free. This is a continuation of the story of a Native American in 1635 who finds a comic of The Flash and endeavors to be as fast as he is that Eric sold earlier this year. A fun story to be sure.

Kicked butt on Kraken Mare last week, quadrupling the word count I had on the book beforehand. Fixed massive plot holes and made my lead character more sympathetic (on accident) and more identifiable for the reader. I’m finally pleased with how the story is evolving and I think the publisher will have it in their hands before Libertycon. Possibly.

I heard some wonderful/terrible news this morning as well. Someone put a whiskey distillery right next door to the convention hotel for Libertycon. To top it off, someone put a chocolate store next door to that.

…

…

Yeah, my brain exploded. Not sure if I’ll be at the convention or at the whiskey and chocolate locales.

Just kidding!

…I think.

Here is my schedule for Libertycon, by the way. I figured I might as well put it up now, since dozens of people are eagerly awaiting to throw chocolate and whiskey at me. Oh, the horror!

• Fri — 5:00PM — Opening Ceremonies: Pretty self explanatory here. Everyone is welcomed and cheered, except for me, since the tradition is to boo me (I have awesome friends who find this amusing and it… grew from one or two people to everyone).
• Fri — 7:00PM — Autograph Session: Another self explanatory situation here. I’ll have copies of both Murder World: Kaiju Dawn and The Hand of God for sale for $10 each. I’ll only have a limited number, though, so come early if you need a copy.
• Fri — 9:00PM — What’s New In Military SF?: Had a lot of fun on this one last year, and especially liked how K. S. Daniels and John Ringo got caught passing notes in class (you had to be there, it was worth it). Joining Ms. Daniels, John and I this year are Mark Wandrey and Charles Gannon. Should be fun.
• Fri — 10:30PM — Recommissioning the HMS Wolverine (DD-88): As former CO of the Wolverine, I’ll be on hand as command of the Honorverse fan club ship is pulled from the Reserve Fleet and passed over to her new CO, LCDR Gerry Martin. A nice little thing that David Weber will be helping with and a get together for the members of the Royal Manticoran Navy.
• Sat — 10:00AM — Kaiju Returns: The sequel to the surprisingly successful panel from last year. Eric S. Brown and I will hold court and answer the age old question: does the Kaiju Urban Renewal Team (K.U.R.T.) accept government contracts and, if so, when can it start on Detroit? Or D.C. for that matter. We’ll be talking about the upcoming Murder World: Kaiju Dusk as well as our own Kaiju projects, including Eric Rise of the Kaiju and my own beloved (and overly mentioned here) Kraken Mare.
• Sat — 3:00PM — What’s New From Iron Clad Press: Joining one of my publishers on a panel talking about this year’s upcoming releases. I’m actually not really sure what is coming out, though I think the Heroes All anthology is among the releases. Something DeAnna will share, undoubtedly. Joining DeAnna Manning and I are Kacey Ezell, Jack Finley and Rich Groller.
• Sun — 10:00AM — Kaffeeklatsch: Everyone is invited to sit down and join their favorite (or most hated) author or artist for a cup of java to help nurse those hangovers away. I should be there, awake-ish. Saturday night is my usual “hit every room party at the con” night.
• Sun — 2:00PM — What’s New From Sha’Daa-Facets: Talking about the release of the 4th installment of the Sha’Daa series, including my own story inside called “A Promise Made”. Joining me will be Jeff Barnes, Eric S. Brown, Rich Groller, Robby Hilliard, Dina Leacock, Beth Patterson and Chris Smith. Hopefully Chris and I don’t take over the panel while talking smack to one another (we do this… often).

Cleared to return to work after this Friday at long last. My knee still hurts but as long as I can stand and move around on it I’m going back to work. I’m so happy. As much as I enjoyed catching back up on the word count for Kraken Mare I really need to associate with people.