I need to get better at updating more regularly. There are dozens of people wondering what’s going on.

I keep starting, then stopping, an essay on the Ukrainian-Russian War. I don’t have all the information, which means a good chunk of the essay would be based on my own historical knowledge, presumptions, and prejudices of the region. Mostly though, I’m appalled at the way our elected officials here in the states have reacted. It felt like this was something which could have been avoided but we deliberately picked the worst possible choice every time. It’s like those old “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels but instead of trying to have the “good” ending, you deliberately screw it all up just to see what happens.

I mean, the very idea that we shared sensitive military intelligence with the Chinese Communist Party in hopes that they would help prevent a war is ludicrous… and, as proven by the CCP sharing the information with Russian, did nothing. Meanwhile, we waited until the last minute to share it with Ukraine… you know, the one country who could have used it. **sigh**

Why we continue to operate under the presumption that all the other countries in the world want what’s best for others and not themselves boggles the mind.

In publishing news, turned in the short story Hard Bounty only a few weeks late **cough cough**. It’s going to be coming out sometime in May or June I think, and will be featured in WE DARE 4: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE, edited by Jamie Ibson and Chris Kennedy. It’s another Quintus Fox story and picks up directly after his last story, which was in AND THEN IT GOT WEIRD. I’m supposed to be working on a Last Brigade Universe (created and edited by William Alan Webb) short story but I’m struggling with it. I think part of the problem is I don’t really know how it ends yet, and I hate when that happens. I mean, I’m a pretty creative writer — meaning I don’t usually heavily outline, but prefer to just go with the flow of the writing and see what happens. However, I usually at least know how it’s going to end first, which basically means I have no idea how it’s going to get there (and the fun discovery part that happens during which is what makes me tick as a writer). For this short story, I had the beginning and the character, but I had no idea what the end-game was. I still don’t. Ugh. I’m already two months late turning it in, too.

I’ve been tinkering around with ON A CLOUDY DAY, the next 4HU novel I need to have finished in short order. Fortunately it’s already partially written (including the ending!) and involved everyone’s favorite “tiny fierceness”, Sunshine. I should have this one turned in by early April. I like the ending. Hell, I love Sunshine’s entire arc throughout the series. From what she started out as in SONS OF THE LION to what she grew in to during DAUGHTER OF THE PRIDE, it’s almost like watching your own child become an adult. Watching her struggle hurt as much as enjoying her successes have. Yes, I’ve grown quite fond of my little enigma.

Then… the writing schedule becomes a little more nebulous.

I’d originally planned on having all of the Kin Wars books turned in by the end of the year. However, I haven’t heard from the cover artist so I figure there’s no rush to get them done. I really want to get the new covers down before I move on with the series. Since that’s sorta bottlenecked at the moment, I’m skipping ahead and working on things I didn’t think I was going to get to until much later. One of those is a Top Secret project set in someone else’s universe. Another is a trilogy set in the Salvage Title Universe created by Kevin Steverson. I’ve talked about the latter before, but the former is something that was only brought to me about 2-3 weeks ago. The green light is lit, mostly. I just need to actually write it, and make it good.

In the meatspace thing, the house in Virginia officially closed last week, so that’s done. Yay. It’s not that it was a bad house, mind you. It was just located in the wrong town. If I’d had that house here in North Carolina, I’d probably be still living in it. Or I would have sold it for $350,000. Hard to say. The housing market is nuts right now. I saw a thing on the news where a local house was listed for under $200,000 and there was a line around the block for it. Nuts. I’m still predicting a partial real estate collapse this coming fall/winter, but I’m not sure how that’s going to affect this area. Houses are outpricing buyers and yet somehow they keep selling. I’m thinking a lot of these houses are being snapped up by rental companies in anticipation of the coming collapse, and they’re going to make a fortune when they can charge $3,000 a month for rent. We shall see.

Cats are adjusting well to the move. The neighbor living below us has like 15 bird feeders out so we have all sorts of wildlife wandering about. Spotted a few deer, one overly friendly fox who likes bread, and every bird within a 6 block radius probably knows about the Bird Feed Lady. Plus, we backdrop against one of the greenways here, so even though we live in the middle of a city, it feels like we’re in a small town. I’m really liking it.

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Light-years away, his brother, Special Agent Andrew Espinoza, is recruited by a clandestine intelligence agency known only as Project Jericho. He must go deep undercover to find a dangerous threat to the Dominion of Man and eliminate it before it’s too late.

One brother fights to save his love, another to defend his nation, and both to save human civilization.

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