Last November I posted about my new puppy, Xena Rose. It’s been a year since then and she’s all grown up.

Well, mostly grown up.

Here’s what she looks like now:

Xena’s my writing buddy — every morning lately she’s slept in my lap for an hour or two as I work. Of course she’s also my “you’ve done enough writing for now so take me out” buddy. That’s all right. It’s good to get up and walk around.

Considering Xena is only eight pounds, she’s been a handful. And what a comedian! If life gets too dull around here, she will actively seek something naughty to do — steal a remote control, pull something from the recycle bin, snatch a tissue from a pocket — just to stir things up. I still use barriers to limit how far she can wander in the house, because I never know what she’s going to get into. But she’s a lot of fun. 🙂

Shared from Twitter:

Does that tagline “Coming Soon” feel like a threat to you too?

Doubt and discouragement have weighed on me these past few years and sapped much of the fun of writing. The direct result is that my productivity has declined. It’s been taking me longer and longer to write, and I’m not nearly as good at sticking to a project and finishing it as I used to be. For example, right now I have at least three novels/novellas in various stages of development and a long short story well begun but far from finished.

But I’m happy to report that since attending the recent workshop, I’m feeling better about this whole writing gig. I returned home with a new sense of direction, with my optimism refreshed, and with a renewed determination to write more.

I decided to jump on the task of writing more while still at the workshop. I came up with a new idea for a story and promptly set to work on it, writing the beginning at the workshop, another long section on the flight home, and finishing it over this past week thanks to my new writing schedule.

At 7,200 words this is a long short story, but no longer than it needs to be. 🙂

I’ll read it over at least one more time, but as of this morning I’m calling it done — which is an incredible relief. This is the first short story I’ve finished this year.

Next on the agenda: Back to work on the story I was laboring over before heading to the mainland. My goal is to have that done by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Just noting a couple of recent incidents…

On Sunday, I stayed overnight in Portland before catching an early morning flight home. While I was there I received my usual daily email from Amazon, with suggestions on books I might be interested in — but this time every book in the email was on the business or process of writing, and all were by WMG Publishing. I might not have noticed this, except that I’d spent the prior week at a workshop put on by WMG Publishing on the business and process of writing. **Ahem** How did the Amazon AI know I was at the workshop?

Then on Tuesday, I used my Android phone to look up the number of our local plumbing company and give them a call. Afterward, I sent myself an email reminder (as I do). In the subject line I typed “Al” and Google suggested “Allen’s”. I accepted that and it next suggested “Plumbing” (capitalized). So because I called a phone number, the AI guessed the likely subject line of my email.

I told all this to my husband.
He asked, “Do you like them spying on you?”
My answer: “No! It’s creepy.”

But they’re not perfect yet. On the way home from town I asked Google to tell me the weather. It gave me the weather for Portland even though I’d left Portland over a day before. Go figure.

I returned home on Monday from an intense eight-day workshop on the business of writing, held on the Oregon Coast.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch have held the ever-evolving “Master Class” workshop for many years. It’s aimed at the needs of working writers and is updated each year to reflect changes in the publishing business. I found it extremely useful and I’ve returned full of ideas and new inspiration. I have a a lot to do.

Writing more fiction is my top priority and I’ve already adjusted my schedule to accommodate that. My plan is to ignore email, Twitter, and the news until at least noon. Instead, I’ll start my day by diving straight into writing — after my early morning play session with Xena Rose, of course.

I’ve succeeded at this new schedule for two days so far — yay me! — and I’ve already seen a significant improvement in my productivity.

Afternoons and evenings will be for everything else, as I gradually implement many of the new ideas I’ve gathered.

That’s it for now. More soon.

During 2017 I’ve participated in a few promotions run by Sci-Fi Bridge, an author-created group seeking to mutually expand our reader base. Sci-Fi Bridge is sponsoring one more contest that I want to share with you. Sign up for the Sci-Fi Bridge newsletter (and separate author newsletters if you choose to) during the fall giveaway, and be entered to win collections of signed print books among other things. Details are here.

Out Today!

I’ve got a new short story in the anthology Infinite Stars, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and published by Titan Books. Here’s the official description:

Infinite Stars is the definitive collection of original short stories by today’s finest authors of space opera and military science fiction, writing new adventures set in their most famous series. This unparalleled anthology also features past masterpieces by famous authors whose works defined the genre, making this a “must-have” book.

My own contribution is a story called “Region Five,” set in the Red story world. It doesn’t involve any characters from the novels, but it does follow a Linked Combat Squad. They’ve been assigned to peacekeeping duty in a tumultuous megacity, but everything has gone wrong…

Here’s the publisher’s UK website, and here’s the editor’s website with more information and buy-links in US stores.

Recommended Television Series:

When Ron’s away I tend to surf Amazon Fire TV for something new, something different. A few nights ago I decided to check out a series called Ekaterina: The Rise of Catherine the Great which I’d seen advertised in a recent Amazon Prime email. I was stunned to find this was a Russian production in the Russian language, with English subtitles. I was just as surprised to find it riveting.

The production is gorgeous, the actors are incredibly talented, and the subtitles are very well done. The latter makes the story easy to follow, though I did need to keep the remote control close at hand as I had to occasionally jump back or pause to read all the dialogue.

If you’ve got Amazon Prime, give this series a try. I’d like to know what you think.

I’ve been pondering the question of why Ekaterina seemed like more than just another costume drama, and I think that a large part of the reason is the way women are represented. The story starts with Catharine’s (Ekaterina in Russian) arrival at St. Petersburg, there to marry the heir to a throne presently held by a woman, Elizaveta.

The character of Elizaveta is fascinating — a powerful woman who is quite firmly in charge and ruthless in many ways, but not a stereotype of an evil queen by any means.

Ekaterina is similarly complex. She is presented in a very positive light as a brilliant young woman. Just sixteen years old at the start, she is naive but determined to make her new role in the world work. Ultimately she finds that task to be impossible, and along the way adapts new strategies.

Despite the beauty of the setting, the women, their lovers, their clothing, the story is very blunt about the one real purpose of a “princess bride” — she exists to bear a child who will inherit the throne. I like that this is not glossed over.

The story also engages with the incessant conflicts among the European powers, the careful political decisions in how potential heirs are treated, and rivalries at court. But this is strictly a story of the aristocracy, with only occasional mentions of the Russian people.

If Amazon Prime eventually hosts season two, I’ll be watching.

On Twitter someone recently asked, What book has changed the way you see the world?

I’ve just finished reading 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus — and it’s been that kind of book for me.

Written by Charles C. Mann and originally published in 2005, 1491 presents a view of the Americas before Columbus that is in sharp contrast to what most Americans my age learned in school.

This is a fascinating, well-researched, and well-written book. I’d read articles and extracts based on it, but the details included in the full text really drive home the author’s main points:
• that the indigenous population of the Americas before Columbus was much higher, diverse, and sophisticated than has traditionally been believed;
• that between the arrival of Columbus and the settlement of what would become the American colonies, disease swept through both North and South America, decimating these once-large populations and wiping out civilizations;
• that because of this, North America only appeared to be a “virgin continent” and relatively unpopulated;
• that Indians** acted as a “keystone species” essentially engineering much of the landscape to suit their needs — for example, burning off the undergrowth in New England forests, modifying land for agriculture, encouraging the growth of nut-bearing and other useful trees, and discouraging the proliferation of species that competed for these resources.

What we think of today as North American wilderness and the “primeval” Amazon are both, in large part, recent phenomena, existing only since disease eliminated indigenous cultures.

This is compelling stuff on so many levels. First and most obviously, that many millions of people died of disease — up to 95% of the population by some estimates – and hundreds (thousands?) of cultures simply vanished.

Apocalypse is a popular topic in science fiction. What happens to a culture when 95% of its people suddenly die off? Nothing works after that. Technology, history, the complex network of human interaction that allows food to be grown and goods to be produced and traded simply vanishes. Those few who are left will be left with very little and no real means to replace what was lost. Mann uses the phrase “Holmberg’s Mistake” to describe the conclusion of an anthropologist who studied a “primitive” Amazon tribe and came to believe that these people had lived thus for thousands of years, not considering the possibility that they were the descendants of a handful who survived a real apocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »

Before we leave September behind, I wanted to link to two online reviews of The Last Good Man.

Locus is a trade magazine focused on science fiction and fantasy and has been in print for decades. Issues include publishing news, interviews, and reviews. In the September issue — both print and online — Russell Letson reviews The Last Good Man:

Nagata has devised a thinking-reader’s future-military scenario, a highly qualified adventure in which every thrill comes with a realization of what it costs, what it says about the world that enables it, what it means to fight and kill and face death.

Read the full review here.

And at “Nerds of a Feather” (got to love that name), Joe Sherry has posted a mini-review, saying “Nagata’s near future military sci-fi is as good as it gets.” Read the mini-review here.

The Contest
During 2017 I’ve participated in a few promotions run by Sci-Fi Bridge, an author-created group seeking to mutually expand our reader base. Sci-Fi Bridge is sponsoring one more contest that I want to share with you. Sign up for the Sci-Fi Bridge newsletter (and separate author newsletters if you choose to) during the fall giveaway, and be entered to win collections of signed print books among other things. Details are here.