Time for more updates -

Off the top, my brother has a book coming out. Here's the link: http://tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60462-288-1

On to other things -

Dryad4 - in my whimsical way of giving stories working titles, this is the third Dryad story to emerge. Just finished its first draft last night. The working title is Hearts of Oak which is the absolute pits for a title, but we'll see. Jen the Dryad has married, and on their honeymoon they discover a dead body. The man was killed by an axe to the chest, and his hand is stuck in a tree (in a way only a dryad can do). Jen knows right away it was done by one of her relatives.

What of Dryad3? Well, we'll see. It turned into a story much longer than I anticipated, and I hauled it back into the shop.

Welded Wing is a short story set in the Scipioverse. Translation - this is a short story set in the same world as Nick Scipio's (http://www.nickscipio.com) Summer Camp stories. Nick's stories are erotica, and are a coming of age story about a young man named Paul Hughes. Even though erotica might not be your thing, these are well-written. He's 10 chapters into Book 4, with the central mysteries unresolved: who died, and who did Paul marry. I have my guesses, but so do a lot of people.

One of the characters in a prequel is Jack MacLean, a Navy pilot. We meet him in Nereids as he and his wife Susan become the best friends of David and Beth Hughes (Paul Hughes' parents). Jack was shot down and killed over North Vietnam in 1968 (he was an A-4 pilot). Welded Wing is about the recovery of his body in 1998. BTW, the US ambassador to Vietnam (when we opened diplomatic relations with them) was an ex-POW shot down during Rolling Thunder. The POV character is a senior Navy official who had floew with Jack MacLean and was with him the day he was killed.

One of the problems of working in another 'verse is that you have to follow the canons of that place, and you seek permission, and clear it, with the owner. Scipioverse is not an open 'verse, and Nick has some pretty high standards. A number of people have written stories in the Scipioverse, and I ran this past at least one of them before sending it to Nick. Another BTW - there is no nudity or sex in this story.

Firestar - Since I last updated this blog, there have been some changes. I had originally written three chapters of Corey doing well at Command & Staff, and then going on a 'graduation cruise' where she got some final polish. Then she goes to the carrier de Ruyter so she can be in place for The Raid. Well, my story sense said no. Instead, we start en media res. She's on her cruise, and it is combat at bad odds. Corey succeeds (and loses her hand). Then, during her recovery, we get the pressure for her to quit the Navy, and we get deliberate attempts to shuffle her off somewhere out of the way so she'll resign anyway (de Ruyter). The culmination will be The Raid, but I have to show Corey being successful so the reader sees her as one of the hopes of the Families, and see her skills as a tactician.

It's slow going at the moment, but I just did a final read-through of Chapter 1, and am nearing that for Chapter 2. The action will end about Chapter 3, and then we'll get into the non-combat consequences of decisions Corey and others made during the heat of battle. There shouldn't be any, but one of Corey's opponents is the Establishment. Bureaucracy has settled in, and the Navy is seen as a sinecure.

Danielle - a story set in Three Valleys, but without the lifestyle. Dani is from Zero Phase, and is moved there to get her out of a bad situation. She has no clue about a world that evolved from the 1950s without the heavy influence of socialism and left-wing ideology on our culture. I'm into Chapter 4, and it's interesting writing. No sex, but plenty of other things going on in her life, including a growing sense of her own self-worth.

Other works - sort of in abeyance while I grappled with the holidays, got in some gaming, saw some friends, and did some short stories as well as the one about Corey. I expect there'll be more time for Corey Andersen as I've gotten these other stories out of my system.