Category: new hampshah.

bullets & links. new hampshah. worthy causes. writing.

Various mid-summer odds and ends, and an announcement

Lots of things are going on at Castle Frostbite at the moment, so please forgive my lack of recent updates. I’ll endeavor to make the blog updates more frequent from now on.

First, a quick writing update: ECLIPSE, book #5 in the Palladium Wars series, is 3/4 done at this point but currently on the slow burner because I have a contracted novel due next month that hopped to the front of the queue. (This will be a stand-alone SF novel with 47North, working title COHORT.) Both of those novels will be done by the end of the summer. COHORT will go off to the editor when it’s done for the usual round of developmental end copyedits, and I’ll share a release date as soon as it’s turned in and I have word back on the production schedule but expect it at some point in mid-2027.

ECLIPSE will be out as soon as Robin and I have edited it, but that won’t take forever because I’ve been working on that novel for a while and it has gone through what my friend John Scalzi calls “fractal edits”. Each chapter so far has seen multiple editing passes and revisions, so by the time the last chapter is in the bag, the novel isn’t a draft anymore but a mostly finished product. You should see it available for sale before the end of the year because it’ll be self-published (47North declined to commit to the last book of the series), and I am not tied to anyone else’s schedule for this one.

On a completely different subject: I’ve been asked to run for local office, and after some deliberation and discussions with the family, we decided that helping to improve the local communities and the state as a whole is a worthy cause if I have a chance to move the needle a little. I am running for the New Hampshire State House in November, as the Democratic candidate for the Grafton-18 district, which covers several towns in southern Grafton County: Enfield, Canaan, Grafton, Bridgewater, Alexandria, Bristol, Orange, Dorchester, Groton, and Hebron. It’s not really a paid position–NH’s state representatives get the princely salary of $200 for a two-year term–so it’s a volunteer community service job more than anything else. Because of that, state politics are dominated by people who are either retired or wealthy enough to afford spending several days per week in Concord on their own time and dime. New Hampshire has always had an independent streak and a strong libertarian bent, but in recent years, my home state has taken a political course that leads us in the wrong direction, and I want to help reverse it and maybe break up the one-party trifecta we have going on right now.

Everybody wants to see things change and stuff get done, but few people have the desire or the time to take part in bringing that about. I didn’t have a good excuse to say no, so I figured I should run if I could.

If you want to check out my campaign and maybe toss in a few bucks to support it, you can find it here: Marko Kloos for New Hampshire, State Representative.

(And if you live in the Grafton-18 floterial House district, come out and say hi during campaign season when I am out and about at the various Old Home Days and community events in the county. I’d love to hear your opinion on how our state is run and what could be done to improve things in our towns.)

FIRST DISCLAIMER: No, it’s not going to hurt my writing schedule, and I am not trading the novelist job for a state house seat. As I’ve mentioned, it’s a largely unpaid volunteer position, and I a.) like my day job, and b.) still need to pay the mortgage and fill the fridge, so the novels will keep coming.

SECOND DISCLAIMER: You may not agree with my politics or the party for which I am running. And that’s your right in a democracy like ours! I just don’t want to read cranky comments about how you’re no longer going to read my books because of my political affiliation or opinions. If that’s the case, just go ahead and boycott me privately. No need to exit in a huff.

That’s it for me today, and now it’s back to work on COHORT, which has a looming deadline and much work to be done on it yet. I hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

(My team made this up as a way to memorize all the towns in Grafton-18. It’s not an official campaign graphic, but I figured I’d share it here just for fun.)

books. frontlines: evolution new hampshah.

07OCT2024

The developmental edits for CORVUS, second volume in the Frontlines: Evolution series, are finished and turned in. My developmental editor is excited about this book and says it’s my best one yet, so I hope it’ll land well with readers when it comes out in August.

(For those of you wondering why it can’t be released sooner if the edits are done already—the manuscript will get a few copyedit passes now, the cover art needs to be commissioned, and then the audiobook version needs to be scheduled and recorded. It takes time to get all the moving parts coordinated.)

It’s the best time of the year here in upper New England—temperatures in the sixties, sunshine, and the turning leaves of early autumn popping their colors everywhere. My personal idea of paradise has this kind of weather year-round. October is my favorite month, and that’s not just because it’s my birth month. It’s nature’s last deep breath before the onset of the cold season, which feels like it lasts half the year up here sometimes. I’ll be getting out the snow shovels and gassing up the snowblower soon enough, but for now I am enjoying the sunshine and the crisp fall air.

I am working on a secret project right now. Once that’s turned in, I’ll spend the rest of the year on Palladium Wars #5, which should be ready for Kindle Direct and paperback sometime in the first quarter of next year. Since 47North declined to continue the series, I’m limited to a Kindle and paperback release until I’ve squared the audio rights away separately with Audible or another party. (Watch this spot for updates.)

 

castle frostbite. family. new hampshah. parenting. writing.

Gone fishin’

Girl Child likes to fish, and this is a good time of the year for it, so I have been driving her to her various fishing spots all over town in the last few weeks. I usually sit in the car or my folding camping chair while she is fishing, and I’ve come to appreciate the alibi to do some writing out of the house and away from most connectivity. We go out for a few hours, and I usually come back with a bunch of words that were written without the buzz and ding of notifications or the distraction from the dogs alerting me to the FedEx guy coming up our driveway with CLEAR INTENT TO MURDER US ALL.

The kids are still in Summer Vacation Loafing Mode, and we’ve been out with them to do stuff and enjoy their company. Switching up my writing schedule and adapting it to our other activities is kind of a nice change. It reminds me of the time when they were little and I had to get my writing done while they were napping or playing on the swing set. It’s a good reminder that art supports life, not the other way around, as Stephen King says in “On Writing”. (That’s one of my favorite books about the philosophy of the craft, along with Philip Pullman’s “Daemon Voices” and Lawrence Block’s “Spider, Spin Me A Web”.) The kids will be adults and out of the house soon enough, and then I’ll have all the quiet office time I can stand. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy squeezing in a few hundred words here and there between hitting the good fishing spots, the burger place, and the rock shop where Girl Child likes to spend all her cash. 

 

IMG 0257IMG 0256IMG 0251

aminals. mental health. new hampshah.

(The butterfly is a paid crisis actor.)

Took a walk to my favorite pond the other day, and this shot turned out pretty all right:

 

With the world the way it is at the moment, I am happy to be in a place where I can just walk out the door and be at this sort of place within ten minutes of leisurely walking. I’ve never been a big fan of exercise for the sake of it, but walking out in nature never fails to improve my mood…unlike reading stuff on the Internet, which never fails to make me anxious. However the next year or two are going to go, I’ll probably be doing a lot more of one and a whole lot less of the other.

Walking is also great for listening to audiobooks or letting your brain resolve plot knots with its background processes. The Internet is useful for a lot of things, but for me it’s mostly great for realizing it’s 5pm and I got very little done because I hopped on the information overload train all day.

My favorite season is just around the corner, and I have a plan to walk a few miles every day to really squeeze the most from autumn this year. I feel like I spent most of last year’s autumn cooped up inside because I had a novel overdue (like so many other writers in 2020.) This year, it’s all mine.

new hampshah.

The last days of winter

IMG 4313

Yesterday, I took Girl Child out to the slopes here in town for what was probably the last good skiing day of the season. Later this week we’re supposed to get a few days of 60-degree weather, which is going to melt most of the remaining snow and kick-start my least favorite season in New Hampshire…mud season. (The four seasons here are Winter, Mud, Bugs, and Fall.)

The wife got her appointment invitation for the COVID vaccine because the 50+ age group is next in line. I’ll be 50 in October, and this is the first (and probably last) time I found myself wishing I was there already. But at this pace, everyone in the country who wants the vaccine will be able to have their shot by May, so maybe we can all start going back to a semblance of normal life in the second half of the year. Social isolation isn’t a natural state for humans, and even my hardcore introvert friends are all like, “I want to travel and hug my friends!”

The new normal will be a lot different from our pre-COVID lives. I think masks will be a part of our lives for a long time to come, at least in public settings. The virus will remain, and we’ll get updated shots for it every year just like we do with the flu. But we will return to getting together in person because that’s what humans are wired to do. I know I can’t wait to see my friends and family in real life again, not just in a Muppets Show/Brady Bunch arrangement of video tiles on a screen. 

Stay safe, wear your masks, get your shot, and then let’s cautiously plan for shenanigans again.

new hampshah.

Social Distancing Summer in the 603

This is half a mile from our house. I go for a stroll down there quite often and set up a little folding outdoor chair to write in the fresh air (and away from WiFi/LTE.)

Other people pay money to come here on vacation, and we get to have this any time we want. I won’t get to see many of my friends and family in person this year, but if you have to stay socially distant, this place is far from the worst for that.

castle frostbite. health. in the news. new hampshah. travel.

Emerald City ComicCon update

Due to health concerns related to the current coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak, my publisher has decided to cancel their participation at Emerald City Comic Con, so I won’t be in Seattle or at ECCC next week. (Sorry if you were looking to come to panels or get a book or two signed.)

In related news, we just had our first confirmed COVID-19 case in my state, and it’s someone from my county. That person is an employee of the local university hospital, so there’s a good chance people in the Upper Valley are going to buy the local grocery stores empty now. Alas, we here at Castle Frostbite are homebodies even in the most favorable conditions, and we are out in the country, so we are in a good position to ride this out.

 

new hampshah. weather.

I’m totally trademarking “color kablooie”

October brings the golden days of autumn, and the last two days have been Chamber of Commerce tourism ad weather. We’re a little late for peak leaf season this year, but the first frosts just hit a few days ago, and now the leaves are in full Color Kablooie mode.

This is my ideal weather–cool nights and crisp 60-degree days. Find me a place on the planet where it’s this weather and scenery all year round, and I’ll move there next week.

frontlines. new hampshah. photography. the palladium wars. writing.

Non-Euclidean geometry, fall edition

 

When I need to let my brain’s background processes figure out a story element or untie a knot in a chapter, I take a walk in the place you see pictured above. It never fails to work.

In other news, I just turned in the edits for BALLISTIC, second in the Palladium Wars series, and I think it turned out very well. In fact, it may just be the fastest-paced plot I’ve ever managed to squeeze between the front and back covers.

Next on the production schedule is Frontlines #7, which will take me the rest of the year to finish. The title of the seventh Frontlines novel is ORDERS OF BATTLE.