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.)