News, Late Catch Up and Stuff

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Okay, because there might be ONE person left in the universe who doesn’t know this, Larry Correia and I are going to collaborate on MHI Guardian, to be delivered next year.  (Yes, yes, we’ll tell you when you can start your demands for e-arcs.)

That’s my big news for the decade.  The rest of it is small stuff.  I’m putting finishing touches on Witch’s Daughter to send to editing.  I’ve been trying to do this at the same time as writing Darkship Revenge, but the voices are too different, so I’ll try to get done with WD this weekend, so I can start on Revenge in earnest and on its own next week.

Other books that need editing include the two episodic novels, which I hope to resume in a couple of weeks.  After WD comes Dragons.  Yes, Bowl of Red will have to wait till the end of that.

As soon as I stop putting in and taking out big chunks, I’ll put WD in the subscriber area, and dragons I intend to write IN the subscriber area so you get to see the very rough draft.  Revenge is of course pre-contracted to Baen.

Yes, uncle Lar, if you wish to be beta on the fantasy too, I shall kick Witch’s Daughter your way.  The rest of my betas know who you are.

Meanwhile I’m the world’s worst friend.  The Free Range Oyster sacrificed his Sabbath-day to make the list of Hun promotion, and I got a wild hare and didn’t post it.  I’m posting it below with most contrite apologies.

And now I’m going to change 1/4 #derpfish’s water, get caffeine and produce that fiction stuff I actually get paid for.

John Van Stry

Lost Souls

Years ago Jarith was exiled from his home for purely political reasons. The leader of the Elven Queen’s armies he was shocked by this betrayal, but loyal to a fault he followed his orders and left.

But now, eight years later, he is being summoned back to deal with a dangerous problem that the Queen believes only he can handle. Still angry over his betrayal, only his desire to see his family and not have to hide his shrean heritage among the humans anymore makes him agree.

While others worry that Jarith is no longer the powerful shrean warrior he once was, Jareth wonders what became of the woman he once loved, and was forced to leave behind.

Alma Boykin

The Sweeper and the Storm

Alexi’s Tale Book 2

Which is worse: Baba Yaga’s anger or Kansas weather? Alexi’s about to find out.

All Sergeant Alexi Zolnerovich wants is to be left alone – by his commanding officer, by his grandmother’s cat, by his ex-girlfriend, and especially by mythical Russian creatures. Instead, a blizzard and Baba Yaga threaten to end his career once and for all.

But Baba Yaga might not be the worst thing hiding in Kansas…

Travis Letteer

Bayed or Treed

Travis Letteer was carried to his first coon tree before he could walk, and had been to numerous bear and cat trees before he was old enough to attend school. A lifelong houndsman, he was born and raised on the Washington Coast, but moved to Idaho when Washington lost it’s bear and cat, hound seasons. He has hunted his dogs in numerous western states, from the coastal rainforests of Washington and Oregon, to the high deserts of Nevada and Wyoming.

75 thoughts on “News, Late Catch Up and Stuff”

      1. Not sure even the faithful Huns could long stand under exposure to the “full Sarah.” Small bit of advice, caffeine first then blog. It is after all the natural order of things.
        And you know I would be delighted to beta anything you see fit to throw my way. I’m just pleased as punch that you appear to be cranking away on all cylinders again.

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          1. I started to ask if the Full Sarah would include an arty, comic movie about the women of a Portuguese village. Thought better of it. Then you said that and here I am.

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              1. You can always wear chainmail under it. I wear some as a weight vest to work and no one seems to notice. (Except that I jingle slightly.)

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          3. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN

            Sure, I’d be curious to see what tentacle hentai is supposed to be like when it’s purely written to be read and has no pictures.

            And before anyone else asks, yes I’ve tried to draw hentai just to see if I could, and it’s very hard to draw. Arms, legs, and other interactions everywhere in awkward angles. Tentacles, I’ve since speculated, are the lazy form of hentai because there is no man involved to get in the way of drawing.

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            1. “I’ve tried to draw hentai just to see if I could …”

              A perfectly understandable artistic goal. I have noticed that it seems quite contrary to the effectiveness of such genre to look closely at the pictures and try to figure out how anybody got into such positions and whether they would be at all comfortable (I suspect it depends on whether the lady in the lap is a petite 5’1″ or amazonian 6’3″).

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              1. In terms of artistic skill, drawing genitalia is really difficult to do properly. It also gave me insight as to why breast physics in computer animation is paid attention to. After all it is soft tissue, and contrary to the common descriptors, it does not much act like a balloon full of water (it’s an oversimplification, that)

                Too much ‘boing’ and ‘woob-boob’ and it just looks ridiculous and distractingly comical.

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                1. Nod. I watched a “serious” anime where the female star’s boobs were bouncing and I found it annoying.

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                  2. Too much bounce is far too distracting. SOME bounce – depending on outfit and breast size- happens, even with the most supportive bra. Excepting being covered by hard material, like metal or hardened leather.

                    The running gag with the Lineage II dark elf females was that no matter what armor they wore, no matter how much of the breast area was covered, they went boing-boing-boing-stop, especially when they did the stretch-arch-back-bend over-straighten-arch back emote. (most of the time though, all anyone ever saw of their character was camera pov from behind)

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                3. Soft tissue motion in general is one reason I can always tell they are CGI even with the best computer animations.

                  Another is the “spring” motion of running. They just don’t know how to do that right yet.

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                  1. That is actually extremely simple to animate, but the first guy who does produce good animation of it knows he will be killed by all the other animators for destroying their excuse for spending endless work hours looking at slow mo footage of babes jogging.

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                  2. Except, most gross body motions are usually motion captured, so it is actual people moving- often the person you’re supposed to be seeing, thanks to markerless mocap- so…

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  3. Is that the correct image for the third book? The copy does not make clear what the story is about (who it is about seems clear enough) nor who the author is nor whether it is included in the anthology depicted.

    When promoting a book in a series, such as THE SWEEPER AND THE STORM: Alexi’s Tale Book 2, it might be a good idea to tell those of us with more permeable memories what the prior books in that series were.

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      1. Another nit… Is the last blurb about the book, or about the author? I haven’t had time to look at all of them today.

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        1. I just take the blurbs as they’re listed (or as they’re sent to me, if the author wants a different one). I only edit or write copy for money*. :)

          * Full disclosure: this is not true. I created a drink menu for my SiL’s birthday party recently and ended up writing marketing copy for each entry. My brother’s response: “Of course you did. I’d be worried if you hadn’t.”

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          1. Did finally have time to take a look at (and may get it for the future son-in-law – I don’t do dog hunting myself).

            Yes, that is the normal blurb for that kind of book. It was just confusing on low caffeine to find one on this range…

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        2. The book is non-fiction, stories from the author’s life. This isn’t really the target audience, but hey, the promo was free. :)

          And the blurb matches those of other books in the subgenre. Of the thirty or so that I have all the ones with blurbs (about half don’t have any) are about the author.

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      1. Why sell one story when you can sell two?

        We get new Huns here all the time and we also have more than a few whose intent to purchase slips their minds. (I wonder why my monitor is presently projecting a mirror image of me?)

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            1. If you like what you buy & read, don’t be shy about posting a positive review.

              If you don’t like what you buy & read, don’t be shy about posting a negative review, but don’t be a jerk about it, either. Authors and readers benefit from know why a piece of work wasn’t to your liking but complaints that there were insufficient people of color in a tale set in 17th Century Imperial Russia is just gonna make you look bad.

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          1. On the other hand, the combination of the triffids’ venom and (especially) their reproductive method could easily increase the PUFF on them. If their seeds find fertile ground in which to grow, a triffid outbreak, if not quickly suppressed, could easily get out of control.

            The whole “meteor blindness” thing from the novel further complicates things, if it’s a direct result of the presence of triffids. Not even Julie could expect to engage triffids at long range, if she can’t see through her scope.

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  6. I have some news of my own. I just talked to my detailer again, and it looks like I will be going to a smallboy in Norfolk next spring. So, depending on deployment schedules, that means I should be able to make it to some cons and meet some folks. Gladden the hearts of some juvenile canines, that sort of thing.

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  7. Um, for Enigma Front, you’re showing some guy called “Travis Letteer”. No story or author by that name in that anthology. But there is an author named Christopher M. Chupik, with a story called “Grasshoppers”. ;-)

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  9. ” I’m going to change 1/4 #derpfish’s water, get caffeine and produce that fiction stuff I actually get paid for.”
    It might be really interesting to put caffeine in Derp’s water…

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  11. Hoyt/Correia team up is made of awesome. Looking forward to paying money for the e-arc AND the hardcover. YAY!

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  13. There’s one change I’d like to see made to all book plugs: if the author is a regular commenter here and doesn’t comment under their published name, could we get the books tagged with the author’s commenting handle, please?

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  15. Yeargh! Too many books… too little money! (There are worse problems to have. I had years of money to buy books and nothing to buy… that was much worse.)

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          1. Strawman Sarah was a big Mormon man
            As stereotyped by a puppykicker plan
            Othered and smothered within an inch of her life
            Because she’s a PoC mother and wife.

            But real life Sarah didn’t care even a bit
            What puppykickers say Strawman Sarah should admit.
            The more the puppykickers make up such stuff,
            The less she cares, and the less she takes their guff.

            Puppykickers, puppykickers, stuff’s getting hairy!
            Strawman Sarah teamed up with Strawman Larry!
            You can try to no award, insult Gernsback’s memory,
            But there’s greenbacks awarded real life Sarah and Larry.

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