The State of the Writer

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

First, points of order relating to the recent fundraiser: We have now cashed all checks received. If we didn’t cash yours, we didn’t receive it.

This relates to being asked by someone what happened to a check last year which was never cashed. If not cashed, it wasn’t received.

We know some checks disappear into the ether because a check from a supporter who has since become a fan disappeared in the first fundraiser. Since it was substantial, she contacted me, and we’ve since become friends. But yeah, she voided that one as we have no idea what happened to them.

Wait, some of you send stuff late. So if in the last two weeks, we probably didn’t get it yet, but the other ones we collected and took to the bank this weekend. (For reasons, it involves a trip of around 3 to 4 hours. And while I KNOW we can do it on the phone, neither of us like doing it on the phone, so– We try to do a banking trip once every couple of months, unless it’s absolutely necessary to do it more often.)

I’m also probably going to run another fundraiser in November, as a number of you asked I do that. If y’all think this is crazy tell me in comments. Some of you maintain it’s easier to have at least two widely divergent in time fundraisers, because people donate more in two small chunks. (It’s easier on the budget.)

Still relating to fundraising: one of you sent me a SASE and asked for answers on how to get published. I will answer that soonish. It’s … complicated and depends on what you want out of publishing. If it’s money the answer is “Go indie,” but unfortunately guiding someone through that is not easy, simple, nor can it be done via snail mail.

WHILE ON THAT: Someone last year sent me a small pack of coffee and asked me not to try it till I’d emailed the email enclosed for the backstory. I emailed. Twice. No answer. Now keep in mind my hotmail is flakier than heck. So, if you’ve been answering, I haven’t got it. (On that and as a permanent thing: if the email that’s out in the ether does not work, try the book promo email. If neither of those get you to me, my assistant’s email — which I think she’s posted at times, for various submisisons — will get you to me. If nothing else she has my phone number and can voice-nag me.)

And still on fundraiser but sideways: If you’re a subscriber to my substacks or patreon, I honestly am not ignoring you and THERE WILL BE POSTS this week. To explain, and relating to the state of the writer, we have been pursuing some symptoms that make no sense, and right now all tests have come back very clear. The symptoms, which include waking in the middle of the night in a panic, and anxiety and depression not related to ANYTHING psychological might have a physical cause (it’s the sort of thing that recedes into nothing, the more you approach, but sometimes there is a very odd physical cause, and sometimes a life-threatening one, hence all the tests. It is apparently often a sign of hidden cancer, and since all forms of cancer gallop through dad’s family line, we’d like to eliminate that. Though sleep problems are first on the line.)

In the end, it might not be physical, but the last four years country-wise (or if you prefer, career wise, as far as I’m concerned, the last 9) and PTSD and such. I’m taking steps to deal with THAT anyway. But you know… medical tests eat your life. So it’s sent my ability to get stuff done in a reasonable time into a vortex of crazy.

At the same time we’re dealing with dual bureaucracies relating to getting younger son to have a wedding that very aged, not in great shape grandparents can attend (My parents. His other grandparents are gone). I’m entirely unsuited to dealing with ANY bureaucracy, much less two. My reflexive answer is to hoist middle fingers and scream “You’re not the boss of me.” Curiously that doesn’t work well. But we have a pathway to get it done, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll visit and son will get to introduce his bride that he’s (justifiably) so proud of. And the world will go on. HOWEVER it’s still taking up a lot of cycles and “Today we have to file this.” Which is tiring for everyone, particularly me, as I’m the one who can deal with ONE side of it.

By early October it either happens or doesn’t, and things will get more regular. Before then I HOPE barring you know sewage flooded basements (We were right, it was city problem, but apparently they’re sliding it under act of G-d. Ask why considering second fundraiser!) or MAJOR illness (minor is just life) to have a couple books out.

We’re also investigating non-Amazon print on demand for blog collection (this one on patriotism and acculturation) to be out before Christmas.

Other balls that have been in the air for a while, but then life got crazier: My doing regular (not sure what that means, could be every month, or every week or–) readings and interacting with fans over video/sound. A script for what will be a series of comics, largely covering the novel A Few Good Men. Finishing the next two Dyce mysteries. (The middle of the night waking up is messing me up.) Launching a series of “radio plays” for the heck of it.

These things will come as soon as I can, but it will take time.

I know I still owe a USAian stories antho, and my problem has been that having a world kidnap my brain means the new short story became impossible. But I HOPE I can finish the all consuming book this week. It’s moving again, even with lousy sleep. So probably will get that out in October (fingers crossed.)

And yes, I owe tuckerizations, but that depends on writing books set in the real world, which, yes, are coming. Again, the last two years got very weird in unexpected ways. Things are settling, in a new pattern, but that’s life.

So, the state of the writer: Guardedly optimistic. Working again. Still very tired, but trying to change things and improve habits to fight that.

Wish me luck.

61 thoughts on “The State of the Writer”

  1. “So, the state of the writer: Guardedly optimistic. Working again.”

    That’s better than “a state of confusion”. [Twisted Grin]

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  2. I’ve discovered that when I start dreaming of Day Job (not the specific, but in general), it means I need to do a gut check and reevaluate something, because the dreams are always nightmares or proto-nightmares.

    Life happens, usually all at once rather than small, easy-to-cope-with dollops. Alas! The Author seems at times determined to see just what we can take before we go “splat.” Now we know how our characters feel. Wry kitty grin and sigh.

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    2. I rarely dream. Daylight dreaming? Sure. At night, once the mental light goes out, if there’s anything there it’s bound to be memorable.

      Dreaming about the job just sounds like insult piled on injury, most like. Last dream I can recall, me and a bunch of friends were renegade godlings running from the mortal and immortal government, causing chaos and inciting revolution while searching for our other halves.

      Then I had to wake up at 3 am to go to work. Bummer.

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      1. Same here w/dreams. When I fall asleep at night, the ol’ brain tends to just go dark. I mean, there *must* be dreams in there somewhere, but I almost never remember having any. If I do remember one, that’s because it was absolutely WILD; those are very few, and I’ll remember them for years. Decades now, some of them. The exception is if my sleep is disturbed just enough to not be super deep; then I’ll remember long, vivid dreams, but only the having of them, not the happenings in them.

        Waking up at 3 am to go to work? 😱 I might die if I had to do that on an everyday basis. If I’m ever awake to see the sun rise, it’s because I haven’t slept. Not that I have insomnia, thank God; I’m just a night owl, and when my schedule is my own (alas, it rarely is) I’ll get into an after-midnight flow state.

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        1. I can sometimes remember that I was dreaming when the dream wakes me up, but remembering the contents is much rarer.

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        2. My blood sugar monitor thinks that a 4AM test is “up late”. Hell no, it’s me sleeping in. Getting up before 3AM is common, but going to bed before 9PM is equally common. 6 hours of sleep seems to be optimal for me. No idea why.

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      2. I dream, but have nearly no recall. Occasionally something peaks through, or I wake with a feeling of “WTF was that?” Thankfully almost never a wake with a start from a nightmare (can’t even hazard a guess to the last time.
        Also wake at 3am for work (been here an hour now)

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    3. “If you dream about your job, can you claim it as overtime?” :-D

      How about if you dream the solution to a problem — and it works? Done that a few times.

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      1. As have I.

        On salary alas…

        Once upon a time, I did claim a half day off “comp time” for dreaming up a solution. But since I was trying to find time to take a bucket of days off anyway, it was taken as snark.

        Alas…

        They treat me rather well, for which I am grateful.

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        1. In college as a writing major I would often go through sleep at night specifically thinking about a story or writing assignment, or paper in some other subject, intentionally settingynbrain to doicj of the work on it through the night. In the morning I would wake and use what I remembered of the dream about it to advance and sometimes finish the assignment.

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  3. I always do wish you luck. And confusion to the Portuguese bureaucrats! (Or maybe not; it sounds like they already have plenty.)

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      1. I’ve read that if you dye a monkey green and turn it loose, the other monkeys will tear it apart. A competent bureaucrat with a sense of duty would probably fare about as well as the monkey, at least in any firmly entrenched government bureaucracy; Pournelle’s Iron Rule has never been refuted.

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    2. It’s worse than just Portugese bureaucrats– wedding, plus her parents, means Catholic bureaucrats.

      And that means everything from priests to secretaries to the house keeper who minds the phone can stick an oar in.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. The sun breaks over the mountains and starts to warm the land, the same way it does everyday. The valleys sits as it has everyday since this land was made. The day starts the same, the birds and small creatures start to forage for the day. They all watch as the humans and their machines go about their day chasing the things humans chase. The creatures watch, wondering just what dreams could cause them to do the things they do. It takes little time out of their day, they have needs that must be met in the here and now. A praying mantis lays in wait for it’s prey as another human machine speeds by almost panicking its meal, patience, patience, that is always the key, patience and not giving into the fear of what might be. The strike is perfect, she will have many baby’s from this. The cycle of life goes on as the sunsets and another set of creatures move to fulfill their quest. Wondering about the humans that come out at night as they do.

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  6. Wishing us all the best of luck.

    And we’re only two months away from the election.

    I might have a Substack going by then of my newest novel series, which might give me a little more coin. Fingers and toes crossed.

    And…hopefully nothing burns down in the meantime.

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      1. I want so badly to get into apolitical hobby spaces, but because my preferred ones are nerd spaces, they’ve been infested by a particular nasty strain of infecting Social Justice Zealot that is far too concerned about pronouns and correct opinions than having fun.

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        1. Ah, but the SJZ’s idea of fun is to boss/bully other people around over such. I think that infesting nerd spaces is a target rich environment for such creatures. I am not going to dignify such as “people”.

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        2. This might be of interest to those who could be doing business with Country Financial for insurance. (They’re based in the Midwest, but cover rural Oregon and 18 or so other states.)

          Previously, they sent a mailer with their New! Improved! coverage details. Buried in the letter was a note saying that manufactured houses not on and fastened to a continuous foundation would not be covered. This sent us looking elsewhere. Found a good insurer for manufactured houses that is willing to cover fire-hazard areas. (Which is a huge issue in rural Oregon. Go figure.)

          Got two mailings from Country yesterday. #1 was the bill, considerably less than what I was charged last year (changed up 72% due to fire hazard recalculations). No declarations came with the bill. #2 was the policy. Did a quick read at the mail drop, and no comments on manufactured house. The home is covered, so they said.

          Got home and did a deep read. The house is covered, but for “damage” only. Contents are covered for various specific items, which are not included in the house coverage. Some sound a bit off: Fire/lightning. Wind. Theft. Water damage (from appliances).

          So, for an amount about the same as two years ago, I get insured for a nebulous thing called “damage”, with the likely hazards not included. Note that none of these changes were spelled out clearly, and it took about an hour’s worth of reading to get to this point. What they are doing might possibly be legal (haven’t decided about complaining to TPTB, with the local choice being the DA), but it sure as hell isn’t ethical.

          So, if you have Country for your insurer, read anything from them with a massive amount of skepticism, paranoia, and self preservation. And yeah, we’re switching our auto insurance, too. Enough of this shit.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. For amusement’s sake, here are the covered perils for contents but not covered for the residence. (“Damage” isn’t included for the contents.) List starts with #2 because reasons.
            2. Fire or lightning
            3. Removal (some bafflegab, looks like if X is removed and damaged, it’s covered.)
            4. Windstorm or Hail
            5. Explosion
            6. Riot or Civil Commotion [Sorry residents of Portland. Sucks to be you.]
            7. Aircraft (including missiles and spacecraft)
            8. Vehicles [Like the high driver post Burning Man. Entered a motel room while in her car.]
            9. Smoke
            10. Vandalism or Malicious Mischief
            11. Glass breaking
            12. Falling objects. (like that tree limb…)
            13. Weight of Ice, Snow or Sleet
            14. Volcanic Eruption
            15 Sudden and Accidental Tearing Apart
            16. Accidental Discharge or Overflow. (That dishwasher leaking? Not covered for the dwelling.)
            17. Freezing
            18. Damage from Artificially Generated Electrical Current. [More bafflegab. Not going to try to parse it.]
            19. Theft. [This one makes sense. Not too many people are going to steal a house. Maybe.]

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            1.  Vehicles

              That could be a thing, depending on where you live. About a month back, an apartment complex I drive past regularly had a big hole in the side. I found out that someone had literally flown off the road – across a median and another lane – into the side of the building.

              Granted there is a grade/hill there, but the hole was in the second and third floors!

              Amazingly, no one in the building was even injured. IIRC, the people in the car were injured, but lived.

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              1. There have been a number of local businesses with vehicular damage. The motel one was an unusual coda to Burning Man (Flyover Falls is on the most common path between the site and the urban Pac NW). More often it’s somebody who shouldn’t be driving any more who confused the location of the brake.

                The latest one hit the satellite pharmacy for the hospital/medical complex. That one got into the building and damaged shelf space 10′ inside the building. Nobody hurt, mercifully. Part of the repair was a set of concrete filled bollards to stop/lessen the impact on the building.

                I haven’t seen any cars into houses, but did work a fatal MVA where the incredibly drunk driver missed the uphill turn and ended up not zigging left but zagged into a front yard. His drunker passenger was ejected and killed. The .22 rifle they were using for drive-by shootings of road signs was confiscated; not sure if LEOs saw it… Never heard what the driver was charged with.

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                  1. Possible, maybe even likely for the pharmacy; the people there weren’t willing to say much about it. The previous one or two were at the JoAnns store. Neither penetrated, but screwed up the front wall finish and destroyed a bike rack. Not a lot of high value/portable stuff to steal there.

                    I haven’t been by the larger local gun sales places near closing time. One in San Jose had a rollup shield that would block the guns behind it. That was defeated by thieves cutting a hole in the roof. My friend kept his much smaller supply of handguns in a large safe at night. Rifles were secured by a steel cable, but this was 30 years ago. After the Loma Prieta earthquake, his son and another friend stayed overnight, since the alarm didn’t have a great battery backup and the telco lines were DDOSed most of the night. Everybody tried to call friends and/or relatives out of town. Lines cleared the next morning.

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            2. Gosh is looks like this house insurance doesn’t cover anything that is likely to damage a house.

              Really does make you wonder why you should bother to buy it.

              And I’m going to guess that “Damage from Artificially generated electricity” is “Any damage originating from your wiring or your electric vehicle.”

              Liked by 1 person

              1. The fact that they made no effort to show the drop in coverage in either the heads up letter (“see the wonderful things we’re doing for coverage. By the way, there are exclusions on page 5.”) or in the summary for the policy declarations was particularly slimy. It took work to find the attempted fuckery.

                I figure that some people are going to do a TL;DR, pay, and get the rude awakening of their life when they file a claim.

                For what it’s worth: for manufactured houses, I gather that most of the majors are bailing. Foremost (part of Farmers) handles some of them, but not in fire country. American Modern insures in fire country. AFAIK, both specialize in manufactured homes.

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            3. We switched to USAA a few years ago. No claims so far, but the policy is pretty straightforward. Don’t know if thye cover manufactured homes, but if you have any military service (not sure what all qualifies) you might want to check it out. But I’d definitely tell Country Financial bye-bye.

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              1. Foremost (part of Farmers) and American Modern specialize in manufactured home insurance. F’most doesn’t do fire areas, so AM it is. BIL’s mother shifted to them last year; she’s in a park in northern Nevada and got a heads up that her insurance would be dropped in a year. Nice agent. She’s happy with American Modern.

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        3. I remember logging into World of Warcraft on election night 2008 and seeing all the talk on one of my characters’ guild’s text chat about “hell yeah Obama” and “eff Bush” and “Republicans suck” in a space that guild rules said was a complete “no politics” zone. I didn’t start a fight, I just logged onto another character (not in the same guild). A friend who was in that guild whispered me apologizing…she was probably one of the most liberal people there (and queer, and an SJW, etc.) but she also was one of the few people that knew I was a conservative and she realized the talk ran me offline, so she apologized and told me she’d reminded them about the no politics rule. But it never stopped them. Funny thing is, I’m the only one out of that entire group that is still playing WoW sixteen years later.

          We had another one, led our raid for a while. She always talked about how she was a libertarian (small L) and a moderate. Then we found out she lived just outside Portland, OR and voted for Bernie Sanders. The morning after Trump won, I gave her a casual chat ping and her response was “don’t talk to me right now, I saw what you posted on Facebook.” I had reposted a mildly humorous Hillary Clinton meme–it wasn’t even really political and was not mean or edgy in the least. But she was so angry and offended over Trump winning that she flipped out when she saw it. She then proceeded to nuclear launch on my wife about similar things. We broke contact with her after that. A few years later she died of cancer and we read on Facething all the encomiums from mutual acquaintances about how sweet and kind and awesome she was. To everybody except those on the Right, apparently.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. “If you don’t support BLM…” They actually put that one in the new guidelines, and made the fist their new logo. They pretty much required confirmation from everyone that you agreed, or get out. I got.

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  7. Take every test you can, including those that the doctors don’t think are necessary. My own cancer didn’t give any symptoms, except a general feeling of “lack of energy” which was more easily explained by hypothyroid, type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or the medications for all of the above. Still, I had a persistent feeling that “something” was wrong, beyond the above health issues, for nearly 2 years. Then one day I had a slightly upset stomach with a bit of stomach pain and a total loss of appetite. When it persisted a second day, I went to my doctor. He thought it was nothing more than stomach flu or food poisoning, but he gave me an order for an abdominal ultrasound in case the symptoms persisted. They didn’t; in fact, I got my appetite back that evening (of course) and felt fine the next day. But, since the order was there, I decided to go and have the ultrasound done to see if it might reveal anything. It did: cancer in my right kidney.

    Six weeks later my right kidney and some surrounding tissue had been successfully removed. Analysis showed that the cancer had not spread outside of my kidney, and other than annual tests I haven’t needed any follow-up treatment. But I was totally lucky: lucky that it had not spread in the 2-3 years that it was growing, and lucky that a test intended for another problem found it. But, that I was alert to the possibility of “something wrong” and decided to look for it, was my own pure paranoia.

    My entire point being, sometimes it pays to be paranoid.

    For anyone wondering, I’ll be 6 years cancer-free in October. I keep looking though, beyond the annual CT scans or ultrasounds that my urologist orders. Because I know, if cancer reappears in my body, it will most likely be in another place entirely. Again I’m lucky in that I have decent insurance and an oncologist willing to order the tests. But getting the testing done is my own paranoia, again.

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      1. Wait. -You- were -Infantry-?

        (grin)

        Yup. Something is always wrong, or going wrong, or will go wrong. Embrace the suck and overcome.

        (grin)

        The trick is finding joy in that happy coincidence, that songbird singing in the rain, that rush from “Missed!” or better yet, from getting in a good thump on the deserving.

        -Make- Joy and you shall always have it. -Expect- Joy and you just drown in the suck.

        -Make- Joy.

        If it is all you can do, -Fake- Joy, and annoy the Enemy.

        -Make- Joy.

        Yes -you- can.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Mom had a massive migraine (highly unusual) and when it cleared she was blind. The ophthalmologist knew exactly what it was. It was easily treated, but because it was so unusual for a 70+ white woman to have this problem (usually restricted to black women and diabetic children) he ordered other tests.

      After being cancer free since 2007, it had returned as lung cancer. Why he ordered a chest x-ray? No idea. It would seem to be completely unrelated to what he was treating.

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      1. Almost 50 years ago I was admitted to a hospital for an appendicitis. The first thing they did after admission was a chest X-ray. I think they said they were looking for TB or related lung issues. Later that evening, I was in the OR for the appendectomy. My lungs weren’t touched.

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    3. Congrats. I’m in about the same situation — I had a routine colonoscopy in 2014, but there were polyps (removed)… so I had another in 2017.

      Nov 6, had the colonoscopy. There was a lump too large to remove. Saw a surgeon on Nov 9. Scheduled the surgery for Nov 17. And it was removed and I was out of the hospital before the following thursday, which was Thanksgiving.

      1 — I now have a semi-colon. :-P

      2 — the final prognosis was “no problems”. no chemo, no radiation. And no problems since then.

      3 — Thank GOD I had American insurance. Had I been in Canada, or in Britain, with “free” healthcare, all the surgeons would have done all their allotted surgeries by then (yes, they are allowed a fixed number!!), and I would have had to wait until the next year to even SEE a surgeon… plus the backlog, so probably February or March. And no surgery until either March or April, so, another 4-6 months for it to have metastasized, possibly. Who knows how much worse it could have been?

      The moral of the story, folks:
      If there is a test you should get, take it, don’t put it off. Better to know there is a problem and be addressing it, than to hope there is no problem, and not get anything done in a timely manner that might make it relatively harmless as a life event.

      Even if it turns out that you are doomed, and that there is nothing to be done for you — at least you have warning, and can put your affairs in order. Do any of those “bucket list” things you still have time for… That’s not wonderful, but it is better than keeling over and dying a week later.

      Obviously, you are free to have a different opinion, but that’s my own take on it. If a test is suggested, do it, don’t put it off. And if there is a wavering between doing or not doing something, well… again — err on the cautious side. A negative test is just some time spent. A positive test is possibly an early warning.

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      1. Yeah, colon cancer is straight-forward if caught in the colon. If it escapes, it’s a killer. It got my dad, and his first cousin. I get checked every five years; so far, so good (Praise!).

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        1. Most cancers are straightforward before they metastasize. I know of two women with fibroids who learned after the hysteroctomy that they had had uterine cancer, too.

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        1. You and Em both…. to the point that she’s stopped getting them, even though they’ve found polyps in the past. She can barely physically drink the stuff.

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          2. They can actually just give you a pill now. Insurance probably won’t cover it (mine didn’t), but it’s not super expensive. Might almost be worth it.

            I chose not to get it, but about 2/3 of the way through that jug of slime I started to second-guess myself; that stuff is truly vile. But even as nasty as the prep is, it wasn’t *so* bad. I could do it again if I had to. Wouldn’t want to, but it’s an unpleasant experience I can deal with.

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            1. My Wife had one a couple of months ago (clear, TG). The previous times she had to drink the pink slime, but this time there was a option to use OTC purgatives instead (well-defined ones). She used that, and said it was far better than the slime. Still a PITA, but much less so.

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            2. I’ve had two so far. The first (circa 2002, as COBRA was ending) had me drink a soda/phos laxative. Not disgusting to drink and it did the job. OTOH, it’s pretty much been banned due to adverse cardiac issues in some patients. So no more.

              The second (2020), I had to use a magnesium citrate* solution. I had been dehydrated a bit, (major snowstorm and had to shovel to get out) and the prep was balky. More measures were needed, but a morning enema got it to the “good enough” category. The doc found something at the upper end and took a sample (not a polyp, but polyp-adjacent). No problems found, but Medicare freaked (“it was supposed to be a check, but He. Did. A. Procedure!” I threw the finance issues onto the hospital admin, and after 6 months, Medicare paid up. The joys of coding.)

              I’m due for #3 in 2030 unless my regular doc says sooner. Two docs do ‘scopy at the hospital, and the other one uses SuPrep, which I gather is horrible. There’s the Miralax alternative, which might not be too bad, though it’s a lot of fluid. At least you can customize the flavor.

              ((*)) Now deprecated due to non-zero chance of cardiac problems. Sigh. It was cheap and OTC, and if I’d been properly hydrated, would have worked really well without help.

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        2. Everybody hates the prep; you can only laugh about it later. They say mixing the magnesium citrate (wait, epson salt?) with your favorite flavor of Gatorade (as long it’s not red!) helps—that part at least. Dealing with the direct effects of the yucky solution? I don’t know; I might have used petroleum jelly (it’s kinda a blur, like running six miles or something).

          Just bite the bullet and do it; cancer is worse.

          Liked by 1 person

              1. Hmm. Any way to add sugars to the mix? I used Gatorade Zero with the mag-citrate; not sure what they gave me during the procedure, but I sort of remember apple juice in recovery. (Every damn time, it’s apple juice in recovery. Can I have orange once in a while, please?)

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          2. I semi-spaced. I did the bottle of plastic laxative in a large container of water followed by a smaller bottle in a smaller container six or so hours later. So, no disgusting taste; however, it was preceded by five days of diet restrictions, beginning with low fiber.

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  8. Still relating to fundraising: one of you sent me a SASE and asked for answers on how to get published. 

    If I may recommend, there is this, by Marc Alan Edelheit:
    Every Writer’s Dream: The Insider’s Path to an Indie Bestseller
    https://www.amazon.com/Every-Writers-Dream-Insiders-Bestseller-ebook/dp/B07VN2XD1G

    It is his method of “paying things forward” — he is an indy publisher who managed to cause Amazon to create a new category, “Military Fantasy” — his initial books, and much of his current oeuvre, involve a character named Stiger, who is on a different world, descended from the lost Ninth Roman Legion, which disappeared around 0 AD, in Britain. He is the Captain of a Legion (“modern” times, 2000 years after the transfer between worlds), in a world with elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes, and dragons.

    It starts out with only the elves visible in a companion he has, but the rest slowly become part of the story and world he (Edelheit) has built — highly recommended if “Romans, Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Military” sounds of interest.

    But his pathway to success (he no longer has a “day job”) is the subject of the non-fiction book above.

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    2. I enjoyed the Stiger’s Tigers series. I think it was complete, but I may have caught up with him. I haven’t read any of the prequels/sequels. Off to see what he’s published since (and read the link).

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