It’s winter in Ohio. I had to use my snowblower twice in the last week, and you know what? I’m already tired of blowing snow. Did that tiredness translate into a lower word count? Also, since I’m writing the final third of Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed, it’s about time to start brainstorming on the next series. Which part of my universe will I choose for the next trilogy? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators before we take a look at those questions.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
My word count was almost the same as last week. I’d prefer more, but I can’t really complain.
After a rough Monday (we had around five inches of snow) and other Real Life Family Events (RLFEs), I flamed out on Thursday night. I couldn’t write a single word. I’m also to the point in the plot where I had to jump back and adjust foreshadowing in previous chapters, so that slowed me down a little. Still, I remained over 10,000 words, so I won’t complain. Except passively. Which I just did.
I’ve talked about this before, but I think it’s worth repeating: this week, I ran into a situation where I knew something about the plot wasn’t working. Years ago, that would have derailed the entire project. I might have quit writing the book entirely. But now that I’ve finished eleven books, I knew what my subconscious was trying to tell me. Namely, that I needed to foreshadow a couple of details to prepare readers for a revelation made by Trent Raven and Takeuchi Mai.
I want to surprise readers with some developments. But I want the surprise to be followed immediately by them saying, “Oh, yeah! I remember such and such detail from the beginning of the book! This makes perfect sense!” I never, ever want a read to feel cheated; conversely, I want a careful reader to feel rewarded for remembering details.
Bait and Bleed has a few more twists I’ll need to shore up. I’ll tell ya — I’m feeling the effects of a full-time job, family support, and writing novels all at the same time. I’m having a hard time remembering who knows what when. That’s kinda important when certain plot points turn on those details!
What’s After Dreams of Deucalion?
A Corner of the My Universe Still Out of Reach
I wanted to write a story centered around Dek Conrad, Matsushita Sachi, and Mariam Al Khatib. But moving that story forward means I have to invest a lot in developing the Evil Volitional Entities (EVEs). I started down that path, and I know where I want to go with it. But every time I thought I was close, I realized I needed to flesh out a whole new set of details.
I got stuck researching theories relating to dark matter, dark energy, and gravity. The field’s beyond my understanding in general, but from what I gather, it’s getting close to a breakthrough. For my stories, I want to integrate one observation, namely that the universe is expanding with the current explanation requiring dark matter, into the EVEs.
But I can’t connect all the dots in a way that make sense. I just couldn’t do it. Then it occurred to me: the ending of Bait and Bleed will leave that corner of my universe ready for another story. Plus, a kind soul left a comment on The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak:
Well Owen and Amaterasu have started what is hoped to be the embers of the fight back against the new nazis party. But will it be enough?
Return to Bilskirnir with Owen Payne
That means there’s at least one reader out there who would like to see that story continue. I can’t ignore that! So I’ve started working with that as the starting point. It’s going to be tough. It’ll be difficult for Owen Payne and Amaterasu to do anything on the surface of Bilskirnir because of what happened in The Sword of Sirius. In fact, I’m struggling to come up with something exciting and realistic.
But that’s enough to get me started. I think I have a title: Wayland’s Forge. It’s based on the legend of Wayland the Smith. As it stands now, I plan to tell the story as a trilogy:
- Book 1: Conventional Forces
- Book 2: Resistance Movement
- Book 3: Lines of Operation
I want the story to work within a certain mythos, and Wayland the Smith seems to be a perfect starting point. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
But to do it right, I need to address an elephant that’s been in the room. Otherwise, the story will fall flat.
Luisa Brunner leads the fleets of Bilskirnir. She, like most of the people on Bilskirnir, is a Nazi. I’ve danced around some of the issues this raises, but if an appreciable portion of the action is going to take place on the planet’s surface, then I need to show what I think about that political party and its fascist roots.
I don’t need to be preachy. But I need to present the activities in a realistic way. For example, the factors that made Germany such a fertile ground for Nazism have been well-documented. I have to show what those factors would look like when there’s no real economic scarcity. So, I bought the audio book version of Goering: : The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader to help me prepare.
I picked Goering because he was influential in the foundation of the secret police and SS. Within the story, I chose Moritz Lehner as one of the leading characters, and he’s in that world’s version of the SS. I wanted to know what drove Goering. Why’d he chose that path? What factors in his life led to that decision? What are some characteristics those people had in common? I want the story to explore what that implies about Lehner’s character. I want to weave those ideas into the new series.
A Note about Themes
I don’t like to talk about the themes I try to insinuate into my books. I think that’s common among writers. We’d prefer the story speak for itself. But this is an important topic to me, given world events (and events within the USA).
The short version of the theme can be boiled down to: fascism and Nazism are bad. It doesn’t matter if they reduce the number of deaths they inflict. By their very nature, both movements are bad. They are evil.
Those ideas are there even with Luisa Brunner, especially if you remember her from Evolution’s Hand Book 5: Split Infinities. But in The Sword of Sirius, the focus was on her abilities as a general. Her position on a spaceship blunted the implications of her ideology on the world around her. But I decided it was time for clarity.
I never thought the idea that both fascism and Nazism are bad would be controversial, and maybe they’re not. Maybe I’m misinterpreting the words, actions, and impacts of some of the individuals and groups coming to power. But I’m given to believe that in certain circles in the US, they’ve forgotten that the Nazis were the bad guys. I want to make a clear statement that yes, they were bad guys, and yes, they are still bad guys. No matter what certain intelligence agencies around the world want us to adopt.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Finish Trent Raven’s second Midpoint chapter: Done!
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Midpoint part III: Done!
- Finish Raven’s Midpoint part III: Done!
- Finish Raven’s Pinch 2: Not Done! I moved Janczak’s Pinch 2 ahead of it.
- Start Janczak’s Pinch 2: Half done! I split this into two chapters, and I finished one of them.
- Take delivery of Miblart’s cover for Special Recon: Done! And I love it. Miblart did another great job. I can’t wait to share it with you!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2025 Week 03
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Pinch 2 Part II
- Finish Trent Raven’s Pinch 2 (it’ll likely split into two chapters)
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Pinch 2
- Start Trent Raven’s Plot Turn 2
- Plan how to reinvigorate my newsletter
What Do You Think?
Do you like to talk about your themes? Do you prefer to let your stories speak for themselves? I’d love to hear about your reasoning in the comments!
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