Moe Lane's Blog, page 642
December 11, 2021
Book of the Week: FROZEN DREAMS.
Gimme a break, I’m in a time crunch, here. Besides, the more copies of FROZEN DREAMS sells, the more often I can come out with new books. Everybody wants that, right? #commissionearned
December 10, 2021
Mostly taking a break from writing this weekend.
My numbers are good enough to let me have Saturday as a bye day. Which is good, because we got Christmas stuff to do. Starting with wrapping a present tonight, to give to my goddaughter Sunday. The Children’s Illustrated Clausewitz, Volume 1: the first printing has, naturally, sold out. But that’s all right. We have our copies already*.
Moe Lane
*It did, indeed, show up in MORGAN BAROD. Go figure… #commissionearned.
12/10/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
Tuckerization reward from the FROZEN DREAMS Kickstarter (there’s more)! #commissionearned
Patreon!“You’re in my town without asking,” Randy told me. While handing me a healthy knock of almost-guaranteed Kentucky Free State bourbon, so the signals were a little mixed, here. “Why are you in my town?”
“I don’t know. Which hat are you wearing?” I replied. “Tourista’s, the 300’s, or the Crown’s?”
Randy — or Sir Randall Fiebre Stone, depending — rubbed his head and grinned. He didn’t have a hat on, or much hair these days. “Let’s start with the Crown’s. After you finish your bourbon. I don’t drink on this job.”
“All right, Your Honor. What I’m doing ain’t none of the Tourista Municipal Court business, yet. I don’t wanna say not ever, because that’d just be asking for trouble, but the Case I’m on ain’t about Tourista. Not really. It’s just, you know, a locale.”
“Good to hear it, Shamus Vargas.” He mimed taking off a wig. “Now what are you going to tell the Stone, Seat 18C?”
“The 300 representative? The exact same thing as I did the judge, except he can drink on the job.” I poured us both drinks; we clinked glasses.
December 9, 2021
12/09/21 Snippet, TINSEL RAIN.
Flying monkeys! I FORGOT ABOUT THE FLYING MONKEYS AND THE ICEMOLD. Also, the revisions have shoved the book past the 70,000 word mark. Huzzah!
Patreon!As I approached the monster, at first I thought it was just that rogue flying monkey I had seen, the first time I left the Magpie’s lair. The old-style television set it had for a head — now cracked, and showing a distorted rainbow — would be pretty distinctive in a lineup, you understand. So would the general aura of decrepit menace. I figured the Magpie must have kept it around to ostentatiously spy on Cin City. Which made me wonder why I wasn’t getting attacked yet. These things were Dominion toys: I wasn’t sure why she would want to try to kill me this way, unless of course she was bored. That’s always enough reason for an Archmage to get nasty.
As I got closer I started to smell — well, I started to smell a bunch of things, all jammed together. There was the flying monkey itself, which was as rank as I remembered. And there was a sharp alchemical tang, too. But what really set my nose and my gorge off was the reek of icemold. It was all over this thing, the filthy stuff, and when the flying monkey moved one paw more rotting icemold fell from the rips in its arms.
I hate the Universal Dominion. I hate things like flying monkeys, because they’ve been used to beat up people for centuries. But I caught myself hoping that this poor thing wasn’t aware of the corruption it had been forced to endure.
On the other hand… I pulled my gun, and aimed it right at the center of that mocking TV screen. If this thing had icemold growing in it, the gun would work just fine. “I don’t know if you’re going to Hell, creature,” I muttered as I took aim, “but if you do, I hope they make you the roommate of the bastard who did this to you.”
12/09/21 Snippet, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO LUNA CITY.
Equipment!
Patreon!The other three were quicker to shrug the weirdness off. Jilly and Yu-Wu had found a workstation with access to external communications, and were already running diagnostics and hooking up auxiliary batteries and practicing other arcane technical arts. Joe-Bob had found a convenient place to watch the room and the doors, and was now standing guard. They all had pistols rated for vacuum, but from the way Joe-Bob held his, he was more than merely certified in firearms. Which is why you brought him along, Tobias reminded himself. The moon had never been fought over, and the last big war on Earth had been fifty years ago. Soldiers with meaningful combat experience had been rare here.
In the original plan, Tobias and the others would already have climbed five levels down, and working on the likely vacuum-locked doors to get to the spare parts. But since there was power and air, it made more sense to use the elevators. But to do that Tobias would have to get the station’s operating systems back up and running…
The “It’s a Guy Ritchie flick” OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE.
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE is a Guy Ritchie flick, and these days I am a guy who goes to see Guy Ritchie flicks in theaters. That’s the way it goes. It looks like a lot of fun, too.
12/08/21 Snippet, THE STARS ARE WRONG.
Had to do a double batch today to catch up. This story is well along its arc, though.
Patreon!The storm that followed lasted a week. A week of portents. A week of intrigues and dark designs, playing out behind closed doors and in ancient sewers.
A week of terrors.
Normally when a storm like this comes, the Guardian’s life is easier. Folk stay inside, making it easy for us not to notice their crimes. When the rain falls in Seacity, it draws away all the hot blood and anger that builds up in the streets and houses, and takes it to the sea. The sea is always hungry for what the city gives it, and our pain is no exception.
But this time the downpour brought no relief; it was hot rain, almost steaming, and the streets soon became sticky, mud-filled troughs. And it never quite stopped, now slow, now fast, and a few times howling, stinging waves of water. More than one building collapsed when the rain washed away the accumulated dirt and clay that was keeping it together.
And there was a great restlessness in the city, too. The rain was more relentless than any living person could remember, and tempers easily frayed under its oppression. All over the city, brawls broke out in the streets and alleys, with people clawing and biting at each other in blind rage. We soon learned to stop the fights quickly, for if any one was left to continue it would drag more people into its maelstrom, until it subsided on its own back into a bed of burned houses and battered corpses. And where there were no battles, there were wild revels, with people shouting and laughing and doing whatever they cared to. The Guardians soon learned to break up those, too — for the revels could gout crimson at any time, and did.
December 8, 2021
Couldn’t get to THE STARS ARE WRONG tonight.
Too busy with the other two projects, both of which are on deadlines. And possibly I should try to avoid burnout. I’m pushing 2K words a day right now.
12/08/21 Snippet, THE DOOM THAT CAME TO LUNA CITY.
Entrances!
Patreon!When they got through to the welcoming center, Sgt. Joe-Bob asked the question Tobias was thinking: “Hey, where are all the bodies?” Because there weren’t any. No corpses or scattered debris, either. Somebody had cleaned up.
There were other clues of human habitation, starting with how the power plant had been restarted. The life support systems were also on, although according to Tobias’ suit the oxygen levels were uncomfortably low, and the temperature was just above freezing. From Tobias’s point of view, that in itself was good news: even if the life support system itself was damaged, poor air was still better than no air; and anybody that ended up being evacuated here could just wear warm clothing.
He wouldn’t take off his helmet, though. And Tobias wouldn’t let anybody else take off theirs, either. This site had been overrun by maniacs once, and right now it should be a vacuum-heavy tomb. That it wasn’t seemed like a bizarre miracle, and Tobias didn’t trust it for a second.
