R.W. Krpoun's Blog, page 7

All right, despite the brutal heat, I am foraging forward. Grog IV has reached 78k words, rough draft, which means I’m very confident of meeting and passing my target of 80k (standard for any novel I write).

I am two-thirds finished with the final plot arc, and the closing is visualized, but lacking in some details. Still, it is fair to say that the rough draft is near completion.

Here’s hoping that everyone is safe from the floods, fires, drought, heat, and Russian invasions.

Sorry for the long delay; Texas summers are not the best time of my year. Grog IV is 71k of rough draft out of a target of 80k, so progress is looking good.

Otherwise, just staying out of direct sunlight. Stay cool, everyone!

78th anniversary of D-Day. How the world has changed in that time, and not always for the better. Every generation should look at those fine young men and ask themselves if they have what it would take to bear the same risks and burdens.

In the Ukraine, equipment losses have forced the Russians to pull T-62 main battle tanks out of storage, a shocking development for the once-feared Russian Bear. That is of particular interest to me, as the T-62s were second-line equipment when I was stationed in West Germany in the early 1980s. The Red Army had loomed over us (on paper) like a massive tidal wave of doom, although Afghanistan was already starting to show the Red Army as a giant with feet of clay.

Grog IV has reached 57k words of rough draft, with 80k being the target number. The plot arcs are smoothing out, and progress is regular. I am eyeing other projects, as I think a break from fantasy will be called for once Grog IV is put to bed.

Well, Grog IV has hit 50k words rough draft, an important milestone; as I’ve mentioned before the middle part of a first draft is usually the hardest.

In other news, Dark Obligations broke 100 reviews, only my fifth book to do so, and the second that wasn’t part of the Grog series. Benson is the other non-Grog book. Publishers rate a book by sales, but for me, reviews really help motivate me, and they have a heavy impact on which series I look at for expansion.

The details of the fire are sorted out, the mess is all cleaned up, and the insurance has been paid.

Work has continued on various projects. Grog IV is very near 50k rough draft.

The work continues.

SO the worst grass fire in Texas history is burning in a nearby county, and my county was hit by sizable (but not near record-breaking) blazes of our own.

A wall of fire swept through my property of Thursday, affecting about 60%, and destroying an old shed. Since I keep my grass cut very short, and no dead wood anywhere near the house, my house took no real damage other than to the posts supporting my patio roof.

My wife called me from my office, telling me the shed was on fire, and I raced out in sweats and flip-flops with a couple fire extinguishers, only to find myself in a acres-wide blaze.

Adding a garden hose to my armory, I fought the hot spots near my house as volunteer fire depart units roared up.

We ignored the evacuation order, and my wife and I stood fire watch turn and turn about through the night, but the danger had passed.

Anyway, Grog 4 is at 41k words, rough draft.

So I am bouncing back and forth between Grog 4 and an as-yet-unnamed project as plot issues and the whims of the muse dictate. Progress is slow but steady.

I am a bit distracted by the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine, particularly by the shortage of information of how the fighting is going down at the tactical level.

Book sales are good, and reviews keep pouring in; both Grog 1 and 3 have received 500+ reviews, and Grog 2 has passed 400. Benson has gotten over 100 review, and Dark Obligations is edging towards that number as well. After years of living with review totals in the twenties and thirties, this is quite heady stuff.

I have been following the war in the Ukraine intensely; a week ago, before the fighting started, I was feeling distinct comparisons to September 1939, and Hitler’s invasion of Poland. The west had given in to Putin on the Crimea and the fighting in the border areas, which has led to the current affair, just as appeasement let Hitler to resolve the ‘Danzig question’ with force.

Watching a conscript army stalled for six days now, unable to push 30 miles to Kiev without hitting serious supply issues, my view has changed to that of the Soviet-Finnish war, where a massive conscript force ran headlong into a buzzsaw of highly-motivated regulars.

However this plays out, there is a new era coming, I believe. The Great European Peace that has existed (except in the former Yugoslavia) since the end of the Greek civil war in 1947 has been broken. Regardless of how this war plays out, a new Cold War is inevitable.

Troubling times.

As a footnote, I am still working on Grog 4 and a project that shall remain unnamed.

Well, I’ve recovered from my second round with COVID. Nyquil and re-watching the entire series of The Strain pulled me through. I can’t say that it was a critical time, but it did inconvenience me.

So Grog 4 is slowly moving forward, standing at 34k rough draft. I have another project going, slogging forward at 50k words of rough draft.

So I’m back up to speed, clear of the holidays and restored to my full powers, such as they are.

Here’s hoping all my readers have aa happy holidays!

Thanks for reading my work!