Origins Schedule

I was gone for five days at the Rainforest Village Writers Retreat. This is my vacation for the year. I go to a beautiful place to write, or not write, to walk, and to have a few days of being with a bunch of other writer types. It is a lovely time. I had planned to only write one short story and to outline three novelettes for a new project. What actually happened was that I wrote that one short story, outlined the three novelettes, and wrote the first novelette to the tune of 16,590 words. This is a personal Rainforest best. In truth, I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been thinking about both of these projects for months, mentally writing them in my head. Once I sat down to do them, the words just flowed and flowed and flowed. It was a nice feeling. Now, the links: Review: I received...

John A. Pitts AKA author J.A. Pitts has died of “amyloidosis of the heart”—an f’d up gene mutation that has no cure. I knew he was sick. I didn’t realize how sick until he reached out to a mutual friend and asked him to tell me so I could contact him. At the time, he had “six weeks” left to live. I’d planned to visit and tell him the whole story of the Rogue Academy trilogy. He loved BattleTech and my stories. Three days later he died. I didn’t get to visit but I did get to text, to tell him how much he meant to me, and that I loved him. At least I got to do that. It’s hard telling people you love how much they mean to you when you know you’re telling them good-bye. I’ve done that twice now in the last six months. It’s hard,...