Good Saturday, friends.
I hope you are all doing well. Here in Alabama, it’s hot. Late July in Alabama is always hot. Is it hotter than normal? If it were, would I even notice? 🤔 It’s also humid, as usual. I grew up in it, so I guess I’m used to it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though. If you aren’t used to heat and humidity, visiting here can be rough. See, the function of sweat is to cool you off, but if it’s so humid the sweat can’t go anywhere, then cooling off just doesn’t happen.
Growing up on a farm in Lower Alabama meant working outside sometimes. In the summer heat. Driving the tractor wasn’t so bad. The air was moving. A lot of farmers had air conditioners in their tractors. We didn’t because my dad’s solution to fixing a broken tractor air conditioner was to remove the windows from the cabin. He saved a lot of money, and I got fed, so I guess I can’t complain about that.
Driving the tractor was boring to me. Going up and down the rows of cotton, plowing weeds. I know some of you reading this are truck drivers. My friends, how do you do it? I enjoyed the first three hours of driving the tractor alright. After that, my imagination would burn out and the rest was boring. Of course, I didn’t have audiobooks. I had a basic Walkman, but the volume wasn’t loud enough to get over the tractor for music, so I’m sure if I’d known what audiobooks were back then, it would have just frustrated me more.
Driving the tractor in shorts, sometimes no shirt, and barefoot. Yeah, barefoot. The metal brake pedal on two of them would get hot from exhaust coming up underneath but if I can avoid wearing shoes, I will avoid wearing shoes. And when you’re a teenager, you’re dumb enough to do something like that. Or I was anyway.
One time, I was helping my dad hitch a cotton trailer to the truck. The truck rocked forward and we lost our grip on the it. There was a wedge shape on the bottom of the hitch. Just the right size to chop a toe off or break a foot. Naturally, I was barefoot. And yeah, it was just about dark and the temp was down to about 60. (You pick cotton in the autumn in the northern hemisphere.) The wedge struck my toes, which squished down safely into the mud, only taking a bit of damage. Nothing broke, and I had a scar on one toe for a few years. Fell into my dad and bruised him up. We laughed about it. Cause you have to laugh.
Anyway, when it’s oppressively hot outside like it has been this week (and typically is for most of three months each year), I think about growing up on a farm, and how grateful I am that I don’t have to work outside, and how much respect I have for those who do. I’m grateful that I have the option to dip my toes in that 95 degree, 75% humidity weather when I want to but can run back inside to glorious, wonderful air conditioning. I am grateful that I can eat beans and corn without having to go out to pick them (although shucking corn in the shades on the back of the pickup under the pecan trees was never all that bad). I don’t have to hoe in the garden or drive the tractor. I can sit in the AC and write…
Until it’s time to mow the yard. Which I did on Friday morning, and it left me feeling wiped. (Mowing the yard here reduces the rent I pay, the temp was only 83 with 65% humidity, and it needed doing.) That combined with a busy and stressful Thursday, taking my mom to her regular infusion appointment and dealing with some other things (the stressful part). This left me too wiped to finish the fourth and final installment of Gadda Bisby. Sorry, y’all! I’m still getting my writing muscles back into gear. It will be up soon, though.
The Outworld Ranger Box Set
Yesterday on Amazon I launched a box set collecting the first three Outworld Ranger novels: Forbidden System, Rogue Starship, and Shadow Agents. This is ebook only. And right now, it’s on sale for $0.99.
If you haven’t started the series yet, then this is a good opportunity. Hopefully, it will bring in some new readers to the series. If you know anyone who would enjoy the the books, tell them about this deal.
I know a lot of authors leave these box sets up, but I’m not inclined to do so, as part of my publishing philosophy. But we’ll see how things go.
If you have read the series and would like to leave a review there, then I’d certainly appreciate that.
Outworld Ranger Audio
My publisher has the first three books in the Outworld Ranger series up for free for anyone with an Audible subscription. No credits required. So if you haven’t started the series and prefer to listen, or if you want to revisit the series while riding in the car or doing chores, this is a good opportunity.
Outworld Ranger Numbering
For those new to the series, originally Forbidden System was a prequel, a Book 0 if you will. I found that many people didn’t read it because Amazon’s numbering doesn’t allow for book zeroes, so they didn’t see it, or because they’re not fans of prequels. So for a long time, Rogue Starship was the first book in the series.
I wrestled with this for a long time. I had wanted to do a prequel series of at least two books, but then I realized the second book in the prequel series would give out a ton of spoilers for things that would happen later (spoilers for things that have yet to happen). So I dropped that plan, and then I renumbered the series, starting with Forbidden System as book one.
I polled readers at one point to see if they thought I should start the series with Forbidden System or Rogue Starship, and the results came up almost exactly 50/50. LOL
To me, this order makes the most sense, though, because surely Silky is the main character in the series, and also because [[the following text has been redacting on account of massive spoilers]].
This Week on Rogues & Starships
Gadda Bisby 3 came out on Tuesday, and Storm Phase 2 came out on Wednesday. Late on Wednesday because I made some last minute changes to the chapter for the sake of adding depth to the world and to one of the most important characters in the story. I am quite happy with the results, and I hope you will enjoy it, too. I had thought these first few chapters were ready to go, but I was in a different mindset when I thought that.
Next Week…
I have big plans for the last weekend in July, and I have some Outworld Ranger planning to take care of, so next week will only see two posts: Storm Phase 3 on Wednesday and the Gadda Bisby’s Grail 3.
Best wishes and happy reading,
David Alastair Hayden
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