I've been playing with the idea of rewriting the Don Williams song, covered by Clapton a few years later — Living on Tulsa Time...

... living on COVID time, living on COVID time

gonna set my watch back to it

'cuz you know that I've been through it,

living on COVID time...

Apologies to Danny Flowers, the songwriter, but it seems to fit my circumstance. That's called foreshadowing folks!

You all know Oaths and Odysseys dropped in late July, as you got a quick note of the launch with a promise of more soon.

The book was a couple of months later than planned, but I think the final product was worth the delay. It has been out for six weeks now and garnered a single 5-star rating. It has sold a couple of copies and about half a dozen read throughs with Kindle Unlimited. Overall, about what I would expect for a book launch with almost zero promotion. 

Anecdotal feedback has been very positive. Along with a couple of comments that I must not like my characters very much, as I keep trying to kill them.

So... why the silence since the quick note, you ask? Well.... a few days after the book dropped, caught a flight to Florida. This was a planned business trip for my consulting business — a week of training for a portal platform I'm helping implement. I was looking forward to the long flights and evenings in a hotel room to work on my next book. 

I did get a couple of chapters in on the flight east, and three more in during my evenings in the hotel room, but my flight back was a bust due to a lack of room, and cooperation with the person seated in front of me. Best laid plans... and all that.

Folks have been telling me since my return, the next time I go to Central Florida I should bring back mouse ears, instead of COVID. In hindsight, I whole-heartedly agree!

The first two weeks of August were spent trying to kick the major symptoms. The next two weeks were spent learning to adapt to the lingering symptoms - fatigue, lack of stamina, brain fog, etc... Can't say I've been all that successful in that adaptation. 

It's making me nucking futz!

Needless to say, I haven't made the kind of progress as I hoped for the next installment in the Genesis Renewed Saga. As of September 1st, I am twenty chapters in, and still shooting for the first week of October for completion.

Shameless plug! Genesis Renewed & Oaths and Odysseys are available in paperback, kindle, and on kindle unlimited. If you've enjoyed either, please post a rating and review.

Let's see... I have several books going right now. 

First up, a confession. I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters of Grann's The Wager, way too deep in to the numbers and mechanics of the fleet, just didn't hook me. 

I'm almost done with the latest in the Last Hunter Series - Shell Game - the penultimate installment in the Chaney/Mixon collaboration. I'm still all in with Admiral Romanoff and his crew. Going to miss these characters when I finish Operation Endgame. 

I'm rereading Pillars of the Earth. As some of you already know, I'm a huge Follett fan, and I found myself jonesing to revisit the first installment in the Kingsbridge Cathedral series. There's something about Jack, Aliena, Tom Builder, Ellen, and Prior Phillip that brings me back to their story again and again. Pillars is easily my favorite piece of historical fiction.

Some will find this next one a little objectionable / controversial . questionable / racey(?), but I'm enjoying a piece of post-apocalyptic-pandemic erotica, Quaranteam: Book One, by Devin McTaggart. A friend turned me on to it knowing how much I enjoy unique world building. Published first to a few erotica story boards, the link above is the compiled postings for Book One.

The story starts in the early days of COVID, with a parallel pandemic, DuoHalo — which is wiping out the male population world-wide. Our protagonist is a truly reluctant hero, Andy Rook, who writes marketing copy by day, and paranormal fantasy evenings & weekends under a pen name, Blake Conrad. The story follows our hero, into and through the depths of political intrigue, abuse of power, and our country's adaptation to a female dominated population.

With Quaranteam, you have to suspend disbelief big time. The method of inoculations and harem building just scratch the surface. In addition, the erotic scenes are quite vivid, and NSFW. So if those things make you uncomfortable, you should probably skip this one — you've been warned!

In addition to Quaranteam: Book Two, which is well down the road on its own, McTaggart has undertaken writing as Rook/Conrad and producing his debut novel, Neon Stonehenge. McTaggart's world building around the ramifications of death rates, the politics, and its abuse for personal gain, are really well done.

Finally, Mark Greaney's Burner is next up on my TBR stack. I'm a couple of books behind on The Gray Man series. I came to Mark's work via his collaborations with Tom Clancy, and his continuation of the Jack Ryan world after Clancy's death with four additional novels. When I found out he had his own political thriller series, I had to pick up Gray Man. I've remained hooked on Court Gentry and the world he has built around him since its first pages.

On the business side of things. I'm finally getting into doing some promotion on Oaths and Odysseys. Did an interview with Marla Miller, during one of my more lucid periods with COVID, for her Book Promotion 21st Century Style series. They're available on YouTube and TikTok.

Last week Tim Niederriter interviewed me on the new book, and writing series, for his podcast Alive After Reading. Tim is a terrific writer of fantasy, and we had a great time talking story.

On the 13th of September, I'm scheduled to be on the Blasters and Blades podcast. "Just a couple of nerdy Army veterans geeking out on things that go "abracadabra," "pew," "zoom," "boop-beep" and rhyme with Science Fiction & Fantasy." We'll be recording a session for future release. 

When the interviews drop, I'll post to my blog at rickshaw.com, so keep an eye open there for news.

On October 8th, I will return to the Santa Barbara Womans Club's Book Club for a Q & A on Oaths and Odysseys, a reading, signings. The SB Womans Club is next to Rocky Nook Park on Mission Canyon Road, just around the bend from the Old Mission Santa Barbara.

And finally, I'll be at Author Nation in Las Vegas in November. I'll have half of a table at RAVE on Friday, November 15th. Copies of Tunguska Deception, Genesis Renewed, and Oaths and Odysseys will be available for sale and signing. And with any luck, I'll have Genesis Alone available as well. 

Tess, shamelessly begging for tummy scratches... If you've got picts to share of your fur babies, send them along. I'm a big fan of all critters.

And... please pass this along to someone if you think my ramblings might resonate with them.