It’s been a while.

Yes, I know. I’ve said that before, and apparently it’s still true.

Not quite lost in deep space, presumed dead a while, but certainly longer than I intended between meaningful updates around here.

The funny thing is, I haven’t exactly been idle.

If you’ve been following along, you may have noticed occasional signs of life: a few cryptic images, mysterious locations, questionable cargo, burning thrusters, and an alarming amount of coffee. I’ve been deliberately vague about what any of that means.

It’s finally time to be slightly less vague.

Something New Has Been Taking Shape

Back in January, I wrote about the long pause in The Silence of Ancient Light and mentioned that another project had rather unexpectedly demanded my attention.

I wasn’t ready then to tell you much about it.

Now I am.

Well, some of it.

It has a name.

Bad Decisions and Burning Thrusters.

It’s a science fiction adventure about an independent courier pilot, a cargo run that really should have been straightforward, some increasingly questionable decisions, and the consequences that follow when things go spectacularly off course.

There are spaceships. There is danger. There is humor. There is coffee.

And unlike The Silence of Ancient Light, I haven’t been writing this one in public.

So What Have I Actually Been Doing?

Writing it, of course.

The first draft of Bad Decisions and Burning Thrusters is complete at roughly 40,000 words, putting it comfortably into novella territory.

Since then I’ve been revising, editing, reconsidering, rearranging, tightening, occasionally tearing things apart, and discovering all the ways in which “The End” turns out not to mean anything of the sort.

I’ll talk more about that process another time. There have been lessons.

For now, the important thing is that the story exists. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has characters I’ve grown rather fond of. And after being deliberately coy about it for quite some time, I’m finally ready to talk about it.

Some things I’ve posted here over the past several months may even make a little more sense.

Maybe.

I’m still not explaining the coffee.

Meanwhile, Back in the Real World…

There has been another fairly significant change happening away from the keyboard.

After a career in enterprise computing that stretched across more than three decades, I recently closed that particular laptop for the last time. It still feels strange to type that.

I’m figuring out what the next chapter looks like, but one thing I already know is that writing now has something it has rarely enjoyed before: room.

Room alongside sailing, hiking, traveling, volunteering, photography, and whatever other adventures present themselves. Room to finish things. Room to experiment. And, perhaps most importantly, room to sit down with a story without constantly watching the clock.

I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with that.

The Engines Are Burning

I’ve created a new project page for Bad Decisions and Burning Thrusters, where you can learn a little more about the story and where things currently stand. I’ll keep that page updated as the project moves toward publication.

And I’ll have more to say here soon, about the editing process, about the story, and perhaps eventually about some of the people and places I’ve been teasing you with.

For now, though, consider the curtain officially lifted.

Bad Decisions and Burning Thrusters is real.

The first draft is finished.

The editing continues.

And after a rather long silence around here, things are beginning to move again.