Tra-La, It's May, It's May, The Lusty Month of May 2026
- Justin Watson
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
Been Quiet, But Not Inactive
Okay, the tagline has little relation to anything in the newsletter, but Michele played Guinevere in Camelot back in college and some of the songs stuck for the last couple decades.
Sorry I've missed a couple months--I can only plead the same busy schedules everyone has to contend with. Day job has had me all over the country from San Antonio to NYC, all good stuff, of course, but it takes quite a bit of bandwidth to pay the bills.
Which is not to say I haven't made any progress on the writing front.
On the Guns
First and foremost, Romanov Reign 3 is sitting right at 100k words. Given the pick-up in professional requirements from the day job and personal stuff at home (none of it, bad, a lot of it wonderful, all of it time-consuming) I'm not making any predictions on completion date anymore except to say as soon as we can. I promise I am working on it every day. I was hoping before LibertyCon, but that might be a stretch now.
I did take a small detour for a couple of short literary analysis pieces for Baen, but I can't give details yet as I don't know when, exactly, the volumes they'll feature in will hit the market.
At the FDC
LibertyCon is on the horizon, which is basically Christmas in June for me. I get to see a ton of old friends, I usually end up making a few new, and there's excellent programming to both take in and participate in. Additionally, this is a year wherein the Watson Clan places LibertyCon in the middle of the Ultimate Road Trip of Ultimate Destiny. I'll of course blast my schedule for LC once I know it.
I'm also planning to launch a Patreon page next month.
I've resisted starting a subscription model for sometime because I was unsure of what value proposition I had to offer. I have thoughts on writing, of course, but I don't know that I have enough thoughts on writing to create a sustainable advice column. (Speaking of which, my friend Monalisa's substack is still the best source on craft advice I know of--https://substack.com/@monalisafoster).
I realized the other day, though, I do have the rights to a lot of my short fiction that I could make available and I usually end up writing 2-5 short stories a year that are not locked up behind another author's IP. Between short fiction, advance snippets of the novel I'm working on and occasional thoughts on the craft of writing--specifically crafting war stories and realistic military characters, I feel like I have enough to offer that I can proceed in good conscience. I don't expect to collect a massive following, but perhaps some folks might derive some enjoyment and edification.
From the Hill
My son has been reading the Iliad for school and it gave me a hankering to reread Ilium by Dan Simmons. I'd forgotten just how unique Simmons' work is and I'm enjoying it greatly. The last time I'd read it was when I was a teenager and had not yet read either of Homer's epics, so it is a richer experience this time, highly recommended. After I finish Ilium I'll probably head on to Howling Dark, the second in Christopher Ruocchio's Suneater series. I liked the first book and I've heard it only picks up from number two on.
The Watson Family journey to Weeb-hood continues apace. I've talked before about the delightful, madcap combo of hardcore espionage and heartfelt family comedy-drama in Spy X Family and the absolute brilliant execution of good vs. evil epic fantasy on a foundation of human connection and time in Frieren.
To those fantastic shows we've now added the Bronze Medal of our anime podium, Witch Hat Atelier. With a magic system based on drawing (which I can't help but think is revenge by animators and artists on us scribblers for lodging spellbooks as the default medium of magical learning), a charming youthful protagonist and an older mentor figure who...frankly doesn't seem to know what he's doing shepherding three young girls (as the father of three daughters, it's hard for me not to be a little judgemental), the imagination behind this series really shines and it definitely has more novelty than SxF or Frieren. Definitely another hard recommend for fantasy fans.
On the YouTube front, David Butler, author of the Witchy Eye and Indrajit and Fix series has stated a new YouTube channel called High Low Brow, his emphasis is on high quality but also fun novels. His latest episode on Time Powers occult spy novel Declare was a darn good pitch for the book and Powers in general:
And...that's about it for now. Hope spring is going well for you, and I'll be back next month, Good Lord willing and the river don't rise.
BC6, out.
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