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Plus, I want to give a warm welcome to the new people on this list. Hopefully, you knew what you were signing up for. ;)
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The next few weeks are going to be all about live sales events. And possibly meat.
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Blaze and I were at The Dusty Shelf bookstore Saturday night, for the Enumclaw Wine Walk. One the one hand, we both sold books, which is always a plus.
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On the other hand, someone actually walked away from the event, went to the Knotted Road Press store, and bought an ebook. (!!!)
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This is what we always want to have happen. To give readers an experience that makes them seek us out.
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We’ll see if anyone else stops by in the next week or so.
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The tables at The Dusty Shelf are smaller than I’d remembered, so our display was slightly skewed. Still looked awesome, IMO.
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And though I went to some effort to make up little signs for the books, most people wanted me to tell them about the books. Again, part of that connection with the author that’s most important.
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It was fun watching people walk into the area. You could tell the readers because their eyes widened and lit up in excitement.
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Books! Authors! Wine! All the things!
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For the event, I did a new batch of marbled paper, which I then turned into bookmarks. The front of the bookmark is the pretty paper. I had a printed paper on the back, with a QR code, offering people a 20% discount off anything in the KRP store. The codes are good until Jan 31, 2026.
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ION, I have a dear friend who doesn’t eat pork. Once I’d made bacon from pork belly enough times that I figured I had a clue, I decided to try my hand at making beef bacon.
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Traditionally, all bacon is made from the belly of the animal. So I went to my local butcher shop to try to order beef belly.
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Unfortunately, they told me that not only didn’t they have any beef belly, they couldn’t order it.
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HOWEVER. They also let me know that they made their own beef bacon, using the flat part of a brisket.
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So Blaze and I went to Costco and got a brisket. I cured the brisket flat in my regular bacon cure spices, except I added a bit of brown sugar to it, because pork is traditionally sweeter than beef.
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I put all the spices in a vacu-seal bag, along with the brisket, sealed the bag, and let it cure for a week in my fridge. I would turn the bag over once a day, sloshing around the spices and cure mixture.
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Then, I smoked the brisket on my pellet grill, until each piece had an internal temperature of 150 degrees.
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This morning, I chopped off the ends of the meat and cooked them for our Sunday morning bacon. (Blaze and I always have Sunday breakfast together, generally bacon and eggs.)
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What would I do differently next time? Possibly cure the meat a little less—instead of seven days I might only do five. Probably trim the meat more so it was more uniform in size. And maybe add a bit more brown sugar. Overall, though, I rate it as a success.
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So I guess that’s it from me this morning. Hope that y’all are doing well.
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Feel free to reply and let me know what you’re doing this week!
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Daring starship captain? Check.
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Best friend/deadly assassin? Check.
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Rosey may, perhaps, be a little upset when the hacker that Jamaal hires steals the alien data core that he was supposed to decode.
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Of course, he has a secret lair on a volcano. What super villain wouldn’t?
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Breaking into this stronghold is only the start of the “juvenile delinquency” that Rosey and the gang must take on to get it back.
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Alien Codex—the second book in the Live Alien Contact series—is full of cons, capers, and misdirection.
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Be sure to read the rest of this finished series!
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Available from the KRP store Oct 10. Generally available Oct 21.
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To celebrate, we're putting the first four stories of The Science Officer on sale for only $5.99!
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The first four novellas of Blaze Ward's Science Officer series collected together for the first time!
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Javier lives quite happily on his long-range scout. Alone. Away from everyone, with his chickens, his fruit trees, and Suvi, an artificial intelligence who keeps him company and runs the ship.
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When space pirates attack Javier's ship, they get much more than they bargained for.
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Join Javier Aritza, a sarcastic and quirky hero, in the first four novellas of the Science Officer, a fast-paced, action-packed science fiction series.
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Included in Omnibus 1:
The Science Officer
The Mindfield
The Gilded Cage
The Pleasure Dome
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