Story Post: PMF 7, Chapter Five (Patreon)

Happy New Year!

December kept me busy much like November, with a mix of drafting on the next Poor Man's Fight, the release of Devil In the Details in audio (yes, shameless reminder-plug), some holiday stuff, and work on the forthcoming Cozy Shadows audio collection of Good Intentions stories. Tess has scattered live recording sessions of that on her Discord in between other projects, and we're more than halfway done now. If the release goes well, I'll turn right around in search of audio for a PMF story collection in audio, too.

Back to the project at hand: after repairing last month's unfortunate "oh god I added this chapter twice" discovery, PMF 7 stands at 98k words. Admittedly, I hoped to get over the 100k mark before year's end, but I also ran headlong into the issue of "Hey, wait, maybe you shouldn't obsess about productivity between Christmas and New Year's?" So I took a couple days off. I probably needed them.

Tanner needs some time off, too. He even thinks about it in this chapter! I confess, I'm a little nervous about leaning so far into college matters in this book. I promise some real significant galactic events and alien incidents in this novel and plenty of pew pew pew by the time it's done, but again, this one marks a shift in tone and focus that started with Last Man Out. Tanner's story isn't "military" anymore so much as "veteran," and that's where I always wanted him.

He's got something else happening in this story that he always wanted, too. He just doesn't see it yet. It's also a little crazier than he'd have imagined, but that's how his life goes.

Hope you enjoy this, and I hope 2026 is better for you and the rest of the world than 2025!