Archipalego

by wjw on August 1, 2017

archipalegoSo a military attaché, a philosopher, and a couple writers went out on a boat . . .

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, and maybe it was, but I assure you it actually happened.

Friend of the blog Marcus Prest (author of Android, etc.) has been playing host to us in Turku for the last several days, and the other day I was taken out into Finland’s gorgeous Archipalego Sea in a boat belonging to Marcus’ rather piratical friend Bjorn.

This is Bjorn.  He’s just a little bit outgoing.

bjorn

After a cruise of three hours we arrived at Bjorn’s lovely little island, where we heated up the sauna.   So we went sauna, jumped into the Baltic, went sauna some more, jumped into the sea some more.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Then we cooked weenies over a wood fire and drank beer.  Actually we’d been drinking beer right from the start.

Along with Marcus, Bjorn, and myself, the party consisted of Joel, a professional philosopher, and Glen, colonel Royal Artillery (ret.), former attaché, now a freelance consultant working in Ukraine.

So along with the sauna and the beer and the sights, there was some fascinating high-level conversation going on involving current events in eastern and northern Europe, epistemological discourse, literature, and Taos Toolbox (of course).

All of which I’d love to tell you about, but I don’t have the time.  Maybe if we end up in the same sauna some day.

I reget I’m not writing Dagmar Shaw novels at present, because all that stuff from Glen could have made up at least a couple of them.

I’d like to thank Marcus, Bjorn, and his extraordinary crew for an extraordinary, lovely, unforgettable day.

Jukka Halme August 1, 2017 at 5:23 am

That sounds like an absolutely best possible Summer day possible.

Steinar Bang August 1, 2017 at 8:06 am

Did you catch anything of Rally Finland while you were over there?

Subaru no longer participates in the WRC class, but your car has definite roots there.

Standing 3 meters from a road that’s part of a rally special stage, as the cars go past, is… impressive.

Björn Törnroth August 1, 2017 at 9:01 am

It was my pleasure, Walter. I loved the way you guys just fitted in – the place, the spirit. It seemed right. (I don’t quite remember striking that particular pose, though.)

wjw August 1, 2017 at 11:20 am

Bjorn, it was terrific. Thanks for being such a wonderful host.

Not only did I miss the car rally, I missed the Tall Ships, which have been dodging me as if they were avoiding me on purpose. There were over 75 of them, you’d think I would have caught a few.

Mike August 1, 2017 at 7:06 pm

Any chance of a Dagmar book in the future? Thinking about This Is Not A Game today as a matter of fact, which is why I’m here.

pixlaw August 2, 2017 at 1:28 pm

FWIW, I second the call for more Dagmar books. I recognize that you write what you want and what your muse calls you to do, but damn I liked those books.

Of course, I said the same thing about the Metropolitan books, and if you’d kept writing those, the Dagmar books wouldn’t have come out. Why is life so complicated?

wjw August 2, 2017 at 3:17 pm

Mike and Pix>> I’d flat love the chance to write more Dagmar books, but the sad fact is they didn’t do well in the marketplace. The last two received no marketing at all, so far as I know, and even SF book dealers didn’t know they existed.

So I’ll be writing other stuff. Hope you like it.

John Appel August 3, 2017 at 10:20 pm

The fact that your publisher’s PR people were not on every platform in existence pushing “Deep State” during the Arab Spring, which IIRC coincided with the publication, is a crime.

James R. Strickland August 4, 2017 at 1:44 am

A three hour tour, a three hour tour. (Had to be said. 🙂 Looks wonderful and by the way, that is a tremendous photograph of the boat and the water.

-JRS

wjw August 4, 2017 at 2:16 pm

John, people tried. None of our fine news services were interested. They had lots of good visuals coming in from Tahrir, and interviews with people they pay to be experts.

Etaoin Shrdlu August 4, 2017 at 2:47 pm

So, more Dread Empire’s Fall? I’d love to find out what happened to Severin.

wjw August 4, 2017 at 3:26 pm

For once I’m happy to report good news. Severin reappears in Book VI of the series, which I’m working on at present.

Etaoin Shrdlu August 4, 2017 at 5:16 pm

Wonderful news! 🙂

A year-ish? Two-ish? No idea how long publishing lead times are. I hope I live long enough to see it!

wjw August 5, 2017 at 3:53 am

Well, I hope you live, too!

My best guess is late 2018-early 2019.

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