Holy Hannah, there’s a lot to catch up on! I’ll try to keep this brief.
So, I try really hard to not link up my day job with anything involving stuff I do outside of work–largely for legal reasons (it just works out better that way_. Now that I’m about to not be working that job anymore…..I don’t have to worry about it any longer.
See, for the past ten years, I’ve been an enlisted airman, working as an electrician for the United States Air Force. While deployed overseas during the tail end of 2020, I started developing some really funky health issues that resulted in me getting sent home early from that deployment, so they could send me to a specialist to figure out what was going on. The good news is, they figured it out, and I’m getting treatment for both of the medical issues they discovered. The bad news? Both of those issues are incurable, and while I can treat the symptoms, they both disqualify me from future military service.
So……effective May 27th, I’ll be permanently retired. 10 years, 1 month, and 4 days in.
“But Brennen, what does this mean for your writing?”
Well, I’ll tell you what it means. Once we get my retirement pay and benefits sorted out, I’ll be able to give y’all a better answer….but without getting into the weeds too much, if I end up pulling enough….I might be able to write (and other things–more on that in a minute) full-time. Which would be pretty badass. At the minimum, I’ll at least be writing more.
Speaking of writing more, my buddy Lawdog has a new anthology series coming out–a collection of fun, fictional stories involving the island of Malta, which is probably the only place on the planet that is as fortified as the root beer he drinks.
(Given that he was born there, this shouldn’t be that surprising.)
The first book, “Ghosts of Malta”, has already been released–it has a bunch of other talented authors I have the privilege of knowing and/or being friends with: J.L Curtis, Cedar Sanderson, John Van Stry, Brena Bock, and many others whom I recommend following. The second book, “Knights Of Malta”, which will feature stories from my buddies Manni Ratliff, Jonathan LaForce, and yours truly, will be released in September of this year. Also in September of that year, around the 16th through the 18th, I’ll be attending FenCon in Dallas, Texas, partly to support my friend Larry Correia (who is attending as a Guest of Honor there!), and partly to help hawk copies of Knights of Malta, alongside the rest of the North Texas Troublemakers. If you’re in the Dallas/Fort Worth area around that time and wanna meet up for lunch or beers, look for the feller wearing the hat on the logo!
In other news, at the encouragement of mad genius Barry Lambert (of “Station Road Rat Rods” fame), I’ve decided to shamelessly cash in on a few of my hobbies (construction work, fiddling with cars, road trips, etc.) and create videos depicting that kinda stuff. If those sorts of shenanigans interests you, you can find that channel, “Old Hat Nation”, on YouTube (we also have a group on the Facecult, if you’re so inclined). I’ll probably be updating that group in tandem with the YouTube page and this blog–which hopefully will mean more frequent updates across the board (no promises, but I’ll give it a shot!).
There’s one other piece of news to announce…..but I’m not allowed to announce it yet. I’ll tell y’all as soon as I can.
Thanks for all the love and support, guys. Hope you guys enjoy the books and the videos that are going to be rolling out. Talk to you all again, soon!
Old Hat Nation 