Der Buzzer UVB-76 Is Out

Two days. I keep saying it out loud to the empty kitchen like a joke that has not quite landed. Secret Dawn Among the Stars went out on Saturday, and this morning Der Buzzer UVB-76 arrived in its own plain parcel, as if the calendar had decided to test my composure. I am holding the second book now, and the pride feels quieter, almost sheepish, like being caught with two cakes when one would have been plenty.

A numbers station is a different creature from a space station. The research meant long nights with the shortwave, listening to that stubborn buzz and the clipped voice behind it, then turning from the signal itself toward the people history rarely names: the operators, the listeners, the women who kept the schedules and the silence. I wrote much of this one in winter, when Bishkek evenings close early and the radio feels like a companion rather than a tool. The drafts taught me how little machinery a story needs when atmosphere does the heavy carrying, a lesson I resisted until Dinara marked an entire chapter with the single word breathe.

I am dazed, yes, and a little wry at my own timing. Publishing two novels a weekend apart was not a strategy so much as a pileup of production calendars I failed to argue with. Aigerim laughed when I told her and poured more tea. “At least you only have to be nervous once,” she said. She was half right. The nerves for this one are softer, more like gratitude wearing a heavier coat.

Der Buzzer UVB-76 is out. I set it on the table beside its sibling and sat down hard in my chair. Whatever comes next can wait. For today I am simply here, two books born in one week, three now in the world, the samovar ticking, March light on the floorboards. Thank you for reading, and for tolerating the crowded doorway.