(*Sorry about the disappearing post and the redo. For reasons known only to …. WordPress’s psychiatrists, it decided I didn’t want to publish the new promo post, but I wanted in fact to repeat last week’s. Not only that, but the new promo post was completely memory-holed, so it’s not even in drafts, which usually everything is. So, I erased it and am starting again from scratch with three hours down the hole. — Just figured out the problem might be related to our internet crashing due to a thunder storm HALFWAY through publishing the post. In any case: GRRR.* – SAH)
Book promo
If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*
OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN: FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Barbarella 9, now with dinosaurs.
The penultimate issue for this current installment! Beauty meets beautiful (and highly defended) beast as Barbarella takes the fight right to The Lady’s doorstep. Doing so means tracking down The Lady’s hidden home world and doing that means fighting throuh the masses determined to keep it hidden! If it’s that hard to make planetfall, what the heck awaits our hero? And what is the incredible, tragic connection between The Lady and Taln?! All this, and cringy one-liners, too! (*And I will note this blurb is from my editor, the man who helps me come up with cringy one liners. Seriously? I mean that’s one of the best parts of doing these comics.* -SAH)
FROM JAMES Y. BARTLETT: Cold Secrets (The Swamp Yankee Mysteries Book 2)
Julius Haddock is mad as hell and he’s gonna do something about it!
In Glitter Girl, Book One of the Swamp Yankee mysteries, Julius Haddock, the former chief of police in Little Penwick, Rhode Island, was in jail, thanks to a corrupt District Attorney and a few bent judges. Now, after some good police work by his son Gus Haddock, the new chief of police, he’s out. And free.
Julius wants revenge, but he’s going to get it on his own schedule. In the meantime, armed with his new private investigator’s license, Julius decides to take another look at one of Little Penwick’s coldest cases: the thirty-year-old murder of Donna Dixon, a seventeen year old who was abducted and killed while riding her bike to work at her summer job.
But as he starts to look into what happened to Donna thirty years ago, Julius Haddock finds that everyone in town seems to have some secrets from that long-ago time. And he even finds a few secrets in Little Penwick that are fresh and brand new.
But nobody doubts that Julius Haddock can figure out what happened. He’s a Swamp Yankee, after all. Proud, determined and relentless.
FROM RICHARD CHITTENDEN: The Forever Child
The Forever Child is the story of Evangeline Fletcher. Born in 1630, the year 2019 finds her still alive and on the run. For all of her long life, she has been hunted, first by a family seeking vengeance and later by those hoping to find out the secret to her immortality and claim it for themselves.
For Evangeline, immortality has been wasted. She has no family, no friends and no possessions. There have been no great achievements, no heroic deeds, just an empty life of living alone and being ready to run at a moment’s notice whenever she is discovered. She must constantly change identities and move to new locations in an effort to avoid being found. More than anything else, Evangeline wishes she were normal.
Her pursuers are now a cabal of operatives who can draw on the vast resources of the government as they try, time and time again, to capture Evangeline. They are ruthless, tenacious and driven and will cross any boundary and break any law in their quest.to find her. If captured, she will be imprisoned, studied and eventually discarded. A lonely, unmarked grave will be her final end.
EDITED BY LAWDOG, WITH STORIES BY THE NOTORIOUS TEXAS TROUBLEMAKERS: Ghosts of Malta
Malta. Alchemists, Saints and Heroes have all made their way to this place, defended its walls, and added to its ranks of ghosts and lore.
Besieged, battered, and bombed, this archipelago has seen every tide of war, turmoil, and more than a few bits of piracy. It’s also been the land of courage, resilience, and grace under fire.
Ten authors have set out to bring you tales of the ghosts of Malta past, present, and future. Open the pages and meet the ancient guardians, ghost cats and inter dimensional spies that will be your guide…
BY LEIGH BRACKET, WITH INTRODUCTION BY D. JASON FLEMING: Shadow Over Mars (Annotated): The Science Fiction Pulp Classic Planetary Romance
Out of the Roaring Turmoil of the Red Planet Emerges Resolute Rick Urquhart — Destined to Rule the Universe, and to Dare Destruction for the Sake of the Woman He Loves!
This iktaPOP Media edition includes an introduction giving historical and genre context to the novel.
FROM R. H. SNOW: Transmutation Texas (Watcher of the Damned Book 1)
In a World gone Viral, a Hero shall Arise – join the Revolution with WATCHER of the DAMNED!
The Happening wreaked havoc as Humanity got a hard reset from a deadly gender-cidal Virus – and for TransMutated Survivors like The Watcher, life in Post-Apocalyptic Texas just got a whole lot bloodier and a whole lot lonelier. In a cyberpunk Wild West gone awry, The Watcher was a Rebel without a clue under the System: a brutal, high-tech Social Construct engineered to serve the Enlightened and oppress the Damned. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a cheeky chaos agent named Rose…
Now The Watcher must lead a Revolution to save Rose from the System He helped create, or Rose will die – and Humanity will die with her.
Fight the System – Join the Revolution – with WATCHER of the DAMNED!
BY LAWDOG AND CEDAR SANDERSON: AstroLizards.
A few brave lizards, and a gecko, with the right stuff. Two boys growing up in Africa explore the possibilities of explosives, with their reptilian pals. AstroLizards tells the tale of the nascent Nigerian Spac… er, well, an attempt was made. Sapper Lizards tells of the brave enlisted lizards and the wonders of ammonium triiodide. Finally, the Major’s tale of epic battles against beetles and a nose round out this comedic book. You can color the story in yourself! Or you can read and laugh and read again.
FROM CHRISTOPHER WOERNER: 202205 Feint
A collection of current events and history essays over the last month, including news headlines just to keep track of what else was going on. Somebody’s got to cover the world on fire and try to figure out that plans of whoever’s making it happen. Is it the real thing or just a fake? Either way, they’re hitting us hard.
FROM LESLEE SHEU: Kumasagi, Part 2: Kandargiri
Kumasagi is a serialized fantasy saga told in seven parts. Part 2: Kandargiri contains Chapters 16 – 26.
Jayan follows Padir to Kandargiri, realm of the monstrous lopperbeaks, a giant bird species known to be savage and untamable. Determined to ride one of the winged brutes, Padir enlists the help of a young, troubled mystic named Shigaran—the only person in the world who can meet minds with a lopperbeak.
Along the way, an old friend detects Jayan’s troubling secret.
FROM MAX BRAND, WITH INSTRODUCTION BY D. JASON FLEMING: 3 Different Trails (annotated): A Pulp Adventure Omnibus
Three classic pulp novels by Max Brand, that go in three very different directions!
Wooden Guns
Big Jim Conover has a reputation back home as a very, very dangerous man, and one of the fastest draws ever to live. Folks don’t know he’s now partly-paralyzed on his right side, his gun no better than a wooden gun. So when he comes back to take charge of the family that adopted him as a boy, people expect trouble.
Doctor Clinton Aylard has dreams of restoring the proper social status to the once-great Aylard name in England, but finds himself out west, engaged to a girl named Jack, and accidentally in possession of a reputation as a quick draw with a dead aim. A reputation that only he knows he does not deserve.
Conover is on the wrong side of the law, with a sterling character despite his upbringing. Aylard is on the right side of the law, with a conniving, deceitful character, despite his “good breeding”. When these two men meet, even with both carrying “wooden guns”, bullets will fly!
Train’s Trust
Steve Train, gambler, adventurer, clever rogue, didn’t care much for work. But then he was offered a job with no work, but plenty of danger.
The job: track down outlaw Jim Nair — and hand him a pile of money!
The Smoking Land
When rancher Smoky Bill’s closest friend, scientist Cleveland Darrell, disappeared in that lab explosion, everybody figured Darrell had died, and his body vaporized. But when Bill finds out about a “fake” artifact that includes a fragment of Darrell’s writing, Bill knows he must follow his friend, and possibly rescue him. For that fragment of writing mentioned going north of Alaska, to “The Smoking Land”.
Now Bill is going to find The Smoking Land, and his friend Cleve Darrell, no matter how many lost civlizations, mysterious religious cults, or super-science weapons stand in his way!
This iktaPOP Media omnibus includes introductions to all three novels giving genre and historical context.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
Your writing prompt this week is: NEEDY
According To Hoyt 
I swear I saw comments here before. WPDE again?
Those likely got erased when Sarah had to delete the first post she made.
No. I had to delete first post. And it might not be WP but a weird intersection of our internet crashing, a thunderstorm, and WPDE.
Honestly, what world we live in, where a thunderstorm can interfere with work like this?
The first time I loaded the page, it was quite weird. Looked like the code was missing something. Refreshed, and it went away.
WP has been doing strange things to me lately as well. Comments mysteriously ending up in Spam limbo. A post that disappeared on me completely (fortunately I have backups). An old post that somehow got locked in html viewing mode. The comment alert that wouldn’t go away until I got another alert. Duplicating followers.
And the usual, WP giving me audit controls on posts that aren’t on my blog, not giving me the audit controls on my blog, and suchlike. Those are normal things. WordPress disappearing the like when I like a post or a comment after about twenty seconds or so. If I re-click the like button after that it sticks. But one click? “Surely you didn’t mean to like that post, my good man. Let me undo that for you.” Stupid stupid WP.
I dislike the way things are going. If I have to start hosting my stuff on another site, I shall be quite cross for a bit.
Me too, because I’m QUITE technologically STUPID. So far the only other site that has worked for me is substack, and it lacks some bells and whistles.
I’ve been meaning to take a closer look at substack. It doesn’t appear to have all the tools I like for fiction posting, which is over 90% of what I do on WP. If the blog dies, the story is still out there on RR and scribblehub. For normal blogging, those two are not suitable, though. I think I had a blogger account somewhere back in the dusty shelves of time, but that’s been years now.
If someone ever wants to make a robust platform to compete with WP that has all the tools and isn’t as wonky, they’d be swamped with new users inside a week, I bet.
well, I’m planning to combine it with book funnel to get stuff to my fans.
For the first time in months, I was well enough to do amazon work, so I put up a corrected Odd Magics, and added a hard cover version.
Next week, hard cover DST.
Conga-rats for getting stuff done! Stinks knowing you could get stuff done, were health not in the way.
May we all make the best of our healthy days, and may there be many yet to come.
I’d be more worried about a world in which we had completely insulated ourselves from the peril. Like building a tower that reached the sky. . . .
I was thinking more like “This is like magic, you have to make sure the Earth and the sky are in tune ;)”
E-flat miner? ( Oh wait, that’s Minecraft…)
Carp away!!!!!
‘Sposed to be red herrings thrown, not Cyprinidae
With geosynchronous satellite internet, a thunderboomie can cause major havoc. Then, there was the solar flare/coronal mass ejection that crashed the receiver several times. (Crash, reboot, communicate for a few minutes. repeat until the effects subside. Not a fun time.)
(No idea if StarLink would be any better.)
“Mister Carrington to the burning courtesy telephone, please.”
“I’m needy”
“Sigh. My friend, you have plenty to eat, a very good place to live, more books than you could read in a million, plenty gold to purchase anything you want. Intelligent beings know the difference between needs and wants.”
“But I’m a Dragon. Our Wants Are Our Needs.”
“Which is why Dragons aren’t always welcome as neighbors.”
“Hump, good thing George that you’re a Saint because that’s annoyingly true.”.
I suspect saints are often annoying.
True, but being a Saint means in this case Dragons don’t lightly start fights with him. 😉
The 50 words I posted in the other one including both needy and complain;
Needy money misers are the engineer’s bane.
All are narrow minded, absolutely none are sane.
“We will build the rail across the arctic peneplain.”
Here’s the plan, he started to explain.
George looked it over with disdain.
Seeing there was nothing he could gain
He told George, “Go ahead, complain.”
The Reader believes this is an excellent description of Boeing’s corporate management!
“Speaking of modded humans, were any of you in the Psiren campaign?” He hadn’t seen anything in their files, but things were lost and glossed over or hidden under need to know all the time.
Gustav and Khasan, as expected, shook their heads, as did Andris and Erkki. Jurgen made a low noise in the back of his throat. “You’re asking if we’re psionically shielded, or asking if we were in that dustup?”
“Anywhere else recent used shielding?” Arkady shrugged, letting his left hand form a quick sign on the way up.
“Not that anyone’s heard of.” Jurgen made the countersign, and Arkady nodded. They’d discuss it later.
“Oh, is that why the kid’s all snuggly with you, like you’re her stuffie bear?” Erkki grinned, and waggled his eyebrows.
“Yeah. She can’t read me, and I’m good at killing the monsters in the dark.” Arkady’s grin back was full of bared teeth. “Speaking of monsters, you’ve had plenty of time to review the data packet. Based on most recent overflight and all available data for our target, does anyone have questions about the routes in and out?”
This week’s Barbarella Theme Song: “It’s ’bout The Lady and The Taln . . .” [No, I am not sorry.]
Well, you should be, sorry sorry sorry sorry.
“I hate feeling this needy,” Sister Justina sighed, and took another sip of her coffee. “I haven’t felt this needy in years, and it feels wrong, it feels like I am being greedy.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, curious. Give Viola twenty-four hours, and she can find five-star coffee in Hell and as much of it as you want. This was coffee you savored, so I took a sip of my coffee and savored it as Sister Justina took the time to think about this.
Sister Justina flushed-still getting used to her mods, and realizing that she has emotional responses linked to her body-and shook her head. “I am a chaste bride of Christ, Adelaide,” she started. “But, I want to…commit adultery,” she finished after a moment’s thought. “And, somewhere in my head, the knowledge that Our Lord and Savior would understand, because I need it and He can’t be here right now in person.”
I thought about that for a moment. “And, that’s conflicting with your urge to uphold the oaths you swore when you joined as a nun and a member of the Order of Saint Bridget. And, you’re finding it hard to reconcile the urges.” Sister Justina nodded after I paused for a moment, and I took another sip. “Part of that is the neurological and genetic mods…I think it’s the medial prefrontal cortex and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex augmentations, makes it very hard to lie to yourself. It’s barely been a month since we’ve gotten it done, so you’re still getting used to a different cognitive headspace.”
“I’m not a libertine or a satyr…,” then, Sister Justina stopped and blushed again, much harder, her cheeks almost completely flush.
“And, here we hit the major difference between the Orders and how the Dawn Empire handles things,” I replied after she paused. “Good Catholic teaching in the Orders-the flesh doesn’t matter, the biology doesn’t matter, only the soul matters at the end. Which is why you’re trying to pretend very hard that you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” she sputtered at me, even more embarrassed, and she actually looked away after she said that. “I don’t.”
I smiled as gently as I could. “You would, if you didn’t feel like it was a violation of your vows. The Dawn Empire considered the flesh as much a part of the process as the soul. And, trying to pretend that the flesh doesn’t have needs, the mechanisms of thousands of years of human survival that ensured that the genes that would allow for survival did get passed along, is a kind of self-deception. Part of those needs is the need for human contact and confirmation of the needs of the flesh. Not a ravenous hunger of human contact, but…feeding that need in your body. Trying to make sure you don’t lack in the nutrients of being held, holding someone, and emotional reflection.”
I became a priest because I wanted to serve the poor, the needy – those without hope in this world. Making me chaplain of Poncebridge University seemed like some cruel joke on God’s part.
Then I got to know the students here.
I think I’m right where I ought to be.
:heart:
Barbarella is up to her alligator in eyeballs.
……
Grin
Which is a weird inversion of my normal state.
Yakov Tsiklauri considered how much more difficult things would be for the Amerikanski moonbase. There, all communications were funneled through a single channel, the capcom station at their mission control center in Houston. An astronaut wanting to make a secret appeal to someone at their Pentagon would need not only a pre-arranged code, but several people willing to pass the word.
Here, the need to ensure political reliability actually worked in his favor. To guard against collusion between cosmonauts up here and at Star City, the zampolit had access to alternate channels of communication. Most of them were KGB, including one directly to Lubyanka, but another linked to the Ministry of Defense. Tsiklauri’s predecessor had never explained why, but it sounded like a last resort in case the normal lines of communication were disrupted, or the Competent Organs had been suborned.
It wouldn’t go directly to Marshal Gruzinsky’s desk. However, knowing the man’s fondness for surrounding himself with subordinates of his own nationality, Tsiklauri was willing to put money on any message going to a fellow Georgian. Which meant someone who would be receptive to his appeal, who would indeed pass it on to the marshal and not round-file it. Or worse, contact the Ministry of Defense zampolit.
Now to compose a message that would capture the attention of both Gruzinsky and his gatekeeper. Respectful but not fawning, urgent but not desperate.
Jim is motivated by envy and hatred. This completely clouds his mind. He is not really concerned about the welfare of the poor and needy. No. He actually despises them. They are scapegoats. He uses them as weapons to force titans like Dagny and Wyatt to carry heavier and heavier burdens. He despises smart people and their achievements. He feels weak and insignificant in comparison, and he blames them for making him feel this way. He wants to see them all suffer and die. It’s icing on the cake if he’s the instrument of their destruction.
Outside, low voices rumbled. She thought one was Julian. Very carefully, she picked up another and tried it. Lemon, she thought. At least it was some distraction from the desire to jump up and look. She didn’t need to know, she reminded herself, and she would find out soon enough.
c4c
Drusilla turned her face away and scowled. There were seven of them, but while challenges had their charms some of the time, this one was the best, and Reynardette was the best to get it for her.
And she did need to deal with Maximiana now, so she needed Reynardette.
“But I probably shouldn’t. I need the bugle to defend the castle. The king and the princes won’t. They’re too busy down in the valleys, and it’s not a valuable castle, or they wouldn’t have sent me there. But I should try to defend it, and the bugle is the only way I can think of.”
Had the girl even needed to breathe during that? thought the fairy.
Holy Cow Sarah this is a LOT of work to have to crank out on a Mother’s Day! Thank you so much for working so hard and for the shout out!
Vignette:
She laid a clammy, pale hand over her heart
it hurt. God, it hurt…
Rose closed her eyes and tried to think something, anything, except this moment; all she got was a tangled lump of heartache in the center of her soul, the kind of emotion that sucks the life out of everything. A weeping sorrow born of pain and cold emptiness that threatened to swallow her whole, it was ever present, ever needy, crying, dying… she looked down once more;
the blood was running down her leg and wouldn’t stop.
Rose imagined a tiny hand upon her shoulder, the angelic ghost of children past; she wept and the angel wept with her.
Eh. We’re celebrating Mother’s Day next weekend.
Dan has strep. Maybe it’s a good thing he was in the room, working all through the con. I seem to be his only victim.
Probably because we kiss 😀
Lol that’s what you get for being in love with a handsome man. We JUST got over strep over here. Both grown kids had it, bad… but for some reason, me and my husband ducked it. I knew being old and immune would eventually pay off 😛
I’d forgotten how bad strep is.
“One flesh rule” FTW. 😉
“Is this a bad time?” Raylene eyed her neighbor cautiously; Mary Lou had obviously been crying.
“No, it’s fine. Thanks, Raylene. Put the casserole in the fridge, would you?”
She had no difficulty fitting the dish into the refrigerator; there was almost no food in it. “So how are things?”
“The insurance company won’t send us the check until they get the death certificate.” The other woman’s shoulders were slumped in defeat. “I’m not gonna lie, things are getting tight. On top of everything else, the car broke down. I haven’t been able to get out of the house except walking the kids to school. Can’t get to the store…” she bit her lip, trying not to cry again.
“Blessed are the needy, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Raylene had a faraway look on her face.
“The Beatitudes.” Mary Lou smiled wryly. “I knew all that Sunday School would pay off someday.”
“Well, here’s the keys to the kingdom,” Raylene said briskly, reaching into her purse. “Go, run your errands.” Placing bills next to the car keys, she added, “And here’s money for gas.”
Anyone using NI3 as rocket fuel must be indeed needy; in need of more excitement in life. Sure, it’s easy to make. (I saw someone do it once.) It’s also as touchy (after it dries out) as a fourteen year-old nerd with acne and a B in math. Perhaps the person who chose it really likes the color purple?
Realized when I drove up in the yard that it was ammonium triiodine; waste of a good simile.
He was thirsty. He looked at the cracked case of the desalination pump, sitting on the floor of the lifeboat.
The crack meant that the pump wouldn’t create enough pressure to draw seawater through the filter – so no drinking water.
Not being able to suck was really going to suck.
Needy is a bullsht word. Most of the time, it’s a way of saying someone who needs something is too much trouble. My girlfriend, for example. If I called her “needy”, you’d know I was btching.
But if I told you she needs a ride to work every day because she can’t afford a car, you’d just say something like, “Good thing she has you,” and then I’d say “Yeah, and she does stuff for me too, so it works out,” and then we’d move on. Unless Manny was here. Then he’d probably some up with some way to get her a car.
Which still wouldn’t work, because she’s blind.
‘Progressives’ have no use for secure, independent people. They have no way to gain power over regular folks. ‘Progressives’ want a world full of needy, neurotic whiners they can manipulate.