Month: February 2025

What a time to be alive!

If you have missed it, I can’t even track down all the tweets, but let’s say that for the last week or so, Elon Musk has been catching USAID, skinning it, anatomizing it, and hanging its ugly, diseased entrails out for the world to see.

If you miss all of it, you can probably start here and here and poke around to see the rest. As far as I can tell, USAID whom the idiots on the left are trying to protect by saying their budget is only 0.7% of the government’s fantastical carnival of corruption and waste, has been funding all of the mainstream media, from the New York Times to Politico and everything big and small in between. (To be fair they also got money from other agencies and departments.)

And though not fully exposed yet, once we follow through the links of stalking horse NGOs, there is reason to believe the USAID — and doubtless other parts of our government — have been funding Antifa, BLM, ANSWER International, and most ratbag commie movements here and abroad.

At the same time, it appears that a game and at least one Netflix series (I know you are shocked, considering the deal they had with the Obama’s) were also funded by USAID.

And I’m going to lay a small bet that various departments and agencies have also funded most of Hollywood and the large publishing houses. (Look at what Simon and Schuster does in giving every lefty quasi celebrity millions and millions for turgid half baked books no one buys.) Mostly I base this surmise on the simple certainty that no one — NO ONE — would continue to make product no one will buy unless someone else is paying them to do it.

Yes, I’m surmising and I could be wrong, but given what we’ve found out about the press, I don’t think so! As I say, I’m making a prediction and laying a small bet.

I’m just waiting, as Elon turns his attention to the rest of our government, the parts of bigger budgets.

I am both in awe of how far they’ve got in two and a half weeks, of everything they’re exposing, and in horror and disgust at what they are actually finding.

The picture I’m getting is as though each of us, without knowing it, had been paying $500 a month for someone to beat us up, slander us, and lie to us.

If I had this plot in a novel no one would believe it.

I was about to say the situation is so surreal that I’m not even mad.

But the truth is that I’m spectacularly mad.

And the bizarre thing through all of this is that the left thinks it can cow us into silence. It runs around making up nutbaggery about how Elon’s employees working on this aren’t qualified, and how they weren’t elected to see private information (as though normal secretaries and programmers got elected.)

They also scream that it’s some illegal and unconstitutional to take away their money tap and sinecures.

BUT do you know the most surreal thing through all of this? The one thing that has me grinning like a toddler on Christmas morning and not wanting to miss a minute of it?

The right doesn’t care! They scream, they call us names, they say they’re going to do terrible things to us, and we ignore them and go on.

It’s like overnight they’ve become completely irrelevant. Buzzing flies or laughing stocks, nothing more.

If you’d told me ten years ago, we’d be here today, I’d not have believed it. It is probably the greatest miracle of all this.

What a time to be alive!

Feeling Awful? Check Your Thyroid by Holly Chism

I’ve been fighting my own body for the past decade and a half, now.  Almost exactly, as of the middle of this coming May.  All from one itty-bitty gland not doing what it was supposed to do. 

My son is sixteen, now.  When I had him, I was warned that I’d be exhausted for a long time.  Well, they were right, but it went on a lot longer than it should have: the exhaustion should have passed within about six to eight months, especially since he started sleeping six to eight hour nights before he was three months old. 

Unfortunately, despite my first pregnancy having fixed several issues (too tight ligaments around one knee, a bad gallbladder, and reducing menstrual issues), it also triggered my immune system to attack, and kill, my thyroid gland.  Nobody caught it.  I went two years with my thyroid non-functional.  And then I fell pregnant with my daughter…and it got noted. 

When you attend your first prenatal visit, your practitioner will schedule a bunch of tests, mostly blood work.  One of the things tested is your thyroid levels.  Mine were…bad.  Really bad.  Bad enough she thought it was a typo, and sent me back—twice—to get the tests redone.

The way things work is that your body signals the pituitary gland that it needs energy.  The pituitary sends out thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to tell the thyroid gland to uptake some amino acids, iodine, and cholesterol to turn into thyroid hormone (T4), which your body breaks down (T3, RT3) to use. Your thyroid gland does what it’s told, and everything’s golden. 

Mine didn’t.  It tried, but my immune system had more than half-killed my thyroid gland.  Autoimmune disorder.  It happens, and pregnancy can trigger it. 

So, while my thyroid was straining to comply and failing, my pituitary thought it wasn’t listening, and pumped out more TSH.  And more.  And more.  My TSH, when tested, was nearly 11.  It’s supposed to be no higher than 3.5. 

I shouldn’t have been pregnant.  I shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant.  Not with a non-functioning thyroid gland.  Shouldn’t have been able to stay pregnant, either…and could have lost the pregnancy (which I may have done before that one), or it could have led to really nasty repercussions for the baby.

But I was pregnant, I got treated, and I had a gorgeous baby girl who didn’t have any nasty side effects from my body dropping the ball…but I also had a thyroid gland that continued to fail.  And then to swell, and develop nodules. 

Backing up.  The TSH your body produces is inversely related to the amount of thyroid hormone you have.  If your body is not producing thyroid hormones, your TSH skyrockets.  If your body is producing too much thyroid hormones, your TSH plummets.  Ideally, your TSH should be between .5 and 3.5.  4 is subclinical hypothyroidism.  All that means is that your thyroid isn’t working quite right, but it could kick back off.  Your thyroid will slow down if you get really sick—it drains your energy so you sleep off whatever ails you.  Endocrinologists prefer to take a wait-and-see approach until your TSH eases up to 5. 

Here’s the fun thing: they can’t tell if your thyroid is working or not without drawing blood.  The symptoms are too diverse. 

So, what are you likely to face with a low- or non-functioning thyroid? 

1. Exhaustion.  You’re not going to have any energy to do the things you need to do.  You’ll sleep a lot more, and it won’t help. 

2. Weight gain.  No, it’s not just because you’re too tired to move.  It’s not because you’re eating too much.  Your thyroid runs your metabolism.  You’re shuffling everything to storage.  Not burning it.

3.  Hair, skin, and fingernail nonsense.  You start shedding like a nervous cat.  And it goes gray prematurely.  It’s dry—your hair dries out and conditioner doesn’t work. Your body hair thins—yes, everything from your eyebrows to the fine down of hair on your arms and legs.  Your nails soften and break.  When they’re not peeling.  Sometimes, they do both.  And your skin dries out, flakes, and you get itchy.  You can use all the moisturizer in the world, and you’ll still be dried out and itchy. 

4. Temperature regulation.  You’re cold.  You’re cold all the time.  And you can’t get warm.  Your body temperature actually drops.  Remember what I said about your thyroid running your metabolism? Yeah, your body temperature is part of that.

5. Digestion problems.  Your thyroid malfunctions, your digestion slows.  All of it.  Oh, and you’re more prone to reflux, so enjoy that, too.  You can take acid blockers, but only short term—long term, they cause damage to other parts of your body and digestive system.  And the reflux is caused by slow emptying stomach anyway, because your digestion has slowed down. But when your digestion slows like that?  Guess what?  You’re eating less than normal, still gaining weight, and your body starts sucking the moisture out of what’s moving through you, and you get constipated.  Eating more fiber makes it worse.  Drinking more water doesn’t help.  Laxatives can, but that can cause severe, long-term damage. 

6. Reproductive issues.  Your libido tanks.  If you’re female, your cycle goes longer, gets heavier and more painful, and you lose more iron.  It’s harder to get, and stay pregnant, because all of your hormones are influenced by your thyroid levels.  All of them.  Some of the symptoms can be masked by birth control pills…but those will actually make the underlying issue of a non-functioning thyroid worse.  Because estrogen binds the bit of thyroid hormone your body is making into its permanently inactive form that your body can’t use.

7. Blood pressure/cholesterol.  Your blood pressure can drop…or it can skyrocket, because your body’s under a ton of stress.  Your cholesterol will go up.  Because your body’s not using it to make the hormones you need to live.  Doctors will push statins at you, but those will just make you feel worse, because the root issue—a non-functioning thyroid—is still untreated. 

8. Cognitive symptoms.  You get forgetful.  You can’t focus.  Your thoughts move at the speed of molasses in January, if they move at all.  You can’t get interested in anything, can’t maintain interest in anything.  You get depressed, and nothing helps.  Not sunshine, not antidepressants, not talk therapy. Nothing.  Everything’s gray, and life sucks.  And it’s not clinical depression, because it’s not caused by brain chemicals going out of whack.  It’s your thyroid…which no one will actually test for, even if you have presented with treatment resistant depression. 

9. Pain levels.  You get more prone to headaches.  Not sinus headaches, not blood pressure headaches, not tension headaches, not migraines.  Just…random, mild, run-of-the-mill headaches.  Oh, and joint pain.  Your joints will ache.  And you won’t know why, and not much will help…because there’s nothing that you’ve done to hurt yourself.  Your body is just being an asshole.  Oh, and your muscles will ache, but you won’t have done anything.  (Doctors will actually test you, at this point, for Epstein-Barr, for fibromyalgia, for a bunch of different things…but not thyroid.)

10. Eye issues.  Your vision will go wonky.  You’ll go near-sighted, and may develop astigmatism.  And it will worsen, and continue to get worse.

11. Nerve issues.  Low thyroid numbers can cause tremors and spasms.  Because like your brain needs thyroid hormones to function properly so does your nervous system.  If it’s bad, it can look like Parkinson’s.  But it won’t be. 

If you stand back and look for patterns?  There isn’t one.  Not really.  And general practitioners look for patterns.  Symptom clusters.  That normally tells them where the problem is. 

Unfortunately, your body uses thyroid hormone to regulate literally everything.  There isn’t a single system in your body that it doesn’t touch. 

The absolute hell of it is, TSH is an easy check.  Most doctors don’t know what it signifies, but it’s easy to keep an eye on.  If it fluctuates, there’s a problem.  And if it’s not functioning and not treated?  It can cause severe and worsening problems. 

Including cardiac issues.  You read that right: untreated or under-treated hypothyroidism can lead to heart failure.  And early death. 

It’s an easy test.  Ask for it, if it’s not in your annual panels.  Keep an eye on that TSH number.  Remember: you want it between .5 and 3.5.  Lower than .5, and you’re hyperthyroid (different set of symptoms and risks—mostly inverse), and higher than 5, you’re hypothyroid.  Both can—and should—be treated. 

You deserve to feel better than this. 

*Yes, Holly has been badgering me to see an Endo. Now if only I get the test results back and the doctor knows what to do about it… Holly is an author, and this is the link to her Amazon page. -SAH*

*For those of you worried about how late I am: My thyroid has gone a big insane again, in the sense of extremely low. Yes, tests have been made and blood drawn for further tests. I’m currently waiting for results so we can figure out how/where to start with medication. Until then, I’m back on aderal, simply because the alternative is being almost comatose. But I’m having trouble functioning and, as per aderal, go down many many rabbit holes if I’m tired. It’s like Super-ADD-SAH*

I don’t know if you guys are aware of this, so I thought perhaps I should write about it.

I know there are no tanks on the street, and that I know of, no TV station has gone solidly to playing Green Acres back to back and this was not what I expected when I voted, so it took till a couple of days ago for me to go “Dear Lord, this is a revolution.”

Let me unpack that sentence above because I can see several people taking it wrong.

So, let’s start with “this is not what I expected.” It’s not. I expected the first term all over again. This doesn’t mean I ‘regret’ it or “am upset”. I will capture a tweet from Jagi Lamplighter about that, because I can’t put it better than she did:

Now that we’ve established that, moving on: what I expected, in my wildest dreams, where somehow Trump got beyond the barriers that held him back in his first term was the roll back of some of the crap that made the US a basket case under Biden. You know, actual semi-effective border control. Maybe a few thousand deportations. Perhaps a reining back of the stupid regulations, and some drill baby drill.

But I didn’t actually expect revolution. A revolution that rolls back the now long established corruptions imposed on our system by the likes of FDR.

At first I was in shock at the speed and compass of the EOs and other work going on. And then–

Well, part of it is my health, but I’m having real trouble controlling this. I will read the news on my phone first thing in the morning, because it’s weird and exciting. And then I have to fight to work during the day, because I’m fascinated by this show which is more interesting than anything Hollywood has produced in decades.

And in the middle of all this it was only a couple of days ago that I realized this is a revolution.

Well, you’re in luck, because I have a lot of experience in revolutions. No, not in leading them, unless you count “revolutions in a classroom” or something like that. And even then, I was usually too lazy to do anything.

BUT I have experience in finding yourself in the middle of a revolution where everything is changing and things you always thought permanent and immutable get yanked out from under you. Of course, this revolution doesn’t seem to be going in the way of things get worse, not in an overall thing (though they can be for individuals) so that’s an improvement over the ones I know.

But with that in mind, here’s some advice:

1- Don’t be scared. Yeah, I know, fast change, even fast change you wanted is always scary. And this is very fast change. But control it, okay. think clearly about what it’s happening, and what the consequences might be. This is very important.

2- First, it will allow you to NOT fall for propaganda, like the idiotic idea that they’re going to abolish social security, something even Trump said in his inaugural speech he won’t do. (I’m hoping they phase it out and stop taking separate taxes for it, so that in 40 years they CAN shut it down. I realize a good way to start doing that is means testing, and that that is likely to affect us, as we’ll never fully retire unless incapacitated. I’m fine with that.)

3- It will also allow you to fight back the fear that if we do this “they’ll do worse to us when they win.” If we do this right, when they win they’ll be a different party. We’re moving the Overton window at a fast clip. Reagan moved the overton window enough that the next time they won they were the “new democrats.” This demands a far bigger change on their part. Also, they did this to us pretty much under both Obama and Biden. Only not as fast/thorough because they couldn’t. They never succeeded in getting us to give up guns, so they couldn’t.

4 – Be aware there will be glitches and hard times. Look, if someone waved a magical wand and the federal government was suddenly within tight constitutional limits, there would still be bad consequences.

Sure, most of what the feds are financing is utter bilge, when not actively anti-American, and making things worse for everyone in the world as well as the US. (In fact, that’s the shock. Guys, this is me speaking, and I didn’t know how much of the leftover USSR bullshit propaganda and lies we were financing across the globe. Censorship, even.)

But some of it has little sub branches, and not immediately obvious connections to what you, yes, you do for a living. Like, you might have no hand in growing worse viruses to kill humans, but your lab might still be tied to federal funding (Partly because the government ran out/limited all other sources of funding.) In which case things will get lean for a while. And you should have prepared for it last year, but the next best time to prepare is now.

The same with apparently everything from game makers to magazines. They shouldn’t have been getting fed funds, but they were, and so you might be affected/find yourself temporarily unemployed.

And obviously a lot of people work in the bureaucracy who aren’t bad people, etc. And they will be unemployed. This is sad and in some cases tragic, but there it is. Things can’t go on, and change will hurt someone every time.

Now, if you are offered the 80k, take it. I bet you in eight months there will be other job opportunities. And you don’t want — don’t want — to be laid off instead.

But you know your situation better than I do. The point is, instead of being locked in “This is all terrible, because this terrible thing happened to me” you should be thinking through options and what to do to improve your chances of coming out of this smelling like a rose.

5- The minimum you can expect is supply disruptions, say on the level of covid lockdowns. People are being deported and self-deporting and there’s talk of e-verify. Just in trucking remember they MADE companies hire illegals. And frankly the empty factories gave me the pip. Yes, it needs to be done, because when there was a quarter in which NO ONE born in the US was hired, we have massive problems. Also it’s been used to depress wages. Also frankly mass immigration isn’t healthy for anyone, even those coming in. So it needed to be done. (And honestly they’re being very gentle, it’s just the propaganda is causing more self-deportations than they counted on.) Still, it’s another, even I hadn’t realized problem had got that bad, and therefore I now know there will be massive disruptions. Not because Americans don’t want to work, but because it’s illegal to hire them at under minimum wage. Also don’t worry too much. The money we save on the social services that permit illegals to work for almost nothing will reduce prices of some things, like medical care.
It will fix itself, but meanwhile be prepared for supply disruptions. As someone who tends to I’m telling you not to go overboard, but having enough essentials for a couple of weeks are a thing.

6- Be aware there will be opportunities and new enterprises and ways of doing things opening up. Keep abreast of what’s happening in your field. Don’t assume it’s all bad and get locked in depression. Even bad revolutions open up new (usually in that case counterproductive) job and enrichment opportunities.
In this case, if they remove the constraints on business even a little, I bet you there will be plenty of new opportunities and chances to work at whatever level and career you work.

7- Don’t be scared, but be prepared to throw your weight behind less-disastrous alternatives. Not only is this a revolution, but people are very angry. Such circumstances are slippery. I don’t think the people in charge right now are a danger, as such, but any disturbance, like, say the idiots on the left killing the employees going through records, and things could tumble completely insane.

So be ready to be the “slow down” voice and the one that tries to at least dissuade people from gallows.

8- At the same time, hold on to your principles. All of us will face difficult circumstances and choices because again, things changing very fast, and every time that happens opportunity and jobs appear and disappear, and you’ll have to decide what you can do, and how you can survive. Hold on to your principles. If at all possible to survive without compromising them, do so, because there is a price for compromising them. For you and for society.

9- Hold on to your hat. This year promises to be LIT and I’m not sure next year will be any slower. DO try to do at least some work, rather than spend the time trying to track everything.

I suggest you limit yourself to say half an hour of news reading, then go work.

And meanwhile, enjoy the revolution. Yes, we need a miracle for everything to go right, but we’re already in the middle of a miracle. What’s one more?

10- If you come here, and there’s a clip of the Green Acres opening, THEN it’s time worry.

What would you do if a gentleman with horns and a pointy tail met you in a dark alley — or a bright sunlit office — and offered you fortune, fame and love in exchange for your soul?

Well, obviously, whether you’re a believer or not, you’ve heard this story often enough that you’d say no. If you’re a believer you’ll say so even if the well dressed gentleman — a man of wealth and taste — offers you the kingdoms of the world. Because you’ve read THAT story.

Alas this is rarely how you sell your soul these days, and the whole thing is way more subtle. This came up in conversation today as we were talking about a number of people — after my husband watched several specials about the music world (being a musician himself, though not professionally, he watches a lot of those) — who had everything and the world by the tail, but were miserable and fell into various forms of self-destructive behavior.

This is by now a proverbial story, one that all of us know. It’s the fame and fortune bring death and destruction story. It’s so trite it’s not even worth writing. And yet, it keeps happening again and again and again. And not just in music. Or writing. We see it in people who do very well in politics or business. People who do well in sports. People who win the lottery even.

Of course not all of those people destroy themselves, but enough do that you wonder if it’s a function of being creative, or good at sports, or even successful in other things, or having a lot of money.

I don’t believe it is. I don’t have much more than my personal experience, but for what it is, and for what it does I’ll be glad to relate it. (Alas my experience is NOT with having an immense fortune handed to me.)

At least twice I was offered deals with the devil. The first time I sort of started taking it, but the results scared me so much, I bounced all the way out of the political closet.

This was when I was writing for several publishing houses and kept getting pushed into explicitly writing leftist stuff, endorsing it, casting militant Marxism into my stories. I sort of did a little here and there (to wit there’s a trilogy my assistant is working to clean of those little bits so it can be brought out again.)

But the feeling it gave me was … Well, I realized if I went much further, I’d not be able to look at myself in the mirror. I’d be broken. Some fundamental wellspring of who I am and what I do would be broken.

I had a referent for this because, as an author, I know when you break a character it can be almost impossible to revive it. Put a pin in that and I’ll explain it later.

The second offer of a deal with the devil didn’t even offer me fame and fortune, just the chance to keep working, to keep making what wasn’t terribly impressive money. But it was a chance to keep working, and at the time I was terrified of going indie.

Note that the second — except for the final instance, and that’s complicated — was not maliciously done. It was simply the mechanics of keeping being published at the time, the way things were (and probably still are. Having gone indie, I haven’t looked closely at what is going on in traditional.)

On the second, it was a slow drip of prioritizing what I would guess would be bought, of shading my work so it would be acceptable, of writing the next book and the next and the next.

As happened I got a demand I couldn’t accommodate, because it made absolutely no sense, not even remotely. And that led to my being pitchforked head first into indie publishing.

In retrospect that was the best thing that could have happened to me. Though I didn’t think it at the time, and it took me till this last year to come back, to even thinking of writing the things crying to be written. (Not the ones on this blog. I always do that on this blog. But not in fiction, see. Oh, it’s starting, if I can stabilize the health enough to finish the edits.)

Now, I’m not telling you never to do things you want to do for money. That’s normally known as “having a job” even if that job is word slinging. You write for money, you have to write what people will buy. Absolutely true.

Remember that pin we put on the breaking a character thing?

I’m now going to explain how to break a character, something I found by doing it twice and then figuring out how it was done. (And that killed two books, by the way. Fortunately not already contracted books.)

When you create a character, the character has certain characteristics. To be able to perform its function, the character has to be that way. If you confuse an incidental characteristic with a vital one, and have the character act in a way against one of his vital characteristics, one that breaks something essential to the character, you will break the character. And sometimes even if only you know it, you can’t bring it back.

If you think back to a series you lost interest in, you’ll probably find that the author killed the character in that way.

But Sarah, you’ll say, humans aren’t characters! Well. Maybe. But humans too have things in their own heads that they don’t want to/can’t break.

And sometimes you don’t know it. In my case never writing the stuff that was screaming to be written was the problem. Forcing myself to write what wasn’t screaming to be written (even if interesting) just made that worse.

I got so extremely burned out, I only figured it out once the burnout lifted. But I should have figured it out.

Signs that you are on a bad path and not doing whatever it is that feeds your soul are that you’ll become more and more depressed, have less and less energy. And at some level, you’ll become very angry.

At some level, too, you know you’re harming yourself. I did. I just didn’t see any other path.

I find this is more likely to happen and cause damage if you’re one of those people with a vocation. Something you feel your born to do. Some work, some pursuit that makes your mind and soul (pardon me, but it’s the best word) sing.

If you’re in that position, find a way to pursue your vocation on the side, somehow. Find a way to do things that matter to you. And find a way to change jobs so it doesn’t violate the things in your head that if you break them will make you not-you.

This applies to writers, musicians, artists, probably actors and for sure programmer too. I’m sure it applies to a lot of people and professions I can’t call to mind right now.

Jordan Peterson says if you’re creative and don’t create, you’ll die. It kills you.

I’m telling you sometimes you don’t die physically, and something else takes your place. That thing, mind you, might be rage at everyone, but most of all at yourself. But whatever it is will destroy you.

The price of the gift, the talent, the drive, whatever those are, are to DO IT. To do what you feel you have to do. And if you’re doing it right, it energizes you. If you’re not… it drains you. Till you’re all gone.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but someone out there does. Find a way to exert what gift you have. Even if you have to do it after the paying work. And don’t let your gift get twisted. Don’t let others use it the wrong way. Don’t let it be trampled.
The price of the gift is to use it. Because life is too short to hate yourself.

And deals with the devil, regardless of songs and movies, never end well.

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.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM PAM UPHOFF: In Plain Sight (Chronicles of the Fall)

A short story taking place after the Fall

Bryanne Volkov is sixteen and moving from a small town to the capital of the Alliance, as her Grandfather is about to become the head of the entire Volkov Family. And her new home is not much like what she expected . . . the servants, odd, and an Executioner much too interested in the family.

FROM HOLLY LEROY: Malibu Blues: A Short Story.

Movie executive Robin Wolff and P.I. Jim Krag had something personal going on. Unfortunately, his business—and hers—got in the way, and they drifted apart. Then she was found shot to death in a dumpster behind the Hollywood Paramount Theater. Krag is going to find the killer and mete out justice as only he can.

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON: Tanager’s Flight (The Tanager Book 2)

Captain Jem Raznick of the Tanager dreams of nothing more than sailing the stars with his crew—a family forged in the vacuum of space. When a mysterious pirate threat looms, what seems like a routine trading run spirals into a cosmic adventure!

Family isn’t just blood—it’s the bond that holds the galaxy together.

Every time the enigmatic Jade Star enters their orbit, routine turns upside down. Jem must outwit the treachery that lurks in the shadows of space to keep his crew alive. Prepare for a journey between planets where loyalty, betrayal, and survival are the only constants. Join Captain Raznick as he navigates through danger, deceit, and the deep, dark unknown!

FROM LAUREN RITZ: Guardian (Demons Bay)

When enemies attack the palace, young Lord Orin is given the sacred charge of protecting the Soul of Tien, an infant princess he names Insi. After the child’s nurse is killed, Orin must continue their journey, caring for the baby as best he can. Their goal is a small village at the edge of Linan, where the King said Insi will be protected from the enemies that would give anything to prevent her from taking her throne.When they arrive the village is dead, the only things left living the ancient sentient trees of the forest. The Elder Trees around the destroyed village in Linan still remember the oath they made to a long dead Tiene king. Protect the Soul.Lord Orin is destined to fulfill a future he never imagined. In order to protect the princess, he needs to become more than human—to die and live again, to be more than just the Guardian of the Soul of Tien. If he is to truly protect her, Linan itself must gain a Soul.

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER: A Sudden Departure (April Series Book 9)

The Earth below is a house in disorder. The spacers increasingly just want to be left alone. They need less from Earth all the time so many don’t really care what they do down there on the Slum Ball, but what if improving technology made it easier for them to bring all their old factions and sects and rivalries among the stars? The three partners April, Jeff and Heather hope to beat them at that game and find a firm foothold out there before the Earthies arrive. The book is also laying out details leading up to the merge of the “April” series of books with the story of the “Family Law” series.

FROM BLAKE SMITH: The Hartington Inheritance (The Hartington Series Book 1)

Almira Hartington was heir to the largest fortune in the galaxy, amassed by her father during his time as a director of the Andromeda Company. But when Sir Josiah commits suicide, Almira discovers that she and her siblings are penniless. All three of them must learn to work if they wish to eat, and are quickly scattered to the far reaches of the universe. Almira stubbornly remains on-planet, determined to remain respectable despite the sneers of her former friends.

Sir Percy Wallingham pities the new Lady Hartington. But the lady’s family will take care of her, surely? It’s only after he encounters Almira in her new circumstances that he realizes the extent of her troubles and is determined to help her if he can. He doesn’t know that a scandal is brewing around Sir Josiah’s death and Almira’s exile from society. But it could cost him his life, and the lady he has come to love.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Monsters, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That

MONSTERS – Xenoarchaeologist Vartan has promised his young daughter Liza one of the many enigmatic lamedh objects that litter the site of a vanished alien civilization.

No one can figure out what they’re good for, but Liza finds a use for one.

ADAPTABILITY – The Webster Marble Deluxe Woodsman, Model 820-E, has been offline for quite some time. Quite some time indeed.

Good thing Webster has a manual to consult, and a great many special functions.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Draw One In The Dark (The Shifter Series Book 1).

Something or someone is killing shape shifters in the small mountain town of Goldport, Colorado. Kyrie Smith, a server at a local diner, is the last person to solve the mystery. Except of course for the fact that she changes into a panther and that her co-worker, Tom Ormson, who changes into a dragon, thinks he might have killed someone. Add in a policeman who shape-shifts into a lion, a father who is suffering from remorse about how he raised his son, and a triad of dragon shape shifters on the trail of a magical object known as The Pearl of Heaven and the adventure is bound to get very exciting indeed. Solving the crime is difficult enough, but so is — for our characters — trusting someone with secrets long-held. Originally published by Baen Books.

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.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: holiday