Tell me how you met Sarah

Posted on by hollyfrostgoldportpress

Good morning, Huns, Hoydens, and other Creatures!

Sarah’s out of pocket and I promised to accompany family to the Fair. So, please don’t panic if your comment stays in spam til after your bedtime today! I’ll get it later.

That said, can you all tell me how you first found Sarah’s writing? Where, when, and why, and what made you keep reading and come back for more? Fiction and non-fiction, both.

And also, check out the newly updated author website: https://www.sarahahoyt.com/ it’s very much a work in progress.

Oh. She says to tell you why she’s out. She just received an overseas call no one is ever ready for or wants to get. Please pray for comfort for her and her family, and for the repose of her mother’s soul.

Try and not burn more than two or three small dumpsters today, please? And I’ll see you all later. Holly

125 thoughts on “Tell me how you met Sarah”

  1. I think I started reading her blog sometime in the late 00s or early ’10s, read and liked Darkship Thieves, and made an unsuccessful attempt at the Shakespeare fantasies, around that time. It might be pretentious to say that I felt like she had (and has) an interesting perspective on the immigrant experience, and since I spent a lot of my childhood moving around and not fitting in, the discussions of “Oddness” also speak to me. But it is also true. My favorites of her fiction are probably the modern fairy tales. I am very grateful to her for the book pimping posts.

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  2. Praying for everyone.

    First found Sarah’s blog, I think… maybe a link from Ace or Insty? Found her writings here enjoyable, and her books are good too.

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  3. Hmm, I had to look it up. Seems in Spring of 2012 I had seen a post of Sarah’s about Human Wave SF and commented to her about it. It seems it wasn’t until 2018 that I became a regular commenter. I had quit actively writing way back in 1979 or thereabouts in despair at where the publishing world had gone. I hadn’t realized how far it had deteriorated until Sad Puppies. So I came at Sarah’s ouvre as a non-fiction rather than a fiction fan.

    I finally met Sarah and Dan in person at Son of Silvercon I, where I bought Darkship Thieves from the Dealer’s Bedroom and ended up enjoying it.

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  4. I first met Sarah at LibertyCon 2007 where Mad Mike had an idea of an ACME delivery of wooden (practice) bullets from Eastern Europe as anti-vampire rounds. Due to a screw-up, the initial delivery failed – the rounds were NOT in the package! This was rectified later.

    One of the things of the (attempted) delivery was that it was at an Author’s Meet & Greet sort of thing, so that a few deliveries happened before Eric Flint got one, but within his view, so he didn’t feel singled out.

    FWIW, Eric Flint (union organizer) got a box of “Union Matches” – “They’ll Strike Anywhere!” (they were strike-anywhere matches – not easy to find anymore!) As I recall he did the classic strike on sole of shoe and it lit… “Good matches!”

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    1. Oh, it wasn’t after I returned to LibertyCon in…2015(?) that I found the blog…. and then found “I” would eventually be in the Shifter’s series. I only expected a simple walk-on bit (as in Home for Christmas) and not the Somewhat Major Role that happened in Bowl of Red.

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    2. Problem with wooden rounds is I believe they are specifically banned by the Geneva Conventions. So, while you can have them as novelty items, you do NOT want to use them on anyone.

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      2. I can’t find anything on wooden bullets being banned, it looks like they were used in crowd control and training before rubber bullets became common.

        Do you have a better source for me? That is an interesting rabbit hole.

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        1. Came out of rules of war training when I was in the AF; either from an annual briefing, a pre-deployment briefing, or it may have been in the SNCO Academy lessons. That was over a quarter of a century ago.

          The two issues with wooden rounds are that:

          1, They can be steeped in dung, ricin, or other toxics or pathogens

          and

          2. They have a bad tendency to fragment and are mostly transparent to x-rays, meaning they’re a bitch to find the pieces and those pieces keep injuring and infecting the entire time they’re in the body.

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      3. I can’t find anything on wooden bullets being banned, it looks like they were used in crowd control and training before rubber bullets became common.

        Do you have a better source for me? That is an interesting rabbit hole.

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  5. In his pre-writing days, Jerry Boyd would mention her blog periodically. I went to it a couple times, but only read it maybe once a year. Really started reading the blog when I noticed her on Instapundit. Her non-fiction is by far the majority of what I read from her.

    Praying. May the Lord bless and keep her and her family.

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  6. Started reading early ’10s, I think, intermittently. Intermittently because was still working and wasn’t on social sites on computer regularly (programmer so not programming, or doing financial stuff, not on computer). Link from FB that someone reposted (probably). Regular (daily) reading and commenting early ’16 (retired).

    Really sorry to hear about Sarah’s mother. Sarah, Dan, and the boys, must be devastated. The news is always hard, no matter how old one’s parents are, no matter if expecting it or not. It is a blow. Prayers for recovery, prayers to give the family strength.

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  7. I had multiple friends from Baen’s Bar that I also followed on FB (especially after the bar started falling apart). Some of them posted blogs from Sarah on occasion, and I eventually started following her myself.

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    1. Jasini, my beloved wife, put me on to reading Sarah and I have found her a centering influence over the years. She did an on screen Zoom appearance for our church book club, when I first saw her, and still remember fondly. Though I don’t think Jasini and I fit into her close circle of friends, something she did for Jasini recently, in the wake of our house fire, the specifics of which will go unnentioned here, touched us both deeply, and helped us know that we are not forgotten and alone.

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  8. It seems like I’ve Always Know Sarah! 😉

    But I’m sure that I meet her on Baen’s Bar before I found this Diner.

    Oh, I’m sorry to hear about Sarah’s Mother. ☹️

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  9. Praying for Sarah and her family. That call eventually comes for all of us, but there’s really no way to be “ready.”

    I haven’t met Sarah in person, but when my sons were younger, D. Jason Fleming (with whom I had become friends on FB) put me in touch with her, and we corresponded a bit. She gave me the fantastic advice (which I followed) that I should get my two introverts into theater classes, and they did BRILLIANTLY.

    I’ve been reading the blog ever since. Sharing it, too.

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  10. I found Sarah by following a link from either Instapundit or Ace of Spades. Initially I was drawn to her writing about self-publishing, which I was trying to figure out myself. And then I read “Darkship Thieves,” and I was hooked! Later I found out that we shared autoimmune issues, brain trauma, and other health problems, and it has helped my recovery to see how someone who’s not me deals with it all.

    Eternal rest grant unto Sarah’s mother, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. And may the God of all Mercy give consolation to her family thru the first reading for today’s Mass:” We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thessalonians 13)

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  11. I am sorry for the loss in Sarah’s family. I will pray for them. I think I found out about Sarah Hoyt via the Sad Puppies campaign. I bought all the Darkship books in the original trade paperbacks. I read them and enjoyed them. I got a link to this blog I think from Ace of Spades HQ. I used to attend cons regularly with my late wife. We were both long time SF fans. We stopped bothering after the 2015 Spokane Worldcon. I would like to attend cons like Libertycon and the like, but travel is harder now. Looking forward to Sarah’s new trilogy which I have bought in advance.

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  12. Instapundit, a few years back!

    Started following the blog in part because of a few posts on horses, stayed for the practicality and whimsy. Plus, the veiwpoint that the Declaration and Constitution are so important that if the republic ever falls, we will keep them alive and revive another one.

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  13. I found Sarah through Mad Genius Club, if I recall correctly, and a publishing blog (now long since vanished). I read the dragons in India book, and got hooked on the Shifters. I hung around for the blog, and got pulled into the Huns and Hoydens around, um … 2011 I think. [Ye gads, that’s forever in internet years.] At some point she made me change my Gravitar, because the maroon bluebonnets looked too much like the “yip-yip” aliens from Sesame Street.

    I first met Sarah in person at LibertyCon in … 2016, I think it was, when it was still at the ChooChoo.

    She hasn’t tossed me out yet. Mbwaaahahaha, rubs paws with glee.

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  14. God bless Sarah and her family. One is never ready to lose a parent.

    I think I found Sarah via Instapundit a few years ago, when she would make a guest posts. Her blog and Twitter/X page helped me get through the insanity of the Biden Interregnum,

    May God smile upon Sarah’s mother.

    Hale Adams

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  15. I’m not sure how I found Sarah, either Baen’s Bar or Instapundit. I was reading here regularly by 2010ish. The other day I linked to a comment I made in 2012.

    I’m so sorry for Sarah’s loss.

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  16. Um. I think I came to her blog from seeing her posts at Classical Values. Which I followed from Chicagoboyz. And I know I’ve been here for at least ten years (which doesn’t feel like that long), because I’ve been married for five and she’s the one that got me and Bugbear together. I remember reading the blog on my phone when I was in DC. Not sure if I had read it prior to then, but that would have been 2012.

    I came to her fiction writing later.

    I met her for the first time in person at Tulkon 2022. About six months after Bugbear came out of the hospital.

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  17. In other, better news, Em is continuing to get better, but she probably won’t be able to go home until Wednesday. They aren’t sure if they will need to prescribe home oxygen.

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    4. I’m not sure if I came here through Jerry Pounelle’s blog, or via Insty. The “when” was likely early 2015 after I was able to drop dialup internet and shift to sort-of broadband via satellite.

      My sympathies for Sarah and family; it’s hard to lose a loved one, and it takes time to heal. Mom died a few years back at the age of 99, and I still would like to talk things over with her. Prayers for all.

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  18. I had read some if her Ring of Fire stuff, but didn’t really know who she was. Then the whole “sad puppies” thing brought me here.

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  19. I probably met her through Instagram, where I found a person who consistently made sense. She told me about things I didn’t know, i.e. the sick puppies controversy, and generally her outlook and the people who responded to her were people that I wanted to know more about. From what I can gather she lost a close family member which is always hard. And We her readers try to support in that to the extent we can.

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  20. I can’t recall where I first saw Sarah’s fiction, or whether I “met” her via a blog somewhere. Obviously, she hasn’t always been there (in my world) but it almost feels like it. She’s a person of substance, a very solid presence. I met her in person at ConFinement two years ago, and she greeted me enthusiastically, even though I’m one in a (large fraction of?) a million.

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  21. Baen’s Bar, then she came to Dallas to teach a writing class, and we met in person.

    Oh . . . yes, losing your mother is tough . . . especially when you’re so far away and helpless. May she be in peace, and meeting all her loved ones who’ve gone before her.

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  22. My sincerest condolences for your loss. It’s never easy.

    I first met Sarah in L. Neil Smith’s blog. At the time she’d post essays. I enjoyed them and promptly got Darkship Thieves.

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  23. I discovered Baen’s Free Short Stories collections in 2017 and downloaded several.
    Sarah had a story in the 2013 collection which led me to buy several of her books. They led me here.

    Condolences to Sarah. Losing a parent, no matter how expected, is a wrench. Most of us here have suffered losses. We can’t know how you feel, but we understand.

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  24. Back in the 2010s, I was a regular reader of Claire Wolfe’s blog, and her blogroll pointed me to Sarah. According to Amazon, I purchased Draw One in the Dark in 2013. Finally met her in person at LibertyCon 2022, and was present when she received an Acme delivery of axes from Orvan (one of my favorite memories).

    Prayers and hugs Sarah.

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  25. Found her in the late 00’s or early 10’s through either Instapundit or Kim Du Toit. A little hazy. Read her posts for years before starting with Deep Pink and moving onto Dark Ship Thieves (mostly feeling guilty reading a writer and not supporting them). Met her this past June at Liberty Con and even got to share BBQ.

    May her mother be in heaven a week before the Devil knows she’s gone.

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  27. I came over from her series on PJM on writing. Maybe a couple of months before I realized that she had a blog, too.

    Please let her know that she has my prayers as well – and to not worry about anything else whatsoever, like keeping us entertained. Been there, done that, and it was more than enough stress just going halfway across this continent to take care of the needed. I can’t imagine doing it across the ocean.

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    1. Me, too. How to Write a Novel in 13 Weeks. It’s been 13 years and I still haven’t written the novel – although I’ve made a number of starts.

      We’ve never actually met. We have that weird internet relationship where it feels like I know Sarah from all her posts, but she has no clue that I even exist.

      You have my condolences and prayers. Losing a parent, no matter one’s age, ends an era and life will never be the same; not necessarily bad, but definitely different.

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  28. My sincerest condolences to Sarah and her family. Having lost a parent less than a month ago, I know how painful it can be — and how shocking when it’s unexpected.

    I originally found Sarah’s work sometime in the early 10’s via Rand Simberg’s Transterrestrial Musings, which I originally found via a space technology search for a Grissom Timeline story. The link was interesting enough that I followed it, read some other posts, and was hooked. And thank heaven, because if I hadn’t been reading here during the COVID pandemic, I would’ve kept believing the narrative (still trying to figure out how to get the rest of my family to barf up the Kool-ade they swallowed then).

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  29. I was reading Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor daily, and he mentioned “his friend, Sarah Hoyt.” So I looked her up, and after a few weeks, added her to my daily reads.

    I am so sorry to hear about Sarah’s mother. Even when you are expecting that call, you’re not expecting it. I know this because both my parents have passed. Condolences to Sarah, Dan, the boys, and all her extended family. May the merciful God grant them comfort and the strength to continue without her mother.

    Eternal rest grant unto her, oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. Amen.

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  30. I first heard of her through Sad Puppies and the blog and found that I agreed with a lot of what she was saying, especially through the insanity of 2020. That’s when I got into the Huns community through MeWe and here. I never thought it’d go like this, right down to her suggesting I move to where she landed after Colorado, much less the move succeeding. Also, me and the kitties are there if she needs us of course, especially Sister A.

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  31. Not 100% sure; but I ordered Darkship Thieves in September 2015, so it had to be well before that… Maybe Instapundit or PJ Media?

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    1. BTW, my Mom went home to Jesus in February 2024, so I understand. May the Lord comfort and heal Sarah and her family, and all her Mother’s friends.

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  32. Oh, dang. Losing a family member is hard (something the wife and I experienced recently with her parents). Prayers outbound.

    The exact when/how is kind of hazy, but I’m pretty sure I found this blog via Sad Puppies; an incidental “somebody linked to it in a comment” thing, I think. At that time I was thinking and learning my way out of the reflexive soft-left/liberal sphere and had been devouring conservative and libertarian thought to test it against reality and evaluate it against progressivism for its ability to deliver freedom and prosperity. (No spoilers here: the gun nuts, conservatives, and libertarian-minded thinkers won bigly.) Sarah had a perspective I hadn’t encountered before and, and I deeply appreciate her way of cutting straight through the crap on big, difficult questions — can’t emphasize enough how important this blog has been to helping me figure things out and escape the liberal orbit.

    Haven’t actually met Sarah yet…someday, maybe… Got into her fiction relatively recently with the Darkship series, then Shifters, enjoying it a lot.

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  33. I met Sarah through my avid fanaticism for great  science fiction. Thanks for all you do, Sarah.I am praying for your family during these trying times. Peace, Safety and the Hope of the return. God bless, Ralph

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  34. IIRC Jerry Pournelle referred me to Sarah’s blog back when he was still kicking around this sphere. Been reading her blog for years and glad she decided to be a USAian herself. Picked up several of her books and decided she was also a decent SF/Fantasy writer. And the weekly book suggestions have led me to many of your enjoyable stories.

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  35. I’d encountered her writing in various places for a while, but I met her to know her at the 2008 Denver Worldcon, where she was on a panel about authors reading from their early work. Connie Willis (panelist two) called it “The Bravest Writers in Science Fiction.” The other panelist—one didn’t show up—was Edward Willett, who also does theater, and his declaiming from his juvenile Conan rip-off was astoundingly hilarious.

    Anyway, I ran into her later at some place random with my barely-three-month first child, and we talked a little bit about sons. Doubt she would remember a random encounter.

    For the blogs, I’m not sure when I ran across AtH, and whether that came first or Mad Genius Club. Probably not too long after, but when you’re a new parent, a lot of things get blurred in memory.

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  37. I was still a Libertarian and there was this group called Log Cabin Republicans who mentioned this lady named Sarah Hoyt who had just won a Prometheus award. So I bought the book and realized, ‘hey that’s the Sarah’s diner lady’. But I actually got more into the Shifters series.

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  38. For the life of me, I can’t quite remember how I first encountered Sarah, her work, and her milieu. 2014-ish, I think, but beyond that, I won’t recall until after I hit “Post.”

    Prayers for Sarah and her family — may they receive comfort, healing, and hope in the coming days.

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  39. Sarah, please accept my condolences. There’s really nothing to say or do about this, you just outlast it like a hard winter.

    Can’t remember when I started reading/commenting here, I recall starting at Larry Correia’s blog and ending up here and at Mad Genius Club. Something about Sarah telling us all we were Real Authors. We were all told to stop kvetching and just hit ‘send.’ ~:D

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  40. I don’t really remember the first book of hers I read – probably Darkship Thieves. Then the Shifter series and Dyce Dare. I’ve tried the Shakespeare and Musketeers book, but they didn’t really click for me. It’s likely that I found the blog through a link by Jerry Pournelle, and I’ve been reading it for years (although I lately don’t seem to have time for the comments, or to post any replies myself).

    My deepest condolences to Sarah and her family.

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  41. I think that I found Sarahs’ blog after following Peter Grant / Bayou Renaissance Man home from one of his comments ? on PJMedia ?, and recognizing the quality of writing in her comments there. Maybe in the 00s?

    Daily reader since then, and have also read and followed many of her commenters. Thanks to all of you.

    Sorry to hear of her loss. Inevitable, but always too soon.

    Still processing the loss of my wife of 30 years last February, and not done yet.

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  42. I think that I found Sarahs’ blog after following Peter Grant / Bayou Renaissance Man home from one of his comments ? on PJMedia ?, and recognizing the quality of writing in her comments there. Maybe in the 00s?

    Daily reader since then, and have also read and followed many of her commenters. Thanks to all of you.

    Sorry to hear of her loss. Inevitable, but always too soon.

    Still processing the loss of my wife of 30 years last February, and not done yet.

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  44. Hello. I’m a lurker for the most part. I found this blog through Instapundit and was trying to find a variety of viewpoints as I was 18 at the time. Being also interested in writing and finding the blog just an interesting place in general, I’ve stuck around.

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  45. I’m not exactly sure when I first became aware of Sarah Hoyt. I’ve been following Instapundit off and on since it was new, Kim DuToit since the early days of blogs, and did not drop my subscription to Analog magazine until about 2008 or 2009. If Sarah published anything in Analog while I was still getting it I would have read it then. In about 2007 or 2008 I discovered podcasts, one of which (vicious circle) featured some of the people who are now Raconteur Press. I know that is who prompted me to buy Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International in 2009. Stephen Green might have mentioned her at PJTV. Or I may have first heard of her on the Baen podcast, where I know I heard her being interviewed. Sarah was definitely related to the parts of the internet I was interacting with in the late 2000s and early 2010s. According to Amazon records I started buying some of her short stories on kindle in early 2013 and must have started following this blog at about that time. This has become a regular read and occasionally a place to comment.

    My sympathies and condolences to Sarah and her family. The loss of loved ones is especially hard when they are far away.

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  46. I reviewed one of her Darkship books for City Book Review. Because I quoted a comment about her welcoming the idea of being a love child of Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand, and it was published in San Francisco, it brought in about 2300 comments in one day!! I’ve been following her blog daily nigh unto forever. My sincere condolences for her loss. Having been through a number of those, sympathy flows

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  47. My first Libertycon. Some young woman came up to me and asked me to get one of Sarah’s son’s signature on a book. I don’t recall the book or which son. She didn’t want to do it herself as, apparently, there was some relationship drama involved. I don’t know. But, being who I am I couldn’t refuse so I took the book and approached the Hoyt family. With a shrug on my part, I got the signature. I noticed Sarah’s accent and made the usual mistake. After that, I made a point of looking her up on Baen’s Bar. and we met again from time to time over succeeding Libertycon’s and somehow (don’t ask me. I’m autistic. I don’t know how these things work.) we became friends. And, well, here I am.

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  48. There’s a joke that it is Kevin Anderson’s fault.

    YJK and JJK were my entry point into the Star Wars expanded universe.

    Around 2000, having especially enjoyed the X-Wing books, I traced Aaron Allston to Baen through Doc Sidhe.

    I enjoyed what Baen was selling, then.

    Around 2010, somewhat more socialized by the internet flame wars, and experiencing some some life changes that I maybe was not incredibly pleased with at all times, I somewhat transferred to MGC, ATH, and MHN in time for de bello catulli. (The puppy wars).

    I’ve stuck more here.

    Has actually been somewhat of a good influence on me, and at times has helped me mellow.

    I can point to help it has given me with depression, and with a lack of a sense of proportion. Also some help with some of the attempts to get my head out from my rear.

    Yes, I have been a little worried about Sarah, and that situation, given the hints. Praying.

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  49. Haven’t met her in person yet, would love to someday (maybe at LC ’26 or ’27, God willing). I think my wife found the blog and turned me on to her and I’ve been a regular ever since.

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  50. Sorry about your Mom, Sarah.

    I think I ran into her blog in the early 2010s or so. Hard to remember.

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  52. I have met Sarah face to face a year or so ago, when she and Dan came to Texas to collect the Misoettes as kittens for eventual dispersal to their forever homes. We tried to work out then how long we had “known” each other on line – and we THINK it was about the time that one of the cobloggers at Chicagoboyz said that we ought to know each other, as she was coblogging at another blog (Gay Patriot, maybe?) and they said – you both are writers and women, and might get on together… I don’t know, maybe our writing voices sounded similar? Fifteen years, maybe more.

    I’m so sorry to hear the news about her mother. Alas, we are both about the age to begin getting sad calls like that…

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  53. Never met Mrs. Hoyt, though I wish she could meet my mother. They’d enjoy each other.

    I discovered her writing here on the blog, and originally subscribed to it (plus late payment) since I suffered from the mistaken idea that all her stories were all like A Few Good Men in particular, and the associated SF series in general, which is not my cuppa. Now of course, she’s on the must-own for anything set in small-city Colorado, or for short stories

    I still subscribe (when other expenses allow) because she has built an unusual and lovely thing here. And the workman us worth her wage.

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  54. Vodkapundit posted a link to Sarah’s blog that I followed back in 2011. Been here ever since.

    We try to prepare for the inevitable. Yet it always catches us unprepared.

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  55. I met her at a con and have an autographed book to prove it, but I only really met her in the blog — and I forget how I found it. Probably a link

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    1. She was at a con in Huntsville, AL, I want to say around 2015. I also want to say she shared a panel with David Weber, Eric Flint and David Drake on, “Religion in SF.” At that point I hadn’t read any of her work. Around 2019 or 2020, she popped up in my Tweitter feed and I followed her back here. Been hanging out ever since.

      We’ve met twice now at ConFinement and hope to do so again. We’ll see.

      And again, prayers continue for her and her family. Even when you know it’s coming….

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  56. just stumbled across it from a link on another blog, cant even remember where, much good reading, hard to find a mostly conservative middle o the road place these days,

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  57. My prayers for Sarah and family.

    I was reading ILoH and followed him on FB, which led to posts from Sarah, and I started following her there and on the blogs. That was about 15? Years ago I think.

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  58. I looked back through the history, and the earliest of my comments I can find was September 14 2019. I probably read a number of Sarah’s posts before signing up with WPDE to post comments so, sometime in August or September 2019.

    Funny coincidence — that’s about when COVID19 started showing up in China. We just didn’t know about it yet.

    I’ve read every post since then. Along with all the comments.

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    1. That’s also when Covid-19 started showing up here in North America, though it would be a while before the name was ever heard, or the (mostly retrospective) tests were done to establish it was indeed on our continent in those days.

      Personally, I remember the “flu but not flu” that was going around. And then the nasty case of something-like-flu, that was accompanied by loss of taste to start, then partial facial paralysis a.k.a. Bell’s palsy (as we all found out later). Since it wasn’t rapid onset and otherwise flatly did not fit the symptoms of a stroke (etc. etc.), since my intuition was basically adamant on it, didn’t panic or stridently beg doctors to (stealing from Heinlein) “unscrew the inscrutable” on that.

      Renewing my driver’s license with half my face semi-functional was especially fun, not. But all did swiftly come right, and I then had the perfect reason (not just excuse) not to trifle with the mRNA based clotshot(s).

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  59. I’m incredibly sorry for her loss. With such a conflicted relationship, one I know all too well, the emotions are raw and all over the place. I console myself that the person is at peace and that best version of them that I cherished.

    As for meeting Sarah, we were at a convention in Alabama, right after the first shifter series came out. I know this because at the Baen roadshow up came that horrible, hideous cover. As it did, this accented voice came from the back telling us all to ignore the cover! It had nothing to do with castles, it was set in a diner. We turned back to see who was saying this and this was how we were introduced to Sarah. The better half, loves diners and diner lingo, so of course we made notes to pick up the book. (Which is the only reason we don’t own the original cover.)

    Me, being shy, never approached her at the con. Instead, I found Darkship Thieves, which was more my cup o’ tea. And then her blog, and finally, with much encouragement from other half, finally met her at a LibertyCon, but she was overwhelmed. And the Worldcon debacle happened and I slid back into shyness.

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  60. My condolences for your loss, Sarah. Peace and rest to your mother. Blessings and strength to you and your family.

    I don’t remember when or how I met Sarah. It’s was back in the Blogosphere days. She says she remembers me from Little Green Footballs. I think I learned her name and started following her, probably from Instapundit. I went to the library and found a book of hers. It was Heart of Light, I believe. And I couldn’t find the rest of them. It’s hard to even remember back when, if a book store didn’t have a book, you were SOL. Sarah sent me all three books in that series in the mail. I think it was because I’d won some little contest on her blog and she asked which books I wanted.

    I don’t know if we really remember what it was like in the Times Before. Before Blogs I’m not sure how anyone met the authors they liked other than going to Cons. If you didn’t have cons? I guess there was fan mail. So maybe the Blogosphere was the Middle Times. You could meet and interact with so many people and check out their books when you could find them. It was pretty amazing.

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  61. The Reader is very sorry for Sarah’s loss.

    The Reader has never actually met Sarah. Hopefully, some day he will get to LibertyCon. He found his way here from an Instapundit link (daily coffee reading) around 2015. He lurked until his retirement in mid 2018 (keeping a security clearance is MUCH easier with no social media presence – at the Reader’s last major investigation the investigating officer told the Reader he was boring). He commented under his real name for a while, and then decided he needed a persona to deal with this crowd. Discovering Sarah’s fiction has been a pleasure.

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  62. My condolences to Sarah and family – it’s tough no matter what. I think I may have arrived here from Chaos Manor but totally unsure. The ‘family’ here is special and that’s due to her and those she attracts to the blog. Again, sorry for your loss and thank you for all you’ve done and continue to do.

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  63. I honestly can’t remember how I got here. I’ve been around the greater community for a couple decades, going back to Baen’s Bar in the early to mid-00s under another handle. But I think I got to the blog by following connections on Facebook and Mewe from Larry, John Ringo, Mad Mike, and Tom Kratman. I probably started reading here regularly in 2015 or so. I met her in person at a dinner in Haven when I was there for work.

    As I noted elsewhere, I’m praying for her and the family. May God grant rest to her mother’s soul and give peace to Sarah and her family in this time.

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  64. Prayers and condolences for Sarah and family in this trying time. No matter how “ready for it” we think we are, we’re almost always wrong.

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  65. My deepest condolences on Sarah’s loss. It is not an easy thing. May her mother’s soul find peace.

    I first encountered Sarah’s writing at Instapundit, and then saw her name crop up at various libertarian-adjacent blogs and other websites I came across. I’ve been reading here daily and commenting sporadically since before the juvenile canines business.

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  66. Very sorry for your loss, Sarah.

    I first found Sarah’s fiction through the Baen Free Library, where Draw One In the Dark was available for anyone to read for free. (“Here kid, the first one’s free!”) Some years later I was reading Instapundit, who would occasionally link to a post on other sites; I forget the exact name but it was something like gay conservatives dot com or similar. They featured occasional guest posts by Sarah Hoyt; I went “Hey, that’s the author of that shifters series that I liked”, so one time I followed the link to her blog. Quickly discovered that not only was the blogger someone I liked, so too were nearly all of the regular commenters. So I stuck around, and this is one of the sites I refresh daily.

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  67. It was when Darkship Thieves was nominated for (and went on to win) the Prometheus Award for best pro-liberty science fiction novel of its year. . . .

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  68. Found her on Baen’s Bar in the mid 00s. After some back and forth and my reviewing one of her books on my blog I discovered she’d been a regular reader and fan of my blog for some time.

    We actually met in person a couple of years pre-covid, because she came to visit me in France. Her and Vodkapundit and spousen. Lotta fun. Lotta booze.

    As with everyone else, I offer condolences.

    PS since she may not get around tuit – she told me to write this Saturday so she could point people to it https://ombreolivier.substack.com/p/the-heirs-of-waterloo?r=7yrqz

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    1. Re when/where I found Sarah, I do not remember. I know it was before the puppies b/c i remember mooching a free membership from Mary Three-Names and voting my conscience. But I was at least a lurker here long before that. I was never a participant on Baen’s or Fakeblech or whatnot. It was probably by way of Insty or something in that neighborhood.

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  70. Well, though we crossed paths at, erm “pequena bola de futebol verde” she was incognito, I was using a screen name as well, but wasn’t hiding just who I was. I didn’t know who it was that was suddenly being put forth at Insty as “Buy this book, tis good Space Opera!”(well before guesting then Night DJing there) but it were Baen, so I read, and liked the books . . . then found the blog (when she still thought she was hiding, heh).
    I’ve had a few chances to meet in flesh, but one time I was ill, and didn’t wish to go to a con as was, and another, she fell ill and canceled her appearance at the con.

    My thoughts and condolences go out to her and her family.

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  71. Never met Ms. Hoyt or any of the usual commentors (I think)Hopefully that’s OK. I was in fandom 4+ decades ago via gaming, so I understand the subculture, but have been most mundane since. Don’t get the chance to read much fiction. I think I ended up here via her multifunctional shocked face on Instapundit (before I walked away from that site).

    My feeble prayers in this very difficult time.

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  73. I semi-accidently ran across Sarah’s blog on a military history blog “Chant de Depart”. One bored night, I was methodically working through links on that site sidebar looking for something interesting and hers came up. The cover picture of a kitty intrigued me, and when reading her post I was hooked! One of my to-go spots now.

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  75. I found the blog because Sad Puppies was pissing off all the right people for me to know it was something worthwhile. I mostly lurk, but have been a regular reader since the leadup to the 2016 election and through my deployment immediately thereafter, because Sarah (and all of you) literally kept me sane and out of the depths of the black dog, both then and through the Biden interregnum.

    I’ve never met her in person, but hope to someday as there are so many parallels between us that I’m convinced she’s my sister from another mister. She was an encouragement when I was in the hospital trying to die of the first (nasty) strain of COVID and helped me to understand the metaphysics of what I was experiencing and the commission I was given while ill. One day I’d like to tell her the story how far that ended up going.

    Lord, grant your peace to Sarah, Dan and the boys and let light perpetual shine upon her mother, in the name of Christ. Amen.

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  76. I am genuinely not sure when I found the blog. I know it was before the move, so 2011 at least.

    It might have been through Instapundent, but it might also have been through Baen. I was reading a lot of ebooks at the time, so I could easily have just come by for that.

    I definitely stayed for the politics. I was living in lala land at the time and it was all becoming a bit much.

    I am very sorry to hear about your mother. When we lost ours, she was about as ready as anyone could be, but it was still very hard for all of us.

    May her memory be eternal.

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  77. This is my first comment on this channel. I found it and SAH via AoSHQ prior to the covidiocy. As others have said, I became very grateful to have connected to it and (anonymously) to this group.

    I’m praying for Sarah and her family. Such and event is so hard, and twice difficult so far away.

    Dave80 // Not a writer, just a reader/thinker/admirer/sympathizer

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  78. I honestly cannot remember correctly. Could have been baen’s bar. Could have been Amanda, who I read before Sarah. Could have been Dave Freer, who I read before Amanda. What I do recall is some stuck up prig coming on and bloviating about proggie terrorsymp nonsense (evidently schpell czecher recognizes “proggie” but not “baen.”). I remember hammering out something about Beirut, the USS Cole and whatnot.

    Nobody here wants to put up with that sort of nonsense- the proggie, I mean. Somehow I am tolerated still, despite the lengthy bits and bytes I take up here and there.

    To Miss Sarah, may you be strong. Strong in body, mind, and calm where you need it. Do not stint in grief, for the price of love is loss. We owe it to ourselves to process grief completely. Not just the memory of the fallen. A piece of them lives in us, and in the lives we ourselves touch.

    A strong personality is like to a contagion. It infects other people to varying degrees. I get a double dose of hardheaded stubbornness from both parents. A bit of handiness for tools from my mother, a mind that appreciates art (including that of war) from my father. Music from my maternal grandfather. Cooking from that grandmother.

    Writing and storytelling is something I’ve never questioned, really. It was just the way of the family. We tell stories to each other. Wildly tall tales, little ones of small things only important to the few, and everything in between. Story is a part of us just as much as potassium and a tendency towards alcoholism.

    Mortality means our time in this life is measured. A beginning, an end. Mothers are/tend to be proud of their children. We come out squalling little babies with no sense of personal responsibility and endless wants (infants are natural democrat/socialists) but with time, training, and attention grow into solid adults worthy of respect. Sarah Hoyt is a woman any mother could be proud of.

    She defends her family fiercely as any tiger with her cubs. She teaches them not just to think, but how to reason. And just as importantly, how to recognize and deal with bullshit- a necessary life skill. She writes delightful stories that have touched the lives of far more than just a few. And she speaks her mind forthrightly, calling out the bastards on their transparent calumny even before it was cool to do so.

    For those of us that live, we bear the burdens of life as long as we can. We shelter those we love as much as is reasonable (men cannot live properly without the weight- I much suspect good women are the same). Should we live, we are bound to be faced with loss at some time or other. It is natural- it is necessary, even, to form attachments (something I explore in stories I write on occasion, spoilery alert).

    May we all be blessed with the competence, the strength, and the humility to face loss without losing ourselves in the process. In all things we are an example to others, too. Let us show them how to deal with losing a loved one well. And how to pick ourselves back up, after.

    Or put ourselves back together when we break, as it were. The breaking happens. The gluing the shattered shards of person back together in painful, but necessary. We carry on. Others depend on us. Yes, even furry little ones, and not-so-little ones like Othercat who decided it’s his turn in the lap this time.

    Rest well, unmet mother of a woman I’ve come to appreciate and respect. You raised a good girl into a fine woman. Wherever you are, hold your head high. Let none disrespect you for this. And may, in time, you meet with all your loved ones again, as you surely are seeing a few now.

    For the rest of us, we pray. We live. We work hard, and care for our own loved ones. Protect the goodness you find in the world, friends. And give evil a kick in the knackers for me. My own lost relatives will thank you for it.

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  79. I first heard of Sarah through my ex, who was a first reader for Eric Flint and told me tales of Shakespeare in 1632. My own first meeting was through a writing group with Dave Freer, Cedar Sanderson, Kate Paulk, Darwin Garrison and I think one or two others? It was much more pleasant and led to a 20+ year friendship.

    I’m sorry to hear about her Mom. I seriously thought my mother would go first, even though she’s a few years younger. Hoping everything works out and she is able to get to the funeral.

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  80. I first heard of Sarah through my ex, who was a first reader for Eric Flint and told me tales of Shakespeare in 1632. My own first meeting was through a writing group with Dave Freer, Cedar Sanderson, Kate Paulk, Darwin Garrison and I think one or two others? It was much more pleasant and led to a 20+ year friendship.

    I’m sorry to hear about her Mom. I seriously thought my mother would go first, even though she’s a few years younger. Hoping everything works out and she is able to get to the funeral.

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  81. Late aughts, sometime around Gentlemen Takes a Chance and Magical British Empire. Found the address to Baen’s Bar, and figure there were now three Baen authors I read, at the time, why not join up. 

    Been punning and dad joking (I know, I know. A terrible faux pa.) in the comments for almost twenty *urk* years now. I don’t read the blog as often as I used to, but I try and stay active on the Facebork (Hah! Autocorrupt grudgingly prompted that) Diner, and other channels. In the years that followed I have had some hilarious conversations, private discussions, thrown money at her as she insists she doesn’t deserve it, and received a couple packages of signed books. 

    I saw many test flights of Extracentrifugal Engineering with EP and Rex, and followed along as many of the names I saw every time I logged into the Diner, appeared in her books. Then the inevitable happened. I said the right wrong joke at the right wrong time, a while back, and got tripped by Sarah only to face-plant into her latest book. Now I’m trapped between the pages, scrawling in the margins, desperate to communicate with the real world, trying figure out where I go from here. 

    It was only this year that I finally got to meet Sarah and Dan in person. Not once, but I’m lucky enough to have had the pleasure twice. Not bad for a filthy Canuckistani. First at ConFinement back in the winter, and that post-con chat will forever remain my favourite memory of the trip; then again only a few months later at my very first LibertyCon, albeit with time only for a couple of brief hellos. Still worth it. 

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  82. Holly,

    I just checked my logs and I posted both my first comment on the blog and my first vignette in December of 2017. Somehow it feels as tho I’ve been reading ATH for much longer, tho.

    I do not recall how I found the blog, perhaps a mention from spouse, but after reading just a few posts and comment streams, I felt like I belonged here, as I have so much in common with many of the Huns. I suspect that I may actually know one or two of you from my past activities in fandom, but that was a few decades ago.

    I’ve not met Sarah in person but would dearly love to some day. Not very likely but what are dreams for?

    Sarah,

    Please accept my deepest condolences on losing your mother so abruptly. Take however much time you need to deal with things – we will be here whenever you need support and hugs. Your writing is important, but YOU and your well-being are more important to us. Take care.

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  83. My own “the first I heard” came in the form of a free book from Baen’s Web site, which incidentally was the first non-PDF I ever downloaded to my then-new B&N Nook: the older version of “Draw One In the Dark” (it’s the one with the dragon rampant on the cover and the kind-words from Jerry Pournelle). And of course once I’d read that, Sarah Hoyt was a look-for-this-one author.

    Similarly, I first heard about According to Hoyt in the mini-bio for her in one of Baen’s short story anthologies in a bookstore (don’t even remember the title or if I bought it). So add that to the long, long list of perpetrations to be charged to Baen, Niven, and/or Pournelle (who I got to see, all three all together, on a panel at the only Worldcon I ever attended). And, as above, once you get a good look at what goes on here, you know what it’s all about…

    All best wishes and deep condolences to Sarah and Dan and the family, here (Stateside) and in the Old Country. Having ridden that particular streetcar line to the very end twice (fortunately it’s the maximum), I can only echo what The Phantom said above; and add what I told someone shortly after I learned my father had died: “It’s a new world, and not a better one” — or as it’s said another place, “There was a new heaven, and a new earth, and there was no more sea.”

    But even though it’s not the same and not better, it’s really (eventually) not all that bad, at all, at all. Even after the deepest winter, or the harshest Ice Age, spring does inevitably come. Even summer.

    And as for the one newly setting out on that non-optional final adventure: “Now we see as through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face.” May the light of The World to Come shine ever brightly, and with all due enlightenment too.

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  84. Instapundit. Several years ago. Driving my friend to an RPG session in St. Paul (he was GM-ing our 40K campaign) we’re yakking socio-political. He went off on Sarah. I said “I like her stuff a lot actually.”

    He continued to opine to the negative. I repeated “I read her stuff and like it actually.” It continued (my friend is not very self aware – a lefty who thinks he’s a centrist, etc.) until I said to him “You are trying to stop a conflict that I think has already started. Pick a side.”

    Etc. Etc.

    Bought a book. Bought another. Etc.

    Fast forward a few years – I’m thinking of ways to get out of Minnesota (Tennessee? South Dakota?) and he’s dealing with the fact that his 18 year-old son has decided he’s an 18 year-old girl.

    Quite frankly, I DK if our friendship can survive that.

    -dale

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  85. I followed the ox around. In one case literally: he’d enlisted me to help him with an ACME delivery to her at a Libertycon when it was still at the Choo Choo, but it didn’t work out. It’s refreshing to me to not be the famous one in a group.

    Travel under those circumstances always sucks. My deepest condolences, and here’s wishing that the travel gods smile upon Sarah for once.

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  86. I think I read “Monster Hunter: Guardian” which she co-authored with Larry Corriea. I know we exchanged some messages on FB, where she mentioned Darkship Thieves and this website. I met her in person at Confinement 2025.

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  88. While I’ve never actually met Sarah, I’ve been following this blog for a long time. Oleg Volk had posted a link to one of her posts and after reading it (and reading through the replies) I decided this lady was worth following. Been a beacon of sanity and basic common sense that has really helped, especially during the last few years.

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  89. I think I found her books (Darkship Thieves in particular) via Baen Books. I think my copy of that was a .mobi bought directly from Baen (I have since replaces it with her newer version via Amazon). Since I got my first Kindle Christmas of 2011 that places it in 2012. I was a reader of bany Blogs (U.S.S. Clueless, Instapundit, The Antiidiotarian Rottweiler) among others and finding she had a blog I started reading it and have been commenting for a long time.

    My condolences on the loss of your mother. Please, please, please take care of yourself and your family first. The Blog etc. will be fine and we promise to limit dumpster fires to no more than one a week.

    Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiésceant in pace.

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  91. For the life of me I don’t remember WHY or HOW I found Sarah’s Blog, but most likely between 2008 and 2012 when I was getting serious about my writing. I appreciated her perspectives on… well, just about anything, but especially going against the narrative and the supporting/suppressing establishment.

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  92. I’m a Johnny-come-lately to Sarah’s works. I’d say my first introduction to her was seeing a copy of “Darkship Thieves” on the “free library” shelf at a local coffee shop. The one with the Baen cover, so you can probably figure out what first drew my eyes to it.

    Somewhere along the lines, might’ve been by way of Larry Correia’s blog, pretty sure it was shortly before the year of the WuFlu, I got introduced to her blog here and started hanging out in the corner reading (and often agreeing) with the posts and comments, often wondering WTH people were talking about when things drifted into “in-stories,” and generally being that weird kid who never speaks up.

    Met her in person for the first time at Liberty Con 2024 and got to sit at the Kid’s Table at the diner on Sunday.

    Myself and the wife offer our condolences to her and her family.

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  93. Rand Simberg on Transterrestrial Musing linked to one of her posts. I followed the link and was hooked by the blog and then her fiction. I read Darkship Thieves and the shifter books, and onwards.

    I first met her and Dan in person at LibertyCon in 2016. She’s mentored so many of us with her Sunday promo posts, and I can only admire and appreciate the generosity she shows.

    I hope that her mother’s memory will always be a blessing for her family. My deepest sympathies for her and their loss.

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  94. Condolences, thoughts, and prayers!

    I do not remember how I first came across Sarah’s blog, but there’s a good chance it was because of Instapundit, or maybe View from North Central Idaho, or some of the other blogs I randomly came across and decided to frequently revisit. According to Hoyt quickly became one of those blogs! (I miss the old blogosphere, and have often wondered how to recreate the glory days before Social Media threw a wrench into everything.)

    I have had the pleasure to meet Sarah in person only once, at a Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium, and have wished that she would come back, or alternatively that I could go to LibertyCon in particular, or the one or two other Cons that Sarah attends in general. I also had vague hopes of driving to Denver to join her at Pete’s Diner, but I was never in a position to make that trip. And driving to Kansas is going to be a bit more difficult!

    About a year (or two?) ago, I invited her to come back to LtUE, but it was shortly after she moved to Kansas to escape high elevations. I remember thinking “but you just attended a Con in Las Vegas!” to which I immediately thought “hold on — just how high is Provo anyway? And how high is Las Vegas?” I was a little surprised to learn that the answers were about 4200ft and 2000ft respectively, and I could see the problem for Sarah. Shortly afterward, I started plotting ways to make it possible for Sarah to come, but I would expect making a pressure suit or a big pressure plastic bubble are going to be a tad too expensive for either Sarah’s or my budgets!

    Maybe it’s time to finally get around to convening the 2nd Annual Power Suit Design Conference (which a handful of local-to-Provo Dinerzens attended). We’ve been meaning to get around to that for what, 10 years or so now?

    And to think, all my life, while I had known I lived up in the Rockies (except when I lived in New York State for school and Great Britain for a mission), I had always assumed that we were “high-ish”, and even thought that the “3500ft elevation” instructions on baking mixes surely didn’t apply to me, because surely I lived at an “average” altitude. Ha!

    I hope that Sarah, Dan, and her family can find comfort in this troubling time!

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  95. I think maybe I first ran across Sarah’s name at Mike Hendrix’s Cold Fury, and when Chris Muir mentioned/drew her I figured she had something to say worth hearing. I read Darkship Thieves and liked it, and Sarah is the reason I have a Proton account.

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  96. I don’t have a clue when I first read Sarah’s writing. I picked up Darkship in a store, not online, so I don’t have a record. Many years back.

    I came to the blog when she was interviewed on Cam and Company back in 2017, and have felt more welcomed here than by my family.

    My mom passed two years ago and it still leaves me stunned. I wish I had words to properly express my sympathy and support for her loss.

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  97. I believe I found Sarah’s blog sometime around 2014 through Jerry Pournelle, I lurked for the next six years, but when Covid 19 hysteria peaked this became a must read and I read every article.

    I enjoy her fiction almost as I enjoy the blog, and I hope I get to meet her one of these years.

    Sarah, I’m so sorry about your loss, you and your family are in my prayers, I hope you feel G_d’s love for you, as I’m sure he does love you.

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