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: Dumas (Machine World Book 1)
Dumas house Zeller. A Servants bastard who was caught using Mentalist Powers and chipped. Still brilliant, but without Power, with speech issues, sold . . . But he’s got a Grand Plan . . .
A small part of the Baranov Family has been kicked out of Baranov House after their son is accused of improprieties with the Family Head’s daughter. Retreating to their old hunting lodge on a low population World, with their old servants and a couple of new ones, they’re going to find themselves right on the spot when the Machines arrive.
FROM HOLLY CHISM: Sleigh Bells and Wedding Bells
Amaryllis and Chris have been in love since…forever. Even if Amaryllis didn’t realize it until Chris fell off a ladder. A year later, they’re working and planning toward a wedding. Eventually. When they get enough money built up, and can take the time to do it.
Unfortunately, Amaryllis forgot Thanksgiving. Her mother decided that since she forgot it, she could make it. And that would have been fine, if the turkey hadn’t suddenly been the worst thing ever.
Now, she’s got three weeks to plan her own wedding, and only four hundred dollars to pay for it. But she’ll manage. It’ll work.
It just has to.
FROM SHAYNA DAVIDSON: Whisper and Flame: Cast by Lies
When a Truthseeker collapses near death on her doorstep, Elaina knows she should walk away.
Instead, she saves him.
Now her quiet life in the forest is over—and the secrets she’s spent years hiding are under threat. The Order of the Vigilant Flame wants answers. The man she saved, Reynold, suspects she’s more than she seems. And the truth? It’s bound in silence, hidden by magic, and dangerous to reveal.
As they investigate a string of murders, Elaina and Reynold are drawn into a deeper mystery—one involving unnatural creatures, corrupted runes, and a name uttered like a curse: Whisper. Elaina isn’t the only one keeping secrets, and the cost of unraveling the truth may be more than either of them can bear.
But the only way out is through the fire.
WITH STORIES BY ZAN OLIVER AND LEIGH KIMMEL: Steam Rising: Tales of steampunk and wondrous inventions (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 35)
Steampunk. It’s not just a genre, it is science fiction in its purest form. In this collection, you will read of the ways that technology could both help and harm mankind. Steam power took a special kind of bravery to use and master, and the people who live in a steam-powered world adjust to that need: engineers, inventors, tinkerers and experimentalists of every kind and every manner imaginable.
Within, you will meet clockmakers and war-widows, steamship captains and airship pilots; you will see wailing engines race and clanking automata strut. Hurry on! The engineer is feeding the coal, and says she’s raring to go.
See that red lever over there? Grip ‘er tight, and heave forward the throttle…
FROM JOHN BAILEY: The Error of MechaTexzilla: A Parody of Galactic Proportions, Barbecued to Perfection (The Fantasy Books)
When an alien empire sets out to conquer Japan but crash-lands in Texas, their dream of galactic domination turns into a smoky mess of barbecue, bad deals, and mechanical mayhem.
Meet Emperor Blorg the Inefficient, who mistakes Godzilla movies for documentaries. Buddy Ray McCoy, a Houston con man who can sell a spaceship faster than a used car. Sandra Jo Pickett, a rodeo queen turned “intergalactic business consultant.” And of course, MechaTexzilla — a brisket-fueled mechanical monster with the soul of a smoker and the heart of a cowboy.
Together, they’ll battle rival aliens, rogue robots, and Texas bureaucracy in a parody that collides Godzilla, Hitchhiker’s Guide, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? with a healthy serving of mesquite smoke.
In space, no one can hear you chew.
FROM JAMES DAIN: You Always Kill the One You Love: A Dark Psychological Thriller of Love, Lies and Murder (Twisted)
DAN THOUGHT HE’D GOTTEN AWAY WITH MURDER. BUT DID HE?
Dan believed he and Sandra were Soul Mates—until she betrayed him. Now, with her blood on his hands, he’s on the run, desperate to reach a remote cabin where he hopes to disappear.
But his plans unravel when he encounters Babe—a woman who looks exactly like Sandra, but damaged, lost and unable to remember her past.
As they travel a dark highway together, Dan must decide: is Babe the second chance he’s been hoping for, a way to undo his crime and reclaim the love he destroyed? Or is she a figment of his tortured mind—or something far more terrifying?
You Always Kill the One You Love is a hypnotic, dark psychological thriller in the tradition of Daniel Lehane, Megan Abbott, and Alex Michaelides—a haunting exploration of obsession, delusion, guilt, and the razor-thin line between love and destruction.
Book 1 in the Twisted Series: dark psychological suspense novels where the narrators are not detectives—but the very people committing the crimes. Each book is a noir crime thriller steeped in moral ambiguity, unreliable truths, and shocking twist endings.
BY OTIS ADAELBERT AND ALLEN S. KLINE, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Secret Kingdom (Annotated): The classic pulp lost civilization adventure
Scientist-adventurer Alfred Bell didn’t go to the unexplored depths of the Amazon for adventure, not even for glory — he simply wanted to find and catalog species of flora and fauna the civilized world hadn’t yet discovered. But when he finds a man about to be attacked by a wild beast, he doesn’t hesitate, and with a rifle shot he saves a life and forever alters his own.
For Bell didn’t just save a man, but a king, a king of a civilization that does not want to be found by the outside world. Being imprisoned in a hidden mountain city wasn’t such a bad deal, though — after all, the king was his buddy, and suddenly having six adoring wives could have been worse. Now if only the high priest of the kingdom wasn’t trying to kill him…
- This iktaPOP Media edition includes a new introduction giving genre and historical context to the novel.
FROM BRIAN HEMING: The Lives of Velnin: Final Life: A fast-paced epic fantasy adventure of swords, love, magic, and battles
Swords. Love. Magic. Epic Battles. Reincarnation.
The recording cut off with the image of a blast of white-blue flame. I sat up from my stasis chamber, looked at the inscription, and read, “Velnin.” So, I was the last—number 9. My other remaining brothers had either died too fast to leave dying words at all, or been killed in stasis before this last one had died.
Velnin awakes in a stasis chamber deep in a hidden cave base, with only the memories of his first brother Velwin, and the dying words of three more. On his ninth and final life, Velnin must unravel the mysteries of what has happened to his missing brothers, retrieve his legendary blade Swelfalster, and decide where his true love and loyalty ultimately lies—whether with the charming Princess Aloree, the swordfighting Dark Empress Soraina, or somewhere else entirely.
Combining ancient history with swords, love, and magic, Final Life is sure to please fans of swords & sorcery, adventure romance, and military fiction alike.
A fast-paced epic fantasy of swords, love, magic, and battles.Praise for The Lives of Velnin:
“Interesting questions of identity and other surprises await” -Bill Hiatt, author of the Spell Weaver series.
“excels with fast paced action.” -Anthony Alves, author of Blood and Qi.
“Incredibly fast-paced, with just enough romance thrown in to have you rooting for the characters immediately.” -Sam M. Ridge, author of Swirls of Shadow.
FROM Z.M. RENICK: Traitor’s Blood, Traitor’s Magic (The Seelie Court Book 6)
Saoirse is an investigator for the Seelie Court and a shapeshifter whose True Form lets her appreciate freedom as few others can. She catches criminals whose recklessness would endanger the good of all the Fae and still has enough free time to enjoy the liberty of the skies in her hawk form. It’s a good life, allowing her to forget about the evil done by her parents and grandparents.
But when Saoirse is accused of participating in a plot to destroy the Seelie Court, it all comes crashing down. Fleeing cries of “Traitor” from her fellow investigators, Saoirse runs to the mortal world. She seeks the help of her friend, Champion of the Mortal Realm Emma Greer, as well as her partner Kenneth and her mortal lover Shane, to prove her innocence. But the more she learns, the more trapped she becomes. A powerful enemy seeks to destroy her, and both her family’s crimes and her own nature are conspiring to help him. Can Saoirse save herself and return to the Seelie Court? Or did her traitor’s blood doom her efforts before they even began?
FROM DALE COZORT: New Galveston Book 1: Operation Croatoan
In February 1939, with World War II looming, the US Navy held a massive naval exercise in the Caribbean, involving almost fifty thousand sailors and marines. President Franklin Roosevelt personally attended.
In this alternate history novel, the US of 1939 disappears at the peak of the exercise, along with the rest of the New World. In its place is a New World still inhabited only by Indians.
While the US remnants try to make a new home for themselves, Nazis, Fascists and Japanese Imperialists scheme with Aztecs and other Indian powers to take over the resource-rich and now nearly defenseless New World.
Nazi Germany pours resources into it’s navy and into an advanced new generation of cargo planes. By summer 1941, the Nazis are ready to move. A mysterious “Operation Croatoan” is at the core of their schemes. Milo Gentry and a handful of other Americans race to figure out what the Axis powers are up to and stop them.
FROM BLAKE SMITH: A Kingdom of Glass: A Novel of The Garia Cycle
In a kingdom of secrets and silk, one girl must choose between duty and her heart.
Zara has spent eleven blissful years in the sun-drenched kingdom of Garia, where she rides free across a vast grassland, shoots her bow beneath starlit skies, and calls her foster family’s castle home. But when a royal summons arrives, her golden world shatters like spun glass.
Thrust into the cold, formal courts of the East Morlans—a realm of rigid etiquette and deadly politics—Zara must navigate an arranged marriage to a stranger, reconnect with a family she barely remembers, and survive the unforgiving world of noble society.
Gone are the warm winds and open skies of her beloved home. In this land of marble halls and suffocating tradition, every word is measured, every gesture scrutinized, and falling in love might be the most rebellious act of all.
As court intrigue swirls around her and threats close in from every side, Zara must discover who she can trust—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to reclaim the freedom she left behind in the endless plains of Garia.
Some cages are gilded. Some prisons are palatial. But Zara’s heart belongs to the steppe.
Perfect for fans of court intrigue, swoon-worthy romance, and heroines who fight for their own destiny.
FROM SARAH A. HOYT: No Man’s Land
Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
On a lost colony world, mad geneticists thought they could eliminate inequality by making everyone hermaphrodite. They were wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Now technology indistinguishable from magic courses through the veins of the inhabitants, making their barbaric civilization survivable—and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden, Viscount Webson, Envoy of the Star Empire—Skip to his friends— has just crash-landed through a time-space rift into the middle of it all.
Dodging assassins and plummeting from high windows was just the beginning. With a desperate king and an archmagician as his only allies, Scipio must outrun death itself while battling beasts, traitors, and infiltrators bent on finishing what the founders started: total destruction.
Two worlds. One chance. No time to lose.Volume 1
The Ambassador Corps has rules: you cannot know everything, don’t get horizontal with the natives, don’t make promises you can’t keep.
They’re a lot harder to follow when assassins are hunting you, your barbarian allies could kill you for the wrong word, and death lurks around every corner.
The unwritten rule? Never identify with the natives.
Skip’s already broken that one.
Now he’s racing against time to save his new friends from slavery—or worse—while dodging energy blasts and political intrigue. One crash-landed diplomat. A world of deadly secrets. And absolutely no backup.
Some rules are meant to be broken. Others will get you killed.
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: DELIGHTFUL
According To Hoyt 
It’s very delightful to get promos, but less than delightful when I’ve already have some of the promos. 😉
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“What a delightful business this will be,” said Jasper. “If they are in the library, they must have lain there for over a century, likely two.”
“Roderick’s family have used spells for their profit for at least that long,” said Violetta.
Jasper nodded. “Portia’s too. They are jealous of them.”
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Which gives you a better return on paperback purchases: Amazon or Barnes & Noble?
WP weirdness, so apologies if this turns out to be a dupe.
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I do paperback through Amazon and let them do extended market, so the Amazon return is better.
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Thank you!
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you’re welcome
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Periwinkle ducked as the bug swooped in at his face again, dodged to his left, then swung his sword two-handed with all his might. The swing caught his enemy just behind the thorax, completely severing the back parts from the body. Lightning bugs were nasty enough without their constant attempts to signal for more reinforcements.
He looked around. The rest of the fairy patrol had finished off the enemy, hacking them to pieces and spilling phosphorescent guts all over the meadow. He sighed contentedly. They had successfully de-lighted the enemy and now the post-combat, celebratory feast could begin. Soon, they would be de-light-full.
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“The probe is sending an update, FleetLord Zork.”
From the flag bridge throne Zork flexed his anterior spikes in anticipation. “Delightful. Show me,” he said gesturing with his nickel plated claws at the main display tank.
The holo did its usual flicker thing that, despite repeated repair tickets, the fleet tech ratings insisted they could not fix, causing Zork to grumble under his breath, then stabilized. The probe, a large construct simulating an interstellar comet, somewhat poorly in Zork’s opinion, mostly due to the nickel-heavy shell that enabled FTL communication that deep in this star’s gravity well, had travelled within the fourth plant’s orbit and was nearly at it’s closest approach to the third planet, the one with all the radio emission noise which had brought Zork and his assault fleet to investigate. The holo showed the current location relative to the planets orbits, several status flags showing all was well with the probe, and a progress bar indicating the full surveillance data packet was being received now.
A sudden gasp rang out from the target environmental intelligence station. One of the Intel officers actually collapsed, while the others froze at what the data showed.
“Control yourselves,” snapped Zork, shooting a sharp look with four of his seven eyestalks towards his Intelligence Division Captain, that look making clear she had better get control of her minions. “Report!”
“The Intel Captain pulled one of the frozen officers to the side to scan the data herself. She paused, her spinal spikes standing straight up, then clearly forces herself to relax and turn to face Zork. “The third planet is inhabited by a class nineteen civilization, as we suspected from long range.”
“And?” Demanded Zork.
“And the third planet is a class 48 Deathworld. Possibly as high as class 52.”
The normal background chatter of the flag bridge went dead silent.
“Class forty-eight, Four Eight?” Zork asked, enunciating calmly but clearly to insure there would be a solid record for the inevitable inquiry.
“Yes, FleetLord,” replied the Intel Captain, assuming the position of attention-3 appropriate for reporting incredibly bad news. “Up to as high as Fifty-Two, Five Two, depending on the confirmation of certain information skimmed from their internet.”
Zork forced his own spines to their fully relaxed angle, and imposed a facial expression of calm consideration, conscious of all the eyestalks, as well as the Flag Bridge Holo Recording Arrays, focused on him.
“Well, we certainly won’t be going down There,” he stated calmly. “Request a throuple of Destroyers from the closest fleet anchorage to recover our probe once it exits this system.”
“Sir,” continued the Intel Captain, “it also appears that these beings have detected that the probe is not necessarily a natural cometary body, with significant suggestion that it is artificial.”
“Can they intercept it?” asked Zork sharply.
“Negative, FleetLord,” replied the Intel Captain. What was her damn name again anyway? No matter. She continued. “Their spaceflight tech is slightly ahead of the Admiralty briefing package estimates, but their current capability is still short of generating even an automated intercept.”
“Well, thank the Abyssal Tentacles for small favors,” said Zork, shaking his frills.
“However, projections indicate that they could attain that capability in the next three to four duodecs of orbits.”
“Right. Deploy a screen of message buoys and designate this system as quarantine seven on my authority.”
“Yes, FleetLord. Sir, one more item. it appears another intervention passed through this system only a few orbits ago. It is difficult to confirm from their primitive sensor records, but the records we retrieved appear to match the configuration of a Krelto assault cruiser, albeit one set tumbling to appear more natural.”
“Krelto.” Zork sat back in his throne. “Krelto. That is not a name I have heard in a long time. A long time.” Zork considered. “Do you have the exit vector of that object?”
“Yes, FleetLord.”
All thoughts of quietly proceeding to the next system on the Admiralty’s target list, and the political repercussions to him of this aborted invasion, fled Zork’s mind. The Krelto, hmm? “Right. Get those buoys deployed, then inform the fleet we will be chasing down that maybe-Krelto object. And cut a copy of the probe’s data to the Admiratly. We will jump to the search zone you derived from these Deathworlder’s tracking data. Set Battle Stations Four and make your course. Now.”
The Krelto again, at last. Zork owed a debt of gratitude to these Deathworlders. Putting him back on the trail of the Krelto was worth far more than any barely-spacefaring worlds resources and tech. Today was this Deathworld’s – what was their name for it again? Dirt? No, Earth – this Earth’s lucky rotation.
“Engage!”
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It was a delightful morning in Tokyo in May-hint of rain but nothing yet, low ’60s but you could feel the temperature heading for the mid-’70s by the middle of the day, not humid yet but just…comfortable for a San Francisco boy. And the apartment I was hiding in had a balcony, so I could sip coffee in peace and look down the street. So, I asked ATHENA, what is on the agenda today?
The last parts to build Fabber Three should be ready, she replied. Have to sneak over to the warehouse and assemble the Fabber. Once that’s done, the spiders have almost completely laid down the reinforcing mesh for the ceramite sub bay. Need to give them a “well done” and many head-pats.
I smiled, took another sip of my coffee, and looked around some more. 6’6″ space elves weren’t common in Japan…hell, anywhere, but especially not here. But since I was bare chested and male and seven stories up, nobody was really looking my way. Anybody we need to see or talk with? Or any problems on the horizon?
ATHENA paused for a moment and sighed. Not yet, sir. But we do need to pay attention to our cash flow. We might need to make another midnight requisition and that’s getting riskier after the last two times.
A “midnight requisition” was an outright robbery of local organized crime-namely some Chinese Tongs that were moving girls and drugs through Yokosuke-to get hard cash for building out my infrastructure. Last time, they came with pistols and a few AKs. Nobody got hurt, they didn’t shoot anyone, but it was only a matter of time. We need to develop a safer cash flow, I grumbled, taking another sip. Subvocalization is great when you want to drink coffee at the same time. Any ideas?
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In my ruritanian mystery, we have reached the reading of the will. The late Prince Conrad of Dolinsko has acknowledged his illegitimate son Laszlo, and is making provision for him in his will:
“This income is to be paid directly into Laszlo’s account at the Bank of Storchburg. It cannot be made over to any creditor, nor to his mother, nor to her husband. Laszlo has been imprudent at different times in his life, but I believe his mistakes have taught him wisdom enough to look after his own affairs and to provide for his mother and his legal father. It is only in the event of his death by natural causes or misadventure that the trustees in charge of his income may determine whether it is appropriate to support the elder Dobos with the income I have designated for Laszlo.”
“Isn’t it delightful?” the Baroness cried out. “I always knew Conrad loved Laszlo, and he could not have given a better proof of it than this!”
“Yes,” her husband agreed, a little stiffly. I think he would have rather not been Laszlo’s pensioner.
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“Isn’t it delightful?”
Inspector Nelson paused and looked over his cup at the woman across the table. Normally afternoon tea and crumpets with a beautiful lady would indeed be a pleasurable experience. Unless, of course, she’s your nemesis.
“What’s your game, Miss Lambert? Or should I call you, Dr. Moriarty?”
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Cari looked out her window. Across the city, buildings were adorned with festive lights. She could see the Giant Wheel at the fairgrounds, turning slowly like a galaxy. She couldn’t bring herself to ride it this year. “I should delight in this time of year,” she thought. “Why can’t I?”
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Turning from the window, Cari was startled by a quiet voice. “Sssh,” the voice whispered. “It will be all right.”
“Näktergal?”
Presently, Näktergal appeared, a faint glow in Cari’s bedroom. “Sssh,” Näktergal repeated. “’Tis difficult, I know, but delight isn’t something one receives. Nay, it’s born from what one does.”
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The door chimed. Admiral Vek looked up from the latest maps he’d been studying on a datapad for the target world. “Enter.”
The door slid open silently, and the tall slim form of Captain Emar Rik, the head of his flag intelligence shop, walked into the Admiral’s underway office from the flag bridge beyond. Vek gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. “The probe has dumped another load of data,” Captain Rik said as she walked over and sat, setting the pad she was carrying on the desk. “It’s coming up on closest approach to the target world in three cycles. There are a couple of points I’ll highlight, but you should read the summary first.”
Vek selected the new icon that slid across from Rik’s pad to his own and quickly read the summary. His eyebrows shot up. “It’s class 17 Deathworld? But panspermian humanoids with the standard bipedal mammalian form factor are still the dominant species?”
Rik snorted. “Yes, Admiral. My exobiology crew was arguing about upping that rating to class 19 when I found the other item of note, but yes, definitely at least a 17., and they look close enough to standard to walk unnoticed down any shopping lane on any Imperial world.”
“Well, our ground forces will have an educational time,” Vek said wryly. “Make sure General Beez has all the data behind that assessment, and anything new you’ve got on their ground combat capabilities, before we finalize the surface invasion plans.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Rik. “Two more items, sir. We are getting a lot of their internet now that the probe is inside the orbit of the fourth planet. While they don’t have the capability to intercept the probe, they’ve been tracking it for a lot longer than we thought they could. They have significantly upgraded their space situational awareness capabilities. And they are seeing enough that they are suspicious, enough that there is significant discussion of whether what they are watching is something artificial instead of an interstellar comet.”
“Interesting, but I don’t think suspicion on their public nets will make any difference.”
“No, sir. Part of the reason they are so suspicious is our probe is the third interstellar transitor they’ve detected. The second was just a comet, but this is their best scan of the first one, from just less than eight of their years ago.” Rik flicked the image on her pad to the display wall. Admiral Vek sat absolutely still as he looked at the low-quality scan, an animated view as the object tumbled end over end. An object whose shape he knew all too well.
“That’s a Kren ship. Where’s the scale? Ah. A cruiser.”
“Yes sir. My team is working on enhancing their raw data to verify, but the scans these Earthers made match up to a Kren TalGash class attack cruiser. The humans missed it in their analysis, but they actually detected secondaries from neutrino emissions for four or five hot fusion plants, as well as some atmo venting. They don’t have the tech to look for hyper generator emissions.”
“Kren. Do you have a vector on that thing?”
Captain Rik nodded. “Yes, sir. A very precise vector. These Earthers tech is quite good, they are really very close to spreading out through their system.”
“Kren. Well, I guess today is these Earthers lucky day. Captain, tell General Beez to stand down, wipe all systems on our probe, and bring the task force to quarters.” Rik pressed an icon to record his next orders into all ships logs and all disaster buoys across his task force, and to transmit a copy to the Imperial Admiralty. “Captain Rik, under General Order 3 we are obligated to pursue and destroy any Kren contact, superseding any other mission or objective. The conquest and colonization nof Earth is deferred. Task Force 347 will hyper jump immediately to the calculated position of the Kren ship imaged by our target world and initiate our search.”
Rik stood. “Aye, Sir.”
As Rik left, Admiral Vek heard the General Quarters Alarm begin sounding. He stood, tugged down his uniform tunic at the front hem where it always rode up when he sat, and walked out behind her onto his flag bridge.
“Little Deathworld Earth’s lucky day,” he said quietly to himself as he stepped to his command chair. He had not been all that happy to receive a colonization contact mission anyway. “And a Kren hunt. Delightful.”
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Yeah, yeah, intel shop captain on flag staff and he’s giving her deployment orders. She should have been his flag captain, or both his flag captain and flag intel both walk in I guess. Or the button connects so he can order his flag captain to point the TF and hit “go”.
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Yeah, yeah, intel shop captain on flag staff and he’s giving her deployment orders. She should have been his flag captain, or both his flag captain and flag intel both walk in I guess. Or the button connects so he can order his flag captain to point the TF and hit “go”.
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“No doubt she will find it delightful,” said the second woman. Honor scowled. Was this the woman who talked with Marcella? She could not be certain by the voice, and at this distance, faces were none too distinct.
Within a few minutes, without saying anything more of use, they left.
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Given that we’re re-promoing Steam Rising, can I share the oil painting I did of Cedar’s inside cover illustration for that? I was rather proud of how that one turned out!
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Some of the vignettes are delightful.
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Hi,
Bit off topic, but my old Kindle Touch is on its last legs. I haven’t been able to add new books since Amazon disallowed download to computer and transfer via USB and now the battery won’t hold a charge. As such, I’m in the market for a new e-reader that must work in offline mode. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I’ve been using an iPad as a backup but it’s enough bigger and heavier that it becomes uncomfortable for multi hour sessions. I think Ive heard that the latest model e-ink Kindle has some issues but I’m not sure what.
Thanks!
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I’ve been looking for a new(ish) tablet too, but the available choices suck.
I have 2 ancient tablets, each with some inconvenient shortcomings. Such as, they won’t even download the LitterRobot app, much less run it. I have almost 20,000 music tracks, but the music player can’t shuffle more than 1,000 tracks and it always seems to ‘randomly’ pick the same 1,000 tracks. More or less, anyway. I got really, really tired of some of them.
Most new tablets are too damn big. I don’t WANT to haul around something 10″, or 11″, or 12″ across. It’s supposed to be a tablet, not a (semi)portable home theater! An 8″ tablet is cumbersome enough.
I won’t get an iPad for one simple reason: IT HAS NO SD SLOT! There is no way to add storage to it. I want to keep books, music and video on a removable, replaceable storage device. Just provide a microSD slot that supports at least 256 GB. Both of my ancient (12+ years old) tablets can do it, so there is NO excuse.
I don’t want a Kindle. Just don’t. Amazon dictates what you can and can’t do with content you supposedly own, on a device you supposedly own. Yeah, yeah, people have found workarounds, but Amazon is always busy blocking them off. Life is too short to waste playing those games. Besides, calling a book reader ‘Kindle’ is like calling a dam ‘Erosion’, or a bridge ‘Structural Failure’. Are we living in Fahrenheit 451?
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Kobo. I never thought I’d say this, but I bought a Kobo that fits in my pocket. I didn’t register it with Amazon. I sideload. It’s working. The fly in the ointment: IT DOESN’T WORK WITH KINDLE.
Rest assured my plan is to have a shop of my own for my own books (Probably building it over Dec./Jan) Now if we can convince other authors….
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Nyanta’s nose and whiskers twitched in delight. Someone had brought catnip.
For reasons known only to the admiral, the herb had been banned throughout the task force. No fresh plants, no dried leaves, no extracts or essences. Some of the crew were speculating that the old tom was someone who simply didn’t react to catnip, and couldn’t stand the idea of anyone else enjoying it. A number of the officers were certain that he’d had a bad experience with someone screwing up while under the influence, and was determined to have no repetition of it.
But someone had managed to smuggle some contraband right here on the flagship, in pilots’ quarters. Could it be that Yumann who’d just been qualified as an aerospace fighter pilot? Simians didn’t respond to catnip, so no one would suspect one — but the Yumann had domesticated a small feline species that did.
It would be the perfect cover for such an operation.
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