You ain’t Tokyo Rose. Before words come out of your mouth and memes out of your fingers, ask yourself “am I being used?”

For some reason, I keep running against this bilge on mewe. I think because honestly when I go to Facebook it’s mostly or private groups, a chat with a friend, or for echoing the blog posts. So time spent looking at my main page is….. short. Though to be honest, my time on FB is short and getting shorter.

What bilge? Oh, memes extolling the Chinese in relation to us. And all conservatives pick this crap up and echo it, because it happens to “side rail” against things they hate (and which it’s valid to hate.)

But the memes are crap. The aggrandizing of the Chinese bastards is crap. They’re either outright lies or laughable lies. And the memes, somehow, never hit the Chinese where it hurts: the fact their economy is so f*cked most of their people live like Medieval peasants; the fact their army of little emperors cried when they went up against India; the fact that they are having trouble feeding their own population; the crumbling empty cities they think are “investments”; their population collapse; Xi’s pretensions to world leadership; their slave camps. Which you know, tells you exactly where the meme factory is and who is propagating it.

The problem being when conservatives seize the memes and distribute, they are actively collaborating in the aggrandizing of China and putting down the US. They are also convincing the Chinese their victory over us will be easy. (This is good and bad, but if you have friends and relatives in large cities, think about the chances of it ending up with one of those catching a nuke because the idiots get cocky, okay?)

Chinese are masters of propaganda and psychological warfare, while Americans are so bad at it that it hurts. If you loved 2020 keep collaborating with the enemy.

If not, listen up:

Yeah, sure, the fact that the usurpers of our governmental institutions are making our armed forces participate in inclusivity and CRT training, and prioritizing bullshit SJW goals over preparedness IS a problem. But that doesn’t mean we’re not still the best fighting force in the world. Sure, it’s damning with faint praise, but comparing us to China and saying they’re “prepared for war” and “will win” is bullshit. You know it’s bullshit, I know it’s bullshit. It’s bullshit so rank I can smell it through the internet.

The Chinese have Little Emperors — single descendants of multiple families — who are no more prepared to risk themselves in war than I’m prepared to fly unassisted. Their army is bullshit.

Why is it bullshit? Because they don’t have a fighting force. The only fighting strength they ever had was the ability to submerge any enemy in a wave of people. But they can’t. Because the communists destroyed that too.

Their weapons are bullshit. I’d like independent confirmation of their “achievements in space.” Why? Because, well, the USSR achievement in space was a) what they could steal from us b) flimsy and c) mostly trumped up. In the sense that they only publicized their wins, while it might be one in ten that succeeded.

Look, by definition an authoritarian regime sucks at tech. I’m not saying anything about “capabilities of the people” (duh) but seriously? If you can’t report failed experiments, failed assemblies or builds that need to be improved, you’re going to have crappy tech. And you can’t report any of that, because in a centralized authoritarian regime you’ll be punished for failure, even if it’s not your fault. And you might get accused of doing it on purpose.

When nothing less than 100% success is allowed, the process is corrupt and the result is excrement. (Look at our “science” right now. No, seriously. We’re sliding that way.)

So, no matter how made you are at what the army and our government is doing, stop echoing Xi’s bullshit. And counter it every time you see it. This is war by other means, or in the ancient Chinese tradition, softening the enemy so they’ll surrender at first attack.

Yesterday, I came across probably the most egregious of this load of bullshit: It claimed we get MOST of our food from China.

No, I’m actually serious. It claimed that we get fish and meat from China.

I know we get some “food” ingredients from China. It’s very easy to find out which, if you remember what failed during the lockdowns and is still iffy.

Most of that, in most of the country (except for some parts but that’s explainable other ways. Like of course big cities when people mostly ate out, restaurant supply stores were overfull, and groceries empty, when restaurants closed) is extremely processed food (some of the low carb stuff, which I’ve started phasing out for obvious reasons, in favor or more locally available) or pet food. (And pet food now is not as much dependent on China as it was, since they killed a bunch of dogs and cats by doing Chinese trade bullshit.)

China, in point of fact, imports vast amounts of its food from the US. VAST. Without us they couldn’t feed their people even at the pitiful subsistence level they manage.

The US is largely food self-sufficient. And feeds half the world. Now we get out of season stuff from Mexico and other points South, and shrimp from tropical waters, but that’s about it.

Now, sure, you get a lot of your food from Chinese owned corporations.

That is because they have bought several American corporations like Smithfield Hams. But they did that not because they’re feeding us from their surplus, but because they want to make sure their people get food if/when they f*ck with us enough that food becomes scarce here. That’s all.

As for why our corporations (and politicians) are letting themselves be bought with what amounts to monopoly money? Because they’re stupid. And they believe the propaganda with which you’re collaborating.

You see, the Chinese money is worth what the Chinese government says it is. And that’s part of the reason why the local sh*theads believe you can just print money without diminishing the value of money. Look at the Chinese. They do it!

Yeah. There is one TINY problem with that. This type of scam goes on until it doesn’t. If the economy behind it isn’t worth what is being printed/distributed/used…. sooner or later it all implodes.

And the Chinese economy isn’t worth spit, and will be worse less as we stop buying their stuff. (Which honestly has already started. And will get worse as their vice-roy makes our economy worse.)

Again, totalitarian regimes are above all terrible at communication. Which is all that money is. Money is communication. It’s a way to signal “more of this. Less of that.” When you cut that off and interpose yourself, you cut the bonds of the economy and leave production and demand to flap lose in the wind. Which is why the Chinese build ghost cities that crumble within years. (To be fair, so do normal Chinese cities.)

So, yeah, they’re buying us up with monopoly money, and lending us monopoly money, and our people are too stupid to understand that. But they are at danger and they know it. Which is why they buy American companies and land. Because they are desperate for something solid to own that won’t turn to vapor when the morning sun hits.

If you remember the early oughts, husband kept trying to explain to me how perception was reality or whatevs, because that’s what it looked like. Companies popped up overnight, and got massive IPOs without having produced a single thing, and seemed to be thriving. He interviewed and was actively headhunted by a bunch of these, so I read their brochures and researched them and kept telling him “That’s nice, but there’s NOTHING there. They’re fairy gold.”

And true enough, when the fog cleared, they were nothing.

For a strange illustration of this — it’s not what he thought he was doing — read Simak’s They Walked Like Men, where aliens are buying up the Earth using …. themselves. They’re shape shifters who turn into money, then revert to their form.

In the book, the time comes when everyone is homeless, because they’ve sold their house which stands empty. Until someone goes “Hey, you know what? The money disappeared anyway. Let’s go get our houses back.”

Which is what I envision at the end of China’s bullshit.

They think that because we deal fairly we’re weak. But in the end it is they who are weak, because all their streams of information are corrupt. And they’re so used to living in a semblance of reality that they don’t understand REAL reality. Which will bite their ass when the fog evaporates.

If we let the fog evaporate and stop collaborating with the enemy.

Because you know what? The left echoes these memes because since the USSR died China became their beau ideal, to show us communism can work. (More like fascism, but sure, whatevs. If you like slavery, China has slavery.) And the right echoes it, because they don’t like certain practices in our country.

When what we need to do is stand up for and by America. Sure, our government are occupiers, our political class is corrupt, our institutions need a fine scouring (which is a weird term for burning and salting the ground, I get it.)

But–

But we’re still the best in the world, and the last great hope of mankind.

D*mning with faint praise? Oh, sure. But broken and with our feet in a bucket, we’ve preserved civilization before, and I’m betting we can do it again.

The current sclerotic Junta is not a patch on Woodrow Wilson or FDR who were COMPETENT evil. They are in fact the decaying results of the left’s illusions. They are a paper tiger. And behind them, America remains, as strong and stubborn and able as ever.

Perfect? Oh, hell no. And yeah, there’s a reckoning coming, and we can’t avoid it.

BUT we’re still miles better than China or any of our other vainglorious, ridiculous “rivals.”

We have no rival, because we have no equal.

Oppressed people screaming for freedom — as in Cuba — lift high the stars and stripes.

Will you not do likewise?

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. I ALSO WISH TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT IF THEY WANT TO TIP THE BLOGGER WITHOUT SPENDING EXTRA MONEY, CLICKING TO AMAZON THROUGH ONE OF THE BOOK LINKS ON THE RIGHT, WILL GIVE US SOME AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR PURCHASES MADE IN THE NEXT 24HOURS, OR UNTIL YOU CLICK ANOTHER ASSOCIATE’S LINK. PLEASE CONSIDER CLICKING THROUGH ONE OF THOSE LINKS BEFORE SEARCHING FOR THAT SHED, BIG SCREEN TV, GAMING COMPUTER OR CONSERVATORY YOU WISH TO BUY. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Deep Pink (Magis Book 1)https://amzn.to/3xAWOzo

DEEP PINK IS NOW ON PAPER (Yes, yes, sequel soon.)

Like all Private Detectives, Seamus Lebanon [Leb] Magis has often been told to go to Hell. He just never thought he’d actually have to go. But when an old client asks him to investigate why Death Metal bands are dressing in pink – with butterfly mustache clips – and singing about puppies and kittens in a bad imitation of K-pop bands, Leb knows there’s something foul in the realm of music. When the something grows to include the woman he fell in love with in kindergarten and a missing six-year-old girl, Leb climbs into his battered Suburban and like a knight of old goes forth to do battles with the legions of Hell. This is when things become insane…. Or perhaps in the interest of truth we should say more insane.

FROM MARGOT SINCLAIR: Not Exactly Murder: Vol. 1.

It’s the mid-90s in Charleston, South Carolina, and the city is only beginning to feel the effects of the “Third Yankee Invasion.”But Charleston is still Charleston. Large shabby pockets remain ungentrified, and the real estate has yet to be bought up by retired CEOs “from off.” The old families live in the old houses and maintain the old rituals. Eccentricity and ancestor-worship abound.Not Exactly Murder is an explosive and hilarious romp through a recent past when Charleston was still decadent and quirky, and when port city crime oozed through every street.The first in a four-book series that establishes a new genre. Let’s see, what to call it?”Southern Women With Guns”or”Elmore Leonard meets Janet Evanovich meets Dixie”Whatever you call it, you’re in for a ride.

FROM DENTON SALLE: Sworn to the Light: The Avatar Wizard – Book 1

“Power comes from either the Light or the Dark, lad. Nothing is neutral.”

Jeremy has a problem: he randomly turns into a black and white bear cub. The transformations panic his mom, but his father says he knows a wizard who can help. That scares his mother even more.

The volkh wizards once ruled like gods in their power, building the great golden city of Miklagard, establishing kingdoms, and trading with legendary places like Sheba, Chin, and India. Then the Dark arose and the wars destroyed much of the world. Kingdoms fell, cities burned, and the volkhvy were merciless in crushing it.

Master Anthony remains the greatest of the living volkh lords. Can he, will he help Jeremy stop this random changes? And at what price? Why is Jeremy’s dad so worried? Isn’t the war against darkness over?

Join Jeremy as he enters the world of the volkhvy. A world of mysteries and secrets. Where women walk in shadow and men call lightning at will. Where endless war against the Dark continues. If you liked Harry Potter and the Heroes of Olympus, you’ll enjoy this series set in a Rus fantasy world where the lines between Good and Evil are clearly drawn.

FROM LAURA MONTGOMERY: ON SALE: Simple Service: Science Fiction Colonization Adventure (Martha’s Sons Book 1)

They’re stranded beyond the known stars. Will his treacherous mission on an unforgiving world end in death?

Twenty-year-old Peter Dawe has learned to keep his mouth shut around his father. So the super-strong, genetically modified, human hybrid keeps his focus on his strict parent’s bidding to recover his family’s weapons. But after barely escaping a manhunt, Peter encounters real trouble when he runs into his self-indulgent brother.

Forced to take the vain and reckless fool back into danger with him for a second attempt to retrieve the remaining blasters, Peter fears his sibling’s undisciplined ways will get them both killed. But as the colony begins its descent into tyranny, treachery and betrayal could be far deadlier enemies…

Can Peter survive a desperate plan that puts a target on his back?

Simple Service is the first book in the immersive Martha’s Sons science fiction series. If you like gripping action, insurmountable odds, and alien worlds, then you’ll love Laura Montgomery’s rugged adventure.

FROM D. W. PATTERSON: Mach’s Metric: Future Chron Universe.

Originally published in 2018.
The wormhole drive could finally give humanity the stars, if it didn’t destroy them first. An accident had killed thousands by disrupting the entanglement of spacetime and its continued use could lead to further disruptions unless a solution could be found. Young Elias Mach, physicist and inventor of the drive, took on the challenge with the help of a supportive few. He would have to find a solution to the drive’s dire side-effects before it was too late.

If you like a fast moving story, characters that never give up, and science with a sense of wonder, this is for you.

“Mach’s Metric” is set in the future (2390s) and is the first novel in the Future Chron Universe. If you enjoyed “Mach’s Metric” consider reading the next story in the series “Mach’s Mission” for more Hard Science Fiction – Old School.

For more information about the Future Chron Universe, including a chronological reading order, see the author’s blog futurechron.blogspot.com.

(Also published as “Mach’s Metric Book 1).

FROM LEIGH G. WYNN: The Eye of Elektron (The Sumrectian Series Book 1).

Two souls from different realms. Bound by sacrifice. Torn by fate.

Dawn has sixty minutes…
to plan her death…
so that her brother may live.

Competition to be a portrait artist at Crimson Estate is fierce. One lives. One dies. And participation is not voluntary.

To save her brother’s life, Dawn ensures her own execution by painting a forbidden magical device—the Eye of Elektron. Banned from use by powerful Sumrects, the Eye of Elektron has not functioned since the failed human rebellion against Sumrectian tyranny eleven years ago.

Somehow, it comes to life in her hands…

And seizes the attention of an ancient evil and its archenemy, Ansel Cassadian, the most powerful Sumrect in a thousand years. Strangely, he seems to know everything about her difficult past—a past that holds the key to her future.

As evil threatens to destroy all she holds dear, Dawn must reawaken the Eye of Elektron in time to free the humans and save the Sumrect who risked his destiny to protect her.

If you enjoy fast-paced fantasy and slow-burn romance, then you’ll love The Eye of Elektron, book one of a brand new, action-packed, urban fantasy series. Scroll up and grab a copy to start the adventure now!

FROM JONATHAN DE SOUZA: Solist At Large: The Last Solist #1

Adelaide Taylor is the newest Solist to have gained her powers. A magical warrior of the ancient and lost Dawn Empire, she moved from California to New Jersey in secret. Enrolled in a very Catholic high school, she has to find her Companions-five teenagers that will help her to defeat magical threats to the human race. But, in the process of becoming a Solist, Adelaide has to hide the truth of her past from everyone else. Including the five people that she needs to trust the most.

And, there are secrets that Adelaide still has to discover about herself and the world she has become a part of…

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER: Common Ground and Other Stories

A collection of seven Science Fiction short stories by Mackey Chandler.
The lead story, Common Ground is big enough to be a novella. It was published in Jim Baen’s Universe e-zine. Sadly that has gone out of business. They had a goal of paying professional rates which made it more difficult. I’m somewhat spoiled because this was the first short story I ever attempted and it sold.
I won’t ruin your read with detailed spoilers – sufficient to say the seven shorts contain an alien with a very human foible, a joker Joyboy banished to selling shoes on the moon, a crotchety old man holding aliens at bay with a leaf blower, the ultimate Windoze -FAIL-, a self made billionaire who never lost his touch, a sword wielding Earth diplomat who was either very very good or incredibly lucky, and a future Mama’s boy dealing with family in an era of extended life times.

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: ARROGANT

I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but it turns out that three cities in three days, viewing six to seven houses each, with a bunch of driving every day, and oh yeah, two offers (one rejected one accepted) is EXHAUSTING. Yes, tongue firmly in cheek.

And I’m sorry I’ve been more absent than not from the blog. But–

Well, but the next month things will be funky (if all goes well) as we get this house ready to go up, and things packed to move.

Neverthless, Bowl of Red is on track to go up early next month, (hopefully before closing) and my evenings are right now taken up with editing/fixing/etc the darkship series, so it can start going up one a week.

I have August 15th through 25th penciled in for sleeping, but with my luck that’s when hell breaks lose, right?

(But Sarah, you said June. I know. I also said it would be so small/silent in June we might not notice. But I’m not going to weasel. This sense of what’s coming is an imperfect instrument, and it’s possible I’m completely wrong. I’m still holding on to hope all this resolves without fire and blood. But judging from how people less inclined to think so are acting, I’d say chances are slim. Still, praying never hurt anyone. Pray for peace. Prepare for otherwise, yes, including disruptions and chaos. And always follow Heinlein’s advice: keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. The life you save might be your own.)

And now that I’m upright and moving (Well, shambling) I’m going to get my headphones on, audiobook playing, and go clean the house. (It’s okay, I’ve trained myself to think of this as “resting” since it’s normally half of my day off) so serious scraping/sanding/painting can start tomorrow.

I’ll drop by now and then, hopefully to be amused. And will sit down to write at 5 pm or so….

Thank you for putting up with irregular hours and crazy times here at ATH. I’ll try to post regularly through the next month, but some days I’ll fail. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Try to defend the ATH ship from pirates and the pirate-like regulars who will try to burn it or scuttle it because some troll infestation got in.

Be not afraid. We’re going to get through this. All of this. Because we’re the people who get through things. By the time most of us survived childhood, there was nothing they could do to us that held any terror.

So, we go!

Should be doing a post, but very tired.

Put in an offer, but there were three, and though we went above asking, we were rejected.

Which leaves us…..

Making an offer for “#2 house we’re considering.”

In probably an hour or so.

V. tired. Working on Bowl of Red.

But wanted you to know I’m okay.

YES, THIS IS A LATE WEDNESDAY PROMO POST AND VIGNETTES. IT’S NOT ATH THAT’S GLITCHING. IT’S THE WORLD THAT IS GLITCHING. WHAT? YOU’VE BEEN ASLEEP SINCE MARCH 2020? DO NOT PANIC, THOUGH. HERE AT ACCORDING TO HOYT WE NEVER PANIC. WE MEANT TO SET OUR HAIR ON FIRE. IN THE CALMEST MANNER POSSIBLE. ALSO, SHUT UP. PLEASE REBOOT THE UNIVERSE, ADD CHEESE AND TRY AGAIN.

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. I ALSO WISH TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT IF THEY WANT TO TIP THE BLOGGER WITHOUT SPENDING EXTRA MONEY, CLICKING TO AMAZON THROUGH ONE OF THE BOOK LINKS ON THE RIGHT, WILL GIVE US SOME AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR PURCHASES MADE IN THE NEXT 24HOURS, OR UNTIL YOU CLICK ANOTHER ASSOCIATE’S LINK. PLEASE CONSIDER CLICKING THROUGH ONE OF THOSE LINKS BEFORE SEARCHING FOR THAT SHED, BIG SCREEN TV, GAMING COMPUTER OR CONSERVATORY YOU WISH TO BUY. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*

FROM ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel.

In this definitive account of the quest to establish a human presence in lifeless outer space, award-winning space historian Robert Zimmerman reveals the great global gamesmanship between Soviet and American political leaders that drove the space efforts of both following the Apollo lunar landings in the 1960s and 1970s.

Beaten to the Moon by their Cold War enemies, the Russians were intent on being first to the planets. They knew that to reach other worlds they needed to learn how to build interplanetary spaceships, and believed that manned space stations held the greatest promise for making that possible. Thus, from the very moment they realized they had lost the race to the Moon, the Soviet government worked feverishly to build a viable space station program — one that would dwarf the American efforts and allow the Russians to claim the vast territories of space as their own.

Like the race between the tortoise and the hare, the ponderously bureaucratic Soviet Union actually managed to overtake the United States in this space station race. Their efforts — sometimes resulting in terrifying near death exploits — not only put them far ahead of NASA, it also served to reshape their own society, helping to change it from a communist dictatorship to a freer and more capitalist society.

At the same time, the American space program at NASA was also evolving, but not for the better. In fact, in many ways the two programs — and nations — were slowly but inexorably trading places.

Drawing on his vast store of knowledge about space travel and modern history, as well as hundreds of interviews with cosmonauts, astronauts, and scientists, Zimmerman has superbly captured the exciting story of space travel in the last half of the twentieth century. “Leaving Earth” tells that story, and is required reading for space and history enthusiasts alike who wish to understand the context of the space exploration renaissance taking place now, in the twenty-first century.

FROM ERIC TESTERMAN: Enter Prehistoric.

After retiring from outlawing, Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith just wanted to be left alone in Wyoming with his guns and regrets.

But then he discovered an entrance to a lost world, a place full of grand adventure, as well as spectacular dangers from both prehistoric dinosaurs and a race of savage apes intent on conquest.

Now, a new fort has been established on the other side, and a strange civilization of humans and dinosaurs have been located. The people are descendants from another time, long trapped in prehistory, and with them a fragile alliance is created.

But will it be enough as Jed faces vengeance from enemies both new and old?

Will his savagery and cunning keep him and his love alive?

Or will they die, on a mountain of fired brass, amidst the guttural bellows of barbaric apes and roars of monstrous dinosaurs?

Jed doesn’t know, but he’s always willing to shoot first and figure out the rest afterwards.

FROM LAURA MONTGOMERY: Fractional Ownership

When his company demands either a move to Mars or the loss of his job,
perpetual plaintiff Lewis Ostrow finds he can’t even get a ticket to
the world without lawyers.

A short story.

FROM C. V. WALTER: The Bear and The Bees

Aoife has always known her family was cursed to ward the gates between the worlds. As curses go, hiking up in the mountains and doing a ritual four times a year to keep the gates closed wasn’t a bad one… especially when she wanted to get away from the reminders of Garrett walking out on her and never coming back.

But things are worse than they seem; Garrett’s disappearance was the result of a curse from forces allying to unseal the gates, and trying to use his bear-form as a pawn to kill her. Even after Aoife breaks the geas on him, there are still far too many curses and enemies loose, and something infernal on the other side of the gate that is about to break through…

It’s going to be a race against time to reseal the gate on Solstice night, but don’t bet against a bear and his honey!

FROM JULIE PASCAL: Traditional by Accident

Can you say yes, if it’s impossible to say no?The encroaching Solaran empire has gobbled up Svana’s world. Svana fled her planet with the first wave of refugees, swept up with members of a different clan. Space is vast and she finds herself on a space station, alone, waiting hopelessly for her own family to arrive to save her. Thomas is from her world and similarly adrift. He offers to save her, and it’s an offer that Svana can’t refuse, but that doesn’t mean that letting him save her is the right thing to do.

Unless, perhaps, they can somehow save each other.

FROM ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Conscious Choice: The Origins of Slavery in America and Why it Matters Today and for Our Future in Outer Space.

Robert Zubrin: “Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.”

The human race is about to go to the stars. Big rockets are being built, and nations and private citizens worldwide are planning the first permanent settlements in space.

When we get there, will we know what to do to make those first colonies just and prosperous places for all humans?

Conscious Choice answers this question, by telling a riveting and accurate history of the first century of British settlement in North America. That was when those settlers were building their own new colonies, and had to decide whether to include slaves from Africa.

In New England slavery was vigorously rejected. The Puritans wanted nothing to do with this institution, desiring instead to form a society of free religious families, a society that became the foundation of the United States of American, dedicated to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

In Virginia however slavery was gladly embraced, resulting in a corrupt social order built on power, rule, and oppression.

Why the New England citizens were able to reject slavery, and Virginians were not, is the story that Conscious Choice tells, a story with direct implications for all human societies, whether they are here on Earth or on the farflung planets across the universe.

FROM DAVID BURKHEAD: The Ships of Elemak.

The kingdom of Aerioch has fallen. Only Kreg and his newfound friends remain. And while the fearsome changeling armies are no more, the task of rebuilding Aerioch remains daunting. They must first escape the land of Chanakra and somehow cross the sea of Elemak.

It is then, when their troubles will really begin.

FROM T. L. KNIGHTON: Sabercat.

Despite his rich-kid roots, Tommy Reilly is struggling to make it as a freighter captain. Despite a universe of possibilities, he finds himself running afoul of both pirates and corrupt bureaucrats who seem determined to get in his way at every point. It’s like karma for his bullying past is smacking him in the back of the head.

All of that changes when a figure from his past asks for his help.

Now he’s finding himself at odds with a greedy and overly ambitious business owner who has government backing who happens to be the same man who impounded the very load he needs on his ship. The fact that the load is only the first step in securing information that could bring down the status quo might have something to do with that, however.

Tommy and his crew of misfit rejects have to use skills most of them would rather forget to secure their load, all with eyes watching them everywhere.

FROM RICH RYDER: Dropship City Lovers.

Deion staked his future on discarding his past on the way to orbit… but leaving behind love and community isn’t as easy as he thought it’d be.

After 3 years away, he told himself he was just passing through the Dropship Yard, a community cobbled together from old disposable shipping containers, in order to visit friends and family… and retrieve the one man he couldn’t leave behind.

When old secrets and new revelations threaten, Deion must choose between love and duty. Can he have the man he loves and the career he’s sacrificed everything else for?

This M/M Romance Novella is a stand-alone story with a very happy HEA.

(AND YES, IT’S INCREDIBLY AWKWARD SELF-PROMO. GIVE ME A BREAK, IT’S LAUNCH WEEK!)

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Other Rhodes

Lily Gilden has a half-crazed cyborg in her airlock who thinks he’s Nick Rhodes,
a fictional 20th Century detective. If she doesn’t report him for destruction,
she’s guilty of a capital crime.

But with her husband missing, she’ll use every clue the cyborg holds,
and his detective abilities, to solve the crime her husband was investigating
when he disappeared.

With the help of a journalist who is more than he seems,
Lily will risk everything to plunge into the interstellar underworld
and bring the love of her life home!

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: AQUATIC

So this week is special, and I think we’re going to have an ultra special Wednesday Vignettes and Promo.

I’m so sorry, but we’re making a last ditch push to find a home in intended landing place. If we can’t…. If we can’t we’ll start search elsewhere. (Yes, Doug, Matthew, Emily I know. I might come to you sometime next weekend, though looking that far away will be special. This far away is killing me.)

This is why we didn’t have a second post yesterday, as I got sucked down the rabbit hole of “we must go down again” then making a list of prospects.

And so – that’s what’s happening. I thought I might have time to put the promo up before we hit the road, but mistakes were made, I was insufficiently caffeinated, I was never there, and besides I was led astray by evil companions.

And now I seal the laptop in the briefcase, and we hit the road.

See you on the other side. Wish us luck, and pray for us.

Yes, I know. And yes, (Mary,) I’m putting the promo post up in a couple of hours. We’re dealing with “finding a place to move” plans.

It still doesn’t have a paper edition, which must be some new level of insanity at Amazon/Bowker. I’ll deal with it hopefully today too.

FOR NOW and meanwhile:

OTHER RHODES

Lily Gilden has a half-crazed cyborg in her airlock who thinks he’s Nick Rhodes, a fictional 20th Century detective.  If she doesn’t report him for destruction, she’s guilty of a capital crime.

But with her husband missing,  she’ll use every clue the cyborg holds, and his detective abilities,  to solve the crime her husband was  investigating when he disappeared.

With the help of a journalist who is more than he seems, Lily will risk everything to plunge into the interstellar  underworld and bring the love of her life home!

On this occluded independence day, I beg you to read the declaration of independence.

I think it’s a mandatory religious observance for my fictional (mostly) USAians on their high holy holiday, but hey, it won’t hurt you either.

Most of all, remember you’re Americans. Remember the words that make men free and make tyrants quake.

It is our duty, our obligation and our very great privilege to make sure that in the next decade, in the next century, in the next millennium, on Earth or in the far flung stars the words carry on, liberty carries on, and tyrants are powerless against them.

Yes, the danger is great. And we must grow to meet it.

Go and light up the skies with fireworks, so we can see our flag by the rockets bursting in air.

Be not afraid.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

I seem to have woken up without a brain, its space replaced with a massive headache.

I really want to work on bowl of red, and will if brain comes back later.

For now, have this, the snippet of what I’m afraid has become Tom and Kyrie’s Wedding, Enter the Dragon.

Bowl of Red

Sarah A. Hoyt

1

Atop one of the highest mountains of the world, there lived a dragon.  And the dragon was the most powerful beast in the world, able to listen to and control all of the magical animals everywhere.

And the dragon said to his bride, “Are you sure it will be all right? Closing the diner for a whole hour?”

Kyrie Smith, the dragon’s bride, a panther shifter and co-owner with the dragon – her very beloved and permanently worried fiancé, Tom Ormson – of the George Diner in downtown Goldport smiled while shaking her head, and pulled back a strand of curls that had worked free from Tom’s  pony tail.  “It will be fine, love. It’s just an hour, after lunch hour.”

Tom still looked worried. Well, Tom always looked somewhat worried, it was part of what was so endearing about him. But Kyrie had worked hard at blocking the time three to four pm, so they could get married in a modicum of privacy.  Well, the right kind of privacy.  Though every table was occupied these were their friends – a lot of them from the police department – and people who mattered to them, not whatever random might wander in from Fairfax avenue.

Rafiel Thrall, one of Goldport’s finest, and a lion shifter, patted Tom on the shoulder, “Come on. You’ll fine.  It’s actually impossible for the diner to go under in the time it takes Anthony to pronounce you man and wife.”

Anthony, server extraordinaire – he’d taught both Kyrie and Tom a lot of the tips and tricks of table service – stood nervously between the salad station and the corner booth, wearing a dark suit.  The bridal cake, four layers, created by Laura Miller, the Diner baker, who waved away any attempts at payment, was topped with a couple, created by another diner regular – by bashing gaming figures – and didn’t look particularly like Tom and Kyrie, except for haircolor, but they were both attired in aprons that said “The George.”

Kyrie thought that all in all it was a very fitting set up.

Conan Lung, former enemy, and now friend, sat at one of the small booths by the window, dressed in the western wear he’d adopted when his country and western singing career had started showing signs of life.  He looked a little lost between the ten gallon hat and the cowboy boots, but no one had the courage to tell him, and at any rate, his fiancé Rya liked him that way, so who were they to say anything?

Kyrie herself had just switched her normal jeans and t-shirt and apron for a short formal dress in ivory. This had been done at the insistence of everyone else who said she should have a wedding dress. It was just that wedding dresses rarely came in maternity sizes, and she was aware of her belly bulge showing rather indecently.  But Rya and Bea – the dragon shifter who was dating Rafiel – had pinned a short veil over her hair.

Rafiel pulled Tom towards the front, near Anthony, and Kyrie backed way back, to near the cash register. Tom’s dad, the only parent in attendance, came up from where he’d been waiting at the door to the annex, and gave Kyrie his arm. Because she didn’t know who her parents were – having been found, newborn, at the door to St. Anne’s Catholic Church, one Christmas eve, and having been raised in the foster system – Tom’s dad had agreed to do the honors.

She couldn’t say the man had matured much, since he was a lawyer working for the Triads in New York City, but he’d… Grown in different directions.

Tom said that his father was trying very hard to be a good father, and prospective grandfather, it was just that he had never really learned how to be an adult, or any of those things, so he mostly got very excited about the idea of being a father or grandfather, but forgot the day to day work. Still, he was the best they had, and he was wearing a very handsome tuxedo, and looked the part.

Even better, Kyrie thought, he’d stopped showering them in the weirdest baby gifts ever, from little squeaky mouse toys, to little nets, which he thought would be necessary since he was quite convinced that Kyrie and Tom’s babies would be born as “kitten-dragons.” Kyrie hoped she had finally got it through his head that the ultrasounds showed a human baby, male variety.

But she’d rather not make any bets.

With Conan playing the bridal march softly on the guitar, she walked up to the salad station.

Tom turned, and still looked slightly worried, but beamed at her.

A ray of sun came out and gleamed off the polished surface of the very expensive frier that consumed most of Tom’s worry.

It was going to be all right, Kyrie thought.

She realized her mistake immediately afterwards when something behind her exploded.

Not on paper yet, because there was an error between chair and keyboard, or between gray matter and fingers. I think. Amazon tells me to fix the highlighted, but I can’t find anything highlighted. Will try again today.

But anyway, ladies and germophobics:

OTHER RHODES:

Lily Gilden has a half-crazed cyborg in her airlock who thinks he’s Nick Rhodes,

a fictional 20th Century detective.  If she doesn’t report him for destruction,

she’s guilty of a capital crime.

But with her husband missing,  she’ll use every clue the cyborg holds,

and his detective abilities,  to solve the crime her husband was

 investigating when he disappeared.

With the help of a journalist who is more than he seems,

 Lily will risk everything to plunge into the interstellar

 underworld and bring the love of her life home!