Author: Sarah A. Hoyt

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: Family Fortune (Chronicles of the Fall Book 17)

Why would Captain Mishka Nix of the Security Bureau be called out for a simple runaway servant? Except . . . there’s something odd going on . . . even before Lord Saveli Solovsky took a fatal fall down a flight of stairs.

Anzor ought to be a rich kid, getting ready for his Presentation. Not that he minds hanging out on a raw Colony World, but the pretenses are piling up and when the police show up to tell him his father is dead, he’d better be wary and word things carefully . . . so they aren’t actual lies . . .

FROM ALMA T. C. BOYKIN: Hunter of Darkness: Familiar Generations Book Nine

Not all ghosts wait for darkness …

Summer passes quickly as Jude Tainuit assists fellow deputies and teaches young magic workers. Then a trap laid on an unquiet grave snaps, triggering a search through the past for names and hints. A surprise at another grave warns that more than angry ghosts walks in Devon County’s summer shadows.

Who troubles graves, graves all connected by blood, or rage, or both? What does the sorcerer hope to gain? And why does the taste of the man’s magic seem almost familiar? Jude struggles to solve the mysteries while raising a family and bemoaning the start of both football and pumpkin pie seasons.

Dark magic moves, power that taxes all the cunning and control of the Hunter of Darkness.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Soul Inheritance

Fresh out of college, Evelyn Alexander’s first order of business was finding a place to live. One she could afford on her small inheritance before her job started. None of the local rental agencies had anything in her price range, but…she found a small Victorian house for sale, the only one mostly untouched in a decaying neighborhood of subdivided rental houses.

Complete with a ghost. A very attractive ghost. A very attractive ghost with a strong dislike of the idea of anyone changing his house. So, of course, she bought it. A cranky ghost for a roommate was still a better option than the tiny studio with criminal neighbors.

Between working to restore her new house, embezzlement at work and a murder next door, Evelyn has her hands full. As she works to get on her feet as a productive adult (and not fall in love with a ghost she can’t have), the problems start to snowball. And it’s only compounded by learning that her house has far more secrets than just a single, cranky (attractive) ghost…

https://amzn.to/3GFbGXoFROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: A Huntress on the Rocks (Timelines Universe Book 4)

A young military intelligence agent. Hunting a murderous drug dealer across a floating city on a water world light-years from Earth – with only his name, and a vague description of what he might look like. Will she finally find her quarry and bring him to justice, or will cases of mistaken identity mean she’ll simply end up

A Huntress on the Rocks

(A Delaney Wolff Fox story)

FROM RACONTEUR PRESS, WITH A STORY BY ANDREW MILBOURNE: Vice Noir (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 56)

When we opened the call for Vice Noir, I wrote:
“The protagonist I am looking for in Vice Noir is a little different than the standard noir central character. Your standard noir detective knows the abyss and has armoured himself against it. He fights monsters, because someone has to, and his moral code demands that someone stand in the breach. His moral code is more externally focused: ‘Someone has to do it.’ The Vice Noir protagonist, on the other hand, has looked into the abyss … and the abyss winked. He lives in the bright sunshine, among pretty people — because the night, the alleys, and the adrenaline are way too attractive, too addictive, too comfortable … and he knows it. He is Sonny Crockett, living on a yacht with a gator named Elvis; he is Fiddler, in his beach cottage, with his lime tree, and his koi; both of them trying to build up the antibodies before the abyss whispers, and they leap headlong. Again.”

Of the forty stories I received, I had to pick ten that conveyed the spirit I was looking for; and I’m not going to lie – it was damned difficult doing so.

I hope this selection hits the right notes. If it does, that’s all on the authors. If not, that’s all on me.

Buckle up, gentle readers. Grab your Ray-Bans, fire up your 1980s pop hits, and get ready to smile back when the teeth come out.

I give you: Vice Noir.

https://amzn.to/44Y7WtgFROM JOHN BAILEY: The Phantom Compass: An Odyssey of Mystery and Mastery (Chasing Phantoms Book 2)

The Phantom Compass: An Odyssey of Mystery and Mastery

In the vibrant spring of 1927, the Hawthorne and Caldwell families—Ned, a former codebreaker; Clara, a skilled nurse; Theo, a meticulous geologist; Margaret, a sharp historian; and their children, Jack and Lily—embark on a thrilling global adventure sparked by a cryptic telegram and a mysterious brass compass. Set against the backdrop of a post-Great War world, The Phantom Compass: An Odyssey of Mystery and Mastery weaves a tale of intrigue, unity, and discovery as the family chases spectral illusions orchestrated by a shadowy syndicate.

From the cherry blossoms of Washington, D.C., to the crimson-lit Acropolis of Athens, the golden dunes of Morocco’s Sahara, and the misty peaks of Machu Picchu, the family unravels a series of elaborate deceptions—phantom oases, glowing ridges, and sapphire spires—each tied to stolen treasures and rising powers testing the waters of a fragile peace. Ned’s athletic prowess and cipher-cracking skills, Clara’s calm under pressure, Theo’s analytical precision, and Margaret’s historical insights blend seamlessly with Jack’s vivid sketches and Lily’s sharp ears, turning each challenge into a triumph of wit and teamwork.

As they zigzag across continents—South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains, Australia’s Uluru, Peru’s Andes, and Canada’s Niagara Falls—the family confronts pre-Nazi scouts, smugglers, and local legends, dismantling illusions crafted with surplus technology and cunning. Each adventure yields a keepsake—a carved camel, an opal pendant, a maple syrup bottle—adding to Jack’s sketchbook and Lily’s “phantom notes,” symbols of their growing legacy. Culminating in San Francisco’s bustling waterfront in 1931, the family uncovers the truth behind their compass, a relic of the Order of the Saffron Veil, designed to thwart a wartime smuggling network. With their mission complete, they reflect on a journey that tested their courage and deepened their bond, leaving the door open for future quests.

Perfect for fans of historical adventure and family-driven mysteries, The Phantom Compass blends vivid settings, rich historical detail, and heartwarming unity. This gripping tale of chasing phantoms across a world on the brink of change will captivate readers who love puzzles, exploration, and the enduring strength of family.

FROM M. C. A. HOGARTH: Healer’s Wedding (The Fallowtide Sequence Book 1)

Nearly a year has passed since the conclusion of the Chatcaavan War… which means it’s time for Jahir and Sediryl to marry, and Sediryl to kneel for the coronet of the imperial heir! All their allies are gathering to celebrate, from the expected, like the Queen Ransomed and Lisinthir, to mentors and friends from years past. But life doesn’t pause for momentous events, no matter how joyous or anticipated. There are issues Jahir and Sediryl have yet to resolve, issues that reflect the greater challenges besetting their world and the Alliance. Before they can join hands for the wedding cloth, they’ll have to face at least one of those challenges… and it won’t be the first.

Healer’s Wedding, Book 1 in the Jubilee Summer duology, brings together the characters from Her Instruments, Dreamhealers, and Princes’ Game for a capstone season of politics and pleasure. Return to the homeworld of the Eldritch and the company of friends!

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Darkship Thieves

Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. She never had any interest in finding out the truth about the Darkships. You always get what you don’t ask for.
When an intruder in her bedroom forces Athena to flee her father’s luxury cruiser in a tiny lifeboat, her escape leads her straight to the legendary Darkships—mysterious vessels that steal Earth’s power supply. And into the life of the pilot of the Darkship.

Thrust into a hidden asteroid colony and hunted by powerful enemies, Athena discovers shocking truths about her father’s empire and her own identity. As she navigates this dangerous new reality, what began as a fight for survival becomes a battle for freedom that could transform humanity’s future.

Winner of the Prometheus Award—a pulse-pounding space adventure where liberty hangs in the balance and nothing is as it seems.

FROM BLAKE SMITH: Hartington Abroad

Jeriah Hartington is far from home. Born into a wealthy family, he is now reduced to poverty. In desperation, he signs on to a ship headed for the planet XKF-36. Their mission? To search for colonists who’ve been lost nearly as long as Jeriah has been alive.

Jeriah fully anticipates an adventure as they travel into the unknown wilderness. He never expected to find living people, eager to tell the tale of their sufferings. But their hair-raising account could be the downfall of everyone on the planet, even their rescuers. For a villain lurks within the ship’s crew, and no one can say who he might be.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Technoserf

The Madrian Empire rules worlds as numerous as the grains of sand on a beach. When the Madrians conquered Roby’s homeworld, they brought him to this godforsaken lump of a world, to toil at their will.

Now the Gate has failed, leaving them without communications or transport to the rest of the Empire. When Roby identifies the problem, he’s offered a chance to fix it.

Roby now faces a quandry. Even if he can repair the damage, should he? Will he be better off reunited with the masters’ metropole? Or will he only complicate a difficult life?

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: TENDER

BLOG FUNDRAISER 2025

Yes, I know it’s a nuisance. And I’m not going to claim that if I don’t get enough money I’ll shutter the blog because we all know I won’t. It will on the other hand make it harder to do this on weekends and holidays when my husband objects to my sitting up late or getting up early to put up the post. Which is fine. I’ve survived it for near on 20 years. I’m not going to wilt.

I’m just going to say every blogger to the right of Lenin has paid the price in career, in wealth, in prospects. And that keeping us poor and meek is a great way to serve as a warning to others who would speak out. If you want to nullify the “warning,” consider donating.

And thank you to everyone who donated.

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)
So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And if you want to give me physical stuff, it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

And please, please, please do not send either a multitool of any kind of learning center for Indy. The cat with hand-paws and the engineer mind who yes indeed does understand English is already enough trouble as is.

I’m very grateful to all who contributed and all who might contribute to those who buy and push my books, and to those who leave reviews.

ADDENDUM

If you’re a subscriber to substack or patreon, I’ve treated you very badly, largely because of my health this past year. At some point I became too embarrassed to post updates that amount to “Yeah, still sick. I’ll try to post later.” I don’t think they’re entertaining and I feel like hiding under the bed.

On the other hand, no, I didn’t abandon you and I feel tremendously guilty about it.

For the record, I am better, and I do intend to return to posting regularly in both patreon and both substacks. I’m just trying not to rush it and make myself too sick to function again.

Also for the record, no, I don’t know why the health collapse and neither does my doctor. We have appointments booked with — I swear — every kind of specialist who might give me a clue. If/when I figure it out I’ll let you know, but it’s quite possibly “Autoimmune is trying to kill me again.”

Anyway, there will be earcs for No Man’s Land (which will be three volumes for reasons of being a huge book) and those subscribed to the substack for pay (Or those who recently lapsed and whom I’ll reinstate) will get them as a matter of course. For those not subscribed, there will be a way to buy. I haven’t sent it yet, because I also need to upload it for pre-order at the same time and I haven’t got my ducks in a row enough to do it. (I think one of them is a buzzard.)

And now the blog fundraising song and dance. Well, dance at least.

This will be going on until the 18th of July.

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too. Your presence is appreciated.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)

So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And if you want to give me physical stuff, it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

You guys keep me what passes for sane around these parts. Thanks you.

By now, if you’re not looking suspicioustly at all the “scientific” experiments of the twentieth century that proved that communism was scientific and the left’s ideas about humans were right, you are a beautiful soul, full of trust and the milk of human kindness.

Also you should seek help for that massive concussion and the attendant mental confusion.

Look, in the nineteenth century, science as defined mostly by engineering brought an amazing improvement on the general quality of life, etc. (And if you’re going to weeb about the “dark Satanic mills” I really am going to demand you get a brain scan. At this point if you’re not in doubt about that stuff, concussion really is likely.) Yes, there were critiques, mostly of it being inhumane, mostly from the deposed elites that lost out to the improvements, or from power-starved people. (BIRM. Here I should point out most of the “romantic” and socialist complaints about industrial progress were an aristocratic opinion. Most Americans don’t know that. And yet it was true.)

And then in the twentieth the people who hated industrial progress or improvement in human life that was bringing out true equality of odds and meritocracy fought back with “science.”

Suddenly a bunch of studies “proved” that humans, in general were horrible and that we’d extinguish ourselves, destroy the world, etc. unless taken in hand by our betters. Our betters in that case and by that time were largely defined by the people doing these “studies” and they promised to usher in an era of complete justice, utter equality, and of course safety under their absolute enlightened rule. In other words, our betters in this case were largely communists by any other name.

So — How do you know the Earth is overpopulated? I mean, other than UN statistics? (And if you believe the UN on ANYTHING I really, really, really must demand that you get a catscan for that massive concussion.)

Do you really believe that somewhere, in an African country known for tribal strife, someone is going out and hand-counting everyone? That most people are born in the hospital? That accurate vital statistics are kept? Do you believe any of this for a random third world country? (The only ones where population is “increasing”.) Do you truly, as someone or other put it (I really can’t remember who) Arab countries send someone into the desert to not only count every Bedouin, but also to make sure they’re not counted more than once?

My sweet Summer child, we, the mighty United States of America, arguably (or undoubtedly) the most organized, best equipped country in this sorry sobbing world can’t tell how many people live here. Heck, we can’t tell how many people live in any given city.

This is because people largely lie. They lie enthusiastically, happily and often randomly. Which is a good thing as it prevents the hungry for power from getting a handle on us. The appropriate answer to “What are you doing?” from a stranger is “None of your business.”

In the US the sources of confusion are people who receive government help per capita “inventing” more children (Often by physically borrowing the neighbors) to get the “more help.”

Globally, I suggest, it’s much the same.

So, we don’t know how many people there are in the world.

More importantly, we don’t know how many people are too many. The more we plunge into the statements of Paul Ehrlich the more we realize their deciding a-priori and then making up stuff to “prove’ we have a population bomb going came from an emotion response to “lots of people” + “poverty”. In Ehrlich’s case, the benighted masses in some Indian cities. The fact that we can have the same population density and absolutely no bad effects in prosperous Western towns just baffles them.

I was shocked when P. J. O’Rourke pointed out that at NYC population densities, we could have the entire population of the world in a US state, and leave the rest of the Earth pristine. (BTW bad idea to make those analogies near the left. They take it as an instruction. It’s an image, not a serious proposition for cultural and other reasons. So the WEF can take its fifteen minute cities and its open borders, fold them all in corners and stick them where the sun don’t shine.)

And yet, everyone knows that overpopulation is terrible and means the end of humanity. (And that it must be combated by an all-powerful government, of course.) And really we must all stop reproducing before we destroy the world.

Also, overpopulation will render us extinct, anyway, or at least cause such behaviors that will destroy civilization.

AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Humans can’t help themselves and will keep reproducing till they become extinct.

How do we know? Well it’s scientific. It’s from Calhoun’s 1960s Mouse Utopia experiment, of course!

And …. and you should really follow that link.

Turns out like most such studies the mouse utopia is not only irreproducible, it might never have been managed, even once.

Mouse Utopia is almost completely unpublished. Despite working on it and similar experiments with NIMH funding for decades (he “continued to work on his research results until his death on September 7, 1995”), Calhoun appears to have published almost nothing substantive about his research, limited to a handful of short summary articles or passing references. (Calhoun’s 1963 book The Ecology and Sociology of the Norway Rat describes only his “quarter-acre” experiments which ended in June 1949, before the NIH experiments on overcrowding.) The major citation for his Mouse Utopia experiments is the aforementioned 1962 Scientific American article (published 33 years before his death), which consists of 9 pages of popular writing, of which about half is generic illustrations of mice (rather than data-based figures or plots or tables). Calhoun 1963, “The Social Use of Space” touches briefly on behavioral sinks & mortality in some of the earlier experiments. Calhoun 1971, “Space and the Strategy of Life” presents a brief display of data from “Universe 14” and “Universe 15” but goes into more detail about 25 unspecified universes done to followup the Kessler 1966 thesis and mentions that they are following Universe 25, still waiting for it to actually collapse.7 The article Calhoun1 973, “Death Squared: The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population”⁠, begins with an extended analogy to the Book of Revelation, and presents some limited information on Universe 25, which has only halved in population at this point.

His 1970 article, for example, is just a redaction of the 1962 one, and despite apparently consulting Calhoun’s manuscripts at the NLM, Ramsden & Adams 2009 shed little light on Calhoun’s research or cite much beyond the 1962 article. (Considering how little he published, it’s surprising that NIMH funded Calhoun until 1983, leading to what describe as a “forced retirement” in 1986—apparently Calhoun was unable to get funding anywhere else. One wonders why NIMH dropped Calhoun, and why he was unable to get further funding given how high-profile and important his results are.)

This causes considerable confusion in reading since it’s unclear what papers refer to what. The 1962 article describes high infant mortality (infanticide is common in rodents) but not collapse in unidentified ‘universes’, which are not the famous Universe 25, which was started later; Calhoun 1971 had not yet seen a collapse in Universe 25; Marsden 1972 describes a population in slight decline and extrapolates out to possible collapse in a single unspecified universe; while Calhoun 1973 article shows a graph of a universe’s population definitely decreasing and apparently doomed by sterility & aging, which is identified as Universe 25. Are these all the same population, and if not, how many different ‘series’ or ‘universes’ are being described? How many exhibited the ‘senescence’ phase, much less population collapse? (Indeed, how many were done in total?)

So, at the basis of the certainty there are too many humans and that human overpopulation is a terrible thing; at the heart of things like Extinction Rebellion, the push for unfettered abortion; the certainty that women’s higher purpose is NEVER to be wives and mothers? At the heart of all of it is a giant lie perpetrated for self-aggrandizement by a man who couldn’t even prove that over-population is bad FOR MICE who are kept in a completely controlled environment and messed with over and over and over again.

I told a friend last night that if anything the Mouse Utopia proved that having someone mess with your society to try to make it fail was a bad idea. His answer was “And it could only work because mice don’t have the second amendment.”

Of course, neither does most of the world. We do. But it is of limited use if we believe the lies and let them get into our head.

Which is how we’ve come to the verge of a demographic collapse, if I’m reading economic and other signals right.

It’s time to stop believing the well-propagandized liars. And to reclaim our humanity.

It’s time to reproduce and create more humans. Not only because this is what humans were designed to do, and there’s an inescapable rightness in generation succeeding generation, no. But because we are humans and the measure of everything for us is human. The striped tri winged butterfly might be very pretty, but if you wouldn’t sacrifice all of them for a single human, you really should have that concussion looked into.

It’s time to start valuing more humans, not fewer. Because without humans, humanity quite literally has no meaning and no future.

So, How is the According To Hoyt Annual fundraiser going?

Frankly not well. After a promising and actually amazing first day, it’s been limping along, largely ignored. Honestly, I think this is because I’m not doing enough of a song and dance about it.

HOWEVER I must plead (alms for the writer) that this change because OTHERWISE I’m going to get pushed into doing a winter one again. And frankly? I don’t wanna.

It’s bad enough this will go on till 7/18.

Anyway, so some dancing:

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser. THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don’t hurt yourself.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)
So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out another place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And if you want to give me something perishable or bulky, it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

You are all appreciated, and I hope you know it.

I’ve mentioned before that there is a wild theory on youtube that we somehow stopped in… the early oughts. I think. Or maybe the nineties.

Look, I wasn’t paying attention, there were cats, and furthermore there probably are theories about every decade since the nineties.

The idea is crazy — though perhaps slightly less crazy than Phillip K. Dick’s idea that time stopped in the first century A.D. and we’ve been hallucinating everything this — but what they are seeing is true. It’s just not attributable to time effects, of course.

The reason they’re convinced this happened is that you can look at pictures of the last century, you can tell which decade it is… until around the 2000s.

Now all fashions blend, people dress however and they are incapable of telling what decade they’re in. Therefore, time must have stopped. Right?

Nonsense.

The entire “look” of the decades, the things that were popular in each, etc. etc., all that was a creation not of time but of mass media, a unified centralized means of communication, and, of course, the fashion industry.

What fracture was not time but the centralized, unified voice from above dictating what we must all now wear, believe, concentrate on.

In its place we have decentralized, individual decisions, views, looks, and of course, individual experiences reported by individuals. We have the ability to hear first hand accounts and decide for ourselves.

Sure, are there influencers, and fads? Social media mobs and general insanity?

Sure. Sure there are. But they’re not unified. And those who stick out, who have different opinions and who can back them up don’t have to feel isolated, alone, or like they are the last person who sees things differently.

I know it is tempting to imagine that the world was better when everyone was “unified.” And part of the feeling we have is because that unified world, by and large, was the world of our childhoods, before we became aware that we were being told lies, or that there were reasons to dissent. Of course as Odds we were perhaps always a little odd man out, but it was comforting having a unified something to rebel against.

And I know for a fact — because I’ve hit it — that having to decide everything for yourself can get overwhelming and you can get decision fatigue. I also know from observation (because of course I’m forever young) that as one gets older one wants some certainties to lean into and not to have to reevaluate things every day and every hour.

On the other hand, that was a false paradise, and it was always oppressive. No? Look how FDR managed to hold on to his image as a wonderful person who saved us from the depression, how it all filtered into the history books. Look how easy it was in the sixties for the media and a centralized intelligentsia to upend everything when it pleased them. And to — objectively — used that to defeat our own country’s military might by convincing people the war was lost.

It’s different now. If the media had had the control it once had — oh, even in the nineties — they’ve have managed to convince people that Obama really was that amazing, a genius for the ages, and probablyt hat he should have a third and fourth terms.

Heck, if the centralized media and opinion makers had the control they once had they wouldn’t have needed to throw everything they had at making people scared. They had to lock the entire nation up and fool most of the world in order to install… Biden. And then it all turned to ashes and dust in their mouths, because of course the world didn’t work the way they wanted it to, and they couldn’t keep their lies up once people started breaking free of the fear.

And for this they burned all their credibility and what remained of their power.

So now? No unified everything. Time is fine. It’s the fake unified vision that is gone.

And we have to make decisions and choose our own path by ourselves, amid differing social media spells, foreign trolls, falsely inflated influencers and all that.

On the other hand: we can make decisions. We can choose.

Places like this exist. Places like this blog exist, and I don’t know about you, but it kept me alive — I won’t say sane — through the mass-insanity of 2020.

And we can elect people that the elite despises (I might or might not have have spent a very cheering evening recently watching the media react to the election results in 2024. I never claimed to be nice.)

What’s a little disagreement or crazy people being afraid of time having stopped when you get to make up your mind and choose your own path. And most of all know you’re not alone.

The certainties of the past are gone. And it’s not going to be all beer and skittles. OTOH we have a chance at building the future.

Sursum corda. Be not afraid.

According To Hoyt Annual Fundraiser

This will be going on until the eighteenth of July.

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser. THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don’t hurt yourself.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too.

If you wish you could donate but can’t, consider buying one of my books (hopefully a bunch coming out starting next month… Yeah, i am better) and if you like it leaving a review. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, consider leaving a review. If you can — and have something you know well — consider sending me a guest post to give me a “free day.” (No guarantees of acceptance, of course.)

I’d like to say I’m doing better and will be better at following through on rewards. But I still have them pending from other years, because the last four years have been a slow upward battle. I am better, but I’m not adding to that backlog. (Though I’ll continue trying to fulfill promises long overdue.)

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)

So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

Every little bit helps, said the old lady– wait…. ahem. … I wouldn’t do that in the ocean!

Seriously, every review, every book buy, every donation: it all helps keeping me doing what I do. So, thank you.

There was a sentence in a PJ O’Rourke book. I can’t remember which book, and I can’t quote the sentence exactly, but it was something like “The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed.”

The fact is the future/progress/innovation is always unevenly distributed.

It’s only in books and movies that you get a new thing and everyone adopts it or starts using it, everywhere at once. That has never happened, ever.

And it’s not just a being able to afford it, or even a matter of being able to use it or having an understanding of how it works. It’s that people adopt things when they feel comfortable with them.

We tend to be — in this household — interested in the new stuff. Not taking to it blindly, mind, but finding things that are useful to us and using them. This in general means we ping people as being ten to twenty years younger than we are. (I got pulled into a “now you’re forty” group on FB. I haven’t laughed that hard since I was pulled into an atheist group. I am my own grandpa, and all that. Also, get off my lawn.)

Since we’re not actually stupid about it, we don’t pay the innovator’s tax. That is, we don’t buy the brand spanking new tech that might or might not work. Mostly because we’re not stupid, but also because we’re in general fairly broke. And also because … well, we know better from watching that first stage of cool.

It’s not that I don’t want it. I wanted a kindle since it had a weird green screen. But it was really expensive and you know what, I could get a used PDA ten years out of fashion, and use it as an ebook reader fro about $20. And I did.

But I did adopt ebooks early. Because frankly taking 100 books in electronic form was a lot cheaper than taking a suitcase of books to a vacation overseas, and the … functionality was attractive.

However, how many people still never have tried an ebook, and not for lack of funds, either. (Yes, yes, I know. Some people like paper books for other reasons. Frankly, I never understood the point of ink, paper, the smell. Fine. Whatever. I’m not everyone, but I got into it for the story. And electronic is an easier and cheaper way to deliver the story. On top of which of course as I get older reading the kindle is really the only way to read, because of the higher contrast of letters and background. But that’s something else.)

Then there are blogs. I gave up on newspapers at least twenty years ago.

Meanwhile my husband is only catching up with alternate news now. On the other hand, he is fully into… well… I can’t tell you what because I don’t get it. But whatever the new tech or computer language he’s obsessed with until he figures it out and moves on to the next thing. (It’s not lack of trying to pull me in. I just don’t have a use for the parts of the future he’s interested in.)

When all of you keep screaming “But how can people not be outraged at x” that is all over the blogs, all I can think is how my husband routinely comes to me with some great revelation he just found, which has been on blogs and alternate news media for… six months on average. Because that’s not what he’s interested in and he’s not a political addict. And at that, he’s probably more interested in politics, just from living with me than the average person.

In the same way, I find myself being asked by new writers how to break into trad pub, because — they say — otherwise they’ll never be published, and I hit my head against the wall, because for the last ten years — while most fiction writers make very little money on average — indie writers have out-earned trad pub writers, sometimes substantially.

So, what is all this in the name of?

The disaster in Texas. While the democrats, natch, are screaming about how it’s all the fault of cuts — cuts I tell you! — in various agencies, and the right is screaming back that the cuts haven’t gone into effect (true) and that the warnings went out anyway (also true) they’re both (all) missing the true point.

It doesn’t matter how many flood warnings were sent. What matters is if they were received.

Look, we have a weather radio in the home. I got it three years ago, when I realized that all other forms of warning were iffy.

When I was an exchange student 44 years ago, there was usually a TV on in the house. And periodically it would scream, and we’d know some weather horribad was headed for us. I thought that people were getting warned over nothing (that’s something else. And people have mentioned the cry wolf possibilities, but that’s not the only problem) but we all heard it. Honestly, although back then as now I wasn’t that fond of TV, if I were in my room doing something, I’d be listening to the radio. Now while that’s not true for everyone, chances are that on average people would have heard the warnings however serious those warnings were.

Now, if we’re out of the house and away from the weather radio? Sure we have our phones always with us, and you’d think they were really useful. You’d think, and largely you’d be wrong.

Despite my having location on at various times, (mostly because I need to) in the last couple of months I’ve had warnings for severe weather in… Chicago Illinois and … Denver. Not only do I not live anywhere near those locations, but I haven’t been in one in…. 12? 14 years? And in the other in 2 years. Why did I get those warnings? I don’t know. But almost everyone has had wrong warnings. Which means even if you get the right warnings (and how many of us have location on all the time? Come on.) you might ignore it, because you get wrong ones more often. The chances of ignoring a warning are high.

And then there’s the multiple warnings you get from a weather radio. Or at least I do. I swear if there’s a thunderstorm anywhere in the next five adjacent zipcodes, I get it. And what they expect me to do about it, I don’t know, except perhaps stand in the middle of the street screaming “Stop” which I don’t think would go well.

Anyway, the point is that the vanishing of the mass media and the “everyone does this thing” lifestyle of the past leaves necessary warnings sort of limbo. Sure, some people will get it. But what about the people who are not in whatever form you’re sending the warning out on?

What about people who don’t watch tv/are on a cell phone diet/only watch cable etc. etc. etc?

Your end result will be patchy and weird, because…. things are changing, but the change isn’t a wave. It’s little eddies and advances and retreats.

When I talk about the catastrophic part of rapid technological innovation? This is part of what I’m talking about.

Things are changing weirdly and not all at the same time, and when you need to communicate something to everyone at once it’s almost impossible because people aren’t all living in the same time period, technology and entertainment speaking. Some are at the forefront, some are at the rearguard, and some are in parallel universes.

From now on and for a good while, if not forever, we can’t trust that a vast majority people will be able to hear a broadcast warning. Or that a significant fraction of people will be getting news on the latest events. Or that people will even know a certain technology that’s old hat to us exists.

How do we deal with that?

I don’t know. The way will emerge. It always does. It might involve going really old school with local sirens and people being informed over time that they need to turn on some means of communication or look at their favorite weather site when they hear the ahooooooon outside. Or at least that could be one of the solutions. Undoubtedly there will be others.

But until it does disasters and slip ups will happen. It’s part of the rapid change. And the more rapid the change the more things slip because human expectations and culture lag.

Now multiply this for everything in the culture/society.

The old structures are crumbling. They’re doing so unevenly.

Please, you people out there, in real people land, be aware of where you might be out of step with those around you and where that speeding up or falling back might bite you in the place you sit.

Be aware and mitigate your vulnerabilities. Be patient with those who aren’t in the same cultural/technological place you are.

And build under, build over, build around.

We’re going to need a lot of redundancy.

The future? It’s here. It’s just not evenly distributed!

According To Hoyt Annual Fundraiser

This will be going on until the eighteenth of July.

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser. THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don’t hurt yourself.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too.

If you wish you could donate but can’t, consider buying one of my books (hopefully a bunch coming out starting next month… Yeah, i am better) and if you like it leaving a review. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, consider leaving a review. If you can — and have something you know well — consider sending me a guest post to give me a “free day.” (No guarantees of acceptance, of course.)

I’d like to say I’m doing better and will be better at following through on rewards. But I still have them pending from other years, because the last four years have been a slow upward battle. I am better, but I’m not adding to that backlog. (Though I’ll continue trying to fulfill promises long overdue.)

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)

So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

Every little bit helps, said the old lady– wait…. ahem. … I wouldn’t do that in the ocean!

Seriously, every review, every book buy, every donation: it all helps keeping me doing what I do. So, thank you.

I can’t get my act together for a post today. Mostly because we FINALLY came home last night, and today I seem to be like my cats on catnip. CAN’T stop spinning long enough to think.

Forgive me.

I hate to do this during one of the fundraising days, but meh. Means one less day of fundraising. That only (theoretically) hurts me.

I swear I slept well, but I feel like I could just sleep….

Anyway, post tomorrow.

We all know what Deja Poo is, right? It’s that distressing sense you’ve seen this sh*t before.

In this case the sh*t is Musk’s third party formation.

I was going to write a long post explaining why this was a bad idea, but it turns out my friend Kim Du Toit was there before me.

His post is called “Nope” and you should definitely read the whole thing.

For those not clicking through, I agree with all of it but these are the most relevant parts:

Let me make myself crystal clear on this topic: every single time in the last century and a half that some asshole has tried to create a third political party (e.g. Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose, Ross Perot’s Reform) the net result has been an electoral victory for the Democrats.

And:

Because make no mistake:  if Musk’s little exercise ends with the fucking Democrats taking control of the White House and/or Congress (which is what history tells us will happen), they will reverse everything that Trump has managed to get done:  closing the border, ending the USAID boondoggle and hamstringing the loathsome Dept of Education, to mention just three of the domestic wrongs righted.

What this steaming bunch of Communists will inflict on the world with their pathetic attempts at foreign policy of appeasement of shitholes like Iran and China cannot be imagined.

To which I’ll add, Communism, for the first time in my life, for the first time in my parent’s lives, is on the verge of being exposed and shown for the horror it is. Biden’s bullshit went a long way to making people feel like all these extreme left ideas aren’t cool or important but utter bullshit held together by greed and hate. This is true, btw. That’s what they are.

The problem is that Musk is giving the bullshit one last grasp, a chance to escape destruction. A chance to inflict more death and destruction on the suffering world and perhaps destroy humanity forever.

And the problem is that I know why Musk thinks this is a good idea. It’s the way his brain works. I live with someone who has an engineering brain. Over the years, and because I have had some epic fights with him over this, my husband has come to understand that people problems can’t be solved like engineering problems. Neither iteration of failure till success nor “but this is logical and will now work” function with people.

What Elon is missing is that “If only everyone would just” is an impossible. If you were giving everyone free ice-cream and the solution to some problem were “if only everyone would accept the free ice-cream” there would be wars over people who didn’t want the ice-cream and didn’t even want to take it and give it to someone else.

This becomes exponentially more difficult if your “if only everyone would just” requires anything at all from people, let alone the very real sacrifice and trouble that would come if we — best case scenario — could rearrange all of society into a more rational model right now. I mean I can see the outlines of the change needed and which I think will come over time, and the sheer magnitude of it will rip society apart and cause very real harm if it changes suddenly leaving people with no established pathways and procedures to do things.

I fully expect this to happen, btw, and for sure if Elon’s brain dead party attempt gets a chance. Because if we keep letting the left do their shit things are going to collapse. It’s that simple. Which is why I’ve been pounding the drum of “build under, build over, build around” and even so, even in the best case scenario the carnage real and metaphorical will be terrific.

When it comes to societal change, you can have fast and bloody or slow and painful.

Is the BBB my beau ideal? Oh, my sweet summer child.

I am like a Sans Culotte reincarnated, who now understands that “fast and bloody” swallows the world in blood and brings on a bad case of Napoleon. I WANT to burn it all down and dance on the ashes. I want Trump to sign an EO that says “From now on the Constitution of the United States of America is fully applied, and any part of the government not authorized by the Constitution is abolished; any precedent that contradicts our funding documents is burned and abolished. I will forego, just this once, scourging everyone who has inflicted and continues to inflict these non-Constitutional abominations on the people of the US, through the mall and out of town while screaming “Begone.” If they shut up and go away in a timely manner that is. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

But I also know that’s just another route to fast and bloody, after which the people will cry out for someone who brings peace and victory. And France still hasn’t recovered from its bout of that particular case of butt monkeys. So, no. Just no.

Look, I don’t think that Elon is going to attract anyone but the extremely young and the extremely autistic. So the usual 2% of the population who are so far gone they don’t get that never in the history of ever has “everyone just.”

And then maybe he’ll wake up.

But we live in strange times. And evil is afoot and dragging its tail through our educational institutions. These are dangerous times and the possibility that he will give the commies yet another chance at power is horrifying.

Look, how dumb is Elon being? So dumb he doesn’t seem to realize that with de-naturalization again on the agenda, if the left gets power he’s in deep trouble. Oh, I am too. Because de-naturalization for crimes becomes a problem when his having helped Trump in 2024, or his allowing free speech is considered a crime by the left. And me? Well, my very existence is a crime. I’m a female of Latin ancestry whose favored stance is standing with middle fingers held aloft at the left and all its ideas, all its glamour, all its works and corrupt temptations.

Musk, buddy, I get your point. Or rather, I get how your thought pattern breaks. But in the name of all that’s holy, stop this shit. If you continue you’ll manage to make yourself as hated on the right as you’re on the left. (And no, even helping the left win won’t save you. Those bastards never forgive. Marxism is a bitch. It doesn’t include the concept of redemption.) And that will put a serious damper on your getting us to Mars.

What’s worse, what you’re doing is flopping around on the floor, screaming and kicking because you can’t have ice cream RIGHT NOW instead of in two hours.

I raised toddlers of a direct and engineering mind before. What you need is to wash your face in cold water and take a deep breath.

As someone put it this morning, America already has a third party. It’s MAGA. It’s moving through the GOP, gutting and replacing as it goes. It’s moving as fast as the people allow it to. You’d have the same people, the same hold overs, the same institutions. Everyone isn’t going to just–

Let MAGA MAGA.

If your break with it is so profound that you must DO something, then go and do to the democrats what Trump did to the GOP. Take them over, gut them, and send the communists into outer darkness. (Scourges optional.) That is good and productive. it still won’t get you “if only everyone” but it might get me to my pipe dream where the two main parties are GOP and Libertarians, and I can support now one, now the other and they can keep each other in check.

On the serious side, Elon, I suspect you’re sleeping with something that’s bad for you. I don’t know for sure, because I don’t keep up with these things, and the only “who is sleeping with whom” reports I care about come from my characters (and only because it affects the plot.)

But I’ve seen this before. Men have a tendency to be highly influentiable when it comes to pillow talk. Not only have I seen it in friends, neighbors and relatives, but history is full of examples.

I don’t know if you are what you eat (way TMI) but men tend to believe what they f*ck.

Given who you are, the power you have, and how much the left hates you and fears you, I beg you to consider whether that sweet p*ssy you found and who can screw you into figure eights might be a honeypot.

Screw her or not. It’s your choice. But stop taking your cues from “this feels really good.”

This dumb idea of yours not only holds the potential to be disastrous for you (and less importantly but more personally me) but it can send the world into the darkness of left dominance for another 20 or 30 years.

Which given the birth rates (or lack thereof) and various other trends might very well do for civilization if not for humanity.

I think mostly Elon is going to get really disappointed and then decide he needs to be king or emperor or something. Which…. The net is full of Dark Enlightenment nutters convinced if only they could rule, then everyone would just. (Do I need to explain why this is bullshit or what it leads to.)

But on the outer rim of possibility this will actually make it into ballots and allow the left to win, we can’t afford it.

If any of you have his ear scream really good into it, for me. If needed, I’ll lend you the chancla to hit him twice upside the head.

This is like watching your buddy walk drunk towards the abyss. If he had the power to pull everyone with him down into the pit and the dark.

No. Just no. As the irrepressible Mr. Du Toit says “Nope”. Just nope.

I’ve seen this shit before. I’m getting tired of the smell.

Let’s just let communism bury itself and move on. Then we can fight on the details.

Now…. ahem….

According To Hoyt Annual Fundraiser

This will be going on for the next two weeks.

This is the reason for doing a fundraiser. THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don’t hurt yourself.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too.

If you wish you could donate but can’t, consider buying one of my books (hopefully a bunch coming out starting next month… Yeah, i am better) and if you like it leaving a review. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, consider leaving a review. If you can — and have something you know well — consider sending me a guest post to give me a “free day.” (No guarantees of acceptance, of course.)

I’d like to say I’m doing better and will be better at following through on rewards. But I still have them pending from other years, because the last four years have been a slow upward battle. I am better, but I’m not adding to that backlog. (Though I’ll continue trying to fulfill promises long overdue.)

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)

So, here’s the paypal link.

While on that, yes, the address in Las Vegas is still available:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

(Note this is a drop box. Please don’t send perishables that will be damaged by heat. If you want to send something out of the ordinary, contact me first. I’ll figure out antoher place to send it where things won’t be damaged and I can retrieve it. And it might be best to catch me at a con. (Younger DIL says I have do do more cons. Sigh.)

Please, please, please do not send Indy a multi-tool. I realize this is probably futile pleading, but he’s enough trouble as it is. No, seriously. If you want me to have time to write, don’t send Indy a multitool.

And that’s it for now. A heartfelt thank you to anyone who contributes, thinks about contributing or (“merely”) leaves a nice review on one of my books.

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 JOHN DAVID MARTIN: The Lost Sword and Other Stories

Jared Thorne: A para-human detective and his dryad wife hunting for a legendary lost sword in a multi-dimensional city.

Eysteinn Bjarnarson: A descendant of the viking who settled North America fighting to win the love of the town beauty. His only opposition? A monster of Indigenous Canadian legend and…her father.

Captain Faust of the North American Marine Corps: A descendant of one Dr. Johannes Faust who learns some deals are heriditary. But can they be re-written?

Milo “Wolfkiller” Patel: A teenage bullrider on an alien world facing the challenge of his young career.

Pawel and Tamar: Newlywed asteroid miners whose wedding cruise from the trans-Martian orbit out to the belt turns deadly.

These are the characters whose stories I have faithfully recorded for you here.

FROM J. MANFRED WEICHSEL: Planet of the Wage Slaves

Richard would rather be in his special place than have to get a job, until he’s transported against his will to an office planet where the only way to escape from work is death! With the help of a rebel coworker named Destiny, and a newfound power, Richard must navigate an impossible maze of particle board cubicles and endless spreadsheets in order to take on the oppressive whip-wielding boss and save her people.

Planet of the Wage Slaves is a hilarious, satirical take on the modern work environment that will have you laughing and cringing at the same time. It’s the perfect read for anyone who’s ever felt trapped in a soul-sucking job, or who just wants a good dose of surreal sci-fi comedy. So put down that TPS report, grab a copy of Planet of the Wage Slaves, and join Richard on his absurd journey through the cubicle jungle!

FROM JOHN BAILEY: The Phantom Atlas: A Chronicle of Coincidence and Courage

Embark on a thrilling odyssey with Ned Hawthorne and Theo Caldwell, two Yale men spared by a twist of fate from the Titanic’s doomed voyage in 1912. Driven by a hunger for adventure and a knack for unraveling mysteries, they chase whispers of ghosts and curses across a world teetering on the brink of war—from Scotland’s haunted cairns to Siberia’s demon-plagued rails. With charm-laced bracelets and a battered notebook, Ned’s quarterback bravado and Theo’s skeptical logic unmask smugglers, thieves, and spies hiding behind legends. As the Great War looms in 1917, their journey lands them in Washington, D.C., decoding ciphers that could alter history. The Phantom Atlas weaves heart-pounding action, rich historical detail, and the enduring quest for truth in a tapestry of courage that will grip fans of adventure and mystery. Join Ned and Theo to uncover the shadows that haunt the world’s edges—before those shadows strike back.

FROM BRIAN HEMING: Illustrated CONAN Adventures: Black Colossus

This illustrated version of Black Colossus contains:

• Original title page and cover art from Weird Tales June 1933. (warning: contains mild nudity)
• Over 70 all-new full color illustrations. (warning: contains mild nudity based on the original text)
• Text and formatting based on the original publication of this story in Weird Tales June 1933.

Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, is called upon by the beautiful princess Yasmela to lead the armies of Khoraja. But what dark magic lies behind the enemy desert hordes and their mysterious masked sorcerer, Natohk?

Neural networks were heavily leveraged to create the breadth of illustrations in this story, capturing the epic detail, dark magic, and heroic deeds of Conan’s world.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: The Lion and the Lizard (Timelines Book 2)

Thirty years ago, Dr. Ariela Rivers Wolff, M.D., Ph.D., AKA The Lion of God, had a pretty exhausting week.

Her world was invaded by time-traveling soldiers, she was nearly turned into human toothpaste by an experimental dimension jumper when she went to find her parallel “Dad,” who just happens to be able to borrow a Space Force fleet to come and take out her world’s invaders . . . and then she found out she was considered by those same invaders to be a saint in their odd religion, and one of the targets of their invasion. If that wasn’t enough, she nearly fell completely out of the universe into a time rift, being saved only by the skin of her teeth by her parallel “Dad”.

After all that, learning she was going to be the one to bring universal healing and long life to the human race in her particular timeline was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

Anybody else would go home, turn off their phone, pull all the blinds, lock all the doors, and take the rest of their life off. But Ari isn’t “anybody else”. And her cult of admirers across two timelines won’t take “nobody home” for an answer.

Fast-forward thirty years. Scientists have detected radio transmissions in an unknown language from several hundred light years away. And now she’s been asked to use her special “saintly” skills as demonstrated on her last “mission” to make first contact with whoever they are.

And that’s only the beginning.

Looks like Ambassador Dr. Ariela Rivers Wolff, M.D., Ph.D., is going to have another pretty exhausting week. Or six.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Bite Sized (Liquid Diet Chronicles Book 1)

Meg Turner has been a vampire for twenty years. Her favorite food is rapists. Which is how she met Andi Donahue, her new best friend/ girl Friday.

And then the nightmares start. And the bodies start showing up–bled out and raped. Just like Meg was. They don’t have a whole lot of time to stop the killer before he strikes again, and only one way to stop the killer.

But how can Andi help Meg stop a killer she can’t even see?

FROM KAREN MYERS: To Carry the Horn – A Virginian in Elfland (The Hounds of Annwn Book 1)

AN ENTIRE KINGDOM BUILT AROUND A SUPERNATURAL NEED FOR JUSTICE, ENFORCED BY THE WILD HUNT AND THE HOUNDS OF HELL.

What would you do if you blundered into a strange world, where all around you was the familiar landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, but the inhabitants were the long-lived fae, and you the only human?

George Talbot Traherne stumbles across the murdered huntsman of the Wild Hunt, and is drafted into finding out who did it. Oh, and assigned the task of taking the huntsman’s place with the Hounds of Hell, whether he wants the job or not.

The antlered god Cernunnos is the sponsor of this kingdom, and he requires its king to conduct the annual hunt for justice in pursuit of an evil criminal, or else lose his right to the kingship, and possibly end up hunted himself.

Success is far from guaranteed, and no human has held the post. George discovers his own blood links to the fae king, and he’s determined to try. But Cernunnos himself has a personal role to play, and George will have to sort out just why he’s the one who’s been chosen for the task.

And whether he has any chance of surviving the job.

Find out what it’s like to live in a world where you can help the Right to prevail, even if it might cost you everything.

To Carry the Horn is the first book of The Hounds of Annwn.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Rockin’ the USA

It’s not easy being married to the leader of the band, even in the best of times. When everything becomes political, you’ve got a nightmare on your hands.

Laurel had her doubts when her husband signed on to headline Governor Thorne’s Independence Day concert in Candlestick Park. Now that the band’s committed to the appearance, the Flannigan Administration has decided to shut the show down, with prejudice.

Laurel knows she has to fight this attempt to stop the signal. But doing so may put her in more danger than she could ever have anticipated, and risk those she loves.

A story of the Grissom timeline, originally published in Liberty Island Magazine.

This edition also includes a bonus essay on the era of dictatorship in Grissom-timeline America.

FROM MARY CATELLI: The Princess Goes Into The Forest

Act with care. . . .

In the home of a wealthy but vanished family, four young people, inventorying the household, find the props for the family’s amateur theaterics. But a few minutes of donning them to play at roles has consequences that none of them could have guessed. One plays a subtle courtier, one a brave swordsman, one a powerful enchantress. . . and one takes up the role of a princess, and goes into a forest.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Lights Out and Cry (The Shifter Series Book 5)

It is New Year’s Day in Goldport Colorado, the most shifter-infested town in the known universe.
At the George — the diner where shifters gather — Kyrie is about to give birth, Tom is getting psychic messages from the Great Sky Dragon and Rafiel is looking for information on why the mayor exploded.
Fasten your seat belts. This is going to be a fast ride into adventure and shape-shifting, after which things will never be the same.

AND THERE IS A KICKSTARTER: Ken Lizzi’s Cesar the Bravo Live on Kickstarter

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: PREFER

BLOG FUNDRAISER 2025

Yes, I know it’s a nuisance. And I’m not going to claim that if I don’t get enough money I’ll shutter the blog or any such foolishness.

I’m just going to say every blogger to the right of Lenin has paid the price in career, in wealth, in prospects. And that keeping us poor and meek is a great way to serve as a warning to others who would speak out. If you want to nullify the “warning,” consider donating.

If you read this blog a few times a week and feel like donating, I’m tremendously grateful.

If you read this blog and don’t feel like donating, that’s fine too.

If you wish you could donate but can’t, consider buying one of my books (hopefully a bunch coming out starting next month… Yeah, I am better) and if you like it leaving a review. If you’ve read my books and enjoyed them, consider leaving a review. If you can — and have something you know well — consider sending me a guest post to give me a “free day.” (No guarantees of acceptance, of course.)

I’d like to say I’m doing better and will be better at following through on rewards. But I still have them pending from other years, because the last four years have been a slow upward battle. I am better, but I’m not adding to that backlog. (Though I’ll continue trying to fulfill promises long overdue.)

For this year, I’ll (merely) give you ways to donate.

The Give Send Go is still active. Lately I’ve gotten more disenchanted with them, though. Not only have they hosted fundraisers for the kid who stabbed the track star through the heart, but there was some appearance of encouraging racialist bs. True or not? Don’t know. Haven’t looked that closely. Still, that and the fact they calculate how much of the raised money you actually get in some weird way makes them less than shiny.

So, what else is there? Well, there is paypal. Yes, I removed the button from the side (though I’ll return it) because they were threatening to fine people for badthink. Whether that was entirely organic or part of the Autopen administration it’s open to debate. They were being very enthusiastic about forcing everything from social media to everything else including debanking. At any rate, I think it is safe to use a paypal link for the next four years. Give or take. (Look none of these services are pure. We use what we can and seems safe at the time.)
So, here’s the paypal link.

I’m very grateful to all who contributed and all who might contribute.
And please, please, please, don’t send Indy-cat a multitool. He already broke into my bedroom yesterday, past the locked gate and closed door. Because he has hand paws that are scarily agile.

Also, stop wishing more Indies on me. Now there’s a skinny orange boy catching and eating birds in my driveway….

I’m trying to do it from the car, and it’s just slow enough on tethering that it’s not giving me the links ….

Like unexploded angry incense from the 4th, these memes had to be used up on the fifth.

There might be an extraordinary meme post on Monday, for the other stuff.

In the meantime, while you’re here…. I stayed up blowing up stuff and singing the Star Spangled Banner (if you heard me, you know exactly who and where I was. Dear Lord do I sing badly. Even the DIL’s beautiful voice couldn’t cover it up. Badly but with much feeling, note.) till very late, and woke up two hours ago.

Which time other than the necessities like feeding the cats has been spent here, gathering the memes and uploading them a process that WP makes a pain.

This is my “light” post. I try to do it at night on Friday while husband watches TV, but sometimes — blowing up stuff — this fails, and then I spend the morning on Saturday looking for/organizing/uploading memes.

Because Saturday is also our errands day, I’ve uploaded memes as a passenger in a car. Sitting outside in the car while husband goes see if the store as xyz. In between stores. After shopping/putting away. While my family is having breakfast. Etc. etc. etc.

But the memes get done anyway, and I know they make a lot of people happy. Which is why I do them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m running my annual fundraiser. If you need a full explanation of why, go here.

This is not an emergency. Don’t hurt yourself.

These are the main ways to donate:

Give Send Go

Paypal.

Note on the side of the blog, you can see a way to contribute by signing up for my substacks. Yes, there will be — by and by the first probably this weekend/early next week — earcs with a little advance of what’s coming, as well as serialization though I’ve found that difficult on substack (It doesn’t keep/you can’t link back posts. I’m going to try a subscription system HERE later. Might work better for serializing) which is why I have trouble keeping up with it. BUT it is a way to sign up and get something in return. (And yes, if you paid for the last year I’m going to give you this year for free. Haven’t yet, because I got sick again — yes, better now — and because I’m SO tech declined it’s not even funny.)

You can also buy the books and leave reviews. (And yes, there will be a way to buy earcs and EVENTUALLY a way to buy the books directly from me. That could take a couple of months, see technologically DEclined.

Thank you to everyone who contributes to the comments and to make this place a wonderful community. I couldn’t do it without you.

And thank you to everyone who donates.