Most human beings run their lives to patterns and habits.
Which means most of society runs on habit too. Which is good, since then we know what to count on, and as we often say, humans mostly want tomorrow to be more or less what it is today.
Unless situation is well nigh unbearable, a large portion of the population will just want things to go on as they are right now. Or not too different.
The tragedy — and glory — of humans is that we dream of really big things, but in the end we settle for, to quote Terry Pratchett “An egg sandwich and hope it’s well done.”
The people who achieve big things are honestly a bit broken. Yeah, much is made in biographies and movies about how the great are really more unhappy than us, etc. That’s not always true. Might never be true. To be great, to achieve something, people need to get their fractures if not mended (most often mended is not possible) under control. Yeah, weirdness remains, sure, but whether they collect peach pits, or dye their cats pink, the high achievers are most often functional and even happy people. Perhaps not happy in terms that would work for you (but would anyone else’s happiness work for you?) but happy enough.
Being broken, whether through some horrible incident in childhood, as Freud would have us believe, or because their brain is quirky, is the reason they run a little faster, work a little harder, or persist beyond human limits. Or, of course, the reason they find the present unendurable and want a different future.
Even those people, though — I know a few — run on habits. Usually in fact, being more broken than average (we’re all somewhat broken, you know? I mean, no, it’s not just you) they need tighter and more exact habits than other people. It’s not quite wrong when the movies and books portray people who are driven, motivated and smart as running on very tight internal schedules. Partly because when you’re trying the unknown, you need the known.
Through some of the most difficult (though not always bad) times in my life, my routines ran like clockwork. Up at the same time, same thing for breakfast, go for walk, come back work till x time. Have lunch. Work till Y time. Tic Tic Tic.
Doing it that way freed my brains and emotions for the serious stuff, and left the day to run on wheels, no matter what wheels were coming off from my publishing, or whatever.
And then the bow breaks.
For me it was gradual, because it was a slow progression of an insidious illness (two actually) which attacks brain power.
I first noticed the habits coming unglued, then stopped being able to write much of anything longer than a blog post.
When you take in account that I can and have written a novel in two days, suddenly finding 4k words an immense weight to lift was an issue.
You can kind of see the worst of it if you go over my posts in 2014 and 2015. I do notice it when I’m looking for things to echo.
Sure my posts are always typo fests. Partly because they’re written around the “real” work day and either when I’m exhausted, or when I am still half asleep, depending.
But typo fests are one thing, and actual issues bringing the point home are another. Sometimes in the middle I just spin in circles. And sometimes I don’t know how you guys put up with it those years.
It’s been getting better since. It’s not…. Okay yet. Treatment for an illness started in 16 and in another finally clicked (though I was semi-treated) in 18.
I am told severe brain injury, which by that time I had, takes 7 years (at least. Sometimes more. In some ways younger son is NOW recovering from the issues he has had since 4 when he got major brain trauma. (Dancing. In socks. On the edge of the tub. No I don’t know why. Yes, I literally turned my head for a minute.) No idea why it took that long, and I doubt anyone else knows.)
So I am better. Not quite back to the state quasi-ante. (And the cursed book is a separate consideration.)
But what I realize, as I heal, is both what a mess it got to, and how much I relied on habits that got nuked from orbit. Like you know, get up at same time, have x for breakfast, sit down to work till y.
In all that the lockdown hasn’t helped.
Which brings us to the bigger point. (Because I’ve whined about my personal issues with establishing and re-learning habits.)
All of society’s habits got nuked. Some of them very long standing for many, many people. And expectations are all up in the air.
Honestly, beyond the fact — yes, fact, deal. we have proof in states and countries that never locked down — that it did nothing for the pandemic which was not that scary after all, the grandiose scheme of the would be elites to lock down all of society to prevent people from catching a virus, did damage at a level most people aren’t tuned to.
It nuked societal expectations at a very fundamental level. You know, stuff like “if I go into a store they will sell me stuff.” Or “If I run a restaurant, the government won’t shut me down unless I have serious issues with hygiene or I’m cooking the neighbor’s pets.” Or “I won’t be told I have to wear a mask of less than dubious medical value when it causes known issues with a condition I have.” Or “if I have the money, I’ll be able to fly where I want to.” Or….
Lots of things getting nuked, all at the same time.
This is the equivalent of taking a complex machine, and starting to remove pieces at random.
We don’t know what comes next. None of us knows what comes next. The scariness of 2020 is that it shouldn’t have happened. Logically it shouldn’t have happened. There is no sense in it. It should have been impossible. But it did. We lived through it. And we won’t soon forget.
Sure, some of the things coming out of it are good. I mean, people are starting to be as defiant of senseless orders as I am at my baseline. And the technology that allows us to work from home is finally being used, as the tyranny of “but we’ve always done it that way” comes to play.
However in individual lives as in society at large, when you break the habits you break the moorings, the things you can rely on.
And suddenly everything is adrift.
Talking to Bill Reader, who is contemplating a move of his own, yesterday, I defended the position that the housing “bubble” isn’t a bubble but an actual equalization of prices around the country. (And yes, eventually salaries will equalize too, but that’s slower.) At least for the people who suddenly can live anywhere they want to. (Look, the bubble was caused by mortgages being suddenly easier. This is not the case now, okay? Now it’s people moving around in ways they haven’t since the dustbowl years. Americans are engaged in great migrations. Some of them as erratic as a spider on acid. (And yes, I’m about to join that movement, which means for the next two months the blog will be erratic-ish on posting times, though I’ll try to stay on track.)
Where will that lead? I don’t know. No, it’s not just californication of innocent states (though likely it is for my current one, honest.) A lot of the people moving are not those who voted for the problems. And people moving are definitely in a substrata of maybe 20% (maybe as many as 30% if you extend some things) of the population. Unfortunately (?) they’re also usually the higher earning people, which means when they move a lot of jobs to service them — from restaurants to shops to quaint little ice cream parlors — are going to either shut or move. And how to move to a place with enough population density to pay is something else. As is what happens to the cities.
And all of this is happening while people who think the future has been revealed to them by the deranged prognostications of Karl Marx, who was out of date by the time he published, have seized control of our institutions and are trying to force us to fit the pattern in their heads.
It won’t work. And honestly total disrespect for the institutions and the “elite” commands are the best outcome of this. Not as good as we’d like it to be, because hell, society needs parameters and people it can trust. No, not as far as these bullshiters have been trusted, but minimally. And I don’t know if we’re left with even minimally when this is done.
So–
So, nothing. We don’t know. Society was hit with a hammer and the fragments will assemble in some way. If we’re lucky it won’t be into a machine that does nothing but produce ducks and cuckoo clocks while starving.
Most people want tomorrow to be more or less like today. And to have stability and certainty, and count on habits: theirs and others.
But that is not what we have. What we have is heading full speed ahead into the unknown, while the ship is captained by people who think they know what they’re doing, and aren’t even aware of the vast unknowns.
This is going to be fun. For values of fun.
Fortunately we can deal with it — right? — because when things get odd, the Odds turn pro.
Hold on to the sides of the boat.
Build under, build over, build around, because the structure is groaning and we have hurricane incoming.
Book Promo And Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike
Book Promo
*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog. Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so. As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste. 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. ;)*
*Sorry this is bizarrely late. The very fast house shopping trip was fine while doing, but today I don’t want to. What don’t I want to? Well….. anything. I just don’t want to. So, everything is slow, weird, and then slower and weirder. I’ll be honest with you, Havey-cat waking me up at 5 am because he NEEDED pets did NOT help. So thank you for your patience and away we go!- SAH*
Dulcie and Fischer, starry eyed young lovers, jumped at the opportunity to become crew on one of Merchant Shipline’s fleet of starships. To a couple of kids from the sticks “all expenses paid” training was too good to pass up.
An Unexpected Detour Einarr and his companions have made it out of the Tower of Ravens intact, but on their way out they touched something they shouldn’t have. Now they’re becalmed in an unfamiliar sea. While fish are plentiful, water is becoming an issue. When a storm blows up, Einarr decides to take a chance and ride the squall. Their little fishing boat takes them to unknown shores and wrecks on the beach. Now they have to contend with a rag-tag group of souls doomed to oblivion – all trapped, as they are, on the Isle of the Forgotten. Can they break free of the cursed isle’s clutches in time, or will they return to find the crew of the Vidofnir has succumbed to their own curse?
An explosion is only the beginning of her problems…
Morgan is finally back to work, having returned from her disastrous attempt at a vacation just in time to watch an accident cause a massive explosion on one of the other freighters.
With the damaged ship out of commission it is up to the crew of STEVE – Morgan included – to frantically get the cargo transferred and depart more than a month ahead of schedule. But what Morgan doesn’t know is that the assassination attempts were only the beginning.
Missed maintenance isn’t the only, or worst, danger lurking out in the black.
Eric Friedrich was supervising the last ice harvesting shift for his ship’s shot-up environmental systems when they detected an anomalous ice comet drifting by. Investigating the icy tomb, Eric finds a ship that couldn’t exist–a relic from a nation the Protectorate killed billions to erase from history… And will kill even more to keep secret.
When his world explodes, Eric must make allies in the unlikeliest places, and seize even the slimmest chance of survival while unraveling a conspiracy that shattered planets and set off interstellar war!
FROM CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER VIA D. JASON FLEMING: Riddle Gawne.
Jefferson Gawne has a low opinion of people, and an even lower one of women. After his brother was murdered by Watt Hyat, in complicity with his brother’s wife, Gawne followed Hyat’s trail across the west.
But the trail went cold, and Gawne, nicknamed Riddle behind his back, found himself the guardian of an orphaned girl, and the only man in the territory who dared stand up to Hame Bozzam, founder of the dirty and lawless Bozzam City. Bozzam was too smart to challenge Gawne directly, and Gawne was too honorable to act against Bozzam without cause.
So an uneasy truce has held between the two men. A truce that is about to be broken, with the arrival of the beautiful Miss Kathleen Harkless. Every man wants her, and the men of Bozzam City don’t particularly care if she wants any of them, or not.
This iktaPOP Media edition of Riddle Gawne has an afterword by indie author and editor D. Jason Fleming, in which he talks about its place in the western genre, as well as its impact on film history.
Moire Cameron ran to protect her secrets — ran to the heart of an interstellar alien war. Her fellow mercenaries care only about her fighting skills, not where — or when — she got them. You’d think that would be good enough…
But a false name and fake ID can’t conceal her dangerous lack of contemporary knowledge, and they won’t help fulfill her last order, given by a dying man eighty years ago. To do that she must find a reason to live again. A cause worth fighting for, comrades to trust, and a ship to sail the stars.
A tale of adventure, survival, and loyalty in the tradition of Firefly and Louis McMaster Bujold.
Ice is back, and back in trouble! Fired from the Directorate, he’s working three part time jobs, and tripping over problems that a Warrior of the One can’t ignore. Spies from other Worlds and corrupt politicians is just the start
And with no one ordering him around, he’s free to deal with problems his way.
Colonial Plantation LTD. abandoned ColPlat XI, writing the planet off as a tax loss after a series of severe Carrington-type events. Now, four hundred years later, Laurence V of Frankonia wants to write Elizabeth von Sarmas out of his kingdom, but like her Lander ancestors, Elizabeth refuses to roll over and die.
To survive, she needs to cross the continent, thread her way through a holy war, and find friends in the Eastern Empire—an impossible task for a sheltered gentlewoman. Or is it? Never underestimate a woman with a mission and a mule.
This collection is from ten different Texas authors. There was no ‘world’ or set up for the stories. It was up to the individual authors to write their stories, so you get a wide variety! Vampires, dragons, werewolves, enchanted swords, runaways, SciFi, and cowboys… Stories for everyone in this collection of Texas authors!
Zara hasn’t seen her family in eleven years, but she doesn’t mind. They sent her to live in a neighboring kingdom when she was small, and she’s adopted her foster parents in their place. She lives the life of an aristocratic Garian girl- riding her horse, shooting her bow, exploring the castle with her friends- and she has nothing to wish for.
Until she’s summoned home, to a prospective marriage she doesn’t want, family she doesn’t remember, and a poisonous royal court that threatens everything she’s ever known. The East Morlans are nothing like Garia, and Zara struggles to find her place among the scheming Morlander aristocrats. Along the way, she makes new friends, meets enemies, and falls in love. But secrets abound in the glittering palace, and Zara must discover who she can trust as she fights for her life and freedom in a fragile, beautiful, kingdom of glass.
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.
House under contract. Now doing inspections from hundreds of miles away. We might go down for the major inspection. We’ll see how things line up. Not where I’d MEANT to go. About 100 miles away. So, within the range of my malfunctioning sense.
There’s a couple of iffy points that could cause us to run yet. Don’t know.
If we don’t run….. OMG so much to do before we close, so this house can go up shortly after. Because I don’t want to get stuck out of a chair when the music stops. Also, tight as hell till this one sells.
But all you can do is all you can do. Thank heavens I have younger son’s help with the painting, flooring, boxing and carrying, for now. I’d never survive by my ability alone….
Anyway, just wanted to let you know I’m back and safe, despite our rental car having California license plates. Some dirty looks, sure. And someone recommending we buy in THE most liberal city in the state. But other than that….
So, y’all take care. I’m taking the rest of the day off. Well, other than laundry and some writing.
Tomorrow starts the packing, cleaning, etc. Just in case we do close when predicted.
Sometimes advancements happen by determination. The obvious, mid-latter 20th example is “Let’s get someone to the Moon.” But quite often advancements happen by what is called serendipity. As Asimov put it, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny…”
This was prompted by a question on Twitter, which is a very simple question that likely has no One True Answer. “What is the Greatest Invention of All Time?” There are many candidates. Language would be quite basic – but was it truly invention or discovery? Written language certainly followed, eventually, and needed some considerable polishing – and cross-referencing for preservation. Anyone arguing against that claim is invited to “merely” translate some Linear A. }:o)
One possibility is ‘sewers’ – something most First-Worlders don’t think about much as they do not need to. They’re just there, doing the job. Nice and boring. And that is certainly one of the big wins of them. Nobody enjoys it when Something Happens and a sewer demands attention, even if it’s only a bonding bill for maintenance before Something Really Bad happens. How to scare anyone who deals with sewers, just say “Orangeburg” – and step well back.
Sewers? The Brit’s got at least some teasing in ‘pop culture’ at least once upon a time about considering that civilization was indicated by “proper drains.” Yet, that is if not right on the mark, certainly not far off. Properly designed and built (and managed!) sewers beget “proper drains.” Proper drains beget at least the start of hygiene and cleanliness (once you have sewers, THEN you can have piped-in water, else where would it all *go*?). Hygiene and cleanliness begets health. Health begets better survival. Better survival begets… and therefore begets more brains. More brains, more brainpower. And with less fighting off diseases, more time and energy for those brains to work with.
And, yes, invention will beget leisure time and most, perhaps almost all, will be ‘wasted’. The early Industrial Revolution saw an explosion of gin-sellers in Britain. The Brits might well have lost a generation to gin and not knowing how to cope with time in the big city. Similarly, it has been argued that the post-WWII USA had such a fairly easy time of things that TV became the “electric hearth” or the boob tube became something of a tranquilizing drug for many. The information revolution (started by Gutenberg’s press, accelerated by the cross-index, and then… well, Facebook, Twitter, and various things might be considered “time sinks.”) BUT… so what? There are also things like wikis, which, when done right (rarely, like most things) add to knowledge, or at least increase access to knowledge.
Yes, a there is a vast, previously perhaps even unimaginable amount of computing power… devoted to games. Yet research projects do advance some by using the spare cycles (Folding@Home is just one). And a few decades back many were derided for wasting time with childish (or worse!) comic books or crazy science fiction stories. The ones that got some thinking about getting into space, getting to the Moon, and going farther. Will some screwball event happen that will mean some great advancement happens… because Billy (or Billie) played some video game? It would more surprising it that FAILED to happen. Will the world be saved because someone once played Grand Theft Auto? It seems doubtful in the extreme, but Reality is a mighty weird place.
New ideas are sort of mutant thoughts. Most mutations might do nothing or seem to do nothing. Many will go nowhere. And a few will take off. And the gotchya of it is that until the very last bits are ready to fall into place, nobody knows which is which. In the 1960’s going to the Moon had become or was ready to become an Engineering Problem. In 1962, it might have been just barely an Engineering Problem and a right b*tch of one at that, but it was no longer pure fantasy. No magic was needed. A HELLUVALOTTA effort from more than a few Truly Stubborn Cusses, but no magic. In 1862? Utter fantasy was what that dream was, and magic seemed a requirement.
But as Leslie Fish put it, “What makes one step a ‘Giant leap’ is all the steps before.” Today, Elon Musk is taking steps, but his steps benefit from how many chemists (and alchemists, going back), how many astronomers, how many mathematicians who worked on “useless” problems that turned out useful later? And Elon is doing stuff we can see. He’s connecting dots. Difficult dots, with expensive connections, but still, we can see them or most of them.
It’s the unseen dots and unrealized connections that will RE-make the future. One day Billie (or Billy) might have that “Aha!” moment, or at least start wondering why ‘Approach A’ is always shown, but ‘Approach B’ (or G… or N, or even V..) might be better/faster/easier/cheaper.. or even allow something not yet even imagined. And millions might have all the same experiences and not question or even notice a thing. But if enough brainpower, enough mindpower, enough point of view variation, is allowed to ‘waste’ time… that one ‘oddball’ mind that thinks just a tiny bit askew from Standard… is thereby given the opportunity to trip over that one particular hook indicating one of Nature’s “Easter eggs”, that might have been “just lying around” for Ages. Or maybe it was only coded last Thursday. Who knows? We know won’t know until well after it happens.
The ultimate uptime requires at least some downtime. And we should all be down with that.
Don’t burn anything down. If you get trolls please don’t bat them underneath the fridge when you’re done. That fridge is really heavy, and if we don’t get the troll out in time it will stink up the whole blog.
One of the advantages of the collectivists is that they organize like nobody’s business, while we liberty minded…. Well — pats heads all around — well, you guys are adorable, but the individualists failed to organize, okay.
Now,while many of you translate this to a paramilitary clash and panic, don’t. most of their supporters aren’t nor will they commit violence, unless the can do it when no one is looking, sneakily, and against someone old, disabled, frail or very young.
Most of their supporters are in fact the “go alongs to get along” who just want to be “nice people” by siding with lunatics who want to put a boot on their necks. Oh, they also want to be smart because their college professors told them every “very smart” person believes in Marxism. This is why at the back of their brains every single one of the infantile “activists” thinks he or she will be in charge and not one of the lumpenpoletariat. No, they have never looked at actual communist countries, and if they did, as their panic at the xi-flu proved, they don’t get statistics or numbers at all.
So, yeah, the people they are using and weaponized– and paid — psychopaths, whom they bus from city to city. They’re armed and well organized partly because they do this all time and are given weapons and training. They’re very fearsome FOR ONE CITY AT A TIME.
In other words they are a potemkin army, raging across the country to intimidate the citizens. Which is why they have to punish Kyle Rittenhouse, because he pierced the paper silhouette. And why blue states refuse to arrest the rioters. They have very few of them. They’re the precious.
It does work on corporations and — apparently — Supreme Court Judges who, being in a highly social profession just buy what the news tell them and don’t investigate anything for themselves.
Look, I don’t think this bullshit will hold. And it’s part of the reason I think we’re going to have a brief, intense, localized clash.
This is not the seventies. They really had a majority of the indoctrinated youth then, and the youth then were a majority. With the attendant side effect that the youth then hadn’t been raised as little emperors, because they were the all-too-precious single offspring.
Those were the real Marxist riots. This is the Memorex. And like Chinese troops clashing with Indian troops, their rank and file are more likely to cry for their mommies, if they meet real opposition.
They have the psychos they train and bus around and which have a rap sheet long as their arm, and then they have the daft survivals of the sixties, at protests with their oxygen bottles and walkers.
And they have the get alongs. Who are useless in battle, but quite good at coordinated action on other fronts.
Listen to me on this if on nothing else: do not adopt their style sheet.
Because pixabay gave me images ranging from wallpaper to sheet music for style sheet, I assume that this is not a widely disseminated term.
So, a style sheet is used by publishing houses, to determine, say, how things should be punctuated. For instance, Baen uses more punctuation than other houses, who are on a war with commas even when they’re needed. Whether you hyphenate certain phrases or sentences is also a style sheet. It is, in other other words how they keep things uniform across all their books.
For writers, it usually goes by series. Each series will have a style sheet that determines which words you use for what. So, for instance, Athena is Thena, not Ena. And dimatough is one word.
The left is really good at style sheets and the right, unconsciously, adopts it. Which, I hate to tell you, is a bit problem.
Take for instance how even right wing sites are referring to the 6th of January as riots. There were no riots. Yes, there were some broken windows, but that seems to have been a minor element. There was nothing set on fire, and all their other claims have come up hollow. Even the theft of Nancy Pelosi’s laptop was probably faked to get rid of embarrassing (to her) data. The only person killed was a Trump Supporter murdered by the police (Ashli Babbit — say her name! — #Justiceforashlibabbit!)
So the sixth should be called a demonstration, a patriotic protest, or if you prefer “the glorious sixth” and my friend Bill Reader objects strenuously to my calling it “the forlorn hope.” thought it obviously was.
The left for instance refers to past presidents differently. President Obama, but Mr. Bush. Hell, they did that while the were in power, too.
What I want you to do is notice these things. And start countering them. Don’t call Occasional Cortex AOC. Her name is Occasional Cortex, first of her derpitude.
Don’t call the four bints of the Marxist apocalypse ‘the squad’. Call them “the squat.” because that and diddly is all they know about anything.
Don’t talk about privileged (unless you’re talking about liberals) because that means they were given something for nothing. Talk about rich. Or well connected. Or smart. Or whatever the crazy people mean when they talk of privilege. (Yes, they are actually privileged. Because they have a private law that favors them.)
Look, half of the way you think is bounded in by words. And half of the way other people think too. By using the leftist chosen terms, you’re lending them your unwitting support.
Don’t lose the war of words. Come up with more accurate terms, and think about what you’re saying.
Suggesting terms in the comments is perfectly all right. It’s early morning, I’m uncaffeinated and I can’t think of any others. However, you can go forth and think of a lot of them (failing to organize is an advantage sometime.) Try to keep it non-profane.
*Irrelevant but interesting science-fictional note! I have found proof of the Mandela effect. I come from a parallel world where FB never reverses its decisions. I was banned on Friday for seven days, and and am now free again! I mean of course I’d protested the ban, but I expected nothing to come of it. This never happens where I come from, so obviously a parallel world. – SAH*
Sorry this is so late. The reason we’re traveling interfered.
This is not your regular promo post. I’ll probably do that come Wednesday.
In other words, this is a very irregular promo post due to the fact that Amazon database seems to have had a… strange accident.
My man on the inside (not a man, not precisely on the inside, but with visibility inside) tells me that it’s stupidity not malice: to be exact the highly demanding form of stupidity that comes with computer programming.
This won’t completely mitigate it, but it will bring some visibility to books suddenly hard to get to. And I’ll link at insty tonight which should help more.
And so, for now, let’s look for the lost, shall we? Anything I miss, throw in comments, please.
OH, AND PLEASE SHARE THIS ON FACEBOOK, SINCE I’M IN JAIL TILL AT LEAST FRIDAY.
In a disturbingly familiar future, the use of technology and access to information is strictly monitored by local and federally trained specialists.
One of these agents, Officer Owen MacIntyre, is tasked with investigating a potential Chinese terror threat to the Pacific Northwest; undercover, he crosses paths with the unpredictable and tragic Tomás Chen-Diaz.
Despite being heir to an untouchable global chaebol that operates according to their own exclusive rules, Chen-Diaz exists as a hapless nomad living at the whim of Francisco Alejandro, his arrogant and conniving elder brother.
The paths of these three men intersect in deadly ways when MacIntyre rapidly finds himself drawn into a dark storm of international conspiracies, while uncovering the dangerous, long-hidden secrets of Tomás’ powerful family, secrets Francisco is desperate to keep hidden but which MacIntyre is determined to bring to light…no matter how heavy a professional and personal toll it will demand of him.
In this memorable cyberpunk techno thriller, timeless themes of humanity are deftly interwoven within a tapestry of relevant geo-political and bioethics issues. The vivid prose, haunting imagery and unforgettable characters will linger with the reader long after the thought-provoking and emotional climax.
Molly was no stranger to life’s little detours. After the last upheaval, she left her family’s law firm to become a maintenance technician on the Space Station Bradbury 12. When an accident knocks her off her feet, she’s going to have to draw on all her resilience to get back up. First, though, she’s going to have to figure out how to talk to the big, blue alien trying to help her.
There wasn’t supposed to be a space station where Mintonar’s ship emerged from the galactic bridge. As far as they knew, there wasn’t supposed to be intelligent life on the planet, either. Proof of how wrong they were is laying in his Medical Bay and it’s his job to save her. When he touches her, his life turns upside down and his mission suddenly includes figuring out why everything inside him insists she’s his mate. And convincing her of the same thing, especially when they don’t even speak the same language.
Mindy’s best friend Molly was a maintenance technician on the Bradbury 12. When Molly went missing, Mindy started looking for answers but all she found were more questions. They were supposed to meet up at Geniuscon, a science fiction convention that attracts people from every walk of life, and she knows Molly’s son Aidan is going to be there. Determined to get in touch with her friend, Mindy tracks down Aidan and meets some of his new friends, the guys cosplaying as big, blue aliens.
The first time he heard her voice, Alvola knew Mindy was the one. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t understand the language or touch her skin, the sound of her voice made his body sing. Determined to meet his mate, Alvola volunteers for the mission to Earth to pick up Aidan and meet with the scientists and engineers that will be their first official contacts with humanity. When Alvola actually meets Mindy in person, his mission becomes to keep her by his side, no matter the cost.
Penance Copper is tired of being a tool for evil. She’s been working for Acid ever since she was small. She had no other choice, he owned her. Even with her superpowers, she’s never been able to escape. But at least he only has her steal. Never anything worse than that.
Until he orders her to use her powers to kill the superhero Justice for investigating trafficked girls.
Penance doesn’t want to be a murderer. She uses the opportunity to run away from Acid and make a new life. One where she can make up for everything she did on Acid’s orders.
But events larger than Penance are spinning into action, and soon she is embroiled in an intergalactic encounter with an alien boy named Kail, who is perhaps as lonely and broken as she is. Even if he is infuriatingly arrogant.
The first young adult series in the shared Heroes Unleashed universe launches with the Teen Heroes Unleashed series. Readers will love hardworking, sassy Penance as she tries to learn to use her superpowers to save the world instead of to steal.
Can Penance and Kail find the missing girls and save the Earth from an alien invasion? Or will Acid find her again and punish her for running away?
One searches for oil. The other searches for revenge.
Gregor watches Americans searching for oil in Carpathian Poland. As the Americans grow frustrated by their lack of success, Gregor grows fascinated by Linda, the petrogeologist. His master, Lord Ivan Bethlán, shares that fascination, and demands that Gregor bring Linda to him.
Linda just wants to find oil and get home to Houston. She does not care for being watched – or stalked – and confronts the large black dog haunting the woods near the survey team’s camp. Taken by his politeness and excellent German, Linda starts to wonder. Why is he so well-spoken? And who is the master who Gregor will not name?
A geologist and a Calvinist werewolf must join forces to stop a monster.
Do the Research, Keep the Shiny! A writer’s guide. Want a good story? Choking on yet another sparkly cinematic production that has all the flash and explosions yet no real people in it? If you want stories done right, sometimes you’ve just got to do it yourself. But how? Roll up your sleeves, we’re going to cover it all. No preaching; no “but thou must follow steps X, Y, Z”. Just, here’s some ideas, and some examples, of how it can work. From getting over that first hump of pen to page, through getting ideas and characters from point A to point B, all the way to how to keep breathing when the whole world’s crumbling in. There are links. There are tropes. And there’s a sober explanation of why fanfic has always mattered. In your mind’s eye there’s a world no one else has seen. Here’s some tools. Worldbuild away!
For five long years, Sanchia has held the lands of her husband alone, while he fought in the desperate war against malign shades. Much will change when he returns.
Especially because he brings the magical sword, found in the mountains, with him. And, it turns out, other things follow.
ALSO FROM MARY CATELLI: Through A Mirror, Darkly.
Powers have filled the world with both heroes and villains. Helen, despite her own powers, had acquired the name Sanddollar but stayed out of the fights.
When the enigmatic chess masters create a mirrored world reflecting her own home and the world about it, it’s not so easy to escape. All the more in that the people of that world are a dark reflection of all those she knows.
FROM JERRY BOYD (WHO ALERTED ME TO ALL THIS): Bob and Nikki (16 book series).
From Book 1: Bob thought he was doing fine on his own. Then the love of his life fell out of the sky. Can he get her back in the air with auto parts and a cutting torch? If he does, will she ever come back? Nikki took a job before she saw the equipment. Can she keep her passengers alive on a strange planet? Are the natives friendly?” John is doing well with his underground medical practice, when his sometime partner Bob calls him with a job. A job that changes everything.
Raina escaped to Freeport with a tour booked under a stolen ID, and a plan to lose herself in the city. Instead, she found a city in revolt, and now both sides are after her to control the alien gifts engineered into her DNA.
Her only ally is an offworld investigator trying to get to the bottom of the explosive mix of on-planet and alien politics… but his secrets are even deadlier than her own.
From the back alleys of the souk to the depths of alien ruins, they’re now in a desperate fight to stop the revolution before everything is lost!
In the first book of this series “Family Law”, Lee’s parents and their business partner Gordon found a class A habitable planet. They thought their quest as explorers was over and they’d live a life of ease. But before they could return and register their claim Lee’s parents died doing a survey of the surface. That left Lee two-thirds owner of the claim and their partner Gordon obligated by his word with her parents to raise Lee. She had grown up aboard ship with her uncle Gordon and he was the only family she’d ever known. Him adopting her was an obvious arrangement – to them. Other people didn’t see it so clearly over the picky little fact Gordon wasn’t human. After finding prejudice and hostility on several worlds Lee was of the opinion planets might be nice to visit, but terrible places to live. She wanted back in space exploring. Fortunately Gordon was agreeable and the income from their discovery made outfitting an expedition possible. Lee wanted to go DEEP – out where it was entirely unknown and the potential prizes huge. After all, if they kept exploring tentatively they might run up against the border of some bold star faring race who had gobbled up all the best real estate. It wasn’t hard to find others of a like mind for a really long voyage. This sequel to “Family Law” is the story of their incredible voyage.
Syteria is a survivor. She survived being kidnapped by the Matriarchy. She survived being turned into one of their slave soldiers. But even she didn’t think she’d survive saving her brother’s life, an act of treason.
After the ship taking her to her execution crashes, she finds herself a stranger in a strange land.
Syteria’s very existence threatens the donai—a race of genetically engineered warriors who overthrew the humans who created and enslaved them. Only one person stands between life and death, between freedom and slavery—Darien, a half-breed donai prince who defied his emperor to rescue her, a derelict spaceship’s only survivor.
His motives are suspect, especially when turning her over to the tender mercies of the Imperium would cost him nothing and redeem him in the eyes of the emperor.
To save their societies Darien and Syteria must risk everything—even falling in love—to forge an alliance that will change everything.
The disastrous war of 1913 is over, and young journalist Isaak Babel has used his fame as a war correspondent to win a peacetime job covering an international chess tournament in New York City. However, trouble is aboard the airship Grossdeuschland, in the form of the notorious Bolshevik terrorist Koba and his henchmen. Men with a dark plan, and New York City will not welcome their visit.
Who would put a ceiling on humanity’s expansion into space?
That’s what Gus Grissom wants to know. While fishing offshore from Cape Canaveral, he glimpses a mysterious undersea city of unearthly geometries, marked with a strange three-armed cross symbol.
His efforts to research it bring him veiled threats from strangers at his door. Trouble blights an exemplary career. However, Gus refuses to be cowed into silence, and pursues every lead he can find.
HP Lovecraft wrote that we live on a placid island of ignorance and were not meant to travel far. This is the Space Race in a world where the Soviet Union is not our only adversary.
it was supposed to be a simple poaching case. An “easy way to get back on the horse, after your injuries”. Oh yeah, it involves lycanthropes, but that shouldn’t be a problem. The trouble is, NOTHING is ever simple when John Fisher, Federal Park police, and retired Navy SEAL is assigned to the case… When they found the dead Marine, that’s when things really went south. John and his partner have to solve poaching, the murder of an active duty Marine Lycanthrope and several other crimes, but it seems the Government isn’t exactly happy to help. This is the second in the John Fisher Chronicles, which started with Harvest of Evil, and will continue…
Harrison’s team of smugglers is thrown in Bethlehem Prison where they meet a strange prophet-like man, who calls himself Woodman. He will help them, he says, take down the Unit, the ever-more-powerful device whose inventors want to use to control people’s lives, and soon, their thoughts.The crazy man guides them via airship, steamship and train past robot-encased cops – Robbies – to remote places where the imprisoned and tortured have no hope. Steampunk-inspired, The Word of the Bedlamite tells of a battle against creeping mind-control and the power of free thought in a world surrendering itself unknowingly to chains of the mind.
The Galactic Empire is in a century-long period of decline. Emperor Augustus VI knows it. Ninety years old, he’s seen it happen during his lifetime. He wants to stop it. His problem: none of his advisers sees it, and every measure he takes to stop it fails.
Historian James Ardmore sees it, too. Researching it has been his life’s work. He submits his three-volume analysis for publication, but it’s banned by Imperial censors.
Gail Burke sees it up close and personal. An Imperial Marine officer, she’s been court-martialed for following Imperial regulations. Now she awaits the outcome of an appeal on the charges.
Together can they rescue the Empire from collapse?
INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND
When does this story occur? The blurb says the Empire is in a century-long decline.
EMPIRE: Renewal takes place in the middle of the fourth century of the Galactic Era, about three hundred years after Emperor Trajan died. EMPIRE: Succession left the Empire in good shape, with a good ruler, and measures in place to protect the Throne. Three centuries later, the wheels have started to come off.
So what happened?
As will often happen in good times, people forgot what got them there. Why some traditions were the way they were. They forgot the lessons of the past and stopped doing the things that had made them successful. The end result of that is decline.
Sounds depressing.
Oh, it is. Which is why I didn’t write a book about the decline. I pick up the story when an Emperor who sees what’s going on decides to do something about it. To stop the decline. That’s where we pick up our story for this trilogy.
The blurb mentions the Emperor, the Historian, and the Marine. I take it that’s the Marine on the cover?
Yes. Captain Gail Anne Burke. She’s one of the main characters of the story. Young, beautiful, intelligent, and devoted to the Empire. She plays a critical role.
It looks like you have another new cover artist.
Yes, Rotwang Studio, which is Luca Oleastri and his partner. They’re based in Italy. I’ve got him doing all three covers for the Renewal Trilogy.
And that’s a scene from the book?
Oh, yes. Captain Burke ends up being in the right place at the right time to cause a little mayhem.
The Empire has won the war against the Alliance. But at the close of that war, an invasion fleet from the Democracy of Planets sought to annex Jasmine. So Jasmine annexed to Sintar, and Sintar destroyed that fleet, causing resentment that is driving the Democracy of Planets to go to war with Sintar.
The Democracy of Planets is a much more deadly enemy than the Alliance. They have a new navy, too, with powerful new warships, and are much more of a military challenge. The Emperor’s strategy from the Sintar-Alliance war won’t work on the DP.
Will the Emperor’s new strategy work? And if he wins the war, how will he ever win the peace?
THE STUNNING CONCLUSION TO EMPIRE
INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND
It sounds like the Democracy of Planets government gets sucked into a war they don’t want in EMPIRE: Conqueror.
That’s right. The leadership doesn’t want a war, but they’ve been manipulating public opinion against Sintar for years. When the fleet sent to annex Jasmine is destroyed in EMPIRE: Warlord, it inflames their public opinion, and they have no choice but to proceed to war.
This sounds like a tougher war than the one in EMPIRE: Warlord.
Yes and no. The Alliance was a real threat to Sintar. Their strategy was good — to occupy portions of the Empire and force a peace on their terms — but their tactics were bad. In particular, they didn’t know the Empire could see their forces mustering and already knew about the war vote.
The Democracy of Planets is a different challenge. They have some structural weaknesses in their military posture. But it won’t be enough to win the war. The Emperor has to fight the war in such a way as to win the peace. That’s actually a tougher challenge.
The Empress and the Co-Consul are there to help, though.
Yes, and so is Saaret’s wife Suzanne. She’s the ‘everyman’ inserted into their councils. She has given me, since EMPIRE: Tyrant, a touchstone for the Emperor’s policies, as well as a person for the reader to use to learn what was going on.
I see the new ideas group is back as well.
They’ve been there all along, together with the business ideas group and the new ideas review group, as the Consulting function in Imperial administration. But you’re right, they’re explicitly back in EMPIRE: Conqueror, to research how to win the peace long term. They’re critical in advising the Emperor how to ensure the peace.
What is the cover scene this time?
It’s one of the confrontations between a main Sintar formation of thirty-two thousand ships and a main DP formation of twenty thousand ships. It’s more of a tactical display because the ships wouldn’t be anywhere near that close in a real confrontation. But the perspective did allow James Lewis-Vines, the artist, to showcase the difference between the new-design Sintaran warships and the new-design DP warships.
How long did EMPIRE: Conqueror take to write?
Thirty-seven days, so five to six weeks, pretty par for the course for an EMPIRE book. More interesting is that I finished the day before the first anniversary of starting EMPIRE: Reformer, so I wrote all six books in a single year.
You have an Author’s Afterword at the end of EMPIRE: Conqueror.
Yes, I wanted to talk to the reader a bit about the story, about how I write, and about my themes. In particular, I wanted to tell the reader the starting premise of the whole series. There’s a big reveal there.
We interrupt the current insanity for a very important request.
If any of the authors who comment here, or their friends have books missing, and you can get a direct link, please drop that link in the comments and I will do a very special grande gigante con mui octopus promo post tomorrow.
On day two of the road trip. Not driving because my glasses weren’t done in time, so I’m in the back seat, editing. The cursed book WILL be done by the end of the weekend, rain or shine.
And it’s all gone myffic. Husband and son, for reasons unknown to me, decided the Roman gods lived in the small town where we overnighted. This is why I drink. No, wait, when I drink I do it because I like it, but I actually haven’t drank much. I’m fairly sure in the middle of editing I misunderstood something, because I told them that it was okay, since we weren’t near the trailer park, and they looked puzzled. However, it diverted the discussion into fun things Zeus could turn into.
Weirdly, I slept very well for the first time in months. Also longer than 5 hours which is a miracle, because I haven’t achieved this in months, as well. Being fully awake is kind of weird.
Now they appear to be discussing unicorns. Gosh, I hope it’s a game son is playing on phone? Or that my hearing has gone worse. Or something. They’re talking about hooves going clop clop clop.
Considering how bad my hearing is, and being in the backseat with the road noise all around, it’s a bit hallucinatory. I’ll — probably — survive this, but it’s going to be a long psychadelic day.
Well, at least I’m not driving, so no rain of frogs.
Got an alarming email from Jerry Boyd, who says his books are being systematically pulled off Amazon and he doesn’t know why. This is why I started a newsletter. But we really need alternatives, y’all.
So if any of you have ideas, or can help, reach out to him.
I haven’t read the news, and I probably won’t till tonight at the other hotel, so ya’ll carry on!
According To Hoyt 