*The Amazon links in this post all use my associate’s link, and therefore I earn a small commission from your purchases, at no extra cost to you.

I have a list my assistant is compiling of authors to promote who answered the call by responding if they were not afraid of being associated with this blog. I will be post them in the evening, ten at a time. Hopefully you find some new reads. If nothing else, you know these people are fearless. – SAH*

Meet Cedar Sanderson

Cedar Sanderson is a multifaceted creator whose work spans both the literary and visual arts.

Cedar is celebrated for her engaging storytelling and her ability to captivate audiences with her vibrant imagery and thoughtful narratives. Her work not only entertains but also invites readers and viewers into worlds where science meets magic, and the mundane becomes extraordinary.

Her books, such as “Pixie Noir” and “Tanager’s Fledglings,” showcase her unique blend of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, often infused with a touch of humor and deep human insight.

Her art, varying from traditional sumi-e painting to digital creations, reflects a love for both the whimsical and the scientific, with influences from her passion for history, infectious disease, and food anthropology. Known for her eclectic career that includes roles as diverse as balloon twister, face painter, and scientist, Cedar has channeled her wide range of experiences into her writing and art. https://www.facebook.com/cedar.sanderson

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Cedar Sanderson would like you to try her book: Supporting Ragnarok

Valhalla is no place for a loggie. But Master Sergeant (Logistics) Danny Pederson made a career error and died heroically in combat after thirty years of nice boring supply work. He woke up dead to learn he’s stuck in a nightmare of unending battle called Valhalla. Seems the recruiters lied about Valhalla too.

Now, the only hope he has is to carry out the mission given by a mysterious messenger. Whether he likes it or not, they have to support Ragnarok… if that battle can ever happen to bring everything to an end.

Danny’s pissed, and he just wanted to go fishing. He’s about to take Ragnarok to the throat of the gods themselves. After inventory is complete.

Meet C. R. Chancy

C. R. Chancy has been in and out of dragon lairs since learning to read, usually with a map, compass, and something crunchy and good with chili sauce. Just in case. Besides reading fantasy, SF, mysteries, and history, she also enjoys beading, manga, anime, digging up survival information, poking odd color combinations, and maintaining an aquarium of half-wild guppies and one huge South American catfish that likes to lurk unseen for weeks.

She is also fond of Tropes. A few that may tend to show up include Action Survivor, Exact Words, Good Is Not Soft, and Spanner in the Works.

https://crossoverqueen.wordpress.com/

C. R. Chancy would like you to consider her book: Tell No Tales

Some nights it just doesn’t pay to rise from the grave….Corbin wants to uncover the truth behind her death at a demon’s hands. But her memories have been shattered by the grave, and even with footloose Sighted mechanic Devon Fortunato helping her search for answers, a restless ghost is up against the darkest spells and lies of the living. If they can’t unravel who sabotaged the Cunning Folk circle’s spellcast defenses, the child Corbin meant to protect will suffer a fate worse than death. Corbin’s notes hold clues, but the broken circle would rather die than admit the truth….

Meet Christopher G. Nutall

Christopher Nuttall has been planning sci-fi books since he learned to read. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Chris created an alternate history website and eventually graduated to writing full-sized novels. Studying history independently allowed him to develop worlds that hung together and provided a base for storytelling. After graduating from university, Chris started writing full-time. As an indie author, he has published fifty novels and one novella (so far) through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

Professionally, he has published The Royal Sorceress, Bookworm, A Life Less Ordinary, Sufficiently Advanced Technology, The Royal Sorceress II: The Great Game and Bookworm II: The Very Ugly Duckling with Elsewhen Press, and Schooled in Magic through Twilight Times Books.

As a matter of principle, all of Chris’s self-published Kindle books are DRM-free.

Chris has a blog where he published updates, snippets and world-building notes at http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/ and a website at http://www.chrishanger.net.

Chris is currently living in Edinburgh with his partner, muse, and critic Aisha.

https://chrisnuttall.substack.com/

https://books2read.com/u/3LPKG1

https://chrishanger.net/

Christopher G. Nutall would like you to consider his book: Grandmaster (The Schooled in Magic Universe)

A new stand-alone novel set in the Schooled in Magic universe!

A hundred years before Emily, the world is in chaos. The Empire is in ruins. Old certainties are collapsing everywhere. The provinces are becoming kingdoms, the magical aristocracy is trying to redefine its place in the new world disorder, the commoners are being ground under and bold or desperate men are preparing their bids for apotheosis or nemesis. The world teeters on the brink … and Whitehall School is caught in the middle, a pawn of greater powers.

For common-born magicians Alan and Irene, scorned and despised by their aristocratic peers, the challenge is to keep their heads down long enough to graduate and go out into the world as qualified magicians. For Walter, Heir to House Ashworth, the challenge is to take advantage of the chaos to build an unassailable position and put himself in firm control. For Hasdrubal, Charmsmaster of Whitehall, the challenge is to protect the school from outside powers seeking to subvert or destroy it …

Meet Julie Frost

Julie Frost grew up an Army brat, traveling the globe. She thought she might settle down after she finished school, but then she married a pilot and moved six times in seven years. She’s finally put down roots in Utah with her family–her husband and son, a herd of guinea pigs, and a “kitten” who thinks she’s a warrior princess–and a collection of anteaters and Oaxacan carvings, some of which intersect. She enjoys birding and nature photography, which also intersect, and managed to photograph 500 bird species in the US in 2023. Utilizing her degree in biology, she writes werewolf fiction while completely ignoring the physics of a protagonist who triples in mass. She also writes other things, on occasion, as the fancy strikes her.

Her short fiction has appeared in Weird WWIV, Straight Outta Dodge City, Monster Hunter Files, Galaxy’s Edge, Writers of the Future, The District of Wonders, StoryHack, Unlikely Story, Stupefying Stories, and too many anthologies to count. Her novels are available on Amazon, and you can find her on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/julie.frost.7967

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Julie Frost would like you to consider her book: Joy Shall Be in Heaven

A Guardian Angel to serial killers
His newest Charge
And a grimoire with a Free! Demon! Inside!

Nachumiel’s job is to be the Still Small Voice whispering into the ears of sociopaths, in a vain attempt to turn them from the path of destruction they’re merrily traipsing down. Fresh off yet another assignment up to his hips in blood and buried in corpses, he’s beginning to wonder if he garners assignments like this because he’s a massive screwup who can’t damage these people any more than they already are.

His new Charge is different—but not in a good way. Gerry finds a malevolent spellbook holding a demon bound within, whose power even other demons are afraid of. Now Nachi has to team up with his argumentative opposite number and endeavor to undermine both Gerry and his damnable new friend before a child is sacrificed and the grimoire demon unleashes Hell on Earth. All he can try is what has always failed in the past…

And hope he doesn’t end up bleeding out on the floor himself.

Meet Caitlin Walsh

Caitlin Walsh is a mom from Upstate New York. She has two young vivacious children who have inspired her life in ways she could have never imagined!

As a child, Caitlin would read the “funny pages” and exclaim “I want to do that!” While she’s been publishing on the internet for twenty years, it’s been her work with the independent author community where she’s truly found a warm and loving home.

Caitlin’s new “Mama Bunny” series is a unique expression of her artistic interpretations as she explores the joys and challenges of motherhood. An exceptional mix of comics and short essays on family life, this series has something for everyone. It’s guaranteed to reach down into reader’s hearts and show them how the simplest moments in our everyday lives are, in reality, the beautiful seeds of cherished memories.

Tweets by caitliniwalsh

https://www.facebook.com/caitlin.woods.52

Caitlin Walsh would like you to consider her book: Mama Bunny #1: Comics and Stories

Parenting is tough, but it’s also rewarding. And occasionally even hilarious. Now collected for the first time, follow Mama Bunny and her family through this series of mostly-autobiographical strips and written stories as they navigate the ups and downs of dinnertime, chores, and all the other day-to-day adventures of a stay-at-home mom trying to raise and teach two children.

Meet M. C. A. Hogarth

Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has held many jobs, but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise.

For a complete reading order, check http://mcahogarth.org. Or for a quick-start:

Mindtouch (story of forever friendship in SF setting)

Earthrise (space adventure romance romp)

An Heir to Thorns and Steel (epic fantasy)

Spots the Space Marine (military SF, tense, quick-paced)

The Worth of a Shell (tri-sexed alien society fantasy)

Black Blossom (sociological SF, philosophical, quiet)

Tweets by mcahogarth

M. C. A. Hogarth would like you to consider her book Business for the Right-Brained: (A Guide for Artists, Writers, Musicians, Dancers, Crafters, And All the Other Dreamers)

A career as a freelance artist? Not possible, you say? The Three Jaguars beg to differ! In this cartoon and checklist-filled guide, Marketer, Business Manager, and Artist walk you through the challenges of starting and building a creative business. Topics include productizing your work; metrics and tracking; communication and networking strategies; Day Job wrangling; pricing; branding; and even how to market yourself without feeling (shudder) slimy! If you’ve been looking for a clear (and humorous!) guide to the philosophy and practicalities of being a professional artist… this is your book. Also, did I mention the cartoons?

Meet L. A. Gregory

L.A. Gregory grew up surrounded by books and nature, and frequently combined the two by going up an oak tree with the newest from Andre Norton or the oldest from J.R.R. Tolkien. After spending years pretending to be Eowyn, Simsa, or Lessa, she started putting her daydreams on paper. Now she lives in North Carolina with a little less nature and a little more books, and gleefully indulges her inner teen with stories of animals, spaceships, and shapeshifters.

She can be reached via her Facebook page under “L.A. Gregory”.

https://x.com/Aggrokitty

https://t.co/rTyNmkk96j

L. A. Gregory would like you to consider her book: Hawkwing: A Novel of the Bitterlands

Kestrel’s land is scarred in ways its inhabitants cannot begin to understand, built on long-poisoned earth and menaced by twisted plants and animals. Farmers, hunters, and magic-users fight a long battle to create safe havens and reclaim lost ground, but their casualties mount over generations. Kestrel knows little and cares less about the patterns that shape her world. She’s a shapechanger and healer who has spent the handful of years since reaching womanhood cleansing the wildlife of her blighted land with medicine and magic. Sure of her place and confident in her skills, she takes care of her own and doesn’t poke at things that don’t concern her. But when she returns from a routine journey with her brother to find her home ransacked and empty, Kestrel must gather her remaining family and search for new allies before old magic and older hatred rob her kin of their freedom, their lives, and possibly their souls.

Meet Dave Freer

Dave Freer is a former Marine Biologist who specialized in fish (an Ichthyologist), proving that you can end up as an academic even if you did win a sports bursary (for rock-climbing) to take you through college. At seventeen was a conscripted Medic during the Angolan/South African conflict. Politically from an old fashioned ‘liberal’ (you know, believing in equality of all people before the law, equality of opportunity, that sort of thing) anti-apartheid family this was quite an experience. He lived through it and came out as a 45 year old in a nineteen year old body, which may explain his frequent confusion. He is still deciding just what do when he grows up. His first postgraduate job was as Chief Scientific Officer for the Western Cape Commercial Shark fishery. As a biologist he’s spent a lot of time working in water no sane person would go near, having encounters (both in small boats and in the water) with sharks, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, electric rays and a number of other toxic/lethal creatures. He has worked as a salvage diver, run two major fish farms (he’s a very good plumber), as well as doing some steeplejack work. Additionally he has worked as the relief chef for a group of exclusive luxury game/ ecotourism/ whitewater-rafting lodges. He has an obsession with food, recreating traditional fare, something he uses in his books. He’s a top mountaineer and rock-climber, opening many of his country’s best rock routes. He’s a fanatical spiny-lobster diver and flyfisherman and the author of a number of articles on both. If it is dangerous and a little crazy — he’s done it. Besides writing some amazingly boring but fundamental papers on shark age and growth and reproductive biology, he has authored or co-authored about twenty novels, most of which are sf/fantasy. He’s also written a lot of shorter fiction, appearing in various collections.

He lives on a wonderful remote Island off the coast of Tasmania, Australia, a ten hour ferry trip to anywhere, with 3 dogs to do his thinking, 3 cats to be waited on, two sons to lead him astray, and a wonderful wife to be patient with him and them, although it is a task that would tax a saint. Sometimes he wonders why he does this. Other times he just wonders. See his webpage if you really want more.

https://www.facebook.com/dave.freer.5686

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Dave Freer would like you to consider his book: Cloud Castles

Augustus Thistlewood was an idealist. The youngest scion of a vastly wealthy family, he’d come to help the poor, deprived people of the strange world of Sybill III – a gas-dwarf world with no habitable land. The human population, descendants of a crashed convict transport, lived on a tiny, crowded, alien antigravity plate they called ‘the Big Syd’, drifting through the clouds in the upper atmosphere. It was a few square miles of squalor, in a vast sea of sky, ruled by the degenerate relics of two alien empires.
The problem was that the people of the Big Syd wanted to help themselves, first – to his money, his liberty, and even his life.
Only two things stood between them and this: the first was his ‘assistant’ Briz, – a ragged urchin he’d picked up as a guide. She reckoned if anyone was going to steal from Augustus, it was going to be her, even if she had to keep him alive so that she could do it. And the second thing was Augustus himself. He didn’t know what ‘giving up’ meant. Actually, he didn’t know what most things meant. As a naïve, wide-eyed innocent blundering through the cess-pit of Sybill III, he was going to have to learn, mostly the hard way. Some of that learning was going to be out in the strange society that existed on the endless drifting clumps of airborne vegetation, and the Cloud-Castles of the aliens who hunted across them. Most of it was learning that philanthropy wasn’t quite what they’d taught him in college.

Meet Nathan C. Brindle

Mr. Brindle is a software engineer of a certain age and girth. He can do nothing about the former, but is attempting to do something about the latter. He is happily married to his lady Sally, with whom he has two cats and several children of other parents, one of whom has graced him with two grandchildren upon whom he dotes. His educational background is in History, mostly American with a side of Japanese.

Before we go much farther and you lose interest, his website is http://nathanbrindle.com .

He is a Freemason of long standing; Master Mason, Past Master of his lodge, a Knight Templar in the York Rite of Freemasonry, and a 33° Sovereign Grand Inspector General and Honorary Member of the Supreme Council, 33°, of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America. As if that were not cool and sublime enough, he once held the single most badass title in Freemasonry: Thrice Potent Master of the Lodge of Perfection, 14°. And he has been Secretary of more Masonic bodies and organizations than any sane man should ever aspire to become.

He is also a licensed amateur radio operator, Amateur Extra Class, and only wishes he had a broken 6-meter amplifier that could project mini-singularities.

Otherwise, he’s either working, writing, honey-dewing, or playing with his grandchildren.

Tweets by NathanCBrindle

Nathan C. Brindle would like you to consider his book: I’m The Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone!

Alice is the Imperial Princess Regnant of the Galactic Empire. At 22, she has been thrust into power after her father (the Emperor) and her two older brothers have all died in various ways. Her Imperial Chancellor, Lord Rupert, does everything he can to support her, but has somewhat different ideas about how the Empire should be run than did his late Emperor.

Alice has one major problem: She cannot be crowned Empress Regnant until she marries and produces an heir.

But Alice, being kept busy three days a week by interminable audiences with petitioners, and the rest of the week with what she terms “mostly busy work”, has no real way to meet young men — well, reasonably eligible young men, anyway, and of her own age — with whom she might eventually take up and form a household. And she chafes at the necessity of trying to rule, hands-on, an Empire so huge it cannot be truly ruled by any one person to begin with.

She just wants to leave people alone, as her father and his predecessors did for centuries.

Meet Becky R. Jones

Writing fiction is career number three or so for Becky R. Jones. She’s worked as a secretary in the world of Wall Street, built sets for TV pilots and shows, been an admin assistant for a mobile home park management company, built airplanes, and finally went back to school to get an MA and PhD in political science. Through it all she read fantasy, science fiction, and anything else she could get her hands on – cereal boxes included. Reading provides an escape, laughter, tears, and different perspectives on life.

After 20+ years teaching in different parts of the country, Becky realized that faculty politics had lost their allure and fled academia. She decided to try her hand at telling stories like the ones she loved to read. “Academic Magic” was her first work of fiction, quickly followed by a number of short stories, and the next two books in the “Academic Magic” series. She currently lives in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area with her husband and two cats.

For more fiction shorts and political ramblings, please visit her at: ornerydragon.com.

Becky R. Jones would like you to consider her book: Academic Magic

Zoe O’Brien has found her dream job at a small liberal arts college teaching the history of Medieval witchcraft and magic. Academic life is exactly what she expected it to be…until the squirrels stop by to talk with her and her department chair and best friend turn out to be mages.

Zoe discovers a world of magic and power she never knew existed. She and other faculty mages race to stop a coven from raising a demon on the winter solstice while simultaneously grading piles of final exams and reading the tortured prose of undergraduate term papers. Can Zoe master her new-found powers in time?

Is it time for “the right abandoned artistic fields” and “the right isn’t very creative because of [psychological reasons that make no sense]” again? I still had my “You must obey the pope even when he’s not speaking ex-cathedra and is running his mouth on politics” decorations up. And it was a slog to put them up when I’d just put up the “The US is going to start nuclear war” decorations. At least “the right isn’t creative” is a seasonal festival, returning on the regular, predictable as the seasons.

It’s all so TIRESOME. Sometimes I feel like this blogging things is mostly me standing and screaming into the hurricane, and no one listens until someone else picks up the cry and suddenly people listen to THAT person. It’s annoying. I don’t think I’m a priestess of Apollo, and anyway, what I say aren’t prophecies, just what anyone with two brain cells to rub together and a willingness to open their eyes would see.

You know the myth, right? It’s sank into the collective consciousness, and people bring it out on the regular as a “everybody knows.” (Always be wary of “everybody knows”. Not so long ago everybody knew that the USSR was beating the US in war technology and just so much better equipped and organized. And everyone also knew that if you lined up Chinese four by four and had them jump off a cliff, the line would never end, because they reproduced so fast. Yeah.)

It goes something like this: The left controls the arts and the culture, because the left is SO creative. This makes sense because they’re independent minded and ready to challenge conventions, which is essential for creation. Meanwhile the right abandoned the arts because they didn’t think the arts were important, and preferred to be in fields like engineering and sales and such, where there’s more money and they don’t have to buck convention. Because the right is convention-bound, stodgy and never willing to question authority or received wisdom. So, even if they could create, their stuff would be boring, because there would be nothing new in it.

I’ll concede this is absolutely true… In the movies and books produced by the left where the entire world is stuck in an imaginary 1950s, where every communist is a sweet, wild free spirit and everyone who opposes them are hypocrites living conventional lives.

In the real world this myth has more problems than I can begin to explain. But I’m going to try.

First of all the most recent resurgence of this arrant nonsense was someone self-described as right (of course) on twitter throwing a fit because a new publishing house supposedly on the right is only publishing non fiction, and it’s all rehashed stuff. Now, this publishing house was started by Tucker Carlson, presumably to have another means to scream about the Jewish threat or menace question. (I’ll admit I’m a little sore at the Zionist conspiracy right now. Look, they say regardless of ancestry I can’t have access to the space laser controls. They say that they know exactly what I’d do with them and so I can’t have them. I say they have no idea what I’d do with them. I’m a creative. I have so many ideas… Anyway….) But also, what does what a publishing house even if it were run by someone sane and not in the pay of radical Islamists, have to do with creativity? How does it prove the right isn’t creative.

Then as — mostly some of you — started doing yeoman work in smacking the idiot, the whole myth came tumbling out. (Look, if you put nonsense in your head, think about it before you vomit it out.)

First there is the reason the right isn’t very creative. The most real-world-adjacent one is “Because there’s no money in it.” Now, that’s true for the vast majority of artists and writers. I make probably what I would make as a medium-paid secretary in this region, and that puts me in the top 1% of authors. For most traditionally published authors, in the days I was in that treadmill, the income was 5k per book and a book per year. I’m given to understand it’s lower now, but I haven’t cared enough to look into it. This is why book writing has devolved to the province of married (or wealthy single) women and gay men. I.e. those who have other means of income. This is a problem for various other reasons, but it isn’t actually RELATED to a left versus right.

I mean the idea that the left isn’t at all interested in money is, again, only true in the movies and books the left produces. In real life most leftists are being paid handsomely to not examine the contradictions inhering in their positions. Very handsomely. I’m often flabbergasted at how much they get paid by NGOs and cultural this and that to do what I do here every day for not much at all.

Look — pinches bridge of nose — if the right wingers were motivated solely or mostly by money, they wouldn’t be on the right. The left has the pipelines of book to promotion, to TV expert to….

So you can take that little marker of “The right only cares about money, so they won’t do art.”

Okay, you say, but the right isn’t creative, because they believe in received wisdom and are afraid to say or do anything out of line.

Are you for real now?

I’m sixty three (dear Lord, it sure flies by when you’re having fun) and ALREADY I was taught all the leftist shibboleths and leftist worldview in school in the mid 20th century. We all were. The education was already infused by Marxist assumptions about class and the behavior of the various widgets classes. Not to mention races, etc.

And the culture was already hard-core dominated by leftists back then. Don’t believe me? Go watch any old movie and analyze the stereotypes deployed. It’s all the creative, poor-but-idealistic leftist against the rich powerful and most of all evil businessman/woman. Or the religious man and woman. Or both. Old book have this too. Even Agatha Christie, who — sorry, but it’s true — was kind of the distilled wisdom of British middle class for her time treated communists as sort of cute little pets. Wrong, of course, but oh, so morally invested and burning with righteousness.

So in fact to become anything to the right of Lenin we had to reject received wisdom, look beyond what we’d been taught and think for ourselves.

Also, let’s be real, anyone looking at the current literary dahlings and/or Hollywood and saying that’s solid left because the right has no creativity and doesn’t question received wisdom needs their head examined.

The left’s cultural output has become the same slogans they shout continuously, with threadbare plots through which embodied stereotypes of their oft-told-tales walk. There are no real people, no real conflict. They’re never ending (mostly im)morality plays recreating things they drank with mother’s milk. Which is why it’s not doing particularly well.

And this is because on the left you can get kicked out of the club for doubting even one little piece of the bolus of received wisdom that makes up the “leftist view”. You’re leftist in everything but you think that trans women shouldn’t share abused women’s shelters? Into the outer darkness with you, as J. K. Rowling found out.

So, the right not being creative because we’re just parroting received wisdom is nonsense. Once more, if that were true, we’d be… leftists. Because that has been the received wisdom for a hundred years and counting.

No, the truth is that Marxism first captured educational institutions, starting with the more elite ones. Look, it is an obvious mechanism. Academics feel that they aren’t appreciated enough. They spend years studying and working and in the end they get prestige, maybe, but very little else. So a gospel of envy, telling them that everything should be controlled by the government is received with glad cries. They just ignored the bit about the workers, and decided they’d be in charge. After all the lunkheads will need the big brains to guide them, right? In fact, Marx was one of them, in spirit if not in fact, so they took to him like a pig to his wallow.

From there, because academics are prestige and because “the smartest people believe this” it was a trivial matter to conquer the beachheads of the culture, in the form of newspapers, publishing houses, filmmaking studios, etc. And this at a time when the technology made those centralized and easy to control with very few people relatively speaking.

Once they were in, they only hired their like, because after all, anyone who believes differently is both stupid and evil, and you SURELY don’t want to hire THOSE people.

And since they could crank out endless myths of the stodgy conservatives who were stupid and evil and hypocrites, that myth did more of the work than any conscious decision to discriminate. The average person fed on the mass-information-entertainment industrial complex knew what was REALLY going on in the life of a seemingly pious minister or a seemingly clean-living business man. And anyone who tried to write different was just trying to perpetuate that evil.

Etc. Ad nauseum.

It was a very successful inverting of roles, which has allowed the left to successfully paint themselves as fighting the evils of a right-dominated culture which has existed for at least 100 years.

The creatives who could not, would not parrot the line at least enough to get in? Were never seen, published or hired. And those who managed to parrot it weren’t doing any good, because they couldn’t question the line, of course. Any step out of the perceived wisdom and they’d be cast down into the outer darkness.

That’s the only way — for those of you who are following at home — you get the cultural machinery captured by ONE side of the debate. It’s if the other side is being kept forcibly out.

So what’s to be done?

Well, the left has run out of creative steam. To be fair, they were starting to run out pretty hard in the eighties. They only sold because they were (quite literally) the only game in town.

And fortunately tech now allows for indie publishing and really art distribution. No, you won’t get in the prestige channels. If you want to get that you must be a hard-dyed …. I think Maoist at this point. They keep moving left. BUT you can, and many of us do, make a living in the vineyard of words. It’s not crazy money, unless you hit big, but it’s decent for indoor work, in the warm/cool. (Depending on season.) And you can do it until you die with your hands on the keyboard. You’d want to anyway, so why not?

Now we still can’t do movies, true. But it’s this close. It’s so close you can taste it. Well, I can. I want to get healthy so I can play in THAT playground too. Because, ooh, boy, 12 year old me is somewhere inside my mind having spazzfits of excitement. I want to play with that. I’ll be most seriously displeased if I’m too old to do it by the time the tech is here.

Publishing houses? Well, there’s a place for them, but they have to be small and ELASTIC. I am not privy to their inner works, but from the outside Raconteur Press seems to have a good model and be adapting fast.

BUT the important thing? You don’t need them. Sure, if you want them, you can find one, probably (Be careful. I’d recommend Rac, but I don’t know much about other new presses and some don’t do much for you.) BUT you don’t need it.

You can just do things!

Now go do them. Because if you must create, there are so many channels to get it in readers’ hands.

Do I need to say it? I will anyway: What a time to be alive!

Stop arguing over whether the right is creative, and go create.

I WAS on my way to bed, but stopped by to do one more thing (set a schedule for tomorrow. LITERALLY just that.) and…

This was in my inbox. It said for immediate release, and of COURSE I had to share (Congratulations to one of my structural editors D. Jason Fleming, the editor of three of the finalists!):

2026 PROMETHEUS AWARD FINALISTS CHOSEN FOR BEST NOVEL

Works by Dave Freer, Karl K. Gallagher, Sarah Hoyt, J. Kenton Pierce and Harry Turtledove selected as finalists

The Libertarian Futurist Society, a nonprofit all-volunteer international organization of liberty-loving science fiction/fantasy fans, has announced five finalists for the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Awards.

Here are the Best Novel finalists in brief, in alphabetical order by author: Storm-Dragon, by Dave Freer (Raconteur Press); War by Other Means, by Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven Press); No Man’s Land, by Sarah Hoyt (Goldport Press); A Kiss for Damocles, by J. Kenton Pierce (Raconteur Press); and Powerless, by Harry Turtledove (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy.)

Full-length reviews of each Best Novel finalist, explaining how each fits the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards, have been (or soon will be) posted on the Prometheus Blog. Meanwhile, here are capsule descriptions of all five finalists:

* Storm-Dragon, by Dave Freer (Raconteur Press): The Young Adult science fiction novel centers on a boy who saves and adopts an intelligent alien pet on an ocean-dominated colony planet with dangers both alien and human. In the spirit of Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky and Alan Dean Foster’s Flinx novels, the story centers on Skut and Podge, two resourceful middle-school boys from refugee families. As they make friends in their new home, the boys confront class bullies and repressive teachers, cope with mob behavior and navigate the ocean’s tricky shores. In the process, they interact and communicate more with their orphaned young “dragon,” an electrosensitive six-limbed alien creature who may be more intelligent and formidable than it appears. Aimed primarily at ages 8 to 18 and avoiding explicit ideology, the novel gradually expands to include parents, administrators and other adults enmeshed in the colony town’s increasingly corrupt politics, which threatens livelihoods through onerous regulations, taxes and property confiscations. Ultimately, a violent invasion from human raiders threatens the colonists’ broader rights. With a strong career background in fishing and oceanography, Freer focuses more on the plausible ecology and boy-centered adventures than the politics of this plausible frontier planet, while allowing his live-and-let-live, peace and freedom themes to emerge naturally.

* War by Other Means,by Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven Press): Finding ways to come to mutual agreements through diplomacy and trading rather than coercion is a central theme in Book 7 of Gallagher’s frequent-Prometheus-finalist Fall of the Censor series. Following the liberation of dozens of worlds from the Censorate oppression, newly appointed ambassador Wynny Landry strives to prevent the rebellion from falling apart. Her task: convincing their governments to cooperate and forge trade deals for excess missiles despite differing cultures, interests and pressures. The novel centers on problems arising on Fiera, which formed a world government following the Censorite attack and atomic-bombing of 16 cities. So many state-commanded resources were put into defense and so much manpower lost to conscription that Fiera’s economy is failing. Meanwhile local politics keeps warships nearby, preventing them from supporting the alliance’s interplanetary defense. The story reminds us that even good and democratic societies can falter when politics, taxation, conscription and pork-barrel politics undermine their freedom, strength and adaptability. Among the libertarian themes: war as the health of the state, how governments can slide into despotism, the evils of slavery, the dysfunction of pork-barrel politics, and how censorship only makes people lust for forbidden fruit.

* No Man’s Land, by Sarah Hoyt (Goldport Press): The three-volume novel blends science fiction, fantasy, suspense, mystery, romance, adventure, political intrigue and a plausible “alien” biology in a universe where sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. In an interstellar future with settled human planets of widely differing societies, a freedom-favoring federation sends an ambassador to certify the final stages of induction of a previously lost colony. The first-contact story eventually focuses on a hidden world where the population has been genetically shaped to make everyone hermaphroditic. Both epic and intimate, with chapters alternating in perspective between the young human ambassador and an archmage, the novel becomes a love story about found family amidst a wider conspiracy threatening the federation’s commitment to equal liberty. Ultimately, in a multi-layered work launching her Chronicles of Elly series, Hoyt gradually weaves in a variety of libertarian themes while offering a radically different take on gender and sexuality than Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic novel The Left Hand of Darkness.  Among them: the virtues and benefits of cooperation, individualism, private property, tolerance, equal justice and individual choice, providing a stark contrast with the  evils of aggression, tyranny, slavery and discrimination against sexual minorities.

* A Kiss for Damocles, by J. Kenton Pierce (Raconteur Press): The science fiction saga, which launches the author’s Tales From the Long Night series, illuminates the ethics and efficacy of free trade and self-defense as a proper foundation for civilization. The novel is set on a colony planet where humans in towns and homesteading communities are struggling to recover centuries after a catastrophic attack and volcanic cataclysm that set back and severely limits their use of advanced technology. At the story’s heart is Shai, a young homesteader facing harsh frontier conditions, corrupt Townie politics, dangerous native species, and sinister forces amidst still-functional A.I.-powered orbiting war machines. Pierce celebrates the self-reliance and resilience of self-regulating frontier communities that survive and evolve based on the hard-won realities of voluntarism, mutual respect and cooperation. But this is also a cautionary tale about the deceptive idealism of a command-and-control ideology and the perennial tendency towards abuse of power, reflected in the Townies’ push for higher taxation, fiat money and indoctrinating state takeover of education. Narrating from her wry but hopeful perspective, Shai becomes a leader in her community’s struggles to defend their freedom, preserve their heritage and restore their world.

* Powerless, by Harry Turtledove (Caezick SF & Fantasy): Inspired by Vaclav Havel’s classic essay “Power of the Powerless,” this alternate history is set decades ago in a communist America where small moments of defiance or quiet resistance to governmental repression have unexpectedly big consequences. Set in the western United States dominated by a Soviet-Union-fostered socialist tyranny, the novel begins with one shopkeeper’s impulsive and fed-up act of taking down from his grocery storefront window a required propaganda poster expressing solidarity with the state revolution. In a dystopian society demanding utter submission and insistent on propping up its legitimacy, that simple act has a ripple effect on the shopkeeper, his wife and two children, and the wider world. Focusing on small acts of decency and honesty, the realistic yet inspiring story reveals how communism smothers the human spirit, denies reality, censors news, imposes lies and undercuts everyday life even when it doesn’t rise to the level of genocide or outright totalitarianism but strives to embody Czechoslovakia’s 1968 vision of “socialism with a human face.” Mirroring the psychological and political distress of many today for speaking the truth, Powerless is timely in reflecting the challenges in societies that claim to uphold freedom but suppress facts to enforce conformity.

Fourteen 2025 novels were nominated by LFS members for this year’s award. Other Best Novel nominees, listed in alphabetical order by author: Red Heart, by Max Harms; Forged for Destiny and Forged for Prophecy, by Andrew Knighton; All the Humans Are Sleeping, by John C.A. Manley; For Emma, by Ewan Morrison; Planting Life: Shut the Kingdom, by Laura Montgomery; Where the Axe is Buried, by Ray Nayler; The Underachiever, by David A. Price; and Caballeros del Camino, by R.H. Snow.
The Best Novel winner will receive an engraved plaque with a one-ounce gold coin. An online Prometheus awards ceremony, open to the public, is tentatively planned for mid-August. Science fiction fan and author Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, will be this year’s keynote speaker and celebrity guest presenter. The date of the ceremony will be announced in mid July once the winners are known for both annual categories, including the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established and first presented in 1979, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently given in sf.

The Prometheus Hall of Fame category for Best Classic Fiction, launched in 1983, is presented annually with the Best Novel category. This year’s Hall of Fame finalists are The Star Dwellers, a 1961 novel by James Blish; Brave New World, a 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley; That Hideous Strength, a 1945 novel by C.S. Lewis; Salt, a 2000 novel by Adam Roberts;  and Singularity Sky, a 2003 novel by Charles Stross.

The Prometheus Awards recognize outstanding works of speculative or fantastical fiction (including science fiction and fantasy) that dramatize the perennial conflict between Liberty and Power, favor voluntarism and cooperation over institutionalized coercion, expose the abuses and excesses of coercive government, and/or critique or satirize authoritarian systems, ideologies and assumptions.

Above all, the Prometheus Awards strive to recognize speculative fiction that champions individual rights, based on the moral/legal principle of non-aggression, as the ethical and practical foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, mutual respect, civility and civilization itself.

All LFS members have the right to nominate eligible works for all categories of the Prometheus Awards, while publishers and authors are welcome to submit potentially eligible works for consideration using the guidelines linked from the LFS website’s main page.

A  judging committee, drawn from the membership and chaired by LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg, selects the Prometheus Award finalists for Best Novel from members’ nominations. Following the selection of finalists, all LFS upper-level members (Full members, Sponsors and Benefactors) have the right to vote on the Best Novel finalist slate to choose the annual winner.

Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is open to any freedom-loving science fiction/fantasy fan interested in how speculative or fantastical fiction can enhance an appreciation of the value of liberty and broaden public recognition of the dangers and evils of tyranny and the abuses more prevalent under the State’s centralized and coercive powers.

For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in all categories, visit our site. For reviews and commentary on these finalists and other works of interest to the LFS, visit the Prometheus blog. For more information, contact LFS Publicity Chair Chris Hibbert (publicity@lfs.org).

Guys I’m tired. The pain is not bad anymore, but I’m so EXHAUSTED.

I’m sorry. I’ll resume promos hopefully tomorrow.

And also I think I’ll be able to do a post tomorrow by noon, probably.

I’m going to bed now.

By Holly the Assistant

(Sarah is working on comments from the editor for Witch’s Daughter today, and also letting the antibiotic kick in.)

I have very little to say today, I’m afraid: the sun is shining between much needed rainstorms, my rain gauge blew away, the weeds are growing faster than the gardens . . . and the dogs relocated the front yard to the sidewalk, a joint project achieved separately in between spates of trying to murder each other. (No, the photo is not one of them. They’re in time out.)

I do finally have the new computer up and running. The old one failed in an entirely improbable and perplexing way, with first Firefox, then Discord, then finally the OS refusing to recognize keyboard input, over a week’s time. Pale Moon, which is my secondary browser, and LibreOffice still both talk to both keyboards. When you can type text in some programs but not in the OS search function box . . . well, it’s probably MY computer.

Spring is as busy as fall around here, with the trees currently enthusiastically enlisting everyone in their reproduction projects whether or not we’re willing participants. And of course the grass is growing, the wildfires are burning, and we’re side-eyeing the large puffy clouds overhead for their intentions regarding rain, hail, and lightening.

The oldest cat is on my lap discouraging gardening work by emitting sleepions, the younger two are probably opening cupboards somewhere, or maybe rewiring something (they are Indy and company’s full siblings). What’s up at your place?

Does anyone want to help remodel with the cats? The Wolf just said something about paint . . .

But hopefully tomorrow.

Sorry, I woke up with a raging ear infection, but I should be okay tomorrow. I have antibiotics and pain meds…

I know, the promo shouldn’t take brain power, but it does.

Now that the USSC has decreed that discrimination on the basis of race, sex or sexual preference in the interest of advancing minorities or other supposedly benevolent purpose is just as illegal as discrimination on the same basis against minorities for supposedly malevolent purposes. This of course is obvious and should be obvious, but our government has more or less required people to ignore that.

Anyway, I was reading an article on it over at powerline, DEI Is Illegal and someone in the comments said that the people IBM passed over, never considered, didn’t advance or in other ways injured due to their DEI games should sue for millions of dollars.

In theory they’re correct. In theory. The problem is proving you were passed over. Or that you, personally, were discriminated against.

It would require intervention by government and counting of heads, which gets us back where we were. All the insanity of affirmative action and its mentally slow grandchild “DEI” came about because they assumed people were — or course, individuals being evil and needing the government to force them to behave — discriminating against minorities on the sly. So they came in, counted heads and allowed people to sue if there weren’t the exact same proportion of each race or whatever the company was found to be discriminating.

I don’t need to tell you why this is stupid. Thomas Sowell has done it. I don’t remember any quotes exactly, but I remember his going through various cases of certain groups of immigrants specializing in one thing or another, maybe because the first one got into it, or because other professions are closed to them, or whatever. My friends who used to live in South Africa for instance tell me Portuguese in South Africa used to be most of the owners of vegetable stands. Why? I don’t know and am not doing a deep dive. Beyond that, there are in a country such as the US certain accretions of ethnic characteristics coupled with culture that create a tendency to certain professions in ethnic — or sub ethnic — group.

Completely independent of discrimination, people will gravitate to professions because cousin so and so does it, and they can “see” into it and think they’ll like it. I mean, neither of my kids writes professionally at the moment, but they both have written, and writing professionally might happen in the future, because they learned an awful lot simply by watching me do my work, or hearing me discuss it. (This might actually get more so, as people work at home more.)

Head counting is not proof of discrimination, (well, unless a company or an industry is solidly one race, sex, national origin or for that matter political color) and honestly nothing much is.

DEI forbidden or not will continue, at least until and unless we have 16 years or so when the crazy race-obsessed left doesn’t get a look in. Supposing, of course, they aren’t replaced by the crazy, race obsessed right (much smaller. Like maybe 1% of the right. At least unless you discount foreigners and bots and foreign bots. BUT they do exist, and who knows what the future will bring?) Because right now they’re expecting the left to win the midterms and want to be right with the psychos when they come back in.

But I was thinking of the massive amount of damage this type of discrimination has done to the country.

Let me be clear: Hiring people for any reason other than competence will degrade competence over time. This is because when you hire less than competent people, thy know they’re not competent. And this means they won’t hire people who are more competent than they are, and the cycle degrades competence over time.

But there’s more than that. Think of all the people who were passed over, not knowing why? They will of course assume that they aren’t good enough. And if you can’t figure out why you’re not good enough, it breaks you over time.

Worse, if you know why, but you know you can’t prove it, and if you complain people will assume it’s sour grapes.

So how do we fix it?

We don’t let the race obsessed left get a look in. For this reason as well as many others, it’s very important.

How? I don’t know. Mostly cleaning the voting.

Is it possible, even? I don’t know.

If we lose, yes, we can still come back. But it’s going to cost and it’s going to hurt — more — so…

While we can we must fight in every way we can to make sure the left doesn’t win the mid terms or the general or the other midterms or the other general.

The left must be brought to the point of reforming or dying. For the sake of the republic. And civilization.

TODAY THERE WILL BE NO EXTRAORDINARY BOOK PROMO, BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED A BOOK PROMO WITH YOUR BOOK PROMO SO YOU CAN PROMO WHILE YOU PROMO. THERE WILL, HOWEVER, BE SHAMELESS WRITER SELF-PROMO.

*First of all, a blessed Easter to those celebrating, and for those who celebrated Passover this week, I hope you passed dry shod from slavery to freedom. And now, the promo!- SAH.*

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, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. By clicking through and buying (anything book-related, 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. Remember though all of these submissions are from people willing to be associated with this blog. So if you’re trying to buy from people who don’t hate you, this is a good place to start.– SAH

FROM SARAH A. HOYT, ON PRE-ORDER COMING OUT APRIL 23: Witch’s Daughter

Some letters come from the living. Some come from the dead. This one comes with a formula that turns a rowboat into a miracle.

Seventeen-year-old Lord Michael Ainsling — youngest brother of the Duke of Darkwater, builder of mechanical marvels, survivor of fairyland — receives a letter from a man sixteen years dead. The inventor Tristram Blakley has not perished; he has been imprisoned by his own genius and begs the one mind in all of Avalon brilliant enough to understand his work to set him free. All Michael has to do is find seven missing brothers first and walk a magical path..

Fifteen-year-old Albinia Blakley has spent her whole life under her mother’s iron thumb — and her mother is a witch. The day Al finally escapes down a rope of knotted sheets, she lands in a world she doesn’t recognize, with no money, no magic kit, and no idea that the stranger who catches her is about to become her greatest ally.

Together, a girl with more secrets than she knows and a boy who builds machines that try to murder him must outwit a sorceress, navigate the treacherous courts of Fairyland, and unravel an enchantment years in the making — before a family is lost for good.

Witch’s Daughter is a gaslamp fantasy brimming with wit, warmth, and wonder, for readers who love their magic wrapped in velvet and their adventures served with morning tea.

FROM JOHN BAILEY: The Vesuvius Incident

A scientist has vanished beneath the ice of Europa.

Officially, it was an accident.

Unofficially, she discovered something impossible.

Josef Kellerman is asked to find out which is true.

Posing as a documentary photographer, Josef travels to a remote research station on Jupiter’s frozen moon. His assignment is simple: observe, ask questions, and report back quietly.

But nothing about Europa is quiet.

The missing scientist was studying anomalies in the subsurface ocean—patterns that shouldn’t exist. Structures that shouldn’t be there. Evidence of technology no human has ever built.

Now she’s gone.

And Josef isn’t the only one searching.

As rival factions close in—each with their own plans for the discovery—accidents turn deadly and alliances begin to fracture. The deeper Josef digs, the clearer it becomes:

This was never just a disappearance.

It was a cover-up.

And whatever lies beneath Europa’s ice is too valuable—and too dangerous—to be revealed.

If Josef can’t uncover the truth in time, the discovery could reshape humanity…
or destroy it before it ever reaches the surface.

FROM ROBERT MILLER: Up the Down Beanstalk: Parodies based on the fairytale, Jack and the Beanstalk

UP THE DOWN BEANSTALK

There has to be MORE to the story …
Did you read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and come away with questions?
How young was he, to believe the beans were magic?
Was he bullied into accepting beans in exchange for the cow?
Was he really that gullible? Was he desperate? Or was magic real in his world?
Why did he think it was smart to climb that beanstalk? How far did he climb?
Why didn’t he run when he saw the giants?
What was the giants’ side of the story? Were they bullies, or were they the victims of burglars and swindlers?
What about the golden harp and the goose?

On and on, with every answer generating MORE questions..

We invite you into these pages to explore the MORE our authors found. You’ll be delighted, enchanted, intrigued, and we hope you’ll cheer for our heroes in all their shapes and sizes and motivations.

Brilliant inventors and identity theft. Brutal usurpers and imprisoned princes. Mischievous boys and missing eggs. Curmudgeonly neighbors and rivals. Heroic sheriffs and computer programmers. Liars and thieves and desperate girls risking all for their families.

And MORE.

BY EDMOND HAMILTON, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Hidden World (Annotated): The science fiction classic

Sudden, brilliant towers of light emanate from the Earth at three different points on the Equator, at specific intervals in time! Dr. Kelsall has a theory, that they come from a world inside our own world, and he takes his three comrades to the South American jungle where he predicts the fourth light will appear. But nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared the men for the alien menace they were about to face!

• This iktaPOP Media edition includes a new introduction giving the book cultural and genre context.

FROM KEN LIZZI: Dekason (Twilight Galaxy Book 1)

On the feudal world of Kvasir, lowly armsman Carkston Monitor steals an ancient glider and launches a one-man raid to shatter two enemy armies—hoping to win a baron’s daughter and a seat among the Peerage. His audacious strike succeeds… and utterly ruins a secret plan of the nobility. Banished in disgrace, he’s dumped on the decaying planet Dekason, where stagnant syndicates duel with dueling swords and forbidden electromag pistols.

Now Carkston is done playing by anyone’s rules.

He forges a deadly alliance with an Unsanctioned House, turns rival nobles’ own vendettas against them, and unleashes a whirlwind of sabotage, estate raids, and blazing gunfights that threaten to topple the rotten aristocracy of a dying world.

One outcast. One stolen glider. One chance to seize the stars—or burn both planets down trying.

BY ROBERT J. HORTON, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: The Man of the Desert (Annotated)

It starts with a stampede, and never lets up from there!

• This iktaPOP Media ebook has an introduction by indie author and editor D. Jason Fleming putting the novel into historical and genre context.

FROM DALE COZORT: Through the Wild Gate

Robinette Thornburg, the half-human daughter of ultra-rich Robert Thornburg, thought she was fully human, just weird, for the first twenty-one years of her life. She went to expensive private schools, then Harvard. On her twenty-first birthday, she learned that she was half Mangi, the result of an encounter between her father and a primitive near-human woman from the Wild, an alternate reality North America where primitive humans arrived half a million years ago, but no modern humans ever did.

That was the first she had heard of Mangi or the Wild, closely held secrets of the wealthy families who control Gates to it, but she finds out far more than she wants to about the Wild when mysterious enemies kidnap her and leave her to die in the Wild, naked and weaponless.

Robinette nearly starves before finding her way back to our world through an early, uncontrolled Gate. She vows revenge, but on who? She teams up with Eric Carter, a down on his luck private eye and former bodyguard to her father. The two try to figure out who kidnapped Robinette and why, a quest that takes them through the decadent world of the Gate families, the only law in the Wild. It also takes them back to the Wild and then to a final confrontation with, their lives and the fate of the Wild at stake.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: The Tale of the Crane Princess (Timelines Universe Book 6)

Ordinary, everyday shopkeeper Horiuchi Tsurue is running a little general store and mini-café on a small island in Japan’s inland sea, two centuries after mankind was nearly wiped out by a virus.

One day, Yamaguchi Yukiko, the kamaitachi of legend (The Cross-Time Kamaitachi), and her daughter Mikoko, appear in front of Tsurue’s shop, and she invites them in for tea.

That’s when Tsurue discovers she is anything but ordinary. And in the end, the island she is sworn to protect will depend upon it.

FROM JENNIFER RUST: Dream Not for Sale: How I Chased Riches but Found True Wealth

Desperate to break the humdrum of her life and begin achieving her dreams, a young Jennifer chased riches for years before realizing what she was truly after couldn’t be bought.

In 1994, Jennifer Rust moved to a small town in South Carolina to work as an assistant editor at the local daily paper. Things seemed exciting; her first few months, the only story that splashed over the headlines centered on OJ Simpson.

Glamor fades with time, though, and as a newly-minted late-20s-year-old, Jennifer began to look for an escape out of her grind. She was lonely thanks to her afternoon and evening shift job-not to mention, struggling from paycheck to paycheck with the salary of peanuts from the newspaper.

One day, one of her few friends in town introduced her to an opportunity to make money. Skeptical at first, Jennifer walked away but soon realized she didn’t have much to gamble-and she’d always put trust in betting in herself and her work ethic.

Before long, Jennifer was all in, spending money to make money. At one point she turned her career upside down in the chase for riches. She endured months of rejection, lost friends, and spent thousands of dollars before learning the secret to true wealth. She discovered that dreams are a goal to achieve, not a product to purchase.

Dream Not For Sale is an immersive memoir that reads like a novel about a young woman on a journey to find true happiness. Inspired by true events, the memoir can be compared to any book showing how someone got out of the multi-level marketing business and paid off their debt, learning only the expensive lessons they can teach.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Having a Pint (Liquid Diet Chronicles Book 2)

Even the dead have to make a living…

Meg Turner, vampire accountant and investments advisor, has plenty of living clients, but not many among her fellow undead. That’s about to change: she’s been invited to a regional business fair for her kind. She’ll get to meet and greet more bloodsuckers than she really wanted to (hopefully without having to suck up to any of them). than just the two Vampire cops she helped track down and stake her late, unlamented sire—and hopefully make some friends and answer some questions.

Unfortunately, she’s got a Line Progenitor who’s begun invading her dreams, and a serial killer stalking her future clients to distract her from growing her business. Throw in a sick roommate not long before the conference starts, a mafia messenger boy left on her front porch, and only one car to juggle all of her responsibilities toward her roommate and unexpected guest. And then on top of that, she has the business fair over an hour away that features vampire karaoke, nosy, pushy elder bloodsuckers, and one particular elder who’s friends with her unwelcome dream guest. Seriously, it’s enough to drive her to drink something other than coffee or blood.

Just why did she think this whole conference thing sounded like a good idea, again?

FROM KAREN MYERS: King of the May – A Virginian in Elfland (The Hounds of Annwn Book 3)

Book 3 of The Hounds of Annwn.

MORE VALUABLE AS A WEAPON THAN A KINGMAKER, HE MUST MAKE HIS OWN CHOICES TO SECURE THE FUTURE.

George Talbot Traherne, the human huntsman for the Wild Hunt, had hoped to settle into a quiet life with his new family, but it was not to be. Gwyn ap Nudd, Prince of Annwn, has plans to secure his domain in the new world from the overbearing interference of his father Lludd, the King of Britain.

The security of George’s family is bound to that of his overlord, and he vows to help. But when he and his companions stand against Lludd and his allies at court, disaster overturns all their plans and even threatens the Hounds of Annwn themselves.

George and his patron, the antlered god Cernunnos, must survive a subtle attack that undermines them both. Other gods and gods-to-be have taken an interest, but the fae are divided in their allegiances and fear the threat of deadly new powers in their unchanging lives.

George and his companions must save themselves if they are to persuade their potential allies to help. But how can they do so, attacked on so many fronts at once? Will he put his family into greater jeopardy by trying to defend them?

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Ice Storm

Everywhere Evangeline looks, a thin coating of ice makes objects gleam in the sunlight. However, the beauty proves deceptive, for it hides a deadly secret, one only she can recognize.

In her youth, Evangeline had aspired ot master the powerful magics of her world. Those dreams died the day her Gift awakened uncontrolled and plunged her into a vision of a full fleet battle. The Admiral’s Gift will not be denied, and for Evangeline there was no choice but to trade her mage’s robes for Navy blue.

Now she is faced with an enemy she cannot fight save by magic. Except those who bear the Admiral’s gift are forever barred from working magic.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: No Man’s Land: Volume 1 (Chronicles of Lost Elly)

REVIEW: Review: Sarah Hoyt’s No Man’s Land develops rich tapestry blending SF/fantasy tropes to imagine “first contact” with vast cultural, political and gender differences


Sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.

On a lost colony world, mad geneticists thought they could eliminate inequality by making everyone hermaphrodite. They were wrong. Catastrophically wrong.
Now technology indistinguishable from magic courses through the veins of the inhabitants, making their barbaric civilization survivable—and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Kayel Hayden, Viscount Webson, Envoy of the Star Empire—Skip to his friends— has just crash-landed through a time-space rift into the middle of it all.
Dodging assassins and plummeting from high windows was just the beginning. With a desperate king and an archmagician as his only allies, Scipio must outrun death itself while battling beasts, traitors, and infiltrators bent on finishing what the founders started: total destruction.
Two worlds. One chance. No time to lose.

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: Pass.

*The Amazon links in this post all use my associate’s link, and therefore I earn a small commission from your purchases, at no extra cost to you.

As an FYI, if you signed up on x, we’re not ignoring you. My assistant hasn’t been able to get into her computer that has X on it for these last few days (her husband was fixing it) but that’s solved now, and you’re not being ignored.

I have a list my assistant is compiling of authors to promote who answered the call of responding if they were not afraid of being associated with this blog. I will be post them in the evening, ten at a time. Hopefully you find some new reads. If nothing else, you know these people are fearless. – SAH*

MEET KB CARLISLE

About the author

KB Carlisle is husband, father, panda enthusiast, former time traveler and professional desk chair warmer. If you can’t find him in his office, then you probably won’t find him anywhere because he is most likely lost.

He loves stories of all kinds from fairy tales and folk lore to horror and psychological thrillers and almost everything in between.

His debut novel The Book of Rose won the 2024 Imadjin Award for Best Young Adult Novel.

Check out all of his work at kbcarlisle . com

KB Carlisle would like you to consider his book: The Book of Rose

The world ended. That’s what Rose had always been told when she was a child. Every time she asked why the sky was blue or how apples grew on trees, her grandpa would grin and say, “Because the world ended.”

She never believed that it had actually happened, especially not on the same day that she was born. Even if it were true, the world that ended wasn’t a world she knew.

After all, her world was just beginning.

But when strangers appear on her doorstep, the world Rose knows is turned upside down. As she is introduced to new powers, new beings, and new questions, one thing becomes certain… her story is just getting started.

MEET KARINA FABIAN

Join the multiverse of science fiction, fantasy, the paranormal and the un-normal from the mind of Karina Fabian. Here you will find snarky dragons, slapstick zombies, religious sisters who do dangerous work in space, insane psychics, and more. With books that range from the solidly serious to the happily hysterical, you’ll find adventures to challenge the mind and tickle the funnybone – sometimes both at once.

I’m Karina Fabian, and I’ve been writing science fiction and fantasy since (mumblemuttervagueness). I grew up reading Asimov and Mercedes Lackey and discovered Robert Asprin and Douglas Adams in college. These authors and the influence of my writing friends (especially in the Catholic Writers Guild) have helped me develop my unique style–humor with heart!

After 30+ years of writing and teaching, I’ve compiled my knowledge into a series of guides in print, ebook, and video! Check them out on my Write Boost page.

I’m also a speaker on topics of writing and faith as well as a standup comedian. I’m available for events. Check out my comedian and speaker pages or contact me directly for more information. https://karinafabian.com/

Karina Fabian would like you to consider her book: Gapman: A DragonEye, PI story

When Ron Engleson wakes up with superpowers, he’s determined to do good for the city of Los Lagos. Being the first superhero in the world is hard enough—but on the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds? Forget gang fights and bank thieves—he’s also fighting murder hornets and possessed geese. On top of that, he’s adopted by the local dragon, Vern, who’s under orders to train him up and keep him out of the police’s way. At least there’s a chance for romance with the local reporter—but does she want the man, the hero, or the story?

Join Gapman as he defends his mom against sleazy exes, rescues an ill-tempered chihuahua, and faces mortal danger on the Conveyor Belt of Doom!

“Yes, I’m in this book, but it really is about my padawan. Enjoy.” –Vern

MEET RICK HANNAH

Rick Hannah is living in Central Texas with his beloved wife, Daune, where they make arts & crafts. Rick made the decision between art and writing when he was 18 and decided, when he turned 60, it was past time to write.

He has self-published a collection of Sword & Sorcery stories, “Brysta of the Dawn,” and has had a few short stories published. He has a new collection of interrelated stories in the same genre now out, “The Tears of Arquazel,” Book 1 of “The Siblings.”

He’s currently working on the next book in that series and contemplating producing whimsical animal-based stories (inspired by Kipling’s “Just So Stories”) native to his Texas origins, such as, “Why the Mockingbird Mocks” and “How the Rattlesnake Got Its Rattle” and such like. The short that inspired this idea, “How the Lion Lost Its Spots” is now in search of a home since the publishers who purchased it have decided to shut down.

Rick Hannah would like you to consider his book: The Tears of Arquazel: The Siblings Book 1

10 jewels were fashioned to enhance, protect, extend and heal. 10 jewels for 10 children. Children who must grow up and bear a heavy burden. Warriors, seers, sorcerers, rulers, conquerors… That was The Plan. The earth was recovering. The skies were clearing, the air was warming, life began to burgeon again.But one man saw in a vision that this resumption would spell the end of humanity. Mankind would grow and prosper and then, they would recover the Old Knowledge. The Forbidden Wisdom. Once again they would possess the machines of destruction, and this time, they would finish what they had started so long ago. They would utterly extinguish themselves. All of humanity would perish, a final and complete extinction event. To stop this, the man conceived a mad scheme and planted the seeds for the Siblings, exceptional men and women who would be burdened with a great task, to stop the spread of such knowledge, if only for a time. But The Plan seemed impossible to implement, too many factors beyond the man’s control, chaos warring with his notion of order. And the man had colleagues who broke away and saw his idea as a great evil and would do anything to stop it. And now, in the fracturing of his designs, as the Siblings begin to discover the fate manufactured for them, they will come to a time of choosing. Success will involve death and destruction and hatred for 100 years. Failure could mean annihilation. What path will the Siblings choose?

MEET CAROLINE FURLONG

Stories have captivated Caroline Furlong from early childhood. She considers it a minor miracle that as a child no one ever tripped over the toys she scattered while she set up queens and sent out heroes on quests. Reading meant that the toys got taken out less, and when it came to writing at thirteen or fourteen they were put away for good.

But she continues to dream up realms and heroes, monsters and androids. They are her toys now, parading across paper rather than a carpet. The slightest suggestion – a word, a movie, a flower, or a ship – can bring a new story to mind. So, where there are dragons that talk and spaceships to fly, that’s where she will be.

Her novelette “Halcyon” appeared as the cover story for Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense’s Summer Special. The story was the focus of John DeNardo’s appraisal of the Special for Kirkus Reviews. One of her short stories was the first entry in DAOwen Publications’ Unbound III: Goodbye Earth anthology. She is also a contributor at The Mind at War, The Everyman Commentary, and Tuscany Bay Books’ blog. Her poetry appeared in Dragon Soul Press’ Organic Ink, Volume 2 anthology, and two of her stories have appeared in Planetary Anthology: Luna and Uranus. Another story by her appeared in Cirsova Summer Issue 2020. She has been published in Ember Journal and Cirsova Magazines 2021 Summer Issue. Her series, The Guardian Cycle, is available for purchase in ebook and paperback on Amazon.

Caroline enjoys history, reading, writing, swimming, traveling, astronomy, and classic cars.  She lives in south central Virginia, U.S.A. https://carolinefurlong.wordpress.com/

Caroline would like you to consider her book: Contact: Angeles

While removing a prototype sensor from the prow of her new Alliance battleship, the Ausa, Captain Elizabeth Goodwin and her crew encounter a setback when one of the engineers sent to remove and stow the device is injured in an accident. Before the other engineer can help the man, the two are surrounded by amoeboid creatures which seem immune to the effects of vacuum.

Thought to be hallucinations experienced by early spacers who had been alone in deep space too long, these creatures – known as “angel fish” – startle the crew by their sudden appearance. Despite her misgivings, Goodwin allows three of the aliens to be taken aboard for study. But less than an hour after the aliens have been brought on the ship, one of Goodwin’s men is killed and another is seriously wounded.

Her search for both the murderer and the escaped “angels” soon leads to a disturbing revelation. Eventually, Goodwin must decide which threat is greater: an old enemy of the Alliance, or the fabled “angels” encountered by the first explorers from Terra.

MEET FRANK HOOD

When I graduated college I wanted to be a great writer like Shakespeare, Bradbury, Hardy, or Heinlein. Five years later and $14 richer off my writing career, I decided I needed a career that put food on the table as well. My wife, a chemist and wonderful writer herself (S. T. Gaffney) reminded me of my interest in Remote Sensing, and I spent 40 years as a software engineer with a career spanning punch cards to artificial intelligence. Now I’m back to my original career. I mostly write SF, but I write on whatever comes to mind on my own website at https://frank-hood.com and on more technical stuff at my LinkedIn site https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-hood-b708588/.

Frank Hood would like you to consider his book: Advance Guards

A young man and woman abandon a near-future Los Angeles that is so addicted to technology that human needs are met at the cost of everyone’s humanity. After 40 years in the wilderness that has been abandoned by the population, the family they raised returns to the city one by one to either revolutionize the dying city or be consumed by its seductive allure. Does all hope rest on their youngest son?


“Seth, everything I have, and everything I am, I now bequeath to you. Do you understand?”

“Yes Father,” Samuel managed to stammer despite his father’s mistaking him for his eldest brother, the brother he had never met, the brother that had died before any of his siblings were even born, the brother that had never had the chance to grow up.

“Take care of your mother. She’s your responsibility now.”

MEET DAN LANE

Dan is a departure for this set, since he doesn’t publish on Amazon. but all of us who’ve read the adventures of Nastycat, Neighborcat, Othercat and Doofus knows exactly why I’m including his link to Royal Road here.

Guys, this man can WRITE!

You should probably check out Dan Lane’s current serial on Royal Road: Dr. Z’s Zombie Apocalypse

MEET MACKEY CHANDLER

Mackey (Mac’) Chandler retired to Rochester, Michigan from a working life that spanned a large number of occupations. Mold maker, aerospace machinist, plumber, mechanic and dozen more as well as owning several businesses. In 2022 the Chandler family relocated to Winston Salem, NC to be near relatives and no longer deal with Michigan winters.

A life long time reader of Science Fiction, the authors at Baen’s Bar and their evening chat room motivated him to try his own hand at writing. His first effort was a short story titled “Common Ground” which sold to the short-lived Jim Baen’s Universe.

“Paper or Plastic” was his first Kindle book. Two series have been added starting with “April” and the second series starting with “Family Law”. The series have merged and continue to grow together. Limited print and audio books are available.

Other stand alone books and shorts bring current publications to twenty-nine.

His personal favorite book is “The Mote in God’s Eye” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Other favorite authors include Lee & Miller, and C.J.Cherryh.

Mac’ blog is at: http://mackeychandler.com

All Mac’s books are DRM free. I respect my readers and don’t assume they are thieves.

Mackey Chandler would like you to consider his book: April (April series Book 1)

April is an exceptional young lady and something of a snoop. After a chance encounter with a spy, she finds herself involved with political intrigues that stretch her abilities. There is a terrible danger she, and her friends and family, will lose the only home she has ever known, and be forced to live on the slum ball Earth below. It’s more than an almost fourteen year old should have to deal with. Fortunately she has a lot of smart friends and allies. It’s a good thing because things get very rough and dicey. They challenge the political status quo, and with a small population the only advantage they have in war is a thin technological edge. The entire “April” series is building towards a merge with the future series that starts with “Family Law”.

MEET CELIA HAYES

I grew up in a far suburb of Los Angeles, the oldest in a family of four children, the offspring of a research biologist and an artist in stained glass, which eccentric family experience formed the basis for my first book a memoir “Our Grandpa Was An Alien” (Booklocker, 2004) after I had written many, many short accounts of growing up in mid-century suburbia.

After earning a professionally useless degree in English Literature (California State University Northridge, 1976) an un-slaked taste for adventure, foreign travel (and a regular paycheck) led me to enlist in the United States Air Force, where I trained as a radio and television broadcast specialist, and served for twenty years in places as various as Greece, Spain, Japan, Korea, Greenland and Ogden, Utah, in a wide assortment of duties and pleasures which included midnight alt-rock DJ, TV news anchor, video-production librarian, radio and television writer and producer, production manager, tour guide and driving a bright orange Volvo sedan from Athens to Zaragoza, Spain, accompanied only by a small and cranky child.

I retired from the Air Force in 1997, and began working for various small firms in San Antonio as an office manager, administrative assistant and executive secretary. By 2002, I had become exceedingly bored with all that, and leapt at an invitation to became a regular contributor to a military-oriented weblog, “Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Brief” (now “The Daily Brief”). The build-up to Desert Storm had begun, and my daughter was serving as an active-duty Marine. Writing for the blog was an outlet for me and I wrote anything and everything; essays and commentary on matters historical, personal, political, cultural, literary and military.

One thing led to another, and with the encouragement of various blog-fans, I got hooked on writing historical fiction. I brought out “To Truckee’s Trail” in 2006; that’s the story of the first ever wagon-train party to bring wagons over the Sierra Nevada, which marked the opening of the California Trail. The Adelsverein Trilogy followed, which was originally going to be just a single book, but the experiences of the German settlers in Texas became so interesting to me, and there was so much non-fiction about them that it ran to three books, and I wasn’t even finished at that. As it turned out, there are another three books, relating to some of the secondary characters in the Trilogy; Daughter of Texas and Deep in the Heart – about early Texas, the war for independence, the Alamo and the eventful decade of the Republic of Texas. My latest book, the Quivera Trail is sort of a sequel to the Trilogy, dealing with the adventures of two young Englishwomen who arrive in Texas in 1876.

Besides historical novels, I review books and movies for PODBRAM and for the Amazon Vine program, and contribute to several blogs and on-line discussion groups. I currently live in San Antonio with my daughter and an assortment of dogs and cats, and travel within Texas doing lectures and talks about my follow-up novel series, the Adelsverein Trilogy. I’m on FB as Celia Hayes, and my website is http://www.celiahayes.com/

Celia Hayes would like you to consider her book: The Golden Road (Adelsverein)

Sixteen year old Fredi Steinmetz longed for adventure and riches. What better way to find both than to follow the Gold Rush from Texas to California, But he didn’t reckon on bandits, and robbers, gold in the riverbanks, murder in the streets of San Francisco and the saloons of Moke Hill, a rich cache under a half-dead pine tree on the North Fork, of Mormons and gold-miners, fugitive Fenians, and the Lotta Crabtree, the Faery Star dancing under a glittering golden rain thrown on stage The wild west was never wilder.

MEET LAUREN RITZ

Lauren Ritz started writing at the age of six with a journal entry about an alien flying through her bedroom window and landing on her wall. She would have started earlier, but she was handicapped by the fact that she couldn’t draw well enough.

After years of dabbling in this and that (making a living on the side) Lauren decided to settle down to writing full time.

You can find Lauren online, or in her garden.

Lauren Ritz would like you to consider her book: DemonTaint (Demons Bay)

Lady Motsu Inata disappeared from her father’s House years ago. Found by a nameless woman in a cottage that moves from place to place each night while they sleep, Lady Inata struggles to raise and care for children who are not her own and who never seem to age in a timeless solitude that becomes more and more dangerous as time passes—time that the woman, with the evil of the Demons Bay deep in her eyes, would deny entirely if she could. Kobi Sibir has returned from her two years of service to the blod. She was given one instruction by the Administrators–find out how many non-human ameso there are so that the “infestation” can be contained. Kobi begins a journey toward the Demons Bay that the semi-aquatic ameso call home. Toward the cottage. Like all evil things, the Demons Bay must either own what is good, or destroy it.

MEET NATHAN BISSONETTE

I grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota at a time when Moms made homes and read bedtime stories, cars had no seatbelts, kids rode bicycles to shoot .22’s in the town dump, and we didn’t come home ’til the street lights came on. It was an idyllic childhood. I’m grateful to have had it.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy yourself.

Nathan Bissonette would like you to consider his book: Kobold and Centaur

Worst Prom date ever. Steph only went with Sam because nobody else asked her. Besides, it was just for Prom, right? It wasn’t forever. But that was before the little man with pointed ears handed them enchanted scrolls that sent them out of this world. Now she’s stuck in far from home wearing a different body. Can Steph and Sam make it back in time to save the planet and everyone on it? And can they do it without getting killed? Or killing each other?

MEET JEFF DUNTEMANN

I am a writer, editor, technologist and contrarian living in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although I’ve worked as a programmer, I’ve been in the technical publishing industry (both magazines and books) from 1985 until I retired in 2015. I co-founded Coriolis Group Books in 1989 and ran editorial until the company closed in 2002. Most of my book-length work has been on computer technology. (See ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE STEP BY STEP and LEARN COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE WITH RASPBERRY PI, as well as many more titles now out of print but available used.)

In my spare time I’m an amateur radio operator (callsign K7JPD), amateur astronomer, and SF writer. My first SF novel, THE CUNNING BLOOD, appeared in 2005 but I have been selling SF stories to magazines and anthologies for over 50 years, and was on the final Hugo Awards ballot in 1981.I now have seven volumes of SF and fantasy on KDP Select, plus a collection of my short nonfiction and miscellaneous works, and a middle-school romance.

My wife Carol and I met in high school and have been married for 48 years. We live in Scottsdale, with one Bichon Frise dog.

*If you’ve never come across his fiction, Jeff comes with a personal recommendation from me – Sarah A. Hoyt*

Jeff Duntemann would like you to consider his book: Drumlin Circus / On Gossamer Wings

A starship malfunctions and strands its 800 passengers on a planet eerily like the Pleistocene Earth, complete with prehistoric mammals including woolly mammoths, dire wolves, and smilodons. And something else: tens of thousands of abandoned alien machines consisting of a bowl and two pillars that respond with drum-like sounds when touched. Tap 256 times on the pillars in any combination, and…something…coalesces in the bowl. It might be a spoon or an axe or a twisted lump of silvery metal. These artifacts (dubbed “drumlins”) help the unwilling colonists survive, but there’s something a little weird about what comes out of the “thingmaker” machines. High-pitched sounds sometimes make drumlins twitch and combine into more complex things. Stranger still, what drumlins do seems to depend on the thoughts of nearby humans. Wish hard while you whistle just so…and something amazing may happen. 260 years on, the castaways have created a civilization resembling late 19th Century America, based in part on coal, steam, iron, and hard work–and in part on the mysterious drumlin artifacts. Both short novels in this volume are set against this background.

Drumlin Circus: Every spring, Bramble Ceglarek takes Pretty Alice’s Wonderland Circus down the dirt roads of the west country, dazzling townfolk with clowns, acrobats, calliope music, and trained animals — especially trained animals. His wife Julia trains them with a drumlin whistle, and they obey with peculiar precision. The cultlike Bitspace Institute, hoping to train animal assassins, sends agent Simon Kassel to steal the whistle. Unknown to him, Kassel has been set up to fail by his Institute rivals who want to be rid of him, and after Julia and her apprentice Rosa are abducted by Institute thugs who attempt to kill him, Kassel switches loyalties and joins the circus as a very scary clown. He returns to Institute HQ to rescue Julia and Rosa, only to discover that the training whistle is much more than merely a whistle: a mysterious “function controller” that compels animals, human beings, and even the alien drumlin artifacts themselves to obey its bearer.

On Gossamer Wings: From out in the dry rye fields of the west, rumors have come to the Bitspace Institute that someone has drummed up something valuable from the alien thingmakers: a large sphere of pure iron. Institute agent Hiram König rides out to investigate, and discovers the strange, mute young woman who has done the drumming. He also learns that the Big Ball of Iron is just the beginning of the previously unknown drumlins that she has discovered in the vast “bitspace” of the alien thingmakers. Despite the slow progress of technology in the Valeron colony, where steam locomotives and the first primitive hydrogen airships are state of the art, Natalie Bishop is using her talents with the thingmakers to seek out the drumlin parts she needs to build a heavier-than-air flying machine. For her, the flier is her masterpiece, the work that will prove her worth to the people she cares about. The race is on for König to extract Natalie from the pressure-cooker of a small town that is her home, before it blows up around her and before she takes the dazzlingly risky final step and tries to fly.