According To Hoyt

What light through yonder window breaks? It’s the sun! The SUN. Evil Daystar.

Good morning!

THE GOAL IS $50,000

the counter stands at: $$18,515.68 (Updated at least every 8 hours, more often if i happen to be here.)

IT ENDS JULY 16TH.

NOTE: It’s moving slow, slow, slow s-l-o-w. I’ll be honest, I’ve kind of suspected the goal was unattainable, not because you’re not the kindest, best, most generous of fans (you are, you are.) BUT because times are ridiculous, and also you saved my butt to a much higher tune just seven months ago.

At least it’s not $20 :)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED.

It should be enough, if we reach, say, half to get some help around here. I’ve already organized someone to collate and proof my essays so I can release them, which was part of my goal in this. Um… Maybe I should explain all that.

The Driving Force Behind This:

We are not in trouble. At least no more than normal. In fact, we’re a little more secure than we’ve been.

But for years now — years — my family and friends (including the late, great, much missed Dr. Pournelle) have told me I should run a fundraiser for my blog, since it’s a time-sink extraordinaire, and often gets in the way of fiction. (Some of my friends, you know who you are, told me to give it up so I can concentrate on the fiction because that makes me happier — no, not you. Someone else, years ago — but since I seem unable to, I should at least fund it.)

This sounds strange but my family’s condition to let me do the “save our butts” appeal was that henceforth I should either rattle the cup all the time or have a July fundraiser. Because it was their contention I wouldn’t have been in the situation I was without refusing to fundraise.

What I hope to accomplish?

I’ve been startlingly unproductive for the last few years. And every time I get actually going I seem to get too sick or exhausted to finish.

It took me a while — I’m kind of dumb, I won’t lie — to realize it’s because I’m trying to do at least three jobs at once: this blog, writing fiction and then publishing for me and my family (it’s like juggling live hedgehogs.) This without counting the every day business of living, like litter boxes, making dinner…. that sort of thing.

My hopes for 50k is that I would get enough to hire someone to collate and clean up my articles so I can publish six or seven books of them (under According 2 Hoyt, to prevent confusion with my fiction.)

I also want to hire someone to design and create an author website for me (in case you haven’t noticed it sucks small hairy animals) and to design and create Azounding, which will be reborn as a website to link, promote, and publicize writers to the right of Lenin. (Someone to do data entry would help, but eh.) If that person also could do things like update my blog links and widgets it would be a major bonus, since those are like three years out of date. (It’s a time sink because my mind doesn’t bend that way.)

The stretch goal was to get some of my books translated and see if they sell in other languages. (I’ll be honest, the Three Musketeers in Portuguese probably won’t pay much, but I’d like my dad to be able to read the book I dedicated to him.)

And maybe hire some people to do audio for my indie books, like Witchfinder and Rhodes. I don’t know if they would pay, but I’m willing to risk a couple of them.

So, what I want to do with money donated to the business is put it to work for the business. And then with the additional money, maybe hire a part-time assistant, so all I do IS write: blog or fiction.

BUT any money is a start, and I might be able to get some of it done, anyway. It will just take careful management and a little more time. That’s fine, and I’m immensely grateful to all those who donate/ed.

THE INCENTIVES AND TIERS:

Tier 1– $10 or more – A shout out on my blog, all with all other the supporters, by name, in one massive “Thank you” post. [Jokey or offensive names will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 2– $25 or more – Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

Tier 3– $60 or more – Exclusive ebook collection of USAian stories. (Including a new, original, never published story.) Estimated delivery August 2023

Tier 4– $100 or more – Your name will appear in a mass death/other mass event/list in one of Sarah’s books. [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.]

Tier 5– $150 or more – A sound file of Sarah saying “Moose and Squirrel.”

Tier 6 – $250 or more – Will send a signed copy of trade paperback Gentleman takes a chance and one large postcard with book covers, also signed. (USPS- continental US only. All others, let’s talk.) [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 7 – $350 or more – Three signed books (of our choice), plus two extra items from “Sarah’s Garage”, (also of our choice) which might very well be a small rubber fish. (You’ve been warned.) USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 8 – $500 or more – Personalized tuckerization. You will become your very own zany character, with at least a line or two of dialogue, and physical description. Physical safety and life of character not guaranteed. If you perish, it will NOT (repeat not) be in a mass death event or a list of other kinds.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 9 – $1000 or more – A CHOICE OF:

Option 1 -Will read the first 10 pages and outline of your novel and provide timely critique, with the understanding that I am not infallible. (A skype, zoom or other video call to discuss the work for an hour or so.) [estimated delivery Winter 2022 – Spring 2023]

Option 2 – Large box of ten signed books, plus items ranging from a con badge, to a mini dinosaur skeleton or a print of Sarah’s original art, or other items from Sarah’s garage. USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Option 3 – Signed copy of Sarah’s old copyedited or page-proof manuscripts. [estimated delivery Fall 2022] (5 limit.)

Tier 10 – $5000 or more – You will become a major character on one of my books, and I’ll try to reflect your appearance, and chosen personality.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion. You don’t get to have someone else be an offensive character. (Sorry!) Your actions will be altered to serve the plot if needed.] – Limit 5. (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

Tier Insane – $25000 or more – My husband and I will travel to a city in the continental US and have dinner with you and your plus one.  (Continental US only.) – Limit ONE. [Delivery up to July 2023.] (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

ALL TIERS INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS TIERS EXCEPT FOR THOSE THAT ARE NUMBER LIMITED.

If you want to be thanked/mentioned by a name different from your regular one, please email to: bookpimping at outlook dot com.

TO DONATE:

DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS (The previous words are a link!)

FOR CHECK DONATIONS:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

THIS IS PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG. THE DAILY POST WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS.

The picture below is not my best work. I was hoping to do another one today, but I woke up late. At any rate, it is released under creative commons, so if you want to you can improve on it.

At any rate, this is my thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and my incentive to the others for putting up with the dog and pony show!

This Picture was created by Sarah A. Hoyt and is released under CC BY

CC BY-active link to explain rights.

Today I was browsing through stock image sites, looking for something vaguely surreal that would fit the cover of a collection of Older Son’s short stories we hope to release next week.

I’m having a little difficulty, as I always have with any short story collection — even my own — that doesn’t have a well-defined theme. And there’s the fact that this collection, starting when older son was about 12 and containing twelve years or so of stories, is… odd, because older son writes from abolished and possibly extinguished angles.

So I was trying to figure out something that suggests a surreal reality and is pretty for a cover.

But all the pictures under surreal or strange are what I class as “My eyes, my eyes.”

The best are just subtly unsettling horror, with someone holding eyeballs or something. The worst are seriously bizarre and fall under the principle of “meaty skulls with snakes.” even if that’s not what they actually have on them.

And suddenly I had a moment when there was a scream at the back of my head: “I’m tired of ugly.”

I have no idea why, but in art, be it writing or painting, or whatever you can create, ugly, disturbing and emotionally icky has been considered “cool” and “artistic” and “deep” for as long as I’ve been alive.

Are there disturbing or slightly scary pictures (or books) that are artistic and interesting, but must the majority of art be ugly, off-putting, and suck a little bit of joy out of the world.

And I know the temptation in myself. I had to overcome it, time and again over the years. It was the worst thing that literature classes did to me. Honorable characters straightforward plots, nice settings were all “trite” or “shallow” and you had to deep dive into horrible stuff to make it “Weighty and good and important”.

Look, I’m not talking about not making your characters suffer, as the fear beginning writers have. Of course, they have to go to trials to have the reward, otherwise the story is soup.

I’m talking about having your characters suffer and hurt and strive to something, but then at the last minute have their goal turn to ashes in their mouths, and nothing meant anything anyway. It’s writing the story of a space colony for 80k words, only to kill everyone off in the end. (No, I don’t remember who wrote that, but it was among the very few works of science fiction my professors lauded.)

It’s the character achieving her happily ever after halfway through the book, and then cheat on her husband, ignore her kids, and consider herself empowered.

It is taking something that could maybe be beautiful and make it dark and ugly for no particular reason.

Dark and ugly has a place. There is no full panoply without light AND dark, but why is the dark and twisted valued above the uplifting and interesting and beautiful? What is the point of it? Why should it be considered “better” or “more daring?”

I mean, I know the drive to deconstruct everything that society values, which is partly rooted in the romantics, and partly well, Marxist bullshit, because if they destroy normal society the Marxist paradise will happen, or something.

But how far are we going to let it go? And when will we wake up and say “No. That’s objectively ugly and I’m tired of ugliness?”

It’s time to start.

Before I start this, because I have a lot of friends who are experts in their fields, and might perhaps be somewhat startled, let me explain.

I respect experts in their given fields. At my age, I’d like to say I’m an expert in mine. Well, in the spinning of tales, at least. The fiction publishing field has changed so dramatically since I first started pounding on its doors back in the eighties, that it seems like every five years there’s a new way to get in and to make it big. And it even works, one time in ten.

It reminds me of what someone said on the comic panel back at Liberty Con “There really isn’t a way to get in” [understood as breaking in and getting substantial following] with the agreed and implied supplement “But people do anyway.” Because people are people.

As for blogging, it seems to be something I do upside down and sideways, as I do most things.

But in more knowledge-based and stable fields, a lot of people my age have valuable and important experience. Perhaps not on how to get grants from government (that apparently changes too) but on how to do the thing. I’m not disparaging them. There are a lot of professionals who know “the right way to do x”.

A lot of this was already lost between my parents’ generation and mine, so mine was thrown into the world knowing a lot of high fallutin’ blather, and none of the basics of whatever field. This is because in the sixties and seventies blather trumped the nitpicky stuff of any field.

Most of us have made up that deficiency and worked like mad to “do the best we can”. Now things like increased longevity and the fact my generationette (Kate Paulk calls us generation pooper scooper, that awkward bit between oh 58 and 75 or so.) worked far too much trying to make up what we didn’t know and build anew, we also failed to pass that on, and the millenials are struggling as we were.

So, real expertise is… real, and valuable and important.

That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is the fatal intersection of expertise and bureaucracy, where the “experts” are mostly experts not in the field but in getting grants for nothing much, and making high sounding pronouncements that amount to balderdash. A side order of irreproducible studies is pretty much de-rigueur these days.

The fields notorious for this are also the most powerful: From “social science” (the first word is the most operative, and it’s in the order of a social disease) to trying to cobble together a field from other sciences, in a subject matter we don’t know enough about: “Earth Science” being the prime culprit.

Part of the problem is that, contrary to the dreams of… well, most science fiction writers, but most people since the renaissance, to be honest, there is no such thing as an all purpose genius.

This was more or less possible in the renaissance, because the fields of knowledge were so much smaller, and even then we tend to know each of them for the field they most influenced, not the other ten they played around with. These days, that kind of pan-knowledge is almost impossible. You can get enough knowledge your eyes don’t cross when the experts explain, is about it.

And so we get to “Climate experts” who have the reins of bureaucracy but who really know nothing of … well, how people live.

From how food grows to how human beings actually live and function, these people are functionally mentally damaged.

So, things like trying to reduce nitrogen (well, carbon was not playing as they hoped) seems like a great idea to them, and if people have to starve to achieve it so be it.

And we get pronouncements like that Joe Biden is just like the founding fathers a visionaire, because he’s trying to force us to use sources of energy that don’t exist under any possible science. Because that’s how much of a visionaire he is. (Sighs.)

Or how high gas prices is super important to the new “liberal” world order, by which they mean the demented nightmares of DAVOS, which intend to crowd us all into big cities, feed us bugs and make us own nothing.

They have no idea how economies work, where food comes from (Bugs pound per pound consume more material than cows) or the fact that most of us would rather ride wood-powered cars than submit to their nonsense.

The “experts” are in fact no such thing. They are, rather, obsessives, who hit one single note on the mental piano, and think that is the entire range of sound. This when they’re not Stalin wanna bes, surveying the panorama of eggs to break without achieving a single omelet. Or hysterics, who chicken-little-like think that the sky is falling and only the falling sky matters, as they run around telling us to think of the children they never had and never will have, and trying to destroy the children alive today.

Fortunately, in most of the world — not even just here — people are starting to realize that “expert” is a shorter way to say “Delusional dumbass” and the regulations these delusional nematodes issue are being fought back or laughed at.

It’s going to get rough because they’re holding buckle and tongue to their power to prevent us from getting say nuclear energy, or drilling the oil we do have in abundance.

But the crash we all can see coming (Probably starting this fall) is the bucket of cold water our civilization needs before the unholy marriage of “expertise” and bureaucracy is dissolved.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. You have to stay alive to fight this.

And be not afraid. In the end we win, they lose. And the world will maybe make a little more sense.

THE GOAL IS $50,000

the counter stands at: 16,323.94(Updated at least every 8 hours, more often if i happen to be here.)

IT ENDS JULY 16TH.

The Short Version Of Why I’m Doing This: I started the blog to promote my writing. It did that a little, but mostly it’s its own thing. I have fans for the blog and fans for the fiction, and never the twain shall meet.

After years of friends (including Jerry Pournelle, and no I never did it in his lifetime) telling me I should do a fundraiser or rattle the tin cup after every post, I realized that while I love the blog and don’t intend to give it up, it’s eating my life and to an extent my fiction writing because there’s only so many hours in the day.

So…. I decided to do a fundraiser, so I can hire people to do some of the other stuff that must be done, so I can blog, write, and not be so sleep deprived that sometimes, inexplicably, I go down for fifteen hours of sleep without planning it.

For the fuller explanation etc, look here: TANSTAAFL DAY 1- In Which The Writer Tries to Fund the Blog.

THE INCENTIVES AND TIERS:

Tier 1– $10 or more – A shout out on my blog, all with all other the supporters, by name, in one massive “Thank you” post. [Jokey or offensive names will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 2– $25 or more – Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

Tier 3– $60 or more – Exclusive ebook collection of USAian stories. (Including a new, original, never published story.) Estimated delivery August 2023 (SHORT STORIES NOT THE BOOKS!)

Tier 4– $100 or more – Your name will appear in a mass death/other mass event/list in one of Sarah’s books. [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.]

Tier 5– $150 or more – A sound file of Sarah saying “Moose and Squirrel.”

Tier 6 – $250 or more – Will send a signed copy of trade paperback Gentleman takes a chance and one large postcard with book covers, also signed. (USPS- continental US only. All others, let’s talk.) [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 7 – $350 or more – Three signed books (of our choice), plus two extra items from “Sarah’s Garage”, (also of our choice) which might very well be a small rubber fish. (You’ve been warned.) USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 8 – $500 or more – Personalized tuckerization. You will become your very own zany character, with at least a line or two of dialogue, and physical description. Physical safety and life of character not guaranteed. If you perish, it will NOT (repeat not) be in a mass death event or a list of other kinds.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 9 – $1000 or more – A CHOICE OF:

Option 1 -Will read the first 10 pages and outline of your novel and provide timely critique, with the understanding that I am not infallible. (A skype, zoom or other video call to discuss the work for an hour or so.) [estimated delivery Winter 2022 – Spring 2023]

Option 2 – Large box of ten signed books, plus items ranging from a con badge, to a mini dinosaur skeleton or a print of Sarah’s original art, or other items from Sarah’s garage. USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Option 3 – Signed copy of Sarah’s old copyedited or page-proof manuscripts. [estimated delivery Fall 2022] (5 limit.)

Tier 10 – $5000 or more – You will become a major character on one of my books, and I’ll try to reflect your appearance, and chosen personality.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion. You don’t get to have someone else be an offensive character. (Sorry!) Your actions will be altered to serve the plot if needed.] – Limit 5. (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

Tier Insane – $25000 or more – My husband and I will travel to a city in the continental US and have dinner with you and your plus one.  (Continental US only.) – Limit ONE. [Delivery up to July 2023.] (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

ALL TIERS INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS TIERS EXCEPT FOR THOSE THAT ARE NUMBER LIMITED.

If you want to be thanked/mentioned by a name different from your regular one, please email to: bookpimping at outlook dot com.

TO DONATE:

DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS (The previous words are a link!)

FOR CHECK DONATIONS:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

THIS IS PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG. THE DAILY POST WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS.

The picture below is not my best work. I was hoping to do another one today, but I woke up late. At any rate, it is released under creative commons, so if you want to you can improve on it.

At any rate, this is my thank you to everyone who has donated so far, and my incentive to the others for putting up with the dog and pony show!

CC BY-active link to explain rights.

THE GOAL IS $50,000

the counter stands at: $13,417.16(Updated at least every 8 hours, more often if i happen to be here.)

IT ENDS JULY 16TH.

The Short Version Of Why I’m Doing This: I started the blog to promote my writing. It did that a little, but mostly it’s its own thing. I have fans for the blog and fans for the fiction, and never the twain shall meet.

After years of friends (including Jerry Pournelle, and no I never did it in his lifetime) telling me I should do a fundraiser or rattle the tin cup after every post, I realized that while I love the blog and don’t intend to give it up, it’s eating my life and to an extent my fiction writing because there’s only so many hours in the day.

So…. I decided to do a fundraiser, so I can hire people to do some of the other stuff that must be done, so I can blog, write, and not be so sleep deprived that sometimes, inexplicably, I go down for fifteen hours of sleep without planning it.

For the fuller explanation etc, look here: TANSTAAFL DAY 1- In Which The Writer Tries to Fund the Blog.

THE INCENTIVES AND TIERS:

Tier 1– $10 or more – A shout out on my blog, all with all other the supporters, by name, in one massive “Thank you” post. [Jokey or offensive names will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 2– $25 or more – Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

Tier 3– $60 or more – Exclusive ebook collection of USAian stories. (Including a new, original, never published story.) Estimated delivery August 2023

Tier 4– $100 or more – Your name will appear in a mass death/other mass event/list in one of Sarah’s books. [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.]

Tier 5– $150 or more – A sound file of Sarah saying “Moose and Squirrel.”

Tier 6 – $250 or more – Will send a signed copy of trade paperback Gentleman takes a chance and one large postcard with book covers, also signed. (USPS- continental US only. All others, let’s talk.) [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 7 – $350 or more – Three signed books (of our choice), plus two extra items from “Sarah’s Garage”, (also of our choice) which might very well be a small rubber fish. (You’ve been warned.) USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 8 – $500 or more – Personalized tuckerization. You will become your very own zany character, with at least a line or two of dialogue, and physical description. Physical safety and life of character not guaranteed. If you perish, it will NOT (repeat not) be in a mass death event or a list of other kinds.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 9 – $1000 or more – A CHOICE OF:

Option 1 -Will read the first 10 pages and outline of your novel and provide timely critique, with the understanding that I am not infallible. (A skype, zoom or other video call to discuss the work for an hour or so.) [estimated delivery Winter 2022 – Spring 2023]

Option 2 – Large box of ten signed books, plus items ranging from a con badge, to a mini dinosaur skeleton or a print of Sarah’s original art, or other items from Sarah’s garage. USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Option 3 – Signed copy of Sarah’s old copyedited or page-proof manuscripts. [estimated delivery Fall 2022] (5 limit.)

Tier 10 – $5000 or more – You will become a major character on one of my books, and I’ll try to reflect your appearance, and chosen personality.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion. You don’t get to have someone else be an offensive character. (Sorry!) Your actions will be altered to serve the plot if needed.] – Limit 5. (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

Tier Insane – $25000 or more – My husband and I will travel to a city in the continental US and have dinner with you and your plus one.  (Continental US only.) – Limit ONE. [Delivery up to July 2023.] (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

ALL TIERS INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS TIERS EXCEPT FOR THOSE THAT ARE NUMBER LIMITED.

If you want to be thanked/mentioned by a name different from your regular one, please email to: bookpimping at outlook dot com.

TO DONATE:

DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS (The previous words are a link!)

FOR CHECK DONATIONS:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

THIS IS PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG. THE DAILY POST WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS.

CC BY-active link to explain rights.

This year is my first year in what a local friend calls “Free America.” As in “Welcome to Free America.”

My heart will always be in Colorado, but over the years, the fireworks have gotten smaller and smaller, and any excuse will do to cancel them.

Just about the best shows were in Manitou Springs, where the fire department would go door to door for donations, and buy fireworks depending on how much they got. When one of our friends gave them a lot of money, the show went on FOREVER.

Our house had a balcony facing the mountain, and all our friends gathered there for the fourth. When the show was over, we’d start singing the Star Spangled Banner. Sometimes the firemen yelled back “You can’t sing.” Which to be fair was true, but we couldn’t sing with LOTS of gusto.

But the last several years have been only “city put on” displays, and kind of blah. A little blah. when they weren’t entirely cancelled.

Until– Well…

I did say my friend said “Welcome to Free America?” Right?

It started three days ago. Zip bang bang bang.

Our yard is excessively wooded, so we only see the faintest glimmer through the green, but there’s a lot of glimmers, all over. Like…. inextinguishable freedom. Here and there, a glimmer in the trees.

We sat out on the back porch for about an hour. Bang bang ban. Shimmer shimmer shimmer. For about a glorious half hour our neighbor across the street put on the best display I’ve seen in a long time. (This is not to put down our neighbors last year, who had kids running around, singing and setting off sparklers, while carrying the flag and waving it. I mean, they were marines. But there wasn’t a firework display.)

And I told my husband “I’ve never seen anyone in any other country do this for their country’s day. Not… regular people, on the street, putting off firepworks displays and waving the flag, and being enthusiastic.”

To be fair, although the rest of the west is catching up, there are also few other country governments who have such undisguised disdain and hatred for their own land.

So, here we are. Our government might want to destroy the country. (And be making great inroads.)

But America, the real America, the America of the American people is not destroyed or under siege. America, the real America remembers what we are and for what we are.

And we light up the nights with fireworks, and make freedom ring loudly.

We’re not done. They can’t take us out, and they can’t succeed. We can, but we’re going to have to endure the crazy stuff they throw at us, first.

In the end, though, we win, they lose.

And in the meanwhile, we can make the bombs burst in air, and show them that, yes, our flag is still there.

This year, as every year, thank you guys for allowing me to join this singular nation, this self-chosen people, the oddities, the freedom lovers, the unexpected ones.

Thank you for allowing me to join the Freedom-lovers gang.

And now I’m going to celebrate.

Book promo

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction.

*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving” led, and apply the usual cautions to buying. – SAH*

NOTE TODAY I’M ONLY PROMOTING THE BOOKS AMAZON LETS ME GET THE LINK FOR. NO I DON’T KNOW WHY I CAN’T HAVE LINKS FOR SOME OF THEM. GRRRR. IF YOU SENT A BOOK AND I DON’T PROMOTE THIS WEEK, PLEASE SEND AGAIN NEXT WEEK.

FROM HOLLY LISLE: The Longview Chronicles.

It’s a fine interstellar line between recapture and freedom. Her one act of kindness will trigger an epic fight to restore cosmic justice.

Box set: Over 600 pages of massive intergalactic battles exposing the dark heart of a vicious, futuristic humanity.
In the deep reaches of space, escaped slave Melie longs to captain her own ship. And with a promotion on her current vessel, she’s in reach of the goal that will set her free from the rich and powerful’s brutality. But when her protégé commits treason, a failed attempt to help gets her demoted and delays her flight from the galaxy’s merciless gladiatorial system.
Dreading having her identity discovered, the jaded woman scrapes by seeking some way to improve her fate. So when a sensational public massacre stirs rebellion, Melie seizes the opportunity to enlist a misfit band of victims to spearhead the ultimate trap for the elite.
Can Melie rally her eternally persecuted peers to overthrow a ruthless regime?
The Longview Chronicles contains six books in the fast-paced The Longview Chronicles dystopian science fiction series, and doubles as the third book in the Cadence Drake series. If you like underdog heroes, sweeping galactic action, and darkly envisioned futures, then you’ll love Holly Lisle’s gripping suite of adventures.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT: Other Rhodes, now with hardcover edition.

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

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

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

FROM M. C. A. HOGARTH: Zafiil Volume 1: FireBorn UnPainted

Enter into the heart of an alien race in the first historical novel set in the Peltedverse…

Thousands of years ago, the God of the Faulfenza promised His people He would send a messiah to lead them into a Golden Age, alongside the Others: aliens who would be to them as brothers and sisters. Not a generation has passed without longing for the fulfillment of that Promise.

Zafiil Paidiiza Qodii has dreamed of finding the Others since she was a child, a dream that spurred her to train as leader of one of the Faulfenza’s galactic scout teams. Against all odds, hers is the ship that makes the prophesied discovery–and reveals the cost of the God’s promises, and the part she is destined to play in His designs…

Zafiil: FireBorn Unpainted begins the epic saga of the Faulfenza’s first contact with the Pelted Alliance, and unveils at last the mysteries of one of the Peltedverse’s most beloved alien races.

FROM CELIA HAYES: Lone Star Sons: Being The Entertaining and Mostly If not Always True Adventures of Texas Ranger Jim Reade and his Blood Brother Delaware Scout Toby Shaw in the Time of the Republic of Texas.

The time – 1842
The place – the Republic of Texas, a place threatened and besieged on all frontiers!
Jim Reade lay on his back in the desert dust, incuriously seeing that ominous shadow circle, lower and lower until every finger-like dark feather became distinct against the burning sky . . . He hurt in every bone, from his head to his fingertips, and all the way to his booted toes. . .the sun had blazed on his exposed face and hands for many hours, and there was a mass of congealed blood which had oozed from his forehead, running back into his sweat-matted hair.
Jim Reade, a volunteer Texas Ranger, is the sole survivor of an ambush in the contested Nueces Strip. Rescued by Indian scout, Toby Shaw, the two young men join forces in pursuit of a mysterious wagon carrying a treasure in silver and gold – a treasure with a curse upon it!
Sworn blood-brothers, Jim and Toby meet with other challenges and mysteries, including a trove of documents sought after by spies of three nations, a girl vanished in the midst of a vicious feud between two families, a den of murderous robbers on the Opelousas Trace … and a tiny baby left an orphan in the desert!
Lone Star Sons – the classic Wild West rides again, in this collection of adventures intended for younger readers by the author of the Adelsverein Trilogy.

FROM C. CHANCY: Seeds of Blood

Welcome to Intrepid. Where Halloween brings tourists, turning leaves – and demons.

Over two decades of bloody murder, Steven Savonarola carved a sorcerous Demongate into the heart of his own hometown. With less than two weeks to disarm it before Halloween, Detective Church and the IPD are running out of time.

Lucky for them, they have an edge: Myrrh, a hell-raider with over a thousand years’ experience shattering dark magic, and Aidan, a half-demon fire mage with a very personal grudge against evil.

The plan is simple: Find the tainted sites. Purify them. Try not to die.

They’ll need all the help they can get. Steven may be gone, but shadows in the mountains are determined to see the Demongate open – even if they have to slaughter half the city to do it. And when it comes to killing shadows, even hell-raiders don’t know everything.

If they’re going to make it to All Saint’s Day, they’re going to need hot lead, cold mead, and a weapon that’s out of this world.

And a little praying wouldn’t hurt….

Welcome to Intrepid. It’s a hell of a Halloween.

BY CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER, EDITED BY D. JASON FLEMING: Brass Commandments (Annotated): The classic pulp western

“He’s man’s size, goin’ an’ comin’. No show, no fuss; likes to play a lone hand. Cool an’ easy an’ dangerous. Two-gun. Throws ’em so fast that you can’t see ’em. Lightnin’s slow when Lannon moves his gun-hand. Dead shot; cold as an iceberg under fire.”

Such was the opinion in Bozzam City of Flash Lannon. Five years of getting an education back East might have tamed him, some, but when rustlers target his cattle, and the local law doesn’t care, Lannon nails a new law to the wall of the local post office: his brass commandments naming the five men who must leave the country — or die.

Five named men… and “one other”.

    This iktaPOP Media edition contains a new afterword by indie author and editor D. Jason Fleming giving historical and genre context behind the novel.

FROM CLAYTON BARNETT: Cursed Hearts: A Novel of Machine Civilization.

Even with San Diego occupied by the Mexican Army, Katarina Sosabowski pursues her MBA at UCSD, and is happy to welcome and put up her visiting step-cousin from Japan, Christopher Dennou, for a night so he can complete his enrollment the following day. But a minor earthquake brings a major surprise: Chris’s younger sister, Maya, murders their mother and escapes Neuroi Institute, the research facility that created them. While Chris and ‘Cat’ grow closer to one another, Maya inexorably crosses an ocean and half a continent to take back her brother, killing anyone who gets in her way.

FROM PAUL CLAYTON: The Blue World: Anunnaki Advent.

The best laid plans of gods and men go awry on… the Blue World.

Loosely based on Zecharia Sitchin’s Earth Chronicles, The Blue World follows the efforts of the Sumerian gods, the Anunnaki, as they land on earth to mine the gold there in order to repair the damaged atmosphere of their home planet, Nibiru. The Anunnaki miners find gold mining laborious and dangerous, so they genetically engineer a hybrid race to do it for them. Mixing Anunnaki DNA with simian, they create The Human, “those who work.”

FROM DALE COZORT: The Moscow Option-1942

In this alternate history scenario, Hitler makes a different choice in spring 1942. Instead of heading south toward the Caucasus, he renews the German drive on Moscow.

That’s a tough choice. Moscow was the vital transportation and communications hub of the Soviet Union, as well as an important symbol of Soviet power, and while the Soviets pushed the Germans back from Moscow in their winter offensive, the Germans were still far closer to Moscow than they were to the Caucasus oil fields. On the other hand, the Soviets expected a drive on Moscow and had built up formidable defenses in front of it. Going after the Caucasus oil, if it worked, would conquer over 80 percent of Soviet oil, but getting to those oil fields meant covering huge, maybe impractical distances, wearing down German men and machines and opening up long, vulnerable flanks, as the Germans discovered at Stalingrad.

The different decision leads to alternate World War II, with ripples spreading to the Pacific even before the Germans move a single soldier, with the course of the war diverging, converging and diverging again as the fates of dozens of countries and factions throughout the world change.

The Moscow Option-1942 appeared as a serialization in The Best of Space Bats volumes 1 & 2. This volume simply brings those pieces together. It is written for history lovers and is a description of a fictional world rather than a traditional work of fiction with fictional characters and story arcs.

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: FREE

THE GOAL IS $50,000

the counter stands at: 11,703.97 (Updated at least every 8 hours, more if i happen to be here. Longer, maybe, overnight.)

IT ENDS JULY 16TH.

The Short Version Of Why I’m Doing This: I started the blog to promote my writing. It did that a little, but mostly it’s its own thing. I have fans for the blog and fans for the fiction, and never the twain shall meet.

After years of friends (including Jerry Pournelle, and no I never did it in his lifetime) telling me I should do a fundraiser or rattle the tin cup after every post, I realized that while I love the blog and don’t intend to give it up, it’s eating my life and to an extent my fiction writing because there’s only so many hours in the day.

So…. I decided to do a fundraiser, so I can hire people to do some of the other stuff that must be done, so I can blog, write, and not be so sleep deprived that sometimes, inexplicably, I go down for fifteen hours of sleep without planning it.

For the fuller explanation etc, look here: TANSTAAFL DAY 1- In Which The Writer Tries to Fund the Blog.

THE INCENTIVES AND TIERS:

Tier 1– $10 or more – A shout out on my blog, all with all other the supporters, by name, in one massive “Thank you” post. [Jokey or offensive names will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 2– $25 or more – Email jpg of certificate with funny fish saying “I Was Carped at according to hoyt.com” and a Certificate of being a member of Hoyt’s Huns, cultural wars sapper battalion, in good standing.

Tier 3– $60 or more – Exclusive ebook collection of USAian stories. (Including a new, original, never published story.) Estimated delivery August 2023

Tier 4– $100 or more – Your name will appear in a mass death/other mass event/list in one of Sarah’s books. [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.]

Tier 5– $150 or more – A sound file of Sarah saying “Moose and Squirrel.”

Tier 6 – $250 or more – Will send a signed copy of trade paperback Gentleman takes a chance and one large postcard with book covers, also signed. (USPS- continental US only. All others, let’s talk.) [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 7 – $350 or more – Three signed books (of our choice), plus two extra items from “Sarah’s Garage”, (also of our choice) which might very well be a small rubber fish. (You’ve been warned.) USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Tier 8 – $500 or more – Personalized tuckerization. You will become your very own zany character, with at least a line or two of dialogue, and physical description. Physical safety and life of character not guaranteed. If you perish, it will NOT (repeat not) be in a mass death event or a list of other kinds.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion.]

Tier 9 – $1000 or more – A CHOICE OF:

Option 1 -Will read the first 10 pages and outline of your novel and provide timely critique, with the understanding that I am not infallible. (A skype, zoom or other video call to discuss the work for an hour or so.) [estimated delivery Winter 2022 – Spring 2023]

Option 2 – Large box of ten signed books, plus items ranging from a con badge, to a mini dinosaur skeleton or a print of Sarah’s original art, or other items from Sarah’s garage. USPS only. Continental U.S. only [estimated delivery Sept 2022]

Option 3 – Signed copy of Sarah’s old copyedited or page-proof manuscripts. [estimated delivery Fall 2022] (5 limit.)

Tier 10 – $5000 or more – You will become a major character on one of my books, and I’ll try to reflect your appearance, and chosen personality.  [estimated delivery up through July 2023. All indie books, as no others are guaranteed.] [Jokey or offensive names, descriptions and personalities will not be included at author’s discretion. You don’t get to have someone else be an offensive character. (Sorry!) Your actions will be altered to serve the plot if needed.] – Limit 5. (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

Tier Insane – $25000 or more – My husband and I will travel to a city in the continental US and have dinner with you and your plus one.  (Continental US only.) – Limit ONE. [Delivery up to July 2023.] (You’ll be informed if this has been claimed, and given a chance for a refund or of a comparable reward.)

ALL TIERS INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS TIERS EXCEPT FOR THOSE THAT ARE NUMBER LIMITED.

If you want to be thanked/mentioned by a name different from your regular one, please email to: bookpimping at outlook dot com.

TO DONATE:

DONATE TO ACCORDING TO HOYT TAANSTAFL DAYS (The previous words are a link!)

FOR CHECK DONATIONS:

Sarah A. Hoyt

Goldport Press

304 S Jones Blvd #6771

Las Vegas, NV  89107

THIS IS PINNED TO THE TOP OF THE BLOG. THE DAILY POST WILL APPEAR BELOW THIS.

(I’m going to get some coffee before the regular blog. If life intervenes (the guys are both home) it might be three hours or so before the real post is up.)

Okay, the gentlemen might not like this picture as much, but…. It just happened. I call it Romeo and Juliet ;). Yes there will be more straight up pin ups, tomorrow, etc.. It is released under Creative Commons (CC BY)

REE, objectification. Oh, shuddup. I like pinups for the aesthetics, and besides they make me happy. (Even if this one is built like a boy.) There might be some males, soonish, too. Or couples.

Anyway, I’m going to try to do one a day through the fundraiser. They are released to you under Creative Commons Licence (CC BY.) You can use it in any way you wish, including for computer background, calendar and/or book cover. ;)

Or just look at it.

Humans don’t know the future. But we think we do, or at least can extrapolate it.

This worked very well in the times of Gorg and Morga, cave people who donated us the brain we think with. (Okay, no, I don’t know for sure, but as an explanation, it sort of works.) It didn’t take a genius to know if you went to fight the Hurgs over the ridge by your lonesome self, or even with your three brothers you would lose. Why they had 100 people and that new fangled throwing spears thing. The same way if a hunter went out in drought or famine, he was likely to come back empty handed, etc. And if Morga hasn’t conceived a child in ten years, she probably won’t tomorrow.

BUT….

We live in a world that’s far more complex, and filled with different inputs in information, all of which give you a very different idea of the future.

And since all through the 20th century — partly mind you simply by the human desire to be in with the “crowd” and to be “right” in the opinion of those with power, partly because so many people were captured by the Marxist nonsense and because those in power kept those who disagreed out — the media, the entertainment, and the general culture was heavily Marxist, the input was filtered through “capitalism bad, and it will crash and impoverish everyone.”

It was further filtered through the sense most conservatives seem to have (heaven only knows why) that prosperity is bad (I think y’all have some Puritan ranter in the backs of your brains, okay?) and that you should live in caves and eat acorns or the future will be corrupted. (Okay, some puritan ROMAN ranter. Never mind, that’s who lives in the back of mine.) This gives you “if things are good, or at least not terrible, we’re headed for disaster.”

Then there are the people who are convinced left to their own devices people make terrible decisions. These are mostly educated beyond their abilities, or as we call them bureaucrats and others of their ilk.

The result of this is that the inputs most people in my generation got were horrendous. They were also, as we’re becoming OBVIOUSLY AND PATENTLY FALSE. (They were obviously wrong to me sometime in my thirties, when an anonymous donor sent me a subscription to Reason and I started thinking about what I’d been fed.)

Stuff like “The world will be massive overpopulated by 1990.” Or “We’re running out of fossil fuels” in the seventies. Or “There will be no food or potable water for everyone.”

We now know those are bullshit, of course, but it was — go look if you don’t believe me — the ethos of science fiction in the eighties and nineties, and it is still, massively, the ethos of science fiction published by traditional sources today. (Baen mostly excepted. Salutes.)

Sometime in the early nineties, my scream was “NO MORE RUSTY FUTURES” which was my description of futures in which everyone lived in the gutter, ate bugs, and groveled before an unaccountable elite.

Now I’m not going to say me and my kind are prophets. (I hope not. Mostly I write what’s interesting, not what I think will happen.)

And we know only what? 0.8% of the population even reads science fiction/doesn’t think we’re terrible eggheads with no clue.

In fact, it’s sort of the other way around. My tribe tends to write a distillation of what they’ve been fed. (Which combines with the editors’ ideas of what’s coming, and wanting our fiction to rest on “solid foundations.”) Which means the dystopias of the 80s and 90s is what everyone believed would happen.

I found is so depressing, I started reading alternate history or historical.

Not only because the futures were depressing, but because I found them so unlikely. I mean, how are you going to have cities packed to the level of New Delhi in the sixties when so few people are even having kids? And why is everyone wearing masks against pollution, when our air is clearer than it was in the early 1900s? And–

My suspension of disbelief was hung by the neck until dead.

BUT what was out there was what had seeped to the back of people’s brains and it was as expected as that tiger jumping on you would be to a caveman.

What is this in the name of?

Well, I look at our exquisitely indoctrinated educated “elites” and the world they’re trying to bring about.

The US hasn’t reproduced enough to cause massive overpopulation, but they’re sure it’s out there, somewhere, so they are importing people by the batch load over the Southern border. And they’re sure we’re running out of fossil fuels, so we must transition to “clean/green” energy now. And they KNOW we’re massively polluted, even though we’re obviously not, so we’re all going to dieeeeee. when Gaia gets offended enough she turns up the thermometer. Oh, and we must eat bugs or go Vegan, because otherwise how will we feed everyone.

This is all absolute and complete twaddle, of course. But it’s in their back brains, as “obviously” so they can’t argue with it. They just go along with it, because it’s “true.” True at that level they can’t think, because it’s the assumptions fed to them in the seventies and eighties (and for the younger ones recently, as word from above.)

THIS is what we’re fighting against.

And I’m not absolutely sure how to do it. I promise, and intend to continue to beat those ideas up on my blog, and hopefully to incorporate the ideas of a bright, hopeful future into my fiction, to try to turn this around.

You see, what they project can’t come about. But it can destroy a lot of wealth and kill a lot of people before it crashes.

It’s time to attack the false prophets. I can’t, of course, do it alone, so I must ask that you amplify it, in words, in blogs, in stories.

Let’s build a bright and hopeful future, to which we can aim our civilization.

Be not afraid. Steer to the future we deserve.

America comes from that better future. And we’re going back there.