According To Hoyt

Doing big one tomorrow. Thanks. Just tired.

Good Evening, freedom lovers who are tired of giving money to those who hate us. You don’t have to do that anymore.

So, this is how I acquired a new hobby of daily — evening — promo posts, instead of just the usual Sunday promo post. (A hobby my husband is mildly puzzled by.)

Some of you are probably aware of the kerfuffle where Devon Eriksen was kicked out (on spurious grounds) from a contest he never entered because he said things the left does not like on X. But that’s not important, right now…

What’s important is that I realized a lot of writers who for Liberty thought they were alone. I read some newbies complaining that all the indies were lefties and I thought “Oh, preference falsification and a sense of isolation. That’s bad.” And then I thought “Well, I have this here blog, and all I’m doing with my evenings is pet the cats and edit and make covers and– Okay, so I could do other stuff, but this needs doing. And I wasn’t put in this world to avoid doing things I could do that will help with the culture war.”

And so where we are almost a week into more or less ten books a night (I try not to do much more, because people’s eyes glaze over.) Be patient, I’ll get to your book.

If being seen on my blog doesn’t scare you and (this is implied) your politics are to the right of Lenin’s, send me a link to your book (on Amazon if possible) to bookpimping at outlook dot com.

Oh, and I GET A COMMISSION PER BOOK PURCHASED THROUGH THESE LINKS. (From Amazon. Other places not so much.) Which is good because it’s a tedious job. But hopefully it’s helping.

And I want you to know I’m bursting with pride at you guys standing up and being counted! So PROUD.

THIS is what a preference cascade looks like!

FROM WILLIAM HASTINGS: The Crimson Spark (Vagabond Legacy Book 1)

TO STOP A WAR, TWO YOUNG SLAVES MUST BREAK THE SHACKLES OF THE MIND!

Leo is a boy grieving his twin. Nea is a girl living as a boy to escape her past. Two slaves, each carrying their own scars and secrets. They form a connection, only to be split apart when their ship arrives in a mysterious and fragmented land, cut off from the rest of the world.

Leo becomes apprentice to a vagabond swordsman and together the two set out to find a stolen weapon locked away in a city of the dead. But what is his new teacher hiding? Tormented by a crippling injury and an anxious heart, Leo must find the strength within himself to keep going despite all that he has lost.

Meanwhile Nea is conscripted by the Captain of the Royal Guard, who ropes her into the search for a group of revolutionaries hunting a boy matching Leo’s description. But to Nea’s dismay, the Captain is a woman and Nea must fight past her hateful and damaged mind if she ever hopes to earn her freedom.

When a former child soldier threatens to spark a cataclysmic magical war, Leo and Nea are forced to choose sides. Is a land as twisted and cruel as this even worth saving? To find the answer, they must confront the horror of their past and fight for the greatest freedom of all, freedom from the fear that rules their hearts.

The Crimson Spark is an emotional and captivating fantasy adventure. A story about innocence lost and righteousness found. A story about how even the most broken souls can be whole together.

FROM S. C. VINCENT: Ys The Fallen

She has a curse. He has scales.

The Kingdom of Ys has been cursed by the Devil, a mighty dragon who seeks celestial conquest. As Princess Dana, one of the last acolytes of a forgotten church, scours the Dracon Lands hoping to find help for her people, she stumbles upon a giant egg. A handsome man named Ru, who has supernatural abilities, breaks free from the shell.

They set forth on a journey to free Ys of the curses by slaying the Devil, all the while facing Dana’s evil sister and her insidious machinations. But before the apocalyptic battle begins, they first face their own inner turmoil. Ru confronts his relation to the dragon and his contradictory tendency towards good. Dana treads the line between love and lust as she struggles to remain moral in a fallen world.

Can the curses be broken? Or will their relationship be broken first? The bells of Ys must ring.

The fight for salvation begins now!

FROM RORY STOUDER: RANGER GROUP 42: DEADMAN’S GULCH

Ranger Group 42: Deadman’s Gulch is a pulse-pounding military sci-fi thriller that catapults readers into a galaxy on the edge of chaos. The Confederation, a coalition of planets and corporations, struggles to maintain order across its far-flung colonies. Pirates, mercenaries, and corporate power plays threaten to fracture the delicate balance of peace. In the middle of it all stands Colonel Jack Stone and his elite unit, Ranger Group 42, tasked with preserving order in a galaxy where enemies hide in every shadow.

When a critical supply transport is raided on the central hub of trade in the region, Stone and his team are dispatched to investigate. The convoy was transporting valuable bio-mimetic compounds, essential for sustaining life on the outer colonies. Without them, entire worlds could wither. But what begins as a search-and-rescue mission quickly spirals into something much darker.

As Ranger Group 42 ventures deeper into the heart of an area of space known as Deadman’s Gulch, they find themselves up against a well-armed enemy that’s always one step ahead. With time running out, Stone must unravel the mystery of who within the Corporate Governing Board is backing the Black Ring before the galaxy plunges into full-scale anarchy.

Outgunned, outnumbered, and surrounded by enemies, Ranger Group 42 must rely on their wits, skill, and sheer determination to stop the pirates from gaining a stranglehold on the galaxy’s resources. But as the battle intensifies, Stone realizes the fight isn’t just about supplies—it’s about preventing another civil war from erupting across the Confederation.

Ranger Group 42: Deadman’s Gulch delivers non-stop action, deep-space intrigue, and a race against time that will leave readers on the edge of their seats. Perfect for fans of The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica, and the Star Gate series, this is a gripping tale of loyalty, betrayal, and survival in a galaxy where the price of failure is the collapse of civilization itself. Will Ranger Group 42 be able to stop the Black Ring and expose the traitor in time, or will the galaxy fall into darkness?

FROM M. S. OLNEY: The Sundered Crown Saga

From Book 1: First in a series: The Kingdom of Delfinnia is plunged into darkness after its royal family is assassinated. When Luxon emerges as the first wizard in a century, he’ll have to join a band of noble allies and fulfill his destiny as the prophesied hero. Perfect for fans of Raymond E. Feist!

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION

In the kingdom of Delfinnia, civil war rages as rival barons battle for the crown. But unknown to them, the rightful heir yet lives, hidden away from the conflict. As the war worsens, ancient horrors rise from the Eclin mountains, led by a dark lord intent on destruction.

Enter Luxon, a young man with magical powers and the potential to become a legendary hero. He joins forces with a monster slayer, a witch hunter, and a noble knight to search for the hidden heir and protect the realm from the dark forces threatening to engulf it.

The Heir to the Sundered Crown is a thrilling fantasy adventure filled with action, magic, and unforgettable characters. Join Luxon on his quest to save the kingdom and become the hero the realm needs.

FROM MICHAEL A. HOOTEN: We Are All Enlisted (Enlisted Book 1)

Peter Wright joined the Navy thinking that he could do his time in a nice, quiet billet somewhere on Earth. The Navy had other ideas. When the asteroid miners claimed their independence, Peter finds himself getting sent to space on a warship headed straight into the combat zone. He has to get used to everything: zero gravity, standing watch, and being the only Earth-born in his crew. And he has to be ready for the biggest battle the solar system has ever seen.

FROM MOE LANE: Tales From The Fermi Resolution: Vol. 2: Lights in the Darkness

“Moe has a bunch of great stories in this collection, including the best response to that Le Guin story I’ve ever seen.”
– Karl K. Gallagher, author of Torchship Trilogy and the Fall of the Censor series.

Return to the world of the Fermi Resolution! Ten stories of a post-apocalyptic North America, gone mad with magic. Adventure abounds, from the treachery-haunted ruins of Michigan to the magic-kissed streets of Cin City! Action and derring-do, on land and sea – well, all right, the ‘sea’ part is actually a bay. But there are sea monsters fighting elvish privateers! Bears with hats! Orcs attending operas! Several flavors of mad cultists! Nine hundred years of patient heroism, all to protect those precious lights in the darkness.

This book includes the first three chapters of the upcoming Tom Vargas novel BANSHEE BEACH.

AND MOE IS ALSO RUNNING A GAMING BOOK KICKSTARTER: Here.

FROM EDMUND MULLER: The Catgirl in Pink and Other Short Stories

A lonely man meets a mysterious catgirl at a bar. A homeless man ingests pills that allow him to see the past and future. A female cyclist goes missing in a forest. A scientist tries to unravel the secrets of astatine. These stories and more can be found in this volume.

FROM DANIELLE STE JUST: The Disk Mirror Solution (Galaxia Mortem Book 1)

Welcome to 2422, a world of implanted technology, exotic exoplanets, and the apex predator we ourselves created.

One moment, Armintor Vess is about to get her first cranial implant.

The next moment, her entire world falls apart.

The technology-fueled plague that ravages her homeworld forces Armintor to seek refuge on a technophobe planet ruled by autocrats. But when a chance for a better future materializes, she stumbles upon a secret that jeopardizes everything she’s worked for.

Redcholate Parise is living and loving life in the galaxy’s tech hub, buying and selling intel in VR. When a mysterious client hires her for a rare real-flesh job, all she focuses on is the massive payout. As the lines between reality and illusion blur, Redcholate’s body and mind are overtaken by a sinister truth she never wanted to learn.

Both women feel alone in the universe, but little do they know they’ve been linked from the start. Will Redcholate’s sass and Armintor’s obsession be a match for the only predator left that hunts humankind?

FROM DAVID BOCK, WHO HAS A STORY IN THIS: Moggies Back in Space (Raconteur Press Anthologies)

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Cats go where they want. Moggies even more so. When humans go to space, obviously cats will come along to make sure their staff are doing what they’re supposed to.

Join these 10 authors as they explore what cats can do in space.

FROM A. PALMER: Hope is the Second Door on the Left

Hope is the Second Door on the Left is a collection of poems centered around facing difficulties of life, directing the reader toward goodness and hope, and then attempting to describe life after hope is chosen.

We all must face such a choice in our own lives, eventually.

FROM JOE MONSON: Dog Save The King!

Dog Save the King! is a science fiction and fantasy anthology, created in honor of Sue Ream. Among the committee for Life, the Universe, & Everything, Sue was best known for hosting an informal gathering on Saturday evening following the symposium, but she had a long history of service and helping others. She served as an officer in naval communication and codes, taught English and creative writing at Brigham Young University for many years, and was involved in many community events (such as LTUE) involving reading, writing, and sharing her love of books. She was kind to everyone, and treated all of the students who ran LTUE as royalty.

Author, artist, and editor royalty proceeds from sales of the anthology go to support LTUE in allowing students to attend for a greatly reduced price. Dog Save the King! is the seventh release in the LTUE Benefit Anthologies series.

AND THOUGH THEY HAVEN’T SENT THE LINK SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS, THEY OBVIOUSLY STAND FOR LIBERTY: Since King Harv’s Coffee’s keep all of us on the right awake enough to write and blog.

I’ll note that my absolute FAVORITE, Komodo, is on sale right now!

I wasn’t going to write a post at all today. I had a post lined up by my friend Richard Bledsoe (whose book I put in first place yesterday, and regardless of how you feel about modern art you should read his book AND give his art a look. Here, my own taste froze in the baroque, but his art speaks to me and when I have money I intend to … okay, not make him rich, but buy him a lot of coffee. I think because his art is “real”. I don’t know how to explain it better.) But he sent me the post, and yesterday I opened the email and stared at it, and could see it had an attached document, but couldn’t tell HOW to get to it. This was in microsoft which I’ve been using since — oh dear — older son was in diapers.

Then this morning I had an email meltdown from a friend which was so uncharacteristic — she’s one of your good soldiers — that my brain clicked.

These were just the most obvious symptoms, but a lot of people around me have been losing their minds. Arguably more so than during the lockdowns, or at least in a completely different way, including raging libertarians who are panicking at government “shrinking too fast.”

And I realized I needed to write this. Because I need a good talking to, and as usual I’m going to give it to you guys. Why? Mostly because screaming at myself worries Dan and that’s bad for him.

So, sit down. Put down your rucksack. Take a load off those mud encrusted feet. I just made us some coffee, and it’s a 100% virtual King Harv’s (I need to order. I actually managed to run out before noticing) not the dirt and twigs you’re used to getting here in the trenches.

Now, take a deep breath. Another. Doesn’t that feel good? What? The stench getting to you? Well, sure, but you know, at this point the deaths are no longer happening. We’re fighting back. Smoke a cigarette. It will dull the smell, and again, here in virtual land, it has no bad effects.

Yes, the WWI imagery is intentional. I’ve also realized why it’s been so much on my mind.

What a month, no? And on the back of four years…. Well….

Look, guys, I’m going to say it again: Change kills. Even good change. People are as likely to drop dead of a heart attack after they get married as they are after they get divorced or widowed. Your body is a dumb beast. It doesn’t get “good and bad” it just gets “change.” And, ooh, boy, it hates change. Remember that our mind and body are perfectly tuned to the neolithic (evolution is that slow, yes, which is why I giggle at people that say kids are getting stupider or that people “no longer have the ability to–” whatever. That’s upbringing and culture. People don’t change that fast genetically.) And in the neolithic, when things changed very fast, either your game of choice had moved to other pastures leaving you and your tribe to starve, or the volcano had erupted, or them over there with the weird habits had just moved to your land and were trying to kill you and take your women (or kill your men and take you.)

Probably the worst change is one that comes after years and years of no change. Particularly bad no change. How do I put this? Um… the Bible, right? Whether you believe in it or not, it’s a foundational document of the West, so you probably know the story of the Israelites being delivered from Egypt, by the Lord’s strong arm that parted the Red Sea so they crossed dry shod, then drowned Pharaoh and his chariots and his horses and men. You know it, right? Well, I’m going to submit to you those people were walking wounded. And there were very good reasons for the generation that remembered being slaves to die off before they entered the promised land.

But I submit to you even without the sojourn in the desert, even if they’d been delivered dry-shod to Canaan by a mighty wind or something, they would have turned against Moses and tried to crawl back to slavery. In fact, there’s a very good chance it would have been worse and their culture and group would have fallen completely apart. Because the change would have been too great.

Again, tying back to World War I, it wasn’t the relentless charges into the machine gun fire that destroyed people’s minds. It was the hurry up wait hurry up wait, etc. You could go for weeks in the trenches, where it was relatively safe if you weren’t stupid enough to light a cigarette at night, and where your biggest dangers were dysentery and foot rot, and then there was the charge, and win or lose, it messed you up badly.

So, tying back to us, yeah, our situation is less — way less — physically dire than that of the people in the trenches. But psychologically, we have a lot in common.

I don’t know about you, but around three months of the Biden interregnum, I hunched my shoulders and went “I will survive this” and stopped resenting the endless showers of shit every day, where it felt like exactly the opposite of the sane or survival-enhancing was being done every single day. Our country was being stabbed to death with nail scissors, and there was nothing we could do to stop it. But this being Biden who, before he was demented was already an evil and spiteful piece of shit in human form, each stab came with a giggle and a humiliating insult too, all while his lackeys in the media told us he was the bestest, most humane and gentlemanly president ever. So, we endured.

I’m going to tell you right now, I wouldn’t have endured without having been vouchsafed (it wasn’t a vision, and it wasn’t words, it also wasn’t exactly a feeling, but from where I was and the …. what it was, I knew it came from the Author) the day before the 2020 lockdowns that we came out of this okay, and that the republic would be restored and “better than before at any time since the funding.” I’d have gone to pieces around 2022. As was, I’m embarrassed to confess how I often doubted the vouchsafing (I am a woman of very little faith) and lay awake at night wondering if I was the worst of traitors for stopping my hotheads from going boogaloo.

November was a relief, but I have to tell you, part of me still expected something awful to happen. Just less awful.

And then a month ago– At first there was popcorn. And I must tell you, though I am not happy with the situation in either Israel or the Ukraine, I’ve looked at what is going on, actually going on, and have hints of what Trump is seeing behind the scenes (not fully, of course, I don’t get briefings, alas) and what he’s doing might be the best that can be done. And domestically…. well, domestically… it’s all I’ve prayed for and more.

So why is there that sense of panic behind the eyes, why are some of you emailing me to tell me you’re tired of winning? Why are otherwise sensible people who are committed to liberty throwing themselves into an irrational fury on social media and telling us they voted for the scalpel, not the chainsaw?

That last one is actually a clue — and I’ll revisit this in the action points — the phrase gets repeated over and over again, in that exact formulation. The people I’m hearing it from are not leftist psy-ops operatives, but there is a psy-ops going on and that phrase is one that is being implanted, to fit into the unease in people’s minds, and be amplified. You have to learn to recognize psy-ops people, because explaining it to you will take more than a post, let alone a paragraph in this one. (Yes, I’ll do it, if you insist.)

And yes, I do get that almost all of us either have a job in the periphery of the government or have someone close to us who does and whose jobs are now in jeopardy, and people need to live, feed the kids, pay mortgage, and no matter how much they want to cut government, a lot of people are panicking.

The extent of the upheaval, how far cutting government affects everything? That’s the problem. Right there. The government has been swallowing the nation. And the government doesn’t generate wealth, regardless of what the left thinks. It only consumes it.

We HAVE to cut government, because otherwise the nation is going to collapse. The urgency of the need is not just because there are elections in 2026 but also because I can read between the lines of official reports and if you can you know the nation is already collapsing. Hell, if you have adult kids you know how bad it is. For all the “kids these days” jobs are scarce, pay like shit, and the kids are crafting survival out of bailing wire and spit. IF they launch at all, which a lot of young men don’t. Yes, men specifically. But for all that, the women can’t marry if the men are hiding in the basement, and we’re fast reaching the Biblical thing where (quoting from memory pardon me) in the end times “four women will lay hold of the same man and say ‘we’ll support ourselves, only call us by your name and remove this oprobium from us.'” The government has sucked the economy dry and because economy is how we live, it’s now sucking everything else.

I suspect before this is done, we will pray the chainsaw was enough. Because I think there are entire areas where dynamite and depth charges will be needed to clear the snarl.

Sure, people are going to find themselves cast adrift, and there are going to be people looking for work, where there is none, and trying to…. craft life out of bailing wire and spit. The kids have an advantage there. they’re used to doing it.

IF this is done properly — so far seems to be — and if we are in time — I think we are. The vouchsafing thing — then the period of total confusion and people scrambling to survive will be brief. Fortunately it’s looking like it will hit Spring and Summer, by design or fortuitous chance. Fortuitous because while heat can kill, in the US climate cold is the greater danger, and disruption in anything that might disrupt those systems make me shudder. (Calm down. I don’t expect the systems to be disrupted unduly. It’s just a possibility when supply chains are redirected/cast adrift.) And the cutting back of regulations and the strangling bind of excessive taxation on the economy will make us take off like a rocket… to Mars. Honestly I think the biggest hold back will be people calming down enough to take advantage of the opportunities. In that spirit, I’m going to stop blathering and give you action points to help, okay? And if I miss some (I will miss some) feel free to put coping strategies in the comments.

1 – Calm down. Realize your brain and nerves lie to you. You’re panicking because things are changing too fast, not because the change is bad. It only feels bad, because there’s a lot of it in a very short time. When you feel yourself starting to panic, stop away from the news. I don’t cotton to “touch grass” — there’s insects in that grass, people, and I’m allergic to every single one of them — go and do something real, with your hands if you can, something that prepares you better for any upheaval that might or might not hit you. I don’t know. Cook some meals and freeze them. Go organize your files. If all else fails, do as Jerry Pournelle advised in 2012: go make your house really clean. The environment influences your mind, and an orderly environment WILL help.

2- Don’t make any sudden decisions. This is usually told to people who have just gotten married/divorced/widowed/had their house burn down/moved. DON’T MAKE ANY SUDDEN DECISIONS. Because you’re as likely to choose wrong as not. You might think you’re all “with it” and functioning fine, but you’re not, not really. You are actually reacting, not acting independently. And part of the reason you’re reacting is because you’re trying to create calm. Any calm. And destruction is a sort of calm. There’s no peace like the grave. Your instincts know that. So, don’t let them rule. No, you haven’t had a personally disastrous thing happen, but fast change all feels the same to the caveman in your head. DON’T. JUST DON’T. It might feel super-urgent to sell your house and move across the country; to change jobs; to get it on with the new guy/chick; to get a divorce. Don’t. If it’s the right thing, it will still be there in six months. Chill. Kick back. Go do something else.
Now you might have to move, because you lost your job. Or your spouse really did die. Or…
If you can, do it slowly. I know it will not always be possible, but if you can, punt back to rental somewhere quiet that you have pleasant associations with, while you get yourself together. (Which now I think about it is what the Hoyts have been doing for 3 years and change now. Hanging out in a quiet place where we already had friends. The overwork and other insanity hasn’t helped, but the slowing down and being recluses a while has.)

Don’t make sudden decisions unless absolutely needed to avoid bankruptcy or death!

3- Beware psy-ops. I know you feel panic at the back of your head, because if you’re a regular reader here, you’re a political addict. BUT the panic isn’t real. Part of it is that you can’t even keep up with the news, and you’re afraid. You’re used to bad things being done from above, and you fear it will happen again.
I won’t lie. Some of Trump’s decisions WILL be bad. He’s human, for crying outloud. Which is why having too much power in the president is a bad idea, and I hope that will get fixed. BUT for now… well, he had four years to think about it.
All of the “panic now” I’ve seen have been very slick psy-ops. I have to do posts on it, but for now rules of thumb.
a) If someone is trying to get your to URGENTLY respond, they’re not your friend. b) If they supposedly want you to “stop” or redirect Trump — could you stop the lockdowns? no? Then how can you stop this? — what it’s actually aimed at is turning people against the administration. c) if you hear the same phrase/sentence repeated over and over? It’s a psyops.
You can either dive down and find where it’s bullsh*t (Did you know Trump did NOT tell Ukraine they were responsible for the war and all his comments were sensible-ish? No? I didn’t either till this morning.) Or just ignore it. The chances of a psy-ops having got hold of the truth aren’t zero, but they’re not super high, either.

4- PREPARE PREPARE PREPARE. Okay, maybe not a case of keeping your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark, though to be fair, I wouldn’t say that’s not needed, since the left is losing its mind.
SO PREPARE PREPARE PREPARE.
At the most basic level, prepare as though you expected a really bad storm that can last a month or more.
I have a friend who thinks a serious destruction of global supply chains means the end of civilization. I think it’s because he comes from the East where things are more depleted and densely packed. But even there, I think it’s because he grew up in a land of unlimited abundance where people don’t fully grasp the things other countries have survived.
Look, my friend might be right. But family history tells me he’s not. Even if things go completely tits up, the US will almost for sure survive, and other countries surprisingly will too. And we probably won’t even lose that much population.
Family history? Well, the “in living memory” thing. Portugal is a tiny country, and by the fourteenth century they’d eaten most of the edible wildlife that was bigger than a pidgeon into extinction. It’s changed some, partly because of feralized pigs, but that is not important for the early twentieth century. When the country went bankrupt. Not a little bit. Like, bankrupt-bankrupt. Like, money wasn’t worth anything levels of total fuckuppedness. I grew up with stories of entire families (some of which went on to be wealthy beyond all reason) surviving by eating soup made of weeds pulled from the ditches. I suspect, though no one talks about it, a lot of people ate rat. I know for a fact a lot of people ate sparrow (which can’t be eaten into extinction, it turns out.) And I suspect the frogs weren’t safe either. I’ve also read enough memoirs of people fishing for their supper and going hungry for days when the fish wouldn’t bite.
The US, regardless of what you think, has way more resources than that. Park geese alone can feed entire small towns for months. Deer are a nuisance. You might think there’s not enough of them, but I bet you there are. Again, people have survived on less. Hell, Parisians survived on rat for some time during WWI. We’ll live.
Though, returning to “prepare”: I found out — why didn’t he ever tell me these stories before — while I was in Portugal how our family survived in “style”. As in, while other kids were on the edge of starvation, my dad and his brothers and sister were at risk of being pudgy, and all of them grew taller than their generation. Apparently my great grandmother was as paranoid as I am. In fact, the more I hear about her, the more I wish I’d known her. There’s a “resonance” there. She kind of sensed what was coming, and ordered a lot of flour of various kinds — corn and rye among them — and she set up to raise a lot of chickens. She learned to make bread. She reduced the flowerbeds to a minimum and grew diversified vegetables (on that Portugal has the advantage having a better climate than most of the US.) She pulled the family through on bread, eggs and vegetables, with extra eggs to trade for stuff like milk.
So, look ahead, find what you can do to make your survival sustainable. (Now a ton of us can’t raise chickens. But people give courses on how to hunt and how to fish. And you sure as shooting can can and buy dry protein and a few sacks of rice that you store properly. It won’t be the best diet but you won’t die.)
It will give you something to do. And hey, maybe things will turn around so fast you wont’ need it.

5- Don’t berate yourself.
I know a lot of us feel super-indulgent and stupid when we aren’t charging forward 100% of the time. And panic makes that worse. But these aren’t normal times.
I haven’t cleaned my house in over a month. Now some of you are going “so”? Well, I normally clean every week. Partly because we’re ADD AF which means left uncleaned/unorganized things get piled on every surface, and they don’t make any sense there, so then neither of us can deal with it. We start living in “hoarder house”. This is not good for anyone. To make things worse I’m allergic to household dust, and my asthma and eczema go crazy if I don’t clean at least every two weeks.
Well, I haven’t, and it’s because I’ve not been able to get my mind/body in gear to do it. That changes today, because it has to. But right now I can’t even THINK with the mess.
And I’m mad at myself for it. And I shouldn’t be. Because–
Well, I know I’ve also been sick, and my thyroid went nuts (or the opposite of nuts that means it decided to go on vacation) but seriously. Things have been weird. Like, I can’t sleep enough. Always feel “off”, forget how to do things that are obvious (like find the attachment in an email) and am so tired by nighttime that sometimes I read my contributions to Instapundit with some interest in the morning, because I don’t remember anything I typed.
My book that has been finished since October hasn’t been fully edited by me yet, and hasn’t gone to betas yet, and now part one won’t come out till April, and argh.
My substacks are dusty and probably everyone is unsubscribing.
Like that. And I’m having real trouble giving myself grace. But I also know this is not my normal slacking off.
I bet a lot of you if not all are going through that.
Well, give yourself some grace. I suspect you’re at very little risk of indulging forever, but for now, don’t berate yourself too badly. You’re walking wounded. Remember that. Forgive yourself a bit.

6- This will be even harder than giving yourself grace, but pamper yourself a bit.
Look, last time I sent through hell without galoshes (it happens on the regular, because of the professions we’re in, but also because I’m a dumbass on social interactions) in 2018 when I managed to get fired twice in a week and other rapid change (not all of it bad but some VERY bad) was happening in the family, I became obsessed with “soft and warm.”
This week I’ve been unpacking boxes that got mixed up with the library boxes in the climate controlled unit. Let’s say the local goodwill is getting a lot of soft, warm coats. I don’t know how many bodies I thought I had, but it’s like I went through “More soft! More warm!” (Fortunately most of my buying was in thrift stores, so the expense wasn’t crazy, but really. I’ve donated twenty indoor-coats and at least as many outdoor coats, and I’m still finding boxes.)

Now, that particular obsession was…. odd. But I guess coats felt more “needed” to me than oh fancy tea; nice drawing paper, a trip tot he zoo. Because those felt outright indulgent. And time off? But couldn’t I tell I needed to earn more money?

Yeah, whipping yourself and yelling at yourself won’t fix this. (Though if that’s your kink, who am I to judge.)

Take time and do things you like and enjoy. Try to keep it small and inexpensive, unless you are very well off. (At least one billionaire used to read here on the regular. Don’t know if he still does. If he does I’d like to point out he doesn’t contribute to the fundraisers. Probably thinks it would spoil me. I’d like to assure him it wouldn’t. Just pay off the kids student loans and maybe allow us to take A vacation. Nothing fancy. Let’s say a week by the sea.)
Just allow yourself to buy the fancy tea. The good coffee (as soon as I’ve cleaned, I’m going to order.) Buy a bar of chocolate if you can indulge, and have a square a day, at a set time, and really enjoy it. Go for a walk, even if you really “don’t have time.” Pet the cats. Or the dog. Even someone else’s cats or dog. Buy the fancy yarn. Start a new crochet project, and use it as a reward. Sit down for ten minutes and listen to music. Really listen. Read a book. Indulge.

In one of the worst and most broke times in our lives, my husband bought me a coffee table book on the work of Leonardo DaVinci. Just flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures did more for me than all the crazy striving I was also doing.

7- I know there’s a sense of “I should be working, because I CAN” that’s militating against this. I understand it. the hunching your shoulders under the shower of shit years didn’t exactly lead to productivity. And it wasn’t just me. A lot of writers and artists went silent. And now we’re waking up and feel like we must do all the things, all at once.
Don’t.
Look, I get it. I’m trying to edit, redo my covers, investigate how to do earcs linked to my (paid) substack, establish my own shop (I need to figure out platforms) get out of KU exclusive, redo my blurbs, re-typeset all the books (And the fact atticus is being a butt doesn’t help anyone.)
But after a while that’s just over committing and stopping everything, combined with self flagellation and not giving yourself a moment to recoup.
TEMPER YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Yes, I know that’s really hard for writers and artists, and also we’re finely tuned instruments to what’s going on in the world. that’s why we do what we do. So we know there’s urgency.
Now I think about it, this is probably also affecting investors like BGE and I’d be shocked if it’s not affecting a lot of the rest of you.
You feel the earthquake, and you want to run. You want to do ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME.
We’re in a time and place where history that had been held back has broken the dam, and we’re producing more history per day than entire years in the past 50 or maybe more. And of course you want to do all the things.
Secure your mask before helping others, or even doing all the things. Give yourself grace, pamper yourself and PACE YOURSELF.

FESTINA LENTE. Make haste slowly. Rejoice that the creativity, the urgency are back, but don’t rush. Pace yourself.

Humans are persistence predators. Pursue your missions at a sustainable pace and relentlessly. You’ll get there. And you won’t be dead when you arrive.

Now go back to the trenches. Yes, you can take the cup of virtual coffee. We’ll get through this. You got this. Go deal.

How this came about:

Some of you are probably aware of the kerfuffle where Devon Eriksen was kicked out (on spurious grounds) from a contest he never entered because he said things the left does not like on X. But that’s not important, right now…

In the aftermath I realized that between the left’s penchant for organizing and being noisy in groups, as opposed to us individualists which fail to organize, a lot of indie writers on the right side of the spectrum — or at least to the right of Lenin — thought they were utterly alone, and that everyone else was a raging lefty.

Between that and the fact that most indie writers have no idea how to promote, I decided on the spur of the moment to offer to do a week of promo posts…

Well, it’s going to be more than one week. Apparently there are more of us out there than even I knew.

So, unlike normal when I do promo posts, in this case the only requirement is that people don’t mind standing with myself and the others and agrees to be mentioned on this blog. So I’ll promote people I don’t necessarily agree with, or associate with.

And I’m doing ten books a night (give or take) so people’s eyes don’t utterly glaze over.

This will probably go on another week, so if you wish, send me a link to your book (on Amazon) to bookpimping at outlook dot com

And needless to say, I EARN A COMMISSION FROM EVERY BOOK listed (the ones on Amazon) which is a good thing since this is eating my evenings.

FROM RICHARD BLEDSOE: Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization.

Written for a general audience, this book provides a clear timeline of cultural evolution.Postmodernism is dead.

Discover Remodernism, a new art movement of the people, by the people, for the people.

Art reminds us of who we are, and shows what we can be. But the visual arts are undergoing a crisis of relevance. Elitists have weaponized art into an assault on the foundations of our culture.
Don’t concede the vital experience of the arts to deranged partisans. Art is a more enduring and vital human experience than the power games of a greedy and fraudulent ruling class. The story of the 21st Century will be the dismantling of centralized power. As always, this course of history was prophesied by artists–those who are intuitively aware of the path unfolding ahead. Their works become maps so that others may find the way. Enduring changes start in the arts.

Remodern America provides an historical overview of how art shapes society and politics. This book exposes how the contemporary art world is used as a tool of oppression. Most importantly, Remodern America provides the solution, and reveals how the power of art can be reclaimed as a force for liberty. Read “Remodern America” to discover how art can unify our fragmenting society. 

(And Richard has a website here.)

FROM SUSANA IMAGINARIO: Wyrd Gods, Timelessness, Book 1

The God of Time wants to destroy Eternity.

A mysterious immortal seeks vengeance.

And a reclusive deity does what no god should ever do: she answers a prayer.

As punishment, she is stripped of her powers and trapped in a mortal’s body.
Now a Wyrd – a fated god – she is haunted by the memories and thoughts of her host and must hide her true identity in order to survive in Niflheim, the rival Norse Underworld.
There she discovers the afterlife is not quite what it used to be. Niflheim’s new ruler threatens the precarious balance of a world overrun with outcast deities and mortals alike.
To save her own sanity and find her way back to the stars, she must help the other Wyrd overcome their grievances to defeat this enemy, but those who would be her allies appear to have motives as hidden as her fragmented consciousness.

And yet it seems the greatest threat to her freedom comes from within, and the prize it seeks is her immortal soul…

FROM PERCY SINCLAIR: Sacred Honor.

When a young Georgian knight saves a Saracen girl from death and dishonor, he is forced to flee his homeland. Drawn to the Saracen, but believing her dead, he takes service with the Crusaders in Constantinople, earning the Emperor’s favor. His reward is a fief and a wife. But on his wedding day, he is devasted to discover his beloved alive and married to another. Bound by honor to a wife he does not love, he must navigate the complexities of the royal court and fight for the woman he loves.

FROM J. P. CHANDLER: Children of the Fall (The Fallen World Book 19)

Kelly Ansen—“Princess” to her friends—brokered an agreement to resolve the growing strife between factions competing for control of her beloved Eureka Bubble.

Before her plan could be implemented, though, her estranged father, Ansen Pringle, kidnapped her sisters, Chelsea and Nicole, to force Princess to join him on a trip to Hawaii. The voyage across the wild oceans is long, with little hope of making it there safely… and even less of returning. Kelly has no choice, though. To save her sisters, she must go.

Kelly’s friends and allies will stop at nothing to rescue her, especially her brother Scott and her boyfriend Morgan Campbell. While Morgan completes his mission at home, Scott goes to bring her back. Ansen Pringle and other dangers in this Fallen World must be reckoned with, but the question remains… are they ready for an angry Scott?

FROM D. S. COLEMAN: The Loser, the Legend, and the Girl Who Tastes Like Sunshine (Song of Grace Book 1)

Chance is a loser. Every good thing he ever held was ruined or ripped from his hands. Chance lost his family, his love, his life. Drifting on the fringe of a declining society he has come to loathe, plagued by horrific nightmares of torture and death, Chance is slowly losing his mind.

But Chance is in for a surprise, as one heroic act of suicidal selflessness will push him to the front line of a secret war that has raged since the dawn of humanity. There he’ll find heroes beyond imagination, enemies beyond comprehension, and a love so strong, that it just might save all of creation from being dragged into hell.

Like Sunshine is a tale like a trainwreck in reverse, as all the shattered, flaming, far-flung pieces come together, from its skull-splitting bloody beginning, to its unexpected triumphant climax. It’s a violent sexy ride full of broadswords, bikes, babes, guns, horrors, and heroes.

But beneath the gore, grit, and gutpuppets, it’s a story about sacrifice and redemption, about the value of the individual. Hope. It’s about hope and unity in a world fractured by petty tribalism and false righteousness. It’s about the never-ending struggle of everyone, that of Grace versus Chaos. So, it’s a love story, amigos, a twisted, naughty, sweet, silly, sarcastic, insane one, a heartfelt rollercoaster that rises and falls from stygian darkness to a warm soulful embrace that’s like… sunshine.

Ride. Shoot Straight. Speak True.

The End is the Beginning

FROM ZACHARY FORBES AND JOSHUA FORBES: Three Rivers Plague

The unleashing of a biological weapon across the United States forces the government to begin rounding up high-profile individuals, in hopes of preserving American society. Famous rockstar Thomas Wylde, fresh off the catastrophe at his latest concert, is taken to a shelter in the sky. That is, until a member of his band falls victim to the weapon’s infection, convincing him to escape into the post-apocalyptic city of Pittsburgh, now plagued by undead horrors, cults, cocaine junkies, and even the mafia. Their only hope is to find a cure to this disease before the transformation occurs. But not everyone is convinced of this new bioweapons’ origins — like Boston police detective Dick Kennedy.

It’s up to Thomas and his band of survivors to discover the truth, not only about this new world, but about his government, his friends, and himself, all the while trying to carve out a slab of life for everyone and everything he cares about.

This book is a 9-episode story, with each episode divided into digestible chapters. Set in post-apocalyptic 1980s America, Three Rivers Plague is a collection of elements from all sorts of genre fiction, including sci-fi, horror, romance, dystopian, and even detective thriller. There’s something here for everyone to sink their teeth into!

FROM J. M. KAUKOLA: Threshold

The town of Landen cut a devil’s bargain, the fracking company just unleashed an ancient evil, and Jason Derval hasn’t gone to class in three weeks. Not all of these problems are equal, but he’s dodging the fallout from all three. When bad decisions come crashing down, only a motley crew of slackers stands between Landen and oblivion.

“Threshold” is a genre-bending adventure that blurs humor, horror, and science-fiction in a loving tribute to classic teen thrillers. Starring a diverse group of slackers, nerds, and outcasts, “Threshold” begins as a slice of life into a dying small town. Set against a rising tide of darkness, the story transitions into a rousing adventure as our heroes uncover the awful truths surrounding them. First ignorant of the threat, then avoiding it, the heroes will find themselves hurled against conspiracies, cults, and forgotten evil. They will be forced to use their wits, luck, and obscure hobbies to fend off threats far beyond their worst nightmares.

Will our heroes rise to the challenge? Will they overcome the rising darkness? Will they stop bickering long enough to order dinner?

Read on to find out!

https://amzn.to/4k7KoHUFROM J. C. CHAMBERS: Benregesh: Volume I of the Cocoon Chronicles

“Benregesh is a rip-roaring adventure!” —D.J. Butler, Author of Witchy Eye

Prepare to be spellbound by an explosive new fantasy that defies all conventions, now with 30 additional pages of original comic art to immerse you even deeper into the world of Benregesh.

Thirteen years ago, Kaleb Mastiff witnessed his father’s tragic demise at the hands of the dreaded Necrothrall, a nightmarish demon from ancient legends. That haunting memory has clung to him like a shadow ever since.

Now, a struggling young adult, Kaleb finds himself in the heart of the action at the Benregesh Detective Agency. In a city where car chases, bar brawls, and mystical chaos are everyday occurrences, Kaleb is ready to dive headfirst into danger. Criminals in Mitror City are a deadly blend of firepower and magic, but he’s undaunted.

But when the Necrothrall resurfaces, unleashing a torrent of fire and blood, Kaleb’s world is upended once more. With the murder of a city leader and the entire Cocoon at risk, the Benregesh Detective Agency is called upon to hunt down this ancient evil. Now, Kaleb is thrust into a desperate race against time.

The key to defeating the Necrothrall lies hidden within the memories of his father’s death, and Kaleb must unlock it to save those he holds dear. Failure is not an option, for the fate of everything hangs in the balance.

In Benregesh, you’ll be transported to a realm of epic battles and unparalleled stakes, where surrender is inconceivable. Get ready to embark on a breathtaking adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

FROM ALI LAUDERDALE: Wild Man

A Wild Man is swept through the wilderness on a search for freedom. An evil queen, a majestic deer and a woman whose body morphs with the seasons, all affect him in different ways; manipulating or healing him. Wild Man is an allegorical fable, employing evocative prose and picturesque imagery to create an emotionally palpable universe and provide lessons on life, love, pain, and joy.

FROM JIM DAVIDSON: Being Sovereign.

Essays by Jim Davidson including excerpts from The Indomitus Report. This book covers topics on individual sovereignty, agorism, freedom, arms and armor technology, guns, launch vehicles, missiles, the space frontier, extra-solar planets, longevity research, culture, society, films, nanotechnology, privacy technology, and travel to Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

Oh, and someone is having a kickstarter for: Legends & Demons

In the scattered files on this computer — and partly in handwritten notebooks in my office closet — there is a halfway written novel called The Years Undone.

It’s about the Red Baron — No, not the one where he’s a dragon shifter. I don’t know why I have two completely different novels with the same historical person. It’s not the first time, though — and therefore by extension about World War I. Or at least the aftermath of WWI. It is actually not a coincidence that I have two novels with that character, and another novel planned set in an alternate World War I.

For years, World War One was one of my reading obsessions. (The French Revolution too, but I had to give that up, because it made me so depressed there was nothing to do.)

World War I is the glitch in the matrix that haunts most historians, the place where it looks like Western civilization went wrong. The place the thread broke that was leading us through the labyrinth of barbarism towards the light.

Oh, it is an illusion, you know? It looms that large because it’s close up and in our face. humans have done stupid, inexplicable things before, and there have been many times where history seemed to stutter, veer off from a course that made at least some sense and go howling in the wildnerness for a while, at a cost of the some large percentage of the population: the English civil war, the 100 years war, the Moorish invasions, the–

To us it is World War One that looms large, partially because it hasn’t been fully digested. In historical terms, world war one was yesterday. We witnessed what seemed like senseless carnage on a massive scale.

Western civilization has been bleeding out from a wound sustained on the fields of Verdun.

But that’s not important right now. Or maybe it’s the only important thing, but it can’t be approached full on, or we can’t face it. So we must pirouette and tiptoe and dance a gavotte towards it.

Which is why the years immediately after WWI make such rich reading: histories, biographies, mysteries (which by their nature are a literature of the quotidian, at least cozy mysteries) and books of musings.

I found the title “The Years Undone” in poem by one of the poets of WWI. I no longer remember the poet or the poem, except it was a musing on how he wished the years undone in which he’d fought in the trenches.

Heinlein had a remarkably similar sentiment in Time Enough For Love. The file clerk that passes for my memory is confused today but I believe Heinlein called WWI “the War where both sides lost.”

And that’s a good way to see it. Another way to see it is that humanity lost. Afterwards, the world took a path of ever increasing government power, increasingly more regimented life, and a drive — partly fed by Russian imperialism — towards ever more “internationalism”.

Erase that. That’s what you’ve been told, but it’s not true. WWI was the first gasp of internationalism. All those royal families with their tentacles reaching into other countries, all the striving of cousins and brothers, uncles and nephews.

And the dead in the fields, the cadavers of young men piled in French and Belgian fields only fed the internationalism because somehow what propaganda made of that senseless war was that the fault was of NATIONALISM and of individual striving.

Which brings us back to the times. The times were the apex of the industrial revolution, when mass industrial production, communication, even art reached its peak. There was nothing anyone could do to fight that. You see, I’m not a materialist. I know there’s more to the world than the material, money, how we live.

But I also know that men — and women too, if you’re one of those that doesn’t realize men is inclusive in this case — live according to their understanding of the world and their material culture at that time. Elizabethans believed in a clockwork world, and primitives believed in a universe that worked by sympathetic magic. Some days I suspect we still do, but that’s something else.

The world of World War One and the dawning 20th century was one of increasing concentration of resources, and standardization of resources and manufacturing and, really, all production. Which brings us to the wars and what led to them….

The “systems” of the 20th century were systems that treated humans as widgets, as groups, as playthings. Communism, fascism and the dilute versions of both that the West installed in its supposedly free societies were all attempts at top down control, at “scientific” governance that controlled everything from the economy to the daily life of every human under them.

…. They’ve been falling apart for 100 years, and it’s become obvious they were falling apart at least 50 years ago. Because humans aren’t widgets and humans don’t work well when treated as widgets.

The country that retained the most freedom was the US because that was how we were founded, from the beginning — and our very founding is an affront the rest of the world will never forgive us — and we were also the most productive and the most innovative.

Even hampered by the fascist shackles that FDR clapped on us, we’ve produced enough to keep the world going through the delusional hell of the 20th century. We’ve innovated enough in all fields to show that the idea of top down control is a delusion. A dangerous one. And now we’re shaking off the shackles and the morbid dreams of the past.

We’re going to have to invent our way out of this, to pave the road so other countries can follow. But that’s okay. That’s what we have always done. (And what other countries can’t forgive.)

Do we wish the years undone of the 20th century, the years when we’re now finding, in many ways we were fighting ourselves in the dark and the fire? Or at least financing those who fought us and hated us?

I don’t think it can be undone. As with mistakes in individual lives, the mistakes made in the long history of humanity are part of who we are, what we’ve learned and who knows where we’d be without them. What we did was because that was how we understood the world. And now we understand it differently, but we wouldn’t be here now if we hadn’t been there then.

Or if you prefer, supposing the US had stayed out of WWI? Would that mean that the bitterness of the 20th century wouldn’t have touched us? Oh, hell no. It means we’d probably have come up — as the rest of the world destroyed itself — with some ultra special, invincible philosophy of mass, top down governance that actually destroyed us and what remained of humanity.

Sure, we could have sat out of WWII and let someone else come up with atomic weapons and– And the first use would be likely to be mass industrial and truly devastating.

Even through the cold war, by existing, we gave hope to the world, and we created a doubt that the USSR was inevitable. Oh, sure, we too fell to their lies, and we supported them in their fight more than we should have.

But had we not done that, I suspect the USSR would have eaten the world. We’d all be Africa in the late 20th century (And there’s fodder for nightmares.)

Of course, there might be a path through that got us to where we’re now without the horrible losses, the psychological damage, the hampering of the 20th century.

Only I doubt we could find it, because it would require us to be perfect and have perfect knowledge. Until humans are angels, that will never happen. When humans are angels, we won’t need that.

It is silly — and facile — to say that we live in the best of all possible worlds. that’s not the way the world works.

To say “if we hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t have this good thing” is a fallacy. It’s the survivors bias. We survived, therefore this is the best of all worlds.

But here’s the thing, worse things could have happened. Far worse. It won’t take much thought to realize it.

And the path where nothing bad happened requires than we know then what we know now.

The Years Undone is a time travel novel. Where the characters are pulled forward, unwilling, and then miraculously find a way to travel back with the knowledge.

This is because, when it’s finished, it will be a work of fiction. In reality we’re not granted such things.

And therefore we don’t know how things will end. Human society is a series of experiments, surging forward and falling back, then learning, integrating and moving forward again. The same way a human lives and learns and grows.

It’s not ideal. It’s a consequence of what we are and how we work. And we can’t be other than we are.

So, what can we do? We can fight, with words, with deeds and, yes, sometimes with weapons for what seems to maximize the potential of humanity and our capacity for good: Individual liberty and small, responsive political units. (Partly because small political units means that there is less damage when things go wrong.)

We write, we fight, we think, we speak in favor of humanity and against the hatred of all that’s human. We write and fight and stand for liberty and its fruits: free creation, love and a lot of fat and healthy babies. Oh, and beauty, which frankly is an attribute of all of that.

And we go on. Where we are, with what we know. Sure, maybe in 20 years we’ll realize we were wrong, and our goals unworthy. But then we readjust and fight again.

Because it’s our only hope, the hope for the future. The hope for humanity.

Go. Forward only. The past is a dead country and those battles not worth fighting over.

In the future there’s hope and there’s glory. Oh, peril too, but if you don’t overcome peril, what is triumph worth it.

We are living in a very exhilarating moment where the horrifying darkness of the twentieth century mass everything and top down control is receding.

Stand in the light and fight for freedom.

So how I started this new hobby that’s eating my evenings was like this:

Some of you are probably aware of the kerfuffle where Devon Eriksen was kicked out (on spurious grounds) from a contest he never entered because he said things the left does not like on X. But that’s not important, right now…

Or rather, it’s super important and it was heartening to see people stand up against the cancel crowd.

However in the aftermath I realized that a lot of the newer indies assumed (because traditional publishing discriminated against everyone not hard left for … well, since the forties, if some of the histories I’ve read can be trusted) that if they were to the right of Lenin, they were a minority and needed to keep their heads down.

This is very far from true. So far that a lot of the perception might come from preference falsification, where you don’t say anything because you think you are alone.

You guys know me. I can’t see this type of thing and not go over and kick the status quo. it’s who I am, it’s what I do. And in this case, as we’ve been seeing this last month, it desperately needs kicking. I put it on twitter that if people sent me an Amazon link to their book to bookpimping at outlook dot com I would give them promo. The ONLY requirement is not being embarrassed of being seen on my blog. (Which means I wouldn’t be doing even the minimal filtering I normally do, when I reserve my right not to promo you for any reason or none. )

So, here we are. The number of people sending me books as astonished even me, and I’m doing (more or less) ten books a night.

Oh, yeah, I earn a commission per each book, which trust me, I do earn since this is fussy and tedious work. As I said, it’s a new hobby for my evenings. Fun, eh?

Two further notes today: 1- Some of you might have thought I hated you or something. no. Email was hiding a bunch of you under “Junk” and I just found you this morning while trying to email someone else. 2- Today, at the bottom there will be shops run by indie artisans and sellers who also wish to say they’re for liberty. If you are one of these, page upward, find the email, and send me a link to your shop. I’ll include one or two after the books.

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

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

AND: The Winter Solist: The Last Solist #2

Adelaide Taylor has survived her first semester at school and as a Dawn Empire Solist. She’s found her first Companion, Sayuri Suisha. Sayuri’s grandfather wants to meet his only grand-daughter’s new friend. In Japan, just before New Years. Along with that, she’s gotten a warning-one of the High Fae is hunting her and is planning to ensnare Adelaide in her schemes.
There’s a girl in her school that has been set up as a tethered goat for Solists.
Her local and very Catholic high school is putting her into places that shouldn’t happen at a Catholic high school.
And there’s a monster eating prostitutes in Queens.
Nobody ever said being a Solist would be easy…

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Escape Velocity

Xanadu–Sometimes, making a profit just needs an outside perspective for why it hasn’t yet.
Turing’s Legacy–It takes love to make a person. And maybe an accident.
Theory in Practice–Psychological care may well be more important in a closed environment.
Reasonable Accommodations–Microgravity could be an answer to some disabilities.
You Can’t Go Home Again–The effects of long-term isolation on asteroid miners explored.
Everyday Miracles–What could push someone to emigrate to a new off-planet colony?

FROM KARL K. GALLAGHER: Ultimate Conclusions (Short Story Collections)

Rocket scientist Karl K. Gallagher writes stories stretching the imagination to new frontiers of wonder:

• An Amish boy on the Moon must choose between obeying his people’s separation or saving the life of a “Modern.”
• A squire tries to save a village from the monster which killed his knight.
• A junior officer makes contact with aliens whose mere appearance terrifies people.

And three new stories following up on the Torchship Trilogy, showing how Michigan Long and her friends deal with the aftermath of war and revolutions.

FROM THOMAS J. WEISS: Murmurations

They wanted him to start a war. Instead, he became a legend.

Daniel Lyon lives his life in virtual reality. His days are filled with games and friends and a family that cares for him. Until one day, when terrorists rip it all away.

Motivated by an unrelenting desire to even the score, Daniel leaves his now empty home and enlists in the Defense Force, where he learns to pilot a group highly sophisticated intelligence collection assets: robotic Starlings that look and sound like the real thing.

After quickly discovering the DF isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Daniel meets a rich, eccentric man with plans of his own for dealing with the terrorists. The payoff is considerable, but so is the price. Daniel must leave behind everyone and everything he knows and journey to Geb, the terrorists’ home planet.

There, he teams up with a striking young woman, and together they embark upon one of the most audacious missions in history, one that promises to end the conflict once and for all.

Except nothing goes according to plan.

What happens instead is outrageous and terrifying and Daniel has no idea if he’ll live through it.

FROM JULIE FROST: Dark Day, Bright Hour

A choir girl cast into the Pit through an egregious clerical error
Her strapping Guardian Angel
A condemned hitman
… and Derek

–a crossroads demon who’s been secretly storing up power for millennia.

He wants revenge on everyone on his extensive list, from Lucifer all the way up to Daddy and every devil and angel between. It’s a frankly impossible goal for a low-level guy like him, but “dream big” is his motto and sheer spite keeps him going.

Now he’s stuck escorting three idiots through Hell—and Derek has a history with the angel, thanks very much.
An infernal rebellion looms along with a premature Armageddon, and the black and withered thing Derek used to call a conscience rears its stupid, stupid head. He’s faced with a choice.

Rescue friends he never thought he’d make from a boss he never really thought he’d defy, at the possible cost of his life, such as it is…

Or let it all burn and dance in the ashes.

FROM JOHN A. DOUGLAS: The Black Crown (Age of Adventures Book 1)

The Crown Pantheon, authoritarian rulers of Allspire, slaughtered the marauding Orcs by the tens of thousands and returned peace to the continent of Evergrad. But among the many half-orc bastards left in the wake of the war, one was Prince Ragoth Brightsorn, son of the notorious Warlord Thorgoth and Seranna, Queen of Namaria, the sole human-ruled kingdom.

After seventeen years of isolation, Ragoth is cruelly forced out of his life of luxurious comfort and into exile on the eve of his royal Crowning before he can receive his gilded mark, the magic sigil that proves his royal birth. Unable to prove who he is or return home, he embarks on a quest to reach his father’s tribe, the Sunderfang, in the lawless wilds of Dreadmour.

But his venture is not taken alone. He earns the company of Cortland Lowhelm, a pugilistic human farmboy hellbent on finding a legend to fill, and Denith, a compassionate, if helpless, elvish goodwill worker. To ensure safe passage, they acquire the services of Val’Mora, a world-weary veteran adventurer down on her luck. Together, they cross the kingdoms of the Crown Pantheon with nefarious forces seemingly at every step.

The Black Crown is a coming-of-age epic fantasy packed to the brim with action & adventure, political intrigue, found family, vengeful dragons, dark abominations, and, most of all….ORCS!

FROM JOHN SHUERGER: In Darkness Cast (Shades of Black Book 1)

A soldier prays for a mentor to train him to be a hero… what he gets is the dark sorcerer who killed thousands of them.

Gideon Halcyon is a young man who wants nothing more than to save his people from the hordes of Hell. Demons and cultists run roughshod over his home, slaughtering and sacrificing to a trifecta of fallen angels on the cusp of destroying the kingdoms of Man. Gideon is helpless in the face of extinction itself…

…until he meets Ashkelon.

Coming from the Void beyond the world, Ashkelon alone survives the world he left in ruins. Cynical and ruthless, the last lord of the Everlasting Dark seethes with millennia of hatred, and his cursed sword Acherlith shrieks with the last screams of a thousand failed heroes.

Ashkelon makes Gideon an offer – to train him to be a hero of the Light beyond the failures sealed within his blade, a peerless warrior to exceed even the exacting standards of the Dark. Reluctantly, Gideon accepts and is thrust into a world of infinite cruelty under Ashkelon’s black fist where the slightest misstep will see him just another scream in the murderer’s black blade.

As Hell consumes the hopes of Man, a hero is forged in darkness. Read it today.

FROM SABRINA ROSEN: The Sorceress Tangled: Chloe Delis Book 2 (Sorceress Chloe Delis)

Chloe hasn’t been a City Sorceress for long
Just long enough to realize her training isn’t what it should have been

Her magic is still going sideways
But maybe that will be useful
If it doesn’t kill her first.

She has to find answers before she
hurts herself, or anyone else.

But she’s not getting time off
And there are still beastials to hunt
Or maybe something worse

If she can’t follow Persephone’s rules,
Chloe’s patron goddess will take her to Hades.
Which is better than the alternative.

FROM D. S. BLAKE: Exopreneurs (4 book series)

From Book 1: It should have been a routine negotiation, an easy task for even a novice bailiff to handle.

Jake Ambler, a disaffected youth searching for purpose in the cosmos, finds solace in the ranks of the disreputable “exopreneurs” – those who seek to profit from the exploitation of alien worlds. His assignment?

Bug Space, a region of the galaxy where colossal, intelligent insectoids reign supreme. But when Jake arrives on the insect-infested planet of Telia, he quickly discovers that nothing about his mission is routine. The Spider Queens of Teila, a domineering race of arachnids, wield power like nothing he’s ever encountered. Their disdain for lesser life forms is only surpassed by their insatiable desire for supremacy among their own kind, especially the males.

And his fellow exopreneurs intend to cash in on it.

As Jake delves deeper into the tangled web of Teila’s intrigue, he finds himself embroiled in an uprising that threatens to consume him and those he cares for most. Survival is a high-stakes gamble, and the only way out is to unravel Teila’s greatest secret before Jake becomes yet another pawn in this galactic struggle for power.

Silk Unspun is a pulse-pounding science fiction odyssey that explores the boundaries of loyalty, survival, and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge in a universe where danger is as limitless as the cosmos.

FROM JON DEL ARROZ: The Immortal Edge: A Sci-Fi Spy Thriller (The Terran Imperium Chronicles Book 1)

…comes with a destructive price.

Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin has uncovered a web of conspiracy leading back to the stronghold of the dangerous Robeni Space Pirates. Intelligence networks intercepted transmissions that indicate the pirates may have access to a new refined spore that can stop the aging process in humans.

But there’s more than meets the eye, as the trail leads Ayla to a mysterious planet which isn’t on any of the Imperial star charts, a world lost to time. Sinister forces seek to control this immortality spore and weaponize it against the Imperium.

Ayla Rin must uncover who is pulling the strings behind this planetary government and stop their evil plans before they’re exported to the entire Imperium. If she fails, humanity as we know it could be erased.

Fans of Star Wars: Heir To The Empire and Dan Simmons’ Hyperion will love The Immortal Edge!

SHOPS (I DON’T GET A CUT FROM THESE, BUT THEY WANT TO STAND WITH US, SO HERE THEY ARE: … because we shouldn’t willfully give money to people who hate us, and these people don’t.

MURPHIC INDUSTRIES: If you’re a gamer or simply like to paint miniatures, you could do worse than order from Murphic Industries.

MORRIGAN’S MERCANTILE: For blades, purses, drinking horns, and other needs of ren fair, or simply when you wake up feeling medieval. You could do worse than Morrigan’s Mercantile.

The Longevity Problem by Orvan Ox

Anyone of any non-trivial age “knows too many dead people.” And while it’s normal, if unpleasant, to lose older relatives (great grandparents if you were even lucky enough to meet any, grandparents, parents, and various aunts/uncles etc.) it’s not just relatives. It’s friends and acquaintances. Heck, for some there were only voices heard/conversed with “over the air”…For example, I never met AA9Y, the self-described drug dealer – he was a pharmacist, but I knew his voice.

If you have an… extended… life (say, like a ShapeShifter as described in Sarah’s “Shifters” series [PLUG! PLUG! PLUG!] of books… where lifespans can be measured in centuries or even millennia…) it’s even worse. You need to quite literally reinvent yourself every few decades and catch up on current idioms/slang… though if you look old enough you can be “charmingly” out of date by a decade or three. Get into reenacting, even a bit, and you might be able to get away with more. Oh, and then language changes. Not just a new country with a new language, but things like Vowel Shifts.

And, of course it’s still disconcerting to find the answer to something that was bugging a friend… but said friend is now long dead. Or you know just who to ask, but the person to ask died years ago. Or you see this item that so & so would love, but…  you get the idea.

This kinda works the other way, too. Let’s say you figured out the key to some Great Advance… but you do NOT dare proclaim it yourself, lest you become famous and thus… get paid attention. No, you need to find a Willing Mind to drop hints at.. or even tell outright (if you can then disappear to them!). No, I did not influence any of the Great Minds (scientists, inventors) but I have given the issue some thought, you know, just in case an idea strikes me and doesn’t just bounce off.

Other times, you just sigh and wonder how the blazes you missed it. Look, you escape the Labyrinth… you sail the Med for seeming Ages… sometimes rowing, sometimes steering with an oar… and it’s a gol-dang pain in the arm(s). And one day some bright spark comes up with the sternpost, or at least mounted, rudder. Brilliant. And SO. DAMNED. OBVIOUS. in retrospect. I might have been out a few days from the force of that face-hoof.

Oh, and the times you see some “genius” come up with a “brilliant new idea” … that you’ve seen crash and burn a dozen or more times. Except… every great once in a while, technology/science has caught up and NOW it’s workable. It’s all rather confusing, really. Nod, smile, and be ready to bolt to a safe distance – which might be a few borders away.

What can you do? I have no grand answer. Note history as it happens, but be ready to “forget” it (at least in detail) as ‘Current Events’ recedes into being History. Watergate means about as much to many today as does Teapot Dome.

And, well…. The line is MUCH older than the relatively recent tune it’s a title to, but the best I can say is just, “Keep on keeping on.”

Yes, there’s a simple answer to the Longevity Problem, but no, not taking the Canadian Medicine. There’s no future in it.

So, this is what happened:

Some of you are probably aware of the kerfuffle where Devon Eriksen was kicked out (on spurious grounds) from a contest he never entered because he said things the left does not like on X.

However for me the enlightening moment came after, when I realized a lot of beginning writers who were on the side of liberty, or at least to the right of Lenin, assumed everyone else writing fiction was a leftist. So, they tried to fit in with groups of leftists, keeping their heads down and feeling grateful for crumbs of information and publicity.

Guys, even given that there aren’t many of OUR groups, because the individualists as always fail to organize, the truth is that since the advent of indie, we’re the majority of this field.

Being incapable, or at least too busy to form a group, I decided to promote people who aren’t afraid to be seen on this blog. I figured that’s enough of a “purity test” for being to the right of Lenin. Later, once I get a chance to get my head together with a friend who can program (the snow isn’t helping) we’ll try to design a site for the like of us. For now, in addition to publicity, you get to know you’re not alone.

Because people glaze over after about ten books, I’m doing ten a night till I run out. You are of course free (eh) to send us the amazon link to your book at: email to bookpimping at outlook dot com

I am not reading each of these books before I post them, (though I have read a few, and might read more, just not before the promo is done.) So look at samples and exert normal caution before buying.

Oh, yeah: A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE. This is good because I spend a bunch of time compiling the info and getting the links. Yes, I want to help, but I could be writing ;). (Which makes more money, but never mind.)

FROM C. R. WALTON: Wilderness Five: Hard Science Fiction (Metamorphosis Book 1)

‘MYSTERY, SUSPENSE, AND COSMIC DREAD. A MUST READ FOR FANS OF PETER F HAMILTON OR ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY.’ Reader review

From Cambridge planetary scientist and award-winning author C. R. Walton comes a spectacular new space opera that sees the ingenious creation of new ecosystems throughout the System turn into a living nightmare. Extinction is only the beginning . . .

Accelerated evolution ‘Manifold’ technology has changed everything – dead worlds and asteroids bloom with strange new life.

People flocked to colonise the new wilderness only barely to survive obliteration by a Manifold experiment gone wrong. Like so many others, Bryn watched his people burn that day. Unlike the rest, Bryn finds himself hailed as the lone hero who saved his species. Only he knows better.

Bryn’s grim new life of solitude in the depths of the wilderness is shattered when the past comes calling. His presence is requested on the ringworld Wilderness Five.

There, at the edge of inhabited space, the oldest and richest man in the System has expended every drop of his money and influence to launch the most daring Manifold experiment ever attempted.

Bryn’s moment has come. Plunged back into a world of faceless corporations, hell-bent scientists, and terrifying engineered species, he must learn to finally live up to his reputation. Otherwise, nature will take its course with humanity once and for all.

On Wilderness Five, the fate of the species comes down to one question: whom to trust and whom to kill?

FROM CAITLIN WALSH: 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.

FROM BLAKE CARPENTER: The Way of Mortals: The Four Sisters: Book One

In the city of Bhai Mandwa, towers of steel and glass reach for the sky while boiler-cars roll along streets that are inhabited by gangsters, demonic assassins, inept policemen and wandering ghosts. More than a million people call the city home, one in the midst of an industrial revolution, torn between the traditions of the old world and a new, frightening future. Below, the Genja River flows, waters possessed by spirits and magic from ancient times.

Prem Marantha, third of four royal sisters, was kidnapped and trained to kill as a child. Upon returning home after her long absence, she discovers that her parents are dead and her youngest sister has taken the throne. Now Prem must find out how to evade an assassin’s plot, elude the unwanted attention of the ruling Parliament and the police force it controls, and stop a conspiracy planning to overthrow the monarchy for good.

THE WAY OF MORTALS is a mix of Indian-flavored steampunk, gaslamp fantasy and alternate history, with the aesthetics of Larry Correia’s SON OF THE BLACK SWORD and Guy Ritchie’s SHERLOCK HOLMES films, along with a dash of political intrigue, mystery, and murder. Fans of fantasy with an Asian and Oriental twist will not be disappointed.

FROM MANFRED WEICHSEL: Sword & Scandal (The Scandal Anthology Series Book 1)

the Gateway of Pleasure
By JIM LEE
A knight and a lady from warring kingdoms have an erotic encounter in feudal Vietnam

Shaven Beards
By ROSS BAXTER
A man and a woman sellsword learn more than they wanted to know about the secret lives of dwarves

The Snow Princess
By PIP PINKERTON
A magical princess teaches her special friend Annie new uses for ice

Vermina’s Creature
By BITTER KARELLA
A malevolent sorceress keeps a manservant as a pet

The Baron with a Thousand Cats
By GARY EVERY
A groom must save his bride from suffering prima notte with a grotesque baron

Windblades
By C. L. WERNER
A comfort woman summons killer demon weasels in a most uncomfortable way

Flesh and Ink
By Rebecca Buchanan
A female assassin’s tattoos hold a deadly power

Confessions of a Wicked Harpastum Player
By J. MANFRED WEICHSEL and ALEXANDER JOYNER
A sadistic inquisitor accuses a female Harpastum player of witchcraft… and sapphism

Kai-zur the Godless
By DAVID CARTER
A warrior becomes a lover only to learn that love is war

Abduction from the Seraglio
By DAVID J. WEST
A sellsword gets himself into an awkward situation after being hired to abduct a woman from a harem

The Harem of Al’Azeri
By JASIAH WITKOFSKY
A gentleman out for a night on the town has a serious mishap in a brothel

He Who Sows
By AUSTIN WORLEY
Two female thieves break into a temple to steal the phallus of a stone fertility god but get a little too excited by it

With thirteen filthy black and white illustrations by NSFW fantasy artist, Apolonster

Manfred is running a kickstarter for the next book.

FROM J. ISHIRO FINNEY: SCARS: Heroes come in all sizes.

James was a high-rider, a thrill seeker, an EVA cowboy. He was one of a small brotherhood of men who made a living out of lassoing dead satellites and towing them out of Earth’s orbit. Then came the accident, the one which cost James everything. Now landlocked and grounded with no chance of returning to space, James lives a life of quiet desperation. By day, he struggles with having become an amputee. By night, he is haunted by nightmares of the moment that took his leg, his friends, and his entire career. After a failed suicide attempt, a company psychologist assigns James a companion animal named Max—a very smart rat with an interesting past. Now, once again, James will find his life radically changed as old wounds are opened and fresh scars are forced to heal.

FROM JORDAN ALLEN: The Life Feast (The Hollow Realms)

Lord Legot had more money and power than any man in the town of Bastia would know what to do with, but the one thing he valued above everything else was his family. When his twin daughters are abducted one stormy night, he calls upon Caen the Hell Stalker to bring his beloved daughters back safely.

No stranger to wickedness, the intrepid monster hunter scours the land for any clues that will lead him to the girls, battling werewolves, mercenaries, demons and even monstrous hellhounds along the way. What he doesn’t yet realise is just how deeply twisted the mystery of the missing Legot girls is.

Jordan Allen returns with the fifth book in his Hollow Realms series of dark fantasy tales. The Life Feast is a standalone novella that promises action, adventure and mystery.

FROM XAVIER BASORA, WHO HAS A STORY IN THIS ANTHOLOGY: Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs

Once again, we bring you tales of horror, adventure, and shooting the devil! Preferably in the face. This one is loaded with tales of the average fire fighter, to simple pastors, space vikings and more with one thing in common – coming face to face with supernatural evil and sending it packing.

If you have read the previous installments of the Shoot the Devil series, you will recognize some names, while others are brand new to the fold. That was our focus this time around, giving unknown and unestablished authors a chance to flex their muscle and show off their skill. And skill they have. The talent and imagination on display is extremely impressive and Crucifixion Press is extremely proud to welcome them all to the Militia!

FROM CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL: Danforth: Eldritch Tales of WWII: Tomb of the Black Pharaoh

The Cthulhu Mythos continues in series Danforth: Eldritch Tales of WWII.

In this Lovecraftian tale of horror and espionage, Tomb of the Black Pharaoh follows Robert B. Danforth, a former Miskatonic University scholar still reeling from the horrific events At the Mountains of Madness. Now part of the newly formed Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) – the predecessor of the famed Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – Danforth is dispatched to Cairo to thwart a Nazi plot to recover the Talisman of Nephren-ka, buried deep within the lost tomb of Black Pharaoh. Said to grant unspeakable power, the artifact could tip the scales of World War II in the Nazis’ favor. As Danforth delves into the ancient tomb, he faces cults devoted to Nephren-ka, Nazi occultists, and cosmic horrors that strain the limits of his sanity.

Danforth must battle not only the looming threat of the Nazis but also the terrifying implications of the Amulet’s power. As eldritch forces close in and the boundaries between reality and madness begin to crumble, Danforth realizes the cost of failure may be far greater than even the war—humanity itself may be at stake.

This heart-pounding mix of Lovecraftian horror and historical espionage will captivate fans of cosmic terror and WWII thrillers alike, immersing readers in a world where ancient gods and modern warfare collide in a fight for ultimate power.

FROM R. H. SNOW: Transmutation Texas (WATCHER of the DAMNED: WATCHER Book 1)

In a World gone Viral, a Hero shall Arise – join the Revolution with WATCHER of the DAMNED!

The Happening wreaked havoc as Humanity got a hard reset from a deadly gender-cidal Virus – and for TransMutated Survivors like The Watcher, life in Post-Apocalyptic Texas just got a whole lot bloodier and a whole lot lonelier. In a cyberpunk Wild West gone awry, The Watcher was a Rebel without a clue under the System: a brutal, high-tech Social Construct engineered to serve the Enlightened and oppress the Damned. But that’s all about to change, thanks to a cheeky chaos agent named Rose…

Now The Watcher must lead a Revolution to save Rose from the System He helped create, or Rose will die – and Humanity will die with her.

Fight the System – Join the Revolution – with WATCHER of the DAMNED!

FROM JAY MCINTYRE AND DAN JORDAN: Lowther and Deardon: Tainted Gold

The city of Lanteius is divided between three rival nations. A grim mercenary and a cynical bard are thrust into an investigation to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the balance of power. Swords and sorcery, magic and crime, intrigue and betrayal.

Let’s start with true confessions! I never really liked school. Oh, I did well in it, and when I was in college I did more hours than were reasonable, plus took outside courses, too. But the goal there was to graduate faster and also to have diverse enough credentials to get a good job when I finished. (Turns out this was nullified by the one simple trick of marrying someone from another country and moving there.)

The reason I didn’t like it was that the information they were trying to put in my head was never the stuff I was looking for at that particular time and/or was weirdly slanted, or worse, the things they graded me on were senseless to me, or worse mostly what they graded me on was being nice and compliant. Those people always got good grades, even if they knew nothing of what we studied. Unfortunately I couldn’t make myself over into a good girl even if I tried. And boy did I try for years. (And no, I wasn’t the classic bad girl. I never engaged in juvenile delinquency (or at least none of the conventional juvenile delinquency) and never really had trouble with the law, unless it was stupid law about political expression. Even then I never got in trouble, though I came close enough it was a matter of luck.)

I just couldn’t help speaking out or showing my feelings in my expression. And that was enough to stick out.

But even so, I found that enough of the “form” of traditional schooling lodged itself in the back of my head, so that I would approach life in the real world as though it were a school assignment.

Take trying to break into writing. I didn’t — for years and years. Over a decade — understand that it wasn’t a matter of writing things “well” or “getting it right.” Rather, it was a matter of writing something that just happened to hit an editor on a particular day as a “must have.” (This is why, btw, it’s easier to sell — to the public too — something that hits the time period, touch-feel or themes of a popular movie or game. (Visual media always sells better than books. Deal.))

However, even now when I mentor people, it’s really hard to make people understand this principle: it’s not if you got it right. It’s not if you did all the right things, according to the latest instruction of how to write, it’s not if you finally got “good.” (In fact “good” in writing is so highly subjective that you really can’t tell if you got there. I find most bestsellers stultifyingly boring and lacking in individuality.)

What actually makes you sell/hit big etc. is a combination of having a product a lot of people want to read, and having a certain luck in word of your product spreading enough to sell substantially. (Whether you’re indie or traditional. If traditional, somehow convincing your publisher that lots of people want to read your product helps. However one does that.)

Note that while this is true in publishing, it’s also true in the business world, politics, getting a job. It’s just that in that case, you are selling yourself/making yourself into a saleable product.

I keep running into people on X — and sometimes in my friend’s group — complaining that they did everything by the book to have a secure job, but are now being laid off or fired by DOGE and how this is unfair and an injustice.

It’s only an injustice if you’re in school and you were promised an A if you do x, y and z. And “unfair” is one of the characteristics of life in the world. In fact the whole “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” never works because it fails on the most fundamental level: the world doesn’t have an all-seeing teacher. It’s all a chaotic, fractal network of humans evaluating other humans/their works on insufficient information.

Over all, the free market works best for everyone because it allows people to hire/be hired/sell/buy according to their own, individual percevied interests.

Which doesn’t make it fair. Because the “luck” or “random chance” has a say. I have been approached by writers no one knows, including some whose work was never published, who are absolutely amazing and knocked my socks off. But they were hit so hard by rejection early on that they never tried again. Or they published once, failed through no fault of their own, and never found the courage to try again. Or a dozen other circumstances.

Their work is wonderful. It’s other circumstances keeping them from being bestsellers, and some of those are things they can’t overcome because they’re part of who they are.

In the same way, you might have done all the work to be the best designer of agricultural colonies in Mars, but since the job doesn’t exist yet, you can’t do that. And heaven only knows what you’re doing to survive.

In fact most of my friends — perhaps most people — do not work or make a living int he things they studied in college, the things they prepared to make a living in. Why not?

Well, there wasn’t a job in that field at the time, or they got into the field and found out they didn’t like it as much in reality as they did when they studied it, or–

Because life isn’t school. there isn’t “complete this study, then study this thing, then receive this degree, then–“

It’s a chaotic interaction of abilities and needs. In many ways unpredictable.

More unpredictable when idiots are playing with the over-structure of government and distorting the economy for their own agenda.

In the last 30 years which of us hasn’t experienced a sudden redirection, found him or herself without income, lose a job or a position we loved out of the blue and in a way we couldn’t have anticipated?

Most of what shocks me about the government employees losing their jobs now is that they’re experiencing this with the newness of a child who still thought the world was a giant, and “fair” schooling experience, even though some are my age or even older. It just tells me they have been insulated from the real world. Perhaps it’s part of being embedded in the over-structure of the planners that you have faith in it. This mostly astonishes me.

Yes, I feel sympathy with those who aren’t crooked or corrupt. Because I’ve been there. We’ve found ourselves going from a two-income household to a zero-income household suddenly when we had toddlers and the economy was problematic for job-finding. I’ve found myself suddenly without income in a year when we had sudden and unexpected demands on our income. I think we all have. All of us adults. So we feel empathy. We know what it’s like. Who doesn’t? (Though let me tell you, the eight month deal is better than anything I got or anyone I know got. And don’t be a fool. Of course if you take the deal they’ll pay. They have to. The only thing that would stop it is a complete collapse of the economy and at that point we all have problems.)

All of us.

So, for those caught in this: Yes, it sucks. I do realize it sucks. But you know what? We can’t go on the way we’ve been. We simply don’t have the money for this. At some point we have to retrench and shrink government, because government is not the productive part of economy. It’s parasitical on the real economy. And at this point the economy is dying of being sucked dry by the government. And the government is suffering from too much money, which is why it comes up with the idea that it’s up to it to finance transgender operas in Serbia. Or even crazier stuff.

To the rest of us, yes they will push the hostage puppy at you. The hostage puppy being the cute sweet puppy that the government is feeding and looking after, as well as doing a lot of things that would look good on a demon’s resume.

Yes, the puppy is real, and the puppy will suffer, but behind it are all the things that would really buff up the demon’s resume.

While it’s not fair (that word again) for the puppy to suffer and die, and all good people will hurt over it, the fault for the puppy’s death is not on the people who stopped the government leeching on working people and creators. It’s on the people who use the puppy and its cuteness to hide their heinous crimes. In fact, in war hiding your fighters behind the innocent is what’s known as a war crime.

This is not schoolwork. There is no such thing as “I’ve done the thing, I’ll get the grade.”

Life is chaotic and unpredictable. And the only way for good people to avoid pain (or at least excessive pain) is to look to themselves and their interests.

Do not — ever — whichever side of this you’re on, sit around bleating that you got laid off, or something bad happened and it’s not fair.

Fair is a market where they sell cattle.

There is no fair in life. There is doing what you can and fighting for survival.

Do that.

Your survival, your success is up to you.

Go do so. And keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.