According To Hoyt

We need some way to study culture that isn’t as silly, corrupted by Marxism and outright faddish as our current anthropology field.

No, hear me out, okay? Studying what a culture even IS and how much it influences the group it works with; what happens when the culture is broken or occupied; signs of a culture under attack; a culture under natural decay; a culture that’s gone toxic.

Because humans are social apes, it’s always a question what’s nature and what’s nurture, and because cultures as they exist currently are just a static thing, you have to look at cultural perspective, which in turn involves bias in reporting.

However, it’s possible to break through that, as through all bias in reporting issues, by having many historical reports, with many biases, and not assuming our current one is more right than the rest.

But Sarah, you’ll say, why do we need cultures to be studied? What’s with wanting all these fluffy irreproducible social science stuff? Don’t we spend enough money on those? Let’s study STEM.

Okay, you do you. And note, I’m not 100% sure these should be founded by government. In fact, I’m fairly sure they shouldn’t because wellll the inherent biases of a corrupt bureaucratic structure don’t help anything. BUT–

The other day at insty I shared this: Tough Question, Simple Answer.

Yes, I do realize it’s an old post, but I thought it was still relevant. And I wanted to point out that I agree with him on South Africa in general and on apartheid in general, but not on the whole “The population might be genetically predisposed to short-time preference and inability to plan.” Not because “racissss” (And not Kim doesn’t say “IS” because we can’t, because studies on it are all muddled, partly by being done by the apartheid regime to justify itself.) But because as far as I can determine it isn’t true.

Sure, Africa is a total mess, and Africa in general exhibits a lot of of the same pathologies (though part of this is the European export of communism which is is the worst colonialism.) But there’s really no proof they’re due to a common genetic heritage OR lack.

First of all because Africa has the most genetically diverse populations in the world, and second because African people who immigrate and make a point of acculturation often do quite well. Also a lot of African countries did well under colonial rule, and it wasn’t despite it’s native populations, but they were full contributors. Also when people bring this up, they inevitably bring up the black population of the US, which is a laugh, since 90% of them are technically what’s known in the rest of the world as “Caucasians” and Americans go on the slightest facial hints to say “that person is black.” (We recently watched American fiction, and I was baffled because I’d heard it was about a black author. I kept waiting for the black author to come in, until the character meets his family and they’re obviously black. Until then he read “Mediterranean” to me. Dan says he’s obviously black. GO FIGURE.)

Also, though this is deliberately hidden, despite all the things stacked against them, black people in America were doing quite well and were perhaps more “bourgeois” in values than white people, until the welfare state came and socked them down again. And as far as black misbehavior, it’s more or less standard “white trash” misbehavior, probably proceeding from people brought in in small groups or individually (slaves came from all over Africa) and having lost their moorings acculturating to the culture of other field hands and supervisors. So, you know “Lower class British/Irish in the 18th and early 19th century.” Like the speech. Anyway, the white underclass is going on the welfare ride along with black people in America, and both need to be freed from the degradation of low expectations.

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a genetic component to some human behaviors. We’re still, after all, mammals and have bodies. Oh, and an evolutionary history. It’s just that it’s not that simple. Even short/long time preference isn’t — probably — based on a single genetic trait. And all genetic traits can be employed various ways.

When I went to older son’s sweeping of every award for chemistry on his final undergrad year (not seriously. They told him “Don’t bother getting off the stage.” as they called in each new award for this and that) I will confess I felt a little uncomfortable. In the sense that every kid there but son and another kid had a German last name. And it turned out kid had a German immigrant mother, and son has a Amish great grandmother. Add it all together with the fact that chemistry — which I cordially detest — is a fussy, exacting, button counting system, and you start getting the slightest bit squirmy and going “Well, now…”

But historically that’s complete BS. First because the Germans were considered “wild and unorganized” well into the eighteenth century. Second because the communists managed to make the East Germans slovenly and short-time-preference incapable of maintaining anything.

So do I have a bad sample, or is there a correlation, and it’s just how the culture uses the “fussy, obsessive on details” genetic trait?

I’d be inclined to the latter, because, well…. because. I mean, if the entire culture is “wild” then the fussy obsessive on details gets spent on…. I don’t know. Better traps for house breakers? And the communists turned that trait into obsessive spying on everyone, till there was no energy for anything else.

In the same way, I often refer to Portugal as ADHD with borders. And it is that. It’s weird, the level of ADD that’s considered completely normal there. (And I was off the charts even for there. Oh, well.) But it took me till this last visit, when I’m almost — to the extent I’m fully acculturated here, or as much as it’s possible to be — to realize how much of Portugal’s inability to organize its way out of a wet paperbag OR maintain anything less durable than a Roman aqueduct (and even those!) is reinforced and driven to eleventy by a culture that goes “The highest virtue is doing things fast, no matter how BADLY they’re done.” And that’s pushed everywhere and by every possible means. And yes, I grew up with it (Anyone making a comment about my books gets put in the corner. Actually they’re worse if I take very long. Yes, I have an explanation, but it doesn’t matter. It is what it is) and internalized it to such an extent it took almost forty years to SEE it was there and it was bad.

And these traits can be recoverable from, if one acculturates elsewhere. I know that, because when I first moved here — I tell this story often, because it’s now hilarious — my entire family was shocked and dismayed to find out that as I was sending things over the transom, the manuscript would get rejected if I had a typo or punctuation error in the first page (Or others, but particularly the first.)

It wasn’t so much that they found I was being asked to do something impossible, but also because they couldn’t understand why I was expected — as a creative — to punctuate my manuscripts at all. “Surely the houses have people for that.”

You’ll be shocked — because I know what this blog looks like, yes, but it’s fitted in around things — that my manuscripts are actually cleaner and more grammatical than 90% of the writers’ out there. Because I spent so many years in slush, I trained myself to correctness and obsession with details. Though looking at Portugal no one would expect that.

And there’s Portugal, of course. Let’s say that to talk of innate Portuguese characteristics is …. kind of like talking about the innate genetic characteristics of street cats. My kids’ characterization of Portugal as “the reservoir tip of Europe” is mean. It’s also accurate. Genetically Portuguese are…. a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a dollop of the other thing. However they are all for real ADD AF. Even if I’m more so than most of them. And they all exhibit short-time-preference.

I suspect — to revisit the vexed question of “Africa always wins” which is not the point of this post, but needs a sort of exclamation point at the end — that Africa’s true tragedy is an overall (with exceptions, yes, I’m not stupid) climate that makes living easy for humans, and a fact that tribalism was never broken there, and tribalism is a curse on humanity. Like communism, it penalizes saving or planning for the future, in favor of short term “being in good with the group.” And it’s about as pleasant to live under as communism. Don’t be fooled by the “country borders.” Sure, countries exist in Africa, but as far as I can understand, they’re just a nifty mask for the same old tribal wars and clashes.

Which brings us back to cultures. It doesn’t matter if tribes in Africa have different cultures or genetics, their cultures are all varieties of tribal culture, and that penalizes individual action and innovation in favor of almost nihilistic obedience to and supremacy of the group. (The same nonsense our wokies want to impose here.)

And our problem is that we don’t GET cultures. The Gramscian thing of all cultures are alike, except the cultures of the oppressed which are extra nifty and should be let run rampant is killing us all.

We don’t understand cultures, or how to modify them, or how to help them eliminate bad characteristics before they damage another generation.

I know cultures aren’t sentient, but they behave as if they were. Because they embed in people’s brains when they’re so young they can’t even think, they behave as a sort of collective subconscious. And while they change and evolve over time, they are excruciatingly slow to do so.

All of this is a problem in a world of rapid innovation and deliberately open borders. If we don’t study cultures and figure out how to make the better ones prevail — those more useful to human civilization and happiness, on the individual side, because that’s the only measure we CAN use — what we end up with is hordes of locusts roaming the earth, eating out each slightly better off country. Or if you prefer, tribalism on a global scale.

Take a lot of the things we considered once upon a time problems of “overpopulation”. It turns out what they actually are is problems of a culture that has been conquered and is occupied. The women become whores (to survive the occupation by the enemy, because if your kids are of the enemy, well…) and the men become effeminate, and no one works, and– ALL of these are signs of a culture that has lost a war and been occupied. NOT of overpopulation. It is also the signs of a culture taken over by Marxists, which the culture obviously interprets as “foreign occupiers” — and if you see what they do, it’s typical colonizer stuff, from taking over the schools to punishing everyone who doesn’t display allegiance.

But no one is paying attention to that, because no one is studying the “mechanisms of culture” qua culture, and what cultures do and how they change and use humans almost as their instruments to survive/replicate/conquer/die.

It is necessary. It is urgent. And I don’t know what to do about it.

I do know it’s needed because we don’t have the …. ruthlessness to use the old methods, let alone thinking the old methods were horrible. (They were.)

In the old method, either all men over the age of three were killed (that had mixed success as women often managed to pass on enough of the conquered culture, anyway) or everyone but “the babe at the breast” was killed. That effectively destroyed the culture, and let the conquering culture — often simply more ruthless, but often also better organized and more capable of overcoming tribalism (see Rome) — become THE culture.

The history of civilization is made of such encounters, but we can’t do it. As we are, we simply can’t. And faster travel has made the world one large neighborhood.

So, we need sane, non-fluffy people to study: What cultures are (They’re not food and clothes. And they’re not race. To what extent those influence culture is debatable, but they’re not what culture IS); how cultures clash; how to make cultures that are objectively bad/destructive/useless go away without putting everyone to the sword; the symptoms that a culture is in trouble and how to fix it.

I don’t know how to do any of that, though I suspect a lot of my ponderings on it is coming out in the current headache of a book/series. (Yes, published soonish. But so weird, most of you will run screaming into the night. Never mind.)

There is an entire field of knowledge it’s urgent to study. Our culture ignores it because it’s decided culture means race.

And I have no idea how to fix it. These things always fix themselves eventually, but usually by those old, er…. ruthless methods.

If we don’t want to end up there, we’d best figure it out now.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

For those wondering at the title, it comes from this:

A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.

Robert A. Heinlein

In my defense, I’m not even a fake fortune teller. (Though I won’t object at all if you cross my palm with silver. Have I mentioned these are fundraising days?)

What I am is someone who has an uncomfortable little imp at the back of her head. If I’m similar to a Heinlein character in that it is Friday. Why Friday? Well, remember the scene where her boss calls her in the middle of the night and asks her questions, before she has the time to think and her “guesses” are correct?

Well, the minute I read that scene my head went “ting” and I thought “that’s what I do, or would be, if I could just randomly rabbit hole from subject to subject and read research and news and fiction and– without limit.” Even at that time, with “just” books (but I was a much faster reader back then, I should add, and even going to college, taking extra courses and working I read at least one full book a day and often much more.) or later, with access to a library, and with full awareness of how controlled publishing was, I’d get these uncomfortable “tings” in the back of my head and know conventional wisdom was completely wrong. Sometimes, digging after the fact even told me why it was wrong. Other times I couldn’t put my finger on it, I just “knew” it was. (And that’s a horrible feeling, kind of like having an itch where you can’t reach.)

All of it became much stronger with the internet. Much. Like…. Through the roof. Both because it gives me a better opportunity to feed the elephant child, and even when I’m not avoiding writing (These days, TBF I don’t have that much time to avoid writing. I’m usually either writing or cleaning/cooking/planting/weeding. Or looking after DIL’s quail, though lately she’s mostly done all of that.) I read an awful lot of … stuff. Partly because I am a compulsive reader/can’t do anything else, like, say, cook, without also reading. Partly because I’m ADD AF (Which makes me wonder if this is the evolutionary advantage of ADD brains.) So on any given day I’ll read history, news, an article on some obscure craft like how to make rosaries out of dried rose petals (you only think I’m joking), ten posts screaming about the next great doom, a bunch of email lists some by highly specialized people others by my delusional lefty colleagues who have forgotten I’m on the list (yes, I know, this might get me kicked out. If they remember my email. LOL.) To which I might add I listen to people’s conversations with the shamelessness only a writer is capable of. People walking by my yard while I’m weeding, people talking on the cell phone outside the pharmacy, people arguing on whether to buy the discount beef or the chicken in the grocery isle… You get the point.

And sometimes something causes me to go digging through like a deranged rabbit which is why I can honestly tell you I now believe there were humans in the Americas as far back as 100k years ago, or further (We’re a curious ape.) BUT I don’t believe they were enlightened; some kind of great matriarchy; gentle carers for Gaia; superior to our civilization. Whether they might have been “civilized” I leave for a future in which we know a heck of a lot more, and perhaps have less crazy academic establishment. (Which means till the afterlife, when I hope I get to KNOW stuff. Or maybe not. some of it will horrify me.)

Oh, add to that that I live with an ADD AF husband who not only falls down his own rabbit holes BUT also repeats whatever he researched lately at me during meals. (Not work. Just crazy stuff. Like the latest was Victorian Mass Murderers. Look…. I don’t KNOW why. Another time and for about a week it was (I swear I’m not making this up) Ways to Make Cheese (he’s never been near a dairy. He’s never known anyone who ran a dairy. In our last house in Colorado some people pastured cows in the undeveloped 400 acres behind us and older DIL and I didn’t know how to explain to Dan what had happened to all the cows in fall — including the cute little calves he’d named — without breaking his heart. I mean he used to watch them through binoculars and named them.)) He often listens to podcasts or reads stuff while puttering around the house, and then SOMEONE has to hear about it all. I’m the only one in the house. I’m someone.

And then… And then I wake up in the middle of the night, as the imp in the back of my brain stomps his little foot and goes “But everyone is wrong.” And then I play Cassandra. And sometimes I’m even right. (Oh, not every time. I was so wrong in 2016! To be fair, though, I was in accord — then — with a substantial minority of people to the right of Lenin. Not against everyone.)

Anyway, right now the hot topic in every blog, even on the left is “When will Biden step down.” and “Will he be killed if he won’t.”

I have bad — or good, who knows — news. The imp of absolute certainty in the back of my head is saying “He won’t step down UNLESS a very unlikely thing takes place.” “If he dies, it is either a deuced clever hit, the kind I don’t actually believe the left can carry out right now, or truly natural causes.”

So, how do I explain this? I’ve been noodling on it for days and keeping my mouth shut. And then when I figured it out, I still didn’t know how to explain it.

Except…. hey, you know, any of you know your Gibbons? The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? Never mind that they’re lousy history (truly) some of the things are broadly true.

Like the fact that whenever one of the truly horrible, crooked emperors fell, everyone in their circle got killed.

Look, it’s a human thing. It’s very akin to mob wars and dynasties, I understand. (I don’t know. I don’t read much mob anything, certainly not fiction. I might be the last person alive in the wild, my age, who hasn’t watched The Godfather.)

That is our model for the current Democrat party. Some of the GOP too, kind of, or would be if they had any power that’s not by attaching to the democrats, and if the media ran the same cover for them they run for the democrats. What I’m saying is the GOP isn’t inherently virtuous, but they’ve suffered different evolutionary pressures than the dems. And therefore the result is different.

But the dems have now, increasingly and over the last 100 years or so been the darlings of the mass-media-entertainment establishment, meaning that they were never exposed, their bad side never shown, and they never got called to task for anything from vices to outright crimes.

They also have to a great extent controlled the voting through machine politics and outright voter fraud, with increasing ability every election.

What does this mean? It means that it have them the ability to grow into a mob-like elite where the power plays are all within the party. And they are ruthless and brutal. (Also often incompetent. I’m still convinced that Paul Pelosi was the victim of a hit, and I wonder by whom, and how he survived, and what deal he made to stay alive.)

But wait, Sarah, isn’t that a reason for Biden to meet the Almighty personally in a month or two at most? We don’t understand.

Well, it would be a very good reason. And if their dome of untouchability from the media were still in place, this would be true. Also, if Biden were alone and isolated.

Biden isn’t alone and isolated. Guys, alone and isolated the walking corpse would never make it out of bed in the morning.

Instead, Biden — on purpose or not — came in surrounded by his own clique. And before you tell me it’s Obama’s clique… waggles hand. I think a lot of members of both are the same, and he inherited some of Obama’s consiglieri, but you’re not in fact going to convince me that Obama was more self-actuated than Biden. Oh, sure, in his life maybe, but not in governing. Over and over again we figured out Obama was just a puppet. And possibly a construct. (Likely a construct, says the imp.)

I think — and if you pause and think for a moment you will too — that Biden was supposed to step down to spend more time with his family two years in, tops. But Cackling Kamala is…. well, they can’t even pretend she’s all there. I think they expected her to be like Obama, and plausible. But also–

But also someone or some ones on Biden’s consiglieri turned out to be more capable of bare knuckle fighting, and far less willing to bow out than the people picking the ticket and supporting it expected.

Look, I’m not going to guess who. Could be Dr. Jill, but I kind of doubt it, on account of she ain’t very bright. Could be Hunter, but guys? The man’s genetic donors aren’t that bright, and he plays with mind altering stuff all the time. Could be anyone else in the clique, really. But someone there a) knows where the bodies are buried. b) has enough power/ability to command “death squads” at least equal to Hillary Clinton’s.

I’m not going to guess because it could be anything, and at this point you have to realize the Praetorian guard er… three letter agencies are in play too, and not all on the same side either, but all broadly on the “democrat” side, because that’s the side that gives them unlimited power. So it could be someone within those, not necessarily the official head.

Hell, for all I know, Kamala was picked as a compromise candidate between two powerful and equally murderous factions, and Kamala’s is just not as strong. Though together they’re obviously stronger than Hillary Clinton’s, and boy, does she have a machine.

What I do know is that they haven’t been able to dislodge the corpse. They haven’t been able to make him stop breathing in a plausible enough way. And they haven’t been able to make him step down.

The step down is out. You may — as my grandmother would put it — take your little horse out of the rain now. Waiting for that one is a moot point. Ain’t gonna happen.

Why not? Because if he steps down, his entire faction is at risk. And given how corrupt they’ve been revealed to be, and how much has come out about the Biden Crime Family while they’re still in control of the entire apparatus of state? The best they and their faction can hope for is that they’d be ruthlessly persecuted if Biden stepped down. More so because they know their own side is ALREADY trying to underbus them to cleanse themselves of “sin” by throwing it all on them.

These people are quite literally fighting for their lives. Because the BEST that will happen to them is persecution and imprisonment. However, death is far more likely as soon as it can be contrived without being glaringly obvious, because they all know things. Even if they’re innocuous things in their circles, they probably can be made much bigger/will still shock the mundanes.

If Biden steps down, most of the people deep in his administration, including a substantial number of those pulling the strings will die. Oh, accidents. Suicide. Strange illnesses. We no longer do the praetorian guard rampaging through the palace and killing everything including babies. We’re not ROMAN. But die they will. And they know enough of the inside mechanisms that they’ll never do it.

I’d guess condition ONE for them to let the puppet bow out is that they get whatever the equivalent of a safe conduct and promise of never being harmed. Of course, that would require them to TRUST the other dems. Anyone see that? Because if you do, you are more trusting than I and a beautiful soul, you sweet summer child, you.

I mean, it COULD happen. But I rate it as a marginal chance at best. AND if it happens it will be only if they find another puppet the Biden faction feels as confident with. I’d say if that were possible, it would ALREADY have happened. And it would depend on the Kamala faction accepting it, too.

So, the death. Same conditions apply. How well would you guard the life of someone on whose life yours depended? And if you were a crooked mafia-like cabal, how many fail safes would you have in place?

All of this is particularly delicious, because I believe the only reason Trump is running is to stay in the public eye and avoid being Epsteined. If they’d left him alone, he’d have let DeSantis or whomever take it. But he can’t, because if he falls off the public eye the dems off him, openly or not. (The fact they haven’t managed to tells you how much more difficult it would be to off Joe with INTERNAL factions militating against it.)

Look, in the 35th century someone is writing a bestselling series about this time, and it’s called something like “A time of knives” or “The clash of factions” or whatever. And I’d appreciate the artistry of it all far more if I weren’t stuck living here.

BUT as it is my bet is: no step down. IF there is a step down expect Hunter and close family and some VERY SURPRISING people to take off to non-extraditing countries just ahead/just after.

No death, unless it’s natural, or a really gifted assassination, of the kind that only happens in books. OR of course an in your face lucky hit of the kind Gavrillo Princip pulled off. And if the last one is the case, well…. It will make WWI look like the Teddy Bear Picnic. This time, the rerun will be WWI like global and combined with ACW. ON YOUR …. not movie screen, alas. But natural or really gifted assassin? They’ll be prevented by all means possible, including but not limited to animatronic preserved corpse (Come on, guys, RGB, remember?) or banned therapies that are much akin to necromancy.

No, I think we’re in for a very interesting time. Possibly terminally — but briefly — interesting.

It’s The Godfather meets Weekend at Bernies meets Imperial Rome. All against the background of technologies that make the outing of plots FAR more likely, and a populace that’s getting restive and frankly pissed off, worldwide.

Hold on to the edge of your seats. We’re riding into a hurricane.

And — as RAH always advised — keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

Most of all, though, be not afraid. This kind of corruption is self-defeating in the end. And they’re more of a danger to their competitors than to us. We just have to get to the other side.

UPDATE: argh, I forgot this on first go out, because of course I did:

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER: A Reluctant Sovereign (Family Law Book 7)

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When North America attacked the space habitats beyond the Moon they had no plan B if they failed. The Earth Claims Commission was already suffering a credibility crisis and North America’s disastrous failure and defeat left them with no muscle. Far flung worlds and stations were abandoned with no banking, no supply, and no news. The explorers who were owed royalties were cut off too. Lee and her father Gordon weren’t about to sit still for that. If you can repossess a ground car, why not a planet? Lee had standing to be sovereign of Providence but wasn’t all that fond of planets. She didn’t want to be bogged down with the day to day drudgery of sovereignty like her friend Heather on the Moon. Was there any reason she couldn’t have her cake and eat it too? None that she could see.

FROM C. V. WALTER: The Alien’s Major Dilemma (Alien Brides: The Chelion Conspiracy Book 1)

When an elite Chelion scout crashes on an uncharted planet, the last thing Cooper expects is to find his mate. But after kidnapping a fiery human Marine named Marissa, he discovers an unbreakable bond forming between them that defies all logic.

Stranded together and hunted by mysterious forces, Cooper and Marissa must navigate a web of intrigue that stretches across the stars. With the help of unlikely allies, they uncover shocking secrets about Cooper’s own people, the Chelions, and their ancient enemies, the Dragor.

As the pair grow closer, Marissa helps Cooper question everything he thought he knew. But when a long-lost Chelion artifact resurfaces, it puts a target on Cooper’s back and threatens to tear the lovers apart forever.

In a world of danger and deception, can Cooper and Marissa’s newfound bond survive? Or will the truth of the Chelions’ past destroy any hope for their future?

Strap in for a wild ride across the galaxy in this steamy sci-fi romance, where two hearts from different worlds discover that love knows no bounds, and the greatest adventure of all is letting yourself trust another.

FROM J. M. ANJERWIERDEN: Mech Bunny

Humans won the war against the Blues, thanks in large part to the neural link they stole from the aliens. Few people can use it properly, though, and anyone with the right kind of brain gets conscripted immediately — even ordinary high school kids.
All Sophie wanted to do was be a dancer. She definitely hadn’t planned on piloting a sixty-foot ANGEL mech with only a cranky rabbit mechanic to talk to, or fighting the genetically engineered foxes and wolves that had turned on the humans once the aliens were gone.
She’s lost count of the battlefields she’s seen, but this next one is the worst yet. Ordered to defend a crucial forward operating base on a volcanic planet, forces are stretched thin, so she’ll have only infantry and artillery support, no other ANGELs.
One girl, one rabbit, and one giant robot up against creatures designed to be relentless soldiers.
Creatures who have mechs of their own.
Great.

FROM SCOTT MCCREA: U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint: Cold As Flint: A Western Adventure (A U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint Western Book 2

The second Western adventure in a brand new series from Scott McCrea!

U.S. Marshal Ezra Flint is on a cross-country trek with a madman in custody and a pack of hired killers in hot pursuit!
When Cass Malone is convicted of murdering a child, a doctor convinces the governor that the man is insane. Flint and the doctor are ordered to transport the lunatic to the state asylum.

But the victim’s father has other plans. He hires a group of badmen to stop Flint and kill the killer.
But … what if the man is innocent? Flint has his doubts and will fight to save an innocent man while dealing with gunmen, rogue Cheyenne and a know-it-all doctor.

FROM RACONTEUR PRESS: Moggie Noir (Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 31)

The question remains whether you should tuck into this volume in a comfy chair for a bit of adventure. Well, if you like cats, there’s more than a little of something you love in the pages or pixels herein because, instead of a bland all-two-legger cast, these stories feature felines as central or pivotal characters. If you are a fan of noir fiction, you’ll enjoy how these authors have explored this genre and maybe stretched the bounds of what you find familiar. Some are set in the 1930s, some are present day, and some are who-knows-when.

After all, who better than a cat might convey the contradictions of a ruthless killer enrobed in the most exquisite package of sumptuous fur with glittering emerald eyes? No one, see? Cats are the ultimate expression of the noir aesthetic, and we hope you will agree, but fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy read.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Lizzy’s Tail

A small, plush horse learns what it means to be real when a little girl chooses her and takes her home. Through adventures and accidents, Lizzy the horse becomes real to her little girl, Carrie, even though she is still a toy.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Lunar Surface Blues

The High Frontier is no place for foolishness, but nature can always make a better idiot.

Four years ago, Molly’s parents brought her up here to the Moon when their work brought them to Shepardsport. In the time since that move, she’s earned her place here and a seat on this field trip. Only one problem — she’s been given the worst possible EVA partner.

A pencil-necked dweeb with an attitude, Benji wants to be one of the guys. But his stunts keep putting them both in danger, and the adults keep blaming Molly.

When Benji gets in over his head, can Molly save him before it costs both their lives?

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

FROM KAREN MYERS: Monsters, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That

A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That

MONSTERS – Xenoarchaeologist Vartan has promised his young daughter Liza one of the many enigmatic lamedh objects that litter the site of a vanished alien civilization.

No one can figure out what they’re good for, but Liza finds a use for one.

ADAPTABILITY – The Webster Marble Deluxe Woodsman, Model 820-E, has been offline for quite some time. Quite some time indeed.

Good thing Webster has a manual to consult, and a great many special functions.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: ASTONISHING

 

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

The other day in a discussion, the concept of Europe going from zero to jackboots in ten seconds flat came up, and people asked whether that was because Europe was uniquely evil or because the rest of the world lives in permanent jackboots.

Well, from my perspective (and like everything on this blog, it is and remains YMMV) it’s neither. It’s definitely not the first. And it’s not quite the second. It’s both simpler and more complex.

And then I realized that this is probably what feeds a lot of the oikophobia in our culture. We know that Europe goes zero to jackboots at the touch of a button, or even if no one looks at the button, or even if the button is just looking like it would like to be touched. We know Europe spent most of its history at bloody war with itself. And we know the US at least twice came in and ended what promised to be one of Europe’s long-running set tos.

Because the rest of the world is not really like that, it’s easy to believe the reason Europe and America are like that is because they’re uniquely evil. This explains all the belly aching and tooth grinding about colonialism, and the behavior of the hastily misseducated products of third worlders swarming through our borders, who are convinced they are owed something because their countries of origins are only not successful because they lived under the boot of “colonialists.”

This does not explain why most countries that were colonized and where the colonialists left are now objectively worse for the people who live in them. And no, the explanation is not the Marxist cant that the colonialists took away everything worth money from such third world shitholes. That’s demonstrably not true. Mostly because what is worth money changes by the year, if not by the century, and that no country in the world is so devoid of raw materials it couldn’t come up with something to export. (Clears her throat at Japan and anime.) To try to explain the poverty of post colonial countries by “We wuz robbed” ends up in the idiot who told me Portugal would have its own computer industry, if the US didn’t steal and destroy all great Portuguese inventions.

In this as in anything else, and though I come from a Western country (but a marginally “first world” one) I have a different perspective.

Mostly, Europe and America aren’t uniquely evil or uniquely war like or uniquely much of anything. We are mostly “Uniquely organized.”

For America this comes from being Europe’s “child” and having inherited a lot of cultural history as well as in the way of adult children, trying to “improve” on the parents’ flaws.

For Europe it’s more complicated and to be fair, I’d guess it’s the result both of Roman invasions, which brought with it Rome’s great innovation: the erasure of tribalism. Oh, not totally but to a great extent. If you were a Roman Citizen you were a Roman Citizen, and that subsumed whatever you’d been before to the point it didn’t matter much. This allowed the tribe and race blended legions to work, and it allowed colonies to integrate as “Roman.” Further erasure of tribalism was brought by conversion to Christianity when everyone no matter how they looked or how barbarian (ah) their speech were “G-d’s children” and therefore human and treated as such. (Oh, not perfectly. Never in the history of ever has “if only everyone” worked. But that was the ideal, and as the ideal it had a great impact on how other humans were perceived and how one worked with/for them.

And then there were the pressures, from the Islamic invasion and aggression to the constant warrying of the micro states that emerged from the fall of Rome, the Germanic invasions, the Crusades that pushed back Islam. All of it resulted in loyalty to king/country (even when the country was so small it required a passport to swing a kitten.) which in turn brought a certain organization and discipline.

Look, it’s not that the rest of the world isn’t war like or doesn’t commit violence. It’s that the violence tends to be one on one. Crime is higher — and the statistics disguise that in various ways — and there’s more group on group hatred, from soccer riots to tribal warfare. It is an “of course” background to life.

Then there is the totalitarianism, face saving and information control. Any society that engages in this loses the ability to make war effectively.

They’re just not organized enough to do war the European way. (Some parts of Europe aren’t either. Looks at Russia, which bought its own propaganda and wasn’t aware its vaunted military victories were mostly due to the harshness of their weather.)

No, I’m not arguing that war is good. I am arguing that war is preferable to constant low level tribal warfare or group on group violence. It’s preferable both in its results, because war you can “isolate’ in a way and recover from and rebuild, since they are episodic break outs, while the rest is constant and grinding and so demanding that people never get organized enough to go to war as a country/civilization.

Also that lack of organization/ability to standardize and pull together also affects the good sides of civilization. So food, clothing, all the essentials, will be produced by less efficient means, demand more work, and therefore cost more, while the risk of everything being destroyed by interpersonal/group violence and uneven enforcement of laws worsens all of the above.

War is bad, of course. But it’s not the worst any civilization can face. The grinding sort of total lack of organization and TRUST in laws or your fellow citizens that brings a lack of ability to wage war also brings a lack of ability to have most of your citizens eat and have clothes to wear on the regular, and it renders things like electrical power and water service that don’t go out randomly aspirational, and things like AC and houses that aren’t in the process of falling down constantly the wildest of pipe dreams.

Europe conquered the world on being slightly more organized than the average bear. I mean, colonialism, that boogaboo of modernists is just a characteristic of all life on Earth. Not even humans. If plants hadn’t colonized the land, if amphibians hadn’t done the same, there would be no humanity. Every species colonizes, and every species tries to edge out others as they do. Ditto for varieties under those species.

What Europe did wasn’t anything strange and novel, but what every human civilization that can has done since the beginning of time. Europe was just much better at it than the rest of the world in the 18th through 20th centuries. Kind of like Rome was much better at the colonizing game than any of its contemporaries, and therefore left an outsized footprint in the history of humanity.

And what America did, coming in to stop wars and not colonizing was utterly strange, bizarre and wonderful. And yes, I grew up on the Marxist analysis, which told us that America “colonized” markets. I want to kindly — or not — tell the Marxists to kindly go do onto themselves like nymphomaniac with the dildo, but harder, faster, and using a chainsaw lubed with ghost pepper juice. America’s dominance of markets in the aftermath of WWII wasn’t due to anything America did but to Europe having succumbed to the raging stupid of socialism, first before WWII and then after. That there were two varieties of socialism doesn’t make it better. The war between various varieties of socialism destroyed all the infrastructure and their ability to produce. And their falling hard and fast for the crazy international socialism after WWII and keeping restrictions on, loving regulations, felating price controls and convincing themselves that any proper economy is regulated top down caused them to never become worthy competitors for the US, who btw was doing onto itself much the same, but slower, and with enough resistance to feed and clothe the world.

This doesn’t make America an economic colonialist or imperialist. It makes America so far the savior of civilization and means if we fall civilizations goes down hard.

I won’t go into the factors militating our fall. You know them. But there are enough signs of life and fight against to have hope. And at any rate giving up and letting evil have its way is not a rational course. If we must go down, let us do so with honor and still fighting. (And taking a body guard to hell with us, in minecraft, if it comes to that.)

Who knows? Unlikely wins have happened, and we’re the land of unlikely wins and third chances where the underdog always has one more try at pulling the win from the loss.

Just know though that when they push the “bad” of colonialism and European and American history, they have less than no point. What they’re pointing at is not uniquely bad. It’s uniquely organized, disciplined and non-tribal. Which are the same characteristics that have ushered in more prosperity than humans have known in the entire history of the world before us.

The default state of mankind is not just poverty. It’s poverty, tribal warfare, massacres of women and children, constant insecurity and grinding fear.

And that’s where we’ll fall if “evil” Western civilization falls. At the end of that tunnel there isn’t some imagined utopia. There’s the utter darkness of savagery, which is — like colonialism — very human, affecting every race and subrace at some time or other. And is a horrible, destructive trap that can stop humanity in its tracks, and mire us in suffering, hunger and loss for thousands of years on our journey to the stars. (All that colonizing material should by rights go to our species, yes. I mean, the blue xenomorphs of Alpha Centauri might be very noble and all, but I am human and therefore I’d prefer #teamhuman to win.)

Support Western Civilization unashamedly. The alternative is not only not better, it’s unimaginably (for those raised in Western civ) worse.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises meaning I’m not giving you anything for your contribution; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address. The book promo email will do for that: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

Happy Fourth of July and for the USAians around here happy high holy holiday. (If you don’t read my fiction, don’t worry about it.) May you live in Freedom and see the Republic restored.

Yes, we are in trouble and no mistake (That squirrel looks a bit rough, don’t he?)

I’m not going to lie to you and say the Republic isn’t under a shadow. But it’s it’s been under a heavy shadow for four years, and in serious peril for longer than that.

I don’t say there isn’t a serious danger of our ending wrong, but that danger has been there from the beginning. And it’s been a serious serious problem since the early twentieth century with increasing centralization of power, and the increasing restrictions on the individual’s Constitution-enshrined rights.

There is no point at all to writing our obituary now. This would be like writing your obituary every time you have pneumonia. Okay, for normal people, every time you have a bad cold. Sure, it could kill you. But why assume the ending?

Worse, it’s like writing your obituary when you’re starting to recover. Sure, when your immune system starts fighting it, it seems much worse for a while, and everything looks and feels much much more grave. But before you dig that grave, stop and consider.

We had a serious setback on censorship, sure, though you know what? According to lawyers I know that was a procedural one, and basically the court being wussies. There is a chance still to row that one back. The rest are good news and Chevron VERY good news.

And there’s an election coming. Yeah, they’ll probably cheat their way in again, but the PLAUSIBILITY of it is diminishing by the moment.

The ending is not written. Sure, it’s forecast. But it’s been forecast from the day after America was born, because we are such a weird and revolutionary concept.

A nation, conceived in Liberty, where the king is its people.

It couldn’t be. It must perish. But we haven’t perished. And we’re still here, and still fighting.

Yes, our king, as the king of legends, has been asleep and lost. But the time has come, the king is awake and moving. And fighting back.

Happy independence day, fellow revolutionaries. Stay free.

(And keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.)

Yesterday someone showed up in the comments on the Quality of Life Post to complain that Eugenics shouldn’t be a dirty word, and wouldn’t humanity be better off without say hemophilia, and he wasn’t scared of it because the Nazis were for it.

Which honestly is a caldron of a) biological ignorance b)historical ignorance c)wishful thinking that separates the dread disease from the carrier.

I’ll start with the last. When answering the comment, for some reason, I thought of it as the genetic side of it, perhaps because in my future worlds the sort of genetic manipulation where someone could go in and remove the gene that causes hemophilia is possible, and I’ve been living in my fiction way too much.

But the truth is, right now, where we live, the only way to “eliminate undesirable genetic traits” in a population is to kill or sterilize the carriers. And I’m again, no matter how crazy you think this might be, going to tell you that killing people for their own good is one of the greatest evils ever. Because it’s never for their own good, but for the interests and pleasure of those doing the killing. This is then wrapped and disguised in altruism.

You can’t know whether someone is perfectly happy with the quality of life that seems terrible to you. And you can’t judge whether someone with some kind of genetic defect will make a positive contribution in the world. (Even complete morons might make someone else smile. Heaven knows we keep dogs and cats who can’t talk and are very dumb compared even to human toddlers, because keeping them and looking after them makes us happy.) If you have to dressed killing someone as “for their own good” you know d*mn well it’s a bad thing. And the question is always always always “where does it stop?” I have perfect empathy with people who care for people at the end of their life and who think it would be best to spare horrible suffering for a few more hours or days or months, since the end seems inevitable. I’d even trust a few people, personally known to me to make that decision for me personally and if I had no other qualms about it (I do. They’re private and none of your business.) We watched my FIL unable to communicate, move, anything for the months it took him to die, and it certainly isn’t how I’d prefer to go.

The problem is every time we grant anyone, be it government, caretakers or institutions the right to make that decision and determine that “the end is inevitable, why not shorten the suffering” it always ends up in the excesses of the MAID program in Canada. Not sometimes. ALWAYS. We now have a long history of places that have allowed people to die to escape suffering (which more or less translates to persuading people to die so other people can stop suffering) and it always ends up in killing people deemed to have “lives unworthy of living” including the handicapped and depressed teenagers.

As someone who, at 33, was bullied into signing to have a nearly-always fatal procedure (in the state I was in by then) because “After all, what good are you doing your husband and children, and how much are you costing them” by doctors and nurses, in a concerted effort, I want all of you who believe doctors and nurses should have that power to think of the worst doctor you know having power over your lives when you’re helpless. (My husband came in before they could do the procedure, pointed out I was so far out of compus mentis just on low oxygen alone that the document would never stand, and that he’d sue them to their back teeth if they tried it. Then he fired the doctor who had ring-led the initiative. Things he didn’t even know included browbeating me on how useless I was because I was “only” a housewife. Younger son was under one, older son was 3. I was just starting my writing career. And I’ve lived 28 years since then. And done a lot of things.)

Yes, sure, hemophilia is bad. But it is not as bad as the life of the heir of Russia seems to indicate. While hemophiliacs at least in the nineteenth century and early twentieth (I haven’t checked current state of the art treatment) lived diminished lives and tended to die young, a lot of Victoria’s descendants with the disease got married, had children and died in their thirties. And a lot of their children are free from the defect. Who are you to judge their lives as unworthy? They weren’t unworthy to them. And again, some of them, at this historical distance at least, seem to have had much fuller and happier lives than “non-defective” people.

Same goes for mandatory sterilization which interferes with people’s ability to judge their own lives and make their own decisions. While I would throw no stones at a woman who carried the gene for hemophilia and chose to never have children — because I can imagine the pain and heartbreak — not only do these women have children (the majority of them) without the defect (I believe only ONE of Victoria’s children had it) but again, who are you to judge that their children’s lives will be unworthy.

And before you say “but the species.” This is where the stupidity about biology comes in. At the current rate of biological knowledge, we don’t actually know what’s best for the species. In fact, unless you have a crystal ball, it is highly unlikely we ever will.

Look, genes link with other genes in weird ways — here it bleeds to point one and my imaginary worlds — and it could be that if you eliminated hemophilia you also would eliminate some highly needed gene or fragment of one. Which a million years down the road will link up to another fragment of a gene in totally random chance, and thereby give humans the ability to live a thousand years. Or survive below zero. Or whatever. We don’t know and we can’t know. And while I am somewhat agnostic on being against tampering with the genes to eliminate the “bad thing” since that at least does have the potential to save humans a lot of suffering, I doubt our ability to do it advisedly in any time frame relevant to this discussion. (Say the next 100 or 200 years.)

More importantly thought, even given that ability by some magic, guess what? Evolution isn’t stopped or even slowed down. Mutations still occur all the time. (No one but us Mutties here.) You probably carry three or four no one has even bothered to track down. And 99% of mutations are bad. Most are bad at the level that isn’t worthy tracking down, such as giving you a slightly higher tendency to hang nails or ugly hair. But some are doozies.

You could perhaps eliminate hemophilia, given enough knowledge and ability, but in the hundred or so years you are doing it, three things just as bad or worse will show up.

Lest we forget Queen Victoria herself, grandmother and grave digger of empires (the later due to being a carrier of hemophilia) had no idea where this had come from because it had never “been a disease of our people.” And it was in fact either the legacy of a long ago forgotten ancestor that just came up in genetic shuffling OR a new mutation in her line. (Though it existed in others.)

To cleanse humanity of “everything bad” would take all of humanity’s results, take forever and, because we are still humans, be subjected to the same kind of creep we see with abortion and euthanasia.

Because there’s money in research, and because people are full of good intentions and want to spare others suffering, we’d start by editing the human genome to get rid of hemophilia, and we’d end by editing out genes for ugly faces, ingrown toe nails, depressive tendencies, inability to manage money, a tendency to talk back, and more and more “untraceable” and slippery characteristics until all there was left of humanity would be an army of look alike, amiable robots. That is supposing anything was left, because nothing is as fatal to a species as a restricted gene set.

And no, eugenics isn’t a bad word because Nazis. Eugenics is a bad word because right now it means killing people. And once humans start killing people for their own good, it never stops with whatever category the society has decided needs killing for being “lives unworthy of living.” (Not to mention that changes throughout history, btw.) Once you start running the killing, the mass graves fill up right quick.

The one thing that Nazis have stopped, rightly or wrongly, is serious study of human populations, because everyone is afraid that some bright boy or girl will decide to eliminate that population over there, because obviously they have bad genes.

To an extent, the extent that refers to “races” as perceived right now, this is no great loss. You see, “race” as the Nazis saw it was a ridiculous thing, because what they actually called “race” to things that were no such thing, including culture. Racially speaking most Jews (except for about 10% of their DNA) were basically Germans. It was their culture or perceived culture (most of them were also perfectly assimilated) that was different.

To study “races” understood as groups that share the same characteristics, we’d need to be either FAR tighter in racial definition, to the point that Portugal, tiny a country and genetically homogeneous as it is, would be something like 10 different races, or far broader, where everyone with skin from so pale they burn by thinking of the sun to lighter than toasted bread is one race.

And the later, at a guess, would devolve into utter incoherence and be ripe for the superimposing of the bias of the researchers.

Could there be interest in studying the human genome and physical characteristics correlated to mental or behavioral ones?

Sure. But those characteristics would have to be very tightly defined, and humans being the scrambled mess we are, again, it would probably devolve into “But I say subject A is more stubborn than subject B because he would not eat the spam and she would.” We really don’t need to pour more money down the rathole of irreproducible studies.

At a guess the valuable researches of the kind would be something like “people with this genetic fragment tend to have brown hair and wake up at five thirty am.” And I think we already have those. Eyes 23 and me report.

So, the Nazis didn’t even really stop the valuable/possibly useful human genome study.

Anything more than that and we’ll end up again in the search for the “gay gene” which can’t be found because at a guess sexual orientation (though certain types tend to run in families over the LONG run) seems to to be determined by a combination of genes, plus conditions of gestation, plus early childhood experiences. ALL sexual orientation, not just the ones that deviate from the norm.

All these things being more or less untraceable is a good thing, because humans being what they are, the maniacs must take anything and push it to eleven. Which means if let’s say the “gay gene” were traceable, I imagine we’d end up with countries made up entirely of gay people, countries where gay people were never born, and some unspeakable combinations that none of us, right now can think of.

I can look at it and think it amazing fodder for a dystopic future world, but not one I’d like to write, except maybe as a comedy, thank you so much.

It seems eugenics, in the end, comes from each individual human’s idea that things are badly arranged and that those people, over there, would be much better if only they were more like him/properly arranged.

The results of applying such notions are always ridiculous and appalling in equal measures.

It takes all kinds to make a world. At least a world worth living in.

*Because these are my two weeks of fundraising, I’m obligated to add the following:
This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here.

There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process and yes there will be typos, backtracking, characters who change names suddenly and other mishaps; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic ways to donate: email me for paypal address or email address. The book promo email at will do: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

Most of us think of truth and lies as a stark thing, one that is or isn’t. Light or dark. Black and white.

We’re not wrong. Things either happened or didn’t happen. People either exist or not.

Some of us, little fabulists by instinct, learned that lesson early. Adults just had an uncanny ability to now that no, you didn’t meet an astronaut on the street, and he didn’t invite you for a ride in his spaceship. Eventually I figured out the other, bigger problem. If you lie habitually people don’t believe you when you’re telling the truth, and that means that no, they won’t realize there is a pig lose until it causes some destruction. The problem was the pig was pink. How pink? I don’t know. In my memory bubblegum pink. And that’s how I described him, which combined with the fact that I had made up a lot of stories earlier to make no one believe me.

Anyway, after that I developed a sort of passion for the truth. I wanted to know the truth. And I wanted to tell it.

What this meant, in practical fact, was that I kept poking at polite fictions and trying to figure out what was behind things.

Since this was in pre-history, before the internet, all it did was ensure I didn’t trust politicians or the line the media fed us. If I’d had access to the internet and could compare and contrast it, I’d have been considered a true loony. No one would have believed me, if I’d been shouting the truth as we know it now back in the seventies.

I’m reading a lot of articles in the media about how we now now. We now know they lied to us. We now know they’ve lied to us for the most part of the last hundred years.

The strange thing for me is that for most people everything seems to have tumbled down with Biden’s speech. It’s shocking and strange, because the last four years — the last four years — have been a sustained barrage of lies, one they have admitted to.

From the covidiocy and the back and forth lies on that, to the vaccines and the incredible damage they caused, to their attempts to convince us that there was another pandemic coming. How many? Let me see bird flu, monkey pox, bird flu, repeat, to the craziness of attempting to convince us that that there was a climate emergency requiring everyone to be locked up, to–

I’ve lost track, people. I’m sure you can fill in in the comments. Lie, after lie after lie. And then they admit the truth — like snopes recently with the “very fine people” lie — quietly and in the back pages, and the big news outlets never admit it, never retract it, never apologize.

It’s been a wild ride since 2016 actually. I used to say the best thing about the Trump presidency was that he pulled down the masks. Because he did. So many things. Like, yeah, we can have peace in the Middle East, if you try to have peace. You don’t have to be afraid of China or North Korea, or Russia, you just treat them seriously, but not credulously. Or the democrats will concoct an entire conspiracy and spy on an opposing candidate, or–

But apparently — apparently — for normal people who don’t live and breathe politics, the debate and Biden’s crazy dementia, that we could see from 2020 are complete news.

I’ve been watching this whole thing, half in confusion and half in fear. The fear is that they’ll go back to sleep. That the dems will replace Biden and they’ll convince themselves it was just Biden, and go back to their comfortable place.

We all want to go back to a place where we could believe the journalists, the teachers, the professors, the scientists. The difference is some of us know it hasn’t existed for our whole lifetimes and longer. It’s just now we can see the lies.

It’s very uncomfortable, this place where conspiracy theories become admitted truth two days later, and nothing stands between us and the howling abyss of finding all the truth ourselves. And of knowing how badly we were always lied to.

But it’s also the way to freedom. You know the whole “the truth will set you free?” It’s not that so much as the fact that lies bind you.

Believing that the election was fair, for instance, bound a lot of people into believing that most Americans wanted what Biden has unleashed on us. Believing that elections are fair and free when they patently are not lead a lot of people to view “blue states” as “deserving what they get” instead of as fellow Americans under the boot of the oppressor.

Believing the world is getting warmer through human action is causing western civilization to self destruct. For that matter believing that if civilization falls paradise will emerge, which most of us were taught in various ways from elementary school on, means that people are cooperating in the destruction who would otherwise fight it.

I can’t list all the lies. We are literally surrounded by them.

The only thing I can tell you is that you shouldn’t accept anything without verifying, without investigating, without prodding. And unfortunately, we can no longer just rely on what’s reported. We have to test “does this seem possible, when I know that?” and… My husband says I read the news on the shelves of grocery stores. He’s not wrong. What people buy and don’t, what people leave behind that is discounted gives you a moving snapshot of the economy. Unfortunately so does the steady climb of prices. If I had teens today I’d be crying in the grocery store again, like I did in 2008. While we were moving from Colorado, the movement of people out of state was obvious by the shortage of u-haul trucks and the fact thrift stores wouldn’t take even very good donations. (Since then they appear to have had an influx of Californians and New Yorkers.) I also read the news in my friend and extended acquaintance circle, and yeah, I do know things are grim.

But the lies keep coming, about how vibrant the economy is, about how prosperous we all are. And it’s hard to hold on to the truth.

So you must look for it all the time. Find the truth. And proclaim it. It will set us free. Or at least it will prevent us being “delivered bound to our foes.”

It is both glorious and terrifying to be living in a time when the lies are tumbling down. It’s glorious to know that our sense there was something seriously wrong was true, and to have new possibilities open to us that had been closed by apocalyptic myths used to terrify us. It’s terrifying because it’s like being atop a mountain that’s crumbling and melting in the rain, and you realize it’s all some spun confectionery, and it goes deep and deep, maybe as far as the center of the world.

Let it go. The confectionery was spun of cyanide not sugar.

And though the crumbling and fall will hurt, we will be able to rebuild.

Build under, build over, be around. And stand ready as the vast structure made of lies falls.

Stand ready to take the weight.

It is our honor, our very great privilege to ensure civilization goes on and that the next generation and the next live in freedom. Or to die trying.

*This blog is reader funded. I don’t have a grant or a patron. You’re my patrons and only you can compensate for the toil of keeping the blog going day after day, year after year. For the full explanation of why a funding drive, and what I intend to use it for, if you’re interested, go here. There are several ways of supporting me.
GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process, yes there will be typos; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic reasons: email me for paypal address or email address. The book promo email at will do: bookpimping at outlook dot com. And there is the snail mail address at: Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107.
I know the times are tough — for all of us — and I don’t hold it against anyone who can’t contribute. But all contributions are greatly appreciated. – SAH*

Greetings, ladies, gentlemen, dragons, pterodactyls and assorted creatures of nameless dread. Alas — for me at least — it’s that time of year again, the second annual blog fundraiser. (The first is here)

This is the one post in which I explain it all. From here on out, to the 16th of the month, I will just put a note at the end of the post and a link to this post for those curious.

If you’re rolling your eyes and don’t want to read the explanation, here are the short, (snorts “short”) instructions:

1- If you wish to donate by the simplest, fastest method, the give send go from last year is still up: Here.
2- If you want to encourage my fiction writing as well as fund the blog, through subscribing to my fiction substack, Chapter House, go Here.
3- And if you want to subscribe to my other substack, Schrodinger Path, go Here. That second was supposed to be just my newsletter, but people started giving me money there, and so I excerpt stuff there too.
4- I also have a patreon and those who are paid members really should bitch at me about it, because I treat it worse than substack, but … BUT I try, truly. (and explanation of what went wrong will come later. It’s all one piece.) There will be more posts about cats, I promise. Anyway, go here to do that, if you’re comfortable with Patreon.
5- If you want to donate via pay pal, please ping me in email and I’ll send you the address. (I don’t have it on the site, so as not to invite shut down due to unapproved political opinions, but I still have one, because some publishing houses pay that way.)
6- And if you want to donate by mail, please send to Sarah A. Hoyt, 304 S Jones Blvd #6771, Las Vegas, NV  89107. Note on the last we’re also okay with you keeping it for Christmas cards (We’re just really bad at sending responses) or catnip mice (not live ones!) for Indy or whatever. Those aren’t donations, just friends keeping in touch.

AND if you still want to skip my analysis of what went right and wrong the previous years and why I’m doing this, what it means, and why yes I actually do need it, even though it’s NOT a rescue blog and you shouldn’t hurt yourself to donate, search for the words “I HAVE A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE NOW” capitalized, at the end of this blog, if you want to weigh in on that.

Now, for those of you who stayed around and don’t mind my extensive bloviating: As you all know I hate doing this. Always have, always will.

Thing is I’m I’m still being threatened or at least nagged by people who care about me if I don’t give them the chance to throw money at me for playing hostess for this very Odd living room we’re all chatting in. And also, frankly, I still feel guilty for all the 15 or so years I refused to do this and took the family through some very tight times because I did the work but never got paid for it.

My main reason not to fund raise all those years was that I was afraid people would give too much and hurt themselves. I still am a little afraid of this, so for the record: THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY, DON’T HURT YOURSELF AND MAKE ME USE A CARP, OR WORSE THE CHANCLA ON YOU. You know I hate to live down to stereotypes.

So, because , I still feel guilty about it, and like I must explain the fundraiser, in its various forms, first be aware that even those forms of funding that encourage fiction writing are ultimately for the blog.

The blog, you see, is a harsh mistress. I can’t remember the last time I took a break from it, though the posting gets really flaky at times. I think my last intentional vacation from the blog was ten years ago, when I used the time to paint and redecorate a bathroom.

Other than that, I wake up every morning and do the blog. Even on vacation. Or at cons. I tried to do it five years ago from Portugal, (with mixed success) and I did it while working on the house in Colorado to sell.

Even the minor things, like the meme posts, I know there are people waiting for them because they tell me it makes their weekend, and if I don’t get to them late at night (It’s been strange lately and I maybe can explain why) I do them in the morning while Dan waits impatiently, because Saturday is errand running day.

Remember to send me you book promos for Sunday (email to bookpimping at outlook dot com.) And don’t sweat the wording. ALL I need from you is a link. I like doing that. I feel like it’s some good I do in the world to give good people a chance to tell others their book is out.

The rest of the blog… Look, I realize no one is forcing me to do it. And I’m the worst of fundraisers, because I’m not going to pretend that I am going to stop the blogging if you don’t donate. I probably should. I mean, it might be the sane thing to do. To stop blogging, I mean, not to threaten you.

But as I told a friend last weekend who asked me why I did it and what difference it made: What I do is analyze things and get the thoughts out there. I’m under no illusions that I’m making a big difference in the world. And I’m certainly not saving the world. (There isn’t a trapper-keeper that big.) However we’re in a time of vast and catastrophically rapid change. Those of us with a tendency to think (perhaps as everyone accuses us of, “too much.”) need to know what’s going on and how to mitigate the worst. And all the lies (so many lies) we’ve been told… well, our whole lives, really. And while it doesn’t make a big, instant difference, I believe my thinking through issues in public is like throwing a pebble in a big lake. Sure, most of the pebbles will vanish with only little ripples, but sometimes — maybe — the ripples might go all the way to the shore, and raise other ripples (look, the metaphor breaks a little, okay) which might be the difference between a really bad road and a less bad one. One that allows a chance for human freedom and sanity in the future.

And maybe I’m lying to myself. Maybe this is the part where the blog also serves to keep me what passes for sane around these parts. But I hope not. I hope those ripples count for something.

I personally have long felt the truth is part of whatever it is that we are on earth to do.

While on that, and in the sense that at least to me the blog is a machine for understanding our rapidly, catastrophically changing world, I want to thank everyone who sent me guest posts in their specialties the last year. Not only did it allow me to run fewer blasts from the past when I’m sick or really exhausted, but it also added knowledge I don’t have and therefore can’t share.

Now, if I’m not going to stop blogging, why should you donate? Well, I’ll be honest: at this point mostly so I can write more, particularly more fiction. And so I don’t accidentally drive myself into the ground.

Let me explain: I’m sixty one. That seems like a thoroughly unlikely thing to write, much less to be true. Which I suspect is part of my problem.

My mind still thinks I’m at most 30 and I try to do the same level of work I always did. Which means … well, that I end up doing things much slower, because what used to take me a day now takes me a week (not the writing but any physical work) and then I spend a week recovering. Which is very annoying of my body.

But the problem with that is not by body as such, but Dan’s. Until he can have knee replacement, I must do pretty much all the work of house maintenance and yard care as well as my normal housekeeping, cooking, laundry, and other normal stuff. And the problem is that things like painting the porch, which should take me three hours and then I’m fine, is taking me 2 days and I’m a wreck after. (The other problem being we moved three years ago and I’m still unpacking/setting up, which also take forever and are exhausting.)

Anyway, none of this would matter, except that it takes away time that should be spent writing. That I want to spend writing. At Liberty Con last week, people asked for the second of Rhodes or Deep Pink, for the next Dyce, the next DST, the next Shifters. And all of them are started and in some measure of finishing, except…. well, except we suddenly need to clean or setup something (say, so we can put the car in the garage because there’s hail coming, so we must unpack everything that has been crammed in the garage for two years) and there go two weeks. Some of you who are on various groups with me have seen this happening. Even with No Man’s Land, the book that MAKES me write it, the last two weeks sometimes I only get a sentence done, because I have maybe ten minutes at night to write.

Look, I need to pay people to paint, to tuckpoint, and maybe get a couple of helpers (to be fair, probably younger son and younger DIL, but still. They are good kids and help all the time, but he has a more-than-full-time job and she’s started a business and I don’t feel I can steal their time without at least some payment.) to help me move stuff around so I can unpack my library and have A living room without killing myself.

It’s been borne upon me — by one of you yelling at me this weekend (in a very nice way) — that I’m not a skilled laborer for tuckpointing and painting or yard care, including weeding the thrice d*mned flowerbeds and that I’m foregoing the opportunity to write books and make money to do this, which isn’t a rational economic decision.

And that’s true, but the thing is before I hire someone I need to have money in hand. So I need money to make money. Which is the big point of the fundraiser this year. (In addition to being money for work done.)

And this segues neatly into what went wrong the other years. And why the updating on even Chapter House is sporadic.

It’s mostly time. I’m supposed to be doing my blog posts in the evening while Dan watches TV (Look, he works a more than full time job and that’s how he rests. By blanking the mind.) Sometimes it even works. But if I’ve been running around, weeding and shredding fallen branches or tuckpointing, painting — and here I admit I’ve never got on the roof to figure out how we get a damp patch on my bathroom ceiling. Need to, but I’m terrified of heights. — of a dozen other things, I might manage a chapter or two paragraphs of NML but I can’t write a blog. And so here I am at almost 3pm writing my blog. And I just realized I forgot to update the substacks and patreon last night. I meant to.

Now, there are other things that went wrong in the other years, because this fundraising thing is a process of figuring out the best way to do it, I think.

I figured out after the first year that there are problems with emailing things out (mostly anti-piracy stuff) and also that I suck at mailing out physical books. I will try again to send the USAian shorts collection out soon (I did not forget) and now that we’ve ALMOST unpacked the boxes of books formerly in the garage, I need to send out the physical books before the end of summer. I just suck at this, because I run out of time and forget. I also haven’t tuckerized of mass-killed (or math killed) people due to running out of time and energy. All I can say is my assistant is compiling lists, and I will get to it, I promise.

As for Chapter house, I had someone upbraid me here for not having done as much in that as I meant to. I confess that I launched the Chapter House, with the idea that it would give me a deadline to force myself to write consistently. I had high goals of finishing two novels there, in a year.

Instead it turned out to be a window into my writing process, complete with discovering several chapters in that one of the books I was struggling with was from the wrong point of view and has to be completely rewritten, dry spells for various health crisis, and a very pushy novel has decided now, after decades, that it must be written or I am not allowed to write anything else. So I have been putting No Man’s Land up there.

To be fair that thing has to be done soon (If I can do a chapter a day again, as I was doing through May, about 10 days from now, I think.) And then I can finish Witch’s daughter which is hanging by a thread, and then go back to Winter Prince and make it make sense. If you subscribe to Chapter House (or Schrodinger Path) you’ll get basically unedited e-arcs at the end of this. “What the writer turned in.” And maybe a chance to buy an edited/etc. copy before it goes on Amazon. (Mostly because I know a few of you don’t do Amazon. And that’s fine.) I just wish I were faster, etc.

As for what I did with the fundraiser from last year. Well. I did do some stuff, even if we didn’t hire someone to tuckpoint and paint. Besides allowing me to take care of the end-of-life cats, including boarding them when we travel, to make sure they get meds, and helping friends and family with some urgent needs….

Last year’s fund raiser allowed me to pay a… sort of office manager. You know her as Holly Frost.

Younger son was sort of doing this the last 3 years in Colorado (as well as helping with cleaning, house repairs, etc.) But… well, he got a job, moved out and got married. And since I hope for grandkids, that’s a good thing. So with the fundraiser money, I hired Holly Frost, who is why fewer of the guest posts have gone missing, why more of the comments get fished out of the delende of wordpress, and who organized hiring and project management to get Mad Genius and ATH fixed up on the back end so they run better, even with WordPress’s updates. And also have my most recent books on the side, and not the ones from 10 years ago.

She’s currently trying to get a web designer to do my writers’ site which has been empty for years. Yes, I guess that will cost more money.

Her insane work also involves reminding me to take the cats in to the vet and reminding me that I am not, in fact, twenty years old, and I cannot, in fact, work for 18 hours moving heavy boxes and bounce back with four hours of sleep. My “bounce back” is closer to a week, and is needed after only eight hours, or driving for a weekend, or someone attacking a voodoo doll in Peru and giving me another autoimmune outbreak. Getting old is not for the weak.

So, she also nags me to eat and “drink some water already” and “have you SEEN a vegetable this last week.” (Sigh. I just realized I’m paying someone twenty years younger than me to be my mom.)

In addition money went for professional copy-editing, and this year I’d like to get structural editing as well. It’s not something I often need but NML (Aka the d*mned book) is driving me bonkers.) I’m not paying for copy editing for the blog because you guys told me not to. Let me know if you change your minds.

We should have got new computers last year at close of year, because well, it’s cheaper on the taxes and it was getting to that time. But between my getting sick and our being really busy, we didn’t. Which is why I’m writing this with a keyboard atop the laptop keyboard. And why a new laptop is on the docket soonest.

To reiterate, same as last year, there will be three main routes for fund raising.

GiveSendGo, for which I make no promises; Chapterhouse, for which I will give you my fiction that is in process, yes there will be typos; and Patreon, for which I give you cat pspsps posts. For the more exotic reasons: email me for paypal address or email address. The book promo email at will do: bookpimping at outlook dot com.

I HAVE A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE NOW: WordPress is obviously jealous of substack and now gives me the option of having paid subscribers posts.

I haven’t done anything with it, because, well…. I haven’t. It’s one more thing, right? But one thing that has disappointed me about substack (which I do not intend to abandon!) is that while admirable as a newsletter because it is emailed out there is far less engagement than when I excerpted Witchfinder here. And I like the engagement and the back and forth. So, should I enable the paid posts, and would some of you like to follow fiction here that way? (Advantage of using it for fiction is that if they track the paid posts they really will have trouble finding anything political/objectionable in them.)

What say you, assorted creatures of mystery?

And now, with apologies for this overlong and very late post, I’m going to try to write a chapter.

NOTE: The illustration, like others on this blog, are released under creative commons. Yes, they are AI but long story they are, yes, copyrighteable. And not public except here. So feel free to take if you want it. Or ask me for adjustments, if it’s for a cover.

BOOK PROMO

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM JERRY BOYD: Steamed Punks

A truly strange derelict leads the crew to a planet that doesn’t quite make sense. Figuring it out takes time, and hard work. Fixing it takes even more. Come see how BSR deals with their latest adventure.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Certified Public Assassin

Working as a Certified Public Assassin was, after all, the fastest way to pay down millions of dollars of medical debt. Between that payment and the student loans from getting her associates’ degree, she’s barely making enough to keep body and soul together, but the debt’s almost gone.

Except…she’s paid her student loans. Many times over. There’s something going on, and her handler can’t figure out what. Hiring a hacker to track whatever’s glitching in the student loans database and programming seemed to be a logical next step; however, it isn’t just a glitch. Somebody’s got it in for Molly…and for everyone that has a license to kill.

This has barreled from circumstance through happenstance, and straight into enemy action. But who’s the enemy?

FROM JOHN-RICHARD THOMPSON: Ramses Faro and The Labyrinth of the Crocodiles: Mysteries and Adventures of a Feline Egyptologist

Egypt, 1927. The Feline Egyptologist, Ramses Faro, and his two young companions Felicity and Sharrif, have stumbled upon a key to an ancient treasure of the pharaohs. Pursued by the; wicked cobra, Countess Serpentina von Hyss, their quest takes them from the hidden chambers beneath the Temple of Kom Ombo, to the pirate-infested waters of the Nile, and dep within a lethal maze hidden beneath the desert sands – all in the hope of unlocking the secrets of The Labyrinth of the Crocodiles.

Thrilling, furry fun for ages 8 – 99+ who are fans of Adventure, Egyptology (and cats!), with a story and setting that is both educational and engaging. Curiosity, danger, and mystery collide in a fast-paced tale that propels Ramses Faro and his friends into places unseen by the world for over two thousand years.

FROM TIM GILLILAND: Secret Agent To The Stars: Book Two of Lawyer To The Stars

Honor. Integrity. Brains.

Damien Durne, former Genetics researcher and occasional attorney has been recruited by the Protectorate Intelligence Service to be a field agent – much to his own surprise. But the threat to human kind from an enemy civilization is real, and The Protectorate is on the brink of war – one that they will certainly lose. His mission to discover the foe and prevent the annihilation of all mankind takes him from mountainous summits, to the edge of the abyss, and into the arms of the woman no man can resist.

JON LAFORCE: Hell’s Belles: Love and War Downrange

Two souls collide in the middle of a deadly war.

Sylvie Lyons, of Her Majesties’ Royal Engineers, had joined the Army to follow in the footsteps of her granddad, despite everything the old man had warned her about. Now a Sergeant, she promised herself as she sat in her truck and sweated in the heat of an Afghanistan summer, she would pay more attention to his advice. Being in some politicians’ bright idea of an experimental unit didn’t mean a bloody thing when an IED went off or an RPG decided that it had your number.

Sergeant Hondo Cassidy, United States Marine Corps, loved his job as an artilleryman. Nothing in life is better than throwing hate at the Taliban, along with anybody else who wants to buy in for a whipping. He was, however, looking forward to heading out of the sandbox, as the Marines called anything in the Middle East, shortly. When the word came down that Cassidy’s platoon was being kept in Afghanistan to provide security for Lyons’ engineers, he was more than a bit ticked off, but orders were orders.

FROM OLEG SAPPHIRE AND ALEXEY KOVTUNOV: The Healer’s Way (Book 1): A Portal Progression Fantasy Series

I was the most powerful healer in my world — the best, having devoted my entire life to mastering the art of healing. And yet, for whatever reason, my brother feared that I sought to claim his throne, and he marshaled his forces against me.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter, all the same I’d been planning on trying out a certain ritual and now…

I’m in another world altogether!? And this body I’m inhabiting, well, it’s not mine, but some young guy’s! And what’s it mean that in this world the gift of the healer is downright pathetic?

Apparently, they simply don’t know how to handle power.

FROM MACKEY CHANDLER: Fair Trade: An Alien Invasion Story

Most of my writing is in a series people seem to enjoy but there is a constant small crowd who say: I’d really like your take on an alien invasion story. Well this is for them. The bulk of the aliens come to Earth stories assume their vast superiority, sometimes invincibility. Sometimes they suddenly appear on the white house lawn dictating terms. I have yet to see one with them appearing at the Kremlin or Canberra which seems rather parochial. Other times they are so advanced they quarantine the Earth or Solar System without discussion because we are such barbarian slime-balls. They may alternately be impossible to talk to and attack without mercy. All these assume they come with a plan and the means to carry it out. Our own age of exploration showed things happen much less orderly. Islands and natives were happened upon while seeking someplace else or even because a storm or miscalculation left the ship lost. In that case there is no plan but survival with the assets at hand. As with any game remember that turnabout is fair play.

FROM LAURA MONTGOMERY: Under the Earthline: A Science Fiction Lost Colony Adventure (Martha’s Sons Book 3)

He’s a pawn between a politician’s vengeance and his family’s safety. In a space settlement on the verge of turmoil, he’ll play to win… or die trying.

With only a slender hold on their alien world, human settlers from a marooned starship inhabit a single terraformed valley. As technology frays, as the second generation of settlers cannibalizes its past, and as the governor cancels elections again, tension grows between the city and the western farms.

One Dawe son dead, one in exile, and Thaddeus Dawe now slated to serve as a hostage for his younger brother’s crimes, Thaddeus has a task. He must locate the colony’s last terraseeder for the secret enclave another brother works to carve from the northern wilderness. But with the governor’s men harboring no love for Dawes, and First Landing’s bureaucracy and its preeminent practitioner having other plans, Thaddeus is not the only one whose life is at risk.

Pick up Under the Earthline now for a tale of adventure, loyalty, and love!

FROM MARY CATELLI: Queen Shulamith’s Ball

A ball, a ball, Queen Shulamith would hold a ball. . . .In the magical city that all kingdoms can reach, and none can conquer, filled with kings and queens, intrigues and wonders, that the reclusive queen would stage a ball was a marvel among marvels.It will mean much to many: a young woman newly arrived in the city; a woman and a bear who dance on the street; two small orphans sent to the house of their great-great-grandfather; soldiers staging an invasion; and a queen securing her position.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Rockin’ the USA

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

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

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

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

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

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: STATUESQUE