Cover art for “Far Futures: Book Four”
Update on the anthology Far Futures: Book Four published by Blue Planet Press. It’s available for pre-order NOW for download onto your Kindle device November 25. Yep, it’s could be a great Christmas gift.
The anthology required all stories to be written on or about Saturn’s moon Titan, so I wrote “Awash on Titan’s Shores.”
Cover art for the Benford and Niven novel “Bowl of Heaven”
I just finished reading the 2012 novel Bowl of Heaven authored by two science fiction heavy hitters: Gregory Benford and Larry Niven.
The basic idea is that a colony sleeper ship from Earth on its way to a new system encounters a megastructure in space. This is a sun that has been manipulated so its light thrust is directed allowing the entire solar system to be navigated across the galaxy.
At the back end of the system is essentially a bowl with the surface area of millions of Earths.
It’s more than curiosity that causes the command crew of the starship “SunSeeker” to investigate. Their ramscoop technology has become increasingly inefficient threatening the success of their voyage, so they enter the bowl system looking for answers.
They send a shuttle into the bowl and the landing team, lead by lovers Cliff and Beth, encounters a number of differing beings that seem intelligent. However, when Cliff’s party breaches the airlock, the aliens try to capture them. Beth’s team is scooped up immediately, but Cliff’s people escape.
As you’d expect from “hard science” writers Benford and Niven, details about the “shipstar” system and “bowl world” abound. Parallels to Niven’s “Ringworld” are inevitable.
Cover art for iSoldiers anthology by Shacklebound Books.
Fifty-seven drabbles. All military science fiction. Each tale is exactly one-hundred words long. Four of the stories are mine.
Promotional image for the upcoming Starry Eyed Press anthology “Second Wave.”
Ten of my drabbles (the maximum number allowed) are featured in this anthology.
A SINGLE MOMENT –– A HUNDRED WORDS –– A UNIVERSE OF POSSIBILITIES
What happens after the unknown has arrived? When the echoes of first contact fade, humanity is left to navigate the tremors of change — new alliances, fragile peace, simmering conflicts, and the birth of strange, dazzling futures.
Image taken from the “Based Book Sale” substack.
The Based Books For Male Readers (I’m sure some women would enjoy them, too) is live starting today, Wednesday, July 30th through August 5th.
Tons and tons of digital books, all priced from 99 cents down to FREE are available for download from Amazon.
Here’s part of the blurb:
Whether you’re a father, a fighter, a builder, or just a man looking for stories that resonate with who you are and what you face, the Based Book Sale delivers. This is where you’ll find battle-tested wisdom, thrilling adventures, dangerous ideas, and the kind of timeless values that modern publishing tries to suppress. In a literary world flooded with sensitivity readers, diversity checklist characters, and sanitized stories, this sale is a direct challenge to the decline. We offer books that speak to masculine virtues, moral struggles, and heroic ideals.
All of the books are presented in a linear list, which means the substack page is really, really long. At the bottom, you may find your list is truncated, but there should be a button or link to expand the page so you can see every thing.
The sale is supposed to contain two of my books, but one has been left off. I’m looking into that.
PHOTO PROMPT © Marie Gail Stratford
The crystals surrounded and penetrated me. It didn’t hurt, but I did experience the horrifying feeling of my very identity being drained away.
The corporations sold the government the idea that instead of changing the climate, they could change human beings to adapt to the rising temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide.
They told us it worked. They never said what it cost. The people behind “the change” were isolated from the crystals in underground bunkers. That wasn’t going to help them.
We did change. When we emerged from our chrysalis, we were far too deadly for them to control.
Image taken from the “Based Book Sale” substack.
Cool books are coming on sale for one week and you don’t want to miss out.
The 2025 edition of Summer Based Book Sale will run from July 30th to August 4th. This year the focus is “based books for men.”
All books featured on the sale will be priced from 99 cents down to FREE and available for download from Amazon onto your Kindle device (it’s possible some paperbacks will also be part of the sale).
I’ve known L. Jagi Lamplighter for some years now (online) and she’s responsible for publishing a number of my fantasy short stories in various anthologies including “The Price” in Fantastic Schools: Volume Six.
I responded to her “Do Men Read” survey on X/twitter and followed up by reading her Do Men Read? substack.
It’s often believed that men don’t read or don’t like to read, and because of that perception, bookstores don’t stock books for men thinking they wouldn’t sell.
The real problem is finding books that men want to read.
PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook
Ali met Marie after her tour of the old French chateau. In ages past it was the manor or palace of the noble class.
Of course, no one could live like that anymore.
“Was it enjoyable?” Ali asked. He fanned himself. The museum weather simulation was too realistically warm.
“Enlightening, though a bore,” she said stepping into ersatz sunlight.
“Hard to believe people used to live this way.” Ali strode beside her toward the hidden exit.
“I’m glad our world is completely equitable, but let’s hurry.” Feeling an uncomfortable twinge of individuality, she walked faster toward the mental conditioning station.
Cover art for Ashley Pollard’s novel “Strike Dog”
Way back in 2023, I read and reviewed Ashley R. Pollard’s military SciFi novel Bad Dog: Military Science Fiction Across A Holographic Multiverse.
It’s part of the “Gate Walker” trilogy and today, I just finished book two: Strike Dog. This continues the adventures of Marine Sgt. Lara Tachikoma and traveling through these gates to different worlds.
Spoiler Alert! This book was published in 2018, but you may not have read it yet. You have been warned.
Actually, Tachikoma is sent off to officer’s training school (as mentioned in the first novel) so she becomes Lieutenant Lara Tachikoma. She’s also somewhat unusual in being able to stay mobile while the gates are active and to pass through them to alien destinations.
Thus the search is on to find others like her so teams of scientists and military support units can explore these worlds.
Cover art for “Far Futures: Book Four”
My short story “Awash on Titan’s Shores” has been accepted into this anthology. Marketing won’t officially start until October for publication in December.
I haven’t even started editing the story with the publisher yet. All I’ll say is the anthology requires the story be set on or around Saturn’s moon Titan and military SciFi was acceptable.
Here’s a little taste:
poweredbyrobots.com 