Moe Lane's Blog, page 108
February 12, 2025
02/12/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.
Back to this, yes.
The cleaver-man looked fuller when he and Reithner returned, an hour later. His face was distinctly ruddier, and his blue eyes glittered in a way that Tobias found bizarrely reassuring. You didn’t want to get too dead inside, because these days that was a great way to get dead outside, too. Reithner looked somehow off, and it took Tobias a moment to realize why. She was still wearing her helmet, but the faceplate was now retracted.
His captor clearly saw the anger flickering across Tobias’s face. “She took it off of her own desire, American,” he sneered. “You can stay sealed up, if you’re so afraid of a little fresh air.”
“Fresh air? This entire complex has been thoroughly contaminated with Red Imperial materials,” Tobias snapped. “Of course I’m afraid of it.”
“Your loss,” the cleaver-man told him, with what sounded like real cheerfulness. “Takes all kinds to make some worlds, doesn’t it? You don’t want to taste some different thinking in the breeze, that’s on you. The Lieutenant here is not so fussy.”
Patreon!
Reminder: the SPSFC Autopsy is tonight at 7 PM.
It’ll be broadcast on Twitter at 7 PM Eastern Time, so tune in. I’m still finding out how I join a Twitter Space, so that’ll be interesting. I dunno how long I’ll be on, either. Might be five minutes. Might be the whole thing. Heck, I might get bumped at the last minute.
theSPSFC AUTOPSY: The once great Self Publishing Science Fiction Competition publicly immolated themselves by politically persecuting authors they have different opinions from, so let's join @Devon_Eriksen_, @_GregoryMichael, @SFbookclub & others as they dissect their remains.… pic.twitter.com/20mHRL4IxC
— Science Fiction Book Club.org (@SFbookclub) February 10, 2025
PS: This is all about GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND, or at least it should be. I’m kind of grumbly about that…
#commissionearned
Awkward Question of the Day, I Honestly Am Not Sure How That Plays Out edition.
I mean, ten grand is ten grand. For a self-published author, that’s something like two books! With editing! And bespoke cover art! We are probably very easy to bribe.
All of which begs the question: what would have happened if the AI people had simply handed out 10K checks to genre authors like it was the end of SMALL SOLDIERS? https://t.co/SbW3cdgMjx
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) February 12, 2025
#commissionearned
February 11, 2025
‘Sundown.’
Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot[image error]
#commissionearned
The CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 Honest Trailer.
You will not be surprised to hear that CAPTAIN AMERICA 1979 was bad, and so was its sequel. You may be surprised to see who the villain in the second film was, though. I was. I was also mortified on his behalf. I know that sometimes you have to take a paycheck where you can get it, but still…
More on Milken Forts.
Not going to end up in the Fermi Resolution Worldbook. It’s for something else.
Colonel Valdarr Milken
Strictly speaking, Colonel Valdarr Milken (2413-2485) did not invent the style of fortification that bears his name. He was an engineering officer in the Kentucky Free State’s National Guard who abruptly resigned his commission in 2445 in order to become a ‘mercenary’ in Hershey’s service. Oddly, the Kentuckian military never held a grudge over this. Nor did they stop Milken from enthusiastically recruiting from Kentucky for his regiments. Milken’s Hershey service was exclusively in the Ohio Marcher country, where he made a name for himself as a clever, dogged siege-breaker.
His regiment was the first over the wall during the capture of Unholy Toledo in 2470 AD; Milken lost an eye in that battle, and retired soon after. He spent the next decade visiting the various fortresses and castles captured during the liberation of the Marcher country, with a special emphasis on his own campaigns. In 2481 the colonel published his life’s work Keeps on the Borderlands, widely considered to be the definitive contemporary treatise on the topic of repurposed fortifications. It’s even shown up in captured Dominion War Mage libraries. It’s hardly surprising that later generations would end up naming the forts he studied after him, although it probably would have annoyed the man. Colonel Milken was not someone who liked sloppy nomenclature.
Tweet of the Day, Life Wisdom edition (NSFW).
February 10, 2025
First day in a while I had all to myself.
Well, me and the cat. Spent an unreasonable part of it trying to find somebody at Barnes & Noble dot com to yell at. I’ve been trying to set up selling my books on that website since October, but they’re just not processing W-9 forms. I have come to the conclusion that maybe… they just don’t really want to do e-books, but maybe they don’t want to look like they don’t want to do e-books? It’s really, really weird.
Anyway: my books here. Apparently exclusively, for the foreseeable future.
I’ll be on @SFbookclub’s X-cast on Wednesday.
Time? Wednesday, February 12, 7 PM Eastern Time. Topic? Last week’s unpleasantness with the SPSFC. I’m not going on to throw bombs; I mostly want the chance to establish my philosophy that if you do not control your comment section, it will end up controlling you. This entire sorry affair could have been easily avoided if somebody had simply banned the worst three bullies as soon as it was clear they wouldn’t behave…
theSPSFC AUTOPSY: The once great Self Publishing Science Fiction Competition publicly immolated themselves by politically persecuting authors they have different opinions from, so let's join @Devon_Eriksen_, @_GregoryMichael, @SFbookclub & others as they dissect their remains.… pic.twitter.com/20mHRL4IxC
— Science Fiction Book Club.org (@SFbookclub) February 10, 2025
I will be vending at the Main Street Festival this year.
I’m really starting to groove on this entire “not a science fiction convention” vending concept. So far it’s been working out for me. Hopefully the Main Street Festival in Laurel will do so as well. If not, oh well. May 10th, 2025, should be a lot of people in attendance.
Moe Lane
PS: I also seem to have inadvertently… joined the Laurel Board of Trade, in the process? At least, that’s what all the emails suggest. Oh, well, maybe that’ll be useful, too.
