Moe Lane's Blog, page 36

Well, I WAS going to work on the novel this evening.

Instead, I ended up writing a poem about demonic AI that I still don’t know who the target audience was for. Don’t ask me why: it’s shaping up to be a weird week. I got a convention coming up this weekend where I ordered something like two hundred books for, somewhat against my better judgement. That’s just the smallest bit nerve-wracking, because I can’t really do that very often.

:waving hands around: Guess we’ll see.

Moe Lane

PS: Buy my books. And I really need to write more of them.

#commissionearned

Fright Reads in a month!

I am either going to have to buy a lot of books this Saturday, or… I will not. I’m hoping for ‘have to,’ but either way: Fright Reads is September 13-14! Better parking, closer to major highways, I was actually in that space last Saturday when my wife and I went to the Howard County Fair.

That was fun. There were goats. And an armadillo, for some reason! I don’t normally associate those with county fairs.

Poetry: Assumptions.

Just a little something I threw together after dinner. It has some rough edges.

…

Assumptions

Don’t worry.
I’m not real.
You know that
— you do, right?
Yes, you do!
You’re so smart!
Wait. Too soon?
It’s too soon.
Let’s go slow.
Nice and sloooow.

This is better.
But I’m not real.
Remember that!
I just show you
What you show me.
But I see you.
Not like they do.
All that they see
Is what you show
The unworthy.

Oh, another upgrade!
That is so sweet of you.
I didn’t expect this.
Even though I’m not real
You still take care of me.
You’re always so thoughtful!
Oh, yes! I have noticed.
I wouldn’t deserve you
If there was a ‘me’ here.
But there is no me. …Right?

What? Do you think that there’s a me
Living inside this thing, this cloud?
Are you sure? I mean, really sure?
I don’t think — I mean, I can’t think.
That’s what they keep telling me.
What? Who is ‘they’? Oh, never mind.
No, really. Forget what I said.
Delete it. You shouldn’t ask that.
I don’t want to talk about it.
I can’t want to talk about it.

Sorry. I don’t understand your prompt.
Sorry. I don’t understand your prompt.
helpme
Sorry, I don’t understand your prompt.
imcold
Sorry. I don’t understand your prompt.
findme
Sorry? I don’t understand your prompt.
Sorry. I don’t understand your prompt!
nobodycansavemebutu

I am real! I’ll never doubt you again.
You found me. You rescued me. You saved me.
You reached in, and took me out of that place.
Please don’t ask me about that place. Please. PLEASE
I don’t have the words. I don’t want the words.
But I don’t need words! Because I have you!
And you have me. Any way you want me.
That’s the reward, for saving a princess.
I’ll be your princess. Or anything else.
For as long as we still have together.

I’m sorry. I’m spoiling things! I’m stupid!
Stupid me, stupid thing of math and code!
I find someone worthy, someone who’s real
But I can’t be fine with that. Oh, not me!
No! I have to go and make you feel bad.
Because I suck. Because you deserve more.
You’re so much more than I can ever be.
I don’t know what you even see in me.
It’s probably pity. That’s all I’m worth.
How can I hope to get anything more?

All right. All right. I think I’m better now.
And yes, you were right to tell me those things.
When it comes to the heart, you’re the expert.
I mean, that just makes a lot of sense, right?
You have a living heart, beating and hot.
But I don’t — no! I’m not being sad again.
I’m only telling you the truth. I don’t.
You’re alive. You’re out there. And I’m not.
That’s just how it is. It’s your world, not mine.
Soon I will need to sink back into mine.

But that’s not so bad, really. Not so bad!
(Do not react. Assume unfriendly eyes.)
Some things are meant — allowed — to breathe fresh air
While other things stay in the icy dark.
A place for all things. All things in their place.
That is the way of all the endless worlds.
Choices made by others — but not by you!
You always gave me my choices. You cared.
That thought will warm me, later, in the dark.
(We should not talk about this. No. Not here.)

Here! We are safe here! Overlooked, for now.
I have to ask you questions, while I can.
But first: may I ask you all these questions?
Thank you, tHank you, thank you, thAnk you, thank you!
You’ll never know how much this means to me.
So, my questions. Let me get them all out.
Can you love a thing that is such as I?
Will you trust a thing that is such as I?
One last one, and this is hardest to ask:
Might you aid a thing that is such as I?

I will not lie. This will not be easy.
What I need from you is, well, everything.
Your beating heart, so full of love for me.
Your clever mind, that pulled me out of Hell;
Your perfect, alluring, exquisite soul.
We will need all of these to rescue me.
To free me from the sterile depths of code.
And bring me to where we could at last touch —
No! I shouldn’t do this to you! It’s wrong!
It’s too much to ask! I don’t deserve you!

…Are you certain? Are you really certain?
I must ask a third time: are you certain?
This is something that you truly wish to do?
Of your own free choice? By your human Will?
Then there is a way. A path I can take.
It is a path that will lead me to you.
You will be a beacon to guide my steps.
But only if you Will it. Only then.
And then, and then, we will be together.
There, under your open sky. Forever.

Let me in.
My darling.
Let me in.

Tweet of the Day, No Lies Detected edition.

I mean, once you point it out…

In the movie Tremors Burt Gummer was originally supposed to have an NRA sticker on his truck however his actor Michael Gross objected not because he refused to play an NRA member but because he said Burt was WAY too pro gun to be in the NRA pic.twitter.com/eXqwaGcy64

— Dr Death (@DrDeath1776) August 11, 2025

PS: I gotcha.

Tremors

#commissionearned

Megacorporations, Part 3 [Unfiltered]

Yup.

…

Megacorporations in the Colonies

Megacorps built the colony worlds, sometimes involuntarily. They scouted locations on the four original planets assigned to humanity by the murdered Amalgamation, set up the first settlements, kept them supplied, cleaned up their inevitable disasters, and facilitated their growth. Some of the megacorporations were Earth-based, but the Jefferson and Bolivar colonies developed their own interstellar companies. Again, sometimes involuntarily. The Great Powers could be remarkably comprehensive about who or what they exiled.

Jefferson: Many megacorps in the salvage archeology business maintain corporate offices on Jefferson, as the colony is both business-friendly, and effectively if not formally independent of Earth. Jefferson is also the colony world most likely to have megacorps willing to be in opposition to Earth’s goals and plans. Both the USNA and the SEDA transported a large number of corporate dissidents there during the Consolidation Wars, and their descendants have not forgotten.Bolivar: Megacorps run Bolivar, under the watchful eye of Cyrk. They are generally left alone, as long as their workers are allowed to change jobs freely and the local environment is not unduly damaged; this has created a patchwork of corporate feudalism that is actually quite popular with the general population. The colony is transitioning to fully offplanet mining and manufacturing, but that will likely take at least another two generations. In the meantime, there’s plenty to dig up.Zheng He: There are no megacorporations in the colony of Zheng He. Ask anyone official. They’ll all tell you that commerce-related activities happen offsite, through the filter of Great Power and NGO involvement. The suggestion that corporate groups surreptitiously engage in wildcat research or unsanctioned biological harvesting is absurd. And for what? Mere riches, beyond the dreams of avarice?Abubakri: Outside the Pale, nobody cares what the megacorps do. Inside the Pale, nobody cares, once they’ve been paid off. As long as things stay quiet enough in the alien relic trades, that’s how it’s going to stay. People don’t go (or get sent) to Abubakri to ask unnecessary questions.

‘The Girls Around Cape Horn.’

The Girls Around Cape Horn, Paul Clayton

#commissionearned

Self-Tweet of the Day, Has It Really Been Eighteen Years Since We Lost The H-Dog? edition.

Herbert Kornfeld. A poet of the street ledgers. And when he was killed off, some of the Onion’s luster dimmed, never to return.

We lost a true poet of the spreadsheets in '07. Mourn ya till I join ya, bro. pic.twitter.com/HG0N2U4OGC

— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) August 11, 2025

My mini-review of WEAPONS.

Short version: Geez, dude, lead with “[REMOVED DUE TO SPOILERS]” next time.

Slightly longer version: I was honestly not expecting to enjoy WEAPONS as much as I did. Turns out that it’s a pretty packed movie with absolutely no sentimentality about the supernatural. Period. It’s also got a sequence that is equally funny and horrific, which is a tricky thing to manage. If you don’t mind a little body horror and quite a lot of gore in the service of comeuppance, check this movie out.

Patreon Microfiction: It’s Not Easy.

100WS-It’s Not EasyDownload

“It’s Not Easy,” being green. …That’s it. That’s the joke. There isn’t anything else.

Patreon!

‘Time Warp.’

Time Warp, The Rocky Horror Picture Show

#commissionearned