Moe Lane's Blog, page 75

Tweet of the Day, You Could See That Joke Coming A Mile Away… edition.

…but it was still funny. Now let me horrify you: I would try that pizza. Shamelessly.

Jane ain’t lyin’. pic.twitter.com/KnPU9DM8m5

— Daddy Warpig (@DaddyWarpig) March 6, 2025

03/06/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Dear God, I’m almost to the end of this thing.

…

Tobias ignored him and leaned forward. “Tell me about the people here, Mr. Pickman. Are there any who haven’t gone through your, ah, procedure?”

“I’m sorry, Commander, but no. From what I’ve learned, the cult made sure of that.” By now Tobias was used to working out facial gestures for people with Buckley and Pickman’s condition: the man was looking pained. “Corporal Buckley suggested a way that I could rapidly gain information; he also assured me that you would not thank me for explaining how we acquired it. Suffice it to say that we were able to, ah, ‘pick the brains’ of the inhabitants.”

“I see. Are they going to be a problem, Corporal?”

“Not for a while, boss. We didn’t torture them, just so you know.”

“I believe you, Corporal.”

“It was a fair fight, and everything. We weren’t trying to kill them, but it just happened-”

“I said I believe you, Corporal.” Tobias breathed, relishing the luxury of a full-enough air tank.

Patreon!

03/06/2025 Snippet, [Elf French Revolution Story]

Still working on a title!

…

The next morning
It was an almost irresistible temptation to hang every peasant in Fresnay by their own hempen ropes, then burn down the town before retreating, but Joseph managed to control his impulses. It wouldn’t aid his forces, and it wouldn’t harm La Bête‘s. He couldn’t even hope that a provocation or two might make La Bête do something rash. If this damnable Vendee revolt had taught anybody anything, it was that the rebel leader fought and planned even better when he was angry. Better to keep the enemy’s famous temper restrained.

Joseph did have the river-bridge burned, though. That was understood to be a legitimate tactic in war. He also hoped it would appeal to Kraemer’s sense of pride, or at least his desire to see things burn.

The German did not appreciate the gesture, and made it clear at the earliest opportunity. “You will regret leaving the Devil behind to do his work in peace, Citizen Fouché!” he told Joseph, during a brief halt while the wheelwrights replaced a broken wagon wheel. “He will use your foolish mercy to do great evil!”

If I believed in the Devil, Joseph thought, I would be unsurprised to hear him say you were one of his most useful servants.

Patreon!

Annnnnd the Fermi Resolution Worldbook Backerkit is in the can.

A highly respectable showing, for me. Second-largest crowdfunding result since I started this; and, the since my biggest one (the one for FROZEN DREAMS) is also my first one, possibly the comparison is unfair. Thank you for everyone who backed, and don’t forget that our cross-collaborator Lead & Chrome still has a few hours left!

#commissionearned

‘Daybreak of the Airship.’

Daybreak of the Airship, Sheena

#commissionearned

Question: is there an interest in a Backerkit post-mortem?

I mean, it’s interesting to me. I’ve spent the last month analyzing the difference between the Kickstarter model and the Backerkit one (TL/DR: there’s a strong argument that Backerkit is going to get me more eyeballs for a hypothetical BANSHEE BEACH crowdfund*), and I’m always ready to pontificate about this sort of thing. But… do my blog readers actually care? Or should I instead inflict my thoughts on Patreon and/or Substack?

Opinions welcome. Even if it’s For the love of God, Moe, shut UP about all of this.

Moe Lane

*Hypothetical because between this Backerkit and, well, February, the money pools filled up a bit faster than normal. I might be able to get away by just paying for BANSHEE BEACH on my own.

Writers need to do weird research, Part XXIII.

This is… alarming. Or at least it was disconcerting. The idea that we need to categorize famous cannibals in history…

03/05/2025 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Got a solid two hours in to do work today.

“You will not dissuade him, Commander,” Reithner told him as soon as the door was closed, and blocked. “Karl has many reasons to hate the Euros. Reasons that date from before.”

Tobias turned to her. “I’m surprised he made it past the psych evaluators, then. Or was this something that happened to him after everything happened?”

“I do not know, Commander.” Reithner exhaled, and set herself like she was about to take a blow. “I have never met him before today. Or any of the other people here.”

“That’s… improbable, Lieutenant. They’re not from Heinlein Station.” Tobias snorted. “They’re certainly not Chinese. And the Euros have never let their civilians go wildcatting. What’s left?”

“I do not know, Commander. What I do know was that there have been people living here for some time, sir. Their living spaces feel old. Or old for the moon, at least.”

“Lost colonies are a legend, Lieutenant. Stories told to make the long lunar nights go faster.” Tobias managed a chuckle. “Which means absolutely nothing, now. Fine, they’re real. Do they have enough people to take out the Euro forces?”

Patreon!

We’ve hit the second Backerkit stretch goal! Also, it all ends tomorrow.

The second stretch goal means that the artist and layout artist both get a little tip. Nothing spectacular, but a little extra thank-you. In the meantime, the Fermi Resolution Worldbook has until tomorrow to hit the following stretch goals:

$4,000: Another PDF adventure! This will be available to for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. This adventure will be set in the current campaign time period. A critical forward base in captured Dominion territory isn’t reporting in. There aren’t enough Alliance troops available to investigate, but that’s why there are Adventurers. There will be maps! (Based on my short story “Job Along the Borderlands.”)$6,000: A third PDF adventure! This will be available to for all backers at Senior Adventurer and above. This adventure will be set in the opening years of the Great War. There has been a mysterious murder in Boston’s fabled underground Antiquity. Who or what is the murderer, what are their plans, and what is to be done about it all? There will be maps! (Based on the yet-to-be-published-in-an-anthology short story “Never Return.”The good guys. No, really.

Again, the Backerkit ends tomorrow. Let’s end on a high note!

03/05/2025 Snippet, [Something something fantastical French Revolution]

I have no idea what the title is yet, sorry. I have an idea how it’s all going to go, the plot, and the twist – but not the title.

The lutin had fought to the death. This concerned Joseph only because she had taken three of the militia with her into the Void, and wounded another two. That was a bad tally for the Revolution, no matter what the detestable priests said.

Ministers, he reminded himself. Ministers. They all bristle at even the smallest hint that they might bow to Rome.

Citizen Commissioner Joseph Fouché was not a man who believed in superstition, religion, or other nonsense, so he did not see the approach of Citizen Reverend Kraemer as being somehow caused by his musings. Instead, he simply accepted it as being a mere annoyance in a day full of aggravations. From the look on Kraemer’s face, the feeling was mutual. “Why was this spawn of Satan not captured, Commissioner?” the witch-hunter puffed out, waving one somehow still-pudge hand at the scene. “Were your men not enough for a monster one-third their size?”

Joseph gave Kraemer a look that would have frozen the blood of any Jacobin or sans-culotte. Alas, it had the same effect against a German fanatic witch-hunter as water did on a duck. “First off, they are not my men, or yours, or the Committee’s. They were men of the Revolution. Second?” Joseph shrugged. “The monster had a grenade, and the willingness to wait until… what is the American phrase? …until she ‘could see the whites of their eyes’ before lighting the fuse. I expect she thought that preferable to one of your auto-de-fes.”

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