Aaron Frale's Blog, page 3

The Case for Enkidu

I usually take December off from all writing activities. I figure that I need one month a year for myself, and December always seemed like a perfect month being that it usually involves a lot of traveling, However, I got some exciting news. I may get to share the honor of naming a celestial object. I know, it sounds like a scam. One of those fly-by-night websites that sells property on Mars, but let me assure you, this is legit.

Radiolab, a podcast you may have heard (if not you really should), did an episode about a misprint on an astronomy poster where they convinced The International Astronomical Union to name the object on the poster with the misprint thereby retroactively correcting the poster. They had so much fun naming celestial objects that they convinced The International Astronomical Union to let the citizens of Earth name a rock out there in space. Take note people who are still sore over Pluto. Apparently those IAU people can be convinced to do all sorts of wacky things because I am one of those lucky citizens who may get to name a celestial object.

The object in question is a quasi-moon of Earth. Okay now it’s really sounding like a Mars Real Estate scam because what the hell is a quasi-moon? A collection of pixels on a virtual landscape? An NFT? Some sort of new crypto? A Tesla drifting in the void? It’s a rock, floating in space, that is following Earth around in its orbit. It’s not really a moon because it’s a little commitment phobic. Unlike our moon that wants to double tidal lock us so we show the same face at all times. Jeez moon, needy much? You already put a ring on it (theoretically when a Mars sized object smashed into the Earth and formed the moon).

Our little commitment phobic friend trailing in our orbit is called (164207) 2004 GU9 and will be there for another 600 years where it presumably finds a sexier planet to orbit or some prehistoric creatures to annihilate depending how bad the break up was from Earth. Not that I can blame the little guy I mean Earth is always having affairs with floating objects like Starlink satellites, international space stations, and floating Teslas. Though I have it on good authority that it’s not going to end well for the car.

Bad ends happen a lot for celestial objects that get tangled or otherwise ejected from Earth’s gravity well. (Except for the Moon, I see you there, always looking down at us. We have an open relationship! And I’m not ready to double tidal lock yet! Just give me 50 billion years and some space). Why am I making all this relationship analogies? That’s because I want to name (164207) 2004 GU9, Enkidu. That’s right the little guy flirting with Earth’s orbit should be named Enkidu.

Why? That’s because Enkidu is an important character in the ultimate bronze age bromance! Picture this: a hot guy with chiseled jawline and defined abs, dressed in all the finest fabrics with bling that would make Mr. T jealous. The sun’s rays halo his finely sculpted body because he’s the shit, and he knows it. Now move slightly to the left, look past those raging biceps, maybe squint a little. That’s Enkidu, a guy in burlap or whatever the lower class wore back then. He has a beard, unkempt, smells like stale cigarettes or whatever they smoked back then. He still has good abs though. When Hollywood makes his movie even the grocery store clerks will look like they spend at least six hours a day in a gym.

Despite Enkidu’s pungent smell, Gilgamesh (played by Idris Elba or John Krasinski or something) and Enkidu (played by Jack Black because Jack Black always plays that role) are best friends. And in case you’re wondering how anyone can be friends with someone whose odor is legendary, everyone smelled back then. It was before the invention of Axe Body Spray. Also, time travelers, bring your nose plugs, seriously. The point is that Gilgamesh, like Earth, is the hot momma that everyone wants to be with (you’re staring moon, don’t you ever blink?), and Enkidu, like (164207) 2004 GU9 is well… I mean the poor little rock wasn’t even given a name.

To be fair I’m sure Gilgamesh probably had so many concubines and dude bros hanging around that a numerical system would have made his life easier.

The bull god Humbaba faces off with Gilgamesh and his entourage.

Gilgamesh: (164206) 2004 GU9 hand me my sword!

Enkidu: I’m 164207.

The bull charges. Gilgamesh grabs it by the horns and wrestles.

Gilgamesh: (between breaths) What?

Enkidu: 07! I’m 07. Not 06.

Gilgamesh: Oh, sorry, get me my sword!

Enkidu: 06 died last week.

The fighting gets more intense.

Gilgamesh: I’m sorry. I meet so many people. It’s hard to remember their names. 07. The sword, please.

Enkidu: I have a name you know.

Humbaba is winning the contest of strength.

Gilgamesh: Just GET ME THE SWORD!

Enkidu: I’m not if you’re going to be rude about it.

Now, a brief word from our sponsor:

In the real story of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is only important because of Gilgamesh. He truly is the Joey to Chandler if the cast of Friends fought bronze age bull gods (I’d watch that spin off). (164207) 2004 GU9 (I’m going to just call the rock 07 from now on for the sake of those experiencing this through text-to-speech readers), is that dim but loveable companion to Earth. There’s a rock out in space, and there’s a lot of them, judging by the people who discovered them got so sick of naming them they just started giving them serial numbers. And 07 is only getting a name because its proximity to Earth, just like Enkidu only ever appears in the story because of his proximity to Gilgamesh.

On top of that Enkidu goes to Uruk (Gilgamesh’s digs that puts even the most decadent 90’s rap videos to shame) and challenges the G-man to a contest of strength, which he loses, miserably. I mean picture Jack Black arm wrestling Idris Elba. 07 is currently engaged in a contest of strength with the Earth, for when celestial objects share an orbit, their gravity is affecting each other (equal, opposite reactions, (jeez Moon stop staring, it’s not all about you! I gave you the tides!)).

07 is like Earth’s Enkidu. Seeking glory by being in the orbital planet of the most popular planet in the solar system, attempting to muscle its way into the orbit with its own gravity, and always playing second fiddle to a planet that’s had more satellites than it should probably mention on a first date (Starlink, naw baby, it’s a fling. You know its you and me forever GPS. Just ignore the moon, I’ve already said I’m not ready to double tidal lock yet).

Earth has a scrappy, wildly orbiting bestie, and I think it should be named Enkidu. If you agree with me, head over to Radiolab and cast your vote.

Before I get angry comments about Gilgamesh not being a comedy (I’m looking at you, Akkadian literature historian of bronze age Mesopotamia cultures. Because I’m a random idiot that’s read a translated version of Gilgamesh once or twice, so I obviously know more than a person studying it their whole life and can read it in the original language), do we really know what made Sumerians laugh? Enkidu could have been the Jack Black of his day and had them rolling in the streets.

Seriously now, go vote. It’s your civic duty.

If this made you laugh, share it with a friend. If you want to support the work that I do and get more laughs, consider supporting any of the books in this post.

Making bills and earnin’ like a baller with l33tskillz4va’s crypto fast cash is not what happens in this book!

But there are killer trees and bloody arena battles. What more could you want? Except sex. That happens too.

It also resolves plot points like certain characters stuck in a painting and what’s Petra’s mom doin’ at that volcano, yo!

I mean I guess there’s stuff like personal character growth and human connection and all that warm, squishy stuff.

But did I mention sex that happens in this book, and magic, swords, battle axes, battles, and plenty limbs being chopped off?

Oh yeah, it’s all in the third Misfits of Carnt!

View more on Aaron Frale's website »

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Published on December 04, 2024 17:48

10 Life Lessons I learned from DnD

I wanted to share with you important life lessons I learned from playing DnD as a kid.

1. Home invasions are an acceptable form to resolve conflict so long as their alignment is evil. Ridding a lair of Lawful/Evil Kobolds can be grueling work for that young adventurer, but that guy at the pub said it was okay to invade their home murder all the ones of fighting age (Heck throw in the elderly and the children too. No one will know, and you’re the good guys. It says so on your character sheet). Nothing forges that 5E Kobold wizard player character by coming home to find everyone they’ve ever known murdered by adventurers who did it for a keg of ale.

2. Wizards have way too much time on their hands. Instead of just annihilating anyone who comes close to a wizard’s all powerful rod, or better yet storing the item in a boobytrapped room located in the Abyss surrounded by all powerful cosmic player character killing machines, how about breaking that rod into seven parts? Then scatter those parts throughout the land in puzzle rooms with intricate but solvable level appropriate traps. Gotta make them earn that rod somehow.

3. Most cave systems have elaborate puzzle rooms. Being that wizards with too much time on their hands either like carving dungeons into the earth or have something against spelunkers, the chances that you’ll be in a room filling with water, and electrified eels is pretty high. Luckily, any good caver knows to bring scuba equipment and a diversified party who skills somehow are perfect for the situation, even that guy with the unusually high Lore Skill.

4. Esoteric skills will save your life. Being fully fluent in a language that hasn’t been spoken in 3k years, and knowing the myths of an unrelated 6k years long gone dead civilization will always come in handy when you are in a room filling up with water full of electrified eels. The shut off switch on a tablet with 64 glyphs that not only require fluency in a dead language but knowledge of an unrelated culture too as you need to pick the one of the God of Eels and Goddess of the Sea mating that strangely resembles Japanese tentacle porn. Why the wizard with too much time on their hands couldn’t just make an “off” switch, we’ll never know.

5. Random people will give you money to haul shit. Usually, people loitering on a street offering you cash to pick up an unmarked paper bag from a Waffle House bathroom should be suspect, but DnD tells me that fetching random shit for people can bring in some serious gold pieces. Next time someone offers to pay me to take a mysterious package onto a plane, all I need to do is shrug and say, “seems to work in DnD.”

6. Prison cells always have a means of escape. The next time you are brought in on drug charges from picking up a mysterious package from a Waffle House bathroom, don’t fret! Prison cells always have a loose block with a secret switch, or glyph pattern that must be recited in the proper order to escape. The kooky wizards with too much time on their hands sometimes lock themselves inside their own cells, so it’s convenient to have a way out in case that happens. I’m sure modern prisons have the same failsafe for when that hapless guard locks himself inside the cell and accidentally lets the serial killer out on family visit day.

7. All your weapons are stored in the room down the hall from your prison cell guarded by hapless guards. The next time the Coast Guard brings you in for dumping the bodies of your enemies in international waters, just know that the bazooka, fifteen machine guns, and dirty nuclear weapon will be down the hall being ignored by four men playing a card game. Pending on whether it’s the nuclear weapon or the machine gun you can get to first with your Sneak skill honed by years of garroting people for a Russian oligarch it’s bound to be a good escape.

8. As long as you have enough hit points, you can survive anything! 100-foot drop? No problem! I’m a level 20 Fighter with Second Wind! Stream of lava? Who’s up for a swim! So go ahead and take that nap in the Tesla, I’m sure what obliterates mere mortals when the car careens out of control into an oncoming plane followed by a tsunami will barely dent you. I mean you survived a twenty-story tall demon’s whip! Tsunamis should be no problem.

9. Villages always need saving. While dragons, goblins stealing crops, and rust monsters attacking tractors aren’t really threatening small town American life these days. There is GLOBALIZATION, and IMMIGRATION, don’t forget VACCINATION, AND CONTRAILS, FLAT EARTH, and PARROTS. Next time you’re at that gas station/restaurant/town hall/chapel/public school house/multipurpose only building in main street all-in-one town meeting spot with three locals all discussing crop yields, who don’t drink any of that fancy crap you tried to order, and you got your choice of coffee or sugar and maybe 20-year-old creamer if you’re lucky, you can tell them in a gruff adventurer voice, “Don’t worry, I’m here to take care of your parrot problem.”

10. Dangerous monsters live in caves. The next time you’re out hiking don’t bring bear spray or a snake bite kit or any sort of sensible precautions, just bring that massive Final Fantasy VII sword replica, and charge into that grizzly den screaming your head off. If you survive the mauling, your video will probably go viral, and even though the local villagers probably didn’t ask you to take care of their grizzly problem, you saw the sign warning you of it being bear country. People put their monster notices on signposts. Right?

If this made you laugh, share it with a friend. If you want to support the work that I do and get more laughs, consider purchasing any of the books in this email.

Making bills and earnin’ like a baller with l33tskillz4va’s crypto fast cash is not what happens in this book!

But there are killer trees and bloody arena battles. What more could you want? Except sex. That happens too.

It also resolves plot points like certain characters stuck in a painting and what’s Petra’s mom doin’ at that volcano, yo!

I mean I guess there’s stuff like personal character growth and human connection and all that warm, squishy stuff.

But did I mention sex that happens in this book, and magic, swords, battle axes, battles, and plenty limbs being chopped off?

Oh yeah, it’s all in the third Misfits of Carnt!

View more on Aaron Frale's website »

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Published on December 03, 2024 12:31

Remember Remember the 29th of November

It’s Black Friday! The one day a year where trampling and fist fighting humanity for deals on stuff you could live without is perfectly acceptable… or you can stay home and read. For those choosing the later see below for the plethora of free and 99 cent books. Psst… the first Teristaque book is 99 cents.

I also convinced a bunch of weirdos to give away their books for free.

Disclaimer: Sometimes Amazon is slow to change the price. I’m running this sale till Dec 26th, so check back. Also see my guide for downloading Google Play books on your kindle because Google Play always has the right price.

Consider any of these books. Purchases, leaving a review, buying one as a gift for a friend, or just telling a friend helps me considerably. I appreciate you being here.

The Gladiator Journalist will be the one of the exceptions and will be 99 cents for about a week on amazon only. It’s leaving KU 1/11/25, so get it while you can. The amazon only ones will be the price I mentioned for 5 days from the date on this email. Skip to ORION if you want ones that aren’t just Amazon.

The Theft – Free – Leaving KU 12/24/24 (amazon only)

Certain death? Conspiracy that goes to the top? Robbery gone wrong? All in a day’s work…

F hired me to do a straightforward job, but there was a slight snag in the operation when what I stole was stolen from me. Three goons showed up at my door to not so politely tell me that I have 24 hours to deliver F’s goods or my body will never be recovered.

The real tragedy is that I haven’t had my morning coffee…

Those punks better watch their back. Nothing comes between me and my coffee.

Kal’s Father – Free – Get Part 6-9 in Kal’s Quandary. (amazon only)

The Robin Hood of Couches – Free (amazon only) (Leaving KU 1/13/25)

A young, idealistic financial crimes investigator finds a body in a ditch.

Reese investigates corporate fraud and discovers some joker has been giving away free couches to the needy, because when a person can no longer afford the subscription service fees, all their furniture disappears.

The bearer of sofas ends up in a ditch when blunt force trauma snuffs out the poor’s best chance of not living in an empty room their whole life.

Reese rolls up his sleeves. Time to get to work… until a drone strike almost wipes him out.

Maybe he’s onto something bigger than he thought?

Our Final Days on Bellicus Prime – Free (amazon only) – Leaving KU 1/4/24

This was another short story that has a song by the same name. My friend Chris wrote the song and came up with the concept. I played some guitar on it, but it was mostly him. With his blessing, I took his concept and lyrics and wrote this story. Also, the sweet cover art is also the album cover art. It’s a painting about Pompeii but works for the concept of the story. That was kinda our thing in Spiral, take old paintings and turn them in cover art.

Orion is dead… again.

Whether death comes from a stab wound, a bullet to the brain, or just plain dumb luck, he always comes back.

He is glad to have the opportunity because a princess in each life seems to be in trouble. Whether she’s a nurse in the Vietnam War or medieval English royalty…

…Orion is determined to win her over.

Read ORION today!

Tuners Trilogy

Being too close to the truth got Jon Xiong’s mother killed.

While searching for answers, a murderous cult shows up at his door.

A secretive organization called the Tuners comes to his aide and teaches him about his rare ability to travel between worlds called tuning.

He grapples with his new superpower and is stuck between those who would maintain order in the multiverse and those who would destroy it.

Jon must avoid the same gruesome fate as his mom and figure out what happened to his family.

First book free! Book 2 and 3 99 cents!

Time Burrito Series

With great burrito comes great responsibility.

Pete’s food truck at the University of New Mexico isn’t going well. Seniors dare freshman to eat his burritos. Frats use them for pledges and pranks. Rumors fly around campus that they are chupacabra ground up with rat.

Pete needs a change, and it comes in the form of a physics experiment gone awry. After being sucked into the past, he stumbles across an ingredient that goes great in one of his creations.

First, there was Marty McFly. Then there was Bill and Ted. And now Pete—

First book free! Book 2, 3, and 4 99 cents!

Atmospheric Pressure Trilogy

There is nowhere to run. There is nowhere to hide. The state is watching.

Olson lives in a city that has been sealed from the outside world. He’s an Eleven Year and close to citizenship. His life is upended when one of the few adults who cares about him commits suicide – or so it appears at first.

While investigating, Olson meets a girl named Natalie snooping around his school. He soon learns that one of her friends died under similarly mysterious circumstances.

Together, they start looking for answers, and end up discovering the city’s darkest secrets.

First book free! Book 2 and 3 99 cents!

Homeless Monologues is free for five days.

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

The Church is crumbling!

Read Temple General today!

At only seventeen, Corporal Charles Raptor dreams of action.

Read Rebel Sword today!

First Lieutenant Shaara was dead this morning.

Read Oblivion’s Galaxy today!

Humanity has forgotten its past, and is doomed to repeat it.

Read Mythic today!

Would you like to see your book here? Hit me up on Story Origin.

View more on Aaron Frale's website »

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Published on November 29, 2024 00:46

12 Awkward White Elephant Gift Ideas – NSFW

Before we start, Free Fantasy Books!

Now that stores set up their Christmas displays in August, it’s time for some holiday gift ideas for that awkward office party that happens every year. Only some of these will get you fired, arrested, or murdered by the mob (don’t say we didn’t warn you).

1. Schrödinger’s cat – Is it alive? Is it dead? Open the box and find out!

2. Condoms – This one has some versatility. If they don’t know it was you, just kick back and watch an awkward event become even more uncomfortable. If they know it was you, there are several options depending on who opened it. You could say, “Oh you got the balloon animal kit. I really wanted that one. Gee Willakers.” Or you could say, “Freezer popsicle kit! Awesome!” or “We all know what you and Marsha have been doing in the bathrooms. Its for your safety.” Or just give the coworker a creepy smile and nod to the next room, though that last one will probably land you in HR.

3. White Elephant Rock Candy Meth – Nothing will cause hoots of laughter with a little rock candy that looks like meth cooked up in Walter White’s lab. But they won’t be laughing at you very long because you’ll suggest they all eat a piece at the same time. As you scratch your face to the point of near bleeding ingesting the morsel you’ll say in a dark voice, “One of them is real meth and the Narcan is in one of the unopened gifts. Let the white elephant begin.” Bonus if you come dressed as the Joker.

4. Smoking Cessation Gum – Bonus if when it’s opened you don’t even wait to steal it. Just grab it, eat a piece, and breathe a deep sigh of relief.

5. Prescription Pain Killers – Then when people look at you awkwardly you can say, “Do you know the street value of this stuff? You can sell it if you don’t like it!”

6. Smoky the Bear – Not the cute forest fire prevention character created by the US Forest Service but a portly male stripper who smells like stale cigarettes.

7. A Suitcase Full of Cash – If you’re going for the most stolen gift, this is the one. Who wouldn’t want a suitcase full of unmarked, non-sequential bills? If you really want to spice this one up you, can always attach a bloody handcuff to a severed arm to the case.

8. Pictures of Your Family – Then when someone opens it, you can say in a meek voice, “You can be in my family too.”

9. Mugs with Vaguely Sexual Innuendo – You can get custom mugs made with phrases like “Let’s Blow It!” or “Grip the Banana!” When people look quizzically, explain that blow jobs are a reference to sales and bananas are an analogy for money.

10. Key Evidence in a Murder Trial – This gift is perfect for a lawyer’s office or police precinct. Just imagine the fun they’ll have trying to be the person who cracks the case. Just don’t tell them how you got it and remember to wash your hands.

11. Inappropriately Religiously Undertoned Gifts – I’m not talking angels or Santa or the more acceptably religiously undertoned gifts. This is fire and brimstone kinda stuff. If you ever feel like there is just way too much DEI around your office and you’re tempted to pass legislation to ban saying DEI because uttering the phrase spawns demons from the deepest darkest pits of hell, this gift idea is for you! After your coworker opens the gift that clearly shows where you think most of them are going in the afterlife and an awkward silence passes over the room, you can make it even more awkward by staring down your coworkers of different religious beliefs and saying, “We all know the reason for the season.”

12. Your Coworkers Employee Evaluations – Always a winner!

If you enjoy this post, maybe you’ll enjoy this book:

Every time a bell rings, an elf gets his Glock.

Read Xmas Elf: Secret Agent Today!

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

A smuggler in the wrong place. An ancient alien technology. Now, everyone is after him.

Read Galaxy’s Most Wanted today!

“This is not a drill!”

Read Euphrates Vanished today!

Monroe Academy was built to separate the weak from the strong.

Read the Descendants series today!

Would you like to see your book here? Hit me up on Story Origin.

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Published on November 19, 2024 01:43

A universe of horror awaits…

First, A Wonderful Month for a Quest Giveaway.

A while back, a friend of mine, Phillip Carter, wanted to make a short story collection for Halloween, Sci-Fi Horror. At the time, I was writing Office Maxi, and I had these weird fiends that would make a great creature feature that harkened back to the Crypt Keeper cackling with some horror related pun. I also wanted to get into the backstory of one of the characters. Thus, I wrote The 505 Lus3r, my story in the collection.

This particular story does have a little bit of autobiographical information in it. I had a beat-up Saturn that I used address lettering for houses that you can buy at any Home Depot to put 505 Lus3rs on the back. It was a reference to an informal gathering of folks who were interested in technology. We’d formally meet at the mall, but we were all friends, most of us working in the same call center.

We needed a name for a group to post meeting times online, I believe it was Yahoo groups, but honestly, I forgot. And so our friend group became the 505 Lus3rs. 505 being the area code of Albuquerque, and loser being that we were all the dorky kids in school that ended up hanging out in all night coffee establishments and goth nights at the club.

It was fairly innocent, post high school to early twenties thing and ever since I put those address lettering on my car to designate myself as a 505 Lus3r others followed suit. It kinda helped that my friend did it too (I don’t know if it was his idea or mine), but since we had it, and we were strangely one of the cool kids in that scene (don’t ask me how, I’ve never considered myself cool, slick, or any adjective in that manner), others did it too.

I know we were the cool ones because we had developed hand signals to let each other know where we were going after club because our usual spots would eventually get overwhelmed by the greater goth community. I’d literally hold my middle finger down to make the letters VI for Village Inn. We even had one for Flying J.

That same year that we had those adornments on our cars, we decided to go to Defcon, the annual Hacker convention in Vegas less because we were hackers and more because it was a giant nerdy party. We caravanned with three or four 505 Lus3rs cars. I’m sure my Saturn parked in the hotel parking lot of Defcon put me on FBI watch lists and raised questions due to the obscurity of the reference, but rest assured America, the 505 Lus3rs, at least my friends, were no more a threat than a frat.

We did pull a few stunts like photoshopping ghosts into pictures of the railyards in Albuquerque or trying to sell our roommate on ebay (FYI: human trafficking is against ebay policies, but strangely, they did not cancel my account for the violation), but overall we were just nerds with a counter culture punk rock aesthetic.

Farhad, the character in the story, would have been a member of that group, and just like the folks in that group, we often schemed about ways to make money using our tech skills. A friend of mine and I created a site call aaronreview a couple months before epinions came out and did it better than us (we were trying to invent online reviews before online reviews were a thing). Another buddy of mine, (not a 505 Lus3r), but with the same sense of humor and I created Two Dudes Trying to Make a Buck dot com, where we said we are selling nothing, but maybe if enough people give us money, we’ll give one lucky person a photocopy of Henrik Ibsen or perhaps something else from the corkboard (but not Batman). (Yes, we did make money. No, not enough to make the news).

So, while the creature part of the story is purely fictitious, the 505 Lus3r part is a window of what it was like to be young, nerdy, and working thankless jobs that sap a little of your soul each time to clock in, and trying to find that better way and just as it had in my real life, landing me in places that I’d least expect.

I also want to point you in the direction of Philip Carter’s substack. He has an entire post about when you are supporting this book, you are supporting humans. There are 5 human writers, a human cover artist, a human interior artist, and human editor for the book. So, if you want to support humans, it’s a good book to get.

You can also check out a sample of my story from the book.

Get Macabre Multiverse today here or by clicking the lovely cover art below:

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

A mismatched band of thieves, assassins, and a reluctant mage sets out on the ultimate heist—to retrieve the legendary Gilded Dagger before it falls into the wrong hands.

Read the Gilded Dagger today!

The Dead Lands are no place for the living.

Read The Dead Lands today!

Ludovic Stone was the arms-bearer and right-hand of Archmage Alastor an Ulbrecht and Sorceress Lianna; protecting them throughout the years from political threats and standing by their side through the hardships they faced due to their stature.

Read The Void today!

What if people destroy reality?

Read Splitting Skies today!

Uncertain survival has become the ethos of many citizens in Venezuela under the rule of a vicious regime, while foreign corporations are stripping out the country of a prized, strategic resource for an intergovernmental military alliance.

Read Unbroken Strife today!

Would you like to see your book here? Hit me up on Story Origin.

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Published on October 30, 2024 23:38

Ask Me Anything 2

Before I start, I have two book giveaways for you for sci fi and fantasy. Giveaway #1 and Giveaway #2.

I had a lot of fun answering your questions, so I’m happy to answer more. No question is too weird. So please give me more! Think of it like having a trained monkey dance on your command except with words. On to the fun:

BeerLord from BeerNation asks:

“What are some good camping spots?”

That’s a good question BeerLord, and since I currently reside in Montana and grew up in New Mexico, I feel that I have some authority on the matter. I suppose whether or not it’s a good camping spot all depends on what you define as good camping experience. If your goal is to get chewed alive by mosquitos, I would recommend Lonesomehurst Campground near West Yellowstone. Seeing very few people about and when you do see someone, they look like extras in a post apocalypse with head to toe mosquito netting, should have been our first warning as I drove in with my family. We really should have turned around when they swarmed the car as we drove close. Horror movie wisdom tells us that any bug that swarms cars shouldn’t be ignored.

But since we were seasoned campers where our bug protection involved setting up the tent quickly and opening and closing doors as quickly as we could, I could have answered a casting call for a small pox victim and would have gotten the part after our experience at Lonesomehurst. At least it explained why the hurst was so lonesome. It was one of the few camping experiences where we checked the sunset hours and decided to wait around in town before returning to our tent.

We must have killed twenty of the critters on the car ride home, and it was still a better experience than the time I got food poisoning in the middle of the night in a campground a couple mile hike from the car. Sadly, beer was not consumed on either experience.

There is a lesson to be learned from all of this and that’s you can drink beer from your own home which I assume, BeerLord, is your primary motivation for camping. But seriously if you are looking for good campgrounds, pretty much the entire state of Montana or New Mexico, just come prepared (a cooler full of beer).

Eleanor from New York asks:

“Which of the books in your giveaway are great literature that will stand the test of time? Which are the great writers?”

All of them. None of them. 3 of them. All of those answers could be true or none are, or if you believe the Many Worlds hypothesis, every reality that could be true is true somewhere in the multiverse. But before we get bogged down with theoretical physics, let’s get to the heart of the question. The first is are any of the books in the giveaways featured in my emails worth my time? And will any of the books be ones humanity reads years from now?

Let me answer the first one because it’s by far the simpler answer. The truth is that I don’t know. Every giveaway I share, and all the books at the end of my emails weren’t vetted by me. I haven’t read most of them, but if I do see one that piques my interest, I’ll get it, and be more likely to read it if there is an audiobook (I go through about 10 audiobooks to everyone I read. It’s just how my brain is wired). A vast majority of the books I share end up in these giveaways and at the end of my emails because I joined an author exchange network to help build an audience.

The idea is that you tell your readers about my book, and I’ll tell them about yours. Giveaways are the same concept but in a much larger scale because one link for many books. At the end of the day, I collect a reader’s email address if they download my book, and hopefully that person then pays for future books by me, and like magic: writing career develops. While I have seen an increase in readership and sales since using this marketing tactic (I went from making zero dollars a month (unless I’m releasing a book), to reliably making $50-$200 a month when I’m not releasing a book). Not exactly a career, but pays for editing, cover art, and making some marketing experimentation on the side.

So, the question are any of the books in the giveaways worth your time? I say if it looks interesting then download it. The worst that can happen is you don’t enjoy it, stop reading, and then have to unsubscribe from some random writer’s email list (happens all the time, one of the things they don’t tell you is that people unsubscribe at just under the rate that your list grows, and I try to make my list have more value than just “Hey look at my books!”).

The best that can happen is you discover a writer you love, and make someone’s day because you left a kind, glowing review on their book. So, are the books worth your time? Some, all, none? Depends on how adventurous you are. Depends on what you like. Depends if you want to help someone out who is doing something they love for very little recognition and pay (I calculated my hourly rate on a book once, and it was like 25 cents an hour or something dismal, all the money going back into the cost writing more books (editing, cover art, etc.)).

Whenever writing feels lonely, and I truly question if all the work I’ve put into it was worth it, I have to think about Stephen King’s railroad nail. In his book, On Writing, he talks about how he had a railroad nail where he’d put his rejection letters, and it was full before he sold his first book. That is to say, there was a time in Stephen King’s life where no one knew his name (sure his class did and his wife) but you know what I mean. There was no Stephen King in the world. Now there is and whether you love him or hate him, you all know he exists, and it’s hard to go through a bookstore without seeing one of his novels.

Which brings me to the second part of the question, are any of the people, including myself, the next Stephen King? Yes, no, maybe…. Judging if a person is the next great novelist who will be taught in college literature classes in the future is hard to do. If you look at Stephen King before he sold his first book at the railroad nail of rejection, it may be easy to say, nope, no one will remember him. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were Stephen King classes in American Literature programs across the country.

Philip K Dick is another great example of this. Even if you haven’t read any of his books, you probably have heard of Minority Report or the more famous adaptation of his book Blade Runner. There are other movies that have been made of his novels, but since those have Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford in the leading roles, I’ll stick with them. Philip K Dick wrote the books those are based on in the 1960s. It wasn’t really till the tail end of his life when he’d started seeing the cultural impact of his writing such as movies being made.

Could you have said in the 1960s that Philip K Dick would be a highly influential Sci Fi writer remember years after his death, and continuing to influence culture through movies and television. I don’t think you could have. Sure, he won a Hugo and was nominated for Nebulas, but so have other writers who are forgotten by readers today.

The point is that we can’t predict what future readers will love and recite years after the author’s death. Shakespeare had lots of contemporaries, but their plays don’t get nearly the same amount of attention and productions today. Google “Shakespeare plays in my area,” and I’m sure there is one within driving distance going on this weekend (except for you random person who lives in Siberia or not within 8 hours drive of a major city). Now google “Thomas Kyd plays in my area,” and you’ll probably be hard pressed to find them. Not saying they don’t happen, just that Shakespeare gets way more attention than Kyd.

Now let’s take a look at the self-published author and ask are any of them going to be remembered? If I were a betting person, I’d put my money on Hugh Howey. His self-published book Wool did so well Apple TV turned it into a television series, and he sold it to a traditional publisher. All signs that readers 100 years from now will be reading his stories, but will they be? I don’t know. Maybe vampire novels are what everyone is reading and this totally retro series called Twilight has college classes and majors dedicated to studying it. Or maybe it was a book that was in one of my giveaways that was discovered in a used bookstore by an influential filmmaker who fell in love with it and made a hit movie 100 years after it was published kinda like Lord of the Rings did (okay so maybe not 100 years, but a really long time later, we got an awesome movie).

One thing I do know for sure is writers have never had a harder time being notice then right now. My spouse is writing a book series, and she was thinking about traditionally publishing it. A lot of a agents want to know about how many followers she has, social media size, mailing list size, etc. before they will consider talking to her. It’s romantic to think that a good story will rise to the top, and catch on like wildfire because we see a story like Hugh Howey and say, that could be me.

The truth is that even Hugh Howey had an entire science fiction series that wasn’t letting him quit his day job before he wrote Wool, and even then, what if the first person to read and review Wool gave it one star because there weren’t enough vampires, and the story just didn’t gain momentum because the reviews weren’t there. Or what if Hugh didn’t know anything about cover art and chased away some readers with a bad design. The point is that there are plenty of ways that have nothing to do with story, for a book to not do so well, and in the days where an algorithm dictates the chances of books being discovered by readers who are not already looking for it, something not landing in the exact right way to juice that algorithm could mean the difference between best seller and barely getting by on book sales.

The funny thing is that what may have failed to juice the algorithm at the time of publication may light it on fire later on. There is no way to tell. Vampires may be the single distinction that makes a book a best seller one year, and the reason it’s buried in the yard after barely anyone ever read it the next. My day job is at a University and I see people wearing Iron Maidan and Nirvana t-shirts all the time, both bands popular when I was in high school. I honestly wouldn’t have predicted that.

So. will readers of the future be reading any of the books in the giveaway? Which ones will have college classes taught about them? Which ones will be made into TV, Movies, Video Games? Some of them? All of them? None of them? It’s easy to look at the great writers from a historical perspective and say off course they were great, but what if Stephen King quit writing before the nail filled, or Shakespeare’s plays were lost in a fire? Or Hugh Howey decided it was time to pack it in after his Molly Fyde series? Or the deal for Blade Runner fell through and Philip K Dick was only known to readers who shop at the used bookstore?

What about the person who is writing the next great novel right now, but they aren’t so good with marketing or cover art? They giveaway the book but no one reads it because any potential readers have 50 free books to choose from on a daily basis, and the algorithm just doesn’t favor them. What about the writer who was way before their time, and their career explodes after they retired from writing?

One last story that’s about music, not writing, but the principle still applies. There’s a band out there, I’m sure most of you have heard of them, Metallica. Whether you love them or hate them, most will agree that they were there in the birth of a genre we know today as Heavy Metal. Now, there are points in musical history like Helter Skelter by the Beatles or King Crimson that sound very metal for lack of a better word, And who can forget Black Sabbath who did metal before metal was cool?

Metallica, however, filled stadiums of fans and has legions of bands that would cite them as their inspiration. My AI fact checked stats estimate Metallica at 121 million album sales worldwide and Black Sabbath at 75 million. While it is undeniable that Black Sabbath had an influence on the genre of heavy metal, I would say Metallica became the template. While I’m sure I could debate for hours on who was more influential on the heavy metal genre over beers for hours (I mean who can forget that Dave Mustaine was a member of Metallica in the early days, but Megadeth is in the 50 million mark for album sales). If we go by album sales, Metallica is the top.

However, this story isn’t about Metallica or Megadeth or the names that an AI would put on the top lists for heavy metal, I merely needed to establish their importance to the genre and their success. The story is about Anvil, a band that had influenced Metallica and others. Listen to their cover of Paint it Black and in the first few notes, you can hear the crunchy galloping guitar Metallica is famous for. If Metallica is the template for heavy metal, then Anvil were the creators of that template and until a documentary put them back on the spotlight, they were doing food delivery and construction jobs after their musical career fell into obscurity, right around the same time Metallica was filling stadiums.

A lot of the most successful metal bands, Metallica included, cite Anvil as their inspiration, yet if it wasn’t for the documentary, they probably would have disappeared in relative obscurity. So, who are the great writers in the giveaways that generations will remember years after anyone who is alive right now or even knew a person alive right now? All? Some? None? I can’t tell you, and I don’t think anyone could. Their may be an Anvil among them that’s going to have a hand in shaping an entire new genre of fiction, but we’ll only figure it out years later, when a famous writer is asked, what book influenced you?

That’s why I say, if you see something that you think you’d like to read, give it a chance. It may be the next Anvil.

Books Leaving KU

Kal’s Duty

Leaving KU: 10/31/24

Destroy her home world to save the galaxy?

Kal’s not a murderer like her father. There must be another way. A darkness is poised to destroy worlds, and she’s the only one who believes that it’s a threat.

To save the galaxy, Kal must broker peace between two warring galactic empires and endure trials that test her strength, mental fortitude, and wits.

She also needs to connect with her father, a man she’d rather launch into the heart of a star.

Find out if Kal has what it takes to destroy what lurks in the dark, waiting to devour the universe, in the third Teristaque novel.

Orcs in Portland and Other Social Justice Issues

Leaving KU: 12/28/24

Orcs invading Portland, a wolf in the janitor’s closet, black ooze dissolving the gym teacher: a typical day for the students of Beaverton High and their fearless teaching assistant.

Petra thought working for her old high school was the worst thing that could happen to her until a magical disease infects her son.

Meanwhile the Barbarians Breakfast Club faces creatures invading their high school and murdering their classmates and principal. Okay, so maybe the latter isn’t that bad.

The phenomena intensify, and soon it is not just the high school that’s infested with murderous creatures. So, our hapless heroes much seek aid from old allies and enemies.

Find out if Portland can survive in the second Misfits of Carnt novel.

The Homeless Monologues, The Chair, and Other Plays

Leaving KU: 12/13/24

This was a collection of plays and sketches I wrote when I was in the Eat, Drink, and Be Larry sketch comedy group. We did about 20 shows in two years and ended with Hamlet: The Vampire Slayer. We were doing them around the birth of YouTube, and I tried to convince the group to do more online content, but their wasn’t much interest. Some of the aged well, others not so well. I think I’m going to remove this from internet entirely and I’ll give away a free copy on Black Friday for anyone who’s interested.

Back before I wrote Time Agency, I fancied myself a screenwriter. I also got an MFA in playwriting where I got to write plays and screenplays. I haven’t counted, but I’m pretty sure I’ve written 10 full length plays/screenplays, and countless shorts like the ones in this collection. Most have been staged, and some have been made it to film back when staying up all hours making a film a handful of people would see at a film festival appealed to me.

The reason I published the Homeless Monologues is because they were arguably my most successful theater work. But they were never staged where I could watch them. I wrote them because a director wanted to do a project where 100 monologues about unhoused people were preformed throughout Albuquerque and each writer would have 5, and the actors would just do the monologue every time someone strolled down the alley. People would be given a map of the city, and free to wander the monologues how they liked.

I thought it was a great idea, so I wrote some monologues for him, but the project never happened. Not sure why, but the result was I had these monologues I wrote with no home. I wasn’t really doing theater at the time, so I decided to upload them to a website where people looking for auditioning material could get royalty-free stuff to use in their auditions.

Whether it was my double A in my name, or just some quirk of fate, they become one of the highest viewed monologues on the site, I was getting emails all the time of people asking my permission to use them, which I always gave. I’m sure plenty just used them without contacting me. For a while, I imagine theater programs throughout the US were hearing my words from acting students. They were perfect audition length, and some a mix of serious a silly that would give an actor a way to flex their muscles.

I figured, man, I have something here. I should publish them. So I gathered a bunch of my shorts and published. Then planed to publish all my plays and screenplays. Very few people bought or read this book and I was making progress on novels that people were buying and reading. So I decided to let the book fall into obscurity. The monologue website even disappeared one day too. Now this collection seems like another life, one that I’m far away from (there are three books I published before anything else, even a lot of the plays, when I fancied myself becoming the next Dave Barry), but I’ll save that for another email when do a last call to before I depublish the 3rd (the first two are already gone, but have some fun stories about them).

Anyway, if you want a snapshot of what I did before I switched to books, this collection is a glimpse into that world.

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

When a signature has the power to start a galactic war….

Betrayal, love, and a fight for freedom collide in this gripping sci-fi novel.

Read Conspiracy today!

A hunt for relics in the caverns deep within a distant asteroid. All is not what it seems…

Read Perilous Quest today!

Can Johnny overcome his self-doubt, prove himself to his meddling father, and stop an out of control hyperloop in time to save everyone from certain death?

Read Hyperloop to Hell today!

In this tale of space opera and cosmic adventure, the Ambassador of a mysterious and ancient family must forge a path through chaos to overcome the terrible enemies that desire humanity’s destruction.

Read The Survivors today!

Zoe Calloway is about to unravel the secrets of time travel and her father’s mysterious disappearance.

Read Zoe Calloway today!

Will Divian go down the path of destruction like his father?

Read Divian today!

Would you like to see your book here? Hit me up on Story Origin.

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Published on October 15, 2024 03:55

Ask Me Anything 1

Before we begin, I gathered some authors and convinced them to give away free Sci Fi and Fantasy books.

A while back, I did a survey where I encouraged you lot to ask me anything, and I certainly wasn’t prepared for the questions that I would get. I also made the mistake of not asking people’s names and where they are from. So, for this first installment of Ask Me Anything. I’m just going to make up their names and locations. If you’d like to see your question here on Ask Me Anything, I made you a form.

Greldar from the Antares Star Cluster asks:

“How’s your bum for lovebites?”

As a perpetually uncool citizen of Earth who is so out of the loop that I think TikTok is a Peter Pan literary reference, I’m not sure what the question means. But I do speak the English language as my primary mode of conversation, so I’ll take a stab at it.

I’m pretty sure bum can’t be a reference to buttocks because I’m happily married and love my spouse. So it must mean something else. There is bum like, “can I bum a cigarette?” and then there is bum like “get a job you lazy bum.” I’m pretty sure Greldar not being from Earth must be asking about the hobo that may or may not be murderous. Though if I did have a hobo of the murderous variety, I imagine they would be completely open to lovebites. Imagine the heroine slinking through a dark alley, and the murderbum creeps up on her with a lead pipe. She whirls around smacks a lovebite on the grizzled man. He softens, loosens his grip on the pipe, and it drops to the floor.

In all his time of murdering people and looting their bodies, he’s never been lovebitten before. She smiles, takes him home, and gives him a bath. He has quite the rockin’ bod after being cleaned up. They make love, get married, buy a house (from the money he made looting corpses), install a white picket fence, have 2.5 kids (the .5 was the result of a mad scientist’s experiment gone awry). Years later, they sit on their porch reflecting about their lives. One of their kids is in law school, the other owns an engineering firm, and .5 joined a mutant circus. They smile, reach out, and grasp each other’s hands. Then are murdered by a hobo who loots their corpse.

Gretchen from Ninjaville asks:

“What is the backstory on your obsession with cheese? LOL”

It all started when I was a little boy. I grew up on a Wisconsin cheese farm as an orphan displaced by war. I won’t say life was easy on the farm, but there is something special about waking up at the crack of dawn, the smell of freshly picked gruyere as you work the fields. Warden Jones as we used to call him said that if we didn’t meet our quotas and pick enough cheese, he’d send us back.

Every day, we spent hunched over in the baking sun, our arms scratched from cheddar thorns. Then there were brie bushes, thick and spiney, but nothing like the crestfallen look that Warden Jones would give us if we didn’t meet our quotas.

Warden Jones was a hard man, but a good man. He didn’t hit or mistreat us, and we all knew he would never send us back, at least not while he was alive. But cheese farming isn’t for those who are in it for the money. Not like the Jenson Corn Farm up the road with their private jets and yachts.

Cheese farming barely sustained us, and every time a new orphan showed up at his door, Warden Jones just couldn’t resist. He had to take them in, so we picked cheese we did. And some of it would go bad because there was no refrigeration in those days, but for every cheddar, mozzarella, colby-jack, parmesan, and feta we’d get to market, well that was just one more orphan that we kept off the streets.

We all played our part, but I was there to the end, grasping Warden Jones’ hand as he gasped his last breath. Right before he died, he said something to me that I’ll never forget. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Well that was gouda.”

Don’t forget to check out Office Maxi on Royal Road, and if you’re enjoying the story, rate and review.

If you want to ask me a question that could appear on a future email like these, check out the Ask Me Anything page on my website.

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

Being a space pirate can be complicated…

Read Space Pirate Reunion today!

Trollsbane is a prequel story to Gregory Amato’s Norse fantasy series Spear of the Gods, where the myths, magic, and monsters of the Viking Age are all real.

Read Trollsbane today!

It’s long been known that The Viclogs are the last stand of freedom in the Land of Dalantia and the treachery of The Blood Queen.

Read The War Drums of Kanth today!

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Published on September 03, 2024 02:04

Guide to Get Google Play Books on Your Kindle

A lot of my non-US readers do not get the chance to get free and discounted books for their kindles because Amazon makes it complicated for authors to change the pricing on their books. With Google Play, I click a few buttons, and the book is free all over the world for the time frame I specify. For Amazon, I must gather lots of data on each international marketplace, contact customer service, sometimes several times, and even then, the change doesn’t always go through.

Rather than fret about my sales and freebies not getting to international readers, I’ve made a step-by-step guide to get kindle versions of my books and other authors who disable DRM on their books via the Google Play store. If I say something is free or on sale, and Amazon doesn’t have the price I quoted, Google Play will, and here’s the guide to get that book on your kindle.

First off, you’ll need a book. Here’s Time Burrito which is permafree.

Access the book via your web browser on your Google Play Library:

https://play.google.com/books

Then click on those three dots under the book:

Then choose export:

Then export as EPUB:

Then once it is saved to your device (this step will vary depending on your device), you’ll need to get your kindle email address from Amazon. Please note that your kindle email is not the same as your Amazon email.

From the Amazon home page, click on the Account drop down menu and then Devices.

You’ll get a page that looks like the screenshot below. Click on kindle:

Click on your Kindle:

Your kindle email address will be located in the system information:

Once you have the email address for your kindle, email the EPUB of the book as a file attachment (this step will vary depending on your device).

Here’s Atmospheric Pressure to get some more practice.

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

Immerse yourself in “The Skull Collector,” a short story set in a Pacific Islander village where ancient rituals and haunting secrets collide.

Check out The Skull Collector today!

Douglas J. Eboch (screenwriter of Sweet Home Alabama) has crafted a funny and moving adventure infused with the zany culture of the 1980’s.

Read Totally Rad Wormhole today!

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Published on August 27, 2024 13:42

Some Announcements

Before we get started, check out this free all genre Comedy Giveaway, even just clicking the link helps me out. Also, my entire Tuners trilogy is on sale during this massive indie book sale.

I’m sure you all are wondering who won the $25 Amazon gift card and other fabulous prizes, and I will get to that, but first I’m going to make you read an email because I’m a devious criminal mastermind that had imbedded mind control into the very text you are reading that will turn you all into assassins…

… of free time. That’s right, it’s been my plan all this time to have you spend all your free time reading and more specifically. MY NOVELS. MWAHAHA! MWHAHAHA!

And to make sure you are reading, I’m going to release my latest novel for free. MWHAHAHA!

All you must do is check out Office Maxi on Royal Road.

Yes, yes, Good. Good. (tenting my hands) Read now… read… mwahaha *cough* -gag- {erp}

Um, yeah, don’t know what came over me, but yes, my new supersecret LitRPG novel will be coming to Royal Road, and I’ll be releasing one chapter M-F until it completes, and if I get a good reaction on Royal Road, I will continue to publish future chapter at a time installments. Don’t worry, this won’t hinder my plans for Time Burrito 5 and Carnt 4 that are already in the works.

As for those of you who would like to see Office Maxi come to kindle, yes, it will be there too eventually. I have an interactive game planned for the release of Office Maxi, and a special Patreon edition planned too. So simply stay on this list and enjoy the humor emails in the meantime, and I’ll let you know when all that is ready.

I also wanted to announce that My Three-Year-Old is a Barbarian and Other Parenting Problems will be leaving Kindle Unlimited on September 29th.

Read the Misfits of Carnt today!

Okay, finally time to announce those contest winners. Please reply to this email with the requested information to claim your prize:

Kay Smillie: $25 Gift Card, Misfits of Carnt 3 eBook and Paperback (amazon email, shipping address)Ema Bubby: Misfits of Carnt 3 eBook and Paperback (shipping address, email for EPUB delivery)Bartztaylr: Misfits of Carnt 3 eBook (email for EPUB delivery (can gift to a friend))Slider Rachael: Misfits of Carnt 3 eBook (email for EPUB delivery (can gift to a friend))Heather Lynn Swanson: Misfits of Carnt 3 eBook (email for EPUB delivery (can gift to a friend))

Here are latest to go from Kindle Unlimited (both are free for limited time):

Rest Area of the Future – Leaving 9/20/24

It’s a Part III of a four part novella in the Cowboys and Drones collection.

Rumpspringa – Leaving 10/28/24

During my time in the heavy metal/space rock band, Spiral, I wanted to write the short stories that paired with the songs we were writing. As I remove the stories from KU, I’ll be sure to post the song to. This one features my rhythm guitar and angelic singing voice in the verses (Chris does the chorus).

Rumpspringa the song.

You can hear my finger picking right as the song opens, then later when Bill solos over it (after the first verse), it’s one of my favorite moments in any song I’ve written. Also, if you want to hear me scream my head off, listen to DMT Romance on the same album. I don’t know what came over me that day. I was playing this sweet little psychedelic riff, mournful vocals, and then hit the distortion and screamed like I never have in my life (well there was this other time where my band members wanted me to do again for our Anomaly album). But anyway, the Romance song literally took less than an hour to write and record; it was wild like the song.

But anyway, if you want to check out a song and short story combo, I suggest both. There are several more like this, so if this is your jam, watch this space.

Book Swaps

The following authors are kindly sharing my books with their readers. Show them some love and click on their links.

A plague has swept through the village of Dasen, taking all the magic from the place and the druids. Master Rody longs for the day that it returns. Back when conversing with nature is normal and casting spells is natural to them.

Check out Cave of Time today!

Bell’s lifelong wish was to leave her colony world. She should have been more specific.

Check out Murder on the Interstellar Express today!

Bella Erdmann’s time had come. She was made to leave The Farm; the only home she’d ever known, for a full year of life in the wild city streets. The Spark, a moon-sized space station and home to the last of humanity, was a terrifying place for someone as naïve and uncultured as she.

Check out Mythic today!

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Published on August 19, 2024 23:35

10 Life Lessons I learned from DnD