Michael W. Lucas's Blog, page 4

New Rats’ Man’s Lackey story: “and the Bringer of Leaves”

“The Rats’ Man’s Lackey and the Bringer of Leaves” previously appeared in Pulphouse #33, and it’s now standalone in ebook for a paltry $1.99 on my bookstore.

More Rats’ Man’s Lackey stories exist, but the dang things keep selling to trad publishing. Seems there’s a market for “supernatural Witness Protection cosplaying as urban fantasy Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin” tales. At this rate, I’ll probably publish a collection in 2026.

You can’t get this at Amazon. I am no longer publishing short stories ...

74: Nobody Likes You

From the untitled fiction project #projectIDGAF.

Dating has always been a nightmare. Forget the humiliation, awkwardness, clumsiness, and most people’s internal insistence that they make lepers look good. Forget that when the innocent word “love” needs a break from the rack, we stuff it into an Iron Maiden. Skip that attraction ranges from “you’re kind of nice” all the way up to “I would be your adoring servant for eternity” and the resultant complications of asymmetric attraction. Finding someo...

73: Brick Itself

I would really love to finish the first draft of the new Networking for Systems Administrators by the end of February.

On a traditional network, the first address in a subnet is the network address and the subnet’s last IP is the broadcast address. These addresses were designed to be unusable. If your office uses the network 203.0.113.0/24, the addresses 203.0.113.0 and 203.0.113.255 are unusable. There’s nothing magic about the numbers .0 and .255, they’re dictated by the subnet size.

Modern IP...

72: Arthritic Camels

Folks have asked me for hints about the Kickstarter I’m launching 1 April. Yes, it’s an April Fools’ book. Just like the Networknomicon, Ed Mastery, and the Savaged by Systemd audiobook. After many requests, I am capitulating and reading a bit of the project description. This is the only hint you will get before the project launches.

The book can be drop-shipped directly from printers in the UK, Australia, and the US. This shipping is cheap. Not merely cheap as in “inexpensive,” but cheap as in ...

December’s Diptheroid Sausage

(This post went to Patronizers at the beginning of December, and to the public at the beginning of January. Not a Patronizer? You could be.)

Autumn is my favorite Michigan season. Cool enough at night to wear sweatpants, warm enough in the day to wear shorts. Oh well, it’ll return. Some distant day.

Mostly shorter bits for you this month.

The immediate news is that despite the election, we’ll be staying in Detroit for now. We’re under less threat than many other people, and there are family issu...

2024 Income Sources

How do I make a living at this silly business? By gathering money through every available channel. For the last few years I’ve posted where the money comes from.

First, the usual boilerplate. I’m a writer. My income comes from writing books and making them available. I publish both independently and through publishers. I don’t consult. I don’t seek out speaking fees. I desire to make my living as an author, creating and licensing intellectual property. I make my books available in every channel ...

71: The Great State of Soviet Texas

I took the last week off, so here’s a bit of Drinking Heavy Water.

The Great State of Soviet Texas was designed from the dirt up so that nobody would hate their work. Unique among Earth’s four hundred and eighty-one nations, the Texas Datacore existed to optimize the health, happiness, and liberties of Soviet citizens. Nobody was in charge of anything beyond themselves. Chevy had trusted the datacore all through school, even when the post-doc work in experimental mathematics at the University of...

70: The Athlete’s Foot Disaster Alarm

A snippet from the unnamed fiction WIP.

It was Patrolman Ernie McAllister who’d lit a blunt the size of his thumb. That’s smaller than you might think. McAllister had the muscle definition of a cat tree, and what skin he had was stretched too tight over his bones. The man had showered that morning, and before going to bed alone last night, and he’d laundered the uniform, but not even the prime weed’s burning-rope stink could cover up the mushroomy funk that continually seeped from his hide. He c...

BSDCan 2025 Chair’s Entirely Personal Comments on the Con Mask Policy

Yes, we discussed this in the organizing committee. Nothing has changed since last year. And yes, some of the new covid treatments give hope for a better future.

Degreed scientists have performed large amounts of actual research. Their data shows over and over again, that masks work. Multiple sorts of studies have shown this.

YouTube is not science. Neither is Twitter, nor Substack, Facebook, any social media, blog, or influencer web page. Fox News certainly is not.

The BSD community has quite a...

69: Classic GM Cruise Control

My ears refuse to pop. Everything sounds flat. I hope this bit from the unnamed fiction WIP came out.

Every three years, Dad paid cash for a brand-new Chevy C/K pickup with all the features. AM/FM/cassette stereo, rip-resistant seats, and the classic GM cruise control that worked perfectly on straight dry roads. Even air conditioning, although using AC was for pansies. A truck birthed to haul sheets of plywood or a small fishing boat, except Dad had people to haul anything and the creek needed b...