Dan Melson's Blog, page 14

The End Of Childhood Releases Today!

The die is cast.The Empire has caught the fractal demons marshalling troops for assault, and there is no avoiding the decisive Armageddon between humanity and the fractal demons. Both sides have their strengths and there is no certainty about the outcome. While the Empire is free-falling towards open war, Grace is tasked with nudging the odds a little bit, ferreting out traitors to humanity, bribed with the seeming of the most precious gift possible but with a nightmare catch.Then at the moment of the first skirmishes, personal tragedy strikes, clearing the way for a long-delayed impulse, which results in horror and more personal tragedy.But out of the disaster, a new Grace emerges - one ready to stand on her own, fully realized as a potent force in her own right. [image error] It is available in both e-book and paperback from Amazon and all of the Books2Read retailers and library services (Apple, B&N, Kobo, Overdrive, etcetera)The link for Amazon purchase is hereThe link for all of the Books2Read retailers and library services is hereIt was my intention to offer it for 99 cents in e-book for 24 hours. As of this moment, Amazon has not accepted that promotional price, but the Books2Read retailers have. So those of you who prefer an alternative to Amazon get a discount.

Imperial Numbers and Measurement - Mass and Energy

Basic Imperial measure owes nothing to any Earth system of measurement. The Imperial system was designed in an already scientific and technological era for much the same reasons Earth's metric units were designed - to simplify a complex system of historical measures.The numeration system is base sixty - 3 times 4 times 5. This makes numbers more easily manipulated than previous systems. It works upon the same positional basis as our Hindu-Arabic system, and the same concepts apply, with multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (and 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30) having intermediate importance in thought between the unit and the system base of sixty. For all units, the digital places are described thus:Prime: 60 times the base unitSquare: 3600 times the base unitCube: 216,000 times the base unitFourth: 12,960,000 times the base unit, and so on. For fractional numbers, iprime is 1/60th of the base unit, isquare is 1/3600th, ithird is 1/216,000th, ifourth is 1/12,960,000th, and so on. If there's an 'i' in front of the multiplier, it relates to a fractional number.For situations requiring more precision than a single digit, the spoken convention is to specify the magnitude of the leading digit, and following digits are presumed to be immediately decreasing in magnitude. "Two minutes thirty" can be two and a half minutes of time, or two and a half light-minutes of distance. "Seven ithirds fortysix fourteen" would be seven 216,000ths, forty-six 12,960,000ths, fourteen 777,600,000ths of the relevant units. If the relevant digit is a zero, the zero is spoken, so "seven ithirds zero fourteen" would be seven 216,000ths, zero 12,960,000ths, fourteen 777,600,000ths of the relevant unitsMost of the time, measures are context sensitive in translations to English. For instance, a range is assumed to be given in distance units, a mass or weight in terms of mass units, and so on. In Technical, the fact of what you are measuring requires the units of measurement to match, and this has, over time, leaked over to conversations in Traditional as well. In Mindlord, everything is context sensitive anyway, and nobody uses Concept for technical or technological purposes, as the 'language' is entirely unsuitable for that purpose. Mass The Empire actually uses two units of mass, the atomic mass unit familiar to Earth scientists (called the 'mass' if there is need), and the 'bar', which is sixty to the fourteenth power atomic mass units. The bar is far more commonly used as the mass is almost never called for except in theoretical chemistry and physics.1 bar = 60^14 atomic mass units = 13.017303005980066445182724252492 grams .4592 oz1 prime = 781.0 grams 27.55 oz (1.722 lb)1 square = 46.86 kg 103.3 lb1 cube = 2812 kg 6199 lb (3.099 tons)1 fourth = 168,700kg 186.0 tons1 fifth = 10,120 metric tons 11,160 tons1 sixth = 607,300 metric tons 669,500 tons1 seventh = 36.438 million metric tons* 40.17 million tons* Energy Since the advent of siphons and converters, it has become common to refer to energy in terms of the rest mass required to generate it.1 bar = 1.16993684898 x 10^15 Joules (roughly 11,700TJ, or 2800 kilotons of TNT)

The Price Of Power Reduced Price Sale

Today through Friday March 11, The Price Of Power will be on sale for 99 cents in e-book, in advance of the release of The End of Childhood, third book in the series. [image error] For everything there is a price.Grace has married into one of the most important families of the Empire. The Scimtars are wealthy and powerful in every sense of the term. Her five children will be among the Empire's elite when they are ready, and Grace herself is not without influence or importance despite her relative youth. But Imperial politics are deadly, and the more you have, the more your rivals want what you have.There is no shelter from The Price of Power.The link for Amazon is hereThe link for all of the other Books2Read retailers and library services is hereSetting: The Empire of Humanity. The technology can move ships millions of light-years in quantum time, keep people young and healthy indefinitely, or destroy planets almost without noticing. But people are still human - or a little bit more.

Invention of Motherhood Reduced Price Sale

Today through Friday March 4, The Invention Of Motherhood will be on sale for 99 cents in e-book, in advance of the release of The End of Childhood, third book in the series. [image error] Pregnancy is dangerous in the Empire!For thousands of years, Imperial women have used artificial gestation. But Grace was born on barbarian, pre-contact Earth. She can't call herself a mother without doing it the hard way at least once.Grace has married into one of the most important families in the Empire - and Imperial politics are deadly at the top.Despite the risks, she discovers that there are advantages, both to herself and to her unborn baby. The Empire will never be quite the same again.The link for Amazon is hereThe link for all of the other Books2Read retailers and library services is hereSetting: The Empire of Humanity. The technology can move ships millions of light-years in quantum time, keep people young and healthy indefinitely, or destroy planets almost without noticing. But people are still human - or a little bit more.

Free 4000-8000 Word Samples Of All My Books (so far)

I joined Book Funnel recently. One of the things this allows me to do is have permanent samples of my books out there where people can download them for free to see what they like. These are substantial samples, not just a few paragraphs.Empire of Humanity setting (3 series thus far)Rediscovery series (complete)The Man From Empire: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ifmk0v3wakA Guardian From Earth: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/3gt14cfpj8Empire And Earth: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/mqvlv2d095Working The Trenches: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/qqhkb24v8g(There is also a Rediscovery Omnibus of these four books, for those willing to buy four books at once for slightly more than the cost of two, but it contains no new material)Preparations for War series (will be complete with the publication of Moving The Pieces on April 11, 2022)Preparing The Ground: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ew9h6zekwhBuilding The People: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/r9qs15r1y0Setting The Board: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/p76p1bnsjkMoving The Pieces: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/gmvjt7ov8y This is a free sample, available before publication!Politics of Empire Series (The End Of Childhood will release March 14, 2022)The Invention Of Motherhood: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/qpxjhxunv6The Price Of Power: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ux10peuvyrThe End Of Childhood: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/s0ux9nmxo5 (This is a free sample available before release of the novel!)Connected Realms setting and seriesThe Fountains of Aescalon: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/umfoo8ww89The Monad Trap:https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bmt08nlr7zGates to Faerie setting and seriesThe Gates To Faerie:https://dl.bookfunnel.com/agm3hpkp2zWhat Consumers Need To Know series (non-fiction consumer guides!)What Consumers Need To Know About Mortgages: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x5wh99cuaxWhat Consumers Need To Know About Buying Real Estate: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/vgxfqu8rmjAll of the above links should offer the OPTION of signing up for my newsletter, but it should be an OPTION ONLY, not required. I think I've tested them all, but let me know if there is a problem on this score.

Privacy Policy

A site for my author business wants my privacy policy, so here it is:I will not sell your information. I may give other authors I have reason to believe might interest a large portion of my list one time access to send you an email or do it myself on their behalf or put their 'pitch' in my newsletter.Otherwise the mailing list will only be used for my own newsletters, which should not exceed monthly in frequency and probably won't exceed quarterly. I will promise no more than three in any calendar quarter, and will give clear notification if this changes.

Release Dates for The End Of Childhood and Moving The Pieces

I have finished uploading the files for The End Of Childhood (Politics of Empire book 3) and Moving The Pieces (fourth and final book in Preparations for War)The End Of Childhood will officially release on March 14th. The preorder URLs are:Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SKN2Y6YBooks2Read(Apple, B&N, Kobo, etcetera): https://books2read.com/b/mKpGlPMoving The Pieces will officially release on April 11th. The preorder URLs are:Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SP1Q66MBooks2Read (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etcetera): https://books2read.com/b/31RXpaI will be having promotions on the previous books in each series during the run up to their release. The first will be The Invention of Motherhood (Amazon link Books2Read link) will be on sale for 99 cents in e-book from February 28th to March 4th.

Why I'm Not Interested in Audiobooks

The same reason why I'm not interested in podcasts, youtube or Rumble channels, etcetera.I process information faster than people talk. I find it much easier as well as faster to read a transcript than I do to pay attention to someone talking who has no feedback from me, and all video does for me is demand my eyeballs as well. If there's a reason (for instance, videos of disputed events), fine. Otherwise it's slowing me up.I drive a lot. But when I drive, I listen to music, not people talking. Why? Because I'm paying attention to the road and my vehicle and what's going on. My mind will 'cut away' from distractions automatically and pay attention to what's important, a legacy of twelve years spent as an air traffic controller. But it means I may miss critical moments, or receive them garbled.When I'm reading, my mind is on the material and if there are important distractions, I can put it down until I've dealt with those distractions. A much more comfortable situation.Finally, creating an audiobook is more expensive than creating any kind of printed material (e-book, paperback, or hardcover). I'm willing to do it if there's enough demand, but so far I'm not seeing anything like enough demand to justify the expense.

Excerpt from The End of Childhood

It never begins dramatically.It started on an ordinary day, when I'd been doing the perfectly ordinary thing of gathering evidence for a hearing. The case I was investigating had to do with the tort of infringement. In this case the plaintiff was alleging the defendant was generating excessive noise and interfering with the plaintiff's enjoyment of their property. Evidently, the defendant had refused negotiation on the subject and so the case was going before the relevant Primus the next day.Both were out on the fringes of Sumabad, out in the hills, out where the towering arcologies holding tens of millions each petered out, and the residents generally had reasons to need or want ground space. The plaintiff was an academy for self-defense, with classrooms for hand to hand disciplines and ranges for things like disruptors, lasers, flechette guns, and even the occasional firearm. The other was the Grubaro Club, a nightclub catering largely to the Tumar culture which had a large presence in Sumabad and environs. Tumars liked explosions while they were eating and dancing. Tumars thought loud noises were exciting and envigorating. Unfortunately for their neighbors, these explosions and other noises often reached ear-splitting levels, and it was not only disrupting to the peaceful conduct of the instruction at Hills Academy for Preparation and Discipline next door, many of the patrons and instructors were combat veterans. It wasn't my place to judge, but I was pretty sure the Primus was going to mostly rule against the Grubaro Club - they had a responsibility to see that any noise they generated did not disturb their neighbors, and my spak recording was getting readings consistently louder than an original Learjet on high-power takeoff.Scimtar himself contacted me. Grace, I have a job if you're interested, or rather a series of jobs. Mixed family and imperial. It involves demonic traces, mostly spraxos and nephraim.I was no longer the barely trained woman who'd been nervous about facing a terostes by herself, but neither was I a Sixth or Seventh Order Guardian. I was mid-range Fourth Order - albeit trained by House Scimtar. Furthermore, if I were observed taking on spraxos, that could be the end of me pretending to still be Second Order. What's it entail?We're seeing a surge in the number of demonic traces, not only here in Indra System but everywhere in the Empire. The conclusion is obvious.The fractal demons were trolling for treason. It's what they did. The vast majority of their troops would be easy pickings for Imperials when the inevitable confrontation came. Unless they could get us to turn on each other, the eventual war would be notable mostly for a lopsided casualty count. They'd seduced the old stons without anyone realizing it until the old Empire was already gone, resulting in a civil war that ended up destroying the Empire - and afterwards, almost the entire human species. This time the leaders of the Empire were alert for their tactics.The assignment?Match demonic traces to human contacts by Event Line congruency. Investigate the human contacts by behavior. If you happen to destroy demons, we'll pay a bounty - nephraim are worth three fourths, spraxos thirty. Ancillaries too, although manesi and lemuure aren't worth much. What we're looking for is evidence to convict or exonerate treason, and we'll double your normal rate for results.The money was nice even if Asto and I could live very comfortably off investments if we wanted, but demonic nobles were dangerous - and they had a habit of bringing in help when threatened. Still, I didn't think Scimtar would be offering me the job if he didn't think I was able to handle myself doing it - I'd given the family five children thus far, all of them above average tracking metrics for Seventh Order Guardians their age thanks to yours truly carrying them naturally instead of using artificial gestation. I'd done it for my babies, not for House Scimtar, but I knew Scimtar valued my efforts.Grandfather is offering you a way into the Guardian's Ears if you're willing, my husband Asto put in his two cents.I thought the Guardian's Ears didn't accept candidates born outside the Empire?Maybe not, but it's worth pursuing if you want to win appointment as a Primus yourself someday.That was a carrot that had my eye. Most Secundus-in-fact had more applicants for Primus-in-fact than they knew what to do with. Even a 'might be' defect like being born on Earth before the Empire arrived could be enough to make them pass you by. Also, I was a di Scimtar, which had advantages but also carried baggage. I wasn't really qualified yet - but I needed something to counter-balance the possible defect I couldn't cure, and it was never too soon to pick up that extra little something that would put me over the top when I was. I already had work in the Merlon's Eyes to my credit. Add something equivalent to the Guardian's Ears and that might be enough.Why me? I asked Scimtar.You've had ten years' experience as an investigator now, and we both know you're Fourth Order. Most of our investigators are Second Order, and weaker than average Second Order at that. They might be able to handle a nephraim, but a spraxos would squash them, and if they stumbled across a jopas it would be hopeless. If there's a basileus?You've survived two confrontations with them. There isn't another active investigator who can say that anywhere in the Empire.I'd rather not risk it a third time.So be careful and don't confront anything you're not certain of. Scimtar never had any sympathy for getting caught by your own mistakes. If there's the possibility of jopas, basileus, or something even stronger, bring it to my attention and I will use an appropriate agent.When do you need a decision? I asked Scimtar. Who are you trying to fool, love? Asto asked me. I want to talk to the kids about it, I told him.Tomorrow, I could tell Scimtar wasn't fooled either, fifteen hours from right now. He knew this was an opportunity as well as a risk. You can bet he thought he was doing both of us a favor. He broke contact without further complication.Copyright 2022 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

First Draft Excerpt from Gifts of the Mother

There is a point near Castaic where the Grapevine starts to climb steeply. No problem for my Porsche, but semis and other heavy vehicles can't climb the hill at freeway speed, the north- and south-bound lanes actually pass over and under each other a couple of times and you have to pay attention due to the speed differentials. It's one of the few areas of Southern California where there aren't sprawling subdivisions, just a few small villages like Gorman and Newhall, the road and the mountains around you. Just before the big descent into the Central Valley, there's historical Fort Tejon. RaDonna had told me there was a border outpost there on the other side; we were entering territories held by the West Elves on the parallel world but they didn't have anything like modern Interstate highways or all their attendant businesses; it was much faster to follow our roads and make the transition to the other side closer to the Margrave's City.I've been told the interchange between I-5 and California 99 used to be intuitive, but was re-worked sometime late in the last century so you have to keep left for California 99, which heads off to the right up the eastern side of the Central Valley. A little over twenty miles past that, I took California 58, which heads east over the Tehachapi Pass, but before it gets there goes through suburban Bakersfield and is the best way towards where the Margrave's City sits on the other side. About ten miles east of 99, we exited the freeway and turned northward again. The warehouse we'd seen before where the Elves cross-loaded their produce wasn't far from that point.The parking lot was every bit as full as it would have been during the week. Human semi drivers were used to working odd hours and I had no evidence that the elves had anything like a weekend. One end of the warehouse was completely ordinary; loading docks for semis on this side that would distribute the fruits and vegetables to wherever they needed to go on this side of the gate. I'd been told they were marketed as 'organic' and therefore received premium prices. But there was a twelve foot high fence completely enclosing the receiving end and perhaps a hundred feet more. On that end were gleaming aluminum arches dedicated to (I presumed) The Smith, where the somewhat smaller and more rugged trucks they used to bring their produce from the other side would back into a more enclosed set of docks and perform the correct invocation as they did so, enabling them to 'cross over' and be unloaded on this side.Beshogtowa was waiting for us. He was well over seven feet tall, broad enough to play a lineman in the NFL, and an athletic build despite his size. He was turbaned to hide to the curves of his elven ears that came to a sharp point. He had the rich chocolate skin characteristic of the West Elves, and his eyes were ever so slightly more pointed in the corners than a human's, just enough to notice if you knew what you were looking at. His pupils and irises were still round, though. Except for his ears, he could pass for human. He wore livery in a dark red and a brownish yellow - the Margrave's colors. He moved like a dancer - fluid but tightly controlled. I'd never seen him in action, but I was pretty certain he'd be a dangerous elf in a fight.Without a word, he gestured for us to follow and strode off towards a door in the side of the warehouse served by semis. We had to hustle to keep up, but didn't waste our breath asking him to slow down. He wouldn't have slowed a twitch The Elves might have decided they owed us, but that didn't mean they didn't look down on us. I caught the door before it closed behind Beshogtowa and held it for Julie before following myself. We crossed under an arch at the far side of the warehouse, near the receiving end, and performed the invocation for The Smith. It worked, and we walked through into a different world.The warehouse on this side of the gateway was smaller and dingier. It looked much older and more worn, and the building materials more primitive. More wood, less metal, and barely high enough for an elf to walk without banging their head on the rafters. There was no inventory on this side, only equipment and a few elves or mixed-bloods I presumed were mechanics. Following Beshogtowa out the door on the far side showed us a world far different than the one we'd been in a few seconds ago. The parking lot on this side was dirt, and unfenced. The aluminum arches marking the gateways were still present, but the trucks were smaller, mostly about the size of a U-Haul, with four or occasionally six wheels and an onboard 'box' rather than an articulated trailer and eighteen wheels. All of them bore marks of familiar companies from our side of the Gates - Ford, Mercedes, etcetera. Correspondingly, there were far more of them to keep the warehouse filled while semis were loaded out the other side. There was a fueling station with an above ground tank and a line four or five trucks long on each of the three pumps.Beshogtowa was quick-marching towards a limousine, a Rolls of some sort, probably a couple decades old, dusty from the dirt roads but well-maintained. The West Elves couldn't afford to not take care of their equipment. He got in and sat there rather than holding the door; I opened the door for Julie and she climbed in before following myself. Without a word, our escort started the engine and left the dirt lot.The road was dirt, albeit well-packed by the wheels of however many moving van-sized trucks. Near the warehouse it was wider, and we passed by fields of crops. California's Central Valley was the biggest breadbasket of our Earth; this side appeared to be wetter - we crossed a single lane wooden bridge over a river at least twenty feet wide, while all of the rivers south of Sacramento on our side were at best shrunken rivulets you could comfortably hop across by this time of year. We simply drove through two smaller streams in the few miles between the warehouse and the Margrave's City.I'd presumed we'd be parking at the moat and heading into the walled town on foot, but instead he stopped a little ways outside the city and pointed to a barracks-like building, one of several surrounding a flat area of dirt perhaps the size of a football field. He still hadn't said a single word to us, but we figured out that was where we were supposed to go. The building itself might have been a hundred years old, a long low single-story rectangular wooden building, white paint fading. The sun would still be up for a half hour or so, but a light-bulb burned over the door on the narrow end. I got out, gave Julie my hand to help her, and we walked towards the building.The door opened, and an elf-woman I presumed was RaDonna's great-grandmother stood there, saying, "Come in, come in," gesturing impatiently. Like Beshogtowa, she was tall - perhaps just under seven feet - with the rich chocolate or fertile earth-colored skin that seemed characteristic of the West Elves. She was thinner than Beshogtowa. Her clothes seemed to be silk dyed mostly in browns and oranges, and she wore a goodly amount of jewelry, mostly gaudy larger pieces in silver or platinum or gold with large stones set in them. At least four rings, one armband depicting sheaves of grain, a pectoral necklace based upon a fruit tree of some sort, and two earrings that did not match, one gold with a green stone, the other platinum (I think) with a pair of red stones. I wasn't certain whether they were rubies or what, but they were each several carats in size.Inside the building was a hallway with a couple doors off of it before it opened into a wider area that looked like it had once been a barracks, but now was simply an empty floor of clean, well-swept hardwood. A few dim incandescent bulbs glowed wanly. For the moment, the sun through the few windows was brighter. A single narrow bed, something like an elongated twin built for elf-sized sleepers, was placed near the far end, a woolen blanket tucked hard and drawn tight. There was no pillow. "You," she pointed at Julie, "wait here. You," she pointed at me, "come with me." Her accent was something like that of a French-speaker who rarely spoke English, soft and musical, but her attitude was no-nonsense like a doctor.Copyright 2022 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.