Shortly after publishing Necrotic City, I returned to traditional employment to rebuild my savings. At the same time, I continued creating content for this blog and working on longer stories. It was sometimes a struggle to find time for all of it, but I still had a dream of fully supporting myself by writing, and I didn’t want to lose the progress I’d made.

Fast forward a year, and it had become apparent that the new job wasn’t much better than the last one. It was a miserable (and miserably unsafe) place to work, and I wanted out– the sooner the better. To that end, I gave Patreon a shot. I hoped that by increasing my workload for a time, I could build up enough of a following to replace the day job– or least get close enough to stage an escape.

Continue reading “Burnout Part I”

Reading the back-cover copy for Loneliness, it’s not hard to see why I was intrigued.

A collision with space debris has left a gigantic hole in Inez Stanton’s ship, nearly crippling it. Inez is a cargoist, that rare breed of adventurer who takes to deep space solo, ferrying valuable cargo for the Tenth Great and Glorious Browns Company. Now she’s in a race against her own rig’s spaceworthiness, and that might not be the worst part.

The totalitarian Free Earth government has also lost a ship on this lane, and is intent on finding out why. The Company wants their cargo delivered and can make Inez’s life very difficult if she doesn’t succeed. With the nearest waystation three days away, death in the cold vacuum of space is a distinct possibility as well.

The clock is ticking for her to deliver her cargo. But will she want to when she finds out what she’s actually carrying?

Loneliness was a tough book to review. It has all the ingredients for a great story: a tough, capable heroine faced with high stakes and the vast, unforgiving emptiness of deep space. With her rough background and dark sense of humor, Inez is a highly relatable character.

Continue reading “Review: The Loneliness of the Deep Space Cargoist”

Recently I’ve been rereading Tony Hillerman’s mysteries. These were books I really enjoyed when I was younger but I haven’t picked up since, and I was curious if the writing would hold up. After all, some books I thought were incredible when I was younger are actually pretty bad in the cold light of today.

I’m pleased to say that Hillerman’s stories aren’t of that category. In fact, given a better understanding of the amount of work that goes into spinning a good yarn, I can confidently state that they’re excellent examples of mystery writing done right.

Continue reading “Review: The Fly on the Wall”

Your local post office is in trouble.

Problem 1: Volume

The volume of mail (letters, magazines, catalogs, and especially packages) that the United States Postal Service delivers in some areas has doubled or even tripled since 2015.

Officially, First Class Mail and package volume have generally been declining. (Source: Postal Facts: A Decade of Facts & Figures.) This doesn’t account for the fact that in rural areas and places with a high cost of living, shoppers have turned to online retailers like Amazon to buy household goods that used to be purchased locally.

According to Postal Facts, the volume of First Class Mail (things with stamps, like letters and bills) has fallen almost 50% since 2013. Meanwhile, package volume has nearly doubled from 3.7 billion pieces to 7.2 billion pieces.

Continue reading “The USPS Is Drowning”

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an unexpectedly good book. His Ragged Company is a little bit western, a little bit steampunk, and infused with a kind of subtle magic that defies definition– it just is. Like the sun rising in the east or the stars turning overhead, odd people gravitate to the town of Blackpeak, Texas, and odd things happen there. In this regard, the first half of His Ragged Company is reminiscent of the writing of Ursula K Le Guin and Charles de Lint.

When weird things start happening around –and to– resident sheriff Elias Faust, he doesn’t wonder much about it. As the strange incidents and their resulting body count begin to grow, it becomes clear that there’s more threatening the small mining town than the occasional group of bandits.

Continue reading “Review: His Ragged Company”

In my last blog post, I reviewed Vladimir Nabokov’s most controversial work of fiction, Lolita. Prior to that, I reviewed Nabokov’s Pale Fire, and today I’ll be completing this three-book review series by covering Invitation to a Beheading. I recommend reading these reviews in order, because I’ll also be covering how the author’s past seeps into his writing and criticizing some of his common themes.

Content warning for mention of pedophilia.

Continue reading “Vladimir Nabokov Part Three – Invitation to a Beheading”

In my last post, I began reviewing three of the works of author Vladimir Nabokov, starting with Pale Fire. Today I’ll be reviewing the author’s best-known and most controversial work, Lolita. Grab a cup of something caffeinated and buckle up, because this is going to be a long one.

Content warning for pedophilia, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic abuse/domestic violence, gaslighting, misogyny, and racism. This review pulls no punches, and I’m not going to gloss over any of the ugliness espoused within this book.

It’s not surprising to me that despite his pedigree, writing career, and status in society, Vladimir Nabokov initially had a hard time finding a publisher willing to print this story. What does surprise me is the literary acclaim it garnered later, and the starry-eyed praise it received. Take this quote from the back cover of the copy I borrowed, for example:

“The only convincing love story of our century.” –Vanity Fair

I’d like to have a word with whoever approved using this quote to describe Nabokov’s ode to pedophilia– because, out of all the things Lolita is and isn’t, the thing it absolutely isn’t the most is a love story.

Perhaps the best lesson that can be taken from the accolades this story has received is just how deeply entrenched and socially normalized pedophilia is– and how badly that needs to change.

Continue reading “Vladimir Nabokov Part Two – Lolita”

Until recently, Vladimir Nabokov was not a name that was familiar to me. I’ve heard of Lolita and its ugly reputation, but I was surprised to find that the same author wrote numerous other novels. One of these was Pale Fire, an excerpt from which is used in K’s baseline test in Bladerunner 2049.

…and blood-black nothingness began to spin
A system of cells interlinked within
Cells interlinked within cells interlinked
Within one stem. And dreadfully distinct
Against the dark, a tall white fountain played.

–Vladimir Nabokov, “Pale Fire”

This excerpt alone is, to me, really good. It inspired me to pick up a copy of Pale Fire at my local library and read the rest.

Continue reading “Vladimir Nabokov Part One – Pale Fire”

Back in mid-August, a buddy and I took off on an adventure. The original plan was to visit a site someone had told us about up near Wiseman, Alaska. The scenery was supposed to be stunning, the gold and semi-precious stones easy to find, and –best of all– the mining claim was lapsed so we wouldn’t technically be doing anything illegal.

I’m a skeptical person and this all sounded a bit too good to be true, but I went along with it anyway. Even if it didn’t pan out– pun intended– it’d still be a great adventure, right?

A little bit of history: Wiseman is roughly 300 miles north of Fairbanks on the Dalton Highway, the so-called Haul Road that connects Alaska’s farthest north transportation hub with the North Slope. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 14 people. The nearest community is Coldfoot, population 10.

The history of these two communities has been entwined since gold was first discovered in the area in 1899. While the initial goldrush didn’t last long, mining has continued off and on in the area since. Which brings us to today, and the now-abandoned industrial-scale Nolan Mine.

Continue reading “Wiseman, Nolan Mine, And Marion Creek”

In the cold darkness of after-hours KEL Port, something isn’t right. Hooligans search for off-worlders to torment. A supervisor tries to hide the evidence of his misdeeds. And down at the loading docks, something strange and dark has found its way into the habitat.

A Shadow of a Presence follows Bradley Radco, a not-so-ordinary cargo handler,  and shows a less Baron Cargo-centric (and less human-centric) side of KEL Port. It is the third installment of the Shadow sub-series, following A Shadow Among Shadows and A Shadow of a Rumor.

In his dimly lit booth at the back of Mog’s cantina, Radco fidgeted in his seat. The obtrusive thoughts were back, and stranger than ever. He blinked. Black liquid pooled on a gangway floor, slowly expanding. Ripples marred its surface.

He blinked again and the tunnel-like gangway was gone. He was still seated in his booth in the cantina, hands gripping the table on either side of his empty meal tray. Glass shattered as two patrons at the bar started a noisily unproductive wrestling match. Shouts rose as their compatriots cheered them on.

He really should head back to his living unit. It was late, and the cantina crowd would only get rowdier and more dangerous as the night wore on. Yet something seemed to hold him fixed in his seat– something dark and dreadful and unfinished. It whispered to him with a voice like the scales of some great serpent sliding between the insulated walls of the flier port. 

It’s just the heating system, Radco told himself. KEL Port seemed colder than usual tonight, and even the usually-warm cantina felt drafty. Perhaps the distant rushing sound was heat transfer fluid pushing additional warmth through the walls of the aging habitat.

Between blinks he saw the dark liquid again; it had found the joints of the gangway. Seeping into the structure, it oozed toward the loading dock. As the dock and its adjoining warehouse were more elevated than the supply pod parking structure, the liquid had to flow uphill. Liquids weren’t supposed to do that in an environment under the affect of gravity.

Radco lifted his hands off the table, mildly surprised by the twin circles of dampness left by his palms. Over by the bar, the Mog and his bouncers were separating the combatants and ejecting everyone involved. The maddening whispering continued, just a few decibels too low to make out the words.

Continue reading “A Shadow Of A Presence”