Has everyone gone insane?

The past few weeks have been strange, and it's not just me. I know it isn't.

Hell, start with 2018. Cons have gone straight downhill.

WorldCon: "We must ban Jon del Arroz! He might record us doing something untoward to him! He's wearing a body camera to prevent us from taking him outside and beating him with baseball bats! We must pre-ban him! Something we did once to child molester Walter Breen, and never to his accomplice Marion Zimmer Bradley!"

We go from that to

ConCarolinas: "Oh, people just didn't feel safe about John Ringo. We had to get rid of him for safety's sake."

And now .... WTF?

Origins: "Larry Correia believes in the wrong things. We won't talk about what he believes that is BadThink, we'll just disinvite him as the Guest of Honor the same day he's announced."

Now, people were annoyed about WorldCon screwing around with Jon. WorldCon deliberately worked around their own rules to do it, but they at least tried to cover it up within the letter of the law.

People were really freaking irritated when they did it to Ringo. Ringo tried to blow it off at first, claiming that they made his life easier. Then ConCarolina worded it in such a way that it looked like Ringo was the problem.

Then, within the month, another lynch mob forms on Larry Correia and boy are his fans pissed. Origins can't even be bothered to answer Larry's questions about rescinding his invitation. Hell, they didn't even bother talking to him first -- a consideration ConCarolinas at least gave Ringo. Though Origins organizer Jack Ward seems to have more than enough time to send out consoling emails to the vendors, explaining that no one who complains was ever going to attend....

Excuse me, jackass-- er, Mr. Ward -- but did you consider that a bestselling author might -- just might, grant you -- be a bigger draw than .... whoever else you have on your list? (No, seriously, I looked at the image they had for their big names this year. I can't pull them out of a lineup.) And how exactly would you know that "they were never coming"? Because I know people who are asking for refunds over this. Better question: how do you know that any of the people slandering and libeling Larry are coming to the convention?

But, Hell, Origins didn't even try to cover up what they did to Larry. "Oh, he indulges in WrongThink, we're kicking him out."

Are ... you ... fucking ... kidding me? What is the point of this? "Hi, I'm going to slit my own wrists by uninviting a big name bestselling author from my flailing convention, and double down by trying to besmirch his good name behind the scenes, opening myself up to all sorts of lawsuits, BUT I'VE FLOWN THE FLAG FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO LIKE ME."

There's stupid and then there's suicidal. Hence "Go woke, go broke."  Can't you just wait to see what Origins attendance is going to be next year?

You know, way back when, I tried to keep my politics low key. I generally don't like opining in public. The closest I ever wanted to come with Sad Puppies Bite Back, and that was so detached from politics, I'm happy it even made contact with reality from time to time.

Last year was insane. Last year incurred threats, rumors, lies, and BS from people who would have been on "my side" the year before.

This year, we have this BS.

 I think I'm just about done with playing nice.

Here, have the book that pissed off everyone because it was nominated in the first annual Dragon Awards.

And let's see if we can get one of its sequels a follow up nomination in horror, for Good to the Last Drop.

The Dragons are coming.

Here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

A quick postscript to the Ringoing of Correia

The other day, I discussed how Larry, like John Ringo, had been disinvited from a convention because of the hate mobs of the internet.

I then talked about being a guest at DragonCon, and idly wondered if anyone was going to try the lynch mob BS on me, and see if they could get me kicked off of the DragonCon guest list.

After some due consideration, I realize that, of the people at DragonCon this year who might have pissed them off the most (which, granted, is a sliding scale that), I might actually be in the top five. There's Michael Z Williamson, Ringo, and Richard Paolinelli and I were fairly big Sad Puppies supporters, back in the day (Being 3, maybe 4). But hey, you back it once, you're on the enemies list.

I guess I should tell DragonCon about this before the deluge starts. It's not that I really think that it's likely. Hell, who am I compared to bestselling authors?

....Though on the other hand, if the SJW lynch mob were smart, they'd start small, and see if they could come after a smaller name author.

But for those suckers who would want to try tackling a DragonCon guest (and you know they're out there)...

[dusts off meme]

While we're on the topic, please recall to vote in the Dragon Awards.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Correia was Ringoed

Way back when, the Democrats destroyed the career of Robert Bork, a man who was Harvard Law, and was a nominee for the Supreme Court. The latter was worth destroying him over. They dug up every ounce of dirt they could find, and when they couldn't find, they created.

"To Bork" someone became a political verb.

Once again, SF fandom is trying to make another name into a verb: To Ringo someone -- to get a conservative uninvited from conventions they were already invited guests at.

Thanks to ConCarolinas caving into the SJW lynch mob of Facebook (or maybe they just gave them something to hang their hat on, who knows?) when they uninvited John Ringo, the SJWs think they can do the same thing to Larry Correia.

This time, the convention is Origins Game Fair.

Apparently, this was posted before Larry was contacted -- not to ask him about what's real and what's not, but just to tell him of their decision.

Their announcement?

Heh heh heh. No, "we don't want controversy."  In which case, Ward is in for a really crappy couple of weeks. Maybe months.

Yes, they don't want discourse. God forbid anyone there think!

And by the way, you meant "ReSCIND" Mr, Ward....

So, how do you want to read this?

Is this "OMG, we have a raving pack of fringe leftist psychopaths telling us that Larry Correia is a homophobic / racist / Nazi / wife abuser" BS that we've seen since Sad Puppies first began?  Or is this "Our true believers have informed us that he is a thought criminal / conservative and we should ban him?"

And, let's break this down a little....

• What are these "personal views," Ward? [I'm sorry, did I just presume your gender?]
• Is this the Straw Larry so hated by the "TruFen"? 
• Did you actually ask Larry about ... anything? No, you didn't.
• Hope you enjoy a weekend of processing refund requests.

To quote Ringo: Get woke, go broke.

Though to be honest, I was sort of surprised this even worked once, on Ringo. He's a bestselling author. He doesn't need the PR by going to cons. He goes to have fun and hang out. Larry too is also at the level where con appearances can only help the con, not himself.

But hey, it makes the SJWs feel good. It makes them think that they're getting something done. I suppose that pointing out to people that this will only force Larry to have more free time is a waste of time.

Now, I'm not going to suggest sending an email to GoDaddy about how the originsgamefair.com site is being used by John Ward to defame Larry Correia. 

....Though you can email at abuse@godaddy.com, and send something like, oh, I don't know....

Dear GoDaddy Abuse,

I wanted to write to let you all know that the individual known as "John Ward" who is listed as the sole contact for the domain "originsgamefair.com" is using his domain to target and harass a "person of color" named of Larry Correia (who's Portuguese). He is using the email associated with the site to post on Facebook and are attempting to damage his livelihood and reputation with baseless attacks he does not source, and refuses to elaborate on the removal of Larry as a guest at an event. As "John Ward" is the sole contact for the account, the use of "originsgamefair.com" is clearly an arm of the attacks on Mr. Correia. Larry. I do not know what you can do to stop this abuse but I am hoping there is something.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

XXXX

I mean, that would be strange, right?

And after all, would it do any good to contact Mr. John Ward at the Game Manufacturers Association, 240 North Fifth Street, Columbus, OH 43215, Company Phone: 614-255-4500, extension 102?

Maybe it would.

I mean, it's not like they violated their own code of conduct of anything ... okay, they did, but these are SJWs here! It's not like they have to play by their own rules. Their rules are for little people. Like you. 

I'm sure that's not something you'd want to tell them, is it?

Hell, you know how deranged this is? This punched a hole in reality, and we apparently either had Twitter interference from an alternate dimension, or Cat Rambo had something warp her brain enough so that she made a sane statement on social media.

So that's bizarre. 

And, yes, Cat has it right. Larry was announced as the GUEST OF HONOR.

Even better, he was announced as the GOH the exact same day they yanked him. It happened within hours.

I'd love to see what this is going to do to their attendance in the next two years.

The question I have? Who's next?

Huh... You know, I'm going to be an attending professional at DragonCon this year. (Yes, really.) I look forward to seeing what bullshit awaits us there, too.

Speaking of which....

The Dragons are coming.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

The Season Wrap-up, Spring 2018

It's been a while since I've even reviewed a TV show, so I'll just do a quick wrap up of the various and sundry shows I have on the radar.

Arrow: I hate this season so much. They're trying to expound and expand the backgrounds of the boring sidekicks as they split off from the main group. Guess what? They're still boring. And while I like the actor playing the villain of the year, Diaz, he is a piss poor replacement for the season's main villain, Cayden James, played by the always entertaining Michael Emerson... who, really, was just playing an evil version of his character from Person of Interest

I'll give the next season three episodes before I stop bothering entirely. But I think the series is finished and played out. Even their fight scenes are being phased out.

Don't even get me started on the Flash, or the Idiots of Tomorrow. On Flash, some episodes are more about soap opera than comic book goodness. On Idiots, it's rewriting history with a political bent while lobotomizing characters who were largely smarter when they first showed up.

Arrow 4 /10, and dropping.

Blue Bloods-- Awesome show.  Imagine "ripped from the headlines" only the events are treated far more sane than they were in real life. Granted, they already know the end of the story, since events that took weeks to uncover in real life are quickly revealed over the course of a week in story time. There is, at most, one episode that is "notes from above" per season, where the episode is stupid and political -- every episode like that is ignored the very next week, even when some of the same characters are involved. Also, losing one cast member (and killing the character off on the show) surprisingly added a few layers to an already deep show. 9/10

Bull -- An okay series with a few laughs every so often. 6/10.

Criminal Minds: Still holding up. SO much better than last year. 7/10

Deception-- A surprisingly good new series. Someone wants to take Now You See Me and The Mentalist, then blended it together with Castle for a strangely entertaining show. 9/10

Elementary -- 5/10. It's an average series, but really just filler between seasons of Sherlock ... or between playbacks of the DVDs.

Hawaii 5-0 -- Eh. Take it or leave it. The new kids are entertaining, but they've made Danno and McGarrett irrelevant, even though they're supposed to be the stars of the show. 5/10

Instinct -- It's already better than the James Patterson novel from which it came (Murder Games). Interestingly enough, even though they kept our hero as gay, with a "husband," the TV show is playing down his homosexuality even more than the book. It's barely there, and isn't obnoxious... as opposed to the book, where they built in a subplot that didn't even connect to the rest of the novel. 7/10

iZombie - Usually a show with brains, and generally 8/10. Though this season, the brains are getting dumber, the conflicts are more convoluted, and they may have one more season left in them before the quality really starts to suffer. 7/10.

Lethal Weapon - Brilliant show that sometimes dwells too much on Murtaugh home life. 8/10, mostly

MacGyver -- this show has exactly one reason to watch: Murdock. Otherwise, you can skip it. They had a chance to introduce MacGyver's father, and they DIDN'T GET RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON.  Such a waste. They even had the original actor for Murdock show up on the show .... and promptly wasted him after about 5 minutes on screen. Even when they have the right idea, they can't execute it properly. 4/10, with a 6 for when their pet psycho shows up.

The Brave -- military Mission Impossible.... Sigh. And it's cancelled. While their lesser, half-breed cousin on CBS, SEAL Team, is still going. Argh.  8/10, RIP

The Night Shift -- Remember when ER had some fun, awesome, insane moments early on in the series run? So did they. And they made it more batshit. Also cancelled. Sigh. 9/10, RIP

Lucifer -- After an okay but weaker second season, this show has made a major comeback. Probably because they stopped trying funny games with stupid theology tricks. So, of course the show has been cancelled. 8/10, RIP

Midnight, Texas -- A fun little show that's making a comeback this summer. Read the Charlaine Harris novels, then the seasons. Enjoy. 8/10.

NCIS -- Holding steady. They've adapted well to losing cast members. Let's see if they can replace Abby 7/10

NCIS LA -- It's good as long as they don't try to understand things outside of their field. They're better at interpersonal interactions than they are with how things work. 7/10

New Orleans -- They're trying too hard with a conspiracy theory plotline that had better shape up real flipping fast.  6/10

Ransom -- While I have not reviewed this show, it's intelligent, quick, and fast moving without requiring shoot 'em outs. 9/10.

Scorpion -- A light, fun little show. 7/10.

SWAT -- It could be worse. Take it or leave it. 5/10.

The Blacklist -- A fun, evil little show.  8/10

The Orville -- better than Star Trek Discovery.  9/10 when it's on the ball, 5/10 when it's not (an episode or two sucked)

Dragon (Award) Fire

The Planetary Awards are over (I lost).

 CLFA BOTY is over, and I may not have even gotten around to mentioning it this time.

The only thing left to do is go into the Dragons.

The Dragon Awards

Please remember, everything eligible for nomination is first published between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. You can the click the above photo in order to start voting.

Technically, I've got a single book that is eligible: Good to the Last Drop, book 4 of Love at First Bite....

This, of course, will be a problem with having Silver Empire rerelease Love at First Bite: Good to the Last Drop will not be available for purchase until the votes are already in.

We'll see what happens. Anyone who has read the book and thinks it deserves another Dragon nomination, feel free. Fire for effect.

If you have not yet read Good to the Last Drop .... sorry about that.

If you want my thoughts on the Dragons, I've only got a few items here and there. I'm in so many anthologies, and releasing so many novels, my reading speed this year has been severely compromised.

Last year, I asked everyone to please leave suggestions in the comments. Trust me, I need the reminders.

Best Science Fiction Novel

Karl Gallagher: Torchship Captain.  Yes, really. I haven't enjoyed a book series so much since David Weber's earliest Honor Harrington. I reviewed that one here. I enjoyed this so much that I think that if David Weber needs some help getting Honor Harrington going, this should be it.

Robert Kroese: Dream of the Iron Dragon -- Kroese puts out good stuff. Vikings in space. This is actually Jon del Arroz's pick for his Happy Frogs selection.

.... Yeah, I know, I still don't have more than that. I prefer to have several entries. At least five. I guess I should at the very least read Andy Weir's Artemis. It's been on my pile for a while now. Hopefully I'll get to it before heck freezes over.

To my knowledge, Brian Niemeier doesn't want another dragon award, but I'll have to ask him.

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

Argh. No Butcher. No Ringo (that I know of). No Carrie Vaughn. No Kim Harrison (... I think. I may be wrong there). I haven't read the sequel to Terry Goodkind's The Nest. Can't suggest Monster Hunter Files. That's it.

There is War Demons, by Russell Newquist, my editor and publisher over at Silver Empire books... he sent me the ARC, then my Kindle died.  Take a look, tell me what YOU think.

Jon's slate has Lindsay Buroker for Dragon Storm ... whoever that is.

Other than that ... Good to the Last Drop if you want it for fantasy instead of horror? But it's been in horror before. So, right now, I'm going to back Russell at the moment.

Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel

 
The Awful Truth About Forgetting (Rachel Griffin, book #4).... seriously, can we get Jagi an award for this series already? I reviewed it here, but really people, just do it already.

This is one category that I don't feel bad about only having one nominee.

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

I want to say David Weber. But I suspect that this might sooner go to Timothy Zahn for the Honorverse prequel novels. Just a guess. Again, I can't recall track when their books came out last year.

I know Jon has got a space opera, The Star Entwined, ... but he's reported not wanting the award now that he's gotten the CLFA BOTY award. So, check that off the list.

Now, since they removed best Apocalypse, you may also which to consider Daniel Humphrey's A Place Called Hope. Why? Because book 1 received the Dragon Award nomination last year, and Dan mentioned online that book 2 is actually MilSF. So that's probably a good bet.

Also, Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy -- A Fiery Sunset. It's on my pile ... along with the other books they've put out. My backlog will soon smother me.

Best Alternate History Novel

 
Still no sequel to Another Girl Another Planet. Other than that...

Hans Schantz,  A Rambling Wreck. I've read it. It was awesome ... and damn it, I need to review it before heck freezes over. It's a book two, so you've been warned. Jon's Happy Frogs concurs.

Best Media Tie-In Novel

The category probably opened up as a good way to avoid having a flood of Star Wars or Star Trek books flood a category.

What I would like to happen is to nominate Timothy Zahn's Thrawn book of last year ... but that came out too early for this year.

Don't worry, there's a sequel!

.... Except that Thrawn: Alliances is coming out in July.

Argh.

Well, at least it's eligible for NEXT year's Dragon Award.

But now that we have a Media Tie-in category, can we have a best comic book movie now? That way it's not a Marvel Vs DC knock down drag out every year?

There is only one problem: This category replaced best Apocalypse. Huh. I wonder if everyone hit peak Distopia fatigue all at the same time.

And yes, you'll notice that, no, I don't actually have a nominee for this one. I have nothing. If you have something, comment below.

Jon del Arroz and Happy Frogs suggests Deadlands: Boneyard .... who or what, I don't know. Moving right along...

Best Horror Novel

And we're back to this.  Sorry, but the only horror I go near is what I write.

So, there's Good to the Last Drop. Again. Yes, sorry about that.

Now, I could argue that Good to the Last Drop is the culmination of the previous three novels, two of which were nominated for Dragon Awards. I've got demons, Vatican Ninjas, vampire hordes, shapeshifters, and anti-Vampire "civilians" (a collection of police, street gangs, and the Mafia, because welcome to New York, you bloodsucking bastards).

Personally, this might be more Urban Fantasy than horror, but the last two were in horror, so I guess no one at the Dragon Award committee objects.

Happy Frogs suggests Russell for this. For conflict resolution, I have some thoughts below.

Best Comic Book  / Best Graphic Novel

 
Happy Frogs wants Timothy Lim -- My Hero MAGAdemia #1. Because Jon.

TV Series, TV or Internet

iZombie ... Is okay this season, which is what would win if they got it. I'm not sure they do. While I like most of what's going on, there's some stupid in the plot that's gotta go.

Midnight Texas was fun, and Charlaine Harris has a solid fan base. Truthfully, I'd vote for this.

Lucifer is interesting this season. Not sure if it's good enough for the Dragons though.

Arrow ... not this year. I'm getting fed up with it.

The Punisher .... no.

The Defenders ... No

The Orville. Probably. Also the Happy Frogs pick.

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Justice League?  No

The Last Jedi: Hell no.

Thor: Ragnarok ... maybe.

Spider-Man: Homecoming ...

Bright ...? No. It was okay, but I wasn't anywhere near as blown away as everyone else. Happy Frogs wants this to win. I rate it a solid meh.

It will probably go to Black Panther or Thor 3.

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game

This is a problem when you have so many games doing loot boxes that I have urges to just tell all of the games to go screw themselves.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War
X-Com 2: War of the Chosen
Cuphead
Super Mario Odyssey .

There are, of course, Persona and Yakuza games that came out this year.... just don't ask me when. and Nier: Automata I've heard great things about, but it came out in January or February, and thus aren't eligible.

You know what? This might come down to Cuphead or Super Mario Odyssey.

Happy Frogs wants the "Doki Doki Literature Club"... whatever the heck that is.

Best SFF Mobile Game

Middle Earth: Shadow of War:

Yes, I like the mobile game. Move along.

Happy frogs will go along with it.

Best Board /Miniatures / Card / Role-Playing Game

Star Wars: Destiny - Fantasy Flight Games  (stolen from Happy Frogs)

Alternate Nominees

Now, of course, there are alternate options. Brian Niemeier went from Horror to SF. I, Daniel or Russell could be in any of several categories. So could Jagi.

So let me run down the list of awesome and I'll give you some suggestions in case you have definite nominees for certain categories, but not others.

Good to the Last Drop .... Fantasy / Paranormal. Military SFF (I have Vatican Ninjas), Horror (because Vampires) ... and I suppose YA. I had written for that reading level originally.

Karl Gallagher: Torchship Captain.  Best SF, MilSFF,

Robert Kroese: Dream of the Iron Dragon -- Best SF, Best MilSFF

War Demons, by Russell Newquist, -- fantasy / paranormal; MilSFF (war veteran comes home with a magic sword); horror;

The Awful Truth About Forgetting (Rachel Griffin, book #4).... YA, fantasy / paranormal.

Daniel Humphrey's A Place Called Hope.... MilSFF, Horror, Fantasy (it has zombies)

Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy -- A Fiery Sunset. Best MilSF, Best SF,

Hans Schantz,  A Rambling Wreck: Best Alternate History, or best SF.

Right now, that's all I have. Suggestion box is open. Please submit.

Anyway, the Dragons are coming. Knock yourself out. 

The Dragon Award nominated Honor at Stake is Undead Once More

You'd think with all my experience on Twitter, I'd have more pithy titles.

Anyway, yes, Honor at Stake is back. The Award nominated book is possibly the best thing I've ever done. If you don't believe me, look at the sixty-seven customer reviews.  That's right, sixty-seven. Screw you, Goodreads.

This is, of course, just the beginning as we build up to the release of Good to the Last Drop in August, to (hopefully) dovetail with the Dragon Award nomination.

I figure that after book one got nominated, and book three got nominated, book four is a shoe-in. But here's hoping. (You can make that a reality by clicking here and filling out the nominations ballot).

If you're new here and you're wondering "What the heck is he boasting about?" ...

The first thing I should tell you is that I'm not boasting.

• I've got old school Dracula vampire rules meets Thomistic Philosophy and microbiology.
• I've got the psychology of combat, good versus evil, moral grey areas and a little bit of Original Sin just for kicks.
• Nothing sparkles unless it's on fire.
• Flame throwers
• Holy water squirt guns
• Exploding stakes
• Bouncing Betties for vampires
• Death by underwire mesh
• Decapitation by rosary
• Communion wafers as suicide pills
• Vatican ninja commando units.

We won't go into the street gangs, minions, the mafia, cops versus vampires, or when the FBI and the CDC get involved.

And that's just the first half of the first book.

I won't even mention what happens in the second half.

The official write-up.

A 2016 Dragon Award Nominee for Best Horror Novel!
One is a heartless, blood thirsty killer. The other is a vampire.

College freshman, Amanda Colt knows few people and wants to know fewer still. She enjoys fencing and prefers facing a challenge every once in a while. She is beautiful, smart, and possibly the most interesting person on campus...and most people stop after the first adjective.

Then she finds Marco Catalano in her fencing class. He is tall, attractive, and very intense. With a mind like a computer and manners of a medieval knight, he scares most people. Except Amanda.They both have secrets, for they are both monsters.

As they draw closer, they must find the line between how much they can trust each other, and how much they can care for each other. Each carries a secret that can destroy the other. They must come to grips with their personal drama soon, because a darkness is rising. Bodies are turning up all over New York, and an army of vampires is closing in on all sides.

They have only one hope ... each other.

And of course, it gets better. Coming in June, Demons are Forever. Formerly called Murphy's Law of Vampires.

Why the name change? Because it fit better on the cover, fit better with book three (Live and Let Bite), and because it's cooler.

The only reason that this wasn't nominated for a Dragon Award was that I asked everyone to fire for effect on book three, Live and Let Bite (which will come back in July)

This is going to be awesome, and we are going to kick so much ass this isn't even funny.

After you buy Honor at Stake ($.99 for the rest of today, Tuesday, May 8) to see the awesome rewrites and edits made to it, as you wait for it to download, vote for Good to the Last Drop in the Dragon Awards.

This will be epic.

On the Death of Barnes and Noble (And TradPub)

The NY Times have decided that Barnes and Noble is in dire straights, and need to be saved. Obviously, the way to do that is to blame Amazon and their terrible strongarm tactics, lowballing prices, making them cheaper and easier for people to buy and read books....

The NY Times is, of course, full of crap, as usual.

Look, fellas, let's break this down nice and easy-like, okay?

Traditional Publishing is kept afloat by Barnes and Noble, who are the only brick and mortar store really left in the business.

Barnes and Noble is on the rocks because TradPub is making pricing demands that the market will not sustain. Hardcovers used to be under $25 within the last twenty years. Now they're easily over and above that, some reaching $30 and above. We won't even go into the Kindle prices where the e-book is more expensive than the hardcover (see the early release of John Scalzi's Collapsing Empire).

Then you go to Amazon, and discover $15 hardcovers. Because Amazon wants to sell books. Shocking, isn't it?

Barnes and Noble could easily correct this by playing hardball with TradPub, or by being more open to indie authors and small press publishers -- Silver Empire or Superversive come to mind. But the boat has sailed on both of these. B&N has been so crappy to indie authors that they'd have to issue a personal invite to have me come play with them.

As for TradPub ... they could easily fix all of their problems. But these seem more bound to tradition than the Catholic church or the military put together. I could tell you four things that would save TradPub this minute.

1) MOVE OUT OF NEW YORK.
Okay, at least Manhattan

As much as I love my city, we have the highest taxes of anywhere else on the planet... okay, California seems dead set on beating our record, but Manhattan has killer property taxes, murderous property rates, and the cost of existing adds more to overhead than I want to contemplate.  If they moved almost anywhere else in the country, they could slash costs and thus slash prices.

2) CHANGE THE TECHNOLOGY
Move into the 21st century

This goes hand in hand with leaving Manhattan. Do you know why TradPub was in New York City? Because they needed industrial presses to make the books. To make THAT profitable, they needed to print thousands upon thousands of books, because the larger the order, the lower the price is per unit. (If I order a copy of my novel, it's $25. If I order 20,000, it's $1 per copy, around those lines).

Leave New York City, get a publish on demand printer, and make the books in house.

Alternately, TradPub, in conjunction with Barnes and Noble, puts a POD printer in every store, making the brick and mortar shop a place where B&N will make the novel for you in the store while you wait. This takes a larger burden off of the publisher, and puts it on Barnes and Noble, but it's still cheaper than a lot of the crap they have to go through

3) NO ADVANCES. ROYALTIES ONLY
(And stop taking the lion's share)

Look, a lot of publishers take a bath on advances. Don't even ask how many are worth the cost of the advance. Seriously, don't. There was even a Guardian article that discussed that the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as well as Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was sued for part of the advance to come back. And these were both books that were made into films. So think about that a moment. Even big books that have a lot of press behind them don't necessarily make back the money paid out in the advance.

It really makes you look hard at that Scalzi payout from a few years ago, doesn't it?

If you look at most authors when they discuss royalty payments, you quickly realize that TradPub pays out one or two dollars for every copy of a novel sold. I think it's why James Patterson has become an industry -- if he's making a dollar for every book sold, it pays to have thousands of copies of a new book out every month.

The only people I know of who care about royalty payouts for their authors is Baen. They even talk with Amazon about raising e-book prices (only to $7, on the outside) in order to get a cut they can pay their authors.

So hey, TradPub, stop shilling out the big bucks for an investment you'll never make money on, and stop pillaging the royalties, and maybe you'll at least break even, maybe keep your head above water. What do you say?


4) NO AGENDAS
Work with us, people

Sigh. Another good reason to leave New York City is to escape the prejudices of the city. Let's face it, the disdain for "flyover country" you see in Manhattan isn't good for selling books anywhere between the coasts of America. And moving into ... anywhere between California and New York would screen out a lot of the employees who couldn't dare think about living anywhere else. Heck, even a move to Long Island would be better. Queens. Staten Island. Pick something. (Trust me, everything that Manhattan thinks about "flyover country," they think about the "outer boroughs.")

In short: stop with political agendas. Or, heck, be open to other lines of political thought. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a right-winger to get into TradPub. Nick Cole told us that story on my radio show, and he wasn't even that big into politics. Two of the bigger right-leaning authors I can think of started in small press (Tom Clancy, Annapolis University Press) and self publishing (Vince Flynn), or politically neutral (Brad Thor didn't start by being overly political. His first villains were the Swiss). Jason Matthews is politically neutral, mostly because he dislikes politicians in general.

Last time I checked, Baen works with everyone, and they're doing fine. You want the commie Eric Flint? The ... I don't even know what Michael Z Williamson is. Let's call him Libertarian. Ringo and Zahn, who are at least right-ish. I don't even know what David Drake is. Left winger Ryk Spoor.



These are things I've come with off the top of my head. At random. In no particular order. I'm sure this list is only a fraction of what Barnes and Noble and TradPub could do. But the ship is sinking, and there aren't enough coffee shops in the world to stuff into their stores to make Barnes and Noble ultimately profitable in the long run. I used to have four Barnes and Noble within easy drive of my home. I now have two.

TradPub needs to shape up, and thus save Barnes and Noble. Because the two of them are in a symbiotic relationship, and when one dies, the other will either have to adapt overnight, or die right alongside the first... and what we've seen of both of them shows that they won't.

TradPub will not leave Manhattan because they've become a bunch of elitists who wouldn't move to Queens, to heck with Ohio.

TradPub won't change the technology because that would require doing Something Different. The horror.

Much the same with advances and royalties. Like the politicians they vote for, they think that pumping out crap and slapping a higher price on it will somehow result in the same number of people buying the higher price, and thus result in higher revenue. Nope. Higher prices means that we're not going to buy the book, Ciao.

And TradPub going politically neutral? BWHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA

No.

And since TradPub won't change, Barnes and Nobles can't change. Everything TradPub does to jack up their prices only causes Barnes and Nobles to suffer. When the host dies, so does the symbiote.


Support indie books, buy a set of the Pius Trilogy today. It's something to read by the firelight of watching TradPub burn.

Let Europe Burn: The Murder of Alfie Evans

The more I look at Europe, the more I think it would look pretty whilst on fire.

For the past twenty years, I've watched Europe fall apart. I saw the EU throw their entire Christian history under the bus in the vain hope of some bright sparkling secularist future. I've seen Europe disrespect their elders to death. I've seen them disrespect the dead by either turning them to fertilizer or just keeping them on ice while the family went on vacation. I've watched Muslims drive Jews out of Europe and have their own pogrom of gays.

I figured that there was always some measure of hope for them. It's not like they were going to murder people, right? There were no boxcars.

Then there's Alfie Evans.

At the time of this post (4/25/18, 9:30AM Eastern) Alfie is only 23 months old. He entered the hospital in December 2016 due to a chest infection that caused chronic seizures, eventually leaving him reliant on a ventilator. The UK doctors can't be bothered to give him a real diagnosis, but his doctors say he suffers from a rare and incurable degenerative neurological condition.

The UK doctors just gave up on him. They wanted to pull his feeding tube and pull the plug on his life support.

Meanwhile, Italy and the Vatican have offered to continue his treatment and try to save him. They offered to pay for the costs. They offered to grant the family citizenship. They offered everything you'd think that a caring parent would offer, only this time it was to a total stranger.

The UK courts said that Alfie couldn't be taken out of the country. It was in the child's best interest that he simply die. At least one decision said that Alfie couldn't even be allowed to go home with his parents, because the parents were a flight risk, and might DARE to do something as simple and as straightforward as GETTING THEIR SON TREATMENT SO HE CAN LIVE.

But nope, the UK has gone full statist. Any rights the little people have are granted to them by the state, and can be taken away at any time, for any whim.

As of the writing of this post, Alfie has been taken off of life support, but he's a stubborn child, and is breathing on his own. He will not go quietly. So, the UK doctors have, in their wisdom, decreed that he will not be fed, nor given anything to drink, and will starve him to death.

I'm afraid that if Alfie lives too much longer on his own, without support from the UK doctors, they will simply go in and smother him with a pillow. No, this is not hyperbole on my part. I expect them to straight out murder him if he doesn't die quickly enough on his own.

Meanwhile, the Leftist douchebags in America, who constantly point to Britain's National Health Service with praise, declaring it THE model for nationalized health care, are dead silent. After all, why should they say anything? They're hoping that little Alfie will die quietly, the news story will slip away, and everyone will forget he even existed.

Don't worry, Lefties, Alfie has already gone into my current book project. You'll be seeing him again.

I'm certain that someone out there will consider this an anomaly, that it's not important for the future. That this isn't worrisome at all.

Please keep in mind the real world incident of the "children's summer camp" for the disabled and the handicapped, the retarded / autistic / et al. Over time, they would be euthanized, their bodies cremated, and there would be a letter sent back to their parents, explaining that their child had contracted a form of meningitis, and the body had to be burned for health reasons. The letters of condolences would be staggered, so that it didn't look too suspicious. Eventually, a Cardinal became suspicious because too many families had this happen to them. Him and his secretary looked into this summer camp, and they didn't come back. They had disappeared both of them.

If you're thinking that this story is "obviously about Nazis," you'd be wrong. This did take place in Germany, but not under Hitler. No, this took place in the 1920s, during the Weimar Republic, about a decade before Hitler came to power. It was under Weimar's eugenics program. For the good of the state, the children were put down, and anyone who looked too closely were treated like criminals.

For the good of the state, Alfie Evans was sentenced to die, and his parents treated like criminals.

But this is the world that Europeans created. This is the world that they've voted to build. It is a world where the state owns them, and they live and die depending on what the state ALLOWS them to have. Which is funny, England used to be part of the "free world." Now they're barring law abiding citizens from leaving for the continent, lest their precious nationalized, single-payer health program be shown up for the freak show that it is.

They voted to give their rights away, and now, they're reaping the consequences.

No, I do not see Europe learning from this. I don't see them changing their ways. I see the laws that murder Alfie Evans be codified and locked into place. Then I see the lawmakers double down on these laws, making it illegal for parents in Alfie's position to even sue the doctors or NHS -- perhaps just skip straight to denying all medical services to anyone who doesn't recover from a condition X-serious in Y-weeks.

This is the world that they built. Barring a miracle, it will not change. While I believe in miracles, I'm not certain about the efficacy of a miracle like this if no one would accept it.

This is what the people of Europe wanted. It will eventually kill them. By the time they figure it out, it'll be too late.


(UPDATED 10:36 AM, EASTERN, 4/25/18: Alfie's doctors, after trying to starve him to death for nearly 28 hours, have deigned to resume feeding him. I would congratulate these butchers on doing something as strange and as outlandish as FEEDING A HUNGRY CHILD, but Alfie's father had talked to the press about how "they wouldn't do this to an animal." I admit that this child, who isn't even two years old yet, has lasted so long without life support, food and water. Alfie may yet live out of pure stubbornness. Assuming the UK doctor's don't murder him in his sleep, when no one is watching.)

The Planetary Awards are coming to a close

The Planetary Awards

Please remember that this one is still here, and all votes must be in by the end of April

This one is a book blogger's award. They have two categories: short and long. Click on this link for the instructions on how to vote from your blog onto their award.

But yeah, if you have a blog and write about books, knock yourselves out.

....  I should probably vote for this as well. Oops.


It's going to be interesting. I don't know an awful lot about the award. And, since the book was pulled for rerelease by Silver Empire, campaigning would be odd. I don't think my publisher would appreciate me handing out ARCs of the book before he gets to edit a new version.

Oh, and while I think about it, I'm also up against Nick Cole and Robert Kroese. So, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

So, the Planetary Awards are in for the best SFF stories of 2017.  Anyone who has a blog, podcast, or YouTube account can vote. 

Which is most of the people I know, come to think of it.

The people involved are....

Short Stories / Novellas

• “Acadie” by Dave Hutchinson
• “The Bitten Body” by AC Spahn
• “Death on the Moon” by Spencer Hart, found in Cirsova issue #6
• “The First American” by Schuyler Hernstrom, found in Cirsova issue #5
• “The Pilot” by Andrew Mayne, found in Predator: If It Bleeds
• “Trouble in an Hourglass” by Jody Lynn Nye, found in Straight Outta Tombstone

My first thought is Jody, easily. But Cirsova has got a lot of people backing them. So start flipping coins.

Novels

• “Age of Assassins” by RJ Barker
• “Good to the Last Drop” by Declan Finn
• “The Guns Above” by Robyn Bennis
• “Kings of the Wyld” by Nicholas Eames
• “Legionnaire” by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole
• “Out of the Soylent Planet” by Robert Kroese
• “The Rogue Prince” by Lindsay Buroker

Do I have to actually say that I'd like to vote for myself and Good to the Last Drop? I think "Planetary Award Winner" looks just as nice as "Dragon Award Nominated series."

Not that I think I have a hope in heck. Between Cole and Anspach on one end, and Kroese on the other, I'm relatively cooked. In fact, if I'm actually not allowed to vote for myself, Robert Kroese is my bet. Out of the Soylent Planet is the third book in the Rex Nihilo series, so yeah, I'll be happy if it wins.

Of course, I hear about the nomination the day after the novel is pulled from shelves to prep for the Silver Empire rerelease. That's just timing. But hey, it's something to put on the new cover.

How to vote:

If you've already nominated something, you don’t need to cast a vote. It's fairly obvious who you're voting for. You can change your vote in the comments section on their webpage.

However, if you haven't nominated anything, just vote on your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel. Then, leave a comment on their page so they know about the vote. You get one vote for best short story and one for best novel, but you don’t have to use both votes if you’re only interested in one category.

The voting deadline is April 30th, 11:59PM US Pacific time.

If you have a book blog, time to vote. If you don't have a book blog ... now might be the time to start one.

#WorldBookDay Deal and New Release: Pius History

So, Pius History is back, completing the Pius series.

Damn, I love that cover.

Anyway, the description is ... really in the title. Pius History: The Facts Behind the Pius Trilogy

Ever wonder about what was fact or fiction in your favorite thriller? How much was made up or how much was just to push the story along? Well, wonder no longer as Declan Finn pulls back the curtain on his epic trilogy to show you his meticulous, painstaking research. Did his fictional pope grow up in a world as rough as described? Are the bad guys really that motivated to end the church? Are some of the weapons real? Did Pius XII really take a side for or against the Nazis? This book has the answers you're looking for.
For the record, this doesn't just discuss World War II. Because the novels didn't cover just World War II. This covers the Cold War, Poland, religious persecution, and the Sudan.

And while we're here, A Pius Man is $.99 for a few days.