Category: Books

I regret to inform you that Oliver Stone is doing a JFK assassination documentary.

The good news is, it’ll be on some platform I’ve never heard of. Which is probably because of the conspiracy, too. God, can we just declassify everything, already?

…Well. Actually, it’d be helpful if they did that in, say, ten years. I plan to publish PROJECT SHIVA some time in the next four years or so, and it’d be helpful to the plot if the real* reason for the JFK assassination doesn’t get confirmed by then**. Selfish of me, but there’s nobody else out there hustling my books for me, is there?

Continue reading I regret to inform you that Oliver Stone is doing a JFK assassination documentary.

I will be signing MORGAN BAROD at Curmudgeon Books in TWO WEEKS! (11/06).

November 6th, 2021, from 1 PM to 4 PM. Location:

Curmudgeon Books
Marley Station Mall 7900 Ritchie Highway
Glen Burnie, Maryland 21061

I will be signing copies of my new post-apocalyptic fantasy novel MORGAN BAROD, and will have some of my other books, too! So stop on by! Say hi! Then BUY BUY BUY!

…Sorry about that.

Working on Spreadsheets for TINSEL RAIN.

Short version: I gotta up the budget for having my books edited. As in, it is a matter of personal honor. Alas, that will absolutely push the publishing schedule for TINSEL RAIN back to the end of December 2022, so if I want to publish it earlier I’m gonna need to track down alternate funding*. That probably means another Kickstarter, in 1Q 2022.

Alternatively, I could sell a few hundred more copies of my books between now and the end of the year. That would do the trick too, hopefully. I don’t like going too often to the Kickstarter well.

Continue reading Working on Spreadsheets for TINSEL RAIN.

Book of the Week: DANSE MACABRE.

I know that Stephen King is somewhat of a jackass, these days; but his 1981 work DANSE MACABRE is an extremely useful look at the contemporary horror genre, and we are overdue for somebody to write something similar for our own time period*. It’s the old problem of separating the art from the artist. I mean, even I can be a slight jackass, sometimes.

No, really.

Moe Lane

*No, not me. I do not come even close to having The Knowledge necessary for such an endeavor. Ken Hite? This is your moment.

Some notes for next month’s GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND.

I should have written this out when I wrote the short story, honestly.

Company Name: XHum
Founded: 2095 AD
HQ location: Reagan City, Jefferson colony
Employees: 150,000
FTL Capacity: Yes
Base Capacity: Yes
Purpose: Commercial exploration and exploitation of the Dead Worlds, with an emphasis on salvage archeology

XHum was founded in 2095 by American and Hong Kong entrepreneurs. Corporate legend asserts that the founders (Claire Hedwig and Talia Sung) bribed S/CI to transport themselves, selected employees, their families, and considerable amounts of technological and industrial equipment to Jefferson Colony. The new company rapidly expanded, eventually dominating Jefferson’s orbital and system infrastructure. In 2102, XHum was the first extrasolar megacorporation to successfully pass the criteria needed to operate in the Dead Worlds. The company openly operates on six Dead Worlds, and has grey bases on a dozen more.

The megacorp’s official purpose is to find alien technology, figure out what it does, and reverse-engineer it. It does as much work as possible on-site, both because it’s more efficient and safer for Jefferson Colony that way. Unofficially, XHum smuggles alien artifacts, just like everybody else does. The revenue streams from both are roughly equal.

XHum is considered the gold standard for working conditions in the Dead Worlds. The megacorp takes the position that human beings actually are its most valuable assets, so it is careful to provide its bases and ships with ample supplies of good-quality equipment. This includes weapons: just because there’s no sapient aliens out there doesn’t mean that the Dead Worlds are safe. Plus, training new people is expensive.