03/13/2024 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Airlock!

It was definitely supposed to be a gate. Whoever had put it up had taken doors from the shipping containers up on the surface, including the frames, then mounted them into the rock. There was even a doorsill. The problem was that it was an airlock. Improvised and jury-rigged, but definitely an airlock. That had implications.

Not to mention hindrances. Tobias examined the walls on either side. “I don’t see any communication jacks,” he announced. “No jacks, ports, or plug-ins. Anybody else?”

“No.” Reithner sounded bothered by that, too. If anything, she sounded even more upset than Tobias. “Not even an emergency transmitter. This is a highly unsafe installation.”

“Or they don’t have anybody they want to talk to,” Buckley pointed out. “How far inside do you think we can get with the door closed behind us before we lose signal?”

“Right away.” Tobias had extended his suit’s sensor cable, and was now waving it around. “There’s no EM radiation coming through ahead of us. Once we’re inside, we’re cut off from our bases until we can find a transmitter that’s set up for surface communications.”

“Not gonna lie, sir: that sounds like a great reason to not go inside.” Buckley had gotten more and more darkly sardonic over the last few months, but right now there was no humor in his voice. “They don’t want to talk and they probably don’t want guests. Let’s take the hint.”

The ‘Loan interest rates are up by HOW much?’ Buy My Books! post.

Or if not my books, then for Heaven’s sake buy somebody’s. People are always hustling for sales, in the independent publishing world – but this is not a great time in that particular section of the economy. If there’s an indy author that you haven’t bought from in a while, and you like what they do, they would dearly love for you to catch up on their back catalog.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a nagging post about buying my stuff. They can do their own advertising and nagging and discreet begging. …I just worry, that’s all.

Surveys away! And the pre-order store is open!

Be sure to check your inboxes. Also: the preorder store is open! It also features some deals on getting signed copies of my books, so keep that in mind. Just bear in mind that TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION VOL 2 is currently being checked by the beta readers, and won’t be going to the editor until the end of the month. That will affect shipping dates.

But we are on our way!

03/11/2024 Snippet, THE BRANDENBURG SANCTION.

Sewers!

When I said a quick heist, I meant precisely that; we were in the sewers the very next evening. They were Third Werk make, back when Bismarck was rebuilding the Germanies instead of leading them into a blast furnace, and they had a grim Teutonic solidity about them. They were also about twice as large as they needed to be, but I didn’t mind that. At least none of us would have to stoop. The smell, though? It snuck in, even past the camphor potions Francesco and I had choked down before entering the place. It’s entirely possible that we both retained our suppers simply because neither of us wished to be the first to vomit in front of the other.

Gefikst accordingly took the lead, being immune to vapors and miasmas. It also obligingly stomped into oblivion several of the giant spiders that lurked down here, no doubt eager to supplement their diet with something, ah, fresher. It is a measure of the awfulness of the place that the combined reeks of ichor and venom actually refreshed the air slightly.

Still, all bad things come to an end, and we had to endure the ordure of the public sewers for only few eternities before we found the access tunnel we were looking for. The gate was secured with an alchemical lock so cheap, I don’t know why they bothered. Because gates are supposed to have locks, I suppose. At any rate, a spare key was left in the same ‘hidden’ compartment that every bloody gate in the Third Werk had, so I didn’t have to bother with picking it myself. Or knocking it open with a kick in just the right place. The fewer disturbances we left, the happier I’d be.

GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND is now on 99 cent SUPER SPITE SALE!

As I’ve said before: when you’re trying to break into the e-book market, you should not set things up so that prospective writers have to rent the worst word processor on the market in order to submit their texts. On the other hand: my cosmic horror science fiction novel GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND will be on sale for 99 cents this week, so it’ll all work out for somebody. You gotta accentuate the positive, in this fallen world of ours.

Continue reading GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND is now on 99 cent SUPER SPITE SALE!

03/10/2024 Snippet, THE BRANDENBURG SANCTION.

Golems!

Safe in those lodgings, I contemplated my companion. Gefikst was bulky, with heavy steel plates on everything that wasn’t a joint. That, coupled with an old, faded France-over-Sea sigil on its left shoulder, suggested to me that it had fought in the War, twenty years back. Or possibly the sigil was disinformation, or just a suggestion that it liked the Bonaparte dynasty – ah, sorry: the ‘de Gaulle’ dynasty. Old habit. Still, the first and third possibilities weren’t really contradictory. After all, the French were allies with the re-forged Khazaria, these days.  For that matter, so were we.

“We don’t actually need him,” Gefikst reminded me. “That safe might have been uncrackable during the war, but it has hinges. If it has hinges, I can pop them off.”

“No doubt.” I gave it a smile. “And if I can disarm the traps in time, we could even get the treasure before it melts, or ignites. But there’ll be alarms without a doubt, and then everything gets messy. Ideally, we want to be in, out, and over the border before anyone notices we’re even there. A quick heist, even if it’s not a simple one.”

“Fair enough, Mr. Weld. How do you know that the cellars won’t be alarms, too? Surely they must have considered that people might try to dig their way in from the sewers.”

I shrugged. “If they did, they would assume the digging would be done by humans. When it comes to little jobs like these, your people don’t come cheap.”

The GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND 99 cent Spite Sale starts tomorrow! (Also: merch link.)

So buy GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND tonight, read it, and recommend it to all your friends! Be the hero to you peers that you were always meant to be. You can do it. I believe in you.

Failing that: there are fridge magnets now! Plus, stickers, prints, and even more stuff – but fridge magnets for certain. Pick a couple up, if you like. I’m curious as to how they sell.

#commissionearned

Patreon Microfiction: “Flee The Charnel Ship!”

Well, something was bothering me when I wrote “Flee The Charnel Ship!” – but I’m blessed if I remember what it was. Although that might be the DST talking. It’s hitting real hard this morning, for some reason.

Book of the Week: Monster Hunter Files (MHI).

There’s gonna be a new Monster Hunter Files story collection coming soon (MONSTER HUNTER FANTOM, written by Czech authors) , so if you haven’t read MONSTER HUNTER FILES yet, now’s the time to get your MHI short story fix. I gotta go see if it’s still on my own Kindle. If not, looks like I’ll have to download it from Baen again…

#commissionearned