My latest novel is out today! Punk's Force, which I co-wrote with retired Naval aviator Ward Carroll, is a military thriller published by the U.S. Naval Institute. www.amazon.com/Punks-Force-...

"Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it." - Horace

Started reading this today. Partly for my current WIP, partly for a future novel, and partly because of what's going on right now.

700 days of learning Spanish on Duolingo! Yo necesito un cafe.

I just saw all three covers for my forthcoming military SF trilogy and I'm excited!

This bears repeating: I will never again question the plausibility of comical, over-the-top villains in stories or stupid characters in horror movies again. The so-called 'idiot plot' is no longer a trope--it's real life.

I just finished writing the third book of this LitRPG trilogy. 202K words altogether. This is the longest novel I've written yet. Oddly enough, I completed it in less time than the previous two; they're 175K and 190K, respectively.

My first three trilogies. Three more are complete and awaiting publication. When you find your passion, never let it go.

This is what 47 looks like? All right, time to get a refund from the Bene Tleilax, this ghola is faulty.

I love the smell of coffee and copy edits in the morning.

C'mon, Bluesky, I know I'm not on here much, but your bot problem has become as bad as Facebook's bot problem.

It's now safe to say that the techbro myth of cryptocurrency as a viable economic medium is dead. Unless you're using it to launder funds...or curry favor. Color me unsurprised.

The finale for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew doesn't disappoint. I certainly had a fanboy moment where I cried out in joy. Overall an excellent end to an excellent show.

Started the 12-lecture series 'Understanding Economics: Game Theory' via the Teaching Company.

This sounds intriguing, but...a nuclear reactor a mile underground? techcrunch.com/2025/01/07/n...

Never again will I respect mainstream American journalism after their catering to this Greenland bullshit. This is the final nail in legacy media's coffin. The fourth estate in the U.S. is officially dead.

Wow. Skeleton Crew didn't mess around this week. This got dark fast. Jude Law is on fire on this show. The season finale is next week, and it promises to be a doozy.

To the surprise of no one... electrek.co/2025/01/02/t...

Happy Science Fiction Day! Here's some of my latest contributions to the genre: space opera, post-apocalyptic, and space western. A military SF trilogy is forthcoming!

This is a great way to ruin a platform. Social media is for humans. Not bots. Human users have LONG despised bots on these sites. Facebook feels like it's dying anyway, and this decision underlines that. futurism.com/the-byte/fac...

The first season of DUNE: PROPHECY stuck the landing in a big way. One way or another, everyone pays a heavy price. At 81 minutes, the finale is nearly feature-length, and none of it is wasted. Overall a very promising start to a side of Dune that rarely gets its due. Bring on Season 2!

I've got a good start on the 3rd Twilight Company LitRPG novel today. I'm shooting for a late January-early February completion date. This one will likely reach 200K. I've never had so much fun writing a story. These characters have lives of their own at this point. This stuff is my drug.

Enemy scaling for my Swype Left TTRPG: bro: level 1 goblin incel: level 2 orc dudebro: level 4 ogre incel bro: level 6 troll neckbeard: level 8 necromancer incel dudebro: level 9 pyromancer neckbeard bro: level 12 revenant incel neckbeard bro: level 15 lich

Dems back in the summer: "Biden is too OLD! He should stand aside! How dare he endanger this country by running!" Dems now: "Why isn't Biden SAVING us?" Really? I've been voting Democrat since 2000. Every time the shit hits the fan, I see this behavior on the left. Grow. A. Backbone.

It might not be a good idea to write this next LitRPG novel's overview while listening to the Rings of Power soundtracks. Everything keeps getting more and more epic as a result. Why have one otherworldly invasion when you can have three, right? OH SHIT IS THIS HOW SAURON WORKS

The series finale of What We Do in the Shadows is appropriately flippant, hilarious, and heartfelt. I'm really going to miss seeing new stories about these batty vampires from Staten Island.

This, 100%. Enjoying my life and writing my stories doesn't mean I'm ignoring what's happening around me. It means I refuse to let the bastards steal my passion.

Europe's Starlink competitor. I wonder if SpaceX will be contracted to put this satellite constellation into orbit? 😉 www.theverge.com/2024/12/16/2...

I've never bought anything from Temu. I did use the app once, out of curiosity, but I deleted it shortly afterward. But its popularity has already caused Bezos to start something similar through Amazon. techcrunch.com/2024/12/16/t...

The military thriller I co-wrote with retired Naval aviator Ward Carroll, PUNK'S FORCE, is now available for pre-order in hardcover! Published by the U.S. Naval Institute! Link: Punk's Force: A Novel a.co/d/0u02SME

After a polish pass, the second LitRPG novel is complete at 190K. Now it's ready for the publisher. I'll be starting the third novel sometime next week.

My son: Who's Neil DeGrasse Tyson? Is he Mike Tyson's dad? Me: *dies inside*

"I'm Harry f*cking Kim!" Lower Decks gave Star Trek fans what they've always wanted this week. I was a little ambivalent about this episode at first, but the ending changed my mind. And...I can't believe there's only episode of this series left.

I wish people understood just how much energy it takes to always be negative; to choose hate, especially when it's not necessary. There are things not enough of us are angry about, but too many put themselves into the smallest mental box they can find and loathe everything outside of it.

Me, writing: Why yes, this story needed an undead bird spying on the characters. Gandalf, bursting through the door: IT'S SARUMAN

SKELETON CREW continues to delight with its third episode. The show is hitting all the right notes, and the best part is, the nostalgia is kept to a minimum (so far). And I love that Jude Law is in Star Wars.

I've been digging Roosevelt's music a lot here lately (the German singer, not the two former presidents). Love his combination of synths, rhythms, and laid-back vocals. Along with Cannons, Still Corners, and Jungle, he's become one of my morning muses.

Ho. Lee. Shit. DUNE: PROPHECY ushered in one of my favorite things about Frank Herbert's universe this week. The tension keeps ratcheting up, and just when you think you understand these characters' boundaries...they redraw those boundaries in blood. I can't believe there's only 2 episodes left.

I finished the second LitRPG manuscript at 179K. I've never had so much fun telling a story.

The SECTION 31 trailer looks okay, but I'll be watching mostly to see Michelle Yeoh, who always delivers an excellent performance. But black ops in Star Trek? Hmm.

I'm not gonna lie. The reactions to the UHC shooter, and La Muneca in Columbia, a suspected sicaria for the cartels, has influenced some of my ideas for a writing project I'd like to tackle next year.

I nabbed The One Ring TTRPG book, and its 5E conversion, LOTR RPG, in a Black Friday deal from Free League Publishing. These are really nice books, with excellent art and maps galore. I'm such a Middle-Earth nut that I had to get them.

This was voted Best Space Exploration Image for 2024 by the Planetary Society. An incredible shot; the stuff dreams are made of. "The Odysseus lunar lander on its way to the Moon shortly after separating from a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster." (Image: Intuitive Machines)

Captain Nemo of the 21st century would sabotage these cables rather than sink ships. "The outages underscore how much of the global communications and financial system hinges on a few hundred cables of bundled glass fibers that are strung across ocean floors." spectrum.ieee.org/undersea-int...

Started reading this today. And you can never go wrong with a Michael Whelan cover.

I got a sneak peek of the cover for PUNK'S FORCE, the military thriller I co-wrote with Ward Carroll, and I'm very pleased. Coming in May from the US Naval Institute!

You posts here can still be scraped to train AI: techcrunch.com/2024/11/27/b...

As I prepped to write the finale for this novel, I realized it'll be spread over the last 20-25K of the manuscript. What can I say? I like a big payoff at the end of a story. Plus this is a multi-POV narrative, and each character gets their moment.