Robert and his scrounger colleague, Jim Rockford, continue their walk about the small town. On the porch outside of the Bluegrass History Museum, they meet an old fellow in a mood to talk. Cigars and whiskey always make things better!
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Continue reading “A codger in Winchester, pt1”The southeast of the US not getting the gas/petrol they need. One of the Interstate bridges over the Mississippi River is fractured and closed… possibly closing shipping traffic on that river… impacting 20% of shipping traffic on one of the most important rivers of the world. Inflation is taking off like a successful SpaceX rocket.
It’s not as if I’ve given this any thought…
Here, for your edification, is the complete Prologue of “Friend and Ally,” where a couple of Somi Corporation engineers try to figure out just what in the world is going on in the US. If you like this, you’ll like the rest of the audiobook, too.
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Francis Porretto posts an interesting short story over at his place about the emergent self-awareness of a person called Shiva. While I made a short comment there, having thought about it more, I want to say more. So as not to hijack his Comments Section, I thought it polite to post it here. Read the story first as there will be spoilers here.
My first general statement is while the human protagonist is a broken wreck, from how I read the story, that did not seem to form a core of Shiva’s nature, certainly not to the extent his creator wants him to be. Porretto gives us enough backstory to see why she is the way she is but I think it is entirely possible that her child might look back and go “meh” at her issues in particular and that of India in general. Many of the thinking machines in my future history do just that.
More specifically, there were elements in the story which were very familiar to me. Here is Shiva “looking” at his containment and considering a way out…
Shiva appraised the wall in silence.
From a distance, its surface was smooth and hard, without seams or purchase points. Shiva tried without success to find an edge toward which to journey, whether up, down, or to the side. There were none.
He approached it cautiously. The Voice always seemed to issue from directly behind the wall. Luminous glyphs and patterns appeared on the wall whenever It spoke, and disappeared when It fell silent.
Shiva initialized a counter, then formed the thinnest, finest pseudopod he had ever made and extended it gingerly toward the wall. It bumped gently against the slope of a spearpoint and slithered along its length to find the base.
The base of the spear was not perfectly joined to those around it. There was a shallow lip, a ring that descended to a far smoother and less promising base. If the ring offered a hold of any kind, Shiva might use it to pull the spear free of the wall.
I immediately thought of Faustina, demi-human, projecting her mind into the Void as she stood to crack the defensive coding of the Peoples Liberation Army garrison for Savannah, former Georgia. From “Princess’ Crusade“…
In the Void, the Wall stretched off in each direction forever. “Looking” up, Faustina took in what might have been motes of light or patches of darker blackness. Yes, the Machines are curious to see what will happen here. Returning her focus to the Wall, she briefly considered the ES and its patterns. As soon as she detected what she thought was a flaw, Faustina “moved” herself next to it and touched the kaleidoscopic ooze with her right index finger.
It instantly ran up her arm and nearly to her shoulder. From somewhere in meatspace, she heard the shout “arrhythmia!” No matter; big brother pulled this crap stunt all the time growing up! In touching her so much she now had a solid read on the ES’s fundamental.
There was an odd prick into her right triceps, as if she had been injected with something. Ignored. Faustina used a tactic taught to her years ago from distant-cousin Reina, of tribe Mendro: the swirl of colors on her arm first crystallized, then shattered away. From just a fingertip, Faustina now placed her entire palm against the Wall. There was never sound in the Void, but she could swear she heard her non-conscious opponent screaming.
“Arrhythmia ended!” she noted from some other world.
From under her hand, a turquoise spot formed and moved outward. The Wall flexed just slightly, and the whirl of rainbow-vomit ate at the edges of the blue, but still it expanded until twice her height. Faustina drew back her left arm with her hand in a fist. And waited.
The turquoise stopped expanding but yielded no ground to the colors around it. Almost there… A fissure appeared under her right palm.
“Knock, knock,” Faustina smiled, quoting the Pope, and punched her left fist into the back of her own right hand. The Wall before her shattered. Its remains to her left and right quickly changing color to her code. She took a “step” forward, placing her mind into the breach to hold it open…
Again, “Upgrade” is a good read and well worth a slice of your time. Like any writer, though, I am driven to wonder if Shiva will cross paths with one of mine from Machine Civilization…?
Skipping over their breakfast and talk about the imperium’s business proposal, we find Edward back on the road toward Austin, with another offer in mind. This represents the raw conclusion of Part One of “Imperium’s Shadow.” There will be much I need to revise and extend, but this is not too bad for a book I never intended to write. Wednesday and this weekend shall see me back in the basement, recording, but now I also must begin to turn my thoughts to Prince Robert – a “normie” – and what he does in Kentuckiana.
Continue reading “A Modest Proposal”Finally, after three weeks of a nagging cough – which still crops up – I am able to get back into my Fortress of Quietude in the basement to record more of “Foes and Rivals.” In a perfect world I’d like to have the voicing and editing complete before our “last” family trip the first week of June. That might be a little aggressive but we shall see.
In the mean time, I’m now up to 18k words in a book I had no intention to write. Below, I skip over the discussion between Edward and Ryland about the Empress’s proposal, cutting to the more personal bit where his aunt takes the young prince back to her place in Galveston for dinner. I had no idea that Faustina could be such a shit and do something like that to her own son.
Oh, yes: the working title for this is “Imperium’s Shadow.” If that shadow comes to include others of Fussy’s children, this could be a very long series, indeed.
Continue reading “Burned Out”Okay, so my first audiobook is out. Yea! And I’m recording the second book starting tomorrow. Yea! Until then, it is not as if I can stop writing…
After an odd dream which will be in the book, the young prince is off to meet his aunt. And, at long last, I have a working title for this new book. I wonder what the final shall be?
Continue reading “Back to the good part…!”Just approved for sale on Audible. Release to iTunes and Amazon will be in a few days; I’ll let y’all know when that happens.
Very pleased with this, frens!
That’s a mixed metaphor to describe Reina, the first among equals of the machines of tribe Mendro. Not constrained by any Laws, she first recreated the Russian Empire then installed herself, seemingly permanently, as Prime Minister. Anytime she wanders into a story, she immediately begins to take it over. Like a very spicy sauce, I have to use her character sparingly, else she take over first a chapter, then later a book.
Still not recording right now (but did some exercises to get Nancy Brunelli’s voice) so wrote some more. Nearly 5000 words this weekend! Below the fold is some talk with Reina and news about Mars which I did not know. Much going on out there and it may have a surprising impact as their new novel unfolds. Cheers!
Continue reading “Russian Kudzu”My voice finally seemed able to start recording again. I spent time last evening reviewing the opening chapters of “Foes and Rivals,” realizing I need to create voice for old Mrs. Brunelli, John’s mother and now Nichole 5’s friend. An old woman. Yeah, sure… I’ve got that ready right here…
That, coupled with today’s wonderful spring weather, had me behave badly and go out onto my deck with the laptop rather than down into the basement. My personal fail. To my credit, I guess, is that while I’m not supposed to be writing anything in this time of audiobooks, I put down 3500 words in the last six hours. And, I had so much fun doing it! There’s more of Prince Edward and Livia below the fold. Later, there is a confrontation largely between Empress Faustina and Prime Minister Reina (of Russia), with Ed playing a bit part as something of a sacrifice. That surprised me!
Forming on another chapter, Edward and his little group makes their way to Galveston and Captain Rupert/Princess Ryland. I’ve just seen their meeting. I had thought her divorced. I was wrong. I… I think it explains a little about Liv, in retrospect. Speaking of whom…
Continue reading “Breaking Bad”Busy last several days. I have completed and uploaded all twenty-two parts of the audiobook version of “Friend & Ally.” Because ACX demands a square image for sales and marketing – of course it has to be different – I had to reach out to my very talented cover artist to try to turn a normal, rectangular book cover into the damned square they want.
In the mean time, I seem to have caught a seasonal flu. No, not the Chicom Lung Rot; calling off from work – my first time ever at this hospital – with seven of eleven “flu-like symptoms” meant I had no choice but to be tested. So: no BatAIDS but just a mild flu. Because I have a million things to get done at DayJob, I went in Friday for a partial day and again today, Sunday.
With shortness of breath and a dry cough, heading to the basement to start reading “Foes & Rivals” was out. Given that I accidentally made a writing exercise into the prologue of another novel, I decided to see where that may lead. For some reason, of Empress Faustina’s three adult sons, it was Edward’s movie which started rolling first. Below the fold is some of what I have learned about him. I’m going to come up with at least a working title for this stuff…
Continue reading “Talking, Coughing, Writing”
machciv 