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The Social Dilemma

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I knew going in that I’d be saddened and angered by ‘The Social Dilemma‘ the same as I was after watching ‘The Great Hack‘. I was right. Watching the documentary filled me with existential dread and anger. Nothing in it will be a shock to anyone who’s been involved in tech for the last decade (Except the suicide rates, that was shocking to me). While not shocking, it was still eye-opening and horrifying. I urge you to watch both of the documentaries mentioned above and make adjustments to your online life. The only way we’re going to fix this is by fighting back. Which is why this on my blog, and not a Facebook post.

That said, you should watch both if you still use Facebook.

As ‘The Social Dilemma‘ wrapped up I was already on my phone re-engaging Apple’s screen time, and turning off notifications on even more apps.

I’d be off Facebook today if it wasn’t where the indie publishing industry was centered. That industry, its insights and members are invaluable so I’d be hamstringing my career by cutting off access to that.

I’ve been working on spending less time there (Need to re-center those efforts). Despite its equally horrible problems twitter is a great way to still get a fix of what’s happening in the world, and if you don’t use Twitter’s site or apps, you can still get it unfiltered/unmanaged. You can also take a more active position in where you get news from, by controlling who you follow.

As a separate (but related) thing, I also just went in and told Google to blur my house in street view. You should too. I’m over giving Silicon Valley anything for free.

WIP Thursday – Different Sizes and Shapes

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The droids have a homeworld now. We’ve seen all kinds of droids throughout the adventures of the crew of the Ghost. Not all of them look like Gabe.

Wil notices that Gabe is pointing to what he thought was a powered down load lifter. It was a load lifter, but not powered down, just sitting motionless. It rumbles to life shifting to turn it’s flat optical sensors toward Gabe and the others, “Hello, Gabe.”
“Interim Governor, Mitch,” Gabe replies.
“Mitch?” Wil whispers to Cynthia who elbows him in the ribs then shrugs.
The load lifter droid rolls toward the group as they arrive at the bottom. “It is an honor to meet friends of Gabe the Liberator.”
Gabe makes a choking sound. His friends all smile.
Zephyr inclines her head, “The honor is ours, you’ve accomplished so much in a short period.”
“It helps that we do not sleep,” Mitch replies. The load lifter is at least three meters tall and two wide. His scuffed and warn body is yellow with black stripes. “We expect to have phase one completed in forty of fifty rotations.” Wil whistles. Mitch continues, “We owe a great debt to Ben-Ari Vulvo. You might find this strange, but his technical skills rival that of many of our technical droid citizens.”
Bennie blushes a deeper green. He rocks on his heels, “My, uh, my pleasure.”
Wil steps closer to the governor, “Listen, uh, Mitch, we actually have a favor to ask you.”

Space Rogues 8: No subtitle yet, is proving to be fun. We get to visit the new droid homeworld for a little, and without giving too much away, there’s a heist.

15 years

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Nicole and Winston

I’ve had the pleasure to be married to my best friend for 15 years!

We’ve shared adventures around the globe, the loss of friends and family, job changes and home renovations. I can’t wait to see what and where our next adventures lie.

We met, married, and left CA in just over a year. We moved to CO for a job, and it’s the only place we consider home now.

We started a software consulting company, closed said company, changed job roles, and more.

She’s my biggest supporter and cheerleader, often pushing me to reach past my comfort zones to further my writing career.

I love you punkin, you’re my forever lobster.

Some new Merch in the shop!

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I love me a good ball cap. I also hate me a flat-billed cap, sorry hipsters. Printify added this awesome cap, which I immediately added to the store!

There are a few color options, but I’m getting this awesome blue on blue version!

And you know, because it’s 2020, you can now get your very own Space Rogues face mask. I won’t lie, back in April I resisted getting masks, thinking, “Surely we’ll beat this, and then I’ll be stuck with all these masks.”

Oh sweet summer child…. Now I’m stocking up on masks and buffs because it looks like we’ll be wearing masks into 2022, because ‘merica!

I’ve also added a few more shirts for women, both fitted and unisex. Take a look and rep your favorite crew of misfits wherever you are!

What’s In A Cover?

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I’ve been all over the place on covers. The first Space Rogues cover was a ‘borrowed’ image of a Klingon Raptor and an open source image of Mars. That first edition of Space Rogues had lots of issues, it’s cover not even the worst.

As books have sold I’ve been able to invest in better covers.

For Island of Secrets, I hired a professional and we passed back and forth ideas on what I wanted on the cover. It’s a thriller, so the ‘rules’ for covers are different than for space opera. We went over lots of ideas and I’m really happy with where we settled.

We looked at covers with people on them, with guns, with other stuff. None of those captured what I was hoping to convey. I think the boat (The Raven) with the island behind her does.

This one was a close runner up. I liked the look a lot, but without giving too much about Island of Secrets away, it’s not just ‘one guy’. That was a hard one to get passed actually. A lot of your typical Jack Reacher style thriller/action-Adventure covers feature the lone wolf hero, and that’s not exactly what Island of Secrets, Expedition Inc. as a company is about.

By the way, you can sign up for release announcements, bonus stuff, etc for the Expedition Inc. series, here. You should totally sign up :)

I’ll share a few more covers every once in a while to show how these things progress :)

WIP Thursday – I Should be editing

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I’m going through the 2nd round of edits/revisions on ‘Any Job Will Do’ the first book in my new Grand Human Empire Series. (Sign up for the newsletter here) and, well, it’s not my favorite part of writing.

So here we are.

“You shot me, you fucking prick.” Naomi growled from the chair she was tied to in the engineering space aboard the Osprey. 
Baxter was standing next to her, “She has a colorful vocabulary.”
The angry woman looked up at the combat droid then back to Jax, her face scrunched in anger. “You shot me. You didn’t have to shoot me.”
Jax tilted his head, “Well, you seem to have no concept of boundaries, don’t seem to take no for an answer, and somehow you knew a lot more about this job than you should.” He leaned against the reactor control panel, “Mind explaining?”
“I gotta pee.” His prisoner retorted.
“Then you’d better talk fast.” He grinned. “Long way to Themura.”

Just a little tidbit of the chemistry forming between Jackson and Naomi. This series is a lot of fun, I’m really excited to get book one into the pipeline and start work on book 2.

Don’t worry, Space Rogues 8 is already 15k words i. :)

Remember, sign up (even if you’re in the Space Rogues newsletter, I want to keep things separate) to get short stories and goodies about the Grand Human Empire.

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