- Oct 14, 2025
- 3 min read
I'll admit I'm relieved that Commander Black held true to his promises. Much easier than having to beat him into submission. We've agreed that Archer and Ranger will remain in the background -- ghosts of the unknown haunting the mists will add to the mystique the Commander thinks these Training Grounds need. Every thruster-sucking time something weird happens, the light of what I can only consider a mad hope enters his eyes. Humans haven't changed much, even after being buried alive for what I am beginning to think was three centuries -- it's hard to tell with their new dating mechanisms. Not that dates have ever mattered to me, but I suppose I am curious about the math. Still doesn't matter.
The first set of Trainees are rough, but all of them have some latent skills we can mold for Systems Analyst Bridge (I overheard the new Cadre start to just call the corporation 'S.A.B.' recently which is an easier mouthful with this unnecessarily quick dialect they've evolved). I'm still wrapping my mind around this idea of a corporation that is also a government with citizens in their midst that are not actually employed by them. I'm certain it's been done before with rather distasteful results, but so far have found no abject crimes against humanity that need correcting. Since they're the power that reigns, they're the one I'll use.
We lost a Cadre member to one of the gators that lurk beneath the black waters here this morning, just as the Trainees were entering for their initiation...unexpectedly set the tone exactly where it needed to be: this swamp is to be respected or died in. Good that they know it before we lose decent candidates to a sense of over-zealousness. It was hard not to laugh at the looks on their faces, but I did feel remorse at losing Bagley -- he had come around nicely to my supremacy in the agreement with S.A.B., however Instructor Ryta has a better mix of rebellion and empathy, and while she'll need more training and convincing, she'll set a better base-line for future groups.
Soon, we'll be able to train nearly 10,000 candidates in one go. I'm pleased to start with only 2,000 and understand the corporation's need to test this out on a few rounds before going full bore. Ironic that this first set will get much more of my attention since there's fewer of them to parse.
Finally got my replacement for Dietrich this morning. The man was brilliant but his pushback with every request in my game plan for the Simulation Pods without actually thinking things through was getting exhausting. New engineer is Madsen, and already she's pumped out more appropriate programming than Dietrich would even consider. Should I add a policy for even split gender on the staff? That would keep me from overemploying women...I'll wait until we've run a few cycles before making the decision. I prefer merit based work, but it's important to have useful idiots around for things to move smoothly.
Heard a small dust-up through the Earth today...off somewhere to the east where I've sensed a small settlement taking root -- felt like a small battle. Will send the Ranger to look into it as soon as they've finished setting the parameters for the upgrade dampening equipment. Archer says there's no way to guarantee the Shattered Hollows will stay fully hidden, but then keeps on about 'memory inhibition upon ingress and departure' so we'll see how much of that nay-saying is just their oppositional character and how much is based on reality, soon.
Logs should work for note-keeping for now. All these S.A.B. personnel are over-committed to stoicism, so they end up looking the same...maybe this will help me keep their faces and names in my memory, but already the candidates are simply more interesting
.
--Note: All fruit appears to have been killed off and been replaced with engineered lemons. Our first shipment of fresh foods for the candidates arrived yesterday -- I tried a lemonapple and lemelon. Ridiculous that they think this is what fruit used to taste like, but no one's likely to ever experience scurvy again.
- Jun 30, 2025
- 2 min read
I've struggled with identifying how to phrase this without mentioning any current political figures. While it may seem obvious to many, c. 2025 has turned out to be the year that many of the themes in my work have stepped into reality.
Dear readers, please know that in my mind, the current state of affairs is one that I assume will always have its day, and should be expected in cycles.
When I began Shattered Hollows, it was a short story that only included the first chapter of Book 2 (Entangled Binds), and I wrote that in 2015. It was not until later that year that I decided to start fleshing out the work more deeply, working to convey what corruption, xenophobia, and classism would look like in the future (TL;DR: fascism is an inevitable struggle for humanity and is often portrayed in classic science fiction).
In general, I wanted to create a world that had found a way around sexism, racism, and the phobias of sexual inclination -- a world that legitimately does not care about skin color, or who you love...so long as you toe the line. This is an investigation into how power will ultimately attempt to elevate itself using division, whether by value of birth, skillset, or monetary worth (as per usual), and how, without that division, it falls apart.
The political figures of today are/were not the basis of my work, in any way shape or form. The fact that many of the corrupted people in power resemble my characters, is because present day power foci are filling a pre-set role seen in most fascist/demagogue centered societies. Magnus was built to fill the role of puppet master, but if not him, it would have been someone else. The role is what is created over time, before it then becomes a power void that must be filled. No current day politicians or officials are meant to be illustrated in this work. ANY similarity is role-based, NOT person-based. Also, take note that Magnus is actually a genius, and I would not describe the puppets in power in most countries
as the true font of authority today or in the future. As per usual, power is a nesting doll, and the smartest of those in power do their best to stay unknown and unnamed when possible.
My work is thematic and the roles are historically concrete. Any likeness to current figures is incidental and any parallels drawn by the reader belong solely to the reader, as my work does not invite or invest in comparison to the events of today.
- Jun 12, 2025
- 3 min read
For those of you that are trying to get yourself published, may I recommend the self-pub route? This is not to say you won't need a team to support you (a cover artist and editor are rather important for a refined and original story). All in all, I'd say that going self-pub is going to cost you more out of the gate, and give you more satisfaction with the control you maintain after the dust settles. The hard part isn't the publication process -- it's getting the readers to read!
Full transparency: I have been incredibly lucky in my marketing. By happy accident, I've found a way to hit certain podcasts and newsletters during optimal times, but it has been, and will likely continue to be a driving force of luck and belief that my hard work will pay off.
Continuing in the realm of transparency, I've done a lot of work to understand what a podcaster wants from their guests (I'm a serial researcher), as well as interviewed them after recording sessions to see what they liked and did not like about my performance. Hands down: they are all simply grateful that I'm willing to talk in full sentences and wax romantic about my own work and the work of others. If you're nervous about appearing on a podcast, tell your host in advance and ask to meet with them immediately before the podcast to get your nerves out in conversation, as well as get an idea as to what you want to say. We're writers! It's okay to format/script what you want to say!
Writing blocks: if you are forcing yourself to write something and it is not flowing easily, I highly recommend putting the project down for a bit and writing about something that is truly exciting to you. This is the best way to keep a block from forming, even if you feel pressured to finish the work you're stymied on. Another great way to work out of a block is to move from creation to integration. By this, I mean "read other people's work", and take note of their pitfalls while focusing on how, even if it isn't what you would write, IT IS STILL GOOD. This really helps to take the pressure off of your own work when you realize that this is art and is not meant to follow a pre-scripted formula -- leave that work to AI and embrace your own voice, style, and tone.
Character development: I cannot explain how helpful journaling from the perspective of my characters has been. My work has a lot of named characters, and every one of them has their own background and motivations. It can be far harder to keep characters true to their structure through a long series if you don't know them as people. For example: I have journal entries by Nightingale saved up that detail her favorite cafe's and foibles in romantic relationships in her youth. I journaled from Merrick's perspective about the hum-drum of working in SAB coupled with crippling anxiety as SAB performance reviews loom. These types of things seem mundane to readers, but for an author allow us to draw out what a natural reaction might look like for this person, but might be a surprise to your readers.
Finally, I have made several mistakes in my own work due to gaps in my research and simple forgetfulness. Instead of withdrawing all of my books and rewriting them, I've determined to have the characters correct the mistakes for their own reasons, and am even integrating several as 'easter eggs' that call out how the mistakes occurred. For example: a few of my characters use shéng biāo (rope spears/rope weapons), but I wasn't sure what word I wanted to use from the outset (there are several to choose from). So, I used the term pinyin to remind me to choose the appropriate Chinese wording at a later time. Guess who forgot to go back and insert the corrected terminology? So, now, it will be described in the 5th supplementary book (character and terminology encyclopedia w/ short stories and digital art) as an item that was incorrectly catalogued by SAB during the Shining Wars...the exact same way I missed the mark. Work with your happy little accidents and consider them sprinkles -- mistakes are often gateways to something fun.
