Category: fiction

Placer Mine

     [A short story for you today. Max Feinberg needs a breather. His laundromat business is lucrative but boring. His marriage is sound but irritating. His body is slowly turning to sludge. So he’s headed to Las Vegas for some restorative gambling and professional sex. The bonus he’ll receive will exceed his imagination. It will …

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Overtime

     [I can’t remember if this has ever been posted, here or at Liberty’s Torch V1.0. It makes a point that deserves emphasis, and anyway, I have more to do today than will permit me to write another of those furshlugginer essays — FWP.] ==<O>==      “And now with the sports news,” intoned the anchor …

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Against The Anti Brigades

     The following video is a snippet from a 1977 BBC interview of Sylvester Stallone about why he wrote Rocky. It’s both surprising and, to those who doubted his intellect, revealing:      Stallone’s diagnosis of the cultural trends is dead on – and even more important for our time. Americans wanted entertainment that would resonate …

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The 2022 Based Fall Book Sale

     Hans G. Schantz, author of the Hidden Truth trilogy, is once again hosting a gigantic $0.99 or free sale of “non-woke” books:      Some complain about the culture. Others do something about it.      Support non-woke authors and get yourself some great books from both established and emerging talent for only $0.99 – many …

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Got A Buck?

     In case you missed the original announcement: All My Novels Are Now Just $0.99.      I can’t discount them any further. I trust I need say no more.      But wait: there’s more! I have: A New Retailing System!      That allows you to purchase my books directly from me! Applause and many thanks …

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To Know Them Is To Love Them…But Which Comes First?

     I haven’t done a piece on fiction writing for a while now, and as I’m struggling to get my wheels back on the track, it seems like a propitious moment for a reflection on one of the necessities of effective storytelling. ***      Readers have frequently complimented me on my efforts at characterization. While …

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What Cannot Be Reported As Fact

     …can sometimes be depicted to good effect in fiction:      Then there was the matter of process. How the election was run. How it was administered. The frenzied push to ramp up absentee and mail-in ballots and ramp down verification, especially in battleground states. How many states changed election laws? Hint: a lot. How …

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I Have A Day From Hell Before Me…

     …which will include a teeth-cleaning, a trip to our family veterinarian, a great deal of laundry, and the assembly – by yours truly – of a lawn sweeper that might as well have come from IKEA. So rather than entertain you with a typical Curmudgeon Emeritus rant, I’ll give you a peek at something …

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A Month Of Free Fiction!

(Scroll down for new posts.)      Smashwords, where I first listed my fiction for sale, is having a Summer Sale that will extend from July 1 through July 31. My novels will be part of it: The Realm of Essences Series: Chosen One On Broken Wings Shadow of a Sword Polymath Statesman The Spooner Federation …

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Christian Love: A Primer

     Every now and then I get a burr under my saddle, and I have to vent. (“No, really?”) (Shut up, you.) Today is such a day. I hope you’ll indulge me, as the subject matter is critical to the future of Mankind. Yes, the subject is the one in the title of this piece …

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Fiction Can Be Useful!

     No, really. Have a passage from one of the most adventurous science fiction novels of the Twentieth Century:      There was something leaning against a rock. At first I couldn’t make it out: a pink mound with hair trailing down one side. We got closer and the mound became five hundred-odd pounds of woman …

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An Endorsement

     By and large, I avoid dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. When I want to wallow in misery, I just peer out the back window at my lawn. (When I want to wallow in other people’s misery, I go to a news website or pick up the most recent edition of the New York Times.) But …

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Reaction

     [This short story first appeared at Liberty’s Torch V1.0 on September 19, 2017. — FWP ***      Harmon grimaced. “You’re asking a lot from people who just want to be left alone. Like their whole futures. Maybe even their lives.”      I nodded. “I know. And I know that putting my own life and …

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Looks Like I’ve Done It To Myself Again

     Oh my dear, sweet, all-forgiving God. Oh most gracious ruler of the Universe, whose will brought forth the worlds and whose love enfolds them still. Why do You permit me to agree to these things?      I’ve told myself over and over: Do not respond positively to a review request. I’ve reminded myself of …

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Need To Know

     No, this won’t be about federal security regulations. And I know a father Who had a son He longed to tell him all the reasons For the things he’d done. He came a long way Just to explain, He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping Then he turned around and headed home again. …

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Some Fiction News

     While I’ve had my novels at Amazon in the “KDP select” system for some time, it hasn’t done anything for the expansion of my readership. Therefore, I’ve decided to slough “KDP Select” status, so I can distribute more widely than just through Amazon.      I’ve just resubmitted all 19 of my novels to Smashwords: …

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For Services Rendered

     [A short story for you today. There are days when I languish in the Slough of Despond over my personal insignificance. I have no idea how widespread this malady is, though I suspect that many people suffer it from time to time. And in a sense, it’s a problem all of us humans share, …

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Love, Duty, And Adventure

     Politics? Bah! Economics? Please! Current events? Enough already!      Perhaps my Esteemed Co-Conspirators will provide some such material a bit later in the day. Just now I have storytelling in mind. ***      Some years ago, when I was finding my stride as a fictioneer, I had something of an epiphany about plotting. Crafting …

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Free Fiction!

     For today, February 12 only, until Midnight Pacific time, the most daring science fiction novel since Stranger in a Strange Land:      is a free download at Amazon!      When the remnant of the anarchist Spooner Federation fled Earth before the genocidal wrath of the States, the fugitives had only the slimmest chance of …

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One Week From Today

     …on Saturday, February 12, Which Art In Hope, the first novel of the widely praised Spooner Federation Saga, will be a free download at Amazon.      Mark your calendar.

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