Sunday, June 30, 2024

Fourth of July Voter Registration Drive Book Sale!

I know a lot of people are tired of being told that every election for the past decade WILL DETERMINE THE VERY SURVIVAL OF THE NATION!  But it’s true.  It seems every election now is a choice between democracy and the literal forces of evil.  And the fastest way for the forces of evil to fully seize power is if We The People can’t be bothered to vote.  To keep our democracy, we need to vote, in this election and every election.

But in order to vote, you need to be registered.  If you’re an American citizen who will be eighteen by Election Day, November 5th of this year, and you are not registered, I ask you to register.  Your state’s website should have all the necessary details.  

To try to sweeten the pot for people doing their patriotic duty, the week of the Fourth, three of my ebooks will be free to download.  All I ask is that if you download them, you register.  There’s no way for me to check if the people grabbing my books for free registered, so we’ll just go on the honor system.  Read them now, or hold on to them to have something to read while you wait in line to vote come November. 

But what if you’re already registered?  In that case I ask you to check your registration.  The list of voters needs constant updating as people register, move, and die.  And even without nefarious voter purges, it’s possible for mistakes to happen.  But if you catch the mistake now, you have plenty of time to get it fixed so that come Election Day, things will be smoother.  Your state’s website should also have the details on how to check your registration.

But what if you’re not American?  Well then, all I ask is that you participate however you can in your government.  The literal forces of evil aren’t just working here in the states.

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The following three ebooks will be free to download from Monday, July 1st, through Friday, July 5th.  The title links take you to the US site for the book.

Political Pies


Everybody complains about politics, but does anyone do anything about it? My attempt to do something about it is to collect forty of my short stories with a political element into my Political Pies anthology. The stories are either politically neutral or equally condemning of the national parties. Instead of trying to sway you to one ideology or another, my goal is to just get people thinking about politics in the hopes a rose might grow out of all the political manure.

A Man of Few Words


A Man of Few Words is a collection of fifty of my flash fiction stories. What would really happen if a “T-Rex on steroids” attacked a city? Why do science fiction writers make the best lovers? How does a company get to Second Base with VIPs? I explore these questions and more using less than 1,000 words and in various genres from humor to horror and general fiction to science fiction.

Duty


For reasons of safety and avoiding paradoxes, Time Travel Incorporated assigns a Guardian to all its travelers. So when there is an accident during political historian Roj Hasol’s trip back to 1968, it’s his Guardian Susan who sets out on the arduous task of cleaning up the mess.

Writing Newsletter Second Quarter 2024

 

In my last newsletter, I wrote that I had submitted a story for the first time in years, and I was waiting to hear back.  Well, I did hear back, and while they didn’t accept my story, they did say it was close and they hoped I’d consider them for another story.  Now I just have to write another story.

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This quarter I continued writing a story each month on my website, publishing, “When You Put it Like That,” “Let That Be a Lesson,” and “Die Trying.”  I also reposted, or posted, “Let it Rain,” “All the Money in the World,” and “A Whale of a Tale” on my Ko-fi profile.  I also reposted “I Just Write Stories” and “Ben’s Time Carriage” on two of my blogs.

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Two projects I’m slowly working on have me posting more microfictions and haikus.  In previous newsletters, I just had a link to each.  But that was somewhat tedious.  (If I counted correctly, I’ve published 18 microfictions and 16 haikus this quarter.)  I had made a page just for my microfiction, where I have the story with links to where it was published.  My haikus had been part of my poem page, but since I’ve been publishing so many of them, I decided to just make a new page for them. 

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I don’t really have any other writing news.  I’ve been busy getting our garden ready, and now I’m trying to keep the weeds from taking over.  So I haven’t had much time to write.  Will I get more time next quarter?  We’ll just have to see.

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Image from Pixabay.