Ramblings of an old man with pretentions of authordom
OK, so there’s a song, a church hymn more or less, in Chapter 2 of The Lion and the Darkness, right? (Chapter 2 of the first half of the book, “The Martyr of Sardristra”.)
And there’s this new AI songwriting service called Suno.
And I might have fed the lyrics to it.
This can be blamed on Sarah Hoyt, who’s using Suno to do all kinds of songs for her new series (for which see below).
As a relatively new writer (well, published writer; I’ve been writing since I was in my teens, just never put anything out there for sale till the WuFlu in ’20), I have Sarah A. Hoyt to thank for plugging my books on occasion; usually on her blog (where she does a weekly promo post mostly for indies) and occasionally on Instapundit, where she handles the swing shift posts most nights when she’s not exhausted/unwell. (She has most recently had my latest book, Footprints, in her promo, just this past Sunday.)
Now, Mrs. Hoyt has a new novel out — a novel in the true sense, that is, it’s in multiple parts because it’s too long for a single volume. (Actually, it’s not quite out; it’s up for pre-order, but some folks, including yours truly, have been watching it grow in snippets and bursts over the last year or so, and have read the first two volumes in eARC form — the third one is supposed to be available shortly, once it gets back from the editor.)
It’s called No Man’s Land.
Go here for full details: https://accordingtohoyt.com/2025/08/05/a-writers-bleg/
Or to go straight to the books to pre-order:
I assure you, this novel is the real deal. It will be a science-fiction classic and you will be glad to have read it. If you’ve read Mrs. Hoyt’s books before, believe me, you’ll want to buckle in tighter, because this is a master work.
There was this discussion I was in about old fanfic we’d written. Which made me think of all the old stuff I have stuck away on my hard drive. And then I got to thinking this one story might not be as bad as I thought it was. It’s not fanfic, it’s something I came up with on my own…in 1984.
Humanity has worked its painful way up the technological ladder and is ready to go to the moon. But surprises await our intrepid explorers, who have differing reasons for their presence on the mission. Will the agent of an oppressive government do the will of his masters, or will the revolutionary-in-secret win out and spark a revolution among the people back home? And what does an ancient artifact protected by a mysterious voice have to do with any of this?
It wasn’t really intended to be a standalone, but rather, a prequel or prologue for a novel I was writing at the time. The novel…well, it’s pretty bad. But this story has always stuck in my head, and when I re-read it yesterday, I decided it isn’t really that awful. So I edited it a bit, reformatted it, made a cover that looks like something I might have come up with in the 1980’s, and it’s currently publishing as an e-book on Amazon. When it’s done, hopefully no later than overnight tonight, it should be available here:
It’s available in KU or for purchase ($5.99). And it is a novella, not a full-length novel, but it should be a one- or one and a half-hour read. It will also be available in paperback, but that will be $9.99 because of the way Amazon recently screwed authors on royalties for any PoD book priced less than that.
I have a new contact form in the Contact page linked above in the menu; if you read it, let me know what you think, and/or please give it a star rating or a review on Amazon, too.
Oh, and the back cover is cool, too; it’s not my usual “mirror image in greyscale”, but a completely separate image. Here’s the paperback cover:
This site needs to be nuked from orbit.
As an aside, it was my pleasure to share a reading slot with Amy DuBoff at LibertyCon, a week ago last Saturday. She’s a very pleasant person (her husband is, too!) and from what she read of her work at that time, she seems to be an excellent writer. She doesn’t deserve this sort of treatment.
All you indies out there, be warned off The Book Boost Architect site.
(Original X link is https://x.com/RickPartlow66/status/1939513509106286827 ).
I wrote this as a retrospective comment about NYC in my previous novella, which is set in the 2120s and is something of a noir detective story. I didn’t figure I was writing 2025 news when I wrote it in 2024.
For all the City is a swingin’ place, law enforcement is pretty bad. Most of the cops are on the take (what else is new), and the few who actually try to do their jobs aren’t in a position to change that. The red-light districts are nearly as packed as the convention and music venues, and since that’s about all keeping the City from being a ghost town after the corporate and financial districts packed up and moved out, a century ago, that’s all the cops care about policing. Live on the West Side, or Uptown? Or in one of the outlying boroughs? You’re on your own, boys and girls. Call the mayor if you think he should spend more money on cops. If you can get through all the calls from his cronies and pals.
From On Account of a Dame, by me, available on Amazon.
As intimated in another post down below somewhere, I’m attending Liberty Con 37 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from June 20-22, 2025, as a pro guest. (NOT a guest of honor or anything like that; just a pro guest.)
As such, I have been asked to be on a panel and show up at a few other things during the weekend. If you’re going to LC, you can see my schedule at https://www.libertycon.org/lc37pros/nathan-brindle, or you can take a look below; clicking anywhere on that schedule image takes you to my guest page on the LC website, where you can click around in the actual schedule to see what the events are and who else will be involved.
If you’re an attendee, it will be a pleasure to meet you there!
At long last, the story of what really happened on al-Saḥra’ when Delaney and FTSA1 did their first real mission together can be told. (Not that it wasn’t already summarized in A Dragon in the Foie Gras…anyway…)
This is the cover image, or at least part of it; it’s what Grok provided when I asked it to create it based on my specifications. (Note that Midjourney’s “Mrs. Grundy” filter kicked it out and Stable Diffusion couldn’t get it right.)
I think this will be around 15-20K words. The setup is based on a two-panel cartoon I’ve seen floating around (and yes I will credit the artist), and it is not related to either of my two main series. Just something that started poking at my brain and I can’t get the characters to shut up.
Her name is Lilysera and she’s a war demon who commands an army of demonic forces.
Sorry, just switching providers. If you see this, you’re on the new site.
In the past year, I’ve published these books — two novels and a novella. I have two more novels and three more novellas in the pipeline. 2025 will hopefully be quite productive 🙂 All are available at https://amazon.com/author/nathanbrindle . Thank you to all who’ve bought my work. *bows*