Please go take a look at this.

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:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

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.

So I did a thing.

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:

I hate when I predict the future and don’t know it.

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.

So, Liberty Con.

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!

The Clerics in the Kitchen is live!

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…)

When your meth lab is built on a factory scale…

The planet Sanddoom. Desert exile world for most of Earth’s Radical Islamic Fundamentalists. Run by Mad Mullahs, who repay the favor of American leniency by creating a world of slavery, insurgency, and export of dangerous drugs via their own outmigrating people, headed for other colony planets.

The first two are covered by a hands-off agreement with the Americans.

The last, not so much. And Captain Delaney Wolff Fox’s special assignments fire team, FTSA1, aren’t going to stand for it. Their job is to hunt down and eliminate

The Clerics in the Kitchen

New short story project

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.

LibertyCon 37

It appears to be official that I will be appearing as a pro at LibertyCon 37 in Chattanooga, June 22-24, 2025.  I imagine I will have a reading, a couple of panels, and a couple of Author Alley slots.  Programming isn’t yet complete, of course, but in general that’s what author guests tend to do.

This will be my first appearance at LC as a pro.  I started attending as a regular attendee in 2019 and haven’t missed an in-person version since (2020 was cancelled and 2021 was online).  I finally worked up the nerve to ask to attend as an author guest after talking to a couple of folks at the con’s Kaffeeklatsch last year.  (“You’ve written and published 18 books?  I’d say you qualify,” said one of them.)  As a massive introvert at heart, I am shaking in my boots at the prospect of sitting in front of audiences, but as a guy who actually does enjoy a certain amount of social activity (followed by downtime to recharge), I’m looking forward to this new experience.

(Though, I don’t know who I’m trying to kid; I’ve sat in front of audiences any number of times and run meetings.  It’s just a different kind of meeting, and the audience won’t have elected me to sit in front of them and do that 🙂 )

It will be interesting to see the con from a different side.  Looking forward to it.

On Account of a Dame is live!

The novella referred to in the previous post is done and up for purchase or free to read on Amazon Kindle Unlimited.

Welcome to the New Jazz Age!

It’s the Roaring Twenties all over again — well — the 2120’s, that is. Where New York City has reverted to its Jazz Age roots of two centuries before. What’s missing? Prohibition, and gun control. What’s not missing? Tough guys, and the dames who (sometimes) love them. Gin joints. Speakeasies. Dance halls. The Social Register is still a thing, and the Beautiful People litter the society pages of the local hypernews sites.

Enter a typical gumshoe private detective — a member of that high society himself, yet a man who left society long ago for other pursuits. And his latest client, a rich young woman of leisure, who needs her new husband followed.

Throw in the recently-crowned queen of one of Chinatown’s tongs, a beautiful investment wizard from upstate, and a hundred million dollars in assets, and suddenly it’s all

On Account of a Dame