David Dvorkin @DavidDvorkin@qoto.org

#introduction
Before retiring, I was an aerospace engineer (Apollo, Viking Mars lander), software developer, and tech writer. But that was to pay the bills. I think of myself as a writer -- mostly sf, some horror, some mystery, some (yet unpublished) fantasy. Lots of details at www.dvorkin.com

My wife and I also help writers self-publish. You can find out more at www.dldbooks.com

In theory, I should be writing much more now that I'm retired. In practice, that's not happening. I blame the Internet.

I shaved my head in preparation for my dermatologist appointment tomorrow, and now I'm Lex Luthor without the money.

I bet the first company to sell a smart mirror that shows you as you wish you were instead of as you actually are will make a fortune.

I haven't had hate e-mail for a while. I just got one from someone who goes by UnitedStatesof Jermerica.

Subject: You and your family are fucking rejects

Contents of the e-mail: family of leftists cucks - add that to your shitty website trash rofl

Thanks for the energetic example, Joe, from all the other (sensible) old people out there. We clap for you. Carefully, of course, because of the arthritis in our hands.

The childish concepts of karma and the moral arc of the universe are the descendants of the Medieval Church’s cynical instructions to the poor that they should accept their lot placidly because they would be rewarded and the evil punished in the afterlife.

I suppose if I had to choose the words for my tombstone, they would be

BUY MY BOOKS

According to the radio this morning, 75-84 year olds are now the fastest growing age group in Colorado. This makes no sense to me. Leonore and I are in that age group, and we're both shrinking.

My latest, a thriller, is now out in ebook on Amazon and can be read free via Kindle Unlimited. Print editions will be out on January 24.

Here's the link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSF8N7VK

Kids today with their school cancellations because of snow and cold. I tell ya. Why, why I was a lad in high school in northern Indiana, around 65 years ago, we'd get storms with layers of snow and ice and snow and ice and... (lake effect, perhaps), and school would be cancelled, and adults would snarl that we were wimps, why, in their day etc.

Either AI will leap ahead, turn hostile, and enslave or eradicate us, or it will become a stupendously powerful but docile, if just a wee bit scary, servant. I don't think there's a middle ground.

I'm betting on #2. Perhaps I should say that I'm hoping for #2.

Rereading a long-simmering, incomplete novel in preparation for jumping back into it. The story's still good, but the writing isn't as sparklingly wonderful as I remember. Damn that decay of magnetic domains.

I finally finished the thriller novel I've been trying to finish for... It seems forever. Done before the end of the year! Now it's on my wife's computer for her excellent proofreading, after which I'll send off for the proof copy.

At that point, I'll be happy to send anyone who wants one (for possible review, for reading, or just out of curiosity) a PDF of the uncorrected proof. Let me know by DM if you want one. If you prefer email, contact me at david@dvorkin.com I'll put you on a list for when it's available.

The book has telepathy, criminals, violence, terrible secrets, and an evil cabal. No sex, but only because it didn't really belong there. It's 70,000 words and is, I hope, a quick, entertaining read.

Here's the cover:
https://i.imgur.com/dApFMmC.jpg

In the far future, when mankind develops the technology to spread across the galaxy, out intrepid pioneers will carry with them in their starships innumerable pots containing saplings to establish forests in their new homes and buckets of moss to establish mossy coverings for rocks in those forests, all of which will have been harvested somewhere near Vancouver, BC.

The Pope has called for an end to the war in the Middle East. Oh, so do I! And my call will have just as much effect as his. Why do the media bother reporting what the Pople calls for?

Ironically, the current Israel-Hamas war has had one good effect for me: It has helped me significantly reduce my overloaded social media friends/following lists.

Remember, everyone, that when the national emergency signal is broadcast to all cell phones and other devices later today, Joe Biden's microchips put into us with the Covid vaccine will activate and turn us into mindless zombies. The only ones who won't be affected are those who believe this conspiracy craziness because they're already mindless zombies.

It's odd that we call it all cutlery when in fact only the knives are cutlery. The spoons are scooplery and the forks are stablery.

There's a sucker born every minute, and then some, and those suckers give their money and their votes to any scumbag who knows how to push their buttons. Currently, the number one such scumbag is Donald Trump, but there will be innumerable others like him after he's gone.

When unable to move the plot along, go back to the beginning and polish, tweak, fix, etc., getting a new running start that will burst you through that sticking point and carry you triumphantly to the finish line! You hope.

Well, yes, it's true that I've imagined that and much worse about certain neighbors.
QT: https://mstdn.social/@fatsam/110687898659293933