Ancient Logic

The 40th chapter of "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available . This is a bit of back story chapter although it does advance Spaceman's narrative a teensy bit. In any case, thank you for your continued readership and support. *** In my last post I mentioned some happy news I might be able to announce soon. And that happy news...has been joined by still more happy news!!! Unfortunately I can't really announce either right now. I'm still waiting for confirmation on the first and a reply on the second. But rest assured, I am super-excited about both and will post updates here as soon as I have them available. November is shaping up to be a very encouraging month on a personal level. I hope the good news continues tomorrow.

In Gilead, the transcendent novel by Marilynn Robinson, a 76 year old man confronts his impending mortality and the sense he cannot provide for his young son after he is gone. He had not expected to meet his son's mother in the twilight of his life, not expected to have a son. If he had, he tells his son in a lengthy letter forming the substance of Robinson's novel, he might have set something by for him. Some sort of savings or investment. It pains him to think that when he is gone, all that he can leave are a few words. What words. As mentioned in a previous post, I set myself on the task (is that really the right word here? maybe endeavor would be better) to read as many of the 'great novels' of this young century as I could. After reading Hillary Mantel's "Wolf Hall-" which was also fantastic by the way - I made my way to Gilead. One of the many quietly strange things about this novel is that it's actually the second novel from Robinson. Her fi...

The next chapter of "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available . This web novel is updated twice weekly and follows the misadventures of two anarchist spies fighting cryptozoological threats and weaponized nihilism during the Cold War. Thank you for reading!

A new chapter is available for my web serial "Agent Shield and Spaceman." I appreciate your continued reading and support of my work. Enjoy! In other news, I'm feeling myself relishing a relatively quiet and unhurried Saturday. Fall is typically a very busy time for me, and this year appears no different.  I think my basic thought right now is: cautious optimism tinged with impatience to get the election over with already. I am well and truly sick of talking about this election. No one is surprised about how this election is shaping up. If anything, this is exactly the race the polls and debates last year predicted. Clinton versus Trump: one campaign showing a dogged, cautious approach to rounding up the votes necessary to become president and the other throwing M-80s in piles of gasoline soaked rags. Clinton up between four and six points overall, more in precisely the states she needs to win. Trump behind and blaming everyone but himself. Anyway, only 17 day...

Ah, October. Surprise! This week has not been kind to me in terms of time to catch up with my web fiction. There's the news, my day job, various extracurriculars, and then more news! But I do have chapter 35 available to read today and I hope to make some progress with some upcoming chapters tomorrow. I still think, for the most part, the novel will be updated twice weekly but I have to admit, more weeks like this past one are going to happen between now and the end of November which was my projected completion date. So, I appreciate your patience and continue to press forward to the final third of the novel. Thank you for reading!

For your reading enjoyment a new chapter of "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available . In this chapter, Spaceman confronts the double agent Melissa LeHaze after stewing in his cell for hours. He begins to sense that the Master is not quite done with him. Thank you for reading!

After a little bit of delay this week, I have updated my serial web fiction "Agent Shield and Spaceman," with a new chapter, the thirtieth.  Two quick notes on this chapter. First off, this is one of my favorites. When I was going through the old manuscript, trying to decide if this project was really worth my time and effort, this was the one that sealed the deal for me. Paradoxically, I'm still not sure if the tale of Igor Splendov really belongs in this  novel. This comes very soon after the Interlude chapter which was sort of like this one in form and function. But, I think it's impact would be lost later on in the story. That said, there's something about this episode that I find compelling. Perhaps that's the advantage of this web serial style of fiction. If you'd rather not read this back-story about the Delta Omega base, you can skip ahead. Well, not now , exactly, but when the whole thing is done, I suppose. Okay, second note. I recommend ...

Short post today, mostly to announce that the next chapter of "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is available . Today is not listed as a Chapter whatever but rather as an interlude. There are only a couple of these interludes in the novel, sections meant to broaden the scope of the work beyond the Agents of Sections Starfire. This one concerns the origin of a character increasingly important to the second part of the novel. As always, I hope you enjoy and comments/questions are always welcome!

A new chapter is available for "Agent Shield and Spaceman." In this chapter, Agent Shield decides that he would rather not watch Frankie Two-eyes die in a pit-fight and follows an employee of Thulewaite pharmaceuticals to discover the source of the Burmese Tiger Snake venom. I hope you enjoy the new chapter and feel free to comment or ask a question through this blog.

Ken Liu's massive silk-punk epic, "The Grace of Kings," is the kind of novel that requires a significant runway in order to achieve flight. The books isn't just long, it's also deliberate and thoughtful in a way at odds with any expectation for instant gratification. Although the pleasures of this book are commensurately immense, it takes a while for the true force of this story to unfold. As I've said to a few friends when discussing this book, "The Grace of Kings," is in certain respects the "Into the Woods," of fantasy epics. The initial set-up will be familiar to anyone who's read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or Suzanne Collins. A tyrannical ruler causes greater and greater burdens on the people, inspiring a few desperate rebels to resist. This rag-tag collection of heroes experience great adversity and loss until they finally defeat the Evil Empire in one final battle. This is a story as timeless as the Aeneid and Star Wars. It's also ...

My web fiction, "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now listed on Web Fiction Guide , a community-run listing of online fiction. In addition to providing a platform for stories, Web Fiction also features reviews of work. If you have a spare second and you've read a few chapters, please consider adding a review (good, bad, whatever) to the site. As I reach my last week of summer vacation I'm attempting to get as much basic revision done as possible so I can keep this going into the fall. Keep checking back here and on " Agent Shield and Spaceman ," to catch updates! Thanks for reading! Web Fiction Guide (online novels, reviews) Novels Online

Good morning folks! I have a new chapter up for "Agent Shield and Spaceman," my espionage web fiction. Frankie Two-eyes, already at the Thulewaite party starts to mingle and quickly gets himself over his head. Other than that, my mind has been preoccupied in recent days by the superlatively good epic 'silk punk' fantasy novel "The Grace of Kings" by Ken Liu. Ken's name has come up a few times on this blog because I have enormous respect for his talent and the clarity of his ideas. This novel is door-stop and I hadn't had enough time to really launch into a massive fantasy epic until this summer. I guess at the moment, all I have time to say is that I'm blown away by it. I think it's easily one of my favorite fantasy stories and ranks pretty high up in terms of general works as well. I could probably talk for a couple of days about all the reasons I think this novel succeeds at everything it sets out to do and writers of speculative fic...

Finished reading "Disappearance at Devil's Rock" by Paul Tremblay and I'm going to put it on the recommended list for 2016 novels. This is one of a handful of works I've read this year that seem directly influenced or reacting to the True Detective phenomena from a couple years back. The first season, I mean, not the second. The influence in the case of Tremblay is of an established weird fiction writer (His story "Swim Wants to Know If It's As Bad As Swim Thinks" was one of my favorites from the Best Weird Fiction Vol. 1 anthology) embracing the ambiguity of a vaguely supernatural, philosophy major-baiting crime thriller. Like True Detective, the layers of narrative and contradictory witnesses all work to cultivate doubt and suspicion. Unlike True Detective, the setting here is a very fleshed-out and specific evocation of childhood in the media inundated 21st century. Far from lamenting the presence of cell phones, internet, and the 24 hour blizzard...

I really don't want to spend much more time thinking about this election but with both conventions wrapped up, the moment calls for some comment. I'm voting for Hillary. I doubt this will come as surprise to anyone who's met me or read much of this blog but this isn't even close. I hear those who feel as though they cannot vote for Hillary because their views conflict with hers or they don't trust her or whatever. I find such arguments utterly unmoving. As Bernie himself once said, "On her worst day, Hillary is 1000 times better than Trump." By now, the truth of those words must be obvious to anyone willing to look at the situation with clear eyes. The man has no shame, no sense of decency, and no ability to change. He is what he is. If that was it, and his opponent was some random Democrat I would relish the chance to vote against him. I consider that act to be a powerful affirmation of everything I want this country to be and stand for. But af...

I am HOOKED on Netflix's "Stranger Things," the exclusive mystery/horror series released last week. Seriously, folks, this is a good show - and probably one of my favorite things I've seen on the small screen this year. Everything, from the retro-style of the production, the smart casting  choices (Winona Ryder is fantastic), to the intriguing "Demigorgon" monster works so well. The Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross Duffer) deserve credit for much of this, having woven together the spectral and mundane elements of the story with confidence and style. It helps that the nostalgia this show mines is congruent to my own experiences as a child of the mid-80s. Without being annoying about it, the show hits all of the right notes - from the awesomely boxy cars, to the amazement shown a 22-inch television screen and a Laz-E-Boy, to the inspired soundtrack choices. This feels like the 80s. Better yet, this retro setting doesn't feel like a gratuitous...

The eleventh chapter is now available over on "Agent Shield and Spaceman." I update this serialized espionage thriller two to three times a week. In today's installment, Frankie Two-Eyes meets with his handler and learns the Section Starfire mission is an offer he cannot refuse. The world of politics is blowing up! Movies are blowing up! There are some many good television shows and they are all blowing up! I'm having trouble prioritizing today and I really do have some work to get done so I'm going to try an inoculate myself with a blog post on...POLITICS! First off, the one thing I was willing to cede to Trump was that he knows how to put on a show. I figured that with his years of monetizing spectacles, he would know how to create an epic convention for himself. I resigned myself to a massive post-convention bump that would send all of the talking heads scurrying for a thesaurus to find different ways of writing "Clinton Campaign in Trouble." ...

The next chapter for my ongoing web fiction "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available . I am currently reading Alastair Reynold's "Chasm City," a follow-up to "Revelation Space," a cyberpunk space opera I enjoyed very much when I read it nearly a decade ago. I'm also enjoying "Chasm City," as it contains much of what I suspect earned Reynold's his reputation. Although he paints on a very large canvas, he is very economical in his writing. He skillfully focuses on the perspective of a single highly motivated character, for example, rather than rope in a large number of extra characters right of the bat. He also employs an interesting technique to get some other perspectives in what is essentially a first person perspective: infectious spiritual memories. Lastly, knowing what I do about the hellscape the book is ultimately destined to describe, I respect the patient and methodical approach Reynold uses in world building. No concept...

The next chapter of Agent Shield and Spaceman is now available . With Chapter VIII I've now reached the part of the web fiction that motivated me to revise and publish this work - the Burmese Tiger Snakes. Honestly, I'm not sure where these creatures came from but once they sunk their fangs into my head, nearly a decade ago, they never really let go. I'm reasonably happy with the Smithsonian episodes and hopefully a reader is beginning to notice some forward momentum in the plot. For better or worse, these chapters are more representative of the rest of the work than the four chapters before it. As always, I greatly appreciate you reading this web fiction and your comments are welcome. In other news, I am currently listening to "Micro," Michael Crichton's last work. Man, I read just about every single novel from Crichton back in middle school and high school and I still get a comfy glow of nostalgia listening to his stories now. Crichton's project, updatin...

Now that I've returned from camping for the Fourth, I've got a new chapter up for "Agent Shield and Spaceman." How was my Fourth you ask? Perfectly patriotic, of course. My wife and I stayed at the Great Bay Camping grounds which is a little north of the border in New Hampshire. Beautiful location, impressive fireworks (which freaked Finn out thoroughly), and - for the most part - chill fellow campers. I hope wherever you found yourself this weekend you were with family, friends, and plenty of good food. I used the occasion to write ahead a few chapters in the web fiction as well as get some details ironed out for a new short fiction piece I'll start later this week. I also finished reading a Lovecraft anthology "Future Lovecraft" which I can partially recommend for fans of Mythos literature. Personally, my preferred mode of Lovecraftian writing is cosmic horror clearly inspired by HP's work, not slavishly devoted to it. My favorite stories in the ...

The fifth chapter of my web fiction "Agent Shield and Spaceman" is now available . On this final day of June, things appear to be on track to keep going with the schedule. I saw "Finding Dory," the other night which I can recommend even though the movie didn't leave me with any overwhelming need to see it a second time. It's a Pixar sequel which means the movie doesn't feel ground-breaking or original in any particular fashion. On the other hand, the story is beyond competently told, and the new characters are fun. In particular, the sea lions seemed an inspired bit of voice acting paired with some entertaining animation. In other words, your typical mid-range Pixar movie. In my search for the "Dark Realism" literature I outlined in a previous post,  I recently finished "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. This intriguing bit of cosmic horror imagine a world after an enigmatic visit by aliens. After their brief stay o...