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Are You Okay With a Trump Dictatorship?

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Many would say that the two and a half century American experiment in democracy has been pretty successful. Are you okay with replacing it with a Trump dictatorship?

Let’s look at what we could be facing.

If Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, this means lower Democratic turnout and higher Republican turnout. Result – Republicans will likely have majority control of both the House (where they currently have a majority) and Senate (where Democrats currently have a one-seat majority but have to defend 23 seats to the Republican’s 10). 

So, Trump will have the presidency; Republicans will control both houses of congress; and five of the nine Supreme Court Justices are essentially Trump supporters (three that he appointed, plus Alito and Thomas).

In the Senate, there’s the filibuster rule, where you need sixty votes to pass anything. Except … that can change with a simple majority vote. Both parties, to date, have toyed with but refrained from pulling the so-called “Nuclear Option” and ending the filibuster rule. They know that if they do this, it’s just a matter of time before the other side gets a majority.

On July 29, 2017, Trump tweeted, “The very outdated filibuster rule must go. Budget reconciliation is killing R’s in Senate. Mitch M, go to 51 Votes NOW and WIN. IT’S TIME!” Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused the Nuclear Option, but Senate Republicans who are willing to stand up to Trump – and face likely defeat in Republican Primaries – are long gone. Say goodbye to the filibuster rule. (Yes, Kamala Harris has said she’d support ending the filibuster rule for one issue – Roe v. Wade protections. If so, she would not be using it for the reasons Trump would likely use it, i.e., personal power, and she’s unlikely to have a majority in the Senate anyway.)

So, Trump would have control of both houses, with only a simple majority needed to pass anything. (Yes, Republicans held both houses while Trump was president in 2017-2018, but Trump didn’t yet have the hold on the party that he does now, a Justice Department that would do his bidding, or a near rubber-stamp Supreme Court.) Even worse, with Republicans doing whatever he asks, he’ll be able to coerce congress into putting even more power in the hands of the president.

Does the German Enabling Act of 1933 sound familiar? 

Learning from his first term, Trump would almost certainly appoint absolute loyalists as head of the Justice Department and FBI, and a Republican congress would rubber-stamp them. (Even if they didn’t, he’d just appoint “acting” directors, as he did in his first term.) The Supreme Court has ruled that a president can’t be prosecuted for “official acts” – again, Germany’s 1933 Enabling Act comes to mind. With control of the House, Trump won’t be impeached again. (Even if he were, they’d need two-thirds majority to indict in the Senate. No chance of getting enough Republicans willing to end their political careers by voting to indict. Dead on arrival.)

Trump could have his Justice Department arrest Biden, Obama, Clinton, and round up anyone else he considers an enemy on “trumped-up” charges. Or order fraudulent tax audits. Or any of the myriad ways a president, without checks and balances, might seek revenge. What would stop him from harassing, even arresting members of the so-called “lamestream media” that often opposes him and keeps the public updated on the facts? Do you think his supporters would object to that? Trump hates the people they hate, and so do you think they’ll complain if Trump falsely punishes those people? What possible mechanism could stop it? Impeachment and Indictment are off the table. He’d have a free hand to enact the very revenge he has so often promised on so many.

“But he won’t go after us!” his supporters would say. This is how dictator wannabes get their supporters to accept them as dictators, by going after their joint “enemies.” It never ends well.

Trump’s followers have long believed or gone along with his many lies. Remember what Voltaire wrote: “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Remember what happened after the Germany’s Enabling Act.

How do we know Trump would seek such revenge? Because he has promised it over and over in rallies and texts. He’s even said he’d appoint a special prosecutor to go after Biden and his family, and that prosecutor would be selected by his Justice Department, i.e., by Trump himself. He has called for Hillary Clinton and others to be locked up. But don’t expect him to stop there – he has a long list of supposed grievances, which he’s very vocal about, and recently said revenge can be justified. Suffice to quote from a speech in 2011: “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back ten times as hard. I really believe it.” He reiterated this in 2023, saying, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” He’s made dozens of similar statements. If reelected, he’d be in position to do so.

Worst of all, he’d control future presidential elections. Guess who’d preside over the results in the Republican-controlled Senate in the 2028 presidential election? Yes, Vice President Vance, who’s already said he wouldn’t have sanctioned the 2020 election results. (He wouldn’t be on the ticket otherwise.) All he and Trump have to do is once again allege fraud (so Senate Republicans can rationalize rejecting the results), again bring in their own electors (with Trump supporters already taking over many state election boards), and they “win,” no matter the real result. Their Republican base, now essentially a Trump cult, already believes the 2020 election was rigged (because Trump and his sycophants told them so), despite the lack of evidence and losing all 60+ court cases on this, most with Republican judges, many with Trump-appointed judges – about half of them thrown out by judges because of lack of evidence. Why would they doubt it this time?

And, of course, Trump needs to be president to stay out of prison. Once out of office he faces a lot of criminal cases. How far would he go to avoid this?

Even the Supreme Court can’t stop him. Putting aside that five are essentially Trump loyalists, remember that the Supreme Court in 1832 ruled that President Andrew Jackson couldn’t relocate Cherokee Indians (Worcester vs. Georgia). He simply ignored it and went ahead and did so – see “Trail of Tears” – correctly realizing the Supreme Court couldn’t enforce it, and that congress wouldn’t impeach him.

Guess who Trump has called his favorite president?

How would this not be a Trump dictatorship? Remember that laws and even Supreme Court rulings are meaningless if there’s no way of enforcing them. (Ask the Cherokees about this.) If Trump is elected president again, perhaps the only thing stopping a Trump dictatorship would be if Trump magnanimously chooses to give up such power. Do you believe he would do that?

On July 26, 2024, Trump said, “You won’t have to (vote) anymore” and “In four years, you don’t have to vote again.” Yes, he said this. And who are the leaders around the world that Trump regularly admires? Autocrats such as Putin, Xi, Kim, Erdoğan, and Orban.

He’s even said he’d be a dictator on his first day back as president. How many dictators willingly give up power?

Am I assuming the worst of Trump? Yes – but that doesn’t matter. What matters is whether we really want to put Trump or any other potential megalomanic president in a position where they could, if they choose, become a dictator and end our democracy.

The Founding Fathers understood the value of checks and balances, and so should we.

Some might argue that our democracy has survived this long, and expect that it will survive Trump, despite the unique situation we face. That’s the famous last words of every democracy that turned into a dictatorship and didn’t see it coming. Russia says hello.

Trump is a unique danger in that his cult followers support him no matter what he does, potentially putting incredible power in the hands of the most narcissistic and dishonest president this country has ever had. As Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” (And he didn’t lose any voters by saying that or any of the huge number of other controversial statements, insults, and tens of thousands of documented lies.) This makes it clear what we are up against. It’s an existential threat.

Many of his followers likely want a Trump dictatorship – though they wouldn’t call it that. They believe he’d remake America in that vague “Make America Great Again” image in their heads that he’s sold them on. Many would love to see Trump take revenge on his enemies, who they see as their own enemies – liberals, Democrats, the mainstream media, and the long list of others that Trump demonizes, i.e., anyone that opposes him. Trump’s followers may be surprised and dismayed at the actual result. How many dictatorships have worked out for the good of that country? Perhaps they should google the famous “First they came for…” quote from pastor Martin Niemöller.

So … are you okay with a Trump dictatorship?

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Review of Joker: Folie à Deux

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It was an excellent 80-minute movie. The problem was that it was 138 minutes long. They tried to make it half drama, half musical, but the musical aspect mostly didn’t work, and seemed forced. That’s the  primary reason I think it’s getting such bad reviews. I watched in a nearly empty theater, and halfway through, during another pointless song and dance routine, two different groups walked out, leaving just two of us in the theater to watch the rest.

How did I survive? By pretending the musical sequences were just commercials, and so wait them out until we get back to the good stuff. During one of the musical numbers I actually scribbled some notes on a notepad for a story I’m writing.

I see what they tried to do with this movie, and it was a worthy attempt. If you look at great movies that had great sequels – The Godfather, Terminator, Alien, original Star Wars, and so on – the one thing all had in common is they brought in the best of the first movie plus something new. In this sequel, a primary “something new” they brought in were all the musical sequences – way too many of them. Some were real, while others took place only in the fantasy mind of Joker, i.e., Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

The sequel already had two new things. In the first movie, which I really liked, we got to know the sad-sack Arthur and his horrible life, and his descent into insanity. The movie had eleven Academy Award Nominations, and won two – Phoenix for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and, ironically, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score). The sequel almost entirely takes place in a prison asylum and in court, which was new, and Arthur’s terrible life continues there – those scenes I found interesting as he adjusted to his new life, along with the breakout courtroom scenes, where many of the surviving characters from the first movie were brought back to testify.

The other big addition is Lady Gaga as Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, i.e., Harley Quinn. She was basically a Joker and musical groupie, and love interest. As a character, she was pretty good – the “Folie à Deux” from the title is French for “madness for two,” and she was quite mad with her obsession with and devotion to Joker. But she wasn’t as big a standout as the hyper-energized, bubbly Margot Robbie was in the role. However, overall, the strange prison romance between the two worked for the movie except when they went to the musical numbers – which was essentially every time. That’s why they hired Lady Gaga for the part! Imagine all the best scenes in your favorite movie, and in the middle of each one someone pulls out a blackboard and for three minutes scratches their fingernails across it. That’s what much of it was like.

Two of the musical sequences really worked, and if they’d dropped all the rest and went with these two standouts, it could have been a really nice movie. The first took place when Arthur and a group of prisoners and guards are watching the news on TV and District Attorney Harvey Dent says he’s going for the death penalty for Arthur. The prisoners and guards begin making fun of him. How does Arthur react? Out of the blue, he breaks into song, and in that situation, it was creepy and worked, reminiscent of the out-of-the-blue dancing scene in the first movie. The other took place in court, when Arthur has just had his whole imaginary world burst open and he’s at his lowest point, and a witness is saying he lives in an imaginary world. Arthur’s response? You guessed it, a great song and dance sequence in the courtroom that takes place entirely in Arthur’s imaginary world, showing what he wants to do. That might have been the best scene in the movie. Then the scene closes, and we’re back to poor Arthur drearily sitting in court, forced to hear more statements from witnesses.

If the movie had only stuck to drama, with those two sequences, it could have been a near-classic. However, there were two other problems.

First, if you take out the musical sequences, the movie would be rather short. But that’s easily fixed. There’s only one prisoner that Arthur really interacts with. Why not have him and Arthur concoct an escape plan (along with Harley Quinn) that almost works? Or something like that. Or, better still, they could use the extra time to resolve the courtroom letdown scene, which is the second problem.

That second problem is that there’s a big letdown in one of the last courtroom scenes that I can’t go into without spoiling the movie. The letdown only works if they either resolve it in the final third of the movie (which they didn’t), or by having a third Joker movie that resolves this letdown. That probably won’t happen now due to the lower ratings and ticket sales for this one.

This one ended with a rather downbeat resolution for Joker that could be the end . . . but it left it open for a possible third movie. From a cinematic point of view, imagine if they had done the original two Star Wars movies (now #4 and #5), and stopped. Then Luke’s final confrontation with Darth Vader would be in #5, “The Empire Strikes Back,” where he loses his hand, and at the end of the movie the bad guys are on top. All this is resolved in the sequel, “Return of the Jedi.” That type of resolution was needed in this movie, either in the final third, or in a third movie.

Overall, I don’t regret seeing this movie, but there’s nearly an hour of my life I’ll never get back. But now I can replay those musical numbers in my mind whenever I need to get to sleep.

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Dialogue and Sales and Publications, Oh My!

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larry-balticon-2022smI wonder if I’m the only writer who tends to write snippets of dialogue before starting on a story? I find it helps in developing the characters and setting the tone of the story. For example, in my novel “Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions,” there were four main characters. One of them was Feodora Zubkov, a general from Russia who was being recruited to run for vice president of Earth. When she is first introduced she has just come out of a negotiating meeting. Long before I wrote the scene, I wrote:

“Hello, dahlings,” Feodora said.
“How go the Korean non-destruction talks?” Toby asked.
“Like igloo in a room full of hot air,” Feodora said.

From that, I realized she was dryly sarcastic and impatient with bureaucracy and politics. And from there on, her character came alive. When she orders brandied corn cabbage for lunch, everyone copies her and orders the same thing.

“We figured that if you ordered it, it must be good,” Toby said.
“I hate brandied corn cabbage,” she said. “Tastes like rotting tomatoes. But rest of menu taste like wet dog.”

Her whole character came alive from these snippets of dialog – and they were written literally months before the rest of the scene was written. But I then wrote the scene knowing exactly what Feodora was like and had great fun coming up with the rest of her dialogue – which, once I put myself into her character, she was surprisingly easy to write throughout the novel. She became the breakout character.

I’ve had a bunch of recent sales and publications, including an incredible sequence of three (or four?) days in a row with a sale. (The streak ended yesterday. But that makes 205 sales, including 53 to “Pro” markets that pay at least 8 cents/word.)

  • May 30: I sold “The Annual Albert Einstein Race to the End of Time” to Flash Fiction Magazine.
  • May 31: I sold “The Heist of Humanity” to Flame Tree (a “Pro” market), which should come out any day now in the Flame Tree June Newsletter. They’re a pro-paying publication.
  • June 1: I sold “Tooth Apocalypse” to Dragon Soul Press for their upcoming Apocalypse anthology.
  • June 2: a “Pro” market requested a partial rewrite of “The Bloody Shooting War on the Purple Senate Floor.” This usually means a sale, pending the successful rewrite. (Alas, I can’t give out the name of the publication at this time.)

I’ve also had a slew of stories published recently or upcoming, including:

  • June 1: The anthology Madam President came out from B-Cubed Press, which includes my story, “You Are President, Madam President.”
  • June 15: “First Galactic Table Tennis Championships,” from New Myths, a 10,000-word novelette.
  • Thank You Miss Kittykat!”, Amazing Stories, scheduled June, 2024
  • Don’t Look!”, Sci-Phi Journal, scheduled June, 2024.
  • Small Step,” Abyss & Apex, scheduled July 1, 2024.
  • Seven other sold stories without publication dates yet. This includes the long-titled “Two Democratic Civilizations Passing in the Twilight of the Boondocks of the Galaxy” to Ahoy Comics (a pro-paying publication), and the even longer titled but gimmicky story I have in the upcoming “Alternate Leadership” anthology from B-Cubed Press, which is a three-word story with a 630-word title!

I had four stories published in March, including three that are online so you can read immediately.

  • Confederate Cavalry on a Plane,” Metastellar, 4400 words.
    A physics professor and his student on a passenger plane argue about the possibility of infinite alternate universes, while being robbed blind by a bratty kid. The professor bets the student that even the most unlikely event possible must happen, leading to three very confused Confederate Cavalry charging down the aisle of the plane.
  • The Personary,” New Myths, a quick 500-word read.
    If a person goes to the library to read books, where does a book go to get a person to read it? Why, the Personary! And what if adventurous books have to avoid bullying books to get to the Personary?
  • A Tale of One City,” Flash Fiction Magazine, 1000 words.
    It’s sort of a takeoff of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens and the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. A developing writer starts a mass movement that worships averageness, and condemns all that is great or poor – but runs into the problem of how to grow a mass movement that condemns your very success in doing so.
  • Eternity and the Devil,” The Devil You Know anthology, 5300 words.
    A physicist sells his soul he can solve the Grand Unified Theory, which he uses to greatly benefit mankind – he’s a good guy. When the Devil shows up and takes him to Hell, the scientist escapes into the future in a time machine – and with numerous stops, goes a trillion years into the future, pursued by the Devil. At each stop, he is surrounded by billions of systematically tortured souls in Hell – including his long-suffering girlfriend, who he is determined to save.

And now it’s off to read and critique stories for the upcoming nine-day “The Never-Ending Odyssey” writing workshop for Odyssey grads, which I’ll be attending for the 15th time (along with the initial six-week workshop in 2006) in Manchester, NH, July 19-27 – I’ll write more about that next time.

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Writing and Selling and Panera’s, Oh My!

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It’s been a busy year so far, between writing, rewriting, submitting stories, and the nine-day “The Never-Ending Odyssey” science fiction writing workshop (TNEO, July 21-29).

I have this strange routine where I go to Panera’s almost every day for lunch and spend the afternoon there writing and sipping Dr Pepper. Sometimes I stay for dinner. But the routine works – I get a lot of writing done, both science fiction & fantasy, and my other writing topic, the Olympic sport of table tennis. (I’m currently alternating between writing SF and writing, “Table Tennis Doubles for Champions.” I’m in the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame as a coach and writer.)

I’ve had an even ten stories sold or published so far this year. (I have five others that are currently “finalists” – in fact, I’d have written this blog a while ago except I’ve been anxiously awaiting the final word on some of them – but decided I couldn’t wait any longer. But two of them are big markets!!!) The ones sold or published this year are:

  • “First Galactic Table Tennis Championships” (10,000 words!) to New Myths
  • War Around the Clock” to Bullet Points, published in August
  • “Spiders Under My Skin” to October Screams anthology, published in September
  • “Drip” to Ahoy Comics, published in August
  • Consecutive Terms” to Martian Magazine, published in September
  • “The Whaler and the Whale” to Shacklebound Short Horror Stories
  • “Battle in the Ballot Box” to Sci-Phi Journal
  • “A God of One and Zeroes” to Storia
  • “Super Rex” to Storia
  • “You Are President, Madam President” to Madam President anthology, coming in October

Since January I’ve written over twenty stories. Three of my favorites were critiqued at TNEO, and are all now making the rounds:

  • Two Dreams: Dr. King and the Alien. An upbeat alien makes first contact during the 1963 March on Washington, during King’s “I have a dream” speech.
  • Bullet Time. You’re a bank teller, there’s a robbery, and the robber shoots you – but time slows down, and it takes five days for the bullet to reach you. Except you are trapped in your body, which is also slowed down, and so you can’t get out of the way! And then something shows up…
  • Connoisseur of Cambrian Cooking. A woman travels 500 million years into the past to the Cambrian – but her time machine’s battery is dead and she’s stuck there. There’s no edible food, and yet she survives – how?

I often work on multiple stories at the same time, going from one to another. I currently have five in various stages. My favorite is probably “Mathball,” a satirical future where mathematicians on the field have completely taken over baseball!

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Latest Happenings

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larry-balticon-2022smHere are the latest updates!

I just finished my 13th “The Never-Ending Odyssey” science fiction & fantasy writing workshop, July 22-30. It’s for graduates of the six-week Odyssey science fiction & fantasy writing workshop. I’m class of ’06. During the workshop we critiqued each other’s work, ran “master” classes, did readings, and had various problem-solving and plotting meetings. I’m finalizing three new stories that were critiqued there.

My novel, “Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions,” will be reprinted this fall by Phoenix Pick, the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Arc Manor Publishers. More on that as the publication date approaches!

Here I am at Balticon in May during a book signing. Yes, I’m wearing a “Baby Yoda playing table tennis” shirt. I was on several panels.

From Aug. 4-7, I’ll be in Houston doing coverage (and playing in!) the 2022 World Hardbat Table Tennis Championships. (Here’s my article on it.) Then I have three weeks of vacation. From Aug. 8-11 I’ll be touring Houston (NASA Spaceflight Center) and San Antonio (The Alamo, Riverwalk) in Texas. Then I fly to Mexico City for a 15-day guided tour of Mexico, Aug. 13-27, that focuses on historical sites. It’s going to be fun and exhausting, and I will almost certainly come back with all sorts of story ideas, probably featuring Aztecs.

I keep close track of my writing stats. As of Aug. 1, I have 17 books and 2110 published articles in 177 different publications, including 133 short story sales. (175 if you include 42 resales.) My books are roughly evenly spit between science fiction/fantasy and the Olympic Sport of Table Tennis. But the great bulk of my published articles are table tennis – 1853 to be exact. I also have over 1900 blog entries, mostly in my table tennis blog. I’m a member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame, and as I like to brag, I’m the best table tennis player in Science Fiction Writers of America (membership ~2000), and the best science fiction writer in USA Table Tennis (membership ~10,000)!!! If you think about this, it doesn’t mean much.

I’ve had five science fiction & fantasy stories published so far this year.

  1. Four Score and Seven Years of the End of America: A Bibliography,” Daily Science Fiction, June 9, 2022
  2. Prototype Solar System with Strings Attached,” Galaxy’s Edge, May/June 2022
  3. Madam Hitler,” New Myths, March 15, 2022
  4. Releasing Hitler,” Metastellar, July 11, 2022 (reprint)
  5. Death Message,” Martian Magazine, March 7, 2022 (drabble)

I’ve sold eleven science fiction & fantasy stories so far this year. That makes a total of 14 forthcoming stories, I think a new record! 🙂

  1. “Soul Testing in Major League Baseball” to Daily Science Fiction
  2. “Packing List for the Invasion” to Daily Science Fiction
  3. “The Vampire on the Tesserect Wall” to Dark Matter Magazine
  4. “Rationalized” to the Flame Tree Compelling SF anthology
  5. “Christmas Interrupted” to the Flame Tree Christmas Gothic anthology
  6. “Interview with Mister Plub” to Post Roe Alternatives
  7. “Ten Songs of Halloween” to  the Alternative Holidays anthology
  8. “New Year’s Skeleton” to Dire Dark
  9. “Small Step” to Abyss & Apex
  10. “A Grand Canyon of Lions” to Martian Magazine
  11. “Death Message” to Martian Magazine

Are you a wannabe writer? This is from a while ago, but here’s 50 Writing Quotes by Larry Hodges – funny and inspirational!

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2021: SF Writing Year in Review

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larry-capclave2021-lgBut for me, it was a pretty good year. I sold 15 stories and had ten published. Strange thing about the ten published is that two were in November and five in December, so it was a bottom-heavy year. (Altogether, I’ve sold 124 short stories, including an even 40 at SFWA “pro” markets, six of them last year.) One nice breakthrough – for some reason, I’d never been able to sell anything to Daily Science Fiction. But I ended the year with two consecutive sales to them, in Nov. and Dec., which should come out sometime this year. Here are the stories I sold or published 2021, with the word count in parenthesis:

  1. Global Warming is a Hoax Said the Alien in the Spare Bedroom (3200) to Galaxy’s Edge
  2. Prototype Solar System with Strings Attached (1100) to Galaxy’s Edge
  3. Soul Testing in Major League Baseball (1300) to Daily Science Fiction
  4. Four Score and Seven Years of the End of America: A Bibliography (350) to Daily Science Fiction
  5. Madam Hitler (6900) to New Myths
  6. Love Drops (1100) New Myths; published Dec 2021
  7. The Annual Times Square Paint Dry (150) to Stupefying Stories; published Dec 2021
  8. The Devil’s Backbone (7000) to Alternative Deathiness; published Dec 2021
  9. Space Force: First Victory (900) to Alternative Space Forces; published Dec 2021
  10. Space Force: The Poem (300) to Alternative Space Forces; published Dec 2021
  11. The Purple Rose of Retribution (5500) to Utopia Science Fiction; published Nov 2021
  12. Ninety-Nine Sextillion Souls in a Ball (3600) to Dark Matter; published Nov 2021
  13. Nanogod (4600) to Dark Matter; published May 2021
  14. Galactic He-Men and Cheating Camels (100) to Martian Magazine; published May 2021
  15. The Pushovers of Galactic Baseball Fame (1000) to Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction; published Feb 2021

I had another story coming out in 2021, “The Vampire on the Tesseract Wall (3900), at Amazing Stories, but they went into limbo. They paid me a $116 “kill” fee, and the story is back on the market. (What happens when 4-D beings import living creatures from Earth as decorations for their wall – but mistakenly take a vampire? It’s a mixture of SF and fantasy.)

I am pretty prolific. On Jan. 1, when a number of markets opened, I submitted a bunch of stories. My current count is 42 stories in submission (some markets allow multiple submissions); 45 stories on hold waiting for markets; ten stories that are “finalized” but waiting to be critiqued at critters.org and/or TNEO (which I’ll be attending this summer for the 14th time, including eleven years in a row); and 16 stories that I’ve started, some almost done, some I might not get back to.

But I spend a LOT of time on each of these stories. Each goes through multiple drafts. I’ll spend a lot of time writing it, then put it aside. Later, I’ll go over it again with a fresh mind, and do major rewriting. Then I put it aside again, and come back to it later with a fresh mind, and then “finalize” it. Then I send it in for critiquing at critters.org, along with three that go to TNEO.

I attended one workshop and only two SF conventions in 2021, the least I’ve been to since 2005.

  • Balticon (May 28-30)
  • Capclave (Oct. 1-3)
  • TNEO workshop (July 23-31)

It’s been a busy year outside SF as well. As some may know, I’m also a professional table tennis coach and writer. (Of my 17 books, nine are on table tennis, one is a travel book, the rest F&SF. As I often jokingly tell people, I’m the best table tennis player in SFWA, and the best SF writer in USATT!) I did a lot of traveling for table tennis last year, including coaching USA Junior Teams in major events in Ecuador and Jordan:

  • 29-30: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the Ohio Open.
  • 12-14: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the Wasserman Ohio Junior Championships.
  • 16-18: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the Cary Open in Cary, NC.
  • June 3-6: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the USA Under 15 and Under 19 Junior Team Trials in Milpitas, CA.
  • June 18-20: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the USA Under 11, Under 13, and Under 17 Junior Team Trials in Westchester, NY.
  • July 4-9: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas.
  • 5: Coached Maryland Junior Team at the Westchester Teams in NY.
  • 10-28: Coached USA Junior Team in Cuenca, Ecuador, at an international camp and three tournaments in 19 days. The first event was the Pan Am Hopes Championships, for the best players in North and Latin America under age 12. The player I coached, Ryan Lin, was seeded sixth but came in second! This qualified him for the World Hopes in Jordan. I also coached the Under 13 Boys’ team at the Pan Am Youth Championships and the ITTF Contender Open, where they won a bunch of medals.
  • 26-28: Coached the Maryland Junior Team at the North American Team Championships in Washington DC.
  • 8-15: Coached USA Junior Team in Amman, Jordan, at the World Hopes Camp and Tournament (for the best players in the world under age 12). The player I coached, Ryan Lin, finished 7th – in the world – and is now on the World Hopes Team (top ten in the world).
  • 17-22: Coached Maryland Team at the US Open in Las Vegas. Also played in Hardbat Singles, where (shockingly for my age) I made the final (I’ve won it twice), and winning Hardbat Doubles for the 14th time. (Most events are with “sponge” rackets; hardbat is a separate event where players use old-style pimpled rubber without sponge. I normally play and coach with sponge but do hardbat as well.)

The most irritating to happen to me in 2021 (besides the obvious) was that the World Science Fiction Convention was held right next door to me in Washington DC (30 min away), Dec. 15-19, but I had to miss it as I was coaching, back to back, in Amman, Jordan and then Las Vegas – and trying to adjust to the ten-hour time difference!!!

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New Sales and Publications, and an Online Workshops

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Some news on story sales and publications…
 
On Feb. 1, 2021, my SF story “The Pushovers of Galactic Baseball Fame” was published in Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction. What happens if baseball spreads to the galaxy – but instead of great baseball players that make spectators feel inferior, what’s in great demand are really bad players so spectators can feel good about themselves?
 
On Feb. 3, 2021 I sold my SF story “Love Drops” to New Myths Magazine. (This was my 117th short story sale.) It starts out, “The greatest and most tragic love story began with a bomb exploding on a packed plane, six miles in the air.” But what happens to this elderly, loving couple after the bomb goes off and they are falling to the ground is the real story. It is tentatively scheduled to come out in September.
 
The cover for the May/June issue of Dark Matter Magazine just came out, with my SF story, “Nanogod,” and my name on the cover! What happens when a nanobot – i.e. a microscopic robot – has its processing system damaged, becomes an egomaniac, and travels the galaxy in a huge ship, enslaving entire civilizations and forcing them to build huge monuments to honor it? (Hint – now we know why the Great Pyramids were really built!) I’ve sold them two stories – I have another SF story coming out with them in November, “Ninety-Nine Sextillion Souls in a Ball.”
 
Meanwhile, I (and 14 others) just finished a one-month online writing workshop with Scott Andrews with the Odyssey Writing Workshop, “Emotional Truth: Making Characters Emotions Real, Powerful, and Immediate to Readers.”
(For my fellow table tennis players, it’s like a table tennis training camp, but for writers.)

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2020 Writing Review

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2020 – It was the worst of times, it was the . . . worst of times. Let’s leave it at that. As to writing, I focused on short stories, and wrote a plethora of stories. Or was that a surfeit or superfluity of stories?

I read 67 books in 2020. By category, Fiction 31, Politics & History 16, Science 9, Writing 5, and Table Tennis 6.

I’m attending the Odyssey Online Workshop, “Emotional Truth: Making Character Emotions Real, Powerful, and Immediate to Readers,” with Scott Andrews. We’ll be doing a lot of reading and analyzing (eight stories or articles as part of the pre-workshop assignment), with two-hour online sessions on Jan. 6, Jan. 20, and Feb. 3. I’m already well into my reading and analysis – I’ve already picked up on some interesting things in one of the assigned readings, “Carnival Nine” by Caroline Yoachim, where she treats emotions like, well, a ping-pong ball. 🙂 I found another fascinating method she uses to re-enforce emotions which I may elaborate on later, and may bring up in the online sessions.

I had 16 stories sold or published in 2020.

  • “Releasing Hitler” was published by Galaxy’s Edge, Jan/Feb 2020
  • “Blood Wars” was published by Galaxy’s Edge, Mar/Apr 2020
  • “Tooth Theology” was published by Galaxy’s Edge, May/June 2020
  • “The Untold Christmas Carol” was published by Galaxy’s Edge, Nov/Dec 2020
  • “Prototype Solar System with Strings Attached” sold to Galaxy’s Edge
  • “Journey to Perfection” sold to and was published by Unidentified Funny Objects #8 Anthology, Sept 2020
  • “Philosopher Rex” sold to and was published by Zooscape, Sept. 2020
  • “Pinning the Egg” sold to and was published by the Sci-Fi Journal, Dec 2020
  • “High Plains Centaur” was published by New Myths, Mar 2020
  • “The Vampire on the Tesseract Wall” sold to Amazing Stories
  • “Ninety-Nine Sextillion Souls in a Ball” sold to Dark Matter Magazine
  • “Nanogod” sold to Dark Matter Magazine
  • “Defeating Death” sold to Parliament of Wizards
  • “Space Force: First Victory” sold to Alternative Space Forces anthology
  • “Space Force: The Poem” sold to Alternative Space Forces anthology
  • “The Pushovers of Galactic Baseball Fame” sold to Paper Butterfly Flash Fiction

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17

Three Sales!

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I’ve had a good three weeks, with three “pro” sales. Earlier this week I sold “Nanogod,” 4600 words, to Dark Matter Magazine, which pays 8 cents/word. What happens when a microscopic nanobot, designed for brain surgery, is damaged and becomes an egomaniac that travels the galaxy, conquering civilizations and forcing them to build huge monuments in its honor? It forced us to build the Great Pyramids 4600 years ago . . . and now it’s back and wants more! The story (then titled “A Monument for ME”) was critiqued at the 2016 Never-Ending Odyssey by Jeanne Cavelos, Chip Houser, Lauren O’Donnell, Chris Kenworthy, Kat Kohler, Michael Main, and Terry Edge. Special thanks for their help! Side note – the editor asked if I could do a sequel! I’ll get to that soon.

In late May I had two sales. “Journey to Perfection,” 3700 words, went to Unidentified Funny Objects #8, the annual SF and fantasy humor anthology by Alex Shvartsman, at 10 cents/word. A wealthy, snooty “doctor” buys the newest car model, and with a few misunderstandings, they’re off to see and meet some rather strange places and people, including Jimmy Hoffa’s burial site, Jesus on Mars, and the “Perfect” place!!! It’s my second sale to them.

The other was “Philosopher Rex,” 900 words, which sold to Zooscape, which pays 8 cents/word for flash. It’s about a philosophizing T-Rex that meets our earliest ancestors – lemur-like creatures – during the final days of the dinosaurs, and how their attitudes toward each other change after this pivotal meeting. (No talking animals, but we get the T-Rex’s thoughts.)

Now I’m focused on getting ready for “The Never-Ending Odyssey,” the annual nine-day writing workshop set up and run by graduates of the six-week Odyssey writing workshop. (I went in 2006.) This will be my 11th! I’ve done the critiques for all three rounds. I’m debating which story to read in the “Slam Reading” – I could use “Philosopher Rex,” but I’ve got about ten other possibilities, and for this I usually go with something humorous. I’m leaning toward “Prototype Solar System with Strings Attached,” a humorous flash story I sold to Galaxy’s Edge in January – another “pro” sale at 8 cents/word. Alas, it’s a sad and sort of an historic sale – it was the last story bought by Editor Mike Resnick before he died about an hour later. (Lezli Robyn is their new editor – she, Mike, and I co-wrote the novel “When Parallel Lines Meet” three years ago.)

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“Still More Pings and Pongs” and “Trump Tales: A Taunting”

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I have two new short story collections, both coming out today! This coronavirus thing left me nothing to do but get these two done! Both are on sale at Amazon in both print ($10) and kindle ($6) format. They are:

  • Still More Pings and Pongs
    The third volume in my “Pings and Pongs” short stories series. This includes the 25 best short stories I’ve sold from 2016-2020.
  • Trump Tales: A Taunting
    A collection of eleven Trump satires I’ve written. Seven were previously published, four are new. Also includes two cartoons! Why a taunting, you might ask? Well, isn’t that what Trump’s whole political career is based on, [falsely] taunting others? If you are a Trump fan, say away from this!!!

still-more-pings-and-pongs-front-cover-sm2Here’s a listing of some of the stories.

Still More Pings and Pongs
(the third volume, after Pings and Pongs and More Pings and Pongs)

  • …An alien census taker has been going door-to-door for 83,000 years – but now must battle with hostile aliens and an even more hostile doberman.
  • …How did three Confederate Cavalryman find themselves charging down the aisle of a jumbo jet?
  • …A billionaire declares war on a 4D civilization.
  • …What if Satan sells his soul to a higher-dimensional being so that he’ll win at Armaggeddon?
  • …A hypocritical American Christian meets up with Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates.
  • …A young, dead Charles Darwin lives in a graveyard and wants to learn the origin . . . of the “Ded.”
  • …A human becomes the plaything of a 4-D child.
  • …A bat that thinks it’s a superhero.
  • …How did penguins make it to Noah’s Ark?
  • …What happens when a mathematician dies and becomes a zombie, but loses his moral compass?
  • …If Death hates cancer, what would she do?
  • …What if, one million years from
  • now, Hitler is paroled from Hell?
  • …And many more!

Trump-Tales-front-cover-sm2Trump Tales: A Taunting

  • …Sing the ballad of Cadet Bone Spurs (to the tune of “The Beverly Hillbillies”)
  • …A superhero confronts Trump
  • …Learn about the
  • …Five Horses of the Trump Apocalypse
  • …Read three stories about the new Space Force
  • …Meet the Plucky Billionaires Squad – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, and Alice Walton take on President Trump!
  • …A dream turns out to be too real
  • …Meet the alien that’s been waiting for the president
  • …Can Trump’s cabinet Bell the President?
  • …See the humorous future of Trump’s Great Wall
  • …Plus two cartoons!

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