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Homage Part 1: Farewell to The University of Mars

The University as conceived in 1980 I culled this post from the sortmind.com University of Mars page. I’ve always enjoyed this essay as a solid analysis of an unpublishable old novel, but it’s really a...

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Homage Part 2: The Zarreich Enigma

As I did with my previous University of Mars post, I culled this essay from its original sortmind.com page. With the advantage of further perspective, I’m editing it considerably from the 2006 musings...

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The Soul Institute is Published

“Back away from the novel and slowly put your hands on top of the Internet. Keep your mind where I can see it.” Sooner or later you come to this point. The time has finally arrived to push the novel...

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North Texas Book Festival, April 9, 2016

Once again I’ll have a table at the North Texas Book Festival in Denton, Texas, on Saturday, April 9. The festival takes place at the Patterson-Appleton Center for the Visual Arts, 400 E. Hickory St.,...

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Sortmind Draft 7: Surprisingly Uncertain Work

I haven’t posted a blog entry since the North Texas Book Festival entry of April 7, an unnervingly long time to go dark.  However, the seed of darkness came the day of the April 9 festival itself; in...

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July Sale: The Soul Institute and The First Twenty Steps

Sortmind Press is participating in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale which runs through July 31.  As Smashwords points out, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere and this is a global enterprise, thus...

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Collapse and Delusion Is Published

As former Typhoon II ship’s engineer Phil Sperry struggles with his decades-long treason to the human race, Supreme Commander Jack Commer and his wife Amav journey to the paradise planet Andertwin for...

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Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey and the Endless Slog to Sanctuary...

I chucked this into my Goodreads list because this happens to be the first book I ever read on my own–can’t remember the age.  I ran across it recently and re-familiarized myself with it.  Not a...

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Collapse and Delusion in Paperback

Jack Commer gets a close look at the disintegration of the Alpha Centaurian Empire in the aftermath of its lost war with the United System Space Force, as well as a devastating surprise from his...

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Rhys of Earth by Kara D. Wilson

In Rhys of Earth, the first volume of The Falkrow Narratives, the teenaged engineer Rhys and his younger sister Alina flee the destruction of their deep space colony spaceship to find themselves...

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The Tower Treasure Project

1. The Hospital I’m not sure which copy of The Tower Treasure I read in the hospital in late February or early March 1960. The lower one pictured is the 1927 edition, the middle the 1959 revised book,...

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Corporal Rappol McBoerland, Date of Death June 15, 2034

Yellow light flooded the cell. Before them stood an obese man in gray uniform, his nametag reading McBoerland–Service Level 3. He also had a round green pin: Serving His Majesty the Emperor With a...

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Reviewing Reviews

Recently an episode of relentless plowing through a novel I didn’t really want to read sparked a happy realization.  I’m always open to abandoning a book I’m not enjoying–after all, there are millions...

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The First Twenty Steps in Paperback

I’m not sure this is the protagonist, Harry Allen, but I drew him or someone today and there he possibly is.  The novella chronicling his first day out of prison, The First Twenty Steps, is now...

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The Hunter’s Rede (The Chronicles of Ealiron Book One) – Review

Fantasy author F. T. McKinstry offers a 2016 second edition of The Hunter’s Rede, now available from Amazon. The Hunters’ Rede, Book One of The Chronicles of Ealiron, offers an absorbing look into the...

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Crisis! Restructure Major Metropolitan Library!

This summer’s Draft 7 of Sortmind completely changed the old library-centric plot of the original novel, and it was only after a small amount of grief that I finally knew I had to let go of the...

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CommWealth – The Ensemble Cast

I’ve always thought of the characters in CommWealth as an ensemble cast in a movie, where accomplished actors divide the plot between them and no one actor has the lead role.  I didn’t intend this...

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CommWealth – The Origin Dream

The idea for CommWealth came from the first part of these notes from a dream (“Their Satanic Majesties Computer Software Guide”), although successive revisions changed much of the plot. The second...

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The SolGrid Rebellion / The Title Change

Jonathan James Commer, Charismatic Rebel If anyone had paid attention to Jack Commer’s son before this day, it was to jeer that the kid had emerged non compos mentis from his stunt in Alpha Centauri,...

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The Regent’s Daughter by Kara D. Wilson – Review

Epic Coming of Age Story Newly Re-Released from Goldminds Publishing The first book of The Aurora Chronicles follows eleven-year-old Reila as she grows to maturity and becomes aware of her destiny to...

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