Want a little adrenaline rush with your read?

Check out these free thriller short stories, novellas, and novels.

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/EMyAVMZ

There's Still Time to Enter this Giveaway

“I must also add how very much I liked the protagonist; she's tough, smart, but a little vulnerable too ….”  A Wishing Shelf Review of From the Mind of a Witch.

Rebecca Marte, PI, is just one of the strong women of Sci-Fi/Fantasy to celebrate with this giveaway.

https://bit.ly/sffgrlpower

August Mysteries Giveaway

In this 40+ story collection of mysteries running the gamut from cozy to gut-wrenching, you're sure to find something to satisfy your whodunit craving.

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/Im9cdYe

Looking Back Since Killer in the Retroscape Was Published in 2018

I’m not sure if George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, or Aldous Huxley ever looked back five or ten years after publishing their seminal dystopian novels, but curiosity got the best of me. Obviously, I knew that Killer in the Retroscape: A Near-Future Mystery had foretold the challenges of the COVID pandemic more than a year before they occurred. As one reviewer put it, it accurately anticipated “… the effects of a pandemic on the population - social distancing, lockdowns, masks, and all the other precautions people were forced to take in 2020 – 2021.” The fiction did, however, miss on the pandemic’s duration and so, it doesn’t speak to the COVID fatigue we are all facing today.

Killer in the Retroscape predicted a threat from declining world population. In all fairness, however, the population of some countries was already decreasing in 2018. Japan’s population, for example, has been going down since 2008. But the issue has certainly received a lot more attention recently, with Elon Musk declaring that "Population collapse is the biggest threat to civilization" in a 2022 Twitter post. I’m not sure I’d raise it to the “biggest threat” just yet, but unfortunately, it's climbing the charts.

The book also foresaw workers coming to accept intelligent machines … albeit after some resistance. And are we starting to see that? According to one tech company, Zebra Technologies Corp, while some remain wary, many warehouse workers “… credit AMRs [autonomous mobile robots] with helping to increase their productivity (80%), reduce the number of mistakes they make (73%), and facilitate advancement to new roles or opportunities (65%).” And these are autonomous units rather than pre-programmed machines, which in many ways is the holy grail of artificially intelligent robots.

Of course, there are a few predictions in the book that have me concerned. In it, for example, the world beats climate change. I hope that one isn’t slipping away from us. As for the rest of the events that led to the downfall of humanity? Well, discussing them would make this note one gigantic spoiler, wouldn’t it?

So instead, I’ll let you find out for yourself for less than a dollar, now through August 12.

https://books2read.com/u/3npP0P

Please Join Me ...

For the Douglas County Local Author Showcase on Saturday, August 13, at 1pm at Douglas County Libraries in Highlands Ranch, 9292 Ridgeline Blvd., Highlands Ranch, CO 80129.

Eleven local authors will have five minutes for introductions and then, the rest of the afternoon to sign books, answer all your writing-related questions, and enjoy some light refreshments provided by the library.

Attendance is free, but to make sure there is adequate seating, they are requesting that you RSVP:

https://douglascountylibraries.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=184780

Celebrating our Favorite Strong Women of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

“I must also add how very much I liked the protagonist; she's tough, smart, but a little vulnerable too ….” - A Wishing Shelf Review of From the Mind of a Witch

Celebrate Rebecca Marte (From the Mind of a Witch) and all the other strong women of Science Fiction and Fantasy by entering this giveaway. You could win paperbacks of Crownchasers by Rebecca Coffindaffer, Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik, Book of Night by Holly Black, Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long and much more. 

(I'd enter for the "A Woman's Place Is In The Resistance" mug alone!)

https://bit.ly/sffgrlpower