I’m typing this post with a brand new keyboard I just put together. This will be a prize on the Writing Excuses Retreat. Here is the keyboard:

I think it looks pretty good!

I built it to match the colors in the WXR Retreat logo: black, green, and yellow. I used yellow keycaps last year, but I think this color configuration is better.

It didn’t come together easily. As I told Melissa this morning, one of the main ingredients of these keyboards is profanity. Every time I made some progress, there would be a little setback. This happens with almost every one of these keyboards, but this one was worse than most. Fortunately, once I’m past the setbacks, the keyboards turn out to be really solid workhorses, and I expect this one will be the same.

It took quite a bit to get myself into a position where I could work on the keyboard at all. I needed to clean a space in my office for doing the soldering. I needed to order more parts. Then there was wrestling with my finicky printer to produce a good base. More importantly, I had to get out of my dark headspace

I’ve been in a funk lately. And slowly but surely, I think I’m crawling out of it. Finishing this keyboard is a big part of that.

I need to start drafting the next Mel Walker story. I have a good idea. I have pent up excitement for the project. I just need to get out of my own way and do the work.

In the mean time, I’m boosting myself by getting little things like this keyboard completed. I think the next one I work on, I’ll reach for a higher difficulty. Maybe my next one will be my first wireless construction. We will see.

This keyboard is working well enough, though, so I’ll stop here, but not before reminding you that The Psychic on the Jury is out, and you should buy it. If you haven’t read The Repossessed Ghost and you’re afraid to commit $15 or a few hours into that story, Psychic is a short, cheap introduction to the world of Mel Walker. And if you have read The Repossessed Ghost, well, Psychic is the next story, and it lays some of the foundation material for the next Mel Walker novel.

It’s Friday. WorldCon is going on in Glasgow and I just finished working an extremely daunting schedule. About 78 hours last week, around 50 hours this week, with just a little bit more to do this weekend. Ouch.

Exhausted and punchy, I keep seeing posts from friends at WorldCon and the FOMO is not only real, it is bitter. So to distract myself, I’m cleaning my room and working on the keyboard for the Writing Excuses Retreat. I’m also thinking about A.I.

Before diving into this topic, let me get some things out of the way:

• I’m not a tech-bro
• I don’t have a ChatGPT subscription. I played around early on to see what the buzz was about. I don’t use LLMs (like ChatGPT) and I don’t advise people to use them
• I have no skin in the game
• I know the difference between different types of A.I., and I think there should be more nuanced discussions about them. While LLMs are A.I., not all A.I. are LLMs
• I think artists should be paid for their work and stealing content to train A.I. is wrong

With that out of the way, let me take one more step towards clarification and say that this post is about LLMs. Most of the chatter online about LLMs, especially ChatGPT and the OpenAI products, simply refer to those products as A.I. That’s why I’m titling this post the way I am.

The enshitification of Google search (and other online services) has to do with plugging LLMs into the mix. LLMs don’t do any actual thinking or analysis of a topic the way humans do. When given a query, an LLM will start generating text that is related to that topic, and it will continue generating text based on interpreting what the next word in its response should be.

If the quality of the source material is high and accurate, the LLM will generate responses that seem well reasoned and sound. If the LLM has been trained on shit-posts from Reddit, it will respond with fantastical, insane answers that no one should take seriously. That’s how we wind up with Google telling people to put glue on their pizza.

This is not new news. LLM and A.I. advancement in general is suffering from bad press and righteous anger from users that really, really do not want this garbage in their browsers, desktops, or phones.

Also, in this post, I’m not considering the environmental consequences of maintaining servers for A.I. What I mostly want to talk about is training LLMs without the developers having to steal from artists, creators, writers, etc.

The Idea

We create a company that will manage an ethically sourced LLM. This might not be a company. It might be a government resource. I’m not sure yet. The main idea is that people can submit their own work to this organization to be part of the training material.

“How do we incentivize people to submit their work to the machine?”

We pay them. It’s not going to be a lot. The person submitting the work retains rights to what they created. It’s like when publishers buy the rights to print and distribute an author’s story. The LLM entity will buy the rights to train using the work, so the author/artist gets some compensation.

“So anyone can just submit anything and get paid for it? That sounds like it would be easy to exploit.”

Before the person submitting the work gets paid, there is a vetting process. Again, we’ll pay people to do this work, which involves three main parts:

1. Make sure the work has not been submitted before
2. Make sure the work belongs to the person submitting it, or that the submitter has the authority and legal rights to submit the work
3. Make sure the material is not poisonous

We have examples of companies/publishers handling the first two tasks already. And, strangle enough, we have an example of the third being handled as well: Wikipedia.

If we pay for the kind of work that people already volunteer to do on Wikipedia, we might be able to make sure only high quality content is fed into machine.

“This sounds like it is doomed to lose money.”

That may be true. The value of this LLM will certainly be low at the beginning, and the entire program will need to be subsidized before it can produce anything of competitive quality. If the endeavor manages to last long enough, however, we can start licensing the use of the LLM to companies and individuals.

Google, Microsoft, and Apple would probably pay significant sums of cash in order to take advantage of an ethically sourced LLM. One that isn’t telling people that pythons are mammals.

“What problem does this solve?”

My suggestion addresses at least part of the problem of stealing content in order to train the LLM. This idea also offers a way to compensate creators for their work, even if the compensation is very small. If we’re going to live in a world with LLMs, I think this is a way to do it without theft.

However, what do we actually need LLMs for? What problem do the LLMs solve?

I can’t think of a compelling need that LLMs satisfy. It is an extremely geeky way of generating text. I think it is interesting, but I’m not sure it’s useful.

If I was forced to guess, I would say that successfully navigating searches with a handful of keywords has always been something of a challenge to non-technical people. There have been attempts to make searches use more natural language since ask.com (Jeeves) was created in 1996.

An LLM tied to a search engine, therefore, allows natural language in and out, without requiring the user to drill through a potentially long search result to find the answer they’re looking for. Maybe there is a little bit of value there. It’s dubious, but I think I can see it.

I’m not sure it’s worth the time, investment, or cost to the environment, though.

That’s my idea. Let me know what you think.

Melissa and I saw the movie on opening night, and I took Chris to see it last night. Both times, I had a huge grin on my face. It’s Monday night, work has been hectic today, and I want to talk about this movie.

I’ll start with high-level stuff, then put up a warning and drive straight into spoiler territory. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I’ll tell you this and then you can close this tab/delete this email: I had a really great time and recommend it to anyone that liked the previous Deadpool movies or the Fox era of Marvel movies.

Non-Spoiler Stuff

This was fun comedy that looked great, sounded great, and met all of my expectations. The movie contains some surprises. Hugh Jackman has always been an amazing Wolverine, and I think this performance was more nuanced than I expected. Ryan Reynolds also does great, and offers hints of emotion and depth between the 4th wall breaking humor. The story is good, as long as you don’t think about some of the details too much.

About My Movie Tastes

Before I get into spoilers, I feel like I should talk about what kind of movie-goer I really am. In short: I’m just looking to have a good time.

I don’t need a perfect movie to enjoy myself. I don’t expect every Marvel movie to be Endgame. I don’t need every movie to be Marvel, either. I like movies, and I’m willing to turn my brain off and have a good time if I have to.

For example, I can appreciate the movie Lucy. The premise is flawed and as dumb as a bag of hair, but I enjoyed the spectacle and thought Scarlett Johansson gave a good performance. I really enjoyed The Butterfly Effect, and still think about it sometimes. I enjoy Star Treks, and almost all Star Wars movies. I loved Oppenheimer and pretty much everything Nolan does. I enjoyed Viola Davis in The Woman King.

I go back and watch classics like Citizen Kane and Twelve Angry Men. If we use food as the metaphor for movies, I have the palette and appetite to enjoy fine dining, but I’m not going to turn my nose up at some greasy fast food.

Deadpool & Wolverine is a cheeseburger, but one that has been crafted with love and attention to detail.

Spoiler Stuff

From this point forward, I’m going to get into spoilers.

This is your last warning.

****

Okay.

Obviously, a big part of this movie’s success is sticking the landing with the cameos. And I really think they did it.

I remember hearing a rumor they got Chris Evans to come in and reprise Johnny Storm rather than Steve Rogers, but I forgot about it until I saw him leap into the air covered in fire. It didn’t feel forced or shoehorned. This cameo and the others felt like a celebration of the things that came before. The parts weren’t as large as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in No Way Home, but still enough to satisfy.

While this movie brought Deadpool into the MCU, it was more a love letter to the Fox movies that came before. We get one last celebration with the old and could-have-been characters in The Void, and the movie signs off with a mid-credits reel that ends with the 20th Century Fox logo.

Wolverine is the perfect straight man to Deadpool’s wackiness. It really worked for me. I loved that they spent half the movie trying to tear themselves apart, but they’re victory in the end is them holding hands while an epic version of Like a Prayer is pumped out of the speakers by a choir so powerful, it blows Wolverine’s shirt off his body.

Final Thoughts – Marvel Isn’t Dead

This movie knows what it is, and it’s fun. Is Deadpool “Marvel Jesus?” No. He’s a violent clown that winks and nods at the audience while giving a proper sign off to the franchises that came before.

Will this save Marvel? I’m an unapologetic Marvel fan boy, and I do not believe Marvel needs saving. What they need to do is let creative folks like Shawn Levy tell fun and interesting stories with their own style and unique voices. It’s why Guardians of the Galaxy 3 worked last year. Other movies I think worked since Endgame: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness in 2022, Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, and Shang-Chi in 2021. Different voices, different styles, all successful.

What about the ones I didn’t mention, like Black Widow in 2021? I found that movie to be ultimately forgettable (since… you know… I forgot it existed until just now), but I remember having a good time when I saw it. And some movies received unwarranted hate, like Thor: Love and Thunder and The Marvels.

Marvel movies are like pizza. Even when it’s not your favorite flavor, it’s still pretty good. And I would say that Deadpool & Wolverine contained some of my favorite toppings.

Last night, I spent a few hours at Michael Gallowglas’s party, hosted by Dr. Will Brandon. Melissa and Mike Baltar came with me to the party, and it was a good time! It was also my first opportunity to give Michael a copy of The Psychic on the Jury, which I’d been holding since Baycon.

I’m still giddy over an experience at Baycon, where an older woman that bought The Repossessed Ghost last year sought me out, excited and eager to see if I had anything else to offer. I have lots of wonderful, supportive friends that have said many nice things about my stories, and I feed on the praise the way the desert drinks the rain. It’s something else when the positive feedback comes from a complete stranger, that has no social obligation to be nice to me.

Speaking of feedback… I sometimes get asked how my sales are going, and I honestly don’t have an answer. My publisher will tell me any time I ask, and I get statements every few months with detailed information, but it’s not something I have easy, direct access to all the time. I know what the numbers looked like at Bacyon because I can track the inventory of those physical books. Amazon sales, though? I won’t know for a while.

Was there a bump in sales for The Repossessed Ghost or One for the Road after Baycon? Has The Psychic on the Jury been well received? Has it sold enough to justify its existence? I have no idea. All I have on that front is hope.

The Psychic on the Jury has no reviews yet. The Repossessed Ghost has 12 ratings after a year, and Psychic hasn’t even been out a month yet. One for the Road has 2 ratings, and it’s been out since February. None of these numbers are particularly exciting or uplifting, so my hope isn’t drawn from there.

Where does my hope come from, then? It’s the interactions like I mentioned at Baycon. It’s the small things. When I sit down to write, it’s the clickety-clack of my keyboard and the word count going up. It’s also the realization that this is a numbers game, a marathon not a sprint, and the fact that the difference between those that make it and those that don’t is a factor of luck more than skill.

Mostly, I choose to be hopeful and keep going. What else can a writer do?

In other news, we replaced the A/C unit in our house this last week. It was expensive. If you’re reading this and you haven’t picked up any of my books yet, it would be greatly appreciated if you did so. Will a $5 purchase of The Psychic on the Jury put a dent in the cost of a new A/C unit? Individually, no. But if you and 3600 of your closest friends all bought a copy of my book, it would cover half of my cost last week, and would honestly be a modern miracle.

As an addendum, and straying back into politics just a teensy bit, my last couple of posts talked about the assassination attempt on Trump (remember that?) and Joe Biden dropping out of the race. My thoughts and feelings at the time were valid, but I have a little bit more hope today than I had on July 21st. It looks like the Democrats have rallied around a single candidate, which is great. Also, in the first two days after Kamala announced her candidacy, she raised about $250,000,000.

One of the the things I mentioned in my last post was that I didn’t want to see a bloodbath between the potential Democratic nominees. It looks like that has been avoided. It’s still a difficult battle ahead, still harder in some ways than if Biden had stayed in. On the other hand, I haven’t seen the Democratic base this fired up since Obama’s first run.

There is good reason to maintain hope, on several different fronts. Stories will still happen, and readers will be found. The Republic as we know it doesn’t have to end. And throughout the strife and challenges that face us, Melissa and I will at least stay cool in our house even as the hot August nights approach.

Things are not easier, but there is good reason to find hope where you can, and hold onto the little things that make these times more bearable.

I’m going to talk about politics again. I know some of you hate that, so come by later and I promise* I’ll talk about something else next time.

* Unless something equally momentous compels me

Joe Biden just dropped out of the race.

Joe Biden, a guy famous for gaffes for his entire time in the public light, a guy that has definitely been showing his age, had a very bad night in an important debate, and we had weeks and weeks of coverage stating that Joe should drop out.

Meanwhile, the other guy just went on a rambling, incoherent acceptance speech, praising fictional sociopath Hannibal Lecter and demonstrating how he, too, is old and doesn’t speak so good… that guy gets a pass. No breathless stories about how the twice impeached, rapist, convicted felon should… you know… drop out of the race.

Fine. Great. Cool. Cool.

Here’s what the Democrats should have done. At every turn, they should have run on this administration’s record. They should have stuck with facts, highlighting the actual numbers. The “Fuck Your Feelings” crowd is running purely on feelings, so the Democrats should have crafted a message that is emotionless, succinct, and specific.

They should have talked about the good that’s been done the last four years, and then really talked about how things could be better in the next four. Show us a plan. Give us numbers. Be the big fucking nerds you can and should be, because we’re living in an age where nerds are actually respected. Not only respected… we’re expected to fix the problems of the world. Dems, you should have shown us how you were going to do that.

You should have focused on finance and infrastructure. You should have talked to us about how you’re going to combat corporate greed, which will in turn further drive down inflation. You should know that inflation and high rent are the things that are driving people’s decisions these days. So talk about that.

Instead, we’ve had weeks of divisiveness. We’ve had Pelosi and Schumer using their political double-speak to bring down Joe Biden, because they’re scared he can’t win against “America’s Hitler.” That’s not me saying that, by the way. I’m quoting the Republican V.P. candidate, there.

I’ve heard so much bullshit for the last several weeks about how Joe Biden is unelectable. The main stream media, fueled by corporate greed, failed to leverage the same coverage against the convicted felon and rapist.

So fine. You got your way. Joe Biden’s out. You’d think I’d be happy about that, right? Joe Biden was never my favorite candidate. I’ve been quite vocal about reluctantly ridin’ with Biden. So why do I seem so upset now?

Because the Democrats are short sighted, cowardly idiots that are throwing an election and allowing the worst person possible to have access to power. The country I swore to protect is in jeopardy. All because the Democrats couldn’t keep their shit together.

I will still vote for the Democratic candidate. I’ll do my part. But the Dems have fucked us.

They’ve thrown away the incumbency.

They’ve set up a situation where they have 100 days to come behind a single candidate, hopefully without bloodying each other and allowing Trump to cruise unscathed.

They’ve set up a situation where the focus will be on the electability of the Democratic candidate, rather than highlighting how the Republican wanna-be despot is unelectable.

They’ve set up a situation where they are not highlighting their own plan for the future, which would be a great contrast to Project 2025.

They’re most likely going to get behind Kamala Harris, which means that the American voters will have to overcome racism and sexism. This, during a time where social media is commonly joking/complaining/spreading memes about DEI hires.

Democrats, why did you have to make it so much harder than it needed to be?

If Trump is re-elected, this is why.

There are good times and there are bad times to launch a book. The Psychic on the Jury is officially out now, has been for three days, and it’s really hard to think about that or put energy into it. I’m mostly stuck, focused on the assassination attempt, and all of the ways people are reacting to it.

I’m seeing a lot of doom and gloom. Too many people in my spheres are saying, “That’s it. This clinches it for Trump.”

Tons of people are saying that. So many that, if they were to all show up at the ballot box in November, Biden would win in a landslide.

When people are in despair, when they’ve given up, they tend to stay home. So let’s talk about some reasons why it’s okay to remain hopeful, and why the end of this story isn’t certain.

Let’s start with Project 2025. It’s still the Republican’s handbook, and it is full of scary, un-American bullshit. It is deeply unpopular, so Trump tried to distance himself from it. We’re not buying it, though, because his attempt was weak — he wished them luck in all that they do — and the people that wrote Project 2025 are all people that worked for him. They want to work for him again.

“But the assassination attempt!”

The person that attempted to kill Trump was a 20 year old registered Republican, using an AR-15. One of Trump’s own tried to kill him using a gun that Republicans famously fight to keep on the streets. How does this help Trump get re-elected?

Compare that with Biden’s response. Biden has been genuine, human, empathetic, and warm. Which again, forces us to look at history and how Trump reacted when Pelosi’s husband was bludgeoned with a hammer. Again, how does this help Trump get re-elected?

“But Biden sucks!”

Does he, though? He’s old and he doesn’t speak very well, but his administration has been putting up good numbers. Do you care about student loan debt? Or legalization of marijuana? Or low unemployment rates? Or a booming economy? Or…

Pick a stat. Look at the actual numbers. Biden’s administration has been great for the country.

He did terrible at a debate that didn’t matter, because everyone’s mind was already set on who they were going to vote for. We have history to look at for the performance of both presidential candidates. On that history alone, Trump should lose. Bigly.

And, going back to Project 2025, we know how much worse a second Trump presidency will be.

If that’s not enough to convince you, let’s look at the Supreme Court. The next president is going to select some number of new justices on the court. And what has this current court brought us?

The end of established law. Roe v Wade: overturned. The Chevron Deference: overturned. Checks and balances on the executive branch: destroyed. We have a supreme court that has produced wildly unpopular, terrible decisions. Elect Trump, and he’ll put Aileen Cannon on the bench. If you don’t know who she is, consider yourself lucky.

We have to remain hopeful and vote in such numbers that the gerrymandering and double dealing is insufficient to stop us.

If you don’t like Biden, that’s fine. Vote for him anyway. Vote for his administration. Vote to keep Trump out of office. There really isn’t a “both sides” to this.

I will remind you that I am not a Democrat. I’m registered Independent, and I have plenty of criticisms to level at the Democrats. Now isn’t the time for that. We have to hold each other up, defeat the demagogue, and then roll up our sleeves and do the work that will actually make America great.

Thursday and Friday, I called in sick. I had body aches, a mild sore throat, some coughing, and just didn’t feel like I could focus on work. I feel better today, but in the process of dodging work and recovering, I completely skipped July 12th, 2024, the day The Psychic on the Jury officially released.

Today is July 13th, 2024, and it seems like… other news… takes precedent.

I’m not going to write something stupid or foolish here. If you know me, you probably know that I greatly dislike Donald Trump. There are many, many, many reasons why.

However, I don’t want him dead. I want to defeat him in the polls and the ballot box. I want his followers and worshippers and sycophants and enablers to all see him for the monster that he is, and then I want to never hear from him (or the rest of his family) again. If he wants to spend the rest of his miserable life on one of his golf courses, that would be fine.

I would like to see him face the consequences of his actions, but I would settle for almost any series of events in which I don’t have to hear him speak again.

By “almost any series of events” I mean, I’m not in favor of him being martyred, assassinated, killed… we don’t need more violence.

Has he espoused and promoted violence at his rallies? Yes. That doesn’t mean I think he should receive it himself.

We need de-escalation. We need to hold onto our morals, put down the pitchforks (and guns), and be the kind of people that deserve the country our forefathers fought and bled for. We need to be better than our forefathers, for that matter.

We need to be united.

I would rather be talking about my book and my writing journey. Instead I’m looking at things like Project 25 and today’s shooting, and all I can think is, “My God. This really is the end of my country, isn’t it?”

It doesn’t have to be. But we have to start getting ready for the worst.

I think Trump and his followers are going to fan the flames and try to escalate things. I think we’re going to see more violence before we get to the election. We need to de-escalate. We need to hold onto our morals, refrain from getting dragged down into fights that are beneath us, and make our voices heard in November.

I’m tired of living in interesting times. When times are boring, someone like me can spend days like today trying to drum up interest in their little book, rather than plead to the void not to do anything hasty or stupid. Instead, we have assassination attempts and plans for tyranny and fascism.

Please stay safe out there and remember who we are.

Good evening! It’s Monday night, still sweltering in Sacramento, and I really need to talk about the event Melissa and I attended this weekend. The ups, the downs, and the things I hope for the future.

To begin with, we had a great time! I had the privilege of participating on 4 panels this year, two on July 4th, and two on July 5th.

The very first panel, The Business and Writing and Publishing, was moderated by Dr. Wanda Kurtcu and was reasonably well attended. I thought we’d talk more about publishing and the professional author life, but we wound up going over some very good fundamentals of writing and finishing stories. If you can’t finish a story or see an idea through to its conclusion, none of the publishing advice in the world will help, so I thought it was a good use of our time, and the people in the audience seemed to enjoy it.

My next panel, from 8:30PM to 10:00PM on the 4th of July, was How Do I Get Published. Baycon takes place at the Marriott directly across the street from Great America, so naturally I assumed people would be more interested in fireworks at that time. Therefore, I brought Scotch to share with the panelists, a very tasty 12 year old Grangestone. To my surprise, we had 12 to 15 people to speak to. I shared with them, too, and we had a good time.

I should note that I wound up the moderator for that panel. I’m told I did an excellent job, and I felt pretty good about it.

The panels the next day were also great, though the Can We Survive AI Assisted Disinformation panel went off the rails a little bit. There’s a lot of fear and confusion around AI, and politics crept into the topic as well. While addressing the political component, I remained as neutral as possible.

When not on panels, I was in the dealer’s room, with the Water Dragon and Small Publishing in a Big Universe tables. I pitched my book and others, and had quite a number of sales. I had badge ribbons to hand out, and my gimmick was that, before I’d give out the ribbon, they had to let me tell them about my books. A fair exchange, I think.

I didn’t pressure anyone. I mostly just talked, sometimes going so far as to geek out about favorite stories and authors. And, I did my best to promote other books on the tables, even directing people to the Liminal Fiction table when the person clearly wanted something they could find there.

Also, I recorded some Live from Baycon 2024 episodes. I really enjoy hosting the podcast from time to time. The people I interviewed said they had a lot of fun and thanked me for the experience. The Live from Baycon 2024 episodes should go up next month or so, and I’ll provide links when they’re available.

There’s so much I can talk about. I met some new people. I got to hang out with some old friends and acquaintances. We went to dinner with friends and fellow writers a few times and really enjoyed their company. Because there weren’t any readings at the convention, we had some of our own. About 10 people showed up for the reading the first night. I wasn’t able to make it to the next night, but I think there were about 10 people then, too.

Finally, I have to talk about something truly unexpected. Many of the books I’ve sold have gone out to friends, families, acquaintances… people that know me and may be otherwise incentivized to say nice things. One of the days, someone I didn’t know, that bought my book at a previous con, sought me out. She LOVED The Repossessed Ghost and wanted to know if there was more. My story struck a chord with her. The joy she expressed brought joy to my heart. It was such a powerful experience for me.

That’s most of the positive experiences. I don’t really have much in the way of complaints, thought I have some suggestions. In no particular order, I’ll list them out:

• The primary purpose of the name badges is so that people can see the names of the other attendees. The real estate of the badges this year was mostly taken up with the convention logo, so they wound up using a very small font for the names themselves. My suggestion is to minimize the logo and prioritize the names.
• Registration was a bit of a mixed bag. I was able to get my badge early and easily, but there were some oddities. If you were a participant on panels, you could get your badge from ProgOps. If you were a pre-order, such as a board member for the SPSF, there was a different table to go to for your badge. If you were working in the dealers’ room marketplace, you could get a badge there. Some of these locations had lanyards. Some did not. If you were like me and did all three things, you needed to go to multiple places to get all the things. When registration opened for real, the line went long and didn’t appear to move very fast. I went by the line multiple times on July 4th and saw my friend Marvin several times, not moving. I appreciate the effort that goes into managing registration and badges and whatnot. From my perspective, it seems like there was a lot of room for improvements.
• The Guest of Honor said she was well taken care of, but her book was nowhere to be found in the marketplace. That seems like a huge misstep, and can easily be fixed in future conventions.
• Programming was very different this year, and I’m not sure it worked out. There were definitely gaps, and the final schedule didn’t get out in a very timely fashion. Because of this, many of the rooms were mislabeled. For example, the Can We Survive AI panel was labeled as Redshirts outside the door.

There’s more I can say, but I’d rather end on a more positive note. Running conventions is hard. While there was room for improvement, I think Baycon 2024 was an overall success, and I’m very glad I attended.

I’m looking forward to Baycon 2025!

But before that, there will be Loscon…

Here is the Amazon link!

It looks like the new cover is showing up for The Repossessed Ghost as well, though I’m only seeing it on the Trade Paperback and Kindle editions, while hard cover is the original. I’ll check with Steven on this. I suspect that the change just hasn’t gone through yet. From some stuff Steven told me, Amazon can be a little slow with changes like this.

Also note… if you’re clicking through and looking at the series in Amazon, it sort of looks like The Psychic on the Jury is the first book. This is not true. Because it is shorter (and cheaper), I think some people unfamiliar with my work might read it first. It doesn’t contain significant spoilers for The Repossessed Ghost, although it does depict Mel in control of his powers. A big part of The Repossessed Ghost is Mel learning to open his Mind’s Eye and use his abilities intentionally, but I don’t see this is a major spoiler.

I think the only real problem with reading them out of order is that The Repossessed Ghost takes place over a decade ago, and an unobservant reader might wind up confused since The Psychic on the Jury takes place a few years later, but before the pandemic.

Oh! This just in…

Steven is sorting the books tonight. He paused to post this image. It might be hard to see, but right in the middle on the right is a stack of The Psychic on the Jury.

There had been a chance that the book wouldn’t be there for Baycon. Books in shipping get delayed all the time. But there it is! This is the first time I’m getting to see that book in real life.

So exciting!

Again, the pre-order link is above. If you happen to be in Santa Clara this weekend, you can stop by Baycon and visit me in the dealer’s room. From what I can tell, the dealer’s room is open to the public. And just like The Repossessed Ghost was pre-released at Baycon last year, The Psychic on the Jury will be available at Baycon this year.

I really need to work on the sequel novel for next year.

One week from today, as long nothing goes wrong with shipping, I should have a book in my hands with this cover:

I think it’s great! I only had a few notes for the cover artist (Niki Lenhart), which went through Steven Radecki. He didn’t have that much to pass on, actually. Niki nailed it very quickly.

I love the “A Mel Walker Story” banner on the top, and all the implications that go with it. Obviously, The Repossessed Ghost was the first, and if all goes as I hope and as I plan, there will be more.

If you’re curious about the San Francisco ballcap on the table in the foreground, you’ll just have to read the story. There’s a reason that The Repossessed Ghost features a ’74 Chevy Nova. Similarly, the cover for this story needed to feature the ballcap.

It’s a short read. A bit longer than One for the Road, and 1/5th the length of The Repossessed Ghost. As I’ve said in a previous post, this story serves two purposes. The first is to offer a cheaper introduction for readers new to my work and the world of Mel Walker. The second is to act as a transition between The Repossessed Ghost and the next novel.

Speaking of which, I’m at a new Shut Up and Write. As soon as I hit Publish on post, I’m going to get out my notes and try to make some progress on the new novel. I still have some gaps to fill in the outline. Soon, perhaps after Baycon, I dive into drafting.

Wish me luck! And let me know what you think of the cover!