CLICK: Today! Right now, in fact!

On September 30, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing3 Comments

Click print cover con exclusive

So, it’s a good-news-bad-news kind of day. The good news is that CLICK is live as an ebook and has, in fact, already been shared with Patreon supporters. And there’s still time to join them for as little as $1 a month to get an immediate copy of the book!

Additional good news: the print copy is ready! That’s the print cover, right there!

The bad news: no one will print it for me, and I’m enormously fucking frustrated right now, because I’ve been doing nothing but fussing over .doc and .pdf and .png and Gimp files for about eight hours. I was hoping to have this ready for Kokomo-Con on the 13th and right now barring a miracle that’s not going to happen. Amazon’s print service apparently will not allow you to print a book that isn’t set up for distribution on Amazon– I swear that wasn’t the case before– and the small handful of other services I’ve checked out in the last few hours are all massively more expensive. I’ve heard good things about Ingram Spark, for example, but they want $50 to “set up” a book that I’m providing all the files for, then I have to pay for copies on top of that. So … uh … no? I think maybe no.

The original idea behind doing this was to make it something special for Patreon and folks at cons. I suppose the worst case scenario is that I have a new book out for everyone, but that’s not what I wanted to do. I’m sure there’s a way to get PoD copies that isn’t going to break my bank, but I haven’t found it yet. Stay tuned.

And go hit me up on Patreon, dammit. You’ll like this book.

CLICK: Tomorrow!

On September 29, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing

Click ebook cover

My new book, CLICK, goes live on Patreon tomorrow. Anyone who is a Patron at any level when the book goes live, $1.00 and up per month, will receive a .mobi, an .epub and a .pdf by the end of the day tomorrow. Anyone subscribing at the $15.00 monthly or higher tiers will receive a print copy once those are available in a couple of weeks.

You know you want in on this. Click here– no pun intended– to become a Patron and get CLICK.

In which I still ain’t right

On September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics, Writing

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If you ever needed proof that I make foolish decisions: I decided to release a book during what I think may literally have been the stupidest and most rage-inducing week of my entire life. I mean, there was probably a week during the Bush administration that at least came close somewhere. Hell, there was probably more than one. But right now hell if I can remember when that week might have been, and perhaps more importantly I didn’t have a wife and kid near me to remind me of my need to keep my shit together, and it has been fucking hard to come home from work each night and force myself into editing and creating mode instead of staring dully at Twitter and thinking thoughts that I ought not to be thinking.

I have never hated Republicans more than I do this week. I have never been more exhausted and sick of white men than I have been this week. I have never been more embarrassed by men in general than I have this week.

I cannot imagine how any of my women friends feel, and I can’t believe my wife is even still standing after all this shit. The rage has nearly incapacitated me and I haven’t been putting up with entitled assholes like Brett Kavanaugh my entire life, like virtually every woman I know has.

Oh, and today at work involved transcribing a bunch of witness statements and having to find a way to get a four and a half minute, 500mb video of a kid in one of the scariest meltdowns I’ve ever seen in a school off of an ancient Android phone with a broken screen and to the cops. I will say this: I have never been shy about criticizing cops when I feel like they’re doing a shitty job. Our SRO took what could have been (what already was) a very, very bad situation today and, while it did ultimately lead to the student being taken out of the building in handcuffs (and still fighting the cops the whole way) it could have been much, much worse with a different police officer. He was an absolute model of using minimum force required and attempting de-escalation the entire time (and it was the police officer who asked our security guard to start recording the incident) and the decision wasn’t finally made to take the student to the police station until the parent of the student, who, it should be pointed out, started the shit in the first place, refused to come and collect their child and actually told the SRO to take the student to jail.

Which … Okay. But then I’mma come get you, and you’re going to jail too, you fucking asshole. Ain’t no goddamn universe in existence where somebody calls me and says they need me to come get my baby and the words “Just take him to jail” come out of my mouth.

It’s been a very, very, very fucking rough week.

But I’m going to get this book done, and it’s going to be available this weekend, so go check me out on Patreon so you can have it once it’s ready.

Too angry to post tonight

On September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized

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Announcing CLICK.

On September 26, 2018September 25, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing1 Comment

Click ebook cover

Guess what? I’ve got another book out. Next week, in fact! Probably the last day of September! What’s it about? Well, I don’t have all the promo copy written for it just yet, so let’s nutshell: it is a refreshed, updated, reedited and rewritten version of my literal first book ever, and it is my take on both portal fantasy and urban fantasy. Sound good? Cool. I’ll post the official back cover copy when I’m done with it. It’s a new universe featuring characters you’ve never seen before. It’s my wife’s favorite of my books. If that’s not a recommendation I don’t know what could be. Michelle Wern did the cover, and I honest-to-God peed a little when I saw it.

How do you get it? See that little bit of text at the bottom there?

Click is only available two ways: the first is via supporting me on Patreon. On the day the book launches, I’m going to create a new $2 tier, and anyone at $2 or over from then on out automatically gets an ebook copy. Anyone who signs up before then gets it regardless of the amount of the pledge.

There will be a print copy as well. The second way to get this book is to buy it from me at a convention, where I will have copies available. I’m crossing my fingers that the print edition will be ready by Kokomo-Con this year. The files will be done well in advance, but sometimes CreateSpace is super slow about printing things. I think the couple of weeks I’m going to give them will be enough. If not, it’ll be available after that. You can also get a print copy through Patreon by supporting at (right now) $15 or up, but I might alter that once I see what the print costs are going to be.

This book will not be appearing on Amazon, or at least it won’t be appearing on Amazon until and unless I give up on the Patreon idea altogether, which right now I have no plans to do. It is only a reward for Patreon supporters or people who see me at cons. I’ve been kind of casting about for something exciting to offer over there; I hope y’all are as excited for this as I am. Just a few more days!

Fuck Mel Hall, Chapter 4: Never Mind, Fuck Everybody

On September 25, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics

There was another anti-Jackie Walorski flyer, paid for by the Indiana Democratic Party, in my mailbox when I got home this afternoon. Once again, the flyer makes no mention of who the flyer-ers think you should vote for, only that you should not vote for Jackie Walorski. Now, the last time this happened, I was kind of wondering just how much Hall’s people had had to do with it, since he was never mentioned. Well, his radio ads are all about “Washington Walorski,” so even in his own stuff for his campaign he can’t avoid using Republican frames. I’m not going to bother talking about the entire flyer. Let’s just talk about this part of it:

This is a photoshopped image. It was photoshopped by an asshole at the behest of another asshole.

The general theme of the ad is that Walorski voted for the tax bill without knowing what was in it, so she’s “voting blindly.” Get it? She’s covering her face? Or at least someone’s manly hands have been photoshopped over her face? It’s the exact same hand in a different image on the other side, so this isn’t even a good photoshop, and don’t think that I haven’t noticed that it appears to be a man’s hand they used– rumors about Walorski’s sexuality (she’s married, to a man) have been floating around for literally as long as she’s been in office.

And then there’s that fucking gesture again.

Let me be one hundred percent clear: that image is photoshopped. It is not real. Even if it is an actual image of her using that gesture and only the right arm is added on, it’s still a photoshopped image and therefore by definition the entire thing is suspect. Which means one of two things:

That somebody affiliated with the Indiana Democratic Party deliberately decided to use an image of Jackie Walorski making a white power gesture in an ad and then not call attention to it, basically just doing it as a dogwhistle to both white supremacists and antiracist leftists; or
That they were unaware of what they were doing. In September of 2018, just a couple of weeks (how the fucking hell has it only been a couple of weeks??) after Brett Kavanaugh’s asshole assistant caused a rather substantial brouhaha by making the same gesture behind him at his confirmation hearing.

One of these possibilities is disgustingly cynical at best and actively slanderous at worst. The other possibility is proof of utter fucking incompetence. And neither of them are fucking okay. I hate these people. I hate this fucking election, and I hate the fact that I’ve now had to spend two fucking posts defending Jackie Fucking Walorski, who is also an asshole, but who still doesn’t deserve this shit.

A pox on the lot of these fuckers.

In which the Great Old One emerges

On September 24, 2018September 25, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn life4 Comments

It looks like it took the cat just over six weeks to realize that the dog is really, truly dead and is not hiding somewhere in the house waiting for her to lower her guard. The dog, mind you, never gave a damn whether the cat existed or not, and they’ve lived together for over ten years regardless, a length of time that you would think might convince the cat that the dog was, if not a friend, at least something not to be constantly feared.

BUT! Witness, my friends, as my 20-year-old asshole cat Mizu takes the Sam Gamgee-esque single step that places her as far as she’s ever deliberately been from our bedroom, which you would be able to almost see the door of were hte picture at a slightly different angle. We have been living in this house for seven years. See that one paw on the grey flooring in our dining room? it is literally the first time she has ever set foot in that room. In seven years. Not once. A moment later, she went into the family room, which is to the left. She’d never been in there either.

Five or six years from now, when my son is in middle school, she might allow him to pet her.

In which I’m certificated

On September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching

Unknown From the Not Especially Important Life Achievements file: I spent the last couple of hours (they give you three, and it has to be all in one sitting) getting my Level One Google for Education certification, which means … I get to put that little image to the right there in the signature portion of all my email messages and make people who don’t know better think that I’m really impressive and knowledgeable about The Googles.

It does not really mean that. I had to sign an NDA before taking the test, and I’m not about to take the risk of pissing Google off, so I’m not going to share a lot of details, but I suspect the vast majority of those of you reading this right now could go into the exam with no preparation of any kind and pass it. This particular level of certification doesn’t really signify any particular expertise other than 1) that needed to know that the certification exists, and 2) the desire to actually hold said certification. There is a Level 2 certification and also a Trainer certification, and I suspect I’ll be getting both over the course of the next couple months, but until then: Hey! I’m Level 1! Woohoo!

Now let’s see what sorts of other trouble I can get into with what’s left of my weekend. It’s been cool the last couple of days and I’ve had a hoodie on, so the happy season has begun. Will there be tortellini soup for dinner tonight to celebrate? Yes there will.