Rob's Blog

The Heatcast: A Podcast by Authors, with Authors, but not only for Authors

2026-08-26T13:13:09.887-04:00

As is well established on this aging, aching, and neglected little website of mine: I am bad about updating. I do not take this blogging thing seriously. Honestly, I knock out most of my stray thoughts over at Threads.com and interrogate them as far as they need to go in that communal space.

It's Threads.com that ultimately brings me to writing this post. When Twitter turned Nazi, I abandoned my account over there. Despite my best (well, better than here) efforts to garner a following on that site, I had morphed into very much a consumer of others' thoughts. Threads offered a fresh start and so I dove in. Along the way I made a few acquaintances.

One of those acquaintances is James. He posted about a year-ish back that he was interested in starting a podcast. One that would interview authors to learn about them, their process, and their work. I jumped at the chance to be a part of something like that. As anyone who looks at this site knows, I have some experience with podcasting. I have my own microphone and everything.

James and I chatted and became friends. Ours is not the most unlikely of transAtlantic friendships. We share some common interests, we both write, etc. etc. When we realized that yes, we could work on a project together, we got down to it and began to hammer out what the podcast would look like. And so The Heatcast (after James' nom de plume "James Heat") came to be.

We have published 5 episodes now. The first episode he interviewed me and the second I interviewed him. A pair of pilot episodes, if you will. To get our own stuff out of the way as well, so we could better focus on the people we would get to know.

5 episodes in is barely a scratch in a project like this. But our viewership/listenership is growing! As similar as all of us who put words on the page are, each of us brings something new and different to the conversation. Life experience, insight, sometimes just looking at a well-worn trope 49 degrees askance of what anyone else had attempted. And it has been wonderful.

It continues to be wonderful! You should check it out. We drop episodes on the 8th of the month at noon ET, and are on hand to chat with anyone who is watching with us. We're also on Spotify and a couple other places as well. Below is the YouTube link, because we go to the trouble of recording our video, and James takes great pains to edit it all together.

No go on, check it out. You're going to discover your next favorite author with every episode. I know I have!

https://www.youtube.com/@JamesAnAuthor

Yes It's Technically Part 4 ... BUT

2026-08-15T14:28:42.583-04:00

...Remedial Vengeance for Marines is an excellent jumping on point for the Retrograde Cycle. It takes place 5 years after the events in Parts 1-3 of the Cycle, beginning a new story built on the unsure foundation put down in those initial volumes.

For your consideration, here is Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 – On Patrol at the 115 Limit, the edge of Neptune’s gravitational influence

Colonel Calandra “Callie” Harrison was on a field trip. Stated in a more official manner,

she was leading the latest in a series of regular inspection tours. Her ride on this tour was the

BPOE Lise Meitner, accompanied by a supporting task force of ships. The task force had orders

to remain on station along this new frontier for at least the next year. Prior to those orders, a small

number of BPOE task forces had rotated through patrol duty along the 115 Limit.

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Explorers had originally been mandated with the

safety of space travel between human worlds. This mandate had grown as humanity became a

proper multi-planetary species. After the incident at Neptune, the BPOE, along with the resurgent

Coalition of Human Worlds Marine Corps, had the defense of human worlds from alien threats

added to their mandate.

The irony was not lost on officers like Colonel Harrison. She had been ready to oversee a

reduction in force of her organization. The last vestiges of organized piracy had been quelled in

the not too distant past; leaving no warring factions, no pirates – just humanity. There had been

no need to maintain a standing fighting force – or a fleet of armed vessels, from the BPOE’s

perspective. The Marines had already been mostly re-organized as a relief and Search and Rescue

force before the Neptune Incident. The discovery of aliens living in our system had changed all of

that.

New and freshly refit BPOE ships now patrolled the 115 Limit, the boundary of Neptune’s

gravitational influence and treaty-mandated MRCD sphere of control. Colonel Harrison was the

commander of the Marine force in charge of the stations that would sit along the limit with a string

of sensor buoys between them. This would create a fortified border known as the Alien Restriction

Cordon, or ARC. This cordon would ensure that both sides adhered to the treaty signed in the

aftermath of the Neptune Incident. Harrison currently operated from a temporary installation on

the largest moon in orbit of Uranus. Miranda Forward Operating Base would be the ARC

commander’s headquarters until the planned permanent HQ station could be brought online at the

heart of the ARC.

Depending on the alignment of the two planets, travel from Miranda FOB to the ARC could

take up to a week. Given this distance, Harrison made it Standard Procedure for her to travel out

to the ARC to inspect progress on a regular cadence. Once a month she would make the trip out

and spend three days inspecting a portion of the construction. This trip she had been lucky enough

to have the Lise Meitner as her ride.

The Lise Meitner was somewhat coincidentally the ship Colonel Harrison had directed the

rescue of from the momentarily hostile MRCD five years ago. The ship’s refit had been completed

three years ago, made necessary by the extensive damage suffered from the incident.

The captain of the Lise Meitner during that fateful mission had since been promoted to

commodore. Commodore Celia Grey had chosen to keep her flag aboard the ship she had fought

so hard to save, and as the Lise Meitner was already undergoing repairs and a refit it had been a

simple matter to install flag quarters.

As for the aliens, they called themselves [Magenta]:[Ripple]:[Cyan]:[Dots] in their

language. That language used chromatophores on their skin to convey color, texture, and patterns.

They also produced chemical compounds that they released into their native aquatic environment

for nuance or emphasis. While technologically similar to humanity, their communications theory

and technology was more advanced. Once they had learned about verbal communication, they

quickly built a translation technology that prevented a full-scale war.

The particular grouping of [Magenta]:[Ripple]:[Cyan]:[Dots] loosely translated into

English as “The Beings Who Think”. In an effort to respect and represent their form of

communication, their name in official human documentation used the transliteration of their name

for themselves, rather than the loose translation. As that transliteration was a mouthful, they had

become commonly known by humanity as the ‘M R C D.’

Colonel Harrison’s immediate destination on this field trip was the Control Deck of the

Lise Meitner. It was the first day of her tour and she had not had a proper opportunity to catch up

with the commodore, as the two women had become good friends after the incident. As such,

Harrison smiled when she stepped onto the Control Deck and observed Commodore Grey studying

a console at one of the aft stations.

The colonel crossed along the curve at the aft of the Control Deck. She stopped next to

Grey, who stood next to the junior officer operating the Tracking Console. Harrison was about to

ask the commodore if she was available for lunch when she clocked the BPOE officer’s expression.

She was, in a word, interested. And if Celia Grey found something interesting, Harrison knew she

would as well.

“Something interesting, commodore?” Harrison inquired professionally.

Grey lifted her eyes from the holographic Tracking display to meet the colonel’s gaze. “I

believe so. Looks like there’s another ship trying to run the Limit,” she replied, gesturing at the

three-dimensional image.

“Are we too far out to get an affirmative ID? What about sensor buoys?” Harrison asked.

“Not at all. We should be able to get a clear transponder signal, even if it’s a relay from

one of the drones out there acting in lieu of the sensor buoys that have yet to come online,” Grey

said, a note of frustration creeping into her voice. Grey was a problem-solver and did not take

well to mysteries that refused her efforts to unravel them. Especially when there was technology

not doing its job.

Harrison considered the tableau before her, parsing what Grey had initially said. “I take it,

even though this is the first I am hearing of it, that this is not the first encounter you’ve had with a

ship running dark across the Limit and,” she paused to look at the display again, her eyebrows

raising. “And wow, running faster than any civilian ship should be able to,” she observed.

“Indeed. Apologies, colonel. I was hoping to have something more than vague logs and

LIDAR shadows before filing an official report. We have no idea what they’re doing, but this is

the third runner we’ve spotted since we reached local space,” Grey replied.

Technically, Grey outranked her friend, but as Colonel Harrison had command of the entire

ARC, everyone below Admiral or General deferred to her when in her area of oversight.

“I appreciate your instincts, commodore. It’s not like I could’ve done anything different

from my office on Miranda,” Harrison acknowledged as she shared the briefest of smiles.

“Still, I will share what we have and would appreciate your perspective on the matter,”

Grey said evenly. “Though the good news is that we’re collecting a lot of new data with this one.

I don’t think they were planning on us being this close, whoever they are. We’ll have the raw data

for you in a few hours, and a full analysis for your review in a week?”

Harrison nodded her acknowledgment as her focus was now locked on the Tracking

Console. She knew the commodore was better than her word. Any further discussion on the matter

would be much better served not on the Control Deck of her ship.

As though reading the colonel’s mind, Grey cleared her throat and said, “Dinner in my

quarters this evening?”

The meal had served its purpose. Both women, now sated, had retired to the seating area

within the confines of Celia’s spacious quarters with a special cocktail in hand.

Grey took a sip from her glass. A look of satisfaction spread across her face. “I could’ve

laid in a store of the ingredients and mixed these fresh, but Xing Pe has a secret ingredient he

refuses to share. It forces me to request he make a batch whenever we’re passing your base.”

“This batch,” Celia said, holding out her glass for emphasis,” is left over from the last

patrol circuit we completed.”

Callie took an appraising sip from her own. “Huh. Tastes like it was just constructed.”

“Another point in Xing Pe’s favor. It holds together even after six months,” Celia noted.

Callie used the conversational pause to conduct a visual tour of the quarters. “I just realized

I’ve never been in these quarters before. Your office, my office, the Officer’s Club, my quarters

on Miranda, but never here. Weird.”

“It’s been a busy few years. Frankly, as much as this is home, after a cruise it’s nice to get

outside these bulkheads. Even if it’s just while we’re making a port call at Miranda,” Celia

explained.

“Fair enough, and I understand. My regular tours of the ARC have very likely kept me

sane these last few years. The change of scenery is definitely nice, if predictably BPOE-chic,”

Callie agreed.

“And speaking of nice,” she added, gesturing around the space with her glass.

“Yeah, I argued for just keeping my quarters as they were when I was captain. Protocol, it

seems, insists that a commodore have more room on her flagship than a lowly captain does on her

ship,” Celia said with an overly dramatic sigh.

“Sure. Protocol,” Callie fired back with emphasis on the second word.

When Celia caught Callie’s expression, they shared a laugh. After several seconds it settled

into a beat of comfortable silence.

Callie cleared her throat. “So what’s going on with these ships running the Limit? I know

you’re still pulling the data together for your official report, but I know you and you must already

have at least two theories.”

Celia nodded. “Well, like I said; that ship earlier today was the third confirmed runner

we’ve logged since we reached local space, and the first two were right at the edge of our effective

tracking range. There may have been others in the past, or some logged by other ships when they

were on station.

“I’ve reached out to the last two ships to patrol the ARC but haven’t heard anything back

as of yet. In the meantime, I’ve had my computers working to refine what they could from the

sensing data of the incursions we did log. Today’s runner was much closer than the others. Those

data points should make a huge difference.”

Callie raised an eyebrow. “But no theories on what they’re up to yet? Are they all crossing

at the same place, maybe exploiting a gap in our net that we haven’t had a chance to fill in yet?”

Celia shook her head. “Different points of incursion each time. And like I said just at the

edge of our ability to track them before today. Almost as if they’re only so concerned about being

caught. Frankly it’s beginning to feel like they’re taunting us.”

“No shit. Well, it’s – whatever they’re doing – going to be harder to pull off soon enough.

Another shipment of drones is due in a few weeks,” Callie shared.

“Good,” Celia acknowledged. “Because Commodore Rice’s task force is due on station

out here about the same time frame.”

“Relief so soon into your patrol cruise?” Callie inquired.

“Nah, we’re going to run a series of war games. A little demonstration to make sure the

MRCD know we aren’t just sitting on our hands on the other side of the Limit.”

“But won’t that concentrate patrol ships in one area?” Callie inquired.

Celia shrugged and sipped her cocktail. “You know the admiralty. Half a good idea that

works out well enough most of the time. At least we’ll have some more drones to cover some of

those gaps.”

Callie’s eye roll said more than words could. “Which is why they put a colonel and a

commodore in charge out here instead of posting a general and or admiral. Not only do we

remember what we should be doing, sitting out here would get in the way of their golf.”

That sparked another round of chuckles.

“Speaking of relief,” Celia said, her tone shifting, “We’ll have you back to Miranda in a

few days. Are you taking any leave? Making any travel plans to Callisto, perhaps?”

It took Callie a moment to process what her friend was really asking her. When she worked

it out, she drained her glass and held it out for a refill. She waited until her recharged beverage

was back in hand before responding. “Yeah, I made it a standing order that I’d be out the day of

and the day after every year. Though honestly, I forgot it was coming up. And no, I have no travel

plans. I haven’t been back to Callisto in what, five years now? That stuff isn’t going anywhere.”

It was Celia’s turn to raise her eyebrows.

Callie waved her free hand. “It’s not like that. It’s not me purposefully forcing it down or

trying to ignore it. Like I said, it’s been five years now. Maybe acceptance is finally settling in?”

Celia replied with another appraising look.

“No, really Celia, I mean it. Losing Beckett doesn’t sting like it used to. I mean, see?

We’re talking about it – about him – and I’m not crying or breaking anything. Not even a little.

Nor would I; break anything, that is,” Callie replied, looking around Celia’s quarters again. “I

wouldn’t want to make a mess out of your immaculately appointed quarters. And to reiterate, my

own quarters – apartment, that is – back in Odintown will still be there whenever I do make my

way down system. I’ll figure it out then.”

Callie smiled with only a hint of cheekiness to emphasize her sincerity.

Celia looked at her for a long moment before replying. “Okay. I believe you. But I’ll turn

this whole task force around and head back to Miranda if you need me to once the day is here,”

she said with her whole heart.

“You are a true friend, Celia Grey,” Callie stated.

“I’m the best,” Celia agreed, her smile entirely cheeky.

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NEW BOOK SNEAK PEEK - A GREATER PUZZLE, Chapter 1

2025-04-06T14:04:00.004-04:00

Asgard Base, Callisto

Neptune was waiting. Knowing this tested Captain Celia Grey’s patience. Sitting through this briefing by the Admiralty was low on her list of things to do. However, it would be unwise to let her impatience be seen in this situation. Admirals disliked it when their officers expressed displeasure with their briefings. Even when the briefing could have been a communique.

Later, as they walked through the corridors together Grey said, “Let’s keep an eye on that ensign who flew me over. With a little more seasoning he might be a good addition to our crew.”

Especially when this could have been a communique, Grey thought to herself. She dared a hint of a wry smile. Her XO pretended not to notice, but she did. It was the XO’s job to notice things.

Captain Grey and her Executive Officer Commander Christine Phillips sat at a conference table. The table was in a briefing room in a dome located at Asgard Base. Asgard Base itself was the headquarters for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Explorers. The Order, commonly referred to as the BPOE, was the post-military organization chartered by the Coalition of Human Worlds to explore, render aid, and keep the peace between the worlds of the Solar System.

Asgard Base was on Jupiter’s moon Callisto and had become the new home for BPOE Headquarters some fifteen years prior. The decision to move headquarters from Mars came only after extraterrestrial life had been found on Saturn’s moon Titan. Before that discovery the base had been an outpost that largely supported the Jovian atmospheric mining operations. Occasionally, Asgard had served as a waystation to support BPOE vessels on Outer System Patrol.

This briefing that the captain and her XO found themselves in was for something entirely different from any of those still-relevant activities: there was a mystery to solve. Grey’s ship, the Lise Meitner, was days away from being dispatched to investigate and hopefully solve this mystery.

The BPOE was equipped with spaceships that could move people and goods between Jupiter and Saturn in a matter of weeks. That distance could be traversed in a couple of days when the planets aligned and the ship was fast. Even with this capability, most exploration beyond Saturn was still conducted by robotic probes. A wealth of information had been learned about Uranus and its moons via this method. Neptune, on the other hand, was still largely unknown.

The most distant ice giant had not been neglected. Over the preceding two hundred plus years dozens of robotic probes had been dispatched to Neptune. Some had ceased transmitting soon after entering orbit, their data return minimal. Others simply stopped transmitting navigational telemetry in the vicinity of Neptune and never sent back any science data.

The teams in charge of the probes insisted there must be a highly localized phenomenon causing the failures. No amount of shielding yielded success, and the BPOE was unwilling to dispatch a human crew, especially after life was discovered orbiting Saturn. It was more important to dedicate resources to support that effort.

However, the loss of the probes had finally become a political issue for the people elected to run humanity’s affairs. They in turn made it the BPOE’s problem, as one of the earliest functions of the organization was the tracking of every object in orbit of the Sun down to one centimeter in diameter. And now the BPOE was making it Captain Grey’s problem to solve.

Celia had always been a problem solver by nature. Therefore, she relished the opportunity to not only be the captain of the first ship to visit Neptune in fifty years (and the first ship to do more than a quick swing through the system before slingshotting their way back toward settled space), but to also answer the mystery of the lost probes. The problem she had to solve immediately? Getting out of this briefing without losing the assignment and her commission.

She had fully grokked what her commanding officers were asking of her within ten minutes of the meeting’s start. However, the admirals had their own agenda. Eventually humanity would expand outward into the gravity well of Neptune and plans for that settlement required the BPOE to carry out its oldest mandate: the creation of a detailed three-dimensional active chart of Neptune-local space.

Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, was considered prime real estate for a future BPOE base. This base would ultimately serve as the support hub for human exploration into the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt, just as Callisto was still the base of support for all activity beyond the Asteroid Belt.

The repeated failure of the robotic probes sent to conduct initial studies and other basic science was a problem that must be solved before any of these plans could move forward. Thus, Captain Grey and her crew were being sent to investigate and ultimately find answers.

Eventually the speeches were done. Grey plastered a smile on her face. She stood from her chair when everyone else stood. She accepted the words of encouragement and congratulations from each of the admirals as Commander Phillips stood at her side, impassive. Grey herself had never served as an XO. She had been a Propulsion Officer and later Propulsion Chief for most of her career. She cared for the generators that moved them through space and other ship’s systems. After several tours as PC, her old commanding officer had recommended her for the captain’s chair. If she had known being a captain meant sitting through briefings like this, Grey might have turned down Captain Simmons’ recommendation. This morphed her forced smile into the genuine article.

Noticing the subtle shift in her CO’s demeanor, Commander Phillips caught Grey’s attention with an inquisitive look.

Ensuring she was in no one’s line of sight, Grey mouthed ‘it’s over.’

Phillips almost laughed out loud but held her own composure.

They cleared the briefing room and retired to the office Grey had been granted for the week of briefings and planning meetings before their departure. The captain dropped into the chair positioned behind the unadorned desk. Phillips remained standing on the other side.

“Have a seat, Chris,” the captain recommended.

Phillips sat down in one of the chairs opposite the desk and leaned back. A dramatic sigh escaped her lips.

“Commander?” Grey inquired.

“That briefing could have been a communique,” Phillips observed.

“No kidding. Frankly given my preference we’d already be underway for Neptune, but it seems like every admiral is itching to have their name be attached to this mission,” Grey mused.

“Indeed. They know it’s a political mission as much as anything,” the XO concurred.

“Anyway, based on what little information we have going in, what do you think we’re going to find out there?” Grey asked.

Phillips considered the captain’s question for a moment before responding.

“Honestly, it’s most likely just some sort of highly localized radiation event that we can’t detect this far out. As much as people want it to be something spectacular, we’re going to come home with a tracking database, hi-res scans of all the moons, and probably a few radiation-fried dead probes,” she answered.

“So, nothing really weird,” Grey said.

“Being the first ship to do a proper survey of Neptune isn’t enough for you?” Phillips teased.

“I was on the crew of the Phoenix when the Titan microbes were discovered,” Grey reminded her XO, “I’ve been chasing weird for most of my career.”

♃

Captain Grey’s Launch ascended into the never-ending night of Callisto’s sky. Her pilot was young and therefore fastidious about following protocol. That protocol would demand that he deliver her directly to the Lise Meitner’s launch bay with minimal diversion from his filed flight plan. Grey had other ideas.

She stepped forward from the passenger cabin into the cockpit. She sat down familiarly in the vacant copilot’s chair and leaned forward to take in the space around them. Jupiter ate most of the sky before them, but other Galilean moons could be seen racing across the gargantuan world’s roiling face. In a scape of organic curves and swirls, Svadilfari Station was abruptly orthogonal.

Svadilfari served as the main shipyard, maintenance, and docking facility for all BPOE spacecraft capable of interplanetary travel. The Lise Meitner, only on dock for minor repairs and resupply, was connected to girdered superstructure by only a pair of umbilicals and a docking tube.

Before the ensign could make the necessary course correction to approach the Launch Bay, Grey coughed politely to get his attention.

“Ensign, I need you to make a slight alteration to your approach course,” she said amiably.

“Captain?” the young man replied without taking his eyes from his instrument console.

She sighed. Grey fished her personal screen from her pocket. Screens were the standard issue slim portable handheld communications and computing device that everyone in the BPOE carried. At one point in the distant past devices with similar form factor and partial function had been called ‘phones.’ Screens were to those ancient phones what the phones had been to sticks scratching in dirt. The captain swiped a finger vertically across her screen to send an updated flight plan to the pilot’s console.

“Here, please follow this amended route before dropping me off,” she instructed the ensign.

“Captain, this deviates from the plan I filed with Traffic Control before taking off. I have to follow my filed plan,” he said, head fresh with regulations and promised consequences for not following them.

“Ensign, I promise that you will not suffer any consequences by following this plan. I need to inspect the hull of my vessel before boarding her and you happen to have the vehicle I need to make that happen. And I didn’t want to do this, but I’m not asking, I’m ordering,” she said with some force in her voice.

Grey would have preferred that the ensign show some latitude, but the BPOE needed strict rule-followers, too. They often made excellent Executive Officers. That thought brought a smirk across her lips. Ultimately the ensign caved to her request and flew a slow corkscrew around the exterior of the Lise Meitner.

Like all BPOE ships, the Lise Meitner was at its most basic a white cylinder with various sensing platforms erupting from the leading end of the vessel. Smooth arcs of hull were interrupted by oval windows, circular docking ports, and more sensing equipment. The aft tapered quickly into the main drive system which provided the mind-boggling acceleration that made the BPOE’s patrols and explorations possible.

Captain Grey was interested in several small repairs that had been completed by the Svadilfari Station crew. Their last patrol had unexpectedly taken them into a previously uncharted debris field. It had caused mostly superficial damage to the ship’s hull, but a few impacts were beyond the ability of Grey’s repair teams to tackle. As the pilot ably steered them in a slow orbit of her ship, she inspected the repairs with a practiced eye.

The captain’s first mentor was the present commanding officer of Svadilfari Station. Back then he had been a Lieutenant Commander and the Propulsion Chief for the BPOE Phoenix. Now he was Admiral Gonzalo Rodriguez. Grey liked to think he took extra-special care of her ship, but she knew that the Chief (how she would forever think of him) considered every ship in the BPOE fleet special. This, coupled with the quality of his team’s work, made her smile.

“Thank you, ensign. That will do. We can proceed to the Launch Bay now,” she told the pilot as she settled back down into the copilot’s seat.

The ensign relaxed noticeably. Grey thought she heard some words muttered just under his breath but chose to ignore them. He had done her a favor; she was repaying that favor by remaining silent. She shook her head slowly at the silliness and he executed an almost perfect landing in her ship’s Launch Bay.

Grey spied Commander Phillips waiting in the observation area for the bay to be re-pressurized. The captain offered her XO a nod of acknowledgement, which was returned.

Drops May 1, 2025!

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A Greater Puzzle: Retrograde Cycle Part 1 now available for Pre Order!

2025-02-01T13:57:00.002-05:00

If you follow me on Social Media (well, pretty much just Threads these days), you are aware that I have been working on a new series of books set in my Titan Run Universe. And now I have some Great News!

Goodnight, Clyde

2024-08-08T06:56:00.000-04:00

Clyde was always a study in contradictions. He would lay around like any other dog, but the moment he thought he was unsupervised he would dive head-first into whatever trouble he could find: the trash, the cats’ food, or any leather items that I foolishly left within his reach.

Before his arthritis betrayed him Clyde was a champion of 1, 2, and even 3 mile walks. He could not get enough of the sights and smells of our neighborhood; nor any random chicken wing bones that happened to be left near a construction site that he got to before I could stop him. Anyone who ever met him would agree that he was 100% food-driven and for some reason hopelessly imprinted on me - or on whomever happened to be eating a slice of pizza in his vicinity. Given his propensity for eating whatever, it is a wonder he lived to the ripe old age of 14.

Clyde never enjoyed the stage success of his dog-brother Jonny, but his ambitions were never that lofty; all Clyde wanted was a pizza crust, a warm fire to snooze in front of, and the knowledge that I was somewhere nearby. We all made sure he got just the right amount of those things over the past 7 years. His presence, stubbornness, and willingness to clean up whatever we dropped on the floor when making dinner (except leafy greens) will be very much missed around our home.

Clyde was preceded over the rainbow bridge by his dog brother Jonny and cat brother Meer Meer. He is survived by Tiger - who was a comforting figure at the water dish these last few months; Walter, who was never quite sure what to make of Clyde; and Maggie, who herself was somewhat indifferent to the dearly departed. In lieu of anything give your animal companion(s) a scritch wherever they most enjoy it and in honor of Clyde, just enough of that people food they love.

Goodnight, Clyde. We’ll miss you. You were a Good Dog.

We Need a Star Trek MicroMachines Renaissance

2024-03-14T17:00:00.010-04:00

If you were into Star Trek in the '90s, odds are you owned or wanted to own the Star Trek MicroMachines. I bought every package I found in the toy store in my hometown's mall. As the years have passed, I somehow came to believe I had most of the available ~~toys~~ models.

How wrong I was.

Introduction to Notes on the Titan Run Universe

2024-03-05T17:00:00.004-05:00

Hi.

You may have heard of the Titan Run Trilogy, I mean, it's all over this site. Based on my lifetime sales dashboard, however, odds are you have not. That's fine. There are links to the right to get you started if any of this content makes you sufficiently curious, and you can always join the mailing list for updates on new books and any public appearances I'll be making.

The Titan Run Universe is the shared, well, universe in which most of my Science Fiction work takes place. Notes on the Titan Run Universe is a series of articles that add context to the Titan Run Universe novels. This series will address the 'current' state of the Solar System and the history of how it got to where it is as of the beginning of the Titan Run Trilogy. I will also include character biographies and offer more information on the ships that for me are characters as much as the people who inhabit the TRU.

Check out a brief taste of what's to come after the jump.

A Quick Note

2023-12-15T17:01:00.004-05:00

I was a little quick to say that my blog was back, etc.

It is, but I need to take the time to properly consider and curate some content!

So please bear with me as I accumulate some interesting content and write some original content for my little corner of the internet. I'm already working on it, so stay tuned for new stuff, and especially more on the Titan Run Universe, including more about the new trilogy that I hope to release late next year (your interest / support / cajoling will go a long way to keeping that project on track, haha - no seriously).

Contextualizing the Titan Run Universe

2023-12-08T16:30:00.006-05:00

We live in a world of IPs and shared universes and series. Some people love that, others decry the ills and narrative laziness or naked profiteering that too often rides alongside these concepts. I like to hope that the Titan Run Universe is a little different.

I set out with an idea - "The deadliest catch, in space." Where I ended up remains true to that elevator pitch, but is more. I made a huge found family from the characters that populate that first trilogy. Those characters will form the foundation for the stories I will continue to tell in that universe, because I love them and I love this world I've created.

As much as Outer Space is dispassionately murderous to human existence, the ships that fly between worlds in my stories are oases of humanity. They are home for the people inside their bulkheads, and whether you're on a BPOE vessel with military discipline or a mining vessel with a much looser hierarchy the range of human drama is on display for you, the reader. It's cozy SciFi, people. Cozy SciFi where the real bad guy is the abyss never more than a few meters of alloys, carbon fiber, and ceramic composites away.

Another reason why I stay within the same universe is because I'm exploring it as much as my characters are. Sure I had the rough ideas sketched out in my head, but the trilogy only needed to stay consistent within itself; anything else was needless shackling that might get in the way of me telling a good story. As I said in my last post, I wrote down an abbreviated history of the TRU in only the past few weeks. I'll be semi-canonizing it on this site.

As the TRU grows I want to solidify the broad strokes of their past and make sure that everything works together. Nothing irks a SciFi fan more than when continuity is ignored. As a fan myself, I'd rather the writer(s) spent a few extra minutes figuring out a way to make the story work within the constraints of what came before. In this scenario *I* am the writer. I promise to do my best. Keep me honest.

Happy Friday, everyone. By the way, when I said "daily" in my last post, I obviously meant weekdays. You knew that, right? I figured you did. Clever you.

I'll leave you with this, the work-in-progress updated tagline for Krakken and Phoenix:

Outrunning your past sometimes means falling headlong into danger.

Which we all have to admit is WAY BETTER than what's there now:

When we last saw our crews...

It's like I wasn't even trying. Anyway, have a lovely weekend everyone.

Take n: Let's Try This Again

2023-12-07T19:20:00.002-05:00

Welcome ... back?

Given that I last posted anything to this site well over a year ago, I'll be surprised if there's anyone still out there paying attention. Which is fine! Because I'm going to try again. And I hope you enjoy the ride with me.

This time I'm going to focus on blogging about my Science Fiction writing; that is, my process, drafts of things I'm working on, context for the Titan Run Universe* (TRU), that sort of thing. In fact I dashed off 3 pages yesterday of an abbreviated history of the TRU between now and roughly the beginning of Breaking Orbit. That said, I may take digressions into my other interests: Reading Science Fiction, Watching Science Fiction, Gardening, and Decorative Yard Inflatables. But seriously, The History of the TRU will become a series here, now that the initial thought is out of my head.

I'm currently working on a fresh novel trilogy set 20 years after the original Titan Run Trilogy, and I promise I have at least a dozen ideas for other stories set in this universe where all the characters you got to know before you'll get to know even better! Look for more about this new trilogy in the coming says, weeks, and months. I'm hoping to get the first book out in late 2024. Your aggregated cajoling will go a long way in keeping me on target.

I'm also still tinkering with the ephemera and meta-content for the original Titan Run Trilogy. I updated the cover art for all 3 books earlier this year and I'm currently tinkering with an updated back cover / Amazon page blurb for each book.

Here's Breaking Orbit's pending new blurb:

Life is what happens when you’re busy making dinner plans.

Hugh Saracen thinks he has it all: A fulfilling career, a loving husband, and PTSD after losing his lab partner in a field accident on the surface of Mars. When Hugh’s husband Dalton receives a promotion, the cracks in that perfect life become impossible to ignore.

On the far side of the red planet, Ann Bell lives a life deferred as she cares for her dying mother. A moment of compassion from Ann forces her to abandon everything she’s ever known to preserve her freedom.

Two people with nothing in common beyond the world they both call home. Two people with their own agendas. Two people leaving everything behind to do the deadliest job in the Solar System: The Titan Run.

For reference, here's the existing blurb:

Hugh Saracen is a scientist whose perfect life on Mars is suddenly turned upside down.
Ann Bell left a promising career to care for her ailing mother.
MEANWHILE, CAPTAIN DB ZHONG IS FACING A TIGHT DEPARTURE DEADLINE AND IS DOWN TWO CREW MEMBERS.
The Phoenix is the BPOE's latest explorer/patrol ship. Newly-minted captain Dalton Simmons is facing his own pressures to launch his experimental ship and prove that his design is the future for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Explorers, mappers and guardians of the Solar System's space lanes. Accident, circumstance, and a little luck (you decide which kind), see two crews breaking orbit for the far flung depths of our Solar System, hundred of years in the future. Join Hugh, Ann, Captains Zhong and Simmons, and their crews as they begin their work to leave everything behind.

But, to quote one of the best hours of SciFi television ever produced, What do YOU think?

I'll do my best to post at least a few times a week. The history of the blog at this URL has been fairly haphazard but this time I have a plan, folks. Stick around and see if I'm up to the task.

*The Titan Run Universe is the world I created with the Titan Run Trilogy, a future where humanity has mostly got things figured out and is settling our Solar System.

Awakening

2022-09-16T17:00:00.001-04:00

Today is my birthday, and to celebrate that I wrote some flash fiction. Enjoy!

Beep beep beep beep…

Consciousness found him, but only just so. The steady rhythm came to his ears muffled, as though he were under water.

Ensigns Rodriguez and Simmons: Titan Run Trilogy Vignettes

2022-08-23T21:42:00.002-04:00

I wrote the below as the beginning scenes for a new short story that I'll soon be sending out. In my editing process I realized that these are completely divorced from the rest of the story and therefore had to be cut. However! The story's loss is your gain, since I decided to share them here, for free!

If you're new to the Titan Run Trilogy Universe and want to read more, you can find more information here on this blog (book excerpts, essays, etc.) and/or visit TitanRunTrilogy.space to get the novel trilogy where an older Dalton and Gonzo are among the cast of characters (for $5.98 you can read the entire trilogy on your Kindle device). If you're a fan of the trilogy, first thank you for reading and I hope you have the chance to leave a review -- Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere on social media. Your good word would do a world of good in spreading the, um, word about the Titan Run Trilogy.

That's enough out of me, now, some vignettes featuring a young Ensign Dalton Simmons and his best friend, a young Ensign Gonzalo "Gonzo" Rodriguez:

Just Happy to Be Here, A Remembrance of Jonny

2022-06-17T10:03:00.001-04:00

He came into the world in what I can only assume was the usual way a puppy does, but blind. Someone was kind enough to raise him even given this congenital challenge. According to the Rescue where I adopted him from he was found tied up in someone’s back yard and surrendered to them. Whether that’s his true origin story or not is immaterial, but it definitely works as an emotional ploy when you’re looking to convince someone to adopt a blind dog.

Episode 202 - Astrophysical Considerations During Fourth Meal

2022-04-16T14:33:00.001-04:00

Another one from the Taco Bell Quarterly rejections file. Admittedly, reading it again and knowing TBQ's voice, this wasn't a great fit, but I still think it's a fun little piece of absurdism that I'd like to share with you.

A couple more of these to go before I likely go dark again, unless I start selling a lot of poetry books and y'all demand that I carry on (https://lefthandrob.net is where you can find the links to the goods).

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 201 - They keep it cold inside the Taco Bell...

2022-04-09T15:07:00.001-04:00

Friends, it's a been a few months and I might be a little rusty on my intro-ad libbing chops, but stick with me into the poem itself. It's fun, and hopefully up to my own standards for Weird. For this is the first in my little series of items, Taco Bell Quarterly Rejections.

As mentioned in the pod, if you haven't go check out Taco Bell Quarterly. For poetry, it's a dream publication. If I could sneak in some Taco-Bell related Sci Fi, well that would be just perfect.

There's a Ko-fi link on my lefthandrob.net home page, where you might be reading this, if you want to help support the production of this podcast.

And however much I'd like to see those dollars trickle in via ko-fi, I'd much rather you take that hard earned currency and donate it to one of the charities listed on that same site. Because we live in a capitalist society and the work toward justice and equality and maybe even equity requires money to run.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the poem. If you're happy I'm back, let me know with a comment or a tweet. If you wish I'd gone away for good, same.

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Book Trailer: The Complete Titan Run Trilogy (with excerpts from each novel)

2021-12-28T16:16:00.004-05:00

The Cycle is Complete

2021-12-17T16:11:00.001-05:00

More than a decade ago I had an idea. At the time, “The Deadliest Catch” was in the popular culture and I wanted to write a Science Fiction novel. My idea was to write “The Deadliest Catch … In Space.” I stole moments during lunch and evenings to scribble notes, write drafts of scenes, and outline a novel. I began to write in earnest. I had already written a novel, a novella, and a pile of short stories. Some of it was okay, a lot I’m now embarrassed that I thought it was good enough to inflict on the world. None of it was what I’d ever have called “good Science Fiction.” But I had the idea.

Deep into writing the first draft of this novel I realized that it would need to be a trilogy. All the great stories are told across multiple volumes, why not mine? Also, three books means three times the potential revenue, and I’ve been trying to make writing a paying side-hustle for, well, awhile. It remains a passion, but net-negative cashflow. Alas.

I redoubled my efforts to finish that first volume after breaking the outline into thirds. In 2016, “

Breaking Orbit, volume I of the Titan Run Trilogy” was published. Work began on volume II. Four years, a new marriage, a move, a new job, and a global pandemic later, “Krakken and Phoenix, volume II of the Titan Run Trilogy” hit Amazon’s virtual shelves in November 2020. I’ve never been more proud of a work of fiction I wrote. Until now.

One year, three vaccine shots (boosted!), and a pandemic several variants into the Greek alphabet later, I have published “

Statute of Expectations, volume III of the Titan Run Trilogy.” The cycle is complete.

This final piece of work was the easiest time I’ve had writing a book and also the most difficult. When I published “Krakken and Phoenix,” I had availed myself of large swathes of suddenly free time to bring home a book I’d been working on for three years. It was already half-done when everything shut down.

"Statue of Expectations" was its own beast. Sure I had written the first chapter and slapped it in at the end of “Krakken…,” but I’ll be honest: at the time I had only the broadest ideas of how this thing was going to end. I spent the end of last year sharpening those ideas into an outline. I began writing in earnest while we were still hunkered down pre-vaccine. I finished the book as the Delta Variant raged across the world. The Titan Run Trilogy has nothing to do with a pandemic, but that's how I've been measuring time.

If you’ve been along for the ride, I hope “Statute of Expectations” is a worthy ending, in your estimation. I think it is, but so often a fan’s ideas are not what the creator had in mind. But even if it’s not what you wanted, I hope you enjoy the journey.

If you haven’t started yet, hey, this piece is peppered with links, and I keep my books inexpensive on Kindle. Hell, if we’re friends, ask and I’ll send you a digital copy. Make your friends pay for their copies. Word of mouth remains the best marketing. I’ve tried social media advertising, so I know.

“Statute of Expectations” is the end of this story, but it’s not the end of this universe, or even these characters. I have a short story set during “Krakken and Phoenix” in the December 2021 issue of Synthetic Reality Magazine. I have a file full of more story and novel ideas, and I’ll be submitting more shorts. Just don’t expect a whole-ass novel out of me in another year. At least not in 2022. I’m gonna enjoy the accomplishment for a moment. This is still a passion
project after all. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Episode 140: Last Rose of the Season

2021-11-06T11:11:00.001-04:00

This is a fan-favorite (you know who you are, fan) sonnet, inspired by my father's rose garden.

DO GOOD: Donate to Social Causes:

https://www.lefthandrob.net/p/social-racial-justice-charities.html

Poetry Books: Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

Direct Cash Contribution: Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 139: Untitled NYC Poem

2021-10-27T05:09:00.001-04:00

DO GOOD: Donate to Social Causes:

https://www.lefthandrob.net/p/social-racial-justice-charities.html

Poetry Books: Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

Direct Cash Contribution: Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 138 - Always look up when opening a window - 10921 12.52 PM

2021-10-09T13:02:00.001-04:00

Direct Cash Contribution: Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Poetry Books: Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

DO GOOD: Donate to Social Causes:

https://www.lefthandrob.net/p/social-racial-justice-charities.html

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 137 - Something

2021-09-23T17:09:00.001-04:00

Direct Cash Contribution: Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Poetry Books: Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

DO GOOD: Donate to Social Causes:

https://www.lefthandrob.net/p/social-racial-justice-charities.html

This week, it's "Something." There wasn't an episode last week because I just wasn't feeling it. But hey, I'm back.

The rest: like, share, rate, engage

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 136: 11

2021-09-11T18:25:00.001-04:00

Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

Donate to Social Causes:

Rob's Blog: Donate to Social / Racial Justice Charities (lefthandrob.net)

For whatever reason, I did not read this poem at the week of the anniversary of 9/11. I don't remember why. But for you, this year, on the 20th anniversary, is "11."

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 135: September's Rent

2021-09-03T12:14:00.001-04:00

Support this podcast by buying me a ko-fi:

https://ko-fi.com/lefthandrob

Read along with the podcast, get your own copy of the poems (also another great way to support the podcast):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VW4TXV6

Donate to Social Causes:

Rob's Blog: Donate to Social / Racial Justice Charities (lefthandrob.net)

It's not Fall yet, but as of this recording it IS September, so I'm going back into "Stand Right, Walk Left" for this week's piece, "September's Rent." It evokes a feeling from slightly later in the year here in the Northern parts of North America, but hey, listen now and then listen to this episode again while you're out among the changing leaves. Plus, you can tell your friends about the podcast in the interim.

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Episode 134 - Focus

2021-08-28T15:09:00.001-04:00

I made the switch from Audacity to Garageband to record this week's episode ,and there's a little reverb in there I didn't catch until I was doing a final QA check on the mp3 file. So, for you dear listener, enjoy this week's episode as if it were coming to you from a 1970's recording studio, because damn they loved reverb back then!

This week from Regret & Opportunity is "Focus," a brief work about the transient nature of our existence.

Visit https://lefthandrob.net for more episodes, essays, and links to Social Justice Causes.

Visit https://www.amazon.com/author/murrayrobertc for my full catalog of books, including all 3 poetry books. They make wonderful gitfts - the recipient will think you're quite erudite, giving poetry. Priced to move, Priced to Love, Priced so that Amazon gets their cut I can still afford to run this podcast. Help me keep making these for you.

Left Hand Poetry: My Podcast of Poems

Tom T. Hall: A Personal Remembrance

2021-08-23T15:59:00.005-04:00

Legendary Country Music songwriter and performer Tom T. Hall passed away at the age of 85 on August 20, 2021. This is my remembrance of a man whom I never met, saw in concert once at a fire company carnival, but has always felt like a distant uncle to me – as much as it is a remembrance of a man I knew most of my life, my father.

The first time I heard Tom T. Hall's music … I can't remember because it's always been there. The music your parents - or whomever raised you - listened to is as much a part of you as the crazy brightly colored shag-carpet remnant that lined the floor of the room where you first heard that music. For me that music was on the records my father played and sang along to, the turntable propped up on speaker cabinets he had built.

There were plenty of performers of dad's era represented: Simon & Garfunkel, Peter & Gordon, The Chairman of the Board himself, even a little Roy Clark pickin' n grinnin' when I was young enough to still want to spend a Friday night with the old man. But the featured performer on for each of these nights was Tom T. himself. Most folks know Tom T. Hall from his penning of "Harper Valley PTA," or "I Love." Maybe you're familiar with "I Like Beer" (see below). Even though it was his most famous song, "Harper Valley" wasn't on the rotation for our weekly record concerts.

Remembering it now, it's likely my father was unwinding from a long week's work, adding his own rich baritone as he joined in the singing while spending some time with his boy, As often as not I remember poking at his desk calculator (If you punch in a number and hit the square root button enough times, it always resolves to 1!) or using up his scratch pads for I don’t remember what nonsense. I have a lot of memories from the almost 40 years I shared with my father, and these will always be some of the fondest.

I like to think my father was also using the medium of those songs as life lessons. Rather than sitting me down, wise to the fact that kids rarely listen to what their parents try to tell them, he instead gave the floor to The Storyteller and let his catchy melodies and insightful lyrics impart an ethos. These lessons might not be directly applicable when you're 7, but nearly 40 years later, they apply.

Stay with me as I remember some songs:

From "A Week in a Country Jail" I learned to be wary of speeding and the potential caprice of local law enforcement - the former a lesson I'll admit it took me much longer and several hundred dollars more than it could have; the latter lesson is not one I, as a white man, need worry about beyond the possibility of maybe spending a few days in jail, as per the song.

"The Ballad of 40 Dollars" and “Who’s Gonna Feed Them Hogs?” teach us that there's always a job to be done, even when those for whom you're doing the work are (literally) beyond their ability to repay you.

"Salute to a Switchblade" is a 3-minute master class in international relations, post-WWII Army life, and what can go wrong when talking to a pretty woman in a bar - throw in an additional lesson on the evils of overindulgence in drink.

In Counterpoint to "Salute", there's "I Like Beer" and "The Bar with No Beer," the former a fun tune about being honest with yourself, the latter a comic lament for those who go without.

"Me and Jesus" taught me that my Faith is Mine, and no one else's business. We got our own thing goin'.

"I Love" and "I Care" are two of the purest songs ever to exist and just thinking about them makes me well up because the human heart was never meant to hold this much love at one time.

"Faster Horses" and "Hat Full of Feathers" show a young person the dangers and ridiculousness of braggadocio from differing perspectives.

"That's How I Got to Memphis", "I Miss a Lot of Trains", and "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" speak of heartache, grief, and recovery; they give us the tools we need to move on when "I Love" and "I Care" just aren't enough.

I could go on like this through the bulk of his discography, but I'll wrap up this reminiscence with "Sneaky Snake." There's no lesson here beyond maybe if you too want to get your young one into music (specifically Tom T. Hall, I guess?), play "Sneaky Snake" for them. This song was the funniest GD song to me when I was a little kid. It's fitting that it was written from an experience Mr. Hall had on his own property/refuge at Fox Hollow; because, as much as Tom T. Hall's music was full of lessons for me then and now, it has been and will always be a refuge for me as much as a memory of time well spent with my father - and that ridiculous (-ly awesome) yellow and orange shag carpet in his office.