Happy Friday, friends.
We've had a busy week. I spent a little time rewriting Gun Girl Gracie around midweek, and as much as I enjoyed it, that little indulgence put me behind the chains with As For Football as the week developed. We somehow managed to get everything together on deadline this week, but I'm telling you, yesterday got kind of frantic.
Whew!
Thankfully, it's now Friday, and with our weekly mailer out, my work here is done... at least for the next forty-eight or so hours. That gives us a bit of time to ponder the week that was.
It feels like a lot happened.
1. Praise for The Return of Dr. Necropolis
I sent out the mailer this week because Cons got back to me with his quote for the book's cover, and I was not only really happy with what he said, I also thought it was interesting to see which parts of the book spoke to him.
“I signed up for chaos mixed with a good, old-fashioned action hero story and got hit with something I didn't expect: a book about carrying a name heavier than your own choices. Blaine Winters is carrying a burden of service that’s all too familiar to many.
“This book is violent, it's unhinged, it's got a submarine fight in it, and somehow, it still nails the part about legacy that actually matters. You don't get to pick the shadow you're born into, but you get to decide what you do standing in it. Heavy.
“Plus, the book ends with 'BEAT NAVY,' so obviously 5 stars, no notes.”
— Connor Crehan (Captain Cons), Host of Barstool Sports' Bold American Podcast
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Cons liked Blaine. My good friend and classmate Ray Kimball also really liked Blaine, saying that Blaine reminded him of himself when he was younger. This was doubly true in the second book. Even so, I still think it's interesting that this is where most of the West Pointers see themselves in this story.
There's more in the mailer if you're interested. And even if you're not, do me a favor and sign up for it anyway. Friends, I need you to remember to buy the book when it finally comes out. Having commissioned a cover for this thing from an actual professional, I now need to sell a few copies to pay for that work.
Thanks in advance.
I've now got three quotes for the cover, and for better or worse, I only just remembered to ask my friend Alan Evans, creator of the highly successful webcomic Rival Angels, for a quote earlier this week. He was one of my earliest test-readers -- and quite a good sounding board on story design. Once I get his quote, I think we'll be done with this project.
2. Office Selfie
I had to move offices at work last week, and for as much as this was a pain in the ass, I now have my own private office, not a cubicle, for the first time since way back in 1997! The last time I had my own private office, I was a first lieutenant and company XO for Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
That was almost thirty years ago!
The office itself remains kind of spartan for now, but people seemed to like this pic when I shared it on Instagram. Go figure.
3. Friday Hair Metal: Bimbo Boost (Thundermother)
Not only is that song a banger, it's hilarious. Plus, they played the Deep Purple riff backwards! Honestly, it's the coolest thing I've heard in weeks.
4. "We are professionals who give a sh*t!" (AEW)
Pro-wrestler PAC died this past week. AEW did a tribute show, of course, and it was amazing. I want to call this part of it out, though, because in a show full of moving moments, this particular bit spoke to me.
"We are professionals who give a sh*t!"
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) October 1, 2026
EXCLUSIVE: After an emotional night in honor of @BastardPAC, AEW Continental Champion @JonMoxley thanked the Pittsburgh crowd, reflected on our fallen friend, Ben, and shared one of his favorite lines from our Bastard. We love you, Ben. 🖤 pic.twitter.com/qgvoEl5Qei
5. Beat La. Tech: 5 Key to Victory Against the Bulldogs (AFF)
Friends, I want you to appreciate the amount of technical bullshit that went into this week's Keys to Victory over at AFF. Photographer Mike K. Heit sent us a bunch of practice photos either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning along with interviews from SBs Zach Mundell and Samari Howard, both of whom have started their season blazing hot.
I knew I wanted to share both interviews on social media and then embed them in the Keys article but only realized late in the process that Mike had sent me the videos as .MOV files -- in 4K, no less -- and most social media sites can't process .MOVs. Thankfully, YouTube allowed me to upload them as they were. I then re-downloaded them as .MP4s, so we got them up on the other socials. From there, the embeds should've been easy, but...
The Mundell interview came out as a Short, meaning that by default, YouTube formatted it vertically, 9x16. When I embedded it into the article, WordPress automatically set it to full-width, and suddenly, we had a poster-sized interview in the middle of an otherwise normal-looking article. I wound up building a bespoke HTML player from scratch, and I know you guys hate AI, but Google's Gemini model did this for me in two seconds, and if I'd had to do it myself, it might've taken two hours. I knew how to do it in theory, but figuring out the actual execution would've been a serious pain in the ass.
The final product looks great, but it felt like getting to that point took some doing. So appreciate that, my friends.
* * *
That's all we've got this week.
Folks have started asking me where they can buy my book, which means that I need to get a pre-order page up ASAP. That's not a thing yet, but you CAN help me right here, right now, by signing up for our bi-weekly mailer and by telling your friends who like science fiction and/or crime noir stories about it.
I'm telling you, friends, social media sucks for telling people anything. That means the mailer is really the only good way to get the word out there, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign up for that thing and send it around to whoever might care.
Again, thanks in advance. I love you all. Have a great weekend.
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