51 Comments
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sean anderson's avatar

Thank you, John, for the recommendations.

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Christine Eriksen's avatar

Thanks for re-upping your recommendation for Theft of Fire! I still really love your review; you really "got" my husband's book :)

On top of it being selected as an 85% off Kindle Black Friday Deal, we are also doing a "hardback for the price of a paperback" sale via Ingram. Links to both that and the Kindle edition can be found at DevonEriksen.com/sale

(oh, and pssst! if anyone wants to buy extra e-book copies for their friends, YES Kindle books are giftable! You can either send them directly to someone's inbox, if you know their email, or generate redemption code links, if you are wanting to share them with your anon online friends!)

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John Carter's avatar

My pleasure! Hopefully the sale gets more copies into more hands!

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Christine Eriksen's avatar

Fingers crossed! And if you feel like making the book title image a link to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJHQ4LZN?tag=devoneriksen-20... well, people are lazy, the fewer clicks to get to what they want, the better!

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John Carter's avatar

Can I do that? How?

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Christine Eriksen's avatar

Yep! Two ways!

- Click an image. Click the link button in the top bar (to the left of the Insert Image and Insert Audio), and pop in the link

- Hover over an image, click the Three Dots that appear in the top right, and click "Edit Caption." You can insert a caption under the image ("normally $8.99, $1.49 for Black Friday") and then make the text a link... and if all the text is the same link, the image becomes a link as well!

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John Carter's avatar

Ohh, that's how it works!

Thank you!

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Porter's avatar

I too immensely enjoyed "Theft" and am impatiently awaiting the sequel. Can you apply some careful motivation for its completion? ... Seriously, my oldest granddaughters are now 14 (2), 15 & 16. They've kinda outgrown the Nancy Drew's I've been giving at Christmas, could use a couple recommendations.... thanks. A belated Happy Thanksgiving!

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Christine Eriksen's avatar

When I was that age, I absolutely loved the Redwall series by Brian Jacques :) It's also maybe not too soon to start them on some of the classics: Pride & Prejudice, The Importance of Being Ernest, and Vanity Fair were some of my favorite classics in high school.

Unfortunately, Sara's cancer diagnosis has made it pretty hard for him to get into the right mindset for writing these past few months. Fortunately, we recently got some good news about her treatments being effective, which is great news in and of itself, but also good news because he's been able to focus a bit on writing recently.

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John Carter's avatar

That's wonderful news about Sara. Very happy to hear that.

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Porter's avatar

Thank you for the suggestion, had not thought about classics, excellent idea! Apologize for the flippant remark, did not know about the cancer. Have to assume Sara is a daughter or other very close relative. Keep strong, best of luck- been there...

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Kevin Trainor's avatar

Ah, but is it really shillposting if you're promoting other folks and not yourself? ;)

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John Carter's avatar

That's the joke ;)

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RobMc's avatar

John, thanks for recommending (shameless shill posting?) Eriksen’s Theft of Fire. Just finished it and gave Devon a 5/5 review. Now I’m hooked and waiting for his next-in-series, Box of Trouble.

Thanks again, sir.

And speaking of, next-in-series / sequels, how are you coming along on the sequel to Hector Saves His Dad?

Asking for a friend…

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John Carter's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it!

I haven't started working on a sequel to Hector Saves His Dad … instead I've been working on something very different…

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RobMc's avatar

True, that.

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Jacob Calta's avatar

Lots of other cool stuff in here to check out. I'll also make the shameless plug of all our eBooks being on sale for $0.99 in the Based Book Sale. There are WAY too many to link (Ctrl+F for "365 Infantry" to find them), although I will point out that this includes our rowdy flash fiction collection "The Electric Anthology Vol. 1" which features our 4th of July special "4th in the 25th" among a parade of bizarre asides and fun stories. And even better news, we've written some wild tales during this year's off-seasons, which means an extra-pulpy edition of Vol. 2 is yet to come. Excellent thread here!

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An American Writer & Essayist's avatar

Excellent recommendations. I’ve had my eye on Theft of Fire for a while now.

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Richard's avatar

While almost every university has discriminated, only a few have endowments of any size. Big private schools like the Ivies, Stanford and Duke, a few of the major publics like Texas, Michigan, UC and scattered small schools. Most private colleges and lesser public institutions basically live hand to mouth or appropriation to mouth.

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John Carter's avatar

Absolutely. But it’s the Ivies that are the main problem, since these incubate the subversive ideological content, popularize it via their prestige, and serve to bestow legitimacy upon the credentialed ruling class.

Nuking their endowments would cripple those schools very quickly.

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Richard's avatar

I approve but think you underestimate how far the rot has spread among the lesser universities not endowment dependent. At least in red states, the best line of attack is via the appropriations process. I don't really have a plan to deal with state institutions in blue states. For the others, a line of attack via the student aid process is viable. DOGE notwithstanding, I would abolish Federal student aid, just yet. Even for the Ivies, it has often been observed that they are a hedge fund with an educational subsidiary. Endowment income doesn't really flow into operations but just accumulates endlessly. Someone is getting rich off this and they might be able to prevail on the universities or it could be loot and run.

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John Carter's avatar

Believe me, I’m quite aware of just how far the rot has spread. That’s why I’m not sanguine about the prospects for salvaging higher ed.

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Richard's avatar

The problem with higher ed goes beyond the awful leadership and faculty. It is the overproduction of "elites" that is ongoing like in 3rd World countries. They come out with a degree and think the world owes them a leadership role. But beyond the uselessness of the degree, there are just too many of them to be leaders.

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Thomas Robinson's avatar

Thank you. I enjoy your posts and look forward to them.

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CaliforniaLost's avatar

From a man living in a commie state, California, to a man born in a commie country, Canada, Happy Thanksgiving!

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Mathieu Simon's avatar

Oy! Tried to cop myself some tickets to that Toronto event but it sold out as I was checking out. If anybody managed to get some, hit me up. Would be a great time to meet with the fellowship. Cheers!

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John Carter's avatar

Damn. Sorry to hear that, man.

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Mathieu Simon's avatar

Seems it was a browser issue. Managed to get myself some tickets after all. Can’t wait to attend.

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John Carter's avatar

Awesome!

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Aleksandar Svetski's avatar

Solid list

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ak's avatar

Thanks for the recommendations. Btw. Dec 7. Remember Pearl Harbor! Yes, it’s not a Canadian thing. Hell. It’s not a US thing anymore. But I figured perhaps your return back to the Great White North might have some allegorical connection to the surprise attack on the US. Kinda stretch I know. Just saying….

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John Carter's avatar

I distinctly hope that my return will not be a day that lives in infamy.

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William M Briggs's avatar

Rats. For whatever reason this went to spam and I'm only seeing it now.

Best of luck, all!

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RobMc's avatar

Purchased Theft of Fire. Will start it tomorrow night. Thanks for the recommendation, John.

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John Carter's avatar

Awesome!

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Rocktrout's avatar

I'm mostly through A Lodging of Wayfaring Men right now and Bushido of Bitcoin is next.

Thanks for a lot of other great suggestions!

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Chris James's avatar

Great post.

Can’t hit like because it’s at 69

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John Carter's avatar

So many other meme numbers to reach…

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EK MtnTime's avatar

Thanks for the recommendations! They seem like I would enjoy most of them…even as a gal 😁

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Rikard's avatar

How is she supposed to be sitting and twisting her torso, for the left boob to swing low like that?

Back arch, rump and thighs and such are all fine, but that left boob look like it's about to run off. Could be a perspective issue, perhaps . I've modeled enough myself and built enough miniatures to know things may be perfectly normal yet look decidedly weird anyway. Favourite example is if you're drawing a figure pointing straight at the observer - try to draw that, it is a brutal challenge to get it right, and according to my professional artist friend, you have to cheat and "do wrong right" to make it look right, otherwise it'll just look like a Thalidomide-stump.

Modeling, easiest job I've ever had. Pose for 20 minutes, 5 minute break, rinse and repeat, collect eq. of $18/hour, all for a bunch of budding artists to immortalise (or should that be "immoralise"?) yours truly in the nuddy in oil on canvas.

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John Carter's avatar

You thought about that picture way, way more than I did 😂

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Rikard's avatar

Initial thought was, "Is she supposed to have three boobs and it's the middle one showing?".

I mean, if we are to settle Mars, constructing 'Venusville' is pretty high on my "no negotiations, no compromise"-list. As is roving Marshalls, per the movie 'Outland'.

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John Carter's avatar

The floating pleasure palaces of Venus are a must for any self-respecting Holy Solar Empire.

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Pickle Rick's avatar

Thanks now I can't unsee it.

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Rikard's avatar

Her "swing low sweet extra-boob" or me modelling in the nuddy?

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Pickle Rick's avatar

The triboob concubine from the Mars Harem. I ain't no meat gazer!

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