A fresh new piece over on Substack explaining one pattern from possible Indigenous Great Serpent Stonework - stonework which has been mistaken for Colonial farmer's clearing piles... with my new stylized drawing...

https://open.substack.com/pub/mikeluoma/p/new-raw-video-featuring-an-ancient?r=1gv1v&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#nonfiction #Indieauthor #independentauthor #illustration #indieartist

If you'd like to read the beginning of the Introduction to my new book Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England, head to my Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/mikeluoma/p/ancient-stone-mysteries-the-book?r=1gv1v&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
#AncientStoneMysteries
#ancient #independentauthor #independentpublishing #selfpublishing #nonfiction #paperback

I've been investigating stone sites in New England in search of Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes, and just released a new book on the subject. Today, I published my look back at 2022 in Stone Site Investigations...

https://glowinthedarkradio.medium.com/a-year-set-in-stone-bc95cf5dae91

#writing #selfpublishing #independentpublishing #independentauthor
#creativenonfiction

All my new friends. Hello! :)
So I'm an author. If you're looking for some last-minute holiday gifts, I've written several non-fiction books about some intriguing history of parts of the town in which I live, Butte, America. One of my books was featured on the show "The Ghosts of Devil's Perch" Check them out at www.oldbuttepublishing.com. #MontanaHistory #ButteHistory #NonFiction #IndependentAuthor #Christmas

🎄🕎🎁📚 https://www.barriobluespress.com/books.html 📚🎁🕎🎄

#HolidaySales #Holiday #BookSales #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #IndependentAuthor #Anthology #Fiction #Poetry #Art #barriobluespress #ReToot #mastobooks #mastoreviews #mastowriters

🎄🕎🎁📚 https://www.barriobluespress.com/books.html 📚🎁🕎🎄
#HolidaySales #Holiday #BookSales #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #IndependentAuthor #Anthology #Fiction #Poetry #Art #barriobluespress #ReToot

@dreamlander The Middleoak writing group is open to submissions to join this exclusively SFF writing group. We meet monthly online to chat, and crit up to 5 subbed pieces per month. Writing sample and short intro letter needed. DM me for address.

#writingcommunity #author #writer #amwriting #writing #writerscommunity #book #writerslife #writersofmastodon #authorscommunity #authorsofmastodon #authorlife #amwriting #darkfantasy #fantasy #books #independentauthor

The trilogy is called The Coup. The first book is A Line in the Sand. A taste from the first chapter is below:

Chapter 1

Deep Space - Merchant Ship GEM - Space Date 2417.09.05

Space is silent even on a good day. But that’s a neutral quiet. On the bridge of the merchant ship GEM, the silence was uneasy, even fearful. They had responded to an emergency beacon, but now that they were here, no one registered as alive on the battered ship before them on the viewscreen. The instruments weren’t always accurate, there could be survivors.

Captain Michaels paced a bit, as much as the tiny bridge allowed. He ran his hand through his short dark hair, trying to decide how to approach the ship.

“Allie, can you detect any other ships? I don’t want to run into whoever killed the Chesapeake.”

She considered her response. It took a long time, almost two milliseconds. Allie didn't want to miss any possible hidden ships since their lives all depended on this. “No Rob, scans do not indicate anyone else still here. But I can follow the trail they left. And the Chesapeake tried to fight, I see some debris that does not belong to her.”

“Collect that. We’ll turn it over to the UP ship that comes in response to our message. And Allie, create a record of the trail, please. It might dissipate before a UP ship arrives. And keep it to the scan a normal merchant ship computer would have.”

“That wouldn't have caught this. It is very faint.”

Sara looked up from her piloting console. “Maybe we can find a record on the computers of that ship. It was there when the trail was fresh.”

“Even if we cannot find anything, I can transfer our record to that ship, enhance it so it looks like a fresh trail, and we can pretend we found it. And Rob, I have sent a message to the UP with the attack information and I filed our salvage claim at the same time.”

Rob grimaced internally. He couldn't afford to pass up salvage rights, not with being a former rebel and thus not the most popular ship’s captain in the sphere of the United Planets. They needed the money. But he hated stealing from dead people as he saw it. Funny, that it bothers me more to steal from the dead than the living, he thought. Rob wasn't a thief by nature, but he would do whatever it took to keep GEM running. She was the only tie to his past life, and he was glad that his Uncle James had left her to him.

“It’s a little early to make that claim. We need to check out the ship for any survivors. Sara, can you bring us closer, so that the shuttle won't have so far to go?”

Watching her as she competently moved the ship, Rob reflected on how lucky he was to have some of the best pilots in space. And Sara was also spectacularly beautiful. It was unusual in the twenty-fourth century for someone to have that porcelain skin and red hair. Rob could count on the fingers of one hand how many purely white people he had ever seen. He did not understand how Sara, genetically, had come by that coloring. But her exotic beauty was always a pleasure to observe.

Rob would never do more than look. Sara and his First Officer, Stev, lived together and Rob would never interfere with that. Anyway, he wasn't a competent enough pilot to attract Sara’s interest. Rob tried to be discreet, but he knew Sara was aware.

Stev Kurakin, a tall, fit man in his early thirties, came strolling onto the bridge. “Are we going to board?”

“Yeah. I need you to fly the shuttle to the Chesapeake and find any survivors. Not likely, I know, but we have to try. Take Gelb and one twin with you.”

“You sure about taking a twin? Aren’t they a little… flighty for this?”

“They need to grow up sometime. They aren't teenagers anymore. Time to stop coddling them. And if it comes down to it, they’re more expendable than Kate for running Engineering. Take both, they need the experience.”

“I think what Stev is trying not to say is that he thinks they might endanger the mission.”

“I can speak for myself, Sara. But, yeah, search and rescue on a ship with holes in the side is a dangerous mission.”

“Come on Stev, if we can't trust them on a dangerous mission, can we trust them with our engines? Anyway, unlike most of the rest of us, they’ve never lived on a planet. They’ve been drilled on space safety since before they were old enough to talk. If they can't handle it, then they need to go back to the O’Neil Consortium with a negative report.”

“Kate will flip a gasket. They are her only nephews.”

“She reminded me last week I needed to trust them with more and expecting them to pull their weight more. This is part of that. Kate will understand. At their age, she was busy saving lives in a ship fire while she was at the Academy. She knows life out here is dangerous. Now go prep that shuttle.”

Stev sighed dramatically. “At least the big fur ball will help me keep them in line. Not that he’s much more serious.”

“That’s not fair. He’s serious when he needs to be. Gelb may not be a typical Delebian, but he’s smart and capable and that’s all that I care about. Now go. We need to be on that ship before the UP shows up. Otherwise, we can’t make a salvage claim stick.”

“Yes sir. Captain, sir.” Stev snapped his best parade ground salute as he left. Rob doubted that Stev had ever snapped a salute that sharp when he was the best damn pilot in the Rebel Navy. Military leaders tended to frown on sarcasm from their subordinates after all. But on GEM, sarcasm was an art form.

#MilitaryScienceFiction #SpaceOpera #IndependentAuthor

RT @IndieAuthorALLI@twitter.com
Let’s define some terminology that #editors use to describe their work http://bit.ly/2GK7UJa #indieauthor #independentauthor #selfpublishing #editing