Have you ever wanted to succeed at something? Did you want it so badly that you almost didn’t believe you could do it? And when you lost the faith, did you fall into a dark mood and want to give up? Did you have trouble coming back from that?
So I’ve spent the last three and a half years working full-time as a science fiction writer in my quest to gain a readership, make $500 per month and add something meaningful or noteworthy to the genre. I have failed. But that's just the beginning of the story.
Just a quick thank you for your support of the Giant 99c Libertarian Fiction Sale. You purchased more than 120 books from my 10 fellow authors and myself. It was a great success. Thanks also to Tom Woods and Liberty.me for their support.
I woke up Tuesday morning to discover that my dystopian science fiction novella Death Shop is nominated for the 2016 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards. Now, I swear, this is not one of those things that I found in my spam folder, "Just $50 and You Too Can be an Award-Winning Author!" Really, I swear.
It was about this time of year almost exactly one decade ago. My son, Clark, was just a month old, and my golden retriever, Simon, jumped up on the bed next to him. Simon, just three years old at the time, had to see the baby. He wasn't usually allowed on the bed, but with camera in hand, I made an exception. And I got this excellent shot.
You've presented me with a great gift - new reviews! As an INTJ, emotion figures little in my calculations. I try, but it just doesn't compute. But this outpouring of support is melting even my titanium heart. Thanks! Have a virtual bear hug from me to you.
From 1994-1997, I drove a Chicago cab. It was the perfect complement to a University of Chicago education. I freelanced for a large corporation, I saw the seedy underbelly of the Loop and I rubbed elbows with hardworking immigrants from two dozen different countries. One thing I learned quickly is that white cabdrivers were rare. So I wrote a poem about it (back in 1997). Here you go.
Right now, I'm reading a paper copy of the Tao Te Ching (and loving it). On my kindle, I've got these books open: Brave New World (kind of dense), Thus Spake Zarathustra (good stuff), The Poetic Edda (I'm working on a novel concept related to Norse mythology), The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction (edited by Isaac Asimov), The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián and The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.
It was 1997 and I rented a basement room in a ground floor apartment in Chicago’s still-questionable Wicker Park neighborhood (2300 block of West North Ave) with a friendly couple and a high-class drug addict.
For a limited time, Liberty.me brings you FREE the first libertarian science fiction anthology in a decade: Defiant, She Advanced: Legends of Future Resistance.
I wrote my first novel. It's called Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy. This is a journey that started in Northeast Philadelphia in 1980 when my dad got me an adult library card. Along the way, I learned a few things.
Money is a promise that your sacrifice will pay off in the future, because we build civilization on a set of promises we make to each other.
Trust is breaking down in our societies — trust not just in big institutions but also in the natural good of the common man.
It’s a distributed future. Beneath all the hype about global warming and other boogie monsters, people are working from the bottom up to to build a new world.
Money is a promise that your sacrifice will pay off in the future, because we build civilization on a set of promises we make to each other.
Trust is breaking down in our societies — trust not just in big institutions but also in the natural good of the common man.
Limits are a thing of the past. The only ones that matter now are those that you decide to enforce on yourself. We are entering a new era of our civilization where our imaginations reign supreme.
Some stories are scientifically true. Others tell truths of the heart. Some may actually fly in the face of all we can prove to be true, and yet give us the mindset we need to succeed.
A missile that decides where to strike. A ship that decides when to shoot. Androids that can do backflips. These autonomous weapons are your new killer robots. What happens when they fall into the hands of angry millionaires, hacky teens and rogue terrorist groups?
Everything is ludicrous. Just the fact that we exist and can think and communicate is a cosmic prank. A wonderful one to be sure, but a gag nonetheless.
How easy it was for a Russian company to manipulate Americans through social media during the last US presidential election. People are furious about it. For a $200 spend, they got opposing sides to protest each other in a small Texas town. Their ads reached 146 million people on Facebook. Twitter drooled to sell them a 15% reach of their users.
The future of work is cooking, cleaning and caring for the infirm. No more steel workers, no more retail clerks, no more autoworkers. It’s just nurse’s assistants, personal aides, wind turbine maintenance guys and software developers.
While you endure the North Korea nuclear tests, the rip-out-your-throat battles for political hegemony and the desperate unknown of whether Katy Perry wants her ex back or not, it’s good to remember one thing.
What if we turned society inside out and made the internet the center, the starting point of everything?
When data breaches for every adult is just “a part of life,” and teenagers are materializing new forms of money out of thin air daily, it’s time for the rest of us to get hacking.
Give us more positive news, goshdarnit, George! Like maybe that there was an alien invasion that had finally ended all our petty squabbling and united us against a common foe…
We could soon have so much electricity from green power sources and other neat tricks that we’ll begin throwing it away like un-drunk bottled water or expired lettuce.
It’s a distributed future. Beneath all the hype about global warming and other boogie monsters, people are working from the bottom up to to build a new world.
Look forward to a world of city-states where people on the political left and people on the political right live separately. And maybe not just in separate mental spheres, telling themselves different stories about what’s happening in the world, but living in separate cities. Maybe even cities that are at war with each other, like in ancient Greece.
Pundits increasingly agree that we can expect a future where we simultaneously enjoy material abundance and suffer from a lack of employment opportunities. Robots, including software, will replace workers - even skilled workers such as lawyers and computer programmers.
Is war inevitable? Is it a part of the human condition? Can we end all war, forever? Should we even try? What would stories be without war, the largest, most tense and free-ranging form of conflict ever?
My agorist novel Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy was selected for an exclusive promotion of science fiction and fantasy books this week. Get it for 99 cents today and tomorrow only, Dec 5th and 6th. In other news, my dystopian novella Death Shop was published last week. Get your copy for 99 cents at Amazon.
In Doubleplusunhate, a son goes off his meds, a dad discovers his love for his son and their lives go off the rails in an Orwellian future.
How much is a laugh worth to you? A nickel? A dime? But buying them individually is cost-prohibitive, am I right?
Limits are a thing of the past. The only ones that matter now are those that you decide to enforce on yourself. We are entering a new era of our civilization where our imaginations reign supreme.
Intrepid, She Blasted, the third libertarian science fiction anthology in the There Will Be Liberty series is now open for submissions. I would love to work with you to publish your story. Here are the details and requirements.
In a brazen attempt to pander to current market trends and interests, I've decided to organize and publish a Donald Trump flash fiction anthology on January 20, 2017, just in time for the 45th president of the United States to take office. Without taking sides or engaging in further debate, and with a solemn satirical intention, I invite you to submit stories for the first ever, it's-gonna-be-YUGE Donald Trump flash fiction anthology.
Looking for some short but high-quality entertainment over coffee or a snack? Grab Monster Maelstrom and fill your fleeting moments with 24 creepy and chuckle-inducing Halloween flash fiction tales. Just 5 minutes per engaging story.
Got a few moments to kill over coffee or a snack? Grab the new Bite-Sized Stories anthology FREE and fill your stolen moments with 33 indie flash fiction tales. Just 5 minutes per story.
That science fiction anthology project I blogged about last June? Well, exactly six months later, on December 22, I released it. "Defiant, She Advanced" is ten stories of defiance and daring. Here is the full story.
How much is a laugh worth to you? A nickel? A dime? But buying them individually is cost-prohibitive, am I right?
Looking for some short but high-quality entertainment over coffee or a snack? Grab Monster Maelstrom and fill your fleeting moments with 24 creepy and chuckle-inducing Halloween flash fiction tales. Just 5 minutes per engaging story.
Got a few moments to kill over coffee or a snack? Grab the new Bite-Sized Stories anthology FREE and fill your stolen moments with 33 indie flash fiction tales. Just 5 minutes per story.
We did it again! This time, twelve authors enjoyed a meeting of the keyboards and we’ve got a thrilling 17-story science fiction anthology to show you for it. I love it. It’s exceeding my expectations. Have a look for yourself:
Human Free is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by George Donnelly set in 22nd century South Africa after an ecologically-motivated man-made holocaust. Read it free as I write it on WattPad. Check it out now!
Announcing Pink Slip Prophet, a robot cyberpunk novella with a touch of comedy about Ian Blake and his struggle to reclaim his self-respect after losing his job to robots in 2034 Philadelphia. Now available at Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. Review copies are also on offer.
That science fiction anthology project I blogged about last June? Well, exactly six months later, on December 22, I released it. "Defiant, She Advanced" is ten stories of defiance and daring. Here is the full story.
