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October 2022

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Newsletter 2022-10-21: One more week to go on The Ein Particle, brain-in-a-dish, book tips and a music tip
by Koen Martens 21 Oct '22

21 Oct '22

Title 'Koen's Bi-montly Mailing' against backdrop of white binary digits on blue background The End on sheet of paper in typewriter in a font that is too large to actually be produced by that typewriter so it's a fake but hey, it was free!One more week! One more week and I'm done! Well, done with the first draft of /The Ein Particle/, that is. Honestly, I'm ready for it to be done. I've spent the past six months using every free moment to write. It has been a mix of struggle and joy, and I know there still is a lot of work to do before this is publishable, but hitting that milestone of finishing the first draft means I'm almost sending it over for the first round of editorial feedback, during which I can relax a bit and focus on other aspects of my authorship. The website needs some attention, for example, and I have a ton of content from author blogs and conferences to catch up on. Close-up microscope image of brain in a dish Brain-in-a-dish plays Pong OK, that is a very click-baity headline, I know. It's not actually a brain, but what a bunch of scientists at Cortical Labs did <https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/14/1128875298/brain-cells…> is pretty intriguing none-the-less. They grew a tiny amount of biological brain cells, interfaced that with a computer and had it play pong. If the ball bounced off the bat, the network of brain cells was rewarded with a nice and orderly input whereas if it failed to hit the ball, it got random static instead. Not too far off from what the artificial intelligence that was the protagonist in my novelette Negative Reinforcement (which is available as part of the Isolated Futures omnibus <https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-omnibus.html?mtm_campaign=nl2…>) might have experienced. Female figure in urban street looking at cloud of smoke at the end of the street <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/e675bd28-4e1c-11ed-bd22-03220f7178c0>The Vials of Our Wrath Mark Leo Tapper /Concerto for Rachel, Book One/ In the halcyon days of the twenty-third century, human beings are healthier, more beautiful, and more long-lived than ever before thanks to regeneration therapy from the Global Health Directorate. The assassination of a Directorate scientist starts a war between a genocidal bureaucracy and a group of self-mutilating religious fanatics. Dr. Rosemary "Roger" Mitchell must find her way through the violence and chaos to save as many as she can. To bring down the architects of her brave new world, Roger has to navigate between the dangerous Directorate Council and the extremists of the Community of Natural Aging (CONA) to save the world from the Directorate’s eugenics and CONA’s madness. Buy now! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/e675bd28-4e1c-11ed-bd22-03220f7178c0> Spaceship against blue planet with white clouds <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/502bbec0-4189-11ed-934f-8bcc4883757f>Stowaway Star Runner C.G. Harris /Viraquin Voyage Book Two/ Ben and the crew have set course for an alien planet, but the inhabitants are far from what they expected. They have answers that could get their baby Viraquin home but Ben isn’t sure he’s willing to pay the price for the well guarded secret. En route to the planet, they receive a distress call from a crippled ship and are bound by law to help. The life support system onboard is failing and the crew is dying. Ben and Lois are their last hope. The power couplings needed to ensure their survival are easy enough to get, they just have to be plundered from another ship. A perfect way for Ben and his crew to break into the space pirate business. Too bad they’ve targeted one of the most ruthless aliens in the galaxy as their mark. It’s a race against time to escape destruction, save the crippled ship and learn the secret that can safely deliver the baby Viraquin home. Buy now! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/502bbec0-4189-11ed-934f-8bcc4883757f> Drawn skyscrapers with roads and rail with a big gridded four <https://open.spotify.com/album/3DJEH628HjhqPgyO6N2gYJ?si=2gN_tztETIC68gmjyI…>Simcity 4 Soundtrack Recently, my husband and I were reminiscing about the classic game Sim City 4, and how much we liked the music in that game. Maybe it is because the tunes have been engraved in our gray matter during countless hours spent playing the game, but we both love the soundtrack. Listening back to it on Spotify it became clear that even outside the game, the tracks hold up well after almost two decades. With titles like 'Rush Hour', 'Street Sweeper' and 'Transit Angst', the album paints a convincing picture of the moods and atmospheres of big city life. Did you play Simcity 4 (a lot)? What do you think of the soundtrack? Check it out <https://open.spotify.com/album/6rfFxDdAyBumxZpT6lJDsO?si=Zjm0nNzMSYWxtggos6…> and let me know what you think <mailto:gmc@metro.cx>. Find my book, the Isolated Futures Omnibus, on: Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYFJK15/>Kobo <https://www.kobo.com/ebook/isolated-futures>Barnes & Noble <https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w?ean=2940160945323>Google <https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-yBlEAAAQBAJ>Apple <http://books.apple.com/us/book/id1615269317> Instagram icon <https://www.instagram.com/koenmartens_author/>Twitter icon <https://twitter.com/koenswriting>Linkedin icon <https://www.linkedin.com/in/komartens/>Facebook icon <https://www.facebook.com/Koen-Martens-104281962311958>Email icon <mailto:in+newsletter@metro.cx>Link icon <https://www.koenmartens.nl/>RSS icon <https://koenmartens.nl/feeds/all.atom.xml>

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Newsletter 2022-10-07: deadlines, audio book, book tips and music tip
by Koen Martens 07 Oct '22

07 Oct '22

Title 'Koen's Bi-montly Mailing' against backdrop of white binary digits on blue background MakiWriting, can't talk! Gosh, lovely timing. Just as I'm nearing the end of the first draft of my work in progress (and the end of my scheduled period to finish said first draft), we're also struggling to meet a rather fatal deadline at the day job. It's a bit stressful, but focus makes it manageable. That is why this newsletter is a bit short, I just can't allocate the bandwidth currently to elaborate much. A few more weeks and then both deadlines will have passed and I can breathe again. Microphone Audio Book A friend contacted me and asked: "Hey, is it OK if I record an audio book of one of your novelettes?". I didn't have to think twice, and so I am now in possession of an audio book recording of /Forced to be Free/ <https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-1-forced-to-be-free.html?mtm_…>. It's come out rather good so far, she's done a real good job conveying the feel of the story in the narration. Due to aforementioned deadlines I haven't gotten around to listening to all of it yet. Still, I'm pretty excited to release that story as an audio book. Stay tuned! Bat-like black spaceships fleeing a gray planet against blue nebula <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/3d5a19f6-3ce6-11ed-a3f0-dfe464b25fc7> Withdrawal Bradley Lejeune When the enigmatic but powerful Koru unexpectedly abandon their embassy on Proxima Centauri, Vik—a one-time activist and war hero—and his shadowy friend Copeland attempt to find out if this is a prelude to a war that would prove disastrous for humanity. Their search for answers leads to dangerous discoveries. Will Vik now risk his marriage and comfortable life if it means a chance to finally find out the truth? Get it for free! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/3d5a19f6-3ce6-11ed-a3f0-dfe464b25fc7> Generic spaceship against generic nebula <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/970a4bde-3b37-11ed-825f-cbb7082b97f2> Traitor Drew Avera /They’re on the run for their lives./ When Commander Kevin Hoyt returns from a scouting mission he finds that he is wanted for treason. Despite his innocence, Hoyt flees with his family and tries to escape the inevitable. With the odds stacked against him, and the Consulate closing in, he is forced to seek refuge on an alien world. Meanwhile, his pursuer and old friend Will Dickson, suspects that the reports of treason aren’t factual. When he breaks protocol to negotiate Hoyt’s surrender without waiting for backup, all hell breaks loose. And it’s a decision that may prove deadly on both sides. /Traitor is the first book in an action-packed space opera series that is an intense blend of Star Trek and Farscape./ Buy now! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/970a4bde-3b37-11ed-825f-cbb7082b97f2> Fuzzy portrait of T.S. Monk <https://open.spotify.com/album/3eppyJqKLmkav7Pzhhp9qK?si=a4oMSVJhTrmowNb4kH…> Two Continents, One Groove /T.S. Monk/ When I first played this record, I was behind my working desk, debugging some complex software issue for my day job, and boy did it help. Right from track one I was bouncing up and down on my chair, filled with the music's energy. The two continents in case are North-America and Europe, as the tracks have been recorded during live performances in New York in the states and Bern in Switzerland. The result is something to behold. What a gem! Give it a spin on bandcamp <https://storyvillerecords.bandcamp.com/album/two-continents-one-groove> or Spotify <https://open.spotify.com/album/3eppyJqKLmkav7Pzhhp9qK?si=a4oMSVJhTrmowNb4kH…>. Find my book, the Isolated Futures Omnibus, on: Amazon <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VYFJK15/>Kobo <https://www.kobo.com/ebook/isolated-futures>Barnes & Noble <https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w?ean=2940160945323>Google <https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-yBlEAAAQBAJ>Apple <http://books.apple.com/us/book/id1615269317> Instagram icon <https://www.instagram.com/koenmartens_author/>Twitter icon <https://twitter.com/koenswriting>Linkedin icon <https://www.linkedin.com/in/komartens/>Facebook icon <https://www.facebook.com/Koen-Martens-104281962311958>Email icon <mailto:in+newsletter@metro.cx>Link icon <https://www.koenmartens.nl/>RSS icon <https://koenmartens.nl/feeds/all.atom.xml>

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