A new preorder, and a farewell to Gumroad
For various ethical and business reasons, I've decided to shut down my Gumroad store. My account balance with them should pay out on April 18; after that point, I'll be removing all my books from the site.
Any purchases you've made from me on Gumroad should still be available in your account library, but I'd recommend downloading backups of everything just in case.
I've also imported all my Gumroad subscribers to Buttondown, so if you're wondering why you got this newsletter: that's why.
Preorder: "Moriarty & Moran Contribute to Community Welfare"
The Barrie Children's Hospital is holding its annual fundraising gala, and as usual all of Britain's brightest luminaries are invited. This year, however, there are two extra guests: former SAS operator Sebastian Moran and his criminal partner, Jay Moriarty.
Powers unknown intend to use the gala as cover to sell a computer drive full of valuable data. Moriarty and Moran intend to steal that drive for themselves. But both operations are rudely interrupted when the gala is stormed by a crew of armed criminals — and they also want the drive.
What was once a simple theft is now a race to the prize ... and may soon become a fight for survival.
The seventh story in The Casefile of Jay Moriarty, titled "Moriarty & Moran Contribute to Community Welfare," comes out on April 22! You can preorder it (from those vendors that allow preorders) here.
Additionally, Ko-fi supporters who subscribe at the Early Access tier ($5 CAD/month) can download the book for free, right now.
Podcast Appearance: I Will Fight You
In the latest episode of I Will Fight You we discuss Bumblebee, notable for being The Only Good Transformers Movie and also a horse girl movie.
You can listen to the episode here, or wherever podcasts are found.
This Week's Links
Legends, Lattes, and Lament: The Necessity of Pain in “Cozy” Fiction
These stories might be more healing if they focused on ordinary humble people surviving a brutal world through acts of kindness, but that is not the ideology at play here. It is one of dominance and pastoralism, where everything must go the protagonist’s way while still enshrined in the virtues of inaction. They are benevolent dictators preserving their wholesome and cozy way of life, all the while ignoring the horrors just out of frame. Garden walls to keep us from seeing the empire’s watchtowers looming in the distance. They love the treats, but hate thinking about how the treats got here.
New 'Rape and Incest' Game Tests the Limits of Steam’s Sex Policy
I understand how conceptually, in the way it is written out and pitched on Steam, No Mercy can sound highly offensive. That’s the point. But playing it makes clear that it’s not interesting or well made enough to follow on its own shocking pitch. It’s just shovelware, low quality games published in huge quantities in hopes of making a few bucks.
TM 31-210 Improvised Munitions Handbook
The TM 31-210 Improvised Munitions Handbook is a 256 pages United States Army technical manual intended for the United States Army Special Forces. It was first published in 1969 by the Department of the Army. Like many other U.S. military manuals dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unconventional warfare, it was declassified and released into the public domain as a result of provisions such as the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and is now freely available to the public in both electronic and printed formats.
I've had to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn lately. These people are all insane.
-K
