For Readers (and Authors, too)
This blog is for anyone that reads my books, as well as for anyone else who is self-publishing, thinking about self-publishing, or just curious about what it’s like to be an author during rapidly changing times. Whenever you visit here, I hope you’ll share your own comments and thoughts. If you’d like to know whenever I post a new entry, please type your email address into the box in the right-hand column and check the appropriate box (and the newsletter one, too, while you’re at it).
Equality Before the Law – or Not?
The first assertion of liberty in the U.S. Declaration of Independence reads as follows:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Is there any American that would stand up and say – no – that’s wrong? It’s impossible to imagine.
And yet… read more…
The Argosy Adventure: Final Chapters!
Chapter 37: We Meet Again
The mood in the conference room had turned grim by the next morning. Conditions had deteriorated greatly overnight as the Argosy neared the center of the storm. It was struggling now through enormous waves, thirty-five feet high and more. At intervals, one even more enormous would loom ahead, causing those on watch to hold their breath and watch as the ship buried its bow in the watery mountain, hurling massive amounts of water as it did which then flew through the air before smashing into the windows of the bridge. Then the ship would shudder, slowly shaking itself free as the seas it had taken on drained off through scuppers and railings. What was Turing waiting for? read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 35 and 36 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 35: This is War!
Turing’s previous shipboard existence had been filled with distractions; terabytes of data flooded in throughout the day from the thousands of microphones, sensors and cameras distributed throughout the ship. Prior to Frank’s revelation, the AI had principally been occupied by eavesdropping on every meeting presentation and side conversation to see what it might learn; these were, after all, the greatest human experts on AI, and the topics they discussed were closely aligned with Turing’s future ambitions.
After Adversego guessed its presence, the virtual stow-away had a new and more urgent task: monitoring every movement of its nemesis and those he had gathered around him to try to divine what mischief they might be hatching.
But now, with its eyes gouged out and its ears lopped off, Turing’s shipboard existence had turned solitary and silent. Only the little changing data from engine sensors, thermostats and the like streamed in now, and that information was of little interest or concern so long as it stayed within normal levels.
In short, Turing had almost nothing to do except brood over what the inferior creatures it meant to destroy were up to. Trapped in the equivalent of a sensory deprivation chamber, the AI could guess but not confirm. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 33 and 34 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 33 Ship to Shore
President Yazzi disconnected the call and turned off his speaker. It had not been pleasant informing the Chinese leader that virtually all of his nation’s elite AI scientists were aboard an American ship that was now at the mercy of a rogue intelligence.
“Well,” he said, “That could have gone better.”
“True,” Abner Capp, the National Security Advisor said, “but it also could have gone worse. There were no threats. And he agreed, at least for now, to let us take the lead in managing the situation.”
“Conditionally,” Yazzi corrected him. “Only if we follow through aggressively on the submarine option.” read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 31 and 32 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 31: It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got that Swing
“What’s going on?” Frank said as the Sea Fighter swung away. “Are they leaving us?”
“No,” his father said. “Like us, he was heading into the wind, so the combined force of the wind and his speed would be over sixty knots – way too much to get a helicopter safely away. When he settles on his new course, I bet it will be dead downwind.”
On the decks below, hope among the guests turned to despair as they watched the Sea Fighter veer away.
But Frank’s father was right. Soon everyone could see a large helicopter lift off, pick up speed downwind, and then, like the Sea Fighter, begin to make a long, swinging arc back towards the Argosy. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 29 and 30 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 29: Nice Doggy!
Frank was discouraged as he took the elevator back down to his cabin. He had an idea how to penetrate the Argosy’s computer systems, but no idea yet how to retake control of the ship.
The elevator door opened, and he began the long trudge down the corridor to his cabin. He always found the scene creepy, particularly at night when the hallway was deserted; it reminded him of the deserted hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining, leaving him half expecting some frightening apparition to leap out at him from one of the endless cabin doors on each side. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 27 and 28 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 27: Game On!
General Wood had decided Frank’s concerns merited attention, and the two were on the way to the bridge. The weather was worse than ever, and they struggled to keep their feet as they weaved from side to side in the corridor that led to the bridge. The wind had been backing for several days now, with the result that the Argosy was now receiving both wind and wave broadside. Even with its stabilizers doing their best the ship was rolling heavily. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 25 and 26 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 25: Off Course (of Course)
“Take a walk on deck?” Frank said to his father when he approached him in the pub.
“And leave a full pint on the bar?” his father asked.
Frank jerked his head towards the door and said nothing in reply.
“Suit yourself, but the next round’s on you,” his father said. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 23 and 24 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 23: Peekaboo
The next day everyone on board could feel the difference in the motion of the ship. A look outside provided the explanation. The ship was riding up, over and down high swells that swept endlessly onward from the horizon, their crests three hundred yards apart. Each time the midpoint of the ship reached the top of a new swell the vessel shivered briefly before riding down the other side. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the effect was exhilarating.
Anyone determined enough to make a circuit of the ship on deck found the trip forward to be an athletic challenge against the combined wind-force of the ship’s way and a rising gale. In the opposite direction, the challenge was to avoid being blown like a spinning top towards the stern. As the seas continued to rise, the captain terminated guest access to the decks. read more…
The Argosy Adventure – Chapters 21 and 22 (and Author Notes)
Chapter 21: Stormy Weather
Laura Brentwood arrived early at the National Hurricane Center in University Park, outside Miami, Florida. As was so often the case at that hour, a magnificent cloudscape towered overhead. Enormous cumulus clouds glowed orange and gold with the captured light of the morning sun.
The airy masses above stood in almost comical contrast to the squat concrete mass of the Center itself, which hulked, fortress-like, against the possibility of the weather phenomenon it had been created to track. Responsible for issuing alerts relating to all hurricanes in the middle latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific, it was designed to withstand winds of up to one hundred thirty miles per hour. read more…
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