Meanwhile… #3: In A Parallel Universe

• General News:ÂI hope you’ve been keeping well, safe and sane in the midst of the collapse of Western civilization! I’m back to work today after my annual long-vacation. I’d love to say I had a lovely rest, got a lot of things done – and had a wonderful time of it, but well, it’s not every year you experience the end of the world as we know it during your holiday – is it? Perhaps that’s for the best, not so? Well anyway, I didn’t get much done during my time off – aside from rebuilding my author website – and then relocating it twice between the old hosting service and two newer ones, one immediately after the other. That is all sorted out now, and my website is now independently hosted in a foreign country that isn’t the USA – something I’m thankful for, considering the shit-show that it is turning into.And just by the by, with all the shenanigans of the Disunited Nazi States of Trumplandia’s new orange dictator kicking off the collapse of the American Empire by destabilizing the entire world, launching a trade war, boosting BRICS membership, stripping human rights – and making fake news attacks on South Africa with the aid of a local white supremacist group – I’m pretty stressed out all over again, before I even get back to the office!That aside, after our president’s inspiring State of the Nation speech last Thursday evening, things are really looking better for our immediate future here in South Africa, as well as for the global south – and the Trumpanzee – and all his brown-nosing fascist fan club, domestic and foreign – can all just go and fuck themselves. Or each other – which every suits them. Yuck. Anyway…
• Current Writing Projects: Pending still expected news regarding possible developments coming soon, I should be able to start concentrating on some more writing again in the near future. I’m still busy on the first part of “Flushed” (book 5 in Panic! Horror In Space), as well as “A Nine In Time” (book 10 in Quantum), but I’ll keep you updated as time goes by. In the meantime you can keep up by bookmarking What’s Brewing? During the last week, I also wrote a few advocacy related articles on my old activism blog “Sour Grapes: The Fruit Of Ignorance“: “Warning: Panama Is The Key – This Is Why“, “South Africa, Land Expropriation Facts vs Fiction & Afriforum’s Treasonous Ambitions To Ask Trump To Overthrow SA Govt” and “How ‘Woke’ Became A Right-Wing Slur, What It Means, And Why The Left Should Reclaim It“.
• Book Availability:Amazon has been the definitive place to publish from for the past decade or longer, and I’ve only recently been able to publish directly from Amazon (KDP) myself for the last four years or so due to them taking so long to finally enable services for South African authors at around 2020. Sales since I’ve opened my own account there in 2022 have been okay, but unpredictable, and also fraught with obstacles and issues that frankly, I could do without – but over-all, I don’t mind keeping my books there for the time being. However, bearing in mind the way the world is rearranging itself at present, what with the collapse of the American empire and all, I’ve been strategizing on where else to publish my books.The last thing I need is for the Nazis running the USA now to decide to clamp down on “libral” (sic) books, even fiction – just because it centers on LGBT characters and describes their fascist rampage down to a fucking “T”. I mean, what else could a rational person expect from a bunch of clowns who would even seriously consider SHUTTING DOWN their own Department of Education????!!!! And yet it’s actually happning – it’s completely unhinged! Anyway, because they’ve already started making laws against science and education, and stripping various communities of their human rights and dignity, I anticipate this move to block the sale of material they would object to occur within this year. Bezos, along with Musk, Gates and the usual gang of spineless weasel billionaires who form part of the US oligarchy wouldn’t dare refuse anything Trump demands – and so far they haven’t, so I figure it’s only a matter of time – and I intend to be prepared.In addition, there’s also the matter I spoke about previously, where royalty payments sent by KDP tend to be smaller than the amount I get charged by my bank for forex payments. I’ve been able to pause my payments until enough royalties accumulate from sales to cover the cost of receiving them, so I’ll probably only really be able to get paid once a year or so in future to make it worthwhile. Also, with some countries already starting to break away from the US $, it makes sense that I start to diversify by markets somewhat.

  I’ve already got my books up on PayHip, where they’ve been for some years now. PayHip is headquartered in London, so they should be relatively insulated from the orange-otan’s toy-throwing fits of rage, at least relatively. I will also be seeking out more alternative sites to distribute my books from, located in other countries out of their reach, but more about that as this develops.

As always, I’ll keep you posted about any new developments – but bear in mind it won’t be on a regular schedule anymore, but as and when I have something to communicate. So until then, I wish you Auf Wiedersehen and all the best!

Remember, keep reading!

Cheers!

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