NOW THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR:

WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING SEXY?

(Classical reference in headline.)

BEEGE: Bari Bruising 60 Minutes Egos Again, But I Like the Backstory. “The monster has emerged from her lair to once more interfere with a 60 Minutes assignment, and heads are exploding. An interview of Nigel Farage that was to have been conducted by veteran correspondent (and, believe me, partisan witch) Holly Williams was suddenly taken from her and reassigned to some new guy.”

HAHA, HOW ABOUT “NO APPARATCHIKS” INSTEAD? NOW THAT WOULD BE A REAL CAUSE TO GET BEHIND.

THE NEEDS OF THE PARTY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE, COMRADE:

#THEMTOO?

2026 PROMETHEUS AWARD WINNER:  A Kiss for Damocles: Book 1 of Shai (Tales From the Long Night).

The enemy is dead. Their guns still aim.

The Mutual Prosperity invaded Hesperides Colony centuries ago–dropped asteroids on the oceans, triggered a volcanic winter, killed millions. The invaders eventually died fighting. Their orbital artillery AI, Damocles, did not. It has spent three hundred years killing anything that looks like a threat: radio signals, powered vehicles, anything that might let humanity rebuild fast enough to strike back.

Seventeen-year-old Shaifennen “Shai” Roehe grew up in a mineshaft, scrounging salvage from the ruins of a dead civilization. Then she finds a crashed military shuttle from the Long Night buried in a highland ravine. It’s the biggest salvage find in living memory–and it comes with secrets. Traitors from the original war. A murdered alien marine who died fighting for humanity’s future. And enough battlesteel and fabrication equipment to turn her struggling homestead into something that scares the right people.

From there, Shai has to navigate a volatile trade mission to the nearest town, untangle a conspiracy that runs generations deep, survive assassination attempts, and figure out why every faction on Hesperides–the Riders, the Archive, the alien Imps, the new Trade Association that smells a lot like the old tyranny with better hair–seems to already know about a project she has only just stumbled into.

Shai’s universe is one filled with fallen empires, implacable war machines, lost civilizations, hostile xenos, the occasional ancient unspeakable horror, and she’s going to bring the ruckus to every corner of it.

A finalist for the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel, A Kiss for Damocles is the first book in the Tales From the Long Night series. Post-apocalyptic science fiction with a ferocious protagonist, deep world-building, earned political stakes, and a genuine belief that humanity can take back what it lost — if it can stop fighting itself long enough to try.

ALSO, THEIR MONEY WOULD DRY UP:

AH, BUT YOU SEE, THE IMAGINARY ARROW OF HISTORY IS WITH THEM:  Never left enough.