I negotiate commercial contracts for a living. I never thought someone could make contract negotiations into an interesting scifi story, yet here we are. Cheers!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Montie! Doubtless there are fewer space whales and thermal mines in your day-to-day 😂

Delightful short story. Elegant in construction and so enjoyable. A credit to the author.

@RoweLit

9 ай бұрын

Thanks, Darrel! Glad you enjoyed it 😃

“Well played.” Mr. Rowe.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Barron! Only game I really want to play every day.

Absolutely loved this story. I spend the majority of my free time playing strategy games and this one hit home for me.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Patrick! Mind that left flank against Etteran opponents :)

Fantastic story! One to stand with the greats.

@RoweLit

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, Goofball 😂 Glad you enjoyed it 🙏

Perfectly paced, amazing writing as always.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Robin!

One of the best. Worthwhile endeavour to continue.

@RoweLit

10 ай бұрын

Thanks, Steve! 😃

Keep getting better!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Thomas! That is the goal every week.

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you. What a storey to be introduced to your work. Joseph Conrad said " a work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry it's justification in every line" I do believe you work to a sandline like this.

@RoweLit

6 ай бұрын

Thanks, Gibbon! Glad you enjoyed it 😃 What a great, quote! I hadn't heard that one, and I've studied Conrad a little. I used to teach college-level writers, and at the start of the semester, to my fiction students, I would play a video of Isabella Selder playing Bach, ask them how long they thought she practiced, and let them know that, as one of Robert DeNiro's characters once said, "That is the discipline."

Really enjoyed this one! It's cool seeing the timelines of some of the immortal characters in your stories intertwine with the mortal ones. The contrast between their timescales and what motivates them is really in really interesting.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Erik. Glad you liked it! It's funny how stories bring us to places we might not otherwise go. That contrast really fascinated me too when writing "Dark Swarm," and it is definitely something that needs to be probed a bit more. One of the many things I love about fiction is the way it can ask questions you didn't even know you had. We'll see how it develops!

Wonderful. Just wonderful. ❤

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Jason! Glad you liked it.

original is an understatement, thank you for a very entertaining story.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Charles!

Phew!!! I thought Thursday would never get hear. Gray

@jobethk588

Жыл бұрын

I agree. Listening to Foundation is the only way I made it!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Trust me, it gets here fast on my end 😃 Thanks, Gray!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

@@jobethk588 Love Foundation!

Another WOW from me. Great story, well told.

@RoweLit

7 ай бұрын

Cheers, Karl! 😃🙏

@susanc4622

6 ай бұрын

I thought the Dresens recur or it it just a similar name, perhaps.

That was fvkin AWESOME. I luuuuved that story

@RoweLit

9 ай бұрын

Thanks, Af! Glad to hear it! 😃

I worked out Vendringer was meta-gaming, I thought it was alienation of everyone again the Trask but turned out he his meta-strategy had meta-strategy.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Martin! He was a tricky character who surprised me as the story went along too.

Excellent! Thank you.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Marianne!

Absolutely brilliant !:-)

@RoweLit

3 ай бұрын

Cheers, Barry! Something about those audience-selected topics gets me inspired 😃

Always enjoy your stories

@RoweLit

3 ай бұрын

Thanks, Revana! So glad to hear it 😃🙏

Grreat visual! 👋👋👋👋👋

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Vicki. I definitely liked this one as well!

Great story. I really enjoyed the feel of chess and the art of war wrapped into it. As well as the utilitarian space whales.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, SC! Glad you liked it. Initially, I was thinking about having the supposedly insentient whales start to become conscious, and then dilemma about forcing them to work in an asteroid field where they constantly get injured. And I think that could be a fine story, but it kinda felt very Star Trek TNG. Sometimes the themes are the main plot element, sometimes the main plot element, by necessity, places them in the background a little. Once Vennegor showed up, he really took control of the story. Great suggestion!

@sanecanadian2351

Жыл бұрын

@@RoweLit I think it worked great and was a another unique story. If you had gone with your other idea it would have been good just not great. A tribute is one thing, cliché is a whole other thing. I for one am grateful that you're not a star trek writer lol. Maybe the bio ships in the story are referred to as space whales for more the human psyche than the ships themselves. Some comfort for their creators, stuck out in the middle of no where living for centuries. A future idea for them could always be an engineered virus. Perhaps a group could have mistaken the ships to be in fact sentient. Creating a virus to control them and it not having the intended effects. Maybe it does nothing, kills them or creates the very sentient that they entered to control. Ether way I would love to see the ships pop up again from time to time. Maybe as a retrofitted cargo hauler or a passenger transport. They are in your universe now. I also wanted to say I was surprised how well you can integrate ideas into your universe like this. It feels natural, that is more difficult than most people think. Have a great weekend and thanks again for sharing your wonderful work.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

​@@sanecanadian2351 I may do a talk on the Mechanics channel about integrating ideas. Really it boils down to asking the questions who would be affected by this and how, and then finding the most interesting story of how those situations play out. Here, it was the question why would you need a bioship/what would they be good for, and the short answer was self-healing in a harsh environment, then it developed from there. I'd like to think we'll revisit a lot of these themes/characters/places when the time is right. Cheers, SC! Enjoy yours as well.

@sanecanadian2351

Жыл бұрын

@@RoweLit Sounds good. I'm using your other channel for homeschooling lol. Family and friends are coming over so busy busy.

One of the best story yet!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!

Wow amazing story! Beware a patient enemy...

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Balrog! I'll be careful...

Great story! Topic idea, space pets!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Chris! That's a great one that hasn't come up yet. I can see that in a poll soon for sure 👍

great picture!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Felicity!

You write such clever stories!

@RoweLit

6 ай бұрын

Thank you, Susan 🙏You write such nice comments 😃

Good one, really good one.

@RoweLit

9 ай бұрын

Thanks, Mario 🙏

Wonderful

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, greyghost!

Excellent

@RoweLit

2 ай бұрын

😃

What a wonderful writer you are. I am getting through every one of your pieces.

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ed! So glad you're enjoying. Many more to come!

Yeah that one was really good.

@RoweLit

11 ай бұрын

Cheers, S Dv. Glad you enjoyed it!

Your tales would make a base for great role playing games....

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Scott. That's not my wheelhouse for sure, but if someone with that inclination were inspired in some way, I'd love to see where it could go 🤔 I'm sure it won't be long before somebody asks me how to play Sabaca 😄 I think the rules are similar to that game in Star Wars where the pieces bodyslam each other, only with sticks 🤣

Embargo - after listening 6 or 7 times - is hands down my favorite. Any chance of running into the 4 main characters again?

@RoweLit

10 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks, Erik! Glad you enjoyed this one 😃 There's always a chance, but I'm not sure when/how soon. A lot of stories have been coming around again lately, so maybe sooner than we know 🤔

Cobalt are w-les!

At about 120 words a minute for a speaking pace, I am floored by how much you write in a week. Do you read and record in a single sitting? Also, what made you decide to take up this mantle of delivering free audio literature?

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Hi, Francis! I write my stories usually over four or five days, and I would even consider reading/recording part of the editing process, as I often make a few subtle changes as I record., The goal is usually to record in a single sitting, but I started having vocal struggles a few months back, and am working my way back to getting the raw audio done in one sitting again with the help of some vocal coaching. There were a lot of reasons I started publishing my work here--building an audience, reaching people, sharing my passion for sci-fi and fiction more generally. It was something that felt right to try and still feels right to keep going! Grateful you're listening, Francis!

@mrtodddelaroderie

Жыл бұрын

PE Rowe is one of the greats.

Dang embargo 😮

@RoweLit

5 ай бұрын

Cheers, Mark!

My dear friend thank you for another great story. Is Vinegar based around the WW2 General Vinegar Joe Stilwell? He was a salty clever dog. If not can you shed any in sight in to any influences in this character? The T Poor Trasp kind of remind me of the cold war soviets. Did you ever tell who started the war by introducing the deadly nanites in the wagon wheel or cog story? I thought it was the good okd wizard of Athos. But I am probably wrong on that issue. Thanks again!

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, Todd! Glad you liked it. There's no specific inspiration for Vennegor. There are a lot of clever, clever generals through the ages, and I would say that though I've studied both World Wars a fair amount, I'm definitely more well read in the Roman and Greek traditions in warfare (or at least I was long ago). So there's definitely inspiration, but it's more of a spirit of many than a single one. The deeper forces behind the war weren't revealed in "Age of Deception," just a glimpse of the origin. Carolina's working on it feverishly with the help of some clever friends, but it's a question that may take a while to unearth...

@mrtodddelaroderie

Жыл бұрын

@@RoweLit well sometimes the fog of war leads to better stories than a disgruntled nanite tech sabotaging a co worker work resulting in a war thru a black swan or is it black flag event. But then again the tragic war from an imbelic playing a prank fits will with just how stupid war actually is in real life. Always eager to see your next work my friend.

Mark CEN CA here I am 😮

@RoweLit

4 ай бұрын

👀

Keep writing.

@RoweLit

11 ай бұрын

Thanks, Eric! That's the plan 😃

@ericcricket4877

11 ай бұрын

@@RoweLit Good 😎🙏

So aholes win. Didn’t care for this one.

@RoweLit

9 ай бұрын

Sometimes they do, yes, 😃

Please get back to the whiskey chaos

@RoweLit

Жыл бұрын

Coming right up, Eric! 😃 I try to do one a month. I've got one I'm editing now for upload tomorrow morning (Ep. 8), an origin story for Sosh (shooting for this Thursday) and one next month for the "Cyborg Armies" theme.