X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (18 Jan 2026)
Greetings Dear Readers,
To subscribe: the subscription box “Older Posts >” link available at the bottom of the web newsletter
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If you’d like to UNsubscribe from this newsletter, hit reply and say as much. Easy peasy, no judgment, no problem. (Unsubscribing from Substack is separate and is done there.) Unsubscribing if you’re not interested HELPS me. Having subscribers who aren’t engaged throws me off.
My substack content replaces social media, and contains fun, thoughtful, and/or serious material that would never fit into tiny SM posts. (no more Youtube)
=== Status ===
In case you hadn’t noticed, last newsletter saw the removal of all the annoying, distracting “how to help” stuff at the bottom. Fewer pics, less text.
Now, I’m in the midst of transitioning in protest away from the google so-called ‘ecosystem’ and others. I’ve unpublished my books from Amazon and Google Play, and have removed links to Apple Books. I take removing myself from the data theft/monitoring and content-funneling economy seriously now that the way that economy funds the Reich is clearer to me, aside from how it has ruined the minds of generations of kids.
I’ve moved my media content from youtube (which is owned by google) onto substack, and FINALLY ORGANIZED my substack page with tabs for easier content filtering (I didn’t know about tabs until two days ago…). If/when substack becomes equally problematic, I’ll migrate again, but for now, this is my situation.
See my substack home page, where you’ll now see the new tabs. “Anim: Space Autistic Author” has all content related to my fun, animated cross-promo series (Log 4 is nearing completion). “Media” has all other video, podcast, and other such material. See also the “Fiction Related”, “Life & Times”, and “My Books” tabs.
____Along those lines, I’m transitioning away from gmail____
Within the week, I’ll be resending this newsletter from XHoYen@protonmail.com instead of gmail. Please note that it’s me, and keep an eye out for it in case it ends up in your spam box. Please allow and whitelist as needed. My web site’s subscription box has already been updated with the new address. (Proton is a Swiss non-profit created by the folks at CERN and is privacy focused, with client-side encryption so even Proton can’t read your emails. Gmail dumps your emails and addresses into its AI in order to “give you an improved personal experience” by selling what it extracts to info merchants who target you with ads and who knows what else they do with your tracking data. I was naive about all this, and lazy about it for too long.)
New content for you that’s not about the Reich
I have a number of new substack posts NOT related to the Fourth Reich, so do please check them out in the “Fiction Related” and “My Books” tabs. There’s a short piece on the retconning of Captain Kirk and why it was bad for all of us. There’s a brief Primer on “Custodians of the Future”. The video about the fun thing about the “Minimum Safe Distance” book cover is now within a brief post that has some more info about MSD. And there’s a post about “V for Vendetta” (although that spills over into “Life & Times” topics, not surprisingly.)
I’ve taken the opportunity to update “Space Autistic Author” Log 1 by fixing a couple of visual issues and also updating the laud badges on the MSD book cover shots. And in a few cases, I’ve updated the “thumbnail” image for certain items, notably the article on “Representation in my Writing”. For that one, I felt it was important to change the thumbnail lest a glancer immediately get the opposite and incorrect impression from the old thumbnail. All in all, I’m getting better at substack’s features (before I was relying on it to automatically generate the thumbnail pic, now I know how to handle that myself).
The new thumbnail for my “Representation” article (the old one was the sardonic, mocking, AI-generated one representing so many other authors’ works)
== AotF ==
I’ve resisted saying anything online about works in progress. Here I’m going to violate that rule, but I’ll attempt to avoid actual spoilers.
In “Attendants of the Future”, the final reveal in “Custodians of the Future” has consequences that are affecting everyone, everywhere. This leads to conflict at a lunar colony. But in parallel, something else is happening that will give readers a glimpse into how the lives of a couple of the colonists might have gone very differently.
There. I hope that’s somewhat intriguing. :)
== Sci/Eng ==
While I’ve vowed never to pretend we’re in a status quo situation, I nevertheless here offer you some more enjoyable content as a brief diversion and so that you won’t necessarily associate my newsletter only with gloom and doom. :)
These “game-changers” will have huge, positive impacts on our world, but they don’t make the news or social media feeds. This is by no means a complete list. (And I get no kickbacks from these products.)
Aircraft Riblet Coating (read the estimate of each 787 aircraft’s annual environmental impact improvement)
Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (most efficient rocket engine ever, no moving parts, already test flown, can be used for supersonic atmospheric flight; these will change everything in a decade or two)
Donut Electric Motors (more torque and power than other motors, donut shape removes much of the drive train weight; these also will be endemic soon and will revolutionize vehicle efficiency, and not just wheeled vehicles)
Finally, some biocircular shoes (made for zero environmental impact as well as proper shoe design and durability; currently quite expensive, but let’s try and change that through scaling sales)
Deflectr helmet tech (this revolutionary design adds rotational dampening to standard helmets’ radial dampening; it will become endemic and will have a huge impact, so to speak, on TBIs; currently just in bicycle helmets, but eventually will be part of every kind of helmet; look for these when your kids are old enough to ride bikes)
Carvykti white blood cell retraining puts multiple myeloma into remission (just one example of some of the new approaches to cancer treatments and possibly even cures)
Greentell system dramatically reduces brake dust emissions (to comply with European pollution standards)
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory came online last year and is already making big discoveries while the team tunes it for it’s 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time aimed at illuminating several fundamental mysteries.
The first personalized gene therapy (approved) was used to save a baby with a rare 50% mortality genetic disorder. In the first half of 2025 renewable energy provided more than a third of global electricity, more than coal for the first time. That’s big. China made huge strides in solar manufacturing and deployment.
Meanwhile, the United States ended crucial infant vaccination and rolled back decades of environmental protections in order to make life easier for oil and gas industries. It had to be said.
All purchase options can be found here: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books. There’s info on how you can gift eBooks.
Thanks for sticking with me! I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining to watch this author second career thing come together in the midst of one kind of strife or another.
Please do share my page with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoys Older’s Infomocracy, Card’s Speaker for the Dead, or movies like “Arrival” and “Don’t Look Up”. I'm convinced my books would appeal to the same audience, because I wrote them for me and I'm in that audience.
Thanks for your support!
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com