X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (6 May 2025)
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Kilometerstones
* Reality, Fun & Not
* Std stuff - how you can help
Check out my substack articles! They’re like a math problem you thought would be difficult, but turned out not to be!
Greetings Dear Subscribers,
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NOTE: Having finally and happily abandoned vampiric “social media”, I’ll be sending newsletters slightly more often. But I’ll try to keep them somewhat entertaining. :) My substack articles and youtube channel replace social media, and contain fun and thoughtful material.
=== Kilometerstones ===
AotF:
After organizing my story concepts, a process which further lased through the stone block to uncover important complementary aspects of the story, I’ve finally started the writing proper for “Attendants of the Future”.
I often wish I had a creative collaborator with whom I could explore ideas (safely). It was something we did in our youth, me and my two friends, separately, and it was a blast. The last time this happened was twenty years ago, with MSD. But adults have neither the time nor the inclination, unless they’ve gone down the dark road of writing, too, in which case they’re wary of discussing their ideas with other writers, as am I. Or they’re just weary, as am I.
It turns out that chatGPT is a useful tool for organizing and crystallizing story concepts, as long as you don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking of it as sentient or perfect. It has real limitations.
I did not use it to write anything, although one or two of its organized regurgitations sparked one or two incidental naming choices. No, I used the thing to reflect my disorganized firehose blast of story ideas back at me in the form of thematically consistent, structured, outline-type materials of one kind or another. Those outputs were not perfect, but they achieved what I was having trouble achieving on my own — arriving at a broad skeletal structure that captures my ideas, thus allowing me to fill in the details with the writing proper.
My hope is that in the future I’ll be able to internalize those processes and just get there on my own. For now, chatGPT allegedly doesn’t upload your stuff to their servers. It’s probably a good idea to not assume that will always be the case, so I don’t want to become reliant on it.
Thus far, I’ve written about half of the first chapter, which is nothing to sneeze at. That first chapter is crucial for laying groundwork and hooking the reader. There’s no rush — even after I finish the manuscript, I’ll be hiring a pro editor again for a developmental edit. I have a good feeling about this novel.
As mentioned in my recent substack about using AI for marketing, I also used the thing to improve the blurbs for MSD, CotF, and Puzzling Innerverse. You’ll see those new blurbs on each book’s page, and I truly believe you’ll agree that the globe’s experience in marketing as reflected in that large-language model/generative pre-trained transformer tool exceeds my experience in marketing. The new blurbs are a real improvement.
New discounted direct-buy links on my /Books page:
IngramSpark recently added discount direct-buy links in Pounds Sterling (GBP), in addition to the old ones in USD. I’ve added those GBP links to my books page. Those are only for paper copies. The /Books page provides all other purchase options, e.g. for eBooks, of course.
=== Reality, Fun & Not ===
First, the fun side of reality:
Curt Jaimungal is a physics communicator/journalist on youtube. He’s very smart and does not merely regurgitate what others are saying or the ways in which they communicate. Curt appreciates rigor, and he’s not afraid to have frank interactions with famous, big names. (see his interview with Leonard Susskind, for example)
Allow me to share two of his videos. Stick with them. The second one might sound like one long stream of Star Trek Voyager-esque technogibberish, or it might actually make some sense to you, depending on your background and proclivities. (For me, it’s somewhere in between.) I HOPE THAT EITHER WAY YOU CAN DERIVE ENJOYMENT AND/OR OTHER VALUE FROM THESE VIDEOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH-ybecvuEo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcY3ZtgYis0
And here’s a completely different experience from StarTalk. I think you’ll agree that it’s just a wonderful discussion that everyone should see.
Next, the not so fun side:
As expected, the current U.S. administration’s proposed budget:
includes a 25% reduction in the NASA budget, unprecedented since the post-Apollo rampdown; as a reminder: the NASA budget hasn’t changed from around $25B (absolute) in decades, and is a tenth of a cent out of every tax dollar, orders of magnitude less than the military budget, and, for reference, is much smaller than the alcohol and big sports markets; NASA expands our knowledge, inspires us, boosts the economy, and literally saves the world — there’s zero reason to ruin it and every reason to give it more support;
includes ending our Artemis lunar development program (after the first attempt to get astronauts there, so they can either take credit for it or use a failure to whack NASA — governance by posturing, not by prudent, hardy, forward-thinking policy pursuits);
includes ending climate research programs — ‘nuff said!;
and includes a redirection of billions to a Mars program (i.e. to SpaceX/Musk); elsewhere I’ve explained that the best, fastest, cheapest, safest, most reliable way to execute a crewed Mars program is to develop our capabilities on the Moon (i.e. the current Artemis program); also, the rest of the spacefaring nations, notably including China, are going to the Moon and will be developing fueling and staging infrastructure there, to go to the asteroids or anywhere else more effectively and efficiently, including Mars, and notably occupying a military high ground unlike any other, one where abused advantage is world-changing, not merely ‘at some front line on Earth’; our not going to the Moon would be a geopolitical failure of epic, historic scale — engaging in cold war both prepares for hot war and prevents hot war, and, make no mistake, we have been in a space race cold war since the 1950s, keeping the geopolitical balance in that highest of high grounds. This administration has offered to hand all that to the Chinese and others for short term tax budget funneling to Musk.
In the past, budget hostage-taking always happened, but it was expected that after negotiations a 95% status quo would be reached. There used to be 80% overlap between parties on what was good for the nation. In the current political situation, those in power really don’t care about what’s good for the nation and don’t want status quo, they want to redirect billions to their clique of billionaires while being able to spin these changes as ‘bold leadership’. What they propose is designed to be a win for them and NOT for the public regardless of how negotiations pan out. So it really is very possible for a catastrophic budget like this one to go through. The forces of sanity and statesmanship only have so much fortitude and leverage. Gird your loins. Engage as appropriate.
=== Standard Stuff === How to Help ===
Why help? Since I subvert pop genre expectations instead of pandering to them, and because of my autism and other isolating factors, it’s extremely difficult and expensive for me to reach out into the world to find my audience. I don’t have a team helping me. Just writing newsletters like this is an exercise in self-esteem suspension of disbelief (swirly thing alert!).
I truly rely on word of mouth and grassroots support. In case anyone assumes this is some kind of gravy train side hustle, I’m still thousands of dollars in debt on this, and every convention adds more red to my ledger. I’m in this for the long haul, but I must keep reaching out and pushing. This is not “write it and they will come”, that’s the erotic fantasy romance section (which sells itself).
How to help: Reading my books, writing reviews (if you liked them :), and passing the word would be great. If not that, then one could post my one-page ads (see below, or on each book’s page on the web site) on appropriate billboards and tell people about my web site, https://XHoYenAuthor.com .
But here’s something very nice that anyone can do to help — request that “Minimum Safe Distance” be carried by your local library!
It’s usually as simple as going to your library system’s web site and searching for “suggest a purchase” or “submit a suggestion”. Usually, there’s a special page for that, and often it’s at the front of your dashboard.
They will want information like this:
Title: Minimum Safe Distance
Author: X. Ho Yen [please get the capitalization and spaces right, one after the period, another after ‘Ho’]
Publication year: 2022
Format: Book/Paperback
# of pages: 396
ISBN: 978-0-9766158-1-1
Publisher: Grand Unification Monastery
Audience: Adult
Language: English
Notes:
Good professional editorial reviews, including Kirkus:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/x-ho-yen/minimum-safe-distance/
“…Ho Yen’s descriptions of advanced technologies should please fans of hard SF, but what really makes the book work are the questions it raises about what it means to be a person and a member of a species.” Our verdict: Get It
Carried in Arapahoe County Library System:
https://arapahoelibraries.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S115C2180350
and the Colorado State Library Book Club Resource (https://csl.catalog.aspencat.info/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=minimum+safe+distance&searchIndex=Title&searchSource=local),
and Biblioboard (https://library.biblioboard.com/content/a3f3fc17-626b-428b-b6a2-5b5a9a44a494).
Author web site: https://XHoYenAuthor.com
This process usually takes only a few moments once you find the book suggestion/recommendation page. Thanks! Put a reminder in your calendar right now!
I haven’t been emphasizing “Custodians of the Future” as much as MSD, but only because MSD has more kudos (which is because I spent a lot more money on MSD, and that’s unsustainable). I’m hoping that interest in MSD will lead to interest in my other stuff.
Space Autistic Author
If you haven’t watched “Space Autistic Author”, Logs 1 to 3, yet, do check them out. They’re only a few minutes long, but they’re fun! Logs 2 and 3 demonstrate how SAA allows cross-promotion with other creatives without requiring anyone to vouch for anyone else’s work. Pass the word!
While you’re there, check out the other videos on my channel, especially the Galacticon ‘23 video (in 4 parts). That one’s longer, but it shows why my pen name is not cultural appropriation, and gives a fun overview of Mars exploration (since the late 1800s) with details of my participation in it, mostly on the Mars Global Surveyor mission.
https://XHoYenAuthor.com/media
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All purchase options can be found here: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books. Both sites include links showing how several of the big vendors allow you to gift eBooks.
Thanks for sticking with me! I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining to watch this author second career thing come together.
Please do share my page with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoys Corey’s The Expanse, Older’s Infomocracy, Card’s Speaker for the Dead, Mandel’s Station Eleven, Suarez’ Delta-V, 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