X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (5 Sep 2025)
IN THIS ISSUE:
* A Gift of Art to Subscribers
* Quick Status
* Engage! (your creativity, in 20 seconds)
* Science News (and a Seth MacFarlane bit)
* How to help
Latest substacks: on author-targeting scams, also a letter to the new NASA leaders
Greetings Dear Subscribers,
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If you like this, or just want to help, please forward/post the link! (see see the ‘How to Help’ section at the bottom) https://XHoYenAuthor.com/newsletter
=== A gift of art to subscribers ===
Another poem, for what it’s worth.
No, it’s not more zombie haiku…
Back in the 80s I wrote a bunch of poems. They were from the heart, and that made them ok. Most were quite short.
In the years between then and now, my attempts at poetry have been less than ok. I couldn’t get out of my own head and just write, aside from the fact that I simply am not a poet by nature.
But a year or two ago, I wrote one that I was proud of, and posted it, I think, on social media. What a waste! I may have also posted it on my now defunct “Ditties” page. I’ll have to dig it up, because it’s worth having. Perhaps some day I’ll have a decent collection of poems.
Life without art is no life at all! Art for life! Here’s my new one, shared exclusively with you, here in my author newsletter.
————————————————-
curbend
Just past dusk,
on a corner
where the curb ends
Under the flickering
helium streetlamp
you wonder
On one side, houses
and the distant glow of
city you can't quite see
On the other hand
dark fields, obscured by
a few trees and bushes,
the forward scouts of
the woods beyond,
or perhaps their
haggard rear flank
At a place where
the road becomes,
more rapidly than you'd expect,
one you don't
merely take
but travel
Where headlights
no longer merely warn
of your impending
but make you
a bubble of civilization,
a spearhead, or perhaps
an escape pod,
an envoy,
an arbiter,
or all
in addition to nothing
Where the curb ends,
venerable concrete,
once mountain,
an asymmetric block
falling in slow motion
On its long
but not so long
freeze-thaw journey
to weed and soil
and sibling stone
You wonder,
on a darking corner where
something approaching
has no good reason
to have left the place
from whence it came
What broke
that vanguard curb
An errant iron horse,
a bolt of lightning,
a flaw in its pouring,
perhaps rushed as
dusk and shadows
approached this
liminal curb and brush
Is there no plan
to fix it
You wonder
what brought
you here
What drove you
from the wood
or the urb
to stand at curbend
and wonder
And the sky to one side
is reflected glow
but to the other
a billion flickering hints
————————————————-
=== Quick Status ===
AotF continues to grow organically, now at >22k words of proper manuscript, plus more in roughs.
Soon enough I’ll need Test Readers for the early chapters! Interested?
I’m retiring from my day job career, so things are settling down and I look forward to having more time and focus to put toward writing.
Also, I’ve updated the covers of my books to include their award badges. My original plan was to be purist about the covers and leave them alone, but that’s just silly. In an age where one must do everything possible just to be glanced at, this had to be done. I did it tastefully, though. :)
In any case, this means those of you who already own a copy have a rare early edition with the virgin cover. :)
Strongly worded letter to new NASA leadership
Recently, the Trump administration’s second NASA Administrator appointee, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, gave an Agencywide Address. After watching that, I sent a strongly worded reply to him, his new Associate Administrator, Amit Kshatriya, and the demoted Associate Administrator, Vanessa Wyche. You can read it here: https://XHoYenAuthor.substack.com/p/strongly-worded-letter-i-sent-to
Share it in support of the NASA family!
=== Engage! (your creativity, in 20 seconds) ===
Space Autistic Author
Over the last couple of years I’ve had very little success getting creatives interested in a guest appearance on SAA.
Should I conclude that the whole idea was bad? Or at least that in execution it’s somehow embarrassing to be a part of it? I personally think it’s charming and fun, but I’ve been wrong before. Thoughts?
I find it enjoyable to reach out via the silly, self-aware low-budgetude of SAA, not to mention its non-podcast nature. My autism prefers to appear on the web not as myself but as my X. Ho Yen persona.
So, I’m considering using SAA as a themed setting in radical new ways, not just cross-promo interviews.
For example, I was wondering about just having even easier, shorter guest spots. Like this:
“I don’t always read irreverent, hopepunk sci fi, but when I do, I read X. Ho Yen.”
You could flank yourself with two attractive people, record that into your phone, and hold up one of my books. Boom! Ten seconds, piece of pie, easy as cake, no fancy recording setup or 60 second self-intro required. You still get the guest credit on youtube and in the credits, of course.
Or maybe a riff off the famous Betty White ad for Snickers bars, where she’s the hangry alter ego of a football player until a Snickers bar transforms her back into him.
<you, holding an XHY book>
“You’re not yourself unless you’re reading X. Ho Yen’s irreverent, hopepunk sci fi!”
I’d add that to the end of an SAA animated sequence:
<inSecurityBot says something not smart>
<G.A.L. or the Librarian call it out and suggest it reads an XHY book>
<super fast reading montage, and POOF! inSecurityBot transforms into…
Wouldn’t you have fun with this incredibly easy-to-record bit?
Shirley there are many possibilities. Like a “Police Squad”-style ten second pre-title guest appearance that ends in you being ejected from an airlock!
In case you’re not old enough to get that reference, “Police Squad” was the “Dragnet” spoof origin of all those Leslie Nielsen “Naked Gun” movies. Before those, Nielsen was known for straight roles. Very straight roles. Anyway, each “Police Squad” episode began with a prominent “Guest Starring <famous actor name here>” credit over some dramatic car chase or other danger situation in which that very guest star gets killed, all before the show even started. (Or at least that’s what I remember of it! Gimme a break! It was the mid-80s!) I distinctly recall Florence Henderson being thrown out of a fast-moving car. It was a pretty damn funny, and inexpensive, guest star idea. Abrahams, Zucker, and Zucker were very silly guys, the same whackos behind “Airplane!”, in which Beaver’s mom says something like, “I can help. I speak Jive.” And then she does!
There must be countless geeky/gaming related bits that could also be done. Pull out your CosPlay outfit and channel your already active imagination. :) There could be Star Trek references/scene-bits, or Airwolf, or whatever is your particular thang. Crocheting humor? Why not? Ham radio esoterica? Not only maybe, but hell maybe! :)
You know how to reach me!
=== Science News (and a Seth MacFarlane bit) ===
I like to occasionally share some cool bits of science you won’t get in the popular media vectors, not unless you dig deep. Here are a few items:
This tiny iron catalyst could transform the future of clean energy (China)
Sagan’s Cosmos edited by/for rednecks (25s humor vid from Seth MacFarlane)
Better living through science correctly funded and applied for the common good!
=== 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 .
Please help with discovery by posting this week (or maybe set reminders in your calendar for July and November?) something like the following:
Know someone who likes irreverent, inclusive, hopepunk sci fi? Check out this award-winning author: XHoYenAuthor.com/lauds
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
Like, subscribe, and share!
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