Thomas J. Doscher - Author

Hard to believe the series finale comes out in two weeks. Editing is close to being done.

Editing at the kitchen table today. Both boys have been sick, and I'm making edits while listening for the sound of puking.

How do you think death should be handled by writers?

The new cover for book 1 is here!

Now available for pre-order at Amazon!

The Dark Ones have returned…

With a possible insurrection averted and the Va’Shen village of Pelle once again at peace, Ranger Captain Ben Gibson and the high priestess, Alacea, thought they would finally have time to let their awkward relationship bloom.

Those hopes are dashed, however, when an unknown alien ship arrives in the Va’Sh system and immediately destroys the U.S. ship protecting the planet before crash landing on the surface.

Now, with the clock ticking and an alien ground force moving right toward them, Captain Gibson’s Rangers and a collection of Va’Shen commandos must join forces to hold back the invasion until military forces on Va’Sh can prepare for a counterattack. But doing so means turning the sleepy village of Pelle into a battleground.

A battleground none of them may escape.

The Dark Ones: Part 6 of The V***n War Bride series The Dark Ones: Part 6 of The V***n War Bride series

It's done!

I am one scene away from finishing Book 6 of VWB. The end is actually a day or so away. It feels amazing.

New cover! Only a few scenes from completion. With any luck, it'll be available for pre-order in November and published in December!

I just entered the denouement of Book 6. Hard to believe my first series is almost complete.

I'm not saying my laptop is old, but it just took a necklace with a giant blue jewel on it and tossed it over the side of a boat.

Probably the stupidest thing I did all week was take the time to learn how to interpret the Amazon Ads insights. I have impressions but no clicks, and according to the guy on the internet I paid to teach me this stuff, that means my cover might suck.

I mean, I KNEW THAT... I was just kinda hoping no one else would notice.

Can't find anything positive to post today, so how about y'all share some of your good news?

"What's your advertising strategy? How do you get your book in front of readers?"

I use a word-of-mouth strategy.

"Oh, that could work. Who's your target audience?"

Mostly shy introverts who don't like talking to people.

You ever do something embarrassing in front of your dog and then suddenly get really worried that someday someone will invent a machine that will let dogs speak? I love my dog, but that little bitch better keep her mouth shut.

"What do you want to accomplish as an author?"

I want people 20 years from now to be using footage from the anime version of my books to make crappy music videos on Youtube to music by Linkin Park.

It's important to have goals.

My dog, Mimsy, (Her Grace, the Duchess of Doodlederry), likes to run to the back fence and bark at joggers and other dogs that are walking by. So, I got her one of those bubble windows and put it in the fence so she could see out there. She wants nothing to do with it. I think the issue is like the dog version of social media. She's Billy Badass when she has anonymity, but as soon as the other dogs can look in, she suddenly has no idea who called that pitbull an as***le.

My Mom just got on my book's FB group and threatened to ground me if I didn't finish Book 6 of V***n War Bride.

That's why I can't come out to play today.

VILLAIN: I am the only male witch in existence. I am... the MANWICH.
ISEKAI HERO: Snrrk... Are you bold and tangy?
VILLAIN: What?
ISEKAI HERO: Can I call you Joe?
VILLAIN: That's not my name.
ISEKAI HERO: Sorry, that was sloppy of me...

"With all due respect, Chaplain, I don't think OUR maker wants to hear from me right now. Because he knows I'm going to go out in His sky in this plane and remove one of His creations from His universe. And when I am done, I'm going to open a bottle of scotch, drink it like it's Chiggy von Richthoffen's blood, and celebrate his death."

Most badass monologue in all of sci-fi.

I grew up on Trek, and we tend to think of Star Trek as having really changed with the Chris Pine movies going forward. But looking back, it is amazing to me how different the three shows that took place in the same era are. Although they are set in the same rough timeframe, they were produced years apart, and the differences in how each series looked at issues of morality and ethics is so stark. This video, showing Picard's arguments about morality juxtaposed with scenes from the Voyager episode where Janeway, for all intents and purposes, executed an innocent man to save two others, really shows how far WE have fallen as a society. You could take it even further as I can't think of a situation where even Kirk would have done what Janeway did, and he's seen as the cowboy of the group. What do you think?

What Would Picard Do With Tuvix ? TNG vs Voyager . Picard vs Janeway Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NitpickingNerdScience Fiction Reviews Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLsxBysUHnpSKRpXMbMVzgAll Parody Edits : ...

I watch this guy Traveling Robert on YouTube. Thanks to him, I'm going to be $100k in debt from buying an RV one day.

Warning, don't watch his show unless you have immense discipline. It'll make you want to buy an RV.

Never been to one of his concerts, but the man was a role model for me. Pilot, author, southron, and just a guy who knew how to have fun every day.

Legendary musician Jimmy Buffett dead at 76: 'Lived his life like a song til the very last breath' Legendary entertainer Jimmy Buffett died on Friday at the age of 76 after more than 50 years as a musician. He died peacefully surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs.

I watched a movie the other day called "Daylight's End," starring a guy named Johnny Strong, who sounds like he should be an unlockable character in Mortal Kombat 11. And actually, it was pretty good. It also had Bishop from "Aliens" and who I am almost sure is the brother of Costas Mandylor. Anyone else see it?

Why do they call it the "Clone WarS?" I mean, I saw the movie and the show. There was just the one war, right?

So, I've seen books where they take the original protagonist and instead of doing the boring s**t they did in the original, they fight zombies or vampires or something. Like "Jane Austen, Zombie Hunter." Has anyone tried doing the opposite? Like, a bunch of zombies just trying to find husbands. Or vampires that are working really hard to pass legislation but are stymied because they can only work at night?

If you're a writer, don't neglect the grammar. I know you want to. I know "grammar n***s" make you uncomfortable. I know you want to say "screw it, no one's going to care anyway," but it's not true.

Imagine you're driving on a scenic road with flowers and mountains and wild animals, and it's all perfect. Then you hit a pothole. Okay, that's fine. One pothole isn't bad. Then you hit another and another and another. Pretty soon, you're not looking at the scenery, you're watching the road to navigate the potholes. Words are the road on which your reader traverses your story, and if the road is poorly constructed, your reader will be too busy trying to make sense of it to admire the story itself.

Except colons and semi-colons. F**k those guys. No one knows how they work anyway.

Just some unsolicited advice on a Saturday.

When you have a yard sale, don't just put stuff out there with a tag. Come up with insane stories for all your stuff, like how that plastic punch bowl was used to poison a Yugoslavian ambassador and how that framed picture of a barn shows the secret burial site of a witch.

I would buy the s**t out of a poisoned punch bowl.

I think this guy wins the fishing derby.

A rusty but well-preserved Sherman was recovered in 2014 in the Barents Sea after having been discovered amongst the wreck of a US cargo ship. The ship was sunk by a German submarine in the last days of World War II. It spent nearly 70 years on the bottom of the sea before finally being recovered.

"Meteorologist," is an overused term. If I worked at a local news station, I would demand to be referred to as "the Storm Herald," and whenever I did the weather, I would do it with a staff and dressed as a wizard.

Put that in your hat and smoke it, Channel 9.

FuzzyCurmudgeon over at DeviantArt created a beautiful piece of fanart of Alacea from VWB.

Alacea by FuzzyCurmudgeon on DeviantArt

Lifted for the first time in forever today. A supercomputer working for a thousand years would not be able to compute a number high enough to accurately reflect the number of regrets I now have.

What if the Truck-kun/Isekai trope is kinda like the Men In Black deal? Suppose there's a secret society of people whose job it is to identify people who are needed to save other worlds, and they have to find those people and hit them with a truck to get the process going.

And here's the interview!

Lasers, Dragons, and Keyboards Podcast - Thomas Doscher We interview Thomas Doscher, author of the V***n War Bride novels. Buy the books at Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094X4D8RK](https://www.amazon.com/d...

Had an awesome time this morning with Lasers, Dragons, and Keyboards Podcast. When the YouTube video comes out, I'll post a link. Thanks again to the LDK crew for having me!

I will be on the Lasers, Dragons, and Keyboards Podcast this Saturday at 1030 central, desperately trying to convince three very nice people that my book isn't furry erotica. Wish me luck and stop by for a listen!

ldk_podcast - Twitch A podcast for readers and writers of science fiction, fantasy, and all related genres of fiction.

So, rewatching "Predator," it occurs to me that Dutch's special forces team wasn't all that... special. They lost two guys and immediately started losing their s**t. Mac goes nuts, Billy declares that they're all going to die, and Poncho looks like he's about lose it. The only guys keeping their cool are Dutch and Dillon, and Dillon's face the whole time just screams, "why did I pick these guys for this mission?"

WITCH KING: My lord, I have heard you ordered the Ringwraiths to kidnap children.
SAURON: Yes, I have found a use for them in the monster creation pens.
WITCH KING: You are feeding them to monsters?
SAURON: No, observe. Okay, Billy, tell me about this new monster you want us to create.
BILLY: It's a Cockadragon. Part dragon, part cockroach. It can get anywhere, never dies, and it breathes fire made of smaller , angrier cockadragons.
WITCH KING: This kid is a fu***ng genius.
SAURON: I know, right?!

ME DOING RESEARCH: Alexa, how do you build an IED?

Looking out my window ten minutes later be like:

So, I had an epiphany about a 40 year old movie. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, is a great movie that Star Trek has been trying to recreate forever. It's pretty obvious that Khan is playing the role of Ahab in Moby Dick. But the Enterprise crew isn't playing Moby Dick. They're playing Tale of Two Cities. You have two separate literary themes playing in the same movie against one another. Someone put that much thought into this movie and that is why they can't catch the same spark with Nemesis or Into Darkness. They're just recreating the superficial trappings without looking into the deeper themes.

This is the part where you all jump into the comments and say "You're just now figuring that out?"