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We definitely have a hope became reality hangover this morning, but we also have a very fun episode for you today! We're talking romance shorts -- not novellas, not short novels, but actual short stories under 15,000 words (or about 50 pages). We talk about why this is such a difficult goal to hit, about why romance lends itself to longer formats, and about why short fiction is a really great way to keep reading when things feel chaotic.We also chat about Sarah's new short story, a part of the Ladies in Waiting anthology, out this week and providing minor characters from Jane Austen their own happily ever afters. Sarah is joined by romance greats Diana Quincy, Nikki Payne and Eloisa James, among others. Get the collection at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. Also, we want to take a moment to send enormous thanks to everyone who donated to the Fated States Giving Circle at The States Project this year — those donations were gamechangers — last night we expanded our majority in the VA House, and secured a Democratic Trifecta in Virginia! As ever, we're so proud to stand and fight with you!If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com. Our next read along will be KJ Charles's The Magpie Lord. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.NotesThe Ladies in Waiting anthology was released this week, and in the anthology, authors wrote HEAs for minor Austen characters. Sarah wrote about Miss Bates from Emma. Sarah has a few short stories: The Bladesmith Queen, a Medieval short available with her newsletter signup; "Fire That Lasts," and a YA short in the Generation Wonder anthology. The duke who has a sheep is in a novella called A Duke Worth Falling For. Sarah asked Threads for recs of romance short stories and that's where many of these...

⚓️歡迎報名2025年最後一場的第八屆超男訓練營，現即可享早鳥優惠，名額有限

The Japanese Imperial Army managed to take Wuhan but found it difficult to keep up their previous momentum as Chinese defensive efforts and counter-insurgency begin to wear on the Japanese supply line and threaten to reverse their previous gains.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

In this week's episode, we take a look at the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire, and consider how ancient history can inspire fantasy novels. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Silent Order series at my Payhip store: SILENT2025 The coupon code is valid through November 10, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 275 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 31st, 2025, and today we're talking about the Praetorian Guard of Ancient Rome and how that can inspire fantasy novels. Also, Happy Halloween (or Happy Protestant Reformation Day, if you prefer). Before we get into all that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. First up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in my Silent Order series at my Payhip store: SILENT2025. And as always, both the coupon code and the links to my store will be in the show notes. This coupon code will be valid through November 10th, 2025. So if you need a new ebook for this fall as we come into winter, we have got you covered. And now for an update on my current writing and publishing projects. As I mentioned last week, Cloak of Worlds is now out and you get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and at my Payhip store. The initial response has been very strong and very positive, so thank you for that and I'm glad that people are enjoying and reading the book. Now that Cloak of Worlds is done, my next main project is Blade of Shadows, which will be the second book in my Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I'm currently 44,000 words into it, which puts me on chapter 9 of 20, though I'll probably have more chapters in the final draft than I will in the first draft. I found people really do tend to prefer shorter punchier, shorter chapters. Anyway, I'm about 44,000 words into it. I think I'll be about 109,000 words, when all is said and done. So hopefully that will be out in November. I'm also 4,500 words into the next Rivah book, which is Wizard-Assassin. It'd originally been entitled Elven-Assassin, but I decided Wizard-Assassin sounded punchier, so we went with that instead. I'm about 4,500 words into that and if all goes well, it will come out in December, which will make it the final book I'll publish in 2025, though hopefully I'll be publishing more books in 2026 before too much longer. In audiobook news, Brad Wills is currently recording Blade of Flames and we've been listening to some proof chapters of it and are very excited about what we're hearing. Hollis McCarthy is starting work on recording Cloak of Embers. That'll be the 10th book in Cloak Mage, and hopefully we will have both of those audiobooks out before the end of the year, if all goes well. So that is where I'm at with my current writing and publishing projects. 00:02:33 Main Topic: Praetorian Guard of the Ancient Roman Empire Now let's move on to our main topic this week, which is the Praetorian Guard of the Ancient Roman Empire, and they were very bad at their jobs, but we'll get into that more very shortly. One of the fascinating (if occasionally depressing) aspects of history is how often institutions end up having the exact opposite outcome of what they were intended to do. The late science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle had something called Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which once the bureaucracy got large enough, it will inevitably start turning its main focus to perpetuating the bureaucracy rather than carrying out its actual mission. And we can see examples of that time and time again, and no doubt you yourself can think of many examples: schools that make their students dumber, military organizations that fail to defend, hospitals that make people sicker, bureaucracies that exacerbate the problems that they are created to solve, and so forth. This can also apply to social movements as well. My favorite example of this is Prohibition in America. The Temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th century achieved its goal of banning alcohol sales in the United States during the Prohibition period, but the backlash and the consequences made it unpopular. And today, while alcohol is much more heavily restricted than it was at the end of the 19th century, the idea of banning alcohol in the United States is utterly implausible. The Praetorian Guard of Ancient Rome, the personal bodyguards of the Emperor, might be another example of such an institution that utterly failed at its primary goal. For over a thousand years, people have been asking why the Roman Empire fell, and I think that might actually be the wrong question. The better question is why did the Roman Empire last as long as it did, because it sure almost didn't. At the height of its power, the Empire controlled land on three different continents in an area larger than many modern states, and it had to maintain that control without anything resembling modern technology and organization. Think of the difficulties involved in governing a large multi-ethnic state in the 21st Century with modern technology and communications and imagine how much harder it was in the first century AD. Travel was difficult and dangerous even with the Roman road system. The account of St. Paul's shipwreck in the book of Acts must've been an all too common experience in the Roman Empire, given the number of Roman wrecks on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Messages could take weeks to reach their recipients, and there was no division between civilian and military authority. That meant if the Emperors wanted to do anything, they had to use the army to do it because the army was the only pool of skilled men loyal to the state. Since the Empire never really solved the problem of succession and the transfer of power, it didn't take long before ambitious men figured out that the man with the largest army could declare himself Emperor and the Roman Empire actually broke apart into three competing mini empires and almost fell apart entirely in the middle of the 200s AD. So as we can see, there were a lot of reasons the Roman Empire fell apart and the Praetorian Guard, the bodyguard of the emperors, was one of them. The Praetorian Guard certainly wasn't the sole reason the Roman Empire collapsed, but the guard most definitely didn't help. In the last century of the Roman Republic, one of the growing problems was that the armies were less loyal to Rome and more loyal to their general, who made sure they got paid and received grants of land upon discharge. To show their prestige and to guard against the danger of assassination from rivals, generals began collecting personal bodyguards. Since the Roman generals commanded from a tent in a legionary camp called a "praetorium," the general's private guards became called "praetorians." Obviously, the general wanted his best troops as his bodyguards so becoming a praetorian was a privileged position with higher pay and perks. This practice continued as the Roman Republic split apart into civil wars between the ambitious generals of the First and Second Triumvirates. The civil wars of the Roman Republic ended with Octavian, later known as Caesar Augustus, as the last man standing with sole control of what we now think of as the Roman Empire. Augustus is remembered as the first Roman emperor, but the office of Emperor didn't really exist at the time, not the way we think of it now. Rather, Augustus was essentially a military dictator, but after he won, he went to great lengths to conceal his power under cloak of legality by having the Senate invest him with various official powers and offices. In modern terms, it'd be like if the United States was ruled by a military dictator who simultaneously held the offices of President, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, the governorships of the five most populous states, all while claiming to be only the first citizen among equals. Essentially, Augustus invented the powers of the Roman emperor on the fly while being a military dictator and his successors followed suit. Julius Caesar famously pardoned his enemies and went around without a bodyguard to show his courage, which ended up getting him assassinated. Augustus, by contrast, was determined not to repeat that mistake. So after annihilating his enemies, he founded a personal bodyguard in what we know today as the Praetorian Guard. That's a modern term. The praetorians never called themselves the Praetorian Guard, and they always refer to themselves as the praetorian of whichever emperor they happen to be serving like the Praetorians of Augustus or the Praetorians of Claudius and so forth. Augustus seems to have seen some of the potential danger in the institution of the Praetorian Guard, and during his reign, they were scattered around Italy with ones guarding him rotated out every so often. The Praetorians in Italy, when not guarding the Emperor, tended to do odd jobs for the government that needed doing like policing, construction, surveying, settling boundary disputes, and so forth. However, Augustus's successor Tiberius concentrated the Guard in Rome, which made it even more dangerous. It also tied into another problem with the Roman Empire, one that it never quite managed to solve, which was the succession problem. Augustus was a military dictator who assembled a sort of ad hoc legality around his position with various offices and powers. But how would he pass that onto a successor or what if someone else decided they were the proper successor? Augustus had taken his office by force, so why shouldn't anyone else? The Praetorian Guard exacerbated this problem further. Was their loyalty to the office of the Emperor (which was tricky because that office didn't technically exist)? Was it to the man himself or to his heirs? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Praetorian Guard eventually settled on the most practical answer to this question. Their loyalty belonged to whoever paid them the most money. There's a very high chance that Tiberius was murdered by the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, which means that the imperial bodyguard made it only two emperors [repeated for dramatic emphasis] before it started killing them. Tiberius's successor Caligula was famously insane and the Guard eventually got sick of him and participated in his murder. After Caligula's death, the guard declared Claudius as the new Emperor, who repaid them by giving them lavish donatives. That meant the Guard had gone from protecting the emperors to killing ones that didn't like, and then installing new ones. After the Senate turned against Nero and he committed suicide in 69 AD, the Roman Empire had its year of four emperors: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian, who won the civil war and became the new emperor. Each of the potential claimants had their own praetorians who fought against other praetorians. The original Praetorian Guard of Nero did not cover itself in glory, as their comfortable life in Rome did not make them effective as field soldiers and they lost against the toughened legionaries from the frontier armies who came to fight in the civil war. That said, during the reigns of the Five Good Emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius) from 96 to 180 AD, we don't hear much about the Praetorian Guard. The most likely explanation is that these emperors were strong and capable rulers, so the guard had no reason to turn against them, and therefore any potential conspiracies that would've involved the Guard just didn't get off the ground. However, part of the reason the 100s AD were the apex of the Roman Empire is that Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius did not have sons, so they adopted a capable leader as their son and heir, thereby creating continuity of rule. Marcus Aurelius unfortunately had a natural son named Commodus, and after he died, Commodus became Emperor. Commodus was a spectacularly incompetent narcissist, nowadays famously known as the villain from the movie Gladiator. If anything, Gladiator toned down Commodus' brutality, though to be fair to Commodus, he didn't murder his father like the fictional version did in the movie. Commodus was eventually assassinated, and the Praetorian Guard hit its lowest point soon after. Pertinax became Emperor after Commodus, and there was hope he would be a Nerva-type figure, a respected elderly Senator who would adopt a capable heir the way Nerva did with Trajan. However, Commodus had used the Guard as his privileged force of personal thugs, and Pertinax tried to impose discipline upon them. The Guard most definitely did not care for that, so they murdered Pertinax and then auctioned off the title of Emperor to whoever would pay them the most. Soon after Septimius Severus seized control of the Empire and he summarily fired all the Praetorian and put his own veteran legionaries in their place. So the Praetorian Guard, which had been intended to guard the emperors, ended up murdering the Emperor on a regular basis and sometimes choosing a successor and even auctioning off the title of Emperor to the highest bidder. Septimius Severus was a brutal ruler and held the Empire together long enough to die of natural causes. His sons Caracalla and Geta were his successors, and Caracalla murdered Geta before he was assassinated himself by yet another plot from disgruntled praetorians. After that, both the Empire and the Guard declined precipitously. This was the period later historians would call the Crisis of the Third Century, when the Roman Empire fractured into the three competing mini empires I mentioned earlier. A depressing pattern rapidly took hold. The Praetorian Guard or the army would kill an Emperor and proclaim a new one. The Emperor would last until he tried to do something the army didn't like, such as imposing discipline and then the pattern would repeat. The Praetorian Guard was never really reformed, but like so many failed institutions, it gradually became obsolete. Part of the reason was that the Empire was subject to frequent barbarian invasions throughout the 200s. The Emperor was required constantly on the frontiers to supervise the defense with the field armies. The emperors developed a different kind of bodyguard called the "scholae palatinae", a mounted group of soldiers that would accompany him in the field as he moved about the Empire. The constant defensive warfare also resulted in a subtle shift within the Empire. Rome was no longer the center of power within the Empire. The center of power was actually wherever the Emperor happened to be at the moment. The city of Rome itself had become in many ways an expensive vestigial relic of another age. Some of the emperors only visited Rome once. Some of the shorter-lived ones never made it there at all, and the Emperors certainly did not rule from Rome. Because of these changes, the idea of the Praetorian Guard, a permanent bodyguard force based in Rome, had become obsolete. The actual end of the Praetorian Guard came after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD, the battle where the Emperor Constantine famously had the vision that led him to convert to Christianity. The Praetorian Guard sided with Constantine's opponent Maxentius, and since Constantine had no use for the Praetorian Guard and indeed would move his capital to the new city of Constantinople, he simply had the Guard disbanded and continued to rely on mounted cavalry units for his personal bodyguard. So the Praetorian Guard, after three centuries of frequent treachery and corruption, had come to an end. Amusingly, while the Guard was gone, the title of "praetorian prefect" remained in use in the Empire for the rest of its history, which came to show just how powerful the commander of the Guard could become. In the end, the Praetorian Guard was yet another example of institution that became a hindrance to the very goals it was founded to advance. This seems to be a curse of any organization, and the only cure is constant vigilance and strong leadership, two qualities, alas, that are all too rare at any age of history. Yet you can definitely see why I say history is the best source of material for fantasy writers. You could get like 20 different novels out of the events I discussed above. So that is it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe, stay healthy, and see you all next week.

Keith McDonald is back for his fifth appearance on The Fasting Highway with his good friend Graeme Currie. At 45, Keith is a father of two daughters and has experienced a profound transformation—physically, emotionally, and mentally. His journey began at 317 pounds in 2015, and by 2019, he had lost 28 pounds, reaching 289 pounds when he discovered the benefits of fasting. Through dedication and deep self-reflection, he dropped to 173 lbs by 2021.But the journey wasn't without challenges. Keith became obsessed with weight loss, and the extreme drop led to years of sciatica and physical pain. That turning point led him to strength training 2.5 years ago, where he rebuilt hisbody, resolved his back issues, and added nearly 30 lbs of muscle—all while maintaining his clothing size. He also underwent skin surgery to complete his transformation.In this episode, Keith opens up about the real-life tribulations of maintenance, the emotional toll of transformation, and how fasting remains a foundational part of his life—not just for weight, but for wellness, resilience, and purposeOur Patreon Community Please consider joining the Fasting Highway Patreon community. It has been great for all who have joined. It has become an excellent add-on to our Patreon members' IF lifestyle, providing them with a wealth of bonus content to support their IF life.For less than a cup of coffee a month, you can join and support your own health goals.Graeme hosts three Zoom meetings monthly in the Northern and Southern hemispheres for members to receive support for their IF lifestyle, which has proven very popular with our Patreon members.You will not find anywhere that provides that kind of support and accountability for just 0.16 cents a day. I urge you to give it your utmost consideration. Please visit www.patreon.com/thefastinghighway to learn about the benefits you receive and how to join.Private coaching is available with Graeme on a one-on-one basis. Please visit www.thefastinghighway.com, click 'Help Get Coaching,' and book a time that suits you. All times you see are in your local time zone.Graeme's best-selling book, The Fasting Highway, about his journey and how he did it, is available in paperback and Kindle at your local Amazon store. It is also available on audio at Apple Books, Kobo, Spotify, and many other audiobook platforms. Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast should be taken as medical advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the host and guest only.

The Blasters & Blades PodcastToday we've got our favorite Aussie on to chat about Australian Halloween traditions, his favorite candies and his new picture book My First Zombie! This is an episode where everyone behaved, so you can listen to this with the little ones, the target demographic for the book we discussed! This was a fun interview, so go check out this episode. Lend us your eyes and ears, you won't be sorry!! Join us for a fun show! We're just a couple of nerdy Army veterans geeking out on things that go "abracadabra," "pew," "zoom," "boop-beep" and rhyme with Science Fiction & Fantasy. Co-Hosts: JR Handley (Author) (Grunt)Nick Garber (Comic Book Artist) (Super Grunt)Madam Stabby Stab (Uber Fan) (Horror Nerd)Jana S Brown (Author) (Chief Shenanigator)We work for free, so if you wanna throw a few pennies our way there is a linked Buy Me A Coffee site where you can do so. Just mention the podcast in the comments when you donate, and I'll keep the sacred bean water boiling!Support the Show: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AuthorJRHandley Our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/blastersandbladespodcast Today's SponsorMy First Zombie by R Max Tillsley: https://www.amazon.com/My-First-Zombie-Max-Tillsley-ebook/dp/B0FP2T4DSB/ Coffee Brand Coffee Affiliate Support the Show: https://coffeebrandcoffee.com/?ref=y4GWASiVorJZDb Discount Code: PodcastGrunts Coupon Code Gets you 10% offFollow R. Max Tillsley on social mediaRobert's Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0769JJWT5 Robert's Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=r%20max%20tillsley&fcsearchfield=Author Robert's Website: https://tillsley.com Robert's Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmaxtillsley Robert's Facebook: https://facebook.com/rmaxtillsley Robert's Instagram: https://instagram.com/rmaxtillsley Robert's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tillsleyRobert's GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17230121.R_Max_Tillsley Robert's Publisher: https://www.blackskybooks.com/ Direct store (Australia) https://tillsley.com/store #scifishenanigans #scifishenaniganspodcast #bbp #blastersandblades #blastersandbladespodcast #podcast #scifipodcast #fantasypodcast #scifi #fantasy #books #rpg #comics #fandom #literature #comedy #veteran #army #armyranger #ranger #scififan #redshirts #scifiworld #sciencefiction #scifidaily #scificoncept #podcastersofinstagram #scificons #podcastlife #podcastsofinstagram #scifibooks #awardwinningscifi #newepisode #podcastersofinstagram #podcastaddict #podcast #scifigeek #scifibook #sfv #scifivisionaries #firesidechat #chat #panel #fireside #religionquestion #coffee #tea #coffeeortea #CoffeeBrandCoffee #JRHandley #NickGarber #MadamStabby #JenaRey #JanaSBrown #OpalKingdomPress #MyFirstZombie #RMaxTillsley #RobertTillsley #Octonauts #TheMagicSchoolBus #LittleEinsteins #Bluey #PeppaPig #CuriousGeorge #SesameStreet #FraggleRock #TheMuppetShow #ToxicAvenger #CaptainPlanet #Hunter #FatCatAndFriends #Sprocket #OceanMecha #Emu #Kangaroo #Dropbear #SnowLeopard #wolves #wolf #Flipper #KangarooFlipper #dolphin #SkippyTheBushKangaroo #JohnnyMnemonic #JohnnyQuest #SeaQuest #FruitTea #KoalaBear #HotAppleCider #BabyCcino #Cappuccino #LiquorishBullet #ChooseYourOwnAdventure #PickAPathStory

After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident which sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy would press on to take Shanghai, Nanjing, and Xuzhou, driving Chinese defenders back and committing horrific war crimes and atrocities along the way.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

In this episode, we were joined by USA Today best-selling author Iris Bolling, who has been self-publishing her works for the last seventeen years! Iris is the author of multiple series, including many best-selling romantic suspense series. Iris was also the producer and writer behind The Heart, a TV series that spanned for two seasons, based off her books. Further, she was the executive producer and screenwriter for Deadly Sexy, a film based on the work of Beverly Jenkins. Iris has won multiple awards for her writing and continues to expand her horizons with more film production projects. We get into how Iris's writing career began, Iris's love of learning, how she creates opportunities for herself (and for others), how she plots her books and develops her characters, producing her first audiobook, writing for film and television, and much more! We had a great time talking to Iris and learned a lot from her storied career. Learn more on Iris's website and check out Iris's books on Kobo!

Loved this episode, Tonya has had an amazing journey. Enjoy this encore episode as we take a short holiday break , We will be back next week with all new episodes. Tonya Kortekaas lives in Pontiac, Michigan, with her husband, Michael, of 11 years. She is the mother of three adult sons and a “bonus” mom to Michael's three children.Tonya spent most of her adult life as a stay-at-home mom of 3 growing boys and self-employed as a portrait photographer.  She felt that her most important mission in life was to raise her children and give them all the care and love they deserved.  She has been good at putting her family before her own needs, but the costs of that have been not caring for her mind and body as she should.  As her children have become adults and she has had more time to work on herself, she has entered into the full timeworking world and currently works for Oakland University.  She enjoys outdoor walks, kayaking, biking, watercolour painting and coffee in her free time. Tonya has struggled with her weight since her early 20s. She realizes that emotional eating and overindulging in sweets have been her issues.   She has tried countless diets, which have allowed her to lose weight but eventually gain it all back and more over the years.  At her annual physical exam in March of 2022, she was confronted with the highestweight of her lifetime at 349 lbs. and a BMI of 51.  Her blood pressure was soaring to a dangerous high, and her blood tests showed she was pre-diabetic.  She knew at that moment it was time for a significant change. Shewas sick of living life with this ongoing weight struggle and longed deeply to be a “normal” "-sized person.  Little did she know that change was going to lead her to an intermittent fasting lifestyle and complete freedom from her struggles with eating.  She's lost 155 lbs over 26 months of her weight loss journey. Since being on the podcast in February of 2023, episode 161, Tonya has discovered the benefits of a carnivore lifestyle and hasnoticed numerous health benefits by cutting the sugar and processed foods out of her life.   Our Patreon Supporters Community Please consider joining the Fasting Highway Patreon community. It has been great for all who have joined. It has become an excellent add-on to our Patreon members' IF lifestyle, who enjoy a lot of bonus content to support them in living an IF life.For less than a cup of coffee a month, you can join and support your own health goals.Graeme hosts three Zoom meetings monthly in the Northern and Southern hemispheres for members to come and get support for their IF lifestyle, which has proven very popular with our Patreon members.You will not find anywhere that provides that kind of support and accountability for just 0.16 cents a day. I cannot urge you more strongly to give it your utmost consideration. Please go to www.patreon.com/thefastinghighway to see the benefits you get back and how to join.Private coaching is available with Graeme one-on-one. Please go to www.thefastinghighway.com, click help get coaching, and book a time that suits you. All times you see are in your local time zone.Graeme's best-selling book, The Fasting Highway, about his journey and how he did it, is available in paperback and Kindle at your local Amazon store. It is also available on audio at Applebooks, Kobo, Spotify, and many other audiobook platforms. Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast should be taken as medical advice. The opinions expressed herein are those of the host and guest only.

Competing ideas about the Emperor's identity and proper place in the Japanese political order would become especially heated during the tumultuous 1930s and radical adherents of the Imperial Way Faction in the military engaged in a well-organized coup which nearly toppled the civilian government.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Joining me today on the Psychology World Podcast is Leanne Al-Mrayat, a brilliant postgraduate research assistant and we have a great discussion today about neuropsychology. By the end of this clinical psychology podcast episode, you'll understand what is pediatric neuropsychology, what are neuropsychological assessments, how to choose the right assessment tool for your project, and most importantly, Leanne shares ideas about how to get clinical experience with neuropsychological assessments. If you're interested in psychological research, clinical psychology or neuroscience, then this will be a great episode for you. In the psychology news section, you'll learn how awe brings us together, how forensic fandom has consequences for mental health, and how octopuses are susceptible to the rubber hand illusion. LISTEN NOW!If you want to support the podcast, please check out:FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET- https://www.subscribepage.io/psychologyboxsetCognitive Psychology: A Guide To Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology- https://www.connorwhiteley.net/cognitivepsychology Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and libraries systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon- patreon.com/ThePsychologyWorldPodcast#neuropsychology #neuropsychologicalassessments #pediatricneuropsychology #cognitivepsychology #neuroscience #clinicalpsychology #mentalhealth #clinicalmentalhealth #clinicalpsychologist #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthsupport #mentalhealthadvocate #psychology #psychology_facts #psychologyfacts #psychologyfact #psychologystudent #psychologystudents #podcast #podcasts

The Empire of Japan's decision to break with liberal democracies in favor of rising fascist powers was driven, in part, by the successes enjoyed by said fascist powers throughout the 1930s. In this episode, we discuss how their leaders managed to consolidate that power in the first place.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:00:00 GMT http://relay.fm/clockwise/628 http://relay.fm/clockwise/628 You Always Have a Lot To Say 628 Dan Moren and Mikah Sargent Voice commands we use regularly, whether robotic pets benefit society, recent tech features that surprised us, and our e-reader and page turner preferences. Voice commands we use regularly, whether robotic pets benefit society, recent tech features that surprised us, and our e-reader and page turner preferences. clean 1790 Voice commands we use regularly, whether robotic pets benefit society, recent tech features that surprised us, and our e-reader and page turner preferences. Guest Starring: Kathy Campbell and Amanda Silberling Links and Show Notes: Support Clockwise with a Relay Membership Submit Feedback I spent a month living with a $430 AI pet, the Casio Moflin | TechCrunch Aura Ink | Aura's breakthrough, cordless digital ink frame Kobo m

Welcome to the Kobo ReWriting Life Podcast! Alongside your regularly scheduled Kobo Writing Life podcast episode releases, we will also be featuring some highlights from our backlist. In this episode, we spoke to USA Today best-selling author of many a mystery book, Sara Rosett! Sara shared some great tips with us when it came to plotting mystery novels, marketing long-running series books (a challenge many mystery authors face), and more. Sara Rosett, USA Today bestselling author, gives her tips for plotting mystery novels, discusses the psychology of why readers choose cozy mysteries, and explains the challenges that come with marketing a long-standing series. Learn more on Sara's website and check out Sara's books on Kobo.

Edição de 21 Outubro 2025

After alienating the western liberal democracies with whom they had previously enjoyed friendly relations, the Empire of Japan began exploring new friendship and alliances with the growing fascist powers which were emerging in Europe as the Second Sino-Japanese war began in 1937.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Kathryn and Coach Julie explore how visualization can support binge eating recovery—not through wishful thinking, but by helping your brain rehearse what you actually want to do. Whether it's dismissing urges, eating adequately, or facing challenging situations around food, visualization helps strengthen your higher brain and prepare you to act in line with your goals. Brain over Binge resources: Get the FREE 30-day Inspiration Booklet Get personalized support with one-on-one coaching or group coaching Subscribe to the Brain over Binge Course for only $18.99 per month Get the Second Edition of Brain over Binge on Amazon and Audible, BarnesandNoble.com, Apple iBooks, or Kobo. Get the Brain over Binge Recovery Guide   Disclaimer: *The Brain over Binge Podcast is produced and recorded by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC. All work is copyrighted by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC, and all rights are reserved. As a disclaimer, the hosts of the Brain over Binge Podcast are not professional counselors or licensed healthcare providers, and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice or any form of professional therapy. Eating disorders can have serious health consequences and you are strongly advised to seek medical attention for matters relating to your health. Please get help when you need it, and good luck on your journey.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Following its investigation into the Mukden Incident and subsequent Japanese occupation of northeast China, the League of Nations demands that Japan withdraw its troops and return the territory they've seized. Japan responds by withdrawing from the League of Nations.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Kobo by Richard AllenKobo, a 14-year old boy, is the pampered pet of two grobs on the planet Pavin near the center of the Milky Way galaxy whose ancestors were brought to Pavin millennia before and domesticated as pets. Kobo, like other humans on Pavin, is raised largely in isolation from other humans and therefore without language or culture. Soon his grobs acquire a companion for Kobo, a 15-year old girl named Ra. The pair have two babies, both of whom are sold as toddlers to other grobs. When the second is sold, Kobo attacks the male grob with a knife, and he and Ra are separately transported to the planet Loma in the Pavin system where humans work as slaves in the mines. The story follows Kobo and Ra as they learn to communicate, work in the mines and discover a community of humans in hiding from the grobs.About the Author:Richard Allen is a lawyer who lives with his wife and their yellow and chocolate Labrador retrievers in Crested Butte, Colorado. A long-time fan, and former teacher, of science and speculative fiction, his love of pets led him to wonder what humans would be like in similar circumstances and to write this book. Allen's other interests include the law–he has argued ten cases in the Supreme Court and taught courses on the Constitution, the Supreme Court and criminal justice–as well as history, playing the guitar and harmonica while his dogs howls along. chess and most other games and outdoor sports of all kinds. This is his first published novel.AMAZONKOBO'S CHILDRENhttps://www.richardallenauthor.com/https://www.kingpagespress.com/

Deze week praten Wout Funnekotter, Arnoud Wokke, Jelle Stuip en Tomas Hochstenbach over de perikelen bij Nexperia, e-readerafstandsbediening van Kobo, de erotische modus van ChatGPT, GrapheneOS en Android-fabrikanten en de ASUS Rog Xbox Ally X-gaminghandheld. 0:00 Intro0:19 Opening0:52 .post23:11 Winactie24:51 Developer Summit komt eraan26:43 Nederland grijpt in bij Nexperia35:53 Afstandsbediening voor je e-reader, nodig of niet?42:52 Oe la la, ChatGPT gaat erotisch chatten50:34 GrapheneOS gaat weg bij Google56:45 De eerste Xbox-handheld, hoe is die?1:12:47 Sneakpeek Shownotes: Tweakers Dev SummitSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Discover the latest book and audiobook apps that let you read, listen, and even borrow digital titles for free! From surprise updates to hidden features inside Apple Books, Kindle, Kobo, and more, get the essential scoop on what's changing for readers on iPhone. Deep dive on Apple Books: features, store, audiobooks, customization Kobo ecosystem: devices, app, syncing, Kobo Plus, unified reading/listening Kindle and Audible: app experience, syncing, subscriptions, accessibility options Libby library app: digital books, audiobooks, local library access, features News: iOS 26.0.1 bug fixes and updates Feedback: iPhone Air impressions, camera concerns, battery experience Shortcuts Corner: Attention Aware and notification automation limitations App Caps: Reverse Audio and Threes+ Apple Arcade game Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

How is it possible we've never done a governess episode? And how is it possible Louisa Darling hasn't been a guest on the pod yet? We're rectifying both of these injustices this week on the pod. We talk about Jane Eyre, The Sound of Music and other primordial governesses, and discuss exactly what kind of buttons these books installed--almost entirely thanks to old school historicals. We also talk about how governess books are some of the only books in which we will suffer a child, and yes, we shout out the nannies, too!Louisa Darling is the pen name of Louisa Edwards and Lily Everett, and the author of Don't Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels, Where Have All the Scoundrels Gone, and Scoundrel, Take Me Away.Our next read along is Gorilla Twins, AKA Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All. Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com. NotesLearn more about The States Project and donate to the Fated States Giving Circle to keep Virginia blue this November.Welcome historical author Louisa Darling. She's written contemporary romance as Louisa Edwards and women's fiction as Lily Everett. She imprinted on Jayne Eyre and worked as an editorial assistant for Leslie Gelbman at Berkley, who edited Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz.Maybe all those early governess books were really about The Sound of Music. We talked about the Molly O'Keefe series that included Wait For It in season 7, and about Vanessa Riley and wet nurses when we had Kennedy Ryan on in season 2. Finally, our next deep dive will be Gorilla Twins. The actual title, of course, is The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath.The BooksDon't Let Your Dukes Grow Up to be Scoundrels by Louisa Darling

In this episode, we are joined by romance writer Melissa Williams, the author behind Kobo Originals' newest hockey romance series, The Toronto Nighthawks. The second book in the series, Damsel in Defense, is available now exclusively with Kobo Originals. It was great to hear all about the process of writing a sports romance inspired by Melissa's love of hockey and interest in exploring the complexities of fame, mental health, and more. We spoke to Melissa about she got her start as a romance author, learned more about her Kobo Originals series, heard about the ways in which the indie author community helped her growth as a writer, how she researched for her books, and much more! Don't miss out on this energetic and insightful conversation. For more, follow Melissa on Instagram and check out the Toronto Nighthawks series on Kobo.

Japan's conflict with China flares up once again with the Shanghai Incident. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, ultra-nationalist terrorists engage in a widespread campaign of assassination and attempted coups.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

In this week's episode, we warn against six different scams targeting indie authors. I also take a look at my advertising results for September 2025. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Cloak of Wolves, Book #2 in the Cloak Mage series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: WOLVESAUDIO The coupon code is valid through October 20, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Update Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 272 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is October 10th, 2025, and today we are looking at six common scams that target indie authors. We'll also look at my advertising results for September 2025 and some changes I will make because of that. But first, let's start with Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing projects. First up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Cloak of Wolves, Book #2 in the Cloak Mage series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy), at my Payhip store. That coupon code is WOLVESAUDIO, and as always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code is valid through October 20th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now an update on my current writing and audiobook projects, I'm pleased to report the rough draft of Cloak of Worlds is done at 107,500 words. I think it's going to end up being about 30 chapters or so once I finish editing and I'm going to start editing very shortly. Before I start editing, I am going to write a short story called False Iron set in the world of Nadia and newsletter subscribers will get a free ebook copy of False Iron when Cloak of Worlds comes out, hopefully before the end of the month (if all goes well). I am also 11,000 words into Blade of Shadows, the second book in my Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series that will be my next main project after Cloak of World is published. In audiobook news, Ghosts in the Siege (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is done and it's processing through the various platforms. I believe as of right now you can get it at Payhip, Kobo, and Google Play and then hopefully it should be available at the other stores within a few weeks. Brad Wills is starting work on the audiobook of Blade of Flames. In early 2026, I believe we should have the final audiobook from the Stealth and Spells series from C.J. McAllister. So that is where I'm at with my current writing and publishing projects. 00:02:18 Ad Results for September 2025 [Amounts Mentioned Are in USD] Now let's take a look back at some of my ad results for September 2025. First, the big changes. I am going to either give Facebook ads a rest for a while or more likely continue them in a very more limited way with a more focused strategy. As I've mentioned before, Meta has been shoving all this Advantage Plus AI stuff into Facebook ads and it just doesn't work. The key for online advertising, especially with books, is to narrow your target audience as much as possible and the Advantage Plus AI stuff all goes for a broad audience. To test that out, I did a couple of experiments. I didn't advertise Frostborn with Facebook ads in August, but I did advertise them with Facebook ads in September. The end result was I actually made $20 less from Frostborn in September than I did in August, but I also had the advertising expense for the month of September, so I made less overall. I also tried the reverse of that experiment. I advertised Cloak Games and Cloak Mage in August with Facebook, but not in September. The end result was that Cloak Games and Cloak Mage made about $200 less in September, but without the cost of advertising, that meant the profit was substantially higher. So I'm not sure if Facebook ads are effective or as effective as they used to be any longer (thanks generative AI), but in the [interest of] full testing, it'll experiment with it a bit more. I did try one ad campaign entirely with Advantage Plus this month and it was objectively terrible. I do not recommend using Advantage Plus for anything if you are advertising anything on Facebook. I probably will end up doing Facebook ads in a more focused way, similar to the way I do my BookBub ads, where I will set a time limited ad for one of my permafree books for four days or so and then shut it off when it's done because BookBub ads tend to work well the first three days and then lose their punch after. So I might end up doing something similar with Facebook ads, but we will report more on that in November once we finish with October's advertisement results. Meanwhile, Amazon ads did a lot better. Here are some of the campaigns I ran. Remember, for an Amazon ad to be successful, it needs to generate a sale or complete Kindle Unlimited read through for every six through eight clicks. For Demonsouled Omnibus One, I got back $2.44 for every dollar spent, with one sale for every 1.41 clicks. For Half-Elven Thief, I got back $1.31 for every dollar spent, with one sale for every 2.48 clicks. For Half-Elven Thief Omnibus One, 48% of the profit came from the audiobook for that one. I got back $10.13 for every dollar spent, with one sale for every 1.26 clicks. For Stealth and Spells Online: Creation, it did really well, with $24.01 for every dollar spent, with one sale for every 0.66 clicks. That was still enjoying the halo result from the release of Final Quest earlier this year. For Cloak Mage Omnibus One, I got back $3.64 for every dollar spent, with 65% of the profit coming from the audiobook and one sale for every 0.61 clicks. For Sevenfold Sword Omnibus One, I got back $3.47 for every $1 spent and one sale for every 2.42 clicks. For Dragontiarna Omnibus One, I got back $13.40 for every dollar spent and one sale for every 1.2 clicks. Out of all my campaigns. I only had one campaign that lost money, but it lost a grand total of $1.48, so that was good. So we can also see that omnibus editions definitely do very well with Amazon ads, especially if they have attached audiobooks. It turns out finishing Stealth and Spells Online made it a lot easier to advertise. A finished series is a lot easier to advertise than an incomplete one (who knew?). Though if I really want to kick up Half-Elven Thief, I need to write another book in the series, which I plan to do later this year. Once Cloak of Worlds is published, I will start on that. As I mentioned earlier, I'm also [doing] a variety of BookBub ads for my permafree books on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple; these consistently do very well since it's a lot cheaper to get clicks through the non-Amazon stores for books when you're advertising them on BookBub. So that's where my ads are for September 2025. As I mentioned, I'm going to experiment a bit more with Facebook ads in October and November, but the end result (even if I have good results) is I'm going to use them a lot less than I used to moving forward because targeting is somewhat harder. That means it's time to start thinking about other marketing ideas. There is precedent. I resisted using Facebook ads for four years before I started experimenting with them in early 2020, so maybe it's time (after dragging my feet on the idea for five years) to start playing with short form video in 2026. That seems to be where all the growth and all the eyeballs seem to be. You may have noticed that the previous episode of this podcast, Episode 271 was the first one that was on YouTube, and it seems to have been a good idea since that doubled the amount of views an episode usually gets. So I may have more video experiments coming soon, but we'll see, and as always, thank you for reading, everyone and it would be pointless to advertise the books if people didn't want to read them, and that is a fact for which I am very grateful. 00:07:26 Main Topic of the Week: Six Scams Targeting Indie Authors Now on to our main (and to be honest, somewhat less enjoyable) main topic this week, six scams that are targeting indie authors. The old saying was, “there's a sucker born every minute”, but in the year of our Lord 2025, I think it's more accurate to say there's an AI powered scammer born every minute. As you might've gathered from my tone about this, I admit to being pretty annoyed by how many scam emails I get related to writing and indie publishing. These days it's pretty constant and they tend to cluster around when I have a new release. Some bot (or more realistically, a whole bunch of bots) is presumably scanning all new releases and then turns out a bunch of scammy emails when it detects a new book. I despise these people because they prey upon the vulnerable for money, which is wrong. Imagine a 75-year-old who just self-published the novel he or she has been working on for the last 30 years and finally decided to finish in retirement. Then they get a ChatGPT generated email from “John Grisham” praising their book in detail and asking for some money for marketing services. A lot of people would have absolutely no mental defense against this kind of scam, like someone from modern earth encountering a wizard who can cast illusion spells. Unfortunately, scamming is endemic everywhere these days. It is a constant debate how much the [US] federal program Medicare gets scammed out of every year. One of the local drug stores where I live has numerous signs warning about gift cards after so many local seniors were getting scammed into buying gift cards. Then there were a recent chain of text messages telling me I owed money for driving on toll roads in the state of Illinois, which was amusing because one, I haven't been to Illinois since 2022. Two, I was a passenger in someone else's car at the time, and three, the last time I was on a toll road in Illinois in a vehicle I actually owned was in 2017. As an amusing aside, when I mentioned this on Facebook, a frequent commenter and reader mentioned that he lives in the UK and he still got a bunch of text messages about toll roads in Illinois, even though A, he lives in the UK and B, he doesn't actually have a driver's license. Unfortunately, it is the truth that the internet makes scamming so easy, that constant vigilance is required these days, and with that in mind, here are six different kinds of scammy emails writers (and indie publishers) can expect to get. #1: ChatGPT. One of the reasons (you know if you've listened to the show before) that I'm very down on generative AI is that generative AI is a scammer's paradise. Lately, a new trend is that a scammer will feed a pirated copy of a book into ChatGPT and then use it to generate personalized pitch letters. These personalized pitch letters will also be littered with emojis and the tone will vary from warm and sycophantic to encouraging and edgy. Here's a quote from a recent one I got for Blade of Flames: “Talembur wakes in a forgotten catacomb, sword in hand, memory shredded, enemies sniffing blood in the dark. That's a hook so sharp it could flense an orc. Blade of Flames reads like classic, grim-and-gorgeous sword-and-sorcery with a hunger for blood, mystery, and very satisfying blade choreography.” In fact, I got two more just like that this morning before I started recording. This is an effective illusion for a scam because it seems like the scammer read the book and liked it and is making personalized compliments about it, even though that's the result of a ChatGPT or a similar bot. However, the rest of the email is a hard pitch for various marketing services that don't actually exist. I admit I fell halfway for this one the first time. I got one of those very detailed emails and I thought it would respond with a polite refusal since it seemed like a lot of work had gone into it. However, after responding, I think I then got five more emails in rapid succession, all of them pushing for the purchase of dubious marketing services, and I realized the whole thing was a ChatGPT powered bot. So watch out for these very personalized emails, especially the ones that appear instantaneously or very quickly after you publish a book. #2: Fake book clubs. This one is sometimes tied in with the ChatGPT scams. Sometimes the book club people use ChatGPT to generate their emails. The way this works is you'll get an email for someone claiming they run a large book club or reader group on Goodreads (or Facebook or whatever) and they think your book would be a good fit for their reader group and have a few questions about it. However, if you respond to this email, you'll start getting pressure for payment. Turns out the reader group or the book club doesn't actually exist and this is yet another scam, so watch out for emails that talk about the “5,000 member reader group” or something along those lines. By good luck, one of these emails arrived while I was writing the notes for this episode, so I thought it would quote it here. “I'm Jason, and I organize Book Club NYC, a community of more than 3,300 readers across New York who gather to read, reflect, and connect through books that challenge perception and spark deep conversation. When I discovered Ghost in the Siege, I was immediately struck by its layered power, a story that confronts truth and deception, morality and survival, within a world both haunting and familiar. It's the kind of book that doesn't just entertain; it lingers, asking questions about justice, humanity, and what it means to stand alone in the face of decay. That blend of atmosphere and insight makes it exactly the kind of story our members love to explore together. We'd love to feature Ghost in the Siege as part of our upcoming event on Wednesday, October 15th. Here's what that experience will look like: Quiet Reading & Reflection: members immersing themselves in your world, letting its tension and themes unfold in silence. Open Discussion: exploring the moral and psychological dimensions of corruption, redemption, and resistance.” And blah, blah, blah. It goes on in this vein quite a bit. You notice that if you actually read Ghost in the Siege (and I'm actually quite fond of Ghost in the Siege as a book), I don't think it would be fair to say that Ghost in the Siege “isn't just the kind of book that entertains, it lingers, asking questions about justice, humanity, and what it means to stand alone in the face of decay.” That is the kind of generic nonsense you can expect ChatGPT to spit out for this kind of thing. Now, as we mentioned, of course this book club doesn't actually exist, and if any of these good Goodreads or Facebook groups or whatever even exists, they'll be full of bots under the control of the scammer, and if you respond, the book club organizer will start talking about fees for having your book read before the group. As ever, if you pay, the scammer will either immediately disappear or continue to pressure you for more money. #3: “John Grisham” wants to promote my book. This type of email is just a straight up catfishing or identity theft attempt. You'll get an email allegedly from a famous author (for myself, I've gotten emails from “John Grisham” and “Colleen Hoover”, among others), and they'll offer to help you promote your books. Obviously, this is very fake. The actual John Grisham and Colleen Hoover (among other famous authors) have better things to do with their time than emailing random indie authors like me for marketing collaborations. If you respond to these emails, you'll get a request for payment, and if you pay, the scammer will promptly disappear and stop responding, or of course, ask for more money. #4: Meta Ads has a new dashboard. I've gotten this one quite a bit this year, allegedly from Meta. This email claims that Facebook is rolling out either a new ads dashboard or a new mobile app for managing ads, and you've been invited to participate in the beta test for the new dashboard or the new app. Just click on the link and start installation. I admit I ignored these at first because there's no way I'm ever installing any Meta apps on my phone because they're so intrusive and halfway to being spyware. Also, the current version of the Facebook ads dashboard is annoying enough and complicated enough to use it as it is, and I don't want to play with any half-baked beta features. So I ignored these emails, but then I realized I was getting surprisingly a lot of them. So I checked the senders and realized they weren't coming from an actual Meta address, but from a variety of different Gmail addresses, which meant they were in fact phishing attempts. Facebook ad phishing, alas, is a serious problem. The basic scam is that a hacker finds a way to gain control of your ads account and then uses it to advertise various scam projects, usually involving cryptocurrency. Since Facebook's customer support is so notoriously bad, it's very difficult to get this kind of situation resolved. So if you are using Facebook ads, be wary of any emails you get from Meta since they could be phishing attempts. #5: Bad tax news or payment failure. This one tends to be common around tax time or the end of the year. You'll get an email allegedly from one of the publishing platforms claiming that there's a problem with your tax information or that one of your payments failed. The email will include a link you can click to resolve the situation, which is of course fake so the scammers can capture your account and personal information. I've gotten a couple of these lately and some of them, to be honest, were quite good. I got one from Spotify claiming that my tax information was out of date, which was baffling because my tax information hasn't changed in the entire time I've had audiobooks with Spotify. I was suspicious, so I logged into my Spotify dashboard and checked that everything was in fact, okay. Then I realized the scam: the email had actually come to a different email account than the one I actually used for my Spotify dashboard. It was an exceptionally well done phishing email, but thankfully, years of ingrained caution against clicking email links served me well. So if you do get one of these, don't click on any links. Instead go directly to the dashboard of the platform in question and see for yourself. If there actually is a tax or a payment problem, there will probably be a notification of some kind on the dashboard, and of course if the notification email comes to a different email account than the one you actually use for that platform or service, it will obviously be fake. #6: Fake publishing services. There are a variety of fake publishing services out there offering a range of alleged benefits like more Facebook followers, more readers, more email subscribers, et cetera, or someone will offer to get your book into Publishers Weekly or something like that in exchange for a payment. Some of these blend over with the scammy sort of vanity publishers. Granted, I think that all vanity publishing (which is “you pay us and we publish your book”) is a scam, but some of them are worse than others. At best, if you engage with these kinds of services, you'll get some new followers from bots or so forth, which is useless for selling books. At worst, nothing will happen at all. The scammers will take your money and disappear. At the absolute worst, they'll pester you forever for more money or find a way to steal more personal information from you. Generally, if you get an unsolicited email from book marketers, it is almost surely a scam. If you're unsure, asking about the company in question in a Facebook group like 20BooksTo50K or Wide For The Win will help identify whether or not they're legit, but they're probably not legit. In conclusion, I'm afraid one has no choice but to exercise constant vigilance in the Internet world these days, especially if you're a self-publisher. Be extremely wary of any unsolicited emails. Never click on a link in an email. If a message claims there's a problem with one of your publishing platforms, don't click on the link. Go to the platform directly in a different browser tab or a different browser and see for yourself. Before spending money on anything, do some research and check that it is legitimate and not a scam. It's easy to fake legitimacy these days, so it's worthwhile to do a little investigating before spending money on anything. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful and a helpful guide against some of the scams you might encounter in the wild. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

Three years after the assassination of Zhang Zuolin and attempted framing of the KMT, a group of higher-ranking officers within the Kwantung Army staged another false flag attack, which resulted in their conquest of northeast China and the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

In this episode of No Filter with Kobo, Elsie explores thescience of face makeup—from foundation to blush and everything in between. She's joined by Nick Quinteros, Senior Chemist from Kobo's US Applications Lab, who breaks down what makes a standout face product, including tips forbalancing texture, coverage, and comfort, plus how evolving consumer expectations are influencing ingredient choices, multifunctionality, and inclusive shade ranges.Later, Elsie chats with Urmi Dhamnaskar, Chemist from Kobo's UK Applications Lab about KBL-045-EU Squishy Putty Blush, the Formula of the Month inspired by playful textures and soft-focus finishes. Urmi shares the ingredient strategies that give this blush its bouncy, sensorial texture and blur effect—all while maintaining color payoff and batch consistency.Whether you're a cosmetic chemist or just fascinated by facemakeup innovation, this episode unpacks the formulation decisions that shape skin feel, performance, and creativity across face products.To learn more about KBL-045-EU Squishy Putty Blush, checkout the link below:https://www.koboproductsinc.com/formulations/KBL-045-EU.pdfPrefer to tune in on YouTube? Visit No Filter with Kobo onYouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmdzjWT5sg37duFECVplihSJNEs58UcGS  ABOUT US: Since 1987 Kobo has provided innovative, technology-basedraw materials to the cosmetic industry. The product range includes Surface Treated Pigments, Microspheres, Suncare and Color Dispersions, Silicone Fluids, Specialties, Natural Ingredients, Effect Pigments, Boron Nitride and DeliverySystems. Kobo has five locations, USA (Corporate Headquarters), France, Japan, Brazil, and UK and is represented globally by independent agents.Learn more at: ⁠https://www.koboproductsinc.com

We're thinking about Chicago, DC, and LA this week, and standing in solidarity with the people living and resisting in those cities. While reading isn't action, it can supplement it, and keep us joyful as we do the hard work of standing up. To that end, this week, we're recommending books that feature Chicago, Washington, DC & Los Angeles as settings. We're also sharing resources and ways you can stay informed, help communities of immigrants, and get involved in whatever way possible. Note: We recorded this episode just as the National Guard was sent to Portland, Oregon, which is why Portland-set romances are not included in this episode. Please feel free to share your favorite romances set there in comments or on social media. Tag us so we can share!Our next read along is Gorilla Twins, AKA Lorraine Heath's The Earl Takes All. Find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com. The NotesLearn more about Ramón Ayala, the King of the Accordion.There goes your social life. It's too late to go to The Gothenburg Book Festival this year, but there's always next year. One of the first internationally known Swedish romance writers is Simona Ahrnstedt. Crime fiction is a big deal in Sweden, and Sarah met Camilla Läckberg and Anders de la Motte.Terrible awful things happening in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and

Welcome to the Kobo ReWriting Life Podcast! Alongside your regularly scheduled Kobo Writing Life podcast episode releases, we will also be featuring some highlights from our backlist. In this episode, we spoke to best-selling Scottish author Skye MacKinnon, whose many books are inspired by folklore and mythology, no matter the genre. We had a great conversation about incorporating elements of myth and folktales in fiction, co-writing with other authors, and much more. Skye MacKinnon is an international bestselling author who writes across multiple genres, from science fiction to fantasy to paranormal romance and even children's books. Skye joins us on the podcast this week to discuss writing in different genres and how she manages to incorporate her love of Scottish folklore and mythology into her work, no matter what she's writing. She also talks about her experience co-writing series with authors she admires, and why she decided to go wide.  Learn more on Skye's website and check out Skye's books on Kobo.  

We have an Office Hours episode once a quarter where you send in your questions and I answer them here on the podcast. This is the first time we've had a themed Office Hours episode, so that is very exciting. Before we get into a whole episode answering your questions about routines, remember that a Lazy Genius routine isn't about the steps. It's about where you're wanting to go. Helpful Companion Links The PLAN is $1.99 on Kindle right now! (If Amazon isn't your vibe, you can find it for $1.99 on Kobo right now, too.) Other episodes like this one: #402, #426, #413, #315, #354, and #327 Office Hours with the Office Ladies Sign up for our every-other-week podcast recap email called Latest Lazy Listens. Sign up for my once-a-month newsletter, The Latest Lazy Letter. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) Download a transcript of this episode. Want to share your Lazy Genius of the Week idea with us? Use this form to tell us about it. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1928, a group of officers in the Kwantung Army attempted to frame the KMT for their own assassination of Zhang Zuolin. The failed attempts to enforce accountability and discipline which followed set the stage for similar incidents in the future.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Kathryn talks with Natasha Kostalas, author of Beyond the Barbell: Confessions of a Female Fitness Competitor, about her journey of overcoming binge eating that was fueled by competing in bodybuilding. Natasha shares how the intense restriction of competition prep led to a loss of control around food, and how binge eating often becomes a hidden aftermath in extreme fitness. She speaks openly about the harm this caused and how she eventually found a healthier relationship with food, her body, and training. This conversation is relevant not only for the bodybuilding community but for anyone struggling with bingeing. Learn more about Natasha Kostalas: Beyond the Barbell: Confessions of a Female Fitness Competitor Instagram: Natasha Kostalas Brain over Binge resources: Get the FREE 30-day Inspiration Booklet Get personalized support with one-on-one coaching or group coaching Subscribe to the Brain over Binge Course for only $18.99 per month Get the Second Edition of Brain over Binge on Amazon and Audible, BarnesandNoble.com, Apple iBooks, or Kobo. Get the Brain over Binge Recovery Guide   Disclaimer: *The Brain over Binge Podcast is produced and recorded by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC. All work is copyrighted by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC, and all rights are reserved. As a disclaimer, the hosts of the Brain over Binge Podcast are not professional counselors or licensed healthcare providers, and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice or any form of professional therapy. Eating disorders can have serious health consequences and you are strongly advised to seek medical attention for matters relating to your health. Please get help when you need it, and good luck on your journey.

Two years prior to the much larger Great Depression, Japan experienced its own financial crisis thanks to the Great Kanto Earthquake, government bonds, and a panicky populace.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

This is a community that values people and relationships and connection, and having people into our homes is so integral to us building homes, neighborhoods, and entire cultures that tend to each other, that enjoy being together, and that let each other in. I'm sharing what personally matters to me about hospitality and the ten things I always do to support it. Helpful Companion Links The PLAN is $1.99 on Kindle right now! (If Amazon isn't your vibe, you can find it for $1.99 on Kobo right now, too.) My Breezy Instrumental playlist on Spotify Priya Parker's Magical Questions Kate Strickler (Naptime Kitchen)'s Black Bean Soup Change Your Life Shawarma Sign up for our every-other-week podcast recap email called Latest Lazy Listens. Sign up for my once-a-month newsletter, The Latest Lazy Letter. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) Download a transcript of this episode. Want to share your Lazy Genius of the Week idea with us? Use this form to tell us about it. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The elevation of Emperor Showa was accompanied by a wave of reactionary backlash against Taisho Democracy.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Quin Cho's latest book "The Rise of the Kwantung Army" is coming out on September 18. In this special interview episode, we discuss his upcoming book and the role that gekokujo played in Japan's invasion of northeast China.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!

Welcome to the Kobo ReWriting Life Podcast! Alongside your regularly scheduled Kobo Writing Life podcast episode releases, we will also be featuring some highlights from our backlist. In this episode, we spoke to writer and director of the Alliance of Independet Authors, Orna Ross! Orna joined us to talk about having a global approach to book sales, making business desicions that can expand your writing career, and much more.  Novelist, poet, and director of the Alliance of Independent Authors Orna Ross joins us on the podcast this week to discuss taking a global approach to your indie publishing business. Orna talks about what business decisions authors should consider and how to get into the right mindset before going global, and she gives us some great advice for new and veteran authors alike. To learn more, visit Orna's website.

很多人年輕時都嚮往自由、害怕被「家庭」束縛，法比歐（Fabio Grangeon）也曾一度覺得自己不會結婚。 但現在的他，不只在台灣落地生根，更成為了一位爸爸。 而這段身分轉變，也悄悄改變了他對「自由」與「幸福」的定義。 在這集節目中，法比歐談起初為人父的心情轉折，也分享自己如何在家庭與自我之間找到平衡，以及他眼中，那些真正構成幸福的日常小片刻。

有些人從小就知道自己要去哪裡；也有些人，一直走在未知的路上——但也正因如此，他們看過更多風景。 今天的來賓法比歐（Fabio Grangeon），是一位演員、主持人、模特兒，代表作包括電影《刻在你心底的名字》與戲劇《斯卡羅》。 他出生於法國南方，在加勒比海度過童年，17歲前搬過16次家；從歐洲來到台灣，原本一句中文不會，如今在這座島上生活14年，也在這裡成為父親。 在這段對談裡，法比歐分享了自己從小漂泊的成長背景，以及父母截然不同的性格如何形塑了他；也談到他眼中的台灣與法國文化，以及如何在日常裡創造「法比歐式」的生活美學與儀式感。