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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 6h

There's just about 2 weeks left until "The Fall," book 4 in "The Cain Series," goes live.

Episodic, near-future, cyberpunk science fiction.

Handcrafted cyberpunk: written by a human for human readers.

www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH3HQCK...

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky 💙📚

Book cover for the novel "The Fall," book 4 in "The Cain Series," by Seth W. James.

Cain and Francesca walking toward the viewer, all badass, in black trench coats and carrying pistols. Behind them, a huge seawall is under construction.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 8h

Huh, that's close to the indie novelist's creed: "If this is the kind of crap the trad publishers go in for, I guess I'll just have to publish the good stuff myself."

Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 2d

For movie night, I threw on this classic, remember the good ol' days. Americans and Canadians, during WWII, form an SF brigade for an important mission. They butt heads at first, but soon come together to do what our two countries do best: kill fascists.

#movies #canada
www.imdb.com/title/tt0062...

The Devil's Brigade (1968) ⭐ 6.7 | Action, Drama, War

2h 10m | Approved

www.imdb.com

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 2d

Weekend writing sessh? You mad man.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 3d

Oh, there is an accreditation bit, at the bottom of that link, that "Is this you," bit. Huh, I guess I did go through all of that. Glad to see that my rapidly failing memory is not getting in the way of getting things done.

Man, those GR links are brutal, though: here, have giant face!

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah, that's me. I thought you were saying there was an accreditation process. Kind of like bluesky has that blue checkmark thing. No worries.

And, yeah, I've been getting those friend request plus 5-star ratings scams coming in, too. I find if you wait 24 hours, they're usually burned.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 4d

Is there an accreditation button somewhere? I'm not seeing it. Help was, er, unhelpful.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 5d

Ha, same. The training in cynicism provided by the publishing world would, you'd think, make authors a bad targeting choice. Would-be writers, though, haven't completed the course, yet; they need this sort of thing pointed out so they don't get robbed.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 6d

Congrats on your book launch.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 11d

Couldn't agree more: it's all about the reader. It's one of the amazing things about writing/reading, that the reader is an artist, too. Sure, we put the words on the page, but it is the reader's imagination that brings the book to life in their mind.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 13d

Traitor Pete: "What a crowd, what a crowd! I'm alright now, but last week I was in rough shape. I was sexting with Vlad, trying to get him off in a signal chat, when my wife barges in: I didn't even know signal had cuckold emoji!"

Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 13d

Hey, thanks!

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 13d

Cover reveal! "The Fall," book 4 in "The Cain Series," is coming November 2025. Episodic, near-future, cyberpunk science fiction, written by a human for human readers.

Don't trust the AIs, man, they'll kill you dirty.

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky 💙📚

www.sethwjames.com/cover-reveal...

Cover art for "The Fall", book 4 in "The Cain Series," by Seth W. James. Cain and Francesca walking toward the viewer, dressed similarly in black overcoats and carrying suppressed pistols. In the background, a huge seawall under construction.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 15d

I hadn't heard of the "Turn the Page" book review site until someone forwarded me this link, but I'm glad to learn of it now. A nice (and by that I, of course, mean flattering) review of "Ethos of Cain".

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky 💙📚

www.turn-the-page.net/unraveling-d...

Unraveling Darkness: A Dive into the Depths of Ethos of Cain - Turn the Page

A Journey Between Worlds: Review of Ethos of Cain by Seth W. James There’s something inherently magnetic about stories that straddle the line between morality and survival, especially in a futuristic ...

www.turn-the-page.net

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 16d

3/3 That said, it's undeniable that reading improves the intellect, empathy, and health (well, unless you're sitting around reading hate speech 24/7). As you said, too much screen time, which really means too much manipulation toward hate and self-destruction.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 16d

2/3 A couple of the studies the article references did attempt control groups, but as these are self-reports from mostly university populations, and small samples, even the correlation is specific to the environment.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 16d

1/3 It's not necessarily a flaw in the study design, though, but the usual product of these sorts of studies (I've worked in peer-reviewed journals for >20 years): they report correlation rather than causation, but it's still valuable.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 17d

Yes, but the causation likely goes the other way: people who score high in these areas seek out fiction because it satisfies them: people who score low do not because reading fiction doesn't affect them, they can't access what's there. Tells you a lot about someone who says, "I don't read novels."

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 19d

Ha, Minty just covered this in last night's episode, too.

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 20d

With all the AI theft these days, I'll be adding this notice to my books' copyright:

"Handcrafted cyberpunk: written by a human for human readers. Permission denied for any use of this text with “Artificial Intelligence,” “LLMs,” or similar devices or programs."
#cyberpunk #booksky #indieauthor 💙📚

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 25d

These days, the billionaires are now so removed from reality that they can no longer perceive it at all. They have become dissociative. They do not interact with reality, only with the fantasy their ill-gotten-gains empower them to create. Strangely, their fantasies are always fascist.

Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 25d

Yeah, I get these through my website's contact form, all the time. It can evade the captcha, too, which is odd.

So, basically everything done with genAI has been awful, criminal, and a detriment to humankind. We warned and warned and warned of this, with cyberpunk and even trad sci-fi, and yet—

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · 26d

Proficiencies indie authors develop:

1. Spotting genAI solicitation scams
2. Going without sleep
3. Ads, typesetting, cover art
4. Trial-and-error money waste
5. Cynicism
6. Continuing to hope in the absence of encouragement

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky #indieauthor #writtingcommunity 💙📚

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Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · Sep 13

That *does* sound nice.

Seth W James @sethwjames.bsky.social · Sep 13

With a book launch about 6 weeks out, I haven't had much time for social media. It's all about covers and typesetting and ad-buys and blah blah blah. Tiring but necessary work.

Has anything interesting happened, lately?

[sips coffee, casually scrolls.]

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky 💙📚

a man wearing a helmet and goggles is looking through binoculars with the number ii on it

Alt: George S. Patton Jr., as portrayed by George C. Scott, in the movie Patton, using binoculars to view his defeat of Nazi general Rommel.

media.tenor.com

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