Saengard's Speakeasy

 The World Ender is the first book in a series titled 'Punk City'. Urban dictionary calls it - an insult describing the place in a jail that's under police protective custody or simply a prisoner under their protection. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=punk%20City If we analyze this term a little, we begin to see an alternate definition for a 'Punk'. Here, we could interpret one use of the word is to describe the police. This 'City' is under the control of 'Punks'. Perhaps, Punk is intended to describe the prisoner who ran to the protection of the police, as in the phrase Punk-ass-bitch. In either case, whether it's describing police or prisoner, this term doesn't connote the anti-government, anti-establishment rebel that we associate with the term 'Punk', as in Punk-Rocker. In the rest of this science fiction series, I want to explore the interpretations of this phrase. I think I've already set the tone with the fi...

  Elon Musk seems to believe UBI, universal basic income, is something that can exist inside the framework of our current (mostly) free market economy.  I haven't tried to really get his total insight on how his vision of a system would work, but I have paid attention to what it appears he believes could make UBI reality. He seems to believe that those people who buy his robot servants will have at their disposal a completely autonomous 'clone' of their own working capability output.  Effectively he sees that if you want to earn a living, you would first have to purchase one of his robots so that it works instead of you. This belief comes from faith in AI as a benevolent and ubiquitous surrogate, far more capable than a lowly human. It doesn't get tired or need breaks. It just works... Until it breaks.  The problem with this faith is that it completely ignores market forces that would drive the greedy advancement of corporations far above people. The machines that co...

First watch this on X... https://x.com/i/status/2025298735291404630 The context I have to assume is in response to the advancement of AI. There are so many levels of unsettling change going on these days that makes navigating the already uncertain future a harrowing experience for those just starting out.  I truly believe one of two things will occur - widespread functional distrust of AI in any arena of decision making will relegate it to the level of a simple tool. We may be seeing the peak of AI acceptance already, even as it becomes "smarter" and more capable.  OR Something dramatic happens to prove the complete superiority of this tool and we are regulated to one of two conditions, perhaps simultaneously: Purpose driven humans are allowed to go through the motions of learning and going to work, though the real 'need' no longer exists. Seeing a human behind the counter will be a quaint novelty, like going to a 50's themed diner with a soda jerk wearing the cla...

Charles Freeman has been a part of this story nearly as long as Greycloud has. The Greycloud we come to know by the end of "The World Ender" is driven by anger. He needed a counterpart, someone who can keep showing him the good side of humanity, reminding him that there is a point where we all lose ourselves if we pursue the darkness too far. He is Greycloud's anchor. Charles' character is sympathetic to the trials that Greycloud endures, because he too has failed to stay on the right path in his own life. We get tidbits of his story inside the book, but they are more like hints to a difficult life.  In "The World Ender", we learn that he served in the military for a short time before becoming a security guard with a Top Secret clearance.  During that time, he married, had a son, and eventually divorced. In the book, it isn't clearly stated why the divorce occurred, but we know that his own son wants nothing to do with him. It's safe to say that he w...

   🧵 World Ender series Part 3 The origins of the character George Greycloud Guess began sometime in the early 2000's. To be honest, my memory of exactly when he became part of the story is hazy, but I can tell you that the influences behind his name and the design of his character came from a personal connection to the Cherokee tribe.  Long before the days of genetic testing, when all we had were stories passed down from our grandparents, I was told that same tale that apparently so many others had also been told. A blood relative married a woman from a Cherokee tribe.  We had such confidence in that story, that my father believed he was at least 1/16th Cherokee. That would make me at least 1/32nd. Far too minimal a relation to the tribe to be anything other than an interesting connection somewhere in the history of my lineage. A close relative submitted DNA to one of those services and we were all shocked to learn that there was no significant connection that we h...

   🧵 World Ender series Part 2 It all began when I was born in 1977.... JUST KIDDING. I wouldn't do that to you. But seriously, this story had its origins in 1999, when I had moved in with two old high school friends to begin a guerilla style free-press comic book to tell the stories we developed while being the quiet nerdy outcasts that comic book readers were in the 90's. We spent 9 months in 1999 creating multiple issues of an anthology series of college-age humor, satire, parody and hi-jinx called Hub City. Those were the Salad Days!  During that time I created a one-page strip called "Zero Mass". (In a future book, you'll learn more about that title and the story associated with it.)  The foundations of the novel you now have read... or at least will be able to read... were born in that strip. It really began the entire Punk City saga, becoming one of several stories in the series.  By early 2000, that wonderful collaboration had come to an end. I moved ba...

 🧵 World Ender series Part 1 If you've found this blog, chances are that you have purchased this book in one of the many formats its available in. Let me begin by saying Thank You. Having others enjoy this book is the only thing that matters to me. On November 29, 2025, I finally put this book out into the world - a single drop in a sea of books that come out every day. The first version was an ebook on Kindle, focusing on the Amazon's Kindle Select program that enables Kindle subscribers to "purchase" this book at no cost. For everyone else, I launched the ebook at $0.99 cents.  My goal is to simply make this story available to as many readers who would be willing to give it a try.  I have no illusions about trying to make money from this, and I am fortunate enough to not depend on the success of this book for income.  (I haven't quit my day job!) So let me take you through some of the history behind this published story. I'll break the story into different ...