Everet Martins's Blog

Below is a sneak preview of my latest work. It falls into the cyberpunk/sci-fi genre. The book will be about 50k words and is much different than my usual fare. I’ve yet to come up with a title I like, but here’s the first chapter! Please let me know what you think!

Chapter 1 – Desmond­ Pomar

Everything is shit.

The water from the shower is tepid. It spatters against my body like the piss from a man with a cancer choked prostate. It’s not hot enough, and I need it to be hot. It’s supposed to be my scalding refuge in this wasteland.

There’s something magical about a hot shower. It cleanses the grime born of sleep and revives the spirit.

What dribbles on me is urine, vacillating between frozen and warm. It’s wrong. It leads you astray. It leads you to believe an ancient boiler has sputtered to life and glorious hot water will console you with its loving embrace. That brief warmth is a lie, a subtle temptress. It fills you with hope and drops you like a regrettable one-night stand.

The shower curtain is a thick vinyl that might’ve been clear once, now blurred by a layer of dark mold. Behind it, the flicker of a lone bulb watches me like a hovering demon’s eye. It’s all a murky dream.

The bathroom is awful with a shitty pink tub. The stainless-steel sink is rimmed with rust. The faucet leaks. The dated 2030 style hexagonal tiles are cracked.

My employer put me up in the worst Hilton Boston had to offer.

A bunch of fucking nerds took over the city for some bullshit convention. They’re running around the streets playing dress up, acting like they’re comic book characters. I’d find it hard to believe if even a few of the guys claimed to have experienced the bliss of a warm vagina. Because of those assholes, this is the best my employer, Erinas, could get. At least that’s what the company told me.

The bulb darkens the shower stall in a long flicker, then buzzes back to life. It belongs in a Dead Technology Museum. The thing even has a filament.

The bedroom is laced with the stink of nicotine vapor, Thai, and sex. I asked for a non-vaping and non-smoking room. I hate curry, and I haven’t had sex, yet. Even the greasy curtains are heavy with the stench. I know because I sniffed them. I like things clean. This is an affront to all that should be.

I’m not a racist. I don’t hate Thais. The hotel workers are mostly from that beautiful country, so it’s bound to smell like this. That curry stink is a plague on the world. Fucking Thai people. Maybe I do hate Thais. Fuck them all. Maybe I am a racist after all.

I turn off the shower faucet, the damn thing naturally squealing in indignation. I rip the curtain aside and dry myself off with a towel that feels like a cracker against my skin. I wait for the steam to clear from the warped mirror to glimpse my abs.

Still there.

I’m not muscular, lean, maybe haggard. My abs are like big tits on a fat girl—they don’t count—because my appearance borders on anorexic. It doesn’t make me like them any less.

My skin is sallow from too little time outside and too much time behind closed doors and on the Net. My eyes are rimmed with permanent bags born of insomnia. I turn my head, admiring my strong jawline. People like a man with a strong jaw. It signals virility, but this jaw broke like glass when punched.

I sigh and blow out my cheeks. At least I had a good haircut, short on the sides and messy on top, blond bordering on white. With this style, the differences between manicured and rising from a park bench were slight.

The cycle of appearing civilized begins again. I shave and make my way to the hotel’s foyer. I cross my fingers in the vain hope that there will be something edible at the complimentary breakfast. It’s complimentary because it too is shit.

Contrary to what the management might think, the human body needs more than sugar and oxidized vegetable oils. I snatch a donut from a sanitized aluminum tray, glaring at the hologram of a woman in a tailored suit pontificating on the virtues of the most critical meal of the day. She clutches a gleaming scarlet apple that could only be produced in a biolab. Apples that look like that are high-end luxury items.

There is cereal that tastes like paper and pancakes with the texture of rubber. I had those earlier this week. The French toast was passable, but how many times can you eat bread dipped in egg?

I make the hand gesture for coffee before the BevBot, a C shape traced with my index finger. A second or so later comes a steaming cup of joe on a tiny conveyor belt from its cuboid form. With sustenance in tow, I make my way to cold steel tables lacking in any ornamentation but the occasional dent.

I steer away from a group of five Bionics huddled over a light projected 3D map of what appears to be a new gun design. Bionics are cyberware junkies, men who have augmented themselves to such a degree that they’re more machine than flesh. All Bionics seem to lose some vital humanity after a certain indiscernible point. It’s as if there’s a cellular threshold where empathy and passion live, and they’ve carved it all away.

One of the Bionics raises a head dotted in white sprigs to regard me. His lone cybereye appraises me with a dozen microlenses, the other eye organic. They whir as they oscillate and flex within his eye socket, taking in thousands of data points to ascertain my likelihood of posing a threat. I’m careful to only watch him with my peripheral vision as he lowers his head. His lips press into a firm line. Most corporations always send at least one Mercenary, or Merc, to watch over their brightest employees. Fucking slaves.

When I take the first bite of my pitifully plain donut, a commotion erupts from the Bionics. The floating hologram of the gun flickers then goes dark. The Bionics leap to their feet in a deft show of their augmented nervous systems. Coffee seems to flow in every direction over the table’s edge. Even in 2046, coffee still lays waste to the best of gadgets. I snicker to myself and sip on my brew. I swish it in my mouth, mixing it with the donut, turning it into an almost palatable slurry.

I look back at the Bionics, one red faced while the other four glare at the fumbler. I hate to admit that we’re more alike than not. We’re both drones working for a different taskmaster. The Bionics have been here at least every day I have. I can see they’re dead inside. They’ve lost that fire that drives them to aspire to something more. They expect nothing but the soma of a salary.

The Bionics and I are at the bottom of the corporate machine. We go through the motions. They too suffer, and it makes me feel better about my life. A hollow forms in my gut, but I do what I do best and crush it down.

I console myself by fantasizing about fucking the hotel’s concierge from behind. She winked at me yesterday, and I’ve had a hardon for her ever since. She’s hot, and I can practically feel her round ass slap against my hips as I growl at her moans. I chew, drink and swallow the last of my donut in quiet revelry. I let this thread go when I feel myself stiffen more than I can easily hide.

I should be done with this shit hole in another week, then it’s back to Chicago. Fuck Boston and its frozen winters. Fuck snow too.

What I appear to be doing here is teaching, but it’s a guise for the real work. By day, I run workshops teaching hapless employees how to use the Okox Dashboarding software. It’s stupid simple stuff, but these are non-tech types. The software makes it dead simple to produce pretty charts and graphs that management swoons over, regardless of the data’s accuracy. The upside is that the less complex the subject matter, the more attractive the women it seems to garner. This week’s lot has provided a lustful bounty.

I hate the work, but I know the codebase because I developed the majority of it in my former life. I’m still a drone, but at least now I’m a well-paid one. Today is Friday and marks the fifth day of my class.

The class has eleven students in all, five of them women. The women are low-level marketing types and not used to getting any attention from managers and even less from their poor and out of shape husbands. They don’t typically work with illustrious and attractive consultants like myself.

My confidence is ebullient. They’re not used to it. It makes them wet. They think I’m a world-traveling bachelor sporting the latest in Tesla’s autonomous supercars. They want me, and I know it. It’s all a game.

Three of them have slipped into an almost comical rivalry, vying for my attention. They work for the same employer, carrying their grievances and struggles for power with them into class. They fight to be called on when I ask questions, twiddling fingers in the air for me to select. They diligently do the homework and come in with answers at my behest. They all sit at the front of the class, eyes magnetically drawn to mine.

I wonder if Mary has told the other two we slept together Wednesday. That would hurt my probability of successfully bedding the others. Maybe it’s best I try to arrange a three-way before emotions get involved. Emotions ruin things.

Mary is skinny with big fake tits and not much of an ass. I don’t mind them. Everything about her screams needy. She has beautiful dark skin that feels like silk and smells like vanilla. She told me she loved me when it was done and then I told her she had to leave. She still gives me that cloying smile. She’s all sugar and would give me diabetes if I kept her around too long.

Ashley has put up a challenge, nothing insurmountable. She’s tough and dresses like a goth. Not pretend tough, but actually tough. She told me over a drink that she was raised in the lawless suburbs of Boston. That will harden you up like nothing else. Gangs run the majority of the outskirts. They battle the Mutants for controlling more turf through spilled blood and a hail of clattering firearm casings.

Despite that hell, Ashley has managed to preserve her beauty. She’s a little on the heavy side by conventional standards, but I like when a woman has something to grab that isn’t produced in a factory. She kept her distance during the date and wouldn’t come back to my hotel room to check out the view.

She wants me. She’s just putting on the good girl facade, maybe thinks I’ll respect her more after the deed is done. She’ll come around by the end of the week. Some men would’ve just drugged her after so much resistance. Not me. I hold myself to a higher honor. I’m a lot of unsavory things, but a rapist isn’t one of them.

The days are a long grind. Twelve hours of standing and discussing a subject I could care a shit about anymore. The commute to the conference room isn’t bad. It’s a five-minute walk from my room down to the lobby and into one of the expansive halls where the curry stench is strongest.

I try to go slow so the girls and the dumber of the guys can understand me. Despite the guise of this job, I do want them to learn something, even though I’m faced with a lot of blank stares and vacant nods. I care.

After lunch, Ashley asks me what I’m doing tonight as the class shuffles back to their seats. It’s on. I give her all the social validation she needs. I give her my winning smile and try to think of something shameful to make my cheeks redden to display a hint of vulnerability.

“You’re a great teacher, you know,” Ashely says with a grin, showing her bright teeth.

I give my best sheepish smile and look down at my shoes, hand rising to grip the back of my neck. I dredge up the thoughts of my father whipping my bare ass with his belt as a child. I can feel it working, heat clawing at my throat. “Thanks, Ash, I appreciate you saying that. Just trying my best. Well, I hope it’s helpful.”

She seems to like this, stifling a cute little laugh. It’s my turn to reject her, and I tell her I need to prepare my lessons for next week. I play the game. She understands. She eye-fucks me for the rest of the class.

I want to fuck Mary again. During the next afternoon break, I make dinner arrangements for the two of us tonight. She touches my arm and gives it a gentle squeeze as she agrees. I’ll find a new hotel and get a nice room. Fuck this Hilton and fuck Boston.

I think Ashley might’ve seen our correspondence. A little jealousy never hurt anyone. If Ashley decides to hate Mary, then maybe she’ll fuck me better in an attempt to lodge herself deep in my psyche.

As predicted, Ashely’s performance is wonderful. She’s amazing. I thought she might have a suppressed dominant side, but she lets me lead. She tells me she’s glad I want to be with her, even though she thinks she’s fat. She’s not, but I don’t tell her. Her body is nothing short of perfect, but I say nothing. I learned long ago the less you say, the better things go, both in business and in relationships.

The work week is long with punctuated moments of joy. Saturday is when the real work begins.

The post Sneak Preview – New Cyberpunk/Sci-fi Book appeared first on Everet Martins.

1. What you’re risking in a trade is far more important than the profit potential.

2. Know your risk.

3. Don’t take too much risk.

With that, enjoy this lovely trance set from Richie Hawtin.

 

The post The Top 3 Things I’ve Learned from Option Trading appeared first on Everet Martins.

I just returned from a lovely 10 day vacation in Costa Rica and thought I’d share a few of my favorite photos for your viewing enjoyment. This was my first time here and it was awesome. I would highly suggest visiting if you’ve never been. The food, weather, environment, and the people were all great.

Note: You can click on a photo to see it in enlarged gallery format.

The post Costa Rica: A Few Photos appeared first on Everet Martins.

 2017 Books

I’m currently dealing with what I think are some frozen pipes in my heating system, so this post will be abbreviated. Trying not to freak out and start cutting up the drywall to thaw the pipes.

I’m pleased to see that I hit a new books read in a year record of 113. For full transparency the vast majority of the books I “read” were actually audio books, however I can read far faster than I can listen. It again is a way to leverage my abysmal commute. Below are my top picks for the year and all of my books read.

Top 3 Books of 2017

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[image error]Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide and Seek This is a fantastic set of lectures on big topics. Watts had an interesting perspective that blends both Western and Eastern ideas into something easy to digest and apply in everyday life. I recall having many “ah-ha” moments while reading this and plan to do so again.

 

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The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific

This book will never make you want to complain again. This man went through hell and back and to hell again and survived. Alistair Urquhart was a member of the Scottish Gordon Highlanders. His group was sent to Singapore in 1939 and by December, 1941, the Japanese had seized control. Singapore, Britain’s main outpost in the Far East, fell to an invading force only 1/3 the size of the defenders. Urquhart and thousands of others became prisoners of the Japanese. This began a 3 1/2 year odyssey for Urquhart which saw him endure sadistic treatment at the hands of the Japanese.

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The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended This is an awesome book that goes deep on all the health benefits of fasting and intermittent fasting. Long duration fasting (more than 24 hours) has taught me most importantly of all that hunger is usually a result of conditioning more often than true bodily hunger.

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2017 Reading List

I’m pleased to report I hit a new yearly book PR of 113 books read.

Beyond Redemption
Michael R. Fletcher


The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance
Steven Kotler


Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Brian Christian,Tom Griffiths


More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite
Sebastian Mallaby


Get Smart!: How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field
Brian Tracy


Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddh
Tara Brach


Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results
Stephen Guise


Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers?
Jimmy Moore, Eric C. Westman


Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah


One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives
Bernd Heinrich


The Science of Energy
The Great Courses and Professor Michael E. Wysession


The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life
Piero Ferrucci


All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque


Money Management Skills
The Great Courses, Professor Michael Finke


Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science
Dani Rodrik


The Complete TurtleTrader: How 23 Novice Investors Became Overnight Millionaires
Michael W. Covel


Lincoln
David Herbert Donald


Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers
Tim Ferris


Pets on the Couch: Neurotic Dogs, Compulsive Cats, Anxious Birds, and the New Science of Animal Psychiatry
Nicholas Dodman


The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific
Alistair Urquhart


The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
Oliver Sacks


The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended
Jason Fung, Jimmy Moore


Dark Pools: The Rise of the Machine Traders and the Rigging of the U.S. Stock Market
Scott Patterson


When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
Roger Lowenstein


Civilization: The West and the Rest
Niall Ferguson


The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Jonathan Haidt


Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse


Full Dark, No Stars
Stephen King


Big Sur
Jack Kerouac


The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins


Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima
James Mahaffey


Wired to Eat: Turn Off Cravings, Rewire Your Appetite for Weight Loss, and Determine the Foods That Work for You
Robb Wolf


Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
Gary Vaynerchuk


The Moviegoer
Walker Percy


Profiles in Courage: Deluxe Modern Classic
John F. Kennedy


Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering the Art of Manifesting
Wayne W. Dyer


Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
Sam Harris


Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
Cesar Hidalgo


The Heavens May Fall
Allen Eskens


Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor)
Mark Lawrence


When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery
Frank Vertosick Jr.


The Lost Art of Listening, Second Edition: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships
Michael P. Nichols


The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
Thor Hanson


Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport


The Strangler Vine (A Blake and Avery Novel)
M.J. Carter


The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe
Joseph E. Stiglitz


Shadowrun 15: Burning Bright
Tom Dowd


Becoming a Writer
Dorothea Brande


Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory
Caitlin Doughty


Stories of Your Life and Others
Ted Chiang


NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth Book 1)
Drew Hayes


Trend Following (Updated Edition): Learn to Make Millions in Up or Down Markets
Michael W. Covel


The Hike: A Novel
Drew Magary


What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength
Scott Carney


Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford


Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning
Benjamin K. Bergen


The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero
Timothy Egan


Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It
Jennifer Michael Hecht


Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History
Dan Flores


The Sociopath Next Door
Martha Stout Ph.D.


A Perfect Union of Contrary Things
Maynard James Keenan


Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body
Jo Marchant


Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
Jennifer Wright


Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman


How to Get Run Over by a Truck
Katie C. McKenna


Coilhunter – A Science Fiction Western Adventure (A Coilhunter Chronicles Novel) (The Coilhunter Chronicles Book 1)
Dean F. Wilson


Kai O’Connal


The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too)
Gretchen Rubin


Head Strong: The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster-in Just Two Weeks
Dave Asprey


Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the RadicalRight
Jane Mayer


Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind
Joe Dispenza


The Internet of Money
Andreas M. Antonopoulos

 

See my 2015 and 2016 years in review below:

2016 in Review: Goals, Books Read

2015 in Review: Books Read, Goals

The post 2017 in Review: Books Read appeared first on Everet Martins.

The Shadow Age (The Age of Dawn Book 7) – Coming Soon!

This cover is an homage to our first and original prime villain, Asebor in his true form. This is yet another amazing piece by Sebastian Horoszko.

 

 

The post The Shadow Age Cover Reveal appeared first on Everet Martins.

I’m just about done with the first round of my edits of The Shadow Age – Book 7 of the Age of Dawn. I’m pretty happy with the book and just have a few details to “paint” in. It’s been tough to keep track of everything, as this book has many characters and moving parts to account for. I think most of it’s in good shape now.

I’ve been obsessed with this song from the video game NieR: Automata. I find it calming, despite the sadness woven into it.

I just read a fantastic book with a really original premise. It’s called Scythe (Arc of a Scythe Book 1). It’s up there with one of my favorite fiction reads for the year and highly recommend it. From the book’s description:

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

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The post The Shadow Age Progress appeared first on Everet Martins.

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I grabbed The Sociopath Next Door while it was on sale because it sounded interesting and it certainly was. The book starts by describing what sociopathy is and the mindset of one possessed with this disorder. Stout stresses that the condition has a spectrum, like most things, where the traits of the sociopath may be pronounced in one person and subdued in another. Apparently the most telling sign of a sociopath is the need to be constantly pitied.

What is most intriguing about the book are the sections where you’re guided from a first-person perspective into the heads of sociopaths in various scenarios. You get to see how they think and the decisions they would make in different contexts. In one example a corporate employee left his dog at home without enough food before embarking on a business trip. The sociopath would think something to effect of “he should be able to survive a few days without food” and proceed on the trip, whereas a conscientious person would abort the trip, or ensure the animal was properly cared for.

Near the end she touches on a theory for the evolutionary need for sociopathy. I wish she expounded on this further. The theory is that sociopathy is an adaption in the warriors of the tribe to enable them to kill their enemies without remorse. This makes a lot of sense to me and why this state has persisted. If they perhaps had guilt or second thoughts before executing a foe, maybe they wouldn’t live to survive the encounter. Being able to kill and still sleep soundly seems like it would be advantageous in a time where you never knew when a warring tribe may raze your home.

Sociopaths tend to be charming, but on the inside find everything trite. It’s a facade to gain the trust of those around them, using it as a tool to undermine those who they find a threat and destroying them when the perfect opportunity appears. They tend to kick people when they’re down. They seek status and power to the demise of everything else. They’re truly dead inside and nothing is off bounds.

Overall, I think The Sociopath Next Door has given me new tools to assess the characters of people I will meet in the future.

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More and more people have discovered the awesomeness that is intermittent fasting (IF). The main idea is that either once a week you take a full 24 hours off from eating, or alternatively compress your feeding window to an eight hour span and skip a meal or two. There are of course multiple permutations of these ideas. Some people combine daily IF with alternate day fasting.  The purpose of this paradigm is to simulate our ancestral periods of feast and famine.

Having a refrigerator and supermarket stocked with every conceivable foodstuff is a novel construct relative to our biological evolution. We weren’t made for this world. Storing fat for periods of famine is an adaptive mechanism. The problem is we’re stuck in an endless period of feast. 

What I do: skip breakfast (black coffee only, hey I have to produce) and have a big lunch and dinner. It has made staying lean quite effortless, despite having pizza and ice cream every single weekend. I’ve been experimenting with longer duration fasts as well. Every six months I’ll fast for three days. This sounds way worse than it is. Anyone can do this. The longer (3 days+) fasts have taught me that hunger is a conditioned response. Once you’ve gone over a day and your body has finally resorted to raiding its fat stores, hunger fades into the background for a while. As an added bonus, it frees up tons of time you spend eating and thinking about what to eat.

You become resilient through fasting because you’re better able to handle a missed meal or two. If you’re traveling and unable to find anything but junk in an airport, though this is finally getting better, you can simply skip a meal and fast. You’ll save money on overpriced food and likely not feel like crap from eating something low-quality.

Fasting can be hard and you develop resilience by doing hard things. It gives you a reference point for future challenges in life. I feel like most people’s days are far too easy. The average person doesn’t challenge themselves enough to go beyond their current state. I’m not saying everyday should feel like a grind, but there should be a little struggle. When you fight through adversity in whatever form it may take, you grow. As Tony Robbins says: “We’re all either growing or dying, there’s no in-between”

The thing you have to keep in mind about fasting is that it is a stress on your body. There are loads of modern stresses our ancestors didn’t have to contend with such as commuting in traffic, mortgage/rent payments, working in cubicles, finding/keeping a job, saving for retirement, pollution, etc. Stress is a force on opposite side of the scale of good health. Too much stress and things start breaking. If you’re going to give fasting or IF a try, make sure you listen to your body. If you find yourself thinking about food every five minutes I’d say it’s time to eat.

The prevailing theory is that our bodies are adapted to this method of eating. Our ancestors would likely go long periods without food and once finding it, binging.

Fasting has anti-aging benefits helps you to better regulate blood sugar. Monkeys and other animals have demonstrated that caloric restriction increases longevity. These factors most importantly affect humans. 

The reason I like the longer duration fast is that there is research showing that long periods of suppressed eating switches on a cellular process called autophagy. When your cells encounter an environment of lower than normal blood sugar, they are forced to use fatty acids as an energy substrate. This spools up the usage of mitochondria to process these fats (aside: this is another benefit of consuming a ketogenic diet). Your cells will destroy damaged or dead mitochondria and replace them with healthy versions over time.

If you’re interested in trying this I suggest starting small. Skip a meal and then add more as you feel good. Or you could do what I do and just dive the fuck in.

READERS: Let me know if you’re interested in giving fasting a try in the comments.  Or maybe you’re already fasting and having an awesome time with it, let us know how we can do it better. 

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I’m in love with the Forsaken Hunters cover and even more so with the book’s interior formatting. Once again Sebastian has done an amazing job. I formatted it with Vellum’s new print edition. Check it out!

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I recently spent a week relaxing in the French territory St. Barts near  St. Martin. Here are some of my favorite photos from that trip.

 

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purdy colors

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In St Martin waiting for the 45m ferry ride to St. Barts

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Arrived! View from our villa

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view from villa main area at sunset

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view from villa main area at night

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where that view was shot

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lots of wildlife among the villa

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and also lots of beautiful flora

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these guys were everywhere

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beware the cat god and his kin

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Cat-kin. These cats apparently run the villa when no one is around. We kept them well fed.

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Absurdly delicious french bakery fattened me right up. We went here almost every morning and I had to indulge.

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pictures don’t do them justice

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This is Gustavia, the “main city.” You’re seeing the majority of it in these pictures

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God did it (across the spire)

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