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The Sound of a Sea

Hark! What’s that you hear? We submitted the hardcover edition of A SEA OF SKULLS to the printer last night. I’ll review them next week, and assuming they pass muster, we’ll release it into the distribution system. You’ll be able to purchase them from directly NDM Express, of course, as well as from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookseller. At 299,434 words, it’s a slightly longer book than ATOB in terms of word count, although with the much more efficient layout program we have now, it only clocks in at 760 pages. We do plan to do a revised version of ATOB so that the interior styles will match more precisely, but probably not for a month or two.

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FJOTRA

Fjotra did not object, in principle, to learning about the gods of her new people. She had known from the time her father, the Skullbreaker, sent her to marry the heir to the southern kingdom, that she would have to learn many different new ways. The language was different, but she was young enough to learn it without difficulty. The food was considerably more abundant and flavorful, and her palate did not take long to adapt to the various meats and breads and sauces that were much to be preferred to the salted fish and charred game of her home islands. The clothing was lighter and more comfortable, and she adored wearing silk and cotton dresses in the place of the crude leather and canvas clothes that had been worn by Dalarn women since the coming of the Aalvarg had made raising sheep for wool and growing flax for linen impossible. Even the weather was much more gentle than it customarily was in the windswept Wolf Isles.

But despite the best efforts of Father Francois, who took great pains to talk her through the nonsense, she could make neither heads nor tails about the gods of the southerners. They worshipped a god who was both dead and alive, who was both father to himself and son to himself, and also took on a third form that was nevertheless the same as the other two. It wasn’t that the idea a god had different forms was foreign to her; the Aldaföðr had a hundred names, from Arnhöfði to Völundrómu, and each name represented a different aspect of her people’s greatest god. But despite his many aspects, he was merely the first among a host of gods, and Fjotra particularly venerated Valfreyja, the beautiful goddess who was queen of the Choosers of the Slain.

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Sociopaths Play Nice Guys

My wife and I visited a winery this week where the owner gave a tour—good looking young dude, charismatic, great speaker and storyteller. Everyone in the group seemed to be fawning over him. But something in his story, and something about him, felt very off to me.

Sure enough, when I got home some quick online searching (oddly, his last name is scrubbed from any mention on on winery website) and some texting with a few friends—we are usually only 2-3 degrees of separation, it’s a small world—turned up that a number of years ago he had cheated on his wife in a different state and been involved in a massive fraud scheme in education, misappropriating public funds (he was a ”public school teacher”, he told us). He had fled the state and turned up in a new one, now running a multi-million dollar winery and presenting himself as morally superior to every other wine maker in the region.

Did you notice the tell? Con men of every stripe always present themselves as nice people. This is why I roll my eyes when obvious creeps like Neil Gaiman are unmasked and everyone somehow manages to be surprised; of course he acted super nice to everyone in public, unless you’re a rock star, you don’t get young women fawning over you if you don’t present a warm and welcoming mask to everyone. But the comparison between the art and the artist was incongruous, ergo there was a problem lurking underneath.

But there are lots of nice people and sociopaths work very hard to imitate them. The dead giveaway is the posturing at being morally superior. Normal people don’t do that; if anything, they tend to exaggerate their flaws. Always be very leery of any man or woman who is conspicuously nice, and then tells you why they are better than the average individual. And definitely keep one hand on your wallet.

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The Judgment of Paris

To the surprise of absolutely no one who has been there in the last ten years, Paris has completely flopped as a host of the Olympic Games. The news that immigrants, filth, and crime are not tourist attractions appears to have somehow been missed by the organizers, who were too occupied with figuring out how to alienate Christians with their satanic little rituals and ushering in the Mark of the Beast with a cashless payment system to bother with catering to potential attendees.

Paris is an easy trip, even easier than going from Minneapolis to Chicago. And literally no one I know even considered going there, not even athletes and coaches who are involved in some of the relevant sports at an international level. In fact, no one ever discussed the Olympics at all, very much unlike the recent Euros.

But one good thing did come out of the Olympics. This meme.

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Suddenly at the Olympics

The sporting world will be fortunate if the Summer Olympics ends without losing an athlete or two to the vaxx:

Slovakian athlete Tamara Potocká collapsed after completing a swim at the Olympic Games this morning, leaving spectators at the Paris Aquatics Centre shocked as she was hurriedly carried away on a stretcher. The 21-year-old competed in a heat of the women’s 200-meter individual medley at 10:30am BST this morning and clambered out of the pool having come in seventh, missing out on qualification for the later rounds.

But moments later her legs buckled and she tumbled to the ground, managing to sit down for a few seconds before falling backwards. Potocká was seen in distress at the side of the pool even as another eight swimmers lined up in preparation for the next heat, until organisers realised something was wrong and medical staff descended on the scene.

I’m not saying it’s the vaxx, but…

Speaking of the Olympics, Andrei Martynov is enjoying the spectacle of the ongoing collapse of the subverted West:

This is the triumph of post-modernism. As I stated not for once–remove all limitations on doping, proclaim transgenderism a virtue in sports and let the third wave feminists and their cuckold admirers with male genitalia enjoy the spectacle. Let the fires rise high and illuminate the remnants of the Western Civilization being consumed by insanity and perversion. For those who didn’t get the news–Olympic Movement is dead, as are or nearing death most of the so called Western “institutions” ranging from financial to military.

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Sex Trafficking at ComicCon

Neil Gaiman turning out to be a potentially criminal creep doesn’t surprise me in the least; I read Sandman after the success of the Alt-Hero campaign made it clear we were getting into comics. But this news from Fandom Pulse was definitely eyebrow-raising:

Fandom has been rocked by a new scandal at San Diego Comic-Con involving a human trafficking sting set up by the California Attorney General. According to the California Department of Justice Website, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a sting at San Diego Comic-Con, where police and other government agencies set honeytraps for men looking to pay for sex at the convention. Fourteen different men were arrested as sex buyers, though the task force didn’t mention that any of the actual traffickers had been brought to justice. The state also claims ten young women were liberated from their enslavers who had been forced into performing these acts.

“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated. We are grateful to all our dedicated partners involved in the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, whose collaboration has been invaluable. We take great pride in our office’s commitment to uplifting vulnerable Californians by offering them assistance and guidance when they need it most.”

The joint task force included San Diego Sheriff Kelly Martinez, San Diego Police Chief Wahl, HSI special agents Christopher Davis, and NCIS special agent Nicholas Carter.

I understand that a lot of my readers are far more interested in US politics, war, economics, and religion than they are in what sometimes must appear to be a tempest in a fairly small teapot. But this reluctance to pay attention to the details of the high ground in the cultural war is one reason that Clown World has successfully managed to subvert Western civilization in general and the USA in particular.

I’ve never watched a Mr. Beast video. But tens of millions of children have, and they are influenced by the hedonistic, secular, and ultimately satanic philosophy being pushed by him. I don’t own a single Neil Gaiman book, comic, or movie, and few of you probably read him either, but he’s one of the best-selling, most highly-awarded authors of the last forty years.

If you don’t fight a cultural war, you will lose it, and then you will lose your culture. That’s why these things matter, even if you don’t happen to care very much about that particular battleground. Because they certainly do; here is but one of many similar examples.

NG’s work means so much to me that I’m existing like one big, walking sunk cost fallacy atm. There really are no other comparable authors to me personally when it comes to inspiration to write, learning to love reading, escapism… good quotes. And, until recently, belief that there are some genuinely good people of the celebrity kind still. The Netflix adaptation of my beloved comic Sandman has been, and continues to be, one of my most intense hyperfixations and sources of joy in an otherwise bleak world. And I know so well that the reason the series became a reality and is so good is precisely because of NG’s tight involvement.

The Sandman adaptation is terrible, by the way. Literally unwatchable. Spacebunny and I didn’t even make it to the second episode. The Gaiman cult is like a sad and twisted parody of the Tolkien cult, but that doesn’t mean they deserve their collective treatment at the hands of their contemptuous, contemptible idol.

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Indeed

Even if Vox Day rather than Rachel Johnson had 1st reported the accusations against Neil Gaiman, I hope I would have believed K and Scarlett once I read/heard their testimony & the damning statements from whomever communicated Neil‘s response. I say that as someone who owes a lot to Neil.

You know it’s getting serious when SJWs are getting to the point that they would, even hypothetically, consider believing your favorite Dark Lord rather than the self-appointed social justice saint and LGBTQFP+ ally Neal Gaiman. The ironic thing is that I’m very far from the only one on the Right who knew that he was an overrrated creep all along. Consider what I wrote publicly back in 2018 when I first got into writing comics.

  • If you think Neil Gaiman is a great novelist, or even a great SF/F novelist, you are simply wrong. He is a successful, talented and much-loved SF/F author, and understandably so, but he is also little more than a very successful stunt writer with two or three tricks in his bag. There is a reason that all of his notable books involve mythology of one sort or another; his true gift is translating ancient myth into a form that pleases postmodern palates. He also has the ability to convey that sense of the numinous that I lack. But Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Alan Moore, John C. Wright, China Mieville, Nick Cole, and even George R.R. Martin are all better, more original SF/F writers with considerably more to say about the human condition than Gaiman. When I have thought about the writers whose work I would like to be able to emulate or surpass over the years, Neil Gaiman never once entered into the equation, not even for a moment. Consider that American Gods is described as “Neil Gaiman’s best and most ambitious novel yet.” I liked that story considerably better when it was called Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul and On the Road.
  • It’s pretty simple. I am a better novelist than Neil Gaiman by almost every reasonable measure. Anyone who has read a sufficient variety of both our novels will recognize that pretty easily. Gaiman writes a variant of the same book with the same sort of characters almost every time. Even his Sandman is a Gary Stu of sorts. I have much wider literary range and can write everything from haunting shorts that could almost pass for modern Maupassant to murder mysteries to epic military fantasy. I don’t write myself into my books and I can even successfully pull off the “you genuinely think he’s dead but actually he isn’t” trick without cheating or magic or medical science or anything but pure literary sleight of hand. George Martin can’t do that despite repeated attempts. Gaiman can’t do it either. And as for Murakami, I have been writing a literary novel inspired by his style for years, although since I am not Japanese, it is more likely to feature a wedding than a suicide. I have no idea when it will be finished, if ever, but I think I might be able to pull it off. And if I can’t get even reasonably close, then I won’t publish it. I admire Tanith Lee. I admire JRR Tolkien. I admire John C. Wright. I admire China Mieville. I admire Alan Moore. I admire Umberto Eco. The only thing I admire about Gaiman’s writing is his ability to give everything the flavor of a fairy tale. That’s not nothing, it’s actually pretty cool, but it’s very far from the most significant thing. Sure, he sells a lot more books, but then, Dan Brown and Katie Price sell even more and I don’t have any respect for their literary abilities either.

The reason so many people on the Right knew Gaiman was a creep while no one on the Left did is very simple. We believe the art reflects the artist. They reject the connection between the art and the artist.

And, obviously, they are wrong.

It is, however, mildly amusing to observe that the way SJWs ritually disavow a formerly beloved author is to repeat “F— Neal Gaiman” as if it is a formal anathema.

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The Memes Must Flow

It’s going to be a busy day on r/neilgaimanmemes today, in light of the news that two more women have come forward to accuse Neil Gaiman of sexual assault, one in 1986 and the other in 2017. That makes five alleged victims over a period of 35 years, so the chances that there will be dozens more is astronomical. It’s a good thing Gaiman is a prolific storyteller, because he’s almost certainly going to have to be coming up with an awful lot of stories explaining away his historical behavior over the next few months.

Exclusive: Two more women accuse Neil Gaiman of sexual assault and abuse

The two new accounts — published today in a new episode of ‘Master: the allegations against Neil Gaiman’ — have been corroborated through documents, emails, and messages seen by Tortoise as well as through interviews with friends and family who the women confided in. Gaiman did not provide any on-the-record response to multiple detailed requests for comment on either set of allegations.

Caroline Wallner lived in a house on Gaiman’s property in Woodstock, New York between 2014 and 2021 with her three young daughters and, until 2017, her husband. Alongside her work as a ceramic artist in a studio in a barn on the property, Wallner and her husband worked for Gaiman and his then wife Amanda Palmer, including doing property maintenance, gardening, and grocery shopping. Gaiman had moved to the area to teach at Bard College.

Around the time Wallner’s marriage ended in 2017, which she said devastated her emotionally, Gaiman told her ex-husband that there was no more work for him on the property, which had provided the family’s main income. Wallner and her daughters were now dependent on Gaiman for work and housing. While she was in this situation, Wallner, then 55, said that Gaiman began pressuring her for sex.

Wallner said: “There were little hints of, ‘we’re going to need the house’. And I remember saying, let’s talk about it. Let’s figure it out. That’s when he would just come to my studio and make me give him a blowjob”. There is no suggestion of physical force, but rather of coercion in light of her housing and family situation. Wallner said: “And he can say it was consensual. But why would I do that? It was because I was scared of losing my place”, characterising Gaiman’s treatment of her as “sexual abuse.”

The UN defines sexual abuse as actual or threatened sexual contact by force or coercive conditions. The UN’s refugee agency, where Gaiman is a goodwill ambassador, has described the allegations against him published by Tortoise as “very serious”, adding that it is “assessing the detailed reporting”.

Gaiman settled with Wallner for $275,000 and a non-disclosure agreement less than two weeks later. The NDA “disputes and denies that Wallner has sustained any losses, damages, or injuries for which Gaiman is legally responsible.” Gaiman’s position is that he settled with her to avoid expensive and protracted litigation. The NDA prohibits Wallner from talking about Gaiman with “family members, friends, associates” and from filing, reporting, or prosecuting any action or proceeding in “any court, governmental agency, or before any tribunal whatsoever or wheresoever”. If Wallner is asked to make disclosures by a “valid legal process”, the NDA says she must give Gaiman 20 days notice and help him resist disclosure.

The 1986 woman is an OBE. It’s certainly going to be difficult for Gaiman to play his customary “who are you, you’re nobody” card.

“I’m a very wealthy man. You’re…”

“I’m an OBE. Her Majesty the Queen made me an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Who are you, Mr. Wealthy Man?”

One wonders what the Crown knew about Gaiman. Far less well-known, far less successful authors have been given honors by the Queen. I would think he must have come up at some point but then failed the vetting process.

In less than 24 hours, there are already 96 members of r/neilgaimanmemes and loads of memes with thousands of views. The media’s wall of silence will not stand!

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Evil in the High Courts

This is absolutely and utterly evil. This is the sort of thing that is going to lead to the revolution and chaos that will bring the Empire down from within. It’s also directly against the recent decision of the US Supreme Court, which ruled that non-vaccines like the Covid-19 shots cannot be mandated:

Schools have been given the green light to vaccinate children with Covid-19 mRNA shots without parental consent by the Vermont Supreme Court which ruled that schools are protected under the PREP Act which provides immunity from liability.

The decision by the Vermont Supreme Court opens to the door for educators to further encroach upon the rights and responsibilities of parents by vaccinating children against the wishes of their parents and facing no legal consequences.

The court set the precedent during a case involving a child, labeled L.P. in the original complaint, who was vaccinated in November 2021 at a clinic hosted by the Windham Southeast School District.

L.P. was a student at the district’s Academy School at the time of the forced vaccination.

L.P.’s father told a school official days prior to the clinic the child was not to be vaccinated, court documents say. The school official acknowledged the father’s directive, according to Friday’s ruling.

The school child also reminded the staff that her father did not want her to be vaccinated.

However, clinic workers forced L.P. to have one dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.

According to the school, the child was allegedly “misidentified,” according to the court ruling.

Academy School officials realized the “mistake” and called L.P.’s parents to explain and apologize, which led to L.P.’s parents removing their child from the school.

According to the Vermont Supreme Court ruling on Friday, state and school officials involved in vaccinating the child without parental consent cannot be sued or prosecuted because they are are protected by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which grants liability immunity.

And no immunity granted by a court is going to protect state and school officials from those seeking righteous retribution for the harm done to their children. Those clinic workers shouldn’t be given liability, they should be tried, found guilty, and face capital punishment for their knowingly forcing an unwilling child to receive medical treatment against her wishes and the wishes of her father.

Here is hoping those evil will swiftly face the divine justice that the Vermont courts denied that family.

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“The Full Force of the Law”

The British police don’t have time to defend the borders against invading illegals, stop Pakistani rape gangs, or deport foreign criminals. But they are certainly determined to go to war with the native English people at a moment’s notice, and are threatening them with “the full force of the law”.

Ministers will consider banning the English Defence League following riots on the streets of Southport, Angela Rayner suggested today.

The deputy PM said the government ‘will look at various different groups’ amid widespread condemnation of violence that broke out after the horrific knife attack on children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

Angry politicians have blamed ‘lies and propaganda’ on social media for igniting the chaos, while heartbroken Southport families have accused hoodlums of showing ‘no respect to a town that is grieving’.

Tributes have poured in for the three girls killed who police yesterday named as six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar.

Eight other children suffered stab wounds at the summer holiday dance workshop. Five are in a critical condition, alongside two women who were also critically injured as they bravely tried to save the children.

The Home Secretary has declared war on the English people. Now Englishmen appear to be on the verge of facing the same choice as the French. Either they fight the police or they end up being drafted to fight the Russians. I suspect the odds of surviving the former are considerably better than the latter.

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