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Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith

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Category Archives: Stories

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The Damage Patrol Quartet: Four Stories

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on December 23, 2021 by Michael D. SmithDecember 23, 2021

A feckless young architect falls in with a sixteen-year-old’s dubious trucking venture. Drug-addled Randy bemoans his fate as a slave employee in New Fascist Australia. An archeologist arrives on a tiny artificial gravity platform to give a scholarly lecture to … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Comedy, Dreams, Dystopia, Literary, Perpetual Starlit Night, Science Fiction, Sortmind, Stories, The Damage Patrol Quartet, Twisted Tails, Writing, Zarreich | Leave a reply

A Writing Biography, Part IV: The Perfect Cube and Beyond

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on November 2, 2021 by Michael D. SmithNovember 2, 2021

Recapping Part III as the Author Seeks Sympathy for How Terribly Difficult This Post Has Been In rereading Writing Biographies I-III I’m struck by how they stand outside my usual self-description. I remember all that history, but it was as … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Akard Drearstone, Dreams, Early Writing, Novels, Plays, Sortmind, Stories, Wiess Cracks, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

The Selector

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on June 10, 2021 by Michael D. SmithJune 10, 2021

It was eight o’clock. All was well, except that the Animals had somehow crept into the Selector Box and short-circuited the entire Darwin Building. As the Selector, it was my duty to investigate. Yet, at eight o’clock, I’d just finished … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreams, Stories, Writing | Leave a reply

The UR Jack Commer: A Look at the Childhood Beginnings of the Commer Saga

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on April 4, 2021 by Michael D. SmithApril 4, 2021

Okay, why revisit this early stuff???? After publishing seven Jack Commer novels I felt a need to pull together Jack’s entire history starting from my first fifth-grade story about him. That was the story that electrified my nine-year-old self. Although … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Early Writing, Jack Commer, Marketing, Martian Marauders, Novels, Science Fiction, Sortmind Press, Stories, Trip to Mars, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

Monsterville, USA

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on May 29, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJune 25, 2019

I’ve already written about The Blue Notebook, my fifth grade stories that channeled fascinating new energy and began defining me as a writer. Recently I was compelled by author’s karma to make an eBook out of The Blue Notebook, and … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Akard Drearstone, Early Writing, Science Fiction, Stories, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a reply

NOW! – or – Early Marketing Efforts

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on January 15, 2015 by Michael D. SmithJanuary 15, 2015

Not long ago I was astonished to rediscover childhood Jack Commer marketing tools. As outlined elsewhere, my first Jack Commer, Supreme Commander plots unfolded in the fifth grade, and by the eighth I’d abandoned the draft of The Martian Marauders … Continue reading →

Posted in Early Writing, Jack Commer, Marketing, Martian Marauders, Novels, Science Fiction, Stories, Trip to Mars, Writing, Writing Process | 2 Replies

A Writing Biography, Part III: Unhappy Kid Interlude, Yet Two Novels, Sort Of

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on October 14, 2014 by Michael D. SmithJune 27, 2019

Or: Wandering in the Wilderness with New Discipline, the Consciousness Expansion of Adolescence, and Many To-Do Lists This is an odd period to write about, and only this year, after I made plans to write about first The Gore Book … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Drawing, Early Writing, Jack Commer, Martian Marauders, Novels, Science Fiction, Stories, Trip to Mars, Writing, Writing Process | Tagged A Writing Biography | 1 Reply

A Writing Biography, Part II: The Blue Notebook

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on September 28, 2014 by Michael D. SmithJuly 12, 2020

A previous post, The First Childhood Appearance of Jack Commer, covered the origin of my space hero Jack in the fall of 1962 and my elation at writing the story “Voyage to Venus” for a fifth grade spelling assignment. That … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Drawing, Early Writing, Jack Commer, Science Fiction, Stories, Trip to Mars, Writing, Writing Process | 3 Replies

A Writing Biography, Part I: First Efforts in The Gore Book

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on September 24, 2014 by Michael D. SmithNovember 5, 2014

I wrote my first stories in July 1960 in Fair Haven, New Jersey, around the time of my second operation for a head injury in a car accident earlier that year. I was seven years old. My friend Sabin Russell and … Continue reading →

Posted in A Writing Biography, Early Writing, Stories, Writing, Writing Process | 5 Replies

Trip to Mars, the Picture Book, or, How the Ship Became a Fantastical Theater Stage

Sortmind Blog - Michael D. Smith Posted on March 28, 2014 by Michael D. SmithJuly 12, 2020

My first “novel,” Trip to Mars, was fifty-five penciled pages in a small yellow notebook, starring Jack Commer and outlining the horrors of a 2033 World War IV and the evacuation of Earth’s surviving population to Mars.  Was the sixth … Continue reading →

Posted in Art Process, Drawing, Early Writing, Jack Commer, Martian Marauders, Nonprofit Chronowar, Novels, Publishing, Science Fiction, Self-Publishing, Stories, Trip to Mars, Videos, Writing, Writing Process | 4 Replies

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  • Asylum and Mirage: The Draft 2 Milestone – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Caspra Coronae Draft One Blast-Off
  • Progress: Asylum and Mirage and the Title Change – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Interview with the Burlcron/Mercer/Singletree
  • The Damage Patrol Quartet: Four Stories – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on Homage Part 2: The Zarreich Enigma
  • A Writing Biography, Part IV: The Perfect Cube and Beyond – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on A Writing Biography, Part III: Unhappy Kid Interlude, Yet Two Novels, Sort Of
  • A Writing Biography, Part IV: The Perfect Cube and Beyond – Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith on A Writing Biography, Part I: First Efforts in The Gore Book

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Michael's books

Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions
4 of 5 stars
Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions
by Matthieu Ricard
WordPress Web Design for Dummies
4 of 5 stars
WordPress Web Design for Dummies
by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...
5 of 5 stars
Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...
by Philip Plait
Using Joomla!
3 of 5 stars
Using Joomla!
by Ron Severdia
Serpent's Tooth
5 of 5 stars
Serpent's Tooth
by Toni V. Sweeney
On a cruise Melissa bonds with an older man, Travis, who turns out to be a famous celebrity in hiding from a once successful life. But by degrees we become aware that his enormous success came at the price of bonding with demonic forces...

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