Etymologists will tell you nudge arrived in English sometime around the 17th century, probably from a Scandinavian root meaning “to push gently.”
Probably.
What they mean is they have no idea, because the beings responsible never filed paperwork with anyone whose records survived.
The Vorlons were not known for their paperwork.
What they were known for was the nudge: the minimum intervention required to redirect a lesser species without technically violating their autonomy. Not a push. Not a command. A nudge — issued by beings who had already seen how this ends and found your current trajectory mildly inconvenient (Babylon 5, S1–S4).
The Vorlons preferred patience and the deeply held conviction that you would do the correct thing eventually.
The Shadows, for contrast, preferred chaos. Overt destabilization. The violent 'nudge.'
Lorien — oldest of the First Ones, the being who had already nudged the Vorlons and the Shadows into their respective corners — modeled the protocol simply: you don’t make a younger race do anything. You remain present. Occasionally luminous. Until they figure it out. (B5, S4:E2, “Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?”)
Humanity took several additional centuries to figure it out.
In the meantime, due to its overall success, the nudge was adopted by many other life forms -- like your pets (Happy National Pet Day, by the way).
Your cat, who has been on your chest since 5:47 AM, is not expressing affection. It is running an influence protocol — persistent, non-verbal, immune to negotiation — that predates your solar system.
Your dog’s eleven minutes of unblinking eye contact did not originate with your buddy. It originated with beings who wore encounter suits because their true form was too much for you before coffee.
Kosh in his encounter suit(B5:S3:E6 "Dust to Dust."). Anybody seeing Kosh in their dreams lately?
The nudge operates on one principle: the nudger already knows what you’re going to do.
Help Me Hit 100 Reviews on The Frozen Before The Erebi Drops in July!
If you've read The Frozen, I need you! Reviews are the single biggest thing that sets a series up for launch success — and I'm racing to 100 before July.
Here's the deal: Leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads (a sentence or two is all it takes), then send me a screenshot at jen@jenporterauthor.com or just reply here. I'll enter you in a drawing for your choice of a free signed copy of The Erebi or an Amazon gift card — and I'm drawing multiple winners. One entry per platform, so you can stack your odds.
Haven't read it yet? Start with the excerpt below — and grab a free review copy of the ebook or audiobook using the links at the end.
Tuesday, May 14, 3011
Tap-tap-tap. She jumped, jolted out of her memories.
Looking down, near the ground outside her window, she inhaled sharply. As she exhaled, she stared into the inky darkness to check her perception. She squinted. There was the dark, cloak-shrouded form of—she squinted harder—a woman, pressed into the shadow beside her azaleas. Who was she? Her heart beat uncontrollably as she tried to deny the possibility. She pointed her arm away from the window. She tried to control her breathing. Heaven only knew what the Seraphim were capable of monitoring without her knowledge.
Her sister looked up toward her window.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Tahni mouthed the words, even though she already knew the answer. She pointed her sister to the side door. They found out!
She looked around the yard for her sister’s husband. Cale was at the end of the residential circle, looking back, with a small lump under his cloak. Little Ien. Something must have gone wrong at his checkup, and his parents were attempting a night flight.
Tahni’s arm silently vibrated. An alert had gone out in her area. Citizens were asked to stay indoors, so as not to be mistaken for the Impures about to be Redeemed.
Jana had come in the side door, and Tahni met her in the kitchen.
“The alert is out already. You’ve been discovered! They will change the codes. There is no way out! You need to hide Ien. Leave him with me. Go back to your house..."
In the Xianova Chronicles, people carry cell-based biotech that handles everything our phones and computers do today. For certain people, like Seraphim and Archangel guards, specialized bio-upgrades take it further — forming body armor on demand, enhancing vision and hearing, and integrating seamlessly with the body's own systems.
Science fiction? Sure. Implausible? Less than you'd think.
Researchers have already begun blending DNA with electronic components to create bio-hybrid memory systems that are faster, smarter, and dramatically more energy-efficient than conventional tech. We're not building computers inspired by biology anymore — we're building them with it.
We've got about a thousand years to close the gap. I'm not worried.
Internal 2D structures of synthetic DNA, as seen through a microscope
The Status of Making Stuff Up...
Personal Life:
It was a rough stretch. We lost a close friend and relative of Jim's, and our oldest daughter (who has severe Down Syndrome and a chronic duodenal stricture) landed us in the ER again — this time with an ulcerated, plugged stricture and a sentence of at least six weeks on a liquid diet, possibly permanent, pending another balloon stretch or a risky resection surgery.
Explaining this to her has gone about as well as you'd expect. She does not accept the verdict. Evidence: a Goldfish cracker shoplifting attempt while out with her dayhab group. (She remains unrepentant.)(I can't blame her!)
On the brighter side: excellent progress on my parents' Super-Secret 50th Anniversary Party, and Jim and I got to see The Music Man live — his first time, despite having seen approximately every other musical ever written. He loved it. I'm not sure I could have allowed him to say otherwise...😉
Now, I need your help with a crisis of a different kind.
Jim has proposed a solution to some of the time crunch I'm experiencing with finishing the trilogy this year: nuke my 40'x40' vegetable and fruit garden with persistent weed killer and eliminate "gardening" as a variable/escape/distraction.
He may have a point. (Those of you who remember the War with Thistletopia last year know I cannot be trusted to accurately assess my own gardening workload. We shall not speak of who won.)
But here's the problem: we still have an enormous yard full of grass, flowerbeds, established perennials and fruit, and seedlings I've already started. Also unfinished koi pond and playground area rebuilds. Nuking the vegetable garden... seems like it just nukes the vegetables, not the work.
So I'm asking for your suggestions/votes:
How can I best achieve writing/gardening balance (during a year with a very full plate of deadlines)?
I know some of you have worried — as have I — that I will never actually know if a dangerous intruder enters my home, given that certain individuals bark at sounds that don't exist approximately 1,000 times per day.
After careful study, I have prepared the following disaster response analysis. For all our sakes. Especially theirs.
The needle is not stuck. Like the shadow on the moon, it is just moving so slowly you can't see it.
What I accomplished:
✅ Finished re-plotting The Erebi. I got ready to draft, realized that I somehow left three characters completely out of the plot, who were not "small" characters (*Coughs* one was Ien!😱). So...
That put me almost a month behind on the writing...no worries...😅! (However, it couldn't hurt for every single one of you to pray miracles of speed and substance upon me for the foreseeable future.🙏)
✅ Started drafting actual words of The Erebi!
#BigWritingGoals:
⏹️ Finish the draft and cleanup of The Erebi by the beginning middle of May... ⏹️ Start the beta reader group right after the May newsletter comes out!
Yes, beta reading still starts in May! I have a fun-and-prizes-focused beta reading group on Facebook. Six lovely people have already agreed to be the first of the public to read and give their thoughts on The Erebi. (More details to come. Reply if you know you're interested!)
NOTE: Because my emails are the opposite of "short," this section will likely be clipped by your email client. Don't forget to click the "view entire message" link to see all the deals!
The virus didn’t just infect the world. It’s starving it.
It started with the plants—crops withered, forests died. When there was nothing left to consume, it turned to humans.
Some recover. Others… change.
The government calls them mutations. Everyone else knows they are monsters.
Inside a military compound, Lily Walker is secure. The walls hold. Rations are controlled. The virus hasn’t found its way in.
But Lily knows security isn’t the same as safety.
So she prepares for the day it all falls apart, growing food in secret, stockpiling what she can, and helping her father search for answers in his home lab.
The only thing she didn’t plan for is needing something beyond the walls -- or someone.
And when everything starts to unravel, Lily will have to decide:
Hold on to the security that’s barely kept her alive… or risk everything for a future she isn’t sure will come.
Brendan Murphy nearly died fighting for his country.
Now he’s trying to stop a war.
Five years ago, an alien ship appeared in low orbit all around the world and stayed there, waiting.
A highly advanced alien race known as the Sabia lingered with little contact with humanity, and the worlds’ governments have been eager for answers – and access – for years.
When combat veteran Brendan Murphy is wounded stopping an attack on a Sabia diplomat, he finds himself whisked aboard one of their ships and given medical aid.
This rare opportunity finds him walking a tenuous line between burgeoning friendships and secret agenda that will test his loyalties and sanity in ways he can’t begin to imagine.
Books 1, 2, & 3 on Kindle Unlimited. Book 4 is in the works!
*PSA: While I do try to pick books, giveaways, and sales that will be appealing to you in general, I definitely haven't read or screened every book... Use discretion while browsing.
Don't miss this collection of 108free sci-fi and fantasy ebooks, short stories, and box sets! Lots of options from both genres. It's on until 5/1/26 -- but don't wait until then to check it out -- check it out today!
Grab your next summer reads from this collection of 65 free fantasy and sci-fi books, stories, and box sets, hereuntil the end of the month! This one has more fantasy represented, but there are still many sci-fi options among them, and a children's nonfiction book, as well.
Thanks for reading this episode of The Blessed Bulletin! Let's connect on socials if we haven't already (or if you prefer that to emails). See you next month!
