In honor of Myths and Legends Day (October 11), let's explore humanity’s millennia-long habit of entrusting its fate to heroes, kings, and other questionable individuals.
The word trust can be traced all the way back to Old Norse traust, meaning confidence, protection, or support. A remarkably durable concept, considering how often history and future-history have demonstrated its hazards.
Trust, it turns out, is an elastic, two-way continuum.
Stretch it a little, and someone might surprise you.
Stretch it farther, and you might change them—or yourself.
Stretch it far enough, and the rebound could propel you across galaxies, existential states, and timelines. Which could be just what you need.
But when a conflicting continuum interferes with trust, someone may let their end go, which can result in a nasty "snap." Like paperwork, untimely deaths, or bigger problems.
The Stretch: Rodney's a genius who can't admit he may have made a mistake until lives are on the line, preferably including his own (and even then, it's iffy).
Payoff: Depending on the day, solar systems will be sacrificed, or lives will be saved.
Safety check: Make sure there's a countdown timer he can't ignore.
Snap Risk: 2/10
The Vanity Continuum
Example:Cat, Red Dwarf (e.g. "The End," S1:E1, and "Polymorph," S3:E3).
The Stretch: Cat considers a wardrobe malfunction more urgent than a spaceship malfunction.
Payoff: His feline senses might save your life (assuming the rescue doesn’t clash with his outfit).
Safety check: Block or remove reflective surfaces.
Snap Risk: 3/10
The Ethics Continuum
Example: Rygel XVI, Farscape (“PK Tech Girl,” S1:E7, and “Liars, Guns and Money,” S2:E19-21).
The Stretch: Rygel's moral principles are negotiable, particularly when his own survival (or return to the throne) is at stake.
Payoff: His cunning might save the crew...and/or sell them out to the Peacekeepers hunting them.
Safety check: Stay with him—and read the fine print.
Snap Risk: 5/10
The Time Continuum
Example: The Doctor, Doctor Who (“The Eleventh Hour,” S5:E1, and “The Big Bang,” S5:E13).
The Stretch: The Doctor may promise to return in five minutes and arrive twelve or a couple thousand years later.
Payoff: You never know when he'll show up, but it's usually in time to save humanity (maybe not you, but humanity).
Safety check: Keep your running shoes on and your bags packed.
The Stretch: Loki's a shapeshifting trickster with a royal identity crisis and several competing versions of himself.
Payoff: One version of Loki eventually holds the timelines together. The others may still be trying to conquer them.
Safety check: Verify which Loki you're trusting, if you can...
Snap Risk: 10/10
The Q Continuum
--which intersects all of the above continuums, has unlimited power, and is eternally bored.
Example: Q, Star Trek, multiple series(TNG, “Q Who,” S2:E16, and “All Good Things…,” S7:E25-26).
The Stretch: Q considers humanity’s continued existence an entertaining experiment.
Payoff: He may help you prevent humanity’s extinction. Or introduce you to the Borg. Or both, and more.
Safety check: Threaten another report to the Continuum.
Snap Risk: 11/10.
A properly tensioned trust continuum could become the rubber band that launches you toward your destiny.
But before you stretch it to the breaking point, make sure you know who's holding the other end.
There you go.
Truth for October
True Story Tech
Would You Trust Your Life to a Swarm of Microscopic Robots?
Imagine trusting trillions of tiny robots to cooperate perfectly—while holding up a protective barrier that's the only thing standing between you and certain doom. One wrong move, one communication failure, and your protective barrier might become considerably less protective.
Researchers are already developing microscopic robots that organize themselves into programmable formations, combine their strength, and communicate wirelessly. Individually, they're impressive. Together, they're beginning to demonstrate capabilities that seem almost impossible.
Here’s what scientists are working on:
Programmable Magnetic Microrobot Swarms (Device, 2025) — Researchers demonstrated microrobots that assemble into different formations using magnetic interactions, changing their collective structure and mechanical properties.
Reconfigurable Microrobot Collectives (2025) — By coordinating through magnetic fields, microscopic robots formed stronger, reconfigurable structures, producing dramatically greater force than their individual components.
Wireless Communication Between Soft Magnetic Microrobots (Nature Communications, 2025) — Scientists developed microrobots with flexible antennas that enable remote sensing and communication, bringing programmable, responsive swarms another step closer to reality.
In the Xianova Chronicles, that technology has evolved into something considerably larger: entire cities protected by energy domes composed of countless nanobots, held in formation by electromagnetic fields. The bots can rearrange themselves to create authorized entrances, close breaches, and maintain a protective barrier both above and below ground.
Of course, trusting trillions of microscopic robots to maintain their formation is one thing.
Trusting whoever controls their programming is another.
The Status of Making Stuff Up...
Personal Life:
In terms of getting back to normal levels of coffee, sleep, and migraines...yeaaaaaah no. But the house is still standing and everyone is still alive. So...👍?
Dog Life:
(Left to right: Shawnie - 3, Darryl - 6, Mac - 2, Maggie - 4, Chicken - 15)
In Dogs We Trust
Trust is the foundation of every healthy relationship. Fortunately, the Contraband Cartel and Team Rocket are remarkably dependable (with some things).
Who I Trust Most With…
NEIGHBORHOOD OUTREACH — DARRYL Has introduced himself to several neighbors, including one who told him to “go home”—so he trotted right into her house.
CHILDCARE ASSISTANCE — MAC My granddaughter Makayla’s devoted partner in crime. Enthusiastic about tag, cuddles, and discreet disposal of unwanted dinner items. Evidence may be relocated rather than destroyed, because neither of them likes certain veggies.
HOUSEKEEPING — CHICKEN Logs approximately 50,000 steps nightly while licking dirt and fur off the floor. Also collects unattended bones and ropes for safekeeping in her kennel.
WILDLIFE CONTROL — MAGGIE Prepared to demolish the shed, excavate the entire groundhog tunnel system, or conduct a multiday stakeout. Surrender is not an option.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY — SHAWNIE (a.k.a. "Speedbump") Ensures nobody exceeds a dangerously brisk walking pace by stopping every 2.5 seconds to check that we're following—or by collapsing directly in our paths for a belly rub. Repeatedly, if necessary.
ENFORCING MY WRITING SCHEDULE — MAC Parks himself directly behind my desk chair. 'Writer’s block' takes on a whole new meaning.
Who I Trust Least With…
COMMUNITY RELATIONS — DARRYL Day or night, whenever a fence or door prevents Darryl from world domination, he broadcasts his complaints. Unanswered barking escalates to full-volume beagle howling. Which escalates to full-volume beagle screaming.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY — MAC Uses furniture, walls, and people as parkour equipment whenever he's excited. Gravity and personal injury are somebody else’s problems.
HOUSEKEEPING — MAC Interior design begins as a full-contact sport—which he finishes by redecorating floors, furniture, windows, and even walls with Pyrenees fluff and serenely dribbled water. With rustic cocklebur and mud accent pieces.
WILDLIFE DETERRENCE — SHAWNIE Won’t enter the backyard without an escort. The resident groundhogs have no idea she exists, although the front-yard squirrel has received several strongly worded warnings.
ENFORCING MY SCHEDULE — DARRYL & MAGGIE Both maintain independent agendas involving constant surveillance and urgent investigations of the outdoors. My plans are suggestions, and recall is subject to selective hearing.
Final assessment: Trusting my dogs is for entertainment purposes only.
Writing Life:
~56,279/120,000 words written
What I accomplished:
✅Slightly more of The Erebi written -- I'm still just under 50% done, judging by plot points.
✅Explored a whole new level of insanity struggling with the cover redesign team and unsuitable cover concepts for The Frozen.
✅Created a new social media system that will save me from dying of old age before I have time to create another post. Hopefully.
(#TRYING-AGAIN-ON-THE-)
#BigWritingGoals:
⏹️🎯Finish drafting The Erebi 🎯 ⏹️Finish the cover for The Frozen or suck it up and fire the design team, then hire the more expensive designer
⏹️New cover for The Refuge
⏹️Relaunch The Frozen
Featured Story & Book Deals*
NOTE: Because my emails are an awesome length😆...this section may be clipped by your email client. Don't forget to click the tiny "view entire message" link at the very bottom to see all the deals (or you can visit the News tab on my website)!
Behold a cosmic competition! Discover the strange, immortal aliens known as the Cruiskeen! Witness Shakespeare and Marie Curie in a galactic battle of wits with some guy from Knuckleville, USA!
A Leap Hamilton Ad-Venture.
Can a humble Ad-Man from Knuckleville, USA, beat William Shakespeare and Marie Curie in a battle of minds?
Leap Hamilton is a can-do copywriter in 1959 who gets transported to the year 2119 by an AI known as Isaac.
Isaac needs a champion to help Humanity regain its former glory.
People, you see, have become too reliant on Isaac's problem-solving abilities.
Hence, future humans are as dumb as Toilet Golf.
So, Leap must compete against Shakespeare and Curie to solve an impossible task: help a race of aliens known as the Cruiskeen get to the next galaxy in time...
History remembers heroes. History forgets what heroes buried.
Launch Edition Bundle — $0.99 for preorder and launch week only. Includes the designed ebook + two companion stories.
On the planet Terranox, a lethal mining poison is killing Arydians one by one. Arya Weld, a young mechanic, has one mission: find the Starfall, the ship that vanished with her mother. To get closer, she risks everything to win a deadly race — only to discover she's infected, and running out of time.
With the clock ticking, Arya joins hands with a resourceful broker and assembles a crew launching the Remnant in the direction Starfall was last seen. Arya knows this is a one-way ticket. What she doesn't know that by leaving the system she's awakening a threat that has waited centuries to return.
*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 your own discretion while browsing.
*FREE* Adventures in Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Peruse these 81 free ebooks to find your next adventure...from 10/1/26 to 10/31/26!
OUT OF THIS WORLD Sci-Fi & Fantasy Collection
Check out these 47+free ebooks with a wide variety and good selection of sci-fi and fantasy! Promo runs from 10/15/26 to 11/15/26!
Autumn Book Leaf Bouquet Collection
39free sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and general fiction ebooks to window-shop from now until 11/30/26!
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!
