How to Add Your Participation in the January 6th Perfectly Fine Gathering to Your Resume Now That You've Been Pardoned
🫡 You're a patriot, and you deserve recognition. 🏆
Latest
The Continuing Adventures of X
Rouge data fell through the net, unassembled and out of sequence, riding the currents between the virtual things that were meant to be. The probability of any one of these bits encountering another in a world so vast as the Net was remote but possible. All it would take was
At Least You'll Have Time to Write: Reflections on Five Months of Aggressive Unemployment
I know my friends meant well, but of all the things said to me after I was laid off in August of 2024, at least you'll have time to write was the silliest. I wanted to believe them, and I tried, at least at first, but as the
You Can't Spell Bias Without AI: Identifying the Invisible Guardrails That Shape Its Answers
I recently canceled my subscription to ChatGPT, mostly because I couldn't keep putting money (however minuscule) in the pocket of someone who would try to buy his way into Donald Trump's good graces. It's a sickening act of cowardice that I, sir, have no
Upload Complete: Short Stories
I'm happy to report that I've finished uploading all the short stories I care to share to danielverastiqui.com/short-stories. These include selections from The Sum of Memory, Destination Okinawa, and later stories that never made it into a collection. While I'm happy to
Repost: Breaking Up With Amazon (2014)
Cool Daniel doesn't cotton to companies kowtowing, bending the knee, kissing the ring, or otherwise putting profits over morals to appease the human equivalent of a rotting Arby's roast beef sandwich.
This Workout Could Have Been a Cake
Cool Daniel believes in physical fitness and has decided to return to the only fitness option that doesn't technically promise it works: Orange Theory Fitness. Granted, it's a decent, colorful theory: spend an hour lifting, running, and rowing three times a week and just see what
Protector of the Faith
Cal Emerson was in bed, lightly treading the border between wake and sleep, when the call came in.
My God, It's 2025
Who would have ever thought we'd be here, am I right? We are about to enter a period of unbridled chaos that will likely not end until 2029, assuming it ever ends. The summers are too hot, the job market too volatile, and social media too soul-sucking. The
What to Read in 2025
Hello! It's time for another monthly newsletter, but instead of making it all about me, me, me... I'm giving you a few recommendations on what to read in 2025. Some of my friends have launched newsletters, some established tech nerds already have theirs running, and despite
Burning for the Ancient Heavenly Connection
"We gave everything to the machines. Our calendars. Our email. We let them listen in on our conversations with customers and take notes. They wrote marketing posts that other machines summarized for us. We all believed the lie. Nobody wanted to be left behind. The ROI was too attractive.
Consumer In Training
They built a new HEB on the edge of our neighborhood and we’ve been going every few days just for funsies. They’ve got these tiny indoctrinating shopping carts to help teach Rainbow how to be a good consumer. It was fun watching her push the cart until she
Christmas Was the Case They Gave Me
Ain’t that Santa over there? That old man with the red coat on? Yeah, that’s that fool. Roll up on side of him, man. Roll your window down. Hand me my Glock give me another clip. ‘cause I’m gonna smoke this fool. There he go. You Santa?
For Readers
Cue the Gritty Voiceover
House of Nepenthe (2025)When Kenneth Barnes takes a business trip to his old hometown, he finds himself on the wrong end of a gun. Now in the hospital in a coma, Kenneth’s life begins to flash before his eyes in the form of the House of Nepenthe, an
That's a Future Daniel Problem
Wellity, wellity, wellity… if it isn’t the bridge I said I’d cross when I came to it. Admittedly not my joke, but it is one of the three funniest things I read on the World Wide Web this year. The other two were: 🤣 “I can count on one
For My Tech Nerds
How To Use Your Website as Your BlueSky Username
I always thought the BlueSky usernames were a little strange, and recently, I've thought about running my own instance just so I can have a more custom username. But then I tagged Novlr in a post and noticed they had novlr.org as their username! What was this?
For Readers
Twenty Years of Self-Publishing: My First and Only Query
The year was 2004, and the book was Xronixle. Fresh out of the gate as a hopeful cyberpunk novelist, I reached out to Dalton Publishing, a local Austin publisher, with a query for my cyberpunk thriller about a boy who copies his girlfriend's mind in virtual reality. To
For Writers
Hi Nice To Meet You Buy My Book
Social media has been a double-edged sword for self-published authors for a while now. On one hand, it’s a place where writers can connect, share tips, and support each other. On the other, it often devolves into a noisy marketplace where everyone is shouting about their latest book, hoping
For Writers
Query Letter Advice: How to Pitch a Multi-POV Novel
I've always struggled with pitching my books, whether to literary agents or my mom, mostly because my stories are multi-POV. From Por Vida on, my novels have always had four main points of view. I won't get into why I prefer that structure here, but it
Chewing Counts as Exercise
Many real people often inquire whether I think about writing while running. Is that where I come up with all this insane tech? Is mile 2 reserved for working out a diatribe against the advancement of artificial intelligence? Is my cooldown dedicated to figuring out how and where I can
For Writers
Mobilize Your Literary Universe With Obsidian Sync
In a time when everything is a service (including this website!), it's rare to come across a piece of software that is A) free and B) so valuable that you actually want to pay for it. This year, two apps have met that criteria for me. The first
Deleted Scenes
Perion Synthetics: Original Opening
"The old man is dying." Banks says this to me when I walk into his office in lieu of a greeting. No time for them, he once told me. As overseer of the second largest feed on the west coast, I couldn't blame him for being
For My Homeowners
I Was Bored, So I Made Some Shelves
Sometimes, when you're between jobs, paralyzed by anxiety, and staring down the barrel of yet another election season, you just need a distraction. Something productive. Something that keeps your mind off existential dread and the growing certainty that your career prospects might have better luck running as an
Newsletters
News From the Verse - October 2024
Howdy, Carl! Have I ever told you that sometimes, when I'm writing and a little stuck, I like to imagine writing directly to one of my readers sitting in their easy chair at home with a cute little pug in their lap? It's true! And since