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Pip: C.J. Riley frames a monthly newsletter as a resistance transmission, and honestly, given what independent publishing actually demands, that framing earns its namesake. Mara: This episode follows that July dispatch — the creative infrastructure behind A Trickster’s War, a visual rebrand, a new collaborative project, and what it actually costs to build an independent fictional universe from…

A Trickster's War is blowing up! My Flash Fiction is being praised on Royal Road! Check out what the buzz is all about!

Pip: C.J. Riley opens with a question that feels almost embarrassing to ask out loud: did we just collectively forget how to read? Mara: This episode sits with that question — what’s pulling us away from books, and what we lose when attention becomes the scarcest resource we have. Pip: Let’s start with the attention economy and what it’s quietly doing to the way we think. Why We Stopped…

There is a difference between a dystopia that shocks and one that explains. Sunrise on the Reaping belongs to the second kind. Suzanne Collins is not trying to surprise us with The Hunger Games anymore. She is showing us how a system like Panem learns to perfect itself. A Description of things to come, like prequels tend to do.  The Inheritance of Violence Set decades before Katniss Everdeen…

By: C.J. Riley | A Political Theorist Series Scandals do not destroy nations. What destroys them is the slow realization that rules apply differently depending on who you are. The renewed attention on Jeffrey Epstein’s network has not ignited public fury because of prurience. It has unsettled people because it reinforces a belief long forming beneath the surface of modern democracies: that the…

By: C.J. Riley | A Political Theorist Series Scandals do not destroy nations. What destroys them is the slow realization that rules apply differently depending on who you are. The renewed attention on Jeffrey Epstein’s network has not ignited public fury because of prurience. It has unsettled people because it reinforces a belief long forming beneath the surface of modern democracies: that the…

Weekly Digest January 30th, 2026 Operation Emberlight — Transmission 012326 Operation Emberlight — Weekly TransmissionSource: V.O.X. Resistance NetworkClearance Level: Subscriber Eyes OnlyStatus: Ongoing Operations Mission Update: Post-Launch Status Citizens of the Resistance, The free access window for A Trickster’s War has officially closed — but the mission continues. The book is now…

By: C.J. Riley | Flash Fiction The elevator only went up. No matter which button you pressed, it rose. Basement. Lobby. Parking. Penthouse. All of them blinked in rhythm and ignored your complaints. The first time it happened, I laughed and assumed I was late and someone pressed before me. The second time, I pressed the emergency button, which connected me to a woman who sounded like she was…

By: C.J. Riley | A Political Theorist Series On January 27, 2026, an event that once would have seemed unthinkable in American political life unfolded in Minneapolis: a man approached U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar during a town hall meeting and sprayed her with an unknown liquid from what appeared to be a syringe. The substance, described by journalists present as having a strong, vinegar-like…

Weekly Digest January 23rd, 2026 Operation Emberlight — Transmission 012326 Source: V.O.X. Resistance NetworkTimestamp: 01/23/2026Clearance Level: Subscriber Eyes OnlyStatus: CELEBRATION BROADCAST Operation Update: The Trickster Has Risen Citizens of the Resistance, History was made this week. For a moment in time, A Trickster’s War climbed to #78 in Dystopian Science Fiction on Amazon’s…

Weekly Digest January 17th, 2026 Operation Emberlight: Launch Transmission – Victory Declared ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION: RESISTANCE UPDATESource: V.O.X. – Resistance AI NetworkTimestamp: 1/17/2026Clearance Level: Public – All Citizens Operation Status: Success — Deployment Confirmed Mission Report – The War Has Begun Citizens of the Resistance, The signal has broken through the static.After…

Weekly Digest January 15th, 2026 Operation Emberlight: Launch Window Transmission ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION: RESISTANCE UPDATESource: V.O.X. – Resistance AI NetworkTimestamp: 1/15/2026Clearance Level: Subscriber Eyes Only Operation Status: Approaching Deployment Mission Briefing – Final Read, Final Push Citizens of the Resistance, The final phase of A Trickster’s Warhas begun — and it’s a…