About Mac
Mac' Chandler is supposedly retired. At the end of 2022 I moved from Rochester MI to the milder climate of North Carolina and a condo without steps much more suited to my age. (75 as I write this)
Writing is still fun and I intend to continue as long as my mind stays fresh. I'm not a expert on English or a skilled grammarian but I love to tell a story. I thank all the people who take a moment to tell me they enjoyed my work.
Yes! Thanks Mac!
you caught me in the middle of reading Paper or Plastic for the first time!!!! grrrrrr
you couldn’t have waited one more day to publish??? LOL
YAHOO! Thanks Mac
I was up at 1 am, why did I not check the blog then. Thank you.
Ben.
PS: I can read books with out a cover, if you can publish them quicker š
Wasn’t up until mid-day.
And bought. Now if you excuse me, I have to call in sick for tomorrow š
WOW I’ve been jonesing for an April fix! Thanks. Just finished rereading all of my accumulated Mackey Chandler books. Thanks.
Richard
Woo hoo going to go purchase RIGHT NOW thanks
Just clicked buy NOW!
Canāt think of a better way to spend a holiday weekend than binge reading a few April books, shutting out the crazy and hoping against hope that we can make it to Macās future.
Unfortunately, it looks like weāre trending towards George Millerās Mad Max version ….
I WILL read this slowly, I will read this slowly, I will…. shit who am I kidding, I’ll devour this book like I do every bookd when my eyes work okay.
Bough and reading right now. š <3
Reread All in Good Time last weekend knowing this new book was close. And now it’s here.
Thank you, sir.
Sara Hoyt does fantastic covers. Thanks to her, also!
Really liked the book. Without spoiling anything, I have to stay vague, so I’ll simply say that it ended 5 pages too early. I would really like to see the other parties reaction after they had time to think about it.
One thing that sprang out to me is Annette’s bonus for the sale of Camelot. (that should be unimportant enough to mention here.)
Jeff mentioned that he would pay her the same as the realtor, which is 5 per cent. Half of what he got is 4 tons of gold and if he paid out Annette’s bonus from the gold portion only, she should get 10% of that.
I was eagerly awaiting Dakota’s face when 400 kg of gold is delivered for her daughter, so I was very disappointed and quite baffled when she got 2 lousy gold bars š
Did a decimal point jump two spaces?
I agree with all of your points. It was a great. It ended too early, and 5% of 8 metric tons would have been 400kg, not 4kg.
I read the book on KU, will wait 48h to make sure they counted that and Mac will get his money from it, then going to buy it outright.
Is 48 hrs long enough? Itās a moot point for me because I just started re-Reading the series and Iām only up to book 4.
KU pages read should should automatically be counted instantly based on your reading position. Waiting 2 days after finishing reading the KU version before buying it outright is “just in case”….
I have no idea if there is any waiting period. It’s another of many Amazon mysteries.
Math is odd so correct this if I’ve got it wrong. This isn’t easy to find. Using the sloppy London good delivery bar specs I am using 400ozt. Their purity spec seems … lacking as well.
One tonne = 1000 kilograms = 32150.746 troy ounces
(400 * 32150.746)/400 = 32151 400 troy oz bars
(((400 * 32150.746)/400)/100)*5 = 1608 400 troy oz bars
Now if we convert that to Mitsubishi bars….it’d be a fine joke and 80 bars.
So the broker and Annette both get somewhere around a billion in fake fed bucs each.
Math is odd because it’s overly complicated. You made it way too hard for yourself by converting kg to oz so early.
It’s easier if you keep it in kg right to the end, then convert what Annette actually gets into troy ounces.
That would give us 4 [not 400 – the price is ‘only’ 4 tons] times 1000 times 10% [not 5% – Jeff gave Annette her bonus purely from the Gold part instead of Gold + aussi$, so she gets twice 5%]
That gives us an easy 4000 / 10 = 400kg
Which we can put into the converter you used. Given that I’m too lazy to look for a converter, I’m gonna take 40% of your 32150.746 oz and we land at 12.860,2984 oz
That in turn can be divided by the 400 oz per bar for 32.15 gold bars.
Close enough to the 32 bars that are in the book now.
He delivered two bars and some cases. The two bars were loose after he divided it.
āTwo of them?ā she asked finally. āYep, four hundred ounces each,ā Dakota assured her. Earthies call them a London Good bar or a LBMA. But the two are the overflow. The rest are in three crates on the floor.
Chandler, Mackey. Who Can Own the Stars? (April Series Book 12) (p. 220). Kindle Edition.
Spoilers…
Thanks Mac, good tie-ins and fills between the two series. Iāve been curious how you were going to handle some of these issues.
Presumably there will be a few more April books at least to tie up all of the dead ends ?
Both series are great, but itās particularly nice to see them merged as they are now at the conclusion Friends in the Stars.
I appreciate all of the writing, effort, and good work.
Cheers!
Mac, do you want spelling errors, etc sent to you?
I have found a few here and there. otherwise, a great read as usual.
keep up the good work.
In chapter 7 who asks Arlo about horses? It says Eileen but later Alice is embarrassed about asking a stupid question. Seems like it should be Alice asking.
Loved the book!
I seem to remember there was about a hundred years between April and Family Law. You seem to be filling in the changes a lot faster than that. This book alone introduced X head missiles and the beginning of the commission.
I’ll check it – making a note right now.
And the next book will be ready when??? Very enjoyable read, nice setup of Family Law history. I guess I’ll do another read through of the series waiting for the next installment.
Beautifully done, as always Mac.
Loved it. Review is up. Will be rereading soon as usual.
Thanks for a review.
I’ve looked into this more closely, and there are two issues with australian dollar vs. solar vs. grams of gold valuations:
1)
In “Been there, done that” the coffee on the shuttle was “thirty dollars Australian or one bit”.
A bit being 0.01g of gold, that would put a 25g gold Solar at A$75000.
Given an offer of “one point nine billion Australian dollars or discounted to eight metric tons, if paid in gold”, and 8 metric tons being 8000 kg, 1kg being 40 Solars, making this this 320000 Solar, would put the 25g gold Solar at A$5937.50. That’s a pretty hefty discount.
It’s later sorta-kinda implied that the offer of “eight-hundred million Australian dollars and four tons of gold” is about equal value each, which would put the 25g Solar at A$5000.
So the valuation of A$ to solar is off in one of these places.
2)
āGiven the fiction that the payments are roughly equal, Iāll give each of them sixteen thousand solars. At least on account. I have no idea what form Iām getting. Weāll have to coin it, Iām sure.ā
16000 Solar is 5% of the originally offered 8 metric tons (which are 320000 solars). So that’s fine.
āThatās four kilograms. Thatās generous, not making them take junk dollars like you are. If they arenāt happy with that, theyāre greedy. It wasnāt that long ago we struggled to raise any cash,ā April remembered.
There are 40x 25g Solars in a kg, so 16000/40= 400kg.
So, yeah, this is definitely off.
I hope this gets resolved in an update, or it’s going to forever nag at me.
I think the A$5k to A$6k for 25g range given that the current value is about A$2.4k for 25g see (https://www.perthmint.com/metalprices.aspx) and statements throughout the series seem to indicate that the Australia dollar managed to maintain its value reasonably well, A$75k seems very unlikely as that’s almost 40 times the current value unless the Australian dollar has taken a loss somewhere that was indicated in the statements in the series if I had to project based on the statements and today’s gold price I’ve have estimated A$8k to A$12k, however, given that Australia dollar was strengthened by the US and EU crashes, te A$5k to A$6k could be reasonable based on the general loss of value from the worlds economic collapses this could have causes effective deflation in Australia Dollar.
That’s why I said “it’s off in *one of these places*” š
Will be looking at that after coffee and brain is braining.
Hi Mac,
Spoilers…
Just rereading Friends in the Stars and noticed that Jeff is still claiming to be Lord of Camelot (although he doesnāt mention it by name) towards the end of the book when they are playing baht at the Bottom Berth.
Seems to be an inconsistency since he sells off Camelot in Who Can Own the Stars… maybe he repossessed it some in the intervening 100-odd years?
Or perhaps you have plans for the scenario that we havenāt seen yet. FYI in case it was a miss. Great book as always!
I re-read friends in the stars and realized I had a conflict. Rather than wipe out a major action in the new book I just removed about three paragraphs in ‘Friends’. Thank you.
Great Book!
I do have some comments, [Edit, re-reading: These might sound like criticisms and it has taken too long to write for me to re-write it, please do not take this in a bad way, I am more confused then in any way upset]
1. Yeah I agree with several people above that your currency math is wrong… 5% should be 400 kg, $800 million AU should be around 32,000 solars (which is 800 kg not 8 tons). etc… I also found Jeff and April’s uncaring attitude about getting billions of dollars rather inconsistent. We know they are wealthy but just back in book 10 they were “amazed” at Heather’s french mills giving them 500 solars a year.. Now only a year or so later they gloss over a gain of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of solars? Weird.
2. A side point, I really never understood why Jeff would have wanted to manage Camelot in any case.. It always seemed a “pig in a poke” with no value only expenses.. For that matter Heather and Jeff’s desire for Mars polar regions also seemed REALLY foolish. Horrible Neighbors (Mars and Earth) and they have star drives to get a MUCH better planet than Mars. Why would they borrow trouble getting Mars territory? Seems like you are just setting them up for “Drama” reasons.
3. The Hawaii house also seemed a bad investment from Book 2. April paid more than twice as much (maybe 3x?) on that house then she did for her apartment on Home (like 8.7 million + unknown upgrades for house vs. 3.7 million apartment) and now only by book 12 did she spend the night and it was again ‘glossed over.’ Was this Hawaii’s house only purpose to support the friendship of Nick/Diana? April commented MANY times how she was embarrassed or otherwise concerned at her apartment cost and maybe only once did she bemoan the Hawaii house.. again.. Weird.
(( I know that her Home Apartment by book 12 is a LOT more valuable, but that just pushes my point that should should have spent that money on more Home real estate or be buying space on Beta.))
4. We know April / Jeff are very smart and savvy investors but their actions seem to indicate they are more ‘lucky than good’ or just not optimizing their time. Jeff is spending time on whiskey distilling.. um huh? He is now a billionaire and spending time on being a poor brewer? I think a book quoted “premium whiskey being 1,000 UCAS / bottle” but Jeff’s capacity was only around 2,000 liters? Even if he expanded ten times that and actually got full price for his mixing whiskey that is only 20 million UCAS / year (maybe 100-200 solars?) pocket change by this point. Jeff already stated that he has NO free time, cannot design spaceships anymore, and he is doing this?
I guess I would like to see Jeff push the boundaries of tech like he did at the start. He needs to start building A.I, jump drones, terraforming tech, improved automation, construction…
Mostly I really want to know the reason why they are still sticking around the Sol system?
Will be looking at that today – may change numbers a bit. Have to add that he decided to pay the bonus all in gold to not make them deal with fiat.
I caught another conflict nobody seems to have found – will look at the gold amounts and possibly edit it. I’ve updated it four times already for a couple conflicts and a bunch of quote marks – mostly missing but a couple extra, and some other typos. I’ve been told there needs to be more celebration in all the books. This is probably a result of a character defect. My wife has always remarked if I won the big lotto I’d say “Oh, that’s nice.”
Oh I dont know, if you send me a London Good Delivery Bar, I’ll celebrate for you! It is so interesting to see the background actions that go into your writing, it actually makes the books that much more enjoyable to me.
I held a bar like that once. You don’t want to drop it on your toes.
I’ve watched them poured. In the summer of ’78, I sold an old bullion melting furnace to a new gold mine in NW Quebec. Foundry delivery times for a new one were on the order of 48 months. I sold them an old furnace “as is” from my dad’s scrap yard (he was in the used mining equipment biz), including slag pots and brick molds. As we were getting ready to ship, I noted that the old brick mold bottoms were still covered with gold. So I delayed the shipper for a few days, cut the furnace open, chiselled the gold from the cracks in the refractory cement lining and from the brick molds, vacuumed up the dust, and sent the lot to the Johnson-Mathey refinery in Brampton. Netted enough from 2 days of work to pay for my entire ride at U of Toronto MBA school. Caught near the peak price too.
OK after two mugs of coffee and looking at the book I screwed up too bad to let it stand. She should have gotten 32 LBMA bars not two. I’ll fix it in the book.
Fixed it as follows:
āAnnette, what is going on?ā Dakota asked her.
āI told you I was leaving Camelot, Mum. I got a call from Jeff yesterday that he closed his deal to sell Camelot. We agreed Iād just leave when that happened with no further notice. You know how crazy those people have been. We wanted to avoid any unpleasantness. I took a hopper to Armstrong and I wanted to do some shopping before I come home. Iāll take the morning bus and be home tomorrow. Iām not in a rush to do anything. I want to take a few days off before I start thinking about what to do next. Jeff indicated he might be able to get me some specialized training. Did somebody from Camelot call and worry you?ā
āNo, a courier service just called and asked if I could receive a shipment from Jeff for you. I told them to route it here to my office rather than at home. If you were going to buy a nice courier bag at Armstrong donāt bother. They gifted you with a lovely one.ā
āThatās nice. Jeff probably told them to do that,ā Annette guessed. āHe indicated he was going to pay me a bonus for everything I did to make Camelot viable and more valuable. He offered to put it in an account for me but you already handle my money for me and Iām happy with that. Heās supposed to pay me in cash and I probably wonāt spend it. Iāll just keep it as a keepsake of my first real job. I never keep any cash so it will be nice to have some. The bag is a nice touch. He can be so strange Iām surprised he was so thoughtful.ā
āDid he tell you how much he intended to gift you?ā her mom asked.
āJust that itās the same as the real estate ladyās fee. Itās a bonus, a gift, so I didnāt want to seem crass and ask how much right away.ā
Dakota just nodded. She had raised the girl not to be demanding or avaricious.
āWell, he didnāt send any coins so it may be awkward spending it,ā Dakota said, āHe sent two of these in the bag.ā
She hefted a long gold bar the size of a demi-baguette in front of the camera to display it.
Annette looked at it uncomprehending for a moment.
āTwo of them?ā she asked finally.
āYep, four hundred ounces each,ā Dakota assured her. Earthies call them a London Good bar or a LBMA. But the two are the overflow. The rest are in three crates on the floor. Like the bag they were kind enough to leave the hand cart for them.ā
āHow many in the cases?ā Annette asked, shocked.
āTen in each. Two layers of five bars. They have Earthie makings on them so apparently he just reused the cases in which he took delivery.ā
āI take it back. He thinks thatās funny to have that delivered because I was too nice to ask what my bonus would be.
āNo, you were right the first time. Heās strange. If he did it as a joke that would be a sign heās improving at social things. On the other hand, we may look back and laugh at it later. Thatās the nature of absurd experiences. If I were you, I wouldnāt complain about it. But I think one would suffice as a keepsake. You canāt relate, but on Earth, weād be joking about putting these two into service as a doorstop and paperweight,ā she said, hefting it for the camera again.
Annette smiled and nodded, she had no idea why youād want to stop a door from cycling or press paper but resolved to look up what those things were, later.
āCould you deposit them for me, just like you did my pay?ā Annette asked.
āNo, I think this is a good opportunity to make you learn to do your own banking and investment. Itās a good thing to know and part of growing up weāve put off. Iāll put these two on your com console dear. The rest will be stacked against the wall next to it. You can buy deep storage or pick a banker. That alone will be a learning experience for you. Theyāre your problem now.ā
Yeah, that fixes that part nicely. There is also a reference to “4kg” in another place, which needs to become 400kg. I assume you got that one already?
Maybe not – will search it. Nope, nope, and nope.
Hey Mac at about 33% you used suite when it should have been suit. I think a quick search in your software should find it easily. Actually were quite a few other editing errors but I just skipped over them.
Will look – sounds familiar may have fixed it.
Excellent book, thanks!
Now I’m rereading the Family Law books to see if Quentin Love makes a cameo in any of the commission scenes š
Not yet….
I see from FL4 that at that point, Jeff wasn’t a participant in the creation of the commission. But I like this fix from the April side of history.
It’ll be interesting to see how you reconcile it in the FL books if there’s another one, though š
Proof reading is getting better; still homonyms – if I find them and report them through Amazon does it ever get back to you?
Yes, but it’s easier just to e-mail me. mchandler@ameritech.net. I do fix them. This book has had four updates already form readers sending corrections.
Another great book Mac! Thanks so much
If you need a beta reader, I will volunteer — google docs is what some other authors are using and it works great for beta readers – I use Grammarly as well and it helps catch things here is my email if you want any help londsulgrove@gmail.com
Thank you – Maybe next year. But I don’t use Google.
Mac, I had a thought while reading āWho Can Own the Starsā for the second time. With the lack of horses available to Vic and Eileen and the surrounding residents of their part of California. Nevada has the largest number of wild horses in the US. It is just a thought do with it what you will.
nice, thanks
As Jeff sold Camelot what compensation was provided to the parties funding the casino – Irwin Hall & 5 others (plus Jeff, April & Heather).
Absolutely nothing despite the ceasation of the casino business.
—-
There are probably lava tubes in the ‘extinct’ volcanoes (Olympus Mons, etc) that could contain water and would make safe habitable spaces in Northern Mars. Areas that cooled quickly could have hexagonal columns of basalt that could be a useful flooring or that flooring could be made from manufactured basalt fibre.
One possible tourist activity could be CO2 surfing down a safe slope on a block of evaporating dry ice.
Another possible tourist activity could be visiting the summit of Olympus Mons the highest known point in the solar system.
Thought I had him buy them out but will search it.
You did.
Chapter 7
āI had some investors to start up the casino, but none of them were interested in taking it over even after it was profitable. Instead, they have begged off and asked to be bought out one by one.ā
OK as Heather didn’t want anything out of Camelot that still leaves April as neither of them would’ve pulled capital even if Irwin and the five others did.
Also that makes a deal Irwin Hall did ask to break with Jeff when he said he never would break a contract.
Asking to be bought out isn’t breaking a contract.
depends on the contract
No, it really doesn’t.
Demanding to be bought out might, but asking? That would be a very strange contract indeed, and not one I could ever see happening above the atmosphere.
Hi Mac,
I stumbled upon a reference to a Dr Eugene Podkletnov doing anti gravity or gravity reduction research back in the 1990ās using rotating superconducting disks. Now Iām curious if Jeffās gravity devices were based on Podkletnovās research claims? Just curious – seemed like to strong of a coincidence, but I confess I havenāt searched back through the old books to see if Jeff made mention of prior art. If Jeffās devices are based on the Podkletnov research, then I must conclude you are extremely well read! Keep up the good work. Looking forward to new episodes in your continuing stories.
Best regards
Yeah. Read his stuff a long time ago.
Forgot to mention that Podkletnovās latest research seems to support a āgravity lanceā-like device as well. Cool stuff!
I’ started rereading the series again and I’m doing it slowly for once since dumb things are happening to me, sickness stuff so don’t bother making a fuzz. But then during reading the first April book something jumped out at me, not because it is wrong or untrue, rather the opposite. It is so true that it should be said again and again, but in a different way.
“I wish we could count on a few youthful geniuses, to invent whole new industries in their garage, like they did a hundred years ago'”
Patents and restriction of use has killed off innovation in older fields of study, so there is no point in wishing when laws stops you from even trying basic things due to ownership of ideas. New ideas happen everyday, but limited to what people can more or less freely use, like 3D printing. Everything else happen with money backing.
Well it is really simple, lock a whole bunch SI-Fi writers in a room and say no food or water until
you invent something new. š
Umm Maybie not, I want to read more “APRIL” and “FAMLY LAW”.
Iām confused. In family 5 (100 years in future), Jeff says heās Lord of a town on the moon and will copy the casino game for them. Do you intend to have it dumped back on Heather and returned to Jeff?
No, I just messed up and forgot about that. I removed a couple paragraphs to eliminate that rather than remove a big long section of the new book. If you force a reload it will be fixed. The majority of my books can be improved by a reload since I’ve been going through and editing them for typos and grammar. I’m in the middle of cleaning up Family Law #3 right now – it will be updated in a maybe two days. Amazon won’t push them out unless you can show them it is a significant new edition, but most people tell me they can delete and reload.
Thought you may find this interesting https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/amp34096117/nasa-nuclear-lattice-confiment-fusion/, this is similar to how Jeff’s device is described to work, though still not quite cold fusion, from the sounds of it.
Ha… I was just coming here to post that link š
Are the corrections to the book uploaded already?
I started to reread it and came across chapter 18. Still the same, despite deleting the book and re-downloading it (from amazon.de in case that matters).
If the corrections are up already, how do I get the newest version?
Never mind, google is your friend.
For those who don’t know either, you have to go into your amazon library (whatever that’s called in English) and manually press the update button below the book. Simply deleting the book on your device and re-downloading doesn’t work.
PS Yes, the update is there, in case that was unclear^^
Thanks I didn’t understand that either.
Thanks for posting – It took me some time to discover how it works.
I just reread April 12. Jeff buys a third of Mars like Heather. To get a third of a planets surface you need everything between ca. 40Ā° and the pol (90Ā°).
60Ā° to the pol (90Ā°) makes up only ca.13% of the planet, if you use polar coordinates. (If i didn’t miscalculated).
Did I even give a latitude? I can’t remember. I usually avoid hard numbers just for reasons like that. You are talking surface area? Will make a note to check on next read through.
April 12 Ch.18 Ā°equal to what the previous government ceded to my Lady(Heather)Ā°
April 10 Ch.20 “entire southern polar cap down to the sixtieth parallel”
April 10 Ch.22 Ā°south polar region of Mars to the sixtieth parallel”
Surface area,yes.
Thanks. Consider it artistic license, please.
IĀ“ve been reading all of the April series and before that the stories around Lee Anderson and the Derf. I am now at the last and newest books and IĀ“m craving another 20 books in that universe.
Thanks for writing amazing books
Thanks – working on it.