M. CHRISTIAN . . .

Dammit, 2026! You take M. Christian on your first day!

For those of you who don’t know, M. Christian was a prolific, bestselling, award-winning author. I hate using the word was . . . They died January 1, 2026 of heart failure.

I’m reminded of what my high school health teacher liked to say: “For a lot of people, their first indication of heart disease is their death.”

What cruel universe!

They also saved my career, which I thought was over back in the 2000s. I was self-publishing ebooks of my novels, hoping someone would notice, and they sent me an email, asking if I was interested in putting out paperback versions.

After some correspondence, Cortez on Jupiter, High Aztech, Smoking Mirror Blues, and eventually, Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction Stories became available in professional-looking e- and trade paperback editions from Strange Particle Press. Meanwhile, La Bloga found me and I became known as the Father of Chicano Science Fiction. Some say I created a genre, but I was just trying to carve out a niche for myself, and I turned out to be the tip of the iceberg, and what was perceived as a ghetto was actually a galaxy.

But enough about me, M. Christian has written a lot of books; their Book Notification list is blurred out with a note:

THIS AUTHOR'S WORKS CONTAIN EXPLICIT ADULT MATERIAL.

PLEASE REGISTER OR LOGIN TO CONFIRM YOU'RE 18+

Ah yes, the sort of folks that publish me . . .

They've written science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and nonfiction (they were a Senior Columnist for The Future of Sex) 

They also are responsible for a number of anthologies. In the Science Fiction by the Numbers series, I was allowed to indulge in extreme abuses of the genre: Seven to the Stars, has my Victor Theremin story “Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs,” a light-hearted romp about the dangers of radioactive marijuana. Five to the Future has “Uno! Dos! One-Two! Tres! Cuatro!” inspired by the creature currently infesting the White House. Nine to Eternity includes “The Great Mars-A-Go-Go Mexican Standoff,” a perverse take on Mars colonization. There are also excellent stories by M. Christian, my wife Emily Devenport, and several other authors of note.

I also recommend their gay erotic thriller Finger’s Breath–one of the most outrageous novels I’ve ever read–their collections, Love without Gun Control and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M. Christian.

At least we still have these, and their many other books. I need to do some re-reading, and buying . . .

Did I mention that it really pisses me off the way writers tend to be forgotten soon after they die? Especially when they are friends of mine.

Meanwhile, the world-wide dystopia gets more apocalyptic every day without any new M. Christian books or stories . . .