Paytron of the Arts

Paytron of the Arts

As seen in Analog magazine

Money can’t buy happiness, but it increases your chances… until his patron gives Zachary a harsh choice. Compromise his artistic vision, or lose funding.

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About the Book

R1000 stood before the two people. “Farewell, my human friends.” The robot lifted its head, looking past them, in the direction where cattle grazed and wheat grew on the former battlefields, where the plague wards now had empty beds. “You no longer need my help. Your future is yours to choose.”

They never saw R1000 again.

Zachary stepped back from the keyboard. The ending he’d just written echoed in his head. Destinies: Man and Machine. His best sci fi novel yet.

Thank God for Paytron. Not a scramble for nickels and dimes from a thousand fans, like that other service, but real money from a real, though anonymous, patron. Money enough to pay child support without needing a real job.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it increases your chances.

Until his patron gives Zachary a harsh choice. Compromise his artistic vision, or lose funding.

Zachary refuses to give in. He knows how to unearth secret information from the Internet. His patron won’t stay anonymous for long.

What will his patron say when Zachary shows up at his door?

—Previously published in Analog, January/February 2024

Details
Author: Raymund Eich
Genre: Science Fiction
Tag: Short Stories
Publisher: CV-2 Books
Publication Year: 2024
Format: ebook, trade paperback
Length: short story
ASIN: B0CW17CWKM
ISBN: 9798884250680
List Price: $7.99
eBook Price: $0.99
Raymund Eich

Raymund Eich is a science fiction and fantasy writer whose middle American upbringing is a launchpad for journeys to the ends of the universe.

His most popular works are military science fiction series The Confederated Worlds (novels Take the Shilling, Operation Iago, and A Bodyguard of Lies) and the Stone Chalmers series of science fiction espionage adventures (novels The Progress of Mankind, The Greater Glory of God, To All High Emprise Consecrated, and In Public Convocation Assembled). He has over ten other published book-length works and more than thirty published short stories. His short fiction has appeared in Odyssey, Analog, and the anthology Surviving Tomorrow, and has earned honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award in the Writers of the Future contest. His works are available worldwide in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook editions.

His most recent prior novel, Exploration 2127, was published in October 2021 by CV-2 Books (https://cv2books.com).

After circling the world by age five, he grew up in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. He earned a B.A. and a Ph.D., both in biochemistry, from Rice University. Though he’s no longer a working scientist, hundreds of papers cite his graduate research on the reactions of nitric oxide with heme proteins.

In addition to his writing career, he works in patent law, won a national quiz bowl championship, dabbles at golf and Python, is a husband and father, and agrees with Robert Heinlein that specialization is for insects.

He lives in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter. His last name has one syllable and is pronounced “eye-sh.”

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