Update 10/24/2025

A major announcement and another that's almost as cool.

First Things First!

It’s time to officially announce:

Illegal Astronauts (the 1st book in the Illegal Astronauts series) is planned to be release on January 2nd, 2026!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the universe of Illegal Astronauts, the book will be pitched on store fronts something like this (pending additional editing):

Earth is gone.

From the ashes of the most devastating conflict in human history, a new breed of spacer has emerged. Space-A-Gades: illegal astronauts, privateers, and thrill seekers who carve their living out from the fractured frontier worlds and in the concrete jungles of the city-planet Uruk; the new heart of inhabited human space.

Among them is Cobalt. A drifter aboard the Knorr; a ship whose captain takes whatever jobs keep its crew flying. On a routine “milk run,” Cobalt discovers a new anomalous catalyst. A fragment of infinite stellar possibility tied to the elements that put the science of plasmatic fusion and near-FTL travel into the hands of humankind. This new, unknown power thrusts the Knorr’s crew into a dangerous game of espionage, betrayal, and survival.

As the covert forces of the Syndicated Corporations and the Outcast Clans begin to close in, the crew must decide who will rise and what freedom among the stars is truly worth.

Illegal Astronauts is a semi-hard science fiction adventure with deep lore and trenchant wit about loyalty, power, and what it really means to be free.

Book One of the Illegal Astronauts saga.

The plan is for the book to be available on January 2nd, 2026 on Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing in both an eBook and a Softcover version.

But, there’s a lot more to come! So, make sure you’re subscribed here (even for Free!) for all the latest information. In the mean time, feel free to check out the Illegal Astronauts website for the full informational download.

But That’s Not All

With the Illegal Astronauts novel on deck, the first part of the Wizzards Series now in your hands, and a whole bag full of projects in the queue, you might be wondering how the Substack fits into all this.

And that’s exactly what I’ve been pondering these last few weeks too.

For those that have been around here a while, you might already know my skillset falls into a wide range beyond that of writing alone. With that in mind, it’s become clear to me that the current definition of this feed has become constricting to the creative outcomes I’m pursing and needs to be expanded.

As such, The World’s of Marshall B McCloude is now described through Substack as:

An extensive collection of professional work across video, short stories, poetry, and computer science all made by yours truly.

What this means for you, is that you can continue to expect to receive written work here with regularity. This includes the short stories, miniature pieces like haikus or prose, and the eBook editions of select pieces; all things that will benefit on the quality front from having more than a single week to produce.

However, some of the more philosophical writing is moving to a new home over at EOF (aka: End of File). This includes some popular posts that used to be here like Ascendite!. This is to foster the more professional, creative atmosphere of The World’s of Marshall B McCloude, while still having a place for the more introspective and extrospective works over on EOF.

Here on The World’s of Marshall B McCloude, you will also start to get a look into the other projects I’ve been working on outside the realm of creative writing. This includes one that those of you who are familiar with the 1994 game, XCOM: UFO Defense, might find very intriguing.

With this change, I am also aiming to open up the content formats here to be more than just a wall of text; as you see before you now. This will mean some video posts in the future are certainly possible, but the only way to know for sure is to subscribe.

I’m looking forward to showing off the work I’ve been banging out, and I hope you’re ready too!