Get THE LAST PRESIDENT For FREE This Week (STORY52 No. 10/52)

The final short story of the year is published. You can get “The Last President” for free until Friday on Amazon:

America stands before the most important decision of its political future: Democrats or Republicans? Who is better suited to lead a nation into an era in which artificial intelligence shapes the world of work?

A satirical short story about political power in the age of AI – by Michael Brig, approx. 1,000 words.

US Version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GCSHZD1P
German Version | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GCSCNMZP

As always there might be some delay with the free promo on Amazon depending on the country that you live in, but it should be set to free within the next couple of hours until the promo runs out on Friday.

If you liked it, please leave me a review on Amazon, thanks.

What I’m Going to Blog About in 2026

I’m going to stick with daily blogging. It’s fun, it helps me collect my thoughts, and it keeps me accountable.

What it doesn’t do—at least not very well—is increase blog traffic. As expected, the traffic spike I saw last month was mostly caused by scammers adding my site to their bot comment databases. I receive plenty of suspicious emails and replys about AI tools I should “recommend” to my readers, as well as automation services that promise to send me traffic and make me famous as easily as snapping a finger.

It’s all nonsense.

Real traffic is probably only about a third of what I saw last month.

Still, I’ll continue writing daily, as I enjoy daily tasks. Establishing a routine is basically half the battle. And blogging is a mostly free way to market my books—even if, for now, I’m only marketing them to a handful of regular readers.

Topics I’ll Write About Next Year

I’ll stick to the topics I’ve already started:

  • Blogging basics
  • SEO basics
  • Movie and TV show reviews
  • My author project

I’ll also publish regular updates on my goals for 2026:

  • Writing 12 books in 12 weeks (expect weekly updates)
  • Reading 52 books in 52 weeks, with a weekly book review
  • Monthly “Author in Progress” reports, sharing all my numbers in real time

In addition, I want to share my experiences with freelancing. I’ve been doing it for over a decade, and during that time I’ve had to reinvent myself more than once. For example, I used to make most of my income as a translator in the beginning. Around three to four years ago, translation work dropped by about 95%, largely due to ChatGPT and other AI tools. Still, the core principles of freelancing remain the same.

Adding Images and Graphics

In general, I need to think more about adding graphics and photos. I’m a writer first, so the text should always be the main focus. But an image here and a graphic there can make longer pieces easier to digest and give readers a much-needed break from pure text.

Tracking

In my report posts, I want to expand what I track. Especially with writing, it could be interesting to see how many words I can produce in a given amount of time. How long does it take to edit a 60,000-word book? How long does translating that same book take?

These are interesting questions to answer.

I’d also love to include numbers for book sales and Amazon KENP (Kindle Unlimited page reads). But to be honest, I’m not selling many copies right now, and there are usually only a handful of KENP readers each month.

So there isn’t much to report yet. If that ever changes, I’ll add it to the reports.

Writing Less Will Be a Marker of Human Writing Soon

AI can already churn out 1,000 words about a single topic. Ask it to write about writing, and within seconds it produces an article that would normally take an experienced human writer with knowledge about the theory of writing an hour.

This development will flood the internet with long-form blog posts produced at scale. Quantity will no longer be a signal of effort, skill, or insight in the era of AI.

To distinguish yourself from AI-generated content, writing less may be the better strategy.

  • Start with a clear idea.
  • Collect your thoughts around it.
  • Freely write your article about these thoughts.
  • Then compress it all into as few words as possible.

Focus on the density of meaning rather than word count. In an era where AI can generate endless text, clarity and minimalism may become the strongest signals of human authorship.

A Lesson from Wake Up Dead Man

I watched the third installment of the Knives Out franchise yesterday—and I liked it. It’s a good movie, and even one of the better films of the year. It’s obvious that everyone involved had a lot of fun making it, and that Rian Johnson is a smart writer.

Yes, he messed up Star Wars—but only because Kathleen Kennedy allowed him to. Johnson’s filmography proves time and again that he can write clever, original stories. Wake Up Dead Man is a great example of his ability to deliver smart, well-constructed plotlines.

That said, the one thing that almost made me give up on the movie was the first act. It’s simply too long. More than half an hour passes before we get the first murder victim. After that, the movie really picks up steam and keeps you on the edge of your seat. At times, it’s downright brilliant—just like the first two Knives Out films. But I can imagine some viewers dropping out during the first act because it drags a bit.

The best way to get people interested in your story is to start with a bang. Throw the audience straight into the action—just like Tom Cruise does in every Mission: Impossible movie.

Of course, you need to develop the plot and characters at some point, or you won’t have a story at all. But first, you have to capture the audience’s attention before they’re willing to invest in your character and plot development.

As great as Wake Up Dead Man is, I would have started with the murder and then used flashbacks to convey the plot and character development that’s crammed into the first act.

Still, I liked the movie—a lot—and I highly recommend watching it.

My New Book “Like A Rolling Stone” Is Available For FREE This Week (in German)

I finally finished editing the German version. You can now get it on Amazon for free until Friday.

It’s the first book of a series that I want to expand with a new release each year until I kick the bucket. The genre: Action-Thriller with a mix of conspiracy.

You can get your copy here: Like A Rolling Stone (German Edition)

The next couple of days I’ll work on the English translation. The goal is to have it ready before Christmas and give it away for free too. Just follow my blog to not miss the release.

As always, if you enjoyed reading my stories, please leave me a review on the platform of Lauren Sanchez’ husband. Thanks.