A little beauty to start your week.

So much of nature has no idea what we humans get up to.

Let's not tell it, eh?

Let's dwell awhile among the flowers and the trees, the birds and the beetles, and speak of simpler things instead.

#CoSoNature #Colombia

#AFSR #SFF #ScienceFiction #audiobook #Reading

Hey folks! This one's free-to-read.

Chapters 15 & 16 are now up in audio and text format for A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, my wartime space opera inspired by Thucydides.

Each post includes some historical reflection, along with a summary of the story to date. Today we talk about the uncanny similarity of an old regional incident threatening to spill into greater war.

(History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes!)

Enjoy, if you do!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/113450749

😂 I thought I'd been very productive this morning, sending off five voice messages before three work emails. But then I saw this new piece show up and... honestly? I'm regretting introducing North Americans to WhatsApp. They don't know what to do with the VM function!

(Going to be listening to this one at 2x while doing chores, I tell you what!)

Okay, #MutualAid CoSo.

We have a big ask from CoSonaut trying to leave a high-cost space in the US and move back to be with her mother, whose condition is deteriorating here in Colombia.

@Blue_Skyesr_here needs to cover at least this month's rent, passport expenses, animal transport expenses, and maybe the plane ticket to start over.

I know that overall funding goal seems daunting, but every little bit will help to knock one item off the to-do list. Can you help a bit? https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/98eNldiBEw

All right, lovelies. What a day!

But for those interested in the #Zine, we have SO many ways to contribute now. Hopefully one of these will inspire something in you!

For Issue #2, we'll have a special section for #Ekphrasis: art and writing inspired by one of the two images below. Other inspired content welcome, too!

For Issue #3, we have a SPLIT between #Limerence (obsessive infatuation) and #CoSoAfterDark (naughty, saucy bits!). When these two meet in the middle, will sparks fly? We'll see!

My computer's in update mode, so I'm off for my weekend crossword & food column. From yesterday's paper:

1) Xmas street decorations are up across town! Woo hoo!
2) COP16 (the UN biodiversity conference) is gearing up in Cali.
3) Folks are concerned about rising violence in my department, Antioquia. On top of local cartels, though, I had to do a double-take: the issue is cartels from México, Perú, Venezuela, the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Dubai, &... CANADA?! 🧐 What?! Did I miss a memo?

#Colombia

You folks are menaces! 🙃 We have four chains going, and some very clear rule-breakers (but all in good fun).

If you want to see how the stories are progressing, here's the flowchart so far.

Check the thread if you want to add more! Each vein is going in a very different direction!

#ChainStory #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

@JGSchaeffer @AskTheDevil @corlin @Christmas_Snow @cassandra17lina @EileenKCarpenter @AverageCitizen @misterfive

Morning, CoSo!

The world says hello~

(At least, that's how I'm choosing to translate this. If the dawn is actually saying "Tremble, mortals, for time is fleeting and you are small and squishy", that works, too!)

Noticed a memorial in the skate park this morning:

"Skate united us and over time fortified an invaluable friendship, so many memories and moments we shared. Unique and highly valuable moments for each of your friends. SKATE FOREVER. We will always remember you and your lessons we'll keep in our hearts, as a counsel to wake up every morning with moral [virtue], as you always reminded us. 'Let's give it [our all] with [honesty/integrity], boys!"

Juan Esteban Cortés 1988-2024

❤️ What a tribute.

I love that my building (and so many like it here) routinely posts notices about how to live with other people well.

"Yo Soy Un Buen Vecino": I am a good neighbour.

I mean, some of these reminder posts are hilarious - reminding kids how to use the elevators respectfully, & pet owners to clean up after their animals - but this one covers the basics: seek dialogue and reconciliation, respect human dignity and difference, the rights of other humans.

Easy on a local level.
Tough on a global one!

I have some mindless data entry tonight, and I'm in a no-nonsense 70s mood for a background flick.

Should I watch Three Days of the Condor (Redford & Dunaway), The Last Detail (Nicholson & Quaid), Get Carter (Michael Caine, baby!) or Straight Time (Hoffman! Busey! Stanton! Bates!)?

#CoSoFilms

😂 Okay, I have to laugh--and then I'm into meetings for the next four hours.

This is a THANK YOU letter I got from Colombia's tax service, DIAN, for submitting my taxes on time.

Funny how Canada never used to send me similar, but... do you see the # under the arrow?

Only 4.6 million of the 52 million inhabitants in #Colombia paid on time this year. Which is fair, considering that half the economy is informal, but no wonder they're sending thank-you notes to those who can and do pay on time! 😂

TFW your nephew sends you an essay he's excited for you to comment on... and it's filled with a lot of reductive comments about gender.

I know it's a bid for dialogue, and the kid is still learning, so he's relying on me to be a safe place to explore what he's thinking--which I will be, while coaxing growth...

But first, I need to sit with the irony of needing to be calm in the face of sexism so I don't affirm prejudiced views, and throw him deeper into the current cesspit of teen messaging. 🙃

I had to pay cat tax on my way back from the local tienda, in the form of many head scritches and belly rubs to pass.

This local suck always runs ahead of me so that I have to pay cat tax twice or even three times on my return route!

Inflation be wild these days.
Plan accordingly!

#CatsOfCoSo #Caturday

I'm having one of those days where it's difficult to care about any of my own work, because, like, what does any of it even matter, maaaan.

So, I am off to do a crossword with a friend, add more Spanish vocab to my ever-growing library (I especially love the turns of phrase I pick up from news articles and the food column every Saturday), and then...

Well, then maybe we'll try to get an SF story in a submission queue by day's end? We'll see if my heart's in it on my return. 🤷‍♀️

#TBLVibes

Because of the weird way that women in Hollywood are treated, my first experience of Maggie Smith was in Hook (1991), so I was shocked to see her look much younger in so much of what she did thereafter.

What a gift of a career, and a life. May we all be so fortunate to live to our fullest.

Oh, this hit close to home. 👌🏻 Gotta get those steps in during polycrisis!

Definitely interrupted a private moment this morning. #Flower and #NotFlower #BugFriends #Nature

Off to be in meetings all day. TTFN!

Tomorrow's a long day with more Zoom meetings, so I'm posting the weekend #Ekphrasis challenge early.

This one is a reverse challenge! I have here a very short story ("flash fiction"), and I'm encouraging writers, painters, photographers, etc, to let this person's work inspire a poem, a story, a painting, a photo: whatever you feel inspired to create this weekend, after reading it & sitting with its themes.

Post & boast what you create!

#CoSoWriters #WritingCommunity #CoSoArt #CoSoPhotography

I don't always come out of professional meetings with the voice in my head suddenly sounding like Foghorn Leghorn, with all the "what-for" I want to give to whoever's around, but today I did. 🙃

"Boy, I say, boy~!"