I made these. 😊

Well, a press made the copies.
And the cover art is stock media under Free Content license.

But I wrote, revised, & designed the cover for this book I can't even hold yet!

🙃 At least I'm told the ARCs look good.

May 4! #ChildrenOfDoro

#Indie #SFF #SciFi #Humanism #Books #Publishing #IndiePublishing #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

https://www.amazon.com/Children-Doro-M-L-Clark-ebook/dp/B0BZ11RXG4

Hey, #WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity #Writing #SciFi #Fantasy #Horror #Writers #NaNoWriMo crew!

I just noticed that we don't have an active #StorySeed hashtag on Coso. And yet, there are so many bonkers news items, wild discoveries, & brilliant inventions, it seems a waste not to share anything that piques the imagination with others.

If you come across anything that makes you think "Oh, someone should write a story about that!", why not # the link? Let's build a shared pool of story ideas!

Morning, CoSo! 💫

My latest for #OnlySky took a while to write, because I wanted to make sure I included the many points of view in #SciFi, with respect to what Twitter's depreciation will mean for our literary economy.

Folks here won't be surprised when I say that our industry has *never* been just, & that I sorely hope we can learn from recent patchwork fixes.

(None of us are free until all of us are free, etc! 💪)

#CoSoWriters #Writing #WritingCommunity
#Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/what-next-twitters-complicated-role-in-the-literary-world/

I'm not doing #NaNoWriMo myself, but I *am* working on a novel draft at this juncture, & am 100% rooting for other writers pursuing similar.

So whether you're trying to complete 50k for the month, or working on another project with different ends and goals...

Hey! You're doing work that affirms the value of creative practice for us all.

Well done, you.

Be kind to yourselves in the process. ❤️

(& tell us about your projects, if you'd like to! 👀)

#CoSoWriters #WritingCommunity
#SciFi
#Writers

#SciFi #AmWriting #CoSoWriters

My early drafting process for a novel amounts to revising & expanding on the first 5-10,000 words before I can go forward. But! Each time through, the world feels more fully realized (the main characters a little more lived in) & the cadence of the whole starts to sing--so there's that.

I have to switch gears soon, to start work on an article I'm not so keen about--but I'll find a way to channel my dislike of the topic into something better. 😉

#Midjourney #AIArt

Today for #OnlySky (well, the first of two, I think - but coffee before I post the next), a TV review and some #SciFi talk.

Specifically, I look at The Peripheral: William Gibson's version, and the version presented by Amazon Prime in its freshly launched TV adaptation. Are you watching?

Sadly, a lot is lost in the choice to soften the class politics in Gibson's future thinking. ⬇️ When *will* we get better at bringing class into the equation?

#CoSoTV
https://onlysky.media/mclark/the-peripheral-plays-it-safe-with-william-gibsons-future-thinking/

Four-hour novel-writing window before evening classes. 🙌

#AmWriting #SciFi #ThatThucydidesLife

Oh! But now for something more positive! 🎉

#CoSoBooks! #SciFi! #Fantasy!

The second half of my review for Strange Horizons of the inaugural Ursula K Le Guin prize shortlist is up!

As I said before, when sharing Part I, there's a rich range of work on offer in these nine books, so if you need something to help you think about better futures, dig in!

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/ursula-k-le-guin-prize-for-fiction-shortlist-2021-part-two/

💫 Woo! I came home to notification that a review of mine was up. 🎉

#CoSoBooks! #SciFi! #Fantasy!

I was thrilled to review the inaugural Ursula K Le Guin shortlist for Strange Horizons. This list of nine books contains a wealth of different approaches to building a better world - just a killer range of styles and plots - and I'd be *very* surprised if there wasn't something for every kind of spec-lover on it.

Part 1 below! 🔽

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/ursula-k-le-guin-prize-for-fiction-shortlist-2021-part-one/

Started work in earnest today on my next #SciFi novel, a space opera inspired by Thucydides & dealing with ethical dilemmas in wartime. Major question of the work: How can one build proactively when others' destructive actions constantly compel triage-based response?

Process differs for every writer: I'm of the school that endlessly revises the first 20% of a story before I can finish the draft; I need the initial cadence *just* right to set a tone for the rest.

Still, it's a start! #AmWriting

Woo! A new #SciFi story up at Clarkesworld. 🎉

This one belongs to my Partnership universe, which in short fiction centers on a planet full of advanced mysteries. This tale skips forward to a time when the locals have asked all visitors to leave, but one Partnership officer (& her crew of three cranky bots!) has to collect any survivors of a crashed civilian ship.

As ever in these stories, it's our own assumptions we have to surmount, to better understand our world.

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clark_10_22/

I'm nearly ready to submit my 9-book review of the inaugural Ursula K. Le Guin Prize shortlist - but outside award purposes, I just want to call your attention, #CoSoBooks #SciFi, to How High We Go in the Dark.

It's been promoted as Cloud Atlas meets Station Eleven because it spans character contexts & a plague. But it's much more than that. It's a meditation on how our humanity relentlessly shows up in how we acculturate to new stories of death & dying. Strong Buddhist vibes, & a lovely read.

Woo! Mid-month Patreon post! This one is free-to-read for accountability, because in it I go through my novels to date & discuss the next work-in-progress - which I hope to finish a lot faster than the first three!

And yes, it's often dangerous to talk about a new project ("talking" can distract from *doing*!), but I'm very keen to start on my next labour of love, history, & humanist SF. So no worries there. Hope you'll get to read it one day! 🤞

#Writers #Writing #SciFi
https://www.patreon.com/posts/so-it-goes-on-to-71949404

Woo! Story sale! 🎉 It's been a few years since my last in ANALOG, but I also don't send out stories unless I think they're a good fit. This one, at the edge of our solar system, features an oddball crew, its superstitions, & a mystery in the Oort. Figured it'd be just right for the hard-SF space-action-loving mag, & they agreed!

This'll probably be my last sale for a bit, while working on Novel #4, but it's always a joy when a story finds a home. 👌 The market's fierce, folks!

#Writers #SciFi

👋 Happy Tuesday, CoSo!

Today for #OnlySky, something a little different. Ray Nayler is a #SciFi writer to watch and follow if you don't already, so I had a chat with him about his first novel, a richly #Humanist (and then some!) near-future SF that asks pressing questions about ourselves and our systems, and which publishes October 4. It has cephalopods! Advanced AI! But most important of all? A deep dive into systematic thinking.

Worth your time and consideration! ⬇️ https://onlysky.media/mclark/lets-talk-humanist-science-fiction-an-interview-with-writer-ray-nayler/

#ScienceFiction #SciFi #Fantasy #Horror & #SpeculativeFiction #Writers! Are you part of #SFWA, or interested in that slice of the SFFH world?

If so, let's build up some hashtag chatter here around it, shall we? #CoSo offers so much space to develop new conversation feeds around our loves and interests. So let's make it a lively place, & grow our #WritingCommunity wherever we can!

What are you working on right now?

Or maybe... what SHOULD you be working on, while exploring #CoSo instead? 😂 😬

Happy #AlienDay2022! 👾

Fellow #SciFi #Writers! #WritingCommunity! What are you working on today?

My goal is to finish the first draft for a piece set in a world I've explored thrice before in #Clarkesworld. It's set on an alien world that human colonists were asked to vacate generations ago, after we made a real hash of things. Can local ties be restored when rescue comes for a lost civilian vessel?

#AmWriting!

On the #scifi #sciencefiction #speculativefiction front? I'm a published author, with stories in venues including #Clarkesworld, #Analog, & #FantasyAndScienceFiction.

My work tends to feature really "alien" aliens, AI, & nonhuman animality, & routinely grapples with alternative justices & social contract theory. My agent & I are currently looking for a home for my first novel, which is... pretty much The Brothers Karamazov in space. (No, really! Dostoevskyean SF!) Working on the next book now.