Adam Lee at #OnlySky was kind enough to read & review Then Raise the Dead Man High (unsolicited! woo hoo!).

His review offers an overview of the book's plot and core themes - but even better? In it, he thinks critically about the world I've created. I love when something I've written leaves readers itching to imagine other stories / ways to tell a story in the same universe. (That's when you know you've gotten under the skin!)

#Books #Indie #Publishing #SelfPromo

https://onlysky.media/alee/then-raise-the-dead-man-high/

All right, that's enough expecting even a glimmer of hope from the news today. 🙃 Between this and listening to If Books Could Kill's latest episode, on Fukuyama's The End of History, I'm just left feeling the profound *smallness* and real-world inefficacy of all our knowledge today. ...Time to work!

Today's a great day to revisit the differences between Sojourner Truth's actual speech, as transcribed by Marius Robinson for 1851 publication in the Anti-Slavery Bugle, &... the (in)famous version, the "Ain't I a woman?" caricature by Frances Gage, written in a false southern-slave dialect in lieu of Truth's New York low-Dutch accent, and published in 1863, in the New York Independent.

Context shapes so much of our "truth" - literally, in this case.

#BlackHistoryMonth

https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches/

On my way back after answering three messages and getting in one mile. Woo hoo! Happy day, all! #CoSoNature

Morning CoSo! 🤗 In the park for the first time in a while.

Just a mile today, as I reboot after a long lapse, and now listening to more messages. It's funny; it took a little while to get North Americans into using WhatsApp (South America's standard app), but after most got over their collywobbles with voice messages... they've started sending podcast-message-length VMs all the time. 😅 I chalk it up to our loneliness crisis, but I also listen at 1.5 speed as often I can. Happy Thursday!

And... it's live! This post is for Patrons in the tiers supporting my podcast & indie press work.

In it, I break out my new BookTube channel with a for-Patrons-only intro video, & talk about the next three videos that subscribers will see before everyone else.

The promo work, it lives! It lives! (With thanks to everyone for their support, and FULL awareness that I still have some more tweaks to make to audio filters. We live and learn!)

#BookTube #Indie #Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/first-booktube-78419675

Thanks again to everyone who helped me decide on a recording platform. I did some trial runs on OBS and it is fantastic. Just waiting for the lighting and noise levels to align in my neighbourhood, and then I'll have my first recording up for Patrons on my new tier.

This is so easy*, so I'm really looking forward to onboarding tons of video content in the coming months - indie press and podcast news alike! 🎉

(*Don't jinx it ML!)

In Colombia, you'll find stores like this everywhere, because the word "gorda/o" or "gordita/o" is as much a term of endearment as a physical descriptor ("fatty", but waaaay more loving).

You'll still get high end brand names with a limited range, but general stores frequently boast a range of model sizes, too.

It was *such* a culture shock when I first arrived, to realize that naming someone by a feature could simply be descriptive. We weaponize *so much* with our words in the West. #Colombia

Meanwhile, I make MANY errors in Spanish (including saying "haciendo errores" for years, even though in Spanish you *commit* errors), but I'd never make that one because I've learned the language as much from text as from the streets.

I also use all my silent "h"s in Spanish, but a lot of native speakers will write "an sido" or "emos ablado". It's pretty neat to see the ways that even differences in our errors tell on our language origins.

One thing I love about working in multiple languages is how much it highlights native-speaker errors - and reminds us all to resist language elitism. This fellow corrected the error he saw, but not the one given to him by common usage in his native tongue.

This is the equivalent of writing "couldn't of" instead of "couldn't have" in English - a common phonetics-based error. The speaker here has heard "bendiga" spoken aloud more often than he's seen it, & the "b" sounds like "v" in its position.

Afternoon reminder to humble myself before the terrible-beautiful immensity of our shared and fleeting world.

#CoSoNature #Colombia

#Wholesome moment on a long bus ride in the afternoon heat.

Teen beside me, 13 to 15, is listening to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" with sincere enjoyment.

Rick Rolling isn't as well known in Colombia, which helps, but still - what an adorable reminder that the classics can just *hit*, you know? #CoSoMusic

Sometimes when I follow the news for incidents with high death tolls, all I can think is "How does the sight of so many rich, complex microcosms suddenly lost to war, disaster, hate, disease, and/or negligence not bring out more of our better natures?"

That so many of us manage to cling to petty grievances, or even react with callous malevolence, when we could be deepening in care, gratitude, & connection instead, is... certainly a testament to human perseverance.

Just not in the best of ways.

Every now and then I'm reminded how many people these past 7 years have felt increasingly emboldened in their indifference to the loss of rights for queer, feminized, BIPOC, cash-poor, houseless, trans, displaced, foreign, & disabled human beings.

Yesterday a Canadian acquaintance tried to launch a "neutral" defense of P*terson & T*te. Because to him the harm such people do isn't real or relevant.

I was surrounded by *so* many similar folk up north.

No wonder I was sick at heart all the time.

Also, I love that CoSo is nerdy-knowledgeable AF & supportive AH. It sets a high standard for the rest of us - & especially for me, with the Python project I've set myself to shake off a decade's rust. By year's end, if I don't run into problems with the build, I look forward to sharing Baby's First Language Learning Tool. Still staging out the project (i.e., trying not to be too ambitious!) but it should be a good way to go beyond what Duolingo can teach me about Arabic while growing in code. 🤞

Okay. Today after my main work, I'm recording for the Beyond Atheism podcast - which should be interesting. A great opportunity to talk about global humanism, if nothing else! Then tomorrow, I'll get back on track by recording four episodes of *my* podcast.

And after that?

Well, then I'd sorely like to take a stab at recording my first BookTube piece *at last* (for Patrons first!). I'm torn between camera phone & laptop, though. Any recs for (free) PC video recording, so I can test them both?

Gooood morning, CoSo! 💫

New week, new vibes.

Well, except that today's piece for #OnlySky is bleak.

In it, I pull together some grim intel related to oil sanctions against Russia in December, and also starting yesterday.

This ties into other commentary I've made about oil imperialism and how it weakens our ability to act effectively against global transgressors.

Even if these sanctions only illustrate that we waited too long - could we really have done any better?

https://onlysky.media/mclark/oil-sanctions-at-last-and-maybe-too-late/