Final read-through of the ARC today - & I'm taking notes for future BookTubes, which I'll record tomorrow (🎉!).

The thing is, The Brothers Karamazov is shaped around Catholicism, so to make a humanist version I had to create a whole new cultural canon, The Sunmaster's Journey (as one species calls it), to inform my book's worldview & disagreements. Many Sunmaster tales are embedded in Children of Doro; it's easily the richest world I've ever constructed. (But more soon on all of that!) #Writing

Relatedly (good morning CoSo!) - if you had to have one modifier in front of your name for the rest of your life, what would you want it would be, and what do you suspect it would be?

Me? I'm shooting for "odd duck M L Clark".

🦆 & now this pato is out for a waddle. 🏃‍♂️

Ooo, now this is how you do it. Just never let his name show up without similar identifiers ever again. 👌

I'm not going to get to see it for a while, but I just saw promos for Bob Odenkirk's latest piece, an adaptation of a riotously good campus novel by Richard Russo, and I really hope everyone with access to Lucky Hank enjoys the heck out of it. (Bonus points if you've ever been caught in the fray of post-secondary teaching yourself!) #CoSoTV

Oh, I am ridiculously happy with how this novella is turning out.

It draws on a concept I didn't use for Then Raise the Dead Man High (another story where ghosts cycle through the fullness of life after death), but am here putting into play for a near-future tale about one person's need to get out of their own "loop" (clinging to a life made untenable by climate change) in time to build something new.

Subbing it to Psychopomp when finished. Fingers crossed!

#AmWriting
https://psychopomp.com/novella-guidelines/

😊 Writing time*! Writing day***!

*It's almost always writing time.
**But today is a fiction day! 🎉

Happy Saturday, CoSo!

Okay. I have revamped my cover and made changes to internal formatting. Too tired for a full final edit, but I'm *definitely* still going to get some new writing in tomorrow morning.

(Besides, it's the weekend. It makes more sense to schedule an email for SFWA-program consideration for Monday morning anyway.)

Night, all! Happy creating, for those who do!

#IndiePublishing #Indie #Publishing #SFF

Now for a walk, and then it's time to improve my book cover, revise the ARC one last time, and finish related promo materials to send out an application for consideration to SFWA's NetGalley program, which helps selected indie authors get lower-cost access to a terrific, high profile review service.

Lots to do! Fingers crossed I can get it all done tonight, &... start new fiction tomorrow morning? 🤞

(& Happy St. Paddy's for those who celebrate. And STAY HYDRATED depending on how hard you do!)

Okay, CoSo.

As promised - and getting back to my cynical roots! - today for #OnlySky, here's a deep dive into histories of falsehood to fortify us as we think about the challenges posed by machine learning today. (Also, some fun movie recs for #CoSoFilms!)

We have been here before. All our kindest "truths" have always required monumental social efforts to maintain. And as long as there are new humans on Earth? They always will.

Let's get rollin', Sisypheans.
#Humanism https://onlysky.media/mclark/how-we-create-truth/

Just to reassure folks: The sender is AMAZING and has covered these costs. I had a wee heart attack in the moment, but this was also an incredible opportunity to remind folks that our "global" economy has a lot of extremely rigid national limits. I talk about some of them in the podcast series I was recording over the last month - but in general, just remember to take nothing for granted. Our institutions are all ever so much frailer than we realize.

🤦🏻 Bit of a learning curve this afternoon.

I always caution that mail in Colombia sucks. Because it does! Ground mail doesn't work, & express services cost a lot because of border fees.

Usually I'm paying those if shipping out (e.g. 60 bucks for a one-page legal doc to Canada).

Today I just paid the equivalent of a month's rent in border fees for a package in. Rough learning curve.

So, pro tip: keep your estimated value of an item LOW. Border fees are calculated on its basis.

#TheMoreYouKnow

Okay. I've received feedback about my design choices for the cover, and a beta read to help test book layout in different epub formats.

After I finish today's article, I'm going to refine the cover - because cover art matters *so much* to an effective eBook.

(If you're having trouble with sales, consider your design!)

Is the cover I have functional?

Sure!

But I can definitely improve upon it, and will.

(Article first, though!)

#IndiePublishing #Indie #Publishing #WritersOfCoSo #AmWriting

I love my home but I operate under no illusions about its complexity. Cocaine production at its highest (thank you world markets!), feminicide (19 women in my department this year), corruption, and massive protests for change. I love my home even more, to be honest, because *it's* under no illusions about its problems, either. No one's out here affecting an oppressive nationalism, pretending there aren't serious issues that need to be addressed. 👌🏻 #Colombia

“The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt—your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.”

Karl Marx, 1844

Sleep well, CoSo.
Being alive is the gift.