Well blow me over. Look what actually arrived! 😅 Mail is so hit-or-miss here that most everything gets lost along the way. These contributor copies took their time, but... they showed!

("The Last Romantic on the Belliponte" is about the impossible happening, though, so that's about right. 😉)

#SFF #Writing

(Also, I love the generic sticker for Penny Press Publications, suggesting that puzzle books are contained within. I mean... kinda?! But fiction is a different kind of brain teaser, no?)

Day 13: A two-hour marching band class and a massive cumpleaños party with vallenato karaoke kept me from my last writing stint (and sleep!) yesterday, so this morning started a bit late.

Nevertheless! Just going to keep on cracking. I have a novel MS to finish this month. 🤞🏻 Happy weekend, lovelies!

A nephew I hadn't heard from in ages reached out today for career & university advice, self-conscious about his knowledge gap but hinting that he knew lots about other stuff.

I prompted, & he ended up gushing about all his latest interests--with the certitude of youth, of course (an "expert" at workouts!)--but that's not the point. I love listening to all my nephews' passions.

So... I guess I'm now going to read 450 chapters of his 2 favourite online mangas to stay current again. 😂

#AuntLife

I just received my first NetGalley results for CHILDREN OF DORO. 49 downloaded it. Two so far submitted feedback: a reader & a bookseller.

The bookseller? He gave it a 5-star review & said he'd buy & hand-sell it at his store. 🥹

To have a stranger love my work is the hugest effing win.

#SFF #Indie #IndiePublishing #WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo

Every now and then, I make a genuine bid at connection with a father who just cannot bring himself to do anything not on his terms.

It was met, as usual, with the silent treatment. I know he'll never change. I know he'll go to his grave this way.

My only responsibility is to forgive myself for making the bid at all, when I know it just gives him a chance to punish me for not doing things on his terms.

Ah well. I take what I'm feeling & use it in the work. Should be an interesting writing day!

All right, loves! 🕊️

Today for #OnlySky, I have a three-fer covering top eco-human stories this week: in Ukraine, Canada, and Atlanta.

All three issues, while broadly different in direct pressure points, speak to the importance of cultivating more expansive vocabularies around our environmental crises. We have to think in far more intersectional terms to build a world where humans can truly thrive.

(Happy Friday, all. Tend to your own gardens well.)

#GlobalHumanism ⬇️ https://onlysky.media/mclark/eco-human-crisis-roundup-a-dam-the-wildfires-and-cop-city/

Day 12: Good morning, CoSo. Hope you're looking ahead to wonderful weekends now.

Woke about half an hour late, but rested and calm, so I'm popping straight to work now after hydrating. Packed day, and a huge weekend writing goal ahead, but I'm doing things I love, and that's for sure a gift.

Happy Friday! 💫

Well, I was going to for a walk, but... 😅

#AnyoneNeedSomeRain?

On days like today, I'm left to reflect again on how hard we are on ourselves, when some of the most prominent people in the world have been actively responsible for the most heinous perpetuations of cruelty & disinformation.

What is a "good" life?

Is it one in which you gain a platform, and fame?

Wealth by any means?

Or one lived so that, when you die, people are warmed by the memory of the care you gave all the communities to which you belonged, for all your other eccentricities & faults?

Oooo, and Ologies has a rebroadcast today of its FIRE ECOLOGY episodes (wildfires and Indigenous fire management).

I'm instead picking Past Present Future's latest reflection on a classic poli-sci topic, "Rawls, Capitalism, and Justice", for my early morning listen - but only because I vividly remember those fabulous "-ology" conversations. Wonderful stuff. Well worth a listen today.

#Fire #Science #Podcasts

https://pca.st/episode/c01effd5-c52d-4f6e-adfe-1fd061202b81

Day 11: Lots of rain this morning. Slow to wake, but I had a really solid writing day yesterday. 7,000 words! I might just meet deadline on this draft after all. 🤞🏻

Good Thursday morning, CoSo.

Take care of your hearts as the week is winding down - if it ever really does!

US friends:

A lot in the news, eh?

No, not a hashtag-worthy post: I'm not mentioning anything in particular.

Just want to remind folk to watch their stress levels amid the chatter. When the news goes this soap-operatic, & its wild speculations affect our systems of power, all that fervour can live in our bodies.

Ground yourselves.

Hug a loved one. Be in nature. Visit locals. Read a book. Hydrate.

And imagine a better world after this whole damned circus.

Because you deserve it. We all do.

Relatedly:

In an alternate universe, pro-lifers don't terrorize individuals moving through or forced by nonviability nightmares into abortion, but instead rally against the oil giants and government actors killing and damaging fetuses worldwide by letting global warming accelerate. (And they'd of course fight for universal healthcare, excellent mat/pat leave, affordable daycare, etc., too.)

Pipe dream, I know. But what a kinder world we could have had instead.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/15/global-heating-linked-early-birth-damage-babies-health

I know I mentioned last week that it felt a lot like people are returning to normal routines, but boy, I'd forgotten how much "this is fine" energy our "normal" contains.

Extreme climate change events will create more internally displaced peoples. I hope folks in the West get used to using that term for their own citizens, too, & not just developing nations.

The ground beneath so many feet is not safe. We need policies mature enough to handle environmental refugees & economic system overhauls.

I've been torn while writing this novel between treating it as a standalone or trilogy. But as I go further into this tale, which alternates between my "Thucydides" narrating from cryo-stasis about my "Peloponnesian War" in the Dark-Eyed Nebula, & a humanitarian ship that offers a different way out of history's nationalist & war-centred clutches... I'm coming to realize I can't tell this story in one part. One book for each phase of the war--with a mystery threaded throughout. :) #AmWriting #SFF

Day 10: I actually had to keep myself in bed because I woke early, full of energy, but structure is good to maintain. Today I have morning & evening class cancellations, so... a full day of novel-writing, baby! 🎉

Time to hydrate, stretch, pay bills, & get to it.

(P.S. North American friends in fire-smoke zones? You take good care of yourselves, eh? My heart aches for the human consequences of institutional neglect of climate change mitigation. Be gentle with yourselves the rest of this week.)