...Also, more squash soup.

It's a rainy day. :)

When I get cranky, it's usually because I feel trapped or ashamed.

I've lost a *lot* of interest in material hobbies I once prattled on about ad nauseam. They all remind me of a way I don't like being.

Still, I work in fields that require indulging a lot of chatter around such topics - and I can fall easily into old routines.

I just don't like who I am when I spend time on such things. Performative, at cost to being more fully human.

This meat sack needs a good shaking out & return to earth.

And... it's live!

Chapters 1&2 of A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, my wartime space opera inspired by Thucydides.

I decided to go a little "extra" and record the first two chapters. That took three hours (recording and editing) due to how noisy my highway is, but I think it'll be worth it in the end if I record as I go.

Going forward, all segments are for Patrons only. ($1 a month, if so inclined!) Enjoy!

#SFF #ScienceFiction #AFSR #CoSoBooks #WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fertile-source-1-106165986

OK, folks. Patreon-posting of A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, a space opera inspired by history, will launch tomorrow.

I'm dropping this here both to lock me into this decision (no take-backs now!), and to start a thread to which I'll add links weekly.

The first two chapters will be free-to-read, and the rest for subscribers only - but this will be great for accountability as I prepare to write Books 2 & 3 in The Dark-Eyed Nebula trilogy.

#SFF #Reading #Novel #AFSR #ScienceFiction #WritersOfCoSo

Also - grumpitude update:

I bought squash and I made squash soup and now I think it has to be called "squash" because that's what it does to crummy moods.

Not all forms of crankiness can be solved with soup!

But the ones that can?

Sometimes life skills dovetail nicely. My editing project involves pidgin tongues. Today I learned the best translation guides are in Spanish. 👌

I used to move in spheres where the way you got ahead was through the performance of knowledge. People in "chats" would simply be waiting for the other person to finish so they could show off what they knew, rattling off facts & associations.

But if we're *really lucky*, we get to use our knowledge to be a better bridge.

What a gift that always is.

Pursuant to my posts this morning, I think I'm going to start sharing my novel in chunks with Patrons starting this week. This SF novel, inspired by The Peloponnesian War, tackles rising nationalism, war propaganda, & historical revisionism while imagining how to build a better society. It's been burning in me amid our war-torn world, & if trad pubs don't see this as relevant or marketable, they're out to lunch.

Grumpy ML is going to start sharing this story weekly with Patrons.

#WritersOfCoSo

So far, the new agent hunt has yielded only one response, a form letter, and a number of no-replies that just passed into the time frame of "take silence as rejection".

Normal, but tough.

I have to send out more on Monday, but there are remarkably few agents working with proper SF at this time.

This is a super hard gig. Writing is only the start. Hustling/networking is everything. Time to get back to submitting more stories, after this editing gig and slated book review.

#WritersOfCoSo

Although this ruling is a relief (still waiting on the nightmare of another one related to abortion), it's important to remember that SCOTUS didn't defend a positive "right" to access here. They simply decided that the plaintiffs didn't have standing. Their analysis ended at that question, and this invites future cases to challenge reproductive healthcare again, but with better plaintiffs.

#SCOTUS decision season is going to be stressful. Hang tight out there, US-ians!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rejects-bid-restrict-access-abortion-pill-rcna151308

My midweek historical reflection is a bit more recent than usual, but I was struck by how much Guantánamo Bay, the subject of Serial Season 4, has become an outmoded topic for some because of all the *other* state transgressions we're also hashing out.

And yet, thinking about injustice, *period*, from any part of the world and its histories, is always a good way to sharpen your ability to talk about injustice today.

#War #Humanism #Justice

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/how-do-we-speak-of-human-trespass

Someone I know is fighting a bad cancer while continuing to write for as long as she has left.

It's a poignant reminder of what matters most in our fragile time alive. I don't have as much love for a lot of fields as I once did, but I have a lot of knowledge *about* them, & craft a living around knowing things.

It just doesn't matter, not really, next to the sheer gift of existing.

Anyway, currently missing a person with whom I could always just exist. Hug your people, etc, if you've got 'em!

🙃 Getting up from my desk for the first time in hours. #DontDoThis #TakeBreaks

Got super-immersed in my latest Gonna Need A Bigger Boat editing project, as I found more t̶u̶r̶t̶l̶e̶s̶ problems all the way down in the manuscript. (The author has succeeded in making the Marvel Universe look straightforward in comparison to their storyline. Kind of a feat!)

Now for a walk/stretch/exorcism of whatever's been living in my corpse today, and time to revisit that newsletter draft. 🤞🏻

Then back to the boat.

Still feeling spicy, so I'm diving into editing work (a happy place) for the rest of the day.

Today's newsletter is half-drafted, but I'm again finding myself cranky in the writing. (This one has to do with Gitmo and our impoverished cultural vocabulary for reckoning with state-scale human rights abuses in general, if that gives some sense of why I'm taking a beat before posting.)

I'm sure I'll still be cranky when I come back to it, but hopefully I'll "word" better when I do. Have a day! 🕊️

I don't know who needs some hideous tree babies today, but if that's you, go forth appeased. #Nature

Forget "which of these cat pics fits your mood?" memes. Which one of these squares and rectangles best embodies how you feel this morning?

#ClaimYourQuadrilateral

Finance reporting never ceases to read like it's written by sociopaths.

The core of this piece is sound enough: if the US keeps interest rates high while other major markets are easing, investors will leverage the disparity by investing money borrowed from low-interest countries in the US. This surfeit of external cash will then boost US inflation.

But when you end up writing about job growth as a bad thing because it might keep interest rates high? #YouMightBeTheBadGuy
https://www.businessinsider.com/america-economy-recession-stock-market-crash-inflation-interest-rates-2024-6

Oscar the Green Banana Cockroach

The perfect animal familiar for today's mood. Diving into a night of editing now.

TTFN, stinkers.

#Nature

OH DEAR. THIS POST WAS SET TO SELF-DETONATE 💣 💥 🔥

Ą̷͇̀l̵̩̓̕l̸̩͘ ̸̭̪̈́ť̷̝̍̆h̶̡̛̰̯̏͌a̷͕̞͋̂t̵̩͙͑̈́͝'̵̛̍́ͅͅş̴̬̱͝ ̷̗̊͠l̵͚̕͠ē̸̻͓̐͝f̷̧͙̀̑͝t̶͓̓͊̚ ̶̜̱̓͌́a̴͉͊r̶̡̩͛̀é̵̦̞͕ ̶̮̾ṫ̷̡͈̍ḧ̸̛͍́̊e̴̫̅ş̶̥̰̓e̴̟̪͌͂̇ ̷̞̅͊̚h̷̰͕͈͂e̶̡̹̜̚ŗ̸̗͈̾̇e̴̩̍͐ ̷̪͉̩̀a̵̡̱̐͑͝s̴͎͖̈́h̸͈͌́͜e̴͕̝̐̌ś̶͓̆ͅ.̵̩̉ ̵̱͊͑̀