Also, this is for everyone prepping for or already returning to Fall Term routines.

You know who you are, and what you did.
#CoSoBooks #Reading #Comics

#Politics 😂 I promised updates from the deranged #GOP mailout I got added to through my alt-ego in Georgia (the state).

And if you look at the last line, well, apparently their dream scenario can only happen if I'm on board. 😉 So... you're welcome, estadounidenses!

#IAmAUsefulCanuck

How's everyone else doing this morning?

I'm feeling a little prickly with world-grief, but I ticked off a lot of admin tasks after an okay-run, so I'm sure I'll feel better as the day progresses.

#Israel #Gaza

Most of my older posts are behind paywall, but I've switched this one, from April, back to free-to-read.

There's so much ahistorical nonsense floating around even here, so if you're interested in the history of Jewish debate around this set of political positions, this piece contains excerpts from source texts of relevance to wide-ranging Jewish and Zionist political thought a century ago.

(And yes, Jabotinsky's writings are wild. He was an extremist.)

https://mlclark.substack.com/p/we-have-always-lived-with-extremism

#Isral #Gaza

The Kennedys weren't the only ones to disavow family this weekend.

My only chuckle is the cousin claiming Netanyahu deviated from Jabotinsky, ideological precursor to today's Likud. I wrote about him a few months ago: he fell out with other Zionists in the 1920s because he allied with Ukrainians who'd committed pogroms, against Soviets whose communism he felt was a bigger threat to Jewish nationalism.

I think he and Netanyahu would've gotten along well!
https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-816140

Thanks for sitting with me in a melancholy moment this weekend. Crashing now, with a full week ahead.

Just wanted to thank you folks for a lot of clarity I've found on this forum. It hasn't always been easy for us to keep the human foregrounded in everything we do, but enough of us strive to do so that we can weather every storm.

(Another forum right now is still arguing over industry tempests on teapots, but here folks are wrestling with real-world problems. That makes all the difference!)

I feel like many ladies here would easily be found in a scene like this, if given half a chance. (@Graci might replace the spaghetti with chocolate, but still.) I see you, you free-loving menaces, you! 🧐

And "decent at best" but still alive and able to keep trying is better than the alternative, so that's okay.

But sometimes I definitely need to sit with my mediocrity awhile, and let the work wash over me (today, more admin tasks & reading, plus hopefully that overdue free Patreon) until I can figure out what direction to take next.

Melancholy Sunday! Going for a walk before the next round of screentime, but again--I have had more chances than most, so I'm not complaining.

Just regrouping. 👍🏻

It's been a heck of a few years eh?

I remember when I thought I had a shot at investment - an agent and a new writing gig - only for the web venture to collapse due to poor corporate culture, and the agent to pass on taking three books to market, after the first failed.

I know some folks assume a lot about me from... my photo, I guess?

But as much as I put my work out in the hope of a connection, I a) routinely feel like a failure, & b) know I'm only decent at best in a sea of many better. /x

I was on Cold Turkey for a bit, so I couldn't post Chapters 9 & 10 here when they went live, but Chapters 11 & 12 are now up for Patrons following A FERTILE SOURCE OF RUIN, my wartime space opera inspired by Thucydides.

Each post includes some historical reflection (and an Easter egg, today!), along with a summary of the story to date. Enjoy, if you do!

(Free-to-read Patreon post soon.)

#SFF #AFSR #Reading #Novel #WritingCommunity
https://www.patreon.com/posts/fertile-source-110755205

@joycereynoldsward @QueenOfEverything

What floored me yesterday was that it touched on many things I wanted to say in my series (right down to being inspired in part by Spartan history), but even though my story is different, this one is flat-out better written.

No two ways about it.

And I'm okay with realizing how inadequate my writing is--and why I have no chance of selling my book in this market. I will survive.

I just had to marvel at what a difference in calibre exists.

Kudos to Tesh!

#Books #SFF #ScienceFiction

@joycereynoldsward and @QueenOfEverything asked about this yesterday, but I was still too gobsmacked to reply.

I'm reading for a Le Guin shortlist book review, so I'll be covering this one in a different light soon, but...

This story rightfully won the Hugo this year. It is intelligent, engagingly paced, unflinching around difficult themes, and deeply wise in its presentation of an indoctrinated militant realizing she's coveted the wrong things her whole life.

"Research" for Monday's newsletter complete, but apparently Civ VII is out next Feb, so... we shall see how life finds me next year.

Back to readin' and writin', and then I have some slush to read for one mag, plus an admin email to send to my volunteers.

Gosh, I haven't gamed in forever.

But these days my life contains storytelling of a different sort, so every kind of art has its season in our lives, eh?

#AmWriting
#AmReading
#AmEditing
#AmAllTheThingsing

Hope the evening is good to you!

😭 OH MY GOSH. AND I FORGOT THAT LEONARD NIMOY NARRATED THE KNOWLEDGE TREE PARTS.

HELLO SPOCK. I MISSED YOU, TOO.

😅 Just put on a game I haven't played in years, but which comes from a franchise that *ruled* my childhood. The theme song immediately brought tears to my eyes. Ah memories.

I didn't know for a few years that this is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, but the humanist in me was highly amused.

As I wrote today, every religion has its extremists--and every religion has people trying to carry forward the best from some truly awful canon.

We can all make beauty from the ruins.
https://youtu.be/IJiHDmyhE1A

All right! My time-shifted week has finally come to an end. Today, for paid subscribers, we reflect on the tension between #democracy and nationalist projects, and the challenges for maintaining democracy even locally when statist rhetoric reigns on the world stage.

The free-to-read section involves a follow-up to Tuesday's post on ceasefire propaganda, by looking at how one politician in particular served his war effort well by undermining trust in global institutions.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/is-full-democracy-ever-feasible

Sometimes I set down a problem so big there's just no solving it - and then the trick is figuring out how to end the essay so that the closer doesn't feel painfully naive next to the scope of the issue.

In other words: this week's deep dive newsletter is almost ready, but my ending feels like frivolous copium, so I'm going for a wee pace before I post. 🙃

Next week, I'm choosing simpler problems to discuss--like who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, and would they like more cookies now? 🤔

And one more for the flower set: the flor de flamboyán, acacia roja, or arból de fuego - delonix regia. #Nature #Colombia