And now, after I finish a couple of posts (Substack, Patreon), plus 3-4 hours of work tomorrow morning (potential new client; we'll see how the meeting goes), I *should* have time to dust off my Duel-in-Space story this weekend, and get that ready to send off to Analog sometime soon. 🤞

It took a little while to get the engine going again, but methinks the fiction-writing muscle is returning.

Night, gang!

I hope your own weekends are as productive/restful as you'd prefer.

Oh, thank freaking goodness.

I've been working on this novelette for 18 MONTHS. Rewrote it a million ways, but *finally* locked into one that feels like it works.

I'm a big fan of letting a story go (if the theme is true, it'll come back to you), but this one had all the right elements, so I couldn't shake it. It haunted my dreams!

Now it rests, to be submitted Monday. 💪

(And the next story better not be a freaking princess like this one! No one has time for such nonsense!) #WritingCommunity

@Jorro, I thought you might enjoy this lovely piece on Christian #Humanism.

The interviewer, David Brooks, is more elitist in his faith-practice, and his skepticism shows up in some of his questions for Luke Bretherton. Meanwhile, I as a secular humanist disagree with Bretherton on other accords - but either way, I hope this interview offers a refreshing rejoinder to some of the Christian-nationalist rhetoric you seem to be enduring in other spaces.

Cheers! #Religion
https://comment.org/christian-humanism/

People get upset by my writing for a few different reasons, but I think my favourite is how some bristle at my use of "we" and "us", as in "some of us" and "we sometimes".

I use this language so as not to dehumanize anyone--*we* are human, even if some of us are extremely hateful.

But it really upsets some to be lumped together like that--and I understand why! However, the moment we deny that a hateful person is human, we make ourselves vulnerable to failing to see how hateful people *happen*.

@tyghebright

*overcome. Always a typo somewhere, alas!

@tyghebright, I hope you've had a day that leaves you feeling affirmed in your strength, steady in the knowledge of everything you've overcoming, and full of excitement for the new journey ahead.

What a whirlwind of chaos life dumps at our door sometimes, eh?

But also, what a gift you remain to yourself and your communities, by living your truth and leaning into the dearest parts of existence every step of the way.

May the year ahead reward you immensely. 💜

(If not, we'll give it what-for!)

#Wellness

Commented on this to a friend this morning. Seeing more of it in the wild today.

Near-election anxiety is on the rise, & it's probably going to manifest in more stress from now until polls close.

You might be avoiding the news & political themes, but people around you might still seem "extra" when talking about other topics, too.

Try to mind your own jitters, & forgive those around you for their volatility.

It's been an awful election.

Take care of your health in this last slog.

Sometimes I think I've grown too grumpy and cynical around publishing...

And then a new bookstore opens in my nearest mall, and just like that, I'm gushing with the staff over all their press editions and thrilling over the works they have by authors I love. 🙃

Stories *mean* something.
Even/especially in awful times.

#CoSoBooks #KidInACandyStore

Who needs nightmare fuel?

Seen today on BlueSky. I don't like anything about this - not the children's eyes, or whoever thought it would be a good idea to show them licking #StarTrek characters.

And on THAT note... 🙃 #AmWriting

#StarTrek, #SFF, & #CoSoTV! 🖖

Our @WordsmithFL is an absolute fount of info not only around Trek but also the nuances of TV production as they pertain to important eras of #ScienceFiction history.

Can we cheer on his latest project? It's a real treat: THE WRITTEN TREK will go step by step through show elements, but these are *not* mere fact dumps.

Give his latest post a gander to see what I mean. The connections he draws offer some choice thoughts for #Writers, too!

https://thewrittentrek.blogspot.com/2024/10/before-star-trek.html

This piece is Part 1 of 2. Later today, for Thorough Thursday, we'll dive deeper into a question raised in the backdrop of a philosophy essay from 1972, Peter Singer's "Famine, Affluence, and Morality".

It's not that the paper's core argument isn't compelling; it's that Singer's challenge to individual morality raises a bigger question about the very nature of morality - and our world's ability to achieve it.

#Philosophy #Humanism #GlobalHumanism
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/is-it-possible-to-be-good-in-our

Brain isn't braining.

Going to take this busted ol' model out to the nearest Tree Doc and see if my local "branch" can knock some sense back in, so I can finish this submission in time.

#Dendrotherapy
#Ornitherapy
#Entomotherapy

*me, muttering to myself as I close a long line of tabs filled with terrible news and awful visuals so I can focus on my next writing task*

Haunted.
Haunted.
Haunted.
Oh THAT one's cursed.
And that one, too.
And... back to the seventh circle of hell with YOU!
And you!
And you!
...Okay, no, this one can haunt me a little longer.
But that lil' fudger has to go.
Haunted.
Haunted.
Haunted.

Modern exorcisms, mi gente! 🙃 The power of the X button compels you!

Today's friendly reminder that personal growth doesn't always look pretty--but don't let that stop you! #Nature