Easily my favourite part of getting to format my own novels is putting the Canadian spelling back in.

I may be the first to quibble with anachronistic language in far-flung future contexts, but so help me, while reading *my* space opera, you're going to wallow in excess "u"s & "l"s, & despair over the chaos of "s" versus "c" or "z" with no greater rhyme or reason, JUST BECAUSE. 🙃 (Though I think Dostoevsky would've approved of giving over to madness!)

#AmEditing #IndiePublishing #WritersOfCoSo

Woke to a teeny tiny earth... tremble. That'll get your blood moving! 😅 Off for a run now - on ground level. Goooood morning CoSo! Hope your wakings are gentle.

Made a #BugFriend on my walk tonight, but had to explain to this kiddo that you can't get your steps in by hitching a ride on someone else's sweater. 🙃 #GetYourOwnSteps

My raccoons are a little bigger than yours.

(These ones are also easier to milk!)

#CoSoNature #Nature #Colombia

Today I'm getting close to feeling caught up, and returning to older routines in the process. But my body is definitely in need of a tune-up - hugely cortisol and insulin driven right now. A run, a birthday message to a nephew, and lots of ARC work between meetings. 👌🏻 By this time next week I should be on top of everything again.

There was this floof on my walk tonight.

My "walk" therefore involved 15 minutes of petting the floof.

I have no regrets.

That is all.

#BunsOfCoSo #Pets #Nature

I see Alfred has mastered the art of articulating embarrassed silence. Well played @Coctaanatis. 👌

😅 Like I said, Women's Day is like Valentine's to some fellows here. These four strangers all converged on the specialty chocolate section at the same time in the closing hours of my local supermarket. Can't go home empty-handed! (Rose sales on the street have been hopping all day.)

👌🏻 Working on it. Hope you all are, too. Be good to yourselves, eh? The world is rough enough.

Some excellent thoughts for indie writers worried about Kindle Unlimited. The industry is changing. The industry is unstable. Cultivating flexibility is still (and always) the wise call!

#IndiePublishing #Indie #WritersOfCoSo
https://jessmahler.com/breaking-free-of-kindle-unlimited/

International Women's Day is treated by many fellows in #Colombia like a kind of Valentine's Day - but that doesn't stop the struggle for feministas from every walk of life. And yes, the struggle here is for *all* women, every demographic of which experiences sexualized violence. ✊🕊️🌎

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/dTzx6gV5LdQ

Second batch of oatmeal drop cookies are just finishing up in the oven now - last-minute baking before the first of two podcast sessions this week, to tie up 6 episodes and get me *back on track*. 🤞

(Morning CoSo! 💫 )

#CoSoBakes

Just a wee news brief for #OnlySky today, but you know that even wee news briefs for me aren't a regurgitation of fact. So as I report on the tragic blaze in Bangladesh, which houses the world's largest refugee camp, you can bet your bippy I'm calling attention to the danger of letting precarious situations grow even more desperate.

We are united in our vulnerability to extremist ideas and increasing violence, when denied pathways to essential human needs.

#Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/refugee-camp-blaze-highlights-worlds-increasing-precarity/

Man, I feel so safe here. ❤️

And not "bubble" safe - but safe in the sense that a community of people who see one another as *people* first creates the safest space in which to lean into further growth.

Always learning. Always curious. And always *so* thankful to be around other people doing the same dang messy work.

Happy Monday, CoSo.

May all the dragons in your lives this week be willing to break for tea. 👌

Most feminized folk will also remember that, around 2016, we started to see this behaviour show up in a BIG way among many people in our lives - folks we kind of thought shared our values, more or less, until we saw the attitudes emboldened during a presidential run.

I think I've stuck with this attempt to get through to this person for so long *because* he's such an embodiment of so many I used to be around all the time. But such emails only steal my joy. I know what what needs to be done.

Yesterday, I was a little down because a person I've known for 20 years just will not stop raising transphobic public figures in our correspondence. He's a classic both-sides-ing "centrist", confident that he's simply seeing the "bigger" equivalences in violence at work, and... I don't know why I've tried for as long as I have. Ego maybe? Most every fellow I knew in KW was like him: someone who'd rather pull you into debate to shelter their own prejudice than push beyond the prejudice itself. /x

Morning, Coso! 🕊️

This week's newsletter is a chewy one (and why I delayed posting yesterday; I wanted to make sure I was taking great care with word choice here).

In it, I reflect on common Western hangups over the need for "peaceful" protest, and explore recent Colombian land protests to question our moralizing fixation on related vocabulary. When does our fear of violence only complicate our ability to recognize and support a worthy struggle?

#BetterWorldsTheory https://mlclark.substack.com/p/who-is-served-by-the-idea-of-peaceful