I'm going out for a quick pace-and-plot in the park, and I'll be looking forward to *so* much constructive joy-posting and positive signal-boosting here this evening.

Who are you reading & loving?
Listening to & loving?
Viewing & loving? (Outside your partners - we'll take that as a given 😉.)

Bonus points for every good fur, feather, (f)scaly*, and floral friend you post here, too!

Let's keep the #GoodVibes going tonight!

[*crushed that I can't think of an f- word for reptiles & amphibians.]

Sometimes when I'm corresponding with an old colleague, and he casually drops commentary about "females" as divided into categories related to whether they've reached menses, had sexual relations, or given birth yet, it occurs to me that one part of the reason I love science fiction is the vocabulary it provides for dealing with folks whose way of thinking about other human beings feels positively out of this world. 🙃

#TheFerengiWalkAmongUs

This soundtrack has been with me through the writing of three novels, and multiple stories. And now it's with me for yet another. #AmWriting #CoSoMusic https://youtu.be/pslnNAISNFE

A friend works at a seniors' home, where he's now experiencing something I've witnessed in the past. One client wails for god to take her, then when staff pop in, insists she's fine, before going back to praying for death once they're gone.

Back in Canada, I sat sometimes with seniors who didn't know why their god hadn't taken them. Alone, tired, in under-resourced facilities... It breaks a humanist's heart when one's cosmology offers no comfort.

But that's where we come in, for each other. 💙

Woo!

Also, up today on Analog’s blog is a wee companion article to my story in the latest issue. “Science Fiction and the Myth of the Rational Actor” not only relates to themes found in “The Last Romantic on the Belliponte” (May/June 2023), but also plenty of other SF I’ve written over the years.

This is an abiding fascination of mine - and it shows up in Children of Doro, too!

https://theastoundinganalogcompanion.com/2023/05/10/science-fiction-and-the-myth-of-the-rational-actor/

Okay, folks.

Just a quick news brief in service to *anti-clickbait*.

Today for #OnlySky, I'm offering a gentle reminder that we can choose where to focus our democratic energies - even if private media enterprise wants to promote the heck out of how it's giving new platforms to clearly toxic people.

Who will you signal-boost tonight instead? ⬇️

#MediaLiteracy #Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/cnn-twitter-and-the-danger-of-signal-boosting/

@daniel, you will enjoy knowing that it was an interloping "g" taking the place where a "j" should sit. Our errant letters never give us a moment's peace, do they?

On the plus side, even the negative reviews (so far) are positive. 🎉

It's funny, because the same reason that this reviewer complained - the length! - is the reason I can't take credit for his claim that it's "very original". It is & it isn't: It's Dostoevsky in freaking space!

(But I am SUPER chuffed that folks who don't recognize the source material still find the story engaging. That's a huge win in my book - literally! 😂)

Fear of typos is the mind-killer. Fear of typos is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear of typos. I will permit it to pass over me & through me. & when it has gone past ... Where the fear of typos has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

(I found a typo. 🙃 & fixed it. I am not going to let it ruin my writing day. Consider it a fun Easter Egg, and an added reminder that multiple proofreaders + search software won't catch everything until it's too late.)

Regarding social media climate:

One less-discussed part of pandemic is how it broke a *lot* of our confidence in systems, & killed inner propulsion toward old dreams. Many no longer see the point of what they were reaching for, & feel acutely the irrelevance of their labour.

Amid all that existential pain, we are still *howling* against blatant injustice.

But consider that disconnect:

We *feel*, and have also maybe never felt more disempowered.

The hurt that yields is real.

Tread gently.

(HUG YOUR PEOPLE.)

I've seen a lot of glib responses to this story, about a woman charged with poisoning her husband, that focus on the audacity of her writing a children's book inspired by grief at his loss.

(I know. What a sentence.)

But I'm deeply saddened by any society in which people are more willing to kill a partner than to leave them. How can we ever hope to build a better world writ large, when we so often do our absolute worst to those ostensibly closest in our lives?

#News
https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-wrote-book-grief-husbands-death-accused-murder/story?id=99199204

Morning, CoSo! ⚡

Today's newsletter talks shop:

A little under a week out from publishing Children of Doro, I am *all* about transparency around the emotional, financial, & pragmatic components of publishing in this strange day and age.

Hope it helps others in the fray. 💛

(With a shout-out to @nnlightsbookheaven for the fantastic work they do promoting writers like me and you!)

#BetterWorldsTheory
#Newsletter #Indie #IndiePublishing #SFF
#Publishing #WritersOfCoSo https://mlclark.substack.com/p/self-publishing-shoptalk-costs-payout

It's been a choppy start to the week. Power out for the better part of two days (on again off again), plus all evening the water's been out. Still dealing with a muggy heat wave, too, so... this is a great time to practise lowering expectations (though I'd had such hopes of clearing tons of work yesterday and today!) and trying to remember that all moods (even itchy, sticky, cranky ones) are simply thoughts passing through.

G'night CoSo. 🌖 Here's to more hydrated and electrified tomorrows. 🤞

The brain is capable of such contradictions. Robin Williams was beloved by many because he made people laugh even while struggling himself. What a feat!

I just sat with a street friend who'd had a hard day. What a light to see her smile, as we chatted about her worth while she was down on herself. It did not change my day's melancholy - but, what a light all the same.

(We do not have to be perfect, or perfectly well, to do good & meaningful & necessary work in this, our oh so hurting world.)

One bit of #CoSoGoodNews #CSGN, at least. 👌🏻 Even if it's far, far from all our planet-bound nonsense. #Science #Space https://www.wired.com/story/voyager-2-gets-a-life-extending-power-boost-in-deep-space/

Power's out again, so I'm toddling off to charge devices at the mall. I got this hilarious email today, though - not the first time! But 100% highlighting how aggressive the lobbies & capitalists are about related social issues, & how "search" only works in their favour. This one showed up because my article today used the term "AR-15". For websites desperate for "content", it can be easy to fall for advertorial scams like this. And so the internet populates itself with anti-democratic junk. 🙃

Morning, CoSo. 🕊️

Today for #OnlySky, I have a news brief that juxtaposes recent mass murders in Serbia & the US to highlight an under-reported facet of the problem. When one needs to argue over the role of guns in the first place, there's a bigger cultural crisis afoot.

I sorely hope it's one we can alleviate - even though, goodness knows, many are champing at the bit for *more* violence, when the world already has more than enough to go around. ⬇️

#Humanism
https://onlysky.media/mclark/a-tale-of-two-gun-countries-serbia-and-the-us/