Communion with the Day Star was successful. Feeling very much renewed.

I also chatted with a couple of elderly JW friends in my building, and wished them a solemn Memorial of Jesus's Death, which they mark today.

I don't *think* we have any Jehovah's Witnesses here, but if you're lurking quietly, may today be a time of good reflection and community for you, too.

Feeling supremely tired today, but sometimes that's just the body's weird way of saying it needs to be walked.

So I'm off to talk with the Day Star, if only through a mediating layer of sunscreen and shade.

Have a lovely one, all. 💛

Okay! Patrons will now have received this week's Patreon, which includes a preview of next week's newsletters.

Also: It took a LOT of attempts to get a clean recording this weekend, but the latest BookTube is also up. In this fairly snappy episode (one does get tired of re-recording content 😅), I introduce two SFF podcasts on opposite sides of the reader-response spectrum, and reflect on the importance of celebrating both professional and everyday responses to the work.

https://youtu.be/gubRw6fYRqE

What a month, eh?

Semana Santa starts today, and this year there isn't cartel nonsense on some highways, so I'm happy for rural vendors who should have a good season. There'll be processions on the streets and churches marking different stations of the cross.

Meanwhile, most everyone I know has cancelled or downgraded travel plans on account of money being tight. A lean time.

Atheist that I am, it's still a nice opportunity for reflection and gratitude. May it be a good one for you and yours.

I don't know if anyone else is crackling with toxic energy right now, but that's how I often feel during a major news cycle steeped in violence and uncertainty.

It makes me want to argue with the wind, doomscroll, go down rabbit holes...

A bunch of useless reactivity, in other words.

If you meditate, hug loved ones, have nature or prayer or nap and a snack to turn to... give yourself that good medicine.

The world will still have enough suck to go around when you're less fired up. I promise.

*in, not into

I'm texting while doing the crucigrama with my friend.

There's a young teen in my barrio, working hard with her mum to sell cold drinks by slipping through highway lanes in traffic all day. She is *radiant*, this kid, and throws bits of English around with confidence into her chats, especially around me.

I've celebrated her spark and talents, and we've talked about how much she hopes to do one day, when life gets better for her and her family.

Holy heck, friends.

If we built a world where drive and hope were enough, what a paradise we would have.

There will be a recording once emergency vehicles cease to wail on my highway, and trucks quit hitting the horns to try to make some semblance of a path in high traffic for them. 🙃

A busy day in my neighbourhood, apparently.

Hope you're all doing beautifully. Quick walk, and then I'll find something else to share just with Patrons this weekend. BookTube link up tomorrow no matter what!

Positive spin: I'm heartened by the fact that the world condemned the Moscow attack, and many tried to warn against it.

In early 2022, the typical war rhetoric of "inhuman" enemies flew into action: aided in large part by the brutal rapes, torture, & murder of civilians at Bucha. Russians were all sociopaths, all as bad as the Kremlin... you know the drill.

But despite our predictable leap then to dehumanizing the "other" in war... the world decried this attack.

Maybe there's hope for us yet.

The amount of disinformation shared in online forums is utterly disheartening. I follow it daily in war forums, where people just shoot off dishonestly to whip up righteous fury, and have zero interest in checking their assumptions. (Many are also just plants.)

Now, with the Moscow incident, I've also been watching similarly self-serving conspiracies run ahead of and against actual data. Sheer gamification of atrocity.

Guys, I really wonder about this whole "internet commons" thing sometimes.

For anyone looking for cleaner thoughts before bedtime. (Night, CoSo!)

#CoSoMusic
https://youtu.be/G8ffkDf0ol4

Also, I can't wait for Monday Media Review. The piece I'll be writing about then stems from the podcasts I'm reviewing on my BookTube this weekend.

It's a series that SFF readers and writers will want to *avoid binge-watching*, so that they can savour the beauty and strangeness of the world as it unfurls in each episode.

Wonderful storytelling lessons in it, too.

We make such lovely things sometimes, don't we?

At least, when we're not too busy tearing each other down. 👾🌌💙

The only hitch in my weekly workflow is that I can never seem to get the BookTube ready on Friday morning - so I'm taking the hint. Friday is for Other Writing, and Saturday will be for recordings.

Today, for instance, I got 2,000 words into a new short story. Haven't started a new project in a while, but I'm going to keep at it tonight, and see if I can't make something presentable for submission by late next week.

Still waiting on my agent re: the novel - but this is good.

The SF must flow!

I feel like I would be remiss not to share this YouTube short from one of my happy-place channels, Dylan Hollis's historical baking, with all the stoners on CoSo.

And any Nebraskans, I suppose.

Buuuut mostly the stoners. 🙃

#WaitForIt #CoSoBakes

https://youtube.com/shorts/K2gc-uyys-4?si=MxXvbg3j-kIrv4CS

@NiveusLepus, I'm still not all caught up on your story, but I'm getting closer - and I just wanted to say that it's been so lovely to get to see the worlds you're dreaming up in Second Tier Sorcery.

There's a great deal of gentleness with all the subject-positions you present, the RPG-speak is great fun, and the distinctness of your characters comes through beautifully.

More when I'm caught up, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm reading and enjoying the dreams you're dreaming up! 🤗

How's your day going, on a scale of 1 to ED 209? 👀

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This morning I talked about slices of my past I don't usually share, because it's a Whole Thing to review one's life anew.

It was a good exercise, though, because what I was really practising was trusting others again.

It also reminded me why I've always loved learning about the cosmos.

Our universe is filled with such wonders beyond all our local sound and fury.

All our grandest, harshest histories are but a temporal blip on one pale blue dot.

But what a gift, to bear witness while we can.