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He looked at it, shocked. It was his wife's number.
He answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi, honey!" It was her voice. "#Excuse me, if I woke you up. I just wanted to wish you a Happy…"
He hung up the phone.
"Fuckin' AI…" he grumbled. He might be pretty far gone, but not *that* far gone. (3/3) #wss366

Or those goddamn phone trees. He'd just given up. It was all he could do to shower and get dressed.
But, somehow, he'd made it through another year. Alone.
He watched the clock count down the seconds.
Midnight. Happy New Year. He snorted. As if.
His phone rang. (2/3) #wss366

The old man watched the sweep hand of the clock as the seconds ticked down to midnight. What a lousy year.
He coughed — a deep wracking cough.
His health was shot. He couldn't keep track of things anymore. Since his wife died, he couldn't manage the prescriptions or appointments. (1/3) #wss366

Tanuki-chan is VERY DISAPPOINTED in me for not sharing my burned pretzel with her. #DogsOfMastodon

#WritersCoffeeClub What’s a facet of the modern era of writing for which you’re thankful?

@patcharcana says "word processors" but I'd go one step lower: being able to write electronically. I don't need (or use) word processors for writing. But a text editor! Yes! Being able to edit, copy/paste, & work on my text across multiple devices: those are essential.

In the end, I do use a word processor to format a manuscript for submission. But the real magic is the foundation upon which it's built.

The bear looked at her, trying to be #firm, but his heart simply melted.
"C'mon," he said. He knelt down and let her climb up on his shoulders. "Let's go look for butterflies by the forest where you can run safely."
She raised a fist over her head and shouted, "Let's go!" (4/4) #wss366

"Brunhilde!" the bear growled, sternly. "You need to be more careful. Look where you're going! You could have hurt yourself. Or bumped into someone and hurt them."
He set her back on her feet.
She stood, looking down and shifting from foot to foot.
"I'm sowwy," she whispered. (3/4) #wss366

He looked around and spotted Brunhilde running at full speed through the crowd chasing a butterfly. He broke into a charge and leapt, skidding across the grass, and just managed to get a paw out and catch her before she ran headlong into a grill. (2/4) #wss366

Yesterday, I went to the UMass Sunwheel to the watch the sunrise on the winter solstice. https://stevendbrewer.com/solstice-sunrise-at-the-sunwheel/ #WesternMass

I have completed my last meeting of 2025. I AM FREE! Now I need to decide whether I want to dive into a writing project or, you know, just mess around on the Internet.

He took his arm. "You just had a few too many Dry Tortugas."
The captain glared at his mate, eyes bloodshot. "Aye. Them Tortugas sneak up on ye!"
"Well, they are just rum…"
"Rum!" the captain bellowed. "A tot of rum for all hands!"
The men cheered.
"Aye-aye, Cap'n," his mate sighed. (2/2) #wss366

"Arr!" bellowed the captain to his men. "Batten down the hatches!"
"Look out, Cap'n!" called the first mate, seizing the captain to arrest his fall.
"The seas be wild tonight!" the captain roared. "The deck she pitches awful fierce!"
"We're on dry land, Cap'n," the first mate said. (1/2) #wss366

#ScribesAndMakers Do you see art in everyday objects?

Some of the art from my chapbooks of haiku…

Poŝtmarkoj el Esperantujo you can read for free via Google Books. The others are available via Amazon.

#KpopMonday #LetItSnow SUPER☆GiRLS / 夜空にMerryX’mas https://youtu.be/7YVQoZOBlW4

Thanks to all the #wss366 folks who came to our solstice meet up. I'm very gratified to have met all of you and to get to read your writing. Getting to chat with you in real time adds yet another dimension to the experience that I will always treasure. Thank you!

There's a new kind of sloppy writing… Or, why I don't use AI. https://stevendbrewer.com/sloppy-writing/

Waiting for the winter solstice sunrise at the #UMass Sunwheel. #SilentSunday #WesternMass

Bob and Al carried their drinks down to watch the sun set over the ocean. Shades of orange and red crept across the sky as the sun sank down toward the horizon.
"Today was a #perfect day," Bob sighed, sipping his rum punch.
"I dunno," Al said. "Just another beautiful day in paradise…" #wss366

#WritersCoffeeClub Do your stories come to you fully formed? Or do they only develop along the way?

I generally start with a character or a setting — rarely a whole scene — and then I start to write and see what happens. This was how I did all my writing originally.
I started to worry that I would write myself into a corner and began outlining to create a set of guardrails. But I found that I would still crash through the guardrails as I wrote. The outline still helps assuage my anxiety though.

From *Lady Cecelia's Trial*, Part 6 of *Lady Cecelia's Journey*. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates when it appears: https://author-sdbrewer.micro.blog/subscribe/