@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop

#WritersCoffeeClub What else competes for your time, and what strategies do you use to secure time for writing against those demands?

When I was Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center, I worked 50-60 hours every week & had little time for writing. When my position was rewritten as a teaching faculty member, I suddenly had summers & intersessions free & used that time to write. Now I'm starting phased retirement & will have even more time. In two years, I'll be able to write full time.

My son, who lives in our household, tested positive for COVID today. We are careful and mask everywhere, but he still got it. So far, the rest of us are testing negative. I made a Corsi-Rosenthal box for his room and will make a second for ours.

We had been scheduled to fly to Glasgow on Tuesday for Worldcon, but I had canceled my plans when they declined to make me a participant But now it appears I would probably have had to cancel in any event. Sigh…

The soldiers from Havelock approached the barricades, but suddenly, the lines faltered. Some of the men in the front started screaming. Cecelia saw the soldiers pause to lift up boards that had been concealed in the tall grass with nails protruding up. A dozen men or more were crippled by stepping on the nails. But the rest rushed forward and surmounted the barricades. And then the two forces were #locked in combat.
"Now! Pull back!" bellowed Sergeant Baker.
The defenders disengaged.

#wss366

Right now, we YASSIFY! h/t @yassie_j

I really hate how the NYT normalizes Trump. Instead of saying, "Trump refuses to debate Harris on ABC News," they say, "Trump Proposes a Fox News Debate With Harris." That's like instead of saying, "Man tries to rob bank," they said, "Man requests withdrawal at bank." You have to read 12 paragraphs down before they even mention the scheduled ABC News debate. Sheesh!

If you've never read Bukowski's *so you want to be a writer*: https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer #writing

#WordWeavers Is there a genre you haven’t written yet but would like to try?

I don't really believe in genres. I just write what I want to write. Like "rural fantasy" or "steampunky romantasy" or "fluffy military space opera." Who knows what I'll come up with next?

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you agree with George Orwell, "Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent."

I believe you should always use the right word for a purpose.

So you want to be a writer (with apologies to Charles Bukowski) https://stevendbrewer.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/ #writing

I'm not going to do work for you for the "chance" to "win" something.

There was an eerie calm over the field. Hillsong's men marched forward in their lines. As they approached the barricades, Cecelia heard the voice of Sergeant Baker call out: "Now, men!"
A hail of rocks flew out from behind the wall of spars & airship ribs. A few of the soldiers from Havelock were struck & a couple fell, struck in the head. Thinking ahead to make a report, Cecelia tried to keep a #tally of the fallen.
"On the double!" called Hillsong. The men quickened their pace.

#wss366

I've noticed something about how I use Mastodon. When I see a post that's a lot longer than 500 characters, I usually only read the first paragraph and then just skip the rest. I basically never read a long post in Mastodon. If someone posts a link, I might go to the link to read a longer post, but I basically never read one as a post in Mastodon. Is that weird?

Yes, really long posts are just fine to read.
No, I don't read them either.
What? Posts can be longer than 500 characters?
Just show me the answers.

Hillsong began to call orders to his men. They broke up into teams that formed lines as they approached the enormous building. From her position on the huge percheron, she could see that hastily-erected barricades had been set up around entrances to the factory. Cecelia realized they were formed of airship components: wooden beams, ribs, & spars woven together to form a barrier.
"How long will it take the Baron to get here?" Helia whispered.
Cecelia #shrugged. "I really have no idea."

#wss366

#WordWeavers Share three interesting facts about your story or characters

1) The Better Angels are non-human biological androids, designed by the Magicorps corporation, replicated to spec, that represent a clean-room re-engineering of the human genome and contain no human DNA.

2) Neoboxers are the product of hundreds of years of selective breeding and cybernetic enhancement designed to lend their keen noses and stout hearts to any adventure.

3) Bebe's favorite dessert is lollipops.

#WritersCoffeeClub Can you foresee any circumstance where you might use AI to compose part of a story?

No-oh-oh-oh!

#PennedPossibilities Roughly how many stories have you written, and which one is your favorite?

It depends on how you count. Probably about 50 at this point: Seven are collected in *Revin's Heart*, six in *Lady Cecelia's Journey*, seventeen in *Better Angels: Tour de Force*, a handful of published short stories in anthologies and elsewhere. I have another dozen unpublished short stories. And my novel *A Familiar Problem* which is in press — and which is probably my favorite.

I ran updates on my linux box a few days ago and, since then, it would kernel panic every time I tried to wake it from sleep. I suspected it was the update to the nvidia driver, so I found a page that explained how to downgrade the nvidia driver (three cryptic "apt" commands) and went back to 5.5.0. Now I can wake my computer from sleep again!

My father always said that things like this were "just like using a computer."

ruĝa hibisko, suvereno de l' floroj… koro de l' ĝarden' / rose mallow, sovereign of the flowers… heart of the garden #hajko #haiku #esperamto #BloomScrolling

Trying not to dwell on summer regrets… https://stevendbrewer.com/summer-regrets/

The soldiers marched through the morning. The sun climbed in the sky & the weather became hot and steamy.
Helia began to nod off & Cecelia had to #smother her yawns. Helia rested her head against Cecelia's back. Cecelia held her hands so she wouldn't fall off the horse as she slept.
There was no further harassment of the soldiers by Sergeant Baker & the lumberman.
The sun was nearly overhead when Cecelia looked ahead & saw the gigantic airship factory begin to appear over the horizon.

#wss366