@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you think it’s vital for a fiction writer to have empathy?

No, it's perfectly adequate to be a high-functioning sociopath. And, unfortunately, there are plenty of authors who can find a large enough audience of truly horrible people that they can do just fine while directing an army of trolls.

"I did not believe you would come," Serena said, hearing his footsteps.
She stood at the railing, looking east. The sea was steel gray under the low clouds, as dawn approached. He stood beside her.
"You #wound me, Milady," Curtiss said.
"What shall we do?"
"What would you have me do, Milady?" he said, bowing. "I am your servant in this."
"You know my family… They will never accept… You. This."
"Indeed, Milady," he said. Then he smiled. "But I perhaps know something they do not."

#wss366

#WordWeavers In their world, is your MC more traditional or more interested in change?

In *Revin's Heart*, the protagonist was born into a feudal society with huge inequality. He was born female in a particularly repressive, backward community. After escaping, he begins to navigate the society as a young man. After becoming a pirate, and seeing society from a new perspective, he comes to understand that it's the *rules* of society that divide people. And that these rules can be rewritten.

Note: I may have taken a few liberties with the truth. But Mrs Frost was actually my 4th grade teacher who marked me down for reading because I refused to read the insipid chapter books that were assigned. I was too busy reading The Hobbit to waste my time on that garbage.

The young woman came out of the flower shop.
"How delightful!" the passerby said.
"What?"
"Your nosegay!"
She scowled. "My what-did-you-say?"
"Your tussie-mussie!"
Her expression darkened further. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Your posy! Your bouquet!"
"What are you? A thesaurus?"

#wss366

#WritersCoffeeClub What prompted you to begin writing?

"You'll never be a writer," Mrs Frost sneered, handing back my 10th grade paper covered with red marks. "Your plot is full of holes! Your characters have no character! You can't tell a predicament from a predicate!"
"I'll show you!" I swore. "You'll see! One day, I'll be a published author!"
"Over my dead body!" she laughed.
Forty years later, I published my first book and returned. But, true to her word, she had died many years before.

Tanuki-chan did not understand why she couldn't play DoggyMup Pack Attack too. #DogsOfMastodon

After looking carefully for traps, they stepped inside the enormous turret. Light snapped on providing illumination inside the dark interior.
"#Watch out!" Will said, spinning and looking around for the sources of the light. There were strange, small fixtures set around the spiral staircase illuminating the way down deep into the ground.
"These aren't gas lights," Revin observed.
"No. I've never seen anything like this before," Will said. "But they don't seem dangerous. Let's go down."

#wss366

A manga chapter I read this morning (from オトメの帝国) is about zettai ryōiki (the "absolute territory" or the amount of skin exposed above high socks and below a skirt). That's one of things I love about reading Japanese manga: both seeing zettai ryōiki and knowing that there is such an expression in the language.

Now that the dark days are upon us, I shared this a few weeks ago: https://stevendbrewer.com/strategy-for-dark-days-ahead/

The tl;dr is: (1) Try not to react to what they *say* they're going to do. They're going to say a lot. Stay focused on what they can actually do and push back against that. (2) Don't let them divide us. (3) Work together.

I only attended a single day at Arisia this year, but I participated in four panels and had a good time. https://stevendbrewer.com/there-and-back-again-an-arisia-story/

Read more about Tseluna and the others in *A Familiar Problem*, a dark, cozy fantasy coming out from Water Dragon Publishing later this spring. If you subscribe to my monthly mailing list, you can receive updates when it appears. https://author-sdbrewer.micro.blog/subscribe/

"You can make one in a dimension that has different physical rules."
"That doesn't make any sense! How is that possible? How can it exist here?"
She shrugged.
"Who c-c-cares!" Lord DarkSoul barked. "G-g-gimme that die so I c-c-can roll!" (4/4)
#wss366

"You can't have a 15-sided die. It's not possible. The number of edges, faces, and vertices don't add up."
"Sure you can," Tseluna said. "Here!"
She tossed him a weirdly shaped die.
"Wait! What?" he said, genuinely puzzled. "How does it even work?" He began counting faces. (3/4)

"Aww," she purred. "I'm sorry then. I guess you can't do it."
"B-b-but my dexterity is 16!"
"You still have to roll."
"C-c-can't I just use a 20-sided d-d-die?" he said, exasperated.
"Oh, no. It has to be a 15-sided die."
"Hey!" said Lord FrostFire, scribbling on a piece of paper. (2/4)

"I will t-t-try to p-p-p-pick the l-lock on the chest," said Lord DarkSoul.
"Alright," Tseluna said. "Roll a 15-sided #die."
Lord DarkSoul reached toward the dice, then drew his hand back.
"What?"
"You need to roll under your dexterity with a 15-sided die."
"B-b-but we d-don't have one." (1/4)

I have returned safely home, through the teeth of a winter storm, after a full day at Arisia.

I'm half way through my panels at Arisia. Everything's been good so far. Two more panels and then a loooong drive home through the snow.

John Connor: But I had to get you out of there! That AI — it was going to sell you a whole series of AI-generated imagery!

Sarah Connor: I wasn't going to buy any! Just use a few fun ones, to make Internet memes.

John Connor: But that's how they HOOK you!

"Did you see the #buffalo?"
"The what?"
"The buffalo."
"Oh. You mean the bison."
"Bison. Buffalo. Whatever."
"Do you see this?"
"What? You mean your fist?"
"Do you see this punching you?"
"What? It's just a word."
"It's the wrong word. We don't live in Africa. Or Asia."
"Whatever."

#wss366