Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'jaw' #BookQW
Has Dan Mackmain bitten off more than he can chew this time?
For a full roster of purchase links, visit the Wizard's Tower Press website - and have a browse while you're there 
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-juliet-e-mckenna/the-green-mans-war/
The tiny spacecraft dropped away from the huge research transport, and accelerated towards the edge of the target zone.
Inside it was cramped, just two seats, and vast arrays of instrumentation. And a wide armoured glass panel.
The pilot turned to the mission specialist. "Why'd they send us, Matt? Couldn't a remote do a better job?"
"Come on Hal, you know why."
"No, really, why us? Why not a high-function remote?"
Matt sighed, guessing Hal just wanted to talk. They had four hours to go before they reached the target zone, and two before turnover. "OK, the big one is that we can react quicker - we've got some drones, but with us close by, we can react without lag. As for why us two? We are mid-experience, know what we are doing, and not in the command path. So, we're sort-of expendable."
"Sort-of. I'd like to think we're not expendable."
"They're not going to throw us away. That's why we've got a 4G engine on this thing. And between us we've got over 40 standard years of experience. We are not really that expendable."
"OK, Matt, why this star? What's so special?" Matt looked at him. "OK, so I dozed off in the briefing a bit. I'm a hands on piloting sort, not an academic."
"This star blew its outer layers off less than ten years ago, this is the earliest we've been able to investigate the formation of a planetary nebula."
"So we're flying towards an expanding plasma ball."
"Yep."
"Great." Hal adjusted his controls.
"What are you doing?"
"Stopping us a bit earlier. I don't want to discover how dense the plasma is before the drones do."
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.29 — Have you ever written anything that didn’t age well?
Rolls on the floor, laughing out loud. Had I been drinking soda pop, I might have died from the pain of having the fizz squirt from my nostrils.
Well, okay, with that intro I ought give at least a few examples! I wrote a magical iPad into a story almost two decades before it was invented, conceptually complete with dog ear bookmarks and pages that animated with actual page turns, some of which could be held partially open with one's fingers. The main character uses to summon a demon. It sends her home from the fantasy world but causes a disaster that gets her summoned back. It was spiffy at the time.
I wrote a pair of novellas that took place on Mars. One error almost failed to make it out of revision: The teenage protagonist remembered the moon landing in 1989. Even if she were 20, she wasn't, she would have been 4 years old for the last one, and I was writing about the first one. Oops.
What did make it in was having a rather impressive alien ship having landed on Mars, and human footstep now surrounding the one of the Viking landers. The amazing high resolution imaging of Mars makes that rather untenable today, though not completely impossible. Worse though, the story posited as interstellar transportation depot and city built inside the moon Phobos. I'm sure subsequent spacecraft telemetry would have noticed gravitational anomalies, not to mention that large surface areas of the moon had been developed.
Mind you, it's possible the alien residents might have evacuated and remediated the landscape when they realized Earth cultures might be spoiled. That could be a third story…
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#PennedPossibilities 658 — When asked about SCs, do you talk about your side or supporting characters, or both?
I write about both types of SCs. They're all important. Side note: During this series, characters will change. SCs in the first book will become MCs in the others and vice versa. They're all integral to the main plot.
This is actually what I have written on the document with the prompts for this hashtag:
“The distinction between Side Characters and Supporting Characters often blurs, yet a nuanced difference exists. Side characters are integral to the narrative’s fabric, offering depth and complexity without directly influencing the plot’s outcome. Supporting characters, on the other hand, play a more functional role, propelling the main characters towards their goals or contributing significantly to the plot’s development.”
You know who we’ve missed at Story Hour? Madeleine E. Robins. And you know who we’ve been missing out on? Kemi Ashing-Giwa. But don’t despair—they’re both going to read SFF stories for us this week! Join us Wednesday at 7:00 PDT! #Bookstodon #StoryHour2020 #ShortStories #ShortFiction #AuthorReading #FantasyFiction #ScienceFiction #SFF #KemiAshing-Giwa #MadeleineERobins https://www.storyhour2020.com/
It is with great pleasure that we are revealing the cover of Payton McCarty-Simas research, That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film. Cover art by Stephanie Monohan.
Out 22 July 2025. You can pre-order today from the Luna Press sites, and more widely next month.
Need a good source on the art of world building? You can collect @swan_tower Marie Brennan's NEW WORLDS series and gain essential understanding of the things that make good fiction! Now available--NEW WORLDS*YEAR EIGHT, More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding.
#SFF #writing #bookstodon @bookstodon #books @books
https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc-announces-new-worlds-year-eight-by-marie-brennan
![[ALT TEXT: NEW WORLDS * YEAR EIGHT. More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding. By Marie Brennan, Author of THE MEMOIRS OF LADY TRENT.]
[ALT IMAGE: Against a black background, a giant spiral pinwheel of reds, oranges, greens, and glints of gold spins in the center of the cover.]](https://cdn.masto.host/raggedfeathers/media_attachments/files/114/421/994/310/649/349/original/ff4fc973a0a30897.jpg "[ALT TEXT: NEW WORLDS * YEAR EIGHT. More Essays on the Art of Worldbuilding. By Marie Brennan, Author of THE MEMOIRS OF LADY TRENT.]
[ALT IMAGE: Against a black background, a giant spiral pinwheel of reds, oranges, greens, and glints of gold spins in the center of the cover.]")
#PennedPossibilities 657 — Continuing with last night’s questioning, tell us if your SC is one to be forgiving as well.
• Dante (m): Yes. Unfortunately, he's too forgiving at times. It comes with the territory of a being a doc, though. Your friends wins up injured and need your help, even if you've spent the last few months fighting. "Forgive and forget."
• Junk (m): He is, but only for his chooms in Destiny's Maelström. Everyone else can go f*ck themselves.
• Cosmia (f): She's a tough nut to crack. She's a bar owner. It doesn't take much to piss her off. But if you genuinely deserve her forgiveness, it's all yours.
• Noona (f): Hell no. She isn't very forgiving at all. She's a gang leader for a reason. There's only one exception. He's a certain tall, dark, and handsome doc with a compassionate heart. (Every member of the Glitch Mob is similar to her. They're a hard bunch. She isn't alone.)
(For the first time, I just gave away a MAJOR spoiler for a future couple here in the series. I've never done that. I've answered years of WritingWonders, #WordWeavers, and PennedPossibilities prompts and yet I've only just hinted at these two tonight. I figured my friends and readers like @strangeseawolf, @Firlefanz, and @paul deserved to know.)
Here’s to a new semester! My 12-week summer course on the #Dystopian Tradition begins this week #online at #SignumUniversity. These stories -- and the conversations they make possible -- are more relevant and important than ever. #Dystopia #ScienceFiction #SpeculativeFiction #SFF #Bookstodon #Books
#WordWeavers 2504.27 — Would you ever want your MC’s life?
I realize that everybody's life is difficult, not just the people in the stories I write. Safety doesn't imply that life is good or easy. My general answer is that were I one of my MCs with no more than a dream-like impression of my current self, in most cases I'd like being them. It would be an exchange of my disabilities and fears for their disabilities and fears, along with their capabilities and goals. Since I am already a Walter (Wanda) Mitty as an author, I could live with that.
Devil-girl: She's autistic like me, so I could relate. I appreciate her bravery, brawn, and brains, not so much the terrors she lived through nor the PTSD or physical injuries she deals with. As her love life heats up, her life becomes a lot more attractive.
Thorn Rose: She's a brainy over-achiever with plenty of love and support from her friend Streak. She will become an astronaut, so that's a plus. That she has the main series antagonist (an absolute ruler) trying to train her for her unstated goals, her life is a bit intense, but with Streak's support I'd do it.
Streak: For him, Thorn is his one true love and she's never stinting. It's not easy being a guy in their society, but the roller coaster ride he'll go through being with her—supporting her when her meager supply of common sense fails her as it often does—might be well worth the ticket price.
Rainy Days: Despite being the main Reluctance Series antagonist, she's also an MC in some stories. Being able to watch and participate in the history of humanity while never aging beyond being 24 years old is enticing, especially at my age. She witnesses achievements and the fall of civilizations, sometimes being an agent of their decline. But she has family, repeatedly, again and again, but lives to see everyone eventually die. It's hard, but it is an opportunity to experience everything without breaking, and since memories always fade, even the old is new again, eventually. Her goal keeps her going: saving humanity from extinction, something she must work at daily because [spoilers], knowing full well that any mistake could end life on Earth. Okay, I'd take this one. Everybody's life is difficult, but real meaning is a rare and scarce commodity.
May Ri: Don't get me wrong, I love this character, but her life is full of lots of ups and downs. What she goes through is the wringer, and because I just wrote this story, it's visceral. I'm thinking No on this one.
Wintereyes: Her life is hard. She lives from the age of 7 to 21 as a member of a wolf pack she has befriended. She is exceedingly kind and indomitably brave in that, so much so that she befriends a dragon. It's because of her kindness (and the magic it evokes) that she always has friends that are there for her. I'd like to experience that, despite the hardships and the trials I know she will go through.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#WordWeavers 2504.26 — Does your MC have good or back luck?
Luck is not a word in the language of any character in the Reluctance Series. Literally. Neither do they have a word that can express the concept of the supernatural or the divine. When an unfortunate event or a surprising success takes place, they will say, "Chance or skill?" The MC's totally take credit for being oblivious or having achieved something, and look for interference from people or real world events as chance may have it. They would see someone talking about "luck" or "wishing it" as we do as mentally ill, and this is a plot line in Reluctant Moon.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#WordWeavers 2504.25 — How long does it typically take you to draft a novel?
I dislike the word typical. I am neither neurotypical nor typically autistic, nor am I a stereotypical author. Mostly, drafts get done when they do. The limiter on my productivity is how difficult the subject is; sex complicates every relationship. Most of my novel length works seem to take 10 to 14 months, and I know this is way too slow. My internal self-censor keeps pulling the hand brake. My aim is to complete 2 to 3 works a year. I am not there yet. Not even close.
My fastest draft took me 31 days to write from conception to "the end" and is 32 chapters long. That was Mars Needed Women, but it's a novel by fiat more so than length. Each chapter had to be short and packed with events, so it feels like a novel. Since the first draft, it's expanded from 23K to 33K in length, and I've got to finish already that flapping epilogue a tragedy in the story demanded. I've got beta readers chomping at the bit and I want to release it by the end of this month.
Prior to that, I it took me three months to complete a 70K SF space opera, and I did that writing (generally) four hours a day four days a week.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.28 — International Workers’ Memorial Day! How important is class or caste in your writing?
While I skip using caste in my stories (I have no experience with it), class (as in aristocrat, plutocrat, midde-class, homeless) shows up relatively often. Such distinctions are tools for the characters to get what they want and weapons to protect themselves. Class is a known social contract in society. Class distinctions work solely by agreement of terms by the classist and the classless. Events like the French and Marxist revolutions happen when the agreement breaks down. Class is a great shorthand for me as an author; it allows me tap into the stereotypes the mind of the reader. For example, let's talk about a princess. Princesses, indeed any royalty, are rarely as portrayed by Disney. Having brought up the stereotype, I can place it on a pedestal… and proceed to take a sledgehammer to the marble, or polish it like the brass not gold it is.
I employ class in the background of the devil-girl's various storylines. She's a middle-class girl elevated stratospherically in station at 5 years old, then ruthlessly trained. Not realizing it's an earned thing because of her capabilities, she rebels and runs away when she can be mistaken as adult. She goes through being homeless to using her capabilities to become somebody in her own right, but she gets used a lot (because she is capable) by the highest of the high, the monied, and the oppressed. Class generates story; the structure gives me opportunity to discuss women's issues and gender in a different light.
To be clear, class is only one of many tools.Moreover, the above was an analysis of my writing. I'm not one to plot or plan out these things. I just tell the story of a person who has such attributes and watch to see how it plays out.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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Pre-order Dark Crescent by Lyndsey Croal! A collection of seasonal tales inspired by Scottish folklore, landscape, superstitions, and omens. Cover art by Jenni Coutts. Out June 3, 2025! https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/product-page/dark-crescent @lyndseycroal #sff
Das Planetenschloss, Teil 22.
Heute: Der Schläfer erwacht. Lori träumt. Das Fleisch wird dir fremd sein.
http://lazermeduza.de/planetenschloss/das-planetenschloss-22/
Today's a great day to make a donation to @rsagarcia and wish her another happy turn around the sun
https://gofund.me/d9b0e753
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THE DARK TOWER: THE LONG ROAD (2009)
Acrylic - 30 1/2" x 22"
I've revisited the Dark Tower many times in my career and with each trip to Mid-World I find myself a little farther down the road in my own journey. 1/3
A couple of days after launching the campaign, we've raised $102. Yay!! 
This round about covers the costs of rehearsal. I'm counting on your help to make as this revenge fantasy film, #TheNightDancer, based on the magical dance in Luo mythology. Even $1 dollar will be really helpful as it can buy a meal for a crew or cast person during the production. And as a way to say thank you, I have these awesome perks. See details here: https://www.dilmandila.com/crowdfund-for-the-night-dancer-short-film
#mutualaid #sff
https://mograph.social/@dilmandila/114400424506805629
ce week-end, j'étais aux festival de #sff les intergalactiques de lyon, dont le thème était Que Faire ? et l'ambiance était entre ça et ça. (photos prises lors de ma correspondance à Karlsruhe). #streetart #dystopia
#PennedPossibilities 656 — How forgiving is your MC?
You get to make a mistake once, so long as you didn't badly injure or kill someone. She will correct the mistake, and ensure that you understand what went wrong and why it was a mistake. Don't repeat your mistake. Don't try to lawyer your way out of it. Don't be a fool.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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