#fiction

20 hours ago

#WritingWonders 6.4 — "When was the last time you traveled?"

Title: Sharp Tool a'Traveling

I looked down at the rucksack I'd thrown on the silver satin bedspread, then the few flimsy pieces of under-clothing I'd pulled from a drawer. Anyone could see how worn the travel bag was, especially where the sleeping pad had rubbed against the canvas. Bolt was into her chains, piercings, and hardware, and for what it was worth, lots of complimentary (read: punk) clothing, not to mention cosmetics.

Unlike me.

I wore clothing only to the extent it was functional. I was a minimalist. Minimalism made it easier to run away. It took me a moment to interpret the day angel's expression.

I said, "Yeah, below my station. I don't give a flapping—"

"That's your luggage? Where did you go?"

I shoved in some light green shorts and a form-fitting top, made of technical fabric that could handle the humidity of our destination: Her home town, where the masquerade would take place. [The Masquerade Invitation: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110250683189485013] Of course, everyone knew my past and I'd been pardoned of my crimes. Still...

"Well," I started, "I decided I wanted to see more of the country. When I discussed it with a guy, he gave me a map through the costal forests to the southern route to Home City. [Wild Encounter: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/109842477740039509] I had quit my job in Harbor City, and wanted to take some time off."

Bolt lifted the rucksack, eying it suspiciously, then drew her face back after sniffing it. "You walked all that way?"

"Yeah, I did."

"That had to take, what, two months?"

"Four; should've taken six." I answered. Bolt spotted something, then held the bag and looked ready to scratch it off with a fingernail. "Don't," I added, and she jerked her hand back.

"That looks like blood."

"It is. Citron's."

She dropped the rucksack. "Strange souvenir. Begs a question. Why? Why the trip? Why such a long one?"

I drew a few worn magic books from my bookshelf, and my notebook, and shoved them in with a quill. I shrugged. "I wanted to disappear long enough that people would assume somebody had killed me: gave me cement shoes and thrown me in the bay."

Bolt looked at the blood stain. "You assumed wrong?"

"People don't think you could accidentally go from a nobody to a championship prizefighter to running a crime syndicate in barely three years. You have to be competent. Worse, they don't think someone obviously so competent would suddenly disappear after running the organization for a few weeks. I had. All that. Accidentally.

"I don't think the boss thought I'd really let her die.

"I ghosted the organization—after fixing it so it wouldn't implode after the gang war. Running it was a complete, stupid-headed, diversion from my goal of learning magic. I was totally incompetent to run it. I wasn't bloody-minded enough. I knew factions didn't like the changes I made, and would soon try to kill me, unless I did something about it. What I did was choose to leave." [The Wanted Poster: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110136451462609798]

"They went after you?"

"Dunno. Maybe? Probably? Maybe the boss' plans within plans followed after her death? Turns out that Director Rainy Days had been watching me all along. She had thought of my misadventures as training. Of course something happened. Why not? My luck. Who's fault? Them? Her Highness? I dunno. I got tangled up in one of their schemes, and, well, um... I resolved it in the Director's favor. Afterward, she had the temerity to criticize me for wimping out with the syndicate! For not following my vision of wanting to make the organization more legit!"

"Wait? She wanted you to kill— to let people die..." Bolt swallowed visibly. "To fix things?"

"That's Rainy Days for you. That's why you should never trust an absolute ruler."

"And she made you her heir?"

I pulled my ivory-handled jackknife from my messenger bag; popped it open with a click. The razor flashed and gleamed as if it were alive, preening for us. I was being used, by the Director, pretty much as I'd used this very blade, sticking it into someone's chest—oddly enough, to save them. I closed it with the palm of my hand, and dropped the sharp tool into my rucksack.

A sharp tool had to be used improperly to be made evil. Would I use it on this trip? Was I being used? Misused?

I already knew I was evil.

I said, "Yeah. Go figure. She's immortal. You wonder why I don't trust her?"

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #microfiction #suddenfiction

Kevin T. Houle

21 hours ago

Starting to read: Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

#books #reading #fiction #novel

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60185868

Hand holding a Kindle Paperwhite e-reader showing the cover of Oscar Hokeah's novel, Calling for a Blanket Dance

MikeDunnAuthor

23 hours ago

Today in Labor History June 4, 1943: The Zoot Suit riots began in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking and stripping mostly Latino, but also some black, Italian and Filipino youth who wearing zoot suits. They did it in response to wartime propaganda vilifying the wearers of zoot suits as unpatriotic hoodlums. There was a government ban on zoot suits and other long, woolen articles of clothing because of war rationing. Additionally, the LA Times had been whipping up racial tensions by publishing propaganda associating Mexican and Hispanic youth with delinquency, particularly in the wake of the Sleepy Lagoon murder. Race riots also occurred that summer in Mobile, Beaumont, Detroit, Chicago, San Diego, Oakland, Philadelphia and New York City.

During the Great Depression, the U.S. had deported between 500,000 and 2 million Mexicans. Of the 3 million who remained, the largest concentration lived in Los Angeles. Because of discrimination, many were forced into jobs with below-poverty wages. And then, the U.S. military built a naval academy in the Latino community of Chavez Ravine, further exacerbating tensions.

Zoot suits (baggy pegged pants with a long, flamboyant jacket that reached the knees) became popular in the early 1940s, particularly among young African American men. It was associated with a sense of pride, individuality and rebellion against mainstream culture. The trend quickly made its way into the Hispanic and Filipino subcultures in southern California. During this time, there was also a rise of pachuco culture among Latin youth. Chicano or pachuco jazz had become incredibly popular. Some of the great Pachuco band leaders included Lalo Guerrero, Don Tosti and Don Ramon Martinez.

Margarita Engle depicted The Zoot Suit riots in her young adult novel, Jazz Owls (2018), which she wrote in verse.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #racism #RaceRiot #riot #ZootSuit #chicano #Mexican #LosAngeles #propaganda #ww2 #immigration #deportation #hisfic #fiction #novel #books #author @bookstadon

This photograph of three men sporting variations on the zoot suit was taken by Oliver F. Atkins. Atkins worked for the Saturday Evening Post and was a personal photographer to President Richard Nixon. By This photograph of three men sporting variations on the zoot suit was taken by Ollie Atkins. Atkins worked for the ‘Saturday Evening Post’ and was a personal photographer to President Richard Nixon.National Archives, Richard Nixon Library and Museum - http://recordsofrights.org/records/62/zoot-suiters-on-paradehttp://recordsofrights.org/assets/record/000/000/249/249_original.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63313420

Sage Tyrtle

https://xray.submittable.com/submit

Free submissions: X-R-A-Y is accepting flash up to 2,000 words, nonfiction up to 7,500 words. "X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine’s vision is to publish uncomfortable, entertaining, and unforgettable prose that shines brighter than the skeleton in your body, prose that sees through the skin and reveals something deeper. We work hard to give our readers the best authors on the planet."

#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Litmags #Fiction

Vivienne Dunstan

Just wrote up quick thoughts about the latest #book I finished #reading, The Technicolor Time Machine by Harry Harrison. Easily the most bonkers book I have read so far this year! https://vivdunstan.dreamwidth.org/392516.html #scifi #fiction #timeTravel #Vikings #historicalFiction #Orkney #movies #books #sagas

starfishskies

#FourthWing #DragonRiders #fiction #reading #AnneMcCaffrey

I have so many unread books at home, but I really feel like I should read "Fourth Wing" while it's still hot, you know, for science aka comparing it to the works of Anne McCaffrey, the grandmother of all modern dragon rider fiction.

And it's available as an e-book in the shop I use 👀

#WritingWonders 6.3 — Share art [...] of your WIP world.

The art I do is photography and the world I set my stories in doesn't exist. I had to think about this one a lot, what I might share and not mislead, which is why I'm posting this so late. I have commissioned some artwork, covers. They don't reflect the #sff I'm writing now so I'll not show this one entirely, but I do hope this day angel with ruby in his wings will make beyond the first chapter I've written. The full-sized image is inspiring me to ensure that. Sorry to be so circuitous and evasive.

Below: Cartoon detail image of ruby-tipped feathers and blood dripping by Syrupyyy.

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #cover #coverart #writersOfMastodon

Cartoon detail image of ruby-tipped feathers and blood dripping by Syrupyyy.

Yeah nah.

2023: book twenty-six. #maximalism #eternalism #jerusalem #alanmoore #nirthampton #2023books #noxp #fiction #bookstoron

Russ

#fiction #fictionwriting #shortfiction #flashfiction #decisionmaking #philosophy #stoicism #surfing

LIFE IMAGINED AS FICTION…
Decisions. They can be easy. They can be difficult. Sometimes, they are solved by calling upon ancient philosophies.

That is what this woman did in this short fiction I wrote as a means of introducing that philosophy.

https://medium.com/pacificedge/a-place-in-the-world-547e2cb67b75?source=friends_link&sk=b464ea85e8b398cda2e0aab4a4da07bd

रञ्जित (Ranjit Mathew)

#Literature #Pleasure #Bibliophile #Fiction #Classics #BucketList #Procrastination #JoyOfReading

I agree, but I can also sympathize with #LexFridman having a public #plan for #reading #books that forces one to act:

"Read For Pleasure", The Critic (https://thecritic.co.uk/read-for-pleasure/).

Tony Zee

https://musingsonlife9.wordpress.com/2023/06/03/in-country/

New flash fiction out today.

In today's story titled 'In Country', a soldier is lost in the jungle desperate to escape the war and return to his wife, willing himself and battling not only the elements, but his enemies hiding in the shadows. Will the war claim another victim or will he see his beloved wife again?

#writingcommunity #writing #flashfiction #writer #writersofinstagram #shortstories #podcast #podcastlife #podcastshow #blogger #bloggerlife #bloggers #blog #fiction #writerslife #murdermystery #unexpectedtales #flashfictioninfive #roadslesstravelled #amateurwriter #story #storytelling #writtenword #amwriting #darkfiction #thriller #suspense

Trina Talma

My multi-genre #ShortStory collection, Unlikely Muses, is on special today at Hrtsmom's Jewelry Etc. https://www.etsy.com/listing/475242011/unlikely-muses-short-story-collection?click_key=4d46e066968d8ac73b8d83171012f77591cb26d4%3A475242011&click_sum=6130ef6f&ref=shop_home_feat_1 #book #fiction Thrilling rescues & manic dreams. A frustrated artist & a daring secret agent. True confessions & true love. The world’s most perfect object. Time travel & ice cream. Sorcery, vampires, gods & angels. A mission of vengeance and a couple of hospitals definitely not recommended by four out of five doctors.

Courtney Cantrell

#ThreeSentenceHorrorStory
#3SentenceHorrorStory
#ThreeSentenceFiction
#ThreeSentenceNonfiction
#amwriting
#fiction
#nonfiction
#WritingCommunity

THREE-SENTENCE HORROR STORY

Anything is possible.

THE END

Liz Fyne

Hello! I recently migrated from another instance, and I just managed to delete my #introduction, so here it is (again). I am a #writer of #literary #fiction ( #novels and #stories). I used to work in biomedical research but not anymore. I have three #cats and can never get enough cat photos. Thank you for reading!

Pat

Christopher Pate :verified:

Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

The title of this film is very misleading. It makes it sound like a low-budget 50s scifi, but this is actually a very well made movie. I think it's on par with The Day the Earth Stood Still (1952), except this film had a lot more special effects. They used a combination of stop action and other practical effects as well as post processing techniques.

The guy who did the special effects on this film, Ray Harryhauser, invented a technique called Dynamation, a special type of stop action effect. He went on to work on the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1956) which is probably one of the most well-known stop action/live action films of the era. But this film uses a wide variety of techniques as well as stop action.

The writing and acting are also top-notch. The actors weren't big stars but they were accomplished character actors. It has a fully developed plot and the dialogue was well written. Also, they got a lot of the science facts right on this one, at least more than usual for a Hollywood scifi. They even tried to explain special relativity, incorrectly of course, but they tried.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes old science fiction movies.

It’s just unfortunate that they gave this film such a cheap-sounding name. They even released it as a double-feature with The Werewolf. (I guess film marketing has improved since then as well as special effects. 😆 )
- - - -
#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #film #movie #space #aliens #claypigeons #flyingsaucer #the1950s #ColdWar #hairy

- - - -

accessible image description:

an ugly movie poster with orange and white headlines, muted colors, with images of flying saucers that are shooting rays to the ground and robot creatures walking around, the large headlines say flying saucers attack! warning! take cover! earth vs the flying saucers, small headlines say flying saucers invade our planet: washington, london, paris, moscow, take cover!, a smaller inset image of a man and woman looking scared and holding each other.

My latest story, Ċildweald, is coming out through Trickster: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology on 23 Jun 23.
Find links to all my tales at: https://bookworminthedark.blogspot.com/
#fiction #horror #darkfantasy #shortstory #anthology #originalfiction #specificsaturday

Michael Shotter

http://amazon.com/author/michaelshotter

The #Kindle edition release of "500" is just a little over a month away but you can get a head start right now with the #paperback, #hardcover, or this #firstpage from chapter one!

#scifi #sciencefiction #action #adventure #speculative #fiction #thriller

Angela Miller

Piyush Chandwani :verified:

#writingWonders
3. Share images from the #wip
Here's Glentrool.
And here's a chapter of story to go with it. https://tapestriesoftheveils.wordpress.com/2023/06/03/flight/
#writing #fantasy #urbanFantasy #alternateReality #magic #fiction #dragon #dragons #Scotland

#books #bookstodon #fiction #biography #poll #mastodon #masto

Which category of books do you prefer? Cast your vote below! 👇

Mark McElroy

Renewing my plea for @Obsidian to make “Auto pair brackets" and “Autopair quotation marks" two separate settings in the Editor preferences pane.

I love auto-paired brackets, which has to be turned on in order to highlight words, type brackets, and have them transform into links.

But when writing #fiction, auto-paired quotes make me crazy -- especially since apostrophes are also auto-paired.

I’d love to have auto-paired brackets without auto-paired quotes.

#Obsidian #amwriting

#writing #writer #author #writingCommunity #writersofmastodon #BoostingIsSharing

Good writing news: Wrote for 10 hours straight today. 😋

Bad writing news: It was a training script for the day job. 😱

#Nonfiction not #fiction or #sf! 😢

Robert Kingett

Reminder that I keep up a free aggregated paying calls for submissions email newsletter for writers. Subscribe by RSS or email. Subscribe via email at https://rk.groups.io/g/writerop/join, or RSS, at https://rk.groups.io/g/writerop/rss #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #Publishing #Fiction #Nonfiction

Chris Smith

https://open.substack.com/pub/smithscribe/p/new-world-a-coming-ch27

New World a-Coming, Ch. 28
1939: The Ballyizget Underground

#SFF #serialnovel #adventure #timetravel #alternatehistory #fiction #bassanda

Find it at www.smithscribe.substack.com

#WritingWonders 6.2 — Were any of your fictional settings inspired by real world locations?

I am going to interpret this question so it is yes. (And sneak in some #writingadvice.)

When I wrote the original story, my main character related that she was being blackmailed for having been in a gang. It allowed her to be good at fighting while coming across a nihilist. I got glimpses of a gang war and a city block on fire, and what she had to put up with (and submit to) to rise in the ranks of male lieutenants. The darkness evoked a sooty heartless cityscape, which fit in with detective noir images of the gritty cities of the northeastern US in the mid 1900s. You could call that inspiration, right?

Then I decided to write a prequel to the original story that related that edgy backstory.

I ended up choosing a set of cities: Baltimore, Princeton, and Brooklyn, with secondary roles for the Jersey coast opposite Brooklyn across the bay, Philadelphia, and little towns and parks in between. While I didn't actually set the story in these places, because this story doesn't take place in modern times or a recognizable world, I employed maps of the region.

Using actual geography is helpful for numerous reasons. It limits the movement of characters and suggests obstacles in their adventures. Having to deal with how bus lines are laid out, and posted bus and light rail schedules, can add worsening to a story. It makes the story feel real.

I use Google Maps to find interesting associated businesses and government buildings consistent with the story. I often use street view to suggest what the characters might see, hear, or smell. That filters into the description. Sometimes I use actual street- and place names, as I did in Fight for Real (https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110317141401752671). The 17 Restaurant in the story exists in Baltimore, as does the intersection. Find it in street view and see what I based the descriptions upon!

Street maps are helpful for laying out a believable marathon route.
Maps with building layouts are good for find a building to duck into to loose a tail that has doors on the opposite street.
Rental maps are good for finding a place for the MC to rent an apartment where there might be a close restaurant for important scenes to take place.

Finding a suitable apartment might lead to determining how far a character might realistically have to run—through an Ivy League university—to reach a train station while being chased by assassins. In that same neighborhood you might need a coffee house to meet a magic tutor, or need to find a suitable a cul-de-sac to be ambushed by goons.

I could randomly layout towns and cities. Sometimes I do. However, city planning, whether it was done via zoning or stupid urban sprawl, has a consistency that adds a layer of realism. The composition of the neighborhoods and the distances between places keep me from making things appear unnaturally hard or easy for the characters. Also, why invent the wheel? Drafting cities is another way to procrastinate. (As is scrolling around online street views, admittedly.)

#writingAdvice #fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #urbanplanning #map #googlemaps

Diogo “Old Skull” Nogueira

DCCRPG - DYING EARTH - Adventures in a Doomed World
Published by @goodmangames

Wow! What an incredibly produced #BoxedSet for #DCCRPG! Inspired by the #Fiction of #JackVance, comes these gorgeous #Books, with a lot of cool stuff for you to use in your games. Dying Earth is an incredible setting, and having the opportunity to explore it with the system that really introduced the #AppendixN #Literature to me makes it so much more special!

#OSR #PulpFantasy #Fantasy #DnD #TTRPG

DCC - Dying Earh book cover showing a blue monster being summoned by a wizard. Illustrated by Erol Otus.

DCC - Dying Earth Book cover. Player’s Libram, showing three different character in front of a pink city background.

DCCRPG - Dying Earth book cover, a black cauldron with a face as flames burn demons. Primer of Practical Magic.

Eliot

@edibuddies @romancelandia

I'm shifting gears from a monthly newsletter to a quarterly one (largely because it turns out months go FAST!)--so hey, if you're interested in #InclusiveLanguage, #Romance, #fiction #writing, #editing, and/or related events and opportunities, but you didn't want to hear from me THAT often, maybe sign up!
https://eliotwesteditorial.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c065cc93920a2bedf05a32ffc&id=0a57bebc9d

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #reading #bookmail #BookLove #thriller

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

A thriller based on the true story of a 1970s serial killer in the USA who targeted college-aged women. out in Oct from Simon and Schuster

Framed in a bright yellow background we see the eyes and forehead of what looks to be a woman. Her face in in bright pink and her eyelids are bright yellow.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #reading #bookmail #BookLove #YoungAdult #Thriller

The Reunion by Kit Frick

A YA thriller: Tension at a family reunion in sunny Cancún leads to murder. Everyone is a suspect. Out in August from Simon Teen

Red and yellow cover shows four stylized young people; one is holding a surfboard. It looks like they are standing under palm trees.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #reading #bookmail #BookLove #YoungAdult

Fatima Tate Takes the Cake by Khadijah Vanbrakle

How a teenager, despite being raised in a conservative American Muslim family, finds the strength to stand up for herself and her future. Out this month from Holiday House Books

A brown-skinned teen wearing an orange hijab with flowers surrounding her head. She's holding cooking utensils.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #reading #bookmail #BookLove #thriller

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

A thriller involving a woman whose job is to take on a specific identity and then learn all she can about whoever her boss targets. No problem, except when the past suddenly threatens to undo all her hard work. Out in Jan from Pamela Dorman Books

A two-story house with the silhouette of a person (female?) on the other side of the screen door

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #reading #bookmail #BookLove #ScienceFiction

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

A fun and unique science-fiction action-adventure story about a man who inherits his uncle's supervillain business -- along with his supervillain enemies. Out in Sept from Tor Books

The cover shows a fluffy cat dressed in a suit and tie

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #YoungAdult #reading #bookmail #BookLove

Project F by Jeanne DuPrau

A middle grade story set in the far future at a time when much of 21st-century's technology is no more, a young teen learns about a secret scientific project that promises to change life as his contemporary humans know it. Out in Oct. from Random House Kids

Two children in a dark woods open a yellow freestanding door -- light is pouring out from behind the door.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #YoungAdult #reading #bookmail #BookLove #thriller

Lying in the Deep by Diana Urban

A twisty YA thriller set on cruise ship that acts as a campus for a semester at sea. Can Jade identify the killer before she herself becomes a victim. Out now from RazorBill Books

Looking out a ship's porthole to the ocean. A bloody hand print is on the glass.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #MiddleGrade #reading #bookmail #BookLove

Lei and the Fire Goddess by Malia Maunakea

MG fantasy based on Hawai'ian legends and beliefs. A young girl learns the hard way that her grandmother's stories can't be ignored. Out this month from Penguin Workshop

A young girl running past bright tropical flowers; a large bat is flying by and a giant volcano is erupting

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #YoungAdult #reading #bookmail #BookLove #Fantasy

Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

YA fantasy with a foundation in Greek mythology. A descendant of the Fates must solve a mystery and save one of her sisters from danger. Out this month from Razorbill Books

A dark-haired teen wearing a pink jacket and bright green shirt. The background is also bright green with pink swirls over top.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #fiction #YoungAdult #reading #bookmail #BookLove

True True by Don P. Hooper --

A contemporary YA novel about a Caribbean American Black teen who decides to fight racism in his predominantly white private high school. Out in Aug from Nancy Paulsen Books

Green, red, and yellow cover showing a Black male teen in a school uniform

Pronoia

I'd give this due credit, but fuck knows where it came from beyond my own squirrely archives 🤷‍♂️

(P.S. should "squirrely" have one or two L's?)

#creative #writing #editing #fiction #humor #funny #humour #haha

Francisca Staines

#writingcommunity #writersofmastodon #amwriting #bookstodon #inspiration #fiction #folklore

Did you know that Datura—Devil's trumpet—are plants with hallucinogenic qualities Medieval scholars used to induce trances
In Mexico, known as Toloache, the flowers were used in potions said to induce long-lasting love. A false & risky practice due to its toxicity

Five white Datura flowers hand from a bush.

An illustration showing a bottle filled with a love potion, surrounded by white candles and white Datura flowers.

John James

#fiction #fantasy #booklaunch #newbook #books #bookrelease #publishing #amazon #newrelease #ebook #kindle #kindleunlimited

I'm pleased to announce the publication of my first novel, My Brother's Unicorn.

Set in Australia at the end of the 20th century, My Brother's Unicorn is a heartwarming fantasy about loss and grief, love and family, forgiveness and redemption, and rugby league, the greatest game of all.

Available to download FOR FREE for the next five days: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6Q3C3QH

Emergence Magazine

In this week's short story, an actuary-turned-field-biologist begins to notice strange occurrences in the uncanny landscape of Nieux Swamp, a man-made climate mitigation project funded by a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Read “Hidden Bayou,” by Nathaniel Rich.
https://emergencemagazine.org/fiction/hidden-bayou/ #ShiftingLandscapes #Fiction

Introduction (#writingWonders 6.1 — Intro Day)

I am a feminist SF writer, more details on my profile. I'm planning on pinning this post to my profile, so it will change over time. Since I write a lot of #microfiction / #suddenfiction for #Mastodon, here is a pinned post of links to those stories: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110470537747067765

On Mastodon, I am building a network of other writers by being both entertaining and informative, sharing what I learned the hard way. My motto: There Shall Be Content! My community goal is to help people with writing and to help them get over what's keeping them from completing stories. I'm also learning self-publishing as a business. I hope to push back the loneliness that's part and parcel of a solitary profession.

I follow serious authors, which means people diligently writing or working at completing stories or articles or anything containing words with the intent to publish. Whether that's #fiction, #nonfiction, #scripts, #comics or #manga, or #games, that's probably you. I read everyone's profile before following, and generally require some posts to ensure I'm making the right choice. DM me if your posts didn't follow you when switching instances. My timeline is full, so please don't feel bad if I miss something.

I will follow an #artist based on seeing interesting work. This can be #photography or hand drawn/painted #art. I am partial to #charcoals and #pastel, appreciate #sketch art, but love #watercolor (because I can't do that!), or just really good visuals. I will discuss what's great in what you post if wowed, or #critique if you're really close and I think I can help. I occasionally commission cover and interstitial art. I do fine art photography and have done wedding and event photography (https://sfwrtr.zenfolio.com).

Last: *Did you entertain me? Did you make me think?" I may follow you. I have a weird sense of humor, which follows since many of my characters are snide and cynical.

That brings me favorites, that little star button. I do my very best never to click it to acknowledge I've simply read your post. My favorites generally mean something caught my attention, was particularly apropos to the idea, was entertaining, or somehow pithy. If I favorite replies in a conversation, that could be an acknowledgment. If I reply to your post, I've definitely noticed something!

I believe boosting is sharing, and I sometime wait a while to provide them better visibility. I appreciate when people boost my posts when they affect them in return.

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writingWonders 6.1 Intro

#BoostingIsSharing #CommentingIsCool

#Links to #Story Samples Written by R.S.

Over the past half-year, I've written very short fiction stories in my universe for #Mastodon under the #writingWonders hashtag. They're first citizen samples of my 1st person writing, my casual—made to be read aloud—writing style, and include my still evolving characters. None tally much more than 750 words, with a hard character limit set by my instance. I think they're an easy read. Some are based on my earlier works, some on works not yet written. With the exception of the excerpts, they represent the time off stage of the novel, between stories or scenes, or before future stories; or scenes rewritten from another POV that isn't in the story.

Most of what was written for Mastodon was written quickly, edited immediately, then posted. It could be better, but I've resisted more than revising typos or inappropriate words. Everything is experimental; nothing should be considered canon. So, each in roughly chronological order:

Stories:

Excerpts with proposed titles:

I'm not the Thaumaturge You're Looking for...: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110064129027510807
Not Chattel: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110036114809701300
Dangerous Word Play: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/109943717912031929
Fight for Real: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110317141401752671
Daemon at the Door: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110362730587455597
Bling with Strings Attached: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110345919252932146

Interviews:

Other:

Vignettes asking whether she's attractive: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110391891938480784

[Author retains copyright to all posted words]

All my answers to #writingWonders can be found by clicking: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/tagged/WritingWonders

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #1stPerson #writersOfMastodon #story #storySamples #excerpt
#microfiction < 500 words
#suddenFiction ~750 words

MikeDunnAuthor

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #children #ChildLabor #exploitation #capitalism #nike #AnywhereButSchuylkill #coal #mining #fiction #novel #HisFic #HistoricalFiction @bookstadon

Today in Labor History June 1 is the day that U.S. labor law officially allows children under the age of 16 to work up to 8 hours per day between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 pm. Time is ticking away, Bosses. Have you signed up sufficient numbers of low-wage tykes to maintain production rates with your downsized adult staffs?

The reality is that child labor laws have always been violated regularly by employers and these violations have been on the rise recently. Additionally, many lawmakers are seeking to weaken existing, poorly enforced laws to make it even easier to exploit children. Over the past year, the number of children employed in violation of labor laws rose by 37%, while lawmakers in at least 10 states passed, or introduced, new laws to roll back the existing rules. Violations include hiring kids to work overnight shifts in meatpacking factories, cleaning razor-sharp blades and using dangerous chemical cleaners on the kills floors for companies like Tyson and Cargill. Particularly vulnerable are migrant youth who have crossed the southern U.S. border from Central America, unaccompanied by parents. https://www.epi.org/publication/child-labor-laws-under-attack/
.
Of course, what is happening in the U.S. is small potatoes compared with many other countries, where exploitation of child labor is routine, and often legal. Kids are almost always paid far less than adults, increasing the bosses’ profits. They are often more compliant than adults and less likely to form unions and resist. Bosses can get them to do dangerous tasks that adults can’t, or won’t, do, like unclogging the gears and belts of machinery. This was also the norm in the U.S., well into the 20th century. In my soon (I hope) to be released novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” the protagonist, Mike Doyle, works as a coal cleaner in the breaker (coal crushing facility) of a coal mine at the age or 13. Many kids began work in the collieries before they were 10. They often were missing limbs and died young from lung disease. However, when the breaker bosses abused them, they would sometimes collectively chuck rocks and coal at them, or walk out, en masse, in wildcat strikes. And when their fathers, who worked in the pits, as laborers and miners, went on strike, they would almost always walk out with them, in solidarity.

Image of a large man in a "Nike" t-shirt, wielding a nike swoosh machete, lords over a group of child laborers in a shoe factory.

Neil Brown

5 days ago

I asked yesterday:

> Can anyone recommend hacker / cyberpunk / cypherpunk fiction written in the 70s/80s/90s, please?

I got a wealth of amazing replies - thank you *so* much!

Here's a consolidated list of the replies/recommendations:

https://neilzone.co.uk/2023/05/book-recommendations-hacker-cyberpunk-cypherpunk-fiction-written-in-the-70s80s90s

#books #reading #scifi #hacker #cyberpunk #cypherpunk #fiction

Ray Newman

5 days ago

How do you end a spooky story?

I've been reading the collection This Dreaming Isle, ed. Dan Coxon, 2018, and thinking about the endings of the various stories.

Your options seem to be:

1. The protagonist dies – a dead end, if you like.
2. Logic and reality break down – well *something* just happened!
3. The story goes unresolved, in a moment of unease.

I think 3 is the most satisfying. I admire the nerve to stop a sentence or paragraph early and let it hang.

#GhostStories #Writing #Fiction

Tony Zee

1 week ago

Any bloggers who write fiction out there? Looking to build some connections with fellow flash fiction/short story/fiction bloggers to share and review work or works in progress.

Let's connect!!

#blog #blogger #writing #writingcommunity #amwriting #flashfiction #shortstory #fiction #amateurwriter #writer

Amici Nybråten

1 week ago

I just finished "Multispecies Cities - Solarpunk Urban Futures"

It was a very good anthology. Another day I'll tell you all which of the short stories I recommend most. For now, I'd just like to say that the book is definitely worth a purchase and a read. The book itself is an interesting anthology concept, and the project worked out tremendously well with many interesting takes, beautiful and mind opening stories.

#solarpunk #fiction

Savinien

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

Experimenting with new work of #fiction in which the narrator is demographically different from me but thinks like I do - i.e., hyperwordy, on #autistic and #asexual spectra.

Finding it surprisingly hard and revelatory.

Apparently my narrative default is to ask "what would a REAL human think/do in this context" and write that - not what someone like me would think - THAT'S obviously unrealistic.

I feel like I wasn't always like that...?

Kevin RR :verified:

#writingcommunity #writingwonders #BooksofMastodon #readers

📚 #ClinicalNovellas is an online resource of #mystery and #scifi short #fiction stories.

😳 Robust #ui features are a click away for your reading and listening pleasure.

http://clinicalnovellas.com

ClinicalNovellas short stories online website screenshot

#nostalgia #mooreslaw #macintosh #apple #photography #writing #writers #fiction #sf #writersOfMastodon #author

@gruber Oh noes! IMy #iPad Pro never seemed to be slow for anything... This is unexpected. (I probably thought this about my original Fat Mac in 1985.)

Speaking of which, the image is a B&W of the interior of my original Fat Mac (MacIntosh 512K: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_512K). Taken with a iPhone 14 Pro Max 1 second exposure.

Enlarge the image and look at the signatures of the original staff that made the MacIntosh a product.

I bought in 1985. While I do most of my writing on the iPad Pro, I wrote my early novels on this machine and thought it would last forever. I wrote my first novel on an Apple ][.

This is a B&W of the interior of my original Fat Mac

Note the *signatures*.

I bought in 1984. I wrote my early novels on this and thought it would last forever. I wrote my first novel on an Apple ][.

ZeinaCocaina

Hello #Mastodon! I have a degree in Creative Writing, I focus on #fiction, but I've been engaged in a #truecrime plot in my personal life concerning a hitman protected by the FBI named Jon Cheney of Deland, FL. They've yet to flip on him, despite the fact that I have an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence.

More to come on that shortly.

Robert Kingett

Texas Observer Lives!

J. R. DePriest :verified_trans: :donor: (she / her) :EA DATA. SF:

“Strange how quickly blood stops being frightening after giving birth.”

From the May/June 2023 issue of our magazine, Szilvia Molnar’s debut #novel explores a dark side of motherhood that's rarely spoken of openly: https://www.texasobserver.org/szilvia-molnar-postpartum-book-review/

#parenting #books #fiction #culture #Texas #Austin #children #horror

#Fiction #Writing #WritingCommunity #Oracle #Sekhmet #Hope

Temple of Carnelian

This is based on a reading I did with a deck of Oracle cards before the pandemic. I'll try to get a good image of the card and add it it to this post later.

First paragraph to get you started.

In the Aether there is a temple, a pyramid of stone, missing the capstone, forever bathed in the red-gold light of a setting desert sun. The doors are always open and the inside is filled with long shadows that provide respite from the heat. You are welcome to sit, relax, contemplate. You've earned your place here. If you explore, you may find the goddess of the temple, Sekhmet, she with the head of a lioness, arbiter of courage and inner strength. She may smile, she may beckon or direct, but she never speaks. It isn't necessary. In this case, she glanced at a passage off in the distance, one I hadn't yet seen. It danced with a curious flickering array of colors and so I moved toward it. Even before I could see it clearly, I felt it, like an oven, but I was strong, so I pushed forward, I had to see. My skin felt as if it may peel away, like the worst sunburn you've ever had, but still I pushed. And I saw a corridor, lengthy and filled entirely with flame.

It's a photo of a card from the isis Oracle deck. The card shows the lion-headed Egyptian goddess Sekhmet carved into a wall in the background
She's looking stage right and her one visible eye is painted with kohl. In front of her is the goddess Isis in human form, her right eye painted to match the eye of Ra. She's wearing round gold and lapis earrings. Her long brown hair is blowing in a breeze. She wears a golden cloak with a necklace of lapis, gold, and other fine stones.
The card reads:
Temple of Carnelian
Entering the fierce belly of Sekhmet.

David August

In challenging times, we can all use a reminder of the strength of humans. I wrote "Heartbreak," to imagine what a future could be like. It's a sci-fi horror story that's also a tribute to resilience and family. Check it out now:
https://bit.ly/heartbreakstory
#SciFi #fiction #COVID

Angela Miller

So, life hasn't let me get on quite as quickly as I'd like on the #editing #PearlsontheRoad and I'm not quite ready for beta readers yet. I will repeat this call again when it's ready, and I swear it won't be long now, but if anyone is interested in beta reading this let me know!
Also, I am about to start recording a spoken version for a friend who prefers #audiobook versions. If you might be interested in this, also let me know!
#Scots #fiction #novel #writing #betareaders

cover of a beta version of my book that I had made up a while back. shows the painted desert with Janis Joplin's Porsche travelling along a long, straight road towards the reader.

Ben Werdmuller

Though it fades out weakly, I loved this story about loss, meaning, and what it means to be an immigrant, dressed up as a science fiction novel. The science fiction is good too, and alarmingly close to the real-life global pandemic that took place a few years after it was written. This is a book about disconnection; it resonated for me hard.
#Fiction #bookstodon https://bookshop.org/a/7949/9781250214997?utm_source=werd.io&utm_channel=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon

Writing Blind

Looking for a writing friend. Someone I can chat with about writing, projects, and stuff like that. I write horror and weird fiction, but I'll talk to anyone from any genre. Let me know if you're interested. #fiction #writing #horror #weird #WritingCommunity #Writers #books

Raima Larter

I need to do an updated #introduction post, since my pinned posts are now out of date. I'm an Assistant Fiction Editor at Utopia Science Fiction Magazine and we are interested in reading your work!

Send us your #sff & #scifi #fiction, #poetry and short nonfiction #science articles. Submission guidelines here: https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/submit

Also, our current issue (see image!) is on sale now! Get a copy here: https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/

Thin blue-skinned woman with red eyes in front of flaming sun and a comet.

Texas Observer Lives!

#books @bookstodon #culture #Texas #fiction

"#Austin author Szilvia Molnar’s debut novel The Nursery, a memoir-looking work about a new mother suppressing baby-harming thoughts, is an engaging experiment in uncomfortable empathy that finds its tonal antecedents in cerebral body #horror movies like David Cronenberg’s The Brood and David Lynch’s Eraserhead."

From the May/June issue of our magazine, Roberto Ontiveros reviews "The Nursery":
https://www.texasobserver.org/postpartum-book-review/

ankur sethi is alive and well

#Gaming #fiction #storytelling

i really want to try playing some interactive fiction, but i still have a sour taste in my mouth from playing old Infocom titles.

those were REALLY punishing games. i never managed to get more than 10% into Zork or Bureaucracy or H2G2, because they were all so obtuse and almost WANTED you to fail. or maybe i was too dumb? idk.

i know there is a thriving modern interactive fiction scene out there, but i've never even tried dipping my toes into it.

are the games still super hard? or have they become something i can relax with, similar to Coffee Talk or Neo Cab or Unpacking?

BlinkPopShift👁️🫧⤴️