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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.11.01: What creative project(s) do you hope to work on this month?
- Get the beta edits done on Mars Needed Women.
- Complete composing Reluctant Courier (for the Mob).
- Go dancing in the street if I get both 1 and 2 done.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#ScribesAndMakers 2025.11.01: What creative project(s) do you hope to work on this month?
- Get the beta edits done on Mars Needed Women.
- Complete composing Reluctant Courier (for the Mob).
- Go dancing in the street if I get both 1 and 2 done.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
"Personally, I would not recommend working with the Rust API for #polars yet. Suddenly, they rip out an interoperability function like the support for the official Arrow implementation, and you scramble to fix it. The Polars #rust library serves as a WIP for the Python project, and the rough edges feel endless.
The documentation tells a similar story. The deeper you go, the worse the documentation gets. This truly rears its ugly head when you must use the internal Polars crates like polars-arrow."
Cannot agree more.
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Floor proximity sensors can now be placed in levels - this is a really simple test level to show one working.
It still needs some UI work doing so that the level designer can choose the signal it emits, and its initial state, but it seems to work pretty well.
Next up is more levels, and then zone selection rears its slightly terrifying head...
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4. Cat Rambo describes intense emotions that can power a story as “the big feels.” One of the problems is that it’s hard to write about big feels when you are still in the middle of feeling them. At there any big feels you’d like to put into a story? #Writephant
I hate bringing politics into a discussion, but I wrote a dystopian Mars colonization story in March based on and satirizing our current times projected 100 years into the future. I felt compelled to write this by the big feelings we were going through in the time. My outrage made it easier. The colonization company, EM Mars, had the initials of a famous billionaire because it was his legacy. It made this schadenfreude moment possible excerpted below. The Starship design is similar to the contemporary design. May Ri is our female engineer MC. Reina, later the first president of Mars, supposedly changed the flight software to strand the bad guy misogynists somewhere undeveloped on Mars, preventing them from taking over the Deimos space station.
The ship flared [brightly overhead in the Martian dawn.]
May Ri juggled the stopwatch, lost it over the edge [of the monorail trestle to puff in a red dust dune], and grabbed her binocs. "Did they bypass the timer—?"
"No," said Reina's voice over the frenzy of others, on a private comm.
May Ri realized the magnitude of the flare. Not separation. No benign peeling off of three tiny boosters. It brightened, quickly blinding. One flare, five, then twenty. A string of pearls in the heavens, snapped off a mythical deity's neck, strewn angrily across the sky. A swarm of fireballs, another flare, two, then red comets that looked that way due to the increasing friction of re-entry.
"Oops," said Reina. "Should've run more sims [on my software modifications]."
#writer #author #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon #mars #sciencefiction #sf #RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.09.20 — How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
In Mars Needed Women, the reader visits a world that is endpoint of the death of democracy we seem to be witnessing now. The Chicago the protagonist lives in is the follow-on christian nationalist nation that is no longer the US (despite the rewritten history). May Ri is a woman when it doesn't mean much, who exploits the stupidity that results from money buying power at the expense of people capable of advancing society and technology. She eventually has to fight to save a new world, Mars, and a nation led by women, the Sorority, that she has helped found simply by doing what she does best, build things. The book is being beta read.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.09.20 — How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
In Mars Needed Women, the reader visits a world that is endpoint of the death of democracy we seem to be witnessing now. The Chicago the protagonist lives in is the follow-on christian nationalist nation that is no longer the US (despite the rewritten history). May Ri is a woman when it doesn't mean much, who exploits the stupidity that results from money buying power at the expense of people capable of advancing society and technology. She eventually has to fight to save a new world, Mars, and a nation led by women, the Sorority, that she has helped found simply by doing what she does best, build things. The book is being beta read.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.09.20 — How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
In Mars Needed Women, the reader visits a world that is endpoint of the death of democracy we seem to be witnessing now. The Chicago the protagonist lives in is the follow-on christian nationalist nation that is no longer the US (despite the rewritten history). May Ri is a woman when it doesn't mean much, who exploits the stupidity that results from money buying power at the expense of people capable of advancing society and technology. She eventually has to fight to save a new world, Mars, and a nation led by women, the Sorority, that she has helped found simply by doing what she does best, build things. The book is being beta read.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.09.20 — How might your work be seen as a criticism of the present moment?
In Mars Needed Women, the reader visits a world that is endpoint of the death of democracy we seem to be witnessing now. The Chicago the protagonist lives in is the follow-on christian nationalist nation that is no longer the US (despite the rewritten history). May Ri is a woman when it doesn't mean much, who exploits the stupidity that results from money buying power at the expense of people capable of advancing society and technology. She eventually has to fight to save a new world, Mars, and a nation led by women, the Sorority, that she has helped found simply by doing what she does best, build things. The book is being beta read.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WebAuthorsCafe 5: Do you write in serial format? Why or why not?
There are two types of serial format (spelled with an s not a c): 1. Dickensian and 2. Safe.
1) By Dickensian, I am referring to good old Charles Dickens who published his stories in weekly installments in newspapers (think of it as a web page that refreshed weekly). He would write new chapters each week. They turned often verbose and flowery, but he got paid by installment and in the end his stories were well loved and he became an international celebrity.
The downside, he died and left a novel unfinished. Okay, I'm not going to look up if The Mystery of Edwin Drood was serialized, but that's the concept anyway: Writing a story chapter by chapter, not knowing if you'll ever finish it.
I did that twice, and for me it was crazy making, if fulfilling. Having to finish a chapter done on time and when promised was hard when I did it in fan fiction. I even had to add author notes because I had modify previous chapters to make the story work.
I did it again with Mars Needed Women, an original science fiction work inspired by current dystopian events. I initially serialized it in a different form on Mastodon†. That, however, was 31 chapters in 31 days based on 31 feminist #writever prompts, for an entire month, day by day, composition and revision and publication done each day, with barely a vague idea how it would end. Grueling. Doing and succeeding at such things builds writer muscles.
2) Safe serialization is where you've completed the story composition before you start serializing chapters, or better yet simply serialized a finished work, which is how it is done in magazines today. It is definitely safer than going the full Dickens. I did this for years while writing fan fiction, trailing the revisions, and rarely having to change published chapters to add foreshadowing or corrections. It had the advantage of not being so hectic. Mind you, I didn't publish them as regularly; it makes for better quality output. Better for the nerves, too!
=-=-=-=-=
† I have deleted the story posts, but the meta content still exists under #RSMarsNeededWomen. The revised story, with additional content and twice the word count, is currently being beta read. It has already interested a publisher enough that I was asked to submit before normal submissions. 🤞🏼[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Fanfiction #serial #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion -
#ScribesAndMakers 2025.08.01 — Alt: Word.
This word comes from Mars Needed Women, which is in beta. The Decath Crown, as it is referred to, is one of a number of antagonistic organizations the book's MC ends up dealing with, but it is also the most insidious. I don't expect anyone to read about this out-of-context, but I will admit that I invented the religion for a fascist state instead of using a real one to diffuse my fear of needlessly picking on one religion and likely upsetting part of my potential audience. After the fact, it feels a bit like I am picking on all religions, only kind of passive-aggressively. I'm okay with that. Everybody needs their nose tweaked now and again. What follows is a slightly [annotated] excerpt from the glossary in the book.
Decath - A religious organization which was a successor to the various Christian nationalist faiths that created NADS [North American Decath States] from its predecessor state [the United States], consolidated into a theocratic state-supported ministry. The religion is now world-wide, except where banned in five catholic countries. Adherents say it is not a successor to Catholicism, but a rejection of it. It comes from Dissenting Catholicism, and teaches that the liberal interpretations promulgated by the various orthodox and protestant churches regarding Christ's word was unfounded, and furthermore misrepresented God's will based on improper readings of both the new and old testaments. Their catholicism is a new orthodoxy that properly interprets an apostolic church structure while supporting a protestant ideal of a priesthood of believers that is guided by ministers. It is accurately spelled De-cath not Dis-cath. This because the members of the initial Synod of Alabama—which drew together the leaders or designates of various nationalistic churches, their largest corporate sponsors, and hundreds of US congressmen and sixty-nine senators—thought having the word sound like decaf would sell better amongst the disparate flocks they shepherded.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#ScribesAndMakers 2025.08.01 — Alt: Word.
This word comes from Mars Needed Women, which is in beta. The Decath Crown, as it is referred to, is one of a number of antagonistic organizations the book's MC ends up dealing with, but it is also the most insidious. I don't expect anyone to read about this out-of-context, but I will admit that I invented the religion for a fascist state instead of using a real one to diffuse my fear of needlessly picking on one religion and likely upsetting part of my potential audience. After the fact, it feels a bit like I am picking on all religions, only kind of passive-aggressively. I'm okay with that. Everybody needs their nose tweaked now and again. What follows is a slightly [annotated] excerpt from the glossary in the book.
Decath - A religious organization which was a successor to the various Christian nationalist faiths that created NADS [North American Decath States] from its predecessor state [the United States], consolidated into a theocratic state-supported ministry. The religion is now world-wide, except where banned in five catholic countries. Adherents say it is not a successor to Catholicism, but a rejection of it. It comes from Dissenting Catholicism, and teaches that the liberal interpretations promulgated by the various orthodox and protestant churches regarding Christ's word was unfounded, and furthermore misrepresented God's will based on improper readings of both the new and old testaments. Their catholicism is a new orthodoxy that properly interprets an apostolic church structure while supporting a protestant ideal of a priesthood of believers that is guided by ministers. It is accurately spelled De-cath not Dis-cath. This because the members of the initial Synod of Alabama—which drew together the leaders or designates of various nationalistic churches, their largest corporate sponsors, and hundreds of US congressmen and sixty-nine senators—thought having the word sound like decaf would sell better amongst the disparate flocks they shepherded.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#ScribesAndMakers 2025.08.01 — Alt: Word.
This word comes from Mars Needed Women, which is in beta. The Decath Crown, as it is referred to, is one of a number of antagonistic organizations the book's MC ends up dealing with, but it is also the most insidious. I don't expect anyone to read about this out-of-context, but I will admit that I invented the religion for a fascist state instead of using a real one to diffuse my fear of needlessly picking on one religion and likely upsetting part of my potential audience. After the fact, it feels a bit like I am picking on all religions, only kind of passive-aggressively. I'm okay with that. Everybody needs their nose tweaked now and again. What follows is a slightly [annotated] excerpt from the glossary in the book.
Decath - A religious organization which was a successor to the various Christian nationalist faiths that created NADS [North American Decath States] from its predecessor state [the United States], consolidated into a theocratic state-supported ministry. The religion is now world-wide, except where banned in five catholic countries. Adherents say it is not a successor to Catholicism, but a rejection of it. It comes from Dissenting Catholicism, and teaches that the liberal interpretations promulgated by the various orthodox and protestant churches regarding Christ's word was unfounded, and furthermore misrepresented God's will based on improper readings of both the new and old testaments. Their catholicism is a new orthodoxy that properly interprets an apostolic church structure while supporting a protestant ideal of a priesthood of believers that is guided by ministers. It is accurately spelled De-cath not Dis-cath. This because the members of the initial Synod of Alabama—which drew together the leaders or designates of various nationalistic churches, their largest corporate sponsors, and hundreds of US congressmen and sixty-nine senators—thought having the word sound like decaf would sell better amongst the disparate flocks they shepherded.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#ScribesAndMakers 2025.08.01 — Alt: Word.
This word comes from Mars Needed Women, which is in beta. The Decath Crown, as it is referred to, is one of a number of antagonistic organizations the book's MC ends up dealing with, but it is also the most insidious. I don't expect anyone to read about this out-of-context, but I will admit that I invented the religion for a fascist state instead of using a real one to diffuse my fear of needlessly picking on one religion and likely upsetting part of my potential audience. After the fact, it feels a bit like I am picking on all religions, only kind of passive-aggressively. I'm okay with that. Everybody needs their nose tweaked now and again. What follows is a slightly [annotated] excerpt from the glossary in the book.
Decath - A religious organization which was a successor to the various Christian nationalist faiths that created NADS [North American Decath States] from its predecessor state [the United States], consolidated into a theocratic state-supported ministry. The religion is now world-wide, except where banned in five catholic countries. Adherents say it is not a successor to Catholicism, but a rejection of it. It comes from Dissenting Catholicism, and teaches that the liberal interpretations promulgated by the various orthodox and protestant churches regarding Christ's word was unfounded, and furthermore misrepresented God's will based on improper readings of both the new and old testaments. Their catholicism is a new orthodoxy that properly interprets an apostolic church structure while supporting a protestant ideal of a priesthood of believers that is guided by ministers. It is accurately spelled De-cath not Dis-cath. This because the members of the initial Synod of Alabama—which drew together the leaders or designates of various nationalistic churches, their largest corporate sponsors, and hundreds of US congressmen and sixty-nine senators—thought having the word sound like decaf would sell better amongst the disparate flocks they shepherded.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WordWeavers 2025.07.12 2/2 — Are you comfortable promoting your own work [in person]?
GAH! Okay, having reread this prompt, I realized I attended an SF and Fantasy convention (BayCon / WesterCon 41) over the July 4th weekend. Do I like promoting my work? Again, I repeat, GAH! I am a shy person and the amount of mental energy necessary to roll that boulder up the hill and over the crest is Sisyphusian.
But.
I did it!!!
Strangely, turns out, as a number of you writer-author folk pointed out in your replies to me (thank you!), other writers, authors, artists, readers, and fans are or have been in situations that have made them supremely anxious, too. I was surprised at how many people asked questions or led me into conversations. I talked a lot that weekend, and asked questions that let me listen to also sorts of wonderful things about craft of writing, and living that life. My palms did not betray me and remained dry when I shook hands. I did talk about my view on gender and feminist fiction, and my works, and shared about Mastodon. I even ended up pitching a small press about Mars Needed Women (not actually realizing that I was) and got instructions how to submit even though they are not accepting submissions until next year. I'm hoping the beta readers give me enough feedback that I can make it acceptable before open submission time…
Wow. Okay, I won't say I was comfortable. It was work, and I burnt out for an hour here and there, but not in front of anybody I wanted to talk to. I. Did. Not. Blather, either. It was gratifying. I should work on having a higher opinion of myself and a kinder opinion of others.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #RSMarsNeededWomen #RSStory -
#WordWeavers 2025.07.12 2/2 — Are you comfortable promoting your own work [in person]?
GAH! Okay, having reread this prompt, I realized I attended an SF and Fantasy convention (BayCon / WesterCon 41) over the July 4th weekend. Do I like promoting my work? Again, I repeat, GAH! I am a shy person and the amount of mental energy necessary to roll that boulder up the hill and over the crest is Sisyphusian.
But.
I did it!!!
Strangely, turns out, as a number of you writer-author folk pointed out in your replies to me (thank you!), other writers, authors, artists, readers, and fans are or have been in situations that have made them supremely anxious, too. I was surprised at how many people asked questions or led me into conversations. I talked a lot that weekend, and asked questions that let me listen to also sorts of wonderful things about craft of writing, and living that life. My palms did not betray me and remained dry when I shook hands. I did talk about my view on gender and feminist fiction, and my works, and shared about Mastodon. I even ended up pitching a small press about Mars Needed Women (not actually realizing that I was) and got instructions how to submit even though they are not accepting submissions until next year. I'm hoping the beta readers give me enough feedback that I can make it acceptable before open submission time…
Wow. Okay, I won't say I was comfortable. It was work, and I burnt out for an hour here and there, but not in front of anybody I wanted to talk to. I. Did. Not. Blather, either. It was gratifying. I should work on having a higher opinion of myself and a kinder opinion of others.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #RSMarsNeededWomen #RSStory -
#WordWeavers 2025.07.12 2/2 — Are you comfortable promoting your own work [in person]?
GAH! Okay, having reread this prompt, I realized I attended an SF and Fantasy convention (BayCon / WesterCon 41) over the July 4th weekend. Do I like promoting my work? Again, I repeat, GAH! I am a shy person and the amount of mental energy necessary to roll that boulder up the hill and over the crest is Sisyphusian.
But.
I did it!!!
Strangely, turns out, as a number of you writer-author folk pointed out in your replies to me (thank you!), other writers, authors, artists, readers, and fans are or have been in situations that have made them supremely anxious, too. I was surprised at how many people asked questions or led me into conversations. I talked a lot that weekend, and asked questions that let me listen to also sorts of wonderful things about craft of writing, and living that life. My palms did not betray me and remained dry when I shook hands. I did talk about my view on gender and feminist fiction, and my works, and shared about Mastodon. I even ended up pitching a small press about Mars Needed Women (not actually realizing that I was) and got instructions how to submit even though they are not accepting submissions until next year. I'm hoping the beta readers give me enough feedback that I can make it acceptable before open submission time…
Wow. Okay, I won't say I was comfortable. It was work, and I burnt out for an hour here and there, but not in front of anybody I wanted to talk to. I. Did. Not. Blather, either. It was gratifying. I should work on having a higher opinion of myself and a kinder opinion of others.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #RSMarsNeededWomen #RSStory -
#WordWeavers 2025.07.12 2/2 — Are you comfortable promoting your own work [in person]?
GAH! Okay, having reread this prompt, I realized I attended an SF and Fantasy convention (BayCon / WesterCon 41) over the July 4th weekend. Do I like promoting my work? Again, I repeat, GAH! I am a shy person and the amount of mental energy necessary to roll that boulder up the hill and over the crest is Sisyphusian.
But.
I did it!!!
Strangely, turns out, as a number of you writer-author folk pointed out in your replies to me (thank you!), other writers, authors, artists, readers, and fans are or have been in situations that have made them supremely anxious, too. I was surprised at how many people asked questions or led me into conversations. I talked a lot that weekend, and asked questions that let me listen to also sorts of wonderful things about craft of writing, and living that life. My palms did not betray me and remained dry when I shook hands. I did talk about my view on gender and feminist fiction, and my works, and shared about Mastodon. I even ended up pitching a small press about Mars Needed Women (not actually realizing that I was) and got instructions how to submit even though they are not accepting submissions until next year. I'm hoping the beta readers give me enough feedback that I can make it acceptable before open submission time…
Wow. Okay, I won't say I was comfortable. It was work, and I burnt out for an hour here and there, but not in front of anybody I wanted to talk to. I. Did. Not. Blather, either. It was gratifying. I should work on having a higher opinion of myself and a kinder opinion of others.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #RSMarsNeededWomen #RSStory -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.08 — Have you ever received feedback on a piece that completely missed the mark?
Yes. One reader, who thought themself a feminist, found they were only a feminist to the extent that women mostly conformed to gender roles (were "feminine"). I discarded that feedback as women acting with sexual agency was one of the points of the story. Another completely mis-categorized the book based on a blurb-like chapter I had since removed from the book, and refused to read further.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.08 — Have you ever received feedback on a piece that completely missed the mark?
Yes. One reader, who thought themself a feminist, found they were only a feminist to the extent that women mostly conformed to gender roles (were "feminine"). I discarded that feedback as women acting with sexual agency was one of the points of the story. Another completely mis-categorized the book based on a blurb-like chapter I had since removed from the book, and refused to read further.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.08 — Have you ever received feedback on a piece that completely missed the mark?
Yes. One reader, who thought themself a feminist, found they were only a feminist to the extent that women mostly conformed to gender roles (were "feminine"). I discarded that feedback as women acting with sexual agency was one of the points of the story. Another completely mis-categorized the book based on a blurb-like chapter I had since removed from the book, and refused to read further.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.08 — Have you ever received feedback on a piece that completely missed the mark?
Yes. One reader, who thought themself a feminist, found they were only a feminist to the extent that women mostly conformed to gender roles (were "feminine"). I discarded that feedback as women acting with sexual agency was one of the points of the story. Another completely mis-categorized the book based on a blurb-like chapter I had since removed from the book, and refused to read further.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.18 — The eye of the duck: Share a ‘nonessential’ scene in one of your works that ties the piece together. CW: Uncomfortable fictional discussion about women being oppressed.
I didn't know I do this Eye of the Duck thing, but apparently I do. A lot, apparently.
The Eye of the Duck is a scene - often flashy or surreal - which is NOT essential to the general action or plot of the film, but which reveals a key theme or element of the film more succinctly than the actual plot. —https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/4m3vii/the_eye_of_the_duck_david_lynch/
This is a great question for assessing the texture of a novel.
This surreal scene is from Mars Needed Women. As the narrator puts it, "Five sols later, Stan's wife, Gwen, and May Ri got to talk. Somehow it turned into an interview." The whole chapter is an interview, the same way another chapter is an op-ed. Sometimes different formats better express major themes in a story. If the reader hadn't gotten that the story is about women fighting oppression, learned what oppression is often disguised as, and what it makes women do, this sequence ought clear up that misunderstanding. May Ri is the protagonist. Gwen, 45, is married to Ezekiel Stan, the in-person villain in the story. There are other villains, but none this in-your-face. I added gloss in brackets for outrages established at the top of the scene.
May Ri: You're a first contract colonist. What made you sign-up?
Gwen (sighs): Naïve? Heard Mars "needed women" in a sermon about brave men. I'd be 14 in two weeks, but rushed out into the fields to record an application. I tugged up peanuts setting flowers in the ground, got sweaty under the sun, got mud on my big sister's flimsy top and shorts and paid hell for that. The shoulder kept sliding off, and I kept pulling it back "barely" in time. I giggled. I made sure the wind pressed the cotton against my chest. The shorts rode up into the crack of my butt when I bent over. I smiled and wriggled it.
Father served an elite niche farm-fresh clientele; I got to be retro-exotic! I lied about my age.
Ezekiel liked them young.
(Waves a thumb at the 16-year-old nisei [1st generation Martian] co-wives behind her [both pregnant].)
Our town's minister okayed my EM Corp. contract when I promised to pay for church repairs. I also paid off father's mortgage. Nine months later I landed at Elysium. Nine months later I bore Gabriel.
Good enough?
Now tell me, how did you meet Ezekiel?
May Ri: He tried to rape me.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #feminist #writer #author
#sf #s ff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen -
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.18 — The eye of the duck: Share a ‘nonessential’ scene in one of your works that ties the piece together. CW: Uncomfortable fictional discussion about women being oppressed.
I didn't know I do this Eye of the Duck thing, but apparently I do. A lot, apparently.
The Eye of the Duck is a scene - often flashy or surreal - which is NOT essential to the general action or plot of the film, but which reveals a key theme or element of the film more succinctly than the actual plot. —https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueFilm/comments/4m3vii/the_eye_of_the_duck_david_lynch/
This is a great question for assessing the texture of a novel.
This surreal scene is from Mars Needed Women. As the narrator puts it, "Five sols later, Stan's wife, Gwen, and May Ri got to talk. Somehow it turned into an interview." The whole chapter is an interview, the same way another chapter is an op-ed. Sometimes different formats better express major themes in a story. If the reader hadn't gotten that the story is about women fighting oppression, learned what oppression is often disguised as, and what it makes women do, this sequence ought clear up that misunderstanding. May Ri is the protagonist. Gwen, 45, is married to Ezekiel Stan, the in-person villain in the story. There are other villains, but none this in-your-face. I added gloss in brackets for outrages established at the top of the scene.
May Ri: You're a first contract colonist. What made you sign-up?
Gwen (sighs): Naïve? Heard Mars "needed women" in a sermon about brave men. I'd be 14 in two weeks, but rushed out into the fields to record an application. I tugged up peanuts setting flowers in the ground, got sweaty under the sun, got mud on my big sister's flimsy top and shorts and paid hell for that. The shoulder kept sliding off, and I kept pulling it back "barely" in time. I giggled. I made sure the wind pressed the cotton against my chest. The shorts rode up into the crack of my butt when I bent over. I smiled and wriggled it.
Father served an elite niche farm-fresh clientele; I got to be retro-exotic! I lied about my age.
Ezekiel liked them young.
(Waves a thumb at the 16-year-old nisei [1st generation Martian] co-wives behind her [both pregnant].)
Our town's minister okayed my EM Corp. contract when I promised to pay for church repairs. I also paid off father's mortgage. Nine months later I landed at Elysium. Nine months later I bore Gabriel.
Good enough?
Now tell me, how did you meet Ezekiel?
May Ri: He tried to rape me.
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#WordWeavers 2025.06.11 — What color do you associate with your current story?
I would choose Dark Red for Mars Needed Women. It's a dystopian novel where the fight for women's self-agency takes place mostly on Mars and in near Earth space, including on the Moon. Red is the color of Mars and of blood, which has plenty of connotations for women. In that context, dark is a necessary adjective.
FYI: I don't normally associate a color with a story, but this was fun.
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.08 — Talk about something you wrote and later removed, and why.
It surprised me upon reflection that I sometimes remove tracts. I looked and found examples.
- I removed a scene between the praetorian Cyanic and Thorn. It wasn't that it showed her acting sexist (it's established as a facet of the gender reversals in the story), but it was totally gratuitous. I saved the scrap for her mentioning the best details to Streak to wheedle him.
- I removed a large one paragraph epigraph that essentially explained the background for the Reluctance Series in Rainy Day's POV. There are too many stories I could generate from that infodump, and Rainy Day's origin story is just one of them!
- I jettisoned the "Jacket Blurb" chapter from Mars Needed Women. Even though it was half a page, it read like… wait for it… a jacket blurb. It set the wrong tone for the story. The actual jacket blurb on the actual cover art is copied from an inner chapter and is far catchier.
- I cut a Ramen-eating food court scene because I'd written it in Streak's POV. I wrote it again from scratch in Thorn's POV because her mildly sexist salacious talk comes across better with her POV thoughts backing them.
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#WordWeavers 2025.06.05 — What would your first chapter smell like?
The primary scent would be more of a taint that would likely manifest as a taste, also: Rust.
The story takes place on Mars. The scene in question (the chapter has only one) takes place in an underground construction tunnel between habitat domes that was bored out from the bedrock, is rough looking, and is colored orange and dark red. Perchlorate (scentless) on Mars makes the surface dust toxic to breathe, so no chance is taken that some has leaked or seeped underground. Every surface is sprayed with a myco-epoxy (derived from fungus) which makes everything look wet. If the tunnel is new (never stated) it would have a funky chemical scent also.
The secondary smell, however, would be human sweat; in a more a refined sense, fear. A man tried to kidnap his daughter and beat his wife to do so. A vigilante group of women being led by the main character, a woman engineer wearing an exoskeleton, has cornered him. He is not happy.
That rust sent might be blood.
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#WordWeavers 2025.06.04 — Describe the mood of the opening paragraph of your story using 3 adjectives.
Intense, bloody, infuriating.
Because of feedback from the beta readers, this prompt is both a timely and useful exercise. I may have to add it to my bag of tricks for during revision. What was in my mind included angry and outraged, but rereading the paragraph, the MC strikes me as detached. I might even characterize it as her acting like a superhero. I need to fix that for the v3 beta reader…
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.03 — Have you ever done a writing challenge? How did it go?
In March, I took a monthly long set of 31 writing prompts as a writing challenge. I completed a novel: Mars Needed Women.
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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.05.29 — What is your proudest or best moment with your creative endeavor this month?
Got the novel out to beta readers and an author associate has agreed to also look at it.
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