#howtosucceed — Public Fediverse posts

#PennedPossibilities 1121: What would your MC say their personal strengths are? Would other characters agree?

Nathan and Vicky would both agree their greatest strength is the way they work so well together as a team.

Indeed, they’re fortunate most of their friends and acquaintances they work with from time to time seem have gotten teamwork down to perfection.

They know they’ve all got each other’s backs.

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#PennedPossibilities 1122: SC POV: Do you have a favourite meal? Who makes it for you?

I would find it difficult to choose between Beef Wellington, Steak and Kidney Pudding, Black Pudding, Pork Tomahawk, and BBQ Spareribs.

Uh oh, this list is in danger of going on for ever.

The first two I leave to the professionals, the rest I can do myself. In fact I do all the cooking at home for Mrs Author and me.

You probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn nearly all my novels include the odd reference to culinary delights.
So much so, one of my characters comments on how she thinks she’s going to end up putting on weight if she keeps on accompanying Nathan and Vicky given their tendency to stop off for coffee and cake whenever the become stumped for ideas.

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#onthisday

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Jerry Pournelle, American author and journalist, Jerry Eugene Pournelle, died on this day in 2017.

He was an American scientist, science fiction writer, journalist, and one of the first bloggers.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked in the aerospace industry but eventually focused on his writing career.
His obituary described him as "a tireless ambassador for the future." Pournelle's hard science fiction writing received multiple awards.

His journalism focused on the computer industry and space exploration. From the 1970s until the early 1990s, he contributed to the computer magazine Byte, writing from the viewpoint of an intelligent user, with the oft-cited credo, "We do this stuff so you won't have to." He created one of the first blogs, entitled "Chaos Manor", which discussed politics, computer technology, space technology, and science fiction.

In the late 1950s Pournelle envisioned a weapon consisting of massive tungsten rods dropped from high above the Earth. These super-dense, super-fast kinetic energy projectiles delivered enormous destructive force to the target without the contamination that would occur with a nuclear bomb.
Pournelle named his superweapon “Project Thor,” others termed it "Rods from God."

Pournelle claimed to have been the first author to have written a published book using a word processor on a personal computer in 1977.

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I decided to write a collection of short stories, Tales From the Demi-monde, written from the perspective of the various secondary characters who feature in the novels making up The Wheel of the Year sequence.

This has proved to be a far more useful way of keeping track and each story even includes a short bio.

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#WritersCoffeeClub 7: What's something you thought would help your workflow, but didn't work out?

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I tried using some app which was supposed to help you keep track of your novel but didn’t really understand how to use it and gave up on it.

I thought about writing a bio of each of my characters, it didn't feel very productive then I hit on another idea.

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#WritersCoffeeClub 7: What's something you thought would help your workflow, but didn't work out?

Some time back I tried using ProWritingAid, but I gave up on it when I concluded that if you accepted all of its decisions you’d end up writing in an anonymous voice with nothing to distinguish your work from that of anyone else using the same app.

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@AverageS

My Word of the Day today is ROSETUM. Share YOUR words to describe this picture in the comments!

Rosetum, borrowed from Latin rosētum, plural roseta, a rose garden, from rosa, a rose + -ētum, grove, a rose garden; a bed of roses.

The picture shows a summer garden with overflowing flower borders. Pale blush roses border the walkway to the right, all under a bright blue sky filled with puffy white cumulus clouds.

In the words of the old advert, “Does exactly what it says on the tin.” Funnily enough, that’s the second rosy definition in a row.

It seems everything’s coming up roses…

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#ScribesAndMakers 7. What 'character' (letter, number, symbol, punctuation, space) would make a great main character?

I’ve always had a fondness for the Tau symbol.

It’s derived from Tau uppercase Τ, lowercase τ or τ; Greek: ταυ and is the nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.

Likely my fondness stems from it being the initial letter of my name, Tim.

I used to use it as my personal icon when on social media.

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#onthisday

The last Thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial, died on this day in 1936 alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. The Thylacine, Thylacinus cynocephalus), commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, is an extinct species of carnivorous marsupial which was native to the Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea. Before European settlement, several thousand remained in the wild on Tasmania.

Starting during the 19th century, they were perceived as a threat to the livestock of farmers and bounty hunting was introduced.

The Thylacine is widespread in popular culture and is a cultural icon in Australia.

Thylacines are universally regarded as being extinct by the scientific community, but when the species became extinct is unclear. Modelling based on reliable records indicates extinction during the 1930s or 1940s, although unconfirmed sightings of the species have led a minority of researchers to suggest it survived for several decades longer than that.

More money has been dedicated to rediscovering the Thylacine than any other mammal.

Sightings of possible tracks were reported throughout the 1950s and 1960s and in 1982 a sighting of a Thylacine was reported by a Tasmanian park ranger prompting an extensive two year-long search, which was kept confidential at the time, but found no evidence of any surviving Thylacines.

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Part of her performance involves her undulating her body whilst balancing a fiendishly sharp sword on her head.

Oh, and she’s extremely scantily clad when she performs her act.

As you can probably understand, this makes her very popular with her audience.

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#PennedPossibilities 1120: Saturday Word Edition: Share something from your WIP pertaining to the word “entertainment.”

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That would be Cassie when she’s performing on stage in the persona of The Lady Cassandra.

She’s perky Goth with bubble-gum pink hair who just happens to be a Gothic Belly Dancer.

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#WordWeavers 6/9: What is your MC hilariously bad at?

Nathan is bad at learning magic aside from his inborn talent for finding things.

When Vicky's mum, Esther, attempts to teach him a spell which would allow him to find items concealed by magic it all goes very wrong.

Vicky thinks this happened ‘cos she reckons he’s permanently got sex on his mind, what happened was when he recited the incantation, embarrassingly both his and Esther’s clothes disappeared leaving them naked.

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#WorldWeavers 19: What role does writing have in your life? Is it for fun, therapeutic, work, or something else?

In some peculiar way I reckon all of the above apply depending on the circumstances.

Including the something else, as in my writing is really something else…

Though opinions may differ.

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@AverageS

My Word of the Day today is AURORAL. Share YOUR words to describe this picture in the comments!

Auroral, from aurora, borrowed from Latin, aurora, dawn + -al, adjective-forming suffix.

Pertaining to the dawn; to the aurora borealis or aurora australis, dawning, eastern, like a new beginning. Rosy in colour.

The picture shows a number of yachts moored on calm water under a cloudy sky illuminated by the setting sun in shades of peach, orange, and pale yellow. Funnily enough, in keeping with the etymology, it seems aurfully rosy to me…

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#ScribesAndMakers 6/9: Have you ever listened to an audiobook where the reader had a good voice, but not the 'right' voice?

Whilst I’ve never actually listened to an audiobook I’ve often wondered what’s the best way to go about getting some of my stories produced as audiobooks.

Any suggestions?

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#onthisday

Arthur Rackham, English illustrator died on this day in 1939.

An English book illustrator who’s recognised as being one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration.
His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, combined with the use of watercolour, a technique he developed due to his background as a journalistic illustrator.

Notable works are almost too numerous to mention but include: Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving; Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling; Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll; A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe; The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift; The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning; Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti; and various works by William Shakespeare, Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen.

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