#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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The British Fantasy Society has just published the programme for this year’s upcoming FantasyCon. You can see a link to it here: https://britishfantasysociety.org/events-2/fantasycon/fantasycon-2026/ So much to do, so much to see, it looks like it’s going to be a busy weekend…

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#AmReading

Or, more correctly, I’ve just finished reading Never Flinch by Stephen King.

This is another novel featuring Holly Gibney who’s probably my favourite out of all of King’s characters.

A cracking read as usual, though complicated at times by the way the story is presented from the point of view of 5 different characters, Holly, her friend Izzy the detective, two perpetrators, and the PA of a women who’s being targeted by one of the perps.

So far I’ve only briefly played with multiple POVs in my writing, this has tempted me to broaden my horizons.

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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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The British Fantasy Society has just published the programme this year’s upcoming FantasyCon. You can see a link to it here: https://britishfantasysociety.org/events-2/fantasycon/fantasycon-2026/

So much to do, so much to see, it looks like it’s going to be a busy weekend…

#WritersOfMastodon #TalesFrom… #SecretLife… #HowtoSucceed… #Author #Novel

@AverageS

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

Deflorescence, de-, from Latin dē-, from the preposition dē, of or from. reversal, undoing. Plus florescence,from Latin florēscō, from flōreō, to bloom, from flōs flower + -ēscō, adjective-forming suffix, feminine -esca, masculine plural -escos, feminine plural -escas, forms adjectives that signify comparison, relation or resemblance to the word stem -like, -esque, the time, or the condition, of budding or flowering.

Phew, that was a long etymology.

Oddly enough most sources seem to ignore the botanical definition of the word and concentrate on a medical condition referring to the skin.
Botanically, deflorescence refers to the period or process of flowering and the state of being in flower. It is often used to describe the blooming of plants and trees, as in 'The deflorescence of the cherry blossoms is a beautiful sight to behold.'
Related phrases include 'pre-deflorescence' and 'post-deflorescence,' refering to stages before and after flowering, respectively.

The picture shows a cabbage white butterfly resting on an arching cone of a buddleja flower. The lower half of the floral spike is densely clustered with delicate, creamy-white blossoms showing tiny orange centres, while the upper curved tip has withered away.

Looks like the beginning of the end for this particular flower…

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2/2
Two of Pournelle's collaborations with Larry Niven reached the top rankings in the New York Times Best Seller List. In 1977, Lucifer's Hammer reached number two. Footfall, where Robert Heinlein was a thinly veiled minor character reached the number one spot in 1986.

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

He collaborated on a number of novels with Larry Niven: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Inferno (1976), Lucifer's Hammer (1977), Oath of Fealty (1981), Footfall (1985), The Legacy of Heorot (1987) (plus Steven Barnes), Fallen Angels (1991) (plus Michael Flynn), The Gripping Hand (1993) (with Larry Niven) also known as The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye, Beowulf's Children (1995) (plus Steven) also known as The Dragons of Heorot (1995).

Although his solo work is enjoyable enough I feel his work with Niven brought out the best of both authors.

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#onthisday

1/2
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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#WritersCoffeeClub 9/8. International Literacy Day! Share a moment when a reading of your work surprised you.

Each and every time I do my first read through of the novel I’ve just finished writing I find myself pleasantly surprised by how good it is.

I guess this is because I’m actually writing exactly the kinda story I enjoy reading.

I just hope other readers will enjoy it as much as I do!

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2/2
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?

1/2
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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