#howtosucceed — Public Fediverse posts

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

Veduta, deverbal formed with the feminine past participle of the Italian word, Vedere, to see, view, vista, panorama.
A highly detailed, usually large-scale painting of a cityscape or some other vista.

The picture shows a view of a gravel path leading towards a rolling lawn bordered by mature trees. In the distant background, a historic country house nestles amongst the foliage. All viewed through a rugged stone archway.

You could say something to the effect that it’s a room with a veduta…

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#ScribesAndMakers – 10. Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Not to any great extent.

My current WIP is a series of short stories about my SCs who appear alongside my MCs in my ongoing series of novels.

I believe at one point Nathan might have been heard to say something to the effect of, ‘Not another alphabet soup of TLAs,’ when confronted with some bureaucratic agency.

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#onthisday

Diana Rigg, British actress, died on this day in 2020.

She was one of the iconic figures of the 1960s along with the Beatles, Bobby Moore, and Sean Connery.

Her role as the secret agent Emma Peel in The Avengers on ITV looking magnetically sexy in trademark black leather jumpsuit, was truly a sign of the times. Rigg’s breakthrough TV role as Mrs. Peel left her shocked at becoming a sex symbol overnight.
Indeed, there’re some who’d argue that in one episode, "A Touch of Brimstone," where Mrs. Peel dresses in a dominatrix outfit of corset, laced boots and spiked collar to become the "Queen of Sin," she created the template for BDSM clothing.

Often scathing and outspoken she famously wrote No Turn Unstoned, a collection of "the worst ever theatrical reviews."

Rigg returned to prominence in later life portraying Lady Olenna Tyrell, a witty and sarcastic political mastermind popularly known as the Queen of Thorns, the paternal grandmother of regular character Margaery Tyrell, in the series Game of Thrones.

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#PennedPossibilities 1123
What figure do people most commonly tell stories about? How are these stories told?

Funnily enough, members of the magical community talk about the same things as people without magic.

You know, magic wielders; AKA wizards; witches; warlocks; and so on, even though they use the term practitioner to describe themselves.

They love taking the piss out fictional magicians and, whatever you do, don’t get them started on sorcerers.

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@plot_experiments

You have my sympathy. Of late I've been plagued by Word losing my docs whenever MicroSoft suggests a restart.

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#ScribesAndMakers Sept 9 Share something you've been working on this month.

Well what a coincidence! I just published chapter 3 of Tales From the Demi-monde on my website this very morning. I guess this prompt gives me another excuse to plug one of my short stories. You can find it at: https://timhayesauthor.com/serials/tales-from-the-demi-monde/chapter-3-william-winterson-chairman-of-winterson-s-and-son-auctioneers

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@AverageS

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

Arenaceous, borrowed from Latin arēnāceus, from arena, sand + -āceus, resembling, having the nature of, forming, belonging to.

Meaning Sandy; characterised by sand, Growing in sandy soil (of a plant), and Arenitic, relating to arenite (geology).

The picture shows a view of a wide lake with wind-rippled water viewed from a sandy shore.

Note, the shore in question isn’t the barefoot pop princess of the 1960s.

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#WritersCoffeeClub for 9th September 2026: What's your standard operating font, size, format? Or do you not have a standard?

When writing drafts I tend to stick with the default font, Calibri in Word, Liberation Sans in LibreOffice, in font size 12.

If entering a competition I use whatever is specified or Times New Roman.

When self-publishing I plump for Adobe Garamond Pro with font size 11 for the body of the text.

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#onthisday

On this day in 1947 a computer bug was found for the first time as moth is discovered lodged in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, a computer pioneer, popularised the story about a moth that caused a problem in an early electromechanical computer.
Whilst Hopper was working on the Mark II and Mark III at Harvard faculty in about 1947, operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay.
The moth was removed from the mechanism and taped in a logbook with the note, "First actual case of bug being found."
Hence making a pun by conflating the two meanings of bug,biological and technical.

Although it has to be said, Isaac Asimov used the term bug to refer to issues with a robot in his short story "Catch That Rabbit," published in 1944.

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I’ve just published chapter 3 of Tales From the Demi-monde on my website.

This the first of the short stories proper. Enjoy!

You can find it at: https://timhayesauthor.com/serials/tales-from-the-demi-monde/chapter-3-william-winterson-chairman-of-winterson-s-and-son-auctioneers

If you do decide to take a look at it I'd be grateful for any feedback.

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I’ve just published chapter 3 of Tales From the Demi-monde on my website.

This the first of the short stories proper. Enjoy!

You can find it at: https://timhayesauthor.com/serials/tales-from-the-demi-monde/chapter-3-william-winterson-chairman-of-winterson-s-and-son-auctioneers

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#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…

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@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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