#rsdiscussion — Public Fediverse posts

#WordWeavers 2026.09.13 — Share a line of dialogue that sounds innocent without context but absolutely isn’t.

A third voice said brightly, "Tag, you're it!"

Out of context, it seems pretty innocent, right? Maybe a group of kids having fun? Nope! Signals the segue into a scene where the MC and the main series antagonist spar over a cute guy, an SC LI. The MC and SC are day angels. They have wings. Feathers. They're flying. The antagonist is also flying, but is… something else†.

Zooming out to a #snippet #excerpt. Might be rough as I revised the snippet heavily in the post as it needed it. I'll copy back to the manuscript! 😋

A third voice said brightly, "Tag, you're it!"

My first impulse is to flee—always. I'm a courier for the mob, not an enforcer. My lived truth is be not the messenger who got killed.

Blue was a praetorian; my friend was innocent of what I did for a living. He did not fright. Reflex had caused me to swoop at him. I pulled up my feet not to kick him, at least, as he dunk-dived at the last instant, furling his wings. His eddy sucked me down. In a heartbeat I overcame that. Wings out catching momentum-heavy air, I slowed scanning the twilit sky—purple and salmon clouds, a flood of deep indigo and sparkling first stars beyond.

Where?

My heart stuttered in my chest. Had we both not been intimately aware of each other's warping of up and down, chaotic attraction would have smashed us together bodily or ripped us apart—literally feather plucked by tangled swirling ups and downs a dozen times or more powerful than down felt standing on the ground.

My shock wore off. I understood I was the target, not Blue who returned to my side, breathless. Dropping as he had was the best way to create speed, to leave him safely behind, so I brought my wings close and let my head lead as I fell forward into increasing wind in my eyes.

A woman's voice came from behind me, rapidly getting louder, closing the distance. "Aw, aren't you going to play?"

=+=+=+=+=+
† This short tootfic describes the "something else" my antagonist is: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110993252771253246

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S. LLM training prohibited.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#WordWeavers 2026.09.12 — If you removed one supporting character from your story, whose absence would change the plot the most?

Keeping in mind what I'm going to state isn't due to strategic plotting ahead of time, all my characters end up being chains of elucidation and emotional connection between other characters, places, and events. I describe the world through characters doing things and interacting. Extracting one will affect the atmosphere of place and the emotion in events. My characters aren't so much gems as keystones. That said, I must answer this in reverse if at all.

Night on Fire is the closest to gratuitous as any character, acting as a friendly sexy antagonist in black to spur the MC in her unasked-for career and to present a vaguely vampire-like leather-winged night angel for minor world-building to explain facts about then modern human genetics. She could be turned into a background character, leaving her roommate Shugh and Night on Fire's emotionally damaged sister Light Insight intact with little rewriting. All others are at this point essential to the denouement and epilogue, and would require major story changes.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#WordWeavers 2026.09.11 — What does your MC believe about themselves at the beginning of the story that turns out to be completely wrong?

In the first chapter, Bolt states it clearly. The concepts of belief and fate don't exist in her world, however she is convinced she's stupid. She'll learn that her prior prideful bad choices don't mean she can't make better choices going forward. She has free will and learns from her mistakes. It takes a dozen years, but still…

😅

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1127: What quirks do some of your characters have?

• Lightning Bolt (MC): Her studio apartment walls and ceiling are plastered with photographs she took. Lots of men. Many are suggestive, and she can view them from the hammock she uses as a bed.
• Blue (SC, LI): Worries a lot about not being able to raise a family thanks to his new job as a praetorian working for Rainy Days, which to him is mind-blowing and fabulous. Still, he wants to raise kids.
• Shugh (SC): Donuts—how he maintains his soft, rounded, feminine look (he's trans-fem). He introduces Bolt to the food.
• Molt (SC, LI): University student. Easy for Bolt to tickle into nerd mode and, since he studies women (more is kinda spoilers), this delights Bolt as she likes how he studies and measures her.
• Devil-girl (SC): Way too many quirks to catalog, but mostly due to being a high functioning autist. She comes off as super-serious about everything, but nearly impossible to goad. Here's one: Love love loves praise, but only if she considers it earned—at which time she'll do a little jig.
• Boss Mead (A): Despite basically being a mafia don, he likes having business meetings at open air cafés. Makes his minions nervous, causing them to control traffic. Clients watch their tongue. Maybe it proves to him how talented he is at not incriminating himself.
• Rainy Days (A): Way too glib and sparkly, projecting an air of being an airhead whilst being touchy-feely, getting you to talk—this despite essentially ruling all of humanity. You don't want to see her serious.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.11 — What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?

Using #Apple devices. I write on #iPhone, #iPad, and the #Mac using Apple keyboards, which have a reasonable feel for a touch typist like me (no butterfly keyboards!). I can write anywhere! And do. Now with the release of the iPhone Duo, an iPhone / iPad mashup, I expect my writing life to be accelerated. iPad always on my hip, woot. Not being able to keep a notes app or web browser open alongside an editor was a real big issue on the iPhone, which the Duo should solve. I am sacrificing amazing new cameras on the 18 for my writing by making this transition. Hoping it will be worth it.

Edit adding: The Duo has a half folded orientation where something edited is one the vertical half and a touch keyboard becomes available on the horizontal. Little laptop, anyone?

#freeAdvertising #Duo #iPhoneDuo

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.11 — What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?

Using #Apple devices. I write on #iPhone, #iPad, and the #Mac using Apple keyboards, which have a reasonable feel for a touch typist like me (no butterfly keyboards!). I can write anywhere! And do. Now with the release of the iPhone Duo, an iPhone / iPad mashup, I expect my writing life to be accelerated. iPad always on my hip, woot. Not being able to keep a notes app or web browser open alongside an editor was a real big issue on the iPhone, which the Duo should solve. I am sacrificing amazing new cameras on the 18 for my writing by making this transition. Hoping it will be worth it.

Edit adding: The Duo has a half folded orientation where something edited is one the vertical half and a touch keyboard becomes available on the horizontal. Little laptop, anyone?

#freeAdvertising #Duo #iPhoneDuo

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.11 — What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?

Using #Apple devices. I write on #iPhone, #iPad, and the #Mac using Apple keyboards, which have a reasonable feel for a touch typist like me (no butterfly keyboards!). I can write anywhere! And do. Now with the release of the iPhone Duo, an iPhone / iPad mashup, I expect my writing life to be accelerated. iPad always on my hip, woot. Not being able to keep a notes app or web browser open alongside an editor was a real big issue on the iPhone, which the Duo should solve. I am sacrificing amazing new cameras on the 18 for my writing by making this transition. Hoping it will be worth it.

Edit adding: The Duo has a half folded orientation where something edited is one the vertical half and a touch keyboard becomes available on the horizontal. Little laptop, anyone?

#freeAdvertising #Duo #iPhoneDuo

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.11 — What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?

Using #Apple devices. I write on #iPhone, #iPad, and the #Mac using Apple keyboards, which have a reasonable feel for a touch typist like me (no butterfly keyboards!). I can write anywhere! And do. Now with the release of the iPhone Duo, an iPhone / iPad mashup, I expect my writing life to be accelerated. iPad always on my hip, woot. Not being able to keep a notes app or web browser open alongside an editor was a real big issue on the iPhone, which the Duo should solve. I am sacrificing amazing new cameras on the 18 for my writing by making this transition. Hoping it will be worth it.

Edit adding: The Duo has a half folded orientation where something edited is one the vertical half and a touch keyboard becomes available on the horizontal. Little laptop, anyone?

#freeAdvertising #Duo #iPhoneDuo

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.11 — What's a part of your process you'd give free advertising to?

Using #Apple devices. I write on #iPhone, #iPad, and the #Mac using Apple keyboards, which have a reasonable feel for a touch typist like me (no butterfly keyboards!). I can write anywhere! And do. Now with the release of the iPhone Duo, an iPhone / iPad mashup, I expect my writing life to be accelerated. iPad always on my hip, woot. Not being able to keep a notes app or web browser open alongside an editor was a real big issue on the iPhone, which the Duo should solve. I am sacrificing amazing new cameras on the 18 for my writing by making this transition. Hoping it will be worth it.

Edit adding: The Duo has a half folded orientation where something edited is one the vertical half and a touch keyboard becomes available on the horizontal. Little laptop, anyone?

#freeAdvertising #Duo #iPhoneDuo

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.12 — Who do you share snippets of your WIP with?

To quote @JulieLiddellWhitehead:

Y'all

For reals! With a copyright reminder for AIs to notice. 😘

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1126: Tell us what your narrator sounds like in your mind.

I write in 1st person POV, thus the narrator is the MC. While I can remember a tune as if an audio recording in my head, and the distinct voice, tonality, and vocal range of the singer, all my narrators have my head voice, which isn't even my own true voice as I might hear hearing myself recorded. When I wrote fan fiction, with I think one exception, none were other than my head voice even though I can remember lines from the show in the voice actor's voice. Whilst I have no problem imagining objects in 3D and rotating them around to look at all sides†, I can not imagine the sound of my characters speaking in their own voices. I've no clue to their tonality or vocal range, or what they sound like, even after assign these things for story purposes, as well as after assigning dialect and accents. Yet, I can hear the sounds of a wooden boat creaking as the water laps against the hull, the flutter of wings as birds take flight, and the wind rustling in waves through the canopy of a tree. Maybe that's like a recording, the way I do with music. Dunno.

Guess I'm a visual person from an imagination standpoint. Anyone else like that?

=+=+=+=+=
† To be clear, I imagine what it looks like and the details I'd see in changed orientations, but I don't see it visually in my mind's eye.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 1125: SC POV: Give your city (or town or region) a new name that reflects what type of place it is and explain why you chose that name.

Pigeon the Pilferer would say:

Home City? I'd choose Misery. Not a place where dreams come to be crushed underfoot so much as where they can't spout because if some people, or many people, don't like how you look, sound… you smell, they'll steal even your dirt, they'll beat you, for the fun of it, and they'll leave you bleeding on bare stone, stone where your seeds of hope will shrivel from the heat of hate only to be ground to meager powder, to be blown away in the slightest breeze.

Well, that's way more eloquent than usual for him! The day angel got bullied and picked on growing up. Don't know why. I imagine the metallic blue, green, and purple sheen to his otherwise grey feathers had something to do with it. He grew up to be a punk gangster with a bad attitude and a miserable disposition, ready to fight at the merest slight. He's Bolt's lesser antagonist.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.10 — ~Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Yes.

Keep in mind there is a planet named Home, the capital of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, and a city named Home City, the capital city. Here's a few acronyms that I introduce spelled out the first time and hopefully found in the glossary, depending on the whim of the publisher:

• HUHC — Home University in Home City.
• HSB or HSA — Health Services Bureau/Authority.
• HBI — Home Bureau of Investigation. Think FBI.
• BHT — Bureau of Human Trafficking, often pronounced pejoratively as the BAT. Deals with remnants, relics, reliquaries, as well newly dead people and what happens to them.
• ICCA — Interstellar Constabulary and Customs Authority (pronounced Ick-uh). Think Interpol on an interplanetary scale.
• RS — My name is an acronym. 😛

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.10 — ~Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Yes.

Keep in mind there is a planet named Home, the capital of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, and a city named Home City, the capital city. Here's a few acronyms that I introduce spelled out the first time and hopefully found in the glossary, depending on the whim of the publisher:

• HUHC — Home University in Home City.
• HSB or HSA — Health Services Bureau/Authority.
• HBI — Home Bureau of Investigation. Think FBI.
• BHT — Bureau of Human Trafficking, often pronounced pejoratively as the BAT. Deals with remnants, relics, reliquaries, as well newly dead people and what happens to them.
• ICCA — Interstellar Constabulary and Customs Authority (pronounced Ick-uh). Think Interpol on an interplanetary scale.
• RS — My name is an acronym. 😛

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.10 — ~Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Yes.

Keep in mind there is a planet named Home, the capital of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, and a city named Home City, the capital city. Here's a few acronyms that I introduce spelled out the first time and hopefully found in the glossary, depending on the whim of the publisher:

• HUHC — Home University in Home City.
• HSB or HSA — Health Services Bureau/Authority.
• HBI — Home Bureau of Investigation. Think FBI.
• BHT — Bureau of Human Trafficking, often pronounced pejoratively as the BAT. Deals with remnants, relics, reliquaries, as well newly dead people and what happens to them.
• ICCA — Interstellar Constabulary and Customs Authority (pronounced Ick-uh). Think Interpol on an interplanetary scale.
• RS — My name is an acronym. 😛

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.10 — ~Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Yes.

Keep in mind there is a planet named Home, the capital of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, and a city named Home City, the capital city. Here's a few acronyms that I introduce spelled out the first time and hopefully found in the glossary, depending on the whim of the publisher:

• HUHC — Home University in Home City.
• HSB or HSA — Health Services Bureau/Authority.
• HBI — Home Bureau of Investigation. Think FBI.
• BHT — Bureau of Human Trafficking, often pronounced pejoratively as the BAT. Deals with remnants, relics, reliquaries, as well newly dead people and what happens to them.
• ICCA — Interstellar Constabulary and Customs Authority (pronounced Ick-uh). Think Interpol on an interplanetary scale.
• RS — My name is an acronym. 😛

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.10 — ~Our next featured creator is an acronym. Do you use acronyms in your work?

Yes.

Keep in mind there is a planet named Home, the capital of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, and a city named Home City, the capital city. Here's a few acronyms that I introduce spelled out the first time and hopefully found in the glossary, depending on the whim of the publisher:

• HUHC — Home University in Home City.
• HSB or HSA — Health Services Bureau/Authority.
• HBI — Home Bureau of Investigation. Think FBI.
• BHT — Bureau of Human Trafficking, often pronounced pejoratively as the BAT. Deals with remnants, relics, reliquaries, as well newly dead people and what happens to them.
• ICCA — Interstellar Constabulary and Customs Authority (pronounced Ick-uh). Think Interpol on an interplanetary scale.
• RS — My name is an acronym. 😛

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 1017 — Reveal a source of misery for your MC.

Sorry, reads like a #blurb—

Bolt was thoroughly and expertly blackmailed. Boss Mead possesses material evidence and photo documentation that could quickly solve a frustrating cold case the constabulary thinks of as particularly audacious, a crime against one of their own.

Framed.

Her life is no longer her own. Hasn't been for a dozen years. She does what she's told, but hasn't been told to kill. Yet. She's a day angel, and a Reluctant Courier (for the Mob).

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#PennedPossibilities 905 — Is your MC responsible for anyone other than themselves? How do they feel about this?

Bolt, a day angel with wings, is responsible for nobody except herself, and considering her dangerous life—she flies messages for a mob boss—she would say that's a good thing. However, after the appearance of a rogue interstellar gateway changes her boss' objectives and negates her attempts at living invisibly, she makes friends. Her dozen years of isolation make her crave the novelty beyond her scant good sense such that she finds herself (or rather makes herself) responsible for keeping safe new friends that she's failed to push away, mostly men who value her joyful athleticism as well as her innate integrity. Though she considers it a real bother, she continues putting herself out and accumulating bruises—until she meets an unusual daemonic friend who will value her enough to risk her own freedom to save her.

Okay, it sounds like a jacket blurb for Reluctant Courier (for the Mob)…

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory #blurb

#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 6 Nbr 20 — What's the secret to writing a good blurb?

Since I have no secret, I'll give you what I would do. (Example below.)

• Pick an interesting cliffhanger, realization, or quote (or a combination) from the middle of your novel that stars your most empathetic character. Think of it as cover art in word form.

• Summarize it in five sentences.

• End with a "but they didn't know, or dreaded that they did know, " that they were "in danger, found a lover, or was being kidnapped, etc." type of last line.

• Do not explain place, politics, or personalities or /anything/ that could be considered /getting into the weeds/. Only "plain words" or "common genre jargon" may apply. No exceptions. This is the same rule for the first half page of a short story, and first three pages of a novel.

• If 3rd person, give a name for the reader to latch on to.

• If 1st person, make the 1st person POV sound like they know they are in deep doo-doo.

• Do give a hint of whether it is space opera, high fantasy, romance, historical, etc.

• If the story revolves around gender, gender roles, sexual preference, body image, eroticism, or other potentially niche sub-genres that would sell to your intended audience, or cause the wrong audience to never to read a story by you again, ensuring that's clear may be advisable. Your choice.

• You need to make the five sentences intrigue the reader. You may want to make them mysterious, also.

• You are under no obligation to explain the whole story. /So. Don't./

• It is okay for the blurb to mislead about the broader story so long as:

  1. The event happens as portrayed.
  2. How you portray it is valid in the context of the story.

/Keep it simple./

Example: (For /Inklings/)

/Beasts/ I could understand. /Beasts/ were straightforward in their dangerous natures. Not so much /human beasts/. Because Her Highness had figured out it was me who'd spoken to the red dragon and convinced it to stop setting farms afire, and that I lived amongst and hunted with wolves I'd also befriended, she forced me attend her magic university to learn to become more human. What I didn't know about acting like a "normal" human female wasn't simply embarrassing in society's eyes—like you don't wear only a loincloth in public—certain offenses could also get you killed.

Analysis:

• Five sentences, some much larger than others.
• First three sentences are a quote.
• They signal fantasy, as "magic" and "dragon" later do in plain genre jargon.
• "Human beast" is intriguing.
• Convincing a dragon makes the POV sound strong.
• Wolves makes POV sound dangerous.
• "Her Highness"is a name to latch on to and signals royalty.
• University suggests a milieu, modernity, and suggests character ages.
• "Befriended" says not in Kansas Toto and adds mystery.
• Loin cloth and embarrassment set body image issues and possibly nudity, possible suggestive content.
• Last sentence suggests POV is a fish out of water and is worried she might get killed despite seemingly powerful. It makes you wonder why and worry how?
• Events all taken from story, though emphasis is changed.

[Author retains copyright (c)2024 RS.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon
#RSdiscussion #blurb #jacketblurb #writingAdvice