#rsinklingsstory — Public Fediverse posts

#ScribesAndMakers 2026.09.16 — ~Create a poll listing 2-3 objects that have featured in your work and one that hasn't. Ask people to pick the one that hasn't.

In Reluctant Moon, an SFF novel with an advanced civilization that relies on human labor but not electricity, there are plenty of modern urban things to cloy readers into thinking it's our world until they realize it's not.

Three of these objects are in the novel. One isn't.

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

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#WordWeavers 2026.08.20 — If your story had a tagline, what would it be?

Inklings

Befriending animals never made a girl this dangerous.

This fox bat image (not my artwork) is roughly what the Red Dragon that Wintereyes befriends looks like. Gotta be a mammal to catch a cold and sneeze fire, right? I'd like something like her on the cover.

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#WordWeavers 2026.08.16 — If one of your characters could ask you a question, what would they ask?

What's that three-eyed metallic orange slab you keep on taking out of your pocket to look at the glowy side?

How do you explain an iPhone to someone from an advanced culture that doesn't have or need electricity?

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#PennedPossibilities 1101: What creature or monster would your MC or SC love to keep as an unconventional pet? Why is that?

The only monsters in the Reluctance Series are human. Cats, dogs, chickens, horses, &tc. exist, but so far we've only seen horses and they have tiny cute stegosaur plates on their backs, but are still ridden. Cats? Dogs? [shrugs] No monsters, or unconventional pets, though. The people in these stories don't keep human monsters as pets, either, and attempts at slavery have ended poorly for societies that embraced the idea.

Stepping back to the incomplete Inklings in my Wands Universe, there are "monsters." The Red Dragon looks more like a house sized bat with a very ugly face, but when Wintereyes befriends animals, she makes them more human. Not a pet. She'd never have a pet.

It's interesting to realize my characters don't do the pet thing let alone want one that's unconventional.

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.08.11 — When were you last a student?

Twenty years ago. I took two semesters of Japanese in 2006 in preparation for touring Japan before the 2007 WorldCon in Tokyo.

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#ScribesAndMakers »2026.08.09 — Have you ever switched perspective (1st, 2nd, 3rd person, 3rd close, cinematic, etc) mid-chapter/story? Was it successful in your opinion?

My biggest headache as a 3rd person close POV author was keeping truly solely in the character's perspective. C.J. Cherryh is the master of this. I failed way too often. I switched to 1st person. It limits the perspective identically, comes with a built-in narrator, includes superior error-checking, and is familiar as this is how we naturally tell stories about our experiences. I rarely fall out of POV these days.

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#PennedPossibilities 1080 — Do any unseen forces have power within your universe?

Wait. There's a lot of ways to parse that question!

Are there unseen forces? Yes. Earth didn't get to be in it's current state by magic. The story is SF.

Are there unseen forces? Yes. By definition, they are unseen forces. Like gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak forces, they are additional forces unseen but felt by humans.

Are there unseen forces? Yes. The Wildings are annoyed the Domestics (all of us, but specifically farmers) aren't sticking to the Sunny Armistice and conflict may yet erupt. Additionally, another type of human is working behind the scenes. This would be important in sequels.

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#WordWeavers 2026.07.20 — If your antagonist could improve one thing about themself, what would it be?

[Yes, I plan redemption arcs for my antagonists. Not saying they're easy to earn, or if they'll grow to deserve them.—R]

Improve himself? Learn how to make real friends, or figure out some way to do so. His current life as the goose that laid the golden egg is certainly comfortable, but lonely. His interlude with his courier (the woman MC of the story) made his loneliness worse because though she clearly hated him, she set that aside and demonstratively enjoyed having fun with him while remaining unerringly direct and open in their conversation, and now, that she's left, the house seems hollow. He knew what she felt. He's even thought of giving her all of the evidence he blackmailed her with, to see how she'd react, if maybe he could get her to join with him—but the syndicate that's made him its beating heart might react badly if she could freely leave if she chose to. His action might make her less safe, no, undoubtedly it would. He knows it's a bad idea. How can he make friends when he's as trapped by his own machinations as those he's trapped?

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.07.17 — What's a trope you can't get enough of writing?

Regardless of my answer yesterday, I'll admit that I could probably shoot out an endless stream of coming-of-age stories. It's addicting as candy. In fact, Inklings, a romantasy WIP I've put on hold, is a double-trope fantasy. Both the 19 year old protagonist and her love interest work through their own coming of age ordeals. Both are also fish out of water university students. She was raised by wolves and can't understand human social standards (okay, a third trope). He is living in exile on the mainland, having fled from a bloody succession battle on his island home. Oh, right, forgot… fourth trope: she can talk to animals, one of which is a dragon (fifth?). I'm trying to move a way from YA storylines these days. Inklings is definitely R-rated despite the theme, which potentially makes marketing it hard.

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#WordWeavers 2026.07.14 — What is the most unusual or interesting word in your WIP’s first sentence?

Okay. That turned out more interesting than I expected! (The italics are in the manuscript.)

What the flap!

It's the narrator's thoughts. The sentence is an interjection that launches an expletive. Neither "what" nor "the" are unusual or interesting, but "flap!" certainly is. The 1st person narrator and protagonist being introduced is a day angel (as versus a daemon, for example). She has wings. She has feathers. She can fly, and is very human. The expression has nothing to do with flight, though it is colloquial. The phrase itself can also be considered dialectal since only day angels (or people familiar their culture) typically use it. The etymology does not derive from plucking an arrow in a bow, yet I am the author and I will admit, though only occasionally an insult, it serves the same purse as that word in English phonically. It's also funny in context. Yes, it has a specific meaning for day angels, a happy double-meaning that is first and foremost what a person with wings does to fly. Secondarily, well, it's sexual. I mentioned they're humans, so not surprising, huh? It's something you can do to someone else if you have feathers. I won't say it, but, if you're still curious, google the word leaving out the L.

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#WordWeavers 2026.05.18 — If your antagonist had to arrange a contest they knew they could win, what would it be?

Rainy Days is the main series antagonist who appears in most stories. She would find it pointless to arrange a contest she knew she could win. Unless she were fighting an actual enemy and winning would be the point, her philosophy being you always win wars unless losing better suits your goals; such a contest wouldn't be friendly as this question implies. Rainy Days arranges contests most often to teach one or more of her many (often unwilling) students, occasionally to test and learn something about them. She'd be overjoyed were one to beat her, ecstatic to find someone she could eventually rely on, maybe one day replace her. Most often, however, she's sparring with her pretorians, whom she inevitably beats. (There are scenes with them injured after training). She does not spar with them in expectation that they might grow able to best her. She does this so they are familiar with what she can do and thus can best protect her blind spots and vulnerabilities. They are her bodyguard, after all.

Encountering the devil-girl in the current WIP, Rainy Days'' contest would emphasize thaumaturgy. She wants the devil-girl to succeed her. Rainy Days wants her as a student as the devil-girl demonstrates a talent for the arcane that might actually exceed Rainy Days.

The devil-girl is convinced Rainy Days is evil. She will think she's going to die.

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.04.23 —What are some form conventions you disregard?

Remember, I got a C- in high school English. Other than learning manuscript submission format and how typical SF books are formatted,, I probably ignore plenty of form conventions I am not aware of. Anyone want to analyze my writer challenge game posts to clue me in? I'd be much obliged!1

=-=-=-=-=-=
1 Actually, please don't. 😋

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#ScribesAndMakers ∆ 2026.04.14 — What's something that's going well with your creativity this month?

Well, I'm creeping up on those little things that are keeping me from completing chapters, so that's good. Could be better. A lot better…

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

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.04.14 —Do you consciously work with syllabic stress to create rhythm?

Pretty consistently. Yes. Yes, I do.

Pressed, I'll say I'm a writer. Given a moment to think on it, I'll say, "I'm an author," but that's not the gist. I am a prosaist. In my heart. It's what a poet is. For prose.

Words matter.

Storytelling definitely matters, but if the prose lacks music the story lacks muscle. I'm very conscious of syllabic stress; I choose my words carefully, first for meaning, then for how they sound. I revise for rhythmic reasons as well as for clarity. Punctuation is not a rule; it's an accelerator, a brake, maybe even a clutch. I use italics to push and to pull. It isn't my only tool. Alliteration, repetition of words and sentence structure, meter—I employ plenty of tricks.

Sometimes I even sound eloquent. I write my prose to be read aloud. Syllabic stress… it's kinda important.

Of course, sometimes a sentence doesn't work.

You don't get to read those. I scrap 'em. Then start all over again.

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#PhantasticsPrompts 2025.24.03.: What kind of fantasy creatures do you particularly like and why?

Um, dragons? Cut my teeth on Dragon Riders of Pern (not Tolkien, never Tolkien). But, right, cliché, a trope. So. I write this fantasy story and a secondary character is? You guessed it, a dragon. Hackneyed? Well, when the Red Dragon is shows up it has the flu. A fever means it's warm blooded. It walks on rear legs and wings, so a wyvern? It breathes fire so when it sneezes that's a problem. It's furry, pretty ugly, too. Well, maybe a giant bat? People don't know the difference; still a dragon. But it eats an orchard when hungry, so… a fruit bat?

I have a bit of fun with this.

They show up in an SF story, but that's a different prompt.

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#ScribesAndMakers 2026.03.12 —Our featured creator has an em dash key on his keyboard. Do you do any customizations for your creativity?

I found the Scrivener .scriv project files and put Mac aliases on my desktop that I can double-click to open. Not only that, I made icons that represent my cover art mockups for each. I also made special Scrivener collections that do RegEx searches that highlight all the weasel words, mistaken positive words, or most confused words in documents. As far as creatively participating in Mastodon hashtag games, such as #ScribesAndMakers, I used the new-file templating system in Scrivener to let me use specific template files that include all the month's prompts, a QUESTION line for me to replace with one of the said prompts, a TEXT line to replace with a reply, copyright line, and (numerous) hashtags. That makes replying, like now, a snap. The image shows Scrivener and the #AltText explains my customizations.

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.03.06 —Is there a local writing community near you? Do you participate in it?

You can't get closer than Mastodon :mastodon: (🐘) on my very own computer!!! Too shy to look elsewhere…

I participate in:

#EroticMusings
#PennedPossibilites
#ScribesandMakers
#WordWeavers
#WritersCoffeeClub
#Writephant
#Writever

As well as:

#WritingCommunity
#WritersOfMastodon

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#ScribesAndMakers ☼ 2026.02.27 — Splat?

Imagine a world where light can act as a liquid and you create a rainbow just before someone startles you? I wrote that. A scene in a three-story atrium. At a school. Splattering the person who did the startling (drenching them in a rainbow) and splattering the school banners hanging down in the atrium, the banisters, floors, and stairs. All the way down to the basement level. Splat! Plenty of students on said stairs, some with open lockers, all splattered—and a few humorless teachers who immediately give chase! It was a funny outbound scene employed to end an epilogue of a fairly heavy and serious novel.

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

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.02.24 — What’s your greatest challenge in fleshing out your setting?

Since I am careful to write about what I know or can imagine, the challenge is the in-writing. Despite how loquacious I think I am, I write rather concisely, skipping to the next action. Fleshing out the setting happens when I iterate during composition (reading/revising the pages before where I continue writing) or during revision. It's there that I change passive declarative passages to integrate description with action, to make the setting more palpable to the reader. Some detail pops up as I imagine or reimagine. It takes time. That's a challenge. Sometimes it increases the length of the passage; detouring away from the core action is also a challenge to overcome. Yet, when I read other's work, mine seems more concise, so I can't give a definitive answer to this one.

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#WordWeavers 2026.02.18 — Can your MC carry a tune?

Of the four titles that could reasonably be considered "in production", none of Bolt, Streak, or Thorn Rose have any reason to be tone deaf, nor particularly talented. Given a shower, or a drink or two, they could passably sing or do karaoke. The devil-girl is the daughter of a theatre and pop music star (think Streisand or Julie Andrews). She has her mother's voice, if not her training. She sings only in the shower, however. Wintereyes from Inklings was raised by wolves. She can howl very well. Musically? Dunno.

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#ScribesAndMakers ☼ 2026.02.10 — What is the most out of character creative thing you enjoy? That thing that never matches the assumptions about you.

I come off as mousey, quiet, strait-laced, not very dynamic.I am far outshone by the joyful glow of the spouse. Most people are surprised when they discover I am an author, that I even have the emotional depth to do that. Now, were they to read what I wrote, they'd definitely find my uncensored uninhibited authorial voice very much out-of-character. They might even blush.

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#WordWeavers 2026.02.05 — If you found out that someone had to live your MC’s life (like in the “Stranger than Fiction” movie), would you change the story?

I've watched some Isekai anime recently about people reincarnated (or teleported) into a fantasy world or a game world they are familiar with, and in one case wrote. It's a horrifying concept, deeply disturbing, would be horrifying to experience. However, I subscribe to the crucible theory when living my life: I can imagine how I would act in situations (the essence of writing fiction), but when I'm in those situations (burning in the crucible) I rarely act as I imagined due to the situation, you know, actually being REAL.

I can't make this question real. It feels like a test of empathy, but I'd have to feel the danger is realistic to say, yes, I'll change what I wrote. I can't get from here to there. Besides which, isn't all fiction about putting someone through relative hell to see how they might grow or wither?

Would I want anybody to live Lightning Bolt's life, as an ordinary high school jock being forced to work for the mob? Would I want anybody not the devil-girl forced to live the devil-girl's life? It's her philosophy of life that makes her a survivor and no random person would manage that. Would I want anybody to live like Wintereyes, giving up part of their humanity to speak to wolves (and dragons, and other creatures), and to live amongst them? Nobody has the innate kindness she possesses, and as a result would have the kindness necessary to deal with subsequently being forced to live amongst humans who are both alien to her and who covet her ability to the extent they feel threatened.

Would I want people to live these lives? Other than vicariously?

No.

But that isn't the point, either.

There is a certain synchronicity with this question and and that of another hashtag game I wrote a post for today: #ScribesAndMakers https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116016731035153232.

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.01.03 — How do you come up with the titles for your works?

Usually, something about the story pops up that feels right.

For example, I named Inklings by serendipity. The POV does magic that leaves picture-like scars that resemble tattoos, and she meets a Pacific Islander (LI) who is covered with tattoos, rare where the story takes place. He's surprised upon noticing one of her scars (blue feathers) and tells her she has "ink." At some point in the story, I wrote the word inkling in the sense of a thought. Hearing the word, my mind shot to a new meaning for the word: a person who had "ink," thus the romance story between the two characters became the titled Inklings."

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#WordWeavers 2025.12.24 — What is the gift your antagonist brings to the world?

Three antagonists, three brief answers.

Pigeon the Pilfer:

Nothing really, he's a punk gangster. Fast food sellers maybe consider him a gift because he eats their food at every meal. He's partial to fried breaded fish sandwiches with a side of fried onions. Sometime, at breakfast, he has kippers and onions. He always adds extra garlic.

Boss Mead:

His gift really waits for a sequel as the current WIP is an inciting incident for him. He does keep the Home City underworld mostly under control, lowering the violence level and upping the organizational level, and he takes some pride in that. He likes profit since he is a mob boss, and likes it when people voluntarily pay rather than having to be roughed up. He'd rather be accepted into high society, but that's not happening as he's also nouveau riche.

Director Rain Days:

Literally the gift she brings to the world is the world. When she was a teenager, she realized she could do one thing spectacularly well. The fact that there were wars because of her, and civilizations perished, is incidental to the fact that without her, the world would have become uninhabitable within decades. Neither she nor the author know how long ago that was, but it was more than a millennium ago.

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#PennedPossibilities 877⅛ — Do any of your characters have troubles with deadlines, like getting a term paper done before the last day, or buying holiday presents?

Wintereyes considers herself a member of the wolf pack first and last, but now that she's forced to attend a human university and needs to act as human (and she barely knows how!), it's confusing, she makes mistakes, and she's become horribly shy. She'll wait until the last second to do things in hopes she'll have figured them out, or rehearsed to death in her head how to act, and interact as little as possible—and then makes a mess of it anyway. Wolves are so much more forthright and straightforward and predictable!

@floofpaldi, Enjoy a night off!

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.14 — Share how you tackle a first round of revisions.

This cried out for analysis. I revise while composing, so that's where I do my first round of revisions. I fix typos, but since I tend to compose using passive is/was constructions, I look for places where I can utilize verbs instead, then flesh out descriptions to bring in all the senses.

What follows is a before, after, and marked-up difference version of the first paragraph of Reluctant Courier (for the Mob), thanks to Scrivener. If your Mastodon instance strips formatting, skip the difference version unless you can read markdown.

Before (First draft):

Click! went the shutter on my camera, and I realized I'd caught a teenager with a broken legs and bleeding from other injuries being loaded on a flatbed ambulance. I blinked at the daemon's rams horns, then up at the 5-story high apparition behind him. That he'd stepped through. It resembled a circular looking glass, but so black it reflected no light, depthless, defined by the lightning circling its rim.

After (Only a second draft!):

Click! went the shutter on my camera before I realized I'd caught a dark-skinned teenager with a broken leg, bleeding from other injuries. A constable and a grunting bystander horsed him onto a flatbed wagon—a makeshift ambulance. I blinked at the dark daemon's golden ram horns, then up at the five-story high apparition behind him. He'd stepped through what resembled a giant circular looking glass, but was a demonic field so incredibly and absolutely black that it reflected no light. Depthless, like a hole punched out reality, only the lightning bolts continuously circling and strobing and booming around its rim defined the knife edge between sanity and city. Vehicles had collided where the apparition had blocked off a boulevard. A siren strapped to the chest of an approaching day angel wailed.

Difference

Click! went the shutter on my camera, andbefore I realized I'd caught a dark-skinned teenager with a broken legs andleg, bleeding from other injuries. beingA loadedconstable onand a grunting bystander horsed him onto a flatbed wagon—a makeshift ambulance. I blinked at the dark daemon's ramsgolden ram horns, then up at the 5five-story high apparition behind him. That heHe'd stepped through . Itwhat resembled a giant circular looking glass, but was a demonic field so incredibly and absolutely black that it reflected no light ,. depthlessDepthless, definedlike bya hole punched out reality, only_ the lightning bolts continuously circling and strobing and booming around its rim defined the knife edge between sanity and city. ¶
Vehicles had collided where the apparition had blocked off a boulevard. A siren strapped to the chest of an approaching day angel wailed.

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#PennedPossibilities 861 — Has your MC ever committed a crime? If so, what have they done? CW: Spoilers

Bolt works for the mob. What do you think?

For starters, from the title of the novel, she's a courier for the mob. She transports messages, which sometimes contain "collection notices" for clients that don't pay on time, but also lots of mob business she has no idea about because she never opens the blue envelopes she transports, only delivers them to the address on the envelope. She's well hated for what she delivers and, being the messenger, that fact is not lost on her. She sometimes she is tasked with transporting "herbs" and "ingredients." Keep in mind the products aren't illegal nor is possessing them, and you could get the equivalent of heroine from the Bureau of Health Services (BHS) so long as you are willing to agree to treatment. Transporting them, if not prescribed to you, is highly illegal.

Bolt has committed these crimes for years, probably because her work ethic when it comes to brawny physical and athletic work—which means flying fast or hauling heavy things through the air—is excellent. Considering she's so well used by the mob, however she started being a criminal, it no longer matters.

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#PennedPossibilities 852 — Tell us something you’ve always wanted to share about your story with readers.

I don't know about "always wanted," but here's something: my reluctance series stories can be adventure or slice of life or thriller or romance, but there is always mystery, a sense that there may be a hidden narrative, with plenty of clues. I don't cheat. These aren't Easter eggs. They are often details irrelevant to the 1st person POV characters that if pieced together should change the reader's perception of the characters's reality.

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#WordWeavers 2025.11.19 — Are there any emotions that are hard for you to write?

I write in first person. There is a distinction between emotions I will write and those toxic things I won't write—and subject the reader to a cesspool.

Of those emotions I will write, perhaps jealousy is the hardest.

Terms

• Jealousy is the emotion (anger or resentment) felt or directed outward when the ownership of a resource you consider your own is questioned.
• Envy is, by contrast, the same emotion elicited by a resource owned by another.

Jealousy, famously, equates the owned resource to a human being. The projected anger, and subsequent fear of that anger, serves to frighten the subject of the emotion into submission, making them chattel.

When jealousy is directed at a loved one, it worsens the feeling between partners. It does nothing to work through the perceived problem. To the extent that the partners see being jealous as displaying their love—and certainly you've met at least one couple who does this—it irritates the living heck out of me. I'd dump a jealous partner like a hot piece of iron, and my spouse and I have helped friends out of abusive jealous relationships, once just a few months ago.

I can't empathize with the emotion, which makes writing a character experiencing it 1st person problematic. It's not that I haven't felt it, but what little pangs of jealousy I've felt, I've logicked away by reflex–or actually worked on my problem. As a result, any jealous character I'd write would come off as stereotypical and hackneyed. Frankly, I've better things to write.

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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.11.11 — Describe a setting that feels magical without using the word magic.

Sadly, I am only capable of doing this by example. Does this bit sound magical without using the word?

I remembered when Blazing Contrail had followed her nose to a farm adjacent to the Fell Woods, then set a silo aflame. Hard to miss flickering red light at night—even through the trees, since it was near where our pack was hunting. I was already running through the corn rows when I heard a bang and a whoosh. The fire blinked out, but a steam cloud rolled skyward in the moonlight. What a mess, literally. I found the red dragon bruised, shaking her aching head, having been pummeled by long wood staves that exploded outwards, some still leaning on her.

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#WordWeavers 2025.11.04 — Are you working on one or several projects? What’s your preference?

I work on whatever I feel I can. I define this as works I could begin composing on at any time, in which case there are three: Inklings, Reluctant Moon, and Reluctant Courier (for the Mob). If you allow revision, there's also Mars Needs Women. I have other projects I could work on, but I'd have to prepare.

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