#writephant — Public Fediverse posts

My name is Priya Sridhar; I am a speculative fiction writer and nerdy nonfiction writer. You can find me at http://priyajsridhar.com

Medium:
"The Dragon Has Some Complaints Shows Bonds Formed From Love Despite Pain, Not Because of It" : https://medium.com/permanent-nerd-network/the-dragon-has-some-complaints-shows-bonds-formed-from-love-despite-pain-not-because-of-it-1fe43e5eb59b

Patreon:

Fluffy Mississippi Mud Pie: https://www.patreon.com/priyajsridhar/posts/fluffy-mud-pie-163311452

Latest blog:
"Old Books, Older Perspectives": https://priyajsridhar.com/old-books-older-perspectives/
#Writephant

#writephant #selfpromo Speaking of dystopian novels (or, more precisely, a near-future dystopian mystery/thriller), as a thank you to my newsletter audience I’m doing a signed paperback giveaway of three original-cover copies of All The Whys of Delilah’s Demise.

It’s not too late to enter, giveaway closes tomorrow!
https://neve.substack.com/p/paperback-giveaway

#Bookstodon #scff #sciencefiction #dystopia

#writephant #selfpromo Speaking of dystopian novels (or, more precisely, a near-future dystopian mystery/thriller), as a thank you to my newsletter audience I’m doing a signed paperback giveaway of three original-cover copies of All The Whys of Delilah’s Demise.

It’s not too late to enter, giveaway closes tomorrow!
https://neve.substack.com/p/paperback-giveaway

#Bookstodon #scff #sciencefiction #dystopia

@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A4. If you were writing a story about a Silicon Valley scammer, what is the most absurd or funniest tech idea would you have them sell, especially if it does absolutely nothing?

Not saying whether or not it's a viable idea, but I'd love it if someone would create background software that would hide the ads, click the buttons, and fix the scripting so we all could have normal magazine reading experiences while making the ad sellers happy despite NOBODY reading their ads. Bet if a rich tech bro did this as a public service, maintained it against countermeasures, and refused to be bought out, it could be a story of industrial espionage and ethics versus greed as the tech industry burns itself to the ground.

Not writing it. Have at it.

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

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@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A4. If you were writing a story about a Silicon Valley scammer, what is the most absurd or funniest tech idea would you have them sell, especially if it does absolutely nothing?

Not saying whether or not it's a viable idea, but I'd love it if someone would create background software that would hide the ads, click the buttons, and fix the scripting so we all could have normal magazine reading experiences while making the ad sellers happy despite NOBODY reading their ads. Bet if a rich tech bro did this as a public service, maintained it against countermeasures, and refused to be bought out, it could be a story of industrial espionage and ethics versus greed as the tech industry burns itself to the ground.

Not writing it. Have at it.

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

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
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@Priyajsridhar
I'm Elektra Hammond. Find me at untilmidnight.com

See me talk about SF/F, RHPS, comics, TV, and Supernatural at Con-Tinual (the Con that Never Ends) on FB & Youtube.

Next is LACon V (Worldcon). My panels:
Movies of 1976
Ethics of a Time War
How Xena Changed the World
Forensics for SF/Mystery Writers
And I'm still on social media.

#writephant #WritingCommunity #amwriting #amediting #alternatehistory #writersofmastodon #ConTinual #supernatural #comics #ZNB #LAconV

@Priyajsridhar
I'm Elektra Hammond. Find me at untilmidnight.com

See me talk about SF/F, RHPS, comics, TV, and Supernatural at Con-Tinual (the Con that Never Ends) on FB & Youtube.

Next is LACon V (Worldcon). My panels:
Movies of 1976
Ethics of a Time War
How Xena Changed the World
Forensics for SF/Mystery Writers
And I'm still on social media.

#writephant #WritingCommunity #amwriting #amediting #alternatehistory #writersofmastodon #ConTinual #supernatural #comics #ZNB #LAconV

#Writephant 1: We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult?

Form Change, from the Proteus novels of Charles Sheffield.

Tech that can change anything about your physical form you want to: height, weight, age, gender, etc.

You could even grow gills and live underwater, or breathe the atmosphere of a partly-terraformed Mars, if you wanted to go that far.

#Writephant 1: We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult?

Form Change, from the Proteus novels of Charles Sheffield.

Tech that can change anything about your physical form you want to: height, weight, age, gender, etc.

You could even grow gills and live underwater, or breathe the atmosphere of a partly-terraformed Mars, if you wanted to go that far.

Self-promo time! No need to predict which of your works will be a hit: post them all in the replies! #Writephant

Self-promo time! No need to predict which of your works will be a hit: post them all in the replies! #Writephant

@elektra @adriabailton Some could. Others not-so-lovely have our permission and ideally will stay on Mars. #Writephant

The funniest tech scam that wouldn't be causing as much nonsense as Gen AI currently? Talking rubber ducks. Since the rubber duck concept is good for the brain, but we know some idiot would think giving a duck a voice box for brainstorming individuals would be a good idea. #Writephant

@Priyajsridhar @adriabailton
I think that certain people could start a lovely Mars colony.

#Writephant

@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A3. What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books?

I feel blindsided by the ubiquity of social media. It's not merely an extension of newspapers, telephones, and mail. People develop their sense of what's normal in their world based of how frequently information is repeated and how difficult it is to discover. Society was not prepared for micro-opinions being amplified to the point that even one person's opinion can influence nations rather than being dismissed as an outlier or insane. Influencers. Talk about dystopian tools. Would have been a prophetic story idea.

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

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@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A3. What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books?

I feel blindsided by the ubiquity of social media. It's not merely an extension of newspapers, telephones, and mail. People develop their sense of what's normal in their world based of how frequently information is repeated and how difficult it is to discover. Society was not prepared for micro-opinions being amplified to the point that even one person's opinion can influence nations rather than being dismissed as an outlier or insane. Influencers. Talk about dystopian tools. Would have been a prophetic story idea.

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

#BoostingIsSharing

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

@Priyajsridhar
If I was writing a story about a Silicon Valley scammer, what is the most absurd or funniest tech idea I would have them sell?

I'd have them roll out a phone app that lets you know [in real time, of course] how attractive anyone within 5 meters finds you [at the moment].

If someone complains, it's not their fault, that person just changed their mind about you when they found out your [fill in the blank].

#Writephant

@Priyajsridhar A4. Excellent story prompt! (you should send this to Cat for Wednesday prompts)

I think a silly tech idea would be a popcorn popper that popped one kernal at a time - for moderation ... and then it never stoppped popping!

#Writephant

@Priyajsridhar A4. Excellent story prompt! (you should send this to Cat for Wednesday prompts)

I think a silly tech idea would be a popcorn popper that popped one kernal at a time - for moderation ... and then it never stoppped popping!

#Writephant

4. For better or for worse, we've also seen the rise of scams courtesy of Silicon Valley and other areas that promise magical solutions to improve society. Most of the time, they do nothing or make society worse. If you were writing a story about a Silicon Valley scammer, what is the most absurd or funniest tech idea would you have them sell, especially if it does absolutely nothing? #Writephant

4. For better or for worse, we've also seen the rise of scams courtesy of Silicon Valley and other areas that promise magical solutions to improve society. Most of the time, they do nothing or make society worse. If you were writing a story about a Silicon Valley scammer, what is the most absurd or funniest tech idea would you have them sell, especially if it does absolutely nothing? #Writephant

@adriabailton at this point, it's more like wanting to yeet certain people to Mars... #Writephant

@adriabailton at this point, it's more like wanting to yeet certain people to Mars... #Writephant

@Priyajsridhar
The Hunger Games did nothing for me (it's my fav example of the movie is better than the book!)--Katness is just too whiny.

OTOH, the Giver is amazing. And they almost caught it in the movie. It was a tough tough thing to do, and they got pretty close.

#Writephant #thegiver

#Writephant 2026.0803 — AA2. Do you prefer utopias or dystopias in your fiction? Or neither? And why?

I do not seek out either as a preference, however I do not like downer stories. If a writer uses these antipodal tropes, I'd better learn something about the human condition or have it turn into a rollicking tale.

My stories tend to field elements of both, since no world is a perfect world and people have to deal with the good and the bad, where figuring out which is which often determines the character's ethical compass.

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

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#Writephant A3: What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favourite books?

"A.I." that scrapes old, rare books by cutting them up and destroying them.

Fahrenheit 451 was a warning, not an instruction manual.

Also, actual AI in my favourite books was something very different from the stochastic errorist slop machines being forced on us today.

There's never a Butlerian Jihad around when you need one.

#Writephant A3: What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favourite books?

"A.I." that scrapes old, rare books by cutting them up and destroying them.

Fahrenheit 451 was a warning, not an instruction manual.

Also, actual AI in my favourite books was something very different from the stochastic errorist slop machines being forced on us today.

There's never a Butlerian Jihad around when you need one.

@Priyajsridhar A3. I think most tech came out of other media. My SF reading was along the lines of Madeline L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey and OSC. Not sure what I expected from those other than space travel. Which we are still limited on. #Writephant

@Priyajsridhar A3. I think most tech came out of other media. My SF reading was along the lines of Madeline L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey and OSC. Not sure what I expected from those other than space travel. Which we are still limited on. #Writephant

@Priyajsridhar
What tech in real life could I not have predicted from reading your favorite books?

Activity trackers. That my watch would tell me how much sleep I got and how much of it was REM sleep. That my hubby could tell his Bp from his watch. Or that it would incessantly nag me to move more or, oddly, that it was time to go to bed.

Tech will not control my life. I am not a number. I am a free man!

#Writephant #FitnessTracker #ActivityTracker #theprisoner

@Priyajsridhar A2 Sadly, I think I prefer dystopias for the hope that they can get better. Also, utopias never ring true to me, but I might be in the contingent that better understands that one person's utopia is for sure someone else's dystopia. I'd rather the honesty, at least.
#Writephant

@Priyajsridhar A2 Sadly, I think I prefer dystopias for the hope that they can get better. Also, utopias never ring true to me, but I might be in the contingent that better understands that one person's utopia is for sure someone else's dystopia. I'd rather the honesty, at least.
#Writephant

@Priyajsridhar Not gonna lie, I thought we'd have hover cars. I also thought we'd be a little closer to moon or mars #writephant

@Priyajsridhar Not gonna lie, I thought we'd have hover cars. I also thought we'd be a little closer to moon or mars #writephant

#writephant A3 What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books?

Social media.... And where are our personal robots?

#writephant A3 What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books?

Social media.... And where are our personal robots?

@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A1. We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult?

In the late 1980s, I wrote a fantasy trilogy where one of conceits was that the magic manifested as visualized by the magic user. Has result, since she fell into the universe from our world, when something akin to a grimoire showed up in the story, it was an illusion that resemble a book combined with a tablet-like computer screen that mimicked a Macintosh full page display. In other words, I invented the iPad! To use it, the user manipulated the illusions like pages of a book and could bookmark by bending the corners of pages.

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

#BoostingIsSharing

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#fantasy
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
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@Priyajsridhar

#Writephant 2026.0803 — A1. We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult?

In the late 1980s, I wrote a fantasy trilogy where one of conceits was that the magic manifested as visualized by the magic user. Has result, since she fell into the universe from our world, when something akin to a grimoire showed up in the story, it was an illusion that resemble a book combined with a tablet-like computer screen that mimicked a Macintosh full page display. In other words, I invented the iPad! To use it, the user manipulated the illusions like pages of a book and could bookmark by bending the corners of pages.

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

#BoostingIsSharing

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

@elektra @Priyajsridhar Sorry to hear this, sending hugs your way

#writephant

@elektra @Priyajsridhar Sorry to hear this, sending hugs your way

#writephant

#Writephant A2. Do you prefer utopias or dystopias in your fiction? Or neither? And why?

I tend to enjoy both - depends on the story, really.

#Writephant A2. Do you prefer utopias or dystopias in your fiction? Or neither? And why?

I tend to enjoy both - depends on the story, really.

@Priyajsridhar
Do I prefer utopias or dystopias in my fiction? Or neither? And why?

I prefer . . . neither. Dystopias are just too depressing. Utopias are just too hard to believe.

Mostly, I want my dragon attacks (or pegasus rides!) grounded in a more "realistic" setting.

#Writephant

Social media. While Scott Westerfeld touched on the potential in Extras, what he didn't cover was the emotional connection that happens, the friends that you can make or lose. Extras came out in the middle of blog culture, when a person had to deliver genuine content in their work. These days? You can become friends with someone if you say you like their cat. #Writephant

Social media. While Scott Westerfeld touched on the potential in Extras, what he didn't cover was the emotional connection that happens, the friends that you can make or lose. Extras came out in the middle of blog culture, when a person had to deliver genuine content in their work. These days? You can become friends with someone if you say you like their cat. #Writephant

3. What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books? #Writephant

3. What tech in real life could you not have predicted from reading your favorite books? #Writephant

At this point? I'm eh on both. While I loved finding tales of false utopias and dystopias as a kid, something changed after the wonderful Hunger Games trilogy, now with two prequels, became a box office hit. Few pieces of long fiction match the emotive wistfulness of the Giver or existential intensity of Ghost in the Shell. I don't know what has changed. Short fiction, however, keeps finding creative ways with the dystopia. #Writephant

At this point? I'm eh on both. While I loved finding tales of false utopias and dystopias as a kid, something changed after the wonderful Hunger Games trilogy, now with two prequels, became a box office hit. Few pieces of long fiction match the emotive wistfulness of the Giver or existential intensity of Ghost in the Shell. I don't know what has changed. Short fiction, however, keeps finding creative ways with the dystopia. #Writephant

@elektra Sending lots of hugs; I am so sorry for your loss. #Writephant

2. Do you prefer utopias or dystopias in your fiction? Or neither? And why? #Writephant

2. Do you prefer utopias or dystopias in your fiction? Or neither? And why? #Writephant

#writephant A1. We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult?

Transporters. Also, yeah, some kind of flying car!

@Priyajsridhar
As a kid, what future tech did I hope to see as an adult?

So much has come true already--the advances in computer memory & programming ability! We can speak to people all over the world *from* anywhere!

I want to see a colony on the moon or further away. And more progress toward a world government.

Note: I'm *still* waiting for my flying car!
https://tinyurl.com/fc654321

#Writephant #spaceexploration
#tomsmith #flyingcar

@Priyajsridhar
I'm fighting some kind of head cold, but other than that, enjoying the client MS I'm reading!

#writephant

The flying cars from the Jetsons with no air pollution always looked nice. Teleportation would also be mighty useful, the harmless kind and not what you see in Stephen King's the Jaunt or Disney's Exta-Terror-Restrial Alien Enocunter. #Writephant

@Priyajsridhar
Joy is a little bit hard to come by this week (sorry). We've hard a death in our [fanish] found family, and we're preparing for a funeral tomorrow.

#Writephant

1. We dreamed as a society about the future having flying cars and jet packs. As a kid, what future tech did you hope to see as an adult? #Writephant

I'm tired. Body needs rest. Running errands brought joy. #Writephant

Our first questions, as always, is how are you doing today? What is bringing you joy? #Writephant