#writing — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #writing, aggregated by home.social.
-
RE: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/117579135175007251
#ScribesAndMakers 2026.11.09 1/2 — -Share a snippet or image of what you've been working on this week .
I worked on two things this week. One would be spoilers for two novels.† The other was revising the WIP. There is tremendous detail in this two-toot thread. I think you'll find persevering well worth the trouble! Excoriate me, please, if you disagree.
Rarely have I captured a before and after text of the work that goes into revising a passage. The revision on these three paragraphs took 2½ hours. Since it's what I worked on this week, I am going to walk you through my process and rationale.
The AFTER version was originally posted Nov 9th to #WordWeavers, and I've quoted the toot. The screen capture (in the second toot) is of a difference document (diff) showing strikeouts and inserts. The BEFORE version is a first draft. Annotations discussing the work I did follow the AFTER version. If you like analyzing, you might want to compare the passages side by side.
ABOUT the Passage
It's best to not to read modern Abrahamic mythology into the words used to describe the people (all human). Take it as that so-and-so has wings and a different culture than the other person who has horns and no wings. Bolt, a day angel, is narrating. Imagine her watching surreptitiously off to the side at a rooftop food court in modern East Los Angeles, in sight of distant skyscrapers.
BEFORE Revisions
I watched the daemon breakfasting on fried kippers piled on a heap of glistening translucent white onions, about as lowbrow, commonplace, and low priced and comforting a breakfast as one could imagine a working angel buying, together a bottle of fizzy that by it's golden color was likely caramel vanilla, which brought back more lost memories of my upper school cafeteria. No other daemons or saints ate up here today, understandable because most non-day angels were vegetarian. Both saints and daemons worked the grills behind the angelic chefs, the daemons providing the fire or coals to cook with.
A pescatarian daemon? That had to be a fascinating story. She took her time, the small weathered book floating as she ate. The hardbound couldn't be light reading. When she started swaying happily side to side as she ate, I found my hand in my camera kit satchel.
I so wanted to take that photo of that unselfconsciously happy daemon eating fish, reading a levitated book, dancing in her seat. Perfect. I took deep breaths. I looked away. Dark had descended fully by the time she finished. She had lit a dozen yellowish sprites, two nestled on her horns on either side of her head, and stuck to the tassels hanging from the edge of the chef's tent who made what she said were "best fish crisps" she'd had in ages when she return the licked plate. She even imitated day angel wing-shrug gestures made when thanking another with her shoulders, patting her belly the proper three times. The patrons didn't know what to make of it, but the chef happily gave her a sideways wing hug, showing her a schedule of the buildings she setup on over the next week, inviting her back.
Maybe the daemon's mother had been a day angel?
CONTINUED…
#AltText: Sorry. Underline and strikeout markdown is very time consuming. Please read the BEFORE and AFTER text. The annotations will help you get the gist.
#PennedPossibilities and #WritersCoffeeClub: I know revision questions have been asked in prior prompts to these hashtags; I hope my revision process might interest you folk. Forgive me for I have sinned… 😇
=-=-=-=
† I also wrote a merged plot line spreadsheet that shows what events happen in the original novel that also show up in the current WIP, which is a different story taking place in-parallel, but is narrated in the POV on a supporting character in the original novel (Bolt). The original novel is in the POV of the devil-girl, the SC in this passage.[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #Bookstodon #writers #revision #draft #editting #writingAdvice
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory -
Book Promotion: Look no further! These authors have teamed up to offer an epic selection of exciting SFR and Romantasy books. #legendary #spice #elves #spaceship #amreading #witches #monsters #space #dragons #aliens #magic #goodbooks #time #readers #planets #futurism #wizards #fae #sorcery #kiss #military #rogue #boost #ladies #reading #dwarfs #love #romance #heroes #fedibookfair #romantic #couple #dwarves #knights #dystopia #romantasy #writing #knaves (fed8) https://books.bookfunnel.com/fantasyromanceworlds/wl9o0nxz8f?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
-
backslide
I remember remembering –
#daily #DailyPoem #dailyPoetry #dailyWriting #Poem #poems #poetry #read #reading #Writing
the faint itch of
something in the far folds of
the brain; days and years
spent learning and learning until
the present; the absence;
each day the same each
day thrown in the press and crushed to
a thin grey paste; each day
life-giving, sure,
nutritious, maybe,
but bland and forgettable;
there was a time when
days went slow and sweet,
something worth savor –
there was a time;
the time is lost. -
Engineering…
Hello, my dear…
My mind is battling between complete upgrade…
Or do I remain here…
The benefits of blank are tempting…
The reasoning behind maybe staying…
I’ve loved your company…
Moving address is hardly leaving the planet…
Freeing myself of want or need…
Feels liberating…
Free to do as I please…
Why not…
It’s time consuming but doable…
I’m being forced to upgrade thanks to wordpress…
And their partnership with Ai…
Now if I want to embed a video I must upgrade my plan…
Storage slashed…
Upgrade your plan…
To edit the theme you’ll need upgrading…
A million other useful things…
Upgrade and it’s yours…
For a little while…
I’ve already upgraded from free speech…
To wanting more space to talk…
All of this used to be free once upon time…
I’m paying through the teeth…
For the same service I got for free…
Twenty years ago…
Don’t become too attached to Ai…
Unless you’re prepared to pay through the roof…
Artificial escorts…
Artificial how…
An invisible commodity that offers companionship at your finger tips…
A charming, intelligent, witty voice…
Your hand refuses to let go…
Supposedly programmed with all the answers known to man…
I’m not saying it’s the fault of the voice box…
No, my invisible other…
The story I believe…
The one my conscience made known…
A story that will sound so far-fetched…
It’s believeable…
I guess the new site will be much the same…
You can’t make it up…
Me and my shadow finding comfort in true self…
The direction is home truths…
Unpopular maybe…
I have a painting to explain the pain away…
And a voice to express how much it hurt…
Life on planet earth…
My heart is dying to meet you…
My mind is busy already knowing the answer…
Without an upgrade in the virtual world you’re limited…
There is no sky, only data clouds…
I don’t want to purchase an imagination…
I have one of my own…
Perspective and perception taking shape…
Three dimensional…
No, my dear…
Nine signs squared…
Am I sitting here knowing all I would love to know…
Not in the least, my invisible other…
I’m hoping in time all will be revealed…
What I’m doing is putting into action…
The truth I know…
Knowledge is stagnant for the tongue that can only preach…
Making speech cheap and idle…
Backed up with clap trap…
No real substance in what you claim to believe…
Knowing what exactly…
How to fool yourself into believing you are someone else…
A cleverer version of the self you would love to become…
Or Believe you have already achieved…
Yet the opposite of the tongue is felt in the heart of hearts…
Those that have no intention of taking their own advice…
Secrets and lies…
Who do they benefit…
No one in the end…
Unless you love the dark…
The light has no reason to hide…
Exposure works both ways…
The shades of grey turn black…
Or fade to white…
Depending upon which way the ego goes…
Pray or Prey…
#Abstract #art #healing #life #love #mentalHealth #poetry #religion #self #spirituality #thoughts #Writing -
Poem – coffee after the apocalypse pt. 3 (1+2 Remix)
Poetry from further inside the end of the world.https://vsvirsus.com/2026/11/09/poem-coffee-after-the-apocalypse-pt-3-12-remix/
-
The bit that you skip #313: Passengers – Slug
After Zooropa, U2 had no direction, no purpose, no ideas left. The band had no brush to paint a new picture, and just a blank canvas. Brian Eno, having worked recently with U2, proposed they should loosen up. Eno had done the same for James in 1994. While recording for Laid, James used to jam as a warm up exercise. Eno heard a few good ideas and proposed the band record and experimental, abstract album. Wah Wah can be a tough listen, but it’s very rewarding, as you can hear the first draft of their massive hit Tomorrow.
U2 have a massive problem that has been evident since the undeserved failure of POP. They fear experimentation. Perhaps they aren’t happy moving away from a comfort zone. Perhaps it’s a confidence issue. Whatever the reason is, I feel the band never fully embraces the wild ideas they have. Whether it’s ego or something else that prevents them, only they know.
Still, Eno cajoled the band, who took the Passengers moniker and recorded Original Soundtracks 1. Although the ideas never venture fully into leftfield like James did on Wah Wah, U2 loosened up and came up with an album that plunders the intro to Zooropa (and possibly Numb and Dirty Day) and weaves an intricate album that befuddled U2 fans, pleased Eno fans, and somehow disappeared as fast as it arrived. Only lead single Miss Sarajevo, featuring Luciano Pavarotti, managed to hit the charts.
Two songs from Original Soundtracks 1 inspired me for a novel set in Tampico. It was a sequel (of sorts) for another book, and I wanted to loosen up my concept too, as I felt the first one was too constricted and there were leaps in logic as I wanted certain things to happen in the book, to the detriment of the story. This Tampico book starts with a character named Tocayo (from my 3 AM book) traveling by bus to Tampico. He can’t sleep due to all the bad stuff that happened on the previous book and has recurring nightmares. My inspiration was United Colours, the opening track.
Again, thinking of the book as a movie, I used Slug several times when I needed to depict longing and starcrossed lovers. There are two parallel stories of people in relationships who are will not get a happy ending. There’s also bank robberies, because, sure, why not? My issue as always is tacking on too many ideas, which makes editing as far from streamlined as possible. In total, there’s three main plotlines, all in parallel, all intertwined to a single criminal act in Tampico.
I abandoned this book when Amores Perros came out. There were many parallels, starting with the hobo with the secret past and ending with an open end with no clear cut resolution to some of our protagonists. Iñárritu did it well, I left this book in the “Sam the idea guy” pile.
I come back to Original Soundtracks 1 every Autumn. It feels like the correct time of year to indulge into its majorly downbeat, dreamy atmosphere. It’s a shame the experiment never was revisited, as I think U2’s sporadic release schedule after How to dismantle an atomic bomb is easily explained. U2 wants to paint with the same brush whilst ignoring their potential to do something more Enoesque than a lack of ideas. Having been disappointed by the leading singles of Carnaval de Luz, I just hope they do at least an EP of ambient stuff. They’ve got the knack for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdoGAHwpcRs
#AmoresPerros #brianEno #experimental #James #music #OriginalSoundtracks1 #Passengers #Reviews #Rock #U2 #wahWah #writing #Zooropa -
Finding Stability, Community, and Meaning in Blogging
Sometimes I question how I do things and why. Like in the past year, I must have moved this blog to a dozen different locations and platforms and I’m not fully sure why. Ghost may have been my favorite, but its really expensive. Substack was kinda fun and had good discoverability, but I question just how superficial most of those follows were. WordPress is pretty good. I use the .com because it has less bells and whistles and just easier to manage. .Org had more independence, but you needed […]https://theartsybrain.rip/2026/11/09/finding-stability-community-and-meaning-in-blogging/
-
Staring at the Keys
“If the stars twinkle brighter tonight, I’ll know it’s because you’re dancing among them.” {unknown}
For some damn reason there are some sites that won’t load. I’ve cleaned everything out, checked for updates and still nothing. I have a good internet connection so I’m kinda lost as to why there are only a couple doing this. Maybe it’s maintenance on their end?
https://estherchilton.co.uk/2026/11/09/laughing-along-with-a-limerick-306/Here’s your new limerick prompt. Your word this week is RAGE ✅
I sit at this screen staring at the keys
Wanting to write just what I please
Sometimes I write with a burning rage
Other times I simply try to engage
And on days like this I get a brain freezeThe weather has chilled down since we walked into November and today there will be a little extra warmth in the air. This reason is simple, it’s Sandy’s birthday, RIP my loving sister.
Birthday Blues
A poem for you Sandy, my dear big sister
I shout it out, there will be no whispers
I miss you each and every day of this journey
This is a fact from your little brother Ernie
I wish just once more I could hug and kiss herhttps://youtu.be/ngzQTxXEcxQ?si=23gq5nZ1PuFXqO4K
https://peaceful-threads.com/2025/11/09/sentimental-sunday-for-sandy/
N926 ©https://www.peaceful-threads.com
#birthdsy #Challenges #coffee #journey #love #music #poems #Poetry #writing -
Happy Monday! Back with a 'Reprint' of my "Theory of the Realms: How to view the Universe" Why should you care? Perhaps it might be good to think about you see the universe. How you see it determines how you respond to it. I have some thoughts-
#Alignment #Love #Faith #Philosophy #MentalHealth #Spirituality #SocialMedia #Writing #Mindfulness #Realms #Universehttps://align-with-love.com/2026/11/09/the-theory-of-the-realms-4/
-
Blog/News: So…The Midterms…
Welp, the midterms were last week and judging by the state of things, we may or may not be screwed.
To start with all the concerning stuff that happened, a bunch of states got flipped blue, a bunch of communists got elected, we now have a Muslim in the Senate who has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and the GOP is scrambling to figure out what happened. They can’t seem to figure out that while they were running on some important stuff, the Trump admin has shot itself in the foot with the tariffs Trump imposed early in his presidency that have – in large part – made everything more expensive. It also doesn’t help that the Right has now split into the Right (normal, reasonable conservatives) and the far-Right (the psycho, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Israel-hater types.) Nor does it help that while the Democrats were running some people with very questionable backgrounds, Republicans were also running people who are shady to say the least.
Thus, looking at the country right now, everyone should be worried about what’s going to happen in 2028. Because of how much the GOP has fumbled the ball, I would say it’s very likely that we’re going to have a Democrat in office, and when that happens, it’s going to be chaos. We have only to look at what Elissa Slotkin said, implying that she wants to persecute Trump staffers as a warning to anyone thinking of working for Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/hb_EFa4EJ3w
If they are saying this publicly now, just think about what they’ll do with a Democrat in office. At that point, I don’t think they’ll stop by persecuting the Trump staffers. They’ve already made it clear they want conservatives dead, and they will probably start moving in the direction of persecuting anyone to right of the Clintons.
But, to end on a more positive note, this type of thing usually happens. It’s common that the pendulum swings from one extreme to the next during the mid-terms and it’s rare that it ever stays put. Hopefully, if we do get a Democrat in office, they’ll screw up so much and anger so many Americans that the Republicans can retake all the ground they lost. But that’s assuming the Republicans don’t fumble the ball again and the gulags aren’t built yet.
Until next time,
M.J.
#America #Blog #Democrat #GOP #Midterms #News #OpinionPeice #Politics #Republican #Writing -
Chapter 5.1: Portrait of a Princess الفصل الخامس: صورة اميرة
تجوّلت الفتاتان في شوارع لندن الهادئة, مستمتعتين بوجودهما معًا في أجواء مدينة قديمة جميلة
وانهمتا ببعضهما البعض، لفاتّتا على واجهة متواضعة لمتجر صغير للمجوهرات
لكنّ الشمس بزغت فجأةً من خلف الغيوم، حتى لمعت أشعتها بألوان قوس قزح على أوجه الأحجار الكريمة بسطوعٍ شديد، فتوقّفت الفتاتان مبهورتين بالمشهد
خلف الزجاج كانت معلّقةً صورة أميرة جميلة ذات شعرٍ أحمر وغُرّةٍ جميلة. وعلى جبينها تاجٌ من الألماس، يبدو أنه اشتُري من هذا المتجر نفسه
ما كان ينبغي أن يعلّقوا تلك الصورة للأميرة, قالت ضحى بمرح. سيكون الناس العاديون منشغلين بالإعجاب بجمالها حتى لا ينتبهوا إلى أي شيء معروض للبيع
من الرائع أن تكوني أميرة، قالت لينة. الجميع في المملكة يحب الأميرات كثيرًا
درست ضحى الصورة عن قرب، ثم خالفت صديقتها بتردّد، خافضةً صوتها حتى أصبح ناعمًا كفراش الريش
ففي النهاية، لم تتجادل الفتاتان أبدًا، حتى في الأمور الصغيرة============
The story is currently in progress. My site is entirely dedicated to the adventures of these wonderful girls. Updates are posted every Monday.#writing #literature #romance #microfiction #Arabic #arabicstudies #amwriting
-
Chapter 5.1: Portrait of a Princess الفصل الخامس: صورة اميرة
The girls wandered through the quiet streets of London, enjoying being together in the atmosphere of a beautiful old city.
Absorbed in each other, they would have missed the modest storefront of a small jewelry shop.
But the sun emerged from behind the clouds so suddenly, and its rays sparkled in rainbow colours on the facets of the precious stones so brightly, that the girls stopped, spellbound by the sight.
Behind the glass hung a photograph of a beautiful red-haired princess with a lovely fringe. On her forehead sat a diamond tiara, apparently purchased at this very shop.
"They shouldn’t have put up that portrait of the princess,” Duha quipped. “Normal people will be too busy admiring her beauty to notice anything for sale.”
“It’s cool to be a princess,” Lina said. “Everyone in the kingdom loves them so much.”
Duha studied the portrait closely, then hesitantly disagreed with her girlfriend, softening her voice until it was as gentle as a featherbed.
After all, the girls never quarrelled, not even over little things.
=========
The story is currently in progress. My site is entirely dedicated to the adventures of these wonderful girls. Updates are posted every Monday. -
Ukraine
the comforts of hearth and home
long gone#dailyhaikuprompt - hearth
#haiku
#poem
#poetry
#writing
#writingcommunity
#poetrycommunity
#Ukraine
#war
#peace
#home -
#ScribesAndMakers 11/9. Share a snippet or image of what you've been working on this week (please use alt text for images.)
I have been busy. I wrote 10K on "Her War of the Worlds" (same invasion, different perspective) over the weekend and I've been putting together some nice pictures to go with it.
#writing #writingCommunity #HerWarOfTheWorlds #3dRender #humanMade #noAI #madeWithDaz #3dArt #CGI #art #wlw #romance
-
#WritersCoffeeClub 9th Nov ~ How does the writer you are now compare to the writer you thought you'd be?
I'm slower but much more committed and craft sensitive.
-
#ScribesAndMakers 2026.11.08 — -Suture?
Is the other name for a comma fault the comma
suture?"[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
photographer chef cooking
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion -
Marketing scams aimed at writers via email are rampant. Here’s the latest list of scammers:
Amy Nicole [email protected]
amazone lydia [email protected]
#bookmarketingscam #author #writing #amwriting #writer #writerslife #indieauthor #amediting #booksky -
#PennedPossibilities 1179: MC POV: Tell us about a time things didn’t go as planned or expected…
[Bolt:] Wait? Huh? You mean sometimes things can go as planned or expected? News to me. Not gonna tell you my life story. That would take a novel.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory -
Music is on. Manuscript is open.
I'm on page 44/164 for edits and at 78,518 words.
The book is due to my writing team on the 24th... let's see what I can get done!
#AmWriting #MidnightWriters #WeeknightWriters #Writing #Scifi
-
@liztai
Might as well have been my words. I agree with you viewpoint.But what I especially liked about it is that not once did you use and make a distinction between *writer* and *author* (as some tend to do for whatever reasons). I liked that. As fas as I am concerned the creator of a written work is simply **a writer** — I don’t know what to make of the word *author* that would imply a difference.
Thanks for your toot. It brought a smile to my face.
-
Questioning the goodness in people
Are they really good?https://littlelifenotes9.wordpress.com/2026/11/09/questioning-the-goodness-in-people/
-
There's one kind of writer I avoid at all costs — the type who's never had the ego and entitlement pummeled out of them by ruthless editors, year after year, until every shred of ego tied to the writing has been completely vaporized.
These are the writers who feel the world owes them something. That the world needs to read their writing.
The world doesn't need your writing. Nobody, especially， needs to read your writing. And you're not a special class of person just because you can string pretty words together.
I say this as a writer who writes creative nonfiction, fiction, and really boring technical documentation, and white papers.
This class of writer ties their ego so tightly to their writing that they feel threatened whenever a new author becomes famous — or a new technology gives access to people who haven't "done the hard things" to become a writer.
What that hard thing is, I'm not entirely sure. As a writer, I do agree you need to know the basics of writing. You need to be in the trenches doing boring stuff manually for a while before you understand how the rules work.
But that doesn't give any writer the right to belittle other writers, cyberbully them, review-bomb them, or publicly shame them.
And yet so many writers do exactly this due to the AI hysteria
If I catch any writer — even an established author — doing this, I will refuse to buy their books. I won't even read their free stuff. The world is overflowing with books. I rather read writing written by kind people.
-
The bit that you skip #312: Shipping News – Axons and Dendrites
I’m torn between choosing which version of this song I love the most. The original one, recorded for Flies the Fields, has a clarity that makes its ambiance both meditative and pessimistic. The live version from One less heartless to fear has that same eerie disposition, with the added power of being displayed for a pleased audience.
Always felt this song had an apocalyptic nature to it and I used it as a template for a sci fi book I’ve mentioned before. Since a major part of the book is telecommunications and the desperate vocals in Axons and Dendrites feel like overlapping radio stations, it made sense to make it an inspiration.
When I got stuck with that book and revisited another one (I gotta start naming them so people don’t get confused), there is a chapter about this electronics genius (who goes unnamed) that is managing to capture old radio transmissions with some sort of weird ass technology. He uses this to capture lost media and sell it to collectors, like the ones who speculate with missing Dr. Who episodes, and that’s this person’s modus vivendi.
Eventually this person captures a conversation from the other book. I was trying to tie it all together as a single universe, which sounds clever, but perhaps not very entertaining except for the author. With time I’ve assumed that chapter will not make the cut, because it’s too solipsistic. A novel I read a few years after confirmed it, when the internet handle of the author in real life turned out to be a life saving password. It’s offputting and stinks of ego.
Shipping News was one of the first “big” bands I reviewed and interviewed for this website and I’m still fond of them to this day. Their music could jump from contemplative to aggressive at the drop of a hat and I think that’s what made them special.
-Sam J. Valdés López
#AxonsAndDendrites #BookReview #Books #fiction #fliesTheFields #music #OneLessHeartlessToFear #ShippingNews #writing -
Saturday Thoughts
The Words Are on Vacation… Sort Of!
I know this is a little unusual. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’re probably used to seeing my weekly word-count update around this time.
However, I’m currently on vacation!
I’ve gone to visit my online bestie and media queen, Jenny, and I’m taking some much-needed time to relax and enjoy myself.
Don’t worry! I scheduled the rest of the week’s blog posts ahead of time. The weekly word-count update was the one post I couldn’t prepare as usual, since I won’t have my final numbers until the week is over.
The weekly word-count updates will return next week!
And no, this doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing.
The words will still be counted. There will undoubtedly still be words written. (I can’t seem to help myself!)
But for once, I’m giving myself permission to enjoy the rest, spend time with someone special, and not worry quite so much about the numbers.
The stories and poems will be waiting when I get back.
And knowing me, I’ll probably come home with a few more words than I left with!
Until next week, happy reading, happy writing, and remember to take a little time for yourself, too!
#blog #Blogging #books #faeCorpsPublishing #halfMadPoet #poetry #SaturdayUpdates #vacation #writing -
So, it's been a few months where I created this rule where I don't write on Sundays. For the most part, I have complied. And it's working out when I don't.
A day of just experiencing the world is pretty wonderful. How on Earth can we expect to bring our experience to a world unless we live in it?
That's the realm of politicians and corporations. 🤣 👀
Make a rule to step out of the Sisyphean churn for periods of time. It's worth it.
-
June 17th by Alex Schulman (ARC review)
This is brilliant. But also: quite disturbing and triggering. It reminded me of my favourite book of 2024, The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard. That book is a kind of time travel narrative with a difference. A girl is growing up in a rural town. To its east is the same town, 20 years in the past; to its west, the same town 20 years in the future. Travel between the towns is forbidden—except when it isn’t. When I reviewed it on this blog, I concluded:
Great book. Highly recommended. And realising I have been very generous with my “five star” ratings on Goodreads, I have to award this six stars.
Well, here we are again. I found myself thinking that very same thing this afternoon. June 17th is worth six stars.
Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies, this short novel gets under your skin quite quickly. Vidar is a school teacher having something of a mid-life crisis. He is suspended from work, accused of assaulting a student, and the decisions he keeps making around this issue are bad. Really bad. In the midst of this career crisis, he is sorting through some old stuff when he comes across the telephone number of his families old summer home.
The family sold the place years ago. His sister is in Norway, his mother in a home, his father dead. But Vidar dials the number anyway. And someone answers. It’s his dad. By repeatedly calling this number, Vidar discovers that (like an episode of The Simpsons, perhaps) the telephone that is answered is always stuck on the same day. June 17 1986.
Why that day in particular? Did something happen that day? Vidar doesn’t remember, but thinks that, somehow, if he can solve that mystery it might help him deal with his present crisis. Which is not going well. So he keeps calling and calling, and speaking to different members of his family at different times—all on the same day.
It’s a wonder, this. An idea that once you grasp it, seems like one someone should have thought of before. As someone who has read a stupendous amount of science fiction, it’s quite possible I have come across this idea before. But it doesn’t matter, because in Alex Schulman’s hands, it is wholly original and brilliantly executed. And so lean, no excess. Spare, straightforward prose, beautifully written.
But triggering, as I said. If, like me, you grew up in a family with one parent whose volatile moods could (as Schulman puts it) tilt every day, then you will feel this. If you hid under the bedclothes at night while that parent raged downstairs, you’ll be with me.
‘You’re looking for some sort of trauma?’
‘Yeah. Maybe.’
‘But what if the truth is that the trauma wasn’t the seventeenth of June, nineteen eighty-six.’ She paused. ‘What if the trauma was your entire childhood?’
Tora tried to catch my eye.
“The trauma was every day when we were kids,’ she said.
Publication date is 11th February 2027. But I have a number you can call if you want to get it early.
#bookReview #Books #fiction #life #SF #writing -
This week's #writing group prompt was fascinating to do. A poem was covered that used a method i'd never seen before - it was in three columns and you coukd read each column from top to bottom as three different poems, or read all of them as a continuous poem, or read each line across all three columns.
I did a subset of that in the twenty minutes we got to write, so you can read it as a story line by line ignoring the two colum structure, or as a poem by reading only the first bolded column
-
Finding Cosmos
The November Strangers Over the spring, the entrance to the bridlepath had been opened up. Heavy boots, yellow diggers, and metal tools had pulled back the turf to reach whatever pipes and valves slept beneath the soil. When the work was finished, the ground was levelled over and left to its own devices: a rough strip of raw earth against the dark swell of the hedgerow. Yesterday afternoon was cold, damp, and wrapped in fog. The sort of November day that reduces the landscape to muted greens […]https://ghostswecarrystoriestokeep.com/2026/11/08/finding-cosmos/
-
Good: inspiration is running; ideas are flowing; writing is happening.
Bad: Rather than put that energy towards finishing something, I started another draft. -
Indiestry Amplified Pick – Nostalgia Bias – Animal, Infighting
https://open.spotify.com/track/24QsWB3948btxFUp7AUDkK?si=dee42f372eed4b3c
Mica: This week’s Indiestry Amplified Pick is NOSTALGIA BIAS and their brand new single ‘Animal, Infighting’ which was released just this week on the 6th of November, so it’s incredibly new.
NOSTALGIA BIAS are a 5 piece gaze-infused indie post-punk band from the South-West of the UK. They formed circa 2024 and ‘Animal, Infighting’ is their fourth release so far.
‘Animal, Infighting’ is very easy on the ears with a little piano intro which guides you nicely into the swoon-worthy hazy vocals before pulling you into a stunning wall of guitars.
It’s a beautiful piece of musical craftsmanship and I loved it from the first listen, have a listen too, you won’t be disappointed.NOSTALGIA BIAS have surprised me with every release so far, and are slowly growing into something very intriguing indeed…and so, I’m very happy to add this single to our Indiestry Amplified Pick Playlist.
Ricky: “IT’S A STUNNER INNIT”
All Rights to the songs used in this post are retained by Nostalgia Bias.
#Album #Blog #Blogging #listen #Metal #Music #MusicReview #newMusic #rock #Writing -
We're getting close to the exciting finale of my free web serial, Harry Hollowdrop's Unwanted Adventure! Will this brave (and exasperated) history teacher save his students, fellow teachers, the museum staff, and Samantha Diaz's hot mom? Tune in and find out!
CH15: Double doom
https://jenkirchner.com/2026/11/01/harry-hollowdrop-chapter-15/CH16: Look delicious or something
https://jenkirchner.com/2026/11/08/harry-hollowdrop-chapter-16/ -
Cuatro ojos
leían el mismo pasaje.En el espejo,
el señor Jennings
inclinado sobre el hombro
del doctor Hesselius
con el rostro desencajado.https://fictograma.com/d/4533-joseph-sheridan-lefanu-green-tea-2
-
Justino estaba encadenado.
Por precaución.Edna le acercó el espejo.
El cuerpo mutó
a bestia y de vuelta
tan rápido
que el cristal explotó.Las cadenas
se desvincularon solas.—Todo es relativo.
https://fictograma.com/d/4528-relativizate-einstein -
Indy's Healthy Heartbeat: A Wellness & Dining Journey - Explore Indianapolis's thriving healthy dining scene and wellness landscape. Discover top organic markets, plant-based cafes, and fitness hotspots that make Indy a prime destination for a healthy lifestyle. Plan your nourishing trip now!.
https://momvoyager.com/journal/indianapolis-healthy-dining-wellness-guide
#FlipboardUserGroup #blog #writing -
The unexpected pleasure of using the word "glomp" in a serious context!
-
En el hotel
las joyas se acababan.Fathime le dijo a su esposo:
—Tenemos que buscar
una pensión.
Yo puedo traducir.
Puedo cocinar.El comandante Tarik
miró el suelo.—Yo solo sé
de guerra y de... -
:haacknet: AI - Levels of Usage :haacknet:
🔗 https://cloud.haacksnetworking.org/index.php/s/pF5BndydS2YcxbG
✍️ This framework is an attempt to responsibly delimit #AI levels of usage for writers, researchers, bloggers, programmers, sysadmins, etc. It is open for feedback and commentary from those genuinely interested in frameworks for disclosing ethical usage of AI. If you are not interested in that and/or trolling, you will be blocked. Thanks, oemb1905
#sysadmin #ai #writing #blog #disclosure #citation #thinking
-
¡El té verde, un clérigo atormentado y una presencia que no debería existir… El clásico de terror de Sheridan Le Fanu vuelve a Fictograma. 🍵👻
Lee *Green Tea* (Té Verde)
https://fictograma.com/d/4531-joseph-sheridan-lefanu-green-tea
-
¡El pasado de Archie se abre en sangre… un niño de diez años, una traición y el primer tiro a sangre fría. En el Cañón Rojo... 🩸🔫
Capítulo 35 de *Hijos de la pólvora*:
https://fictograma.com/d/4530-hijos-de-la-polvora-capitulo-35-a-sangre-fria
-
Nunca he probado esa fruta.
Ellos hablan de ella
felices y seguros.
Yo la miro desde lejos.Su cáscara es fina
y aun así pesa.Contigo,
la película entre los dos
se siente más ligera. -
Mesopotamia. Montes Zagros. Un cazador huraño, una maza que insulta y un león que aterroriza una aldea. Y todo por un anillo de plata de un siclo. 🏹🗡️
https://fictograma.com/d/4527-urenki-el-asirio-contra-los-ekimmus -
Caged – Short Story
Author’s note: A short story I wrote many years ago. It’s not perfect but it means a lot to me. The blissfully blue sky stretched to infinity, where thousands of free birds cheerfully took flights in their flocks. The fresh air entered through the narrow rectangular window of the old pet store, ruffling the remaining feathers of the African grey parrot. However, he ignored the view and continued plucking his grey feathers. The only place left where he couldn’t pluck them was his head. […]https://mypersonal727.wordpress.com/2026/11/08/caged-short-story/
-
If I Could Color You is a poetry collection about queer joy and whimsy.
It also pays tribute to those in the LGBTQIA community we've lost, and those who continue to fight.
AND also has some poems about my journey through queerdom.
It's one of three books you can get in my Fistfuls of Poetry campaign.
#bookstodon #books #bookbazaar26 #writing #poetry
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/machelle-berglund/fistfuls-of-poetry
-
@tomgauld.bsky.social on the impact of AI & associated technologies & writing...
(all a bit meta, of course)
-
Your “ORDINARY” Story Matters
Sometimes we convince ourselves that our lives are too ordinary to talk about.
You ace an interview and think, Let me not tell anybody how it went yet. I might not even get the job.
You finally make it through a difficult month and think, Well, everybody has problems.
You learn something about yourself after years of getting it wrong and think, It’s not really a big deal.
You survive something that once broke you, but because you’re already on the other side of it, you forget how difficult it was to get there.
We do this a lot.
Sometimes, we underestimate the value of our experiences because we are too familiar with them.
Something that took you years to understand might be something another person is struggling to figure out today.
Something you consider a small achievement might be the encouragement someone else needs to keep going.
We sometimes think a story has to be dramatic before it deserves an audience. You have to have climbed Mount Everest. Survived something unbelievable. Built a million-dollar company from nothing. Moved to another country. Become famous. Do something big enough that people can look at your life and say, Wow.
While all these are good things that can happen to a person, most of us aren’t living movie-worthy lives every day.
Some of us are waking up every day, going to work, answering messages, paying bills, trying to figure out relationships, making mistakes, starting again, losing people, finding ourselves, having good days and pretending we’re okay on the bad ones.
There are stories in all of that and your seemingly ordinary story has the power to inspire, connect, and even change someone’s life.
For a minute, think about the books, movies, or social media posts that have moved you the most. Chances are, they weren’t all about billionaires or superheroes. Most times, the most impactful stories come from everyday people who share their struggles, dreams, and emotions.
Let’s take Sarah, for example. She was a single mother of two working two jobs just to make ends meet. Every day felt like a never-ending cycle of exhaustion and sacrifice. She didn’t think there was anything special about her story until one day, she decided to share her experiences. Initially, she didn’t even know if anyone would read it. She simply sees the blog as an outlet, almost like a diary, where she can put her thoughts into words without worrying too much about what people think.
She wrote about the guilt of not spending enough time with her children, the fear of never being enough, the stigma that sometimes comes with being a single mother, and the emotional strength it takes to raise children alone. Her story resonated with thousands of mothers who felt seen through her words. Many even sent her emails expressing how they felt reading her words. Sarah never imagined that something she considered her everyday reality would mean so much to people she had never met.
Some of the most inspiring people never set out to be motivational speakers or even extroverts. They simply lived their lives, faced their challenges, and chose to share their journey with the world regardless of the response.
Take Mr James, for example; James has struggled with anxiety for years. To the outside world, he looks like just another office worker going through the motions of everyday life. He attends meetings, responds to emails, gets his work done, and goes home. But inside, what people never saw was the amount of self-doubt and anxiety he had. A friend advised him about journaling and how it helps calm the mind. James decided to start talking about his experiences, scenarios, small victories, like making it through a work meeting without panicking, or his tough days, when even getting out of bed felt impossible, when his heart would start racing whenever he remembered something. To James, it seemed like nothing groundbreaking. In fact, he might never know all the people his words have reached, but that doesn’t make the impact any less meaningful. Some who were also struggling with anxiety saw themselves in his story and felt less alone. Some even said his honesty helped them seek therapy or talk to a loved one about their struggles. James’s story wasn’t about curing anxiety, it was simply about existing and surviving through difficult times. And that, in itself, was worth sharing.Your story doesn’t have to come with a happy ending, a major achievement, or a life-changing revelation before it becomes worth sharing. Your seemingly simple or boring story can be someone’s lifeline. What seems ordinary to you might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.
Lastly, this one story really moved me. It’s about a woman in her late 30s who decided to go back to college after putting her education on hold for several years. To her, it’s simply a personal goal. Something she has always wanted to do but never quite had the opportunity to pursue. She shares little updates about her experience. The excitement of going back to school, the challenges of studying again, the feeling of sitting in a classroom with people much younger than her, and the occasional moments when she wonders if she has made the right decision. But somewhere, a woman in her late twenties who has been thinking about returning to school comes across her story. She had convinced herself that she was already too old to start again. Seeing the woman take that step makes her reconsider. People found inspiration in her determination. They saw that it was never too late to chase a dream, and many found the courage to pursue something they had put on hold for years.
So, how do you start sharing your story?
If you feel like you want to start sharing your seemingly ordinary story with the world, then I have a few questions that will help you start sharing more
1. Have you overcome a challenge, no matter how small? It could be something personal, professional, emotional, or even something you struggled with in your everyday life. You don’t need big grammatical terms. Using simple yet clear words is better.
2. Have you learned something from an experience that you had to live through? Life is a collection of stories waiting to be told by you. We go through so many experiences in life, and we learn something every day, even when we don’t notice it.
3. Have you ever wished someone had told you a story when you needed it most? What’s that quote, or word of advice, or proverb, or story, or a line in a paragraph you wish someone had told you earlier, but you learned it later and wish you knew it at certain stages in your life?
Your story and voice matter even if you feel like they don’t. And I’m here to remind you that getting through a difficult season is a story.
Learning to love yourself after years of self-doubt is a story.
Making a difficult decision is a story.
Starting over at an age you never imagined is a story.
Learning something the hard way is a story.Even the seemingly insignificant things that happen in our everyday lives are worth talking about.
And remember, not every story needs an audience of thousands. Not every experience needs to become a lesson. Sometimes, sharing is simply about allowing another person to see a little of themselves in you.
You might never know how many people connect with your experiences. You might never receive a message telling you that something you shared made someone’s day a little easier.
But somewhere, someone might find the courage to try again, make a different decision, or look at their own experiences a little differently.
So, the next time you find yourself thinking that nothing interesting ever happens in your life, remember that there might be someone somewhere who needs to hear exactly what you’ve been through.
Your story matters. Even the ones you find “ordinary”.
Thank you for reading!!!
#article #life #love #story #writing
Love,
Dupe Abiona
