I have three new writing workshops coming up in June and July! Building on the success of Design-A-Ghost, I'd like to invite you to join me to explore some more familiar characters from #SFF and #horror by reading extracts from classic and contemporary authors together, and then using writing prompts and exercises to create your own unique monsters, aliens, and robots! 👹👽🤖
3D printing everything,
copying it bit by bit.
Filament is made from
bits of real world”,
the ad says. The duplicate
will be indistinguishable
from the original. My
evil plan is afoot. I
don’t worry about
fidelity. My
predecessor
didn’t either.
Evil hands wring
“muahahah.”
Reading a simple sci-fi space opera, humans against space spiders, mindless fun, and then ...
The protagonist's spaceship has to rendezvous with a space station orbiting Mercury. Fair enough. The narrator talks about how the station has to stay in the planet's shadow. OK, that makes sense. Summer's a bitch that close to good old Sol.
They then go on to say that Mercury is tidally-locked to the Sun. ARGH!
It's not. It's rotation period is ⅔ of it's orbit period (88 days), meaning the planet slowly turns to toast it's whole surface. That's been known since the 1960's. Frown.
Then, more egregiously, states that the station orbits at around 1,000 km from the planet's surface. WTAF?
A geostationary orbit for Mercury (needed to stay in shadow) given it's mass and rotation period, would be 240,420 km from the surface. Angry grimace.
Jenny Erpenbeck opens #Spring 2024 with Sloughing Off One Skin, a haunting #ShortStory that explores truth and identity, translated by Michael Hofmann.
We're on the lookout for perspectives that are currently under-represented on bookshelves in the UK and in the US, and material first written in languages other than English.
Another day, another chapter, as I settle back into my routine today.
Still, the weather grows mild & my AllTrails app keeps sending me temptation. The trails beckon. This year, I’ll explore the trails on Blue Mountain to the west. I haven’t there in years or done serious hiking there.
Summer is always a reminder of why I live where I do. It’s literally an outdoor playground and my health is greatly improved.
SC2: No particular desire to lead. Happy to follow if he likes what someone is doing. Will calmly pick up and leave if he stops liking what that person is doing.
SC3: Raised in consensus decisions-making. Doesn't believe in "leaders."
#PennedPossibilities 313: Is your MC or SC one to confess romantic feelings early on, or to conceal them for long periods of time?
I have one side character who can't pretend not to have a crush when he has it. It's written all over his face. My intention is that he's so goofy and harmless about it that it comes off as cute, but I'll need women beta readers to help me make sure that's the case, I think.
They're at home, wondering how they could possibly have let their little girl die like that, even though she's very much alive, trapped, a long long way away...
#WritersCoffeeClub May 11: What character have you written that's most unlike you?
There's one coach/master in the murder space cult who's all business, pure practicality. Very physically disciplined. All my other characters have pieces of me in them. Not her. At all.