@stephenwhq@mastodon.social
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

stephenwhq

@stephenwhq@mastodon.social

Warm intelligent accessible #SFF Our Child of the Stars/Our Child of Two Worlds. #writer
+VictorianMurder
+HighSchoolWeird

#Free #fiction on website and smart #newsletter.
Services to help creatives be interesting

Bi, parent, humane, "writes beautifully" I'm told. UK/the world

craft and business of writing/ science health policy/ professional communicator/ help writers with their writing

Profile photo: genial white bearded guy grey hair and beard, in shirt with braces UK suspenders (USA)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ChrisMayLA6, to scifi
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

This week I've been mainly reading, no. 153.

Each of Emma Newman's Planetfall quartet explores a different aspect of the same overarching story of religious driven intergalactic migration. In Atlas Alone (2019), the fourth story centres on an elite gamer & their attempt to uncover & then take revenge for a crime against humanity. To say much more would ruin the plot for you, but as with the others, this is great, fascinating sci-fi, which has a great payoff at the end.


@bookstodon

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@TimWardCam @ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

Who knows? Not only has religion asserted its power in this century, we have also seen pseudo-religious ideologies with their messiahs, promised land, sacred texts - based on rigidly secular philosophies.

Uair, to bookstodon
@Uair@autistics.life avatar

@bookstodon

Idea:

Bookstores should group fantasy with horror instead of scifi. Both fantasy and horror are purely creations of the author's mind; scifi is tethered to factual information.

If you need to group scifi, I'd put it with mysteries and thrillers.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@jpaskaruk @elysegrasso @deirdrebeth @alexlubertozzi @aprilfollies @_L1vY_ @Uair @bookstodon

The idea of careful scientific extrapolation v wildly fantastic writing in a scientific vein actually goes back to Verne and Wells respectively. Yet Verne wrote stuff wrong at the time, and people are often wrong about the future. Hard SF isn't morally superior.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@aprilfollies @JonSparks @alexlubertozzi @Uair @bookstodon @_L1vY_ @elysegrasso @deirdrebeth @jpaskaruk

OK. It's Mastodon so I will be polite. That's a really poor take. It misunderstands fiction, it is unhelpful to readers and booksellers, and I hope the majority of SF writers would agree with me.

tzimmer_history, to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

The actual Kristallnacht was a country-wide pogrom in November 1938 in which the Nazis killed hundreds of German Jews, threw tens of thousands in concentration camps, destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses.

Was even a single person hurt at Columbia?

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@tzimmer_history
Students hurt by cops of course...

weirdwriter, to tech

So I'm reading Blood in the machine and actually think being called a Luddite is the highest complement you can give someone today. I encourage everyone to read Blood in the Machine. Luddites weren't technophobes. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown @bookstodon

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@WhiteCatTamer @weirdwriter @bookstodon

crucially it was a systemic problem, hundreds of people had suffered hospitalisation from such injuires. The jury threw a fit when they realised McD didn't give a s...t

stephenwhq, to random
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

Government announces young people are too immature to undergo a life-changing, body-changing, permenant decision like having a baby. Will legislate to raise sexual age of consent to 25.

stephenwhq, to ai
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

As part of my experiments with AI art, I commissioned human art. Which I prefer.

I have a couple of pieces around the novella in progress from artist Paul Humphreys. One is a study of fire jays, birds local to Suncup Falls, and the other is a character study of Livvy and Marcus, two of the six main characters at the school. They are talented theatre kids and oh boy, do they know it.

https://stephencox.substack.com/p/avoiding-sludge-state-using-feedback

@bookstodon

stephenwhq, to bookstodon
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

Hello Authors of Masto?

Short story collections. Strong theme, or just the best stories? Can a collection include nightmares and light-hearted stuff? (An experienced author says a good collection does not vary wildly in tone. But my stuff does).

what do you think as a reader, and what do you do yourself?

@bookstodon

PS I have some free on my website

https://stephencox.co.uk/?page_id=184

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@neenamaiya @bookstodon

I might throw in a poem, or a short short.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@dilmandila @bookstodon

yes, all but two are SFF. One is a 'straight' story about an actual real research project but speculating about an odd reaction to tech and therefore SFF-like. The other is just funny but a tad weird. I feel people will forgive these.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@DoubleArobase @bookstodon

Interesting take. Partly the collection is to widen my audience. Partly to reward fans for patience...

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@orangewolf @bookstodon

I'd space them lighter darker not have a light half and a dark half, if that's what you mean.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@mvilain @DoubleArobase @bookstodon

Lady Windermere's I assume

stephenwhq, to random
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

#WordWeavers 4. Is there writing advice you used to follow but changed your mind?

I bought the no adverbs ever advice and wrote my first book without.

I realise that adverbs are often a weak choice but just sometimes they're a simple and elegant option compared with the alternatives.

It taught a broader lesson about writing advice.

#amwriting #writercommunity #author #authordons #writerlife

TootTropiques, to Pharmacology
@TootTropiques@c.im avatar

"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'."
"Like now, you mean?"
"Like always."

--Dirk Wittenborn, Pharmakon

@bookstodon #pharmacology #psychiatry

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@TootTropiques @bookstodon

"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'."

This is literally what Dickens said.

there's a middle bit then the full quote ends

...in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ A Tale of Two Cities

lauren, to Youtube
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

I am in general NOT a fan of #YouTube "reaction" videos where people watch old movies, etc. that they say they've never seen and know nothing about. Most of these seem to be fairly useless at best.

However, I recently discovered that Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" (1974) is frequently the subject of reaction videos by Black creators. This is clearly a film that (as I've noted many times in the past) could not be made today.

And yet, I have so far not seen a single reaction video of the film by anyone who didn't enjoy it, despite its well known racially-oriented components and language.

This is the true genius of Mel Brooks, in his films that are still potent even after all these years, with "The Producers" (1967) being another example that dove deep into "forbidden" territory to teach important points.

He is one of a kind.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@mrcompletely @lauren

wayne wouldn't swear but assured Brooks he would go to see it

stephenwhq, to uk
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

Please boost in UK

New Voter ID rules not widely known and detail not understood. The list of suitable ID is not fully intuitive.

Also there will be requirement to reapply for postal votes.

Check now and tell you your friends.

#democracy #votersuppression #election #UK

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id

stephenwhq, to bookstodon
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

254 — How do you use social media as an author?

Frequent "buy my book" - is annoying and I am good at not spending time looking at that

Ridiculous hype, unhelpful quotes "eighth book in the VoidLords series", bad covers don't help.

I value people who subscribe to my free newsletter and offer discounts/special offers to them.

https://linktr.ee/stephencoxauthor

@bookstodon

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@twoowls73 @bookstodon

Oh, that's very annoying. Sorry. As traditionally published my eBooks are on Amazon Kindle and Kobo only, and my audio on Audible only. Didn't have any choice on that.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@twoowls73 @bookstodon

which country are you in?

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @twoowls73 @bookstodon

crap. Thank you.

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @twoowls73 @bookstodon

https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/order-items/ols/products/our-child-of-the-stars-by-stephen-cox

https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/order-items/ols/products/our-child-of-two-worlds

These should work for the paperbacks, or I can sell hard or paper copies direct in the UK.

I really need to tidy the site up

stephenwhq, to bookstodon
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

254 — How do you use social media as an author?

On X, Bluesky, Masto, FB, I have a newsletter and a website-blog (which needs remodelling).

I sometimes offer paid services on them, it has rarely been harder to work as an author and if this offends, unfollow me please. I offer some advice and support free.

https://linktr.ee/stephencoxauthor

I offer paid support for authors, manuscript assessment and media/confidence skills,
@bookstodon

stephenwhq, to bookstodon
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

My free newsletter talks about submitting my novel to get a new agent. It's happening. I review two new books I liked and an old book by one of my fave detective writers, which I didn't rate highly. A beautiful premise, a bold choice of heroine, a meh outcome. And the novella dilemma - make it a novel, or cut it further? It will go to early readers soon.

Do subscribe, social is unreliable to stay in touch. It's free.

@writers #bookstodon @bookstodon #amwriting #writingcommunity #writerlife

stephenwhq,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@writers @bookstodon

https://stephencox.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/142209462/share-center

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