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#WordWeavers 2025.06.05 — What would your first chapter smell like?
The primary scent would be more of a taint that would likely manifest as a taste: Rust.
The story takes place on Mars. The scene in question (the chapter has only one) takes place in an underground construction tunnel between habitat domes that was bored out from the bedrock, is rough looking, and is colored orange and dark red. Perchlorate (scentless) on Mars makes the surface dust toxic to breathe, so no chance is taken that some has leaked or seeped underground. Every surface is sprayed with a myco-epoxy (derived from fungus) which makes everything look wet. If the tunnel is new (never stated) it would have a funky chemical scent also.
The secondary smell, however, would be human sweat; in a more a refined sense, fear. A man tried to kidnap his daughter and beat his wife to do so. A vigilante group of women being led by the main character, a woman engineer wearing an exoskeleton, has cornered him. He is not happy.
That rust sent might be blood.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen
Replied in thread
"writing" doesn't just mean sitting there and having a little think then scribbling lovely words
Awww.
Actually, that's what I do. (Not saying it works for anyone else, or I recommend it, simply that it is what I do.)
it means serious research
If it did, it would be work and I wouldn't do it. I write mostly fantasy or SF fantasy and never hard SF, histFic, or even mainstream, because actual facts are an important part of the story and researching them is boring. (Sorry all you research fiends reading this, but for me it is procrastination.) I rely on my knowledge to understand what I can use for plot and what to have experts in the story lampshade to ensure verisimilitude. My research is typically verification or elucidation, sometimes after the fact, to clarify I got the concept right, to find meat to make the stew more savory. I will admit to writing things I later had to redact, though as I recollect never to the point of destroying the story.
That said, I put a lot of thought (daydreaming) into my magic systems. With the help of my characters, I generate a lot of history that fills the story and gives it depth, which in turn sometimes generates side stories.
followed by stringent editing
Since I enjoy the stories I write, and often have them read to me (or read them aloud) to edit them, this is never work. I often have to say enough is enough!
BTW or is it PS? Petrichor is a favorite scent of mine and why I love to go outside after the first light rain.
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.04
#BoostingIsSharing
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
A publishing question concerning ISBNs…
• Do you use an ISBN for your ebook version?
• Do you list all ISBNs used on the copyright page, no matter who will sell it?
It'd be a nightmare to generate two versions, & one site will be making paperbacks available. Of course, what's on the cover isn't an issue since I'd share the different ISBNs when I upload.
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.06.05 — World Environment Day. Talk about something you’ve read that made you think, “I wish I wrote that.”
World Environment Day is a day to become aware of the environment and people's impact upon it, so one particular book comes to mind, John Barnes' 1994 novel Mother of Storms. This is an environmental disaster novel where atmospheric heat and moisture spawns a super hurricane so powerful even crossing a landmass doesn't break it up. It goes around and around the Earth… Did I wish I wrote that? I can't rightly remember, but I certainly don't have the scientific chops for it. It impressed me and is appropriate for today specifically and a warning for our future.
Another that comes to mind, which I feel speaks to our short sightedness as a species toward ourselves and our environment is Greg Bear's Blood Music, an SF novel that's a stealth horror story. Having lived through COVID, the story resonates even more. The effects on the environment are incidental, and more scary I think. Again, I don't have the science chops to have written it even if I might have wished I had that idea.
I could have found stories I'd wished I'd had to idea for, but they would not fit the theme.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
I have another PSA, this one for authors who are buying translations of their English-language books:
Please, please, ask your fans to check it out - because surely you have fans with that language as their native tongue.
Yes, there is a reason why I say that, and no, I won't name names. Yes, it involved a translation into German. (Which was machine-translated and barely cleaned up.)
If you're paying good money, make sure the end-result is worth it.
"a massive list of ideas for things you can do to not only effectively fight against book censorship but that also will increase your own knowledge, vocabulary, and fluency in the world of censorship as it is right now"
#books #booksky #writing #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @bookstodon@fedigroups.social
https://bookriot.com/56-small-tasks-to-be-proactive-against-book-censorship-2025/
BOOK RIOT · 56 Small Tasks to Be Proactive Against Book Censorship in 2025 and Beyond: Book Censorship News, January 3, 2025Choose one task each week of 2025 for a year full of anti-book censorship activism and advocacy.
"Since 2021, the Sunshine State has led the country in advancing the “parental rights” agenda. Contrary to its name, this agenda has used fuzzy, coded language to manufacture moral panic, and to deliver control over what students can read and learn in schools not into the hands of all parents but to a particular segment of citizens — some not even parents but community members. The cumulative effect has been to privilege some parents’ ideological preferences above all others, tie the hands of educators, and limit students’ access to information through curricular prohibitions and book bans."
PEN Report: The Blueprint State
Lessons from Parents Left Behind by “Parental Rights” Policies in Florida
#books #writing #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon@a.gup.pe @bookstodon@fedigroups.social
https://pen.org/report/the-blueprint-state/
PEN AmericaThe Blueprint State - PEN AmericaA wave of education laws in Florida has had a detrimental impact on the state’s schools, chilling the climate for teaching and learning.
#ScribesAndMakers Day 5: Have you tried sculpture or pottery? Tell us about your experience.
In high school. I also tried Kintsugi.I enjoyed it a lot.
I've also been to those pottery painting places with my kids and they seemed to really like it.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: Talk about something you’ve read that made you think, “I wish I wrote that.“
Anything by Sir Terry Pratchett. Just the wry humour and the absurdness in the ordinary.
#WordWeavers Day 5: What would your first chapter smell like?
Incense and sandalwood. (Jhana's story).
Vol. 3, issue 23 of Johto Times is now available! This week, an interview with Poké Center Blog, a Portuguese news and resource website highlighting Pokémon information and news since December 2012.
Plus, a recap of the latest Pokémon news!
Johto Times · Vol. 3, Issue 23 - Interview with Poké Center Blog
after dusk arrives
the pollinators' nightshift
unobtrusive moths
#dailyhaikuprompt - moth
#haiku
#poetrycommunity
#poetry
#writing
#writingcommunity
#moth
#butterfly
#Today 05.2
Good day!
Here’s a video from earlier. Sorry about breathing like a racehorse. My lungs make that necessary.
At the end I pan over Marshall Canyon. There’s an abandoned ski area. At the last, it points towards Hellgate Canyon.
It was cloudy all day, no rain.
Be everwell.
Continued thread
#ScribesAndMakers June 5: Have you tried sculpture or pottery? Tell us about your experience.
When I was a kid, my mom took pottery classes, so to entertain me while she did her work, she'd bring me to the studio and sit me down in front of a chunk of clay. I would smash at it and work it and fiddle with it. I don't recall ever making anything--maybe I did?--but I have deep sense-memories of the smell and the texture.
Continued thread
#WordWeavers June 5. What would your first chapter smell like?
Ha! A big, open kitchen that's made huge pots of chili and marinara sauce and stir-fry and hot-and-sour soup and every kind of dish you can make for a hundred people and feed everyone.
#writersCoffeeClub 6/5: Tell us about something you've read that made you think, "I wish I had written that."
"The Ides of March" by Thornton Wilder. In my view, one of the finest epistolary novels of the 20th century. His portrayal of Caesar through his letters is hugely impressive. A masterful mixture of philosophy and historical research.
#ScribesAndMakers 05
sculpture or pottery
Despite wanting my own “Ghost” moment, no, I’ve never attempted either one. It’s something I wish I’d tried, as with all arts & crafts, but, it never happened & now I’m too busy with other things.
#WritersCoffeeClub 05
if only…
I don’t think about the books others have written like this. My stories are my own & I’ve no desire to write someone else’s story.
Instead, as is the case with any book that I’d give 4.5 to 5.0 stars in a rating, I’m envious of the writing quality.
In a sense, this is the split-brain that I have when reading. I can admire a story while envying the quality of the writing.
Continued thread
The Tasmanian nanowrimo community are still quite active in Launceston. We have been publishing a yearly zine for the last decade (this is the 10th year) some discussion hinted at not publishing another nanowrimo zine but it was decided by consensus that we would do one last nanowrimo zine since it was our 10th year. I suggested we do a second zine to segue into a new era - which is the link I posted above - checking to see if we can accept non Tasmanian writers! #nanowrimo #zine #writingcommunity #tasmania