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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.07.29 — Why do you like your genre(s)/style(s)?

Scribe

Frankly, I love writing in the science fiction and fantasy genre because I control the horizontal and I control the vertical†, essentially, I can control all aspects of how society works. My knowledge of our current reality, and how people operate it is too incomplete to write mainstream. I might, otherwise. What you get from me is a (hopefully literate) mixture of adventure, wonder, and slice of life. I am increasingly good at the latter. You can judge for yourself with the excerpt in this reply to Writers Coffee Club today: eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/11493907

Maker

My photographic style is not the compromise that Scribes presented above. My primary style is contrasts, especially color contrasts. This may be due to two things. The first was taking a class in drawing (charcoal and pen & ink) and in color (pastel and colored pencil). What I learned was how to portray volume in 2D images, and that's through contrast. The second was that I really got into the Carlos Castaneda books.There I encountered the concept of seeing shadows instead of the object, and learned to do that. (I also learned to lucid dream, but that's another topic.) It's called Negative Space in art speak. It thrills me when I capture an image that pops brightly out of the background because the background is dark or a contrasting color. The following copyrighted image is from the Glass Koi series (under another pseudonym). The fish colors render in sRGB as bright red, but when properly printer profiled they render as a burnished bronzy orange. It nevertheless demonstrates color contrast.

=-=-=-=-=-=
† This is a Twilight Zone reference.

[Author and artist retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author #photographer chef cooking
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.28 — How do you write sensory experiences that fall beyond the the usual five? Give an example.

I don't have a formula, but I do have an imagination! So… incoming candy. In this excerpt, Streak Carryingaton is a day angel and for verisimilitude, let's call him a senior in high school. Very human, but with wings that allow him to do things, which you can intuit as "magic" for the sake of the passage. To understand the proprioception in the last paragraphs, there's some setup necessary. Think of the "She," the "Her," and the "Director" mentioned as a "Queen," who not only teaches "magic," but whose libido has focused on Streak. CW: Light innuendo ahead.

I hefted the leather harness lined with angelic down—by the blue and red color likely Rainy Day's own—on the underside. So soft!

Like my skull. I'd been stupid, but events followed events. Thorn had initiated. I'd had to win the game.

"Flap it all," I said, but had to admit I was having fun, and this tack and harness! Thread-like copper and silver wires glittered: waveguides likely molecularly grown into the structure. "I really want this rig. It's hers?"

"You forget everything belongs to her? You're its new steward."

"Wow. I must be doing something right."

I noticed a few knowing smirks in the gathering crowd of day and night angel women.

Maybe I am doing something right, and of that I am proud. I quickly laid out the tack, gave it the proper preflight, inspected the double-length van, then the load. He'd not balanced some iron grill ovens properly. Brother Cloud probably'd not done commercial cargo work. I knew my weight capacities and my wing tension transmission vectors, so I adjusted the lading for that. I valued the rare occasions I got to pull. Ours was a warehousing facility, but our contracts included local delivery and short hops into the mountains away from rail lines and saint ways. I gave the thumbs up. I ignored some clapping from the women, and the few hoots and whistles of approval that often hid a more passionate agenda.

Cloud Dancer nudged me. "Don't worry. The Director told them they can only shop, not buy." He slapped my rear, chuckling; my face heated as he helped me with the harness. I really wasn't that nice looking, not like he was, but the women approved, apparently. I had a lot to learn that Mens' Studies class didn't address.

The instant I buckled it all together and I unfurled my wings, an expansive feeling overcame me, like I'd grown in height and wingspan. The women cleared to the radius the angelic sensed intuitively. Were I one of Thorns' sprites, my tentative flaps would flush liquid light to splash the pavement beside me, whilst washing back and cresting over the van, causing it to glow brightly. It was exactly the feeling of taking a stick and sensing as you touched something with the end as if it were your finger. The van became part of my body. In my mind, I'd grown from a wren to a hawk. It was equal parts imagination and feedback through the tack and my wings. I could now reach out with my longest primary and tap the planter across the courtyard that I'd nearly dashed into earlier. I did.

The shrubs there rustled and leaves spiraled up on an eddy.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

Replied in thread

@RickiTarr

RPG character?

A somewhat anorexic hobbit mage with little affinity for cooking, merriment, or magic—but an eye for useful magical knickknacks, one that will eventually let her channel lightning with shocking results. She is able to see through the eyes of her Raven familiar, but that compact cost her ring finger. The raven ate it. What hobbit man would marry someone every hobbit calls a witch behind her back anyway? On the road, she uses the elven name Nertë, which means nine, but the spiteful call her Nazgûla, which also means nine but is a reference to The Nine, specifically the nine ringwraiths. She's not very scary in face or expression, and some call her cute since if you ignore her hairy feet, she seems like a short teenage daughter of humans. Her hair is flaming red.

#BoostingIsSharing

Today in Labor History July 29, 1962: British aristocrat and fascist leader, Oswald Mosely, was beaten by antifascists in London’s east end. Even after police began to escort him away, activists from the antifascist 62 Group (AKA 62 Committee), led by Jewish, communist, and black activists, were able to pelt him with eggs, fruit and rocks. He later called a rally, which the activists successfully disrupted with shouts of “down with fascists.” The only people arrested were antifascist activists.

62 Group disrupted fascist meetings throughout the early to mid-60s, beating up or attacking fascists whenever they had the chance, much like the Jewish antifascist 43 Group did in the 1940s. As a result, they were able to significantly reduce the power and effectiveness of the fascists in the 1960s.

Mosely had been a Labor MP and junior minister from 1918-1931. As the leader of the British Union of Fascists, publicly supported antisemitism and tried to form alliances with Mussolini and Hitler. During the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, antifascist demonstrators including unions, anarchists, socialists, communists, liberals and Jews, prevented the BUF from marching through the East End of London. During World War Two, Moseley and his wife were imprisoned as threats to the national security.

Mosely is portrayed in numerous works of fiction, including the television series, The Peaky Blinders. He is portrayed in Pink Floyd’s the wall; Aldous Huxley’s 1928 novel, Point Counter Point; HG Wells's 1939 novel The Holy Terror; PG Wodehouse's Jeeves series; and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #oswaldmosely #fascism #antifascism #london #antisemitism #anarchism #communism #socialism #racism #books #novel #author #writer #fiction @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 29, 1903: The first delegation from Mother Jones’ March of the Mill Children arrived at Teddy Roosevelt's summer home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. They went there to publicize the harsh conditions of child labor. Roosevelt wouldn’t allow them through the gates. In 1901, the millworkers in Pennsylvania went on strike. Many were young women and girls, demanding to be paid adult wages. At the time, fully one in every six American children was employed, generally at extremely low pay and often under dangerous conditions. Many of the kids had lost fingers or limbs. Mother Jones would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905.

The march started in Philadelphia, on July 7. During the march, Mother Jones gave her famous “Wail of the Children” speech, which included the following lines:

“After a long and weary march… we are on our way to see President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay. We will ask him to recommend the passage of a bill by congress to protect children against the greed of the manufacturer. We want him to hear the wail of the children, who never have a chance to go to school, but work from ten to eleven hours a day in the textile mills of Philadelphia, weaving the carpets that he and you walk on, and the curtains and clothes of the people. In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills, they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone? The trouble is that the fellers in Washington don’t care. I saw them last winter pass three railroad bills in one hour, but when labor cries for aid for the little ones they turn their backs and will not listen to her. I asked a man in prison once how he happened to get there. He had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him that if he had stolen a railroad, he could be a United States Senator.”

In her autobiography, Mother Jones wrote the following about the march: “Every day little children came into Union Headquarters, some with their hands off, some with the thumb missing, some with their fingers off at the knuckle. They were stooped things, round shouldered and skinny. Many of them were not over ten years of age, the state law prohibited their working before they were twelve years of age.

It wasn’t just in mills, either. Children worked on farms, in factories, as servants in rich people’s homes, pretty much anywhere where they could do the work. They were often chosen over adults because they could be paid much less, and were less likely to demand rights, or to organize a strike. They could also do things with their small hands that adults were often less able to do well, particularly dangerous things, like unclogging gears and conveyor belts. I portray this in my novel, ANYWHERE BUT SCHUYLKILL. My protagonist, Mike Doyle, starts work in the coal breaker at age 12. However, many boys worked in breakers as young as 6. And many of them were missing fingers or hands. Many died young, too, from accidents.

You can get a copy from these indie retailers:
keplers.com/
greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

#workingclass #LaborHistory #childlabor #exploitation #children #motherjones #march #protest #pennsylvania #IWW #strike #union #mikedoyle #anywherebutschuylkill #books #fiction #historicalfiction #author #writer #novel @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 29, 1848: The police put down the Tipperary Revolt against British rule. The Young Ireland movement led this nationalist rebellion, which was part of a wave of European revolutions that occurred that year. Because the revolt occurred in the wake of the Great Famine, and the Irish were still suffering from hunger and poverty, it is also sometimes called the Famine Rebellion. During the revolt, the rebels chased an Irish Constabulary into the Widow McCormack’s house in Ballingarry, South Tipperary, where they took her children hostage. She demanded to be let in, but the cops refused. Rebel leaders tried negotiating with the cops, so that no one would get hurt. “We’re all Irishmen,” they said. “Put down your guns and you’re free to go.” However, the cops began firing and a gunfight ensued, lasting hours, until a large group of police reinforcements chased the rebels off. The authorities later arrested many of the leaders and sent them to the penal colony in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

In my first novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill,” my main character’s mother is brought to America in 1848 by her family, who were fleeing deportation to Van Diemen’s Land for their role in the uprising.

You can get a copy from these indie retailers:
keplers.com/
greenapplebooks.com/

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

#workingclass #LaborHistory #ireland #revolt #rebellion #uprising #tipperary #independence #republican #police #policebrutality #Revolution #mikedoyle #anywherebutschuylkill #books #fiction #historicalfiction #author #writer #novel @bookstadon

𝗔 𝗠𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗢𝘃𝗲 by: Fredrik Backman

Meet Ove. The kind of man who points at people he dislikes. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse.

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one morning a chatty young couple with two young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it leads to a comical and heartwarming tale...

bookblabla.com/book/a-man-call

#author #reading #books
@bookstodon

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.29 — How happy or bittersweet are your endings?

I tend toward bittersweet as that's the way I view life. I am writing a story now where the planned ending would be all sort of perfect yet manifestly unhappy, The reader will have seen it coming when the end is nigh. (Forgive the pun.) The ending is understandable considering the uncovered truth. I wrestled with that for awhile—okay, since I conceived the story—but since a story that takes place years later pretty much skips this part of history, I've decided to add an epilogue which is difficult but arguably satisfying, i.e., bittersweet. Sometimes the characters have to focus on what they can have, not what they might want.

FYI: Edited post so as not to give away which WIP.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WordWeavers 2025.07.29 — MC POV: Do you ride horseback or your world's equivalent?

[Thorn Rose looks at a picture of a horse and laughs nervously.] That's not a horse. What we have you couldn't sit on. It would hurt. I've ridden an angel, though. Does that count?

[Streak, her boyfriend, coughs.] She means me—I carry her through the air—not the euphemism.

[Thorn blushes.] That, too.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
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#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

#PennedPossibilities 740 — Have you ever “killed off” a character in a story that you later regretted saying goodbye to?

Yes. Possibly the most empathetic character in the story.

So I wrote an epilogue.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

Replied in thread

@RaymondPierreL3 I cannot speak for Australia, but it is clear in the US. The Republican Taliban prefer the uneducated who have not be taught to think and to look for better ways, because (they think) these people will make better workers and not question authority. People in the humanities are by definition taught to question everything, think critically, and debate authority, even biblical authority, and those in power here see that as blasphemous, especially if those people are female. When our nations decline because we breed and educate to create morons and automatons, "there will be no joy in saying ‘we told you so'."

#BoostingIsSharing

Today in Labor History July 28, 1932: General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and their troops, on orders by President Herbert Hoover, burned down a shantytown by unemployed veterans near the U.S. Capitol. They also shot and killed two veterans. 20,000 ex-servicemen had been camped out in the capital demanding a veterans’ bonus the government had promised but never given. Consequently, they called themselves the Bonus Army. Cavalry troops and tanks fired tear gas at veterans and their families and then set the buildings on fire. MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover declared that they had saved the nation from revolution. The shootings are depicted in Barbara Kingsolver's novel “The Lacuna.”

#workingclass #LaborHistory #bonusarmy #verterans #wwi #washington #military #Revolution #writer #author #books #fiction #novel #historicalfiction @bookstadon

Today in Writing History July 28, 1866: Beatrix Potter was born. She wrote “The Tales of Peter Rabbit.” She was also a scientist by training and a conservationist. She studied mycology and got her start in illustrating by doing field drawings of fungi. In 1903, Peter Rabbit was the first fictional character to be made into a patented stuffed toy, making him the oldest licensed character.

#writing #writer #author #illustrator #fiction #childrensbooks #beatricepotter #science #fungi #mushrooms @bookstadon

Today in Labor History July 28, 1794: The authorities guillotined Robespierre, radical Jacobin and architect of the French Reign of Terror, when they slaughtered over 45,000 clergy, members of the nobility, and “enemies of the republic.” Prior to the French Revolution, he had advocated for universal suffrage, and abolition of the death penalty and the Atlantic slave trade. There are too many historical novels set during the French Revolution to name them all. However, here are some of the most famous ones. “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (1905) by Baroness Orczy. “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859) by Charles Dickens. “Ninety-Three” (Quatrevingt-treize) by Victor Hugo. It was published in 1874, three years after the bloody upheaval of the Paris Commune.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #robespierre #french #Revolution #paris #commune #deathpenalty #guillotine #slavery #writer #books #author #fiction #novel #victorhugo #charlesdickens @bookstadon

𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 by: Ann Napolitano

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano, it’s as if the world has lit up around him.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces and jeopardises their future...

bookblabla.com/book/hello-beau

#author #reading #library #books #drama
@bookstodon

Wow! Just installed the #iOS26 #ipados26 public beta on my 4th generation #iPad #iPadPro 12.9. For a writer who needs multiple easily moveable and resizeable windows, this is a game changer. It makes my old iPad closer to using my #Mac, whilst being portable and small. I especially appreciate the discrete red-yellow-green upper left buttons, and it makes everything so navigable.

Since it is a beta, I know it will have issues, but if this is a good reflection of the final in September, you will want this.