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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Free Fiction for You

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , on March 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Oh hey, I think I missed sharing this collection of free stories from Reactor Magazine. I haven’t read all of these but Reactor tends to have very high-quality fiction, and all for free free free! Check it out, browse, and enjoy. 

Some of the Best from Reactor: 2024 Edition!

The 2024 edition of Some of the Best From Reactor is out today! This bundle features just some of our favorites from the thirty-five original stories published on Reactor in the past year.

Of course, you can always read the selected stories—and all other Reactor stories—for free whenever you’d like! To make it even easier to catch up, we’ve gathered all our stories from 2024 in one convenient post.

Because life’s too short to read bad stories.

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

― Philip Pullman

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Photo by tabitha turner on Unsplash

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Aim High!

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

— Michelangelo

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Photo by Artur Matosyan on Unsplash

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I Remain Optimistic

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2025| 1 Comment »

The good news is that I’m writing. The less good news is that I am not writing as much as I might want, but hey, that’s pretty much a requirement for the position of “Writer.”

In 1974, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published a paper titled “The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of ‘Writer’s Block.'” It contained a total of zero words.

— Mental Floss

I remain optimistic. Time to spend more time in the writing chair!

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Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

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Writers For the Win

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

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Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

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Good Hunting, Artists

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 27, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.”

— Tennessee Williams

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Photo by Micah Tindell on Unsplash

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Curious Horses Change History

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Last night, we watched the original Ghostbusters, which is always fun. Coincidentally and just in time to inspire this post, today I ran across this article from Dan Lewis at Now I Know that opens with that film and evolves into a fascinating discussion of why firehouses have poles.

Curious horses, that’s why!

How Horses Created Firehouse Poles – Now I Know

…in the late 1870s, “David Kenyon of Company 21, an all-African-American firehouse in Chicago [. . .] reached the ground by sliding down a wooden pole normally used to bale hay for horses.” Kenyon realized that this could be made into a permanent feature…

Read the whole thing for more on why poles were not just a good idea, but critical for firefighters. Spoiler alert, it’s not just because sliding down poles is fun!

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Photo by Thiago Rocha on Unsplash

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Leveling Up

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Storytelling is good for so many things: entertainment, shared cultural touchstones, lessons from elders, or other instruction manuals for living. Even so, speculative fiction has always been burdened by accusations that it is less able to comment on reality than, say, literary fiction.

I disagree.

In fiction or nonfiction, no matter the genre or approach, storytelling is always, always, grounded in the cultural currents from which it springs. It’s how we pass on what’s important, even if it isn’t always “real.” Whether it shows us futures to avoid, goals to achieve, values of importance or daily ways to survive, the work’s foundation always reflects its context.

On a related note, here’s a short document on surviving difficult times, written in the form of an RPG-style guide. It wouldn’t surprise me to see an actual game follow soon.

Because life and art are two facets of the same die. And we’re all just players, trying to level up.

“The idea that any of us can do everything is instant failure. We all have our own skill sets and our own passions and we will accomplish the most if each of us works within those arenas to do what we’re already good at, what we already care about. You don’t have to do it all. Just a little.”

— Bree Bridges

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Photo by Carlos Felipe Ramírez Mesa on Unsplash

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Telling Stories for the Future

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on February 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“To care about climate change, you only have to be one thing, a human living on Planet Earth.”

— Katharine Hayhoe

(I submit that other animals and any Earth-bound aliens also qualify, but “humans” is a good place to start.)

If you are a creator concerned with the livability of the planet, this guide from This Is Planet Ed may be useful. It’s designed for works aimed largely at younger audiences, but the ideas apply across the board.

A Toolkit For Climate Storytelling

Whether you want to develop a whole show, a story line, or embed climate solutions in your character’s world, this guide offers ideas, strategies, and tips to help.

Because as my landing page reminds us:

“Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

— G.K. Chesterton

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Photo by Klim Sergeev on Unsplash

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Dreaming Sweet Dreams

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , on February 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The cat lies dreaming

claws spread wide to catch the Moon,

Her bright wings outstretched.

The cat’s fine, thanks for asking:)

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Photo by Nadezhda Nikolaenko on Unsplash

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A Brief Technical Update From the Future

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Some days you realize that yes, we really are living in the future. Point in case:

Oxford Scientists Say They’ve Achieved Quantum Teleportation

Researchers at the University of Oxford say they’ve achieved quantum teleportation — stitching together separate quantum computers to run an algorithm collaboratively, across a distance, in a “breakthrough” they say could lead to powerful quantum supercomputers.

Still lots to do on the road to practicality, of course, but how cool is that?

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Photo by Dynamic Wang on Unsplash

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