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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

What We Can Become

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Released today, Grist’s Imagine 2200 contest brings new, more hopeful, visions of the future.

Imagine 2200: The 2024 climate fiction contest collection | Grist

Grist’s Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors short story contest celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress. From 1,000 submissions, our reviewers and judges selected the three winners and nine finalists you will discover in this collection. These stories are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but offer hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. Through rich characters, lovingly sketched settings, and gripping plots, they welcome you into futures that celebrate who we are and what we can become — and, we hope, inspire you to work toward them.

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Photo by Jonas Verstuyft on Unsplash

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Something Old Is Something New

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

When I’m reading and see a word that’s unfamiliar, I like to look it up. This weekend, that word was “tonitruous.” I ran across it while reading book three in The Salvagers series by Alex White: The Worst of All Possible Worlds.

Never heard of it? Neither had I. Neither had my Kobo’s dictionary, which is unusual. It was time to dig deeper.

Tonitruous Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

tonitruous from Latin tonitruum thunder

English use of the word was first documented in “The Challenge of the Knights Errant” by William Drummond in 1606.

And now I’m delighted to say that I’ve learned something new.

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Photo by Shashank Sahay on Unsplash

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Cherish the Oddities

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. To “Why am I here?” To uselessness. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.

— Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), British novelist, playwright

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Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash

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Why AI?

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Fellow Writers of the Future winner (2018) N.R.M. Roshak has started an excellent weekly newsletter on AI. Check it out if you’re interested in what’s happening in the field, how this tech is influencing social, business, and other arenas, or why I post results like this: Bright Colors, Happy Tone.

View back issues and subscribe here: Newsletter: AI Week.

It’s not for experts and it’s extremely readable. It’s really aimed at science fiction writers and readers: non-experts (like me) who are interested in the impact of this tech on society.

Enjoy!

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Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

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You Don’t Give Up

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don‘t give up.”

— Anne Lamott

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Photo by peace world 🌎 on Unsplash

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Bright Colors, Happy Tone

Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2024| 1 Comment »

I’d hoped to carve out some writing time today but instead I’m dealing with a lot of weird tech issues, some of which are concrete problems and some just disappointments.

Here’s an example of the latter. Note the prompt.

AI prompt: A metal cyborg unicorn bright colors happy tone

No, AI. Just… no.

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So Glad

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It’s Monday and I’m back at work, thinking about work things. My day job isn’t perfect but it’s got a lot going for it, and I will say that I don’t miss the academic career track. Why? Check out this story by Courtney Floyd at Small Wonders for one reason.

CoverLetter_Version5: Small Wonders

Four other versions of me crowd around the kitchen table, waiting for version five to get done with the bathroom. Or for breakfast. Or for me to say something. Or for anything, really. All they do is wait, wait, wait.

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Original photo by LumenSoft Technologies on Unsplash

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This Writer’s Life

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

One day in this writer’s life: reading, modifying a recipe for white chocolate and lemon truffles (thanks, Aunt C!), making notes on the inklings of an idea for a space saga, and a walk in the snow surrounded by tiny snowflakes drifting quietly down.

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Photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash

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Know Better, Do Better, Be Better

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

How much do I love this? 

101-Year-Old Grace Linn: ‘Banning Books and Burning Books Are the Same’

“Banning books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge,” Linn said. “They’re afraid that people will know better than they did.”

But each generation should know better, do better, and be better, Linn said. Society can’t grow and evolve without the education and empathy-building that come from the free exchange of thoughts shared through books.

All the hearts, forever.

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Photo by Sansern Prakonsin on Unsplash

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Free to Read, This Week Only!

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Good news, fellow seekers of good fiction, my fellow Writer of the Future David Hankins has made his award-winning story “Death and the Taxman” available free for this week only! If you haven’t already read it in Writers of the Future Volume 39, I highly recommend it.

Read Death and the Taxman

The story is funny, well-written, and the springboard for his upcoming novel (I supported the highly-successful Kickstarter; the book will be widely released on Tax Day because David’s sense of timing is as on point as his humor!). 

Enjoy!

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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

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