Posted in Funny, Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, hope, humor, Thoughts on November 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Updates on the Arc of the Moral Universe – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
The arc of the moral universe is running very late. It’s sitting in standstill traffic behind a fleet of Amazon delivery vans, a burning Tesla, and a stretch limousine with Truck Nuts.
The arc of the moral universe is leaning on the horn.
The arc of the moral universe shouldn’t have stopped for that latte.
The arc of the moral universe owes you an apology.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, futurism, genre fiction, interviews, introverts for the win, sci-fi, science fiction, talktalktalk, Writers, writing on October 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Just a quick reminder that the Technology Revolution panel is today at 11 am Eastern!
Here’s the info:
I’ll be part of a discussion with fellow writers Jason Palmatier, John W. Maly, and Brad C. Anderson about the influence of AI and other technologies on characters and plots in sci-fi.
If you’re interested in such topics (and really, who isn’t? :), join us today at 11 am Eastern / 8 am Pacific to discuss
The Future of Sci-Fi Characters and Plots + AI.
Hosted by Bonnie D. Graham.
WATCH Live-stream and On-demand: Linkedin and Facebook and YouTube
LISTEN Live: Technology Revolution Radio and Later: On-Demand
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, books, Fiction, gnomes, kindness, Thoughts, whimsy on August 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Need a quick pick-me-up? Here you go:
Mischief reigns in a small Canada community after a kidnapping left a man’s garden vacant of the ten ceramic garden gnomes that resided there.
(Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending.)
I’ve had a soft spot for gnomes ever since my parents gave me a copy of this classic: Gnomes by Wil Huygenn (Rien Poortvliet, ill.)
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Most of my childhood books went by the wayside over the years, but I’ve slowly built my library back up with replicas of my favorites. I’m looking at a new copy of Gnomes on my bookshelf right now.
“Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.”
― Tom Robbins
May you never lose your childhood delights.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, society, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the snarl of the human currents of his time, so that there results an accurate permanent record of a phase of human history.
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970), U.S. novelist, poet, playwright, painter.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, cli-fi, Fiction, inspiration, Joy Donnell, Writers on July 17, 2024| 1 Comment »
This story just came across my desk, part of the Grist Climate Fiction collection, which I’ve mentioned before. I haven’t read this piece yet but I’m looking forward to it. If you’re the sort of reader who enjoys hopeful views of the future, perhaps you’d like to join me.
Heirloom | Grist (by Joy Donnell)
A slight pressure on the mattress moves Dru’s foot. She looks down her body to see Helene sitting beside her toes. Her ancestor is a stunner. Perfect red lips. Her hair is curled and controlled, yet slightly tousled. Helene is also wearing the party dress but her version is composed of starlight regalia shaped like luna moths and floating bubbles of light.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on May 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I’m sad that I haven’t written a lot of things, but I’m incredibly happy that I’ve written as much as I have. Because there was a point when I was younger where there was a very good chance that I wouldn’t write anything – I was just too frightened.
— Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, alice-munro, Fiction, goals, inspiration, short stories, the greats, Writers, writing on May 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
You may have seen that Canadian author and Nobel laureate Alice Munro passed away this week. A prolific titan of the short story genre, she published her first story in 1950 and continued to produce award-winning work in the many decades since. When asked how she got started in short stories, she said it was because that’s all she had time for.
She certainly made it work.
Here, award-winning Canadian author Margaret Atwood reads Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro.
In this exclusive recording, The Handmaid’s Tale author reads the eponymous short story from the late Munro’s first collection in 1968.
If you’d like to read more of Munro’s work, here are 25 Alice Munro Stories You Can Read Online Right Now.
Enjoy!
“A story is not like a road to follow … it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.”
― Alice Munro, Selected Stories
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, writer, Writers, writing on May 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
You may remember that I’ve talked about NaNoWriMo, where intrepid writers challenge themselves to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Professional writers often do much more than this (Dean Wesley Smith is a poster author for it), but I wouldn’t say it’s common. At all.
Now that AI is a thing, however, it’s easy to put many words in a line very fast. Not good words, mind you, but words.
I just ran across a reference to an author who has decided to embark on a writing challenge, pitting herself against AI.
Alberta author Alison McBain decided to do an “Author Vs AI” challenge. The goal? A well-written book a week for a total of two million words in 365 days. Dang.
She started a week or so ago and is posting daily word counts as she goes.
Here she is ramping up for the starting line: Three Days before Launch… Tips & Tricks to Writing Quickly
Here’s she is, taking off: TODAY Starts 2 MILLION+ Words in 365 days!
Of course, we aren’t really comparing apples to apples here. We’re comparing one person’s ability to convert their history, emotions and expertise into a coherent recipe for another person to experience, versus a predictive extrapolation of the collective yet selective distillation of humanity known as the internet, produced through many (many) hours of training and often poorly-paid drudgery.
(Trying to resist the obvious joke about it not being so different from writing after all, but also obviously failing. Even so.)
Writers write because they have something to say. They’re unable to shut up. They have a point of view. They put themselves through an emotional wringer to get it across, and sometimes lightning strikes and their work resonates with other people. — Ilona Andrews
I love that this writer has given herself a fun challenge, and frankly, she had me at “well-written.”
Color me impressed.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Fiction, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing on April 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Beginning is underrated. Merely beginning. With inadequate preparation, because you will never be fully prepared. With imperfect odds of success, because the odds are never perfect. Begin. With the humility of someone who’s not sure, and the excitement of someone who knows that it’s possible.”
— Seth Godin
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Fiction, Thoughts, Writers on March 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The four sayings that lead to wisdom:
― Louise Penny
I was wrong
I’m sorry
I don’t know
I need help.
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