Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, evolution, genre fiction, inspiration, science, Thoughts on January 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I have not read Brian Klaas’s Fluke, the book on which the article below is based, but this line made an impression in my busy day.
The big idea: what if every little thing you do changes history?
One hundred million years ago, a shrew-like creature got infected with a retrovirus, eventually leading to the placenta and, by extension, the reason why we don’t lay eggs.
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Note to self:
“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”
— Karen Lamb, author
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, quotes, success, Thoughts, Writers, writing on January 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”
— Herbert Swope, American editor and journalist
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, inspiration, interviews, Thoughts, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on January 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »
My interview with the lovely Kim Lengling of the Let Fear Bounce podcast is live today!
We had a great time discussing writing, creativity, my experience with Writers of the Future and many other topics, and I hope you enjoy it too.
Check out the interview on YouTube or Spotify, and enjoy!
Pen to Paper: Navigating a Writer’s Reality – Author J.R. Johnson
Let Fear Bounce – Tossing out nuggets of hope | Podcast on Spotify
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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, free fiction, future, genre fiction, hope, inspiration, short stories, Writers 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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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Alex White, definitions, genre fiction, learning@lunch, words, Writers, writing 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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Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf34, AI, genre fiction, inspiration, research, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing 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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Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Anne Lamott, creativity, genre fiction, hope, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts, Writers, writing 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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Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #notwriting, AI, genre fiction, Thoughts, writing 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.
No, AI. Just… no.
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, genre fiction, on writing, Thoughts, Writers, writing 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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J.R. Johnson 
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