#Book scene commission for the lovely @ameliajrivers.bsky.social for their book, "When Shadows Bleed"!! 🔥

In ancient Mesopotamia, astronomers needed to know the moon’s position, even on a cloudy night. So they made records and calculations of the moon’s positions and velocity measured in degrees. This record from Uruk or Babylon from the Seleucid period covers 248 days. 📸 by Dr K. Wagensonner

Why yes, I will take this opportunity to once again tell you to read Metal From Heaven.

I'm always confused when writers change the plot because a reader figured out what was coming. Surely that's good? Surely that means the breadcrumbs have been laid out appropriately?

If you have a few spare bucks to support PATHA's legal action and the people affected by it, you can do so here: patha.nz/donate

Everyone in this thread who wants to write (or read) good sex scenes with deep character interactions needs to go read some fanfiction and learn from the masters.

I did think that was going to be the case, yeah (Not that I trust companies but this isn't my first rodeo on people misinterpreting conditions of service providing)

Well this 2,600-year-old clay letter was a journey. It comes from the archive of a goldsmith named Nabû-zeru-iddin in the heart of ancient Assyria. We’ve got someone left on read, a lawsuit, a mean step-mom, and people who get drunk and steal silver.

To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.” www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...

every author in the class action, please file the claim.

THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS

There are always going to be people who, sincere or otherwise, want all art to conform to their controlling bland "manager policing their workers' bodily autonomy" perspective. And it's important to shut those people out in the cold and create art of wild indulgence and freako obsessions 🤘

Watch out for Ea Nasir this Halloween!

Hey, a reminder that I’m looking for work. I’m an award winning writer and editor serving the community. My book Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction just won an Ignyte award! I’m looking for clients, and would love to work in narrative games. Get in touch with me!

Legend. 😎

I was well over 30 when I wrote and published my first novel, and fully agree with you!

They’re real! Limited editions of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR, available soon!

Hey. Stuff sucks, the suits behind this app are terribad, and shit just isn't gay enough Now's a great time to support your indie trans authors

People are laughing at the aioli-scented book, but smell is one of the things that e-books can never give you: a core sense that evokes strong memories and emotions, a hunger for skinny fries and dipping sauce, a deep desire to visit your favourite eatery, and even a covid test

Here are a bunch to get you started. If you are unfamiliar with @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social it's a digital magazine publishing short stories and poetry by Black SFFH authors for going on *counts on fingers* 10 years? Good lord. Co-founded it. Won a Hugo. Etc. go.bsky.app/VSHmC2p

In Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek, he notes that the potter’s wheel predated the wheel being used for transportation. The need for vessels was more urgent than the need for a new form of locomotion. It made me think of LeGuin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction:

There really is a George Orwell quote for everything right now: If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.

Maps without New Zealand (derogatory)

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

Unfortunately incorrect: this had nothing to do with parking and everything to do with a type of building creep. When buildings were torn down and rebuilt, new builds often encroached and built over existing road infrastructure, narrowing the street's width. Sennacherib set up steles to stop that.

Te Pāti Māori speaking te reo Māori, an official language of Aotearoa NZ, during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, in our Parliament, where they are democratically elected representatives of the people, should be celebrated as a signifier of progress and decolonisation. That Labour geezer can hush.

You used the Mercator projection for this? Really?? Didn't even bother to center the section on the equator? Chopped out Antarctica so the Mediterranean is in the middle? This isn't a brilliant map, this is a TERRIBLE map.

It's almost time for #10Queries again! Submit your query and first pages for a chance to be critiqued by a professional editor. Feedback will be posted anonymously here on Bluesky, and we'll email you after if one of the critiques was for your submission. #RevPit

CGRP monoclonal antibodies Vaccine technology Video game vampire boyfriends

Even worse, Sauron controlled what Denethor saw. He was the algorithm, so to speak. If Denethor had seen a more broad and balanced range of things through the Palantir, he might not have gone mad. He only saw doom coming, not hope.

If you see this, repost with a vampire that is not Dracula

Has anyone already planned a one-off daily prompt for November (not the ongoing ones ie FantasyIndies, QueerPrompts, etc)? I've got one queued up but I'll postpone if it's already a busy month. Thinking #Novmemeber ? Low time-commitment prompts similar to ChaosPit vibes. Thoughts? #WritingCommunity

This short story submission call is extra-fun. :) They want stories that end with a very specific sentence, and everything else is irrelevant - go wild! I knocked out an 800-word story ("Pride and Profits and Persuasion") in no time at all. Join me? ;) www.thelastlinejournal.com/submission.htm

reasons why you WON'T like my next book

If you've been wondering how this turned out, I'm doing better. We do need a lot for my care going forward. But in a horrible twist of fate, we were victims of the sudden downpour-turned-flood in Quezon City yesterday—specifically, our house's first floor. Grateful for anything you can spare.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?" Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

thinking for no reason about the backstory in the locked tomb books where the world ends bc billionaires pay a necromancer to puppet the corpse of a sitting president,,

morning read

RT if you also wish ill upon JK Rowling.

Thanks to a conversation @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social started on Facebook which spilled onto real life yesterday, I'm now also thinking about what, besides word count, makes a novella a novella. The engineer in me thinks it mostly has to do with the story-load bearing capacity of the format...(1/4)

Quote with a gif from the last show/movie you watched!!

Saying this again: there is a scammer out there targeting newbie authors, claiming I'm one of their clients. They use different names, and I'm already pursuing legal action. But I have never worked with a PR company, editing service, or book packager, so anybody saying so is lying, period full stop.

Mongolian draw vs modern archery (vs the rest)

What's Left of Me x Alice Isn't Dead Melody and Lyra have secretly inhabited the same body since childhood. When Lyra is abducted, Melody is left alone in her skin for the first time in 20+ years and she'll stop at nothing to get her sister's soul back. #F #A #POSTERPIT #W

CABIN IN THE WOODS × JOHN DIES AT THE END When their detective friend is murdered during their annual gaming retreat, 5 dads must rely on years of #TTRPG experience—and puns—to solve the crime before they're all killed off like NPCs in a badly written campaign. #PosterPitQ #A #H #M #Posterpit

This is totally alien to me. For most of the people in my life, giving advice is part of normal conversation. Sometimes it's annoying, but usually there is some other annoying behaviour that goes with it (e.g. overly nosey relative). Sometimes advice is unwanted, which is fine too.

Hey y'all. I unexpectedly needed the operation two days ago. Currently recovering at the hospital and we don't know our total bill yet. Passing the hat around again; anything you can spare would already make me and my husband most grateful