I wonder which ancient city that's still in use I should pattern the city Niv and June are visiting next after.

Samafm was a just got into space society when the Malonians invaded and Guard Fleet arrived to drive them out so everything is in a state of transition.

I've rabbit holed onto laying out the space port they are headed for and the city where it is located. There's going to be an old town dating back hundreds of years then the new town that grew out of it over the centuries. The space port itself will be attached to an airport.

Post about the price of pizza and my notifications explode. Post about my writing and crickets.

I continue my search for reader facing podcasts whose aim is to bring indie science fiction authors before people who may have never heard of them before.

I may be forced to one day get on an airplane, but frankly I here too many horror stories to think it'll ever be a good idea. (If I can't drive to it with only one overnight stop, is it even worth the effort?)

And now to deep dive brainstorm into the geo-politics behind the Intel I hope will become the core of why my characters must act in Grounded.

New trial podcatcher all set up. Had to enter the podcasts in my weekly queue manually because I couldn't find where the export opml file was being written.

My podcatcher started inserting ads into each episode unless I spring for a premium subscription so I'm off to find a new podcatcher.

Well that's a new one. Local area group for where I live over on FB has a post that a pair of pigs are on the loose one the next major road east of my home.

And the debate about snow begins on ernest here in Canada. I love snow, what I don't love is this pressure to move all that lovely snow out of the way so people can pretend it's not winter.

Niv did the bare minimum to stay in shape until the first time he got flattened in one of June's manic moments and she took it upon herself to train him in how to hold her off until she came out of it. Now they spar on a regular basis. #WritingCommunity #WritingQ

To start I need the inciting incident in which Niv and June receive news that contains an ominous subtext.

Yesterday I posted about how all my brainstorming had yet to give me the core conflict for book 5, Grounded. This morning I have an idea, which now needs to be bulked out into an actual sequence of events propelling my characters forward.

I have pages of brainstorming notes of ideas that can go into book 5, Grounded, but what I don't yet have is a core conflict to bring them all together.

Niv gets a gun early in his adventure but at most he's only used it 2-3 times across the 4 novels I've written.

On my drive home last night, after passing through a heavy downpour complete with high winds, I found myself driving straight toward the pot of gold end of a brilliant rainbow. The kind of moment that makes me go, wow, in awesome wonder.

Had both my Covid and Flu shots earlier today. So far I'm feeling quite find, but the Covid arm (the same one that's been giving me trouble already) is aching from all the typing of the last couple of hours.

Lots of good ideas woven into the brainstorming notes for Grounded. I'm looking forward to working with what I have here.

With my ongoing dilemma of how to balance waiting for edits, brainstorming marketing ideas, and brainstorming for my next novel, I dedicated yesterday to the marketing question, and now I'm diving into reading through all the brainstorming I've done for the book I'm calling Grounded.

Woke up with the song Man on Fire by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros playing in my head. I have no idea what that means, but there it is.

Podcast episode where the host and guest geek out about using the latest in scientific theories to create scifi in a way I interpreted as saying everyone else is doing it wrong left me feeling down, until I had a moment to think about all the great books I'd read recently.

Now that the Halloween horror rush is over many of you need a story that will give you a chance to sit back and reset. A nice, cozy, science fiction adventure might just do the trick: books2read.com/SynergyOfHopes

Due to a convergence of events may have just acquired 1/2 a table for my books at Vancouver Fan Expo next February. My books have had a spot in my wife's booth a number of times but this would be the biggest display I've ever done.

Strange question time. What constitutes a futuristic font? Wouldn't legibility count above fancy? Especially when this question is tightly tied to marketing my novels to readers of today?

I need some focus, and a mental reset on what I consider measurable progress.

I find myself in a position where, as I wait for my WIP to go to my evil content editor, play with marketing ideas for my existing books, and continue to brainstorm my next novel, I'm spending more time spinning my wheels than getting anything measurable done.

I am against using AI as a creative, but I realise a lot of people are using AI for other things, such a search. So, in one of my periodic tests of how AI is doing these days I asked it for a specific list of podcasts I could look at to see if they'd be a good fit for me and my books.

I was gifted the opportunity to have one of my short stories made into audiobook narrated by Aaron Fors, and had my first listen through on this morning's commute. Oh wow. Now to find the best way to make use of this new asset so others can enjoy the work as much as I did.

Fainting goats, an army of mimes,a shape-shifting Pooka & one rogue Sorcerer! A spoiled princess, a jaded court jester & the village idiot are about to save the world! Sample chapters of Dream Merchant Saga Smashwords ow.ly/aoK230mjQnw & Amazon www.amazon.com/stores/Lorna... #YAFantasy #BookSky 📚🪐⚔️💙

When you're offered a chance to partake in an event, but can't because you're on your phone and not your laptop and there are technical glitches stopping you.

If you're meme title says, Watch To The End, I'm going to be 95% sure the rest will take so many rabbit trails any actual payoff won't be worth it.

This is something we all need to do more often.

One problem with having a bread-and-butter job shift that goes over Saturday and Sunday is I don't have the flexibility to take advantage of any events that suddenly pop up on my sensors. I just learnt of such an even in Abottsford in a week that I cannot even consider attending.

The shorts I have created to showcase my writing, characters, and universe are rough, really rough, but they are all me. I will most likely learn more polish in future such attempts but they will still be all me.

Sigh. Back to that part of the cycle where I get lots of popups telling me to use the memory gulping app that will also collect tons of information about you it can't acquire through the web interface.

Making minor edits to a series of promo related shorts I created for a different purpose and need to have a small section removed from the end going forward.

The world may feel bleak, but at least there's still silly, overpriced merch. www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8247...

I've experimented with a variety of short videos talking about different aspects of my writing. In this case I explored ways to give a reader a feel for the interior size of the ship at the heart of these stories. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Also, do they come with a workable mike or will I need something else for that angle.

I ned a new set of headphones for doing zoom type meeting but the best advice to to find something less obvious like earbuds, only I hate earbuds because they never fit and either hurt or fall out. Time to look at over the ear buds to see what my options there may be.

In continuing to play with marketing my books questions I've created a list of experiments to try that require me to work from my laptop. I may be asking for some feedback on these ideas in the next few days. Whether anyone sees them is a different matter.

Listening to the latest episode of @tfsfp.bsky.social and have gotten to the point where Dan and his guest are discussing how hard it is to get noticed on social media, even when you're actively searching for a specific subject. It's a pain every creative feels.

How do I talk about space travel in my universe when it's not based upon modern hard science? I speculated another level of physics and based everything on that.

Grr. If the pain in my arm doesn't go away soon I may for forced to have the doctor look at it. The moment I do I'll either be told it's nothing or sent for tests scheduled at times I can't go.

How do we expand our reach here on BSky? Get our posts seen by more people? I know there's no algorythim for that but there must be ways we can flag our posts for wider reach. #tags must be part of the answer but how big is their impact overall here?

It would seem my bathroom drain is clogged.

While still working on brainstorming the opening of book 5 while I wait for book 4 to go to content editing I am planning to take a deeper dive into the marketing question.

Can someone please give me an update on what we know about 3I Atlas without first giving me a 1/2 hour history lesson on all the things I already know?

This Halloween we are planning to do a rewatch of Babylon 5, which he have on DVD.