#BookSky #ShortStory #ReaderSky #IndieAuthor 📚💙 "...who would they rather have defending their children's lives? A scared and confused girl, hiding in the bathroom...? Or an emotionally unstable paranoid schizophrenic prone to fits of narcissistic rage?" LINK: m-walshwrites.itch.io/the-new-baby...

The Trump Administration treats its supporters and donors as above the law, able to violate your rights with impunity. Treat them accordingly.

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 16: Weapon used by the villain/antagonist/foil Women don't need *weapons* to take down men! When you're dealing with a few thousand volts, even brushing contact with a finger's all it takes. In this timeline, a man attacking a woman is a diagnostic for insanity. 🧵 1/2 #SciFi

#WIPSnips 16: brain Protip: Getting stranded in a wildly different alternate history is much harder if you don't have a copy of Wikipedia with you. Plan ahead! #SciFi #ScienceFiction #SciFiBooks

#TimeTravelAuthors 15: Cost? Nuclear reactors cost a few billion €. More for a data center to do all the precalculations for a run. Plus, a bunch of the smartest and best-educated people on the planet to plan things and operate it. But the science is worth it. (Until it's hijacked.) #SciFiBooks

#WIPSnips 15: manager Vibing it. Jim's scored the career opportunity of a lifetime... thanks to his girlfriend's connections to a couple of Nobel winners. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 15: It's an alternate timeline. But even with cleaning robots, some things need the human touch. Mops are darn near universal; barely more complicated than the inclined plane and the lever. Jim's an archer, but bows are rare in sanitariums. Mop handles, tho... #SciFi

Jim lies by omission constantly. Much of our world looks reprehensible in the eyes of the new timeline. For example, he *must* admit how women were often treated... in general. But he doesn't have to bring up *all* the details. Or about himself. Even *to* himself, sometimes. No PTSD, right?

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 14: Drink would be a spoiler, there's a whole party game involving a particular beverage in my WIP. There's an evening snack, 'zaulee,' that usually involves something sweet. 'Hasheerocho' is common - deep-fried dumplings with a nut filling, often coated with fruit syrups.

#WIPSnips 14: current Jim asks about the neural networks that are all over the place in the new timeline. (Too bad he's an anthropologist. An electrical engineer would know the word 'memristor.') #SciFi #ScienceFiction

TENEMENT House of Leaves x The Giver Inside, the Tenement is an infinite maze of halls. Outside, there is... Nothing. When Noah Walker's mom mysteriously goes missing, he vows to learn the secrets of his strange world. Even if it means tearing the whole thing down. #Bluepit #Bluepit📖 #YA #M #D

I got an anthology for Christmas, "Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century." And they're great. But you know what? The stories in the Accidental Time Travelers Collective trilogy are every bit as good as many of them, and in some cases better. #TimeTravelAuthors

D13. As much as a time travel yarn can be. 🤣 Readers have commented on the realism though, calling it both 'hard boiled' and 'gritty', so I'll take that. I set out to make it grounded, but with that 'what if' element. #timetravelauthors #writingcommunity #amquerying #speclit #amediting #wipsnips

#WIPSnips 13: reflex I've posted this snippet before, but it's kinda perfect. Jim learns an important fact about the culture he's stranded in. One that might have been useful to know earlier. #SciFi

#TimeTravelAuthors 13: How realistic is your story? #TimeTravel and wizardly genetic engineering aren't realistic. But *if*? I've tried to make the *consequences* realistic. Scientifically, technologically, sociologically, linguistically, culturally, etc. And especially the human level! #SciFi

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 13: Clothes worn in MC’s society Male clothing tends to emphasize secondary sexual characteristics. Shoulders are bulked up, waists are narrow. And then there's the codpiece. Kind of like an athletic cup, worn on the outside - but fancier, far more varied, and colorful. 🧵 1/3

#FantasyIndiesJanuary 12. Shout out Indies There's too many!! @sayaashrah.bsky.social @ringles.bsky.social @lcyruswhelchel.bsky.social @voicesofvalhoon.bsky.social @waltshuler.substack.com @eliseswritings.bsky.social @sagetgreene.bsky.social @cblansdell.bsky.social @triempery.bsky.social

The *biggest* is a spoiler. Probably the second biggest is being completely honest with the local equivalent of police, when they ask him about the biggest one. His fucks-to-give supply is quite low by that point.

#WIPSnips 12: tentacle 'Limb' is as close as I come. Not an aquatic or eldritch work. 😂 No, Jim's stuck in a timeline where half of humanity can generate deadly electric shocks. Which changes combat just a tad. (Guess which half?) #SciFi #ScienceFiction #SciFiBooks

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 11: Issues plaguing your world’s society? Besides their version of the Anthropocene in full swing? Well, there was a world war a few years back. Not unlike our WWII, a whole lot of men substituted for women pulled away to be soldiers or otherwise support the war. 🧵 1/x

#TimeTravelAuthors 11: #TimeTravel tropes you love I'm a fan of duelling time-meddlers and the Gambit Pileups that result. A humorous one-minute example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ET... (starts at the relevant bit)

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 12: What gestures/actions are considered good manners/etiquette? Men greeting women perform a 'tehraitee,' a bow with hands pressed together at the sternum, plus a deep bow. (Flirty males might flex their pecs a bit as they do it.) Women return a shallow bow. 🧵 1/3

#WIPSnips 11: climb Climbing's a thing dirigibles do. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

Yup. They teach that most people are sheep, criminals are wolves, and police are sheepdogs. Inherently.

Fire in the Sky (Argentum in Aqua 3): Chapter 18 In which Viola is exasperated saranadosfiction.com/2026/01/10/f... New to the serial? Start here: saranadosfiction.com/2018/05/19/a... #ArgentumInAqua #GaslampFantasy 🌈📚🪐📚😱 ♿♾📚

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 10: One of the central *ideas* is strict roles. (Also history's radical contingency.) An engineered virus was sent back in time, to the Early Bronze Age. Since then, (only) XX types can generate painful-to-lethal electric shocks. This has... consequences. Thread time! 🧵 1/7

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 9: The MC starts out with no position at all. The last 5,700 years have been completely rewritten; he's the sole remnant of our timeline. Just a scandalously-dressed weirdo who speaks no recognizable language. He quickly moves up to 'arrestee,' tho. Then 'mental patient.' 😞

#TimeTravelAuthors 9: 2026 goals 1. Get the sequel to SECONDARY out. ASAP. 2. Get work done on what comes after that. 3. Write an actual *short* story. 😀

I teach bystander intervention for a living and have taught de-escalation to law enforcement. Trust me when I say that bottle girls, gas station clerks, strippers, front desk employees at hotels and airports, baristas, etc. have better de-escalation skills than any cop I've ever seen.

I am beyond excited to reveal the cover for THE DEVOURING, my cosmic horror/revenge thriller. If you like married villain protagonists, John Wick-style action, and occult conspiracies, you will love this book. Preorder today! books2read.com/u/mvDRWX #WritingCommunity #booksky 💙📚

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 8: There are 'nobles' and 'commoners' in the Empire of Cholama. But this timeline diverged 57 centuries ago, so those roles (and others) have a different mix of privileges & constraints. Which interact in weird ways with clan loyalties, or business interests, or... 🧵 1/2

There is an essential & extremely generalizable point here. Critical thinking is a team sport. We all need metacognition buddies because human brains. It doesn't matter how quote unquote smart you are. Especially in the slop times. The most pernicious aspect of ChatGPT is how it isolates minds.

we’re never returning to “normal “ that world is dead and gone we create a new one, or we live in hell

As an AuDHD man, this terrifies me. I can’t stand still, I freeze when stressed, and I want to follow all instructions literally. I would certainly fail in almost every scenario.

#TimeTravelAuthors 7: 'name' snippet After a moment, he gave me a shy [bow], his hands together holding the instrument's neck. "His name is 'Uhdee.' Accept him as a gift." He came up smiling, holding it out to me. #SciFi #SciFiBooks

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 7: World inspiration? I read about Naomi Alderman's THE POWER and was fascinated by the far-future world she portrayed in passing. I wanted to do something like that. Then I realized I was a *huge* nerd, chock full of odd facts... so I actually might be able to pull it off. 🤯

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 6. Worldbuilding MC uses or finds helpful Not much helpful in the new timeline. But the local language has influences from Proto-Indo-European, which helps. Their academic/research system is similar enough to ours for him to take advantage of (some of) his experience, too.

#WIPSnips 6: low Jim's learned a lot of the major differences between our timeline and the new one. Even the smallest consequences of those differences often take him by surprise, though. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

#TimeTravelAuthors Jan 5: What projects are you working on? Cranking out SECONDARY: KAHREHTAYNA. Reflected on and resolved a few issues, so progress is being made. #SciFi #ScienceFiction #SciFiBooks

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 5: No convenient #SciFi tropes. No 'happens to speak English' or 'universal translators.' No accidentally-fulfilled prophecies. First contact with a *very* different culture - with no prep, no backup, and no way home. *That's* a problem. But the reader learns as the MC does.

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 4: terrifying? Okay, so the time viewer you were using got hijacked. All of recorded history has been completely rewritten. Humanity itself has been modified. You're helplessly stranded in a completely unknown alternate universe. Who *wouldn't* be terrified? #ScienceFiction

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 3: Something grand/majestic? Jim is struck by the skyscrapers in the new timeline. Lighter, stronger materials mean they can reach up past a kilometer. They actually *are* intended partly to show off the technical abilities of Cholama to other nations. As a warning. #SciFi

#TimeTravelAuthors 3: 'deal' excerpt Jim negotiates when possible, but he isn't holding a lot of cards. #SciFi #SciFiBooks

Fresh, undisturbed powdery snow illuminated from almost directly above by a full moon. Zoom in and you can see flecks of moonlight, like constellations on the ground.

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 2: mysteries Many. The MC can't explain how the time travel works, or most science in the new (and old) timeline. But while there are many cultures in the (new) world, Jim only experiences one. And he refuses to report on what he hasn't directly experienced. 😁

#TimeTravelAuthors 2: Just a fun bonus for #TimeTravel enthusiasts: m.xkcd.com/3188/ (Check the alt text! 😁)

#JanuaryWorldBuilders 1: I'm Ray, enormous nerd, kinda ND. Which can be an advantage when worldbuilding; I take even crazy ideas seriously. The world? An alt-history. The split was millennia ago, so things have diverged a *lot*. And the change wasn't small: women gain a huge advantage in violence.

#TimeTravelAuthors Jan 1: Introduce your story with "At first..." At first, the Time Eye didn't appear dangerous. It could only move tiny particles like electrons or photons, and not many of 'em. Down at the quantum noise level. How could that be a problem? Turns out it can do a *bit* more. Once.

We've seen things from Jim's POV up until now. This is the first chance we get someone else's POV on him.

My books are still on sale, so here are a few reasons why you should buy them: -Adult fantasy with sex, swearing, and violence! -It's queer! -Godless heathens fight against gods. -12 unique fantasy worlds with 12 gods that dominate their 12 races. -Not a romantasy, but romance as a side plot.