#Septopolis 22: Government Structure Urachi's a city in an empire, administered by a baronetess. There are many different power centers in the city, with their own areas. Of course, the priestesses and deacons at the Temple are in a separate reporting chain. The empress tops that one, too. 1/3

#WIPSnips 22: flurry Nobody throws a flurry of punches, and this is literally the only place snow is mentioned. 🤷 #ScienceFiction #SciFi

#SFFChat 21: 'climax' snippet The other usages were (ahem) spoilery, so let's see a bit of Jim watching a musical stage production from a *radically* divergent culture. #SciFi #ScienceFiction #SFF

#Septopolis 21: Again, as a port city Urachi has a larger population of 'foreigners' than deeper into the Empire. Besides business, there's some tourism. Also the university is a significant draw; it's hardly the most prominent, but technical education is high-level in the Empire generally. 1/3

#TimeTravelAuthors Sep 21: How sincere are your characters? Jim is scrupulously honest. He can't afford to be caught in a lie. But he doesn't have to tell the *whole* truth. Manayka is pretty darn sincere, but he also has motives he'd rather not bring up. Dovee, tho? *He's* sincere. 😞 #SciFi

#WIPSnips 21: disagree Nusuku has a combination of social and personal power that makes her quite formidable. #ScienceFiction

#PretendPanel 20: Write the same character? I hope not! My MC's tend to be clever, though. And usually sarcastic. But they range in cynicism, compassion, experience, competence, etc. And I try to give variety elsewhere. I love authors who give even the one-off waiter & such a bit of personality.

#Septopolis 20: Locals’ Entertainment As discussed on the 13th in "Planning," the Empire that Urachi is part of takes regulates a lot of city layout. There are always at least small parks within walking distance, and larger parks spread out regularly. There's plenty of "third spaces." 1/3

#WIPSnips 20: obvious Even when Jim's trying to be innocuous and inoffensive, it doesn't always work out. How could playing The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" lead to trouble? #ScienceFiction #SciFi #SFF

An email! From Suzanne Collins! Wanting to connect with me personally! I've been noticed! Finally! Who cares if the email address is gmail and the surname is spelt wrong, it can't possibly be spam! Let's click those links! #📚💙 #Booksky📚💙 #🪐📚

#TimeTravelAuthors 9/19 Fans of dystopian time travel are in for a treat with @writernatswift.bsky.social's "From Now On," the action-packed companion to his "Blue Skies" (featured in ATTCv1). Hold on to your hats (and your parachutes) when you read this one! www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

We've got room for 3 more ADHD authors/ authors of ADHD characters in this Itch Bundle. 📦📚

Look, if your hot take talking point is one that would make a fascist happy then perhaps check yourself before spouting it at length without actually offering anything constructive.

#TimeTravelAuthors 19: Any reference to other time travel works in your story? Not exactly. But there's a quick reference to "Everything Everywhere All At Once" early on. 😀

#Septopolis 19: Industries, Imports, Exports As noted, Urachi's a port city, so shipping is big. Raw materials coming into and out of the Empire. Many high-tech exports. Some manufacturing and refining in the area, which unfortunately means a measure of pollution. 1/2 #ScienceFiction #SciFi

#WIPSnips 19: yard Jim appears in the new timeline at the same spot he was, physically. It's just that that spot isn't a time viewing project anymore... #ScienceFiction #SciFi #SFF

September 19th: What makes a character memorable in your opinion? Something unusual about them. Maybe an unexpected combination of traits, or surprising decisions they make. Other times, they can be 'conventional'... but be described and written exceptionally well. You *understand* them.

It's done to death, but man, imagine if Joe Biden had openly threatened to use the government to block Rupert Murdoch's business deals or strip away broadcast licenses from their stations unless Fox News fired Jesse Watters or something.

“You used to be able to say anything” comedians never been more quiet in their lives

i think that if the FCC threatened to revoke ABC’s license unless it replaced Jimmy Kimmel with Kevin Hart to diversify the network, Ilya Shapiro would be able to identify the issue here

#Septopolis 18: Manmade Landmarks Thanks to chemistry being discovered far earlier, this timeline has great materials science. So when they want to, they can build *tall*. They'd find the Burj Kalifa amusingly quaint. Most cities have at least a couple skyscrapers three or four km tall. 1/4

#WIPSnips 18: red Turns out the new timeline has nukes, too. Woohoo. #SciFi #IndieBooks #ScienceFiction

Trans rights are not the rights of a tiny minority, trans rights are everyone’s rights to self-determination, control of our bodies, and a society where opportunity and aesthetics are not restricted by sex assigned at birth You should support and defend trans people because trans people are people

I can't say too much because spoilers. But the overall series will have romance, though some tropes will get, um... played with roughly. Anybody who ever read comics has no grounds *whatsoever* to call *any* other genre 'formulaic'. 🤣

#Septopolis 17: Architectural Style Materials science is advanced in the timeline Jim lands in. To him, everything looks too frail and thin to support itself. Except for the old, historic buildings made of stone and such. At first glance, it reminds him of South Asia mixed with Rivendell. 1/4

#TimeTravelAuthors 17: 'strange' snippet It was strange. I wouldn’t have wanted to get into a bar brawl with a guy his size and shape–but I didn’t think he had the first clue how to actually fight, either. And I finally noticed he was wearing perfume. Maybe a hint of berries? #SciFi

#WIPSnips 16: difference Jim got thrown into the deep end, stranded in an alternate history that split off before the Epic of Gilgamesh got written down. Certainties are few and far between. #ScienceFiction #SciFi

#SFFChat 16. Share a writerly fear! It always annoys me no end when I'm reading something and the author makes a really basic error regarding something I know a thing or two about. I try very hard not to make simple mistakes about whatever field I'm covering... but I'd die of cringe if I did.

#Septopolis 9/16 - Scope & Planning While there are historical districts where older city plans remain, at least 70% of Urachi follows the standard Empire city planning scheme. (Which I stole from a historic example: www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkyl... ) The Empire was into city planning early. 😀 1/3

#WIPSnips 16: practice The fact that I practiced archery actually seemed to ‘fit’ for them. It was the most respectable male sport, one of the few ways a male could be even warrior-adjacent in this culture. #SciFi #TimeTravel

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #fantasy #other Kerfuffle at the feast! Bráthal and Trethis have served Rushak’s corvid friend to him on a platter. Drisal’s outraged and Cerel tries taking charge. Drisal’s POV. Brother’s Keeper, my WIP about two brothers linked by a misunderstood power.

#TimeTravelAuthors #WIPSnips #writingPrompts please, people, if you post screenshots of your snippets, use ALT text. It's really not hard, just cluck on the ALT symbol of a picture, copy paste the text from your story, and many more people can enjoy it (especially if the writing is small...)

#Septopolis 15: Yup, a lot of this was covered in #MythAugust, but the TL;DR is: "Daymih" is monotheistic. Goddess is the source of goodness, evil is a void/absence... but *active*, the way a negative charge can actively drive current. And the MC's story directly contradicts its creation myth. 🤦

#TimeTravelAuthors 15: Any miracles? The Time Eye itself is kind of a miracle. The academics using it as a scientific instrument certainly think so. Shaheen's genetic work borders on the miraculous, but it's at least *technically* possible within the laws of physics. #SciFi #TimeTravel #BookSky

#SeptemberWorldBuilders 15: Seaside scene So the MC got involved with time travel. 🤦 He's by the ocean... and the weather is suddenly different. Clouds out to the horizon. It's his first major clue he's stranded in a *very* alternate history. But a convincing one. #ScienceFiction #SciFi #BookSky

#SFFChat 15. Favourite scenes to write. Dialogue scenes. I know going in what the characters want to convey and learn, and what they need to have conveyed and learned, by the end of the scene. But in writing, I learn what they actually say. I learn exactly how the scene's needs get filled. #SciFi

#WIPSnips 15: other That word is among the first Jim learns in the new timeline. (English isn't a thing anymore.) And so it's central to the first conversation he ever has in their language. (Later conversations are more fully handled in English. 😂) #ScienceFiction #SciFi #BookSky

I don't know how to get stories like this to be everywhere. There are hundreds or thousands of them, and yet we're drowning in stories about Ka$h trying to find a trans person who winked at Charlie Kirk's killer.

Anyone named Brian Kilmeade should be involuntarily euthanized immediately /1

he still has a job. how many people have been fired for saying much milder things about a right-wing figure?

#SeptemberWorldBuilders 14: Cultural dish consumed for special event/holiday There's a fish sandwich eaten in Urachi on the anniversary of its liberation. Spicy panko'd fillets... cooked by electrocution. Different parts are at different doneness. Fisherwomen invented it. #ScienceFiction #SciFi

#SFFChat 14: Establishing communication across timelines doesn't leave room for a lot of downtime. Sometimes you just have to grab the opportunity. #SciFi #ScienceFiction #TimeTravel

#Septopolis 14: The cuisine in this timeline leans to sweet, sour, and salty. (Women's electrical organs need salts and consume calories.) Fermenting meat & fish is common. No dairy beyond a little yogurt. Jim doesn't find it to his liking. 1/2

#WIPSnips 14: 'award' I don't have the *word* 'award,' but I do have an award. If you're smart enough to invent time travel, you deserve a distinguished early career. Unfortunately...

Got to deliver a fun cake today from my partner's bakery. Love the dog eating a crater in the buttercream! sorellascakestudio.com

As a reminder, I'm putting the series in Kindle Unlimited at the beginning of October, so if you want to get the books with these covers on retailers other than Amazon, be sure to do that in the next week or so! books2read.com/ap/ng5kzx/Ly...

So I MAY have played a prank and tricked a guy into thinking a girl holoactor on Titanic Voyage was real. OK, MAYBE the guy found out he could travel in time. And he MAY have fallen in love with the girl. But if he wants to save her, he'll need my help. #TimeTravelAuthors books2read.com/TV

#SeptemberWorldBuilders 13: Local food produced near MC’s hometown Jim's hometown was in Wisconsin, and thin-crust pizza with piles of cheese was his favorite. Of course, Jim's not sure that timeline still exists. The one he's in has no tomato sauce, and very little dairy. He *can* make crust... 😞

#TimeTravelAuthors 13: 'fire' excerpt A variant of 'fire' is kinda central to the plot of SECONDARY. #ScienceFiction #SciFi