This is the way my margarita was just served, and I bet some of you are imagining being the little rubber duck

Gosh, it's sure nice that there isn't any horrifying current event happening today! Another round of your highest-proof beer, please, and if any of those TVs start showing news I will end you

500 words today, which isn't amazing but I'll take the win. Since it looks like it's raining again, now to chew on the notes for one of the two next novels.

New post: “On Throwing Rocks” https://giants-club.net/articles/writers-block/ Sooner or later, everybody who thinks of themselves as a writer gets writer’s block. But what do you do when the tricks in the listicles don’t work? Maybe you n... https://giants-club.net/articles/writers-block/

I'm hoping I get sufficient focus back this month to, er, have focus. I'm not sure what's going on lately, but I sit down in front of the text editor and pretty much flatline.

While I'm a believer in "block for whatever reason you want," it's a little bemusing to discover that the incoming FWG president and one of my publisher's quasi-staff both block me. Anti-giant bias! (Seriously, I have no idea.)

Well, that was sure a fucking year

Squeaking in with last-minute charity giving, which usually gets matched in end of year drives. Harder this year than some years past—I really need to follow through on that "win the lottery" action item soon.

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

I know it’s hard to believe, but I swear to God in the early days of blogging Matt Yglesias was worth reading

Okay, I've stared at email, GitHub issues, and the project board on my work laptop for four hours off and on today, that sounds like enough

Having trouble focusing on either work—which, given that even the virtual office seems empty, nobody will notice—or my own stuff. Brain, what is it you want to do?

Realizing that the high concept pitch for one of the two longer stories I'm working on is edging toward "Gender-flipped Sherlock Holmes meets Zootopia"

Okay, I drank those very fast, but I am sure I will be fine, and don't worry: most of what is around here looks comically fragile, er, sturdy and perfectly giantess-proof

This is a very good egg nog, but there is way more nog than egg in here, I think

I have made it to a Miracle Christmas pop up bar for the first time since leaving California. How many sherry egg nogs will it take before I do something rash? Let's find out

I've deleted three files Copilot wrote today, rewritten another one, and none of my coworkers seem to be online, so let's call it a Friday

This is, strangely enough, the problem in the opening scene of my novel “The Turning.” (Someone does something about it.)

Me: I have Christmas song earworms stuck in my head. Coyote muse: let me do some stomp stomp roar Me: Some…do you mean "clap stomp hey"? Muse: no Muse: start running now

Just spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what I could possibly have done with the first ebook in a series that isn't on my Kobo, any hard drive, or even documented in email receipts, until I finally remembered I bought it in paperback. Time to go not use the computer for a while

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and once again, let me dispel rumors that I am the Yule Cat

The Furry Writers’ Guild has been publicly against generative AI use for years. Just saying.

I kind of blame the BBC "Sherlock" adaptation for this—although that's in part because it overshadowed CBS's "Elementary," a much better Sherlock-in-modern-times adaptation. Yes, this is a tiny hill I will die on.

Having just finished the first actual Sherlock Holmes novel, it is startling to find, as someone used to modern adaptations, that while he is eccentric he is not an intolerable asshole

It's a two-day workweek, in that I officially have Wednesday and Thursday off and literally nobody will be paying attention to whatever I do Friday! (Actually, I don't think anyone will be paying attention to what I do tomorrow, either)

On my third drink at this tiki bar, and it is a hot buttered rum. Time for the skintight short skirt low cut Santa suit

One day I may write an article about how to use Emacs in lieu of Obsidian and Scrivener, for the three people interested

(short personal mental well-being vent ahead) 1/ My mother and I are pretty much on the same page politically, but her way of dealing with the state of the world and the country is by ranting about it near constantly. Talking back to the news, whether TV or radio or podcasts or newspaper…

So the mystery story idea isn't really macro, but what if the species are a range of sizes—not as extreme as Zootopia, but say, about a 4:1 ratio from small to tall? Hmm.

Buy this book.

Copilot generates documentation like a panicked intern who's been told their job depends on making every file 500+ lines long by spewing out dozens of tangentially related bullet lists and tables

Spending a lot of time researching classic mystery novel construction, because I don't think pantsing it is going to work for a Sherlock Holmes style mystery.

Hi, Aubree Wood. Just what goddamn industry do you think I'm in, pray tell

Chapter 34 kicks Mus Numena into its end game, and while I have a general idea where it all ends up, there's a lot of specifics I should have worked out months ago. 🙀

I think there may be a @robomaximillion.bsky.social moment in the next episode of Mus Numena

I am alternating between writing a rampage scene and trying to plot out a cozy Victorian-era mystery, and I think I'm about ten minutes from my muse shouting "GODZILLA IN THE BILLIARD ROOM WITH THE CANDLESTICK" and keeling over

Okay, world, the "but wait, something ELSE terrible you didn't expect is happening" part of the story has gone on too long now, can we just skip to the part where the villains get eaten by hyenas

I love this particular local brewery, but they have a collab with another brewery on the menu described as a "session" cold IPA with an ABV of 7.5%. A session beer. ABV 7.5%.

While I've made a sporadic attempt to keep up with both timelines using Icon Factory's Tapestry, the truth is I am way more likely to browse my Mastodon timeline and only look at the last hour or so on Bluesky. It's not you, Bluesky, it's me. But it's also you because you post a whole fucking lot.

Nothing gives you insight into both the capabilities and hard limits of LLM text generation than editing/rewriting several thousand lines of first draft documentation created by GitHub Copilot. On a related note, please kill me

I'm not sure if it's good or bad that I have two other story ideas trying to turn into big projects while I'm running behind on the current big project

I am not confirming my first non-macro story written under this name will be a Sherlock Holmes pastiche with an ace/aro arctic vixen detective, but neither am I denying the possibility.

New post: “Review: Dragon’s Soul” https://giants-club.net/articles/review-dragons-soul/ This (mostly) cozy draconic fantasy hits high points of transformation, romance—and gathering the confidence to find your own place in the world.

I feel vaguely guilty how much I enjoy being on my own on most Saturdays, out doing Rha things, but as much as I love my mother I would go bugfuck if I couldn't get out and be vaguely urban every so often.

If you're at #MFF, my books are available at FurPlanet's table! I have no idea which titles and how many of each, but I'm (almost) positive they'll have "The Turning" and "Saida & Autumn" available! giants-club.net/books/

I am not sure that having this serial bounce between "this may be the end of the world" and "oh no cute dominatrix" completely works, tonally speaking, but fuck you it's my serial

One year I will get to MFF, but this is once more not that year. (I will be doing FC in January, but nothing else is set for 2026.)

👀 giants-club.net/serials/big-...

The urge to sell a big chunk of my possessions and drive around the country in a small RV for a year is strong today

I made a joke to Ken about a personal assistant, a stern nine-foot-tall arctic vixen wearing glasses and carrying a big leather-bound day planner, and now she's stuck in my head. Uh oh.