Every newsletter from the tech writing organization I'm loosely affiliated with now has articles like "How to optimize your docs for LLMs" and infuriatingly, the advice is never "don't"

I'm feeling stuck on my current Patreon serial, although I'm trying to fight through it. It doesn't help that my muse keeps wandering in from another room saying, "So about that Korps story: what if…"

Look, pizza place (Nuri's Tavern in Orlando), you already had me at the great classic cocktail and the solid tavern-style pizza, this is just a hat on a hat

The Korps novels need to stop being good. I have petty quibbles with this one and I still actually love it

Update: the Corpse Reviver has come in a plastic cup, but it is absolutely legit. What is even happening

Okay, I have already had a beer flight and two cocktails today, and would have stopped, but the pizza place has legit classic cocktails and I have NO CHOICE but to order a Corpse Reviver. Sorry if you parked anywhere near here.

HAPPY NOVEMBER! I HOPE YOUR HALLOWEEN WAS GREAT! no Blue Shift today, BUT! we got a short story about AAryy overcoming social anxiety and meeting a remarkable stranger ( @giants-club.net ) who shows her a very, very new perspective! read it today, for FREE!! www.patreon.com/posts/contac...

New post: “Stopwatch” https://giants-club.net/stories/stopwatch/ A conservative political conference performs an exorcism stunt to call out the “demons of liberalism” in the country, but attracts the attention of real demons in the process…

For my birthday, consider writing a review of one of my books somewhere, and linking it here. :) giants-club.net/books/

For my birthday, I have a health scare combined with a medical insurance screwup that prevents me from booking an appointment until things are straightened out. Yay! I'm going to get some beer.

The three ways a giant can get around the square cube law: 1) magic 2) high-tech that works like magic 3) shut up, tiny

Adding a CW to this story reading "transphobia, alt-right nonsense, violent schadenfreude"

Me: the problem with these stories is that they seem to make promises for future installments. Muse: you mean you keep coming up with new monsters to crush on Me: Yes.

Also, I'm afraid I may have made Emacs not only a comfortable prose writing environment on the Mac/Linux, but set up a way that I can sync stories between it and iA Writer on the iPad seamlessly.

First draft done! Over 7,000 words; I suspect there's fat to cut, but I'll see. In any case, "Stopwatch" should be posted for Patreon supporters on the 29th.

"What do you mean I'm cutting it close for a Halloween story," I say as, on the 27th, I edit in the entirely new character who makes the story hang together that I didn't come up with until halfway through the as-yet-unfinished draft

I'll take "Things not to say to a rampaging giant" for $500

Writing the first genuine rampage scene I have in a while, and I think there is a valid story reason to have somebody ask the monster, "but they're going to be okay, right?" (I'm sure everyone will be fine.)

It'd be nice if this Tex-Mex place's patio had a better view than a parking lot, but it's still a nice night and I'll take it.

Lately I go out of the house to write, but just spend the first indefinite time period sitting around trying to relax enough to focus.

I don't want to say that the Halloween demon stories are 100% me venting. They are maybe 70% me venting and 30% me pressing buttons

Coyote-style margarita, from a future story: long shake 2 oz 100% agave blanco tequila, 3/4 oz fresh lime juice, 1/2 oz turbinado simple syrup, wide strip of fresh orange peel with plenty of ice (yes, the peel goes in the shaker). Strain and serve up, no salt.

New post: “Review: Far Flung” https://giants-club.net/articles/review-far-flung/ Utunu’s science fiction tale dazzles with its world-building, although it’s more slice of life interlaced with charming romance than epic adventure.

Re-reading the three finished chapters of a stalled Patreon project from long ago, which would have been the second Mensura story if I'd made it work, and…I still like it. Maybe I'll circle back to it next year, finally.

You know, the first No Kings protests didn't get nearly as much national news coverage as this one, and it's hard not to wonder whether the administration spewing about it multiple times this week invoked the Streisand Effect

I have been out at a protest and now I am having good beer and writing weird furry stories, so it is a very good Saturday

Writer confession: I rarely write any more back story than I absolutely need at the moment. At some point after the same characters appear multiple times, I realize, "Oh shit, I have to start making real notes to keep their history and motivations consistent."

There was a time Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff appeared to be a fairly good guy, but anyone responsible for giving the world Salesforce always had evil in his heart www.yahoo.com/news/articles/s...

Fascinating seeing folks just go off on how much they hate Windows 11 in the work Slack, given the company I work at

I always have a vague worry when I carry my bag with a Pride Flag pin on it into a place I expect to be pretty conservative, so it's a relief to notice this brewery (the ABL, in Dade City, Florida) has two such flags of their own visible.

I think an unexpected idea is coalescing for a Halloween story. Is naming a character who comes to a bad end "Kirk Charleston" too obvious? Okay, I'll work on it.

Yes, Pat, furries will in fact be leading the revolution

For no particularly good reason, I have installed Asahi/Fedora Linux on my M1 MacBook Air. It...is actually pretty good? I doubt I'll be spending a lot of time here, but it's good to know that I could.

Noted in St. Pete, FL.

Yes, I'm a giantess, but you don't have to worry about me walking *to* the margarita bar

Very stuck on writing this week, but managed 750 words today, so hopefully that logjam is broken. Unfortunately I have done almost nothing on my tech writing, either (which actually pays the bills), but hopefully tomorrow I can manage to pull that out…

For folks in the UK, heads up!

I have a trip to California scheduled in January. Hopefully there will be (competent, non-scab) air traffic controllers working then, because I don't really want to have to drive from Florida…

Just finished my third read through of @giants-club.net's The Turning. It's still very good. If urban fantasy with furs and macro elements and perhaps a touch of contemporary commentary are up your alley, give it a shot.

For some reason this has been a very high ennui day for me.

For people who are following me here and checking out Mastodon, you can follow me there by searching for @[email protected]

Hm. Clicked the "raccoon" tag on my website on "Lavender Latte" and realized that of the three raccoon-featuring stories there, only "Latte" has a *nice* raccoon. One of the others is an implied serial murderer and the third is a Galactus-level apocalypse.

New post: “Look, just fucking use Mastodon already” https://giants-club.net/articles/just-use-mastodon/ A short, unnecessarily profane rant about modern social media, not really serious but not really a joke, either. With apologies to McSweeney’s.

About to post something that will lose me followers on Bluesky. I love you all, don't hate me.

Hi, war-torn Portland resident here It's awful, just terrible, all this beautiful nature and fresh clean air

I am, for the record, still expecting to retire some time within the next few years and move to the (checks notes) war-torn hellhole of (checks notes again, squints) Portland, Oregon

This is a really bad time, politics-wise, to keep daydreaming of making a substantial supplemental income through kinky furry stories, but here I remain

This was my college, and I am still incredibly salty about what was done to it on the stupidest pretenses

I must be getting better at this job, it only took me until mid-Tuesday to want to slack off and do my own stuff

It's occurred to me over the last few months that Arilin might just become my furry-specific pseudonym, rather than macro-specific, leaving my other name as the furry/non-furry crossover brand. (Assuming I ever come up with one of those again.)