#FebruaryWorldbuilders My protagonists have been assured that what they're doing has the blessing of the law and/or the Azure Order. I mean, if you can't trust a mysterious shapeshifting benefactor, who can you trust?

#WIPSnips “Each of them carries a record of every coin and piece of jewelry that’s supposed to be in every room. So if you pry one little diamond out of a thousand-year-old brooch in the corner of Chamber 17, you’ve got eight hours to get out of Kisatòn with it before they find out it’s missing.”

#TimeTravelAuthors Gary sometimes tries to lie, but is really bad at it for somebody that smart. Lock can lie, but would rather not.

Can't. Let me sleep on it—I'll give you an answer in the morning.

#TimeTravelAuthors Yes. In fact, when Lock and Gary spend a few hours making repeat trips to the future, they sometimes find the weather is completely different from what it was a moment ago.

Signature sunset

#FebruaryWorldbuilders In the city-state of Grand Harbor, the answer is: the Azure Order, the various municipal governments, and the central government, very much in that order. There are also strong traditions, such as "if it's not your town, stick to the main streets unless you have an invite."

#WIPSnips “…servants say he never came home. They thought he was spending the weekend with a mistress. We talked to all his mistresses. They never saw him. And when the staff came in on Archday morning… well, they found the body. We don’t know the exact time of death, but he was cold as the walls.”

#TimeTravelAuthors I'm not sure. I thought at the time it was a little like City of Ember.

#WIPSnips *She’s hoping I’ll mess up on some detail. She’s looking for something she can use to call me a liar.* The telegram. Packing for the trip. His sweetheart Arkhöa choosing to come with him. At this point Ms. Halbrex said, “Tell me about this young lady of yours.”

#WIPSnips As soon as Rhadmin saw the interrogator, he knew this was serious. Not because she was intimidating, but because she wasn’t. She was maybe forty, on the plump side, with silver-streaked dark hair and the kind and guileless face of a kindergarten teacher.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders There are as many mutually incompatible creation stories as there are mythologies. The more modern Cosmic School has the doctrine "we don't know yet, let's wait for scientists to figure it out."

#FebruaryWorldbuilders You'd think, with necromancy and all, that people would be able to say yes for sure. Trouble with necromancy is, you can't learn anything that the deceased didn't know when they last held the object you're using to contact them… assuming they're willing to talk.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders 1. Gary's crush on Lock's mom 2. Gary's later relationship with Tara, who at least is the same age 3. Lock's budding romance with June 4. Rikki and Lucy

#FebruaryWorldbuilders As in our world, it's up for debate. And as in our world, a lot of people who believe in it still want to believe in divine foreknowledge of human action, while a lot of people who don't believe in it still want to denounce sinners.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders There are those who have the power to commune with the dead by touching something that the dead once handled. But they can't extract any information the dead wouldn't have been willing to share in life. There have been prophets, but their accuracy is up for debate.

#TimeTravelAuthors “We need you!” He grabbed onto her right hand and held it firmly. Gary did the same with her left. Eventually her weeping subsided into steady, regular breathing. Then, without warning, she grabbed both of them and drew them into a hug.

#TimeTravelAuthors Only loosely. One of the reasons the gang doesn't go public with the existence of the time portal is that it will inevitably end up in the hands of the government, and they don't trust the government with that kind of power.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders Grand Harbor is the greatest and most complex natural harbor beneath the arch. Picture Scapa Flow with a city around it. It was a pirate/privateer haven for most of its history, and kept its independence because it was so valuable no nation would allow another to possess it.

#WIPSnips He had blundered at the Kamichogo. And though he’d never admit it in front of someone who’d never gone to war at all, he did feel like he had to do something to redeem himself.

#TimeTravelAuthors “Because when you love someone, you don’t just want them to love you back — you want them to love themselves too, to take care of themselves and cherish themselves as much as…” It was at this point that Lock broke down. Lucy drew him into a hug.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders Mangrove forests line the coasts of Byrex's Land. The glassbark mangrove species (my invention) are smooth-barked trees whose tough wood wears out a lot of saws and axes. Their fruit is edible. Imagine a kiwi with a slightly-too-strong taste of truffle and rosemary.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders The hottest desert is in the middle of Byrex's Land. Plants and animals there resemble nothing found elsewhere. My characters go there, but luckily not when it's at its hottest. There are cold deserts in the Vastlands, caused by rain shadow or sheer distance from the sea.

#WIPSnips “Despite reports to the contrary, we don’t do anything to disobedient children, except possibly encourage them. We find disobedience rather endearing. Nor do we do anything dreadful to promiscuous young women, except perhaps indulge them in their favorite things to do.”

#WIPSnips “Of course, I was right, but my father was also a compulsive gambler. Half the revenue from our island was going into the casinos up in Chömikui. If I’d been in the king’s position, I probably would have done the same thing.” She went back to cleaning up the blood.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders I've got altitude, climate, and biome (I couldn't manage the geology) maps inspired by the lessons of @madelinejames.bsky.social. I'm working on maps of Grand Harbor and what is either the United Republic of Kuvra or the kingdoms occupied by the Black Banner (opinions differ).

#TimeTravelAuthors It's a completed trilogy.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders Basically an Earth-sized planet, though we don't get to see most of the places in it.

#FebruaryWorldbuilders I'm just calling it the World Beneath the Arch. "Beneath the arch" is the most common way of saying "in this world" or "under the sun." (Once you get north of 66°N or south of 66°S, you can't see the "arch," but not that many people live there.)

#JanuaryWorldbuilders Mostly I just use GIMP, Paintbrush, and Pages.

#WIPSnips *You people don’t really want me to live. What you really want me to do is die, and then get up and go to work the next morning. You want me to die, and become an War Academy instructor or something. You want me to die, and marry a war widow—or more than one, the way things are going.*

#TimeTravelAuthors LOCKSMITH'S CLOSET - Locksmith finds a portal to the future. LOCKSMITH'S JOURNEYS - Lock discovers what causes the end of the human race. LOCKSMITH'S WAR - Now it's time to stop it from happening. www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3315STN

#JanuaryWorldbuilders Right now I'm looking for a really good book on the history of Central Asia. I don't suppose anybody can recommend one?

#WIPSnips “Well,” he said, speaking through his teeth, “it’s clear that my time in service to your family is at an end. I suggest you look for a new attorney at your earliest conBLAAAH!” Murthex had turned and found himself looking up into the face of Arkhöa, who didn’t seem to be in the best mood…

Let me reiterate: THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH GUYS TO PERSECUTE LARGE NUMBERS OF DISSENTERS. What they are doing, instead, is using fear and paranoia as a force multiplier: they don’t have to persecute us if we keep ourselves home because someone told us we can’t walk in public without being terrified.

More than a year in this has mostly gone as I feared, and in some ways has been worse. But there have been two contrasting surprises: -- The speed and breadth of institutional capitulation -- The courage, ferocity, and resolution of regular people Our strength isn't our institutions. It's us.

like, it will literally be *years* before they can do this. there are lots of things they can and must do in the meantime to gum up the works and constrain them, and they should run on abolishing ICE when they get the power, but they don't have it right now, and markey knows that

#JanuaryWorldbuilders Just ARCHSTONE, plus if I think of something, I'll write a short play for this year's Short Attention Span Theater.

#TimeTravelAuthors Parental loss, blood, bullying, betrayal, discussion of suicide, hand injuries, big angry dogs, rats, shovel fights, midair disasters, disease, psychological torture, torch fights, gunfire, death

#JanuaryWorldbuilders The Northern Marches War started when the URK wanted part of the northern Zocheian Empire. They offered to pay for it or share dominion. The Zocheians said no—if the URK could put a railroad through there, they’d finish their circumpolar railroad and dominate the Vastlands.

#JanuaryWorldbuilders During the Kuvran Revolutionary War, the Black Banner's forces punctured the lines around Vormarn using steam-powered armored vehicles. They were slow, but nothing stopped them.

#TimeTravelAuthors At one point in Book 3, Lock needs a cast because of injuries he suffered.

1 like, 1 random line from a work, either in progress or published. (It may take a few hours, but I swear I'll get around to it.)

Shout out to everyone on Twitter who now have to painstakingly delete all of their pro-gun tweets.

(Dude suddenly stops pushing his broom across the floor of the Death Star) Does this look like a big laser to anyone else

#JanuaryWorldbuilders In the mountains of Sapaq, the scouts invented hang-gliding to help with reconnaissance. Many steppelander nations picked this up from watching them, and use it to defend the Great Rift against invaders.

#WIPSnips “I wrote out confessions to entirely different crimes he never would have committed. When he found one, he’d read it and say ‘I can’t leave everyone thinking I did this! Not with a goat!’ or whatever. And by the time he was done rubbing out the message, the moment of despair had passed.”

#WIPSnips ...3. Have more than one cache of clothes. 4. Never get between anybody and the sun. They’re too likely to notice some flaw in the light. 5. Never get between anybody and a whitewashed wall. They’ll notice the pupils of your eyes.

#JanuaryWorldbuilders Kuvrans get 10 weeks basic training, plus additional specialist training. Steppelanders' whole lives are spent honing themselves for war. Kuvrans say, "10 weeks to train a soldier, 20 years to raise a warrior, but bullets kill both just as fast, and we have lots more bullets."