Child: I know your name. Mamdani. Obama: What’s his first name? Child: Mayor.

I've been writing a lot of stories set from the 1860s-1960s. So, war is hovering in everyone's mind. One of my favorite shorts I'm trying to find a home for is about a Choctaw man who gets his draft letter while he's part of the Occupy Alcatraz movement. #pretendpanel

#PretendPanel 4/18: If I explore war at all in my writing, it's typically the aftermath or prevention of it. I dabbled more when I was younger because it seemed inherent to SFF genres, but I understand too much about the horror of it now to take it lightly, and not enough about it to do it justice.

A big war doesn't really fit my more intimate genre, so I always thought it wouldn't be something I write. Laymen is set in the years after a war, so it does discuss the political fallout, but there's zero (martial) conflict. I'm also not studied in war enough to write it well. BUT..🧵 #pretendpanel

I'll mostly use it as backstory or background to a setting. My big war stories are fantastical, allowing for cleaner results than real war. Like Aroi House being able to avoid slaughtering hundreds of soldiers in the Rykal sequence of NICEF. #pretendpanel

Unless we're talking 'bout the wars one fights inside their own head... you won't find it in my books, #PretendPanel. TBH, I don't know enough about it to write anything worth reading. Nor do I think I have the skills to capture people's attention in that way. I'll stick to mental health & BDSM. 🤷‍♂️

#PretendPanel The only time I’ve made more than a passing reference to war was in a fanfic I wrote about ten years ago, and that was because it was part of the canon. Otherwise, I may make a reference to set context, but it’s unlikely be a focus of my story—although never say never!

#PretendPanel in Fallen Star, war is a fresh scar a few decades removed. For Maira, it's something to be avoided. It's coming back, not out of some inevitable escalating tension, but because thousands of sailors on hundreds of navy ships get antsy if they don't have a target... #WritingCommunity

The MMCs in one novel and a novella I’ve written are both veterans of war, which has left them changed. The fathers and uncles of many friends were WW2 vets, it did not make them easy to live with. #pretendpanel #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

#PretendPanel Apr 17: Wars and battles crop up pretty often in fantasy fiction, so I run into it fairly often -- but it's also always through that genre lens, which I feel is very different in tone and flavor from, like, WWII historical fiction.

I'll be honest #PretendPanel, I've never been interested in reading about war. History never captured my attention. But, I recently read 'Border & Rule' after getting it in a promo bundle & WOW... I've sheltered myself into a place of ignorance. So, I'm expanding my interests for personal growth!

#pretendpanel It used to have a place when I was young. Now, not anymore because "fuck war". I write it when the story asks for it, but that's it.

#PretendPanel: I don't know that war stories are something I intentially seek out very often, but it definitely comes up! Fantasy and Scifi do tend to have war as a common story element, and I grew up loving historical fiction. I devoured the Dear Canada books as a kid, which had a lot of wars.

#pretendpanel 17: I suppose war is a common theme in the genres that I read, like high fantasy. My feelings are mostly neutral; I don't specifically seek it out or avoid it.

Most books I've read regarding war deal withaftermath The Tenth Man by Graham Greene for one stuck with me, but not as much as A Canticle for Leibowitz How conflict affects people is more powerful I find The most direct "war" books I've read though? David Gemmell's "Troy" trilogy #pretendpanel

Interesting! I think a lot of what I read has many characters and plots affected by the wars that just finished (see: the entire Regency era; the modern era [between the World Wars]), since I read a lot of historicals. But also: contemporary stuff can't help but be affected by war. #PretendPanel

I don't seek out books about war, but plenty of my reading material deals with battles and the threat of war. At the moment I'm reading @aptshadow.bsky.social 's Shadows of the Apt series which deals with world-spanning conflict. Dragonfly dogfights, Spider politics, Fly bombers. Fascinating stuff.

I've read a lot about wars. As I get older it gets more painful. #pretendpanel #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

RIP Moya Brennan 1952-2026 Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten. May Herne the Hunter guide you home

To be perfectly honest, #pretendpanel, religion doesn't have much of a place in any facet of my life. I'm not a religious person, and not very interested in it to boot, so I spend very little time thinking about it. I actively avoid having to develop religion for my fiction unless I have to. 🧵 1/2

#WritingPrompts I usually write fantasy stories where gods are very real. In reality I'm an atheist who was raised in one of the more mainstream cults.

Happy #caturday, #PretendPanel! I'm not sure what place religion will have in the novel [yet to be named, outlined, or started]. But, I know it has a HUGE place in our memoir [currently being reworked in the headspace... notes jotted down as they come]. Mainly explores shame as a form of control.

#PretendPanel April 11 It is front and center. Having grown up deep in fundie Christianity, I have a lot of trauma to unpack & toxic beliefs to brutally deconstruct. At the same time, I'm still a very spiritual person & believe in the good that can come from religious beliefs & community, so I 1/5

Surprisingly little, for someone who is super interested in religion as a thing and has a daily spiritual practice. I've never focused on it in my writing and it really only appears as part of a wider cultural context, like mentioning Christmas decorations in a character's home. 🏷️ #PretendPanel

#PretendPanel inherently similar to yesterday's answer. I generally avoid it on purpose at this point. I even went to the trouble in my DKD series of dividing 'paladins' from religiosity. Individuals simply believe their 'holy magic' comes from their deit(y/ies)/spirits/ancestors.

#PretendPanel I don't know if I'm back, but I might be, so let's just go for it. Religion hasn't played much of a role in my writing until very recently. It peeked into one ms w/a very personal character, but even more than gender or sensuality i has a lot to work through before knowing what I had

Sometimes it plays a large role in my work, sometimes none at all. It depends on the story. A lot of the time it’s folkloric belief rather than formal religion, though priests and ministers do pop in from time to time. #pretendpanel #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

#PretendPanel A good 2/3rds of Shadows & Sorcery is me taking a religious concept and running off with them in another direction, I have 20+ open tabs of esoteric theology open at all times on my phone, and my laptop has a folder to contain even more, so I'd say it has a pretty central role😂 1/2

Happy FriYAY, #PretendPanel! Give me ALL THE RELIGION! Reading about religions from all over the world has been a BIG part of deprogramming. And, has helped me shape my path. I will say... I read them all with the understanding that they're merely myths. Stories to help us understand each other.

It's hard to find work that looks hard at religious abuse and for-profit religion that does not simultanously make fun of everyday people for having faith, but it's usually a good read when done well. #pretendpanel

In non-fic, I'm fascinated by religion. As a pagan raised by atheists, I have no horse in the organised religion race. I just love learning about belief systems, spiritual mythology etc. In fiction, I LOVE corrupt religious activity and symbolism, the more fucked up the better. 🏷️ #PretendPanel

#pretendpanel Fictional religions, I'll read about them, it can be really interesting. However, I don't read a lot of pro-Christian stuff, particularly if it's too much like the version I grew up with. I have too much religious trauma for that shit. I almost DNF'd Stephen King's Desperation. 1/2

I love reading about the history and scholarly study of religion. It's a fascinating part of any and every culture, and the way religion reshapes over the years and centuries is a perfect example of how humanity operates. #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts #writesky #writingprompt

It had a huge place, I devoured anything about different religions, but right now I much prefer podcasts or youtube for my non-fiction. I write so much I need something different, and I cannot listen to audiobooks, they don't have my own voice, so paper for fiction. #writingcommunity #writers

Oh goodness I'M OBSESSED! I read & watch as much about comparative religion as much as I can I view religion as a record of the collective unconscious Everything good and bad about our speicies I try and capture the whole spectrum of belief and ritual best I can for authenticity #pretendpanel

#pretendpanel As a pagan I actively read a lot of books about my craft. Mostly reading about the deities I work with and about spell crafting.

#PretendPanel went through a few drafts on this one. It's a very loaded topic, and I don't think anyone wants to hear my thoughts on it. Suffice to say, I prefer when stories don't involved religion at all, at this point.

#PretendPanel Reigion has a small place. I actively read the bible (and religious books) but not always. I just started the book of Luke three days ago. #WritingCommunity #Writers #WritingPrompts

I taught World Religions in high school for many years, so religion is something I like to read about, from the meditative works of Thomas Merton, to more historical stuff like Mary Boyce. #pretendpanel #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

This only aired once...that was all that was necessary, back in the days when the USA wasn't run by lunatics. youtu.be/2cwqHB6QeUw?...

#writingtip #writingtips #amwriting #writingcommunity inventingrealityediting.com/2...

From time to time, I see posts from other writers bemoaning that they’re stuck editing their story or novel. It’s not a sentiment I can relate to. I love editing and revising my work. …2 #WritingCommunity #WriteSky

When I started, yesterday, there were about 300 instances of "that" in my 20K WIP. I have now wrestled them down to 51. It's an affectation to remove filler words from prose; in speech we use them all the time. However, seeing 300 uses of "that" on the page is somewhat appalling. #WritingCommunity

I’m not sure why anyone has a problem with birthright citizenship. If a child is born somewhere, they should be a citizen of that country.

I start writing around 5:00 a.m every day. It's not a chore I resent. The fresh start to each day animates me, and sitting down to write for an hour or two feels like an adventure, an exciting passage toward an intriguing goal. You have to avoid making writing feel mundane. #WritingCommunity

Writing is an act of discovery, even if you’ve planned and plotted everything to the highest degree. At the very least you discover your own abilities to persevere, to finish, to make the effort necessary to be a writer. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky

Writing isn’t a linear event. You rarely proceed directly from beginning to end, no matter how much you plan or brainstorm. Embrace the diversions and digressions; enjoy the time it takes to polish your words. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky

My WIP is now 24,792 words. I added another 1300 this morning. The end of the first draft is in sight. #WritingCommunity #WIP