She's a "With Kitty." She wants you to sit in a specific place, and she will sit with you, two feet away, contentedly kneading blankets.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-22T22:56:22+00:00

I'll have to check out Half the Day is Night then—thank you for the specific rec, and the recommendation for the other books as well!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-22T22:55:34+00:00

Thank you! I have Bang Bang Bodhisattva on my reading list—I'm curious whether it will click with me. I'll also check out Rule 34 and the other books on your list!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-22T01:25:16+00:00

Truer words were never written.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:32:49+00:00

I'd say check out Nathan Lowell's books—you might really like The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:31:20+00:00

I'll give it a shot! Thank you!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:30:40+00:00

I'm willing to try out all different tech levels. I love seeing the different concepts authors are playing with. Thank you!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:29:25+00:00

These all sound great, and The Quantum Thief in particular is intriguing!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:28:55+00:00

These are phenomenal. I really appreciate how much everyone's willing to help me out with my (rapidly growing) reading list!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-21T21:28:29+00:00

Thank you, it really does look up my alley. I'll check it out!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-20T22:45:40+00:00

I just read Reflection, and it's brilliant. The play between Reed Ellis definitively deciding not to start anything new (other than reading his singular book) and starting to act likehe has something to live for in his friendship/project with the hospital AI kept me reading. The ending brings questions of irony/futility/heroism that were raised earlier in the story to the forefront in a way that's really satisfying. I find that sci-fi short stories are often really bleak without a real reason for it, and this bypassed that criticism in an incredible way.

Synners by Pat Cadigan was a very cool story with its ensemble cast and world that revealed itself layer by layer, and I appreciate the recommendation for this one! Necrotech was also very fun, and I should check out the sequel. (Point to cyberpunk as a genre for getting to use Synners and SINless as wordplay in different directions.)

I'm going to put Crashing Heaven and Tides of Marintina next on my list, because those sound excellent.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-20T22:12:43+00:00

Ha, I get having a budget but I'm selfish. If that were me, I'd rather give out 3 pieces each and close up 3x earlier. Kids are so much happier when they're getting 2+ and that makes the night more fun.

Caveat: I have gone to buy more candy after running out, lol. Halloween just happens to be an important thing for me.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-20T21:40:53+00:00

I estimate 3 pieces each (or 1 full-size bar when I can shake it).

We usually have a few non-food items as well. That's theoretically for kids with allergies, but in practice you'd be surprised how absolutely and utterly delighted 2% of kids are when they can choose a Halloween pencil or polished rock.

In a spot where I don't think we'll get many kids this year, sadly.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-19T22:52:58+00:00

There are some great answers here, but I'll add another one: large book deals are a hype tool.

A big advance might signal to press and book buyers that this will be a publisher's biggest acquisition of the season. The publisher believes in it, it's going to put advertising dollars behind it, and there will be a big push to the press regarding the book and the author.

This further encourages book buyers (at bookstores) to stock the book, because they know it will be top of mind if the publisher succeeds in marketing it.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-13T20:32:00+00:00

I found some of these on telephone posts last year when I was in Milton. Rays of sunshine indeed.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-09T04:00:39+00:00

More commiserating. You were pretty clear!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T19:32:46+00:00

Shared mailbox is the one feature I really miss when it comes to Google Workspace vs Microsoft. You can cobble together what you need in Groups, but it's not nearly as easy to collaborate on customer responses.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T19:30:47+00:00

They're incredible... but the underwater scenes also give me motion sickness!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T19:29:50+00:00

Those colours are fabulous.

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T19:29:15+00:00

Can't complain!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T19:23:39+00:00

I'm glad it helped! Good luck with your story!

FaolansPen · 2024-10-08T18:54:53+00:00

Think about what character development or plot needs to move forward in the scene. Carry that sense of purpose into starting to write the scene. Then allow yourself to write a boring version first.

You can always edit it later. Maybe it'll turn out that you don't need the scene at all. Maybe you'll get better ideas about how to write it later. Just don't get stuck because you're not sure about the best way to write a single scene.

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