mastodon 4.7.3"#Scientist, #scribe and #sonnet aficionado"
#DataScientist, #poet and SF/F #writer.
Please call me Dr. or they/them.
🏳️🌈
Profile pic: A portrait in profile of a person with a dark beard, green-dyed mohawk-cut hair, and round glasses looking to the right, painted in bright neon colors.
water and sunlight
lingering after the storm
unwilling to part
bowing solemnly
a peony opens itself
to a swarm of ants
#ScribesAndMakers May20 Given $100 to spend on something to support your creativity this month, what are you spending it on?
Submission fees. I doubt I could burn through $100 in submission fees in a month, but I could try.
#WritersCoffeeClub May5 Have you ever taken inspiration from something which could have happened but didn't?
There are four scenarios implied by this statement:
* It could have happened, but didn't
* It couldn't have happened, but did
* It couldn't have happened, and didn't happen
* It could have happened, and did
I think you could write a great story about all four. For me, I don't spend much time on scenario 1, preferring 2 and 4.
#WritersCoffeeClub May26 In what ways does your work defy expectation?
Judging from my writing habits, I expect it to write itself, which it thus far rudely refuses to do.
on a silent pond
a single swan paddling
alone with its grief
#ScribesAndMakers May26 Who's your favorite vampire?
Probably Raziel, from the Legacy of Kain games.
an ambrosial sip
the hummingbird is sustained
one moment longer
beneath a snowbank
a violet pushes upward
unborn, undaunted
#WritersCoffeeClub May19 How would changing genre change your current WIP's plot?
I think it could be fruitfully reskinned as fantasy instead of sci-fi, but it's tough to get out of the realm of speculative fiction and still have talking animals.
If it were fantasy, the setup changes from "we need a computer part to repair the supercomputer" to "we need a macguffin to heal the land", and there's setting information about magic instead of genetic engineering.
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 3 What signature marks your work as definitively and effectively yours?
Hmm, I don't know if I have one. People have described my writing style as "archaic", but I'm not the only one who writes in an outdated way. Maybe it's the combination of that with more modern sci fi themes. I think I might be the only one writing blank verse about robots, or sonnets about a singularity.
#WritersCoffeeClub May21 What targets do you set for yourself? To what frequency?
I just try to write a little bit every week. One poem or one chapter. I've been doing the #SonnetSunday tag for a while now, where I try to post a new sonnet every Sunday. It often slips past me, but it's worth trying to keep up with.
#WritersCoffeeClub May20: If not your current genre, what genre would you write?
If not for speculative fiction and poetry, I don't know what else I would write. I suppose I would try to write "literature", whatever that means, or maybe nonfiction. I'm not particularly interested in other fiction genres.
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 5 What's a trait of other written works you admire, but don't seek to incorporate in your own works?
Honestly, anything I admire I am going to try to imitate.
I admire when authors do a ton of research and it comes through in their writing. Like knowing what fixtures a 1920's aristocrat would have in their bathroom, that kind of thing. I purposely avoid writing historical fiction so I can bypass the requirement for historical research + verisimilitude.
#ScribesAndMakers Feb 4 Our next featured creator is a comic artist. Tell us about a comic strip or web comic you enjoy.
Surprised I haven't seen Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal mentioned, it's one of my favorites https://www.smbc-comics.com/
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 17 How do you write about ecstasy, in a spiritual, artistic, or sensual context?
I try to keep the prose breathless.
humble barleycorns
not much to look at, alone,
but lovely to drink
Few enough, the groves
isolated from the world;
their secrets remain
a winter morning
the silence of the blue sky
absent twittering
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 14 Share a short (3-5 sentence) paragraph of raw prose: the more unpolished, the better.
Her hand went to her neck, feeling a trail of caked blood where the demon’s sharp stone knife had pressed against it. She rubbed it absently, thinking of the demon and its strange movements. She recalled the beautiful mask it had pulled from the crucifix, and for a brief, heretical moment, wondered what it might be like to wear such a thing.
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 2 How satisfied are you with the rhythm of your works?
It's something that can always be improved. I don't think I'm particularly good at it, so I'd say I'm dissatisfied with it. I've gotten to a point with poetry that I can hear and plan meter well, so in terms of micro-rhythm, I've got that going for me. But in terms of slower rhythms like pacing and themes, I think it's something I still need to work on.
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 6 From start to finish, how much time elapses in your current WIP?
Well, TSS is not finished yet, as it's a WIP. But probably it will come in at roughly a year of time. BOTNW took place over roughly the same time frame.
newly come to Earth
and knowing only hunger
a chick cries for more
dragging on the earth
a bold pheasant's tailfeather
insouciant panache
A microcosm:
lanterns calling to the sun.
Warm wind, flickering.
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 7 Share a pair of consecutive lines of a current or recent project. (Everyone:) What does the first line promise? Does the second line fulfill that promise?
"To you, perhaps, the vagaries of cosmic chance are little more than noise; to me, they are the boundaries within which I must live."
"That is the beauty of a human life."
The world is full of
shallow words and deep nothings
that linger between -
what I meant to say was, "Please,
don't go." But I said goodbye.
oh, a butterfly!
emerging from a cocoon
unsure of its wings
Do you have a favorite soundtrack cover?
I posted the other day about how perfect the Octopath Traveler OSTs are, but sometimes a cover just hits different.
Here's one of my favorites, Steven Melin's cover of Twoson, "Boy meets Girl" from Earthbound. Just lovely.
each time love occurs
it is unique - unequaled -
there is no first love;
whenever we fall in love
it is always the first time
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 4 How much detail do you use to describe your settings?
It depends on the situation. Usually I try to reveal setting details through indirect means or in service of something else; like for example there's a bit in BOTNW where one of the characters gushes over the technology they see in the streets of the capital city. But I'm not above a setting infodump.
Ideally I think settings should be left a little vague to leave some mystery for the reader.
dissolved, coalesced
the world returns to itself;
that memory, rain
#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 10 Talk about a work which subverted your expectations in a good way.
I'm having a hard time thinking of one. I generally try to go into media without strong expectations.
I feel like a lot of anime tries to subvert expectations with varying degrees of success. For example Death Note or Madoka Magica come to mind.
huddling closer
the warmth of a burning world
on a frozen sea
You find a machine that can convert annoyances into small joys. You can either:
a) Sacrifice a small joy of your choice, but permanently banish an annoyance of your choice;
b) Gain a new (random) source of annoyance, and also gain a new source of small joy; or
c) Walk away from the machine.
So for example you could trade your ability to taste chocolate to never be bit by a mosquito again. Or suddenly be annoyed by the color red but find joy in the color blue.
What do you choose?
