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Ephemerals
Ephemerals “But there aren’t any. Not one ephemeral. No ephemerals, no non-sapient mobiles, no nothing. Not even non-sapient immobiles. This is just a stupid, empty rock. Homework done, empty rock result duly recorded. I’ll be playing multiverses now, OK?” Norendrum performs the dark energy entity equivalent of holding its breath. If instructor Schwarzberlem doesn’t react,…
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Obsession
One more question for the experts on LinkedIn: How bad a sign is it, if you get obsessed with your characters? This is very much like real life falling in love, only worse. In real life, past a certain age, you’re familiar with the phenomenon, and know the acute phase won’t last. Either the subject…
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Truck Stop
„What do you mean, exactly, by ‘Not available’? What kind of joke is this supposed to be? Now just let me tell you one thing: Not funny. Just do look at this shelf. How many ‘Not available’ stickers are there? Fifty? Sixty? Seventy? One hundred and twenty? I mean, last week, there was the odd…
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Dralala-ping
“Dralala-ping, dralala-toc-toc, drala…” “Francis, do turn that phone off. Unless you are keen to get yourself fired. Private phones to be turned off at all times. Ever heard of that rule? Now is the time to stick to it. Or you’re gone. Fired, as in sacked. Got me? And off, as in not on. Not…
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Virtual Voices
Don’t you worry, miss Basil, this is just a plug. It’s perfectly ordinary. Just like the ones for electricity. This one is for oxygen, as it says on the label. And the one next to it, that’s for air. Nothing to worry about, miss Basil. And some patients need it, too.“ Here they go again.…
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First episode hurrah
This first episode of the 1kYears series was so much fun to write I’m at advanced risk of jumping right on to the next one, instead of starting work on Parole?, the next long format. Bad Troim. It’s probably the Dilbert angle of the 1kYears project. A completely fictional global IT service provider, located in…
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Three submissions
Writing fiction is tremendous fun, but by the last chapters long format projects tend to turn into a bit of a tedium, as described and tentatively analysed in a previous post. No problem, though, won’t happen again for at least a year, now is hurrah time: Think-o-mat has been defined completed. And another dreaded task, writing…
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Last stretch urge
Spent months loving, nurturing, developing, refining and generally never getting enough of my cast. Reach chapter 9 out of 10 and wham, change of mindset. I just want to get it over with. AFAP. Judging by what happened with the Pluggers, the last stretch of Think-o-mat will again consist of a fortnight of tedium. Writing fast and…
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Alt Left SciFi pitch
Some amazing advice kindly provided by Ariel Ayangwo: Eight Ways to Spark More Social Shares on Your Content Fast It’s targeted at bloggers, but Ariel’s 4U-rule can easily be applied to fiction writing. The corresponding Alt Left SciFi pitch reads: Useful: Feeling challenged? Your life no paradise? Regardless of whether you love or hate the changes…
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We are not alone
Really love a post by Elisabeth Giovani on LinkedIn, about the scares and doubts about not writing in our mother languages. Feels good not to be alone, shared scares are lighter scares! Funny, though, how we automatically refer to native speakers as arbiters who might grant or refuse us permission to write in English. As…