@stephenwhq@mastodon.social cover
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

stephenwhq

@stephenwhq@mastodon.social

Warm intelligent accessible #SFF Our Child of the Stars/Our Child of Two Worlds. #writer
+VictorianMurder
+HighSchoolWeird

#Free #fiction on website and smart #newsletter.
Services to help creatives be interesting

Bi, parent, humane, "writes beautifully" I'm told. UK/the world

craft and business of writing/ science health policy/ professional communicator/ help writers with their writing

Profile photo: genial white bearded guy grey hair and beard, in shirt with braces UK suspenders (USA)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

emeraldzak , to bookstodon group

a review of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke:

To describe the plot is to spoil the book. This is an Outer Wilds situation where every person of impeccable taste will beg you to experience it and never look it up online beforehand. 5.0 stars out of 5.0.

This is a book that wants you to read it. It delights in being read. So do that. A perfect little book that feels neither wasteful nor lean.
It is Just Right.
The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.

@bookstodon

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@emeraldzak @bookstodon

Piranesi

I describe this as 'a labyrinthine book about a labyrinth. You will need to trust that the author delivers - she does!'

randahl , to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Trump's hush money trial has reached jury deliberation. For Trump to serve time in prison, the 12 person jury needs to agree

A. Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels.

B. She was paid hush money by Trump.

C. Trump illegally wanted the payments to be presented as legal fees in his accounting records.

D. Trump did all this with the purpose of avoiding a scandal in the 2016 presidential election.

D is what makes it a felony. Following the trial, it seems to me the evidence is overwhelming.

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl

the evidence for climate change and vaccination are also overwhelming.

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl

that's true. A narrower problem is that only one juror need be convinced that it's all some conspiracy for him to be mistrialled. And they've been pursuaded to believe all sorts of bs

JulietEMcKenna , to random
@JulietEMcKenna@wandering.shop avatar

Genuine questions about Rishi Sunak's suit yesterday. Anyone got any idea of the likely cost? And will that soaking have ruined it or not?

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@ergative @JulietEMcKenna

His Press Office hate him
He would look awkward with an umbrella
They don't have a gazebo, like they didn't have a plan for a pandemic
The writer thought it would be funny and the editor nodded
Zeus was angry

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon group
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

This week I've been mainly reading, no. 153.

Each of Emma Newman's Planetfall quartet explores a different aspect of the same overarching story of religious driven intergalactic migration. In Atlas Alone (2019), the fourth story centres on an elite gamer & their attempt to uncover & then take revenge for a crime against humanity. To say much more would ruin the plot for you, but as with the others, this is great, fascinating sci-fi, which has a great payoff at the end.


@bookstodon

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@TimWardCam @ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

Who knows? Not only has religion asserted its power in this century, we have also seen pseudo-religious ideologies with their messiahs, promised land, sacred texts - based on rigidly secular philosophies.

Uair , to bookstodon group
@Uair@autistics.life avatar

@bookstodon

Idea:

Bookstores should group fantasy with horror instead of scifi. Both fantasy and horror are purely creations of the author's mind; scifi is tethered to factual information.

If you need to group scifi, I'd put it with mysteries and thrillers.

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@jpaskaruk @elysegrasso @deirdrebeth @alexlubertozzi @aprilfollies @_L1vY_ @Uair @bookstodon

The idea of careful scientific extrapolation v wildly fantastic writing in a scientific vein actually goes back to Verne and Wells respectively. Yet Verne wrote stuff wrong at the time, and people are often wrong about the future. Hard SF isn't morally superior.

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@aprilfollies @JonSparks @alexlubertozzi @Uair @bookstodon @_L1vY_ @elysegrasso @deirdrebeth @jpaskaruk

OK. It's Mastodon so I will be polite. That's a really poor take. It misunderstands fiction, it is unhelpful to readers and booksellers, and I hope the majority of SF writers would agree with me.

randahl , to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

Brilliant proposal by German politicians: Let us place air defence systems inside NATO, and have these systems save civilian lives by shooting down missiles over western Ukraine.

This is pretty clever because

  1. Russia cannot bomb these systems as that would be an act of war against the entire NATO alliance.

  2. The systems cannot trigger a war with Russia themselves, as they are not attacking Russia.

Do it!

https://www.dw.com/uk/u-nimeccini-proponuut-zbivati-droni-nad-ukrainou-silami-nato/a-69054148

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@randahl

legally probably untrue and far more importantly, irrelevant in practical realpolitik.

tzimmer_history , to random
@tzimmer_history@mastodon.social avatar

The actual Kristallnacht was a country-wide pogrom in November 1938 in which the Nazis killed hundreds of German Jews, threw tens of thousands in concentration camps, destroyed hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses.

Was even a single person hurt at Columbia?

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@tzimmer_history
Students hurt by cops of course...

weirdwriter , to bookstodon group

So I'm reading Blood in the machine and actually think being called a Luddite is the highest complement you can give someone today. I encourage everyone to read Blood in the Machine. Luddites weren't technophobes. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown @bookstodon

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@WhiteCatTamer @weirdwriter @bookstodon

crucially it was a systemic problem, hundreds of people had suffered hospitalisation from such injuires. The jury threw a fit when they realised McD didn't give a s...t

stephenwhq , to bookstodon group
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

As part of my experiments with AI art, I commissioned human art. Which I prefer.

I have a couple of pieces around the novella in progress from artist Paul Humphreys. One is a study of fire jays, birds local to Suncup Falls, and the other is a character study of Livvy and Marcus, two of the six main characters at the school. They are talented theatre kids and oh boy, do they know it.

https://stephencox.substack.com/p/avoiding-sludge-state-using-feedback

@bookstodon

stephenwhq , to bookstodon group
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

Hello Authors of Masto?

Short story collections. Strong theme, or just the best stories? Can a collection include nightmares and light-hearted stuff? (An experienced author says a good collection does not vary wildly in tone. But my stuff does).

what do you think as a reader, and what do you do yourself?

@bookstodon

PS I have some free on my website

https://stephencox.co.uk/?page_id=184

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@neenamaiya @bookstodon

I might throw in a poem, or a short short.

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@dilmandila @bookstodon

yes, all but two are SFF. One is a 'straight' story about an actual real research project but speculating about an odd reaction to tech and therefore SFF-like. The other is just funny but a tad weird. I feel people will forgive these.

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@DoubleArobase @bookstodon

Interesting take. Partly the collection is to widen my audience. Partly to reward fans for patience...

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@orangewolf @bookstodon

I'd space them lighter darker not have a light half and a dark half, if that's what you mean.

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@mvilain @DoubleArobase @bookstodon

Lady Windermere's I assume

TootTropiques , to bookstodon group
@TootTropiques@c.im avatar

"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'."
"Like now, you mean?"
"Like always."

--Dirk Wittenborn, Pharmakon

@bookstodon

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@TootTropiques @bookstodon

"'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'."

This is literally what Dickens said.

there's a middle bit then the full quote ends

...in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ A Tale of Two Cities

stephenwhq , to random
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

Please boost in UK

New Voter ID rules not widely known and detail not understood. The list of suitable ID is not fully intuitive.

Also there will be requirement to reapply for postal votes.

Check now and tell you your friends.

#democracy #votersuppression #election #UK

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id

stephenwhq , to bookstodon group
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

254 — How do you use social media as an author?

Frequent "buy my book" - is annoying and I am good at not spending time looking at that

Ridiculous hype, unhelpful quotes "eighth book in the VoidLords series", bad covers don't help.

I offer some advice and support free. Response to questions is what I do for interest, not 'advice' by and large.

https://linktr.ee/stephencoxauthor

@bookstodon

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@twoowls73 @bookstodon

Oh, that's very annoying. Sorry. As traditionally published my eBooks are on Amazon Kindle and Kobo only, and my audio on Audible only. Didn't have any choice on that.

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@alan @bookstodon

yes, targetting readers rather than people-I-follow-as-writers (who tend to see a lot of book recommendations) is important

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@twoowls73 @bookstodon

which country are you in?

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @twoowls73 @bookstodon

crap. Thank you.

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @twoowls73 @bookstodon

https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/order-items/ols/products/our-child-of-the-stars-by-stephen-cox

https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/order-items/ols/products/our-child-of-two-worlds

These should work for the paperbacks, or I can sell hard or paper copies direct in the UK.

I really need to tidy the site up

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@negative12dollarbill @twoowls73 @bookstodon

sorted

stephenwhq , to bookstodon group
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

254 — How do you use social media as an author?

On X, Bluesky, Masto, FB, I have a newsletter and a website-blog (which needs remodelling).

I sometimes offer paid services on them, it has rarely been harder to work as an author and if this offends, unfollow me please. I offer some advice and support free.

https://linktr.ee/stephencoxauthor

I offer paid support for authors, manuscript assessment and media/confidence skills,
@bookstodon

NickEast , to writingcommunity group
@NickEast@geekdom.social avatar

Reader/Writer question:
How do you write/enjoy accents and dialects in your books?
Do you just mention that there is a dialect or do you write it out? And which do you prefer a a reader? 🤔

@writers @writingcommunity @writing
@reading @bookstodon



stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@NickEast @writers @writingcommunity @writing @reading @bookstodon

I put a high value on readability, phonetic spelling of everything is annoying.
Conversely, people just don't speak the same. Class, locality, important in Victorian times.
So i use signs lightly. in the WIP Mrs Bradshaw uses a few Northumbrian dialect words, which are not translated but are clear in context. A few pronounciations are used, particularly when she is angry.

I sometimes just say what accent people have.

stephenwhq , to writers group
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

My free newsletter talks about submitting my novel to get a new agent. It's happening. I review two new books I liked and an old book by one of my fave detective writers, which I didn't rate highly. A beautiful premise, a bold choice of heroine, a meh outcome. And the novella dilemma - make it a novel, or cut it further? It will go to early readers soon.

Do subscribe, social is unreliable to stay in touch. It's free.

@writers @bookstodon

stephenwhq OP ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@writers @bookstodon

https://stephencox.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/142209462/share-center

mtechman , to bookstodon group
@mtechman@mastodon.ie avatar

So glad I checked this one out of the library! #nonfiction #linguistics Picked it up when I saw blurb by @grammargirl @bookstodon

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/valerie-fridland/like-literally-dude/

stephenwhq ,
@stephenwhq@mastodon.social avatar

@viq @vitaminsludge @mtechman @niamhgarvey @grammargirl @bookstodon

with British voters now largely convinced Brexit was a mistake (as 48% of us voted) - 4:1 among those with an opinion - maybe we will live to see this being an issue again. We said Brexit weakened our 'soft power'.

The preference for USA English is driven by vatious factors but Hollywood, and Microsoft, are particularly strong.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •