#WordWeavers 6/3
Who is your most creative character?
Definitely the minstrel, Shawmelle. She sings, plays a lute and writes her own songs. Her father was a minstrel, as well, and was the one who taught her to play.
She's also very lucky, in that one of the kingdom's squires takes a liking to her. 🙂
"Artists are people who are not at all interested in the facts—only in the truth. You get the facts from outside. The truth you get from inside." –Ursula K. Le Guin
I’m excited to say that I turned in my manuscript for the ActivityPub book for O’Reilly Media today. I started working on it in September of 2023, with a lot of interim checkpoints and deadlines since. In April 2024, I finished the first draft of the manuscript. Over the month of May, I’ve been working on improvements suggested by the technical reviewers who agreed to look over the book, and from my own re-read.
In total, my TODO file for this month has about 250 changes to be made. Some are small — just changing a word or two — but one required adding a whole new chapter, and many required multi-paragraph sections.
I took the last week of May off from my work at Open Earth Foundation to concentrate on making changes. My team was really supportive, which I deeply appreciated. I went to our country house in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and I spent the week writing, editing, drawing and thinking.
Now, the next stage of book making starts: production. The production team at O’Reilly will be copyediting, indexing, and laying out the book. Their designers will be taking my UML diagrams and turning them into professional-looking illustrations. We have two rounds of quality control on code samples and fact checking on content.
In September 2024, the final e-book will be available for sale. I’ll have a link here for the pre-sale version when it comes out. If you’re eager to read the book, I highly recommend reviewing the early release version.
Thanks so much to my friends, family and colleagues who’ve made space and time for me to do this work. It has meant a lot to me. I hope the final product helps more developers create cool projects using ActivityPub.
The unique disappointment of taking precious free time to read most of a book you like but that then bumps you completely out of interest just as you’re almost at the end.
If I’ve got to try to wrap my head around why the main character would act a certain way that seems totally unrealistic to the personality fully 300 pages into a book, that story isn’t my jam. 🤷♂️
Started reading The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick. I read this book over 2 decades ago, and was often at a loss for many of the words in it were foreign to me. Now 25 years later, at least I have Google, and I'm definitely expanding my vocabulary, but I do understand it a lot better than I had before. So far it's as good as I remember. Heck better even because I can understand it now. #book#reading#SciFi
A VIRTUOSO RIFF ON AN AMERICAN classic: the inimitable Percival Everett retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, transforming it from a familiar picaresque to a more complex adventure and a meditation on code-switching. A MINUS
My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, & spectacular #horror#books far & wide.
💙📚 You may presume you'll know the story that unfolds in I THINK I'M ALONE NOW, but you'll be wrong as hell. I read this novella in a single sitting: Ali Seay has written a thoroughly enjoyable, vivid, violent, deliciously dark chunk o' horror set in the 80's that's, like, totally rad. (Grindhouse Press)
J'imagine que vous aurez remarqué ma passion dévorante pour Yorgos Lanthimos et son cinéma ? Et bien, le monsieur est aussi photographe, et sur son dernier film, il a pris beaucoup de photos qui sortent... en livre. Je ne peux que vous inciter à aller là :
Last day to grab the Depositphotos deal! Only $39 for 100 photo/vector downloads from Depositphotos (this never expires). Choose from 270 million+ royalty-free images:
appsumo.8odi.net/6bOZAE @bookstodon#book#writing#marketing#indie
A FORMER CHILD INFLUENCER comes to terms with how the exploitation of her image changed her life. More than just a “problem novel,” this thoughtful book deftly takes on issues of family trauma, love, friendship, racial and national identity. A MINUS
I am currently engrossed in reading the Expanse book series. In the universe of these books, humanity's advanced space-faring civilization still grapples with familiar issues like geopolitical tension, inequality, and exploitation.
The arrival of a mysterious new technology ignites intense reactions from governments, individuals, and political ideologies.
In these books, I see many parallels to how people currently interact with AI. #book#scifi
Day 1 #Bookstadon challenge: Choose 20 #books that greatly influenced you. One #book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers
(I've already been doing this over on Bluesky and am several days in, so I'm going to do my best to not get mixed up on the days I'm on 😆) #horror@horrorbooks@bookstadon
Today's review! Ice + Alligators by Angel Martinez:
"Ink is having a bad day... Pickerel is perfectly happy in the swamp.... a delightful romp through the swamp with laugh-out-loud funny author Angel Martinez, a great lighthearted read perfect for summer vacation."
Beautiful picture book about community, family and friendship, Let’s Go ! haw êkwa ! celebrates perseverance and passion. The reader follows a little boy who dreams every day to go skateboarding… until his mother brings home her old skateboard. At the beginning, it is scary and difficult, but with practice and the help of new friends, the little boy flies like the wind.