#WordWeavers Day 22: Did any books/movies/shows influence your story?
More than directly influencing what my story is, things influenced what my series isn’t. I started the first draft of my series over thirteen years ago when pretty much everything was dystopian & post-apocalyptic. I wanted to create something that showed that hope & empathy in a genre where so many things were solved by violence was possible, & that we can reflect that ideology in real life.
#Writephant Q1 — Are any of your stories set in outer space? If so, where?
So many of them are. I've had a lot of #DoctorWho stories published in various books and magazines. I love to write timey-wimey stuff wibbling and wobbling.
I'll include a screenshotted description of both of my original WIP novels that are set somewhere in space.
This story, however, is my favorite that I've written as of late. It's a Doctor Who standalone (AKA oneshot).
I’m looking for some holiday escapism, (so probably fiction, but not necessarily) I often read #scifi (but more for the speculative futurism than “ZOMG aliens!”), and will enjoy anything that makes me think (ie. challenges me) but—for today—without being preachy.
I’ve enjoyed many of John Scalzi’s books, adored Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota quadrilogy (❤️ #HopePunk), and still dream of N.K Jemisin’s Fifth Season.
Looking for hope, here's an article about how bringing bison back is also bringing back the prairie.
We need to restore entire ecosystems, and yes, that works best by bringing back the species that determine them (like the wolves in Yellowstone). Even better if we humans can also profit. Bison meat is healthier than beef.
Character art of Kahali, Rana’s fun-loving best friend and LI in The Calling. He believed kindness and humor could solve everything until he met his first humans. You can imagine how well that went.
Drawn by @raifiondella. #FindingHumanitySeries#oc#books#scifi#hopepunk#writing#amwriting
Aktuell freuen wir uns übrigens besonders darüber, wenn ihr unsere Folgen teilt oder weiterempfehlt. Mit dem Wegfall von Twitter, wo wir die Folgen nicht mehr bewerben und den Account auch früher oder später löschen werden, verlieren wir natürlich ziemlich an Reichweite.
Hier einfach noch mal der Link zu unserer aktuellen Folge zum Thema #Zukunft und #zuversicht
To anyone overwhelmed with our world, keep with you this ray of hope:
"We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words." - Ursula K. Le Guin, in her speech given at the National Book Awards in 2014.
Cometh the weekend, cometh the #linkdump. My daily-ish newsletter includes a section called "Hey look at this," with three short links per day, but sometimes those links get backed up and I need to clean house. Here's the eight previous installments:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
This, in turn, creates a supersaturated, subconscious solution of fragments that are just waiting to nucleate and crystallize into full-blown novels and nonfiction books and other "stock." That's how I came out of lockdown with nine new books. The next one is The Lost Cause, a #hopepunk science fiction novel about the climate whose early fans include Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, Bill McKibben and Kim Stanley Robinson. It's out on November 14:
In this article, Susan takes us along on her hopepunk journey of discovery. “Hopepunk,” Susan tells us, “declares a wholesale restructuring is necessary not only to avoid the unfolding catastrophes but to re-center human flourishing.”
I currently have 3 short stories on "hold" at various zines, ie. their first-line readers like it & they're bumping it up. Practically, it means they stretch out the time until they reject me LOL.
Which reminds me: I need to self-publish more in 2024. I've got several shorts in zines & I'm not out to prove anything w/my writing—these stories are an attempt to get more #solarpunk & #hopepunk out in the world where it can help people rewrite the future.
The mysterious breaking of a tidal energy machine kicks off my near-future hopepunk climate fiction series. I really would love to see that become real-life (the energy machine part, not the breaking part).
If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Nothing is Promised.
Stuart Little - White
Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
That Hideous Strength - Lewis
A Prayer for Owen Meany - Irving
Ender's Game - Card
The Sparrow - Russell
Making Color Sing - Dobie
Holy The Firm - Dillard
Red Mars - Robinson
Homeland - Doctorow
Wool - Howey
Lagoon - Okorafor
Light from Uncommon Stars - Aoki
@CuriousMagpie@annaleen@bookstodon This is one of those very rare books that I borrowed from the library and then went right out to buy a copy to reread. So much to absorb, to ponder, to enjoy. The concept of non-hominims as “people” and all those ramifications, wow. Now I’m squinting at my cats, wondering if there’s intelligent life in there (they have no network access, so who knows?) #solarpunk#hopepunk
I've chatted with many people about how to illustrate my baordgame #HopePunk. And something that many suggest and comes up again and again: use #AIartwork.
Which to me is the worst of ALL options.
It is sad that people immediately jump to this. Even though the game is about collective resistance, about fighting for a future woth living -- about not allowing corporations to get away with everything.
It would be really cynical, if Hope Punk would use AI generated art.
I'm often tempted to reply to or refute folks with views I consider overly pessimistic or unnecessarily discouraging. I know better.
Making an effort to simply seek out and share more information about people doing good things in the world, organizations working for positive change, and interesting ideas to make the work a better place.
Any good hashtags to follow for this kind of info?