FMK: Harry Mudd, Captain Lorca, and Contreland. Ben and Adam answer this and many other burning questions as they revisit their time with Star Trek: Discovery on a retrospective episode of #GreatestTrek
Listen to the full episode at gagh.biz/greatesttrek
The books I’m sharing are free as of today in Canada and usually the United States of America, too. If you do not live in those countries or are reading this after June 6, 2024, I do not know if they are free or available for you.
Please tag me if you want a boost for your lists of free speculative fiction books from other parts of the world. 💜
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 06 — Have you queried agents for traditional publishing? How did it go?
I met my agent at a writers conference, so technically I didn't query. It helped that I had a couple completed manuscripts with me. I appeared serious. I was told when I completed the next one, send it in. The agent sold it so quickly to such a good imprint that I didn't appreciate the miracle that had been pulled off. Nor did I appreciate the necessity of pursuing the career with intensity a lucky high school baseball player who makes it to the minor leagues needs pursue the majors.
That's the danger of getting a day job. A day job that pays well monetarily if not psychologically.
#PennedPossibilities 335 Part 2 — Do you use metaphors in your writing? What are some examples?
Yep, caught myself writing one:
...reading a CW forms in the reader's head a preconception without actual knowledge of the facts. It's a cudgel not a scalpel.
Not a simile. I could have written that a CW is as sharp as a cudgel to do that. Might still qualify as a metaphor, though. It is certainly an allusion.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 10 Nbr 05 — Have you ever dreamed about characters in your work?
So rarely as to be certain it happened less than a dozen times.
What being an author has done is turn most of my dreams (the one's I vaguely remember, anyway) into sequential stories that feel like narrative. I am not saying they make sense, but events seem to happen for a reason, with characters that show up in successive scenes, with recollection of what happened reflecting in choices that follow. Sometimes, the story continues after being awake for sometime. Sometimes it continues on a subsequent night. My dreams are always in color.
#WordWeavers 2406.05 — Do you have fans/people who enjoy your writing? What’s your relationship to them?
I've gotten sporadic feedback for years, some which has made me confident a certain population of readers like my stories because they aren't run of the mill. For a long while, I had a reader who liked dissecting passages in my stories, happily pointing out sarcasm and innuendo, and subtleties in the interactions between characters. Complementary comments are always nice. Way back in the previous millennium, I received an actual fan letter. You know, with an envelope. Written on a typewriter. I really wished I'd saved it, but I was young and stupid.
#PennedPossibilities 336 — Would you or have you ever used a mixed metaphor in your writing? We would love to hear some examples.
Unintentionally? I hope not. Intentionally, not often. Like a misquoted cliché, such things are humorous only if the reader is aware of the original metaphors. Since I write in first person, and those persons either live in some future time or some fantasy world, my characters can't tell their stories using common English metaphors. That said, I've created sound-alike metaphors and my characters have used them mixed them snidely, usually for the purposes of innuendo.
Like 335, they're a rarity in my current works, so I've none at hand to share.
#WordWeavers 2406.04 — Antagonist POV: Is it easy for you to apologize? Can you apologize to someone right now?
If I made a mistake or bumped into somebody? Of course. Many people recognize me, or take a look at me, and something between awe and stupidity sets in. I account for that. I've survived the fall of civilizations; I can be charming. What I won't apologize is for doing things I must do, whether it simply upsets you or ends up killing people you knew, and all the permutations in between. My role in this miserable life that never ends is ensuring humanity survives. Nobody apologizes to me for saddling me with that responsibility. You know what really ticks me off? Questions like this one. Sorry!
After watching “Arrival” last night, I’m fixated on the idea of nonlinear memory. It must be disorienting, and incredibly strange to remember your entire life when you haven’t fully lived it yet.