[#]WordWeavers Feb 2
Do any of your characters have creative jobs?
Tons of them. Juniper is a musician; J. is an author; Vanessa is an art student and musician (kinda). But The Devil's Finger is loaded with them; Jemima and Julie are comedians, Chaz is a musician, Liam (in effect) a gossip columnist, and almost all the other characters -- Imogen, Eddie, Rex -- work in ancillary jobs to the entertainment industry.
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[#]TimeTravelAuthors 1 Feb: Introduce your time-travel story
I'm running out of different ways to do this...
The parallel-universe trope tends to focus on timelines where there's a huge change; Germany wins WW2, the South wins the US Civil War, etc.
To me, the clue lies in the word "parallel"; if one alternate universe exists, then by definition infinite ones do, and mostly they'll differ by a hairsbreadth at most.
This theory of all but identical universes is what drives The Psychopath Club.
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Well knock me down with a feather (clever Trevor) ---
Within the space of 24 hours, I learn that THREE MEN IN ORBIT has a) been picked as Recommendation of the Episode by Hugo-award hem-hem winning podcast Octothorpe, and
b) appeared on the nominee list for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Awards for work published in 2024. My first award nomination ever for fiction.
I hardly need add that I hope you'll a) buy it if you haven't already, and b) vote for it if you're eligible to vote.
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[#]PennedPossibilities 572 — How seriously does your SC take themself? Do they prefer a solemn and intellectual atmosphere, or do they instead delight in jokes and banter?
They tend toward the latter; Harris is jolly in a ponderous Edwardian way, Vaendras is constantly sardonic and takes nothing seriously, Chaz Singleton is stuck in his rock-star performance persona even in private (in fact Imogen's the staidest character in the book she's protagonist of). Even Vanessa is perkigoth, not mopigoth.
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[#]PennedPossibilities 571: What or who motivates your antagonist / villain to act the way they do? Could a new motivator convince them to change?
Eddie likes to be the best at what he does, for self-satisfaction and also because it makes the money roll in. Sadly this means he has to be a cold, unscrupulous bastard. Also sadly, he enjoys that.
Liam proclaims he's a crusader against evil. He may, on some level, believe this. However, it involves destroying lives in return for clicks and money.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub Jan28. How do you format your drafts? Is it the same as the final manuscript?
I just rattle away in LibreOffice Writer, and give no thought to formatting at all as I do so. If I need any formatting at all, I stick it in when preparing the final submission MS. But in general I treat the words as the important part and presentation as the parsley on top.
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[#]PennedPossibilities 569 — Do any of your SCs represent something important within the story? Explain what it is, and tell us why they represent that very thing.
Honestly, I don't tend to write that way. My characters serve the plot, rather than sitting there like Patience on a monument, embodying any particular quality.
This is probably why I've never managed to sell any of my literary writing, and have given up and vowed to stick to genre.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 27Jan—What unpaid marketing sites have you found helpful?
Boringly, social media. Especially, god help me, Facebook. (I'm using 'unpaid' in a purely monetary sense here, of course.)
I have no idea whether any of the interviews or contributions to other websites have done any good, but I enjoy them and they help me to maintain a writing headspace. I'll mention in particular The Protagonist Speaks, which is always entertaining to write for and to read.
https://theprotagonistspeaks.com/
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55 years today since Jon Pertwee debuted as the Doctor!
https://galacticjourney.org/january-26-1970-over-the-rainbow-doctor-who-spearhead-from-space
[#]DoctorWho
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[#]PennedPossibilities 568 — After the story is all done, how does or should the MC come across to the reader?
Imogen: a very normal woman who through extraordinary circumstances discovers she has strength, sharp wits, and determination (plus loyalty to friends).
Juniper: Similar, except in a fantasy setting rather than belonging to our world.
J.: a well-meaning, accident-prone man, essentially decent.
Darroll: a vicious, callous killer who is still somehow relatable. (This is the tough one.)
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[#]WordWeavers Jan26. Does your SC value academics?
Most of the Psychopath Club are pretty anti-school and anti-teacher, but Joe Boardman, as the genius of the group, appreciates them.
Chaz Singleton was a rebel at school and a slacker at art school, who spent most of his time playing guitar. His subsequent career as a rawk star is in part two fingers up by him to academia.
Harold Eppley got in with a fast set at college and wasted his opportunities, which shaped the rest of his life to date.
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 26 Jan: If people tell you they've always wanted to write, what do you say to them?
"Then write! Sit down and start writing! You can do it -- seriously; if I can, then anybody can."
Yes, I do speak in semi-colons sometimes.
If the conversation persists beyond this initial exchange, I may point them at various resources available for new writers whose eggs are just cracking, though sadly I can no longer start off the list with NaNoWriMo in good faith.
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[#]PennedPossibilities 567 — SC POV: Tell us about a time you said “no” as a child.
Beth Vines: "My best friend asked me if I thought the Backstreet Boys were dreamy."
Martin Bloom: "Every time they asked me to play football."
Celia Lexlake: "A well-meaning aunt asked whether I'd like her to buy me a doll. She was awfully vexed when I said I wanted toy soldiers instead."
Vaendras: "Didn't say it, I admit; but I thought 'No' when my foster parents told me to stop asking about my real ones."
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[#]WordWeavers Jan 25. When shopping, what does your MC look for? (prices, brands, ethical sourcing, quality?)
Darroll lives in the back of beyond and shops at the local Target with his mom. Even that's ten miles away.
Imogen tries vaguely to be ethical, but pricing is more important; she lives in London and Jemima can't afford to pay her enough to live more than frugally.
J. can afford little luxuries, and is cheerfully ignorant of ethics in shopping.
Juniper is an accomplished cheapskate.
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[#]TimeTravelAuthors 25 Jan: Saturday excerpt (optional word: hold)
“I never met anyone else like you, Darroll. You’re so unique.”
He stopped dead, and looked at her.
“What’s wrong? That’s a compliment, honey.”
Darroll looked down at himself, at the hand holding hers. What the hell was he going to say? What could he say? How could he even think of starting to try to explain to Vanessa that he had seventy billion duplicates floating around in quasi-parallel fucking continuums, and so did she?
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 25th January 2025. Do you have a worked-out magical system? Or do you make it up as you go?
In Juniper's world, very few people can work magic, and even fewer can work it safely and predictably. Most people have no more idea how it works than most people in our world could explain the internal workings of a star. They just know it does, the same as how we rely on the sun without necessarily knowing how to expound upon the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
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[#]WordWeavers 24 Jan: What about your antagonist? Traditional or interested in change?
Both Eddie and Liam are doing pretty damn nicely out of the set-up of the entertainment industry as it currently stands, and neither wants to see any real change in it.
Liam likes to maintain that he wants to sweep showbiz free of abusers and evil-doers, but his business model relies upon the fact that as soon as he exposes one and brings about their downfall, another one pops up, like a hydra's head.
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[#]PennedPossibilities What hobbies do you have outside of writing?
Music in general; collecting and researching vinyl records in particular. (Collecting has ceased due to lack of money and space, but research is a major time sink.)
RPGs -- in the old sense of the word, mainly.
Not as much of a queer activist as I used to be, for I am old and tired, but I'll be a keyboard social justice rogue till I die.
For reasons I needn't point out, my hobby of taking US roadtrips is, alas, no more.
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PS to others doing this prompt: watch out for the multiply copy-pasted typo "how long is the long story?"
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[#]WritersCoffeeClub 24 Jan
How long is the longest story you’ve ever written? Can you link to it?
The Psychopath Club just gets its nose ahead at the tape; the submission MS said 110,000 words, but it's actually 112,260.
Juniper's Harp is currently on its heels at 109,671 with revisions in progress which could take it upward or downward.
https://www.sandra-bond.com/the-psychopath-club
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