Dan F. Bispo
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danfbispo.bsky.social
Dan F. Bispo
@danfbispo.bsky.social
190 followers 120 following 340 posts
Professional word extruder. Author of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.

My books: https://barrows.itch.io/

Currently working on: FIRST LIGHT, a sci-fi novella
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danfbispo.bsky.social
#Novmemeber 14

The main opposing force of First Light book 1 is literally just a bunch of garbage that's in the way.
the world's worst drawn trash can
November 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Fresh new snip from the first chapter of First Light Book 2, as promised!

I would add some kind of remark, but really, it's just good, solid advice.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
“Hey, Captain,” the first voice interrupted. Yana winced. The title still hung about her like an unwelcome smell. “Yes, Rook?” “Where do we keep the medical supplies?” “...why?” “No reason.” “Rook…” “Just a lil’ nosebleed, it’s nothing, really.” “Infirmary.” “There’s really no need—” “Now.” A small chuckle, echoed through cramped surroundings, rose from the small device. “I’d advise against antagonizing your captain in the very first minute of a week-long spike jump,” Diodorus said from the ship’s bowels. “Doubly so when she’s also the only doctor on board.”
November 14, 2025 at 11:52 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Yana would insist she doesn't find memes funny, and then laugh until she got a tummyache the moment you showed her this one.

#Novmemeber 13
A two-panel meme template with the caption "if you had a time machine what would you go back and fix?" "me:" followed by someone using a stick to push the first fish to walk on land back into the water.
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Guys, the robot is being explainy again...

Also, accountability moment: tomorrow's snippet is going to be from Book 2. I WILL sneak a "week" in there.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
“Yeah, I reckon,” Rook said; their voice carried, however, a different message. “So you prefer to reside in that body, rather than something more advanced? Did I get that right?” “Perhaps explaining is not fully possible, but it could most accurately be described as compatibility, rather than preference. As a braked AI, I am limited in terms of processing power; there are hard limits of what I can achieve intellectually and creatively. My body, likewise, is defined in concrete ways in terms of appearance, build, and capabilities. The interaction between these two factors distinguishes and defines me as an independent unit.”
November 13, 2025 at 9:43 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Subbing clothes for today's #WIPSnips.

Protagonists will do all kinds of things to avoid having to get back to the person who asked them on a date.

Incidentally, I started work on Book 2 today. What's that? Fresh snips in the horizon? Maybe.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
By the third day of her imposed break, Yana felt as if she’d done everything there was to do in the universe—everything, that is, other than calling Ngata. She had walked through the visitor areas of the station, sipped on designer drinks at the many bars that littered the arm. She had seen all the museum pieces, visited all the niche communities on the station’s alt-world, participated in a pottery class, tried on new clothes, and put herself in the shoes of an Old World explorer in the sensory chambers. But no matter how enjoyable the experience, or how didactic, she always called it early, craving the quiet of her pod, access to all her systems and the six walls that protected her. And once there, she felt at peace—and empty again.
November 12, 2025 at 10:43 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Yana is this owl in particular. Rook's an opossum. Six is a mantis, but only when they're posturing to scare off a predator. Diodorus is a giant tortoise.

#Novmemeber (I actually spelled it right this time!)
A picture of a startled-looking owl.
November 11, 2025 at 5:53 PM
danfbispo.bsky.social
No burgers, but here's the infamous Bread--the one, singular case of people eating in the entirety of First Light.

To be fair, it's good bread.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
November 11, 2025 at 2:11 PM
danfbispo.bsky.social
In today's snip, I channel my terror at having to turn corners in busy areas (people always bump into me), as well as my self-consciousness about my resting bitch face.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Even these more isolated alleyways still felt crowded compared to the Habitat. Though wide, the way they winded made every bend a blind spot, and it seemed as if behind each one a local awaited just to startle her. Windows were scattered across the facades of rusting buildings, of a thousand shapes and sizes, casting their glow across the street. For each pristine synthwood door, another had been barred with chunks of scrap. It seemed to Yana like a place between places, defiant in its identity while lacking one at all. “New to non-modular housing?” Rook asked. “Sorry?” “You’ve been glaring at everything for the last minute or so, all intense-like.” “That’s just what my face looks like.” Yana was used to this comment, but it nevertheless gave her pause. “How many people live here, six million? Seven? I expected it to be more efficient, that’s all.”
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Man, I really thought I'd be able to go a single day without mentioning Arthur C. Clarke's Rama...

It's a masterclass in awe and wonder. Of helplessness before something both benevolent and terrifying in scale. Curiosity--the essence of sci-fi.

Too bad it doesn't have any sequels!

#Bookvember
November 9, 2025 at 10:18 PM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Little excerpt from the First Light WIP as I integrate beta reader feedback. Consensus seems to be all the parts I thought were good actually suck, and all the parts I thought sucked are great, actually.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity
She showered, dried, put on a set of fresh clothes, fought with her hair, readjusted her ID badge—the picture on it less familiar by the day—and laid on the bed on her back.
November 9, 2025 at 8:46 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
That's my excuse too, Rook.

From First Light.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Rook sat on their newly-claimed bed, in their newly-claimed private quarters—or, as they defiantly called it, their house. Diodorus had promised to help them clear out all the clutter he’d filled it with over the years, and while they appreciated the offer, they had been quick to decline. Truth was, a cramped room suited Rook just fine. Clutter was evidence of life; a physicality of memory, a sense of belonging. They liked having little trinkets to hold, decorations to move around, splotches of color on otherwise unremarkable surfaces.
November 8, 2025 at 9:36 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
On the other side, the bright-eyed, sterile but comforting space station Habitat, where the main character is from, took visual cues from his more hopeful and optimistic work. Parks, ponds, gardens--little pieces of manufactured nature contained by futuristic architecture. 3/3 #HopePit
Artwork by Syd Mead depicting the inside of a ringed megastructure, with an artificial sky overhead and carefully-tended gardens and walkways everywhere. A river passes through the middle.
November 7, 2025 at 11:03 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
In particular, Blade Runner concept art really colored my imagining of Deep Space Outpost Bayinnaung in my novella First Light--a place of chaos and eternal night that is still overwhelmingly vibrant and alive. #HopePit 2/3
Blade Runner concept art depicting a dark street in the film's version of LA. Wet streets, storefronts, and blocky, dark buildings illuminated by sickly yellow streetlights.
November 7, 2025 at 11:03 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
The artwork of Syd Mead doesn't just remind me of my writing, it inspired my love for utopic sci-fi. If it weren't for him and Arthur C. Clarke, I'd be writing some other genre right now-- 1/3

#HopePit
A piece by the artist Syd Mead, depicting a group of humans in futuristic outfits overlooking red cliffs and some kind of tower thing.
November 7, 2025 at 11:03 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
I may have shared this one before, I think?

Anyway, I like describing Diodorus doing his technoshamanic work, because of the way it's both ritualistic and pragmatic. It makes for fun prose.

Also, I like adverbs.

From First Light.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
In silence, she watched him apply lubricant to melted joints, polish shattered features with wax, wipe grime off glass in shards. His calloused hands moved with certainty and precision, and though these were movements any engineer would have been able to reproduce from muscle memory alone, he guided his hands contemplatively, generously, bestowing with each touch a small but meaningful grace. It seemed almost comical to Yana—grim, no doubt, but comical—but the more she watched, she more she found herself spellbound by his motions, lulled by the words he hummed to himself, somewhere between music and mnemonic.
November 7, 2025 at 9:54 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
oh no he's describing again

From First Light.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The path ahead widened to a large plaza. The ceiling lowered into view, and the buildings grew sparse, but far from absent. Even now, some dared to stray from the surrounding housing units, a collection of fearful beasts venturing into open air, resting on hastily-built foundations. The open space diluted the flow of traffic, bisected by a massive cylinder, a pillar to hold up the heavens. Less a discernible building than a shape, a collection of harsh angles towering over its surroundings, it erupted from the floor and dug into the ceiling, and where it met either surface, it widened further still. Faint trails of light traveled up and down its surface; transport convoys, as their guide so helpfully pointed out.
November 5, 2025 at 9:07 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Six enters the story.

I like introducing characters with pizzazz. First impressions stick with you, for better or worse, and Six is all about setting the scene in her own terms.

From First Light.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The music thumped louder. Yana wondered why their order wasn’t being taken—and why there was a line by the counter. Then, like a hammer to a pane of glass, silence. Dry ice billowed around the stage. The light shone brighter. The crowd roared as a lone figure stepped onto the stage, like a goddess emerging from the mists to the adulation of her faithful. Slowly, the air cleared, and she was revealed; steel and chrome, pressed into a humanoid shape. Yana recognized it as a gynoid—a popular but controversial retro-inspired design from long before the Shift, fallen in and out of fashion for centuries on end. Bottles flew. Someone whistled. Others chanted, “Six! Six! Six! Six!”
November 4, 2025 at 9:11 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
I, too, hate it when my boss forces me to take paid vacations.

From First Light.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
He slapped the smooth metal wall. “...we’ll hold up the fort over here. Your precious samples are in capable hands.” “I don’t know if…” “I’ve locked you for the next two weeks.” “What.” “I’m giving you a new work assignment, starting now: go. Have fun. Spend that energy allowance on something, you can’t take it with you. Enjoy your vacation; you’ve more than earned it.” “Come on, Warden,” Yana pleaded. “You don’t understand. This is all I have.” “I guess I don’t, but I do understand that time off is good for you. Is there anything you need from the lab, by the way?” “Blob.” “I’ll have it delivered to your living quarters before the end of the day. Anything else?” “My samples.” Warden laughed. “Nice try, Doc. Now, off you go. See you at Board Game night, yeah?”
November 3, 2025 at 9:50 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
It's gotta be The Classic.

#Bookvember
Cover of the children's book Elmer, by David McKee
November 2, 2025 at 11:07 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
One of the most difficult, but rewarding, parts of writing First Light was to write the in-universe poetry that opens some of the chapters. I'm not a great poet, but neither is the author of The Inward Construct, so it all worked out.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
The clockwork tree does not grow For spiders weave fate in its branches And rats carve their knowledge in gnaw-lines in roots and nest in its innards of fractal -- “Fallow Home.” The Inward Construct, 2572
November 2, 2025 at 9:55 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Ancestor--Vibes!

Spooky time almost over, so we're doing First Light again! I'm currently outlining the sequel, so I'll hopefully have a fresh new batch of snippets for December. Until then, have the final draft version of snippets I've probably shared before.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
She looked at the mirror. Someone looked back. Reflected in the glass; she saw a woman, young but old, with bags under her eyes. A portrait of practicality, where all of humanity met halfway, a jumbled expression of mismatched genes in improbable combinations—the diluted offspring of a small vertical slice of mankind in forced cohabitation for several generations, until at last she escaped. Her eyes, staring forward, staring back, moved from feature to feature, assigning to each of them its least possible value. Perhaps there was someone in there, to the eyes of another viewer, but she looked at herself and felt only tired.
November 1, 2025 at 9:56 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
One last excerpt from The Cryptic Parade for the last day of the giveaway. This is from its very first story, "Encounter at Flatwoods".

If anyone enjoyed these snippets so far, it would mean the world to me if you claimed a copy: itch.io/s/162112/hal...

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
The monster—yes, monster, because what else could it be?—was in the rough shape of a cone, wider near the bottom, but narrowing as it reached towards the treetops. It seemed to be split in sections, each one further blossoming into appendages, assembling and reassembling as it neared me. Its light-vomiting eyes rested at the end of eyestalks, and they met mine, and I was blinded; from its form sprung forth another screech like static, the wailing of many mouths filtered through sensory organs not fit to receive it.
October 31, 2025 at 7:46 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Behold! A spell!

From "Ritual", story #28 of "The Cryptic Parade & A World Unfurling", which is available here for free for a few more days: barrows.itch.io/the-cryptic-...

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
The ritual was not a simple succession of words. It was a mindset. Years of study, weeks of preparation, months of living by the same set of unbending rules; no mistakes, no second-guessing. Holding on to faith was the most important part. Faith feeds the ritual; without it, all the magic in the world could not have helped me. Mine only faltered a few times.
October 30, 2025 at 10:45 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
Difficult prompt--time to hit the vibes button and pull out another excerpt from "Witch", which does not in fact mention a broomstick, but it does mention, well, a witch.

From here: itch.io/s/162112/hal...

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
She died because she listened, because she gave strength to those without it. She died for the crime of being a little wretch in the woods that terrified the God of men. Her protective cloak, the cobwebs on her hair, and the ichor in her heart all fueled the pyre. Her dry skin burned like paper, and her blood boiled in her veins. She did not curse. She did not scream. Death came to her the same way as her petitioners; quiet, ashamed, under the cover of the night.
October 29, 2025 at 10:01 AM
danfbispo.bsky.social
I really like this chapter. Maybe one day I'll expand it into a full story.

From "The Cryptic Parade & A World Unfurling", free at itch.io/s/162112/hal...

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
Amberley, Sussex: 1981. Kevin McCabe, 23, returns home after a three-week coma following a motorcycle accident. On the way home, his nurse, Steven Totnes, tells him about the latest sighting of the Red-Haired Dog of local legend. Though Totnes insists that the legend is as old as time, McCabe, himself an Amberley native, has never heard of such a being. That night, when McCabe’s mother visits him, he asks her if she’s ever heard of something called a Red-Haired Dog; she presents him with a photograph taken in 1975, which depicts McCabe himself wearing a Red-Haired Dog Halloween costume.
October 28, 2025 at 9:38 AM