Pretty sure it’s *not* Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). Oof.

Also makes me feel sad for email, which was a haven for wordy, nerdy introverties. Now it’s more a target for slop engines, and filters are working overtime to claw back any signal:noise.

A productive break is the best sort of break! 🚀

That is ({QUALIFIER}{DESCRIPTOR_ADJECTIVE}).

Jeff VanderMeer used a “single organism presenting as many” concept in a cosmic horror mode, in his book Annihilation, and it was pretty delicious! Just thought to comment because I have something cooking that incorporates a similar idea, but in yet another direction. Just keeping it weird! :)

That’s the one I always come back to.

I don’t know how to convert “she tells me to sleep in the other room” into numbers.

Your inspiration board looks enticing! Good luck on finding your story the perfect home. :)

I’m pretty sure that’s part of the job description! Scraps and snatches, mixes and matches…

We won’t have to scoop the poop once we’ve migrated to our robot bodies, will we? (Or at least…migrated the cats to their robot bodies…)

*shuts this window and goes back to the outline*

Attention is definitely a precious commodity. My theory is that if we all had countdown timers that displayed how many hours we had left on this planet, we’d make better use of our time.

Or we’d fall into despair.

Our maybe both.

Tick tock…

That’s lovely, and true. And a different branch on the same tree: silence is information, in the same way space isn’t empty. Some of the most interesting information is gleaned from a mistake, a lie, a misinterpretation, or in nothing at all.

This question does come up when writing adversaries! I’ve thought of it as a spectrum, where “evil” emerges when opposites meet. Otherwise it’s only a gradient. And rationalization is a factor, since the adversary may not be inherently vindictive, nor see themselves as malevolent. It fascinates me!

I sometimes use the Naturespace app, because it offers a broad selection of stereo sounds and noises with no detectable loops. (Patterns and loops pull my brain in a non-creative direction.)

This is such a lovely idea to connect with your readers!

I offer direct sales on my site, too, but for some reason it never occurred to me to thank readers in this way—such a missed opportunity!

As a UI designer, the fact that this is such a common occurrence flays my brain. On devices with cursors, never move click targets when the cursor is in motion! On touch devices, use some of that vaunted “intelligence” to intuit the *intended* target, which is simple if it moved 4 milliseconds ago.

Your post had a real twist ending after declaring you’d not be held hostage! I really thought you were headed another direction… ➜]

Gahan Wilson is a legend.