Alistair Young @cerebrate@schelling.pt

#WritingWonders July 15/16:

Are there any kissing and/or intimacy scenes in your story? How comfortable are you with writing kissing/intimacy scenes?

...I may still have a little free-floating rage going on. Funny, that.

Yes, my dear voter, I mean YOU, 'cause if you voted for ANYONE, you voted for someone who is probably blatantly in favor of or at best routinely smiles, nodes, and rubber-stamps this shit. Just like you did.

So, yeah, fuck Democracy (tm).

It would be nice to think that people might gain a clue on this point before the jackboots come to rest on their own personal necks, but history is against us on that one.

In this case? No, Democracy (tm) is directly to blame. The fine American tradition of the no-knock raid is a direct product of the gutless, hyperphobic, cowardly, craven, selfish American voter - and the politicians who shamelessly indulge them - which is positively delighted to throw a few innocent people under the bus from time to time in the name of security theater and sleeping safely in their beds in the knowledge that as long as they're doing it to Julia, they're not doing it to them.

In other things it took until yesterday to hear with regarding being raided by the State, I am told that this sort of thing happens because we have a broken Democracy (tm), and what we need is more Democracy (tm).

I presume that this is because I am well-known as a cynic about Democracy (tm) for all the reasons that I am cynical about every other system that ends in -cracy. 'Cause we all know what that root means, right?

#WritingWonders July 14: MC POV: When was the last time you got into a fight (physical or verbal)? Why?

"Last shift, as usual. A gentlesoph lifting goods from freight containers had some rather unkind aspersions to cast upon my profession and ancestry. And then ran. Why do they always run? It's a _space station_. There is literally nowhere to go unless you fancy taking a walk outside.

"I had to get the stunner out, even. I hate that."

#eldraeverse

Now, I'm not terribly interested in y'all straw-manning my position as "corporations can do no wrong". On the other hand, I'm willing to go all in on "just maaaybe we should worry about that after we're done with the organization which has actual Gestapo-style brute squads and is awfully casual about their deployment"?

Incidentally, until yesterday is how long it took for someone to inform me that being raided by the FBI is obviously capitalism's fault.

Well, son, those sure weren't [brand]-branded stormtroopers that smashed up my house. Hell, they weren't even carrying [brand]-branded machine guns. Probably because [brand] doesn't have any of either, y'know?

Catching up with #WritingWonders, 'cause I finally got access to my backups and've spent the last week obsessed with rsync.

July 13: When did you start writing and what inspired you?

Writing, about ten years ago now, mostly because my lovely wife kept looking at my piles of world-notes and telling me I really ought to actually _write_ something in it. Start small, see where it goes. And wouldn't stop telling me that until I actually got off my ass and did it.

I regret nothing.

#eldraeverse

Not to mention those of us in the sysadmin or software dev trade, who can - let me assure you - go on turning your problems into a greater variety of more interesting problems basically *forever*.

I presume there is something that has stopped me from doing this. I wonder what it could be?

People keep saying that the macro-problem with for-profit medicine is that the financial incentive is to go on treating the problem forever without curing it, but it seems to me that this also applies to car mechanics, contractors, janitors, and basically every other profession that ever fixes anything, ever.

#WritingWonders July 12: What is the best compliment or review you've got about your writing?

Well, there's this from a review of my first book:

"They have a lilting satirical tone but are built on a rock-solid foundation of scientific understanding. Sort of like a cross between Greg Egan, Douglas Hofstadter, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett."

Which, well, damn. Those are some big names to be compared to when you're just starting out. Got a lot to live up to, now!

#eldraeverse

So I'm sitting here runing restores, watching my network rsync its little heart out, and planning what to do when I'm done with that.

Trouble is, every time I think of anything in particular, a voice in my head booms out "BUT THE PARASITES SAY NO."

Stop normalizing.

Don't stop normalizing anything in particular.

Just stop normalizing.

(I'd also like to get better at writing longer pieces, but that's a smaller issue.)

#WritingWonders July 11: What about your writing would you like to improve?

The emotional texture, primarily. I have moderately severe chronic depression (et al!), and thanks to the viscissitudes of my upbringing tend to treat intense emotionality as something to flee from at speed.

This is, charitably, Not Good for my writing. Needs work. Probably also really good brain drugs and a shit-ton of therapy, but so it goes.

#eldraeverse