Dinner is done!

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.05.01 — (MAY 2025 : in situ) International Workers Day. Which writer’s work blazed the trail for what you write today?

I'd love to give a succinct answer to this one because as a feminist writer writing primarily SF, the field (including fantasy and speculative fiction) has changed greatly over my lifetime from arguably misogynist at times to incredibly forward thinking, even in its dystopian visions. That was in no small part due to women authors writing about women as women. Remembering all their names is difficult (I'm a bit long in the tooth), but here's a short list: James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon), Nicola Griffith (@Nicolaz), Jean M. Auel, Anne McCaffery, and plenty more.

Never forgetting glass ceilings, here's an excerpt from a bio for Alice Bradly Sheldon discussing her need for noms de plume on Goodreads. It's worth reading the whole thing.

[She] started writing science fiction. She wrote four stories and sent them off to four different science fiction magazines. She did not want to publish under her real name, because of her CIA and academic ties, and she intended to use a new pseudonym for each group of stories until some sold. They started selling immediately, and only the first pseudonym—"Tiptree" from a jar of jelly, "James" because she felt editors would be more receptive to a male writer, and "Jr." for fun—was needed. (A second pseudonym, "Raccoona Sheldon," came along later, so she could have a female persona.)

An important gender fiction award was formerly named in her honor as the Tiptree Award, now the Otherwise Award (the reason is the sign of our times). It's worth investigating their lists of authors and works. https://otherwiseaward.org

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.05.02 — If you paint, do you have “recipes” or tricks for mixing colors, or do you eyeball it?

I paint with light. My two main recipes is to recognize bright colors on a dim background (which will render black in posts) or to recognize contrasting colors that will render a bright foreground (orange, purple, yellow, white) against a contrasting background (usually blue, brown, or green). Though it's a bit harder, I try to imagine the scene as bright against dark, as monochrome. This renders as either painterly (low contrast) or blown out (solarized). I do these things instinctively without having to raise the camera. Lots can be fixed in post.

Technique described in #altText.

[Author and photographer retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.30 — International Jazz Day! Do you participate in ‘writing jams’ with other writers?

I'm seen this at SF conventions. Each time, the panel was called And a Shot Ran Out. Mind you, these were professional writers on the panel AND they were not writing down what they wrote, instead each would tell a snippet of the story and another panelist would volunteer another ad lib snippet, until it petered out.

Here on Mastodon, I witnessed @strangeseawolf and another do this with tweets, and it was fascinating,

Me? I don't think that quickly!

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WordWeavers 2504.28 — Do you pick the story, or does the story pick you?

My characters speak to me. Yes, I hear voices in my head. They demand I write their stories. They often show up when I'm writing other stories as this or that interesting person, or when I'm playing with an unusual idea. As a recent example, I stumbled onto a set of women's rights / gender equality prompts and misconstrued the French word for March, Mars, for the planet, you know, that red one? The character of May Ri popped in and demanded I help her fight the good fight to finally bring down all the badness happening in our society today. I wrote her web-novel in thirty-one days.

The story picks me. Definitely. The best ones drag me along kicking and screaming, and writing furiously.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.28 — International Workers’ Memorial Day! How important is class or caste in your writing?

While I skip using caste in my stories (I have no experience with it), class (as in aristocrat, plutocrat, midde-class, homeless) shows up relatively often. Such distinctions are tools for the characters to get what they want and weapons to protect themselves. Class is a known social contract in society. Class distinctions work solely by agreement of terms by the classist and the classless. Events like the French and Marxist revolutions happen when the agreement breaks down. Class is a great shorthand for me as an author; it allows me tap into the stereotypes the mind of the reader. For example, let's talk about a princess. Princesses, indeed any royalty, are rarely as portrayed by Disney. Having brought up the stereotype, I can place it on a pedestal… and proceed to take a sledgehammer to the marble, or polish it like the brass not gold it is.

I employ class in the background of the devil-girl's various storylines. She's a middle-class girl elevated stratospherically in station at 5 years old, then ruthlessly trained. Not realizing it's an earned thing because of her capabilities, she rebels and runs away when she can be mistaken as adult. She goes through being homeless to using her capabilities to become somebody in her own right, but she gets used a lot (because she is capable) by the highest of the high, the monied, and the oppressed. Class generates story; the structure gives me opportunity to discuss women's issues and gender in a different light.

To be clear, class is only one of many tools.Moreover, the above was an analysis of my writing. I'm not one to plot or plan out these things. I just tell the story of a person who has such attributes and watch to see how it plays out.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#ScribesAndMakers 27 Apr #TTMD

@strangeseawolf, hi! I first want to thank you for the kind words and support you've given to me and others on Mastodon. You are a asset to our community, here.

When I was growing up, I was raised by a kick-ass single mother who was a bailbondswoman, who did her own bounty hunting, who went on to run companies. I was surprised when coming of age to find a world that not only didn't support women, but was actively hostile to strong women in non-traditional roles. Shy me went on to right this wrong by writing stories that gave women a more active role than men allowed, presented a world that was better because of women, or made them an agent of change or equality.

1. What drives your writing?
2. What messages to you desperately want to communicate to your readers?
3. If your best or favorite story/novel got picked up for $$$$ as a movie, but the screenplay would change the essence/heart of the story, would you take the offer, refuse, or fight, and why?

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Ooo! Ooo! #Scrivener fans and #author #writers! I just tried my weasel and hedge word RegEx string in the Scrivener search box set to "Regular Expressions." It highlights all the found words, making it easy to skip or revise.

Below find my RegEx. Feel free to try out! The \b escapes ensure only the entire word highlights. The vertical bar separates individual search strings. Some words like can are stand-ins for can't and cannot, so are not conditioned for an exact match.

\babout\b|almost|already|barely|\bbit\b|begin|\bbegan\b|\can|certain|generally|guess|\bjust\b|kind|\blike|maybe|mostly|near|course|perhaps|possibly|potentially|really|probably|seems|\bsome\b|sort|start|\bstill\b|surprisingly|\bthink\b|usually|could|\bsaw\b|\bheard\b|\bfelt\b|\bknew\b|\bread\b|noticed|recognized

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.25 — World Penguin Day! How have ‘the classics’ influenced your work?

One book profoundly influenced my life. It is proof why conservatives and the religious suspect higher education, especially for women, and are trying to cripple both colleges and educational institutions in general. I read this book at university. It was assigned reading in an art history class. I read it and within a year became an agnostic. I literally lost my religion, lost faith; admittedly, other factors came into play.

I had many reasons to champion women's right, but this work was clarifying. (Note I'm not using the word "seminal" for etymological reason.) If you are a feminist, or are appalled by toxic masculinity or patriarchy, you should read this. It's a well researched art history book supported by archeological evidence about the origins of patriarchy and the destruction of prior matriarchal societies in the middle east of which there are plenty of echoes in the Old Testament.

Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman.

Amazon link (not affiliated): https://www.amazon.com/When-God-Woman-Merlin-Stone-ebook/dp/B0083DJYIK

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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What a day. I open Mastodon. We live in a fascist state. I open my Internet feed. We live in a fascist state. I look at the book I'm editing. The characters point out I live in a fascist state. Ugh! I need some whiskey this morning not coffee so I can finish my revisions.

So understanding #Hemingway

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.22 — Earth Day! Who’s your most traveled character? Your least traveled?

The main Reluctance Series antagonist has probably been everywhere in the world and been most every profession, with mother having been her most repeated job. Immortality and always being 24 has its up and down sides.

Wintereyes has traveled all over the Fell Forest with the wolf pack that adopted her, but it's still a just a forest despite the size of the territory. Her parents' farm is just outside its border. Now that she's earned magical fame for befriending a wyvern (and arbitrating a dispute between a farmer, a sneezy so-called red dragon, and an exploded grain silo that had undergone undiscovered fermentation), she now attends a university in a Township—but she's two shy to explore the place because, well, all the people.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.23 — World Book Day! Share a prompt or the first few lines of a story you wish you could read.

I hate that I can't write this steampunk story of redemption and betrayal myself. It requires expertise in how the military works, and the navy specifically. Have at it. I'd consider a collaboration.

She's horribly scarred and people can't bear to look at her, but she was the 1st in her class at the academy. A midshipman now an ensign is passed over for further promotions is given notice of discharge after her putting in her four years, despite serving as the crown's chief siege strategist. She's been called inhuman within earshot often enough that she doesn't believe she deserves recognition or friends, let alone the love she's read men in her position could find as misunderstood or looking piratical. She's planned to roam the world as an ascetic, planing sieges of cities she'll visit for the fun of it. As a final insult, she's given a last minute first command that delays the start of her new life, given a museum piece airship frigate—with a motley crew of screwups and green cadets along with a drunkard former top gun XO—that would fail to fight any engagement, given a mission that requires only the presence of a warship in the sky and zero prowess. All fine and good until the capital city she's "guarding" really does come under attack and hers is the only ship available.

[Please give acknowledgment if you write this.]

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#WordWeavers 2504.23 — Do you plan your themes or do they arise from your writing and then get tweaked in edits?

My themes are pretty much the same from story to story: feminist with a dose of gender politics. Regardless, they do arise from my writing because I don't know the plot until I write it, and I definitely tweak the theme during revision. Thus, my answer is Yes.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#PennedPossibilities 650 — What profession would you have if you lived within the world of your WIP?

Were I female, I'd probably still end up a programmer. Thaumaturgy is actually a science of semantics and coded imagination, and relies on arranging ideas grammatically. Not everyone with horns is good at logic as well as mathematics, so there's room for collaboration. I could definitely do the logic programming, though it's nothing like JavaScript. I could be college educated and I could find white collar jobs. I wouldn't look forward to having children since I've no brothers to raise them while I work. Fortunately, it's possible to find men who go into childcare whether they have sisters or not, but it's expensive. I doubt I'd be willing to abstain to prevent children, not in their society.

Were I male, I'd have much more limited prospects, programmer not being one of them. The era is a lot like the 1960s with defined gender roles. While there are plenty of things I could do in our world, they are not considered men's work in theirs. I'd face prejudice and likely be barred. Since I'm not good with math, even work as a computer (look up the origins of the word) would be unlikely. That means either manual labor—factories, construction, or waiting tables—or attending to women's "needs." Since I have no sisters, I wouldn't be able to look forward to raising her children, either. Writing is an option, but I'd likely need a patron for that as it wouldn't support me, and favors would be implied. No, RS is not suited for that world.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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