I just got done writing Act I of Rifled at the Scaled Tower, the fifth book in How to Make a Wand. It still needs chapter titles and at least two editing passes, but I’m pretty happy with the result so far. Well, now I am. We’ll see what happens when I start those editing passes.
Also, I got initial sketches for the cover of Wall of Pyramids ! The artist should be done with the final version by the end of the month and I’ll post up their work then.
I feel like WordPress had a block quote block that actually worked. Did something happen to it? I’ve been using columns to simulate the effect
I’ve finally gotten to a point where I can schedule chapters ahead of time instead of just in time. It’s such a relief!
Man, I kinda want to have a time machine so I can disappear into the past, write everything, and then come back with the finished novel for people to read
On the other hand, i’m pretty certain I’d break the space-time continuum with that somehow, so that’s probably for the best
And I’m back on schedule. It’ll be good to get back to regular writing again, even if it is editing.
So JetPack, the tool that WordPress uses for its social media integrations, is/will no longer be able to send out Tweets.
As per WordPress:
From April 30, 2023 you will no longer be able to share your WordPress.com posts automatically to Twitter using Jetpack Social.
Twitter decided, on short notice, to dramatically change the terms and pricing of the Twitter API. We have attempted to work with Twitter in good faith to negotiate new terms, but we have not been able to reach an agreement. As a result, we will need to remove the functionality.
Which means that the only reason I was using Twitter at all just went down the drain. I get that Elon Musk doesn’t care about me, I have 19 followers on Twitter with whom I’ve engaged zero times over the years, but I am appalled by the idea that Elon wants me, and my followers, to be on Twitter and only Twitter. He wants me to post tweets, read tweets, share tweets with only other people on Twitter. I don’t think that that’s a good strategy in the end and I suspect that people will continue to get around these dumb restrictions. For me though, this is the end of my very much half-hearted (barely even that) attempt to be on Twitter.
From the first chapter of Dancing in Autumn’s Rain! I’ve updated the site (and I might do so again) mainly because it’s been a long while since I’ve done so.
I just hit 150,000 words. It’s looking likely that I’ll hit 160,000 words at this rate, which means Dancing in Autumn’s Rain will be the second longest book I’ve ever written. The longest is Book of Isaiah, an unfortunately name book that I should retitle and edit one day.
Anyway, onwards!
In the past month I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and tried to read Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then. These two books are not very similar in genre or plot. The Remains of the Day is about a butler in the post-WW2 years who goes on a trip to find someone capable of bolstering his dwindling staff; Here and Now and Then is about a time travel agent who raised daughter in the past and is trying to save her from his agency. That said both books do have men who just don’t understand what’s truly awful about themselves
Spoilers for both books below
Continue reading “A brief note on two very different books”So, I just finished Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, and it’s fine? I remember that there was a lot of fanfare when it came out and I sorta see why. Ishiguro does a really good job of rendering the thought process of a person who had difficulty properly understanding how humans work or think and seeing Klara work through how human social interactions and spaces work is pretty interesting.
I do have to say that the fact that Klara is mostly an watcher (it’s commented on many times that she has really good “observational abilities”) means that often the book felt like watching the story happen while Klara made her commentary. While Klara isn’t really passive character, she’s definitely at the whims of the other characters from her owner Josie to Josie’s mother to the housekeeper. Klara’s main drives come from her worship of the Sun and her battle with Pollution, childish notions that contrast with how the rest of the world is falling apart in big and small ways. I do see how much work into maintaining that line between what Klara understands and cares about and what an (hah) observant audience can read into what’s going on.
Still, the main theme of the story, I think, is to keep hope even as things change around you. Klara keeps her faith as close and as secret as a birthday wish, and it’s sweet to see how much she cares about those around her, but unfortunately this isn’t a story about a machine intelligence reaching a higher level of understanding. It’s the story of a child too simple to understand the wider world, doing her best to save those she can even as her sacrifices and efforts are, at best, ill-thought out.
in other news:
Admaeus Speaks 