Mixer Bookmark

 dialecticdreamer made this awesome bookmark as demifiction for the Schrodinger's Heroes series Don't Try This at Home.  TeJay is using this to keep his place in a library book.

The Mix It Up at Lunch project is a real activity designed by Teaching Tolerance.  There are lots of resources on the site explaining how it works.

Story: "Little and Broken, but Still Good" Part 14

This story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk," and "kintsukuroi."

Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Nick Fury
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Minor character death. Bullying. Fighting. Suicide attempt (minor character).
Summary: This is the story of how a little boy named Flip grows up to save the world a lot.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. Accidents. Emotional whump. Disability. Sibling relationship. Nonsexual love. Parentification. Manipulation. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Protection. Caregiving. Competence. Toys and games. Comic books. Fixing things. Martial arts. Gentleness. Trust. Role models. Military. BAMF Phil Coulson.

Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13. Skip to Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19.

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Photo and Note

dialecticdreamer found a photo and created text for it, as part of the Frankenstein's Family series. Then I used that to make an image of the back. This is something that the village children find, shortly after the itinerant priest is encouraged to leave.

In our history, durable photos were not invented until 1815. The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published in 1818, and the later entries in the framing stories were dated 17--. Within that canon, and even more so in this series, science has advanced much farther than in our history. So a durable photo is plausible in this context, but it may not be made by the same process we think of as photography.

Read "Lessons of Flesh and Water" by Magistrate

magistrate has written the story "Lessons of Flesh and Water," which started as snippets based on my prompt.  I liked it well enough to sponsor it so the story could be written out in full, and here it is.

There are two things I really love about this story.  First, of course, is the magical system; in my prompt I suggested a world in which the path to enlightenment and the path to magic are the same.  That idea is beautifully realized here, not just in the plot but in the tone and word choice.  Second is the profound sense of body dysphoria.  I know a number of folks who never feel at home in their bodies.  This story is one of the best portrayals that I have found of that experience -- and some different perspectives on how to cope with it.

Do you like this?  It belongs to the Shared Worlds project now, so you can build on it yourself if you wish, as described on the project page.  You can also watch for other prompt calls or activities by magistrate and leave prompts of your own.  I am very pleased to help bring this into the world so everyone can enjoy it.

New Bingo Prompt Lists

magibrain has updated the Bingo Card Generator with three new lists of prompts that I submitted: Demifiction, People-Watching, and Problems That Can't Be Solved by Hitting. 

Demifiction is imaginary stuff written as if it were nonfiction.  This includes such things as reviews of books that don't exist, fake movie posters, heroes' shopping lists, etc.  It can be challenging to write but it makes a great way to stretch your creative skills, and a really fun way to explore your settings.

People-watching is just a bunch of traits, actions, and other features of folks within eyeshot.  You can use this to generate a random crowd of characters, to suggest people your protagonists might encounter, or other things in a story.  You can also print out a bingo card and sit down at a mall or a county fair and try to make bingo.  This trains your observational skills.

Problems That Can't Be Solved by Hitting will require both you and your characters to think things through instead of using violent action to cover up a lack of actual meaning.  Some of the prompts involve tense situations, while others are milder challenges.  Some of them also run in lower-traffic directions than the violent mainstream.  Many of them are good for gentle fiction (no sex, violence, or foul language) although you might have to edit a bit.  This list is brought to you Hollywood!Fail, by the $6 and 90 minutes I wasted on a really stupid movie, and by the letters F and U. 

Story: "Squiggles" 1513.10.27

"Squiggles: Excerpts from Nleimen's Journal"

1513.10.27

Sweet seal of approval! He framed it.

Vloroshaal sent me a letter thanking me for the watercolor of the Judge's Oak. He framed it and hung it in his parlor at home. I wasn't expecting that! I'm flattered that he liked it so much. Vloroshaal also gave me a box of scraps and sample sheets of all different art papers. I look forward to experimenting with those.


See the landing page for "Squiggles: Excerpts from Nleimen's Journal."

How Sexism Hurts Men Too

 ... and what we can do about it.

Free Art Day

thebonesofferalletters is holding a free art day. Leave a character reference and get 300x300 line art. Signal boosting the art post will get you flat colors and tipping $3 or more will get you shaded color.

itsamellama is doing a free icon day, Icon Day 5.  Everyone will get an icon at clean sketch level.  Donations unlock other perks like ink or colors.

Monday Update 6-30-14

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Who Has the Right to Tell Stories?
Demifiction Bingo Card 6-29-14
Read "Memorial Services Begin" by Dialecticdreamer
Poem: "Pearls Before Time"
Torn World Muse Fusion
Read "A Spark of Truth" by Dialecticdreamer, now complete
Frankenstein's Family Collection
Story: "Sharing a Round"
Read "Having a dominant sea species..." by Magistrate
Poem: "Leaflets Three, Let It Be"


The next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, July 1 with a theme of "Concerning Cats."


Poetry in Microfunding:
"Faeder Way" follows the antics of human explorers as they try to understand some aliens with an unusual sex/gender structure.  There are seven new verses; Ensign Obert discusses gender in linguistics.  "Uncounted Colors of the Stars" belongs to the series An Army of One.  A freetrader with an atypical identity grows interested in the culture of the Lacuna.  "Not the Absence of Fear" belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.  Clement deals with the aftermath of the fight scene.  "When the Road Is Bent" belongs to the series Frankenstein's Family. A caravan of travelers comes to the village.

Torn World writing update:
Currently posting: "Squiggles: Excerpts from Nleimen's Journal" (fiction).  Approved as canon: "Unicorns on Parade" "Spruce Deer" "Wandering the Heights" "From White to Blue," "Stalking Sleep" (poetry).  Back to me for edits: "Cutting Cords and Clasping Hands (Parts 1-4)," "Winterheart" (parts 2-3), "Stinging Like Nettles"  "Off the Clock" (poetry).  Currently in front of the canon board:  "Ghost Bat" (nonfiction). Drafted: "Like Ash Before the Wind," "From Dark to Bright," "The Inappropriate But Useful Disposal of Lettuce" "A Thin Red Trail" (fiction), "Changes in the Wind" (poetry), "Southern Breads" "Tangleweed Article" (articles), Jularei (character sheet).  In revision at home: "Water Dance," "When the Wind's Teeth Sing," "Raining Kittens," "Finding the Holes" (fiction), "The Smallest Invaders"  (poetry).  Currently writing: "Catch of the Day," "A Cold Clear Night" (fiction).


Weather here has been mild with occasional sprinkles of rain.  Fireflies are very shiny at night. Currently blooming: daylilies, golden rain tree, echinacea, coreopsis, penstemon, marigolds, portulaca, petunias, zinnias, pansies, sweet alyssum, torenia, lobelia, motherwort.  Green fruit: blackberries.  Ripe fruit: black raspberries, mulberries.

Drew Finn's Book Cover

dialecticdreamer has created this image of a book cover for my Polychrome Heroics series.

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Developing Novelists

Used to be, publishers understood that writing is a skill which takes time to develop.  Now they expect instant bestsellers.  You know who does that?  One-hit wonders.  Also the publishers don't want to keep expert editors around long enough to help new authors hone their skills.  And then the publishers cry and whine because they don't have a good set of talented writers.

Ah, fuck 'em.  I'll be over here coaching my favorite crowdfunding writers.  I just watched magistrate sit down and create more new, original, utterly awesome settings in one prompt session than I could find on a whole bookshelf in a store these days.  I've watched kajones_writing build up another huge bundle of settings, several of which have become favorites of mine such as Donor House, Pagans, Afterlife, and World Walkers: Quiar.  dialecticdreamer is a recent addition and already on my fave list.

Update from Kajones_writing

June has no theme.

Fiction: The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 107th continuation) shows Peric and Quiar talking about how the worlds chose to be part of the Web, or not.
The World Walkers: Quiar: The Case of the Counterfeit Enchantments (part 9, 108th continuation) has Meriwether and Lucille talking about the life clay creatures.