I keep wanting to do a well developed magic system, but it always turns into people yelling and flinging beams of light at each other.

Tbh I’m okay with it. Ultimately I think the reason why I don’t end up building these complex rules for magic is that I just don’t care about them. It’s all set dressing to facilitate character.

85k on the project and 3000 words written today.

We'll see if we do more, but for now I need to take a walk. Y'all. I just wrote 4000 words.

Tales of Arcadia is a great franchise because the supporting cast is just monsterfuckers straight down. Claire, Jim's mom, Nana, Steve, monsterfuckers, all of them.

Welp, results are in. While I’m doing better now, I can say that I had Covid. I am fastidious about wearing my mask and I am boosted. I caught it from my son, who picked it up in school. I’ll do a thread on it soon to give people an impression of what a “mild” case looks like. Okay. On Monday morning my son was sent home from school after he started coughing and getting congested in class. Later that day my throat started hurting and I started coughing. I picked up my daughter early from preschool since I knew if he had it odds were she did too.

When people say "it's no worse than a bad flu," I think they're really underselling just how horrible a "bad flu" can be. The last time I had one of those I was out for a week, and it was one of the most miserable experiences of my life.

And I've been hit in the head a lot. Anyway I'm vaxxed and boosted and whatever I have (no PR results yet) has knocked me flat for seven days now. Is it manageable? I've been able to, but it's completely knocked me flat. Get your shots and take your precautions.

11 years ago a friend of mine died very suddenly. It was jarring and terrible, as these things are. At his funeral they played his favorite song, and I remember listening to it and thinking that ever after it would always make me deeply sad. But life is an odd thing, that way. 1 Two years later my son was born, and in the months leading up to his birth, that song came back to me. And one night without prompting I started humming it. I hummed it every night from the moment I knew he could hear. 2

It’s 1 AM and the problem with being up this late is it’s impossible to be optimistic when I’m awake in the darkness and I just want to sleep. The world doesn’t look good from this vantage point and in this state, and I feel an immense pressure not to doom-and-gloom, but god it’s hard. The odds just feel utterly stacked against things turning out okay.

I feel this tweet in my bone marrow.

https://twitter.com/tethysnoodler/status/1454814831442374656

I don’t mind characters making jokes. Jokes are fine. But a hallmark of this writing style is everyone having the same cadence, and—and this bothers me way more—truly emotionally vulnerable moments are not allowed without a joke being made right afterwards to lighten the mood.

A few years ago, a friend of mine was approached by someone asking him to sign a sheet for a petition to put an anti-trans bathroom bill on the WA ballot. He said "Sure, let me see that."

Then he took the clipboard with its 500 signatures and threw it into the Puget Sound. There are ways to stand up to these people and impede their efforts. They're sometimes risky, but they can be direct.

Just remember that, fellow privileged people, the next time someone asks you to sign something evil. There's things you can do.

I was not prepared for how many people are willing to let others die rather than suffer even a moment's inconvenience. I have always known these people existed. I have always understood that this sort of callous cruelty was as much a part of human nature as is nobility and sacrifice.

I was not prepared for how many of these people there are.

I follow my gut, all the while examining what it says. I do this because my gut tells me what I want, and I should always be writing what I want. I examine because sometimes my gut tells me to speak in a way that's ignorant or untrue.

Also I take fastidious notes. #SFFtalk

https://twitter.com/sarcasmlemons/status/1358158099954171911

I don't think writers have an obligation to present stories that are intended as examples to follow. Your characters and plots can be whatever you want them to be. I do think that we owe it to our readers to be honest, though, and to present what we're presenting with integrity.

Toxic Masculinity has convinced a not insignificant portion of the population that they can basically out-flex their environment. It's honestly fascist thinking, because it derives from the notion of Superior Will being sufficient to overcome all adversity. These people believe--ardently--that all it takes to be safe from this virus is to refuse to yield to it, as if it were an opponent, a test of their strength, that can only be beaten through superior strength and sufficient defiance.

This is quite literally how fascists think.

Stop letting Nazis have shit. When they claim something, the proper response is to say “nah” and keep doing the thing—but more loudly and joyously than before.

This is—incidentally—why I’ve started wearing a hammer.

Don’t. Let. Them. Have. Shit. Not Nordic imagery.
Not medieval iconography.
Not Pagan mysticism.
Not Christianity.
Not Classicism.
Not “the west.”
Not the Renaissance.
Not the SCA.
Not HEMA.
Not Nietzsche.
Not Tradition.

Nazis don’t get anything. By dearth of wanting it, they should be denied it.

All of it.

Good morning beautiful followers. Sword porn thread? Sword porn thread. Let us begin with this lovely queen by Albion swords. Up next is this gorgeous Falcata by John Lundemo. The engraving KILLS me. I wanna take this to a Roman shield and feel the heavy wood split to pieces before going for the meat of the man behind it.

Oh boy! One of my FAVORITE topics!

I will now rate Polearms. Please, do stick around.

First, they are one of the delightful examples of humans figuring out all over the planet that one of the best ways to kill/deter someone is with a big thing at the end of a long stick. YAY!

https://twitter.com/jackrackham23/status/1032269452333772801

You can find a lot about how to use at least medieval polearms in Paulus Hector Mair's treatise, and Joachim Meyer has a section in his texts devoted to quarterstaff, which is compatible with many. Anyone looking to learn pole weapons would benefit from staff training.

From 16 to 23 I lived on a ranch in rural Washington. My aunt's family are multi-generation dairy farmers. A formative part of my life was spent with rural folk. I also spent my childhood near Boston Massachusetts but visiting my rural relatives. My perspective is unique. When we talk about rural types, there are a few myths that need debunking. One of them is the idea that rural areas aren't hierarchical. They absolutely are. Landowners are king. Now, some of these are genuinely 5+generation working farmers, like my extended family.