#WordWeavers 2026.04.20 —What is your MC’s relationship to obtaining and preparing food?

Bolt doesn't cook. Men usually fill that role in her society and would be more likely to do that, but she doesn't have any family members in her life and the guys she has would visit food kiosks, an association cafeteria, or a pop-up restaurant. Because her income is restricted, she's often buying a bag of crumbs for herself. That's a grab bag old bread, dried squid, soup packets, dried fruit, chopped vege: essentially grocery leftovers, as specified by Health Services nutritional guidelines, and require no cooking whatsoever.

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#PennedPossibilities 992 — If your MC unexpectedly died, who would they want to raise their child(ren), if they have any? Have they already made a plan for this in case it happens?

Bolt would expect her brother to raise her child, in the unlikely event she bore one in the first place. She's avoiding pregnancy because she has no desire to raise a child blackmailed by the mob as she is. Contraception and termination comes up in the story. Her brother was 5 when she ran away at 17, but he would expect the job if he knew she still lived; she feels bad maybe dropping the news on him one day without warning—not about actually expecting he would do it. Child rearing is the societal norm for men, not unlike women decades ago expecting to grow up to become housewives. Bolt's lucky she has a brother; people are so infertile many people are only children, or twins which is common (1:5:17 ➝ single birth:fraternal:identical). The WIP touches on psychology of male child rearing, for example Bolt's friend Blue. He's a praetorian, a man with a rare essential job and he worries about having one day to quit the job to raise his sister's child, or how horrible it would be to say no to her.

Cc: @floofpaldi: Thanks again for another great question, though I didn't answer exactly as intended. Answering it, I finally realized how the segmentation between genders in the society works and sparks certain discrimination and expectations the characters struggle against.

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#PennedPossibilities 991 — Tell us about your WIP. What is the genre or genres?

Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) is science fiction. That my day angel MC Bolt can fly boils down to physics, mathematics, and engineering of mental spaces thanks to a few changes in the laws of nature. There's a dark matter dark energy connection, but I'm keeping it deep background for now. However, the sensibility of the novel leans toward slice-of-life with adventure getting in the way. This specific WIP could classify as cozy mystery SF, but the cozy tag may not make it past the first draft. It is also feminist in outlook, and I classify it as gender fiction, which may be a genre only of my creation.

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#PennedPossibilities 990 — Have any of your characters ever been in a fight?

I am defining "a fight" as a physical altercation where someone wants to hurt you, not simply sparring. Verbal, emotional, or logical combat, including gaming or betting doesn't count as a fight, even if bankruptcy, being thrown in jail, or enslavement could result.

Most of the cast has fought, though Boss Mead may not have. He's a sweet talker. Surprisingly, Bolt attacks someone who hurt her friend, rather than running as she usually does. Shugh is a gentle man, but he did defend himself in school from bullies. It's a society where being trans is no big deal other than being rare, but there's always an idiot who can take offense at any thing, like breathing. Neither Night on Fire nor her sister Light Insight have fought, though the latter woman did get abused. The only one who's been a perfect pacifist is Blue's brainiac little sister. At only15, and a bit of a runt, she's as skilled as the devil-girl. She has avoided fighting by studying all the time, and by being reputed for blowing up buildings. Accidentally. Reputedly.

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#WordWeavers 2026.04.18 —If your antagonist had to learn a musical instrument, what would they pick and why?

I'm getting caught up in the word "had" here, as in the sense of both forced and required, but allowed to pick.

Rainy Days was born poor to a carpenter having committed the sin of being female in a society that gave women little self-agency. No coin for musical instruments. By her twenties, nobody in her world could require her anything.

Pigeon the Pilferer has the delicacy and manners of a dropped hammer, and is likely as dense. While he might have been required in upper school, nobody, no teacher and certainly no punk, was going to force him against his will. Having a rattle to use, stalking his prey through shadowy alleys like a snake, seems somehow appropriate, but for him it would be a choice

Boss Mead has a suitable middle class education, but was never the sort to excel. His school years are a tabla rasa to me. I can imagine economics forcing him after graduation to make coin and requiring him to learn something simple to create it. Piano-man piano seems his speed. Easy. He's a chill and affable person. His one real talent makes it easy for others to find reasons to make him happy—let's call it charisma for now—and convincing someone to teach him to play piano in a restaurant or a lounge would have been easy for him. Piano-man piano is basically learning how to play the keys and read the music sufficiently to pick out the melody. Then, it's memorization, and it's practice. With an added level of learning how to play "fancy," things like multi-finger chords, rhythm, dynamics, and such—which could have been picked up by listening to his mentor play—Boss Mead could have learned the music easily and learned to reproduce it for hours with feeling, creating a night long ambience and fugue. Yes, I can see Boss Mead starring in a hazy bar, a red whiskey in a crystal glass over the rocks on a coaster, sitting beside a torchere candelabra, playing until late, and making his first contacts for subsequent shady deals. Not canon, yet.

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#ScribesAndMakers ∆ 2026.04.18 — Do you ever read out loud, either to yourself or someone else?

Occasionally, to others, I am asked to. Mostly messages, short passages. I've studied public speaking. No Obama am I.

For myself? Yes. My own work. Practically always. It is how I review if I got the story, the rhythm, and the grammar correct. By ear. By spend a great deal of time dramatically reading aloud.

As I just did this scrivening.

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#ScribesAndMakers ∆ 2026.04.17 — What's something you've learned in recent research?

The percentage of shared DNA between siblings is 31% to 61% and between aunts/uncles/nieces/nephews is 17% to 34%. Since the percentages matter to the story, it was good I looked it up. Since I'd made an error, I'm going to have to change a few things.

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#PennedPossibilities 989 — Is your MC an immigrant or newcomer in the place where they live? If so, where did they emigrate from and where do they currently live?

Bolt used to live on the northwest coast in the cliffs that formed after the ocean receded past the continental shelf, a place populated by home trees and day angels. I haven't named it, yet. When she rolled a van down a hill and threw a torch through a guild window, she ran. Superfast trains cross the continent, and you could travel faster passing through demonic gateways faster (city on world A, to world B, back to the same world but city C), but she came to Home City under her own wing power. It's inland from the south coast. She lives in Lowtown; let's just call it the low-rent district. Where she lives now is a daemon majority-region, unlike the place she lived which was predominantly day angel. Day angels are discriminated against, but Home City does have a vibrant day angel food culture, so she's not completely homesick.

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#WordWeavers 2026.04.17 —How far beyond the local home of your MC does your story extend?

Bolt flies back and forth all over the capital in Home City, to the Residency (aka The Palace) and the University district, the business district uptown, the Strand where the best restaurants, theatres, and people are, and Lowtown where she lives. Not the nicest neighborhoods. She also flies a dozen leagues west to the old suburbs abandoned 200 years ago thanks to population decline. Over the ruins and reforestation is a relatively private airspace to practice flying tandem. She'll soon visit the forests of the Wild twenty leagues southwest for a dangerous delivery. The interstellar gateways are nine leagues west of the city, and it's a point in the story that she's never seen one until one shows up Mid-City, and a gateway is a miracle you can't forget seeing. For her, it's like you or I never having needed to visit an airport. She may yet do so.

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#PennedPossibilities 988 — Tell us about your MC’s bravest moment.

Sometimes living requires bravery, but Bolt knows she isn't a fighter and runs from violence when she can. When the mob boss and his minions miscalculate trying to hire the devil-girl by blackmailing her and giving her no choice, it's different. The daemon is a miracle worker trained as a fighter; cornered, she becomes angry in deadly quiet controlled fashion. Bolt has shadowed her through the city, knows how peculiar she is. Foreseeing death and disaster, she intercedes. It means seducing the mob boss, whom she detests. This can't be good, can it?

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