#ScribesAndMakers day 5: Post one or more Mad Libs, whatever you have enough words for.

With words from @saposcat:

The San Francisco night was pretty, but there was no tornado Downtown. That was good, Kevin Wingard thought as he went his bottle beside the shed. It meant they’d have a clear view from the grocery store for their final bowling before they started their karaoke. 1/4

With words from @rubyjones:

The San Francisco night was bold, but there was no tornado Downtown. That was good, Kevin Wingard thought as he folded his him beside the folly. It meant they’d have a clear view from the Elysium for their final farting before they started their flying. 2/4

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With words from @willelm:

The San Francisco night was salty, but there was no monsoon Downtown. That was good, Kevin Wingard thought as he knifed his banana beside the shed. It meant they’d have a clear view from the Atlantic Ocean for their final dancing before they started their eating. 3/4

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The original, from the beginning of chapter 2 of my WIP:

The San Francisco night was cool, but there was no fog Downtown. That was good, Kevin Wingard thought as he parked his motor scooter beside the Federal Reserve Bank. It meant they’d have a clear view from the rooftop for their final scouting pass before they started their incursion. 4/4

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#ScribesAndMakers day 6: How do you choose a title for your book?

That's a thing I still haven't figured out. I'm not really looking forward to doing that. (Although I am very much looking forward to _having it done_.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 7: Are you able to communicate in sign language?

No. I can't even remember or recognize all of the single-letter alphabet signs. (Maybe about 15–20 of them?)

I used to be able to do the entire alphabet, and a few things like "thank you" and maybe 1 or 2 others, but I haven't had any use for it in decades, and have forgotten even the tiny bits I once had.

#ScribesAndMakers day 8: Is there a country other than your own that influences your creativity?

Not really.

If there were, it'd probably be Ireland and/or Japan, but no, I don't think either of those is influencing me all that much at the moment. (Yes, one of my MCs is Japanese-American, but that influence is coming from me having lived in Japantown, San Francisco for a while. That's *this* country.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 9: Share a line from a song, then make a poll with the actual next line and two that are made up or are from another song. Ask people to pick the actual line.

The line:

🎼 Caroline makes the final adjustments in the rear-view mirror 🎶

Which one follows it?

1) She likes how she looks, she's seeing everything clearer

2) She's nervous and tense, she's thinking it over

3) So when he arrives, at quarter to five, he'll find her much dearer

#ScribesAndMakers day 10: Reveal the answer to yesterday's poll

The clue is the opening line from "Radio Silence", by Thomas Dolby, off his 1982 debut album _The Golden Age of Wireless_ (also the source of the much better-known "She Blinded Me With Science"). The song continues:

She's nervous and tense, she's thinking it over.
With logic and sense she'll overcome her phobia.

(Dolby's non-rhotic dialect helps "over" and "phobia" rhyme much more than they would in mine.) 1/2

Incidentally, "Radio Silence" is also the source of the name of my new laptop, Caroline4Five2 (so spelled as a good way of making it clear that it's not pronounced "four fifty-two" or "four hundred fifty-two").

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj_yFpL6uoE. Give it a try, it's a bop! 2/2

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#ScribesAndMakers day 11: Our featured creator does 3D printing. Have you ever? (Share a pic)

Never have I ever.

#ScribesAndMakers day 12: Our featured creator has an em dash key on his keyboard. Do you do any customizations for your creativity?

I haven't physically customized my keyboard, but I've had a software shortcut for my nonbreaking-space-and-em-dash combo for more years than I can remember. I've also got a bunch of custom scripts and things to support my writing. 1/2

Possibly my favorite of those is one that shows me:

1) The last 4 things I did (my last 4 Git commit comments)
2) Status of all open, non-complete scene files
3) And a "todo" file that I keep stocked with notes on what I can tackle next.

It's a really good thing to look at when I start a writing session every night (or afternoon on weekends); it gives me excellent answers to the question "What the heck was I working on?" and its buddy, "Where can I pick up now?" 2/2

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#ScribesAndMakers day 13: Our featured creator writes both novels and short stories. How do you feel about short fiction? Do you read short stories as often as novels?

I like reading short stories, but am awful at writing them. Not so much a fan of microfiction, but the range of roughly 2,000­–8,000 words is pretty nice. Maybe even up to 10 or 12.

#ScribesAndMakers day 15: Is the time you've had for creativity this month what you expected?

There have been more issues with setting up my new laptop than I expected. That absolutely cut into my writing for the first few days of the month — I had a 4-day complete hiatus, during which I was so busy with tech that I wrote nothing! A few other days have been fairly low in terms of time available for writing, but at least greater than zero.

#ScribesAndMakers day 16: Convince us to read a book you don't care for yourself.

I can't understand why in the world I'd do that. If I don't like it, I'm not going to try to sell it to others.

#ScribesAndMakers day 17: What’s a creative habit you’ve wanted to adopt but haven’t yet?

Finishing a draft.

#ScribesAndMakers day 18: If your creative work could speak, what would it say about you?

If my creative work doesn't speak, I'm Doin' It Rong™.

But it's supposed to speak *for itself*, not "about me".

#ScribesAndMakers day 19: How did you feel when you finished your most recent project?

I can't think of a project recently that I'd say I'd "finished". 😳 More like, "simply stopped doing it or put it aside."

#ScribesAndMakers day 21: What everyday object would you photograph as if it were art?

Human hands.

#ScribesAndMakers day 22: Create a micro-story in six words.

No. No, no. No, uh-uh. Nope.

(I am not a microfiction writer. There may come a day when I try my hand at it, but as Aragorn said at the Black Gate of Mordor, "it is not this day.")

#ScribesAndMakers day 23: Do you consider yourself a frood who knows where their towel is?

I used to be a lot more of a frood. I'm not sure I've ever known where my towel is (in the slang, metaphorical sense), but I've been able to fake it for decades.

(Literally, yes, I do know exactly where all my towels are. But I don't feel like that really fits the spirit of the galactic hitchhikers' expression.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 24: Do you have a sewing kit in your home?

No. If I did, I'm not sure what I'd do with it. Seriously, if some of my clothing breaks, I'm much better off to take it to the Garment District and pay someone who knows what they're doing to fix it.

#ScribesAndMakers day 25: Do you use music as a storytelling tool? Give an example.

I have a fair number of references to music in my work. I'm trying to keep them from getting out of control, and also mindful of copyright issues. But my MCs are modern people, in their 20s and 30s. They listen to music! They're going to reference it!

#ScribesAndMakers day 26: Do you dance or move along to music when you listen?

Absolutely.

If I'm sitting in a big, comfy armchair, I can't move my body all that much, but if I should happen to need to move my arms (say, to pick up whatever I'm drinking), that motion will generally be synced with the music, a tiny bit of dance in an otherwise-static situation.

#ScribesAndMakers day 27: What's a book that made you see the world differently? How?

William Poundstone's _The Recursive Universe_ taught me far more about recursion, complexity and how it can arise from simplicity, information and how it differs from data, entropy, and the universe itself, than I can possibly do justice to in 500 characters — or even a multi-post thread. It's up there with things like Sagan's _Cosmos_ and Hofstadter's _Gödel, Escher Bach_ and _Metamagical Themas_.

#ScribesAndMakers day 28: Does your day job (past or present) influence your creativity?

Yeah, since software development involves a lot of dealing with raw text, we programmers have a lot of really good tools for doing that. Naturally, I use them in my writing.

#ScribesAndMakers day 29: Griddle?

There's definitely a griddle at J&J's Bar and Grill, the bar/café/restaurant that San Francisco's urban magicians frequent. Otherwise, they couldn't make French toast just the way Bradley Chung, one of the more respected members of the community, likes it. (Not just for him, of course! The griddle also allows them to make pancakes, burgers, bacon, you name it. But I figured I'd give him a special mention.)

#ScribesAndMakers day 30: Do birds ever feature in your work? Give an example.

They definitely do/will. I don't want to say more until the book is published, because there will be some plot points that come as surprises.

#ScribesAndMakers day 31: Are you satisfied with how your creativity went this month?

I think I kind of have to be. It's not like I can go back and re-do it.

To elaborate: at the beginning of the month, I got a new laptop, and took 4 days off writing to get it set up and customized and stuff. Then in the middle of the month, I made the decision to go to San Francisco and wrap up a few loose ends (and also update my mental maps and memories), and... 1/2

...planning for that occupied a bunch more mental space that took energy away from writing. So my overall time spent writing is way lower than usual. Also, I had to do a bunch more outlining, so my word-count is *way* lower than I'd like.

But all of those things were necessary, and even if I don't like the results, I need to accept that this is how it is. 2/2

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#ScribesAndMakers day 1: How many creative projects do you have going right now?

I'm holding myself to just the one, by sheer force of will.

That doesn't stop me from occasionally having thoughts or getting ideas about potential other ones. And I do write those thoughts down. But that's an occasional thing.

#ScribesAndMakers day 2: What does imposter syndrome mean to you and do you think you have it?

Thinking (or feeling) that you're unqualified for a position or role, even though you are.

It's a very difficult thing to self-diagnose, by definition. That said, no, I don't think I have it.

#ScribesAndMakers day 3: Do you think there is a creative element to eating?

I dunno, feels more like consuming than creating to me.

That's not to run it down; I love to eat, especially tasty stuff. But things can be good without having to be "creative".

#ScribesAndMakers day 4: How do you answer if someone asks you what you do? Is your answer different in person than it is online?

First off, it depends if they're asking about my day job or they mean "what I do that I enjoy" or "what I do that gives meaning to my life". So if the former, I'd generally just say I'm a front-end web developer, and if they want elaboration I'll supply it in layperson's terms that illustrate the difference between... 1/2

...a web *designer* (which is often what they think of first, and is not something I'm very good at) and a web *developer*.

But if the latter... then I generally say I'm working on an urban fantasy novel, set in San Francisco, about how the City is alive and can teach people magic, and different ones of the people it teaches have different ideas about what to do with that. 2/2

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#ScribesAndMakers day 5: Could you do a scrapbook accompanying your current creative process?

I'd have to start by learning what the heck's involved in scrapbooking. I have no idea.

#ScribesAndMakers day 6: Some people have creative work inspired by their dreams. Have you ever had dreams inspired by your creative work?

Not yet. I'd kind of like to; that sounds fun!

#ScribesAndMakers day 7: Would your current creative project make a good game? (If it is a game, is there another media where you think it could work well?)

I've had thoughts that it might be good fodder for a TTRPG, yes. I wouldn't and shouldn't be the one to write the game rules, but I'd be happy to see some game studio do it, and to see that there were people out there playing games in my world.

#ScribesAndMakers day 8: Victuals?

That always makes me think of the shortened/variant form "vittles", which in turn leads me to wonder: The phrase "beer and skittles" predates the candy by quite some time, right? (I'm positive I heard the phrase in my youth, and then later when the candy appeared on the market, I thought, "Oh, they must've named them after that phrase.") But what did it mean before then?

(Okay, I just looked it up. Apparently it was a game often played in pubs.)