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Had a long career as a photographer & writer about the outdoors, but now much more focused on fiction, especially SF. Author website is https://www.jonsparksauthor.com.
Lots of photos and quite a lot of words at https://jonsparks.zenfolio.com.
Still very much into the #outdoors, especially #cycling #gravelbikes (I’ve written about that too).
AI-free (and I mean free).
#WritersCoffeeClub 1/4: What arrangement of plots do you have? No plot? Only one? A main plot and a side plot? Something else?
Characters let me follow their stories. Stuff happens. That’s all I know.
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#WordWeavers 1/4: Your opinion on April Fool's Day & do you incorporate the day into your work?
April Fool's Day is a fine thing when the spoof is done well. And as the originator of the Spaghetti Harvest story on the BBC, and of the San Serriffe feature in the Guardian, you can believe every word I say.
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#WritersCoffeeClub 31/3: What are we celebrating regarding your writing this month?
That I’m back in the groove after a period of disruption (as recounted yesterday), and that the latest book is coming together.
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#WordWeavers 31/3: Share or tell us about a fun scene you recently wrote.
‘Scene’ may not be quite the word as it’s an epistolary episode, and I’m not sure about ‘fun’ either But can’t be picky as I’m mostly in revision mode, not many brand new scenes happening just now. This is Tari, who’s been on a big journey in the geographical sense, and is also on a journey through gender, writing to her friend Avi. Sory about the speling.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
Continuing this serialised novel of murky goings-on in the great outdoors… and things are really coming to a head.
Free to read.
https://open.substack.com/pub/theshatteredmoon/p/the-kanchenjunga-manifestochapter-7ff
The Kanchenjunga Manifesto—Chapter Forty

Continuing this serialised novel of murky goings-on in the great outdoors

The Shattered Moon’s Substack
#WordWeavers 30/3: How do you keep track of important info related to your characters, world, etc.?
I have a big Numbers spreadsheet to keep track of character ages etc. across the series—which already spans over 40 years. Smaller spreadsheet for individual novels if timelines get complex. Notes on key facts about characters in a Pages file. But I keep a lot in my head.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WordWeavers 30/3: How do you keep track of important info related to your characters, world, etc.?
I have a big Numbers spreadsheet to keep track of character ages etc. across the series—which already spans over 40 years. Smaller spreadsheet for individual novels if timelines get complex. Notes on key facts about characters in a Pages file. But I keep a lot in my head.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub 30/3: What got in the way of your writing this month?
First part of the month, we had family over from New Zealand, which was great, culminating in a grand weekend in Glasgow because they were flying out from there. And our return slightly complicated by the fire at Glasgow Central. Not much writing done then, but I’ve been back in action with renewed vigour since. It’s good to have a break now and then.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

"Setting aside the moral arguments—"

You mean the power and water.

"Setting aside the power and water, and—"

Don't forget the industrial-scale plagiarism. The brazen theft.

"Setting aside the copyright fuckery, the power and water, and—"

Don't forget the maniacal, suicidal inflation of the bubble. Arguably the greatest single mis-allocation of resources in history, aside from war.

"Setting aside the financial madness, the copyright fuckery, the power and water, and—"

Don't forget the willful destruction of creative livelihoods, the willful destruction of education itself.

"Setting aside the destruction of art, writing, and schools, the financial madness, the copyright fuckery, the power and water, and—"

Don't forget the purposeful degradation of human cognitive capacity. The planned and designed addictive dependency.

"Setting aside the cognitive degradation, the destruction of schools, the financial madness, the copyright fuckery, the power and water, and—"

Don't forget the ghoulish ethical camouflage used to obscure, indeed to erase, the responsibility for decisions in budget austerity, insurance claims, regulatory oversight, medical decisions, court filings, and even real-time combat.

"Setting aside the monstrous mechanisms of official irresponsibility, the cognitive degradation, the schools, the financial madness, the copyright fuckery, the power and water—"

Are you going to say it doesn't work?

"IT DOES NOT FUCKING WORK"

#ai

#WordWeavers 29/3: How big is your cast of characters?
Across the series so far, there are 11 POV characters, and Book 8 will introduce 3 more. Other major characters more than double this tally, and there are literally hundreds of lesser, but named, characters.
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