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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.11.14 — If you could hang one of your pictures anywhere in the world, where would you hang it?

While I do think my fine art photography is rather unique and a noteworthy, I've never had the ego nor the confidence to even imagine it being in a museum or on public display. I've done candid ambient light candid wedding and children's party photography, and I do hope some of it is treasured.

My writing, however… I am hoping some of it might list for the Otherwise Award.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WordWeavers 2025.11.14 — Does your SC have any insecurities?

Arrow Flies True has plenty of insecurities. He's Bolt's riding partner—she's the MC—and is known to her as Blue. Like Bolt, he's a day angel with feathered wings a perfect shade of medium blue, almost like the sea. He works hard on his body and appearance, but it's the sweet spot between handsome and intimidating that worries him. He deals with women constantly and, because of his proficiency doing that, his life is taking an odd turn. Thanks to Bolt's purely selfishly motivated flight training, his skill flying has landed him a job working for the most powerful woman—strike that, the most powerful person—alive. He's nominally a bodyguard, but praetorians have plenty of other responsibilities, some life and death, that people don't think about. It's not the type of job he can give up to deal with family and children, which he expected to do soon; his future is changing at the speed of sound. With Bolt being recognized for her photography, he's now also going to star in a pinup calendar. Worse, his employer has informed him, as of the previous chapter, that because of how well he deals with people and situations he's now training for a command position in her guard, something that in his world is a rare honor for a man. Can he do it? Part of him wants to quit, to return to being a nobody. Safer being a nobody, not having to conform to the expectations he was neither raised for nor educated to deal with. He's sweating it badly, though you'd never know from his hunky apparently self-assured exterior. And, then, there's his kid sister…

But that's craziness for a possible sequel.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.11.14 —How objective or authoritative do you strive for your narration to be?

Think about experiencing an adventure yourself, maybe going on a hike (though you don't do that very much); in the forest you encounter a truck illegally dumping trash. You see big burly guys, so you don't confront them, but you take pictures, think one of them saw you. You run, get lost, end up being found by a park ranger the next day dehydrated and cold with a dead cellphone battery. You get up your courage and call the police.

Tell that story in 1st person.

Is what you say about hiking, forestry, illegal dumping, surviving overnight without the proper equipment, etc. authoritative? Is what you say about the men you can identify objective? How much is it opinion and how much is prejudice?

I strive for my narration, which is solidly only in the protagonist's 1st person point-of-view, to be authentic to that character. It means they may not understand anything and still run their mouth off about it, doing that while thinking they are being objective, are explaining facts, and making correct deductions. Furthermore, things that make them look bad, or contradict their narrative they might omit without malice. In fairness to the reader and the story, I do allow the narrator's reporting to contradict earlier information. That's especially easy when the protagonist doesn't understand things and their continuing observations don't match the reality the reader understands.

In my current wip, the narrator (Bolt) is confessional, and doesn't like herself sometimes. She doesn't spin facts or lie because her reveals are intimate and ofttimes embarrassing, though the reader can tell she prevaricates and equivocates, mostly to protect others. Since she's essentially a high school dropout nearing 30 living in a criminal bubble, trusting how authoritative her explanation of "scientific" or "historical" facts would be ill advised. It protects against her revealing truths I want to reserve as an author about her world that, for an example, a science nerd might naturally comment about. However, her discussions about self-powered flight and physical training are quite accurate, because that's a major part of her life, and her story, and she's actually studied that stuff.

Of course, one of the reasons I abandoned 3rd person is that it seems that there is a convention that the narrator understands and clarifies things the protagonist(s) don't, and furthermore can't lie or spin the facts. Something something reliable narrator?

Boring.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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Read any good books recently? 📚

Looking for recommendations for my next read.

- No horror, no violence, no romance
- Preferably no or little magic or elves.
- Looove adventure and science fiction.
oh, and rather uplifting than depressive, time's tough enough...

Please share, thanks! 👍🏻

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RE: https://wandering.shop/@OtherwiseAward/115510504847854179

3 days left to nominate books, stories, poems, music, video, fanfic, social media posts, or any other form of #SpeculativeFiction for this year's Otherwise Award jury.

Anyone can make a recommendation, and it's fine to nominate your own work.

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Chapter 25 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Nicole is handed a ax that belonged to the father of Gida, who's name was Winzon.

Nicole notices a bundle of necromantic magic attached to the ax and activates it, summoning the ghost of Winzon.

The dwarf ghosts notices Nicole's mood and gets her talking about what bothers her...

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Chapter 43 of The Next Horizon is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/102509/the-book-of-newts

Amelia finally sees Dawkin again and her heart sinks, because he's on a date with another woman, who happens to look a bit like Amelia, only more attractive.

She's jealous, then despairs, but her sisters convince her to speak with him.

Dawkin's first gut reaction is to slap Amelia...

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