RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist
sfwrtr@eldritch.cafe
<p>RS, pronounced /är' əs/. Professional <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/SF" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SF</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>fiction</span></a> writer returning from burn-out. Writes character-driven <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/SFF" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SFF</span></a> (science fiction <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fantasy" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>fantasy</span></a>) and some <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/MLP" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MLP</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fanfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>fanfiction</span></a>. <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/ClarionWest" class="menti
Posts
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.28 — Could you work without the [I]nternet? What would change? I wrote using a computer from 1975 through 1997—though the early years were timeshare—without the aid of the Internet. Spellcheckers and grammar checkers appeared well before they became Internet-based, though I have hardcopy (remember books?) dictionaries, reverse dictionaries, spell-check books, and thesauri. I do have encyclopedias of science, engineering, and other knowledge lookup books, but reali...
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#EroticMusings 2026.09.13[Bolt, day angel woman, MC:] Romance is a strange word the way you're using it. You really asking that a man would work to interest me passionately? Romancing him is my prerogative. I'm a woman. A man "romancing" me? That's aggro. Even in these progressive times, that's a bad tactic. Makes me less likely to ride him, 'less he's a good friend and I've been hinting. Kinda shows he didn't pay attention in Men's Studies where guy...
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The confusion between #author and #writer:Once you have completed a work and preferably published it, you are an author. It's like being a virgin. Can't go back. Being a writer is a profession or an avocation. It's like being pregnant. It begins. It ends. It can become past tense; was. #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon
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#PennedPossibilities 1133 Again: Did your MC attend school? What sort of education did they have?[Since @floofpaldi is recuperating tonight, I'm answering "again" for a different story and MC. I wanted to do a little world-building. 😋 —RS] The devil-girl is the young autistic daemon woman MC in Reluctant Runaway (planned). She attended public school through most of second grade with her best friend from infancy, but when he left (disappeared really) without telling her why, she be...
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.09.19 — Are you more comfortable writing to a structure or freeform?When I was younger, I would happily give a talk using a series of index cards with prompting mnemonics or a short list of details. Not at my age, though. The last talk I gave, I read a script. Nevertheless, I prefer to write freeform; working from a treatment is best, with a character sketch and her agenda with a described end-of-story goal. I like discovering the story, pretty much like I liked disc...
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#WordWeavers 2026.09.19 — What are three personality strengths your antagonist has?Cares about peopleShe's friendly, outgoing, sometimes silly, helps those who ask reasonably, is tolerant of stupidity and pride, and is rarely stern except with her students or recalcitrant dragon ambassadors. She even tries to understand why people do the bad things they do, trying to find the flower hidden in the weeds as she offers chances for such people to redeem themselves. Is calmIf you find her fluste...
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#WordWeavers 2026.09.18 — What are three personality strengths your MC has?HonestThis doesn't mean she doesn't lie, but this is only to protect people. It doesn't mean she isn't a criminal; she works for the mob. She won't steal from you, or others, but she will do what she's ordered; that's generally is not stealing, and for other things she will misinterpret nuances to preserve her integrity. Learns from mistakesShe has made so many, she considers herself stupid. S...
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A friend pointed out this great reference material for writing fictional drug experiences. @chuff throws me tasty treats all the time! Read the tumblr if you can. https://www.tumblr.com/tafkarfanfic/808442046492884992/oh-my-god-people-please-your-elderly-auntie-has The actual site cited is: https://www.erowid.org/experiences/ Enjoy the trip!#BoostingIsSharing with a fellow #writer. #writers #writingCommunity #writerOfMastodon #research
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No wonder NASA earth and ocean science is being cut (#uspol). Good science puts at risk masking the true nature of bad weather: acts of God that frees government and corporations from paying to fix things broken. #boostingIsSharing #climate #science #nasa #climatechange https://weather-fox.com/nasa-confirms-atmospheric-shift-over-north-america-8-345225
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Yep. That's the gist. Take care of yourself. #BoostingIsSharing #Humor #Funny #Politics #Cartoon
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#science #meteor I found this a good read; it's well done and informative, so I'm sharing. #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon #sf #scienceFiction https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/space-astronomy/solar-system/asteroids-meteors-comets/huba-largest-meteorite-earth
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To cackle: To sound like a bird, e.g. a cockatoo, whilst laughing. Just did. Mistook a woman for a bird just now. So true. #writer #author #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon
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. #PennedPossibilities 1058 Finding a passage I love will require too many spoons today, but I think this random passage I revised recently is nifty. Bolt is day angel woman. It's not that she's liberated, it's that she's rather typical in her woman-centric society and as the narrator, she's sharing her thoughts and life uncensored, thus the CW. I didn't remember having written the cryptic note to myself before falling into sleep. Yes, the blackouts worried me. I could...
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#WordWeavers 2026.07.01 — If your MC wore teeshirts, what would be on their favorite one?Oooo. An opportunity for worldbuilding! Bolt did the day angel equivalent of Track and Field in high school. She did flight sprints, long distance relay, and obstacle stunt flying. If the team, Glidepath, had worn teeshirts as a uniform when competing, the garments would have had an extra set of wide sleeves slightly behind and slightly below her arm sleeves to insert her wings through. The design on the shi...
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#PennedPossibilities 1059 — Antagonist POV: What object would you like to own someday? What makes it appeal to you?[Rainy Days, the Director of Home and the Nine Outer Worlds, the main series antagonist, and a woman:] What part do you not understand about being an absolute ruler? I own everything on ten worlds. Any thing I want, I have. I grant stewardship of my property and the value created. I delegate authority in return for following my wishes, orders, and intent. It's how I implement th...
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#PennedPossibilities 1059 #2 — Antagonist POV: What object would you like to own someday? What makes it appeal to you?[I'll let Boss Mead, Don of the Thousand Eyes Syndicate, the insidious antagonist of the WIP Reluctant Courier (for the Mob), talk about some of the unrevealed backstory, and what motivates him. —RS] I don't own people. I don't think of them as objects, but the syndicate confederation that usually does what I think is good for us seems to. When this day angel who fli...
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#ScribesAndMakers π2026.07.02 — Talk To Me Day #ttmd Featured Creator Elyse Grasso @ElyseMGrassoYou and I are fellow pantsers, I understand. As I write stories in my Reluctance Series, I learn a lot about the denizens of tbe world, their societies, their quirks. How much of your Elderkin world did you discover as you wrote? Since you're working of the third book, do you ever wish you could go back to change previous details? If so, how will you retcon? Before I started writing, I also tho...
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.05.29 — What (in terms of writing) do you fear?My work never finding an audience. [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion
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#PennedPossibilities 1027 — SC POV: If you could master any skill, what would it be? How would you use it? Note: #tootfic.[Devil-girl, currently a mob enforcer, autist, SC POV:] I looked at Bolt [the MC] squarely. "That's a weird question." "I? Well. You went to huge trouble to attend the Directorate's school of thaumaturgy. Since we're working together, I thought it might be good to know…" I wasn't the type to have personal goals, simply work goals. I made...
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#ScribesAndMakers № 28 ('26 May) Our next featured creator is a serial writer. Have you ever written serials?Yes. As a series of related stories, as a series of sequels, and as a series of serialized episodes / chapters in a continuing story to which I'm not sure of the ending. My current Reluctance Series, as the name suggests, is intended to be a series of related novels, novelettes, and side stories with continuing characters and different, and sometimes returning, MCs. This only w...
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#ScribesAndMakers 2026.05 № 30 ('26 May) Our #TTMD featured creator is Quasi @QuasiTemporalAs an SF author, I've tried penning a few time travel stories. So hard. Each time, the logic of traveling in time ends up pretzeling the "timeline" into destroying the protagonist's past and creating a new past and future that could make the protagonist not exist at all. The story ceases to be time travel at all, or becomes unworkable. So, @QuasiTemporal, how do you approach the plot...
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#WordWeavers 2026.05.29 — What would your antagonist do if they were given a bouquet of flowers?In the current era of her world, it is to a man who's been playing hard to get that a woman would give a bouquet of flowers. Rainy Days, however, loves to be wooed. Considering her position and how people are irrationally afraid of her, she'd definitely take it as a positive—especially if someone not an enemy took it as a step toward the bedroom. [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #Boos...
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#WordWeavers 2026.05.28 — What is your MC's relationship to nature?Have you ever been in a plane flying in a storm, or seen one in a movie? My day angel MC has wings and flies. Been there. Enough said. [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion #RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.05.21 — What targets do you set for yourself? To what frequency?None. Maybe I should consider it…? No! When I did that crap, imposing goals, writing daily do or die, setting quotas I could never meet, I burnt out. For over a decade. Better I should think about writing, think about stories, even happily daydream… but write when the story wants out. YMMV 😓 [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author #fantasy #sf...
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#ScribesAndMakers 2026.05.19 — № 29 ('26 May) Our next featured creator has done creative work with math(s). Does math(s) ever feature in any way in your creative work?[I'm going to call it a magic system to simplify terms; the story is SF. —RS] Yes. The "magic" system in the Reluctance Series is calculative. Equations describe both reality and how to modify it. Understanding of math (calculus, geometry, statistics, etc.) is necessary for anything complex. I'd love to con...
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Wondering why RS hasn't been answering prompts much the last few days? Well, I've now rewritten the first chapter of Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) for the fourth time. OMFG! Now I believe Bolt is a talented photographer who lives only for the street photos she takes, and flying. She's damaged, apathetic, with a lousy job we don't what it is yet, her memory metaphoric Swiss cheese— discriminated against to boot. She's now met the trans reporter who'll be her foil, and is...
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#ScribesAndMakers 2026.06.01 — Choose an adjective to describe how you're feeling about your creativity this month.POSITIVE. Case in point, this report, a breakthrough in my confidence level: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116673418741765097 [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author photographer chef cooking #cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers #RSdiscussion #RSstory #RSReluctanceSt...
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#WordWeavers 2026.06.01 — Let your MC introduce themselves.A day angel woman affixes you with a glare that could melt iron. She points at her glued spiked up hair obviously dyed black staining her scalp, at her tarnished silver facial piercings, at lines of black face and body paint, at her black leather wear and chains—with her blue and white feathered wings flared up and out in an effort to make her look bigger than you, in an effort to make her look dangerous. Succeeding. In spades. You dec...
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The two hydrangea photos use an iPhone 17 to create a 3D effect by taking a Live Photo of wind blown flowers and using the bounce effect. Unfortunately sometimes the shot will show the subject moving against the background for a gorgeous 3D effect, and sometimes the phone will hold the subject steady and move the background—which is plain weird. Does anyone know what technique is necessary to create the desirable effect? Theories? #BoostingIsSharing #Photography #Photo #Photos #Bloomscrolling...
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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. [Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.] #BoostingIsSharing #gender #fiction #writer #author photographer chef cooking #cozy #mystery #sf #sff #...