Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 10

Family Quarrels

For the last few years, with the open border and people trampling in willy nilly, I had a running theme when I linked those news: Those poor saps are walking in on a family quarrel. When the excrement hits the rotating object it’s going to get seriously ugly.

I now think I was wrong on that. Oh, not on its getting ugly. I still worry about that and they — and the people they think are their defenders — aren’t making these people being caught in the middle less likely.

But I’m less — n...

Praise the Lord and Pass The Memes

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So Tired

Mostly I’ve done not much of anything since death march with mowers. Okay. It was a very bad death march, but still.

Honestly, I think I’m coming down with something, judging by slight temperature, general nausea and my voice going weird. Nothing serious, but–

It makes me react very weirdly to things. Okay, that might also have to do — all of it might — with stopping Prednisone without a taper.

This afternoon I decided I was losing my temper at people unwarrantedly, then my fans/fri...

Alas We Are Ronin

First of all, if you subscribe to my substack and/or were hoping for a book review, the substack will come (a chapter of Witch’s Daughter) tomorrow. The book review probably Friday. I lost the book for a while.

I’m running late on account of Death March with Mowers. I.e. our lawn care fell through, and I’m the one who can do it. Which would be easier if it weren’t almost an acre, and the only implement to cut it we have weren’t a little electric mower. Oh. We have an electric sheep too, b...

Beware LLM (“AI”) translations of foreign-language videos – A Guest Post by J. C. Salomon

*Before we get to this I want to say two things about this post. The first is that he’s absolutely right: it’s almost impossible for AI to decode things like slurred words. How do I know that? Because — as Kate Paulk pointed out — I have a “variable accent” which never hits the same word exactly the same, plus at least three intersecting linguistic influences: Portugal, Great Britain and North Carolina. The end result is that not even the “best” AI transcription programs (“this one transcribes m...

A Writer’s Bleg

Will babble for publicity!

That word in the title is not a typo. Bleg is a compound of blog and beg.

But Sarah, you’re thinking, you just did a blog fundraiser.

I sure did. This is not a fundraiser and not a request for money. This is a request for help, some of which might be trivial to you — depending on who you are — and some of which might be a reach, or might be a matter of “I know a guy” (which I don’t.)

So, here’s the thing: As some of you know — those of you who follow my wri...

Out of Ammo

This Sunday I realized the left — particularly the cultured, posturing left — is completely and utterly out of ammo.

Oh, probably not out of literal ammo. That seems to always be their last play, after all. Bringing out the hidden cache and trying to make a splash. In America, I’m going to hazard, it won’t go well for them. They might even know it, so that the outbreaks of nonsense we get are isolated and tiny. Still tragic. Still costing innocent lives. But not the open shooting war they...

Come To The Meme Side!

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The Boss is Away

Hi Huns, Hoydens, and other Creatures! Sarah’s taking a much needed day-off-ish and said I could put up a post!

First of all, please to share the links–see the sidebar, or the top menu, or if you’re on mobile the very bottom–for No Man’s Land pre-orders. If you’ve read the eARC, a review on your website of choice would be much appreciated. These are referral links, and therefore Sarah gets a tiny additional cut of the Amazon pot.

Second, a WordPress housekeeping note. No, we did not...

Two Realities Not Even Vaguely Alike In Dignity

It’s getting increasingly difficult to talk to Europeans. Or read their books. Or–

And if you’re going to say “Why would you?” Well, because I’m related to a lot of them. Or they are dear friends from either so far back in childhood that they’re basically family, or from my misguided youth. I’m not fond of Europe, but I like the people.

Until recently, this was an easy circle to square. I just didn’t talk about politics, or really lean too hard into their preconceptions. And usually ...