Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 112

Sympathy for the devil

There are consequences to living in a time that’s soaked in story, and one of them is the sympathy for the devil effect.

What do I mean?

Well, it goes like this: in stories, redemption is key to catharsis and even when no redemption is possible, the story is more interesting if there are reasons the villain went to the bad (particularly if the reasons can either be traced back to the protagonist or his family.) It’s just good plotting, since “he was just born evil” is not very satisfyi...

Prayer Request

I don’t think I’ve ever done this, but I would like to request that those of you who pray pray for the healing of CACS, RES’s beloved spouse.

Due to the lockdowns of covidiocy and other such issues, the return of her cancer went undetected, and is now quite dangerous.

As you know — probably, as I’ve talked about it — they’ve gone from being blog commenters and acquaintances to very dear friends over the years. Even though, for various reasons, they now don’t comment much on the bl...

Book Promo And Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

Book promo

*Sarah Update: Sorry if I worried you being so late. I am okay, only following a program of trying to bore the sickness away. So I slept very late. Definitely getting test tomorrow, since not fully cleared up. I suspect I need to change our sheets and towels, except that — of course — our washer is not working in any sense of the word. So we need to go and buy another one, which means a lot of time, and me being out of the house and around people. So, we were trying to put it off. ...

Harvesting

To begin with, I’m feeling more or less well today, though there might be nappage later on. (Yes, nappage is totally a word. I’m a writer and I tell you it is. Why would you doubt me?) I’m just taking it easy (aka being lazy) so I don’t get myself sick again. Ox did message me to be slow.

Anyway, we’re getting on to harvest time, mornings are cool and crisp, and I was thinking of sowing and harvest.

We’re in the part of the country that is now right down nippy mornings and evenings. B...

Strange

First of all, judging by some panicked messages I got, you all got ENTIRELY the wrong idea. I’m not “seriously ill” and nowhere near the point I would consider ER. (Or Dan would consider ER, even.) I’m actually — still — not even sure it’s a “bug” at all and not “merely” auto-immune. Right now, what I have is EXTREME tiredness, some cough (but mostly sneezing) and probably (though I can’t find the thermometer) very mild fever. All of these, alas, are in the repertoire of my auto-immune...

Did Anyone Get That Truck’s License Number?

’cause I’m fairly sure I was run over.

I have some kind of cold “thing.” Yes, if it persists will get checked. Yes, I’m aware that if it is the Chinese plague, although it’s now mostly inoffensive it can — rarely and weirdly — take a fatal turn in some individuals. As someone who almost died of “just a cold” at 33, I suspect this happens with other respiratory illnesses, too.

So, it being I’m almost 60, I’m not taking it cavalierly. IF I’m not well by Monday, I’ll have to get a wuflu...

In Praise of Broken — A blast from the Past from June 2012

I woke up with all symptoms of a bad cold. I still have to put DSR up for pre-order. BUT there will be a nap before it. (I’m not sure if it’s a cold or allergy, but I suspect a cold because I feel exhausted and allergy doesn’t do that.) So I thought I’d do a blast from the past. I hope that’s okay.

In Praise of Broken — A blast from the Past from June 2012

If I had a dime for every time I’ve read that “every baby should be planned” and that “every puppy should be wanted” and that “eve...

Doing A Little

This is not a butt-kicking post.

Okay, I lie. This is totally a butt kicking post.

Today I dragged my behind out of bed early, after going to bed late last night. You see, I meant to upload Darkship Renegades today, to get it out this month, after the usual arguments with Amazon (what?) It might be less of an argument this time, but I can’t just assume it will be.

But while I was going over it a day ago, I realized two things: First, the mind-talk made no sense whatsoever, because...

Double Edged Compassion

I’ve been reading about Jack the Ripper again. Yes, there was a reason for it, at least at the beginning, until I realized my research was a bit stupid, and what I knew was already enough, unless I can find an interesting way to incorporate all the theories into the story, and that’s unlikely. (Rhodes to Hell. Which will get written one of these weekends.)

Anyway, the current book had an interesting theory I’d not seen before, so I started reading it, because given how our secret service...

One Drop Of Nonsense

You, dear reader currently reading this, are almost certainly of mysogenated race (to use the good old, racially-loaded word of the 19th century.) And by that I mean that within the last two thousand years or so you have received blood from someone whom an American would identify at first sight as “another race.”

The exceptions are people from populations so isolated over the last two thousand years or so that they are effectively a single “race.” And even those, if you look beyond two th...