Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 180

The Bystanders

I was very hopeless over the weekend. I’m still hopeless in a way, but I think I zeroed in on the situation, and though I still don’t but I think I figured out a particular mechanism of what’s happening and I want to share, because someone else might have a solution.

I was reading a mystery on Friday evening, while doing other things, as usual, when suddenly there was the scene when the character, investigating a case involving the murder of a gay person, walks in on a suspect watchi...

Witch’s Daughter Installment 15

*For the previous chapters, please go here. These are posted first draft, as the brain dictates to the fingers which are remarkably stupid. Also there will be inconsistencies because until September or so, the timing on these is wonky, and I’ll forget stuff between posts. Eventually it will be cleaned up and fixed just before page is made secret/taken down and the book is published. At that time I will take lists of typos or volunteers to proof read. For now, it’s written in a hurry, usu...

Chapter late this evening

Sorry, since today is Hun’s dinner at Pete’s, and I have to finish cleaning, I probably can’t write before around 9.

However, we’ve come up with a problem. Paypal has suspended my donation account and insists that I’m “selling goods” which is frankly insane as they have absolutely no proof of this.

So I presume it’s the usual paypal tricks of demonetizing sites they dislike.

What other services are there that I might use? I have used Paypal despite its corporate stupidity due to my lac...

How to Generate Fake News by Frank J. Fleming

Give a Warm ATH welcome (which does not mean start talking advarks and dragons, guys!) to comedic genius Frank Fleming, who is here to teach us how to write fake news. And you know he knows how to, since he keeps getting fact checked* by Snopes, Facebook, and other organizations which have had their sense of humor ablated at formation (*But not on Occasional Cortex getting her head stuck in a bucket. That’s self-obviously true. She wsa probably looking for her brain.)- SAH

How to Gen...

Perspective by B. Durbin

Perspective by B. Durbin

Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

—Simon & Garfunkel, “The Boxer”

Early this March, a man was stabbed.

Pause here for a minute. I want you to think about what came to mind when you saw that phrase, hold it in your mind, because I’m about to change that picture.

Early in March, a man was stabbed in a parking lot by a stranger.

Pause again. What changed about your picture? Does it make a difference to you where this ...

SCOPE

Have you ever had a nightmare where something horrible is coming closer and closer, and you can neither move nor react? My dreams often involve standing on the train tracks, as an express train barrels towards me, and I can’t move my feet.

I’ve been living there for the last six months, 24/7.

Though you could say I’ve been living there all my adult life, sure. But that’s one thing, and this is another.

It’s as though I were a time traveler, who came back in time to avert a great...

Tasty Tasty Pottage – A Blast From The Past from October 1, 2016

Note for those for you waking up now, that I have been screaming about this a long time.
Notice what’s going on, please: Once is happenstance, Twice is coincidence, Three times is enemy action.

Note none of this even TOUCHES on the fraud facilitation in COLORADO. Despite records in Colorado showing 180 year old people voting and worse shenanigans. Facilitated, of course, by registration on line and never having to prove you’re eligible to vote or even EXIST. If your country is vote-by-mail onl...

Yeah, It Is Crazy

You probably already know this, but it is kind of important to reiterate it, because you know how things are, but no, it’s not you. It’s them.

And by them in this case you should understand the broad system of “normal life”, of institutions and…. Structures? I’m looking for a word that subsumes everything from your local grocery store, to your local bank, from your church to your local zoo. These are not institutions, right? These are just things that support life. And yep, they’ve al...

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

*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog.  Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so.  As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste.  If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or...

Witch’s Daughter Installment 14

*For the previous chapters, please go here. These are posted first draft, as the brain dictates to the fingers which are remarkably stupid. Also there will be inconsistencies because until September or so, the timing on these is wonky, and I’ll forget stuff between posts. Eventually it will be cleaned up and fixed just before page is made secret/taken down and the book is published. At that time I will take lists of typos or volunteers to proof read. For now, it’s written in a hurry, usual...