Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 201

The Rain of Frog

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Henrietta Ford was not the sort of woman who had hallucinations.

In fact, hallucinations—which she didn’t have!—were some of the many things that seemed to make life far more interesting for other women. For instance, take her mother. Her mother had dreams. Prophetic dreams. She’d come to Henrietta in the morning, from the time Henrietta — Rietta to her friends — had turned fourteen and say “Henry” — which of course was what mother called her — “I dreamed you had married a prince.”

At which...

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

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...

The Forces of Evil and Blogger Tipping Day

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The fight with the forces of evil is going badly this year. No, seriously. This ever-returning virus keeps messing with my ability to actually write. And on the days I feel well, something else hits.

But I must get off this rut and actually write.

On the good side, I’ve signed a new contract with PJM Media and will be doing both “open” and “membership only” articles for them. On that second one, I should — haven’t yet — get a code to give you a discount if you get membership.

I also have a...

Don’t Fear The Wu-Flu

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I confess I’ve been afraid of the Wu-flu. Oh, not the disease itself. Look, I’m at SLIGHTLY more risk than the rest of you, simply because I catch everything that passes within a block of me.

However, the REALLY important thing to remember is that we really don’t have any idea — yet — how this will play in the US, but we don’t really have that much of a reason to panic either.

Even in Italy, the mortality is mostly among Chinese transplants. And before you tell me I’m racist (rolls eyes),...

Publishing advice I won’t ever be asked for… – by Dave Freer

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*Yesterday, because of an hilariously stupid comment about US health care over on MGC, I went looking through the old posts for one in which a person of the same nationality as the commenter had written a chapter about HER idea of our health care. In the process I found this post by my friend Dave Freer.
It struck me because of how right he was… 9 years ago. How right he still is, and how impossible most publishing houses find it to consider even ONE of these changes, even in the face of...

A Time For Black Swans

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A Black Swan Event (the expectation at least proverbially being that all swan’s are snow-white) is defined as something happening that no one could have anticipated from what went on before.

The problem I have with these is that it’s almost 100% not true that no one could have anticipated them. Take this list for instance: 5 Top Black Swan Events In History.

For instance, I think if our agencies were able to talk to each other, the 9/11 attack might have been thwarted.

I also think only a...

Fisking “White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo” – Part One – Fisked by Adedayo Dayo

[image error] Fisking “White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo” – Part One – Fisked byAdedayo Dayo*

Don’t ask what compels me to embark on this journey of self-flagellation. I can’t put my finger on it just yet. I thought it was curiosity at one point, especially given the work of others who’ve been examining the work of people like Ms. DiAngelo for the last few years for the same reason I picked up her book: to understand what makes people who are invested fully in identity politics tick.

I don’t know about...

A Shining City On the Hill

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Throughout most of history, men who believe themselves superior or “elites” have believed that other men were born saddled and ready to be ridden.

The alpha male who rules over the band is, after all, a fixture of ape bands. It’s that “made on an ape frame” again.

I want to make this very clear: throughout most of history, whether king or high priest, whether Emperor or conqueror, whether nobility or oligarchy humans were subjected to someone, and to those that worked for that person/worked...

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

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...

Just A Silly Thing

I’m very busy — car shopping. Our car died. Poor thing was 22 years old. It would probably have been fine, if we’d remembered to check the oil. We needed it to last ONE MORE YEAR, but hey, we’ll deal — and also woke up with an infernal head cold.

DIL says we should take this year back for a refund, and she ain’t wrong.

Anyway, yesterday I was looking for something on Pixabay and came across a couple of images that are SUCH perfect SF/f covers. So I wrote like paragraphs about it. And I...