Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 313

Over Worked

Not me, well, not really, except that in the last three years particularly, as the wheels came off the health, almost any work was too much.

At any rate, I’m one of the lilies of the field, in that my work is not essential to continued life or civilization. Maybe. I’m not as sure of it as I once was.

When I was young and raised in a socialist ethos, I was told the important thing was to “be good for something” i.e. to do something useful for society. It was one of the things that kept me from...

I Don’t Agree With What You Say, But I Will Defend To The Death Your Right To Say It – A Lawyer’s Riff On The First Amendment. – Amie Gibbons

I Don’t Agree With What You Say, But I Will Defend To The Death Your Right To Say It – A Lawyer’s Riff On The First Amendment. – Amie Gibbons

First thing’s first, basic disclaimer, because lawyers all so used to the legal world that we just assume people are waiting to sue us: These are all opinions and what we call “black letter law,” as in simplified and pretty set concepts, and none of this is to be taken as legal advice, merely the pontification of a lawyer who likes the sound of her own...

Of Despair, Hope, and Climbing Paths- A Blast from the Past from September 2014

Of Despair, Hope, and Climbing Paths- A Blast from the Past from September 2014

It’s not a secret to anyone that I’m of a depressive turn of mind. This does not mean I’m depressed – at least not right now – but that when faced with a stress, my mind tends to head down towards depression. When faced with a question of guilt, I tend to blame myself.

Now I hear you clucking and saying something about medicines for that. Of course there are.

But here is something our overly therapeutic age misse...

Domestic Virtues

Yep, you guessed it, Darkship Revenge isn’t done yet. I can honestly say it’s taking me the longest on the “snip and integrate” pass, something I honestly don’t even do on most of my books, or at least only minimally.

It’s not just the moves, really, it’s the fact that this book has a cast of dozens, too, and I’m juggling at least five subplots all through the eyes/mind of a woman who doesn’t even know about them in the beginning. It’s not impossible. I’m not the sad naif with no more craft t...

Gone Writing

Sorry guys, I did not close the book last night (mostly because I got in a fascinating biological talk about the research for it with older son. SORRY.) So today I’m working.

If you want to amuse me, and keep yourselves busy so you don’t blow up the world, I’m running low on “You might be a writer if….” jokes. We used to have tons of them when I had a writers’ group, and it made great impromptu posters, but I can’t think of any now.

I’ll give one: You might be a writer if you spin up a “Zombi...

The ‘Rashomon effect’ in book readers – Nitay Arbel

*Oh boy is this true. Sometimes radically different books. I’ve been shocked to find that AFGM is a feminist opus, or DST a communist paean. (Admittedly that one, shared with a friend, almost caused his co-workers to send for the men in white coats, as it kept him suddenly breaking into cackle for weeks.)*

The ‘Rashomon effect’ in book readers – Nitay Arbel

Writing and publishing my first novel (“On Different Strings”) was a learning experience in many ways. One that especially struck this “...

Don’t Poke The Writer

I’m still mired in book, and part of it frustrates me, because it SHOULD have been done a week ago. Heck, two weeks ago. The problem is for this phase, particularly for this book — the going over the book and seeing it as a whole and balancing the parts — I need to concentrate on it, and concentrating has been a little in short supply recently.

Most of it is stupid cr*p. I’m still waiting to book the medical stuff, but I also have to get hold of the neuro and I haven’t … well… I haven’t brave...

You Won by Kate Paulk

*I’ve been sitting on this post for a while. I didn’t put it up before because it’s basically an excuse for Kate to get very entertainingly insulting. But today, if I weren’t up to my eyeballs in book, I’d been writing “Freebleeding left or how 4chan Pwned John McCain and the MSM”. They’ve left reality with pee pee gate, a scandal only those who believed in binder gate could get bent out of shape about… or more importantly care about. So this is a great day for Kate to do her yelling at the b...

Sweet Liberty – a blast from the past post from November 2014

*Reading this, some of you will go “I note the collapse didn’t happen.” And that’s true. We’re in the early stages of the collapse. Doctors are leaving and retiring. Part of the issue with my thyroid and other things is that for two years now, I’m lucky to see a Nurse Practitioner. And no, they don’t have the same training. There are things I know more than they do about simply because I grew up around doctors.

There is a lot of ruin in a nation, particularly this nation, because we’re good a...

Homeland

No, I’m not going to talk about the department. Yes, I remember how panties in bunch people got because they thought “Homeland”had Nazi connotations.

Of course we’re talking about people who think the seal of the speaker of the house is a Nazi symbol, at least when the speaker is a Republican, and who try to explain away that they didn’t jump all over little Nancy Of The Gavel Walk because “the way Paul Ryan draws it it’s flatter and it looks more Nazi.” You heard it here first. Only art teac...