Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 330

Dark Fate

*FIRST AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS NOT CANON. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSANCTIONED (okay, not completely. Larry said I could do this for you guys without his ripping my head off) MHI FANFIC.
Good, now that we got that out of the way, why am I doing this? Both Grant and Fado Negro (Portuguese Monster Hunters) have minuscule parts in Guardian, the MHI book I’m collaborating with Larry Correia on. However, obviously the Portugal of Monster Hunter is not the real Portugal (Really, no arcane creature...

Death of Chocolate Chips — a blast from the past from May 2012

Death of Chocolate Chips — a blast from the past from May 2012

As writers, particularly writers dealing in the shady side of “literature” where we can employ magic or magical “future science” we are told over and over and over “there must be a price” and “there must be a cost.”

It is amazing to me, now and always, how many of us forget that in real life. And how many of us forget it in books, too, when we’re not dealing with magic or magical future science.

I made a post thanking those who se...

Fish And Water

A few days ago we had a commenter here who claimed to speak for all Europeans. We’ll leave aside for a moment his/her vaunting hubris, since you know, speaking for everyone from Russia to Portugal is a bit of a stretch. I mean their cultures are almost as different as between our states. (Yes, I’m joking. Mostly. Though they’re not much more different, they just have more history. Imagine the civil war… er war of northern aggression… er… late unpleasantness multiplied by 100 or so. Those peop...

STOP Helping Me

Sorry this is so late. Part of the issue is that windows`10 continues its reign of derp on my computer. Among other things, it’s decided it’s a great idea to not run JASC paintshop 9, which is what I use to make covers.

Yeah, I know it’s an old and obsolete program, but it does exactly what I want it to without dropping me in the claws of Adobe. Yeah, yeah. You’re going to suggest GIMP. Would you believe GIMP is not intuitive? And that I’ve not had the time to conquer the learning curve? Whil...

Work from the inside out, AKA Everything is local. – Free Range Oyster

Work from the inside out, AKA Everything is local. – Free Range Oyster

The first thing to note is that no one is without influence, and those who have very little have either never tried to extend it or have never been taught how. Consider this a crash course for the front line grunt in the culture war. Please note, you’ll never get any of these perfectly, and you shouldn’t try to polish all the edges before moving outward, just make sure you have a solid foothold. Metaphors may blend during...

Giving It All Away

I woke up with the cry of an eagle, circling in the crisp mountain air, and thought of early fall, of Thanksgiving. And turned in bed, reaching for my kindle.

I’m reading All The Colors of the Darkness, by Lloyd Biggle Jr (thank you to the book brigade for recommending it, as in the bad old days when finding an out of print paper book took years and a lot of money, I’d only located two of his: The Still Small Voice of Trumpets — one of the best space operas ever written, and also a metaphor f...

Tricks to Avoid Thinking

So I shared this on Facebook. I’m not saying I agree with it 100%. Given that “Russian businessmen” is code for “Russian Mob” and that Putin is their man, you could say Trump is as compromised as Hillary.

That said, if Trump is as compromised as Hillary, BAH. On that point, as my mom would say “may the devil come and choose.” AKA, there is no difference.

You know my opinions, and I also know those of the three gentlemen in the video. They might be reluctant “will vote for Trump to avoid Hilla...

For The Times They Are A’Changing

Blame this on the head cold I’m almost over (truly) and the mild fever that accompanied it. Blame it on the change of weather, that had me getting up in the middle of the night to close windows that had, sudden and inexplicably, become openings to the arctic.

Blame it on my dad giving me all the books of legends of the region that he could gather on short notice. Yes, I also got books on the history of the City of Porto and surroundings, but when it comes to Fantasy it is easiest to dip into...

When It All Goes Wrong

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about a project where it all is going wrong. Look, guys, when you’re brought in to finish a project that has had at least two other teams on it, and which isn’t in any way started, you really shouldn’t be surprised when it is a cluster… bunny.

But my friend was. Being an hyper-competent and hyper-responsible person, he was blaming himself. I had to point out that sometimes I think half of the work done in the world is done between incompetence and accidenta...

Things I Learned About Life From Watching Brazilian and Portuguese Soap Operas

1- The most effective way to kill a baby is to leave the window near his crib open at night. He’ll be stiff and dead by morning. (Sorry Robert and Marsh. I keel you a lot.)

2- If you work too hard you’ll get a “drained brain.”

This will cause you to sing New York New York at your important meeting, then pass out.

3- You can kill any number of people on your way to success, and no one will notice, not even enough to have rumors about you.

4- Memory loss is WAY common. I mean, you walk out your...