Stephen L. Thompson's Blog, page 4

Writing in these dark times

I recently had anidea for a story.  Some 10,000 years fromnow, humanity is on the verge of extinction – for reasons – and they use all oftheir knowledge and the last of their resources to build a time machine to sendsomeone back to tell us we need to change the path we’re on.  Not a terribly original idea – I think I’vealready written four or five stories like that – but the way

Random Writing Tips – You’re allowed “sick” days

 It was probably overtwenty years ago I read the advice that if you wanted to be a capital W Writer,you needed to write every day.  I thoughtthat was a great idea, and so I started keeping track of how many days in a rowI wrote.  At first, hitting a milestone,like 30 days, or 100 days, or 365 days, was great.  But after a while, there aren’t that manymilestones. 

Election Day Sale

This election is almostover!  In a matter of days we’ll know ifAmerica will remain a land of democracy, or if it wall fall into fascism.  That’s assuming in the months after theelection the fascists don’t burn the country down in their attempts to stealthe election.  But that’s Big ChallengeNumber 2.  Big Challenge Number 1 isgetting out and voting to show that the

Writing Newsletter Third Quarter 2024

 This quarter I continuedwriting a story each month on my website, publishing, “Sink to Their Level,” “Hot Enough for Ya?” and “Other Means.” I also reposted “Choices,” “Same Old Line,”and “Flaunt It” on my Ko-fi profile.  Ialso reposted the story “Hot Heads” on one of my blogs.#If I counted correctly,this quarter I posted seven microfiction stories, which can be found on my

Fourth of July Voter Registration Drive Book Sale!

I know a lot ofpeople are tired of being told that every election for the past decade WILLDETERMINE THE VERY SURVIVAL OF THE NATION! But it’s true.  It seems everyelection now is a choice between democracy and the literal forces of evil.  And the fastest way for the forces of evil tofully seize power is if We The People can’t be bothered to vote.  To keep our democracy,

Writing Newsletter Second Quarter 2024

 In my last newsletter, Iwrote that I had submitted a story for the first time in years, and I waswaiting to hear back.  Well, I did hearback, and while they didn’t accept my story, they did say it was close and theyhoped I’d consider them for another story. Now I just have to write another story.#This quarter I continuedwriting a story each month on my website,

Random Writing Tips – Accept the numbers game

 For the first six orseven years I was on Twitter, I was rather hit or miss on trying to get followers.  I posted whenever, and followed people Ithough seemed interesting and just hoped they might follow me back.  But then I decided to be more active.  I started to regularly post stuff, and Istarted to build up my followers.  What Iwould do, is I would check out who

Ideas that don’t work

Recently, I hadthe idea for a scene where a 1950’s scifi writer was telling his agent abouthis latest novel.  It was set in that faroff year of 2024, and told of the beginning of a robot rebellion.  The idea behind it was, while all thetechnology was wrong, parts of this robot rebellion sounds a lot like whatpeople fear will happen when the AIs take over. It was a nice

Short story – “I Just Write Stories”

“I Just WriteStories”As a regularpatron of the bookstore, Janet had often seen the fliers for the Pen Jockeys,the writing group that met every month in the store’s café.  She didn’t consider herself a writer, just adabbler who wrote two or three short stories a year to post on her blog.  Several people – not just her friends – hadsaid that she had talent and should write more.&

Beating a weird, coincidence horse

I believe it was asometime in the summer of 2001, a few weeks after I moved into my firstapartment, my phone rang.  I answered it,and a guy says, “Hey Steve, it’s Tom.”I didn’t know anyToms, so I asked, “Who?”He replied, “Tom,”slightly angrily. I took a momentand thought.  I had gone to school with aTom, but I hadn’t spoken to him in a decade or so, and there was no way he