Mary Ellen S

@maryellens.bsky.social

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Retired - Quaker - dog owner - SFF fan - living in Twin Cities/MN. I have a dog whose name is Charlie. (I repost things I want to return to because there isn't a save feature.)

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Mary Ellen S

Story day! "Too Little, Too Little, Too Much" is one of the darkest and more personal stories I've ever written, about childhood abuse and pyrokinesis. It's about starting fires. The great folks at Pseudopod reprinted it today *and* produced a fabulous podcast audio version!

“As soon as the adults leave him alone, Lark takes a shower to get the smoke out of his hair.” Too Little, Too Little, Too Much By John Wiswell Narrator: Paul Cram Host: @alasdairstuart.com Audio: @chelsead.bsky.social Read or listen here: pseudopod.org/2024/06/10/p...

PseudoPod 923: Too Little, Too Little, Too Muchpseudopod.org As soon as the adults leave him alone, Lark takes a shower to get the smoke out of his hair. He’s tall enough to reach the knobs all by himself. The only shampoo in Uncle Lee’s bathroom is coconut…

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Mary Ellen S

"I have to slow this show down to 1x speed" joins "Tried to listen to fall asleep. DO NOT RECOMMEND, made me laugh too much" in the annals of memorable Lingthusiasm reviews Anyway if you think your followers would like a funny and energetic podcast about linguistics, could you give this a retweet?

Lingthusiasm is in Lauren Passell's Podcast the Newsletter this week! podcastthenewsletter.substack.com/p/bat-volcan...

Boosting so I can find this again.

I am so in the tank for @flaminghydra.com. Subscribe to Flaming Hydra. Support this fuckin awesome work. Not "support because you think it's good but reading it's a chore." No. Support because it's one of the best things to read every damn day, just a joy. flaminghydra.com/issue-91/#co...

Other people’s superstitions / Faith in your bodyflaminghydra.com Today: Yemisi Aribisala, writer, editor, essayist, painter, and author of Longthroat Memoirs; and John Saward, a writer based in Chicago. Issue No. 91 Coin in the Mortar’s Mouth Yemisi Aribisala I...

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Mary Ellen S

It's Terry Pratchett's birthday, which brings back memories of how he surprised us at the 2011 Capclave by dropping in on his way to the airport at the end of a book tour. I grabbed a front row seat and recorded his appearance, which means you can have a front row seat, too. youtu.be/E7CJRIi8kZ0

Terry Pratchett Capclave Interviewyoutu.be Terry Pratchett, along with his assistant Rob Wilkins, made a surprise appearance at Capclave in Gaithersburg, Maryland on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

A little last minute, but I've pitched in.

We only have 5 full days left till our fundraiser ends and we haven't even hit the 50% mark yet. Please help keep us afloat. We want to do MORE not less. More short fiction reviews! More con reporting! More Locus Awards! More Recommended Reading Lists! http://igg.me/at/loc...

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Mary Ellen S

Many thanks to @easterconuk.bsky.social and the creator @drfionamoore for this utterly gorgeous present - an Invisible Library book nook!!!

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Mary Ellen S

Another satisfied customer 🙂 And if you missed "Beneath the Skin of the Earth," my episode of Breaking the Glass Slipper, here it is: nicolagriffith.com/2024/03/02/b... #medievalsky

@nicolaz.bsky.social Your recent Breaking the Glass Slipper interview inspired me to take my family to Whitby for the Easter holiday. So glad we did - it's a stunning and strange town (even when thronged with very merry scooter folk). And we picked up a copy of Hild in the Abbey gift shop!

Beneath the Skin of the Earthnicolagriffith.com Here's a 38-minute conversation I didi with the fabulous crew of the Breaking the Glass Slipper podcast, centering landscape as magic, embodiment, and the representation of diverse groups in speculati...

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Mary Ellen S

FLASH SALE! My writing advice book Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories is just $2.99 in all ebook formats (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc) for one day! Your creativity can change the world — but it can also help protect you from the worst the world has to offer.

Congratulations!

The list of Hugo finalists has been released and I am absolutely thrilled to share that "Better Living Through Algorithms" is a finalist for Best Short Story, "The Year Without Sunshine" is a finalist for Best Novelette, and LIBERTY'S DAUGHTER is a finalist for the Lodestar!

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Mary Ellen S

The island world of Lorran thrives and suffers under the despotic Stars. Which Star is the most beneficent? Jane Beauclerk weaves a magical/scientifical duet with "We Serve the Star of Freedom" and "Lord Moon"—reprinted at last in... journeypress.com/titles/redis... #Fantasy #ScienceFiction

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Mary Ellen S

In light of the recent passing of a master of hard SF, @jdnicoll.bsky.social offers an overview of Vinge's novels and collected short fiction: reactormag.com/a-brief-guid...

A Brief Guide to the Fiction of Vernor Vinge - Reactorreactormag.com From his earliest novels to his magnum opus, Vinge crafted inventive, insightful works of hard science fiction.

First of a fun series is on sale.

The US ebook of THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY is currently just $1.99 via BookBub. Check it out at: www.bookbub.com/books/the-in...

This is a thoughtful read.

I did a Five Books! fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

Five Books: The Best Science Fantasy, recommended by Vajra Chandrasekerafivebooks.com We use 'science fantasy' when a book seems to be both science fiction and fantasy. What distinguishes the two, and what does it mean to combine them? These books are an opportunity to explore our ways...

A favorite writer of mine!

I can't let the day wind down without wishing Nina Kiriki Hoffman the happiest of birthdays! Celebrate by joining us on an episode of Eating the Fantastic, and find out what she learned about characterization from Samuel R. Delany while at Clarion — and more. www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/20...

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Mary Ellen S

This will be funny for the rest of time

#facts

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Mary Ellen S

Good lord

"the Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, data centers collectively devour more energy than some nation-states." https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggering-ecological-impacts-of-computation-and-the-cloud/

The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloudthereader.mitpress.mit.edu Anthropologist Steven Gonzalez Monserrate draws on five years of research and ethnographic fieldwork in server farms to illustrate some of the diverse environmental impacts of data storage.

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Mary Ellen S

In Medellín, a city of 2.5 million people in Colombia, the Green Corridors urban restoration project has planted 880,000 trees and 2.5 million plants, reducing pollution and bringing temperatures down by 2 degrees C. #ShareGoodNewsToo reasonstobecheerful.world/green-corrid...

How a Colombian City Cooled Dramatically in Just Three Yearsreasonstobecheerful.world With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures -- and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.

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Mary Ellen S

I dropped by Nerds of a Feather to talk about my love of Kelly Link and Emily Wilson, what I'm reading right now, and my favorite Ray Bradbury story.

6 Books with John Wiswellwww.nerds-feather.com John Wiswell is a disabled writer who lives where New York keeps all its trees. He has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "O...

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Mary Ellen S

/Damn/. This is good. Perverse, sexy, high-concept, fantastic prose.

"You glance up, through the hexagonal skylight, and I can see your darling. The only thing you love. The fat, blank ball of the black hole. The gaping mouth. The titanic zero." Today's #sfstoryoftheday by Kate Orman in @interzone.press.

SALTIER // IZ Digitalinterzone.digital ‘How can this be happening to you, Pre-eminent Scientist Qris? Who is this short, hard woman, nude inside her transparent spacesuit, erupting through the door of your laboratory?’ // ‘Saltier’...

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Mary Ellen S

Speculative Sounds Pt. 2: Composer Elinor Armer on Collaborating with Ursula K. Le Guin file770.com/speculative-...

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Mary Ellen S

"What this all adds up to is that Babylon 5 was, and remains, a fascinating early experiment in TV writing, and one that will never be repeated with the same results." Tim Ford talks Babylon 5 and TV production from the 90s to the streaming age: reactormag.com/babylon-5-wa...

Babylon 5 Was the Ultimate Exercise in Plotting vs. Pantsing - Reactorreactormag.com With a possible reboot on the horizon, let's take a look back at what made the classic series so profoundly unique...

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Mary Ellen S

Revolutionary France is full of blood and bite, as vampires plot for power . . . 🧛 ELUSIVE, the sequel to SCARLET, is now available to request on Netgalley: www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/book...

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Mary Ellen S

Oh hey if you want something to nominate for the Nebulas or the Hugo, here's my awards eligibility & recs www.aliettedebodard.com/2024/01/27/a... tl;dr version: "The Mausoleum's Children" is eligible for Best Short Story And The Universe of Xuya is eligible for Best Series Thank you for considering.

Reading for the Hugo or Nebula Awards? Try the short story "The Mausoleum’s Children" by Aliette de Bodard! It is on the Locus Recommended Reading List! www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...

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Mary Ellen S

Hugo nominations – eligibility Once again, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked with some amazing authors over the last year. Following this post are the books I’ve worked on that are eligible for Hugo Award consideration. (1/11)

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Mary Ellen S

Naomi continues doing the Lord's work - and an absolutely bang-up job of it too. I never go into a local election season without her thorough analysis and neither should you!

"Who are these randos on my Super Tuesday ballot?" I have researched this question extensively and am back to report on it. naomikritzer.com/2024/02/26/e...

Election 2024: Super Tuesday Presidential Primary (Minnesota Ballot)naomikritzer.com Usually when I'm blogging about an election, there's a lot of stuff on the ballot. But this spring we have a primary -- Minnesota votes on March 5th, Super Tuesday -- and the primary is the only thing...

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Mary Ellen S

Now might be a good time to get your own domain name and export your Wordpress dot com blog over to a site you own. I like Dreamhost, they've done right by me for years now.

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Mary Ellen S

@tkingfisher.bsky.social It's the 28th here, so happy 18th birthday to the Biting Pear of Salamanca. www.deviantart.com/ursulav/art/...

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Mary Ellen S

My novel #TheTerraformers is on sale as an ebook across all platforms for $1.99 in the U.S. this week!!! Check it out here: us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

The Terraformersus.macmillan.com From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future. Destry's life is ded...

I love Elise's work! Buy some!

Hey, I'm having an unexpected coupon opportunity because there are a couple of upcoming bills I need to pay. Here's a link. Lots of things are eligible for 30% off with the coupon code 2024FEB30PAYBILLSYAY. Here's a link: lionesselise.etsy.com?coupon=2024F...

Lots of good background linked in this thread.

Find the Navalny death hitting at an emotional level I would not have expected. Really one of the most remarkable displays of moral and physical courage of my entire life.