Hey, #readers of mastodon, no matter if you liked my #shortstory this month, you should check out the other six #prompt results on this list - those takes on the same prompt were really good, fun to #read

https://ko-fi.com/post/Author-Avengers--August-prompt-results-collection-P5P4OPT8W

As always, #interaction is #key and makes you a #vip so leave a like or a follow to those wonderful #authoravengers

#writing #writingcommunity #reading #freetoread

For all the #readers and #writers around here - the #authoravengers did a new thing, a writing prompt challenge - and I want to throw my result as a #freetoread #shortstory out there, for everyone to #enjoy and #comment on.
It is #fantasy with only a tinge of #horror - I got some nice feedback already. As always, #interaction makes you a #vip - would love to hear your opinion. Title: Troubling reflections. Word count: 5885.

https://ko-fi.com/post/Author-Avengers--August-2023-writing-prompt-resul-W7W2OKJZW

#writing #writingcommunity #reading

Woohoo 🎉 my short story BACKLASH is now #FreeToRead online @ Trembling with Fear by The Horror Tree!

https://horrortree.com/trembling-with-fear-8-20-23/#more-636203

#FreeToRead deep historical analysis of the Great Wall, censorship, marital fertility, commercial trust, artisanal skill transmission & more in Asia-Pacific Economic History Review special issue. Thoughtful intro & overview by guest eds Zhiwu Chen & Chicheng Ma http://ow.ly/q1in50PlUr7

@econhist @devecon @politicalscience @demography @sociology @geography @anthropology #China #histodons #history #OA #economics #econtwitter #fertility #trust #networks #artisan #censorship #banking

Scary times in 'Murica.
https://toot.wales/@fkamiah17/110792096931998715
fkamiah17@toot.wales - What the everloving fuck, Texas?
#EducationForAll #LibrariesMatter #FreeToRead #USPol #Texas
"HISD to eliminate librarians, turn some libraries into discipline centers at 28 campuses"
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/07/26/hisd-to-eliminate-librarians-turn-libraries-into-discipline-centers-at-28-campuses/

Need a quick read this afternoon? My new flash fiction "Tracks" is free to read in the latest issue of Luna Station Quarterly.

https://lunastationquarterly.com/story/tracks/

(cw: body horror, scarring, abusive relationship)

#writing #freeToRead #published

@bookstodon
ICYMI: Our hopeful #CliFi short story "13 Ships for the Rising World", pub'd by Flourish Fiction, can be nominated for the CliFi Con Utopia Award: https://www.clificon.com/nominations (nomination deadline is this Friday)
AJ @ajvanbelle, Danai @danaiwrites and I collab'd on this which was super-fun and yielded a story we're all very happy with 😊
It's #FreeToRead here: https://flourishfiction.substack.com/p/thirteen-ships-for-the-rising-world

#ClimateFiction #Hopepunk #ShortStory #CliFiConUtopiaAwards2023

Tag 7 der Aktionstage Politische Bildung #atpb23 steht ganz im Zeichen der neuen Ausgabe von polis aktuell: Nr. 2/2023 befasst sich mit demokratischer Entscheidungsfindung im Klassenzimmer und in der außerschulischen pädagogischen Gruppenarbeit.

https://www.humanrights.at/aktionstage/tag/apr29/

#freetoread #publikation #politischebildung #demokratie #partizipation #aktionstage #politikEdu

As a reminder, I have two book series that I've published. If you like stories about finding friends, adorable dog girls, teaching someone magic in the middle of combat, getting over daddy issues, and fighting off gigantic telepathic toads bent on destroying everything, you might consider Flight of the Scions.

On the other hand, if you like your fiction grittier, with social commentaries on generational trauma, finding oneself in a violent world, and the drive to run barefoot across the desert to save your children, consider reading Sand and Blood and its sequels.

If you like the world and want something else, check out my other stories, there are more than eighty of them and they range from asking out the harvest queen, to making friends in foxholes, and someone getting the courage to wear a dress to the fancy ball instead of a suit.

Almost everything I write is free to read; if you like it, throw me a like, a comment, a review, or even a few coins to the writer. Stories come in PDF and EPUB and there is even an OPDS feed.

If you are looking for a specific topic, just ask. :boost_ok:​ 💙

( #Steampunk #Fantasy #FreeToRead #Books )

Many years ago, I wrote a trilogy about the guy who stood next to the chosen one. It was originally was just about a teenager making poor decisions but ended up being more as I wrote about the events of his life, from trauma and emotional abuse by his family, to learning that he was a pacifist in a violent world, and then growing into his power as a father and a speaker of the dead.

It is a darker tale of self-discovery, acceptance of self, and about never giving up even against overwhelming odds. There are hints of Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Sorrow Rides a Fast Horse, and Seven Samurai throughout the series, not to mention heavy world building in an anime-influenced fantasy world where the main character is basically in a road runner clan (literally, their clan spirit manifests as a Greater California Roadrunner).

https://fedran.com/sand-and-blood/
https://fedran.com/sand-and-ash/
https://fedran.com/sand-and-bone/

All three books are free to read, professionally edited, and the first was an "almost" runner up for the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (it was down to Sand and Blood and The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids for the semifinalist. Braids would eventually win the year).

( #Fantasy #Steampunk #Fiction #FreeToRead )

There was a lot to like about Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future, including its critique of the UK's inequality and overly centralised system of government, writes Ben Jackson

#freetoread

https://politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/can-gordon-brown-and-keir-starmer-save-the-uk/

"Protesters and dissidents need help to evade government controls...

But as authoritarian regimes evolve and adapt to such measures, protesters will require new methods and tools to help them keep their causes alive — before the prison door clangs shut."

There are many more stories of people arrested for protesting or simply posting something online. Reach the whole article.

#GiftLink #GiftArticle
https://wapo.st/3RXKHrh

#FreeToRead #NoPaywall

"It is the wealthiest who benefit most. The losses can be used to erase an unlimited amount of investment gains. Someone like Ballmer can easily deploy $100 million in losses to cancel out a $100 million gain from selling some of his vast Microsoft holdings.

It’s a very different story when it comes to wages and other forms of income, of which only $3,000 can be offset."
~@ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-files-taxes-wash-sales-goldman-sachs

#Finance #Taxes #TaxLoopholes #Investing
#FreeToRead #NoPaywall

"over the past 25 years, investing has undergone a transformation that’s made the law against wash sales toothless...

Asset managers have used these advances to forge loss-harvesting accounts that boast hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. What the law sought to prevent — generating a tax loss without a substantial change in the investment — is now commonplace."
~@ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-files-taxes-wash-sales-goldman-sachs

#Finance #Taxes #TaxLoopholes #Investing
#FreeToRead #NoPaywall

"Russian shelling damaged a hospital and apartment buildings in Ukraine...

The shelling in the northeastern town of Vovchansk caused multiple fires late Monday, including at its two-story municipal hospital...

Vovchansk is in the Kharkiv region, which was occupied by Russia after its full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24 and subsequently retaken by Ukraine during a late summer counteroffensive."
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-politics-business-a6e3f41e8a72e52466bff4d860bded38

#Russia #Ukraine #RussiaUkraineWar
#RussianWarCrimes
#FreeToRead

"A poll... written up today in the Washington Post, shows that 62% of Americans think Biden has not accomplished much in his two years in office.

In fact, his administration ranks as one of the most consequential since the New Deal in the 1930s.

Whether you love what he’s done or hate it, to think nothing has happened suggests a terrible disconnect between image and reality."
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-6-2023?r=1tus4y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Informative article from Heather Cox Richardson

#FreeToRead #USPolitics #Economy #China

"As the disaster unfolded in southeast Turkey on Monday, it also played out across social media. Residents, including some who said they were trapped in the rubble, used Instagram and Twitter to post pleas for help. In several cases, victims included images or videos that showed them surrounded by debris. In others, people posted their addresses to direct rescue workers."
https://wapo.st/3DJzyEE

#GiftLink #FreeToRead

#News #WorldNews #SocialMedia
#Earthquake #Turkey #Syria

RT @EPSJournal
📚 Teaching European Studies collection 📚

🌟 @patrickbijsmans & E Versluis detail the benefits of teaching through problem-based learning, arguing that it ensures that study programmes are relevant + capable of capturing societal change

#FreeToRead ➡️ https://bit.ly/3GVaafE

“The last time the comet got this close to Earth was during the Stone Age. This weekend’s new moon offers a strong opportunity to see it.” #FreeToRead #NYTGiftArticle
https://www.nytimes.com/article/green-comet-watch.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUwZSZ8sQ4HVVMQWzYW50sqRiLmb3QyaA3hjn-MC2RA35k_tgiPrKhqQ3LdLYxIJw6xSiaT9tMd7EmH6F-n7AGehYwGlXt_8uIwdEPLSls7NntBDhphZuQAu1nq3WidGS2KcZTluPk70LbbmPqSfafhSVnfFA51MMjIVK62nUIxLPHEvp12rR-3_QiBZN6TVQQdXXA_qmoW1glZoLwPlyL4RI2WupYRTjTgdeajrkBew1SAljEJ2htSeC2g1ZiHjItQjusAQGxzA&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

"Russia’s blatant attack on civilians here... which coincided with the Orthodox New Year, served as a grim message that Putin’s close confidant is likely to continue the violent missile strikes on civilian targets that have become a hallmark of Russia’s assault.

The bombing, one of a wave of attacks Saturday across Ukraine, may have destroyed as many as 72 apartments"
#GiftLink #FreeToRead https://wapo.st/3IRctmW

#Ukraine #Russia #Putin
#RussiaUkraineWar
#UkraineRussiaWar
#WorldNews