Morning, folks! 💫

Another week, another #BetterWorldsTheory #Newsletter.

This one talks about 3 news items in the world of #writing: a Bookseller survey about stressed-out debut authors, the sale of the first AI-inspired novel to a major, and the upcoming WGA strike.

Around these items, I reflect again on the distorted expectations of our industry that cause so much pain in the first place.

(Also, a new BookTube is up, on histories of spec lit! 🎉)

#WritersOfCoSo #SFF
https://mlclark.substack.com/p/three-slices-of-the-writing-world?sd=pf

Morning, Mastodon! 💫
Happy Monday.

Today for #BookTube I share connections between The Brothers Karamazov & Children of Doro (my SF novel out May 4): two works of philosophical fiction, only one of which takes place on Earth. 🙃

Patrons will have access to three other sneak-peek videos tonight: More on planetary governance, Star Trek tie-ins, and #IndiePublishing in all its slings and arrows.

Happy viewing, if you do!

#SFF #WritersOfCoSo #Indie

https://youtu.be/eFLTbqq2SJI

Easily my favourite part of getting to format my own novels is putting the Canadian spelling back in.

I may be the first to quibble with anachronistic language in far-flung future contexts, but so help me, while reading *my* space opera, you're going to wallow in excess "u"s & "l"s, & despair over the chaos of "s" versus "c" or "z" with no greater rhyme or reason, JUST BECAUSE. 🙃 (Though I think Dostoevsky would've approved of giving over to madness!)

#AmEditing #IndiePublishing #WritersOfCoSo

The next #indie text in my six-book year will be a second edition of Tomás Carrasquilla's stories, with additions to my supporting materials, out March 4. Most found the work in the first edition fascinating, but some were unsettled by cultural differences. I'm glad to sharpen how I introduce another culture to Anglo-Western readers. There's just *so* much to learn about translation as we go!

#Publishing #IndiePublishing #WritersOfCoSo #Translation

There is a teenager's birthday party in the common area in my building complex, so... while the reggaeton is blasting (#Colombia), I'll be watching an episode of TV. Then back to work!

But I simply *cannot* write while listening to music with lyrics - or even instrumental versions of songs to which I know the lyrics! So if you ever needed to know my Kryptonite, you're welcome: this is it.

🙃 We writers are a strange breed, no?

#WritingCommunity #WritersOfCoSo
#AmWriting (eventually)

~*~Guess whose book arrived today? 🎉 ~*~

I also have an unboxing (unbagging?) video on TikTok, if you want to see me be a goof about it.* 🙃

*Okay, *more* of a goof about it.

#WritersOfCoSo #WritingCommunity #SFF #Indie #IndieWriters #IndiePublishing

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYe1Ga71/