@Verain@c.im

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@cstross@wandering.shop

Oh fuck: that's ME determined never to fly on a Boeing 787! Air India AI-171 crash: "Aircraft health data that had been transmitted via ACARS by VT-ANB about 15 minutes prior to the crash, indicated f

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 21, 2026

@cstross@wandering.shop Boeing in general aren't having a nice time. I think I'll avoid them from now on.

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 15, 2026

@skewray@mathstodon.xyz @archaeohistories@ohai.social Nope. Aussie! We were tough back then. Then lost to the Turks and emus. Alas....

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 14, 2026

@guyjantic@infosec.exchange Let's go with that, then. It's probably more fun than the truth. :)

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@cstross@wandering.shop

Weirdly, if I just flat out said "my muse is a hungry ghost trapped in a jar: I shake it and she shouts story ideas at me" people might actually think I was serious.

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 13, 2026

@cstross@wandering.shop Oh, I wish it was that easy.

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@cstross@wandering.shop

#WritersCoffeeClub 11/1: Name a poet who has influenced you. I am violently allergic to poetry and generally ignore it—nuanced exception: song lyrics. So … Gary Numan? Trevor Horn? Alanis Morisette?

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 11, 2026

@cstross@wandering.shop Does Tolkien count? I tend to skim the poetry, but it's there.

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#WritersCoffeeClub 2/1: Talk about something you've retold. I try not to re-tell other stuff too often, and traditional myths/legends are a poor fit for my purposes, but my 15th(?) novel, "Saturn's Ch

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 02, 2026

@cstross@wandering.shop Not as in borrowing from existing stories or history, but the fourth time I tried a certain story it worked! The first three were all wonky in different ways, but number four was the go. Still tidying it up when I can find the urge, but I believe it's fundamentally good.

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@cstross@wandering.shop

But do we want BRAAAAINS??? https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:77lswp42lgjyw36ozuo7kt7e/post/3mbd7zycblc2w

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Jan 01, 2026

@cstross@wandering.shop Last I checked, I'm not dead. Should I get a second opinion?

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#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 25: Should anything in fiction be off-limits? What? Not exactly; but there are some things I refuse to use my fiction to endorse. (Don't encourage suicidal ideation: some of you

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 25, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I'm not a big fan of censorship, but at the same time I agree that there are things I don't want to read or write!

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@Verain@c.im I burned out on reading SF/F years ago—you'd best ask someone else!

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@Verain@c.im

@cstross@wandering.shop That's a surprise. I thought an author would be a fan for life. But I have asked others and gotten a good bunch of answers!

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@cstross@wandering.shop

@Verain@c.im I haven't stopped reading SF/F, I've just stopped keeping up with the New Hotness! (I've been reading SF/F for 50-55 years; gimme a break.)

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 25, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I see!

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#ScribesAndMakers Dec 24: Reading at your typical pace and assuming no unexpected interruptions, about how long would it take you to read a 300 page book? A: I'm currently sight-impaired (need catarac

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@Verain@c.im

@cstross@wandering.shop I'm not the reader I used to be, but my favourite bookshop is having a sale tomorrow. Do you have any highlights from the last year or two? Just whatever comes to mind in the S

Parent @cstross@wandering.shop Open

@cstross@wandering.shop

@Verain@c.im I burned out on reading SF/F years ago—you'd best ask someone else!

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 25, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop That's a surprise. I thought an author would be a fan for life. But I have asked others and gotten a good bunch of answers!

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#ScribesAndMakers Dec 24: Reading at your typical pace and assuming no unexpected interruptions, about how long would it take you to read a 300 page book? A: I'm currently sight-impaired (need catarac

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 24, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I'm not the reader I used to be, but my favourite bookshop is having a sale tomorrow. Do you have any highlights from the last year or two? Just whatever comes to mind in the SF/F field.

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@cstross@wandering.shop

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 21 Prompt: Do your stories come to you fully formed? Or do they only develop along the way? I write novels: they're far too big to arrive fully-formed! However, I'm a big ideas

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 21, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I've had a couple where the bulk popped into my head, but often it's just bits and pieces I have to string together in the right order.

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@Verain@c.im You misremembered! But Hannu and I were in the Edinburgh SF writers workshop at the time and I crit-read the book in draft. (I had to cry off writing the foreword for the US 20th annivers

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 13, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop Interesting, thanks!

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@cstross@wandering.shop

#WritersCoffeeClub 11th Dec 2025. - How do you keep track of plots and subplots? Mostly by writing in @scrivenerapp@mastodon.world these days (since 2008) which makes it ridiculously easy to edit indi

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Dec 11, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop As an outliner, I can always refer back to the outline. The problem, I don't always. I go off on whatever feels right at the time, which leads to trying to wrench the story back on the rails. Worst of both worlds.

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Bah. It's sunny outside and I wanna go out for a walk, but it's also blowing a strong gale (literally Beaufort Scale 8 winds) and I live on a street with lots of slate roof tiles of questionable vinta

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 28, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I looked up that scale. Learn something new every day! There was a 7 here last week. Perth, W Australia. Anyway, sensible choice!

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#WritersCoffeeClub Nov 27: Do you prefer writing serialised, sequential, or standalone works? Why? I like getting paid. And a viable series (where sales aren't dropping after book 1) is bread-and-butt

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 27, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop If I could write multiple works in the same universe, I would. Instead my mind seems to bounce around between settings. Once I wrote an outline, then realised it would work in the same setting as another story, but that's the exception.

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@cstross@wandering.shop

#WordWeavers Nov 22: If any artist, dead or alive, could create your cover, who would you choose? Whoever was in charge of Gollancz cover designs in the 1960s! Plain yellow jackets FTW! (/me: ducks an

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 22, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop I'm working on something inspired by a Frank Frazetta picture, so he'd be great. Tom Bjorklund has the advantage of being alive, though.

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#WritersCoffeeClub 22 Nov: What has been the biggest change to your style since you started out? As I started out (trying to write and submitting work for publications) in my mid-teens and I am now in

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 22, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop Becoming more of an outliner. Also my interests have both changed and expanded a bit over the years.

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#ScribesAndMakers Nov. 21 - Do you ever change what you're wearing to do your creative work? I write in my office at home and I dress for comfort and over the past five years I've gone full goblin mod

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 21, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop No, but I sometimes put on related music. Fantasy soundtracks for fantasy, space opera, and so on. Not quite method writing, but leaning towards it. :)

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#WritersCoffeeClub 11/21. What are some preconceptions about writers you'd like to see challenged? Almost every depiction of a writer in TV or film is grotesquely wrong, starting with: they're all ric

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Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

Verain

@Verain@c.im

Left-handed Australian male.

c.im

@Verain@c.im · Nov 21, 2025

@cstross@wandering.shop Today I was going through something I left for a while and tidying it up. I have never seen a writer on screen fixing their dialogue or getting horrified at a typo lurking for way too long.

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