The personal blog of Jay Garmon: professional geek, Web entrepreneur, and occasional science fiction writer.
What will kill your career is not focusing on the career side of writing. If you want to write as a hobby that’s fine, but if you want to live off your earnings you need to treat it like a business.
— Charlie Stross (@cstross) March 31, 2019
Today on Batman’s 80th birthday we should celebrate Superman, who gracefully tolerates Batman and all his ridiculous bullshit.
— Jonathan Hickman (@JHickman) March 31, 2019
I have deleted
— Cole Townsend (@twnsndco) March 30, 2019
The commented out code
That was in
The legacy codebase
And which
You were probably saving
For god knows what
Why did you do this
We have
Version history
Picard management tip: Some of your decisions are going to be mistakes. You have to make them anyway.
— Picard Tips (@PicardTips) March 30, 2019
During elections, politicians talk about midwesterners the way Tolkien talked about Hobbits
— Dad (@fivefifths) March 29, 2019
The toxic, stupid myth of the starving artist:
— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 27, 2019
You don't need to starve to be honest.
You don't need to be poor to stay pure.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to be creative.
No-one should ever make you feel that being happy, healthy or comfortable makes you less of an artist.
Highest compliments one can pay to writers:
— Emma Newman (@EmApocalyptic) March 26, 2019
You made me cry
You are a monster
I nearly missed my stop because of your book
Your book destroyed me (in the best way)
Also:
Leaving reviews
Spreading the word about the books you love
Pre-ordering
Giving them a nice cup of tea
On Twitter dot com, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups:
— The Warax. 🦛💨 (@iAmTheWarax) March 25, 2019
The Experts, who dedicate their lives to the study of their chosen field, and the Reply Guys, who are “pretty sure they know what they’re talking about.”
These are their stories.
🔔🔔
Folks that struggle with worldbuilding like me, a tip: study history. This wasn't obvious to me. A lot of worldbuilding panels I've attended have emphasized thinking about the economics, religion, politics "of your world" and I was like but how? Where? How do?
— Isabel Yap (@visyap) March 25, 2019
Look at history.
not sure who needs to hear this right now but I sure tf need to say it:
— Leah Williams (@mymonsterischic) March 25, 2019
hey! LGBTQ content isn't "adult" content, you're just a bigot 😘
Is it a coincidence that "Wine Country" drops on Netflix the same weekend as my own Country, With Wine* trip with hilarious women friends? The universe is making good decisions for us already (*not to be confused with // + caftans)
— Erin Keane (@eekshecried) March 25, 2019
twitter is like an eternal version of the day on a group vacation when everyone goes sour and turns on each other
— Max Read (@max_read) March 25, 2019
Write for yourself.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) March 24, 2019
The worst case scenario:
At least one person will like it.🙂
In a 5e game w/Jody Lynne Nye:
— The Gryphon King, Larry Dixon (@LarryDixonTGK) March 21, 2019
(Jody edited the 1st D&D tables)
Gamer: "I can cast light on a lot of things when we go down."
Jody: "That only affects 1 item at a time."
Gamer: "Are you sure?"
Jody: "It has been for 40 years."
Dude tries to throw light. Jody throws SHADE. 😁
This editorial aside in the @nytimes article about the upcoming @BillandTed3 film is in fact 100% accurate. https://t.co/ihuxq1zNkT pic.twitter.com/0ropbXUGZ4
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) March 21, 2019
ah yes writing, that thing i do where i open a word document and then get up and start cleaning my entire house
— Kristen Arnett (@Kristen_Arnett) March 21, 2019
Picard management tip: Decide.
— Picard Tips (@PicardTips) March 20, 2019
Resource for those writing about military training who don't want to go Full Historian like me, there's a show on Netflix called "Surviving the Cut" that takes you through high level overview of training xp for various special forces. Also everyone should read "On Killing." https://t.co/7Ogx7AI5uo
— Kameron Hurley (@KameronHurley) March 20, 2019
Aristotle really nails the Spartan myth (Politics 1338b 25 on) - they weren’t the greatest heavy infantry in Greece because they trained hard, but because they trained *at all*. And the minute other poleis began professionalizing, they started losing badly.
— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) March 20, 2019
PRO TIP: Maybe don't have the first comment you have about a woman in a professional setting be about how attractive you find her.
— Heather Antos (@HeatherAntos) March 20, 2019
people complain I "play the flute" and "hypnotize their town" and "steal their children" or whatever. but like? pay your freelancers and this wouldn't happen
— Dickie Greenleaf (@ohgoddickie) March 20, 2019
PSA:
— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) March 20, 2019
You do not earn magical ally cookies by being a decent human being that you can then spend defending problematic behavior.
That is not how that works.
Dungeon Master expectation:
— Sean Hunt (@seanofthehunt) March 19, 2019
A master storyteller who gets to weave epic adventures for their friends.
DM reality:
An accidental therapist who has to guide a group of friends through weird parts of their personalities, whilst pretending to be a goblin.#DnD
FYI candidates are legally prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations so if you see one bragging about that, they’re counting on your ignorance and hoping you’ll read it as “corporate PACS” which are largely just a way to skirt the aforementioned rule.
— Dawn (@502eire) March 19, 2019
Kory's hit the nail on the head. You have to treat every internet-based source of revenue like it could disappear overnight. https://t.co/gBEItnnwLN
— URL, You'll Be A Woman Soon (@jephjacques) March 19, 2019
One point that the college admissions scandal reminds me of: actual imposters almost never suffer from imposter syndrome.
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) March 18, 2019
If a college admissions office considers it a plus that an applicant went on a "service trip" to Guatemala that cost 3k, but doesn't consider it a plus that a kid worked part-time at Safeway 20 to help support the family, they aren't only doing it wrong, but doing in backwards.
— David Bernstein (@ProfDBernstein) March 15, 2019
The weird thing about J.K. Rowling trying to make her work diverse after the fact is she could literally write a whole story about a gay AF Dumbledore or a cross-race marriage between a human and a centaur and her publisher would release it without question and it would sell.
— Dr. Grand Moff Duke🐍🚀 (@shaunduke) March 17, 2019
Every Lowe’s receipt should say “We’ll see you in an hour.”
— Robert Goode (@Shipwreck) March 17, 2019
Christchurch is why I have no patience for all the shitposters, edgelords, apocalypse theorists, ironic art-school memers, patrician new atheists, tradcath wannabe Torquemadas and all the assorted other trash that dress up their hate as intellect or entertainment
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) March 15, 2019
Write the book you've always wanted to read.
— Brit E. B. Hvide (@bhvide) March 13, 2019
Write the book you've always wanted.
Write the book.
Write.
Sometimes you gotta be uncivilized, when you live and write within a civilization built on bigotry. If it helps, remember that *you* weren't the one who created this civilization... but you can help fix it.
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) March 13, 2019
Last year, when I was grappling with whether I wanted to keep practicing law, my husband gave me some really good advice. Sharing today in case you need to hear it, too. Ready?
— Lauren Rad (@laurenclarkrad) March 8, 2019
The person you were at 22 does not get to decide who you have to be for the rest of your life.
A cool thing about writing is that the better you get at it, the more you're aware of what you want out of it, which means it gets harder, which means you actually feel like you're getting worse.
— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) March 10, 2019
And by "cool thing," I mean "what the fuck, man"
This year Wil Wheaton will be as old as Patrick Stewart was when TNG premiered. You're welcome, fellow geezers.
— Talia (@dptalia) March 8, 2019
I'm going to cry in a corner, like the old woman I am.
Captain Marvel’s box office shows us that when misogynist comic book bros organize with pathological, borderline psychotic focus they can REALLY accomplish absolutely nothing.
— Matt Wallace (@MattFnWallace) March 9, 2019
Do you understand what a shitty little internet troll you need to be to motivate Warren Ellis to lumber from his underground antideluvian trans-dimensional pub ensconced deep between tectonic plates in order to point out you were so very, very ineffectual? https://t.co/1DL72hZv8W
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) March 9, 2019
No actual TV critic has ever said anything as insightful as my dad after watching five minutes of the Gilmore Girls who said "These people all talk like they're leaving voicemails for each other"
— Kath Barbadoro (@kathbarbadoro) March 8, 2019
evolutionary psychology is astrology for incels
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) March 9, 2019
said it before and i'll say it again
— Mary Phillips-Sandy (@maryps) March 8, 2019
if you see a brand tweeting about international women's day
tweet 'em back and ask to see their family leave policy
“Write what you know” is why we have so many mediocre novels about middle aged male writers and their nearly identical midlife crises.
— Gennifer Hutchison (@GennHutchison) March 6, 2019
(That and publishing biases, obviously.)
Write whatever you can dream. Ground it in the emotional truths you know.
This is really good to see. Sometimes we think that brilliant people are brilliant all by themselves, but it takes a team to be professionally brilliant at a certain level. https://t.co/eyOlrkjaGz
— Tara Anderson (@TaraEAnderson) March 7, 2019
A Columbia University study found that comprehensive sex ed in middle and high school leads to a 50% reduction in sexual assault in college.
— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) March 6, 2019
FIFTY PERCENT https://t.co/PBPEG9y6Mj
My son's 13-year-old non-binary classmate had a shirt on yesterday that said "Error 404: Gender Not Found" and I just about died.
— Amanda Jette Knox (@MavenOfMayhem) March 6, 2019
Their mom had it made for them. That mom is a hero.
Startup culture is basically a Ponzi scheme with VCs corralling gullible but ambitious workaholics into signing away obscene amounts of equity who then graduate into advisory roles where they advise the next generation of gullible workaholics into signing away their equity...
— holly (@girlziplocked) March 7, 2019
In a culture that assigns value to people based on their productivity, it is a radical act to choose to rest.
— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) March 1, 2019
Your value is not in what you do or make.
Shabbat Shalom, y’all.
❤️
For people obsessed with the free market, baby boomers love blaming millennials for killing business. Like, I'm sorry, it's not millennials killing the bar soap industry gary, it's capitalism and your slimy-ass soap
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) March 2, 2019
::looks at internet like in "The Office":: https://t.co/Jryfyr4IjR
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) March 2, 2019
Every age cohort in America has less wealth now than they did in 1989 — except households over 62 years old. https://t.co/RUJCcf1HE3 pic.twitter.com/ypBXACqY7W
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) March 2, 2019
For a story, have you ever attended a comic convention and paid for an autograph? If so, whose and how much did you pay?
— Ashlie D. Stevens (@AshlieD_Stevens) March 1, 2019