January 22, 2024

neil-gaiman:

charliejaneanders:

Random writing thought: the best stories are often the ones that only you could have written — but also the ones that you could only write at this one moment.

I couldn’t write All the Birds in the Sky from scratch now if I tried. But the me of 2013 couldn’t have written The Prodigal Mother either.

When people ask if I’d change anything about a book I’ve already written, I want to explain to them that I’m not the person who wrote that book any longer, and even if I tried right now I’d write a different one. Everything you make as a writer* is a combination of what you want to say and who you are at the time you are telling that story.


*possibly also as an artist or as a human being

This rings so true to me. It also reminds me of something Gene Wolfe used to say, about each novel being a new challenge and experience–you can only write the novel you have in front of you. You are not exactly the person you were who wrote the last story or the person you will be who writes the next story. You are the person writing this story.

Sometimes that means knowing that the person you are is not quite ready to tell a particular story, but tomorrow, or next month, or next year, or the next decade…you may be.

That always made me feel better. I just had to find the story I needed to write, right now.

January 22, 2024

vyvilha:

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115 years since the birth of ukrainian folk artist maria prymachenko

January 22, 2024

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Last week, the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) released their longlist of nominees for the BSFA Awards, for work published in 2023. Embroidered Worlds: Fantastic Fiction from Ukraine and the Diaspora was among those listed for Best Collections! I am honored that we were included; I’m also so excited to see Ukrainian fiction on a list like this.

When I was a young reader in the 80s and 90s, I dreamed of such an opportunity; and I am heartened to know that readers are enjoying and discussing these stories by writers in Ukraine and the Diaspora.

There are so many thoughtful collections and fantastic stories on this list, and I encourage you to take a look. Congratulations to my incredible co-editors, Olha Brylova & Iryna Pasko and to all the nominees!

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December 19, 2023

Nice to see Ukrainian culture being shared.

Kutia on Sviat Vechir…One of my most cherished traditions. 💙💛

From the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

I wrote about the tradition in my blog (in 2011!):

The Sticky Subject of Kutia a.k.a. Ukrainian “Porridge” | Valya Dudycz Lupescu (vdlupescu.com)

December 5, 2023
neil-gaiman:
“the-year-before-time:
““Trollet som grunner på hvor gammelt det er“ by Theodor Kittelsen
“(Troll Wonders How Old He Is)” ”
My favourite Kittelsen story was his reaction when he heard another Norwegian artist had started drawing Trolls...

neil-gaiman:

the-year-before-time:

“Trollet som grunner på hvor gammelt det er“ by Theodor Kittelsen

“(Troll Wonders How Old He Is)”

My favourite Kittelsen story was his reaction when he heard another Norwegian artist had started drawing Trolls as well. “How can he draw Trolls?” he is said to have asked. “He’s never seen a troll.”

(via neil-gaiman)

December 5, 2023

mornington-the-crescent:

reikacchan:

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don’t give up

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(via wilwheaton)

December 5, 2023

songsofwaterandnight:

huffylemon:

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damn ok lake superior

Ok yeah that lake is superior

(via neil-gaiman)

November 6, 2023

onbearfeet:

rubenesque-as-fuck:

dark-lord-tom-returns:

aurumacadicus:

aurumacadicus:

The kids on TikTok think that just because he was a classic country singer, Johnny Cash was conservative??? My babies he covered a Nine Inch Nails song in his seventies.

Classic country singers (the majority of which came from poor roots) were always talking about how much The Man sucked because they were taking money from poor rural folk. You’re gonna tell me that’s conservative?? Get outta here.

And somehow on the opposite side of the scale with the same exact opinion the conservative kids say “I like the old country music, because there’s no politics to it” Woodie Guthrie’s got a “this machine kills fascists” sticker on his guitar? You think there’s no politics in 9 to 5 or Folsom Prison Blues?!

For anyone confused there was a sudden and dramatic shift in the country music genre. It used to be a genre fixated on the experiences of people. Lived or common experiences that resonated with the common people. It was music that you listened to and it thrummed in tune to your soul because you had lived it yourself. And a lot of that was about ordinary people getting ground up in the gears of society.

The hyper patriotism, beer, and trucks chimera we have now didn’t show up until after 9/11 and the world is lesser for it

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Allow me to post the entire lyrics to the Johnny Cash song “Man in Black”, released in nineteen goddamn seventy-one and written about why he always wore black onstage:


Well, you wonder why I always dress in black

Why you never see bright colors on my back

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone

Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on


I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down

Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime

But is there because he’s a victim of the times


I wear the black for those who’ve never read

Or listened to the words that Jesus said

About the road to happiness through love and charity

Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me


Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose

In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes

But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back

Up front there ought to be a man in black


I wear it for the sick and lonely old

For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold

I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been

Each week we lose a hundred fine young men


And I wear it for the thousands who have died

Believin’ that the Lord was on their side

I wear it for another hundred-thousand who have died

Believin’ that we all were on their side


Well, there’s things that never will be right, I know

And things need changin’ everywhere you go

But ‘til we start to make a move to make a few things right

You’ll never see me wear a suit of white


Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day

And tell the world that everything’s okay

But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back

'Til things are brighter, I’m the man in black

That right there is an anti-war, anti-bigot, anti-mass-incarceration, anti-war-on-drugs (Cash was an addict in various stages of recovery who was pissed as hell about how this country treats people with substance issues), eat-the-rich protest song. And it was arguably his signature song, his personal manifesto. Notice that even the Jesus reference, which today would be a signal that the song is about to drop some racist dogwhistles, segues immediately into a line about “the road to happiness through love and charity”. As in “Motherfucker, our shared god said love thy neighbor and care for the poor and the outsider, and we both know he didn’t fucking stutter.” He’s throwing shade at self-described Christians who use his religion as a cudgel to beat people with.

Johnny Cash wasn’t a conservative. I’m pretty sure if he were alive and in reasonably good health today, he’d knock Jason Aldean’s teeth out (or, failing that, write a song so devastatingly memetic about how much Aldean sucks that Aldean would never work in music again).

Johnny Cash was punk rock. He just happened to be punk rock in the body of a country singer.

(via neil-gaiman)

November 6, 2023
neil-gaiman:
“the-year-before-time:
““Trollet som grunner på hvor gammelt det er“ by Theodor Kittelsen
“(Troll Wonders How Old He Is)” ”
My favourite Kittelsen story was his reaction when he heard another Norwegian artist had started drawing Trolls...

neil-gaiman:

the-year-before-time:

“Trollet som grunner på hvor gammelt det er“ by Theodor Kittelsen

“(Troll Wonders How Old He Is)”

My favourite Kittelsen story was his reaction when he heard another Norwegian artist had started drawing Trolls as well. “How can he draw Trolls?” he is said to have asked. “He’s never seen a troll.”

(via neil-gaiman)

September 27, 2023
itscolossal:
“A Skeleton of Found Roots and Tree Limbs Heralds the Beginning of Fall in Italy
”
Happy Autumnal Equinox.

itscolossal:

A Skeleton of Found Roots and Tree Limbs Heralds the Beginning of Fall in Italy

Happy Autumnal Equinox.

(via shannonlefay)