Marshall Ryan Maresca

With full bookstagram curation.

This says “you don’t want to have books, you want to display things, some of which might be books”.

I don't use my Facebook much except to look up old connections, and sometimes folks just... vanish. But then you find they're still there but not connected to you anymore. And I wonder, did they actively de-friend me, or does Facebook occasionally decouple folks just for the drama of it?

One of the weirdest thing to me about the Star Trek future is the way it romanticizes a pastoral farming life. You have a complete post-scarcity society and yet see tons of folks being all, "Let's find an empty planet and work the land with just hand tools."

I get the motivation behind this, but this would have deprived young me of the fine example of non-toxic masculinity that was Michael Landon as Pa Ingalls. TV's best girl dad.

Bookday! It's my bookday!

Out today is BUTTERFLY EFFECTS, the fifteenth (15! How did that happen?) adventure in the InCryptid series, and the third book narrated by Sarah Zellaby. Sarah's adopted, which is relevant only because she's not human. She's still family. Biology is irrelevant.

"Should you challenge me, then I would declare you a fool," he cried out. "And as my victory is assured, you have my pity."

Post your favourite "Lord of the Rings" character. Wrong answers only.

I say this because there are a ridiculous number of folks who claim they want a "moderate" but really have no idea what a moderate IS, so just grab that Overton window, yank it to the left and insist over and over that it's a moderate position.

I honestly wonder if a campaign can be built on just claiming to be a moderate, taking progressive positions on things and when questioned, insisting that those are, in fact, moderate, common-sense positions, what are you talking about?

I introduced Spouse to @mrmaresca.com's Maradaine Saga while Spouse was in the hospital and he's on his fourth book now.

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of every project figuring out which POV/tense is going to serve that story. I'm aware many readers take an "I don't like mushrooms" approach to these tools, and that's fine, but it's not my job to try to guess whether there are more mushroom lovers or haters.

TARGET (AUDIENCE) ACQUIRED

If some folks WANT the dumb books, that's fine for them. What's becoming a problem is the publishers seem to have decided that's the only audience they want to cater to anymore.

Very well earned saltiness.

Okay, look, readers have preferences, literary tastes adn dominant paradigms are always in a state of change, whatever, but maybe if you don't like worldbuilding, fantasy is not actually the genre you should be reading?

I didn't hate it, but it certainly wasn't any good.

Step One: Build Skynet
Step Two: Run away before Skynet kills ME.
Step Three: Profit?

"Have many, many separate done tasks at once, and feel confident that they're done right because I'm doing them" is exactly the superpower I crave, 100%

there's so much bad in the world but there's also people who lift up and carry an elderly bat around every day so he can pretend he's flying again, and that's the part of the world I think is worth fighting for

Some folks REALLY think negging is gonna work, I guess?

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.

My favorite taco place the order-in-person tacos are always more generous than when you order online. Partly because they don’t need to be packed for travel.

#SFFChat A3: Honestly, I get such a charge from doing Worldbuilding for Masochists with @mrmaresca.com and @natania.bsky.social and all our amazing guests. It’s brilliant to get to talk with such amazing people about craft on a regular basis.

"With almost everything, it gets an F, but with coding? It gets a D."

Happy World Book Day!

In celebration, a short thread (with affiliate links) of books I've loved in the past few months:

#BookSky

This month, we're aiming to get 100 preorders for the 2nd printing of Prosper with Dragons, the cooperative Afrofutures card game...with dragons! 🐉

If you want to add a little heat 🔥 to your game nights, preorder your copy today: sistahscifi.com/products/pre...

My call to Congressman Wittman just now: "Hi. I'd like to know if the Congressman is in support of the US military's violations of the Geneva Convention and its own code of conduct?"

Staffer: "The Congressman has not made a statement on this subject, so I can't speak to that."

"Specialized artistic training."

I just wrote "Phrase this better, future Marshall" in my edit notes. It's now that guy's problem.