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STEVEN D. BREWER

AUTHOR OF SPECULATIVE FICTION AND POETRY IN ENGLISH AND ESPERANTO. TEACHER OF
SCIENTIFIC WRITING. LOVER OF NATURAL HISTORY. (HE/HIM)

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Boskone Wrapup

Posted on 2024-02-15 by StevenDBrewer

In 2023, I had been scheduled to appear at Boskone, but ended up instead in the
hospital. It was a big disappointment and so I was excited this year when I was
again selected to appear on the program.

The second weekend in February happens to be also the second week of the
semester, so I had a regular workday on Friday. I drove to Boston the night
before and then had an early morning meeting and office hours. I had just enough
time between office hours and class to run down to the parking garage to meet my
confederates to open my car and help move in the books for the Water Dragon
dealer table. After class, I was able to get registered, pick up my packet, and
then spend a little time selling books before it was time for my first panel.

My first panel was Write My Doctoral Thesis: Science Edition. When I had signed
up, I hadn’t noticed that this was supposed to be comedic event (another
participant told me that they were under the same misapprehension, which made me
feel better for having missed this crucial fact.) After the fact, it was a lot
of fun. But during the session it was rather stressful: It was rather like
playing madlibs with very smart opponents in front of a live audience. But I
felt like I made good contributions and got some laughs. And I was pleased to
meet the other participants who all seemed like great folks.

Saturday was my busy day with a reading followed immediately after by a panel,
then a break, the book festival, and another panel immediately after. The
reading was reasonably well attended: I read The Better Angels and the Military
Morale Mishegoss, an excerpt of The Third Time’s the Charm, and The Better
Angels and the Super Sticky Situation. Then I had to run to the Speculative
Evolution panel. The participants were well selected, with people representing
diverse perspectives. I was bit disappointed that the Book Festival was kind of
a bust: I had a handful of people who came to speak with me, but it was a
general problem: there just weren’t many people there. My last panel, Romance in
Speculative Fiction was fascinating: it was an interesting group of
participants. A number of audience members, afterwards expressed how much they
valued my comments that provided representation for queer and non-binary
perspectives.

I spent Sunday in the dealer room selling books. Revin’s Heart bundles sold
well, although it became clear that people were planning to get copies of the
fix-up which is now out (although I did not have copies to sell at the con.)
This should surprise no-one. I was a bit more disappointed that, although people
liked my pitch for Better Angels, it did not sell particularly well. People
would listen to the pitch, say it sounded good, and then not buy the book. So
realized a little tweak. Rather than calling it “light-hearted space opera” I’ve
started calling it “fluffy military space opera” which will hopefully generate
the right amount of cognitive dissonance.

Boskone is just a month after Arisia, but the two events are quite different.
Boskone trends older — maybe 25 years older. And the participants seem clearer
on what they want. And what they want is traditional sci fi like they read when
they were younger. They seem therefore less interested in the new offerings of a
small press. The booth just next to ours was MIT Press selling, among other
things, books by Stanislav Lem (mostly written in the 1960s and 1970s) that
seemed very interesting to the participants.

Sunday afternoon, we packed everything up and I drove home, getting back just
before sunset.

better angels, boskone, conventions, revins heart, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Advertising Books

Posted on 2024-01-29 by StevenDBrewer

Trying to publicize your books is hard. It’s one of the things that you don’t
think much about until you try to transition from “writer” to “author.” At least
I didn’t. But I had seen enough authors talking about the need to do publicity
that I had some idea what I was getting myself into. What I didn’t know anything
about, however, was advertising.

Last summer, I saw a Facebook group that was going to offer a free starter class
for people who wanted to learn about advertising using ads at Amazon. I decided
to spend a little money up front just trying out the advertising system. I first
tried letting Amazon construct the ad (basically just showing a book among
search results, I think). But I think I clicked something wrong and it didn’t
work at all. It didn’t cost anything because nobody clicked on it — whatever it
was (I couldn’t figure out how to get it to show me what the ad was that it was
even showing). But it tried again and got some tiny number of clicks. But it was
clear that a lot more fine tuning was required. So I tried the class.

The class was based around long screencasts. I quickly found I couldn’t stand to
watch the screencasts at all. But accompanying the screencasts were
click-by-click directions for the activities. This I could do, so I set up a
handful of experimental ads like they recommended. The results were quite
discouraging. I didn’t get any sales (as far as I could tell) and, when I spoke
with another author who had taken a similar (but more advanced class), he
indicated that you needed to get orders of magnitude larger responses in order
actually see appreciable sales. And he had decided it wasn’t worth it.

Several people said that Facebook ads were a better fit, so I decided to hold my
nose and give those a try. I truly and wholeheartedly despise Facebook. But I
gave them some money to “boost” a post I had already written to promote Better
Angels: Tour de Force. The interface was less complicated and it seemed like I
got better results. So, after that ad finished, I decided to run another. When I
did, however, I discovered how enshittified the Facebook ad system is.

The first ad you buy has reasonable defaults that make sense: it defaults to $14
for a week with a goal of getting people to click on your link. But when you try
to do the next one, it dicks with the defaults. It tries to get you to spend $42
or $56 or some much larger amount. And it defaults to other weird goals like
“get more engagement” or “get more messages via Facebook Messenger”. And it
tries to get you link Instagram and What’s App accounts with your Facebook
account. Ugh. I feel so unclean.

Since I’ve been playing around with my book promotion posts already, I will
probably continue to purchase ads at some low level. Since it does seem to
actually put my ad in front of people who do, at some level, click through to
the book page. And maybe some of them actually buy a book. If nothing else, it
gives me some additional metrics on which book promotion posts are more
effective.

It still feels a lot like just rolling the dice.

advertising, bookselling Leave a comment

Boskone 2024 Schedule

Posted on 2024-01-25 by StevenDBrewer

Last year, I was scheduled to appear at Boskone, but ended up going into the
hospital the week before. Tempting fate, I have again proposed myself as a
participant and have now received my final schedule.

On Friday Feb 9, since this is during the academic year, I will have office
hours at 10am, and then will teach class (remotely) from 1:25 until 3:45. Then,
I will be free to participate in the convention for the rest of the weekend.

At 7pm on Friday, I will serve on a panel Write My Doctoral Thesis: Science
Edition (in Burroughs). This looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Saturday is my busy day: I have a reading (in Galleria – Cabaret) at 12:30, then
Speculative Evolution (in Marina 4) at 1pm, followed by the Boskone Book Party
(in the Galleria) at 6pm, then Romance in Speculative Fiction (in Harbor 2) at
7pm.

But Sunday, I’m totally free!

Mostly, when not otherwise scheduled, I’ll be at the Water Dragon Publishing
table in the Dealer Room. I’ll have plenty of copies of Better Angels: Tour de
Force, as well as bundles of Revin’s Heart. Stop by and visit!

boskone, conventions Leave a comment

The Better Angels and Bebe’s Bedtime Bedlam

Posted on 2024-01-19 by StevenDBrewer

David was still on the bridge of Angels’ Wings, the Better Angels’ starship,
when Bebe came out in her nightgown.

“Bebe can’t sleep,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

“Can I get you something? Some warm milk maybe?” David asked.

“Bebe wants you to read her a story.”

David felt his hackles rise.

“What story would you like?” he said, apprehensively.

“Bebe wants you to read Cap’n Capybara and the Case of the Curious Crocodile!”

“Again? Didn’t I read that last time? And the time before?”

She grabbed his sleeve and tugged, “Come. Come!”

David tucked Bebe into her bed, then seated himself. Eyes shining, she wriggled
with anticipation under the covers.

“Close your eyes,” David admonished.

Bebe complied and David began to read.

“Cap’n Capybara and the Case of the Curious Crocodile. By Cat Cattwaddler.

“‘Catch, Cap’n’!” called Crocodile.

“‘Can’t,’ quipped Cap’n Capybara. ‘Carrying coffee!'”

Bebe began giggling.

“Cup caught casually chucked chunk.”

Bebe started snorting with laughter.

“Crocodile cried, ‘Captivity crummy!'”

“Aw!” Bebe said, plaintively.

“Go to sleep!”

David read the rest of the book to Bebe. By the last page she was finally
asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly. He laid the book down and tiptoed
out as quietly as he could. Then he turned and found the rest of the Better
Angels standing in their nightgowns.

“We can’t sleep, David! Read us a story too!”

“Okay, okay,” he said. “What story do you want?”

“Cap’n Capybara and the Case of the Curious Crocodile!” they all said in unison.

“But…” David said, turning to look back at the door. Then he put his foot down.
“No. You’ll have to pick something else.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This story was originally written for a set of prompts for #wss366.

Better Angels: Tour de Force is now available at The Truck Stop at the Center of
the Galaxy.

better angels Leave a comment

Making Pitches to Sell Books

Posted on 2024-01-18 by StevenDBrewer

I’ve been rather surprised to discover that I seem to be pretty good at selling
books. It doesn’t hurt, of course, to have books that people want to read. But a
huge part of successful selling is to have a pitch that lands with the
prospective buyer. And that’s what I seem to be good at.

I think it derives from the years I spent doing educational assemblies. To make
those performances work, you need to hone a series of stories and statements so
that the wording and timing resonate with the audience and they get caught up in
the performance. When it works best, the audience will play along and you can
hear them respond and engage with what you’re saying. It’s not a conversation,
but you can hear through their laughter or groans when they’ve understood
something or gotten the silly joke you were trying to tell.

The first step is judging when to engage with someone approaching or at the
table. Some people stand back or refuse to make eye-contact. Or are clearly
focused on looking at the books themselves. I usually just offer a quiet
“Hello.” Or “Can I help you with anything?” Or, if they seem unsure, I might
ask, “Would you like a tour?” Or, occasionally, “What do you like to read?” I’d
rather not ask that, because I want to steer them to what I want them to read.

When I’m selling Revin’s Heart, I often begin by pointing at the Airship Pirate
ribbon and asking, “Would you like to be an airship pirate?” Most people at
science fiction conventions would like to be an airship pirate, although there
are exceptions. The ribbon is particularly good because its instantly
recognizable to LGBTQIA+ folks who can tell immediately that the book might
appeal to them.

I leave a beat while they consider the ribbon and then, as they take it, I say,
“It’s for my steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans
protagonist.” I usually tick off on my fingers as list the items.

I leave another beat and say, “It was serialized as seven novelettes. They’re
five dollars each, but — if you buy all seven as a bundle — you can get them for
$25… [beat] which is like two free!”

If they express interest in the first one, I point at the Third Time’s the Charm
and say, “Pro tip: don’t name the first book in a series ‘the third’ something.”
This almost always generates a smile, if not a laugh.

At this point, I generally point to Better Angels and say, “This is my newest
book. It’s about a group of non-human biological androids [beat] that look like
pre-teen girls [beat] and serve as magical girl singing-and-dancing idols [beat]
but they can change up their programming [beat] and become a covert military
force.” Usually, by this point, people are totally caught up in the pitch and
are expressing wonderment or laughing. When I did this pitch at the Steampunk
Isn’t Dead panel at Arisia2024, I had been honing it all weekend, the audience
responded, as I performed it, with a rising volume of amazement, “aaaaaAAAAAAH!”
ending in laughter and applause.

I’ve got a few other pitches. I learned an effective one for the Grimaulkin
series from the author. And for two of the Water Dragon anthologies, I will say.
“The Future’s So Bright is the bright, hopeful, optimistic stuff while Corporate
Catharsis is all the dark stuff you wish you could do to your boss.” This
usually generates a laugh and immediately helps the prospective buyer situate
those books in their mind.

After making the pitch, there are plenty of other things I can tell buyers about
the books. But I’ve realized that having an effective pitch that’s delivered as
a performance, sets the stage for everything that follows.

bookselling Leave a comment

Arisia 2024

Posted on 2024-01-18 by StevenDBrewer

I attended Arisia for the second time as a participant. Last year, I was only
one one or two panels and had a reading. This year, I moderated a panel, served
on four more, and had a reading. I dressed up in cosplay for the panel
“Steampunk isn’t dead.” Well. Sorta.

I moderated the panel on Gender and Sexual Identity Representation in Media.
Originally, there were supposed to be four participants plus me moderating.
Normally when there are four, the moderator can focus solely on facilitating the
conversation. Unfortunately, one of the participants was unable to join us and
so I tried to both moderate and participate in the conversation. I was satisfied
with providing enough structure to keep the discussion on track and making sure
that all of the participants were able to make contributions.

I served on three additional panels which were all fun. The Food in Science
Fiction and Fantasy left me with an appetite to write more about food. The Bi+
Panel provided new insight into bisexuality, pansexuality, and current thinking
in queer culture. And the panel on Invertebrates and Entomology in SFF was
fascinating due to the other interesting participants that each had useful stuff
to contribute. I felt like I made good contributions on each of the panels.

I got to offer a reading on Sunday afternoon. The audience was around a dozen. I
think they were mostly there to hear the other participants, who all write much
more poetical stuff, so my weird space opera stuff left me the odd-man out —
quite literally. But the selections I had made (Military Morale Mishegoss and
Super Sticky Situation) worked well together I got a polite, enthusiastic
response. The other authors were jealous of my giant poster of my cover.

Water Dragon had a dealer table again this year. Last year, I was the lead in
running it, but this year another author and his wife attended and took the
lead. It was great! Four other authors from the publisher took turns at the
table as well and it was great to get to meet them as well. I really value the
vital community of authors that Water Dragon Publishing fosters.

I had a new book just out Better Angels: Tour de Force as well as the novelettes
that form Revin’s Heart. The copies of Better Angels arrived just in time, but
the additional stock of Revin’s Heart didn’t arrive in time. So I plenty of one,
but ran short of the other.

I was grateful they required masks. Due to my underlying health conditions, I
can only attend events where everyone is masked. Knock wood, it appears I came
through the Convention without contracting any respiratory infections.

Next month, we’ll all be back for Boskone.

Arisia, better angels, boskone, conventions, revins heart, Uncategorized Leave a
comment

Wandering Shop Stories

Posted on 2024-01-03 by StevenDBrewer

Early in my fiction writing, I really struggled with writing “stories.” By that,
I mean using a narrative structure that presents a problem which is
satisfactorily resolved — ideally well-paced, with rising action that climaxes
at the right moment. I tended to write a rambling narrative of vaguely
interesting events that raised all kinds of problems but did not resolve them
satisfactorily.

Sometime — perhaps in early 2022, which is the first example I can find without
visiting birdchan — I discovered #vss365: a hashtag prompt for which
participants were encouraged to write a very short story (vss) that would be
offered each day of the year (365) contained in a single, brief post. Baring my
soul, typo and all, here is the first one I have recorded, from Feb 11, 2022:

> She visited the garden center when she was depressed. The flowers didn’t cheer
> her up, exactly, but they helped her remember that better times might come.
> The annuals were too gaudy for her. She always loved tge reliability of the
> #perennial that would keep blooming in the years to come. Now that was
> something to live for.

It’s a story! She’s depressed. She visits the garden center. The perennials give
her something to live for.

I found writing a brief post was something I could do, even during the academic
year when I was working full time. It reminds me a bit of when I started writing
haiku in Esperanto while I was a grad student and no longer had time for
anything more. But it was enough.

I enjoyed #vss365 and I have hundreds of examples of brief story fragments I
wrote. Some served as the nucleus of a story. And some I would string together,
writing a whole rough draft one bit at a time.

But then a narcissistic billionaire purchased birdchan, turned it into a Nazi
bar, and I couldn’t bear to visit the Nazi bar anymore to get the prompts. But
someone had created a website that would scrape the prompt and share it on the
open web. So I started participating even though I had jumped to Mastodon (first
to mastodon.lol and then to wandering.shop). But then the site shut down: they
where having to pay the narcissistic billionaire money to scrape a single word
each day from birdchan. And he finally, perfectly sensibly, decided to quit
paying.

So I wrote my last two posts on Dec 31, 2023 and commented that I wouldn’t be
participating anymore. A friend, @asakiyume, suggested that we could start our
own prompt game on Mastodon. I roped my brother, @philipbrewer into the
conversation and we agreed to pick some words, favoring simple ordinary words
with more than one meaning. (I had found it annoying to have words that had only
a single meaning as being overly restrictive of the kind of post you could
write.)

But then Phil suggested that maybe we should create an account to be an
authoritative source for the prompt. As I thought about it, I realized that we
also wanted a bot: something that didn’t need to be shared, but could be
configured easily and contrived to post automatically at a particular time. So I
investigating creating a bot for Mastodon.

This is not the first time I’ve done something like this: years ago, I created a
bot for birdchan called “dupolusulo” that would randomly post either a proverb
from the Esperanta Proverbaro or string of plausible text generated by a baysian
algorithm that used the Proverbaro as a corpus. This plausible text was often
utterly incomprehsible, but looked like it might mean something and sounded a
lot like the proverbaro.

This time was pretty similar, though easier. I wrote a little python script that
would figure out what day of the year it was, read in a CSV file, and grab a
line matching the day number, parse it, and emit it as a formatted text string.
Then, all I had to do was set up a Mastodon account, @wss366 configured to allow
a bot to post to it. To be honest, what sold me on the whole thing was when I
discovered that I sorta kinda personally know the guy who runs the botsin.space
instance that was set up to support these kinds of bots.

It took me about a day to set up the Mastodon account, configure it, create an
avatar, add a header graphic, write the script, configure a cron job to call it
at 5am. But by the end of the day, I posted an announcement that the post was
live and would post to #wss366 (for Wandering Shop Stories and 366 because it’s
a leap year this year) was live.

This morning, it posted its first prompt: #brick.

I can’t wait to see what it’s going to post tomorrow. Now that’s something to
live for.

mastodon, social media, writing Leave a comment

Arisia 2024

Posted on 2023-12-31 by StevenDBrewer

My schedule for Arisia 2024 has been finalized. I will be moderating one panel,
serving as a panelist on four more, and offering a reading:

Gender & Sexual Identity Representation in Media
Marina Ballroom 3 Friday, January 12, 2024, 7:00 PM EST

Invertebrates and Entomology in SFF
Faneuil Saturday, January 13, 2024, 7:00 PM EST

The Bi+ Panel
Marina Ballroom 3 Sunday, January 14, 2024, 11:30 AM EST

Sunday Afternoon Readings
Faneuil Sunday, January 14, 2024, 2:30 PM EST

Food in Fantasy & Sci-Fi
Marina Ballroom 1 Sunday, January 14, 2024, 5:30 PM EST

Steampunk Isn’t Dead
Alcott Monday, January 15, 2024, 10:00 AM EST

In addition, Water Dragon Publishing and Small Publishing in a Big Universe will
have tables in the dealer room where I will be most of the time when not in
panels.

Look me up! I hope to see you there!

Arisia Leave a comment

Year in Writing: 2023

Posted on 2023-12-29 by StevenDBrewer

I generally had a good year writing. But I was hospitalized for 12 days in early
2023, which caused me to miss being a participant at Boskone and required much
of the spring to convalesce before I was really back to normal. In spite of
that, I had many significant writing accomplishments.

I only made 17 fiction submissions, most of which are the previous stories that
still haven’t sold. I’ve given up on several manuscripts that I will either need
to abandon or rework significantly.

During the first half of 2023, the final two novelettes of Revin’s Heart were
released: In March, Then They Fight You and in June, Rewriting the Rules.

I wrote two pieces of flash fiction for Valentines Day on the Truck Stop: The
Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation and The Better Angels and Lambda
and Tau. I think Super Sticky Situation may be the best piece of flash fiction
I’ve written so far. (Both of these are included in the Better Angels: Tour de
Force, described below.)

I gave several readings. I was selected for the Straw Dog Writers Guild January
Author Showcase for 2022 and gave a reading from Crossing the Streams. I did a
reading at Arisia with James Cambias and A.J. Murphy. And, in April, an hour
long reading at an online convention.

While at Arisia, I also served on a panel about Gender and Sexual Identity in
Media. I also was the primary organizer of the Water Dragon Publishing dealer
table. After that positive experience, I was well prepped to sell books at
Baycon.

I had been hospitalized and was convalescing during the time participants were
being selected for Baycon so I didn’t make it onto the program there. But
ultimately I decided to attend attend anyway and drove to California with my
younger son. We had an epic road trip and I was available to help support the
dealer table at Baycon, where I sold out of copies of Revin’s Heart.

These bookselling successes, prepped me to get a tent and table to set up a
dealer table at the Amherst Farmer’s Market Artisan’s Alley. They were pleased
to have another draw and I was welcomed with open arms. I sold books there a
couple of times at the end of the summer and also ran a booth at the Mill
District Holiday Arts Market.

As a guest interviewer, I interviewed Kathy Sullivan for Small Publishing in a
Big Universe. I had met her at Arisia and thought she had a lot of insight about
the relation between fandom and authors that I wanted to learn more about. Our
conversation did not disappoint.

I had hoped to get back to writing The Ground Never Lies but ended up spending
most of my time writing Better Angels stories which will appear on December in
Better Angels: Tour de Force, which includes 17 stories (including the original
Better Angels story plus 16 more, including the flash fiction stories from
Valentines day.)

While I was working on Better Angels stories, I hit on the idea of a group of
cooking girls on Volpex who sometimes get mixed up with the Better Angels called
the Butter Angels. I’ve got this story mostly finished, along with a piece of
flash fiction. I also wrote a flash fiction story for Christmas on the Truck
Stop called Just One Question.

I’ve also been working on two new Revin’s Heart novellas, Devishire! and
Campshire! plus a new Revin’s Heart series, that begins with Lady Cecelia’s
Flowers. These have not been accepted for publication. Yet.

In the fall, I established Straw Dog Writes for the Straw Dog Writers’ Guild.
It’s a program modeled on the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Association
Writing Date. I’ve gotten about 20 participants (about half of whom might show
up on any particular week). And about half are pre-existing members, half new
members (who’ve signed up to participate), and a handful of people who are not
yet members but who are considering it. This has been about as good as I could
possibly have hope.

I’m looking forward to 2024 with plans to attend Arisia, Boskone, Norwescon, and
Worldcon in Glasgow. And writing, of course: lots and lots of writing.

Arisia, baycon, better angels, bookselling, conventions, revins heart, spbu,
truck stop, Uncategorized, writing Leave a comment

Steven D. Brewer 2023 Awards Eligibility

Posted on 2023-12-28 by StevenDBrewer

In the spring, Water Dragon Publishing released the last two novelettes of
Revin’s Heart, I self-published It’s Complicated via Amazon Vella, and, in
December, The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy released Better Angels:
Tour de Force.

* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels: Tour de Force. Truck Stop at the Center of
the Galaxy, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California, including
* “Better Angels” pp 1-10,
* “The Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween” pp 11-24,
* “The Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation” pp 25-26,
* “The Better Angels and the Really Rapid Rescue” pp 27-40,
* “The Better Angels and Lambda and Tau” pp 41-46,
* “The Better Angels and the Monomaniacal Menageriste” pp 47-62,
* “The Better Angels and the Repugnant Rampant Rumor” pp 63-72,
* “The Better Angels and the Nighty-Night Nurses” pp 73-84,
* “The Better Angels and Bebe’s First Kiss” pp 85-86,
* “The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss” pp 87-94,
* “The Better Angels and the Complicated Camping Catastrophe” pp 95-118,
* “The Better Angels and the Totally Topsy-Turvy Tournament” pp 119-126,
* “The Better Angels and the Absolutely Apropos Arrangement” pp 127-136,
* “The Better Angels and the Persistent Proposals of Prince Philip” pp
137-144,
* “The Better Angels and the Giddy Genial Gag” pp 145-146,
* “The Better Angels and the Parable of the Prodigal Pirate” pp 147-154,
* “The Better Angels and the Insidiously Intolerable Invasion” pp 155-202.
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. To What Do I Owe in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN:
B0BZLVPX7H
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Take My Word for It in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella.
ASIN: B0BZLVN7MB
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. It’s Magic in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN:
B0BZLVLLXY
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Tricks of the Trade in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella.
ASIN: B0BZQJJRSQ
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. It’s Better to Know in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella.
ASIN: B0BZQDMK19
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Not a Wolf in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN:
B0BZQHZK8V
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. What Friends Do in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN:
B0BZQGDMN2
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. You Can Bank On It in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella.
ASIN: B0BZQFYPH2
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Three’s a Crowd in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella. ASIN:
B0BZQGQ7V9
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Bears Will Be Bears in It’s Complicated, Amazon Vella.
ASIN: B0BZQDTS2X
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels and Lambda and Tau. Truck Stop at the Center
of the Galaxy Valentine’s Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California.
Available at:
https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-truck-stop-your-romantic-destination/better-angels-and-lambda-and-tau/
[Feb14, 2023]
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation. Truck Stop
at the Center of the Galaxy Valentine’s Day, Water Dragon Publishing, San
Jose, California. Available at:
https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/make-the-truck-stop-your-romantic-destination/better-angels-and-the-super-sticky-situation/
[Feb 14, 2023]
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Rewriting the Rules. Part Seven of Revin’s Heart, Water
Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 60pp.
* Brewer, S.D. 2023. Then They Fight You. Part Six of Revin’s Heart, Water
Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 47pp.

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@STEVENDBREWER@WANDERING.SHOP

Steven D. Brewer on 3/25/2024, 12:09:24 AM

*The Third Time's the Charm*, Part I of *Revin's Heart* — my steampunky fantasy
adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist — is up 1,920,821
spots since yesterday on Amazon.
https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product-category/book-series/revins-heart/
#books

Revin's Heart by Steven D. Brewer
Revin, a young man from a poor mining town, has pulled himself up by his
bootstraps to become the student apprentice of a law professor. But then,
everything goes wrong.
Steven D. Brewer on 3/24/2024, 11:56:17 PM

#WordWeavers Are there other writers in your family?

My younger son is a writer and has been published once.
http://crossedgenres.com/titles/out-of-print-titles/hidden-youth/

My older brother, @philipbrewer, is also a writer who has several published
works in Asimov's and elsewhere. His most recent publication is *A Classic
Beginner's Mistake*:
https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/classic-beginners-mistake/

Our father was a scientist and author of several books.

Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History | Crossed Genres
In 1862, a teenaged engineer fights murderous traitors with steam-powered war
machines for the sake of the Union. In 1750 Poland, a police officer picks a
fight with the wrong bagel vendor. In 1874, a young clerk investigating the use
of Chinese laborers in Cuba finds herself working for the dead as much as for
the
Steven D. Brewer on 3/24/2024, 2:42:34 PM

"What should we cook tonight?" asked Susan.
The Butter Angels were trying to decide on the evening's menu for the izakaya.
"I was able to get some shishito peppers," Mama-san said.
"Ooh!" Booboo gushed, excited.
"What do you do with them?" Ruhrow asked.
"They're super easy to prepare," Susan said. "You just #blister them on the
grill, then add garlic, soy sauce, and sesame seeds."
"I'm sure they'll be too spicy for me," Zsazsa said.
"They're actually not very spicy!"
"Boo!" said Booboo.

#wss366

Steven D. Brewer on 3/23/2024, 11:21:10 PM

I've watched people write calligraphy and it always seems like magic to me.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/23/2024, 11:12:14 PM

Although I should probably do some of the work I should have been doing all week
during Spring Break, I think instead I'll spend the evening working on writing
fiction. I'm revising a sort-of horror story. And I'm working on my new
manuscript about Curtains.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/23/2024, 3:56:20 PM

頑張れ、 たぬきーちゃん！ ファイト！ ファイト！#DogsOfMastodon

Steven D. Brewer on 3/23/2024, 3:18:34 PM

I'm starting to make a new shimenawa for my sakura tree. I wrap the twine around
an 18-egg carton 15 times, run a tie through the loop, wrap one end of the
tassel with a piece of twine, then cut the bottoms of the loops. Easy-peasy.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/23/2024, 1:09:48 PM

After hammering out the language with the Queen, Revin ran back to Inky.
"Here! The proclamation is ready!"
Inky read the text several times, until he was certain of all of the words. Then
he blew on his fingers, picked up his calligraphic quill, dipped it in the
inkwell, and Revin watched with rapt fascination as he began to make characters
on the parchment. With subtle changes in pressure & angle, he could vary the
width & #weight of each stroke so that every letter was a work of art.

#wss366

Steven D. Brewer on 3/22/2024, 8:01:12 PM (edited)

Read more about Curtains in "Curtains Rise," one of the "Side Quests" in Revin's
Heart -- a steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans
protagonist, available now in ebook, trade paperback, and hardback editions from
Water Dragon Publishing. https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/revins-heart/
#books #bookstodon

Revin's Heart by Steven D. Brewer
A young man falls in with airship pirates … and discovers how to follow his
heart.
Steven D. Brewer on 3/22/2024, 7:22:16 PM

Curtains maintained his equanimity, but raised an eyebrow.
"We promised we'd pay," the mayor continued hurriedly. "And we will, in spite of
the devastating loss."
"What loss?" Curtains said, leading the mayor into the building across the
street from the library.
The mayor blinked. For a moment, he was speechless to see all of the precious
books, town records, & archives stacked up neatly in the vacant building. Then
he burst into tears.
"Oh, praise the skies! Thank you! Thank you!" 2/2

Steven D. Brewer on 3/22/2024, 7:20:38 PM

In the morning, the library was a mere burnt-out shell of its former glory. The
smell of #smoke pervaded the entire neighborhood. A few glum residents walked
by, inspecting the ruins and shaking their heads.
When the mayor stopped by, Curtains came out from the building across the street
to meet him. The mayor did a double take.
"Oh! You're safe! I thought for sure we'd lost you and your men in the fire."
"No. We're all fine," Curtains replied.
"Now, about the balance of your fee…" 1/2

#wss366

Steven D. Brewer on 3/21/2024, 9:55:09 PM

By writing books that sell poorly, I minimize the risk that AI tries to copy my
style.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/21/2024, 1:32:36 PM

"But…" Booboo said, looking down. "I won't look good in something like this…"
Zsazsa hugged her.
"Please? For me?"
Booboo hugged her back & darted into the bathroom to change.
After showering, she picked up the negligee. It was white & translucent, trimmed
with ermine. She slipped it on & glumly inspected the results in the mirror. She
bit her lip, screwed up her courage, & stepped out.
Zsazsa gasped. "Oh! It's perfect! You're so pretty!"
"I love you," Booboo cried, with tears in her eyes. 2/2

Steven D. Brewer on 3/21/2024, 1:32:04 PM

The door opened and Zsazsa & Booboo entered the hotel room.
"Oh! Look at the size of the bed!" Booboo squealed, taking in the luxurious
surroundings. The success of the new show had brought them enough earnings that,
by pooling their resources, they could enjoy a night out.
"Here!" Zsazsa said, holding out a box. "Take it!"
"What is it?" Booboo asked, mystified. She opened the box and was nonplussed to
find a #sheer negligee.
"Put it on!" Zsazsa said. "I want to see you in it!" 1/2

#wss366

Steven D. Brewer on 3/21/2024, 11:42:15 AM

I will never give up — provided that involves staying in bed with the covers
pulled up over my head.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/20/2024, 12:55:04 PM

Zsazsa rolled over & found herself alone. She followed her nose downstairs.
Booboo was stirring a big #pot with a wooden spoon.
"What's cookin'?"
"I was feelin' homesick, so I thought I'd cook something."
"It smells good. What is it?"
"It's chili! It has stew beef, three kinds of beans, & lots of peppers. Wanna
taste?"
Zsazsa nodded, so Booboo dipped a spoon in & blew on it to cool it off.
"Aaaaah! It's so spicy!" Zsazsa squeaked.
"Just wait 'til it's simmered a couple more hours!"

#wss366

Steven D. Brewer on 3/20/2024, 9:06:14 AM

I noticed today that LinkedIn has a button to let AI write your posts. I guess
that's OK because no-one reads anything on there anyway.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/20/2024, 12:05:31 AM

Personally, I think we should stop reporting sides when reporting casualties.
Every casualty is a tragedy. Pretending that some are good and some are bad is a
fundamental mistake.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/19/2024, 8:58:28 PM

#WritersCoffeeClub What do you put into your coffee? Is this a vital part of
your writing routine?

I use light cream in my coffee. It was a delight we discovered when moving to
New England. Where I grew up in the midwest, they didn't have it & people just
used milk (ugh) or half-and-half (lame). Light cream is perfect for coffee.

That has little to do with my writing routine, however. I have coffee in the
morning, but my days are devoted to work work & I don't generally write until
later.

Steven D. Brewer on 3/19/2024, 5:56:55 PM

I always thought it was weird that Firebrats were a Terran and not a Zerg unit
in StarCraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebrat

Firebrat - Wikipedia

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