M. Verant

mverant@writing.exchange

Fantasy <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/novelist" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#novelist</a>, <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#writer</a>, techie, liberal, musicophile. I've won some awards. If your big complaint about Jane Austen is too few dragons, my latest book is EMMA'S DRAGON <a href="https://geni.us/ED-kindle" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no">https://geni.us/ED-kindle</a> (M = Mike)

Posts

Post #3194446
@grammargirl these are awesome: Wayne State University in Michigan has announced its 15th annual list of “long-lost” words that should be resurrected, including “blatherskite” (nonsense), “curglaff” (the shock felt upon diving into cold water), “rawgabbit” (a person who speaks confidently but ignorantly), and “pawky” (having a cynical sense of humor)
Post #3194445
#amwriting A beta-reader found a hilarious typo in my current book! Here, Mr. Knightley refers to an annoying relative: “What do you wish to do?” Mr. Knightley asked, crossing his arms and watching my bother-in-law’s retreating back.
Post #3194444
Hit my first ads in Amazon Prime video today. Long and intrusive. This sucks. Then they popped up a brazen &quot;Pay us another $2.99/month and we&#39;ll stop&quot; offer. That&#39;s funny because when I signed up for Prime, I recall a lot of &quot;enjoy ad-free video&quot; promises #AmazonAds
Post #3194443
There&#39;s a huge 99c Fantasy Romance book promotion today! 280 different authors 😍 Check it out https://farofeb.com/bookblast/ #bookstodon #fantasy #romance
Post #3194442
Scalzi&#39;s blog is scathing re: the #Hugo awards fiasco: &quot;...eligible people and works were kept off the Hugo ballot, not because the Chinese government or the Chinese principals of the Chengdu Worldcon overtly demanded it, but because American and Canadian Hugo administrators made the censorship decisions themselves ... People and works who should have been finalists were denied their rightful place on the ballot. A fraud was perpetrated by the Hugo administrators&quot; http...
Post #3194441
According to Brandon Sanderson, there are improvements coming to Audible/ACX&#39;s royalty rates and transparency. He&#39;s NDA-ed so he doesn&#39;t get into specifics, but I agree with him that any motion is a breakthrough. Audible has been completely obscure for as long as I remember #amwriting #audiobooks https://www.brandonsanderson.com/regarding-audible/
Post #3194440
SF and Fantasy writers: Early bird registration for the Nebulas ends Mar 14. ONE DAY LEFT to get the reduced rate! https://events.sfwa.org/ #amwriting
Post #3194439
Sure, it&#39;s a colossal waste of time that I should be using to write, but check out my NEW FREECELL RECORD WOOHOO 🎉 🥳 #amwriting
Post #3194438
🐉 Miss Bennet’s Dragon is this month&#39;s Fantasy Fellowship Indie buddy read! Today and Sunday it&#39;s 0.99 on Amazon US &amp; UK
Post #3194437
GLORY AND HALLELUJAH! Word finally added Ctrl-Shift-V to paste unformatted!!!! It only took them 20 years
Post #3194436
May 30 is our 31st wedding anniversary. I always give my beautiful wife roses, but yesterday I somehow miscounted 😄 and gave her 34. Henceforth 34 roses shall be known as a trumpviction of roses
Post #3194435
Check out the IPPY award medals! These things are gorgeous ❤️ I admit I had a moment of indie imposter syndrome -- do we deserve nice things? -- but... heck yeah! 😃 Bring on the bling! #amwriting This is the bronze for EMMA&#39;S DRAGON. Congrats to Samantha Shannon and Jes Battis, who won gold and silver in Fantasy, respectively
Post #3194434
I think I&#39;ve successfully matched modern images of Dunrobin Castle to the 1813 sketch by the Countess of Sutherland. It&#39;s not a pretty graphic, but it&#39;s good enough for fiction 🙃 The Sutherlands are famous for their castle and infamous for the brutal Highland clearances ~1813, the year Pride and Prejudice was published.
Post #3194433
Note to self: Pitch COCAINE SHARK! #amwriting https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/23/science/cocaine-sharks-brazil-scli-intl-scn/index.html
Post #3194432
This perfectly captures the fabulous strategic change I&#39;ve been loving since Kamala: “The fascists depend on fear,” as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz put it over the weekend. “The fascists depend on us going back. But we are not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we are not afraid.” https://www.salon.com/2024/07/29/old-and-quite-weird-democrats-finally-discover-new-effective--and-hate-it/
Post #3194431
A fun author interview and deep dive into the characters and writing of Miss Bennet’s Dragon https://beforewegoblog.com/spfbox-interview-with-m-verant/ #fantasy “Mary Bennet is brilliant, on the spectrum, and a raging social activist”