#NFL Week 1 Scores:
Upcoming Games:
9/4 - 8:20 PM EDT #DAL @ #PHI
9/5 - 8:00 PM EDT #KC @ #LAC
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #TB @ #ATL
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #CIN @ #CLE
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #MIA @ #IND
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #LV @ #NE
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #ARI @ #NO
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #PIT @ #NYJ
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #NYG @ #WSH
9/7 - 1:00 PM EDT #CAR @ #JAX
9/7 - 4:05 PM EDT #TEN @ #DEN
9/7 - 4:05 PM EDT #SF @ #SEA
9/7 - 4:25 PM EDT #DET @ #GB
Main entrance to the new Rincon Annex Post office (San Francisco, California), 1940 Oct. 30, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection
Postal Service--California--San Francisco, San Francisco (Calif.)--Photographs, Post office stations and branches--California--San Francisco
From Digital Collections of San Francisco Public Library
https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A153216
#SanFrancisco #SF #SFPL #California #US #USA #history #image #historical #photo
HUMAN is free today (May 17) for Kindle $0.
If you didn't get a copy during my #fediverse giveaway at release, Kindle readers can get one now.
https://www.amazon.com/HUMAN-Brett-Hodnett-ebook/dp/B0F1NCPGXP
#WordWeavers 2025.05.15 — MC POV: What’s your biggest flaw?
I'm oblivious. Which leads to what Streak calls my destructive lack of common sense. I am hoping that I am wrong, but my actions trying to get a scholarship for Streak seems to have led to a war with what is now a formally autonomous region. To teach me about my heritage. That's can't be true? It just can't be. Can it?
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
Checking the postbox today there was yet another unstamped envelope in it. More junk mail.
Just before I tossed it, I noticed something odd. There was a hand-written note where the stamp should have been "Read me", in an ink that had an uncommon shine to it.
OK, so something like that could easily be a cheap gimmick - use a handwriting font, overprint the envelope, and so on. Except that I knew that that was not an overprint, even without seeing the pen impressions. I checked, though, and the pen marks were there. I'd guess a .7mm rollerball, with a high-end ink. A pretty uncommon combination. Ink-based rollerballs are a pretty rare sort of pen, and seeing someone use one with a high-end ink was even rarer.
Then there was the matter of the writing. It was a familiar blend of almost-printing and running writing. My writing. And an Alice riff in the note. I wrote this. But I had no memory of writing or posting such a letter.
So, someone had forged my writing? It seemed unlikely. And I was pretty sure I could pin down the exact ink to one in my collection. One from one of the Christmas collections that one of the manufacturers produced each year as a limited edition.
That left one other possibility. That I had not written the letter yet. And I wanted me to know something that probably had not happened yet.
I stared at the letter. Should I open it?
#AstroAtomica
We have a warp pass reservation for this morning’s Nintendo San Francisco store Grand Opening.
It’s one of two flagship stores in all of America, the other is in New York.
What should we scope out?
What should we buy?
Any questions we can answer after visiting?
#Nintendo #NintendoSF
#SF #SFBay #SFBayArea #SFGamers #GamersSF
#SanFrancisco #UnionSquare
#Youtube #Twitch #YouTuber
#PennedPossibilities 671 — Tell us how your MC would react to hearing their favorite song or piece of music.
The devil-girl's mother was a different type of autistic than her daughter, arguably less able to relate to people. Her male partner / manager was a great boon in helping her cope with the world, and coping with the world in a specific trainable way: her profession. One might look at the devil-girl's mother and observe that she was cold to her daughter, not very touchy-feely or very interactive. It wasn't that she didn't want to, mind you. There was a bit of a disconnect. Not something you could be trained for or wear a "mask" to do, as it turns out. Thinking that those things, masking, are genuine emotion, even if they are taken by the audience as such, would have seemed hypocritical to the devil-girl's mother, so she did what she could.
What the devil-girl's mother did do was sing for her daughter. Think about this: What if your mother were Julie Andrews? What if your mother were the top singer of her world and of her generation? Opera. "Broadway" theatre. Popular music. An international sensation. That and she always sang for you? What would your concept of music be?
Her mother died when the devil-girl was five.
How the devil-girl reacts hearing her favorite song or piece of music? To a one, these compositions are always her mother's.
If it's in a restaurant, she walks out. She does not want to cry.
The devil-girl does have her mother's voice. She only sings in the shower.
NB: The #author is #actuallyAutistic.`
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction #music #song
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory
View of San Francisco from Twin Peaks (San Francisco, California), 1948,
Housing, Streets, San Francisco (Calif.)--Photographs, Twin Peaks (San Francisco, Calif.)--Photographs
From Digital Collections of San Francisco Public Library
https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A207795
#SanFrancisco #SF #SFPL #California #US #USA #history #image #historical #photo
Candice headed home after a long day studying at the University.
Doctoral degrees took a lot of work, but she had considerable motivation. And incredible support. Waiting at home was her partner. The one individual who she could rely on to support her.
As she entered her garden, she felt it's touch in her mind - a warm welcoming, a hint of a question, and a touch of concern at her exhaustion. She concentrated and sent back the satisfaction of hard but positive work, and a similar welcome.
Transplanting from where it had originally taken root was hard work - made harder by the damage that Edward had done, but the strange telepathic plant had survived the experience, and the two of them had made a home here now. The plant, for it had no real name for itself, lived in her garden, and shared support and encouragement for Candice's dreams and ambitions. Candice, for her part provided a safe place for it, and swore that one day they would be able to create a shared offspring.
Shedding her clothes, she stepped into the opening bud, and let the plant embrace her. Here, she could let the worries of the world drop away, and relax.
A followup to https://aus.social/users/rdm/statuses/113033681406444679
@SFFMagazineCovers
George hated the way Rick stared at Phillip's bum. Why couldn't Rick stare at his bum the same way? Mind you, Phillip did have a pretty awesome rear, so, as much as he hated it, he could understand the attraction.
Phillip, busy adjusting the pH of the organic computer, was unaware of the tension his well exercised buttocks were creating.
Esther was proud of only one thing in her life.
And that was having it.
Her employer-mandated health insurance required genetic testing, which revealed the BRCA1 gene mutation. Whereupon the insurance company refused to cover her, and her employer then terminated her as an uninsurable risk.
Which sucked to say the least. Especially as that meant that she was now on The List, and there was not an employer in the country that would take her on.
All her security clearances and degrees were now worthless.
But, having degrees in history, forensic data analysis, and classical literature was what saved her. She made sure to thank her past self every day.
Having been dismissed, she took stock of her savings and possessions, and determined they would last three months at most. So she made the most of those three months, and spotted a possible loophole.
Not in the employment laws that had locked her out, but a loophole in her life.
So one evening, two and a half months after being fired, she walked into one of the national parks and never came out again. Instead, she located a ring of mushrooms. The right sort of mushrooms. She most definitely did not sample them - she wanted to live, after all. But what she did do was lay down - and pretended to go to sleep.
When she heard the tinkling sounds that had no place in a forest, she sprung up, and saw the many creatures around her. One of them was holding a cup. In an instant, she'd grabbed it, and taken a single, tiny sip.
For she knew the rules, and anyone who had eaten or drank of any of the food of the elves would never leave the lands of the elves. And the elves would never allow an inhabitant to fall ill.
So now she lived Underhill, and advised the Court on how best to deal with the modern world. They brought her books to study, and she gave advice. Sometimes they even followed it. Which was better than her old job - the NSA was notorious for not following advice.
I've been reading some old Barry Malzberg essays about the state of science fiction. He came to despair of it in our post Star Trek, Star Wars world.
I am one hundred percent certain that Mark A. Rayner's The Gates of Polished Horn would have restored Barry's faith. People are still writing excellent science fiction, and Mark is one of them. It looks like Lisa Timpf, writing for the Seaboard Review of Books, agrees.
#sciencefiction #books #publishing #sf #literary
https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/p/rayners-the-gates-of-polished-horn
#PennedPossibilities 670 — Tell us about your SC’s go-to comfort food.
I will pick the SC of the moment, and truthfully, I don't know what his comfort food is, but there is this scene. People of Home, where Thorn Rose comes from, are generally vegetarian, especially daemons like her. Chrome isn't. He's a dragon. And we're in a newly conquered dragon prefecture. Thorn is the temporary governor.
We sat at a table with an umbrella beside a mesquite broiler stand, sometimes having the smoke blow over us. Chrome ate skewered cubes of half burnt meat, which smelled a lot less "off" than Rainy Day's chicken soup had, while I ate skewers of buttered onions, squash, peppers, and sticky-grains conglomerate. Roast corn, some kernels burnt, dusted with chile powder was a rare seasonal treat…
They're both human, but you'll have to read to stories to know the distinction. As the story progresses, he relishes his meal and his company.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
Lakes of the Nations in front of Federal Building (San Francisco, California), 1939 or 1940,
Exhibition buildings, Fairs--California--San Francisco, Lakes, San Francisco (Calif.)--Photographs, Treasure Island (San Francisco, Calif.)--Photographs
From Digital Collections of San Francisco Public Library
https://digitalsf.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A203347
#SanFrancisco #SF #SFPL #California #US #USA #history #image #historical
Those few who work in the Library of Infinite Books are, in their words, nothing special. They go home at the end of their shifts, they have families, holidays, and all the mundane components of an ordinary life.
What is a puzzle to all is by whom and how they are paid. Pay packets arrive at the Chief Librarian's desk once a week, neatly divided into pay and taxes. The Library's accountant - for not all who work there are librarians - deposits the tax amounts into a bank nearby into whatever tax withholding system the government of the day demands, and the packets are distributed.
Every once in a while, a librarian will one day get the traditional pink slip, a generous severance bonus, and sometimes travel tickets for their family to another land. It is assumed by many that such events occur when an outside force is attempting to co-opt one of the staff, but it has never been proven.
However, should the Chief Librarian dismiss someone, they get nothing beyond that which the laws of the land demand.
They would call themselves ordinary, but hard working. What all the librarians have in common is a drive for the preservation of books. Often times a book will be acquired because it is being banned. A copy will enter the library. Authorities will take it away. And the copy reappears on the shelf - leaving the authorities with their copy to do whatever to.
Occasionally this leads to more dictatorial groups to attempt harm to the library itself. This inevitably results in the library relocating itself before any harm can befall it.
Again how? No one knows. Some might call it 'magic', others 'sufficiently advanced technology'. But the relocation always takes the staff - and their (sometimes extended) families. This may result some hardship, but the librarians never has to worry about the safety of their loved ones.
Review - Carmilla, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: I read this mostly to better appreciate modern retellings, when I get round to reading them! But it has a lot of atmosphere, and was a quick read. Rating: 3/5 ("liked it").
Full review: https://breathesbooks.com/2025/05/12/review-carmilla/
Just read @InterzoneMag #298 (about a year late). Loved every story, but Mame Bougouma Dieme’s ‘Perpetual Motion Sickness’ in particular was utterly devastating.
#sf #sciencefiction #fantasy #sff #specfic #interzone #shortfiction #shortstories #books #bookstodon @bookstodon @manyoyo @IZDigital
#PennedPossibilities 667 — At the moment, what is your MC’s highest priority?
The main series antagonist has just conquered a prefecture in the dragon lands and has left Thorn Rose (who she had accompany her) as the interim military governor. Why? Because? Rainy Days is often inscrutable. Well, she's probably testing her "new favorite student," best as I [the author] can tell, to determine whether Thorn is bloodthirsty or lacks a conscience.
Thorn is a senior in high school, the top student and an egghead, and knows she's not qualified other than taking her role very seriously, but she is told to listen to what the advisors and experts installed below her report and to adjudicate guilt and motive—and "not to kill too many people."
Thorn interprets that as the wrong people. That's her priority, not killing the wrong people. I've yet to determine if this will cause her PTSD.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
