The Wordsmith's Forge

There are many ways you can help wildlife.

Learn to recognize and support pollinators. 

Beesponsible!  Plant a bee garden.

While honeybees get most of the attention, there are hundreds of native bees that need protection too.

Here is a valid critique of robot fiction showing that feminine robots are expected to fall in love with a human man in order to be considered a person. 

I don't write robots that way.  But then, I don't write humans that way, either.  The Origami Mage and Path of the Paladins are two series with female leads not interested in romance.

An Army of One has AYES, most of them starships, most neuter, and I don't think any of them are in love yet.  There is one who prefers feminine presentation.

Clay of Life features golems, a different form of artificial life.  Yossele is masculine.  There's a female golem who is a caregiver rather than a love interest.

Diminished Expectations has the oids.  There is a gynoid, but her story is about survival rather than romance.

The Kung Fu Robots are mostly neuter.  However, some of them prefer masculine or feminine gender.  I don't think I have any romances here either.

The Steamsmith has tommies, another variation of AI based on alchemy.  Tommyrockers are meant to cuddle infants, but there are hints of affection and awareness.

I have written interspecies romance and AI romance.  It's just not a staple for me.  

... yet again.  At a total of 144 years, it certainly isn't benefiting the creators.  That's about TWICE the human lifespan. 

Here's a really good description of what depression feels like and how it kills people.

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This is the nice way of looking at neurotypical behavior in a neurovariant world. 

The real way?  They'd never be trusted to do anything important.  It's uncommon for a neurotypical person to have the level of hyperdeveloped focus and memory that autistic people often develop for a narrow specialty.  There's no way to compete when your brain just won't do that trick.

This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was prompted and sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It also fills the "unknown" square in my 6-4-18 Dark Fantasy card for the Winteriron Bingo Adventure fest.


"Into the Unknown Country"


Kindergarten is
the vast, unexplored area
that lies beyond the edges of
the mapped terrain,

into which the explorer
is thrust, unprepared by
training intended for
older students.

The room surges
with sound, like waves
rushing onto and then
away from a shore,

leaving the teacher
perhaps a bit queasy
at his first venture into
the unknown country.

He takes a deep breath.
This is NOT what he
signed up for, but
it will be okay.

It's raining!  :D  Quite steadily at the moment.  I am pleased.  I won't be able to work outside for a while, but that's okay.  

EDIT 6/10/18: It's been raining for much of the day.  The fields have puddles!  \o/  It slackened enough after supper that I went out and planted some flower seeds in the prairie garden.

Fireflies are out too.

I have received donations sponsoring these poems:

janetmiles
"Slipping on Peels"
"Key Chains"
"Packing Away"

ng_moonmoth 
"In a Time of Tension and Trouble"
"The Arduous Thing"
"A Sea Silent of Dragon Shrimp"

This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from readera. It also fills the "learning a new skill" square in my 6-4-18 Mixed card for the Winteriron Bingo Adventure fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.

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This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from mama_kestrel and librarygeek. It also fills the "temper tantrums" square in my 6-4-18 Mixed card for the Winteriron Bingo Adventure fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.

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This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from helgatwb and callibr8. It also fills the "loyalty" square in my 6-4-18 Dark Fantasy card for the Winteriron Bingo Adventure fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles.

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This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ng_moonmoth. It also fills the "primal" square in my 6-4-18 Dark Fantasy card for the fest. This poem has been sponsored by [Unknown LJ tag]. It belongs to the Yellow Unicorns series.

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This poem is spillover from the June 6, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from DW user mirrorofsmoke. It also fills the "abandoned" square in my 6-4-18 Dark Fantasy card for the Winteriron fest. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series An Army of One.

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This poem came out of the June 5, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from heartsinger, ari_the_dodecahedron, and redsixwing. It also fills the "torture" square in my 6-4-18 Dark Fantasy card for the Winteriron Bingo Adventure fest. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Kraken thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains disturbing topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It features the aftermath of armed conflict, torture, disruption of a vacation-life, gore, extreme soul injuries from leaning over a torture victim when he manifested as a saint, communication challenges, ethnic and religious conflicts, emotional distress, vomiting, leaving a well-liked organization due to irreconcilable differences, and other mayhem. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether you want to read it. This is not closely connected with ongoing storylines.

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