David Jón Fuller 🇨🇦

Confessions of an Ex-Anti-Vaxxer - Macleans.ca I spent years spouting conspiracy theories about vaccines. Now, as measles rages in my home of Alberta, I’m trying to convince vax-hesitant parents to...

BTW, if you haven't read this piece from a parent who fell into anti-vaxx thinking but was able to get free of it, it's very good:

macleans.ca/longforms/co...

Confessions of an Ex-Anti-Vaxxer - Macleans.ca I spent years spouting conspiracy theories about vaccines. Now, as measles rages in my home of Alberta, I’m trying to convince vax-hesitant parents to...

I appreciate this thread -- it made me think of this recent article about a parent who had real difficulty getting out of the anti-vaxx environment:
macleans.ca/longforms/co...

📣 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! 📣

In THE EDGE OF SPACE-TIME, @chanda.bsky.social blends physics, post-colonial history & Black feminist thought to show why “the edge” is the best place to see the big picture. On sale 4/7/26!

Cover designer: Tyler Comrie

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746817...

Now that SHOESHINE BOY & CIGARETTE GIRL is out in the world, I thought I'd share some of the things readers have been saying. Get your copy: www.starsandsabers.com/books/shoesh...
@starsandsabers.bsky.social

"There are noun pronouns, and pronoun pronouns..."

Whoops, I hadn't seen this reply before I added my own. You called it!

It just all ely, all the time now unfortunately

I think Douglas Adams and John Lloyd covered that in Meaning of Liff:

Ely (noun) — The first, tiniest inkling you get that something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong.

And I also think, with characters as in relationships, the reader doesn't have to guess the One Right Way To Read This Interaction. The author can see it one way, but allow for other interpretations. That's a story whose characters will live on in the reader's mind after the book is closed, IMHO.

... and that's a great gift from the author TO THE READER, the same pleasure a reader gets from starting to figure out the mystery in a whodunnit but not completely; it creates the hunger to read on and FIND OUT if what they're guessing/intuiting is RIGHT!

Some of the best scenes are when two characters need something frrom each other and are trying to get it but their own filters/assumptions/issues get in their way of being able to communicate it or understand it from the other. The reader may see one side, or the other, or both...

"oh, that doesn't matter!" and then nothing happens as a consequence of the big screw-up. Or little screw-ups. Or genuine misunderstandings (which are HARD to write; you have to imagine where one character is coming from and all their assumptions, and how another could legitimately misread things)

And they can only make mistakes and flub opportunities if they have a driving need, or conflicting needs, that force them to make decisions -- sometimes bad ones! That can be played seriously, or with comedic effect. But the story-killer for me is if the consequence is the other character saying...

I don't write category romance but I do include or incorporate romance in my novel-length MSs, and in early drafts I fall into the trap of not letting the MCs be assholes. (And fine, nobody has to write assholes.) But I DO look for ways, especially in revisions, for them to be messy and screw up.

Recommended review and thread for sharp discussion of why annoying characters are GOOD for fiction, ep. romance

I was commenting to an editor I work with yesterday this seems like if a bunch of anarchists wanted to go after the archduke but they had a carrier fleet to do it with. Your metaphor is probably more apt (and terrifying)

... and what I want to ask people claiming to be "[x] skeptics" (on a subject for which there is robust scientific evidence) is this: if you're actually skeptical, what evidence would convince you?

I think you're right re: the contrarianism. When I hear people say they're "climate skeptics" or "vaccine skeptics," what they're more often articulating is mere disbelief. To be skeptical is to reserve judgment until you have enough information...

Yikes. Done.

Joyce Carol Oates • @JoyceCarolOates X.com Twitter is the place for nonentities classifying entities colossal as those redwoods you, squatting below, can't see the tops of. • Brad R. Torgersen • @BradRTorgersen • 14h Beatles are a first-rate second-rate band. There. I said it. And I am not sorry.

second JCO heater in less than 12 hours

Do wet hams dream of electric sheep

As someone in the same age bracket, I still find it surreal to reconcile all the Remembrance Day ceremonies we grew up with/"Lest we forget" & having family members who lived through WWII, with the glib horror of "This new war will be different!" on repeat

If you consider yourself to be a smart, well-informed person, it's a good practice to write the note to self "Am I being a condescending dick?" (or similar sentiment) on a post-it and keep it in view at all times.

Very good thread on fisheries collapse, and its roots in colonialist attitudes, by @zoestodd.bsky.social

HOW DARE YOU —

or rather: yes, me too

(Also, the aptness of "it’s all pretty bad and it’s very annoying" reminds me so much of Marvin from HHGG that I must salute you for it)

I think you're right about these things, particularly the brain-cookedness; given the way so many platforms reward anger/outrage/disgust with increased engagement, it augments the shittiness of every interaction

Just lucky I guess

What I wish retroactively is that I would have gone around buying up used LPs for $3 a pop (or less) in the early 90s. I did that for a couple of albums even though I didn't listen to the bands really anymore, just 'cause. But wow am I glad I did, they still sound amazing on vinyl.

Also the drums on "Sink the Pink" by AC/DC and the cannons on "For Those About to Rock" on my LP of Who Made Who from 1987 STILL sound like they could cause tremors in the Earth's crust