Solarpunk Collective

An excerpt from today's writing. Last night, the guard returned to my cell. In fact, there were three of them. All masked and dressed in those rotting, moldy robes. One replaced the great clam shell, one searched my room and the other placed a stack of papers on my desk. Two of them left, and one remained. It indicated that I should sit, and then it stood behind me, clicking and chattering. I looked at the papers. It was my writing. But it wasn’t what I had written. The great clam shell spoke in its flat, empty voice. “There is confusion in your narrative.” The carved ivory device was translating the clicks and clacks of the guard. The breathy, percussive sounds that issued from beneath the mask were speech of a kind I had never heard before. But such details barely registered at the time. I just sat at the desk and stared at the story, feeling the walls pressing tighter around me. Never had I been so aware of the suffocating reality of my imprisonment. My text had been conver...

This is a sample chapter from a project I'm working on. It is the first two chapters of a fantasy story. I hope to get some feedback and ideas about what works and what doesn't.  They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. I don't know if that is true, but as I find myself running out of choices and approaching a time when there may be no more left to make, I am filled with the urge to go back and examine those I made on my journey to this point. The most sensible way I can think to do that is by starting at the beginning of my story and working forwards. I will attempt to truthfully document my perspective on the events of my time, and their tragic culmination. Who are you, oh reader of my story? Will you understand the world I lived in, or the people and places that existed there? Many are now gone, and in the future, there may not even be a memory of their existence. Now is a time of collapse. And that is something that spreads. Small failu...

(I first wrote this blog entry in July 2020. But I didn't get around to publishing it. It sat on my blog, hidden from viewers while I thought about it.) This week I have been helping a high school student with preparations for the notorious Korean High School exam. The questions for the English portion of the test are very difficult to deal with, and can present a lot of trouble for students. However, the book that I'm using has some great mini articles in it. This one in particular caught my eye; Many people believe that it is critical to share similar, if not identical  beliefs and values with someone with whom they have a relationship.  While this may seem preferable, it is far from mandatory. Individuals from extremely diverse backgrounds have learned to overlook their differences and live harmonious, loving lives together.  I've seen people from opposite ends of the spectrum economically and politically that ended up in happy, lasting marriages.  I've ...