matthewclaxton.bsky.social
Semi-failed science fiction and fantasy writer, semi-successful local newspaper reporter. Deeply confused most of the time. Only here now for occasional updates. He/him
6,530 posts
1,056 followers
475 following
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Thanks!
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Thanks!
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The acceptance rates are low and/or I am a slow writer and/or I am not that good of a writer. Little from each column.
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Big thanks to @annaburns.bsky.social for the assist on this one.
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This is the key piece of journalism advice, folks. You gotta tell good, true stories, but you have to give people a reason to read them.
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Anyway, Happy New Year to all!
I do miss your jokes and cool links and especially your pet pics. Your pets are all perfect. Give them snuggles and treats for me!
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So I'm going to pop in every now and again when I have a new short story or essay or something coming out.
If you're a mutual and you want to get in touch with me, message me, and I'll see it within a week or so, and I'll share my email address, but I won't be here every day.
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I'm sure there are some people who can use social media without it becoming a compulsive habit, but I'm not one of them. If I'm regularly using Bluesky/Twitter/etc., I'm checking it multiple times a day, I'm thinking about cool stuff to say here, I'm worrying I made an ass of myself, and so on.
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"A whistle blows. Snow shifts on the glass shed roof. That knight is gone.
This one remaining tosses his briefcase to one of Kay's pages,
And, golden, silken, careless, exits left."
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"Look quick and you may see a different knight,
A knight who knows that meanings can be lies,
That things are done not knowing why they're done,
That bearings fail, and stainless steel corrodes.
…
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"He signs an autograph, he strikes a pose.
Someone says, loudly, 'Gal! Who serves the Grail?'
He looks--no one he knows--and there's a silence,
A space in which he shifts like sun on water;
…
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This thread has gotten really abstract since I blocked her…
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Significant changes in minimum wage or a UBI would also wipe out fast food places, I think.
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Ha ha, yep!
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It's a fairly pointless survey. There's a vast swathe of people (like me) who grew up in single family homes but now have no realistic chance of ever owning one.
A better question would be "Given what you can afford, what amenities would you like in or adjacent to your home?"
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I would prefer to have a unicorn bring me delicious but non-fattening ice cream every day.
Might as well wish for that if you're in Metro Vancouver and want a house with a good sized yard and you don't make mid- to high-six figures already.
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Dammit, Phil!
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That is such a good suggestion that we already have several volumes!
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Distraction may be the most singularly prophetic novel of its time, unfortunately.
Unless it was Heavy Weather.
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"Did you write Trump? He feels like a Bruce character."
"You wrote Bigend and the Tessier-Ashpools, coulda been you, Bill!"
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Coda sounds interesting… we definitely haven't read it before.
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Will check it out!
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Good suggestions! We have Monstress already, will have to look into Die!
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The best solution to bad journalism, in other words, is MORE journalism, more diverse journalism, more voices, more viewpoints, more places to publish.
And that's what's been walloped by Google/Facebook.
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The best response to media outlets that suck is to go elsewhere, but the ad duopoly/media meltdown has hit EVERYTHING. New scrappy online outlets, alt-weeklies, magazines, even blogs. It's just hard to make a go of it at all.
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The answer to "the mainstream media sucks" is, unfortunately, it has always kind of sucked (and kind of been awesome, at the same time) because reporters are humans and are more-or-less representative of the society that produces them.
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But what's happened of late has affected ALL reporting. There's just a lot less journalism being done, and that includes everything from local council meetings in towns of 5,000 people up to war coverage.
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And there's always been problems with the media as a whole, including the fact that, since basically forever, a lot of it has been owned by conservative rich guys who, frequently or infrequently, used it to promote their view of the world via the opinion pages.
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I'm afraid I am firmly a mainstream media reporter. The good news is that "mainstream media" is largely a mirage. Everything from community newspapers to alt-weeklies to CNN to Rolling Stone is "mainstream media," frankly.
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You're wrong, Tim.
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The only thing that will save writers is solidarity, writes @dvewlsh.bsky.social
www.typebarmagazine.com/2024/08/29/t...