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# Steven D. BREWER

Author of LGBTQIA+ speculative fiction and poetry in English and Esperanto. Emeritus teacher of scientific writing. Lover of natural history. SFWA Secretary. (he/him)

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://stevendbrewer.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Selling Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/selling-revins-heart/) - At BayCon, I spent a fair amount of time in the Dealer Room selling copies of Revin's Heart. And sales were brisk. I sold all of the bundles of printed copies I had and could probably have sold twice as many. I am not certain, but it may have been the most popular item at
- [New Review in Time for Baycon](https://stevendbrewer.com/new-review-in-time-for-baycon/) - I was extremely gratified to receive a positive review for all of Revin's Heart by The Faerie Review. She said: I was not expecting to come to love Revin, Grip, and Will as much as I did over the course of the series. […] Brewer has done a masterful job of bringing this world and
- [Islands of Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/islands-of-revins-heart/) - Revin's Heart takes place on island nations -- or on airships traveling between the islands. The first book, The Third Time's the Charm begins with Revin traveling to Havelock on the Madeline, a large passenger airship that is attacked by pirates. Read on for a tour of the islands of Revin's Heart. Havelock is ruled
- [Why I Wrote Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/why-i-wrote-revins-heart/) - Rewriting the Rules is the final novelette of Revin's Heart, my steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist, available on June 23 from Water Dragon Publishing. People often ask me why I wrote Revin's Heart. To be honest, I mostly wrote it to have fun. I like friendly adventure stories. I
- [BayCon 2023](https://stevendbrewer.com/baycon-2023/) - BayCon, here I come! In October, 2022, I registered for BayCon and was super excited to look forward to attending since my publisher, Water Dragon Publishing, and many of the authors I interact with, are from the Bay area. Unfortunately, when the time to put yourself forward as a participant happened, I was hospitalized and
- [Review: The Raider by Stephen R. Platt](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-the-raider-by-stephen-r-platt/) - I rarely read biographies, but this book used the life of Evans Carlson to provide a vast amount of context to the story of China and the war in the Pacific. It truly expanded my perspective on a topic that I might have said I was already familiar with, but showed me how little I
- [Review: A Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-a-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai-by-cory-doctorow/) - I read Cory Doctorow's newsletter Pluralistic regularly and this book was essentially an expanded version of a number of his columns. But I found several points insightful. Recently I cited Cory when I wrote about not being able to speak centaur. He unpacks his "centaur/reverse centaur" model and provides an explanation of what "AI" really
- [Last Day Employed](https://stevendbrewer.com/last-day-employed/) - On the first day of August, 1996, I arrived in Amherst and undertook my new position as Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center for the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Now, on the last day of August, 2026, I am concluding my career in academia. I had thought I had performed
- [Skipping Worldcon This Year](https://stevendbrewer.com/skipping-worldcon-this-year/) - I'm having a little FOMO. I decided to skip Worldcon this year. I had originally intended to go. That was why I had signed for LOSCon last year. But I had a somewhat mixed experience last year, so instead I decided to just stay home. I'm not really having much FOMO because I really don't
- [Building an Archive](https://stevendbrewer.com/building-an-archive/) - For months, I've been needing to shut down my old blog and archive my old posts. And I finally found a solution: blog.sh! Although the term "blog" was coined in 1997, I didn't write my first post until 2002. I started blogging defensively. What happened was that I would start drafting an email to one
- [The Slop Machine and its Enablers](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-slop-machine-and-its-enablers/) - John Gruber would like you to know that HE isn't perpetuating the use of Twitter by going there to get "interesting content." Only the people who post interesting content exclusively to Twitter are doing that. Bullshit. Nobody has to go to Twitter. Or Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn. You just don't. People who use those
- [Elegant Lich: Refined Fantasy for a More Civilized Age](https://stevendbrewer.com/elegant-lich-refined-fantasy-for-a-more-civilized-age/) - My brother shared a post that used the word "eigentlich" (which in German just means "actually"). I said it looked like "elegant lich." And then a few minutes later, we both said, "That would make a great name for a fantasy magazine!" So we decided to start one. It also gave me an excuse to
- [Patience and Persistence](https://stevendbrewer.com/patience-and-persistence/) - Writing takes both patience and persistence. Unfortunately, I'm rather lacking in both. I want to be patient, but I am constantly chafing at the bit. But so much of writing is a waiting game. No matter how much you want to move quickly, there are limits all along the way, in writing, revising, and publishing.
- [Setting Up an Author Website](https://stevendbrewer.com/setting-up-an-author-website/) - At one time, an author might be able to focus on writing and let their publisher handle publicity. Now, an author is functionally expected to build and maintain a personal brand to attract readers independently of the publisher. This requires some avenue of providing information about your work and yourself that you can use to
- [Worldcon Participation Quandary](https://stevendbrewer.com/worldcon-participation-quandary/) - I was excited to be offered a place on the program at Worldcon in Seattle, but recent events about Worldcon have left me in a quandary. I will probably still attend, but I'm dismayed and discouraged by what's happening. I first attended Worldcon in 2023. I applied to be a participant with little expectation of
- [AI Autonomy and Security](https://stevendbrewer.com/ai-autonomy-and-security/) - One thing most people probably haven't thought much about is the autonomy of so-called AIs. (Note: Large Language Models are not actually "intelligent" in the way people think of intelligence and people tend to project intelligence onto their behavior. But for the sake of convenience, I'll call them AI anyway). Who actually controls AIs? People
- [I Don't Speak Centaur](https://stevendbrewer.com/i-dont-speak-centaur/) - I read an essay today: I Wanted to Own the Harness. Then Codex Desktop Won. It is seemingly about someone who has fully integrated AI into their workflow — and their life — and finds it indispensable. Cory Doctorow would probably call him a "centaur". Cory Doctorow has written extensively about two ways that people
- [Straw Dog Writes: The Little Writing Group That Could](https://stevendbrewer.com/straw-dog-writes-the-little-writing-group-that-could/) - In August of 2023, I pitched establishing an online writing group for the Straw Dog Writers Guild, modeled on the SFWA Weekly Writing Date. The rest is history. As we start our fourth year, I'm looking forward to another great year. I had started attended the Writing Date soon after I joined SFWA and I
- [Year in Writing: 2023](https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2023/) - I generally had a good year writing. But I was hospitalized for 12 days in early 2023, which caused me to miss being a participant at Boskone and required much of the spring to convalesce before I was really back to normal. In spite of that, I had many significant writing accomplishments. I only made
- [Review: Long Game: Notes on writing fiction by Elizabeth McCracken](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-long-game-notes-on-writing-fiction-by-elizabeth-mccracken/) - When I was a graduate student, I read a book by Wittgenstein: Notes on Logic. It was just a series of brief notes, few of which I can now remember, that represented reflections that Wittgenstein had made on observations, insights, and contradictions related to logic. One was meaningful enough, I used it as my .sig
- [Escabeche: a spicy summer treat!](https://stevendbrewer.com/escabeche-a-spicy-summer-treat/) - When I first moved to Amherst, I discovered La Veracruzana: a Mexican restaurant that had a salsa bar. Included in the salsa bar was something they called "escabeche." I had never seen it before: a mix of pickled onions, carrots, and jalapeños. It was delicious. I would always get some whenever I ordered from the
- [Tracking Air Quality](https://stevendbrewer.com/tracking-air-quality/) - It's easy to take air for granted, until you can't breathe. Then you become acutely aware of it's importance. In 2022, I was diagnosed with a chronic lung condition. There were signs earlier, but neither I nor my medical professionals put them together until there was a crisis and I ended up in the emergency
- [How to Recognize Author Scams](https://stevendbrewer.com/how-to-recognize-author-scams/) - Like most authors these days, I'm getting constantly inundated with author scam messages. As someone familiar with the underlying technology, these are pretty easy for me to recognize, but I realized it might be worth documenting the kinds of features I use to identify them. Some of these are pretty obvious, while others are more
- [How many things are competing for your attention?](https://stevendbrewer.com/how-many-things-are-competing-for-your-attention/) - Time being limited, you only have so much attention you can devote to things. The more things you try to track, the less depth you can devote to any one. I think it's worth being reflective every so often about how many different things you're trying to pay attention to. To begin with, there's real
- [Bearly Believable Accepted for Publication](https://stevendbrewer.com/bearly-believable-accepted-for-publication/) - I have signed the contract for my fluffy space-opera novelette Bearly Believable to appear at Hexfiled, probably in October. The story features two non-human biological androids that work at a picnic park on Planet Volpex. Volpex is a terraformed world with a simplified ecology designed to maximize providing feedstock for the replicators that people use
- [My Querying Journey](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-querying-journey/) - About two weeks ago, I started to query for a literary agent. I aimed to send out at least one query a day. So far, I've exceeded that by almost three to one. I've currently sent out 33 queries — and received four rejections. At first it was hard because the queries required some new
- [Bread and Butter](https://stevendbrewer.com/bread-and-butter/) - Every morning, I take my 93-year-old mother for a walk. We almost always walk along Montague House that has a sidewalk beside a metered parking lot. The sidewalk used to be wide enough for us to walk side-by-side, but now that she uses a rollator, it's a little too narrow. We sometimes walk single file,
- [Review: The Spy in the Archive](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-the-spy-in-the-archive/) - I've always been partial to non-fiction accounts of spies and espionage. I picked up Gorden Corera's The Spy in the Archive and found it readable and informative, though with certain deficits. Vasili Mitrokhin was a retired KGB colonel who spent most of his career as an archivist first in the Lubyanka and then, when KGB
- [Boxer Dogs are the Best](https://stevendbrewer.com/boxer-dogs-are-the-best/) - When I was about seven years old (circa 1970), my family got a boxer dog. I recollect that we paid $100 (about $860 today) for a flashy fawn from a breeder, who let her go because she was the runt of the litter. But she was very pretty and adorable. Her official name was "Miss
- [Another Retirement Milestone](https://stevendbrewer.com/another-retirement-milestone/) - Today I believe I performed my last professional duty as a faculty member by attending a Faculty Senate Rules Committee meeting with the Administration. The Rules Committee, which sets the agenda for the Faculty Senate, meets monthly with the Chancellor, Provost, and the Campus Leadership Council. I made a few small contributions at the meeting
- [Starting to Query for a Literary Agent](https://stevendbrewer.com/starting-to-query-for-a-literary-agent/) - This month, I have started to query for a literary agent to publish my next book. It is an odious process which is qualitatively worse than submitting manuscripts for publication. Most "markets" that you submit a manuscript to at least pretend that they will respond to let you know if they're going to reject your
- [Review: The Future of Truth](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-the-future-of-truth/) - I saw a thin book at the library by Werner Hertzog, The Future of Truth, that caught my eye, and I spent a few hours today reading it. It's not really a coherent book: it's a series of reflections and anecdotes, often interesting and occasionally provocative, that are loosely about "truth," as we move into
- [Whose Time Is It?](https://stevendbrewer.com/whose-time-is-it/) - I'm closing in on retirement. Although I'm still nominally employed until August 31, I've been effectively retired since the end of May when my "period of irresponsibility" began. In spite of that, I've felt busier than ever — and somewhat resentful of it. Today, I had an insight that helped me explain why. For thirty
- [Pushing Back against AI](https://stevendbrewer.com/pushing-back-against-ai/) - Most of the giant corporations have gotten the memo that their oligarchic overlords want them to shove AI into everything, whether people want it or not. I've written previously about my position vis-à-vis AI and how I avoid using AI for anything. The net result is that I have to spend a fair amount of
- [The Silver Tongue at The Freak!](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-silver-tongue-at-the-freak/) - On September 27, 2021, I submitted a new story, The Silver Tongue, for publication. And on September 28, I received a rejection. I submitted it several more times in 2021 and it got rejected as well. My brother Philip was surprised. He said that if Gardner Dozois were still around, he would have accepted it
- [The Hero, Demon Lord, and Friends](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-hero-demon-lord-and-friends/) - Most mornings, I write a brief story fragment for Wandering Shop Stories as a warm-up for my day's creative activities. Sometimes, I use these directly as a rough draft or outlining tool for my current works-in-progress. Often, they're just one-offs or fan fiction/literary canon of my existing work. Since January, however, I've been struggling. I
- [Second Amherst Pride Parade](https://stevendbrewer.com/second-amherst-pride-parade/) - Last year, I did both the Queer Artisan Market and Amherst Pride but, this year, I decided to just do Pride. Doing two days in a row is harder for me to handle now. In any event, the weather was perfect and, thanks to my experience last year, I knew where to site my vendor
- [Wandering Shop Stories](https://stevendbrewer.com/wandering-shop-stories/) - Early in my fiction writing, I really struggled with writing "stories." By that, I mean using a narrative structure that presents a problem which is satisfactorily resolved — ideally well-paced, with rising action that climaxes at the right moment. I tended to write a rambling narrative of vaguely interesting events that raised all kinds of
- [Review: The CIA Book Club](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-the-cia-book-club/) - I recently read The CIA Book Club: The secret mission to win the cold war with forbidden literature by Charlie English. It describes a covert program to fund underground publishers and cladestine efforts to provide access to information from the West to people behind the Iron Curtain. But is primarily focused on Poland. I had
- [Review: Palace of Deception](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-palace-of-deception/) - Palace of Deception by Darrin Lunde describes the lives of three men, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Roy Chapman Andrews, and William Akeley, who were instrumental in the creation of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The book seeks to marry and intertwine what are really four separate stories into a coherent narrative. Each of the
- [Fantastic 2026 Worldbuilding/Worldbreaking Nebulas](https://stevendbrewer.com/fantastic-2026-worldbuilding-worldbreaking-nebulas/) - The 2026 Nebula Awards Conference was fantastic. I attended with my brother Phil. I had driven in a few days ago and spent several days with him before we traveled together to the conference. At the conference, I had only minimal obligations so I could spend most of my time attending the programming and hanging
- [Writing Diversions](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-diversions/) - Since January, I've a lot of extra Tanuki Time, but I haven't had the focus to work on my longer fiction. I have several projects that are essentially completed, but it's beginning to look like I'll need to find a different outlet for publishing them. While I've had less focus, I've been working more on
- [Enroute to the 2026 Nebulas](https://stevendbrewer.com/enroute-to-the-2026-nebulas/) - As May ends, I am enroute to the Nebula Awards Conference in Chicago. I am currently rusticating with my brother for a few days before we head up to Chicago on Tuesday. It should be a fun time. I had originally planned to travel with my son too, by driving. Trapping him in a car
- [Getting Back on the Bus](https://stevendbrewer.com/getting-back-on-the-bus/) - Today, I started riding public transportation again. Amherst has a great bus system provided by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA). When we first moved to the Pioneer Valley, I lived for two years in Pelham — one of the "hill towns" that surround the valley. During those two years, I had to purchase an
- [Review: The History of Money](https://stevendbrewer.com/review-the-history-of-money/) - The History of Money by David McWilliams (2024) is subtitled "A story of humanity." It skims over a vast landscape, dipping in now and again for a deeper dive into moments when innovations in how societies created and managed money (or failed to do so) contributed to world-changing events. The complexity of our current world
- [Retiring to… Something](https://stevendbrewer.com/retiring-to-something/) - Two years ago, I began a phased retirement. Last Thursday, I conducted a University class meeting for the last time, presided over my final Faculty Senate meeting, and (by coincidence) also celebrated my 38th wedding anniversary. And today — Tuesday — is special because, on my Tuesday/Thursday teaching schedule, I would have been teaching today.
- [Watching the Rain on Watch City… from Home](https://stevendbrewer.com/watching-the-rain-on-watch-city-from-home/) - Today, I was scheduled to attend the Watch City Steampunk Festival to sell books. But it wasn't to be. After several days uneasily watching the forecast, this morning I checked the radar and made the final decision to cancel my appearance. It was a "perfect storm" due not only to the rain, but also a
- [Bookselling 101: How to Set Up & Run a Dealer Table](https://stevendbrewer.com/bookselling-101-how-to-set-up-run-a-dealer-table/) - At Worldcon, I got the chance to chat with Roxana Arama, the editor of Planetside (formerly the SFWA Blog). We had a great conversation and she encouraged me to write a pitch for an article. Upon reflection, I decided to pitch an article about hand-selling books for authors as a kind of Bookselling 101. Since
- [Straw Dog Writers Guild 2026 Spring Retreat](https://stevendbrewer.com/straw-dog-writers-guild-2026-spring-retreat/) - On April 25, 2026, the leadership of the Straw Dog Writers Guild gathered at the WOW Creative Arts Center in Westfield for a day-long retreat to discuss the organization. Fifteen people — the entire Steering Committee plus a handful of others — spent the day getting to know each other and the organization a bit
- [The Sanctity of Work](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-sanctity-of-work/) - After reading Riva's Escape (a side story of Revin's Heart), one of my beta readers commented about how they appreciated the way my writing recognized the value and significance of work. In the scene, Revin (who has just transitioned) is pressed into service working in the kitchen of a restaurant washing dishes. This got me
- [A Much Needed Spring Break](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-much-needed-spring-break/) - When I was the Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center, Spring Break was just a chance to get caught up with software and hardware updates. Since then, I've used it to accomplish significant bits of writing. This year, however, I really needed the break. And I took full advantage. I used my time for
- [Bartholomew's Cobble: Mosses and Lichens and Ferns! Oh, my!](https://stevendbrewer.com/bartholomews-cobble-mosses-and-lichens-and-ferns-oh-my/) - Relatively soon after I moved to the Pioneer Valley, my father gifted me a membership to the Trustees of Reservations and encouraged me to visit Bartholomew's Cobble. It's a bit of drive, in the extreme south-west corner of the state. But it's an amazing place with the highest plant diversity of any site in New
- [When the United States Actually Jumped the Shark](https://stevendbrewer.com/when-the-united-states-actually-jumped-the-shark/) - After Donald Trump was elected for a second time, he began to systematically destroy the "rules-based order" that the US had painstaking constructed after World War II. It's elements included having an independent bureaucracy and judiciary, floating the dollar as the reserve currency of the world, keeping the world's communications networks centered here, maintaining an
- [In the Spotlight](https://stevendbrewer.com/in-the-spotlight/) - On March 29, I was spotlighted by J. Scott Coatsworth. Scott is the creator of Liminal Fiction and QueerSciFi. On his blog, he runs a series of articles that let authors respond to a range of potential questions to highlight their recent work. I answered questions about my first published work, weird things I've done
- [A Reflection on No Kings and Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-reflection-on-no-kings-and-revins-heart/) - I took a trans flag to the March 28, 2026 No Kings protest in Amherst. There are many things to protest about Trump and the MAGA movement: the misguided war in Iran, the destruction of our global alliances, the endless grifting and profiteering. To me their persecution of the trans community has been among their
- [Using a Text Editor for Writing](https://stevendbrewer.com/using-a-text-editor-for-writing/) - I use a text editor for pretty much all of my draft writing. I can date this pretty much to 1993, when Microsoft Word 6.0 was released. It really sucked and, after many years of using a word processor, I quit using one for writing. I did most of my early writing by hand or
- [Languages of Tsukimichi](https://stevendbrewer.com/languages-of-tsukimichi/) - I read a chapter or two of a manga a couple of years ago and, at the time, it didn't grab me enough to keep reading it. But my son wanted me to try an anime he liked and, after an episode, I realized it was the same one: Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy. After watching a
- [When the Well is Dry](https://stevendbrewer.com/when-the-well-is-dry/) - Since December, I've basically not written any fiction. I've written a few blog posts and managed to keep up with my class — checking my students' writing and making comments on their papers. But I've barely been able to write fiction. I learned long ago that my creative output is unpredictable. And I generally don't
- [War, by any other name, still stinks](https://stevendbrewer.com/war-by-any-other-name-still-stinks/) - Like most, I was astonished when my country performed an unprovoked military attack on another country. My initial reaction was to note that every journalist had pulled out a thesaurus to look for synonyms for "war" because in the United States, according to the constitution, only Congress could declare war and no such declaration was
- [Oni Diras Nun! A Tabloid for Esperantujo](https://stevendbrewer.com/oni-diras-nun-a-tabloid-for-esperantujo/) - In 2007, when I was still engaged with the US Esperanto movement, I decided that what it needed was a tabloid newspaper to share fantastical stories about Esperanto personalities and events. I persuaded a couple of people to help (mostly Philip Brewer and Robert Read) and we produced a one-off newsletter — printed appropriately on
- [Hash-browned Potatoes](https://stevendbrewer.com/hash-browned-potatoes/) - I've always loved hash browns. It's perhaps my favorite way to eat potatoes. I don't really like mashed potatoes (though they're edible with enough gravy). And, as far as I'm concerned, you can discard the potato part of a baked potato because I really only like the skin. But hash-browned potatoes are special. I tried
- [The Language Game: AI Edition](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-language-game-ai-edition/) - I find it intensely annoying when people ascribe intelligence, or intentionality, to statements by AIs (i.e. Large Language Models). In today's example, a writer said that an AI "betrayed" someone. This kind of statement is a category error. It projects intelligence onto a system that, though facile with language, does not in fact engage in
- [The Language of Flowers](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-language-of-flowers/) - When I wrote Revin's Heart, I realized that one thing that the protagonist couldn't really do was talk about plants. He didn't have any background to have learned about plants. I love plants and wanted a character that could talk about them. So I wrote in a botanical garden and a curator to run it,
- [A Well-Attended Reading in Elegant Surroundings](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-well-attended-reading-in-elegant-surroundings/) - On January 31, 2026, I gave a reading from A Familiar Problem as part of the Straw Dog Writers Guild January Showcase. Authors who published a book in 2025 were eligible and a dozen were drawn from a hat. I got to read third. As I arrived, the traffic in downtown Northampton was terrible. I
- [SFWA Winter Worlds of Giving](https://stevendbrewer.com/sfwa-winter-worlds-of-giving/) - The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) does an immense amount of work in support of the writing community. In the next few days, our Winter Worlds of Giving fundraising campaign will wrap up. Please give generously to support our activities for the coming year! Currently there is a matching program, generously funded by
- [Some Extra Tanuki Time](https://stevendbrewer.com/some-extra-tanuki-time/) - I have gotten essentially no fiction writing accomplished during this Intersession. My university contract says most of January is a period of non-responsibility so each year I can usually get a lot of writing done in those weeks. But this year, my mentally ill adult son was hospitalized for the first time in four years.
- [Finally Set Up FreshRSS](https://stevendbrewer.com/finally-set-up-freshrss/) - I spent a snowy afternoon setting up FreshRSS at my hosting service. It was a snap. It really only took me about a half hour once I got started and made me wonder what I'd been waiting for. I've only just started exploring it's capabilities, but it seems great so far. One of my fellow
- [Wandering Shop Stories for 2026](https://stevendbrewer.com/wandering-shop-stories-for-2026/) - Wandering Shop Stories, a prompt for writing microfiction on Mastodon and Bluesky, begins its third year in 2026. It has grown modestly from having three to six curators and nearly 200 followers. Every morning, at 5am Eastern, a post appears on both services with a prompt for the day that proposes an ordinary word with
- [2024 Award Eligibility](https://stevendbrewer.com/2024-award-eligibility/) - This year, the fixup for Revin's Heart was published, which included three short stories. And I wrote a short story that was published in an anthology. Brewer, S.D. 2024. Revin's Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California, including "Where There's a Will" pp 269-282, "Curtains Rise" pp 283-302, "Riva's Escape" pp 303-329. Brewer, S.D. 2024.
- [Award Eligibility for 2022](https://stevendbrewer.com/award-eligibility-for-2022/) - Below are my publications that were (or will be) released in 2022. Brewer, S.D. 2022. The End of His Rope. Part Five of Revin's Heart, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 46pp. Brewer, S.D. 2022. The Right Motivation in Corporate Catharsis: The Work From Home Edition, Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose, California. 226-233. Brewer, S.D.
- [Steven D. Brewer 2023 Awards Eligibility](https://stevendbrewer.com/steven-d-brewer-2023-awards-eligibility/) - In the spring, Water Dragon Publishing released the last two novelettes of Revin's Heart, I self-published It's Complicated via Amazon Vella, and, in December, The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy released Better Angels: Tour de Force. Brewer, S.D. 2023. Better Angels: Tour de Force. Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy,
- [Eligibility 2025](https://stevendbrewer.com/eligibility-2025/) - It was a slow year for me. Although I wrote a lot and submitted a lot of stories, the only work I published this year that is eligible for awards is my novel A Familiar Problem. Brewer, S.D. 2025. A Familiar Problem. Water Dragon Publishing, San Jose. 202pp. I had another story accepted for publication
- [Overcoming Reader's Block](https://stevendbrewer.com/overcoming-readers-block/) - I've been reluctant to admit it, but I've been having trouble finishing books. Or, indeed, even starting books. I'd heard of "writer's block" but is there such a thing as "reader's block"? It perhaps began even before the pandemic — certainly since then — that I've struggled to make myself read whole books. Over the
- [First Appearances of 2026](https://stevendbrewer.com/first-appearances-of-2026/) - My first appearances of 2026 have been scheduled! Some of these are still preliminary and may change, but I wanted to get them out in time to share in my January newsletter. At Arisa 2026 (January 16-19), I am scheduled to moderate one panel and serve on four others: Manga 101: Introduction to Japanese ComicsKendall
- [Where Did They Go?](https://stevendbrewer.com/where-did-they-go/) - Writing is easy. Getting published is hard. Getting published again is harder. But it's sure easy to get discouraged. During the 2025 Nebula Conference, I attended a workshop by Becca Syme of Better Faster Academy about career longevity among writers. Up front, she delivered the startling statistic that 80% of writers give up within three
- [Solstice Sunrise at the Sunwheel](https://stevendbrewer.com/solstice-sunrise-at-the-sunwheel/) - When I awoke before dawn on the solstice, I checked the weather (there is a weather station at the Computer Science building, about a quarter mile from my house). The temperature was already above 39°F and I thought, "Ya, know. I could get up, have a leisurely cup of coffee, and still go to watch
- [Sloppy Writing](https://stevendbrewer.com/sloppy-writing/) - It's become nearly impossible to avoid "AI" which is increasing shoehorned into every corner of our lives. I've lived through a bunch of the tech bubbles and this is by far the biggest and most intrusive. The tech-bros are convinced that robot slaves will print money for them so they can do away with all
- [Successfully updated to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS](https://stevendbrewer.com/successfully-updated-to-pop_os-24-04-lts/) - With the end of the semester, I decided to update early to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS which just became available. I wanted to give myself as much time as possible if it failed or had serious problems. But, knowing System76, I needn't have worried. The whole process only took a short while and went very smoothly.
- [Year in Writing: 2025](https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2025/) - As I reflect on my year of writing in 2025, it was a somewhat discouraging year. I did quite a bit of fiction writing, but almost none of it got published. I wrote 26,000 words of short fiction and did 20 submissions. Zip. I also worked on longer fiction. I finished the 19,000 word manuscript
- [A Familiar Problem Released](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-familiar-problem-released/) - On December 10, 2025, A Familiar Problem is finally available for purchase. It's been a long, weird road to publication. But I'm very grateful it is finally available and I hope people enjoy it. In May, 2022, I had an idea for a story. I sketched out a rough outline and then, in just a
- [Western Mass Writers Guild](https://stevendbrewer.com/western-mass-writers-guild/) - My wife saw a poster in a local restaurant advertising yet another writing group in the Pioneer Valley which I hadn't heard of: The Western Mass Writers Guild. I poked around their website and saw they had a Discord Link, so I joined it. And then I saw they had a meeting scheduled for today:
- [Year in Writing: 2021](https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2021/) - As far as I can tell, I've never written a proper year-end wrap-up of my fiction writing. But I haven't really done enough fiction writing previously to warrant it. My first fiction publication was in 2006 (Milos kaj Donos) and my first speculative fiction publication was in 2010 (Kion dio farus?). My 2016 story, Krespusko
- [Reading of For the Favor of a Lady](https://stevendbrewer.com/reading-of-for-the-favor-of-a-lady/) - For the Favor of a Lady is available for purchase today. It is the second installment of Revin's Heart which has been serialized by Water Dragon Publishing. The next installment, Storm Clouds Gather, is being released on March 25, 2022.
- [Writing for Young Adults](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-for-young-adults/) - When I wrote The Third Time's the Charm (available via Water Dragon Publishing), I didn't think too much about genre. That is, it was "just" a fantasy story. But when the story came out, my editor asked me whether or not it was "young adult" (YA). And I honestly didn't know. I've read about a
- [Writing Revin's Heart: A Love Story](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-revins-heart-a-love-story/) - When the fall semester ended, I decided to immerse myself in writing fiction. I had a number of ideas that I was interested in pursuing. But I couldn't get Revin out of my head. Basically, even before The Third Time's the Charm had been published, I had already started working on the sequel. During the
- [Winter's End](https://stevendbrewer.com/winters-end/) - I wrote this piece of flash fiction during the winter. It didn't get accepted, but I was pleased with it as I felt like it hit pretty close to what I was aiming for. I snuck a glance at him, longingly. Michael, my childhood friend, had returned from university for the New Year. He walked
- [My Worldcon Debut](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-worldcon-debut/) - Attending conferences and conventions is nothing new to me, but when I signed up as a participant of Chicon8, my self-described "semi-benevolent" editor, Steven Radecki rubbed his hands saying, "I can't wait to read the blog post you're going to write after your first Worldcon." Here ya go. I'm a new author. At least, with
- [Adventures with Water Dragon Publishing](https://stevendbrewer.com/adventures-with-water-dragon-publishing/) - In the summer of 2021, I began making a dedicated effort to get speculative fiction stories published. As part of this effort, in August I attended Readercon 31. It was entirely virtual this year, due to the pandemic. I had only attended a face-to-face Readercon once in the Before Times. But I remembered it as
- [Write Fantasy to Fix Reality](https://stevendbrewer.com/write-fantasy-to-fix-reality/) - Someone asked me recently how I would measure success as a writer. After a brief digression on the futility of "measuring" dimensionless variables with no units, I decided to reflect on what success might look like. A few years ago, Wayne Chang was invited to speak several times by my employer. He had recently sold
- [Worldcon 2021: Discon III](https://stevendbrewer.com/worldcon-2021-discon-iii/) - I (virtually) attended Worldcon this year. Having recently published my first story, The Third Time's the Charm, it was interesting to attend the biggest scifi/fantasy convention and see what writers, editors, and fans are talking about. It was a lot of fun, plus I got to hang out with my virtual writing community that were
- [Patience](https://stevendbrewer.com/patience/) - When I was very young, I submitted something for publication and then wrote a letter pressing the editor for a response. I blush to think of it now, how impatient I was for success. It takes a long time to become successful in writing (unless you're some kind of a savant, I suppose). But now
- [Money, money, money!](https://stevendbrewer.com/money-money-money/) - This evening, I crossed a huge milestone in my writing career: I got paid. It wasn't a huge sum. It was not some gigantic Scalzian advance. It was just for a short story — novelette — The Third Time's the Charm. And Water Dragon Publishing does not pay SFWA "pro" rates. But it was meaningful
- [Writing as a Displacement Activity](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-as-a-displacement-activity/) - I mentioned elsewhere that for several years, I had difficulty doing creative work. But last fall, in the depth of the pandemic, I started being able to write again. But why? I think I finally have an answer. During the pandemic, I found myself suffering from crippling anxiety. Trying to fall asleep at night, I
- [Water Dragon Support, Encouragement, and Advice](https://stevendbrewer.com/water-dragon-support-encouragement-and-advice/) - In my previous post about publishing with Water Dragon I mentioned the "support, encouragement, and advice" that authors get with publicity. About a week before the release of the story, I got a link to download some graphics. The folder included the electronic, print, and trade covers plus versions of the cover art carefully composed
- [One Year Later](https://stevendbrewer.com/one-year-later/) - I joined Twitter in March 2008 and, after initially puzzling about what it was for, found it to be an amazing place. I particularly appreciated the focus on text, rather than copypasta pictures that seemed to dominate most of the other social media environments. I loved the requirement to be concise. I enjoyed taking the
- [Writing for Persuasion](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-for-persuasion/) - For more than 20 years, I've taught a course in scientific writing. In the course, students write a proposal. A number of years ago, I realized that a particular challenge for students was crafting a persuasive argument. Aristotle identified the rhetorical characteristics of a persuasive argument: logos, ethos, and pathos. (Sometime people also include "kairos").
- [Where lies responsibility?](https://stevendbrewer.com/where-lies-responsibility/) - I remember as I became an adult, beginning to adopt responsibility for the actions of my country. I was a voter and, even though my candidates frequently lost, I accepted that I was a participant in the imperialist and capitalist society that was visiting harms on the rest of the world. And I started using
- [Arisia 2024](https://stevendbrewer.com/arisia-2024-2/) - I attended Arisia for the second time as a participant. Last year, I was only one one or two panels and had a reading. This year, I moderated a panel, served on four more, and had a reading. I dressed up in cosplay for the panel "Steampunk isn't dead." Well. Sorta. I moderated the panel
- [Better Angels: Tour de Force](https://stevendbrewer.com/better-angels-tour-de-force/) - The Better Angels. Entertainment. Music and Dancing. (And Rescues!) Life is tough for non-human biological androids trying to make their way in a big galaxy. You have to be prepared to install whatever programming modules are needed for any given circumstances. Join the Better Angels and their associates as they launch their careers on the
- [LinkedIn and Fake Social Media](https://stevendbrewer.com/linkedin-and-fake-social-media/) - For years, I mostly scorned LinkedIn. I had made a profile early on, but mostly didn't bother to maintain it. Luckily, I never lost my job at the University, so I didn't need to look for work. I was kind of surprised when the CIO of the University talked about having used LinkedIn to make
- [Wandering Shop Stories, Electric Bluesky-oo-loo](https://stevendbrewer.com/wandering-shop-stories-electric-bluesky-oo-loo/) - Wandering Shop Stories, a writing prompt that began in January and recently migrated to wandering.shop, has now taken a new step to be more available to the wider SFF community: We 're now on Bluesky too! It looks like the announcement that birdchan would start using everything everyone posted to train its AI finally roused
- [Boskone Wrapup](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-wrapup/) - In 2023, I had been scheduled to appear at Boskone, but ended up instead in the hospital. It was a big disappointment and so I was excited this year when I was again selected to appear on the program. The second weekend in February happens to be also the second week of the semester, so
- [Recent and Coming Attractions](https://stevendbrewer.com/recent-and-coming-attractions/) - First, some great news! On March 28, 2025, I learned that I have received one of the inaugural Delphi Awards from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty. (Update: UMass Amherst Announcement and OFD Announcement.) The UMass Amherst Delphi Leadership Award honors NTT faculty who have provided exceptional leadership and made innovative contributions
- [Re-elected Secretary of SFWA](https://stevendbrewer.com/re-elected-secretary-of-sfwa/) - I am extremely gratified to have been re-elected as Secretary of SFWA. Since the special election in the fall, I have enjoyed getting to know the organization better and making a contribution to strengthen it. Working with the other officers, board members, and staff — who are all interesting and dedicated people — has been
- [Peter Thiel is an Idiot](https://stevendbrewer.com/peter-thiel-is-an-idiot/) - I was interested to read this interview with Peter Thiel because, although I've heard a lot about him and his stupid ideas, I've never actually seen what he has to stay for himself. It turns out that he's an idiot — at least about science. He's basically the kind of person who, when the TV
- [My LOSCon Experience](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-loscon-experience/) - With an hour to kill at LAX on my way home from LOSCon, I thought I'd take a few minutes to reflect on the experience. It was generally good: my travel arrangements went well (at least so far) and the accommodations were satisfactory. And in spite of a family member coming down with a cold
- [Generic Gardens](https://stevendbrewer.com/generic-gardens/) - When I checked into the hotel for LOSCon, I noticed that there were four courtyard gardens on the floor where my room was. In fact, the room had a sliding-glass door that opened into the one where the pool was located. But the others looked interesting — in particular the Japanese garden. Japanese gardens are
- [Headed to LOSCon](https://stevendbrewer.com/headed-to-loscon/) - Back in July, I pitched a panel for LOSCon. It turns out that my panel was accepted! On Saturday, I will moderate a group of panelists to discuss Poetry and Songs in Speculative Fiction. I'm really looking forward to it. I've got some idea for questions. I reached out to the panelists, but haven't gotten
- [No Sale, No Fee, Just Fun](https://stevendbrewer.com/no-sale-no-fee-just-fun/) - The Straw Dog Writers Guild arranged a table at the Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair where authors could sell and sign books. I attended and had a two-hour shift at the Straw Dog table. Although I didn't sell any books, I met some new people, reconnected with others, and had a great
- [Another Glaring Omission](https://stevendbrewer.com/another-glaring-omission/) - Jennifer Weiner, writing for the New York Times, describes a glaring omission in the coverage of the Epstein files. Her point is that most of the coverage has little or nothing about the victims. […] we’ve heard endless details about the predators and the men in their social circle, we have heard far too little
- [Maybe Not My Every Fantasy](https://stevendbrewer.com/maybe-not-my-every-fantasy/) - People crave and need attachment. Increasingly people are turning to AI rather than people. One company had created a pre-AI chatbot with scripted responses that was highly effective at fostering engagement. But when they saw how people used it, they began to have serious reservations. Not only did people crave A.I. intimacy, but the most
- [Cover Reveal: A Familiar Problem](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-a-familiar-problem/) - Becoming a powerful demon’s familiar might be the best thing ever. But what’s the catch? Rory Soletsa is supposed to find his magical familiar, but he doesn't want something trite, like a cat; or stupid, like a bird; or ugly, like a toad. He wants something cool and powerful that can be an ally in
- [WorldBuilding 101](https://stevendbrewer.com/worldbuilding-101/) - On November 9, I got to host James Cambias doing a presentation about Worldbuilding for the Straw Dog Writers Guild. He wanted to do a face-to-face presentation, so I reserved the newly built North Amherst Library Community Room. It's a great venue with a large-screen display, four tables, and maybe 30 chairs. Unfortunately, not many
- [I Love to Write](https://stevendbrewer.com/i-love-to-write/) - I don't know how else to say it: I love my writing. I love everything about it. The process, the results, and all of it. I love the initial forays I make into a story, writing some of the candy bar scenes that motivate me to tell a story. And the opening scene. And I
- [Straw Dog Northampton Book Fair Appearance](https://stevendbrewer.com/straw-dog-northampton-book-fair-appearance/) - The Straw Dog Writers Guild has secured two tables at the Northampton Antiquarian Book, Ephemera, and Book Arts Fair on November 21 and 22, 2025 for authors to display and sell books! Roughly twenty authors are scheduled for 2-hour shifts at the tables. I will be there on Sunday, November 22 from 12-2pm at the
- [New for November](https://stevendbrewer.com/new-for-november/) - Etymologically, November was originally the ninth month of the year before the Romans messed everything up by adding January and February. But nov- is also the root for "new" in Esperanto, so let's go with that. Because I've got some new stuff coming up. Although I still don't have a new release date, A Familiar
- [Sycophantic Scams](https://stevendbrewer.com/sycophantic-scams/) - There is a new scam going round. WriterBeware called it Nigerian Prince Redux and I've gotten now a half dozen or more examples. They arrive as emails (or comments on my website, though mostly emails) that present as book clubs that are really excited about one of my books. Or as services to help market
- [WriteOut 2025](https://stevendbrewer.com/writeout-2025/) - A local poet I follow on Mastodon posted something about WriteOut which sounded to me like a fun excuse to write some haiku. For many years, I wrote haiku nearly every day. In the past few years, however, I've written fewer. But I decided I could write them more often during the three week period.
- [Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and Professional Reputation](https://stevendbrewer.com/non-tenure-track-faculty-and-professional-reputation/) - When I finished my doctorate a national trend had just begun to gradually begin replacing tenure-track faculty with non-tenure-track (NTT) lecturers. In 1996, I applied for several tenure-track positions, but was offered and accepted an NTT appointment as the Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center at UMass Amherst. At the time, NTT faculty were
- [Write Angles 2025](https://stevendbrewer.com/write-angles-2025/) - I attended the Straw Dog Writers Guild annual conference, Write Angles, as a participant. I had a good time! They had invited me to serve on a science fiction panel. In addition, I attended several other panels during the conference and had the opportunity to meet a lot of people I had only met previously
- [Local Sci-Fi Community](https://stevendbrewer.com/local-sci-fi-community/) - At WriteAngles, I met a science fiction author who is a newcomer to the Pioneer Valley. He asked if I was aware of any local meetups related to science fiction authorship and if I knew anything about SFWA. Below is my reply, slightly edited. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any good, local meetups specifically around
- [Before and After the Fall](https://stevendbrewer.com/before-and-after-the-fall/) - Fall has begun. It's always a dark time for me, as the seasons change and the days grow shorter. I have settled into my phased retirement, however, so the semester is not so onerous as it once was. And each thing I do professionally, I have the opportunity to reflect on how it's the last
- [Regular Expressions are Magic](https://stevendbrewer.com/regular-expressions-are-magic/) - I've just finished a new manuscript called Uplands. It's a sequel to a story I wrote about a year ago called Bottomlands. They're dark fantasy short stories about a witch and her familiar. I was thinking I might want to write more stories in the series and was grasping for more words that end with
- [SFWA Quasar](https://stevendbrewer.com/sfwa-quasar/) - Since the pandemic, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has provided a robust online experience for the Nebula conference. It was fully online during 2020 and then resumed in 2022. Since then, there has been a commitment to offering a full (if not always perfectly integrated) online experience during the Nebula Conference. This
- [Weirdos Posting Stuff to Social Media](https://stevendbrewer.com/weirdos-posting-stuff-to-social-media/) - Today, I shared one of my Mastodon posts with friends, one of whom commented, "Weirdos posting stuff to social media 😂" So I took a few minutes to explain to them why I like Mastodon. I do like Mastodon. I get more and higher quality engagement with what I share on Mastodon than anyplace else
- [Bearly Writing in August](https://stevendbrewer.com/bearly-writing-in-august/) - Two of the writing prompts I follow on Mastodon ask, "How was this month for you, writing-wise?" It was pretty good. I had a couple of distractions: I went to Worldcon and Philip Brewer came to visit. Those each took about a week away from my writing. But otherwise, I got a lot done. I
- [My Teaching is Going to the Dogs](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-teaching-is-going-to-the-dogs/) - I have selected my theme for my writing course for the fall of 2025. Each semester I've taught the class since 2002, I've tried to pick a different theme for my students to research and write about. I can't say that I've never repeated themes, but I always try to think up something different. This
- [A Happy Birthday with the Manly Men](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-happy-birthday-with-the-manly-men/) - I don't generally pay much attention to birthdays. But this year, my friends and family got together and made my birthday very special. It's wonderful to have supportive family and friends. The last time I had a special birthday was a dozen years ago when my friend Buzz Hoagland offered to throw me a party
- [Writing Community Affirmations](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-community-affirmations/) - Today, the #WritersCoffeeClub prompt at Mastodon asked contributors to "Talk about an affirming experience you've had among your writing peers." This was really difficult, only because it was so difficult to choose. There are so many people and groups that I value and appreciate. After some consideration, I decided to write about Wandering Shop Stories:
- [Dodging the Bullets](https://stevendbrewer.com/dodging-the-bullets/) - In 2022, I was hospitalized with pneumonia and learned that I have a chronic lung condition that puts me at heightened risk from respiratory infections. Even before, during the pandemic, my family was being very cautious due to my 90-year-old mother living with us. The net result has been that, for us, the pandemic never
- [Worldcon Dealer Room NPC](https://stevendbrewer.com/worldcon-dealer-room-npc/) - My son, Daniel, and I brought ~90lbs of books (two full checked-bags) for Water Dragon Publishing to sell in the Dealer Room at Worldcon in Seattle. So we took the books to the Dealer Room during the set-up time to drop the books off. There was a little old man wearing a convention center staff
- [A Mixed Experience at Worldcon](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-mixed-experience-at-worldcon/) - The 2025 Worldcon in Seattle was generally good. I served on a lot of panels, had a good reading, and (for me) met a lot of people. But I had one unpleasant experience that left a bad taste in my mouth and left me feeling rather mixed on the whole convention. I had a reading.
- [A New Scarlet A: for Authors, Artists, and, now, Allies](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-new-scarlet-a-for-authors-artists-and-now-allies/) - Mastercard and other payment processors, under pressure from right-wing groups and the government, are forcing vendors to remove works with a wide variety of perfectly legal, but in some way sexually explicit content, from their listings. This neo-Puritanism results in Authors and Artists being branded with a new kind of Scarlet A. To recognize and
- [The Mary Stories at Theo Reads](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-mary-stories-at-theo-reads/) - My first significant work of fiction, The Mary Stories, is now available via Theo Reads! It's a "rural fantasy" story that blends Eastern and Western elements. I've grown a lot as a writer since I finished this work, but I still enjoy re-reading it. It has a lot of charming moments and the wry humor
- [Seattle Worldcon 2025 Schedule](https://stevendbrewer.com/seattle-worldcon-2025-schedule/) - The final(ish) Schedule for Worldcon has come out and I am on the program! My experience with Worldcons seems to be either feast or famine. I had eight appearances as a participant in Chicago, for my first Worldcon, and then was totally declined as a participant for Glasgow. This year, I'm excited to moderate one
- [You're a Loser and It's Your Fault](https://stevendbrewer.com/youre-a-loser-and-its-your-fault/) - In Thin, White and Right: The Ideal Christian Woman the speakers describe how it's currently "in" in Conservative circles to be fit. One of the biggest, weirdest successes of the so-called Conservative movement is how they've convinced people to judge and hate who they themselves are. This is something I've never understood. Obesity and poverty
- [Meets Expectations](https://stevendbrewer.com/meets-expectations/) - Early this spring, at a meeting of the Faculty Senate Rules Committee with the Campus Leadership Council (the Chancellor, Provost, and Vice Chancellors), a key campus administrator mentioned that they didn't understand why it was so difficult to recruit people to serve on the Faculty Senate. I was able to enlighten them with a story.
- [Rock, Roll, and Gather at Look Park](https://stevendbrewer.com/rock-roll-and-gather-at-look-park/) - On Saturday, August 2, 2025, the Stavros Center For Independent Living is hosting the Rock, Roll & Gather Maker's Market at Look Park in celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As someone with a disability, I'm pleased to participate and sell books for Water Dragon Publishing. I'll bring my own books plus a selection
- [Readercon34 Bookstore](https://stevendbrewer.com/readercon34-bookstore/) - I agreed, with the welcome support of my son, to set up and run the Readercon dealer tables for Water Dragon Publishing and Small Publishing in a Big Universe (SPBU) again this year. I had a number of observations when I ran it last year. I reviewed those and tried to put some of them
- [Independent Analytics for Wordpress](https://stevendbrewer.com/independent-analytics-for-wordpress/) - I finally paid for the pro version of Independent Analytics that provides traffic analysis for my website. The free version really provides enough. But I like the system well enough that I wanted to provide support for them to encourage further development. I purchased a permanent license. My author website is (mostly) the first site
- [Pretty Fountain Pens](https://stevendbrewer.com/pretty-fountain-pens/) - I love fountain pens. I don't actually write by hand much. But when I sell books at conventions, its expected I sign books, so I always make a point of having a nice fountain pen that is appropriately inked before I go. Several years ago, when I needed to get a new fountain pen, I
- [Disability Pride Month and Representing Disability in Fiction](https://stevendbrewer.com/disability-pride-month-and-representing-disability-in-fiction/) - Representing disability is important in fiction. Many years ago, I saw someone who said that, rather than calling some people "disabled," we should call everyone else "temporarily abled." Because if you don't have a disability now, you will. If you live long enough, almost everyone will go through some period of their life with a
- [World Science Fiction Society: First Business Meeting](https://stevendbrewer.com/world-science-fiction-society-first-business-meeting/) - This year, I decided to try to attend the Business Meetings of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) to learn more about the organization. I've served in numerous other governance roles, so my perspectives here are largely trying to make sense of these new experiences in those contexts. Here are some preliminary observations. One caveat
- [LOSCON 51](https://stevendbrewer.com/loscon-51/) - For several years, I've considered attending LOSCON in Los Angeles. This year, I'm going to go! A few years ago, I was accepted as a participant, but due to my health circumstances at the time, I declined. I was still recovering from being hospitalized and was only attending conventions where masks were required. Now, almost
- [What's In Your DNA?](https://stevendbrewer.com/whats-in-your-dna/) - When I attended my first WorldCon, I created some Airship Pirate ribbons to promote the serialization of Revin's Heart. It was (from my perspective) a wildly successful promotional campaign. It was a huge amount of fun, gave me an ice breaker to discuss my book as people walked by the table in the dealer room,
- [(Not) Selling Books to Kids](https://stevendbrewer.com/not-selling-books-to-kids/) - I sold books at the Amherst Artisan's Market today. A little blond girl, with her mother and younger sister, stopped by my vendor table and was very taken with the cover illustration on Better Angels: Tour de Force. I did my regular pitch: I call this "fluffy military space opera". It's about a group of
- [Junely Begends](https://stevendbrewer.com/junely-begends/) - June was super busy, with the Nebula Conference and the two Pride bookselling events. July looks to be quieter. There are a bunch of events I could have attended, but I'm currently only scheduled to go to Readercon. Look for me in the dealer room where I will, again, be running the tables for Water
- [Selling Books at the Queer Artisan Market and First Amherst Pride Parade](https://stevendbrewer.com/selling-books-at-the-queer-artisan-market-and-first-amherst-pride-parade/) - I spent the weekend of June 21 and 22 selling books at two events. I had applied and been accepted to participate in the Queer Artisan Market back in late May. But then in the middle of June, there was was a flurry of activity to organize the first Amherst pride parade in just a
- [SFWA Strategic Retreat](https://stevendbrewer.com/sfwa-strategic-retreat/) - Although I had attended the SFWA Nebula Conference previously as a virtual attendee, 2025 was the first year I went to the face-to-face conference. For me, it was the capstone of a three-week-long road trip with my son. We attended a wedding, then visited my brother for week, and finally continued onto the Nebulas in
- [My Easy Salsa Recipe](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-easy-salsa-recipe/) - After a long chilly spring, the weather has finally turned hot. And hot weather requires hot salsa. A few restaurants I visited, especially in the southwest, had great salsa or — if you were lucky — fresh pico-de-gallo. Most of the salsa I found in our local grocery store, however, was disappointing. I think I
- [Live Action Slush](https://stevendbrewer.com/live-action-slush/) - At the Nebula Conference this year, Kat Brehm organized a live-action slush reading panel. She said this has been a dream of hers for several years and she was super excited to pull it off. She got Scott Edelman and Erin Roberts to read the openings to manuscripts (the first 500 words) and had a
- [Next Stop: Kansas City for the Nebulas](https://stevendbrewer.com/next-stop-kansas-city-for-the-nebulas/) - The SFWA Nebula Conference is coming right up (June 6 and 7, 2025). Although I've attended remotely before, I'm attending this year in person for the first time. I will be appearing at two events on Friday, June 6th: a "Meet and Greet" at 4pm CDT with William Ledbetter, Greg Leunig, and Michael Capobianco and a
- [A New Staff](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-new-staff/) - When I was a kid, I started walking with a staff as a walking stick. My family lived in a forest in southwest Michigan. My brother Philip had a friend, Richard Molenaar, and they were always doing all kinds of creative fictional things, making fantastical maps and stories and artwork. At one point, they constructed
- [Using Travel to Enrich Fictional Settings](https://stevendbrewer.com/using-travel-to-enrich-fictional-settings/) - One of many advantages of being an academic is having the time to travel. Two years ago, my son and I went on a summer road trip to BayCon. With the end of the current semester, we've embarked on a new adventure. I've had the good fortune to travel widely over my life. The experiences
- [Leverett Peace Pagoda](https://stevendbrewer.com/leverett-peace-pagoda/) - I visited the Leverett Peace Pagoda today. It's only a short drive from Amherst. You park at the bottom and walk up the mountain for around a quarter mile. It's always an opportunity for quiet reflection. It is one of many pagodas constructed after Hiroshima and Nagaski by a Buddhist order dedicated to opposing nuclear
- [Wet Times in Watch City](https://stevendbrewer.com/wet-times-in-watch-city/) - For the week before the Watch City Steampunk Festival, I kept checking the forecast and trying to decide what to do. There was rain predicted the day before, but the forecast kept changing: some days, it seemed like it would clear up before the festival opened. And other times, it looked like it would be
- [Making a Scene](https://stevendbrewer.com/making-a-scene/) - For a couple of years, I've been, off and on, working on a new book: The Ground Never Lies. It's about a geomancer with an anger problem who has come to believe she is unloveable, but discovers a capacity for love she didn't know she had. As I wrote the story, I realized that I
- [A Truly Magical Place to Write](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-truly-magical-place-to-write/) - During the winter, I do all of my writing in my chilly, basement office. It's a nice place to work. It's brightly lit. I have a laptop and a portrait display. I have posters of my book covers surrounding me. It's a great place to write! But all winter I can't wait for spring to
- [Higher Education Resists](https://stevendbrewer.com/higher-education-resists/) - As was predicted, the Trump administration has targeted higher education and, putting the "bully" in bully pulpit, has begun to menace universities with funding cuts and other punitive measures if they do not undermine academic freedom. Some institutions, like Columbia, sought to comply and found themselves both reviled by other higher ed institutions and singled
- [Amherst Global Village Festival](https://stevendbrewer.com/amherst-global-village-festival/) - On April 5, 2025, the Town of Amherst, as part of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programming, celebrated the first Global Village Festival. It was scheduled to be outside, on the Town Common. I signed up to be a vendor in the name of my publisher. It was my first bookselling event since last
- [New Backup Strategy](https://stevendbrewer.com/new-backup-strategy/) - Authors should take backups seriously. And not just depend on free corporate solutions. I've read about people who trusted "the cloud" to keep their data safe only to have some faceless corporation invalidate their account and cause them lose everything overnight with no recourse. Just like how, if you see "the economy" in a news
- [The Language of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-language-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) - It's frustrating when you see words used wrong. A number of years ago, I saw an article about a school in rural South Carolina that showed a photo with a black teacher and a dozen black children. The article talked about the challenges of teaching such a "diverse" group of children. One could hardly imagine
- [A Suggestion for My Colleagues](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-suggestion-for-my-colleagues/) - It is becoming increasingly clear that the Trump administration is going to try to destroy higher education. Or, rather, transform it in the model of what Christopher Rufo did to the New College in Florida. By "destroy," I mean that they will try to establish rigid ideological guidelines and force out any faculty that hold
- [Using Social Media Wrong](https://stevendbrewer.com/using-social-media-wrong/) - It's pretty clear that nobody knows exactly what social media is supposed to be like. People use it for a lot of different things. I like think of it as a cocktail party. People drop in, listen to what other people are saying, say some things themselves, and maybe comment on what other people are
- [Small Publishing in a Big Universe at Watch City](https://stevendbrewer.com/small-publishing-in-a-big-universe-at-watch-city/) - Small Publishing in a Big Universe (SPBU) is sponsoring a table at the Watch City Steampunk Festival again this year on May 10 in Waltham, Massachusetts. If you're an author who would like to attend you can fill out this form to join us and sell your books. You can already see who is signed
- [Inscrutable Amazon](https://stevendbrewer.com/inscrutable-amazon/) - I watch the Amazon rank of my books to get a measure of what's going on. Since I'm not the publisher of my books, I don't have access to the underlying raw data from all of the different places where my books are sold. But watching the Amazon rank gives me some indication of what's
- [Boskone: Mostly Hits, One Miss](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-mostly-hits-one-miss/) - I attended Boskone before I started publishing science fiction and I was impressed by the number of authors I recognized. I've attended the last two years and it still hasn't lost that magic. And being able to rub shoulders now as an author myself is a lot of fun. I was particularly looking forward to
- [Grumpy Old Men](https://stevendbrewer.com/grumpy-old-men/) - Today, my university sent me a link to a mandatory cybersecurity training. In the HTML-formatted email, they included a link that looks like this: https://university.matrixlnselu.com/training/home But the actual link that would be opened goes to something like: https://num9.safeclicks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.marcon.university.edu%2F%3Fqs%3D79af0e80a4fc65b28bc6d7truckf2e0620df074d3c5769b3901732d80246a6a905559ef9d772af96560ba50bbfe6380c2309c565d7e2c62631&data=05%7C02%7Csdbrewer%40university.edu%7Cb702860502824bdd172f08dd421140a2%7C7bd08b0b13374dc194bbd0b2e57a497f%7C0%7C0%7C638739364061829157%7CUngown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXBsex1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zpenisFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Km50bFeo%2FrVW4AtWPtduUM2FZQhKdYWbcJQZlS7YNjE%3D&reserved=0 (note: these have been munged so they hopefully won't work) There are actually two redirections in the
- [Boskone 2025 Schedule](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-2025-schedule/) - I've gotten my final schedule for Boskone, Feb 14-16! I'm moderating one panel, serving on three others, and offering a reading on Saturday afternoon. Start Time TitleFri 2:30 PM Biology in SF/F Sat 10:00 AM SF and Totalitarianism Sat 11:30 AM Genetic Engineering (mod) Sat 5:30 PM Reading: Steven D. Brewer Sun 10:00 AM Fantasy
- [Poŝtmarkoj el Esperantujo: My First Book of Haiku](https://stevendbrewer.com/postmarkoj-el-esperantujo-my-first-book-of-haiku/) - When I was in grad school, circa 1994, I started writing haiku in Esperanto and exchanged them with my brother Phil. It was a way to practice Esperanto and have "a moment of zen" each day during a time when I was very busy. At first, most of my haiku were "joke haiku". I eventually
- [There and Back Again: An Arisia Story](https://stevendbrewer.com/there-and-back-again-an-arisia-story/) - I've only been attending Arisia for a few years and every year I've attended, it's been at the Westin Seaport in Boston. But this year, they switched to the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge. Evidently, it had been here in the past. It's a lot smaller. It filled up so quickly that I wasn't able to
- [Running for Re-election as Secretary of SFWA](https://stevendbrewer.com/running-for-re-election-as-secretary-of-sfwa/) - I am running for re-election as Secretary of SFWA. I have been serving in this role since the special election in November 2024. My overriding goal as Secretary is to make sure that decisions of the Board are communicated to the membership clearly and in good time. Beyond that, I hope to continue to serve
- [Meta Takes a Huge Step Back](https://stevendbrewer.com/meta-takes-a-huge-step-back/) - Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, has changed their moderation policy to permit users to post statements that allege "mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality.” It's open season on LGBTQIA+ people. When I was a teenager, people routinely
- [The Third Time's the Charm Available for Preorder!](https://stevendbrewer.com/charm-available-for-preorder/) - When an airship is hijacked by pirates, a young man with a secret loses his mentor … and his future. After twice thwarting the pirates' plans, he must finally come to terms with the pirate captain and decide whether to ally himself with him … or to confront a hostile future alone. My first piece
- [Toward a Successful New Year](https://stevendbrewer.com/toward-a-successful-new-year/) - One of the writing prompts on Mastodon got me thinking about goals for the new year. Mostly, I'm just going to keep having fun. I also want to work on promoting my work and trying harder to get my work out there. And I've got a bunch of current writing projects to work on. Finally,
- [Schedule for Arisia 2025](https://stevendbrewer.com/schedule-for-arisia-2025/) - I will be attending Arisia for only one day in 2025: Sunday, January 19. Originally, I had planned to attend for the full weekend, but our application for tables in the dealer room was declined and the hotel filled up too early for me to arrange lodging so, although I'd been scheduled for panels on
- [What Can We Do?](https://stevendbrewer.com/what-can-we-do/) - Everyone I know is worried. They're wondering what they can do, given the incoming federal administration that will put immense pressure on marginalized people and the norms and values of our country. There is no simple answer to this question. Recently I wrote about strategies my university is considering. These are all well-and-good, but what
- [Strategy for Dark Days Ahead](https://stevendbrewer.com/strategy-for-dark-days-ahead/) - Recently at the Faculty Senate, there were calls for the Chancellor to make public statements about what the University will do in response to changes implemented by the incoming Federal administration. A number of people were dissatisfied with his reply. They seem to want him to just come out and say, "We will break the
- [Year in Writing: 2024](https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2024/) - My year in writing has been a year of transition. During the spring, I negotiated with my employer to begin a phased retirement. I was distracted during much that time trying to figure out all of the ins-and-outs of this huge life change. There's a lot to learn and a huge number of details. Luckily,
- [Short Reads for Troubled Times](https://stevendbrewer.com/short-reads-for-troubled-times/) - When I joined Water Dragon Publishing, my first publication was The Third Time's the Charm. It is a steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist. An 8000-word novelette, it was published as part of the Dragon Gems program. Especially during the pandemic, Water Dragon had discovered that small books seemed to
- [Power of Community](https://stevendbrewer.com/power-of-community/) - Many years ago, I was a doctoral student in science education… (Pro-tip: Always call yourself a "doctoral student" rather than a "graduate student" because the University staff will treat you way better) Anyway, I was taking mostly Biology classes, but also some classes in the Geology Department. Geology tends to be a much more blue-collar
- [Feedback on Rejections](https://stevendbrewer.com/feedback-on-rejections/) - Almost all rejections you get as an author provide no feedback. Clarkesworld, which has rejected everything I've sent (often within hours) says, "Unfortunately, your story isn't quite what we're looking for right now." I used to think that more feedback would be useful. But I've come around. One place that still gives feedback rejected my
- [Writing Month Wraps Up](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-month-wraps-up/) - Yesterday was the last day of Writing Month. During November, 2024, I wrote 23,100 words. I did not reach the goal I had set of 50,000 words. I knew the goal was probably unrealistic even in the beginning. But then my mother was in the hospital for the first week in November, which explains part
- [Board Leadership](https://stevendbrewer.com/board-leadership/) - I've served in leadership and Board roles in non-profits a number of times over the years. I've been a Secretary, Vice President, and President, in addition to serving on boards. I've learned some things about what makes a Board work. Foremost is that the primary goal of the leadership should not be to make decisions,
- [Translation: Reading the World](https://stevendbrewer.com/translation-reading-the-world/) - I attended a craft workshop organized by the Straw Dog Writers' Guild about translating poetry by Jesse Lee Kercheval. She's Zona Gale Professor of English Emerit at the University of Wisconsin Madison. The workshop had to be rescheduled when she had computer difficulties several weeks ago, but it was still pretty well attended for a
- [Writing Retreats](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-retreats/) - In 2001, Philip kept a diary while attending the Clarion East speculative fiction writing retreat. He had a transformative experience that I got to watch from the outside. Years later, he wrote a round up post, where he collected some of his most meaningful reflections and provided a link to his Clarion at home page
- [My First SFWA Board Meeting](https://stevendbrewer.com/my-first-sfwa-board-meeting/) - Yesterday, I attended my first Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) Board Meeting as Secretary. It was a thoroughly positive experience. I took notes carefully and generated a set of minutes. I shared both my raw notes and my proposed set of minutes with the Board in order to get feedback in terms of
- [Using Geomorphology and Botany for Settings in Fiction](https://stevendbrewer.com/using-geomorphology-and-botany-for-settings-in-fiction/) - I have been fortunate enough to travel rather widely in my lifetime which helps me create settings in my fiction. But, I have also studied both geomorphology and botany which informs the salient features to describe settings realistically in my writing. I believe these both contribute levels of detail which add to the verisimilitude of
- [Wandering Shop Stories Meetup and Migration](https://stevendbrewer.com/wandering-shop-stories-meetup-and-migration/) - On November 1, 2024, the curators of Wandering Shop Stories met up via Zoom for the first time. We had, in fact, cast a wider invitation, but we were the only ones who came. We had a good discussion. We spent a bit of time just meeting one another (some of us for the first
- [Lichens at the Montague Plains](https://stevendbrewer.com/lichens-at-the-montague-plains/) - This semester, my writing students are studying lichens. Mostly not by choice, but because every semester I try to pick a different theme for my students to study and this semester seemed like a lichen kind of semester. To be fair, the students have been good sports, gamely looking at lichens and thinking deeply about
- [Elected Secretary of SFWA](https://stevendbrewer.com/elected-secretary-of-sfwa/) - On October 23, 2024, I was elected Secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Thank you to everyone who supported my candidacy! I learned I had won from the Interim President (who will be Vice President going forward) who met with me via Zoom. We had a good conversation. We discussed the expectations
- [This year, November is Writing Month](https://stevendbrewer.com/this-year-november-is-writing-month/) - Many years ago, when NaNoWriMo was new, I tried to participate. It didn't go well. But this year, we're calling it Writing Month. November has always one of my busiest months. In my writing course, students are finishing their proposals and then launching their research projects. When I was BCRC Director, I found that there
- [Write-in Steven D. Brewer for Secretary of SFWA](https://stevendbrewer.com/write-in-steven-d-brewer-for-secretary-of-sfwa/) - Upon the withdrawal of the only announced candidate, I volunteer to serve as Secretary for the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Association in the Special Election. But as the deadline for new candidates has passed, my candidacy can only be as a write-in. If you write me in for Secretary I will serve. Read on to learn
- [One Year of Straw Dog Writes](https://stevendbrewer.com/one-year-of-straw-dog-writes/) - One year ago this week, I ran the first session of Straw Dog Writes for the Straw Dog Writers' Guild. And we've met basically every week since. I'm satisfied that it's been time well spent. (It was also the week when my son's boxer puppy, Tanuki, pictured above, came home for the first time.) Two
- [Head in the Clouds Amherst Calendar](https://stevendbrewer.com/head-in-the-clouds-amherst-calendar/) - I submitted five pictures to the Head in the Clouds Amherst 2025 wall calendar and one was selected for April! This picture was taken just across the street from where I live, at the edge of the UMass Amherst campus looking toward Orchard Hill at sunrise. The picture was actually taken on December 15. My
- [Islands of Revin's Heart 'Zine](https://stevendbrewer.com/islands-of-revins-heart-zine/) - As I was writing Revin's Heart, I had created a map (in Inkscape) to show the relative positions of the islands where the stories are set -- mainly for my own use, to keep track of directions and orientations. But I rather liked the map and wondered how I might share it with readers. On
- [A Wonderful Place to Write](https://stevendbrewer.com/a-wonderful-place-to-write/) - I used to love to write in cafes or libraries or other public places. But after I was hospitalized during the pandemic, I could no longer go into public places where people are unmasked. So, for a long time, that meant staying in my office. Don't get me wrong. I love my office! I have
- [Writing Influences from Manga](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-influences-from-manga/) - I've realized over the past couple of years that my writing has been significantly influenced by reading manga. I've been tracking upwards of a thousand manga and, therefore, have read tens of thousands of chapters of manga over the past 10 years. Manga are a somewhat guilty pleasure for me. Undoubtedly part of the reason
- [Getting Ready for the New Normal](https://stevendbrewer.com/getting-ready-for-the-new-normal/) - After 28 years of full-time employment, I am starting a new phase of life. This summer, for the first time since I started my career, I didn't work over the summer. And this fall, I begin my "phased retirement" where I start working just half time. I'm excited to see what the new normal will
- [Writing Female Characters](https://stevendbrewer.com/writing-female-characters/) - I remember after I'd been writing fiction for a while, my son asked, "Why don't you have any female characters?" I was flummoxed. "But what about Mary?" "She's a yōkai — that doesn't count." "But what about… Aless?" "Who?" "Aless — in It's Not Just Black or White?" "She dies on page 9." "Oh. Um…"
- [An Expensive Lesson](https://stevendbrewer.com/an-expensive-lesson/) - Worldcon in Glasgow wrapped up today. I didn't attend any of the last day's events. Of course, I didn't end up attending Worldcon in person and only attended a few events remotely. I had signed up very early (I had a badge number in the 3000s as opposed to 15k or 16k by the end.)
- [So you want to be a writer…](https://stevendbrewer.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/) - If you want to be a writer, that's cool. All you have to do is write. It doesn't really matter if you get published. Or show anyone what you write. If you write, you're still a writer. The more you write, the better you'll get. If you want to be a good writer, you have
- [Summer Regrets](https://stevendbrewer.com/summer-regrets/) - As July ends, I typically find myself consumed with regrets. With August imminent, I sulk as I see the end of summer approaching and recognize I need to start working to get ready for the fall. And I invariably feel like I didn't accomplish enough during the summer. I didn't relax enough, enjoy myself, write
- [Better Angels 'Zine](https://stevendbrewer.com/better-angels-zine/) - I made a 'zine about the Better Angels with photos, descriptions, vital statistics, and their "three measurements." You can get one by ordering a signed copy of Better Angels: Tour de Force from the publisher. Last year, before Baycon, I created a 'zine about the Islands of Revin's Heart. I had made a map of
- [Drafting A Familiar Problem](https://stevendbrewer.com/drafting-a-familiar-problem/) - In May of 2022, I had an idea for a new story. I had basically just finished the last part of Revin's Heart and was looking for something new to write. At the SFWA Writing Date I banged out a 1,900 word pilot and immediately knew that, what I had, was the first chapter of
- [Not Going to Worldcon](https://stevendbrewer.com/not-going-to-worldcon/) - On July 15 (less than a month before the convention) I was notified that my request to be a participant at Worldcon was declined. I was pretty disappointed. Since I had been given eight participant roles at my previous Worldcon, I had expected I would get at least some role — even if just to
- [Bookstore at Readercon33](https://stevendbrewer.com/bookstore-at-readercon33/) - My younger son and I brought books for Water Dragon Publishing and Small Publishing in a Big Universe (SPBU) to Readercon33. It was the first time we've tried to sell books at that convention. We did alright. Many of the other vendors said that sales were down from last year, which was a little strange
- [Basic Research and CRISPR](https://stevendbrewer.com/basic-research-and-crispr/) - Almost everyone has now heard of CRISPR — the miraculous new technique for editing DNA. But few people are aware of where it came from. It's a story that everyone should know, because it speaks to the importance of basic research. Before I tell the story, you should be aware that the United States basically
- [FOMO](https://stevendbrewer.com/fomo/) - It's been sad to watch BayCon happening and to not be there. Last year, I traveled to BayCon and got to meet my publisher and a bunch of the other authors with Water Dragon Publishing. This year, I decided I couldn't attend because they no longer required masking. Due to my health conditions I need
- [Romancing the Rainbow](https://stevendbrewer.com/romancing-the-rainbow/) - Last winter, during Intersession, I was inspired to write a short story. It was accepted for publication in Romancing the Rainbow, an anthology by Enrapturing Tales. I wrote a little author's note to describe it. This weird little story weaves together a bunch of imagery that has played out in my imagination for many years.
- [Socialist Butterfly](https://stevendbrewer.com/socialist-butterfly/) - When my brother Philip attends a party he invariably comments, "Am I not the socialest of all possible butterflies?" This week, I felt like a socialist butterfly my own self. When my wife was involved in local politics (chiefly 2002-2022), she loved attending social events. It was an important part of why she was so
- [Uncreative Writing](https://stevendbrewer.com/uncreative-writing/) - Since 2002, I have been teaching the course Writing in Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Every major is obligated to offer a course of writing in their discipline for juniors. Different instructors are offered broad latitude to teach the course as they want. But my focus has always been on scientific writing. Most
- [Reflections on Father's Day](https://stevendbrewer.com/reflections-on-fathers-day/) - My father passed away last year, just short of 90 years old. He had been suffering from dementia for several years and he could no longer recognize me or remember who I was. But, even before then, we were not close. He maintained contact with me out of a kind of weird sense of obligation.
- [Planning Your Own Publicity Campaign](https://stevendbrewer.com/planning-your-own-publicity-campaign/) - At the 2024 Nebulas convention, I attended of the very last sessions, Planning Your Own Publicity Campaign presented by KC Grifant, Jaye Viner, Eva Elasigue, and Robyn Dabney. It was a great presentation but, as I said in my earlier post about the Nebulas, I didn't feel like there was a whole lot here that
- [Summertime](https://stevendbrewer.com/summertime/) - For the first time, in many, many years, I'm actually free this summer. When I began my career at the University, I was hired on a 12-month appointment to direct the Biology Computer Resource Center (BCRC). After the first year, the chairman — with some help from the dean — rewrote my job classification to
- [Nebulas 2024](https://stevendbrewer.com/nebulas-2024/) - For the second year, I proposed myself as a participant for the Nebulas Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) convention, but wasn't selected. I was on the fence about attending and agonized for several days but, at the last minute, decided to register for the online track. I'm glad I did. In point of fact, I
- [Upcoming Appearances](https://stevendbrewer.com/upcoming-appearances/) - For Pride, I will be bringing the Water Dragon Publishing table to the Mill District Queer Artisan Market on June 23, 2024. [Update: I've been declined a space at the market. I'm so disappointed.] I plan to bring a rich selection of the LGBTQIA+ offerings that Water Dragon offers — featuring my own works, of
- [Social Media as an Author](https://stevendbrewer.com/social-media-as-an-author/) - As an author, I'm constantly looking for ways to get the word out about my work and to engage with readers and other authors. And one part of my strategy is social media. Before social media, there were blogs. Long before I was a published author, I started blogging. I first start blogging using a
- [Open Science Instrumentation and Data Collection](https://stevendbrewer.com/open-science-instrumentation-and-data-collection/) - In 2017-2018, I drafted a proposal for a Professional Improvement Fellowship at UMass Amherst. This new program offered non-tenure-system faculty, after 10 years of service, a semester of professional release to accomplish a significant academic project — not unlike sabbatical for tenure system faculty. The creation of the Professional Improvement Fellowship program was the outcome
- [Keeping Priorities Straight](https://stevendbrewer.com/keeping-priorities-straight/) - On May 20, 2024, I served as the Presiding Officer of an Emergency General Faculty Meeting for UMass Amherst. More than a thousand of the faculty were split between a large room on campus and via Zoom. It was by far and away the largest meeting — let alone hybrid meeting — I had ever
- [SPBU at Watch City](https://stevendbrewer.com/spbu-at-watch-city/) - When I agreed to run a vendor booth at the Watch City Steampunk Festival for the Small Publishing in a Big Universe Marketplace, I was hopeful that several authors might also attend to help set up and sell books. It sounded like several authors had expressed interest. But, as the event approached, it became apparent
- [Ups and Downs](https://stevendbrewer.com/ups-and-downs/) - Being an author has ups and downs. It's a constant rollercoaster. When you submit manuscripts you get acceptances and rejections. The same when you apply to present at conventions. Or apply for grants. You can torment yourself by watching the book scan sales numbers. Or Amazon ranking. Or reviews at Goodreads (and elsewhere). When good
- [Phased Retirement](https://stevendbrewer.com/phased-retirement/) - Twenty-eight years ago, I joined the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a freshly-minted PhD in Science Education, I was hired to the direct the Biology Computer Resource Center (BCRC) — a small computer lab that was both a computer classroom and drop-in space for undergraduates. I really enjoyed the educational and
- [New Shimenawa](https://stevendbrewer.com/new-shimenawa/) - Four years ago, I discovered what shimenawa were and I made one for my beloved sakura tree. But it was time for a new one. The old one had gradually disintegrated in the weather and only part of a single shide remained. So I gathered supplies over the past week and reminded myself how to
- [Watch City Steampunk Festival](https://stevendbrewer.com/watch-city-steampunk-festival/) - On May 11, 2024, I will be bringing a Small Publishing in a Big Universe (SPBU) vendor table to the Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. I've never attended Watch City before, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Currently, we are scheduled to have four or five authors sharing
- [Fantastic Reviews of Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/fantastic-reviews-of-revins-heart/) - Recently, I was gratified to receive two extremely generous reviews of Revin's Heart. Reviews are critical for getting the word out about new books. The first was by The Faerie Review. The reviewer, Lily Shadowlyn, had read the entire Revin's Heart series at the time the final novelette came out and had written a series
- [Advertising Books](https://stevendbrewer.com/advertising-books/) - Trying to publicize your books is hard. It's one of the things that you don't think much about until you try to transition from "writer" to "author." At least I didn't. But I had seen enough authors talking about the need to do publicity that I had some idea what I was getting myself into.
- [Boskone 2024 Schedule](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-2024-schedule/) - Last year, I was scheduled to appear at Boskone, but ended up going into the hospital the week before. Tempting fate, I have again proposed myself as a participant and have now received my final schedule. On Friday Feb 9, since this is during the academic year, I will have office hours at 10am, and
- [The Better Angels and Bebe's Bedtime Bedlam](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-better-angels-and-bebes-bedtime-bedlam/) - David was still on the bridge of Angels' Wings, the Better Angels' starship, when Bebe came out in her nightgown. "Bebe can't sleep," she said, rubbing her eyes. "Can I get you something? Some warm milk maybe?" David asked. "Bebe wants you to read her a story." David felt his hackles rise. "What story would
- [Making Pitches to Sell Books](https://stevendbrewer.com/making-pitches-to-sell-books/) - I've been rather surprised to discover that I seem to be pretty good at selling books. It doesn't hurt, of course, to have books that people want to read. But a huge part of successful selling is to have a pitch that lands with the prospective buyer. And that's what I seem to be good
- [Arisia 2024](https://stevendbrewer.com/arisia-2024/) - My schedule for Arisia 2024 has been finalized. I will be moderating one panel, serving as a panelist on four more, and offering a reading: Gender & Sexual Identity Representation in MediaMarina Ballroom 3 Friday, January 12, 2024, 7:00 PM EST Invertebrates and Entomology in SFFFaneuil Saturday, January 13, 2024, 7:00 PM EST The Bi+
- [Revin's Heart: Collected Edition](https://stevendbrewer.com/revins-heart-collected-edition/) - Revin, a young man from a poor mining town, has pulled himself up by his bootstraps to become the student apprentice of a law professor. But then, everything goes wrong: their airship is captured by pirates and Revin loses his mentor. Born female, Revin must make his way in a world oriented toward men while
- [The Better Angels at the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-better-angels-at-the-truck-stop-at-the-center-of-the-galaxy/) - Several months after I joined Water Dragon Publishing the editor invited me to submit a manuscript to their shared-world anthology The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. This was just as the first other stories were being prepared to appear. But I was game to give it a try. It sounded like a
- [Mill District Holiday Arts Market](https://stevendbrewer.com/mill-district-holiday-arts-market/) - On Sunday, Nov 19, 2023, I set up a vendor table for Water Dragon Publishing to sell books. The event had originally been scheduled for the day before but the weather looked iffy, so they exercised their rain date for the following day. There were some 50 vendors there selling different arts and crafts. I
- [Scary Busy](https://stevendbrewer.com/scary-busy/) - During the academic year, my time for pursuing my writing is extremely limited. Almost all of my time is devoted to reading and commenting on student papers. But I do find time for a few things. I do continue to do several small writing activities. Using the #vss365 prompt on Mastodon, I've started writing a
- [LOSCon 49](https://stevendbrewer.com/loscon-49/) - This morning at 2:10am I got an email from the organizers of LOSCon indicating that I was going to be offered an opportunity to be a participant. Unfortunately, LOSCon appears to be "mask optional." Their COVID Policy page is actually totally unhelpful and doesn't actually tell you what the policy is. But here is how
- [Everything Falling into Place](https://stevendbrewer.com/everything-falling-into-place/) - This fall, I've launched a new program at the Straw Dog Writers Guild: Straw Dog Writes. Modeled on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Writing Date, I offer a Zoom session where Straw Dog members can come for some light socializing and two 45-minute writing sessions. I've found this as a really useful way
- [Summer Ends, Fall Begins](https://stevendbrewer.com/summer-ends-fall-begins/) - I had an exciting summer! I drove cross-country to attend BayCon in July and then visited the tropical island of St. Croix where I did a lot of writing. But soon the fall classes begin and I will be swamped with academic work. In December, the Better Angels anthology will come out. We're still nailing
- [BayCon 2023](https://stevendbrewer.com/baycon-2023-2/) - BayCon was a thing! My younger son Daniel and I drove about 5000 miles through 14 states over 14 days to get there. It was an amazing road trip. And, at the end, we spent four glorious days at the Santa Clara Marriot enjoying BayCon. As I've written, I'm rather introverted and I find attending
- [Cover Reveal: Rewriting the Rules](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-rewriting-the-rules/) - When peace is no longer possible, one must either go to war or run away. Abandoned by the nobility, everything goes wrong for Revin and he makes a run for it, ready to give up all hope. But when confronted with the choice he must make, will his heart lead him true? Rewriting the Rules,
- [Summer Begins](https://stevendbrewer.com/summer-begins/) - After a long, dark winter and a busy spring, summer finally begins! Being hospitalized in February and then spending the spring trying to recover and stay current with my teaching, I got very little writing done. But summer promises to be better. The final installment of Revin's Heart, Rewriting the Rules, comes out June 23!
- [Looking Forward to Summer](https://stevendbrewer.com/looking-forward-to-summer/) - During the academic year, I don't have much time for writing. I've managed to do a few things. But I can't wait for summer! My serial, It's Complicated (aka "The Mary Stories") has begun coming out at Kindle Vella. The first three chapters are free-to-read. Chapters will release weekly on Fridays until June 9. On
- [It's Complicated](https://stevendbrewer.com/its-complicated/) - It's Complicated (aka The Mary Stories) is a serialized rural fantasy available through Kindle Vella about an older man who moves back to his childhood home and meets the "imaginary friend" he had as a child who, it turns out, is not so imaginary. And he discovers that there's something special about his land and
- [Recent and Upcoming Appearances](https://stevendbrewer.com/recent-and-upcoming-appearances/) - On March 18, 2023, I offered a presentation at @nerdsummit, Publishing 101: Writing books for fun and profit. It went well and was well received. The recording is now available at youtube. At 41:18 you can hear me reading The Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation, a 500 word bit of flash fiction i
- [Stories Published, Written, and In-the-Works](https://stevendbrewer.com/stories-published-written-and-in-the-works/) - J. Scott Coatsworth asked folks at QueerSciFi how many stories they'd written versus how many published. I did a quick assessment to figure it out. My first three speculative fiction stories were in Esperanto and were all published. Milos kaj Donos was a kind of parable, Kion Dio Farus was an odd story about a
- [Revin's Heart Inexorably Advances](https://stevendbrewer.com/revins-heart-inexorably-advances/) - On March 24, 2023, Then They Fight You is being released by Water Dragon Publishing. This is Part Six of Revin's Heart. This installment is quite different from the others. Revin has been appointed -- very nearly impressed -- as the King's Special Envoy to negotiate an end to the war between the islands. It's
- [Full Member of the Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Association](https://stevendbrewer.com/full-member-of-the-science-fiction-fantasy-writers-association/) - Today, I became a full member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Almost a year ago, I joined as an Associate Member, but with the publications I did last year with Water Dragon Publishing, I now qualify for FULL membership. I've appreciated the value of an organization like SFWA that allows freelancers to
- [Cover Reveal: Then They Fight You](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-then-they-fight-you/) - When even the King’s mandate isn’t enough to bring the warring parties to the table, how far will Revin go to pursue peace? Charged with the King's mandate to negotiate for peace, Revin is thrust suddenly into a world of diplomacy and intrigue. Confronted with dangers on every side, he must keep his wits about
- [There stands a woman…](https://stevendbrewer.com/there-stands-a-woman/) - Thirty-nine years ago, I met someone who would change my life forever. I was visiting a former roommate who'd forgotten he promised to take his girlfriend to a rodeo. When she called angrily to remind him, he looked at me and said, "Hey, Steve. Wanna go to a rodeo?" And I was like, "Aight." And
- [Hospitalized](https://stevendbrewer.com/hospitalized/) - In mid-February, I needed to be rushed to the emergency room and spent 12 days in the hospital. It's the first time I've been hospitalized since I was a child. I've spent a fair amount of time in the emergency room and hospital for family members, but being there for yourself is different. I was
- [Coming Soon](https://stevendbrewer.com/coming-soon/) - Although it was bitterly disappointing to not be able to attend Boskone, I was pleased to see that Revin's Heart sold reasonably well, in spite of my absence. The next installment, Then They Fight You, will come out in March. The final part, Rewriting the Rules, is scheduled to come out in June. The fix-up
- [Computer Glasses](https://stevendbrewer.com/computer-glasses/) - I'm been myopic and needed glasses since I was in middle school. Around the time, I turned 40, I asked my optometrist about when I might need to start using reading glasses. He looked over his glasses at me and said, "You'll know." Sure enough, a few years later, I discovered my arms weren't long
- [Short Fiction and Water Dragon Publishing](https://stevendbrewer.com/short-fiction-and-water-dragon-publishing/) - When Charlie Jane Anders wrote about short fiction it resonated with me because this is exactly what Water Dragon Publishing has been trying to do! To be clear(er) Water Dragon Publishing has been developing a short fiction program for several years called "Dragon Gems". Novelettes accepted for publication get their own individually designed cover and
- [Boskone 60 Appearance](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-60-appearance/) - Only a month after Arisia, I will be returning to Boston to appear at Boskone where I will be reprising my role coordinating the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing and serving on a variety of panels. I've never attended a full Boskone before, but I did drive over for a day a few years
- [Arisia 2023 Wrap-up](https://stevendbrewer.com/arisia-2023-wrap-up/) - I attended the Arisia science fiction convention in Boston for the first time. I signed up to be a participant and also agreed to set up and run the booth in the dealer room for Water Dragon Publishing. In other news, I am also a masochist and glutton for punishment. In fact, I had a
- [Arisia 2023](https://stevendbrewer.com/arisia-2023/) - Woohoo! I will be attending Arisia 2023 in Boston January 13-16, 2023. I will be moderating one panel, serving on another, and offering a reading. I attended Arisia virtually last year, but this will be my first time attending in person. I will be moderating Intersections Between Ecofiction and Science Fiction on Friday, January 13
- [Year in Writing: 2022](https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2022/) - I had a fantastic year writing and realized a number of important things. I aimed at writing longer fiction for the first time. I also attended a number of conventions and paid attention more to the business of writing and publishing. I might describe it, in reflection, as a year of transition between being a
- [The End of His Rope and Insight into Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-end-of-his-rope-and-insight-into-revins-heart/) - When I first wrote The Third Time's the Charm, it was more like the first chapter of a book than it was a short story. So I had a sense of the larger story that lay beyond the initial foray. But, to be honest, I only had the vaguest idea of the overall arc of
- [Link Previews Are Evil](https://stevendbrewer.com/link-previews-are-evil/) - Over the past couple of years, I've noticed that most of the software products I use generate a preview when I paste a link into them. When sharing a microblog or social media post, these often include the whole post and/or image, which seems convenient because your interlocutor can immediately see what you're talking about
- [Interviewed by Small Publishing in a Big Universe](https://stevendbrewer.com/interviewed-by-small-publishing-in-a-big-universe/) - Back in August, I was interviewed for the Small Publishing in a Big Universe Podcast. To be honest, I can't remember it all that well: I remember babbling incoherently for a long time and then the interviewer finally said, "OK, OK. Got it. Put a sock in it. You can stop talking now. Sheesh! We
- [Hosting the SFWA Writing Date](https://stevendbrewer.com/hosting-the-sfwa-writing-date/) - For years, I was aware of the Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) although the eligibility for membership looked pretty far out of reach. But this spring, they changed the rules and I became eligible to join, which I did as soon as possible. When I joined SFWA, one of the things I discovered was the
- [Cover Reveal: At the End of His Rope](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-at-the-end-of-his-rope/) - The End of His Rope is Part Five of Revin's Heart and is scheduled to be released by Water Dragon Publishing on Dec 23 — Just in time for the holidays!
- [Busy Fall](https://stevendbrewer.com/busy-fall/) - It's been a busy fall for me as a writer. In mid-August, Better Angels came out. And then Crossing the Streams came out in September. Next, I have a story, Imaginary Friends coming out in the Future's So Bright anthology by mid-October. In November, I have a story, Something Else to Do, scheduled to appear
- [Cover Reveal: Crossing the Streams](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-crossing-the-streams/) - Crossing the Streams is Part Four of Revin's Heart, my steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist serialized by Water Dragon Publishing. It hits shelves very very soon now!
- [](https://stevendbrewer.com/707-2/) - "Demons sound kinda #antisocial," Rory said. "Heh. Demons have no society," Tseluna said. "We have no need." "What about the D-Force?" "That's a kind of society," she admitted. "And there's a few others. But your point is well taken." Rory kissed the nape of her neck. #vss365
- [](https://stevendbrewer.com/701-2/) - Why did newsletters became the default way for people to stay in touch, rather than a feed reader. Sad.
- [Airship Pirate Ribbons](https://stevendbrewer.com/airship-pirate-ribbons/) - When I drew up plans to attend Chicon8 the 80th World Science Fiction Convention, my editor/publisher Steven Radecki, suggested that I might want to get some badge ribbons to promote Revin's Heart (my steampunky fantasy adventure story with a trans protagonist that's been serialized by Water Dragon Publishing). They had done a number of ribbons
- [Fan Fiction](https://stevendbrewer.com/fan-fiction/) - When I attended the SFWA Writing Date with Valerie Valdes, rather than having participants introduce themselves, we played a game of "never ever" where she provided prompts and asked us to respond in chat with whether we had ever done that kind of writing. I played along: short fiction, yes. Horror, no. But then she
- [Worldcon Schedule](https://stevendbrewer.com/worldcon-schedule/) - I am attending Chicon8, this year's World Science Fiction Convention where I will be appearing in eight programeroj. I'm extremely grateful to the Worldcon organizers who've given me an excellent opportunity to debut as a new author. I will be moderating three panels: Words Count: To Go Long or Short With Your Book Manuscript?, Relaxing
- [What a Difference a Year Makes](https://stevendbrewer.com/what-a-difference-a-year-makes/) - One year ago, I attended Readercon 31 and met Water Dragon Publishing. What a year it's been. In my Year in Writing 2021, I wrote about my early experiences with Water Dragon. But when I wrote that in December, I still only had the single publication: The Third Time's the Charm. Since then, in consultation
- [Yet More after Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/yet-more-after-revins-heart/) - I’ve been using the #vss365 and #flexvss hashtags to write fragments of a new Revin story that happens after the events of Revin’s Heart. These parts are set on Devishire. Revin spent days exploring to draw up a #plan of the sewer. Returning, he was ambushed by the girls armed with sponges & buckets. While
- [Even More After Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/even-more-after-revins-heart/) - I’ve been using the #vss365 and #flexvss hashtags to write fragments of a new Revin story that happens after the events of Revin’s Heart. These parts are set on Devishire. Revin spent hours writing a detailed report for the Baron summarizing what they'd learned from questioning his brother. Then, while munching on a sandwich that
- [Reverse Imposter Syndrome](https://stevendbrewer.com/reverse-imposter-syndrome/) - First a rather long digression. When I reached a certain level of prominence in my career, I started receiving invitations to speak at seminars, conferences, and Esperanto congresses. My CV astonishingly lists almost two dozen such instances. At some point, I discovered that being an invited speaker transformed my experience of attending a conference. As
- [Cover Reveal: Better Angels](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-better-angels/) - After trailing a notorious trafficker across the galaxy, a self-appointed guardian angel arrives at the Truck Stop. Hidden within the trafficker's cargo hold may be just what he needs to shut down the trafficker's illicit trade for good. Readers always seem interested to know where story ideas "come from." I have no good answer to
- [Queer Publishing 101 at OutWrite2022](https://stevendbrewer.com/queer-publishing-101-at-outwrite2022/) - I attended Queer Publishing 101, part of OutWrite 2022 by the DC LGBTQ Literary Festival, a discussion with an interesting and diverse panel of queer editors and authors. The event was a preview of the weekend-long festival coming up August 5-7. It provided a variety of complementary perspectives driven primarily by audience questions. I asked
- [More After Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/more-after-revins-heart/) - I've been using the #vss365 hashtag to write fragments of a new Revin story that happens after the events of Revin's Heart. These parts are set on Devishire. Revin, wearing worn, rough clothes, stood with his beat-up, old trunk at the Devishire aerodrome & watched as the airship Bellewhether rose to #eclipse the setting sun
- [After Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/after-revins-heart/) - I've been using the #vss365 hashtag to write fragments of a new Revin story that happens after the events of Revin's Heart. These parts are set on Belleriand. Revin paced with #anxiety. Lidja had been with the Queen for 40 minutes with Revin enjoined from the meeting. The door opened and they looked at Revin,
- [Editing Storm Clouds Gather](https://stevendbrewer.com/editing-storm-clouds-gather/) - Today, when I awoke this morning, I found my editor had returned the edits for Storm Clouds Gather (Part Three of Revin's Heart, serialized by Water Dragon Publishing). While I was still in bed, I downloaded the PDF on my phone and looked over all the recommended changes. A lot of people complain about editing
- [Lambda Literary 2022 Award Ceremony](https://stevendbrewer.com/lambda-literary-2022-award-ceremony/) - I attended the 2022 Lambda Literary award ceremony. I had a lovely time and felt very welcome. I met a bunch of new people and reconnected with a few I'd met before. I was kind of surprised how little overlap there was with Flights of Foundry — I saw a handful of people I recognized,
- [Why I write LGBTQIA+ fiction: Part III](https://stevendbrewer.com/why-i-write-lgbtqia-fiction-part-iii/) - So, why do I write about the trans experience and trans characters? Because I'm moved by their struggle. And because I'm ashamed that I cowered for years being afraid to stand up for what I knew was right — either for myself or for others. When I first heard of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism, I
- [Academic Publishing](https://stevendbrewer.com/academic-publishing/) - I participated in a… Well, I don't really know what it was. It was called "Five College Publishing Day" and it offered panel discussions related to academic publishing. It was described as beginning with "a roundtable discussion with editors, agents, and authors who will share their perspectives on the rapidly changing world of publishing today,
- [Making Writing Sprints More Exciting](https://stevendbrewer.com/making-writing-sprints-more-exciting/) - I was chatting with my publisher, talking about organizing writing events, and I had an idea. I said, "Maybe I should do a twitch stream of me writing!" I was totally joking, imagining people watching me stare at a computer screen with a look of focused concentration. (Or, you know, look at Twitter.) But he
- [Why I write LGBTQIA+ fiction: Part II](https://stevendbrewer.com/why-i-write-lgbtqia-fiction-part-ii/) - I've been putting off writing this post for a while, mainly out of fear. Fear that I will be misunderstood. Or, even worse, understood and rejected. I'm an old, white, cisgendered, heterosexual man. I've been happily married to the same woman for nearly 40 years. Yet I write fiction about characters with different sexual orientations
- [Guerrilla Book Marketing](https://stevendbrewer.com/guerrilla-book-marketing/) - Years ago, I read about the idea of guerrilla marketing: a low cost way to try to attract interest. The core was to post something mysterious, funny, or inexplicable that would get people to notice something and that you could use to tie to what you wanted people to buy. With my new book For
- [Reading of The Third Time's the Charm](https://stevendbrewer.com/reading-of-the-third-times-the-charm/) - The Third Time's the Charm is available for purchase today. It is the first installment of Revin's Heart which has been serialized by Water Dragon Publishing. The next installment, For the Favor of a Lady, is being released on March 25, 2022.
- [Reading Slush](https://stevendbrewer.com/reading-slush/) - A couple of months ago, I volunteered to read submissions (aka "slush") for Water Dragon Publishing when I had some time. After picking his jaw up off the floor, the editor welcomed my offer and said he would send me some manuscripts when I was ready. With the beginning of spring break, I finally had
- [Two Books to Remember and One to Forget](https://stevendbrewer.com/two-books-to-remember-and-one-to-forget/) - When I attended Boskone several years ago, I had a brief interaction with Walter Jon Williams. He wrote many stories that I loved, but I particularly enjoyed a trilogy he wrote about a character named Drake Maijstral, Gentleman Thief. In these science-fiction stories, humans had been incorporated into a galactic empire and one of the
- [Cover Reveal: For the Favor of a Lady](https://stevendbrewer.com/cover-reveal-for-the-favor-of-a-lady/) - When we first started talking about the cover of For the Favor of a Lady (Book Two of Revin's Heart by Water Dragon Publishing) I said, thinking of the climactic last scene, "Well, it's gotta be Ravensbelth with an airship overhead, right?" So we started with that. But when I looked at the proposed artwork,
- [Working with a Small Publisher:the Good, the Bad, and the Better](https://stevendbrewer.com/working-with-a-small-publisherthe-good-the-bad-and-the-better/) - Once upon a time, I thought an author would write a book, get it published, and then write their next book. But, once upon a time, I also believed in Santa Claus. Let me start by admitting that I have never seriously considered becoming a "writer" as a career. I've had an eclectic employment history,
- [Kaffeeklatsch with Neil Clarke](https://stevendbrewer.com/kaffeeklatsch-with-neil-clarke/) - Neil Clarke spoke at length during a kaffeklatsch at Boskone about editing and publishing. Having submitted a half-dozen manuscripts to Clarkeworld, with none of them selected, I was interested to have more insight into what he's looking for. But he just said, "Surprise me." He then went to go on to about thematic things he
- [Boskone 2022 Wrapup](https://stevendbrewer.com/boskone-2022-wrapup/) - I had originally planned to attend Boskone face-to-face, but when Omicron caused Arisia to cancel, I decided to wait to see how conditions were before deciding about Boskone. In the end, I decided to attend only virtually. These notes are pretty scattered but I wanted to get down my recollections as best as I could.
- [Another Fine YA Story](https://stevendbrewer.com/another-fine-ya-story/) - When I was the appropriate age for such things, Young Adult (YA) literature was not really a category. I certainly read stories that today would be classified YA. The Three Musketeers and Treasure Island would today probably be classified as YA. They were among my favorite stories I read over and over again. In fact,
- [Why I write LGBTQIA+ fiction: Part I](https://stevendbrewer.com/why-i-write-lgbtqia-fiction-part-i/) - I've written gay, trans, and non-binary characters regularly as part of my fiction very nearly since the beginning. The protagonist of my first piece of published speculative fiction, "Kion Dio Farus?" (2010), is a man in a somewhat unhappy marriage with a child who is mourning the passing of a male friend. Although it's not
- [Charm Sequels Serialized as Revin's Heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/charm-sequels-serialized-as-revins-heart/) - In September 2021, I made my first sale of speculative fiction in English for my story, The Third Time's the Charm to Water Dragon Publishing. I was very encouraged by the positive responses I got. As I said in the author's note, this was actually a story I began more than 15 years ago that
- [Multiple Viewpoints Not Always Good](https://stevendbrewer.com/multiple-viewpoints-not-always-good/) - One challenge of writing fiction for me is that I have never had any formal training in creative writing. Or literature. Ever. I think that's literally true. When I was younger, I always knew I was going to be a scientist (BTW: It didn't work out) and so I always chose courses and experiences in
- [Describing thoughts and feelings](https://stevendbrewer.com/describing-thoughts-and-feelings/) - As someone with little formal training in creative writing and literature, I'm learning a lot by submitting stories and getting feedback. (When I get any feedback on my submissions, which is rare but not never). And this morning I had an insight which may prove helpful. In my teaching on scientific writing, I'm constantly telling
- [Different covers, different worlds](https://stevendbrewer.com/different-covers-different-worlds/) - When The Third Time's the Charm was selected by Water Dragon Publishing, I was invited to suggest ideas for cover art. My initial response was to suggest some of the most iconic scenes in the story. But when I saw the first draft of the cover art, I came to understand better how the covers

## Pages

- [About Me](https://stevendbrewer.com/about-me/) - Author of LGBTQIA+ science fiction and fantasy stories. Science educator, biologist, technology guru, and award-winning author of Esperanto-language haiku, haibun, and prose. he/him Brewer maintains social media presences as @stevendbrewer@wandering.shop at Mastodon and @stevendbrewer.com at Bluesky. (I have quit using LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), and Twitter for choosing to not moderate hate speech
- [Biography](https://stevendbrewer.com/biography/) - Steven D. Brewer has been a fan of science fiction and fantasy stories for as long as he can remember. He still remembers getting scolded for not reading chapter books in fourth grade because he was avidly consuming the Hobbit, late at night, by flashlight under his covers. And he probably got his copy from
- [Books](https://stevendbrewer.com/books/) - A Familiar Problem A Familiar Problem The Mary Stories The Mary Stories Better Angels Revin's Heart Anthologies Esperanto Haiku with English Translation
- [Gallery](https://stevendbrewer.com/gallery/) - Steven D. Brewer Bookselling at Conventions Bookselling at Markets
- [Contact Me](https://stevendbrewer.com/contact-me/) - To stay current with my writing, sign up for my newsletter. Please use the contact form below, if you have any general questions or requests about my writing. I will try my best to respond back to you within 24 hours. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Comment or Message
- [Crossing the Streams](https://stevendbrewer.com/crossing-the-streams/) - Revin and the Professor must go undercover to investigate a mysterious device that has the power to generate storms and may threaten their very existence. But securing the information and getting out alive may be trickier than they bargained for. Available now from Water Dragon Publishing.
- [Storm Clouds Gather](https://stevendbrewer.com/storm-clouds-gather/) - Part Three of Revin's Heart Revin and the Professor must go undercover to investigate a mysterious device that has the power to generate storms and may threaten their very existence. But securing the information and getting out alive may be trickier than they bargained for. Available June 25 via Water Dragon Publishing.
- [For the Favor of a Lady](https://stevendbrewer.com/for-the-favor-of-a-lady/) - When the pirate captain's first mate and lover learns his young little sister is engaged to be married, he asks the airship's new cabin boy to travel with him as backup to learn who arranged this marriage and why. Available Now from Water Dragon Publishing
- [The Third Time's the Charm](https://stevendbrewer.com/the-third-times-the-charm/) - From Water Dragon Publishing Now available!
- [Little Angels](https://stevendbrewer.com/little-angels/) - After trailing a notorious trafficker across the galaxy, a self-appointed guardian angel arrives at the Truck Stop.Hidden within the trafficker's cargo hold may be just what he needs to shut down the trafficker's illicit trade for good. Forthcoming from Water Dragon Publishing

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## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://stevendbrewer.com/./uncategorized/)
- [charm](https://stevendbrewer.com/./charm/)
- [fiction](https://stevendbrewer.com/./fiction/)
- [writing](https://stevendbrewer.com/./writing/)
- [publishing](https://stevendbrewer.com/./publishing/)
- [social media](https://stevendbrewer.com/./social-media/)
- [worldbuilding](https://stevendbrewer.com/./worldbuilding/)
- [favor](https://stevendbrewer.com/./favor/)
- [revins heart](https://stevendbrewer.com/./revins-heart/)
- [queer](https://stevendbrewer.com/./queer/)
- [truck stop](https://stevendbrewer.com/./truck-stop/)
- [conferences](https://stevendbrewer.com/./conferences/)
- [conventions](https://stevendbrewer.com/./conventions/)
- [worldcon](https://stevendbrewer.com/./worldcon/)
- [streams](https://stevendbrewer.com/./streams/)
- [newsletter](https://stevendbrewer.com/./newsletter/)
- [sfwa](https://stevendbrewer.com/./sfwa/)
- [spbu](https://stevendbrewer.com/./spbu/)
- [internet](https://stevendbrewer.com/./internet/)
- [Arisia](https://stevendbrewer.com/./arisia/)
- [boskone](https://stevendbrewer.com/./boskone/)
- [better angels](https://stevendbrewer.com/./better-angels/)
- [life](https://stevendbrewer.com/./life/)
- [mary](https://stevendbrewer.com/./mary/)
- [baycon](https://stevendbrewer.com/./baycon/)
- [straw dog](https://stevendbrewer.com/./straw-dog/)
- [loscon](https://stevendbrewer.com/./loscon/)
- [butter angels](https://stevendbrewer.com/./butter-angels/)
- [bookselling](https://stevendbrewer.com/./bookselling/)
- [mastodon](https://stevendbrewer.com/./mastodon/)
- [advertising](https://stevendbrewer.com/./advertising/)
- [reviews](https://stevendbrewer.com/./reviews/)
- [sakura](https://stevendbrewer.com/./sakura/)
- [shimenawa](https://stevendbrewer.com/./shimenawa/)
- [watch city](https://stevendbrewer.com/./watch-city/)
- [education](https://stevendbrewer.com/./education/)
- [technology](https://stevendbrewer.com/./technology/)
- [nebulas](https://stevendbrewer.com/./nebulas/)
- [publicity](https://stevendbrewer.com/./publicity/)
- [anthology](https://stevendbrewer.com/./anthology/)
- [travel](https://stevendbrewer.com/./travel/)
- [science](https://stevendbrewer.com/./science/)
- [zine](https://stevendbrewer.com/./zine/)
- [manga](https://stevendbrewer.com/./manga/)
- [photography](https://stevendbrewer.com/./photography/)
- [writingmonth](https://stevendbrewer.com/./writingmonth/)
- [teaching](https://stevendbrewer.com/./teaching/)
- [wss366](https://stevendbrewer.com/./wss366/)
- [retreats](https://stevendbrewer.com/./retreats/)
- [clarion](https://stevendbrewer.com/./clarion/)
- [viable paradise](https://stevendbrewer.com/./viable-paradise/)
- [translation](https://stevendbrewer.com/./translation/)
- [bluesky](https://stevendbrewer.com/./bluesky/)
- [awards](https://stevendbrewer.com/./awards/)
- [leadership](https://stevendbrewer.com/./leadership/)
- [dragon gems](https://stevendbrewer.com/./dragon-gems/)
- [lady cecelia's journey](https://stevendbrewer.com/./lady-cecelias-journey/)
- [haiku](https://stevendbrewer.com/./haiku/)
- [recipe](https://stevendbrewer.com/./recipe/)
- [readercon](https://stevendbrewer.com/./readercon/)
- [rights](https://stevendbrewer.com/./rights/)
- [writeangles](https://stevendbrewer.com/./writeangles/)
- [scam](https://stevendbrewer.com/./scam/)
- [writinglife](https://stevendbrewer.com/./writinglife/)
- [a familiar problem](https://stevendbrewer.com/./a-familiar-problem/)
- [book cover](https://stevendbrewer.com/./book-cover/)
- [familiar](https://stevendbrewer.com/./familiar/)
- [reading](https://stevendbrewer.com/./reading/)
- [wmawriters](https://stevendbrewer.com/./wmawriters/)
- [gen-ai](https://stevendbrewer.com/./gen-ai/) - generative ai
- [eligibility](https://stevendbrewer.com/./eligibility/)
- [Esperanto](https://stevendbrewer.com/./esperanto/)
- [politics](https://stevendbrewer.com/./politics/)
- [querying](https://stevendbrewer.com/./querying/)
- [elegant lich](https://stevendbrewer.com/./elegant-lich/)