Erica

Current two hardest parts of reverse outlining:
1) the growing list of problems to solve 😬
2) resisting the urge to just keep reading and reading and not slow down to write down pesky things like summary and problems to solve. 😂

It's good I still love this book, flaws & all! 🦇🥰

I 100% thought on first reading that this was about pitching books to agents and waiting for them to make contact with a reply which then segued into a baseball metaphor about it. And I love that the paragraph works beautifully either way. 😂 #writerslife #booksky

YA heist! Sounds super fun. (And I love the saving their families from eviction motivation--I already want to know what happens!)

Last weekend I stuffed my head full of writing tips & topics. This weekend it's all #Pictish history and art! Got up 5:30am to hear some exciting lectures spanning metalworking and material culture at Rhynie and Burghead, Pictish (re)use of Roman-period silver, and clues to Pictish weaponry. 🔨⚔️

(the quote is from Glasgow Uni's website btw)

(which may be why post-doc listings sometimes say PhD as in, you need to *be* a PhD holder already, not a pre-doc/ PhD *student*).

Anyway, that's what I've pieced together over the years. Open to corrections/details if others know more.

I hope that helps at least a little. 😅

5/5

Out of the larger pool of post-grads those attempting to attain a PhD could be termed pre-doctoral students because they don't yet have their doctorate; contrast to post-docs who now have their doctorate.

4/

As I understand it, post-grads is a large catch-all for degree programmes after undergraduate (bachelors, honours/masters see above, etc) that might cover masters/PhD/others. 3/

I don't know if there's others offering masters that are not post-graduate besides those 4 unis. But I happened to know about them.

"A note on names: At Glasgow (and the other three ancient universities in Scotland), an Honours level degree in the Arts is called a Master of Arts (MA) .... These should not be confused with the Master of Arts offered by some universities in England, which refers to a postgraduate qualification."

Wow my brain is so full! Just finished a wonderful 3-day con with @flightsoffoundry.bsky.social . I'd highly recommend for any sci fi / fantasy creatives to watch out for next year.
I simultaneously feel like I need to dive into doing/revising/writing All The Things...and also sleep for a week! 😂📚

"never heard of"... or possibly already read about obsessively and gone to very niche talks about! 😂
I still want to go in person some day! No matter how many pictures and 3d models you look at, there's always an added dimension to seeing something in person, moving in the space, hearing its echoes.

This weekend I declared draft 1 of the WIP done! It has a beginning, a middle and an end!! 🎉😂

Now, for draft 2: structural edits and better villains! 😅

Structural edits intimidate me, but I still love these characters (40-somethings fantasy romance 🦇⛰️🥰) so let's do this. 💪

Oh no! Did it crash into the wall or did it land on the grass? I hope it didn't sustain too much damage (besides the obvious with the break at the base).

YouTube video by brien daniels The Gap by Ira Glass

Have you read/heard Ira Glass on "the gap"? I've heard people expand on this further, but here's the less-than-2min version if you're interested: www.youtube.com/watch?v=91FQ... I keep coming back to this when I'm utterly discouraged by my own writing still not measuring up to where I want it to be.

Where are you seeing a possible book? I just thought they were holding each other by the wrist?

I'm looking for a wide sampling of examples of early #medieval (earliest to 10th c) accounts of abbesses and female founders of religious communities. Vitae would be great, but a brief aside in another work is fine too. If anyone has done an actual study of this, even better!? Any leads welcome. 📜📚

They want us to feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of all this. A huge barrage of awfulness right out of the gate. It's part of the plan.

So part of resistance is just deciding to hope anyway.

🫂

Well, if we could record the interview, we'd have a sample of spoken Pictish and that itself would be awesome. And when the linguists were done with it, maybe we'd have the answer to the original question too!

Are you sure the recipe won't produce digital cookies to be stored on your computer? That sounds like the kind of cookie an "AI chef" would make... 🤖🍪🙃

No, I wasn't. Oh, I love it. Thanks!

10 min later: I still love it, but I would love it more if I could set date ranges to screen out all the 19th century stuff! 😅😆

Yeah, I should have considered before threatening her *library* access. Now the character is like "win or die" not "storm off to do risky things across the city." Whoops. In hindsight, very clear to her motivations and priorities. I may yet get her there, just gotta resolve this first...📚🫣

I'm at the "stitch it together" phase of non-linear puzzler drafting, ok? I found a good place to braid story strands together, tying up 2 loose threads in a nice bow. Yay! Only to start writing it and have the character be like "I can't go over there. This is a stand my ground moment." #Amwriting 🙃

If you're specifically working on the Pictish symbols, @ideocene.net, do you know about outreach.mathstat.strath.ac.uk/outreach/pic...? It doesn't have the more recently-found stones, but it's still a great springboard for looking symbol by symbol.

Oh I'd forgotten about that one! Thanks! I like their map. Canmore is great for any given site you can think to ask about. But for questions like "what else has been found nearby?" a map like this is great.

What are your favorite archaeological databases? I use Canmore a lot for Pictish research but wondering if I'm missing out on other good resources...?

I partly colored a version once, and what really stood out was all the vines/foliage in the upper left that not just surround but extensively cover the bodies of the animals (and crouching figure?) in that section. Really vivid and fascinating once all the vines are green!

Well spotted. Yeah, looking at the neck/back that definitely suggests either a centaur or one of the man-headed beasts.

Any chance it'll be recorded and posted later? This sounds so interesting.

Direct link if anyone else is looking for one: www.tcd.ie/loyola-insti...

I can't attend the talk so I'm hoping someone will post highlights after (or a follow up publication in the near future?). Pictish parallels to some of the BoK art have long been noted, but the significance & implications have been much debated. So looking forward to hearing this latest approach.