Tim Hwang is ridiculously good at making people feel immediately included and invested in the Making of Something Wonderful. Watching him, in ways I need to learn from.

Email really is addictive - like a slot machine with random positive reinforcement, I read once. Even after a few days of slipping, it takes effort to Turn Off Thunderbird until I just sit down and write this silly thing. (Later: Written! That feels good. Now I have to do another draft of it; hurrah.)

I agree completely with Eric Nehrlich about pants.

Finally, my three favorite parts so far from The World Is Too Much With Us, the sci-fi story I've been writing on and off again for... over two years now. Some people here know the context, some don't; I'm curious what conjectures about the characters and stories people come up with based on these fragments.

Fragment the First:

"I'd try it, if you don't mind it," Paul advised. "I used to. It takes the edge off your brain, calms it down some." After a short silence that was broken only by the sound of Emmy alternately gulping and pausing to grimace, he added: "I don't do it any more. It lets me think too straight."

"I miss that part," said Emmy as a wave of nausea, warmth, and a familiar fuzzy sleepiness stole over her. She drank another quick pull and fought the urge to gag. The room had a lurching inertia to it, but her mind... was... coming... back into... control... much slower and more clumsy than she was accustomed to, but settled coherence through a fog. Emmy opened another bottle, a stubby green one this time, drank again. "It tastes like sleep deprivation."

Fragment the Second:

"You need a better human API."

He stared. "You should talk. One of the unwritten rules is that you aren't supposed to state the specification."

Fragement the Third:

"At least you were known for that. You fit into the category of affectionate anomaly. You want it back, because it's safe for you to be a danger; you know the role well, and so do they."