The title is from a live blog entry on The Guardian website on the 10th of June. The post quoted Trump spreading a conspiracy theory that the Governor of California and the Mayor of LA had paid protestors to cause trouble. The not-so-subtle phrasing makes it quite clear what the ...

I've spent a lot of this year dealing with the fallout of the death of a close friend. For whatever reason he picked as his executor a woman that none of the rest of his friends and family get along with. Actually, that's downplaying it. Most of them ...

It may just be my impression, but usually when a story is set in a dystopian setting, the dystopia is played straight. However, when the characters encounter or start off in a utopian setting, they almost always will end up realizing that the utopia is actually a mirage, and in ...

If you are setting a story in the past it can often be hard to get everything from the little things to the big picture right, especially if it's a period you haven't lived through yourself. Even then, your memory can play tricks on you.

It doesn't ...

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I love those characters who bitch and moan and want to do things differently, although they don't usually take up the leadership role themselves, they just THINK they should be leader instead, but they ...

There is a poem by one of the most interationally famous Greek poets, Konstantinos Kavafis, called Waiting for the Barbarians. I invite you to give it a read (I've linked its translation) but here's the gist in a nutshell: It's about the Romans waiting for the Barbarians ...

Picture credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire

Today (Thursday 6th February) is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, although due to the nature of time zones you will probably be reading this after the day if over for us.

Waitangi is a place in NZ, the name meaning ...

Event horizon. The faintest stroke of the rosey dawn.
The end of time or so it sounds.
Clawing, scratching and crying to abound.
Here it comes the future drawn.
As my past self gives its final yawn, please, no funeral mound.
Let the belly of the wolf be my final ...

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Is there a culture of plutocratic classism in the USA? I'm inspired by Trump's America and how people think that people like Elon Musk and him are above the law because they're rich, while ...

Last Week we looked at the “Break Into 2”, the transition between the beginning of a story: The “Before” picture of the Protagonist and their world, and the “Upside Down World” of Act 2.

So, a little later in your average story will come the “Break Into 3”. This leaves ...