Michael W. Moss | michaelwmoss.com

Writer, maker, and designer. Writer of fantasy, cyberpunk, science fiction, steampunk, horror, and hardboiled noir fiction. Typeface/font designer. Maker of 3D printed, laser cut, and microelectronics projects. Friend of cats and crows.

  • 47 Posts
  • 47 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: July 11th, 2025

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  • The fragments can be a stylistic choice. Ultimately all writing “rules” are arbitrary and often decided by consensus, often based on “what we’ve always done” as much as based on a specific reason for better communication or possibly a reason that is moot now. It’s good to know what your potential readers are likely to prefer and it’s good to know what an editor or agent will want if you’re hoping to get published in a traditional manner.

    That being said, I’m a fan of breaking “rules” when you have a good reason to and know why you’re doing it. If the narrative is reflecting the fragmented thoughts of a character, fragments might thematically work really well.

    That said there are also ways of rephrasing the fragments to make them flow better. Some readers might find them abrupt because they’re looking for the noun and the verb with some kind of active action.

    For the heavy chain, some readers won’t think of it as a grade or gauge of chains. Sometimes technically accurate isn’t better than stylistically smooth. But it isn’t a significant difference, so definitely keep it if you like it. You should write for yourself first of all.

    I liked it in general. It was an interesting glimpse into a world where there are implications of greater detail I’d be curious to know more about, such as how the main character’s age and knowledge of magic works. Some of the characters are necessarily one dimensional in such a short peic of writing. Scared and concerned victims of witch trials and puritanical patriarchal male authoritarians is what I’d expect because that’s what’s been depicted before, in the Crucible, in the Sleepy Hollow movie, and other fictional depictions.


  • If you share a Google doc link instead of a PDF, people can make comments in the document itself, so it’s easier to provide direct feedback to specific text.

    You have some tense issues. “Behind him, sat a woman.” (past tense) then “…she stares down…” (present tense).

    Some of the sentences are incomplete sentences. “Her posture, in direct contrast to that of the Good Reverend.”

    “A red mark wraps around her neck, and a heavy chains secure her delicate wrists.” Wraps is odd as an active verb unless the mark is appearing in the moment. Usually an inanimate thing is wrapped around rather than wraps. I’d suggest something like “stretches around.” “Heavy” is redundant with chains. Chains are rarely light. “a heavy chains” has an agreement problem. A is singular, chains is plural.

    “and the Reverend’s clearly dire distress,” It hasn’t seemed like he’s in dire distress prior to this descriptor. Earlier he was described as having a “posture proud with authority…” “full of fire and fury, but steady and deliberate.”

    Some of the narration seems to be Colette’s internal monologue and should probably be in italics to distinguish it from just third person omniscient narration.

    For example: “This poor girl has not a speck of magic in her – And the vegetables from Reinette’s garden aside, neither does anyone else within a thousand kilometers.”

    But then the next paragraph mentions Colette in the third person again.








  • You can get a new Sovol SV06 for less than $200. That worked very well out of the box compared to my older Ender 3. Prusaslicer also has a good profile for it. I don’t care for Cura slicer as much. Enders are of an older generation of printers that I will personally avoid just because of the legacy of having to tinker with them just to get them to work. The opposite end is the Bambu where “it just works” except it doesn’t always and it’s not as easy to fix and it doesn’t play well with third parties. Sovol is a good starter printer that I’d had even better bed adhesion with over Prusa MK4Ss at work.














  • Mechanismatic@lemmy.worldOPtoCrows@lemmy.mlBenchy
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    15 days ago

    The crows at the campus where I work do watch me through the windows of my makerspace, waiting for me to come out and feed them, and I’ve got the 3D printers set up in the windows, so this guy may have actually seen a benchy before…











  • It’s not new, but the current hot trend is for companies to outsource their costs as much as possible but pretend they’re providing “creators” with a service. Gig economy jobs, social media jobs, Etsy stores, etc. all involve “employees” who can’t call themselves employees for the purposes of insurance or full time hours or salaries taking on the equipment and material costs and labor costs in hopes that the company will pay out more than they invest. It’s the new MLM Avon calling, Tupperware party, essential oils scam. It’s not to say that some people won’t beat the house some of the time and make a decent living, but the odds aren’t in your favor and the house is still making a bunch off of you even when you are being “successful.”


  • My old SV06 at home often had better bed adhesion than the same prints on a Prusa MK4S at work. The SV07 Plus had the bigger bed I wanted, but it didn’t print as well as the 6. Lots of large failed prints and layer quality issues.

    But now you have the next adventure opportunity: 3D printing quality of life upgrades for the printer!

    I recommend looking into the ball bearing spool holder, the skadis organization mods for the left side alcove, purge bin, filament guide, vent handle, and more. Printables has a whole bunch of useful options.




  • I feel like this is too general. I’d want to customize based on specific IRL traits or jobs or hobbies.

    You feed and befriend crows? Druid with animal skills focus.

    You’re some kind of a carpenter, engineer, craftsman? Artificer.

    Phlebotomist’s assistant? Vampire thrall backstory.

    Retail salesperson? Bard with psychic damage skills.

    Live in a basement? Homebrew troll obviously.

    Software and coding? Sounds like arcane languages and warlock pacts to me.


  • A pattern I’ve noticed isn’t the legal aspect, but rather the monetization. Everyone is offering a platform where an obscure writer can pay to give away their writing for free or pay for an ad campaign where you’re spending more on ads than you will otherwise make off your work. One of the significant advantages for writing is that it requires very little overhead versus another activity like making physical objects that require equipment and material. But the market is saturated and publishing platforms are harder to access unless you’re a guaranteed seller who is already somewhat famous or has a built-in following. And there’s always someone out there willing to “help” by taking your money for the promise of connections and exposure.

    It reminds me of the old poetry contest scams where you submit a poem, they tell every poet that they’ve “won” and will be published, and then they offer a “discount” for poets published in the book to get print copies for you and your friends and family, but the book is only advertised to the poets.

    It does seem like there should be more open and free resources for this—websites where authors and readers connect without barriers or monetization. There probably are, but they don’t show up high in search results. Obviously they’re not going to be seen before all the paid options with ad funding.