iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

#AprilWorldBuilders 30: A few decades; though my first efforts were fanfiction (so, prefab world). But playing with ideas and coming up with interesting consequences was always fun for me. Only recently did things come together enough to produce something I thought worth publishing. #SciFi #SFF

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#WIPSnips 30: write Again: if you're going to be stranded in a timeline that split off thousands of years ago, *bring reference material*! #SciFi #ScienceFiction

Try it yourself, dear reader. From memory and without looking anything up:

* Explain the history of just the Americas, from Beringia through Clovis to modern times.
* Draw, as accurately as you can, the shapes of the various U.S. states. Label all of them. (Bonus: Include major cities and highways.)
* Write down as much of the Magna Carta as you can remember.
* Compare Egyptian art to Greek art without being able to show any examples.
* Accurately estimate how much cargo was shipped by boat, air, and rail worldwide.
* Explain the different forms of government in the world, and give a summary of their underlying philosophies.

There was so much to cover, I could barely do outlines. It hurt my soul to describe Cleopatra as “an empress who seduced the ruler of one side of a civil war.”

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Ellis Rosales @ellisrosales.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

#AwesomeCharacters Jim swears for emphasis. Usually secular, but he'll blaspheme in Christian fashion when things are really bad. It wasn't that frequent before he got displaced across timelines. Now it's fairly regular. 😀

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Reposted by Ray Ingles

#TimeTravelAuthors Day 27 Message? A brighter world and future is possible #AndinoAndina - Choices we make (c) Liz Rosales OUT 6 MAY!!! #SpecFic #speclit #iamediting #iamwriting #writesky #ND #neurodivergent #solarpower #solarpunk #freeEnergy #WIPSnips

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Julie Bihn, author of Titanic Voyage @juliebihn.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Oh hey did someone say preorder? Immigrants' Journey will be published widely, so if it's not on your preferred platform yet, it should be someday. I'm HOPING to publish this year, but who knows. April 2027 is the firm deadline. Links in comment! Otherwise, see you next month, #TimeTravelAuthors!

Cover of Titanic Voyage, "New cover coming soon" (it's the old one but there's a glowing silhouette of Liam in green and black in the porthole), "Previous covers available on Itch.io," and Immigrants' Journey, "Sequel preorder available now." Immigrants' Journey has a glowing gold frame with a glowing silhouette of a woman inside. The background has an amusement park in front of Picacho Peak with blues and purples throughout.

#TimeTravelAuthors
May 2026

1. Introduce your story (optional: use the word "may")
3. Old buildings in your story
5. A character's favorite snack
7. First lines spoken by an unimportant, non-major, or unnamed character
9. Saturday excerpt (optional word: hide/hidden)
11. Do your characters ever undo anything?
13. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: peace)
15. What might change if your story started in a different year?
17. Sleep habits/schedule
19. How organized are your characters?
21. Do characters meet any relatives when they time travel?
23. Saturday excerpt (optional word: rescue/save)
25. Something pretty/beautiful in your story
27. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: clever/smart)
29. A weird comp (any medium) for your time travel story
31. Author's choice/promo

To join, just answer the prompts on odd days, using the hashtag #TimeTravelAuthors
On even days, post what you like!

Questions? @juliebihn.bsky.social or @juliebihn.mastodon.social

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Lyssa Chiavari @lyssachiavari.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

#TimeTravelAuthors 29: Author's choice The next chapter of JLTFT is going live on Patreon on Friday! www.patreon.com/lyssachiavari

Just Like the First Time: Serializing now on Patreon!

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Mayken Brünings @maykenalanna.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

#TimeTravelAuthors Day 29 Sorry I missed a few prompts during my holiday. My short story STATUS GREEN about which I posted this month, is available in the time travel anthology THE ACCIDENTAL TIME TRAVELERS COLLECTIVE, volume 2. Buy links on my website: www.maykenbruenings.com/time-travel/...

#TimeTravelAuthors
April 2026

1. Introduce your story (optional: as a knock-knock or other joke)
3. What kind of coffee/caffeinated beverage do your characters like? (suggested by Candace Hill)
5. Games in your story
7. How seriously do they take time travel?
9. Will your characters admit they're wrong?
11. Saturday excerpt (optional word: point)
13. Silliest character
15. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: sink/sank) (suggested by NaraMoore)
17. How do you feel about story structure?
19. Any authorities in your story?
21. Repost or reply to another #TimeTravelAuthors participant's post
23. Do your characters test time travel?
25. Saturday excerpt (optional word: alert/observe/observant)
27. Message/moral of your story
29. Author's choice/promo

All time-travel authors and published works, WIPs, etc. welcome!
To join, just answer the prompts on odd days, using the hashtag #TimeTravelAuthors
On even days, post what you like!

Questions? @juliebihn.bsky.social or @juliebihn.mastodon.social

A book cover in mostly blue, with a woman's silhouette in a doorway, yellow light coming from behind her, a big city during night-time in the background. The title is THE ACCIDENTAL TIME TRAVELERS COLLECTIVE - VOLUME 2 - AN ANTHOLOGY BY MORE TIME TRAVELING AUTHORS.

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Time Travel is putting effects before causes. If you have that... #TimeTravel! 😀

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#TimeTravelAuthors 29: Author's choice/promo Marketing is not my thing, but... read the blurb for SECONDARY. The reviews say I actually pull that off. 🤷 books2read.com/b/mdx1Jl Amazon: t.co/0xpU28EWiE Sample chapters: t.co/pvZX0lxq2v

Everybody has bad days. Jim McAllister’s having one that spans two timelines.

For an anthropologist, joining the Time Eye project is a career-making dream. He’s hardly above pulling strings–especially for a chance to pull photons from the Bronze Age and directly view ancient cultures. Then rogue scientists hijack the Eye, sending an engineered virus back thousands of years. Jim, the last person interfaced with the system, can only watch as reality warps around him.

Now he’s the sole remnant of the old history: a conspicuous, bizarrely-dressed young man who speaks no recognizable language. Thanks to the virus, anyone with two X chromosomes is a living, and potentially lethal, taser. Men have never been a significant threat to women–quite the opposite.

To have any chance of getting home–to even survive, in a world where men’s concerns have been secondary for all of recorded history–Jim will need to find allies. He’ll have to apply his skills to a uniquely unfamiliar culture, where much more than the gender signifiers are radically different. He must figure out who might listen to his story. A story that’s clearly impossible and deeply offensive. Plus, just as a bonus, heretical.

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Hey, #IndieAuthors - does Ingram Spark's interface suck, and occasionally you just have to ditch your edits on a book's data and just start over?

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Who else suffers from Sudden Onset Cat Head? #CatSky #CatsOfBsky #Cat

Darwin, a tabby cat, squeezes from below into the lap of the person sitting at a desk. Only his head and one paw is visible, and his left eye is squinting.

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

#AprilWorldBuilders 29: My current project is the sequel to SECONDARY. The further adventures/trials of Jim, exploring the weird alternate timeline he's been stranded in. I'm gonna get this sucker out this year. In fact... I'm going to take May off the socials, to focus. #SciFi

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

#WIPSnips 29: immediate Jim makes a rather substantial gaffe. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

My relief was suddenly a dim and distant thing. Understanding blossomed. Coming across as insulting the bows of the Empress' wife - said insult coming immediately after the granting of a major concession on the part of said wife - I mean, that was simply a monstrously fucking stupid idea.

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Not *all* snack foods have such complicated recipes. Potato chips are pretty simple! (Though sour cream and onion flavoring might be tricky. 😈)

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That's because the regions where tomatoes exist, vs where cheese exists, never really overlapped in this history. Something pizza-like could eventually be made, after some R&D. But the spices, cheeses, and even the tomatoes would be different breeds from anything in our world. 😐

Cheese exists in this timeline! But lactase persistence is less common worldwide, and especially among the population Jim lands in. This just happens to be from an ethnic restaurant; doubtless imported. And it's not a variety of cheese that was ever bred in our history. 😁

#ConlangApril 28: One bit I don't believe I've mentioned is that the name 'Jim' is problematic in Lihnahchoo. First off, final consonants aren't a thing. And second, the 'ih' vowel sound is considered feminine. So a name like 'Jihm' sounds wrong for a boy in two different ways. #Conlang #Conlangs

Nusuku gave a glance at Atosho, then bowed to me formally. “Restful slumber to thee, Jeem.” I still treasured that cut-off final vowel. She never got much better at pronunciation, but she made the effort.

#WIPSnips 28: chicken Of all the things Jim has to get used to in the new timeline, the cuisine is one of the hardest to cope with. #SciFi

Atosho had a late-night snack delivered from a nearby restaurant. Apparently an 'ethnic' one, some foreign cuisine from what I would have called central Russia. Heavily spiced meat, but accompanied by a salty, wet, sour cheese. Kind of like feta cottage cheese.

Fuck, at least it was some kind of cheese. It helped overpower the intense bitter flavor of the chicken meat, as we skimmed the various news programs. That Yarona had taken an interest in my case was widely reported. In addition, it turned out elements of his schedule were published a day in advance: there was some coverage of the fact that I'd be having lunch with him tomorrow.

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Certainly! Just as there have been egalitarian and matriarchal societies in our history. Humans are endlessly variable. 😁

#TimeTravelAuthors 27: Message/moral of your story About three morals, actually. 😀 1. The way things are is not the only way they could be 2. Society hugely influences how we see things, including gender 3. #TimeTravel is hideously dangerous #SciFi #ScienceFiction #SciFiBooks

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It takes a while for Jim to realize she does unusual things like address men in the formal mode. (Not common, kinda old-fashioned.) Even her fiance. Even when her fiance addresses *her* in the familiar. (Another char has a regional accent that defeats Jim for a long time. 😀) 2/2

#ConlangApril 27: Even while Jim's learning the language from scratch, he remarks on the way Atosho speaks. (To be fair, there's only one other person at those early lessons.) She speaks clearly and precisely (which makes sense, she's roughly a 'college professor'). Even attempting English. 1/2

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

#WIPSnips 27: photograph Okay, 'picture,' but the vibes are strong with this one. #SciFi

‘Nusuku’ frowned, but stayed businesslike. “What thy name is?”

“Jim.”

A tiny squint. “Jeema?” She dropped her pitch on the “ma,” indicating a question. It still sounded like a statement to my instincts.

“Jim.” Flatly: “Other say Jeema.”

Her head tilted but she let that go. She placed a picture on the table in front of me. Glossy, color, nothing to distinguish it from one in my world. Although, I didn’t see pixels, or blocky compression artifacts. It was a shot of Toromu’s face and shoulders. The side of her head was caved in.

“Why thou Toromu didst kill?” Nusuku asked.

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#ConlangApril 26 Jim hasn't run into much of those directly. Yet. About the only book he reads is an educational kindergarten primer on their syllabary. He knows there *are* some kind of scriptures. And that his story flatly contradicts key elements of the local creation myth... 😬 #SciFi

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

#WIPSnips 26: work Ok, this a chonky snip. But it doesn't just include work - it's *about* work, and how societies allocate it. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

“Even when there’s a division of labor, it’s usually not that sharp. Something like eighty percent of the hunter-gatherer societies we know of include women hunters.” I gave Felix a pointed glance. “Social power often seems to depend on how many calories people bring in.” His eyes had narrowed; I met his scowl. “A lot of places, hunting’s just a bonus; it’s the gathering that really feeds the group.” I allowed myself a modest grin. “Turns out guys can do a decent job sharing power when their meals depend on it.”
That got a nervous, tension-releasing laugh from the group, so I kept going. I’d taken a dislike to Felix anyway–he had no idea how complex the Early Bronze Age was, all over the world–and I’d been in academia for years. Poking the eye of someone who irritates the boss is good politics. Even better if it’s dressed up as a polite information exchange. “Agriculture was a disaster for women, in some ways. The men worked the fields, the women handled the home. There’s evidence that the longer a culture’s had Eurasian-style agriculture, the more rigid the gender roles have become.”

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Not really a *language* thing, but... especially for arranged marriages between clans, there's a strong taboo on the engaged couple speaking ill of the engagement itself. Speaking negatively of their intended is strongly discouraged; unless it's phrased cleverly, with plausible deniability. 3/3

Also Jim, as a male, is not allowed to know any obstetrical terms. That is, in fact, how he *learns* their word for 'taboo.' (The Proto-Indo-European taboo against discussing bears gets a shout-out.) 2/3

#ConlangApri 25. Taboos A few swear words show up, including 'dayrooleh,' "A semi-blasphemous epithet meaning 'Goddess’ menstrual discharge.'" There's a fun scene in my WIP where Jim learns all kinds of dirty slang. (Well, it *starts out* fun...) 1/3 #Conlang

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#TimeTravelAuthors 25: 'observe' I mean... what *do* you do when stranded in an unknown timeline, anyway? Asking for a friend. Or at least an MC. #SciFi #ScienceFiction

I had developed the bare beginnings of a plan. I’d probably have to be a homeless beggar for a while; hopefully not too long. I could maybe find some kind of scholar, convince him–crap, more likely her–that I was worth trying to understand. The best thing I could think of was to find another anthropologist. I could maybe point out some of the lost habitations we’d observed with the Time Eye. If they dug there, and found something… maybe they’d believe me.
I had to get someone to believe me.
If… no. Once I got that far… this place clearly had some tech more advanced than I was used to. They might have a Time Eye, too. Or something even better. Maybe a way to get me home.
As a plan, it obviously sucked.

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#WIPSnips 25: tack Don't have to vibe this one! (Jim's name is very foreign-sounding in the new timeline. He generally gets called something else.) #SciFi

Manayka made a jaygo that bordered on [rude]. "Boys talk."

Several of the women, especially T'ramoi and Saloro, were visibly unimpressed. "Naturally they talk," T'ramoi said with a grin. "Why trouble Jeema with idle gossip?"

I hadn't seen Manayka be quite that firm with the women. "They talk because they must. To warn each other." He could see he wasn't getting through. After an almost-invisible grimace, he changed tacks. "Besides, if Huvishu is too gohshaivehbusau,[1] how shall Jeema react?"

[1] 'Exothermic.' Pretty sure that was the chemical term in English. In this context, it meant 'enthusiastic.' Electrical metaphors are deeply embedded in this culture - foundational, really. But they've had chemistry longer here, too.

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Someone 'singular' is 'bihnee,' 'one who repels,' like similar electric charges. (Can mean 'unique' or 'antisocial' depending on context.) 4/4

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To be excited or aroused is to be "vel'guh," 'charged up.' Their word for knowledge, 'woidovu,' shares a root with their word for 'broadcast.' Someone's "sphere of influence" is their "baudoo timairoh," 'breadth of field.' To be comply/be influenced is to 'joomihlee,' 'align with a field.' 3/4

'Gazoi' is the word for 'spark,' and a common phrase is that 'girls like a boy with some spark.' As in, boys willing to tussle with other boys. (Boys fighting *girls* is just stupid.) Taking an action is 'applying one's spiritual voltage/force to a particular path in a notional circuit.' 2/4

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#ConlangApril 24. Cultural influence/references Electrical metaphors are all over. The word for 'left' is 'tahyoinah,' 'negative'; 'right' is 'ahnahgih,' 'positive.' (Derives from the corresponding voltages generated by women in each hand.) 1/4 #SciFi #Conlangs #ScienceFiction

(Celestial bodies *sending* messages is rarer. When more advanced radios developed, interference from the Sun was obvious. But there was an almost Galileo-like controversy when one scientist claimed to detect radio emissions from Jupiter, a few centuries back.) 2/2

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#AprilWorldBuilders 24: Magic associated with celestial bodies There are rituals of propitiation to Goddess and various heavenly spirits. Almost all of them involve sending a radio signal at some point. Spark-gap radios have been around for about 3K years, incorporated into theology. 1/2 #SciFi

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Papa 'Iron Breaker' Djinn @papadjinn.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

#WIPSnips 24: hungry So you're an anthropologist, trying to compare notes with anthropologists from a *very* different timeline. How do you establish a common language? #SciFi #ScienceFiction

We had an agreed-upon term for ‘agriculture.’ I recalled it to their attention, and began a new term: “Famine.” I used our words/gestures for ‘decrease,’ and acted out a little pantomime of being hungry and worried. I had to glance at a cheat sheet to remind me of their term for ‘even/unto/all the way to’ but that was just a couple seconds. I said it, and mimed death.

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Reposted by Ray Ingles

I might have written a review for @professoremily.bsky.social 's "The Gods of Atalantis", published by @hookandquillpress.com. To see the rest of the review, pop over to www.goodreads.com/book/show/25... and hey, while you're there you can follow the book to purchase it 4/30~ #WritingCommunity

I'll get straight to it, the book is in fact good. Mireia is a complex young woman in a living breathing word that doesn't stand around waiting to be guided by her influence - God or not.

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Eliwood S(pooky) Ghost @eliwoodsgheist.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

One of my life-long dreams is about to come true!! I will be holding a launch party for BLUDEYE BEACH at Books End Bookstore on May 16th from 12-2pm, with a live reading at 1. If you're in the Syracuse area, come on by and say hello! 😍 #indiewriter #booksendsyr #syracusewriters

Flyer for a book launch of Bludeye Beach by Eliwood S. Gheist.
May 16th, 2026 12:00-2:00PM
Books End Bookstore
2443 James St
Syracuse, NY 13206
Reading at 1:00PM
Signed copies available

Cover for Bludeye Beach. Shows a cliff with a cave entrance on a beach with the title Bludeye Beach by Eliwood S. Gheist, Book 1 of the Bludeye Beach series.

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

One right after the other. 😈

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Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Technically *every* character in the new timeline starts out as a complete mystery to Jim. 🤣 But there's more going on with Yolyku the linguistics 'professora' than he grasps. Also Lerouba, the 'lad in waiting.' Both of them have secrets to reveal in the series climax... #AwesomeCharacters