Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 2hEndless waves of 1980s Southern Ontario just crashed over me. That was absolutely beautiful, but it's left me with such a mix of sadness and happiness. I'll have to listen to Echo Beach now to turn the nostalgic clouds a little lighter. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 3hThe #dog is eternally optimistic. 'Going downstairs? I'll come too! Maybe something will happen! No? Just laundry? That's okay; it's always fun to sniff around. Scratch my belly? No? Hands are wet? That's cool. I'll watch you dry them off! Neat!' Low expectations and a positive attitude. 011
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 13hOne of the all-time great books. So short, but so packed with memorable characters. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 13hThe #EV experience: obey the speed limit, accelerate gently, and range is 460 km.; drive like a demented banshee on uppers, and range is 260 km. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Hah! That's one the epigraphs I have in my novel You Say You Want a Revolution. Cats try to overthrow humanity! And it doesn't even end better for some. Everyone's worse off. 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026'More concise language would be clearer for your reader.' Seriously Copilot? Every single time a character says, 'have to', I should change that to 'must'? That's good advice, but I'm sorry, I must ignore it. Most of the time. ;-) #writing #BookSky 140
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026We had kohlrabi in our bio basket last year. I have zero recollection what it tasted like. Probably ate it sautéed with garlic and butter, maybe some pine nuts. Or maybe that was kale. Everything that isn't a carrot or a tater blends into one... 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Mark wasn't in all ten original books. Maybe four or five of them? I haven't read books 11 and 12, but from the descriptions, it's a whole story about his life and what happened before and after the virus hit. Probably great stuff for fans who liked that storyline. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Just finished draft 2 of #TheSage, book 3 in my Kennedy-Meyer crime mystery series. Draft 2 is so easy - just a read-through to see if any major surgery is required. In this case, almost none. Still, draft 3 is where the real work begins: close read and dealing with problem areas. #writing #BookSky 070
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I loved Bobby Adair's Slow Burn series, but now books 11 and 12 are a step-back in the timeline to explore villainous Mark - the story-line that least held my interest in the original ten books. :-( Not sure I want to go there... #writing #BookSky 💙📚 190
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The #EV experience has turned decidedly positive now that the home charger is installed and actually works. Getting a full charge overnight for peanuts feels pretty good. 100
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It definitely wants plain, vanilla writing. Strip out the style, make it plain for every reader. Not always a bad idea, but this is a novel. I got my style, dig? But when a character responds to an obvious statement with "No shit" and it says to place a comma after the No... #Eats,shootsandleaves 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026After ten years with this computer, I've been forced by Microsoft to upgrade MS Office. The #writing advice coughed up by Copilot or the AI (or whatever) in Word is just staggeringly bad. Some of it is okay - I could go my way or their way - but some of it is flat-out wrong. 100
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Life also involves selling yourself in some way or other to obtain moolah for the purchase of said items. 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Well, they finished eating all 35 hostas at my place, so they're drinking the continent dry all the way down to your place. Cheers! 151
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026We brush the dawg, too, but that doesn't stop me vacuuming up an entire hound every week. 1111
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Nothing good will happen, that's for sure. But we re-charge in a garage, at least, so getting to 100% shouldn't be too difficult. 100
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Grate floof means grate responsibiliddies for Momb, who has to get out the vacuum every fifteen minutes. 1101
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 28/09/2026After 1.5 months, the #EV experience is mostly negative. Range is better than we thought, but still pretty lousy. Charging times are brutal, even at fast chargers. The home charger is an ongoing disaster - so far. Little gotchas everywhere. Cost is ridiculous, even with gov't subsidies. 100
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Read the book and loved it. Loved the photo of the contract/legal declaration by Gregg Lenoir Allman. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Brilliantly absorbing. All of the great 1950s-2000 #writers, on their current project, their philosophy, how they write (an awful lot of insistence on using pen and paper), their attitude toward editors (Don't touch a word!), etc. A bygone time, almost quaint. #BrianLamb #Booknotes #BookSky 💙📚 020
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Pizza? Or kebab? If you have kids in the car every day, with their cell patched into your system, you know. 'Hey-ey, on our way back to the offtice...'. #writing #AI 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I never make that prediction. At some point I just can't face another draft. Then it's done. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026It's a never-ending conversation, the most engaging interactive technology ever invented. When written by humans. 032
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026No one's arguing. Tons of dogs wear the first one in winter. Tossing it in the wash is way easier than cleaning and drying the dog's belly, legs and paws. Why does this come back every two weeks? This is the third time I've provided the answer. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026A few commas, maybe a word or two, and the date in the file name! 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Rinkmaster must keep clients for about ten years. Once the kids are sixteen or so, that's it for backyard rink-making. But I guess grandkids arrive fifteen years later, and the cycle renews.... 48x24 big enough? #ODR #backyardrink 001
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Yeah, it's almost there. Usually I hit at least twenty drafts, but not this time. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Draft 14 of my next bok. Last three draafts have been stricty proofing. Still findng errors! Unbelievabl! #Books #writing #BookSky 💙📚 270
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I know how it is. My Penguin copy of Crime and Punishment has been punished so badly it's a crime. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It's been a few decades. I should really read it again. I have to say, though, that cover strikes me as kind of art deco, more appropriate to Fitzgerald than Dickens. ;-) 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Even better: you don't have to get it right at all, ever, and it can still be fantastic. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I don't want to make a #deal at all. I want us out there, decoupling. We've been whinging about it for decades now. Everyone knows it needs to happen. And drop the inter-provincial trade barriers already. I know it's not easy. It's easier to wait it out and hope for a return to "normal". 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I'm always amused (depressed) when someone #reads just one page of my #book and stops. But this time, they came back the next day for another page. And then stopped. Again. So I'm doubly amused (depressed). #BookSky 💙📚 060
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026As much as I don't like AMZ, Kindle Create's previewer is the best proofing tool I've seen. Bump the text to size 10 with a click, and view it in phone mode, or tablet. Take it completely out of a Word-like context. Stuff just jumps out at you - missing commas, quotation mark improperly placed, etc. 001
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026This was really his era. Fifties, sixties - just brilliant. The physical comedy. DVD Show was beautiful. After that...hit and miss. Still, amazing talent when it was used properly. MP, for example, the dance sequences. 001
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026From Mary Oppen's autobiography: "We look for understanding by immersing ourselves in works of art; nothing speaks across cultures and across time as does the human spirit expressed in its works of art." Those works of #art now to be generated by sloppy, spiritless plagarisation machines. #AI 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Not only shuddup, but fill the bowl already! Ya think my belly's not empty? C'mon, hop to! 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/09/2026'Hey-ey, on our way back to the oftice...' And if you have had to listen to this five hundred million times on the car radio, like I did, well, you have my sympathies. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/09/2026You're correct. And I spent thirty years in IT, working with people like that. I have a better idea than most just how doomed we are. 110
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 06/09/2026Add some Moomin to that pile - on the table behind you. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 04/09/2026It's not just rudeness or indifference. They loathe reading and learning unless there's a direct and immediate financial payoff. They lack curiosity and everything that comes with it. 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 04/09/2026The timid intern purposely avoided the brash CEO. The brave intern strode purposefully across the room to shake the brash CEO's hand. Purposely. Purposefully. Go ahead and use 'em, but correctly, hey? #words 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 02/09/2026She looks like a harfang des neiges, following a doomed mouse as it pokes its head up through the snow. 000
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Man, seeing AI companies advertise the brilliance of their offerings by claiming they'll produce a KDP-ready novel in only an hour! Like, this product is so great it'll immeasurably cheapen life as we know it! Yeah! It'll make you money, right? And to hell with the value of humans #writing! #BookSky 030
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Okay. Ours is more brindle than sable. But same snout, same ears that don't stand up. We don't know what it is. Doesn't really matter. He doesn't care... 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Plus, as a bonus, walking them is easier when they don't have wings. Imagine! And if they pooped up there! 010
Vincent J. Gardner @vincentwriter.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Out of curiosity, what type of dog is that? Ours is near identical (a little darker), but we have no idea what it is. 100
