Greetings, #writersCoffeeClub! The new month is nearly upon us, so here’s April’s list of prompts. This month’s theme is “syntax.”
As always, a text-only version is available on my site:
➡️ https://sulfur.ink/wcc-april-2026/ ⬅️
We’re looking forward to your responses! 🎉
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#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 21 - What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?
Light blue touch paper...
The benefits and opportunities open to everyone self-publishing their work through Amazon KDP.
#WritersCoffeeClub April 20. What have you tried to immortalise in your writing?
Human stupidity.
As Harlan Ellison remarked, "the commonest elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."
This is a lesson that needs to be hammered home in every generation. Supporting evidence from real life: the English language news cycle since January 20th, 2025.
#WritersCoffeeClub 21 April: What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?
The idea that you should write for the broadest audience possible.
Studies show that 54% of the US population read at or below a 6th grade (age 12) level of comprehension.
Fuck 'em, they're not my readers: I write to entertain readers who're willing to put some effort in, I'm not going to enshittify my output to accommodate people who don't read for pleasure. (Low grade readers never got the habit.)
#WritersCoffeeClub August 2: What's the most challenging thing you've ever written?
It changes over time. In 2003 it was "Accelerando" (head-on tackling a topic most hard SF authors shied away from, the Singularity). In 2006's "Glasshouse"—1st person present tense, and the narrator is murdered 60% of the way through. By 2012 it was "Rule 34"—a multi-PoV 2nd person present tense crime novel. Currently it's "Starter Pack": two grifters pull a long con across 5 reincarnations, told nonlinearly.
#WritersCoffeeClub 17 Dec: Give a shout-out to a resource or site you think more writers should know.
This is for everyone who uses internet search: the Konami disenshittification code. If instead of going to your browser, you go here, you get search results without an AI overview. That's one tiny bit of sucking up electricity and water avoided.
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June’s prompts for WCC are here! This month’s prompt theme is “restriction.” We’re looking forward to seeing your responses! 🎉
Collaboration is always appreciated; if you’d like to help, reach out to me here!
Text-based list is here: https://sulfur.ink/wcc-june-2025/
Happy writing!
Good morning, #writersCoffeeClub! July is (nearly) upon us, as are next month’s prompts. This month’s theme is ‘fuse’. Do note we have two 🗣️ Call & Response questions this month: one on the 11th, the other on the 25!
As always, a text-based list is available on my site: ➡️ https://sulfur.ink/wcc-july-2026 ⬅️
We’re looking forward to your responses!! 🥳♥️
#writersCoffeeClubMeta
Out now!!
Save $1.25 and buy direct from Evernight Publishing.
https://www.evernightpublishing.com/her-cravings-mastered-by-suzy-shearer/
Can 51 year old Jessica allow one man to control her again?
Especially now she's come face-to-face with Aiden Dowling, 54—a confident, attractive Dom, who looks at her like an apex predator.
#read #readromance #romance #romanceAuthor #romanceNovel #romanceNovels #bookstadon #WritersCoffeeClub #writingCommunity #wordweaver #creativity @bookstadon #romanceBooks #bookstodon #menage #threesome #MMF #BDSM #oldercouple #maturecouple #contemporary
#WritersCoffeeClub June 10: Where is the line between homage and theft?
I don't know, but when I read the first Terry Brooks's fantasy (Sword of Shannara), decided that it was a blatant rip off of Tolkien, *and Mr Brooks made absolutely no mention of owing anything to Tolkien*, I have completely refused to read any Terry Brooks book.
#WritersCoffeeClub June 1. What sense is easiest for you to describe?
I don't generally describe senses—interiority and qualia are absolutely not my thing!—but the external stimuli: visuals, sounds, scents, tastes. (Less often: textures, proprioception.)
NB: there may be too much ambiguity in this writing prompt.
Out now!! Save $1.25 and buy direct from Evernight Publishing.
https://evernightpublishing.com/perfect-three-by-suzy-shearer/
“Beautiful Lucy, you need two people to satisfy you. One to control you but two to give you ultimate pleasure.”
#read #readromance #romance #romanceAuthor #romanceNovel #romanceNovels #bookstadon #writersofMastodon #WritersCoffeeClub #writingCommunity #wordweaver #creativity @bookstadon #romanceBooks #bookstodon #menage #threesome #MMF #BDSM #oldercouple #maturecouple #contemporary
Chapters 27 and 28 of "A New Faith" are up on the website at https://tinjar.ghost.io/a-new-faith
Parts 1 and 2 are available to #download (or read online) for #free in #DRMfree #PDF and #EPUB formats
#solarpunk #hopepunk #clifi #book #bookstodon #novel #fiction #scifi #climate #adaptation #migration #mystery #thriller #booksky #amwriting #authorsky #WritersCoffeeClub #WordWeavers #ScribesAndMakers #PennedPossibilities #writingcommunity #sciencefiction #climatefiction
Greetings, #writersCoffeeClub! The month is nearly over, so here’s your installment of next month’s questions, with the theme of “festivity”! We’re looking forward to your responses! 🎉
As always, a text-only list is available on my site: ➡️ https://sulfur.ink/wcc-march-2026/ ⬅️
If you’d like to help put together next month’s list of prompts, reach out! #writerCoffeeClubMeta
Part 3 begins!
Finally, the stakes come into focus.
How does it all end?
Chapter 29 of "A New Faith" is up on the website at https://tinjar.ghost.io/a-new-faith
Parts 1 and 2 are available to #download (or read online) for #free in #DRMfree #PDF and #EPUB formats
#solarpunk #hopepunk #books #bookstodon #novel #climatechange #adaptation #migration #mystery
#thriller #amwriting #WritersCoffeeClub
#WordWeavers #ScribesAndMakers
#PennedPossibilities #writingcommunity #sciencefiction
#climatefiction
#WritersCoffeeClub 8 July: Are your narrators a diegetic part of the world which they narrate?
If I'm writing in the third person, then nope, they're potentially omniscient (but tightly focussed). If I'm writing in the first person, then they're one of the protagonists. And my second person novels were just weird: the narrator is *implied* but probably diegetic (because second person narratives are a weird kind of "first person omniscient" where the narrator can see the back of their own head).
#WritersCoffeeClub – 9th May. C&R: Share the first line of your current WIP.
"The escape room was full of skeletons."
Looking for something to read over the weekend?
Something hot & naughty? Something with mature characters?
Then check out : https://www.evernightpublishing.com/suzy-shearer/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Suzy-Shearer/author/B00KOEP2W8?
And all online bookstores worldwide.
#read #readromance #romance #romanceAuthor #romanceNovel #romanceNovels #bookstadon #writersofMastodon #WritersCoffeeClub #writingCommunity #wordweaver #creativity @bookstadon #romanceBooks #bookstodon #menage #threesome #MMF #BDSM #oldercouple #maturecouple #contemporary
#WritersCoffeeClub April 23: What are some form conventions you disregard?
All of them (whenever I need to).
It's useful to know the rules in any field of writing, but only so you know why they exist, what purpose they serve—and by implication, when to break them.
(I mean, I've sold SF novels written in multi-viewpoint second person present tense. And broken the fifth wall, never mind the fourth. And the novella I did *that* in won a Hugo award. So why not?)
#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 24 Share a silly mistake you've made while writing.
Character name changes. If for some reason you change the name of a character you *really* need to double-check that it's changed *everywhere*. Hint: regular expressions and global *conditional* search/replace are your tools. Also how to manage word stemming with regexps. Then triple-check *everything*. Otherwise—guaranteed—you'll flip a character's name in one paragraph and the internet will never let you forget it!
Writer's Coffee Club prompt for 19 May: How would changing genre change your current WIP's plot?
Genre is *defined by plot.* I can set out to write a romance but if it follows mystery beats, it's also valid as mystery. Set it in the future, it's SF. Heck, add fae & make it fantasy too.
(This is why genre purity tests annoy me.)
Changing genres wouldn't affect my core concept. Pretty sure, "Two angry women bond over their love of cats" is achievable in every genre.
In other news, anybody know how I preserve the hyperlinks for endnotes when converting from docx to epub?
(I'm doing the conversion via Draft2Digital, if that matters.)
I'm trying to fix this for the 2nd edition of APPETITE FOR ANTITHESIS. I've been fighting with it for days now, and no online FAQs or forum posts have gotten me anywhere.
Help me, Fedi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
#epub
#epubFormatting
#DocxToEpubConversion
#WritingLife
#WritersOfMastodon
#WritersCoffeeClub
#fedisource
Writers’ Coffee Club for 8th April 2026
Do you do warm-ups before or cool-downs after a writing session?
Warm-up: read reddit and my blog comments until nausea motivates me to do some actual work. Then start by revising and polishing yesterday's output so I can pick up the thread seamlessly.
Cool-down: not these days, but in days of yore if I went over 4500 words in a session I'd head for the pub and drink 2-3 pints of beer to shut down the writer-brain so I could sleep.
#WritersCoffeeClub April 25 - Share your current biggest creative frustration.
Medical/age stuff. I'm over 60 and have multiple health conditions and the meds I'm on have side-effects—generally mild, but in combination it's exhausting. And it's been exhausting for 20 years. I can still write a novel a year but I *should* be able to do three, if I was suddenly magically healthy!
#WritersCoffeeClub 6: Talk about something you've written which you expected would (or expect will) divide readers.
I published a near-future alternate history trilogy via Tor (Empire Games) in which the USA are *very clearly the bad guys* (vs. a parallel universe North America that went kinda-sorta communist with Iranian constitutional overtones).
I was startled by how little pushback this got from my readers. Or maybe it just shows the effect of the first Trump presidency.
