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Seeking escape

Those of you who notice such things will know that in a little less than two weeks, it's going to be a year since @petermorwood departed this plane of existence.

As the date's been getting closer, I'm becoming increasingly clear (due to mood swings and sleep disturbances and other such stuff) that it would be a really good thing for me if I don't have to live through this first anniversary of his loss anywhere near the house where he breathed his last.

For that day, and ideally a couple/few days on either side of it, I really need to get away from here.

So that's my plan, if I can get all this to come together (with everybody's help). ...It's not like any brief escape will get the pain to stop, you know? That's years away... if ever. But at least this move will prevent a short-term crisis, and allow me (after the really painful day has passed) to start getting back to what around here now passes for "standard operating procedure"—meaning writing, and doing other work, and getting on with the rest of the current form of life—as quickly as possible.

What I have in mind is to spend the days on either side of May 9th—and the day itself—as far away from the cottage as physical issues will allow me to travel. Let's think of it as a long weekend, an hour or two's flight away. To manage that, though, I need to boost sales at the Ebooks Direct store over the days to come. If the necessary funds manifest themselves over the course of this week, I'll have time to make the necessary arrangements.

So can I get those of you who see this post to reblog it, and bring the Ebooks Direct store to people's notice as widely as possible? ...As numerous ebook bundles are available at discount prices. (There are more than show in the slide below: that's just a snapshot of how the front-page carousel looks.)

...And if none of these appeal (or if you've got them already and want to give them to somebody else): hey, there are gift cards! (I finally managed to get these things organized correctly...) 😅 They come in per-bundle versions, or in a number of cash values to suit your preference.

Finally: if you've already got too many ebooks, or otherwise just prefer to drop a little something into the kitty to help me escape for a few-ish days, here's my Ko-Fi.

Support Diane Duane

...So let's see if this can be pulled off. And for all your past help, and assistance to come: thanks, friends. I appreciate you so much... as your voices, heard daily, are pretty much all that makes the local silence bearable.

Thanks again.

wordnerdwonderland

Great books, wonderful human, do highly recommend.

edgebug

happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!

though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!

thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!

kedreeva

When I was a kid, maybe 14 or so (which is, you know, 20+ years ago), I belonged to a Yahoo! mailing list for an anime called Gundam Wing. It was mostly populated by other teens, of varying ages, as it was started by a teen and her friends. Eventually it migrated, when Yahoo! groups started as forums, and even branched off into non-GW related stuff in a second forum.

One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.

I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.

I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.

I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered. When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.

She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.

I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.

And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think… I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.

So I guess, like, if you’re here and you’re 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or whatever, I want you here in fandom with me, still. Your presence here is a comfort. It is hope. It is a reminder that life will continue to be fun, even as I get older, myself. And if you’re younger and you have this sort of elder in your groups, I hope that they are like Steel. I hope they are kind and patient and supportive, and that knowing them gives you hope for your own future. I hope in twenty years you look back and remember them fondly.

taraljc

*hugs you tight* fandom mother’s and grandmothers are important and how we keep and pass the Lore.

wordnerdwonderland

I remember as a 17 year old kid just getting access to the Internet without my parent over my shoulder for the first time (the computer was still in the living room, but I had been deemed mature enough to be allowed my own email account, finally, so I could create accounts without having to get them individually approved by both parents), and it didn't even occur to me to wonder how old any of the people I was talking with were, because we were all fans of this one TV show that is long forgotten. it's not even available as dvd sets or streaming last I checked. Then I put on my headphones and had this yahoo voice chat, and one of the women was from Russia and had a very thick accent, and another was a black woman from North Carolina and sounded it, and I was a little white girl in TX who was just absolutely gobsmacked that these people were so different from me and loved what I loved, and while I eventually moved on from that fandom, I still have very fond memories of that group* * (except for the ~40 something year old woman who plagerized my fic series but changed the pairing. I'm now a 40 something year old woman and I cannot imagine wanting to copy a 17 year old kid's writing like that, yikes!)

haunted-hideaway

They just let kids with Cs do things.

SO I was talking about education today with a coworker. We directly see the results of the educational system at work every single day, and we also work closely with the local school district on some things, so we have some common observations. She was talking about a relative who'd been let into an AP class with a C average recently. She was absolutely scandalized. And I get that. AP classes are supposed to be hard and past performance can often be a predictor of future outcomes.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that when I was in high school they let me into AP classes with a C average. With very little pushback. I told them I was bored and not paying attention (pretty much the summary of my entire school career) and that I was doing the minimum. That I wanted to take AP classes to see if they were any harder, and if I didn't do well, they could throw me back in with the plebes in regular history and English. The guidance councilor was like... what if you get Cs? And I'm like, who gives a shit!? I'm getting Cs in regular class. I can get Cs in that class too and who cares? If I wash out, put me back in regular English/History.

So they did. And I suddenly shot up to As. They gave me the underperforming gifted kid speech of how I could have been doing this the whole time. Honestly, it was fucking easier than regular English/history. It was lecture/essay test. Lecture/essay test. I happen to be a good writer and I'd much rather listen to someone drone on than do little group projects or have "fun" ways of illustrating concepts (though my economics teacher illustrating the point of diminishing returns by feeding someone Tootsie Rolls till he got sick was pretty bitchin').

I hated wasting time in class. Wasting time in school was something I absolutely obsessed over. AP class didn't have time to waste time, they were trying to cram in everything you needed for the AP exam into half a year.

So, like, while I can see her point, I don't think it should be a hard and fast rule. She was actually pretty psyched about German's method of funneling kids into programs early in their academic careers and making it hard to leap into another track.

Which is like, another thing. My academic performance in no way indicated that I'd be good in university classes. I have a BFA an MLIS and three advanced certificates. I blossomed in college. Especially the lecture/essay test classes. I did very poorly in the one that required math, but my dyscalculaic woes are another tale for another time.

I don't know if I was a student today if anyone would "catch" that I'm incredibly auDHD. But when I was in school, we didn't have disabilities like that for "smart" kids. Or female-presenting kids. We had stuff written in blue ink on our report cards that said things like "has so much potential." "If only she'd buckle down." "Needs to pay attention in class." "Needs to work on making friends." "Needs to stop having a bad attitude." And ass whoopings. We also had ass whoopings when you didn't pay attention or talked too much about an interest that no one cared about or didn't perform smalltalk with adults properly or didn't have facial expressions that met up with the subject of the conversation, or, as a girl, didn't properly anticipate other peoples' needs, especially when they talked around a topic like "the garbage needs to go out," etc. You can guess how many ass whoopings I got.

I have no idea where I am going with this. It was just story time, I guess.

Check on your friends who went to school in the 80s and 90s. We are not ok.

taraljc

I was nodding my head throughout this entire thing and I think it's time for me to interrogate the idea that I'm not just ADHD but might be AuADHD.

wordnerdwonderland

It me too, except I was tracked into honors in 6th grade because my 5th grade teacher saw it in my writing my first year in that district (after I moved cross country due to my mom getting remarried.) I deliberately skewed my psychiatry assessment to ADHD because as a high masking adult, there was no way in hell I was going to get an autism DX without a far more extensive assessment than the place I went to was capable of, and because I'm hyperliterate, I knew the deck was stacked against me. Also I was considering an international move, and several of the options I was considering won't let you move there if you have autism diagnosed, but have no issues with ADHD.

ayeforscotland

Absolute banger policy. The SNP want to introduce a sort of ‘baby box’ equivalent for children starting school.

The school bag would be filled with essential school items - stationery, books, a water bottle and information for parents to help with literacy and numeracy skills at home.

Fucking send it, love this idea.

Source.

taraljc

I bet you $5 by the end of the week Mamdani will replicate this social programme, too.

whenitgrowsbright

honestly i dont like that im seeing posts of people having a superiority complex over not liking harry potter. like yeah it sucks and the creator is one of the worst people on earth but like. it was really hard for me to pull away after learning about all that. and i find it upsetting that people are just posting about shoving away anyone who dares reblog fandom shit of it and calling them terrible people. like. it took years for me to pull away. it was a major special interest of mine. and a lot of posts are just so fuckin smug and like. i think a lot of people posting these things are honestly just looking for acceptable people tp be assholes to. idk. im rambling. i just... i think if id seen the posts people make about it today while i was trying to pull away it wouldve worsened my already fucking terrible mental state. its... idk. actual reccomendations if you're trying to pull away from harry potter:

divergent is fun if you like the personality sorting part. its trashy y/a dystopia, but yknow what? at least its not written by jkr.

if you want to read about teens with supernatural powers fighting off supernatural evils while having problems with tech and normal people, percy jackson might be your kinda thing. it also has personality sorting things you can enjoy, and a fun website or two.

if you want an incredibly different but easy to read fantasy book, howl's moving castle. its my favourite book for a reason! also inkheart.

if you want darker toned y/a fantasy stories, the hazel wood series might ve for you.

i will always reccomend terry pratchett if you want fun fantasy stories.

if you want a show, the witcher netflix is fun (if... a bit incomprehensible at times). i wouldnt really reccomend the books unless you like incredibly misogynistic writing, though. the games are fun!

wordnerdwonderland

*If you like magic school, some of Tamora Pierce's stuff might be up your alley (she is VERY trans friendly as well, I've seen it firsthand) *If you like teens with magic powers, @dianeduane is brilliant, involves cats, and has openly queer and neurodivergent characters in some of her stories (which, yes please!) and is also incredibly trans friendly. Both I can firsthandedly say are also amazing people in addition to being great authors.

battlecrazed-axe-mage

So we're all gonna let the new Harry Potter show die on the vine, right? No hatewatching. No thinkpieces. No videos about how bad it is. Deprive it of oxygen and let it wither away unremarked-upon and unprofitable; make HBO lose their entire investment and prove to the corporate entertainment sphere that the entire IP is poison. And spend that time doing something that brings you joy instead.

thatdisasterauthor

Works In Progress

One of the things I pretty often bring up in discussions of how much AI sucks is that people need to learn to love the process as much if not more than the final product. Creativity isn't about just having a finished THING, but also about enjoying the process of making that thing, and a lot of us seem to have forgotten about that.

SO.

In an effort to put my money where my mouth is, I'm going to start talking a lot more about my various works in progress, sharing sketches, sharing snippets, rambling about ideas, etc.

The main reason I haven't done this as much in the past is that I tend to bounce around between projects so much I kinda felt like it might be a bit hard for people to keep up with, but o'well! That's how I work so that's what it shall be.

As a primer/guide, here's all my major projects I'm currently working on! I'll throw these into my pinned post too, in a little bit shorter of a way, and I'll be updating this post to keep things up to date when there's big changes. I also have random smaller projects, but those will just be thrown in when they happen, they won't get the fancy trackers featured below.

Also, I'll be using the tag "#My Projects" for all of these, on top of the project specific tags listed below.

TAGS: #Camp Daze Book 2, #Linger a Little Longer, #Camp Daze Series, (And book 1 is tagged as #Camp Daze.)

ABOUT: The sequel to my book Camp Daze, a novel about an isolated girls summer camp in Colorado that gets forgotten about when a sudden nuclear apocalypse kicks off. The first book was about the start of the apocalypse and the the campers and counselors preparing to survive winter alone. Book 2 is about surviving the rest of winter, and what happens when the world starts to creep back in. It also adds a second POV, Cheyenne's, which was really fun to explore up close how the campers are doing, rather than just seeing it all from Conifer's perspective.

Status: The first draft is done! Just needs to go through edits. I'm hoping to maaaayyybe publish in early 2027? Not 100% set on a date yet, though.

Main Characters: Conifer, Marauder, Valora, Cheyenne.

TAGS: #Camp Daze Book 3, #Camp Daze Series,

ABOUT: The final book in the Camp Daze series. Nothing else to really say about this one just yet, since I haven't started anything with it. Just have some vague ideas floating around in my head.

Status: Not yet started.

Main Characters: Conifer, Marauder, Valora, Cheyenne.

TAGS: #Glory is Poison Book 2, #Glory is Poison Series, (And book 1 is tagged as #Poison in the Blood.)

ABOUT: The sequel to my book Poison in the Blood, a fantasy adventure through a post-apocalyptic world ruled by vampires where a brother tries to find his sister ten years after she was kidnapped while their family was on the run, only to discover that she may have grown up into someone far more dangerous than any vampire. Lots of characters that are fun to hate and poke with sticks. My favorite series to come back to after writing nicer books, because everyone in this series is Up To Shit and loves causing problems. Morals? Who needs 'em.

Status: Halfway through the first draft and I am DETERMINED to finish this thing and get it out this year. Y'all have waited long enough.

Main Characters: Dustin Lockwood, Russ Lockwood, Vivian Bellerose, Shae Lockwood, Ariane Cordova, Helen Thibault.

TAGS: #Glory is Poison Book 2, #Glory is Poison Series, (And book 1 is tagged as #Poison in the Blood.)

ABOUT: The third and final book in the Glory is Poison series. Not much else to say about this one just yet. It is also still just vague ideas.

Status: Vague ideas, no solid outline yet.

Main Characters: Dustin Lockwood, Russ Lockwood, Vivian Bellerose, Shae Lockwood, Ariane Cordova, Helen Thibault.

TAGS: #Love Might Shine,

ABOUT: Shiny NEW project inspired my fire tower/lighthouse illustration I did awhile back. It's a romance novel about a lighthouse keeper and the nearby fire lookout. It's a standalone M/M book with some spice and a disaster thrown in for good measure (did you expect me to NOT stick a disaster in a book with these themes? Come on now).

Status: Finished the outline so I could video myself doing it for some promo material for my Kickstarter, but I'm not sure when I'll get to the actual writing. Other projects have priority right now. I have been doodling the two main characters a lot, though, so I'll be sharing some of those here and there!

With this one, I'm also tracking the ENTIRE processes start to finish. Every planning decision, every writing decision, every editing decision, every research question. Then eventually I'm going to turn THAT into a longer resource thing of some sort about my overall writing and publishing process.

Main Characters: Linden Houleux, Fraser Thorne. (Yes, I DID give them the same initials as the words "Light House" and "Fire Tower. :P)

TAGS: #Stealing Fire,

ABOUT: A standalone fantasy adventure novel about a young wildland firefighter who gets caught up in the world of the Greek Gods when he finds Prometheus seemingly dead in the woods during a fire that almost kills him. This one features a pair of cousins that I LOVE because there are not enough cousins in books, okay? Gimme more cousins. It's such a fun relationship dynamic.

Status: The main draft and overall big edits are done, but I've decided to illustrate this one as well, so I'm not sure what the overall timeline looks like for publishing. I'm illustrating it a lot more than I did with The Pits, so it's just hard to predict.

Main Characters: Andreas, Theo, Maddie, Prometheus.

TAGS: #The Pits Book 2, #The Pits,

ABOUT: The second book in The Pits duology. The duology is set in a world where instead of North America being split down the middle by the Rocky Mountains, it is split by mysterious mountain-sized holes in the ground, and the deeper you go into them the stranger the magic they contains gets. Book 1 was about Clarabella trying to find her missing girlfriend, and going to her older outlaw sibling, Royal, for help, only for it all to go wrong when they are lured deep inside the Pits. Book 2 is about the consequences, which may spread much farther than anyone could have predicted.

Status: Still in the ideas stage as well. This one will also get the one illustration per chapter treatment like the first book, so it should take less time than Stealing Fire but more time than a standard book.

Main Characters: Clarabella, Royal, Shiloh, Akhíta.

TAGS: #Welcome to Sunshine, #Little Disaster Books,

ABOUT: A standalone book in my Little Disaster Books collection. This one features a group of teens caught in a fast moving urban fire that starts in the wildlands just outside their town and quickly blows up, consuming the town as it goes.

Status: Nearly done! Hoping to publish sometime later this year, but haven't set a solid date yet. Not going to do a Kickstarter for this one, just straight self-publishing.

Main Characters: Julian Harwood, Milo Copeland, Nicky Copeland.

TAGS: #Without a Star, #Little Disaster Books,

ABOUT: A standalone book in my Little Disaster Books collection. This one features a group of teens attending a special college abroad session in Iceland when they find themselves caught in a massive volcanic eruption.

Status: Nearly done! Hoping to publish sometime later this year, but haven't set a solid date yet. Not going to do a Kickstarter for this one, just straight self-publishing.

Main Characters: Helio, Beth, Noah, Jessy.

thatdisasterauthor

Tumblr, why did you but borders around my nice transparent PNGs? Rude.

to-spirkly-go

They killed Julius Caesar AGAIN today.

every march 15 in rome they restage the assassination at torre argentina. you know. the literal ruins of the curia of pompey. the exact place where it actually happened in 44 BCE.

and then they put his body on a litter and do a whole funeral procession through the city. with professional mourners and everything. they literally blocked traffic for this.

like imagine missing your bus because rome decided to re-kill julius caesar today.

note: i tried to show in the video how huge the crowd was because there were SO many people. also the last part of the video shows the roman forum, where caesar is actually buried. people still leave flowers there.

prismatic-bell

You know I'm going to be honest, I wish places did this more. Just do an entire day once a year of downtown looking and operating like it did in the 1940s, or reenacting the reaction to signing important historical documents, that kind of thing. Because life is so short in the cosmic scheme of things that it can be easy to disconnect from history and forget that things that happened ten and fifty and a hundred and a thousand years ago are still very much alive and affecting us today.

I don't mean obvious examples like "well duh everyone's heard the name Jesus Christ" (although that does still affect us! Walk into a room with 100 Mexican women and say "Necesito María?" and at least a third of them will stand up!), but things like...notice how they can still reenact the exact same walk as 2000 years ago? These are still the streets those senators walked. That same stage was in a grand building and stained with blood. The onlookers here are in modern clothes and holding cameras, but the crowds and the noise and the shouting and the sound of ten thousand footsteps? That's exactly the same. That's what it really would have been like.

When history is a real, visceral, bloody, beating thing, not relegated to dusty books and associated mostly with nerds and being boring, it's so much easier to see how it's not a matter of "beginning, middle, and end" but rather a messy and continuous confluence of actions that might only matter for five minutes or might echo across five millennia and there's no way to know when it happens which it's going to be. Half a dozen people might see this addition and go "huh. Neat" and then the thought gets relegated to the depths of tumblr, or someone might see it and go ".....oh shit this is cool" and decide to look into it more and fifteen years from now they're getting a Ph.D in history and just uncovered some major historical context that literally rewrites the history books, and nobody ever even knows it was because a random person on Tumblr got really excited about an assassination of Caesar reenactment.

Learn more history. Bring more history to life.

It is, after all, the story of our present.

mrshamill

secondbeatsongs

I wish I had stopped to savor it, the last time I saw a kung pow penis. I never knew it was to be my last

official-penis-posts

IM CLUTCHING MY FUCKING PEARLS

shorttrans

GOOD NEWS KUNG POW PENIS IS RETURNING WE MADE THEM REVERSE THE CHANGE

official-penis-posts

LUNG POW PENIS IS BACK ON THE MENU!!

failingatlifespectacularly

eye-of-toad

the-void-calls

ialwaysthinktooloud

ever-so-slightly-monstrous

dduane

"...I think we missed it again."

"Just barely, from the looks of it."

"I thought this time you were sure about the day and time Herself gave you!"

"Well, you know how weird their dating systems are. All those months..."

"Uh huh. Did you remember to ask her about the changeover between their calendars?"

"Of course, but that was so long ago, surely it can't still—"

"And look here. What in the Lady's name is 'Daylight Saving Time' supposed to be?"

"Well, that's just ridiculous, how can anybody save daylight—"

"Never mind that. Wait till those other people she said would be here show up: we can ask them what went wrong. Meanwhile, come on, let's go get some nunch; we've plainly missed all the excitement."

(muttering) "Just glad I don't have to clean that up."

(under-breath snickering) "...Anyway, I told you it was a waste of time dressing up for this."

"Oh shut up."

thatdisasterauthor

(Full alt-text below the cut.)

Awhile ago when I was talking about wildland fire mitigation and how fires move through urban areas, I was struck by a visual of mitigation but make it Chutes & Ladders. It seemed like a potentially good educational aid, so I decided to make it into a poster!

I think the general movement dynamic of Chutes & Ladders does a good job of capturing the basics of how fire can move through urban areas and spread erratically, jumping and moving from one area to another while leaving some areas untouched.

I actually fell in love with this enough that I think I'm going to turn it into a full game at some point as well, with a full 100 square board. That version will have two sets of rules, one the basic Chutes & Ladders rules and then another that has points involved based on which houses you hit. Not sure when I'll get to it, but it's on my To Do list!

This version is totally playable, though! You can get the print file of this version, and a version that has a clear board, for free on my Payhip Store! The poster is 18x24" and the playable version comes with a second sheet with pieces you can cut out and play with.

velvetwar

Can we just start stabbing Julius Caesar now it's been a hard week.

motherfucker-somewhat-limited

when I choose the most popular response in a subjective tumblr poll: oh hell yeah I chose the correct response. I am going to get a good grade in tumblr poll, a thing that is normal to want and possible to achieve.

when I choose the least popular response in a subjective tumblr poll: I am a tastemaker. a trailblazer. avant-garde. the uncultured masses cannot fathom the secret depths of my genius.

homunculus-argument

Hey btw, another worldbuilding thing: You can, and actually should have weird and impractical cultural things. They’re not inherently unrealistic, for as long as you address the realistic consequences as well.

Let’s say you’ve got a city where there’s tame white doves everywhere. They’re not pests, they’re regarded as sacred, holy protectors of the city, and the whole city cares for them and feeds them like they’re pets. They’re so tame because it’s a social taboo to hurt or scare one. Nice pretty doves :)

Then someone points out that even if they’re not seen as pests, doesn’t having a completely unchecked feral pigeon population - that not only isn’t being culled, but actively fed and cared for - mean that there would be bird shit absolutely all over the place?

A part of you wants to say no, because these are your nice, pretty doves. To explain that there’s a reason why they’re not shitting all over the place, maybe they’re super-intelligent and specifically bred and trained to not shit all over the place. The logistics of how, exactly, could anyone breed and train a flock of feral birds go unaddressed.

An even worse solution would be to not have those birds, editing them out of the world. No, they spark joy, you can’t just toss them out!

Now, consider: Yes, yes they would, but the city also has an extensive public sanitation service that’s occupied 90% of the time by cleaning bird shit off of everything. One of the most common last names in the area actually translates to “one who scrapes off dove shit”, and it’s a highly respected occupation. And thanks to the sheer necessity of constantly regularly cleaning everything, the city enjoys a much higher standard of cleanliness, and less public health issues caused by poor public sanitation.

The doves do protect the city. By shitting fucking everywhere.

moonybyte

While I absolutely love your idea, I just want to say that you can easily reduce public bird shitting from Pigeons by offering them comfortable lodgings where they can sleep and feed. Sure, you need to clean THOSE, but the pigeons shit a lot less all over town.

The Augsburg concept has one big pigeon house every 500m in which wild pigeons are fed, protected from weather and have nesting opportunities. Cities doing that have WAY less uncontrolled populations (since they can take out eggs if they feel they need reduce the population), way less shit AND a healthy population since it’s easier for veterinarians to notice and get to sick animals.

So I’d say one can of course still keep your general idea……but there’s also those MASSIVE palace-like pidgeon houses and only the most worthy are allowed to enter and directly interact with the pigeons (feed them, heal them, clean their lodgings). One big entrance for the human servants (priests??) and millions of small holes for the pigeons.

In fact, one could potentially turn your idea around IN THE PIDGEONS FAVOR. So your world is like ours and most major cities have a big feral pigeon population. And most of those cities HATE the pigeons and try to fight them and stuff. And they think that pigeon worshipper town is frigging cuckoo. BUT when comparing, then pigeon worshipper town is ridiculously clean and beautiful. No bird shit everywhere, no ruined house facades and statues from erosion through bird poop. Pigeon haters go “how tf are you so clean, you have birds EVERYWHERE???” and the worshippers shrug and show their little bird temples spread around town that keep their precious birdies AND their town pretty.

plucky-passerine

I think this is a really good example of how research can greatly improve your worldbuilding! You don’t have to be perfectly accurate - it is fantasy after all - but the real world is so much more clever and beautiful than any of us know

curlicuecal

advice that’s stuck with me: you don’t have to work inwards to justify a premise (e.g., ‘how would it ever be plausible to use snakes as currency’) as long as you work outwards in interesting ways from that premise (e.g., ‘how would a society that used snakes as currency look different? what would they use for wallets?’)

gholateg

I love this idea that OP thought there wasn’t a town that had already handled it’s “We fucking love birds you guys, like for fucking reals” problem already through sheer human chutzpah.

Humans are THE pack binding specie. A way will be found.

shaudo-of-a-doubt

For anyone else interested in or looking for more information about pigeon houses, the traditional word for them is dovecote.

catadromously

the kids aren’t cooked, you just need to hang out with them in the woods.

catadromously

I mean you meet these young people trapped in their classrooms or nuclear families in paved over neighborhoods, you are going to see them at the lowest points of forced routine, atomization, gutted autonomy, academic stress, you are going to see them at their worst. you’re going to see addictive behavior. bad social skills. lashing out. uncreativity. laziness and distraction. they do look totally cooked.

you need to take them into the woods

I do outdoor education work, and within minutes of any elementary to middle schooler getting free permission to mess around with their friends in a clearing, they’re curious and driven again. they’re asking each other questions and yeeting pinecones at trees (science) and using their bodies. sometimes for evil. as is developmentally right. they want to know the names of birds! they want to teach someone pokemon! they want to build stuff and kick stuff and tackle each other and you into the snow!

they’re basically fucking institutionalized for 90% of their lives but their spirits are alive. you need to take them into the woods you need to treat them like animals with powerful inner lives and they’ll show you they are.

and you, if you feel like you’re relating too much, remember that you can also take YOURSELF to the woods

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