Russ Epp-Leppel

The Cheat: *squeaking in tune with music*

Strong Mad: PUTTIN ON THE RITZ!

I have an inexplicable fondness for characters with fists (and optionally forearms) the size of their head, or even torso.

Ram Man art source

Just as how diamonds are formed under pressure, you can't have icicles without drip.

Pyritized ammonite looks like a golden ram's horn, and although there's no evidence suggesting such fossils influenced the myth of the golden fleece, it is a stimulating prospect to consider.

If you’ve watched Star Trek, DS9 to be specific, you’re probably aware of the meme that everyone (or at least all the women) in the Mirror Universe are depraved bisexuals. Is the “evil” Mirror Universe more openly Queer than the “normal” universe? Yes, and is this problematic? Again yes, but after re-re-rewatching the series, I was surprised to find it’s really not as prevalent as I remembered (or as the memes imply).

The worst offender by far is Intendant Kira, but per Nana Visitor, the Intendant’s attraction to normal Kira is a manifestation of her extreme narcissism. Unfortunately, the writers combined this with her unchecked hedonism, and she became a pleasure-seeker content to hop in the sack with anyone particularly attractive (which on DS9 is basically everyone 🥵).

Apart from Intendant Kira, however, we don’t really see any other mirror characters exhibiting same-sex attraction until the final MU episode of DS9, “The Emperor’s New Cloak.” This time it’s Mirror!Ezri in a sapphic relationship with the Intendant, but to be honest, she might just be a lesbian. (In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the case, as Mirror!Brunt implies she has no interest in men.) She’s also not overtly evil, and is relatively moral by MU standards, helping the heroes in the end because it’s the right thing to do and not for any personal gain. Only at the very end of the episode do we see the third and final sapphic MU character, Mirror!Leeta; she’s pretty strongly implied to be attracted to Ezri, but for all we know, Ezri might just be the first Trill she’s ever seen in person and she’s excited to find out how far down her spots go.

Even if “The Emperor’s New Cloak” were never made, DS9 would still be catching crap for making evil!Kira Queer (and perhaps rightly so), but she'd be the only the only notable example. Mirror!Jennifer is just as straight as her normal universe counterpart, and Mirror!Jadzia is actually more straight than normal Jadzia. On that note...

It’s not exactly heteronormative in the “normal” universe. In fact, it’s about as Queer as the writers’ room could get away with at the time. When the showrunners told Siddig and Robinson to stop making Bashir and Garak so gay, they said “no” and proceeded to be even gayer. Jadzia is a “hearts, not parts” pansexual, and Odo has linked (i.e. Changeling sex) with multiple Changelings regardless of gender presentation. And that’s to say nothing of the Bashir/O’Brien bromance or Keiko chasing a Queer-platonic polycule with the O’Briens’ baby-mama Kira.

Straight as a rainbow 🌈

Hell, the very next episode after “The Emperor’s New Cloak,” “Field of Fire,” casually mentions that Petty Officer Brott had “a wife and a co-husband,” and the episode after that, “Chimera” has Odo link up with the male-presenting Laas and talk of a “Changeling Pride Demonstration” on the promenade… because writers who use subtext are cowards.

There's a quote often attributed to Mark Twain (the man who said everything quotable that wasn't said by Churchill, Gandhi, or perhaps Confucius or the Buddha) which goes something like this:

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Of course, Twain didn't say this...

...but someone else did say something very similar:

Per Quote Investigator, the saying seems to originate with newspaper editor William Allen White, but it's good advice no matter who gives it.

This came up in the most recent meeting of a writers' group I belong to, and I realized I've accumulated a lot of relatively simple yet effective writing advice over the years which I often share with others, so here's some of it now:

The Hemingway Style Guide (from the Kansas City Star):

Use short sentences.

Use short first paragraphs.

Use vigorous English.

Be positive, not negative.

Yes, Rule #1 is "use short sentences," but use long sentences, too. Vary your sentence length as well as sentence structure, like so:

And on the subject of wasted words, to quote Sir Terry Pratchett:

“Use adjectives as if they cost you a toenail.”

The full quote (below) comes from the 2007 Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook.

And lastly, we have the old engineering maxim:

“Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.”

The quote comes from author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and although he was broadly talking about aircraft engineering (he was himself an aviator as well as a writer), it applies equally well to writing.