Full title: An Instant Guide to Rocks and Minerals: The Most Familiar Rocks and Minerals of North America Described and Illustrated in Full Color Published January 1st, 1991, ISBN 0681411724, out of print but several used book retailers have paperback copies averaging ~$1.99 USD Back in the Dark Ages before the wonderful internet became so convenient and the rise of AI tools, I loaded my writing shelves with handy reference books. My paternal uncle is a geologist who retired from the DNR (Department of Natural Resources). My uncle was looking at some of my descriptions of rocks and minerals (this was when I was only writing fantasy tabletop RPG material on an all manual US Army surplus 1960s Smith Corona Super Sterling - which I still have) in my writing and suggested this book. Most of this material is available online now, but flipping through the book (and others like it) gave me great visual writing clues for unique treasure with unusual rocks and minerals, such as a gold herringbone necklace with a large teardrop shaped pendant of fossil limestone.

I wonder if I use the name of a character from another comic or movie and just want to convey that my character loves it, is it just a matter of taste? For example, a character who likes to collect Tony Stark figures because he has the same playboy personality, or has a favorite stainless steel cup from Starbucks. I would like to know if there will be any copyright issues in this case later?

👋 Hey, my name is Steve! (And yes, I will be using a pen name for my writing, I'm not sure I could have a less marketable name as an author... haha) I live on Vancouver Island (west coast of Canada) and I plan on writing a dystopian sci-fi book series.. as well as many others.. I've got outlines and detailed notes in my Obsidian vault for over a dozen stories now, including a couple of children's books based on some of the funny things my daughter has said. I want to get these 3 things from the community: - Some motivation to actually finish my first book - My first draft got to nearly 40k words but my test readers said it was too slow in the beginning, now I've re-started twice.. - Tips on creating a better fine-tune model to help with prose generation in Novelcrafter; despite my best efforts the generated prose always brings elements of the training data in. - Some feedback on my story ideas, maybe. It would be great to discuss plotting etc with other writers! For fun I like to do these 3 things: - I do woodworking, furniture mostly, and Montessori toys. - Puzzles and Lego building with my daughter (4 yo) - Reading! Currently working through a couple of series by Jim Butcher, and have (finally!) just started reading Mistborn. - Bonus: I also enjoy dreaming up business ideas and mapping out the business plan, sourcing suppliers, planning marketing, etc.. but I enjoy planning much more so than *doing*... Anyway, hi!

👋 Hi, my name is Susan! I live in a historic lighthouse and keepers cottage that I am restoring on Lake Superior and I plan on writing a lot of books. The first book series will be in the cozy mystery genre and will feature various lighthouses on the Great Lakes. I want to get these 3 things from the community: 1. As an engineering nerd, I like to deep dive into technology and really really understand it.  I am hoping the community helps me learn faster than I would on my own. 2. I work from home, and not a lot of people in my local community geek out over the things I do, so I want to be surrounded by like-minded people and have a sense of community. 3. I want to be inspired by what others are doing! 5 fun facts about me: 1.  I am an award-winning jewelry artist  2.  I am classically trained as a Material Science Engineer  3.  I used to design sporting goods but now I am a Product Development Engineer Consultant for software start ups, primarily in the Ag Tech realm. 4. My husband and I spontaneously bought an old lighthouse to restore and live in a few years ago, and no, we were not lighthouse fanatics before that but we do love historic houses, and you can’t beat the view that one has! 5. I am obsessed with traveling and my goal with writing is to make passive income to fund my travel habit. 6. A few of my websites that I built really fast over break… https://www.portageriverpress.com/ https://www.portageriverlighthouse.com/ https://www.bloomingtraveler.com/ I am rebuilding my personal website to better reflect both the jewelry and author aspects. www.SusanHarbourt.com I would love to connect with the Lighthouse lovers out there to run some of my ideas past you!

He shares how to write a first draft of a novella. Is anyone doing a 25 for 25?