The Marquis de Leech

I think The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the best thing Rothfuss has written. Primarily because Kvothe isn't in it.

New story out.

New story out.

New story out. The Library of the Ratio, as part of the new issue of New Maps: https://www.new-maps.com/news/2024/03/spring-2024-announcement/

I believe Inspired Quill has it pencilled for 1st December 2024.

Daughters of Derbyshire, my plague story, has been accepted for publication. The publisher in question? The Lesbian Historical Motif Podcast. Now, to clarify, given my other recent work: Daughters of Derbyshire does not contain sex at all. Or even romance. It's actually 'clean' historical fiction, this one involving a pair of young Puritan women in 1665-1666. Aforementioned young women obviously delight in each other, but this is a relationship shaped very much by time and place. This is also my first 'professional rate' story sale (8 US cents a word), making it far and away my best ever writing payday.

Plato was an aristocrat. Ergo, he'd consider himself one of the people who weren't naturally slaves. It wasn't as if any writers in the Ancient World - apart from those Stoic weirdos - really disputed Aristotle's basic point.

Aristotle's argument is more along the lines of "some people are naturally slaves. Slavery is natural." Though oddly, he does distinguish between that and enslaved people who are not naturally slaves - the latter being enslaved by force and not by nature.

The issue there is that the oldest form of astrology was not the natal variety, which focuses on the individual and their birth. Instead, the court astrologers of the ancient world were interested in the fate of entire societies - whether a given day was an auspicious occasion for a royal marriage, or a war, or something.

Several points on Astrology: The modern newspaper variety has nothing to do with the way it was traditionally practiced. Astrology and Astronomy were considered the same thing for most of human history. Countless ancient writers, from Aristotle to Augustine, condemn astrologers. This notion of superstitious ancients versus sceptical moderns ignores that humans have been having this conversation for thousands of years.

You might have noticed that Immanuel Kant pretty much established limits to science... using philosophy.

Wrong century. The last burning was well before Newton. Newton was an eccentric Protestant in the post-Civil War era. In other words, no burning. In fact, he'd have been substantially more safe, given that the post-1688 fear was of Catholics, and Newton safely wasn't that. All those requirements for religious conformity? Done to weed out Catholics, not the likes of him.

England's last burning for heresy was thirty years before Newton was born. Newton's eccentric religious leanings would have cost him his job, but he would not have suffered beyond that. Newton himself would not have differentiated between his alchemy work and his scientific work. In fact, it has been suggested that his inspiration for gravity was esoteric in origin.

On the Monotheism/Polytheism front: Platonism gives you a combination of the two. The One as the originator (not strictly a god in Platonic view, because that would be to limit it. The One does not exist because it is Beyond Existence), and the Demiurge as the Craftsman of the world. On Religion and Science. Science is merely a method of learning via testing hypotheses. It is not the only path to knowledge, of course (mathematics does not test hypotheses). Meanwhile, religion does not make scientifically verifiable claims, so the two fields remain non-contradictory. On Galileo. The model Galileo was using involved circular orbits, and thus made predictions no better than the old Ptolematic model. When asked to present his work as a hypothesis, Galileo refused, and wrote a text that goes so far as to thinly call the Pope an idiot. The Church reacted badly. Meanwhile, the elliptical orbit issue came with Kepler, and an actual underlying theory of motion to explain matters came with Newton. At the time of Galileo, the matter was far more complex than folk-history would suggest.

Podcast of my fantasy erotica piece, Blackberry Picking, now out: https://nobilis.libsyn.com/ep-491-blackberry-picking-by-daniel-stride

The podcast audio of Blackberry Picking (fantasy erotica) is now out: https://nobilis.libsyn.com/ep-491-blackberry-picking-by-daniel-stride

I have an old short story (it's never been accepted, so remains unpublished) where I gender-flip Bluebeard and move the story to the Prohibition-Era USA.

Five chapters done on novella project, one to go (currently manuscript sits around 27,000 words). Also a new short story out: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2023/lost-in-the-desert/

My Arabian horror short story, Lost in the Desert, now out: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2023/lost-in-the-desert/

The Freedom of the Watcher novella sitting at 17,100 words at the end of November. 25,800 words overall this month... yep, that's a good writing month.

Three chapters done on novella project, totalling 16,000 words. I'm closing in on 25,000 words for November. A truly excellent writing month.

Over 20,000 words written in November - two meaty short stories done, and one on-going novella.

Saruman believes it, I think. "Knowledge, rule, order," and all that, and the notion that Sauron can be steered in desirable directions. Saruman is the poster-child for thinking the ends justify the means. (Sauron is much more advanced on this front. For him, there is no greater good than the advancement of his own power).

I said Xenophon, not Herodotus.

Busy writing shorter fiction at the moment. 13,000 words done so far for November, spread across three stories.