Author | Lightnews

M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 1d

#ArtBreak

I saw this the other day and instantly recognized it as Toronto. Many of Lauren Mercer-Smail's paintings capture back-alley views that instantly invoke my childhood. It's not nostalgia so much as remembering other ways I used to move through the world. What art has that effect for you?

"Helena from the Alley" by Lauren Mercer-Smail (2019)

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 2d

It has been my great honour and privilege to work with @ourmankoto.bsky.social in an editorial capacity at SFWA. This series is his solo project: an anthology that never fails to revel in the full spectrum of Canadian SFF. We *do* have distinct voices--and you can treat yourself to their work here!

Stephen Kotowych 🇨🇦 @ourmankoto.bsky.social · 3d

RELEASE DAY! Year's Best Canadian F&SF Volume 3 is now available! Grab ebooks at all retailers and print via Amazon, with Ingram to follow shortly for bookstore & library sales. Grab your copy today and pls share WIDELY!
#BookRelease #NewBook #SpecFic #fantasy #sciencefiction #canada #Booksky 💙📚🪐

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 10d

I didn't quite get the "rest" I needed these last five days - lots of sadness, lots of crisis management outside my working life - but I'm out before dawn and got to say hi to the horses, so that's something.

Will catch up when I get back.
And try to remember what I'm fighting for through it all. 🤞🏻

Two of three horses out grazing in the predawn, before people become nuisances.

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 11d

This is the last day of my “vacation” (Thurs-Mon), so I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to write much again for a while, but there was an opportunity to reflect on The Long Walk and the fables we build for our times, so I took it.

May your Thanksgivings and Indigenous Peoples’ Days be bright.

The Long, Long, Long Walk

Reflecting on Stephen King's 1979 classic, the 2025 remake, and where the fable falls short of reality today

open.substack.com

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 12d

#ArtBreak before a writing day.

Richard Sargent illustrated covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Fortune, & Photoplay, among others.

His distinction came from his ability to capture the persistence of quirks even in life at its most idyllic: the "American dream" never without its eccentricities.

Richard Sargent's "Hunting His Tux for the Party", March 31, 1962, The Saturday Evening Post

Richard Sargent's "Singing Praise", March 7, 1959, The Saturday Evening Post

Richard Sargent's "All Wrapped Up in Christmas", December 15, 1959, The Saturday Evening Post

Richard Sargent's "Tangled Coat Hangers", October 1, 1955, The Saturday Evening Post

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 13d

Guys! Guys! New* writers' prayer just dropped! 😅

(*Well, "new" when it emerged in the 1940 epigraph for Robert Service's "Collected Poems" 😉)

I have no doubt at all the Devil grins,
As seas of ink I spatter.
Ye gods, forgive my "literary" sins--
The other kind don't matter.

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 13d

#ArtBreak! #Poetry

This is C. T. Salazar's "Noah's Nameless Wife Takes Inventory", first published in Ruminate Magazine (2019).

"the red-tailed hawk with jewels for eyes swallows the field mouse and the mouse was the only proof the field existed"

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Reposted by M L Clark

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 18d

the usual useful list:

go.bsky.app/2Fq4P6e

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 13d

Hi @jonathanmenon.bsky.social! I am on a wee vacation from my main job (Thurs-Mon, back Tues), and just catching up on everything from The Rest of My Life.

I've finished answering email and am about to start a writing sprint, but I wanted to send along a hug, "Hello!", and "How are you?" first. 🤗

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 19d

That is very kind of you to reach out and say, Joel. Thank you for taking the time, and for taking the time to read this piece at all. I'm grateful that it struck a chord.

M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 19d

Well, I finally posted something: a piece that reflects on deep time, how to cope with deep disappointment in humanity, and random walks with photons / on the streets.

It's been really hard to juggle everything, but making time for #WorldGrief matters.

Hope you're taking care of your noggins, too.

On "Random Walks" in Awful Times

Seven ways of looking at two scattered months amid atrocity

open.substack.com

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 20d

Just out of the last of four meetings today.

Filled with gratitude for the first especially, where I was privileged to see Sheila Williams of @asimovssfmag.bsky.social show the same care & consideration for early-career SFF writers as she does for so many in our genre.

Good instruction is a gift!

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 22d

Been a long while since an #ArtBreak, eh?

But Andrea Kowch's creations have a mood to them that certainly encapsulate how I feel these days. May the ferocious busy-ness of these Neo-Gothic scenes reach you with all the command of inner wildness they also portray.

Go forth and be ungovernable.

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · 24d

Not too much missed there, Jen! @cjlavigne.com covered the key points. We've been using a temp solution on Discord while bigger data migration work is underway, and I sorely hope to have a fuller update for everyone next week in Singularity. Thanks for reaching out - and to CJ for the solid answer!

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 20

Morning in the park with the girls. ¡Feliz día del amor y la amistad!

#NatureBreak

Two of the horses that spend their early morning idling in the park by my home.

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 17

Here's a chuckle for SF-history-lovers, from @wordsmithfl.bsky.social. Just as mesmerism was all the rage in 1920s SF, so too did our love affair with mind control influence 1960s Trek. When people talk about "hard SF", just remember that every era has its misguided notions of what is within reach.

Dagger of the Mind (Episode 11)

As pressures built on him to deliver an action-adventure show on time and on budget, Gene Roddenberry personally rewrote yet another writer's script.

www.thewrittentrek.com

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 17

#PoetryBreak before bed.

A simple one, but the kind you tuck away and recite to yourself whenever you need a reminder that the world hasn't necessarily become more cruel - only, regained a level of honesty around the cruelty it always had.

Let us ache and struggle for better all the same. 🕯️

Tired
Langston Hughes

I am so tired of waiting,
Aren't you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two--
And see what worms are eating
At the rind.

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 16

Say hello to my little friend.

This itty bitty member of the gecko committee got lost in my apartment today, and she's been happily chilling in a little sheltered set-up by my desk for a few hours now. We'll see if she wanders away tonight.

Thanks for the emotional support today at least, buddy!

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 12

#ArtBreak before evening web-dev work, after one more day-work task.

Well, #MusicBreak.

This is Hildegard von Blingin's Bardcore cover of "We Didn't Start the Fire".

You're welcome, and be beautiful to one another. I look forward to being post-web-dev and back to other creative practice soon.

🫂💛

We Didn't Start the Fire (Bardcore | Medieval/Renaissance Style Cover)

YouTube video by Hildegard von Blingin'

youtu.be

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M L Clark @mlclark.bsky.social · Sep 11

#ArtBreak, anyone?

Joanna Karpowicz's most famous work is perhaps her series of Anubis wandering the world.

It would be a gimmick if not for the artist's primary commitment to capturing everyday scenes, *then* adding an element that highlights the deep history that walks with us through it all.