Greetings Dear Readers,
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A poem, a minifiction, so long SFWA, what everyone should understand about neurodiversity, …
For the new subscribers, I’m reposting that poem I recently wrote:
Lived Experience
they say we ‘need a drink’
when faced with troubles
bitter carcinogens
and bubbles
I say mirror neurons are the key
to pulling elbow off of knee
why stay focused on the I?
rest the worry and the bile
by looking at another’s trials
read a novel!
for the price of two fingers
a beginning and two middles
with new experience that lingers
it carries you to an end
adventure, challenge, choice, and fate
days and weeks you run with others
who knows what discussions await
with fellow readers, sisters and brothers
or perhaps, instead, converse inside
bridge gaps, traverse forests
long ignored or unexamined
mental deserts, great divides
someone else’s problems
someone else’s eyes
they’re overwhelmed
but still they try
suddenly your challenges morph
a page a night or two
it doesn’t fix your problems, but
my friend, it fixes you!
read a novel!
— X. Ho Yen, Author © 2026
(as I noted in the substack post, the “sisters and brothers” clause is not a list with ‘readers’ and does not need an Oxford comma)
I put my face over Ozzy myself, using Paint Shop Pro 9, not AI.
Yesterday I wrote a minifiction
I think technically it’s a horror piece, not something I normally do. But it hit me, so here it is.
Anyone familiar with “The Twilight Zone” and the related trope it popularized will recognize this as an homage. The very first episode of TWZ was one of these, and the way that episode handled it was beautiful. TWZ was awesome, and remains so after all these decades.
“Where Have All the Selfies Gone?”
So Long, SFWA
I’ve decided to not renew my membership in SFWA (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). Unlike ALLi (the Alliance of Independent Authors), it seems to me that SFWA mostly just rides the coattails of already viral, huge-name authors and uses membership dues to run Nebula awards events focusing on those big names (which helps SFWA with the coattail-riding).
What the literary world, and the world of science fiction, really needs now is ways to help readers find all the quality SF that isn’t already on everyone’s lips, to help readers cut through the vendor algorithms that do the exact same feedback-loop promotion, to help readers escape what amounts to one more huge, online echo chamber.
In the years I’ve been a member, I’ve simply never seen any indication that SFWA does anything like that.
On Neurodiversity
These days, two pendulums are swinging on the topic of neurodiversity. Diagnoses are up, and some complain that it’s a bandwagon effect. The following sources will help everyone understand why neurodiversity is the norm. The term “neurotypical” does not mean “correct”, neurodivergence does not necessarily mean “incorrect”, and here’s why:
And on a related note, two things I’ve been bringing up for many years:
Why didn’t evolution get rid of psychopaths?
See the correlation between those rapey, pillagey oligarchs we keep having to fend off? We can’t evaluate them on the assumption they’re like us. They see us as objects to be used. It’s science.
And,
Was Agriculture Humanity's Worst Mistake?
The title poses a simple either-or, but the true value is in the interdisciplinary summary. Watch the whole thing.
Latest Interview
For those who missed it, I was recently on Teri M. Brown’s “Online For Authors” podcast. It was fun! I know you’ll enjoy it, too.
Teri's wonderful, concise blog entry with audio and video links is here:
https://www.terimbrown.com/blog/episode-9-8-26
And here's Teri's info:
FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor
X: @TeriMBrown1
IG: @TeriMBrown_Author
LinkedIn: @TeriMBrown
Online For Authors webcast: https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors
Teri's author youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/@TeriMBrown_Author
Teri's web site: https://www.terimbrown.com/
All purchase options can be found here: https://XHoYenAuthor.com/books (see the DISCOUNT links). There’s info on how you can gift eBooks.
Thanks for sticking with me! I hope it’s at least mildly entertaining to watch this author second career thing come together in the midst of one kind of strife or another.
Please do share my page with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoys Older’s Infomocracy, Card’s Speaker for the Dead, or movies like “Arrival” and “Don’t Look Up”. I'm convinced my books would appeal to the same audience, because I wrote them for me and I'm in that audience.
Thanks for your support!
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com