I’m working on the next Rigel book, as mentioned earlier. Which makes this corner of the internet somewhat quiet. The good news is that the story has wrenched itself out of my hands and is tap dancing nonsensically on the desk, refusing all efforts to make it conform to narrative expectations. This is a good sign, as it means it is almost done.

On another note, today I discovered a descriptive term for one of those things that you know is a thing, but you can’t put words to it, so you can’t explain why it’s bad. Know what I mean? Yes No?

The term is ‘thought terminating cliche‘ – and its used to describe any phrase which is used to attempt to shut down further thought on or discussion of a subject. These things are everywhere in the consensus narrative – but, as some magicians have noted over the years, knowing the name of a thing gives you some measure of power over it. The next time someone dismisses a topic of discussion with some offhanded, inherently meaningless phrase, you’ll know exactly why it makes your palm itch.