Melissa Walshe

I write science fiction, design tiny knit dragons, and get paid to tell businesses how to be hip on the internet.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

Also, I made this Tumblr to start rounding up positive, free, helpful stuff for getting through #socialdistancing. Accepting submissions if anyone has stuff to share. https://t.co/GJcIZdV0J3

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

I wrote a raw and rough essay on anxiety and hope. It helped me to write it. Making it public in "as is" condition with hopes it might help a few other people too. #covid19 https://t.co/Z1VOQcsvtE

[Antoine H. @AntnHz]

My grandmother passed away. Her funerals were today, but here I'd like to talk about the most important thing I couldn't spend too much time on in her eulogy: her love for Dungeons & Dragons. #DnD

[Daniel M. Bensen @Evil0Dan]

The #audiobook of Junction is out today! https://t.co/PGrzllqzcD
Thank you @voiceofjoey and @TantorAudio.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

Happy birthday, Junction!! I loved beta-reading this one for @Evil0Dan--can't wait for my pre-ordered copy to show up. :) https://t.co/hEDeAPh6Tm

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

Time travel, dinosaurs, cross-cultural romance....and free during #worldcon2018? Don't miss it.

[Daniel M. Bensen @Evil0Dan]

Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen, my time travel romance novel with #dinosaurs, is free while #worldcon2018 lasts: https://t.co/XvO6uPTe0o

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

This is the sort of delightful nonsense that keeps me getting out of bed every day. @UkeTeacher and Peter Brooke Turner playing the Star Trek theme on ukes. https://t.co/LXPjOuXTA2

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@careyndunn @Evil0Dan It's possible that Earth wasn't considered special when they set up the weapon, but that Rose Quartz figured out some historical connection with humans that gems have to experience to fully appreciate.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan @careyndunn I'll buy that. It would also explain his issues connecting with others...their smells are chaotic and incomprehensible. But what about the gibberish language he shares with Yellowtail?

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan @careyndunn True, but Onion's weirdness seems to come more from Yellowtail than Vidalia. Vidalia is a pretty human allioid.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan @careyndunn That's a thought, but it doesn't explain why gems look human.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan Whoops! Knew I should have checked that one...I was rifling through my very tiny knowledge of Japanese for "kanji."

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan Rubies could have a Ruby kata mostly relating to fighting and piloting, for example, and the Pearl kata might be about butlery sorts of things.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan Ideograms make sense for the kind of rigorously class-oriented system we see of the gems in their own world. Only the ruling class and scholarly elites would read everything, and then everyone else knows ideograms in their field.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan Totally boring. Also: why do gems look human in the first place? That bothers me.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan But you could also reasonably imagine musical tones as a basis for communication, I think. Crystal harmonics or what have you.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

@Evil0Dan That's roughly what I was imagining. What would natural language look like if the morphemes were more like what machines can make use of? I suppose there would be a lot of timing in the grammar.

[Melissa Walshe @melissaipsa]

....that is a very different challenge. https://t.co/IGhjgKDym6

[Daniel M. Bensen @Evil0Dan]

@melissaipsa I mean without cutting it off.