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7M3 & Fuck Cancer
(This is a special edition none going out to emails. It’s very personal for me, so there’s no buttons or anything else, either. I’m one of a small handful of people that give a damn about this, but it means the world to me. In the mid 90s a band called Seven Mary Three had a single hit, “Cumbersome.” It still sees fairly regular play on 90s radio. While everyone else said “One hit wonder!” I was already buying the next album. And I bought them all, each as soon as it released. What wasn’t being said was that this was a different kind of band. 7M3 wanted to make albums that were different, challenging. This stems from how they met. The members attended William & Mary together. Before moving to Miami and cutting a rough album, Jason Ross(lead guitar, vocals, writing) finished his Master’s degree in Music. A tightly dedicated fanbase (including yours truly), they kept making albums that were surprising, new, and evocative. Ross’ songwriting improved to a level that left every song on every album the type of track that would jump up in your head days after hearing it and demand you put the CD in the car’s stereo. Backbooth, Live & Acoustic In 2008, most of the original members had left, albums back. Jason Ross was not deterred. Playing a set of 3 shows at a small venue in 2008, they released a seamless live and acoustic collection in 2010, titled “Backbooth.” In 2012, Seven Mary Three disbanded, no reason given. Jason Ross was offered a job running the Bowery in NYC. Extremely famous venue where he mixed countless band’s live performances to sound like velvet on CD, or mp3. End of story. Until a couple of years ago. When suddenly the band’s website changed for the first time in a decade. Blank white landing page. The 7M3 logo, and a short message, “back soon…” In 2024, Jason Ross began releasing a new track every few months. He came with a clear message, “I NEVER Stopped.” Fuck Cancer My heart jumped. I’d been in a real depressive spiral since 2012. Lost Pops to lung cancer in 2016. And I just never really recovered. Pops had been a big fan too. He had always been a big music buff. And he raised me to be one too. The late 90s was a highly experimental listening phase for me. All the two of us could agree on was Seven Mary Three. On the last album, “Backbooth,” the live set ends with a cover song. Just Jason Ross. No band. Otis Redding’s “That’s how strong my love is.” Before Pops passed, I think it was kinda when he made peace with the idea that the chemo wasn’t working. We sat in his office, listening to Backbooth, and he asked me to take care of all the funeral arrangements and stuff. He didn’t want mom to have to go through that. We talked about what he wanted, and I said, “Okay.” Zero hesitation. Breathing Ain’t Easy He hadn’t been in a church since before I was born. Now the summer of my 34th year was ending. So was his ability to breathe. I started writing drafts for what would be his Eulogy. (Odd circumstance: I received a lot of praise for that eulogy, and several awkward job offers. I took them all.) He died in his sleep on September 10, 2016. Exactly one month before his 65th birthday. He’d survived 11 months after receiving his cancer diagnosis. When he was diagnosed, the type of lung cancer had only had a 12% survival rate at 2 years from diagnosis. I started grieving well before he accepted what was happening. Cancer & The Kid I had no intention for this to turn into such a ramble, but I’m about to reconnect the circle. Stick around. Almost done. He was cremated, and we held a memorial service in the funeral home’s side rooms, away from the organ and pews. My niece had put together a slideshow on DVD. This was days before. I’d been playing songs he loved on my computer nonstop trying to decide on what we’d set the photos to. “Otis!” “That’s How Strong My Love Is” was playing, Mom came running from the opposite end of the house. “This one. Put this one on there.” So we did. There was still a little over 2min of sound to fill. I knew immediately what would fit perfectly. So the slideshow started with Jason Ross belting out that amazing cover, then it faded.. a seconds later, The Beatles’ “In My Life,” started. Beautiful song. Rolling Stone asked pro musicians about the best songs written in the 1900s. Then averaged it together into a five disc collection. “In my Life,” was the undisputed number 1 song written in the 20th Century. I knew it by heart, and new it was exactly as long as the space to be filled. Now, my dad, he was very solitary. He rarely spoke, unless what he had to say mattered. I can’t tell you how many times I wondered why he didn’t have friends. I felt so wrong about that at his service. Over 100 people packed into that side room meant to hold about 25 max. Pops didn’t bring his work home with him, and he only talked to his brothers and sisters, and mom regularly. The amount of family there was probably under 20. I can’t say exactly, as some very distant cousins I hadn’t ever met turned up. People he had worked with at his 34 year career as a factory maintenance foreman came out in droves. There was this bit at the end of the eulogy i’d written about how he had a strange, pigheaded pride that never really made sense to me. It was the last line. I changed it, mid-speech. “He had this weird kind of pride that I never really understood, but, looking around at all the faces here with us tonight, I think I get it now.” Applause. Shockingly. I wasn’t expecting anything like that. Every single person came around, teary-eyed, hugged me, then mom, then down the family. It was a surreal experience. He had meant so much to so many, and I’d had no idea because he worked with them, or otherwise spent time with them while I was wrapped up in my own teenage wasteland. I’m stopping now. I started this as a note, intended to talk only about the band. I should’ve known better. I can’t listen to Backbooth without thinking of Pops. I also hadn’t intended it to get so personal. A few days later, we spread his ashes and built a flower garden over it. We got a big stone from the river, and had his information engraved on it. He rests in front of the house he grew up in. I’m about to do my sign off. If you’d like to hear Backbooth there’ll be a link following. Also, for the first time ever outside of my notebooks, his eulogy will serve as wrap up. I’m Jack Lhasa You Are Amazing 👊👊Solidarity👊👊 This hs been another special article that is unrelated to Worldbuilding or writing. Https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa Seven Mary Three - Backbooth The Beatles - In My Life Pops’ Eulogy Dennis Owens Devoted son, husband, father, brother, and grandfather. He loved rarely, But very deeply, With the whole of his being. Like the Tennessee River, On the surface, he was a simple man, Still, calm. But to know him was to know That those waters ran deep. His faith never wavered. In this thick fog that surrounds us, He could always see the lighthouse. God’s glory was always found, Stunningly obvious, in nature. He truly marveled at Creation. No matter the goings on of men. He was proud, in a way that I’m just starting to understand, Looking around this room. He did not fear death, Not for himself, But rather, For how it would affect each of us. I fear though, that we’ve already said much more than he’d have preferred. So, let us take solace now, Knowing his pain is over, And he can finally breathe. Eulogy for Dennis W Owens, September 17th, 2016. We all miss you Pops. Did I say, “Fuck Cancer?” Fuck it.
Building Realities
Hey fam, I’ve been talking about expanding my newsletter a bit in scope. Several positive reactions later, and here’s some stuff about poetry. My first love. The muse has t always been all that kind to me, with my bad health, brain fog and pain have many times taken poetry away from my lips and pen. However, I can still do this sort of article. It’s likely not arranged in the best way. I’ll need to tackle solid formatting for poetry in the near future. Here’s to the poet that none of us will ever be, Robert Frost. Share The Simple, The Profound, and The Fire: Re-Reading Robert Frost Robert Frost was truly the poet of the novice and of the inspired. Still, reading only Frost for extended periods can wear on anyone. You get sick of birds, flowers, and trees remarkably fast, despite the beauty with which they are described. Even when his imagery felt played out, it was impossible to deny his ability and sheer versatility. A running joke among writers is that a specialized creative writing degree guarantees only one outcome: the memorization of no less than two and no more than three Robert Frost poems. Subscribe Having spent formative years devouring Faulkner and Kerouac, and debating whether a single dot of cadence required greater weight, it is easy to cultivate the reflexes of an academic poetry snob. From that vantage point, Frost often gets dismissed as too simple, a craftsman of neat cadence and polite meter rather than the desperate, screaming truths of human emotion. Often ranked among the greatest American poets of the 20th century, Frost remains an enduring puzzle. He was capable of taking something as mundane as two solitary stones in a driveway and transforming them into an arresting meditation on human persistence. He approached the natural world not merely as scenery, but as an exacting mirror for internal friction and moral crossroads. Comment When examining his technique through a narrative lens, Frost’s work hinges on three deliberate choices: Deceptive Simplicity: His language relies on accessible phrasing and unadorned surfaces, carrying profound psychological weight without decorative excess. Vernacular Cadence: He mapped natural speech directly onto traditional meter, allowing high structural discipline to read like casual thought. Grounded Metaphor: Physical landscapes, stone walls, and diverging trails do not exist as mere decoration; they function as tactical, tangible stand-ins for human decisions. Frost understood that fire and ice serve equally well when it comes to human ruin. His poetry endures precisely because it bridges the accessible and the profound, proving that clarity of craft never has to come at the expense of depth. Spotlight: Two Essential Miniatures “Fire and Ice” First published in 1920, this compact nine-line poem tackles apocalyptic destruction through an understated, almost casual tone. Frost weighs desire against hatred, aligning blazing passion with fire and cold indifference with ice, ultimately concluding that either emotional extreme holds enough destructive power to end humanity. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” Published in 1923, this eight-line masterpiece uses the fleeting early bloom of spring as a lens for transience, grief, and the inevitable loss of innocence. The poem moves rapidly from botanical observation to mythic fall, illustrating how peak beauty and perfection are inherently impossible to preserve. “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” was featured in the SE Hinton novel “The Outsiders,” in 1967. She began the novel at age 15, it was published when she was 18. In 1983, Francis Ford Coppola directed the film adaption, which may have been the most star studded movie of the decade, including C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Leif Garrett. Thanks for reading! Building Realities is a collection of essays, fictions, poetry, and art by Jack Lhasa. A veteran of the publishing industry for 30 years. Jack is disabled, and all of this is run on his free time and donations. If you like what you’ve read, subscribe, tell a friend! In what is now an extremely famous scene, Ponyboy, looking out over the morning mist, recites the poem. The novel and movie are a part of most US Schools’ required curriculum. I hoped you’ve enjoyed a brief look inside the work of Robert Frost. He was so prolific, I could honestly do a series only on his poetry. Until next time, I’m Jack Lhasa. You are Amazing. 👊👊Solidarity👊👊 HTTPS://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa Currently listening to: The Violent Femmes Please Do Not Go From their debut, self-titled album(1982)
Grants for Speculative Fiction
Hey hey! It’s time for another little insider view with me, Jack Lhasa. This article is about funding available to adults, specifically those who write speculative fiction. Share What is Speculative Fiction? This isn’t something most of us were taught in school, so I felt like a short definition was in order. Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term for tons of genres, large and small. Basically, the rule is that if your story requires different rules of reality, it’s Speculative Fiction. It should take a step away from tradition and fiction set in our world, without any changes. Included Genres(not a complete list): Fantasy Science Fiction Alternate History (like steampunk) Post-apocalyptic settings, including utopian and dystopian. And most anything else that blurs the lines of reality. If your story has a special change to our history or present reality, and puts heavy focus on this change, it’s Speculative Fiction. There are lots of ways to pay the bills as a writer. Most of them aren’t exactly well-advertised. Age is mostly irrelevant, as is publication history. Literary grants generally want a complete writing sample(novel, novella, short story, etc). They are known to focus purely on style. Speculative Fiction grants, on the other hand, usually ask for a much smaller sample. Then the grant’s panel(3-6 people who read and discuss) focuses on things like thematic resonance, world building, and internal logic. They are basically looking for consistency throughout. It’s important to mention up front that you shouldn’t send your complete lorebook(if you have one). You should spend time describing your underlying narrative. Ask yourself what breaks if your protagonist fails. Comment Now, because I don’t want this to get very long, I’m going to list some grants and what they pay. Be sure to search for them for the details. Working Class Writers Grant - $1000/yr Gulliver Travel Research Grant - $1000 Diverse Worlds & Diverse Writers Grants - $500 Older Writers Grant(ages 50+) - $1000 Message me Winning more than cash Clarion & Clarion West Workshop Need and merit based Winners get a six week intensive mentorship with leading genre editors and authors. The SFWA Givers Fund & Emergency Medical Fund: What’s unique here is that the grant is only given to writers experiencing financial hardships. Odyssey Writing Workshop Scholarships Covers expenses to attend their Summer Program. The program has a very deep focus on the mechanics of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Having attended any of the courses in the above three is basically portfolio gold. It’ll instantly catch the attention of agents, editors, and publishers. Subscribe The next will again be just a list, because the awards are pretty complex. There’s no fee to enter them, and most have award tiers, meaning there’s more than one prize available. Each is focused on helping build your career as a writer. Look these up yourself, you’ll understand it much better than if I tried here. L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest BAMF! (Books and Authors of More Fantasy) and Indie SFF Contests Dream Foundry Emerging Writers Contest Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award One of the best things about grants in Speculative Fiction is that most only require you to submit 500 words!!! HOW EASY IS THAT?? 500 words is actually pretty tight if you’re writing novel length books. It’s important to keep some parts in as few words as possible. A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t use new terms created for your project. It’s okay to include a few, but keep it short. Now, here’s some tips from my personal experience. I didn’t pay for college at all. I’m talking tuition, books, food, dorm, the works. 4 years I never paid a penny. That’s because I talked to the English Department Heads at the 3 schools I’d narrowed it down to. I asked them about grants and scholarships, and learned how these sorts of applications work: what’s needed, what to leave out, etc etc etc. Each one turned me onto scholarships and grants that were completely new to me. So, here’s what a good project description needs: First of all, one of the main things a grant panel looks for is if you can produce a finished project. Define what the finished product will be(standalone novel or novella, include your current progress(word count, draft stage). If you can include an outline, or just the end point, it’ll help a lot. This is heavily weighted, but depends on the other factors. Avoid long blocks of history. I create these all the time in world building, but they don’t grab attention. Instead, focus on a problem or scarcity. Friction. give them a taste of the conflict. That’s what you want to show grant panels. Always start with your core premise and your Hook. Use basic narrative language on this one. Thematic Conflict. Your protagonist should face a climax that involves choosing to use or not use the special qualities(like magic, or tech). Detail the specific engine in your work. Clarify things like magic or technology. Be sure to include how these abilities or qualities are learned, and the cost paid to use them. You want to really focus on the cost, limitations, and scarcity. It is a lot to fit into 500 words. That’s honestly the most difficult part. If you have any room left, mention how the funding would help you. Good examples for this include dedicated research time, access to references that are paywalled, or production expenses. I truly hate writing pitches, but that’s basically what grant panels are looking for with the above components. You should do some research before applying for anything. You can find examples of grant proposals. Be sure to research the grant you’re applying for. Look for past winners, and other info that is specific to that grant panel. You can easily find examples online, or you can buy a book. There are so many on writing a good grant proposal. It’s a tough dance trying to balance everything inside 500 words. I know that some of the awards I detailed aren’t awarding money. They offer a chance at attending an incredibly deep, prestigious class, course, etc. this kind of prize means clearing out a block of your schedule. If there’s anyway you could possibly attend, do it! Most adults will likely have issue with spending six weeks at a writers’ retreat, but it is absolutely worth it if you can. Get the app Finally, check the University’s and community colleges in your area. Here in Chattanooga there are workshops nearly every weekend. These cover most any genre or type, and they have guest speakers who are often celebrated for writing narratives that are notoriously hard. (Tim O’Brien read from his book of short stories at my 2nd workshop. If you aren’t familiar with him, he’s often called “the only person to write about Vietnam with real truth.” Vets call him that. He wrote “The Things They Carried” a book of short pieces that are roughly about his time in Vietnam.) Check with the English department at every college that’s within driving distance. LOTS offer unique opportunities to network with agents, publishers, and other writers. Plus, writing is a craft. You can never learn too much. Your work can always be honed. Alright. That’s it for me. Let me know if you apply for these or any other grants. Especially if you’re selected for a prize! I’m Jack Lhasa You are Amazing. 👊👊Solidarity👊👊 Donate, Tip, or Buy (All images care of Unsplash.com)
We Remember
Hey hey! Welcome all builders and fans! This Special Edition of Building Realities highlights the members of my family who served in our Armed Forces. I’ll be telling you about the monument and its relationship with worldbuilding. Share On the Lincoln Memorial plaza, temporary architecture meets collective memory in a remarkably modern way. The National Military Monument erected for America’s 250th commemorations relies on structural innovation rather than carved granite to tell its story. Get the app Standing eighteen feet high, two double-sided flag installations mirror the limestone aesthetic of neighboring monuments while embedding 528 high-definition LED screens that form the stripes of fluttering flags. Instead of static engravings, names of over forty-one million service members scroll continuously across these surfaces, displaying thousands of records in rotating forty-five-second windows. WW1 The interplay between scale and intimacy defines the experience. While the installation pays homage to centuries of military history, its digital architecture allows visitors to isolate single threads within the massive archive. Through the interactive search portal, entering a service member's name generates a personalized record. On site, staff can queue specific entries to appear directly on the glowing LED panels, while remote users can search the portal from anywhere. WW2 - Normandy and On Comment Seeing generational service rendered in dynamic light creates a tangible connection between national archives and personal legacy. Running queries across my own family line brought up three generations within the digital canvas: my great-grandfather, grandfather, and uncle. Served in Vietnam Subscribe For anyone interested in searching their own family lineage within the memorial, the database remains fully accessible online at USAA.com/Monument250 through August 23. Whether exploring the plaza in person or searching the digital portal from home, the installation serves as a proof of concept. This temporary monument is an incredible example of how we can honor our past, without ruining our forest. Such a monument could be used at parks and museums all over the country, providing inside looks at wildlife preserves through camera feeds. When my mother found out about our family on the monument, she started crying. She’s always been very proud of soldiers in our family. This article is dedicated to her. Comment I’ll keep the rest of this short. When building a new setting, things that should be common are often just glazed over. If your (fictional) society has any real history, it’s had wars. I personally feel like war stories are so overused that there’s very little anything original. MoonShadow had wars. They know what’s up. If you’re like me, and don’t like the idea of writing about war in your world, a monument is definitely the way to go. A few years ago, video game developer, Bethesda, known for their extremely thorough worldbuilding release Starfield. A Sci-Fi game that has you visit a war memorial very early in the story. Science Fiction requires some aspect of worldbuilding. Seeing this monument’s embrace of modern technology gives me hope. In a society that has both science and idiots who think “anti-science” is a possible belief when they use their computer or smartphone. I’ll give the anti-science platform a chance when it stops using science and things made possible because of it. Thanks for stopping by, I’m Jack Lhasa You are amazing 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Tips and donations
The Cut-Up Technique
Hello dear readers! Today we’re going to talk about an exercise in creativity that many incredibly famous and skilled musicians use, poets too. It’s called the Cut-Up Technique or découpé in French. First, I’m going to explain it the way a textbook might. Then I’ll tell you my system, which I prefer and I think you will too. Just below this divider is a system that I’d recommend more for inspiration, because I just don’t like “luck” being part of my process. Message me Cut-Up Technique It is a semi-chanced based literary technique(according to some) where you take a written text, cut it into individual words or phrases, and rearrange them to form entirely new, often surreal, combinations. How It Works Gather Source Material: You take a page of text, this could be lyrics or poetry you’re writing, the text of a journal or any of your own material. Certain people teach that using magazines and newspapers is okay, but it’s not to me. Cut It Up: You literally cut the text into fragments (sometimes word by word, other times in short phrases). Rearrange: You shake them up and lay them out randomly, rearranging them until a striking or unexpected line emerges. Famous Practitioners While the technique was originally popularized in the 1920s by Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and later refined in the 1950s by writer William S. Burroughs, it became a massive tool for legendary songwriters: David Bowie: Perhaps the most famous musical adopter of the method, Bowie used it extensively in the 1970s (most notably on albums like Diamond Dogs) to break through writer's block and find brilliant, non-linear imagery. Thom Yorke (Radiohead): Yorke famously used the cut-up technique for the album Kid A, pulling chopped-up lines out of a hat to assemble lyrics for songs like "Everything in Its Right Place." Kurt Cobain (Nirvana): Cobain frequently wrote poetry and cut it up, rearranging the lines to create the abstract, emotionally raw lyrics found on In Utero. The "Fold-In" Variation: A closely related sibling of this method is the fold-in technique, where you fold two different pages of linear text vertically down the middle and paste them together to read across the newly joined, hybrid page.* (source at the bottom). Comment Jack’s technique This is the short and simple version. I’ll post a step-by-step after it. By the way, the method above was mostly popular in literary circles. My version is better for music and poetry(IMHO). Take a blank piece of paper and just write the things you want to say, or whatever comes to mind. Make each non-pronoun BIG. when you’re finished, rip out each large print word. Now mix them up until they fit. Ripping the words out is so that you can rearrange them to fit a beat. The idea behind leaving the pronouns and prepositions separate from the BIG words is simple: they simply aren’t useful in the moving around of BIG words. Pronouns and prepositions are stuff you can slide into the big words, so that the structure makes sense. The idea is to do that part last. That’s why I recommend writing your pronouns and prepositions in small writing, while making the other words bigger. It removes a potential problem. That being that you’ve written it all the same, and end up tearing off pieces of words you want. There’s not some hidden meaning in doing things this way, it’s designed to be easy, and straightforward. That was my natural language directions. After this, I’ll address a few caveats in my technique. Here’s my step-by-step: Step 1: Decide what you want the song to be about. This can be strict, or loose. Step 2: Start writing about that subject on paper. Use thought flow if you loose motivation. Just write out what you’d like the song to say, along with any symbolism, etc. Step 2.5: try to write words that aren’t pronouns or prepositions in bigger text. That’s just a trick I use to make it easier to rip or cut. Step 3: Rip or cut out the BIG words. Step 4: Rearrange your words them until you find what you’re looking for. I recommend keeping your guitar in your lap for this part, so you can kinda build your chord progressions as you go. Step 5: Type it, or write it on paper so people don’t think you’re loony! lol That’s it! My directions are geared towards the lyricist, but work equally well for poets, or anyone that needs a creativity puzzle(like me. Always). I say rip it. Cutting it feels too sterilized. Good lyrics and poetry are raw. I find my creativity is at its peak when I’m using my hands. My version involves a few more steps because I include the original writing as part of the system. I’d never use magazines or anything like that for writing. It needs to be mine. I recommend keeping your pronouns and prepositions in normal size, while your nouns, verbs, etc should be written with more boldness. This is purely pragmatic. Getting the words you want in the pile is easier if you can ID them on quick glance. Share So, BIG words are everything except pronouns and prepositions. The idea here is that while you’re mixing the words around, you’ll probably say pronouns aloud. That’s before you finish though. I recommend arranging your BIG words into something you like, then adding in the pronouns and prepositions at the very end for linking material. Along with the musicians listed earlier, Bob Dylan used this method, as did William S. Burroughs. Lots of people use it. Subscribe It’s also great if you’re having trouble getting inspired. As a young writer, I tried tons of things people said would make me more creative. Only a handful were worth keeping, and this is one. I should thank @mattromagna for digging this out of me, lol. Seriously, I hope this helps, man. I’m Jack Lhasa You are Amazing 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 MoonShadow on Zerkels I need to update my Substack web badly! O.o First steps credited to: Heal, B. J. (2023). Cut-Up Transmediality: From Text to Image. In The Intermediality of Contemporary Visual Arts. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111441
Building Realities - MoonShadow II
Part II of II Welcome back! I’m Jack Lhasa, and this is Building Realities. I’m going to be telling you the rest of the MoonShadow project’s important bits today. Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. All content within one year is 100% free here. I seriously spent all of February-April turning out MoonShadow fiction, other world data, as well as checking out new art for inspiration, messing with my own images. Extremely productive. In the last newsletter, I reintroduced the project. I talked about the basics of the story world, culminating in the development of a post-scarcity, low crime, near utopian society. Now, I’m going to tell you the rest of the history. The Arcane Archives The major cities decided that this was something worth celebrating. After many talks, and planning a new city was built in cooperation. Citizens of both cities placed bids on places in the new city, ensuring they’d have a home or shop that was exactly what they’d wanted. Construction soon began on a large scale. The ground was dug out, so that sewer systems and water filtration units could provide water to anyone. On this foundation, they built a city of shiny polished metals and beautifully carved stone. It was truly a marvel to behold. Students from the other cities could enter their name into a raffle. The winners were able to transfer to Dhaka’s schools as soon as they opened. Share Dhaka opened to a crowd of nearly 500,000 residents. Because of careful planning, the city could hold nearly 1.5million. Plenty of room for expansion. A street fair with events went for weeks. And that’s where we enter the story. A society that put war aside for widespread learning. As they did, they reaped the benefits. The more people that graduated, the more magic and technology developed. Comment We’ll be sharing short stories here, as well as smaller fiction. Microfiction, flash fiction, art, and more will reveal the world we’ve created. I’m Jack Lhasa! You are amazing. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 here you can find our products and tip, if you are enjoying the project. Message me All Content copyright Jack Lhasa, David Cunningham, others where noted. 2025-2026 or older. All rights reserved. Contact Admin before using any part of this text or project. Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Intrinsic Magic
Building Realities 06/05/2026 Hey there people! One I’m Jack Lhasa and what I do is build worlds. Actually I do a massive variety of other things. I’m the publishing and art markets’ Jack of All Trades, so to speak. If it’s a job in either field, I have done it and can do it. I’ve taught classes, courses, clinics, and workshops. That’s enough about me. Message me The Dhakan Undercity This is kinda long so here’s a peak: Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 1. Jack Lhasa 2. The slow start 3. Arrival of a co-creator 4. Worldbuilding goal and collaboration 5. Press Kit Media and Assets Bundle 6. The World We Build 7. The other side of the universe The Crimson Forest Two Let’s talk about Worldbuilding and the MoonShadow project. The MoonShadow project is my baby. For about 15 years, every January I’ve picked a project and made it my work for the year(along with paying gigs lol). In 2025, I decided to start the novel I’d always wanted to write, and I changed up my normal rules. Usually a year’s project is either finished by the next January or abandoned(kinda. I keep all the work. Mess with it occasionally, but not full energy). Subscribe This time I knew this would be a big task. So at the onset, I pledged to continue this to it’s completion. I knew I was talking about 3 or more years. MoonShadow is about Magic. In the first few months I held 4 focus groups and consulted several people who I think are experts in their fields. Despite this, very little got done. Three Then, in May of 2025, my old friend David reached out, after almost 20 years. He’d moved out of town and we lost touch after a few talks in the early years. We were very compatible in our interests, both very intelligent and well spoken, and when we met, we hit it off fast. As we were catching up, I mentioned what’d been going on with MoonShadow, the frustration from the focus groups, and the basics concepts involved. Dave immediately wanted to help. Kaelith in her Pro League Duelist Outfit “What can I do? What do you need?” That’s the conversation that really kicked the project into gear. As part of my January project design, I wanted a unique world, that was so compelling others would want to create in it. That’s the basic end goal. After we’ve finished establishing a framework and releasing our own fiction and art, we’ll be inviting others. It’s still a ways off from new collaboration, but tell me if you think you might want to try, and we’ll make the list for first access. The best part about the first few rounds of collaborators is that their work will be canon. They’ll also be playing a role in creating this setting. We also have loose plans of publishing much of the Worldbuilding info available as RPG supplements. Four So, Dave started out just helping me brainstorm, organizing the mess I had made, helping me pick between ideas. By summer’s end, I was like, “Nah. You’ve done so much, you’re a co-creator.” Since then, we’ve done so much!!! Dave’s already completed some compelling short fiction. I’ve fleshed out the world to cover a wide range in a way that new authors or artists will still be able to write just about anything they like. And those things will become part of the entire setting. I’ve told this story before, but after my recent absence there’s been some fresh interest, so I thought I’d start with our Origin Story here. 😁👊🏼 Five We’ve been working on a Press Kit Media and Asset Bundle. We are nearing completion there, but we’re saying release in September, just in case. Anyone who might like to write initial thoughts on the project should reach out. We’ll get the kit to you. You’ll have first access to tons of stuff, including our logos and official graphics to use with your article. Sorry this has gotten kinda long. I’m going to squeeze in some actual world info, then we’re done for now. Share Six The setting. God knows when, in a galaxy very different from our own, life developed. A rock in orbit around an Ice Giant, that spent its existence bathed in shades of blue because this blue planet was nearly always blocking or tinting the system’s star. Curious and unfathomable creatures and biomes developed. And magic was intertwined with physics. They only worked together. On this giant planet’s moon, magic is intrinsic. It is everywhere and in everything. The plants and animals developed strong bioluminescent properties. Real, unfiltered daylight was only reaching this place for around three hours a day. Dusk and Dawn take up most of each days time. The darkest time is also about three hours. And on this moon, plants and animals were always infused with magic. In the wild, almost every creature had offense or defensive magic. How exactly these creatures were making it work is still a bit of a mystery. Comment Several hominid-like animals evolved to possess consciousness like humans. Yet humans, earth, and everything from them had never had any type of connection here. It’s long been hypothesized that aliens would be most likely to have developed in a similar way. 2 legs, 2 arms, a torso and a head. Why? Because that’s true(roughly, some have 4 legs) of nearly all mammals here. The people of this strange satellite were of a variety of races. Even so, a race of hybrids developed, with the possibility of having any color or characteristic of other races. By the time our story starts in on the written history of the place, there is nearly constant war for limited resources. Those who learned to control the magic all around them rarely shared info. And many were quite mad. The Three Cities Seven One day, in the City of Mistyat, which sits at a river delta, a small group of cloaked strangers arrived. They began to teach everyone magic. Eventually the movement lead to a full scale public education system, and three major cities. Public education was free, but compulsory. Everyone had to attend from age 5 to 25. After several generations, everyone was using magic everywhere for all manner of things. Graduates were capable of total survival, with many skills. Graduates stepped into the world as equals. Centuries passed. Scarcity of resources was nearly unimaginable. With the ability to fulfill their basic needs, crime wasn’t something that occurred very often. Society was near-utopian. Unfortunately, intelligent creatures never handle a life without struggle very well for long. The Known World I’m calling it there. More next week. Promise. One thing about the Press Kit and possible writers/artists/etc who’d like to collaborate. I’m not the kind of person to toot my own horn. I’ve been on the press side of big project releases. If you write about product announcements, you are going to want the media kit. This is going to be big. I’ve worked big releases before. If you e got one reader or millions, Sign up. Do a short article when you get the kits. You won’t regret it. Potential collaborators, you will want to have art, or short stories, or whatever you do aligned here. You have all heard me say repeatedly that I never really think my work is all that great. Even when magazines and websites are buying it like crazy. MoonShadow is going to be the best thing I’ve ever created or been involved with. I’m confident of that. At launch, it could be a huge platform for you to make an entire portfolio. Getting in early is always the smart thing when something with this kind of potential comes along. Subscribe. As more and more of our project is talked about here, the more you’ll believe me, but the contact queue is first to express interest, first to get in. A reviewer could easily turn out two dozen commentaries and reviews just on what we’ve already finished. As we roll out over the next few years that means you could release articles monthly. The first to cover MoonShadow consistently will receive exclusive. Contact us email at the bottom, or contact via Substack. I’m Jack Lhasa. You are Amazing. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Support! Get the app Join the chat If you think you might like collaborating with us, or if you think you’d like to be one of the first journalists and critics to be able to write about our work, contact us! You can use the regular Substack avenues, or Contact the MoonShadow Team! All Rights Reserved. The MoonShadow world, storylines, images, texts, characters, and any other content, Copyright Jack Lhasa 2000-2026, David Cunnigham 2025-2026 unless otherwise noted. Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Power Hidden by First Glances
The Value of Affirmation (unedited) “I am good looking.” “I am strong.” “I am intelligent.” “I am a giant.” “I am a Rockstar” Positive affirmations. I can’t think about affirmations without seeing that Saturday Night Live “Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley.” And I laugh. Al Franken played Stuart Smalley. It was a parody and a bit of a jab at some of the self-help trends at that time(Early 90s). Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me." Franken would stand in front of a mirror and say his affirmations which were crazy ridiculous. Comedy Gold. It was a recurring skit. They did them from 1991 until around ‘94-‘95. He’d have the week’s host, or another SNL cast member on as guests to talk about their “problems.” He would often anxious stumble over a line, then say: “That's okay... I'm in a program." Truly classic comedy. I’ve always like e dry era of SNL, but the 90s and 00s were the ones I watched live. Anyway, if you’ve ever seen a therapist or read a self-help book, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of “Positive Affirmations.” Subscribe Just like on SNL, the idea of this sort of complimenting yourself in front of a mirror can seem pretty silly. It’s a reason some people refuse to try affirmations. Here’s the thing though. If you’re battling depression, anxiety, issues of self-worth, or anything at all like that, affirmations do actually work. Even if you think it’s dumb. If you do it every day, it’s like reprogramming your brain. When Depression settles in for a long hall(Even as long as a few months), it changes our inner monologue. You feel awful. No one much wants to be around you. You are extra hard on yourself about things someone who isn’t depressed never even considers. The longer you are depressed without any real relief, the worse your thoughts get twisted up. This happened to me. I didn’t even notice. My thoughts, and my mind, well, those were my happy places as a kid. If I needed to cope with something, I’d read. After I started driving I’d go to the library and bookstores for hours every week. But the way depression hit me, it felt sudden. Most people don’t see a nervous breakdown in their future. The signs are there. But we aren’t taught how to identify and handle excessive depression or anxiety. Some self-medicate. I did for a bit before my breakdown. Never thought I’d feel and truly believe I might die any second. That’s a panic attack. I fought the meds and therapy. My brain was the thing that had given me every good thing in my life. The idea that it was sabotaging itself was unthinkable. So, I went a long time without any improvement. It’s been 21 years. Nothing has helped my mental health problems well for very long. I tried every suggestion. Every random advice. Every pill. Every type of therapy. Nothing worked. Years later, I was able to gain actual clarity by disassociating. When you feel like you’re outside of yourself, that constant thought pattern is very clear. I realized immediately that depression had warped my entire identity. Starting with my self-worth. There are a lot of medications doctors will get you to try when the usual suspects aren’t helping. They made me clumsy. I acted like I was drunk. I walked into things. All kinds of stuff. My brain was taking healthy thoughts, and twisting them. If I fell down, I’d think, “Yup. That’s me. Just a clumsy asshole.” When you start saying that over and over, it becomes the reality. The negative thoughts are everywhere and often. Soon you rarely ever think or say good things about yourself. This is why those “Positive Affirmations” work. The negative thoughts started slowly. But they became the norm. Positive thoughts can also do that! Standing in front of the mirror, saying, “I am…” feels absolutely silly. It was a long time before I really even tried. It seemed so dumb. But, saying these things, even when you don’t believe them, or think the exercise is stupid and couldn’t possibly help.. if you keep doing them, your thoughts will change. Would you look at that? I did a quick search to make sure I hadn’t screwed up any of the SNL names, and it turns out that those skits even spawned a movie, “Stuart Saves his Family.” 1995. I have not seen it. I’ll make that happen. Back to those pesky thoughts that’ll hold you back. The thing about doing something every day is that it becomes a ritual. Though less common now, throughout human history, rituals were employed in a great many ways. The simple breakdown, though, is that ritual is a type of learning. By repeating the same actions until they’re memorized, we are creating a feedback loop. Once memorized, the daily performance actually releases dopamine and probably a few other important neurotransmitters. I’ve actually already written an article about why ritual does this, explained as building up a collection of something. When you collect baseball cards(Just a random choice on my part) you usually buy sealed packs. Opening those packs, and pulling out a highly desirable card triggers a dopamine release. Then, once it’s in its home display or whatever, whenever you go back and look through your cards, you see it, and boom, dopamine. This also works with taking notes. Share So, ritual. Rituals are dramatic performances of an agreed upon script. They are mostly used in group settings, because the drama, the memorized review, seeing others doing the same, and being told that this part is representing a person or storyline, you hit dopamine repeatedly, and everyone their makes a bonding memory. Why is this related to affirmations? Because rituals are a bit like coding a program into a full group. It builds solidarity. The repetition becomes a reward highway. When you do positive affirmations a very similar thing happens. These things are normally alone, but they have ritualistic elements. And, just like rituals, even if you think it’s horseshit, it still creates that brain link over time. Focusing on things you really don’t like about yourself, and make an affirmation that says the opposite. Slowly, a thought like, “I’m so damn forgetful!” Gives way to an affirmation like “I am smart and conscientious. I remember my friends’ birthdays.” Say it enough, and the negative thought changes into either a non-thought(You just don’t talk about forgetting as much), or it becomes a motivator, like, “Oh, my cousin’s birthday is this month. I’ll go get her a card.” Obviously, I could give you much more aesthetically pleasing examples in nearly every example above, but this isn’t about making the beauty of language shine. It’s about mental health, and an effective exercise that is almost always dismissed without even trying. That is the thing. The results. Your mileage may vary, but making thoughtful affirmations that assert a positive attitude or trait in yourself, will change some negative wiring. Comment It’s not magic. You will get nowhere if your affirmation is “I am psychic.” Won’t change anything. lol. I’m publishing this. I’m not going to proof it. I’m sure my finger slipped a time or two, but I want to assert my confidence here. Confidence is something depression took from me. I took it back. And I did it by looking in the mirror and telling myself I was confident. True story. My mental health issues will never be completely gone. It would take an absolutely Light Bulb level new Tech to do that. I have managed to regain qualities I’d lost though. Affirmations were a big part of it. As always, I’m Jack Lhasa. You are amazing. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Ko-Fi Tip your servers! They work hard dealing with assholes all day and the owner tops their hourly at $3. Building Realities with Jack Lhasa is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Where Poets Get Paid
Hey out there! I’ve been promising this for a while, but health, a busted computer, and a busted phone took their toll on time. Here now is the list. Share Submissions My list of zines, Substacks, and other places open to submissions from new writers has five links now. I’ll make it live very soon, but please, if you know of publishers, contests, or any other easy access publications, send me that info!!! Accounts on Substack that release a curated newsletter from submissions. Of their community. These usually pay a small amount of online rights, award a sticker or plaque or similar, Poetry Workshops, Clinics, Open Mics, contests, Awards, group recognition and more. Subscribe now 1. Flash fiction 3/mo https://open.substack.com/pub/bradleyramsey ——— 2. Blank Canvas Post https://inkandribbon.org/submissions ——- 3. Strange Pilgrims Strange Pilgrims We read over 7000 stories & essays. Here are our top 9 submitting tips! Our next reading period is coming up on March 6 (Gabriel García Márquez’s birthday) for 24 hours only, midnight-to-midnight. Submissions are free and we pay $200 for long-form writing, and $50 for short-form. Read the full submission guidelines here and get ready to submit… Read more 7 months ago · 208 likes · 17 comments · Strange Pilgrims, Shannan Mann, and Karan Kapoor ——- 4.Write, Period. https://substack.com/@writeperiod ——— 5. Future Britain’s Speculative Fiction Sol Stories Future Britains - Contributors Announcement Something new is dawning on these British Isles… Read more 7 months ago · 34 likes · 17 comments · Martin Grace ——— 6. Lemon Jelly Press. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. Huge variety! Lemon Jelly press Submissions Are Open at Lemon Jelly Press We’re open… Read more 6 months ago · 85 likes · 7 comments · Lemon Jelly Press CIC ——— 7. Only Poems https://onlypoems.submittable.com/submit This kind of publication is not uncommon. The pay this particular site offers is excellent. Reply from Substack account where I inquired: hi, yes! The poems we publish every Saturday come in via submissions. You can find more details here: onlypoems.submittable.coM ——— Only Poems Holds major poetry publishing and contests. Poet of the week: $77 Poem of the month: $33 Only Poems daily: $22 Post of the year: $5k,plus $500 each finalist Bob Hicok Fellowship (yearly): lots of amazing rewards Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize: $1/$250 to 4 fin. https://onlypoems.submittable.com/submit——— The link I’m sharing below might be the single best way to kick your career in poetry into gear! So many publications! Most even pay decently!!! Subfolios This is a treasure trove of ways to get paid. https://subfolios.com/ Leave a comment Hey everybody!! At the 1st of April I promised to publish a list of all the places I could find with open submissions for poetry and fiction. Then we had a loss in the family. And I had to take most of April off. The good news is that I’ll be publishing that list THIS WEEK. First Week of May, 2026. IF YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF A PUBLICATION YOU‘D LIKE LISTED, REPLY TO THIS POST. IF YOU KNOW OF A PUBLICATION WITH SUBMISSIONS OPEN, TELL ME IN THE REPLIES! Thanks everyone! That good news be coming soon! 😉 Jack Lhasa Building Realities. May 03, 2026 (FINALLY published May 20, 2026. ) Subscribe now BY ALL MEANS, copy this list. Republish it. Restack it. Just get it to everyone who needs it!!
A few shorter verses
Subscribe now Share General poetry without much of a name: Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published Some time soon Sweat and You’re gonna find love you won’t know what to do. Bass sends those shivers up and down down lips begin their quiver. I’ll know. You’ll know, just what to do. Leave a comment Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published You know it's like Everything else is resistible covering years up with tears I'm invincible. Just a few nameless bits. Start writing today. Use the button below to create a Substack of your own Start a Substack I’m letting my poetic side blossom after a decade and more of silence. I can’t promise it’ll ever be anything good here. Except me 😉 I’m Jack Lhasa You are Amazing 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa https://linktr.ee/jacklhasa Looking across Ilargia Base.
Ko-Fi
From Algorithm Anxiety to Audience Autonomy: A Creator’s Guide to Owning Your Community “The algorithm is a fickle god. Build your own altar.” We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into content, chase the trending sounds, dance the dances, and pray the gods of engagement smile down on you. Then… POOF! The rules change! Your reach evaporates. The fans who showed up every day suddenly can’t find you anymore. It’s enough to make a writer question whether they should just move to a desert island and communicate via carrier pigeon. (Something I often consider.) But here’s the thing: your most genuine supporters don’t care about algorithms. They care about you. And there’s a way to build a relationship that no platform update can sever. The Ko-fi Philosophy: Direct Connection, No Middleman Ko-fi offers something increasingly rare in the creator economy: ownership. Not just of your content, but of your relationship with the people who actually show up. Think of it as building a house instead of renting an apartment in someone else’s skyscraper. Sure, the landlord’s place has great amenities. But when they raise the rent or change the lease terms, you’re out of luck. Theres no Rent Control online. With Ko-fi, you’re the landlord. You’re the architect. You’re the one holding the keys. Platform Playbook: Where to Plant Your Flag Here is exactly how to guide your superfans from the rented land to your own territory. Click the links below to grab the specific setup guides for each platform: TikTok: Add your link in your bio and mention your Ko-fi in your videos. Read the TikTok Guide Instagram: Pin a post and add Ko-fi in your stories. Read the Instagram Guide YouTube: Mention Ko-fi in your videos and descriptions. Read the YouTube Guide Twitch: Connect to Twitch, use commands and fun overlays. Read the Twitch Guide X (Twitter): Pin a promo post so it’s always at the top of your profile. Read the X Guide Discord: Offer special roles for members. Read the Discord Guide Facebook: Include Ko-fi in your about section and posts. Read the Facebook Guide Medium: Set Ko-fi as your tipping link to encourage support. Read the Medium Guide GitHub: Add Ko-fi to your readme to show the ‘sponsor’ link. Read the GitHub Guide Each of these links leads to the official step-by-step instructions, so you don’t have to guess which button to click. The Real Magic: Direct Access Here’s what keeps me up at night (in a good way): on Ko-fi, you can actually talk to your supporters. Not through comment sections buried under thousands of replies. Not through DMs that vanish into the void. You can message them directly. You can download your supporter information whenever you want. You own that connection. Share It’s the difference between shouting into a crowd and having a conversation around a campfire. “Curiosity is the best personality trait.” — Some wise person, probably while petting a dog A Writer’s Perspective As someone who’s spent years navigating the shifting sands of publishing platforms, I’ve learned this: build where you can breathe. build where you can breathe. Social media is fantastic for discovery. But it’s terrible for permanence. Use it to find your people. Then invite them somewhere they can stay. Subscribe now Because at the end of the day, the fans who truly support you? They’re not looking for the next viral trend. They’re looking for you. And you deserve to meet them on ground that won’t disappear beneath your feet. What’s your experience with platform dependency? Have you built your own corner of the internet? I’d love to hear about it. P.S. Dogs are still the best. They’re too good for humans, and we still get them. That’s the only proof of God I’ve ever seen. 🐕 (A final little confession: I didn’t write this not really. I simply gave you what the email had, with a bit of my signature flair! 😉👊🏼👊🏼) Leave a comment That’s my time. I’m Jack Lhasa You are Amazing 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Https://exoteric.micro.blog Come check out MoonShadow!
An Open Letter
First draft of a new logo design To: ALL Publishing Editors and Published Poets. Subject: Out of Touch In my life, poetry always played a strong role. However, when mental illness drug me down into the mud in my 20s, I lost something. I can not explain exactly what it was. However, it lead to my withdrawing from publication. I stopped submitting poetry. I Aldo stopped writing it. Over the 15~ years that followed, I wrote and worked almost exclusively on the technical side of writing. Editing. Proofreading. Teaching. Tutoring. Copywriting. Blurbs. Advcopy. Consulting and partial ghostwriting. In 2015, I lost my father to cancer. I wrote his eulogy. It was the first time I’d tried poetry in years. A few months later, I looked online at the submission market. What I found was dismal. Publications going out of business. Canceling journals that published only a single year. Craziness. Since joining SubStack just last year, I’ve begun writing poetry again. And I’ve also seen that the online poetry community is strong again. Not just at Substack, but with regular print journals, too! And chapbooks!! I thought the chapbook was a lost [email protected] So, poet, magazine employee?? I want to hear from you. Poets, I’d love to hear anything about your experience publishing. Anything at all. Zine, or Journal worker, or editor, I want to know what kind of material you choose and why. Subscribe now Here, JACK is: English Honors, BA, Creative Writing focus. Veteran of somewhere around 30-50 workshops, crash courses, group circles, online communities, and so much more. I’ve consulted on a lot of novels. Some made it big. Many were very happy with their experiences. I’ve also consulted in about 10 ConWorlds. Worldbuilding is a strength. Editing is a strength. I can cause a noticeable improvement on the work on anyone starting out, up to mid-tier. More qualified writers have used my consulting role in ways that facilitate fresh outlooks and unblocking both minds and plots. I usually refer to it as “Helping to trim the fat.” That’s a metaphor I use to describe my time with more experienced writers. I want to hear from the community. Anyone at all. Say something!! Send links! Tell me the good and the bad!! I’m Jack Lhasa. You are amazing! 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 https://www.worldanvil.com/w/moonshadow-exoteric Leave a comment Share
The Follower Problem
Why you see content you’d never ask for. Originally published March 14,2026 on Wrizzit. This is why you see so many hateful and abusive messages. Misogyny. Racism. Xenophobic. “AI Posts.” If you’ve complained about it more than once this is why. You're not going to like it. “In a very apt metaphor, if you are having supper with fine meats, and you sing it so loud. Don’t be surprised when Wolf comes around.. Wolf will watch your camp, for seasons, if needed…” This article was written with substack in mind, however, I'm certain it would prove to be true on any social network(with a few exceptions). On Substack, I constantly see posts like these: - Why are there so many AI posts? - Substack is overflowing with threats to women. Physical, direct threats, some obvious bluffs, but misogyny all the way. - All I ever see any more are posts saying they have the only real way to make money here! - Why do I see so much blatant racism and bigotry? You should be seeing a pattern here. So, I thought about it a bit, because when I see this sort of complaint often. And they are very valid. However, if someone says it's all AI posts, I don't see any. No matter which complaint I see, when i look around, and not a single post around . First, I said, it's a fluke. Ignore it. Then, I said, "okay, why do I never see these things? I see so many complain, I should have at least a few days like that, right? I asked a few of my friends if they’d ever encountered to things like this, and the both said, “once or twice. Never flooding my feed or anything though.” So I started engaging people posting this kind of complaint often. When the next post came up it was about 'seeing so many AI posts.' I've never seen more than a few AI posts, in over a year. So, I replied, "What do you mean? What kind of post is it? What makes you think it's AI?" I got a response a few minutes later that was like "what? Really? Everyone doesn't get this many?” A link to an actual bot account was sited. So, I asked how often, how long, etc etc. This was true for each topic I investigated. Never had the content showed in my feeds, or replies, or whatever. One person told me it was comments that were 'too fast' from people with no posts, and blank profile. So I did this until I was convinced that some people really got hit with outrageous amounts of posts and misogyny, racism, Nazis, hatemongering, bigotry, seriously disturbing and detailed threats, mostly to women, 'AI Posts(Never got a clear idea in this one, but it seemed to be more media outlet related than actual AI accounts, mostly) weren’t something I found. Which is odd, but I put a pin in and kept going Share I turned to my friends. Message 5-10 users I knew well enough to believe their responses. Unfortunately, most of the women had gotten the misogyny flood of posts at one time or another. Not one of those I asked thought they'd seen posts by AIs. I'm certain some get through we just jump it mentally, like a reflex. No one ever said they'd felt like AI posts were everywhere on their feeds. Money scams! We'd all seen these, but had only had rare encounters with them after the first month or two. There are tons of these on every site where money can be made. We'll talk about appropriate actions that actually fix it. Hatespeech, usually in the Conservative flavor of crazy had been seen by all. Hatespeech and racist content had been seen by most everyone, but rarely. And never targeted at themselves, or in long drawn out threads. So, the evidence was there. But when put to a group of daily users, most had very little trouble. I knew almost immediately what the difference was, and the math confirmed it. You see, I'm 43 years old. I joined Twitter in 2006, and used it most every day until Elon Musk bought it. I dropped my account immediately. I don't care for people who could improve this world in tangible, non-big money long research bs. Just by donating to homeless shelters, and putting up solar panels. Fuck Elon. Anyway, Twitter At first had like 1500 users, like 20 celebrities. Maybe 15 "brand" accounts. No ads. Point being that it was just a big chat room. Twitter didn't blow up until about 5 years later. At that time, people started doing "Follow Fridays" and "Follow for Follow. I always follow back." First, let me say that this kind of numbers game helps no one and it kills the users you actually like. It also hurts the entire platform. Conversation. Interaction. I don't care how many people pretend to read your blog if you've never had a conversation with them. I've been arguing that point for years. I don't follow celebrities, politicians, companies, etc. Except a rare few I befriended. lol. In 17 years on Twitter, I had 2500 followers. I followed about 1800. I stuck to my interaction philosophy. Occasionally told people it wasn't healthy, but my account was awesome. I knew those people so well.. in the late 2010s I had to have emergency surgery. My 2000 friends from Twitter completely took care of everything until I was back in my feet. I'm talking about full hospital and surgery costs, meds. Food, rent for 5 months, my car payment. EVERYTHING. I didn't use Go Fund Me, or anything else. They sent it all to my PayPal. What I'm saying here is that you shouldn't just follow someone who followed you just because they followed you. I get suspicious if I ever get a follower I haven't interacted with. I have a rule. It’s simple. Interaction. If we have a few positive interactions, seem to share interests, I'll follow. Don't care if they follow back. If I'm suddenly getting new followers, I don't follow any of them back until I've read their bio, seen things they post, etc. I bet every account I follow, and I trim my contacts regularly. in 2006, Influencers wouldn't be an actual job for another 10+ years. When the internet was young, we were constantly being told not to use real names or dates. Now, with more security than ever, people don't think about security on that level anymore. I don't start an account on a newsletter site, or a magazine site, or a site for artists thinking I’ll be making money very soon. Shit. I go in, do my thing, and there are always people with whom I share an instant rapport. One of the biggest spam attraction posts I see on Substack is the "Hi, I'm looking to meet this kind of writer, people who like pop music, etc etc." That's where you get these vacant, or soon to be vacant, hangers-on. Avoid any type of post like that. Subscribe If you post good content, that interests you, people who like that will find you. Of those I asked about in this survey, 2 of the men were musicians. They don't hustle for followers. One does a weekly meet and greet type follow thing. But everyone there is vetted by him. So, if they also interact with a public chat(bots don't seem to be able to make the chats on Substack🤷). Everyone who comes in also posts about themselves. So there's no blind follows. There are three types of users who shouldn’t be followed blindly. Wanna-be influencers who'll give up after 3 months of not posting. People who think that's a great way to start a business account, and people who've never used a social site. There's one thing now, and you should take it absolutely seriously. If you see things you don't like or are abusive in your feed, mute, block, or report. These functions are absolutely essential to keeping and network your network. Substack also has a unique function that’ll clear your feed of nastiness quick, like a bunny the “Show Less” option. You can use it on any post by clicking the 3 … dot menu. It will ask why you don’t have to say they are doing something bad you can just say “I see too much of this, and several other options . Break the cycle. I know a lot of people reading this are all over calling BS since way back at the top of this article. You know what? I don't care. I didn't write this to argue with nerds that are so immature they think they can live off YouTube videos in 6 months. I write this because a lot of good people get taken advantage of on social sites. And this is the single most common thread. Vet your followers, and those you follow. Use the Interaction Standard. Adjust the numbers, but it's the best way to test for spam or bots. Mute people who are assholes. Block and report every single post from an account that threatens you or breaks ToS. They aren't people you want as friends or in your stats. Here's the Con. People reading are like, why? How could they profit like this? Easy. It's called BIG NUMBERS. They follow as many users as possible as fast as possible and immediately record all data from all those accounts. When you let them stick around, or worse, ignore abuse, they can gain very important data like people use on locks to money. A bot can create an account, put a bikini girl pic and name on it. The profile then follows several hundreds if not into the thousands way sooner than they get reported enough times to get banned. That's why I encourage you all to use these tools that have always been there. You’ve been told blocking someone is violating the first amendment. That's a lie. You don't have to listen to any jackass say whatever he wants whenever he wants. He can say anything inside his house. But standing on your sidewalk forfeits those freedoms. You have the freedom to walk away. You get choices. So do these bot programmers. So do the Nazi trash. If we don't want to see it, BLOCK, MUTE, REPORT, SEE LESS. These accounts are the ones that end up spewing hate on your lawn. People you traded follows with, and never heard from again. They don’t mind hiding for months, before attacking. Many of them create hundreds of ‘shell’ accounts, then sell the whole lot to hackers, or Nazis, or people that want women to live in fear forever. Not to mention organized crime, and propaganda suppliers in every country. No one likes to hear this. It highlights a flaw. The kind that can amplify the amount of nonsense you deal with by 10x or more. This is obviously not a complete fix. They will always find new ways to get through. Which is why watching you ass on blind follows matters. Currently, I only hear about these accounts when someone else posts about them being everywhere. The amount of outright Nazi-misogyny-death threats that people tell me they see everywhere, it never shows on my feed. You can drastically change the amount you get, too. Be sure to report this fucks, too EVERY SINGLE post that expresses hate and ignorance needs to be reported. Hey everybody. I'm Jack Lhasa You Are Amazing. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 [Https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa](https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa) my caption
I Could’ve Called, I Guess
Don’t like poetry? Go ahead and skip this one then. Subscribe I Could’ve Called, I guess. I’ve been out here, all week, Just waiting to see If you might have time You felt like wasting with me. I’m not the best that you’ve seen I know, because I know me And I’d like you to see. If someone as wonderful as you Wouldn’t mind some time Dancing under this street lamp Where I happen to be And if not, we could do Anything at all, As long as you’re doing it with me. Comment Jack Lhasa OC. Share Written just now. One line at a time To a soft waltz rhythm inside my head. 03/15/2026
Building Reality: Shortz
Hello again, all my lovely, lovely friends! Welcome to Building Realities with Jack Lhasa!! I’m your host, Jack, and we’re going to talk about the value of small fiction. Little blurs of creativity. Share In my personal style, I try to anchor these posts to a character or place that I’ve been working on lately. You can have them for any type or reason. In my mind, it’s a wonderful way to reveal something about worldbuilding without dumping info on the reader, or you can use them to help tell a character’s back story. Or maybe explain where Captain Lura Lite got that signature sword Message me When we’re on the plot, mind or side, we want to keep things linear, and sometimes that means not giving something the history or details you really want to share. Shortz are my take on that. I try to keep them at or around 500 words. I also pick the person, place, or thing I want to focus on. And keep the focus where it belongs: dead center. These rules of layout and limits help us stay centered and our focus directed. Subscribe You may find that these rules need to be modified for your purpose. Well, have at it! If it doesn’t workout, come back here, and start again, even if you keep customizing the idea, I’ve found this to be a great place to experiment. Comment With that, here’s today’s Short: Clearing the Mind (A Short starring Kaelith) The air just north of the great crater was thick with the scent of blooming flora. Kaelith stepped lightly across the forest floor, her boots silent against the pale bark of fallen branches. Overhead, the colossal mass of the ice giant dominated the sky, signaling the transition from the world's six-hour day into dusk. Here, nestled between the crater's towering rim and the jagged, snow-capped mountain to the north, the woods were coming alive with a soft, natural glow. Bioluminescent plants flickered to life in the dimming light, painting the underbrush in varying shades of deepest blue and vibrant purple. Kaelith adjusted her reinforced, one-shouldered cloak, the sturdy broach holding it in place glinting as it caught the ambient light. She had always been faster than her peers, a trait that had fueled her rapid rise in the professional Dueling circuit, but out here, she forced her mind and body to slow down. This trek was a necessary escape. At twenty-three, with only a year left at the Lower Academy, the pressure was mounting. Her professors, her family, and her starry-eyed friends were all relentlessly pushing her to apply to the Academy for High Magic. It was the toughest, most grueling education offered in orbit. As everyone loved to remind her, its graduates were the kind of people who wrote history. She paused by a river cutting through the valley, watching a cluster of corpuscular animals scurry from their daytime hiding spots to hunt before the bitter cold of Night set in. Kaelith rested her hand on the hilt of her blade, a unique weapon, made from a solid piece of wood perfectly for combat, had it been metal. The wood it was carved from had an intense focal power. She didn't draw it; there was no need for combat here. Thanks to centuries of prosperity and education, violence and crime were rarities. Kaelith had only come out today to clear her head, polish a few tricks she’d only just picked up. More than anything to test ghe new blade. It was razor sharp on one side, and dulled, curved for deflection, but its main purpose was to act as a very special foci.. Kaelith, Hunter’s Cloak That’s my time! Thanks for sitting around with me. Letting me talk about some of the things that really matter to me. I’m Jack Lhasa You are Amazing. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Shortz - Clearing the Mind This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. Copyright Jack Lhasa 2026, unless otherwise noted. MoonShadow is a work of fiction and art, by Jack Lhasa and David Cunningham
We Are More… Again.
In this article, I present my fully edited, final copy of this piece of poetry. Comment Now, I present, the final draft. Message me To learn more about me, Jack Lhasa, as a poet, a writer, an artist, a dream maker, a long shot taker, don’t stop reading after the poem. You’ll learn about me, my work over the last 30 years, and so much more. I’m I bit of a bind right now. It’s all talked about. A few more months then there’s a light at tunnel’s end, making it til then.. that’s a bit of the problem…. On Virtue, hopefully, far from lost Survival is not a goal. It's not a temporary condition. Survival is the base. Everything more is staking better. If ever survival should be seen as a virtue, we are in dire times indeed. Oscar Wilde once said that patience was a virtue, only in those with no other. Survival is the same. It's a strength, when no other strength is left with that could be named. If we come to value survival and patience as worthy parts of life, we are already doomed. To be better. That is the only mandate laid upon a child, at the moment of birth. It is far from asking too much. It is the duty of each human, whether they live long, or die short, to be better. Better than what? Better than those who came before us. those who dared not try. There are so many content to occupy that same rung. The rung of their fathers. Stagnation is the poison Of root and tradition. Tradition is the killer of those who dared think. It begs us, "Go Back." back is not a choice. only forward, may we march. The desire to surpass, to be better, to grow, is never without its merit and its hardened times. Yet growth is how we break the ties, fresh roots, all our own. produce first flower. So much more than survival. We don't have to fall. not roots, oh no. but a vine now in bloom. So it goes. As Billy Pilgrim would say. so it goes. I hope you’ve all enjoyed watching my process, or, at least the large steps of that process you can now read them in the order they were written. I’ll created a note, and share it to a chattery or two. https://substack.com/@mshirley36/note/c-223164321 Subscribe I offer to teach poetry. To help make a child into a person who can cite odd verses in uncomfortable times. And make their own beautiful words, when they realize that all we have to pass on to the them is this; the very last form of nonphysical, nondigital expression. The verse above, has not been edited. It is as it was as I typed it. I strongly recommend both my students as and my peers to never publish a first draft. However, the fact that this rolled off my tongue, in that odd meter, is worthy of note. I’d like to thank for providing the impetus for this piece, and also , for reminding me that the ability to create good verse was still within me. Share If you enjoyed this, or would just like to make sure I can afford the internet in order to share the next miss, please donate. Help Keep Jack Alive The link above gives you a ton of unique ways to help out memberships, products, commissions. MoonShadow Worldbuilding Coming soon!! Lots of releases in the MoonShadow build, the return if weekly courses covering lots of stuff. Courses consisting of one weekly email covering many subjects, and how to write about them. - Consulting in afternoon hours. Listed below*. - and much more, very soon!! That’s my time! I am Jack Lhasa You are Amazing! 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Comment *Consulting is available in a large variety of subjects. For the rest of this week, I’m holding open office hours from 1pm to 5pm US Eastern time. Appointments range from 15min to 2hours, depending on topic and commitment. This week, all openings are for 15min so as to introduce new clients to how teleconsulting works. I’m not bragging. Or puffing up my chest, here, but these things have in the past, filled up quickly, or nearly so. This warning is merely so some of my wonderful friends and peers don’t miss out Poets: having any kind of trouble at all? Need a pro to review just before a reading? I am here to solve all your needs!! Fiction & Prose: Consulting in larger projects takes more time and therefore costs more all of which would be reviewed during the first meeting. Consulting with an editor can take your manuscript from the editor’s trash to ready to sell. I also offer to to do these things with you, side by side this can build self-esteem, confidence, and more. Message me to schedule consultation. Message me
We Are More..
An Attempt at poetry.. Kind of like poetry, but lacking the real beauty. This was inspired by by this post, by . I’m a sucker for inspiration, where ever it strikes. To your note on survival: Survival is not a goal. It's not a temporary condition. Surviving is the Rock bottom. It's the very least a human can do. If ever survival should be seen as a virtue, we are in dire times indeed. Oscar Wilde once said that patience was a virtue, only in those with no other. Survival is the same. Its only help is when you are crawling in the trenches or ditches. If we come to value survival and patience as worthy parts of life, we are already doomed. To be better. That is the only mandate laid upon a child, at the moment if birth. It is far from asking too much. It is the duty of each human, whether they live long, or die short, to be better. Better than those who came before us. There are so many who'd be content to occupy that same rung. The rung of their fathers. Stagnation is the killer of root and tradition. The desire to surpass, to be better, to grow, is never without its merit and its hardened times. https://substack.com/@mshirley36/note/c-223164321 Subscribe I offer to teach poetry. To help make a child into a person who can cite odd verses in uncomfortable times. And make their own beautiful words, when they realize that all we have to pass on to the them is this; the very last form of nonphysical, nondigital expression. The verse above, has not been edited. It is as it was as I typed it. I strongly recommend both my students as and my peers to never publish a first draft. However, the fact that this rolled off my tongue, in that odd meter, is worthy of note. I’d like to thank for providing the impetus for this piece, and also , for reminding me that the ability to create good verse was still within me. Share If you enjoyed this, or would just like to make sure I can afford the internet in order to share miss, please donate. Another note: While shat I’ve shared above it’s rather bulking it is poetry. It’s a first draft with zero reworking in the next week, I’ll be working this to what i feel is the best version I can create Help Keep Jack Alive The link above gives you a ton of unique ways to help out memberships, products, commissions. MoonShadow Worldbuilding Coming soon!! Courses consisting of one weekly email covering many subjects, and how to write about them. - Consulting in afternoon hours. Listed below*. - and much more, very soon!! That’s my time! I am Jack Lhasa You are Amazing! 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 Comment *Consulting is available in a large variety of subjects. For the rest of this week, I’m holding open office hours from 1pm to 5pm US Eastern time. Appointments range from 15min to 2hours, depending on topic and commitment. This week, all opening are for 15min so as to introduce new clients to how teleconsulting works Poets: having any kind of trouble at all? Need a pro to review just before a reading? I am here to solve all your needs!! Fiction & Prose: Consulting in larger projects takes more time and therefore costs more all of which would be reviewed during the first meeting. Consulting with an editor can take your manuscript from the editor’s trash to ready to sell. I also offer to to do these things with you, side by side this can build self-esteem, confidence, and more. Message me to schedule consultation. my caption
A Quick Look
It’s been a while since my last real update, so I thought I’d share some recent images(10 images from the MoonShadow project. Also, we may be 2 people, this side(Jack) does not have any income at all currently. So please consider subscribing, following, sharing with friends, restacking here. If you chat community is active, show them! 😁👊🏼 Subscribe Share Comment MoonShadow takes place in a solar system Another logo Very cool partial cityscape No name yet Classic medieval styled medieval time Just a fact. One of my favorite characters without a name. This is an older image. Part of the Kunochi Set. That was compiled in Denver 2024. Here you can find many ways to contribute to the the project. That page directs you to commission page much, although, there are digital items (like the PDF collections stay up to date on the MoonShadow Project, it’s being developed as an all-digital store front. Currently, there are a number of ways for fans to unlock extra content. More info soon. I’m Jack Lhasa You are amazing and that’s my time! Check out our info hub on World Anvil. All of the content provided is copyright Jack Lhasa 2000-2026. All content is copy
Finality
Dear friends, In the following words, I will often speak in the first person, but please know that is for clarity only. I am only one of a great many who lost friends, jobs, family members, simply because I was able to see what was outside of the light we sat in. There are a many here I would call 'friend'. Others that I'd call 'peers,' that is the reason I feel it necessary to divulge the following information. Some of my personal problems, which are expensive and purely related to my health, have came to a head, today. I have been surviving off of the income I earn from various tasks I perform on the side of technical writing, such as editing, proofreading, consulting in relation to writing, publishing, developing, structure, Artificial Intelligence, blockchains, music, art, creativity, poetry, and growth as a writer/artist/musician, and quite literally countless other hats. My client list dropped slowly, then quickly, because I refused to give this administration "a chance. they can't be worse than any who had the job before them." Over the last few years, this kind of freelancing off the cuff has been devalued, demonized, blamed, and disregarded. While my press pass, general willingness to suspend my own beliefs and needs, noticeable intelligence and insightful questions, meant that most treated me as though we were of a like mind. Finding my press credentials rendered invalid without notice, it I became undeniable that I'd been burned, or blacklisted by most of the people who had handed me those credentials. Clients stopped returning my calls, only a few journalists, all old school, most dying of sclerosis, remained. They were retired, and really couldn't have more tarnish on their reputations. Having been forced into retirement long ago, by a new type of journalist. the kind that never left the office, mostly just rewriting AP articles and press conference summaries of others. In the view from manhattan penthouses, I'm unimportant, now that those top floors realized I'd always been an ocelot; too loud and bothersome. As I turn on flashing arrows above the problems caused by inequality, based more on wealth, than anything else. This mass hysteria scoffed when we said things like the First Amendment was in real danger than it had ever had to face. “I don't think free speech is going anywhere." That is an exact quote from someone who I'd known for over a decade. It was 2019 when they chided me with labels like 'hyperbolic,' 'without clear view,' or simply 'misinformed.' Be without worry, the fall of the Military Industrial Complex is at hand. Journalist and author, Edward Abbey. The first Environmentalist. He coined the term. This country has become openly hostile and resentful of my demographic. This is because the working class only values what comes from money, and just as capitalism has programmed them, any with a nickel less that hit hard times are considered acceptable losses. The powerful say I am an annoyance because I won't kiss their ass and leave. I am physically what they can never buy: authenticity. So many of you are out there, politically active, fighting the filth that has been forced upon us as 'politics,' and 'leadership.' I've never been more proud. Keep it up. I won't be around to stir the pot when things slow down. At the same time, if only a fraction of those of current outrage had listened to me, and others like me, in 2015, 2016, 2017, all of the current fight wouldn't have been a fight. we'd have paved over the words of oligarchs, and idiots with eyes shaped like crowns and crosses. Not a single day of this authoritarian kleptocracy would've continued past 2018. I was not alone. everything that was disgraceful and anti-American was published, every single day. I merely shared the information, and pointed to how much it said about our future, or lack there of, really. I'm Jack Lhasa. You are amazing. I'll love you til my lungs give out. I ain’t lyin. 👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼 https://www.worldanvil.com/w/moonshadow-exoteric https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa/
Building Realities
With your friend and mine, Jack Lhasa! Hey, hey, hey!! Welcome to this mini edition of Building Realities! I'm going to share a map and some early history of the MoonShadow setting. This is done with very broad strokes. Stories will be coming soon that provide more detailed and interesting plotting. Get the app A map of the Three City Island The map above covers most of the current story area in MoonShadow. The three major cities; Ilargia, Mistyat, and Dhaka. The cities are pretty basic for a close-area society. Mistyat is at the river delta. Ilargia is at the top and bottom of the large northern mountain, split into two parts by a shear cliff face. The two parts are connected via a system of engineering innovations, known as lifts. Finally, between the two cities, sits the newest city, Dhaka. Subscribe Dhaka was planned as a collaboration between Ilargia and Mistyat. The mastery over magic that had slowly spread until every citizen could use the magic inherent in their bodies, objects, and air around them. Magic had always been used in MoonShadow. Before the two cities were founded, only powerful, and often crazy sorcerers could harness and direct magic. In a time of constant conflict for territory and resources, this type of mage on the battlefield was a wildcard. It was completely unknown who they’d end up hurting the most. Mistyat grew up in the river delta, a twisting labyrinth of wood slats tied to boats and docks. A small group of very quiet and polite people had constructed a stone building on the shore. Its defenses so sturdy, no random movement could hope to take it. Inside, the leaders of the next decade were planning something. A way to end the chaos. A way to give simple, useful, fun magic to every single person. Through mandatory free public education. Within 10 years, the first students had completed the first curriculum. Now, the magic users who left the growing academy brought peace with them. They helped plan and build the city, set up farms with irrigation, crops, livestock, and housing for all. Around 50 mages set about protecting this new city, Mistyat. They did not police. It was the magician’s opinion that if people’s needs were met, crime would drop to almost zero. And it did. Of course, crimes still occurred, but now they were resolved quickly, the offenders were put into the schools’ classes. A century passed, and the Southern River delta knew lasting peace. Now, children were placed into classes at 5 years, and completed a curriculum that saw them through to adulthood, and set them free with enough power and understanding of their surroundings that they started building all sorts of things across the city. Shops, amphitheaters, a library, the Arcane Archive, where all were welcome. A small group of emissaries were assembled, and sent north. They were to send people met along the way towards Mistyat, or to follow behind them to the mountain face. They taught very basic steps for beginning magic. Reading, writing, mathematics, logic, critical thinking, scientific principles and the basics of experimentation. Agriculture as a science boosted with easy spell work. Several permanent outposts were erected as the group moved forward. As they arrived at the steep mountain, the people there had already begun building all the things needed for the safety, health, and education of a large population. Early scouting parties arrived months ago and gathered people, starting things ahead of the larger moving group. Soon, Ilargia was founded at the mountains base, with plans of reaching the flat mountaintop. Much of this stone was pure marble, excellent for building. Mining was taught and set in motion. Public education, following the methods used at Mistyat was introduced. Clean water, irrigation, sanitation, farms, mills for grain. Small lifts powered by spellcraft connected the settlements the bottom with the high altitude of the mountains' peak. A similar plotted settlement was built at the top. It couldn't realistically house and maintain a large population, but the areas were dug out in the stone, and the first graduates of this new Academy would develop the system of lifts with pneumatic raisers, long slow pistons, and teeth for cogs were used to provide a smooth escalation, and return. Now, from an island that had been in contact conflict 150 years ago, two communities had grown. Sophisticated and capable citizens were as much a resource as the things they went on to build. These two societies interacted, but kept all matters separated. Even with magic, suspicions from the untold years of battle took time to mend. Each new generation of students graduated and increased each city's complexity, and amenities. War had not been a real worry in centuries. The leaders of Mistyat and Ilargia met with the Academic Authority, which had developed to monitor and improve the academic techniques, met at a spot between both cities. Here they erected several temporary structures to house workers, students, and families. Resources were brought from both cities as the needed amounts had been calculated. The decision had been made. A new city, Dhaka, would be built here, a celebration of the now long sustained peace(500 years!). The Arcane Academy was the most important and prestigious building here, and the rest of the city was built around it, in districts that made all aspects of operating the Academy smooth, and perfectly in sync, like clockwork. Almost 50 years later, Dhaka would be declared "OPEN". A monument to the incredible lasting peace and quickly developing society that education and research of magic had made possible. A group of loosely nomadic tribes, which were almost always in conflict over limited land and resources, now had everything they needed and far more. Magic, when applied in a manner that allowed everyone to learn enough essentials to pursue whatever kind of life they'd like. By setting up a curriculum that meant all would graduate on nearly equal footing, no sheer gapes of equality, the people had pursued their interests, and in doing so, they advanced the total of knowledge available to everyone. Economic and social equality, basic liberties that remained respected, and growing diversity in each city. A golden age of near utopian society dawned. This is the overview of the development of MoonShadow's society and culture. We've already begun tackling details, crafting stories, and making images of it. Each will unravel a bit of detail, or length of time. The way magic is taught will be revealed through stories about students and teachers. Stories of the people in all manner of tasks or occupations, and grand tales of adventure and discovery are to follow! Share Comment Join the chat Heyya! The chat I’ve got setup is a pretty rare experience. Or, it would be if I could get a few people in there with me. Sadly, the chats are kinda awful on Substack. Like sorting the timeline. Or my subscriptions, or keeping count of my subscribers. What is going on with these super lazy flops substack??? I really do expect much higher quality from you. Just remember, that long and rambling story you just powered through is a loose rundown of the societally formative events over the previous 1000 years. lol. It’s a lot easier to digest as fiction. I promise. Okay, that’s all for now! Love you guys. Get out there and let everyone know that the bullshit in Minneapolis can’t go unanswered. Do not let this seriously awful stack of tragedy lose its spark before reaching the next tier!! ICE has to leave all US Cities! Charges must be brought against the ICE agents who’ve killed, and beat, and broken, and taken kids from there homes. No more MASKS from any law enforcement in this country!! Get that done. Congress should be drafting the legislation for desolving ICE and DHS, as they ARE THE ACTUAL BLOAT of unskilled workers on our government’s payroll. Peace. Seriously. Be safe y’all. If you liked what you’ve seen in this post, tell me about it!! Comment! Restack! Comment Share Subscribe https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa https://buymeacoffee/exoteric https://www.worldanvil.com/w/moonshadow-exoteric You don’t need a penny just to hang around. If you’ve hit a nickel, lay your money down. I’m Jack Lhasa. You are amazing. This has been Building Realities.