liese-the-beast - Tumblr blog

[liese-the-beast]

Thank you to my bestie for spreading the word! You heard right folks—I’m writing a queer werewolf mystery and am currently looking for beta readers!! You can either message them or me directly, and I’ll get the material out to you as soon as I’m able!

It would help me immensely to get as much feedback as I can before the publishing date, so I appreciate your consideration ❤️ even if you’re not interested yourself, go ahead and spread the word!!

Beta Readers Sound Off!

A friend of mine is looking for beta readers for their novel. They wish to get published, but want to have feedback from people who will tell them the truth. If you are interested in being a beta reader, message me with your email, preferred name and pronouns and I'll send it on to them to reach out to you.

As a heads up, it is a queer werewolf mystery about found family and the struggles of acclimating to society in a college setting.

[liese-the-beast]

Some tips for using a few words to describe voices:

1. Tone Words: Use tone words to convey the emotional quality of a voice. For example, you can describe a voice as "melodic," "soothing," "sharp," "gentle," or "commanding" to give readers a sense of the tone.

2. Pitch and Range: Mention the pitch and range of the voice. Is it "deep," "high-pitched," "raspy," or "full-bodied"? This can provide insight into the character's age, gender, or emotional state.

3. Accent and Diction: Describe the character's accent or diction briefly to give a sense of their background or cultural influences. For instance, "British-accented," "Southern drawl," or "formal."

4. Volume: Mention the volume of the voice, whether it's "whispering," "booming," "murmuring," or "hushed."

5. Quality: Use terms like "velvet," "silken," "gravelly," "honeyed," or "crisp" to convey the texture or quality of the voice.

6. Rate of Speech: Describe how fast or slow the character speaks, using words like "rapid," "slurred," "measured," or "rambling."

7. Mood or Emotion: Indicate the mood or emotion carried by the voice. For example, a "quivering" voice may convey fear or anxiety, while a "warm" voice may express comfort and reassurance.

8. Resonance: Describe the resonance of the voice, such as "echoing," "nasal," "booming," or "tinny."

9. Timbre: Mention the timbre of the voice, using words like "rich," "thin," "clear," or "smoky."

10. Cadence: Highlight the rhythm or cadence of speech with descriptors like "staccato," "lilting," "rhythmic," or "halting."

11. Intonation: Convey the character's intonation by saying their voice is "sarcastic," "apologetic," "confident," or "questioning."

12. Vocal Characteristics: If applicable, mention unique vocal characteristics, like a "lisp," "stutter," "drawl," or "accented 'r'."

[liese-the-beast]

seeking out physical affection

comparing hand-sizes to hold their hand against the other's and then just holding hands

leaning against the other one in close spaces

acting like they're cold to have an excuse to cuddle or share clothes or blankets

brushing a strand of hair away

grabbing each other's hands in crowds or when crossing the street to "be safe"

turning their cheek to get the other one to give them a peck

brushing their arm against the other's, hoping the other would finally catch their arm and hold it close

fixing the other's hairstyle to let their hands run through their partner's hair

draping the arm around their shoulder while sitting next to each other

lightly tickling the other one, almost hoping it gets retaliated

reaching out with their hand without saying anything, wanting the other one to grab it

linking arms when walking around together

trying to get the other to dance with them

bumping shoulders into each other

wrapping arms around the other's neck when standing behind them

[liese-the-beast]

I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got paid to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

Update: This is literally just a thought exercise to help you be more intentional with how you critique media. I'm not enforcing this as some divine rule that must be followed any time you have an opinion on fiction, and I'm definitely not saying that you have to structure every single sentence in a review to contain zero negative phrases. I'm just saying that I repurposed a rule we had at that specific reviewer to be a helpful tool to check myself when writing critiques now. If you don't want to use the tool, literally no one (especially not me) can or wants to force you to use it. As with all advice, it is a totally reasonable and normal thing to not have use for every piece of it that exists from random strangers on the internet. Use it to whatever extent it helps you or not at all.

[liese-the-beast]

not to be a sap or anything but this particular piece of little mermaid trivia does something to me

[liese-the-beast]

So for over a month and a half I’ve been told in my Creative writing MA class that my writing is too poetic and abstract to work in the form of a novel and that I need to simplify my meanings and sentences. I did as I was told and lost all interest in writing if I have to write in the same style that every other novelist does. Today I received this note from a classmate and didn’t realise how much I needed to hear it. Don’t change your art just because other people don’t get it. Don’t change your style to fit in with everyone else. It’s your story not theirs.

[liese-the-beast]

Hey Booklr! Do you like mysteries? Do you like werewolves? Do you like supernatural mysteries that involve werewolves, gay characters, and takes place in college?! The you’ll love LYCAN: the First Full Moon, a story I’m working on getting published! Here’s the synopsis:

After her grandmother sadly passed, Harriet Floyd-Lobos decided to move from small town Greenvale to the big city Haven. She figured she could go to college, start a new life--the whole deal. However, thanks to a wrong turn one night, Harry is scratched by a werewolf, and finds herself the suspect of a murder! Not only does Harry have to prove her innocence (with the help of Connor Oakes, her father's old friend) but she has to find the one who scratched her before what would be her FIRST FULL MOON!

If this sounds interesting to you, then help support me! You see, I got the opportunity to work with an amazing, professional grade editor that’s worked with authors like Brandon Sanderson. However, she’s as expensive as talented. Therefore, I’m asking people to donate as little as a dollar to help support my dreams. If you do, you’ll be able to see early developmental work of LYCAN and more! So please, reblog, like, follow—anything you need to do to help spread the word! Here is my Kofi:

[liese-the-beast]

Tumblr sucks. How the hell am I supposed to promote myself if they can’t post my videos?! I worked hard on those dangit

[liese-the-beast]

I drew a pretty mindflayer :) I like mindflayers

I also have stuff for sale on my redbubble, because I'm a sell-out that needs money <3

[liese-the-beast]

(Part One) Hi, I am planning this fantasy series all set in a completely fictional world. There are no humans. Looking through your blog I already know some of the do's and don'ts of fantasy species and poc, but my question is, some of my fantasy species do have real skin tones and I wanted to give them features from different real races.

I read all your asks about fantasy races but I there wasn't one that talked about a fantasy world with no humans. My question is: is still othering to have poc in that context? Should I include more humans to balance it out?

Fantasy races with features from real human races

From what I gather, you are saying you are writing a fantasy series with no humans, but a variety of fantasy species, some of which have human-like features, including skin tones. I think this is a simple problem. 

When coding cultures and traditions:

Do not:

Code whole ethnicities/ races for whole species.

This would reinforce the racist pseudoscience notions that differences between groups with different outward appearances connote different intrinsic, biological and behavioral attributes.

Do:

Show ethnicities within species.

Show societal attributes that can all be linked to the circumstances of the environment, even if the outcomes are different for different groups living in the same region. 

Avoid dehumanizing coding Lastly, I advise against creating a [human-like features] = [more human personality] / [animal-like features] = [Less human] dichotomy as this too falls in line with “dehumanizing based on physical appearance” reasoning you are looking to avoid in the event your culture-coding ends up revealing any intrinsic biases.

Marika

(Edited for repeat paragraph Dec. 11, 2023)

[liese-the-beast]

I drew a pretty mindflayer :) I like mindflayers

I also have stuff for sale on my redbubble, because I'm a sell-out that needs money <3

[liese-the-beast]

“Oh Rascal Children of Gaza” by Palestinian poet, Khaled Juma.

He was born and raised in Al-Shaboura Palestinian Refugee Camp, in the Gaza Strip. He lives there to this day. Before Israel’s latest war crimes, he worked as a school teacher and writer.

[liese-the-beast]

Smitten, I believe ✨

[liese-the-beast]

Important News!

I know I don't post much on here anymore, but I'm working on a personal project! If you like werewolves, humorous murder mysteries with gay protagonists, and disgruntled father figures, Please follow my blog and support my on my endeavors, so I don't feel discouraged and like I'm uncreative and that everyone hates my work--

Anyway, any support will be great. Even if you can't donate anything to my ko-fi, just reblogging would help spread the word!

[liese-the-beast]

stan youre giving him new things to be scared of

[liese-the-beast]

its been a while since he got to say something stupid

[liese-the-beast]

i like to think theyre secret friends