#AAoMM

[tripstitan]

This. This so hard. Only with me, it's NIH.gov self research, or several different large language models, combined with what I glean from wikipedia, google, and my own knowledge-base. I don't have any doctor friends. (I would only be slightly exaggerating to say I have no friends.)

Me: *Subjects my characters to horrific atrocities during action/battle sequences. Calculates the damage based on a pre-set system, ~4700 damage. Characters survive, whew, plot doesn't need to suddenly end or derail. Looks up the consequences of those atrocities if following reality and the rules of physics.*

Me: "Okay, so, the only reason the character isn't dead from this is because of being from another reality, because honestly they should be pulped into a paste, a bloody smear after that.. good thing they have 5000 max hp."

🧵

[tripstitan]

📚 New Chapter Alert! 📚

A new chapter's gone up in early access for patrons over on my patreon, as always, it'll eventually reach royalroad where AAoMM will always be free.

Title: B 6 C 158: Loot and Love

Excerpt Snippet:

Dive into the world of magic, intrigue, and self-discovery in the latest chapter of "An Age of Mysterious Memories." In this installment, secret feelings are unveiled, and for some, that means the stakes are higher than ever. 💫✨

Read it now on Royal Road, and get lost in the enchanting journey!

Remember to like, reblog, and share with your fellow bookworms. Your support means the world! 📖🌟

(I suck at these advertisements for new chapters, sorry folks, I'm trying out guides and advice for them as I carry on.)

[tripstitan]

An Author's Rambling

I'm not really sure how to do this social media'ing thing. I don't use this site, or really have any desire to do so, so I feel like some hack making self-advertisements with the help of guides and AI and stuff, just throwing them into the wind where they'll be seen by no-one, because I don't have a follower base that would reblog them. It might seem self-defeatist to not want to really do the social media thing, but I'm asocial, a hermit, content to not interact with other humans for the most part, plenty neurodivergent. I guess this ramble is also me technically coming out in public pretty widely. Yeah, like Reggie, the narrator/main protag in my webnovel series, I'm an aro-ace with neurodivergencies up the wazoo, disabled in a few ways.

What am I hoping to accomplish? Just to get "An Age of Mysterious Memories" out there to people that need it, that need to be seen, to feel represented. But, like I said, posting here feels like throwing fliers into the wind, hoping that they'll land somewhere that someone picks it up and goes, "Huh, neat, maybe I'll check that out someday when I'm bored or depressed."

I'm actually surprised that a couple of my posts have been seen by at least one person that wasn't on my follower list, which, hey, shoutout to you new fam.

This social media stuff really burns me out and detracts from my writing, but between this, and some pretty-expensive google advertising, I don't know how else to offer up my story to the world.

I don't even care about "conversions" or conversion to click ratio or whatever. I have 0 patrons on Patreon, and that's fine. I've been skating by in life on the thin ice of every new day (Thank you Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, heh.)

I guess maybe I should ask how I should even do this. Should I get more personal? Post more ramblings, with popular tags, and just hope that those bring traffic, and then hope that that traffic sees that I have a free webnovel up?

A lot of the guides suggest quantity, and a regular posting schedule for this social media stuff that's way too hard for me to keep up without burning out, because I have chapters going up every day or every other day, basically, nonstop. In the approximately two years since i started getting serious with my webnovel series, I've averaged at least a chapter every other day. Some days I write ten to twenty chapters, maybe a few days in a row, then I don't write anything for a month or two, because titling them, posting them, advertising them, burns me out. I could keep writing, forever and ever, even if that means writing chapters I can't post yet (I have so many chapters written for the next volume in my series that it's not even funny.) Or I could write side-projects, or fanfic I guess. I took my first foray into that a while back, and I kind of want to do a reread on my fanfic and plot out a conclusion to it, instead of leaving it hanging like it is. But fanfic isn't my baby, it's not what I want to get seen.

What I want seen is AAoMM, because it's... it's the representation, it's me putting myself out there, my internals, my neurodivergencies into a narrator, my Q status in the lgbtqia, having intrusive thoughts and not acting on them, and just so much more, that I know other people identify with, and honestly need. The representation matters, and I just want to provide that, because I know people who have been, or are hurting, or struggling, or are just in a funk, or depressed, or bored, or any number of things, that share so many of the traits that Reggie carries, that I carry. Several of my readers have said that it feels like the thoughts that are expressed are them in the situations Reggie is in. I don't think I've seen another adventure novel series where we get stream-of-consciousness moment-to-moment inner narration of a neurodivergent narrator that falls into the lgbtq community.

What a niche, right? Except... it's not. We're all having our own inner adventures. We all do have a stream of consciousness, whether we acknowledge it or not, and there are *Tons* of people out there who are neurodivergent in the lgbtqia community. Hell, at this point in Earth's history, I'd be surprised if anyone has survived unscathed without any neurodivergencies, trauma, or panic. We went through a global epidemic, a pandemic. That must have been rough on you peeps out there that actually leave your homes and do stuff with other humans. My sympathy to you guys. I'm a hermit, my life got a little bit easier, because things started allowing web-based doctor's visits, and delivery of groceries, and other stuff to help with social distancing. I'm rambling, but I just want to give AAoMM to everyone who needs it.

I want to nerd out about my webnovel series with people, and answer questions ranging from silly, to heart-wrenching. Why? Because I am in a good place, I've gotten somewhere in life that I feel content, despite all my comorbid things, all the depression and trauma and anxiety and social-phobia and adhd and spectrum'ness and the struggle with identity, especially my AA agendered ace identity, that I've slid around on, and worried I'd invalidated myself over the years, and everything else I've got, gone through, carry around, or deal with. Reggie's narration is that--, that beacon of, no matter how hard things get, what slams your mind with intrusive thoughts, that there's hope, that there's warm, soft times, contented times, happy times, ecstatic times, somewhere along the tunnel that is life's journey. Also that you can slide around on the scale of your agenderness or aromanticness, or your sexuality, and that that's okay, that you still are who you feel you are, or say you are, no matter what others think, that there can be romances and fluff and all kinds of things that are exceptions to rules, whether those rules are imposed by others, or yourself.

It feels like I'd look like I was shilling or pandering though if I interjected all the tags though, for every chapter, because not every chapter does it really come up that Reggie(and most of the inner circle) is at least technically agendered, or that there are several LGB relationships for side characters, or--. Well, it is always pretty evident that Reggie's brain is neurodivergent, we hear every thought that Reggie ever thinks, including the intrusive ones, almost every thought anyway.

But I also sort of want to put AAoMM in front of non-ally neurotypicals who are ablebodied and cishet, and be like:

"God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in our shoes 'Cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues" (Thanks Everlast, for those lyrics.)

Not in a malicious way or anything. I don't want them to suffer, I don't want anyone to suffer. Plus, I'm sure they're going through their own things, just like everyone else. I just want to try to remind people to be empathetic to each other, to think for that brief moment, before interacting with another human being, that -they are another human being-. That they deserve to be treated equally to how they're interacting with the world around them, more or less. Everyone deserves human rights, and the dignity of being acknowledged as existing with their own struggles.

I got pretty soapboxy here I guess, probably best if I shut up now and just hit post. (Could you guess that I'm an author by the verbosity of this goofy-arse post that was just supposed to be me semi-ironically whining about social media on social media?)

[tripstitan]

As is oft the case, New Chapter

Anyway, as always, AAoMM is free over on Royal Road

Chapter snippet from the latest chapter, B 6 C 171: Stealth Action:

Asking for social media advice from Chat-GPT, it wants me to use super heightened language formed into exceedingly over-the-top and overdramatic commercial-esque statements for my chapter update posts. I'm like, bluh, even just copying and pasting that nonsense wears me out. So, instead, you get me rambling, and screenshotting Chat GPT being all marketing-savvy. (Could you imagine if I wrote everything in clickbaity over the top overdramatic style? Eugh.)

Here's what Chat-GPT wants me to use as marketing-blurb style advertising:

I mean, it's technically true, but come on, I've used its advice on a few posts in the past, and I just cringe every time I scroll past them.

Instead, have a cute picture of Derpy Lil.

Also, apparently Tumblr effs with links, so the full link to AAoMM is below: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/50464/an-age-of-mysterious-memories

[tripstitan]

Going Mythic: Chromatic Awakening

Anybody out there reading AAoMM? It's available free at: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/50464/an-age-of-mysterious-memories

I ask, because I wanna know if any of you D&D fans out there, my fellow nerds, saw this coming after the last chapter.

[tripstitan]

Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark

Y'know, for a lot of reasons really, especially since, well, in the end everything collides.

Yup, it sure does. Everything, everywhere, is always colliding, on the subatomic and atomic levels. Speaking of, that's how Reggie developed thermokinesis. Monstrous, isn't it? Reggie's childhood spat back out the monster that you see.

*Whistles innocently.* Sometimes, being the only genre-savvy member of a party, or family, is painful. Yup, really painful.

What's worse is, Reggie's an individual with PTSD. The portrayal I use in-narrative is only slightly dramatized, to help get the point across to other readers that might not be aware of subtler symptoms. Much like most of my writing for this series, it's about expressing and representing people who are underrepresented in escapist fantasy literature, or even just in general. Those of us who suffer these issues can still lead full, rich, even adventurous lives, depending on our symptoms, their severity, our coping mechanisms, our support networks, and a lot of other factors. That's why the severity of Reggie's episodes slides up and down a scale a bit, to display that side of chronic illness, and mental unwellness.

The chapter titled "Save Rock" is up for AAoMM over on RoyalRoad, free as always. Wait'll you guys get a load of the next four or five chapter titles, and their content. Let's just say you're in for either a blast from the past, or at the very least, a blast in general. At least one.

[tripstitan]

Some Chap. Art Previews

A chapter releasing in about 16 hours is titled Gargoyles Gears. Gee, can ya guess why? Heh. It'll be over on Royalroad free at 16:00 Central US time. (Unless daylight savings time stuff is happening, in which case I have no idea what time it is.) As usual, chapter art is just what I can whip up with some effort between other tasks using various LLMs available to me, either Dalle3 like these ones, or Stable Diffusion locally, or Midjourney. I've been working on learning Markdown and doing some things to try to set up a wiki for AAoMM, since it's nearing two million words, and... really needs some organized note structure somewhere. Like, holy crap. You guys have no idea how much of my note process is literally just me rereading my entire series over and over as if I was doing constant cram sessions. It's at the point where it takes 100 hours to reread everything that I've published/posted so far. I remember when I used to spend that much time on a single videogame... in a week. Okay I'm slightly exaggerating. Anyway, it's a bit time consuming (but I love it. But even I can admit I need to be more efficient.)

[tripstitan]

wait wait pardon me, youre writing a web novel?? thats so cool!!!!! i saw one of your posts when i was scrolling so. i got curious-

Totes! It's up to 6000 pages already according to the analytics over on RoyalRoad, where it's hosted for free. At least, if you count the 116 page prologue that i separated out, lol. Hopefully if you decide to pick it up, you have plenty of fun reading it for a long time to come, it's a heck of a ride with the whole gamut of emotions. AAoMM is definitely my pride and joy. All I want to do is share it with more people, because it's so many things at once, that I'm sure it can be a lot of things to a lot of different people who need it. (I mean, as an aroace myself, I don't see a lot of us as protags... y'know? Let alone have a large cast of agendered characters/other Q and A characters.)

I've got a bunch more chapters in the queue to title and post for the rest of the month already, and November is a month I always buckle down and churn out a ton of content, so there's only ever more. At least until the end of "Book 9" (Really I should be calling them volumes at this point. Book 6 is over 1300 pages long and has another 400-1400 more pages to go. I can't believe I thought I could fit this whole arc into Book 5 along with another arc I had cut out, lol.)

(Son of a gun, apparently, Tumblr puts an href.li in front of every link, grrr, yeah, it might show up as a dead link if you don't delete that. The full link is below)

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/50464/an-age-of-mysterious-memories

[tripstitan]

It's All a Haze During Demon Daze

... Yeah I can be more than a little bit corny. I'm an author who's been writing a series for years that's nearing 6000 pages in length. Come on, have a laugh, live a little. Hm, you don't suppose the Gorillaz would be upset about my vague reference/nod through the chapter title on my latest chapter of AAoMM would you? I'd rather not upset 'em. I still listen to half of their discography every few months.

Chapter art's getting harder and harder to get accurate depictions of my goobers from AI, so I'm probably going to cut back so that I can go back to focusing on writing, since it's my writing month. I've already got #NaNoWriMo2023 finished(and have since the 6th of the month), but I like to aim for 5x the challenge, and haven't been writing at all the last two days trying to create chapter art. Just Writer Things, I guess. Oh, anyway, yeah, double-length chapter posted up over at RoyalRoad, free as always!

(Grumbling, apparently Tumblr can't be trusted to link via tinyurl, full link at: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/50464/an-age-of-mysterious-memories )

[tripstitan]

Absolution? Absolutely.

🔥❄️ "Every sword carries a story, but not every wielder is ready to face it." Dive into the latest chapter of #AAoMM where loyalties are tested, and redemption is sought with the weight of the past heavy in hand. Are you ready for the edge of absolution? (As always, everything's available for free hosted and posted up over at AAoMM on Royal Road)

[tripstitan]

New Chapter Alert

New Chapter of AAoMM Live:

[tripstitan]

Slow and easy.

That's how quickly (or not) my chapters are getting copied over to Wattpad from Royalroad. The move is slow. These old chapters' wording is painful to see sometimes. wattpad's catch-up of AAoMM is only up to B 1 C 13: An Unexpected Swim. There's somewhere around 460 chapters at this point if you count the prologue, and you ignore the fact that some chapters have been as high as 25k words long. All of my webnovel is up on Patreon, about twenty of those chapters are early-access for Patrons, up to Book 6 Chapter 156 or so. Royalroad is somewhere in the 130s of Book 6 at the time of this writing.

[tripstitan]

B 6 C 135, Is Now Live, In Overdrive. Dive In!

New Chapter Alert 🚨! AAoMM has just dropped another exciting chapter over on Royalroad, Book 6, Chapter 135 live on Royalroad! Early access for chapters up to 157 are already up on my Patreon.

Reggie's power escalates in the face of Vorzog's forces. Reggie's still reeling from the events of the last few chapters, and they just can't seem to catch a break, at least until an unexpected ally enters the fray. Don't miss the action! Read the latest chapter on Royalroad, or Patreon.

[tripstitan]

Oh Rapture, Oh Joy. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.

So, the way Reggie thinks of Teuila, and the way their relationship grows, thrives, and struggles to meet and beat the odds is one of my favorite things about my series. Reggie and Teuila? That's the visible backbone of the entire series.

The secret backbone? Well, you'll have to read to find out. There's definitely more going on than meets the eye in AAoMM. Whether you read it on RoyalRoad, or on Wattpad.

[tripstitan]

AAoMM Now Blogging!

Welcome to An Age of Mysterious Memories

Embark on a journey of fantasy, where acceptance, finding oneself, and chosen family play pivotal roles.

Explore a neurodivergent first person narration that delves deep into themes of friendship, magic, and adventure.

Join our protagonists in discovering the power of acceptance and love in a world filled with mystery. A world whose rules, laws of physics, systems, social structures, and dynamics clash with memories available to them.

🌟 Dive into the tale: Read now! 🌟

[tripstitan]

Another chapter from my long running webnovel series, AAoMM transcribed over to Wattpad for those that prefer it!

An Age of Mysterious Memories - B 1 C 12: Further Yet (on Wattpad) https://www.wattpad.com/1380626656-an-age-of-mysterious-memories-b-1-c-12-further-yet 

Step into a realm where memories collide with new realities, and the boundaries of existence are rewritten. Join Reggie, Lil, Luni, and Teuila on an adventure that defies the rules of the world they once knew. It's a journey where survival becomes paramount, as they grapple not only with the untamed wilderness but also with the shadows of their past. In this extraordinary series, you'll experience a narrative unlike any other-an exploration of adventure through the eyes of someone wrestling with inner demons, PTSD, anxiety, and a profound sense of identity. Our narrator, though at times unreliable, unveils a tale that will captivate and challenge your perception of reality. But it's not just the internal battles that define this epic. Drama and personal growth flourish in the crucible of relationships, where dialogues pulse with emotion.

And if you're a fan of RPG elements, there's a rich tapestry of systems to delve into, intricately woven throughout the narrative. Dive into the prologue for an immersive experience that will leave you craving more. Here, you'll discover a world that seems plucked from a video game-a place where mastering its mechanics is the key to survival.

Our heroes, champions of a realm teetering on the brink of chaos, will inspire you as they learn to embrace their limitations and keep pushing forward. Love, loyalty, and courage bind their tight-knit circle, offering a glimmer of hope against overwhelming odds.

While you may find echoes of beloved anime, manga, and video games like Tensura, Digimon, and Dragon Quest, rest assured that this journey is uniquely its own. Any subtle nods are purely coincidental, but when the series pays homage, it does so with a playful nod and a wink. Join us in this spellbinding adventure that defies reality and challenges the very essence of existence. Your quest awaits.