#new book development

[joncronshawauthor]

📚 Milestone Achievements & New Beginnings | Author Diary March 29, 2024 - Writing Updates & Reading Ventures 📖✨

🎉 Completing “The Wolf and the Wyvern” Redraft: I’ve hit a significant milestone this week – the redraft of “The Wolf and the Wyvern” is finally complete! It’s a momentous occasion in the journey of the Ravenglass Legends series, and I’m thrilled to have reached this stage. 📘 Starting Book 3: With “The Wolf and the Wyvern” now in its next phase, I’ve begun drafting the third book in the…

[the-joy-of-knowledge]

25 Laws of power for women

Conceal your goals especially the ones that are appealing. Losing weight, reinventing yourself, marrying wealthy. Instead talk about your altruistic goals - to help children, invest in education, this will chase insecure people with vile intentions.

Do not give anyone your source of power: Was is a book that changed your life? a mentor? a movie? Never give up your secret to success. If forced to do say allude to God, the universe, the a random phenomenon

Use the patriarchy to your favor; we live in a world that is, only associate with men who have power, use that power for good.

Never appear too perfect but be selectively vulnerable when needed. Only share something that you will be comfortable saying. You might say “I forget my keys all the time,” “I don’t know how to perfectly park a car “. But never disclose something you are not comfortable with just because you are afraid of being perfect.

Maintain distance in relationships. Friends are the best and you need them. But if you feel that they are becoming too dependent, see them at your own will. But also the reverse could be the case. Your friend may keep a distance, and that is the way of life. You have got to move on from it.

Develop your own style that makes you unique, beautiful, and elegant. Avoid trying to fit in the crowd of people who claim to care less about their style yet have too many opinions about other women’s style

Avoid male friends at all cost, you will have male colleagues, male bosses, male acquaintances, business partners. Keep it that way. You do not want a Truman Capote divulging your secrets to the world. Do not keep a man who does not fit your standard.

You do not have to win at every game. Pick and choose what is best for you and leave room for others. And step down if you have attained that level of success, do not let the society do it for you.

Trust people but remember that we are all humans. So trust with discretion!

Confuse people with kindness; people are not always comfortable with beautiful and intelligent women. That power is too intimidating so confuse them by being genuinely generous, curious, kind, and passionate.

Keep your strong opinions to yourself.. if you support a movement, a way of life, do so silently.

We all have dirty laundry, wash them privately, don’t expose yourself. Remain silent when people try to attack you or shame you. Whatever is not confirmed is not true. You are the only one who knows all the truth about you.

Don’t attract pity or praise: People who pity you do not help you, in fact they might think that you are weak and could mock you at their annual gossipping meeting. And if you are doing things for the sake of praise you are wasting your time.

Choose yourself all the time; never put any one’s feelings above yours.

Trust your own intuition if you feel someone is being malicious towards you, giving you back handed compliments then you should let them go

Never speak bad of another woman. Do not lazy around gossipping. Keep your hands clean and your conscience clear.

Avoid women with low self esteem they will bring you down. For some reason they do not like seeing other women who are doing better than them

Be careful who you seek validation from. Not everyone needs to be pleased. If they are in no way capable of contributing to your life in the ways you prefer, then don’t ask them for their opinions or please them.

Do not compete with other women, if you do you are only putting them on a pedestal. You are making the the standard by which you measure your progress. If you do compete, begin digging your grave.

Do not give unsolicited advice, do not share the inner workings of your mind, If your mouth is very charitable you better start journaling.

Be well-rounded and interesting. It attracts people. It also keeps you busy because you are continually improving and learning. An idle mind is an easily subdued one.

Avoid women who want to live vicariously through you; they want to know who you know, shop where you shop, befriend who you befriend, wear what you wear.

Pay attention to the source of your discomfort; get rid of them. You tell them your dreams and they remind you of all your hindrances. They ask why are you dressed so fancy as though fancy isn’t subjective. They undermine you interests and goals. They will also be quick to bring you down because they are afraid of your potential.

Do not fear power or please power. When we see powerful people we try to hard to befriend them, to be close to them but you need to be comfortable without them. Don’t push yourself in the name of friendship, do not try too hard to be in their inner circle. Your independence of mind is the most important. Instead become a powerful woman, aloof to the presence of power but aware of its importance. Be an ingenious and intelligent and use your creativity to uplift yourself. When you do so it will be hard to ignore you. Even the powerful will become an ally.

Enjoy moments of solitude. Use that time to develop yourself, improve your body, learn new skills, create with your mind, read widely, become more elegant, then launch yourself.

Remember the most powerful women are the most intelligent. Inspired by Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power. Use at your discretion.

[obsob]

once more around the sun!! :3

[inumbrapugnabimus-maybe]

I read Howl’s Moving Castle and it is officially a comfort book now so here is Sophie :D

[yilisbookclub]

"The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" presents seven principles for achieving success and fulfillment in life. The book draws upon ancient spiritual traditions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, to offer practical advice for achieving success and happiness.

The seven spiritual laws of success presented in the book are:

The Law of Pure Potentiality: This law emphasizes the importance of connecting with the infinite source of potential within oneself.

The Law of Giving: This law teaches that giving and receiving are different expressions of the same energy and that giving is a key to abundance and happiness.

The Law of Karma or Cause and Effect: This law teaches that every action has a consequence and encourages individuals to be mindful of their thoughts and actions.

The Law of Least Effort: This law emphasizes the importance of living in a state of effortlessness and flow, by aligning with the natural rhythms of life.

The Law of Intention and Desire: This law teaches that intention and desire are powerful forces that can manifest one's desires into reality.

The Law of Detachment: This law emphasizes the importance of letting go of attachment to outcomes and being open to the infinite possibilities of the universe.

The Law of Dharma or Purpose in Life: This law teaches that each individual has a unique purpose in life and encourages individuals to align their actions with their true purpose.

[konakoro]

This is definitely my favorite runner in book 6

[bajaja-blast]

finally finished this fucking book

it took me almost a year because it’s so hard to get through oh my GODS

[theambitiouswoman]

Everyone’s raving about this book right now and I just realized this is how I manage my own goals. The book is about creating systems and time management. Instead of longer time frames, you shorten them. Like saying okay if a year is only 12 weeks, how do I need to structure myself to make better decisions and accomplish this goal. I do this up to the day as well. Every “day” for me is 2-3 days. Because I segment the days and focus on the tasks that move the needle. Giving yourself too much time to achieve a goal is a sure fire way to not achieve it.

[omaano]

“Dank farrik!” Din shouts. “There’s a karking rancor in there!”

Boba is grinning like a kid. “Yes! And I haven’t named him yet. He imprinted on me. I spend so much time down here, you have no idea.”

The Return of the Mandalorian to the Book of Boba Fett by TranquilizedDropBear

If you ever thought "I love Boba Fett, I'd love to see him in his own damn show sometime" in regards to Ep 5 of TBOBF can I maybe very enthusiastically recommend you the above linked fic? Because it's lived rent free in my brain for months now and I've thought about it so much that as far as I'm concerned Boba was the one to fill in Din on the background lore about the fall of Mandalore and whatnot. Because we can all use a pair of maybe-Mandalorians bonding sitting on top of a rancor in our lives, no?

Also I had been dying to make this drawing for months now for @bobadinweek's AU bingo for my Canon Divergence slot.

[ruegarding]

percy literally made himself angry enough to learn how to dreamwalk without even knowing that's a thing i'm

[baghassavocados]

Either it's because I'm a triple A battery (AroAce AuDHD) or those two really didn't have chemistry.

[eerna]

Do you think the Lunar Chronicles boys and girls have accents? Considering none of them are from the US (I think), I always liked to imagine they'd all have specific accents based on their home.

This might be a weird question but what do you think the girls' voices sound like? Or how do you hear them in your head whenever they're speaking.

The books specify multiple times that everyone speaks Universal with an accent that fits their home! Thorne is American, but he still has an accent - Cinder says he "speaks surprisingly clear despite his heavy American accent" lololol.

By this point I have listened to the audiobooks so many times I can hear the narrator while reading the book, so that's how I hear the dialogue in my mind... But personally, I don't have clear voice ideas for any of the girls except Winter. The audiobook narrator, Rebecca Soler, sounds EXACTLY the way I imagine Winter when she narrates her lines. She puts on this airy, lilting, slow voice that sounds exactly like a dreamy princess who is out of touch with reality, but she also transitions into intensity and conviction wonderfully.

[the-joy-of-knowledge]

Common Sense for women in their 20s

Define your raison d'être

Journal regularly, in fact daily

Figure out the right hairstyle for you

Buy clothes that fit your body type

Learn to do you own makeup if you'd like to wear it

Observe, observe, observe

Try to participate in the society

Know that not everything is within your control

Do not live in fantasy or fear, they are distractions

Read books

Learn to form you own opinion

Do not force friendships

Do not stress the small stuff

Spend time getting to know your self

Know women's history & History and use it to your advantage

Have some intellectual rigor

Create your own community

Find a third space

Take your vitamins

Your wellbeing and wellness should be your priority

Have role models for every area of your life

Have discretion

Do not be quick to anger

Have mentors and be a mentor to others

Your social skills will take you far

Be responsible, the world is not so forgiving to women

Know when to stand out

Know when to fit in

Curate your life to fit your goals and desires

Understand strategy and how best to use it to your advantage

Get acquainted with what maks the world go round

You have to climb socially

You need allies in areas where you want to win

Be kind

Be content with what you have, otherwise you will pay the price

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Outdrawn

f/f contemporary romance

two cartoonist who’ve been rivals since uni, and now have competing webcomics online, have to work together on the relaunch of a cult classic at the comic press they both work at

they both struggle with art-related physical and mental health issues, and complicated families

[deanmarywinchester]

previous years: 2022, 2021 / list of worst sf/f/horror

the bangers were BANGING this year, I kept mentally readjusting my top 5 list every time I read something good so the honorable mentions are extremely honorable this year. I hope you read anything that sounds good from this list and tell me about it!

top 5:

chain gang all stars by nana kwame adjei-brenyah: when I say that this book is like the hunger games for adults, I’m not making a glib comparison between two books about fighting to the death, I’m saying that I haven’t felt so intensely about a book since I stayed up late to tear through the hunger games and sob about it when I was thirteen. this book is satire as real and devastating as I’ve ever read, with action scenes that feel like they’re being dripped directly into my hindbrain and a unique and believable love story. put it on hold at your library literally RIGHT now.

the actual star by monica byrne: about a post-climate catastrophe utopian society built around a religion started by a teenage girl in 2012 based on mayan traditions, and also about the teenage girl, and also about the maya. this book made me crazy because the future society felt real enough to touch, with its radical openness and collectivity solving problems that exist today but causing new ones that are totally novel and meaty and interesting to dig into. read it if you’re interested in different ways of being.

the spear cuts through water by simon jiménez: really, REALLY good, fresh, original epic fantasy. jimenez picks a few perspectives to stick to but hops fluidly into bystanders’ brains to give you their perspectives, so even background characters feel fleshed-out and no one’s pain is dismissed as a side effect of heroic battles or whatever. highly recommended if you like framing narratives and stories about stories, and like epic fantasy but wish it wasn’t mostly about finding acceptable enemies to slaughter with cool swords

the dispossessed by ursula k. le guin: I love how much this book is about hope as clear-eyed commitment to the boring and difficult work of a brighter and necessary future. sometimes the work of the glorious anarcho-communist revolution is leaving your university post and romantic partner for months at a time to dig irrigation ditches so nobody starves when there’s a drought. read this book for diplomatic conniving, a clash of values between a capitalist planet and its dissident moon, and hope.

imperial radch trilogy and its spinoffs by ann leckie: what if you were built to be a weapon of the empire, a serene sentient battleship with thousands of human bodies all containing your consciousness, and you lost all bodies but one and had to figure out how to be a person, singular and alone? what if you were a 19th century british military officer and you slept for a thousand years into the decline of the empire? what if you were grown in a vat to be a facsimile of human and then told off for eating all your siblings even though eating them was SO interesting? what then. leckie’s prose is incisive and funny, her unreliable narrators are wonderful, and her stories are intimate even though the backdrops are insanely huge. 👍.

honorable mentions:

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski: guys? anyone hearda this one? anyway. Something Is Wrong With This House horror with themes of storytelling and grief. recommending that you slam this book as fast as possible like I did so you can hold all its layers in your head at once.

the lathe of heaven by ursula k le guin: i thought I didn’t like ursula k le guin, and then I read this book, went OH and immediately devoured the hainish cycle. im so sorry miss ursula. this book about a hapless pacific northwesterner whose therapist is making him dream different realities into being is so sharp and sly and funny. themes of choices, ends and means.

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan: I liked the prequel to this addition to the radiant emperor duology. I LOVED this book. parker-chan has invented new and exciting modes of fucked-up codependency and im obsessed. historical light-fantasy with themes of ideals vs what it takes to reach them, gender, and regret.

babel by r. f. kuang: found the didacticism of this book annoying, but i really loved the concept of this novel and the way it slowly ratchets up the stakes. this novel is for people who want to smash the fun of the magic school genre against the reality of universities’ complicity in the imperial machine.

piranesi by susannah clarke: im late to this book but it’s such a weird little gem. peaceful yet unsettling. a man takes care of an endless house with an ocean inside it until he realizes the house is stealing his memories. themes of memory and devotion.

hell follows with us by andrew joseph white: I can only read YA these days if it’s a reread or if it’s genuinely good and really really strange. this is that. weird gory fantasy about a trans teen who escapes his militarized post-apocalyptic christian cult and finds himself turning into something Different. my only gripe is that he uses 2023-perfect language to describe transness and I think he should be inventing genders weve never even thought of. such is YA.

some desperate glory by emily tesch: a rolickin’ good space opera time with terrible women <3. a thriller about how the golden child of her isolated human-supremacist space station cult deprograms and the consequences of it. this feels like a grown-up SPOP until the theoretical physics gets involved. big fan

the library of mount char by scott hawkins: this book is harrow the ninth in suburbia until it becomes a more macabre version of the absurdity of the gomens apocalypse. God raises his children, sometimes brutally, to hone their powers in a neighborhood that mysteriously keeps out outsiders. came for the dysfunctional mess of the god-children and now I can never look at a grill the same way

runners up:

bunny by mona awad: books that make you WISH you were in mona awad’s MFA program where she must have been having a terrible time. the weird one out in an MFA program accepts overtures into the unbearable rich-girls’ clique to find out what they’re Up To. themes of aimlessness and the intersection of class with the art world

camp damascus by chuck tingle: have you ever wished that you were simply too autistic to be successfully demonically brainwashed into not having gay thoughts? horror-flavored thriller that was just fun

light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki: this author put a bunch of genres in a blender and came up with something fun and surprisingly cozy. an immortal woman must sell violinists’ souls to the devil in exchange for their fame, or he’ll drag her to damnation instead. there might be aliens and coffeeshop romance involved. definitely a blender.

the fragile threads of power by v. e. schwab: if you haven’t read a darker shade of magic and you like tightly paced high fantasy and historical fantasy elements, political intrigue, and pirates, read that first. if you have, there’s more now! lila bard are you free on thursday when I am free

the library of the dead & our lady of mysterious ailments by t. l. huchu: a teenage girl provides for her family in soft-apocalypse magic edinburgh with a job carrying messages from ghosts to their living relatives. an ongoing mystery series about the intrigues she uncovers among the dead.

severance by ling ma: this books is on the list of media that is the terror to me: it's about an apocalyptic disease that makes people reenact their routines mindlessly until they collapse. intimate apocalypse novel with themes of late capitalist malaise.

ocean’s echo by everina maxwell: i didn't really like winter's orbit because i'm just not a romance guy, but this second novel stands alone and the romance is more insane and less of the entire point of the novel. (also it's between essentially Discworld's Carrot and Moist Von Lipwig, which is. really something.) in the Space Military, a buttoned-up mind controller must pretend to bend a socialite with illegal mind-reading powers to his will. what if fake relationship but the relationship they have to fake is "brain linked master/servant pair."

the murderbot diaries by martha wells: novellas about a misanthropic security android who jailbroke itself in order to watch tv. the name "murderbot" is a joke but it very much did kill people <3 themes of paranoia and outsiderhood, corporate wrongdoing, repentance, and trust

black water sister by zen cho: zen cho is good at any kind of fantasy she writes, including this, her first modern fantasy novel. a closeted lesbian has to move in with her family in malaysia after college in the US, only to discover that her dead grandmother has some unfinished business involving a local goddess and a conniving real estate developer. themes of family, gender, and place.

the way inn by will wiles: a man who’s paid to pretend he’s other people to attend conferences in their place gets trapped in an endless Marriott. has the sharp humor of a colson whitehead corporate satire until it becomes more straightforwardly horror-flavored.

[sciderman]

thank you for the ducks, me and my home country also really love Donald Duck and other ducks and Don Rosa is a celebrity to us

i'm so bummed that the ducks aren't very big here in the uk! the rest of europe has it right. the ducks deserve to be beloved. whenever i travel to other european countries i gather all the duck i can find. i have so many books in different languages just because i physically can't resist a book filled with ducks.

the first scrooge book i ever scored on an english bookshelf was don rosa's life and times of scrooge mcduck and it's one of my favourite books i own. i just fell in love with scrooge. i love him so much, he feels like family to me. i love his family, and i love how funny and weirdly honest the familial relationships are. i just... augh. i want to hug every duck book i own. they literally are like serotonin on a page, for me. life can't be so bad, if i have ducks.

i think the thing that makes me love the ducks so much vs a lot of other media is that donald and scrooge especially are just. so. they're defined by their flaws. scrooge is stingy. donald is quick-to-temper. those are their defining characteristics but they're still the guys we love and we root for even though their defining characteristic should make them unlikeable. but we LOVE them. and they're at each other's throats but we loooove them we looove them we love them. they're jerks to each other but we LOOOOVE them...

i think i remember reading something about the success of donald duck overseas vs the success of mickey mouse being that - mickey is the poster child and kind of has to be sweet and sanitised, but donald can get messy and that's why we love him. and i love him.

love a little cutey ducky with anger issues from birth

sighs.. family...