#publishing my own works

[tamsinswriting]

A year since publishing my ebook

Howzit all!

I was just checking out my stats on Smashwords, where I published my ebook and realised that it's been nearly a year to the day. Thank you to everyone for their support in my writing career.

In case you're interested, here's the blurb for the collection.

"Xelonia: A continent that is a mixture of the mundane and the magical. This collection of tales offers a glimpse into the lives of its inhabitants, such as:  

Adryan, a young prince who dreads ascending to the throne of Tairys;  

Kay, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship and trying to protect her daughter;  

Imara, a young, would-be scribe who dreams of a life beyond her small village;

Azur, a dwarf who is doing his best to care for a young elfling; and

Reve, a magic-user who gets pulled into the traumas of an Elniasan village"

If you'd like to buy the ebook, you can follow the link here:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1157168

[up-in-flames-writing]

In lieu of Stuff Your Kindle day, can we talk about the issue of how the m/m genre of books, romance or not, is almost entirely dominated by women? Can we talk about how the most recognisable gay couples in media are written by women? Can we talk about how queer men can't even write about ourselves, how we are only allowed to exist when it's from the point of view of a straight woman sexualising us?

Can we talk about that? Or am I going to get called misogynistic for pointing out the disparity between who gets the writing deals, & who gets their books turned into movies, & whose shit gets popular versus whose doesn't? Can we talk about how m/m fiction is only allowed when it appeals to a cishet gaze, or is that too much for tumblr to take?

Can we also talk about how trans queer men are even more hated by publishing? Can we talk about how we get shit from both sides? Can we talk about how books about the experiences of being a queer man, written by queer men, never get the same recognition as books written by women on this subject (barring academia which has its own problems)?

Can we talk about that? Can we?

[perish-the-creator]

The biggest issue with modern retellings is this need to turn the gods into one note stereotypes from a high school drama or make them edgy for the sake of it.

A perfect example is my two boys: Hephaestus and Ares.

Outside of the Golden net incident with Aphrodite, nowhere else does it show these two as a jock vs nerd trope. Hell if my recollection is correct they barely interact outside of Hephaestus making Ares' weapons.

Also consider this. Why would Ares actively antagonize the dude who makes his stuff?? Why would he actively boast about banging his brother's wife? Same with Aphrodite as well. She is never depicted as outward loathing Hephaestus to the point point of bathmouthing him. Yes the cheating was wrong but most of the gods did not practice pure monogamy.

It just makes things frustrating when im trying to read other Greek myth inspired works and knowing if either of my favs show up Ares will be depicted as a brainless, sexist, brute and Hephaestus as a borderline incel OR just a wordless oblivious/pathetic cuck.

Does anyone else feel this way or is this too niche?

[jay-wasreblogging]

What if after the Reichenbach Falls in their grief and mourning John and Mariana kind of get together?

There's no company anymore not when Sherlock's absence has left such a vast hole, not when John can't even log onto Spotify without crying looking at all the cases they went on and not when Mariana can barely pick up client's phone calls without feeling sick.

So there's no inappropriate workplace romance happening cause there isn't even a workplace anymore.

Mariana and John don't talk about Sherlock much, it's too painful and they certainly won't speak about their own personal feelings about him either, why would it matter anyways? He's dead.

They don't talk about it. They don't talk about how they still buy and stock up on Sherlock's pasta sauce when they go grocery shopping. They don't talk about Sherlock's room, about it being empty, about cleaning it out, about the fact that the man that occupied it would never come back. They don't talk about his last chemical experiment and equipment still on the kitchen table, untouched and unfinished. They don't talk about it. They just don't. Not even months after he's gone and won't. Ever.

Then the impossible happens, Sherlock comes back from death just casually strolling in to surprise them both. And afterwards Mariana has to help John after he fainted and then Sherlock after John punches him.

And John and Mariana are so full of happiness and relief! The three share kisses and hugs. But...what now though? They go from struggling with his lack of presence, the new routine of just the two of them and mourning Sherlock's death to now having not only him back but their routine and business.

And with everything seemingly being back to what it felt like, the want of what once was comes crashing down - Mariana and John break up to go back to a time before Sherlock's death, even though Sherlock doesn't agree (he just finds out) and tells them that they can only go forward.

Cue the angst of Mariana and John's breakup, John's unresolved feelings for Sherlock that he now has a chance to resolve, Mariana's lingering feelings for John and new found ones for Sherlock, Sherlock confronting his own feelings of jealousy and confusion towards Mariana and John starting a relationship when he was gone (and without him? If he didn't 'die' would they have asked him into the relationship? What about now? He wanted them both but did both want him? What does want even mean?? Does he want a platonic or romantic relationship with them? What even is the difference? And etc etc etc).

And then they got together somehow and all retired on a bee farm where Mariana sells their honey at the local farmers market, Sherlock tends to the bees and John is just a house hubby.

[captain-lovelace]

[abyssruler]

i have a question for my fellow writers that i’m curious about

[anto-pops]

I'm not gonna lie, Ao3 being down all day feels a lot like the burning of the Library of Alexandria

[local-diavolo-anon]

*throws this at u*

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

This Rotten Work Playlists: Rachel Edition!

As @evelynhug0 so kindly requested, I'm going to release each of the main character playlists (and one for the main ship, Rachel and Daiyu) once a week leading up to the release of the book!

First up is Rachel Barsky, my beloved lesbian ex-Chosen One with anger management issues and lots of heart. After killing the evil Headmaster of her magical high school, she's doing her best to settle into normalcy at Normie community college by living with her two best friends, Zell and Stebbie, cooking a lot of Kosher BBQ, and attending history and theater classes. (She's a self-admitted drama queen, what can she say?) There's just one problem: her annoyingly attractive rival, Daiyu, shows up on the first day of classes, and Rachel's instinct to shoot lightning first and ask questions later is going to get everyone into a whole heap of trouble.

Here's a sample of her character description:

"Yep, that's me: a face full of freckles and close-set brown eyes full of ghosts. A head of frizzy blonde curls only able to be tamed when pulled into fishtail braids and a nose that’s a bit too big and pinched and a mouth that’s too loud for anyone save Zell and Stebbie. A chunk of the top of my left ear missing thanks to a fire blast from Daiyu in the Tournament. Medium height, medium build, only muscles coming from a lifetime of running and years of reluctant dueling training I got after school. A girl who was born during one hurricane and who lost her parents in another.

I make sense in this household of misfits and dreamers, kids who are a little too strange to fit in right."

@snazzy-hats-and-adhd @blufox3542 @neshatriumphs @khruschevshoe @weedpoop @thesirhandsome-tepalehuia @sillylittlecheeto @nefertittti @henrythepug @meet-me-behindthemall12 @aboutblankpages-blog-blog @artemisiaarm @profiterole-reads @marchionessdebrannas @harrietmjones @thearcaneuniversity @little-bloodied-angel @artemisbones @jacksope-lives @fleuranna @shehungthemoon @spacecatrainshell @celestedeluna @orpheustwelve @gerardway-jpeg @madhare0512 @fool-for-luv @nealmcclure @elposting @mikereads @corvidspectre @thanatosdetesreves @sapphicsigh @ameliapondmd @possumsmushroom @estel-eruantien @augment-techs

[defiledtomb]

I am sorry for my radio silence :< I am attempting to gather my thoughts on some topics I want to address, while irl has had me in a merciless grip lately. I will be back as soon as everything stops spinning so god damn fast 😵‍💫

[craycraybluejay]

writing is torture but unfortunately i am a writer and will legitimately die if i do not do it

[johaerys-writes]

When you're watching a film set in the 40s and the characters are reading an Odyssey translation that was only published in the 90s, so you just sit there like 😐

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

read some unbelievably well written fic last night, like the kind of thing that blows you out of the water and rewrites your brain chemistry for the rest of the week and makes you want to reread/study it so you can one day write like that, like it's inspiringly fucking good, and then i go to the person's tumblr and scroll for a bit and suddenly see a fanart they reblogged of MY fic. very much a "gordon ramsey just walked into my kitchen and asked if i was making enough ramen to share" moment

[some-mari-thoughts]

What do you make of the idea of Blackspace kinda fusing with Hellmari after a post-good ending Omori gave her true life, therefore making her the entire realm by technicality? Omori would do that cuz he needs something to kinda fill the void that appeared when Sunny left and he's getting desperate after not finding anything in Headspace to do that...

(woooooooooo explaining my omori au lore-)

Truthfully this is so wildly different to my idea of headspace and omori and after-good ending that i cannot make anything of this! i think that's up to u to decide

[withgreatpowercomesmyfuckingdick]

unfortunately, sometimes i just gotta Think(TM) for a few days before I can get a scene to click. And it’s usually never when I’m consciously thinking of the scene. It’s when I’m thinking of the character and how to develop them and suddenly I’m like “holy shit this is what they’d do in this scene” and everything just BUILDS from there. beautiful feeling. shame it’s fueled by a shitty gacha pool of writing ideas

[butchriptide]

genuinely really frustrating that people will like. choose to accept the age mistake made in assassin as canon for deathbringer when it actively contradicts older material. like. sorry idk if this is me being unfair here but genuinely like. why would you think it's intentional when deathbringer is described in main series as maybe a year or two older than glory at most, and can canonically not be any older than 9 due to stated timeline facts in the main series.

like. I get not liking glorybringer, i really do. no ship is for everyone. hell, even if assassin specifically makes you feel weird about it, so be it, to each their own. i can undertsnad that too. and yes, the glorybringer fans who think the age gap are canon are also in the wrong. they're being really gross, i don't think it's necessary to disclaim that, that feels given, but like... that only comes to my point still of like, i really don't understand taking a spin-off as canon over the main series. i don't really understand prioritizing later content as canon as opposed to the main work over spin-off as canon. why should a spin-off take jurisdiction just cuz it's newer? i feel like the older the canon is, the more likely it is the newer stuff will make mistakes. to me, in the case of a contradiction, the main series should be taken to? a spin-off is meant to supplement the main series, so shouldn't it only supplement canon that doesn't contradict?

like also, i get being frustrated it isn't fixed, but also. like. i obviously have not worked with a publisher before, but if I was writing for fucking scholastic books, no matter how well fucking beloved my series was, I don't know if I could risk being like "hey. can you pull my books from shelves and e-stores for me so that I can edit one line?" Like. I really don't think there's any reality in which I can make a corporation agree to that kind of thing, no matter what that one line may fuck up about my main story. like it's not even the only mistake she makes in the winglets. she calls deathbringer a rainwing in the flip book, but we're not hailing that as canon in retrospect, right? I don't know. I think it's unfair to presume that she's choosing not to fix it as opposed to it being an improbable to downright impossible thing to ask of a publisher. like yes tui is an incredibly successful author but i really don't know if we can presume she has that much actual sway on her publisher.

it's just really exhausting as a deathbringer enjoyer to feel like if I want to talk about and enjoy his character, and yes, that includes context given in the assassin winglet once you ignore the timeline error, i feel like I constantlyyy have to be saying "yes I think the timeline error is an error. no i don't think deathbringer is 13." like. every time i bring him up. i'm a riptide fan I'm used to it but also it's sooooo tiring to go into a character tag for a guy i like and be swamped with hatred for him and it's so much worse for deathbringer than riptide because in the deathbringer tag I have to deal with being actively accused of excusing gross shit for liking him instead of people just saying that my blorbo is boring.