@ljwrites@writeout.ink
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ljwrites

@ljwrites@writeout.ink

Translator, researcher, writer, and mom. This is my alt for creative writing. Current main project is a novel about a branch of Koreanic people in 1st century B.C.

Avatar is a typewriter with multicolored butterflies on it, found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/susannaht/5092985916/

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ljwrites, to 13thFloor
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Cheoyong (處容) is an admired figure in the Korean pantheon, and his dance is performed to this day. According to record, he was a son of a sea dragon and appeared before the King of Silla in the 9th century dancing with his brothers.

Cheoyong remained at the capital to serve the King, who gave him a wife. Yeoksin was smitten with her beauty and Cheoyong came home one night to see Yeoksin lying with her. The dragon's son withdrew dancing and singing without confrontation, which shamed the god into swearing not to cross a threshold if he saw Cheoyong's face.

That was how people came to put up paintings of Cheoyong to repel smallpox, and his dance was performed for luck. I have written more about Cheoyong's story here: https://ljwrites.blog/posts/cheoyong-story/

A performance of Cheoyong's dance, with figures in colorful garb wearing Cheoyong's mask and casting around long white sleeves that accentuate their arm movements.

ljwrites, to transgender
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The gender-fluidity and patronage of GNC/ people by , goddess of :

"When I sit in the alehouse, I am a woman, and I am an exuberant young man. . . . When I sit by the gate of the tavern, I am a prostitute familiar with the penis; the friend of a man, the girlfriend of a woman."

"To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana."

Inana C 115-131 https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4073.htm

ljwrites, to random
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What are some lively metaphorical expressions about awareness and knowledge that are not explicitly or implicitly ableist? I'm fond of "can't make heads or tails," for instance.

ljwrites, to random
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April 24 - When older novels use outdated or racist language, should they be edited for the modern world or left alone and viewed in context?

There's no universal "should" or "shouldn't" in all circumstances, and can smug white people please shut up omg

ljwrites, to random
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Apr. 11 - How much power does your MC have?

I have two MCs, one a noblewoman, the other a refugee. The noblewoman has built up political and economic power, but it's power that's derived from her father's lineage, her husband's lordship and, in later books, being her sons' mother. So she's very powerful but that power is limited by being a woman in a patriarchal structure. To overcome these limitations she also finds ways to build up her influence by building well-placed alliances, too.

The refugee peasant starts out heavily disempowered and is left for dead along with her family after violence and pillage. They and the other refugees organize and slowly gain more power at the noblewoman's demesne where they are the lowest of the low, so the source of their power is their mutual connection and community and later, an alliance with the noblewoman who needs them for her own ends. I guess what I want to do with this WIP is show different kinds of power and oppression in the ancient world, especially of women.

ljwrites, to 13thFloor Korean
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I am loving this article for not only the in-depth discussion of John Campbell's racist, imperialist grift in the field of and , but also for confirming that is a story with deeply ingrained Christian preoccupations and imagery. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2020/12/31/the-heros-journey-is-nonsense/ (Article CW for sexism, racism, imperialism, sexual violence & slavery discussions)

ljwrites, to random
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On the theme of metalworking, Yacheolsin (冶鐵神) the God of the Forge and Hwadeok-jingun (火德眞君) Lord of Fire were two gods worshiped as patrons of blacksmithing. A Soeburi (iron-blowing) work song from Ulsan in the southeast of Korea mentions Siwon-seonsaeng (시원선생) the First Master who created the bellows:

You who blow on the bellows,
Know you their history?
Long, long ago the First Master
Contrived to make the bellows
The bellows are still here
But where did the First Master go?
Oh how long ago those ancient times
The First Master isn't around anymore!

Men in traditional Korean dress with their hair up in knots and bands around their heads, in front-tied long shirts and pants, crowd around a brick forge singing. Some hold small gongs in their hands while others hold blacksmith implements.

ljwrites, to history
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Things Koreans traditionally bought and sold, an incomplete list:

ljwrites, to random
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Hey lovely nerds, @vicorva has a rad Itch shop https://vicorva.itch.io/ where you can buy their novels (Books & Bone, Non-Player Character, The Beautiful Decay--with more coming soon), their ttrpg Kin created for the NPC novel, and short stories set in the Books & Bone universe. Play fun & chill interactive microfiction for free, too. All of Veo's works feature neurodivergent and queer characters in worlds jam-packed with imagination, wonder, and humor. People would ask about where to find adult autistic and aspec characters, and I'm like magic hands right here! ✨

Remember, Itch gives you the option to tip extra on every purchase, which would be especially amazing because Veo's sweet, loving kitty Merlin is sick. You can also tip them for their great work on Ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/veocorva

ljwrites, to random
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10th March: Do I want to write full time or am I happy for it to be a hobby/hustle?

I kind of do write for a living, since text is a specialized kind of writing. Narrowing the answer down to creative writing, I would be miserable trying to feed my family with it. Fiction is far too uncertain an income, and needs to be done at huge amounts and speed for a chance at livable money. And I won't even bring up poetry in the same breath as money lmao. The economic pressure to produce output and write to what sells would turn my craft into a chore, and I don't want that. I left academia and chose my current life in part to have the time and brainspace to write on the side, and I'm at peace with that choice.

ljwrites, to Korean
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In and , dragons are often divine or potentially divine creatures and many tales revolve around them attaining godhood by ascending to the sky.

In a typically misogynistic take, it's said that a woman commenting on a dragon's ascent or even catching sight of it will frustrate the flight and send it plunging back to earth, where the former sky-dragon candidate becomes a yimugi or gangcheol (the equivalent Western terms may be wyrm, serpent, or wyvern) that harms people and agriculture.

On the flip side though, aren't these stories also testament to the power women have, that a nameless village woman merely LOOKING at a being on the cusp of heavenly power can drop it right back to the ground? Who would win: Dragonling rising to power over the skies and the weather, or one random bitch?

ljwrites, to random
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Thinking more about @JessMahler 's critique of conflict-centered stories, it's kind of surreal that "conflict" is just one way--and not always the best way--to categorize some of the experiences people have in life and yet has taken on this outsize importance in Western storytelling. Saying stories should have conflict seems about as meaningful as saying stories should portray hair: Sure, it's likely to happen because having conflicts is as common as having hair, but it's certainly not inevitable, required, or the ur-theory of narrative.

Read Jess's essay on conflict-centered stories here: https://jessmahler.com/centering-growth/conflict-centered-stories-and-a-conflict-centered-worldview/

ljwrites, to random
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Happy and proud to announce that I have a short story upcoming in the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast's 2024 fiction lineup! https://wandering.shop/@heatherrosejones/111953977084224813 A Very Long Malaise is based on recurring complaints during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea about female palace attendants being in romantic and sexual relationships with other women, with some of them forming factions to leak palace secrets. My story is an imagining of these lesbian palace spies' lives and intrigues, centered around two exes pitted together by circumstance.

ljwrites, to history
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12 January: You're at the coffee shop at the end of the universe. What three writers are you talking to?

The wife of Yi Eung-tae who wrote him a love letter that she buried with him in 1586 https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/eung-tae-mummy-love-letter-andong-south-524368 , and the 18th to 19th century feminist Neo-Confucian scholars Gang Jeong-il-dang and Yim Yunji-dang.

ljwrites, to writers
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Anyone game to read and comment on a short story (around 4,800 words) that I'm planning to submit early this month? It's about ladies-in-waiting in the late 18th-century Korean royal palace being lesbian spies. The premise is drawn from Joseon-era records of sapphic and espionage activities among this class of women. @writers

Story is formatted in .docx available for Google Docs sharing or email, drop me a line via reply or DM if interested. Any response time within a week would be perfect, both detailed and overview comments welcome!

I'm a bit strapped to pay fair rates right now, but can do an equivalent labor exchange. And if you're familiar with this account you know I give thoughtful and constructive comments about things I read ^_^

ljwrites, to random
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Just read Samsaekdo (三色桃, "three-colored peach blossoms"), a story about Princess Bong, the infamous princess-consort in 15th century Chosun who lost her position for committing adultery with a servant girl. Hyeon Hojeong's retelling of the involved personages and their relationships was so sad and hopeful and beautiful and filled my heart up so big, it's wrecked me. This one is going to stay with me a while.

ljwrites, to random
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Often I'll just boost @juergen_hubert 's posts without even reading the actual folklore attached because the lead-in post is so funny--or just good life advice!

ljwrites, to gamedev
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Here's an interesting : Plotopolis accepts submissions of interactive fiction on an ongoing basis to be distributed over chat apps. Pays pro rates. https://plotopolis.com/submissions

ljwrites, to history
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I learned just yesterday that a 13th-century famous writer ancestor whom I kind of idolize wrote a gay love poem about his associate falling in love with a young man, in a rare positive account of homosexuality in surviving pre-modern Korean sources. Totally buzzed about this and planning to translate it and otherwise post about it.

ljwrites, to random
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Started on and it's wonderful getting drawn into the world and characters over again! 😍

ljwrites, to random
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A nation-state is imagination backed by violence. It is a story that rewrites history, recreates landscapes, and rolls implacably over lives and bodies that get in the way of the national narrative. Resistance requires reimagination, the making of new stories to live, love, fight, and die for.

ljwrites, to random
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Okay it's been a brutal workday but let's see if I can finish the final little scene before midnight, like a literary Cinderella 🤞

ljwrites, to random
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Okay the last boost is so me and I am amuse xD https://dice.camp/@miriamrobern/110968720699458702

ljwrites, to random
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@vicorva has successfully funded their sequel to Books & Bone for a second entry in the Tombtown series about a town of underground (literally) necromancers! https://veocorva.xyz/books/the-beautiful-decay-by-veo-corva/ Veo is very hard at work to finalize the book in print & ebook formats, and if you judge the book by its lush cover by @dona it will be a breathtaking offering indeed.

(CW drawn eye contact, fire?)

ljwrites, to poetry
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@yilinwriter 's campaign for legal funds to hold the #BritishMuseum accountable for the infringement of her and feminist poet Qiu Jin's legal and moral rights is close to the halfway mark! Help her fight against the exploitation of artists and erasure of #translators--this is a fight for all of us. https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/british-museum-copyright-moral-rights-infringement/

#poetry #translation #WritingCommunity

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