@wendypalmer@mastodon.au
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wendypalmer

@wendypalmer@mastodon.au

I write fantasy ebooks & family-friendly puzzle walk trails while enjoying farm life with goats, alpacas & bees in the South West Boojarah region of Western Australia.

I follow & boost writing, reading, books, knitting, science, history, linguistics, environment, art & Stoicism.

She/her. Avatar AltText: silhouette of a woman in profile, with glasses & bobbed hair; header is my book covers (alt texts on website).

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wendypalmer, to Parenting
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My kid, staring me dead in the eye as he swipes up on all of the apps open on my phone 😂

paigerduty, to FiberArts
@paigerduty@hachyderm.io avatar

so much lovely intergenerational bonding and joy at todays natural overdye fiber class ❤️💛💙 pretty amazing to see the range of shades possible from just madder, weld and indigo

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@paigerduty wow, that’s awesome 😊 I know indigo and and madder, but had never seen weld

HeliaXyana, to writing
@HeliaXyana@mastodon.nl avatar

I wonder what tense you've all chosen to write in and why.

I know past tense is likely the most common, but I have experimented with both and decided that present tense offers more direct immersion for my purposes.
This also ties into who the narrator is. In my WIP, it is a person in the room invisibly tagging along with the MC.

How did you decide, and is it reflected in the identity of the narrator?

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@SJHoodlet @HeliaXyana @Firlefanz I almost always write in close third person, single POV, past tense, but for my last book, an extra POV character popped up and he was present tense, because he was someone who lived in the moment, created his own drama, acted without thinking…present tense suited him to a tee.

And in my current WIP I use it to represent visions.

For me, it’s less about pacing (in a fast reader either way)

wendypalmer, to AncientGreek
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

Any experts in Ancient Greek in the fediverse who would be willing to spend a little time to help me rework some words for a fantasy novel in the same way Latin often gets abused by fantasy novellists?

#AncientGreek #language #writing

wendypalmer, to Etymology
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

My partner decided “loaf” was a weird word so I looked up its etymology and now we know “lord” comes from “loaf-ward” ie guardian of the bread.

wendypalmer, to lgbtqbookstodon
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I’ll be reading Olivia Waite’s The Hellion’s Waltz in March if any followers would like to join me. Post commentary as you go along or a review at the end 😊

@queerromanceclub @lgbtqbookstodon

adriabailton, to random
@adriabailton@wandering.shop avatar

Q1. What is your favorite grammar rule?

Feel free to reply or copy into your own answer, but don't forget the either way! Don't forget related hashtags, such as and

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@adriabailton Q1. What is your favorite grammar rule?

It’s the subconscious ones that you don’t need to explicitly teach native speakers, because they give us such insight to how the language centres of our brains work.

In English, examples include:
Why tock-tick sounds wrong (something to do with the vowels)
Why red, little house sounds wrong (we have a very structured way to string adjectives and we all implicitly know it)

and

SusannaShore, to bookstodon
@SusannaShore@wandering.shop avatar

I review Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo. Paranormal mystery set in modern Seoul. Out today.
https://susannashore.blogspot.com/2024/03/small-gods-of-calamity-by-sam-kyung-yoo.html

@bookstodon

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@SusannaShore @bookstodon thanks for recommending this - I’ve started it tonight and am really liking it so far

wendypalmer, to fantasy
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

It’s ’ 15th annual Read an Ebook Week starting today (March 3). So many ebooks on sale from 25-100% off, available at https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos. It’s a great chance to try out new-to-you indie authors (and practice sideloading non-DRM books to your device too 😊 ).

Mine are all 50% off. I write fantasy novels with romantic subplots. Not dark, but not as fluffy as they sound either.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

They’re also available on and and the usual ebook retailers if Smashwords isn’t your thing.

@bookstodon

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

March 2: Do you prefer writing series or stand-alone books? Why?

Despite having written a duology and a trilogy, I prefer writing stand-alones…which could also be a series called The Procrastination Novels since I write them while avoiding working on sequels.

Once I’ve finished the currently-avoided sequel (which is actually the stand-alone I meant to write before having the bright idea to do a book in the same world which then turned into a prequel), I think I’ll be avoiding anything too closely related (same world, different time or place is fine). Oh, except I do have a character from my duology who really wants his own book, so I’ll probably give it to him at some point.

I know they’re good for building audiences, going deep in a world, developing favourite characters etc. But writing them makes me feel unpleasantly constrained by my own damn rules. I worry I’ll drain my characters dry, turn them into caricatures as often happens with a series that goes too long. And being a discovery writer means I haven’t planned it well enough to have foreshadowing etc in the first book, to use in later books, and I don’t like that either.

I also much prefer reading stand-alones. That said, I stuck with Stephanie Plum all the way to Book 12 before noping out: if I start a series early enough, I’m happy enough to follow along. I do prefer an overall arc. But there’s some extra hurdle with thinking about adding nine books and counting to my groaning TBR…the series starter has to be pretty damn good to get past that.

CandaceRobbAuthor, to random
@CandaceRobbAuthor@historians.social avatar

02-25 - How do you feel about Amazon's influence on books and publishing?

I've been in the business long enough to remember publishing before amazon. Better advances and a livable income from royalties. Few people complained about reasonable prices for books. Libraries held on to books much longer. I wish I'd appreciated it more.

wendypalmer,
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@tkinias @CandaceRobbAuthor or a movie ticket or other one-off — a few hours of entertainment, vs usually at least double that, plus something you can keep, loan to friends, re-read for free, re-sell if you want.

I remember being at a swap meet and a lady being very sniffy over some second hand books — “$2 for an ex-library book is a much much!”

$2 for 4-6 hours of entertainment…too expensive? It’s like some people don’t differentiate between the object and the purpose of the object.

wendypalmer, to sport
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With the junior basketball league I volunteer for, a committee member brought us a complaint from a parent…the parent was complaining that a very athletic child from the younger age group was being allowed to play up into their kid’s team, thus taking more court time away from the weaker players ie their own child. (We encourage the coaches to apply equal court time as much as possible, for the record.)

The committee member was championing the parent’s complaint and subsequent demand that players should never be allowed to play up, because we’re meant to be fun league and strong players have other avenues to stretch themselves.

Let’s leave aside the simple fact that if that team hadn’t had this player, they would have had a different strong player, because otherwise the team would have been too weak overall, and the parent would likely have then been complaining about losing every week. A small proportion of parents will always complain, we accept that.

The committee member championing the parent is a teacher.

Imagine for a moment a parent coming to her and complaining that they didn’t like an academically gifted student getting extended because it takes time away from the weaker students. Imagine a parent demanding input on class sizes and structure, and on who gets to be in the class, all only from the perspective of benefiting one child, their own.

I imagine that happens. I imagine that gets dealt with. I don’t imagine it gets brought to the principal with a “they have a point, we should listen to them”.

(By the way, we’ve let kids play up who have now gone on to play State, or who’ve gone to a college basketball in the US. It’s not a policy we’re looking to change.)

kayakalison, to bookstodon
@kayakalison@nerdculture.de avatar

@bookstodon I’m at the pool and just finished “Uprooted” by Naomi Novik. I have two more days of holiday left, any recommendations?

wendypalmer,
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@kayakalison @bookstodon you could go on Novik’s Scholomance series, but how about T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead? Creepy fungus-based Fall of the House of Usher retelling, and the stand-alone sequel just came out too.

lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

My portal fantasy MOON'S KNIGHT (which drove at least one Amazon reviewer to distraction because the protagonist, during the funeral of her best friend, has harsh words for God) is on sale for $3.99USD in ebook today! https://books2read.com/moonsknight

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@_L1vY_ @cstross @lilithsaintcrow @PictoPirate yeah, I had a bad review because my female MC had slept with a grand total of three men before hitting my male MC up for sex. How shocking, a grown woman who thinks she’s dying wants to try a few things out before she goes… I figured it was either Puritanism or just, you know, general sexism, or both, why not?

wendypalmer, to random
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Yesterday Me wrote Today Me a huge long list of chores to do, and now I’m like teenager wondering how she’s going to make me.

wendypalmer,
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@rayckeith it is ongoing problem (but, you know, Tomorrow Me’s problem, so… 🤷‍♀️ )

NickEast, to books
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Reader questions: What are you currently reading, and would you recommend it?

@reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @books


wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@NickEast @reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @books Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway. Classic noir hardbitten detective type in a future cyberpunk setting.

wendypalmer,
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@kimlockhartga @NickEast @reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @books isn’t he! I’ll always have a soft spot for Gone-Away World but I’ve loved every one of his books. GNOMON was excellent.

wendypalmer, to menopause
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

Broken Light by Joanne Harris, about a menopausal woman rediscovering her power both literally and metaphorically. Perfect for my current age, outlook and mood. Greatly enjoying and looking forward to seeing where it goes.

@bookstodon

wendypalmer, to Cute
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

Has your day been a bag of dicks? Have a box of ducks to make up for it.

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

I wouldn’t normally do this, and I don’t want to sound like a dick, but some of the answers to the typography question has led me to wonder:

You’re using paragraph Styles (or the non-Word equivalent), right, self-published authors?

If not, look into it. It’ll make formatting so much easier*, and the production of the ebook about as close to one-click as it’s possible to get.

Sorry if I’m teaching grandma to suck eggs…

*but never ever click “Update Normal to Match Selection” unless you want to wave goodbye to all your italicised words.

girlonthenet, to random
@girlonthenet@mastodon.social avatar

I have workmen in my house at the moment and I am so over the moon with the guy I picked. He has not patronised me one single time, listens to me when I explain the things I know about my (ancient) pipework and wiring, and genuinely consults me on decisions. At no point has he asked me where my husband is or told me 'what you wanna do is...'

This guy could burn my fucking house down and I'd still give him an exceptional review.

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@girlonthenet I had a tradie tell me “I know it’s hard for you to understand” while explaining flooring to me.

He also repeatedly yelled “ow” when I walked past the room he was working in until I gave in and asked him he was OK (he was fine, he just needed his boo-boo acknowledged).

Needless to say, I wasn’t a repeat customer.

wendypalmer, to bookstodon
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@bookstodon my kid’s listening to the complete Mr Gum stories on audiobook, read by the author, and we two adults are giggling along with him 😊

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

I heard a quick mention in a podcast that Romans considered long sleeves on men to be degenerate/slutty.

Well, well, well. Look who happens to show up wearing long sleeves in my WiP's Roman-esque town...how very serendipitous.

wendypalmer, to bookstodon
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

I wish ebook retailers let you choose your cover eg if I wanted to buy a copy of Boy Swallows Universe today, I’d be stuck with the Netflix cover. It doesn’t have to be like that.

@bookstodon

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