wendypalmer

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to fantasy

@bookstodon someone was asking for book series recommendations for their fantasy-loving child and I don’t have a hope of finding the original request, so I’m putting this out there in the off-chance it finds them (plus it deserves more love in general):

The Kingdoms and Empires series by Australian author Jaclyn Moriaty:

https://jaclynmoriarty.com/books/

They are funny, cheerfully upbeat, and fast-paced. I read the first two with my son and we both loved them. Highly recommend for the 8-12ish age group.

(Unfortunately there was then a two-year publishing gap and I missed that three more books had come out in the series, and he’s aged out of them now.)

#ChildrensBooks #Fantasy #bookstodon

TiffyBelle, 5 months ago to books

📚 My next read will be The Last Graduate, the second book in The Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik:

https://bookwyrm.social/book/276356/s/the-last-graduate/

While the first book I felt was a bit lacking, the concept is interesting enough for me to continue the series especially after THAT cliffhanger!

Let's see if this series improves with time...

@bookstodon

#Bookstodon #Books #NowReading #Fantasy #Reading #NaomiNovik #TheScholomance

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to art

Australian artists, do you have a 2024 calendar featuring your art that I can order online (from an Australian site with reasonable postage)?

Photography or art prints all good, does not have to be Australia-themed.

#Art #Australia #IndieArtists

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 16: Any writing tropes you dislike, without insulting other club members?

I’m mostly exposed to romance genre tropes, and pretty much enjoy any of them as long as they’re done well…though it’s going to have to be VERY well done if it’s the billionaire trope. Billionaires are just kind of icky these days, and the powerful man vs naive woman dynamic too red flag-y for me.

Over in m/m romances, I’m a bit nonplussed by the mpreg trope. As someone who has given birth, I’m always like, but where is that foetus going to live for nine months and how are you getting it out of you?? 😊

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to bookstodon

The Smashwords end of year sale has begun — for the next two weeks you can stock up on ebooks on sale or free. Go check it out.

All of mine are 50% off including my latest release. They’re fantasy with a side order of romance of various stripes (m/f, m/m, m/nb), a mix of stand-alone and completed series. I’m happy to help you sideload the epub onto your preferred reading device if you’re unsure how to do it.

I’ll paraphrase the most accurate review I’ve ever had — my books are not for everyone, but if they’re for you, you are in for a treat. Maybe give one a go so my son can have a Christmas present*?

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

(*I AM JUST KIDDING, MY SON WILL STILL GET A CHRISTMAS PRESENT. But I do give most of my writing income to climate justice, international humanitarian aid, fellow small artists, mutual aid, local causes, cancer research, and period poverty assistance, so you could try one of my books for just US$2 with the warm glow of knowing it will be paid forward.)

#SmashWords #SmashWordsSale #selfpromo @bookstodon #bookstodon
@romancelandia #FantasyRomance #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to random

#WordWeavers Dec 14: Do you write characters with different sexual orientations and gender identities from your own? What guides your writing?

Yes I do, moving from very straight, white, cis, in my earliest book in 2010 to very diverse in my latest, and shifting from m/f romances to every combo.

It’s mostly for representation, and a deliberate pushback against terfy bullshit. It greatly disturbs me that my gender has been rolled up into a narrow stick to beat trans people with. I’ve read an unpleasant terfy essay describing what a “real woman” is, and I, a cishet woman, did not meet her my-size-fits-all definition, and I’m glad to not be so one-dimensional. I’d certainly never want to write such a one-dimensional character.

I try to write people. In fact, my next planned WIP was originally intended to be m/m, and I’ve flipped it to f/f and haven’t changed the characters’ personalities or mannerisms at all.

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon ooh, I didn’t know Nghi Vo had a new Singing Hill Cycle novella out 😊

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon got about 30 seconds into the audiobook of System Collapse before deciding I couldn’t handle the voice. No shade on the narrator, I just can’t hear Murderbot as a male with an American accent after creating my own voice for it while reading all the prior books.

Luckily I already bought a print copy for my partner for his birthday so I’ll just have to wait on him to finish.

sunflower, 5 months ago to books

recommend me a book! i like fantasy, paranormal romance, sci-fi, queer fiction. i need 12 recommendations from other people for a 2024 reading challenge :blobcatblep:

#reading #books #bookstodon @bookstodon

Likewise, 5 months ago to photography

Just a gratuitous naked shelfie.

What are you reading this evening? I’m still reading David Copperfield and also in the middle of Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur. #amreading #photography #fediverse @bookstodon

golgaloth, 5 months ago to writing

#WritersCoffeeClub
Dec 7. What's your favourite book? Why?

Hah! Ask me again tomorrow and I'll give you a different answer. As a game designer I feel like I should say Iain Banks, Player of Games, but as a writer the one that hit early and hard was C.J. Cherryh, The Chronicles of Morgaine.

After those, probably a bunch of Terry Pratchett books.
#WritingCommunity #writing @bookstadon #books

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to random

Yesterday’s present-buying visit to my “local” (over an hour’s drive, as my little town doesn’t have one) bookstore was quite a sad experience.

They only had one of the books I wanted in stock, phenomenally did not stock the newest Murderbot, and I heard at least four people coming up to the counter to ask for titles, only to be told they would have to order it in, eta two weeks.

Not a single one of those people placed the order — why would they, when they can place the order themselves online and get it directly delivered in two weeks.

I know the turnover for titles is short, and shelf space is tight, but seeing this truly dismayed me. I already had to order some books online because they were old enough (you know, published earlier this year) that I couldn’t guarantee they’d be in stock (they weren’t) but I went in with a new release Christmas list and couldn’t get most of it. It’s the only dedicated bookstore in this town — technically a city, based on population — and I’m not sure how much longer it can survive if that was indicative of its Christmas season.

#bookstodon #bookstore

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon how did I not know T. Kingfisher’s fourth paladin book, Paladin’s Faith, is already out!

RickiTarr, 6 months ago to random

What is your Mandela Effect Memory?

If you aren't sure what I'm talking about here's a reference:

https://www.scienceofpeople.com/mandela-effect/

fictionable, 6 months ago to blackfriday

… we've checked and it's definitely #Friday

In fact, for those who celebrate, it's #BlackFriday

So let's do it again: tell us three #books you've enjoyed recently and we'll see if we can come up with something else you might like.

Who knows? You might even be able to find it in a #library

#BookRecommendations #reading #writing #bookstodon @bookstodon

wendypalmer, 6 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 140: Do you agree with the choices that your characters make?

They’d be pretty boring books if I did… but I’d hope they were understandable and even sensible choices, given the character’s situation, personality and background.

This prompt touches on a nerve with me, which is that I frequently see books/movies/media criticised when the characters make decisions the reader/watcher/consumer disagrees with.

The example that jumps to mind (as always when I try to think of examples, it’s a movie rather than a book) is a mother rating Inside Out very poorly because the lead, 11-year-old Riley, makes the extremely poor decision to run away from home, and that’s just a terrible example to poor vulnerable children watching this travesty!

Of course, the movie makes it very clear, both implicitly with all sort of cues AND explicitly, that this is not, in fact, a good choice — an understandable choice, but not a good one.

It speaks to a lack of literacy (in the more general sense of wider media literacy, not just ability to read and write), that some people seem to think any decision a character makes is an endorsement of that decision.

wendypalmer, 6 months ago to iPad

Apple iPad passwords question.

We use iPads for scoring our domestic basketball games. We access the scoring webpage with our main log-in password, which is saved and autofilled.

But once within the scoring system, we must set a 4-digit pin for the session.

Every time it asks to save the new password (ie the pin, which is not the password). When people are in a rush, they don't read the message and they just press OK, which means they save the session pin over the log-in password.

(And then they can't close out the system at the end of the night because the saved password is wrong, and then we get a phone call.)

Is there to turn off that update-password message without also having to turn off the autofill function?

(We didn't have this problem last season and I'm not sure what changed).

#techSupport #iPad

wendypalmer, 6 months ago to random

An update on my stolen book
(original post linked). What an interesting learning experience it's proving to be...

1. Lulu outlined the info required for the DMCA notice, so I've provided that. So far so good there. I'm hoping Lulu will cancel the book's distribution to Amazon.

2. The automated Amazon response sent me to the same Infringement form I originally filled out - I had to enter a code plus a whole bunch of extra info, into a character-limited text box on that form. Ran out of characters, plus they won't accept outside links, so I can't link to Google Books AU sample proving the content is mine (Zon want me to have bought the book to confirm the content is stolen - yes, I'd like to pay out AU$60 and give this thief his cut, sure). 4 days to wait.

3. My book and another author's book were stolen under the same title but different ISBNs and covers. Unfortunately the other author has now left a one-star complaint review on my version rather than their own version, which can only muddy things at the Amazon end.
   (I was tempted to leave a one-star too, but I feel reviews just activate an otherwise-ignored book into the algorithm...plus my account doesn't meet reviewing requirements. Which is to say, I don't purchase off Amazon...)

4. I do feel, though, that the guy now has less books listed than he did before, so something is working. That's the main reason I'm persevering, as a group action/solidarity with the authors more affected than me - mine was just a very expensive hardback no one was ever going to order, but he has other authors' work in KU.

5. Note, though, if he is taking them down, he's not taking them ALL down, just the ones he's been caught out about -- brazen!

6. I have to assume my ebook is available on pirate sites, or otherwise how did he get the text. Not sure there's much I can do there except hope pirates and the target audience for a quirky little fairytale-based fantasy don't much overlap...

#WritingCommunity

https://mastodon.au/@wendypalmer/111383289913291318

Likewise, 6 months ago to books

Any good reads this weekend?

I’m still plugging along with David Copperfield( I haven’t made a lot of progress this week, but am sticking with it) & also reading Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, this was on my summer list, but I didn’t get to it then. #books #photography #fediverse @bookstodon

wendypalmer, 6 months ago to random

A fellow author very kindly let me know one of my books has been stolen by a fake author on Amazon.

Looking into it, it looks like a modified version of one of my short blurbs is attached to a print book under a new title and cover and the fake author’s name, but with no option to look inside, I don’t know if the actual content is mine.

The same title and author, but with different cover, ISBN and blurb, is also listed separately on Amazon. Google Books has it listed with my blurb but with the content preview matching this second version.

It looks like all the books were published via Lulu, but a search for the author name shows only one title (not the one based on my book) coming up now, so possibly they’ve already been taken down.

I’ll report the version with my blurb to Amazon, but I’ve heard those stories and don’t expect much to come of it.

#WritingCommunity

Adam_Cadmon1, 6 months ago to random

This Easter, ask a devout Christian why their church celebrates the Resurrection with egg hunts and chocolate rabbits.