It's officially 1 year since 'The Best of Men' was released! I've been blown away by the love and support for this, my little folk horror. Thank you all! And if you've still not listened, you can find it here
This landed hard.
I love literature and the theatre. I love diving into other people’s work; I love creating my own. It has become increasingly clear (especially since the pandemic) that my work is not commercial and my “brand” (whatever that is) does not excite. I will never be on Broadway or off. But I have to live the life that is mine even though there is no goal beyond that. #writer#writerlife#playwright
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 7 Nbr 22 — Are there any books which should be banned, or is book banning always wrong?
This question is a weedy overgrown field of unexploded land mines. I won't step there.
All I'm willing to say is I hope my books never get banned, and that some malcontent, with an axe to grind with my view on how humanity actually works, never decides to make me an example.
#PennedPossibilities 260 — What is the one thing your MC desires most in the world?
It's interesting that for my WiPs, this turned out to be difficult to answer. Neither MC is into material things. Both thought they had control of their lives (but were wrong). I don't think either has some thing they actually desire in this world. Lots of little things would make them content—enjoying friends, finding love, being helpful, receiving earn praise, and since we're talking fantasy here, learning magic. Neither are focused on personal goals, per se.
As for the devil-girl, she's definitely discovered not having complete control in her life ended up fun. Challenging, but fun in the end. Even when you don't win, you learn something you didn't know.
For Wintereyes, life has always simply /happened./ She fits in, and likes that. Her friends are, well, beastly. If she hadn't been living amongst the wolves she'd befriended, would she have ever befriended a dragon? It was burning down their forest, so... That incident changed her life, and will potentially change the world. Not something you can plan for or desire ahead of time.
I made more!! So excited to introduce my first ever shirt designs featuring quotes from my poetic texts.
I used Printify as print-on-demand climate friendly ethical provider for my designs and they are now available for purchase 🥺 This line is from my text "Sorry", about mental health healing in context of family relationships, I added it here too. ❤️
Shirts here: https://skalys-merch.printify.me/products
AHHH So excited to introduce my first ever shirt designs featuring quotes from my poetic texts.
I used Printify as print-on-demand climate friendly ethical provider for my designs and they are now available for purchase 🥺 This line is from my text "Emotional Responsibility", a text about transphobia and my non-binary identity.
Shirts here: https://skalys-merch.printify.me/products
So excited to introduce my first ever shirt designs featuring quotes from my poetic texts.
I used Printify as print-on-demand climate friendly ethical provider for my designs and they are now available for purchase 🥺 This line is from my text "Sorry", about mental health healing in context of family relationships, I added it here too. ❤️
Shirts here: https://skalys-merch.printify.me/products
Just submitted a sketch about President Cleveland coming out of retirement to be a running mate for 45. In doing research for it I have at least tripled my knowledge of Grover Cleveland 😝
So excited to introduce my first ever shirt designs featuring quotes from my poetic texts.
I used Printify as print-on-demand climate friendly ethical provider for my designs and they are now available for purchase 🥺 This line is from my text "The Invention of Logic", a metaphysical text about human perception and paradoxes.
Shirts here: https://skalys-merch.printify.me/products
Today in Labor History March 19, 1742: Tupac Amaru was born. Tupac Amaru II had led a large Andean uprising against the Spanish. As a result, he became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and in the indigenous rights movement. The Tupamaros revolutionary movement in Uruguay (1960s-1970s) took their name from him. As did the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary guerrilla group, in Peru, and the Venezuelan Marxist political party Tupamaro. American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was also named after him. Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote a poem called “Tupac Amaru (1781).” And Clive Cussler’s book, “Inca Gold,” has a villain who claims to be descended from the revolutionary leader.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 7 Nbr 19 — What do you put into your coffee? Or tea? Is this a vital part of your writing routine?
A coffee question! Oh my gosh!
What do you put into your coffee? Califia Barista Blend oat milk. Depending on which beans I've ground, I may add one or two teaspoons of coconut sugar.
Or tea? Can't have tea, though I love it, because it interferes with the medicine I take to treat fibromyalgia.
Is [coffee or tea] a vital part of your writing routine? Nope.
#irishcoffeeclub How would your characters attempt to catch a leprechaun?
If the devil-girl got a visual, she'd drop a gravity fold over it like a bell jar.
The main antagonist would charm the pants off of the guy.
Wintereyes isn't allowed to magically befriend anything humanoid. She might ask her dragon friend to speak fire to the fellow dressed in shamrocks, to convince him not to run.
Would the little guy notice Bolt dropping down on him from the sky? She's very fast.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 7 Nbr 18 — Do you ever use parentheses/brackets in your writing?
I use em-dashes in 1st person narrative quite often, mostly in the sense of setting off parenthetical remarks. I occasionally use parentheses, usually in dialogue but sometimes for very short or one word inserts.
I rarely use brackets, except for out-of-context author inserts in essays (see below), for inline author clarifications usually in front or rear matter in a larger work, or for attributions in quotes or epigraphs.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 7 Nbr 17 — Have you taken high school or college courses in Creative Writing? Were the classes useful?
Yes. At community college, I recollect taking a class. I recollect that mostly it wasn't so much about story telling, as it was way for the students to air their demons and bad life experiences through journal writing. I didn't stay long.
At university, I tried again expecting an academic approach to writing fiction. That's was what the catalog promised. I think it was just before I got an agent and I hadn't yet published. I had a couple completed novels and had short stories making the rounds at the magazines. I submitted an SF short story, necessary to be enrolled. The first critique session, the professor acknowledged that I had a completed work. However, in the next breath he said, "We only write Christian stories in this class."
Hey 😊
Are there any independent fantasy writers or game makers around here who might want to work with influencers to reach new readers or players?
My partner got very viral on TikTok lately with content about DnD, history and video games.
Just trying to help out his talented ass and his videos about independent games frequently get millions of views, I know he'd love to promote independent makers and writers. His TikTok: https://linktr.ee/madmanfenrir #videogames#games#dnd#writers#writer
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 7 Nbr 12 — What would one of your stories be like in an alternative universe?
Me: "Well, my first story was about a white-feathered dinosaur girl who falls in love with a human—"
Her: "Non, ce n'est pas vrai! She had the red scales!"
You: "White /feathers./ Baka! They proved that with fossil—"
Watashi: "You're both wrong! She was white, but she was a fox of five tails."
Boku: "She wasn't female. My MCs are always guys—"
And with that I closed the parallelogramaphone. Sorry. Next question...
[Author retains copyright (c)2024 RS.]
Un bon paquet d'heure pour le faire, ce #tutoriel qui vous apprendra comment faire des frises chronologiques dans #Writer de #LibreOffice sans cadre, sans tableau, sans formes gênantes simplement avec des styles de paragraphe ou de caractère et des sections (une variante). #Draw peut être utile pour dessiner des arrière-plans.
On peut récupérer au format ODT le fichier qui m'a servi de base au tutoriel. https://dutailly.net/et-si-on-faisait-des-chronologies-horizontales-avec-writer
Today in Labor History March 12, 1912: The IWW won their Bread and Roses textile strike in Lawrence, MA. This was the first strike to use the moving picket line, implemented to avoid arrest for loitering. The workers came from 51 different nationalities and spoke 22 different languages. The mainstream unions, including the American Federation of Labor, all believed it was impossible to organize such a diverse workforce. However, the IWW organized workers by linguistic group and trained organizers who could speak each of the languages. Each language group got a delegate on the strike committee and had complete autonomy. Big Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn masterminded the strategy of sending hundreds of the strikers' hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, drawing widespread sympathy, especially after police violently stopped a further exodus. 3 workers were killed by police during the strike. Nearly 300 were arrested.
The 1911 verse, by Poet James Oppenheim, has been associated with the strike, particularly after Upton Sinclair made the connection in his 1915 labor anthology, “The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest”
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!