youseeatortoise

youseeatortoise, 9 months ago to random

I co-wrote a cookbook for depressed people and other folks with zero spoons, only knives. It's not meant to be gourmet cooking so much as a survival guide for late stage capitalism. And you can get it for free!
https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook

youseeatortoise, 7 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 20 - If you read over a quarter of a book and decide you don't like it, do you bail or complete it?

This is one of my quirks—I never bail on a book, even if I hate it. There is always something that can be learned from it. Someone thought this was worth writing and someone thought it was worth publishing, and the gaps between my opinions and those of the industry are always worth exploring.

youseeatortoise, 2 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 256 — Do you have any other writers in your family?

The most famous one is Mordecai Richler, who's my fifth or sixth cousin or something like that. LOL. All Montreal Jews are related. My mum writes for a local paper and writes creative nonfiction on occasion, and an aunt writes memoirs and newspaper articles.

youseeatortoise, 8 months ago to fantasy

#WritersCoffeeClub Sep 3: Is there one piece of well-known writing advice you ignore?

All of it, really. Most is given from amateurs to other amateurs based on something their Grade 11 English teacher told them. Did your Grade 11 English teacher write a book?

But my particular bugbear at the moment is hard magic vs, soft magic systems, magic systems being an idea that needs to be nuked from orbit in #fantasy .

youseeatortoise, 5 months ago to writing

@zillanovikov and I run an author interview feature on our blog. We need more interviews ... If you've got a "published" work (anything readers can interact with, so pre order links or Royal Road links or Wattpad links count, and if course so does Amazon links or smashwords links) please consider doing it!
https://nightbeatseu.ca/author-interviews/ #writing #WritersCoffeeClub #PennedPossibilities #WordWeavers

youseeatortoise, 9 months ago to random

Thanks to the awesomeness of people here, The Sad Bastard Cookbook is now #1 on itch.io books and #5 in Low Budget Cooking. Holy peanut butter balls, folks! @zillanovikov wrote a press release because she's more together than I am. Does anyone have ideas of where we can send it out?

youseeatortoise, 2 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Mar 3
Are there any books which should be banned, or is book banning always wrong?

No book written by a human should be banned. (Which doesn't mean a right to be published, sold, or stocked in libraries.) Responsible publishers should add historical context or commentary to evil but significant works.

Something like the AI-written foraging for mushrooms or diabetes cookbook should be purged off platforms though.

youseeatortoise, 6 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 31: Does your work include any horror elements? What's the most frightening thing you've written? 🎃

I'm not a horror person but I tend to write things with horror elements. I get scared by a different set of things than normal people so horror sometimes happens unintentionally. Probably the scariest thing I've written are Blythe's scenes, which involve a lot of cosmic horror whilst trapped deep underwater.

seachanger, 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago) to random

love to bring salmonberries in this time of year. spring’s first showy bloom in the alaska rainforest 🌸 #bloomscrolling

youseeatortoise, 3 months ago to writing

#PennedPossibilities #writing 206 — Does your MC often reflect on their own actions? Do they ever think about the past, and what they could have done differently?

A lot of Ian's characterization is built around the idea that he spent around 20 years only being able to think about the future(s), to the degree that looking back was impossible. And now that, at least in his eyes, he has more past than future, it's time for a reckoning.

youseeatortoise, 8 months ago to random

IT person: Ah yes, I see why your computer isn't working. It has snakes in it.

youseeatortoise, 2 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub
5. Where do you see the future of publishing in ten years' time?

The AI bubble bursts, taking most of the creative industries with it. Besides the Big Three, which will gobble up much of the remaining market, there will be some space for micro and small presses to put out books that the rest of us want to read. Indie will dominate but only a handful of authors in a sea of dreck. Most books will be free and not worth that price.

youseeatortoise, 6 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub If you find you've used a name from a famous novel, do you change it?

I posted before the coffee really kicked in this morning and I just realized that I share a name with a character from a famous story—Rachael Rosen in "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep." Since I was born with it, there's not much to be done, except play it up for sci-fi cred.

youseeatortoise, 1 month ago to writing

https://www.tiktok.com/

A very important Sad Bastard update. @martennorr @zillanovikov #writing #cookbook #books

youseeatortoise, 1 month ago to random

#WordWeavers Apr 1. MC POV: Write a Mastodon introduction post.

Jesus fuck on a pogo stick, not another one of them social media sites. I gots a real job, ya know? The world is ending and no one else is doin' anything about it, and you expect me to waste some time on a Twitter, tweeting.

Oh, it's run by anarchists you say. Well, that'll work out even better.

youseeatortoise, 3 days ago to random

#writersCoffeeClub 23 May: What gets in the way of your writing?

Chronic illness and pain. Work. My own brain, often. The duty to constantly be marketing.

youseeatortoise, 1 month ago to photography

This was pretty incredible. #eclipse #photography

youseeatortoise, 1 month ago to random

#wordweavers Apr 11: How much power does your antagonist have?

For the Reids, about as much power as someone can. There are rebels still fruitlessly attempting to change the situation, but the Reids are in control of the government and Alycia has powerful magic at her disposal.

Colette, as she discovers, substantially less than she thought.

youseeatortoise, 1 month ago to random

#WordWeavers Apr 20
Do you plan out your themes or allow them to develop as you write?

Bold of you to suggest I plan anything.

youseeatortoise, 28 days ago to random

#pennedPossibilities 298: Do any of your characters have a disability?

Ian, most visibly—his hands were broken in prison and never healed properly. Losing magic for him counts as an even greater disability.

Blythe almost certainly has PTSD (well, so does everyone, but most obviously Blythe) but psychiatrists are in short supply.

youseeatortoise, 25 days ago to random

#WordWeavers May 1 - Introduce your setting as if it's a character in your story.

Her slate-grey expanse has been transformed; through the pavement, shoots of unruly, screaming hair burst from her skin. She adorns herself in dead animals; dead men, too. She's restless, churning. She is dying, and she knows it, but she still cups her hands to create shelter where she can. She sucks the last gasps of oxygen through the broken teeth of her skyline.

youseeatortoise, 16 days ago to random

#pennedpossibilities 310 — MC or SC POV: What was your favourite day or holiday when you were a child?

Jonah absolutely loved Christmas. Not the ones celebrated by his foster family—those were inevitably a disappointment. But the ones on TV, full of rich crimson and gold, thick blankets of snow, sparkling white lights, and the smell of pine. He dreamed of giving is daughter that experience, but it never quite shook out that way.

youseeatortoise, 12 days ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 314 — Has your MC ever felt as though they were reborn in the mental / emotional sense?

Maya has, twice, and not in a good way. Once when she came into her magical powers at 17, and once when she buried her real name and became Maya.

youseeatortoise, 12 days ago to random

#WordWeavers 14May- What role do other writers have in your writing life?

A huge one. Brainstorming and crowdsourcing, beta reading, commiseration, cross-marketing, advice, etc. With more established writers, they've blurbed me and given me a leg up, which was invaluable.

youseeatortoise, 3 days ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 323 - What's a piece of advice for writers that you listened to and are glad for?

A first draft just needs to exist.