Expert Dream Monster @cislyn@wandering.shop

#introduction Bi poly married speculative fiction writer. I mostly write short stories and poetry - long form stories are harder for me. I dabble in a lot of crafts, make messes, pet kitties, play games, and dither about how to introduce myself on social media sites (especially since I'll likely just lurk. It's what I do). I'm a submissions editor for Uncanny Magazine, and I read voraciously. Um... yeah, that's me.

The Dream Foundry has redesigned and refocused our Patreon to showcase just how much even $2 a month helps us reach our goals, and we hope you’ll check it out.

Everyone who signs up by November 15th will be entered into a special drawing to win three tentacle beasties!

https://www.patreon.com/dream_foundry

Also, we're doing a limited time merchandise sale, so if you love our space dragon logo (because it is super lovable) you may want to look into that too. We've got t-shirts, enamel pins, and a trio of bookmarks for keeping your place in all the awesome books you're reading. It's a great way to snag some nice gifts (for yourself or someone else, I won't judge) while supporting a small nonprofit.

https://dreamfoundry.org/shop/

Oh hey, did you know that The Dream Foundry's fall auction is happening RIGHT the heck NOW?! We have got SUCH nifty loot - there are these amazing carved wooden trains, manuscript and portfolio critiques for writers and illustrators, signed books and hand crafted items - including a nifty This Is How You Lose the Time War shawl I made to go with a signed copy of the book. You should check it out!

https://www.biddingowl.com/DreamFoundry2019

I'm back from Viable Paradise with a head full of stories and a heart full of music and now I'm doing logistics and planning a trip down to Florida to see my dad. Wheeee?

I'm at Viable Paradise and kinda swamped (in good ways!), but I wanted to hop in and let folks know that The Dream Foundry's fall auction is happening NOW!

Hand-carved wooden trains and steamboats! A signed copy of This is How You Lose The Time War paired with a themed cuddly shawl! ARCs! Manuscript critiques! Art! There are lots of nifty things available for a steal, and it's all for a good cause. Check it out!

https://www.biddingowl.com/Auction/index.cfm?auctionID=16388

Also, I haven't been talking about it in some spaces (like this one) because it feels... I don't know. It feels strange. Grief is already weird, and grieving in any kind of public way is also weird. Anyway, I'm ok with missing the funeral and he's ok with me missing the funeral but I'm still having some complicated thoughts about rituals and performance and just... stuff.

My dad is doing ok so far. I wish like crazy I could just teleport. That would solve a lot of problems right now.

My stepmom died this weekend.

She'd just come through a treatment for cancer, and been given the all-clear and told she was looking great and was cancer-free. This is a huge shock, and it leaves a big hole in my dad's life. I'm not going to make it to the funeral (it'll be during Viable Paradise), and my dad has said that's ok. I'm planning to go down to Florida and be there for him when he doesn't have her family to lean on. All of this is just... it's a lot, friends.

Blizzara is trying to nap on me and everytime I shift even the slightest bit she looks back at me all disappointed like this and I'm sorry, but I can never move again.

I feel like it should be known that @hafnia is currently, right this very moment, roleplaying alternative timelines in a dating app having conversations with me. This has to be the most charming part of my day, and I'm SO here for it.

In other news, Blizzara cat realllllly wants to help me crochet tonight.

Good frog. Now I'm citing sources at people. I'm closing down the whole dang internet and going to go eat a food, work on a project, and remind myself that there are plenty of folks who can show even the smallest amount of respect without a freakin' fight.

And now that I've got that out of my system, I have work to do that isn't yelling at wrong people on the internet. I'm not sure why the heck I stepped into that fight (other than, hey, it shouldn't just be NB and trans folks fighting for this common sense thing) but I did, and now I'm out.

On the plus side, Kind Words continues to be kind. Thank goodness for genuinely nice experiences like that game.

This isn't hard. If you can say, with ease "aw, what a cute baby! How old are they?" or "Someone left their sunglasses on the counter. Could you page them?" then you can handle this.

And the number of people responding with "it doesn't matter" to a post about the AP getting the pronouns of a nonbinary artist wrong ON THE ARTICLE ABOUT THEM COMING OUT is just... staggering. I bet they'd think it mattered if they were consistently misgendered. Jerks.

I have made poor life choices. I am arguing with people about how singular they is actually perfectly valid and grammatically correct and for goodness sake it costs you NOTHING to be kind over on birb site. How are people this obtuse? Why are they (ha) like this? Argh.

ARGH I SAY. ARGH.

There's a reddit relationships post going around about a baby disaster gay who is totally oblivious to her flirting roommate and I ... I think we're all having the same "it me" reaction, right? Or um, is it just me...

My to-do lists have items on them about making other to-do lists. Yep. It's a Tuesday.

It rained last night, and I'm reminded once again of how well I sleep when the skies open up, when there's thunder and lightning and torrential downpour. Brains are weird, friends, but gosh, I sure did sleep in a lot today.

Oh hi, insomnia. :(

Check it out, and let me know if you have questions or are interested in the class: https://literarylevelup.substack.com/

The newsletter and course are for you if you've ever read something nifty and wanted to figure out how to do that (or, equally valid, if you've ever read something that just didn't work and wanted to figure out why, and how to avoid it in your writing). We're aiming to give you the vocabulary to talk about things, the skills to analyze, and the practical advice to apply it to your own work. Think of it like a Literary Level Up, specifically for plot and structure.