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#sff

85 posts68 participants8 posts today
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#PennedPossibilities 742 — Out of all of your characters, who talks the most, and who hates it the most?

I've got no motor mouths in dialogue, however, Thorn Rose is described as being so into all the things she is studying and all her research, that she can talk people's ears off. She probably has a trophy case full of them!

Streak refers to it as "arcane daemonic thauma-babble" since she's often talking about warping reality (she's good at it), and that's not simply because you can get lost and dizzy as she talks and talks and talks about things you can't understand, and she doesn't realize it. I can't say her boyfriend Streak really hates it—he knows she means well, even when she's trying to fix or change him—but he does tune it out and she doesn't notice. To be clear, she does a lot of mansplaining (gender reversal).

Her classmates at school, of course think her arrogant and stuck up, and use her academic prowess—her being fawned over by teachers, and her less-than-diplomatic often very correct opinions—as excuses to make fun of her immigrant accent and thus denigrate her. Do they hate her for it? Her prowess (she's the number 1 student) and always talking about what she knows? No. It's more like envy. Her being the daughter of an immigrant? Yes.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#ScribesAndMakers 2025.08.01 — Alt: Word.

This word comes from Mars Needed Women, which is in beta. The Decath Crown, as it is referred to, is one of a number of antagonistic organizations the book's MC ends up dealing with, but it is also the most insidious. I don't expect anyone to read about this out-of-context, but I will admit that I invented the religion for a fascist state instead of using a real one to diffuse my fear of needlessly picking on one religion and likely upsetting part of my potential audience. After the fact, it feels a bit like I am picking on all religions, only kind of passive-aggressively. I'm okay with that. Everybody needs their nose tweaked now and again. What follows is a slightly [annotated] excerpt from the glossary in the book.

Decath - A religious organization which was a successor to the various Christian nationalist faiths that created NADS [North American Decath States] from its predecessor state [the United States], consolidated into a theocratic state-supported ministry. The religion is now world-wide, except where banned in five catholic countries. Adherents say it is not a successor to Catholicism, but a rejection of it. It comes from Dissenting Catholicism, and teaches that the liberal interpretations promulgated by the various orthodox and protestant churches regarding Christ's word was unfounded, and furthermore misrepresented God's will based on improper readings of both the new and old testaments. Their catholicism is a new orthodoxy that properly interprets an apostolic church structure while supporting a protestant ideal of a priesthood of believers that is guided by ministers. It is accurately spelled De-cath not Dis-cath. This because the members of the initial Synod of Alabama—which drew together the leaders or designates of various nationalistic churches, their largest corporate sponsors, and hundreds of US congressmen and sixty-nine senators—thought having the word sound like decaf would sell better amongst the disparate flocks they shepherded.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSMarsNeededWomen

Continued thread
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Spooky Panda 🇺🇦

#PennedPossibilities 743 — (Courtesy of @QuasiTemporal) Tell us what your MC last put in their refrigerator or describe the food you can always find in their cupboards (if fridges don’t exist).

I loved this little prompt. It's so clever, and also /hilarious/ because of what I just went through, which was how the entire idea came about.

Alexios has a scant amount of food in his fridge (and cupboards) at home, but it's the things that he loves: snacks, protein-packed meals, synth-meat and veg for cooking meals whenever he has the chance or if Junk is coming over for a late-night hangout sesh. That sort of thing. He's pretty easy. Oh, and beer too. Gotta have cold beer.

#LGBT#LGBTQIA#TheCityOfOpulence
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WritersCoffeeClub 2025.08.01 — Why are you writing your current work?

Honestly? I think maybe I'm nuts. Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) demands a different touch than my usual stories: it has lower stakes than I'm used to and some of the action scenes are defused because they have to be told in flashback due to the dynamics of the MC's memory. I rewrote the first chapter twice while trying to compose, and now while composing the second, I'm worried I'm going to do the same. Worse, it's waking me in the middle of the night and being sleepy in the day gets in the way of my writing. I've imagined the whole thing, yet… The climax is going to be the solving of the mystery and the bettering of the MCs life (though it will continue to suck, because it a prelude to another story where the SC and MC roles are reversed).

Besides being nuts, I like that I am getting a chance to discuss the gender roles in the MC's society, which besides being fascinating, I hope will make the reader think about their own.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WordWeavers 2025.08.01 — If your story were an animal, which one? What would you feed it?

Argh! Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) is shaping up to be a cozy mystery SF fantasy with plenty of slice of life involving day angels, daemons, and saints. Getting it done is like trying to catch a fish barehanded in a stream. Really wiggly and the refraction of the "water" is making it really hard to see correctly.

I think I'll feed the fish a worm.

On a hook.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#Cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

From the BCS Archives with BCS #437: "Turn To Stone Ourselves" by Marie Croke, BCS #364; a story of stone and life like the others in BCS #437.

"Reminding me of another little girl centuries before, one who had grown up to claim her youth-name, her adult-name, and finally her elder-name, yet who had never been quite content with any of those names, nor what they represented. Not until her hands turned to stone-care."

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/st
#fantasy #sff #shortstory

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Artwork
Beneath Ceaseless SkiesBeneath Ceaseless Skies - Turn To Stone Ourselves by Marie CrokeReminding me of another little girl centuries before, one who had grown up to claim her youth-name, her adult-name, and finally her elder-name, yet who had never been quite content with any of those names, nor what they represented. Not until her hands turned to stone-care.
Owen Tyme

Chapter 49 of Legacy of Newts is available to read on #RoyalRoad: royalroad.com/fiction/102509/t

Amelia considers where the sisters might go after they refuel. Her heart is drawn back to the man she left behind on Cakana, her home world. She still loves him and begins idly plotting a course.

The Book of Newts reads her mind, rejects her plan and takes back the mathematical gifts it gave her.

Royal RoadThe Book of Newts | Royal RoadHome, safety, and a place to belong – they seem so easy to find, at least for everyone but Amelia Blackwell and her sisters, who run from accusations of witchcraft at every turn. It started so simply, with a book. No one might have predicted that a book apparently filled with pictures of newts might lead to so much trouble, but The Book of Newts is (...)
#author#indieauthor#writing
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WordWeavers 2025.07.31 — MC POV: Who is the most attractive person in your story? Why?

[Streak:] My girlfriend, the academic overachiever, says you have to think questions like these out. Attractive is also a verb, and success in attracting people can be demonstrated and tallied. Statistics Yay!

Rainy Days went a dozen years without before Thorn in her undiplomatic wisdom thrust me into her conflict with the woman. The Director of Home is the most powerful being in the world, and that's as attractive as it is scary; yet, what man in his right mind is going to ask for her favor?

Thorn in my eyes is the cutest thing, but I've known her since she was 10, and when she opens her mouth, well… you know that people don't like the unvarnished truth. I'm her only one. She says it so often, she's been accused of not sharing. [In their society, that means not sharing her boyfriend Streak.]

That leaves me, and beyond my sharp ruby-edged† white feathers I'm pretty much average in looks and height and other metrics women supposedly find attractive, but I've never lacked for propositions and have to claim Thorn and I are together far too often.

Rainy Days accepts no excuses from anyone, however.

=+=+=+=
† Actually red corundum.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Live in BCS #437: "Songs for Obsidian" by Rosemary Claire Smith.

"Jammed into the great wall, Tripodea sees nothing to suggest that the city's residents possess any knowledge of, much less sympathy for, all she and her siblings must endure. One day, she summons her courage to ask Vento why they sing to the useless city dwellers. This is as close as she dares come to asking why they sing for her."

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/st
#fantasy #sff #shortstory

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Artwork
Beneath Ceaseless SkiesBeneath Ceaseless Skies - Songs for Obsidian by Rosemary Claire SmithJammed into the great wall, Tripodea sees nothing to suggest that the city's residents possess any knowledge of, much less sympathy for, all she and her siblings must endure. At times, her fury mounts like Mama Volcano's magma. One day, she summons her courage to ask Vento why they sing to the useless city dwellers. This is as close as she dares come to asking why they sing for her. Tripodea greatly fears what will happen to her inner spark if Vento falls silent.
Jess Mahler

Today is the last day of the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale.

Several of my books are half off. If you are looking for some queer fantasy fiction, please check it out!

smashwords.com/profile/view/Je

SmashwordsJess MahlerJess' weird fish-out-of-water life has left them with an enduring love/hate affair with common tropes. The relationship counselor recommended they break it off, but they just keeps coming back to play with tropes (and fuck them up) some more. In between their tropic indulgences, they write queer fantasy with aromantic, neurodivergent, and generally 'weird' characters, take care of their family, argue halakha, and try to do a bit of educational activism on the side. They're active on Tumblr, Mastodon, and a few other spots around the web.
#Books#SFF#queer
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