authoraemoseley

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I’ve reprinted this Smaug risograph a few times now and I’m really digging the HOT fluorescent orange on brown paper in this batch 🤌 These have been restocked and are up in my shop!

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Twinblades

A client piece of a pair of warriors :)

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The Need to Stay

(Thought I’d upload my recent comics to Tumblr! I totally forgot it only lets you upload 10 pics at a time, and this is 11, but fingers crossed it works!)

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Very Normal Houses in science fiction and fantasy.

Artists are credited in the captions, but check out the latest issue of my free sci-fi art newsletter if you want the full context. Also sign up for it! I'm going to try doing more roundups like this over there

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Forgetting your character is disabled isn't a "good representation" flex: Writing Disability Quick Tips

[ID: An image with “Writing Disability quick tips: Forgetting your character is disabled isn't a good representation flex” written in chalk the colour of the disability pride flag, from left to right, red, yellow, white, blue and green. Beside the text is a poorly drawn man in red chalk looking down confused at his leg, one is drawn normally, the other is drawn to resemble a basic prosthetic. He has question marks above his head. /End ID]

For a while, I was involved in the booktok and Tik Tok writing communities, specifically parts of the community focused on more diverse books and authors. During this time, I noticed a reoccurring pattern when people were highlighting stories featuring disabled characters, or even promoting their own books, and that was how often people would say "I kind of forget they have [insert disability here] because they're such a badass."

The intention behind this statement is (usually) good, with people trying to show that their disabled characters are self-sufficient and don't fall into the tired old sad/helpless disabled person trope, however, you can - and very much should - do that without erasing your character's disability. If you find yourself forgetting your character is disabled, or your beta and pre-release readers are commenting about forgetting it, then there's a good chance that's exactly what you've done - and as a disabled person myself, if I see that statement being used in your marketing in particular, it's a giant red flag and a sure fire way to make sure I give the book in question a skip.

Remember, disabilities (especially major ones) are a part of your character's identity, and they're important regardless of the character's personal relationship with it. Even if your character doesn't specifically identify with the label of disabled or doesn't really care that much, it's should still be impacting their daily life, even in small ways. If you're finding yourself forgetting about a major part of your character's identity, it might be a good idea to check and make sure their disability is having an impact on the character.

I see this comment most often with amputee characters, and to me, it's a pretty consistently good indication that the author has treated their character's prosthetic as a cure rather than the mobility aid it is. It's far from unique to amputees, mind you (I talked about this a lot when I was discussing the character of Toph from Avatar), but it's when I tend to see it the most. Remember that mobility aids and other forms of assistive technology and assistive magic (if it's a fantasy story) are just that: they're aids, they assist, they shouldn't be cures.

Of course, this wasn't unique to Booktok, I've seen it on nearly every other social media site with a writing and book-focused community at some point, but Tik Tok was just where I spent the most time and it seems to be where I see the most people specifically gloating about it.

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invented a game called “I throw dice at the cat”

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the way fandoms are desperate to make all aroace characters romance and sex favorable but then dont do anything remotely similar to any other identity is astounding. hmm i wonder why

PLEASE dont derail this about shipping characters of other identities please let this one post be about an aroace struggle

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Doggust! Rhodesian Ridgeback

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Genuine question:

Why do literary agents say that they want something that's "high concept", or "explores things in a new way", or "big character voices". These things are all so vague. Not only that, but pretty much every writer I know thinks they've hit the mark in at least one of those areas.

I know that most agents list comp titles so that authors can narrow it down, and that helps tremendously!

Do agents keep it vague because they know reading is so subjective? They'd rather cast a wide net than to limit themselves and miss out on a book they'd love? Or is there a different reason I'm overlooking here?

I've been compiling an agent list for when I'm ready to query (not there yet!), and it's a trend I've noticed and it got me wondering...

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y'all went feral for that poll (thank you!!)! I'm so glad that everyone's joining in and having fun with it! By and large it seems like dragons are a fave (for now!), but there's been a lot of variety too! Someone also posted a book that got them into mythical critters, so I'll be checking that out for sure.

Please keep 'em coming! I'm really enjoying everyone's takes on it all.

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I used to live and die by how many books I could read and kept track on Goodreads. It was one of the worst things I could have done for myself as a reader, writer, and person in general.

Keeping track can be fun, only if you're doing it for fun. For the past three or so years, I read about 1 - 1.5 books a year. Turns out that I was not only dealing with major health issues but I was dealing with severe burn out. And before that I had a book blog where I tried to read and review books at least twice a month and post at least three times a month as well as help with various book blog tours. I had burned myself out on reading.

Over the past 7 months, with a new job that I actually love, better mental and physical health, I've been able to re-learn why to read.

On my best days, when my body and mind both feel great, I can sit down and read for hours and read a large (300+ page) book in a couple of sittings. Sometimes, even when I am feeling great and I love the book, I read a 200-250 page book over the course of three months. But why?

Because I love the story, I want to live in the story's world differently. Each story is unique, and so the way I read a book is going to be unique too. And as a person who is alive and experiencing life, things happen. Sometimes life will make me read slowly (moving, illness, work, and any number of other reasons). Sometimes, I just want to have a 800+ page book that I can slowly read over the span of 3+ months.

I am a bloody fast reader naturally. It comes in handy sometimes. But reading fast isn't always the right thing to do. I choose how I read books. Sometimes I choose to be a fast reader. Sometimes I choose to be a slow reader. Also, I've learned that there are too many books out there that will interest me and to keep reading a book that doesn't is just...insulting to myself. Why bother with something that doesn't interest you?

i was scrolling through the tags on the 'how many books have you read this year' poll and i just want every 0-5 book reader to know that whether you're dyslexic, you have trouble focusing, you have a job or other full time responsibilities, or perhaps you are just a slow reader by nature, that you're a better reader than this person

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Ilhéu da Vila In Azores islands | danielkordan