#Publisher Spotlight

[honourablejester]

I’m not done with the D&D deities, but I thought I’d take a little sidetrack to a Pathfinder deity that I deeply enjoy.

Pathfinder Deity Spotlight: Black Butterfly

The Silence Between flutters among and between the stars, representing distance, silence, and space. Often called Desna’s Shadow, the Black Butterfly is sometimes believed to be an aspect of Desna that has broken off and taken on its own life; her interest in distance and space certainly reflects Desna’s love of travel. The Black Butterfly finds the silence of the sea of stars useful for introspection and learning about oneself. Those who follow her take opportunities when they can to sit in silent meditation, in zones of silence and darkness when possible. Travel across large distances offers plenty to think about and contemplate, and the Black Butterfly encourages such journeys. She hates all evil, but she truly despises the powerful beings of evil that populate the Dark Tapestry, and her followers are expected to fight these beings and their followers without mercy.

The Silence Between manifests as the silhouette of a woman with butterfly wings, and white hair and eyes. Her wings contain a shadow—or reflection—of all of the Dark Tapestry and everything within it. Parted lovers, the isolated, the introverted, those who have sworn vows of silence or don’t communicate verbally, stargazers, explorers, and the melancholy are all found among the followers of the Black Butterfly.

--- Lost Omens: Gods and Magic (2020)

Technically speaking, the Black Butterfly is an Empyreal Lord, a demigod, rather than a main deity. She is linked to Desna, one of the primary deities, and a deity I do also love in her own right. Desna is the Song of the Spheres, an ancient goddess who created the night sky, a goddess of dreams, travel, stars and songs. I do love her as well.

But. I like the quiet of her smaller, darker reflection? I love the Black Butterfly’s emphasis on silence, on peace, on contemplation. Those long watches of the night where you come to terms with yourself and the world around you. If you’ve ever sat out on the back wall of your yard at night and just looked up at the sky and listened to the quiet? That’s her. If you like to go walking or driving at night just to see the world when it’s quiet, to enjoy your own company? That’s her too. Though cars aren’t a thing on Golarion, of course. But. A similar idea. Travel with yourself, with your thoughts, travel with the silence inside yourself. If you want a bit more of a contemplative, inward-facing experience, not Irori’s pursuit of perfection but something … quieter. More accepting. Then worship of the Black Butterfly might be for you.

On the flipside, however, is her antipathy for the beings of the Dark Tapestry. Because. The Dark Tapestry itself is essentially the void between the stars. And the beings that inhabit it are the Outer Gods. AKA the Lovecraftian gods. Because Pathfinder has those. By name. Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth included. And the interesting thing is, I can’t find a source for it, but I’ve seen people discussing a theory that Desna, Black Butterfly’s parent deity, might be an Outer God, just a friendlier one. But. That aside. The Black Butterfly, this quiet, contemplative deity, this patron of parted lovers and stargazers and the melancholy, is also a driving part of the fight against Lovecraftian horrors.

And it makes sense. She’s the goddess of space, a flitting figure among the sea of stars, and the Dark Tapestry is the very fabric of space, and it’s corrupted. Or, at least, owned. By the cold, cruel forces of the Outer Gods. So it makes sense that she wants to reclaim it, or to make space among it, to make it so that at least some travellers may venture there without doom.

But it kind of means …

Do you want to play the quiet, mysterious traveller who shows up in a town afflicted by dark forces, the crawling cults of the dark things between the stars, to give their aid to people beset by horrors, and then vanish again, a drifter travelling ever onwards towards the next town or village where their services might be needed? Because that is what is asked of a worshipper of the Black Butterfly. To travel. To embrace silence. To know oneself. And to fight the strange horrors of the darkness between the stars. So. If that is an archetype you might want to play to? Here is your goddess.

I love her quite a lot. She’s calm, and quiet, and gentle, and she lets you play with the cool end of Lovecraftian fantasy horror. Heh.

[bookspotlight]

Interview Master Lists

updated my author interview list! over 160+ author interviews and growing! 📚💙

HERE

there is also a very new (and thus very small 🥰) artist interview page

HERE

more artist interviews are coming as well!! 🎨💛

[nosediv3dd]

Flashback to my little comic haul from WorldsEndComics last November!

Managed to get a nice deal on a few of these, I’m hoping to put in another order when I have time off from work so I can actually go pick them up.

[horsebiologist]

when sleep token is featured in any magazine its always fan stories or lyric analysis save for like one written interview from years ago. the well is DRY

[brinconvenient]

Every time I read a Torrey Peters story, no matter how little the characters or circumstances resemble me or my life, I feel so exposed and raw and confused and like someone opened a door that I thought was barred, padlocked and had multiple filing cabinets, two shelving units, afolding chair, a bed, a porcelain statue, a vending machine, and a potted fern stacked in front of it.

Like, that's not a bad thing. Not per se. Sometimes being seen is uncomfortable. Sometimes being seen is an ordeal. And that's OK.

She's a hell of a writer.

[rivalszine]

🃏 CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT 🃏

Next up is one of our fantastic writers, @akechi-stole-my-heart ! Her fantastic characterization will blow you away!

[quetzalpapalotl]

Gonna play the exrid apologist again, but regarding Optimus and Prowl I think there is this unfair assessment of Prowl's role being to exonerate Optimus from the atrocities of the Autobots and that what Prowl did in relation to OP is never adressed.

While Prowl has much worse on a reputation in Mtmte and Wreckers, exRID plays it as him being dubious but the extent of his antics being genuinely unknown to the likes of Optimus and Prowl.

Now this doesn't mean that Optimus is scott free, he is ultimately responsible for the actions of the Autobots as their commander. There's the implication that he had his suspicions about Prowl but turned a blind eye, and regardless, this is behavior that's explicit of him in other instances, like how he pays lip service to not liking the Dinobots methods but Grimlock calling him out in that at the end of the day what Optimus' wants is results in OP #25.

But again, there is the fact that Prowl's most obvious and nefarious stuff is potrayed in Mtme, like the New Institute, which is what I hear most when expressing disappointment on this topic.I have talked about how I find is something that exists for Chromedome's characters while leaving a lot of messy implications chronologically and for other characters. And the Roberts goes out of his way to specify that the NI was something Orion was unaware of and wouldn't approve, but if Optimus really was still unaware of its continued existence then he looks like a fucking idiot, which doesn't save much face in contrast to giving it the go. This sort of thing shows up a lot in how JRo writes OP.

But the thing is, I don't think is all that fair to criticize exRID's narrative based on things that were happening simultaneously in Mtmte. For as much as Barber is the continuity guy, I think he should get a break to tell the story he wants to tell.

It is fun to try to get a general reading for yourself (and I do have my own explanations for the incongruities), but I don't think it's a failure of exrid's narrative to not adress details from another series by someone who wasn't the primary writer for these characters at the time when it's already much more mindful of this than average.

Point is, I think that when assessing something like the narrative quality of the relationship between Prowl and Optimus in exRid/OP what should be taken into account first and foremost in how it is presented in exRid/OP itself.

[farmobileo3]

Urban Soul Farmer zine from 2016. I will have this zine and other environmental zines at the East LA library on June 14th 4-6pm.

[jankwritten]

WAHOO In an effort to help myself love hockey AU again, instead of forcing myself to work on chapter 11, I'm going back and doing edits to the chapters I'm not totally happy with! Chapters 9 and 10 are getting Updates, and so far I am Really Digging the things I'm changing.

I'm hoping that these revisions help the chapter flow better, and also add a bit more Flavor to the story and the world.

SO! If you see an influx of updates soon for SPOTLIGHT but none of them are new chapters, I apologize! It's because I've been going back through and making minor tweaks to previous chapters, and would like the finished AO3 product to reflect those edits.

[honourablejester]

D&D Deity Spotlight: Leira

Leira has worn many masks, and more than once has been thought to be dead or to be another deity altogether. Perhaps such a reputation is only natural for the goddess of illusion and deception. Her faithful agree that whatever the "truth" might be, their Lady takes great delight in the confusion sown by her various incarnations. Even the faithful of Cyric once taught that their god killed Leira, but now they espouse the strange idea that somehow she is his daughter.

Leira isn't viewed as malicious or as a trickster but is seen as enigmatic, quiet, and retiring. She is credited with inventing Ruathlek, the language of illusionists and the spoken tongue of Nimbral.

The faithful of Leira seem to be scarce, although it is difficult to know this for certain, because those who favor her rarely make their inclinations known. Leira is the patron of illusionists and liars. She receives little regular worship except from illusionists, who pray to the Mistshadow for potency in their magic, and con artists, for whom she is a kind of champion. Most people pray to her when they hope to keep something secret, or placate her with a prayer before making an important decision when they fear being deceived. Some folk perform a swirling motion with a finger behind their backs when telling a lie as a way of beseeching her for aid.

Her priests wear vestments of white and mist-gray, and their faces are covered by smooth, featureless masks. Only in Nimbral do temples to Leira exist, and shrines dedicated to her found across the continent are usually disguised as other kinds of sites, marked with signs that only the faithful would recognize.

--- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (2015)

Okay, so. First thing. I love illusion magic and I love illusionists. Playing with truth and lies, with perception and reality, it’s a theme I deeply enjoy. But more than that, I just love how utterly inscrutable Leira is?

What does she look like? No one knows. What is she doing? No one knows. Is she still alive? Absolutely no one knows. Other gods don’t know.

Leira is the goddess of operational security, essentially. I know Mask is often thought of as the god of spies (thieves primarily, but also spies), but personally I’d go for Leira. If I needed my lies to be believed, if I needed my cover to be impenetrable, if I needed all clues to my truth to be completely obscured, I would pray to Leira. Her description mentions con artists and illusionists, but if you’re a spy, a spymaster, if you have crucial information that you need to not become known by your enemies, the Lady of the Mists is your goddess. ‘Lady of Illusions, keep your eyes on me. Let my secrets remain secret, and let my enemy’s truths become known to me.’

If you’re running an intrigue campaign. If you’re playing a conman or a bard or a spy.

Also, I love the idea of hidden worship. Of shrines disguised as something else, of names and prayers never spoken aloud, because who would announce that they pray to the goddess of liars? But she’s not evil, she’s not malicious, it’s not like worshipping Asmodeus or Bane, it’s just that to worship her openly would be to announce your secrets, or at least announce that you have them. Because who would need to worship Leira save someone with secrets?

Or an illusionist. By profession. Someone who deals openly in illusion magic. But maybe there’s a taint there too. Why have you chosen to wield the magic of liars? Why, to entertain! But are there secrets lurking beneath?

This is why I love green dragons, this is why I love poisoners, this is why I love spies. Can good be done by dishonourable means? But if you need the Lord of Devils not to know your plans against him, who do you pray to? Secrecy and lies are not the sole preserve of evil. There are so many reasons why people might need to keep secrets.

And if you have one, if your character has one, and they need it not to be known, then perhaps they might be a secret worshipper of the Lady of the Mists. Perhaps on your adventures you might look for the secret signs of shrines. Perhaps you might hope, one day, when all your wars are done, to make pilgrimage to the mysterious (and sometimes vanished) island of Nimbral to thank her openly for her protection.

If you are interested in playing with illusions, with lies, with secrets, with dark backstories, with intrigue, with secrets that you desperately wish not to be known, with honourable causes fought by dishonourable means, with worship that must be kept secret … She’s such a good goddess. Leira, the Mistshadow, the Lady of Deception. I do love her.

[vullcanica]

ONCE YOU'RE STRIPPED CLEAN WHAT'S AT YOUR CORE?

behind the mask

you aren’t slick about whatever you think you’re hiding. glass shatters in your midst, blood spills. like some of your friends, your personality of choice is entirely artificial. the difference between you and them is that you can get away with it. you’re unknown, perhaps even to yourself, and your goals are complex and unknown. anyone stupid enough to fall for you is setting themselves up to be frustrated and confused, owing to your being ultimately unknowable. i hope you can find an identity that makes you comfortable.

Tagged by: stole it from @vilestblood 💕

Tagging: @bhrathair @princguard @vhgr (gimme ali? 👉👈) @feretra @korinthiakos @s4ints @viciousgold

[cornsobsessions]

why does every woman in stem have to be asked about being a woman in stem all the god damn time !!!! just let me live a little gahhh

[clairekreads]

Don't Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside #blogtour #spotlight #bookpromo #dontmakemelaugh

Happy Saturday everyone! Today I’m shining a spotlight on Julia Raeside’s debut novel Don’t Male Me Laugh that was published last week. Continue reading Don’t Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside #blogtour #spotlight #bookpromo #dontmakemelaugh

[keycomicbooks]

Marvel Spotlight #9 (1980) Steve Ditko Art, Bill Mantlo Story, Mister E (First appearance), 1st App of the 2nd Captain Universe

#MarvelSpotlight #9 (1980) #SteveDitko Art, #BillMantlo Story, #MisterE (First appearance), 1st App of the 2nd #CaptainUniverse "The Mystery of Mister E!" The Uni-Power attempts to possess Ray Coffin again, but causes a heart attack due to his age. Instead, the power goes to his son, Steve. As Captain Universe, Steve fights against Mister E of the Shadow Dimension and stops him from using a hijacked shuttle to turn the sun into a black star with a bombardment of negatron particles. https://www.rarecomicbooks.fashionablewebs.com/Marvel%20Spotlight.html#9 @rarecomicbooks Website Link In Bio Page If Applicable. SAVE ON SHIPPING COST - NOW AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICK UP IN DELTONA, FLORIDA #RareComicBooks #KeyComicBooks #MCU #MarvelComics #MarvelUniverse #KeyComic #ComicBooks

[readerviews]

"Crossing the Centuries" by Brenda Hammon

Fresh and Unique Approach to Geneology #books #bookreview #reading #readerviews

Crossing the Centuries Brenda HammonSpotlight Publishing House (2024)ISBN: 978-1962570800Reviewed by Diana Coyle for Reader Views (08/2024) Wanting to understand more about her ancestral tree, writing a memoir seemed the ideal thing to do in “Crossing the Centuries: Connecting to 165 Spirits and Energies of My Ancestral Tree” by Brenda Hammon. Throughout her life, Ms. Hammon never felt loved…

[jolenes-book-journey]

30 Day Calendars for Authors For Digital Marketing Ideas

Committing to a 30 day posting schedule is major. Most authors can barely commit to writing every day let along do marketing. Below are suggestions that might help you get started. You DO NOT have to commit yourself to doing this every single day but if you can carve out some time to create these types of blogs posts, videos, and graphics and then schedule them out one a day, everyday you just…