#sff community

[always-coffee]

Darlings! I have a new poem out today at The Deadlands! I am really excited for you to read it”Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness,” and I hope you like it!!!

[itsawritblr]

GOD yes.

And those who know the work of both men, long before either was "famous," can easily tell who wrote which part.

We in the SFF community have known Terry wrote 90% of the book. Gaiman added the darker bits. But the heart came from Terry.

Many of us SFF writers told y'all this when Good Omens first aired. But you were so wowed by Rock Star Gaiman you ignored it, or said it wasn't true.

Fuck all of the Gaiman wankers.

Friendly reminder that Good Omens, the novel, was written by two people. The Terry Pratchett erasure since S1 of the show came out in 2019 has been a bit much to bear. If you read his solo work and then compare it to the text of GO, it’s not hard to see that the bulk of the writing style is his. He was the senior writer on the project in more ways than one.

Please consider reading the book (if you haven’t already) and love it on his account. His memory deserves to be honored. There is no reason to stop loving GO when its original iteration was written by one of the best, most-loved genre writers the world has ever seen 💙

[gwen-tolios]

I tend to hide I'm an introvert pretty well, but tonight after a full day of Capricorn i needed time with just me and a book.

[anghraine]

Speaking of GW1 and GW2 ... I've had plenty of complaints over the years about how GW2 has chosen to handle and retcon human-centric GW1 lore, the framing of the human gods, etc. That said, I've recently been appreciating that GW2 has retained a particular element of GW1's treatment of humanity and their gods that I've always really liked.

Humans in the GW universe are not really generic everymen, as humans so often are in fantasy settings. Nor are they so wildly varying and unpredictable that there's no sense of humanity having its own distinct flavor like the other playable species do. In many ways, they occupy a vaguely "elvish" position in the world—they've been on this world for a very long time and used to be a major power, or rather, made up many major powers with various warring factions that sometimes found common cause.

But in more recent eras, many of the ancient human civilizations have dwindled and/or suffered various atrocities and/or lost their minds. And culturally, humans tend to have a strong affinity for the mystical and even more for the divinely mystical, which their political power in previous eras was directly tied to. The vast majority of humans in this world are faithful worshippers of a human pantheon of six gods (formerly five).

Not all humans are magical or religious, to be sure, but a lot of them are, to the point that this seems their most distinctive cultural quality. Minor NPCs tend to have background dialogue invoking the gods ("By the Six!"), or referencing one of the gods (often but not only the goddess Dwayna, leader of the Six). The main human NPC of the core game, Logan Thackeray, continually references the gods, as do most of his military fellows.

Most interestingly, though, if you choose to play a human, you will automatically be a devout adherent of the faith of the Six regardless of any other choices you make. In addition, human PCs are blessed by one specific god among the Six whom you choose at character creation.

This mostly has minor flavor effects in practice. A priest of the god you chose permanently hangs out in your home district, and sometimes other priests of your god can perceive some mark of their deity's favor when they look at you.

Howeverrrrr, when I say "their deity," I don't mean that they exclusively worship the god they've dedicated their lives to, or that "your god"—the god whose favor you enjoy as a human PC—is your god in any remotely monotheistic way. Humans faithful to the Six are faithful to all the Six until one of the gods falls to evil. And when that god becomes the villain of the second GW2 expansion, various human NPCs are shown going through a crisis of the soul regardless of whether he was their particular patron or not. Having a more specific personal tie to one of the gods, or being particularly blessed by one of them, or being specifically devoted to a life of service to one of them, does not in any way prevent humans from devotion to the rest of the pantheon.

Mechanically, this means that no matter which deity you choose as your particular patron, your human PC starts the game with the ability to pray to Dwayna, goddess of life and air and healing. When you pray to her, a blue image of Dwayna materializes, heals you, and vanishes. As you level up, your human-based skills will extend to prayers to the other gods.

Praying to Lyssa, goddess of illusion/chaos magic and water and beauty, confounds foes by inflicting random conditions on them and random blessings on you. Praying to Kormir, goddess of spirit, order, and truth, will free you from negative effects like immobilization. The final prayer you can use, iirc, and the most powerful, is the prayer to Balthazar, the god of fire and war who ends up going super evil. If you're playing a fragile class like an elementalist or mesmer, praying to him is actually great, because he blesses you with two fierce hounds made of flame who fight alongside you and soak up damage. (Praying to Balthazar does feel a lot weirder in retrospect, I'll admit.)

In any case, the point is that you can pray to ANY human god and receive a brief visitation from that god, because the entire human pantheon are your gods even if you're only special to one of them. A similar dynamic is at work for NPCs as well. A recurring NPC in the core GW2 story, for instance, is Rhie, a priestess of Grenth, god of cold, darkness, judgment, and death (he's not evil, just goth). Even by priest of Grenth standards, Rhie is greatly favored by him, and as a result is able to perform powerful rituals dealing with the boundaries between life and death. But there's no expectation that this means she should abjure the other gods in any way, and she certainly does not (in fact, she provides a Human Religion 101 rundown about the gods in general in her first appearance in the human storyline).

And it's so common in fantasy, I feel, that polytheistic cultures are conceptualized as giving adherents a wider choice of gods to be the one they actually worship for real, often with the implication that worshipping one god in the pantheon naturally translates into hostility or apathy towards other gods in the same pantheon. And so I do enjoy playing a religiously devout character who has a special patron deity blessing her and who is emphatically polytheistic throughout her entire original storyline.

[innocentlymacabre]

would absolutely love to read more writing from other writeblrs (and become friends with other writers!) so hit reblog with links to intros or completed projects!

prime genres of interest: SFF, gothic, slipstream, magical realism, etc.

will also accept others à la romance, comedy, etc. as long as they're quick little one shots.

[arijensineink]

we as a queer sff community do not talk about Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts enough and i think that is an atrocity good morning.

[crabtalesmagazine]

Imagine a crab. He becomes rounder. Even rounder. SO ROUND. Such a round crab guy. He is wearing a hat and introduces himself as Barry Crabcraberson.

[k--havok]

The Ghost & The Machine

An Adult Romance SFF Novel

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Summary: Cyberpunk | Beauty & The Beast Remix | 3rd Person Limited POV | First Draft | Novel

Specter isn't so sure who she is, or her past. All she knows is she works for the ruthless fence known as Ricco Maestro using her strange power to jump into people's brains to extract information clients have paid for her to get.

When Mr. Maestro gives her a job to extract information from the notorious Dragoon, a bounty hunter and assassin, Specter's world falls apart. Captured by the only person who somehow could pull her out of his head, Specter finds herself imprisoned by the enigmatic monster. Dragoon is a beast of metal and machinery; and no one knows who he is or what he looks like.

But Dragoon isn't what Specter expected. He's rough, full of fury, and materialistic. But also clever and filled with a longing that resonates with the same frequency as Specter's own yearnings.

Specter is still employed by Mr. Maestro. And she will do anything to complete her job. She cannot fail. But as she and Dragoon grow closer, and Dragoon shows her a whole new side to the city, her own relationship with her boss, and herself, questions begin to arise.

Why can't she remember her parents? Where did she grow up? Who is she, and where do her strange powers stem from?

As Specter and Dragoon search for answers, a new threat lurks in the shadows; one that wants Dragoon wiped away and forgotten. And they just may have the answers Specter is looking for.

As enemies close in on all sides, Specter must decide what is worth more; the truth or trust.

Themes

Finding out who you are, the nature of loneliness, the different faces of abuse and how it shapes us, mental illness, true power comes from within, found family, enemies to lovers, LGBT+ themes and characters, cyberpunk with magic, magic and technology, what makes a man and what makes a monster, Beauty and the Beast meets Shadowrun

Contains

Graphic depictions of violence. Graphic sex scenes. Graphic depictions of torture. Abuse and abusive relationships. On-page panic attacks and other symptoms of mental illness. Graphic depictions of illegal experimentation on sentient beings. Swearing.

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Main Characters

Specter

| She/Her | Half-Elf | Bisexual | Protagonist |

Specter is a half-elf in her late 20s who isn't so sure who or what she is. She has no real memories or sense of self. Before her fateful capture by Dragoon, she lived in an apartment paid for by her boss, Mr. Maestro, who also paid for her clothes, utilities, and food in exchange for her talents for espionage. With no family, no friends, and not much purpose, Specter put all her faith, trust and livelihood into her boss's claws.

Specter is not so sure where her powers of possession hail from, where she learned such power, or when it manifested either. There are large gaps of her memories missing. All she knows is she can easily possess anything; whether it be a person, animal, an object, or even the air itself. When possessing a person or animal, Specter can access their brain, picking through thoughts and memories as easily as flipping through folders in a filing cabinet. This makes her exceptionally good at pulling out information from others with minimum risk and maximum reward. Despite the dirty nature of her job, Specter is against harming or killing others, and does her best to minimize pain for her targets.

Despite her lackluster, almost boring, life, Specter does try to entertain herself. She is an animal lover and refuses to possess animals. She enjoys watching the birds and rodents scurrying around the city. Specter also enjoys yoga and music. She often hangs around joints with live music or sings to herself when at home. She likes trying new food and cooking meals for herself. Specter is an empathetic soul, but not exactly kind. She has a cheerful disposition most of the time, although is quiet, hard-working, and observant of her surroundings.

Specter is intersex. She has pale skin with brown hair and brown eyes. Her pupils contain cybernetics that record everything she sees. Half her head is shaved close to the scalp while the rest of her hair hangs short, curling around her jaw. She has a beauty mark on the left side of her lip and no other identifying markings. Specter tends to wear well-loved and practical street clothes consisting of plain shirts, leather jackets, leather boots, and hardy denim pants. Specter is about five foot seven, about 150 lbs, and has a broader chest and shoulders with a short torso and long legs.

Dragoon

| He/Him | Chimera | Bisexual | Antagonist/Protagonist |

Dragoon is a chimera, made of several different animals, and is in his 50s. Dragoon has both sides of man and monster and struggles with balancing them out. He works as a bounty hunter, but at times will take jobs to kill targets as well. He primarily works alone and is freelance. Dragoon is known to be expensive, but never fails a job, making him quite invaluable. Despite his volatile nature, he is also known to be simple to work with. He does not have much interest in idle gossip or the social network of criminals.

Dragoon lives inside a life-support suit made of complex nano technology which he built himself. Along with supporting his bodily functions, his suit is a deadly weapon in itself. Dragoon is a master of both blade and gun. He is also a self-taught engineer who creates his own illegal weaponry and hides it within his suit. His suit contains hundreds of different guns, blades, bombs, and a flamethrower hidden inside it. It also modifies his senses, making them sharper, as well as his strength, speed, and stamina.

Dragoon is a neurotic and independent individual. He has an active interest in engineering and the applied sciences. When not working, he is often found either buying and hoarding random things or working on his many cars, planes and helicopters. He also enjoys programming and assisting abandoned robots he finds, re-purposing them as companions of sorts to live with him. Dragoon is quick to anger, and struggles with techniques designed to calm him down, which includes meditation and martial arts. He does not trust easily and has a phobia of needles. He is socially awkward, which leads him to be quiet and avoid small-talk. He can be witty and is mildly blunt. He has a possessive nature in regards to both objects and people, making it difficult for him to distinguish between the two.

Dragoon is male and gender-apathetic. His real form is hidden within his suit. His suit is dragon-like in appearance and can change color based on his mood and surroundings. Usually it is a dark red with bronze and black trimmings. He has a noticeable gauntlet and pauldron on his left arm and shoulder. His helmet consists of a longer snout with horn-like protrusions from the crown of the helmet. Two horns curl forward and two curl beneath fin-like protrusions, similar to a ram's. Spikes line the bottom of the jaw. The jaw of the helmet can open and close and is lined with metal teeth and a whip-like tongue. His true face is hidden behind a one-way black visor. The back of the suit and his tail is lined with a double set of spikes. The spikes on his back can protrude further out to spear anyone who tries to grab him from behind. He has clawed hands and feet and does not wear clothes over his suit. Dragoon within his suit is roughly seven foot two and weighs nearly 400 lbs.

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Links

#The Ghost & The Machine | #tg&tm

[yvesdot]

TRANS RIGHTS READATHON 2024

(March 22-29, 2024)

Since people have gotten ahead of me on reading my queer monster short story collection for Trans Rights Readathon, I figure I ought to introduce it. Something's Not Right is a collection of stories featuring a diverse cast of human and non-human characters struggling with what society thinks is right. There are stories about transphobia, stories about trans love, stories about casual hot trans roommates who help you deal with your problems (dealing blood to vampires and witches); whatever bizarre relationship to queerness you could imagine, it's in there.

Anyone who can't afford a copy and/or can't get one at their local library is welcome to contact me directly for a free e-copy, no questions asked. I also have thousands of words of free fiction available on my website, including two explicit novelettes (Long Line and Band Girls) both of which include trans characters.

And a week's worth of personal trans recommendations from my top reads of the last couple of years, should you need it anytime:

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

Females by Andrea Long Chu

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

The Third Person by Emma Grove

Other Ever Afters by Mel Gillman

decolonizing trans/gender 101 by b. binaohan

Bonus links: ko-fi | Patreon

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

It's frustrating being a person who's really only interested in diverse adult science fiction and fantasy books and has no interest in YA/kidlit or romance.

Frustrating because on one side the people who are into primarily adult sff are only talking about the generic medieval euro cishet mantasy slop; the Wheel of Dragon song light storms by Brandon Mcwhite dude, then the other side is primarily only about YA or "NA" romantasy.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's near impossible to find diverse adult sff book people that aren't like 90% into YA/ YA books masquerading as adult with majority of the adult books they read are romantasy smut 💀

So as relatively romance/sex repulsed asexual and someone who doesn't care for narratives centering teens/kids, I'm just in my lonely little SFF corner. I can't interact with the broader book fandoms because both sides of it don't interest me much

It's the same issue I have with anime/manga fandom which is 99% about infantile battle shonen and then Berserk as the token adult manga. For God's sake where are the grown adults interested in adult stories where the only thing that marks them as adult is smut?

I like to read about adults with adult problems I also like to read about queers & POC in Interesting fantasy/sci-fi worlds

[franklyn-newt]

It's always fun to see what people who like Synthetic Sea also like 👀

Maybe if you like these, get yourself a combination T4T cyborg romance and cyberpunk noir to take you into the winter 🌌🦾⚧️

Book stores

Itchio

[always-coffee]

Rhysling Poems!

**Kermit Flail**

Three of my poems have been nominated for the Rhysling! I am super proud of all of them. (The SFPA is doing it differently this year. There's a longlist, which they'll whittle down via committee.)

You want links? I got links.

The Deadlands

Small Wonders

Uncanny

I am incredibly proud of these pieces, which each mean a lot to me for different reasons. If you haven't read them yet, I would love for you to. **hopeful face**

[words-after-midnight]

I've been toying with the idea of starting a side project that just showcases a bunch of new and upcoming releases in literary/contemporary genres (with a focus on indie works), because I rarely see them discussed much in social media writing/reading spaces, which - in my experience, please do tell me if this isn't a universal thing lol - tend to be very SFF-focused. Am I completely off the mark here, or is this something you think people would be interested in?

[transcendragon]

Talk To Me About Worldbuilding - I wanted to try my hand at a cute little design, and I’ve been thinking a lot about worldbuilding lately. I borrowed a lot from my earlier pieces, and added some new stuff!

My original art made in Procreate, image description in alt text.

[innocentlymacabre]

Hey hey hey! Popping in with an exciting new announcement today!

So, I am fully aware that I kind of dropped the regular content ball lately (shit happens, whatcha gonna do?), but I am here with a plan to fix that. Introducing, Innocently Macabre Presets: Micro Monday.

Every other Monday, I’ll pop into your inbox with a micro to flash length piece. I’ve got a whole bunch of these written already, and I’ll be scheduling them ahead of time so it’ll be smooth sailing on that front. The first edition will be in your inbox next week, and then you’ll have a new story every other Monday!

Sign up right hereeee!

I will also post them here and operate a taglist (just ask to be added!) but we all know how reliable Tumblr is so I would still suggest signing up for the email list.

I’m going to schedule them to be sent out in the morning so you can have something fun to start your week with, but time zones unfortunately exist and I can’t yet buy Mailerlite’s premium plan which would allow me to circumvent that. (Psst support me on Ko-fi if you want to help change that).

{{tumblr is being weird so taglist is now in the replies}}

[thelastpagc]

You don’t understand how over it had to be before we could be this back. Aka I’m finally reviewing The Dark Mirror, the masterful fifth installment to the Bone Season series. Keeping this under 3000 words was a challenge (I have so much to say) so please enjoy my nine paragraphs of restraint. General warning as this will have spoilers to the former books and discuss the events contained within this installment ✨