#structural integrity novella

[earlronove]

Commission for Tabitha O'Connell's characters, Kel and Yaan from eir Structural Integrity novella series! They were fun to draw!

For more commission information, click here!

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Structural Integrity by Tabitha O'Connell

goodreads

Messenger boy Kel never expected to strike up a romance with a government official. But Yaan lacks the self-important snobbery of the others, and sees Kel as more than just a pretty face. Living with him in the city’s plush government complex is everything Kel could want: no more expenses, kitchen workers and resident animals to befriend, and of course seeing Yaan every day. Even if Yaan does spend most of his time working or worrying about work, and seems to have forgotten that they used to have actual conversations…

When the city decides to tear down the iconic theater building in Kel’s old neighborhood, Yaan’s indifference toward his pleas to help save it forces Kel to confront his growing unhappiness. In the aftermath, both will have to decide whether their relationship is salvageable.

Mod opinion: I hadn't heard of this book before and it doesn't sound like my type of literature.

[vivicendium]

i think something that elevates the hunger games franchise is not just the quality of writing but the integrity of it. tbosas isn’t just a cash-grab by suzanne collins in the age of sequels and reboots (though i won’t pretend that didn’t play a part), it’s a character study of the main antagonist with a different structure than the main trilogy. and importantly, it doesn’t just re-hash the same old themes and beats the main trilogy had, it expands on not just the world of the hunger games but the themes as well, it actually has something new to say about the trilogy’s themes about class, capitalism, power, and control, in a way that couldn’t be explored with the main story because the protagonist of that story simply did not have access to the world that’s being explored in tbosas.

i understand the people who call for books/movies to be made about haymitch, finnick, johanna, different years of the games �� we love those characters and want to see more of them! i’d kill for a novella on finnick’s days mentoring tributes, or katniss’s parents falling in love. but at the end of the day we probably wouldn’t be very satisfied with those stories being fleshed out if they had absolutely nothing new to say about the world, they’d be enjoyable, but not as interesting and engaging as tbosas has been.

[tollingreminiscentbells]

Hi! I've been following your radioapple au since your first work, and I was wondering what was some of your inspirations surrounding the AU and current plot? I really enjoy this AU and would love to know what went into your head through the drafting period and such

Thank you so much! This is an interesting question with a somewhat convoluted answer. But I love talking about this stuff and am happy to try to break it down!

I wrote A Terrible Beauty with the intent that it would be a standalone novella. I loved the idea of Alastor and Lucifer already knowing each other and I got the image in my head of just that opening scene, in the tent during WWI. So I wrote that and then worked out the story that scene belonged to and wrote the rest. And that's A Terrible Beauty.

But there was a bigger story that A Terrible Beauty belonged to, particularly vis-a-vis Lucifer. I happen to know a moderate amount about the figure of Lucifer, in the broader sense. There's a lot you can pull from—Talmud and Kabbalah and pseudepigrapha and exegesis and all that fun stuff. And, honestly, I don't love Lucifer's backstory in Hazbin Hotel. So, since A Terrible Beauty was already an AU, I went all in, took apart a lot of the show's world building, and rebuilt it. At that point, I actually was still on the fence about writing the series. It was more for my own entertainment.

But I had this whole AU setup, with a different foundation for the RadioApple relationship and a lot of world building around Lucifer, Heaven, and Hell. I love an established relationship in fiction because that's where the real work is. Intimacy and trust and figuring out how to be together, in this case when one of them is an unrepentant sinner with the emotional structural integrity of a wet cardboard box and the other is an eternal being of the cosmos who's had a rough ten thousand years.

On top of these two profoundly fucked up people figuring out how to love each other, I had my reconstructed Lucifer backstory, which is more in line with some established religious canon (different sources contradict each other, so I took what I wanted and stitched it together). There was a story there and I decided that story was worth writing.

To keep it cohesive and bolster the series architecture, I threw in a couple of little stylistic flourishes. The titles are all from "Easter, 1916" and every fic begins with a formulaic opening line (something about Alastor and the devil).

Overall, it is everything I love in one place. Alastor's asexuality, which I write very similar to my own (that's its own topic entirely), Lucifer deciding to actually rule Hell for the first time in millennia, what that choice means and the broader consequences thereof, how Lucifer's relationship with Alastor is different from his relationship with Lilith was and why that matters, literary and biblical references everywhere you look—I could keep going but you get the idea.

This in all likelihood was a more comprehensive answer than anyone is actually looking for. But it is how my different-first-meeting AU turned into a series. And I continue to be delighted beyond words that so many people are enjoying it!

[readwithnox]

10 Indie Fantasy Books with A-spec Main Characters

Enjoy some magical a-spec spec-fic.

From asexual to aromantic and every variation inbetween, these fantasy books have a wonderful selection of a-spec LGBTQIA+ main characters for your next read!

While some of these books don’t outright announce some of the characters’ identities in the story, there are cues that a-spec readers are likely to pick up on either in the first book or later in the series. For the ones that aren’t completely obvious, I’ve received confirmation from the authors.

Structural Integrity

by Tabitha O’Connell Fantasy Romance featuring an a-spec trans mc

Messenger boy Kel never expected to strike up a romance with a government official. But Yaan lacks the self-important snobbery of the others, seeing Kel as more than just a pretty face. Living with him in the city’s plush government complex is everything Kel could want: no more expenses, kitchen workers and resident animals to befriend, and of course seeing Yaan every day. Even if Yaan does spend most of his time working or worrying about work, and seems to have forgotten that they used to have actual conversations…

When the city decides to tear down the iconic theater building in Kel’s old neighborhood, Yaan’s indifference toward his pleas to help save it forces Kel to confront his growing unhappiness. In the aftermath, both will have to decide whether their relationship is salvageable.

Song of Phoenix and Ink

by Margherita Scialla New Adult Portal Fantasy featuring an a-spec mc and a-spec li

All Nadzia Kaminski wanted was to finish writing her novel.

When she finally finished the manuscript for Crimson Mayhem, she did what any writer would: gave it to her best friend to read. Her friend’s reaction, however, wasn’t what she had expected and, upset by her criticism, Nadzia left her at the café where they had met.

Waking up the next morning, Nadzia was no longer in her bedroom, finding herself in a world of her creation, surrounded by dangerous magic and vaguely familiar settings.

With a country at war and no clear way home, time is running out and Nadzia has to find a way to gain the trust of the very people she created and figure out her confusing feelings for two of her own characters.

She soon realizes stories aren’t perfect when there is no one left to write them.

Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin

by Tabitha O’Connell Fantasy Romance featuring an a-spec nonbinary mc and a-spec li

A queer, Beauty-and-the-Beast-inspired novella

Heron thought ey wanted to be with handsome, charming Tiel — but the relationship hasn’t quite lived up to eir expectations. With Tiel’s confidence comes a tendency to be overbearing, and now he wants Heron to leave eir farm life behind and move to town with him. And Heron can’t figure out how to explain to him that ey doesn’t want that.

When an accident strands Heron’s mother at a castle rumored to belong to a family of mages, Heron rushes off to make sure she’s all right — only to find the castle occupied by a single man who isn’t a mage at all. Prone to hiding behind his long mess of hair, the mysterious Theomer possesses a long-neglected, semi-magical garden. A job tending it is Heron’s perfect opportunity for some time away from Tiel while ey decides what to tell him.

Heron did not plan to be drawn in by Theomer’s attentive gaze and understated sense of humor. But as an undeniable bond forms between them, ey’s soon going to have a much bigger choice to make…

A Searing Faith

by Audrey Martin Epic Dark Fantasy featuring an aroace fmc

When sixteen-year-old Rena finds herself the sole survivor of the fire that destroyed her home town, the only thing keeping her going is the suspicion that the tragedy wasn’t an accident. She is determined to find those responsible, no matter how far her quest might take her. But no one in charge of the kingdom of Kal-Hemma seems to care that this isn’t the first town destroyed by a mysterious fire. And according to Rena’s travelling companions, there’s a lot the members of the Royal Council aren’t telling their subjects.

If Rena is truly the only survivor of the tragedy, why did she find her sister’s ring outside of their destroyed home?

Who planted the strange bird figurines around the town’s church before the fire?

And what do the old, forgotten Gods have to do with any of this?

A Searing Faith is the first book in an epic fantasy series and based on the award-winning, interactive audio drama The Heart Pyre.

A Kind Voice in Hell

by Ames Mullery Urban Fantasy featuring an a-spec trans mc

What’s a few years of bloody gladiator matches and witchcraft-for-hire when your best friend’s life is on the line?

To cover the soaring costs of his best friend’s life-saving healthcare Lark signs away everything he’s got — his body, his freedom, even his witchcraft — to a billionaire who plays at philanthropy for entertainment. Although Lark may have the heart of a saint, he doesn’t have the patience of one. It isn’t long before he begins to rock the boat and ends up threatening the very people he wants to save in his reckless heroics.

A KIND VOICE IN HELL is a story about an occult-obsessed billionaire looking for away to bring gladiators into the twenty-first century, a trans man with a hero complex who has never known illness a day in his life, and the disabled people caught in the middle. It contains queer love, found family, and a hero who needs to sit down and shut up before he tries to help anyone.

Follow Lark as he forges an unlikely alliance on the inside and weaves masterful spellwork in hopes of changing the world for the better.

Havesskadi

by Ava Kelly Fantasy featuring an a-spec mc

The red dragon is hunting her own. Up in the icy peaks of the northern mountains, Orsie Havesskadi spends his days hiding from her, but eventually he is found and his dragon magic stolen. Cursed to wander the lands as a mortal unless he recovers his magic before twenty-four rising crescents have passed, Orsie embarks on an arduous journey. Spurred by the whispers in his mind, his quest takes him to a castle hidden deep in a forest.

Arkeva Flitz, a skilled garrison archer, discovers an abandoned castle in the woods. Trapped there, he spends his days with his two companions, one cruel, the other soothing. One day, a young man arrives at his gates, and soon they are confined by heavy snowfalls and in danger from what slumbers in the shadows of the castle.

The Thirteenth Key

by Cara Nox New Adult Science Fantasy featuring an ace mmc

The chaotic crew of heisting misfits in Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows meets the familiar yet fantastical, modern landscape found in Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs.

“The thirteen emblems given to the original rulers weren’t just symbols. They’re keys to the Vault — one that no one’s ever opened.”

Noa has lived her life as an unsuspecting, ID-burning, face in the crowd that disposes of “problems” for her miscellaneous, secretive employers. So, when Noa’s surrogate father — a Seer — hands her a long-lost emblem, telling her with his dying breath that it’s her responsibility to reignite magic, she laughs at the idea that the fate of their world rests on the shoulders of a killer. Instead, she uses his words and the key he gave her as an excuse to go on one final suicide mission to seek out the power supposedly waiting for her to annihilate his murderer.

Prince Glacier Caelius has lived his life trapped inside a gilded cage, pushed down by the ever-present threat of death as the bastard son of Amarais’s late king. But when the rebels attack during a nationalist party, Glacier’s rescued by none other than Noa and her merry band of thieves, who are scrambling to salvage a failed attempt at stealing his country’s emblem: the Soul of Amarais. When the dust settles, he’s the only person left alive to unlock the palace vault and give the Soul to Noa in exchange for saving his life.

Well, once they’re able to formulate a plan to take the palace back.

Struggling with their tentative, newfound freedom, Noa and Glacier must learn to work together to survive the urban landscape of Avaria’s greatest cities fortified by technology in the wake of dwindling magic. The goal: steal as many keys as they can before their pasts catch up. But the further they go, the more they realize that something worse may be lurking on the horizon, and they may very well be the only ones able to stop it.

Bloody Spade

by Brittany M. Willows Young Adult Urban Fantasy featuring an ace fmc, aro mmc, and demi fmc

Bloody Spade is the first installment in an upper YA urban fantasy duology that follows a cat-eared thief and a softhearted girl as they navigate his wild magic, her hotheaded brother, a sinister plot, and the feelings they’re developing for each other. Suitable for fans of A Darker Shade of Magic and This Savage Song, or anime/manga such as RWBY and D.Gray-Man.

A girl full of heart A thief touched by darkness A hot-tempered golden boy An unwitting servant of evil

The era of magic was once thought to be a myth, but after the Reemergence ushered forces both dark and light into the mundane world, it has since become a harsh reality. Now those affected by this strange power — a specialized group of Empowered called Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay — must protect their world from the darkness that threatens to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy.

But the Reemergence was only the beginning.

When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, an unfortunate encounter at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt and legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the inevitable natural disaster it first seemed.

Someone is trying to tear down the barrier that separates the magical realms from the mundane. The question is why, and can Cardplay stop them before it’s too late?

Tell Me How It Ends

by Quinton Li Young Adult Fantasy featuring an aroace nonbinary mc

A coming-of-age cozy fantasy with a queer cast, witches, and tarot. Perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and Our Flag Means Death.

Iris Galacia’s tarot cards do more than entertain gamblers.

With the flip of her fingers she can predict the future and uncover a person’s secrets. But under the watchful eye of her mother, she is on thin ice for pursuing a passion in the family business, and then cracks start to form until she eventually she falls through.

She is given an ultimatum — a test to prove her worth: earn a thousand coins or leave the business, and the family.

Enter Marin Boudreau, a charming young person who can scale buildings and break off door knobs, who comes for her help to rescue a witch who’s been falsely imprisoned in Excava Kingdom.

And Marin is willing to pay a high sum for her talents.

But saving a prisoner from royal hands isn’t easy, nor is leaving home for the first time in eighteen years.

Now Iris must learn to trust in herself, Marin, and this new magical world, while racing the clock before the royals decide the fate of the witch, and before any secrets catch up to her.

Trick

By Cara Nox New Adult Urban Fantasy featuring a demi fmc and aroace mmc

Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series meets V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue with a dash of Disney+’s Loki in this new adult urban fantasy.

WELCOME TO NEW ATLAS: A CITY WITHIN A REALITY JUST BEYOND OUR OWN.

Evie is a nobody. Spending her days in college classes and her nights studying, having a social life has never really been a priority. With her sights firmly set on the future to keep away her thoughts of the past, she loses her grip on the present when her world is ripped out from under her. And it’s all thanks to two mysterious strangers showing up on her doorstep, claiming that she can turn back time.

Cade is a notorious troublemaker. He’s never been afraid to throw around his name to get what he wants as someone who’s clawed his way to the top. But power is quick to change hands in this city, and when he chooses to blatantly disregard an order from his leader, his older brother, he’s tossed back down to the bottom again. He’ll be more than lucky to regain any sort of trust when everyone knows he’s one of the best spies there is, sliding in and out of shadows in the blink of an eye.

Ren is a bored teenager. Always labeled as the “golden child” or “gifted student,” he finds himself writing down cryptic messages and following strange leads, rather than putting on the same old song and dance for his family. Especially once he discovers his little stolen fragments of the future are starting to take a darker turn. Perhaps chasing the life everyone wants him to have isn’t necessarily in the cards for him, but there’s only one way to find out.

So when someone within the secret society known as the Custodians targets Evie for her power, the clock starts in the final sprint to hunt down the culprit. In order to uncover whatever hidden clues are lurking in the past, the three of them have no choice but to peel back the layers of obscurity built up between their factions to figure out why she’s being hunted and how they might be able to fix their bleak futures before it’s too late.

Just remember: time is nothing but a trick.

Follow the divine archivists on twitter for more queer indie lists, reviews, and recommendations.

Where to find Cara Nox: instagram • twitter • writing tumblr • reading tumblr

Disclaimer: anything purchased through the links provided in this article helps me continue writing with compensation through Amazon’s affiliate program.

[highladyluck]

Would you be so kind as to write a quick little "why you should/shouldn't read" for the Vorkosigan saga? Doesn't have to be specific, but it sounds like you're having a lot of fun over there and I want a reason to join in on another unreasonably long and convoluted-sounding book series. Also it sounds like you're ready to gush about it at a moment's notice

Ooooh, with pleasure! The Vorkosigan saga is a collection of short stories, novellas, and novels written across 30+ years by Lois McMaster Bujold, focused on Miles, the disabled scion of one of the most politically powerful (and progressive) feudal lords of the 3-planet Barraryan empire. Barrayar was a colony planet settled by a couple ethnic/cultural groups from earth (I’ve spotted Russian, French, & Greek and I think there’s a 4th) and they ended up left to their own devices until around 200 years ago when they were discovered by the rest of galactic society (other human colonies).

They have a cultural trauma around genetic mutations due to being atomic-bombed by a neighboring empire about 4 generations ago, and Miles’s life is shaped by the attendant prejudices around this. He isn’t actually mutated but he looks like he is, due to teratogenic damage from an attempted political assassination (chemical weapons + fetus = very short kid with brittle bones & chronic pain). He copes by being extremely desperate to prove himself, and is consequently pretty reckless with his physical body & mental health, but he’s protective of people he is responsible for & puts a very high price on personal integrity. (Reminds me of Rand and Mat, of course.)

There’s some ‘progressive for the 90s’ terminology/attitudes about queer people that are dated at best and wincingly off-base at worst, but that’s really the only complaint I have, and I think that has begun getting better as I go along. (I have similar issues with RJ.) It’s a series very much concerned with the politics of reproduction, in a way that still feels rare in science fiction. The implications of the technology of the uterine replicator on power, gender, sexuality, morality, and culture are explored. Worth noting is that the books also have some heavy torture scenes and occasionally deal with sexual assault. I think it is handled well & is not gratuitous but it’s definitely content warning territory.

The honor-based-checks-and-balances feudal structure of Barrayar is contrasted with various realistically flawed democracies (Komarr tends towards ogliarchy & the Beta colonies are a partially-automated semi-luxurious gay space socialist democracy), the other empire (Cetaganda is like the Byzantine empire if it was built on mad science eugenics), and various other interesting government models (Jackson’s Whole aka the libertarian goblin market, the Quaddie’s ascended engineer’s union, etc). The feudal structure is an exciting place to have the conversations about women’s labor (literally and figuratively), personal expectations, and societal responsibility that Bujold is interested in, because the personal and the political are so dramatically and obviously intertwined there.

In addition to the themes & setting, I’m enjoying it at least partially for the excellent structure of the stories; Bujold never forgets to hang up Chekov’s gun in the first act, but it’s always sneaky so it’s fun to try to spot it. Miles and his entourage are also a delight. These characters try their best, and make realistic mistakes, and are understandable even when you don’t agree with them. I also enjoy how the antagonistic cultures are fleshed out with nuance, much like how RJ introduces the Aiel and the Seanchan as faceless, inhuman enemies and then complicated things by giving them faces & human motivations. (In this analogy, Barrayar is Aiel and Cetaganda is Seanchan.)

For reading order, here’s some tips: https://bookriot.com/vorkosigan-saga-reading-order/

[dreamofhircine]

okay so here is the 2023 books year-in-review, this is going to be v. long because I ended up reading & re-reading a lot of my backlog after rebuilding the bookshelves in our house. This is going to be roughly sorted, and I'll try and say a little bit about each thing.

Hazel Jane Plante

Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) - I adored this! It's a slimmer book, closer to a novella, but it was maybe my favorite piece this whole year. The central premise of this is that in a haze of grief after the death of her bestie a woman gets way too into their shared fandom and writes a combination of TV show fandom zine, obituary & love letter. The two-part narrative structure is something that Plante would go on to play w/ more in

Any Other City - also a great book! This is written as the memoir of a trans punk rock star split between her journal style letters in the 90s as she navigated an art scene as a woman who doesn't realize it yet, and then picks up again in the 2020s after her own celebrity was cemented.

Casey Plett

Little Fish - Really rad slice of life about a mennonite trans woman in Canada who has a lot of feelings about that. This feels more than anything like a strong expansion upon several of Plett's short stories in A Dream of a Woman.

A Dream of a Woman - I got lost in so many of the stories in this anthology, Plett writes the lives of these women so vividly it feels like you know them. You probably *do* know them.

A Safe Girl to Love - Plett's first anthology, recently re-published. I was not *as big* a fan of this one, but it still holds up very well and is a good example of her style generally.

The Locked Tomb - I am gonna talk about all three of these in one go, actually. These were really sweet, really nice, I really like the approach to necromancy as just sort of another kind of science or physical force, worked through a process very close to magic. I've been seeing art of these characters around for a long time now and it is nice to finally put a personality to the faces. The pool scene in GtNth especially really hit.

Gideon the Ninth

Harrow the Ninth

Nona the Ninth

Peter Watts - This is also gonna get a block review because so many of the things here are interconnected to one another. Starfish to Behemoth are all in The Rifters Trilogy, and Blindsight & Echopraxia are a pair. Watts has a really great way of tearing down the human brain and playing with all the ways that trauma can influence it, how adaptational quirks can be weaponized. Starfish is probably the single best way to get into his work, but if 'vampires in space' sounds more your speed then Blindsight has it covered.

Starfish

Maelstrom

Behemoth

Blindsight

Echopraxia

qntm

There Is No Antimemetics Division - This is a republish of qntm's large body of work on the SCP wiki, sharing the same name. This is really solid, and the use of narrative negative space is interesting.

Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories - A slim collection of short stories and an overall much better showing from qntm, no longer tied up w/ SCP stuff. The things that delve into the implication of human mind based AI constructs especially is really strongly written and will leave you thinking for a while after.

The Division - Broken Dawn is the older entry and did not really capture my attention very strongly, it felt phoned in more than anything else. Recruited & Compromised by contrast could stand on their own w/o The Division branding though both are very well integrated into the game, w/ events going back and forth between the two now that the game is getting more narrative content to it.

The Division: Broken Dawn

The Division: Recruited

The Division: Compromised

D&D - You can probably guess why I jumped into these and what game got me to do it. Drizzt is something I avoided for a very long time because of the associations in the fandom and that was probably not unwarranted tbh. I probably won't continue w/ the series after Exile. It is competently written but these things are creaking w/ their own age and just don't have enough going on to stand on their own unfortunately.

Drizzt: Homeland

Drizzt: Exile

The Devil You Know - Another entry in the Brimstone Angels series, which is my favorite of any of the longer running D&D series. Centered around the misadventures of a Tiefling Warlock and how she gets pulled into the big-dick-swinging matches between various devils trying to make their weird little power plays.

40K

Horusian Wars: Incarnation - This was stellar. Great look at the Inquisition and how insular and back-stabby it can be, I hope more comes from this.

Kasrkin - A mostly by the numbers book that was written entirely to promote the 'kasrkin vs necrons' Kill Team box that came out a bit back. Competent but doesn't have anything new or interesting to say.

Pariah - Eh. This wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. Abnett has long been one of my favorite authors in general, not even just in 40k specifically, but I don't think it is controversial to say he has fallen off lately. Compared to his earlier stuff w/ the Inquisitors, hell even compared to stuff like that Horusian Wars book and Pariah just doesn't do enough and the whole Bequin sequence right now feels like it is mostly being done to shift things around in the meta-narrative rather than be good books that stand on their own feet.

The Armour of Contempt - I re-read this one recently and it was just as good as when I first picked it up in high school. Abnett is at some of his best here.

General Fiction (Unsorted)

The Archive Undying: The Downworld Sequence Book 1 - Homosexual activities in a sci-fi fantasy world once dominated by city-scale god-king AIs that went critically rampant a long time ago. This is a really great start to what I hope will be an excellent series.

The Darkness That Comes Before - Re-read after initially reading this when it was new and I was like a pre-teen. Definitely not a book a pre-teen should read and maybe some of that explains why I am like this now. Let's not look at that *too* closely, yeah? This still stands on its own after all these years, though I hear the series in general kind of flagged after a while. If you're into nihilist fantasy check it out.

Burning Chrome - Re-read and enjoyed yet again. Classic Gibson, lays the frame upon which the rest of his body of work would be built.

Pattern Recognition - Re-read this and it still holds up. Gibson is at his height here, calling shots that would start to land almost *immediately* after he published it. Reading this may re-orient your fashion sense entirely so be forewarned and have a bit of space in your wardrobe first I guess.

All You Need Is Kill - Another re-read! I got back into this after realizing that a lot of that traumatized mech pilot pornography I was writing drew so much inspiration for this. I still love the story, I still love the framing, I still love the short and brutal way it is written and the translation is very solid.

Wasteland: Stories of the Apocalypse - Yet another re-read. I originally read this in high school and I owe a great amount of creative debt to some of these stories, hugely influential works and I recommend picking this up.

This Shape We’re in - A tiny little novella by the author of Motherless Brooklyn (which is currently sitting in my 'to do' pile). There is no adequate way to describe this that wouldn't sound like a joke, it is Lethem's most unusual and maybe his best for that.

Poetry

In the Shape of a Human Body I Am Visiting the Earth - Mostly translated poetry, this was solidly collected and a great example of Global(tm) Poetry.

One Hundred Apocalypses and other Apocalypses - More microfic really but I liked this. The different ways the world can end, be it physically from bombs or emotionally in a bad text message.

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound - Simply beautiful collection of work by torrin a. greathouse, I *adored* this.

Non-Fiction

Underlands: A Deep Time Journey - This was beautiful, simply put. A deep dive (hehe) into places beneath the earth and the people that spend more time beneath the surface than above it. I especially loved the travelogue in the cordoned off sections of the Paris catacombs, you can really feel the claustrophobia and danger of it all.

Bitch: The Female of the Species - I picked this up solely because it had a picture of a hyena on the cover. I do not regret that, it was great and that is something I seldom stay about pop-academic gender books.

Emergence: Labeled Autistic - Temple Grandin's first autobiography. This has been heavily dated in how she talks about being autistic and she has changed her views on this several times, to the point where depending on the version you pick up there may be several introductions from the author in a sequence reflecting on this. It is rare to see autobiographies from notable autistic women, it is rare for there to *be* notable autistic women, so I am really happy that I read this.

Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us - Mostly a photo book that I picked up while on a trip to MFABoston w/ my girlfriend. This is a great little table book if nothing else.

Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure - A somewhat dry but well researched dive into massive infrastructure projects and the death cult attitude that empowers them.

Queering Mennonite Literature - A university press publication, you know the drill w/ these. Good base to start from if you want to get more into the intersection of queer & menno literature, which is why I picked it up after reading a lot of Casey Plett's books.

David Graeber

Bullshit Jobs - Maybe the best that Graeber has been, and also an example of him leaning really hard into the pop-science aspect of his public persona. If you've got an office job that feels completely fake please read this.

The Dawn of Everything - Graeber's last work before his death and... Well I think it is really good, well written, broadly researched, but much like Debt you're going to either agree w/ his premise or not. There are some rather radical takes here. I highly recommend it though.

Debt: The First 5000 Years - There has been a lot of back and forth on this and there will never be a solid answer. I think the arguments made here are fairly strong, pretty convincing, but if you're involved in this academically in any way you're liable to have a lot of strong opinions one way or another as you read it.

LitMags

Clarkesworld: Every sci-fi enjoying homosexual has a Clarkesworld subscription these days so I don't have a lot unique to say about this. Great year for work, I love the regular infusion of translated works as usual, and I hope that the recent business hits they've taken don't impact it too hard. Definitely re-subbing.

Alaska Quarterly Review: There were some good entries to this but for the most part it kind of felt like an 'eating your vegetables' situation. I probably won't renew for the next year, but I don't *regret* picking it up this year either.

McSweeney’s: Solid as ever, though I found the 'halloween' issue they did to be kind of boring overall. Everything else was primarily hits, and I'll be carrying this forward next year.

[tmkutawrites]

A COMMON BOND - FREE SAMPLE!

This is a free sample of my debut lesbian romance novella, A Common Bond, which comes out November 7, 2023. Please enjoy :)

Note: There may/will be some typos in this sample. We like that, it confuses the Overlords of Zon so they don't strike me for contract infringement. I promise in the final, purchased version the typos have been fixed :)

Now, on with the sample!

RFI 1

To: Josie Basurto (May 3, 5:34PM)

From: Carneline Triana

Subject: Site Visit for Mobilization

Josie,

I will be on site with my management team most of Monday morning. I’m sure we will run into each other at some point.

Carneline

***

From: Josie Basurto (May 3, 5:39PM)

To: Carneline Triana

Subject: RE: Site Visit for Mobilization

Looking forward to it!

J

***

Carneline had known Clover Hill’s old town hall was in bad shape from the bid documents. On her walkthrough with Rio a few weeks ago, even more suspicions had been raised. But now, the disintegrating chunk of limestone that had fallen off the cornice and into her hand confirmed it: she was going to be spending a lot more time in Clover Hill than she had initially planned. “Jesus Christ.”

“I’ve never seen limestone this bad,” Bruno murmured. Oceanic’s chief masonry superintendent carefully set the piece of stone down on the scaffold. “This whole cornice is going to have to be checked.”

Checking the structural integrity of a city block’s worth of limestone was definitely not covered in their contract. Carneline chewed on the inside corner of her mouth as she ran a hand across the sugaring stone and watched millennia-old sand crumble into her palm. “Is this the only bad news?”

“Oh no,” Bruno said in a voice far too cheery for her liking as he pushed to his feet. “This mortar is definitely hot.”

Asbestos remediation was also definitely not in their contract.

She cast a desperate glance along the joints. “Are you sure?”

“Yup.” He pointed to an area where the mortar was exposed. “Look close. You can see the fibers.”

Carneline looked and, sure enough, there were the telltale threads amongst the cement, lime, and sand. Fuck. “Does Rio know?”

Bruno shook his head.

She snapped a couple of photos on her phone and turned for the scaffold stair. “Are xe still documenting in the lobby?”

“I think so.”

“Good. I’ll send xem up.”

The metal stairs squeaked as Carneline made her way down them, eyeing the brick and stone of the Romanesque Revival building with far more suspicion than before. The facade clearly hadn’t been washed in two decades. The window sills were covered in black atmospheric discoloration, and the blue-green haze of cupric staining streaked down major crevices. On the brick and stone walls, there were long stretches of jointing completely devoid of mortar and one of the brackets was missing entirely.

She stopped two decks down and took a moment to admire the town. This was Oceanic’s first project this far south. They mostly stuck to projects in Baymill, but her dad had wanted to expand into other markets, so here she was forty feet in the air above a town she could see the other side of from the scaffold. The five-story town hall towered over most of the rest of the buildings, but fit in perfectly amongst the clusters of various historic structures downtown. Its renovation was long overdue, but Carneline hoped Clover Hill would find it worth it in the end.

From her perch, she could see the expanse of the park, with its quaint little gazebo and beautifully kept grounds. A bit farther she spied the currently unlit marquee of an old movie theater and a neon sign belonging to local diner. It was a beautiful town, and as much as she could lean on the scaffold railing and look out over the little town covered in the fresh leaves of spring for hours, she had a job to do.

She tore herself away from the view and continued down the scaffold to the lobby. The first time she’d seen it, Carneline had been struck almost speechless by the beauty of its wrought iron doors, scagliola-clad pilasters, and massive crystal chandelier. Now it barely registered. She hurried through the plywood-covered lobby until she found her assistant project manager sprawled indelicately across the floor.

Rio was an acquired taste Carneline wasn’t quite sure she had acquired yet; mildly competent, incredibly anxious, and graced with the aggravating tendency to lose the plot at the slightest provocation. Still, xe tried, which was more than Carneline could say of half of Oceanic’s field staff.

“Good morning, Rio.”

Rio startled, and practically levitated off the floor in a cloud of dust almost definitely from the plaster demo. Xe was absolutely covered in the stuff, and Rio hurriedly stuffed xemself back into xyr gloves and sheepishly brushed down xyr front. “Good—good morning, Carneline. I—I didn’t know you were on site.”

“I was walking the cornice with Bruno.”

“Oh.”

“How is it going down here?”

Xe grimaced and gestured at the ground. “It’s—uh. The stone’s really cracked.”

Bits of torn painter’s tape crawled across the marble below them like blown blue cherry blossom petals. Carneline crouched, and Rio angled the beam of xyr flashlight so she could see the spidery lines coursing through. Great. “These are going to shatter the second Bruno tries to take them out.”

“That’s what he said, too.”

Another expensive change order for the growing pile, I suppose. She stood, dreading the prospect of the unending raft of paperwork in her future. “I’ll speak with the NCK team. Have you been up to the cornice yet?”

Rio shook xyr head.

“When you are done down here, I need you to go up and document everything before we touch it. Do you have your profile gauges with you?”

“They’re in my car.”

“Good. Bruno will be up there for a little bit. Find…” She hedged, thinking of the worn-down status of the cornice. “Find the least broken stone and take a profile.”

 Xe nodded. “Okay.”

“And wear an N95. The mortar is hot and everything up there is crumbling.”

Rio’s dark eyes got comically wide behind xyr safety glasses. “Oh shit.”

Her sentiments exactly. “Do you have any questions?” Xe shook xyr head again. “Alright. Call me if something comes up.”

“Will do!”

Carneline left Rio to xyr marble documentation and slipped out the west entrance to find the jobsite trailer. When she pulled the door open, she found Josie bent over the conference table—which was really just four folding tables pushed together in the center of the room—studying the reference drawings.

“Good morning,” she greeted as the door snapped shut behind her.

“Good morning,” Josie replied as she turned the page of the drawings. “Headed out? Help yourself to some coffee before you leave.”

Carneline startled at the kind, but unexpected offer. “Oh. Thank you.”

“To-go cups are on top of the fridge.”

“I actually don’t drink hot coffee,” she replied sheepishly.

“Don’t drink hot coffee?” Josie asked, looking up from her drawings with a grin that Carneline had discovered seemed permanently glued to her face. “Don’t tell me…you’re like Baylee and only drink cold brew.”

Carneline gave an awkward little laugh, not liking the familiarity with which Josie talked to her about her sister. People always did that, acted like they knew her because they knew her sister or father. Another one of the ‘perks’ of a family business. “Guilty as charged.”

 “Well, I’m one step ahead of you. There’s cold brew in the fridge.”

The offer was tempting. Carneline considered for a moment, but finally decided against it. If she got caught in traffic, which was likely considering the time, she would definitely have to stop and pee. “Not today. I have to drive back to Baymill after this, but thank you.”

“Any time.”

Josie finally straightened up fully and leaned casually on the white plastic folding table, hooking her thumbs into her jeans. She was an unreasonably attractive figure, taller than Carneline, with kind brown eyes and a sharp fade that put every short-haired worker on the site to shame. In some universe she might have been Carneline’s type—if Josie hadn’t worked for the general contractor paying them to fix Clover Hill’s historic town hall.

Carneline hedged. “I…actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

Josie’s voice remained impressively neutral. “Oh?”

“Yes…” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “We have some problems.”

“Define ‘problems.’”

“That depends, do you want the least expensive issue or most expensive issue first?”

“Least expensive.” Josie flashed a luminous smile. “Warm me up.”

Carneline pulled up the photos she had taken of the floor and passed her phone over for her to see. “The marble in the foyer is full of cracks. It’s going to shatter when we try to take it out.”

“Architects were ridiculous to think we could salvage the whole floor,” Josie said with a disbelieving scoff. “A-hundred-and-twenty-year-old marble doesn’t come up like that.”

“No, it does not,” Carneline confirmed.

Josie handed her phone back, her face suddenly all business. The shift was jarring, to say the least. “How much is this going to cost?”

“I can’t say for certain, but it will be a decent amount.”

Josie sighed. “Great. You submitted replacement marble, right?”

“A few weeks ago.”

Josie ran a hand through her hair. “Submit an RFI and we’ll see what the architects have to say.”

“Was planning to.”

“Thanks.” She took a sip from a nearby thermos. “What’s the bigger, badder bill?”

Carneline gave Josie a significant look. “Have you been up to the cornice?”

“Recently?”

“Yes.”

“I walked it at the beginning,” she replied with a frown. “Is there something wrong with it?”

If only. “The mortar’s full of asbestos and the stone is crumbling. A piece fell off in my hand.”

Josie inhaled in shock. “Oh fuck.”

“I don’t want anyone from my crew touching it until the town knows.”

 “Understandable. Do you think it’s going to need to be replaced?”

Carneline glanced around the trailer to make sure they were alone. “Off the record, I think you might want to figure out where Clover Hill has a million dollars stashed for a rainy day.”

 “It’s that bad?”

“The building is a hundred and twenty years old,” she said with a shrug. “I’m surprised it lasted this long.”

Josie’s face went grim. “Got it. Thanks for the heads up.”

“Not a problem.” She hesitated, not sure if Josie could handle a third thing on her plate. “There is…one more thing?”

“If there’s a massive structural issue that means we need to evacuate the building, please turn around and leave now,” Josie joked weakly. “Let me die in the collapsed building in peaceful ignorance.”

Carneline gave a dismissive snort. “Nothing so drastic.”

Josie brightened considerably. “Great! What’s up?”

“You need to have someone go into the main hall and put down sweeping compound. Rio’s rolling around on the floor in there looking like the Ghost of Christmas Past. To say nothing of the silica hazard.”

Josie was already grabbing her hard hat off the table. “I’ll do it myself.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

“See you then!” Josie trotted off out the door, Carneline close behind her.

She checked her watch: three-o’clock.  Plenty of time to make it back to the city without hitting traffic. She pulled her hard hat off the second she hit the parking lot, shaking her curly red hair out so she could tie it back up once in the car. She’d get out of town, update her dad on the way home, then spend a quiet night with her plants before she had to go to bed.

Her phone rang. The song barely got four notes in before she picked up. “You’re psychic. I was just about to call you.”

“Are you done at Clover Hill?” Warren Triana asked gruffly.

“About to head home now, just have to throw my stuff in the ba—” She stopped dead a few paces from her trunk, eyes taking in the noticeable sink to her right rear bumper. “Fuck.”

Her father’s business tone instantly switched to fatherly concern. “What? What is it?”

She scowled and threw her hard hat in the back a tad more aggressively than was necessary. “It’s nothing,” she sighed. “I just have a flat.”

[END RFI 1]

Did you like this sample? If yes please consider buying my novella? You can preorder A Common Bond HERE!

[twinegardening]

Structural Integrity, by Tabitha O'Connell

You are Yaan, a well-off government official romantically involved with former messenger boy Kel. Uncover the cracks in your relationship, and decide what you're going to do about them... Author's Comment: “This game is based on my novella of the same name. I had a lot of fun adapting it and exploring different possible ways the story could go, as well as making room for the reader’s perception to shape the story.”

[ajibooks]

I'm back with another book list! My previous book list posts: aromantic and/or asexual rep and grumpy/sunshine pairings.

Books with trans men as protagonists that I've especially enjoyed and recommend. These are all romance novels, except The Raven Tower. These all have explicit on-page sex scenes, except for the first two.

Secondary-world fantasy

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie - Really the character is the second-most important one in the narrative, but it's an unusual book (written in second person). Very light m/f romance plot (not the focus of the book at all).

Structural Integrity by Tabitha O'Connell - Another book with an unusual structure and a light coming-of-age plot. A little bit angsty but a pretty light read.

---

Contemporary

Love Language by Reese Morrison - BDSM relationship between a young Dom (trans man, he is Deaf) and an older sub (cis man, child of Deaf adults). Really lovely and intense romance. Deals with grief in a very realistic way.

To Touch the Light by EM Lindsey - Trans man who is a successful chef falls in love with a visually impaired cis man who's really struggling in life. Angsty with a happy ending.

No Rulebook for Flirting by Laura Bailo - Cute and funny novella in which a trans man and a cis man meet at a board-gaming convention. Has some mild homophobia as part of the plot.

---

Science fiction

By Imperial Decree by Angel Martinez - Sweet and fluffy fake-dating story set on a space station. This story is set in the same universe as some of her other books but they all stand alone. There is also a trans man who is a major character in her Brimstone series, also sci-fi (and truly bizarre comedy), but he is not a point-of-view character until later on.

---

Historical

The Doctor's Discretion by EE Ottoman - Set in early 1800s NYC, an adventure-romance in which a trans man and a cis man fall in love and work together to rescue another trans man from a hospital. CW for transphobia (severe).

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread  

Structural Integrity

a short fantasy novella about the relationship between a government official and messenger 

when the latter finds out an old theatre in his neighbourhood is going to be torn down and his partner is indifferent, he questions whether the relationship is salvageable

start of a series

[stuartnewton-short-story-writer]

The Art of Storytelling: Crafting Engaging Short Fiction Stories

In the realm of literature, storytelling is an age-old art that has captivated minds, stirred emotions, and ignited imaginations.

Unveiling the Magic of Short Fiction Stories

Short fiction stories, often referred to as "short stories," are miniature works of literature that encapsulate powerful narratives within a limited word count. Unlike novels or novellas, short stories require the writer to convey profound themes, emotions, and character development in a concise format. It's like capturing lightning in a bottle, where every word must count.

Understanding the Essence of Short Fiction

Short fiction stories are all about brevity, impact, and leaving a lasting impression. They typically range from 1,000 to 20,000 words, and their brevity challenges writers to be precise and economical with their prose. Each word, sentence, and paragraph must serve a purpose, driving the narrative forward and captivating the reader.

Crafting Characters That Resonate

In the world of short fiction, characters play a pivotal role. The challenge is to create well-rounded, relatable characters with depth, even in a limited word count. Readers should connect with the characters on an emotional level, making them care about their fates.

Weaving an Intriguing Plot

A successful short story hinges on an intriguing plot that keeps the reader engaged from the first sentence to the last. Begin with a strong hook, introduce conflict early on, and maintain the tension throughout the narrative. The resolution should provide a sense of closure while leaving room for contemplation.

Show, Don't Tell

In the art of storytelling, the age-old adage "show, don't tell" holds true. Instead of simply informing the reader about a character's feelings or the story's themes, employ vivid descriptions, dialogues, and actions to convey the intended message. Engage the reader's senses and imagination.

The Power of Emotion

Emotion is the heart and soul of any story. Short fiction stories, due to their brevity, rely on potent emotional content to create an impact. As a writer, your ability to evoke feelings like joy, sorrow, fear, or empathy in your readers is your greatest asset.

Choosing the Right Emotions

Select emotions that resonate with your audience and fit the narrative. A story can make readers laugh, cry, or ponder life's mysteries. The emotional journey you create is what lingers in their hearts and minds.

Mastering Dialogue

Dialogue is a potent tool for conveying emotions. Well-crafted conversations between characters can reveal their thoughts, fears, and desires, making the story come alive. Make every word count in dialogue, and use it to further the plot and character development.

The Art of Short Fiction Writing

Crafting a short fiction story involves a blend of art and technique. Here are some tips to elevate your storytelling prowess:

Set the Scene

Create a vivid and immersive setting that transports readers to the story's world. Describe the surroundings, evoke sensory experiences, and make the setting an integral part of the narrative.

Pace Yourself

In a short story, pacing is critical. Balance action, reflection, and character development to maintain the reader's interest. Use sentence structure and paragraph length to control the story's rhythm.

Edit and Revise

After writing, take time to edit and revise your work. Eliminate unnecessary words, refine sentences, and ensure that every element of the story contributes to the overall impact.

The Conclusion

In the enchanting world of short stories in english have, the power to captivate, move, and inspire lies in your hands. Crafting an engaging short fiction story is an art that requires dedication, practice, and a deep understanding of the human experience. 

[roleplay-today]

Snakes in the Garden, Renaissance Italy Discord Group RP!

Looking for skilled and fledgling writers who want to immerse themselves in structured RP while honing their craft! Writing sample required.

Renaissance Italy was a treacherous place. Foreign invaders came frequently. The Church became was a puppet of various dynasties and a political institution. Nobles played the games of court; Treachery and intrigue. From the years 1492 to 1503, a corrupt pope dominated Rome. Dark rumors swirled about his family and the man did anything to maintain his grip on Rome.

Angelo XI died in 1503. With the approaching conclave, every prominent family in Italy sent members to Rome to oppose the election of another corrupt Pope. With Machiavellian machinations, families competed to install their own pope and gain advantages in Rome.

The bells tolled. The streets of Rome fell into chaos, shouters crying from every corner as the common rabble take to the streets to mourn and celebrate the end of years of the Castuzuelan pope. An end to a reign of darkness. With his death came a delayed conclave that had Italian and foreign nobility migrate to Rome to ensure the election of a Pope who would hold their states in their best interest. Shadowy figures moved back and forth among the streets as agents of these families. The commoners were into their night wars of the nobility and the games of court. A purist element from within the church wished a holy man to be elected to bring an end to the reign of the families and restore the church back on the path of righteousness.

Afterward, a new Pope was elected, wishing to purge Rome of the corrupt influence of the families.

Meanwhile, other states in Italy conducted their own intrigue and their drama within their own halls, whether facing rebellion, plotting, or corruption from within. Foreign states, as always, kept their eyes on Rome and it would take little to prompt the foreign invasions that Rome narrowly avoid until this point. The lives of the commoners were much affected by the whims of the church and those families who held their power through different means.

Foreign claimants, mercenaries, courtesans, and many men at the front of Renaissance advancement played a key and integral role in this tumultuous time. In times like those, a merchant family could rise to be the most powerful of the families, or a simple soldier could rise to be of great importance.

Dark rumors, Machiavellian machinations, and betrayals swirled as the conclave drew nigh.

Minimalistic aesthetic with flair.

-Mostly Historical setting, semi-realism expected.

-Fun is paramount.

-Laissez-faire attitude on OOC, five characters, can write wherever in your channel.

-Writing sample required to gain entry

.-250-word post minimum. Lots of Novella writers.

-18+. Mature themes abound.

- Many major factions.

.-NSFW allowed.

-Gritty.

-Draws inspiration from the Borgias, Medici, Assassins Creed 2, and CK3.

-Novella writing community.

-40 OC's made.

-Active, friendly staff.

-Wanted character system

-Custom economy bot

-Based on AH Italian wars

https://discord.gg/BcNm2Aqxdc

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[layaart]

Here’s the cover I designed for  Structural Integrity by Tabitha O'Connell!

This is a novella that  is #OwnVoices for ace-spec, trans, and anxiety rep. Here’s the blurb:

Messenger boy Kel never expected to strike up a romance with a government official. But Yaan lacks the self-important snobbery of the others, seeing Kel as more than just a pretty face. Living with him in the city’s plush government complex is everything Kel could want: no more expenses, kitchen workers and resident animals to befriend, and of course seeing Yaan every day. Even if Yaan does spend most of his time working or worrying about work, and seems to have forgotten that they used to have actual conversations…

When the city decides to tear down the iconic theater building in Kel’s old neighborhood, Yaan’s indifference toward his pleas to help save it forces Kel to confront his growing unhappiness. In the aftermath, both will have to decide whether their relationship is salvageable.

[rhetoricandlogic]

Where Good Work Would Grow: To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Where Good Work Would Grow: To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Lee Mandelo

Tue Sep 3, 2019 1:00pm

“If you read nothing else we’ve sent home, please at least read this,” begins Ariadne O’Neill, the narrator and protagonist of To Be Taught, if Fortunate. At the final planet of her ecological survey, Ariadne is writing home to share her human experience of space travel—and, ultimately, to make a request of her potential listener. As she continues, her message is not necessarily urgent in the most literal sense; communication takes fourteen years to travel one direction between Earth and the habitable system her team is studying, another fourteen to return. But it is, nonetheless, a matter in urgent need of response despite the gap of decades.

Ariadne, Chikondi, Elena, and Jack are a small team of scientists (and engineers) dedicated to space exploration as funded via a global nonprofit, a grand human network devoted to science for the sake of itself outside the pressures of capital and nation. The team survives through a complex patchwork of technologies: travel slower than light balanced out with a torpor-state that allows humans to exist without advanced aging in a coma-like rest, somaforming to adapt the body to radiation and necessities of life on different habitable biomes, and so forth. At the heart of it all, though, is human ingenuity and drive to learn—to be struck by the incomprehensible open canvas of the universe and to try, even briefly, to know it.

To Be Taught, if Fortunate steals the breath right from your chest consistently, constantly, without fail. I spent the majority of the novella—which I read in a single sitting—with a swell of tender, driving emotion pushing at my guts (and I did shed a few tears). Chambers’s brief tale is intimate but vast, wondrous and simple, crafted with technical precision toward a purposeful argument about human progress, science, and the small personal futures that create grand-scale futurity. For such a slight text, it’s rich with narrative and argument both.

The quiet, steady competence of Ariadne, crew engineer, scaffolds the entire mission and the tone of the novella itself. As she says, “In order to do science you need tools, shelter, and a means to get where you’re going. I was responsible for all of these. I was building a trellis where good work would grow. There was nothing I wanted more than that, nothing that brought me more pride.” That shift in thematic focus from a victorious individual discovering a breakthrough all alone toward the sturdy support-frame that allows a team to coexist and create knowledge together is the central concept of the novella. The glorification of the trellis—the backbone of the vines of research—is evocative in its significance and simplicity.

Because, on a larger scale, what Chambers is doing with this novella is queering science, reassessing the mythologies of scientific progress in a social world to include the always-present but oft-ignored realities of the networks that allow knowledge to accumulate. In short, To Be Taught, if Fortunate integrates the social and physical sciences (as they are in practice) and demonstrate the human linkages, the inseparable importance of culture and story, to the act of assessing the massive universe around us. Science is not unbiased; science does not exist outside of the human self creating and structuring it—it is not objective and never has been, and social constructs are a part of that.

So, it’s especially moving to read a novella that is sweeping in its grandeur, its sense of wonder, exploring planets and moons and worlds we’ve never imagined previously—forms of life beautiful and terrible, landscapes from ice covered moons to tidally locked zones with constant day and night—that places itself firmly in the stead of an engineer whose support role is valorized. That, right there, is a feminist intervention on the narratives of scientific progress and science fiction: looking with wonder at the roles that are often hidden.

And, moreover, the delightful diversity of the crew—unremarked upon and thus blissfully unremarkable—is another step toward queering these accepted narratives of what sf and science look like. The crew is multiracial and multigenerational; the four of them share close physical and emotional relationships that transcend romantic partnership in favor of a communal intimacy. Jack is a trans man; his hormones are part of his somaforming, again unremarkable. Chikondi is asexual and the text is careful to note that his relationship to the protagonist is no less emotional or vital than those she shares with people she is sexually involved with. Elena is older than the rest of the crew and has certain foibles of personality that are more commonly assigned to men in texts but when embodied by a woman are often judged—she’s aloof, does not process emotional moments in the same fashion as the rest of the crew.

This list might seem clinical of me, but again: within the text these elements of race and gender and relation are unremarkable, well-negotiated, and settled in place amongst the queer chosen family that forms the crew of the ship. Chambers’s representation of the sort of communal existence that would be required of a small crew who have left behind, forever, the world they’ve known and the people they’ve loved is as real to me as can be. Binaries of gender and love and physicality are unnecessary and restrictive; part of the success of this crew, this future, relies on its queering of heteropatriarchal mythologies. And it does this without explanation, without notation, as a simple fact of existence (the way queer folks experience themselves in the world).

These thematic underpinnings of the novel are something the reader can chew over as part of a conversation on science and genre fiction, and they’re grand, but the real kicker is—I wasn’t thinking much on that during the act of reading, because the novella is so fucking engaging that it’s hard to do anything but be swept along. Chambers paints astounding vistas of unseen life while she delivers, in striking but conversational tone, observations about the nature of exploration and discovery that awake a powerful yearning in the reader to know the world. After all, Ariadne’s purpose in writing this missive and sending it along is to reinvigorate the human willingness to go to space, to spend the time and human capital to see these awe-inspiring things. As she says in the opening notes: “I’m writing to you in the hope that we will not be the last,” by which she means the last astronauts.

Spoilers.

The plot that creeps in during the beautiful and terrible ecological mission is one of time and society as well. The global project of nonprofit space exploration occurred after a climate collapse and national restructuring, and during travel, Ariadne abruptly realizes that they’ve received no news packets or updates from Earth in months—then years. The creeping horror that perhaps there is no home to return to is assuaged, in part, by a doomed message from the final remaining survey crew, revealing that a solar flare devastated the technological resources of Earth and those have, presumably, not been built up to capacity again enough to contact the surviving teams. The conclusion of the novella asks a question: shall we return home, to help rebuild, or continue on a one-way mission to the next location? Science is not for all if done for the whims of individuals, so the crew has written home to ask blessing and permission from the current people of the world—without it, they will not act.

It’s an emotional reminder of our responsibilities to one another as a social group, not as lone individuals on solitary islands. None of us exist without each other, or survive without each other. The open conclusion to the novella embodies the ethical and social significance of being the builder of the trellis rather than the conqueror of a space, rewriting certain myths of colonialist science as a form of sacrifice rather than greed. The final piece of the text is a quoted paragraph from Waldheim’s Voyager Golden Record message, also the source of the novella’s title—a reminder that we are “but a small part of this immense universe.”

To Be Taught, if Fortunate is a powerful piece of work that fits immense scope into a tightly utilized space, a bravura performance of craft skill that demonstrates, among other things, how well-suited the novella form is to the narrative projects of science fiction. One person is part of a larger web, on a grand and almost unimaginable scale, as Chambers so deftly illustrates with her exploration of the wondrous drive humans possess to see and know the world around us. Ariadne and her crew, the worlds they explore and the paths left to them at the end, will linger with me for a long time.