I’m going to stop obsessing over what this story’s word count is going to be. I know it’s not a novel. If it stays short story length? Great! If it winds up novella length? Fantastic! I’m EXCITED about this idea; I’m not going to worry about what market I’ll eventually have to pitch it in.

#BluePitHype I’m not much of an artist—one day, at least as far as concept sketches go!—but commissioning art is one of my FAVORITE things! 1 & 2) Kade and Conrad from the Deuceridge duology 3) Sachial and Caleb from Fault Lines (faultverse) 4) Svai and Raeiz from the space opera WIP (spiteverse)

(not to get all sentimental on main, but MAN being in love really is marvelous)

Kade’s a real funny one. He’s STEEPED in the supernatural elements of Deuceridge without actually noticing. He’s drenched in the city’s energy, somehow tied to its very existence, and his best friend is an alien. But the second he’s directly confronted with something strange, he crashes TF out. 😅 1/

#BluePitHype let’s go! I’m Lenn; I write #sff, and particularly love sf! I’m #querying a queer, pulpy 1920s urban scifi—gangsters, grifters, and a renegade alien—and #writing a scifi series about a snarky lil transmasc anarchist with a martyr complex. Can’t wait to hear about everyone’s projects!

there’s a man in my parking lot who’s clearly just starting to learn how to unicycle. +12 faith in humanity

#Critterary I’m HEARTBROKEN to realize that I don’t have any dinosaurs! 🦕 One of Conrad’s favorite books is The Lost World (I’m also very fond), in which dinosaurs abound. But if it’s not conspiracy-theory or science fiction related, I can’t see him being interested in studying the real thing. 😅

#Critterary One of my back-burnered projects features a pair of hellhounds—with a working title like “doggos from heck”, I’ve gotta bring it up on dog day! Called Ren and Neer, respectively, they’re about as opposite in personality and motives as can be. I’ve gone back and forth 1/3

From Fault Lines’ prologue! (we haven’t met Sachial by name, yet, but that’s him going on about his thesis—as he is wont to do) #wipsnips #writesky

In Faultverse, the Council is designed to set off some Big Scary Shadow Cult Dystopian Leadership alarm bells for a genre-savvy reader. Sachial is also FRANTICALLY ringing these same alarms for his fellow characters. One might, however, find that a BIT too easy an explanation to take at face value.

Tripped UP an escalator—in a mall food court, during their Chinese New Year display, so I KNOW this is in the background of some videos—and bashed my knee so hard on that jagged-edged escalator step that it wasn’t quite right for years after Yes I did SCRAMBLE on upward as if it hadn’t happened 😂

#JanuaryWorldbuilders In Faultverse, the world itself isn’t terribly hospitable to human life. Water from the sky is a myth, faded from the collective consciousness so far as to have lost the word “rain”. The only source of water is deep in an underground cavern—and monster-infested, to boot!

#Critterary I have an insectoid species that features in a series of short stories I’m very proud of! They’re about nine feet long, at full extension, but more typically scrunch themselves up. They’re covered in chitinous plates with an oil-slick coloration; the flesh beneath is inky black. 1/3

Sachial’s entire MO in Fault Lines is to overturn the current system—and he finds out EXACTLY how high the cost of that can be, to himself and to everyone else in his world. Kit, his foster-sister, fits this too. Her partner, Ian, watches as she metaphorically sets herself on fire for “the cause”.

OTHERSIDE is officially OPEN for fiction and poetry submissions 🪐🗡️ If you’re part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, send us your speculative fiction and poetry: fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and everything in between! 📚 Open window: Jan 1-14 📑 See guidelines for details: othersidespec.com/guidelines/

For Faultverse, Sachial starts ALL of the fights; Mara finishes them. Caleb tries—unsuccessfully—to stop them. In Deuceridge, Kade is the most likely to start fights, but it’s Miriam or Conrad who can really finish them. Asher is the one who can prevent the fight entirely (if he wants to).

qtp with your favorite pokémon! (wrong answers only)

#JanuaryWorldbuilders In Faultverse, that would be the Lines themselves—a vast network of pipes woven through miles of natural caverns. They extend from the underside of Civilization down to the subtersea’s surface, drawing up water. Though the metal is brushed to avoid harsh glare, they sparkle.

#Critterary I just described a short story I’m working on as “oops, cats all the way down” 😆 Which isn’t a bad thing—I love cats in any and all contexts—I just wasn’t expecting them to be such an omnipresent theme in this one!

#Critterary Ohh I do enjoy a vampire story, when it’s done genuinely. They’re one of those creatures that has such an assortment, such an EXPANSIVE backlog of myths that you can take what you want and leave the rest, riff on or remix anything, and I love that. No wrong way to go about it. 1/2

we knew to contain the computer in a room. humankind was not meant for computer everywhere

#HappyNewYear! #BluePit is coming up fast on January 13th! We’ll be kicking off our pre-event, #BluePitHype, on January 8th! We also invite those with WIPs and published works to participate! #WriteSky #BookSky #GameDev #IndieDev #TTRPG #Comic #AmQuerying #AmAgenting #LitAgents

#JanuaryWorldbuilders Faultverse is a long enough project that I do intend to explore most of its aspects, eventually. That said, we don’t go very far below the surface of the subtersea until the—vaguely conceived—sequel trilogy. There’s plenty going on above the water, with humanity, for now.

I am NOT permitted to leave this coffee shop until I’ve figured out some working population numbers/dimensions for Faultverse 😤

yknow what? say less, zero complaints 😂

Hi #JanuaryWorldbuilders! I’ll mostly still be yapping about Faultverse while I chip away at the rewrite—it’s a multi-book scifi project with a “last of humanity” setup. As such, the world-building demands a self-sustaining system—that being Civilization—and crafting of the surrounding environment.

Hi #Critterary! I’m Lenn, and I write sff! I lean towards scifi and space fantasy, but I’ve been rediscovering fantasy recently. I love all sorts of creatures in fiction; favorites include mythic, cryptid, and alien. Speculative biology is a PASSION, so I tend to get into physiology and evolution!

This happens for me QUITE frequently—I’m not much of a planner, and I am the type to pick a side-character in whatever I’m watching/reading and LATCH, so when it happens in my own stuff that character inevitably winds up with a bigger role. 😂 I wouldn’t trade it—it delights me every time! 1/4

why is this playing IN SPROUTS at six pm on a Monday night and DO THEY REALLY EXPECT ME NOT TO DANCE??

There are many people who simply do not understand the stakes and either understate or overstate them. The issue is not that AI will replace writers or w/e: it can't. The issue is that AI will make our working conditions significantly worse and harm the development of new artists in our fields.

#DecemberWorldbuilders In Faultverse, Civilization is somewhat short on animals (at least as far as the average person knows). But one thing they do have are tanninim (singular: tannin)—huge aquatic creatures that live in the subtersea. They’re generally regarded as a threat to human life 1/

Deuceridge held no sway over [Asher], but Kade was lodged like a dagger in his heart; a chain woven between his ribs connected him to that city of devils. -Wanderlust and the Sea

Ohhboy, that’d be Conrad. His baseline, unfortunately, is mortal terror. He’s conditioned to expect death—or severe pain—at pretty much any moment, and he behaves accordingly. He’s especially—irrationally, but for understandable backstory reasons—TERRIFIED of rain and costal storms.

#DeckTheHalls —Deuceridge THE EMPRESS is Miss Miriam Channis. She takes superb care of her city, and her people within it. She sees everything from her penthouse vantage in Channis and Co apartments. To the reverse, though—if she has a blind spot, it’s the nature of her own relationship with Kade.

Asher’s eyes are blue; they’re one of the few visible signs of his alien heritage, since they [REDACTED]. Kade has an actual conniption the first time he sees it; Conrad, conversely, professes his love. Sachial has gray eyes that seem to lighten or darken with his mood; Caleb is OBSESSED with them.

… it’s cats all the way down, and I’m genuinely not sure yet if that’s a problem

Pushing through the awkward “oh jeez what am I even doing??” phase with this short story; looking ever-forward to the moment when things CLICK. I can always go back and polish up this dismally floundering start after I find my footing—and, importantly, this narrator’s actual voice 😅

Absolutely! That said, many of my characters never truly leave. They’ll pop in and out of my thoughts—when something reminds me of them, like a song, or sometimes entirely unprompted—and I can visit them if I need or want to. But I miss the closeness of working with them while writing their stories.

Every time my characters look in a mirror, there's a girl with black hair and fishnets looking back at them, shaking her head 'no'.

Everything is some variety of animation in my head, I assume because most of my formative visual media was animated. Deuceridge is somewhere between Arcane-style and DRRR!!, the latter of which is an actual influence and the former of which is just ✨vibes✨.

🦋 Joined bsky, and started interacting with other writers and the community here! 🌧️ Rewrote ~50% of Fault Lines! 🪳Wrote 4 connected short stories, (feat. a funky insectoid alien named Atchri)! 📖🎧 Started reading again (10+ books!), thanks in large part to audiobooks!

(even though Deuce IS technically real-world, imagining modern AU for this) Conrad would LOVE Valentine’s Day after he and Asher get together—any excuse to be a huge nerd, in public, about how much he loves his husband (not that he needs any excuse at all). Asher tolerates him (affectionately). 1/5

Sir Terry Pratchett is best understood as one of the most interesting, deeply ethical practical (I would say Pragmatist but I cede to actual experts) philosophers of the late 20th Century who just happened to work in deconstructed fantasy literature as his medium.

(Happy Holidays! ❄️) For Kade, it’s dancing—he’s always smiling, with some version of honesty, when he dances. Also, getting a new trick perfect for the first time. When Asher feels like someone sees him for who—and what—he is, his ever-present smile becomes real. Also, if Kade smiles, he’ll smile.

Hurt/comfort, with on-page recovery arcs rather than time-skips! We all know breaking characters is great fun, but I adore every aching moment of putting them back together. Feral characters and survival plots are always treats! I’m always up for a “stranded in a hostile setting” story.

I think the peppermint brownies are a success?? They certainly smell like it! Eagerly waiting for the lil’ sample batch to cool (the other two are headed out as gifts) 😋

Therapy.

Money is ABSOLUTELY not real to most of the Deuceridge cast. 😂 Kade’s most reliable side hustle three-card monte, but taking folks’ money is actively how he passes his time. Miriam runs her own business. Ward is a gang boss (during prohibition!), and Conrad 1/4

I’ve got a novella called “A Witch Lives Here”—cozy fantasy, localized post-apocalypse vibes, set in the woods; irl theology inspired, and poly! When God came to the village, many people were swayed. Pity that a god of war had little to offer but bloody promises and delusions of power.