#LoreOutLoud Kallista makes an effort to make a connection, which is new for her

#queerwriters goal share: 💰 send in funding application 📚 try to whittle down some of the huge test reading pile ⚓️ draft more, cos it makes me feel good 📝 make a clean transition from revising one thing to revising another, so it's not getting all tangled 🛏 more rest. Still coughing.

The Katorgan Fleet is ruled by the Warchief, a position that is both hereditary and elected. He represents one of the 21 clans and is advised by the other 20 representatives, the War Council. Katorgans can petition their reps to bring up issues with the Warchief. #Septopolis #WritingCommunity

#Septopolis 22 Democratic-ish. There is an elected Council of Ministers, who serve 6 years terms and can serve up to 4 terms. They are assigned a specific area of city business to regulate. There is a Minister of Commerce, one for Sanitation, and so on. 🧵 #WritingCommunity #Writesky #Wrencer

#Septopolis 22. While the Kingdom of Kraslya started as a theocracy ruled by the Church of Envasar like countless other places, it adopted the Council of Houses system a few millennia ago, which is a mix of monarchy and aristocracy. We have one Ruling House, from which the queen—and most (1/14)

Happy #Septopolis 22! Cascada is led by a council of elders, that is generally self-decided. The council will decide when a community member is eligible, and confers internally as to whether they will be asked to join the council. Decisions from the council are not the final word, however. (1/3)

#Septopolis 22 Arx Lucis is my nightmare government: I'd describe it as a theocratic corporatocracy masquerading as a theocratic monarchy 😵‍💫 ~On paper~ the supreme ruler is the August Lord, a human/angel fusion who is 100s of years old & was there at the city's founding. He's said to communicate 🧵

#Septopolis Nairu is democratic-ish with heavy magical vetting of all candidates. In it for the money? Bye. Member of a Celestine Cult? YEET (and also, enjoy prison). Believe in the superiority of mages to the point where you see everyone else as less than human? Yeahnah GTFO 🧵

#Septopolis 20 Fiumenze: The public spaces are the piazzas, one per neighbourhood. The biggest is the Piazza del Popolo, but there's lots of other ones. They're also used for public events like theatre performances, festival celebrations, sports events, executions and more. (1/x)

SpecFicNZ member Janna Ruth has a new book out: Ghosts of the Monarchy (Parisian Ghosts 7). If you like cave-crawling adventures, hopeless romantics, and ghosts, you'll enjoy Ghosts of the Monarchy Get your copy today: books2read.com/b/ghostsofth... #bookrecs #bookstagram #urbanfantasy #specficnz

Yes! Quite literally! I have at least 8 versions of Naveena, including one where she was a monk with a wee dragon and the power to talk to ghosts in a D&D campaign. I don't have a strong general "template" or "type", though. Or maybe I do and Moma hasn't pointed it out to me yet #PretendPanel

Yessssss, it has finally crossed the seas and found its way into my sticky clutches @bitterkarella.bsky.social 💖🍄🩸💀

I finally started my first playtest for my #ttrpg A Town Called Hubris, which I've been talking about in #Septopolis! Just character creation today. We have a guitar-toting drifter of Apollo, a master thief of Hermes and a gunsmith of Hephaestus!

#pretendpanel I try not to. Sure, they will have similar personalities to an extent, but different traits. I feel the main cast are all different enough that they don’t feel the same #Writing #WritingCommunity

In the 2400s Earth's population is about 100 billion, and the environment remains ravaged since no one can agree who pays to fix it and who's going to get the money. The Corps who founded Nap City did so to make a world they were the big players in, rather than midlisters and small fries #septopolis

#pretendpanel I usually write the same character with a small variation that I need to hammer out. Over time, the variations tend to add up from story to story so eventually I have a completely different character. It's somewhat deliberate. I have certain themes I fixate on and *must* explore. 😬

#Septopolis 21 Most people come to Fenholt for economic reasons: to buy, sell, trade goods or make deals with the people who do. People also come for employment and education. The Scrivener's College and Runepoint Arcane Academy both have stellar reputations. #WritingCommunity #Writesky #Wrencer

#LoreOutLoud Look, she's being a bit hard on herself, but she does need to make some changes. And she will 😌 From Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊 (first draft, typos and all - yes I have seen the typo in the screenshot, lol)

#queerwriters line share: Might have shared this one elsewhere before, but it's the sole usage of 'cake' in current WIP, Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊

🔫 NAME FROM NOWHERE chapter 29 is now live! 💜 My Patreon - where all my stories live - is free to read and free to follow. Consider this your invitation to join my cosy little community. 🔗 www.patreon.com/posts/139399... 🏷️ #QueerWriters #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Patreon

#septopolis 19 Fiumenze: There's lots of industries, being a city of craft guilds) but the most influential is the wool trade. There are two wool guilds: one for the production of wool, and one for turning the wool into cloth. The trade is dominated by the de' Ranieri family, who are dragons! (1/6)

#pretendpanel So far, I've managed to avoid that, though I am kind of amused that both of my novels/novellas contain a main character that ultimately has to fight something with too many legs. 🤣

#Septopolis 21. Orasan sees a lot of tourism from other parts of the realm and from beyond the realm—I think I mentioned this before, but the bites of the courtesans are quite attractive for tourists! It's worth remembering that while non-flying can and are encouraged to visit, they're not (1/4)

Most people have no reason to visit the Katorgan Fleet, since the Katorgans themselves travel through the galaxy for trade, work, and anything else important. When foreigners do visit, their intent is usually to join, either as children being adopted or as spouses. 🧵 #Septopolis #WritingCommunity

Liam and Euwenn were kinda the same character at the beginning. I think that through reworking #Shield&Scalpel so many times, Liam has truly come into his own. #PretendPanel #WritingCommunity

Sometimes. A common archetype for me is "traumatized, socially distant/awkward character". I've been trying to distinguish the characters that fall under this: Pan tends to reject social interactions, Misty is friendly but scared of abandonment, etc. I'm also trying to write mentally well charas.

I've got a couple I return to based on rpg characters I made once with my friends😅 -chaotic, dry-witted academic -"actions speak louder than words" type -^they are bffs -cartoonishly evil old man -charmer who gets an ounce of real connection and panics -monster love interest #pretendpanel #writesky

#Septopolis As much as Nairu's population is made up of (sometimes unwilling) transplants, there are definitely some locals who are like... ffs, students 🙄 Such an attitude is kinda just a veneer tho, there is no organised effort against bringing in mages from the world over, because that has 🧵

#Septopolis 17 Fiumenze: It's Renaissance Florence, with beautiful white walls and orange roofs. Hubris: A mix of Ancient Greece and the Wild West. Lots of wooden buildings with nods towards Grecian architecture. The Hubreion is a proper marble temple; who knows where they got the marble from!

Ha! No. I have a compendium of characters that I write over and over again. 😬😉 #PretendPanel

I don’t think so??? Jayde is very different from Crystal. James & Daniel are similar in the sense that they’re both traumatized AuDHD weirdos, but they’re also very different. Ice & Gottfried have nothing in common besides being slightly tall white dudes with blond hair & blue eyes. #PretendPanel

From March of the Deathless Sun: Looking at herself in the mirror, she felt… strange. As if someone had put her head in someone else's body. The ruqun made her look smaller, more delicate. Harmless. She could play that part for one night. I'm happy with it... for now! x) #WorldWithoutLove

I write about my FMC coming into her own power. It's not the same character, but it's definitely a running theme. Sometimes she hard. Sometimes soft. Sometimes she thinks she's weak. But always she discovers that she's stronger than she thinks she is. #pretendpanel

#LoreOutLoud Not spoilers, cos this is the prequel pointing to what's up in the main book 😜 from Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊

Hopefully I've chosen the best things to reveal about each of the witches in my new book! If you want to find out more, you'll have to keep buying my books so I can write more! 📚💙 #PretendPanel #WritingCommunity

I certainly plan to, since I'll be writing a sequel to Out of Time. For my next project though, I hope the characters will be very different. I guess I'll find out for sure when I start writing it. #pretendpanel #writingcommunity #authors #thrillerauthors #writers #revspirations

#queerwriters check in: 🗓 had a bunch of little deadlines for admin stuff, that's all gone smoothly but I'm glad it's mostly over, so I can reclaim my time ⚓️ continued to write my first draft, really getting into some gritty emotional stuff 😵‍💫 otherwise tried to take it easy and recover from the flu

#SaturdaySnippet You know that feeling when you need to talk someone, and even your ex will do? 😅💀 from Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊

I think it's when they absolutely could never be swapped with another character. I think it's one reason I like characters that think sideways so much.

I do not! Somehow! But a number of them are small and argumentative. (I am small and argumentative.) #PretendPanel

Yes and no I always write bipoc qtipoc and disabled main and supporting characters That’s their only common connection

#Septopolis 19 The most dominant industry in Arx Lucis is numen production: harnessing it, refining it, manufacturing the tech, maintaining the infrastructure. It's really several industries rolled into the same supply chain, but dominating by only 3-4 corporations (which are really just one 1/4

#Septopolis 20 I've mentioned some of these in previous threads! THE GARDENS/PARKS: There are a few of these around Arx Lucis which I talked about on "natural landmarks" day 😊 ST RAPTURE'S PLAZA is a popular hangout spot, especially for the youngs, with a lot of art & cafes. ST JUBILANT'S 1/2

My main characters are typically strong female protagonists. But one has zero filter. Another is a trained assassin & the leader of her people. Another is the unwilling victim of a society that has to be brought to its knees. There are similar traits, but they are different. #PretendPanel #AmWriting

#pretendpanel My characters appear formed, as they are, so in a way I don't because they all have different lives and personalities, but in a way, I do, at least for the dark-haired MC because there is always one. 😁 Apart from the hair color though, they're not the same.

#PretendPanel #WritingCommunity #QueerWriters While I enjoy and fully admit to writing the same 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦𝘴 of characters, they all have their own unique personalities and motivations. I think there's nothing wrong with having favorites like that.

#PretendPanel I love of tricksters, so that's often the core archetype. I then try to take a trait/flaw and exaggerate it. That's the rails the story runs on. So if the traits differ, I think, I write different characters. I don't write enough women though, imo. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

Mmm not really. Maybe in some story ideas only in note form I haven't worked out much. I do have character types that pop up more, like impish characters that like to bug their LI for a reaction, but they only come up twice. Now side chars? THOSE can be tough to differentiate! #pretendpanel