#Bookvember 7 Absolutely unmonitored. I think my parents felt that if I wanted to read something, I was probably ready for it. So I read Jean Plaidy historical romances, for the history, and ignored the romance, and they happily bought them for me. :p

#writevember Hello! I finished the novella I was halfway thru writing, and got one more chapter into the main novel wip, to the tune of almost 15K words. Not bad! Bonus Q: while writing and redrafting A Prayer for the Pirate Queen, I had Kallista and Geni's backstories in my head... 1/2

#Lovember I love writing M/F friendships. Sometimes they turn romantic, sometimes they just stay friends. Doesn't matter, I'm happy either way. Parent/child relationships also come up a lot, particularly characters who feel disconnected from their fathers despite loving each other.

I'm always writing about siblings. In THE DEVOURING, Jason's brother's death kicks off the plot. In THE CRUCIBLE OF THE BROKEN MOON, Daemrin grapples with his grief over his brother's death. Just yesterday, I got a plot idea for my vampires involving Lia's sister. #Lovember #WritingCommunity

Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers! Love it and am currently working on two: #Ashtara in #ChroniclesOfTheRealms and #Brinyang in the third book of #WorldWithoutLove! 💜 As a writer of slow-burn romance, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers fits well! Also found sisters is something I'm also writing in CotR...

#Lovember oooh let's see if I can articulate this... I really like it when I can write people in love but who have something deep within that doesn't quite mesh with the other, which will in time lead to a values-based disagreement where they are both in the right... But then they solve it anyway 🥰

Epic/high and dark fantasy are my favourites to read and write. All my stories — #WorldWithoutLove, #ChroniclesOfTheRealms, and #ValkíforSaga — fall into those categories. I love all the sagas and world-building they allow! Some romance is welcome as well—as long as it's lesbian 😄

Dang it, I can't find the appropriate Bluey gif, but the quote is: "We want romance!" #WritingQ

#sapphiclineshare I didn't have invade in the current wip, but I have occupy Might have shared this recently but still it's important 🫂 From Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊 *btw joellian means lesbian, this is a secondary world fantasy so the name comes from a sapphic saint in that world

#SapphicLineShare 7 Nov The door burst like a zit. The infection it oozed into my office was a high-ranking disheveled dye-job juggling papers, a tablet, and at least three phones. "Thank gods, you're here." She puffed cheeks and blew stray tendrils of hair from her eyes. "You're up to speed?"

Ness releases a shaky breath, her heart pounding in her chest. She’s close enough to see the whipped cream has slid down Melirin’s cheek, catching on her lips. Suddenly, she has the urge to lick the cream from her mouth. #SapphicLineShare #QueerWriters #WriteSky #WritingPrompt

#SapphicLineShare #lesficfri #licoriceandmint #QueerWriters #sapphic #lesfic From Licorice and Mint Chapter 9: Demons, Divas, and Devas. archiveofourown.org/series/1962421

100%, in limited stretches, like 1 month. It also makes it easy to make up ground on good days, so the bad days don't feel so bad.

I am not. I work full time. I also have family and other gaming interests, so I don't/can't write every day.

#PretebdPanel A daily word quota does not work for me. There are days like today when chronic pain takes over and it's very difficult to write much. On days like these, I do better with the less creative side of writing. Today I'll withdraw a poem I just sold from consideration elsewhere.

Sometimes! It’s great for getting over the fear of the blank page, so, ideal for pushing past insecurities and creating a first draft. But once you’ve been writing for a while, you figure out what practice works best for you.

Yes and no. Some days are for rewriting, finding tone, thinking and reading out loud etc. But I'm such an obsessive plotter, that I try to write 1000 words prose a day, about random stuff, to not loose my muscle memory, when I don't actually work on a draft. A lot of story ideas grow out of it.

#PretendPanel #Writers #Authors I envy people who are this organised. I knew someone who wrote 500 words a day and made writing their PhD thesis look easy. But I write in fits and starts, and I refuse to beat myself up when the words won’t come. Guilt & failure sap energy which can be used better.

Ha nope, my brain doesn’t like rigid structures like that. I write in between classes at work bc the environment is just the right amount of noise and sensory input that my adhd adores so I just write when brain works and sometimes when it REALLY wants to, and if it can’t focus I play genshin lol 😅🫡

#pretendpanel No, I'm not, but it probably works fine for others. I only write when my characters play their movie story. And sometimes none of them play for days or week. I never force writing to fit any word counts, as I don't even count words until we reach the end of the story.

Not for me. I prefer to set a certain amount of time aside to write and if I produce a lot of material, great! If I don't, well, I probably made progress in other ways. Sometimes you have a problem to solve that's going to take time and fixing it is as good as producing a certain amount of words

Temporary pin: I've posted so much about my adult spicy fiction here, so it's about time I change this account to rep for my pseudonym, and make a clean account for my mainstream persona. If you'd rather follow her and drop me, check out @hiriadunning.com Or follow both, if you're into that 😉

btw #pretendpanel I'm changing this profile to be my pseudonym, and I've opened a new account over at @hiriadunning.com to be my mainstream/clean account. I've posted about my R18+ stuff too much here to let it stand as it is any longer 😅 I'll switch to hosting from that new account too. Cheers!

#pretendpanel, personally, it works for me. I usually do around 500 words a day. But for me this is 1) easy, a matter of maybe 20 minutes and 2) healing to me, to just shut off the rest of the world and catch back up with my imaginary ones. 1/2

Greetings, #pretendpanel! One week into writeathon month, I'm wondering how you feel about this notorious topic... November 7th: X number of words per day - are you a fan of this approach or not? #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts

For today's #Bookvember, I want to say it's the whole ouvre of that late 19thC/early 20thC "Golden Age of Illustration" style of watercolor. Rather than as a child, as an adult I was captivated and electrified. This particular Dulac lives in my head rent-free. I want a cover in this style sooo bad.

A lot of #Bookvember posters already covering illustrators I love, so here's one that was a ubiquitous part of my childhood in Aotearoa, and that's Peter Gossage's Maui

The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales. Don’t know how many times I went to that book for comfort. #bookvember #writesky #booksky

#Bookvember 6 Rainbow Crow. This is a Lenape story retold by Nancy VanLaan and illustrated by Beatriz Vidal. I can't find many of the illustrations online, but here's a read/flip through - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCiy... The artwork was pretty, lineless, and bright. It was whimsical.

#Bookvember Day 6 I remember loving the illustrations in Beatrix Potter books as a kid. Peter Rabbit was a special favorite. I think I liked the soft colors and cute animals in clothes! (a bit basic, I guess, 😂 but look how cute he is!)

#Bookvember 6 I tried to do one book, but I ended up with one artist instead! 😅 There's something magical about the way Quentin Blake illustrated Roald Dahl's books. The drawings look chaotic and scribbly at first, but there's so much life and personality in the characters. Utterly enchanting. ✨

Talking about setting daily word count goals. It's definitely got me through, but im still figuring out what number is the most consistent and not mentally draining. #PretendPanel #WritingCommunity

#Lovember Looking broadly at all my characters, it looks like I quite like writing one outgoing/loud/social person x one quiet/shy/studious person But not always 🤷‍♀️

I love contrasting archetypes: - grumpy x sunshine - extrovert x introvert - dark aesthetic x light/colorful aesthetic - street urchin x rich and pampered But I also love: - the same brand of fucked up realizing they are perfect for each other 🥰 #Lovember #WritingCommunity

#Lovember Thoughtful introvert + chaotic extrovert, aka the cat/dog combo 😂❤️ Strong-willed rebel vs authoritarian manipulator. Tragically misguided indoctrination victim vs the one person who will challenge their worldview the most. Naive young person + flawed mentor who changes their life.

I don't think about archetypes, to be honest. What I like to do is make sure the lovers complement *and* contradict each other, which is more fun and gives more opportunity for both to grow with each other. In some cases, this is more obvious and leans into common archetypes such as (1/2)

#Bookvember 6 I could nerd out on art from children's books ALL day. I love it so much! I am going to share two artists I love, because I can't choose. The first is the art from Dinotopia by James Gurney. I stared at those books for hours, enthralled by the world it created.

#Bookvember 6. I'll mention one I read recently: The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword, written by @williamjadams3.bsky.social and with art by Dewey Conway. And fantastic illustrations those were, providing another layer to the story and those amusing, quirky characters we're following!

Im gonna plug Avi’s books again, but this time I’m highlighting the illustrations in the Poppy books by artist Brian Floca. They were so enchanting to me. Just magical.

The incredible @sbeep.bsky.social drew this awesome sketch commission (!!!) of mine and @tryhardmushroom.bsky.social's PCs for our Degenesis: Rebirth campaign! 😍😍😍 Thank you so much, we love it! Please consider hiring Helen for your character art and illustration needs. Joining her Patreon is free.

That is a payout of one trillion, 50 billion dollars. Like to charge, repost to cast. Summon the Etsy witches!!!

The world sucks write smut

#bookvember This was one I couldn't stop looking at as a kid. The sketchy quality of the drawings, muted colors, and the fact that the monsters weren't depicted as scary really appealed to me.

#Bookvember 6 #WIPSsnips today got me thinking about Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I always loved the Very Fine Drawings by Brett Helquist! The style is so unique & they have just the right gothic vibes. The cover image of The Wide Window was what first enticed me to read them ❤️

Happy #Bookvember 6! I was a fiend for picture books, surprising no one, but I'll give a special shout out to Jan Brett. Her artwork was absolutely gorgeous, but she also used to do these very intricate page borders that often told a story within the story. Honestly, she's a treasure

He's desperate to give off the Illusion of leadership by making his problems and people disappear!

#Bookvember 5 I love all the classics mentioned today, Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and Dr. Seuss. But something really stuck with me was the poetry in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I read it in 4th grade and even memorized several of the poems. #BookSky #Books #WritingCommunity

Happy #humpday! From page 31 of Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊

#Lovember In the first third of Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊 Geni believes she owes love to her husband, despite how 1) she's questioning that she might actually be a lesbian and 2) he's gross anyway But it's ok, let her cook...

From page 311 of Eternal Flame: And here they were, gathered on a rustic ship with chimes on the sails and the figurehead of a tiger, the seven warriors who would fight for the freedom of an entire dimension of Creation. #ChroniclesOfTheRealms #BattlemageAskaly #HumpDay