#ScribesAndMakers 2025.12.12 — What's the longest book you've ever read?
Don't laugh! My nose was in that book a lot as a teenager and university student. Read the #AltText.
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#PennedPossibilities 872 — How would your SC react to being mocked or made fun of?
Steamed Milk and Sugar comes to mind immediately. His workplace puts him at a disadvantage, but he has managed through persistence and wheedling to get himself in at the entry level. For what he is, he's constantly looked down upon. It does not matter that he is well educated and well qualified, and personable, and packages well. He understands that he has to work twice as hard to get noticed, and often that's unfavorably, but he is noticed— willingly doing the scutt work and getting overlooked for the things he could do better if he were allowed to do them.
It is a professional work place, despite being very competitive, so he is well used to being mocked subtly for being what he is, or made fun of when he rarely messes up. For him, he knows he signed up for this. He counts on wearing down those with the least resistance, those who not only call themselves progressive but sometimes act progressive. Yes, it galls him, but all glass ceilings are galling because it is so easy to see through them. He keeps his temper, sometimes vents to his roommate, and is well aware he eats too much.
It starts to change when he meets the MC, Bolt. She lets him snatch his first opportunity.
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#WordWeavers 2025.12.12 — Are bodily functions omitted or discussed in your stories?
I don't write things intentionally squick or gratuitous, but on the other hand the stories in the reluctance series do not take place in any society that is remotely derivative of any currently extant human culture. Part of the raison d'être of the stories is to point out how strange humans are. Are bodily functions mentioned, referred to, discussed amongst, or commented upon (sometimes rudely) by characters? Yes. Each culture has its standards and has its manners, and there are always people unwilling to follow the rules except when they suit them. When such matters pop up, they're important to the characters and therefore important to the story. One major example is that most public places have a unisex restroom that is more on the Roman model than it is on the Allie McBeal model, and such things would not be mentioned at all if (1) part of the story didn't take place there, and (2) the characters didn't notice something, for example, gossip-worthy. Mind you, the delicacy or the crassness of the characters will play a role in how euphemistic or rough their opinions will sound, as well as how detailed they'll be. Since I write in first person, the demeanor the narrator serves as a gatekeeper.
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#PennedPossibilities 871 — What is the greatest extravagance your MC lets or would let themselves have?
Blackmail has left Bolt as little more than a slave to the mob, which uses her talent for quickly flying messages and hauling "herbs" through sky. They never leave her with more coin than needed for rent and food. She's allowed some autonomy to ensure she never takes a dose of fucketol and takes others down with her.
The story lets us witness her life change. Because she's newly assigned to follow someone the mob boss is interested in (spying from high places sometimes), she's allowed a few more coins for expenses. She goes from affording crusts for breakfast one day to the next day some squid and ramen (while watching her mark, of course.) The meals make her unaccustomedly happy, but illogically makes her subliminally bond with the woman she's tailing, feeling as if they have a connection.
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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.12.11 — People are often frustrated by the lack of engagement on social media. Do you have any ideas for how to improve it?
When I was self-publishing niche material on its de facto niche platform, I worked every dimension of the platform that I could perceive. I wrote enough for nine novels. The platform included blogging; I regularly discussed my characters and those of others. I provided writing tips. The platform encouraged writing blurbs for my stories, long ones and short; I refined my process over a sequence of stories. I did keywording. I researched how to, heavily. I participated in included forums that focused on promotion and on group discussions. I contributed. I commented there, and on other's stories. Considering that I wrote material more like SF than fantasy, and gritty (gangsters were a theme at one point) rather than somewhat fluffy, I wrung out about as much as I could expect.
Was I frustrated? Emotionally, oh yes, and exhausted, especially when entitled so-and-sos would instantly down-vote without reading, or make comments that had nothing to do with reality—but it's the bratty side of me that expects my view of reality ought prevail. You can't make people do what you want; you need to entice or conform or ignore. You have to take care of yourself.
In the final analysis, it comes down to whether you interest people. Until you build a brand name and a reputation, it's work without guarantee of success. How do you improve it? You can't, except by participation and persistence and improving your product—and making your own luck.
I don't have these secrets.
Yet.
I'll share if I get there.
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#PennedPossibilities 870 — Name something your MC fears losing.
As you get to know Bolt, you begin to sense that she doesn't value her own life, or, at least intellectually doesn't. She doesn't seem to fear that it might soon end. She isn't suicidal—simply apathetic because she's been blackmailed by the mob. What we do learn is that she values other people. Her keeping in mind that she's poison is one way she demonstrates it. Her self-isolation is manifest in her street photography. She pastes photos of people living "normal lives" to her apartment walls to pine away at. Alone. At a deep level, she fears that the mob might involve her family in its manipulation of her, but after a dozen years without revealing her name or other identity, that fear has faded to a vague and far way bitterness—which I'm going to prod with a needle starting in the current scene. What's more immediate, though, is that thanks to the catalyst of her street photography, she's having to interact people, and like them, and have friends as a result, which generates the fear that by giving in, by being near them, she will get them hurt, or used, and on a level that makes her want to cry, that they'll hate her. It's a recurring sick feeling deep in her stomach. Is it stopping her from being around these people? No. Her lack of discipline makes her even more sick about it!
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#EroticMusings 25.12.07 — Week 28 (December 7-13) Craft: With erotic works, do you begin with the end in sight, or discover the finished work as you go? What tools or processes to you use to help you plan ahead, or to guide you as you create?
The only good way for me to learn the chemistry between characters is to let them interact. It doesn't matter if the content is spicy or not. I rarely know all the characters in the beginning, with relatives, friends, coworkers, lovers, and antagonists appearing as the need for them is implied by the story. I start knowing the protagonist, what they like, what they want, where they live, and what mess they've stepped into.
In the current WIP, when the protagonist at the end of the first scene deliriously kisses a man she has just met (she's actually delirious), it's the first clue to the story's main mystery. That I can see their chemistry build as they start caring enough to help each other, however, works out best as friendship. I've had to throw cold water on them one time so far. My MC likes men, what can I tell you? Her "adventures" further deepen the central mystery and raise the stakes of her missteps, of course. I plan ahead to the extent that can recognize when her attractions will conflict with the plot, and notice when along the way her interactions with persons of opportunity will advance it, generating after the newspaper reporter (the guy she kissed upfront), the praetorian guard, the gangster punk's beau, the mob boss, and the college student. So far.
Oh, I forgot. There's the devil-girl, too. Not a man.
My biggest guide as I create: I know where the story will end.
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.11 — How do you keep track of plots and subplots?
What @NaraMoore said:
I juggle them in my head.
—https://sakurajima.moe/@NaraMoore/115698336269954100
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.10 — Is it ethical to base characters on real people? What is the limit?
Satire has a long tradition in fiction, but the ethics of portraying someone even fictionally is often determined by the libel laws where the fiction is publish, which differ radically between, for example, the US and the UK. To a large extent, you can satire or make light of politicians and celebrities in the US; other places like Thailand will imprison you. In practice, I could satire an orange-complexioned man, but the nuisance suit, or the attention of malicious fans that would garner, would destroy me. That doesn't mean that I haven't written satire. I completed a very pointed dystopian novel this year.
All this said, I think it is ethical the base characters on real people, but not to write about real people as if they are your characters, or worse, writing them doing things they wouldn't but conceivably could while resembling said real person. This goes for the whales in the oceans and the minnows in the pond. For satire, people ought be able to recognize who said character(s) are standing in for. If I were to base a character on a particularly colorful coworker, I'd abstract and caricature them to obfuscate their identity, even if the person might be flattered.
However, I did have an evil stepfather. For reals! Hateful. Violent. I purposely used him as the model for the evil stepmother in a novel that was subsequently published. I think I clothed the difference in barely more than gauze, but he did read the novel (professed to have, anyway), and didn't notice.
Yes. It felt good.
BTW, he's dead now.
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#WordWeavers 2025.12.10 — Who is your most chaotic character?
Chaos implies more than unpredictability and less than randomness. My characters, even the less cerebral ones, tend to think things through and plan, or react predictably. That doesn't take into account what people think of them, however. Whilst I don't think the main series antagonist is above sowing chaos if it were the best means available to accomplish what's needful, what few people are able to do is predict her actions. She's an absolute ruler in some of the stories she appears in, but in practice maintaining social order and an economy is very constraining. There is one thread though where she meets the MCs of Reluctant Moon, Streak and Thorn Rose, who are essentially a couple of high school seniors, and a couple, applying to her university. Rainy Day's interaction with Streak, and his support for her, leads to a diplomatic incident she uses to invade an autonomous region she's been unhappy with, and she takes Thorn Rose with her to test how she reacts to war. To the extent this appears chaotic, it probably isn't (the author is pretty sure at this juncture)—even when temporarily appointing said high school girl as the occupational governor.
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#ScribesAndMakers 2025.12.10 — Have you ever seen a theatre production where you were impressed by the props
Exactly the opposite, I've attended theatre productions where I've been very impressed by the complete lack of props; this allows the acting group to make use of empty volume, sonic open space, and lighting to evoke the time and place of in which the story unfolds. In a sense, it is like reading a book. The audience, like the reader, must use their imagination. This is more so when the production has no need for special costumes, or decides not to use any.
Part of my university degree was in non-western theatre and I studied shadow puppetry. Less is more, when all that's projected on the screen is a silhouette.
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Good morning, #fediverse; I seek your aid!
Anyone have any recommendations for good quality suspenders?
I enjoy wearing them vs a belt but I find a lot of the dressier ones wear out and aren’t great for daily use.
Preferably a retailer in #Canada for ease of shipping and costs, but at this stage, I am not super picky.
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#PennedPossibilities 869 — Choose one of your characters. Who has had the most influence or impact on their life?
There are few clear cut answers to questions like this for most of my characters, except one: The devil-girl. While she'll deny it right and left, she is what she has become because of the main series antagonist, Rainy Days. The devil-girl sees it as her doing everything in her power to avoid the evil woman's influence, doing the opposite when she can, even running away, and all the resultant misadventures and chaotic happenstance (including foiling a secret war that ends just as Reluctant Courier begins), which ends up with the devil-girl in the same city as Rainy Days (within the same block of each other!) at a critical point in her life.
What would Rainy Days say about that? "Oh, pretty much everything is turning out as I expected it would. Couldn't be more proud."
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#WordWeavers 2025.12.09 — Tell us about a romantic relationship a character has.
My difficulty in the last week answering various hashtag writer questions means my stories must be out of the ordinary. While we don't think about it much, romance and romantic relationships are a cultural phenomenon dictated by many factors, including societal, class, and monetary factors. It is also dictated by how people's biology is integrated into their life. What is love to them, friendship, attraction? What are the filial bonds?
In the reluctance series, none of these things are structured the way they are for us. The only important common denominator between these people and us is their humanity.
The closest thing to what we would recognize as a romantic relationship exists between the two MCs of Reluctant Moon. They've known each other since they were 10 and 11, when he saved her from being beaten up in what we'd recognize as a racial incident. They became close friends soon after. They became much more in their mid-teens, something that lasts throughout the end of the book fifteen years later. We'd recognize it as love. The thing is, they have an exclusive relationship (and I shan't explain what that means), something that is socially frowned upon. The reader will see it as romantic, trust me on that—but by the end of the novel, they may grow to understand the dynamics of human attraction, love, and romance much better.
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#PennedPossibilities 868 — Name one of your MC’s happiest memories?
This is not easy to answer. Bolt's life is so miserable—she was blackmailed into working for the mob a dozen years ago—that at the beginning of her story, she's become apathetic enough to actually be copesthetic with that she's forgetting hours and days of her life. I'm not going to make that her happy moment, either! Her street photography does make her happy, or rather staring at photos of people experiencing a normal life, pasted to her walls, does. Pathetic, and she knows it. Her life begins to change when people discover her talent and she lets people into her life that respect her for this and her naïve integrity, albeit kicking and screaming.
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#WordWeavers 2025.12.08 — Does your world have any weird laws, practices or beliefs?
Arguably, I could write a giant list of weird even if the world in the reluctance series was OUR world, but it isn't.
I'll concentrate on one item of the many: Property Stewardship Laws. Mind you, none of this comes up in most stories but is taken into account when dealing with property, wealth, and welfare for consistency if it should unexpectedly become a plot issue.
Nobody owns anything except the world's absolute ruler. Simply put, you can obtain stewardship over assets, and can lose stewardship if you fail to steward those assets well. You can pass stewardship to someone else, but it increases the onus on the receiver to potentially have to prove they are the proper steward. In practice, children and relatives never inherit wealth simply by existing, by custom, or any common or statutory law. They can and are often granted tentative stewardship, which they have to prove worthy of. Most everybody tries to steward their assets well lest their suitability and reliability be questioned. A bureaucracy exists to review stewardship. The laws are set up to prevent the use of unethical behavior to revoke or steal stewardship, or imped stewardship through malicious intent. Intent can be inferred through actions. In some cases, stewardship crime is a capital offense.
Because of how stewardship differs from ownership, the concept of bloodlines, family names, and dynasties do not exist whatsoever. People related by a few generations through one's mother tend to associate and share stewardship, and child rearing responsibilities, but the foci of power can change at any time.
The stories in the reluctance series are modern urban stories that include cities, newspapers, high speed rail lines, and interstellar travel.
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.08 — How does your work compare to the earliest work in your genre?
There is little comparison I can draw between, for example, Mars Needed Women and H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds other than both rely heavily on satire to utterly demolish the respectability of the current world order and the religious hypocrisy at the time. Oh, right—Mars and Martians play a part. Beyond that? Nothing much. 🤷♀️🤷🤷♂️
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.12.07 — What future writing goals are you working towards with your present work?
The pat answer was "getting another story completed to publish," so I took a while to analyze this.
Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) is actually a bridge story between other stories in a WIP series of various titles, some adapted from earlier stories in a different media. It could arguably be called a side story, since Bolt, the POV, is not a main character anywhere else—but it is her story that wants the most to be written and completed. It would serve as a sequel and a prequel to various works.The main series antagonist (who gets her own novel) does a bit more than a cameo role here. The modern era protagonist who should show up in at least five other stories shows up in a big supporting role, with her story line from her previous story and her next) intersecting this work's story line. A supporting character who could get her own two POV novels shows up in passing, along with her main antagonist, the mob boss.
So what's happening?
I think this is an establishment shot story. It manages to do a lot of world building while establishing the fundementals for how women function in their society. From this base, I should find it simpler to write the other stories. It's also an attempt to write a cozy but spicy mystery SF story, but reining it in is proving difficult.
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#writephant A4 What’s one thing you’d like to do differently in your writing life next year?
I am seeking how to find fewer excuses NOT to write and rejigger my priorities away from worrying about outcomes and getting projects complete.
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#writephant A3 What’s one thing about your writing process you’ve enjoyed the most this year? (This could be a new routine, software, pen and notebook, anything!)
Just writing what comes to mind without thinking whether it's suitable, good, or embarrassing. I let future me deal with it during revision. Funny thing is, it often stands up to revision and the story comes out of me less censored. It's been a work in progress, not something per se that started this year.
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