#CoverReveal! Here is the cover for Karen Eisenbrey’s new #novel, A QUEST FOR HIDDEN THINGS, a low-spice coming-of-age #romantasy with an #epic #fantasy feel set in the universe of her fan-favorite DAUGHTER OF MAGIC trilogy. Pre-order your copy today! https://bit.ly/CRaQfHT
#WordWeavers 5 Most important thing about worldbuilding to you?
That it serves the story.
I have a baseline and I keep it flexible enough to change if it improves the story.
I had a beta reader for #CrownOfHorns tell me they usually avoid #fantasy because they often get so lost between places, people, history, and systems. They found my book very accessible, I think in part because I only shared as much of the world as I needed to execute the story. They were intrigued, not overwhelmed.
Chapter 12 of Jigsaw City is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city
The Forbidden One returns to the Ulkun, with Irkith's life stone in his mandibles and begins ordering them around in Irkith's name.
His orders seem outwardly cruel and heartless as he forces the people to work to death, yet he acts to preserve the kingdom.
Nonetheless, he and the Architect disagree about it.
Don't miss Narratess Indie Book Sale! Only this weekend, over 300 discounted and free books from fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres, including my Humanborn.
Browse, pick, buy, and read until you run out of reading time. ;)
https://indiebook.sale/
I'm part of not 1 but TWO book sales this weekend! You can snap up my Regency rom-com Claws & Contrivances (full of found family & fake betrothals) for just $1.99/£1.49 as part of the Narratess Indie April Sale: https://books2read.com/claws
& snap up my 1st Regency Dragons rom-com, Scales& Sensibility (full of magical masquerades & a star-crossed romance) as part of the SPFBO Finalists Sale for just 99c/99p! https://books2read.com/scalesandsensibility
Looking for independent science fiction short stories? You found them – welcome to the Emergency Reality Shelter – where STEM meets storytelling
#DIS #Cats #kPTBS #Fantasy #Geschichten
Wowmiau, morgen ist es soweit! Der dritte Teil der spannenden Trilogie geht online. 
Die Links zu den 1. beiden Teilen findet ihr u.a. hier 
#phantastikprompts zu meinem kommenden Debütroman "Die Abenteuer des Edward Corby"
5. Welchen Gegenstand würde deine Figur aus einem brennenden Haus retten?
Da es in meiner Welt keine McGuffins gibt, die man horten kann, vermutlich keinen. Auch wenn Edward eine nützliche Artefaktsammlung im Keller hat, die ist ersetzbar. Menschenleben sind wichtiger.
Nouveaux packs féeriques 
Ces petites merveilles t’attendront sagement au @Le Salon Fantastique x @Japan Party au @Parc_Floral_Vincennes les 19-20-21 avril !
Si tu veux réserver le tien en avance tu peux m’envoyer un mp, ça me permettra d’en préparer d’autres à mettre sur le stand 
#PennedPossibilities 635 — Are there any specific cultural influences that shaped the world or characters in your story?
Many. Cultural influences play a significant role in shaping narratives and characters. I wanted to demonstrate an appreciation for diversity and invite the readers to explore the rich tapestry of (my) storytelling. (Ahem. I hope.)
I mean, I TRY to do that. The majority of us all do. That counts for something, right? Because diversity in all aspects is what I strive to get across and to showcase in my stories. Cyberpunk tales are no different. They're ripe for the picking. People of all different cultures, backgrounds, sexualities, money or status, walks of life, etc. They're are all there, and it's a beautiful mix of people, like a full-on cultural melting pot.
As for specific influences, I would have to say that I'm not really sure if I could stop and name any off of the top of my head. There are so many. Cyberpunk stories (like I already said) and science fiction fantasy tales are amazing that way. We can pull it all together, taking a little bit of everything to use. A variety of cultures can be found.
Here's just a few examples:
• Chinese
• African
• Italian
• Mexican
• Japanese
I think that's the beauty of it, finding inspiration from every walk of life and letting it guide and inspire your storytelling.
A beautiful, deeply personal essay on racism from SFF writer Andy Duncan, freely available from the Journal on the Fantastic in the Arts. I've met Andy on multiple occasions, and have even been his student at a 3-day workshop on writing literary criticism on science fiction. And I love his fiction and nonfiction.
#books #bookstodon #scienceFiction #fantasy #literature #racism #IAFA #ICFA
https://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/it-is-always-time-to-talk-about-these-things/
Weird Tales vol. 23, no. 5 (May 1934)
The guy is holding the knife rather noncommittally, as if to say "I have this knife, would that scare you at all …?”
Cannot unsee, her bejewelled bra thingy looks like a goofy bird looking out at us.
Original magazine: https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v23n05_1934-05_sas
#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.03 — How do you navigate scenes with many characters?
Carefully. I don't want to step on anyone's toes or disrupt them saying their lines.
In the Saying the Quiet Part Aloud department, I will admit that most of the advice I give is actually analysis of what I've written. I don't necessarily plan these things out, or have check lists. Sorry. What I do is simply write what I think sounds right, then go back and study whether it worked. I have plenty of experience (close to 2M words written), so I often get the sense of it right.
"Intuition!" you scoff, adding, "That's not helpful."
Here's a speed bump I navigated. Kyv is the current POV. I'm handing off to May Ri (the so-called princess).
...The book plate lit up. Kyv recognized the woman on vid[,saying]. "The Princess of Mars and her Five Daughters!"
May Ri, in her alighter outside, watched the growing crowd of men, wiry, lightly muscled, androgynous for that, all moonborne, adapted to 1/6th gravity. No weapons. She sighed. "You saw the vid of the nuking of Hershel?"
Handing off a POV is one way of navigating, I did that between those two paragraphs by transferring succinctly from the book plate (think cellphone doing FaceTime) Kyv is looking at to who he is looking at on said book plate. This is a 3rd person technique.
Beyond that, dialogue attribution is another technique I use. He said, she said. And you get to add a bit of visual or noise at the same time, which I call character tags. Indeed, you can avoid the said-ism in back and forths if the characters have an accent or manner of speech, but you have to be careful about that. While this seems like 3rd person also, keep in mind 1st POV characters often describe what's going on around them, and they do that in 3rd person, more so if they are telling a story of what happened to others.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSInklingsStory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory
Road of the Forest Fairies 
Shafi Elevia Parelz (IPA : [ʃafi elevi.a parelz])
There are so many amazing things in the world, aren't there?
#art #digitalart #illustration #girl #fairy #voyager #landscape #fantasy #mountainroad #fairies #ruins #originalcharacter #OC #mastoart #創作 #イラスト #少女 #精霊 #山道 #妖精 #遺跡 #風景 #ファンタジー
Video : https://youtu.be/DyC_dDWLo5s
This week's Friday snippet is from Wooing the Witch Queen, in which Saskia is learning the downside of being invited to ally with the Queens of Villainy...
Grab your copy here: https://stephanieburgis.com/books/wooing-the-witch-queen
/dev/null
Deep in the bowels of the filesystem there lurks a creature known as /dev/null - a monstrous behemoth that swallows anything that comes into contact with it.
Und auch im März habe ich ein paar Bücher gelesen - u.a. geht es ins Jahr 2039, in die 1980er Jahre, ins 19. Jahrhundert - und mit Ada Palmer - in die Renaissance. Mehr dazu hier:
https://blog.till-westermayer.de/index.php/2025/04/04/science-fiction-und-fantasy-im-maerz-2025/
Hooray! Das #Hörbuch ist online 
'Die Magie der Tausend Lande - Der Herr der Toten' gibt es jetzt überall, wo es #Hörbücher gibt (außer bei Audible).
Ein High-#Fantasy-#Roman über #Frieden, #Freiheit und die Kraft des Zusammenhaltens.
Sowohl in den Abos, als auch auch zum Einzelkauf (z.B. bei Thalia).
Eine Hörprobe gibt es auf meiner Website ajraven.de, ebenso direkte Links zu den wichtigsten #Audiobook-Dealern.
