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I'm in the middle of writing a sort of "Council of Elrond" scene, and I decided to name some random characters in the background. In book 1, each chapter started with a random quote, or some bit of dialogue from an ancient legend, usually listed as taken from a history written by a person named "Tempi." I didn't know anything about Tempi, it was just a name I was using for some ancient historian.
So I decided to have Tempi be one of the people in attendance, so I wrote her as the oldest witch currently alive, she always has empty scrolls and quills with her, and she writes down everything. But in the middle of the meeting, in the middle of the scene, suddenly she spoke up, and I had to write her. Apparently, she has a sort of hillbilly accent, she has absolutely no concern for decorum, and has a pet name for the lady currently heading the esteemed Council of Mages. (She calls Mistress Achmethae "Achmy." I think they used to date, like just briefly, something like 50 years ago, probably.)
But yeah, just, like, out of nowhere this character started speaking to me, and wow that scene was a LOT of fun to write. She just speaks her mind, and everyone listens because she's freaking Tempi, and she knows her shit. I love when a random character just starts talking to me, and then they're suddenly a speaking role, and suddenly a pretty boring exposition scene gets a little bit more colorful and fun.
Looking back through old posts, and this one from 2022 (four years ago already!) was when I was writing what I thought was going to be "Book 2" of my series (a book that actually will probably end up serving as book 5 someday.) This was before I stopped and decided to write an entirely new book to serve as "Book 1," a story set at least 50 years prior to anything else I'd written, pushing everything I'd written, so far, into the future so I could establish my fantasy world using a handful of smaller, more tightly-plotted stories before getting into more epic stuff later.
Tempi was a name I came up with ages ago, back even before I started writing this current iteration of the story. I had come up with the idea that there was an old historian who had written commentaries on the important lore events that happened in the distant past. I never planned for this person to appear; I assumed they were long dead, and they were just the well-known author of whatever books or scrolls were being referenced. This "Book 5" scene was when I suddenly decided to include Tempi as a character, and so I had to decide on who Tempi was. I made her a currently living witch-historian, and as I thought about her I realized she's actually way more fun than I had ever originally envisioned, and came up with some personality traits. I was able to develop her personality and backstory even more thoroughly as I wrote the "50 years in the past story" that would end up becoming the real Book 1: "The Yellow Earring." Tempi's not the protagonist of that story, but she's one of the main characters, and I ended up putting a bunch of myself into her, especially my struggles with autism and trauma-induced social anxiety. Tempi, in that book, is a lot like I was at that age.
Back to the "book 5" scene I was referencing above: this is also where I first introduced Achmethae, who actually is the protagonist and POV character of "The Yellow Earring." Again, I had no idea how important she would end up being at the time: I just needed a "head of the Mage's Council" character, and really wanted a character to be named "Achmethae" because I like that name.
Before sitting down to write "The Yellow Earring," I didn't yet realize that Tempi was actually a nickname for Tempest. I didn't know anything of the history of her family (the Vesabel family, who I had only recently envisioned as something in the past of a different character, Anelli, though that does tie together to a lot of things that happen in Books 1 and 2.) I certainly didn't expect that these two could be the main characters of their own entirely new book. I thought, at the time, that these two might have dated at one point but weren't currently together. I hadn't realized yet that they not only dated but are still very happily married by the time of what will someday be book 5. Writing the story of their first big adventure revealed so much to me, and they both ended up getting developed into real characters that I absolutely adore now. These two witch ladies are my OTP forever.
I'm currently setting aside some funds to commission a book cover for "The Yellow Earring," which will be the final step before publication, but I'm also thinking of commissioning some fanart of the two of them together. I have totally fallen in love with these two trouble-makers, and I'm so excited that their story is finally going to be told.
Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.
Reblog if you're okay with people coming into your DMs with the "you seem really odd and your blog intrigues me, do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters"
I finished a massive re-edit of "The Yellow Earring" (the first book in my fantasy series, though as previously mentioned, actually the second book written.) I'm very happy with it, and I think it's ready to publish. I'm probably going to use D2D, though I'm looking at various options, and will also likely put it up serially on Royal Road. Before I can do all that, I need a cover, so I've reached out to an artist friend, and hopefully soon can arrange that.
I'm also about 5/6 done with the sequel: "The Silver Sword." I'm really happy about it so far, and I think by the time book 1 is actually published, I'll have a lot to say about Book 2 to keep interest of folks who are discovering my work. (Book 3 is about 1/5 complete as well, and Book 4 is actually completed - that was the first book I wrote - although in need of MASSIVE editing.)
Because Windows 10 reached EoL, I ended up installing Linux. Turns out my motherboard/processor are one of a handful of combinations that are known to have major issues with Linux Ubuntu and other major distros, and that was at least part of the reason I couldn't get the software I often use to run reliably. After months of trying various distros (and tinkering with BIOS settings and banging my head against the metaphorical wall) I ended up just re-installing Windows 10. My computer can't run Win11, so I'll just have to deal with it until I can afford a new machine.
Speaking of out-of-date hardware, the PS4 no longer supports PUBG or Genshin Impact. So, I'm not playing either of those games anymore, since they won't run on my PC. I did start playing Honkai: Star Rail, which runs like a dream, and I actually am really enjoying it!
Because I backed up everything important before installing a new OS, I of course forgot to remember what was actually important and didn't back up EVERYTHING before installing a new OS. Turns out I lost my save files for Betrayal at Krondor. That means I can't continue with that Let's Play Series until I've replayed that game all the way through Chapter 3 (which was something like nineteen episodes.) I'll have to start over and painstakingly re-trace my steps while watching my old videos, and that holds absolutely no appeal to me right now. If I put out more Let's Play content, it will probably be more episodes of Final Fantasy Tactics (I thought I'd lost those save files, but it turns out I was able to recover them.)
I'm much more interested in just streaming these days, as opposed to doing pre-recorded content, so most likely I'll be doing Honkai: Star Rail streams, or Baldur's Gate, or maybe even Hitman. I enjoy streaming a lot more right now, although I'm honestly spending most of my free time writing (and reading!) these past couple months, and I'm going to keep doing that while the momentum is still here.
So anyway, really big news on the writing front, and I'll post here once I have more information as to when/where the book will be available to read/purchase. I'm also going to have to learn more about self-promotion, since I'm not going the traditional publishing route. Going to have to do that BookTok/Insta thing, I guess!
something i find really interesting about (some) people who don't write is the way they'll elevate plot over execution? it's the way you'll sometimes see people who think they have a best-selling book idea, and they want someone to write it for them while thinking they should get the lion's share of the imaginary profits, because it's their idea. and don't get me wrong, ideas are important! plots are important!
but there are so many stories i've read over the years that could be summarized into a few sentences of bland-sounding plot, and it's the execution that matters. it's the writing. it's the writing!
a talented writer can turn a bland plot into a story you want to devour. and someone who only cares about ideas can take the most interesting idea ever conceived and make it unreadable/unwatchable.
like it does feel like there are a Lot of people in this world who don't view writing as a skill that deserves respect, and who think that really it's all about coming up with shiny ideas. and it does feel like that's uhhh infected a LOT of different things in the modern world. tbh.
Not only is having intergenerational friendships literally not creepy, imho it's actually essential. You NEED friends who are older to do things like help you when there's a problem with your taxes, and give you job advice, and relationship advice, and especially if you are part of a marginalized group, and especially if you're part of a marginalized group and don't have contact with a ton of other members of it, you need older friends to show you that there IS a future for you, for people like you, and what it looks like, and the way it doesn't even have to involve turning into your parents
conversely, you need friends who are younger to help introduce you to new ideas. You need friends who are younger to drag you out to try some adventure because they thought it looked cool. You need younger friends to help you fix problems, because they may have faced something similar in the past! You need younger friends to keep you up to date on slang so that you can embarrass your teenage family members by intentionally misusing it.
Cross-generational friendships are not some weird sin. My best friend is nineteen years older than I am - im closer in age to her children than I am to her. She's still my best fucking friend.
having friends who are older than you helps inoculate you against ageism towards older people.
having friends who are younger than you helps inoculate you against ageism towards younger people.
you need to be able to see people of all ages as people you live in a community with, people who are similar to how you once were or will be, people you can learn from and people you can teach.
So I've always shared that Kesha Star Trek video every time I come across it, because it doesn't just make her song more fun - it makes Star Trek more fun! It highlights just what a goofy ridiculous romp the original series could be at its very best. It's one of those videos in that "this is why the internet was created" vein: no one I have ever shown that video to has failed to be entertained by it. It's just pure-hearted fun, an honestly appreciative love letter to a song and a show, and I can't help but smile every time I come across it again.
Finding out that kesha was not only aware of the video, but actually leaned into the joke, is just icing on the cake.
I was honestly a bit nervous to draw and post this one, because it's such a deep rooted and genuine issue I struggle with. It's a thing I wish could be fixed in some way, but I feel pretty comforted it resonated with so many others too
The worst part about writing fantasy is being keenly aware that youâre writing fantasy, which means that you always have to straddle a thin three-way line between anachronism, cliche, and clunk.
Take money, for example. You canât just have people in a fictional fantasy world walk around using Euros. You consider something generic, like âsilver coins,â but before you know it your world starts sounding like a shitty ren faire.
So you think about the world youâve built and its needs and its history to come up with some unique and relevant terms. But if your terms are too unique and relevant you wind up writing âyarr, youâll be ransomed for a hundred Trade League Silver Gyrblonksâ and realize your worldbuilding is now getting in the way of basic readability.
âNevermind. Theyâre using some basic silver coin and then enough gold to be worth ten silver coins is called a ten-pieceâ
âŠSi, si, el Peso!
Trying over, theyâre minted by the king so theyâre called crown coins, or, these days, abbreviated, theyâre just Crowns
Naturligvis, vi skifter Daler ud med Kroner!
â
The Lesson Of The Day is that all the names are already claimed by IRL, and all the almost-good-names that you could invent to get around that were used by some SFF author in the seventies e.g. I bet you canât do Suns and Moons for your gold/silver coins, I bet some author did that already.
Now listen, I'm not saying that we should necessarily abolish ICE. And I'm not saying that we should consider that such an action would leave 20,000 former members of ICE with nothing to do. I'm certainly not at all suggesting that anyone bother to verify Google's search result that 20,000 people, if packed closely together, would take up about 30,000 square feet of space. I'm absolutely not suggesting in the slightest that a 30,000 square foot hole would be very quick and easy to dig with a few heavy-duty excavators. Such a construction question is such a random topic to consider right now, and certainly hasn't got anything to do with anything else I've just said, and as such it isn't worth verifying at all!
But while we're considering random fun facts (that are totally unrelated to each other) we can also consider that there's a town in Australia called Gingin. And that town is pretty far away from all of us. Good old Far Ging, I've always liked to call it. And by "always," I mean for the last 7 minutes or so since I learned of that town's existence.
Anyway, if, and this is of course a purely hypothetical "if" ....IF someone were, for whatever random reason, to ever dig a 30,000 sq ft hole in good old "Far Ging," my current favorite far-off Australian town, for whatever random purpose they might envision...
Well again, I'm not saying anyone should dig such a hole. It's honestly none of MY business. But if someone ever were to do that...
I think there are two core reasons why Terfs are Terf-y. Two reasons most of them share and mixed together to create the foundation of their bigotry.
They are scared of men, and hate being women.
To be clear this doesn't excuse them at all. I know people who share these traits but aren't horrible assholes. But when you get a particularly fucked up evil person and add those two traits to them you might just get a terf.
It doesn't excuse it but it makes it make more sense.
Both of these reasons stem from the same few things. Terfs are usually a victim of the patriarchy in some severe way. Ranging from abuse or assault survivors to having doors shut in their face by misogyny. They build trauma, resentment and maybe even androphobia, but do not cope with it in any sort of healthy way.
They rationalize, unfortunately often accurately, that these things would not have happened to them if they were not a woman. What is not accurate is when they start extrapolate that logic to womanhood being synonymous with victimhood, and manhood being synonymous with abuserhood. They cope with this perceived Reality by wearing victimhood as a badge of honor, tying it to their identity, and trying to reclaim it. That would be fine if in their minds there is anything else to being a woman than being a victim. That and the physical differences, (many of which they view as inherently negative as well) are all they see women as including themselves.
So now we finally get to why trans people are involved in this, and so prevalent in their minds. Keep in mind that we are working from a mentality that all men are the enemy, and all women are victims.
All people want a safe space from something that scares them, but if half of the population is what scares you, what you're asking for there is segregation, and the only way segregation works is if you can put people into clear boxes so that you know who is who easily. It needs to be that at a glance you can tell who you are safe around and who's a threat. As soon as those lines are blurred suddenly nowhere is safe. Trans people blur those lines. The gender binary is essential Terfs, because in their minds, if every single woman might secretly be a man how can they ever be safe. It might not be so bad if they could accept trans women as women, but they can't because the mentality they're working from makes it seem impossible.
Why would an abuser ever choose to become a victim. It doesn't make sense and since it's the enemy doing it it must be for an ulterior motive. It must be a new way to abuse, infiltrate the safe spaces and attack. There's no other possible reason because no one would ever want to be a woman, because keep in mind that they hate being women.
They claim that trans women are erasing them because their only definition of Womanhood is being a victim, so in their heads trans women are/were men and thus cannot be victims and thus cannot be women. And in that logic trans women are pretending to be victims and thus erasing real victims.
But for their mentality to fill out trans men also have to be victims in their mind. They don't talk about them quite as much but that's where you get the poor confused lesbian idea from. You might see some terfs claim that trans men hate women and hate femininity, that's them projecting but there's even an element of victimhood in that, born as something you hate, forced to play a role you despise. You never see them say that kind of thing about trans women, men, and masculinity. In their minds trans men are either confused and tricked into being a man by the patriarchy, or themselves taken to the extreme, in some respects I wonder if they are actually jealous. Maybe part of them wonders why they are so attached their Womanhood, instead of just doing what they think trans men are doing and escaping from it.
Once again literally nothing in this post excuses terfs, but I also find myself wondering if it's ever worth arguing with them because they're not coming from a place of logic in any way, their entire mentality is built off of fear and self-loathing, irrational looping logic that can't really be shaken.
One really weird thing transphobic cis women will say is something to the effect of âI was a tomboy, thank god it was before the transgender craze. They would made me transition.â Like, probably not, girl. As you are a cis woman who has never communicated any form of gender dysphoria. It makes it really obvious that they think being transgender is just conforming to different gender roles. There is an ocean between a little girl who likes traditionally masculine fashion and has traditionally masculine interests and a child that is transgender. They are not a slippery slope. They donât push you down the slide of transgenderism if you cut your hair short when youâre 12.
There are so many trans men who were never tomboys, who were the picture of the âperfect little girlâ and genuinely enjoyed traditionally feminine hobbies and expressing themselves in ways associated with femininity. It confuses and angers cis people when they come out as trans because they only see gender as a role to perform and not an identity. If youâre truly a woman, youâre generally not susceptible to randomly turning into a man. If youâre truly a man, youâre generally not susceptible to randomly turning into a woman.
The way they think this makes them such allies, like they Totally Understand Youâąïž and arenât quietly filing you under âdeviantâ in their little mind palaces.
All The Things You Cherish - SHISHAMO (ćăźć€§äșă«ăăŠăăăź - Kimi no Daiji ni Shiteru Mono) [English Translation
Find the original Japanese lyrics here
ENGLISH
"What's more important, me or that Les Paul?â
Iâm asking something so bothersome
You reply, âOf course itâs you.â
Didnât I kinda make you say that, though
âSo, is it okay if I throw your Les Paul from the veranda?â
Iâm asking something so meaningless
âThatâs a bit of an extreme joke,â you say, laughing
But itâs really not a joke at all
All those things you cherish
Itâd be nice if you cherished me as much as them
Youâre making me want to ruin them all
Your leather jacket, and your Jordan 6s
That vintage t-shirt as well
And that effector signed by that guitarist
Those 25 volumes of GTO, too
Iâll destroy them all, along with your Les Paul
You donât need anything but me by your side
The things I cherish,
Itâs you, aah, itâs only you
Even so,
When it comes to you, wellâŠ
The clear sky and that Les Paul
Your prized possession, fluttering in the air
Your wide eyes follow it
Look over here instead
Your Adamâs apple that appears when you yell
Your big hand that hits me, without you thinking
Those things, are what I cherish
Your leather jacket, and your Jordan 6s
That vintage t-shirt as well
And that effector signed by that guitarist
Those 25 volumes of GTO, too
Iâll destroy them all, along with your Les Paul
Isnât it fine, if Iâm here, with you
Your cherished belongings, I can only see them as trash
Just say that you donât need anything else as long as Iâm by your side
That busted-up Les Paul
Canât go back to how it was before
The only thing left is me feeling hollow
Hey, Les Paul
It feels like Iâve just met your gaze for the first time
ROMAJI
"watashi to sono RESU POORU, docchi ga taisetsu na no" tte
mendoukusai koto kiichatte
"omae ni kimatten jan" tte
hanbun watashi ga iwaseta you na mon jan ka
"jaa sono RESU POORU, BERANDA kara nagetemo ii?"
shoumo nai koto kiichatte
"joudan kitsui wa" nante warau kimi
chitto mo joudan ja nai'n desu kedo
kimi no daiji ni shiteru mono
watashi mo onaji kurai daiji ni dekitara ii no ni
zenbu kowashite shimai taku naru no
RAIDAAZU mo JOODAN SHIKKUSU mo
VINTEEJI no T-SHAATSU mo
ano GITARISUTO no SAIN-iri no EFEKUTAA mo
GTO zen nijuugo-kan mo
kimi no RESU POORU to issho ni bukkowashite ageru
kimi no soba ni watashi igai iranai janai
watashi ga daiji ni shiteru mono wa
kimi dake na no ni, aa, kimi dake na no ni
na no ni, nee
kimi to kitara saa
hareta sora to RESU POORU
chuu wo mau kimi no takara mono
sore wo ou kimi no marui me
kocchi wo mite yo
donari chirakasu kimi no nodobotoke
omowazu watashi wo naguru kimi no ooki na te
sore ga, watashi no daiji na mono
RAIDAAZU mo JOODAN SHIKKUSU mo
VINTEEJI no T-SHAATSU mo
ano GITARISUTO no SAIN-iri no EFEKUTAA mo
GTO zen nijuugo-kan mo
kimi no RESU POORU to issho ni bukkowashite ageru
kimi no soba ni wa watashi ga ireba ii deshou?
kimi no daiji na mono GOMI ni shika mienai shi
watashi ga soba ni ireba nani mo iranai to, itte
BARABARA no RESU POORU
mou moto ni wa modosenai
nokotta no wa karappo na watashi
nee, RESU POORU
anata to sa, hajimete me ga atta ki ga shita yo
One of my favorite SHISHAMO songs. (Spoiler alert: theyâre all my favorite.) I love finding SHISHAMO translations because theyâre such an incredible band, not just musically but lyrically as well. This songâs been stuck in my head this week so Iâve been listening to it a lot. The videoâs also absolutely fantastic.
flipping the tables at the temple is a crucial part of the run, but obviously every npc in the area will aggro on you as soon as you do it, which is a problem because the crucifixion exploit only works on a pacifist run. that's why we picked up those cords from the leatherworker earlier in the chapter. we can craft those into a whip and drive out the merchants, as long as we don't accidentally kill one of them. this is the only weapon in the game that doesn't proc the "violence" effect due to an oversight in the code, so this will essentially allow us to complete the tableflip glitch without breaking our pacifist run. once every table is flipped, the physics engine won't know how to handle it and some key values will be altered that will later allow us to clip through golgotha directly into hell-
woke up this morning with the mental image of jesus' last words on the cross being "speedrun strats" and the thought wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote this
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