Learning a Lot

Catholic Fantasy Writer. My first book Runaways IS OUT NOW!!! A tiny hyperactive fluff of color and rage. Happy to do tag and ask games but I might take a while to respond! Other relevant info is in my pinned post. You can call me Etta. My header says the greek word for familial love: "Storge". Thanks for stopping by!

[ettawritesnstudies]

Writeblr Re-Introduction + Book Links

General About Me: 

I’m Etta Grace!

I have a website/Youtube where I post book reviews, writing advice, livestreams, and interviews with indie authors.

Linktree for website, mailing list, other socials, and nerdy stuff

If you’re new to tumblr: Etta’s Guide to Writeblr & Writeblr Follow Train are good places to start

My studyblr is @ettaseverythingelse , my dnd/ttrpg blog is @spitebears​, and my multi-fandom blog is @fandomsofadistractedwriteblr​

I love tag and ask games I just take a million years to respond <3

Please tag me in any of your writing and I’ll throw it in my queue so it gets reblogged later!

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Runaways is my debut YA dark faerie fantasy novel and it's out now!

ORDER HERE! (All formats)

SIGNED COPIES

I also wrote a historical fiction novella called "Illumination of Conscience" for the adult fiction anthology Coalescence: A Holiday Collection

BUY IT HERE!

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Other stuff about me:

I have a day job as a chemical engineer working on sustainability projects. Please tag me in sciencey stuff or ask if you have Research Questions for your books.

I also have a million hobbies which include but are not limited to: physical and digital illustration, textile art, music composition, gardening, and martial arts

I’m Catholic and religion is important to my work. I’m happy to talk about my beliefs if you’re curious, but I’m not trying to be obnoxiously preachy.

I’ve got four younger siblings, and family is a big theme in my work. My favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy, but I’ll read pretty much anything. I support my romantasy writerfriends but I'm a little sick of romance in everything so I don't write it.

This blog is a chill no-politics or current-events zone because I’m involved in that stuff offline and this blog is for my hobbies and other shenanigans. I prefer to let people infer their own meanings and let my writing speak for itself instead of pushing heavy and guilt-tripping posts on your dash.

I think that's it! Welcome!

[jaded-stag]

Relatives tend to share mannerisms and if you want a nice little detail for your stories, I recommend including that.

A father and son share the same restless or anxious movement like chewing on the inside of their lip or tapping their fingers. A mother and daughter both raise their eyebrows when they’re in deep thought. Two siblings both tilt their heads when something is intriguing. A younger brother copies his older brother’s posture. A grandchild copies the way their grandfather crosses his arms behind his back when he walks. A father throws his hat down when his sports team loses and his child grows up to do the same.

Adding niche similarities between my characters and their families is one of my favourite things to develop and one of my favourite ways to connect them despite whatever relationship and differences they may have.

They could hate their family and yet they tap their foot side to side when they’re standing in one spot like their father does, and they scrunch their nose when they close their eyes like their mother did. This can be used to portray your character’s struggle with their family, and amplify their fear over ending up like their family. It’s a subtle addition and yet it adds more depth to their turmoil.

Or on the flip side, it can help show how much your character admires their family by emulating them. It can help show how important their bond with their family is to them by showing those shared, unconscious similarities.

Shared mannerisms are a small detail but they will be noticed by somebody and appreciated.

[megamindfandombookclub]

Also, lovers/couples mimic each other and often have their own language after a while.

[manourfi]

Being a crafty person and making a bunch of things often prompts people to ask "oh wow did you make that?" And like, the short answer is: yes I did, but the long answer is: well, no, the pattern isn't mine, but I did choose and buy the fabric/yarn and sewed it together/crocheted it/knitted it myself. I used a reference for that drawing/painting, I didn't come up with it myself. That ceramic piece was insired by a poem and a painting made by different people. What I'm trying to say is, everything I make requires other people to make their own thing first, and then I get inspired by them to do my own thing. So I can't really call anything truly mine, because really it's just a bunch of inspirations and experiences of others (and me) put together by my hands. Does that answer your question

[stitchnknit]

This yarn came from sheep raised in New Zealand and was spun by a woman in Peru. The pattern was created by someone in Germany. My needles were made by a craftsman in China and my stitchmarkers came from the lady at the local fiber festival.

I may have knit this sweater but it contains the souls of people from around the world.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Piggybacking off of last reblog, this is gonna sound mean and judgemental but a lot of the stuff people on here treat as inescapable problems with the media landscape ultimately comes down to them having zero skills to actively seek out media and develop their own taste.

Like. I saw this post today talking about how much it sucks that AI music is literally inescapable and everywhere you look trying to discover new music it's just AI music everywhere, and like dgmw I do agree that the way it's being used to saturate art spaces with vapid garbage *is* one of the real issue with AI. But I also think that "I want to discover new music but all I can find is AI music everywhere" is a problem that is only possible to have if your process for discovering new music consists exclusively of listening to whatever slop youtube or spotify or whatever platform's recommendation algorithm is putting on your feed.

[highlandkall]

as much as i get the sentiment behind "make more bad art" there's gotta be a better way of communicating "you don't have to be technically proficient or hold yourself to a specific standard of practice" that doesn't sound as backhanded lol

[halfhumanhalfasleep]

[highlandkall]

you can't just leave this in the tags 😭

[rhymeswithdoctor]

I went to pottery class today and opened by asking several of my classmates if they knew how to use the slab roller upstairs. Nobody did but everyone wanted to, so when the teacher got in I’m like “hey teach, do you know how to use the slab roller upstairs” and she’s like “no” (she’s a visiting artist who only got here a couple months ago so this is not very surprising) “but I’ve used a lot of different ones and I bet we can figure it out.” Me: “do you want to go on a Journey of Discovery?” Everyone: yes. YES. *cue sickos faces* so we all thunder up the stairs periodically shouting JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY and our teacher snags another person who uses the slab roller A Lot and this person gives us a very thorough lesson and demonstration and every so often someone else wanders through and asks what’s happening and we all go JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY at them and now everyone knows how to use the slab roller and honestly I cannot recommend this approach enough as a way to make learning new skills and life generally more exciting.

[focsle]

My fav whaling logbook phenomenon is when their keeper opts NOT to use whale stamps and instead hand-draws very ornate whales to indicate when he sees them, but then as time goes on the whales get progressively shittier looking because that’s too much work. I know how it feels to get locked into an artistic bit later regretted, man.

[focsle]

E.g.

[ID: Detailed drawing of a sperm whale with shading, eyes, and a spout]

[ID: Wobblier drawing of a whale with no shading and no detailed features]

[ID: The vague blurry notion of a whale]

[sisterreisaid]

Maybe he kept encountering shittier whales

[stjohnstarling]

Darlings, the world will eat you alive if you can’t manage to decouple your personal worth and the inherent value of the things you make from your work’s moneymaking potential. One of my posts aimed at people seeking to be professional authors is going around and I can see perfectly well that nobody in the notes is distinguishing at all between their desire for their work to be read and appreciated and their desire to make money as a writer - they’re simply different things.

The most valuable thing I ever did for myself as a writer was think very hard about how I want my work to function socially in the world. In a very concrete and real sense, who do I want my work to be read by? What relationship do I want to have with those people and what relationship do I want them to have with my work? Taking these questions seriously is what let me succeed because it’s what let me understand my own objectives.

[stjohnstarling]

I’m sorry but if you’re writing to impress hypothetical people who don’t exist and make them love you you’re going to have a bad time.

[stjohnstarling]

I’m going to repeat this until I’m hoarse: writing is a fundamentally social activity, because writing is a form of communication.

[bookporn]

[libraryadvocates]

Yesterday I said that bookmobiles are an instant reblog. Today, I learned that rule also applies to book donkeys.

[rockpapertheodore]

BIBLIOBURRO

[shutupgitsor]

i think it’s really important that everyone knows that this man (Luis Soriano) has his own children’s books

and the donkeys are called Alfa and Beto, by the way. if you even care

[pangur-and-grim]

Do you have any writing experience (as in, previous books or even fanfic) or did you one day decide to write the Sir Cameron book and suddenly became an author?

(What I'm trying to say is, has your writing talent been lying dormant this whole time or was it just your first *professionally published* book?)

oh boy!

so when I was a kid, my favourite author was Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. she wrote her first professional novel at 14, and my thinking was, I needed to do that, because if my fourteenth birthday passed and I hadn't published a book, I'd be an irredeemable failure.

anyway. many years later, after many horrible unfinished novels, and many horrible short stories, and shelves full of books like YOUR FIRST DRAFT and 50 FIRST PAGES, I finally finished a manuscript. and managed to sell it!

I get how from an outside perspective it looks like I just wrote a book on a whim, but in actuality I am standing on a mountain of my own failures. it's just that the heap finally got tall enough for me to actually get anywhere

[pangur-and-grim]

YES 100%

that's why I got so frustrated when I saw someone say "Greer's risographs are beautiful, but they suck at writing", because it's like....... my illustrations were shit for many, many years before I hit the skill level to illustrate professionally.

and at several points while I was learning how to paint and draw, I had PROFESSORS bluntly tell me "you're not good at this. you're not skilled enough. if people bought a book that included your illustrations, they'd be mad about the quality." and if I'd listened to any of them and stopped, I would've never have reached where I am today, where even the people who dislike me have to begrudgingly admit that I draw good.

tl;dr give yourself the grace to suck at shit, and give the finger to anyone who tell you to stop.

[eisenkrahe]

Her name was Judy-Lynn del Rey. And she became the most powerful editor in science fiction history.

Born in 1943 with achondroplastic dwarfism, Judy-Lynn grew up devouring science fiction in New York City's public libraries. At a time when the genre was dismissed as pulp fiction for teenage boys, she saw something else entirely: the future of storytelling.

She started at the bottom—an office assistant at Galaxy, the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the 1960s. Within four years, she was managing editor.

Then Ballantine Books came calling.

When she arrived at Ballantine in 1973, science fiction and fantasy were afterthoughts in publishing. Fantasy in particular was considered unsellable—unless you were Tolkien. Judy-Lynn thought that was nonsense.

Her first major move was audacious: she cut ties with one of Ballantine's bestselling authors, John Norman, whose "Gor" novels were popular but notoriously misogynistic. It was a risk. She didn't care.

Then came the gamble that changed everything.

In 1976, someone brought her an opportunity: the novelization rights to an upcoming space movie by a young director named George Lucas. Hollywood thought the film would bomb. Studio executives were skeptical. Most publishers passed.

Judy-Lynn said yes.

The Star Wars novelization sold 4.5 million copies before the movie even premiered.

She would later call herself the "Mama of Star Wars."

In 1977, she launched Del Rey Books—her own imprint, with her husband Lester editing fantasy while she oversaw everything else. Their first original novel was Terry Brooks's The Sword of Shannara. It became a phenomenon.

She didn't stop there.

Remember The Princess Bride? The original 1973 novel had flopped. It was headed for obscurity. Judy-Lynn rescued it, reissuing it in 1977 with a striking gate-fold cover and an aggressive marketing campaign. Without her intervention, there might never have been a movie.

She published the Star Trek Log series. She championed Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant trilogy—convincing Ballantine to release all three books on the same day from a completely unknown author. Unprecedented.

She published Anne McCaffrey's The White Dragon—the first science fiction novel ever to hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

And she did all of this while competitors called her imprint "Death-Rey Books"—because she was utterly dominant.

Between 1977 and 1990, Del Rey Books had 65 titles reach bestseller lists. That was more than every other science fiction and fantasy publisher combined.

Arthur C. Clarke called her "the most brilliant editor I ever encountered."

Philip K. Dick went further: "The greatest editor since Maxwell Perkins"—the legendary editor of Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

But here's what burns: the science fiction community never nominated her for a Hugo Award while she was alive. Not once. The men who ran the industry praised her in private and overlooked her in public.

In October 1985, Judy-Lynn suffered a brain hemorrhage. She died four months later, at 42.

Only then did the Hugo committee vote to give her the Best Professional Editor award.

Her husband Lester refused to accept it.

He said Judy-Lynn would have objected—that it was given only because she had just died. That it came too late.

He was right.

Judy-Lynn del Rey transformed science fiction from a niche hobby into a cultural force. She made fantasy into a mainstream publishing category. She bet on Star Wars when no one else would. She saved The Princess Bride from oblivion. She published the first #1 New York Times science fiction bestseller.

She did all of this standing 4'1" tall in an industry run by men who underestimated her at every turn.

The next time you pick up a fantasy novel, or watch a Star Wars movie, or quote The Princess Bride—

Now you know who made it possible.

[selfundiagnosed]

basement i saw in 2020. May Peace Prevail On Earth

[pumpkinpaix]

oh my god OP wait here is a basement I saw in 2021 I have to show you

BLESS ALL WHO ENTER

[misseffie]

I really like fictional couples that actually enjoy spending time with each other. It seems like such a simple, mundane thing. But, often, I see fictional couples who are completely enamored and dramatic and willing to die for each other, which is fine. But like… do they enjoy hanging out? Do they have private jokes and would they be friends even if they weren’t in love? It feels like such a basic thing, but it’s something that I actually don’t see that often. And it feels so refreshing and honest compared to these over-dramatic romeo and juliet-esque romances. Just two people who become good friends and because they enjoy each other’s presence so much it grows into a strong attraction. It feels more real and tangible than two attractive people meeting and “falling in love at first sight” - like, of course, you fell in love at first sight! You’re both supermodels! Sorry, can’t relate.

[shalomyall]

A poem by Hanna Yerushalmi.

[muttsandmustelidae]

From the Nashville Zoo’s fb page! Here’s the petition, please please please take a moment to add your name (even if you’re not from Nashville!). If you are from Tennessee, contact your representatives and make it clear that the people do not want this data center. This is an AZA accredited zoo which is home to several species of critically endangered animals, we NEED to protect it. Make your voice heard!

[muttsandmustelidae]

Because people will pay attention to cute animals, here are some of the critically endangered/endangered species housed at the Nashville Zoo!

The Amur Leopard and Clouded Leopard (which recently celebrated its 50th cub born at the zoo!)

The Sumatran Tiger

The Red Ruffed Lemur and Ring-Tailed Lemur

The Cotton-Top Tamarin and White-Cheeked Gibbon

The Colobus Monkey and De Brazza’s Monkey

And the Mexican Spider Monkey!

Look at them!!!! Look at them and fight like hell to save them!!!!

[themightywolftiger]

Adding my own images of Nashville Zoo to this. It’s super important to stand, fight, and continue to spread awareness on this.

There’s so many other great animals at this zoo, and it's done so much in teaching people about animals and conservation.

[todaysbat]

Other animals includes bats, btw.

Nashville Zoo fights potential data center, developer addresses concerns raised

Developers are seeking to turn land into a 69,000-square-foot data center next to the Nashville zoo.

Tennessee is home to dozens of data centers, why a new one faces pushback

Amid a growing number of data centers in Tennessee, the Nashville Zoo is pushing back against a proposed facility near its property, citing

Developer claiming they'll follow government regs when the EPA is openly rolling back regulations.....

[jareckiworld]

Cinta Vidal — Den (oil on wood panel, 2025)

[marlynnofmany]

Magic users get very creative when saving space in small apartments.

(I love how the angle of the sun suggests that this whole picture is actually sideways.)

[bludragongal]

I had a nightmare last night.

I was a reporter.

[bludragongal]

Finally, here is Part 2 as an addition to the original post. Enjoy.

I spent a lot of time thinking about The Rules, and wondering how things worked. Thank you for reading.

Part 3 coming soon.

Support Me On Patreon | My Other Projects