Aspiring Jobless Artist

Gem, 38 ┃ She/Her ┃ Writing is Cheaper than Therapy. 🪻🪻🪻📖🪻🪻🪻 https://linktr.ee/jmweaverauthor

[jmweaverauthor]

Book Cover!

Happy to announce the cover for my upcoming, self-published debut novel, Savage as You, is nearly complete! Shout out to the incredible @sacherali for the artwork I commissioned! My brother is handling the text work on the cover. Behold!

(Art on its own.)

(With Text!)

(This novel was created with zero AI involvement at any stage of creation. I wrote most of it in 2019, before AI was a thing. Savage as You is an Isekai novel about a transgender girl in high school named Hailey Stewart. After suffering a life-altering injury over the summer, Hailey is gifted an antique mirror out of the blue with no return address. This mirror grants her access to the surreal, dreamy landscape of Lin J'Roe. For someone who feels as distant from her peers and the world around her as Hailey does, this gateway provides her the escape hatch from her life she always yearned for. And yet, as she delves deeper into this uncanny world, slowly bringing in her small circle of friends to help, it becomes all too clear this world's beautiful façade masks a very sinister truth.)

I will update you all as soon as my partner, brother, and I figure out our gameplan for self publishing. I also have another finished novel I'll be commissioning artwork for soonish, and a novella set in the same world as SaY. Currently, I'm writing a High Fantasy novel that I'm roughly two-thirds of the way through. Sample chapters and more details should be coming down the pipeline soon!

[jmweaverauthor]

I sure do love being in the final stages of publishing a novel starring a trans protagonist when the federal government is saying the FBI is treating any trans people or pro-trans orgs the same as extreme terrorism. What a time to be alive.

[bisexual-engineer-girl]

I'm not a fucking cross dresser. I'm not in fucking drag. I'm not playing fucking dressup. This is just who I am.

[jmweaverauthor]

The only part of me that's drag is how long I've managed to drag out the process of getting published.

Hi-yoooo!

[jmweaverauthor]

Wow, I never knew getting a book on GoodReads was a process that required an ancient bog witch ritual where you have to compile a hex bag filled with eye of newt, the blood of a virgin, a sparrow's foot, and teeth belonging to a royal lineage. Then set it in a basin a goat's milk and chant "Add my fucking book, you sentient potatoes" in Latin three times a day until someone finally sees your thread.

I, uh, think that process might be in need of an overhaul.

[jmweaverauthor]

Savage as You eARCs Available Now!

Hi all, Savage as You is ready for . . . you! Advanced reader copies time. Want one? DM me, I'll check your profile to make sure you're human. Voila. Also DM me names of people I should send to. People who review queer fiction, ideally.

🚫 Savage as You is made with zero AI involvement 🚫

(KNOWN ISSUES:

PDF version on Bookfunnel sometimes creates a blank page around pages 48 and 98. Not there on my copy. Will be addressed.

Some ellipses and all emdashes are breaking at line. Today I will be manually fixing this. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.)

[jmweaverauthor]

When is the release date of your book

Probably June. I'm finishing formatting now, figuring out all the other bells and whistles that go into self publishing.

[389]

Perfect Blue, 1997 Satoshi Kon

[jmweaverauthor]

One of my favorite movies of all time. Millennium Actress and Paprika are incredible as well but Perfect Blue is so uniquely bizarre and surreal.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[jmweaverauthor]

Buddy, they don't even make sense to me half the time. I need to be on the correct frequency of sleep depravation, caffeine, stress from work, and alcohol intake to decipher them.

[jmweaverauthor]

Remember, you can write chapters out of order. You are not beholden to the tyrannous God of chronology. Save that boring chapter you hate for later. See? It's a problem for future you now! Just like the laundry!

[jmweaverauthor]

Can I get a soft copy of your book

Soon. I'm praying for a June release. I'm formatting the book for ebook and soft/hard cover. As soon as I'm done, I'll be launching. I intend to make an ad as well.

[jmweaverauthor]

Navigating self-publishing on your own feels like getting air dropped into the woods with a nail file and some crackers and getting told you need to build a house. Fun times.

[jmweaverauthor]

My partner got me Clair Obscur Expedition 33 for Christmas and it's revitalizing my love of gaming in a way I haven't experienced since I played Control. I'm in Act 2 just exploring and attempting optional bosses. It's wonderful playing a game that doesn't feel like a second job or just simply derivative. As someone who grew up with JRPGs like Chrono Cross, Legend of Legaia, and Xenogears I feel right at home. Also the soundtrack is so consistently outstanding. I'm 100% getting the OST on vinyl. What's a game that reminded you guys of how good games can be after getting burnt out?

[formerlyluckymanticore]

Reblog if you will never. Ever. Use AI in your writing.

[jmweaverauthor]

AI is the tool of the creatively bankrupt. I do all of my writing and editing myself. I will never change that no matter how refined the tech gets. I won't even accept an AI-generated Google result if I need to look up something for my writing. Trash technology made by trash people.

[jmweaverauthor]

I just finished reading The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis. What a moving book. I definitely identified heavily with a bunch of Niko's struggles. I think it's wonderful to be so vulnerable and spill your guts out like this in a work of art. Navigating identity and your place in the world is hard for everyone, but a trans person's struggle in this regard is uniquely daunting. I finished the book in about five days and didn't want to put it down each time. I very much enjoyed how she explored different eras of her life through the lens of a different artist's discography at the time in each chapter. Also helps that our taste in music is freakishly similar, so it made me quite sentimental at times. Definitely check this book out if anyone gets a chance!

[jmweaverauthor]

When trying to find your voice as an author, don't dwell on impressing others or sounding overly intelligent. Trying too hard and overthinking your approach can come off as artistically defensive and clunky. It's distracting when your narration is more focused on trying to prove something than tell a story. Instead, let your voice be vulnerable, flawed, authentic. Even if it means tearing down comfortable behaviors for you creatively. It's OK if your art isn't trying to tell the world you're perfect, because nobody is. Be raw, messy, learn to experiment and change. After a while, if you let your voice be free and imperfect, you won't need to focus on trying to impress others at all; your voice will refine until it's impressive all on its own. Effortlessly.

[skeletomez]

[jmweaverauthor]

I feel like I'm the opposite of this. I vibe really well with writing my whole book, but when I get to That Scene(tm) I feel like I tend to choke and it never lives up to how it played out in my imagination.

[nondelphic]

i love when characters make choices that i, the author, did not authorize. like excuse me. who gave you free will.

[jmweaverauthor]

I choose very little about what my characters do and why. I just watch their stories play out in my head like a bunch of melodramatic gerbils and jot it down with narrative pizzazz.