Official Tumblr for C.R. Sims

Salty AuDHD grad student by daylight, exhausted and overly ambitious writer by moonlight. Instagram: c.r.sims. Pillowfort: simswrites.

[simswrites]

C.R. Sims's Writblr Intro

Yo, I'm C.R. Sims (She/Her), a tired, salty AuDHD grad student by day and a tired, salty AuDHD young/new adult writer by night!

Favorite Genres:

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Action/Adventure

Comedy

Current WIPs:

After the Storm (Novel)

Genres: Historical fantasy, romance

A reimaging of Shakespeare's The Tempest, but with an Afro-European Prospero and Miranda, that explores the aftermath of the play, as Miranda tries to survive the Neapolitan court in the late Middle Ages/early Renaissance.

The Mistress of the Labyrinth (Novella)

Genres: Greek mythology, romance, drama, fantasy

A reimagining of the Ariadne/Minotaur mythos, in which Ariadne ventures into the labyrinth to slay the minotaur and thwart a deadly prophecy.

The Bear Prince (Short Story)

Genres: Fairytale, fantasy, drama

A reimaging of the fairytale Snow White and Rose Red, from the perspective of the prince cursed to be a bear. Now with added autism rep!

[figuring-421]

🚨

HEADS UP: The U.S. Postal Service quietly changed how postmarks work.

Mail is no longer automatically postmarked with the date you drop it off. Instead, the postmark now reflects the date it’s first processed by an automated sorting facility — which can be days later.

If you mail something right at a deadline, the official postmark could be later than your drop-off date and may be considered late.

If mailing date matters to you, go inside the post office and request a hand-stamped postmark.

USPS postmark shake-up could cost you big — property tax payers warned of surprise late fees

A new USPS postmark rule may cause property tax payments to look late even when people mail them on time. The change can create surprise lat

This will invalidate votes too

[velinxi]

SURPRISE!! Daughter of a Thousand Faces book reveal!

I am so happy to share with you guys Inklore’s DOTF Book 1 in print with you all 🌸

An angry underdog girl, an ancient demonic father, the strangest of found families in a Chinese inspired fantasy. If this is up your alley, pre-orders for my comic is available now, and B&N is running a 25% sale on all preorders until 6/26!

[Pre-order here] [Read here]

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been kicking around a thought lately that when it comes to SFF we could probably bypass some of the perennial political vs. apolitical vs. everything-is-political-apolitical-storytelling-doesn’t-exist by instead formulating a spectrum from politically coherent to politically incoherent

Essentially, politically coherent works are works where the political message of the story is supported by all (or at least most) of the major story elements, and a politically incoherent work is a story where the political messages of different elements are seemingly all shooting off on different vectors.

The nice thing about this is it can bypass authorial intent (and the discussion of whether intent matters). This is about the text.

Like, politically incoherent works that had no authorial thought behind them are a dime a dozen of course, and politically coherent works that clearly had a lot of authorial thought are if not equally common than at least easy to spot. But there are also plenty of works that are politically coherent without the author intending them that way—like, whatever faults there are with Project Hail Mary, the overall opinion the book has about the nature of humanity & of science is consistent throughout. Likewise there are stories where the authors clearly meant a coherent political point and totally wiffed it. (The works @specialagentartemis has collectively termed “cozy colonialism” come to mind)

So there’s a utility in replacing the question “is this story political?” (Yes, always, but if the answer is always yes the question becomes kinda useless) with “Is this story politically coherent?” Because a yes or no there will tell a prospective reader something about what to expect.

[specialagentartemis]

my petty gripe about anachronism in historical/fantasy/spec-fic worlds is attraction language.

We’ve all heard the “should you use modern queer labels or not” argument but honestly even when people go “true, they wouldn’t use the labels ‘aromantic’ or ‘asexual,’” so often the characters describe their experiences as “I never felt romantic attraction” or “I don’t feel attracted to anyone” in ways that makes me go. You are stilllllll thinking about this in an extraordinarily modern online way. That 19th century steampunk detective man will NOT be angsting about having never felt romantic attraction, he would be angsting about being unable to feel moved by the beauty or charm of a woman, or something. And I do think that “attractiveness” language is different from the identity-level idea of experiencing attraction—Sherlock Holmes does not talk about not experiencing attraction, but when Watson says “What a very attractive woman!” Holmes responds “Is she? I did not observe.” (And then Watson calls him an inhuman automaton and calculating-machine and Holmes calls Watson’s judgement biased). Never swayed by the attractiveness of a man or woman, never desirous of marriage, never charmed by the delights of love, all of these feel like some of the variety of ways that someone in this milieu might describe an ace- or aro-spectrum identity more than “never felt attraction” does. Mostly because, like the terms for aromantic and asexual themselves, nailing down an exclusively attraction-based definition of a-spec identities is a relatively new and extremely post-AVEN thing. And yet in fiction everybody knows to articulate their experience as feeling sexual/romantic attraction. And I always want to go nooo how would THIS character think about it?? Not how you think this character SHOULD think about it, how would THIS person in THIS context articulate their feelings?

[oobbbear]

[luna-azzurra]

Real thing that changed how i write: I started asking "what does this character think is wrong with them" and separately "what is actually wrong with them." Those two things are almost never the same. She thinks she's too much. She's actually terrified of being too little. He thinks he's bad at commitment. He's actually just never met someone he trusted enough. The gap between their diagnosis of themselves and the real thing, that's your character arc right there. you don't have to explain it. just write both.

[fishing-princess]

I Defeated the Demon Lord but it Turns Out the Demon Army was Largely Unaffected and I Fell Victim to a Flawed Belief in Great Man Theory

[leftcosine]

I Executed The Demon Lord With One Flawless Strike And After A Brief Power Struggle The New Demon Government Is Substantially More Committed To The War Because Of Some Reason I Don't Know

[dduane]

Just a note for the local crowd

Every now and then a difficult period like this comes along: so it's time to request some assistance.

I've kind of been neglecting my vision for the past year or so, aware that I needed new glasses (and to go have a consult for possible eye-related surgery), but putting it off... and now the situation has, as it were, come home to roost.

The other day, when I was typing something and then (to check it before posting) had to pick up the Mac and hold it up to my nose to see what I'd typed... I realized that if this went on much longer, even with dictation (because after you dictate, you still have to edit...), I wouldn't be able to write.

That would be bad.

I need to go see my Eye Lady, get examined, and get both sets of glasses re-fitted with new prescriptions. This—as usual, each time it needs to be done every year and a half or two years, due to Weird Eyes—is going to run into a low-four-figure-ish kind of money. And due to other recent unexpected medical expenses, right now there's not enough dosh around (or spondoolicks or whatever term you prefer...) to get things sorted.

Therefore: can I get people interested in keeping a writer, you know, writing (as I've got three novels working at once at the moment...), to consider doing one of these things?

(a) Go over to Ebooks Direct and buy a book. (Or a bundle. Or a gift card for somebody else who might like my work.) And if you do: thanks so much!

(b) Stop by my Ko-Fi and drop a little something in the pot. It'll be most appreciated.

Support Diane Duane

Support Diane Duane

And if you can't do either of the above:

(c) Reblog this and let other people see it?

Whatever you do: thanks very much!

[grrwoof-woof]

"but the text never explicitly stated it!!!" hey, so that's actually what they tried to teach you in those english classes you barely passed 😁

[wizardlybones]

“It’s not that deep!” Yes! It is!

[brain-rot-central]

[vanilla-bean-buttercream]

Someone: "This [insert identity here] character is mean, makes awful choices, is unlikable, did something controversial, and is all around not a good person."

Me: "Yes, you are correct."

Someone: "They're awful representation."

Me: "See, this is where you lost me, someone this character represents."

[jay-rayart]

FLY is a story about a boy who gets a second chance. Help his story take flight June 9th 11am EST on Kickstarter. Thank you for being the wind beneath my wings I hope this story lifts the world to a brighter place.

Coming soon: FLY : A Magical Black Boy Series - Pilot Animatic

A coming of age story about Black kids who finally have power to fight back against systems designed against them.

[ullathynell]

New piece for the expanded edition of my art book Woodlands. Ink painting and coloured pencils.

[vintricles]

free my girl she did all that and that’s what makes her such a compellingly complex character. that’s her essence

[myjetpack]

My latest Guardian Books cartoon

[akindplace]

im shaking you by the shoulders and saying that no matter the state of the world, of politics, of the environment, of the economy, that it’s not all over yet and if it’s not over then there still hope!! don’t allow despair to cause you to give up the fight before it’s over, you haven’t lost if you haven’t given up yet. life is a constant struggle and people have always felt like the world was ending but they still got to wake up to a brand new day. they kept fighting and surviving, day after day, year after year, for so many generations!! that’s what us humans do and you are capable of doing it too

[akindplace]

you have survived before, and you will keep on surviving, even if things feel like things are the worst they have ever been. this feeling of hopelessness is nothing new, you’ve been in situations that were hard to get overcome but you still got through them, just like every generation that came before got through their own problems. and you know that things were quite difficult in the the past, but people still kept trying, and there is something very human about this kind of hopeful endurance even in the face of so much hardship. because they knew deep down, that as long as we are alive, there is still hope.

[akindplace]

tomorrow will be a new day, you should be here to live it, and see what it brings you, but until then, you need to rest tonight so you can try again

[elizmanderson]

if you've been waiting to read THE KEEPER OF LONELY SPIRITS, now is a good time! June 14 through 16 (2026), get the e-book at your preferred e-book retailer for $1.99

if you don't have a preferred e-book retailer, may I suggest Bookshop, which benefits indie bookstores? click here to buy from Bookshop: link to The Keeper of Lonely Spirits e-book on Bookshop

book description

In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy horror fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past and solve a centuries-old mystery in order to embrace his found family.

Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.

After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t.

Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants. Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio.

As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death. But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.

As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY LIBRARY JOURNAL AND REACTOR

"Anderson writes a curmudgeonly immortal protagonist and a (literally) haunting story full of heart; a delightful novel." —Library Journal starred review

"This heartwarming, thrilling book cleverly uses horror tropes to achieve a powerful effect, suffusing the reader with warmth and kindness." —The Washington Post