These Things Are True

A mix of fandom, writing woes, and existential crises.

[sunchosens]

Truth is irrefutable and untainted by bias. Sunrise, Abram, death: these are truths.

[sunrise-and-death]

An Update on Travelers (and Me!)

So after more than a year of optimistically not posting while constantly thinking, Oh, I'll have a new chapter soon! I figured I more than owed y'all an update.

I'm really sorry for disappearing on everyone! I never imagined that my real-life work would interfere in my writing in this way. Unfortunately, it turns out that when you work forty hours a week at a word-based job (which I love doing, for the record) and take on freelance work most weekends, sometimes that means that you get off work and want to do anything but look at words again. Honestly, I probably should have seen the burnout coming a mile away.

As I mentioned, I've been living in this constant state of optimism that I am just about to turn the corner and be able to write again. But this past week I received a promotion that means I'll be even busier. While I'm excited about that from a career standpoint, it means I am no longer sure when exactly I'm going to be able to get in my writing grove again.

This doesn't mean that Travelers is abandoned, however! I am still completely committed to finishing it—but sadly I have to prioritize other things right now. However, getting this promotion has also made me realize that I need to figure out how to balance my job and my hobbies so that I can enjoy both. So please know I'm putting effort in to try to write again and get this story finished and posted for y'all.

In the meantime, I'll try to be a little more present here (thanks to those who reached out to check in and sorry I never responded to you!). And I'm finally going to de-anon two fics I wrote in a bizarre frenzy around this time last year in another fandom that are . . . very different from my usual fare. So if you see backdated updates from me, that's why.

Thank you all so much for your patience! You have my solemn vow that I won't leave you hanging forever!

[crunchbuttsteak]

[imnotrevealingmyname]

You can only reblog this on the 3st of January

[official-lucifers-child]

the 3st huh?

[bethanywritesbooks]

[borgevino]

[repeating to myself in the mirror] it is fine to write serviceable workaday sentences. not all of them have to be the God-King of Sentences, beautiful in structure, deft in word choice, gilded in metaphor, etc. sometimes a guy has to get from one side of a room to the other.

[sea-sew]

[iconomiccc]

inkstainedbunnies:

‘The Flying Child’ by Quint Buchholz

[sunrise-and-death]

In great news, after almost six months of not writing a single word, I wrote 14k this weekend.

In awful news, it was not for Travelers.

But that said! I'm hoping that now that I have the magical combination of both the time and the inclination to write again, next weekend will be more productive Travelers-wise!

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

Don’t get me wrong, I love the dreamy fairytale-ness of the Ghibli movie version of Howl’s Moving Castle, but the book. The book. Sophie, first off, being so incredibly set on being the boring un-gifted un-adventuresome eldest daughter (as is right and fitting for an eldest daughter to be) that she doesn’t notice she’s working magic, like, constantly? And when a witch shows up like “hey girlie you are fully working SO much magic that I’m feeling threatened, so like I’m gonna put you in the old lady dimension ciao,” she’s like well. That was weird. Anyway I guess I better go find something to do as an old lady. And she reasons that this famously evil sorcerer who eats young girls’ hearts is probably safe for her now cause like. She’s old. What’s he gonna do to me. And proceeds to bully her way into becoming his cleaning lady. And Howl, known flaky whimsical fuckboy extraordinaire, is like sure okay I guess that works for me. And just as well because it turns out he’s also a fucking bottom who kinda digs this strong stubborn lady who’s steamrolled her way into his life, kinda weird that she’s disguised as an old woman but w/e he’s not gonna question her life choices and like it’s not actually a problem for him, and by the time Sophie’s figured out that oh crap oh shit she’s actually kinda into this flighty asshole, what am I gonna do, he’d never return my feelings in a hundred years, Howl’s basically accepted that they’re mostly married. And also how can you top “my extremely powerful and slightly fey wizard is just a Welsh grad student who wandered into a portal one day” for a character concept. You can’t. It’s the perfect book really

[charliejaneanders]

Every single craft has been paying “The Passion Tax” for generations. This term (coined by author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant) — and backed by scientific research — simply states that the more someone is passionate about their work, the more acceptable it is to take advantage of them. In short, loving what we do makes us easy to exploit.

Guest Column: If Writers Lose the Standoff With Studios, It Hurts All Filmmakers

[s-leary]

If the phrase “vocational awe” isn’t part of your lexicon yet, stop scrolling and read Fobazi Ettarh:

Vocational awe describes the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in notions that libraries as institutions are inherently good, sacred notions, and therefore beyond critique. I argue that the concept of vocational awe directly correlates to problems within librarianship like burnout and low salary. This article aims to describe the phenomenon and its effects on library philosophies and practices so that they may be recognized and deconstructed.

—Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves

I see it in every field I’ve ever worked in: publishing, open source software development, higher education. It describes pretty much every industry that relies on creativity, altruism, or both.

[sunrise-and-death]

Hi, I just found your aftg works on AO3 and really loved them. I love your plot build up and characterizations. Hope you have a good day ♥️

Thank you so much! It is very kind of you to reach out and let me know—and I'm so happy that you enjoy my AftG fic! Wishing you all the best as well ♥️

[sunrise-and-death]

Hiiii! I want to tell you that I absolutely adore your travelers fic. One question though. How important is Neil to Andrew? Like does he feel that Neil is so important he'd leave all his deals and go on the run with him if need be? Or would he stand back and give Neil updates on whatever he can? Yes they are pairs and the strength of their connection has come across really well through the fic but Andrew is also a man of his word so im just curious how Andrew would deal with that situation if Neil didn't talk him out of it. Also I'm religiously checking for updates, do you have a schedule or do you post randomly? Might help me calm down a bit :)

I'm so sorry it has taken me forever to reply to this (see the previous ask, wherein I talk about how life has been a bitch)!

Thank you so much! I wish I could give you a more satisfying answer—but essentially, I'm more interested in what you think the answer is. Because balancing Neil and his deals is a major part of the story for Andrew, so his stance on everything is and has been evolving. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Neil is the most important person in Andrew's life—but, like you said, his deals are also important to him, and he still hasn't quite worked out how to make those two fully coexist. (I'm also kind of copping out because the answer might change depending on the exact circumstances of what's going on, so it's difficult to give a definitive answer, lol.)

I used to post every three weeks, but that's been completely shot this year for personal reasons. I will give a heads-up on Tumblr when I've made progress, though!

[sunrise-and-death]

take all the time you need and put yourself first! if i see even one comment with writing related pressure i shall have that person shot. manifesting a relaxing and peaceful time for you <3

Awww, thank you so much! Honestly, I feel very lucky because my readers are so sweet and incredibly patient. (Although I guess y'all'd have to be, after some of the hiatuses I've put you through.) I have nothing going on tomorrow, which is incredible, so I'm really hoping to finally make some progress. Fingers crossed!

[sunrise-and-death]

Thanks to @fugitoidkry for tagging me! <3

Rules: in a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. 

Order is random!

1. All for the Game trilogy by Nora Sakavic 

2. Fruits Basket series by Natsuki Takaya

3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

4. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

5. The Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones (also her Dalemark Quartet. And Howl’s Moving Castle. I’m cheating.)

6. The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whale Turner

7. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

8. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

9. The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

10. Hamlet by Shakespeare, lol

Me being off Tumblr mostly means I have no idea who has been tagged and who hasn’t, lol. Please consider yourself tagged if you haven’t already been!

[sunrise-and-death]

Hope youre doing well!!

Thank you so much! I'm doing okay. I know I've been like... hugely absent from both Tumblr and Ao3 for months, lol. A combination of personal and work circumstances really drove me into the ground for a while there, and I'm just starting to have real time to myself again—which means doing all the other personal stuff I put off during that time. I'm really, really hopeful that things will continue calming down and I'll be able to write and be more active here again soon!

[flagellant]

kill the shift manager in your brain

[flagellant]

you are not wasting time you are vibing. you are not being unproductive you are literally chilling. make a grill cheese with cheddar cheese and slather a piece of the bread with some honey and maybe you'll relax

[concerningwolves]

i have three responses to "how is your writing going"

1) it's not

2) it's going

3) i am ENTHUSED. i have been BLESSED with the POWER of the MUSES. i am an UNSTOPPABLE FORCE OF CREATION i am the MOST ULTIMATE OF ALL WRITERS

[jurassic-cunt]

this whole “job thing” is rlly starting to get in my way. i need to watch made up people falling in love on tv, and then i need to read more extensively about it online. why is that so hard to understand