I'm looking for semi-pro/professional book reviewers who would be interested in my 2024 duology about a pseudo-regency/Victorian liege who gets kidnapped by pirates.
I have more pitch if you wanna open a conversation but super quick it's:
Adult fantasy
We have the Known and Unknown Seas, magic exists on the Unknown Seas but has been chased out of the Known World.
Nat (our MC) is nonbinary and bi and their love interests are both bi (it is not polyamory, it's just shifting from one LI to another with no big fault or villainisation)
What I'd like from you
A space you do reviews (blog, tube, gram, tok, idc)
Willingness to review on said space AND Goodreads/the Storygraph
I don't mind if you're new to this whole shebang, I have no specific follower count you have to meet. I do, however, reserve the right to pick people with the right vibes and gently let down folks without
What I offer
Pdf of the manuscript (either only book 1 or the full omnibus as agreed)
Png of the cover image and/or paperback wrap
Possible future books review relationship
Feel free to check out my short stories if you're wanting an impression of style but honestly just shoot me a DM or whatever (I promise I'll be nice even if you have "stupid" questions)
I saw @sleepyowlwrites list of tag games and I wanted to do this so I decided to.
The premise is to answer the above question, I'm using a scale from 1-10 and context.
Merry from Guardian Cadet Series: 5/10 "a hug from you for that?" — Lior to Merry in book one. Hugging isnt unheard of but it is pretty rare.
Kalik from Guardian Cadet Series: 7/10 He's also a relatively rare hugger but that's more because if his job than because he doesn't want to.
Blue, Ravi, and Dr Palmer from Welcome To Humanity: 9/10 on account of I want to give them all hugs poor babies.
Basti from Unlicensed Delivery: 10/10 he hugs well, he hugs often (he doesn't really hug on the page but he should)
Dimae from Unlicensed Delivery: 4/10 if you're Basti it's all the cuddles all the time. If you're not Basti, why would you try!?
Sauraxen from Unlicensed Delivery: 10/10 hug away. She's cute and she has all this sensory hair to wrap around people too.
Brruuh from Unlicensed Delivery: 5/10 he's figuring it out but hugs are new.
Matter from Unlicensed Delivery: 10/10 needs hugs to survive.
Nat from NTKOD (pirate project): 0/10 don't even try, you'll get cut down with a scathing statement unless you're their baby sister. For a start it's inappropriate and for second you didn't even ask.
Aleksei from NTKOD: 4/10 would hug but too much piracy.
Tao from NTKOD: 0/10 for your own safety, do not try to hug the Pirate Lord.
I want everyone to do this tag because I think it's great, this is sortof less an open tag and more like I'm tugging on your clothes like a toddler going "cmoooon, it'll be fun, do the taaaaag". But also @avrablake @emelkae @oh-no-another-idea @acertainmoshke @cherrybombfangirlwrites
#FFF210 The Sand Ocean @flashfictionfridayofficial
Couple of things before you hit that delicious read more with the story beneath.
It's under a read more because it's a canon part of a larger story that doesn't come out until next year (and I technically haven't announced yet).
And yes, it does, (again technically) contain spoilers for said thing. (Small ones like who lives and how) So if you hate spoilers but like indie novels about pirates, maybe give this one a miss.
Finally, It's a completely self-contained piece of flash fiction but, much like my short sotries from nopoodles.wordpress.com it can (and in this case has) also be turned into a longer piece.
Anyway 932 words here we come!
Nat had got used to the swash of the sea against the sides of the ship, had got used to the sensation of constant sway. But when the crew had agreed to head to The Dry Sea Pirate Port, they had all warned Nat that it would be a wild experience compared to the rest of their time on board.
Nat wasn’t foolish enough to point out that their experience on the ship didn’t exactly count as simple or easy. Prisoner held for ransom didn’t exactly make for ‘tame’.
Still, they had slipped into a safety line and made their way up the rigging. If nothing else, it would at least give them some semblance of privacy, more than they could expect to find elsewhere on a ship like this one.
“When you said ‘Dry Sea’, I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly what I imagined.”
“What did you picture?” the rigger, Kajal asked, settling next to Nat on the crossbar of the sail.
Kajal had no issues staying upright, even with the blistering wind blasting them both from behind, filling the white sails below them to puffy clouds. The deck below seemed tiny from up here, even Bear and Aleksei turning to miniature versions. Nat, on the other hand, clung tight to the crossbar with their hands. “I don’t know,” they sighed. “Just… I can’t say I would ever have even imagined the ship would somehow be able to sail right through sand like it’s an ocean of its own.”
This was the most obvious venture into the Unknown World that Nat had managed thus far. They had grown up at the origin point of most modern oceanic maps – the Endrish navy had expanded further into the seas than most others. At least most other map making societies. Maybe they were just pushy about their own map designs.
Still, nobody else dared travel into such unchartered space as these but for pirates. Nat’s first experience of the Unknown World had probably been the Siren’s Waters, but Nat couldn’t have begun to explain where they were. Their first experience of semi-chartered Unknown World was the Pirate Port in Shenai. The place Nat’s world had seemed to settle into this version of normal.
Normal. A laughable concept. Particularly here where the sand parted in front of the bow of the ship, completely akin to both a ship through the swell and somehow like the few times Nat had seen a field ploughed. That was a comparison they had never thought to make before. But, then again, Nat spent most of their time aboard looking back over what had passed.
The sand itself glittered gold, almost blinding with the level of sun at this time of day. Maybe it was always like this. Always bright. Always this dry heat that seemed to steal all the moisture from one’s mouth.
In the distance a sparkling something surfaced from the sand, dipping back underneath like a whale or a dolphin but far larger than either. That was definitely something that ate ships like these. And Nat doubted they’d be able to convince it with clever words to leave them and the rest of the ship alone.
“If I was less afraid of falling, I’d push you.”
“You’re wearing a safety line. Falling isn’t a problem.”
You’re. Nat pulled their attention away from the horizon, away from that blistering sand, and to Kajal, relieved to find the rigger sporting their own safety line, one clearly designed specifically to fit their body in a more comfortable way than the rope harness Nat had wriggled into.
“I’m sure having my chest bruised before I meet the Pirate Lord of the Dry Sea would be incredibly helpful, but I think I’ll avoid it if I can.”
Kajal snickered. “A fair point.”
Ahead of them, a palace loomed out of the sand, seeming to float impossibly over the landscape, held up only by wavering heat lines. Nat knew better than to believe their eyes in this situation. They’d read enough stories – fictional and factual – to know that hot weather mirages were a thing. Still, there were heat mirages and then there was the fact that Nat was physically on a ship heading through the sand like it was water with its own currents. And they had thought sirens would be the weirdest thing they’d come across on this voyage.
“I should get ready,” they sighed.
Kajal shrugged, shoulder shifting close enough to disturb the fabric of Nat’s shirt. “If you want.”
“I think you’re a bad influence.”
Kajal gasped again, lifting a hand to almost cover their mouth. An obvious mockery of Nat’s typical dandified tendencies. “How could you say such a thing?”
Nat laughed hard enough that their seat unsteadied. Their heart leapt into their throat at that feeling of freefall, cut short only by their desperate clinging to the crossbar below them.
Kajal threw a steadying arm around them, hand catching against the still tender and sensitive line of scars decorating their way down Nat’s arm. Their flinched enough from that gentle and unintentional contact that their hastily aborted fall took over.
They found themself swinging wildly across the deck, safety line wrapped around their torso contracting, crushing their ribs in an iron grip.
A hand steadied them and spun them around to face the owner. He looked somehow both less and more imposing upside down. “We’ll be there in less than an hour.”
Once again, sorry this took me so long, moving house is no joke and my brain is still made of mush.
Tagged by @zmwrites @avrablake and @oh-no-another-idea
WIP: Pirate Project Prequel
Nat sipped their tea. the silence pounded in their ears. no swoosh of the sea, no clatter of people working. Such silence would have meant peace only a short while ago, they had longed for such silence. But this was no a peaceful sielnce. And, stranded in it, Nat's thoughts raced around and around.
Taggos @emelkae @ghost-town-story @asher-orion-writes only if you're feeling it tho
I was WiFi-less and then I totally forgot I'd been tagged at all. Whoopsers.
I was tagged by
@emelkae @ghost-town-story and (and I am shamefaced that I did not respond sooner, moving house is hard)
Heads Up 7 Up is to share the last 7 lines you wrote and tag 7 people
Anyway, my WIP is currently Pirate Project Prequel
For the first time in their life, nothing stood over them.
Was this what freedom would feel like? Could Nat take this feeling with them even as they climbed back down the rigging and settled back into the position, the tiny box that life had seen fit to stuff Nat into?
They took a deep breath of the fresh sea air.
“How do you ever come down from here?”
“One foot after the other.”
Nat turned to the rigger. “No.” They gestured at the view. “From that?”
Gosh, seven people huh? I'll do my best, no pressure: @asher-orion-writes @zmwrites @avrablake @oh-no-another-idea (okay, I tend only to tag people who tagged me, for reliability in the knowledge that they also like to be tagged and I'm out of taggers. Feel free to jump on this as an opportunity to do the tag and become one of my regular tagees)
"if I didn't have you, who would I ramble about to pirates?"
A sentence that genuinely came out of my mouth to my wife. To which she slowly frowned. I, thinking I had said "who would I ramble about pirates to," am equally as confused.
