#truthmeta

[sometimesraven]

HEY. YOU.

YEAH, THE PERSON READING THIS.

YOU CAN READ, RIGHT?

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN READ WITH YOUR EARS?

At least, you can read some things with your ears.

Do you like contemporary fantasy and/or gay shit and/or supporting indie artists and/or throwing money at stuff?

Boy do I have the fundraiser for you!

Donate to Reckless Truth Audiobook, organized by Raven O'Connor

Hi, my name is Raven and as an independent author, everything to do with my novels comes out o… Raven O'Connor needs your support for Reckle

The Concept

I have this big gay book and I'd like this big gay book you can read with your eyes to be a big gay audiobook you can read with your ears

I have a narrator who has recorded the narration for free but I want the audiobook to be fully voiced. That is, every character's dialogue will be individually voiced.

Here's the casting call if you're interested:

I don't like asking people to work for free so I've figured out a small amount of compensations I'll be giving each actor for their work. It's not much and even "not much" is more than I can afford most days, but I'll fuckin do it, dangit!

The Sympathy Points Bit (about the author)

I'm a disabled, neurodivergent nonbinary author from the UK, 100% indie 100% out-of-pocket. Even publishing this book was a dream for me. It took like 6 months for me to have the money free to publish the reformat through BookVault. I made the cover with CC0 stock images and formatted, edited, etc everything by myself.

I didn't even consider the idea of an audiobook to be possible until multiple people asked me for one and then my lovely partner Cassandra Haswell (look em up uwu they're awesome) said "yeah I'll do it for you for free bc I'm fucking amazing", therefore eliminating the biggest cost of the whole thing and making it More Possible.

This is a passion project of the highest order. Yeah, I wanna make money from it, but I haven't turned a profit At All, barely even made any money from this book at all. I really do just want this to be A Thing so fuckin much it makes me vibrate out of my skin.

The Execution

I want to make it real clear that even if this gofundme doesn't work out, the actors will be paid. It'll just have to be out of pocket and it'll really suck for me.

And if the gofundme doesn't reach its goal ALL OF THE MONEY WILL STILL BE GIVEN TO THE ACTORS. Every penny given to me is a penny that will go to the actors + therefore a penny that I don't have to calculate out of my rent instead.

This is a fairly selfish endeavour, I know, but I've had numerous people tell me they want to but are unable to read my book due to there being no audiobook so I'm really, really hoping people will support me in this 🙏

Truth Saga Taglist (click to be added or removed):

@smallvillecrows

[sometimesraven]

CALLING ANYONE WITH LIKE A COUPLE OF QUID TO SPARE WHO WANTS TO SUPPORT A SMALL INDIE PROJECT AND A FUCK TONNE OF INDIE ACTORS

HERE’S THE FUNDRAISER LINK

£3 pays one of the minor characters’ voices

£5-10 pays one of the secondary characters

£10-60 pays the major characters

If we earn the full £250 anything over that will pay the narrator who has read all 95k words for FREE

Not a penny of this will go to my own pockets. Please consider helping out 🙏

If you can’t help consider sharing the gofundme so it can find others who can 💕

[sometimesraven]

Reformat of Reckless Truth is almost done!!!! Just need to tweak a few small issues and I'm ready to go skjfghsf

I know it’s not a dramatic change but I’m just so happy to finally have it be the dimensions I want and also not look Very Obviously like baby’s first publishing project inside 😭

I'm also consolidating my publishing to BookVault which will hopefully give me a more central and easy to manage distribution!

[sometimesraven]

Hello! Just stopping by with a question about writing XD Do you have any characters who's role grew bigger than you expected? Any surprising changes your characters went through during the writing process?

HEWWO!!!!!

Gosh, that's been happening to me for so long I forget half of the instances. I can say that the love interest for the fantasy project I am not currently working on was originally a fanfic OC who was supposed to die in the first fic I ever wrote him into XD

I've definitely had some of that with the Truth Saga though. Book 2, Bitter Truth, is proving to be full of surprises and character roles are included.

Initially in writing the novel, I intended for the focus to be entirely on Erik and Blade with only brief roles from other characters. It's definitely stayed that way to an extent but with Erik being one of the main characters it actually led to a lot more Lydia than I expected, and Violet is taking a more active step forward recently to the point where I now have to fight her getting her own story before Evie does (whom I've planned for book 3's main character).

Tori has surprised me a lil as well, which I didn't think she was capable of any more but here we are XD While she's already well built and pretty stable in her character, her ongoing condition related to her powers has expanded to a full blown chronic pain/mobility issue which tbh, I should have seen coming given that she's always been my subconscious way of coping with things that make me feel helpless IRL

[sometimesraven]

A realisation I came to

Who do I want to read my books? Who is my core, target audience?

Adults for starters, new or otherwise, probably from like 19 up to like 35/40

people who like a mix of sci-fi and fantasy and you can't quite tell where the lines blur

people who like complex, flawed characters who are the focus and the Big story gives us space while we explore their Trauma

people who like their stories to be dark but still hopecore. fucked up but a lil silly and over the top in places.

people who like thinly-veiled commentary on society, and stories that focus on the kinds of people who "don't fit" said society

people who-oh my god it's Moffat fans

it's just Moffat-era DW fans I'm looking for

[sometimesraven]

Truth Saga Webweaving: >Reckless Truth >Found Family

christine feehan , toxic game // mike wheeler, stranger things (s2e02) // @wecametobealonetogether, superhero team dynamics // sophia and vivenne, level 16 (2018) // raven elliot o'connor, reckless truth

DESCRIPTION: five images arranged in a column straight down. The images are as follows

First image: black text on white background. Reads: “That was the first time I realized that some people had something truly beautiful and it was called family. I wanted that for myself-and that tea set. It was elegant and beautiful, and it represented that bond they has as well as their connection to the past.”. The first sentence is highlighted in yellow.

Second image: a still from Stranger Things in which Mike Wheeler, a young boy of about twelve years old, is center frame, speaking to Will Byers who is blurred at the right hand side of the frame. The subtitles read: "if we are both going crazy then we'll go crazy together, right?"

Third image: black text on a white background. Reads: "I help you fight evil. I let you sleep on my lap when we get back home. I know everything about you, things your parents never will. We've almost died together. We study for tests together. We are discovering ourselves. I hope I still know you in ten years. You turned evil once. I still got you a birthday present."

Fourth image: a still from the 2018 movie Level 16. The image is under red lighting and shows a teenage girl over the shoulder of another young girl she is hugging tightly. The subtitles read: "You came after me." "Of course I did."

Fifth image: black text on a white background. The first part of the text is blacked out. The rest reads: "I think... when all you have is each other it's easier to feel like the whole world is against you than to risk putting your trust in someone new."

[sometimesraven]

Hello hello! Just stopping by to hear a little about whichever WIP(s) you want to share about! What do you hope readers pick up on from your WIP? What do you hope is their favorite aspect of it?

Hi! Happy thursday!! I'm knee-deep in Truth Saga hell so I'll answer for that one!

As far as what readers pick up on, it's going to be different for everyone. My motivation has always been to create an environment in my novels where everyone can see a little of themselves somewhere. And of course I can't manage that perfectly, I'm only one person and it's only one story, but I hope readers, particularly those who are queer and/or disabled, pick up on the passion and love that went into every inch of it, and know that they are seen and they are loved.

As far as their favourite aspect, honestly I hope they love the ships and character dynamics bc that's my favourite part of fandoms: the way they take characters and go "this one is mine and he is kissing this other one who is also mine now" XD

[sometimesraven]

i love that i decided Blade is strawberry blond bc i get to describe him as both a blond and a ginger depending how much i want to bully him