I Was Asked Would I Write a NB/Genderfluid Character

I have a book in the works (reading An Ember in the Ashes and Throne of Glass really makes me want to work on it), working title is Hallows. And it’s about this fantasy world where there are generally regular people like us and then these people called Hallows, and a certain number are born every generation, and they have special powers because they’re anthropomorphic personifications of certain traits of humanity - hope, joy, wonder, fear, etc. Things that have had a major impact on the development of human culture (hope and fear have influenced a great many solar festivals).

So in this world, in some countries Hallows are considered normal people with jobs like how doctors, lawyers, bakers, and butchers are just normal people with jobs. In some countries they’re revered in the same was as oracles and priests. In others, they’re considered royalty. And in some, they’re second class citizens or even enslaved or considered “enemies of the state.”

And my 2 characters - Maya and Sethsis - are each Hallows. Maya is a hope-Hallow and Sethsis is a joy-Hallow. Sethsis is also genderfluid. And the two of them are from different kingdoms - Maya from a kingdom where Hallows are just people, Sethsis where Hallows are treated like royalty - but they’re both kidnapped (Sethsis is disguised as a regular guy just chilling with normal peeps at the time) and sold into slavery to fight in the gladiator pits in one of the other kingdoms. They team up in order to survive until they can fight their way to the final tournament, where they have to survive for a moon in the wilds with other Hallows and soldiers and competitors trying to kill them.

So it’s sort of like The Hunger Games meets Ancient Rome with Egyptian and Yoruban mythology thrown in through the lens of Rise of the Guardians.

But one of my leads is Sethsis, who is genderfluid. I just need a name other than genderfluid for this book because as it has been pointed out to me before, high fantasy novels wouldn’t use the same words we would for things like that.

Someone Asked If I Could've Written ToG/ACOTAR Better Than Sarah...

I think if I’d had the idea for Throne of Glass, I could’ve done it better based on my technique. BUT. It’s not just technique that makes a book. It’s not even mostly or even half technique. The ideas Sarah J. Maas brought to the book series (so far, anyway; I’m only 2 books in) are something I don’t think I could have created better than she did, and they are what make the series so good.

I think, other than some passive voice (which I only noticed because I’ve been slashing it out of a manuscript I’m editing) in ACOTAR/ACOMAF, there’s no real flaws in them except for the way she describes the sexual aspects, which I skimmed over anyway. And I will say that the aspects of ACOTAR that she took from The Black Jewels were changed in such a way that they were still unique and interesting and I had no issues with the things I noticed coming from TBJ.

What Are Filter Words?

Filter words are words that filter the immediacy of a story through the lens of a character, but do so in a way that isn’t necessary. Here are some examples.

“Romeo felt the anger boiling in his blood as he stared at Mercutio’s corpse” could be rewritten as “Anger boiled in Romeo’s blood as he stared at Mercutio’s corpse.”

“Feyre smelled the stinging scent of paint thinner” could become “The scent of paint thinner stung Feyre’s nose.”

Sometimes filter words work and are even necessary, but most of the time they’re not really and can slow down the pace a lot.

How I Edit a Manuscript

Basically it goes like this.

Notebook round: I write down what’s what and what I need and different world details and plot points in my notebook. I have a lovely set of pens just for this. They give good scratch and it inspires me.

Rough Round One, Fight! I type up my manuscript, chapter by chapter. I used to do it out of order but my scene transitions were always too jarring, so I ditched that bit. I refer to my notes as I type, possibly have to stop occasionally to revisit the notebook round and flesh out new avenues of plotting-ness. And as I type, I edit. Now, I don’t recommend this for anyone because a lot of people get super hung up on every word they type being perfect, and I’m just like, “It’s gonna be good, and I don’t need it to be good right now, because I’ll fix it. So check this lyrical prose, b*****.” So if I don’t like how a sentence flows, I’ll change it mid-scene. But I don’t obsess over it. That way lies madness.

Between this round and the next, I sit for about 2-3 weeks and do other things. Otherwise, I run into problems. Waiting is a good idea, mah peeps.

Don’t Be a Passive Pansy (Check Yourself): I print out my manuscript and go through my entire manuscript with 4 colored pens, looking for passive voice, filter words, basic typos, and any copy-edit mistakes because I’m always gonna stab those to death when I find them, to prevent them from breeding and spreading across my manuscript like demon bunnies. I also go through looking for repetitive information/dialogue tags/actions.

More waiting, my lovelies. 2-3 weeks is a good time period, especially if you’re working on another project or reading a lot of different books.

Don’t Be Racist/Ableist/Sexist/A Douche: after making all my changes from the previous round, I reprint my manuscript and take new pen colors to it, looking for any kind of anything that could be racist, sexist, anti-lgbt+ in any way, or that just doesn’t conform to the religious, racial, cultural, or queer identities of my characters (this usually snags almost all characterization contradictions, so it’s doubly useful). Usually this is only a very small thing. 

For example, in Eidolon there’s a moment where Janine is thinking about a kiss, and it’s not clear that this kiss is supposed to be a chaste and sweet one instead of a passionate teeth-tongues-and-drool kiss, so I underlined that sentence and rewrote it to make it clear that Janine’s not into those kinds of kisses, because she’s ace. Or like, also in Eidolon, I did a Google search on ways to describe a deaf person’s voice and vocal patterns without being offensive, because I’d left a footnote-mark in a certain color of pen where said mentions needed to appear when describing Princess Madeline’s voice.

And yet more waiting. Don’t worry, this keeps you from wanting to chuck your manuscript out the wind because you’re just so dang tired of looking at it.

Taste the Freaking Rainbow Round: the final round of editing before chucking it over to a crit-partner, with a third round of printing (so I’ve used up 2 reams of paper at this point). Basically I’m double-checking for all the things you were looking for before, and also slashing through any excessively overwritten or purple prose, or any prose that due to situation may sound good but ends up being confusing. This is also my last chance to triple-check for repetition, my ultimate foe.

And then I give it over to someone else.

Plot Bunny Ranch: Night-Dreamed Roads

Um…essentially Night-Dreamed Roads is Mad Max: Fury Road meets The Fairies of Pixie Hollow. It’s a solarpunk sci-fi/fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic future where the apocalypse was long ago enough that society has dragged itself back together again, and my group of Mormon girls all live in this solarpunk town in a string of towns where everything is a mix of tech and magic (with magic-users needing to use math and science to work and science relying on magic in the same way), and my girls are all witches on the verge of testing to become Adepts, but they have to go through the actual test, which changes from year to year, and sometimes witches have died.

And in the middle of preparing for the test (which has an academic portion as well as the different-each-year practical portion), their town gets attacked and the girls try to teleport out with the rest of the townspeople, but they go back for their elderly teacher and when they try to teleport out, the teleporters are destroyed in the middle of the transport and the girls end up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dangers, and needing to get back to their town to save their teacher.

This spawned another book idea about Mormon witches in space, which I was also calling Night-Dreamed Roads because I don’t have another title for it yet and I hate things not having titles. It’s the only thing standing in my way right now of starting my VR gaming book.

I Was Asked If I'd Ever Written an Ace Character...

Usually I write high fantasy, so the word “ace” doesn’t really exist in those situations. However, my ace characters make it very clear that they are in fact ace. The one urban fantasy I wrote with an ace character and then “The Ride,” which is set in the future, were written at a time when I didn’t know there was a word for being ace so they don’t use it, but the urban fantasy - Glass - is being overhauled, albeit slowly, so the word is going to be used in the book.

Why Is the Witch Queen a B****? Motive Is Important (Short Answer)

ok is your evil witch queen in your faerie book just a bitch because she's the popular girl or what? b/c that's so fucking tired. girls can be popular w/o being bitches you know?

No, she’s not. Well, there are two popular girls who are antagonists. One of them is just mean for the sake of being a b**** but the other one is being forced into this position by her father. He’s incredibly abusive and views her only as a commodity to make him look good to the other adult witches because “my daughter did this,” “my daughter did that,” “my daughter has the entire school under her thrall and they fear her.”

She doesn’t really want to be this way. She’s under a lot of pressure to be in total control, to be perfect all the time, to be respected always and if possible feared by her peers, and she’s not allowed to really be a person because her father wants her to be a ruthless machine. And a big part of the story arc is how Alyssa, the MC, first is her enemy because she doesn’t know this stuff, but then helps her get away from it all and start over and she (my witch queen; her name is Lily) ends up moving into Alyssa’s house and they become friends and allies in the war to take down Lily’s dad, who’s the main antagonist.

Why Does Dylan Hate Balor So Much?

Because the man’s a grade-A douche nozzle. :)

Okay, but in seriousness, how many times has Balor done something hecka-decka abusive to Nuada? I mean, I realize Nuada is like, 40. But Balor is still his dad and still his king and the man has some serious power over our prince. Also the whole Nuada-almost-dying in chapter 11 and Balor not-really caring for all intents and purposes (he still hasn’t apologized!!!) are not far from our girl’s mind, you know. And the bed thing. And the marriage thing. And the constant accusations of Nuada being a rapacious psychopath. Etc, etc, etc.

Someone Asked Why Did Loki Freak Out in TEODD Ch 6?

He had a flashback. The man has severe PTSD because of all that happened while in the Chitauri dungeons and after that in the Asgardian dungeons. He also has been hallucinating off and on over the course of more than a year and while his mind is slowly healing in that regard, it’s causing him severe anxiety as well. And then Thea had to go and f*** with his mind to make him stop trying to kill Steve, which stopped him, but f***ed with his mind even more.

How Many Fat Characters Do I Plan to Write? (And Why Did Someone Ask Me This?)

Quite a few. Janine is my current girl because I’m still working on Eidolon and she’s my MC. Juliet from House of Gears is built like Raven Symone and I’m going to hop back to HoG at some point in the future (it needs serious editing). My female lead in my unnamed VR book - I seriously need a name - is fat. So is my girl in Hit the Lights and my main girl in Frost & Fire. So is my girl in Empress of Ice & Oceans. That’s just a few off the top of my head. I’m sick today so I’m not firing on all cylinders; I apologize. :)

PS - why is this a question???

Someone Asked Why Do I Write Mixed Characters?

Because I’m mixed, first of all. Second, there aren’t as many mixed characters in writing where that mixed-race aspect of themselves is acknowledged except when it’s part of an issue book or contemporary fiction, neither of which I read much of. Third, because as a kid people told me I couldn’t do things because I was too white, too black, blah blah blah, and I couldn’t point to anyone who fit that description who’d really done anything so that I could say, “But they did.” I don’t want that to happen to other children.

My Thoughts on Tamlin the Tool

Having finished ACOMAF last night, I have this to say.

1 - Tamlin isn’t sorry he abused Feyre. He’s just sorry that she left because of it. It’s obvious he isn’t sorry about how he actually acted because of how he treats her in the last two scenes we see her in.

2 - Because of the politics happening right now, there’s not enough room for Tamlin to redeem himself on such a personal level since the abuse aspect of his character arc is so divorced from the actual war going on.

3 - He’s so immature and oblivious, I don’t think anything Feyre could do in the next book would make him change what made him abusive to begin with.

4 - Because these books are in large based on The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop, I’m almost positive Tamlin will never get over the idea that anything Feyre does or says that he doesn’t like, or any opinions she has that don’t mesh with his view of her, is a direct result of mind-rape by Rhysand.

5 - Even if by some miracle he managed to pull his head out of his butt and stop being such a dick and let Feyre go, that doesn’t make up for the things he did separate from his obsession with Feyre - like the lion-queen, and Tamlin’s treason, and Cas, and her sisters, all that stuff. And the only thing in that that he’s sorry for is the sister-bit.

6 - Although I love Sarah J. Maas, I don’t think she has the literary skill at this point to fix Tamlin even if she wanted to.

How Long Does It Take to Edit a Book? Part 2

Depends on the book and how much work it needs. I often edit as I write (don’t do this; it works for me because I don’t get hung up trying to find the abso-perfect words, and I don’t get discouraged with putting out mediocre stuff on my first or second or third draft, but a lot of people do, so do not edit as you go unless you’re confident it won’t be a problem). Because I do this, the level of help a manuscript needs will often depend on what sort of state I was in when I wrote it. 

House of Gears needed a lot of work because I was so on fire to push it out, I wrote it in 18 days. That was (at the time) 135,000 words in 18 days. Which meant lots of typos. And other things. Passive voice, filter words. Some of this stuff I didn’t even know to look for. Eidolon needed work because it was written for NaNoWriMo but it didn’t need as much work as Gears because I took more time with it. It really just depends on what needs to be done. And also of course, what non-writing-related demands there are on my time.

My Homegirl, Witch Baby

So on Tumblr I was told Witch Baby, the titular character from Francesca Lia Block's YA novel, couldn't be mixed because her mom was blonde. Um, you know that’s a wig, right? Her mom - bio-mom, anyway - is the president of the Jayne Mansfield fanclub. Witch notices in Witch Baby that they’re all wearing blond wigs. Because Jayne Mansfield was blond.

Now, at one point Block describes Vixanne as being pale, but she also says this about Dirk, about Duck, Coyote, about Raphael, and about Angel Juan at various times when they’re not feeling up to snuff. Now, Dirk is at least 1/3 Middle-Eastern (Arabic paternal great-grandfather, ethnically Jewish mom). Raphael is half-black, half-Chinese. Duck is suuuper tanned. Angel Juan is Mexican. Coyote is Native American (although they never specifically say what kind). I’m pretty sure she (Block) just uses “pale” to describe someone who’s not as dark as they’re supposed to be normally, usually because of sickness. 

We also know Vixanne lives a very unhealthy lifestyle just from the glimpses we get when she’s with Witch Baby, so that doesn’t surprise me at all that she’d be an unhealthy pallor. Also, Vixanne appears in another book when she’s younger as she’s described as like, “dark but pale” or something. Again, possibly Block’s way of saying dark-skinned but obviously needing to get some sun or something.

Now, My Secret Agent Lover Man isn’t white, either. He’s at least ¼ POC of some kind based on his physical description (also Dirk’s great-grandfather says Witch Baby has some of his kind of blood in her, and My Secret Agent Lover Man says later that she got it from him, which means he’s at least ¼ if not ½ Arabic). And we also know Witch has very curly, very thick, black hair that she got from her mom, hair that shares a tendency with mine and my sister’s - when it tangles, it snarls up into little balls that have to be picked out either with a pick or fingers. So with all of those things, Witch Baby is definitely mixed to some degree. I’d even go with like, 1/3 black, 1/3 Arabic, 1/3 white or something. ¼ black, ¼ Arabic, ½ white even.

Also she’s supposed to be Cherokee’s “photo-negative,” so where Cherokee is all platinum hair and paleness, Witch isn’t.

Duh. Gonna wait a couple days and copy to Tumblr so that dipstick can see this now.

Who Do I Ship Feyre With?

I don’t know yet. I mean, I’ve been given a lot of good evidence that Tamlin is a douche but I’m not there yet? Also usually I don’t pick sides in a ship and go with whatever the author has decided. I rarely choose sides. Exceptions are The Chemical Garden Trilogy, The Delirium Trilogy, and 50 Shades of Grey (they both need to be very, very single). Usually there has to be some form of abuse going on. So far I haven’t seen much of that in A Court of Mist and Fury but I’m only on like, page 20.

Piercings and Tattoos

I’m a chicken and lazy and so I don’t want to pierce my ears because it might hurt and it’s waaay too much work to keep the holes clean and clean my jewelry and remember to put in earrings when I’m supposed to and stuff, but other peeps can do what they want, obviously.

And I don’t want a tattoo. I did for a while to cover up my self-harming scars because I was ashamed of them, which was an issue when I became Mormon, but I thought about it for a long time, and prayed about it, and fasted about it, and realized I was trying to hide my scars because I felt ashamed of the trials they represented, and I didn’t need to be ashamed, so I didn’t really need a tattoo, and just wanting one wasn’t a good enough reason for me to break my covenants.

An Update on the Chris Colfer Shenanigans

you better not review anymore of Chris's books. he doesn't need some jealous bitch trying to ruin him. just because you're jealous o fhim doesn't give you the right to try to sabotage him.

I’m surprised, since you like him so much, that you value his skill so little. If he’s as good as you seem to think, one bad review won’t tank him. If it does, he’s obviously not as good as you think he is.

And why do people keep thinking I give his books negative reviews because I’m jealous of him??? He doesn’t even write for the age group I do. He’s mostly middle-grade and I’m mostly YA. He’s lower middle-grade, especially (kids ages 9-10), whereas I’d be upper middle-grade if I ever did middle-grade (kids 12-13). He has nothing I want. Except a lot of money, but that doesn’t hinge on his writing prowess or how well his books sell.

Once Upon an Answer Time - Nuada Is a Douche (Mhmmm)

ppl keep talking about Nuada bieng so romantic and shit but I'm on chapter 8 and he's still a fucking dick. What is up with him? Why does Dylan fall in love w/ him? Why does she put up with his shit?

What is up with him? Well, besides the fact that he comes from an oppressed people that have been butchered over countless centuries by her people, the fact that the monarchs responsible for protecting his people refuse to do anything about it (even just talk), that her people have massacred countless numbers of his loved ones and comrades, and that he’s been abused himself in serious horrible ways and has vicious PTSD that he’s getting no help for because his father essentially won’t let him…

On top of all those things, he’s also kind of a douche at the beginning.

And she doesn’t put up with his crud. She calls him on it. But she’s not going to trivialize or invalidate his anger and pain, either. She understands pain and oppression and anger and fear. She has PTSD and she’s a psychiatrist. She knows what to do with him. She cares about him because he’s in pain and he saved her life but she’s not letting him abuse her. When he tries, despite the fact that he’s magical and could squash her into people-pulp, she still goes toe to toe with him to make him stop getting in her face and forces him to acknowledge that she doesn’t deserve the anger that isn’t her fault.

They’re not together in chapter 8. They’re not together in chapter 18 or chapter 28 or even chapter 38. Give it some time. They’ve both got a lot of trauma and prejudice and grief to work through.

Empress of Ice and Oceans Mythology Influences

It’s actually only 1/3 in Africa. 1/3 of it is in a country modeled after Yoruba, 1/3 is in a country modeled after Russia, and 1/3 is in a country modeled after Persia. Because the male and female leads have to do a lot of traveling.

But! So my male lead is essentially Koschei the Deathless, but instead of being his love, Marya Morevna is his enemy. I’m combining the story of Koschei with the story of “The Firebird” and several others. My female lead is a water-witch from this kingdom called Ilfe.

The “Hades & Persephone” thing is more a winter vs summer deal. My male lead, Katschei, is from the country of Zima, where it’s always cold as frack and snowing and awful. Thing Siberia. Ayao, my female lead - her people call it the Winter Kingdom and refer to Katschei as the Ice King and the Winter Jackal (they also call him Nunda, Eater of People).

Ayao is from Ilfe, which is islands and jungle and some desert, and it’s usually pretty warm there (summers in Zima are as cold as winters in Ilfe).

So we have essentially a summertime princess being forced to go live in the (in her mind, anyway) coldest, bleakest, darkest place imaginable when she’s used to sunshine and warmth and crashing ocean waves and jungles. Now she’s got ice and snow and dry wind and 30 whole days when the sun isn’t coming up. Luckily she’s allowed to bring some handmaidens and Katschei’s “cousin” Vasalisa is a good friend of hers, so she’s not entirely alone.

Was Asked Why I Made Nuala Disabled in The Silver Princess?

She’s a racebent, genderbent version Nuada Airgetlamh (Nuada of the Silver Hand) from Irish mythology.

In the myth, he gets his arm chopped off in battle and because of ridiculous laws loses his right to be king, because he’s not “perfect.” What I like about the myth is that in order to become “perfect” again and take the throne back, all he has to do is wear a prosthetic. It doesn’t even have to be realistic looking (it’s made of silver, hence Nuada of the Silver Hand), he just has to have 4 limbs of some sort attached to his torso.

Also Irish myth is full of strong warriors; their war deity is a woman, and the greatest warrior in Irish myth, Scathach, is a woman. But Nuada is considered one of the greatest rulers of Irish history/legend. And I always wondered, since female warriors were a thing, why Nuada wasn’t a woman. So I made him one.

Casting September as Mixed-Race (A Comment from a Follower)

thanks for casting September as actually mixed! You're right, she's not white because her dad is black. I love your aesthetics for the books.

Thank you so much! I adore the books to absolute death, they are some of my favorites. Unfortunately, I’m a little burned out on middle grade right now or I would totally be working through The Boy Who Lost Fairyland. But I’m on a YA kick right now instead. But I’ll have another aesthetic up sometime. :)

And I know, right? I don’t like the illustrations of September at all because she’s pretty obviously mixed and the illustrations show her as being white. I don’t understand why they did that. Sigh…

How Long Does It Take Me to Read a Book?

Depends on the book. As an example, I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in about 5 hours on a trip to Disney World when I was 11. I read one of those old early 90s RL Stine Fear Street books in about 2 hours when I was maybe 8 years old (I remember because we were visiting my grandparents and my grandma bought me a whole big bag of Fear Street; I read the first one in about 2 hours and my mom was like, “Those have to last you, you know?” And my grandma was like, “No, I’ll take her back if she manages to finish them all before you go home”).

But now I have a job and bills to pay and writing to do. And even then, it depends on the book. I read the entire Raven Cycle in approximately a week if you subtract the time it took for the books to arrive. I read A Court of Mist and Fury in less than 30 hours and it’s 622 pages long (and I had to take notes because it was a library book). I read Throne of Glass in about the same amount of time even though it’s 200 pages shorter.

But I’ve also been working through Delusion’s Master for the last 2 months and it’s maybe ¼ the size of ACOMAF. I’ve had to start, stop, and restart Eye of the World at least six times (I finally caved and bought the audiobook). I read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in less than a day but took several months to get through The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland.

It just depends.