“say you won’t let go” - some touch starved scenarios

Writers, check out the @novelbear writing blog. Excellent and it's obvious this is a true writer who knows what they are doing! Love the content they post! This post I'm sharing is just an example. It isn't 'tired' or the type of things we always see in literature. It's real, it reads real, and I find myself able to connect with each scenario. Is that too much praise and over done? No. Not for this blog.

Congratulations! You are now a Magic-User!!

✨ A Spark of Magic Pre-Orders Are Now Live ✨

A Spark of Magic is one step closer to being yours. You can pre-order the ebook from most retailers here! (Note: Amazon's link will only be available on release day. I apologise for the inconvenience) Paperback pre-orders coming soon.

Since I can't do any pre-order campaign with physical goodies due to my geographical location, I decided to lower the ebook's price to half of what it will be after release, so if you pre-order now, you can get it for $1.99 (US)/1,99€/£1.99. I'll keep this price for a week after the release so that people who tend to get ebooks from Amazon can still enjoy this little bonus. I hope you can understand and take advantage of this deal 💛

Check the section below for FAQs such as whether it'll be on KU, ARC readers and other things. If you have any questions not featured below, feel free to send them my way!

do you call them WIPs or W-I-Ps

Yet another fake agency

Via Gabino Iglesias over at the “Once Upon A Time It Was A Bird” place: “Saw this at the other place and went digging. These people don’t exist. These books are fake, just like the bios. They tried it before under a different name. Writers looking for an agent: don’t send them anything. Again, this is a fake agency: pensandpitchliterary.com”

parting writing advice before this blog becomes inactive from someone who takes pictures of broken bones for a living and who has worked in an ER

I might add more if I can think of it but I’ll answer any questions if people have them

From Alexis Renata's chapbook, I've Heard This One Before, available from Bottlecap Press!

Honestly? My main piece of advice for writing well-rounded characters is to make them a little bit lame. No real living person is 100% cool and suave 100% of the time. Everyone's a little awkward sometimes, or gets too excited about something goofy, or has a silly fear, or laughs about stupid things. Being a bit of a loser is an incurable part of the human condition. Utilize that in your writing.

Hey! Hey, friends! Are you looking for fantasy with COMPETENT MIDDLE-AGED PROTAGONISTS who are PROBABLY BROKEN but also still TRYING REAL HARD?

(Of course you are.)

Would you also like some COOL WORLDBUILDING? What about CREEPY VILLAINS?

Romance between broken people learning how their pieces fit together? Snark and banter? Berserker paladins of a dead god? Giant bears? Badger people with a whole cool society living alongside humans? Lawyer priests? Seamless diversity and inclusion? Body and sex positivity? One of the best opening lines to a book series I’ve ever come across?

(Stephen’s god died a little after noon on the longest day of the year.)

You’re looking for @tkingfisher!

Specifically, you’re looking for her Saint of Steel series.

I’ve read the first three books in three days.

(Oh, and if you want plot-relevant demon chickens, a dog made of bones, and snarky old ladies, you want Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone. And if you want a great spin on the Beauty and the Beast story inspired by Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter, you want Bryony and Roses.)

A wild update of Of Vampires & Turnabouts appears!

Thank you all for sticking around, I hope you guys like this info-heavy chapter of the fic. I'm very excited to see you guys react to where this goes.

Link to the fic here!

“Before the writers started working on the first season, I wrote a list of six things on the wall that every episode had to do.” - Mike Schur (x)

I've had a couple of messages over the last few days from folks saying things like, "Sorry, I can only afford to get your book through the library," and I need you to know I am gripping you by the shoulders, I am shaking you gently, and I am begging you stop apologizing for using library services.

After Amazon and Payhip, the quarterly checks I get from Overdrive/Libby are my biggest and most reliable source of income.

My readers have been nothing but feral in their quest to get Hunger Pangs into as many libraries as possible, and while library lending pays an exceptionally modest amount, if enough people do it (which many of you evidently are), those pennies add up.

I am guaranteed at least $20 a month in library lending royalties. That might not sound like much to some folks, but to me, that's my b12 supplements covered for the month. That's the thing I need to keep me alive paid for.

I will never resent anyone who uses libraries instead of buying books.

I'm a disabled author who lives month to month at the mercy of my medical expenses. Even though I have incredibly generous patrons and supporters, I know what it's like to not be able to afford things.

Use the library. Please.

Use it guilt-free. You're helping the library and the authors, probably more than you realize.

And if you're in the US and haven't signed up for a @queerliblib free library card yet, you should! it doesn't matter what state you're in, the Queer Liberation Library offers free access to their catalogue of queer media across the US.

And if you've got the means, maybe help them out with a little donation. They're only able to expand their collection via the support of their patrons, and the work they're doing is hugely important.

Seconding all of this so hard. If you get my books from libraries, HIGH FIVE. If you're asking your local libraries to buy my books so that you can check them out, DOUBLE HIGH FIVE. It's all good, babes. <3

Does any of you have experience with library leases abroad? I mean: does that only pay if the library physically buys a book, or are there also some pennies comming in with every lease?

It will depend on the country and what agreement the library system has with Overdrive/whatever distributor they're using.

There's unfortunately no set standard.

Also, as far as I'm aware, the pennies are only for digital lending because when a library buys a physical copy of a book, they're usually paying a significant chunk over the retail price.

Off the top of my head, physical copies of my books are sold to libraries for roughly 3x the retail price, which helps offset the "loss," as it were.

Also, some libraries have a contract where they'll renew their licenses annually, so you get paid whenever they redo that. (I can always tell when the annual renewals come in because my overdrive royalties go nuts)

But other libraries go by an "X Number of Times" a book can be rented out before they're obligated to buy another one. But like, there's no way to tell which library uses which system.

Again, no set standard across the board. Would kind of be nice if there was, but hey ho.

Certified Library Post

thank you BarBar for publishing my story Within the Wall! this is such an odd story i truly didn’t think i would ever find a home for it. if you like rats, religious themes, and anthropomorphized animal stories like Watership Down and Warriors, i would appreciate your reads :)

Last Line Tag

Thanks for @blind-the-winds for tagging me!

I will tag @veradragonjedi @winterandwords @illarian-rambling @toribookworm22 and anyone else who wants to!

story where a young girl is sent off to boarding school and when she comes back to her little tourist town that summer she has changed, changed in the way that all young girls do when they are sent away from home for the first time, changed in the way that all girls do when they aren’t really as young as they once were. But also changed in the way that she is voraciously hungry, and changed in a way that the family cat hates her, and changed in a way that when her best friend is attacked by a dog she attacks it back like a wild thing and wins. Changed. Maybe not for the better.

Murphy Jones left the small town of Sunnyside when she was thirteen. Not even a full year later, at the cresting point of summer, she’s come back. Everything has changed. Her best friend, Wade, is tall and lanky. Her sister is sneaking out at night. The neighbor has a new dog who is meaner than all of the madame’s back at the boarding school.

And there’s one change that might be greater than all of that.

Murphy has a secret.

She has sharp teeth. And she’s hungry.

It’s almost noon when the bus pulls up to the worn stop on the side of the highway. The doors slide open with a hiss. Murphy Jones peers out the dust covered window and can’t spot anyone. She gets up and grabs her bag anyway, slinging it over her shoulder and stomping down the aisle. She’s barely off the last step when the doors snap shut and the vehicle rolls away, thundering down the long stretch of sandy highway. There’s nothing else around but the old green bench and a sign that says Sunnydale 2 Miles!

“Murphy?” Wade asks, big eyed and hook nosed and soft in a way that she used to be soft; in a way that she will never be soft again. “Are you okay?”

“I’m going to puke,” says Murphy, and then she doubles over and retches onto her own bare feet.

“When did Cliff get a dog?” Murphy asks, stopping and staring at the lean looking mutt. It’s gone totally still on the other side of the chainlink.

Wade tells her, “I dunno. Couple of weeks ago. I think his name is -”

“Ripper,” says Murphy.

“How’d you know that?”

“I don’t know. He just looks like one.”

Ripper’s already got his fangs sunk into Wade’s forearm when the fear lets go of Murphy’s muscles. She launches herself forward like a spooked rabbit but instead of running away from the fight, she throws herself towards it. She tackles Ripper from the side, knocking the long legged mutt clean off of Wade.

Sobbing, he pulls his bloodied arm up against his chest. Cliff is screaming, “Ripper, Ripper get back here,” as he comes racing up the length of the beach. Sand cakes under Murphy’s fingernails as she hauls herself up onto all fours, spine punched out in an odd angle as she shoves her neck out, lips pulling back to show off all of her teeth.

Too sharp teeth.

Murphy snarls.

Ripper hesitates.

It’s a bad decision on his end because the moment that the dog takes a half step back, tail ducking down between its backlegs, Murphy lunges. And this time, when she slams into Ripper, she doesn’t let go.