Nick East (Indie Writer)<p>I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but this I like 😂 </p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/reading" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>reading</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookbubble" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookbubble</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/humour" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>humour</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/ReadingMemes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReadingMemes</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Memes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Memes</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/ReadAllTheBooks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReadAllTheBooks</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Humor</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Humour" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Humour</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Reading" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Reading</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Readers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Readers</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/ReadersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReadersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/ReadingCommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReadingCommunity</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookwyrm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookwyrm</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookworm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookworm</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookstodon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BookLove" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookLove</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a> <br><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Repost" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Repost</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/From" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>From</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Old" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Old</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Account" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Account</span></a></p>
eupolicy.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
This Mastodon server is a friendly and respectful discussion space for people working in areas related to EU policy. When you request to create an account, please tell us something about you.
Administered by:
Server stats:
209active users
eupolicy.social: About · Profiles directory · Privacy policy
Mastodon: About · Get the app · Keyboard shortcuts · View source code · v4.4.1
#boostingissharing
9 posts · 5 participants · 0 posts today
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.23 — Your MC is lost in a busy city, and GPS isn’t an option. How do they handle the situation?</p></blockquote><p>She's lives in an interstellar civilization without electricity or electronics—or GPS. She knows how to use a map. Duh.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WritersCoffeeClub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritersCoffeeClub</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WCC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WCC</span></a> 2025.07.22 — Do you write your characters’ thoughts, or let their actions speak for themselves? Why?</p></blockquote><p>I write in 1st person. The narrator is the POV. The reader gets to experience a continuous description of what is important enough for the POV to notice, what they are willing to report doing, what they want you to know about what people are saying and doing—and <em>especially</em> what they think about it. It is a stream of thoughts and reactions, often presented with snark or filtered by worry, and if the reader pays attention, spun in subtle ways to fit the MC's agenda. Sometimes my characters even quote their own thoughts!</p><p>Here's what it looks like in practice from the POV of the devil-girl in <em><u>Reluctant Prizefighter</u></em>. She's been wolf-whistled by a street gang member, but she has some defense training and has subtly dodged his grabs, but has verbally and physically bruised him. <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/excerpt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>excerpt</span></a></p><blockquote><p>I hadn't learned yet how to reliably work the miracle I'd created defeating <em>The Monster.</em> Was this miscreant the one who might help me break through?</p><p>I looked at how his muscles moved, his legs and rear when he turned momentarily to retort to a gang mate, how he held himself erect—</p><p>I blinked. <em>He had dimples!?</em> Arguably cute, and not enough of a threat, nor cute enough to sway me either. I turned and walked on, trying not to grin, saying, "I doubt it."</p><p>"Doubt what?" I heard his shoes catching up.</p><p>"I thought you might teach me <em>something."</em> I gave him, his not exactly scrawny body, more of a dismissive look than it deserved. "I was mistaken" <em>that you're sufficiently threatening to help me.</em></p><p>He sped to cross my path, but I must have intimidated him; he didn't block me. I took a much better look at his rear end. Squarish. Muscular above the hip, too. I rather liked the view, but now he'd turned red and I had to look up at his angry eyes. My hit struck home.</p><p>He asked, "What are you? <em>Spurs?</em> Or <em>2nd Street Fist Gang?"</em></p><p>"What are you? Besides rude?"</p><p>"NGG Syndicate. We <em>all</em> are." He pointed to his shoulder, and lifted a sweaty sleeve. Hiding what he revealed might be the whole purpose to him wearing the t-shirt.</p><p>"Wow. You <em>let</em> someone brand you!" <em>How stupid can you get?</em> It read NNGS in cursive, burnt into his skin with either a wire pattern heated by fire, or by an application of reluctance, but reluctant force would require him to absolutely trust the miracle worker—which might be the point! <em>Still foolish.</em> The scar was pink; the hair had only partially grown back. I didn't want to shudder, but did so anyway.</p><p>He added,"You're going to regret trespassing—"</p></blockquote><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>microfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/flashfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>flashfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tootfic</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/smallstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>smallstory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/ScribesAndMakers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ScribesAndMakers</span></a> 2025.07.22 — Show us something you've created. Tell us the story behind it.</p></blockquote><p>There's not much of a story, here. Both my spouse and I have families where preserving fruit in alcohol was a thing (Ukrainian & Italian extraction). In both traditions, what got used was with a neutral spirit, aka vodka. My grandmother used to make her vodka, and reportedly blew up the kitchen sink in a Chicago apartment a long time ago.</p><p>These cherries are preserved in bourbon, and newly made so they've about a month to go to be fully enjoyed. I'm creative when it comes to food and food preparation, so a few years ago after making vodka cherries and having left over cherries after running out of the Tito's, I tried a bunch of things like Triple Sec and Old Granddad. The batch I made with Uncle Nearest generated a fandom.</p><p>Sadly, I used my reserved Uncle Nearest for this batch. The new bottles just bought, obviously made by a distiller who bought out the original entrepreneurs, cheapened it. It was obvious: dark brown versus light reddish brown, even discounting the address change. Sad.</p><p>I think they'll make good cherries next year, though, if not for drinking neat.</p><p>More in <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/AltText" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AltText</span></a>.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/photographer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>photographer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/chef" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>chef</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/cooking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>cooking</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.22 — As a writer, do you use the same level of description you prefer to read? If not, do you use more or less?</p></blockquote><p>My preference is only essential description, read or written. It differs for me between the POV and the supporting characters, less for the former, more for the latter.</p><p>Since I <em>want</em> the reader to see themselves in the story, I often give the POV character little or no description, other than what matters for the story, or what they think about themselves. </p><p>I took this to an extreme in <em><u>Mars Needed Women</u></em> in that the main character has a name that sounds like Mary† though written as if Asian, was named that because she's an atheist in a theocracy, has one child whose hair is described as resembling hers, is obviously not at all curvy because of her comments about a curvy character, and works out so is comparatively muscular. <em>And that's it.</em></p><p>In <em><u>Reluctant Moon</u></em>, there are two main characters who are very into each other, sometimes poetically going into description of their partner in intimate detail. Empathy in action is more important to this story, but with two characters, I get to cheat somewhat: one gets to have a complexion like porcelain and the other is as dark as midnight. Oddly, it's not their skin color for which they face prejudice. </p><p>In another story in the reluctance series, the only thing I think I'm going to fully describe is the character's horns since they cause her trouble. They're the size of a crooked index finder, greatly resemble rusty rebar including the dangerously sharp point, and are positioned at her temples pointing back. They destroy hats, but can be hidden in the devil-girl's hair, which implies some sort of red. She'll describe her complexion simply as olive and considers that she's so average she could disappear in the slightest crowd, were it not for her height. I am going to get rid of her scene looking into a mirror because it kind of annoys me that she would enumerate her features simply because she can, especially since she really doesn't care about them (except when she is disguising herself).</p><p>As for non-POV characters, I describe them as much as they need to be described for story purposes. As an author pointed out yesterday, if we later learn that the murderer in the mystery has bright red hair, somebody will be neutrally described with the clue, as in, "'That yellow dress really doesn't go with her freckles and ruddy hair.'" I moderate the need to describe in Dickensian detail with a desire, again, for the reader to see themselves and people in their community in the characters of my stories. </p><p>I especially enjoy the POV tagging other characters' eye color. For example, in <em><u>Inklings</u></em>, Wintereyes characterizes her love interest, after seeing his eyes in the sunlight, as having caramel eyes, like the hard candy, then later nicknames him <em>Caramello</em> despite learning his name. I can't help but describe him as a looking like a pacific islander, for in his world he is essentially an exiled chieftain's son, so his build and bulk and general appearance tag along. As for Wintereyes, the POV, judging by her name, her eyes could be anything from crystal blue to grey, and I'd not be surprised if most readers assume her hair color is white or light blonde. In the story, she is accompanied by <em>Mother Wolf,</em> who is a white wolf. Maybe someone will joke that Wintereyes resembles her mother? Maybe…</p><p>=-=-=-=-=<br>† About the name: I was checked to ensure Googling the name will make the it apparent it isn't a name commonly used in the culture it sounds like it came from.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fantasy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fantasy</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSInklingsStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSInklingsStory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/PennedPossibilities" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PennedPossibilities</span></a> 733 — Tell us what your MC’s home is like. CW: Long.</p></blockquote><p>I will take this question as not where she is <em>living,</em> but rather what the MC would <em>think of</em> as being the <em>home</em> she ran away from.</p><p>When her mother died—killed actually, and surprisingly got named a hero and got elevated and thus so did her daughter—her guardian had an <em>appropriate</em> abode built for her, matching her future station as a head of government and an army.</p><p>The town wall got broken out and extended around pasture lands subsequently turned into manicured gardens. A mansion of intersecting grand limpet-like domes and looming convection towers got built in less than a year by an legion of artisans and laborers. Palaces and princes don't exist in her world, but this edifice might as well be described as such, and as having been built for one. </p><p>She remembers the grand staircase of white marble swirled with black, with brass clad carved dark wood railings. The expanse could have covered the footprint of the three room house she'd spent her first five years in: a bedroom for her opera star mother (and her manager who is probably her father), her own room, and the music room / dining room / kitchen. </p><p>In the mansion, she got her own room, of course. In an odd touch of kindness, it had been constructed to exactly match the same as her old one—if you subtracted the baths and dressing room—into which her plain furnishings, goth girl curios, and even her draperies were moved that jarring day of transition when she was six. </p><p>However, being a mansion it also had a dojo, an armory, a dance studio, an exercise room, three different instruction rooms for schooling in music and art and science, a solarium, an observatory, a working laboratory with vent hoods and chemical storage, a pool room containing an indoor olympic-sized pool capable of making waves to swim and struggle against, a cinema, multiple dining rooms to host from 12 to 144 guests (and host them she did, often, as practice, from the age of seven), and a ballroom for grand parties that often included very grand dances (think quadrilles and waltzes) she had to lead. It included residencies for guests of high as well as low station that could rival eastern city hotels, including aeries for day angels—and a special suite for Rainy Days, the Director of Home and the Nine Outer worlds (she's the main series antagonist), though the MC was never informed of its existence as it might have made her rebel prematurely.</p><p>The adjunct dome, closest the town, got built out as governmental offices, conference facilities, and an audience room, mostly to train her to run the prefecture she'd was to be granted stewardship over. Of course, her mansion had plenty of servants quarters, kitchens, and workrooms, which she knew as well as her own room, as she often snuck into them (okay, <em>fled to</em>) when her life of constant training became unbearable. She learned to enjoy simplicity and simple duty there, as well as sticky not very sweet vegetable breads, butter pumpkin becoming very comforting and her favorite.</p><p>She thought it was an escape, but it was further training. Of course it was.</p><p>The grounds, the gardens, the parade field, the woods, and the tenant farms beyond them were a whole different matter, and sadly more familiar in her early teens as she had to intern managing them.</p><p>What her home <em>didn't have</em> were proper facilities for learning and teaching how to work miracles and practice the relevant revelation. That was belied by the contents of her enormous private library, but if there is one defining characteristic of the devil-girl, it's how she can be obtuse and blind about certain details until they hit her upside the head. Her home missing what she needed to learn The One Thing she was most interested in was <em>insufferable.</em></p><p>"It isn't lady-like," her guardian would explain when asked.</p><p>She ran away from this grand estate, and lands that stretched from the piedmont to beyond the shore fisheries at sea, and responsibility, to learn how to wield reluctant energies and forces (let's call it magic, to simplify the concept), as well as to find the one friend she had once had, whose words had made it possible for her to work her miracles, and who had betrayed and abandoned her.</p><p>Still. </p><p>Go ahead. </p><p>Ask her about <em>home.</em> </p><p>She barely lived there a decade, but it's her room in that mansion that comes to mind, and her meeting her cold butler-like guardian (who she detested) waiting for her on that staircase of marble and bronze every morning to begin her grueling instruction.</p><p>She's glad she ran away.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>microfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/flashfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>flashfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tootfic</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/smallstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>smallstory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.20 — Would your antagonist rather travel or be a homebody?</p></blockquote><p>Boss Mead is a refined and dignified fellow who enjoys the good things in life, like a nice deli sandwich, a sour pickle, and an appropriate wine to go with it. He is polite and controlled, even when sticking the knife in, figuratively, rarely literally, and usually when ordering another to also twist it—which he might do from an easy chair with his world's equivalent of a whisky on the rocks. He's a spider in his web. He is a homebody in that he favors certain places, and he will be depicted as always siting. Menacingly. </p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.21 — As a reader, how much detail do you want on characters’ appearance?</p></blockquote><p>I really don't want much detail. For starters, if there is too much detail I simply won't remember it, and whilst that is a failing of mine, it is annoying that I might be expected to remember it all later in the book, especially if it is repeated down the line and I misremembered, which can shock me out of the narrative. Less <em>is</em> more. What I want is a characteristic [pun intended] that says <em>something</em> important that I can associate with the character, and has meaning to the story, as I paint my own internal image of the person.</p><p>As you might expect, I keep character descriptions simple in my own works, and scene descriptions experiential, taking care to make it obvious what's important and what's color. </p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>bookstodon</span></a></p>
Nick East (Indie Writer)<p>Nonspecific editions > Specific editions 😂 </p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/fantasybookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>fantasybookstodon</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookbubble" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookbubble</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/humour" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>humour</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/reading" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>reading</span></a></span></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Book" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Book</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Books</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BookMemes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookMemes</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Memes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Memes</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Humor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Humor</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Humour" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Humour</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Novel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Novel</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Novels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Novels</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookshelf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookshelf</span></a> <br><a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Mastobooks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Mastobooks</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BooksofMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BooksofMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookstodon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookworm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookworm</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookwyrm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookwyrm</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/Bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookstodon</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BookLove" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookLove</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.art/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.19 — Do you use humor in your stories, and if so, what sort of humor (whimsical, sarcastic, satirical, etc.)?</p></blockquote><p>When I analyze my writing fairly, I find I use humor extensively. It provides balance; it's essential, though I rarely intend to be funny, or plot it in. I don't write jokes in my stories (which means the next one will include them.) If you follow me, you've seen I use humor in most of my essays and my posts, this one included. Subtlety is key. It's a pressure release valve that prevents a story from becoming too serious or too dark. I do not do comedy.</p><p><strong>Types of R.S. Humor</strong></p><p><strong>Dead-pan</strong></p><p>People often state the obvious. If placed carefully in the narrative or in the dialogue, it is unerringly mildly humorous.</p><p><strong>Non-sequitur</strong></p><p>I often end an essay, and sometimes end story sections, with a different but related thought or dead-pan comment. (If the thought is <em>unrelated,</em> that's joking.) I was recently discussing a friend's assertion about "there is a lot of grey" (an exact quote) in relationships. The discussion turned heavy, but I ended it by thanking him for spelling "grey" correctly. A definitely related non-sequitur that I think lightened the mood. BTW: Am-English uses "gray," but that's totally the wrong spelling, full stop!</p><p><strong>Snark</strong></p><p>I write in 1st person POV (as I am now), which can reveal how inner thoughts differ from outer dialogue and actions. I love characters who are snarky, sarcastic, or even cynical and have no compunction about narrating that way. A running commentary on life and the actions of others is humorous—funny in the sense that <em>funny</em> is the emotion we feel <em>in reaction to hurtful things that happen to, or are said about, others.</em> Typically, they're things our internal censor keeps us from doing or saying, but embarrassingly it remains an emotion we feel (and like). The psychological frisson we feel at the dichotomy is what we define as <em>funny.</em> </p><p>Snark highlights how we can be good people despite our own uncensored selves. It carries a message of self-forgiveness. I think it is a great device for developing characters.</p><p><strong>Double-entendre</strong></p><p>I often narrate things with words that if taken as written mean one thing, or if taken with another meaning mean something totally hyperbolic or funny (see definition of <em>funny</em> above).</p><p><strong>Puns</strong></p><p>I work to keep these solely in dialogue, and if I can make the puns seem inadvertent by the character, more the better. If the character does it intentionally, that becomes snarky.</p><p><strong>Alliteration</strong></p><p>I can be very alliteral at times, and while that is mostly a rhetorical device, if the right words are used it can come off appropriately hyperbolic and stick in the reader's mind. If I say that, "The perky passionate prince insisted on wearing pink," it comes off as humorous, says something (likely snarky) about the narrator (also likely from a 1st person POV), and definitely defines the prince.</p><p><strong>Innuendo</strong></p><p>This is best in dialogue, especially when the target character doesn't see it but the reader knows exactly what it is. A shared aspersion or dirty secret even if not true is humorous (see <em>funny</em> above).</p><p><strong>Karma, Schadenfreude</strong></p><p>We won't often admit it to our friends, but when someone richly deserves what happens to them, it <em>feels</em> good. It is <em>funny.</em> I write such scenes, but it takes foreshadowing and planning.</p><p><strong>Satire</strong></p><p>Yep. I occasionally write satire. <em>Mars Needed Women</em> is a super serious novel that goes from dystopian to utopian, while questioning the fabric of gender and common human power structures pointing out how bad and good people share certain uncomfortable characteristics. In the story, Mars is being colonized. The main character ends up being shanghaied there. However, the colonial company <em>goes bankrupt</em> at the same time, which becomes all sorts of bad and plot worsening. The name of the company is one of the satirical elements: "E. M. Mars Colonization Corp." We know what "E. M." stands for, don't we?</p><p><strong>Wait for it</strong></p><p>This is harder to define. I often write in grammar B, which specifies a technique for what otherwise would be considered disastrously long run-on sentences. These have to have a point, of course, but if handled like a micro-story within the narrative, where bits of idea are concatenated, ideas are expressed and elucidated, and the reader is carried along on a wave of deductions, when the ship comes to shore—battered by winds and storms of meaning—and it <em>isn't</em> a shipwreck, it carries with it it's own sense of the absurd. Of course, you can employ this technique using standard beginning-middle-end writing of subsections in a scene, but I find a long sentence builds a certain "wait-for-it" tension, the same way an orator or comedian comes to an <em>ah-ha</em> point OR a punchline in front of an audience. That's me, anyway.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<p><strong>CW: <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>politics</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/uspol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>uspol</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/uspolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>uspolitics</span></a></strong></p><p>Feeling passive-aggressive today, especially after watching a documentary about how today isn't all that different politically than the mid-1900s for white ethnicities and disfavored religions, and most of the century for POC. I'd thought it had gotten better in the new millennium. I felt safe. But apparently money and lies sway the gullible and envious far too easily, handing power to mean petty people, who then use it to create fear to control the rest of us—and, apparently, it always has. That money and lies might do so far into the future shatters many of my illusions. </p><p>Thanks to the above, I suddenly well understand why I write the stories I write. I hope it'll boost me to completing them.</p><p>I found this montage of photoshopped images and am positing it.</p><p>Hat tip to <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://stlouist.social/@taursndhaus" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>taursndhaus</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingCommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingCommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/ScribesAndMakers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ScribesAndMakers</span></a> 2025.07.18 — Show us the cover to yesterday's book, and tell us what you don't like about the cover.</p></blockquote><p>The cover art features a woman with a knife and what looks like a wookiee. Whilst dressed nominally (and correctly) as a man, she looks like an anglo white Vogue model that would convince nobody she's a guy; she's supposed to be ethnically Japanese. There's a vast difference between a sheep dog and a wookiee. I dislike covers that are wrong in great detail, but the publisher sold through a big printing, without any advertising, using it, so I forgive them. Since there were virtually no returns, I suppose even the duped Star Wars fans loved the story.</p><p>I am not showing the cover as I did not publish it under my current nom de plume. Sorry.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a> and <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/CommentingIsCool" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CommentingIsCool</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> photographer chef cooking<br> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.18 — The home of your MC is on fire. They can retrieve one item. What is it and why?</p></blockquote><p>The devil-girl would say, "Let it burn. I carry the only important things with me at all times, which are my ancient thaumaturgy primer and notebook. If you need help putting out the fire, I'll help."</p><p>Thorn Rose's family lives in a day angel-cultured home tree that resembles a grove of ancient ficus benjamina whose massive trunks have grown together into a city block-size mass, divided into a dozen "townhouses." As daemons living in a day angel neighborhood, the only place her family could rent belonged to a day angel who rebelled against the daemon-majority government a century ago. Though the former abode of a cultural hero, day angels won't live there in fear of becoming noticed by the government. If the tree went up in flames, the neighborhood would pitch in to put it out. Thorn Rose would frantically want to retrieve everything, but even her pictures of Streak with Rainy Days, or the model she calls Big Streak, could be replaced since she has access to the source of both. She wears the jewelry given her by Streak at all times (horn tips and a gold nose ring). Really, all she'd miss would be her notebooks, but she knows they aren't worth much if the knowledge isn't already in her head (which it probably is). Nevertheless, she'd make herself frantic, needing Streak to calm her down.</p><p>Day Angel Streak would think of saving his bed frame, built from the stake bed of the first cart he ever got to fly through the sky. It was a piece of crap given him by his uncle who wanted him to fail to fly it to convince him to stop making a nuisance of himself at the family warehouse—only Streak has an innate talent for levitating things behind him, even heavy and unwieldy lorries; he learned to "pull" that day, even as parts of the cart fell from the sky as he landed it. The boy made his bed frame from the wreckage, and even Thorn Rose likes it for what it meant to him.</p><p>Day Angel Bolt (where she's the MC) would go nuts trying to get her camera kit from her aerie. It's the <em>only</em> thing she values at the start of her story, and considering how dismal her life has become, perhaps more than life itself. I envision this would not end well.</p><p>Wintereyes (the wolf-raised woman forced to attend university) doesn't understand possessions at all. If Mother Wolf wasn't trapped in the fire, or anyone she could help save, she'd only be sad for the people or beasts who lost their shelter or livelihoods and try to comfort them in her quirky shy way.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fantasy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fantasy</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSInklingsStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSInklingsStory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.17 — Your MC's boss has done a job performance appraisal, share a few details.</p></blockquote><p>Hehehe. A "job performance appraisal," in not so many words, was the climatic scene in a short novel, before I rewrote it and added about 30% more content. Her <em>actual</em> boss (the main series antagonist) approves greatly of how the MC spent her last four years since running away, and knows a lot more about those years than the MC could have imagined. Despite the criminal activities the MC was involved in, what the boss sees is: She learned to fight smartly, became an effective thaumaturge, used her knowledge to help the individuals around her even if she didn't understand them (the MC is autistic), kept the people she was responsible for safe, and eventually guided a huge (albeit criminal) organization beyond a period of "disastrous mismanagement" with little loss of life while maintaining the peace. Temporarily taking over the "organization" included the ironic death of a woman that was trying to assassinate the main series antagonist; this might require a bonus!</p><p>The MC had thought the main series antagonist was evil before. Now, from her point of view, she's sure of it.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WritersCoffeeClub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritersCoffeeClub</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WCC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WCC</span></a> 2025.07.17 — How much can a reader learn about an author through their works?</p></blockquote><p>This worries me greatly. </p><p>I don't think that a reader can learn a lot about an author's public, or even private persona, from their stories unless the author intends it to be so. Hints maybe, philosophy likely, but about them? Not much. However, what leaks into the text (my text, anyway) is what most people severely censor, <em>what if's</em> we wouldn't approach "for reals." Fighting and the other f-word used as a verb, because readers want exciting stories—especially in genre fiction—that are NOT about the normal everyday people they know, or are. If you write murder mysteries, erotic fantasy, or vigilante adventure you are going to have to imagine <em>being those people</em> to write their stories, but this doesn't mean you murder people in a locked room, have a blazing libido, or use a .356 magnum to kill the criminals the police can't or won't. </p><p>My worry is that readers will think they understand me through my stories, and since my stories are more spicy these days than ever before, my self-censor is throwing fits and hysterics. I'm not my characters. I'm simply living the Walter Mitty life like every other reader, only more in control—though I'm sure people who ban books will be happy to tar me as advocating whatever offended them. Seems these days who you have sex with is far more important than the gun you conceal in your pants.</p><p>That's my thought on the subject, anyway. <strong>Note:</strong> I am still writing.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/ScribesAndMakers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ScribesAndMakers</span></a> 2025.07.17 — Tell us about a book you like despite its cover (don't show the cover yet.)</p></blockquote><p>The elevator pitch is "<em>Yentl</em> in the future." Google Yentl. My novel†. An SF YA. Published years ago before I took the R.S. nom de plume.</p><p>=-=-=-=-=-=<br>† I edited the post to be clear, <em>Yentl</em> is not my novel; I am simply not stating the title. Aren't the vagaries of English wonderful?</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a> and <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/CommentingIsCool" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CommentingIsCool</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/photographer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>photographer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/chef" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>chef</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/cooking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>cooking</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.16 — SC POV: What do you do to calm down when you’re angry?</p></blockquote><p>[Bolt closes her eyes in obvious emotional pain. As tears gather in her eyelashes, the day angel wraps her upper body in her wings to hide as she talks:] My friend calls it anger management; 'parently I keep on inflicting "life lessons" on myself. As a dumb, stupid, ignorant fledgling, I didn't calm down; I acted out. Rarely listened, got myself into fun trouble that was still trouble all the same, flew with hunky guys who were no good, and generally made my family regret I'd been born. Haven't tried to contact 'em since I threw that brick through the Hauler Guild's window 'fer rejected me, and rolled that pretty van down a hill. Ya could say I got to the point of calming down by breaking things and people's trust in me.</p><p>Running from the law has the effect of ya losing the privilege to be protected by that same law. I… [coughs] Okay, bad things happened and I lost control of my life, including the bein' able to fight being controlled. Not a child no more. How did I calm down? </p><p>Turned it inward. </p><p>My friend calls it "apathy." A-pathy: means "not feelin'." Got to the point where I ceased remembering my life, worked through criminal things I had no choice but to do, and, well, felt so very little I'd've been happy ta have suddenly died. I lived to 27 years surprisingly fast feelin' surprisingly numb, most days (surprisingly) blacked out from memory.</p><p>Friends changed that. They pointed out the good things I also did, and helped me find new dreams beyond my restrictions. Now, surprisingly often, I find that I cry. [She has lowered her blue feathered wings as she's talked, and you see tears streaming down her cheeks.]</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>microfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/flashfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>flashfiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/tootfic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tootfic</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/smallstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>smallstory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WordWeavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WordWeavers</span></a> 2025.07.15 — How emotionally intelligent is your MC?</p></blockquote><p>Referring to the definitions below: The devil-girl is very emotionally intelligent, or not emotionally intelligent at all. </p><p>She is intelligent enough to understand that her logical and mathematical intelligence doesn't cut it, which isn't at all helped by her being somewhat autistic. She knows she fails definition 1 below. However, she is very well trained, and has been trained from the age of five to be so, when she lost her family and ended up being raised by a guardian (a proxy for the main series antagonist)—until she ran away. </p><p>She could (and chooses to) convincingly act the part of definition number 2, including managing her own emotions no matter how infuriatingly stupid, stubborn, or vapid the vast majority of people she has had to deal with have turned out to be. Her internal dialogue is hilarious in this respect. </p><p>What she likes is being skilled, earning praise, and being challenged into learning something. What had been indoctrinated <em>into her</em> is that other people are like her, feel like her, and <em>want normalacy</em> like her (albeit differently), which is why she's unerringly willing to choose to "have the backs" of those she becomes responsible for. She's very skilled at putting herself in other's shoes.</p><p>Don't confuse this with empathy†. She occasionally toys with people, or acts with deadly logic. She doesn't tolerate continued stupidity for long. The "good" she has done thus far is by choice. Her choice. Forced to interact with people, she reframes the situation as being fun, or learning how to make it fun for herself.</p><p><strong>emotional intelligence</strong></p><p><strong>noun</strong></p><ol><li>Intelligence regarding the emotions, especially in the ability to monitor one's own or others' emotions. </li><li>The ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups.</li></ol><p>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<br>† There's the empathy she demonstrates (the reader gets to decide) and the empathy she'll admit to (which is none). If you practice something long enough it becomes reflexive. She may or may not get this.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<p>> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WritersCoffeeClub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritersCoffeeClub</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WCC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WCC</span></a> 2025.07.16 — How often do you raise questions in your writing without intention to answer them?</p><p>The keywords are "without intention." How often without intention? That would be never <em>intentionally.</em> </p><p>However, I do intentionally raise questions in stories that could lead to a sequel (or prequel) where I would (I hope) answer them. I may do this early on, or add threads that are only apparent in the epilogue. I sometimes raise questions <em>unintentionally,</em> bits of worldbuilding or plot or a fanciful side character that nevertheless gets baked into the workings of the world. I can think of at least one instance where a reader called me out on this, causing me to write further stories as a result.</p><p>However, I prefer to find and fry up my red herrings—with onions, salt, and pepper, and enjoy a meal of kippers.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a></p>
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/PennedPossibilities" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PennedPossibilities</span></a> 728 — Write about something your antagonist <del>(or villain)</del> frequently forgets.</p></blockquote><p>Rainy Days frequently forgets how difficult and painful giving birth is, especially when she's distracted in the moment.</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/mystery" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mystery</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/thriller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>thriller</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/romance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>romance</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>
TrendingLive feeds
Mastodon is the best way to keep up with what's happening.
Follow anyone across the fediverse and see it all in chronological order. No algorithms, ads, or clickbait in sight.
Create accountLoginDrag & drop to upload