@wendypalmer@mastodon.au
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

wendypalmer

@wendypalmer@mastodon.au

I write fantasy ebooks & family-friendly puzzle walk trails while enjoying farm life with goats, alpacas & bees in the South West Boojarah region of Western Australia.

I follow & boost writing, reading, books, knitting, science, history, linguistics, environment, art & Stoicism.

She/her. Avatar AltText: silhouette of a woman in profile, with glasses & bobbed hair; header is my book covers (alt texts on website).

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golgaloth, to writing
@golgaloth@writing.exchange avatar

Releasing a book as an independent author these days is like screaming into the ... wait, hang on.

Do any of you use particular strategies for increasing awareness that your book actually exists? Help an author out, here.

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@golgaloth I know some people have had great success with facebooks ads…

There’s a particular guru who several writers here have said is helpful — I’ve forgotten the name but @adaddinsane I think has mentioned him?

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub May 3. Should books include a content warning?

(LONG, and it gets pretty footnotey)

They serve a valuable function, though “should” is a strong word. In one way, it’s a personal preference — I see more content warnings in author notes than from the publisher, which implies to me that the publisher is neither enforcing content warnings nor preventing them. And obviously self-published authors (like myself) make the decision for themselves, both to include them or not, and where to draw the line.

BUT if the author/publisher doesn’t provide them, it’s almost certain that reviewers will. Some reviewers just list them to help out other readers. But some get very annoyed that they had to find out for themselves.

I also suspect it’s generational ie younger authors are more likely to do it, for their younger (but still adult) audience. I think it comes from losing the unspoken cues (imprint, genre, cover style, blurb etc) from traditional publishing that told us what to expect, due to the rise of genre-busting self-publishing, and also a more general blurring of genre lines, combined with the culture of fanfic, where thorough warnings are expected as a community-driven convention.

And I also think it is a bit muddled, as any big and self-determined umbrella term is likely to become. It can be “warning: contains graphic violence” or it can be “warning: only-one-bed trope alert!!!” And that’s ok but it might undermine the serious content warnings for the readers who need them. But I think readers have become used to parsing CWs for themselves.

(1/3)

wendypalmer, to writing
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

Today, in my adventures in foolishly asking the internet general research questions:

The internet, shamelessly repeating the same factoid endlessly: throwing rice at weddings is an ancient tradition dating back to the Romans!

An anonymous old lady writing a cranky letter to the editor in 1895: this is a modern tradition that doesn't date back more than forty years and needs to stop before it takes a new bride’s eye out.

wendypalmer, to queer
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

As usual, my light fantasy romance books (LGBTQ+ characters, positive rep) are on sale for all of June at Smashwords. DRM-free, and I’m happy to virtually assist with sideloading to your ereader if you need it.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

And as usual, I will donate ALL my June royalties, not just from Smashwords sales, to an Australian LGBTQ+ charity (at the moment I favour the Equality Project, but am open to suggestions).

The Uses of Illicit Art (m/m romance) is my most popular book but I’d like to put in a good word for Fair Haven (m/nb romance) and Domesticated Magic (transm/m romance).

#pride #books #LGBTQ @lgbtqbookstodon

wendypalmer, to sport
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

It’s fascinating being a parent of a child of a sex “invading” the environs of a single-sex sport — in this case, it’s a boy, playing high school netball, which until last year was all-girl (primary age was mixed, and social adult teams can be mixed, and the state body was wanted the local comps to get more men playing…but if you cut boys out of the sport for 5 years 🤷)

At a tournament where the all-boys team was thrashed by every girls teams, I overheard some pretty snide comments along “these arrogant boys, thinking they can come along and beat our girls” lines — the organisers of your girls comp were so scared untrained boys could beat skilled girls that they forced them to play up in both age and skill. You should be insulted, not smug.

And last night my partner had to sit through “this shouldn’t be allowed, it’s too unfair” comments from a grandmother at the domestic comp, who was watching her granddaughter’s team get trounced by our son’s team.

At this local, amateur, level, though, it doesn’t matter. The only thing, the only thing he does that the girls don’t do is jump for rebounds. He can do a fast chest pass? So can the girls. He can lob the ball as far as it’s allowed to go? So can the girls. He can catch pretty much any pass? So can the girls. They sure as hell outrun him and know much more about positioning!

The reason our 13 year old boy is a better player than your 12 year old girl is that it’s his second year in this age group. He was as outmatched as your granddaughter his first year too!

Anyway, it reminded me of that girls basketball team being banned from a boys comp in case (/because) they beat the boys. And of course the viciousness aimed at trans kids. I’m sure there’s a different psychology behind each case, but the underlying mechanism seems to be fear. And a sexism, often unconscious, that assumes the magic of XY can and should automatically beat anything XX.

#sport #KidsSport #netball

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

A sad story told by counting mostly ducks 🦆

1 duck (hen), 2 drakes
1 duck, 2 drakes, 8 eggs
1 duck, 2 drakes, 6 dud eggs, 2 ducklings!
🦊
1 duck, 2 drakes
1 duck, 2 drakes, 12 eggs
1 duck, 2 drakes, 2 crows, 3 eggs
1 duck, 2 drakes, 2 ducklings!
1 duck, 2 drakes, 1 duckling
1 duck, 3 drakes
1 duck, 3 drakes, 10 eggs
1 duck, 3 drakes, 8 ducklings!
1 duck, 3 drakes, 2 crows, 7..6..5…4…3…2…1 duckling, 1 more crow
1 duck, 3 drakes
1 duck, 3 drakes, 8 eggs
🦊
0 ducks, 3 drakes, 8 eggs
0 ducks, 3 drakes, 1 clucky chicken, 8 eggs
0 ducks, 3 drakes, 4 handraised ducklings
2 ducks, 5 drakes
🪓
2 ducks, 1 drake
🦊
0 ducks, 1 drake
😭

aehdeschaine, to Stoicism
@aehdeschaine@zirk.us avatar

I've never been able to get into Stoicism, but I still like reading about different philosophies. However, I also know that that is one where a lot of popular works deviate badly from the original.

So, a question: are Ryan Holiday's books solid/accurate? Are they in line with ancient Stoic philosophy? Are they a purely modern interpretation? Are they worth reading for growing my non-expert knowledge (in a positive, not just critiquing, way)?

@bookstodon

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@aehdeschaine @bookstodon I don’t know about Ryan Halliday (he strikes me as quite commercial but that could be unfair), but I do very much like Kai Whiting’s Being Better, Massimo Pigliucci’s Think Like a Stoic, and Brigid Delaney’s Reasons Not to Worry.

(And also the weekly The What is Stoicism? Podcast)

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

May 25 and 26 twofer: cover art and writers guide

I do all my own covers, due to budget. I’ve become better as I’ve gone along but I have trouble matching the cover properly to the tone of the book. Mostly this is lack of technical skill and artistic ability, partly it’s the same trouble I have with picking a representative title.

My covers are all in my header (and I have a blog post about updating one: https://wendypalmer.au/2024/05/14/author-notes-new-cover-just-dropped/) , but my latest is below.

I like it (and I love that smug little smile on the Taurasi bull’s face) but it doesn’t exactly scream quirky queer romantic fantasy 🤷

This is also the book I’d most like to write a guide, or really an annotated version, for. I mostly write standalones or short series, there isn’t a huge amount that would be interesting to add, but there’s a lot going on in the background for Domesticated Magic.

wendypalmer, to bookstodon
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

This is one of those times I wish people would include a review with their rating 😊

(It’s for How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying)

@bookstodon

willaful, to RomanceBooks
@willaful@romancelandia.club avatar

? I liked Funny Story by Emily Henry enough to write a review, damn! 😂

https://willaful.wordpress.com/2024/05/22/funny-story-by-emily-henry/

@romancelandia
@romancebooks

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks that sounds nice, I’m going to add to be TBR 😊

wendypalmer, to linguistics
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

When people tell me they read one of my books and found it “quite good”, I like to assume they’re from the US where “quite” apparently means “very” 😊

As opposed to the UK/Aus, where “quite good” is just damning with faint praise.

Unless you say it was “really quite good”. That’s when you mean “very good”.

If you say “quite good, really”, that means you’re surprised it was any good.

And if you say “Oh, I say, that is quite, quite remarkable”, you’re an 18th-century Earl confronted by a tempestuous highland beauty who is tossing her raven-black locks and flashing her sapphire-blue eyes at you because you’re enclosing her commons 😉

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@pelielios oh that’s interesting, my instinctive response was “of course muppets is an insult” because I’ve heard it like that so often.

Our neighbouring town is called Manjimup (on the linguistics topic, place names in Western Australia with the -up ending generally are Indigenous words, with -up meaning “place of”) so naturally, in the manner of friendly small town rivalry, they are called the Manji Muppets.

Though my partner ran a basketball tournament between the two towns and was rather shocked to discover the friendly small town rivalry wasn’t so friendly after all.

allisonwyss, to random
@allisonwyss@zirk.us avatar

I have less of a point or argument here than a musing. But I wrote about my fascination with fairy-tale time, its unpinnability, and how I keep wondering what relation that might have to the pseudo-contemporary non-time we find in many realistic stories.

What do you think?

https://bit.ly/4bJnIst

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@allisonwyss

I do wonder how much of contemporary non-time comes from “a fish has no word for water” type thinking.

As in, if writing historical fiction (or fantasy inspired by historical settings, as is my experience), a writer will research the era, and deliberately put in markers of the time period (technology, fashion, language) and avoid anachronisms. The writer really has to really think about time eg I wrote in the “unspecified past” for my fairytale world, but at one point they go into the “real” world and so I pinned the time a la historical fiction (with the waltz and dance cards).

But if writing contemporary fiction, the setting is just “now”. The focus might be on making the “here” feel authentic, and taking the “now” for granted.

On the other hand, it almost seems like a genre convention: deliberately don’t put in anything that will date. Ignoring that any mention of technology will date it. That language change alone, not even in slangy dialogue but just in the narrative, will date it faster than anything.

That doesn’t mean the author is obliged to try and pin it down, of course, but being vague doesn’t work make it timeless, it just gives it that familiar non-time feeling you talk about. But I’ve read books that really feel like the author has taken a historical fiction approach to contemporary fiction by putting in those little time-specific details, and it’s noticeable.

BTW, I’m reading the Beowulf translation by Maria Dahvana Headley at the moment, and she’s made the conscious decision to use modern slang, and why not? The translations are always a product of the time they were made in, as well as the product of a scribe or two 1500 years ago, and all the oral reciters in the years before that.

As an aside, I do find the collective decision to “skip” the pandemic (unless the pandemic is a plot point) to be fascinating. The same thing happened with the pandemic 100 years ago.

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

May 16: What's your target audience? Why?

Ok, hmmm…

People who like cosy fantasy with Happy Ever Afters, but want Plot as well as Just Vibes, who enjoy or at least don’t mind open-door sex scenes, who are open-minded about queer characters, and who are a bit over massively long and overdramatic series about teenagers and their love triangles and just want a quick and fun stand-alone read.

So, you know, me and six people 😃

A gif from Futurama, Leila saying “so what does this mean for us and our many fans” — there are many fans (you know, the blowy sort) in the background.

wendypalmer, to random
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

My timeline at the moment 😂

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

Though to be fair, Murderbot bot could have been talking to the Pliny clickbait bot instead (or as well)

wendypalmer, to books
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

For fans of AJ Demas, she has a new book on preorder! It has felt so long since the last one, I was beginning to get worried about her 😊

https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/the-house-of-the-red-balconies

@bookstodon

KathyReid, to random
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

In the most glorious "fuck you" I have seen in a while, you know the book that Cumberland City Council banned because they're homophobic bigots - Holly Duhig's "A focus on Same Sex Parents"? Well, the publisher, BookLife Publishing, have made a PDF version of the book available for free.

Sure be a shame if it was shared far and wide now, wouldn't it?

Every time you ban a book filled with hope and kindness, and care and love, we will resist.

https://www.booklifepublishing.co.uk/a-focus-on/same-sex-parents/

#CumberlandCityCouncil #SameSexParents #BookBans #Bookstodon

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@KathyReid how apt are these screengrabs from the book (pdf provided free from the publisher, everyone, share it wide)

#BookBans #Cumberland #ThisIsNotOK

The heading says “Building a Community”. The body says “It takes many different types of families to make a community. Treating everybody equally is the best way of building a community.”

Firlefanz, (edited ) to random
@Firlefanz@writing.exchange avatar

EDIT: It's closed. Almost 600 entries. 300 will be randomly picked.

Today is SPFBO day.

Doesn't mean a thing to you?

It's the biggest indie fantasy award, and you can submit your book today. Only today. It's open for 24h, starting at 1pm GMT.

And yes, maybe it is foolish to up the competition and invite even more authors, but I believe in sharing. I believe we're all in it together.

So check it out here:
https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-official-self-published-fantasy.html


wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@Firlefanz full already 😊 did you get in?

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@Firlefanz oh sorry, I was seeing last year’s (where it filled in 41 minutes)

(“1pm today” was a different time for me than you 😊)

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@Firlefanz yes I saw that (thank you, a lot of people don’t) but I’m terrible at translating times so it was quicker for me to just click on the link to read about it (I’m not entering, just curious), and on my little phone, the only paragraph visible was “filled in 41 minutes” 😂

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@Firlefanz it’s good they adjusted their system — good luck with it!

wendypalmer,
@wendypalmer@mastodon.au avatar

@crcollins @Firlefanz I read that too (once I went back and actually scrolled down 🤦‍♀️). I assumed it was wording from previous years. Surely this year where only a random selection of the entrants will go into the actual contest, they’d allow resubmission if yours missed out — but hopefully they update the wording to make it clear one way or the other.

(Though I see the page has been updated and you both made it past that first hurdle — congratulations and best wishes for the next stages 😃)

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