@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

pretensesoup

@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club

Writer of queer historical urban fantasy romance and scifi dystopian prose poetry, pansexual, podcaster/producer (#AskAMedievalist), psychopomp, and so much more. Possibly.

I speak a bunch of languages badly. I don't sleep enough. Sometimes I go out and run long distances for fun.

She/they, it's all okay.

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pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#writersCoffeeClub 5/10: Do you know any good sources for publishing information?

Submission Grinder or Chill Subs are good to find journals and many small presses. Duotrope too, although it's subscription-based now.

Manuscript Wish List is the big place for agents, also Predators and Editors and Writers Beware.

The blog PublishedToDeath can be pretty good too.

Of FB groups, I've found 20BooksTo50K has good advice, although they can be a little culty.

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Dionysus in Wisconsin has also been shortlisted for the New England Romance Writers Readers' Choice Award in the paranormal/fantasy/scifi/time travel category! I didn't get a chance to make a graphic specifically for this one, but I'm excited--being shortlisted means it went up against more traditional M/F romances and won!

https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

#books #awards #romancelandia #fantasy #gayRomance #indieAuthor @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon @romancelandia

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

5/2: Have you had an idea halfway or more through a project that required extensive rewriting of what you've already done?

This is NORMAL for novel-sized projects! I'm 85% of the way into a manuscript right now. The original plan was a Frederick Forsyth style tribute to "Day of the Jackal", but halfway through it was carjacked and taken for a joy ride by The Abominable Doctor Phibes.

Bonus extra: it's set in an AU 2015 and concerns the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II ...

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@cstross When it happens, do you make the change starting where you are and then go back and fix the first part of the project later, or immediately rewrite it from the beginning to incorporate the change?

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

This is what happens when I don't get sick before an awards announcement: I watch a bunch of videos about graphic design, then forget them all and make this!

Dionysus in Wisconsin is a finalist in the fantasy/scifi category! So if you were putting it off because you don't read romance novels, never fear: it's also a fantasy.

https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

@bookstodon @romancelandia

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

This is what happens when I don't get sick before an awards announcement: I watch a bunch of videos about graphic design, then forget them all and make this!

Dionysus in Wisconsin is a finalist in the fantasy/scifi category! So if you were putting it off because you don't read romance novels, never fear: it's also a fantasy.

https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

@bookstodon @romancelandia

pretensesoup, to Parenting
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

A few weeks ago the 6yo heard "Solidarity Forever" (we were listening to Pete Seeger songs on shuffle) and I had to explain unions. IDK if he got it, but when we reread "Click, Clack, Moo" at his little bro's request, I said, "So this is how a union works," and he said "OH!"

Then b/c of a Tom Lehrer song intro, I had to try to explain who Malcolm X was.

At this point, Black Sabbath is the least troublesome band he listens to. Someone tell Tipper. Folk music has radicalized my kid.

#parenting

pretensesoup, to running
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Ran 3:25:xx for 27k at the Tour du Dodge. There was a little graupel. It's the end of April and it's barely 40 degrees. Course was nice, rolling hills (2k feet of climb) and wide grassy trails. I'm gonna be sore AF tomorrow.

#running

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#wordWeavers 4/20: Do you plan out your themes or allow them to develop as you write?

I don't know what the themes are until someone points them out to me, generally speaking. I'm just telling a story.

herhandsmyhands, to bookstodon
@herhandsmyhands@romancelandia.club avatar

@romancelandia @bookstodon

A day late, here's my April's #TBRChallenge review of Sarah Morgan's First Time in Forever.

#RomBkBlog

https://herhandsmyhands.wordpress.com/2024/04/18/first-time-in-forever-by-sarah-morgan/

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@herhandsmyhands wait, which sister told the FMC no one would love her? The 2yo or Lana? ...I kind of feel like neither option makes sense.

@romancelandia @bookstodon

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Haven't mentioned this for a bit, but if you like urban fantasy novels with gay romance in them that are set in 1969, a/ you have very specific taste, and b/ I have a book for you. Now with the added cred of being shortlisted for a Lammy in gay romance.

Book 2 in the series is also out, with book 3 coming in October.

Book 1: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

Book 2: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

@romancelandia @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon #books #urbanFantasy #historicalRomance

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#writersCoffeeClub 4/17: What genre(s) would you be terrible at writing?

I actually think most genres can be learned, and I like how romance can be blended up with most fiction genres.

On the other hand, I'm not interested in: nonfiction, Christian anything, hard scifi, Agatha Christie-style mysteries, books where people have no redeeming characteristics and just yell at each other, lots of racism/sexism, and serial killers.

Essentially I need a happy ending to make it worthwhile for me.

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub 4/13 Which "unfilmable" novel has worked best on screen?

I'm not a good person to ask about movies, but the film of Tristram Shandy (apparently released in some places as A Cock and Bull Story) was very good.

Schnuckster, to books
@Schnuckster@beige.party avatar

I was in the Gower Street Waterstones today, asking about where to find books on neurodiversity. Got told they could be in any of three or four places depending on the type of book it is. Made me wonder, when a bookshop is that big, wouldn't using Dewey decimal be a better option? #books #bookstodon @bookstodon 📚

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@Schnuckster bookstores use BISAC subject headings (in North America, anyway). I think probably it's easier for shelving—not all books are published with DDC already done, plus bookstores want to move books around to draw attention, and allegedly BISAC is less biased toward Western culture...

@bookstodon

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@Schnuckster five!!! And they didn't invest in a rattly, possibly haunted elevator or something? Tsk.

@bookstodon

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#writersCoffeeClub 4/8: Do you think of your books as having a particular length?

Yes. I curl up around 80k words like a possessive dragon.

But: all books are different. Write the book you're writing and not some weird mental ideal of it.

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@cstross do you think of yourself as a "write a long first draft and then cut it" writer, or more "write a short draft and add stuff"?

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#writersCoffeeClub 4/5: What's the best thing about being a writer?

At least sometimes, it's the writing.

"I learned three things in Zurich during the war. I wrote them down. Firstly, you’re either a revolutionary or you’re not, and if you’re not you might as well be an artist as anything else. Secondly, if you can’t be an artist, you might as well be a revolutionary... I forget the third thing." (From Travesties, by Tom Stoppard)

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#wordWeavers 4/4: Is there writing advice you used to follow but changed your mind?

Stephen King contended in On Writing that one shouldn't use adverbs--instead, choose a more precise verb. I've seen this expand, somewhat inexplicably, into "don't use adjectives" as well, and endless lists of alternatives to "said," and "filter words." All of this prescriptivism creates a very particular type of prose that isn't me. I've decided to revel in the poetic. Sometimes that means adverbs.

joyce, to random
@joyce@hcommons.social avatar

I know that today's #WritersCoffeeClub question intends "grammar" as a catch-all word, but as writers we do know that grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling are different things, don't we? Don't we?

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@joyce I would say syntax and punctuation are usually taught under the rubric of grammar, or "things that make your sentences grammatical" in school, so the confusion is not unfounded.

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@joyce after undue consideration, I asked a linguist if something could be grammatically correct and syntactically rejected, and they told me a joke:

A: Knock, knock.
B: Who's there?
A: To.
B: To who?
A: No, to whom.

kimlockhartga, to books
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon Hey, I love me some Penguin Random House as much as the next reader, but I'm also interested in the indies, which are usually more daring than the Big Five.

Favorite indie publishers? Please add to my list:

Two Dollar Radio
Bluemoose
Unnamed Press
Coffeehouse
Small Beer
Graywolf
Catapult
Driftwood
Black Spot
Future Tense
Copper Canyon
Tin House
Dzanc
Melville House
Quirk
Blackwater
Red Hen
City Lights
Algonquin
Black Rose
Hellbound
Wakefield
Fledgling

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@kimlockhartga Milkweed Editions

@bookstodon

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

I meant to post about this yesterday, but then one of the kids gave me a norovirus, so I did that instead. Dionysus in Wisconsin has been shortlisted for a Lammy in gay romance. I'm very excited to be up there with so many greats!

You can check out the whole shortlist here: https://lambdaliterary.org/awards/current-finalists/

If you're interested in DIW, you can find it on various websites here: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

Special extra thanks to @eliotedits, editor par excellence.

@bookstodon

HeliaXyana, to writing
@HeliaXyana@mastodon.nl avatar

I wonder what tense you've all chosen to write in and why.

I know past tense is likely the most common, but I have experimented with both and decided that present tense offers more direct immersion for my purposes.
This also ties into who the narrator is. In my WIP, it is a person in the room invisibly tagging along with the MC.

How did you decide, and is it reflected in the identity of the narrator?

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@HeliaXyana I mean, all fiction is like that. There is a certain suspension of disbelief. It would be very postmodern to somehow set a whole novel in the present forever, because your words are necessarily pinned down once you've written them.

Personally I tend to prefer 3rd limited past tense unless there's a really good reason not to. Too many first person POVs can feel indistinct and present tense feels like fanfiction. And 2nd person means something Literary is happening.

@Firlefanz

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@HeliaXyana @Firlefanz

I'm sure there are those on here with more familiarity than I, but what I've read seems to be largely present tense. I realize I sounded a little derogatory in my prev post. Lots of fanfic is very good!

I think writers think much more about tense than readers do, tbh. Some people profess strong preferences, but I don't pay much attention as long as the book is well written.

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub 3/18: Do you ever use parentheses/brackets in your writing?

Sometimes. Usually they get removed or replaced with em dashes in the final draft.

Oddly, both my mom and my thesis advisor (who I think was a bit younger than her, maybe ten years) HATED em dashes. Saw them as intellectual laziness.

But of the few problems with the books she's mentioned, the presence of em dashes hasn't been one, so perhaps Mom's stance has mellowed.

Here's an unpublished example of parentheses.

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