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

Reviews are starting to trickle in. I'm so excited!

If you missed book 1, get it here: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

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

The Kobo ebooks are buy one, get one free for the entire month of February!

@bookstodon @romancelandia @lgbtqbookstodon

Swede1952, to ilaughed

Good morning, friends. 🌸🌸🌸

5 February 2024

I was just thinking about learning how to drive. I learned how in cars with manual transmissions. Now days we are hard pressed to find new cars with manual transmissions. I'll bet most people born in this century don't know how to operate a manual transmission, probably most towards the end of the 20th century as well. Here's another thought, try to find a new car with windows that you crank up by hand. Hmmm ... I remember the first car that I bought where the dimmer switch was on the column instead of the floorboard, it took me a while to figure that one out.

“Cars are evolving to match the new paradigm. Soon, things like steering wheels, pedals and rear-view mirrors will seem ancient. More practically, we will all be better able to optimize our time and attention to focus on more important tasks, family, work, and self-care.” - Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

#photo #photography #photographer #photographylovers #morning #cars #flower

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@Swede1952 I had a 2007 Hyundai Accent with a manual transmission and roll-down windows! Traded it in 2018 when we had kids and I needed a four-door car. The new car is electric, so nothing to shift. I miss it.

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/5: Can you feel the emotions of your characters when you write them?

I try them on a little. I try on facial expressions too. It's not quite the same as having my own feelings, but also better, because I don't have to have my own feelings.

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Yesterday I was trying to buy tickets, and ticketmaster has this thing where they call you and give you an EIGHT DIGIT NUMBER to put into the website to prove...I don't know what. And I was doing this all in the bathroom (hiding from children), so I wound up writing the number on my leg.

Anyway, today I still have an eight-digit number on my leg but I also have tickets to the Pixies.

willaful, to bookstodon
@willaful@romancelandia.club avatar

#WhatchaReading ? I tried The Actress and the Rake by Carola Dunn, but it gave me the ick. 🤢

Also reading a rather thematically interesting study on L.M. Montgomery and romance in her books and A Stroke of the Pen, rediscovered short stories by Terry Pratchett -- which are enjoyable, except I keep wondering if he'd want us to be reading them. :-(

@bookstodon @romancelandia
#AmReading

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@willaful @bookstodon I'm about done with On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. It's a lot.

I also got Seducing the Sorcerer by Lee Welch from the library...wasn't sure it was gonna grab my attention, but as at some point it started to.

@romancelandia

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub 2/2: Do you agree with Picoult--you should finish writing a book even if it's garbage?

Absolutely, yes. Few reasons:

1/ Your emotions are lies--you're seeing the back of the embroidery. It will take months before you have enough distance to know if it's good or not.

2/ You get to have written a good book by writing a crummy one and revising it, not writing an amazing one first time out.

3/ You will learn a lot from the experience--writing a novel is a skill.

pretensesoup, to indieauthors
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

If you are a Kobo person, both my novels are part of a buy one, get one free promotion over there for the month of February! If you like magic, the 1960s, philosophy, guys kissing, demons, zombies made of compost, crochety grandmothers, libraries, and no third-act breakup, you might like them, so this is a great time to try the series out for cheap.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dionysus-in-wisconsin

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/old-time-religion-1

@bookstodon @romancelandia #urbanFantasy #Kobo #IndieAuthors

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

The ten copies of Dionysus in Wisconsin that I ordered for last weekend's reading (at which no one bought any books) finally showed up.

Cool, cool.

Anyway, if you live in the US and you want a signed copy, hit me up. I can do Venmo or PayPal, $17 inc. shipping.

pretensesoup, to Parenting
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

6yo announced that the first graders got a dance party at school "to the zombie song."

Me: The zombie song? (I have played him a couple.)

6yo: With Michael Jackson?

#parenting

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

#WritersCoffeeClub 1/25: How do you feel about writers who write outside of their gender/sexuality/race/etc.?

My understanding of OwnVoices is that publishers should buy from diverse viewpoints rather than another Jonathan Franzen novel. Of course they don't.

It would be a boring world if no one wrote outside their own point of view (esp in the romance world, where books inevitably have two main characters). Writing from a different POV means thinking from one. Which is important work! (1/2)

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

One sees it done well and one sees it done poorly. It's important to think about where your blind spots are and try to find someone to help you with that. Recently read a novel where a character who complains of having no money/job takes cabs all over town and just sits in them, letting the meter run. No one who has been broke wrote that, I don't think. (2/2)

pretensesoup,
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

@cstross even Bilbo Baggins was pretty well-to-do before he left with the dwarves, as far as I can tell. He certainly didn't seem to have anything that would be called a job.

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Okay, looking for audiobook recs. Hopefully stuff my library has... I like urban fantasy over epic fantasy, romance is good, historical fiction is better than contemporary, some preference for queer over straight but willing to make an exception if the female main character is cool enough.

#books #romancelandia

pretensesoup, to books
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

This guy has been put for a week now, and I've been so excited to see that people have bought and enjoyed it, and even left a few nice reviews. If you missed it, it's available in loads of places, including Kobo Plus. Should be in paperback on Barnes and Noble later today.

OTR: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

If you missed Dionysus in Wisconsin: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

#books #bookstodon #gayRomance #urbanFantasy #indieAuthor @romancelandia #romancelandia #newRelease @lgbtqbookstodon @bookstodon

pretensesoup, to random
@pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

Just found out that a contest I submitted Dionysus in Wisconsin to will be judged by librarians. This is terrifying (there is nothing I want less in the world than to be judged by librarians), but also kind of exciting (librarians and archivists feature prominently, so maybe they'll like it?).

#WritingLife

lilithsaintcrow, to random
@lilithsaintcrow@raggedfeathers.com avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    pretensesoup,
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    @lilithsaintcrow

    Hilariously, and possibly a piece of what you are frustrated by, I didn't realize until this instant that they HAVE promotions. Hmm.

    @mwl

    pretensesoup, to random
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    #WritersCoffeeClub 1/18: Ever featured on BookTok? Thoughts re the platform?

    I am on TikTok, although my books haven't been BookTok hits. (TBH, the BookTok books I've read were not good.) I have made some history videos that went well, including one about cannibal sandwiches (https://www.tiktok.com/) that got like 8300 views, which was scary but ultimately fine.

    A book video: https://www.tiktok.com/

    Making videos is fun b/c I enjoy inflicting my nerdery on others, feelings about teens aside

    pretensesoup,
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    TikTok does give you really interesting analytics data about who watched your video, how fast they stopped (TikTok counts a "view" as someone starting the video; other platforms like Reels are different). So for example, neither video was watched all the way through by more than 25% of the audience.

    That's how it drives specialization and extremism, I think. You know what's successful and you can guess why. Possibly to my detriment, I refuse to pigeonhole myself.

    #WritersCoffeeClub

    pretensesoup,
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    Just to add, my suspicion is that TikToks need a TON of views to actually produce any book sales. I've had book videos that got 900-ish views and I don't believe they produced any sales. I don't even have enough followers to have a link in my bio (why is that a requirement? Idk).

    One interesting possibility is listing paperbacks through the TikTok shop. But again, if you don't have thousands of viewers, it's probably not going to lead to a ton of sales.

    pretensesoup, to books
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    Happy book birthday, Old Time Religion!

    Pick it up here: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

    If you missed book 1: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p

    Thanks as always to the amazing @eliotedits for editing it, and to a huge number of people who helped out in different ways, from research to language to childcare.

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

    pretensesoup, to random
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    #WritersCoffeeClub 1/11: Do you use dream sequences in your work? How do you feel about them?

    I do. Love a good dream sequence. Keep it short and make it weird.

    pretensesoup, to books
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    Just uploaded all my files to Amazon! If you like intrigue, libraries, philosophy, fighting demons or plant zombies, and overall a lot of plot to go with what might actually be kind of a gooey marshmallow center of a gay romance set against the backdrop of the late 1960s, you would like these.

    Book 1: https://books2read.com/u/49dN1p
    Book 2: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

    #books #bookstodon #urbanFantasy #gayRomance #historicalRomance #romancelandia #IndieAuthors #fiction @romancebooks @romancelandia

    pretensesoup, to indieauthors
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    This is the Roundhouse. It was built in 1969. I always thought it was kind of ugly, but it tried to be different and I can respect that. I used to visit various friends here, and I always wanted to jump off the balconies, so I finally wrote a fight scene set here in Old Time Religion.

    Ebook preorders are here: https://books2read.com/u/4jB8jl

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

    @bookstodon @romancelandia

    pretensesoup, to random
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    #WritersCoffeeClub 1/4: Is is okay to use a preposition to end a sentence with?

    A man, newly arrived at Harvard, gets lost and goes to one of his fellow students.

    "Excuse me," he says, "can you tell me where the cafeteria is at?"

    The man raises an eyebrow and doesn't answer, so our newcomer repeats the question.

    His interlocutor sighs. "Here at Harvard, we know never to end a sentence with a preposition."

    Our hero(?) says, "Ah. Then can you tell me where the cafeteria is at, asshole?"

    pretensesoup, to random
    @pretensesoup@romancelandia.club avatar

    It's just one thing after another this morning and I'd like it to stop.

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