wendypalmer

wendypalmer, 19 days ago to linguistics

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 😉

#WritingCommunity #linguistics #quite

wendypalmer, 2 months ago to AncientGreek

Any experts in Ancient Greek in the fediverse who would be willing to spend a little time to help me rework some words for a fantasy novel in the same way Latin often gets abused by fantasy novellists?

#AncientGreek #language #writing

wendypalmer, 14 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 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, 1 month ago to fantasy

May the Fourth is also my latest book's birthday 🎉

Domesticated Magic is a romantic fantasy towards the cosy end of the spectrum, with The Feels, and a grumpy-sunshine-type m/m pairing.

Mateo and his family fled when their people turned to sorcery. Mateo’s own magic is tame but it’s still banned in their new home...yet they use it every day. But the sorcery seems to have followed them. They already lost their world once. Mateo can’t let them lose again.

Read more plus find buy links here (also on #KoboPlus and Everand):
https://wendypalmer.au/books/#domestic

#fantasy #romance #NewRelease #bookstodon #books #SelfPromo #indie @lgbtqbookstodon

Animated version of the cover of Domesticated Magic. The cover, blue border (half Greek-style tiles, half Viking-style runes), title and author name are split in two by a black lightning bolt. On one side is the outline of a bull's face made of curly floral-like lines. It glides in from the left, wearing a rather insouciant expression as it stares at the viewer. A green butterfly perches on one horn, gently pulses. It stands out against the cream background, black lines, and blue border and text. On the other side of the cataclysmic split is the helm of awe, a snake-like dragon biting its own tail to form a circle around magic runes. The dragon rolls in from the right to stare at the bull, and does not look impressed.

wendypalmer, 11 months ago to Stoicism

Having been sampling Stoicism books over the last few years, here’s three I personally found most useful/applicable:

Think Like A Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World by Massimo Pigliucci - thorough but easy to digest introduction. Part of the Great Courses series, so each topic is in handy 25-ish minute chunks, making them easy to revisit when a refresher is needed.

Being Better: Stoicism for a World Worth Living In by Kai Whiting and Leonidas Konstantakos - excellent and practical examination of the pro-social nature of stoicism, often overlooked on a superficial reading (or deliberately ignored by people wanting to use stoicism as an excuse to be selfish).

Reasons Not to Worry: How to be Stoic in Chaotic Times by Brigid Delaney - relatable chronicle of her own stoic journey and grappling with some of the harder to grasp components.

Bonus: not a Stoicism book, but since an under-appreciated aspect of capital-S Stoicism (vs common parlance of being stoic) is that positive emotions are A-OK, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay - little essays practising finding delight every day.

Extra Bonus! My favourite Stoicism Podcast - the What is Stoicism Podcast (good weekly dose, and the host has a nice voice :)

@bookstodon
#stoicism

wendypalmer, 10 months ago to random

Help with tech issue please!

My son’s brand-new school Windows laptop’s battery is not lasting as long as it needs to: he uses it for one 40-minute WebEx system, which uses up 50% of the battery, and then one independent study session and one in-class session, both of which are just web-based research and/or ebook reading, and typing in Word.

We’ve turned on every battery-saving option we can find, including turning off auto load/background refreshes, turning down the screen brightness and turning the video streaming off HD. This last made the WebEx session use 40% rather than 50%, but overall he’s just left on 5% now instead of completely dead. If he has a day needing more video, or if more classes require a laptop, it’s not adequate.

It was advertised as lasting 14 hours. I know that doesn’t translate to real-world use, but 2.5 hours seems extremely poor. Is the battery a dud, is this just what WebEx/modern apps do, or is there some other setting we can play with?

#laptop #ITHelp #TechHelp #BatteryLife

wendypalmer, 8 months ago to random

#Asstodon fans, could I get some classic names for donkeys? ETA: female/unisex names please.

(I have a character who is told off for not naming his donkey and spends some time ruminating on various possibilities, but I’m drawing a bit of a blank on “typical” donkey names. It’s set in the distant past.)

#AmWriting

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to random

#WordWeavers Dec 14: Do you write characters with different sexual orientations and gender identities from your own? What guides your writing?

Yes I do, moving from very straight, white, cis, in my earliest book in 2010 to very diverse in my latest, and shifting from m/f romances to every combo.

It’s mostly for representation, and a deliberate pushback against terfy bullshit. It greatly disturbs me that my gender has been rolled up into a narrow stick to beat trans people with. I’ve read an unpleasant terfy essay describing what a “real woman” is, and I, a cishet woman, did not meet her my-size-fits-all definition, and I’m glad to not be so one-dimensional. I’d certainly never want to write such a one-dimensional character.

I try to write people. In fact, my next planned WIP was originally intended to be m/m, and I’ve flipped it to f/f and haven’t changed the characters’ personalities or mannerisms at all.

wendypalmer, 5 months ago to art

Australian artists, do you have a 2024 calendar featuring your art that I can order online (from an Australian site with reasonable postage)?

Photography or art prints all good, does not have to be Australia-themed.

#Art #Australia #IndieArtists

wendypalmer, 2 months ago to Etymology

My partner decided “loaf” was a weird word so I looked up its etymology and now we know “lord” comes from “loaf-ward” ie guardian of the bread.

#etymology #TIL

wendypalmer, 1 year ago to random

I listened to a podcast with “three simple shifts for living a more sustainable life” and it was meant to be a “stay positive, small things can make a difference” hopeful episode and all it did was depress me because I’ve been doing those three simple things (and more) for years and I think we’re far beyond small individual changes making any sort of difference.

So please, #ClimateChange experts - please tell me three EFFECTIVE things an individual can do (in 2023, in rural Australia) that might help make their kid’s world even slightly better 20 years from now?

In the mood I’m in, I’m just hoping it’s not “start stockpiling tinned food and bottled water”.

(We do the sustainability basics, we’re on solar panels and electric car, we’re planting trees, we’ve reduced our meat consumption and food waste, we don’t do fast fashion, we vote with climate in mind, I used to write to my MPs before I gave up…but there must be more an individual can do)

#sustainability #climateCrisis #AlsoPersonalCrisis

golgaloth, 1 month ago to writing

Have you ever felt the need to tone down your story for publication?

#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #writing

wendypalmer, 1 year ago to random

The Icelandic phrase “þetta reddast” is so frequently used, it has been described as the country’s motto. “Þetta reddast” can be translated to “it will all work out okay”.

From: https://icelandmag.is/article/what-does-thetta-reddast-mean

The Icelandic equivalent of the Australian “she’ll be right, mate”

#language

wendypalmer, 24 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 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, 1 month ago to random

Latest book all uploaded to the various ebook vendors, just in time to beat the preorder deadline 🎉

And that's it for being in that world... Bye-bye, boys! Bye Mateo, you grouchy sweetheart. Bye Jonas, you presumptuous charmer. But I'll miss Anika and her cosy teahouse most of all 🍵

#WritingCommunity #BitterSweet #ByeByeHaveFun #PrincessBride

wendypalmer, 24 days ago to random

My timeline at the moment 😂

wendypalmer, 10 days ago to random

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
😭

#CountryLife

wendypalmer, 10 days ago to sport

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, 8 days ago to queer

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, 6 days ago to random

#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)

allisonwyss, 19 days ago to random

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?

#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #FairyTale #imprompt2 #Bookstodon #PrincessBride

https://bit.ly/4bJnIst

golgaloth, 5 days ago to writing

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.

#WritingCommunity #AmWriting #writing #authodons

wendypalmer, 6 days ago to writing

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.

#writing #AmResearching #WeddingCustoms

adriabailton, 3 months ago to random

#Writephant Q1. What is your favorite grammar rule?

Feel free to reply or copy into your own answer, but don't forget the #Writephant either way! Don't forget related hashtags, such as #WritingCommunity #WritersofMastodon #AmWriting #AmEditing #AmRevising and #Grammar