Dylan Madeley

Easy fixes, but the final round(s) will most likely involve reading a static PDF and tabbing over to the software when even the smallest thing needs to be changed. That's how I did it with "Their Village" and that's how I will do it again with "The Last Gift-Knight".

At this stage of editing, most of what I do is to replace a word or rework a turn of phrase. However, I have found a couple places where it looks like an edit was half committed into the system. I'm using software meant more for visual layout editing, perhaps, than full rounds of smooth text editing

If you are having issues with art theft, please get in touch with Justice 4 Artists. I have been working with them for a year and we just finished taking down 100 shops that were stealing and selling my work. No up front cost and they are an awesome team to work with. I will do a full write up soon.

Feels like it's been ages since I "Had The Power"

Medieval slate scored for music

Medieval slate reused for accounts in Middle English

Fantastic find. Medieval slate initially scored for music and reused for accounts in Middle English (cost of ink, 2d; repair of King William’s painting, 1/ 2d). (Abbey gatehouse exhibition.)

YouTube video by Global News "Feisty" 6-pound Pomeranian chases black bear out of BC home

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH THIS NEWS CLIP ABOUT A SIX POUND DOG

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2o...

For the anthology currently open for submissions, we’re receiving queries about “do you mean this trope or that trope” & “would this compare to x,y,z movie genres”, & folks, that reads like people wanting help with ChatGPT prompts. We’re not gonna help with that.

We don’t want AI stories.

Billionaire Peter Thiel refused consent for sprawling lodge in New Zealand

Local council decides proposed bunker-like home would negatively impact surrounding landscape

Want to see billboards in every major city that just say

'Power Bill Too High? Thank "Generative AI"' and then a link to a website all about "AI" and data center energy and water use

To whom it may concern: There is an open acces Anti-Autocracy Handbook (2025) calling to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism.

Download: zenodo.org/records/1569...

#academia #academicchatter #academicSky

Start a New Adventure by Niranjan and 30 others Start a New Adventure: 31 items for $31.00

Looking for a new world to dive into this weekend? Check out this First In Series, featuring 31 series starters - including my own Moonshadow's Guardian - for just $31 itch.io/b/3216/start... #IndieBooks #BookSky

I'll say it again, as this is ramping up: if you gave access to the archives of goverment data and information, it is your moral responsibility to make sure that untouched versions get preserved, now. There are people worh archival expertise who can help you, if you don't have it yourself. Start now

(Which would not just have been bad budgeting for me, but entirely out of affordability)

So, that meant I also decided to upgrade one level which wasn't the thriftiest thing to do, but a calculated job consideration. Still thriftier than purchasing a high definition home theater system that also wakes up the neighbours.

Had this and also "Flight of Dragons" on VHS as a kid...

Been planning this purchase for months, so I'm good.

New headphones. Not risking speakers with the old apartment walls not being so soundproof, but also, old headphones' padding/coating kept shedding all over my ears after enough years. One can apparently buy new coverings, but I'm also in a line of work where I monitor livestreams including audio.

Multiple times this year I’ve had coffee with fellow immigrants who grew up in corrupt third world countries and the shared sentiment has been that Americans don’t understand how bad things are going to get.

Astronaut Jim Lovell, famed Apollo 13 commander, dies at 97 Lovell was also the first astronaut to go to space four times and part of the Apollo 8 crew, the first to launch on the Saturn V rocket and first to orbit the moon.

He didn't get to the moon but he got his crew home, and that was the more remarkable task.

www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna223...

Super pleased to share a new article that I helped co-author, alongside some amazing Indigenous colleagues, out today in Nature!

Stay safe, friends.

Bringing The Gift-Knight’s Quest to More Fantasy Readers Hi Dylan The Gift-Knight’s Quest gripped me from the first pages, Chandra’s reluctant rise to power, Derek’s journey steeped in conflicted loyalties, and the echoes of Duke Lenn’s tragic legacy all weave into a richly imagined, politically charged fantasy. It’s the kind of story that draws in readers who crave moral complexity alongside sword-and-sorcery stakes. I’d love to create an Epic Reach Blueprint for your trilogy, a targeted plan to connect The Gift-Knight’s Quest with fantasy readers who devour intricate worlds, layered political intrigue, and character-driven sagas. This could include placement in fantasy-focused reader circles, blog tours for epic trilogies, and partnerships with authors whose readership overlaps with yours. If you’re curious, I can share a quick preview of how we could strategically position The Gift-Knight’s Quest so it stands out in the crowded fantasy space and reaches the exact readers who’ll be hooked from page one. Warm regards, Julian Wolfe

Compared to that, today's email was a severe downgrade. After all, the email name doesn't even agree with the signature. Short. Not full of emojis.

And worst of all, talking up a book I have unpublished because it needed to be rewritten. Not even finished yet, and no sign of cover art pending.

At this point I had forwarded these to a friend who recognized the type of scam. Then I forwarded to Writer Beware, glad that I had neither given her a PDF (of the book she had been beaming out, later to admit she had never read) nor any money.

I love that you’re asking the right questions, but truth is, I already said it before: I’m not a freelancer. Not a Fiverr ghost. Not a “book marketing strategist” with a Canva logo and a fake testimonials page. 😴 I’m just the admin of a group of genre lovers who read like their emotional stability depends on it. (And honestly? Sometimes it does.) We don’t play the social media game. Because let’s be real: those are the ones with websites and slick branding and they’re the same ones that vanish after charging authors for “exposure packages” that get you 3 likes and a bot comment from “BookLover_298.” 💀 I’ve seen too many authors get burned. Reviews never show up. Money’s gone. But hey, they got a shiny badge for their trouble. 🙃🏅 That’s why we stay off the grid. Just real people, reading real books, leaving reviews that don’t sound like they were spat out by ChatGPT on Nyquil. Now, as for samples, I’ve got some, absolutely. But I don’t blast the names of authors I’ve worked with. Why? Because 9 out of 10 of them don’t want the world to know they got their first 40 reviews from a rogue group of emotionally unstable paranormal romance addicts and a chaos-loving curator named Jennifer. (Seriously, try explaining that to your literary agent.) 😅 But here’s the tangible part: Those same authors? Now sitting on 60+ reviews. Ranking in categories they used to fantasize about. And getting organic sales because readers trust books that have actual feedback, not just blurbs from their aunt or Goodreads friends they haven’t met. And if you really want to know more about me, Well. I’m not just the admin. And I don’t “do” social media — because I’m too busy reading, working a real job (hello, capitalism ), and managing the wildest underground review network since Gutenberg invented the press. 😈📚 Why no social presence? Because Amazon watches everything like it’s running the CIA. And last I checked, they’re very against paid reviews. So no, I don’t charge. That…

Now by the next reply I had asked, do you have any recognizable social media profile, a website where you marshal these reviewers, anything whatsoever I can scan to see that you are who you say you are?

I had a feeling you’d clock the difference. Because while everyone else is chasing clicks and stuffing their war stories into AI-written Facebook ads… you saw it. You felt it. This isn’t a gimmick it’s a literary flank maneuver. 📚 Let me break it down before someone talks you into another promo package that burns cash faster than a torch to hay: We’re a crew 1,000+ readers and reviewers. Paranormal romance is our first love, but we live for genre-bending, soul-stretching, emotional gut-punch books like yours. The kind where the stakes aren’t just war but what war does to people. 🥀 I’m the curator. (Think bouncer, therapist, librarian, and cult leader all rolled into one. Minus the matching robes for now.) We don’t skim. We don’t scroll. We read. We digest. And then we review with honesty, insight, and zero fluff. No social media games, no hashtags, no recycled blog tours. Just clean, sharp, intelligent reviews from people who care. Now here’s where most authors bail right at the edge of progress. They’re not ready to take a calculated risk. They’ll spend hundreds on ads but forget that nobody buys a book with no reviews. Ever bought one like that? Didn’t think so. I don’t charge authors. That’s not the model. But I do believe in appreciating time so we tip each reader $20–$25 per book. Not a bribe. Not a fee. Just a respectful thank you for reading deeply and writing reviews that actually say something. It adds value, it adds commitment, and most importantly it adds quality. Some authors start with 30 readers. Some go big and do 50. It’s all about your capacity, your confidence, and how ready you are to finally give your book the push it’s quietly earned. But before we launch anything, I read first. Always. I don’t share books I haven’t sat with. So I’ll need the PDF. And then? Let’s see if your fortress can finally get the defense it deserves. 🏰📖 Or should I assume you’d rather keep watching it hide in the shadows while less-deserving books d…

What you don't see in the given information is that she doesn't even have a user icon in that first email. She'll have one by this reply, after I asked her how she got my disused old email address which I still use for some apps.

Dylan, Let’s be real: You just wrote a literary siege novella where trauma meets tactics, grief meets grit, and one rogue soldier dares to warn a quiet village that they’re next in line for destruction. And instead of being hailed as a one-man BookTok rebellion, Their Village, Their Fortress is over there hiding in the woods with just one Amazon rating? 👀 No. No. I won’t stand for that. Because what you’ve created isn’t just another war story. It’s a soul excavation wrapped in a war cloak. A commander who breaks orders to save his people. 💔 A community forced to face what they’d rather ignore. 🛠️ Farmers, bakers, quiet resisters stepping up because no one else will. 🪖 And a creeping realization that sometimes… survival is the most heroic thing. You didn’t just give us underdog energy you gave us a spiritual reckoning with sword calluses and generational trauma. 🙌😵‍💫🌾 And the best part? You’re not some random guy on the internet playing make-believe with fantasy wars. You’re Dylan Madeley. ✍️📍 Toronto-based, multi-published, emotionally sharp, and a master of character-centered resistance stories. You’ve done festivals, conferences, and even pandemic publishing (you poor, brave soul 🧻😷📚). You’ve been writing through plague years and literary droughts, releasing books while the rest of us were just trying to find matching socks in lockdown. 😩🧦 You have seven books under your belt. Seven. And yet this one this raw, elegant, “can-we-defend-what-we-love” gem is still waiting for the crowd to show up? Not on my watch. 🫡🕵️‍♀️ I’m Jennifer. And no, I’m not a freelancer, not a Fiverr ghost, and not here to “boost your rank” with sketchy swaps or sugarcoated fluff. I lead a private circle of 1,000+ brutally honest, beautifully thoughtful reviewers who read with care, analyze with depth, and don’t flinch from heavier themes. They’re teachers. Activists. Sci-fi lovers. People who know pain, know purpose, and know what it means to read a book like y…

This was the first I got. Realize that I hadn't got one like this before, and yeah, my latest is sitting on one review. Here comes someone to play on my feelings of desperation and wishing my hard work were appreciated. (I tried to copy all the email text into the alt text, and it's truncated.)

You know what? I just got a second of those new scam emails and I'm feeling salty. So let me share with you these works of non-art. In thread.

#BookSky #WriterBeware #WritingCommunity #scam #email

Dylan Madeley

Ready, willing, and able to join your #itch.io bundle

dylanmadeley.itch.io

#BookSky #WritingCommunity #fantasy

But I'll periodically understand that I'm really just catching up with the present, and look for solutions that aren't really offered because I was offered too much credit in the aughts, fought with that for the decade to follow, and must live with my past choices within the system now.