Athena Minerva Devine

(also gonna sneak in here and say that the music of @darcyjamesargue.com and his secret society have long long long been at the core of the fantasy world I've returned to for my writing, and my poor abused physical copy of Infernal Machines has *definitely* seen better days)

But also one of the plot ideas I'd had outgrew even the short novella limit so I'm slowly plodding away on that to see if it's like 50-80k words, or if it goes proper fantasy and hits the 80-100k words range.

Anyways, that's all my rambling thoughts for now.

I've learned that I still can't write short enough for the short fiction market when I tried to resume writing via short stories at the end of 2024 into 2025, but those attempts also aren't long enough to actually directly publish, so I'll see if I can't rework those to longer this year as well.

So I'm taking this year to try to rebuild the foundations for my writing.

First step is taking Sarra Cannon's Publish and Thrive course.

Second step is figuring out the plan for relaunching my website, actually launching the mailing list, and finishing at least one book, maybe two, etc

2023-2025 sucked. My MiL's house burned. I lost a beloved pet & then my father. My partner took a massive pay cut before he lost his job & we lost our house.

During all that, I had to give up my health insurance, so my ADHD is fully out of control. Trying to wrangle my brain takes so much energy.

I went ahead and delisted the book I published in 2015 from the wide market - and now I play the waiting game to see how long it takes to fully come down.

Then I document it and take it off of amazon.

And then, it's nose to the grindstone to figure out my plan for 2026.

Frieren Nyte style

baking, 3d printers, MamYa are the three I'm most familiar with

I miss The Wheel of Time. Of course it was a hot mess, but there was no other fantasy show out there that showed us a world with default female privilege, and it was a warm, refreshing programming change.

The chatbot isn’t warm, empathetic, understanding, and insightful. The chatbot isn’t hearing you out, giving you support, or flirting with you. The chatbot doesn’t see you like no one else has ever seen you. The chatbot isn’t filling a void in your life you didn’t know you had.

🎵 If they ask you to pay money it's a scam 👏👏
🎵 If they ask you to pay money it's a scam 👏👏
🎵 that is not your favorite author or a stunning book club offer
🎵 They are asking you for money=it's a scam 👏👏

"There's nothing special about any of us. We are just people who said 'Hey, I think somebody needs something, I wonder if I can get it to them.' And then we ask 'What do you need? Can I give it to you?' and then we give it to them. I think a lot of people think they need permission to do that, or you need to be a trained organizer, and honestly it is the easiest thing in the world to just say 'Hey, do you need anything?'"

I want to leave you with this, from @mostlybree.kitrocha.com:

This. (And thanks, Chuck. She’s stealing my stuff too.) :/

a drawing of a cat peeking out of a keyboard Alt: bongo cat gif speed typing

taking sarra cannon's publish and thrive course this month because my writing life is a clusterfuck due to IRL being a clusterfuck and I have already learned a few things. (like that cover is *hella wrong* in this day and age, and I should fix that if I'm gonna leave it up)

Text overlaid on a sunny scene of wildflowers and a trail of bright orange and yellow butterflies. #BluePit - A Storytelling Hype/Pitch Event What It Is: An event designed to uplift storytellers of any media. All works are welcome, regardless of the stage (e.g., Drafting, Editing, Querying, On Submission, or Published). When: July 13th, 2025 and will run the full 24 hours! #BluePit Rules: Limit 3 posts per WIP; multiple works allowed. Include correct emojis to appear in media specific feeds Use appropriate tags (see Tag list) All images must include ALT text. No AI. Everyone is encouraged to like and repost Use the #BluePit feeds to find and support others. Agents, editors, and publishers are welcome to participate and can also use #BluePit feeds without a BlueSky account #Emojis for custom media feeds: Writing (e.g. “#bluepit 📖”) Game Dev (e.g. “#bluepit 🎮”) Comics (e.g. “#bluepit 💥”) TTRPGS (e.g. “#bluepit 🎲”) Questions: BluePit.Carrd.Co @BluePit.Bsky.Social @ZProspero.bsky.social

#BluePit Tags MEDIA: #BluePit 💥 - Comics #BluePit 🎮 - Game Dev #BluePit 🎲 - TTRPGs #BluePit 📖 - Writers STAGE: #W - Work In Progress #Q - Querying #OS - On Submission #P - Published AUDIENCE: #PB - Picture Book #MG - Middle Grade #YA - Young Adult #A - Adult #NA - New Adult REPRESENTATION: #OV - Own Voices #LGBT- LGBTQIA+ #DIS - Disabled Creators #WF - Women's Fiction #POC - Person of Color #ND - Neurodivergent #TR - Transgender GENRE #F - Fantasy #R - Romance #H - Horror #SF - Sci-Fi #M - Mystery #PN - Paranormal #C - Crime #HS - Historical #SP - Speculative #PO - Poetry #NF - Non-Fiction GAME SYSTEM: #D20 - 20-sided die based #D6 - 6-sided die based #D100 - 100-sided die based #NAR - Narrative based #DUN - Dungeon Crawler #RO - Rogue-Like

#BluePit is back for the summer! Creators in the #WritingCommunity, #GameDev & #IndieDev, #TTRPG, and #Comic communities get ready to pitch or promote your projects!

#BluePit will be taking place again on July 13th, 2025!

And #BluePitHype starts July 8th!

#WriteSky #Writers #AmAgenting #LitAgents

Woman in long dress is looking out the window.

A photo of cat sitting in some Venetian blinds they have just destroyed with the text JOY DIVISION at the top and UNKNOWN PLEASURES at the bottom

This might be my favourite cat meme of 2025 so far

I was COMPLETELY ASTONISHED by how many early-career or unpublished writers I spoke to at the library last year who said they 'didn't read' fiction because they were 'worried' about writing too much like the author they were reading.

This is on me, I thought it was a bit people were doing online. 😩

Please stop using ChatGPT in general, but also, please, please stop using it and then taking what it says to you as fact. It's usually wrong! It doesn't fact check itself. It just creates approximations of information based on other text! It's basically magnetic poetry that sets the world ablaze.

this, on top of *everything* else that's going on IRL for me right now.

I just wish things would stop going wrong.

called my mom today to wish her happy birthday.

she let me know she'd had bloodwork done to see why her sodium was staying low, and that she'd gotten the results this morning.

cancer flags. *two* types. She's going to be undergoing further testing to see if they're just pre-cancerous or actual.

This shit remains terrifying. Also I really hope 2025 isn't the year they decide to start enforcing Alabama's anti-obscenity law because I've never been 100% sure how much of a crime the Beyond series is. 😬

Do Not Comply In Advance: bossy, already a cliche, implies permission to comply later

Fuck You, Make Me: leads by example, directs yelling at opposition instead of allies, easy to chant at a protest or put on a banner

Would be great if the reporters who turned Joe Biden's dog biting a USSS agent into the crime of the century could be bothered to report on an unelected billionaire's employees basically taking over the HR function for 3 million federal workers.

What Donna didn't say is that because of our lost employment/insurance situation, not only can I no longer try to help her but she's been trying to help us.

Having your insurance tied to employment remains a scam.

Thanks everyone who has helped or who has shopped: thebrokencircle.etsy.com

Donate to Help Avert Donna's Deductible Disaster, organized by Kit Rocha Hello from the Bree Half of Kit Rocha! First, the TL;DR: After a series of schedu… Kit Rocha needs your support for Help Avert Donna's Deductible Disaster

I've updated this campaign, but here's the tl;dr: everything is frozen, insurance companies are not my friends, and new meds are spendy.

Also, my cat is cute.

gofund.me/6bd3f24a

CELESTIAL BLOOM 🩷💜🩵
www.thisclaw.com/s/shop

#beadwork #indigenousart #nativebling #firstnations

Okay, we need to have a conversation.

A great read. The book and the writeup!

I feel very, very seen.