Whoa! I missed it! I have over 50 followers on this blog now!
I'd intended to do a celebration, but as I missed it and I am also living a perpetually hectic life, I'm not sure what I'd do...but thanks!
Apparently if you self-publish a book the right way, it's on Barnes and Nobles' website?!
And here I was thinking it was a convoluted process. I know they won't put it in brick and mortar stores, but at this point, this is already exceeding my expectations of what would happen.
So yeah, shoutout to Lulu, even though it says I don't have any sales yet when I know that isn't true so I don't understand any of it, and yeah, if you want to get The City Goes Dark from an Official Website, here's a link to the B&N page
Update: IT WORKS NOW, LULU IS GOOD
Shoutout to the word "singeing," which I originally wrote as "singing," and then said Wait a second, that's a different word, but was convinced that there was no other way to spell the burning-adjacent word unless--surely it doesn't have an e in the middle of it? And had to google to make sure.
Reminds me of playing a Spyro game when I was very young and someone in the game warned me not to get my tail singed, and I was very confused about what the fire had to do with vocal music
Ew ew ew ew, what is this new layout, it's like coming home and finding you've been robbed but they just rearranged your furniture stupidly and glued it to the floor
"Wow! I published a book! I should do a lot of work marketing and making a website and doing all sorts of stuff-"
*Gets invested in the WIP I'd been working on*
"Well, that's fine! That's writing, and it's a really good story! I'm close to finishing it, so that should be good-"
*Gets invested in an obscure side WIP heavily influenced by Minecraft*
"This is significantly less fine"
#instead of working on the story where a human and an alien and a robot become besties#why not work on the story where a robot and a mutant squid become besties#who are eventually joined by an alien and a human#...shit I guess this isn't as random as I thought#the difference between Halifax and Maximilian being Halifax DOES kill people and HAS a fashion sense#writing whom're
"Why is he so mean?!!!!" I squeal for the fifth time about a character I in fact created and wrote to do the exact things he's doing
This is so funny because as I've continued to reread, it becomes clearer and clearer that the first thing he does at any sign of danger...for the crew, not necessarily for himself...is to suggest abandoning the mission and backtracking to safety. It comes off as him just not caring about the mission but it constantly betrays how much he actually cares about all the humans he's always joking about killing and it's adorable
"Why is he so mean?!!!!" I squeal for the fifth time about a character I in fact created and wrote to do the exact things he's doing
#Albatross WIP#I think Maximilian Europa may just be the pettiest bitch I have ever made#like Sterling is a bastard but he's standing up to authority half the time and knows how to actually be polite#Isic is close but he has no substance and is just a dick because he's bored#Maximilian just has NO FILTER
Excerpt: Cypress Ascending
I was fiddling around with chapter two of Cypress Ascending during my breaks at camp this week, and I actually really love how this turned out, so I figured I'd share an excerpt. Warning for the death of a parent and fictional funeral rites, please don't read if that's likely to upset you!
When she knelt beside her father's deathbed, Cypress seemed to stare through the candle's light to see only the old man. No, she stared through the old shepherd to see the brilliant young scholar he once was. Scholar turned heretic turned shepherd… Perhaps she stared through even that to simply see Acacia Schyley as he was, in every way that mattered. A caring man and a loving father. Father of Cypress Schyley.
Acacia Schyley opened his eyes one final time to gaze upon his daughter's soft face. She did not cry, and neither did he. He took her hand gently in his own. Cypress handed the lighting candle back to Pax without looking. Her small hands wrapped around her fathers' as he shook. He laid her hands on his chest and sighed.
"I go gladly into Death's warm light," said the old shepherd.
Pax stepped forward, sprinkling ground mushroom dust around the bed, commencing the ritual to usher the old man peacefully into Yarham's realm.
"I have embraced the four Stages of my life," said the heretic.
"Infancy, Taphla, god of beginnings." Pax's soft voice filled the small shack as they lit the first candle. "Adolescence, Hedaph, god of freedom." The wax from the lighting candle dripped a small trail of wax between the first candle and the second. "Adulthood, Raishadin, god of fortitude." The third candle was the largest. "Old age, Eadim, god of resolutions." The fourth and final candle lit, Pax stepped back again.
"I forgive Life for her darkness and thank her for her lessons," said the scholar.
"Haia, god of life, the foundation of all, thanks you for your contributions to the world." Pax's words rang out with an air of finality. "Yarham's light embraces you now."
"One last thing before I go," said Acacia Schyley. "Cypress, my darling daughter, know that I go in peace. I have only ever felt peace and wonder with you by my side. Whatever the gods have in store for you, you will blow them all away." He wrapped her small fingers around his wooden pendant. "Take this, as a reminder of all that I've taught you, and all that you've taught me." He took a shaking breath. "Cypress, you're named for the reaching trees and their deep roots. Don't you ever forget that."
"Don't leave me," Cypress said, her voice feather soft. He placed a shaking hand on her cheek.
"I love you," said a father to his daughter as he closed his eyes. "I love you more than words could describe."
Taglist: @ratracechronicler@lunewell@lady-redshield-writes If you’d like to be tagged in (admittedly infrequent) updates about this WIP - including mood boards, excerpts, and worldbuilding - please let me know, and I’ll add you to the list!
This is beautiful! So many of the lines were poetic and intriguing (I'm going to be thinking of "I forgive Life for her darkness" for a while) while so much is also deeply moving.
#other people's writing#westywrites#also it's just now dawning on me#a major part of this very important funeral is the words#and the opening of the passage starts with trying to find the right words to describe the father#and so his last words being that he loves Cypress more than WORDS can describe#that all makes it feel much more powerful!
The City Goes Dark
A man talks to a computer about the horrors. When he's not talking to the computer, he's witnessing or experiencing the horrors. Somehow, this takes less than twelve hours but also an entire novel to explain. I have magically condensed it down to a very easy to understand PowerPoint that will solve everything and not raise any more questions. The transcript of the slides are as follows.
Slide 1: The City Goes Dark
A much-belated comic sans powerpoint about my wip that’s not a wip because it’s published now
Look how extremely professional I am!
#City WIP#comic sans powerpoint#thank you @ all my enablers#if you can't tell I still don't know how to talk about this book#it is my precious baby it can do no wrong it is sooo funny#terrible things happen to good people#it's just a self indulgent romp lol#I did actual research and poured my soul and unanswered questions and hopes and fears and philosophies into this
By popular demand, I'm posting the PowerPoint, and it'd better be worth it because I have discovered that making a """simple""" pie chart in PowerPoint is the graphic design equivalent of eating pineapple because I can feel this program trying to destroy me
Now that I have some time off and Da Book is officially published, I am probably going to be obnoxious about it and I apologize in advance
That being said. I will post a Comic Sans Powerpoint about The City Goes Dark if so much as one person enables me
WRITERS
If you see this, spoil your WIP's biggest plot twist using ONLY ONE WORD
Here's mine!
Dying
Ancestor
Fairy
Magic
Mortality
Success
Billboard
Lunar Stardust
Content warning for kissing, death, and blood. Hello! I have written a short scene with Luneth and Cress from before the story to help establish their relationship! This is choppy, still getting back into the hang of writing, but I really enjoy it! The title might not make sense, but it does more when you know that Luneth's nickname is Stardust, and Cress's is Luna. Yes, that is a change already from this powerpoint. Tagging: @ratracechronicler, @maple-writes, @pen-of-roses, @drabbleitout, and @grailfish!
Luneth's perspective
I was exhausted after celebrating my birthday, but I still snuck out of my house and found Cress waiting in the tunnel that led out to the real world. He grinned over at me and stood up from where he had been leaning against the wall. “Took you long enough. Are you ready to go fuck with some empire goons as a birthday celebration?”
I grinned, even as my cheeks heated up just at the sight of him. “I’m ready if you are, Luna.”
He smirked and nudged my shoulder before exploding with his darkness and sprinting off. I did the same, reveling in the power coursing through my veins as I followed him. Everything was even clearer at night with my darkness activated. The heady smell of the forest around us, the night calls of animals who were hunting just like us. It was all so wild and free, and I was a part of it! Not cowering in Sombra, praying to long-forgotten Celestials that the empire didn’t find us. I could do something, at least with Cress by my side.
The thing that gets me the most here is the instinctive hand-holding, especially to guide each other away from danger. That's beautiful
Okay guys. It's about an hour before a very important delivery is about to arrive. Do not let me flip shit again like last time when it was just half an hour late
THEY REALLY DID IT?!
Okay guys. It's about an hour before a very important delivery is about to arrive. Do not let me flip shit again like last time when it was just half an hour late
#Why do these books always get here at the most inconvenient times lol#like oh cool I'll get this with the slow shipping so it'll get here after I get back from vacation#then the UPS be like good news it's getting there early!! This can only be a good thing!!! :D#and I'm like thank...you... 8)#as long as you aren't leaving the cardboard package of Very Important Book#on the concrete ground for several days in the rain waiting for me to get back I will be FINE
"Way too reliable narrator" where the narrator provides documentation and proof for how they know every detail in the narrative and an estimate of how confident they are in it.
Suspiciously Specific Narrator
With NASA announcing their streaming service NASA+ and also announcing it’s going to be free and also ad free, I’d just like to appreciate the lengths they go to make scientific knowledge and exploration as available as they possibly can.
There's more info at this link. Gosh I'm excited about this.
