pelielios

pelielios, 7 months ago

@ShaulaEvans @edutooters @bookstodon My mother (longtime college ESL teacher)'s first reaction was laughter. Then PBS with captions and hobby groups.

I would advise as much interaction with native speakers as possible. She had many students from Spain who fared badly because ew, Spanish? You must be poor! Meanwhile Moroccans did great because ooh, French is so cultured and exotic.

pelielios, 7 months ago

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia It's funny - I don't have a problem with basic TTS. I feel like that's a decision on the user's end based on their own personal accessibility needs, made with the understanding that the result will be imperfect.

But once the end product is being marketed as an "audiobook" (as opposed to an ebook the reader may run through a screen reader if they wish)...

Those are two very different products and I'm not happy about efforts to blur the line.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting A streamer I like and whose videos I often play for background noise is -- I think -- doing a Bubsy marathon tonight to repent for his sins, so I have resolved to write through the duration of the stream.

I have a good chunk ahead loosely plotted so I think this could work. I keep stalling out on book 4 even though the ending was one of the first things I wrote.

So I must suffer along with Bubsy.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting Bubsy the Bobcat in 3D, no less.

I won't say I'm getting a ton of writing done but with the funk I've been in lately, pecking out a few lines at a time is progress, and it's looking like we'll be here... a while. Oof.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@Jtmoriartywriter @mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting Nah I think right now I'm stuck on a pivotal scene because it's going to be deeply traumatic to my sweetest, softest boy.

I've skipped around it a bit for now but a lot hinges on exactly how he processes this so it's not flowing as organically as usual.

I know where it's going but the emotions have to track from scene to scene.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@Jtmoriartywriter @mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting And this is book 4 in a series, already deeply in progress... I can't exactly go "all that stuff I spent 60k words setting up? Yeah, forget all that! Boop, deleted!"

The ending is an epilogue that makes the bridge to 5 but it resolves nothing for 4.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@Jtmoriartywriter @mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting It's not really so bad in the grand scheme. A workplace accident, an intern gets moderately injured. It's a pretty light series.

It's that he blames himself and it builds on other insecurities/fears he has, and that he has a very gentle nature overall. He has a pretty complicated way of processing emotions, too, so it takes time to work through it with him.

(If the MC caused a similar incident he'd be barking at the intern to walk it off.)

pelielios, 8 months ago

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia I'm really only 1/3 but if Kindle TTS is acceptable as "audiobook" my MCs are 41 and 34 in book 1. (Links in profile.)

The holiday content is very light, mostly glancing mentions of holiday displays in book 2, not a major plot consideration.

pelielios, 8 months ago

@NickEast @writers @writingcommunity @writing @humour heroin

pelielios, 8 months ago

@AmandaWeaver @herhandsmyhands @romancelandia Still think of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt line about "That voice? And the way he doesn't wear pants the entire time?" "Yeah! Has your crotch ever had a headache?"

Also laughed a lot at Venture Bros when Triana says "If it's Splash, I added it to your Netflix queue!" Her dad: "Splash? WHY would you--?" "I just wanted to see it again!"

I definitely caught Splash on network TV and found it very confusing when I was young.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@mjjmori @amwriting @bookstodon When I write down middle-of-the-night ideas I wake up to incomprehensible garbage.

So I try to build them out as much as possible when the spirit takes me and if I can't remember them later, it wasn't meant to be.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@Diva007 @lenoreo @romancelandia @romancebooks My POV char is deliriously in love with a total cinnamon roll who, at times, still dominates in the bedroom.

Victor must be protected at all costs. Also he has a strong protective/possessive streak that comes out only occasionally.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@Diva007 @lenoreo @romancelandia @romancebooks He is a former old-order Mennonite paired up with a NYC teenage runaway turned spy/sex worker, let's say they have slightly different life experiences.

They work, somehow. One is extremely complicated and the other rarely asks questions. It catches him off-guard in a good way how his BF takes charge when they're alone.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@lenoreo @herhandsmyhands @notTheAudience @Anthro_CLH @Diva007 @romancelandia @romancebooks @OliviaWrites Mine has a colder/stiffer work persona but everybody, I mean EVERYBODY sees right through it.

As his partner puts it, "He has a way of making you want to take care of him, doesn't he?"

He's blisteringly competent one minute, then he can barely feed himself. There's a whole covert team at the office to keep him humming along efficiently.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@mjjmori @bookstodon @amwriting Sometimes I'm totally stalled out, others I churn through such massive word-counts that my body hurts for weeks.

Often the most productive hours are when I'm lying in bed and daydreaming ahead to future scenes. Non-writing time isn't wasted.

You can skim the abutting pages and slip into a daydream that might send you jumping up to commit a phrase to paper, or not.

Try stuff out, don't force word count.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@Diva007 @romancelandia @romancebooks Mine "marry" because one is a secret agent who has a brain fart on a mission and blurts out the first name that pops into his head, his boyfriend's.

Through various events they have to appear together and the BF is no good at secret identities.

It takes his handler to point out the problem. "Andrews and Andrews? I'm not saying it's never happened but..."

"Yeah I guess it's kind of worse if we're cousins, right?"

pelielios, 9 months ago

@Diva007 @romancelandia @romancebooks Links in profile, 3 books are out already! 4 on the way, 5 less concrete but I hop there sometimes for fun.

It's breezy chatty escapism that has been on a low burner for a long, long time.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@weirdwriter @romancelandia Yes, my main pair are kind of "insta" but it becomes clear over time that they were both READY for it.

The main driver in romance is receptivity, IME.

One is vastly experienced yet bored. The other is sheltered but has been watching him for months. If they weren't compatible it wouldn't work, but they try it and it does.

Also one is a field agent with "high turnover" who has no time to lose. Other chars call him on this, he dun care. It's new to him!

pelielios, 9 months ago

@weirdwriter @romancelandia Think of it like the healthy version of all those online romance scams.

Find someone who is lonely/unfulfilled and dearly wants a companion. Place someone in their path who meets those needs.

If it happens in both directions at once, bam! Instant romance.

pelielios, 9 months ago

@weirdwriter @tmmahaff @romancelandia ah yes, even with my my "insta"pair there's some question at first over whether one is fully ace or not.

There's definitely more going on than "swiped right" and I have a hard time imagining how that would work IRL at all.

But the timeline is very compressed for reasons on both sides.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@queerscifi @lgbtqbookstodon I recently dropped book 3 in my queer supernatural superspy series and have been struggling to make headway on 4 (which should largely conclude things, though I have plans for a fun time-skip in 5), some encouragement would go a long way!

#MeMeMonday

#queerscifi #queerparanormal #gayscifi #gayparanormal #NewReleases #LGBTQBookstodon #bookstodon @bookstodon

Book 1 here
https://a.co/d/3M7PvCp

pelielios, 10 months ago

@jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Seconding the Cyberiad and all other Lem!

The Cyberiad is basically sci-fi fairy tales, many lighthearted. I have such good memories of cuddling with my dad while he read them to me, doing all the goofy voices.

Especially for the AI that is perfect in every way except that it insists that one plus two equals (huge dad growl) SEVEN.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Hmm I would say skim each story first, I wasn't YOUNG young but I was like 8+ and my parents were hippies.

Some stories get darker and some are more aimed at adults (like a whole planet of paper-pushing bureaucrats that would fly over a kid's head) but there's definitely no sex and drugs and rock'n'roll involved.

At worst, cartoon violence and existential dread.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon I don't remember a point in that particular story where anyone actually gets hurt, but the angry AI 1+2=7 robot definitely angrily chases Trurl and Klapaucius down and threatens to flatten them for disagreeing.

By that age I found this HILARIOUS. YMMV.

Some of Lem's other books I would absolutely hold off on until they're older (13-16ish). Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, The Futurological Congress, very dark and bleak (but amazing).

pelielios, 10 months ago

@skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon Vladimir Voynovich, anyone?

I know him best for Moscow 2042 (basically a novel-length riff on the "no red ink!" joke) and Ivan Chonkin but he had some very good scifi short story collections.

I'm still haunted by one where a spaceship repairman is tasked with finding the cause of a recurring clanking noise and welp, spaceship's haunted.

Not sure any of the English compilations are still in print but he is etched in my psyche for good.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon There is even a loose movie adaptation of The Futurological Congress (The Congress, free on Kanopy, Peacock, Roku) that feels very relevant in these NFT-ified times.

Stanislaw Lem is the Polish Philip K Dick.

I never have the paperback far from hand, it has been through a lot with me.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willelm @jiujensu @skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon ha, it turns out my copy was published the year I was born! We literally grew up together.

I have SO much pulp scifi from my parents. Some made the transition to the world of ebooks, some didn't. I carry the torch just in case.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@lenoreo @Diva007 @romancelandia @romancebooks My M/M/M series doesn't hone in on specific labels much in the text, but one of the mains is very much demi (partly by upbringing but mainly by temperament) and another is mainly ace but finds sex a useful form of rebellion.

Then there's the one who's gay but engaged to a woman and two-timing with a straight guy.

Their collective sexuality is MESS.

(Link in profile, Book 1 free today!)

pelielios, 10 months ago

@Diva007 @lenoreo @romancelandia @romancebooks I hope you enjoy them! A lot of the explanations are very slow in coming but at its core, it's a group of wildly different people who all care deeply about each other.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia Any guidance on the age ratings?

I'm keeping mine at 18+ for now to be safe but they're really very soft, I was reading far more explicit things as a young teen and most of them were non-erotica SFF.

16ish sounds more reasonable, the body parts are rarely even named and by that age either they've heard it all or they're being teased mercilessly for being so precious.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful I'm still not totally sure whether I belong. I don't know the trope names, I don't quite get where the break is between romance and smut, I feel really out of place.

I made one timid overture a while back but idk.

If there is some kind of orientation space that would help so much.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful @romancelandia Romancelandia is specifically the group I had in mind. I've been lurking a while and just don't know where to jump in to that as a community.

Romance overall feels too broad, specific communities have their own unspoken rules and can feel very intimidating to newcomers.

Not a criticism, just wishing for a more structured inroad, you know?

pelielios, 10 months ago

@willaful @romancelandia I'm not sure myself!

Kind of a long-time dreamer, first-time writer situation, still trying to work out where I fit in with books that sometimes get explicit but it's also not exactly the point whether they do.

Most of the activity seems to be around existing fanbases, which is great! But also makes me hesitant to barge in as a total unknown.

pelielios, 10 months ago

@weirdwriter @willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks Followed, thank you!

I tend to write spicy scenes in soft-focus, but they definitely get harder depending what is going on.

Some of them have awful chemistry by design.

It's been tough to work out where I belong, I just keep lurking for now.