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Hello, friends! I've got my head deep in the mines, as it were, so I thought I'd give you some updates as to what's going on. This involves:
- Business stuff that might affect your reading from here on out
- Writing stuff
- Political stuff (only a little, I promise)
Business Stuff
If you aren't aware of what Amazon is doing regarding your Kindle books, you need to know now.
This may not seem like a big deal. It is, however. This come down to whether or not you actually own the thing you buy... or if you only own a "license" to use that thing, which can be revoked at any time.
By locking you into the Amazon ecosystem and removing the ability to download the books YOU BOUGHT, Amazon has come down firmly on the side that you don't own anything.
I find this utterly horrifying and morally decrepit. I've gone through the effort of downloading all my Kindle books, and I will never, ever buy a Kindle book again. I will use other bookstores, libraries, or author sites themselves.
I'm also working on moving my books out of KDP (Amazon's self-publishing arm) and into Draft2Digital, which is a fantastic distributor like Smashwords. I'll be getting my books in every bookstore through them.
Writing Stuff
My next short story for you is almost ready, and I will send it as soon as it is!
In the meantime, here's what's on the docket.
Original writing:
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Books:
- Solomon's Choice is coming along! This one is taking me time because I don't want to screw up the little bits of science involved, for I am a dork.
- Beloved, Notte is spinning in my head. This is the book I started in 2009, psyched myself out of doing it "right," and ended up having to shelve for years. It's definitely on track now, though slowly. It covers literally 20,000 years of time. In many ways, the whole series has been heading toward this book.
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Short Stories:
- Floriography is becoming something I didn't quite expect, with more social commentary than I planned. More on that in a minute. It's got dragons, it's got queer romance, and it's got some pretty backwards attitudes in the heart of the homeland.
- Scepter follows Simon Night on a wild romp through the Fey realms, and it's really fun, and I am fighting hard with it not to let it become something bigger than planned.
- Song for a God might become something bigger, since it will involve Dagon, my version of the King in Yellow, and some serious world-building lore; I think it might have to end up a book instead of a short story, but we'll see.
Want to know more? My books are all here.
Fan-based writing:
- Masked: a massive Magnus Archives fic set after the podcast's end in a world almost like theirs and almost like ours bit... worse. Funny thing about this one: I had to rewrite most of it for the same reason Floriography is becoming a struggle. I'll get to that shortly.
- Surrogate: the massive, brain-eating, insanity-creating AU created from the Malevolent podcast universe. We're working on the next part (since this one is co-written), and it's taking time because SO many threads are finally coming together. I'll just say this: part 200 will be a banger.
- Haunted 2 (name is a work in progress): the sequel to the John is a Genie fic, based on Malevolent. I think you're going to like this one.
- There are several other fics with planned ends, still in progress (such as Corrupted, that Magnus Archives/Malevolent crossover), but they're lower down the list in terms of urgency right now. Though I will add that Red City (sequel to Yellow City and Cloud City, a massive Malevolent undertaking) has finally begun.
Want to know more? My fanfiction is all here.
The Political Stuff
So both Florigraphy and Masked - an original work and a fandom work - have hit the same snag. Simply put, my country is on fire.
There are others that have it worse, I know; this is not an update intended to start a debate. The fact is, however, that emotionally, I am having a lot of trouble setting any story in my home country in the present time or its future. It hurts too much, at least right now.
Florigraphy (and Masked, though that's fanfic) technically comes after Half-Shell Prophecies, when the revelation of dragons brought magic to the public eye. In my mind, this was always an alternative version of somewhere around 2014 or 2015; the idea is that history, until that time, matched our own (you'll find out more about THAT in Notte's book), but now, the timeline is split.
This means, in essence, that everything from HSP on utterly avoids the shit-show my country has become.
Is this messy? Yes. Cheating? Funny enough, no; HSP came out in 2017, and was written in 2016 partly as a response to everything that was going on. It should make writing in that alternate America easier. Right now, because my heart is badly bruised, it does not.
So writing this one is hard. Hopefully that will make for a good read in time, but. yeah... not an easy ride.
Anyway!
This was one heck of an update! I know we're all going through it right now, and we need each other more than ever. Thank you for sticking with me this long. If you have any questions, just let me know. I will send the new short story as soon as it's complete.
Happy reading!
About Me
My name is Ruthanne, and I do two things: I write weird stuff to entertain you, and I help other creatives make weird stuff, too. I’ve published six books and a lot of short stories. I’ve led a convention panel on world-building, and taught courses on plot and character development. I’ve been the keynote speaker for a writing retreat.
I’ve also been dealing with severe chronic illness that left me hospitalized, and that pretty much slowed everything down.
But we all have a whole host of problems these days, don’t we?
I believe creating is deeply important, one of the most human things we can do, and communicates truths we may not even consciously know we believe. That’s why I keep writing, no matter how challenging life becomes; and it’s why I make daily videos to help other creatives, too.
We may be in an apocalypse of A.I. theft and unscrupulous corporations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be human. We create for one another, and even the tiniest, silliest creation matters.
If you’re curious, my website has tons of free short stories, as well as three novellas and two novels, with more on the way. I also do daily pep-talks for creatives with a focus on those who struggle with creative block.
I also do regular updates through Patreon, with a lot of free stuff, and membership levels starting at $1 a month. Thanks to that chronic illness, I can’t always guarantee a regular posting schedule, but when I do send something out, it will have actual content, so that’s definitely a silver lining.
Questions? Comments?
Hit reply and ask me anything! Subscribe if you haven’t already, and you’ll get For Daws to Peck At free. I look forward to getting to know you.
See you on the written page!
-Ruthanne Reid
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