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#writer

258 posts191 participants30 posts today
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.18 — Do you write under a pen name? Multiple? How did you choose?

My mum did not name me RS.

Names are symbols that point to a thing or a person. They aren't that person. Sure, I can input an identity into a name, just as a given name can gather that weight during life, but it is still a symbol. I've made peace with myself that whatever achievement or infamy I gather under this name still applies to me. The idea is fascinating enough that I'm playing with the idea of a society where parents don't name their children, instead the children are forced to choose, and can change them at whim throughout life.

I assumed my nom de plume before I attended the Clarion Writers Workshop. Mostly, this was me once more playing with the idea that as a feminist writer, the gender of the author does add subtext to all narratives.

Growing up, I thought Andre Norton was a man; it added a definite context to all his stories, like The Beastmaster, A Breed to Come, and Moon of Three Rings. I liked the nuanced way that the author depicted masculinity and femininity. The softness set the author's books apart, and it appealed to me. But Andre Norton wasn't male; I learned that quite sometime later.

Choosing a name of the opposite gender didn't work for me anymore. I could have chosen a name used by both genders, like Ryan or Riley, but when you think about it, that puts the onus on the readership to assign gender based on their experience with people of the same name. Either way, it creates creates a bias. Before I started the workshop, we were given an email group address. Back then, as now, I was careful never to reveal my gender nor my preferences. By the time I arrived in person on campus, most had guessed wrong.

These days, there are further reasons for noms de plume, especially since I write fiction that boosts women's rights, their right to sexuality without shame, gender preferences, and gender agnosticism. Further, I tend to add subtexts to my stories that question both secular and religious authority; in today's "climate," doing so can be… worrisome.

Best I don't use my real name.

PS: I write fan fiction under a different nom de plume.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#PennedPossibilities 646 — How would you describe your MC’s job or occupation? (You can be comedic about it, if you like.)

These stories hop around over more than a decade, thus the lists. Some stints are very temporary.

  • Thorn: High school then university student. Occupational prefecture governor. Astronaut.
  • Streak: High school then university student. Lover. Researcher. Test pilot. Advisor. Astronaut.
  • Devil-girl: Homeless ascetic, grocery clerk, prizefighter, transporter, bodyguard, dõna, troubleshooter.
  • May Ri: Student, mother, engineer, princess (she considers that one a joke but others don't), general.
  • Wintereyes (feral but kind human): Friend of animals (including wyverns), wolf pack member and provider, involuntary student, idiosyncratic mage.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WordWeavers 2504.17 — Is your antagonist high maintenance? CW: Ugly potentially terrifying character description.

Today, not the usual suspect but a total cad.

Ezekiel Stan, one of the original scientist-colonists on Mars—one of the EM Mars Corp's colonial onsite directors until he butts heads with May Ri (the MC)—is a Decath religious macho jackass in plenty of unsavory ways. Depending on how you interact with him, he's super high maintenance, especially if you are a woman. It's hard to satisfy him; his wife knows about and must tolerate all his hypocritical indiscretions as we learn near the end of the book. For men, it might be worse. He has an eye for mistakes or venalities, and never forgets if he can use weaknesses to coerce and corrupt. He's not above violence, even against his own son who turns out "too feminine." If you must interact with him, especially if you live within his sphere of influence, you will do whatever it takes to placate him.

Except for May Ri. That makes Ezekiel and her mutual antagonists. She, however, is not the stupid woman he expects her to be—she's an engineer.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2504.17 — Do your real-world tastes show up in your writing?

[Well, you asked. If that's not enough of a content warning, read on.—RS]

I like people.

I may be cripplingly shy, strictly monogamous, and a bit autistic, but I like people. I observe them. From afar. I populate my stories with people that would interest me, who might attract me, whom I would interact with physically could I convince myself because I understand how safe they are or are not. They are the totally average, the generally honest, the sometimes ethically challenged, the occasionally passionate, and the intermittently ambiguous. These are my tastes. Why would I write about other's tastes? However, I work when writing to never fully describe the people who populate my stories so that the reader might satisfy their tastes, too. Notwithstanding red hair and freckles, of course—they look super cute on men as well as women. (Wait… Did RS really say that? Or is RS being funny?)

As for food: What I describe, sometimes in great detail, is my taste. Whether my stomach would rebel eating such a meal is another story altogether. Kippers and onions are salty oily heaven, btw.

I love impressionism. Art sometimes populates my stories, and it is always impressionist. When the character is a photographer, they are an extension of my soul.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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Howard Cheng

It's been a while since I've managed to write anything #photography related on my site. I just kept getting writer's block and so didn't force myself. But now I've finally managed to pen a new piece!

So here's my practical real world shooting experience as to why "downgrading" from #FullFrame to #MicroFourThirds wasn't really downgrade.

wherehowardgoes.com/2025/04/50

Where Howard Goes · Does sensor size matter? Not as much as I thought - Where Howard GoesSensor size can matter, but not as much as you'd think. Join me as I explore my "downgrade" from full frame to Micro Four Thirds.
#Blog#Writer#Blogger
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#ScribesAndMakers 2504.17 — Marketing can be difficult. As a reader/viewer, what catches your interest and makes you want to buy? CW: The opinions are solely those of the author and don't reflect those of any marketeer or designer.

I am a golden retriever. Movement and color catch my eye. Squirrel!

I am also like a crow. What is the shiny thing??? Must. Have. It.

I am a baby. I've not seen that thing. Stare…

Recently, it's been authors writing about their work or their books that have made me buy. I like seeing the self-promotions, if they don't come at me like spam (or look like it). Thusly has mastodon marketed your books! I can't say whether I'm typical or whether I'm unique, but there you go.

If I'm browsing without aim in the bookstore, cover art and title play equally big roles. Your presentation doesn't have to be like all the others. I like the imaginative, the primitive, the abstract, and the non sequitur as much as I like the interesting hunk or princess on the cover doing the outrageous thing they're not supposed to be doing. A bit of abstract art on a shelf or the beautiful people will catch my eye. A puzzler title, or one of innuendo or doble-sentido, or stating the obvious forcefully will get me to think, though. Combined with the art, they will make me pick it up.

Not helpful, I know. No secret sauce recipes here. However…

AI art will cause me to place the book pages-forward, or hide it from view behind other books. Won't buy it! No I won't. If the publisher cheaps out, I'm assuming the author did, too.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

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Tombe la pluie - Theespookje

I'm wondering if on top of trying to get my old writings online and my #portfolio done which I always procrastinate I shouldn't start by make #blog article recap to show the #postprocessing I've actually finished on a given period, to give a glimpse of work to come and my current projects, I think it would be good to keep the #website active and keep the motivation up.
#photo #photography #blogpost #photographer #poet #photodiary #wip #artist #writer #photographersofmastodon

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

@orionkidder
We hear the term body image, how it affects the self-worth and health of women and men. Is that affecting cover art and authors now?

When I look at covers, I see lots of fantasy-perfect people who are sexy or dangerous as the genre demands, or Michael Whelan grand landscapes of lands or space vistas that fire the imagination with incredible intricacies. Plenty of great artists do both, mind you. I've commissioned art.

What other authors (or marketers) see, sadly is a resource out of reach financially, out of budget, or a waste of their money when it's "free" and you don't have to interact with ugh people.

I miss the great covers of old, sometimes abstract, sometimes simple photography, sometimes pastiche, often art differently talented people can do without becoming a Rembrandt, which arguably might be more affordable for demand or creation effort. Or authors (assuming indie here) could simply learn to use stock art and try composting images and titles themselves. Creating covers from found materials can be powerful and can hint at and support narratives.

AI art is lazy. I agree it's a criterion for not buying a book.

I don't consider myself an artist, but the cover below is in lieu of a handsome bare-chested stereotypical bearded male with outstretched white angel wings on which the forward margin of his primary feathers are ruby-edged and look sharp. Didn't know angels can have razor wings, did you? Considering the feminist subject matter of the story, I'm not sure I'd want the artist's impression of ethnicity or masculinity. My first cover was for a story that took place in Japan and I got a Vogue model; marketing

Sometimes simple can be evocative.

#BoostingIsSharing

This is cover art for an as of yet I'm published novel. It has a white feather with a red edge with blood dripping from the quill as if it were ink. It reads, "Reluctant Moon," with a full moon in one of the Os. A subtitle reads, "A Reluctance Novel by R.S."
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