What a long year it's been, and it's only the first week of February! I make no apologies for my spiciness on my social media platforms. But anyhoo, I'm going to rather focus on the good things in this blog post, because if you're reading this, now, you're no doubt looking for a little haven of distractions.
While I've not been *very* vocal about it, I have not-so-secretly been working on a new WiP. The so-far untitled manuscript is a MG fantasy novel that features an owlcat as support cast and discusses important topics such as displacement of people from land and the importance of solidarity in fighting against injustice. (See my note below about writing as an act of resistance.) I'm about halfway through, with a target of around 50k words, after which I'll be translating this document into Afrikaans for a local youth literature competition. I did start writing in Afrikaans a few years ago, but ended up stalling – so this year I'm changing tactics and doing my first draft in English. So far, so good. And my alpha readers, whom include two thirteen-year-old girls, have responded favourably. So it's all systems go.
Helpers Helping Writers
Which brings me to the importance of collaboration. With this stupid-blind, headlong into LLM and generative AI, we're losing sight of what writers and other creatives did before all this techno-industrial horror. We collaborated. Create a community. Help each other. Pool your skills and resources and focus on human-first, human-centred creativity. We're in for a bumpy next few years, and creativity is so important – not only does it help foster understanding and empathy, it's a very valid way for you to find ways to express yourself and connect authentically with others. It's not so much the end result, but the journey that matters, and that is something I feel we've lost along the way. Too much emphasis is placed on More! Faster! And this has largely contributed to what I feel is the wholesale enshittification of the publishing industry. So I'm likely to be going full William Morris on y'all over the next while. It's likely not going to make me rich, but I'll be proud of what I create and put out into the world.
Drabble
So, I'm totally ovary-to-the-wall at the moment in terms of work, but I decided to take time out to celebrate the Dragon Age community by writing a drabble. Ladygelfling over at Threads suggested 'distracted by elfroot' as a prompt, so here we have my drabble, in all its glory. (And sans the glaring typo in the title that went out with my post during the week, DERP.)
But staying with the enshittification, I'm kinda bummed because EA (the holding company that owns Bioware, the publishers of Dragon Age) have basically killed the IP because of its "underperformance". (And for that, we've got the culture wars and late-stage capitalism to blame). One of the Dragon Age writers, Sheryl Chee posted on BlueSky:
And I'm going to hold onto that. So expect more Dragon Age fics from me in the future, and, time allowing, possibly some awful art. Because I suck at one of the things I really love doing – namely art. Which is kinda sad considering I majored in illustration at university. But who cares. Rather bad art than AI-generated slop, imo.
Writing as an Act of Resistance
I had some words to say earlier this week about writing as an act of resistance. And I'm going to stick to this opinion. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for the writers who shaped me when I was young – Anne McCaffrey, Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb, Ursula K Le Guin, Storm Constantine, Katharine Kerr, Poppy Z Brite, Mercedes Lackey, and yes, even Anne Rice. (Other than Tolkien, and He Who I Will No Longer Name, cis male authors don't really feature. Funny, that.) Theirs were the books that I gobbled up during my teens that, when I look at from the distance of years, made the hugest impact on me. Not only on my decision to become a writer, but also to celebrate the fight against injustice, to celebrate diversity, the queer and the weird. Which is why I encourage you to write the stories that speak to your truth and your lived experience. You never know when your words will reach someone. I've had readers write me letters to tell me how much my stories have meant to them while they've been in their darkest times. One person said that they loved my Wraeththu mythos stories in Storm Constantine's Para anthologies as they brought them comfort while they were undergoing chemo. I admit that this moved me to tears and is worth far more to me than the few pounds I earned from selling the story to Immanion Press. This is why I write, folks. This is also why I am a firm believer in equality, solidarity, and sustainability. Just FYI...
Important The Company of Birds update
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