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• Post #4042118

  Hey! Do you like urban fantasy/queer historical romance set in Wisconsin in 1969? Do you like to tell people about books? I'm now taking applications from people who would like review copies of the Dionysus in Wisconsin audiobook! Review copies will probably be available starting in about two weeks. The audiobook is about 9.5 hrs long. Please let me know if you have questions. https://forms.gle/5AtVqLgzMBeSFPuT8 #bookstodon #romancelandia #audiobook

• Post #3903397

  The boss wanted me to make sure you all know that once you finish reading Dionysus in Wisconsin, there's an excellent sequel, Old Time Religion. It's on sale (along with all the subsequent books) at https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/101754 or check out all the links at http://winnowingfanpress.com. #romancelandia #urbanFantasy #magicGradSchool #libraries #bookstodon

• Post #2857651

  #writersCoffeeClub 5/12 and 5/13: If not in your current format (novel, play, music, etc.), in what format would you write? If writing was not your 'thing,' what would your 'thing' be? If I wasn't writing novels (and it feels like cheating to say poems, because I do sometimes write those), I'd probably write plays. I've been on the periphery of the local community theater scene for a long time, and I know people I'd love to write t...

• Post #2857650

  #writersCoffeeClub 14 May: For characters, plots, ideas, settings, etc: how much is too much? I met with the fellow who's going to narrate the audiobook of Dionysus in Wisconsin and he mentioned that there are 23 characters who are more than walk-on roles in the first 3/5 of the book. (In fact I think I average a new character every four pages.) I never considered this much until we came to the problem of having to create distinct voices for all of them. I'm not saying it&#...

• Post #2857649

  If you are coming to the Madison Night Market tonight and want to say hey or buy a book (from me OR the awesome Louise Mayberry!), our booth is in front of the old Tutto Pasta, at the corner of State and Johnson. We'll also have tarot cards and readings and little felt guys!

• Post #2857648

  #writersCoffeeClub 15 May: How little [in terms of story elements] is not enough? Hmm... it's often a matter of personal preference. For example, I really want at least a little description of a character to hang my hat on. I think it's kinda trendy to forego this sometimes. I like a strong sense of the setting; I like hearing about how the people relate to the places they live. I'm 50/50 on plot. (I wrote this this morning and forgot to hit post.)

• Post #2857647

  #writersCoffeeClub May 17: If you work exclusively digitally, could you work by hand? (Or vice-versa!) I love writing by hand. I love fancy paper and expensive fountain pens and different types of ink. And I do sometimes jot down lines or scenes by hand and transcribe them later. The reason I don't generally write by hand is that I am left handed, and when I write fast, as I do sometimes when I'm excited, I find my handwriting a chore to decipher later, so the transcription pro...

• Post #2857646

  #writersCoffeeClub 18 May: With whom do you wish you could share your work but can't? My father died some time ago. Before my first novella was accepted for publication, actually. I don't know that he'd like what I'm writing now, but sometimes I wish he'd lived to see it. (My mom likes the stuff I'm writing, so it's definitely possible my dad would have. I think he would at least have appreciated the more literary aspects of it. We would...

• Post #2857645

  #writersCoffeeClub 19 May: How would changing genre change your current WIP's plot? Hmm. I think I could do it without magic--it would be kind of a mystery/thriller. Without romance it would be...shorter. Some kind of family drama, I guess. I guess I could change it further, like make it a western, but that starts to change who the characters are. (Actually I kind of like that? Laz could be a former Union soldier who has settled down to a quiet life as the twitchy weirdo on the edge of...

• Post #2857644

  Come see me in conversation with Katie at Tropes and Trifles in Minneapolis! June 30th at 7pm! I will draw hedgehogs in your books afterwards! https://tropesandtrifles.com/events/5473320260630 #Bookstodon #minneapolisminnesota #romancelandia

• Post #2857643

  #writersCoffeeClub 20 May: If not your current genre, what genre would you write? Space opera, probably. I love the genre.

• Post #2857642

  #writersCoffeeClub 21 May: What targets do you set for yourself? To what frequency? I don't set wordcount goals anymore. I try to remind myself that this is not my full-time gig, and trying to hit large numbers is only going to make me feel sad. At best, I have time goals (in the sense of "be up by 6 and spend an hour sitting in front of the manuscript") and deadlines. Right now, I'm working on a second draft that I think I'd like to release sometime be...

• Post #2857641

  #writersCoffeeClub 22 May: How well would your current WIP work as a play? Not too well. It has a lot of different places where things take place, and with the magic it would require a lot of special effects. Also it's somewhat a sequel to a different book I wrote, so I'm not sure the relationship would make sense to theater-goers without that context.

• Post #2857640

  #writersCoffeeClub 23 May: C&R: Share a current creative frustration. Everyone: Prescribe a 'creative antidote', not as a solution, but as a disruptive exercise. My current creative frustration is that my 5yo won't sleep until 7am. Most of the time he won't even sleep until 6am, so a lot of my writing time is done with someone leaning on my arm.

• Post #2857639

  #writersCoffeeClub May 24: What do you need in order to finish your current WIP? I'm about halfway through the second draft, so...some feedback from friends/beta readers, probably one more draft, maybe a dev edit, definitely a line/copy edit, and a cover. (Also time, sleep, and coffee.)

• Post #2857638

  #writersCoffeeClub 25 May: Share a late-stage change you made to your work. I make a lot of them. The easiest to mention without spoilers is the first scene of Dionysus in Wisconsin with Ulysses in the bar was entirely rewritten from scratch between getting the book back from my editor and publication (around the beginning of May, as I remember, and the book came out 5/26). My writing group and some friends had seen it, but it was never formally edited.

• Post #2323689

  #writersCoffeeClub 4/28: How magical is your work? If magic is a scale rather than a binary, the Wisconsin Gothic series is set in a universe where magic exists but isn't extremely useful for big things, so most people don't use it much.

• Post #2323688

  #writersCoffeeClub 4/29: Share the best sentence you wrote this month. I realize this is more than a single sentence, but it's my favorite. From the "not supposed to be working on it" project.

• Post #2323687

  RE: https://wandering.shop/@rubyjones/116488073464726561 This is such an awesome endorsement. I'm so glad you're enjoying the book! 🧡

• Post #2323686

  #writersCoffeeClub 30 Apr: How was this month for you, in terms of writing? I published a book, so April included a lot of really intense last-minute scrabbling and was very stressful. A lot of the rest of the month has been recovery. Work on the new project has been slow, but also I've been trying to respect my body's need for sleep and stuff like that.

• Post #2323685

  New podcast episode is up! http://askamedievalist.com/2026/04/30/episode-100-what-im-tolkien-about/ #askAMedievalist #histodon #medievaldon

• Post #2323684

  #writersCoffeeClub 3 May: Do you write your works localized to the setting or to your background? How do you decide? Right now I think it's both, since I have been writing about the place where I live. But I have also written about places I haven't visited (e.g. France), and I try to orient them to their setting. I actually don't know how I would write works that were solely oriented to my particular background.

• Post #2323683

  #writersCoffeeClub 4 May: Is there a scene or a character or even a plot you regret adding to a finished work? The positive of being a self publisher is that I don't answer to anyone but me, meaning the books are entirely my choices and I regret nothing. I do think there are ways I would have written things differently in retrospect---mostly on a sentence or word level, because I have grown as an author since I published my first book.

• Post #2323682

  #writersCoffeeClub May 6: Talk about something you've written which you expected would (or expect will) divide readers. I write somewhat between the genres of urban fantasy and romance most of the time. Romance has a lot of---let's say tropes, although maybe situations or themes are better words---that are divisive within that community. Of course there are tedious people who "don't read gay stuff" (why). (There are also people who don't want an...

• Post #2323681

  New realistic race goals: 1/ Finish half marathon in under 3 hours 2/ Look like a schlub in other people's selfies. And a stretch goal: 3/ Eat at least four Oreos on the course.

• Post #2221636

  #writersCoffeeClub 8 May: What experience can you identify as having made you the writer you are today? When I had objections to some rumors about the 1996 Dr Who telemovie (picked up on usenet, because argh I'm old). My dad said if I didn't like it, I should write my own. I had always been vaguely interested in writing, but that gave me something to focus on, like a...a seed crystal or something. It would still be years and years before I really finished a story, though, and even long...

• Post #2153509

  #writersCoffeeClub 7 May: Do readers need to understand a character's motivations to understand a story? Broadly, yes. They don't have to agree with them, but they need to have some idea why things are happening. I definitely have to understand motivations to write them.

• Post #1974624

  Yesterday was my birthday, and I went to the Wisconsin Book Awards. Lazarus, Home from Wisconsin was a finalist for (but did not win) the Edna Ferber Book Award. All awards matter and none of them do. It's both surprising and gratifying to find my work among capital-L literature. I always wanted to write genre fiction that made Literature people notice. I'm slowly getting closer. The most important accolade that LHftW has received, of course, was being one of Fated Mate's top ten...

• Post #1892346

  For the first time, I've managed to do a race twice in consecutive years but stay the same age (because it was on my birthday last year). Last year I had what was probably an asthma attack mid-run, cried, and almost quit running forever. Today I did not do those things.

• Post #1880035

  #writersCoffeeClub May 2: Have you ever written a character making one decision, only to later revise them choosing otherwise? Yeah, sometimes. During the course of writing a book, you kind of think through all the different alternatives that a character can take. Sometimes, later down the line, you realize that it would be a lot better if the character had said/done something different at an earlier point--it sets up the tension better or whatever. So you change it, and change all the little r...