#PennedPossibilities 861 — Has your MC ever committed a crime? If so, what have they done?

(WIP: "Starter Pack"):

Jum (MC1) is a career criminal. Con man, thief, burglar, bank robber, forger, pickpocket, cheats at cards, you name it, he's done it.

Tabitha (MC2) is a different sort of criminal. First lady of an organized crime family with all that implies, but also: murder, selling biological weapons, selling the skeletons of her murder victims, and also: she's Jum's partner.

#PennedPossibilities 859, Do you have a preference for the age of your characters, or do you include characters of all ages in your work? Explain why.

I tend to include a broad range of adult characters in my longer works. Short stories I generally don't specify age other than 'adult', so readers can interpret how they like.

Children are rare in my stories. I can only think of two, one in Planting Life who is a major side character, one in A Smear of Blood who shows up for a single scene and isn't seen again.

#PennedPossibilities 858
MC POV: Is it easy for you to forgive others? (Truly?)

Elisabeti: I suppose... I suppose I have never truly needed to try. Not for real hurts, genuine harm.

Who am I supposed to forgive for all the death? Who do I blame, even? The human soldiers who killed my mate are dead.

And it isn't my place to forgive Caldelon, even if I wanted to. Their attack on our cubs... it wasn't me who lost children in that raid. And those who did... I think any who asked them to forgive deserves whatever happens to them for their cruelty.

I saw this earlier and laughed. It needed to be shared.

Writers should NOT feel guilty about:
• Skipping a day of writing.
• Not having a perfect first draft.
• Partaking in sinister, arcane rituals for inspiration.
• Working at their own pace.
• Enlisting demons and/or helpful spirits to aid them with editing.

#WritingCommunity #Writer #Author #PennedPossibilities

#PennedPossibilities 857 — Does your universe have any autumnal traditions?

Seasons arise from axial parallelism, and as I'm writing space opera there are many worlds in it, some with and some without axial parallelism. (The latter tend to be problematic for human settlement: many parts of our native biosphere depend on it.)

#PennedPossibilities 857
Does your universe have any autumnal traditions?

Sure. I tend to think most peoples have harvest traditions of some variety, and for the characters in Price of Survival, the harvest does tend to mostly happen in Autumn.

The wolves are a bit odd in that they also have a traditional winter 'harvest'.

When the snow gets deep in late winter, and the wild animals start facing a real struggle to survive until Spring, the wolves will go on a community hunt, aimed at culling the weak and starving prey animals. This tradition helps the remaining prey animals survive with less competition for what little food remains, and helps feed the wolves through the last of the cold time.

#PennedPossibilities 855
MC POV: Who is one person you would never want to see again? Why?

Elisabeti: Anyone from Caldelon. I won't let them near my son. I won't! I won't! I won't!

I saw this earlier and laughed. It needed to be shared.

Writers should NOT feel guilty about:
• Skipping a day of writing.
• Not having a perfect first draft.
• Partaking in sinister, arcane rituals for inspiration.
• Working at their own pace.
• Enlisting demons and/or helpful spirits to aid them with editing.

#WritingCommunity #Writer #Author #PennedPossibilities

#PennedPossibilities 854 — What genres might you try outside of your chosen one(s)? Is there anything specific you would like to work on?

Nothing comes to mind?

I did, very briefly, play around with the idea of epic poetry, but I'm too long out of the poetry game for it to really work and am not willing/able to put the time and energy in to do it right.

Pity, but such is life as a spoony.

Overall, I've got a fairly big genre pond to play in, a broad range of SFF with occasional dippings into other somethings such as What You Will, which doesn't fit neatly in any genre really.

There's a lot of subgenres to sff I haven't played in yet. Some I probably never will (like steampunk) others I may, time will only tell.

Barring a miracle, I'll never play in historical again. I don't have the spoons/resources to do what I consider a good enough job of research and accuracy. If I can't at least have a gloss of spec fic to explain away discrepancies, it isn't happening.

#PennedPossibilities 852 — Tell us something you’ve always wanted to share about your story with readers.

I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but Elisabeti's story is loosely inspired by the experiences of converso Jewish in Medieval and Renaissance Europe.

It is said that part of Jewish culture is not feeling Jewish enough, and I absolutely live that. That is one part of Jewish culture I have done perfectly.

So I sometimes feel self conscious about the fact that I'm not including Jewish 'rep' in my writing.

Sometimes I feel the need to remind people (myself especially!) that my Jewishness is still part of my writing, even when it isn't obvious. And that's okay.

#PennedPossibilities 850 — What is your least favorite part of being a writer?

Marketing. 110%. I think I'm slowly getting better at some parts of it, but as a thing as a whole, I constantly feel like I'm floundering. Don't have the time, energy, or comfort levels to do it effectively.

#PennedPossibilities 849 — SC POV: Do you worry about what the future will bring?

Ash (Tales from Hell): Nah. People only fear the future because they spend way too much time thinking about it. Those of us who live in the moment, with our eyes truly open, know that there's plenty to be shit-scared about happening right now.

#PennedPossibilities 849 — SC POV: Do you worry about what the future will bring?

Aswathi - all the time now. Bringing Elisabeti home with me and helping her hide with her son (our son now) was the right thing to do. But I worry every day about what will happen if she is ever discovered to be a wolf.

Or worse, our son is.

#PennedPossibilities 849 — SC POV: Do you worry about what the future will bring?

Ash (Tales from Hell): Nah. People only fear the future because they spend way too much time thinking about it. Those of us who live in the moment, with our eyes truly open, know that there's plenty to be shit-scared about happening right now.

@DangerousSafe
There are a number of writers who follow various writing hashtags such as #pennedpossibilities #scribesandmakers #wordweavers etc. I'm sure you can find some great inspiration by following those hashtags.

Also while not common, there are occasional calls for collaboration from various artists on here, especially in the areas animation and stop-motion photography.

#PennedPossibilities 847 — MC POV: What will you stand up for?

Standing up got us here. I will sit down and puppeteer the downfall of fascism from behind the throne, thank you very much.

#PennedPossibilities 847 — MC POV: What will you stand up for?

Elisabeti: My child's safety. I can't... I just can't do more than that. I know I'm a coward. I'm abandoning my pack and everyone who cares about me, but... I can't face the thought of anything happening to my son. To risking that.

All the cubs are dead. They are gone... and now my son is born, and I won't risk him. I can't.

#PennedPossibilities 847 — MC POV: What will you stand up for?

Standing up got us here. I will sit down and puppeteer the downfall of fascism from behind the throne, thank you very much.

#PennedPossibilities 845 — Has your writing affected the way you speak, or your word choice or sentence structure?

Not that I'm noticed, but I'm sure it's possible.

#PennedPossibilities 830: Ever created a SC you wished was MC?

Yes: there are a whole bunch of them in the Laundry Files.

So after I got bored with my initial MC I gave them all novels of their own. (Well, most of them: the ones who were still alive by that point in the story arc ...)