Follow Your Bliss

Digital wallpapers for your phone, tablet, and computer? Postcard-sized illustrations to give to your friends or tape to your wall? Stories where most people are trying their best, but some are actively making things worse?

Then go back the The Wisdom of Emperors kickstarter before 4pm EDT (9pm GMT) Thursday June 4 (tomorrow!! 19 hours from now!)!. All kickstarter orders come with digital wallpapers of the seven gorgeous landscape illustrations by Mosu Äijälä that will be included with every edition of the book, and physical orders come with 6– going on 7!– art cards of those same illustrations!

LOOK AT THISSSSSS IT'S GORGEOUSSSSSS AND IT COULD BE YOURS!!!!

if messy bisexuals on a misguided quest for love and power, or a twink that leads them halfway around the continent while insisting he doesn't want to be found, sound up your alley, please check it out! It also has footnotes! And a fake bibliography! and a scholar with a minor (very minor, they assure you) crush on just the coolest priestess in the whole tale!

"is this real? /gen" — i thought /gen meant "general" for ages. i would not be able to understand this on first sight a few years ago and is thus ineffective

"is this real? (genuine question)" — i fully understand this without issue

Attention ancient history nerds and fans of really weird and unusual fantasy books, THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS kickstarter campaign just launched!

Hello, btw, I'm Alexandra Rowland, the author of A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON, RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND, YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION, and several other books. This is my new one!!

Inspired by the story of the Ancient Roman emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous, THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS is a second-world adult fantasy novel written in the style of a fictional academic text. It documents the translation and study of a world-changing artifact discovered in an archaeological dig: a manuscript which provides the clues to finally unravel one of the most perplexing mysteries in all of ancient history.

If this sounds like your jam, go back it on kickstarter! If you're not sure whether it is your jam, the merch reveal updates on the campaign include excerpts from the book so you can get a flavor for it -- the ENTIRE Foreword to the book is on there!

I do not have a publisher to help with a marketing and publicity budget, so this book's success really depends on grassroots support from readers -- if you can spare a signal boost, that'd be amazing.

I'M GONNA GO WALK INTO THE SEA NOW AND BECOME ONE WITH THE MOLLUSCS, but before i do, here is the full summary of the book:

SUMMARY:

     An ancient emperor who, along with his entire army, vanished from the historical record for ten years, as if into thin air. A long-suffering scribe, dragged along on a quest that was doomed from the start, furiously scrawling his thoughts in a manuscript that will be lost for millennia. An enslaved young man, as beautiful as a marble statue, breaking his chains and flying to freedom. And a patient, steadfast scholar, dauntlessly seeking the answer to a mystery that has plagued historians for two thousand years.

The great tragedy of studying history is that there is so much we will never know. But a recent archaeological excavation has discovered an ancient manuscript, allegedly the journal kept by one of Emperor Cabian’s scribes during the years of his mysterious disappearance. Though most historians initially dismissed it as a hoax or a forgery, Amatio Orlanti took on the challenge—not only proving the authenticity of the manuscript, but translating it, uncovering the most jaw-dropping corroborating sources and, at last, presenting these astonishing revelations to the world: The truth of Cabian’s ill-fated journey, the twin poisons of imperialist violence and desperate, misguided love that drove him relentlessly onwards, and the ultimate fate of his lost beloved, the legendary beauty Anaticula. This new edition of Orlanti’s dissertation, with its academic commentaries and explanatory footnotes now revised for the general public, offers a glimpse of one of the most famous figures of Ancient Lausa—and casts a light on the rot and depravity lying behind the empire’s outward magnificence.

Miracles in history and archaeology just don’t happen… except when they do.

1300+ backers

over $100,000 raised

Audiobook stretch goal reached!

Collector's Edition fully upgraded to its fanciest form: High-quality sewn binding (NOT glued), gold foil and embossing on the cover, ribbon bookmark, sprayed edges, illustrated endpapers (full color) and 7 interior illlustrations (greyscale) by @holographings and @qwertyprophecy

Enamel pin stretch goal! Alternate colorway dust jacket stretch goal!!

There's still 4 spots available to claim a copy of the luxury HANDBOUND edition made by an incredibly talented bookbinder.

Every physical order comes with 5 art cards (so far) of the illustrations in full color (and we might hit the stretch goals to get a couple more!)

Here is the first illustration that's been completed, by the amazingly talented @qwertyprophecy:

Are you speechless? I'm speechless.

This has truly been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Like, I've published over a dozen books before this and I've never felt so much an outpouring of love and community and CONNECTION... This is what making art is all about. I'm so, so grateful. Thank you so much.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the kickstarter, YOU SHOULD GO DO THAT THING. I'm making something really cool with the help of some really cool artists!

My artist @qwertyprophecy has knocked it out of the park again <3 The first illustration completed for the book is of the Jeweled Gates of Xereccio -- I told Mosu the vibes were "Ancient Sumerian ruins before they became ruins" and "the Hanging Gardens of Babylon" and "the Gates of Ishtar". STUNNING STUNNING STUNNING art, go check it out!!!

First of all, I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has signed up on Kickstarter to get notified when THE WISDOM OF EMPERORS campaign goes live! And seven or eight more huge thank-yous to everyone who has been signal-boosting about it! Without the support of a publisher and their marketing budget, the success of a book is entirely contingent on grassroots support from fans, so I am truly grateful to see such an incredible response already, even before the campaign has launched. Just two weeks to go! Let's keep the momentum going!

On to today's merch reveal! Or, rather, a merch reveal plus a peek at what the first stretch goal will be after the Kickstarter reaches its funding goal... 

Not a huge fan of the red on the usual cover? Prefer a book that will coordinate with any outfit so that strangers on the subway will think you're impressively stylish? Planning to get the standard hardback rather than the Collector's Edition, but still want to jazz it up a little? Planning to get both versions and want them to look equally twinkly when they're side-by-side on your shelf? The Goth Version has you... covered... (Look, I grimaced too as I wrote that.) 

Available as an add-on when we reach $500 over our funding goal, The Goth Version is an alternate colorway dust jacket in black/grey -- and yes, it'll still have the gold foil on the cover! :) Which do you like more, the black or the red? Let me know in the comments!

ALSO, over on Kickstarter, there's an exclusive excerpt from the book, featuring Gaius Talius (the scribe of a 2000-year-old manuscript found in an archaeological excavation) having a Very Bad Day. Read it here:

So excited to reveal the cover to my new book today, The Wisdom of Emperors! You can check it out on Kickstarter, along with the full summary!

Inspired by the story of the Ancient Roman emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous, The Wisdom of Emperors is a second-world adult fantasy novel written in the style of a fictional academic text. It documents the translation and study of a world-changing artifact discovered in an archaeological dig: a manuscript which provides the clues to finally unravel the mysteries surrounding one of the most famous emperors of the ancient world. 

The Kickstarter campaign is for the deluxe collector's edition, but you'll be able to preorder the standard hardback/paperback, PLUS the early-access ebook, available to backers well before general publication to everyone else. And there's going to be some really, REALLY cool merch as well (genuine papyrus bookmarks, designed and blockprinted by my own hands!)

So excited to reveal the cover to my new book today, The Wisdom of Emperors! You can check it out on Kickstarter, along with the full summary!

Inspired by the story of the Ancient Roman emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous, The Wisdom of Emperors is a second-world adult fantasy novel written in the style of a fictional academic text. It documents the translation and study of a world-changing artifact discovered in an archaeological dig: a manuscript which provides the clues to finally unravel the mysteries surrounding one of the most famous emperors of the ancient world. 

The Kickstarter campaign is for the deluxe collector's edition, but you'll be able to preorder the standard hardback/paperback, PLUS the early-access ebook, available to backers well before general publication to everyone else. And there's going to be some really, REALLY cool merch as well (genuine papyrus bookmarks, designed and blockprinted by my own hands!)

the Original playoffs ice kiss coming out :’)

But something changed when he accepted that he didn't have to pretend with Rose. When he got to share a part of him he's hidden for so long (from himself as much as anyone else!) and it turned out okay. The world didn't come crashing down on him, he gained a friend and sense of who he was that he'd been lying to himself about for a really long time. He got to control a little aspect of his life that looked different from the perfect micromanaged life that had been written for him.

So when he gets to Tampa he's still running on the high of being honest and feeling the freedom of someone knowing you and wanting you around anyway. And he knows! He knows Ilya wants him around anyway! He knows that Ilya was trying with the tuna melts and asking him to stay. He knows there was something just fundamentally different that day and it wasn't just him. And, importantly, he knows he can't run away from it any more. He doesn't want to.

So he's honest. He tells Ilya he looks good (in public!). Tells him he doesn't feel like being managed (he's in charge of his own life now!). Tries, in his own way, to explain to Ilya that it couldn't have ever worked with Rose (they're not compatible, could never be compatible, not like you, not like us). He's not pretending any more, and for the first time in his life he is driving his own narrative.

Which is why it is so huge that Shane asks Ilya for his room number. He's never been the one to ask before. Ilya has always been the one to push their relationship forwards but Shane has this agency that carries him through that entire day. He asks for Ilya's room number! He tells him he's gay! He's honest about it being different last time! He tells Ilya he likes him!

what is your room number?