#udir

Udir: I'm the Knife!!

Tradewinds was an original Fae Tales novel set in the canonical universe, that has been shelved due to me not being able to find Aboriginal Australian sensitivity readers who were happy to read gay male/male sex scenes.

It was based on a separate cast and set in Australia and Malaysia, with their series being part of the 'MerchantVerse.' Basically how merchants trade, who they trade with, and the stronger Seelie and Unseelie divide among fae.

The story features Matan, a Malay Seelie peacock pheasant shifter and master merchant specialising in selling batik, needing to find a cure for an Unseelie curse placed on his cousin. To go on the journey necessary to get information, he pretends to be Unseelie, and joins an Unseelie merchant caravan of birds of prey (almost all raptor shifters are Unseelie). There, he meets Udir, a Romansh bearded vulture/lammergeier shifter who is frequently down on his luck, and has worked as an assassin in the past.

Udir finds out Matan is actually Seelie, and then blackmails him into sex, thinking that he's being clever, only to not realise that Matan's very clever too.

And then it was basically about Matan and Udir falling in love, Matan going on an Eran-like journey of learning to understand that the difference between Seelie and Unseelie isn't as black and white as he thought, and finding the cure for his cousin, and learning about trading in Australia with his Unseelie merchant friends, while dealing with a pretty awful villain in the meantime.

It's very found family.

I really like the story, and I think with a little reworking, the novel would be super strong. However there's literally only one white main character, and everyone else is either Maori or Aboriginal Australian or Malay etc. so while I was able to get some of the sensitivity reading done, some of it I couldn't get done (and I lost money in the process, because one person said they would sensitivity read for me, asked for a $150 deposit about 7 years ago, and then took it and never talked to me again, which was frankly very demoralising and depressing, because like, as a disabled, chronically ill person with cancer, I kind of needed that money too, lmao).

So...the book is pretty much permanently shelved. I did share some chapters on Patreon under a redundant tier (which would now be the $10+ tier, but I need to edit those posts to reflect that). And everyone who's ever read it thinks I should publish it. I just...don't feel comfortable with that given I'm writing Indigenous side characters.

Sula did a really lovely sketch of Matan though:

Hello new reader!

As it said in the previous post, Tradewinds isn’t available for wide release at all. It’s not on AO3 or anywhere else, and was only available for a certain tier of Patreon supporters for a limited time.

As also said, the reason it hasn’t been released (it was never intended to go up on AO3, but to be released as a novel and self-published, so it’s complete) is because I can’t locate an Indigenous Australian sensitivity reader who is happy to read m/m explicit sex scenes. Until that happens, the story is benched, I’m afraid.

I actually have a blurb already (and a synopsis, etc. All the technical specs for release). It’s also been looked over by a professional editor in the m/m industry who says it’s basically ready to go. The cast is primarily Malay and Indigenous Australian, as it’s set in the Southern Hemisphere and dealing with an entirely new array of fae and fae traditions etc. (though it’s still a Fae Tales story):

Matan is a pheasant shifter aligned withthe Seelie fae, living in a world of fairy-tales and magic.  A successful trader of fine silks inMalaysia, Matan has been raised to believe that Seelie are the heroes of thefae world, while the Unseelie are the villains, untrustworthy and devious bynature. When Matan unwittingly creates a terrible situation for his family, hefinds himself in need of money, and fast. The easiest solution is to join anUnseelie caravan of bird of prey shifters, the Golden Raptor Guild. There,hiding his true identity and pretending to be Unseelie, he meets Udir, abearded vulture shifter and gun-toting poisons trader with a murky past. Udirquickly unveils Matan’s true Seelie identity and blackmails him into doingwhatever he wants, whenever he wants it.

As the caravan travels along thewind-swept coasts of South-Western Australia, Matan comes to see that Udir isnot who he first appeared to be, and that the other members of the Guild arenot the villains he expected. Matan navigates Udir’s tragic past – which neverquite stays in the past – the politics of Unseelie trading, his own commitmentphobia, all as he becomes increasingly unhappy lying to the people who arebecoming the closest thing to a family away from his own family. His easysolution becomes trickier and more dangerous at every turn. Matan is left withonly one question: how can he be loyal to his family as well as be with Udir,while his very place with the Guild is based on a lie?

*

Trust me, I want to get it out there! But I’m pretty stymied right now, and I’m not willing to just take the risk and publish it, in case I’m committing a huge cultural faux pas (or multiple) without realising - I’ve done a fuckton of research and been careful not to use any actual Dreamtime stories (I’ve kept the Dreamtime as a separate realm in the Fae Tales verse) etc. but that doesn’t mean anything, I need to get it looked at. And unfortunately, that’s something I can’t magically make happen. I’ll keep an eye out on databases of sensitivity readers and keep my fingers crossed but so far, no dice.

L'UDIR et l'association @hangart410 vous présente : 

📚 La publication de l'anthologie des Peintres de la Réunion II dirigé par @jf.samlong et @hoarau2095 réunissant une centaine d'artistes Réunionnais

🎨 L'exposition collective TYINBO - commissariat de @kako.run.7 réunissant les peintures d'une quarantaine d'artistes

Scuola: nasce l’UDIR, il nuovo sindacato dei Dirigenti Scolastici

È nato da pochi giorni l’UDIR, il nuovo sindacato dei dirigenti scolastici.  La nuova organizzazione,  fortemente voluta da Marcello Pacifico, presidente di ANIEF (Associazione Sindacale Professionale), nei primi due giorni di vita ha già registrato più di 100 iscrizioni, e punta a diventare il punto di riferimento principale di tutti i dirigenti scolastici italiani.

La nuova organizzazione…