#vixencatastrophe

I think people see certain devotional acts as dishonest because it feels too easy. A lot of what we’re taught about religion (courtesy of Christianity) is that you have to sacrifice and suffer (what up my fellow former Catholics!) but worship doesn’t have to be strenuous or elaborate. Worship is whatever you define it as. 

Also if you feel like taking a shower isn’t really for Aphrodite because you were going to do it anyway why not try and make it feel more devotional?? I like to play music now when I take a shower and usually it’s my Aphrodite playlist. And I use specific bath products that smell heavenly and make me think of her. I also like to view my shower time as my self-love/relaxing time which applies to Aphrodite and the lessons she is teaching me. 

Network, participate, make friends — rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Becoming involved in a community is the quickest way to gain a foothold within said community. Social media is definitely a case study in reaping what you sow, effort-wise. Beyond that, don’t spread yourself so thin that you’re not able to make an organic impact.

I’ll use myself as an example: I have the best interactions with people here on Tumblr. This is the kindest social media platform for creators, I’ll fight anyone who claims differently. There are no funky algorithms, no blue check-marks, no influencers. The ability to engage directly with readers has been a gift over the past year and a half. I’ve put the most into this platform, between my masterlist (I posted content every single week during the first year of my blog, until I got sick,) the Monster Matches, my askbox, etc — and as a result, you guys have been wonderfully supportive, and I can’t thank this community enough. 

The other platform I give my time to is Instagram (and I would really, super-duper love it if you guys followed me there as well!) My IG is only about a year old and it’s only in the last 6 months or so that I’ve been posting on it regularly. I followed a BUNCH of people--other writers, book bloggers, publishing houses, merch shops, etc--and I interacted on their posts, reblogged in my stories, etc. The more I shared and commented, the more other accounts interacted with my content and stories. I still don’t have a ton of followers there (like less than 500) but the engagement with other authors and bloggers and my patrons has been consistent, which makes up for the lack of reach. As a result, 50% of my ARC team came from IG and I’m still reaping the benefits of word-of-mouth within that community even though GW is almost 2 months old at this point.

(And just to change gears for a hot second...reach is important, obviously. That’s why it’s important to reblog vesus liking creator posts, but follower count isn’t everything and it’s folly to get too wrapped up in it. I have less than half the followers of some other writers in the Tumblr sphere, but quality engagement is what’s more important for me, and has had the biggest impact on the reach of my work. Don’t ever let yourself get too caught up in the follow counts and notes on posts. Find your tribe, the people who are passionate about the story you’re telling, and the numbers will follow!)

I put very little into Twitter and virtually nothing into FB, and as a result, I get very little back in return. 

I’m going to write a post later this week about my learns in the wake of Girls Weekend, I’ll tag you in it, if you’d like! (I’m going to be posting Alder the Ghillie Dhue’s revisit in the next day or so and polishing that up is my first priority before I work on anything else... @tmnt-bucklover, I hope you really love Cambric Creek, because this is less of a “monster match revisit” and more of a “these characters are a permanent part of the community now, so get used to it” story.)

I will say this—Girls Weekend is almost 2 months old at this point, still technically a “new release” but also an old dinosaur in the world of Amazon publishing. As of today, it’s still in the top 100 of three different genre categories, I’ve sold copies every single day since release, I’ve sold out of book boxes twice, and I’ve not spent a single penny on advertising. It’s 100% because of the work I put into building relationships and readers in the community here and on IG—that means all of you guys—and my wonderful patrons. I would love to be able to tell you it wasn’t work, but that would be a *tremendous* lie. It causes my heart an ENORMOUS amount of joy to hear you’re already thinking ahead on that angle of publishing. One thing to keep in mind: you’re not on anyone’s timetable but your own if you’re publishing independently. You only get one release per book. Even if you’re done, even if you’re edited and formatted with a killer cover and you’ve worked on your blurb and are SO READY to publish...give yourself the time to do it right. If you make mistakes--and you will--good news: you can learn from them and do things differently with the next one. But there’s no one holding a clock to you, so if you feel like you want to work on building your community first, you have the latitude to do so.

Talk about your book, talk about your characters, be your own biggest fan. Your passion will attract the passion of others. And I’ve said this before, but I will repeat it a hundred thousand times—you guys can ALWAYS tag me on stuff you’d like boosted. I don't have the biggest platform, but it’s a damned good one with awesome followers and readers. Whether that’s a story, an announcement, artwork, cover reveals, contests—use me! I’m a free resource!

Dude bruh what if my parents are watching geez oh my god

Grier survives another chapter. But there is only one chapter left for the series...

Ugh, the heart to hearts got me real bad while I was writing them. First Grier’s confession (that he needs to do once a chapter, minimum), then Nikostratus’. I hope now people see why my poor sweet Prince is so afraid to open up.

Yes! The Gareth scene! I was telling @thava that originally Gareth was supposed to play a much more major antagonistic role in the story, but he ended up just being this lurky shadow in the corners of the chapters. Still, it seems everyone hates him as much as they were supposed to.

And I love that you picked up on that scene. Honestly, it’s kind of ironic because throughout this chapter, Nikostratus keeps acting like he’s all alone. He has to be strong, he has to do this by himself. But there are just CONSTANT reminders that he doesn’t! That he’s not alone and everyone is worried about him. Hibik keeps trying to get him to think of himself, Morgana wants him to get away to feel better, Ina Morag tries to talk him down. Then of course, Damjan standing at his shoulder during one of his most emotional outbursts ever. Every goblin in the castle loves their new Prince, and they can’t stand to see him like this.

Still, despite all this support he has... he only trusts Grier to bear his soul to... :(

Cat here :D OH MY GOD!! That’s really amazing and also WHAT, dreams are so fucking weird, I love how a dream doctor told you it’s perfectly normal for a kid to turn into a purple candle, and your dream self is just like “cool cool cool” lmao

Also ahhhh a baby!!! We have so many fur babies, the thought of an actual baby is pretty scary, but then again, now I’m invested in the idea of utilizing you as a babysitter.... 

Also can I spare a moment to be like,,,, omggggggg we’re showing up in someone’s dreams, like!!! that’s hella cool. 

Much love!

Send me a character and I’ll insult them

The fact that we call him Tim Shaw is already a roast

Hi Vixen!! Okay, so I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t have a LOT of experience with queerplatonic relationships, but I do have a bit!

So my first QPP was Tiger, in a sense. It’s one of those relationships that we never properly labeled, but looking back that’s how I would qualify it. We had a very very strong connection, to the point of codependency, and it wasn’t an entirely healthy relationship. There was a lot of pain on both ends in this relationship.

The reason I see it as queerplatonic is bc I neither feel like “friends with benefits”, “lovers”, or “romantic partners” really cover what we had. However, since I didn’t know what a QPP was at this time, we never discussed the terms of our relationship, and I feel like part of the reason we eventually fell apart was tied up with not having the words to describe our level of commitment, without getting tangled up in romantic terms. 

A part of my relationship to the term QPP is to be found in the fact that I value friendship very very highly, and my friends are extremely important to me. I don’t consider it like a hiearchy, where “romantic love” trumps platonic and alterous love, rather I see them as quantitatively comparable but qualitatively different experiences. 

Now my current QPP is Bat. The main reason we label ourselves as such is because Bat and I have different expectations and beliefs about what it means to be “friends”. Where this could be a casual thing for Bat, it is not casual for me, and I felt like putting a label on what we have, might put Bat more at ease. (Bc of trauma she has pretty severe abandonment issues). 

So in that sense, I use QPP much like I use “girlfriend/boyfriend/partner”, “lover” or “friend”. It’s just the label that fits me and my relationship-companion best at the current time. 

Like my friend Coyote is also extremely important to me, but we’re both comfortable with containing that relationship within the term “friends”. Bear and I could have gone with QPP seeing as how we’re both confused with labels and attraction, but we enjoy the simplicity of telling people we’re romantic partners.

I don’t think friend, lover, partner and QPP signify different levels of commitment either, it’s just.. different labels.

What I find more important than the name of the label is the Relationship Talk(tm), where you and your companion decide what this label means to you and where the boundaries and commitments lie in your relationship. 

It’s perfectly valid to call someone your girlfriend without feeling romantic attraction, if it helps you better explain the level of commitment and/or your typical activities to strangers. It’s also valid to have a personal label between the two of you, and another towards the world for simplicity’s sake.

I’m not for policing the language people use, and I believe QPP is just another word in a repertoire of labels that I somewhat understand, and if it speaks to you, then I think that’s beautiful, and I hope you find happiness within that term!