Queer Fictioneer

By which I mean, asks used to be WAY more of the tumblr economy. They used to be more common to send, and receive, and see. They were integral to the collaborative, forum-like behavior of old tumblr communities, not even to speak on the HUGE number of ask-blogs that used to exist to only be interacted with in ask-form.

"The existence and consumption of coffee has many advantages in human society, but perhaps the lesser reported advantage is what it can offer the environment.

There is arguably no other monocrop so capable of thriving in an intact, natural ecosystem, and in Ethiopia, where coffee is a major export, the adoption of climate-compatible and conservation strategies among coffee growers recently proved a major success, with over 5,000 acres of land reforested, 45% increases in household income, and a 70% increase in exported coffee.

Coffee is a major lifeblood of Ethiopia’s economy (we’re talking about a quarter of the whole), accounting for around half of the livelihood of 15 million people, 95% of whom are small landholding growers.

In the ecologically critical Ilu Ababor Zone of nation’s western region of Oromia, where Coffea arabica is native, Farm Africa led a project on sustainable agriculture among coffee growers inside 19 local forest management cooperatives totaling around 4,000 people between 2021 and 2024.

The results were better than a hot cup of coffee on a cold early morning, as the residents took to the skills, incentives, and even stakeholder meetings with great interest and dedication according to a report on the project entitled Coffee for Conservation.

Of the project aims regarding forest management and conservation, the objective was to instruct the landholders and growers in ways to get everything they needed from their forest homes without felling too many native trees.

For example, locals were shown how to cultivate fast-growing trees optimal for firewood in small plots, as well as methods on how to maximize the growth cycle of these fuel trees. Six tree nurseries were opened and staffed by around 60 people taught to sell seedlings for reforestation of native woodland in the area.

By the end of the project, over 300,000 seedlings had been planted over 5,000 acres of forest, and they enjoyed a five-year survival rate of 85%. Climate-smart practices such as cultivating bamboo for making the mats on which the coffee beans are dried, removed the need to truck in bamboo from other regions, while 66% of homes were able to be convinced to switch to energy-efficient wood stoves to reduce fuel consumption.

Most of the landholders growing coffee or managing the forest had plots for vegetable and fruit production to feed their families and those of their communities through trade. Percentages of these Ethiopians who adopted climate-smart farming techniques increased from 49% to 76%, while 10% more began growing fruit and vegetables. Income generated from the increased production amounted to around 280% more than what was made before the project, adjusted for inflation.

Coffee production, marketing, and returns, have all improved. 73% more coffee from the Ilu Ababor region is now export-quality than in 2021, and 44% meets the standards for specialty grade, which is up by 20% from 2021.

Connections with national financing intuitions have allowed some of the co-ops to buy proper equipment for drying and storage, as well as support by city marketing agencies who could work directly on behalf of the Ilu Ababor growers to carve out a space in the national and international markets.

“Prior to the project, our limited knowledge meant we had to sell our coffee to local traders at lower prices,” said Abde Musa, a member of the Abdi Bori forest management cooperative. “Now we’ve taken control and are the ones negotiating and determining the coffee prices.”

Co-op leaders received training in business management, quality control, and certification processes, which majorly improved their incomes. One of the 19 co-ops in particular grossed $58,500 on their coffee sales.

Project wide, incomes and access to financial services almost doubled, with the latter now reaching almost 100% of the community.

Lastly, deforestation plummeted in the area to just 0.08 acres a year.

There’s so much good news to read in the report on the project’s success beyond the headline data, like the Abdi Bori co-op’s incredible rise which saw coffee revenue increase by a multiple of 20 from 2018 to 2023, or Solomon Mekonnen’s story of turning his land into a forest farm that produces export-grade coffee, firewood, and organic honey, or the tremendous involvement of women at all levels of the education and participation.

It’s a document that captures the very real phenomenon that African problems are best solved with African solutions."

Birth mother is the lord of the house – they only have a lord parent

Birth mother is not the lord of the house – the biological mother is their "parent" and the lord is their "lord parent". The sex of the lord and whether or not they had anything to do with conceiving the child is completely irrelevant. There is no place for a "biological father" in the family tree as far as drezhein are concerned, so they don't really have a distinct concept of mother and father.

Which is not to say that drezhein never know who their biological father is (although it's admittedly not a given) they just generally don't have a specific relationship with their biological father on the grounds of that person being their "father". A father who is not lord of the house may also be referred to as "parent", that's sort of a case by case basis.

Drezhein are so fun…I really like exploring all of the logistics of this culture where biological sex is quite literally a nearly meaningless fact, and gender does not exist ^^

Drezhein society is broken up into family units known as "houses" and their identity, pronouns, and position in society is entirely tangled up with where they are in their given house. That being the case there are seven legitimate pronouns which relate to the seven types of positions that drezhein can hold in a house and it's very common for them to change pronouns several times throughout their lives. (There is also an "it" pronoun which is used for animals, objects, magically created servants, and prisoners of war).

Lord/lord: the leader of a given house is known as the lord of the house. The twelve most powerful houses have special social status so the "Twelve Lords" have their own pronoun and title. It means the same thing but it's more respectful.

Inheritance mate: when the lord begins to get older they will marry a younger drezhein to be their heir. It could be one of their other mates or one of their children being promoted, or someone totally outside the house. Although it's considered a "marriage" (as are many relationships within drezhein society) it may or may not be sexual or romantic in nature. The safety and honor of everyone in a house depends on the lord's ability to defend them in both combat and debate, so this is usually someone who is strong, intelligent, confident, and ambitious.

Primary mate: anyone who enters the house via a permanent marriage directly to the lord. The number can vary, they're generally respected in order of when they arrived.

Secondary mate: anyone who enters a house via a temporary marriage to the lord for the purpose of some kind of alliance or social contract. There is no set timeline on how long these marriages last.

Tertiary mate: anyone who enters the house in connection with a lord's mate or child. It can be another partner, a friend, or a sibling. There is no official ceremony, but they are still considered to be one of the lord's people and subject to their whims. There may or may not be any kind of relationship between the lord and a tertiary mate living in their house. As only lords can get married, there are no official binding ties to whoever brought them into the house and they are legally free to leave whenever they want. This position is also often favored by people who are ambitious but are either young, physically weak, or very cautious.

Child: anyone who hasn't left the house they were born into.

It's worth noting that even the primary and secondary mates may or may not have a romantic or sexual relationship with their lord. For instance, it's very common for a group of siblings to leave their birth house at the same time and set up their own house together. This can also happen with children of different houses who happen to be friends. Lords are also often known to take in siblings or friends who need protecting, and occasionally also their parent if their birth house falls.

So the lord/leader of a house also functions as a champion/lawyer when necessary? Sort of an ambassador to other houses and a person who defends the interests of their own.

There is no formal government or even a formal system of money/trade on Cylli. If you want something, you have to produce it yourself. If someone owns the resources that you need, you need to find a way to acquire them. And if someone wrongs you, you need to address the issue or it won't be very long before larger houses try and take over in order to get access to people or resources that you possess.

Most of the smaller houses are quite small, and are essentially a real family unit, with the lord, maybe two or three mates, and their children. While they are treated as independent units, it's not uncommon for multiple small houses to exist in an alliance or to essentially be a subsidiary of a larger, more powerful house. (This is a bit humiliating though, and houses in this situation aren't treated with quite as much respect as true independents are)

A lord is basically responsible for managing the interactions of everyone in their house with everyone else, so how many people you can consider yourself effectively responsible for varies. The power of the lord is social collateral that all drezhein rely on. At the same time, though, the collective power that a house has and can bring to bear in a conflict at scale is also an important consideration.

Upper-level houses like the houses of the Twelve Lords tend to be very large, and it's partially how they manage to maintain their supremacy for long periods of time because the only way to become one of the Twelve Lords (other than inheritance) is to kill the person who had the position before you. They do throw their weight around and are the closest thing that Cylli has to government because they have the ability to enforce their will on those around them.

There aren't that many drezhein to begin with, and in Cylli they probably number somewhere in the tens of thousands. Large houses can be in the upper hundreds, maybe low thousands.

The typical size of a house is somewhere around a hundred people.

There are some notable exceptions among the Twelve Lords though!

Seilez, the first Lord, actually tends to dislike his own kind and takes most of his lovers outside of his race, he therefore has relatively few permanent marriages. He does have lots of children, but the vast majority of them are raised by their mothers outside of Cylli. He is overwhelmingly powerful on a personal level but his greatest skill is his charisma. It would be possible to take him down but most drezhein have really bought into the cult of personality that he represents.

Kasa Seilez, the third Lord, has two mates and no children. (She is the mother of the twins but that's unrelated to Cylli).

Ithea Seilez, the fifth Lord, killed the previous fifth Lord and kicked everyone out of his house. While the drezhein do technically view Anthem and his children as being part of her house, she doesn't have anyone officially, legally in her house in Cylli.

*last name info: not to be confused with houses, there are a specific number of recognized bloodlines which are referred to as clans. The leader of a clan provides their given name to everyone in the clan. Due to the way family works in Cylli this is now highly inaccurate to who is actually descended from a specific bloodline, but they still do it anyway. When the clan leader dies, their inheritance mate takes over not only their house but the entire clan and the name of the clan changes. This is what happens to Ro because her husband Kimyair is also the head of a clan as well as being one of the Twelve Lords.

getting yourself out of the hole is hard, and can feel damn near impossible at your lowest. but it isn’t impossible. i am living proof of this. nobody is responsible for your emotions but you, and if you want to be happy, you have to create your happiness. do whatever you can to surround yourself with joy. not hedonism, but actual joy. accomplishments, good relationships, engagement in healthy hobbies and habits. it can be hard, there’s no denying it, i still struggle myself sometimes. the reward is so worth it. feeling like you’re the best version of yourself is so worth it.

Birth mother is the lord of the house – they only have a lord parent

Birth mother is not the lord of the house – the biological mother is their "parent" and the lord is their "lord parent". The sex of the lord and whether or not they had anything to do with conceiving the child is completely irrelevant. There is no place for a "biological father" in the family tree as far as drezhein are concerned, so they don't really have a distinct concept of mother and father.

Which is not to say that drezhein never know who their biological father is (although it's admittedly not a given) they just generally don't have a specific relationship with their biological father on the grounds of that person being their "father". A father who is not lord of the house may also be referred to as "parent", that's sort of a case by case basis.

Drezhein are so fun…I really like exploring all of the logistics of this culture where biological sex is quite literally a nearly meaningless fact, and gender does not exist ^^

Drezhein society is broken up into family units known as "houses" and their identity, pronouns, and position in society is entirely tangled up with where they are in their given house. That being the case there are seven legitimate pronouns which relate to the seven types of positions that drezhein can hold in a house and it's very common for them to change pronouns several times throughout their lives. (There is also an "it" pronoun which is used for animals, objects, magically created servants, and prisoners of war).

Lord/lord: the leader of a given house is known as the lord of the house. The twelve most powerful houses have special social status so the "Twelve Lords" have their own pronoun and title. It means the same thing but it's more respectful.

Inheritance mate: when the lord begins to get older they will marry a younger drezhein to be their heir. It could be one of their other mates or one of their children being promoted, or someone totally outside the house. Although it's considered a "marriage" (as are many relationships within drezhein society) it may or may not be sexual or romantic in nature. The safety and honor of everyone in a house depends on the lord's ability to defend them in both combat and debate, so this is usually someone who is strong, intelligent, confident, and ambitious.

Primary mate: anyone who enters the house via a permanent marriage directly to the lord. The number can vary, they're generally respected in order of when they arrived.

Secondary mate: anyone who enters a house via a temporary marriage to the lord for the purpose of some kind of alliance or social contract. There is no set timeline on how long these marriages last.

Tertiary mate: anyone who enters the house in connection with a lord's mate or child. It can be another partner, a friend, or a sibling. There is no official ceremony, but they are still considered to be one of the lord's people and subject to their whims. There may or may not be any kind of relationship between the lord and a tertiary mate living in their house. As only lords can get married, there are no official binding ties to whoever brought them into the house and they are legally free to leave whenever they want. This position is also often favored by people who are ambitious but are either young, physically weak, or very cautious.

Child: anyone who hasn't left the house they were born into.

It's worth noting that even the primary and secondary mates may or may not have a romantic or sexual relationship with their lord. For instance, it's very common for a group of siblings to leave their birth house at the same time and set up their own house together. This can also happen with children of different houses who happen to be friends. Lords are also often known to take in siblings or friends who need protecting, and occasionally also their parent if their birth house falls.

🏳️‍🌈LGBT Pride

🏳️‍⚧️Trans Pride 

🌈Rainbow  

In honor of pride month, the e-book version of my lesbian knight/dragon love story is on sale for a whole dollar off! Only $3.99 for the month of June, so if you've ever been interested in checking it out now might be the time~

(especially with the second book coming out later this year)

Where to buy?

I don't know why the Barnes & Noble links aren't working from that site but it is at B&N, you can find it here.

Synopsis:

In a ruined castle deep in the wilderness, there lived a beautiful princess guarded by a ferocious dragon. Except for the fact that the maiden in the tower was no princess at all, but the dragon’s daughter. Rescued against her will, she is carried off to human lands and given the name Lady Patrice Drake. Caught between culture shock and grief, she must find a way to navigate her strange new surroundings lest she be drowned under human machinations and politics. Who among these people are enemies? Who among them are allies? And most importantly, who is she without her mother’s guidance and protection?

Age range: 16+

Type: Fantasy, medieval, F/F

Cheek: a round dull pain that clocks your entire head in a different direction. It’s painful and throbs but the main effect of a punch to the cheek is how jarring it is. You feel it in your mouth, your teeth. And no matter how you position that punch the knuckles will always hit the jaw and cheek bones adding a frame of sharp pain in which the redness will be painted.

Temple: getting hit on the temple pushes your head to the side rather than turning it. It’s disorienting because it leaves you very off balance. It essentially feels like a bad pressure headache, like when you have a sinus infection on a plane, but in one spot and on the outside. It’s sharp in the middle and radiates outward and even after the initial impact it pulses like an earthquake epicenter. It easily causes long lasting headaches and is the most likely of these examples to cause a concussion.

Eye: this is a weird one. The fist doesn’t fit within the eye socket so either the knuckles on the brow and cheeks bones protect the actual eye or they don’t. The former option gives a full spreading pain below the eye which results in the classic black eye look and a sharp pain on your brow similar to hitting your shin on the couch. The latter option, well bad things can happen when a hard fast object makes direct contact with your eye but for the sake of this it feels like a vacuum bc the concave shape is being covered and pressurized. The eye feels pushed back and pulled forward all at once. It doesn’t necessarily hurt that bad for that long unless the punch was meant to do damage. I’m fortunate to say I don’t know what it would feel like then.

Nose: remember that prank kids used to pull where they’d line up their hands with their nose, push them in one direction and crack a knuckle at the same time to pretend to break their nose? Yeah that’s what it looks like when someone punches you from the side in the nose, except it’s someone else’s hand and your nose makes the sound instead of their knuckle. It’s just like breaking any bone where you hear it and feel the action if it being done but that moment of shock blankets you for a split second until all the pain comes rushing back. It’s sharp and needlelike and can give you black eyes just to add insult to injury. If you get hit in the nose from the front it’s like the uncomfortableness of when you have to sneeze but can’t. Except that feeling took all the steroids and is now using your face as a punching bag to express its roid rage. It crackles outward like static electricity under your skin, your eyesight gets fuzzy and you can’t tell if it’s because you’re tearing up, it’s hard to open your eyes, or you’re momentarily stunned and blinded. Just know it’s all three. I find that this one knocks the wind out of you the most. Gotta remind yourself to breathe just don’t try to do it through your nose.

If you really want to know what this feels like I’d suggest joining a mixed martial arts because they’ll teach you correct form and power distribution and you can spar with pads and actually hit each other.

But that's a 'read the story aloud to see what's wrong with it' advice.

And I think there's maybe an even more important reason to read your fic aloud.

It will show you all the things that are RIGHT about your story.

Because there inevitably comes a point where you've read your own story in your head so many times that all the words are a bland mush that will leave you convinced that there's absolutely nothing interesting or good in your writing.

And if you go back to it many months later, you might realize... oh, this is a pretty interesting fic. And that's because the brain has had time to forget every tiny detail of phrasing you came up with, and you can actually read it like a reader, not the author.

But that road takes months, and until then, you might be inherently convinced that the story is literally the absolute worst thing you've ever written.

But... WHEN YOU READ ALOUD, you automatically start giving the words inflection, inflection that, when you're reading something that you haven't written yourself, you kind of hear even when reading quietly. But for your own story, all that inflection and weight has been sucked out by way too many rereads while you were looking for grammatical errors. The fastest way to be able to see it again? To hear it.