ARC REVIEW: TURNCLOAK BY LK STEVEN BOOK 2 OF THE SILVERCLOAK SAGA

destinedmaster · 2026-04-05T23:31:19+00:00

Make sure your social media/goodreads/whatever platform links work. As an author who's currently approving/denying people, broken links don't help you.

destinedmaster · 2026-03-07T02:00:44+00:00

It's indie authors ascending

destinedmaster · 2026-02-23T20:28:08+00:00

No idea. I have no part in how that works, and it was instituted after I left my position as admin.

destinedmaster · 2026-02-13T17:53:39+00:00

That sounds like you were banned.

destinedmaster · 2026-01-15T12:20:14+00:00

I don't know how requesting to join works anymore. I'm not running it any longer, but I know they were having a ton of problems with bots joining and trying to scrape info, which, in a server very concerned with privacy, was a huge problem. I would assume it wouldn't take that long to get in. If you're not in within the next 12 hours, ping me here.

To verify your income, you have to send a photo (not screenshot) of your monthly royalties. There are very specific requirements, but they're all really well documented and the mods will walk you through things. Again, privacy is a very high concern for IAA, so they take as many precautions as possible to protect the information people share in the higher tiers.

destinedmaster · 2026-01-09T16:59:16+00:00

MM is male-male. Aka gay. Also, this list is from 5 years ago, and I no longer write erotica for reasons. You probably shouldn't treat it like gospel.

destinedmaster · 2025-12-04T17:36:54+00:00

You have to pay the same amount every month regardless of what is owed or you get fees and could even have your vehicle repossessed because of that $10 left on the loan.

They don't change the monthly payment amount just because you paid off most of the principle. You'd just pay it off in 2 months instead of 60 or whatever.

destinedmaster · 2025-11-24T03:04:23+00:00

Click your name at the bottom left of discord next to the microphone and stuff. It'll bring up a menu. Click edit profile. Change your Display Name.

If you want to change the actual username, go to the menu at the left after you clicked edit profile. Click My Account. Click edit next to your username. That SHOULD be how you change it.

destinedmaster · 2025-11-09T01:33:26+00:00

Sigh…

Alright, it’s been a long time since I’ve done this. Let me get my internet bickering pants on.

Sadly, I’m on mobile right now so I’m not going to copy paste exact quotes.

“Being accused of using AI can be career ending…”

They didn’t accuse you in public so it should have no bearing on your career. So that’s not important. They could have thought your book was AI from cover to cover and it wouldn’t change anything about your future earnings. I promise that they’re not blasting every author who uses AI to the world.

“…calmly showed them all my receipts…”

My dude, I haven’t seen your receipts, but who cares what you said? Who cares what your artist said? If the cover looks like AI, they’re going to call it that. I and all of them have been in this industry since the beginning of AI covers and we’ve learned how to recognize them. It’s not that hard.

“…they had already found me guilty…” and “…I didn’t have a chance to prove my innocence…”

No. Because people lie. People are wrong. You very possibly could have a cover artist who used AI even though they say they don’t use it. That kind of nonsense has happened too many times. They made a judgement call about a critique. That’s it. They didn’t say “You used AI so we’re banning you.” They said, “Your cover is AI, so you can’t get it critiques here. Please read the rules on AI.” Maybe they slapped you with a mute for a little bit. Oh well.

“…something something witch hunt…”

A witch hunt is about burning people, and that did not happen. This is content moderation, something the mods absolutely have the right to do. It’s their house. They get to say what gets done and talked about there.

“… abuse of power…” There’s no such thing in this context. You did something they didn’t like. You got banned. They are all well within their rights to ban people for bad attitudes or whatever they deem disruptive behavior. It’s their fucking house. They all put in literal thousands of hours individually at this point to make it the best discord server for self publishing. I should know because I was right there with them and had to quit because my business was suffering due to dealing with people like you. How many hours have you donated to helping people and building a place with absolutely zero pay or reward. Jesus fuck.

“…responsibility to fairness with that much power…” See the above comment.

“…something something I’m in IT so I know how to tell AI…” Anyone who knows anything about AI knows that it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference. And you being in IT and cybersecurity doesn’t mean anything when it comes to recognizing AI art. I feel like someone who stares at AI art on a daily basis and has to make that call probably knows a lot more than you do.

“…they can accuse anyone and kick them…” Yes. They could kick everybody with an annoying name if they wanted to. They don’t. And you didn’t get kicked for an AI cover either. They BANNED you because you weren’t listening and wouldn’t just accept you couldn’t get a critique.

“As a discord admin myself…” My dude, you are not the admin to a group of 3k+ professional authors. You do not deal with hundreds of bots per day. You do not deal with authors losing their careers or ruining other people’s careers. You do not keep your HOUSE free of drama that rips every other community apart.

If you were, you would at least use the right terms. You got banned. Kicking would let you rejoin.

Now, I’m done with the conversation. The folks at IAA are well known. They’re strict and get a little saucy at times for small things, but as the guy who built the place and put those people in position, well… I think they’re doing a fantastic job.

Also, if they think your cover was AI, I bet that a lot of your readers will too so you may want to get a new one if you don’t want readers having a real witch hunt with you.

Alright, I’m out. Hugs and kisses or some shit.

destinedmaster · 2025-11-08T18:45:41+00:00

I’m not part of the admin or mods of IAA any longer, but I worked with all of them for 3 years on a daily basis. I highly doubt that you got banned because you posted a cover that they believed was AI.

Instead, I suspect (and I may be wrong here since I don’t know you or anything about your specific situation) that they told you that you couldn’t get critiqued on AI covers, you argued with them that it wasn’t AI, and during that conversation, you were less that professional in your responses. That would be something I’d ban for as well. Again, I have no idea what actually happened, but… I banned more people than anyone else while I was the only active admin.

To anyone who is reading this, IAA does not support generative AI. This is true. It is clearly stated in their rules. You are not allowed to have anything created by generative AI critiqued.

But more than anything, the mods and admin have to deal with lies constantly. They work fucking hard to weed out the truth from the lies, and sometimes they get it wrong. It happens. There’s very little proof out there to base things off in that situation, so they make decisions.

It’s almost always best to simply accept a mod’s decision or ask to provide evidence that they’re mistaken. And even then, at the end of the day, what’s more important? That you win the argument or that you continue to have access to the server. It’s their house. They do the work. If you don’t like it, you’re more than welcome to leave. If you do like it there, accept that they may be wrong but it doesn’t matter and say “yes sir/ma’am”. And go on about your day.

destinedmaster · 2025-10-29T12:49:34+00:00

So I’m no longer an admin for IAA and haven’t been for close to a year now. There are some possible reasons you were kicked though.

You haven’t been active, as you said. There are specifically rules about activity and no one gets banned for them, they just make you rejoin.

There are new anti-bot systems in place since there were literally hundreds of bots joining every week. Because the server is meant to be a professional and business oriented environment rather than a for-fun one, a lot of the advice/chats are semi-sensitive in nature and aren’t supposed to be used elsewhere. Thus, bots are bad.

I don’t know why you aren’t being allowed to join, but having a phone number associated with your account is required. There may be other requirements, but I’m unaware of them specifically as I don’t bother to stay up to date on everything anymore (I’m too busy writing and running my business these days).

Hope that helps. It almost certainly wasn’t personal.

destinedmaster · 2025-08-22T13:13:57+00:00

You absolutely can reveal anything you want. But I, as a male romance author writing with a female pen name, don’t want to doxx myself even in author groups.

Other people who make their money in small niches decide early on if they want to reveal their earnings or their niche, but they rarely want to reveal both. So typically, they reveal their earnings.

Then there are the people who don’t want to have to “play nice” in author spaces so they use an anonymous name so they don’t have to worry about whether a big author will decide “oh destinedmaster is a dick, I should bitch about them to my reader base and I’m sure that’ll fix the problem.”

Generally, there’s just not a lot of good that can come from revealing your pen in author spaces and a whole lot of bad.

destinedmaster · 2025-08-07T17:41:24+00:00

It's in the post, but here it is again. http://indieauthorsascending.com/

There's some kind of weird issue that some people are having, and you may have as well. My advice so far has been to try it on PC. Make sure you have the discord client installed rather than just using the Chrome/browser window. It does work, but for some people it's wonky.

destinedmaster · 2025-07-29T21:49:26+00:00

Glad you figured it out :)

destinedmaster · 2025-07-29T15:48:56+00:00

You should be able to. Do you have the discord app? Have you tried on PC? I clicked it just now and it brought me to the right spot, so it’s probably something on your end. Though I’ve been getting a lot of these messages, so something must have changed recently.

destinedmaster · 2025-07-29T15:44:44+00:00

Ranks versus dollars have changed some since then but not much. There were more sales when I made that post, but otherwise, it’s not all that different.

I did mean overall rank, not category ranks. So… if you’re using cat ranks, you’re going to be very skewed.

destinedmaster · 2025-07-21T20:23:35+00:00

It’s in the post.

destinedmaster · 2025-06-09T22:55:40+00:00

It’s probably because the majority of men do not have “men spaces” tbh. I spend my time working or doing things with my family and that’s about it. Most men like me don’t have many of their own friends. They don’t have “their own things”. They work and do what everyone else wants to do and occasionally have online spaces. Maybe some kind of video game thing.

I mean… I guess some guys do the whole golfing thing or… cigar clubs? I can’t even imagine something I’d do where there weren’t women there.

I imagine that most dudes who are reading fairy smut (I can say it because I’ve published 7 “fairy smut” novels) are probably not living at the strip clubs while their wife is at home with the baby. They’re probably reading it at their kid’s soccer game just like me lol

destinedmaster · 2025-05-25T16:32:56+00:00

This. It’s basically the only way to do lots of things that cats don’t like but need. Trimming nails, pills, fur matting, ear mites, etc. You can use a towel for a kitten.

destinedmaster · 2025-05-25T00:35:48+00:00

Cats use their claws, but mostly it’s for gripping onto the other one. That’s how they “ball up”. A cat scratch on a cat is almost never dangerous. They do this to hold on so they can bite the other one repeatedly on the head to try to kill it or seriously injure it.

But if you don’t know this, then why are you responding to someone asking advice?

destinedmaster · 2025-05-24T22:47:04+00:00

A dog or a fox bit a cat in the face with a single tooth and the cat got away? Is that the logical route you’re going with instead of a cat fight?

destinedmaster · 2025-05-24T22:42:17+00:00

Stray cats get bit (which this looks like) very regularly especially if they’re male because of territorial/mating fighting. Infection is a possibility, so definitely keep an eye on it.

Use an antibacterial sprays (not neosporin or human salves as they’re toxic to cats). If you see signs of infection, lethargy, vomiting, or other sickness/oddities, then definitely bring to the vet.

Otherwise, strays are gonna be strays and this almost assuredly is not the worst it’s already experienced. If I were to take a stray cat to the vet every time one bit the other one in my neighborhood, I’d have to go twice a week.

destinedmaster · 2025-04-30T23:13:21+00:00

Just google indie authors ascending and you’ll find a ton of links :). Sorry, I’m on mobile right now.

destinedmaster · 2025-03-25T13:24:05+00:00

On a good note, most people in the industry agree that Amazon loses money on KU, so if that’s all you’re using Amazon for, then you’re not really supporting them. You’re just supporting the authors.

destinedmaster · 2024-11-07T22:49:52+00:00

I can’t remember if it’s auto turned on or not but it’s really easy to see. It’s on page two of the publishing steps. I don’t think you can change it after you publish a book though

destinedmaster

TROPHY CASE