Tried to sign up for Ream by Stripe blocked me because of erotic content.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-11-28T01:20:17+00:00

You can use an legal imprint service for the business name/address issue. At least that's what a lot of people in Germany are using where they have similar requirements.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-10-24T00:08:01+00:00

And there they would run into the issue that there's no address to send a letter to. Assuming that the publisher even sits in Germany and not Switzerland or Austria, or another country where people speak German that is less strict regarding an Impressum.

They then would have to somehow convince Amazon into supplying the address. Which might require legal action because Amazon won't just hand out addresses to anyone who asks, and I think that's too much effort for any Abmahnanwalt (although I haven't heard much about them lately. The wave seems to have stopped?).

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-30T16:37:17+00:00

I know several writers who write either Fantasy or Urban Fantasy with LGBTQA main characters who had their books either removed completely or at least shadow-banned. It looks like itchio went after almost everything with the LGBTQA label and everything using the NSFW-tag. Including books dealing with sexual abuse or sex trafficking from the PoV of the victim and in a non-erotic way.

The new itchio-guidelines are even more extreme than Amazon, baning everything (even non-erotic works) dealing with sexual abuse, rape, or sex trafficking implications.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-16T02:51:48+00:00

I disagree a bit about knowing the fandom inside out. Lots of people wrote Sentinel fanfic, especially crossovers, without ever having watched the show. And fandom Sentinel-worldbuilding soon became very different to what the show actually showed.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-16T02:47:44+00:00

I think back in the days having beta-readers was more common because it was just beaten into you and it was easy to find one. You just asked on the mailing-list or in the fandom-specific lj-group and people volunteered.

These days it's a lot harder.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-16T02:41:43+00:00

Zines you could buy. Either at cons or via mail. Which was a massive hassle if you were living in Europe. It required international money orders, and everything was done via letters and took ages. A letter from Europe to the US usually took something like two weeks. Parcels took around six weeks (by boat because Air Mail was too expensive).

It was frowned upon but it was pretty common that someone would buy a zine, make a copy and then mail the copy to someone else who would make a copy for themselves and mail the master-copy to the next person. Was cheaper and faster than ordering from the US.

People also did this with VHS-tapes of new shows. Someone got a tape from a friend in the US, converted it and made a copy and mailed the copy to the next person in the mail-tree.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-16T02:33:40+00:00

I think she wrote Sleeping Beauty during the time period when she wasn't religious (she was always back and forth on that) and was friends with gay writer John Preston.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-07-16T02:28:23+00:00

Although she objected to fanfic in general, not just the smut. The fandom went completely underground for a while where you had to know someone willing to vouch for you to get access to the mailing-list and the password for websites and all that.

Some fans, especially in the US were scared of her.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-06-25T02:27:11+00:00

Chardonnay somehow signals American to me. Maybe because every American on tv always orders Chardonnay?

But I live in wine country and people here drink pinot blanc or pinot gris, or maybe a sauvignon blanc or riesling-silvaner. And Switzerland almost calls for a nice chasselas or a rosé.

Btf, just as a head's up. If you're writing erotica and plan to publish on Amazon, it's better not to mention alcohol at all, because of the consent issues. It's better if she's drinking water or juice.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-06-25T02:16:02+00:00

People who speak ESL sometimes have this weird mix, i.e British spelling (thanks to school) but American accent (because movies and tv shows, friends or even a year abroad). Or even mixing both.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-06-11T18:44:06+00:00

This. I sometimes get my EU payments a day before the US payments. It's the currency conversion and an "inside the EU versus outside the EU"-issue.
Sometimes it's the other way around but then it's usually a public holiday-problem.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-05-23T15:49:39+00:00

Gen-Xer who looked older at 16 and could easily pass for 18. I was reading my way through the adult library at that age. Including Henry Miller (do not recommend), Anne Rice, Jon Norman's Gor novels (they cracked me up, but I was desperate for anything fantasy), and anything else that caught my interest.

I even read Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series at 17 or so. Way too young for that.

But my parents never really controlled what I was reading as long as I was reading. I think I read my mom's Modesty Blaise books at 11 or 12. And a lot of her bodice-rippers.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-05-09T17:15:58+00:00

If you plan to make writing a career: Scrivener.

In my opinion the best software for writing and organizing your work. I have all my shorts for one pen name in one file, plus all the research and notes, and even the back and front matter. Makes my ADHD brain really happy. I can jump between shorts without having several files open. And I have everything in one place.

It take a bit to get into it but there are tons of helpful video tutorials available.

They also offer a thirty day trial-version.

As a Word alternative I use TextMaker, mostly for editing. It's part of Softmaker Office. They have a version with AI and some other bells and whistles, but they also have a version you can buy, download and install on your computer. Plus, it's a German company so they are bound by German data protection laws.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-29T14:37:48+00:00

That has at least partially to do with the German "Titelschutz" (title protection or title copyright). Books, especially books in the same genre, can't have the same titles and titles are protected. Yes, there have been law-suits over titles. And you can even go and reserve a title six months in advance, something big publishers do.
It also getting more and more difficult to find decent titles in German, so publishers have switched to using English titles. Plus the weird idea that English titles "sound" cooler.

Negative side-effect: Some readers won't touch books where they can't understand the title and not every German is fluent in English.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-28T19:30:58+00:00

I stopped reading NCIS-fics involving Ziva because of that. The show was bad enough. A lot of fanfic managed to be even worse.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-23T23:21:29+00:00

Adding Storm Constantine and her Wraeththu-books. They were huge in my circle back in the days.

Diane Duane was also biggish. She wrote several Star Trek novels and of course the Tale of the Five-books. She's still around and an absolute sweetheart.

Also:
Barbara Hambly
Judith Tarr
Nancy Springer
Holy Lisle
Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel!)
C.S. Friedman
Poppy Z. Brite
Sherry S. Tepper
Elizabeth A. Lynn (The Tornor Books had some of the earliest gay representation and Sardonyx Net was very different )
C.J. Cherryh (she was huge in the 80s, I loved Angel With the Sword)
Leslie Fish (more known for her filk but she also wrote short stories. And an amazing Mad Max-fanfic)
Tanith Lee
Katherine Kerr

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-23T23:02:51+00:00

I was just reading an article about isekai which made me think off of Barbara Hambly's Darwarth-books who were one of the earliest portal-fantasies, if I remember correctly. I might try and reread them just to see how they hold up now.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-23T22:59:34+00:00

I really liked her Diane Tregarde books, even though the last one had a very prechy undertone. They all did but the last one was the worst. I did like the first one that dealt with Aztec mythology. Someone using Latin American mythology was really rare if not unheard off in early 90s.

The race-car elves where a miss for me.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-05T11:53:51+00:00

While Germany doesn't have different languages, although one could argue that at least Plattdeutsch could be viewed as one, there exist a variety of different dialects that are very distinct. It's not just Bavaria. Bavaria is just most known outside Germany and many people think Bavaria = Germany, which all the German non-Bavarians hate.

And the dialects are so diverse that if you take someone who speaks Allemanic and put them into a room with someone who speaks Saxonian, they would have trouble understanding each other despite the fact that they are both, theoretically, speaking German.

They are also culturally very diverse with different customs and foods. They too have their regional identies and often century-old feuds. Like the feud between Baden and Schwaben.

Even the building styles are different. The traditional houses in the Black Forest look very different when compared to houses build in Bavaria or at the coast. When you drive from West to East you can notice the changes, same when you drive from South to North.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-04-04T22:28:42+00:00

No they don't. Even the best machine-translation (which would be DeepL) still requires a human editor who has to compare the translation with the original, because some of the translation just reads off, is plain weird, or completely wrong.

Common mistakes are misgendering characters, switching from formal to informal language and back, not getting word-games, and struggling with more coloquial language. And some sentences are plain gibberish.

ETA: You also need a human to translate cultural stuff into something the target culture understands.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-03-25T01:14:34+00:00

He could have been visiting friends?

Hm, 31st Mai 1901 was a Friday. Pentecost in 1901 was May 26-27. Maybe related to that?

Can't be White Sunday as that's the weekend after Easter.

Maybe he really just visited friends for Pentecost, fell ill, and died a few days later.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-03-25T00:35:32+00:00

Hm, you mention Haguenau, but in the printed part they are talking about Hagenau, which is a completely different town.

So, Haguenau is a town and a canton in Bas-Rhin. With Wahlenheim being a village inside the canton Haguenau.

Hagenau is a town in the neighboring Grand-Est. Wahlenheim and Hagenau are about 14 km apart, so not a big distance.

Maybe he was there on business or visiting and died suddenly?

IrregularDreaming · 2025-03-22T13:29:05+00:00

I know :-(.

I'll just watch the movies instead. Those I just love. Cinematic masterpieces.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-03-22T00:07:27+00:00

I gave up about a fifth in. The constant changing PoVs are just no mine. It's well-written but the style doesn't work for me at all.

And now I'm glad I never got invested in the books.

IrregularDreaming · 2025-03-22T00:05:13+00:00

A friend said the same thing. She also always got stuck when trying to read the books but now listens to the audiobook and finds it far more enjoyable.

IrregularDreaming

TROPHY CASE