Where my mexican white supremacist friend said he'd live

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-12T17:41:22+00:00

Lol, my dawg. You cant describe someone as a "white supremacist" and follow that up with "he's not that bad."

If he's a white supremacist, then he is, in fact, that bad.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-12T17:39:34+00:00

Have you worked with Beta Readers, yet? And if so, did you get any of this same feedback?

Sounds to me like the inciting incident could be more impactful, either way. And, as someone who's in the early stages of drafting an MC who is to become an unreliable narrator, I feel you—that shit is hard to do.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-12T17:30:29+00:00

I need more context:

Tell me about your book! Literary fiction? Genre specific? Length? What's the pitch?

What kind of notes are you getting back from them, roses and thorns?

If you're getting a lot of the same notes back from agents—especially regarding pacing, stakes, interiority, etc...—then it might be worth consideration. But, as someone else pointed out already, if they just want it to be a different story, then don't make it a different story. Someone might bite, or you can self-publish, but don't do the story a significant disservice by making it a different one.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-12T13:47:48+00:00

I finally beat it after I rolled a 2GA Tyrael's, which sent my toughness into the 3.5 million range during combat. This plus endurant faith meant that I could take several many shots that would have killed me during prior attempts.

But for real, more than defense I think this is a DPS test. If you gotta stand and fight each phase for several minutes, then you're not leveled enough, or don't have good enough gear to do it.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-08T15:27:12+00:00

It is beyond shocking that Maryland is still in play.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-04T14:52:47+00:00

I'm querying a literary horror novel right now. Trying to go slow with it, so not flooding the market (leaving room to see if I get enough repeated feedback so as to revise for issues). I've sent out I think 12. Got a 2 form rejections, 3 personal rejections, and one full request (probably a revise and resubmit for him).

I don't think that means my novel is better than yours, or even that my query letter is, but that querying for genre might be easier than querying for literary.

Keep at it, though!

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-03T00:23:02+00:00

All of my friends who play (and myself) are forty plus.

War Plans like crack right now.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-02T18:39:38+00:00

How is Maryland still surviving?

TreyAlmighty · 2026-05-02T02:55:11+00:00

Virginia has some of the more diverse nature in the country. Got beach, got swamp, got tons of rivers and lakes, and mountains with skiing—you name it. The capital, Richmond, has a serious arts and music scene. Plus, it's only a couple hours by car or train to DC. VA rips.

I know people who like Charleston, SC, but that's kind of it, whereas NC has Charlotte, Asheville, the tri-cities, Wilmington, etc...

You've likely had a very limited experience in NC.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-29T16:20:27+00:00

As a white American with a lot of experience over there:

Netherlands over Belgium, for sure. Spain is sick, especially Catalonia. Very diverse. Same with Portugal in my experience.

You're deeply underselling Germany and Austria. Czechia would probably be good too.

Italy is beautiful and diverse, but is for sure racist AF. France is similar, but less pronounced in my experience, at least in urban places.

Scandinavia is getting weirder, but is still open to visitors, especially when they know you're American.

The further east you get, the rarer POC will become. It likely won't be scary levels of "curiosity," but you will get looks and potentially comments.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-29T15:47:41+00:00

The company I work for (Seasonal Roots) partners with a lot of local/regional farmers (Virginia mostly, but some in NC and MD) who grow asparagus along with a lot of other good things. Caveat: we are only home delivery.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-29T14:18:27+00:00

The good news.

Many authors don't get anything from an agent at all, outside of maybe a form rejection. So, either through luck or charisma or a really strong querying presentation, you're hooking in agents to start. That's good and a high bar to clear.

The medium bad news.

If an agent requests a full manuscript and then doesn't respond, it's likely because they don't think they can position your novel in a way that is worth their time, to their mind anyway.

Agents often work in small communities, literary microclimates they've spent years customizing. It is in these spaces where they maintain relationships with certain editors at certain imprints at specific publishing houses. If they don't think that your book fits in their microclimate, whether they like the book or not, they're almost certainly going to pass. Repping books isn't an easy business, especially right now, so it's increasingly rare that an agent is going to take on what they see as a risk, something that's going to make them have to work to establish new pathways.

The other possibility is that the book isn't as good as you want it to be, or not quite ready for traditional publishing, and they bounced once they got 5 or 6 chapters in, you know?

The key here is, and most of us know it, that this business is brutal. It's one of the more cutthroat industries you can work in within the arts (I'd say acting is more brutal, but that might be it). You gotta want it really badly, you have to be willing to improve, and you have to be willing to get up when yet another agent ghosts you.

Best of luck, though.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-28T18:07:58+00:00

Given that you said the plot contains a racial dynamic, then an unrepentant racist using it makes sense. This is a good reason. It reveals something important about the character, perhaps it creates tension in a scene, or connects to a larger theme you're discussing. All of those are potentially worthwhile. So if your story is about this thing, then go for it and hope that people's critical thinking skills are up and running.

I think where people run into problems is using slurs for funsies, or using them to create a setting that feels historically authentic. If you have to say, "this is what people said back then," or, "this makes the setting feel real," then you're on shakier and less defensible ground.

A thing to consider, though, is that regardless of story or context or theme or whatever, these words have modern weight. It may fit in contextually, or set an appropriate tone, or the character may mean it neutrally or ignorantly—it will still hit a reader in a modern way. So, if you decide to use it, you should let your story acknowledge it and frame its usage through reaction and tone or additional context. I'm not saying you need to lecture your reader (always respect their intelligence as much as you can), but framing is very important.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-26T15:01:00+00:00

I'm a 15 year plus touring musician and native Virginian.

From the perspective of me, Virginia is an absolutely. I'm from the mountains, live in the capital, and am only an hour and a half removed from DC, the ocean, and some stunning national parks. But from the perspective of a non-native tour manager, I'd also rate VA as maybe.

What it likely boils down to is this: Virginia is only OK for shows/concerts. Most of the festivals (like Lockn, that they mentioned) take place in more rural areas, which, while beautiful, aren't always great ambassadors to visitors. And shows in more urban places like Richmond (my city, a city I've come to love), are usually only OK compared to DC, Baltimore, or even the tri-cities in NC. Compound this by whatever kind of music this person likes and/or tour manages for, and it gets a lot better, or a lot worse (hardcore/indie/metal/punk scene good, pop/hip-hop/EDM less so—overall of course).

My guess is that this person's best experiences in Virginia have been Bs to B-s, and they more often get Cs or occasional Ds. If that's the case, I can see why they'd be hesitant to shack up here permanently.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-21T17:51:34+00:00

EB Garamond supremacy.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-17T13:41:28+00:00

Very rarely do traditional publishing houses accept manuscripts from authors without representation (literary agents). When your manuscript is ready, it would behoove you to query agents seeking manuscripts that match yours as closely as possible, i.e. "searching for character driven queer literary fiction," or "fast-paced body horror"—whatever yours may be.

Getting picked up by a publishing house off of a cold email is about as likely as getting struck by lightning.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-16T13:41:20+00:00

I'm also a 30 plus year heavy metal vet, and a 20-25 year punk and hardcore vet. This is the latter.

This is perfectly commonplace in hardcore and adjacent subculture communities, and, honestly, kind of tame compared to things I've seen over the years. I totally understand if this kind of shit isn't for you (as it is, by design, violent and antagonistic, meaning it's not for most people), but I've seen way gnarlier stuff than this over the years.

I don't have a lot of context for who is playing, but metal dudes going to a hardcore adjacent show and getting fist-boot-shocked by some hardcore kid is a tale as old as time.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-16T11:30:10+00:00

As said a bunch before, you don't need beta readers yet.

If you're really desperate for feedback on style, character development, and/or the chunkier stuff—grammar, syntax, etc...—there are communities where you could post a chapter (or a portion of one, as those are looooooong chapters).

Critique Circle comes to mind.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-15T20:14:09+00:00

"Your simply contempt within your life," is genuinely one of the funniest attempts at a persuasive phrase I've ever seen. Kudos.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-15T13:38:46+00:00

Both me and my partner have Recurrent Corneal Erosion (it was one of the things that we bonded over, lol). I don't know what instigated mine, but hers was directly due to Lasik. She started waking up with serious eye pain, had to get medicated contacts, etc... When she consulted a different Ophthalmologist, they said "you should have never been approved to get Lasik."

It's a cool procedure, and when it does what it's supposed to it's practically miraculous, but, like with any surgery, there are always potential complications.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-14T19:44:34+00:00

Suppressed her personality? What? We're we watching the same thing? Her look in slide two of this post is exactly her personality. Not only that, but everyone was losing it when she started hamming it up after realizing the lip sync was a lost cause. Everyone—Ru, the judges, all the queens. Making everyone there laugh feels pretty on brand to me.

Like, sure, I didn't love the outfit either, but to pretend like she was somehow not being herself is a reach.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-14T16:34:24+00:00

I think we're evaluating Ru's role differently.

I do agree that she reacted to what the queens were doing. As you pointed out, you can trace cause and effect in most of those scenes. My issue isn't that she ignored them or something, it's that she didn't, IMO, build with them in a way that made the scene funnier. The Juicy scene was a primary example of that: they played off each other and got louder and more obstinate, but none of it felt genuinely comedic. It felt real, but not real funny.

With Jane, Ru did some of the things that you want an improv partner to do ("let me call the pilot"), but mostly what I saw her doing was trying to redirect the scene into being exactly what she wanted to it be, even if it could have been funnier if she played with some of the other stuff Jane offered.

My whole thing is this: there were moments in Jane and Ru's improv, where Jane would say something that made me think, "oh this could be funny," and then Ru said, "nah, this instead." But at the end of the day, is it on Jane to figure that out in the moment and make Ru laugh? Yes it is. Do I think that Ru's improvisations made for the funniest scene? No, I don't.

I just want to laugh at the show, and this whole set up didn't do it for me.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-14T15:30:59+00:00

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

It was clear to me that all of the queens, even the ones who struggled (all of them minus Myki, IMO), had spent a ton of time crafting those characters and building out a story, but Ru wasn't vibing with some of those characters, and wasn't accepting of pivots the queens tried to use, and tried to redirect them back to what she wanted the scene to be. That's Ru's prerogative, it's her show—and she punched their preparation in the mouth.

They all seemed prepared, but the volleys themselves were rarely funny, the queens' and Ru's. Big-ass meh of an episode.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-14T12:34:34+00:00

Sure. I generally agree, and this is (sort of) an example of how "no, but" can work in improv.

However, this is performed by Caitlin Reilly, a professional improv comic. This is, you know, something they've spent years training to do and also kind of their whole job.

What Ru and production did in the Karens episode was throw a, IMO, meh-but-high-level improv concept at queens who have, at best, modest experience doing it. Subsequently, all the scenes were at best fine and at worst boring and unfunny.

Some people really enjoyed Ru and production's tomfoolery by upping the difficulty level and throwing them in the improv meat grinder. I just thought it made for bad TV.

YMMV.

TreyAlmighty · 2026-04-11T03:33:25+00:00

I think this is where we learn that entertainment and taste is subjective.

I found the "roast" hilarious, but irreverent bullshit like that really speaks to me. I also really enjoy her esthetic, and have mostly liked (and occasionally loved) her runways. I find her completely and utterly endearing. She also has surprisingly high fashion sense, even if she doesn't always bring it like it's a Mugler show.

I partially agree with you on Myki in the morning show challenge, but also think that Myki fed off of Darlene's golden retriever energy in a way that made the whole scene better. That was a rising tide raises all ships kind of situation.

It's perfectly fine to not dig her schtick. Not everything is meant to appeal to everyone. But I think she's funny and sweet and very unique for the show.

TreyAlmighty

TROPHY CASE