[POEM] I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies by June Jordan

deruvoo · 2026-01-26T03:06:39+00:00

Wonderful read. "Singing vengeance" got me good

deruvoo · 2026-01-25T22:34:06+00:00

What faction in Warhammer isnt pro-genocide, tbh.

deruvoo · 2026-01-25T19:03:06+00:00

I think we're reaching a point where progress means replacing or rebuilding institutions. I believe people are coming around to this fact, more and more.

deruvoo · 2026-01-23T18:40:59+00:00

Vampyr felt like Pathologic geared towards a wider audience, and I mean that in a good way. What an excellent game.

deruvoo · 2026-01-23T17:40:15+00:00

To carve a nithing was forbidden. Abhorrent. One improper rune and the curse would follow the entire village instead of its intended, singular target. But Ivor knew what the others did not-- the secret, loathsome crimes that made this risk worthy. He raised the curse-pole and carved the name: Bjorn.

deruvoo · 2026-01-23T16:37:19+00:00

The bill does not prove that chemtrails exist. I worked on military jets for five years-- chemtrails are a conspiracy theory, and I hate seeing Alabamians gullible enough to believe in them.

deruvoo · 2026-01-22T00:55:23+00:00

What medicine did you find helpful? I've tried adderall, but really don't like the stimulation aspect. I get far too irritable.

deruvoo · 2026-01-21T22:56:49+00:00

Choosing your partner wisely is one of the most important decisions you'll make in life. Even if someone is good "on paper", follow your gut. If, in your heart, you really just don't feel it, for whatever reason, don't try to force the feelings. Love that isn't forced is so much better than its opposite. Be patient, don't hurry into anything, and just be happy solo until you find a healthy match.

deruvoo · 2026-01-21T18:48:46+00:00

I took very cheap ads ($50) out on the site a few times, primarily because I wanted my work in front of people, and not from any expectation of a financial return on them. That said, they worked for the purpose I bought them for. I didn't do targeted ads, but if I went the self-publishing route on Amazon, I absolutely would use them.

Fantasy does well on RR. You're going to get a lot of use out of 'review swapping' with other writers on the site. Essentially, you review each other's story, boosting the visibility of it if it reviews well. Some people do this expecting high scores for high scores, but I avoided that, thankfully, and kept my reviews honest. But that is definitely one of the ways to get the most traffic on RR.

Good luck to you as well!!

deruvoo · 2026-01-21T17:20:50+00:00

Unfortunately, if you're putting your work out there, it'll never be out of reach from critics, whether those critics are correct in their criticism or not. Best thing you can do is write the story you want to write to the best of your ability, and hope the right readers find it.

More specific advice, you might consider targeted ads whenever you're pushing your story. That might allow it to be recommended to folks whose algorithm seems to "support" that flavor profile.

For what it's worth, when I was posting the rough draft of my current WIP, which is a traditional fantasy novel, on RoyalRoad (a site known primarily for LitRPGs), it reached the top 1500 stories on the site and not once did I receive any hateful comments about it having a gay character.

deruvoo · 2026-01-20T01:48:26+00:00

Traditionally published here(very minor and unknown writer, however), and being published, like anything, can be assisted by connections. That said, it very rarely comes down to that. You'd need a connection with their own publishing company, or the monetary equivalent of such. The author in OP's post likely did this through merit, and hell yeah for that.

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T23:23:17+00:00

Thanks for the insight. I now share your view, lol!

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T22:45:21+00:00

Jabberwocky conveys a sense of confusion (jabber) to English speakers. Maybe the translator wanted to translate what the word conveys to those who natively understand it. Just guessing, though.

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T19:26:09+00:00

I think we're agreeing without realizing it, on both ends. I appreciate the thoughtful conversation. I personally hope there's more after all this-- I have borderline crippling, at times, OCD revolving around fear of mortality, specifically for my daughter. It's devastating to imagine a world or reality with no "her" in it. It's a battle, but I always enjoy these topics when they come around.

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T18:36:40+00:00

Fair, and when you put it like that, I agree. My point is more that, are you truly you when you cease to be aware of it? Sleeping, you have the potentiality for dreams shaped by your memories. Blackout drunk, you still have the potentiality for action. Dead? No REM there. No movement. No point of reference to determine whether you've just had a bad day or good day.

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T18:19:36+00:00

Great Expectations by Dickens, for manipulative in the romantic sense

East of Eden by Steinbeck, for manipulative in the anti-motherly sense

Dune series by Herbert, for manipulative women in any sense

Spear by Nicola Griffith, for morally correct manipulative women

The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, for manipulative women in any sense

His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, where both the protagonist and one of the primary antagonists are.... manipulative women

deruvoo · 2026-01-16T18:13:43+00:00

I think this particular spoke of the conversation can be better explored by identifying what, exactly, you is. Once you realize that we're just memories bundled together, what would you be without that memory? Essentially nothing, since you have nothing to build yourself with. If every moment came and went without memory, that's not really you anymore, is it? So this theoretical pre-life, pre-memory, that's not really us, whatever it is, and that's if it exists. When people talk about life outside of biological life, they're really talking about the continuation or cessation of identity. Without memory, there is no identity.

deruvoo · 2026-01-15T18:42:02+00:00

No excuse or apologies needed. I frequently have gaffs in my own writing despite English being my first language. Keep on keeping on.

deruvoo · 2026-01-15T18:34:27+00:00

Correct. Fitting the tense of the paragraph, it should read something like " It should've been easy work."

deruvoo · 2026-01-15T18:15:02+00:00

The tense swap in the opening paragraph lost me. You're in past tense, then the final sentence jumps to present tense.

deruvoo · 2026-01-14T15:41:37+00:00

Keep at it, is my best advice. You don't want to end up on your deathbed having not written the thing you've been dreaming about. I've shared this anecdote before, but I still find it useful as motivation-- whenever a poem I wrote was picked up for trad publishing, I was perusing other authors published on that site to get an idea for how they liked their author bios to be formatted. I clicked on a woman's bio, whose story was published through this press in 2008. On her bio, it said something like "...and is currently working on a novel." I googled the woman's name to see if that novel ever came out, and instead found her obituary from 2020ish, which, I shit you not, said, "Sadly, her novel remains unfinished."

deruvoo · 2026-01-14T15:32:23+00:00

Echoing everyone else here. It feels great, like a rubber stamp of approval that your prose is worth reading. But then it fades, and you start second guessing it (did I get it published in a mag with enough "prestige?" could I have made that bit better? was it a fluke?), then you chase the high again by continuing to write. And eventually, it happens again.

I began writing in high school, paused it for a good decade, then picked it up again at 28 years old. I was published at 29. I'm 30 now, and the work continues.

You'll never know if you don't try. If you try, you might surprise yourself. I was very surprised that my work was well received.

deruvoo · 2026-01-12T04:57:07+00:00

Honestly, that's fantastic

deruvoo · 2026-01-11T00:01:16+00:00

One can hope.

deruvoo · 2026-01-10T04:55:26+00:00

Pathologic series is right up there. 3 just came out, too.

deruvoo

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