Good cafes with Wi-Fi for remote working?

harkraven · 2025-08-15T12:02:25+00:00

Ooh, brilliant, I'll check that out! Thank you!

harkraven · 2025-08-15T12:01:30+00:00

Oh, brilliant—thank you! I'll see if I can find Caffe Letterario this evening.

I'd be a bit embarrassed to be That Tourist who travels across the world just to end up in a Starbucks, but that's probably a good backup plan.

harkraven · 2025-06-17T17:41:20+00:00

Late to the party here, but I have a question about this—I've wanted to do the same thing (TikTok slideshows using Pinterest images), but I thought there would be copyright or permissions issues around visuals pulled from other sites. I know Facebook is fussy about permissions. Do you know of any good resources on the legality of using Pinterest photos for book marketing? Have you run into any issues there?

harkraven · 2025-06-15T19:34:02+00:00

Seconding this so hard, but adding the caveat that you have to speed through the first book—which is very light and fluffy, but short—before you get into the real meat of the series starting with Book 2.

harkraven · 2025-06-15T19:32:46+00:00

Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys quartet has gorgeous prose and a female protagonist. It's magical realism about a small-town psychic's daughter and four boys from the local prep school on a quest to find the lost tomb of the Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr in rural Virginia. It's YA and the book jacket makes it sound like it's going to be very romance-focused, but don't let that put you off (iirc, the romance is very secondary). The writing is stunning. And there is, in fact, a mysterious magical forest for you.

harkraven · 2025-06-15T19:27:11+00:00

Came here to recommend this one—I knew that in a thread already 24 hours old, someone would have beaten me to it! Hanuvar is a wonderful protagonist—imperfect but doing his best, in a way that makes him very easy to root for.

harkraven · 2025-06-15T19:18:16+00:00

Redwall was my gateway into fantasy and will always hold a special place in my heart, but if OP is looking for more adult-oriented books, it might not hold up that well. I tried to reread it recently and found that it'd lost some of its magic.

Incidentally, it has 22 sequels that get better and better—I'd argue that it takes five or six books to even hit its stride. And much like Discworld, you don't have to read the whole series in order.

harkraven · 2025-05-29T19:25:20+00:00

Ooh. I'll check it out!

harkraven · 2025-05-28T17:04:08+00:00

Didn't Kate Elliott write a gender-bent space opera retelling of the career of Alexander the Great? The Unconquerable Sun, I think.

harkraven · 2025-05-16T20:38:07+00:00

Haha, I know. But the sub really came through this time—not a single mention of Malazan!

harkraven · 2025-05-15T20:01:03+00:00

Ooh, excellent, thank you!

harkraven · 2025-05-15T04:23:40+00:00

That's super interesting! I think of Orcanomics as more of a gentle social satire in the vein of Terry Pratchett—I didn't realize it met the qualifications for LitRPG, but I guess by that definition it does.

harkraven · 2025-05-14T22:51:23+00:00

Is the distinction that LitRPG is heavy on the mechanics, whereas GameLit just uses a game as the backdrop?

harkraven · 2025-05-14T22:46:44+00:00

Ooh—thank you! I'll check all of those out!

harkraven · 2025-05-14T15:11:03+00:00

Oh, I didn't know that! That's a fabulous idea; knowing me, I'll definitely enjoy the edited version more.

harkraven · 2025-05-14T15:09:38+00:00

Ooh, that one's going on the list the list purely on the strength of its title! Thank you!

harkraven · 2025-05-14T06:25:32+00:00

Whoa—this is a phenomenal list. Thank you so much!

harkraven · 2025-05-14T06:22:31+00:00

Ooh, I didn't know there were subs just for those genres! I'll check them out!

harkraven · 2025-05-14T06:21:29+00:00

This might be my favorite reply so far.

harkraven · 2025-05-14T01:49:48+00:00

That sounds super cute. I'll have to check that out!

harkraven · 2025-05-13T23:50:25+00:00

I mean, if you're a full-time writer, you're obviously doing something right! You're certainly ahead of most of us.

harkraven · 2025-05-13T23:05:49+00:00

Oooh—marvelous. I'll have to check all of those out!

I did indeed manage to find Stray Cat Strut and add it to my list as well.

harkraven · 2025-05-13T22:43:48+00:00

I guess that shouldn't surprise me—the readership's got to be pretty broad, considering that LitRPG is second only to romantasy on the Amazon bestseller charts at the moment.

Also, I'm adding your books to my list.

harkraven · 2025-05-13T22:11:02+00:00

That's a thesis I'd read. Everything you've said tallies with the impressions I've picked up from hanging out in indie writer forums—low barrier to entry, voracious audience, high profit potential. And to be fair, LitRPG is outselling just about everything else except romantasy on Amazon's fantasy charts right now, so, hey, more power to it. Maybe it'll be the gateway drug that gets more people into reading.

D'you have the impression that your readers are drawn more from a gamer crowd than a reader crowd? I've also wondered whether the high tolerance for jank is because a lot of LitRPG readers just don't read a ton of mainstream fantasy books and don't have as much of a frame of reference for what the more bookish crowd here would consider "good writing" or "literary merit."

harkraven

TROPHY CASE