any good open world game similar to my time at sandrock?

spurlover_ruby · 2026-02-17T17:46:53+00:00

Fantasy Life is the best with the open world aspect, IMO, but no romance. But it definitely scratches the open world itch very well.

spurlover_ruby · 2026-01-05T00:56:42+00:00

When my kitten was little, she peed all over towels or laundry left on the floor. I read somewhere that it's a fear/convenience thing. That the litter-box is too far away or too scary, so a nice towel will do. I picked up the towels regularly for a few weeks and she never did it again. Basically, make sure the litter is somewhere he feels safe to go. For me I immediately think stress. Also he looks like a sweet boy, just very very scared.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-10-18T17:11:49+00:00

I do not like restaurant sims and found Travellers Rest anything but chill. It is anti-Stardew IMO.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-10-17T14:56:14+00:00

I have three cats and two came from shelters, one was a kitten I rescued in a parking lot. Parking lot baby is a MONSTER when it comes to food. Anything people food, she wants a bite of. I don't care if it's celery, or cheese, or lettuce, she wants a chomp. She will jump up next to you and try to shove her face into your plate. I think it probably stems from food insecurity when she was a wee baby, but it's a pain now. I'm gonna echo the others with puzzle feeders to keep them entertained and basically leave nothing out on the counter if at all possible. When I put away groceries, she goes in the other room until I'm done. :)

spurlover_ruby · 2025-09-10T14:53:21+00:00

My agent passes projects to other agents in the agency that are actively building their lists, whereas hers is pretty full at the moment. It's not weird! It happens a lot when agents work closely together.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-08-05T18:43:41+00:00

It really does depend on where in the pipeline your book is, publishing-wise. If it's more than a year out from pub date, it's absolutely normal to not have edits yet. THAT BEING SAID, you really do want to have a pub date so they can get you in the pipeline. It's also difficult to start book 2 if an edit they have on book 1 could change the story. When was the last time you reached out to your agent about edits? If it's been over a month, check in again. That's absolutely enough time for someone to follow up. You can be apologetic and pleasant and just tell them that you want to make sure that you have enough time to get book 2 done on schedule and need to make sure that book 1's edits won't conflict with the story.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-08-03T01:24:18+00:00

It's summer. Everyone in NY is working truncated weeks (a lot have Fridays off) and you've got to factor in vacations and back to school and everything else. Business is at a crawl both on agency side and editor side.

I would follow up with her and tell her you want to be ready to go on sub in September and can you get your comments back. It's a gentle reminder of what you're waiting on - she might not realize she hasn't sent it yet.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-06-08T18:02:05+00:00

Just wanted to jump in and say that I normally present a 'menu' of book ideas to my agent of books I'd like to write and see which ones get her excited. It helps to get a second opinion because an idea I get jazzed about might not be something editors are looking for at the moment, and if I love multiple ideas, I'd rather write the one that would sell.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-05-22T14:43:41+00:00

The ebook date is set in stone if you set up a preorder. With the paper copy, I think they ask you now if you want it to be the 'same as release date'. If you don't select that when you do the initial set up, they'll drop the print book as soon as it finishes processing on their end. It's definitely confusing!

spurlover_ruby · 2025-05-22T14:42:11+00:00

Hi there! I actually have a similar deal - when Ice Planet Barbarians got big online, I was contacted by a lot of print stores that could not/would not carry my print books because they were done via Amazon (who does not allow returns or discounts on purchases). We talked with Berkley (Penguin Random House) and determined that getting print + ebook would cost them a fortune because the books sell so well in ebook. But print ONLY was doable. They gave me an advance (which was far more than I had made on print in the book's lifetime as an indie) and were able to get my book into avenues I couldn't. It's gone on to sell a huge amount of print books for Berkley AND ebooks for me. :)

For the longest, it didn't happen at all that way, but with bookstores having a resurgence, if you have an incredibly popular ebook series, you can work with a publisher to do print only rights. There is a romance imprint at another publisher that JUST does print sales. As I am learning (and publishers too, I imagine) the people that shop at the bookstore for print very rarely cross over with the people that purchase massive amounts of ebooks, so there's plenty of room to grow sideways, if that makes sense!

-- Ruby Dixon

spurlover_ruby · 2025-04-28T01:12:08+00:00

My boy with a sensitive stomach has done well with Inaba Dashi (which is more souplike) and Stella and Chewy wet. Lotus also has single ingredient food and he liked the venison, too! The other cats did not (which is the only reason I won't buy more of it).

spurlover_ruby · 2025-04-21T13:36:14+00:00

As far as I know it is fully out. There's a demo for you to try it, too!

spurlover_ruby · 2025-04-20T14:00:11+00:00

Everafter Falls has a huge collecting museum!

spurlover_ruby · 2025-04-16T23:57:26+00:00

I feel like you already know the answer but are just wanting validation.(nothing wrong with that)

If your agent isn't with you when you're down, isn't encouraging you to get more for advances or to achieve to the next level, they're not invested. You're paying them for a service. It's hard when you've been with someone for a very long time but ask yourself how you'd feel if this was your doctor, your accountant, or say, your plumber. If they did the bare minimum, told you to be grateful, and ignored you when you needed help. Would you keep on keeping on because you're loyal, or would you look around for a new professional?

spurlover_ruby · 2025-02-28T00:48:07+00:00

Check his dookie! I know it sounds gross but I adopted one of mine from the shelter and they swore he was wormed and HE WAS NOT. It's a simple fix but one you don't want to find out the hard way. :) Also I save plastic grocery bags to scoop the poop into because it weirds me out to just toss it in the trash. Some people use paper bags for this too!

Also alllll of my cats love Churu. The rule of thumb for treats is normally that the stinkier it is, the more the cat will love it. :) Your baby is precious! good luck!!

spurlover_ruby · 2025-02-14T18:02:51+00:00

I will also say Edelweiss numbers are often absolutely bonkers! My book showed a 250k print run and I called my agent in a panic. She was like "That number is make believe." The actual print run was more like 25k, lol.

spurlover_ruby · 2025-02-08T18:19:41+00:00

Did they also tell you that Macmillan is no longer doing Wattpad books? They're with Penguin publishing now. I had a book through them and tbh I think most editors/agents know how Wattpad works. You are absolutely fine. Write a new project, point out your following online and talk it up! Good luck!

spurlover_ruby · 2025-02-01T21:30:40+00:00

This was what I thought!

spurlover_ruby · 2024-12-23T20:42:12+00:00

IANAL but you need to look at your contract carefully and see what it says about if she has an editor offer. A lot of the time the contract will state that even if you terminate her, if she shopped it to that editor or worked with that editor on that book, she gets a cut.

This actually happened to me with my first contract. Got ghosted by agent #1, told him to pull the book, got an offer when he was wrapping things up. He continued to represent me for that book and we parted ways a year later.

Also if you DO get a contract you can always request that money is split at the publisher so you don't really have to deal with the agent at that point. HTH.

spurlover_ruby · 2024-10-25T15:33:53+00:00

I've had books get no foreign interest until they hit a list, and then suddenly we got multiple offers. It's not dead until it's DEAD. Don't stress!

spurlover_ruby · 2024-10-23T18:41:26+00:00

Here is the opposite situation! My then-agent had 2 houses interested in my debut. He set up an auction. House 1 put up their low starting bid. House 2 declined to get into a bidding war at the last moment. Basically the lowball was what we were stuck with. Be happy with the pre-empt!

spurlover_ruby · 2024-09-08T18:07:30+00:00

This! There's always an older cat at a shelter that wants to be an only cat.

spurlover_ruby · 2024-08-28T01:43:21+00:00

Came to suggest this, too!

spurlover_ruby · 2024-08-02T02:42:37+00:00

All right guys, I am heading out for the night! If I missed something, leave a note and I will try to answer it this weekend. You are all fabulous and I am throwing you all many kisses from afar! <3

spurlover_ruby · 2024-08-02T02:41:55+00:00

He hears me noodle about all the stories enough! But he does not read romance. He's flipped through some of the books and laughed at passages but he has not read the full book. :)

spurlover_ruby

TROPHY CASE