kiya

My pile of reference links for things I'm not actually currently working on is a giant memory-devouring hash, so pulling them off again:

Almost Idle's incremental game tutorial

Reddit recs for incremental game source code trawls

Particle clicker source code


How to implement main character selection in RPGMaker


Tales and legends tag off lamus-dworski

Bread and Harvest rituals in Poland

Various paper flower crown links:
http://thehousethatlarsbuilt.com/2016/04/diy-paper-spring-floral-crown.html/
http://honestlywtf.com/diy/diy-paper-flower-crown/

Last week I went down to Town Hall and registered a DBA, so I am now the owner of an official sole-proprietorship small press. Which currently just produces calendars. But there are plans, many plans.

Basically, I am doing this because after some experience with working for a small POD press I think I can. And because I look at the world of niche pagan stuff and say, "I really wish that I could find a book about...." and the 'about' is something weird and nonspecific and maybe it would be a big deal if it came out but nobody's going to actually do it. And given that I have a lot of relevant knowledge and can pick up some of the rest of the stuff, I feel that, well, if I want these books to happen I should make them happen myself.

Which means that I will be looking to make books happen about:
* narrative and its role in religion from various angles
* historically-rooted mystical practice
* niche reconstructionist Stuff
* local/household/community religion
* and a bunch of stuff that falls out from that set of interests, which includes pop cultural paganism stuff, quirky individual stuff if it's interesting, and anthologies on related topics

Things that are in some level of planning include a volume of collected poetry, a cookbook, a book of Kemetic prayer-songs, and an anthology of experiences and thoughts about dealing with new, "lost", or lore-obscure gods, of things that I am fully hoping and have plans to make happen in the next two years.

I am hoping for (as other specific things I've talked with people about) the possibilities inherent in a book on ancestor practice, at least one topic-specific grimoire, possibly a book or anthology on superhero spirituality (though the person I contacted to possibly collect that one is not sure he can contribute beyond what's in a book that already exists), an anthology dealing with trans-specific religious experiences and rituals, a novel and book of ritual/mythology associated with a religion from the novel because really that works as a set, and a regionally specific reconstructionist ritual/lore/practice book. And something else I asked someone about ages ago which has fallen out of my head, argh, I hope he remembers.

I have done a fuckton of research into profit margins on various POD printers and need to do some more, but my current plan is to go with a mix of printers depending on the work in question, what it needs for a binding, and various other things.

But. That is one of my things that I am doing right now.

I should get the company logo resized so I can usericon it.

Probably in one of the better possible ways.

So ardaniel mentioned to me about one of the latest "OMG women are getting cooties in my fandom" explosions, and Scalzi commented on it today, and now I'm pondering that some time in the future I might actually go to cons where cosplay happens once more. (I mean, it's been an age since I visited erispope and we used to do Dragon*Con.)

And so, in honor of all the misogynistic twitbrains who are deeply disturbed by those sexy sexy womens in their revealing costumes, I have a desire ...

... to cosplay a topless woman who wears a lot of jewelry.

By which I mean...

Pyanfar Chanur.

LOOK OUT FOR THE CATGIRLS.

(Note to self addendum: Boneclaw Mother.)

In a discussion over in james_nicoll someone made a comment about not seeing monarchist science fiction.

I now want to build a transhumanist Egyptian-style monarchy virtual world and write stories in it. Possibly with stealth theology, because what doesn't these days? At least that I do.

(I do wish I had an easier time coming up with plots. Settings are easy.)

I have written a ... thing. Currently working on revising it so that it works better, but it is effectively done. I wasn't planning on "doing something" with it, entirely, but enough people have asked me that I'm now sort of staring at it in a "If I wanted to submit you somewhere, where would you go?" kind of way.

It's not suitable to the standard SF/F markets, I think, because I'm pretty sure it's only SF/F by my standards, and my standards weren't aware that there was anything other than SF/F until I was in my teens, because it was all strange people in odd situations to me. (As you might imagine, this gives me tremendous rupture problems in any conversation in which a distinction between genre and non-genre is particularly significant.)

What it is is ... guh. An archetype-exploration of a particular variant of a particular type of hero's journey with extensive symbolism largely drawn from Celtic myth. 4500 words, ish.

In second person future.

I'm pretty sure that it's only actually suitable to some kind of literary publication, even without taking into account the fact that it's second person future. It has other subtextual stuff -- it's as much a religious and sexual exploration as anything else -- but it's written in such a way that that is likely only clearly apparent to a tiny fraction of even people I know, and thus subcultural publications appropriate to the subtexts would likely treat the thing with a generalised, "Buh?"

I found Duotrope searching the web for literary fiction markets; does anyone have any better ideas for what to do with the damn thing if I decide I do want to submit it somewhere other than go through the plausible places there (and on other similar sites) and check submission guidelines for things that look worth exploring?

Does anyone know of a publication that really, really needs to read 4500 words of second person future instruction in the nature of the sacred mysteries of achieving rulership?

Noted for own information.

( Story bits )

Just ... completely frazzled, trying to get through the weekend. Next week, maybe I'll have time to remember how to be sane again.

While in the middle of trying to negotiate an emotionally complex situation that has one a little shaky is a less than ideal time to spend a while locked out of the house.

Went to the very good restaurant I have been wanting to get teinedreugan to tonight by using brooksmoses's visit as an excuse, and rescued arawen from whispercricket's parents along the way.

Discussion on rasfc makes me want to take the "You can't study magic unless you're really dedicated" trope and build a world in which magical success and capacity depends on raw lust for power ...

I need to thrash at this concept until I get it into an essay, I think, but I'm making a note of the seeds of it so I don't lose it entire.

oneironaut and I were talking about power exchange relationships and related stuff, and responses to the possession of power, power and ma'at. Or what arawen sometimes refers to as "If I don't take good care of my toys, I don't get to play with them anymore."

There's something heady about having someone else in a position of vulnerability, by whatever means. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things whether it's kink, whether it's economic power, whether it's social power, physical capacity, spiritual knowledge, anything else: the mere fact of the capacity to do is a drug. And it's not a drug everyone has the skill to handle well. (And the toxicity of the drug depends, I think, somewhat, on whether or not the vulnerability is more chosen than coerced.)

Is the response to an exposed vulnerability to raise up, to work it synergistically, to hold that position to keep access to the drug? Any exposed vulnerability is an intimacy -- this is heavy currency in d/s, but it's also one of those flows of political stress that comes of being an oppressed minority, forced to be constantly more exposed, more intimate, to more people, with less consent, less freedom to say "I don't want to be naked here." Is that intimacy cherished, loved, protected, or is it played for personal advantage? Is it an intimacy that people can refuse to have if they don't want to be exposed, or don't want to be a party to someone else's exposure? (And that goes off into questions of [fitb] privilege rather handily -- not only the confidence of being able to lay a hand on a shirt, but the ability to not notice when other people are stripped, to step away from the whole question.)

My experience of d/s situations is that they make these reactions, the responses to power and exposure, all very immediate and present. oneironaut and I exchanged "You know who you really are when" comments about it -- the whole question of whether or not the jump when granted intense, extensive power over another person is towards ma'at or away. It's always, always, always going to be a drug, but there are good trips and bad trips, and good ways of dealing with the chemistry and bad ones.

I come around to my tendency towards fealty models, exchange of powers, interdependent obligations.

And I come around to, sometimes, choosing to be naked beneath everything, because I show myself who I really am.

(Words aren't coming out quite right. Oh well.)

(ETA: This is partly related to discussion linked from takingsteps, too.)