IWSG: My Favorite Work

I hope everyone had a good September! My husband and I were able to take a week-long vacation in Boston. We enjoyed the perfect weather and saw a lot of interesting places and things. It's hard to believe how quickly a month seems to pass when you're busy.

Anyway, it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook.

Our hosts this month are Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Catherina Constantine. 

Our question this month is a difficult one: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? Why?

 It's very difficult to pick a favorite story. I was very pleased with how I developed themes and symbols in Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes. I'm very fond of my four Season Avatars, but how could I choose a single book from my five-book series? So I'm going to choose something completely different, a story called The War of the Hs, which I've published on Archive of Their Own. This is a Good Omens fanfic I wrote about a quest Crowley (demon) and Aziraphale (angel) must complete to free Crowley from Hell. I particularly like some of the original characters I created for this story, plus this is one of those stories where I just had fun with it and threw in all sorts of crazy but fun bits. For example, here's a bit about angels trying to figure out silly string:

A nearby angel who’s been studying his can removes the green cap and presses something on the top. With a hiss of air, something snakelike shoots out. All the other angels scream and dodge. A couple of them bump into Michael and send them into the path of the material. Green matter clumps onto their chest and arms. Some of it even gets into their hair. Michael tries to miracle it out, but nothing happens. The material is so soft it spreads as Michael tries to brush it away.

 What's your favorite story? Feel free to tell me about it in the contents. 

IWSG: A New Genre?

Where did the first half of 2025 go? Time just seems to pass faster and faster as I get older, especially since I have so many projects to juggle. I'm pleased to report that I'm over halfway to my Goodreads reading goal for this year (100 books, which may sound like a lot, but I've read 200 in previous years). I may wait until December to discuss what I've read, though.

 Anyway, this post is for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we support other writers. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook page.

 Our hosts this month are Rebecca Douglass, Natalie Aguirre, Cathrina Constantine, and Louise Barbour. 

Here's our question for July: Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?

I've switched genres quite a bit for a writer: my work includes fantasy, science fiction, solarpunk (which should probably be considered a subgenre of science fiction), and paranormal cozy mystery. All of these genres have a speculative element, which is what most strongly appeals to me. However, the top genre for readers is romance. This genre doesn't resonate with me so much because I'm demisexual. (I don't experience primary sexual attraction; I like to think of it as falling in love with someone from the inside out. For me, many romances focus mostly on the hero's physical qualities but don't give him the intelligence and humor that personally appeal to me.) Of course I have characters who fall in love with each other, and their relationships are often part of a secondary plot. But I've never tried to write a pure romance story before....

Until this year. 

One of my projects is a Good Omens alternate universe fanfic which imagines the characters as middle-aged women. One's a harper, the other's a singer, and they meet when they're asked to accompany each other at a wedding. It's coming along slowly because I'm switching among multiple projects, not all of which are writing. I have a book about how to write romance that outlines the story beats readers expect so I can figure out plot points. This story is only a few thousands words along so far, so I'm still getting to know the characters and figuring out what happens to them after the wedding. There's still a lot I have to consider for this story, and I may have someone else beta read it when I finally finish the draft. Please wish me luck, because I'm sure I'll need it!

 Have you experimented with new genres before? If so, please feel free to share how it went in the comments.

IWSG: Favorite Character Hangout

Welcome to the April 2025 post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about them on their website or Facebook page.

 

Our hosts this month are Jennifer Lane, L. Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre. 

 

We have an interesting question for us this month: What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or share a glass of beer/wine with?

 

My favorite characters don't exist in isolation, so I'm going to name groups of characters. To go with a more well-known pair of characters, I'd choose to have tea with Crowley and Aziraphale from Good Omens. It would be fascinating to see their perspective on human history and hopefully learn about forgotten people and events. I'm not interested in fighting anyone, but I'd love to join my quartet of Season Avatars as they deal with Chaos Season (a magical weather storm that mixes up the seasons), or better yet, go with them as they attempt to end Chaos Season permanently in

Summon the Seasons. What better way to get to know your character better than to experience their story with them?

 

Which fantasy character would you like to hang out with? Feel free to share in the comments (or let me know if you blogged about them).

 

 

 

 

Keeping the Fun in Writing

(This post was supposed to go live at the end of January, but I saved it as a draft instead of publishing it. Apologies for the inconvenience. I did manage to finish the story I mention below.)

It occurred to me recently that this year marks the 30th anniversary of my first attempt to write a novel (at least, I'm pretty sure it was in 1994 during an internship.) I actually still have a paper copy of that draft, though it's destined for the shredder. While my writing career is nowhere near what I thought it would like at this point in my life, at least I'm still writing. I think the advent of indie publishing has a great deal to do with that. It's encouraging to know I can always make my work available to readers. I also have the freedom to experiment. Right now, I'm finishing up a Good Omens fan fiction story that's told in present tense, which is something I don't normally use in my other stories. It's an alternative universe story, which means that I've changed a major premise while still writing with the same characters. This allows me to take the characters in vastly different directions and do crazy things with them. It's fun to write, and I'm getting comments that readers enjoy it. Hopefully at some point, I'll return to my Season Avatars, solarpunk, and cozy mystery stories as well. That's why I always wanted to be a full-time writer: so I can work on all the projects I want to write!

Have you gone through periods where you didn't want to write? What keeps writing fun for you? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Ineffable Husbands and Reincarnating Wives

I liked reading the book Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman when it first came out, and I enjoyed watching the adaptation of the book (Season One of Good Omens) on Amazon Prime. However, I didn't expect to be so enthralled by Season Two, which was released at the end of July. Then again, who can resist the perfect marriage of demonic love and angelic cruelty in that final episode? I haven't fallen for a fandom like this since the Beatles Anthology aired in November 1995 and I had "Free as a Bird" stuck in my head constantly. I binged Season Two of Good Omens in three days (which is quite fast for me, but it helps that I can now stream shows on my tablet while I'm cooking or washing dishes) and just finished watching Season One before starting Season Two again. I can't get Aziraphale and Crowley, the Ineffable Husbands, out of my head. I think part of that has to do with how much they remind me of two of my own characters, Lady Gwendolyn lo Havil and Jenna Dorshay, the Spring and Summer Avatars in my fantasy Season Avatars series. (Of course, my writing ability is only a fraction of what Pratchett and Gaiman brought to the table! Credit also belongs to Michael Sheen and David Tennant for portraying these characters and their relationship so brilliantly.)

Like the angel and demon, Gwen and Jenna are opposites who get on each other's nerves but know they can rely on each other. Gwen is a cool intellectual noblewoman, and Jenna is a passionate farmer's daughter. Both of them have magic granted to them by the deities they serve: Gwen gets healing magic from the Goddess of Spring, and Jenna is blessed with plant magic by the God of Summer. Like Aziraphale, Gwen is driven by duty, while Jenna shares Crowley's enjoyment of pleasure. Gwen and Jenna aren't immortal, but they are reincarnated over and over with their magic and memories intact. In previous lives, they were male and female (switching gender between them) and married to each other. However, after Jenna was responsible for a tragedy in their previous life (see Chaos Season), they both came back as women. Although their culture has Victorian-era technology, their country has a more liberal attitude towards homosexuality. Women can have relationships with each other, but those who do so serve the Goddess of Fall, not Spring or Summer. It would be scandalous for Gwen and Jenna to act like Fallswomen when they serve Spring and Summer. I don't want to say too much about the current state of their relationship, but it's obvious by the end of Summon the Seasons, the final book in the Season Avatars series, that they're not getting back together in the near future.

Something that is different between the two couples is that Gwen and Jenna are embedded in other relationships that affect their own. Unlike with Aziraphale and Crowley, Gwen and Jenna work with other Season Avatars who understand their situation. In fact, Ysabel and Kay, the other half of their quartet, often moderate when Gwen and Jenna fight with each other. Gwen and Jenna also have responsibilities toward others that keep them from acting on their relationship. Gwen is an only child, so she has a duty to create and raise heirs to manage the family estate. Jenna was married, widowed, and left with a young child before she even met Gwen in Scattered Seasons. The pair have several things they need to resolve before they can get back together as a couple. I do know where I want them to end up, but I haven't charted out the path of how they get there. Part of the fun of writing for me is discovering that path.

As for Aziraphale and Crowley, I have some ideas about what might happen to them in Season 3, but it'll take a 100-Lazarii miracle to give them a happy ending. I hope Neil Gaiman can give it to them!

Have you ever encountered a very popular character or characters who reminded you of one of your own characters? Did you change anything about your character as a result? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.