Greetings, Faoii.
Woo! 103 backers and 126 pre-orders!
A Beast Requires is the Write Out Loud Syndicate’s selection for October, which also happens to be LGBTQIA+ History Month! You have no idea how much this means to me. When I was a tiny little queerling, my life was an absolute mess. The late 80’s and early 90’s weren’t particularly kind, especially to a kid growing up in the suburban sprawl of Cincinnati. There weren’t a whole lot of LGBTQIA+ people in media, especially positive ones. Most of the time they were either stock villains, AIDS patients, or some sinister force serving as an antagonist. Of course, there was Divine, but at 8, I had no clue who Divine was, let alone had even seen a John Waters movie.
As I got older, and was able to find queer cinema, it improved, but there was still a lack of a LGBTQIA+ presence in fantasy and scifi, which were my go to genres of escapism. It wasn’t until the revival of a popular British tv show that I saw an actual representation of me in the media, someone who wasn’t 100% straight or 100% gay, and I fell in love with Captain Jack the moment my baby blue eyes first saw him.
Diversity does not exist in a vacuum, and any character’s defining characteristics should never be their race, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. When I started A Beast Requires, it was without question that the city of Aurum would be a diverse place, and part of that diversity was having LGBTQIA+ characters. Deputy Rilley, resident alchemist and mail order academic, is a trans man, and in a world where dragons are bankers and wizards use magic to grow pineapples in winter, no one bats an eye. Diversity in Aurum is a part of life, and when the nice troll drag queen asks you if she looks pretty in her dress, you say yes.
Then there’s Priz, who openly states with pride that he, in fact, loves everybody. Having a pansexual character, who loves without limitations, wasn’t difficult for me to write. Hells, Priz himself wasn’t difficult for me to write, since I was Priz for most of my life pre-2010. Out of all the things Priz is, and trust me in that there are a lot of them, his sexual orientation is the least interesting thing about him. I could have gone the entire book without mentioning it, but I had to. Agency is important, and by having that one line, he becomes a visible member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Being selected by the Write Out Loud Syndicate means the world to me. It’s an absolute honor, and I am damn proud to be part of the community.
- Jay
Just a short update today to share two things with you all: first off, Witherfist now has a brilliant 88 preorders. If I could reach through the internet and high five you all, I would.
Second, I have some more character art to share with you. This time, it’s the fugitive princess, Arren:
You can read about Arren in one of Witherfist’s excerpt chapters.
~ Jenny
PS. Don’t forget, I’m running a contest throughout October that I mentioned in a previous update - the TL;DR version is if you preorder Witherfist or get others to preorder the book, you can win Amazon vouchers.
Thank you everyone that has been following Human Resources here on Inkshares. Today I received some exciting news. Actually, "exciting" doesn’t cut the mustard in this circumstance.
Today, The Launchpad Manuscript competition announced its Top 75 finalists -- and Human Resources is in the list! I am humbled, excited, and a little intimidated -- but I am strapped in and ready for the ride now taking off.
If you don’t know about the Launchpad Manuscript Competition -- it is one of the "Inkshares" competitions, but a little different to their others. This one is run independently in conjunction with Energy Entertainment and Scott Free Productions
Apart from being a partnership, this competition differs from Inkshares regular fair by having an expert judging phase -- entrants had to submit a traditional synopsis and up to 50 pages of manuscript for industry judges to assess.
The Top 75 have been selected by that panel.
You get to pick the winners (hint -- pick me).
At some point there will be a more traditional Inkshares crowdfunding competition -- I’ll be reaching out to you when that happens. For now, I’m just too excited not to share the news!
Robert
Meh Update:
Those of you who follow these updates regularly (and I genuinely have no idea how many of you do) may have noticed that I haven’t had much to say over the past two-ish weeks. You may also have noticed that my pre-orders have barely moved at all. So what’s the deal with that?
I’ll be honest. I’m exhausted.
I’ve been working this campaign since March now. This has taken up the majority of my year. We’ve come an incredible distance in that time, but the distance to our goal is still vast. We’ve sold six pre-orders in the past ten days, and only eleven days remain to get the remaining 158 we need, which is virtually impossible barring a miracle. I’ve been told I can get another extension if I need one, (and if I need one I will get one) but...good lord am I ever tired....
I’ve poured my life, heart, and soul into this campaign, and right now there’s just not much of me left. My brain is fried and I’m having a hard time thinking of new interesting story-based content to update with that won’t spoil anything I want to keep secret, or lore-related content that isn’t completely disconnected from this story. I have a few ideas left, but I haven’t had the energy to put them together cohesively yet (expect some soon though).
I miss having a life outside of campaigning. I’ve had to put a lot of the things I love on hold for the duration, and I miss those things. I miss being able to hang out with friends regularly on my days off. I miss going to see movies in the theatre. I miss acting in plays. I miss DMing my custom Star Wars tabletop campaign on Friday nights. I miss...just life in general.
I probably sound whiny in this update, but honestly, I’m saying this more for my own benefit than anyone else’s. I’m still confident this is all going to be worth it. I have a literal lifelong dream within reach, and I’m not about to let it slip out of my reach. If I can get my campaign finished within the next eleven days and get back to having a real life, that’s fantastic. If I need to ask for another month or so, I will do so, and probably die young of old age shortly thereafter, but I’ll die happy.
Obviously I’m not giving up. I’m too stubborn, this is too important, and Tantalus Depths is too freaking good. But man am I ever tired.
P.S. I have something else really cool that I am working on, but it’s nowhere near ready, so I’m just going to be really obnoxiously vague about it for now. But stay tuned.
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