April 1, 2023

April Fool's Edition, 2023

Howdy!

This newsletter will have: a link to an April Fool's hexarchate mini-comic and hexarchate-themed terribad language practice, a FAQ (foxily asked questions), and a catten pic.

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At long last, the Hexarchate comic you didn't expect but were hoping for anyway...NINEVIXEN GAMBIT!!!

This comic is dedicated to Ursula Whitcher, who is probably plotting her revenge even as I speak. XD XD XD

9Vixen Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee.
A winking, fox-eared lady in a black military uniform. Behind her is a calendar saying April 1, with 1 expressed as -e^i*pi. [Footnote 1]
Caption: In the morose shadows of the calendrical future, there is only math homework!

You can read it here.

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Hexarchate-themed Terribad Language Practice

Cheris und Jedao wollen Wurst essen. Unglücklich haben sie keine Wurst.

Cheris et Jedao vont à l'opéra. Malheureusement, on ne peut pas écouter la musique à cause des attaques.

채리스와재다오가 음악 때매 싸읍니다. 채리스가 Garth Brooks을 싫어합니다.

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FAQ (Foxily Asked Questions)

• What are you working on?

In the end stretch of the rough draft of Lancers #2. After that, I'll let it rest for a bit before diving into first-pass revisions.

• How's your health?

One day at a time, the usual.

• What's one thing that you're reading right now?

Recently I reread John Tynes' meta-RPG Power Kill (1996), which is very short (around 2,000 words?) and which he has generously put up on his website. This blew my head open when I read it years ago as a baby gamer who'd largely been exposed to AD&D and GURPS.

• What's one thing you're watching right now?

My husband and I blew through Arcane S1 and wow! We used to play League of Legends (...in fact, I played Jinx...) but the show manages the astonishing feat of drawing on the game and its lore while being accessible to someone with minimal to no background in LoL. I adored this, especially the fantastic character work. It's not for the faint of heart, though.

• What are you listening to right now?

Imagine Dragon x JID's "Enemy," LOL.

• What happened to the Hexarchate faction sorting quiz?

I've removed the link from my website - Rebellion/Solaris (the publisher for Machineries of Empire) was responsible for the quiz, and I'm guessing they took it down for whatever reason, or it expired. Sorry about that!

• Has your catten Cloud or will she ever be a character in your books, in cat or human form?

What a terrifying thought! I have been tempted to make her a character...maybe someday!

• If you want readers to read your book, you must hook them. How do you go about crafting a hook?

Well...you start with a piece of metal and a worm, then...j/k. I take the broad view that a hook, in written/narrative fiction, is anything that grabs your reader and makes them keep reading. Maybe it's the beauty of the language. Maybe it's an irresistible image. Maybe it's the cool tactical potential of the magic system or technology. Maybe it's a character's unbearable dilemma. Maybe it's the promise of a cozy getaway.

In commercial fiction, you will usually need to get your reader invested in the character(s) and their dilemma and plot, so it's often useful (and easier) to do this at the same time. But it's not mandatory. If you think of something off-the-wall and it works for the story you're telling, have at it!

But that's only part of the task; you must then deliver. If your hook promises a gory action thriller and the reader instead gets a cozy romance, your reader's going to balk. And of course, the hook only gets the reader to open the door and step inside your book. You have to keep the reader inside the book, as opposed to getting bored and wandering away. The truth is that you have to keep grabbing the reader, over and over and over. Or anyway, there are readers who will stubbornly finish every book even if they are bored out of their minds, but you really do not want that to be the reason they're finishing your book. :p

• What cross-over would you like to see/play/read? (like Lord of the Rings and Cowboy Bebop, or Gideon the Ninth and Steven Universe, Disco Elysium and Final Fantasy, etc) 

Personally, I am enamored of the crack crossover of Legend of the Five Rings/Angel. (I know of exactly one such crossover fic, although I don't think it's online anymore.)

For something less obscure, I would pay cash money for a crack crossover of The Legend of Vox Machina and Castlevania. No Mercy Percy vs. Alucard! Sypha/Keyleth! Just imagine the possibilities.

• I have a foxy question you haven't answered here!

Sure, please email deuceofgearsart@gmail.com and I'll get back to you!

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And as promised, a catten about to be high on catnip!