Discord and Skies of Blue

So I managed to get an invite onto the lifeboat as the hellsite sinks.

Of course, the moment there was discourse on Bluesky, I (thankfully?) missed it and had to get the rundown on twitter. There are also no DMs, so once more of my people are there, we’ll probably still have to head back to twitter to chat.

There’s a contingent of people arguing for no DMs ever, and I get that, but also…some things should not be said with your outside voice. Texts are also an option, I know, but not everyone I DM with is someone I’ve exchanged numbers with, and if my social media app is already open, that’s what I’m going to use to DM.

Overall vibes so far are fine, but I think that depends on your demographic. So far it’s very white, and even left-wing/progressive/liberal white people are kinda racist, and if they set the tone going forward, the place won’t be a real home for most people despite it being very queer-friendly. So YMMV there.

I will never stop being angry with what happened with Twitter. If you’re not on the hellsite, it’s hard to describe, but the ability to connect and find your people, to follow news literally as it was happening to people, to get that dopamine hit coming together against the main character of the day, all in a text-based microblogging platform, is unparalleled. I don’t know if it can be replicated, although the billionaire jokes were flying at Bluesky uninhibited by a bunch of ads and random nazis.

Same username there as the hellsite; I’m skyladawn.bsky.social if you’re on the new blue app.

Outside of the Saturday night write-ins with patrons, I wouldn’t say my Discord is particularly active, but many moons ago I had a reader forum and it was a lot of fun, so I’ve opened up a text channel for all readers, whether they’re patrons or not with Discord’s forum option. There are tags for all the books, including a spoiler tag, as well as an off-topic tag. If you’d like to join, this link is good for a week. If you’re already on Patreon, you can integrate your Discord account with Patreon and get all the benefits.

Patreon is launching some changes that apparently will be focused on community building and selling digital products, so it’s more of a one-stop shop. I’m not sure what the fees will be, but that might be an alternative to Payhip for me, and make it easier for new patrons to find final ebooks and that (btw, last call for all patrons to grab Soul Spell; July 1st it pops up to $5+ patrons).

Today my two senior kitties went in for checkups–I got standard geriatric blood panels, even though overall they look good (it’ll at least be a baseline if something happens down the road). Both were completely unimpressed with the trip itself but quite good for the vet (they’re both extremely friendly). Rodney got upset with his vaccinations but he’s napping now and when he wakes up, he will have forgotten.

To that end, my ebooks are 25% off at Payhip with the coupon code VETVISIT.

I’ve got outpatient stuff myself at the end of the week. I’m pretty stressed–I have a lot of difficulties in medical settings, particularly having to give up control of my bodily autonomy which is the nature of anesthesia and unavoidable. Despite it not being mandated, the hospital still has a mask requirement, so at least there’s that. But I have no idea what the result of this will be–whether I’ll have a change in medications or what I’ll have to manage, and when I can’t prepare, I tend to spiral.

To this end, I’d planned to have this week off freelancing so I could clean and focus on other things, but I’ve been pretty scattered so I’m finishing two things today. I also finally, finally got some stuff for Patreon’s West Club done and scheduled–part one of a story went up last night and part two will be next month. It’s extremely spoilery, set in the series’ distant future, but it was the only idea that’s given me any excitement.

It…helped, I think. As I explained to patrons last night, I’ve been really struggling to get back into that world. I have to both reconnect myself to it (it’s necessary to severe yourself when you put a lot of yourself into something that will lead to people sending pretty nasty comments to you, and to have it stolen constantly) and shut that door again that has let other people into the room. There’s no shortcut for me with this process. It took me four years to write the final Demons of Oblivion book for that reason (that and the lack of income from those books to justify writing it).

Trying to be gentle with myself and not force it has helped, as is reacquainting myself with the soundtracks and feeling the characters and world again. And, honestly, just talking sometimes with folks who the books have meant a lot to helps.

I’ll get there. Anyway, I just want to get through the week, hopefully get good news on the cats’ bloodwork tomorrow and good stuff for me on Friday, and then July will be a little calmer.