WHO’S STEALING THE SOCKS? SHIP’S LOG 4
M.W. Marie McLeod, Ship's Sea Witch
Ahoy, me hearties, and welcome back aboard the Resilience. I’m your ship’s Sea Witch, Marie (M. W.) McLeod. I wish I could say I controlled anything, but even the sock puppets get out of hand most days. Looking at you Zane! I want my socks back!
For real, though… I’m not sure what he’s using them for. Is he trying to summon another sock puppet demon or something much more jaw droppingly, eye poppingly nefarious? What a sicko. Just look at that smug face!
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Enough of McLeod!
Welcome to the bilge! The shadowy portion of the ship full of sock- I mean crates, piled high for the world to see. I am the Demon General Zangrunath. I will not suffer to be called anything less than my station. Get it right, McLeod. Useless witch. My Ellyria is much better at this.
Now that I’ve stolen everybody’s left socks, I have enough material to enact my plan for a mutiny! There will be no soul left unturned when I become the new captain of this decrepit vessel-!
Work In Progress
Sorry about Zane! He’s taking a little nap now, and I’m proud to announce that I’ve reclaimed everybody’s socks. All you need to do is ignore the demon saliva.
Anyway, I was asked to chat about what I’m writing here. My current project is a modern take on the classic tale The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body by Abjornsen and Moe. It’s a dark fantasy fairy tale retelling that puts all the elements of the original story into a jar and shakes vigorously, just like I’m considering with a certain sock puppet at the moment.
If you hate happy endings and love a good villain, I think you might enjoy it. For now, I will share the bounty of my harvest with the rest of the ship. Quartermaster! I found your socks! They’re covered in demon- uhh… slobber. Yeah, that’s it. Also, why are they pink?
THE BOOK THAT BROKE ME
Two and a half years of my life, that’s how much time this book took from start to finish. The mere sight of it sparks joy, pride, and eternal loathing. Magdiana and Astero’s story began in November 2021, and after rewriting more than half of it in 2022, I hated what I created. So, back to the drawing board we went.
The next thing I knew, I was hard at work airlifting my characters and the main themes of their story into a different, more high stakes setting. Longest Week Ever suddenly became The Veiled War, and as I began to edit-edit-edit, life came to a screeching halt. What I thought would be a usual amount of time editing, polishing, and fine tuning became several long months from August through April until we finally come to today. I can finally say this thing is done, and we can dump it off the ship. Captain? Can I have the book walk the plank for misconduct? Pretty please?
This book brought me more stress and tears than I care to admit or think about, and at times, I felt ready to give up. I guess that’s why they call our good ship the Resilience. Now, where did all of that rum go?
From the Ship’s Log
EDITOR'S PICK
Where we take a tour around the ship to find out what’s cooking, see what our writers have posted on their socials and check out a book or two from the readers’ room.
This week, I wanted to talk to you about book pirating. Recently, our own FK Marlowe experienced the gut wrenching situation of finding out that her intellectual property was stolen and put up on a website without her permission. This is a familiar story for many other indie authors, and for some, it ends in having our Kindle Direct Publishing accounts banned due to exclusivity agreements, even if we as the author were not the person to post the work on the offending website in the first place.
I’ve personally experienced this situation, and I felt incredibly anxious about whether or not Miss Marlowe’s issues would be dealt with swiftly or not, especially since the offender in my case took months to remove my work from their website. Luckily, the website that had Marlowe’s work had a twitter page, and being the savvy social media butterfly that she is, we saw the beginning of the DMCA saga:
Once the tweet was out there, we needed to wait. Oh, the agonizing wait to see if you can have your own work back where it belongs, where we as the author choose to distribute it. This book pirating thing has almost nothing to do about “free books” for other people. In my own personal opinion, if a reader asked nicely about receiving a free copy of my book because they couldn’t afford a copy, I would happily supply one to them.
This book pirating situation has everything to do with control over one’s own intellectual property and our rights as the authors to distribute our products as we choose, which is to say that we want to know when and where they are being sold or downloaded for free. So having people on a website we did not choose for our stories is not only shocking but insulting. Somebody thought they knew what to do with our writing better than us. Frankly, it’s rude and presumptuous, and I’d love to see the practice stop entirely in favor of the above. Most of us authors want to connect with readers. It doesn’t hurt to reach out. The worst case scenario is the word, “no.”
Now, for my favorite part of the story. Resolution:
We all love a happy ending, and I’m pleased to say this part of the story ended well. Of course, there was more than one offender in this case, and I’m certain Miss Marlowe is working on reaching out to the other parties involved still. But all’s well that ends well for now.
From aswewrite.com:
HOW I GO ABOUT
DATING THE STORIES
There is no right or wrong way to consume a story. The way I go about it is what works best for me, but it may not work for you. There’s only one way to find out. I’ve “perfected” my date night model over many years. It helps me gain a deeper understanding of what is going on in the story, and to figure out how I feel about it…
THE WIDER
CURRENCY OF CRITICISM
Hey writer, do you know that successful people tend to look at the wider currency of criticism? Instead of taking each review – whether positive or negative – too much to heart, they try to see it for what it is: Useful feedback to extract data from. And no, that still doesn’t mean that all criticism is valid.
From Our Shops:
ASPIRATIONAL MERCH
Future Banned Book List Author
This aspirational t-shirt comes straight from M.W. McLeod’s treasure trove of brilliant book swag. It’s a standard notebook with the aspirational text “Future Banned Book List Author” on the cover. Because, let’s face it, the way things are going all of us should probably aspire to have our books on the list. The print is available on a number of products, including stickers and notebooks.
Vive la révolution!
Signups & Socials
If you joined us from the start, you’ve met all four of our Quarterdeck Pirates now. Next week, the Captain will inyroduce you to the rest of the crew, but until then you may want to make sure you have signed up with all of us so you don’t miss out on any goodoess or extras.
Linnea Lucifer, Week 1
Captain of the Resilience, amateur liar and bearer of many names. Linnea is a multi-genre author who writes fantasy, romance and sweet’n’spicy spoonie smut under different pen names. An ancient dragon lady who doubles as a writing coach, editor and desktop publisher.
F.K. Marlowe, Week 2
Our Ship’s Belle is also known as The Belledame and Queen of Creepy for a reason. This sweet social media butterfly lures you in you with poetry and pretty pictures, but make no mistake. Belle’s horror stories will make your skin crawl, but only in a good way. Of course…
Leto Armitage, Week 3
The Quartermaster, in his own words, is a simple man of simple pleasures, but don’t forget: Two things can be true! Leto is not only a certified geek and living encyclopedia – he’s also a multi-genre author, storyteller and content creator who writes fantasy, sci-fi, romance and erotica.
M.W. McLeod, Week 4
The Ship’s Sea Witch is our resident master of spreadsheets, cards and dice. Marie is the multi-genre behind the Beyond the Veil series, and the content creator behind the excellent sock puppet theatre featuring the adorkable demon Zengrunath and other characters from her books.
Libertalia Tales: First Love
I think the best description of this, our very first book series, can be found in the back matter of Love Never Dies: “[It was] born on a rainy afternoon in Jamaica Inn. It’s a sleazy little dockside tavern, in a secluded side-alley of the internet, frequented only by those in the know. […] A few spiced rums in, our table full of writers-come-sailors started to spin sweet and salty yarns of their own romantic voyages over the years.”
D.G. Barnes
An Afternoon Delight
Can you meet the love of your life in a bar? When gorgeous Sam walks into Jess’s local bar, it seems like fate. Flirty, fun, and teasing, this sapphic tale of true love will have you gasping in surprise like it’s your first time…
Fanny Ingram-Bull
Love Never Dies
They say love never dies, that the dead never really leave us When Maya’s first love is tragically taken, she wants to believe it, but all she can feel is the lack of him. Until love finds her in the least expected way.
Love Never Dies is a bittersweet story of first love beyond the grave.
Linn Rhinehart
This Saccharine Sensation
Gianna has dreamed the hubby, house and a handful of sprogs dream for 20 years, but what would normie life look like for someone like her? How do you find a man when the only one you talk to is “Joe” in tech support? Can you fall in love with someone you haven’t met? And if you do… What next?
SUPPORT US?
The Resilience hosts a series of independent blogs and websites, including aswewrite.com and holihell.com. But more importantly, she offers a steadily growing number of writers a home and a treasure trove of shared resources, knowledge and experience. Your support keeps her afloat and helps us make more shit up. Thank you and welcome aboard!
Pick up some cool author and book swag in our shop. Do you have any special requests? Let us know and we’ll see what we can do…
It takes a lot of tea and coffee to run a pirate ship. Spot us a cuppa if you can and help us keep the Resilience afloat. We always say thanks…
Next Week…
Next week, it’s our Captain who takes back the helm, and I hope she’s ready to come up with a punishment for Zangrunath’s antics and The Veiled War’s insolence for thinking it could test the mental strength and fortitude of the Ship’s Sea Witch! I hear she’s got some new titles coming out soon, and I’m oh so excited. Here we are, leveling up our good ship once again.
Ta-ta for now,
/Marie
Marie was forged in the fiery pits of Hell, but most people call it Phoenix, Arizona. An educator by occupation and nature, she’s always trying to learn and experience new things. No day is complete without learning or otherwise striving to improve herself. Marie believes anything can be achieved with hard work, willpower, and a positive attitude.
As a fantasy author who dabbles in different subgenres, she draws inspiration from many places, people, and hobbies. From knitting to painting, movies to podcasts, reading to dungeons and dragons, she will try anything and everything as long as it keeps her cup full of inspiration and coffee. So much coffee.
I am fascinated by classic folklore, fairy tales, and tall ships. With plans to make two of these happen in the future, I’m currently looking for an excuse to add a water-based world to my series of interconnected universes.
Marie is a self-professed simple person who enjoys fluffy animals, good food, and an epic movie marathon or television show binge. Her teachers used to say she was a pleasure to have in class, but they couldn’t hear all the thoughts and mischief that went on behind that sweet smile. Marie read her favorite books and wrote novels during math class, and people who made her angry got written into them.
