rhodrymavelyne

This is a very busy month. Too busy to blog. At least that’s what a part of me is arguing. I’m currently juggling edits, Camp NaNoWriMo, and a dozen other projects.

At least, I’ve learned how to keep a cooler head about it. I’m no longer panicking. That’s progress! :)

It’s a careful balancing act, writing and social media. I’ve tried to get myself in the habit of blogging three times a week at the Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration. The one at inspirationcauldron.wordpress.com. I’m posting my preludes to ‘Tales of the Navel/The Shadow Forest’ there three times a week. Once on Monday, because that’s Me Me Monday’, official promotion day at Queer Sci Fi on Facebook. (I try to be active in Queer Sci Fi. I even write a monthly column for them, ‘Sources of Inspiration’.) Wednesday, because it’s QueerBlogWed, a custom the remarkable and talented Charli Coty suggested. Blog something queer every Wednesday. We were to tweet about it using the hashtag #QueerBlogWed. I haven’t been so good at the latter. Blogging every Wednesday about something queer stuck. :) Saturday, because that’s the day my beloved Rainbow Snippets posts six sentences of GLBTQ+ fiction and shares them. I can’t always to make it to the Rainbow Snippets site, but I try to always post.

That’s three visits a week for inspirationcauldron.wordpress.com

Alas, the Forbidden Cauldron doesn’t get nearly as much attention, because it’s exactly that, forbidden. Facebook blocked inspirationcauldron.blogspot.com during the Blogging From A-Z Challenge in 2016. I’m more active in Facebook than any other social medium. This means my poor little Cauldron doesn’t get as much attention. I try to visit it once a week, often with a story prompted by the excellent Paula Wyant (To see her Wednesday Words, go to ptwyant.com.) I post the same story at my Facebook Author Page. This way, my Forbidden Cauldron manages to get a little action once a week.

What about this place? What about rhodrymavelyne.dreamwidth.org?

Originally I came here, looking for a place where I could host other authors and blog about myself. My characters and stories have slowly taken over my Cauldrons. cauldronkeeper.livejournal.com was taking on the more traditional role of a blog. I wrote about myself, mainly my issues as a writer there. When offering to host other writers, I’d point them in the direction of cauldronkeeper.livejournal.com. It seemed like the best blog for guests. Pictures/images come and go like the Cheshire Cat at inspirationcauldron.wordpress.com. They don’t always show up at the Cauldron itself. inspirationcauldron.blogspot.com was being blocked by Facebook. cauldronkeeper.livejournal.com became the space for me to blog as a professional author. In the meantime, my characters and stories overran the Cauldrons like a horde of mad muppets. :)

Only livejournal changed ownership recently. The change concerned me. Would I still be able to blog freely there? Was it still a place I could host other authors?

I wasn’t sure. I went looking for alternatives. I found this place. I examined the guidelines. The ’No promotion’ rule dashed some of my hopes. ‘No promotion’ might very well mean I post other author’s book covers and official blurbs here. I still went ahead and got the account. I wasn’t able to use the name cauldronkeeper.dreamwidth.org. If you see that handle, it’s not me. :)

I decided to use an old nickname that I went by at Archive of Our Own, Twitter, tumblr, NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo, and both of my Cauldrons. It belonged to a character I created for a roleplaying game long ago. I’ve been reinventing him ever since. Rhodry Mavelyne is whom he became in the Keep, a yaoi interactive fantasy story telling experience which remains particularly dear to my heart, even though it ended long ago. I used his name at my first livejournal in 2003. It made sense to use it.

rhodrymavelyne with its fannish associations from Archive of Our Own shaped the identity of this particular blog. This would be where the fangirl/reader and the writer would blend into one. This is where I’ve blogged about ‘Yuri on Ice’, ‘Summer in Berlin’, and other things which have inspired me. This is where I’ve brought up my characters’s past selves in roleplaying games.

The borders between my online identities are always shifting. Already I’m longing to blog about some of the changes I’m making to the newest edition of ‘Fairest’. Part of me feels like I should do it at cauldronkeeper.livejournal.com. Another part longs to do it here.

Who knows how this place may shift and change in the future?

I’m going to do my best to keep it alive. This is why I’m going to try to update rhodrymavelyne.dreamwidth.org at least once a month. We’ll see how well I succeed.