Cynthia Ailshie
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Cynthia Ailshie
@cynthiaailshie.bsky.social
67 followers 140 following 42 posts
Writer of SFF, aspires to live in a library and speak twenty languages (so far it’s only two)

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cynthiaailshie.bsky.social
Newest post on my blog.

#writesky #writingcommunity #publishing
You, Too, Can Publish Your Fan Fiction for Profit!*
I’m going to explore a somewhat lighter topic today, because current events have been so appalling lately I’m trying to focus my mind on anything other than, you know, the horrors conti…
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January 19, 2026 at 1:13 AM
cynthiaailshie.bsky.social
EASTWARD SINGS THE WIND

In a land of song-based magic, a musician forges a friendship with an enigmatic foreigner and causes him to question his secret allegiance to the tyrannical god-king who plans to invade her land.

#Bluepit 📖 #YA #F #Q #DIS
January 13, 2026 at 2:53 PM
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A pair of interplanetary librarians become entangled in the disappearance of a powerful government official on a world ruled by oppression and censorship.

#BluePit 📖 #A #SF #Q
January 13, 2026 at 2:20 PM
cynthiaailshie.bsky.social
I'm still a little uncertain of the mechanics of all this, but I'll do my best to participate and contribute tomorrow!

#BluePitHype #writingcommunity #writersky
bluepit.bsky.social #BluePit - A Storytelling Hype & Pitch Event @bluepit.bsky.social · 7d
Welcome to the final day of #BluePitHype!

DAY FIVE: Build Your List

On BlueSky YOU are the algorithm so the best way to help each other is to REPOST! Create a List and swap support!

1 day left until #BluePit on Jan 13th!

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #Writers #AmQuerying #GameDev #Comics #TTRPG
#BluePitHype Q & A January 12th Build Your List #BluePit is tomorrow! Post with #BluePitHype and build a support list! BlueSky Lists work similar to Feeds, you can even pin them like the Discover feed, so you don’t miss your friend’s posts! 1 DAY To #BLUEPIT ON JAN 13th! @BLUEPIT.BSKY.SOCIAL
January 12, 2026 at 7:13 PM
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Zava is a twenty-year veteran at the Institute, which is especially notable considering she started adulthood as a extremist insurgent exiled from her homeworld. It took some growing up to realize she could enact change in a subtler, more lasting way.

#BluePitHype #writingcommunity #writesky
bluepit.bsky.social #BluePit - A Storytelling Hype & Pitch Event @bluepit.bsky.social · 9d
Welcome to the 3rd day of #BluePitHype!

DAY THREE: Character Interviews - Question 1

Today, we have some questions for your characters! Next will be posted in 30 minutes!

3 days left until #BluePit on Jan 13th!

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writers #AmQuerying #GameDev #Comics #TTRPG
Alt Text: #BluePitHype Q & A January 10th CHARACTER INTERVIEW For today, we have some questions for your characters! Question 1: What is your character proud of? 3 DAYS TO #BLUEPIT ON JAN 13th! @BLUEPIT.BSKY.SOCIAL
January 10, 2026 at 3:42 PM
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Zava loves her job at the Interplanetary Institute. Traveling across the cosmos, providing free access to a vast archive of information and materials -- what could be better? (Well, maybe if they'd stop asking her to train all these hapless novices...)

#BluePitHype #writersky #writingcommunity
bluepit.bsky.social #BluePit - A Storytelling Hype & Pitch Event @bluepit.bsky.social · 9d
Welcome to the 3rd day of #BluePitHype!

DAY THREE: Character Interviews - Question 3

Our final question today! Feel free to ask your own questions of your fellow participants too!

3 days left until #BluePit on Jan 13th!

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writers #AmQuerying #GameDev #Comics #TTRPG
#BluePitHype Q & A January 10th CHARACTER INTERVIEW For today, we have some questions for your characters! Question 3: What does your character love? 3 DAYS To #BLUEPIT ON JAN 13th! @BLUEPIT.BSKY.SOCIAL
January 10, 2026 at 3:17 PM
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Fears? Oh, yes. Anything that could threaten Zava's position as itinerant Curator. The Institute is perpetually underfunded, she has frequent clashes with the Board of Directors, and worst of all, she could get "promoted" to somewhere permanently onplanet.

#BluePitHype #writersky #writingcommunity
bluepit.bsky.social #BluePit - A Storytelling Hype & Pitch Event @bluepit.bsky.social · 9d
Welcome to the 3rd day of #BluePitHype!

DAY THREE: Character Interviews - Question 2

Today, we have some questions for your characters! Last will be posted in 30 minutes!

3 days left until #BluePit on Jan 13th!

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #Writers #AmQuerying #GameDev #Comics #TTRPG
#BluePitHype Q & A January 10th CHARACTER INTERVIEW For today, we have some questions for your characters! Question 2: What is your character afraid of? 3 DAYS To #BLUEPIT ON JAN 13th! @BLUEPIT.BSKY.SOCIAL
January 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
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Hmm... art, you say? Obviously not my strong point, but I do love creating maps. I look forward to one day having a professional rendition of them. The first image is for my interplanetary librarians novel, and the second is for a YA fantasy trilogy.

#BluePitHype #writesky #writingcommunity
On the left, a section of a city grid labeled 'Tseyar.' The Tsey River runs at an angle through the northwest. Features include 'The Spartan,' 'Manufacturing District,' 'Bezing Theater' 'Olo Tower' and 'Ministry District.' On the right, with the label 'Gretying, Eastern Hemisphere,' two separate areas connected by monorail lines: Yevinrin District, with the city Ulaan and a collection of mines, and the Capital District with the city Nogori and the shuttle platform. A depiction of a vast continent, with a larger and smaller peninsula separated by 'turbulent seas.' The smaller eastern one is called Tanakune and its primary feature is the city of Bellport in the southeast corner, including the Academy. The larger western one is the center of the Realm of the God-King, marked by three arcane symbols. Surrounding the 'Boundless City' are multiple tributary territories, and farther north is the Silver Lakes region.
January 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM
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Hello fellow writers! I'm a SFF author, pursuing publication. Great stories are a source of boundless joy for me. I've been creating my own since childhood, wanting to share the joy. I also have the enviable privilege of working at a library that looks like a castle.

#BluePitHype #writingcommunity
A view of the castle library, with graceful arches and a tower. I'm not an architect, so my best description is that it's very pretty and fancy.
January 8, 2026 at 2:58 PM
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I'm far better at handling rejections than when I sent out my first tentative queries, back when my manuscripts were much worse and my skin was much thinner. Which means that there's only a few minutes of weeping and rending my garments rather than three straight days.

#writingcommunity #amquerying
December 24, 2025 at 4:04 AM
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A new blog post that gets rather personal.

#writingcommunity #amwriting #writersky
Writing for Survival
A few posts ago I explored the comforting and healing power of reading those stories that uniquely speak to us. I’m going to follow up with a look at how the process of writing stories can be…
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December 17, 2025 at 7:11 PM
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Two reasons why technical errors are fairly rare in my writing:

1. An inborn obsession with proper spelling and mechanics, which I've fostered and grown over many long years, and...

#amwriting #amediting #amquerying
December 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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A series of posts I wrote this summer about diversity in worldbuilding and writing. I'm no expert by any measure, but I'm very invested in learning how to do it right.

#writingcommunity #amwriting #diversity
Diversity – cynthiaailshie
Posts about Diversity written by Cynthia Ailshie
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December 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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Stylistic musings: how often can the same word be included in a passage without being repetitive? Obviously not referring to generic words like "the" -- more like, for example, "expedition." Sometimes synonyms help, sometimes not. A tricky balance to maintain.

#writingcommunity #writesky #amediting
November 21, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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New post on my blog. Of vital importance to anyone who values the human qualities of language and writing.

#writingcommunity #writersky #writesky
Not Real, But an Incredible Simulation!
It translates alien language! into an even more incomprehensible language. And produces enormous quantities of toxic waste I’m going to talk about generative AI again. My opinion hasn’t…
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November 18, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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Not my current WIP as of last night (hooray for completing a manuscript!) but I like this particular usage of the word of the day.

#WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky
“This is just a prelude. We’ll probably have cloudbursts off and on through the night, till the real storm arrives in the morning.” Laira was humming quite cheerfully, a melody Zava faintly recognized as a traditional Tripolian sea shanty. Jerrid gaped at her in emerging dismay. While they dripped and drizzled in the entry, Rekabin bustled toward them with a stack of polysorbant towels. “Everyone safely inside? Good, good,” he chirped. “Dry off before you take another step, please! Don’t want to leave puddles everywhere.” His broad smile remained fixed as he turned to Jain and began conferring with the tech in a lower voice. Zava watched his eyes for a sign of his real emotions. Worry, no question. A touch of panic. Panic was contagious. Zava had never quite managed to build up an immunity to it. She sighed and took up one of the towels.
November 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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After a final sprint of 2400 words, my WIP is complete! First draft, needs lots of work, but for now I'll let it rest and celebrate another finished novel.

#writingcommunity #writersky
November 13, 2025 at 4:35 AM
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No tasty food for Zava while she's being unjustly detained. #WIPSnips #amwriting #writersky #writingcommunity
Ancient deities be thanked, Zava was not required to sleep in the questioning chamber. After Elani left, the guard came over to escort her first to a washroom, rapture! and then to a neighboring chamber. It was narrow and dimly-lit but furnished with a cot and a sink, which was all she needed at the moment. She washed her face and hands and even contrived to cleanse most of the dried sweat from the back of her neck. Then she dropped to the cot with a grateful moan. Her legs were still recovering from restricted bloodflow, and her back was taking great pains to inform her of how poorly she had treated it. It’s not my fault! Go complain to Elani and his intractable misinterpretations of the truth. Her back remained unappeased. The guard reentered some time later with a generic instant-meal pack and a bottle of water. He handed them over with an apologetic frown as she forced herself to a sitting position. “They, uh, don’t provide a table or anything.” “Don’t worry about it,” she assured him, already tearing open the seal to start the heating process. Thinly-seasoned starches and vegetables. She had never smelled anything so delicious. “Thank you.” He wore a faint look of panic as he glanced toward the window set in the door. “I’m only doing my job.” As if her thanks was the worst condemnation a guard could receive. Zava regarded him with all the dignity she could muster in a state of utter dishevelment and captivity. “Never regret kindness.”
November 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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WIP: My third interplanetary librarians book, "A Cataclysmic Framing." Zava is conducting interviews with an archaeological team and attempting not to step on anyone's toes.

#WIPSnips #amwriting #Writesky #WritingCommunity #SF
Better establish some common ground before Ajuna put her firmly in the category of outsider antagonist. “I was excited to come here myself. Old Tripoli has always fascinated me.” Ajuna’s mouth quirked in dry acknowledgement. “We must be quite the curiosity, out there in the wider cosmos.” Oof. Now she’d really stepped in it. Delicately Zava acknowledged, “I couldn’t pretend to have the same connection as a Tripolian, of course. The Institute strives to respect the preeminence of locals –” A blunt laugh. “I’m just needling you. Don’t worry, I’m not raising accusations of appropriation or misrepresentation.” She looked up for a pointed moment. “I’ve got better things to do with my time.”
November 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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🧵 I have to admit, it’s a trifle intimidating to see all the mood boards, ’agent guides’ and other elaborate visuals that writers have created to promote their books. I haven’t the artistic skill nor resources to make such items, and I can’t afford to properly compensate someone else for making it.
November 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
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So far I’ve had a lovely welcome to this community. It’s only been one day, true, but a promising start. Even more promising would be a spontaneous offer of literary representation…best not get greedy, I suppose. #amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity #writersky
November 8, 2025 at 12:56 AM
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Sci Fi:

On a planet governed by oppression and censorship, a pair of interplanetary librarians become entangled with the disappearance of a powerful government official. Trying to find him might get them killed. Or it could change the course of the entire world for the better.

#FiFRevPit #Mockpit
November 7, 2025 at 4:12 PM
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Is it kismet that I joined the very day of Mockpit? Not sure, but I guess I'd better give it a try. Also, my thesaurus-brain is running through all the synonyms now. 'Kismet' is fun, but 'serendipity' has all those delightfully bouncy syllables. #amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity #writersky
November 7, 2025 at 3:55 PM
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All right, let's give this new-fangled 'social media' thing a try. Hoping to connect with the writing/publishing community! #amwriting #amquerying #writingcommunity #writesky
November 7, 2025 at 3:41 PM