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Olivia Atwater

@oliviaatwater.com

4.3K followers 560 following 1.2K posts

Whimsical historical fantasy author and satirist. Wary of faeries and fond of pineapples. Author of Half a Soul. Wife of Nicholas Atwater. She/her. 🇨🇦 https://oliviaatwater.com https://patreon.com/atwater_authors rep: Christabel McKinley @ David Higham

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · Mar 1

Book two of the Victorian Faerie Tales, ROSEMARY & THYME, is in the process of being written... and chapter one is already available to beta-chapter tier patrons on the Patreon! (Everyone else still gets to hear me tell weird D&D stories on Discord.)

www.patreon.com/c/atwater_au...

"It was nine o' clock on a Thursday morning when a faerie walked into Clarimonde's perfume shop in Marylebone and ruined everything." From book two of the Victorian Faerie Tales, Rosemary & Thyme.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 14h

Like, I know it's shocking, but severe symptoms tend to stress you out?? Who knew.

I'm hoping for perimenopause, because I know that endo is the other obvious culprit, and I Do Not Want That. 🫂

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 14h

Yeah, I have the referral but I'm waiting to do the endocrine tests until a specific point in my cycle.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 14h

You have all of my empathy. Things have only really gone wonky for the last few months, and I'm already done with it.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

Based on chats with other women, it does seem like perimenopause is pretty likely. I am 100% ready to take some synthetic hormones and get rid of these symptoms, if so.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

I have learned to go in with suggestions ready. It does not make me happy, and it makes me feel like a weird Dr Google patient, but it's better than wasting everyone's time.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

I mean, legitimately, by the time I go to the trouble to make an appointment with a doctor, I am by definition pretty stressed about whatever is going on. I would otherwise still be at home going "whatever, maybe it'll go away and I won't have to schedule anything".

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

I couldn't even get this one to understand basic causality. He was like "so your period is making you more stressed" and I'm like "yes, because my period has changed, the change CAUSED the stress, I can draw you a timeline if you like".

I joke, but this legitimately gets women killed.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

(I did indeed get some endocrine tests, but I cannot emphasise enough how verbatim the above conversation was and how much my respect for doctors in general continues to plummet as I get older.)

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 15h

Me: I'm getting older, and strange things are starting to happen around my period.

Dr: Have you considered that you might be stressed?

Me: I am indeed stressed that strange things are happening around my period.

Dr: We could treat you for anxiety.

Me: I was thinking like. Some endocrine tests.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 10d

(Like, just as a for-instance, rape jokes should disqualify you from all human interaction until you grow at least the average toddler’s level of conscience.)

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 10d

I think discernment in what you consume is great. I even think that some work is objectively (morally) Bad, and people who enjoy it should be ashamed.

But I bet the Guardian would be horrified at who I trust to draw those lines. Because it’s def not them or anyone of whom they’d approve.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 12d

Not right now! And this is likely to be a strike to the bitter end, given how badly the government has soured their relationship with unions.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

Yes, but they're also just terrible. Every time I see that a company has chosen to send me a package via private carrier without asking me, I cry a little bit. I have STORIES.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

Everyone I know supports this strike.

By the way, @mark-carney.bsky.social , the reason package volume is up at private carriers is because they're not regulated enough. Their quality is awful, and they pay their employees pennies. Level the playing field instead, and no one will choose them.

Toronto Star @thestar.com · 13d

#Breaking: Postal union launches nationwide strike after Ottawa gives Canada Post the OK to end home delivery

Postal union launches nationwide strike after Ottawa gives Canada Post the OK to end home delivery

Other changes could include closing of rural post offices as Public Works minister cites "unsustainable" losses at Crown corporation.

www.thestar.com

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

These articles keep talking about how package volume has shifted to private mail carriers, and I'm like... that sounds like a regulatory problem. In fact, it sounds like private carriers don't have to provide the same minimum standard of service, and don't have to pay their employees fairly.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

(Sorry, early over here, realising I should explain the educated guess instead of skipping over links. Tolkien was big into faerie mythology, esp re: elves, and Spenser was an English staple, so it’s a good guess he was heavily exposed to the ”spirit” usage.)

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

Also, aha! I thought it was faeries I was remembering. Spenser‘s “The Faerie Queene” used it in the sense of general “spirit” and not person. 1590s. Doesn’t answer the undead question, but does answer the spirit question.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 13d

Interesting! I could see the example being metaphorical, given that it conjures images of sickly people, but I 100% believe the ”person” synonym. Do you have a more clear-cut example on hand?

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 14d

I was about to say that I think I’ve seen “wight” used to describe faeries pre-Tolkien, but someone beat me to it with sources! So I’ll just +1 that sentiment.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 14d

Asked my historical consultant about Benedictine feast food, and this led to a long conversation about ways in which Benedictine monks cheated the rules to eat whatever they wanted anyway.

Him: Great, now I’ve made myself hungry. Feeling Benedictine, might snack later.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · 29d

I've been doing a kind of security spring cleaning lately, and my god, the lengths to which companies will go these days in order to avoid deleting an account, even if the email is deprecated and it's never going to be used again! Trying to maintain basic security hygiene is exhausting.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · Sep 8

I do find it a puzzling distinction for shelving. I rarely think to check lit fic shelves for fantasies, but I have read fantastic lit fic that I enjoyed and would have bought if shelved under fantasy. It just doesn’t do what a “genre” is supposed to do. It’s a kind of tag, but it’s not a genre.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · Sep 7

I don’t believe that every lit fic author thinks that other genre work is inferior (though I do believe it’s an inextricable part of the community in lit fic spaces). But I enjoy lit fic despite itself, and not because of the label. I have to figure out what genre it actually is first, though.

Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · Sep 7

When you define your genre this way, it’s a statement that CAN turn off an entire audience before they ever read your stuff! Because it’s an inherent snub of other work, and claiming the genre of lit fic for yourself assumes that baggage.

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Olivia Atwater @oliviaatwater.com · Sep 7

This is why the Discourse of the day is so disjointed. Ordinary genres are defined by content, while lit fic is defined by a culture group which chooses what to admit and what to restrict.

It is, in short, the ”not like other genres” of genres, which is inherently paternalistic.

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