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Rue Sparks (They/Them)

@ruesparks.bsky.social

1.2K followers 190 following 460 posts

📚 Author 🎨 Artist ❤️‍🩹 Advocate Queer Adventurer | Stubborn Spoonie | Mental Health Rebel “Just be kind.” Arche//TYPE Project now on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/archetypeproject

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · May 16

Hello ladies, gentlemen and gentlethems!

I’m an author, artist, and advocate creating primarily science fiction, fantasy, science poetry, and zines.

I have several books out in print, ebook and audiobook formats.

I focus a lot on the themes of grief, mental health, disability, and found family.

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Memento Vivere Press @mementoviverepress.bsky.social · 3d

Almost every writer secretly (or not so secretly) has a playlist that inspires their words. Music can enhance books and give you a peek into an author's head while they are writing a MOOD. Stream the Wildforged playlist by @cryptid-crafted.bsky.social. #LinkinBio #Music #Fantasy #Wildforged #LGBTQIA

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 1d

Oh no. I was JUST looking at purchasing but now I’m going to wait and see oof

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Ryan H. @ryan.blacksky.app · 2d

New post on creating.care - staying informed without staying inflamed creating.care/p/staying-in...

staying informed without staying inflamed

some of the independent news sources I keep in rotation, a newish poster and some new book recommendations

creating.care

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 1d

To all my #Illustration #graphicDesign #VideoEditing #Animation people-

What are we using instead of the clusterf0ck that is Adobe?

After two decades I’ve cancelled my subscription. Whats next?

Specifically looking at affordability and functionality rather than learning curve.

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 1d

My current series is inspired by the “monomyth” aka #HerosJourney as written by #JosephCampbell

The monomyth was an OBSERVATION of the commonalities of myth, not necessarily a guideline for stories. But it’s become this shorthand many authors use as a rule book.

I want to break it.

#indieauthor

Ian Haramaki 🏳️‍⚧️✨ @cometkins.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me about your work more grounded in the historical. What drew you to that setting? What things did you learn? #WritingPrompt

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 1d

I had been fighting with KDP since April on and off for the interior formatting of my art/poetry/short story print version. Images needed to be full bleed.

It SHOULD have been simple. This was literally my JOB.

Figured out today KDP needed it set up in the most nonsensical way. WTF.

#IndieAuthor

a white cat is sitting on a box and says but why ?

Alt: a white cat is sitting on a box and says but why ?

media.tenor.com

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 3d

I 10000000% agree with that assessment.

Social platforms no longer deliver on the promise of engagement, community, and reach. The algorithm gods are fed by virality, rage farming, and engagement bait. That’s not connection.

And all that so they can sell ads and sponsored posts.

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 3d

I’m done hosting content on platforms.

Time to go back to the early 00s self hosted sites, blogs, and mailing lists.

At some point we became so used to the idea that distribution platforms mean legitimacy that we ignored as they become more and more corrupted.

a woman is holding a slice of watermelon with the words sometimes i wonder why i do the things i do above her

Alt: a woman is holding a slice of watermelon with the words sometimes i wonder why i do the things i do above her

media.tenor.com

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 4d

I had the honor of working on a couple character #illustrations for #Wildforged with @mementoviverepress.bsky.social Here’s a process breakdown!

Every once in a while you get a project that just hits different. Something about this book, these characters, this moment helped my own art grow ❤️‍🔥

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 6d

*”start as shorts” autocorrect were you trying to be meta?

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve been poking away at this generative AI sci fi story for a year dismantling our perception of it as AI (it isn’t) but also what real actual AI might involve. Oh and the apocalypse.

… I should actually try to finish that again. Things start as shirts then just take on a life of their own lol

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Memento Vivere Press @mementoviverepress.bsky.social · 8d

For the BOLD READERS who like a little snark in their fantasy books. We have something forged in fire and freedom for you. #NewRelease #YoungandWild #Fantasy #LGBTQIA #OneHourRead #Wolf #Wilderness #Magic #StayTuned

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 7d

-If we are to become something else, let us not at least forget who we were before.

Or forget the people who loved the “us” that only lives in memories.

#artwork #memorial

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 7d

-I pulled out the flowers I’d pressed between the pages of a novel back when everything first broke. I’d squirreled away the book and blooms, carried with me across the country from move to move.

Today I finally did something with them.-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 7d

-Sometimes I think about how we are like different books throughout our individual lives, loosely connected one tale to the next.

But our roles in the story and who we have become often seem so far removed from before it’s unrecognizable. -

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 7d

CW #Death #Grief #Widow

16 years since we said “I do” under a lighthouse. 20 hours from home on an unfamiliar beach, removed from the vagaries of college, family, health. Uncertain of where we were going but certain of each other.

8 years since I said my last goodbye, though she never heard it.-

Moon picture frame with dried flowers inside and a colorful painting of a person with the words one more step

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-person to be clear, but something I’ve seen in myself and others. And I think it’s something we are all going to have to learn to understand and navigate.

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-creators, a reminder when posting: are we creating safe spaces to feel and engage and be seen, or are we adding to the noise, the alarm? Only contributing to the feeling of futility and never to things that are actionable, educational, eustress rather than distress?

This is not about any one-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-at what is being done and our place in it. How can we make small steps, because this isn’t going away next week. Slow and steady whenever you can.

You won’t always be able to take the time to think and sit with it, so take advantage of the times of eustress when you can.

And to content-

Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-sit with it and when we can take back some of that control with actions and goals relevant to our own capabilities. Educate ourselves, form community.

And to be clear, I am not a proponent of toxic positivity. That only feeds a disconnect between what is happening. But we can self-soothe, look-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

- want to remind us (me too) that especially online communication is built to feed what we are already feeling. The more you interact with that helplessness there’s a point where it is no longer cathartic or in pursuit of solidarity.

We will have to learn ourselves, be conscious of when we need to-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-is a point where only sounding the alarm and never focusing on diverse action and ways we can affect change becomes a source of additional distress instead of eustress.

Times are bad. We may need to sit in it sometimes to really process. We will feel the need to share this vulnerability.

I also-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

-in distress because of what’s happening, when we get to point of emergencies we can’t manage.

Those emergency moments will happen. We will experience distress. And it’s healthy to share some of the feeling of uselessness and futility that goes along with what is happening.

AND there-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 8d

Just a reminder as the world burns:

There is stress that is useful to us, eustress. It allows us to keep pushing, to focus, to have a fire under our asses.

Then there’s distress. The point where it impedes our ability to function and manage a problem, fight/flight/freeze.

If we spend every day-

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Rue Sparks (They/Them) @ruesparks.bsky.social · 9d

-Sometimes the person making the joke at the expense of you-know-who may not be doing so because they’re not treating it seriously.

It may be their shield against fear & their sword against the narrative of invulnerability that’s being built.

We can do the work and laugh when we need to.