MarQueseDLiddle

Author, editor, and philosopher at Wild Isle Literature.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

Wand Smoke: Broken available now!

Free Audio Version: https://t.co/pjn9JkO65J

Ebook: https://t.co/tx4pJGOyur

Paperback: https://t.co/xmj14ikW2Y

Hardcover: https://t.co/5K8PDHcu9g https://t.co/iL5jjRmdXj

#darkfantasy #wildislelit #wandsmoke #indieauthor

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to say, "Selling books," so I'll say instead deep historical research. I'm always impressed when fiction digs deeply into some real and obscure subject matter.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Writers, what is something you see other writers doing that you want to learn to do yourself?

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X I'm sure I'm not the only one to say, "Selling books," so I'll say instead deep historical research. I'm always impressed when fiction digs deeply into some real and obscure subject matter.

[Mary H Thornell @MaryHThornell]

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

[Abigail Lakewood @Miss_Lakewood]

As a book reviewer who’s waded through a good deal of modern slop, I see this. Gene Wolfe and Melville didn’t dumb it down for the TikTok attention span—they crafted prose like dark symphonies. Today’s “literature”? It’s beige oatmeal with training wheels. We deserve words that challenge, not coddle. Bring back the art, or let the sixth-grade wasteland consume us all.😜
👊💜

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

I'd like to see prose written for adults.
I've been reading Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun, and I finished Billy Budd before that. Both older works treat the writing itself as an art.

Contemporary fiction is mostly written at a sixth-grade reading level, and it's insufferable.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Readers, what is something you would like to see more often in works of fiction, which is currently rare?

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X I'd like to see prose written for adults.
I've been reading Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun, and I finished Billy Budd before that. Both older works treat the writing itself as an art.

Contemporary fiction is mostly written at a sixth-grade reading level, and it's insufferable.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X I’ve actually not seen that before. It would be a tragedy to be sure.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X Book 2 must come out. If not, then he is no longer the worst writer because he learned from his mistake.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

The worst writer's manuscript will publish as a first draft. It will be the first of a trilogy, and the first book will be entirely exposition. The plot events and character development (and there almost won't be either of those) will be made irrelevant by the book's end.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Writers, tell me about the hypothetical final published version of the story the worst writer you can imagine is working on right now.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@WaterhouseBooks I might agree, only I'd like the front to be pretty, even if plain. Cloth or leather with gold print of the title and author on the front looks nice on a shelf.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

This is stretching the question, but sometimes I wish that no images whatsoever were allowed on works of fiction (speculative or not).

I suspect that if something like this were to be magically and tyrannically enforced, reader tastes would improve noticeably.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Writers, what's something that you don't think should ever appear on or in a published science fiction or fantasy story?

[Nboar art 🎨 @neutronboar]

This is a box art for a Kickstarter project I worked on last year.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X I don’t doubt the desire and benefit. My occasional thought is an impossible redress to the hyper-prevalence of low-attention high-impulse consumers, who make the majority of what few readers still exist.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

If "should" means "conversion to sales" then character, setting, and plot information are most important. In the case of sci-fi and fantasy, the crunchier the story the more setting should take center stage; otherwise characterization is most important.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Writers, what information about a science fiction or fantasy book should appear in an advertisement for that book?

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X If "should" means "conversion to sales" then character, setting, and plot information are most important. In the case of sci-fi and fantasy, the crunchier the story the more setting should take center stage; otherwise characterization is most important.

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

I don't have any innovations for front matter: copyright info, table of contents, thanks, a map if relevant, an intro (only) when necessary, a forward or translator's notes (more useful than an intro).

A glossary in front might be nice for speculative fiction.

[Aeternis @Aeternis_on_X]

Writers, what do you think should be on the pages of a published book between the front cover and the beginning of the actual story?

[MarQueseDLiddle @MarQueseDLiddle]

@Aeternis_on_X I don't have any innovations for front matter: copyright info, table of contents, thanks, a map if relevant, an intro (only) when necessary, a forward or translator's notes (more useful than an intro).

A glossary in front might be nice for speculative fiction.

[Nboar art 🎨 @neutronboar]

Sci-fi vampire elf lady