a crowd of people are gathered in front of a store called gift shop ALT: a crowd of people are gathered in front of a store called gift shop

This is a dance-off! If you see this, repost a dance. 🌹

#pretendpanel April 18th: place of war in your writing life?

One story is about non-human war against humans.

But typically war is an internal struggle faced by characters in hostile environments, hard choices, or dealing with the fallout.

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#pretendpanel April 17th: place of war in your reading life?

This book of stories by Paul Yoon is s favourite of mine. It interconnects the war traumas of various characters.

also, it's a battle getting on BlueSky right now. What's going on?

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#pretendpanel April 11: religion in your writing life?

A character announces their spirituality gradually and all life skills and philosophies.

As first person writer it's my job to research faithfully...before throwing my spanners in the works.

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It's funny how much it comes up for me #pretendpanel!
As an ex-Catholic, I actually don't love to think about or talk about religion much, as it's a conflict-laden topic. But I get very engaged in fiction that tackles sin, shame and guilt, and the political power of large religious institutions.
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#PretendPanel April 10

A pretty big place... I tend to read a lot of books these days that are about people leaving Christian nationalism, deconstructing it, or exploring the history of it. I might have some trauma 🥲

But I also LOVE books with positive religious themes & characters, though I
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As a polytheist, I actually used to read a lot of academic essays about religion, particularly polytheistic beliefs and practices of the ancient world. They inform and guide my personal faith. I haven’t studied these in a while, but I still have them as reference. #pretendpanel

#PretendPanel I find all religion fascinating, though I'm a practicing pagan, myself. I gravitate towards stories about losing religion or being conflicted between your moral compass and who you are as a person, especially in vampires and monster stories.

When I was in college, I took a -

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It's hard to find work that looks hard at religious abuse and for-profit religion that does not simultanously make fun of everyday people for having faith, but it's usually a good read when done well. #pretendpanel

Oh goodness

I'M OBSESSED!

I read & watch as much about comparative religion as much as I can

I view religion as a record of the collective unconscious

Everything good and bad about our speicies

I try and capture the whole spectrum of belief and ritual best I can for authenticity

#pretendpanel

#PretendPanel
Fiction: I don’t look for religion as a major theme. If it’s touched upon, fine, but I don’t want to feel I’m being preached to.
Non-fiction: again it wouldn’t be my go-to theme. I’m more interested in it as political, cultural or historical context than in religion itself.

#PretendPanel 4/10:

I really love reading about fictional religions in books because there's so much interesting worldbuilding potential. As far as real-world religions go, it's a mixed bag. Books inspired by ancient religions can be great modern retellings, (1/4)

In non-fic, I'm fascinated by religion. As a pagan raised by atheists, I have no horse in the organised religion race. I just love learning about belief systems, spiritual mythology etc.

In fiction, I LOVE corrupt religious activity and symbolism, the more fucked up the better.

🏷️ #PretendPanel

Was the pope denigrating Elon Musk's six-pack, genius or impartiality?

Well in that case dumbasses rule. Even the great Carl Jung inflated the importance of the collective unconscious, studying migrant Afro-Americans in the 1920s but applying Greek Myths to interpreting their dreams.

Most organised religions are corrupt IMHO. They are run by unlistening, patriarchal, shouty people-haters. In Stranger in a Strange Land, the alien calls a grasshopper God. Everyone is God. I quite like that.

Yeah, was going to say I've seen enough of the world to be suspicious of a "collective" unconscious. World myths and religious vary culturally even in our globalised age.

#pretendpanel April 10: place of religion in reading

I have a spiritual hunger, always searching for something missing, but in wide feeding/reading grounds.

Not a religious person, not since Austalian church Santa gifted me a cricket bat at 9yo.

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U r very welcome

🫂

#pretendpanel a daily prompt tag hosted by @hiriadunning.com April 4th: What place does humour have in your writing life? Please support your fellow #pretentpanel posters with replies, likes and reposts New #pretendpanel questions every Friday and Saturday. Hop in any time!

Are you like me, love reading funny but not good at writing funny? Tell me today, #pretendpanel...

April 4th: What place does humour have in your writing life?

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#pretendpanel April 4th: humour in writing?

Being a first person writer, humour is mainly something I let my characters explore, and has nothing to do with my personal taste.

I'll take all the credit if you laugh.

If not, blame the character.

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#pretendpanel April 3rd: What place does humour have in your reading life?

I'm not into comedy as genre, and find classic comedy structure a bore.

But all great characters have humorous sides without which they'd likely appear one-dimensional.

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#pretendpanel a daily prompt tag hosted by @hiriadunning.com APRIL 3rd: What place does humour have in your reading life? 4th: What place does humour have in your writing life? 10th: What place does religion have in your reading life? 11th: What place does religion have in your writing life? 17th: What place does war have in your reading life? 18th: What place does war have in your writing life? 24th: Do you think you've ever had a creative spring/resurgence/ renaissance/rebirth in your lifetime? If so, what was it? 25th: Freebie Saturday - post anything! Please support your fellow #pretentpanel posters with replies, likes and reposts New #pretendpanel questions every Friday and Saturday. Hop in any time!

It's another grab-bag of themes for April #pretendpanel, taking inspiration from various calendar events (April Fools, Easter, ANZAC Day here in NZ). Interested to hear your takes on these various topics!

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Thank you Hiria xx

Thanks so much. It is beautiful. Flatters us, but Hari is one cute cat.

I want to live near where those wonderful vets are based

Thank you. We love it too.

#pretendpanel Matchmaking day!!

I am useless at taking time away from writing even to research subs, never mind marketing. Help!

But since it's matchmaking day, here's some art from my wedding two weeks back. Thanks for all the lovely wishes xx

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Thank you Hiria. It was a magical and emotional day.