Hi all! It's been a while but here's a newsletter detailing what I've been up to the last month and a half (spoiler: not much because I was physically disabled from typing for 5 weeks)
jcondenunez.substack.com/p/slowing-down
p.s. who else has watched Pursuit of Jade? 😍
Hi all! It's been a while but here's a newsletter detailing what I've been up to the last month and a half (spoiler: not much because I was physically disabled from typing for 5 weeks)
jcondenunez.substack.com/p/slowing-down
p.s. who else has watched Pursuit of Jade? 😍
Me wearing a black sweatshirt with text from Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein printed on it in white
Hi, I’m still on social media hiatus but hoping to get back to this space soon with news to share (hopefully)
In the meantime I am currently wearing the same sweatshirt as in my pfp today (just to be cozy haha) and hoping Frankenstein gets some well deserved wins at the Oscar’s tonight 🖤
i booked a same-day flight to florence yesterday to be with my mom after she had a life-threatening heart event. she is very sick and remains in the ICU, and we were not prepared for anything like this. any shares and donations are so appreciated, thank you ❤️ www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...
"Every time I'm with you like this...it happens. Time stops. It ceases to exist altogether." Adrian kept a hand on Ehren's neck as she leaned on the tips of her toes and closed the distance between them with a tender kiss. Ehren couldn't help letting out a soft gasp, shocked by how warm and exquisite Adrian's lips felt against his, like the first flash of the sun in his eyes after having been in the dark for too long. Beautiful. Piercing. And too much to bear. The Blood of a Divine (new lines from my latest full revision)
My old heart was a beautiful, fragile thing— bigger than I thought it was— and I saw it for the first time after she dug her nails into my flesh, clutched it into her hand, tore it from my breast, and ran. She left me with an empty, gaping wound in my chest. But still, I breathe. Still, Ilive. But am I still complete without a heart? Is it gone forever? Or will a new heart grow in the old one's place? Will the ravaged strings of tissue and muscle act as roots and regrow a heart if I nourish this gaping hole with water and sunlight? How to Regrow a Heart (a poem I'm not sure will ever find a home)
Anamaria listened closely to Seth's breath, waiting until it got deeper and turned into a light snore before she crawled out from under the bed. She could kill Seth in the dark, but Anamaria wanted him to see her as she cut his heart out—to witness the failure of his crime. She took a match and lit the candle, illuminating Seth in golden light. His eyes barely stirred beneath his eyelids, soft strands of black hair curling over his forehead, his pink lips pulled into a frown, and his suntanned face framed by an elegantly shaved beard. He was so beautiful to Anamaria, even now-and she hated him for it. With the obsidian knife clutched in her right hand, Anamaria lifted her skirt and climbed onto Seth's bed, straddling his hips as she settled on her knees. Love Devouring Death (A weird west short story pitched as Romeo & Juliet meets Mexican mythological horror. Rejected from an anthology and still looking for a home)
"Aranea, the last thing I would ever want ta to do is hurt you. But if I have...please let me take those tears from your eyes." Luis closed the distance between himself and Aranea, gently taking her hand from her face. Aranea gazed up at Luis with tears still in her eyes, but she didn't flinch or move away. Luis gave her a soft smile as he raised his bare hand and brushed a thumb across Aranea's soft, tear-stained cheek, just underneath her dark eyelashes. "Luis... NO!" As Aranea screamed, the breath in Luis' lungs became choked, and the veins in his face pulsed, stung, and burned. But he couldn't shout-because he couldn't breathe. He could barely see as multiple black spots filled his vision, and every muscle in his body was suddenly sapped of strength. Luis felt as paralyzed as stone, every nerve and tendon in his body tight, as if he were being squeezed, stretched, and torn apart from the inside all at the same time. Luis' heart had never beat so fast before in his life, and tears of panic streamed from his eyes, the only expression of unbearable pain and horror his body allowed him to release. And then his world went black. Project Black Widow (edits)
My favorite lines I wrote in 2025 💐
Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments! And see you in 2026...I’ll be drafting something completely new and I can't wait to see what quotes I’ll have for you by next New Year's Eve 🖤
#writingcommunity #booksky #horror #histfic #fantasy #romance
Previous Text: “Works that are wholly written using generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.” New Text: “Works that are written, either wholly or partially, by generative large language model (LLM) tools are not eligible.” -and- Previous Text: “Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and the nature of the technology’s use will be made clear to voters on the final ballot” New Text: “Works that used LLMs at any point during the writing process must disclose this upon acceptance of the nomination, and those works will be disqualified.”
It appears as though SFWA has had a very quick change of heart and is now back on the right side of this. Shouldn't have happened in the first place. New Nebula Awards eligibility rules for generated text are now:
My issue isn’t technical, just noticingthat few people seem to be active/my posts aren’t getting seen as reflected in 0-3 notes for each of them for weeks now despite having over 1k followers lol
I took a break because I wasn’t getting any engagement on my posts for weeks. don’t know if that’s been happening for everyone else
for myself, I have a cozy high fantasy romcom short story perfect for winter that you can read for free/pay what you want on itch.io
any funds you can donate with your pdf download would be so appreciated! 😊
jcondenunez.itch.io/what-the-rai...
Since I don’t plan to be super active here apart from posting my shiny book posts/newsletter links, please drop any quote posts in the comments i.e. books/games you need to sell, art commissions, etc. you’d like me to repost/share on my page 😊
This holiday season, please buy my book 😃👇🏼
moodboard images from top stained glass spider web, bridge with street lamps black gloves holding stringed pearls a black widow spider against a red background a napkin with a lipstick mark man in a suit holding a woman in a white dress by the waist woman dressed in gilded age clothing with gloves on
🕷️💋X-MEN x BRIDGERTON
A young woman with a deadly curse blackmails a thief into courting her for the summer after she catches him stealing at a high society ball
🕷1900's Los Angeles
💋Fake dating
🕷Haters to Lovers
💋Mexican-American leads
🕷They can’t kiss (or he’ll die)
#BluePit📖 #WIP #HS #R #POC
moodboard alt text: from top left clockwise, foggy picture of london, a rose on fire, a closeup of a hazel eye, a sword, a vampire, rome, a woman with red lipstick and a veil over her eyes, a wolf howling, a silhouette of two people about to kiss with a red and black color scheme, and THE BLOOD OF A DIVINE in the center
When Ehren sets off on a journey to reunite w/his estranged family, the last thing he expects is to be sent straight to Hell 🔥
🎩1899 London, Paris & Rome
💀Greek-inspired mythology
💔FAMILY-blood and found
🦇gothic horror
🪦💋slowburn romance ft. kiss scenes in cemeteries
#DVPit #HF #H #F #R #POC #LGBT
Young man adopted at birth tries to find his biological relatives only to find out his dad is the Lord of the Underworld, his half-brother is going to start the apocalypse, and now he has to literally go to Hell to prevent it from happening--but the journey will finally bring him to his true family.
same 😅
“Relax, Ehren. The key to dancing with a partner is all about subtle touch. Mathieu is leading, so when he presses forward on your hand, you step back…” Adrian pressed her fingers into Ehren’s hip and pulled him towards her, making his breath hitch at the warm, prickling sensation of her touch through his clothes. “And when he presses into your back, you step forward.” Adrian had a hand over Mathieu’s, and Ehren felt both their combined pressures as he stepped forward, nearly brushing noses with Mathieu and feeling the young man’s wine-tinted breath on his lips. As novel as it was to touch another man like this, Ehren was even more stimulated by Adrian’s firm, but gentle, guiding touches and the way her voice sent soft vibrations down his neck as she whispered into his ear. With Mathieu at his front and Adrian at his back, both gentle and patient partners, they all moved together for a few measures of the music, and Ehren realized he was somehow successfully dancing a waltz.
anyway, I took a bit of a break from bsky and I probably still won't be posting as often as I did before except to share fun things I make or share important announcements ✌🏼
last #wipwednesday on IG, since I mentioned it in a live chat, I shared a snippet of the most bisexual scene in TBOAD 💖💜💙
also just hate that a lot of writers I connected with first on twitter chose threads over bsky so either way I still don't have my full community, and instagram is the best place to reach most of them--even though IG only seems to show my posts to like 10 people 💀
So idk where I'll really land rn with my social media presence. instagram seems to be the most engaging platform as well as my newsletter, even if I still get <20 notes on most things. But I don't have a book to sell right now, so that's fine. I really miss my early days of writing twitter though :/
I've been on threads for <1 week and I hate to report that it's much like bsky in the way that discoverability & connecting w/other writers is difficult...but it's not even fun. at least bsky still has writer hashtag events & people sharing snippets. over there it's just CONSTANT shade throwing.
The case for hand holding close ups and other victorian sensibilities
Found this draft for a substack article that I completely forgot about all about why classic Historical Romance tropes still work today but what I've already written is pretty good. Maybe I'll get back to it after the new year 😊
so I’m not sure if I’ll keep posting on bsky anymore because it genuinely feels like a waste of my time and energy if literally no one following me sees or cares about what I post, but if you’re on IG I’m more active there and doing a live author chat today 😊
til then, peace out ✌🏼
and I manage just fine on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr (for personal/fandom accounts) even Substack has been more engaging and I only post there 1-2 times a month but posting on bsky really feels like sending things into the void despite having the most followers here.
I don’t know if anyone even sees my stuff on here unless I include a hashtag (and I don’t like doing that because that mostly attracts bots and scam accounts) and it’s not a matter of me not knowing how to social media—it’s not enough people engaging with their own mutuals who don’t post daily
A photo of me wearing a black sweatshirt with “Frankenstein” printed on it (an official merch purchase of Guillermo Del Toro’s film adaptation)
More often, it's female main characters who are labeled as unlikable main characters (because y'all know booktok loves a morally gray male love interest who commits actual murder and maybe war crimes) for not being demure, gentle, or sweet enough, too masculine, too brutal, too angry, too moody, too assertive, too b-tchy, anti-social, awkward, unattractive- essentially, main female characters who aren't Disney princesses.
Fictional characters, and especially fictional women, should be allowed to be imperfect, messy, and make bad choices with room to grow and develop as characters throughout a book. And I don't think unlikable qualities in a character make them unlikable as a whole-l'd argue that some of us actually like 'unlikable' characters because of those flaws. And, personally, reading about 'unlikable' characters who grow and develop throughout a book is much more preferable to me than reading about characters who are 'unproblematic' and never really change or grow in a book.
Check out a couple sneak peeks of my article + a photo of me wearing an advertisement for one of my favorite stories with an unlikable protagonist (and it’s my new pfp because I look cute in it 🖤)
What are some of your favorite books with ‘unlikable’ protagonists? Drop them in the comments ⬇️
November 2025 Update + let’s talk about writing ‘unlikable’ main characters jcondenunez.substack.com
You may have missed my latest newsletter if you were too busy this Thanksgiving weekend, but I hope you give it a read because I wrote a lot about writing 'unlikable' characters 🍁
read here: open.substack.com/pub/jcondenu...
author photo of myself
Hi, it's been a minute! I'll be sending out a newsletter tomorrow discussing unlikable main characters--make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it 😊
and if you're on IG I'll be doing a live chat on Dec. 1 with Julia Goodwin talking writing, books, & who knows what else!
🔗: linktr.ee/jcondenunez
Hey #RTM hopefuls! My name is Jazmin and I write historical fiction genre blends. I love all things spooky, romantic, and grounded in the real world ♥️
Ehren is the MC of my gothic historical fantasy novel. He's a sweet sunshine young man whose father happens to be the Lord of the Underworld 💀👑
If you’d like to read my thoughts on Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein ahead of the Netflix release, I also talked about it in my last newsletter update since I watched it early in the theater (and again this week 🖤)
One day I asked myself “What if there were a video game that put Castlevania & Final Fantasy together?” and I’m not a game dev, so I turned it into a book
🦇vampires
💀gods
🔥a quest to hell
🌹slowburn romance
💖💜💙 bi rep
❤demon hunting found family
🎩1899 Europe
#DVPit #HF #H #F #R #POC #LGBT #Latine
Book cover with dark gray/black background and red text with patterns on the corner in red Destiny will lead them all to Hell. THE BLOOD OF A DIVINE JAZMIN CONDE NUNEZ "PHENOMENAL. EXCITING. BEAUTIFUL. HEARTFELT. MAGICAL." - Early Readers
Ehren always knew he was different—born with silver hair and brown skin, looking nothing like the Bavarian family who adopted him from birth. Yet it isn't until Ehren travels to Greece as an adult to meet his blood relatives for the first time that he discovers just how "different" he is. After the long-awaited family reunion turns awry, a vampire assaults Ehren, claiming to seek a human with "Divine" blood. But before the demon can sink his fangs into Ehren's neck, a mysterious man rescues him, revealing himself to be leró, the Lord of the Underworld—Ehren's birth father. As Ehren grapples with the tragic truth of his half-human, half-Divine blood lineage and repairs his estranged relationship with lero, a dark storm brews in the Underworld and a terrible vision of the future is born: Ehren dead in Rome and the city overtaken by demons and destruction-and it is his Divine half-brother, Xavier, who is destined to unleash Hell upon Earth. To prevent the vision from being realized, Iero tasks Ehren to travel to the Underworld and kill Xavier before it can happen. But Ehren can't do it alone, so he enlists a crew of demon hunters to help him: Adrian, a woman who is the last of a legendary Spanish bloodline of vampire hunters; Brennan, an Irish ghost hunter; and Noralee, an American demonologist. The four set off on a thrilling international journey to search for a Gate to Hell, and Ehren entangles himself in a world of grim horrors and dazzling splendor as he clashes with demons and falls into a fiery, spellbinding romance with Adrian-the strong, vicious, and beautiful vampire hunter who can't afford to give her heart to anyone. While this journey to Hell brings Ehren closer to finding the family he is meant to be with...in the end, will he have the resolve to spill his own brother's blood? Or will Ehren's compassionate heart prevent him from doing so-and cost him everything and everyone he holds dear?
How do we feel about this mock book cover (and back cover) for TBOAD? 🩸👑💀
#writingcommunity #booksky
