So far most of the fantasy worldbuilding that I've read are medieval-like, or at most Victorian. I wonder if anyone has read any fantasy secondary world that is "modern" in terms of atmosphere, aesthetics, society etc.?🤔
I've always been fascinated with vampires but I HATE how it's pretty much always about romanticizing abusive relationships or worshipping Eurocentric aesthetics.
Then the more I thought about it, the more I found vampirism to be a fascinating vessel for exploring a lot of relevant topics for today, with its nature being parasitic, insatiable, and yet so glamorized by pop culture. It began to feel personal after my own fallout and disillusionment with the European business world as a white-collar immigrant. This is where the book came from essentially. Here's the blurb:
Rebecca—a Thai-British analyst climbing London's corporate ladder—believes she's found a future in her enigmatic mentor, Frederick. Instead, she's violently remade into a deformed Tumulari vampire, and thrust into a hidden world ruled by the ironclad Pax Sanguinis.
Promised restoration through the alchemical elixir Azoth's Kiss, she enters a dazzling but toxic covenant, the Children of Luke—only to learn her "salvation" is another form of captivity.
As she flees and uncovers a scheme that culls mortals and immortals alike through one unassuming supplement, her struggle shifts from survival to rebellion. But every act of defiance is shadowed by Frederick's obsession, and the weight of futility grows with each sacrifice.
Rebecca must choose: accept salvation on her abuser's terms—or step into the storm and become a force no one can control.
As you can see, it pretty much flips all the popular tropes: being a vampire is not pretty for Rebecca; the "benevolent powerful vampire daddy love interest" is a disgusting villain (he's very Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, but with a posh British vampy twist).
I try to use Rebecca's vampiric deformity to make a point about how political beauty is, like it's always been tied to patriarchy, but there are also racism and classism elements as well. She's also a very unconventional protagonist: someone who started out as a keep-your-head-down grinder, then gradually radicalised by one trauma after another, then committed what polite society would consider political terrorism, then got trapped as a canary in a cage again, then... Well you will have to read to find out :))))) I would say she fits the female rage category, but not in the "crazy psycho woman" way. Her rage is a lot more political/ideological, and revolutionary in my opinion.
Links where you can get the book:
https://books2read.com/u/4j6y5l
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GB5VR8FT
https://bookshop.org/p/books/rubedo-leona-caelestis/185b22ffb3a33817?ean=9798227118301
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rubedo-leona-caelestis/1148948358?ean=2940181854185
Happy to answer any questions you might have too! :)))
I feel like in most fantasies, religions or cults are either often very shallowly depicted, with only aesthetics but no substance on their belief systems, or they are heavily modelled after well-known tropes or real-life examples (Lovecraftian cults, Christianity, real-world paganism etc.). I wonder if you guys have read anything that's really outside of the box?
Hi there! I'm a fiction editor that specialises in literary fictions or any fiction with dark elements (gothic, macabre, horror, dystopian, thriller, mystery stuff), and my service has two tiers:
This is for writers who just need a professional analysis of the book's pros and cons, but can fix the issues on their own. Unlike free beta readers, I provide per-chapter, per-character level of detailed feedback that easily stretches into 12-20 pages. It's a structured assessment that includes these items in one document:
1. General Impressions: plot summary, theme of the story, what a reader likes and dislikes about the book;
2. A Reader's Journey: memorability of characters, comments on each chapter, the most engaging parts VS the parts where a reader might stop reading;
3. Reader Insights: perceived genre, original and/or cliché elements, what a reader might expect from a sequel.
This is for writers who need someone to identify BOTH the problems and the solutions, and it is a holistic package that's essentially developmental editing complemented with a non-intrusive, directional line editing guide, and consists of the following three documents:
1. Editorial Letter: Overall evaluation, structural analysis, character development, worldbuilding, tone and POV, themes, roadmap to improve.
2. Style Guide: A macro-level assessment on the prose and style of the manuscript, specifically focused on how well the writing works for the story and suggestions on how to improve, referencing specific lines from the manuscript as examples.
3. Noted manuscript: The manuscript with inline comments.
I have specialities that editors who have only been in the publishing industry do not possess:
I hold a Master in Management degree from a top European business school and have 3+ years of experience in management consulting. While I ended up resenting the corporate sphere (hence the career change :)), it did give me insights into business and politics that will be valuable to you if your novel contains corporate or political thriller elements.
I've also been an occult practitioner for over 10 years (non-profit, it's just part of my private life), and read a wide range of academic works on esotericism, theology and real-world cults. If your book has supernatural elements, fictional religions or cults, and magical systems, and you don't want them to read like pop-culture tropes, then my knowledge will come in handy.
No AI. There is currently no definitive way to prove if something is written by AI, but a version history of my work document will be available upon request.
To ensure the quality of my editing, I do not work on more than 2 books at the same time.
I respect your authorial voice. Unlike many editors who will make your manuscript completely unrecognizable through aggressive line editing, or give you cookie-cutter, one-standard-fits-all suggestions, I do my best to cater to your style and vision instead of sacrificing everything to make it another generic, mass-market slop.
Some testimonials from past clients are in the pictures attached to the post. If you'd like to learn more, you can also check out my website:
https://theobsidianquill.carrd.co/#
Feel free to reach out to me on Reddit or through the contact form on the website. I strongly encourage you to request a free sample edit before we start, which will be a beta reader report or comprehensive editing of the first chapter of your manuscript. This is a great opportunity for you to check on the quality and style of my feedback, and for me to gauge if I'm the right editor of your manuscript before full commitment.
Please note that I might turn your manuscript down after reading the plot summary or the first chapter. This is because writing and reading are both highly subjective, and if I don't feel like I resonate with your vision, I'd rather turn it down instead of pretending to understand it just to get your business.
I look forward to hearing from you all!
For me personally it's the excessive sexualisation of everything we do, always dancing naked in the woods, tempting male main character with sex, get laid with demons/monsters etc. I'm sure sex magick is still an important part for many but the media portrayal is so out of touch with what sex magick really is, or the meaning and belief systems behind it, or behind witchcraft in general. Witches are just aesthetical props.
That's the one for me. Anything that comes to your mind?
Hi there! I'm a fiction editor that specialises in literary fictions or any fiction with dark elements (gothic, macabre, horror, dystopian, thriller, mystery stuff), and my service has two tiers:
This is for writers who just need a professional analysis of the book's pros and cons, but can fix the issues on their own. Unlike free beta readers, I provide per-chapter, per-character level of detailed feedback that easily stretches into 12-20 pages. It's a structured assessment that includes these items in one document:
1. General Impressions: plot summary, theme of the story, what a reader likes and dislikes about the book;
2. A Reader's Journey: memorability of characters, comments on each chapter, the most engaging parts VS the parts where a reader might stop reading;
3. Reader Insights: perceived genre, original and/or cliché elements, what a reader might expect from a sequel.
This is for writers who need someone to identify BOTH the problems and the solutions, and it is a holistic package that's essentially developmental editing complemented with a non-intrusive, directional line editing guide, and consists of the following three documents:
1. Editorial Letter: Overall evaluation, structural analysis, character development, worldbuilding, tone and POV, themes, roadmap to improve.
2. Style Guide: A macro-level assessment on the prose and style of the manuscript, specifically focused on how well the writing works for the story and suggestions on how to improve, referencing specific lines from the manuscript as examples.
3. Noted manuscript: The manuscript with inline comments.
I have specialities that editors who have only been in the publishing industry do not possess:
I hold a Master in Management degree from a top European business school and have 3+ years of experience in management consulting. While I ended up resenting the corporate sphere (hence the career change :)), it did give me insights into business and politics that will be valuable to you if your novel contains corporate or political thriller elements.
I've also been an occult practitioner for over 10 years (non-profit, it's just part of my private life), and read a wide range of academic works on esotericism, theology and real-world cults. If your book has supernatural elements, fictional religions or cults, and magical systems, and you don't want them to read like pop-culture tropes, then my knowledge will come in handy.
No AI. There is currently no definitive way to prove if something is written by AI, but a version history of my work document will be available upon request.
To ensure the quality of my editing, I do not work on more than 2 books at the same time.
I respect your authorial voice. Unlike many editors who will make your manuscript completely unrecognizable through aggressive line editing, or give you cookie-cutter, one-standard-fits-all suggestions, I do my best to cater to your style and vision instead of sacrificing everything to make it another generic, mass-market slop.
Some testimonials from past clients are in the pictures attached to the post. If you'd like to learn more, you can also check out my website:
https://theobsidianquill.carrd.co/#
Feel free to reach out to me on Reddit or through the contact form on the website. I strongly encourage you to request a free sample edit before we start, which will be a beta reader report or comprehensive editing of the first chapter of your manuscript. This is a great opportunity for you to check on the quality and style of my feedback, and for me to gauge if I'm the right editor of your manuscript before full commitment.
Please note that I might turn your manuscript down after reading the plot summary or the first chapter. This is because writing and reading are both highly subjective, and if I don't feel like I resonate with your vision, I'd rather turn it down instead of pretending to understand it just to get your business.
I look forward to hearing from you all!
It seems like high fantasies are more associated with really creative, original magic systems, because obviously high fantasies take place in completely fictional worlds and provide a lot more space for writers to imagine things.
But I wonder if there are low fantasies, especially urban fantasies, that have one-of-a-kind magic systems different from stereotypes (superhero powers, catholic exorcism, tropey witchcraft, etc.). Any books that come to mind?
Coconut wax, with a homemade infusion oil of blue lotus, jasmine, lavendar, frankincense, myrrh.
The imbedded crystals are charoite, purple labradorite moon, lolite, pietersite, lapis lazuli.
I'm a big fan of Alejo Carpentier and Gabriel García Márquez but would love to read something similar in spirit by modern or new Latino authors. Ideally the book should be more literary or at least upmarket, but if the magical system etc. is well rooted in Latin American culture, mythology or folklore etc. I can also cozy up to a genre fantasy. Any you'd recommend?
I made the bracelet myself to match the vibe. Absolutely obssessed with them. The crystal is Hematoid and wood is ebony.
Hi there, this is Leona Caelestis, author of Rubedo. My novel is published recently and I thought I should share it here given the subreddit's themes. Here's the blurb:
Rebecca—a Thai-British analyst climbing London's corporate ladder—believes she's found a future in her enigmatic mentor, Frederick. Instead, she's violently remade into a deformed Tumulari vampire, and thrust into a hidden world ruled by the ironclad Pax Sanguinis.
Promised restoration through the alchemical elixir Azoth's Kiss, she enters a dazzling but toxic covenant, the Children of Luke—only to learn her "salvation" is another form of captivity.
As she flees and uncovers a scheme that culls mortals and immortals alike through one unassuming supplement, her struggle shifts from survival to rebellion. But every act of defiance is shadowed by Frederick's obsession, and the weight of futility grows with each sacrifice.
Rebecca must choose: accept salvation on her abuser's terms—or step into the storm and become a force no one can control.
The book is partly based on my own experience. I've always been a big fan of vampires but tired of how much of vampire pop culture is about romanticizing abusive, manipulating relationships, or worshipping eurocentric aristocratic aesthetics. So I took Marx's "capital-is-a-vampire" metaphor and made it literal in this book.
If you are familiar with American Psycho, Rubedo's antagonist is pretty much a fancy, gothic British vampire version of Patrick Bateman, but I offer a grassroots feminist counterpoint through the protagonist in this story. The book deals with a lot of heavy, dark themes such as suicide, body horror and physical abuse, but I aim to use these grim elements to show the horror of the world we live in under its glamorous spectacle, and how imperative it is to resist despite great costs.
Here's the Goodreads page of the book if you'd like to read the reviews first:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245311503-rubedo
The book is available on pretty much all major retail platforms. While I'm a small author and can't really resist Amazon's monopoly over book online retailing for now, I do encourage everyone to buy the book from other platforms here:
https://books2read.com/u/4j6y5l
So far most of my reviews are from mass-market readers or trade professionals, and I'd really love to receive feedback from a politically-informed, progressive community. I feel we suffer an extreme lack of good socialist storytelling in pop culture worldwide and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this book, things I did well or not well etc., so I can keep improving on my next book.
The cover is illustrated by a Chinese artist called Baiqie. She's not really on any "western social media" platform but you can check her out on RedNote:
https://xhslink.cn/m/4Gfo6HZjwTm
Thanks to the mods for agreeing to let me post this!
I'm a ST and right now there's an online VtM game that I have going on for nearly three months, and I'm feeling a bit drained and out of inspirations. From as far as I can see the players seem still pretty invested in the game which adds to my sense of guilt lol.
I think the fatigue largely comes from the fact that I didn't expect the original game to be this long, and it shouldn't be if I just ran it the way I planned it. But the story got complicated in actual play--the players wanted to split up into different teams and investigate separately so I had to manage multiple timelines, some of them kept venturing outside of "the sandbox" and I had to make things up and try to tie it back to the main quest, etc..
And to be fair, it was fun. I do think the way these players played enriched the story and made it more interesting than the original campaign, which was why I was willing to play along, but doing several months of this is just too exhausting.
I wonder if there are STs here who can give some suggestions on what to do? Do you guys have ways to recharge your creative juice? Or you just ask the players to take a break?
I'm new to the industry and want to expand my portfolio, so I'm looking to offer THREE free beta reading reports and ONE free editing service to authors who need them here. If your novel is:
1.Literary or upmarket (as in the middle ground between genre and literary fiction);
2.Or has a unique creative vision that's not genre-conforming or part of market trends;
3.Or is thought provoking;
4.Or has dark, dystopian, gothic, macabre elements.
I will be an especially good fit!
For more information on exactly what a beta reading report or editing service from me entails, see on my website:
https://theobsidianquill.carrd.co/#
If you are interested, just reach out to me here or use the contact form on the website. I look forward to working together :)
Took me a whole weekend and my first time building a lot from scratch. It has two overgrown decaying ponds and a closed-off rose garden, a greenhouse, a wizard tower for occult study. Built around a spellcaster's life essentially.
I uploaded to the gallery, anyone interested in downloading can just search "sub rosa". It has a few custom items (candlemaking and flower arranging stations at the greenhouse and an altar at the tower), everything else is in game item, so pretty easy to replace.
We all know the Sims 4 vanilla story system is pretty meh, so I usually use a lot of mods and build a premise for a story, then roleplay the sims as much as I can based on contexts, kind of like a one-person TRPG campaign, even then the game tends to work against me and make sims go out-of-character.
This save however is a totally different beast. I swear there were moments where I suspected my save was possessed so I wanted to share. Sorry for the lack of good screenshots, I wasn't expecting anything like it so I wasn't screenshotting until literally the end lol.
Before we begin, here's a trigger warning: sex, gaslighting, child neglect, drug use. Now let's go.
1. Heart of San Myshuno
I've always been a big fan of VtM so in this save I rebuilt the city into a cyberpunk Gotham and created a mega-rich corporate vampire executive (a Ventrue archetype if you know VtM) with the dream of founding a vampire dynasty (so the vampire family aspiration but royalty and legacy). Meet Sebastian, business career 10+, angel investor (his hourly rate is 666 btw):
Now he has a girlfriend starting out in his household, Lenora. The premise is she's been pretty much smitten with him since high school and staying with him ever since, not needing to ever have a job too. A very nice but naive dolly girl (for now). Artsy, so when she's really bored at home she draws and writes to kill time. Her starting aspiration was to find her soulmate, which she thought was going exceptionally well:
The couple lives at 888 Spire Apartments, which I've built to fit what I feel like is a corporate vampire lord vibe (I suck at building so be kind pls UwU):
But before we even get to other sims in their life, the couple's relationship was already taking a surprising turn because of the game. My plan was Sebastian never should have taken Lenora seriously (he has traits like cold-blooded, non-commital, insatiably lustful from WW, etc.) and at best they would have a steamy relationship, but the two got along so well when left alone for some reason, that the game labelled them "wholesome" in life mode, and they became soulmates and official partners pretty much within the first week. So finally, I guess Sebastian found someone that really reached into his dead heart.
However apart from his playboy lifestyle, Sebastian is also a vampire with the insatiable thirst flaw (in exchange for complete sunlight tolerance essentially, I want to make him a lot different from Strauss) and needs to feed a lot more. Lenora's presence was supposed to help but now that he had genuine feelings for her, he felt bad about drinking from her too often, the plasma bags barely help, and hunting takes a lot of time. So his friends, Julius, came to the rescue... Or did he?
2. The Good Samaritans:
Julius is a career 10 politician (national leader) and lives with his wife Yuki at IX Landgraab. He's not comically evil per se, but definitely greedy, ambitious and capable of cruelty just like any good old government weasel. His brother is also a mob boss back at Tartosa so his hands are not really that clean either (I'm sorry if he and Yuki look too basic, I remade/replaced every household in this save and I got lazy very often lol):
Yuki is a stay-at-home, traditional Japanese housewife. She's loyal, family-oriented, nurturing, an exceptional chef as well, and let's just say that loyalty will put her into great peril later on:
Here's their home. I used a stunning build from the gallery for this one:
Since these two households are neighbours, they are closer to each other than others in their elitist little circle, and Sebastian knows Julius too well--including his mob ties. I imagine Julius is a bit uncomfortable with this, his friend having dirt on him but not the other way around. So why not change that? Julius thought. He noticed how Sebastian struggled with hunting and blood thirst, trying to hold it back around Lenora. So he procured four young pretty girls, let them live at VIII Landgraab--literally the penthouse next to his own--and offered them up to Sebastian as his exclusive blood dolls. Julius assured Sebastian: the place is clandestine, whatever he does to those girls stay exactly where it happens. And the girls are not forced in any sense--there are plenty of twenty-somethings out there who'd do anything for a life of luxury, and they all should feel very lucky to have Sebastian as their sugar daddy.
Case in point, the blood doll penthouse:
Sebastian accepted it without much hesitation. Sure, Julius is probably spying the penthouse for blackmail material, but this sort of mutual hostage is exactly how alliances work in their circle--making sure everyone has something on someone, so no one betrays anyone. He doesn't mind. Now he has four delicious, willing playthings waiting for him every day, no more risky scouting in nightclubs and feeding on colleagues. This is for Lenora, Sebastian told himself. If he comes home satiated, he can focus on treating her well instead of staring at her neck and struggling with his urges.
But then, predictably, putting a bloodthirsty Casanova and four pretty young party girls inside a beautiful secret penthouse is a slippery idea. Soon, the blood dolls became Sebastian's personal harem. Weirdly enough, having sex with them was never really satisfactory (he literally got the "unsatisfactory sex" moodlet most of the time), unlike how he felt with Lenora, but he couldn't stop himself from responding to their teases even though he felt guilty afterwards (this was also how he behaved in-game). Something about doing this feeds his ego so much that it's addictive.
Ah, it's ok. Both him and Julius know how to keep secrets. He uses protections. He can deploy his vampire powers to control the girls like puppets. Surely nothing can go wrong.
3. The First Crack:
On Lenora's side, everything was picture-perfect in the meantime. Sebastian took her on dreamy, extravagant dates and introduced her to all the important people--well, more like the wives of the important people, but still, she felt like the centre of the world. He told her she would be the queen of his immortal dynasty. He's a virtuoso and serenaded her with violin and piano. He's great in bed. Her only complaint was boredom when he's not around. Her life was pretty much revolving around his orbit. But that's an ungrateful thought, isn't it? She's really unremarkable compared to him and the kind of society he moves in. At least she had her easel and her novels. She had plenty of time to hone her craft, and Sebastian always listened to her enthusing about writing and proudly paraded her paintings in front of their guests, although that gesture always felt a bit... Unnerving.
So one day Lenora decided to finally meet and catch up with the one person in her contacts that's not introduced by Sebastian: Aubree (this was a want she had in-game). Her high school classmate that's been falling out of touch with her after graduation. Things like this happen--you go on separate paths in life. Acting on an impulse, she asked Aubree out to a cafe and she immediately recognised the pretty blonde. She hasn't changed much at all:
But the coffee chat went horribly wrong. Lenora thought she had been careful enough, but even the most trivial small talk didn't seem to work. Aubree was just mean and cold to her seemingly out of nowhere, and before Lenora could ask why, Aubree left abruptly (again, exactly how it transpired in-game). Lenora came home confused and complained to Sebastian about it. "People change." Sebastian just shrugged and gave her a comforting kiss.
Though Sebastian wasn't as calm as he let on that night. When he was having some fun with one of the blood dolls, Alison, the damned condom broke (again, in-game event lmao) and he found out too late. He asked Alison if she took birth control pill as required. She said yes. He asked her to take a pregancy test, she said she wasn't pregnant (in-game dialogues that I had Sebastian go through as well).
Here's Alison:
He was probably too paranoid, but who could have blamed him--he was serious about wanting Lenora to be his queen. He planned to propose to her soon (in-game want) and he knew Lenora would have been the perfect mother. He was listening when Yuki called Lenora, asking her advice on having a child with Julius (in-game event), and the pure joy Lenora expressed when encouraging Yuki to do it was unquestionable. If he were to have a child, it must be his and Lenora's.
4. The Bad News:
Then of course, it had to happen when Sebastian was busy. He was grinding to earn those vacation days for honeymoon and wasn't keeping an eye on the blood dolls. Before he knew it, Alison announced in a text that in fact, she WAS pregnant, when it was only too late, when he was literally having a candlelight dinner with Lenora. Was Alison just so dumb that she could misread a pregnancy test? Or was she covering it all up, lying, to get something out of it? He hid his panic and finished dinner with Lenora, drove her home and watched her sleep--a vampire of his age could no longer sleep in bed, so watching his beloved sleep was the best he could manage. Then, he headed to VIII Landgraab.
The penthouse was chaos, and Alison was particularly miserable. Turned out fate (or in this case, the Sims 4 game) had a cruel sense of humour: of all the blood dolls, Alison was the only one who hates children, and she was throwing a fit about having a baby with a man who couldn't even acknowledge her existence outside this penthouse. He only got her to calm down after asking her to be his secret lover, a watered-down form of recognition she sought.
One small solace Sebastian had was when the child was actually born. It was a baby girl named Daniella. She was perfect. A natural-born vampire. Beautiful too (which is rare considering how hilarious or hideous game-generated sims tend to look):
This is what Daniella looks like as a young adult, no make-up or some such. I think she's very pretty, combining her parents' features in the best way:
Daniella was everything Sebastian wanted from a child. But Alison, on the other hand, was not fit to be a mother at all. She always got tense or embarrassed around Daniella, leaving her to be other blood dolls' problem. Sebastian had to come and take care of the baby as much as he could, further shrinking the time he could spend with Lenora. He was regretting all this blood-doll business, and already formulating a plan: he needed to propose to Lenora and marry her as soon as he could, then took Daniella off Alison's hands. He and Lenora would raise Daniella as an adopted daughter, and say goodbye to these blood dolls no matter how much they charge him for their silence. And yet, when these girls strip-teased him and asked him to stay a bit longer, it's like he was possessed and completely unable to resist (again, how he behaved autonomously around those blood doll sims).
At the same time, Lenora decided to try and sell her paintings and novels for some side cash. She was in no means a master at both crafts, and the money was a trickle compared to what Sebastian made, but the way Sebastian was always working late recently made her feel nervous, empty, in ways she couldn't explain. Maybe it was because she felt guilty for not being a provider, and indeed, she felt better after seeing those daily royalties coming in. She was writing some silly romance books, based on herself and Sebastian. That was all she could think about because it was her whole world.
5. Motherly Instinct:
Yuki was overjoyed when she finally conceived a baby--she's not a young adult anymore, and she felt lucky she got a chance to realise her dream of being a super parent before she grew too old for it. She and Julius prepared methodically and read all the books on parenting. They got all the baby furniture as well, sacrificing the home gym for extra space. Lenora often joked that she was over-preparing, so much so that she was using Lenora as target practice and treated her like a daughter. She couldn't help it. Lenora was so young.
So imagine how Yuki felt when day after day, she passed through her neighbour's door after a walk, throwing out garbage or getting a mail, she saw an infant girl left alone on the floor, often dirty and hungry:
It was not her child, of course. And being Julius' wife, Yuki knew snooping around too much was unwise. But perhaps it was the hormones, perhaps this happened too often, one day she found herself knocking on the neighbour's door and politely asking if someone had left their baby outside. When the door opened, it was always noisy with loud music and the air was heavy with the smell of drugs and alcohol, and a black-haired young lady would drowsily rise from the sofa and smile apologetically but impatiently before taking the baby girl in. Yuki assumed that was the baby's mother from the resemblance (This was actual gameplay. I know sims are just dumb and often leave babies everywhere but in this case, it just serves the story so well).
An unwanted child of a mother who wasn't ready. Not uncommon in this city. Yuki scoffed. That child would probably end up in social security soon. End of story. But then one night she realised it was more than just an irresponsible mother living next door--the neighbours were getting too noisy and she was about to tell them to quiet down, but instead she saw it--Sebastian came out of their neighbour's front door, picking up the crying infant girl. He gave someone inside the penthouse an angry glare, but then gently rocked the baby and brought her in (again, true in-game encounter, I just dramatised it in my head). He seemed too occupied to notice Yuki peeking through the door.
Then Yuki couldn't stop thinking about it, how that baby looked like Sebastian. Could it be... Should she tell Lenora? In the end she brought the topic up to Julius, disguising it as harmless, playful gossip about neighbours and their mutual friends. Julius was never really a mild-tempered man, but he's been gentle since she was pregnant. Yet the moment she asked about the neighbours, he got visibly displeased and ordered her sternly not to speak of this to anyone. His anger and panic told her more than anything. Now the loyal Yuki was trapped between her allegiance to her husband and her best friend.
From this point on, something interesting happened to Yuki in game: she kept wanting to chat or socialise with Lenora when she was at home. For the story's sake, here's how I interpreted it: Yuki could never bring herself to tell Lenora the truth, so she wanted to keep asking her over--to feel the baby kicking in her belly, to keep her company since she can't go anywhere, whatever the excuse was--so she could create opportunities for Lenora to stumble upon Sebastian's affair, like the way she did herself. Unfortunately for Yuki, Daniella hadn't been left outside VIII Landgraab after this, for some reason, so there was no reason for Lenora to knock on that fateful door.
6. The Dam Breaks:
Lenora was looking forward to the Friday night date with Sebastian at the Bellacorde Pallace, in the beautiful kingdom of Ondarion. They haven't got much quality time together recently, and Sebastian promised he'd make it up to her. They dressed up like a proper prince and princess. The Rococo ballroom was a jewel in itself. He gifted her a grand bouquet. He taught her how to waltz. Then, when the dance was over, he fell to his knees and proposed with the most dazzling diamond ring. It all felt like a fever dream. She said yes. Their wild sex lasted all night and she was spent. Her mind only recovered from the fairytale ecstasy on Saturday afternoon, and she immediately called to tell Yuki the wonderful news.
Strangely, Yuki sounded less enthusiastic than Lenora would have anticipated. Yuki explained it was because she had been a bit drained after giving birth to Yasmine, and asked Lenora to come over to see the baby and tell her about the big proposal in person. Lenora wanted to ask Sebastian to come along, but he left for overtime work again, so she went there herself. She gave Yuki a big hug and made funny faces at a giggling Yasmine. No offense to her best friend but... Yasmine looked like a tiny wrinkly alien. Lenora thought to herself. Would her and Sebastian's baby look this weird too?
(At this point I'm just marvelling at the irony here. Like she's here cooing at Yuki's baby and Sebastian's literally right next door doing god-knows-what.)
Then, loud laughter, screams and bangs came from next door (Lenora got an in-game noisy neighbour moodlet). Lenora frowned and shook her head. Yuki needed to rest, and no way this noise pollution would help. Since Yuki was not feeling well, Lenora decided to take a look for her and asked the neighbours to tune it down a bit. Yuki didn't protest, but watched her all the way as she stepped out the door with a sad look.
Lenora was expecting some rowdy teenagers, college kids, or nasty tech bros to answer when she knocked on the door of VIII Landgraab. It was a pretty girl of her age whom she didn't know, naked and high, barely able to form a word with her lips through her uncontrollable giggles. Lenora scrunched her nose and walked further in. Then she saw--
(WARNING, THE IMAGERY DEPICTS A DISTRESSED, NEGLECTED CHILD but it's literally in-game screenshot. I was speechless when I saw it too. Just the theatrical effect, wow. Something is wacky about this playthrough.)
An infant girl with black hair and blue eyes--familiar blue eyes--on her eating chair, crying out loud, hands waving helplessly in the air. At the far corner of the living room, a naked, sweating Sebastian was wrapped in beautiful feminine bodies that were eagerly rubbing onto him.
Now Lenora knew why Aubree was so cold and mean to her. Because there Aubree was, kneeling on the ground and sucking Sebastian's dick.
Then--and here's an autonomous sim doing something that I know is just random but when you fit it into the context of the story it just hits different--after the automatic jealous reactions, after game notifications of being cheated and all the very sad and very angry moodlets pop up, the first thing that Lenora did was to carry Daniella over to a corner far away from the orgy and talk to the baby.
(I mean, it's beautiful, what can I say)
Then she just left.
7. The Aftermath:
Lenora headed straight to home--Sebastian's penthouse. She took care of herself first--cooking dinner and eating, taking a cold shower with all those pent-up emotions inside her, then she painted and wrote furiously, finishing up her current projects. The UI showed she had developed a fear of being cheated. She felt defeated that her soulmate--both her lover and best friend--had failed her. She wanted to sell a few more paintings or books, then move out.
Sebastian returned too shortly. He went upstairs and tried to talk to her, even throwing some cheeky compliments at her. But Lenora barely responded and just kept working. The two were having a cold war.
This lasted for a day or two--and pathetically, when Lenora shut him off, the game let Sebastian jerk himself off once in the bedroom (again, totally autonomous action... Blew my mind). He didn't look for Alison (who should be his official partner now that Lenora broke up with him) or the blood dolls or anyone, just did it himself like a sad teenager. And even more ironically, the game gave him an unsatisfactory sex moodlet after he finished, just like the one he got all those times with the other girls. The story writes itself at this stage.
Lenora finished all her current project and sold them at one dawn, and she made her final breakfast in this place. Sebastian was sitting on a sofa and quietly reading. This time the game didn't let her sit at the closest dining table (which was what she always did before), but in opposition to Sebastian. She ate. They had quiet small talks.
Lenore washed her plate and cleaned up--she was always neat and responsible, the habits she had been building to be a good wife, while Sebastian watched. When she was finally ready, she gave Sebastian a final hug, then stepped out of the door. She was no longer part of the household, and Sebastian was alone again.
The End... For now.
--------------------
This playthrough really caught me off not because of how dramatic it was (though I think it does make a good soap drama TV series, I mean that's literally the plot of season 1 right there) but how surprisingly well the sim autonomy and random in-game events play into the story, especially nearing the end. Honestly I regretted not screenshotting the earlier half of the playthrough now.
Probably the longest reddit post I've ever made. Haven't proofread it at all so hopefully it's not too painful to read lmao.
I learned a lot from this subreddit and thought I'd contribute my own experience, especially considering I'm in a very niche category and my results might differ from the more mainstream works, so hopefully this will help other writers who are in the same situation.
Before I begin, just know that my debut is a grimdark literary fantasy with a lot of social commentary and is safe to say, politically radical. My prose is also pretty maximalist and classical and the book is 170K words long. Zero fame or some such before any of this. So take these in mind when you consider if my experience can be applied to yours.
(1) NetGalley: DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL.
Now in ARC reviews I think it's fair to say writers look for two things: 1. Positive social proof (no brainer); 2. Constructive negative reviews that can either help readers tell early on if my book is not for them or help me improve my writing. Netgalley delivers none of these, especially considering the astronomical price they charge for just listing your book up there and their "professional reviewers" branding (which was what drew me in originally). The return-on-investment both in terms of the quantity and quality of reviews is terrible.
I also suspect a lot of the users up there are impersonating famous book bloggers/trade professionals to get free books. I personally ran into two occasions where a seemingly big bookblogger requested the book but when I contacted them on other channels, they said they don't use Netgalley at all.
So unless you can get a super cheap bargain listing from them, my advise is don't bother. There are so many other better alternatives.
(2) BookSirens: GOOD SERVICE, BUT NOT FOR ME.
Ironically I only tried BookSirens post-launch when ARC campaign on NetGalley totally flopped, but they were nice enough to accept my application and let me list on a cost-per-reader basis. I didn't get any ARC reader through them (I got 5 from my own invitation link), but they are pretty professional and the process was smooth on my end, the pricing is reasonable as well. I suppose my book is just not for their reader pool :)
(3) StoryGram Tour: GOOD SERVICE, BUT A BIT OF AUDIENCE/TIMING MISMATCH.
I tried their instagram tour package and it was scheduled pre-launch. They often work with trad pub books and got some bloggers with decent following (5K to 50K) for my tour, though I think some of the bloggers obviously were too romance-heavy for my book and caught off guard by how political or dark my book is (I don't understand why personally because I stated it loud and clear in the blurb, but I suppose these bloggers read A LOT of books on tours and they often just skim through stuff), so they were reluctant to tour the book.
On the bright side, I did find some other bloggers from the tour who were super enthusiastic. They left really passionate, thoughtful reviews and I feel like they salvaged my otherwise 100% disastrous ARC campaign and created a little bit of early buzz. I also think the tour didn't yield many sales because I'm a debut author and this book is niche, so in this case a pre-launch tour isn't really that effective.
Overall Storygram was pleasant to work with, but their blogger pool is mainstream, genre-book-leaning, so unfortunately not for me.
(4) Amazon Ads: CPC TOO HIGH.
I ran some tiny trial ad campaigns and the clickthrough rate was about 0.15% to 0.2%, and I got about 1 purchase every 12-15 clicks, which I honestly don't know if that's good or not, but what I found really annoying was they just simply do not give me any traffic unless I allow CPC to go over 2 dollars per click. I tried both keyword targeting and product targeting. Not sure if it's niche book thing, or my review number is not high enough, or I'm doing something wrong, but anyway not looking like it's making money. If anyone has any tips to share, please do🥺🤲🏻
(5) R&R Book Tour: SMALLER BUT BETTER FIT, RESULTS UNKNOWN YET.
I just recently got in touch with them and while the tour is still waiting to happen, what I like about them already is: 1. Their blogger pool seems to like my book a lot more; 2. They are very open to accommodate custom tours. They are not as big as StoryGram, but a better fit, and long before the tour starts I have already received some nice reviews from bloggers who finished reading, so I'm looking forward to the actual tour.
(1) Sales: 30 books in two months, half of them print-on-demand paperbacks, which is surprising because they are so expensive (and I still only make like 2 to 3 dollars per copy). My saving grace here is none of them came from my family/friends/colleagues etc., because I'm apparently the only book nerd in my circle lmao.
(2) Reviews: 28 reviews and 4.2 on Goodreads; 15 reviews and 4.5 on Amazon.
(1) It's Pay-To-Play. Unless you are already famous or important, then you certainly need to invest money or A LOT OF TIME in it to get any traction at all. It's just the way the market is. Very sad.
(2) Don't put all eggs in one basket. My ARC review campaign is saved largely because I have NetGalley AND book tours AND some organic social media outreach going. Can't afford to rely on just one thing.
(3) Organic social media works better as networking tool rather than promotion channel. I'm mainly on Bluesky and I got way more readers just by interacting with people sincerely. I even got to know some pretty reputable trad pub writers.
(4) Audience match > audience size. When choosing influencers to work with, I always find that one with fewer followers but fits my book's niche better and genuinely likes the book is more helpful than a big influencer who just makes a generic post about it.
(5) Keep your expectation realistic and know when to stop. If you keep grinding to market this book, you will never be able to write the next one.
If I try anything new in the future and get any interesting results I will keep everyone posted. Best of luck to you all out there :3
