thanagar

Update: February 17, 2025

So close….

“Cupids” finished second. And really, out of almost 150 stories, that’s pretty damn good. Technically, “Cupids” and “The Treehouse Rules” both finished with 4.91 average score on Thursday (It’s dropped since then, which happens). But Treehouse had about 3x as many page views, so it’s only fair it got first. Writing in Sci-fi/fantasy is a tough slough for getting eyes on your stories. “Cupids” and “Slingshot” have solid traffic because they won contests (In the 72 hours since it won, more people read Cupids than in the 2.5 weeks it was live). Poor “The Doctor’s Artist” sits there loved, but little read.

So, a few Behind-the-Scenes things on this story:
- Everything about Cupids in the story is true. I’ve never been there, but it is the oldest English settlement in North America, there were pirates and there is an interpretation centre. The fun in writing these stories is when you start to do the research and find little things that can enrich or change the story completely.
- Having said that, while there is a United Church in the community, I have no idea who the minister is, despite looking. Part of me hopes someone in the town reads this and shows it them. If that happens, let me know their reaction.
- Lisa Bartlett’s name was inspired by Bob Bartlett, who was a famous explorer born nearby. I had a notion to work in that she was related to him, but it didn’t work.
- I got a little pushback on Cupid being a Roman god and Aphrodite Greek, but not too much, which I’m glad for. People praised the research, which is funny because before writing this, most of my knowledge of Greek myth came from Wonder Woman comics.
- When researching Aphrodite, I found all that information about the Grotto on Cyprus and the waters granting fertility. A literal godsend of a moment finding that.
- The meaning of Asterios is “one who hails from the stars.” I never liked it when I used it and hoped that I would find something better. But it sounded like something that would amuse Cupid. However, when researching their daughter’s name, the first one that came up was Elena which means “Shining light” in Greek. I love it when shit like this happens.
- If there’s anything I wished I could fix, it’s probably the side stories. I’m happy they’re there and I like them. But I probably didn’t make it clear enough that Cupid constitutes a leaking nuclear reactor or love and lust. That these things were happening because of him. I think people got that, but maybe I could have made it clearer or tied everything together a little better at the end.

Anyway, that’s again for reading and voting and if you left a comment, I am hugely appreciative. Now, back to editing “Little Packages” for epublishing, and “Slingshot” for novelization.