15 Years of #IWSG Character Archetype

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13

HAPPY FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY IWSG!🎉

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Kate Larkinsdale, SE White, JS Pailly, Olga Godim, and Natalie Aguirre!

Sept 2 question -

Do you have a favorite character archetype you tend to gravitate toward in your writing?
Answer
The Ally: A loyal friend who helps the hero on their path.
The Rebel: Breaks rules to fix a broken system.
In many ways, these both reflect my character Heath, especially in Fractions of Existence. Heath helps Xavier, even when he's unsure if it's the best path.


(The majority of Fractions of Existence takes place in 2005.)

If you have books for sale, on the next IWSG post day (September 2) include links to them in your post:

Prices shown in US dollars.

Fractions of Existence (Book 1) — Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Myths and Legends, Speculative Fiction, New Adult, "Superhero Fantasy"
$2.99 https://amzn.to/41XN6sn Amazon


Proof of Existence (Book 2) — Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Myths and Legends, Speculative Fiction, New Adult, "Superhero Fantasy"
$3.99 https://amzn.to/46mah1K Amazon


Lumber Of The Kuweakunks — Mystery, Novella, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction
99 cents https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lumber-of-the-kuweakunks-j-lenni-dorner/1136856828 Barnes and Noble 

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lumber-of-the-kuweakunks Kobo

  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1015003 Smashwords


Jewels of Darterra — Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Portal Fantasy, Novelette
99 cents https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jewels-of-darterra-j-lenni-dorner/1148171248 Barnes and Noble 

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1845486 Smashwords https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/jewels-of-darterra Kobo



Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier — Writing Reference, Literary Criticism
99 cents https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/530574 Smashwords 

  https://amzn.to/4m2exbF Amazon

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writing-book-reviews-as-an-author-j-lenni-dorner/1130339074 Barnes and Noble

*PLEASE VOTE for this book cover in September! https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/21126/ *



Preparing to Write Settings That Feel Like Characters — Writing Reference
99 cents https://amzn.to/4cAnp6c Amazon

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/preparing-to-write-settings-that-feel-like-characters-j-lenni-dorner/1121657450 Barnes and Noble

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/530574 Smashwords

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"If you earn more than $100 dollars a year from book sales, meaning your net proceeds after D2D’s commission, your account fee will be waived automatically. Otherwise you will be asked to pay $12 annually to cover ongoing account costs."

Draft 2 Digital CHARGES authors to sell their books. Interesting knowledge for indie authors.

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🪐💙📚 #BookSky Author in Residence Spotlight featuring @jlennidorner.bsky.social J Lenni Dorner is a Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge international blog hop. #specfic #author #indieauthor

[image or embed]

— the #BookSky account 💙📚 (@booksky.club) August 15, 2026 at 10:00 AM

I do wish the image associated with my link were a different one, but it's cool that I'm featured! 

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My cousin-in-law sent me this. She's stood by and helped me so much this summer, especially when I was hospitalized twice. And she's a fellow IWSG member! https://uniquelymaladjustedbutfun.blogspot.com/

 

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Fun for those of you who know children and want to encourage them to read!

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!

Writing Regrets #IWSG

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Shannon Lawrence, Diedre Knight, Liza, and Pat Garcia! 

August 5 question - As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process?

When I was editing Fractions of Existence, I paid a professional editor hundreds of dollars. Many of the editing suggestions were incorrect. (One scene, which I ended up deleting, the primary item used in the scene, she said didn't exist and couldn't exist. Except it actually does. It's for sale at multiple sporting goods stores near me. So the scene was plausible. Whatever, I prefer the rewrite, so it all turned out well enough in the end.)

The lesson, I suppose, is to trust yourself and your training. 

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!

#IWSG Publishing, Quotation Marks, and Ebook #SALE

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today:  Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray!

July 1 question - Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?

I'd like to see AI-generated books not taking the place of actual writers. I'd like to see more indie authors given a better chance. The entire query process could be better streamlined. A form, where all authors could input what they have (perhaps even with offshoots to define categories/ genres by the definitions agents agree on, especially when it comes to ages - just a checklist), and then instead of authors hunting all over for agents, all agents and small press publishers, etc, could go to ONE central place and see if they can rep any of the submitted ideas. This would eliminate the problem of authors sending query letters to agents who don't represent their work. 

It may also reduce query letters that are rejected because some agents want things formatted one way, and others another way, and some demand comp titles and others do not, and so many tiny things that can get a good book rejected. 

The publishing industry might be in decline. (https://www.authormedia.com/traditional-publishing-in-crisis-sales-down-9-4/) But book publishing has exploded! (https://ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publishing) 

If the traditional publishing industry plans to survive, they need a shift to what they can offer authors, because it's faster and easier to go indie and cut the industry out. With more readers looking at ebooks, the promise of higher print sales isn't the draw it once was. There aren't as many "bookstore windows" to offer an author. And, as authors seem to have to do most of their own marketing anyway, the question is looming as to why they're splitting sales profits with agents and publishers. 


Other than a customer mailing list and distribution network, what advantages do you feel the "Big Five" traditional publishers offer to authors today? (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster.)

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A word about Quotation Marks:

https://medium.com/for-the-love-of-language/the-hard-and-soft-rules-of-dialogue-88881f1b6f31

An issue I've encountered when reading and editing is that of quotation marks. I've learned that " and ' are used differently in various versions of English, depending on the region of the writer. 

🤯
This explains a lot. I've read a few books now where dialogue is in single quotes, and it confused me as to why this would be, how an editor didn't notice it page after page. 

 

Which way do you use quotation marks? Have you ever noticed the ' " difference in a book?

 

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July is your best chance to find my ebook collection for FREE at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JLDorner #SWSale2026

Come get your free ebooks! July exclusive. 

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!

Buzzfest and Book Review

https://www.theindieauthorhive.com/for-readers-2

I can't access it because I'm on a laptop (or because I'm using Chrome, or because I'm in the United States... not really sure). But somewhere on the Indie Author Hive, there's supposed to be a thing to click to access the current Buzzfest. Lots of free or discounted ebooks in every genre. 

(If you might participate as an author one day, this is a good time to check if you can see the "named tabs" or "menu." Because you must be able to view these now to take part. And I, well, can't. 😬)

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BOOK REVIEW

LORD OF THE FLIES

As Netflix recently released a new 4-episode "limited series" of this classic book, I figured it was high time I read it! It's the 8th most frequently banned and challenged book in U.S. history. My favorite main character in the book doesn't actually have his real name in the story. (In the Netflix adaptation, he gets the name Nicky. And Ralph has a redeeming quality when he finally uses that name, thus treating the character with respect. But that's not in the book.) 

The book starts by referring to characters as "the fair boy" and "the fat boy." The fair boy gives his name, Ralph, early on. "I don't care what they call me, so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school." This quote is the first clue that this character is going to have a bad time, because all he had to do was never reveal this, but like a trusting fool, he tells Ralph they called him Piggy. When Jack calls him Fatty, Ralph corrects him and says the real name is Piggy, initiating the first betrayal among the boys in the book. “Kids’ names,” said Merridew. “Why should I be Jack? I’m Merridew.” The same character who wishes to have the adult-like respect of being known by a surname is unwilling to address "Piggy" by his proper name, or even inquire as to what it is. This shows, early on, that neither Jack nor Ralph can be a trustworthy, dignified leader.

(I mean, imagine if there was an actual world leader who called someone Piggy? It's inconceivable! Oh... never mind. 🤦🏽 https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c70j210g4e7o )

Jack desires to be the leader because of his position in the choir, which makes up a fair portion of the boys stranded on the island by the plane crash. And if singing ability were a survival skill, he probably would have been named chief. If intelligence mattered to the boys, Piggy might well have become chief and gotten his real name used. But Ralph is attractive, still, sizable, and can blow the conch well, so he is elected chief by the boys. And Jack is made the leader of the hunters. 

Words like "wacco, wizard, and smashing" had me checking for meanings, and are apparently British slang from the time of this book. In Chapter Four, the boys' primary argument takes hold. Is it more important to hunt, or to keep the signal fire burning so smoke might be seen and result in a rescue? Not being proficient in survival skills, the first successful hunt results in the boys roasting themselves more than the meat. 

It takes until Chapter Five for Ralph to realize that, even though Piggy is overweight, he's intelligent. It's not the primary lesson of the book, but it does say something about this miniature society that they don't know that weight is not linked to IQ. But, that's also the chapter where Ralph has to instruct the boys not to poop on the food. (Don't 💩 where you eat. -- The popular expression isn't from this book, but it may as well be, because the boys haven't figured it out.)

The book is set in the 1950's, and Piggy believes people will be traveling to Mars and back in a year or two. (Spoiler from 2026... not quite yet.) 

In the book, Piggy asks if they're humans, animals, or savages. As the story unfolds, the boys do seem to go through a cycle of those choices. In chapter eight, they find a maternal pig who is feeding her young. Now, any decent hunter knows that taking out this creature will disrupt the population. If the boys had to survive on this island for years, they would run out of pigs early on because no one considered the breeding requirements to replenish the wild pig population. This doesn't come up in the book, but it was offensive to me. Roger hunting by shoving a spear up the rectum of a pig is also disturbing. 

It's in Chapter Eight that the flies find Simon. The head of the pig is left on a stick as an offering, and its rotting flesh is being fed on by flies. This is from where the title comes. And then, in Chapter Nine, the breakdown of society, rules, and order really comes to a climax. Jack forms his own tribe to take control. Themes like fear of others, herd mentality, and cruelty take hold of the story, overshadowing the themes and ideas of survival and cooperation. 

This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. It took me a while to get through this book, as I didn't especially enjoy it. The pacing, perhaps, didn't especially grip me in the first eight chapters. (Honestly, I fell asleep reading it more than once.) I'd only recommend it to someone who wants to get through a list of classic books, or who wants to understand how a society can break down so easily, and that a "utopia" is not a universally agreed-upon set of ideals. I enjoy YA books, I enjoy horror considerably, but this just didn't thrill me. I'm not sure if it's realistic fiction, as I'd rather wish it weren't, but in the current political climate of the United States in 2026, there are grown-ups who seem to be acting out parts of this book. If only the world could have a similar ending to the book's. 

The big triggers for this book are centered on violence. The setting was difficult for me to picture, as it was unclear what was literal and what was metaphorical. Keeping the signal fire lit was the biggest obstacle in the book, which was mainly an obstacle because the boys just didn't prioritize their own survival; thus, the way the book ends is a bit facetious. It should be a cautionary tale for society. 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1744031420

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!

IWSG Story Ideas and Stuff

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Victoria Marie Lees, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and C. Lee McKenzie!

June 3 question -

Do most of your story ideas come from one place (the news, dreams, etc.) or do they hit from all over the place?

The Existence series is based on an ancient myth/legend that was passed down to me. Here's a look at some others:

Lumber Of The Kuweakunks — Mystery, Novella, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction
I was working on a mystery story for the IWSG anthology, and it turned into this. Not your typical whodoneit story, this is the lore of a fictional Native American tribe mixed with a current-time story of missing children. 


Jewels of Darterra — Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Portal Fantasy, Novelette

This exists because of the A to Z Challenge. I wondered what would happen if friends grew up to become enemies. Takes place on a non-human world.



Writing Book Reviews As An Author: Inspiration To Make It Easier — Writing Reference, Literary Criticism

Again, this exists because of the A to Z challenge. I created a formula, more or less, to quickly and easily write decent book reviews.     


Preparing to Write Settings That Feel Like Characters — Writing Reference
This actually exists because of a tweet. I did end up making A to Z challenge posts. But, initially, an agent posted that they were looking for books where the setting was a character, and a dozen writers asked what and how to do that. I knew! So I wrote a book to share the knowledge. 

Unfinished... there's also a book with a character named Anah. It was an A to Z Challenge story. I combined common misused expressions with news, but tossed in a supernatural twist. So, it isn't political. It would be impossible to publish it in the United States right now without it being the most thinly veiled metaphor of all time. 🧊 May as well paint a target on my Native-American skin, which already is a target... HEY, let's not talk about that book. Maybe after January 2029. 

Onto another writing topic:

June is 🌈RAINBOW BOOK MONTH 🏳️‍🌈

https://www.instagram.com/patatgiovannisroom/ Check out the oldest continuously running LGBTQ+ and feminist bookstore in the United States. It's in my area! 😎

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May was a good month for Fractions of Existence purchases. Many were from the "Stuff Your Kindle" event, but not all. Hopefully, the 11 ratings on Amazon will increase to 20 (and the 9 reviews on Goodreads will increase as well). 🤞🏽

https://www.bookbelow.com/author/BB920661109/j-lenni-dorner

Book Below was one site I used for the "stuff your Kindle" event. It was easy to use. I could see my book on the site during the event. I feel comfortable recommending them to fellow authors.

https://www.theindieauthorhive.com/

I also used the hive. It was recommended by BookBub and some other noteworthy sites. It was difficult for me to navigate. I could not see my book, or any other book, during the event. The admin team said the site sometimes doesn't work on certain devices or browsers. So, I just have to trust that it was there, I guess. I had no way to promote links to the event, because I could never access it. I would absolutely suggest that anyone planning to use this FIRST checks an ongoing event to be sure they can see books. I'd post a screenshot, but I couldn't see any books during the event. I paid for a Gold membership. My books are listed in the hive "library" at least. Which I can find via Google search:

https://www.theindieauthorhive.com/library

The hive does require authors to check book links and information is displayed correctly on the event page prior to any events. So, again, use this ONLY after verifying you can see event books! (Which I could not.) They have a zero tolerance for AI writing and book covers, so be aware of that before signing up, too. 

Have you heard of "Stuff Your Kindle" events?

 https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1420604596768551&id=100064570726848&rdid=BCgowPNGVcPNNxGy#

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Native American news:

A 60 to 70-foot swath through the Las Playas Intaglio, a 1,000-year-old, 272-foot-long fish-shaped geoglyph located west of Ajo, Arizona, within the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge has been destroyed by the US government. Las Playas Intaglio is a sacred site for the Tohono O’odham and Hia-Ced O’odham people.

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!

https://www.myrandommusings.co.uk/2026/06/anythinggoes-linky-477/ Link up for blogs.

Stuff Your Kindle with Free Books!

https://www.bookbelow.com/stuff-your-kindle-day/fantasy-sci-fi-worlds-may-2026
Free books!

Fractions of Existence is part of this Stuff Your Kindle free book promotion. 

   

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📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge

https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social  My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner  I'm grateful for follows!  https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
  #AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!