Dora M. Raymaker's Blog

I create a lot of artifacts of world-building, and a friend of mine suggested they could be of interest to readers. So here’s first of a series on “facts” about the moons of Jupiter that appear in Resonance. The moons are settings, but also characters, and I kinda love them. Words + (most) images = mine, plus a healthy dose of actual facts from NASA. Enjoy!

If you’d prefer a graphic-story version instead of a video, I’ve put the pages on my web comic site and...

Eric Molinsky of the Imaginary Worlds Podcast, did a fabulous episode on Neurodivergent Futures in science fiction. The podcast includes interviews with Ada Hoffman, Nick Walker, Quinn Dexter, and me. Fun conversation about autistic representation and neurodiversity frames in science fiction fandom and content–plus an actor reading from Hoshi! Transcript available.

LISTEN / READ

I’ve wanted to share the story that starts in Resonance for over 20 years, and here it is. I’m excited, and hopeful, and terrified–which is all weirdly in alignment with the book’s exploration of the edge of hope and fear. Perhaps I’ve summoned an élan of my own. I love these characters and their weird story of neurodivergent experience and alien influence, and I hope you do too. Many thanks to Autonomous Press for their support of neurodivergent/queer authors and stories.

Outrageous and accl...

I have a new book coming out in March 2022 called Resonance. It’s a literary science fiction novel set in the same world as Hoshi. It’s about what lives on the edge of hope and fear and the transformative power of art.

The groundwork for this novel (and the one that follows it–indeed all the Liminal Universe world-building) began more than 20 years ago. The first appearance of the book’s central characters—the human Caran Watts and the alien Muse–is time-stamped 2002 in my exploratory writing...

In the category of, “things that make perfect sense in my brain but no one else’s,” is likely why I call the world where Hoshi and many of my other stories are set the “Liminal Universe.” Here’s the missing info.

liminal | ‘limǝnl |
adjective
1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process
2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold
from Latin limen ‘threshold’

-Oxford American Dictionary

I started developing this universe over 20 years ago. At the ...

Wow the past year was hard; I’m guessing for you too. Even though that meant most of my social media falling by the wayside, I did keep working behind the screens, and have some exciting things to share in the new year.

So happy Solstice season! Here’s a new song. Many thanks to Mr. Alphabet for vocals and City of Troy for visualization. I hope you enjoy it!

I wrote this song accident a few years ago. I was struggling with a scene a novel that required it. After months of failing to ...

The daily NaNoWriMo prep exercise was to journal about what excites me about my story idea. If you ever wanted a window into my process and what excites me about a particular story and the noise in my head when it’s flattened onto a linear prose page, here you go.

I’m a planster, but more on the side of a pastser than a planner, for NaNoWriMo. That said, this year’s novel has a little more of a synopsis than usual because I’ve been having fun with NaNo to write an ongoing series of short novels. This one picks up where last year’s one leaves off. However, this is as much of a synopsis as it’s going to get. A big part of NaNo’s value to me is that the radical format–high speed, low quality, social writing, little planning–helps break me out of creative rut...

I really like writing in first person POVs. I like having access to the characters’ full sensorium; I like being able to embody my MCs in my imagination. But I also need a justification for why this person is self-narrating, or why they would be narrating to the reader. Who are they telling their story too? Mac’s character concept was in part an excuse for a specific POV when I first started with him, though he’s a lot more than just that.

Story idea! I have had this one brewing for a while, I must confess. NANOWRIMO CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH.