Aidan Rhiannon

The Hopeless Autist's Guide to Approaching People in Public.

2025-02-27T17:21:47Z

I am primarily an introvert. However, humans are social creatures, and I'm just extroverted enough to enjoy human contact when I feel up to emerging from my safe little hidey-hole.

Also, ever since I was a Mormon Missionary, back in Ye Olde Times, I've found I really enjoy talking to strangers. I liked all the fascinatingly weird and different people I met knocking on doors. Honestly seeing the breadth of humanity outside of the Utah Mormon conformist bubble was a major factor in getting me out of the church.

But I digress. The point is that I enjoy talking to strangers, and over 18 months of door-knocking and 20+ years since I've learned how to do it in a way that keeps the experience positive and enjoyable for everybody involved. Being autistic, though, this is a conscious skill, something I have to think through every step. Nothing about this is instinctive, nothing about it comes naturally.

So for my fellow autists and awkward weirdos, I thought I'd make you a guide. And for anybody neurotypical and naturally social reading this, perhaps it can be a glimpse into why autistic people struggle with these things as I spell out exactly what at least some of us have to go through when socializing with our fellow human beings.

( Read more... )

Your mileage may vary with all of this, it's just drawn from my own experiences and the things I think about as I chat with strangers. But I hope it's at least a little bit helpful for some of you. Thanks for reading!

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What I learned by having my child in the hospital during election night.

2024-11-07T18:25:55Z

or How To Stop Worrying Even If You Hate The Bomb.

( Full disclosure, you will still worry some, but I swear, this is positive and helpful. )

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S. Par's writing (and more) newsletter #8 - All the things

2023-10-06T23:26:32Z

In this issue:

Subscription renewals
I was a pirate (and fought a kraken while riding a dragon!)
Everfree happened also
Hey, cat!
Etsy shop update
Silicone plushes are the new hotness

( Read all about it )

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Honor Harrington swap letter

2023-08-19T05:24:18Z

Dear author: I'm delighted to get an HH story! Please don't worry, I am not picky!

LIKES: Fluff, hurt/comfort, worldbuilding, digging into what makes people tick, Outsider/queer/weirdo perspectives on mundane/square/normalized things, queer perspectives in general.

Dislikes: Shipfics just for shipping, excessive 21st century stuff in the far future, (Are we super-informed about the trends of the 1300s? No? Well...) unhappy endings for no reason.

Grayson: As a former Mormon with much fondness for the good parts and the weird parts, I want to dig into what it's like to live in that society. What's the day to day life like, how do faith and practicality intersect, how do people who can see the greater galaxy and its not-Grayson morals prospering justify their faith? With the dark mirror of Masada right there, how do the Graysonites feel about the worst parts of their religion? It's easy to say "those people over there do that, we don't" but the honest among them surely see their own similar flaws?

What's it like to be a wife in a world where women are too common and men too rare? What about the low-key acceptance of sister-wives, and how does that shade into queer themes of bisexuality and even lesbianism? Are any of the Grayson women we know wives in name only, who actually love their "sisters" more than their husbands? What about rejecting that path and going into space, then? That can't just be idolizing Honor, there has to be more for Honor's path to appeal. What's the "more?"

And, extra-specifically, what does a Graysonite say about the soul of a Treecat? How do non-humans intersect with a religiously-based world?

Treecats: They're super cool in and of themselves, so treecat/treecat interactions and stories are AWESOME, but treecats are also amazing for their insight into humanity. As empaths they can dig in deep, even when they don't quite fully understand the language. How does their reality intersect with human reality? Humans are invaders to their home world, while they are colonists to Grayson, and visitors elsewhere in the galaxy. What do they think about that? Give me the outsider's look at our human selves. How do we measure up?

Forgive me for not naming specific character names, I'm just interested in themes, any way a character might fit into those!

As said above, though, I'm not picky. If you want to drop me a tiny drabble about treecats fishing or Grayson people having lunch, that's fine too! <3 Thanks!

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Back from the plush mines

2023-08-14T18:55:05Z

Everfree was a BLAST. I honestly love vending at conventions. Just *going* to a con often leaves me at loose ends? They're fun and all, but I tend to not want to attend infinite panels, I'm not a guest signature collector, and I'm seldom up for fursuit dance parties, though maybe now and again. But vending means I sit behind my little booth and the whole convention comes to me. I see the costumes go past, I talk to people who stop at the booth, I get lots of lovely compliments, and I make money! Break even would be good enough for me to want to do it, to be honest, but I turned a pretty sweet profit at this one.

I just wish there was a furry con I could do as easily. Everfree is a drivable con for us, it's a 4-5 hour trip up to Seattle from here, so the logistics of shlepping a booth setup and a metric fuckton of plush and costume pieces up there are simple. (The times we did Bronycon in Baltimore where I had to fly were much more, uh, interesting. Though very profitable.)

Alas, the only decently sized furcon near me it scheduled such that I'll probably never be able to make it.

Still, it's good to have a pony con so convenient, I'm already making plans for next year!

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Shilling, shilling, shilling.

2023-07-19T22:49:27Z

SO MUCH I need to do, including finishing my list of toys here, and updating my book post, and my sticky.

A bajillion marketing tasks, but none I really want to deal with. :(

I also need to work on the editing and formatting for the Ares devotional, and chase down a few final submissions that aren't finished. That's probably a higher priority, just because other people are involved so I gotta not let them down.

Mostly, though, I am sewing plushes to sell at Everfree, and getting pony zines together for same. I really don't know how the zines will do, there's going to be a literal fanfiction bookstore there, but hey, $5-$6 may still make me competitive. The plushes will definitely sell, though I feel weird about the prices, but they're my old prices from my first Everfree, adjusted for inflation, ergo????

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WOOOOOOO!

2023-07-15T23:10:41Z

Details are yet to be arranged, but I heard back from the local sex shop/bookstore and they want me to do a signing there for Monster Lovin' in October.

I am squeeing with delight! EEEEEEE!

Another one of those "real author" things, a book signing! :D

(The world is shit, so I am savoring the *hell* out of these little good bits.)

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Lighting one candle in a hurricane

2023-07-13T16:13:19Z

I know it's not much at all. Just... In light of, well, everything, I want to make it clear this is an open offer to anyone who can take it.

I live in Oregon. It is not perfect, but at least for now there are no anti-trans laws on the books. I own a house. House doesn't have a spare room, but it has a couch. It also has a yard and we have ALL the camping equipment.

I don't have money. The "own a house" thing is both not due to me, and completely sucked up every scrap of emergency savings and cushion I had to help make the down payment. So I can't get you here, but if you can get here, you can stay at my place long enough to get on your feet. Feeding you included.

I wish I could do more, I really do, but offer's open to anybody who needs to get out of another state.

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Book signing day.

2023-07-10T23:06:42Z

Not as in an event, just signing the prizes for my giveaway and the books for my $5 subscribers who always get free copies of things. <3

Also a few author's copy sales and a zine swap, so it all adds up to my printing and folding a big batch of horror zines and then signing and packaging a decent little stack of Monster Lovin' books. And one copy of Dragon Gems.

Makes me feel like a real author! :D

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Being a heathen weirdo. :D

2023-07-09T23:44:07Z

I filmed a video I *love* today, a bit of philosophy and theology about "the truth" but going to post it realized I'd forgotten the last of my camping offering videos. So I posted that instead. Whoops! New video posted tomorrow.

(Yeah, I keep forgetting to mention here, but I have a youtube chan that's mostly either craft stuff or Hellenic polytheist stuff, or sometimes both!

This one's a brief look through my travel shrine for Thanatos.

https://youtu.be/sfbzD-wFwm0

Enjoy!

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Oh hey, you guys are pervs, right?

2023-07-07T00:51:50Z

I've been making "Fascinus" plushes, and yes I mean the ancient Roman dick-monster. :D

https://www.deviantart.com/bladespark/art/Roman-Fascinus-plushes-970510673

Anyhow, I've got *one* in stock, and I'm taking 3 more slots at the "lol sex number" $69 price, so yanno, Hit me up if you want a soft cuddly dickmonster of your own. Then I'm raising the price to something more reasonable for a 10 inch plush.

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My to-do list is insane

2023-07-06T17:22:35Z

Writing everything down means I forget fewer things, and the satisfaction of crossing one off is nice, but good GODS the list is so long. Ugh.

I did put "get pho or something" on it for today, though, as a new southeast Asian restaurant opened near me and I want to treat myself.

Mostly I'll be sewing today, but I probably should check something off the section of the list for promotional shit. Post a photo to the furry art sites at least? Put up another toy post here? Maybe fix my pinned tweet to reflect that I'm pretty done with twitter now? Something like that.

I am so, so very tired, though, and so, so very stressed. I hit burnout *years* ago. Sigh.

Edit: I have crossed off "get pho or something" and I got the BEST damn eggplant curry I've ever had in my life. <3

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #8: Pitcher Plant

2023-07-03T23:54:41Z

Documenting my various toy models. This one is a penetrable, my first "proper" one. So as the tagline says, this pitcher is also a catcher.

( NSFW contents below )

<--Previous toy post

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:D

2023-07-02T18:00:31Z

Not doing the Sunshine Challenge, but I will say that having my feed full of people discussing irises is lovely.

They're my favorite flower, they were at my wedding, and on the cake, they have SO MUCH meaning for me, and also they grow around here natively (iris tenax, the Oregon iris) so I get to see then in the wild. <3 And orris (iris root) is delicious and the local company that makes Iris liqueur is fantastic, I might just treat myself to a bottle this week and have some iris vodka lemonades. Plus I use it as the bitterant in my Ares-themed tea blend, which has a flavor profile that's mostly fruit, smoke, and spice, but a trailing hit of bitter seemed appropriate for Ares.

Here's a photo I took just over a week ago while out camping:

This is the white variant. Purple is more common, but in this specific part of the woods I've only ever seen white. They're gorgeous either way!

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Oh hey!

2023-07-01T23:24:00Z

The Monster Lovin' books arrived at my door about the time I posted the newsletter blog. Lol.

Maybe I'll film a box opening tomorrow or something.

Also gotta decide what sort of giveaway to do? I've *been* doing giveaways on twitter, because it's the social media platform with the most "reach" that permits all my content, so it's been a decent enough place to focus on, but obviously right now is not a great time to be investing any effort in twitter. (If you don't know Elon seems to have basically DDOSed twitter himself via shit implementation of the view rate limit thing, which itself is a truly shit concept for social media, so the site has been down entirely or barely usable for roughly the last 24 hours, and is shedding users like rats from a sinking ship.)

Maybe I'll do something with the newsletter mailing list? One giveaway "entry" for all current subscribers, one for new subscribers, maybe some kind of bonus for putting out a promo somewhere? Maybe I'll host it here, to encourage people to engage with the blog. I know DW itself doesn't drive traffic much, but if self-hosted or wordpress blogs can get huge followings, why not this one?

Anyhow, I'm FAR too exhausted to even want to open the boxes, yesterday was a hell of a spoon-suck, and doing the newsletter ate all my spoons for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

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S. Park's writing Newsletter #7 Monster Lovin'

2023-07-01T19:42:38Z

In this edition:

Monster Lovin' book is here!
Dragon Gems: My library dragon story
New series of Hades fanfiction zines
CAT!
Audiobooks continue, plz subscribe

Given twitter's continued slow collapse, I'm hoping to get more folks on my mailing list, and I might be expanding the newsletter to include sewing, sex toy, and other non-writing creative pursuits as well. But for today it's all story news, and there is a lot to share!

( Read more... )

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Happy solstice birthday to me.

2023-06-21T16:32:18Z

Yup, today's my birthday. Midsummer child. :3

Today's plans are: do jack, squat, and nothing. :D Going to be super chill and just relax. (Actual "party" is a camping trip this weekend, which will be goober-free so I can *actually* relax and not have to chase her around and fish her out of the creek the whole time.)

Might maybe go burn something on the outdoor altar later, since it is also the solstice, but only if I feel like it. <3

Other "party" is I've put on an Etsy sale, so if you've been considering getting a toy or zine or plush dong or whatever, now's a good time. https://www.etsy.com/shop/sparkcreatures

But yeah, the earth and I both made it to another moment of maximum axial inclination towards the sun, woo!

Edit: OH, and a twitter giveaway this week: https://twitter.com/bladespark/status/1671232153508777985 (I will say I'm super pleased with how the Solstice Sunrise color scheme I tried came out!)

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uuuuuuuuuuugh

2023-06-13T18:15:06Z

Always too much to do, never enough time or energy to do it all.

I *am* having fun doing the toy info posts, that's fine, but I need to also completely re-vamp my sticky post, massively overhaul and update my book sales/bibliography post, and SO much more.

Bleeeeeeeeeeeh.

This is why I still put up with bullshit sites like Etsy. At least they simplify those kinds of tasks to "fill in the boxes" and I don't have to make the boxes myself first.

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #7: The Sprouting Bulb

2023-06-13T17:33:14Z

I'm documenting my toy models. This one is almost normal, but with a twist.

( NSFW contents below )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #6: The Thornlet

2023-06-08T16:03:20Z

Documenting the toys I make. This one is a cute and easy intro to spiky dildos that anybody might use.

( NSFW contents below )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #5: The Rosebud

2023-05-31T16:04:50Z

Documenting the toys I make. Below find a tiny monster of a toy!

( NSFW contents below )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #4: Thorn eggs

2023-05-25T15:06:43Z

Documenting the toys I make. This one is small and slightly weird and quite a lot of fun.

( NSFW Contents below )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #3: the Monster

2023-05-24T17:31:31Z

Documenting the toys I make. This entry is composed of SHEER MADNESS. Not just Not Safe For Work, but possibly Not Safe For Sanity! :D

( Brace yourself for horror )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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Spark Creatures Flower Feline toys #2: the Rose stroker

2023-05-23T16:39:49Z

Documenting the toys I make. The next entry in the series is the Rose stroker, a toy intended for afab people, with or without bottom growth.

( NSFW contents below )

<--Previous toy post | Next toy post-->

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HFY/Space Orcs stories on AO3

2023-05-17T19:49:46Z

I'm picky about what original stuff I post to AO3, I generally only use it for things that are fannish, or are purely un-publishable anywhere else.

I think the genre of "Humans are space orcs" is pretty fannish, though, so I've been putting up a set of them over the last few months.

Here's the latest one.

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Bears In The Woods (Or, The Quirks Of Humanity) (3863 words) by bladespark
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Alien Character(s), Original Human Character(s)
Additional Tags: Humans are space orcs, Science Fiction, Alien Biology
Summary:

Kt’chtst was excited to study the Amaran crystalbush, one of the few silica-based macro-lifeforms ever found. Unfortunately, though, zir species are ectothermic, so when a storm brings down a tree atop their shelter, zie and the senior scientist with zir are sure they're doomed...until a nearby human couple answer the alien distress call.

If you'd like more, you can have a peek at my other original works on AO3.

There's some "mind the tags" in there, since "un-publishable anywhere else" tends to mean my darker kink stories also end up there. I am gradually posting more of those as well.

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