Rowan E. Madden
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rowan-no.bsky.social
Rowan E. Madden
@rowan-no.bsky.social
NI author, poet, and king of cups.
Queer, quare, and querying. Proofreader for Wolfram & Hart.
Here to liveblog my own writing process and probably the Iliad.
(She/they/anything)
I swear I made good plot notes somewhere?!
November 2, 2025 at 6:46 PM
RESTART new duology when no really ffs edit ITD
Still cannot name new duology
Also cannot name OLD duology (fuck duologies?)
Get body slammed by SB&A when meant to be writing new duology?!
Fix ITF plot hole on a random fucking Thursday FIVE YEARS SINCE OPENING THE DOCUMENT
This is fine 👍
October 16, 2025 at 8:23 AM
I'm probably talking bullshit, I'm just mad at him.

Anyway, pour one out for Briseis. I'm too tired to be coherent anymore, but I think you should have got to kill him yourself, girl. I think you should have eaten his liver.
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
The thing keeping Achilles in Troy is desire - for glory, for vengeance, for death. Like are you really doomed by the narrative if you have to beg for it?
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
...and of course most deaths in the Iliad are followed by lines about the fathers/wives/mothers left behind. Everyone around Achilles is living his same grief day in, day out. It's only destiny that kills him if there's no other way, but everyone else proves that there is.
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
...his lament ends with the other leaders mourning, not Patroclus, but what they left at home, because Achilles' words about his son and father are so familiar to them. Just 2 books ago, Hektor's closest friend was killed by Ajax. Multiple Greeks and Trojans died for Patroclus' body...
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
...Briseis and the other women all have personal reasons to mourn Patroclus, because he was both a symbol of their horrid circumstances and the one bright spot. Achilles' lament for Patroclus is strikingly similar to the coming laments for Hektor...
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Not for one moment this book are you allowed to forget that Achilles' great grief is, though immense, not unique. Odysseus is the only one to call him out, but the parallels are relentless. Briseis' husband and brothers being killed by Achilles is almost exactly what happened to Andromache...
September 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM