#Reilly Mosswolf

[author-a-holmes]

Find The Word Tag Game

Thank you @oh-no-another-idea for the Tag!

Tagging forward, with no pressure, to: @wordsacrossemptypages @amewinterswriting @talesofsorrowandofruin @talesfromaurea @blind-the-winds @faelanvance @ambiguouspuzuma @sleepyowlwrites @authoralexharvey @ashen-crest and @serialephemera -- Also OPEN TAG to anyone who wants to play.

Your Words Are: Wet, Cold, Grey/Gray, Broken, and Tired.

***

My words were Frost, Dust, Burst, and West. I only had 2 of these in Changeling, and only 1 in Darkling, so I've gone back in time a little and done a "Find The Word" tag game for Stolen.

Stella, my beloved, I have missed you...

Taglist for Stolen: @josephinegerardywrite @strangerays @minamoroz @sleepyowlwrites General Taglist: @noirepersonal @queen-kass-the-writer @athenswrites @bardic-tales @outpost51 @talesfromaurea @minamoroz @faelanvance

Frost Ice (No frost, only ice)

Stella watched a whirlwind of emotions swirl their way across Indre's features at Nilions words. A splash of confusion, a dash of anger, and a wisp of fear. Frustration, annoyance, nervousness, determination, all vying for a place within her eyes, before she tightened her shoulders and the emotions vanished behind the kind of mask that Stella had seen soldiers wear hundreds of times.

"Then if you're heading for the basement, you'd best be on your way, girl," Indre ordered, a bite of ice in her tone that had Stella backing up another step in spite of herself.

Dust

If she hadn’t already known that the building was a base for a guild, the moment that her booted feet sank into a thick plush carpet would have told Stella something wasn’t right.

No dust rose around her as she stepped across the room, and the bed in the corner had fresh sheets. She paused at the door, listening intently for any movement on the other side, and when all she could make out was silence, Stella slipped out of the room and into a wide hallway with various doors scattered along both sides and a flight of stairs at the far end.

Burst

"Time to call the mother hen, then," he grumbled, "get Dara's fussing out of the way sooner rather than later."

"Honestly, you could do with some mother henning," Stella teased, "you look like shit."

He gaped at her for a moment in surprise, until she burst into delighted giggles, and he took a single self indulgent moment to just watch the blonde laugh before he forced a scowl on to his face, despite the ache it sent through his cuts and bruises.

"Thank you, Stella, you really know how to stroke a mans ego," he growled, sending her into fresh peals of laughter as he shook his head...

West

There was a flicker of recognition in his expression before his features settled back into stoic indifference, and Stella snatched her hands away and took a step back, stuttering an apology.

"Ah, you're Reilly's newest project," the elf said, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, and crossing his arms as he studied her, "I thought he'd have you shut up inside a glass box, protected from even the mere mention of 'Vine'."

#Stolen #Stolen Stories #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #Indre Larieth #Nilion Kurez #Find The Word #Find The Word Tag Game #Tag Game #Tag Games #Tumblr Tag Games #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Writing #Writing Community #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Ari Writes #Arista Writes #Original Writing #My Writing

[moryann-stolen-stories]

Stolen Stories;

Prequel - The Lost Mosswolf

Book One - Stolen

Book Two - Takeover

Book Three - Origin

Book Four - Loyalty

Book Five - E

Book Six - N

The Stolen Stories are a Romantic Epic Fantasy series. The manuscript for book one, Stolen, is already completed, but I didn't want my first, bumbling, foray into the world of self publishing to be done with this series.

This series, and the characters of Stella and Reilly specifically, are my darlings, and I love them too much to use them as a learning experiance.

A combination of learning, and finances, means that I don't plan to publish Stolen until the first half of 2025. With six books in the series, at two books a year, the Stolen Stories publication should span 2025-2027, with the prequel "The Lost Mosswolf" replacing the Fey Touched Trilogy's free prequel story on my newsletter.

The Lost Mosswolf

Blurb Pending

Stolen

It had been a long couple of weeks for Stella Korazon.

When a simple pickpocket job that goes horribly wrong sends her entire life spinning into chaos, Stella must figure out how to navigate the treacherous world of Moryann alone.

Finding herself in the City of Antillune she is quickly pulled into the middle of a brewing war between two thieves guilds when she finds herself coerced into stealing from Guild Master Mosswolf.

Surrounded on all side by rogues, liars, spies and betrayal, it's a constant struggle to know who she should trust, but standing in the heart of it all, can she find somewhere, or someone, to call home?

Takeover

Blurb Pending

Origin

Blurb Pending

Loyalty

Blurb Pending

E- Currently Unnamed

Blurb Pending

N- Currently Unnamed

Blurb Pending

#Ari Writes #Arista Writes #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Writeblr #Writerblr #Writeblr Community #Writerblr Community #Writing #Writing Community #My Writing #Original Writing #Writing Projects #Writing Project #Project Introduction #Novel Introduction #A Novel Introduction #Writing Life #Writing Is Life #Writing Is Love #Arista Holmes #Ari Holmes #2025/2026/2027 #2025-2027 #2025-2027 Writing Project #Fantasy #Epic Fantasy #Romantic Fantasy #Romantic Epic Fantasy #Stella Korazon

[knuttydraws]

Can't remember the last time I drew something unrelated to Dragon Age, but @author-a-holmes broke the spell 😆 So here they are, Reilly and Stella from the unpublished "Stolen" novel. They were absolutely delightful to draw and now I love them ❤

#original characters #fantasy art #fantasy illustration #stolen #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #commissioned art

[solamancyzine]

Welcome to our “get to know our creators” series! Presenting…

WRITER SPOTLIGHT: @author-a-holmes / @kita-lavellan​

Role: Writer

What do you like or find compelling about Solas’ character?

I find his intelligence the most interesting thing about him. I like the way he can weave words so he never actually tells a direct lie, and how he can mastermind plans that span years. I also love how for all that intelligence, he's still just a very simple person who wants simple things and makes stupid mistakes by misjudging other people. He's very real and very human, and that makes him almost tangible and very relatable.

What do you think is going to happen in DA4?

I hope that what will happen is that the veil comes down, restoring magic to elves and releasing the evanuris. At which point Solas will realise he's misjudged everything again and must return to what remains of the Inquisition and ask for help, because he can't protect the world from the evanuris alone. A temporary team-up that resolves at the end of the game depending on how you've played your relationship with Solas up to that point.

What do you love about being a writer/artist/comic artist?

Great question. I'm primarily a fantasy/sci-fi writer, so what I love most is the freedom to create. Worlds, lands, languages, creatures, powers, and of course, characters. Putting the characters into situations and finding ways for them to get out of those situations is good too (plot), but my favourite part is the worldbuilding. I have more worlds in my brain than I have time to write novels for, if I'm perfectly honest!

Link us/share with us one piece you want to show off (link to finished art/fic) and tell us why it’s special to you

 I regularly do short writing exercises. I get a prompt word, and find a picture that evokes some little writing nugget in my brain and then I write for 15 minutes. That's how this piece started, but it kind of developed a life of it's own. 'Regret' is a piece that I already knew the story of, but I hadn't ever intended to write down. It's a small piece of backstory for Reilly Mosswolf, one of my two main characters in my novel, Stolen. Part of the reason I had never planned to write this is because Reilly has internalised the pain of this moment and I kind of wanted to do the same so I could bounce off that as I wrote him, but the word and the image unlocked this scene and it exploded onto the page. I'm really proud of the emotions I've captured in this piece, especially since it was still completed in my standard writing exercise time constraint of 15-minutes.

Link to Fanfic -- (Content Warnings: Death and Implied Torture) 

#solamancy 2022 #writer spotlight #author-a-holmes #kita-lavellan

[indecentpause]

"Never seen me before? It doesn’t matter, if you’re comfortable, you are still welcome to tell me all about any projects you’re working on!"

*Nervously clears throat, and steps up to the podium*

Hi there! I'm Ari and I'm here to ramble about Stolen!

It's my baby, and it's taken over my life. It started as a stand alone novel idea, but then I got about 1/3rd of the way through it and realised that I had waaaay too much plot for one book, so I went back to my outline and figured out I had at least enough for three books. Then my best friend (FaelanVance) said it felt unfinished, and I should probably do a fourth, so I took another look at the plot and now it's a 6-book epic Fantasy series, with heavy romance undertones.

*blows out breath*

So Stolen is actually book one in the series, Stolen Stories. My main character, Stella Korazon, is a jack-thief. A thief unaffiliated with a guild, that can turn their skills to a variety of different types of thief jobs. When she finds herself in the City of Antillune, she is approached by someone from a local guild and is bribed/coerced/blackmailed into stealing some plans from a second guild in the city.

Halfway through the job, she decides that she can take the plans, sell them back to the guild master she's taken them from, in exchange for the gold to run from the guild that initially hired her. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for me or I wouldn't have a book, it doesn't quite go according to plan! Instead she ends up under the protection of Guild Master Reilly Mosswolf (Spoilers, her eventual love interest).

90% of my cast are thieves of one stripe or another, and the book is full of heists and rescue missions, and Stella learning about how a guild works and functions, or at least how Reilly's guild works and functions. She's unknowingly stumbled into the middle of a turf war between the two guilds, and inadvertently has become a powerful piece on the board.

Which will become much more obvious in book two, when things begin to heat up between Vine and the original Antillune Thieves Guild! Book two, Takeover, is my current writing project, while I edit Stolen. I'm only about 40k into book two but it's already ramping up to be a lot more tense, both on the rivalry front between the two guilds, and the slowburn budding romance between Reilly and Stella.

My goodness you have so much going on!! That’s impressive! I love thieves and charlatans and rascals and I’ve always liked the idea of a thieves guild, and a turf war is always interesting to read about! ALSO HEISTS YES I LOVE A GOOD HEIST

I’m so glad you were brave and reached out! I’ll definitely keep an eye on this and anything you might share about it!

#ask pause things #other people's work #stolen #takeover #author a holmes

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

Your characters go to a hat shop because for plot reasons they need fancy/silly hats to survive a Situation. What do each of them get?

Hello Sleepy, darling. Thank you for the fun ask, and apologies as always for the delay <3

HATS...

Lizzy would hate this so much because she'd feel like everyone was staring at her. And the last thing she wants is to be the centre of attention. So she'd probably pick something that she'd be able to use to hide behind...

For Andric, I'll admit to this one being entirely self indulgent. I don't think it's possible for a man can look bad in a leather fedora with a braided band.

Reilly would absolutely lean into the silly. This is the man who dressed as a female prostitute to complete a pick-pocket job once. He has no shame, and would probably think it's a great, hilarious, game. Something very Mad Hatter-esque. Maybe with a veil of some sort. He'd claim is was for anonymity, but really it would just be because he could.

Stella! Stella wouldn't even know what sort of hat to buy if she was looking for fancy, and for silly she wouldn't know where to shop. She's nothing if not practical, so she'd probably let Dara pick for her... which would end up with a fancy hat. Dara likes nothing more than dressing Stella up in silks and lace and velvets, just to watch Reilly's jaw bounce off the floor.

I've grabbed this image from the 1969 Hello Dolly! with Barbra Striesand specifically for the warm colours since I think it would go with Stella's golden yellow hair, but honestly, any of the hats from the costumes in that film would be something Dara would pick out for Stella.

And now I may have to put the DVD on because I have all the songs stuck in my head lol <3 Thank you for the ask lovely.

#Asks #Ask #Asks Answered #Friends #Mutuals #SleepyOwlWrites #Sleepy #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Hats #Silly Hats #Fancy Hats #Lizzy Hail #Lila Isabelle Hail #Andric Roche #Reilly Mosswolf #Stella Korazon #Hello Dolly #Barbra Striesand

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective love

Pick one (or a few) ocs and describe a typical outfit. And, of you're feeling fancy, a nicer outfit for some event. Reference photos are optional.

Hello Sleepy, darling <3

How. How did you know that I'm actively working on compiling Artist Reference Sheets for my characters right now? :D

I don't actually have any set up for my Fey Touched project (yet!) but I do have some for Stolen, specifically Stella and Reilly.

And, since I know you've expressed an interest in Stella before, lemme share some of her preferred outfits...

Shoving it below a cut because it's image heavy <3

Stella Korazon (Stolen)

By choice, Stella dresses for simplicity and effectiveness. She dresses in muted browns to help her blend in, and likes clothes with pockets to keep her thief tools easily to hand.Her boots are her most expensive item, because she travels across Moryann. They have to be sturdy, hard wearing, comfortable, and also silent when she’s breaking into people's homes.

Her leather trousers are also well worn with travel. Stella’s pants are laced closed, and also have lacing on the lower half of the leg so they can be adjusted around boots, or for riding.

For shirts, Stella is partial to long tunic style shirts. Usually in linen or wool, and still in muted tones although she sometimes departs from brown to other natural dyed colours such as greys, greens, or blues.

Her tunics are usually long enough to hit the pubic bone/half way down the ass. The sleeves will be narrow, or tight. She can’t have loose sleeves when picking pockets. The reference image below has open sections on the sleeves, but they might also be solid fabric. Her shirts are really the area Stella has a variety of styles.

The neckline could be wide, as in the reference image, or it might be close to the neck, or it might be v-neck and laced.

Stella also wears a thin brown leather belt. It’s long, and wraps around her waist twice, before being tied off in a loop-like knot.

Attached to her belt, usually on the left hand side, is one small brown leather pouch. It’s where she keeps her thieves' tools.

Stella's never really had an opportunity to wear a nice outfit to a special event, until Book Two, Takeover.

I send her and Reilly to a ball and have to put my scrappy little thief into a gown so I may or may not have put my Highschool textiles design class to use and drawn her a dress...

The dragonfly brooch is worn on her hip and can be used to hold back the skirts to give her a larger range of movement. Additionally, hiding beneath it's tail and wing segments, this dragon fly is hiding an intricate set of lockpicks.

The lovely Knutty (@knuttydraws) accepted a commission of Stella (And Reilly) based on these details, so I'm just going to show that picture off at the end, because I never get tired of staring at it...

#Ask #Ask Answered #Sleepy #Friends #Mutuals #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #Stolen Stories #Art Reference #Stella Clothing #Stella Korazon Art Reference #Stella Korazon Clothing Art Reference #My Textiles Design Class #Ari Draws

[author-a-holmes]

Happy STS! I'm turning your question back on you cause I really wanna know. What's a line or scene from your works that you're proud of?

Hello hun! Thank you for the ask <3 I hope your weekend's going well!

I'm not gonna lie, I thought this would be an easy one to answer but I've been staring at my screen for ages trying to pick just one line/scene.

Do I share my most recent one? Or the first time I remember reaading back a line and falling in love with my own words? Or something in the middle of all that?

I've finally settled on a scene in book two of my 'Stolen Stories' series, where Stella runs across a creature I've designed called the Krilla-Setika. I really love this scene in part because it was quite fun to write Stella just falling back in base insticts, her fear overiding thought when she's usually very held together, but I also just really loved describing the creature I'd created.

It was great fun adding details for the reader, the longer Stella stared at it, and just upping the creep-factor as it advanced on her...

They retraced their steps back towards the window they'd used to enter the building, moving quickly but not quite falling into a run as Reilly pulled them both to a stop at every corner so he could carefully check the next hallway. It was the soft clicking sound of claws against stone made them both pause, but Stella could already tell it wasn't coming from the hallway Reilly was in the middle of checking, her free hand landing against his shoulder as she glanced behind them and froze. It looked like a weasel, with large bat shaped wings, but it was huge. Almost twice as large as the mountain lions that roamed the peaks to the north and as Stella stared at the creature that seemed to be dripping shadows of smoke, its clawed feet clung to the wall and it skittered up to hang from the ceiling, it's wings spreading wide as the finger-like hooks at the wing tips embedded into the walls, bracing the creature and keeping it in place as Stella backed away. "Don't run," Reilly hissed in her ear and she shivered, eyes transfixed by the creature before her, but the longer she stared the more she saw. Scales covered its body, but it was somehow still translucent. She could see the hall behind through it's smokey form, and she shook her head, her skin crawling with the desire to get as far away as fast as possible. "Stella, don't run," Reilly warned again, his hand still curled around hers, but the creature tipped it's head at Reilly's voice, and she took another step back at the movements of a hunter, a predator, and she wanted nothing more than to flee. "Walk, don't run..." Stella could hear Reilly, knew the man well enough to know that he had to have a reason for the recommendation, but as the mass of dripping shadows began advancing slowly, her control snapped and she turned on her heel, dashing for their exit with Reilly's hand still grasped in hers.

#Asks #Asks Answered #Friends #Mutuals #STS #Storyteller Saturday #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Writing #Writing Community #Snippet #Excerpt #Stolen #Stolen Stories #Takeover #Book Two #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #Krilla-Setika #Original Monster #Original Writing #Epic Fantasy #Romantic Fantasy

[author-a-holmes]

Favorite things tag game

Rules: Share a photo of your OC’s favorite weapon, landscape, drink, and animal. Then change one of the categories and pass it on!

I'm going to change "drink" to "Season" (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter/Custom to your world!)

Tagging forward to; @queen-kass-the-writer @faelanvance @afoolandathief @sleepyowlwrites @ashen-crest @avrablake

@whispersintheparchment Thank you for the tag, darling! Since I know you've got a soft spot for Stella and Reilly, I'll answer for the darlings <3

Stella Korazon

Weapon; Dual Weilded Daggers Landscape; The open plains of Moryann. Drink; Fresh, clear, spring water. Animal; Horses

Reilly Mosswolf

Weapon; Short Sword Landscape; Cities! Antillune specifically. Drink; Ale Animal; Desert Falcon (Original Creature, the Image is a Kestrel)

#Tag Game #Writer Tag Game #Ari Speaks #Ari Writes #Stolen #Stolen Stories #Reilly Mosswolf #Stella Korazon #Writing #Writing Community #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Arista Speaks #Arista Writes #tagthestag

[author-a-holmes]

Okay give me the rundown on Stella because I think I'll love her

*vibrates with excitement*

Okay, okay, okay, Stella is my baby, so I'm afraid, since you asked about her, I might end up drowning you in details.

Accidentally.

Stella is my main character for Stolen. She starts off the book as, what's known in world, as a Jack-Thief. This is a freelancer thief, unaffiliated with a guild, who dabbles in all types of thievery.

(Stolen Spoilers beneath the cut...)

Through plot events, she finds herself alone and in a strange city, and is approached by someone who wants her to steal some documents. They claim the documents belong to them, and that they're just reclaiming property that's already been stolen from them. Stella doesn't quite believe them and refuses the job.

She then finds this same person has broken into her room later that night, and realises this wasn't something she actually had a choice in.

The whole starting inspiration for Stella was I wondered what would happen, how things would play out, if an amature thief successfully stole plans from a guild master, in the very heart of their own guild, and then tried to sell those same plans back to him.

And that's what Stella does. She steals the papers, because she doesn't have a choice, and then tries to trade them back to the guild master she took them from in exchange for help escaping the city.

What my poor baby doesn't know is she's just stepped into the middle of a turf war between two guilds, and escaping the city isn't in any way, shape or form, a possibility. The group she's just betrayed has a network across the land, so there's nowhere for her to run.

The guildmaster offers her protection instead, and she takes it, and that's really the foundation of the plot.

Stella's wonderful to write though, she's truly so much fun, because there's so much dichotomy to her character.

She was raised in a very particular manner that gives her an unusual outlook on the world. Some things she's very worldly about, she's not shocked by sexual advances, or open flirting, or lying, or betraying people... and other things she's been kept very sheltered from. Like genuine caring relationships. Support and positive encouragement. Trust based relationships. Murder and violence.

And while it doesn't come up in the first book, until the very, very, end, and Stella herself doesn't become aware of it until Book Two, there's a very specific reason why she was raised in the way she was.

My other MC for Stolen, Reilly Mosswolf, will spend a great deal of time undoing the damage that's been done by her isolation, and when Stella finally realises how she was manipulated, it may or may not break her, just a tiny bit *evil smile*

And have some gorgeous art I had commissioned of Stella and Reilly, just because you asked about her, and I can't stop sharing this piece. It's gorgeous, and it was done by @knuttydraws

#Ask #Ask Answered #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Stolen #A Stolen Story #Stolen A Stolen Story #Takeover #Takeover A Stolen Story #Stolen Book One #Takeover Book Two #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #Stella/Reilly #Stella Korazon/Reilly Mosswolf #Art #Not My Art #Knutty's Art #Original Characters #Fantasy Illustration #Fantasy Art #Commissioned Art #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Art Commission

[author-a-holmes]

Ahh, moon 🌙 for the October themed asks, please 💗

🌙 moon: do any of your OCs have dark backstories or secrets they’re trying to keep?

You know me well enough to know that they do... and I don't know whether to love you or hate you for this ask Rofl.

*Clears throat*

ANYWAYS; Fey Touched TRILOGY Spoilers beneath the cut, and maybe some Stolen Stories Series Spoilers too. Depends how long this post gets <3

Fey Touched

Lizzy and Booker actually don't have any dark backstories, or secrets. At least none that the reader doesn't know about right from the start. They, for obvious reasons, don't tell the vampires that they travelled to the mortal realm illegally, right from the get go.

Andric has a secret, but it's not so much a secret, as something he doesn't want to talk about, or acknowledge. While it's mentioned a couple of times throughout the first book that he's grieving his brother, Isaak, Andric's brother isn't actually dead. As far as vampire society goes, he's worse than dead. He's turned rabid.

Mia Harris doesn't have a dark backstory, per se, but a tragic one. Her older brother became a Kavian, and so her parents have put a lot of pressure on her to be perfect to try and remove that smear upon their family name. Both her mum and dad are members of the European Vampire Council, and having one Kavian in the family tree is bad enough, so Mia is pushed to be perfect to compensate. The perfect student. The perfect over-achiever. Skilled, and talented, and intelligent enough to step into her own job at the council the moment she graduates.

Cara has a bit of a dark backstory, and a secret. From Lizzy and Booker, specifically. Both her parents are dead. They chose to consume human blood, accepting the risk of turning rabid, in exchange for enhanced strength, speed, healing, ect. She'd treated as an outcast amongst the Speculo students because of this, so she tries to keep it from Lizzy and Booker for as long as possible. What she's never told anyone is that her parents were dosing her with human blood too, and although it was without her knowledge, she narrowly escaped their fate.

Stolen

I won't go into too many of the Stolen Characters, but Reilly has a lot of good and bad in his past. One particular mistake will come back to haunt him in book three, when an ex-partner who manipulated him, almost to the destruction of the guild, comes back into his life.

And may, or may not, lead to Stella's life being put on the line ;-)

#Asks #Ask Answered #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #October Themed Asks #Dark Backstories #Character Secrets #Tragic Backstories #Lizzy Hail #Andric Roche #Mia Harris #Cara Evelyn #Reilly Mosswolf #Fey Touched Trilogy #Stolen Stories #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Writing #Writing Community

[author-a-holmes]

5, 12, 19?

I'm sorry for the delay! It's been about a week, I think, so I believe these were for the WIP Centric Asks. If not, I'm sorry.

I answered number 19: Here

5) What's your favorite location in the story?

Out of all my stories, my favourite location is the building that Reilly's guild resides in.

It's a large building situated in Lower Antillune, and has been there since the founding of the city. Lower Antillune is the oldest part of the city, and although the rich merchants and residents now reside in Upper Antillune, many of the buildings in Lower Antillune run down mansions that once housed the city's nobility.

So Reilly's guild building, from the outside, looks like a four floor mansion, that's including an attic level. It looks like it's crumbling and/or run down, but internally it's been repaired and maintained with the help of magic from the guild Wizard. At it's founding, that would have been Aldune Lamuird, but at the time the books are set then guild wizard is Myris Orinan.

Beneath the guild building, there are two more floors. The basement, and the guild vault beneath that.

I wanted the inside of the guild to have a mixture of old and new, something that fel well lived in, but warm, comforting, and to lean into "found family" vibes.

Stella took the opportunity that the companionable silence presented to examine the guild building once more.

It was old, without a doubt. Solid stonework, but the edges had been worn smooth with time. What was once rich wall coverings were peeling in the upper corners, and the colours had long ago been bleached of their colour by sunlight. The tapestries that hung along the walls were newer, and Stella suspected they helped keep the old building warm, covering places of damage that were more visually unappealing.

The thick carpet was a more recent addition too, and well cared for. The furniture was an eclectic mix of antique and quality newer items that gave a homey and well-lived feel to the building, and the warm colours splattered throughout the fabric furnishings and various pieces of artwork, added to the warmth and comfort that the building offered.

Stella had broken into family homes that held less warmth than the draughty old guild building exuded, and the thought made her shoulders relax, and her lips curl into a soft, content little smile.

12) What would this story smell like?

I love this question <3

Fey Touched Trilogy

The tang of iron. The fresh crisp breeze of an autumn morning. The scent of damp leaves.

A Little Touch of Magic

The smell of heat in the air on a summer day. The scent of sulpher, after the striking of a match. Smoke.

A Grim Awakening

Hospital antiseptic. Wet dog. Freshly turned soil.

Stolen Stories

Vanilla. Sandalwood. The smell of a storm, lightning in the air.

#Ask #Ask Answered #Ask Game #Ari Speaks #Ari Writes #Stolen #Stolen Stories #Fey Touched Trilogy #A Little Touch of Magic #A Grim Awakening #Reilly Mosswolf #Stella Korazon #Antillune Guild #Writing #Writing Community #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Arista Speaks #Arista Writes #Snippet #Excerpt

[author-a-holmes]

Belated OC Kiss Week

I was sick when Kiss Week was on this year, and I was very VERY much looking forward to those prompts.

So I'm taking advantage of the fact that I need some promotional posts next week across all my socials, and completing the prompts a month late.

And I'm loving some of these prompt fills I've come up with tonight.

My favourite part about OCKissWeek is that I get to play with characters that are either on the back burner, or who don't always have POV scenes of their own within the main books I'm working on.

#ockiss24 #oc kiss week #ockiss2024 #ockissweek #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Writing #Writing Community #Writing My Quiet OC's #Kisses #Near Kisses #Secret Character POV's #ari speaks #arista speaks #changeling #fantasy #Stolen #Faith of the Grim #Chronicles of Verald #Lizzy Hail #Andric Roche #Booker Reed #Cara Evelyn #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf #Madeline Hail #Redacted Characters #Mallory Forbane #Nikalas Greyson

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

In honor of Thanksgiving (for me) what are some things your blorbos are thankful for?

Hello Sleepy, Darling. I hope you're having a lovely holiday with the family etc etc.

As for the characters, and what they're grateful for...

Fey Touched Trilogy

Lizzy's grateful for Booker specifically. Lizzy can count her friends prior to coming to the mortal realm on one hand. On one finger, in fact, and she relies of Booker a lot.

Andric is grateful for a lot of things. His work, his friends, his training. He's grateful that he's settle in a job he can find fulfillment in, that he gets to protect people. He's grateful that he has a handful of good, reliable friends, and that above all of them Nameer will always have hsi back. He's grateful that his training means he's capable of managing complex situations alone, that he doesn't have to rely on his family, but he's also grateful that his family will support him, should he ever need it.

Booker is thankful to Madeline Hail, Lizzy's mother, for taking him in as a child. He was half dead from grief when Maddy came for him, and he absolutely knows he wouldn't have survived without her intervention. Even if he wasn't grateful for it at the time.

Stolen Stories Series

Stella Korazon is a tougher one to answer for. The way she was raised she was specifically taught not to be thankful to anyone except her Da', so early-days-Stella that would be where the answer might stop. Later stages, when she begins to question some of the ways she was brought up, Stella might be inclined to be thankful that some of the choices she made panned out the way they did. And be thankful that Reilly didn't decide to kill her for the way their first meeting went down. So, ultimately, she's probably grateful that the guild master's an inner softie.

Reilly Mosswolf is thankful that he's surrounded by people who care about him. That the guild was left to him by his mentor, and that Stella walked into his life just when he needed a bright ray of sunshin. Reilly tends to live in the moment, so the things he's thankful for are things that actively affect him now, rather than long-term gratefulness.

#Asks #Asks Answered #Thankfulness #Gratefulness #SleepyOwlWrites #Writeblr #Writeblr Community #Writing #Writing Community #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Lizzy Hail #Lila Isabelle Hail #Andric Roche #Booker Reed #Stella Korazon #Reilly Mosswolf

[author-a-holmes]

Happy Blorbo Blursday! Which one of your characters would benefit from modern medication the most? If your characters are modern, what medication would help them that they're not on?

Hello! Thank you for the ask ^_^

Just going to CW and TW for mental health discussion, trauma, torture, agoraphobia, and destructive coping mechanisms, although I don't go into detail about any of them they are mentioned in relation to my characters here.

Most of my WIPS have magic and so many, if not all, physical illnesses have a magical, herbal, or science based treatment. And while not it's often not a cure-all, it's usually a better treatment than real-world modern medicine would be able to supply.

Having said that, I do feel like Moryann, the setting for my book Stolen, could do with some serious mental health professionals. In particular, I think my Wizard Myris could make some use of that as he has some mild agoraphobia and ptsd from some torture in his past which was the cause of his lost voice.

But he does, at least, have his own coping mechanisms in place.

I feel like the person who would benefit most from a long series of therapy sessions is probably Reilly Mosswolf. He has night terrors, and a lot of trauma from his childhood. Both his parents and his sister were murdered (different times, different events, different people behind their deaths) and he doesn't like getting close to people as a result. He doesn't do well with looking after himself when left to his own devices, but Reilly also doesn't cope well with being "mothered" as he puts it.

He also has a bad habit of being self destructive as a way to cope, such as getting drunk or getting into bar fights. But he is trying and he does get better over the course of the books, I just think he'd benefit from a mental health professional giving him better ways to cope with his issues.

Disclaimer: Answered August 12th. Scheduled for September 13th

#Asks #Asks answered #Stesierra #friends #mutuals #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Stolen Stories #Reilly Mosswolf #Myris Orinan #Insomniac #Night Terrors #Nightmares #CW #TW #mental health discussion #trauma #torture #agoraphobia #destructive coping mechanisms

[author-a-holmes]

Hi detective

It's blorbsday! How tired are your ocs? Are any of them insomniacs? Do they ever get eight hours of sleep? (In this economy? In any economy?) Have they been Questing and therefore are rather bedraggled? Tell me.

My OC's are all tired. Mostly of me, tbh :D

Jokes aside, Reilly Mosswolf is an insomniac. He doesn't sleep well at all, and on the rare instances he does fall asleep, all of the members of his inner circle know to just cover him with a blanket wherever he's curled up, and leave him be.

Most of the time, he has a potion that will knock him out for a few hours, to help him get enough rest to function, but without it he'll wake every hour or so with nightmares.

There is a scene in book two where he's shocked to find that sleeping with Stella beside him seems to ward off his night terrors, but although her presence does help Reilly to relax enough to fall into sleep, Stella's presence isn't a cure-all long-term.

Stella doesn't have nightmares until book 2, Takeover. She has to do something that horrifies her and she avoids sleep for a while until Reilly helps her face what's scaring her so much. In general she sleeps well, but always wakes early. A Lifetime spent travelling on the road has trained her body to wake with the sun, even when she's not had enough hours sleeping.

As for the others, I don't think anyone in the Fey Touched Trilogy struggle with sleep at the moment, that may change in the future and post-the-end-of-the-books in particular. They're going to go through some things that, I think, resulting in nightmares might be a realistic expectation. *evil grin*.

Disclaimer: Answered August 10th. Scheduled for September 12th

#Asks #Asks answered #Sleepy #Sleepyowlwrites #friends #mutuals #Ari Speaks #Arista Speaks #Fey Touched Trilogy #Stolen Stories #Reilly Mosswolf #Stella Korazon #Insomniac #Night Terrors #Nightmares