#untitled YA novel

[abronzeagegod]

Untitled YA Project Chapter 2: The Working Life of A Shrar

First Chapter || More

6:58 PM local time

Training Barracks, House Kaiyantsh, Si Yátz

A thousand miles away from the cold November weather of the Midwest, Hiraksyau, woke on her small cot in the island nation of Si Yátz. She had been up late reading. Last week, she had gotten a book from the library that was a narrative history of the Caribbean Wars with her people and the Spanish back in the 1500’s. There were so many fascinating things happening, and she had already been curious about pirates so this was an amazing find. She couldn’t help herself and was trying to read through it as fast as she possibly could.

Besides, reading about pirates was much more interesting than going to bed on time and being up and ready for her required military service duty rotation.

Hira would rather sleep, or read, but no, she really had to get up. If she didn't, Natúdrafe would be all over her. Not that Rafe needed a reason to be all over her. Hira was just a shrar stationed at this middle of nowhere outpost, and Rafe was a dralf, only one step above her, so that made Hira her responsibility. Any time Hira messed up or failed a task, it would reflect badly on Rafe, so she pushed her subordinate hard.

She climbed off her bed, and rolled her shoulders, a motion that released some of the tension that had built up. She shook out her wings and then her legs, trying to get the blood flowing and wake up more.

After addressing her morning routine (a light brushing with some unscented cleaning oil and a functional brush, cleaning her mandibles and teeth), the young zlilfian put on her morning workout uniform and left her tiny little room. She had to make it to the gym on time, otherwise Rafe would be mad.

Why did she make Hira get up two hours early to do combat training?

At the small gym, Rafe was already waiting for her. Hira sighed, quietly to herself.

“You’re late again,” the older shrar said. “Up late reading again?”

Hira nodded, rubbing her right eyes, making sure to get both the larger eye and the smaller compound eye.

“What is it this time? More human history? Like the history of American colonization and their coercion of their 40 states into a government?”

“No,” Hira responded. “That was two weeks ago. This time it was about pirates and the wars with the Spanish we had five hundred years ago.”

“Sounds like fun, but not so much fun that you can get away with not doing your job.”

Hira just grumbled at her, a deep humming noise that was emphasized by a subtle beat of her wings. It didn’t help that Rafe was already a better shrar than her, but this whole being in charge thing wasn’t fair.

Rafe heard the dissatisfaction and told Hira, “How about we make a deal? You beat me in our sparring match and you won’t have to do anything with me the rest of the day.”

Hira perked up at that. Her combat skills were extremely poor, she could readily admit that, which is why she was station out in this tiny outpost at the edge of the island on the nightwatch section for her mandatory stint in her Great House’s military. She had to do her duty, she just didn’t like doing that duty. So the fact that Rafe was offering to give her a day away from all the nonsense of training and drills and tests, was an offer she couldn’t refuse. With all that extra time Hira could probably finish the general history on the pirates and then spend a couple hours looking up famous zlilfian sailors of the era and trying to find biographies to read next.

Rafe could see how excited that offer made Hira, which instantly made her much more awake and alert. Her plan did the trick.

“You’re on,” Hira said, trying not to sound too excited. She sounded exactly as excited about this as she was.

“Alright. First one to pin the other twice wins,” Rafe said as she climbed into the little sparring ring and started to get ready with a few quick stretches, flexing her arms, legs, and wings.

Rafe had the height advantage on Hira, by a few inches. She was bigger than the average shrar at just over five feet tall. Things didn’t look good for Hira, especially since she had only ever managed to pin Rafe once in their hand to hand drills.

Hira climbed into the ring and settled in to spar with her superior officer.

“Hold your guard up, in front of your face,” Rafe said, correcting her form the second they started.

“I can’t see if I hold my hands in my face.”

Rafe gave Hira a flat look, eyes slightly closed, antennae out to the sides. “You know that’s not what I meant. You’re too focused on using your front vision, let your other eyes alert you to movement and then react.”

Hira tried to concentrate and use her compound eyes, the smaller set that sat a few centimeters above the bigger set of binocular eyes. But in the time that she spent trying to concentrate and let her compound eyes take over and sense the motion, Rafe had struck her twice. The blows weren’t as hard or as fast as they could have been. Hira knew she was being played with.

“You got to stop thinking about it so hard,” Rafe commented as she ducked a very wide swing Hira let out with her right hand. “You’re smart, so you got to fight like it.”

Hira grumbled and tried again. The second set of eyes every zlilfian was borning with, while not good at seeing detail, were excellent at detecting motion from a very wide angle. She took a second to breathe and stopped focusing on the specific details. In the fight it wasn’t necessary to look at Rafe’s almost perfectly symmetrical stripes of black and yellow that ran horizontally across her face and shoulders, in contrast to Hira’s big splash of yellow across her entire face that sort of dripped down her chin and neck then down her chest. Or the fact that she was very tall for a shrar, or that, in just about every way, Rafe was a very pretty woman who was going to kick Hira’s butt again.

The next series of blows Rafe sent towards Hira, she was able to dodge all the punches, but the kick almost threw her off balance. Hira could only counter by fluttering her wings in a quick flight backwards to get out of Rafe’s range, but unfortunately that put her into the corner of the ring.

The second Rafe closed the distance it was all over. The grapple and pin were quick and not entirely painless. After a moment of being held in a tight embrace, Hira tapped out. Rafe helped her up.

“Use your strengths, use my strengths against me, come on,” Rafe said, trying to get Hira motivated and active. “Use that big brain of yours.”

“It’s early Natúdrafe, give me a minute to wake up,” Hira snapped.

“Combat isn’t going to wait for you to be well rested and ready, Hiraksyau,” Rafe countered, using Hira’s full name in retaliation for her using Rafe’s. “You can do this. Or you’re going to be joining me after rounds for a full weight work out. And flying drills.”

Hira groaned again. She hated weight training, it was hard work and intensive and gross. But flight drills were easy, Hira was always a good flier.

“Although if you can pin me twice you won’t have to do either,” Rafe said gently, trying to tease some life out of Hira.

They settled into their ready poses, and Hira had a sudden idea. She fluttered her wings, both sets, the big ones on her shoulders, and the small ones from the middle of her back. The sudden burst of movement from all over along with a feint attack with her left arm caused Rafe to back into a defensive pose as her compound eyes saw a lot of movement from lots of directions.

Using this moment of defensiveness from Rafe, Hira moved. She transitioned to using her wing movements to push herself forward, and slipping under and around Rafe’s guard. From her blind spot, Hira managed to grapple her from behind, and pushed Rafe to the ground.

After a few seconds of struggle, Rafe couldn’t break the hold and Hira’s weight pinned her down.

“Ok, ok, you got me,” she said. “Now let me up.”

Hira hummed slightly to herself in joy as she stood up off the other girl, holding out her hand to help Rafe up off the mat.

“Alright, last one,” Rafe informed her. “This is for all the seeds.”

Hira rolled her shoulders and her wings, and settled back into her ready position. Rafe did the same. Hira wanted to win so badly. She could have a night off, free to do whatever she wanted, and not have to worry about work or any of the other boring tasks she had to deal with on a daily basis. This was too good of a reward to pass up.

She tried the same maneuver, a feint combined with a flying maneuver, but at the same time Rafe went in with a series of quick attacks. Both girls moved at the same time, resulting in what should have been a soft blow, but instead was a very hard blow with a low crack as Rafe inadvertently hit Hira square in the face.

The world for Hira went black for a moment after the blow landed. The pain came in hard a second later. When the world returned and the pain subsided from a harsh spike to a dull ache, Hira found herself on the ground, Rafe kneeling over her.

“Sorry about that,” Rafe said quietly. Her antennae pointed down, both in shame and to help her examine the injured shrar. “I didn’t expect you to move so fast.”

“Ow,” Hira moaned.

“Are you ok?”

“Nothing broken, just hurt.”

Rafe held out her hand. “Well to make it up to you, we can just do the flying drills tonight.”

Hira groaned again and didn’t take the offered hand right away. She just lay on the ground, despite the uncomfortable position on her wings.

“That sad look isn’t going to get you out of this. Even if I do feel very bad.”

Hira rolled her eyes and took the offered hand.”

“Go get ready for breakfast, my treat this time.”

Hira stood up, and failed to suppress a happy little dance. Rafe may be abrasive and much too into the physical stuff, but she always had a way of finding the good fruits and nuts for breakfast.

“Don’t look too pleased with yourself,” Rafe called over her shoulder. “It isn’t because I like you. I just feel bad for how badly I beat you.”

my kofi where you can read more of this

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#my fiction #untitled YA novel #now we get to the fun bee people

[transmasc-wizard]

Writblr Intro •°☆

it's me! I live! hi again :)

[ID: an aesthetic photo header of books, a sweater, a typewriter and a candle at a window. end ID]

ABOUT ME:

You can call me Beck or Nathan, I'm a teen writer who used to be really active back in 2021/2022 but had a. really. really long writing slump... 😔. but I'm back now!! (I was chaotic-queer-disaster.)

I love fantasy, horror, and queer stories. I also explore disability a lot in my work as someone with both born and acquired disabilities.

some of my favourite themes to explore are identity, loss/grief, hope, friendship, gender (especially in horror), the challenges of morality, and mental illness

I'm looking for fellow writers to talk to and uplift! I'm especially looking if you're any of the following: queer, disabled, teenaged, horror writer, or fantasy writer. (But all are welcome!)

My main projects are under the cut :)

[ID: a dark academia aesthetic photo of a pair of glasses on a cursive-written letter. end ID]

My Projects:

Bad Things Happen - an apocalyptic horror novel. After a party, three young adults get into a particularly nasty car crash. It rips a small hole in the universe, and they begin to be plagued with identical strings of bad luck. Their luck gets worse and more expansive every day, and soon they're fighting to stop the world itself from decaying around them. [Status: draft zero.]

The Other Ones - a half-epistolary horror novel. A group of true crime podcasters go into the strange forest on the edge of town to investigate a disappearance from 2 years ago, only to emerge hours later--covered in blood, no memory of what happened, and accompanied by the missing girl. [Status: outlining.]

Suicide Ghosts - a film script about a trans boy who is sent to an all-girls school and makes friends with the ghost girl who haunts his dorm room. As the school year goes on, they discover corruption, more hauntings, and the horror of holding identities you never asked for. [Status: outlining.]

Untitled Fairytale WIP/"gfs" - YA fantasy series with dystopia undertones. If you've been around for awhile, you'll remember it as GFS/GFW1! A group of teenagers discover they're linked to an ancient prophecy that states they're cursed to awaken gods who have slept since the last divine war. If this happens, desolation is inevitable. They must find a way to avert the prophecy--while an unidentified figure is doing everything in their power to make it come true. [Status: rewriting/reworking.]

If you've read this far, thank you! I'm really glad to be back and I hope to have a lot of fun in this community again :)

#pinned post #writblr intro #writblr #writeblr #writerblr #writers of tumblr

[bunnimew]

We were tagged by @9haharharley1 and @overmooneleven who could not have foreseen what a production this was going to turn into 😂 Thank you!!

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

*Gets out the record player* There's required listening while scrolling this list...

Now that the mood has been appropriately set, here we go!

Warm Bodies 10 Edit9It'sYourBoyJackFrostAightSo High Seas Hijinks pt 2 Android Pitch Neon Ideas Von Kaiser Mix Tape If you don't dance, no romance Jack Frost and the Quest for the Stanley Cup Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide YA Novel Merman/Nature Elf Baby It's Cold Inside Everything but the fresher sink Halloween bodyswap Saiyuki Fantasy AU Coffee and Fruit Snacks Untitled Document Blackice ABOlive Garden Concerned Neighbor AU Obsolete Force Monsters Donut Saga 2022 RotG Bingo RotG Bingo 2021 Free Day Light Magic Soulmate AU Sleight of Hand Android AU Wing fic space vampire arranged marriage fake ppl scifi book pogo kylux AU Hope Week 2022 Let's Play AU Clydeland Ghost roommate Omega hux Techwear AU Original magic apocalypse Holiday kylux Pink hair hux Goose steals the staff Quarantine Kylux twitfic college au ST/Kylux Omega hux sequel cyborg hux Fuck this I'm outtie hux Loud AF kylux Loud AF blackice Every floor is Loud AF Loud AF Zag and Than Angel/Demon AU Gymnast hux Parkour hux 5 times hux blows kylo A/B/O Hades Kylux A/B/Olive Garden Disney Princess Hux Hutt slave Mitaka Femlux Afterlife Bloom Halloween2020 sen aid + sen kid kylux Trivia and Other Flirtations Gertrude Pink hair Jack + Hux Teacher/Teacher Merge ST and EU frank/strange Bingo Fancy Dinner Matchmaker Cape Selection AU Senate Takeover Manny Moonbear's Pizzaria Guardians in Black Party fancy pitch Jasper/Lapis Suzalulu week 2016 horror ideas Untitled Terminator Game Terminator Ideas Frank/Strange coffee shop au Ideas for erotic stabbing Suzalulu week 2017 Zell birthday Gratuitous sleepytime Lulu the professional hand model au Peter has two dads au RotG Coffee shop AU Veelamate AU Sorceress Jack Guardian of the D Blanket Scenario i think Saiyuki bang 10k Clover AU Wizards unite AU X/1999/RotG [Redacted] Pitch's New Groove PoGo AU spacerace magic repo RotGRepo! Colormate AU Overqualified Merlin Caffeine and High Fructose Corn Syrup O2: Teammates Spideypool Bingo 2019 B1: Personal Trainer Spideypool Bingo 2019 Spideypool fairy AU Tie fix Soulmate tattoo AU 3 5 10 AU idea Silent Hill AU O1: Met at the Dog Park Spideypool Bingo 2019 ff8 werewolf au Buffate 2 Kink series Dance All Night Let Me and Your Body Talk Pounded in the Butt by the Physical Manifestation of the Fear That I Will Never be Good Enough While He Tells me I am Good Enough Also He's British  Silent Hill AU Bathtime Evening Horror Husbands Fic art 1 Morning cuddle Fic art 2 Spinel Jack Cover art Croptops Spiderman kiss Gargoyles

We literally do not know as many people as we have WIPs. I'd have to pull out the yearbook and start tagging people from high school and we're not going to do that. But we do have to tag @seekerseekingsomething for reasons they will understand and @askmyname @quillienvii @pheasantmadness for Other Unsaid Reasons ❤

#WIP #WIP list #Ask away! #O Fortuna #Youtube

[addrianastarflower]

ya know what let's do this -- tagged by @queenangst bc I saw her post

Rules: Make a 24 hour poll with the names of your WIPs, let it run, then write one sentence for every vote the winner receives. 

Tagging: @professionalwaterbender @zoopzopp @thrandilf

#polls #fanfiction #my stuff #idk how to tag this

[superfluouskeys]

all right well, I am not sane, so feel free to friend request me or tell me on here if you are also not sane so maybe we can yell encouragement at each other :)

https://nanowrimo.org/participants/superfluouskeys

My big project is Untitled Fantasy Novel TM (very original pls do not steal)! I have one working title that is stupid and another one I'm not sure I like so I'm not sharing yet in hopes that either I will make up my mind or something better will come to me LOL. In general I think I've never really had to name, like, places or entities too much in my writing so rn I can foresee those aspects reading a bit like a b-grade YA dystopia (you know with Important Capitalization) and am just using placeholder words to avoid getting hung up on it for the moment.

I'm like vibrating with excitement currently LOL, so hoping to take advantage of the motivation spike while it lasts! I have an extremely vague outline and have been vividly hallucinating several scenes for weeks now, so I think I am about as prepared as I can be!

I'm workshopping my synopsis so here it is in its earliest form:

The year is 12:16, and the Era is called Progress, but Tamsin Ward is a young woman from a town that time forgot.  Godsplace remains stubbornly set in its archaic ways, and Tamsin has largely resigned herself to an unremarkable fate.

One night, however, Tamsin discovers that she possesses the Gift.  Those who have the Gift need training to control it.  To receive training, Tamsin will have to enter the Academy and become Forgotten.  She must renounce all her other worldly connections, as they must renounce her, until her training is complete.  Tamsin, who has never felt particularly connected to anything, is only too happy to oblige.

But there is darkness in this strange new world of magic, a Curse to counter every Gift a hundred times over.  Once the darkness finds you, or once you call out to it, you can never be free of its whispers.  Many years ago, it was foretold that a child born at the crossroads of time would set the darkness free of its shackles.  People the world over have countless different ideas about the fabled prophecy, but nearly all agree on one thing: this prophecy cannot come to pass, or the world as they know it will be lost forever.

Vague and ancient stories hold little appeal for Tamsin at first glance.  But as mournful voices begin to whisper in her dreams, and misfortune seems to follow her everywhere she treads, Tamsin is forced to wonder whether those vague and ancient stories have more truth to them than she could have imagined.

#personal #exciting tag for writing things #oh oh i have the perfect tag for this #nano nonsense #:) #pray for me there's a very real chance school work could beat me to death w a stick halfway thru november #you see what I mean about the b grade ya tho lol like the Academy wtf is that sdkjfnkfjf #it will get a rename eventually i just can't be bothered atm LOL

[earth-93]

Mystic's Musings: Untitled Horror Crossover YA Treatment

Hey, y'all.

I've been wanting to make more use of this non-E93 section of my posts ever since my New Warriors treatment. I have a few on hand, but decided in the spirit of the season share something on the spookier side.

The concept first came about way back in 2016, when like a lot of people I was morbidly fascinated by Universal Pictures' pitiful attempt to make a cinematic universe out of their library of classic monster characters. I thought to myself, if I were handling something like this, I'd probably not make it so damn serious.

Something a little more irreverent, more tongue-in-cheek, not unlike what the Percy Jackson series did for Greek mythology. The idea has been floating around in my head ever since, never coalescing into solid plan, but always changing, always being added and updated in-between my other projects.

Around that same time, I was also really into the supplemental work of the Wold Newton Universe. Originally conceived by pulp writer Phillip Jose Farmer in the early 70's, the premise of WNU posits that the great literary figures of serialized and pulp novels were capable of such extraordinary feats because a handful of their ancestors were all riding in a carriage one night in the late 18th century when a meteorite struck down into the English countryside (Based on the real-life meteorite that crashed nearby Wold Newton, England around that some time), the radiation of which affected their genes and the genes of their descendants.

The WNU received a boost of supplemental writings in the early parts of the web, were people would add onto Farmer's original writings and continue both the Wold Newton Family Tree and additional crossovers in the WNU. While a fun connect-the-dots sort of crossover venture at the time, in hindsight I can admit that the supplemental works did a lot of jumping through hoops to incorporate every prominent fictional character into the same handful of family trees, all to endow them with the same abstract genetic lineage (Most egregiously, when they try to incorporate non-white characters into the family tree), but the general idea of taking the many adaptations of literary characters and spinning it into a family tree rather than one uniform person always stuck with me, copyright be damned.

So with all that backstory out of the way, let me finally lay out the thoughts and ideas I've developed over the years with this premise of mine.

Setting

In terms of rules and worldbuilding, I've flipped back and forth on this one. At first, I was leaning more towards something like Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl, where the supernatural is a heavily guarded secret society, or guarded some mystical veil that conveniently obscures it from the masses.

Later, I was more fond of something along the lines of The Southern Vampire Mysteries (Which would be adapted into the series True Blood) or Anno Dracula, where the supernatural is an open fact to the public and has created major social, cultural and even historical deviations from the real world.

At present, I'm aiming for a mix between the latter and Supernatural and The Dresden Files, where such fantastical things are more an open secret. The average person is aware, but the level by which it's acknowledged differs based on region and community. Monster hunting, seances and cryptozoology are less niche than in reality, but still not as reputable to completely block hucksters, opportunists and showmen from flooding the spaces.

The triumph of Abraham Van Helsing over Count Dracula opened the floodgates for monster hunting towards the end of the 19th century. The horrors wrought upon by the Frankenstein and Jekyll families have created generation-spanning stigmas over so-called "mad science." (The more this project develops, I would absolutely love to put more of a spotlight on the fact that these stigmas and literary legacies laid out thus far stem from European, primarily British, sources, and how different such things are perceived and addressed elsewhere in the world).

By modern day, the things that go bump in the night, while relatively normalized, still hold a degree of superstition and misunderstanding, which is where we find our starting protagonist at the beginning of the story.

Plot

The starting protagonist (Let's call him "Shaggy," for reasons I'll explain in the next section) has been taught since childhood to stay clear of all things monster, to the degree where it's become a point of crippling anxiety. As a young adult, "Shaggy" is mostly floating through life, unsure on what he wants but evades everything he's been told he doesn't want. "Shaggy's" superstition ends up saving his life when shadowy figures no one but he seems to notice turn out to be real and have been preying on him.

As he flees, "Shaggy" runs into a completely different group looking for him, albeit with the intention of protecting him. They give "Shaggy" the truth: He is the latest descendant of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein, and the other group pursuing him are agents of Dracula, who has been preying on the Frankensteins for generations as part of his many avenues to continue his immortal life.

The bulk of the story involves the group escorting "Shaggy" to a safehouse, all while the question as to why he's so important to the Lord of Vampires floats overhead. Sure, "Shaggy" might be a Frankenstein, but he has none of the mad ambition or brilliant acumen of his forebears, so even if Dracula's agents were to apprehended him he couldn't fashion a new Monster. The twist in the first story would reveal that "Shaggy" is not just a Frankenstein, but technically also a Monster.

As a nod to my old affinity for WNU, I have it planned that every major depiction of Frankenstein (The novel version, the Universal version, the Hammer version, etc) is a successive member in a greater family tree. "Shaggy's" absent father, the Gen X Frankenstein, was a cross between Weird Science and Frankenhooker. Ergo, he was a creep who had sex with his female Monster, and being a human/Monster hybrid, "Shaggy" potentially constitutes as a sort of post-human, making him especially significant to Dracula's ambitions for full immortality.

By the end of the first story, "Shaggy" reconciles the truth about himself and overcomes his fear of the supernatural through the camaraderie formed among the group. Dracula and his minions will remain the Big Bad for the series, but the team will have all manner of misadventures down the line.

A spotlight arc getting into the sordid Jekyll & Hyde families. Stopping a private military firm from bringing about a zombie apocalypse, because despite repeatedly almost doing so across the last half-decade, various people and groups continue to try and weaponize the undead. A trip to Mexico and a team-up with the Los Campeones Justicieros, who have been fighting against the forces of mad science for generations. A Bigfoot solidarity club, made up of the many, many ape-men cryptids that exist across mythology. And probably more, once I get around to writing it.

Characters

As you might have picked up on by now, the principal cast of this series is loosely inspired by a mix of the archetypes of the Universal Monsters and the Mystery Gang of the Scooby-Doo franchise. Let's wrap this post with a brief spotlight on each:

As previously mentioned, "Shaggy" would be the latest Frankenstein. A lanky former layabout who is perpetually in existential trepidation over his circumstances. A hectic familial arrangement led to "Shaggy" as a boy being put exclusively into the care of his stepmother, who out of a misguided sense of protection would terrify "Shaggy" over supernatural forces and inflict brutal punishment whenever she suspected him of engaging with it.

While the truth about himself and his family is partially shocking, to an extent it actually brought about a sense of relief, the idea that his life isn't as aimless as he once thought. Of course, through his misadventures "Shaggy" will realize being a post-human isn't exactly all that it's cracked up to be, but he will still find comfort and communion not just with his new gang of friends, but of the supernatural at large, an aspect of the world he was taught to fear.

"Shaggy" isn't a complete nervous wreck, though. After failed stints of using drugs, both medicinal and recreational, to cope with his anxieties, "Shaggy" turned to spiritualism, something that was still taboo to his stepmom due to it often running parallel to mythology and folklore. Through this, "Shaggy" has not only found a core sense of control he can generally rely on, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural, and can often help the rest to parse out what are genuine threats and what is just smoke and mirrors.

What "Shaggy" lacks in bravery he makes up for in determination. Owing to his enhanced post-human physiology, "Shaggy" can run several miles without fatigue or exhaustion, is virtually immune to all poisons and toxins, and naturally process and digests (Stress-eating was often a point of coping for "Shaggy" though neither he nor anyone around him could fathom why he never seemed to gain a pound). Since most of their enemies are after him anyways, "Shaggy" quickly finds a groove where he becomes the bait, evading the gang's pursuers while they hatch a scheme to defeat them.

"Daphne" would be our Wolfman stand-in. Going off of the Universal homages, one would assume "Daphne" to be part of the infamous Talbot family. However, coming from cajun ancestry myself, I'm going instead to make her a part of the "Rougarou" pack, a clan of lycanthropes native to the Louisiana bayou and whose wolf forms evoke the near extinct red wolves native to the American Southeast.

"Daphne" is the glue that holds the team together, the most emotionally healthy and mature of her friends who can keep morale going even in the most dire of circumstances. She is a "casual naturist," jer lycanthropy making nudity a recurring thing to contend with, but she also is very enthused about her sense of fashion being another aspect of her self-expression.

In addition to her lycanthropy giving her enhanced feats, "Daphne" is also a skilled survivalist and horticulturalist, making her invaluable for prolonged periods living in the woods or off the grid. Her passion and loyalty, however, is as much a flaw as it is a virtue. Though the most emotionally composed out of the gang, "Daphne" can still be impulsive and quick to anger, especially whenever her friends are ever threatened or in perceived danger. Though she has mastered her lycanthropy where she can transform at will and at various stages, "Daphne" is still vulnerable to the various lunar stages, which enemies can capitalize on.

The "Fred" of the group is the only non-Monster. Rather, he is the latest generation of the Van Helsing family, trained from infancy to follow in the tradition of monster hunting. I absolutely love the interpretation over the years that Abraham Van Helsing and his cohorts were carrying out unreliable methods and who swindled the wealthy to achieve their goals. Loosely inspired by the anime series Helsing, by modern times the Van Helsing family have largely been coasting off of his slaying of Dracula, even as monster hunting has become more ubiquitous over the past hundred or so years.

That's not to say "Fred" himself is arrogant, or even blood-thirsty towards hunting monsters. The recurring shorthand I've described this character to people is that of "an Ash Williams-type," a sort of idiot savant who's not very good at anything besides monster hunting. Even then, it's largely a matter of sport to "Fred," unlike most of his family who hunt to kill. And I am absolutely going to lean in with the more recent iterations of Scooby-Fred being a trap-making himbo. In essence, "Fred's" ingenuity and capability are often a gambit, but if his skills are indeed applicable, its very high reward. In addition, "Fred's" conventional good looks, strong charisma and prestigious family name often helps the gang get into certain spaces or people. "Fred" is not the leader of the group, though many assume as much.

No, the true leader would be "Velma." Similar to "Shaggy," "Velma" is a hybrid of sorts. Her father was the revenant Imhotep, conceived during his time living incognito on the streets of Cairo under the name Ardath Bey. "Velma" has been endowed with longevity (Among other powers) through Imhotep's revenant heritage, so she is still in the young adult range as the rest of the group despite being nearly a century old.

Like her father, "Velma" is skilled in hypnotism and enthrallment, and has an intrinsic connection with arid climates and biomes (This has put a wedge from time to time with her friendship with "Daphne," as her native swamplands are conditions by which "Velma" is most physically vulnerable). "Velma" has dedicated her life to vanquishing evils such as her father, and her knowledge and analysis of the supernatural is more historical than "Shaggy," who goes about his research from a more spiritual angle.

Aside from her physical and environmental limitations, "Velma's" other main weakness are her poor interpersonal skills, mixed with long-standing issues with self-loathing. "Velma" often carries out her work to atone for the sins of her father, and having lived out so many years of fervent fear of monsters, has consigned herself to live by way of atonement, never finding true peace until she warms a righteous death. This is something "Daphne" and "Fred" have learned to accommodate, as upsetting as it makes them, though "Shaggy's" integration into the group will cause some flare-ups with this, especially as he experiences his own arc of self-affirmation. "Velma" might find love in the form of the gender-fluid descendant of Jekyll & Hyde I've been throwing around, we'll see.

Last but not least, there's "Scooby," who will be going in a different direction than some might expect. "Scooby" starts out as "Shaggy's" (human) childhood best friend, who took him in after his home life became too toxic to stick around. She clashes with the team before they go on the run, putting her foot down that she tag along as the rest of the gang escorts him to safety.

At first, "Scooby" is "Shaggy's" foot in perceived normalcy and familiarity, especially as his life and circumstances become increasingly more chaotic and fantastical. However, after the team has a brush with the Cult of Dagon, "Scooby" begins to exhibit several ailments: Nausea, dehydration, thinning hair, dry skin. After a check-up, the gang will discover that "Scooby" has ancestry tied to the Deep Ones, and is experiencing her metamorphosis into a Gill-Person prematurely. By the end of the story, she will have transformed fully.

Even after the loss of her humanity, "Scooby" will remain kind and affable, though much like the original Shadow Over Innsmouth tale, there will be left ambiguous whether "Scooby" remains fully herself, or if she is also becoming fanatical and subservient to Dagon (Which could be a main plot in and of itself). In addition to being able to navigate submerged and subaquatic terrain through her newfound amphibious nature, "Scooby" will also have the ability to communicate with non-humanoid monsters, the full extent of which the gang will learn along their travels.

Conclusion

And that's pretty much the short run of it. What do y'all think? Do you have any thoughts, suggestions or questions? Would you be interested in a more fleshed out plot with this premise and cast down the line? Feel free to let me know. Until then, have a Happy Halloween!

#my fic #fiction #my writing #fanfic #horror #frankenstein #werewolf #mummy #van helsing #black lagoon #crossover #monster #halloween

[whimsy-of-the-stars]

whimsy-of-the-stars: a writeblr (re) intro

hi there! this post is here because I can't edit the old one on desktop bc I reblogged it! :( Anyway i’m whimsy-of-the-stars! the only name i really go by is my actual one, but i’m hesitant to share it online. some info about me:

relatively new to tumblr

currently in high school

i aspire to be an author, as well as a poet and musician

I enjoy cartoons, comics, fiction podcasts and novels

Currently, I'm foraying into the world of itch.io, so you might see me working on Twine games or ttrpgs too!

Learning languages is fun! my main focus right now is Spanish!

I’m in the LGBTQIAP+ community

I like to read (YA): fantasy, sci-fi, fluffy romance, some mysteries

I like to write (YA): fantasy, sci-fi, fluffy romance, superhero

oh and I kinda have an original poetry tag within my posts! It’s “whimsy of the poetry” lol. there you’ll find my 1 (one) poem posted so far!

I’m really bad at coming up with names so most of my projects are untitled. now onto mini WIP intros!!!

unnamed apocalypse story

status: roughly halfway thru the first draft

genre: uhh queer apocalyptic mg/ya

this one is new-ish! ok, not really. It's from April 2023 Camp Nano, and I never finished it. I'm hoping to resume writing soon, probably for July Camp Nano. I'll make a WIP intro soon!! | SWEAR! (casually has never made one before)

Anyway, it centers around a bunch of teens who get lost in the huge forest right before the plant-centered apocalypse hits. They have to survive in unfamiliar woods as this freakishly fast-growing plant continues to creep closer and closer, releasing dangerous pollen; not to mention they've gotta get along with each other. featured in this wip are: silly diary entries, hand-drawn maps, new friends, and questionable poetry!

The Quest for Calamint (a Twine game)

status: jam version (aka simpler, more bare-bones version) available now here! better, cooler version coming in or after July, probably, along with full intro post!

genre: Wholesome fantasy interactive fiction :)

Go on a quest to get your best friend, a little goat named Calamint, back from the faeries who stole him and the rest of the dairy animals on your family's farm. Navigate the forest, talk to the right faeries, and solve the ex-queen's puzzle to get him back!

Side Projects

currently, I'm slowly working on a few small tabletop roleplaying games!! There's one about wizard girls, one about a seaside vacation where you become a delivery kid, and one about summoning a ghost with your friends! however I’m also thinking about a bunch of other things as well for the One Page RPG Jam of 2023 hosted on itch!

#writeblr intro #writeblr #twine game #writing #bro this is so overdue I swear !!!

[lauren-210]

Since when do you like THG/TBOSAS? Tell me your fandom story 😊

Have you read or watched all the books/movies?

Thank you.

@curiousnonny

Hi! Thanks for the question! Okay, storytime! 😀

As for my own history, I got into the series when I was 16 back in 2012 right around the time the first film was being advertised and about to come out very soon in theaters. I was in 9th grade in high school and I just turned 16 back in February, so it was about a month after my birthday when the first film was coming out. I saw the trailers for the film on TV, noticed in the trailers that it was based off a book, and I was very interested in what the story was about. I was actually under the impression that the series took place in the past like the Great Depression or World War 2 based on how everyone was dressed in District 12 during the Reaping and how poor District 12 was until I saw that there was very futuristic/modern technology and got the gist of the concept behind the Games and seeing The Capitol, so I had to take the historical fiction idea out of my head and learned that it was YA dystopia (which was a genre I hadn't read that much as a teen during that time).

I decided to pick up the whole trilogy and read the first book before going out to see the film in theaters. I got hooked into the book, loved it, and decided to see the film, which I really enjoyed a lot. I continued to repeat the process and read both Catching Fire and Mockingjay afterwards and then saw Catching Fire and both Mockingjay films in theaters on the first day they were released and I've been such a huge fan of the series ever since.

As for Ballad, I was super excited after finding out the news about a new book in the series back in 2019 a month after I had graduated from college and returning home. I remember that day when I was scrolling on my phone on Facebook, I suddenly saw the Scholastic post announcing the "Untitled Panem Novel" with that black cover with the white feather and release date of May 19th, 2020. My entire world spun around and I was just in complete hype mood because I couldn't believe were were getting a fourth book in the series and I was non-stop excited to speculate what it was gonna be about/waiting each day for its release. I also thought it was gonna be special to me because the release date for it was exactly one year after I had graduated from college. Then, after learning it was going to be a prequel set 64 years before the first book and centered on Snow when he was 18, I was very fascinated by that idea and the general synopsis of the plot and I fully trusted Suzanne with this book.

However, I actually ended up not getting towards reading the book until late December 2021 since I was very busy with graduate school in between 2019-2021 (and I was dealing with personal issues during September 2021 with a loss in the family). I ended up loving the book and it stands as my second favorite in the series only behind Catching Fire!

And of course I've read all the books and seen all the films multiple times. I've seen Ballad twice in theaters, which was great and also loved it (also stands as my second favorite film in the series similarly for the books), and thought it was a solid adaptation but just like the other films, I do have my own criticisms for sure and would have wanted other aspects from the book incorporated into the film, but overall, I think it did it justice in bringing the book to life.

......................Plus, Ballad introduced my absolute favorite character of the series: My best friend, my District 2 golden boy, my love: Sejanus Plinth, so Ballad also gets a +1 for me ❤️

#the hunger games #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #hunger games fandom #q&a #storytime

[gaslightwestern]

Update - February 29, 2024

Hello! I have been quiet lately as I've been reading than writing. Also the whole AI nonsense has made me question my future on Tumblr. For now, I am here.

Reading - Fort Worth Characters by Richard Selcer to research historical figures - Typically I don't read YA fantasy novels often but I devoured Six of Crows and am loving Crooked Kingdom.

Writing Blackwater: Chapter 32 is 20% done. Currently struggling with finding new, creative ways to describe gun violence in a story full of gun violence lol. Also, I need to write The Scene™ and my fear that it won't live up to readers' expectations is getting in the way.

Untitled Prequel: Still plotting. One issue I had was having the main characters meet one of the murder suspects, who is an outlaw. Solution? Have them wind up in jail alongside her.

When Sins Haunt: Starting to think WSH might be too ambitious. My goal was to combine a western revenge story with an urban crime drama. But I'm unsure whether the story can be told well in one novel. I have been considering removing Jack and the New York plot to make the story tighter.

Pros: The story's core, Charlotte Vs. Warren, would truly become the main focus. There would be space to properly flesh out the Colbalt Gang. Warren would gain POV chapters and if Sam took Jack's place on Charlotte's revenge quest, I wouldn't need a prequel to explore their characters, which is why it exists in the first place.

Cons: …I love Jack. My in-the-wrong-genre, plucky journalist who is brilliant but bumblefucks his way across the west. I love Frank and Nora, my evil-but-endearing married couple who run the New York underworld with an iron fist. Kill your darlings and all that but I feel like removing the New York half would be betraying the vision I set out to write. There's this little voice saying that if I just try hard enough and become a better writer, I could make it work.

#writeblr #writing woes #writing update #thoughts on writing #when sins haunt

[jlilycorbie]

Current WIP List

Just to get them somewhat organized in front of me, here’s a list of my current WIPs, roughly in order by stage.

Currently writing:

Untitled Fantasy WIP: fantasy novel, Zaya has a map with a country no one remembers and knows she loved someone she can’t remember, so she’s gone looking for answers. This time, she won’t only find answers, but she’ll help heal a wound in the world.

Bad Fences: horror novel, Barbara’s family helped found her neighorhood generations ago, and she’s the last remaining descendant of any of those founders. She considers it her duty to protect her neighborhood, so she’s horrified when a huge family moves in next door. She’s positive they’re Satanists planning to sacrifice their baby, but really they’re a happy poly family she’s terrorizing.

The Care and Feeding of This House: horror short story, in today’s market, the only way most people can afford a house is if it’s haunted. What if this haunted house has a manual...but it didn’t get passed to the new owner, who has to figure out how to live in harmony with her new home on her own?

Other People’s Stories: fantasy novella? Lim has always lived with one foot in a different world, and it feels like she’s always on the edge of other stories without having one of her own. Then she finds herself in the middle of her own story and it isn’t as fun as she thought it would be.

Untitled Short Story: fantasy short story, when Amelia dreams, sometimes she dreams so deep and true it changes the world.

Back Burner, waiting to finish something else/work out some details:

Magic School Dropouts: fantasy novel, Imogene’s been on the run since she and her best friend snuck away from magic school. She doesn’t want the magic police to realize she’s an untrained magician loose in the world. Except there’s no such thing as magic police, the school she escaped largely isn’t known in the actual magic community (there’s a magic community? And they’ll actually welcome Imogene and help her out?), and her best friend died years ago and now her daughter is trying to escape that same school.

Escape Velocity: science fiction novel, Della grew up in an isolationist, anti-tech cult, but she escaped and went to space.

Heartland: science fiction, maybe ya novel, Dice lives outside of Heartland, an arcology, and she dreams about becoming a teacher and getting to live in Heartland instead of its shadow. Her best friend, Media, actually lives inside it, though they’ve never gotten to meet in person. And together, they’ll undercover and thwart a plot to bomb Heartland. Weird how easy it was to stop it, though.

Still researching/need to start researching:

Untitled Science Fiction WIP: science fiction novel, it’s time to unionize the asteroid belt. Countless people have been lured out to mining colonies on the asteroid belt with promises of big pay. Turns out when they arrive, they’re in dept to the company for the cost of their transport into space, and also the company has to take part of their pay to cover their rent. Oh, yeah, all the businesses in each colony are owned by the company, and your pay can only be converted to an earth currency on earth. And the company won’t pay to send you back to earth, but if you lose your job, you can’t stay in the colony. Captain Petra Quill and her crew pilot a freelance ship on the belt, and when news about what’s really happening in the colonies gets out, they and the other freelance ships are the only hope for the burgeoning union and their fight against the company.

Untitled Horror WIP: horror novel, Unnamed Creepy Dude was moderately well known among the prepper community, and he lived off-grid in a decommissioned military bunker. Sure, he was preparing for the world to end, but also, he needed somewhere private to stash the bodies. Until some of his victims refused to stay where he put them, and now he and the crew from a YouTube channel are all missing.

#writeblr #wip list #sometimes i actually write #not as often as i think up new ideas

[theshamurai95]

So, this was unexpected.

I've been dancing around what to post here and what to use Tumblr for. I knew I wanted to use this platform as an outlet for my writing, but that first post anxiety crept in hard. "What should I post? A short story? A fragment from my novel rough draft? Maybe just a quick, 'Hi, how ya doin,'?"

Then, the tenth anniversary of my maternal grandfather's death came, and ironically it is around the birthday of my paternal grandfather, also deceased. The end of July is a hard time on the family. Needless to say, the old fellas have been on my mind, and it continued simmering until I did the only thing that clears my mind: put it in writing.

So, with absolutely zero context, enjoy this untitled rough draft of a poem about what awesome guardian angels I have over each shoulder. God knows they deserve it.

Dedicated to my grandfathers, PawPaw Hartman and Pappy Fowler

I was there

When you were small with shallow breaths

A pallor from your fragile form

A yellow specter haunting you

They feared for days you might be lost

Our children bathed and prayed for you

But I knew well your fighting spirit

I was there

When doubts and worry clouded hope

You cut yourself on meager words

You tripped on insults laid like snares

And asked, “Is this what life is like?”

I could not reassure you then

But now I see you found the truth

I was there

When ego crumbled, battered pride

Your mirror held the strongest foe

The sullen place you brought yourself

It hollowed you with apathy

You feared of disappointing me

But I was there to see you rise

I was there

When cold winds ripped the warmth from you

Replaced with whiskey flavored hate

You cursed and scowled, and after, cried

The sting of grief under your skin

Those times were hard, I wept with you

Until you stood and wiped your tears

I am here

You cannot see me with you now

My words not heard upon your ears

But you are not abandoned yet

And I have watched your battles won

Bear in faith that til we meet

Your path is guarded, my grandson.

#poetry #grief #grandfather #loss #literature #writing #reflection #self love

[abronzeagegod]

Chapter 7: Nothing Says Bad Day Like an Interrogation

First Chapter || More

10:01 PM local time

Training Barracks, House Kaiyantsh, Si Yátz

When Hira regained consciousness the barracks was in something close to chaos. There were shrar all over the place, warriors and soldiers of the highest tier investigating all over.

She went through a quick medical check up and was treated for the toxin she was subjected to. Then it was straight into an interrogation. There were a lot of people that wanted to know exactly what happened.

It had been almost twelve hours since the whole attack commenced, and Hira was the only one who could really explain anything. Everyone was eager to get answers from her.

Hira tried her best to explain, but there was little to believe in her story.

In the small room in the barracks that they cleared out to question Hira over the events, the dfuundrao, the highest ranking shrar Hira had ever interacted with, was the most intimidating thing to ever happen to her.

“You’re saying that there was a human on the island?” the high ranking shrar asked.

“Yes,” Hira repeated for what felt like the fifth time today.

“Do you see why that is hard to believe? Outsiders are extremely well controlled, and we found no evidence of an incursion on this part of the island. Why would your supposed human pick this barracks, this zone, on this part of the island to infiltrate?”

“I don’t know,” Hira said, exasperated. “Did you try looking over the computer records? Sure they must have a record of what they were looking up.”

“When you pull the alarm, the computer is automatically locked and will not be unlocked until the alarm is dealt with. And you pulled a very serious alarm.”

Hira took a small step back. “You think I did this?”

“You and your partner, Natúdrafe, were on patrol where you claim this incursion happened. And as one of the only ones out on patrol, you were not in the barracks when the smoke bombs were activated, doing serious harm to your fellow shrar. Now Natúdrafe is missing. How do you explain that?” The higher up paced back and forth several times, agitation clear in his mannerisms and stances.

“I don’t know! I tried asking her but there was this weird… I don’t know…. Aura around the human. Everything was silent. There were no words or vibrations at all. And Rafe… Rafe looked like she was asleep or something. I don’t understand. I couldn’t hear anything, the only thing I could do was pull the alarm!”

The dfuundrao turned on her and was about to say something when there was a gentle knock at the door. Hira’s interrogator stopped what he was about to do to answer the door.

There were a series of hushed whispers that Hira couldn’t hear. But after a moment, the dfuundrao looked back at Hira and said, “I’ve been ordered to turn you over to the higher ups in the House. Perhaps they will find your story more believable.” Then he left.

The shrar left and in walked a qiin, a very well appointed zlilfian. She was one of the tallest members of species at almost six feet tall, and were usually the heads of the Great Houses and members of the highest offices of government.

“Hello Hiraksyua,” the qiin said in a smooth, easy voice that set Hira more on edge. “Please, come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we can get the appropriate answers,” the qiin said.

“That’s not an answer.”

“It is all you are going to get for now.”

After a few hours of travel, of taking one truck to another truck to a small plane, and the entire time being ignored by the qiin, they arrived at their destination on the other side of the island.

“This is the Great House of Dinchdrast,” the qiin said. “Welcome.”

“Is it finally safe for you to talk to me now?” Hira responded. She knew that this qiin was more powerful and connected than she was, with the authority to match, but Hira was getting extremely annoyed. She’d been questioned so many times, answering the same questions over and over again. She barely had anything to eat, she had a headache from all the things happening and the forcible change in her sleep schedule. To top it all off, she hadn’t had a chance to clean up after the sap incident before all of this happened.

“No,” the qiin said with what Hira assumed was a hint of delight. “But you may call me Keitàns.”

Hira said nothing for a moment. “Why take me here?”

“Because in a few moments we will be able to speak freely.”

The pair walked through the Great House of Dinchdrast which was located near the volcano in the center of the island, on the eastern side. It was an impressive city, as most Great Houses were. The combination of wood and glass always felt very comforting to Hira, as it did to most zlilfians, but there was something of an artistry to Dinchdrast.

“What do you do here?” Hira asked. There had to be something special about this House or this zone.

“We specialize in the harvesting and cultivation of the dinchert drastuu,” Kei explained as if that explained everything.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Whatever could you have possibly meant?” the qiin said as she lead Hira into a large building on the edge of the city, somewhat near the airport where they landed.

The building looked like any other office hive, where work was done that had a lot to do with the management of the Great House and not directly related to the work outside. The receptionists and security didn’t stop Kei or Hira as they walked right in and towards the elevators.

“What is this place?” Hira asked again.

“This is Untouched Horizons,” the qiin answered, carefully watching Hira for her reaction.

“Impossible,” Hira said with the easy calm of someone who knew their history. Or thought they did.

“Why is that?” Kei asked as the elevator moved smoothly up.

“I mean I haven’t been outside my home zone before, but Untouched Horizons was suspended as a Great House more than a century ago. They couldn’t keep up with the demands of the zone and most of the world had been mapped by that point.”

“That’s what they say,” the qiin said as she turned from Hira and looked out at the city beyond the windowed wall of the elevator taking them up.

“What do you want with me?” Hira asked, her apprehension growing more and more the closer they seem to be getting to their final destination.

“I have some questions for you, and it is extremely important that you are honest and forthright. Depending on how you answer, we shall see.”

“I have to get Rafe back,” Hira said. She was her partner, they were supposed to look out for each other. And now Rafe was gone, Hira was supposed to do something.

“We shall see what we can do.”

The qiin led Hira into a large conference room made of beautiful dark wood and one wall all glass to look out at the zlilfian jungles and the volcano rising in the distance. There was a long table and several chairs, along with a bowl filled with various fruits.

“Sit, eat,” Kei said as she selected a chair and sat herself. “I have several questions, but I would like you to tell me what happened. I understand you’ve repeated this story many times, and I apologize for that. I think it is crucial that I get your version, from your point of view, without any interruptions of second hand editorializing.”

Hira grabbed some fruit and took a bite, taking a moment to both sate her hunger and think of how to start. This whole thing had gotten very strange very quickly.

Before she could start another zlilfian came in, this one smaller than the qiin, but still several inches taller than Hira. They were probably a jdagins, the middle gender that was usually given the important tasks of the day to day minding of the Great Houses.

“I apologize for the delay,” he said as he took a seat at the far end of the table.

“Ignore him,” Kei instructed, “and tell me everything.”

Hira started her explanation, going all the way back to when she woke up the previous afternoon. It went slowly at first, as this was the third or fourth time she’d gone through it. But the more she spoke the faster she went. Kei didn’t interrupt her a single time. Not to question her or ask for any clarifications. She simply waited and listened.

It took almost twenty minutes for Hira to finish her story and when she did, she finally sat down. “Now what? Will you answer my questions?”

Kei nodded.

“What happened to me? Where is Rafe? Who was that human? What were they after? Why was everything so dead silent around them? Why is Untouched Horizons still a house but not a house with it’s own zone like everyone else? Who are you? Who is that? Where am I? What is happening?”

Kei let Hira go until she ran out of breath.

“As I said, I am Keitàns, the current qiin head of Untouched Horizons. That is Alteduf, one of my experts. For a very long time, Untouched Horizons has been devoted to one thing and one thing only, studying, and if necessary, battling the old enemy of the zlilfian people. The Silence. What do you know of the Silence?”

“Only what I’ve read or learned at mediations.”

“Ah, so you are a follower of the Path of the Sun?”

“My parents are.”

“Of course, of course. What do you know?”

“It’s some kind of metaphor or something. It’s a dread or lack of activity that can infect a person or a hive and collapse everything. We are a loud species, everything we do makes some kind of noise, so if we are totally silent, we die,” Hira said, summarizing all the stuff she learned over the years of being taken to religious mediations.

Kei nodded. “Unfortunately, it is something that I will always hold against the religions. Their subtle twisting of the Silence into some metaphor, like you said. It isn’t a metaphor, it is a real thing, an entity we barely understand. It comes to a place, and it slowly spreads, expands across entire continents and planets until all life on them ceases. The Silence almost destroyed us once. Untouched Horizons has been waiting for something like this for a very long time. We’ve investigated several things that we thought might have been the Silence finally coming to destroy us, and this seems to be the first-”

“Second,” Alteduf interrupted from the otherside of the room. “Sorry, continue.”

“Second,” Kei said with a glare shot at Alt, “move in an invasion.”

“By the light of the sun,” Hira whispered. “You’re joking with me. This is some out of control prank Rafe has set up. Right?”

“Does she seem the type to do all of this, and be so mean to you, all for the sake of a joke?” Kei asked seriously.

“No,” Hira said, her entire body drooping, like it was affected too much by gravity. “What happened to her?”

“That is where I will leave you with Alt,” Kei said. “He is more foremost… He’s useful. And now that I have confirmed my worst suspicions I have some very pressing business to attend to.”

The qiin stood up to leave. Alt stood up too, and a moment later so did Hira. She wasn’t sure what the exact etiquette was for a qiin of a House that wasn’t supposed to exist leaving the room.

“What happened to Rafe?” Hira asked Alt.

He was a smaller zlilfian than Kei, but he was still seven inches taller than the diminutive Hira. He was dressed in a nice gray  suit, and moved with an easy going manner.

“I honestly don’t know,” he admitted. “Although I’m a bit behind as we were only made aware of the situation a few hours ago. I can promise you that we are looking for her even as we speak. The thing that is most trouble, in my estimation, is that there was a human on the island that was seemingly controlling her to some degree.”

“What was that about?”

“We can only speculate at this stage,” Alt explained gently.

“What did you mean by this was the second move?”

“We think that the Silence has settled over a small house in Chicago for some reason. The American government has already intervened to stop us before we could investigate, but I have a friend bringing in another witness that may help us put together more pieces of the puzzle.”

“I want to help!” Hira said loudly, surprising even herself with the demand. “Rafe is my friend. If she’s involved in this I want to help get her out of it.”

“I suspected as much,” Alt said. “I will take you to a room where you can get cleaned up and have a short rest. I have some coordinating to do before our guests arrive, as they are still a few hours out.”

“Promise you won’t leave me out of this.”

“I will do no such thing,” Alt said. “But I will promise to tell you more when I know more.”

“I guess that’s the best I’m going to get.”

Hira felt too wired to sleep, too much had happened to her recently. But when she got into the small room Alt showed her too, the second she stopped moving after getting cleaned up, she fell asleep.

Her dreams were bad, Rafe was off in danger and Hira was trapped, unable to do anything to save her friend.

i have a kofi

find me on pillowfort

#untitled ya novel #my fiction #we're approaching the end of part one!

[candidcover]

Amazon Giveaway: Quest of Awakening

Welcome to the book blitz for Quest of Awakening by Daniel Dickson! If you enjoy YA fantasy novels, this is one book to check out. Keep reading to learn more about the book and enter the giveaway to win a $25 Amazon gift card. (INT) Continue reading Untitled

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#amazon #books #gift card

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Could you please share what your book is about, and the kinds of characters in it?

Hah, thanks, Anon. I hope you are actually interested instead of just humoring me, but either way!

Short of pasting my draft query letter in here (which I do have--it's in my writing streams server), which needs to be updated anyhow...

Untitled Hell Book (God, I need a title; it's saved as "Winged Peoples" right now) is a YA fantasy novel, as are most (but not all) of the novels I write.

It follows a very impulsive teenager with ADHD named Tiadane who comes from a legendary city most humans think is myth on a quest to save his dying city, and the awkward teenager with learned helplessness named Cian he meets once he leaves who doesn't want him to die.

If I had to sum up the major characters' character...

Tiadane: Impulsive, determined, not great at planning or thinking things through fully, fiercely independent because he was raised in an environment in which he never even needed to ask for help because his community was so interdependent.

Cian: Practical, pretty perpetually worried about everything, doesn't really have any goals in life in the beginning, fiercely independent because he never had anyone he trusted himself to rely on.

Allare: Little bit snarky, flighty, friendly, but very closed off. Fiercely independent because he's terrified of responsibility.

Felicity: Loves learning and research above all else, fiercely independent due to her need to be able to control things and stay safe that way.

Felix: Provocative, helpful and extremely protective over everything they've decided falls under their protectorate. Fiercely independent due to knowing that the more people involved in things, the more things go wrong, and finds it difficult to trust anyone else's judgment.

Basically, the book is about mutually reciprocal relationships and learning to trust, help, and care for each other. What communities mean. Cultural revival and what's even possible when trying to rediscover something that's been destroyed. Trying to make something new and good out of a broken past.

Things like that.

#my writing

[nostalgicfornothingmp4]

Blog Intro <3

Hello! I haven’t done an intro post on this blog yet 

Name: A 

Age: 20 something don’t worry about it  

Pronouns: They/She/It  

Short Bio: I’m a college student working on a double major BFA who somehow got a job that allows Tumblr. Now I waste away here.  

Current Projects: Untitled YA Fantasy Novel, Horror Writing Anthology, Inktober Zine, Gallery Exhibition focusing on antiques and recycling 

INTERACT FOR: 

Dan and Phil + dnpg 

QSMP (Mostly Philza POV) 

Art 

Writing  

Chronic Illness/Disability (Hypermobility, POTS) 

Period positivity and Endometriosis  

Sorry Boys 

Hunger Games 

Percy Jackson 

Rocky Horror Picture Show (specifically shadowcasting!) 

Little Shop of Horrors 

Movies (Horror and Musicals) 

Antiques 

Vintage fashion and fashion history 

History in general 

Art Student Things  

BTS  

All For the Game 

The Raven Cycle 

Six of Crows 

DNI 

The usual, don’t be an ass 

Proshippers 

NSFW (jokes are fine but I mostly am here at work and I dont wanna see that here.)

Ableists 

Minors

Yeah thats about it lets be moots (userboxes below cut) 

#blog intro #intro #intro post

[the-merry-librarian]

Described as an “anti-historical Regency-era romp” by the publishers, Queen Bee is a fun, romantic YA novel following Lady Ela Dalvi as she makes her debut in London high society—disguised as untitled heiress Lyra Whitley, as part of her plot to take revenge. Three years ago, her best friend betrayed her and left her life in ruins, and all over a boy. Ela’s plan is simple: infiltrate the ton, disgrace her former best friend, and break the heart of the boy who broke hers. It’s not long before her past—and the feelings she thought she left behind—start making that plan more difficult, and less desirable, than she counted on.

Genre: Fiction, Romance

Target Age Group:

Ages 12-17

Justification:

I found this novel while browsing the BookRiot Best Books for Teens 2023 list, and was immediately intrigued. My big secret—or maybe not that big—is that I love Regency-era historical fiction, especially nontraditional historical fiction; Queen Bee immediately appealed to me because of that, and since I needed a romance novel to fill out my YA section, I decided it would be the perfect fit.

Evaluation:

For this review, I will be evaluating point of view, characters, and accuracy. The point of view here is interesting; chapters flip back and forth between present and past, indicating present-day chapters as “Lyra’s” point of view and past chapters as “Ela” to reflect the main character’s presented identity. The narrator often thinks of herself as having “killed” Ela to become someone new, and it’s interesting to be able to contrast the new, harder Lyra against the more naïve Ela before her downfall—although in truth they’re not very much different at all. The characters in the novel are unique, interesting and charming; while they appear at first to be a bit tropey, “Lyra” briefly makes light of this by assigning the boys nicknames based on their apparent roles, such as “The Rake” or “The Jester.” All of them are young adults in their late teens—Ela is eighteen in the present day, fifteen in the past—and while they lack a more layered, often politically-motivated depth that I find in adult Regency novels, they are nonetheless appealing and have individual personalities. They do, however, speak with a more modern syntax that is a little jarring. That leads nicely into discussing the accuracy of the novel; Queen Bee markets itself as anti-historical, and Amalie Howard states in her Author’s Note at the back of the book that this is “mostly because it features an entirely diverse cast” (p. 345). She goes on to explain that, while people of color and LGBTQ+ people were present in the Regency era, they were rarely written about; Howard discusses a few women of color who were part of Regency history, such as Princess Catherine Duleep, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, and Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. Aside from the diversity of the cast, however, the novel makes a great effort to be accurate, featuring real-life characters such as Lady Sefton & Lady Jersey and historically accurate settings like Vauxhall Gardens. Howard lists many of this research in her Author’s Note, and it’s impressive to read through it and realize how much effort she put in. While I definitely think I prefer Regency romances geared towards adults (and with more of a queer flavor), I enjoyed Queen Bee a lot. I’d recommend it for teens and perhaps for adults who are just getting into the genre.

References:

Doherty, A. (2023, October 5). The 20 best books for teens: 2023 picks. BOOK RIOT. https://bookriot.com/best-books-for-teens-2023/ Howard, A. (2023). Queen Bee. Random House Childrens Books. Random House Children’s Books. (2023, April 4). Queen Bee: Hardcover. Barnes & Noble. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/queen-bee-amalie-howard/1141727044 RH Childrens Books. (n.d.). Queen Bee by Amalie Howard. PenguinRandomhouse.com. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/696842/queen-bee-by-amalie-howard/

#queen bee #a: amalie howard #tag: young adult #g: fiction #g: romance