#tmatb ii

[keydekyie]

oh he's fast!!!

#tmatb #tmatb ii #ya'll who've read book ii know what this scene is? #idk man I'm just doodling and avoiding writing the next thing I need to write #hnng #grace makes art #ruyak #ch: upwind

[definitely-not-knightress]

When I first saw that @keydekyie had physical versions their books I knew I had to get them, I’m just so happy that they finally came in today :3

#the moth and the bear #tmatb ii #these books are such a good read! #also #i need to clean up my desk lol

[theboarsbride]

Name 5 movies/book/songs/etc that inspired each of your stories!

:0

OOO!!! So sorry this took too long to get around, but thank you so, so much for sending this ask in!! 🥺💛

The Monster and the Butterfly🥀🦋

Crimson Peak - and Guillermo del Toro's whole filmography, tbh, but Crimson Peak especially. And also other ghost movies/shows, such as The Orphanage, The Others, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mama, Paranormal Activity, The Conjuring I & II.

Panna a Netvor/Beauty and the Beast (1979), as well as Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete.

Various dark fantasy movies and books from the 1980s/90s like The Dark Crystal, Legend, The Company of Wolves, etc. and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber.

Shelley Duvall's Fairytale Theater "Beauty and the Beast" episode (literally why Susan Sarandon - who plays Beauty - is Sophie's fc)... and honestly, on that same note, Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy because the fucking music is so good, and Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue is the whole reason why the modern version of Edgar exists (and is his fc) lmao.

A Taste for Monsters by Matthew Kirby - and to add onto this, KIND OF?? Is that a lot of inspiration for TMATB came from the hate I feel towards some modern BATB retellings (i.e.- Sarah J Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series especially) that feature conventionally attractive 'Beasts' who are only beasts in the sense that they're awful, toxic, cruel people who, to me, don't deserve redemption or romance - or even friendship - as well as female protagonists who are just so, so unlikeable in their bitterness, idiocy, and Mary Sue-ness??? I wanted to write a romance that featured love interests that were unconventional in appearance, flawed but still likeable, and having a relationship that is healthy/consensual!

Cheating and adding a 6th one, but the works of Abigail J. Harding's Parliament of Rooks portfolio! GOTHIC BIRD MONSTER BELOVED!

Those Red Nights🌕🐺

Using Bob Odenkirk as a fc for a werewolf character - literally that's the whole reason why this story exists lmfao. So you bet I was watching the hell out of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad for inspo (and simp material)!

Silence of the Lambs, the movie especially! But there is also Thomas Harris' Red Dragon novel (and the movie starring Ed Norton and Anthony Hopkins, and the movie Manhunter) that was a source of inspiration!

David Fincher's Se7en - I wanted to write a neo-Noir story for a hot minute, especially ones with psychological horror elements!

Nightmare by Tuesday Knight - this just helped me develop the idea of TRN being a psychological horror, and writing about the themes surrounding nightmares, the haunting effects of guilt, etc.

Werewolf movies like Bad Moon and Silver Bullet

Temperance & Mr. Wyrm 🐍⚕️- I don't talk about this WIP much but I still think about it regularly!

Wanting to do a retelling of the fairytale "The Lindworm Prince" and also wanting to explore writing a weird body horror romance!

The Shape of Water - again, del Toro out here inspiring goofy fucking monster romances!

David Cronenberg's The Fly - tragic body horror romance goodness, my beloved!

General 1980s media and pop culture - a lot of this was kind of inspired by reading My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix! It's a book set in the 80s and utilizes the 80s nostalgia, but it also doesn't shy away from how ugly the 80s were in terms of social stigmas for people who weren't straight white men. In TAMW especially what I'd be alluding to is the stigma surrounding AIDS, and other blood-borne illnesses.

And, lowkey, wanting to have Gwendoline Christie as a fc for a character?? Like, idk, with who Temperance is as a character within the novella, Christie seems to fit her super well! Also the tall gf x short bf is a ship dynamic I ADORE! (also the character of Jack, the titular 'Mr. Wyrm,' is another character where I use Brad Dourif as a fc for but shhhhh i know I'm cringe, don't remind me)

These are the main WIPs I still work on!! There is also The Faeries and the Lark but that's more on the backburner for now, but that story was inspired by wanting to do a genderbent retelling of Sleeping Beauty but has now turned into a Gothic/dark fantasy Sapphic romance that's a funky blend between Sleeping Beauty and East of the Sun, West of the Moon that's inspired by Scandinavian folklore and seeing images of women in armor lmao.

But if there are any WIPs you'd wanna learn about, give me a shout and I'm more than willing to scream about these goofy, silly little stories!!

#jojo rambles #jojo writes #The Monster and the Butterfly #Those Red Nights #Temperance and Mr. Wyrm #The Faeries and the Lark

[keydekyie]

the boy lacks emotional self awareness

scene from book II

#felt like illustrating this scene from book II #I think this is the very last time he manhandles her like this #a conversation is had and Ruyak takes it to heart #because he really does care! he's just an idiot! #and I don't think at this point he realized how MUCH he cares until Kaelin straight up left his sorry ass in the woods for a whole day #and he realized he'd fucked up badly but didn't know how or why #actually uh... there will be more handling like this later it'll just be y'know... consensual lmao #it takes time but they get around to it #tmatb #tmatb ii #grace makes art #gt #giant/tiny #sfw gt #sfw g/t #ch: the game

[keydekyie]

tfw you upset your giant monster friend and he accidentally triggers your fight or flight response

▶───◆──◈──◇──◈──◆───◀

a portion of a scene in chapter 17 of The Crossing

#what's the context of this? read the book lol #tmatb #tmatb ii #idk if this hits right or not but it's been so long since I drew a proper comic I felt very out of my element #but I need to get something out! it's been too long! #and I do like how the expressions turned out #trying out a little different coloring and shading techniques #keeping it simple and bright? idk #grace makes art #gt #giant/tiny #sfw gt #ch: a disagreement

[keydekyie]

Reaching out, yearning to help, then flinching back, afraid of making things worse. Afraid to reach out, afraid not to. Afraid of hurting, afraid of being hurt. Afraid afraid afraid. 

Desperate to trust, to be trusted, and desperately afraid of both.

#g/t #tmatb #tmatb ii #tmatb iii #animation #grace makes art #gt #giant/tiny #monster #terato

[keydekyie]

POV: you are a humble plainclothes officer and your acquaintance has very politely invited you to meet her friend, who happens to be one of the extremely dangerous creatures you've spent your entire career hunting, and you are desperately trying to maintain your composure as he does his best to intimidate the shit out of you

#this is an old drawing I touched up #I like it SO much better now #tmatb II #grace makes art #tmatb #listen Vadik has guts I'll give him that #it's really too bad Ruyak hasn't been told yet that his eyes glowing like that is fucking scary #I think he would have been thrilled at the prospect in this scene #gt #sfwgt #monsters #ch: questions for answers

[keydekyie]

It was strange, how the sight of her looking up at him from that pocket made everything feel so much less daunting for a moment, made the world feel so much smaller, so much friendlier.

excerpt from book II

#gt #tmatb #tmatb II #grace makes art #ch: upwind

[keydekyie]

"Sorry, you have, uh... you have something..."

#ruyak caught a kreezin that was rummaging through his stuff and ate it without thinking #tmatb #tmatb ii #grace makes art #blood #tw blood #ruyak #kaelin #ch: imagination

[keydekyie]

😏

Something from book II: The Crossing.

#tmatb #tmatb ii #writing

[keydekyie]

Any advice you might have for others who wanna publish but can’t seem to get their plots in order?

This turned into a lot o.o; sorry!

lol I'm not maybe the best to ask since it did take me more than 6 years to write a sequel to book I, but my advice would be to talk it through to someone else. Like verbally. Or maybe even to yourself! Explaining the plot (or something else important to the overarching story, like themes, motifs, or character arcs) can help me recognize things to work on. I talk to my partner a LOT!

Maybe the most important thing is to get things out of your head and onto paper (or a computer screen, as the case may be) so that you aren't trying to hold a lot of stuff in your brain that you don't need to be holding. Leaves room for the ideas and better organization. I'll expound on how I do that below.

I also like to zoom in and out of the story to help me keep perspective. When I feel like I need a closer emotional connection to it, I get real granular and write some dialogue, a dramatic scene or internal thoughts, or a description of some visceral physical thing, or maybe sketch some expressions or scene ideas. Might use it, might not. If I like something a lot, it may help me to know I need to move the story in that direction. When I feel too bogged down by stuff or directionless, I zoom waaaay out and write plot outlines or emotional arcs.

There are a few anchoring pieces that I build the story around. I take care not to forget them.

And of course I keep an outline of the story going, but I think it's important to keep things flexible. Why get hung up on putting things in a certain order or doing it a certain way when maybe it's better a completely different way? I've moved huge chunks of story all over the place. If it makes the story flow better or gives a scene a better emotional impact, then I do that! No rules, babey!

I think the thing that's hardest for me with this way of writing is not being able to share things as I write them, since I don't commit to anything. It makes it hard to stay motivated, because I'm not getting constant feedback and encouragement from people, but it makes the story easier to mold and form because I don't have to fit things to whatever I've already shared. If I write a big long chapter and two months later I want to completely scrap it in favor of something else, it's fine. There's no restrictions.

Oh btw my outlines are pretty loose and silly. I have a lot of stuff like this in them:

I also like to write out the various ideas I have to resolve conflicts so I can play around with them. I don't like to choose the easiest, cleanest options, I like to pick the options that balance sense with potential drama.

Example for the fight at the Motylek altar in book II chapter 9:

[MAJOR spoilers for book II below]

One other thing I found helps a lot is to have an exhaustive list of characters with their physical descriptions, ages, jobs, families, locations, basic personalities, and relevant beliefs in an easy to read format. I don't use all the characters I come up with, but it gives me things to springboard off of and helps me stay consistent. I made up and grouped dozens of Motylek villagers that I didn't end up using, but I had them ready just in case.

I've also found that drawing out the story in various visual forms helps me. For book II I drew all over a map where the characters were physically going and when.

[MAJOR spoilers for book II below]

I also like making visual aids for other aspects of the story. Below is a chart I made to figure out Ruyak and Kaelin's growing relationship in book II with its ups and downs. It roughly graphs Kaelin's confidence in Ruyak over time (it's not to scale, it's just based on significant factoring plot points)

This is just half the graph since the other half is book III stuff. You can see there are two horizontal lines I use for reference, the lower one is where Kaelin starts at the beginning of book II, the higher one is uh... something significant that happens later lol. You can see Kaelin's confidence actually started out higher before the start of book II and went down until Loske. This chart helps me keep track of where she's at while I'm writing so I can keep her behavior consistent even though I jump around a lot while I'm writing.

A thing of note: none of this stuff is set in stone when I make it! I changed things many times as I wrote, and added and removed things willy nilly.

I don't know if any of this is helpful or not! But it's what helps me, so... y'know.

#ask #herebegiants #tmatb #tmatb ii #advice

[keydekyie]

brothers fighting. again.

#tmatb ii #kadu #tmatb #grace makes art #ch: the truth

[keydekyie]

The Moth and the Bear Book II goes live tomorrow!

Tomorrow (August 27th) Book II will finally be available on Kindle and Smashwords. Within a few days, the paperback will also be available, though Amazon doesn't tell me exactly when.

If I get any asks or post anything spoilery, I will be tagging it "#tmatb II spoilers", so feel free to blacklist that until you're done reading.

As a reminder, I did split what I was calling book II into two books, because otherwise it would have been abominably long. The good news is that it means book III is already mostly done. The bad news is that you'll still have to wait a little longer for it.

Anyway I'm just really excited for people to read it. I've worked very hard on it and I think it's genuinely really good. Way better than book I, anyway.

Thanks again to my beta readers for helping me with those final touches, and to everyone for their support and kind words.

Happy reading!

#tmatb #tmatb II

[keydekyie]

I'd got a few ideas for requests, but how about on pages 227 to 230 (physical book) where Kaelin and Ruyak have their fight near the road to Loske

I've not had the easiest time focusing these days so this is taking WAY too long to draw, but while I was trying to work on it I realized how cool of a thing it was to have the book page actually open on my desk while illustrating the scene and I got all excited lmao

#what a time to be alive eh? #I can self publish and have my own book sitting there while I draw scenes from it #how neat is that? #that's pretty neat #yes I still have Windows 7 don't judge #computers don't grow on trees you know #tmatb #tmatb ii #grace makes art #ask

[keydekyie]

Oh my god I'm done. I'm finally done. Holy shit.

~122,331 words~

31 chapters

fuckin... 6 years???

holy shit

#first draft completely done babyyyyy!!! #which means it's time for a wee bit of editing and maybe some beta readers #tmatb ii #shooting for an august publishing date maybe? #tmatb #grace your face

[keydekyie]

Hi! I am super stoked to read your second book soon! Is there any chance you could post a small sneak peak of a fluff scene or part of the next book? Those were always my favorite parts of your first book🥰

Ask and ye shall receive (though it's hard to find fluffy scenes that aren't peppered with spoilers, I think this one ends on a cute note). For context, the two of them have been traveling together for a little more than a month at this point. They've been slowly getting more comfortable with each other and haven't encountered all that much mortal peril yet.

The Stranger

Excerpt from TMatB II: The Crossing (Chapter 26: Upwind) 1408 words, no content warnings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After making camp that afternoon, the weather started turning again.

It wasn’t surprising, spring in the mountains was always temperamental, but as Ruyak picked his way through the brush, the smell of coming cold rains put him a bit on edge. The wind was biting, and overhead a blanket of clouds rushed across the sky as though they had somewhere to be.

The change wasn’t all bad. It did bring with it the hope Kaelin would forgo her tent again. Weather like this made Ruyak the better option, and the prospect was oddly enchanting to him. For the moment, though, he needed to get some hunting done.

He was moving across the wind away from their camp, hoping to pick up the scent of something as he went. If he picked up a trail in enough time before the weather turned, he’d count himself supremely lucky.

The spring foliage was truly starting to thicken up here and there, shiny green leaves unfurling all around in impenetrable clumps. Everything smelled fresh and growing, even in the cool air. If he couldn’t find prey here, Ruyak was hopeful about finding other fare.

He paused to more closely sniff a spot that caught his attention. Boar, less than a day gone. Young male. No… several males, mixed ages. Ruyak walked along the trail, sniffing carefully. The herd of boar had headed east. If they were still somewhere over there, his own scent was likely wafting on the breeze towards them. That was inconvenient, but he took off in that direction anyway. If he had any hope of catching them before they were alerted to his presence, he’d need to hurry.

He tracked the scent with his nose close to the ground, following the trail. It wasn’t too difficult, as boar usually made tracking easy with how much they stirred up the leaf litter as they foraged, but he needed to stay close to it. Wherever the forest opened up, the scent was stale and mixed up by the wind.

Finally, Ruyak heard a soft rustling in the brush up ahead, and he broke from the trail to move downwind of his quarry. When he found the right place, he crouched down in a patch of thick foliage to watch.

The forest before him was clear and open, smelling strongly of cool, decaying pineneedles and mushrooms and podzol. Mediocre terrain for a chase. It’d be slippery, and a boar would be able to turn quickly around the huge trees.

The thing about boar was that, like Ruyak, they were faster than they looked.

Ruyak watched motionlessly from the edge of the thicket as the boar meandered through the towering pines. It was just one boar, a male, a few years past his prime, but very large and well fed. He had a slight limp in his left hind leg that was only apparent when he raised his head to move to his next rooting place. He smelled clean, no recent injuries or illnesses, but a little stressed. The limp was worrying him, or something else was.

Ruyak started to creep forward, but then another scent caught his attention.

He almost disregarded it at first, thinking he’d somehow crossed his own trail, but it only took a second of consideration to realize how foolish that was. Ruyak ground to a halt and snorted, heart turning over, and at the sudden sound the boar sped off with a wailing screech. Ruyak didn’t care. Boar forgotten, he scrambled back to where he’d noticed the new scent.

A Kanai, just a few minutes gone. Ruyak wasted another moment trying to determine whether the scent was familiar or not, before realizing in what direction the trail was going.

Whoever it was, they were at that moment somewhere between him and camp. Camp, where Kaelin was. Alone. 

They could be doing anything. They’d had plenty of time while Ruyak was wandering after boar trails. And Kaelin was alone.

And then Ruyak was sprinting, tearing through the woods as fast as his legs could carry him. Panic spurred him straight through every obstacle he met, and in no time at all he was crashing through the trees back into their campsite. 

He skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust and looked around. The abject stillness of the camp felt alarming enough to kill him. 

“Kaelin?” he wheezed.

After a few heart-stopping seconds, a little red headscarf poked cautiously out of a pocket in his pack, and the relief at the sight was so debilitating Ruyak could have collapsed right there. He managed to steady himself and stagger closer, but Kaelin didn’t come out to greet him, instead cringing fearfully back into the pocket. 

Too breathless from running to speak and lacking the patience to wait for her to speak on her own, Ruyak crouched down to sniff the pocket Kaelin was hiding in. She smelled afraid, of course, but unhurt. That would have to do, for now.

Ruyak turned away and stood fully upright to look around at the forest and sniff the air. The stranger would likely be downwind, probably biding their time. Watching. Listening. In any case, Ruyak couldn’t catch the scent of them anymore, so they hadn’t come into the camp after all.

Kaelin’s annoyed voice came from below, “What are you doing?” 

She’d emerged from her hiding place and was glaring up at Ruyak with her arms crossed. Of course, Kaelin would have no awareness of the stranger’s presence. From her perspective, Ruyak had just come barreling back into the small clearing at full speed like a living landslide for no apparent reason.

“Sorry,” Ruyak gasped, still breathless. He fell back onto all fours with a heavy thump, and Kaelin staggered back. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Of course I’m alright. What’s going on?”

“There’s someone around.”

“Who?”

“A stranger,” Ruyak explained. “A Kanai stranger.”

Kaelin’s eyes widened, all annoyance evaporating. “Oh…”

Ruyak watched her face as her eyes raked the trees. He blinked hard, trying to push from his mind all the grotesque imaginings that had started accumulating the moment he’d realized in what direction the stranger’s trail was heading. His fur prickled. “I was… I wasn’t sure I’d make it back in time,” he said miserably. 

“Well, apparently you did,” Kaelin chuckled. She looked up at him, rubbing her arms. “What should we do, now?”

“Leave. Definitely leave.”

“Okay.”

Kaelin stepped away, giving Ruyak room to get to his pack. Hardly anything had been unpacked, so it only took a moment to get everything put away and strap it on. The only sign of their presence would be the unlit pile of firewood in the middle of the clearing.

“Ready?” Ruyak crouched down, watching Kaelin expectantly with one arm angled for her to climb up, but she hesitated.

“Could I actually, um…” she pointed at Ruyak’s chest.

“What? You want in the pocket instead?”

“Would you mind?”

Ruyak laughed at Kaelin’s sheepish expression. “I’d greatly prefer it, actually.” He leaned further down and flipped the top of the pocket open with one claw. Now Ruyak was glad he had kept the pocket empty ever since their visit to Urike’s, in case Kaelin wanted to ride in it again.

Kaelin squared her shoulders and marched over, spent a moment awkwardly scrambling up into the pocket, and finally tumbled into the bottom with a disgruntled huff. Ruyak waited a moment longer while she arranged herself, and finally she popped her head out.

“Ready,” she said.

Ruyak blinked at her. It was strange, how the sight of her looking up at him from that pocket made everything feel so much less daunting for a moment, made the world feel so much smaller, so much friendlier. It was even better than pretending to be a tent.

Kaelin cocked an eyebrow at him, tilting her head. “Well?”

Ruyak inhaled. The wind shifted, carrying the stranger’s scent straight to his nose, and suddenly the world was a hostile place again. He shook his head and got moving, heading northwest. “It’s nothing.”

“Why do you prefer I ride in here, anyway?” Kaelin asked.

“Oh, uh… it’s just safer, probably,” Ruyak fumbled over his words as he tried to avoid blurting what he was thinking, which wasn’t very coherent in his head anyway and probably would have come out wrong. His attention was too split between worry and euphoria for any eloquence. “And it’s getting cold. It might rain.”

#listen liSTEN LISTEN #this is an important moment for both of them #Kaelin making the choice to be in the pocket #choosing the option that makes her simultaneously more vulnerable and easier to protect #Ruyak recognizing that he likes being trusted in that way #tmatb #tmatb ii #writing #gt #g/t #gt fluff #excerpt