unlockthelore

[unlockthelore]

are you still working on follow the yellow bells?

Hello!

The short answer to your question is, yes, I am still working on the second chapter of Follow the Yellow Bells. The longer answer is that I'm deciding on the fate of Broken But Still Good as a series which may change the trajectory of Follow the Yellow Bells.

#encanto #follow the yellow bells #lore update

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime), 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Manga) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sesshoumaru (InuYasha) & Setsuna (Hanyou no Yashahime) Characters: Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Setsuna (Hanyou no Yashahime) Additional Tags: Vignette, Father-Daughter Relationship Summary:

Sesshо̄maru during the early morning, thinking deeply, and trying his best as a father.

#sesshomaru #setsuna #hanyou no yashahime #inuyasha fanfiction

[unlockthelore]

Summary

Thanks are given for what went unnoticed, hopes for the future become known, and most of all - Kagome doesn’t feel alone - because her family is with her.

#atat #inukag #moroha #higurashi kagome #inuyasha #shippo

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime), 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Manga) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime)/Original Female Character(s), Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime) & Original Female Character(s), Higurashi Towa & Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime) Characters: Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime), Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Falling In Love Summary:

Moroha got along pretty well with her cousins. Especially Towa. So why was it that she wanted to punch her right now?

#hny #inuyasha fanfic #moroha #higurashi towa #nijizuki

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Encanto (2021) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Antonio Madrigal & Resident(s) of Encanto Village (Disney) Characters: Antonio Madrigal, Residents of Encanto Village (Disney), Parce the Jaguar (Disney), Pico the Toucan (Disney) Additional Tags: Light Angst, Heart-to-Heart, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Movie: Encanto (2021) Series: Part 2 of Broken But Still Good Summary:

Antonio has a few questions about Mirabel, and who better to answer them than a friend of hers.

#encanto #broken but still good #antonio madrigal

[unlockthelore]

A Guide for the Pregnant Adventurer

Whilst you are pregnant, you may want to take time off. But, if you are like me, as I suspect you probably are, the adventurer’s life stops for nothing and no one; not even when you’re growing an entirely new being.

After 4 pregnancies on the job, here’s some knowledge I have amassed.

Your blood is extremely valuable and tasty to various beings and creatures, you will want to brush up on your protection charms and technique.

If you dabble in spellwork, your blood will give everything you do a boost.

Never offer your blood as payment to the shadows or their puppets.

Never sign your firstborn over, I mean ethically you shouldn’t sign any of your children over, but firstborns have a sacred magic.

Newly pregnant? You already smell stronger (hormones are fun) and you’ll only get more unwanted attention the bigger you get; wearing a satchel of strong smelling plants will do you good.

And YOUR nose is getting keener as well, the strong smelling plants won’t smell nice to you at all (but you’d rather stay alive, yeah?)

It is a very good idea to call in your favors, hopefully you’ve made some good friends and business partners on your travels.

Always carry silver and iron on you, in whatever way pleases you, and know who to use it on.

Music is your friend, as well as your little one’s.

Morning sickness is a bitch and, contrary to the name, also happens ALL DAY, keep loads of ginger tea stocked up.

You will be nauseous and hungry at the same time, especially during your first trimester, keep snackies (and healthy ones, though I know the personal struggle of craving copious amounts of nachos in the middle of a jungle)(12-16):

Dates are good for keeping your iron levels up.

Granola-based mixes are easy and you can add so many things!

You can never go wrong with berries.

Garlic is really good, but not a lot, it’s a natural vasodilator; you could bleed out.

Honey is okay, as long as it’s pasteurized.

Sleeping is generally not comfy while adventuring, even less so while pregnant, invest in a good maternity pillow (I would say that even if you stayed at home though).

Adventuring away from your family doctor or midwife is no excuse, don’t you dare shirk your checkups, find one in every town you get to.

A pregnant woman has long been a symbol of a bridge between the spiritual and physical, that is still true.

If you possess psychic abilities, these will probably strengthen, the veil may permanently lift whilst you carry and even some time after you give birth.

If this happens, I advise you stay away from places where a lot of death permanently resides, don’t go searching for vampires and don’t take strolls through cemeteries.

If you begin to see auras around people and beings, stay far far away from yellow and pink.

Pick up white feathers for protection, cleanse them with willow smoke, rinse them with moonwater, and wear them about your head.

If birds start appearing in your weirdo pregnancy dreams (oh those are coming, I promise) pay attention and write down every detail you can remember, especially the type of bird.

Go to a dream shaman you trust and get them translated.

Whilst you are pregnant, your appeals will be favored by fertility deities and you will be welcomed and protected in whatever place of worship is dedicated to them, even if you don’t worship them (also, besides home or the hospital, there’s like no better place to give birth, they are very professional).

The fae have a little known law that if a woman carrying a son enters their forest olde, she is to be fed; but be careful, it doesn’t specify what to feed her, not all fae will favor you little mother.

The life you carry is a massive well of destiny, as such, your aura will change whilst you carry and you may react differently to totems and magics that you once could use with ease.

Last bit, very important, read carefully: nothing protects a young mother more than her tribe; find your tribe.

I wish you the best of luck, sisters.

More guides

A guide to working the night shift

A Guide to Surviving American Suburbia

If you are a researcher or adventurer and want to share a guide, join our subreddit!

[unlockthelore]

I have seen a lot of emphasis on the idea that people need to recharge/refill their cup in order to continue to create, like you're a battery running down. And I think for some people that's probably true and helpful.

But I don't think I've ever seen anyone say that like... that's not always the case. It doesn't always feel like trying to scrape up something that isn't there. It doesn't feel like mustering up energy because it's low.

Sometimes writing gets hard because you're overstimulated by it. You've saturated your thoughts so thoroughly with the story you've become fatigued of it. You open the document and it's right there again, and you stare at it or you ignore it while you do other things, because you assume having it open will make you think about it more, and you're not even entirely wrong. The story is screaming in your head. Everything is full.

And that's such an opposite feeling to the one most people describe. It's not at all what needing a recharge feels like. You haven't emptied anything, you're overflowing and it's making it just as hard to actually write as if you had nothing. But the solution is the same.

Sometimes you need to step away until the static quiets, because you've just had too much instead of too little.

[unlockthelore]

You Can't Please Everybody

I think one of the biggest mistakes that a writer can make is trying to please everybody. This is especially true for genres like humour, fantasy, or science fiction where people can have very different ideas about what is good as well as very different ideas about what is or is not part of the genre. The important thing is to realise who you’re writing for and to write accordingly.

Take hard science fiction. Not everybody enjoys the attention to detail and realism present in most hard science fiction. There are readers who enjoy science fiction for the futuristic vistas it presents and its application of seemingly miraculous technology. To those readers, the minutiae of how a faster-than-light drive could work are unnecessary. It’s enough for them that such a thing exists. Likewise, these readers probably don’t need an in-depth description about how laser weapons would work over large distances in space or how a deflector shield might operate. What they’re interested in is getting to see all of those technologies in action.

This is not a bad thing.

People can read whatever they want and enjoy whatever stories they want. As a writer, however, you need to be careful about how you interpret criticism from people who dislike a story because it’s not what they’re looking for, as opposed to it being poorly written. You could write a story that every single hard science fiction fan loves… but which people outside of that group don’t particularly like.

And that’s okay.

That doesn’t mean your story is bad. It simply means that it has a targeted audience. You could, of course, try to broaden the story’s appeal by changing it, but you need to be very careful. Stories are usually written the way they are for a reason, so making drastic changes to them can go very badly. A hard science fiction story will have its plot and characters constrained by the scientific details involved. Relaxing those details or not covering them fully runs the risk of making the story incoherent or nonsensical. In trying to make the story more appealing to a broader audience, you run the risk of ruining it entirely.

A similar approach can be applied to humour.

Imagine you have a story that is built around dark humour. Now, dark humour is not everyone’s cup of tea. There are going to be people who read a story like that and simply don’t find it funny. You could change the humour to try to appeal to a broader audience, but again, you run a very real risk of gutting the story to do so. A story built around ridiculous humour or outlandish premises runs a similar risk.

This phenomena is also noticeable in fantasy.

I know people who have vowed never to read A Song of Ice and Fire because they don’t like how dark the books can get and how it has a tendency to kill off beloved characters. They want to read more traditional heroic and optimistic fantasy. Conversely, I know people who prefer A Song of Ice and Fire precisely because of those things. Can you imagine if George R.R. Martin changed the story to try to appeal to everyone? Good grief. It would be a disaster.

As a writer, hearing that someone doesn’t like your story never feels great. But you need to think about why they didn’t like it. Was it poorly written? Were there serious problems in the way the characters and plot were constructed? Or was it simply not the kind of story the reader was looking for? Don’t tie yourself up into knots if the reader was just looking for a different kind of story.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here. I’ve also just released a new story, Cosmic Delivery Boy!

Also, Cosmic Delivery Boy is now available on Audible! You can get it here.

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Higurashi Kagome & InuYasha (InuYasha) & Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime), Higurashi Kagome & Inuyasha (InuYasha) & Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime) & Shippou (Inuyasha) Characters: Higurashi Kagome, InuYasha (InuYasha), Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime), Shippou (InuYasha) Additional Tags: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Curtain Fic, Married Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Inutachi as Found Family (InuYasha), Unplanned Pregnancy, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Father-Daughter Relationship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, can be read independently Series: Part 49 of Affections Touching Across Time Summary:

A flower, no matter how unassuming, carries beauty within its petals.

Kagome enjoyed her life. Showering her little family with affection, enjoying the growth of her extended family, and living everyday in the future cultivated with the person she loved. She wouldn't wish for a single thing to change. However, change is a gift that is unpredictable in its appearance and nature. Hearing of her pregnancy from her four-year-old daughter shakes the foundation beneath her feet and reminds her of the beauty of tomorrow.

( in other words, Kagome is expecting her second child and cannot wait to meet them)

#inukag #higurashi kagome #inuyasha #atat #shippo #moroha

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kohaku & Rin (InuYasha), Kohaku & Sango (InuYasha) Characters: Kohaku (InuYasha), Rin (InuYasha), Sango (InuYasha) Additional Tags: Developing Friendships, Character Study, Side Story, No Dialogue Series: Part 17 of Affections Touching Across Time Summary:

When he was younger, Kohaku couldn't understand his sister. Now that he was older, he hoped Rin could understand him.

EXCERPT

Neither of them gave up on him, welcoming him back, asking him to come with them. Rin had no home to give him but she had a heart big enough to house him and all his regrets. His sister had no home because of him, but she reassured him that they could still live together. How could he argue with that?

#atat #kohaku #rin #sango #inuyasha fanfiction

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 21/? Fandom: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime), 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Manga) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Higurashi Towa & Setsuna, Kohaku/Shippou (InuYasha) Characters: Rin (InuYasha), Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Higurashi Kagome, InuYasha (InuYasha), Higurashi Towa, Setsuna (Hanyou no Yashahime), Moroha (Hanyou no Yashahime), Kohaku (InuYasha), Shippou (InuYasha) Additional Tags: Drabble Collection, Romance, Fluff and Humor, POV Alternating, Self-Reflection, Family Feels Summary:

A drabble collection with varying themes and styles, taking place in canon verse and alternate universes, at times based on prompts or random thoughts.

Recent Update 21. Part of the Family - On a typical morning, Towa and Setsuna come to a conclusion about Jaken.

#hanyou no yashahime #yashahime #setsuna #higurashi towa #jaken

[unlockthelore]

PREVIEW

Towa slowly chewed on her rice, thinking back to shreds of conversations she could hardly enjoy without losing focus. The gentle, sweet domesticity of being home was different than what she faced outside. But, if it was possible to keep them safe here so these days could go on like this - she didn't mind too much.

#hanyou no yashahime #yashahime #towa higurashi

[unlockthelore]

Hi, I reread Follow the Yellow Bells after you posted about it on here recently. I was surprised to see that you've completely edited the chapter! I didn't know I could love the story even more but the edits made it even better. All the quiet observations from Mirabel, beautiful descriptions, inclusions of other characters like Luisa and Juileta, even that small mention of Agustín towards the end, and expanding on all that with even more detail... It's an absolute delight to read and so very intriguing! You've written such a beautiful beginning to start off this story and I, for one, cannot wait to see it unfold. I'm cheering for you while I wait for the next update!

First off, wow. I don't get asks very often but this was a pretty sweet thing to hear. I wasn't sure how many people read the first draft of Follow The Yellow Bells' first chapter, but I'm glad that it was liked and that the edits expanded on the world a little more than before. I really enjoyed piecing everything together, finding out the little tricks and hints here or there, and seeing things through Mirabel's eyes. As time went on, the idea for the work itself grew and I wanted to write something that would meet my vision. And I'm glad that it resonated with you as well! Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you again in the next update. Also, thanks for the cheers! I appreciate it.

#lore speaks

[unlockthelore]

any update on the next chapter for follow the yellow bells? I love it so much and I'm dying to read more 😊

Hey there! First, I wanted to say thank you so much for reading Follow The Yellow Bells. Getting this ask was very sweet to me and I'm glad that you're wanting to read more of it. As for the next chapter, I'm working on an in-depth outline before I start drafting so it may take some time. I haven't considered putting out periodic updates about the fic, but I'll take it into consideration now! Thank you again, and I hope to see you in the next update.

#lore speaks

[unlockthelore]

Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Isabela Madrigal & Mirabel Madrigal Characters: Isabela Madrigal, Mirabel Madrigal, Julieta Madrigal, Luisa Madrigal Additional Tags: Post-Movie: Encanto (2021), Language of Flowers, Sibling Bonding, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Slow To Update, Other Additional Tags to Be Added Summary:

Mirabel couldn’t help but notice that something wasn’t quite right with Isabela. While her sister’s experiments with her gift were a little odd at times, she was usually pretty happy about the strides she was making. But after the appearance of a golden-yellow flower, Isabela seemed a little off.

If Mirabel learned anything from losing her home once, it was never to ignore her family’s cries for help - no matter how quiet they may be.

#encanto #mirabel madrigal #isabela madrigal

[unlockthelore]

Yo! To kick off 2022, I decided to revise the novel I first posted in 2021, Pan! There's a whole new look, and the first episode has been overhauled to make way for a different style. Check it out here!

#writeblr #original writing #creative writing #pan the novel

[unlockthelore]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Encanto (2021) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: "Abuela" Alma Madrigal & Mirabel Madrigal, "Abuela" Alma Madrigal & Casita Characters: "Abuela" Alma Madrigal, Mirabel Madrigal, Casita (Disney: Encanto) Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Light Angst, Hopeful Ending Summary

On a quiet night in Casita, Abuela cannot sleep. She felt in her heart that her late husband sent their youngest granddaughter to save their family, and she'd come so close to losing their miracle.

#encanto #alma madrigal #mirabel madrigal #casita