alecjmarsh

[alecjmarsh]

Next, last, before the beginning

You are a gem among men <3

These are all from Station Camelot, my space opera that I'm poking back to life

Before the beginning:

K had always known there was something inside them that was more than them. They'd woken up the morning of their thirteenth birthday with the taste of grass in their mouth and birdsong echoing in their ears, despite Heron Station having neither. K had never seen grass in their life.

Last

"Marry me," Owen breathed. "Become truly the queen of Carleon, my darling. Mother of my son. Half of my heart."

Next

Gwen was the bane of Savas' entire life. She walked like a queen, and talked like a queen, and as far as he could tell, she did fuckall for the space station besides look down her hawkish nose at everyone else. And now, fuck him, she was getting everything she wanted, and it was going to make her insufferable.

[alecjmarsh]

no excuses writing meme, askbox version

(Nicked from iambickilometer):

drop one of these bad boys in my askbox and i will post, without editing

FIRST — the first two sentences of my current project

LAST — the most recently written two sentences of my current project

NEXT — the next line. meaning i will finish the sentence I’m on and write a new one, which you’ll get.

[insert prompt here] — you post a prompt, and i’ll write three sentences based on that prompt, set in the same time/setting as my current project

THE END — i’ll make up an ending, or post the ending if i’ve written it

BEFORE THE BEGINNING — three sentences (or more) about something that happened before the plot of my current project

POV — something that’s already happened, retold from another character’s perspective

[alecjmarsh]

you guys :( writing is hard. can you believe

[alecjmarsh]

The beauty of living in a walkable city is that when you feel sad you can just walk and walk and walk till you stumble upon a place that makes you feel better

[alecjmarsh]

advice from dad

So, my Dad is a 73-year-old Mexican man who has lived here since he was 16. He was in Watts during the riots in 1965; in 1992, when I was in LA, as soon as the Rodney King verdict was announced, he called me, told me what was coming, told me how to stay safe. He has survived horrible living conditions, being kidnapped, physical abuse, prejudice, discrimination. He learned English, got his green card, pays his taxes, works hard, and has three daughters. 

I thought he would be devastated today.

But he wasn’t.

He saw that I was sad and angry, and he asked me why, pretending he had no idea. I almost started crying. And then he said, “no se me chicopale.” 

It means, don’t lose heart. Don’t give in to despair.

I asked him why he wasn’t upset.

He said, basically, “The world has always been this way. There are always people who are afraid, who are racist, who are awful. This is not new. And it will never go away. He won. We can’t do anything about that. All we can do is what we can do. Fight for what matters to us. Take care of each other. And don’t lose heart. And here, I got these unsalted cashews for you and a bag of jamaica drink mix and can you show me how to use the new washing machine because it’s not working.”

And, for reasons I can’t articulate, I feel a little better. 

[alecjmarsh]

Soulmates as a horror concept.

You WILL love this person. It doesn't matter who you loved before; any feelings you had, any promises you made, they will become inconsequential as soon as you lock eyes with the stranger Fate has picked for you.

There's no way to stop it.

There's no way to say "no."

You will meet someone and with a single glance, both of you will become someone new, someone who's now bound to this stranger whether you like it or not, want it or not.

Trapped in a dance together until the day you die.

[alecjmarsh]

I don’t know how to explain this well…but I’m 30 years old and I feel like I’ve had to ‘sacrifice’ my entire adult life to unprecedented times, the pandemic and daily anxiety over hateful politicians and whatever rights they want to take away on any given day and I’m just so fucking tired

[alecjmarsh]

British election day was on the 4th July and now you’re telling American election day is on Bonfire Night?? Why are we swapping national ‘setting things on fire’ holidays??

[alecjmarsh]

“israel,” d.w.m.

[alecjmarsh]

the angels have all gone away

the angels come too late

the angels don't know how to help

the angels are not angels

the angels come, but not to help

[alecjmarsh]

I'm doing a final line edit on this manuscript and the number of times I use the dialogue tag "he lied" in the fifth act is staggering

[alecjmarsh]

This is so funny and so true. I am completely capable of doing most car things by myself, but I always borrow my dad's tools and he ends up doing it for me. It's not necessary but he likes the enrichment.

I was already planning on replacing my tires during the Black Friday sales but nooooo. One had to get punctured today. Rude.

[alecjmarsh]

On Bringing Back the Dead: An Excerpt from Scrap Metal Angel by Nicola Kapron

Even a Gatekeeper couldn’t bring back the dead, but people still blamed them when they failed it. So opens Nicola Kapron’s novella Scrap Metal Angel, set in a fantastical modern-esque world where secret magics haunt the city and trans Gatekeeper Adrian Somer and his partner Kade Mauzy work to minimize the harm and protect the regular people from the horrors that lie beyond reality.

Unfortunately, when a desperate woman seeks to crack open the Second Gate – the Gate of death – in an attempt to resurrect her dead fiance, she unleashes more than she could ever have imagined – and forces Adrian to learn more about death than he ever wanted to know.

Our crowdfunding campaign to fund publication of Scrap Metal Angel has less than a week left, and we’re still a bit shy of our goal! You can learn all about the book, the author, and the campaign by visiting the campaign page on duckprintspress.com!

And don’t forget to signal boost to help spread the word about this very awesome (and modestly queer!) book!

Crowdfunding ends October 25, 2024.

[alecjmarsh]

there is not one name on this list that isn’t a lifetime achievement of fucking

[alecjmarsh]

Anyway, I don’t just bring this up when I talk about Twilight, but I do bring it up every time I talk about Twilight:

Reminder that the Quileute tribe, whose sacred stories made author Stephanie Meyer a multi-millionaire, never received any money from the enormous success of the Twilight books or films.

Their entire community is located in a Tsunami disaster zone, in a region where a world-changing earthquake and tsunami are expected to hit perhaps within our lifetimes.

They should be set for life financially based on the use of their stories in Twilight. Instead, they have to publicly raise funds to move to higher ground and have been raising the same funds for years.

Anyone is encouraged to donate, but if you have personally purchased a physical or digital copy of any Twilight media or Twilight merchandise, I recommend matching the purchase with an equal donation to the Quileute People.

Recently, they successfully moved their school to higher ground! It was a major accomplishment to ensure Quileute children can learn in a safe environment! But there is still much to be done .

Statement from the Tribe (link to the source):

“Living in a tsunami zone at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, a catastrophic earthquake can wipe out our community in less than 10 minutes – an entire generation of the Quileute people will cease to exist.”

You can even set up a monthly donation. I don’t have much, but I’ve had a small monthly donation coming out of my PayPal for a few years now.

Many people don’t realize that the tribe didn’t profit off of Twilight, so I mention it whenever I bring up the series!

If you want to read more about how Twilight impacted the Quileute People, check out “The Truth vs. Twilight.”

[alecjmarsh]

the thing about supernatural is that, if it were real, hunting as a subculture would have a lot in common with biker and cowboy culture. it already does, aesthetically and as a lifestyle. and that means that it would be full of gay men, or at least gay sex. if supernatural were accurate men would’ve been cruising day and night at Ellen’s roadhouse and Bobby/Rufus would’ve been real. unfortunately no one involved in this goddamn show except maybe late-stage Misha Collins understood that they were making a show about queer masculinity’s place within the American gothic. tragic. many such cases.