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[novaalexanderwrites]

A memory flashed through Frigga’s mind: Her aunt had dealt with a suitor of Gina Crestfall’s, and he had been found out to be using her to abuse the coven’s resources. Sapphire hadn’t hurt him herself, but nobody saw or heard from him once he’d left the manor until a week later. Her aunt had merely said those types of problems hung themselves out to dry eventually. (Blood and Thorns, Chapter 14)

You know, I don't give my side characters enough love. Sapphire Thorneheart is Frigga's aunt and the Coven Leader, and she is much more complex than I had ever originally intended. Like many people, she cares deeply for the ones she loves and will do anything it takes to protect them, but she also believes in the good of the group at any cost. She was raised to be the coven's leader, and she can't imagine a life without it and can't imagine how others don't feel the same. This internal rigidity is the main fuel for the conflict in Blood and Thorns and makes for quite the landmine.

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If you like this, please reblog (it really helps artists out!!), leave a like or comment (I love hearing your thoughts, it keeps me drawing), and follow me for more (I update about once a week) 💖

Read The Novel on World Anvil Read the Webcomic on Tapas

Available for commissions! For more information, please check out my post here: https://www.tumblr.com/pinkartwitch/739257460225916928/novas-art-commissions

Come along with me to Ozelea, a world bursting with magic and drama! I'm building the world that these characters live in, and you can learn about it in Blood and Thorns: https://pinkchaosstories.tumblr.com/bloodandthorns

[novaalexanderwrites]

Maybe I shouldn't post these huge updates at midnight....

Chapter 1 - Chores and Nightmares

[novaalexanderwrites]

it occurs to me that I should probably post these huge announcements not at midnight. Huh.

Chapter 1 - Chores and Nightmares

[novaalexanderwrites]

Hey y'all! I've finally put the Blood and Thorns comic up on tumblr for everyone! Please go support me by following the comic's page! oxoxo

Chapter 1 - Chores and Nightmares

[novaalexanderwrites]

This quote by Tamsyn Muir really stuck with me:

"For anyone on the female-identified axis this is especially hard because it seems to me that most books by anyone female-adjacent have an expectation that they will comfort the uncomfortable and discomfit the comfortable etc., whereas a guy can just tell an adventure story and be done with it. This ties in with an idea that I think nowadays that good art is moral and bad art is immoral: i.e. if a story is bad it actually has to be because the lessons are bad, and if a story is good it must somehow be beautiful on the moral scale. We go looking for why the art we love is moral even if the art we love is a donut. I think this is the pressure of capitalism on time – that everything has to double or triple up in benefit compared to the time we take on it: if we’re prepared to waste eight hours on a book we had better be able to tot up at the end how that book was also feeding us in some way. That’s brand time we just used."

From here: https://www.inthemargin.com.au/features/norman-spotlights-tamsyn-muir

[novaalexanderwrites]

A memory flashed through Frigga’s mind: Her aunt had dealt with a suitor of Gina Crestfall’s, and he had been found out to be using her to abuse the coven’s resources. Sapphire hadn’t hurt him herself, but nobody saw or heard from him once he’d left the manor until a week later. Her aunt had merely said those types of problems hung themselves out to dry eventually. (Blood and Thorns, Chapter 14)

You know, I don't give my side characters enough love. Sapphire Thorneheart is Frigga's aunt and the Coven Leader, and she is much more complex than I had ever originally intended. Like many people, she cares deeply for the ones she loves and will do anything it takes to protect them, but she also believes in the good of the group at any cost. She was raised to be the coven's leader, and she can't imagine a life without it and can't imagine how others don't feel the same. This internal rigidity is the main fuel for the conflict in Blood and Thorns and makes for quite the landmine.

✨✨✨

If you like this, please reblog (it really helps artists out!!), leave a like or comment (I love hearing your thoughts, it keeps me drawing), and follow me for more (I update about once a week) 💖

Read The Novel on World Anvil Read the Webcomic on Tapas

Available for commissions! For more information, please check out my post here: https://www.tumblr.com/pinkartwitch/739257460225916928/novas-art-commissions

Come along with me to Ozelea, a world bursting with magic and drama! I'm building the world that these characters live in, and you can learn about it in Blood and Thorns: https://pinkchaosstories.tumblr.com/bloodandthorns

[novaalexanderwrites]

I wish there was a website where you could input a character's description (height, weight, sex, medical conditions, etc.) And a situation (car crash, falls, stabbing, etc.) And it would calculate for you from most to least likely the injuries that character would receive, potential complications, and how long it would take recover. This would make writing injuries SO MICH EASIER if I wasn't guessing at everything

[novaalexanderwrites]

rereading my own writing is just a constant fluctuation between "damn, girl, you wrote this? (affectionate)" and "damn, girl, you wrote this? (derogatory)"

[novaalexanderwrites]

So... apparently the NaNoWriMo organization has been gutted and the people at the top now are fully focused on Getting That AI Money.

I have no reason to say this other than Vibes™️ and the way that every other org who has pivoted to AI has behaved but I wouldn't trust anything shared with or stored on their servers not to be scraped for training LLMs. That includes pasting stuff into the site to verify your word count, if that's still a thing. (I haven't done Nano since 2015).

Also of note:

Age gating has been implemented. If you haven't added your date of birth to your profile or if you're under 18, it's supposed to lock you out of local region pages and the forums. ... It's worth noting that the privacy policy on the webpage doesn't specify how that data is stored and may not be GDPR compliant.

...

Camp events are being run solely by sponsors. Events for LGBTQIA+, disabled writers, and writers of color no longer appear to be a thing at NaNo.

Just... go read the whole thing. It's not that long. Ugh.

[novaalexanderwrites]

“In the midst of the kitchen stood a tall woman Frigga vaguely recognized with sepia skin and black hair shorter than most men’s. She wore an old, stained apron over simple worker’s clothes and her trousers were tucked into steel-toed boots with the stretched-out raggedy laces tied around each ankle. Apparently she’d been gathering up ingredients and baking tools from different cabinets when the heiress surprised her. She stood between the industrial stovetop and a substantial island, and she’d brought out one of two stools from its place at the counter’s opposite side. Frigga wanted to shrink back but she’d already been spotted. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know anyone was here!” she apologized, her hand rising to fiddle with the thin golden chain necklace she wore. “No no! Come on in, Miss. You alrigh’?” The woman looked at Frigga, a soft concern in her eyes, and put her things on the island.” Blood and Thorns - Chapter 1

If you were a witch, what kind of magic would you specialize in?

This is a picture I’ve tried to draw before but never posted because I didn’t like how it turned out. I’m still not 100% with it, but I like this one much better so it’s going to get called done! I’m rapidly closing in on my goal of having 1 painting for every chapter of my book, and I’ll be making a big deal of it when I do so stay tuned for that 💖 It’s a long-term project very dear to my heart, and the more lesbians and witches I get to draw the better! Drawing scenes in a dark academia setting is so much fun, and I love adding bits of ambient magic wherever I can.

Little aside, I’ve been kind of all over the place for the last few weeks so I’m hoping to get back to my regular posting schedule with today. I had a lot of fun at the art gallery (see prev. post), and I’ve also had a lot going on personally so thank you everyone for your support oxoxo

If you like this, please reblog (it really helps artists out!!), leave a like or comment, and consider following me for more (I update at least once a week) 💖

Available for commissions! For more information, please check out  my post here: https://www.tumblr.com/pinkartwitch/739257460225916928/novas-art-commissions

If you’d like to read Blood and Thorns for free, my original story about magic, personal agency, and queer love that overcomes oppression, you can here: https://pinkchaosstories.tumblr.com/bloodandthorns

[novaalexanderwrites]

Incorrect Quotes: Jane Eyre (70/?)

Source

[novaalexanderwrites]

[novaalexanderwrites]

It was a clear summer’s day and Rosalind was on their way to tutor the boy their mother had nearly killed.

   They should have visited Leland sooner, but Rosalind didn’t need to be told that; they already felt terrible about it. Two weeks after Frigga left they received her first note from Bluehaven, and Rosalind decided they’d bring it to their visit with her younger brother. They hadn’t been putting this off on purpose, and the boy had other teachers around, but they’d promised to oversee Leland’s education. 

   For that to happen, Rosalind needed to spend some quality time with him but they had no idea how to do this. What are eight-year-olds like? How does one talk to them? Did Leland even care about magic or would he rather get messy in the dirt like his sister?

(Leland's Tutor, a short in the Blood and Thorns series)

As anyone that follows me may know, I have a book called Blood and Thorns! But what you may not know is it's not just a book! It's a series that includes (at present) 1 full-sized novel and several shorts that are all available to read for free. This illustration is for the story called "Leland's Tutor", which takes place after the main story, and it's a little short fic about how Rosalind and Leland begin their mentor/mentee relationship. It's very cute and explains a fair amount of magical theory for the universe, so I think it's worth a read. You can find that over on the Blood and Thorns World Anvil page here:

If you like this, please reblog (it really helps artists out!!), leave a like or comment (I love hearing your thoughts, it keeps me drawing), and follow me for more (I update at least once a week) 💖

Available for commissions! For more information, please check out my post here: https://www.tumblr.com/pinkartwitch/739257460225916928/novas-art-commissions

Come along with me to Ozelea, a world bursting with magic and drama! I'm building the world that these characters live in, and you can learn about it in Blood and Thorns: https://pinkchaosstories.tumblr.com/bloodandthorns

[novaalexanderwrites]

EVERYONE ON TUMBLR NEEDS TO DO THIS