#A Year of Orenda

[lucalearnstowrite]

Today I saw her again. I think she's ready now. She has grown to be a beautiful woman, just like you. I know I never admitted it before but what best friend I would have been if I didn't call you ugly. She's even more effervescent than you. I'll keep a check on her and be with her when it's her time, just like you wanted.

My new recipe didn't work. It's tough being a researcher. Well, you bailed out before you even had to start it. I loathe the government and yet gonna recieve an award from them. It's kind of amusing.

You should know I'm getting old. The elixir is still at the same place u left it. I won't be taking it as well. I want to meet you soon, to beat you with my broomstick. Don't worry I ain't suicidal. I have plenty time. I'll make June a good witch before that. You know she got good nose just like her father. She smells off my potions the moment I enter the room. Her orenda is amazing and actually better than mines. She grew Henbane seeds that I gave her just in two days. Ah did I forgot to mention that last time? Must have forgotten. So much work these days for an old lady.

Ahh alright, I'm sorry. I know it's early for her but look she passed. I can see that in her, she's strong. Also aunts gotta be little mischievous, I can't be all responsible you know. That's your thing not mine. But sike, you are supernal now.

It's been 17 years Tabitha and I miss you. We decided to grow old together but you left me. You left us. I still wish you took that elixir that day but you are too righteous I can't blame you. I hope you are not lurking around in the town since then and found peace. Cupcakes were tasty right? June and I made them. Here, done with sowing your daisies. *Herbivicus* and Boom they bloom, beautiful!!

Alright I gotta go now, the mayor wants to see me to discuss my winning speech. And he wants me to mention him in the speech. That guy will never change.

Bye Tab

Happy birthday

[legendsofmyriad]

Lore of Myriad - The Founding of the Clan of the Phoenix

The Clan of the Phoenix is among five vampyre clans in Lucarian. These vampyres hold a considerable amount of power, able to consume both energy and blood, unlike their counterparts who solely rely on the latter. Upon the establishment of the clan, they were referred to as high vampyres. 

The clan was founded by Orenda Callarook, the youngest of the five founders and only part vampyre. Born under the blessing of a dying phoenix, she developed magnificent fiery wings and gained renown as a formidable warrior. As she got older, she embraced her power and committed herself to using it for the improvement of Lucarian. She travelled extensively in the realm of the undead, aiding the disadvantaged, holding the influential accountable, and mediating between villages to prevent war. 

When a leader in the north-west grew unruly and cruel, she listened to the cries of the people and emerged victorious in a one-on-one battle when he dared to challenge her. Due to her reputation as a bold yet kind-hearted soul and as a token of gratitude, she was appointed as their new ruler. As a gesture of acceptance, she gave them her strength and long-lasting life, elevating them to the status of high vampyres. They learned from her example and she charged them with protecting the vulnerable and maintaining a code of honour. 

In order to prevent any individual from having absolute authority, she established a system of three seats, which other clan leaders also adopted after witnessing her success. The first seat she took for herself. She gave the second one to a wise general who valued diplomacy over violence, and the third to an adept alchemist who had dedicated her life to alleviating the suffering of others. 

During the harshest winter of her lifetime, she commanded a group of high vampyres to visit a human village within her realm. Their mission was to deliver a fragment of her fire for warmth and sustenance to aid the crops that had withered in the freezing temperatures. Although the initial flame was destroyed years later in a strange incident, a remnant of the blaze was salvaged. This was planted inside a cave in Whitepond Peak where it burns to this day. They named it The Pitch Flame and maintained it in tribute to their founder. This fire is used to light funeral pyres, as it is believed to carry the bodies of the departed to Orenda’s Hall. 

With each passing generation, they remained true to their founder’s belief in the importance of honourable actions, and their culture adapted to incorporate those values. Like her, they possess exceptional skills in combat, but they put top priority on exhausting all alternatives before engaging in war. 

The clan is currently led by Lord Alaric Volkar, Lord Bertram Demaret, and Lady Muriel Austra. 

-- -- -- -- --

If you enjoyed this post, please consider reblogging. Reblogging helps to get work out there and seen.

[monster-madame]

Another fun monster lover rec, this time a m/m/f/m/m romance!

I really loved the world building in this one!

Book link HERE (affiliate ad link)

“Born into a family of witches, Orenda has the misfortune of being the sole member of her family born without magic. The smallest bit of magic that she can claim for herself is the ability to sense out magical talismans. She is drawn to them and makes it her task to keep the most powerful of them out of the reach of her family. Yet, when she comes across an ancient talisman in an antique shop, she is swept away by its magic into the fae world, but not unchanged.

Shrunk and stranded alone in the depths of the troll kingdom, Orenda must rely on the help of a hive of male pixies. Although they say that she is their queen, and lure her with every touch, they promise to help her return home. They are nothing like she’s ever imagined a pixie to be and give her a taste of a life that she couldn’t have imagined. In a world of magic, she—a magicless witch—strangely finds her place until events provide an opportunity to return to the human world. It leaves Orenda with a choice: to go back home or remain by their side?

Among pixies, although long-lived, they only have a opening of a handful of years to find their mates before the elders determine that the hives be broken and the males stripped of their breeding and mating abilities to serve as protectors for young unmated queens. Shavish is determined that his hive, though well beyond the suitable age of mating, do not come to a similar fate. His hive brothers Orel and Gwin may have resigned themselves to being guardians and Dazi retreating to his scholarly works, but he is not willing to give up yet. Although being mated to a small wingless queen wasn’t quite what any of them imagined, they resolve to not give her up. They will court their queen and win her for their own. The Pixies Queen is a m/m/f/m/m romance and does contain m/m.”

Book link HERE (affiliate ad link)

[justforbooks]

Best crime and thrillers of 2023

Given this year’s headlines, it’s unsurprising that our appetite for cosy crime continues unabated, with the latest title in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die (Viking), topping the bestseller lists. Janice Hallett’s novels The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, which also features a group of amateur crime-solvers, and The Christmas Appeal (both Viper) have proved phenomenally popular, too.

Hallett’s books, which are constructed as dossiers – transcripts, emails, WhatsApp messages and the like – are part of a growing trend of experimentation with form, ranging from Cara Hunter’s intricate Murder in the Family (HarperCollins), which is structured around the making of a cold case documentary, to Gareth Rubin’s tête-bêche The Turnglass (Simon & Schuster). Books that hark back to the golden age of crime, such as Tom Mead’s splendidly tricksy locked-room mystery Death and the Conjuror (Head of Zeus), are also on the rise. The late Christopher Fowler, author of the wonderful Bryant & May detective series, who often lamented the sacrifice of inventiveness and fun on the altar of realism, would surely have approved. Word Monkey (Doubleday), published posthumously, is his funny and moving memoir of a life spent writing popular fiction.

Notable debuts include Callum McSorley’s Glaswegian gangland thriller Squeaky Clean (Pushkin Vertigo); Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster), a police procedural with an AI detective; Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo), featuring queer punk nun investigator Sister Holiday; and the caustically funny Thirty Days of Darkness (Orenda) by Jenny Lund Madsen (translated from the Danish by Megan E Turney).

There have been welcome additions to series, including a third book, Case Sensitive (Zaffre), for AK Turner’s forensic investigator Cassie Raven, and a second, The Wheel of Doll (Pushkin Vertigo), for Jonathan Ames’s LA private eye Happy Doll, who is shaping up to be the perfect hardboiled 21st-century hero.

Other must-reads for fans of American crime fiction include Ozark Dogs (Headline) by Eli Cranor, a powerful story of feuding Arkansas families; SA Cosby’s Virginia-set police procedural All the Sinners Bleed (Headline); Megan Abbott’s nightmarish Beware the Woman (Virago); and Rebecca Makkai’s foray into very dark academia, I Have Some Questions for You (Fleet). There are shades of James Ellroy in Jordan Harper’s Hollywood-set tour de force Everybody Knows (Faber), while Raymond Chandler’s hero Philip Marlowe gets a timely do-over from Scottish crime doyenne Denise Mina in The Second Murderer (Harvill Secker).

As Mick Herron observed in his Slow Horses origin novel, The Secret Hours (Baskerville), there’s a long list of spy novelists who have been pegged as the heir to John le Carré. Herron must be in pole position for principal legatee, but it’s been a good year for espionage generally: standout novels include Matthew Richardson’s The Scarlet Papers (Michael Joseph), John Lawton’s Moscow Exile (Grove Press) and Harriet Crawley’s The Translator (Bitter Lemon).

Historical crime has also been well served. Highlights include Emma Flint’s excellent Other Women (Picador), based on a real 1924 murder case; Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s story of a fortune teller’s quest for identity in Georgian high society, The Square of Sevens (Mantle); and SG MacLean’s tale of Restoration revenge and retribution, The Winter List (Quercus). There are echoes of Chester Himes in Viper’s Dream (No Exit) by Jake Lamar, which begins in 1930s Harlem, while Palace of Shadows (Mantle) by Ray Celestin, set in the late 19th century, takes the true story of American weapons heiress Sarah Winchester’s San Jose mansion and transports it to Yorkshire, with chillingly gothic results.

The latest novel in Vaseem Khan’s postcolonial India series, Death of a Lesser God (Hodder), is also well worth the read, as are Deepti Kapoor’s present-day organised crime saga Age of Vice (Fleet) and Parini Shroff’s darkly antic feminist revenge drama The Bandit Queens (Atlantic).

While psychological thrillers are thinner on the ground than in previous years, the quality remains high, with Liz Nugent’s complex and heartbreaking tale of abuse, Strange Sally Diamond (Penguin Sandycove), and Sarah Hilary’s disturbing portrait of a family in freefall, Black Thorn (Macmillan), being two of the best.

Penguin Modern Classics has revived its crime series, complete with iconic green livery, with works by Georges Simenon, Dorothy B Hughes and Ross MacDonald. There have been reissues by other publishers, too – forgotten gems including Celia Fremlin’s 1959 holiday‑from-hell novel, Uncle Paul (Faber), and Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground (Vintage). Finished in 1942 but only now published in its entirety, the latter is an account of an innocent man who takes refuge from racist police officers in the sewers of Chicago – part allegorical, part brutally realistic and, unfortunately, wholly topical.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[lilywily143]

So basically this au takes place in the fictional world i've spent around two years crafting, the characters are all kitties with a penchant for creepy eldritch magic, blood, and capitalism

these are the character designs

The disassembly drones are vampires (probably pretty easy to figure out)

The worker drones are kitties who used to be well... slaves... that were owned by one of the major three cities (Orenda City) and built a village in the (monster infested death guaranteeing) Tenebrous Forest to mine copper and glistrall, glistrall is a rare yet potent magical metal and Orenda city needed it for their unholy experiments with magic. However, nobles, mostly ones who had some influence in the business, lived in the city too.

Everything was going fine until one night all of the nobles were killed by an unknown force *cough cough nudge nudge*, yet, all of the slaves were spared, leaving them free to govern themselves.

Then Uzi was born and you can probably guess what happens after that.

Also the au is called Blood and Magic, yes I'm unoriginal

Oh that sounds so cool!!!

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

the OC ask game: "Secret" about Nox!

secret: What’s one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

Nox's recent penchant for necromancy was no great secret at Orenda, the school they've spent many years at. with their new traveling companions? They're still keeping up a mask of specializing in enchantment (truly a far yuckier school of magic if you ask them , but a continent has a plague of vampires *one time* and suddenly messing with the dead is taboo).

of course, this is to distance everyone from the fact that they are willing to tear the entire realm apart to bring back their fiance husband

[rabidcowboys]

Howdy! My name is Coyotl, but you can call me Kai. I’m cohost of the Pack (System). Our system consists of 14 members, most of them canines. The body is 18 years old and gender-fluid.

Allow me to introduce you to the gang.

🦴 Coyotl | he/him | coyote | cohost

🌙 Aeryn | she/he/they | yukon wolf | cohost

💢 Saul | he/him | belgian malinois | rage holder

⛓️ Jaws | he/him | beauceron | gatekeeper

☀️ Kiran | she/they | african lioness | gatekeeper

🥩 Desperado | he/him | melanistic three-eyed coyote | persecutor

🌸 Laika | she/her | mackenzie valley wolf | pup/little

🪶 Orenda | she/her | rocky mountain wolf | matriarch

❄️ Bullet | he/him | siberian husky | packmate

🌲 Jasper | he/him | algonquin wolf | packmate

🌊 Pacifico | she/her | vancouver sea wolf | packmate

🪚 Denji/“Dennis” | he/him | chainsaw devil/human | introject

⚔️ Eren Jäger | he/him | human/titan shifter | introject

🏜️ John Marston | he/him | human | introject

🔪 Karma Cheyenne | he/him | were-coywolf | introject

‼️ DNI LIST ‼️

p3dos/z00s, ableists, racists, therian haters, endos, etc.

We hope to make friends here !

[fictionfromafar]

You Can’t See Me

By Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Translated by Victoria Cribb

Orenda Books

Publication Date: 6 July 2023

Even by the high standards set by previous Icelandic crime fiction writers, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s debut, A Creak On The Stairs was very much a stand out novel. Focussing on police detective Elma who has returned to her hometown of Akranes, she and her colleagues investigate a murder with long hidden and mysterious historical connections. The book won the CWA New Blood Dagger and since then two further novels in the series have followed. While these were also strongly impressive, there could perhaps become a temptation that Ægisdóttir might decide to rest on her laurels and continue to produce stories in a similar vein, however with this novel, it’s is very clear that this is an author keen to develop further as a novelist and present a rather different type of story. Thankfully the results are very satisfying and it could be said that she has surpassed her own high watermark with You Can’t See Me.

When I first heard that this book would be a prequel to her Forbidden Dark Iceland series, I assumed that the book would be based upon Elma’s earlier life as a police officer in Reykjavik. I was happy to be proven wrong on both counts. In fact this is a story where the firm focus of the story is on other characters with only a peripheral role for the investigating officers. Instead this is the story of an Icelandic clan. The rich and powerful Snaebergs have taken over a remote hotel for a weekend family reunion. Rarely due the family members meet on mass and with grudges and jealousies that can be present in any large family, many of the guests arrive in trepidation, wary of conflict. Although unique to rural Iceland and its ever changing climate, a snow storm means that it is too treacherous for anyone to get to or leave the hotel, setting the scene for a locked door mystery where a murder could only have been committed by one of the hotel’s temporary residents.

Yet one aspect of Ægisdóttir’s writing that existing readers will be familiar with is that she steers very much away from formulaic retreads. There are some modern and very unique components to this story. Furthermore it is is told to us through multiple voices, some long established within the centre of the Snaeberg family, some who appear more as outsiders and even the perspective of a hotel staff member is given as the family attempt to reacquaint with each other, free from watching eyes (or so they think) and with copious amounts of alcohol available to them. Family secrets and suspicions are sure to emerge leading to fascinating subplots but when a member of the party mysteriously disappears, the autosphere begins to turn as chilling as the outside weather. Despite reading this book in the late June sunshine, there were aspects to the story that made me shiver. It is one of those books that you’re torn between wanting to rush through it and also savour the emotions and sensations of the characters that we are following.

Existing readers may have come to expect that Ægisdóttir’s books will be compulsive reading yet I firmly believe that this is her finest title so far. What’s more, with it being set in an earlier time period than her other novels, it also serves as a perfect introduction to those yet to read her work. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

Many thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inclusion on the blog tour and to Orenda Books for an advance copy of You Can’t See Me. Please look out for the other reviews of this novel on the blog tour, as shown below.

[mild-secret-au]

𐂂𓅓•|C͟h͟a͟y͟t͟a͟n͟|•𓅓𐂂

Beast Morphing: |Bioluminescent:

His Voice by Sitka

Name: Chayton Hatahali

First Name Meaning: Falcon. A patient, diplomat and gentle individuals; Like a Hawk.

Last Name Meaning: medicine man.

Nicknames: Clayton

Birthday: September 22

Age: 170/25 (human age)

Species: Wendigo

Race: Native American

Gender: Male ♂

Relationship status: Married

Sexuality: Straight Ally

Facts: Chaytan used to be human, but as a child... he discovered a strange artifact that turned him into Wendigo. Through the years, her parents found ways to live longer while caring deeply for their son. He meets his wife who's a witch who can turn into animals, and now he's got a family of two daughters and three sons. The color of the marking represents emotions; blue or cyan represents calmness and relaxation while red represents rage.

Parents:

Kosumi Hatahali (father)

Tiva Hatahali (mother)

Partner:

Orenda Hatahali (wife)

Children:

Winona Hatahali (first or oldest daughter)

Enola Hatahali (second or older daughter)

Mato Hatahali (first son or middle child)

Chetan Hatahali (second or youngest son)

Nuka Hatahali (third or younger son)

Pets:

Dyami the Pet Eagle 🦅

Nascha the Pet Owl 🦉

Relative:

Hatahali Families Ancestors

Abilities:

Human Physiology

Wendigo Physiology

Air Walking

Antler Protrusion

Axe Proficiency

Beast Morphing

Bioluminescence

Blowgun Proficiency

Bola Proficiency

Bow Construction

Cannibalism Empowerment

Chakram Proficiency

Claw Retraction

Cold Immunity

Consumptive Growth

Contaminant Immunity

Cursed Name 

Cursed 

Declaration Aging

Double-Sided Axe Proficiency

Enchanted Archery

Enhanced Agility

Enhanced Bite

Enhanced Body

Enhanced Dexterity

Enhanced Durability

Enhanced Endurance

Enhanced Leap

Enhanced Lung Capacity

Enhanced Reflexes

Enhanced Senses

Enhanced Speed

Enhanced Strength

Environment Manipulation

Eye Color Shifting

Fang Retraction

Fur Generation

Glowing Eyes

Hoof Protrusion

Human Disguise

Human Mode

Infinite Digestive System

Inner Beast Mode

Invincibility

Invulnerability

Knife Proficiency

Matter Ingestion

Multi-Knife Proficiency

Natural Weaponry

Night Inducement; may be able to summon the midnight darkness before sunset.

Possessive Transformation

Powerful Bite

Predator Instinct

Rage Form

Regenerative Healing Factor

Sharp Tail

Shield Proficiency

Spear Proficiency

Supernatural Body

Tail Manifestation

Telepathy

Throwing Weapon Proficiency

Unique Eye Coloration

Vocal Replication

Weapon Summoning

Weaponized Tail

Powers:

Cold Manipulation

Fire Generation; may leave flaming footprints as they run through the sky.

Fog Generation

Illusion Manipulation

Smoke Absorption

Smoke Aura

Smoke Manipulation

Vapor Absorption

Vapor Aura

Vapor Manipulation

Weather Manipulation 

[jenmedsbookreviews]

The Torments by Michael J. Malone

Today I am sharing my thoughts on The Torments, the brand new Annie Jackson novel from Michael J Malone. Review on blog. @1michaeljmalone @orendabooks @annecater14 #books #bookreview #thetorments #teamorenda #randomthingstours #mystery #bookstagram

Today I am delighted to share my review of The Torments by Michael J. Malone, book two in the Annie Jackson Mysteries series. I really loved book one, The Murmurs, and this follow up has been one of my most anticipated reads of this year. My thanks to Publisher Orenda Books for the advance review copy, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the tour invite. Here’s what it’s all…

[calturnerreviews]

#BlogTour – #BookReview of #OneGrandSummer by @EwaldArenz @FwdTranslations @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #RandomThingsTours

For my second post of the day I’m delighted to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for beautiful coming of age novel One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz with translation by Rachel Ward. Thank you to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this moving book. About the book: Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two…

[marypicken]

The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West @AJWestAuthor @OrendaBooks

The Betrayal of Thomas True: Love, Betrayal, and Bravery in the Molly Houses

Source: Review copyPublication: 4 July 2024 from Orenda BooksPP: 320ISBN-13:9781916788152 My thanks to Orenda Books for an advance copy for review The only sin is betrayal… It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of…

[bookliteratibookreviews]

The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orenda Books; 1st edition (4 July 2024)Language ‏ : ‎ EnglishHardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pagesISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1916788157ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1916788152 Book Blurb The only sin is betrayal… It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous…

[deviantartdramahub]

I have to get something off my chest because it seems like I'm the only one who truly understands/registers this.

To start, I have a friend, in fact they're also a friend of Moonbeam13 and corresponds to her area, who is a member of the native Iroquois in Ontario, and he was submitting a painting to DeviantArt depicting the legendary (but probably existent) figure Atotarho from Iroquois folk history. He was a tyrant who was reformed and became our first ruler.

A DeviantArt mod came by and, their attention having been caught by the picture, came to confront him about it. They told us, "this is f**ish content, this kind in particular isn't allowed".

This brings me to the whole point of this post. To those who I was arguing with the other day: Not everything that involves clotheslessness is carnal in nature or even a nood. Sometimes it's preceded and surpassed by what it represents. A lot of things are like that. That is the point I want to share.

In this case, all pictures of Atotarho before his redemption depict him with a long, eh, you get the idea. Anaconda if you will. In Iroquois narrative, long and overgrown things are associated with two powers, orenda (uki) and otkon, which are two sides of what many might call mana or chi. So here it's symbolic and in turn cultural, and there are also little mini-rules over what is treated this way to represent what. It just is, whether or not you consider it insufficiently self-explanatory or not, and it's difficult to explain to someone outside the culture the logic behind it. It's a subject matter similar in idea to how Greek statues are always unclad. The Greeks valued physique so much that to be clothed in statue form was considered the shameful act, as opposed to modern people who always put clothes on statues, yet nobody really complains that total tenderfoots are viewing what amounts to unclad art with an excuse attached.

So anyways, imagine the difficulty my friend was having as he tried to explain to a mod that framing a painting of Atotarho as being in the same league as an artwork by the likes of Karbo was the same as taking it out of context. Sometimes even seemingly completely obviously interpretable things have a context that is much different than believed.

Eventually, on orders of Moonbeam13, who currently has a more active role in rule enforcement than she has had at the beginning of the year, the mod deemed the argument won in their (the mod's) favor and took the work down and suspended my friend. As a Native American and Native American historian, I am disappointed to see something like this that ended in the departure of my friend. As a high ranking supposedly liberal member of her area, Moonbeam13 gives me the epiphany I don't like what kind of facade this site is turning out to be.

A part of me wants to ask if that was necessary for that, but I know I'd probably lose in the insight department there.

[rosemariecawkwell]

Review: Yule Island, by Johana Gustawsson

PUBLICATION DATE: 1 DECEMBER 2023HARDBACK | £16.99 | ORENDA BOOKS Blurb Art expert Emma Lindahl is anxious when she’s asked to appraise theantiques and artefacts in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden’swealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young womanwas murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found. Emma must work alone, and with the Gussman family apparently…

[rich4a1]

Joe Santa Maria Echo Deep

Joe Santa Maria Echo Deep Orenda Joe Santa Maria is a L.A.- based versatile multi-reedist, comfortable playing behind rock groups, laying down post-bop lines, or playing in experimental formats.  Echo Deep, a project that has consumed him for ten years, is his ‘sonic biography,” a daring, totally unique foray into many different cultures and locales. Even the instrumentation is apart from what…