#Ashes of Outland

[shadez-art]

I haven't drawn Aranna in a while! I'm very happy with this one! I still really like my new technique for demon hunter eye-glows!

[gotham-ruaidh]

“This wife you have,” Bird said at last, deeply contemplative, “did you pay a great deal for her?”

“She cost me almost everything I had,” Jamie said, with a wry tone that made the others laugh. “But worth it.”

– A Breath of Snow and Ashes

[coralsillustrations]

“Can we call Grandda?”

[elphabasthropp]

OUTLANDER

6.08 | 7.03

[elasticmonk]

This is my go to 7 hour (and growing) Outlander playlist. Everything from soundtrack, to traditional Celtic, to songs I thought fit the vibe of both the Frasers and the playlist.

Tell me if you have a song in mind or come across one that’s off-putting. 😊

[titanomancy]

The worm has (re)turned.

[iliketoread]

"There is no more perfect stillness than the solitude in the heart of a snowstorm."

A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Diana Gabaldon

[juniperbooks]

From TikTok to Goodreads, no one can escape the immense popularity of 'spicy' Fantasy Romance series. In case you aren't familiar, 'spicy' books are ones with steamy romance, hot characters, and a varying degree of love scenes, and we just cannot get enough! Here are the top series on #BookTok ranked by the spice that brought this hidden genre to the forefront of pop culture literature:

Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab

Full of drama and tension with a touch of romance (including LGBTQ+!), Shades of Magic is firmly within the Young Adult genre and thus ranks 0/5 on the spicy scale. 

Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

Revenge, redemption, lies and secrets, a kick-ass female lead, and her morally grey love interests are what drive this Dark Fantasy romance series. But as the love scenes aren’t too descriptive and can easily be avoided, the series has a spicy score of 1/5 overall. 

All Souls - Deborah Harkness

Though teeming with forbidden romance tension, the steaminess is mostly just a little warm with one fiery scene for the series. The All Souls Trilogy has earned a 2/5 on the spicy scale, bridging the gap between YA and NA. 

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

Firmly into New Adult territory and filled with kilt-dropping smut and allusions to BDSM, but generally hinted at more than described, giving this epic series a 3/5 for spice.

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

If handsome fae, medieval politics, and steamy love triangles are what get you going, or if you are just looking for a place to start in this new fantasy subgenre, this is the place. Dramatic, magical, and very sexy, ACOTAR gets a spice rating of 4/5. 

And now *drumroll* the award for the spiciest fantasy romance series at Juniper Books goes to…

From Blood and Ash - Jennifer Armentrout

Dripping with detailed love scenes and reimaginings of classic fantasy tropes, FBAA takes spicy to the next level with a maxed-out score of 5/5. Phew...its getting hot in here...

[the-100-ruined-me]

Umm.. is this THAT fucking scene?? 🙏

(From the new Outlander season 7 teaser trailer)

[brian-in-finance]

Outlander Watch S05E06 Better To Marry Than Burn

Connecting The 🟡 Dots

🟡 ⚜️👑 Season Five to One to Seven

The Show

The soldier looks to see that the Dragoon Lieutenant is heading back to his horse. As Morna walks back to the carriage, her SHOE gets stuck in the MUD.

The soldier bends down to help her -- as he does, he spies something STRAPPED UNDERNEATH THE CARRIAGE: a WOODEN BOX….

He’s slid the box out from its fastenings and has opened it to reveal BARS OF GOLD. He holds one up, engraved with a FLEUR DE LIS.

Official Script S05E6 Better To Marry Than Burn

Gifs: @lochiels

The Book

It was a company of English soldiers, Cumberland’s men. Arriving too late to join in the victory at Culloden, they were inflamed by news of it—but frustrated at not sharing in the battle, and only too ready to wreak what vengeance they could on fleeing Highlanders.

Always a quick thinker, Hector had sunk back in the corner of the coach at sight of them, his head bent and a shawl pulled over it, pretending to be an aged crone, sunk in sleep. Following his hissed instructions, Jocasta had leaned out of the window, prepared to pose as a respectable lady traveling with her daughter and mother.

The soldiers had not waited to hear her speech. One yanked open the door of the coach, and dragged her out. Morna, panicked, had leapt out after her, trying to pull her mother away from the soldier. Another man had grabbed the girl, and dragged her back, so that he stood between Jocasta and the coach.

“Another minute, and they meant to have ‘Grannie’ out on the ground as well—and then they would find the gold, and it would be all up wi’ all of us.”

A pistol shot startled all of them into momentary immobility. Leaning from the coach’s open door, Hector had fired at the soldier holding Morna—but it was dusk and the light was poor; perhaps the horses had moved, jostling the coach. The shot struck Morna in the head.

“I ran to her,” Jocasta said. Her voice was hoarse, her throat gone dry and thick. “I ran to her, but Hector jumped out and seized me. The soldiers were all standing, staring with the shock. He dragged me back, into the coach, and shouted to the groom to drive, drive on!”

She licked her lips and swallowed, once.“‘She is dead,’ he said to me. Over and over, ‘She is dead, you cannot help,’ he said, and held me tight when I would have thrown myself from the coach in my despair.”

The Fiery Cross, Chapter 53

🟡 ⚜️ 👑

The Show

My father was a Fraser. A younger half-brother to the present master... Colum and Dougal... my mother was Ellen, the elder sister of Colum and Dougal. Colum wished my mother to marry Malcolm Grant. — Jamie Fraser

Transcript S01E07 The Wedding

Instagram S01E07 The Wedding

The Book

“Oh, aye. Ellen was the eldest o’ the six MacKenzie bairns—a year or two older than Colum, and the apple of auld Jacob’s eye. That’s why she’d gone so long unwed; wouldna ha’ aught to do wi’ John Cameron or Malcolm Grant, or any of the others she might have gone to, and her father wouldna force her against her will.”

When old Jacob died, though, Colum had less patience with his sister’s foibles. Struggling desperately to consolidate his shaky hold on the clan, he had sought an alliance with Munro to the north, or Grant to the south. Both clans had young chieftains, who would make useful brothers-in-law. Young Jocasta, only fifteen, had obligingly accepted the suit of John Cameron, and gone north. Ellen, on the verge of spinsterhood at twenty-two, had been a good deal less cooperative. — Old Alec

Outlander/Cross Stitch, Chapter 24

🟡 ⚜️ 👑

The Show

There were three of us when the gold came ashore from France. Dougal MacKenzie took one-third and Hector Cameron another. I was the third man, tacksman to Malcolm Grant, who sent me… But it came too late to make a difference to the cause. So Grant used it for the good of the clan. I dinna know what Dougal did with his, but Hector Cameron, he fled. He was a traitor. And his wife wi' him. I only had to set eyes on River Run to see where the gold had been spent. But not all of it. — Arch Bug

Transcript S07E03 Death Be Not Proud

IMDb S07E03 Death Be Not Proud

The Book

“Ye were the third man, were ye not?” Jamie asked, disregarding this. “When the gold was brought ashore from France. Dougal MacKenzie took one-third, and Hector Cameron another. I couldna say what Dougal did with his—gave it to Charles Stuart, most likely, and may God have mercy on his soul for that. You were tacksman to Malcolm Grant; he sent ye, did he not? You took one-third of the gold on his behalf. Did ye give it to him?”

Arch nodded, slowly.

“It was given in trust,” he said, and his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and spat, the mucus tinged with black. “To me, and then to the Grant—who should have given it in turn to the King’s son.”

“Did he?” Jamie asked, interested. “Or did he think, like Hector Cameron, that it was too late?”

It had been; the cause was already lost at that point—no gold could have made a difference. Arch’s lips pressed so tightly together as almost to be invisible.

“He did what he did,” he said shortly. “What he thought right. That money was spent for the welfare of the clan. But Hector Cameron was a traitor, and his wife with him.”

A Breath Of Snow And Ashes, Chapter 124

🟡 ⚜️ 👑

Remember Ellen Fraser’s connection to the third man?

[rhysands-rightknee]

from blood and ash gets amazon for their adaptation while we acotar girlies stay losing with hulu

[shadez-art]

Aranna Starseeker. I'm really happy with the lighting on this one! I guess I've just been in the mood to draw demon hunters lately.

[gotham-ruaidh]

What I wouldn't give to see this scene in Season 7...

 “You dreamed about Brianna and the children? What happened?”  

    …“It is all right,” he said. “They are safe. I saw them in a town—it seemed like Inverness, but it was different, somehow. They walked up the step of a house—Roger Mac was with them,” he added, offhand. “They knocked at the door, and a wee brown-haired woman opened to them. She laughed wi’ joy to see them, and brought them in, and they went down a hallway, wi’ strange things like bowls hanging from the ceiling.

      “Then they were in a room, wi’ sofas and chairs, and the room had great windows all down one wall, from the floor to the ceiling, and the afternoon sun was streaming in, setting Brianna’s hair to fire, and makin’ wee Mandy cry when it got in her eyes.”  

      “Did … did any of them call the brown-haired woman by name?” I asked, my heart beating in a queer, fast way.  

      He frowned, moonlight making a cross of light over nose and brows.  

      “Aye, they did,” he said. “I canna just—oh, aye; Roger Mac called her Fiona.”  

      “Did he?” I said. My hands rested on his shoulder, and my mouth was a hundred times drier than it had been when I woke up. The night was chilly, but not enough to account for the temperature of my hands.  

      I had told Jamie any amount of things about my own time over the years of our marriage. About trains and planes and automobiles and wars and indoor plumbing. But I was nearly sure that I had never told him what the study looked like in the manse where Roger had grown up with his adoptive father.  

      The room with the window wall, made to accommodate the Reverend’s painting hobby. The manse with its long hallway, furnished with old-fashioned light fixtures, shaped like hanging bowls. And I knew I had never told him about the Reverend’s last housekeeper, a girl with dark, curly hair, called Fiona.  

      “Were they happy?” I asked at last, very quietly.  

      “Aye. Brianna and the lad—they had some shadows to their faces, but I could see they were glad nonetheless. They all sat down to eat—Brianna and her lad close together, leaning on each other—and wee Jem stuffed his face wi’ cakes and cream.” He smiled at the picture, teeth a brief gleam in the darkness.

      “Oh—at the last, just before I woke … wee Jem was messin’ about, picking things up and putting them down as he does. There was a … thing . . on the table. I couldna say what it was; I’ve never seen the like.”  

      He held his hands about six inches apart, frowning at them. “It was maybe this wide, and just a bit longer—something like a box, maybe, only sort of … humped.”  

      “Humped?” I said, puzzled as to what this could be.  

    “Aye, and it had a thing on top like a wee club, only wi’ a knob to each end, and the club was tied to the box wi’ a sort of black cord, curled up on itself like a piggie’s tail. Jem saw it, and he reached out his hand, and said, ‘I want to talk to Grandda.’ And then I woke.”  

      He leaned his head back farther, so as to look up into my face.  

      “Would ye ken what a thing like that might be, Sassenach? It was like nothing I’ve ever seen.”  

      The autumn wind came rustling down from the hill, dry leaves hurrying in its wake, quick and light as the footsteps of a ghost, and I felt the hair rise on nape and forearms.  

      “Yes, I know,” I said. “I’ve told you about them, I know.” I didn’t think, though, that I had ever described one to him, in more than general terms. I cleared my throat.  

      “It’s called a telephone.”

-- A Breath of Snow and Ashes

[heatherfield]

I LOVE YOUNG IAN MURRAY.

[graphicpolicy]

It's Opus & Ashes and more for CEX Publishing this August

It's Opus & Ashes and more for CEX Publishing this August #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel @CEXPublishing

OPUS & ASHES Written by BRETT SETH SIMONIllustrated by SERGI DOMèNECHCover B SERGI DOMèNECH, JOSH JENSENRetailer Price: $3.99On Sale 08/30 Two best friends. One overbearing mother. Trapped with no heat in a cabin during a brutal blizzard. Helena Santos’s struggle for her life and her life’s work has just begun. Read the gripping thriller by Brett Simon and Sergi Domenech! Cover A:…

[iliketoread]

"This is the thin time, when the beloved dead draw near. The world turns inward, and the chilling air grows thick with dreams and mystery. The sky goes from a sharp clear cold where a million stars burn bright and close, to the gray-pink cloud that enfolds the earth with the promise of snow."

A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Diana Gabaldon