#TheFoxEater

[salmonandfox]

Trick or Treat, from the Creators Club.

from this post

Treat!

How about some art I made! All of these were concept pieces related to The Fox Eater, though his little friend with the two tails is now a red fox and not a Fennec, but I still like the piece. <3 All the creatures other than Shavn are spirits, which have a very real, physical presence in the world... though for reasons mostly people would have only seen some of the Foxes... and those with less and less frequency over time. Hm. Odd, right? ;)

[salmonandfox]

“Blast and shit.” He ran a hand down his face and groaned, pacing back and forth. These were not good odds. “This isn’t good.” Calm down. Calm. Down.

He punched air, kicked a phantom opponent, and paced, forcing himself to take deep breaths when it felt as though he should gasp.

 He had no idea what had, or was currently happening to Alden, and Alden had ties to royalty that he lacked. If Alden was in trouble, how much more danger was he in? He’d wanted so much to never worry again about anything more frightening than supplies to last out the winter and keep something from eating his sheep. All that now felt as solid as morning fog, and just as easy to grasp. If he could be certain of any one thing though, it was that he needed to leave.

Daily Sip 5/6

You can reblog this post.

You can make your own post.

You reblog someone else's snip!

Just tag it sipofsnips so everyone can find each other. ^.-

[knittingnightgaunt]

Yesterdays word count ended around 63k words, with an definitely entirely normal old woman who you can be certain is not secretly the Grandmotherly death god because she is very friendly and sells Jam.

Everything is fine.

She's very sweet.

[salmonandfox]

I found an owl pellet to dissect at the science museum. I have ordered a tiny leather pouch. I have plastic green “pearls.”

I’m gonna make my MC’s necklace from the finished book.

[salmonandfox]

Well I found at least one more potential reader to help look over Draft 2 of the Fox Eater, so that's good, but scared off at least one other because, well. I guess that's going to be a thing when you have a full length fantasy novel to look over. X_X

I need to be way better about talking about it too, but I'm so bad at that right now.

So hey: keep eyes peeled and watch this space for updates about the Fox Eater; steal magical artifacts from the rich, struggle with PTSD, be ace in a fantasy world, and hang out with spirits in a setting where most of the gods are dead; and that's a good thing!

Also maybe try and destroy an empire later, just as a treat?

[salmonandfox]

Quotes from The Fox Eater

Authors Note:

My DM has been running a game where one of the big plot points was that X terrible thing HAD to happen to a character -because fate-. It was supposedly an UNAVOIDABLE event that was required for everything else to happen and that just...

I love my DM but I am personally not a huge fan of -this is the unmovable object- events, and got worried that certain events in my own book sounded like they were being steered that way by outside forces and were thus unavoidable.

This is part of a conversation between the characters where my main character Shavn talks with his traveling companion about just that issue.

---

"Is this… is this some sort of fate thing? Do you think this is…" She waved a hand. "Destiny handed down by the spirits or…" She hisses in disgust. "The dead gods? They don't hand out that kind of thing anymore, I would like to remind you. They're dead. May they stay that way and dogs piss on their bones."

((For the record: Shavn tells her it's not because he thinks it's fate, he just likes the other options less.))

[salmonandfox]

Ace Rep

“Oh, that’s where you draw a line? Are you afraid I’ll be offended by a tumble-ballad?” She looked both amused and disapproving at the thought.

            “No, I won’t tell you because I tend not to sit through them. I’m just… it’s not something…” He fumbled, blushed furiously in embarrassment at his own struggles. “It’s not for me.”

            “No bulls?” She teased, but her tone was gentle.    

         “No one.” His reply was more curt than he liked.

[salmonandfox]

My twin ordered me a book called "How to Hurt Your Characters" which is going to save me MANY questionable google searches and also will delightfully allow me to be a terrible person to my characters but in reasonable ways.

I am more excited about this than I should be.

[salmonandfox]

Excited to get to the scenes ahead because Shavn is going to be in a fun position of having doubts about one person but not wanting to be right about those doubts, and also being stupidly stubborn and not wanting to talk about those doubts to another person because he's mad at THEM for having had doubts first and -they are not allowed to be right- because -reasons-.

Go forth and be confidently incorrect my dear.

[salmonandfox]

Spirits in the Field

“Those aren’t cows, are they?”

A frown flashed across Alala’s face but didn’t linger. She was aware he was deflecting but had apparently decided to let it be. “No, they aren’t.”

“What are they then?” He squinted again, trying to pick them out a distance that made the lumbering beasts look to be the size of street dogs. “They look, I’m not sure. Something about the faces.”

“It doesn’t really matter what they’re called, but they are spirits. So’s the one herding them. Sometimes they might be sheep, or goats, or geese, or cows, depending on where they are. They’re harmless, for the most part. They lure in the young for a romp or two and lead them off somewhere. I think the story is that they used to help coax the young to leave home and find other villages safely to make sure small settlements didn’t become too…” She cleared her throat. “Insular.”

“Ah.” He felt his face go red, looking away from the field. “Should we tell Quintus and Palra?”

“I think they’ll be fine; they seem to be keeping their distance and I don’t recall anyone in that company who looked like they’d be making decisions fueled by youth and the conviction that the being they met five minutes ago is their destined true love.”

[salmonandfox]

It was not helpful of tumblr to reorder these….

I just ran into someone on TikTok frustrated that the claimed Aro/Ace rep in the DND movie books is not as claimed:

This section hasn’t been revised yet, but some version will stay and I hope I’m a lot more clear about it. Shavn is Ace.

[knittingnightgaunt]

Ah Nano, that time of year where I would rather spend a few hours banging my head against a saved document writing (or sometimes totally rewriting) a section that's frustrating me because I feel a NEED to get some words down rather than take a break and, IDK, listen to music until some of the pieces show me how they fit together.

[knittingnightgaunt]

Still chugging along with Rebel NaNoWriMo to try and finish my book The Fox Eater:

I have breached 60k words! My end goal is closer to 80 but it partially depends on the story. I mean NGL there is just something about silly little digital badges that makes my gremlin writing brain pleased.

I have not managed to do Par every day so far, but still, that's not even the point. I don't need to WIN I just need to make progress.

Even if in this case part of today's progress is Shavn having an heartfelt conversation with an irritated Mule who really wants to stop for a while and have a snack and not deal with ridiculous humans running their mouth in his direction.