#and the poetry book is like... it's just a maybe

[safficranger]

Fake Scenarios In My Head #33

“Casey?” Alex stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, glaring at the pile of blankets and pillows where her girlfriend had buried herself. Only a tuft of red hair was visible, poking out from beneath the blankets. The pile shifted slightly, a clear sign that Casey was awake—and had heard her.

“Care to explain how The Decisive Moment ended up sandwiched between The New York State Constitution and The Turn of the Screw?”

A hand waved sleepily from under the blankets, aiming in Alex’s direction. “Hmm?” Casey’s groggy voice murmured, still thick with sleep. She peeked out, squinting at the bright light as she tried to focus on Alex.

Alex's voice was sharp. “It seems a little goblin broke into our apartment last night and completely rearranged my bookshelves.” Her tone held a slight accusation. “Or is there another explanation for the mess I found this morning?”

Casey blinked again, stifling a yawn as Alex’s words registered. A sheepish, crooked smile crept across her face. “Um…” She scratched the back of her neck, clearly searching for an excuse. “I... couldn’t sleep. Court was brutal yesterday, and I just... wanted to unwind.”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “And you thought dismantling my entire system was a good way to unwind?”

“Well...” Casey hesitated. “I thought a little... organizing might help clear my head.” She gave Alex her most hopeful smile, but it didn’t budge her.

“‘Organizing’ is a strong word for what you did,” Alex shot back. “I have a system, Casey. I love my system. It took me years to perfect that bookshelf.”

“I know, but... come on, color-coding isn’t that bad, is it?” Casey ventured, biting her lip, half-amused but trying to soften Alex’s annoyance.

Alex huffed and crossed her arms more tightly. “Casey, it looks like a rainbow exploded all over my shelves. And... poetry in the history section? Really?”

Casey stifled a laugh, trying to keep a straight face. “Yeah, okay, maybe not my brightest idea.”

“You don’t say,” Alex replied, her voice dry, but a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Sitting up fully now, Casey reached for Alex’s hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Alex let her take it. Casey looked up with wide, pleading eyes—eyes that had softened many an argument between them.

“I’m sorry! I’ll make it up to you, I swear,” Casey promised, tracing slow circles on Alex’s knuckles.

Alex softened, though her expression stayed firm. “And what do you suggest?”

“A luxury breakfast. My treat. Whatever you like,” Casey grinned, pulling Alex a little closer.

“…and?” Alex’s voice held just a hint of curiosity.

Casey’s grin turned mischievous as she pulled Alex even closer, her arms slipping around Alex’s waist. “And maybe a special breakfast before we head out?” Her hands slid under Alex’s shirt, fingertips grazing her warm skin, making her shiver.

Alex’s resolve wavered, her cool composure slipping under Casey’s touch. “I could… be persuaded,” she murmured, her voice softening.

Casey knew she had Alex. With a triumphant smile, she pulled her down into the blankets. Her lips found Alex’s jawline, trailing warm kisses that chased away the last of Alex’s irritation.

“I can’t stay mad at you, can I?” Alex murmured, her voice softening under Casey’s touch. Casey chuckled, well aware of the effect she had on her.

“Wouldn’t be wise to try,” Casey whispered with a playful grin. She kissed Alex deeply, her hands moving purposefully, each caress making Alex gasp, her body relaxing with every kiss. The argument faded into the background as Alex’s tension melted away. Soon, she lay limp and satisfied in Casey’s arms, a content smile on her lips.

As Casey began to drift back to sleep, Alex’s voice broke the silence, teasing but gentle. “Still waiting on that breakfast... and I hope you saved some energy.”

Casey cracked an eye open, a smile tugging at her lips. “For breakfast?”

Alex grinned. “For putting every one of those books back where they belong.”

[topazadine]

Right now you can download my book for (and I cannot stress this enough) FREE

Leave one word. Leave two words. Leave a sentence maybe. That's all. You get 51,000 beautiful words for free.

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Orrinir Relickim received an unusual wedding present from his husband, Uileac Korviridi: Bannain, a disobedient horse who seems determined to end his marriage. With a single kick to the chest, Uileac is out of commission from work at the War Academy, where both men serve as soldiers. Worse still, the entire country is preparing for Feast of the Horse, meant to reflect their country's rich nomadic heritage. Visitors are surging into the capital city and its suburb from all across the realm, where festivities will highlight both the army's strength and the beauty of High Poetry, their native magic system. Uileac was poised to perform dramatic feats of archery while Orrinir marched with the infantry, tasks now impossible given his serious injury. Both are forced to focus on the archer's precarious health - and on the unpleasant facets of their relationship neither wish to consider. This second installation in the 10-part Eirenic Verses series delves deeper into the country of Breme, whose existence hinges upon power-infused poetry. Featuring a greater focus on both the characters and the world they live in, Pride Before a Fall will delight readers of 9 Years Yearning, who have come to love Orrinir, Uileac, and their friends. Luscious prose will whisk you away into a realm melding realism and fantasy for a unique reading experience.

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If you do like the book and want to support me because I'm such a lovely creature, then you can also preorder it at this link.

Also please reblog this so that other people can hear about this fantastic opportunity for free literature with cute boys and asshole horses.

[majicmarker]

well i think the problem is that i want to write something that makes me happy, but i'm Not happy, so trying to access that feeling is... murky.

[moregraceful]

my hot take as a person with an english degree and a library degree is that some of the dorkiest fiction and poetry ever committed to paper in the english language came out of the iowa writer's workshop so it is at best goofy and at worst completely futile to argue that your average amazon unlimited writer is having a more deleterious effect on literacy and literature.

[firstfullmoon]

does anyone have an ereader and read lots of poetry and/or pdfs on it and if so which ereader would you recommend

[stuckinapril]

i love anthologies. anthologies are so sexy

[anxiouslowercase]

sas rh: let eoin survive the fall au » a tale of two lieutenants (part two)

[invinciblerodent]

hang on, this was a very out of pocket thought I had in like, tags on a thing, but fuck, it's actually very sweet to think about the PC early on in their relationship picking and pressing flowers for Karlach

like as a "I saw this and thought of you, but I couldn't give it to you then, so I saved it for when you can enjoy it too"? adorable.

I'm kind of really into this idea of Mara keeping a journal in her attempts to recover her memories, and also pressing flowers between the pages. I'd have to work out the specifics of how their relationship is going to work out once I get there in act 3 (I tried not to spoil myself, but something tells me a romanced Karlach is gonna be pretty upset about Gortash greeting her lover so warmly so maybe an apology gift will be needed), but the idea of the two of them going through a book-bouquet together, almost as kind of a "the person he knew is not who I am anymore, this is who I am, this is the me who loves you" thing is really sweet

like.

"this one is from near where we first met- look, this leaf is even singed where your heat had touched it, like it touched me."

"this one is from just outside camp, and I picked it the night I told you I liked you, because I was just so happy."

"this is from near Rosymorn, when I looked at you just enjoying the breeze, and thought that you looked particularly beautiful."

"this is the prettiest flower I could find near Reithwin, and it may be a pathetic, wretched little thing, but it still grew stubbornly where it wasn't supposed to, and it reminded me of how your love took root in my heart."

"this one is my favorite color, and I wasn't sure why I thought that until I realized it's the same color as your eyes."

and so on and so on.

i'm about to chew gravel istg

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

obsessed with their different reactions to being called starcrossed lovers

[thesagekissoftime]

Hello, my dears. Has anyone else been entirely losing their sense of self again? I don't think I've ever truly known who I am in my entirety, but recently, I have been experiencing frequent identity crises and I'm wondering if that is the new activity of the summer for us depressed literature, art and greek myth obsessed people or if it's simply me

[aredredrosebyanyothername]

I'm currently rereading This is How you Lose the Time War and man it is so good. It is so clearly such a well planed out story. The shadow is so subtle but so obvious once you know about it. Also the give and take with red and blue and the agencies are so well done. It hits this fantastic point where, yes in many ways they are polar opposites, but that only makes the similarities more blaring.

[britneyshakespeare]

Let slaves in mind be servile to their fears;

Our heart is high instarred in brighter spheres.

Fernando, IV.ii of Love's Sacrifice (1633) by John Ford

[yarns-alt]

On the topic of "Live, Laugh, Love."

Text and alternate lighting under cut

"Maybe we're too hard

on the women with

LIVE. LAUGH. LOVE.

hung on the walls of their very own homes.

Maybe, it's that SIMPLE after all."

"Maybe it's enough to find somethin(g) within

that can be dedicated and claimed"

"Maybe I can simply be

ALIVE. HAPPY. AND KIND."

[mathmusicreading]

@yummysuika @ospreywhite I really appreciate your translation work; can you explain more about shichen timekeeping to me? Because I know a tiny bit of modern Mandarin Chinese, but I can't recognize the shichens as the zodiac animals:

Zi (I don't know "rat", so I actually can't make any argument here.)

Chou (I don't know "ox", but I reasonably could have expected "niu" for "cow".)

Yin (I know "tiger" as "hu".)

Mao (I don't know "rabbit", but to me "mao" is "cat".)

Chen (I know "dragon" as "long".)

Si (I don't know "snake", but now I find it interesting that it sounds like death, like snakes could be seen as evil in Chinese culture similar to how they are seen in the Christian world.)

Wu (I know "horse" as "ma".)

Wei (I know "sheep/goat" as "yang".)

Shen (I don't know "monkey", but I would have expected "Sun" or "Wu" or "Kong" because of "Monkey King".)

You (I know "rooster/chicken" as " ji".)

Xu (I know "dog" as "gou".)

Hai (I don't know "pig/boar" unless "pork" and "pig" are the same "siu".)

I tried asking my parents, but they just starting talking about how the Chinese zodiac is actually a 60-year cycle with the 12 animals and the 5 elements. So are these shichen names the "Pre-Han dynasty semi-descriptive terms"? Is it kind of like the difference between "midday" and "noon" in English? The former is a "descriptor", the latter is a "name", but they "mean" the same thing?

(I tried checking the etymology for "noon" on dictionary.com, so to be fair "ninth hour" is a descriptor, but in Modern English it's not really recognizable as such and so for the sake of my shichen question, I'm calling "noon" a "name".)

Or is this another language/dialect or due to the evolution of language (changing words and pronunciations)?

I was also looking up the Dragon Boat Festival being on the unluckiest day of the year, and it says, "The Chinese name of the festival is pronounced differently in different Chinese languages. Duanwu (端午) literally means 'starting horse'—i.e., the first "horse day" of the month according to the Chinese zodiac." so I was able to get the exact character for "wu". I think it's interesting that Wikipedia says "literally ... horse" but putting 午 into Google Translate yields "midday, noonday, seventh earthly branch, 11 a.m.-1 p.m." It's unfortunate that Wikipedia only says "different Chinese languages" for "Duanwu" instead of specifying them or time periods, but I appreciate it listing different romanizations by country for Cantonese.

Would you say there's any pattern to Chinese writers or English translators using the above terms vs. using "hour/time/head/body/tail of the (insert zodiac animal here)"? Like if one sounds better for a historical fantasy setting, or choosing to use the pinyin in English instead of translating to not be translating literally? ETA: I should have gotten onto a computer sooner. I asked my parents and then you guys because searching "shichen" in Wikipedia just resulted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement. But further digging took me to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_timekeeping. I'll probably get answers there (Maybe I'll even be able to explain to my dad why he was thinking of ten stems and not matching mathematically with "60 is from 12 times 5, not 10 times 6" when he was trying to lecture on the 60-year cycle for the Chinese zodiac, lol.), so my apologies for bothering you. I'd still appreciate your thoughts on what was formerly the last paragraph about writing and translation choices!

[coquelicoq]

i’ve been trying to think of ways to keep up my spanish since i moved and don’t know as many people to speak it with here; i saw you’re reading out loud in french every day how’s that going? would you recommend it to maintain fluency? :)

it's going well! it's great for maintaining vocab for sure, especially if you read recent stuff (as opposed to novels from the 1800s lol). and it's been helping a ton with my pronunciation; actually speaking the words helps with your own articulation as well as your oral comprehension to a lesser extent. i think it's a pretty good option in the absence of conversational partners, and it's really not necessary to spend a ton of time on it per day, especially if you're already fluent. you could read a chapter a day (or 10 pages, or 5 pages, or whatever) just to keep your hand in. worth a try if you have some spanish-language books available!

[astrxealis]

okay rambles but i started creatively writing in like ... 5th grade? and. oh god just a little encouragement to anyone looking to get into writing or insecure or whatnot, but HELLS, maybe it's to he expected with my (obviously) very young age and inexperience with writing then, but my writing was really. yeah. Yeah. but then i'm what... a lot older now, obviously, and my writing has gotten leagues better. i'm probably not a good example for this bcs childhood years development stuff are different etc etc BUT practicing writing more and whatnot really does go a long way :]