#key: thepixiediaries

[librarycards]

hello everyone, and welcome to quarter 2 of my favorites of 2024 list! if you're new, hi, i do book recs all the time, but have been doing them quarterly for recent reads for the last couple years. (I also have a free newsletter where i recommend media every month.)

this was an amazing 3 months for books and i had to make a bunch of very tough choices. very excited to share the results (in no particular order) with you!

Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe, Thunder Song

Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Jeff VanderMeer, Dead Astronauts

Evelyn Berry, Grief Slut

Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Claire Oshetsky, Poor Deer

Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot

Sharon M. Draper, Out of My Heart

Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, & Mike Merryman-Lotze, eds, Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire

as always, i tagged people who expressed interest/who i think may be interested, but feel free to post yours (or not) any time and then tag me, mutuals or not. i love seeing what people are reading. you can also find me on goodreads (and my soon-to-be-populated storygraph that so far only has my book on it haha).

tagging!

@discworldwitches @osmanthusoolong @lesbianlizzybennet @sawasawako @fluoresensitive

@sadhoc @campgender @capricornpropaganda @lostrosegarden @trans-axolotl

@flameswallower @mxunsmiley @heavenlyyshecomes @myalgias @gracebriarwoodwrites

@rebel-gets-wise @r00tvegetables @ghost-shepherdess @liefdesbriefjes @felgueirosa

@mr-saavik @nahitsjustme @podcastlesbian @fatehbaz @punkkwix

@materialisnt @oddmerit @growtiredofpublicvulnerability @passerea @closet-keys

@abstractlesbian @querxus @thepixiediaries @boykeats @candiedsmokedsalmon and anyone who wants to!!

[tate-lin]

The History of Ethra

Heyyy everyone happy Worldbuilding Wednesday! For this week, we're getting into how ethra came about :3

So in JOA, the world is actually based on ours, if there was just one thing that happened sometime in the summer of 2015. That key change so happened to be a group of American scientists exploring a deep cave in Antarctica and realising that a certain section was walled off from the rest.

Making a hole, they discovered a large and beautiful lake hidden within with a strange multi-coloured gaseous substance rising out of it. Not only did it leave a shadow, it also seemed to affect its surroundings as well. Curious, they decided to take a portion back to their lab and melt it. That released a never-before-seen element which they named ethra.

Wanting to keep the discovery on the down-low so that they don't start a catfight with other countries and cause them to start rushing over, they never made the news public and quietly continued their research instead. Reports back suddenly came to a halt a year later, however. A team was sent to find the radio-silent research group but when they finally located the Antarctica research base, all the scientists were missing. It was as if they just went out one day and never returned. The next day, an explosion of ethra erupted out into the skies.

This caused a major shockwave across the world. Landmasses began breaking up and away from each other and joining up with new ones. Others began sinking and people had to be rescued from them. It was a huge restructuring of the world.

People began reporting developing strange abilities. A thin layer of coloured auras surrounded them at all times and they were able to do miraculous things like punch walls in and walk on water.

And then there were the maneaters.

These are large jellyfish-like beasts made out of ethra and they frequently go after humans and drag them into the sea. With their newfound powers, people began to fight back and figure out ways to protect their homes. One way they did this was by creating D.O.L.L.s which is what Drew is.

Anyway, over the next five years, seven continents became one and the rest of civilisation fell to the sea. It's like the supercontinent of old where all countries were connected by land. JOA takes place over a hundred years since then in around 2150 and much of it was spent figuring out ethra and learning how to integrate it with technology. Nowadays, people have learnt how to cope, though the first few decades had been really tough on everyone.

TAGLIST

Let me know if you want to be added or taken off!

@justahalfling @ihaventpickedausername @iced-ginger-tea @andromeda-grace @kaiyo @iriswords @yors-truly @words-after-midnight @islanded-in-a-stream-of-stars @sabels-small-sphere @leebrontide @pure-solomon @mattresses-and-macaroni @thepixiediaries @sternenmeerkind @arowanaprincess @hd-literature @freedominique

[lockejhaven]

🍎

🍎 Your world-building is incredible

--

This means the world to me! (ahaha, get it?)

But seriously; as its one of my favorite things to do, and the easiest, I'm ecstatic that you love it so much 🥰

[asralieswritingcorner]

Thx for the taggggggg!

Sugar

“Cate, Michael, I’ve known you both since college, but if I’m being honest it feels like I’ve known you since long before that, I mean from all the stories I’ve heard makes it feel like I’ve been there through every stage, yes Cate, I do mean your emo phase as well, sugar.”

Bread

“Good morning you bride to be, or as I like to call you, my sister.” I say, exaggerating the ‘o’s, she smiles and continues cooking eggs (on toasted sourdough bread, her specialty), and bacon, “that for me?” I ask, she shakes her head, laughing, “shut up, you know it’s not.”

Coffee

“Shit.” I say angrily, tugging harder, though it still wont budge. I trudge over to the town payphone which happens to be in our only coffee shop, putting in some change and calling the Lardners, after a couple rings George picks up.

Snack

“Well… do you think I could stop by to grab the keys by any chance, the wedding is tomorrow, so we kinda need the groom’s suit and the bride’s dress now.” My teeth chatter a bit from the rain soaked shirt I’m wearing, so I flag down a waitress, might as well get a snack and something warm to drink.

This was really fun! I’ll tag: (no pressure tho!) @dramaticvoiceover @avaeverstone @screnwriter @mj-collins @thepixiediaries

Here are ur words: Money, Dirt, Accent, and Place (no there is no theme to this, I like being chaotic lol)

Find the word tag

@thegreatobsesso tagged me to find music, paint, draw and create

MUSIC

After my shift ended, I didn’t want to go home to be alone with my thoughts. Check that, I didn’t want to be alone at all. I took the obvious third option and immediately headed to a bar. Loud music and a lot of alcohol meant I didn’t have to think at all.

When that bar became dull I moved on to another, and then another.

PAINT

I stared at the lock screen of the phone, trying not to let disappointment overwhelm me. In my haste to steal it I’d forgotten it was password protected, mainly because I never bothered with a password on mine. It seemed Blake cared a bit more about phone security than I did.

This felt like one of those puzzle games I liked to play online, or even an escape room, except those always had logical answers. Weird logic, like using the colours in a painting to crack the code of a safe, but logical nonetheless. Real life, I’d found, wasn’t so fond of logic.

DRAW

The jerk had a point. The last thing I wanted was the police involved; it’d draw too much attention to me, particularly if they worked out who I actually was. My fake ID might be good enough to get into bars, but there was no way it would fool the police.

Sirens sounded in the distance. “Guess someone called them for me,” I said with a smirk. He couldn’t try anything now, not with the police coming.

CREATE

According to the book there were two main types of power stealing. The first was a spell for stealing abilities only, and while the book didn’t go into specifics it did give a basic description: to steal a power from a person, a potion created from the blood of two people close to the intended target, one dead and one dying, was required, and the victims and target needed to be killed via non-magical means. Just reading it made me scoff. It was complicated, stupid, and ultimately unnessessary, as anyone capable of performing the spell should be able to use magic to mimic the power with zero need for murder.

I'll tag @asralieswritingcorner @sophielynnwrites @the-void-writes @dgwriteblr to find Sugar, Bread, Tea/Coffee, Snack

[librarycards]

Hello all, and happy September! I'm excited to share my third quarterly book rec post for 2023. I had a great summer, particularly reading-wise, mixing books like Anna Édes (picked up at an indie bookshop in Budapest), Angel Blood (foraged at my hometown library's book sale), and Blue Flame (found at a new-to-me indie I found while pre-move shopping).

If you like these posts, you can find my very, very extensive archive of recommendation posts here, and my substack, where I recommend media every month for free, here. If you really like my work, and want commenting privileges + access to occasional essays/musings, consider becoming a paid subscriber –– it's totally not required, but means a lot!

Now, without further ado, my top nine books read between mid-June and now, in no particular order. I can't wait to see what you come up with on your own posts!

Emily Petit, Blue Flame

Sarah Rose Etter, Ripe

Dezső Kosztolányi tr. George Szirtes, Anna Édes

Sara Ahmed, On Being Included

Kwon Yeo-sun, tr. Janet Hong, Lemon

Fiona Mozley, Elmet

Davey Davis, X

Becky Chambers, The Galaxy and the Ground Within

John Singleton, Angel Blood

I tag @thepixiediaries @discworldwitches @smokedgoudagirl @gwenderqueer, @capricornpropaganda, @wirefoxedterrier @fatehbaz @punkkwix @patchworkstudies, @growtiredofpublicvulnerability, @biomaterial @probablymoons @materialisnt @bioethicists @slowtides, @stephen-deadalus, @artuhmes @felgueirosa @myalgias, @metamatar, @heavenlyyshecomes, @osmanthusoolong, @passerea, @txttletale, @aldieb, @sawasawako, @voidofcourse, @boykeats, @tirragen, @sadhoc @campgender @r-ob-yn, @querxus, @grimesapologist, @closet-keys, @abstractlesbian, @vawoolf, @feypact, and anyone else who wants to!

[lockejhaven]

my love will never die & it will come back fur the hozier ask game!!

V good choices, thank you so much for the ask ! ❤︎

Hozier Asks

My Love Will Never Die — What do you think makes a good fictional romance? What sort of tropes?

I tend to love all sorts of dynamics, so I'll list a few: - when one character tends to take care of the other; bonus points if the main carer is suddenly the one being cared for! - when characters work through trauma together, especially in a direct manner. It's not something I feel we see often in real life or in media, so it's a nice little escape from reality! - when they raise a kid together, and one is a sucker for their child while the other is constantly exasperated. Bonus points if the sucker is typically 'cold' and 'uncaring' - one character growing into themself. not because their partner fixes them, but because the kindness they are given allows them to feel safe enough to work on themself.

It Will Come Back — Is there a theme, trope, or something else that reoccurs in your work?

I've got a few things I always tend to come back to in my work. It's also worth mentioning that I'm a psych major and I adore learning about how people think and why they do what they do.

Much of my writing focuses on emotions and experiences. I love to turn stereotypes on their heads and twist concepts around; sometimes by flipping the meanings of symbols, or creating the unexpected.

I also tend to play with power dynamics quite a bit. Whether it's a character having issues with authority, or the grapple between a person and power itself.

Related to that, Spite is a major motivator for me, too. It's a concept where it's vital to pick your battles, and if done well, spite can support you throughout your life. Writing allows me to face challenges and fears that I may not physically be able to in reality. In creating emotion through language, I hope to inspire myself and others into protecting and becoming your own true ally.

[lockejhaven]

locket's fairytale friday

↪ standalone: the artist with the crimson hair

She never spoke; the artist with crimson hair. Some wondered if she even could. When she had washed ashore a year before, the prince had taken her in until she had recovered enough to stand once more. Some speculated he had almost decided to marry her, however, this proved to be incorrect as he soon met another young prince and asked for his hand.

 He and the palace healers had tried to sign to her, to give her parchment with which to write; to soothe her throat, but it was of no use. She simply refused to communicate. 

She could certainly play music; the prince had seen her once, barely touching the ivory keys of the piano in front of her, playing a ghost of a melody as if it flowed through her head. Her eyes ran over pages of music, her fingers moving with nimble grace, yet she never made a sound.

And she certainly had quite an intelligent and creative mind to be able to paint such gorgeous and astounding underwater kingdoms as if she herself remembered them. Flora and fauna none had ever even dreamed of, lit by glowing lanterns and bioluminescent creatures.

And she most certainly could have communicated if she had tried; if she had wanted to. But instead, she kept to herself until she had recovered, and then she left in the early dawn of the next day. 

The prince missed her art after she had left, though he never made a move to restrict her freedom.

What he and the kingdom did not know was quite a great deal. They knew not of where she came from, nor of who she was. All they knew of the artist with crimson hair was that she had quickly settled at the edge of the kingdom and continued to improve in her work.

The artist was happy to keep her life as hidden as an octopus in plain sight. She kept her memories in her music and her past in her paintings. 

Scenes of home. The palace with its underwater glow, the hippocampi frolicking through the coral. 

A melody that traveled overseas, slipping its way through thick fog; hauntingly beautiful and seductive in sound.

Her journey to the surface. The cavern where a sea witch had isolated himself; a cauldron bubbling over a magical fire. Legs, in exchange for a voice. A voice the artist now portrayed through lyre, violin, and piano.

All that she created, the kingdom assumed was straight from her imagination. 

The witch had not anticipated her choice. Convinced the artist had fallen for the prince, the witch had kept her voice hidden in a shell around his neck and set off to take him from her. 

So when the witch married him, he found he had lost, for the artist had taken her gift and used it to create a life for herself. 

She never spoke, the artist with the crimson hair. She had much to love in both her work and her new kingdom, and she always made sure to visit her family from time to time and explain all the wondrous things about the surface.

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locket’s tags: @365runesofwriting @enchanted-lightning-aes @thepixiediaries @midnights-melodiverse @perasperaadastrawriting

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