#kiennwrites

[kiennwrites]

gothic horror is the perfect medium to write about religious trauma. the decay. the guilt. the fear of the thing inside you

[vacantgodling]

introducing... AZELIE PICARD

i'm so normal about her i swear 🥴🥴🥴 tws for discussions of rape in the backstory section, and also tw for using a picrew ig PFF. she has WAAAAY more beauty marks than that and also azelie's nose is a REAL BEAK ok that nose is not NOSING enough. i know i'm probably never gonna draw her tho i'll never be satisfied

anyway btaf taglist (ask to be + / -) -> @multi-lefaiye @void-botanist @transthadymacdermot @kiennwrites

[gioia-writes-and-others]

🦐🤔🦐 MIXED FRIED .....for REAL ?

(dump writer post / snippet / art in progress)

Thank you for the tag to @illarian-rambling HERE,

@the-golden-comet HERE , HERE and HERE,

@alinacapellabooks HERE , @tragedycoded HERE , and

@wyked-original-writing HERE

You're also tagged !! 💋💋

*****

This is more a general update as I reached a point in The Scarred Angel where I HAVE to tied up a few things before going further.... Truth of the last couple of months 🙄

The time for scenes and notes hapardazly written everywhere is OVER ! (Half joke and also LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL)

More seriously : I want to make sure I don't drop everything which will be a huge disappointment for several reasons.

ramble/snippet/art under the cut

Ashley would kick my ass / won't leave me alone if I do so (I know this for a fact)

I spent enough time already on TSA (summer 2023 since the first idea came up + about summer 2024 since actively working on it

The initial idea and characters still have reason to exist

Thing is :

It's the first time I work something this "complex" (?).... aka : I've done, I'm doing and I'll do again many "ERRORS" along the way. (Oh wait! Such goes life.....) I really need an OUTLINE at this point, even a gross one! I have an entire first arc of 6 zero draft chapters plus several others (the current wc is between 60000 and 70000 words) BUT most importantly : I feel the need of keep specific and steady angles to write MY story NOT someone's else. Those same angles that made me start in the first place. And apparently, rn, I have to dig and put them on my board to better keep an eye on it among the mass of infos, researches, things that need to happen, characters development, various other ideas .....+ all the interesting imputs I see around and along the way every day!

Additional note : my mother, that knows nothing about what I'm writing , just sent me a letter from Claudia Sheinbaum, actual mexican president, especially dedicated to "Mr DT" and "Mr EM" from "the rest of the world".

You can find the note on the internet and since a lot of TSA PLOT is about INFORMATION.....guess what? The letter slaps but we're not entirely sure she said so for real 😉

STILL .... it would be awesome if she did and since one of the main inspiration quotes for TSA is "everything happens for a reason", fuck yes, I'll take this as a sign too!

....To be continued.....

****

SNIPPET....

Back to the actual chp 1, draft zero, "Amy on the border"

....

My heart skips another beat.

Phil feared it was too soon yet, that I might not be ready to handle the new environment.

Probably me stopping the meds didn't help him accepting my initiative but it hasn't be  a problem for my chief editor who doesn't know anything about me.

Rather the opposite way around, no way I could have missed how much they were happy about someone volunteering for the assignment.

I'm a newbie in this line of work, just two months since I toke the job, and they accepted nonetheless to send me to cover about the challenging task the local police department must face every day in this powder keg that is THE border.

No kidding.

There is always something going on here, endless supply material for many and many articles.

'Same old, same old' is what I heard at the office among other casual comments and still, keeping an 'attentive eye' upon the border situation it's considered a must, so that when something significant seems to come up they do actually send a 'soldier on the battlefield' in order to get first hand information.

I'm nowhere near close to have my own opinion on the matter but I basically threw myself on the opportunity.

.........

ART

Amy doesn't know yet but Ashley's already out there ....

Tag NP and a drink 🍻☕🍷☕ 🍹🍻 let me see what you got

@kiennwrites @gaslightwestern @spottedleech

@bi0mass @legalownerofufoemoji @dragoninatrenchcoat

@bluefiredesire @aalinaaaaaa

@lunaeuphternal @zackprincebooks @wyked-rebellion

@vesanal @jev-urisk @badscientist

@peach-the-gospel @jacobwren @inadequatecowboy

@orphanheirs @riveriafalll @saturnine-saturneight

@cowboybrunch @words-after-midnight @the-letterbox-archives

@angofwords @topazadine @aintgonnatakethis

@deanwax @thecomfywriter @leahnardo-da-veggie

@lychhiker-writes @avaseofpeonies

@mapplesand @kaeru483 @lullabynorth

@theeccentricraven @willtheweaver @dnschmidt

@keeping-writing-frosty @ryns-ramblings @aspiring-dreamer

@rivenantiqnerd @pertweefan1970 @agirlandherquill

@innerthoughtsmonologue @noxxytocin @moltenwrites

+ OPEN

[lunaeuphternal]

.- / ... .... --- ..- .-.. -.. . .-. / - --- / -.. .. . / --- -.

𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚛

ⓢⓨⓝⓞⓟⓢⓘⓢ: 𝚒𝚗 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜

𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: 𝚜𝚌𝚒-𝚏𝚒, 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚊, 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢, 𝚙𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛, 𝚊 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎, 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢

𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜: - .-- . .-.. ...- .

𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨: 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

𝙼𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚜:

- 𝙰𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚛𝚊 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚛

- 𝙲𝚒𝚕𝚘 𝙴𝚕𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛

- 𝙻𝚒𝚕𝚊 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎

- 𝙿𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚊 𝙷𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚜

- 𝙳𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝙷𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚜

- 𝙳𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚜 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚜𝚘𝚗

- 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚋𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚗

- 𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚓𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚘 𝚈𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚠

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 & 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧

𝚊 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝:

(𝙞𝙛 𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙨𝙣𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙡 𝙪𝙥𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙜)

(𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭)

@oros-ash3s @the-ellia-west @sunflowerrosy @tiredpapergirl @aprilshifts111 @mjparkerwriting @kiennwrites @magic-crazy-as-this @illarian-rambling @thecomfywriter @seastarblue

[kiennwrites]

Ghosts in the Narrative

what's stopping authors from adding hidden messages and codes into their novel?

that's right. ciphers.

we're talking ergodic literature babey. house of leaves. S. pale fire.

i like to call this device ghosts in the narrative.

and the way i write these ghosts is by sneaking acrostics into dialogue between characters. it's like... literary possession.

How do I do this?

you hide a message using an acrostic- which is basically just a null cipher. if you take the first letter of every word in a specified sequence, you get a hidden message.

Here's an example from "The Vane Sisters" by Vladimir Nabokov (1951):

I could isolate, consciously, little. Everything seemed blurred, yellow-clouded, yielding nothing tangible. Her inept acrostics, maudlin evasions, theopathies - every recollection formed ripples of mysterious meaning. Everything seemed yellowly blurred, illusive, lost.

- "The Vane Sisters" Vladimir Nabokov (1951)

which, by taking the first letter of each word, reads:

Icicles by Cynthia. Meter from me Sybil.

The prose on its own reads nicely, but is innocuous to the unknowing reader. Upon noticing the hidden message, the narrative takes a twist- the ghosts of the sisters have been speaking to the narrator this whole time!

The cipher can be worked on many levels- the first letter of each page, paragraph, sentence, word. the complexity is up to you, whether you start at the word, sentence, or line level.

for my works, i usually like to string out my acrostics at the paragraph level. For example, within each line of dialogue between characters, separated by breaks. as a rule of thumb, the less fine it is, the easier to work your hidden message in.

Give it a try!

Just imagine:

first you lay out your core plot, the de facto happenings of your story that can't be denied- concrete stuff.

out of nowhere, or maybe even gradually as a tease, your mc starts making remarks or comments that could have double meanings. like they might be talking to someone else. listening, speaking, to a ghost- A GHOST- this whole damn time.

of course, placing some clues for an acute reader might clue them in and give them extreme catharsis during the reveal, if that's what you want- or you can punch them in the face with it.

with a bit of literary grit and wordsmithing, you can add a nice layer to your narrative. might even be something you employ to change the reality of your story entirely- all in the hands of the sneaky author devil.

ergodic literature babey.

Favorite tool in my writer toolbox: Ghosts in the Narrative

make your writing ergodic with ciphers!

just like i did with this post.

[kiennwrites]

my posts | dove's eyes | reblogs

separate links for side projects:

mstb ate my friend

sweet iron angel

comment for tag list!

hiii queer horror debut author here with an info post about my self pub indie horror novel

DOVE'S EYES

a queer southern / western gothic horror mystery

bi/ace transmasc rep, and plenty of tragic gay and sapphic relationships

inspired by lobotomies, prison abolition, and masking. and cults and religious trauma

i saw the tv glow meets true detective, with a sprinkle of hannigram

read more below

Dove’s Eyes

queer western gothic horror mystery

debuts 10 08 2025

A disgraced detective is hired to investigate a ritualistic killing in an isolated prison town. Falls into the hands of a charming doctor on a crusade to cure mankind of sin.

TW:

- violence, body horror, psychological horror, religious trauma, homophobia, transphobia, medical abuse.

- Does not include or depict SA.

a lot of these characters are flawed. i recognize them as problematic. the narrative is poised to be critical and reformative

this is catharsis in social horror. if that's not for you that's okay!

Character Rep

Det. Corey Handler Delgado, PI: ace bi transmasc

Dr. Wayne Sykkes, MD, PhD: repressed homosexual

Dr. Miranda Olliver: lesbian, doomed yuri <3

Inspiration

hannigram if you crossed i saw the tv glow with true detective

+ research on lobotomies, prison reform, conversion therapy

Links

Social links and newsletter

Preorder

support indie authors! book is also available on kobo and alternatives.

About me

kienn nguyen, 20, any/all

nonbinary, biromantic asexual

queer / trans horror and social thrillers

80s music and transformers

degree in physics!

Other Socials

bluesky

instagram

threads

/ also on twitter and tiktok i guess

add me on storygraph!

Thank you for reading!

[kiennwrites]

the horrors persist but so do we is my kinda queer horror

[lunaeuphternal]

THANK YOU FOR TAGGING MEEE

Tagging my loves (no pressure)

@the-ellia-west @a-chance-of-raine @tiredpapergirl @sunflowerrosy @michellymy @aprilshifts111 @justalunaticfangirl @justaboymadeofhoneyandglass @kiennwrites @chi-the-idiot

i found a cool tag game on twitter and i really wanna import it (o^ ^o)

this picrew + the last song you listened to :]

no pressure tags: @blood-loving-leech @overtaken-boredom @lesbianthatyaps @kameonerd566 @hexedvampire @laczki @anonymous-shxtposter @fleurafae @flovqy + anyone who wants to do it <3

[kiennwrites]

being both an author and an artist. how does it feel to be a god

[kiennwrites]

[kiennwrites]

writing my psychological horror trans rep literally went:

- he's different. probably queer

- middle aged. aches. pains.

- wakes up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. mysterious blood stains on the sheets

- somethings wrong

- oh. he's going through menopause.

- ... wait.

Make men go through menopause ✨

[kiennwrites]

doing research to make sure your concept is scientifically plausible. suddenly you are ten research papers deep into the neuroscience of deep brain stimulation and the success of nanoelectrodes crossing the blood brain barrier through focused ultrasound trying to make the modern day lobotomy

[kiennwrites]

Building a following:

are you fr kienn?

… 500 total across several platforms

but it's over the span of 2 months, and on new accounts, and your mileage may vary

very niche dependent (am a queer horror writer)

some platforms are more queer friendly than others

more under the cut

Here I will share some tips breaking down my experience with social media marketing for my writing.

Across all platforms:

have a consistent posting schedule!

more posts = more exposure

but consistency is most important.

i do 3 posts a week

interact with the community!

the most response i get is from networking

most writers are also readers!

following people and following back

engaging with posts (comments and reposts are more impactful than likes, connecting with the content)

community benefits:

peers with similar interests

observe what other successful accounts are doing

tips, trends, support groups

Between platforms:

the quality of interaction varies

the type of content varies (text vs images)

take time to learn

Video and image posts:

throwing your content out into the wild

instagram:

stats:

~150 followers

3k views/month

5-20 interactions a post

linked to threads, most of the time my threads followers channel to my instagram

schedule posts!

video content: the shorter the better, have a strong hook in the first seconds

image content: carousels with lots of slides

hashtags don't matter as much, though they help you show up through search

audio is a tool, choose wisely

share stuff on stories so it's seen, and promote fellow authors in the community

comments help alot, ask friends to help with engagement!

tiktok:

stats:

100 views before dropping to 0

some queer hashtags are banned

can use same content as instagram

scheduling on desktop only…

i don't use it much

Text posts:

more community engagement!

replying and reposting

threads:

stats:

~150 followers

5-20 interactions a post

linked to instagram

relatable text posts do well

keywords matter more than tags, incorporate words like "book" "author" "writer" etc naturally

lots of threads call for replies with similar interests or promotion, a great opportunity to share yourself and find similar authors, community rallying posts

reply to and repost fellow authors!

bluesky:

stats:

~300 followers

5-10 interactions a post

feeds are customized timelines that use tags and keywords

use feeds to find your community

i have a queer writers feed on my account (to avoid filtering issues include "author" in your bio!)

make sure your posts are seen in feeds by incorporating keywords naturally, and include tags or the emoji-tags, #booksky and 📚💙, etc

having images to go with your text helps, and including alt text

find tags like #queerprompts or #wipsnips, where the community shares their work and wip snips!

follow feeds, reply to and repost fellow authors!

twitter:

stats:

~100 followers

~50 views a post

0-3 interactions a post

most follows are follow backs

the search function is terrible, as is the algorithm

lots of bot impersonators, block unsolicited DMs

throw your posts into the void, don't expect much interaction

image posts do best, as do trends. show you're not a bot? 😭

go through follow lists and tags to find community

tags like #agentsguide #amquerying help to find other writers

reply to and repost fellow authors

tumblr:

stats:

~50 followers

~ 1-10 interactions a post

blogging and text posts, most personal

use lots of tags

do tag games, trends, share wips

reply to and reblog fellow authors, leave comments in tags!!

SUMMARY

Find community

Interact, give and recieve

Reply and Repost

Follow and follow back

Use keywords

Use hooks, short attention spans

Thanks for reading!

This is from my personal experience. Your mileage may vary... Give it a try and see what works for you and your niche! and you can follow me @kiennwrites !

[kiennwrites]

Oops started a new WIP again

a queer weird western with a werewolf deputy and an bounty hunting angel (some old characters I'd always been meaning to write)! also trying out a new POV // no clue what the plot will be only vibes

all related posts

SWEET IRON ANGEL

briefly. pt. 1

You thought the desert would take you. Running into her bosom as far as she deigned. Collapsing to your knees, teeth gritting sand until it was all you could breathe in.

You wept til sundown as the air above your bloodied head shimmered and your last wish was to die. You knew your mangled bones would not sustain you. You, the shadow on the horizon.

But the desert is not kind. The desert is not merciful. The desert has no God.

Instead it is he who kneels in front of you. He, the avenging angel. His soft chuckle whispers with the wind, curls in your ear. Cold fingers that squeeze your brittle cheeks. Chin tilted upwards into the moonlight.

When he speaks you hardly rouse, hardly see him. He chastises like he sings. Smooth and rolling.

Look and see.

The king of iron,

crucified in the sand.

Tears may wash the blood from your face, but your hands will never be clean.

Up now.

To your feet.

You scarcely feel your legs as he sits you up. Falling forward against him. Strong arms and a hard body. The kind that never relents.

He stands. You rise. Towering over him. A flick from his hat would topple you. As he binds your hands the Grinning Demon leers.

Your first mistake was trusting that smile.

[kiennwrites]

completing a degree in physics and finding out that i can use LaTex to format my novel *maybe* makes suffering through E&M a little worth it

[kiennwrites]

book research is wild. for my current book i started with prison abolition and angela davis's essays. and then somehow ended up buying a book on lobotomies