#roadtrip to nano

[teriwrites]

Beneath Alder Creek: Part 4

My Live Reaction to Reading Through My 2020 Novel

So we've reached the part of the story where spoilers start becoming a bit more real and relevant. I've written out a full set of notes for everything, as I've been doing, but, as this is a full draft (as opposed to The Lies in the Legend, which was only the beginning of one) of a story that I'm very much so still working on and will likely rely on a lot of the same decisions/spoilers/etc. (as opposed to like Castle on the Hill, which will be changing drastically enough that showing you guys notes for the whole draft wasn't that big of a deal). All this to say, I'm going to be redacting certain information. Cutting out some excerpts and comments, keeping things vague, that sort of thing. I apologize in advance if the rest of these parts aren't as fun as previous projects, but I'm not ready for this guy to be Public yet.

Chapter 15: The Three Prophets

"How much farther?" Winnie asked for what felt like the hundredth time.' winnie would be a nightmare on a roadtrip

That lil convo with Llewellyn casting doubt over Taliesin's intentions really threw her for a loop

Classic 'landscape enshrouded in a thick fog'

And here they are! Wearing all black, including long veils that stoop towards the ground, and golden crowns, all very normal attire to find for bog witches

Uh-oh! Local all-knowing bog witches don't care about that curse you snatched off a weird tree-man

Don't have anything on you to trade? Sounds like the perfect time to strike a deal! :)

This is sure to go swimmingly and smoothly and not cause any issues whatsoever

Chapter 16

I can't tell if this is intentionally a janky transition or if I totally forgot to inform the reader about where they're going

'Though Taliesin had regained some of his humor, Winnie no longer took comfort in the deprecating jokes. Llewellyn had not convinced her of the Dusk Court's trustworthiness, but they had reminded her that the golden man deserved similar skepticism. If the woman in white could draw people in through dance, and Gelert could trick her using sympathy, Winnie would not allow Taliesin to use his humor to lure her into blind trust.' honestly? valid

Winnie's acting very coldly towards Taliesin and is Shocked that he was able to piece together why lmaoo

Friendly reminder that Taliesin wears a cloak and is also a drama queen and Absolutely uses both of these to his advantage

More fae lore: they aren't born, they don't die, there's banishment and even 'killing', but there's a certain cycle within the Fae that will always ultimately bring them back

Kinda love the idea of amassing power and influence from others as 'boring'. like, this man's ideal self is truly being a homeless, lowest-rung-on-the-ladder nuisance

'There was still a slight wariness about the golden man; Winnie could trust in his determination to get them through their deal, but she also trusted his sense of self-preservation that would leave her behind in a moment if there was real danger.' yeah, that about sums up where they're at rn

Chapter 17: Pixies

Casually hiking some low mountains, watching as some of the boulders move of their own accord. Typical fae shit

Classic rain storm while hiking up a mountain with no real shelter

But who needs to Find a shelter when you can Make one? And by 'make one', I mean 'shrink yourself and your human companion to the size of an ant and hide out beneath a boulder'

'Across the way, a crevice in the side of a rock was lighting up like a lantern's light bouncing off walls. There was an excited shifting of light through several colors, an ever-changing kaleidoscope of light through a prism.' ignore the nano-iness of that sentence, and focus on the fact that the pixies are hosting a rave

Whoops! Pixie found their hiding spot

Taliesin helping Winnie along when she stumbles and the two of them taking hands to stabilize each other as they deadbolt down this decline isn't very 'his self-preserving ass would leave me behind in a heartbeat' of him ngl

Oh, no! Winnie was stung

She's forced to lance the growing blister on her hand in order to flush the wound out with an antidote they nicked from Pryderi's

Very chill, very not awful to think about, very not painful

Chapter 18

But, right, we're back from our sidesidequest to our sidequest

'After several attempts to lure the birds, Winnie had insisted on resting while Taliesin formed a new plan. She woke to find him perched in a nearby tree, hands held to his mouth as he cried out in distorted bird calls. "You look ridiculous," Winnie told him. "Do you have a better idea?" (i love them your honor, these two dumbasses)

Winnie's 'better idea' is to lay out berries to attract the birds and then catch them in a net

But they don't have a net

So she hides in the bushes with her knapsack and acts as the net

It doesn't work.

'Laughter up in the trees revealed Taliesin's hiding spot.' same

Taliesin doesn't want to use magic to draw them closer.

He uses a spell anyway.

It doesn't work.

They get caught.

They're not having the best luck.

This fae woman just met y'all and is already done with your shit

Even Taliesin is like 'bitch wtf are you DOING??'

Literally, he says: "No! What are you doing?"

I mean, it's a very small ask, really, which definitely doesn't involve face-to-face interaction with a Very powerful, important fae

No big, right?

Ending Thoughts:

Since I'm editing everything else, I'm going to edit my wrap-up for this little section, too. So I can't talk too much about what's literally going on, which makes it a little hard to provide any thoughts about it. All I'm going to go ahead and say now is that Winnie needs to brush up on her fae etiquette, and quickly.

[zpricewrites]

iFell in love with the video nano like its 2007 all over again.

I recently made the switch back to using a flip phone rather than my smart one. In so many ways, it has been a positive change for me. I truly could talk one's ear off all day about it. My favorite and most rewarding change being how I consume music.

This isn't my first venture into backflipping (fingers crossed that term launches into the zeitgeist!), as I had to break up with my iPhone a couple summers ago. Back then, I was pining for a 'dumbphone' that could do it all. I wasn't interested in participating in the entire sacrifice, yet. Spotify was important to me. I wanted to have navigation. I wanted to be able to check my email. I quickly realized that I would need to sacrifice at least something. It, unfortunately, was Spotify. The capabilities were not (and are still not, to my knowledge) available yet. That's fine. I knew I could figure something out, and I quickly did.

I fell in love with thrifting CDs for my car rides. Times in the car were the only ones where Spotify couldn't be used. I also worked from home at the time and rarely stepped out. The thrill of the hunt for 90s roadtrip staples like Gin Blossoms and Garth Brooks was my fixation. I got a massive CD case and began curating my dream collection (ever-growing, as my collections always are).

Though my first flirtation with the flip phone only lasted one summer, the itch to collect music, specifically CDS, hasn't gone away. I have a vinyl collection, but there's something intensely more satisfying about finding a wicked CD in the used-section or on a flourescently-lit shelf at Savers. I'm becoming more picky with what I will take into my collection nowadays, but I digress! Coming back to my flip phone for the second time, I was already adamant about ending my Spotify subscription. This emboldened me to acquire our old boombox from my dad, and dusting off my iPod. I never parted with my iPod completely. Though it went unused for years, it's one of my most favorite possessions.

Listening to CDs on a boombox inside my home was (and still is!) a dramatically joyous experience. The unpluggedness I felt was catastrophic, to me. I was drunk off of the nostalgia of it all. The boombox was attached to my hip for days. Even better though, was the cold-brewed-over-night, electrifying joy that washed over me when I plugged the usb-side of the 30-pin cable into my laptop, and gifted my iPod a batch of fresh music.

I listen to my iPod constantly. I love that, like my vinyl and CD collections, it's a curated experience. Each song on my iPod was deliberately selected and put there. There is intentionality behind what goes onto the iPod. There's thoughtfulness behind the playlists I want to dedicate time to creating and which songs will go onto them. I have a lot of cleaning up to do on this iPod, because past Zaina wasn't concerned over updating the album information or tedious organization.

Spotify had me starry-eyed ever since it's debut. I fell deeper in love when they debuted their offering of audiobooks. For the monthly fee I was paying, I felt like I was getting a complete steal. Over time, I had to ask myself, why do I want access to it all? Even if it's packaged in clever playlists, I don't like it all. I don't need to pay to have access to every single song, podcast or book on their system. Discovering music is important to me, but my co-dependence on Spotify makes me passive in that experience. I don't need to go looking because the job was already done for me. The process of liking a song, going into the iTunes store and buying it (or better, buying the CD and giving the full album a try) is tedious, but fulfilling. It's a ritual of glee. Another gold nugget is the shuffling of songs on a mp3 player is truly random and chaotic. It's the shuffle I, and you, deserve.

Developing a more tangible experience with my digital-consumption of music has inclined me to have a richer relationship with it. I feel the tummy-flipping butterflies of excitement when I get to drive to the grocery store and hear the new songs I uploaded among the existing line-up. Sometimes, I'll even play a game with myself to see how many songs I can listen to in a row before I have to skip to a different one. Simple, yet beaming joy. Perhaps the technology of yore is more than just a novelty to look back on with rose-colored glasses.

[crashbox1999]

If you were given a choice between electronics, toys, and the outside as a kid, which one did you choose to go for? What were your favorites?

hmmm!! this is a hard question honestly. i'd say a mix between toys and the outside. i only really got into electronics and subsequently the internet around the age of 9-10. obviously, i would still watch youtube videos and play online games on the family computer and things of the sort, but i much preferred playing with toys and outside!

(image heavy + longer response below)

my electronic that was really mine at my early ages was really just an ipod nano with the whole nightmare before christmas soundtrack + the cover album, a few backyardigans episodes, spiderman 2 (for some reason?), and barbie and the island princess. (i actually still have this ipod! i've been looking for a charger so i can have maximum nostalgia factor looking through it). sometimes i would use leapfrog electronics! but it was usually that reading thing they had. this reading pen

i only would really get into electronics by the end of the day. i had a princess CRT TV (i recently had to sell it) and i would watch so many movies and dvds on it to bed. for a while, i wasn't able to sleep without something on. my parent's tried to ween me off that later on because it was definitely not good for me when it came to sleepovers or staying over at family's house.

later on when i did get a wii i got really into that, but my parents would only let me play the wii if i had gone outside that day! it was helpful in hindsight but was annoying at the moment. my favorite games were spongebob squigglepants, just dance (not sure which specific number), mario party 8, cooking mama cook off, and muuuuch more

i also had a ds i got around ~2012 maybe? that i would really only use on roadtrips because of how portable it was. or if i hid it under my pillow and opened it up late at night to play style savvy. ah those were the times

some of my favorite toys were ones that i could bring outside! i have a pretty vivid memory of bringing out one of those elefun toys and making a mess of my driveway. i was a sucker for board games too. i loved ants in the (square)pants, the spongebob game, and also other things like break the ice and cranium

i can't think of many actual outside toys i had. really when i wanted to play outside i would just grab a ton and put them on the porch/driveway and go wild. i remember i used to play with toys outside inside of this spongebob tent i had. it was my own personal place!

i lived near a park most of my life, and that definitely helped with my ability to go outside and have fun. unfortunately, nowadays, i dont go outside as much. i'm trying to get better at it!

this was a wonderful ask!! thank you so much

[lottiesnotebook]

Author Ask Tag

Thank you @hyperions-light for the tag! Their author ask is here (and wow is it exciting to be tagged by such a brilliant writer and community builder. <3) Everyone go read their fic right now if you enjoy brilliant smut with delightfully fucked-up dynamics...

Oh you're back? Great! I'm answering these questions about The Kick Inside (my beloved) given that it's my longest and most ambitious fic to date...

What is the main lesson of your story?

This could be an essay all in itself, but I'll try and keep it relatively short! The Kick Inside is, at heart, a story about the lessons that parents teach their children in order to make them into people who survive, and the points at which those lessons are no longer useful. It's also a story about hope being a weed that grows up out of a crack in the pavement, even when you think there's nothing left in you to hope with.

What did you use as inspiration for your world building?

So as this is a Dragon Age fanfic, I took a lot of inspiration from, well, Dragon Age, particularly the themes of bodily autonomy, sexual violence, and maternity that run throughout Origins that the game doesn't really have the time to handle (thanks especially to the Dragon Age wiki mods, whoever they might be - your work is appreciated!)

Beyond that, I took a lot of inspiration from the brilliant works of T Kingfisher (who I will not tag out of shyness) who's work, both in romance and in horror, and especially in fairytale retellings, always manages to feel incredibly grounded in a real world with real characters, regardless as to how insane their situations are. For The Kick Inside, particularly, my main inspirations were The Seventh Bride (Bluebeard retelling), Nettle and Bone, and all of the World of the White Rat books. Obviously Thedas has some incredible worldbuilding already, but this is the main influence for creating a fairytale-influenced story that (hopefully) feels grounded in something that is, for the characters, incredibly real.

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? So you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, or help them grow as a person?

I have two main characters, so I'll answer for both of them!

Luna Tabris is mostly trying to achieve Surviving The Blight by any means necessary, despite the horrors of roadtrips, darkspawn, and pregnancy. What I'm trying to achieve with her is a story about someone who starts their story at a point where they think all hope is lost and the person they used to be is dead, and how hope and living grow back around them despite that.

Morrigan has the harder lesson to learn, because she's the reason this fic is subtitled (in my heart) Dragon Age Rapunzel AU. Encountering another potential vessel for her Dark Ritual Baby shifts her position in Flemeth's plan from the child's biological mother to the Flemeth-like witch who will make a deal to take the baby away, much like Flemeth is implied to have stolen or acquired Morrigan via a similar deal. So what she is trying to achieve is 'get a Dark Ritual Baby without having to be pregnant/have unwanted sex herself', and what she's actually going to learn is a series of increasingly alarming lessons about empathy, bodily autonomy, and the Horrors of Group Projects. Oh, and the Power of Love and Friendship of course

How many chapters is your story going to have?

My outline says 30, but we are WELL off track from that, so probably closer to 40? This fic has ballooned well beyond my control at this point.

When did you start writing?

In my life? Probably when I was about 4, I think my mum still has my First Book somewhere in the house. But I started The Kick Inside in August, and I did NaNo in November to try and get it done and... yeah no I just made it longer.

Do you have any words of encouragement for fellow writers of writeblr?

For longer stories/fics? Perfect is the enemy of done. Sometimes you get stuck on a scene/chapter for ages and the answer is really just to end it and come back later. Usually when I do this and come back, it turns out actually it ended exactly where it needed to.

This was really fun and helpful for me, so tagging @teine-mallaichte, @adainesjacket, @heylavellan to come play too (if you want to!). Oh, and anyone else with a multi-chapter WIP who sees this, just tag me so I see it too!

[bluberimufim]

NaNo has me acting derranged. I was writing during a roadtrip today. Like, on my phone, in a car.

[hufuf]

Do you think you could draw Hakase, sakamoto, nano, yuuko, mio and mai all going on a roadtrip

That's an interesting idea but would take a lot of time to draw.

I might draw in the future if I have more spare time

[thoughmymindcouldthink]

Compilation and General Update

I've spend the evening reorganizing/archiving a lot of this blog, and I've noticed I talk around a lot of ideas rather than explaining them.

First on the docket, I revamped the organization system to be more streamlined and easier to use (at least for me, hopefully for visitors as well). Secondly, I archived a lotta (most) projects that I'm not really reserving brain space for at the moment. They're all in varying states of archived-ness in my brain, but they're all squished into one folder for blog purposes.

I'll continue to use this blog for resources, inspiration, challenges, and the like, but I have also picked out the Big Projects throughout the years to organize them better.

Current Projects

Handholding through Hell: the translation of a current dnd campaign into more traditional prose storytelling. Five party members wake up in a hell-like demi-plane with no knowledge of how they got there. On their hunt for a way back home, they discover that their pasts have followed them (or brought them?) here.

All or Nothing: Widofjord Uni AU, loosely based on the novel Coffee Cake. Heavy focus on Fjord, who needs to save his slipping grades to keep his athletic scholarship for rowing. Secondary focus on Caleb, who's recovering from some very intense drama in his ridiculously competitive academic program by working at the local cat cafe. Caleb offers to tutor Fjord and they begin to explore a romance. A semi-magic USA university AU in which Mollymauk deals fake IDs, Artagan’s a disillusioned ex-grad student, and Yasha gets to major in gardening.

BeauYasha Kidfic: Inspired by domestic beauyasha in the m9 epilogue, a vague idea of a future fic in which they help fjord overturn the orphanage that harmed him and end up with a half-orc kid of their own. got spooked when a lot of the after talk was quite similar to this idea and put it down.

Archived Original Projects

Vampire Apocalypse: Steampunk Lady Pirates: Hollywood fell to a vampire underground, and one young woman spearheads a resistance of sky pirates, all to get her sister back.

Antonita, the Spanish Contrabandista: A rewrite/update/retelling of an 1850s novella of a female pirate and her adventures with a Texan navy captain and his wife.

Outlander & Urchin: A traditional western fantasy story about two orphans who help each other survive while a magical war wages across the land. Reunited as adults, they realize their lives may be bigger than they thought.

Golden Gay Bridge (aka Gone): technically my undergrad thesis & 2016 nano project. A young woman loses her mother to cancer and goes on a roadtrip to find her elusive biological father and unearth half of herself.

Archived Fanfiction Projects

Rockstar AU: Louis is a rockstar; Harry is the label's new popstar. The two are forced to tour together for publicity. Liam is management, Niall is Harry's bestie, Zayn is Louis's bestie. Harry/Louis enemies to besties main plot, Ziall + Louam subplots.

Playboy AU: Harry runs an escort business; Louis and Niall are bunnies, Zayn and Liam are bartenders (Ziall + Louam)

Uni+ AU: Niall and Zayn fall in love at University, but their futures conspire against them – until they meet again. Essentially a uni!AU + a second chance trope.

Proposal AU: a ziall retelling of The Proposal (2009). That's it. That's the project. ALT: Cutting Edge AU (similar premise).

B99/1D crossover: Requested by bestie in like... 2015. An AU in which the 1d boys are Brooklyn police officers. Will likely not touch this one again.

[tanzania2023]

17 Juliol: Llac Manyara

Aviam, això va així:

Jambo: Hola

Asante: Gràcies

Karibu: Benvinguts / de res

Raca Raca: depressa

Pole Pole: A poc a poc

Tafadhali: Si us plau

Habari za asubuhi: Bon dia

Usiku mwema: Bona nit

Hakuna Matata: cap problema

Avui després d'esmorzar hem fet el checkout del Olerai Lodge i ja hem tingut problemes per pagar. La Visa no l'acceptava la màquina i hem de pagar amb dòlars. I aquí tenim el problema: bitllets petits? No. Bitllets una mica trencats o arrugats? No. Bitllets d'abans del 2009? No. I així hem anat passant l'estona, triant els bitllets un per un fins que als senyors els agradin.

Un cop passat el tràngol, enfilem cap a Napuru Waterfalls. La carretera surt desde la principal i té tants sotracs que sembla el Shambala. Passem pel mig de poblats amb carrers estrets, avançant un munt de nens uniformats que van al cole. La carretera es cada cop més verda, més selvàtica i més elevada.

Arribem a una esplanada on ahir hi havia l'arribada d'una maratón i encara queden restes de la carrera.

Hi ha una guixeta on una noia amb un entusiasme zero ens cobra 10 dòlars per cap.

Havent pagat, tres xavals apareixen per fer-nos de guies i ens acompanyen per un camí verd, humit i preciós. Sembla un bosc del Pirineu però amb plantes selvàtiques.

El camí rellisca i fa molta baixada, no es fàcil. Es molt dret i complicat, però aviat arribem a baix de tot on corre un riuet de muntanya preciós. Anem caminant pel riu, sortejant pedres, rocs i l'aigua. Els guies ens ajuden.

I, una estona després, arribem al final del camí: un salt d'aigua molt alt envoltat de verd i roca. Es preciós i ha valgut la pena venir.

A la tornada ja som amics de tota la vida amb els guies, que son molt bons nanos. Un es Massai i va descalç.

Un cop al cotxe de nou, anem a l'oficina de Roadtrips a recollir l'entrada al Serengeti, que ens costa gairebé 2000 dòlars pels 4, el guía i el cotxe, per 3 dies.

Dinem a una pizzería i enfilem cap el Llac Manyara, al Maramboi Tented Lodge

A mig camí ens trobem un mercat rollo encants dels Massai i li demanem al xòfer de parar. Es un mercat impressionant, no hem vist mai res així. Ple de Massais vestits de forma tradicional venent de tot: taronges, patates, cebes, llavors, sabates, roba, radios, i fins i tot cabres. En serio, hi havia un camió ple de cabres i els Massais feien cua per comprar-ne.

Hem fet fotos però no els hi agradava gaire i fins i tot una noia ens ha renyat.

Ha estat molt impactant i autèntic

Seguim cap al Lodge i en arribar ja ens hem trobat jirafes, impalas, monos babuins, ñus, i més bitxos.

El Lodge es espectacular, a prop del llac. Ens reben amb un suc boníssim i anem a veure la posta de sol a la piscina, des d'on truquem a l'Arnau.

Les habitacions són tendes i no tant impressionants

Només entrar ens surt un porc senglar (Pumba) de sota l'habitació, que marxa espantat.

Sopem a la terrassa del Lodge amb espelmes.

[localshortqueer]

the FINAL camp nano update + stats!!

day 28-30: i was on a roadtrip this weekend, so i just managed to hit my 15 minutes a day goal. still, i kept making good progress on the loretto chapel CNF piece line edits, finished up edits on the fastitocalon poem, and worked very briefly on the fall out boy essay. AND THAT’S A WRAP ON CAMP!

to recap: my goal was to write for at least 15 minutes every day this month, which i did! (with the exception of one day where i had a bad migraine, which i’m not counting)

STATS!

i don’t usually keep track of word counts/etc, i prefer time-based tracking, but i do like seeing how much i work i do on each of my projects since i hop between different things so frequently. 

for the purpose of stats, i group individual small-scale projects (individual poems, essays, etc) together under a larger genre heading (“poetry,” “essays,” etc), and i track larger projects like novels separately from each other. i also usually work on multiple projects each day, so all the days won’t add up to 30.

with that, here are my stats for camp:

the rest of the month!

[nanowrimo]

Road Trip to NaNo: The Power of Myth

November is coming. To get ready, we’re taking a road trip to visit Wrimos from around the world, and hear about how their regions can inspire your writing. Today, Wales Municipal Liaison Katie Price talks about Celtic mythology, and how myths can help you give texture to stories:

Bordered by England to the east and by sea in all other directions, this small, yet breathtaking country boasts home to a population of 3 million. Famous for its rugged coastlines, rolling hills, valleys, and majestic mountains, artists of all forms are never short of inspiration for their crafts when they gaze upon the vibrant country of Wales.

Apart from its beautiful landscapes, Wales is also famous for its many myths and legends. Each handed down over the centuries from their Celtic ancestors.

From pilgrims and knights in King Arthur’s court to giants, lake maidens, fairy folk, and dragons, Wales is steeped in fantastical lore. 

Shared throughout the ages as proverbs and songs, in addition to thrilling spoken and written stories, these myths have shaped the way Wales has grown and many towns gained their names through onomastic lore (lore which explains place names). Along with this, Wales is one of only two countries in the world to have the mythical dragon on its national flag.

In a country surrounded by mythology, and awe-inspiring scenery, it is no wonder that creative writers and novelists (especially those who participate in NaNoWriMo) tend to choose ‘Fantasy’ as their genre of choice.

I am one such novelist.

Growing up around all this mythology, it didn’t take long for my malleable young mind to become fascinated by fantasy and conjure up magical stories of my own, drawing on those familiar myths and legends as inspiration for my own writing. In fact, the novel I began writing five years ago and will be continuing for NaNoWriMo 2019 is a retelling of the Welsh changeling child myth.

Welsh mythology and lore certainly played a significant role in my journey as a writer and, no doubt, in the journeys of many other writers throughout the ages. 

Even if your writing style or genre of choice is the furthest thing from ‘fantasy’, myths can still play an important role in the development of your characters and the worlds they reside in.

Myths exist in every culture and country across the world. No matter where you are, there is always some story that a local might relate to you as warning or clarification as to certain events, locations, or names. 

They are traditional, usually ancient, stories involving supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes used to explain aspects of the natural world, show the psychology, customs, or ideals of a society, and sometimes, to explain the unexplainable.

If you are truly committed to your craft and to delving deeper into the worlds and minds of your characters, try using myths to do this. Let them add historical meaning and cultural background to your characters and the locations in your novel.

Whether you choose to write fantasy, historical fiction, romance, or any other genre of book, the fact remains that myths shape communities and countries as well as individual’s beliefs, attitudes, fears, and superstitions.

Explore what myths may have shaped the past and attitudes of your characters. Delving into their minds in this way will help you get a better insight into why they act or feel a particular way.

If you’re up for a challenge, try writing a myth to explain:

Why the sun rises

Why it snows

Why leaves change color

Why the moon changes shape

Why people are different colors; or

To explain the changing tides

If all else fails, a recollection and recounting of a myth from their past is a good way to keep the momentum flowing during NaNo and add a neat little chunk of words to your word count.

Katie Price is a first-year CO-ML for the Wales region and active participant of NaNoWriMo since 2012. After a 5 year career in Business Admin and Finance, she left the business world behind to raise a family and is now a devoted mother to her 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old autistic son. When she can find the time she enjoys writing Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and YA Romance.

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from felizfeliz on Flickr.

[drowsy-quill]

It’s March 31st! Meaning tomorrow starts camp Nano! I’ve been attempting every Nano event for the past ~3 years so Isolation and decaying mental state be damned! So here is a (re)introduction to my project!

Sam & Fern’s Epic Fantasy Roadtrip

Goal: +10K in 30 days (~333 words a day!)

Synopsis:

Fern loves magic, her hobbies and dreams center around it, and if you look closely enough, you can see the magic she brings into her own world. 

Sam is magic, her world is full of it, and she is the second most powerful mage in her realm. And with magic, there is always a price. Sam's price is a prophecy, but she won't let a little doomsday get in the way of a fun summer vacation. \

Honestly, what's one to do when they come face to face with their destiny? Load up a friend's van with mixtapes and junk food and drive to California, obviously!

Aka- a queer YA urban fantasy about two girls who go on a road trip to stop the apocalypse!

You can find the WIP Page here! 

Taglist Under the cut! Let me know if you want to be added/removed!

@sunlight-and-starskies​ @kaosys​ @marewriteblr​ @halfbloodlycan​ @shadescrawls​ @smokedcapybara​

[transannabeth]

anyone have any suggestions for good songs to listen to on a road trip during the apocalypse? 

[wernerherzogs]

“He’s bone tired so it’s easy to get into bed but it’s not easy to fall asleep once he’s there. True to his fears, Louis shivers. He curls up on his side, tucks his knees as far as they’ll go into his chest. The mattress feels thin and poky, full of springs that might be as old as he is, and it makes noises every time he moves.

“Hey,” Harry says, six inches from his face.

Louis’ eyes fly open and he shrieks.

“Sorry, I should’ve knocked,” Harry says, getting up from his knees where he’d been couching by the side of the bed. He climbs right onto the mattress, picks the edge of the blanket out from underneath Louis’ body, and crawls into it. Louis can only watch in the dim haze of the hotel room, dumbfounded. The only light is from the moon coming through the cheap curtain, and a smoke alarm over the door.

“What the fuck were you going to knock on?” Louis says, finally. Yep, Harry has — Harry’s just crawled right into his bed. Harry, who isn’t wearing a shirt at all, who’s as hot as a furnace, who is bare skin and tallness, rounded shoulders and too much jaw, and a giant grin glowing a little bit creepily off the light from the window. Harry has crawled into his bed and Louis has already shrieked once but he could probably find it in his heart to conjure up another.

“You tell me, what’s your door, Lou? You’re cold,” Harry whispers.”

____

Alien Roadtrip!

[antique-symbolism]

During October I'm going to outline both Magnolia, Stay True (the sapphic skeptic/medium 1920s romance y'all were unexpectedly really into) and A Brief Family History of the Magical Mundane (formerly CCGCCL, the college kids on a magical roadtrip story which I need to completely reconceptualize)

THEN I'll decide which one I want to write for November, perhaps even on Day One of NaNo.

[ineffably-good]

Thinking about writing tonight, as I sit here on day 23 of preptober, getting ready for Nanowrimo 2022. Shhh, don’t tell, I’ve already started writing even though that’s cheating, and I’m nearly 9k words into the first draft.

But what I keep thinking about is how DIFFERENT the process of working my way into *this* book feels from the last book, or the one before it. Last year in nano, I wrote a YA contemporary novel called The Afterlife and Other Problems. I planned a little, but my life was extremely chaotic right then and I mostly just dove in, writing huge swaths of it in this gigantic, fun, heady rush. I couldn’t have told you much about the characters, their backstories, or even the overall story arc until I discovered it during the writing process. It took a LOT of work in revision and edits (thank God for my editor) to make it into a polished final product because of this.

But this time, the biggest change is that it’s all It’s emerging from my head very slowly — much less last year’s manic rush and more a slow, steady trickle with a whole lot of forethought and planning. I write a few hundred words every time I sit down, and I’ve filled half a notebook with planning. For the first time, I feel like I know *so* much about these characters, and I have the strangest sense of being in control of my story instead of the other way around. Everything feels so much more deliberate. Like I know what I’m trying to achieve, and like I have a very different set of tools this time around.

It’s still a batshit crazy, wacky concept, this book, because that is pretty much what I like to write — let’s just say there’s a demon and a comet and a game of intergalactic croquet that’s gone quite wrong with dire consequences for planet Earth — but I’m excited by the depths it already feels like it contains and the undercurrents I can sense in the things I’m planning.

I honestly don’t know if this book will turn out to be good or not, but it’s exciting to see how I’ve grown since I wrote the last one. I write for a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons has *always* been that I loveloveLOVE the craft of writing so incredibly much, the feel of creating something, of carefully putting words together. Of growth.

I may never get published, but these last couple years writing the three novel-length volumes of Faeted, rewriting part one into a book which did not well and has been shelved (but which I have a FANTASTIC idea for rewriting into something more sellable and will be tackling this winter), writing The Afterlife and Other Problems (which is currently out being read by four agents on request), and now drafting The Last Roadtrip have been probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a writing front.

[psijay]

LOOKING FOR BETA READERS FOR VENOM (SYMBROCK) FANFIC

Now that NaNo’s over it’s time for EDITING.

The fic in question is currently 33k words, 8 chapters, NSFW in the last chapter, so this is an 18+ only situation. Canon-typical violence, original villain character. Slow-ish burn roadtrip fic, full of spoilers for Let There Be Carnage.

It’s been years since I wrote fanfic, and this is the first time I’ve written one long enough to be worth beta-ing, so I have no idea what I’m doing here. Where do you even go to find beta readers? idk, so I’m starting here lol. Message me if you’re interested, here or on discord (Psijay#3756)!

Summary under the cut if you’re interested :3

Reach For You

Working summary:

After narrowly surviving their encounter with Carnage, Eddie and Venom are fugitives, fleeing the country. During their mad dash to the Mexican border, they have to sort through old issues, and face new ones as they pop up.

Safety is only 500 miles away, but the road is blocked by many arguments, inconveniences, one particularly motivated government agent, some nasty weather, and (most terrifyingly) emotional intimacy. Ready to hit the road?