#serial authors

[b-a-pigeon]

The thing about Kindle Vella is that it is a dumpster fire, but not even for the reasons people think! (Realized this post is extremely long and about a topic few people care about so I'm dropping it under a read more now sorry)

There are some weird rumors going around (which is fair imo since the ToS is like notoriously vague & untransparent) but nothing as funny as the truth: it was an absolute fuck-up of a money pit on Amazon's part that totally failed to retain authors even after throwing random quantities of cash at (some of) us, and everyone just took the money and ran.

To clarify a couple of rumors I've seen: no, nobody signed a contract guaranteeing Amazon indefinite weekly updates!!! (Lol.) There are also, like, some pretty arbitrary rules about availability, but nothing close to KU's draconian exclusivity policies; my story was serialized concurrently on multiple platforms & has since been published wide in the same places as usual while still available on Vella.

What happened, I think, is that Amazon began offering these mysteriously generous bonuses* (calculated through some arcane and ever-shifting metric that nobody has ever been able to figure out) to attract authors. The problem is that Vella sucks to use for readers, too. It's in beta with almost no visible improvements in two years; it looks like shit, especially on desktop; there was no quality control for a while, so the charts were dominated by scammers posting AI-translated gibberish; there were all these weird glitches that made entire chapters of different stories randomly swap; it's actually more expensive than indie e-books in most cases, etc.

So there were not enough readers to sustain the bonus pool, which used to increase every month but has stagnated at $1mil for several months. Everyone got pissed about the drastic drop in income (mine dipped almost 50% between months despite performing better by all metrics) and left; now this website, which nobody uses, is a graveyard for unfinished stories. Even if they did promote it for once, so much of the stuff there is abandoned! I truly doubt it is long for this world unless they massively overhaul it, but it's clearly not a priority, so...

Anyway I find all of this very funny & think it's a bummer that people don't know about it & instead believe that a bunch of people voluntarily signed up to be permanent content generators for Amazon. Like, no... they were obviously trying to create a system of financial dependency to coerce authors into sticking around a la KU, but made such a bad website that they couldn't even afford that :)

*For reference, just to show how absurd the bonus system used to be: my first year on Vella, I made $100 in royalties (meaning people spent around $200 to read it in total), which is nothing. Only 150 people ever paid to read my work by reading past the sample chapters; of these, only 35 finished the first story arc. I made $4000 in bonuses that first year and stayed on the bestseller-equivalent list (typically bouncing around the top 50-150) basically the entire time. I still don't understand how or why & it still didn't stop me from jumping ship the moment my bonus decreased, but yeah... I made like $30 for each individual person who paid any amount of money to read my story. Incomprehensible.

[kimboo-york]

Recent post over at the Scriptorium, all about writing long running, epic stories!

”In a recent podcast interview, I was asked, “What does a person need in order to prepare themselves mentally for writing a long-running serial?” To be honest, it made me pause for a second, because while I'm sure the best answer to that question is “it depends on the writer,” I believe there are aspects which are (probably) universal because it is about mindset, as opposed to practical advice. Practical advice is helpful, of course.”

[sunderwight]

I think that one of the most underrated reveals in Scum Villain was that Luo Binghe inherited his big dick toxic alpha male energy from his birth mother, and it actually has nothing to do with his demon side.

[eddathegreat]

Things That Happen in Pale

There's a quest-giver who is clipping through the floor and ceiling and is pretty much fine with that.

A man pees with such force that he is used as a jetpack by another character.

Heroes are chased by a murderous big-titty corporate executive with a croquet mallet.

There is a dead-serious plot about successfully delivering ice cream cake to a bunch of monsters without spilling any.

There is a very tense scene of the hero being outed to a family she's working with to navigate a giant game board.

A character's bond with a opossum is a deciding factor in a fight.

In an emergency, the main character uses fireflies to pull off a double-jump.

A villain catches the big bad wolf in a magic mirror and sics it on the heroes.

The main character does a magical girl transformation into a mailman.

I misled you, this all happens in one fucking chapter. And that's not even a full list.

[gigireece16]

how i’m trying to distract myself in my writing from everything that’s been occurring 😅😅

[toorumlk]

just to clarify before I follow cause your art is rad

are you a "thanks for the character concepts and vague world outline, we'll take it fron here" fan of Harry potter? or a J.K neutral/supporter?

thank you so much anon!

my work tends to be pretty aligned (and by pretty i mean like 98%) with canon and you’ll find me praising and engaging seriously with canon a lot.

i fully condemn jkr’s transphobia and gender crit NONSENSE. i truly disagree and hate her politics now but i think when she was writing the original 7 books, she had a good head on her shoulders. i read the books for the first time just this past year in my early 20s and man i’ve become a canonpilled book purist if there ever was one and i love these damn books/characters/world *shakes fist to the sky* so maybe this veers me more toward jkr neutral?

i can’t say definitively because i have and will continue to have complicated feelings about this but it’s up to you to decide!

[elvensemi]

Hey guys hello guess who has a website now.

On ElvenSemi.com you can read all of my webnovels, most of my short stories, and soon, a large portion of my fanfiction!

A lot of things, including all fanfiction, forever are free to the public. This includes, for the first time, the first handful of chapters (about 10k words) of each of my webnovels. There's also summaries and beautiful art! Poke around!

Subscriptions to paid material are still being done through Patreon, just click the orange "log on through patreon" button when you go to log in.

[lucaswarmhotchocolate]

I think that Morgan is vastly underestimating the amount of women who would throw themselves at Reid being a submissive nerd like. Idk I think he should be blushing and smiling and nervous instead of “in control” of a conversation. He was basically made to be a dominant woman’s plaything yknow

[shsl-heck]

Thinking about the Chevalier interlude, specifically the inaugural team of Wards. Like in universe, they sell it to this first group of kids (and presumably the rest of the world) as a place for second chances, to find friends and mentors who understand what youre going through, where you can learn to use your powers safely while making good memories. The kids broadly seem to believe in these noble intentions of course, but what really gets me is that I've seen readers buy into it!

"Oh, it's such a tragedy that the Wards program became this awful thing that traumatizes kids even more, and expects them to die for the sake of civilians! It's fallen so short of what it was originally supposed to be!"

No it has not??? The fact that the triumvirate and Hero are saying it has this noble goal doesn't make it true. The Wards was pretty clearly always a way to increase the amount of bodies the prt could throw at threats, and we know this because it was started by the fucking Triumvirate as a part of the Protectorate! Alexandria literally came up with the idea of the Protectorate to legitimize the power of capes, and have a consistent source of heroes Cauldron could throw at problems. That is the whole reason for the PRT/Protectorate existing. So when we have this group of children brought in a subsidiary, there are 2 real options.

1). Cauldron and Alexandria decided they would be really niceys and created this program with no intentions other than helping these kids out.

Or 2). As things got worse, they realized the Protectorate didn't have enough manpower to do what they needed, and so they expanded it to include children (the demographic most prone to triggering). That way, they greatly increase the number of capes who they can send to fight and die as needed, and the ones who do survive their tenure in the Wards will be better trained when it comes time to join the actual Protectorate.

At the risk of sounding conceited, I think the second one is far more likely based on everything we know about Cauldron. Maybe it was originally a little nobler, and the goal was just to create more well trained heroes and cut back on young villains, but there's no way Alexandria, Doc Mom, and Contessa didn't factor in the ability to sacrifice the kid heroes if it improved their chances of success. That was absolutely a perk at minimum.

That's the real tragedy of the inaugural Wards. The kids were lured in with promises of safety, comraderie, and second chances like lambs to the slaughter. All the while, Alexandria and Cauldron knew that many (if not most) of these children would suffer abuse by the prt (like in the case of Reed), die, or face a fate worse than death like poor Mouse Protector. It's horrifying! The idea that they didn't know the danger these kids would be in is literally inconceivable. Especially when one of you is also the head of the prt! They knew, and they didn't care. It improved their chances at the end of the world, and so they did it no matter the cost.

[morbethgames]

Love In Stasis - Chapter 1

(Follow more closely on my Patreon )

Chapter 1

The radio inside the dark blue Volkswagen was playing nineties rock hits, if only to drown out the doom that Madeline felt about finishing the project for her immunology course. One hand was on the steering wheel while her head leaned on the other, which was propped up on the inside of the car door. Luckily she wasn’t paired with just some random person, or else the stress of it all would no doubt be amplified by an amount that she didn’t even want to comprehend. 

People walked through the crosswalk of the main street in front of her, just north of the dorms of Scribe City College. It wasn’t the biggest campus by any means in the U.S., but it was close to a strip of restaurants, a shopping center with a movie theater and a bowling alley, and a couple of bars. So it’s not like there wasn’t anything to do here at campus. 

A horn suddenly beeped behind Madeline, grabbing her attention. “Shit-” she muttered and sat up, pressing on the gas to make her car begin to roll through the now green light, which she hadn’t realized had changed colors from its previous red hue. The long-haired brunette put up a hand so the car behind her could see. “Sorry!” As if they would have a chance of hearing her in mid-november when everyone had their windows rolled up. 

She had a lot distracting her as of recently. As an animal science major and immunology minor, there was no shortage of assignments and presentations the woman had to do. This was made doubly sure by the fact she was in her junior year, which was infamously known as one of the busiest times in a college student’s life. Even now, she was headed to the Grayson Library to meet up with Melody to work on this project, which focused on MHC cross-translation for exogenous antigens. 

College was hard. Medicine was harder. She wanted to do this, but sometimes she felt like she didn’t want to do this. But, whenever she felt like that, all she had to do was think about Jeremy.

That normally got her motivated again. It helped remind her of why she was here in the first place, at this college, in this major. 

As Madeline pulled into a parking space on the side of the building, she got out of her car and opened up the back door. Her hand grabbed one of the straps of her backpack, making a motion to lift it. “Oof!” She stumbled, not moving from the spot and being pulled back towards the car. The strap of the backpack got stuck on a loose piece of plastic underneath one of the seats of her car. 

“Ugh, come on!” The last word was strained as she exerted herself to free the heavy bag from its entrapment. “I just wanna- ngh!” She pulled the backpack again, getting it loose this time and slinging it around her shoulder, exhaling as she did. “Get this project over with.” And get out of the cold. She was wearing jeans with a crop top, and the large, thick button up black and white flannel didn’t really help keep the bitter fall air from nipping at her skin. 

As Madeline pushed open the doors to the library and stepped inside, her walking pace was a little faster than normal. She scanned her student ID card to get past the checkpoint to enter the main portion of the building. As she did, a voice called out to her. 

“Hey Mads, what’s up?” Luz was standing by in her campus security uniform. She was only a couple inches shorter than the six-foot cardboard cutout of the founder of the library. It was always so weird to Maddie that they had that. Like, just- why? 

Madeline looked Luz’s way, offering her nothing much more than a friendly half-smile as she kept walking. It was always kind of awkward around her.

Luz is a criminal justice major, but more than that, she’s Melody’s ex-girlfriend. From what Madeline knew, they were still on friendly terms, and even hung out sometimes, but she just had this way about her. Like a naturally charming attitude, in a flirtatious sense of the word. There have been a couple times where Melody had to come over to Madeline’s dorm this past year to give Luz the privacy she needed for her ‘dates’. 

Which Maddie didn’t exactly find fair. They requested the same dorm because they were together at the time, but now it’s like it gets shoved in Melody’s face whenever that happens. Granted, it doesn’t happen often, but it’s still kind of a shitty thing to do. Luz wasn’t a bad person, and Maddie knew that. She’d known her since high school. Luz was one of the people that was there for her when Jeremy died. 

But, Melody is her best friend, so it’s just a really complicated situation. 

Madeline opens the door to the quiet room that they rented out, walking in and closing it behind her. “Hey, sorry I’m late. I had some orgo homework I needed to work on and time just got away from me.” She huffed, letting the backpack slide off her shoulder onto the floor, sitting down and beginning to rifle through it to pull out her laptop, textbook and notes. 

Melody pushed a few strands of her auburn hair behind her ear. “Oh, trust me, you don’t need to tell a Pre-Vet major the woes of orgo.” She leaned forward, placing her hand overtop Madeline’s and speaking overdramatically. “I was forged in the fire. You merely bathed in it.”

Madeline looked at her with faux sympathy, putting her other hand over Melody’s, gently patting it a couple times. “Is it that time of the semester where you begin incorrectly quoting Batman movies already? You poor thing.” 

For the next two hours, Melody and Madeline worked together on their project. It was a grueling process that was only cushioned by the jokes, quips, and suffering shared between close friends. 

Madeline and Melody had known each other since elementary school. They were assigned to sit next to each other in Mr. Thompson’s class, which Madeline then took the opportunity to scribble all over Melody’s cursive homework the first chance she got. Melody proceeded to cry and throw her applesauce all over Madeline’s clothes. 

Later, when a meeting was called and both families were sitting in the principal's office, both of them were told to apologize to each other. To everyone’s surprise, they looked at each other and just… started to laugh. From that point on, they were practically attached at the hip. 

“Uuuugh!” Melody sat back and stared up at the ceiling.

Madeline did the same, only instead of groaning she just rubbed her eyes. “Is it cones or rods that cause sight related headaches?”

Melody shrugged, turning side to side in her seat. “I dunno.”

“Well whichever it is, I’m politely requesting that mine either be replaced or removed.” Madeline sat back forward, looking at Melody who couldn’t help but crack a smile and chuckle at the statement. 

They both raised their heads and looked towards the door that was opening, seeing the long-pixie cut, or bixie cut as some would call it, of Luz. “Hey, M n’ M, how goes the studying?” 

M n’ M was her nickname for them since forever. A play on the candy, since their names were Madeline and Melody. 

Melody sighed, “Not studying; project. And it’s finished. Finally. But now I have to get into my animal disease homework, which means I’ll be here for a little while longer, unfortunately.”

Luz stepped fully into the doorway, pointing her thumb back towards the direction of the front desk. “My shift’s about to end, but I can wait around if you wanna have somebody to walk you home.”

Melody scrunched her face, holding up a hand in refusal. “No no, you head back to the room. You still have that case to write up a summary on, right? What was it…?” She trails the last word, snapping her fingers a couple of times before pointing towards Luz. “DeShaney v. Winnebago, right?”

Luz grins and nods a little, “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m reviewing my analyses on the mother’s deposition. Shit can get kinda rough.” She lets out a depleted sigh. “But, gotta stay objective. That’s what the law is all about.” 

“I never thought I’d see the day where you’d be putting in the work to study law.” Madeline begins gathering her things as she speaks, closing her laptop and shoving it in her backpack.

Luz smiles, leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms. “Oh, I’m sorry, are you saying I don’t put work into things?” The security woman looks down to the front of her body, chuckles, and looks back up. “Cus’ I have a few examples I could give to prove you wrong, cariño.”

Maddie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but does so with a smile. Luz and Melody just look at each other and laugh a little before Luz pushes herself off of the door frame. “Alright, if you’re sure, Melody, then I’ll see you back at the dorm.”

In response, Melody holds out her hands, as if over exaggeratingly releasing something into the wild. “Be free, my butch stallion. Roam back to the savanna.” 

Madeline stops what she’s doing to look and raise her eyebrows at Melody, and Luz just breaks out into a wider smile and shakes her head. “Alright girl, see you at home.” With that, Luz walks away and leaves the other two in the room, letting the door close behind her. 

It takes a couple of seconds of Maddie giving the disappointed best friend look for Melody to defend herself. “It was a joke Maddie, I’m tired- leave me alone!” The redhead brings her hands up to her face and leans back in her chair.

“You are so not over her.” Madeline retorts as she finishes putting the rest of her things back in her bookbag and settling back into her seat. 

“I know.” Melody sits back up, putting her hands flat on the table, “I’m trying, but like, it’s hard. 

Her friend stares back, unimpressed. “Mel-”

“I mean, she talked about putting in work and let me tell you; she puts in work.” 

Maddie held out her hand and stood up, “Okay, way too much info, girl.” They both laughed a little as Madeline began to gather her things, continuing to attempt to be the voice of reason. “Look, all I’m saying is that nothing good can come from swooning over an ex. Trust me, you saw what happened with me and Ahmed.”

Mel nodded, “Okay, true. I just- it’s hard, y’know?” She slouched forward, leaning her chin on her hand. “We live together, and I see her every night. So not having the space away is just- It’s difficult to keep my mind focused on other things.”

“You haven’t like,” Maddie lowered her voice, even though she didn’t have to since they were in a literal quiet room. “benefited with friends’d her, have you?” 

Melody smiles, “First off, that’s the weirdest way of asking if we’ve had sex or not. Second, no, we haven’t. At least not since breaking up.” 

“Good.” 

“But I totally want to.”

“Mel!”

“Maddie!” Melody answered with a smile and a mock tone. 

Madeline rolls her eyes and shakes her head, becoming minorly annoyed at this point. Noticing this, Melody follows up her statement with a more sensible, less thirsty take on the situation. “I want to… but I won’t.” 

Madeline eases her expression, having empathy for the exhaustion in her best friend’s tone as she continues to speak. “Like I said, living together is hard, but I’ll get over her eventually. I think it’s just harder because we’re still friends, and sometimes,” She shrugs half-heartedly, “I just see the way she treats me and it’s pretty much the same as when we were together. So I’m left to wonder if her feelings ever changed, or if I was always just, I dunno,” she pauses for a second, trying to think of the right way to phrase it. “A friend?”

A short beat of silence lingers in the room, then Maddie walks over to Melody’s side of the table. “Mel, why don’t I get a dorm room senior year?” 

Melody’s brow furrows, a small amount of guilt already lacing it. “What? Maddie, no-”

“I can live here and you can request a transfer to my room. We wouldn’t have to meet at the library, and you’d be able to get some space away from Luz.”

Melody leaned against the back of the chair. “I appreciate it- really, I do. And I know I have to put more space between her and I. But I would just feel bad, y’know? She’s my friend, and we’ve been sharing a room for three years.”

“You’ve been sharing a room for three years, while dating.” Maddie adds in the important detail. 

“I know, I know. But you know what her home life was like. She finally has something stable, and I don’t wanna make her feel like shit because I can’t get over my feelings.” 

“I get that. I do.” Madeline puts a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But just remember, you have to take care of yourself, too. You’re gonna be applying for vet schools next year and taking your capstone. You don’t wanna be bogged down by this stuff.”

Melody looks up with an appreciative smile, putting her own hand over her friend’s. “I know. I promise, I won’t let it stop me.”

“Good.” Maddie says, then makes her way towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow for the presentation. Don’t stay here all night, alright?”

As the door starts closing behind her, Melody shouts back, “No promises!” 

Then the door shuts. Melody is left in the room alone. She thinks about pulling up her animal disease homework, but it’s like there’s a force stopping her. Some urge that she has to just get up and go home. To talk to Luz before she loses her nerve. Because Maddie was right; they had to talk about it. She couldn’t keep going and just pining over her ex. Even if Luz wasn’t doing anything to antagonize those feelings, maybe there was something they could work out by just talking to each other. It was worth a shot.

So, she gathered up her things and left shortly after her friend did, hopefully heading home in time to have the conversation over dinner. She was starving.

A half hour later - Mel and Luz’s dorm room

Mel walked up to their third floor dorm room, reaching into her pocket to fish out the key card. As she was about to hold it up to the door, she stopped for a second, listening with furrowed brows. 

“Oh fuck, Luz! Mmm… Anh…!” 

Her expression became dejected as she recognized the familiar sounds of a woman’s moaning and groaning. Luz must’ve thought Melody was going to be longer in the library, which was fair since staying and doing work was what she originally said she was going to do. 

Mel goes to put her keys back in her pockets. She could go out for a couple of hours. Maybe head over to Maddie’s and spend the night there. 

But she just froze. 

Melody knew she should just walk away. Just go somewhere else and give Luz the time she needed with whatever hookup was with her. To give her time to finish things up.

So why was she opening the door, then? Jealousy? Probably. It was at least half the reason. The other was the hurt she felt. And the hurt made her mad, if only a little. 

As she stepped inside, she heard the noises from the other room stop.

Luz, who was currently overtop of her panting partner, turned her head to the side. “What was that?” Her voice was a bit raspy itself.

The woman pulled Luz’s face down and planted a kiss on her lips. “I don’t care.” She said, breathing heavily, “Just keep going!”

Luz wasn’t about to let the dopamine cloud her cautiousness, though. She shifted and swung her legs out of bed, picking up her button up shirt from the floor. She hadn’t gotten her pants off quite yet, but they were also unbuttoned by this point. “Just stay here, I’ll be right back.” The more muscular woman’s tone was cautious.

Her partner looked disappointed, and her tone matched it, but she tried to hide it through a pout. “Don’t keep me waiting…” 

Luz looked back with a cocky grin, then leaned down and gave her another kiss. Her coarse black hair was barely long enough to hang in front of her face before she slicked it back. “I won’t. Do us both a favor,” She looked down at the woman’s body, trailing a finger partway down her chest and looked back into her eyes. “Keep yourself busy ‘til I get back, yeah?”

With that, she headed toward the door, her shirt still unbuttoned and exposing her toned abs and the middle of her chest. 

As she poked her head out, she saw a familiar head of auburn hair. Embarrassment hit her almost immediately as she carefully closed the door behind her. “Mel? I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.” Luz began walking towards her, hurriedly working on buttoning up the top of her shirt while she did. 

“Well,” Melody shrugged with a half-hearted, tense smile. “Here I am.” 

“Yeah, um,” Luz sighed through a nervous smile of her own. Normally Melody would hear what was going on and give her some time to wrap things up, but that didn’t seem like it was the case this time around. Mel was just standing there uncomfortably, retracting in on herself. 

One thing Luz was good at, which Melody both hated and loved while they were still together, was picking up on people’s moods and emotions. It was obvious to the criminal justice major that something was just off tonight. Melody’s posture and the way she was acting just started setting off alarm bells in Luz’s mind. “Are you-” She looked at Mel, concerned. “Are you okay?” The awkwardness in her voice was still very much apparent.

Melody took a deep breath and crossed her arms. “Not, um,” A single, nervous laugh left her lips, “N-Not really.” Luz’s expression became even more concerned. “Can we, um, talk? Maybe?”

There was a heavy silence that took over the room for a couple of seconds. Things hadn’t been this heavy since their breakup. That being any indication, Luz definitely knew it was something that couldn’t wait. She needed to make time for her ex. For her friend. “Yeah. Yeah, sure thing. Just-” She took a single step towards the hallway, pointing her thumb in the direction she was moving. “Gimme a sec.”

Mel watched as Luz warily walked towards the door to her bedroom and headed inside. 

A moment of quiet passes in the living room. 

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

Melody flinched at the shouting coming from the bedroom. 

Luz cringed as she stood on one side of the bed and her date started getting dressed on the other side. “Look, I’m really sorry. Something really important came up and-”

“Oh, so I’m not fucking important then, Luz?! Are you serious right now?!” She angrily pulled up her underwear, then started throwing on her shirt. 

“I-” Luz had to take a breath and stop herself from snapping back at the presumptuous comment. “I never said that, Beth.”

“Yeah? Well you’re sure as hell not denying it either!” Beth got all her clothes on, and Luz walked around the bed next to her.

“My roommate came home and they need to-”

“So what?!” Bethany shouts, moving to exit the room and grabbing her purse on the way past. 

“Beth, hold on!” Unfortunately, Luz couldn’t get to the irate woman before she opened the door.

Bethany had already started making her way down the short hallway outside the room, walking backwards, holding her hands out and facing Luz, who was still in the doorway behind her. “They can either go somewhere for like, an hour, or they can sit out here and listen to the fucking show for all I care!” 

Luz walked after the blonde, her own tone now started to get irritated. “That’s not happening.”

Melody stood there, motionless, wide-eyed, and practically holding her breath. She secretly hoped she might just disappear until all this was over. Like not breathing would somehow make her invisible. 

Bethany pointed to the extremely toned woman who was supposed to be her partner for the night. “No Luz! There’s no excuse! Kicking me out while you’re practically still knuckles deep in me is fucked and you know it!” 

At this point, Luz raised her voice back. “Hey! Can you watch you’re fucking mouth, please?!”

Bethany paused, looked back at Melody who was standing there frozen, then looked back at Luz, shaking her head in disbelief. She stepped forward and pushed her, making the stronger woman take a couple steps back. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?! Is that what this is?! You double booked?!” Bethany turned around and started walking towards the door leading out of the apartment.

Luz continued to follow her to the door. “I already told you, that’s not it!” 

On her way past, Beth spit at Melody. 

Mel flinched violently, being snapped out of her frightened stupor, and immediately began to wipe away at her cheek. 

“Have fun with your whore!” It was the last thing Beth said before opening the door to leave. 

“HEY! ¡¿Qué carajo fue eso?!” 

“No, don’t!” Luz stops in her tracks as she hears Melody’s interjection. Her voice almost trembles as she says it.

Luz looks at Mel, then at the door, which just finished shutting on its own, then back to Mel. She had a pretty strong sense of justice. It felt wrong to just let Beth walk away after what she did, but she had to weigh which one was more important to her right now. Her desire to see Beth face consequences for what she did, or her friend’s feelings.

It was an easy answer.

Luz covered her thumb with her sleeve and walked over to Mel. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t think she’d flip out like that.” She wiped Melody’s cheek a couple of times, slowly, then put both hands up to cup her face. “You okay? Lemme look at you.”

Melody looked up, and immediately her eyes met with Luz’s. She was lost in them. In the care. In the tenderness. In the protectiveness. She wanted to move her hand up to grab Luz’s. She wanted to beg her to take her back. She wanted to scream and shout and tell her to stop being her. But most of all, she just wanted to know why. 

Why wasn't she what Luz wanted?

Luz’s expression only grew more concerned when Melody began tearing up. “Mel?” 

The sound of her name was enough to snap her out of the depressive trance, and she promptly turned her head away and walked a few paces back. “No, I’m- I’m sorry.” She paused for half a second, stammering over what she wanted to say. “I just shouldn’t have-” Mel interrupted herself again, letting out a single breath. She was having trouble getting the words out.

Some of Luz’s concern turned to confusion, but she gave Mel her space. “Shouldn’t have,” she paused, “what?”

“I shouldn’t have come over tonight!”

Luz’s confusion only deepened. “Melody, this is your dorm room too. You can decide to be here whenever you want.” 

“No, Luz!” Melody snapped, turning to look at her. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. 

Luz, in response, took a step back. Her eyes could only be described as that of a dog who felt like they did something wrong. Those two words made her feel like she lost her footing a lot more than Bethany’s shove did.

Mel shook her head and looked down. “I can’t. I really, really can’t, Luz.”

“Mel…” Her voice was soft. Fragile. She thought if she spoke any louder that Melody might shatter like a pane of glass. “This-” she reached out. Not to actually touch her, but to show she was trying to comfort her. “This isn’t your fault.”

That only seemed to draw an audible sob from the pre-vet major. “Yeah.” She brings one hand up to her forehead and nods, outwardly crying now, and barely able to get the words out. “Yeah it is.” 

Melody pushed past Luz, heading a couple steps down the hallway and fast walking into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her. 

“Mel!” Luz followed, attempting to open the door, but to no avail. She knocked on it with her open palm a couple of times. “Melody!” Inside, she could hear her ex’s sobs. It sounded like she was crying into her pillow to try and muffle the sounds, but they were still just loud enough to be heard through the door. 

Luz stood there for a few seconds, wondering what the hell even happened tonight. What did Melody want to talk to her about? What got her so emotional? What could she do to make this right; whatever this was? 

“Shit…” Luz sighed, then walked further down the hall to her own room. Before entering, she looks back one more time at Melody’s door.

She just stops and stares, then bows her head and walks in, closing the door behind her.

[vampiresandotherdelights]

If bookstagram and booktok has taught me anything it's that people love a good graphic, right?

Read The Vampire's Betrothed now!

[tafferling]

Book Release: Aphelion, The City of a Billion Stolen Souls

Aphelion is a love letter. In incomplete one at that, which is still being written as I make my way through the series. But as each of its seasons is finished, a book gets released! And here we are! My first official 'omg I published something' novel: Aphelion, The City of a Billion Stolen Souls

If you like science-fantasy with soul-harnessing magic and tech, a cyberpunk (or aetherpunk, those two are having fisticuffs) flair, and a slow burn simmering away in the middle of a (mysterious) zombie apocalypse, then Aphelion may just be right for your bookshelf. Literally, because you can buy all of book one's 531 pages in gorgeous print!

What's in it?

In a world where tech runs off the concept of one's soul and where dragons steady cosmic scales, heroes are shaped in the shadow of an ancient grudge. Horizon's Crown was an Earther triumph; a stage at the frontier of the settled systems, a city of hope and dreams and infinite potential. Now, under the watchful eye of its orbital island, it straddles the line between dead and dying; a city of nightmares and endless sorrow. Varrett Vild Vickers belongs into a pilot's chair. He's meant to dodge asteroids, to race dragons, not chase credits so he can pay rent while HC's major demographic clicks its teeth at him and tries to eat his face off. But it's fine. Really. He copes. Or that's what he tells himself, all the way until a woman falls from the sky and turns his already upside-down life very sharply sideways. Armed with nothing but her worst-kept secret and a ledger of lies, Sophya Soulwright tricks her way into Horizon's Crown, looking for not only her sister, but for redemption and a meaning to a life she’s never held dear.  What she finds instead is a city trying its hardest to live, and a man who courts death every step of the way. He's infuriating, tireless, and after a glitch binds their souls together, he is now stuck with her. 

Don't want this chunky darling on your shelf and prefer to read it digitally? Dontchu worry, Taff has you covered. I release Aphelion as a free-to-read web serial, both on Campfire (where you can tip me if you like to get world building extras) and Archive of Our Own. 'cause like I said; Aphelion is a love letter. I just want to write it and share it.

But that doesn't mean I don't want to hear from you if you choose to give it a chance.

Where to find Aphelion:

On Amazon (531 pages, paperback).

On Goodreads (oh gosh I have an author profile there now).

On Campfire Explore (where, if you choose to tip, you may feel the sudden sensation of an ethereal cat slinking around your ankles in appreciation).

And on Archive Of Our Own (where it all started).

BIG BIG BIG thanks to @hermit-writes for her amazing typesetting skills (and book photography) and of course @drawinglinestoconstellations for the cover and interior art.

[laurfilijames]

I didn't write 18,000+ words for you to leave me zero.

COMMENT ON FICS PLEASE.

[angy-grrr]

i have an issue I see with ppl trying to make shippers "understand" their ship could not become canon, and I dont think many would expect it.

Why are we pretending being in your late 30s is being middle age? Dont get me wrong, being a middle aged person doesn't have to mean anything about someone, but its just- not middle age literally.

I dont really understand bringing that up anyways, iit feels wrong to me to believe just ppl in their teens and 20s could ever do anything pro LGBT+ in general... I find it insulting, as if this is a new thing or impossible to believe older people could believe in queerness in a positive light or be queer themselves. The main reason in the west, and im assuming other parts of the world, there arent as many or as visible is, well, because people were dying because of the AIDS crisis + the isolation from being older and every single public space made for or just young queers or cishet older adults.

I get the point, but if I remember correctly every time I see someone trying to do that (of course im believing they have the best intentions in mind), they have to bring up how this is a Japanese middle aged man as a good enough reason.

I don't really mind about what others want to believe or how much they care in terms of shipping -if you prefer to be casual and not paying that much attention to what's canon or not, good for you! Many ppl are also like that and its completely valid, here in this side of Tumblr might seem like all of us believe and theorize about their endgame potential bc we are the ones that usually make more posts or longer content. But I dont like those assumptions about queerness being tied to young westerners, and I wanted to rant a little bit.

Again, I dont believe that was the intention in any of those posts, and im not trying to call out anyone, just rant.

[eddathegreat]

Come Read The Wandering Inn, We Swear the Author is Normal