#tag fun fact: this is currently planned to be the epilogue to book 2

[ghost-town-story]

The wind whistled between the empty buildings that still stood in the center of the village, blowing the snow into high drifts around some of them. The horses’ hooves crunched through the snow as the group made their way through the abandoned village. A few of the soldiers kept shooting nervous glances over their shoulders, but their leader moved on, fearless and uncaring if anybody heard them pass through the ghost town.

Finally, they reached the edge of the village, where the buildings had long ago succumbed to nature and collapse and now resembled little more than verdant mounds. A few yards away stood the reason for the village’s abandonment.

A hedge stretched nearly twenty feet into the sky, sharp thorns poking out of their hiding spaces amongst still- green leaves to deter any attempts at climbing. The hedge curved away from the village, stretching for miles until it disappeared from sight. The only variation in the tangles of green and brown lay directly before the group, an innocent looking archway that cut through the hedge, allowing entrance to the interior. Through the arch, more hedges could be seen, creating a labyrinth within the circle of the outer hedge. The entire area was shrouded in an eerie silence, broken only by the howl of the wind.

The leader turned to face his entourage. “I will proceed alone from here.”

One of the soldiers shifted nervously. “But, Your Majesty—”

“Unless you doubt my ability to protect myself from harm, should I run into trouble?” The king’s voice turned icy.

The soldier cowered under his gaze. “No, Your Majesty.”

“That’s what I thought.” The king dismounted his horse and handed off the reigns to a nearby soldier. “Wait here for my return.” Ignoring the uneasy glances the soldiers exchanged, he turned on his heel and crossed the empty expanse, leaving tracks in the otherwise untouched snow.

As he passed under the archway, it was like a spell had fallen over him. It had been silent outside of the maze, but inside there was not even a whisper of the wind. The king didn’t falter though, keeping his stride steady as he wove through the first twists and turns of the maze. Only once he was out of sight of his escort did he pause. He withdrew a pouch from the inner pocket of his coat and removed part of its contents.

Three scales gleamed in the weak winter sunlight. One was a bright spring green, rivaling even the color of the hedges that surrounded him. Another was the dark grey of a storm cloud about to unleash its wrath upon the ground. The final one was a pale misty color, reflecting a myriad of colors depending on which way it tilted.

The king closed his fingers around the scales, returning the pouch to its resting place. “Alright,” he said. “Time for you to reveal your secrets to me.” And with that, he set off again, heading deeper into the labyrinth.

[chairofchaos]

Evening friend!

You bring chaos to my life so here is a little chaos for you

2, 3, 5, 8, 19, 26

And just for fun because I know it will probably hurt me 40

Feel free to answer what you want and ignore the rest 🤍

GOOD EVENING.

Thank you for letting me bring chaos to your life, and for bringing me some in return. In your honor, I will answer all. Seemed like the most chaotic thing to do. I considered making separate posts for each question but then again that was a lot of work so just... bear with me. This is a long read, but hopefully, you will find it worth it.

2. Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

Yes. I am currently bouncing around multiple Greek/Roman tragedy adaptations of our beloved ACOTAR and TOG characters. I do not feel prepared to write these yet. I want to do them justice. That semester of studying tragic plays of the ancients has stuck with me.

3. How would you describe your writing style?

I don't even know how to answer this, but my best shot is this:

The vibe must be chaotic.

It must be written as fast as possible.

It should be entirely unplanned.

If it is planned, it should be entirely overwhelming and likely a bigger project than I should ever take on *cough cough* LETTERS *cough cough*

It's not a style as much as it is entirely based on my whims. And that's not always great. In fact, it's something I don't really enjoy about myself (comment on this and I will edit it out of this post so fast I SWEAR).

But I enjoy the product. I think there are at least a couple of you that do, too, so hopefully we can all enjoy that little piece of chaos together. If not, I'll just enjoy the pain I create on my own like a good little fanfic writer.

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

I don't think such a thing exists. I don't like surprises? Idk, this doesn't really make sense to me. Clearly I have no problem tagging things Dead Dove so we all know what I'm up to lol

8. How slow is a slow burn?

Somewhere between 100 and 100k words. I genuinely do not care. Depends on the medium? The pacing? A slow burn described in a poem is going to look very different than a slow burn in a fic the length of The Iliad and the Odyssey. Or Wheel of Time (that's a long series, right?). I don't care. It's all great. I love slow burns. Haven't written one because I think those characters should be enjoying each other romantically on page 1, but I LOVE reading them.

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

UNANSWERED STARS YOU BEAUTIFUL HUMAN. Is this what you expect to hurt (I haven't looked ahead at the other questions I'm doing this straight through, no edits, no takebacks. Welcome to Chaos- you get two.).

Eris was no saint, either. Cauldron knew he kept his mate up some nights. But the Cauldron also knew Azriel would get out of bed in the middle of the night and take off into flight, not returning until he knew Eris would also be awake. After the first time, they would rarely talk about where Azriel went or what he did. Instead, Eris would press a mug of overly sweet coffee into his hands and they would sit together in silence on the front porch, Azriel’s head on Eris’ shoulder and their hands clasped together. - {Working Title is Coffee and Psychotherapy. THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY FLUFF YOU CAN THANK DUSK-MUSE AND NINTHCIRCLEOFPRYTHIAN}

And maybe more along the lines of what you were expecting:

Azriel found the most enjoyment in the training and teaching of others. In his time as spymaster, he regularly found time to work with young soldiers, for which many have since thanked him, crediting him with saving their lives by instructing them in his limited spare time. In the years since the war, Azriel enjoyed collecting books from all over the world. The collection he amassed was the instigator for a library to honor his mate. - Death, and All That Follows (This may or may not be a sort of extended epilogue to something I wrote recently.)

26. What would you describe as OOC?

This is possibly a wild take: I don't think I care what is out of character for characters I write. It depends on the fic, sure. But I think perspective forms our understanding of characters, and seeing them in a new light can often bring a different, even "OOC" type attitude to fics which I often enjoy. I am very much an advocate for "Don't Like, Don't Read" not only for plot points but for characterization as well. If you don't enjoy the way someone writes your favorite (or your least-favorite!) character, don't read it. The beautiful thing about being a part of a fandom is the diversity of experiences within it.

I did not read Nesta's journey the same way you did, or the way your friend did, or the way my best friend did. I brought my own perspectives, my own experiences, to my interpretation of her actions, words, and thoughts. I came out of the other side loving her, and loving the way she loves. I recognize myself in her. I know I'm not alone in that. I know that there are a great many who do not like her in the slightest.

ACOSF Nesta was presented very differently to ACOTAR Nesta. (For the purposes of this argument, we are removing the debate about The Author Herself because I simply don't care at the moment and that's a much larger topic.) I don't think that anyone's interpretation of Nesta is "wrong" or "bad" because we all bring a pair of glasses to reading, and that glass is made of our experiences. That's the filter through which you consume the work. My glasses are different from yours. That's okay.

Little tangent while we're on the topic: I don't care if your glasses are different. But if you break those glasses to use the shards of glass for the purpose of hurting other people, that's a problem. I have a problem now, and so do you. Because of the inclusion of the argument above, it needed to be said, and so here it is: Don't hurt others because of your glasses. Theirs are different. Please learn to recognize that, and that it is okay to view pieces of media differently. Tangent over.

So TLDR on OOC: I don't care. If you want to write a piece where character canonically named Bubblegum Sunshine Princess because of her (in-canon) overwhelming joy and love of the outdoors and her kingdom's candy trees is a murderous assassin filled with rage and the destructive flame of a thousand suns, go right ahead. There's a very good chance I would love to read it.

40. Write a 9-word fic.

Title: This is a Thing [REDACTED] Learned. The title will be longer than the fic itself, and that's the beauty of The Thing [REDACTED] Learned. Thanks.

A/N: (Stars. My dearest friend. You expect pain here? Now I want to prove you wrong...)

Pairing: Your OTP. Or my OCs. Or is this about my life? Or yours? Who knows. I'm not currently well lol

...........................................

Knowledge came with no promises, no love, no you.

...........................................

All the love, Stars. You're the best. <3<3<3<3<3

[lala-pipo]

1. hey hahaha i saw your latest post, how after you posted a fanfic it's all cricket noises! welllll here i am one of those crickets, I guess! I wonder if tumblr shows how many visits your blog had in a day, because I visit your blog daily to check if you updated Dorm Life... hahahah quite literally, every morning after I wake up, it's one of the first things that I check, because I know it could set my mood for the day >.< not to put pressure on you ofc, just to show I'm looking forward for it!

2. hahaha maybe i should come up with an anon name or something at the end of my messages, cos this one turned out to be long... but anyways! So far, I am loving the first chapter! I read it twice already hahaha the first time I was just so excited at having new jogtae content to read, so the second time I was absorbing every little details huhuhu I love your writing style, you are one of my favorite writers! I'm not just saying it, it's the truth! Your writings makes me feel things and 3. I love how you portray the characters, direct the plot, it's just beautiful! I am looking forward for the next chapters! I don't know if you were planning to update it weekly or bi-weekly or even monthly, so that's why I visit your blog everyday to check if you've updated it! Hahaha I also checked you on AO3 to see maybe if you forgot to update it here and only updated it there... oh gosh I sound like such an intense fan... hahaha thank you so so so so much for writing these stories...  4. Last part of my fan message, I promise omg... so I'm just so so looking forward to where the story will lead us, because damn it's only been chapter 1 and SO So sO maNY things already happened, and I was like... we have 14 chapteRS to GO? Like, where will you bring us? angst? jealousy? fluff? some more intense makeout session? some feelings? I am looking forward for where the story takes me, and honestly, I can't thank you enough for writing these stories... hehehe 5. Ohh! and and one last thing, this one is out of curiosity though! Are you Japanese? or maybe you know Japanese? hehehe I was reading the origin of your blog name! Anyways, I hope you stay safe during this pandemic, ... and even if there are only cricket noises, at least this one cricket spoke to you! and would like to say that I appreciate all the effort you made to make such beaUTIFul stories! Thank you! - cricket anon ;D

  _______________________________________________ Dear cricket nony, ^^ I hope you don’t mind if I answer your long message in one post (while answering this I realized you sent two more *le gasp*). Thanks so much for sending me an ask (or several for that matter). It made my day.  (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

My post wasn’t directed at anything/anyone specific but just a general observation I’ve made over the past few months (years -). I remember so many people sending me messages and asks in the past about when I finally continue/finish (w)help and when I did, barely anyone read it, and that seems to be a reoccurring theme and I’m not quite sure what I should take from that, you know. ^^” But I shouldn’t whine, there are more important matters in this world. I’m glad you enjoyed the first chapter of this very self-indulgent fic. I’m sorry that you went through the hassle of checking for updates every day. I should have given a specific time frame in the first chapter and not use the vague word ‘regular’. That’s on me, I’m sorry. T_T I intend on posting a new chapter either every two weeks or three weeks, and don’t worry, I will post a link on this blog when I update. 6v6 As I’ve said in the notes of the first chapter I’ve started working on this in 2016 while I was bored and lonely in my small dorm room on the other side of the world *sways back and forth* and tbh I just wanted to write some JongTae smut ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (not even gonna lie here and pretend that I had some deep, philosophical life questions in mind when I started writing this). That Dorm Life turned into an actual story only happened this year when I tried to thread everything together and not make it into a 170k smut fest. Therefore the first 6 chapters are rather quick paced and there is a lot going on while the other 9 chapters (15 is the epilogue and doesn’t really have plot) are slower paced. So I hope you will also enjoy the other chapters of this little story. ^^ “Like, where will you bring us? angst? jealousy? fluff? some more intense makeout session? some feelings?” Dear cricket nony, I will bring you to all of these things to varying degrees. ^^ I know people don’t like it when pairings are mentioned in the main pairing tag when they aren’t the end goal or just side!pairings (*raises hand* I’m one of those people 😂) that’s why I only mentioned 2min and JongKey in the additional tags, but they will play a crucial role throughout the fic. ^^ So, anyway - I really hope that you will enjoy the rest of the fic as well. I’m still tweaking some of the chapters because there are some things I’m not happy with yet, but yeah - please look forward to the rest OTL.  As for your last question - I’m not Japanese. But the dormitory that inspired this story was in fact located in Japan. I studied there for a year during my Master’s  in Japanese studies. I chose the pen name ‘lala pipo’ because I read the book with the same title in 2010 and liked the narration of it (fun fact: I’m currently re-reading it again because I couldn’t remember why I liked it so much ^^). I posted my first two? SHINee stories still under my original livejournal username, but I didn’t want to spam my private account with fanfics - so I created a new one just for fics and just liked how lala pipo sounded. It’s also easy to remember I think. ^^ Once again, thanks so much for your very sweet messages, cricket nony. You are always welcome to cricket some more. ♡ ～('▽^人) I hope you will also stay safe during this time. I wish you the loveliest of days! Thank you!  (っ˘з(˘⌣˘ ) ♡

[raiswanson]

Ten Facts

Tagged by @helenpowers thank you very much! :)

uhmmmmm well as far as I’m aware this is a “ten general facts about you” meme buuuuuut this is my author blog so hey let’s see if we can come up with ten book-y facts about me :D This can definitely go wrong in no way.

1. As of right now I’ve completed first drafts of two books, The Dancing Sands and (newly titled) The Dragon Totem. The former I completed last NaNo and the latter was my first NaNo. Neither could even dream of publication at this stage (I’ve barely touched them since finishing) but hey man. They’re written.

2. I’ve been making up and telling stories since I was super young (as in as soon as I learned to talk. Surprisingly the general theme of my stories has not changed very much. The Fantasy and SciFi is strong in this one) but didn’t get the idea in my head to seriously go “Hey, what if I wrote a book and published it? Wouldn’t that be wild?” until I was about to graduate high school and came to the startling realization that it was what I wanted to do with my life. (Prior to that I’d spent my entire life wanting to be a veterinarian. And I still do, but not nearly as much as I want to dedicate myself to writing.)

3. I have way too many favorite books to ever provide a comprehensive list but my tops contain the Wings of Fire series, the Ranger’s Apprentice series, the Dragonback series. the Black Jewels trilogy, and pretty much any book written by Jonathan Stroud.

4. I have WAY more stories saved in my files and rattling around in my head than I will ever be able to reasonably write and though this fact distresses me greatly you can be assured that I’m going to do my damnedest to get to as many of them as I can.

5. I have a serious problem with writing anything that doesn’t ultimately tie back in to at least one of my other books. Usually in form of cameo appearance by another character paired by a few hints and tidbits of info about said cameo character’s own story. While this does not trouble me on principle, it’s a bit bothersome when my INTENTION was to write something entirely unrelated. Hooray for universe-hopping dragons.

6. Against all writer stereotypes, I despise the taste of both tea and coffee, and am definitely not a big drinker of any form of liquor. My writing fuel is in fact Dr. Pepper. I know. I’m a sham. *dramatically falls to ground*

7. As I have recently realized, I have the odd habit of including something about cooking/baking/etc in everything I write, be it an actual recipe walk-through, in-depth praise of a particular dish or cooking style, or some basic knowledge spelled out and explained (ex: in my current book I had a character go into lengthy detail as to what “punching down bread dough” means, and why you do it.) These instances are never planned and tend to just...happen. I do not however have any intention of omitting them.

8. Another thing I realize I have a tendency to do is break my book up into two  parts, first being introductions and worldbuilding and for the most part normal book things, and second taking a sharp left turn to focus on one primary romance arc as well as closing off sub-plots in rapid fire. I also really like my punchy epilogues. Like. A lot.

9. I have a deep-rooted dislike of any story that paints an entire species of creatures (primarily dragons. oh my god. if a book opens up with “there’s a dragon and they’re evil monsters we must kill them” and there’s no indication of a “oh my gosh some dragons are chill”, then I’m closing it immediately) as wholly evil and in need of “heroic slaying”. I mean, you do you, if you want to have some stupid mindless species that kills and attacks and violently murders just because, go ahead. Some people dig that. But I won’t be reading your story.

Same goes for stories where an entire species of INTELLIGENT AND THINKING creatures are 100% evil for no reason other than they somehow as an ENTIRE SPECIES decided that sounded like a fun time. (in this case I do have an exception; the inclusion of dissenters that go “hey I don’t like this how about I be good or at least neutral instead”. It’s mostly the idea of an ENTIRE SPECIES being of one mind and mannerism [hive minds excluded] despite supposedly having the capacity to think and have a sense of self that kills my interest. Like. C’mon. That’s just... C’MON. You can’t have individuals without people being...individual!!!)

10. I have no idea what I’m doing but despite this I’m always happy to give out advice and encouragement as though I were an aged scholar of my craft. :D

Sorry this got so long I have no self control, and as for tagging othersssss: @tundra-tiger @authorloremipsum @otramble @universalfanfic @brynprocrastinates @tenaciousgentlemanlycloud @throughthemarshes @crispyninjadonut