#taopm

[pareidoliajules]

so I finished writing a novel today!!!

[stephwriteswords]

hey look an intro post!

Hello! My name is Steph and I write words. Stories, specifically, especially stories about women, queer people (and the romances they get into), magic, supernatural creatures. I like to write about people (of all ages, genders, races and creature-types) figuring out the world they live in, because I’m tired of media that perpetuates the idea that somehow that stops when you turn 16, or 18, or whatever. I’m 27, and I haven’t figured hardly anything out. If any of you have, please let me know. I have an English degree and a certificate in creative writing, and my ‘day job’ is actually a night job, and it lets me actually have time for writing most times, which is pretty okay, even if it has literally nothing to do with my area of interest.

Anyway, I like memes, and prompts, and questions about my stories and characters. I currently have 3 ‘main’ works in progress, but...I also have ADHD, so...who’s to say what I’ll get excited about next. Currently, though, we have:

The Unchosen One (title not necessarily final; it may go back to being called The Big Story if I change my mind): New Adult urban fantasy ft queer representation and the idea that there’s nothing that only one person can do, and the things that separate us aren’t really as stark as they seem. There’s magic, Magic, a father in peril, an annoyance-to-deep-respect-and-care relationship. This is the first in a series, hence the original title, and nobody knows it yet but there’s gonna be dragons. (tag to follow: #tuo and/or #tbs)

The Four Corners: Sheltered werewolf girl goes to college, finds out the supernatural world is way bigger and more complicated than she ever thought possible. She and her new pack can literally never catch a break. Supernatural YA. There’s vampires, witches, regular humans, and maybe even ghosts! There’s a lot of supernatural politics, too, which is exhausting super fun to write! (tag to follow: #t4c)

The Adventures of Princess Marigold: Middle grades fantasy about a curious princess who accidentally goes on an adventure and has to get out alive, and grow up a little in the process. There are unicorns, trolls, and creatures I made up all by myself. The original version of this story was actually written by my dad, way back in 2004 or something, and I built from his story to create the version that currently exists. It’s full of inside family jokes, but I think it’s pretty good all the same. (tag to follow: #taopm)

I’m a character-driven author, and found families make my heart hurt in the best way. I’ve never even attempted a writeblr before and I’m still getting over being a little stagefrighty about my own writing, but...here we are, so I’m giving it a shot. I guess I’ll be making a masterpost for each of these stories, and I’ll be posting a lot of inspo for my various stories, but I’m also going to try and reblog writing advice (and maybe give my own if people care lmao) and so on. I’ll gladly be your cheerleader, especially if you’re willing to be mine!!

[stephwriteswords]

FIND THE WORDS

I was tagged by the lovely Laurel ( @sleepy-night-child​ ) with the words:

refuse,

afraid,

close,

and problem.

I don’t really know anyone in the writeblr community yet, and I certainly can’t keep track of who may have already done this, so if you’re seeing this, take this as an invitation. I know it’s hard when nobody like, invited you, but you can definitely tag me in your post(s) and say I tagged you...because I am tagging you! Sort of!

If you do decide to take this from me, take these words with you:

ugly,

together,

tumble,

and laughter.

Onto the game! Excerpts beneath the cut for length because why be shortwinded when you can be longwinded, amirite <3 Read on for cuts from The Four Corners and The Adventures of Princess Marigold!! Please let me know if you’d like to be included in taglist(s)!

REFUSE: THE FOUR CORNERS

“I know what you mean,” Fiona said, because she did. “I mean, I’ve been a were-- I’ve been in my, um, club, since birth, but…” Fiona sighed. “There’s so much I don’t know. So much I didn’t even know I didn’t know until I got here.”

“Like what?”

“Like-- like you, and your independent study, like…” Fiona sighed helplessly. “If I’d known how much I was missing, I would’ve left Missouri a long time ago.”

“Go back a minute,” Jo said, leaning forward on one hand. “Did you say you’ve been, um, how you are, since… since birth?”

Fiona nodded. “I wasn’t-- um, inducted. My parents were, so me and my brother both are.”

Jo’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t know that was possible.” She pulled a tablet from her backpack, murmuring a few words as she pressed her fingers against the screen. There was a faint purple glow and it unlocked for her - and then she was hastily writing something, using a purple stylus that had appeared from apparently nowhere. “...since birth… parents…”

“Um,” Fiona said. “That’s not - I mean, that’s not how it always works,” Fiona said; Jo paused to look up at her. “My parents got lucky with me and Flynn.”

“Lucky how?”

“Well… pregnancy is hard on a body in general, without - without going through what we go through.” Fiona said, her voice even as she continued. “So it’s hard for females - for women who are, um, in my club to get pregnant and stay that way.”

Jo’s eyes went somehow even wider, and Fiona blushed under the pressure. “And even if they do, it’s not, like, a guarantee that the pu-- that the kids would be, um, in the club.” “It’s not?”

Fiona shook her head. “Like I said, they got lucky with us. And not just ‘cause we’re the coolest kids ever.”

Jo laughed and wrote more down with her purple stylus, then looked back at her. “My family doesn’t know about me,” Jo admitted, in a quiet sort of half-whisper, sounding resigned and disappointed all at once. “Sometimes I think it’d be so much easier, but… I mean, they wouldn’t believe me anyway, and if they did, they’d probably just… I don’t know, send me to Bible Camp again or something.”

“Bible Camp? Again?” Fiona stared. She’d never even heard of Bible Camp, and from Jo’s tone of voice, she didn’t really want to.

Jo waved a hand dismissively. “Never mind,” she said, returning a smile to her face. “I have my coven, and that’s more than enough for me.” Jo’s smile widened. “They’ve been so great to me. Has your p-- I mean, your club, have they been nice to you? Winnie said you weren’t the only new one, right?”

Fiona nodded, though she hesitated. “I’m - I’m not the only new one, no, but, um… I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tell you or not.” Fiona sighed quietly. “I’m not sure how, you know, secretive it really all has to be…”

Jo pursed her lips slightly. “Okay, let me ask you a different way. Is her name Kate?”

“Y-- wait, what? No, it’s not,” Fiona said, her frown deepening. “Who’s Kate?”

“Nobody!” Jo said, too quickly to be anything like convincing. “Never mind. I was just guessing a random name, trying to up my psychic game, forget I said anything.”

“Jo--”

“Seriously,” Jo said. “Forget I said anything. Please?”

Fiona blinked. “...Are you gonna cast a spell on me if I refuse?”

Jo blinked in return, then started laughing. She wiggled her fingers playfully at Fiona. “And you wouldn’t even know if I did!”

AFRAID: THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCESS MARIGOLD

Marigold nodded, glad that even though Patrick couldn’t remember how old he was, he still celebrated that he was still alive. “Who do you invite to your parties?” Marigold asked, her mind already filling in with images of fairies, pixies, little fox friends and all sorts of fantasy creatures, gathered together around a table, with a Unicorn-shaped cake right in the middle.

She knew, objectively, that there probably wasn’t cake. Or a table. In spite of the fact that Patrick could speak to her - and that she could understand him, no less! - he was still a Unicorn, which was still a type of animal. He didn’t have the thumbs required to open stoves or cut slices of cake.

He probably didn’t even have a stove. Or a kitchen. Or a house.

That made Marigold sad.

“Patrick,” she said, “where do you live?”

“You are full of questions,” Patrick said, and Marigold just grinned and gave an enthusiastic nod of her head.

“Yep!” she said, proud of this fact - people had been telling her since she could remember that she talked too much, asked ‘why’ too much, read too much and had too many thoughts in her head, but both of her parents had assured her that there was no such thing as ‘too much’ curiosity, and while there was a time and a place for certain questions, it was almost always a good thing to ask them. The people who said she talked too much were just afraid of doing the same, so they were trying to make her afraid, too.

But Marigold had never been afraid of that. She couldn’t have been even if she tried - her opinions, thoughts, questions and sometimes even answers to those same questions all came tumbling out of her mouth whether she liked it or not. So Marigold had decided to like it. Why shouldn’t she? Her parents said that the secret to eternal life was to always be learning, and Marigold loved learning.

CLOSE: THE FOUR CORNERS

The Alpha paused. For a moment, she wondered if he might force her, if he might tug her into the stream of pack that she could feel all around her.

But he didn’t. He gave a slight nod and half turned and gave a little woof - the two behind her trotted obediently to him and kept on trotting. He looked at the little white female and nosed her gently, and she started walking into the woods, though considerably slower than the other two.

And then it was just the two of them.

He looked back at her and sat down. Fiona tilted her head.

His name was Dominic.

She remembered that - the body of his fur was deep brown, with lighter splashes across his chest and face; he was bigger than she was, but still built light. The male that had passed her and gone into the woods was easily the biggest of any of them.

His name was Dominic.

He let out a low whine and took a few hopping steps toward the woods, pausing again to look back at her.

He wanted her to go with them.

He still wasn’t forcing her. He still wasn’t inducting her into his pack by force - he wasn’t dragging her.

But he still wanted to run with her.

Fiona grinned, as best she could, and then she took off at a run, zipping past him quick as anything, and she heard his surprised chuff as he kicked up after her. She was smaller than he was and that helped her, but his legs were long and he was sure in these woods, more sure than she was; he caught up quickly and that was fine, because she found that she wanted to follow him. The other three - and they were a three now - were waiting for them, with the little white wolf play-tackling the male.

The male was almost all black, except for a spot of white over his right eye. Tanner, his name was. He was being - remarkably patient with the little white wolf as she played with him, nipping at his ear and chasing his tail when he wiggled away from her. And the other female, L...L...Lucy - she was grey as morning mist, except for her ears, that looked like they’d been bleached in the sun. She sat to the side, her big fluffy tail wrapped around her legs as she watched them.

When the Alpha appeared, they stopped playing and got to their feet, and Dominic skidded to a stop too, slightly breathless from their run, and there was a moment of silence where they all just - looked at each other.

And there was the magic again. They were magical. This was perfect.

The thrum of their pack edged closer to Fiona’s heart.

Dominic let out a low, long howl. Fiona’s ears pricked forward as the other male joined in, offering a low sort of harmony, and then the females, first the grey one and then the little white one, high and uncertain.

She didn’t have to join in.

And for a minute she didn’t - she just listened to their song. It was beautiful, listening to them like this; they were all so young, and they were all so - not quite scared, but they knew this wasn’t easy, what they were doing. This pack wasn’t twenty-five wolves strong. This pack was a fragile sort of thing, still, and she could hear it in their song.

But it was still beautiful.

When she joined in, her howl fit in perfectly, like she knew the score. They sang to the moon and to the sky and to the thousands of stars. They sang and sang and sang, and when they were done, they ran again.

Somewhere, sometime, they stopped running for fun. They stopped running to feel the wind and the earth and to see everything they possibly could. They stopped playing chase and tag and fight, they stopped messing around.

They remembered what they were.

PROBLEM: THE FOUR CORNERS

She rubbed at the stamp again. “Who are you?”

“Jake,” he answered, giving a little unceremonious shrug. “Jake Hernandez. What’s your name?”

“Fiona,” she said, awkwardness creeping up on her - but she pushed it aside and tried to focus on the many, many unanswered questions she had before her. “How do you work here?”

“Are you asking for a job?”

Fiona gave him a look. “I mean, how do you work here? I thought-- I didn’t think any humans knew about us.”

Jake smiled. “Most of them don’t,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Most of them aren’t the owner’s son, though.”

Fiona raised her eyebrows. “A human owns this place?” That was more surprising than having a human work there - she couldn’t quite believe so many supernatural beings were gathered in this place owned by someone who shouldn’t even know they existed.

“It was one of the terms,” Jake explained. At her confused expression, he continued, “the terms of this place existing. Everybody’s welcome here, long as they don’t cause problems, and my family - really, humans at large - are neutral. Nobody’s out to hurt them. Hurt us.” Jake paused. “Or at least nobody here is. So humans run this place, and everybody who’s not human has a place to eat, drink, fuck and be merry.”

Fiona nearly choked on her water, which made Jake laugh loudly and a lot. She glowered at him.

“But-- I mean, how--”

Jake nodded to her hand, and she looked back at it. “Everybody gets dampened on entry. A zero tolerance violence policy, especially across species lines - that’s why I interrupted you back there. Looked like you were gonna go for her jugular.” He eyed her curiously. “Why was that?”

Fiona shook her head. “I don’t think I should talk about it.” Fiona pursed her lips - she didn’t want to talk about it partially because it wasn’t this human’s business, and also because she didn’t trust herself to hold onto her tenuously calm temper if she got thinking about it too intensely. “How long does this last?” Fiona asked instead, scratching at the mark on her hand with her nail - it wasn’t glowing anymore, which meant she could barely see it against her skin. If she hadn’t gotten worked up, she wouldn’t have even hardly noticed it.

“Only as long as you’re on the property,” Jake assured her. “You let the door guy know if you’re leaving and coming back that same day, he fixes it to reactivate once you cross our property lines. Otherwise, it leaves you when you leave us.”

Fiona nodded, then let out a long, slow breath. “...Were the vampires… was that blood that they were drinking?”

Jake grinned. “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?” Fiona stared at him. “No? Okay, fair enough, I guess. We’re just - it took us forever to figure out how to get volunteer, uncompelled, safe blood donations, or at least how to get enough to feed an entire city’s vampiric population. Did you know we’re the only bar safe for all types of creatures in the city? And we’re one of only four neutral spaces in city limits,” he added, clearly proud of himself.

taglist: @croctears