#tom sweterlitsch

[clavissionary-position]

Clavis x Emma The Rose From Bed to Bouquet

tags: fluff, slight angst, some suggestive content

Clavis

I'd let Emma take me anywhere. I tell Cyran, Jin, hell, I even tell Chev, that I'm waiting for her to whisk me away. What man doesn't want to get lost in chaos and adventure with the love of his life? I don't just love her legs because of how soft and pretty and infinitely comfortable they are. She walked to me on those legs, and one day, I hope, she'll walk away with me. Somewhere far, farther than far. There's so much of the world I haven't seen, the world and its beautiful people and their beautiful lives. I want to show her and I want her to show me.

Surprise me. Don't let me see it coming. That'll be hard, but not impossible. I know and she knows that sometimes I can be... a little...

Anyway, I've already started packing. Revealing skirts, portable cooking set, shovels, med-kit, sewing-kit, a kit for making new kits, special toys. Cyran asks me if I have any self-awareness. He's already gotten bored and left the room by the time I think to answer what I assumed was a rhetorical question.

He's not wrong; is this supposed to be my surprise trip or Emma's? I deflate a little and plop down inside an empty lavender luggage like an oversized clown. I know what the problem is, but actually thinking on it stings as if I were pressing on an open wound. Not a big wound or anything, of course. Or it's that one wound again. The fear that...

Anyway, I'm almost done packing. Emma need not concern herself with this portion of our future someday trip. I am forever at her service, because she's passed every single test so far.

Emma

I can't help but feel my stomach drop a little when I accidentally come upon the small mountain of packed trunks and chests. Dammit, Clavis. Here I'd been, dreaming up plans for a wild, truly crazy adventure, something that would suit my wild and crazy lover. I was going to surprise him with it soon. I'd spent far too many afternoons giggling to myself as I imagined his face going blank and then blossoming into that sweet, beautiful smile that I loved. I hadn't told anyone else. I hadn't left any clues. It was all still in my head, so how did he-

I see a pair of familiar blue boots sticking out of an open trunk. Then I'm standing over him, looking down at him, wondering how he fell asleep contorted like this. Well, it's not that I don't know the answer. My troublesome king still doesn't let on how hard he works himself. I can only imagine all the extra load he took on just to have time to put this mountain of supplies together. I have to laugh, honestly, bitterly. You'd think he was preparing for the end of the world with half the stuff he has in here.

"Mm...a?" A warm hand latches around my thigh.

I flick him lightly on the forehead.

"Ow... don't do what Chev does...!"

I crouch in front of the trunk, reaching inside to loosen his cravat. His skin is reddish-pink where the fabric rubbed him while he slept. The white of his shirt collar is steeped in the sunset coming in from the round porthole to our right. He'd look like a doll shoved into a drawer if he wasn't so animated. His hand keeps finding my leg, my knee now, but the touch feels strangely innocent and vulnerable.

"I guess the secret's out," I say with a sigh that comes out heavier than I'd intended and yet lighter than what I feel. "How did you know?"

Clavis chuckles, still drowsy. "How could I not? After all, I am..." His brows furrow. "Wait, know what? What secret?"

I stare at him. He stares at me. Five or six seconds go by.

"About..." I venture carefully. I don't know why he would lie about this. "About... the trip I was... planning for us...?

Clavis' lashes catch the last bit of sun as he gives an exaggerated blink. "No... I was not aware that..."

I don't know how he finds room for both of us in this trunk, but he does. Two dolls in a sudden, wild and crazy embrace.

--- Thank you for reading! Inspo was Tom Sweterlitsch's writing style ^^

[ralfmaximus]

Do you like horror?

Horror mixed with science fiction?

And crime?

If so, you must read Tom Sweterlitsch's The Gone World immediately.

It's like if Event Horizon and Silence of the Lambs crashed into an episode of the X-Files. There's time travel shenanigans, secret government space programs, horrific murder scenes dripping with blood. Sweterlitsch pulls no punches; some of the visuals caused me to pause reading so as to recover.

It's very good, and the ending is satisfying. This is not one of those books where a bunch of crazy shit happens and the ending is left "as an exercise for the reader". Nope, everything is tied up with a big blue ribbon made of cherenkov radiation.

The science is solid, even the time travel bits. The characters are all very human, even the villains. There's never a moment when smart people do stupid things just to advance the plot.

I'm tellin ya, this might be my new favorite book.

[my-fool]

for mee

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” ― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

“Hell is truth seen too late.” ― Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

"All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

“The blessed in the kingdom of heaven will see the punishments of the damned, in order that their bliss be more delightful for them.” ― Thomas Aquinas

“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies.” ― Virgil, The Aeneid

“I don't like to commit myself about Heaven and Hell, you see, I have friends in both places.” ― Mark Twain

“The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.” ― W.H. Auden, A Certain World: A Commonplace Book

“It used to be thought that hell was a lack of God, but hell is a lack of death.” ― Tom Sweterlitsch, The Gone World

“Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here I am in hell.” ― A.E. Housman, More Poems

"The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul." -- John Calvin

"Hell is a city much like London A populous and smoky city" -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

[stranger-rants]

(i don't know if this would be an interesting subtopic to you, so sorry in advance if this isn't a fic trope you vibe with and you'd rather just ignore this one, but i love your posts analyzing the different ways billy responds to his trauma and how he copes with it, so i thought i'd toss an idea at you and see if you had any thoughts. totally cool if not ofc)

i was wondering what would happen in a scenario where billy is stuck in a time loop during s3. let's say after his canon death, he wakes back up 2 or 3 weeks earlier and has to relive that span of time up until his original death and loop back again, presumably until he figures out a way to escape the mind flayer/defeat it without dying.

i don't mean this in the sense that billy has to continually pointlessly suffer and relive the worst week of his life for some lofty goal of being somehow 'worthy' of redemption, that's obviously some bullshit. time loop fuckery just happens to be one of my absolute favorite tropes and i can't get this idea out of my head. the potential for horror bc of the situation but also the double edged freedom of having a doomed social playground to play in as you try to figure out how to fix things captivates me.

in short, how do you suppose billy's already existing issues and traumas would combine in this specific scenario with the particular flavor of trauma that is 'time is looping and nothing is real and i have to relive this hell week and solve this supernatural bullshit outside of my control'?

because i have Thoughts. and a fanfic i wanna write about it. because i think a story putting billy in the very specific scenario of having to repeat the same week(s) over and over again would yield very interesting results. but of course, your mileage may vary, so i'd love to hear your thoughts, if you have any.

It's interesting to think about. It reminds me of Oxenfree, which is an indie game that has to do with time loops. It deals heavily with death and grief, and the inability to move past a specific event. I think it would be interesting if Billy were stuck in a time loop in the Upside Down, essentially, but everyone else wasn't. So, they're left with remnants of Billy trying to reach out through time. Maybe they try to communicate with him in different ways. It's like Billy is a ghost haunting them, but he's actually alive and maybe there's a way to bring him back.

There's also Deathloop which has to deal with time loops caused by a weird alien event. Another good reference is The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch, which is one of my favorite books. Weird time stuff also occurs in Dishonored II and games that involve Ragnarok like God of War Ragnarok and AC Valhalla. Each deals with time weirdness in unique interesting ways. They're also resolved in interesting ways. I know Marvel does it, too, but I think they suck and it makes me mad lmao

[theherocomplex]

#14 please! :D

14. Favorite book you read this year?

It's been a really good reading year for me overall, but I would have to say that my favorite book of all was The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. It's such a mind-screw of a book -- a time travel apocalyptic murder mystery -- but the pieces come together in such a satisfying way that even though the biggest twist is revealed pretty much right away, it's still a fantastic experience. It also has a disabled protagonist, and what seemed at first like a case of fridging another female character turned out to be a poignant, wrenching aspect of the story.

I've read it three times so far this year, to figure out what makes it tick, and have loved it each time.

[cassynite]

Top Artistic/Creative Influences in My Life

Tagged by @randalltier for this new meme--I gotta admit it took me a second because I'd never really considered what pieces of media have influenced my own work. This was really cool to do tbh!! Though no one is allowed to make fun of me for the basic bitch answers included 😤

Modern Faerie Tales series (and its sequels/offshoots) by Holly Black: So this isn't super present in my fanfiction right now but in my original works I really like to engage with creatures or forces that are very inhuman in their thinking, where one of the struggles is understanding or working with forces that inherently have deeply different values and morality than our own. I won't say Holly Black does it best I've seen (or even, like...well) but the Modern Faerie Tales was the first time I really saw characters like that, where the faeries really felt like they were deeply inhuman and in some ways unknowable. It's also led to just a lifelong love of faeries in general that constantly shows up in my work lol.

Poetry by Eavan Boland: Easily my favorite poet, there's something about how Boland utilizes nature as an expression of emotion that really gets to me in particular--how water is grief in "Atlantis: A Sonnet" and "And Soul," how nature is indicative of healing in "How We Made a New Art on Old Ground." That's bled into my writing as well--a lot of my favorite bits of writing, where I really feel like I nailed trying to show character's emotions, comes from reflections in the environment and I draw a lot of it back to how her poetry has made me feel.

The Ones that Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin: "Nothing is truly good that makes even one person suffer" is a really important theme to me and the story of Omelas is one that's stuck to me for ages. That theme shows up in some form or another in a lot of my stories--one that I published a long time ago is literally just a pastiche of the story--and its implications regarding colonialism and what makes a just society are pretty integral to core beliefs of mine in general!

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch: I am a fan of time travel stories. But I became a fan of time travel as a double-edged sword, about the erasure of impact that it can have, about choice vs inevitability and what truly matters when things can literally be undone, because of this story. I've got a whole roster of OCs that fuck with time solely because of this and honestly it's a super well-written book beyond the time stuff, and honestly if you've played PWOTR and you like the implications of Aeon and the True Aeon end this is a really good read in general.

...Tolkien: Sorry for the basic bitch answer but. Yeah. Fantasy that has left behind a much brighter age and grieves it, things that are gone but not lost forever, the presentation of evil as seeming large and unstoppable but ultimately being so small and petty and miserable, and how the smallest of things (small people, small acts of kindness, small defiances in the face of the dark) can mean all the difference! It's really important to me! That message of hope and healing just matters a lot to me and a lot of my characters consciously feed into these arcs; like I really dislike making characters are stories with completely destructive scorched earth ends and I do think that comes from Tolkien.

Anyway!! I'm no pressure tagging @silversiren1101 @dujour13 and @dmagedgoods and anyone else who might be interested to talk about the things that have influenced or inspired their art!!

[black-aliss]

Fo the end-of-year book ask: 3, 4, 6, 19

3. Top five books? The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch Hyperion, Dan Simmons Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester Century Rain, Alastair Reynolds (but this is an odd one, I liked its first half) 4. Newly discovered authors you love? Yes! I suspect I'll be lifelong fans of Dan Simmons and Tom Sweterlitsch. 6. Books you never got around to reading? Sort of, I had The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton picked out. But I got sidetracked and now I'm working on another very long book. 19. Library? Heh. We don't have libraries here! Well we do, but they're very rare and filled with very old, falling apart books, since nobody wants to donate their books. So not an option for me.

[celebelei]

Saw this going around again and even though I wasn't tagged, I'm doing because I'm bored and lists are fun.

Last Song: Deftones - Change (In the House of Flies)

Favorite Color: Black, as boring of an answer that is.

Currently Watching: Wandee Goodday, Shogun and ER (a rewatch)

Last Movie: Soft & Quiet, a pretty unpleasant watch because of its topic.

Currently Reading: The Gone Wold by Tom Sweterlitsch

Sweet, Spicy, or Savory: Savory

Relationship: I'm too ace and on the aromantic spectrum for that.

Current Obsession: I guess Wandee Goodday and my fave kpop boys Stray Kids, but I haven't been properly obsessed obsessed in a while. I kinda miss that level of brain rot. 😅

Last Googled: Denzel Washington Don Cheadle movie (I was playing a game and needed a movie they both starred in)

Currently Working On: Binging finished BL shows when I'm in the mood, I got around to Love Is Better the Second Time Around last weekend and liked it.

[nfinitefreetime]

A couple of reviews

A couple of reviews

Return of the Obra Dinn (PS4, played on PS5) was recommended to me on Twitter as a neat little mystery game that might be up my alley. I am fond of indie games that have unique looks to them, and I certainly haven’t played anything that looks like this in quite a while. For about the first half-hour or so, I hated it. The game is very obscure at first about exactly what is going on at any given…

[lit-bookquotes]

— Tom Sweterlitsch; The Gone World

[romireads]

IG: @romi.reads

[szeretek-rohogni]

“Mekkora sokkot okozhat egyetlen szó...”

Tom Sweterlitsch

[wolfsnape]

Mes meilleures lectures - 2019 !

 Ça y est, c’est 2020 !! J’ai pas lu beaucoup l’année dernière (38 livres sur un objectif de 50), parce qu’avec l’arrivée de la prépa concours, ça s’est vite transformé en lectures obligatoires !

Mais j’ai lu suffisamment pour vous faire un petit top, riche en émotions <3

Encore une fois, il a beaucoup été question de drame et d’aventure, mais aussi de tendresse, de nature, de poésie, et beaucoup beaucoup de vulnérabilité

Quasiment tous les livres de ce top on rejoint ma liste de livres préférés de tous les temps !

1. Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers

"He’d be the world’s luckiest man to stand here at the end of it all, to be the one left, trying to remember. The unluckiest too.”                          

Clairement LE meilleur livre que j’ai lu cette année. Il m’a arraché le coeur littéralement. On suit Yale, directeur d’une galerie d’art gay closeted, et son groupe d’amis, au moment où l’épidémie du SIDA éclate aux Etats-Unis, jusqu’en 2015. Probablement un des meilleurs livres que j’ai lu de ma VIE, vraiment, lisez le ! (j’ai regardé Philadelphia la même semaine si vous voulez tout savoir)

2. Jeff Vandermeer, Annihilation / Authority / Acceptance

“And when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.”

J’ai mis les trois tomes parce que cette trilogie est un ensemble juste incroyable. J’avais vu le film que j’avais trouvé esthétiquement très beau, mais dont on ne voyait pas trop le fond. La zone X est apparue de nulle part et renferme un écosystème surnaturel entier. Des scientifiques envoient plusieurs équipes d’exploration pour l’étudier, mais aucune ne rentre. Une dernière expédition est envoyée... J’ai mis un peu de temps à rentrer dans le premier tome et puis j’ai dévoré les trois en 2 jours, tellement c’est devenu addictif. Le livre est HALLUCINANT. On explore le tréfonds sombres de ce qui nous rend humain (ou non) dans un thriller de science-fiction écologique. Et puis c’est à la fois très scientifique, réfléchit, et très lent et angoissant parfois. Magnifique dans toute la magie du terme. Vraiment vous allez être en mode Le Cri de Münch !!

3. Caleb Carr, The Alienist.

“— Alors, allez tous au diable ! hurlai-je, brandissant mon poing boueux. Mais crier ne m'apporta aucun soulagement.”

Le premier livre que j’ai lu en 2019 et vraiment une CLAQUE. J’avais oublié ce que c’était un thriller magnifiquement écrit sur le XIXe siècle. C’est les débuts du profiling (pas encore trop pris au sérieux) et une série de meurtres glauques touchent les jeunes adolescents de Londres... Vraiment superbe, tant dans l’écriture que dans le scénario, qui est hyper bien ficelé et qui mène à un dénouement de OUF (en plus y a une meuf badass dont je suis éperdument AMOUREUSE)

4. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

“You know the great lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history.”

Marie-Laure est une adolescente aveugle passionnée par le musée d’Histoire naturelle, qui doit fuir le Paris occupé de la Seconde Guerre mondiale et se réfugier chez un oncle étrange à Saint-Malo. Avec eux, ils emportent un joyaux qui aurait d’incroyable capacités.

Werner est un jeune orphelin allemand, passionné de radiophonie et qui est douée pour construire des radios. Enrôlés dans les jeunesses hitlériennes, il apprend petit à petit à traquer la Résistance grâce à cette radio.

C’est juste magnifique, voilà. C’est un souffle de liberté et de tendresse et d’amour passionné pour la vie et pour l’espoir qu’il reste quand il n’en reste plus.

5. N. H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

“One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, law, banking—these are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for!”

Ecoutez. Le Cercle des Poètes disparus c’est le film de ma vie. Je pleure non-stop pendant les 45 dernières minutes. Est-ce que vous me croyez si je vous dis que j’ai encore plus pleuré sur le livre ? Voilà, lisez ce livre, regardez ce film, réveillez le poète qui est en vous.

6. Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.”

J’ai lu beaucoup de livres de mes films préférés cette année, et Jurassic Park est incroyable. La réflexion écologique, scientifique et humaine dans le livre est tellement plus poussée que dans le film !! Et Ian Malcolm est toujours aussi incroyable, charismatique, intelligent, et Ellie et Alan sont parfaits !! Et c’est un peu plus gore que le film et un peu plus angoissant, mais OUAH LISEZ LA VERSION LIVRE JUSTE APRES AVOIR VU LE FILM

7. Madeline Miller, Circe

“What could make a god afraid ? I knew that answer too. A power greater than their own.”

C’est la meuf qui a écrit The Song of Achilles et elle nous écrit une déesse, magicienne et sorcière, et puis femme aussi, profondément puissante, libre, brûlante, déterminée, forte et vulnérable, amoureuse, trahie. Toute la beauté et la nuance du personnage de Circé se retrouve dans ce livre !

8. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

Ca a été une grande année de classiques de la science-fiction et j’avais beaucoup d’appréhension à lire Fahrenheit 451, mais écoutez, c’est 200 pages de pur génie.

C’est un monde dystopique où les livres ont été interdits pour que les gens suivent le dogme du gouvernement sans poser de question et ne réfléchissent plus par eux-mêmes. Guy est un “fireman”, qui est chargé de brûlé les livres restants, dans les maisons des résistants, avec les résistants à l’intérieur. Mais sacrilège, après avoir rencontré une jeune résistante, il décide de voler un livre et tout à coup, son monde change...

Je pensais pas que ce livre serait aussi incroyable, mais OUI, je comprends pourquoi ironiquement, il est sur toutes les listes des banned books, parce que ça fait vraiment réfléchir sur le fond de l’humanité, sur la culture, la lecture, survivre ensemble, et sur comment le gouvernement totalitaire utilise l’accès à la culture comme arme (et ça fait peur comparé à la situation actuelle).

9. Emma Locatelli, Le Scandaleux Héliogabale.

“Pourquoi penserais-je à la mort ? Je préfère vivre intensément et périr dans la fleur de l'âge que de ne rien vivre du tout et traîner mon ennui jusqu'au jour où j'aurai une barbe blanche !”

On suit l’accession au trône d’Héliogabale puis toutes ses frasques et ses dérives en tant qu’empreur, allant jusqu’à instaurer un nouveau culte monothéiste, ce qui lui vaut la haine des romains.

Un livre fascinant sur la déchéance d'un homme et avec lui d'un empire... On hait Varius autant qu'il nous fait pitié, mais au final, ce sont les figures de femmes qui sont les plus impressionnantes : indépendantes, fières, prêtes à tout pour assoir leur place et conserver leur pouvoir.

10. David Gemmell, Rigante. T.1, L’épée de l’orage.

“Vous, les humains, vous êtes si impatients. Mais peut-être est-ce naturel pour une race qui vit des vies mesurables en battements de cœur.”

Con est né lors d’un orage, au moment de la mort de son père, couard. Adopté par le grand chef, il n’a pour objectif que de prouver sa valeur. Petit à petit, il forge sa légende, du tueur d’ours au grand conquérant qui a tué le roi.

C’est une épopée de fantasy médiévale formidable, complexe, les personnages sont attachants, l’univers est immense, dingue, on rêve de voyage, d’aventures et de combats d’épées, mais aussi de rentrer le soir dans sa petite chaumière, pour une veillée autour du feu avec le reste du village.

Un livre que j'avais abandonné à ma première lecture mais que j'avais laissé de côté en me disant que je n'étais sans doute juste pas encore prête. Effectivement, c'est un premier tome magistral, profond et intense, qui parle autant de guerre que des tragédies d'une famille et des difficultés de surpasser ses erreurs. C'est aussi un livre très fin sur ce qui fait le héro, et sur la complexité humaine. Après tout, un héros reste un homme, avec ses parts les plus sombres.

10 BIS. Tom Sweterlitsch, Terminus.

“On croyait jadis que l'enfer était l'absence de Dieu alors que c'est l'absence de mort.”

“ Depuis le début des années 80, un programme ultrasecret de la marine américaine explore de multiples futurs potentiels. Lors de ces explorations, ses agents temporels ont situé le Terminus, la destruction de toute vie sur terre, au XXVIIe siècle. En 1997, l’agent spécial Shannon Moss du NCIS reçoit au milieu de la nuit un appel du FBI : on la demande sur une scène de crime. Un homme aurait massacré sa famille avant de s’enfuir. Seule la fille aînée, Marian, 17 ans, serait vivante, mais reste portée disparue. Pourquoi contacter Moss? Parce que le suspect, Patrick Mursult, a comme elle contemplé le Terminus... dont la date s’est brusquement rapprochée de plusieurs siècles.” (4e de couv, parce que je savais pas comment vous expliquer l’histoire lmao)

L’univers est INCROYABLE, l’idée est SENSATIONNELLE, l’enquête est WOW, si bien ficelée, l’atmosphère est FOLLE, le Terminus comme concept c’est fantastique et terrifiant et glacial, vraiment une super belle découverte.

[nevinslibrary]

Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

It had me at NCIS.

I mean, this has very little in common with the procedural TV show that’s called NCIS (or all its myraid of spin offs, shhh, I know there are only two spinoffs…… Menacing voice So Far!) Where was I. Oh, it’s much different than the TV show, but, I liked each of them in their own way for sure.

It’s about Shannon Moss. She’s a part of the division that’s tasked with clandestine missions at NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service, when Navy/Marines get in trouble, or die, or something happens on a Navy ship or base, they’re the ones that are called in the real world.)

Of course I was going to love this book. Not only does it have NCIS in it, but also some time travel, a secret astronaut, and a missing spaceship too! Oh, and maybe the end of the humanity. Ho hum. Heh.

You may like this book If you Liked: Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty, The Peripheral by William Gibson, The Tourist by Robert Dickinson

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch

[from-books-with-love]

La vie est plus forte que le temps.

Tom Sweterlitsch, Terminus.

[jolieeason]

Top Ten Tuesday: Creepy Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday: Creepy Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. How it works: She assigns each Tuesday a topic and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten…