#what a year! made a lot less creative gifsets than the year before so hopefully pick it back up this year!!

[xinyuehui]

Happy 2025 friends ✧ hope you all have a wonderful year ahead and continue to consume the things you love! As always, thank you for leaving tags, comments and words of encouragement ♡ A small wrap up of the blog last year:

﹢Made 312 original posts (238 gifsets)

﹢New top post since 2021

﹢Discovered many cool new blogs to reblog from

[ninja-muse]

#Bookoween is back!

Given that a certain pandemic is making it really difficult to do traditional Halloween things like parties or trick-or-treating or, well, anything else, I thought this might be a good time to bring back my Halloween-themed booklr challenge from a couple years back. Think of it like trick-or-treating but with 100% more digital content!

I’m switching up a few things about it though, to keep things fresh for anyone who participated the last time. Re-vamp-ing the challenge, if you will. 🧛‍♀️

Essentially, this is going to run like every other monthly challenge—I post prompts, you post content—but I’m going to be scoring you, and then you’re going to “win” stuff based on what score you get. This year, I’m also adding a reading challenge because why not.

I’d like to think that the last Bookoween participants had a lot of fun. (I know I did.) Hopefully this will be at least as fun, if not better!

Rules and the Points System

1. Post something bookish for every prompt that inspires you (between October 1 and 31). This can be a photo, rant, book review, gifset, fancast, video, dramatic reading, etc. Get creative, have fun, and maybe challenge yourself a little. Every five posts, you’ll level up one Spook Factor.

1-4: bat


5-9: ghost


10-14: fairy


15-19: ghoul


20-24: vampire


25-30: swamp monster


31-34: demon

35+: sorcerer

2. You can earn more points by filling the extra challenges below! All points will be counted and then given back to you as candy—so yes, you will be Trick-or-Treating after all! Some challenges are general (like how many books you end up reading), some relate to types of posts, and some are odder. Bolded items can be counted multiple times, so one pet photo is good but three pets are better. Any post with the #bookoween hashtag will be checked against these challenges whether you try for them or not, and you do not have to work them into the prompt posts. Extra posts are allowed and even encouraged!

3. On the evening of October 31, spilling into November 1 as needed, everyone who’s posted for the challenge will receive an ask stating their Spook Factor and the results of their Trick-or-Treating. For every Trick you do, you’ll get either amusingly tragic backstory or trash-tier Halloween loot like toothbrushes. For every Treat, you get an unspecified amount of candy. Example: You are a swamp monster whose only friends were a troupe of singing frogs that made it big on the Muppet Show and never came home. You have one Mars bar, a bag of cotton candy, three bags of M&Ms, five Easter eggs, and two Bounty bars. 4. Post everything using the #bookoween hashtag or it’s not getting counted!

Click through to find the extra challenges … IF YOU DARE!

Reading Challenge

Horror - 2 point

Mystery or thriller - 1 point

Other spooky book - 1 point

Diverse author or subject - 3 points

Classics - 2 points

Short stories or novellas - 1 point

Other genres - half a point

Book over 500 pages - 3 points

Book with orange, yellow, or black cover - 1 point

Was on your posted TBR for the month - 2 points

Books will get counted for each prompt they fill. A classic mystery novel is worth 3 points. A diverse horror novel is 5 points. A door-stopper fantasy novel is 3.5 points. And so on.

Trick

Reuse a prop or backdrop.

Make a post without a single book in it.

Post a selfie.

Add 3 or more books to my TBR

Bake/cook something bookish but don’t share the recipe.

Get no notes on any Bookoween post (self-reblogs don’t count).

Make less than 5 posts referencing fall or Halloween.

Start a tag meme.

Feature Halloween candy before October 15.

Make a pun.

Post a book that’s been dog-eared.

Only post books from the same genre (romance, sci-fi, YA, etc.)

Acknowledge any of: World Pasta Day (Oct. 25), National Vodka Day (Oct 4), International Day of the Nacho (Oct. 21), CAPS LOCK DAY (Oct. 22), Federation Day (Oct. 12), World Space Week (Oct. 4-10), National Fossil Day (Oct. 14), International Wombat Day (Oct. 22) or Canadian Thanksgiving (Oct. 12).

Treat

Make more than one type of post (photos and text, text and audio, photos and moodboards, videos and tag memes).

Read more than 5 books.

Read more than 10 books

Bake/cook something bookish.

Post original Halloween or fall-themed writing.

Post a review or a reaction post.

Start an ask meme.

Post a rec list.

Make some bookish art.

Remove at least 3 books from your physical TBR.

Post a picture with a pet in it (live, toy, painting, etc.)

Rec another booklr.

Acknowledge any of: Global Handwashing Day (Oct. 15), World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10), National Disability Employment Awareness Month, International Pronouns Day (Oct. 31),  UK Black History Month, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, LGBT History Month, Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Oct. 12), or Dia de los muertos.

FAQs

Do I have to post on the day the prompt is for? Absolutely not! Have everything up by Halloween and you’re golden.


Do I have to fill the Trick and Treat prompts? What happens if I avoid them? You don’t have to do them! You can absolutely craft your #bookoween without them! But then you won’t get candy and where’s the fun in that? The Tricks sound more fun than the Treats! Why are you trying to discourage me from doing them? Who said I was? You get a longer ask! And character depth! What if I Trick-or-Treat without the #bookoween hashtag? Then I will not see it and it will not be counted towards the ask. What if I manage to do all the prompts, all the Tricks, and all the Treats? Then you are amazing and should maybe spend less time online though we’re lucky to have you. Do you get something special? Undecided. Maybe.

[tottwritesfanfic]

So, I was tagged by @gilrael for the following:

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets!

HOO BOY.

Listen, my first reaction was pretty much “I can’t list all the things I’m currently working on. It’s...no one wants to read that whole list. It’s too long. There’s too much.”

I have been called out good and proper, but you know what? This is what the read more button was made for. These won’t be in any particular order, because I really don’t have an “order” in which I work on things? Also, some of these projects are so far on the back-burner that I really can’t say I’m actively working on them, but I never know when inspiration will strike next and divert me from what I should be doing. Essentially, if it makes the list, I think of it in my head as “imma finish this.” 

Buckle up peeps, because we May Be Some Time.

My Epic YA Fantasy Series Featuring Pretty Much Zero Romance. I neglect this series way too much for something I consider my firstborn, but this is my Passion, okay. My very username is derived from the initials of the series title. I’ve been writing and rewriting it for almost two thirds of my life now, and one day when I have something to show for that labour of love, I will be screaming about it from the rooftops. Mark my words. Also I counted this as one but there’s like...at least five novels, and also shitloads of maps and worldbuilding notes, and songs, and I have a boxfile of old pictures drawn by myself or my sister, and progress on three or four conlangs... It’s hard to really convey just how much of this shit there actually is, if I’m honest.

Hope’s Fire My first ever proper fanfic, and also sorely neglected of late. I love this story so much though, and once I push past the block I have for the current chapter I can’t wait to progress with it, because there are fuuuun times ahead.

A Standalone Novel (sucky working title is “The Aspect’s Choice”) Another YA novel, which...actually has a complete draft? Like, start to finish with no skipped scenes or anything like that. There’s magic and shit, and also no romance for the lead, it’s like this is a theme in my works or something (there’s a background romance this time tho, for those of you who like shipping).

A Fantasy Trilogy about paradoxes and multidimensional travel. I’m mentioning this one now even though I’m kinda...not working on it that much, because I’ve borrowed heavily from it for some fanfic projects. The first novel is a fantasy spy thriller, the second is a sort of...ensemble piece about a major disaster at a futuristic interdimensional traffic control place a lot like an airport/train station, and the third one is a journey through space and time on a sorta magic train which explains how the fuck the first two books are actually connected.

A World of Trouble (The Spy AU) Haikyuu fic! I started this for the HQ Brofest last year and it’s really taken off. The plot for this story was shamelessly nicked from the first book in the above trilogy, albeit with some fairly substantial divergences. 

Until We Move On My...actually, daaamn, this was my first HQ fic. I entered this fandom in a fairly definite fashion, with Suga already dead and Oikawa following shortly after - I swear it’ll have a happy ending for them both eventually tho.

Metanoia, Renascent, and Equanimity (the Trinacriform series) I debated listing these separately, to be honest. There’s no denying that Metanoia and Equanimity are higher up on my list of things to work on than Renascent is right now, but all three are still important to me and all three are going to be finished someday. Ultimately they’re here as one because holy shit this list is going to be long enough already.  Rest assured I do actually think of them as three separate entities in my head! 

The Triffid AU (just gonna list these because there are Several and holy shit I’m still so far from the end): Dangers Unseen - First in the series, Karasuno accidentally sleep through the apocalypse. Interview Transcripts - Set a few months after DU; tells all the side-stories I have to skip in DU for pacing reasons. Seijoh arc (current working title of “In Search of Silver” which will almost certainly change) - I haven’t posted any of this yet but it’s hecking angsty. A Bit Like Home - Sequel to Dangers Unseen, set a year or so after. Also hasn’t been posted anywhere yet. At the moment it’s mostly bokuaka stuff but the idea is for it to be a collection of sorta halfway standalone stories.  I have more ideas for this AU than just these, but I haven’t started writing them yet and I’m not GOING to until this list gets shorter.

An Error of Cat-Astrophic Proportions I’m not gonna lie, this basically started out as a stupid halfway-joking crack fic and it got out of control. 

Partner Fic to “The Carpenter’s Gift” I started writing this and got a couple of thousand words in and then basically started over. I’ll get there. Probably not before the following though:

KiyoYachi Soul Animal AU fic Set in the same universe as “The Carpenter’s Gift”, sorta...around the same time?

Another Original Fantasy Trilogy I love my fantasy, okay? The three novels in this series are all technically started, although only two of them have any substance: The Legend and the Lake is a novel about a Great Hero, and how he...actually isn’t as much of a hero as he’s going to be remembered as.  Spells and Fire is about a real fucking hero and her apprentices, and how she absolutely will not be given full credit for all she does (because she’s a bit of an arse) The Lake Guardian’s Child will be a story about a minor goddess who meets a mortal that immediately falls in love with her, and their journey to cure him of that love because he’s actually sorta engaged already.

Not Within This Restless Heart A HQ!! poly soulmate au which will probably piss off a lot of people by teh end, because no one who’s read it seems to have caught on about how complex the poly relationship is actually gonna be.

Digimon Frontier Fic - working title “Loss and Gain” I can’t really explain this one properly. It’s Angst, that’s all.

Best Laid Plans A secret santa fic I need to finish! I have part of the second and final chapter written, but life intervened and I lost my flow. Hoping to get back to it some time in the next week.

Bokuto Koutarou’s Excellent, Totally Foolproof Plan To Save Christmas As above, really (except it’s the final of 3 chapters, and it’s also the sort-of sequel to “An Error of Cat-Astrophic Proportions” ). I want to finish this up soon, so hopefully life will stop being annoying!

Lifetime Achievement Ennotana fic in which Ennoshita is a film director up for a highly prestigious award he’s dreamed of for his whole life...but he has amnesia and it currently means nothing to him.

Travellers AU - Yachi story For the HQ Brofest! Details are hush-hush for now but it’s the same universe as my time travel practical joke fics. Expect similarly ridiculous stuff.

Things We Misplaced Someone accidentally challenged me to write angsty smut which wasn’t hatesex. Smut is not my thing but I’m really stubborn okay, so I’m writing it.

BNHA Bang Fic Details are under wraps for now, but it’s gonna be fun.

A Zine Fic. It’s early days, okay?

Swansong It angst. Also not being posted to this account, for Reasons.

The Digital Fallout AU A ridiculously wide-scope Digimon AU featuring crossover appearances from like, almost all the series. It’s very much on the back burner for now but I still like thinking about it. Someday. Currently comprises of two kinda short fics: “Adventure’s End” and “The Home Frontier” but I’ve planned a LOT further.

Connection Problems This was going to be for the HQBB in 2017 but I got a massive block and had to put it on hold. I’m hoping to revisit it and finish it up by...maybe Halloween.

The Book An original novel I’ve intermittently been working on for a few years now. Essentially the titular book may or may not be sentient, but it is definitely malicious.

First Draft The..um...sequel to my standalone novel, and both my fantasy trilogies. In my defence it started out as a joke and spiralled out of control and now I want to write it for real but I literally have seven novels to finish first. 

...so yeah. That’s more or less all my active (on some level) writing projects. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything! There are a few more which I have ideas for, but I haven’t started them yet and I’m not going to until this shitstorm is a little less overwhelming. I also have costumes for my kids that I’m about to make, but...I’m not going into other creative ventures here because I will literally never finish. Oh, and there’s tagging, too... Huge apologies for dragging you to the end of this hot mess, but I’m calling on @draculasstrawhat and @ahiddenpath along with any other mutuals who didn’t already get tagged (I know I took long enough to do this that a lot of people already did!) No obligations of course, but I love seeing what people are up to!