tellmeomuse

[tellmeomuse]

my brain is telling me that I am 34 years old and do not require a build-a-bear, even if that build-a-bear is mothman

and yet... the heart wants what the heart wants...

[tellmeomuse]

shine on, harvest moon

So I wrote a story inspired by Odlaws' "Morticians" as a Halloween present for a friend a few weeks ago! I can finally say that without getting attacked with AO3-exchange bats.

It's more of an original story inspired by the comic than it is a fanfiction if I'm being entirely honest, but I still really enjoyed writing it. It's a story about love, loss, and learning to live again through grief, so... maybe it's a message that will resonate right now.

Shine On, Harvest Moon OMC / OMC | PG-13 | 7.5k words Powell Funeral Home has been in Arden's family for generations, and he takes his duties very seriously. But perhaps there is more to life than death, more to love than grief, and more to this funeral than meets the eye. (cw: frank discussions of death, dying, and the post-mortem preparation of corpses. these are morticians, after all.)

This story can also be read on the free tier of my writing Patreon here.

[tellmeomuse]

morticians

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on love and writing as an act of defiance

(a public patreon post)

[tellmeomuse]

Phaidros & Asterion colour sketches✨

And the second half of what he sent me to show you!!!

For people who didn't see the other post, my very talented friend @shaymeson keeps sending me gorgeous art of my characters from my m/m minotaur retelling, And In The Night, I See The Stars and I am going to explode from happiness, probably.

I'm a huge fan of his work, he's a huge fan of my work, so we mostly just capslock at each other a lot over DMs. lmao. I asked him if he would let me show my readers some of his illustrations, and he very graciously sent a few pieces to my askbox so I could publish them on this blog.

These are his character designs for my characters, Asterion and Phaidros. He also included his design for Asterion before the bathing scene in the book, which I found to be an absolutely delightful touch.

Thank you, Shay, I'm so happy. They're perfect. 😭

[tellmeomuse]

big hands

Ahhhh, @shaymeson, you sent them!

So my friend Seamus is an absolutely fantastic artist. He's illustrated a few of my stories in the past, and every time it's made me just about lose my mind with joy.

He's a big fan of my story And In The Night, I See The Stars, a m/m minotaur retelling, and over the past few weeks he's been sending me these absolutely gorgeous sketches of Asterion and Phaidros that are so beautiful that they've made a very rough month feel bearable. 😭

I asked him if he wouldn't mind if I shared some of them publicly and he dropped a couple of them into my askbox so I could publish them on the blog.

Thank you, Shay, you're incredible and your art is too. 💜💜💜

and uh. for people who haven't read the fic, Phaidros is indeed thinking nsfw things, which are included in the fic. lmao

[tellmeomuse]

They had cloaks, actually! Thick woolen ones. The Minoans were known for their wool and textile production.

Here's a fresco from Akrotiri depicting a Minoan woman covering up with a cloak!

No worries, no one here is literally freezing their tits off. :)

Reconstruction of the clothes of women from the Minoan era in Crete (reconstructions made by Dr. Bernice Jones).

The clothes of Minoan women were surprising with their style and variety of patterns. Greek women of later times wore clothes with completely different stylistic solutions. The exposed breasts were a characteristic feature of the dress of Minoan and Mycenaean women. They attached great importance to their attire, wear and used jewelry. They wore a wide and long skirt with a decorative belt tightening the waist and a tight-fitting bra with a metal frame revealing the breasts. They put on coats or capes on cooler days. Hair, intricately combed, was decorated with brown or gold ribbons, beads or headbands. Others wore appropriate headgear. They wore unusual hats. Some were wide, while others were tall, almost completely covering their hair, decorated with feathers or ribbons.

It can be seen at the Hellenistic Museum in Melbourne, Australia. The reconstructions are based on frescoes.

Photos: Tahney Fosdike.

[tellmeomuse]

Reconstruction of the clothes of women from the Minoan era in Crete (reconstructions made by Dr. Bernice Jones).

The clothes of Minoan women were surprising with their style and variety of patterns. Greek women of later times wore clothes with completely different stylistic solutions. The exposed breasts were a characteristic feature of the dress of Minoan and Mycenaean women. They attached great importance to their attire, wear and used jewelry. They wore a wide and long skirt with a decorative belt tightening the waist and a tight-fitting bra with a metal frame revealing the breasts. They put on coats or capes on cooler days. Hair, intricately combed, was decorated with brown or gold ribbons, beads or headbands. Others wore appropriate headgear. They wore unusual hats. Some were wide, while others were tall, almost completely covering their hair, decorated with feathers or ribbons.

It can be seen at the Hellenistic Museum in Melbourne, Australia. The reconstructions are based on frescoes.

Photos: Tahney Fosdike.

[tellmeomuse]

Minoan, Mycenaean, and Archaic/Classical Greek Clothing

It's been a while! Thanks so much for your patience.

This time, I have a post about how Theseus and his contemporaries were depicted in the Classical era, what people actually wore in the Bronze Age, and how both of those things influenced the costume design in AITNISTS.

(Spoilers: I cheated.)

Anyway, it can be found here on Patreon and I hope you enjoy it!

[tellmeomuse]

I'm sorry for posting the fat bear week post to the wrong blog, but I think you guys also deserve to know what's important to me

fat bears

[tellmeomuse]

QUEEN GRAZER REIGNS SUPREME WOO WOO WOO WOO

[tellmeomuse]

So there's this Euripides play called The Cretans that we only have partial fragments of. It's basically about the fallout from Pasiphae giving birth to Asterion, the Minotaur, and the fight she has with her husband, King Minos, over it.

Poseidon drove Pasiphae mad and forced her to have sex with a bull, but it was 100% Minos's fault -- he's the one that was supposed to sacrifice that bull to Poseidon, and he's the one that decided not to do it. Pasiphae was cursed in order to hurt Minos, and in this play she is spitting mad that he intends to have her put to death for her actions when the whole damn thing was his doing.

I particularly love these sections here:

and

(translation by P.T. Rourke)

Like of all of the lost Euripides plays we know of, this is the one that I'd love to have a full version of the most! We don't know whether Pasiphae managed to get away or not! We don't know if she lived or died! We don't know if she got to yell at Minos some more about being a giant dipshit!

Anyway, I really had these fragments in mind when I was writing AITNISTS. I only got to actually depict Pasiphae in one flashback from Asterion's POV, but I tried to remember her as the daughter of a god and a powerful sorceress in her own right.

Never forget the Pasiphae that once made her husband ejaculate snakes. :')

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 19

The main story is finished serializing on Patreon! 🥳

So Chapter 19 just hit AO3 and Chapter 20, the final chapter, is now on Patreon. There is still one more additional scene I'm going to post there, but not until after the main story is finished serializing on AO3.

Once both sides are finished serializing, I'm going to take aim at the ebook, which I'm hoping to have up and ready by mid-October. That said, the responses I got to the survey really made me reconsider how I was intending to handle the publishing side of things... I'm still learning about my options and stewing on the best way forward, so the ebook might take a little bit longer.

(I'll have a post up about my thoughts there later.)

Anyway, onto this week's chapters!

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.19) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3k words Phaidros is used to making sacrifices to ensure a safe voyage -- but every man has his limits. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.20) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3k words Phaidros and Asterion speak in the light of rosy-fingered dawn.

In addition to this week's chapters, I also posted the last Designing post on the free tier of Patreon. It's about Asterion's injury from Ch19, what it looks like, and why that's extremely important.

Like I can't overstate how important it is, tbh, to the point where I might post spoilers on main after the AO3 crowd has had a chance to read Ch19 just to make sure everyone has access to the info.

Anyway! For now, though, thanks as always for reading and I hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 18 (ch 18/19 and althaia)

We're so close to being done now... Just one chapter (and a supplemental epilogue) left on Patreon and two chapters on AO3...

Who's ready for the long one? :)

This week I posted Chapter 18 on AO3 and Chapter 19 on Patreon. Historical blog posts are still on hiatus due to my irregular internet situation, but tethering is still going well for most text! Which is why there is also a supplemental story up on Patreon this week in addition to the chapter.

I hope you enjoy it!

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.18) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 10.2k words Phaidros and Asterion are caught in the dark -- and by hands that tremble. --------------

Althaia OMC/Minotaur | Story Rating: T | Story Length: 7.6k words Upstairs, a very different conversation is happening. --------------

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.19) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3k words Phaidros is used to making sacrifices to ensure a safe voyage -- but every man has his limits.

Thanks for being patient with me while we're on vacation! I am coming to find that good wifi is something to be treasured. lmao. I'll post several historical blogs to make up for it, I swear.

In the meantime, thank you so much for reading, and as always, I hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

Book Survey

So I threw together a quick little survey to help give me a little guidance on the book version of AITNISTS. I've been researching my options for releasing the ebook (and potentially a hard copy) and I'd like to stay away from Amazon, if possible, but I won't count it out if that's what y'all prefer.

The survey basically asks about things like formats, pricing, websites to buy from, etc. There are also a few questions to gauge interest about the hard copy. I'd really appreciate it if people who are interested in buying AITNISTS in book form, whether ebook or hard copy, would fill this survey out! It would really help me know which platform(s) to move forward with.

Note: I will be sending out another survey at a later date for Patreon supporters to ask how they'd like to be named in the acknowledgements, if at all. I had that question on this survey originally, but then I realized that meant the rest of the questions wouldn't be anonymous. So I'll send out a separate survey once the story is finished serializing. Then I can be sure I won't miss anyone.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 17

Hi! So it's been a bit of a slow week for additional posts, but I did write up a post on my free tier of Patreon about why that's been, the schedule for the next few weeks, how the ebook release (and possible hard copy release) is going to go, and future projects.

In the meantime, Chapter Seventeen is now on AO3 and Chapter Eighteen is on Patreon.

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.17) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: M | Chapter Length: 1200 words A brief interlude about moonlight on flowers and washing the blood from your fur. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.18) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 10.2k words Phaidros and Asterion are caught in the dark -- and by hands that tremble.

Chapter 18 is a very long one, so strap in! We're almost done now. There are only two more chapters after this...

[tellmeomuse]

housekeeping post

So I made a post on Patreon on the free tier just to make some announcements. In this post, I talk about the posting schedule for the next few weeks, the upcoming ebook/hard copy release for AITNISTS, and future projects.

As AITNISTS comes to a close in early October, I just wanted to let everyone know my plans for how I'm going to approach the main story, the supplemental stories, the blog posts, and future stories in this universe.

Also, I talked about the next story I want to serialize, which is a f/f urban fantasy/paranormal romance. (I contain multitudes.)