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[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.)

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 16

There aren't that many chapters left now...

In the meantime, though, I am currently traveling. Patreon posts are set to post automatically, but that's less easy for AO3. I'll be uploading those manually, but I'll warn ahead of time that I've been surprised by wifi situations out here before, so... I'll just do my best. lmao.

Anyway, I'm currently in Lassen National Park and Chapter 16 is up on AO3 and Chapter 17 is on Patreon. If you'd like to follow along with my travels, I am as always posting photos to Instagram at cookinguptales. Last night I got to see Orion and Taurus -- and the whole damn Milky Way. :')

But for now, on to the chapters.

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.16) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: M | Chapter Length: 2800 words The only thing stronger than the drive to save yourself is the drive to save someone you love. -------------- 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.

Just reiterating the notes from last time -- Chapter 16 is rated M for graphic (though hopefully not gratuitous) violence, and while Chapter 17 is quite short, Chapter 18 will more than make up for it in length.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 15 (chapters 15&16, greek & minoan music)

We're starting to enter the last act of the story, and I hope you're ready for some things to happen. :')

Chapter 15, up now on AO3, is sort of the last calm before the storm. Chapter 16, up now on Patreon, is... well, it's more like the storm. lmao

Along with the new chapters, there was also a fairly lengthy post on Patreon about Ancient Greek and Minoan music! It took me a while to finish that one, partially because tracking down all of those links and images was more difficult than usual and partially because... well, the post is almost 3k words long. lmao. So hopefully Patrons will enjoy reading about that!

On to the chapters!

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.15) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3200 words The morning after, Asterion and Phaidros need to get on the same page. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.16) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: M | Chapter Length: 2800 words The only thing stronger than the drive to save yourself is the drive to save someone you love.

A couple notes -- number one, Chapter 16 is rated M. There is some pretty graphic violence, though I hope not too gratuitous, and I don't want anyone going in unwarned.

Number two, I kind of puzzled over how to split up a few chapters here at the end. I wrote this story and then chaptered it later and... I mean, it worked out well for most of the story, but this part here is admittedly a bit awkward. I initially thought to break it up into 3 5000-word chapters, but... being honest with you, I think it really does read better as two very short chapters and one very long one.

So Chapters 16 and especially 17 will be short, but trust me -- Chapter 18 will more than make up for it.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

Hmm... I keep going back and forth. Dithering, I'm a ditherer.

I have two scenes here that I'd marked to both be part of Chapter 16 because otherwise I'd have two short chapters in a row... But if I'm being real with you, the end of the first scene really feels like the end of a chapter...

Pacing is hard lmao. I might end up with two very short chapters but then one super, super long one. But I think it also just reads better that way...? Hmm.

[tellmeomuse]

Ancient Greek and Minoan Music

So I've been working on a new blog post for Patreon for a couple weeks, actually, and it's gotten pretty long. Hopefully its length will help make up for the fact that the historical blog posts have been a little sparse lately.

This blog post is about ancient Greek and Minoan music, the instruments they used, and a few of the many scholars who are trying to reproduce these sounds. I put together a guide to some of the instruments that the ancient Greeks and Minoans used and also found quite a few videos of these instruments being played.

I also talk about several ancient songs that we can still listen to today, like the Delphic Hymns to Apollo and the Seikilos Epitaph, and have linked to several performances of them.

I just think it's so cool that these songs and instruments are being recreated, and that they're inspiring new songs as well. I used a combination of ancient Greek songs, songs played by ancient instruments, and modern songs inspired by ancient sounds while I was writing AITNISTS, and this blog post was kind of a big thank-you to all of the musicians who inspired me.

As always, thanks for reading. I really hope you enjoy this one.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 14 (ch 14&15, character essay)

I have finally claimed victory over my hotel's content blocker, so Chapter 14 is on AO3 and Chapter 15 is on Patreon.

(I would just like to reiterate's last week's content warning -- Chapter 14 of AITNISTS is rated Explicit and contains explicit NSFW content.)

Along with those chapters, I also uploaded a fairly long essay to the free tier of Patreon about Phaidros's sense of otherness and how my own experiences with neurodivergence and physical disability affected the way I wrote AITNISTS.

Anyway, onto the chapters.

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.14) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: E | Chapter Length: 10k words The night is young, the stars are old, and just for tonight, they will not be alone. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.15) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3200 words The morning after, Asterion and Phaidros need to get on the same page.

As always, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

UH WELL I got the new chapter of AITNISTS on Patreon, but I'm gonna have to be a little creative about the AO3 chapter because

This hotel has AO3 blocked??? Prudes.

(It is not lost on me that I am currently trying to upload deeply NSFW monsterfucker porn, and yet that's really not my hotel's business!!!)

I'm gonna try tethering using my phone and that should work, so please just be patient with me.

[tellmeomuse]

Phaidros, Neurodivergence, and the Unlovable Other

So I have a new essay up on Patreon today, and it's a pretty long one. It's sort of a spiritual successor to the foreword of this story, We Must Imagine The Minotaur Loved, so I've placed it on the free tier so everyone can read it.

This is an essay that I've been sitting on for a long time, but readers are finally starting to notice and comment on the way that Phaidros talks about himself. I think some people have been puzzled by his strange internal insistence that he and Asterion could never work out, and... I mean, to some degree, that confusion is intended. It's supposed to stick out as odd now, and it's going to be explained a bit more as the story continues.

I'm not sure that I would place a modern label like "neurodivergent" on Phaidros, but he's not NOT, either. I realized as I was writing this story that my own experiences with neurodivergence and physical disability were coloring the way that I was writing the characters, and by the time I finished writing, those parallels were very much intended.

So I guess the secret's out. This has actually always been a story about two men who both feel like monsters and how they come to love, support, and accept each other. Asterion may physically be inhuman, but Phaidros, due to his own life experiences, has come to feel the exact same way about himself.

And uh. That's going to cause some problems eventually.

But that's getting ahead of things a bit, I think. For now, here's a very long essay about the many ways a person can be made to feel monstrous -- and how we deserve to feel capable of being loved despite that.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 13 (ch 13/14 and minoan weaponry)

Hello! Thank you for being patient with me as I recover from covid. Still not 100%, but I'm getting there.

I did manage to get one historical blog up this week, one about Minoan weaponry. It'll come in handy when reading the coming chapters.

In the meantime, Chapter 13 is up on AO3 and Chapter 14 is on Patreon. Chapter 14 has been a long time coming, but hopefully y'all will be satisfied with it.

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.13) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 2,100 words Phaidros and Asterion speak around the fire on this, the last night. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.14) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: E | Chapter Length: 10k words The night is young, the stars are old, and just for tonight, they will not be alone.

I would just like to be very clear that the rating for Chapter 14 is Explicit. I've always been pretty clear that this story is a romance, and well. This is where the monsterfucking comes in. So please be prepared going into this.

As always, thank you for reading. I hope very much that you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

minoan weaponry

Hi all! Thanks for your patience with me as I recover from covid.

I've touched on Minoan weaponry in the past, but I just wanted to do a somewhat more in-depth post before things start to get hairy in the upcoming chapters. Let's just say it'll be good to know what Minoan weapons look like going forward. :')

So here's a post on Patreon about Minoan weaponry, especially bladed weaponry. It's surprisingly prevalent in the archaeological sites we've excavated

(Note: while I did manage to scare up some images from Wikimedia for this blog post, I just want to state for the record that if you ever want to see more examples of any of the artifacts I'm talking about, please feel free to look through the Heraklion Archaeological Museum's digital archives! Their images aren't public domain so I haven't been using them in my blog posts, but they're perfectly viewable online if you'd like to do so!)

[tellmeomuse]

update: I do have covid and the doc says if I don’t start eating and drinking more I have to go to the ER. ;; thankfully I have nausea pills and applesauce now.

as for aitnists uhhh I mean I’ll try but this week’s new patreon chapter is one of the longest and most important of the entire book and idk that I can do the last read-through Inusually do rn

so if I improve a. lot by tomorrow you’ll have the new chapter but otherwise it’ll have to be on hiatus for a week. ;; sorry I can barely sit up.

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 12 (chapters 12&13, new design post)

Hello and welcome to week 12! Last week was a pretty quiet one as chapter 11 was fairly quiet as well. We'll be going back to regular historical posts this week!

(I've been trying to match the historical posts to the events in the main story. lmao)

So this week the only additional material posted on Patreon was a blog post about Asterion's scarring, what it looks like, and how Mycenaean/Minoan culture played into it. Like all design posts, this one is on the free tier on Patreon.

Anyway... let's get into this week's chapters!

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.12) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 5,900 words Phaidros starts to put his plans into motion and Asterion packs up the meager remains of a life half lived. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.13) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 2,100 words Phaidros and Asterion speak around the fire on this, the last night.

Chapter 13 is the shortest chapter of AITNISTS, but that's largely because Chapter 14 is pretty long -- but because of its content, I really didn't want to split any of it up. You'll see what I mean.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy. :)

[tellmeomuse]

aitnists week 11 (chapters 11&12, liminality, and the necropolis)

So this week I didn't post much historical information, but that's because the second supplemental story went up a few days ago! It's called "Necropolis" and is intended to be read between chapters 11 and 12, though you don't need to read it to follow along with the plot. It is from Asterion's POV and details what he was doing while Phaidros was asleep between chapters.

I also posted a fairly lengthy blog post on the free tier of Patreon about liminality, what that is, and how it plays into this story. I decided to make this one free for everyone because it felt important enough that I wanted every reader to be able to access it. It's one of the central themes of this story, I think. So it was nice to be able to talk about it.

Finally, it's time for the new chapters!

And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.11) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 3,000 words A bath. A discussion. A scar. -------------- And In The Night, I See The Stars (Ch.12) OMC/Minotaur | Chapter Rating: T | Chapter Length: 5,900 words Phaidros starts to put his plans into motion and Asterion packs up the meager remains of a life half lived.

As always, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy.

[tellmeomuse]

Currently writing a blog post about liminality before I post today's chapter of AITNISTS and honestly "threshold" no longer looks like a real world lmao.