A little comic from last spring I made that hasn’t really had a home anywhere.
I liked the idea of immortality leading to a reverence for life and the world around it, rather than nihilism and wanton destruction. It was also a comforting thought that if immortal beings walked among us, they could see the future of our hope become a reality someday… so it felt relevant again.
Title is pending--but for fun I wanted to share a sneak-peek of a fantasy novella I'm working on. I miss writing websites like Figment, so I was going to release this serially.
Chapter 1
If you were to ask Thala what the happiest day of her life was, it would not have been her thirtieth birthday. She’d started the day off alright: finishing a letter to her parents. Three months ago, her parents left on a year-long expedition to find the elusive electric spotted whale. (Thala wasn’t sure if it was an actual whale or just a very large fish.)
Before their departure, they had arrived at her home for dinner, brought her favorite wine to ply her with, and had said Oh, please look after everything, it’ll be so easy, you’re going to take it over anyway. Thala had made up as many excuses as she could, which were not many, you could only insist that you had to stare at the ceiling and feed your cat so many times, and given in.
And then things had gone so horribly wrong.
Thala stood behind the counter, staring into the face of a red-faced woman, and listened for the hundredth time about the tiny cerulean filaments growing in a line across her forehead. In the back, the shop’s assistant, Amarella, had taken about twenty minutes to sweep one window.
“This is unacceptable,” the woman said.
Thala opened her mouth to say, “Well, you’re going to have to accept it. They’re already there.” But instead she bit the inside of her cheek and said, “I understand.”
“You ‘understand,’ you understand what? You can see that I have—I have—horns—” The dead peacock on the woman’s maroon hat bobbed dangerously. Thala wished it would come to life and peck her eyes out.
“Filaments,” Thala said, gently.
“Horns growing out of my—growing out of—I demand you fix it at once!”
Thala, once again, held out the piece of paper. It was becoming quite damp now with her sweat. Despite being near the ocean, the apothecary was hot and humid from the sun shining through the large windows. “As we discussed, I’ve given you a full refund. This is a note to Dr. Jenkins, he should be able to fix—”
The woman spluttered. “You’re telling me I have to walk?”
“Er, yes?”
“He can’t come here himself?”
Thala reminded herself that a quill would break if you tried to stab someone through the skull. (And eyes would be very messy to clean up.) Behind the woman, the door opened, and the bell tinkled cheerfully. “He is attending to his own patients, I’m sure. But if you give that to him, he should be able to help.”
“I’ll escort you,” said a calm voice. Thala looked up to see a young man standing in the doorway. He had sharp features and a nose that reminded her of a raven’s beak, but the severity of his face was softened by his round, almost innocent brown eyes. He was dressed in the most ridiculous clothes she had ever seen: a white ruffled shirt with billowing sleeves, tapered at the end by the dark blue and silver-star-studded overcoat he wore, paired with fitted black trousers and tall, gold-tipped black boots. His ears glittered with long earrings, and when he moved, the seven long necklaces layered on his chest chimed just like the apothecary door.“Trying too hard” was an understatement.
The woman spluttered, “I don’t need to be escorted, I need—”
“Dr. Jenkins is an old friend of mine. I’m sure that he’ll be able to take care of you,” the man said, flashing her a smile. He offered her his elbow.
“Well, I suppose…” The woman took it without a second glance at Thala.
Thala could still hear her half-hearted protests all the way down the street, and Thala didn’t dare move until she couldn’t hear them any longer. Amarella finally finished with the window, and came up to the front to clean the others. With nothing else to do, she turned back to her other potions.
“That was exciting!” Amarella said. She was seventeen, and always excited about everything, good or bad.
“Mhmm,” Thala said, picking up an empty potion bottle.
Luckily, none of the potions she had to make were to be consumed and/or applied to the human body, nor were they high stakes—there was a potion for growing plants at twice their speed and one for mending sails. Thala did what she always did—she picked out each ingredient and followed the instructions exactly.
Somehow, something always went wrong. It went wrong even if her mother or father guided her through the potions herself, it went wrong if she studied it on her own… Somehow, it always ended with Thala standing in front of a useless potion.
Just like at the academy, she thought. Thala sighed as she measured powdered abalone, no more than a limpet’s worth, onto the scale. She thought of the woman’s dangerously wobbling hat, of her yelling, of her not listening at all—until, of course, a man stepped in. Thala wished she’d been a little more forceful. Or maybe a little smarter and not sold her the potion anyway. She should’ve refused to make it, said they were out of ingredients—Thala accidentally spilled some powder off the scale and onto the ground. She swore just as the front door opened. “Just a moment!”
She quickly swept up the powder and turned. The man from before was back. Despite his ostentatious clothes, he looked sheepish. “Dr. Jenkins told me to bring you this,” he said, holding out a note.
As Amarella and the man greeted each other, Thala read the note. She could barely read Dr. Jenkins’s awful handwriting: Nice work on the filaments. She smiled. Dr. Jenkins may usually be dramatic (she’d once messed up one of his hair potions and he’d acted like he was dying), but he’d never been cruel to her. Thala said, “Thank you. And thank you for escorting her.”
“Ah, well,” he said, fiddling with one of the many earrings in his ear. “Turns out I had other motives besides charity.”
Thala’s stomach churned. Every time she made a potion, something went wrong. What if this man was someone with actual power? What if she ruined her family’s reputation? “Oh?”
“I need some assistance,” he said. “But not from a potion maker.”
Thala tilted her head to the side. “Then I’m sorry, but maybe you’ve come to the wrong place?”
He shook his head. “Unless you are not Miss Thala Dolomena? Of the Upper-Crust Solarius Academy for Fledgling Evocats? UCSAFE?”
Thala stiffened. I used to be, she thought. Even now she still remembered the sinking pit in her stomach as they announced, Thala Dolomena: Failure. You are expelled. Thala gripped the edge of the counter. “I am. But I don’t understand—how did you hear of me?”
The man pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper and spread it in front of them. It was a flyer from the end of the year showcase—the first and last one she attended. The man said, “I was there. I saw your art.”
Thala pressed her lips together and passed it back. “Then…” She started to say you must know I was expelled, but couldn’t bring herself to.
The man carefully refolded the flyer and tucked it into his coat pocket. “There is no one else I would trust.”
Thala bit her lip and looked down. “What do you need assistance with?”
(I think the best part is they would have this conversation but at the end of the day still absolutely be there for each other… albeit with a lot of bickering)
Books that remind me of Howl's Moving Castle: A Masterlist
Howl's Moving Castle (HMC) is my favorite book of all time, and I tend to look for the things I like and love to read the same trope or style of book over and over again. There are a few things I look for in a book when trying to capture the magic of HMC:
Characters - we are looking for STRONG and quirky characters that follow the general vibes of a vain man (or whatever) with magical power and a salty stubborn kindhearted woman (or whatever) who bursts into his life. Preferably there is a third, magical little fellow to fill the Calcifer role who is a dear friend to them both.
Romance - this vain silly powerful character and this pushy kind character need to fall in love. Im sorry. Its what im HERE for. I love a romance.
Funny/Witty - the book should be FUNNY, not "unserious", but not take itself so seriously. I want BANTER and witty dialogue. We want a little bit of jabbing, name calling, and arguments as our two leads fall in love.
Cozy Vibes - the plot should not be "Avengers style saving the universe from destruction" levels of stress. We should have character driven moments, scenes that evolve naturally out of us feeling "of course that's what he/she would do", scenes of domesticity whether that's eating or cooking, cleaning or decorating. There can be stakes, and there can be danger, there can even be plot twists, but overall we should not feel stressed while reading - these are comfort reads with happy endings.
Setting - I have to be honest, I have never really looked for a HMC book stand in OUTSIDE the fantasy genre - I really want this to be a fantasy setting. It is also important to me there be a "home base", i.e. the Moving Castle. So I love for our heroine (or whatever) to MOVE INTO the Sorcerer's space for some contrivance and cause havoc.
SO HERE ARE THE BOOKS, and how/why the remind me of HMC. THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS and I will continue to update as I read (I will only inlcude books I have read to be sure of quality - but send me recs so I can check them out):
Emily Wilde Series: A magical male lead who is the combination of Sophie and Howl - gorgeous, vain, argumentative, particular, loves cleanliness, loves spiders, loves sewing, and is embarassingly smitten with our female lead. Emily herself is not really a one to one for any of the HMC characters, but she feels like she fits perfectly - smart, sharp, blunt, and loyal. Emily's hound Shadow sort of meets my Calcifer stand in character, as does a little fairy named Poe. The adventure is small stakes, affecting a small nordic town nestled into snowy mountains, and many of the scenes take place inside a cabin in need of a facelift like the moving castle. Others on this list follow far more of the beats of HMC, and yet Emily Wilde feels like the strongest successor to the characters and the charm in my opinion.
The Maid and the Crocodile: The third installment in the "Raybearer" world, but a stand-alone novel that does not technically require you to read "Raybearer" and "Redemptor" but I think it helps... This was my favorite of the Raybearer books by far and away. The story is fairly small stakes - the consequences of the plot will really only affect the two main characters. Sade reminds me of Sophie in many ways - a girl on a journey from meek and quiet to opinionated and outspoken all the while sharing her passion for cleaning and domestic work. She also has a rare and undiscovered magical power of her own, like Sophie. Her love interest is a terribly vain cursed magical man seeking her help to break his curse, and he has a little magical gecko helper that soooort of fills the Calcifer role. The Crocodile also has a magical house with multiple magical doors leading to various places in the Realm. The author even shouts out the HMC novel in the acknowledgments for inspiring parts of the book. I think OVERALL this is the closest one-to-one adaptation to HMC, but the wittiness and characters for me do not reach the levels of some of the others on the list.
Uprooted: A klutzy nature loving girl is surprisingly whisked away to a castle by a local curmudgeonly sorcerer, named The Dragon. Turns out, she has a unique magical ability she never knew about. The Dragon teaches her magic in a cozy single location first half of the book, and our heroine learns baking and cooking, cleaning and loooove along the way. Much higher stakes story revolving around saving the kingdom, some politics, and some much darker parts of human nature and well just nature than others on this list. But numerous beats are similar.
Sorcery of Thorns: A young librarian learns a terrible secret and is forced to cohabitate with a handsome young sorcerer in a deal with a demon for magic. The two leads are bickering and witty, trading barbs as they fall in love. They eventually make home base in Thorn Manor, and the demon aforementioned is a Calcifer-esque addition to the fun. Tad less cozy, tad higher stakes than I would care for - but the banter and found family in the Manor reminds me a lot of HMC.
The Paper Magician: For this one... you have to sort of squint to see it. But trust me: there is SOMETHING here that is HMC all over it and it would be a HUGE spoiler to go into it. Lets just say it has something to do with a LITERAL stolen heart. A young magicians apprentice is paired against her will with the titular Paper Magician, to live in his home and learn his trade. Along the way, we get some lovely world building, fall in love, and save some hearts.
Sorcery and Small Magics (edit to add) - two sorcerers studying at the best magic academy have been “rivals” since they met. They accidentally get tangled up in a curse and embark on a “forced proximity” adventure to find a sorcerer living in a magic tower full of doors to strange places to break their cursed bond. Did I mention they bicker and provoke one another, and our main lead has a secret special magic to uncover? This is a queer, slow burn, low spice low stakes (only effects the two main characters) story and it was full of the type of comedy and whimsy I look for in a HMC successor. A planned trilogy
Where the Dark Stands Still (edit to add) - WOOOOW wowie wow this might be the new contender for best “clone” of HMC (lovingly I use this it def stands on its own); magic girl who can’t control powers enters a bargain with a demon and moves into his magical manor and befriends a hearth spirit only to fall in love with the demon who is actually a sorcerer who sold his heart in a bargain with a REAL demon and she has to use her lovable nature to save her found family. This is the only book on this list to date that has a true Michael stand-in character as well as a Calicifer stand in. O and The romantic couple call each other charming insults. This one is much darker and bloodier and morally greyer than HMC, but takes place almost entirely in the bounds of our “castle” and the magic wood that surrounds it.
A Harvest of Hearts (edit to add) - I read this one as an ARC from NetGalley. Pretty macabre and full of gore and piss (really one chapter has waaaay too much piss) to be considered a true cozy in my world, but was marketed to me as such. The simple and tad crass butchers daughter Foss finds herself under the spell of an ethereally handsome and utterly naive sorcerer who did NOT mean to cast it. She ends up drawn to him against her will to try to break the enchantment, and tricks him into letting her become his cleaning lady in his enchanted house. And there is a little black cat that ABSOLUTELY fills the Calcifer role. Our sorcerer, Sylvester, even throws a tantrum a la Howl and slime with some plates. The plot is utterly charming as a HMC fan but the dark and eerie world building and crass language keeps it from being a “favorite” of mine.
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