Arista Holmes @author-a-holmes - Tumblr Blog

Writeblr Introduction - 2026

Updated February 22nd 2026

Hello lovely!

My name’s Ari and I’m an independant author of fantasy novels.

I live in the south-east of England, near the coast, with my demon of a cat, and my mum (Who is two parts flat-mate, and one part alpha-reader!).

When I’m not writing, or drowning myself in coffee, I’m probably gaming or trying to resurrect my high school sewing skills to make my own clothes. Making my own clothes is a relatively new venture, but something I’ve always wanted to do. So, it’s a work in progress, but I have hope!

If you'd like to check out my other social media platforms, all the links can be found via my Website or my Linktree.

If you'd like to be the first to hear writing progress, updates, or ARC Reader Opportunities, you can sign up to my newsletter here.

Check out my current book series below, and then beneath the Read More to see which projects I have lined up next!

The Fey Touched Trilogy is my debut series. It is a New Adult Contemporary Fantasy with elements of a portal fantasy and romance subplots.

Prequel, 'Whatever Happened to Madeline Hail?' -; Available exclusively to my newsletter subscribers.

Book One, 'Changeling' -; Available at most online retailers in ebook, paperback, and hardcover.

Book Two, 'Darkling' -; Available 2026, Coming Soon

Book Three, 'Fey Touched' -; Coming Soon

Seasonal Special, 'Once Upon A Fey Touched Holiday' -; Coming Soon

Fey Touched Dedicated Sideblog

luna-azzurra

The writer pipeline is: (1) i have an idea (2) i am the only person who has ever had this idea (3) i google the idea (4) seventeen people have already written this idea (5) mine is different though (6) is mine different though (7) mine is different because of the FEELING (8) i cannot explain the feeling (9) i write it anyway (10) it comes out completely different from the idea (11) the new thing is better (12) i have a new idea. we begin again. this is the whole job.

Permanent Ebook Price Change

As I'm sure you've seen me mention, Darkling is being released on June 21st 2026!

Darkling is Book Two of the Fey Touched Trilogy, but what if you haven't read book one?

Well, to make it easier for new readers to dive into my series, I've just made a permanent price reduction to Changeling's Ebook version across all platforms!

You can now get Changeling for $4.99usd, £3.99gbp, and with all other currencies price matched via conversion rates on each platform.

To grab your copy now, or preorder Darkling and snag some pre-order goodies, head on over to my Linktree to find everything you need in one place!

Learning To Trust - Episode #8

Trusting someone isn’t instinctive.

Even when they show kindness.

Even when they extend a hand to help.

Past trauma can be hard to see past...

And hesitation can be part of the process...

Lizzy opened her eyes, and blinked away the rest of her tears, until she could see clearly. Only to find herself trapped in Connorbar's dark gaze. It was, for the first time, unguarded and it made him surprisingly easy to read. There was a raw kindness on his face in he seemed to keep carefully hidden, and Lizzy couldn't help but wonder how many people had used his kindness against him before he'd learnt to mask it behind caution and firm commands. She wished she could trust it. Trust him. But Lizzy could count on one hand the number of people in her life who'd ever offered to help her without having an ulterior motive, and it made her hesitate.

Darkling will be released June 21st 2026!

You can pre-order the ebook now on all platforms, including Itch. io. Paperback and Hardcover options have been uploaded but some platforms won't allow orders until release day.

Preorder goodies? Preorder goodies!

Hand Written Thank Note

Printed Character Art

Lizzy’s Pendant Sticker

Signed Bookplate

Bookmark

Digital Bonus Scene from Booker’s POV!

Simply place your order, and then complete the form on my website! (All relevent links can be found through my Linktree)

allthingswhumpyandangsty

author-a-holmes

Somewhere around the midpoint is something like "This is GOOD, but I've read it so many times in editing I'm personally sick to the back teeth of it"

luna-azzurra

Writers have two modes and they are "i haven't written in three weeks and i am rotting from the inside and everything feels wrong and i don't know who i am anymore" and "i wrote for four hours straight and forgot to eat and it's dark outside and when did that happen and i feel like a god" and there is nothing in between. no chill. no medium setting. just famine or feast and a very confused nervous system.

frightfullytreeish

dear everyone on tumblr who needs to host images elsewhere (e.g. to embed on ao3 etc), please give squidge a go!! it's free, it's nonprofit and it's geared towards fandom so nsfw images won't get deleted!! and please stop using imgur if you can because they blocked the uk rather than acquiesce to the fucking internet safety laws, which I can't really hold against em but it does mean all imgur pictures just show up as big purple boxes now

blogquantumreality

Squidge! Holy blast from the past, Batman. The last time I remember even looking at that site was... eons ago.

( Oh, what was I reading? The Quartz Key. Yes, it's m/m. )

beatrice-otter

Not only is Squidge still around, it's expanded and grown! It is still run by the same guy, though now it's a nonprofit with a board and everything, and while they maintain all the old squidge sites as static archives, they have a new multifandom archive using the AO3 code at squidgeworld.org. They also host podfics and fanart.

For those younguns in the crowd, back in the day erotic fanworks--especially slash--was not welcome very many places. Walter was willing to host it, and has been a haven for NSFW fanworks since 1994. The various archives and so on hosted at squidge.org were never very large, compared to lots of other archives, but they were a necessary part of the fannish ecosystem, and I'm really glad that there is now a structure in place to keep the whole system running beyond just "Walter's a great guy willing to donate lots of time and money." Walter is a great guy! but like. it's good to have other people to help out and keep things going in the long run.

allthingswhumpyandangsty

btw if you’re kink shaming people, I hope you know that every single person who reblogs this post and I are shaming you

write-on-world

big-blog-of-cheese-day

ccorinthian

Sometimes you gotta get down to brass tacks

blumineck

This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done! Putting myself out there and asking for things is HARD, and I genuinely don’t know if there’s enough interest in this for it to be viable.

BUT shy bairns get nowt and all that, and if there is enough support and this does work out, then it’s a chance to do something really exciting. Very few people have had a properly fitted suit of historical plate to test with, and even fewer of them have an audience of this size to share their findings with. And while I may not be the best person for the job, I’m the only person that I am.

SO, if you want to see how far I can push movement in plate armour, or how many fantasy tropes I can recreate; if you want to see the process of making and fitting a full suit, and learn more about historical craftsmanship; OR if you want to watch a goofy goober pole dancing and attempting gymnastics in a clanky tin suit, with lots of failure along the way, please support this project.

There’s no way I can do it on my own, but if enough people chip in, there’s a chance!

And if you can’t or don’t want to contribute, don’t worry about it! I’ll still be here making my usual content either way!

higgsbison

happy glorious 25th of may

starleska

a PSA for anyone who is confused by the panic over the UK heatwaves! ☀️

the UK has an amber warning declared for a heatwave this weekend, where temperatures will reach above 30C (86F). to many, especially Americans, this doesn't seem like a notable temperature, and i've seen many ignorant posts mocking UK residents who are worried about how they and their loved ones will be affected by the temperatures. i'd like to explain why heatwaves in the UK are different than other parts of the world, and why they cause such a panic: 🔥 because we are an island nation, our heat isn't dry: it's horrendously humid. high humidity means that your lungs need to work harder to breathe, and it's much harder for your sweat to evaporate in the air. sweating is how your body regulates its temperature, and you sweat more in humid environments. when sweat doesn't evaporate it remains on the skin, leaving you feeling hot, sticky, and ill. 🔥 our homes and buildings are built to retain heat. because the UK is so cold and rainy for the vast majority of the year, our homes are supposed to trap heat, not let it out. not only are our homes smaller on average, but between double glazing, cavity wall insulation and loft insulation, when heat hits a British home, it causes a greenhouse effect. heat just sits in our homes, and it doesn't dissipate at night, meaning we are unable to sleep. 🔥 we have no air conditioning. i have never been in a home with air-con, and very few public buildings have it (except some shops). because of the aforementioned cold, rainy conditions that affect the UK for the vast majority of the year, air-con has never received a significant roll-out here. this means that we have little to no relief from being inside buildings besides being in the shade, and few homes even have fans. 🔥 our city centres are packed and highly urbanised, which causes heat traps. because our streets and homes are often stacked tightly together, including rows of houses/buildings/etc., heat in densely packed areas has nowhere to go, and will simply sit. trying to walk through a city during a heatwave will leave you sweating and exhausted in minutes. likewise, there are limited spaces to go to cool off during these temperatures: people will literally go to the shops to stand in the fridge/freezer aisles. 🔥 our infrastructure is not built to cope with heat. during heatwaves, our tarmac melts. the rails which hold our trains bend and warp. our grass catches fire. a few years ago, airport runways cracked and lifted in the heat, halting flights. the UK is brought to a standstill during high temperatures because our cities and towns are built for colder, wetter temperatures. add in the 16 hours of daylight we get during the summer, and you have a recipe for disaster. 🔥 the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK is 40C (104F). this was in England, and in other UK countries, it's even lower: in Wales, it was 37.1C (98.78F); in Scotland, it was 34.8C (94.64F), and in Northern Ireland, it was 31.3C (88.3F). because these are our highest temperatures, many of us are unused to the symptoms which signify heat exhaustion or heat stroke. i need to emphasise: people die during heatwaves. i highly encourage people to read about the 2022 UK heatwaves, which saw the deaths of nearly 3000 people (many of whom were elderly). we could do nothing but hunker down and survive the heat during this time, and it was especially dreadful for anyone who is older, disabled, and/or neurodivergent. so while 30C is not unheard of in the UK, any heatwave poses significant risks, including illness, disruption to transport, wildfires, and even death. thanks for reading, and to everyone from outside the UK who's provided useful advice on keeping cool! i'm sure we'll be alright, but i'm hoping folks won't parrot misinformation about us just 'not being able to cope with the heat' 💔

starleska

it's that special time of year where a heatwave is hitting the UK and mockery/misinformation spreads like wildfire from people who don't live here. so just some reminders for those unfamiliar with how UK heat can be deadly 💖

pusheenthenerdcat

as most public buildings lack AC this also means limited ability to leave the house if you are at risk of heat exhaustion and are fortunate enough to have portable ac units. i have a disability so I can't go anywhere besides my room until this heatwave is over, not even the upper floors of my house, and i am very bored, antsy, and undersocialised.

additionally i want to reiterate that over the past few decades of global warming the number of days per year it gets actually hot have been increasing significantly. we are experiencing problems that not only do we lack infrastructure for they are becoming problems more often and for much longer periods.

wingedcatastrophe

writeblr search time

going to be putting effort back into filling my queue and being more present on here instead of just passively lurking, so I'm looking for more writeblrs to follow!

I primarily read sci-fi and fantasy, adult over YA but I will peek at YA if the premise is interesting enough, so writeblr with those types of wips pls hit me up!

As always, I will only check out blogs that reblog/comment on this post. I will not be looking at the likes.

i love love love ask games. if you regularly post/reblog ask games, that is a huge plus

how you interact with writing is important to me - i.e. if you regularly post writing memes about hating writing, etc i'm not likely to follow you. those jokes can be funny, in moderation, but they also have made a hugely negative impact on my writing before and I am steering clear of that type of content now

otherwise, go nuts! Tell me about yourself and your WIPs!

sailorsally

Unpopular opinion but if you don't enjoy the process you should find a different thing to do.

And I think this is true in general but now I'm talking about it in the context of AI.

If you don't enjoy making art and only care about the end piece and how it'll look and how much traction it"lol get online then making art is not something for you, find something you enjoy from start to finish.

Same goes for writing: if you do not enjoy writing and rewriting and then some more and instead want AI to write for you, being a writer is not something you should pursue.

Sure, not every part of creative process is going to be equally enjoyable but you should get satisfaction from solving the problems along the way and you should get a sense of accomplishment on your way of "making the piece yours" and you should have a sense of ownership once you are done.

None of these things will come from typing in a prompt into chatGPT. And I am sad to see so many people are missing on the opportunity to experience the joy of making something with their own hands and brains.

Just give it a try and if you don't like it don't do it again.

But also don't let the expectations of it coming out perfect ruin the fun you are having while making the thing. Because what if I told you this: having fun while creating is the actual purpose of the creative process, not whatever comes out of it.

beardedmrbean

illmadekn1ght

every day it gets harder to have a relaxed jaw and decent posture

topazadine

Here is my mean and grouchy oldhead writer comment.

I am so tired of "don't tell people that their first draft will be bad, it's discouraging!" or "don't tell people their first book will be bad, you'll make them not want to write it!!"

Not every single piece of writing advice needs to fluff you up. You should not need surround-sound validation to keep writing.

You have to practice if you want to be good at something. Practice work is not always good. In fact, most practice work is awful. That's why it's practice and not "go professional right now you're the best ever."

Writing is the only field where people think you don't have to practice before being good.

Every field requires practice and training.

Have you ever tried to play a musical instrument? You sucked at it the first time. You knew this, because most humans have an innate ear for music, and hopefully it didn't discourage you.

Most new writers don't have an ear for their writing yet because developing that ear requires training, so they fall into this Dunning-Kruger trap of believing their first draft of their first project is amazing. And then they publish too early, and then they hate it 20 years later and try to remove it from the internet.

Or, in my case, about 12 years later, but I unfortunately cannot remove said early books from my Goodreads profile because Goodreads is forever. At least they're not publicly available anymore.

Just. Go write. Do the work. You will survive writing bad first drafts, because a first draft isn't set in stone and can be revised as many times as you want. A first book can be revisited 20 years later and become amazing. You can only do that if you keep practicing so you develop your skills.

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Arista Holmes