some favourites of 2019 📚
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
🪼
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Three Goblin Art
Not today Justin

tannertan36
No title available
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
tumblr dot com

titsay
Game of Thrones Daily
RMH
occasionally subtle

if i look back, i am lost

ellievsbear

blake kathryn
Keni
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Show & Tell
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from T1
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Vietnam

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from Malaysia

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United Arab Emirates

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Finland

seen from United States
seen from United States
@brynprocrastinates
some favourites of 2019 📚
PRE-ORDER The Songbird's Refrain: https://www.amazon.com/Songbirds-Refrain-Jillian-Maria/dp/1733863508/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+songbirds+refrain&qid=15648557...
In case you missed it!! I had an interview with @roselinproductions this weekend!
Elizabeth muses on love on this Songbird Sunday.
PREVIEW (AND PREORDER) THE SONGBIRD’S REFRAIN. Coming September 3.
The artist and their muse ✨
PRE-ORDER The Songbird's Refrain: https://www.amazon.com/Songbirds-Refrain-Jillian-Maria/dp/1733863508/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+songbirds+refrain&qid=15648557...
I just finished up this interview!! It was a fun time :)
Art by Anastasiya Stolyarova
@brynwrites
Mermaid gifs
@quilloftheclouds
@brynwrites
Does anyone have any (non-YA) creepy science fiction (or fantasy that takes place in space) that isn’t based around politics or space battles that they can rec me?
Bonus points if it’s diverse.
@tlbodine ??
Mmm that’s a toughie. @comicreliefmorlock reads more sci-fi than I do.
If we’re discounting alien invasion type stories (and adjacent “eldritch space” themes like The Colour Out of Space) I cant think of any books off the top of my head.
I would recommend the interactive fiction game Capsule II, which deals with an arc ship and what happens when you bring the wrong type of person out of cryo.
Gravity is not supernatural at all, but it’s an incredibly tense and scary film.
I really love Event Horizon.
Uhhh…hmmm. @diseonfire , you got anything?
You could try: Rendezvous with Rama or 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. It is fairly dated now, but does have a fairly decent element of spook and no space battles or politics. The Fifth Season series by N. K. Jemisin. Post-apocalyptic fantasy, that touches on space travel in the slow unravelling of a mystery around a half-forgotten past and a deadly unknown threat. Definitely recommend this one. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Bit of spook, mostly introspective. Vaguely recall one or two space battles but it wasn’t really a prominent element to the story. There are spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter. What happens when a fleet of generation ships crewed by clones of elite personnel and scientists is sent on a mission to find out if an star anomaly is sign of alien life, and what that will mean for humanity. Diaspora by Greg Egan. Artificial intelligences and cybernetic humanity living in an entirely digitalised civilisation discovers evidence of a precursor civilisation during a galactic apocalyptic scenario. Extremely hard sci fi, very technical. But not particularly political or spooky. Focused mostly on exploration, physics and mathematics which I really enjoyed. All Systems Red by Martha Wells. An extremely introverted self-aware security android, who hates people and their job, gets stuck with a bunch of scientists and ends up having to rescue them. Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear. A mysterious derelict ship is hurtling through space with no known name and no known destination, infected by some unknown hostile. One person who discovers dead copies of himself must find clues from his past self to try and solve the mystery of what is going wrong with the ship - without getting killed. Again. Caution: there is squick. Mostly gore. I haven’t read the book in awhile and can’t really remember much other than it got pretty weird. But spooky? Yeah. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Very spooky and goes some interesting places. Set on earth though. Movie is also worth checking out (note for body horror and gore). In terms of TV Shows and movies: Threshold. Sci fi series (complete), set on earth and spooky. Fairly generic invasion premise but goes fairly strong on the X Files style weird and Lovecraftian body horror. Infini. Sci fi movie. Some bizarre thing killed people on a remote space station and a team is sent to find out why. Fairly gory but an interesting twist at the end. Europa Report. Documentary style hard sci fi movie about a team of scientists set out to explore Europa and discover something alarming about Jupiter’s moon. Spooky, fair bit of drama. Minimal politics. The Fourth Kind. A documentary style movie about alien abduction, from the point of view of a psychologist who gets involved in a mysterious group of abduction cases all hinting at a sinister alien agenda. Fairly spooky. The Last Days on Mars. A mission to Mars goes extremely wrong when some mysterious pathogen starts killing the crew. Gore. Life. A harder sci fi movie, where a team of NASA scientists make the discovery of alien life and attempt to study it on a space station. Predictably, things go very wrong. Fairly spooky, mostly horrifying, no space battles or politics. Fair bit of gore. Complete downer ending, so if happy catharsis is something you’d like don’t watch this movie. Alien design is interesting though. Dodging space battles and politics in sci fi is not going to be easy. Most science fiction will end up touching the subject one way or another even if briefly, so I’m not sure how strict on that you want to be. I prefer to pick up anything that has aliens in it that isn’t invasion plots but that tends to be pretty difficult as well.
OH THANK YOU!
Annihilation is one of my all time favorites, as well as the book that got me into reading more creepy stories. I’ll definitely check out the others.
(I don’t mind politics or space battles in general, my sci fi tbr is just filled entirely of politics and space war heavy books, and I was craving something with a more personal and horrific twist but goodreads lists weren’t really helping xP)
It’s like that, unfortunately. Annihilation and Arrival are right at the top of my favourites when it comes to sci fi, honestly they were just such a breath of fresh air. The Expanse is also amazing. No aliens, alas (so far? Only seen first season though). First season and second season is complete, dunno if there’s more. But I loved that it focused mostly on detective work and a great big mystery plot. It’s also got a book series attached to it which it’s based on, but I haven’t read those yet so I don’t know what they’ll be like. But I absolutely recommend the TV series. Enemy Mine is a pretty old movie and… atrocious. It’s really really terrible. But I recommend it because it tries to do something a lot of sci fi movies won’t do and won’t try (probably because it’s a tricky cerebral thing and you can either nail it like Arrival did, or you… don’t. And get Enemy Mine). Basically the premise is as this: humans and an alien civilisation are at war. They hate each other. In a skirmish a human soldier and an alien soldier are shot down and end up stranded on the same planet, in the same location. They must work together to survive. The drama comes though, when the human soldier finds out the alien is hermaphroditic and pregnant. The alien dies and leaves their offspring to the human soldier, who must put aside his prejudice to raise the child and get them back to their homeworld. There is apparently a book that Enemy Mine was based on. I’d like to get ahold of it and see if it does a better job. Ann Leckie and John Scalzi are easily my favourite sci fi authors and reliably good. I enjoy basically everything they do but they both tend to aim more for the high politics and high stakes struggles. The Ancillary series by Ann Leckie and the Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi wrecked me emotionally. You might also want to try: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds. Kind of a steampunk/fantasy pirate story set in space, it’s fairly grimdark but it does have spectacular imagery and an interesting twist on the theme. Adrift by Rob Boffard. A mismatch group of tourists aboard a junky tourist spaceship are thrown into a battle for survival when the space station they departed from is destroyed by a mysterious enemy. Few supplies, no help and no one to contact, the tourists and small tourism operator crew must figure out how to survive. This was a gritty read but it was really fun and had a happy ending that I liked for its honesty. The Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor. Culture, aliens and interesting imagery with some fairly fantasy-style elements.
Tumblr did a fantastic job of NOT LETTING ME KNOW THIS REPLY EXISTED *side eyes this damn website.*
I definitely check those out though, thank you! I read the first Binti story between posting the original red call and now and I thought it was loads of fun.
Also idk if I’ve said this yet but Arrival is such a good movie, I cry every time.
(thanks to @aslanwrites for the pretty signature 💕 see I WAS SAVING IT FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, e.g. my 1000th post and WIP Master Post)
I’ve had like a hundred new followers the last couple weeks, and just noticed I’m at 999 posts, so what better 1000th post AND way to let all you new folks know what’s going on on this blog?
LOG LINE
A royal spy working undercover as a disgraced knight must return to the court that hates her, to stop the corrupt High Prelate’s genocidal coup.
OCs INTROS
Lady Sarra: the MC of Knight Errant, a skilled fighter and resourceful problem-solver, who needs about forty years of serious therapy.
Lady Ahni: Sarra’s love interest, the knight healer who just wants a fair healthcare system and a lover who will please stop jumping head-first into danger, thank you.
Lord Bastian: Sarra’s court nemesis, who gave up his knight spot for her and has some serious Regrets.
The High Prelate: Sarra’s other nemesis, the land’s religious leader, who hates nobility and has concocted a truly Evil plan to remove them all and make himself ruler.
Ruchi: Sarra’s other other nemesis (my girl’s great at nemeses, ok?), the High Prelate’s secret henchwoman, a cruel and powerful mage and trained assassin
SYNOPSIS
Banished after refusing to take her knights’ oath to the King, Lady Sarra has spent the last six years roaming the land, working as hired brawn, wandering bard or con-woman, loyal and accountable to no one but her own interests.
Or so it seems.
In reality, Lady Sarra is pursuing an insidious enemy—and revenge for her father’s murder. Under the cover of rogue knight, she’s been spying on the evil High Prelate, rooting out his agents and foiling his schemes. But just she’s close to uncovering his coup against the King, she learns alarming news: a distant relative, profiting from her disgrace, has claimed her title and family home.
Though Sarra suspects a trap, she returns to court to defend her home and expose the High Prelate once and for all. But he’s a cunning adversary, and the court hates Sarra: soon, assassins, knights, and courtiers are out for her blood.
To stay alive, save her home, and stop the Prelate, Sarra must make allies; but life as a lone spy has made her distrustful and uncooperative.The royal spy-master hatches a risky scheme to bring her back into the fold—but in the end, it’s an honest and compassionate knight healer who gets through to Sarra, reminding her that there’s more to life than intrigue, battles and revenge…
…of course, they still need to deal with the intrigue, battles and revenge, before they can enjoy their happily ever after.
Keep reading
beta call ; the last lorinean
It’s finally time! After 8 years of writing and rewriting and rewriting, The Last Lorinean is ready for beta reading! I started this story when I was in 5th grade; back then it was titled Ilizian (one L), took place in the 1200s, and was about a girl named Lilli Jones. I’m so proud of where it is now and am so excited to share it!
If you are interested in beta reading for The Last Lorinean, please fill out this survey. More details about the novel are below!
DETAILS
word count: 58,822
genre: young adult fantasy
ao3 tags: Found family, sapphic love, self discovery, road trips, too much worldbuilding, strong female characters, immortal lesbians with swords, pirates for some reason
summary: No one on the continent Aronia has had a dream in 200 years. It is an accepted fact, a reality of the small empire and all its inhabitants; the side-effects of a curse cast thousands of years ago. Lorineans could temporarily cure the dream sickness, but all were killed or exiled at the end of the Lorinean Crisis.
When Lilli Karington wakes up with a dream of her own fresh in her memory, she realizes the time has come to leave the sleepy town of Oakalla and head to the north in search of answers. What she doesn’t count on is being entangled in an ancient love story– and 200 years worth of the deadliest lie to have been told in Aronia.
wip page | wip tag | ask to be tagged
If you are interested in beta reading The Last Lorinean, please fill out this survey. I hope to send out the manuscript to readers by this upcoming Wednesday, but at this time I do not have a deadline for submissions on the survey.
Keep reading
CONGRATULATIONS!!
It’s Songbird Sunday!
So according to an interview with Neil Gaiman in the back of Good Omens, before Terry Pratchett became a full time writer he wrote at least 400 words a day.
I’ve been trying it out for a couple weeks now and let me tell you 400 words is a totally awesome goal. It is very approachable and not intimidating, often leads to more than 400 words cause well now I have to finish this scene.
Seriously I probably would have written nothing in the last couple weeks, instead I’ve written 1000′s of words.
10/10 would recommend.
Terry would be proud.
THIS IS IMPORTANT (says the guy who hasn’t written in two days)
“Most writers don’t publish their first novels.”
(Semi-organized thoughts based on discussions I’ve had about traditional publishing.)
The first time I heard “most writers don’t publish their first novels,” I was disappointed. I had poured a ton of time into my manuscript - why bother if it had no chance of seeing shelves? Then, I had a thought: ”When people say this, they probably mean inexperienced writers, people whose writing still needs to improve.” I thought this for a very long time.
Here’s the thing: I was wrong.
Yes, inexperience is a reason why books don’t sell. But from what I’ve seen, “most writers don’t publish their first novels” means most writers aren’t familiar with traditional publishing until they’ve gone through the querying process.
Here’s another phrase I’ve heard in online writing communities, a dozen versions of “write for yourself!” And yes, absolutely! We should write for ourselves! But if you’re aiming to traditionally publish - really, truly aiming to publish - you need to be realistic, or you’ll set yourself up for disappointment.
Being positive is great, but so is being informed
Keep reading
Does anyone have any (non-YA) creepy science fiction (or fantasy that takes place in space) that isn’t based around politics or space battles that they can rec me?
Bonus points if it’s diverse.
@tlbodine ??
Mmm that’s a toughie. @comicreliefmorlock reads more sci-fi than I do.
If we’re discounting alien invasion type stories (and adjacent “eldritch space” themes like The Colour Out of Space) I cant think of any books off the top of my head.
I would recommend the interactive fiction game Capsule II, which deals with an arc ship and what happens when you bring the wrong type of person out of cryo.
Gravity is not supernatural at all, but it’s an incredibly tense and scary film.
I really love Event Horizon.
Uhhh…hmmm. @diseonfire , you got anything?
You could try: Rendezvous with Rama or 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. It is fairly dated now, but does have a fairly decent element of spook and no space battles or politics. The Fifth Season series by N. K. Jemisin. Post-apocalyptic fantasy, that touches on space travel in the slow unravelling of a mystery around a half-forgotten past and a deadly unknown threat. Definitely recommend this one. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Bit of spook, mostly introspective. Vaguely recall one or two space battles but it wasn’t really a prominent element to the story. There are spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter. What happens when a fleet of generation ships crewed by clones of elite personnel and scientists is sent on a mission to find out if an star anomaly is sign of alien life, and what that will mean for humanity. Diaspora by Greg Egan. Artificial intelligences and cybernetic humanity living in an entirely digitalised civilisation discovers evidence of a precursor civilisation during a galactic apocalyptic scenario. Extremely hard sci fi, very technical. But not particularly political or spooky. Focused mostly on exploration, physics and mathematics which I really enjoyed. All Systems Red by Martha Wells. An extremely introverted self-aware security android, who hates people and their job, gets stuck with a bunch of scientists and ends up having to rescue them. Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear. A mysterious derelict ship is hurtling through space with no known name and no known destination, infected by some unknown hostile. One person who discovers dead copies of himself must find clues from his past self to try and solve the mystery of what is going wrong with the ship - without getting killed. Again. Caution: there is squick. Mostly gore. I haven’t read the book in awhile and can’t really remember much other than it got pretty weird. But spooky? Yeah. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Very spooky and goes some interesting places. Set on earth though. Movie is also worth checking out (note for body horror and gore). In terms of TV Shows and movies: Threshold. Sci fi series (complete), set on earth and spooky. Fairly generic invasion premise but goes fairly strong on the X Files style weird and Lovecraftian body horror. Infini. Sci fi movie. Some bizarre thing killed people on a remote space station and a team is sent to find out why. Fairly gory but an interesting twist at the end. Europa Report. Documentary style hard sci fi movie about a team of scientists set out to explore Europa and discover something alarming about Jupiter’s moon. Spooky, fair bit of drama. Minimal politics. The Fourth Kind. A documentary style movie about alien abduction, from the point of view of a psychologist who gets involved in a mysterious group of abduction cases all hinting at a sinister alien agenda. Fairly spooky. The Last Days on Mars. A mission to Mars goes extremely wrong when some mysterious pathogen starts killing the crew. Gore. Life. A harder sci fi movie, where a team of NASA scientists make the discovery of alien life and attempt to study it on a space station. Predictably, things go very wrong. Fairly spooky, mostly horrifying, no space battles or politics. Fair bit of gore. Complete downer ending, so if happy catharsis is something you’d like don’t watch this movie. Alien design is interesting though. Dodging space battles and politics in sci fi is not going to be easy. Most science fiction will end up touching the subject one way or another even if briefly, so I’m not sure how strict on that you want to be. I prefer to pick up anything that has aliens in it that isn’t invasion plots but that tends to be pretty difficult as well.
OH THANK YOU!
Annihilation is one of my all time favorites, as well as the book that got me into reading more creepy stories. I’ll definitely check out the others.
(I don’t mind politics or space battles in general, my sci fi tbr is just filled entirely of politics and space war heavy books, and I was craving something with a more personal and horrific twist but goodreads lists weren’t really helping xP)
Does anyone have any (non-YA) creepy science fiction (or fantasy that takes place in space) that isn’t based around politics or space battles that they can rec me?
Bonus points if it’s diverse.
@tlbodine ??
Mmm that’s a toughie. @comicreliefmorlock reads more sci-fi than I do.
If we’re discounting alien invasion type stories (and adjacent “eldritch space” themes like The Colour Out of Space) I cant think of any books off the top of my head.
I would recommend the interactive fiction game Capsule II, which deals with an arc ship and what happens when you bring the wrong type of person out of cryo.
Gravity is not supernatural at all, but it’s an incredibly tense and scary film.
I really love Event Horizon.
Uhhh…hmmm. @diseonfire , you got anything?
Awesome thanks! (And I'd totally read some eldritch space type books! I'm just not looking for 'ships shooting at other ships/humans shooting at humans or traditional aliens with guns' books. I want Arrival and Annihilation instead of Independence Day.)
Does anyone have any (non-YA) creepy science fiction (or fantasy that takes place in space) that isn’t based around politics or space battles that they can rec me?
Bonus points if it’s diverse.
I haven’t read Annihilation so don’t know that exact sort of creepy, but you should take a look at Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant. It features:
science cruise ship
on an actual science mission but also they’re filming one of those pseudo-scientific TV docs like Ancient Aliens
except this time it’s mermaids
who may or may not have eaten the last science ship
a bisexual marine biologist out to prove her dead sister right through science
her Latino lab mate
an autistic lesbian TV personality
Deaf science twins and plot-important ASL
also one of the TV execs has chronic pain
Polynesian and Japanese secondary characters (even if the latter is an awful human)
honestly, it’s probably technically horror but it’s horror with massive amounts of science in
excellent use of lurking dread and somehow there are also jump scares
also, Grant is queer and the wlw survive
I have this on my TBR list already, yes! ❤️