I go by Adrian or Echo, he/him, and I write queer fantasy novels. This is a side blog and I can't follow back, but I'll happily reply to asks, dms, or comments.
Thanks for stopping by!
I'm working on two fantasy novels at the moment, they're free to read online and will be updated by the chapter. News, updates, and general babble will be posted on this blog.
Currently updating:
Strange Folk -An urban fantasy adventure/mystery set in 2010's America.
Struggling to look after their own in a world where fae are forced into the margins of society, a disaster of a man teams up with his ex to unravel a mystery surrounding odd missing children, and winds up entangled in a plot which will drag him back to face a part of his life that he's been desperate to escape.
Available to read on ao3
These Wicked Depths -Polyamourous romance on the high seas, set in a fantasy world during the age of sail.
In over his head from the start, a witch evading discovery falls into the hands of monstrous pirates. Whether his inhuman captors will prove to be a prison or a sanctuary is yet to be seen.
Available to read on ao3
"immortality sucks because all your friends die" all your friends die anyway. those we do not mourn are those who mourn us.
"immortality sucks because you forget who you are" we always forget who we are. do you remember who you were at four years of age? who you were at fourteen? "who i am" is a shadow cast on the wall.
"immortality sucks because" skill issue. skill issue. skill issue. give me your liver
4. The author's formative trauma(s), unrecognized until after they hit post and then reread it for typos, only to blink in shock and say, "Oh. Oh. Oh fuck."
6. The author's favourite bit of historical, cultural or scientific trivia or other academic obsession that they only stop talking about to eat and maybe breathe in if they can't get circular breathing down
Yeah, you! Are you trans? Do you like reading books? Or watching movies?
Do you like media about trans men/transmasculine characters but don't know where to find it?
That's sooo crazy because I have this little spreadsheet I'm working on where I'm trying to document all media with protagonists/major characters who are FTM or transmasculine.
The spreadsheet currently has 200+ entries spread across the following categories:
Books
Manga
Memoirs and non-fiction
Movies
TV Shows
Graphic novels / Comics
Webcomics
Audio dramas
Books and movies are also sorted by:
Which character is trans (MC, love interest, antagonist, etc)
If the trans character is POC
The trans character's sexuality (Because I saw lots of transhet guys sad about only being able to find gay romances)
If the author/actor is also trans (if we know for sure)
It's free to use, and free to add to as well! Editing permissions are on, and I check on the spreadsheet every now and then to make sure everything is in order and to clean up.
If you know something that isn't on the list, please add it! You don't have to fill in every single column, but fill it to the best of your abilities.
If you don't want to use the big ass long link below, you can also use: bit.ly/FTM-protags
About
short link: <a href="https://bit.ly/FTM-protags">https://bit.ly/FTM-protags</a>,Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/_nekhcore">@_n
I made this because I want it to be a community resource. So even if you're not a trans guy or transmasculine person, please reblog!
@genderkoolaid idk how you feel about pings, so sorry if you'd rather not be pinged, but this seems like the sort of thing you and your community/audience would appreciate!!
A sick man does not die at low tide
A superstition that persisted on Cape Cod and other regions of New England was that a sick man does not die at low tide. Therefore, the surgeons always kept an eye on the tides, because if their patient managed to survive at the onset of the tide, then he might make it further, because at low tide he would not die.
Hex Marks
These geometric patterns were painted or carved on guns to prevent witches hired by the enemy from bewitching them.
Just no two-tone eyes
It could well be that a pressed man had to face a somewhat strange question during the health check. Namely, look me in the eyes - this is not a romantic attempt by a surgeon to get closer to him, but to check whether he has two different coloured eyes. Because that brought the greatest misfortune on board and the man luck, because he had to leave the boat immediately.
May it be a few flowers?
No, flowers were given at funerals and meant bad luck and the death of many on board. And it was probably about cut flowers, because there were some captains or admirals, especially on blockade duty, who kept half a garden in their great cabin, because it reminded them of home and meant a bit of work against boredom.
May I ask for the right foot ?
Come aboard yes, but please with your right foot. Left is bad and brings bad luck. Which was due to the general view that left was the evil, unclean side.
The point of fiction is actually to put that guy in a situation™️, and he might try to tell you the point is to then get him out of the situation, WRONG, second situation
Figure I should start actually treating this blog like a blog and post some updates, so here's a snippet for WIP Wednesday
Caleb did a quick sweep of the place to clean up any evidence of Lapsa that Tear might have missed before heading for the window. He took in a deep breath of the damp night, and looked down to see that life really was out to disappoint him.
In the dimly lit alley below stood two figures. One looked a lot like a thin human man in a trench coat with enormous shoulder pads, though something about his features -and the cartoonish proportions- said otherwise. Either way, Caleb didn't recognize him.
The other, though, was Jian. One of Rico's favorite enforcers.
The duo stared back at him. Jian flashed an incisive simian grin, the other made no expression at all.
"Why hello down there!" Caleb greeted brightly, like he wasn't shitting himself over the situation. "Don’t I just feel like Repunzel up here in my tower. Too bad I went and cut off all my hair or I’d give you princes a lift. Gimme a month or so, it grows back quick-"
The tall one lost patience first. His shoulders shifted, then rolled back and collapsed into themselves as beetle-like wings erupted from the storm flap of his coat. He launched up to eye level in an instant, and hovered politely until Caleb backed away before landing on the windowsill.
Caleb's carefully arranged glass shards didn't seem to faze the guy even slightly as his head smashed them out of the frame.
Up close he looked like a bad impersonation of a mannequin. The smooth planes of his face were the uniform generic flesh tone of a bandaid, while his eyes, motionless and awkwardly protruding, were a glossy veinless white. They sported pupils with no iris, which seemed to drift around instead of move with the eyeball. A stiff brimmed hat obscured whether or not he had hair, but Caleb was guessing not.
He was soon accompanied by Jian’s silvery furred hands, scrabbling up over the sill and shoving him out of the way to make room.
The ape-man wrested himself a seat on the windowsill, and shot Caleb another unpleasant smile. "Long time no see."
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Thank you all for the patience (and for reading in the first place)! I'm excited to introduce a new character this round, and I have so many more people to bring to life in the coming chapters. Hopefully I can get them to you soon.
For now, please enjoy the ongoing saga of Caleb's strained relationship with lady luck and good choices.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Come check this out for gay pirates and supernatural shenanigans!
Editing by the good graces of @kamikazequail
Chapter babble under the cut
-Frankly, I'm not that creative when it comes to creating fantasy languages themed after existing ones. Maybe I should work on that, and maybe I will in future revisions of this story, but for now everything in here is just real world languages with the occasional made up names. Kathibi is essentially Arabic, and Midlands Trade is referential to the historical Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean. That said, while the cultures are heavily inspired by certain aspects of real world nations, they are very much fictional and not intended to reflect on real world cultures or peoples.
-Despite intending to create a fantasy world where I can take all the creative liberties I want, I've still been researching the hell out of things to get an accurate vibe for the era and regions. That's included an hours long deep dive into the history of dye and textiles, and I am now drowning in indigo factoids
-Anyway, Ramuwa's attire is intended to fit the height of european-esque fashions, with an emphasis on wealth, mostly to piss people off with maximum effect. Now, my first impulse on color choices was black and red, but I figured, "Nah, that's too vampy and unrealistic for the era and fashions. European aristocracy wore a lot of bright colors, I'm just biased by my own tastes." So, with a wealthy image in mind, I spent three hours researching the relative values and scarcity of fabric dyes in western europe circa 1600's-1700's, and sure enough, just to spite me specifically, it just so happens that the top most valuable colors were vivid red and deep black. So that's that. Ramuwa may be dressed like pirate dracula with a musketeer hat (cavalier hat -historically fashionable and extra af), but that's not my fault. (but it is interesting to note that black and red has become the classic aesthetic of rich villains in media, I feel like this finally explains why)
-The names of Zubair's cousins, Hakim and Jasur, mean wisdom and bravery respectively.
-Zubair's vessel is based on Baghlah ships, while the Reckoning is based on Spanish Galleons. I know a little more about ships than I do about textiles, but this is another thing that I ended up spending weeks researching. Most of what I learned is that it's really hard to find info in english on Baghlah, and that Galleons are obscenely huge and faster than something that size should be
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
We've got fae, witches, intrigue, mystery, mayhem, adventure and above all, mistakes being made.
Wonderful editing by the wonderful @kamikazequail
This first chapter was actually based on a dream I had several years ago. The creature concept was interesting so I wrote it down to show my partner, and it expanded into a full story from there! I hope it can capture your imagination the way it did mine.
