The Blue Castle

Your hub for The Blue Castle fan works! Tag, message, or send an ask to be featured! Run by @mollywog & @moonlightredfern Avatar art by @moonlightredfern Background art by @rarepairheathen

[dustpileofherown]

Happy Monday!

Now that Blue Castle Book Club is over we are excited to announce TWO upcoming fan challenges:

Fic challenge: @mollywog has set up a collection on Ao3. During the month of August interested authors can upload to the collection here. Deadline to submit is August 31st, 11pm, eastern time. Fics will become visible on Sept 1 and remain anonymous for 2 weeks. Read, comment, and try to guess who wrote each! Names will be revealed on Sept 14th.

100 Fanworks challenge: 2026 is the 100th anniversary of The Blue Castle and we want to see if we can get 100 new* fanworks! Send works or links to works via the ask box on this blog ( @dustpileofherown ).

(All fics submitted to the fic challenge automatically count towards the 100 count.)

We only have two “rules”:

Please no ai. Look we aren’t gonna enforce this but just don’t be a dick. It’s literally fandom - why feed that to AI? (I’ve never seen this community use ai for fanworks so this almost didn’t have to be said.)

*Fanwork must be newly shared to tumblr/ao3 in calendar year 2026. New additions to previously shared works DO count as well (ex: publishing an update to an old fic). You can also post something you made years ago but have never shared before with the Maudience. Please repost things you shared earlier this year too! We were not keeping count during book club.

What counts as fanwork? Almost anything! A playlist, a painting, a craft, a fic, a photo of a billboard that reminded you of the book, a recipe collection, a sewing project, etc.

Thanks for celebrating the CENTURY anniversary with us!!!! We can’t wait to see what you make!

[blekitnyzamek]

And Maudience, you know what they did? They danced 💠

My contribution to 100 Fanworks challenge: 2026 by @dustpileofherown 🩵!

The winter she went to dancing-school. Uncle James had decreed she should go and had paid for her lessons. How she had looked forward to it! [...] Valancy was a good dancer, as light on her feet as thistledown.

[someone hear me; someone record me TBC:Musical because I'm starving here...]

[dustpileofherown]

Fanwork #9!

This is a gorgeous compilation!! Excellent song choice! It’s so cool to see all the stage/film versions clipped together!

[peridotbelle]

One day, coming home through the woods, with her arms full of trailing arbutus and creeping spruce, she met a man who she knew must be Allan Tierney. Allan Tierney, the celebrated painter of beautiful women. He lived in New York in winter, but he owned an island cottage at the northern end of Mistawis to which he always came the minute the ice was out of the lake. He was reputed to be a lonely, eccentric man. He never flattered his sitters. There was no need to, for he would not paint anyone who required flattery. To be painted by Allan Tierney was all the cachet of beauty a woman could desire. Valancy had heard so much about him that she couldn’t help turning her head back over her shoulder for another shy, curious look at him. A shaft of pale spring sunlight fell through a great pine athwart her bare black head and her slanted eyes. She wore a pale green sweater and had bound a fillet of linnaea vine about her hair. The feathery fountain of trailing spruce overflowed her arms and fell around her. Allan Tierney’s eyes lighted up. “I’ve had a caller,” said Barney the next afternoon, when Valancy had returned from another flower quest. “Who?” Valancy was surprised but indifferent. She began filling a basket with arbutus. “Allan Tierney. He wants to paint you, Moonlight.” “Me!” Valancy dropped her basket and her arbutus. “You’re laughing at me, Barney.” “I’m not. That’s what Tierney came for. To ask my permission to paint my wife⁠—as the Spirit of Muskoka, or something like that.”

The Blue Castle, L.M. Montgomery, Chapter 34

I was about to draw her in a basic cardigan but then I realized 1920s sweaters were much more fun than that and went reference hunting. The photo is the one I used.

[dustpileofherown]

Saw the 100 fanworks challenge! Here's something I did back in June. https://www.tumblr.com/peridotbelle/820543392405700608/one-day-coming-home-through-the-woods-with-her?source=share

:)

Thank you for the submission @peridotbelle!! Gorgeous!

Fanwork submission number 8

Post by @peridotbelle · 3 images

💬 0  🔁 16  ❤️ 28 · One day, coming home through the woods, with her arms full of trailing arbutus and creeping spruce, she met a man who she

[allfortheloveofabook]

Landscape by Florence + the Machine / The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

[dustpileofherown]

Hello! This is allfortheloveofabook, just wanted to submit a graphic for the 100 Fanworks Challenge; it's on my blog tagged under "blue castle book club" (I can't share the link, sorry!)

Thank you for the submission @allfortheloveofabook! This is very cool!

Fanwork number 7!

Post by @allfortheloveofabook · 9 images

💬 0  🔁 10  ❤️ 24 · Landscape by Florence + the Machine / The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

[moonlightredfern]

Blue Castle Book Club - what if we all reblogged this with photos of our cats*?

*or cats we know and love but don’t own

It’s what Maud would want.

[dustpileofherown]

If you’ve submitted a fanworks via ask, they haven’t been forgotten! Queueing now. Keep them coming!

[moonlightredfern]

Due to technical difficulties (me) they were delayed but we’re back now!

(Heads up if anyone else has a joint account - apparently only one person can see all the asks and each person can only see their own drafts.)

[dustpileofherown]

For the 100 fanworks challenge: Cissy Gay moodboard

https://www.tumblr.com/thesweetnessofspring/819674208082722816/she-used-to-run-down-the-lane-to-meet-me-with-a?source=share

Thank you for your submission @thesweetnessofspring! This is beautiful!

Fanworks Number 6

Post by @thesweetnessofspring · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 11  ❤️ 26 · "She used to run down the lane to meet me with a little white rose stuck in her hair. Cissy used to be a pretty little gi

[dustpileofherown]

If you’ve submitted a fanworks via ask, they haven’t been forgotten! Queueing now. Keep them coming!

[thesweetnessofspring]

And sometimes he and Roaring Abel smoked fiercely the whole evening and never said a word, while Cissy lay in the hammock swung between the verandah posts and Valancy sat idly on the steps, her hands clasped over her knees, and wondered dreamily if she were really Valancy Stirling and if it were only three weeks since she had left the ugly old house on Elm Street.

🏰HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO THE BLUE CASTLE!

For the 100th birthday of one of my favorite books, I commissioned @sparemoon to do an art piece of Valancy, Barney, Cissy, and Roaring Abel. There were certain elements from the book that I wanted in the piece, and @sparemoon combined them all so skillfully and with the beauty and wonder that the book evokes, I could cry looking at this. I'm particularly thrilled that we now have art with Cissy and Roaring Abel, and more of Valancy and Barney.

The Blue Castle may sometimes be an overlooked little book, but it certainly now has a @dustpileofherown thanks to the fandom we've found here. 🩵

[dustpileofherown]

Fanwork #5!!!

Thank you so much for commissioning this @thesweetnessofspring!

@sparemoon this is INCREDIBLE! You’ve captured the dynamics of the group so perfectly!

What an absolutely dreamy piece!

[daily-rayless]

In honor of the hundredth anniversary of The Blue Castle, @dustpileofherown sent out a call for a hundred new TBC fan works. So here's Valancy and her beloved cat Good Luck.

[dustpileofherown]

RAYLESS THIS IS SO STUNNING! The way she glows with moonlight! The expressiveness of both Valancy and Good Luck!

[thesweetnessofspring]

A Blue Castle coloring book would go so hard.

[dustpileofherown]

The Blue Castle Writing Challenge kicks off today!

During the month of August interested writers can upload to the collection here. Deadline to submit is August 31st, 11pm, eastern time. Fics will become visible on Sept 1 and remain anonymous for 2 weeks. Read, comment, and try to guess who wrote each! Names will be revealed on Sept 14th.

Cannot wait to see what everyone writes!

[no-where-new-hero]

YAY!!

Quick question for OP—if I were to finish an in-progress fic for the fanworks challenge, would I still be able to add it to the collection because my handle is already attached? If not, that’s fine, just wanted to see!

[dustpileofherown]

Unclear - @mollywog do you know?

If not, still submit it to us because it will absolutely count towards the 100 Fanworks!

[dustpileofherown]

@mollywog here!

The collection is currently hidden and anonymous, so posting anything now would make it unreadable until the collection is revealed... Though you could add it to the collection after the reveal (end of September)

OR!

I was thinking of adding anything on ao3 that’s part of the 100 count as a collection bookmark!

Let me know what you all think or if you have suggestions!

[dustpileofherown]

The Blue Castle Writing Challenge kicks off today!

During the month of August interested writers can upload to the collection here. Deadline to submit is August 31st, 11pm, eastern time. Fics will become visible on Sept 1 and remain anonymous for 2 weeks. Read, comment, and try to guess who wrote each! Names will be revealed on Sept 14th.

Cannot wait to see what everyone writes!

[no-where-new-hero]

YAY!!

Quick question for OP—if I were to finish an in-progress fic for the fanworks challenge, would I still be able to add it to the collection because my handle is already attached? If not, that’s fine, just wanted to see!

[dustpileofherown]

Unclear - @mollywog do you know?

If not, still submit it to us because it will absolutely count towards the 100 Fanworks!

[moonlightredfern]

Have been wracking my brain for days trying to come up with a VelociPastor au for The Blue Castle. I’ve got nothing.

[dandelionsandderivatives]

I haven't seen The VelociPastor, but I understand it's essentially were-dinosaur? Perhaps that's one of the reasons Barney is an outcast from society? ("I know what you are." "Say it." "Velociraptor.")

or maybe that's one of the Stirling family's dark secrets? idk, I feel like this idea is too good to go to waste!

[dustpileofherown]

The Blue Castle Writing Challenge kicks off today!

During the month of August interested writers can upload to the collection here. Deadline to submit is August 31st, 11pm, eastern time. Fics will become visible on Sept 1 and remain anonymous for 2 weeks. Read, comment, and try to guess who wrote each! Names will be revealed on Sept 14th.

Cannot wait to see what everyone writes!