Dragons, Ships, and Explosions

[galadriel-coffeen]

Look! I wrote books! :D

Magic and Motor-Cars, or How a Fairy Moved Up in the World In which a young fairy defies racism and misogyny, learns to drive a new magical motor-car, and accidentally acquires a sweetheart along the way. Read FREE! Buy print or Kindle version Buy Audible version

The Case of the Dragon-Bone Engine A magical train explodes in transit, leading Royal Investigative Agent Beka Lee into a maze of sabotage, murder, corporate politics, and fairy rights activism. Buy print or Kindle version Buy Audible version

Magical Mechanics, or How a Fairy Found His Place In which a young fairy overcomes discrimination, domestic abuse, and his own fears of inadequacy to find a job and make his sweetheart proud. Buy print or Kindle version

Jubilant Two sailors from very different cultures hesitantly join forces to hunt down a group of slavers. Along the way, they contend with rogue magic, naval politics, man-eating sea serpents, culture shock, pirates, and their own personal traumas. Buy print or Kindle version

[galadriel-coffeen]

This is Wren, one of the two main characters in Jubilant (and the rest of the incomplete Shallic Sea Chronicles). He has friendly dog energy, math skills, authority issues, and an unrequited crush on a foreign warrior maiden. Oh and also magical ability, but shhhh that's not allowed, so no he doesn't.

[galadriel-coffeen]

I did a lineup of a lot of my main characters (across multiple stories and series) to get a sense of how they all compare. They're... not quite as diverse as I thought. Although the top row is a bit overpopulated merely because I've written more in that setting; I suspect the lower ranks will expand as I develop those stories more.

The stars overhead indicate characters who use magic. There may be a couple spoilers in the depiction of characters who acquire visible disabilities during their stories, whoops...

[birdplushie]

fiction can be really dangerous there might be a deeply tragic woman in there who starts living in your head forever

[galadriel-coffeen]

I can't wait to introduce Tumblr to the deeply tragic and problematic woman I'm writing about... I have a feeling people around here will be fond of her.

[galadriel-coffeen]

Shocking news! Aroace author struggling to write realistic romance!

It's a short story that demanded to exist. No, I don't know why I felt suddenly compelled to write my main characters having a nice date night. No, I don't know what a nice date night is like. But apparently it's happening.

[galadriel-coffeen]

crystal tree?

People live on the branches of giant crystalline trees on the sun. The main character is a girl called Ananik who got diagnosed with demon possession (because they don't know how to diagnose autism + unknown magical abilities) and is being exploited as a fortune-telling "tame demon" by a horrible "mentor" who threatens to turn her over to the priests if she doesn't cooperate. It's a sort of coming of age story, as Ananik breaks free from her mentor and learns that she's actually gifted rather than cursed.

[galadriel-coffeen]

"yay union membership" and "Under High Protection"?

"Yay union membership" is a short story about the founding of the first fairy union, trying to get better workplace safety and concessions such as sick days for the fairy underclass. It's the next in a series of short stories I'm working on that follow two young fairies who are figuring out adulthood, romance, and how to navigate an oppressive/racist system. The first two are "Magic & Motor-Cars" (which you can read on my website) and "Magical Mechanics."

"Under High Protection" involves a district that tries to secede from its nation due to political issues, realizes the rest of the country will use military force to stop them, and solves the problem by making a treaty with the dragons on the other side of the mountains. The dragons have a rather Roman Empire mentality, and they're more than happy to take this little territory under high protection, making them essentially a district of the dragon nation rather than their own independent country. This is not what they wanted but it's too late to back out now...

[galadriel-coffeen]

Ask game! I was tagged by @heimeldat (I mean... kind of lol. I felt like doing it for original works ok)

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous, and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and you post a snippet or tell them something about it.

The Next Step

Tassie Thing

Norelle Thing

Patience thing

yay union membership

totally not seven

Children of the Plague

flying south

Keltorax

Golden Vigilante

crystal tree

Under High Protection

[galadriel-coffeen]

The library copy of my book has been well read! I love seeing that 😁

[galadriel-coffeen]

THIS BLOG EXISTS???

Behold! I exist!

[galadriel-coffeen]

May I introduce one of Keldane's first airship captains, Lady Patience Waverly, who thinks her name is hilarious because she's self-avowedly impatient and unwavering. Her family (one of the oldest noble lines) finds her rather embarrassing, not because she ran off and got a job like some commoner, but because she wears TROUSERS like a MAN. Admittedly it's becoming increasingly acceptable for working women to wear trousers, but it's just so... unladylike. If the word "butch" existed in their vocabulary, Patience would be happy to embrace the term.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[captainkirkk]

What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started

[glassfrogforest]

[crypticgoose3]

how non-writers think writing works: creating a detailed outline and plan, writing each section carefully and weaving in all the different story threads like a master creator, expertly creating a masterpiece with care and precision

how writing actually works: daydreaming that one scene, creating a half-formed plot in a daze all around it, swearing at characters that don't magic themselves into existence, becoming absolutely obsessed with the story for a solid week, it becomes your entire life, you sit down open a blank word document and write approximately two and a half chapters, lose interest, daydream an entirely new idea for a new story, rinse and repeat

[nondelphic]

being a writer is just switching between “i am a literary god” and “why did i write this sentence like an alien who’s never met language.” there is no in between.

[crow-in-springtime]

There should be more things where a protagonist or major character becomes permanently disabled without that becoming a death sentence

[galadriel-coffeen]

Now I'm thinking about my novels/series... I do this to a lot of characters, actually.

The Shallic Sea Chronicles -- one main character has PTSD, the other acquires a physical disability later in the series. A major side character becomes paralyzed and remains an important mentor figure to the main characters.

The Obsidian Emperor -- one main character acquires a minor physical disability, but it's not a big part of the story

Children of the Plague -- one main character has a personality disorder, the other isn't precisely disabled but has a lot of both mental and physical trauma to deal with

As-yet untitled series -- one main character is deaf and another is missing an eye. Both of these are kiiiiind of cheated as the deaf one develops telepathy and the other eventually gets a replacement eye, but there are still limitations and complications. Oh technically the deaf one also has limited dexterity in her hands. Tiny hands are the ultimate in feminine beauty standards in their culture, so noble girls have the first joint of each finger removed in infancy, but she doesn't have to do much with her hands so it doesn't have much impact.

Finding Etoyam -- main character is autistic and struggles constantly with overstimulation and sensory issues. Also some pretty severe religious trauma and related phobias since her village priest interpreted "very autistic" as "demon-possessed."

Chasm -- one of the main characters can't walk. This one is also a bit of a cheat since she has magic that lets her hover off the ground, but she doesn't figure that out until later so there's a good chunk of time where she's definitely disabled.

Another as-yet-untitled series -- one main character has chronic pain and later acquires an injury-related disability

Flights of Fancy -- main character is blind

(I looooove talking about my OCs, so if any of these interest you, ask about them and I'll happily blabber about their details!)