Wherever Books are Sold

I made this tumblr to access the search bar, but I ended up having fun so I stuck around. I mostly post art and fic! I'm CorundumBleu on AO3, and I have lots of Hollow Knight fic on there. Blog icon by me, header image by Chili Thom.

[peripapaya]

Item: The Wishlist Rarity: ⏶ Common

How many video games are in your backlog right now?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

This assumes that my "backlog" is well defined enough to have a concrete number. Nahhhh, it fluctuates. I don't keep a close list. Things drift onto and off of it all the time. If I had to put a rough number, maybe 2-3 dozen that I both am interested in playing and have some kind of realistic hope of actually picking up at some point.

[peripapaya]

November Writing Challenge Retrospective

Ah, December. The season of peppermint, chilly evenings, and breathing a deep sigh of relief that I’ve survived another month of writing challenges! This is my biggest writing push of the year, so I wanted to take a moment to stop, look back, and reflect on how it went.

For those not in the know, for the past five years I’ve done my own personal daily writing challenge across the month of November. Historically I’ve called it a “mini-NaNo” or more adorably my “nano-NaNo”, though with the disgraceful ending of the official NaNoWriMo organization this tends to get me awkward questions these days. To be clear: I am not, nor have ever been affiliated with the organization NaNoWriMo. I just like harnessing the enthusiasm for writing in November to do a fun little thing on my own terms!

My personal challenge goes like this: I set a goal to write a daily minimum of 300 words, and then I try to exceed that. 300 words across 30 days gives a total goal of 9,000 words for the month, but I typically hit about 20k, and then set a stretch goal for myself of 25k. (This stretch goal has historically been pretty hard for me to hit—I’ve only done it [twice] before!) The idea behind this structure is that the basic criteria for success is super low and easy to hit. 300 words is only about 2 paragraphs worth of writing, and you can bang that out in 15 minutes easy if you’re focused. Having such an achievable goal makes it easy to get started every day (the hardest part!) And once I’ve started writing, it’s usually easy to keep the momentum going until I’ve written two or three times my original goal.

One other important piece: Unlike a traditional NaNoWriMo, I don’t restrict myself to trying to finish a single project in November. I write a lot of short stories, so allow myself to jump around to whatever project captures my fancy that day. I’ll typically have one or two longer works I’ll pick away at over the course of the month. But on the whole, November is a chance for me to experiment with new pieces or jump around finishing half-done drafts as I please.

With that context set, let’s talk about how the month went for me!

Goals

I was feeling pretty good heading into this year’s challenge. In September I moved to a new city for a new job, and by the start of November the dust kicked up by that was starting to settle. I was feeling antsy to start making progress again on my creative endeavors, so the challenge came around at just the right time. Since moving here, I’ve also joined a weekly writing group that meets at a local coffee shop, so I had a new community element to motivate me as well.

Heading into the month, I had a loose priority of pieces I want to work on.

Top Priority: I’m writing a sci fi graphic novel with a friend. It follows a psychic astronaut as she explores the subsurface ocean on Saturn’s icy moon of Enceladus. My friend Rainer is doing the art, and he’s waiting on me to finish the script, so it’s important to keep the momentum on this moving forward! We’re expecting the finished project to be over 100 pages, so there’s a lot to do!

Medium Priorities: I have a small group of short stories and novelettes that I would be very happy to push forward to complete (or closer-to-complete) drafts. It wouldn’t be possible to finish ALL of them in a month, but I would be happy to see meaningful progress on a handful of them.

    •    Death and the Doctor Sequel (novelette, outlined but no draft started)

    •    Dragon Hoard Short Story (half-drafted)

    •    An Epilogue for Lady Pole (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell fan fiction, outlined but no draft started)

    •    Write a new chapter of Cornifer is Going on an Adventure! (Hollow knight long fic)

    •    Starship Librarians (half-drafted, but needed a lot of reworking)

    •    The 13th Census of Enlightenment City (has a pitch written down, but needed a proper outline)

Low Priorities: These are things that I can easily slot into a day where I don’t feel like working on my heftier projects. Great for filling in gaps or providing an outlet on low-motivation days.

    •    Invisible Cities microfictions

    •    Other fan fictions

    •    Webcomic commentary posts

———

Outcomes

By the numbers, this year’s nano-NaNo was a smashing success. I hit my 300 word goal everyday (except for the last day, whoops) and sailed past my 25k stretch goal. I’m feeling really proud of that, because historically I’ve hit 20k consistently but struggled to reach 25k. My average daily word count spiked in the first half in the month and then tailed off a little bit towards the end, when I was on holiday travel.

I think I can chalk up my success to one huge factor: This is probably the calmest November I’ve had in years. This is my first fall after finishing grad school, and hooboy I think that makes a difference. Especially compared to 2024, when I was in the middle of post-doc applications (genuinely one of the worst academic periods of my life) and I struggled to break 12k words and flopped out of the writing challenge a week before it ended. Now I’ve got my own apartment which I can keep as quiet as I want in the evenings, a job that respects normal working hours, and–OH RIGHT THE GOVERNMENT WAS SHUT DOWN FOR HALF THE MONTH. Um. That makes a difference too. I wasn’t furloughed myself, but my workplace was shut down and most of my team was furloughed. I only started my new position two weeks before the shutdown started, so they didn’t have much time to pile responsibilities on me before everything closed up. Functionally, my life turned into Pandemic Part 2 for about six weeks–working from home, not having nearly enough tasks to keep myself occupied, and generally very socially isolated (I had just moved and didn’t have much time to make friends before the shutdown started.) It wasn’t great, but it did mean I had a lot of quiet time at home to get writing done. Silver linings?

So my word count output was great, but when I look at the breakdown of projects I worked on I’m not entirely pleased with myself. I did a pretty good job working on the mid-priority projects. I finished a much more detailed outline of Enlightenment City and completed first drafts of both An Epilogue for Lady Pole (which I’ve had outlined since 2020 but never drafted!), the Dragon Hoard Story, and my first Silksong fic (yay!) Unfortunately, I’m not terribly pleased with the quality of all the words I got down, especially on the Dragon Hoard Story. It turned out much longer than I anticipated and ended up kind of beating the reader over the head with the moral in a way that borders on condescending. (Maybe that’s too harsh, but at the very least it is too simplistic a premise to justify being 8000 words long.) An Epilogue for Lady Pole is mostly fine, but I think I liked the outline version of it better than the finished draft. Oh well. I try not to hold my fic to as high of standards so it’ll definitely still get edited and posted eventually.

The biggest disappointment of the month is my general failure to make much progress on my graphic novel script. I only spent one (one!) day working on it, when it was supposed to be my top priority for the month. This is entirely my own fault–scripting is hard, so it was just too tempting to work on other things most days. But I’m feeling pretty energized about writing now, so I hope to bring some of November’s momentum into December and refocus on getting more of the script done.

There was a dark horse this month, and that was the “Silksong blog post” you can see on my word count chart. I’ve been playing Hollow Knight: Silksong (shock! gasp!) and, predictably, it’s been giving me brain worms. One of the conversations I kept having with people over and over again was about difficulty management in the game, so I decided to start writing down a guide for players who were struggling with the game about things I found make the challenge level more reasonable. And once I started the essay, it became kind of addicting to keep working on--you can see I was regularly breaking 1000 words on days I worked on it! I can see why people enjoy blogging so much, this kind of writing allows me to take an easy, conversational tone that is much easier to stream-of-conscious than most fiction or creative nonfiction. Anyway. The essay is turning out close to 9000 words long, coming soon to a Tumblr blog near you.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m incredibly happy with my progress this year. Sticking to daily word goals was easier this year than it’s ever been, and I think I am genuinely getting better at the BIC-HOC (Butt In Chair Hands On Keyboard) part of being a writer. I’m getting better at pushing through on drafts even when I don’t like how they’re turning out, which is an important skill because sometimes you just need to get that shitty first draft done so you can get feedback and then fix it up. I’m also happy to see a few older stories (especially Lady Pole) get endings. However, I definitely would like to see myself be a bit more responsible about staying focused on high priority projects, and I would like to be better at not wrecking my sleep schedule by procrastinating my daily writing until right before bed. So those are good goals for next year! Until then, I’ll be back to a more intermittent writing schedule, but hopefully still harnessing this good energy to keep projects moving down the pipeline.

Happy holidays, and happy writing!

[peripapaya]

Shit! I've been reblogging stuff on the wrong blog again. Goddammit.

[peripapaya]

Well obvious two would be Stars, starry nights, space, Rats, color Blue, but also Nights at the coast, an Old house with something waiting for someone, Bag of dice of many colors, and the red pen. Zivanka Vitu, Alabama Janes and Sally Jon von Joe.

Omg this is so sweet <3 I love this mood picture you've painted of me :D

It's funny, my trade mark color has kinda gotten split in two between blue (my signture heart emoji color) and very peri (thematic for my username)

[lumsel]

Hahahah i found a typo in your webcomic. get fucked.

- sincerely, hateful anon

naaauuuuuur!!!!! this is what i get for sending you pages to edit

[peripapaya]

.......FUCK

[peripapaya]

Shitty whiteboard art has become my refuge now that the ability to sit down and do real art has fled my soul. Maybe someday I'll turn this into a proper digital illustration.

Anyway wanted to express a thing I've been feeling lately

[peripapaya]

hi peri, its me how the fuck does friction work again

*squints at username trying to tell if it's someone I know*

Are... are you one of my students? XD

---

Anyway, (force from friction) = (friction coefficient) * (normal force) acting in the direction opposite to motion, hope this helps~

[furlitz]

commission for @peripapaya, ty!

character portrait of a sad beehive from our Heart game

[peripapaya]

IT'S MY KIDDDDDDDDDD 💙💙💙💙

Thank you so much for this commission, furlitz! It absolutely exceeds my imagination in every way!

If everyone will indulge me for a moment, I typed up a character intro for Nalis (they/them, yes they are bee gendered) that I'm really proud of and you can read the full story under the cut. 🙏

=====

Nalis was used to being half of a whole. The second half of a whole, specifically. Born from the same drow egg as his twin sister, custom dictated that they share a name. Belief dictate that from the same egg came the same soul. Silanalis and Silanalis.

And yet, with time, they became Silan and Nalis. Two children with the same name--how awkward. It is only sensible to divide the name and give each child half. It was only sensible, really. As they grew became clear that biology dictated that they were identical in every way--same blotchy nose and lopsided ears, same propensity to catch a cough when the weather turned cold--except in all the ways that mattered. Where Nalis stumbled, Silan sailed. She made friends where he drew awkward silences, impressed her mentors where he struggled with school. Always one step ahead, leading the way for the both of them. Of course she became Silan, the first half.

Nalis didn't resent this. He loved his sister, and she him. They were inseparable, so much so that others often wondered if the two shared more than just an egg and a name, for at times they were so in tune that it seemed they could think directly into each other's thoughts. As they grew and Silan gathered accolades and magics, she carried Nalis along with her momentum, and he loved her for it. He loved her completely, he told himself, and fought back the guilt-darkened edges of jealousy that crept into his heart.

And so things went between them for many years, until they reached the age of majority. And--suddenly--one day, Silan was gone. Disappeared into the Heart, without a word. Their community grieved--their most treasured daughter, gone! And for what! She had left no clue of where she had gone, or why. Nalis alone stood apart, distressed but unable to join their grief, for through their connection he could feel her still, feel her heartbeat under his skin, growing ever more erratic as she descended deeper, and further, away from him. Pain, as if a part of him was being pulled out of him, the sinews of twinhood connecting them stretched to the breaking point. For months, the presence of Silan faded and the pain of her absence grew, until he could feel her no more. But even under unbearable grief, life must continue, and so Nalis continued on with mundane living as a lone half, an organ ripped from its host.

Until, one year from Silan's disappearance, the world turned on Nalis once more. He was awoken in the night by a miasma over his cot, which hummed and glimmered. He rubbed his eyes and the specter resolved itself. Ten dozen bees, each marked with arcane glyphs, moved above him in harmonious chaos. Their vibrations resolved themselves into words.

Silanalis, they said. Your other has gone below.

"She went," Nalis replied. "But I don't know if she is even still alive. I haven't felt her for months."

The bees hummed, Her goal terrifies us. She cannot succeed unwhole.

Nalis did not know what to say.

You must.

"Must what?"

You must.

And then the swarm descended, before Nalis even had time to scream. Mandibles dug into his flesh and rearranged it, until it wasn't purely flesh anymore, but made into order with glyph-spun wax and crystal. When they had finished, he was now they and they he, a beneath it all a beating of a heart that both was and wasn't their own. They knew this beating, even as corrupted and irregular as it had become. Silan. Silan was calling to them again. She needed them. They needed to be.

And so the next day, half of Silanlis--the second half, the half which hesitated and doubted and always lagged behind--descended into the Heart.

[peripapaya]

Mocha banging out the tunes April 13, 2022

[peripapaya]

Hello there! I hope that you are doing well! I am told that you are an astronomer! Is this correct? I have a friend who loves space very much. If you are indeed an astronomer, do you have any space facts or whatnot that I could give to them? Thank you!

Hello! Yes I am, and yes I'd be happy to! :D

Hmm, what's a fun planet fact.... Did you know that the architecture of our solar system (that is, the order that our planets are in and how far apart they are) is actually super weird compared to most of the exoplanet systems we've found out there? For a couple of reasons. One of them that I only learned recently is that we tend to think of Mercury as being super close to the sun, but most planetary systems we've found out there have planets much closer in that Mercury. Models show that you actually could have planets in our solar system closer to the sun than Mercury with stable orbits, and we just... don't. It's kind of weird, and it teases some interesting mysteries about how the solar system might have formed.

Here's a second fun space fact from one of my friends: There is a location on Charon (Pluto's moon) north pole called Mordor Macula (what a name!) It's interesting because it is a darker red color than the rest of Charon's surface, and the leady theory on why is that it is actually formed from condensed gases that escaped from Pluto's atmosphere! Something about their magnetic interaction could be funneling those gases as they escape into this location, and leaving behind all that icy residue. Cool!

If your friend has any questions most of my work is in exoplanets and stellar astronomy, so I'm best equipped answer things about planets, stars, and potential life out there in the universe. Stuff like cosmology, black holes, and dark matter is a little less in my wheel house, but I'll do my best to answer and I can always pass along questions to my colleagues who do study that stuff!

I usually try to keep this blog for my art and writing stuff, and do more general topics and chit chat on my other blog @papaya-inspiration, so it's easiest if you can submit asks over there. Looking forward to talking space stuff with you!

[peripapaya]

Inner Light - February 20, 2023

Heya. It's been a while, hasn't it? I've been missing art a lot, missing the messing around with colors and brushes, missing the feeling of focus and the realization of a beautiful image made real. I don't know when I'll have time again to do much more than doodles like this but in the meantime... it's something, isn't it?

[vanquishedvaliant]

i think being able to share words online with other people was a mistake. we should have made the internet with only pictograms and cat photos

[gae-bolg-alternative-dot-exe]

[malcis]

[kikicandoit]

[peripapaya]

[peripapaya]

Bibiki Gets What She Wants - June 30, 2022

Sketching some characters from a ttrpg called Asunder that I've been playing over the past few months! The gremlin squirrel child is my character, Bibiki, and is used to getting away with just about anything thanks to the giant six-legged wolf lizard that follows her around. On the right is my friend's character, the much put-upon Peroiko, a disgraced mushroom bioengineer turned con artist and only one in the group with more than half a brain. :D

I really like how this sketch is shaping up, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to color it digitally or otherwise turn it into a "finished" piece... guess we'll just have to see.

[peripapaya]

Sunset Heron - June 26th, 2022

On Sunday evening I was on my way home at dusk, when the sky was the most incredible array of soft pastels and the direction of the wind was just right to bring the smell of the high desert to my doorstep. It made me want to create something beautiful, colorful, and a little bit wild.

[peripapaya]

Fuck that, I don't need to look pretty at the gym.

Bonus:

[thatdamnrookie]

rat misunderstanding

(for the uninitiated, a ‘boggle’ refers specifically to when a rat’s eyes appear to move quickly in and out of the socket. A little odd, but it’s generally a sign of a very happy, content rat.)

[businesstiramisu]

#also why am I drawing so many rodents this year what’s up with that

@peripapaya is very persuasvie >:)

[peripapaya]

It's because rodents are awesome and rats are the best of them! <3

[peripapaya]

It’s May 25th… we’re keeping things small and simple. I think Vimes would prefer it that way.