You can call me solennita or A.H. or whatever your heart desires. I am in my late twenties, South American, bi, living with ADHD, and you can refer to me using they/them pronouns. I have been writing since I was a child but more or less had to set it aside from high school until last year when the pandemic hit and quarantine gave me an opportunity to finally revisit this novel trilogy idea I began about 15 years ago in a dilapidated, blue composition book and commit to actually completing it.
WIP Intro
Working Title: The Sapphire Room
Inspiration: South American mythology and legends (mostly Venezuela, but also Colombia, Chile, and Peru)
Genre: YA Fantasy, Latinx Fantasy, Adventure, Coming of Age
Status: Writing (Chapters 1-3 are up on Wattpad).
Premise: On the continent of Amasi, where a unique mineral, aranate, and advancements in metalworking have resulted in a highly secular and technologically developed society, two fifteen-year-old, orphaned girls have grown up together in Namina Boarding School, a remote institution situated in the middle of the swamplands at the edge of the Arúni Rainforest. One night, Nina and Adelaida discover a hidden object in Namina’s attic—a golden hourglass filled with diamonds and mysterious engravings. Nina and Adelaida begin to learn that this object is not all that it seems, and that familiar faces in Namina know more than they let on. Roped into a dangerous but enticing adventure taking them across all of Amasi, the two friends must face challenges beyond their wildest dreams and learn who to trust as everything they thought they knew begins to slip away. With dark and powerful forces threatening to destroy all life, can these two young girls learn the truth about Amasi’s mystical history, and themselves, to save the world before it’s too late?
Tag Navigation: General TSR; Geography; Characters; Plot; Excerpts
Intro to Amasi Posts: Yanura, Orona, Guayra, Islas Maracainas (Maragua)
About My Writeblr
I hope to use this blog to help me work out world building and plot ideas, as well as character development and all that jazz! I’ll likely post excerpts here and there (many of which may just be background writing exercises for story building rather than actual scenes!) and welcome as much feedback and critique as folks are willing to give!
I'll also reblog writing resources, advice, tips, and of course, others' works and I'm open to tag games, asks/ask games, and just general getting to know each other! I may reblog non-writing posts here and there as well, which I’ll tag as “not writing.”
I am still very much in early stages and my posting may be sporadic as I am graduating law school soon and then will be taking the bar in the summer, so hope y’all will bear with me :) But please feel free to let me know if you’re interested in being tagged in any of my WIP posts (and feel free to specify -- i.e., only character posts, only excerpts, etc.)!
About My WIP
My current WIP is tentatively titled The Sapphire Room. You can use the navigation links to check out TSR posts (general tag; excerpts; geography; characters; and plot). This is a project that has undergone a lot of revision from when I first had the idea at around 12 years old to now, when I’ve been able to dive more into world and story building.
A huge motivation/inspiration for my is the lack of latinx fantasy in YA fiction. I adore YA fantasy stories, YA coming of age stories, and YA adventure stories, but I’m tired of reading the same adaptations or variations on the very Anglo-centric narrative. Latinx history and culture is so rich and diverse, though much of the cultural stories have been lost today as a result of colonization and its aftermath.
I decided to reach out to my family about this and started collecting myths and legends from my South American country, and researching those from others in the region. There’s a lot of overlap among the stories shared, especially between Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru, as well as Chile to an extent, so this is where the basis for my worldbuilding really comes from.
As a first-gen latinx immigrant who grew up in a pretty conservative, Catholic area, stories like Romina Garber’s Lobizona and Tehlor Kay Mejia’s We Set the Dark on Fire would have changed my life. I want to make sure my story can serve a similar purpose for young, latinx readers who struggle to see themselves represented in stories they love.
I am very intentional about including racial representation (afro-latinx characters), gender and sexuality representation (queer, trans, and NB characters), and disability representation (characters with both physical and mental disabilities). Though I share some identities I will be writing about, I obviously will be going outside of my own experience in many ways and welcome all critiques and feedback on how I can improve in any of these aspects.
I am also being very intentional about writing an escapist and entertaining story where racism, colonialism, and trauma are not fundamental parts of the story. There will be conflict and pain and sorrow, but after seeing story after story that focuses on the toxic machismo in latinx cultures, on racism and colorism in fantasy settings, and other forms of discrimination and trauma in QTPOC fantasy narratives (all of which are really, really important stories to tell!!), I really am aiming for my story to be different and serve as an entertaining escape.
As mentioned, please feel free to let me know if you’re interested in being tagged in any TSR posts and please feel free to send any feedback, questions, criticisms my way at any point!
I’ve been feeling the need to do more tarot spreads to just get my mindset back into a natural and creative place, so for Pride Month, if you’re LGBTQ+ and want a reading, hit me up ❤️🥰
Thank you for the tag @kg-willie ! I already have a soundtrack and a playlist for Phei, so I’ll pick 5 songs and pieces from those and explain my thoughts behind them!
Rules: List 5 songs that most encapsulate your WIP/the most essential songs on your WIP playlist
ekki hugsa, Ólafur Arnalds
This is perhaps the one piece of music that symbolises Gust in its entirety. The title translates from Icelandic and means don’t think. It represents following your heart, staying true to yourself an living the life the way you want to lead it. It’s almost one of my favourite pieces in the world.
glæður, Ásgeir
All around just an absolutely mesmorising song, it represents Phei’s longing for a different life, a different world, a different self. This part especially just hits home:
Hamingjan mun finna þig á ný
Í þögninni þú biður eftir vori
Og brennur þögull inn í nýjan dag
Which translates loosely to:
Happiness will find you again
In the silence you wait for spring
And burn silently into a new day
just..
beautiful lies, Birdy
Perhaps essential to the soundtrack for reasons I haven’t revealed yet, (act 4 is wild guys), but I’ll share the part that matches the most anyway, since the lyrics are truly wonderful.
Tell me beautiful lies
I wish that I had the strength to let go, but I don’t
I’m paralyzed
I see the child in your eyes and I’m stuck in the headlights
the sheltering sky, Ryuichi Sakamoto
A piece from the soundtrack, the title says it all. Phei’s home is in the clouds, and even when she leaves it behind, it’s still watching over her. The way the Piano and Violin duet in the middle part of the piece also resemble Phei’s internal duality.
tin can ride, Gregory and the Hawk
Again, a very fitting song both thematically and lyrics-wise:
We won’t mind, feign a thick skin and then split at the sides
Faulty rhymes - he was born heart beating to the pulse of poetic crime
It’s a hard one, kid, the paint’s quite peeling, but, boy, the wood is fine
I hope that wasn’t too long! I got carried away (that always happens once I start talking about music). I’ll tag @ink-fireplace-coffee, @henrike-does-writing-sometimes @ettawritesnstudies and @chauceryfairytales because I’m very curious what music you would pick :o
this was absolutely beautiful to read and I’m looking forward to listening to each of these pieces! I’ll do this for one of my character playlists: Weswin, from the Laoche Chronicles, since he’s a bard and has the most songs!
Eye of the Day by Frank Turner: This song comes from an album called “No Man’s Land” where each song tells the story of an influential historical woman. This one is about Mata Hari, and it’s an interesting story! I knew none of that when I first heard the song. I heard the lyrics,
“If anyone asks I named myself after the sun”
and
“ Just before the darkness came,
I whispered my real name.”
and that gave me the idea for his name and character! Before I just had the idea that he had a magical jinx, but this gave me the idea of him being a performer, and how his appearance shifts so he can’t stay in one place and nobody knows who he really is. He says he has no name, and was following the West Wind when he meets his friends, and they shorten it to Weswin. That’s a lot of degrees of separation from the original, but my brain is weird idk
The Road by Frank Turner: This song is about traveling and I listened to it at the same time as Eye of the Day and it was the other half of coming up with his name. Weswin is a wandering bard and this is the chorus of the song:
To the east to the east
The road beneath my feet
To the west to the west
I haven’t got there yet
And to the north to the north
Never to be caught
To the south to the south
My time is running out
It’s fitting! I also wrote this song based off the melody of this one.
Four by Sleeping at Last: This comes from an album called Enneagram, where each song is one of the 9 personalities based off the personality test of the same name. Fours prioritize individuality and self-discovery, and since so much of Weswin’s arc revolves around struggling with identity, it suits him really well.
Dance and Cry by Mother Mother: Weswin has by far the most tragic life of any of my characters (no identity, no family, no friends, no home, and he’s an innocent victim of collateral damage that doesn’t deserve what happened to him). He’s also by far the most optimistic, friendly, life-of-the-party character. He’s forced to live in the moment and so he makes the best of every moment and tries to cheer up others in their brief interactions. This song really shows off that contradictory nature.
Drinking Song by House Phone: just… I’m going to link the lyrics and let them speak for themselves, this is a song Weswin could sing word for word in a tavern after dark and it’s 100% true and in character.
Going to add the Laoche taglist for this one because of the character breakdown! You’re all invited to participate in the tag if you like :)
ID: “This Pride remember to respect all trans people : Trans women who don’t shave with a drawing of a woman whit a yellow and pink beard, trans men who don’t bind, masculine trans women and feminine trans men with a drawing of a trans woman with short pink hair wearing a yellow baseball T-shirt holding hands with a trans man with a yellow crop top and short curly blue hair, fat trans people with the drawing of a fat trans woman with short white hair, dark skin and a pink cropped top, disabled trans people with a drawing of a wheelchair and a walking cane in the color of the trans flag, neurodivergent trans people with the symbol of the autistic community, trans people who are sex worker with a drawing of blue bra and pink underwear, poor trans people who can’t afford transition, trans people who aren’t out yet with a drawing of a closed door, trans people who don’t plan on transitioning, black trans people with a black fist holding a trans flag, and any trans people who isn’t white with multiple hands of different skin tones, muslim trans people with a drawing of someone wearing a hijab in the color of the trans flag, jewish trans people with a drawing of someone wearing a white shirt and a kippah in the color of the trans flag, non binary people even those who don’t identify as trans with the non binary flag, those whose identity you might not understand with the genderfluid flag, the agender flag, the demi gender flag and the genderqueer flag, trans people who don’t pass and don’t want to with a drawing of a trans woman with a beard and dark skin raising her fist, every pronouns with dialog box in which are different sets of pronouns, trans people of every identity with the gay flag, the lesbian flag, the ace flag, the bi flag, the pan flag and the aro flag, every trans person is beautiful and deserving of so much love so don’t forget the T.” End ID
P.S. : can someone tell me if I did the image description right cuz I have no idea
This is an interest check for a weekly writeblr “event”. I use the term VERY loosely because this event is no commitment required with minimal effort involved so you can jump in whenever you have time/energy!
What I’m proposing:
Every Friday, I invite you to hop in my inbox and share something you’re proud of in your WIP. Some examples include (but are not limited to!):
A phrase/sentence/excerpt that you especially like
A character you LOVE
Your favorite worldbuilding element
Or just the fact that you’re falling in love with your WIP again!
Why should you join this event? What do you get out of it?
I want to see your writing! 😍😍😍
Exposure to the writing community! I have 980+ followers. When I publish the excerpt you send in, your work is getting a big signal boost!
Connect with other writers! Do you see a WIP excerpt you like? Do you see a few authors who write in the same genre as you? Drop them a message and tell them how much you enjoyed their WIP excerpt!
An encouraging and positive atmosphere to share your writing! Maybe you’re a lone wolf and you don’t have many friends. Or your family/friends don’t support your writing. If you share your work in this event, you will ALWAYS be supported!
General FAQ
Do I have to sign up for this event?
No signs up necessary! I’ll post a graphic, announcing that it’s Friday, and you can send in your content whenever you want!
I don’t have any writing that I want to share but I have OC art/maps/other artistic content. Can I send that in?
Absolutely! If it pertains to your WIP in ANY way, you are welcome to share it!
I don’t want to share my work (copyright reasons/shy/etc.) Can I still participate?
YES YOU CAN! Feel free to send in a generic message, gushing about your WIP and how much you love working on it! The point of this event is to share your writing joy in any and all forms! ♥
I want to send something in but I don’t want you to publish it. Is that okay?
That’s totally fine! Just let me know in your message if you don’t want it published and I’ll respond privately!
Can I share fanfiction?
Absolutely! Any and ALL forms of writing are welcome in this event!
Hi! I hope you're doing well lately! 🙂 my question for you about the Sapphire Room is this: what's the inspiration behind the mythology of the Deis?
Hi hi!! Hope you are as well! I am definitely drowning in bar exam studying, but really trying to carve out some creativity/writing time so big big thank u for this question because wow there is so much I can say about this!!
So the first and easy answer is that I drew a lot of inspiration from present-day and historical traditions of brujeria in South America, like santeria and espiritismo, as well as more ancient myths such as those belonging to the Inca. But I also knew I wanted to create something different and distinct, and that I wanted to kind of push back against both machismo inherent throughout Latin America and against traditional conceptions of creator deities as male/masculine/paternal in many western mythologies.
When I was working on the first chapters, the creation myth just kind of came out, with the names of the Deis naturally becoming La Mamaia, La Hijaia, La Luna, etc. I kind of fell in love with the idea of an ancient deity not understanding loneliness, and a child deity full of curiosity and love that can’t be satisfied until humans are created.
There will definitely be some push back against how the Deis are described with female nouns, even though they have no gender, just because they represent more maternal/feminine qualities—though this pushes back against traditional masculine conceptions of gods, it still falls into a gender binary that I want to view critically, especially as there will be several characters who are non-binary, trans, and/or who express their gender in ways that resist binary classifications of feminine and masculine.
I’ll be posting more about the Deis mythology, as there’s still a lot to learn that the early chapters won’t fully get into, but I am legit kind of in love with the concept of it and am super excited to get to write more of it!!
Rules: tag people you want to get to know better/catch up with!
Favorite Color: green :)
Currently Reading: just started parable of the sower by octavia butler!
Last Song: actually is the first one I listened to this morning but it’s still stuck in my head so—Palm Dreams by Hayley Kiyoko
Last Movie: fiance’s friend had just gotten the disney dragon movie (Raya) so watched that last week!
Last Series: rewatched Revenge; now rewatching Lost (and man oh man I have thoughts on character development and writing dialogue!!)
Sweet, Spicy, or Savory: all of them always
Craving: tea which I am just making now!
Tea or Coffee: coffee always, but in trying to be ~healthier~, no coffee after lunch, only tea haha
Currently Working on: chapter 5 of The Sapphire Room
tagging @stardustspiral, @a-wild-bloog, @ettawritesnstudies, @writing-with-melon, @han-boggs, @writing-with-olive, @karolinarodrigueswrites, @tildeathdo-i-write, and anyone else who wants to, please say I tagged you, I want to get to know all of y’all better!!
Rules: tag people you want to get to know better/catch up with!
Favorite Colour: yellow!
Currently Reading: it’s just a running joke by now that I am perpetually in a state of halfway through terry pratchett’s Guards! Guards!
Last Song: People Disappear All The Time, Bear McCreary, on my playlist for writing celestial
Last Movie: a couple nights ago terry and I got high and watched Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story for the third time… but my last new movie was Mitchells Vs The Machines!
Last Series: Shadow & Bone, but also actively watching JJBA (currently on golden wind)
Sweet, Spicy, or Savory: sweet
Craving: sushi, kinda
Tea or Coffee: coffee in the morning, tea all the rest of the day.
Currently Working on: chapter 10 of celestial’s second draft!
I’ll tag some new followers; @solennitawrites, @wribbit, @burningblues, and if anyone else wants to do this feel free to say I tagged you, I’d love to read!
What's been your favorite part of the worldbuilding for The Sapphire Room?
You’ve earned my eternal love and gratitude for this question!! By far, it’s been getting to dive into South American folklore to get inspiration for the magical history and worldbuilding. I’ve gotten to collect stories from family members and friends back home, which has been more rewarding than I ever thought possible. It’s a beautiful constant reminder of how incredible the world is, how rich and colorful and vibrant my own heritage is, and how much inspiration can be found when you turn away from the typical and traditional stories of magic and myth.
I’ll be posting about this soon, but getting to come up with the “mamas,” which are magical beings entrusted with care and protection over various elements or parts of the world was really fun because it let me draw from Incan mythology, and traditional Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian, Chilean, and Argentinian folklore/myths. Reading so many stories from the region revealed a consistent theme of protection of the earth, which I really want to incorporate in my own worldbuilding!
OKAY I finally got a schedule together so I’m hoping to catch up on writeblr things tonight!! Thank you so much if you sent me messages I need the motivation and will be sending messages back this week!!
And please feel free to send more messages I cannot emphasize enough how much it helps with motivation after having had to take a break for a while!!
Oh man I’ve been MIA for a while - I thought I’d have time after finals to catch up on my mutuals writings and update my own, but between moving to a new city and graduation celebrations, it’s been insane!
I’m hoping to come back fully next week - if you’re still sticking with me, I really appreciate it ❤️❤️
You know what—if y’all send me asks about The Sapphire Room for me to answer when I get back from this mini hiatus, I’ll spend a few days sending asks about your WIPs in return! It’ll help me get back into things ❤️😊
Oh man I’ve been MIA for a while - I thought I’d have time after finals to catch up on my mutuals writings and update my own, but between moving to a new city and graduation celebrations, it’s been insane!
I’m hoping to come back fully next week - if you’re still sticking with me, I really appreciate it ❤️❤️
You know what—if y’all send me asks about The Sapphire Room for me to answer when I get back from this mini hiatus, I’ll spend a few days sending asks about your WIPs in return! It’ll help me get back into things ❤️😊
Oh man I’ve been MIA for a while - I thought I’d have time after finals to catch up on my mutuals writings and update my own, but between moving to a new city and graduation celebrations, it’s been insane!
I’m hoping to come back fully next week - if you’re still sticking with me, I really appreciate it ❤️❤️
you’re putting magic into the world with every stitch you make, every painting you create, every note you play, every word you write. everything you create and put out into the world will touch or inspire someone. everything you keep to yourself will be special and personal, like a mosaic piece of yourself that will last forever. all the little things you created into the world will like a museum exhibit of your existence, and your own love letter to the universe.
if you’re ever about to comment on a writer’s work and think, oh, they probably know how good they are, you’re definitely wrong. every time a writer posts or publishes anything, no matter how many years they’ve been doing it and no matter how many readers they have, they are struck with the idea that perhaps they aren’t very good at all.
if you think you’re annoying for commenting, or that we won’t see your comments anyway, you’re wrong. we see your comments. we actively look for them. we are starved for them no matter how many we get. we remember them and they fuel us. leave comments, even if it’s just saying “oh i like this”. i see an “oh i like this” and my heart grows three times its size and i am seized with an urge to provide you more writing just to hear you say “oh i like this” again.
