#abalonetea

[bardic-tales]

2. what is your main character's usual outfit!

Hiya. I did this for Kayla.

Kayla Winter’s off-duty attire for the Military Order of Divvik combines functional, rugged elements with clear nods to her unique history. At the core of her outfit is a pair of high-rise leather pants, layered with distinctive faux-leather pants featuring corset-style lace-up detailing and an asymmetrical hip zipper. For her upper body, she opts for a black washed band graphic tees with shoulder cutouts, and a cropped burgundy leather moto jacket. This complex layering provides depth, protection, and a balance of comfort and utility.

Kayla wears high-shine, calf-length black leather boots with numerous buckle straps. Tucked into her belt, or worn on a chain, are her late parents' simple gold wedding rings.

The final piece is a wide-brimmed black fedora with a detailed metal band and an ornate buckle. This is a hat that she 'borrowed' from her mentor Peter.

[fenrir-kin]

Summerfest Ask! Ooooh! What's a fae breach?

OK SO

Fae are real, and their realm is sort of... next-door to ours, while also being sort-of overlaid on ours.

So think of it as two fields, right? In one field there's us, humans. In the field next door, there's Fae. Between us both, there's a hedge.

Sometimes bits of the hedge will collapse, allowing things from one field to wander on through to other field; those collapses are the breaches. They're not strictly caused by the Fae, but that's what the humans call them because to the human's perspective, when a breach happens, so do Fae and other Fae-aligned creatures.

To close a breach, you either have to kill everything that came through it, or send whatever came through it, back. A little like making sure the pressure is equalised! Once that's been sorted, the breach will close on its own.

[redshield-writes]

1, 11, 12

Thanks so much for the ask!

1. Book you've reread the most times?

Answered over here. You get an additional answer, though! The Neverending Story (Michael Ende) is another book I've read over and over and over again. I actually had no idea there was a movie version until I was an adult.

11. What non-fiction books do you like, if any?

cracks knuckles

Symphony for the City of the Dead (M.T. Anderson) - Probably my favorite nonfiction book ever. Tells the story of orchestral composer Dmitri Shostakovich and how he wrote his seventh symphony during the WWII siege of his home city.

Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Ben Goldfarb) - Shoutout to @raiswanson for introducing me to this one! The title really says it all. I was ready to release beavers into the parks by where I live once I finished reading.

Cat Stories (James Herriot) - A favorite book of mine since childhood. It's a collection of short stories written by a veterinarian about some of the cats he treated during his long, rural practice.

A Sand County Almanac (Aldo Leopold) - A collection of essays. One minute, you'll be crying over reading about a chickadee the author banded for research and who showed up five summers in a row; the next, you'll be seething alongside the author as he gives a scathing commentary on the hunting of wolves in the western US; the next, you'll go "what the hell, this is still happening," as the author rails against politicians for needing economic motives for conservation.

12. Did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

Answered over here. This was a middle school read, but I'll also mention Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Verne) as a compulsory-reading favorite. I adore this book, and you can see shades of it in a few of my WIPs to this day.

(Here's a link to the ask game post.)

[ladytauria]

trick or treat!

!!! thank you katie <333

a while ago i started a story based around this prompt, which i don't have a link to at the moment, that went something like: a princess is locked in a tower, but the tower is actually a wizard's tower, so she teaches herself magic.

i've been thinking about it again, so!! sharing the last lines from it:

Corona held out the broom, horizontal, lined up with the balcony railing. “Rise,” she commanded quietly. Power sparked from her palm and enveloped the broom in a soft orange glow. When she let it go, it remained in the air, a near inaudible hum emanating from it. Corona adjusted her skirts, and settled onto it. She gripped the front tightly, and kicked off with her heels. Steadily, she rose through the air. The broom wobbled, but she held on. It was always bumpy at first, when she practiced in her bedroom. She’d fallen onto her bed who-knew-how many times until she had gotten the hang of it. She would steady out soon. Up and up and up she went, rising above the tower’s roof. She was grinning uncontrollably, despite the racing of her heart and the dryness of her mouth. The air tasted like freedom.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank, do you enjoy cosmic horror, or do you prefer more visceral horror, like a good old fashioned eighties slasher movie?

I prefer cosmic horror. Partly because I find the genre has more interesting ideas than the average "visceral horror" narrative. (The average visceral horror narrative is not an especially fun one to read.) More broadly, there's more to say about the genre than most visceral horror narratives – e.g. horror about alienation, about how human consciousness depends on the cosmos, about horror that exists on a cosmic scale.

(Not sure if this makes me part of a minority, or a representative non-minority?)

[incandescent-creativity]

Talk about a scene that you wanted in your story but can’t fit in or can’t make work!

I spent a full week writing my first and only heated scene, and it wasn’t even like proper smut because I’m too much of an asexual coward, and now it doesn’t fit in LiaHT anymore.

I’m only a little bit upset about it, because I know it wasn’t even a good scene, but I spent so long on it! And so much time n effort!

And now it won’t even have a place in the book where I can work to make it better >:(

[writeblrsupport]

I want to give a shoutout to @abalonetea ! Not only is she a great writer who reaches astronomical word counts every day, but she's also super nice. I love seeing her on my dash and I always feel inspired when I do.

[writinginslowmotion]

Noah gets dropped into your story about monsters and hunters. What role does he play?

The person that turns tail and runs away. Seriously, he would NOT do well in the world of With a Bloody Smile--at least, not on his own. But he doesn't do well in groups, either, at least not in groups of people he doesn't know. Finn would pity Noah and welcome him into his group, but damn, he would regret it at times. LOL.

I loved this question! Thank you!