#chuthulhu writes

[chuthulhu-writes]

Do not stand at my door and yell

I will be fine

I'm not in Hell

Though hot water fills the air

It's to wash my skin and hair

Please don't throw up in the hall

I hear you coughing through the wall

Do not stand at my door and cry

It's just a bath. I will not die.

--a poem for my cat who likes to stand outside the bathroom door, wail piteously, and cough up a hairball for me to stand on right after my shower

[chuthulhu-writes]

Writing roundup 2024

Instead of settign resolutions that stress me tf out, I thought I'd have a look at what I've gotten done in the last year, based on stuff I've completed...

148,989 words total! Somehow more than I thought but less than I'd like! Still, it's nice to have down in an excel document that I've BEEN writing :P

I got three chapters of After Armageddon out, three of Fight/Flight/Freeze, one of Ignoble Idolatry and two of The Knife Ridge Scrolls, which I actually finished! Glad it wasn't nothing but I definitely want to get more done with the Keyleeverse rewrite, including finish the After Armageddon rewrite, doing some more oneshots I have half-finished, and getting The Heroine's Journey done.

I did update Overcoming twice and Refrain For Justice once! They are not dead! I WILL finish them sometime eventually! And three for Trustfall, which I almost have another chapter for. It's also not dead!

I did also finish six pieces of original fiction, though only one of them is online (The sixth The Family Business short story); the rest have been submitted ot various publications and competitions, so fingers crossed. Been thinking about trying to build a Wordpress for my original fiction, because AO3 isn't really the place for it, but I do get nervous about bots scraping everything, especially these days. But I definitely do need to post more original fiction, and I REALLY need to finish drafting chapter 16 of We'll Burn That Bridge When We Come To It, because I have SO much stuff already drafted that I need to link up to.

Guess I am setting some goals, after all; set up a Wordpress, write a few new things for it, and finish a couple of fics! But when I stress myself out too much about deadlines my brain dies, so no pressure, me.

Thank you very much to everyone who's read anything of mine in 2024, and here's to the spirit of Sir Terry Pratchett gifting us all in 2025 with the ability to write daily <3

[chuthulhu-writes]

I know almost nothing about my cats’ former human. I know they had the same human for nearly eleven years, from the time they were kittens. I know they were always indoor cats. And I know the only reason their former human gave them up was that they were terminally ill, and that sometime between adopting the cats and their first vet checkup, that human died. I hope they lived long enough to see the photos I sent to the shelter of the cats warm and safe in their new home, being snuggled and played with and loved, but I don’t even know that much. I hope so.

I know almost nothing about my cats’ former human, but I know my cats can be clingy. Not so much when I’m downstairs, going to and from work, puttering around the kitchen, watching films in the living room. But if it’s a bad foot day and I’m staying in bed, they will be there too, glued to my side. Except to go litter, they will not leave. They press the whole of their warm little bodies against me, so much it can get uncomfortable and difficult to move.

I worry about them sometimes. They’re eleven. That’s old, for cats. They seem healthy, but I intend to be their last human, so sooner or later, I know I will have to see them die. I hope that will be many years hence, when they’ve got many more years of being snuggled and brushed and played with under their belts, and that it will be peaceful and painless and swift, after a proper goodbye, but sometimes I see them sleeping and get a little anxious, watching them until I can see the rise and fall of their breaths.

I don’t have to watch for breathing when I’m in bed. They curl up so close that I can feel every purr and every beat of their little hearts, and they can feel every beat of mine.

[chuthulhu-writes]

The Family Business: By The Kirkyard Gates

I've got a new one about Susan McCloud doing a wee bit of supernatural animal care!

“How d’you even dae an exorcism?” Tiffany asks, looking up from her homework. “I dinnae,” Susan says shortly. She’s in the middle of unrolling and brushing down the blanket. It will probably work any which way, but she feels that a shroud ought to be nice. It’s only respectful. “Aye, but if you did,” Tiffany persists. “We’re no Catholic.” “Aye, well, you can call on anythin if you believe in it enough,” Susan allows. “I could dae an exorcism in the name ay Sailor Moon if I wis intae it enough. It’s just aboot channellin… whitever it is that destroys magical stuff.” She grimaces. “I’m no a fan ay destroyin things that are just daein whit they dae. I mean, look at Frankie here. Humans made him the way he is. He doesnae deserve destruction fae that, does he?”

This one originally went up on my Patreon on September 27th, toss a coin to your writer for original fantasy, sci-fi and supernatural fiction a month early or entirely exclusive <3

[chuthulhu-writes]

WIP Wednesday: What if Cinderella was Mulan?

So this is based on a weirdly intricately plotted dream I had a couple years ago mashing up the plots of Cinderella and Disney Mulan and I've been working it over since and I think I might have it down to a short story form because I've decided I'm not as into the magical geopolitics as I am delving into the complete re-understanding of the self being experienced by Ash "lied about my gender to get a job but it turns out I have a very rare form of magic that is challenging everything my abusive family told me about myself, and also maybe I actually am a dude after all?" Cinderallamulan, and Prince "I don't get it but I support you bro, I love you, HEY MA I GOT MY BOYFRIEND PREGNANT THE LINE IS SECURE YOU CAN STOP THROWING THESE SHITTY BALLS NOW" Charming. They're weird little magical goobers in love. I love them.

“Do something to this without touching it,” the prince announced, putting a small vase on the table that looked like it was worth more than the house Ella had grown up in. And that had been a nice house. “Do what?” she asked, trying not to let her voice get too high-pitched in her nerves. The prince waved a hand in the air and dropped into the chair opposite her. “Anything. Lift it in the air, turn it into a mouse, change its colour, shatter it, literally whatever. Just do something to it with magic.” “I don’t know how,” Ella said. “I don’t know how to do magic…” “Not on purpose, but you were definitely channelling magic when you were playing music,” the prince said, blue eyes boring into her. She fought the urge to hunch, to look away, to chew her lip. Nothing too nervous, too feminine, too suspicious. “How do you feel when you play music?” “I don’t know…” Ella closed her eyes, trying to think about something she’d never had to think about before. “How do you feel when you’re breathing?” Her eyes shot open when she realized that she might sound sarcastic or insolent with a question like that, but all she saw was the prince snickering through a dazzling grin. “Well, now I’m thinking about it!” he complained, pressing a hand to his chest. “Hmmm. Actually quite nice to get a lungful, now that I’m paying attention. Try focusing on that.” “Oh…?” Ella quickly pulled her eyes away from the hand on his chest, far too much of which was visible under his casually unlaced doublet.

They're HImbo4himbo, in all honestly

[chuthulhu]

Click here to check in on Wally, the Best Boy, in Part 26!

[chuthulhu]

Me? Updating my sixth AU of my own fics instead of making any progress on the mainline ones? It's more likely than you think--second chapter of the Red Lives AU on AO3 now!

[chuthulhu]

It ain't easy being green in Via Memory Lane VII: part 24!