(submitting these through ask bc the submission page only lets me put one pic at a time for some reason?)
So I found this really cool spider on a camping trip in Waskesiu SK a few years back, and I've never been able to figure out what the heck species it is?? My closest guess is cat-faced orb weaver bc of the two yellow spikes on the abdomen? but every example of a cat-faced I've looked up has a much bigger abdomen and the "cat ears" are way less pronounced, these look almost tacked-on lmao
I'm pretty sure it's SOME sort of orb-weaver at least (I remember my mum anxiously asking me whether it was a brown recluse but I Doubt That lmao)
It's absolutely an orbweaver in the genus Araneus. You can tell your mom you do not have recluses at in Canada! This friend I think is a fierce orbweaver, Araneus saevus. Their markings and coloration can be super variable but the two lil yellow shoulders are fairly common for the species.
I've seen you describe Moth Wizard as a "sort of anthology", and I'm curious: do you have a favorite story in particular? And why is it your favorite? :00
Thank you so much for the ask!!
I uh haven't really gotten that far, I have a specific idea of what format I want to use and a few half thought through ideas for stories and characters I think will be really cool, but the actual writing and plots are still very lacking 😅
But I do have a favorite among the incomplete stories! Or at least a character arc I'm really excited about! I originally got the idea for it because I saw a post that said something along the lines of "no matter the setting your story should have a talking skeleton" and I just went "ok!" and proceeded to interrogate the concept of a talking skeleton philosophically. And I ended up creating Brakha, who is one of my favorite characters and the one who's made me cry the most by far!
The basic premise is this: A Jewish cis perisex man (named Natan, meaning "he gave") dies old and is buried. His skeleton is given life and eventually develops free will and a conscience: its own new soul.
This soul is not happy about the fact that they're using someone else's corpse, in fact they feel pretty terrible about it. It wasn't their choice to be created, but it doesn't feel right that these bones were not too long ago a man with a loving family. You can't just go stealing corpses like that, after all!
So this soul tries to learn more about this man, trying to figure out how to do the right thing, and what even is the right thing? Could they just go lay back down in the grave? Forever? Can they leave? Can they somehow find out what Natan would have wanted them to do?
They talk to people who knew him, they talk to rabbis, hoping their insight from the man's own religion will be helpful, they try to talk to Natan in some way, asking for a sign. But there are no easy answers. No one can give them permission to exist, nor revoke it, and Natan is gone. You can't ask the dead for guidance either.
They are eventually forced to confront the harsh reality: you have free will and you have to use it, and that necessarily means you can be wrong.
Did you know that "rest in peace" is a Christian expression? In Judaism, the thing to say is "may their memory be a blessing."
As they learn to accept that they are alive in Natan's corpse whether they like it or not, she starts to finally look inward. She discovers that existence is a little less of a burden as a woman. She sees Natan's Judaism and feels she wants to understand it better, and the rabbis she consulted are happy to teach her. She eventually decides to convert, feeling a connection to Judaism similar to what she feels for womanhood.
And after careful thought, she chooses her Jewish name. In Natan's memory, she is Brakha, meaning "blessing".
At this point I have no idea if it's a good story to an outsider, but as a trans person who is trying to convert to Judaism and has spent a whole lot of time in despair wishing I didn't have free will, wishing I didn't exist, wishing someone could just tell me what to do... yeah. I wouldn't really call it autobiographical, but it definitely deals with things that are important to me and that I deeply connect with.
I hope this answers your questions!
Thank you again so much for the ask!! It makes me so happy when people show interest in Moth Wizard <3
Nothing in particular.. or maybe he doesn’t remember.
But he was a fan of most things that included violins since that was his favourite instrument. That included classical, and the fun little tunes you hear in the cartoons, even if some don’t take those as seriously. He misses playing his violin.
I think I really like the part where you finally get the Big Picture. Often I start out with bits and pieces, or characters and ideas. So when I finally discover how those characters and pieces want to fit together to tell a story? That’s the dream moment. That’s when creating is easiest.
Creating is hardest when I have no idea where I’m going, story-wise. It’s always frustrating to ask yourself ‘and then what’ and not have a clue where to drive the point home.
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Oh, hohoho. Titles. Summaries are just trying to get some interested. Titles define how you think about the work for the next year of your life. It’s gotta be good to keep coming back to it, which means picking the absolute final title for something? Is a little stressful.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
Come up with idea. Sit on idea. Forget about idea. Get up, walk around, do chores, do other project, sit on idea i forgot about, swear because i have idea all over my legs now, clean up the idea, cuss again, realize something I’d forgotten about. Write out two whole paragraph.
