#horror author

[aurin-avenir]

[gayeilgeoir]

Tips for writing multilingual characters:

If English is their second language, they will speak quite formally if they’re not entirely fluent. Contractions are a B2-C1 level type of thing for most. It also depends on the cultural context of where they are from. Some cultures place a higher emphasis on good spoken English.

Look for features in their first language and make them say them in English. Russian, for example, has no articles (the and a), so Russian speakers commonly struggle with articles.

Pronunciation is a really big one. For example; first language Spanish speakers would often say “espain” because Spanish rarely has “s” without “e” at the beginning.

Names, places and things in their first language will be heavily accented, and they will not say them like an English speaker

NOT ALL LANGUAGES HAVE THE SAME ALPHABET!!!! Many languages lack certain sounds that English has. If you reslly want to be as realistic as possible, find the youngest shared ancestor for English and their first language, and find the sound that language took instead of whatever sound it became in English. EG: Italian lacks the letter J, it became I. So Italians may pronounce “J” (as in “jug”) like a “Y” (as in “youth”)

Remember that English is not a neutral thing for a lot of people, and speaking it comes with a lot of pain. Cultural context is deeply important to your characters relationship with English as a language.

It does take a lot of mental energy to translate everything you think. If a character is not completely fluent, in states of extreme tiredness, injury or emotional distress, they may struggle more with English

The time taken to learn a language is not universal. Languages are grouped, and it is far easier to learn a language from that group than one that is not. It also depends on the amount of practice, exposure to the Target language and location

[plaguedbysanity]

I love being a horror author. My particular brand of it is so erratic, it's a genuine emotional rollercoaster.

Like.

Yes. The MC has a flashback regarding middle school cookie theft. And yes. That flashback leads to The Voices™ trying to convince him he wants his toxically doomed “best friend” dead. And double yes, someone gets their throat slit in the next chapter. Graphically. Cut to MC feeding a stray cat named Rotisserie.

[comikbook]

currently really into the idea of doing horror book covers i think it would be so cool to do…anyone know how to get into that ? anyone know how to find authors looking for artists to work with ?

[threeheadeddeath]

me: *writes gore* maybe it's too mild. . .? *edits intensity*

my readers: .......

my readers: where the fuck did that come from???!

[inthewoodstonight]

sometimes i think gothic horror is more about hurt than about fear. the true horror is loss, grief, having to face your own demons, not just some scary thing outside your window. sure, that’s there too, but underneath it all, the real issue is the aching in your chest. that is gothic horror.

[germ-t-ripper]

25MAY26 Working on the 2nd draft of my book, "Escape Forever".

[marsadler]

INTRO

Hello!

I thought I'd do a bit of a more formal intro as I try to move over to engaging more on Tumblr now that other social media platforms are becoming steadily more unusable.

I'm mars or Kaye, I write lots of weird sensual horror and cross-blended speculative fiction with horror, all with trans and queer characters. I first self-published a short story on itchio in March of 2023 after years of wishing I could leave ghostwriting to publish my own work. (I still haven't fully escaped that occupation, but we're getting there.)

I'm a big, huge fan of publishing on itchio, although I'm also published on Amazon as a necessary evil, boo hiss, tomato tomato, etc.

PUBLISHED WORK

2023

FIRST CREATION: my debut novella, 22k words/98 pages, religious horror featuring an angel and a demon on opposite sides of a never-ending war escaping together, and a whole lot of cannibalism and fruit metaphors. It was a finalist in the 2023 Indie Ink Awards. Transmasc protagonist, M/M pairing.

Blood & Flowers (currently undergoing a re-release process that's adding roughly 11k words and a new cover, so it's not available for sale right now): won the Queer Indie Award of 'Best Sophomore Novel' in 2023, enemies to lovers, vague Romeo and Juliet retelling, vampires and haunted houses. I'm so excited to share the re-release of this early this year! Transmasc protagonist, M/M pairing.

EYETOOTH: another novella (I really love writing novellas), 18k words/90 pages, t4t eroguro medkink fever dream. A trans art student undergoes an experimental surgery at an underground plasma donation center, but afterwards, the doctor disappears and leaves him to deal with the aftereffects and strange cannibalistic urges. Transmas protagonist, nonbinary love interest, M/NB pairing.

2024

Dead Cowpokes Don't Wrangle: Probably the coolest thing I did last year was curate this anthology with a good friend and fellow author, H.S. Wolfe. A queer collection of weird west stories and gorgeous artwork from 18 creators, this is an absolute banger, if I do say so myself. My story in there, Red as Blood, Black as Tar, deals with people coming back from the dead, gunslinging outlaws, and a lot of weird, gross tar. F/NB pairing, ~10k words.

UNHOLY FAVORS: 22k words/90 pages, a short story duet about making deals with supernatural entities that go wrong. Featuring trans protagonists, monsterfucking, weird dreamscapes and hellhounds, this is an odd little itchio-exclusive collection. M/M pairings for both, each story is around 10k words.

The Apples of New Eden: 57k words/251 pages, my first full-length novel. Sci-fi horror, taboo romance. Two brothers struggle to reunite for Christmas in a dystopian war-filled future. Featuring cybernetics, wire play, heavy handed anti-establishment themes, and some really weird dogs. Itchio exclusive, transmasc protagonist and M/M pairing.

WIPs For This Year

Sequels: one of my main goals this year is to actually publish a sequel to one of my three started series. (First Creation, Blood & Flowers, and Eyetooth are all the first books in series.)

Sweet Lamb: novel length, religious horror. I tried to release Sweet Lamb early in 2024 but it just wasn't ready. I'm glad I waited, because I'm a lot clearer now on what I want to do with it. It's a very personal book to me, and I want to make it the best it can be. Polyam trans rep, new age cults, weird fucky angels.

Clipped Wings WIP: novel length, religious horror, anti-establishment themes as well as a toxic age gap pairing. What happens when you take an angel's wings away?

Several Novella and novelette length wips: I won't list them all out because I've started SEVERAL, and I'm not sure which I'll get done first, but I'm hoping to get at least a couple of them out this year.

Other work: I'm very excited to be a part of several other cool collaborative projects I can't talk about yet, but there's several things in the works right now, so keep an eye out!

Alright, that's it for now, thank you for reading this, and I'm so excited to meet new people on this platform and get weird about queer horror with y'all! You can always DM me or ask me any questions, I'm chronically online.

All my books have CWs in their front matter for those looking, and on itchio in the listing. They're also available on my website, which is marsadler.carrd.co