I was tagged by @kaisthewriter and @oheoo and @greenhousewriting, thanks lovelies! <3
Three aesthetics for three tags 😘
JACKAL: rusted bolts, long showers, shaky fingers, oil and smoke, fog melting down the side of the mountain, pine trees stripped of their needles, stained jeans, split tires, dust, hammers, broken locks, gray rain, “fuck you”
VIKTOR: bullet casings, brandy, chipped shot glasses, callouses, black ink, white lies, stuffed animals missing their eyes, hot wind, muggy days, dry riverbanks, weighted dice, 777-jackpot!, ruined bullseyes, blackberries, blood, red sunrises, hope on the horizon, a collection of scars–“I am a hammer and I break as easily as I build”
AMARYLLIS: mint, tea leaves, mortar and pestle, rain, damp soil, sharp syringe, creamy smiles, hunting knives, tart berries, birdsong, laughter, startled deer, curious thoughts, wandering fingers, white bandages, mason jars, sweet smoke, “you’re safe with me”
Tagging (feel free to ignore): @fdicenzo @lady-redshield-writes @tessydockery @cog-writes and, of course, anyone else who would like to join in!
Rules: Go to page 7 of your WIP, share 7 sentences, then pass along to 7 people!
From Eosophobia...
A smile blossoms across her face, dark freckles leaning in conspiratorially. “You’ll be needing better company than that sniper,” Nadege insists. “Men like him are always more than they seem, and there ain’t no telling if it’ll be good or bad for ya in the end.”
“Bad for my purse in either case,” Jackal sighs, and startles--lightning rod jerking snapping burning down his spine--at the gushing giggles that burst out of her. He takes a long drink from the stained glass in his hands, watching as she steadies herself with a deep breath, before leaning closer. “I can’t keep you safe.”
“I can take care of myself, kiddo. It’s the would that oughta be afraid of me.”
I can’t count, don’t worry about it.
Tagging (feel free to ignore): @thewingwriter @joyjots @cofffeeshopp @ashtrieswriting @elliot-orion @briannadeberry @homesteadhorner and, of course, anyone else who would like to join in!
I was tagged by the lovely @doctor-q, thanks hon! <3
1: What’s your preferred written genre? Probably fantasy? I really enjoy the process of world-building, and since I grew up reading mostly fantasy it’s all the genre that I’m most familiar with. But considering the WIPs I’ve had over the years (1 adventure, 1 scifi, 2 contemporary thrillers, 2 fantasy) the only actual consistency in genre I have is that they all have romantic subplots at some point. I don’t consider myself a romance writer, but the facts say I’m just in denial 😂
2: What’s your preferred reading genre? Okay, this one is a definite vote for fantasy. My parents are both bookworms and, as a general rule, fantasy is their preferred genre too--which explains why I read and reread Tolkien (LotR) and Feist (Riftwar Saga) a lot while growing up. I love everything about fantasy, there’s nothing that’s off the table. A lot of old fantasy has escapist elements which appeals to me, but I also love the cultural elements--basing systems off certain cultures or mythologies, or reading about completely new/fictitious cultures.
3: What’s a trope that absolutely speaks to your heart? Pyrrhic victories! Not a trope that I consume a lot of, but one I absolutely love creating. Considering I play a lot with black and gray morality in my writing, it’s unfortunately the case that the costs usually end up being higher than the reward. I also love character deaths, which contribute to pyrrhic victories too.
4: Is Science Fiction also Fantasy? Discuss. So, for me, this is like... squares and rectangles. All SciFi is Fantasy, but not all Fantasy is SciFi. In my opinion, fantasy really just means “a story set in a fictitious world”. SciFi, no matter how probable it can be at times, is set in a fictitious world. Even near-future or contemporary SciFi still involves changing an element from reality that makes the setting fictitious. But not all Fantasy is SciFi, because SciFi to me means “a story set in a fictitious world that focuses on or highlights elements of which science is a core component”. Sure, all fantasy stories will have scientific components--I’ve yet to find a story that doesn’t play by some rule of physics/chemistry/etc--but most of the time, if you’re reading a fantasy novel about dragons, the novel doesn’t go on about the anatomical structure or biological functions of the dragons, right? The scientific component is technically there, but completely ignored. A SciFi story is a fantasy novel that would/does go into those components. That’s just my two cents idk
5: What’s the synopsis of your WIP? Ahh, I’m just going to include super short mini-synopses of my two big WIPs...
For Alight in Ashes...
In a society constantly uprooted by revolution, humans have been designated as the inferior species and are beset by disease, slavery, and genocidal Hunts. Cassandra, a petty thief, is determined to prove that humans are capable of fighting back, regardless of the cost.
For Eosophobia...
Rumors of a cure for the engineered supervirus Dawn have begun to circle the forested region of Cascadia, dragging out the remnants of human civilization from hiding–and also their mutated cousins, Biotics. With competing groups desperate to get their hands on any possible cure the Columbia Gorge transforms into a battleground waiting to explode.
6: If you could speed date any literary character who would it be? Mara. Oh my god. I would marry her. I haven’t read The Empire Trilogy in years, which is my loss, because it’s fantastic and I have such a crush on the protagonist/MC, Mara. She’s such a powerful character, and I love how ambitious and resourceful and reckless she is, in a way.
7: If you were a literary character who would you be? Haha, okay, I’m totally Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Not the “super rich” part, which is unfortunate, but the arrogant, prideful, honest part? The best-known-for-my-poorly-worded-and-soul-crushing-love-confessions part? That’s me.
8: What’s a big theme you notice in your writing? Moral subjectivity! I love bringing it up in my writing and reflecting it in my characters. I just have fun with making readers root for someone who goes against standard morality--rooting for villains, or dark anti-heroes, etc. It’s my goal to write characters that are so likeable or powerful that my readers will root for them, no matter how the odds look or what actions “need” to be taken.
9: What is a theme you hate seeing in writing? I hate “love conquers all”, which is somewhat ironic considering I’m a self-described romantic. But I’m a strong believer that love only works if you’re willing to put in the necessary work that a relationship requires. I’m tired of love being portrayed as “if it’s meant to be, it will be”. It’s not inherently a bad theme, but one that’s vastly overused.
10: What was your opinion of your last high school Literature teacher? I... honestly don’t even remember his name. He was a nice and reasonable guy as a person, and was pretty laid back for the most part. But he felt out of touch with his students--I don’t remember ever being invested in his class (to be fair, high school was all easy As for me (that’s not bragging, I went to a really shitty high school where they were just trying to pass as many of us as they could because graduation rates were atrocious. haha and then i dropped out but whatever)).
My Questions for Ya’ll
1. Do you have any writing habits or rituals?
2. If you had to be one of your characters for a day, who would you choose to be?
3. Character death, yay or nay?
4. Which tropes, if you’re aware of any, are in your WIP?
5. Favorite hero from any book/movie/etc.?
6. Favorite villain from any book/movie/etc.?
7. What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
8. If you were locked in a room with your OCs, how would you fare?
9. What scene in your WIP are you most excited about? Why?
10. If you had to use a different title for your WIP than the one you’re currently using, what would it be? If it doesn’t have a title, choose an alternative name for your MC.
Tagging (feel free to ignore): @oheoo @madmooninc @ashtrieswriting @toboldlywrite @relevy @theguildedtypewriter @dragonscanbeplantstoo and of course, anyone else who would to join in!
9: Best month for you this year?Hmm… no month is really sticking out for me. I’ll go with March because that’s when BOTW came out bwahahahah
19: What’re you excited about for next year?Well if I’m picked by the Japanese coordinator, I could be studying abroad in Japan next fall!
22: Favorite place you visited this year?I never travel because poor, but I’ll say Pittsburgh because my family always goes there to visit my gramma. She takes my cousins and me on boat cruises every summer which are super pretty!
Lev already knows you want to date. It’s known ever since you first looked at it. It’s crept into your mind through that feeling, made subtle by the fact that it’s yours. You wouldn’t question your own thoughts, would you?
From that, Lev has learned your preferences, your dislikes, the things that keep you up at night, the things that get you through long work shifts. It knows how you like to be spoken to, how you like to be held, and what you’d like to do to it.
It would like to do many things to you, too.
Lev’s dates will take some getting used to. You might go somewhere together, somewhere it knows you’ll like. (It’ll giggle through the whole thing, half delighted, half because it doesn’t know how to stop.) You might sit together on your bed, your hand encased in its tendrils, taking a tour through your dreams. (It can’t differentiate nightmares and good dreams very well, I’m afraid.)
At least once, Lev will ask to go swimming with you. Not for any eldritch reason. It just likes swimming.
The whole while, Lev will learn. It soaks up information like a sponge does water. It’ll start bringing you gifts, and when you say you didn’t ask for anything, it’ll insist that you did. You’ll go walking together through your dreams and your nightmares, likely in the same night. Lev is very physically affectionate as well, so…do with that what you will.
When all is said and done, it’ll know you better than you know yourself.
