#the loon

[hollanov-cocktail79]

Please, someone tell me. Is there a wolf that sounds like a loon? Because I crack up every time thinking “What wolf sounds like that Ilya?!” 🐺 😂

[kara-actias]

DATAS' guard dog.

[a-ramblinrose]

Not quite four a.m., when the rapture of being alive strikes me from sleep, and I rise from the comfortable bed and go to another room, where my books are lined up in their neat and colorful rows. How magical they are! I choose one and open it. Soon I have wandered in over the waves of the words to the temple of thought.                   And then I hear outside, over the actual waves, the small, perfect voice of the loon. He is also awake, and with his heavy head uplifted he calls out to the fading moon, to the pink flush swelling in the east that, soon, will become the long, reasonable day.                         Inside the house it is still dark, except for the pool of lamplight in which I am sitting.                   I do not close the book. Neither, for a long while, do I read on.

—Mary Oliver, 'The Loon'

[tohokuu]

this might be a little controversial but …

if i see one more basic white girl boil spaghetti noodles and throw in some butter and black pepper, i’m gonna pluck my eyeballs out and deep fry them in extra virgin olive oil

[maryolivermaxims]

Not quite four a.m., when the rapture of being alive strikes me from sleep, and I rise from the comfortable bed and go to another room, where my books are lined up in their neat and colorful rows. How magical they are!

[lestwesurrender]

Reading Mary Oliver, today of all days.

[kara-actias]

Rosie's Playlist

Music is a huge part of my writing process, particularly when I'm trying to get into the head of one of my characters. Rosie's songs are often heavy, fast beats that announce themselves before the lyrics start. Those lyrics sound angry at first, but when examined show a much more fragile heart underneath. Some are a cry for help, some an anthem of holding onto hope even in the darkest of times. All of them tell the story of someone who's drowning, self-destructing under the weight of something they can't escape as they hurtle towards a collapse. Someone who, if you sit long enough with their rage, will take off its mask and introduce its true name as Grief. What's your favorite song, and what does it say about you?

[kara-actias]

The Motherhood Trope

Let's talk about tropes. I love a good "reluctant father adopts a sunshine child and learns to be a better person" story (Looking at you The Mandalorian, The Witcher, The Bad Batch, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms). But where are the reluctant mothers? It seems (at least in my experience, which is not universal obviously) that as soon as a female protagonist encounters a child in literature, the narrative softens her. No matter how badass or battle scarred she was introduced as, she folds quickly into the motherly role. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE motherhood in fiction and real life. But too often, motherhood is treated as some kind of innate instinct that sweeps over the character while fatherhood is explored as a brave choice. For Rosie, it's not instinctive. She's not comfortable with raising Lux. She knows nothing about children, and her own raising was more a cautionary tale than guideline. The only thing she knows is that she wants to give this child the chance she never had. And Lux really is just a child. Fur and scales not withstanding, he's an eight year old. He's scared and confused in a world he doesn't understand, he doesn't know how he got there, and while Eden is everything a little boy would want in an adoptive dad... there's something about Rosie he can't put his fuzzy little finger on. But she feels like home.