We are officially 15,000 words onto the second draft.
If you have been reading my work up until now thank you so much. You all have inspired me and I am forever grateful to the community we have here and all the love. I took a year off from writing/editing the book but it’s been so nice to start back up again.
Without giving too much away, the story follows a woman named Banks who participates in a drug trial and has some remarkable side effects. Now living in the lap of luxury with her husband, Kyle, she takes pride in working for the company that changed her life. Unfortunately, all great things come at a price…and she has not been the one paying it.
Also, I can confirm that our ‘mentor’ adjacent character, Holden and his wife, Aurora, raise chickens in their backyard. While they don’t have a “Louie,” they do have a hen is named Frannie. (Francesca when she is in trouble.)
Those pesky pixies are insisting on being included in my Samhain preparations, but they seem to be enjoying themselves so who am I to complain?
Samhain (along with Yule) is simultaneously the most observed and most ignored of all the stops on the wheel of the year. Halloween is a massive commercial entity and cultural touchstone, but that doesn't mean it's the same thing as Samhain. You can celebrate Halloween without celebrating Samhain (and vice versa) or of course you can celebrate both!
What if you want to add some simple ways to mark Samhain to your day, but you don't know much about it? Read on for a couple of ideas...
Samhain is the gaelic languages (remember, gaelic =/= automatically equal celtic; in Welsh 31st October is called Nos Galan Gaeaf and Welsh is an even more ancient language than the gaelic languages) name for the festival that marks the celtic new year.
A central part of the festival was the belief that this time (along with its polar opposite festival, Beltane) the veil between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest. It was a time to connect with the "good spirits" of ancestors as they were at their closest to us, but equally the "bad spirits" were close too. So, the ancestors were to be honoured and welcomed, the bad spirits were to be scared away and in this part the modern festival of Halloween has its root.
Ancestors would be welcomed around the hearth at the centre of the home with some form of depiction or item that belonged to them in order that they could help those living today. The tradition is still a part of many cultures today and is included in almost all neopagan descriptions of samhain celebrations.
Honouring ancestors then is a large part of Samhain, but what if this means nothing to you? Perhaps you're young and haven't lost anyone close to you yet. Perhaps you're happily exploring neopagan spirituality and all your ancestors were very strongly christian. Perhaps your ancestors were horrible racists, sexists, homophobes, transphobes etc and you don't want that in your life. Perhaps there's even more reasons why connecting to ancestors isn't something that you feel you can engage with or have any enthusiasm for.
So pick your own ancestors.
'Why not? The belief in ancestors is that they have made us who we are today and, with a little thought, it is easy to think of people from the past who have made us who we are today. What about the author of a favourite book? Why not even one of the characters from that book? This is about choosing for yourself, not having the decisions made for you. Just like we can choose our friends but not our families, we can choose to honour those who have helped to make us who we are today. So, if you don't have ancestors you wish to honour then pick the ones you do want to honour. Be grateful for those authors, artists, world-changers and creatives who make you feel good about yourself. Pick a favourite character who taught you to be a better person. Celebrate who you are!
Samhain is also a new year, so its a good opportunity in the year to try to be better. You never have to wait for a specific date to try and improve, but this is as good a line in the sand as any other. Is there anything you want to differently, or perhaps there's something you want to make better. Samhain is a good time to begin that.
Its the time of the year when the rule of the night over the day becomes longer and longer. Samhain is a good time to embrace that and embrace your night self. Step into the Samhain night (if its safe to do so) and feel the difference in all your senses between the night and the day. There's long nights to come yet, so make friends with the night if you can.
(One quick extra - if you've carved a pumpkin lantern don't just throw it away! Its food that can be easily roasted and pureed and can make some great recipes, so take the time to do a quick search for pumpkin recipes - and especially don't leave your pumpkins out on the ground outside as wildlife like hedgehogs can become very ill from eating them.)
However you're planning to spend your Halloween or mark Samhain this year, I wish you a happy and blessed one that is just how you want it to be.
Check out the The Study community on Discord - hang out with 1 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
The Study is officially open to the public!
If you follow me then you probably know that I've been thinking of opening up a discord for leftist-leaning writing and criticism for a long time - and lo and behold, the time has come! In the style of the late, great Larry Santoro and the cozy Nook of Tales to Terrify, The Study is designed to facilitate conversation, inspire creativity, share writing, and just be a cozy spot for creatives and critics of all left-of-center types.
This is an 18+ server, to allow for freedom of language when discussing works and media to be discussed. Do not attempt to join if you are under 18.
For a full list of rules and guidelines for the server, please visit #the-code once inside to determine whether its a good fit. Then, head over to #the-foyer to introduce yourself! Please no reblogs - I want to keep this to a manageable size for right now :)
do you know of cults in massachusetts (billerica specifically) that arent the study? any information at all, even just a confirmation they exist or cult names so i could look into to do my own research would be wonderful. i feel a lot of the time that im making things up since i dont have any 'evidence' so this would help me emotionally/mentally a lot. thank you.
You’re not making things up. There are a number of groups in the area.
Some are white supremacist. These groups follow Norse mythology.
There is a group that practices Ásatrú.
Hearth Fire Grove, ADF
Shadow Weaver Grove, ADF (uncertain if still active)
There are a number of other covens and pagan beliefs in the area.
If you could write any AU with the members of the Paladins which would you pick and why?
That's a toughie. I mean there's AUs I want to write and there's ones I think the others would be better at. But let me make a quick list. I don't know if you wanted one group one or individual members. I went with individual members.
Lets see start in the order I listed in my project 👀
@panda-writes-kpop I think I really want to do some sort of Fantasy war AU with panda. Each of the Dreamcatcher members could be a different fantasy race or represent different ideologies and such. Besides I can tell that Panda knows a lot more than I do about that sort of time period and has a better understanding of the duties and responsibilities of a noble.
@subways-stuff I mean Subway mentioned that they enjoy Neon City Knights. So I was thinking maybe some sort Detective or Mystery AU. But considering that they already have one they're working on maybe it would be better to do an apocalypse one? Although could get the best of both and write a Resident Evil AU.
@kingmaker-a See I wanna say a Persona AU but I don't know if that's something the fandom would consider accessible? But I think it would be fun to write! Especially considering that it ticks a lot of boxes that me and King like when it comes to content.
@pabopup I have a really cool idea of an AU I want to write with Sparrow but I don't know what to call it. Let alone describe it. It's just something I had a dream about once
But basically, it would be a semi dystopian setting where Humanity has limited access to technology after barely winning a war against the gods. The deaths of the gods have led to the creation of monsters from their corpses. Which massively changes the worlds eco system forcing humanity to fight for their place on top of the food chain once again.
I mean there are more thoughts I want to add to that. But that's spoiler territory. But I think Sparrow's writing style fits the idea a lot better than mine. Not to mention their attention to sensations that the reader experiences to their grasp of the situation and what happens seems a lot better than mine.
But yeah that's the gist of my answers. I really want to expand on each of the ideas for each Paladin because I love all of them equally but I haven't slept yet and this is my last ask. But I might expand on these later.
