within / without

original writing - sci/fi + horror + poetry + prose asian-american and queer studies 21+ years old

[theotherbody]

𓃵 ABOUT ME — ⋆ Jack (this is a sideblog), 21+ years old, they/he/she, asian-american queer writer ⛧ GENRES — ⋆ horror, sci-fi, litfic, prose & poetry ⚡︎ THEMES — ⋆ othered bodies, generational trauma, codependent relationships, racial marginalization

banner photo credit: gryffyn m on Pexels x // profile photo credit: Frank Platt on Pexels x

🕸 WIPS —

NV–01. Astronauts #nv-01. astronauts

NV–02. Thirst #nv-02. thirst

SS–01. Aphar Universe #ss-01. aphar

#snippets - WIP/project excerpts #shorts - non-WIP writing (creative nonfiction, short stories, etc.) #rhythms - poetry #mine - all my original writing #notes - random thoughts i have

#asian studies #queer studies #resources - guides, etc. #craft - on writing

[theotherbody]

are there any stories about the TWO last people on earth. who hate each other

[ellipsus-writes]

Today is the biggest day for Ellipsus since we launched in 2023... 👀

Back then, we began building Ellipsus out of a simple belief: writers deserve a place to create, collaborate, and share their work without handing over their words, their data, or their creative process to bad actors and Big Tech—a promise that matters now, more than ever.

Nearly 600k writers and counting are writing on Ellipsus because of this promise. We see everyday how writers are rejecting Big Tech's data mining model in favor of tools that respect user privacy and reflect our values.

We’re a small full-time team building, maintaining, supporting, and improving the tool every day. And to keep doing that sustainably—without compromising the promises that brought people here—we’re introducing Ellipsus Plus.

Plus is a set of optional features on top of free Ellipsus, designed to help fund the continued development of Ellipsus for everyone, free and paid; while helping us stay independent, ad-free, and working to improve the tool well into the future.

That means the Ellipsus you know is staying free: you can keep writing with unlimited documents, drafts, collaborators, and core features. Free Ellipsus will continue to receive updates, improvements, and new features too, including major work already planned (like offline syncing and native apps).

Plus features have been designed alongside community feedback, our pricing shaped by our users around what felt fair and sustainable.

Every Plus subscription leads to ultimate ownership of the tool. Not metaphorical ownership, but real ownership, including all future updates to the Plus plan. No endless subscriptions. Once you’ve paid, it’s yours. Really.

Our introductory Plus features are designed to be fun, creative, practical, and help you get the most out of the tool! We really hope you enjoy them. Here’s a quick overview:

Custom themes

Make your writing space feel like home with custom themes! Use any colors, gradients, images, or .gifs you love. Share with friends and readers. The choices are infinite.

Writing Insights

See insights into your writing process and spot patterns faster across ten AI-free metrics—like vocabulary diversity, sentence length, sentence rhythm, word frequency, and more. Writing insights are opt-in only, and run on local data, so your text never leaves the editor. 

Customizable Snippets

We all love snippets! Now you can give your words an extra personal touch. Customize your snippets with media backgrounds (GIFs, images), fonts, text colors, and custom themes—you can even add byline credits for authors and characters!

Emboss

Emboss is our AI-free proof-of-work layer for human writing. Show your readers the time, labor, and love that went into your work. Instead of relying on unreliable “AI-powered” “verifiers” that judge a piece after the fact, share your writing journey, with authorship metrics that help inspire trust. You can also show how your work evolved with snapshots of your version history. Emboss is fully opt-in.

We hope you’re as excited about Plus as we are! Try Plus free for 7 days, no payment required. You can read more (and sign up!) on our Plus page.

Again, there’s tons more to come, and we can’t wait to build it for you. Free or paid, Ellipsus is going to keep getting better. Thank you for your support.

Have questions about Plus? We’re hosting an “Ask the Team” doc where we’ll be answering your burning questions. Please make comments there! Now please, go forth and explore!

- the Ellipsus Team xo

[theotherbody]

one of the tastiest dynamics ever is victim/abuser where the abuser finally dies and the victim has to reckon with the lovehate they have with them. especially when it's a parent. you made me, you made me like this, i hate you, you're finally gone, and i miss you. why do i miss you?

[archangellust]

sometimes i need stories where it ends bad and sometimes i need ones that are about fighting for air and you do get it eventually and i think the entire theme of my life, not just my stories, is about there always being a way out.

but sometimes i just wanna burn it all down.

[waddei]

a lot of people seem incapable of giving their favorite characters or OCS opinions that they themselves disagree with and that's very very boring on my opinion

[waddei]

" X character would hate ai art" "x character would vote for (politician you like)" like idk I think making every character a perfect woke internet leftists is boring as fuck. You have to accept that some of your faves would be "apolitical" centrists that don't vote

[archangellust]

I'll leave you again and again.

But you'll come back again and again.

[jessebloom]

>book described online as full of perversion and shock

>open book

>stuff that’s understandable or explainable in the context of the narrative

[cykelops]

I like when characters try to fix their problems with bad sex

[thepinkpestilence]

a very specific thing but i just HATE how some people treat transmascs who dare to headcanon a male character as a trans guy. because they believe that oh those trans men and transmascs ONLY do that to fetishize the character or somehow misunderstand the story and not because they just. happen to see themselves in them? RELATE to them? its FICTION. even if you dont agree with their headcanons there is no reason to act like a dipshit. these are some examples i found:

[brawlite]

i don't want to actually write a fic, i want to create a gross scenario that i can roll around in for forever, like a dog in a bad smell. you feel me?

[biocrafthero]

[headspace-hotel]

I write fucked up stuff to cope with something, but hell if I know what it is.

[headspace-hotel]

^ lying she does know but she is hesitant to accept it

[castledock]

hey guys you know a work can have challenging & disturbing & weird themes without it actually being a kink that the writers have, right? I know we all like to use that “the author’s barely disguised fetish” meme but i truly need y’all to understand that some things are just recurring themes & motifs in a body of work without it being sexual for the writers or anyone involved in the creation of art. It’s important to me that y’all know this.

[writingwithcolor]

Our Favorite Books from Asian and Pacific Islander Authors Releases in 2026

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month from WWC!

To celebrate, we’re shining a spotlight on some of our personal picks for 2026 releases from Asian and Pacific Islander authors. 

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao | January 20, 2026 | Chinese | Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance

Jess: This debut novel by Shen Tao about a village girl who offers herself as a concubine to a cruel, violent prince to save her village from starvation. The prose is lush and immersive, with a terrific use of the Rashomon effect as Wei unravels the mysteries surrounding her husband while navigating dangerous court intrigue. However, this book covers darker themes, including child sexual abuse, so reader discretion is advised. 

View on Author Shen Tao's website

The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto | February 10, 2026 | Kānaka Maoli & Hapa Haole | Science Fiction, Queer, Lesbian, Cyberpunk

Mimi: A standalone sci-fi heist novel about a bored hacker who is forced by vicious gangsters to take down a crooked politician, only to find herself facing an unexpected enemy from her past. Written by a Pacific Islander author, this novel is part of an extended “lesbian space heist” universe set in a futuristic Hawai’i-like cityscape, with an all-sapphic and trans cast. I quite enjoyed how the story uses common sci-fi tropes like clones and AI systems gaining sentience to depict themes like labor exploitation, mass displacement, gentrification and surveillance.

View on Author Makana Yamamoto's website

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop (translated by Anton Hur) | April 28, 2026 | Korean | Short Stories, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Rina: An SF short story collection about the human yearning for connection—across alien cultural lines, across the border between life and death, across unfathomable spacetime. I was very taken with Kim Cho-yeop’s inquisitive approach to storytelling and her imaginative worlds, which gently ask us to consider the kinds of distances technology is unable to close. 

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link

Goodreads link

The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean | May 5, 2026 | Hong Konger | Fantasy, Horror, Historical Fiction, Gothic, Paranormal

Mimi: A historical gothic novel set in post-WWII Hong Kong, which blends folklore, commentary on war, and local legends to recount a tale of a ghost-talker woman, who confronts a powerful spirit in the Kowloon Walled City. I've not read this yet, but the premise sounds fantastic.

Behind Five Willows by June Hur | May 26, 2026 | Korean | Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Rina: An homage to Pride and Prejudice set in Joseon Korea, during a time of government book banning. A girl from a lower-ranking family is a secret novel transcriber; a young lord, an author. This gem of a story was a stunning introduction to the work of June Hur, whose characters are as charming as her elegant, nature-imbued prose. 

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link 

Goodreads link 

The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions by Ruth Ozeki | June 2, 2026 | Japanese | Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Paranormal

Rina: A collection of literary short stories about desire, ambition, and the ways storytelling shapes reality and memory. Across a variety of settings, Ruth Ozeki creates a full range of sympathetic and unsympathetic narrative voices, resulting in stories that are grounded yet a touch strange, gritty yet beautiful, dark yet hopeful. Ozeki knows how to craft discomfort and hope in equal measure.

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link 

Goodreads link 

Let us know your most anticipated reads in the comments!

Update:

We have updated the language of this post to describe the featured authors more accurately. Thank you for your feedback and we apologize for the terminology mix-up!

We wish to be inclusive of the contributions of Asian and Pacific Islander creators to American media and culture regardless of where they come from, hence the non-American authors on this list. We hope you enjoy our book recs.

-WWC

Your recommendations

@gyroshrike recommends:

I would also like to suggest a book that just came out, The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe, an author from Hawai‘i! It's an adult fantasy and from what I understand, the magic system and linguistics are pretty tied together. (I JUST got it, so haven't read much yet.)

[theunfortunate-author]

my daily affirmation as an author

[redstonedust]

what happened to "cool as fuck grandma" as a character trope. i miss "cool as fuck grandma"