omnishambl3s

[omnishambl3s]

Note - We’ve updated this post with more tools and clarifications!

Every day, there seem to be more reasons to break up with Google.

So we’ve rounded up a bunch of privacy-centric alternatives for all your deGoogling needs.

Check out the full list over on the blog!

- The Ellipsus Team xo

[omnishambl3s]

Oak King Holly King is a Victorian romantasy wherein a fearsome fae warrior destined for ritual sacrifice seeks a mortal clerk fated to save him.

Amazon • Apple Books • Audible • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop.org • Chirp • itch.io • Kobo • libro.fm • Overdrive • Smashwords

[omnishambl3s]

Advice For Making Realistic Characters:

Make them have multiple interests - Your character doesn’t have to fit one aesthetic alone. For example, I like collecting feathers and vintage keys, but also notebooks and squishmallows, none of which are all the same aesthetic

Allow for improper dialogue - We know not to use “and” at the beginning of a sentence, but humans do that anyway. We stutter and catch our breath and forget how to word things properly. We don’t have to be diagnosed with a stutter or speak multiple languages to screw it up now and then

They should all have their own voice - This is mainly for writing in multiple perspectives. Personally it’s hard to give each character their own voice rather than my own. Regardless of the language or era of your story, each character should sound unique, whether they have certain catchphrases or use more slang or talk more formally

Give them all a self-presentation - We all act differently depending on who we’re around, and characters should be this way as well

Give them mindless habits - Possibly for a filler scene or something in the background, but give your character more than just nail biting habits. Allow for a small or simple change (like moving furniture around) where your character still has a habit of doing the old thing (going where the furniture used to be, not being able to find anything after it was moved)

Let them be bored - People are always and I mean always finding ways to entertain themselves. If you’re writing a character that sits still and thinks and doesn’t always have to be doing something, just make sure that it fits their personality. I don’t know a lot of people who can go for long without some form of entertainment.

[omnishambl3s]

✨Books✨

The beginning of a trilogy about a god of death and the world who has to put up with him

Book 1: A disaster bisexual convicted of stabbing a politician gets chosen to be Prophet of Death. The priesthood is… not thrilled. Get it here

Book 2: A retired assassin gets hired to find a cure for a young lord’s poisoned daughter. Along the way he meets a nonbinary bard with the power to change people’s emotions by touching them. Maybe they fall in love? :3 Get it here

You can read them out of order, as long as you read both before book 3 (which will come out 2025)!

Read the reviews here

Trigger warnings are listed in amazon descriptions.

[omnishambl3s]

Oklahoma is attempting to pass a bill that would ban explicit romance novels. Authors, narrators, and sellers could all face fines of up to $100,000 and up to 10 years in jail for each instance.

If you live in OK, call your representative and tell them this bill should not be allowed to pass.

This is likely a test case. Republicans will try to pass it in OK and if it passes other states will likely try to pass similar laws.

In the meantime, get physical copies of books you like. Download those pdfs. Archive your AO3 stories and keep them on a physical hard drive. (Storing those files in the cloud could be problematic in the future as the company managing the cloud service can see what your files are)

[omnishambl3s]

I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD.  If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?

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writing advice for characters with a missing eye: dear God does losing an eyes function fuck up your neck. Ever since mine crapped out I've been slowly and unconsciously shifting towards holding my head at an angle to put the good eye closer to the center. and human necks. are not meant to accommodate that sorta thing.

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i'm feeling bad about the chapter i posted and fear i may be killed or even pelted with tomatoes. i really hate tomatoes so you can see this is not great for me

[omnishambl3s]

masterpost of horror lists

here are all my horror lists in one place to make it easier to find! enjoy!

sub-genres

action horror

analog horror

animal horror

animated horror

anthology horror

aquatic horror

apocalyptic horror

backwoods horror

bubblegum horror

campy horror

cannibal horror

children’s horror

comedy horror

coming-of-age horror

corporate/work place horror

cult horror

dance horror

dark comedy horror

daylight horror

death games

domestic horror

ecological horror

erotic horror

experimental horror

fairytale horror

fantasy horror

folk horror

found footage horror

giallo horror

gothic horror

grief horror

historical horror

holiday horror

home invasion horror

house horror

indie horror

isolation horror

insect horror

lgbtqia+ horror

lovecraftian/cosmic horror

medical horror

meta horror

monster horror

musical horror

mystery horror

mythological horror

neo-monster horror

new french extremity horror

paranormal horror

political horror

psychedelic horror

psychological horror

religious horror

revenge horror

romantic horror

dramatic horror

science fiction horror

slasher

southern gothic horror

sov horror (shot-on-video)

splatter/body horror

survival horror

techno-horror

vampire horror

virus horror

werewolf horror

western horror

witch horror

zombie horror

horror plots/settings

road trip horror

summer camp horror

cave horror

doll horror

cinema horror

cabin horror

clown horror

wilderness horror

asylum horror

small town horror

college horror

plot devices

storm horror

from a child’s perspective

final girl/guy (this is slasher horror trope)

last guy/girl (this is different than final girl/guy)

reality-bending horror

slow burn horror

possession

pregnancy horror

foreign horror or non-american horror

african horror

spanish horror

middle eastern horror

korean horror

japanese horror

british horror

german horror

indian horror

thai horror

irish horror

scottish horror

slavic horror (kinda combined a bunch of countries for this)

chinese horror

french horror

australian horror

canadian horror

decades

silent era

30s horror

40s horror

50s horror

60s horror

70s horror

80s horror

90s horror

2000s horror

2010s horror

2020s horror

companies/services

blumhouse horror

a24 horror

ghosthouse horror

shudder horror

other lists

horror literature to movies

techno-color horror movies

video game to horror movie adaption

video nasties

female directed horror

my 130 favorite horror movies

horror movies critics hated because they’re stupid

horror remakes/sequels that weren’t bad

female villains in horror

horror movies so bad they’re good

non-horror movies that feel like horror movies

directors + their favorite horror movies + directors in the notes

tumblr’s favorite horror movie (based off my poll)

horror movie plot twists

cult classic horror movies

essential underrated horror films

worst horror movie husbands

religious horror that isn’t christianity 

black horror movies

extreme horror (maybe use this as an avoid list)

horror shorts

[omnishambl3s]

Anyway. If you like books that contain "very long, very explicit sex scenes" then maybe you'll like One Night in Hartswood more than this person did 🤷

And if you've already read ONIH and want an even steamier bonus sex scene, then check out Kneel over on AO3 👀

[omnishambl3s]

If you are transmasc, specifically an angry transmasc, specifically specifically an angry artistic/creative transmasc who likes horror, you should read The Church of the Mountain of Flesh by Kyle Wakefield.

CotMoF follows a trans man named Sole as he navigates life in a small medieval Italian town perched on seaside cliffs. After his life is torn apart by an earthquake, a religious uprising (that he started), and the death of his childhood sweetheart, Sole makes a deal with God - rebuild the church, in return for the body of a man.

The story is full of body horror, religious overtones, and some of the most painful and nuanced depictions of dysphoria I've ever read (/pos). I have a full review I've written for Casual Obsession Horror Podcast's website that will go live next week where I get into the nitty gritty of my feelings on that, but in the meantime I urge other people to (after reading the content warnings) READ THIS BOOK!!! 1 part cautionary tale, 1 part wish fulfillment, 3 parts devastatingly well-written character study. Read it pls.

Get a copy or search The Church of the Mountain of Flesh for more, non-amazon purchasing options.

[omnishambl3s]

I made this at 2am and do not remember why. Anyway, Fiorenzo crossword.

Across 5. A ruthless prince. 7. A victim of operatic machinations. 8. A poison allegedly used by the Borgias; no real-world analog has been found. 10. One who knows his price but not his worth. 12. The fantasy-of-manners genre. 13. A newspaper, named for the coin it costs. 14. The ideal novel contains no fewer than five instances of this. 15. One who wears a beaked mask with glass eyes. 16. A mask that hides scars carved deep by betrayal. Down 1. The bestest boy. 2. An opera house master and producer, not unlike Vivaldi. 3. A master artisan who knows Fiore better than he knows himself. 4. A knight of Halcyon. 6. The most fun a man can have with his clothes on - or off, frankly. 9. Curtained cabin aboard a gondola. 11. Begging for the chance to be someone's righteous blade. 13. A devoted sister. 14. A city of serenity wed to the sea.

Fiorenzo is a fantasy-of-manners romance featuring swordplay, hurt/comfort, and a happily-ever-after. Fiore has a plan. Find a wealthy elderly gentleman, delight him until the end of his days, and retire on the resulting inheritance. It’s the best outcome a low-born courtesan in the city of Halcyon can hope for. And it seems a perfect scheme… until a mysterious masked man upends it. Banished from university after a disastrous duel, Enzo wanders the city searching for scraps of the affection he’s lost. His public mask conceals private agonies. A single night in the company of a courtesan, however, balms his wounded heart, and he finds himself returning again and again to Fiore, revealing more of himself than he’s ever dared before. Furthermore, and more astonishing still, Fiore finds he returns Enzo’s affections. But while Fiore wears no mask, he nonetheless has secrets of his own. And when the ghosts of their pasts return to haunt them, only the bond of trust between them will carry them through.

[omnishambl3s]

The House With the Haunted Heart is available for preorder! 

The House: A gently decaying Victorian with a well-deserved reputation for being haunted. On its fifth foreclosure after previous owners abandoned it. The Homeowner: Aaron Calveley, recently escaped from Silicon Valley and working remotely at his programming job. A gay, half-Asian horror nerd with a reasonably popular gaming stream. Single, and hoping to fix that through the power of online dating. What exactly is haunting the house, and what does it want with its latest buyer? Will Aaron ever have a good date, let alone find a boyfriend? Is the East Bay worth it? Hopefully the pizza delivery driver learns to find Aaron before the ghost does. Tags: low-stakes haunting, m/m/m-ish (house) romance, open door spice, everyday magic, mild creepiness, major fluff  

This is my 9th self-published novel, huzzah! It's soft, it's weird, and it's really very monsterfucker lite by tumblr standards. The final configuration is m/m/house, but in a very sweet way. As you'd expect from me, really. There's food porn, porn-porn, and some light creepiness as the house and homeowner decide to learn to live together after all.

[omnishambl3s]

from “James Baldwin, The Art of Fiction No. 78,” interviewed by Jordan Elgrably, Paris Review (no. 91, Spring 1984)

[omnishambl3s]

Queer Your Library

Reminder to request queer books from your libraries!

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sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

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This week on Right Here Write Queer, please enjoy this special sneak peek into the audiobook of Oak King Holly King - a gay Victorian fae romance by Sebastian Nothwell, read by Gary Furlong.

Shrike, the Butcher of Blackthorn, is a legendary warrior of the fae realms. When he wins a tournament in the Court of the Silver Wheel, its queen names him her Oak King - a figurehead destined to die in a ritual duel to invoke the change of seasons. Shrike is determined to survive. Even if it means he must put his heart as well as his life into a mere mortal’s hands. Wren Lofthouse, a London clerk, has long ago resigned himself to a life of tedium and given up his fanciful dreams. When a medieval-looking brute arrives at his office to murmur of destiny, he’s inclined to think his old enemies are playing an elaborate prank. Still, he can’t help feeling intrigued by the bizarre-yet-handsome stranger and his fantastical ramblings, whose presence stirs up emotions Wren has tried to lock away in the withered husk of his heart. As Shrike whisks Wren away to a world of Wild Hunts and arcane rites, Wren is freed from the repression of Victorian society. But both the fae and mortal realms prove treacherous to their growing bond. Wren and Shrike must fight side-by-side to see who will claim victory - Oak King or Holly King.

Oak King Holly King is a romantasy wherein a fearsome fae warrior destined for ritual sacrifice seeks a Victorian clerk fated to save him.