vivianwrite

[vivianwrite]

I keep forgetting how frigging *long* The Claws of the Ounce is, at least in comparison to my other work. Over 60 pages in and I’m less than 20% through.

[vivianwrite]

I just got to 20K on edits for The Claws of the Ounce!

I also added a Peanuts reference. It will take you out when you read it.

[vivianwrite]

Today’s achievements re: Forest in a Shadow Box:

Finally finished Chapter 4. Turned out it wanted to be a bit shorter than the word count goal.

Started Chapter 5 — the last chapter before we get to see what Taryn’s doing now!

[vivianwrite]

Wednesday Writing Update — June 25, 2025

The Claws of the Ounce 🫀

Word count: 19,688

New words added: 2,008

Current chapter: 5 out of 29 | Draft 3

Estimated completion: 17%

Forest in a Shadow Box 🦋

Word count: 11,155

Words added: 1,805

Current chapter: 4 out of 24 | Draft 1

Estimated completion: 16%

The Gift of Gloves 🧤

Word count: 2,038

New words added: 213

Current chapter: 1 out of 9 | Draft 3

Estimated completion: 9%

The Mysteries of the Apricot Sun 🌇

Word count: 54,220

New words added: 20

Current chapter: 19 out of 32 | Draft 2

Estimated completion: 60%

[vivianwrite]

New blog colour scheme! I decided to make it more distinct from that of my main blog.

[vivianwrite]

Progress on Forest in a Shadow Box has been slow… I’m currently writing the scene where Machaon tries to make Io see reason, to deradicalize her with arguments based in logic and evidence, and it’s genuinely harrowing to write. A good chunk of the story is, really, to some extent.

The bargaining stage of grief. You’ve lost a loved one, but not to death. They’ve gleefully cremated the version of themself you knew, convinced they’ve reached enlightenment and wanting you to do the same. Their new world of “truth” is built on knee-jerk reactions and quippy little scripts. They see true depth as overwrought blathering and propaganda they won’t even consider wasting their time on — They Can Never Be Wrong, and the mere suggestion of that is a deathly insult.

[vivianwrite]

The thing about The Claws of the Ounce is that it very firmly isn’t the “uncontrollable murderous beast” type of werecreature story… but Ash acts like it is. She treats having a mountain screensaver with the same horror with which the protagonists of those stories treat having urges to eat people.

(As I wrote here, this is supposed to be commentary on how people pathologize every last trait of and action taken by someone with a psychological / developmental condition. You can’t do or dis/like anything just because, it MUST link back to your diagnosis.)

[vivianwrite]

Darby and Hespar’s friendship is supposed to be slightly unhealthy from Darby’s side.

Darby has a hard time connecting with people. Hespar is the *only* capital-F Friend she’s ever had. She started pouring her emotional needs into her back when they first met, and this grew much more pronounced after Hespar helped her escape her family and find a new home in a new district.

There’s also the fact that she idolizes Hespar to an extent, seeing her as something cooler than she can ever hope to be. Darby doesn’t have a crushing inferiority complex like her father, but she does have a pervasive feeling of being a perpetual oddball, an irreconcilably different type of person from everyone else (she just doesn’t think she’s *worse* for it).

Over the course of Apricot Sun, she starts realizing this isn’t ideal and reaching out to other people. The results are… well, you’ll have to wait for the book!

[vivianwrite]

Where exactly do the characters of The Claws of the Ounce live?

Daphne (and Ash, when rooming with her): Along Queen Street in Niagara on the Lake.

Sebastian: Grand Bend in Lambton Shores, specifically along the beach.

Thiago: The Silvertown neighbourhood of Niagara Falls.

Orion: A small farmstead between Mississauga and Milton, on a road branching off from the 401.

Elena: Just outside Trikala in Thessaly.

Bonus workplaces:

Thiago’s restaurant: Besides the Niagara River, near the Rainbow Bridge.

Orion’s organization’s headquarters: Downtown Toronto, either in or near Sankofa Square (though I feel I should note that the story takes place before the name change).

[vivianwrite]

One of the themes of The Gift of Gloves is anti-bioessentialism.

Everyone agrees the concept of an “inherently evil species” is garbage, right? Well, TGOG deals with the inverse concept and why it also sucks. Among the people of Tetet Valley, there is an idea that txentx (all of them, both Tetet folk and outsiders) are “a special species that is good and kind by nature” because of their social instincts and ability to comprehend / have invented the concept of morality.

It’s true that txentx are a social species and generally inclined to take care of each other, in the same way as humans. However, just like humans again, they can develop different values throughout their life and act against their instincts. Such is the nature of sapience — a sapient creature is no longer beholden to instinct. (Not that non-sapient animals all act the same within a species either, but it’s… less so.)

Anyway, the Tetet folk are convinced that they are of an Inherently Good Species. If one of them does something unambiguously bad, it must have been because they were somehow aberrant by nature.

Because of this, they kind of just accept everything Yaxtan does. She isn’t aberrant, they know that for a fact. She’s their elected leader, respected for many years. If she is Of The Good People and not An Aberration, then what she says must be Good and Right as well.

In refusing to admit their own ability to perform evil acts, they deny the nature and implications of their own sapience in the name of personal comfort.

[vivianwrite]

The really tragic thing about Part 2 of The Claws of the Ounce is that Orion isn’t even putting in any effort to manipulate Ash. She already outsources her perception of reality to those around her. You can tell her anything negative about herself and she’ll believe it. (If you tell her something *positive*, though, she’ll think you’re lying or mistaken.)

This is the aftereffect of life under her parents. Engrained behaviours and worldviews create vicious cycles. Abuse setting the stage for more abuse.

[vivianwrite]

My computer’s spellcheck has given up on underlining “Machaon” and now accepts it as an English word.

Certainly makes the document easier on the eyes!

[vivianwrite]

Today is the 3-month anniversary of A Summer with the Immortal’s release… and I’m still unemployed. Consider checking it out!

Itch: parisvivian.itch.io/a-summer-with-the-immortal

Kobo: kobo.com/ebook/a-summer-with-the-immortal

[Image description: A graphic featuring the cover of A Summer with the Immortal with labeled arrows around it. The cover is mostly light green. In the centre is a red lily with a long stamen shaped like a three-pronged radio antenna. Labels read: Mutagenic phenomenon. F/F with a meet-cute. Autistic MC and LI. Fantastical biotech. Environmental politics. Ancient ruins with strange secrets. Library love. End ID.]

[vivianwrite]

Wednesday Writing Update - June 18, 2025

Forest in a Shadow Box 🦋

Word count: 9,350

Words added: 2,884 (copy-pasted 92 words from Draft 0.5)

Current chapter: Just finished 3 out of 24 | Draft 1

Estimated completion: 13%

The Claws of the Ounce 🫀

Word count: 14,307

New words added: 1,804

Current chapter: 3 out of 29 | Draft 3

Estimated completion: 13%

The Gift of Gloves 🧤

Word count: 1,825

New words added: 377

Current chapter: 1 out of 9 | Draft 3

Estimated completion: 8%

The Mysteries of the Apricot Sun 🌇

Word count: 54,200

New words added: 364

Current chapter: 19 out of 32 | Draft 2

Estimated completion: 60%

[vivianwrite]

Machaon still loves his mother, even though she’s now saying and doing bad things to him. At this point in the story he believes he can deradicalize her, and clings to the idea to avoid facing the pain of having to cut her out of his life.

Today in Forest in a Shadow Box: Machaon takes it on himself to be his mother’s tether to morality.

Pro tip: if your relationship with a loved one ever starts looking like this, RUN. Or at least withdraw as much as you can.

[Image description: More than that, Io loved him. If he were to withdraw and eventually abandon her over this, it would break her heart and give her a new, huge, based-in-personal-experience reason to think the Verdantland conservation movement was evil.

No, cutting her off wasn’t the way. The only way which stood a chance at success was to convince her to change through the pathway of their bond.

The idea of using familial love as strategy made him feel sick, but what else was he to do? It was now his duty to be the thing connecting her to truth and goodness.

End ID.]

[vivianwrite]

Today in Forest in a Shadow Box: Machaon takes it on himself to be his mother’s tether to morality.

Pro tip: if your relationship with a loved one ever starts looking like this, RUN. Or at least withdraw as much as you can.

[Image description: More than that, Io loved him. If he were to withdraw and eventually abandon her over this, it would break her heart and give her a new, huge, based-in-personal-experience reason to think the Verdantland conservation movement was evil.

No, cutting her off wasn’t the way. The only way which stood a chance at success was to convince her to change through the pathway of their bond.

The idea of using familial love as strategy made him feel sick, but what else was he to do? It was now his duty to be the thing connecting her to truth and goodness.

End ID.]

[vivianwrite]

I’m halfway finished with edits on Part 1 of The Claws of the Ounce! It’s already 40+ pages and close to 15K words long.