awakeingdreamer - Tumblr blog

[awakeingdreamer]

Perhaps they ought not to have eaten the dragon. There had been people objecting to it at the time. Surely such meat was poisonous. Perhaps it was even an affront, an insult to some intangible order of nature they ought to honour.

But the city was starving, the siege had gone on too long, and the king's troops were still a week's march away. The scorched earth would be fertile again in time, but right now it was barren. Right now there were mouths to feed. So they changed their crossbows for butcher knives and got to work.

None of the royal commanders asked any questions that could not be answered. After all, their aid had come shamefully late. The dragon's horned skull made a noble gift, a fitting tribute from a triumphant city to its humbled king. Who would have thought to question them?

And none of the townsfolk spoke up, when the first golden-eyed babes were born. Children who grew up barefoot and fearless, clambering over the city's patched and rebuilt roofs like they had no notion of falling, with a strange glitter to their skin when the sunlight hit it just so. No one breathed a word about dragons.

Because soon enough there were deft, young hands taking loaves straight out of the oven, heedlessly lifting iron from the forge, plunging into boiling laundry water. And some of them more wondrous still, wild, warm-skinned youths, with inexplicable knowledge and peculiar remedies.

A blessing, their families said proudly. A blessing after so much hardship. Which it was, in its way. This city would never fear dragon fire again.

[awakeingdreamer]

Blood Rose, page 2

Chapter 1: Starting August

The music comes from everywhere, drifting through the air above our heads and weaving between the spaces between the dancers. Skirts swirl as girls and women are spun by their dance partners. Laughter from the old and the young alike murmur between the cords, mingling with the conversations. For the first time in so many months, the air smells of wine and flowers, untainted by blood and sorrow. I smooth my snow white hands over my skirt, half realizing how strange it has become to not be holding a weapon.

It is a good strange, I decide. Soon I will crave blood and battle again, but when that time comes it will be my own business to handle. This time, it will not require my sacrifice of or from my people.

Sensing his gaze on me, I look over to meet my Knight’s storm grey eyes. He tips his head slightly, his eyes darting to his left. I stick my tongue out at him, slightly, subtly, but enough for him to see, causing him to smile.

Even still, I follow his guidance and descend the dais. I fought with my people, now I will dance with them.

The boy with strange hair – sandy blonde, but with red sand sprinkled in – and bright blood red eyes approaches me. His skin is paler than most, though not nearly so pale as mine. I know his name, but it doesn’t come to me now. Despite my dress beginning to feel tight, I put my hand in his and let him pull me into the dance.

It almost feels like my dress is trying to burst after a minute. It was made for someone much smaller than me. His hand doesn’t leave mine as I spin, but when I turn back the boy with me is different. His hair’s turned brown, his skin’s darkened – has mine too? – and those eyes are brown now, soft and wild and filled with life.

[awakeingdreamer]

Wonderland Worldbuilding, page 2

Section 1: The Natural World (continued)

Part 1: The Sky (continued)

Moons

Wonderland has 3 moons, though their visibility is inconsistent and varied.

The most visible moons are the twin blue moons known as the Eyes. They are visible almost every star watch, and are always together. It is almost unheard of for one of the Eyes to be seen without the other.

The third moon is called the Grin, a white sideways crescent that occasionally appears below the Eyes.

When they're visible, Wonderland's moons can be seen all over the world, though they are largest over the country of Lyssia.

Light

Wonderland has no sun, but is instead lit by ribbons of light, the colors of which vary over each country.

[awakeingdreamer]

Blood Rose, page 1

In 1471, a battle poured blood and fire into the soil and soul of Italy. On one side was magic -- those with and without it. Led by a middle child of Italy's royal family, an oddity among the princes and princesses that surrounded her. At fifteen years old, she was meant to be married off to some noble that would strengthen her family's power. Instead, she drew on a power of her own and rode at the head of her supporters into battle. Her rebellious courage earned her the trust and loyalty of not only the magical creatures who lived in her family's kingdom, but that of the magicless humans who learned to believe and See. Many pledged their loyalty to her and followed her into battle.

On the other side of this battle, this war without beginning or end, were the religious. Templars fought alongside Catholic civilians. Catholid soldiers originally pledged to other armies swore their swords to a bigger cause -- the fight against the unnatural sin that they saw magic as.

[awakeingdreamer]

[awakeingdreamer]

Oh, guys! My guest-blog post for Wandering Words Media (i'm a senior editor there, btw!) has gone live!

Check it out, maybe?

New Speaker, New Paragraph - Dialogue Grammar (wanderingwordsmedia.com)

[awakeingdreamer]

Wonderland Worldbuilding, page 1

Section 1: The Natural World

Part 1: The Sky

Stars

Wonderland is so far on the edge of the universe it can't see the stars that the rest of the worlds can. Instead, Wonderland's stars are special souls that glow in the dark, whether they're in a body or not. If these souls are in a body, that glow shines through their skin as well. When the world turns dark, the stars climb the caterpillar thread web that covers the skies so that the stars' light can illuminate the night.

The stars have no pattern and are not always in the same position every night. Some stars have their favorite spots that they were climb to regularly, but others will choose a different spot every climb.

There are no constellations in Wonderland. Many constellations known in other worlds are held within a single star of Wonderland.

Leo, Pisces, Gemini, Taurus, Aries, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Capricorn, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Cancer, Dog, Dragon, Goat, Rat, Snake, Rabbit, Tiger, Pig, Rooster, Horse, Horse, Ox, Monkey, Wonder, Wander, Chance, Magic, Honor, Soul, Heart, Rebel, Love, Path, Wish, Mirror, (more to list)

The time when the light disappears and the sky turns dark is known as "star-climb", as that's when the stars make their climb and choose their positions.

The time during which the stars are in the web is known as "star-watch", as that's when the stars watch over the people of Wonderland.

If too few stars make the climb during star-climb, the star-watch becomes dangerous.

[awakeingdreamer]

your Wip intro post seems like it would be cool but the small text on the bright color background actually means I can’t read it

It's actually a screenshot of my worldbuilding document of my version of Wonderland. Since readability's a problem though, I'll repost it as a normal tumblr post and post it that way from now on.

[awakeingdreamer]

I write horror, romance, fantasy, historical, a bunch of others I can't think of the names of right now, but I'll always do it all under as Alice Wakefield.

do you think horror and contemporary clean romance can be published under the same penname? hmmm

that would be...much easier tbh

[awakeingdreamer]

[awakeingdreamer]

I'm a multi-genre fantasy writer

Writeblr Follow Train/queue fill up!

I just cleared out over 300 inactive/irrelevant blogs from my following list and I'm on the hunt for new, active writeblrs to follow! Please reblog this post if your blog is dedicated specifically to writing/art/original creative work!!

I'm not interested in seeing fandom or political discourse. That's all very important but my dash is cluttered with hundreds of other blogs posting that thank you very much.

All genres and ages are welcome but bonus points for fantasy, scifi, horror, and anyone who doesn't write romance/focuses on family plots

I am in the process of self publishing my debut novel and I'd love to connect with my peers! If you're also going through the publishing process or you have a book or two out, please introduce yourself!!

That being said, everyone is welcome to introduce themselves and share links to their WIP intros regardless of their experience level, I'll throw em in my queue!

If you don't know me: Hi! I'm Etta Grace, I've been on writeblr since 2019, and I used to be super involved in the community before college/real life work/author platform stuff consumed my time, and I'm trying to get back into things here! I run a website/YouTube channel where I do ARC and book reviews, author interviews, and share my observations on the publishing industry, and my middle grade faerie fantasy novel, Runaways, should hopefully be coming out in October 2025! This is my pinned post if you want to check out what I do!

Boosts appreciated!!

[awakeingdreamer]

I know adverbs are controversial, but "said softly" means something different than "whispered" and this is the hill I will die on.

[awakeingdreamer]

HEY YOU. Write whatever you want. Don't let the what ifs cloud your vision.

[awakeingdreamer]

Webzine submissions open for writing!

Dear writers on tumblr, pour yourself a drink on the house. We've been asking for editors for our webzine in the last few weeks (you can still sign up here). We are focusing on going into different worlds. Now, we can announce that we are accepting writing submissions for it!

Who can submit writing?

All writers can submit writing to our zine, whether you have already published other works. Or have previously shared other writing pieces on [tumblr] or Archive of our own (or similar platforms). Our editors will pick their favourite pieces for each category based on different criteria, the most important thing is how well the pieces fit our theme Portal to Another World.

What kind of writing can I submit?

We are open to any form of writing! You can submit any form of writing from poetry, prose, flash fiction, a short story, song lyrics or even a non-fiction essay. As long as it fits the theme and is unpublished. Our theme is Portal to Another World. Unpublished in this case means it isn't published in print or online. You can't submit excerpts from your WIPs when they can't be understood outside the context of your WIP.

Will you compensate me?

As much as we would love to pay all contributors, we don't have the funds. We discussed this on our server and decided we want our zine accessible to all readers. Understand this is a passion project, so you will not be compensated for your writing. The finished zine will be shared as a free PDF download with a pay-what-you-want option on our KoFi. The little money we make from the zine will be used to fund future projects of writeblrcafé (e.g. a second zine) and boosts for our Discord server.

Where can I submit my writing?

Just fill in the form below! You can submit your writing as a PDF file. The word limit for prose is 2500 words. The limit for poetry is 50 verses. You can only submit one piece of writing. If your piece of writing is longer, feel free to submit it. We will decide on a case-to-case basis. We hope many of you take this chance to collaborate on our webzine, which will be compiled in a compelling design.

Submissions for artwork will open soon!

Please reblog this post to spread the word in the writing community!

[awakeingdreamer]

[awakeingdreamer]

[awakeingdreamer]