curious-bluejay

[curious-bluejay]

Dandelions & marigolds

[curious-bluejay]

😍

My ocs! a princess and her loyal knight 💕

[curious-bluejay]

Aaaaahhhh. Iloveitsomuch.

I think I saw that one of your fav authors is VE Schwab. I actually found your blog while I'm waiting for one of her books at the library. I love how you both do power dynamics and flow! I 💕 your blog!!!

I would love to see a possessive king who has to keep recovering a prince that's betrothed to him but keeps running.

Thanks for giving me my fix while I try to last the months long wait at the library! 😂

"You're clever enough to keep escaping despite all odds," the king murmured. "Why aren't you clever enough to realise that will never end where you want it to?"

The prince glared at him.

The king helped himself to another sip of tea, before he finally deigned to glance up from his breakfast table. Implacable. So seemingly genteel among the fine trays and silver, as if he were not a thing of avarice and dominion made flesh.

"Even should you make it all the way back to your kingdom," the king said, "they'll send you straight back. They gave you to me, remember? You are my betrothed by right."

"They don't know you. If they'd known who was truly asking-" The prince bit himself off, his fists curling.

The king hummed.

"And you think telling them of my true nature will spare you it. That they'd fight for you?"

"Of course they would."

"And would they fight for you like I would?"

The prince stared.

The king smiled, pleasantly, and slid a plate of hot bread rolls across the table towards him. An indication to sit.

The prince did not, though his legs felt jellied with the exhaustion of running. He said nothing.

"I'd fight for you like a holy war," the king said, voice too soft for such dark eyes. "Like laying siege to paradise. I'd fight for you in a thousand year campaign. I'd reduce your kingdom to a citadel of bones and ash before I let them keep you from me. I'd begrudge you no amount of bloodshed, no horror, because you are mine." His head tilted. "How would your former people fight for you?"

"Honourably," the prince snapped, mouth dry. "Kindly. I am their prince!"

"Perhaps." The king shrugged. "Or perhaps they'd begrudge. Resent the ordinary lives wasted and the livelihoods ruined by their pretty little princeling who thought he had the right to marry for love. As if he were just a man."

Bile burned up the prince's throat, at that.

"Merely something to think about," the king said.

"Maybe I won't go home then! But even five minutes away from this place, away from you, is a blessing."

The king did not seem offended or bothered by that, any more than he had the prince's glare or numerous defiances. It made the prince want to shake him until his teeth rattled.

"Do you not care that I do not love you?" the prince demanded. "That I do not wish to be yours?"

The pleasant smile flickered off the king's face for the very first time and what was left was terrible.

The prince took an automatic step back, though he did not consider himself a coward.

The king rose from his chair, rounding the table. The prince looked around at the guards but they were the king's guards, no matter their official job title, and they only stared ahead unmoving. No doubt, they would stare even if he started screaming. Crying. Pleading.

The prince backed up another step before forcing himself to hold his ground. His shoulders squared as the king came to a stop in front of him. He braced for - he wasn't sure what.

"I will say this once, and only once, my clever prince." The king stroked the backs of his knuckles gently down along the prince's jaw, nudging his gaze back when it tried to slide away. The prince's breath hitched. "If I did not care, I could keep you with broken legs in a straight jacket, blind and dumb and mute until I felt you'd learned your proper place here. I could marry you tomorrow without care for your own customs, rituals or comfort. Do you understand?"

The prince felt a little dizzy.

"There a worse fates in the world than being mine," the king said. "The sooner you understand that, the sooner you might make a home in this place that you are not so eager to run from."

"So I should thank you?" It came out hoarse.

"I do not expect you to thank me. I know who and what I asked for when I asked for you."

The king's hand dropped and, for the first time, the prince felt strangely bereft of its heat. Its grounding presence. He swallowed.

"Get some rest," the king said, his pleasant smile back, "if you will not join me for breakfast. You have had a difficult night, from what I've heard, and I'm sure your next attempt to flee this place will be no less gruelling. You'll need your strength, love."

The prince let himself be led back to his chambers in a daze.

[curious-bluejay]

happy pride! please be kind to yourself. never let them win

[curious-bluejay]

Stonewall Riots + 5 Names To Know

[curious-bluejay]

I actually adore how "abruptly" this author finishes books. That knowing the character is going to be good after a "release from pain" is all I personally need. Epilogues can feel so specifically as if the author needs to cram too much into too few pages sometimes.

While I did also enjoy the extra chatting with everyone at the end of Icarus, if they had been moved out of the setting the entire book was in it would have felt as though a new story was opening up with too many new obstacles for Icarus to face. The shortness with which this author writes lends itself to more "abrupt" endings and it simply makes me happy to see the characters at a better place than they were at the beginning. They have the means to move forward and live a life bettered in their situation with the people around them.

I’m fascinated with people who say my endings are abrupt or unsatisfying.

I hear it a fair amount actually.

From a writing perspective, I tend to “stop” writing when the audience should be very sure that what happens next will be a happily ever after. Like that the problem has been solved and they have nothing left but to move forward and live. But I usually don’t show them doing it. Just the assurance that they’re going to be alright.

I’m interested in what the people who say this want specifically.

So they want epilogues? Do they want like 2 months of content after the book should, imo, be over?

Do they want to witness the healing, instead of just the relief of being released from pain?

I wish I could gather everyone who says that about my art into a group chat so I could figure out exactly what they think is missing so I can further refine my craft.

Because to be honest, I don’t think I’ll get that from my editors or anywhere else. Because the truth of the matter is that every book I write gets more awards and accolades than the last, so everyone around me is disincentivized to mess with what I’m doing.

It’s sort of…hard…to demand critique when the exact governing bodies that identify mastery are saying “this is the best thing we’ve received this season.”

The reason I want to “fix” it is because I think the people who are satisfied with what I’m doing already won’t be irritated by the extra content, while the people who think it’s the one thing keeping me from true excellence will be elated at the change. A very win/win.

And also, I can’t really tell because for example, I wanted to stop writing Icarus directly after the scene where Icarus and Helios wake up in the hospital. But, taking a cue from this complaint on a previous book, I decided to give them some time, a vital conversation tying up loose ends, and a few chapters talking about what happened next and assuring the reader that they’ll be alright and I still got people saying they wanted to see Icarus go to France. (?)

At what point am I allowed to stop writing and why am I unable to pin point it.

[curious-bluejay]

Almost finished with this one. So so good. My heart twinges for these characters and how they've fallen in love.

'You're just a house I'm haunting.'

— K. Ancrum, The Corruption of Hollis Brown

[curious-bluejay]

Well shoot I might have to go learn how to build affordable housing. Anyone know what programs to look into?

[curious-bluejay]

Oh ok so it turns out ive been borrowing grief from the future ! it turns out ive been preparing to lose the things i love rather than basking in the light of them while they last. Maybe i should nt do that

[curious-bluejay]

fossil record patisserie

[curious-bluejay]

yeah

[curious-bluejay]

[curious-bluejay]

spark ✨⁣

[curious-bluejay]

Art Critic: the skull in the corner is artfully placed on the periphery of vision to symbolise the omnipresence of death, important thematically to the artist’s conception of life and mortality.

Actual Artist: aw shit, I got all this negative space, guess I’ll stick a skull there that looks pretty rad.

[curious-bluejay]

Tower Records, Tacoma Washington, 1978

[curious-bluejay]

[curious-bluejay]

Simone Brogini