lyraoctaviawrites

[lyraoctaviawrites]

I got Children of Queens, which actually doesn’t sound too bad honestly

Spin this wheel first and then this wheel second to generate the title of a YA fantasy novel!

(If the second wheel lands on an option ending with a plus sign, spin it again)

Share what you got!

[lyraoctaviawrites]

[lyraoctaviawrites]

I don’t hate this

You are trapped in an elevator with the person on your lockscreen. Who is it?

Reblog with who you get stuck with~

[lyraoctaviawrites]

A little art therapy as I realized how my creative phases were like the water cycle 🌧️ If you’re also in a bit of a creative “dry spell”, this one’s for you.

PS: thanks so much for all your support / input on my artist’s block post. Just seeing your response helped me sketch out what I’m gonna do for the next couple of comics. I may not make my deadline, but it feels a lot better to have a plan. 🩵

[lyraoctaviawrites]

Trust me, you’re gonna wanna read it. She’s very serious.

[lyraoctaviawrites]

The fact that I don't and have never used generative AI makes me feel like I've escaped the matrix or some shit. I have my own thoughts and ideas and autonomy and not just ones that The Simulation have picked out for me. Feels kinda awesome ngl.

"But you hate writing essays and doing academic writing and stuff, why not use AI to-"

My words are valuable, bitch. Even the ones I didn't like putting on the page are still mine. Go back to your robot life you bearer of the curse and leave valuable human beings like me to get on with our glorious power of creation.

[lyraoctaviawrites]

I have enough school angst to fill a book

Or two

...or ten

does everyone have a teacher that they still have beef with/ hold a grudge against today??

[lyraoctaviawrites]

[lyraoctaviawrites]

Well this sounds like fun :3

✨5 things you will always find in my writing✨

1. A whole lot of queers, I always include at least one sapphic relationship, trans characters and aro/ace characters

2. Stories about mental health

3. Spells, witches, anything involving magic, especially if it leads to epic magic battles later on

4. Well realised characters, character arcs and character relationships

5. Dry, witty, borderline ridiculous humour and emotional moments that’ll have you sobbing for weeks, sometimes both in the same chapter :)

Tags: @sleep-well-dearest @arimonsterwolf @kaylinalexanderbooks @leahnardo-da-veggie

5 things you will always find in my fics

Tagged by @cromwelll thank you!

Shipping

Present tense

Song lyric titles

Pop culture references

Exact word counts

Now I want to write something that includes NONE of these lol </3

Tagging five fellow fic writers: @0nelittlebirdtoldme @complicitsacrilege @goblins-riddles-or-frocks @udaberriwrites and @17panicattacksinatrenchcoat or anyone who wants to play :)

[lyraoctaviawrites]

bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements

[lyraoctaviawrites]

Ngl this sounds really cool

THE STOLEN CHILD - Story intro

So, I thought I’d post an overview of the world that burst inside my mind four years ago, and has so far refused to leave :)

You can read it on AO3 here :)

The Stolen Child is the first part of a multi-book, multi-POV series titled The Kinship Chronicles. The story falls under the self-engineered time capsule urban fantasy genre, which is short for a mosaic of urban fantasy, historical fiction, adventure, a touch of horror, a tentative dark academia, and probably a couple other genres I’m forgetting right now. It's also YA! But, above all else, TKC is a story of doomed debts dealt across generations.

The synopsis is as follows:

Coraline 'Cal' Everitt has a secret. Her body, which at the age of five, she discovered would split into two forms—one mortal, the other not. Oftentimes without her consent. Why? All her attempts to learn the reason proved fruitless. But here's the one thing she's certain of: no one in her family shares her ability, thus, she must bring it to her grave.

Oliver Whitaker has a secret. His double-lived identity. He hails from The Kinship, an underground society for the otherworldly Saz. And yet, he spends his days Aboveground, spying on Cal in search of a sign that would mark her as one of his own, like her parents before her. Even though they hold no memories of it.

Diana Zubairu has a secret. The ghosts of her past haunting her present. Her family moved to London in hopes of escaping the aftermath of her brother's death. She may think herself on the path to healing, may find new companions in Cal and Oliver, yet John's clutch is strong and stubborn—and he has deemed her his sole victim.

Then a sudden attack falls upon them, causing the walls guarding their secrets to crumble to dust. Cal, Diana and Oliver will have to rediscover reality in the latter's native land—the very same land Cal and Diana are also entitled to. But in The Kinship, they'll get entangled in a quest that will challenge the very basis on which their perceptions hinder. Min Hao, the youngest daughter of a dying politician, is missing.

And only they may save her.

The Stolen Child is an amalgam of a myriad of tropes, plot points, etc. that don’t quite fit into any categories. You’ll like it if the following catches your eye:

Character-driven stories

Fleshed-out lore

Slowburn

Victorian era aesthetics

Underground, secret societies

Unconventional powers

A strong emphasis on platonic relationships

Mysteries

Queer characters and storylines

Time loops

Creepy, monstrous children

Saphic yearning

Rotten utopias

"We were fated to meet"

Diary romance

Journey to acceptance

Complicated families

I have a sick obsession with making characters. Seriously. The Stolen Child has a main cast of eight:

Cal Everitt ✧₊⁺ A newcomer lost amid her birthright

Oliver Whitaker ⚕ A healer who many help all but himself

Diana Zubairu ཐིཋྀ A foreigner hiding from her ghosts

Selvar Zandstra 𖤓 A survivor frozen in time

Atalanta Everitt-Melton ೱ A historian on the verge of collapse

Hunter Hao 𓍼 A brother with a blindfold in tatters

Morgan Hao ☠︎︎ A sister burdened by her misery

Caleb Verninac ♫ A son of secrets and pain

Aside from posting on Tumblr, you can also find me on AO3 (Crosskill11), on Wattpad (Crosskill-11) and on Instagram (humbly_a_doppelganger), though I very, very rarely post anything there, if at all.

Now, this is getting too long, so I’ll be posting my inspirations for The Stolen Child—and The Kinship Chronicles as a whole—under the cut.

Early 2000s urban YA fantasy literature: in many ways, The Kinship Chronicles is an ode to those stories of girls who discovered the world was not what it seemed, that magic was not the stuff of fiction and that, despite everything, she was owed a place among that newfound reality. Only it is queer

The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare: literally all of it, from The Mortal Instruments to The Last Hours. In fact, The Kinship Chronicles started out as a mesh of wild TSC fan fiction and a pre-existing WIP of mine I’d created at 14. Those books have nurtured me in my adolescence (and early adulthood) and in many ways, The Kinship is what my social sciences brain would’ve liked the shadowhunter world to be. The Infernal Devices and The Last Hours made me fall in love with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: his books were the first time I heard the word ‘time loop’ (or bucle temporal in Spanish), and I remembered being so mesmerised by the kind of powers peculiars wielded—they were, in themselves, peculiar, and I hope that Saz’s insignias embody that same peculiarity

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James: I don’t think many people have read this book, I finished it at 2:00 a.m. in a random summer and it’s stayed branded in my brain ever since. I can’t recommend it enough. Strangely, it made me love the idea of falling in love with a person who you’ve only known through their writings

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: listen, the second line of the first chapter of The Stolen Child directly mentions Barrie. Peter Pan was my first fictional crush, Neverland my first form of Heaven. Two summers ago I read the original book from the early 20th century and I bawled my eyes out. Because of this, my main character, Cal, adores Peter Pan and I hope to be able to convey at least half as much as what Peter Pan conveyed to me. I don’t care if it sounds childish

Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac: eight-year-old me had no business watching this anime, but I’m glad I did. My man Ikki had done wonders to help me worldbuild

Tales of Berseria & Tales of Zestiria: undisputed JRPG masterpieces. Great, great, great for worldbuilding

Uncharted & Tomb Raider: I will cry, I wanted to step into their worlds so much I carved out a piece of them and stitched it into Mirror (this is very vague inspiration, but inspiration nonetheless)

Plato’s philosophy: truly inspired a great plot point and Morgan and Hunter’s character arcs. I should really get to reading the Symposium

Descartes’s philosophy: can’t say how or why, but by God I love Descartes

Spanish and, more particularly, Andalusian culture and heritage: this will be evident at the very end of The Kinship Chronicles. It’ll potentially traumatise some people, but that doesn’t erase the fact that I think my culture’s beautiful and that I’m forever grateful that I get to experience it

Roman law: my inner law student took the reins. The XII Tables my beloved

[lyraoctaviawrites]

i just saw a post on reddit titled "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" and it was about OP clicking off a fic because they don't like the direction it's going in. slightly different context but can we all be more like this reddit OP. i think "the writer is cooking but the food doesn't agree with me" should be the new "don't like don't read." dead doves may give you diarrhea but don't make that everyone else's problem.

[lyraoctaviawrites]

this quote from hbomberguy’s plagiarism video really resonated with me:

“creative people have trouble recognising their skills as skills, because eventually they feel like second nature. […] this stuff really is valuable. if it wasn’t, people wouldn’t be stealing it. creativity doesn’t feel special or unique until you realise people have to plagiarise it”

your craft is and always will be valuable, please never let anyone make you doubt that

[lyraoctaviawrites]

arguing against ai is always like. im not sure how to explain to you. that you need to think for yourself with your own thoughts. . maybe this would be easier to understand if idk, you were practiced in thinking for yourself

[lyraoctaviawrites]

Honestly, I just have a lot of stories to tell

A lot of my mind to bring into the world

A lot of joy, sadness, hope, despair…

And a whole lot of silliness! :3

once upon a time you decided that you were going to try and be an author. Why?

[lyraoctaviawrites]

...I found the “girl falls into middle earth” fic I wrote when I was 11

[lyraoctaviawrites]

Here, have some cat art