#1htw

[anaktoria-of-the-moon]

One Hundred Thousand Wisdoms for Dealings With the Fae [an ACOTAR reimagining]

Three sisters, three journeys, and three fickle fae lords share one fate. (Read it here.)

The Wicklighter girls count three: gentle Aislin, brave Eire, and cunning Niamh. Like other mortals - ever since the ancient war that sent faekind into hiding and cleft the land in two - the sisters have always dreaded and hated the Fair Folk, whom mortal legend calls both fearsome and deadly. When Eire kills a fae wearing the guise of a bloodthirsty wolf, Niamh gives herself up to the Folk as a bride, hoping that they then might not take her sister’s life in revenge. Spirited away, Niamh meets with an unexpectedly alluring face of the beastly fae. So do her two sisters, who each cross the fae through their own struggles to mend what’s left of the Wicklighter family. Having learned new truths about the nature of the struggle between faeries and mortaldom, they must ask themselves: Can they trust age-old enemies of mankind whom they’ve come to love - and risk the safety of kingdoms for their sake - or do these wild, strange roses conceal only a bounty of thorns?

“Is this an ACOTAR fanfic?” Yes and no. It’s a ground-up rewrite that ended up deviating quite a bit from the source. You’ll find obvious analogs to the Archeron sisters (Feyre, Elain, and Nesta are reimagined as Eire, Aislin, and Niamh respectively; Feyre’s now the middle sister, Elain the youngest), and some broad plot points and narrative thrusts are maintained (the story still begins with Eire felling a wolf who is really a fae in disguise, for whose death the fae demand the exchange of a mortal life in turn; there is a magic wall that keeps mortal and fae lands apart following a now-ancient war between the two; there are fae courts ruled by lords of great and wild power, though the particular courts and lords differ greatly from those in the source). If you loved ACOTAR as is, you may or may not like this story. If you liked the broad aesthetics of ACOTAR (fae, wild magic, and romance between plucky mortal women and powerful, melancholy faerie guys) but were disappointed with the specifics of its execution, you might like this more.

“How long is this going to be?” Honestly, I don’t know. Long, probably. I have a lot planned.

“Is this a romance? Will there be sex scenes? Is this OK for younger readers?” Yes (though it’s not only romance); yes (eventually - we have a lot of plot to cover before that happens); probably not, but I’m not your mother.

“What makes this different from ACOTAR?” Well, aside from like, everything, I’m consciously trying to make this a much more diverse story (e.g., ⅔ of the non-female romantic leads are planned to be unambiguously non-White - one has extremely dark skin with vitiligo, the other is East Asian-coded; one non-female romantic lead is planned to be genderfluid, and another is bisexual, both with on-page representation of this). I’m also trying to walk more of a line where dynamics and behaviors may not always be healthy but, in cases where they are not, they are acknowledged as such and the narrative appropriately and satisfyingly shows development away from those dynamics and behaviors (or does not present characters perpetrating them as “good” or broadly admirable characters if they do not develop out of said dynamics and behaviors). You can find a longer (non-exhaustive) list of stuff I’m trying to achieve with this fic here.

“Why?” Well, because I like doing this. It’s fun.

“Where’s the credit for your cover art?” That’d be me. I mocked this up from scratch in Krita at like 1 AM with my own puny mortal hands (no AI, promise - I do not trust the robots). I am not a professional artist, so you get what you get.

“Who are you?” Here’s the answer.

Enjoy! (Or don’t. Again, I’m not your mom.)

[arabipress]

من غرفة حجرها في المستشفى... رسالة من مي شدياق الى الأبطال

غرّدت الوزيرة السابقة مي شدياق عبر تويتر وكتبت: لانن جنود الصف الامامي بالحرب ضد فيروس كورونا…ولانن بيستاهلو نشكرهن وندعمن…من غرفتي بالمستشفى زقفتي الون من القلب عا جهودن الجبارة..الأحد الساعة ٨ منزقف كلنا سوا لممرضات وممرضي وطبيبات وأطباء لبنان.   يشار الى ان مي موجودة في المستشفى بعد اكتشاف اصابتها بفيروس كورونا.   لانن جنود الصف الامامي … https://wp.me/p7LJxY-1hTW

[anaktoria-of-the-moon]

1HTW Ch. 11 - In Which You Learn to Hide Your Fae Gold

New update! A little bit of a disturbing small-town experience for Aislin, plus the discovery that Rand now remembers Eire, but only thanks to Eire's lover Isaac (I totally did not inadvertently have Rand remember Eire in the previous Aislin chapter and then have to scramble to add in a discussion of this seeming inconsistency to smooth it over).

Seeing as this is a wholly original fic at this point, I am now also putting chapters on RoyalRoad; everything up to ch. 10 is posted currently: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/73222/one-hundred-thousand-wisdoms-for-dealings-with

Also working on a new cover...will post a WIP soon. ;)

[anaktoria-of-the-moon]

1HTW Ch. 10 - The Girl Who Bore a Curse of Spring

For those of you following this: I'm sorry, I know it's been absolutely FOREVER since I added anything. June was a completely hectic period between international travel (Japan - might post pics later!) and finding and moving into a new apartment. I bring you this sadly somewhat short chapter on Eire being a feisty little brat (as usual). Hopefully it satisfies.

See you next time on Aislin's side of things!

[anaktoria-of-the-moon]

1HTW Ch. 7 - The Girl Who Lived to See the Sun

New chapter! Fun fact: I got so carried away writing Aislin's chapter (which will be chapter 8, coming up next) that I plum forgot to write Eire's in between. If you saw the very brief update in between me posting that and me realizing my error and deleting it in a panic, I am sorry in advance.

Anyway, here's Eire, our favorite forgotten middle sister, and she finally gets some dialogue! She's very grumpy.

Enjoy! ;)