#Available in Ebook and Paperback

[stormwaterwitch]

Idk if you've been asked this recently (very sorry if have, feel free to just delete this), but do you have any tips for creating your own pantheon? I'm currently trying to make one for my own fantasy world (that could easily become just my own personal pantheon to work with as a witch), but I keep hitting roadblocks. Mainly due to the fact that I want them to have multiple domains (ideally 3-4 things they're considered to be connected with) but, like, how do I know which ones? How do I decide their symbolism? Do they have holy tenants they would like their followers to adhere to?

Basically, I get very overwhelmed trying to create the small details before I really even have the big details and it's very frustrating. Any advice? Or maybe just a list of details that need to be known/created first. I don't even know at this point.

Heya!! :D I do have some tips and links that might be able to help in this regard!

When I was first making/working with The Jeweled Court I found this discussion by @thiscrookedcrown to be the most helpful thing ever! Here's more info from a previous ask I answered that goes into some more detail about how I made my pantheon! As for details to know/ think about:

This is a lot so I'mma cut it to save your dash :'D

Step 1: BARE BONES- WHO ARE THEY? One thing that really helped me was deciding what "element" my god/desses would reside over first. I had 12 elements and 10 gods to work with so from there it was just divvying up who got what. That being said YES there are STILL some overlaps. The link/discussion by @thiscrookedcrown was the most helpful to me here as it talked about Realms of Influence which helped me get things into perspective when figuring out who everyone was. Example: +The Sapphire Queen is my Goddess of the Oceans +The Pearl Empress is my Goddess of Freshwater/Lakes and Rivers Both are technically water based but The Sapphire Queen is the one who I associate the most with Water as an element because Oceans are just that much bigger than lakes and rivers.

Example: +The Sapphire Queen's realm of influence includes Travel (By Boat) +Lord Diamond God of Wind's realm of influence also includes Travel (By Land) Example: +The Emerald God is the God of the Harvest (Food related) +The Pearl Empress is the Goddess of the Harvest (Season related) AND HEY: It's okay if there is overlap! There is nothing wrong with overlap just as long as you can know at a glance who goes with what.

Step 2: BROAD DETAILS- GROUPING THINGS TOGETHER So that was my first real step in piecing it all together. So once I got my Elements placed with my Gods I went further into ANYTHING that could be associated with that element (granted this took me a long time to iron out and a lot of musing and thinking 'Oh hey that might be cool for XYZ' Example: +The Gold Knight- God of the Sun and Elemental Master of Light +Lord Ruby- God of the Hearth and Elemental Master of Flames

Both of these guys have Candles as part of their associations as candles have both Flame and produce Light. HOWEVER: Bonfires would be ONLY for Lord Ruby as it is definitely more flame related and Lanterns would be ONLY for The Gold Knight as they are there to produce light. Something else I found really helpful was to go by Aesthetics and what felt right/seemed right for each god/dess. (The Pearl Empress got a lot of fruit associations this way as she's a Goddess of seasons)

Step 3: SYMBOLISM- +AESTHETICS GALORE+ Since my Pantheon is partially Pop Culture inspired I had a base starting point for what I could count as symbols for several of my god/desses.

Example: +The Silver Lady- Goddess of the Moon and Elemental Master of Space (a very loose interpretation from Princess/Neo Queen Serenity from Sailor Moon. Thus from that I was able to start with a basic idea of symbolic things)

Associated with:The Stars, Navigation, Darkness, The Moon, Hope Other Names: Serenity, Luna,Selene Symbols: (Most things found/referenced in the Manga/anime) Rabbits Crescent Moon Rhinestones Compasses  Lotus blossoms Dresses Cats Crystals Sweets Star Candy Opal Moonstone Silver

Colors: (When choosing Colors I got a flash of the Silver Millennium Kingdom set against the backdrop of space) Dark Blues Deep Purples Silver White Mythical Animals: Pegasus (Helios Reference)

So for those particular God/desses it was easier and from that base I was able to have similar ideas for the other gods who weren't from other pop culture. Some were very basic/bare bones for a long time.

Example: +The Obsidian Emperor

Death, Protection, Spirit

Associated with:

Smithing, Metalwork, Death, Omens, Divination, Mining

Other Names: N/A

Symbols:

Chains

Metallic colors

Metal Jewlery

Hammer

Shield

Raven

Bones

Pendulumns

So don't worry if you don't have the exact specifics right away. Building is a long journey and discovering things as you go along is part of the fun :)

Step 4: RELATIONSHIPS- TOUGH LOVE OR GENTLE GUIDE? Using your current base from steps 1-3 can help identify what kind of personality they might exhibit. If you still feel stumped feel free to lean on an alignment chart for guidance!

From learning HOW your god/dess acts you can then figure out what kinds of people will follow them.

Example: +The Gold Knight- God of the Sun and Keeper of Justice +Lord Diamond- God of Wind and Trickster Deity

A thief would most likely follow Lord Diamond's teachings than The Gold Knight's.

Now you can move into how to followers might show reverence to the gods by looking through your symbols and their personalities.

Example: +Princess Amethyst- Goddess of Time and Knowledge: Followers often wear necklaces that contain sand in them to represent an hourglass +The Sapphire Queen- Followers will carve hair ornaments out of driftwood to wear showing their devotion.

Step 5: DEPICTIONS- WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?

This step was hard for me, for a while they had no real forms but I decided that had to change and so I made designs for them keeping everything from the previous steps in mind. The drawing was the easy part once I had all my ducks in a row ^^

From Top to Bottom: Princess Amethyst, Lord Diamond, The Emerald God, The Gold Knight, The Obsidian Emperor, The Pearl Empress, Princess Rose Quartz, The Sapphire Queen and The Silver Lady

And to shamelessly plug my own story

This whole group is featured along with a lot of their world building/lore in my story Fragments of Magic: Shards of Allunatia Book 1.

[ericamnickels]

The Idolmaker Trilogy (Book Two Available Now!)

BE CAREFUL WISHING FOR WHAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS. YOU MAY END UP WITH MORE THAN YOU ASKED FOR. Following his escape from the Idolmaker, Jensen Everlee thinks he’s done chasing demons. But just when it seems he and Ryker Bordeaux can return to being normal high school students, Ryker’s old ally brings a new shadow to town and it has its eye on more than just the one who brought it there. Isolated from her family, Aviva Grimmway is resigned to a life under the weight of her curse. Under constant threat of her demon’s wrath, she keeps her relationships shallow and her mind distracted. Answering the call to team up with the one person who can bridge the gap to her past will mean facing the destruction left in her wake. Returning to her hometown could prove catastrophic if she can’t maintain the emotional distance that has kept her family safe so far. To stop this beast from attacking everyone they love, Jensen, Ryker, and Aviva must dive into the dark secrets of the Last Family, Ryker’s wayward father, and their own worst desires.

Learn more!

[ishihirasenma]

i don't have tasogare's manga so i only know what's shown in the anime but like. is the pig here like. supposed to be symbolizing something from their past or

also that's got to be ichikawa beside kikuchihara right. he's wearing glasses and all 🤔

is ichikawa holding a gold trophy while kikuchihara is holding this silver one and is that why he's thought of ichikawa as his rival from the moment he joined the film club (° ∇ ° )

[maebird-melody]

*cries in Ascendance of a Bookworm* 😭

[karen-carlisle-off-the-artboard]

Blood Ties: eBook & Paperback available for pre-order

https://karenjcarlisle.com/2023/08/28/blood-ties-ebook-paperback-available-for-pre-order/

Blood Ties – A dark mystery on the high seas in a new series.

eBook and paperback pre-order available Direct from author (delivery early September) or from online stores (delivery from 17th September). Click HERE for more information

Book trailer coming soon.

[britishchick09]

draft2digital's paperback book option was in beta for a while, but now it's available for everyone!!! :D

[justwriteyoudummy]

Meet the Characters spam because I love them and worked hard on their bios ♥

[ariaste]

YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION comes out on September 17th! It's a cozy M/M romantasy about second chances, the difficult journey to self-forgiveness, and a one-sided enemies-to-lovers situationship 👀 It's available from most book retailers in hardback, paperback, and ebook (with more retailers coming soon) -- links to most of the common ones right here. The cover art is by the amazing @holographings, check out more of his work!

SUMMARY: Tam Becket has hated Lord Lyford since they were boys. The fact that he’s also been sleeping with the man for the last ten years is irrelevant. When they were both nine years old, Lyford smashed Tam’s entry into the village’s vegetable competition. Nearly twenty years later, Tam hasn’t forgiven him. No one understands how deeply he was hurt that day, how it set a pattern of disappointments and small misfortunes that would run through the rest of his life. Now Tam has reconciled himself to the fact that love and affection are for other people, that the gods don’t care and won’t answer any of his prayers (not even the one about afflicting Lyford with a case of flesh-eating spiders to chew off his privates), and that life is inherently mundane, joyless, and drab. And then, the very last straw: Tam discovers that Lyford (of all people!) bears the divine favor of Angarat, the goddess Tam feels most betrayed and abandoned by. In his hurt and anger, Tam packs up and prepares to leave the village for good. But the journey doesn’t take him far, and Tam soon finds himself set on a quest for the most difficult of all possible prizes: Self care, forgiveness, a second chance... and somehow the unbelievably precious knowledge that there is at least one person who loves Tam for exactly who he is—and always has.

This book might be for you if:

You like enemies-to-lovers but you think it would be improved by being one-sided and meanwhile the other person is living through a “hopelessly yearning for childhood crush” trope

you like it when two people are so, so, so stupid that they’ve been fucking for 10 years and Person A hasn’t figured out that Person B is in love with him, and Person B hasn’t realized that Person A doesn’t even know about his feelings

You know how fucking hard it is to Do The Work In Therapy and you want some catharsis about it

you want to read about an imperfect, truly difficult person who still gets loved, because being perfect is not a requirement to deserve affection and care

you know that apologizing for wronging someone doesn’t just magically take away the bad feelings and automatically repair the relationship, and you want to read about someone having to do the extra steps that come after the apology

this one’s for the wlw: fat harvest goddess milf. my gift to u

you like gods who don’t have anything better to do than stick their noses into human business

when you see a gorgeous man holding an infant, it takes you out at the knees

you like queernorm fantasy AND small-town gossip, and you find the intersection of the two delicious and intriguing

a religion based on pre-Christian Brythonic England. That is, they’ve got henges and standing stones instead of churches and altars. it’s cool

plant magic!!!!!

“god of temptation and evil” actually “god of self-care and personal boundaries and taking responsibility for the consequences you consented to”.

"Alongside the sexiness and absurdity (and the sexy absurdity) in Yield Under Great Persuasion is a tender, resonant story of second and third chances and being loved when we need it most and feel we deserve it least. Evocative, emotional, and endlessly entertaining." —Jules Arbeaux, author of Lord of the Empty Isles Preorder links for most retailers are here! If you live in the US and you'd like to order a paper copy from the retailer that benefits me most (thank you!), that retailer is Allstora.

(Signal boosts are always greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!)

[thebibliosphere]

(ID provided in Alt)

Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana -- available for pre-order now!

A Library with a deadly enchantment.

A fae lord who wants in.

A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.

In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu's village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile–her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a fae lord.

She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.

As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two fae males to survive. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.

Release day September 5th, 2023

More pre-order links are incoming as they generate.

----------

Hey booklr! I'm posting this on behalf of my friend Analeigh Sbrana (@literaryxqueen on insta), who doesn't have a Tumblr. Her debut novel, Lore of the Wilds, went live for pre-order this morning, and I'd love it if we could show it some love.

Analeigh tried for two years to sell her story to trad-pub, but the vibe was that trad-pub didn't want to take the risk on a Black Fae fantasy adventure set in a breathtakingly descriptive magic kingdom in a market currently flooded with white fairy romances. So, she took matters into her own hands and joined the ranks of self-pub.

Full disclosure: I worked on this book as a proofreader, and I loved every minute of it. I kept forgetting I was supposed to be working and reading ahead. I scheduled a week to finish reading it in did it in 3 days, and the only reason it took so long was that I had to actually pause and work on it 😅.

So, if you like:

-🍄cottage core -✨fairy core -📚light/dark academia vibes -🌈a diverse cast of lgbtqia+ Black characters -💘romance -🧝🏾‍♀️ being kidnapped by a fairy prince to tidy up his cursed/enchanted library and coming into your own magical powers as a result, then Lore of the Wilds might just be for you!

Here, have a sneak peek of what the physical books will look like:

(ID in alt) The book will eventually be available in eBook, paperback, and hardback--Ana's just having a time getting the links to generate. I'll post them as soon as they're live.

Please do consider giving LoTW some love. It's such a fantastic book, and I'd love to see it thrive where trad-pub left it to fail. Thank you 💖

[see-arcane]

I wrote a book!

The Vampyres is the happy horrifying accident born of feverish scribbling in the wake of Dracula season* (*inhaling Dracula Daily and Re: Dracula at the same time May thru November). It features a number of familiar villainous faces from classic supernatural lit, though not everyone is wearing their original name anymore. The story takes place in the 21st century and you can only hold onto those sentimental titles so long in the mayfly mortal world before you start drawing attention.

Not that swapping out pseudonyms has done anything to thwart the new shadow looming over the revenant community…

Free Preview Chapters (If You Want a Sneak Peek)

Tumblr version - PDF

More info under the cut!

Description

Something is culling the undead.

Whether they imbibe blood, leech life, or traded mortality away to their devil of choice, the revenants of the world are disappearing. The Vampyre, a possessor of many names and collector of many lives, has been fretting over the phenomenon for some time.

A laughable fear, for he is one of those canny cadaverous few who made a deal for perpetual resurrection. The bitten may crumble, but the bargainer can rise from death after death. So he reminds himself. So he worries is no longer the case.

Not when the boyar in the Carpathians was one of the first to vanish. Still, the monster from the mountains may simply be in hiding, just as the rest of the bargainers must be. The Vampyre convinces himself of this for a single night……before the monster called Quinn Morse makes itself known.

Where to Buy

eBook: https://books2read.com/thevampyres

Paperback (Bookshop being a U.S. store search*): https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-vampyres-c-r-kane/21171669?ean=9798218374587

*Available internationally!

To Search by ISBN

eBook ISBN: 9798218374594

Paperback ISBN: 9798218374587

Art Pile

Announcement Post Flyer - Cover Conundrum - Preorder Announcement - Vampyre Valentine

Skull Scratch - Eye in the Sky - Food Chain of the Vampyre - A Long Night In - Red Smile - Prototype Book Cover

BONUS: Fanart Book Cover!

Ko-Fi

If you’d like to donate a buck or commission some art, I have a Ko-Fi here.

My ocular official site

Spotify

Tunes to run for your unlife to.

[ericamnickels]

The Idolmaker Trilogy (Book One Available Now!)

EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING THEY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT. Jensen Everlee knows this. He knows it because his life seems to be missing something that everyone else has — no matter how hard he tries to keep up… and it isn’t just the asthma slowing him down. Playing the part of caretaker for his despondent mother, role model for his siblings, and de facto head of household is enough to turn the average high school slog into a daily nightmare. The new kid at school is clearly missing something too. Though Jensen is willing to cautiously befriend him, Ryker’s odd behavior and tendency to avoid answering questions makes Jensen wonder if it’s simple neuroses or a sign of something darker and more dangerous than Jensen believes is possible. The closer Jensen gets to his strange new acquaintance, the more he must disbelieve his eyes… or believe Ryker. Jensen and Ryker’s battle against evil incarnate will mean sacrificing everything they can’t live without. But if they survive, they might find what they’ve been missing all along.

(Learn More!)

[tkingfisher]

Is this a pre-order I see before me?!

It is! Coming December 5th, the fourth of the Saint of Steel books!

You can pre-order now wherever fine ebooks are sold*, and paperback orders are available from Argyll Productions! And Patreon patrons get it free, probably a few hours before midnight my time on the 4th.

This is Shane and Marguerite’s book, and it’s a chonker at 130k. There may even be a few more tidbits about the death of the god, in amid the adventure, romance, demons, and semi-accidental destabilization of the world economy!

*UK readers, you may have some glitches—OrbitUK is taking over the distribution there and we’re still ironing out transferring territorial rights—if the pre-order gets canceled, just re-order, it’s not you, it’s not even me, it’s the vast machinery of international commerce. But you also will get a snazzy paperback printing of all four books next year, which will not require ruinous shipping to the UK!

[menagerie-of-monsters]

art by Vamorii

If you had the option to flee and remain free, or strike a bargain... what would you choose?

"Claimed by the Flame of Faery" is a standalone fae dark fantasy romance with Beauty and the Beast vibes and a steamy happily-ever-after. It releases on ebook and Kindle Unlimited on October 18th; pre-orders and paperbacks are available now!

[elliottkay]

Every show and film and book I grew up with presented the military as a place where you’d find yourself. The military could be good, could be bad, and all that “glory” stuff was clearly nonsense… but shared trials made you stronger and forged ride-or-die buddies for life. And hey, it’d pay for college.

Then I joined. It didn’t work out. Every day ranged from tedious to toxic, even when we did genuine good. I made one short-term friend in four years.

I still loved those stories, but none of them were ever about the guy who joins up and doesn’t find himself and never belongs—so I wrote it.

Poor Man’s Fight is a rockin’ space opera built on shattered dreams, student debt, and space pirates. Lots of space pirates. It’s funny, it’s sober, and you’ll want to hug Tanner Malone even when he’s covered in blood. The real enemies are always capitalism and toxic masculinity.

And then comes the war with the corporations that built this whole dystopia, because the enemy is still capitalism, even for the aliens.

On a brighter note, Tanner does make it out of the military and into college, becoming the Deadliest Unpaid Intern in the Galaxy… and the Resident Advisor for a freshman dorm full of chaos goblins.

(Cover art by Lee Moyer, Julie Dillon, Dan Watson, and Brittany Torres, for which I’m forever grateful.)

If you’ve made it this far, hopefully you’re looking for where to pick this up. They’re all available on ebook and Kindle Unlimited, and everything from Poor Man’s Fight to Last Man Out is also in paperback and audio.

And bonus: they’re cheap!

[katy-l-wood]

Camp Daze: Available for Pre-Order Now! Releasing July 30th!

#Adult | #Colorado | #Apocalypse | #Contemporary | #Summer Camp | #Girls Camp | #Queer | #Multiple Queer Characters | #Isolation | #Nuclear War | #Hopeful Apocalypse | #The End of the World Isn't the End of Everything |

With summer winding down, the counselors at Camp Aspen Heart are counting the days until they go home to their own beds after weeks of songs and campouts and budding friendships. But a missing food delivery after the start of one of the last sessions sets off alarms in the isolated camp. With no easy way to contact the outside world Conifer, a survivalist who grew up going to the camp every summer before becoming a counselor herself, heads out to try and find out what is going on, only to be confronted with the unthinkable: a nuclear war has started, and they’ve been forgotten.  Conifer was raised to survive the end of the world. Any end of the world. Except this one, alone in the woods with over a hundred-fifty kids to save and only a handful of other young counselors to help her.

You can find tons of links for where to buy the book on my website, and it is available through most online retailers in paperback, hardback, and ebook.

You can also buy it directly on my website, including a limited amount of the leftover Kickstarter special editions! The special editions include lots of lovely upgrades including foiling and a cloth binding!

[renthony]

A Quick Lesson in Royalty Payouts

I just made my 500th sale of The Queen of Cups! I'm genuinely thrilled, because that's a pretty huge milestone for my little fantasy story! I originally wrote it as part of a series of short stories inspired by tarot cards (hence the title), but it really took on a life of its own. The other stories are still sitting in a folder on my desktop.

The Queen of Cups is a $0.99 USD ebook, and while there is a paperback available, most of my sales are digital. I never planned to make a ton of money on this story, because it just wasn't realistic to assume I would. And I haven't.

These are screenshots from my Amazon dashboard (which is currently the only platform tQoC is available through, thanks to issues with other distributors):

I make an average royalty payout of $0.32 USD per sale. Most months, I don't make any money off this story, and when I do get a payout, it ranges from pennies to maybe a full dollar if I'm lucky. I once made $6 on a payment and was ecstatic.

Authors, especially indie/self-pub authors, are broke. Many have to work other jobs, cutting down on the energy available to write. I'm personally unable to work outside the house because I'm disabled, so I contribute to the household income largely via Patreon and desperate e-begging. I say often that I don't feel like a person, I feel like six side hustles in a trench coat.

Support your favorite small-time artists in whatever way you can. You need art in your life, and we need money to live. It's fuckin' brutal out here.

(If I happen to be one of your favorite small-time artists, there's a page on my website with info on how to help. <3)