#It was set in a fictional world. I created original cryptids

[dahldahlbills]

Gonna talk about my writing project but in typical ‘dahl talks about their wip’ fashion it’ll be extremely vague and won’t make any sense lol I just really need to say this, especially now that I'm so close to the end and it’s been something I’ve been feeling for a while too

so the further I get into the project, the more I feel like I've ventured so far from the original inspiration of this story and it makes me a little bit sad.

I wrote the original version in 2021 and looking back at it, it’s a completely different story than what I’m writing now. it was silly and lighthearted which… is not at all what its current state is like. I’m not entirely upset about it, because this new version has so much more substance and I'm extremely proud of it. I feel like I'm finally saying something and the message overall is really meaningful to me.

last night, I realized how I should title the story. Usually that’s a great feeling. Titling is one of the hardest things after all. But honestly it just left me even more conflicted. For the longest time I thought I knew what the title would be: something very similar to the original title (cryptlandia, the reason why i often refer to it as ‘cryptids wip’, which is extremely ironic bc the story doesn’t even focus on cryptids much anymore). That plan won’t work anymore though, because it no longer fits the tone of the story. Another reminder of the story’s evolution. I’m debating something different now, something more sincere, which has me feeling like I’ve completely lost the heart of the story.

Idk on one hand I’m really happy and proud of how this story’s evolved, but ngl it also hurts to see it shift so far from what i originally wrote.

[wilderhyperfoxations]

⚜⚘ A B O U T ⚘⚜

⚜Welcome to my messy blog! ⚜My name is Fox Pearl Wilder. He/him. ⚜Main blog (replies, likes from it)- @foxpearlwilder. @foxpearlwilder2 personal/goblincore. @vaporpearl vaporwave. ⚜ Ukrainian, disabled, ASD, ADHD, more; intersex, artist writer. ⚜A billion years old. ⚜Tone tags for jokes are preferred. ⚜Occasional skipping of words. ⚜Languages- English, Ukrainian, French. ⚜This blog is for reblogging fandom/interest-related posts, posting fandom/wip art, shitposting.

  ⚘ F A N D O M S:

🌧Little Pets Shop (G1-G4 merch) 🌧Monster high (Merch, show, movies) 🌧My Little Pony (G1-G4 Merch, G4 show, G5 show.) 🌧Ever After High (Show) 🌧The Owl House (Faves: Darius, Belos, Hunter, Eda, Lilith)  🌧The Amazing World Of Gumball 🌧Rick & Morty 🌧Solar Opposites 🌧Inside Job 🌧Adventure time (Show, spinoffs, comics. Faves: Fern/Green Knight, Marceline, Simon Petrikov/Ice King, Marshall Lee, Prince Gumball) 🌧Wake Up, Carlo! 🌧Tuca & Bertie 🌧 BoJack Horseman 🌧Bee & Puppycat 🌧Dead End Paranormal Park 🌧Futurama (Faves: Calculon, Bender, Zoidberg, Leela, Fry) 🌧Disenchantment 🌧Silent Hill (1st movie, SH2 and 3) 🌧Pyramid Head 🌧Dead By Daylight 🌧Resident Evil 8 🌧Baldur's Gate 3 🌧Dragon Sim. (Mobile game) 🌧The Witcher (Games, books. Faves: Aen Elle, Ciri, Geralt, Yen. Last Wish, Season of Storms.)

🌧️ Howl's Moving Castle (Books & Movie) 🌧Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (movie & books)  🌧Venom (Comics & movies) 🌧Spiderman 2099 (comics from 90s) 🌧"Cryptids" (Mothman.; Sirenhead) 🌧The Runaways 🌧CORPSE

⚘ I N T E R E S T S

🌧Antiques 🌧Restoration/conservation (Jewelry, objects, art, weapons) 🌧Electric Guitars 🌧Synths 🌧Qchord/omnichord 🌧Clowns 🌧Vaporwave 🌧Grunge (in the 90s sense, not tumblr 2010s soft grunge) 🌧17/18th century (British) puritans 🌧Furry-ism 🌧Taxidermy/Bones 🌧Biology 🌧Botany 🌧Geology 🌧Entomology 🌧Lepidoptera 🌧Mycology 🌧Amphibians 🌧Anura 🌧Sculpture 🌧Art 🌧Poetry 🌧Animation 🌧Fictional writing 🌧Folklore 🌧Mythology 🌧C o l l e c t i n g .

⚜A S K & A L I K E

Feel free to send in asks about my interests, fandoms, my DNI, and alike! Ideas, headcanons, questions. I'll answer. ⚜ DNI: Intersexists, ists or phobes or exclusionists of any kind, proshippers, antis who are really extreme, pedos, right wing bozos, people under 18, radfems/TERFS, super religious blogs or people (don't be fuckin weird abt it yk), zoos, russians or ppl who support russia in any way, communists, nazis, pro ana or thinspo blogs, NFT bros, hella nsfw blogs, people who like incest, you get the idea, if you're a fuckin asshole fuck off, I'm the only asshole allowed to be here. I doubt any of those fuckers would even be here but yeah. If you're one of those block my ass. Also don't start beef with me or complain or something, I'm here to vibe.  ⚜ This blog is safe for any race or ethnicity or gender identity or whatever. As long as you're not harming anyone we're chill. So welcome to my minuscule corner of the internet, hope you enjoy whatever goes on here. 

⚜TAGS: I try to tag tw's but forget sometimes. I have a set of tags for different things. Some are custom, some basic. I tag fandom stuff with the shortened ver of the name, unless it's one word, or a character's name. Toh- the owl house, at- adventure time, tawog- the amazing world of gumball, etc. ⚜Others: classic leg pulling - shitposts original post - a post created by me reblog -a post reblogged from someone else's blog shenanagans - stuff that happens to me rainbow skeletons in my closet - queer stuff the earthly horrors - mental, asd stuff wooden legs and shodden pecs - disability/chro illness stuff safe for work fingering - guitar stuff art- art. my art - self explanatory worms in my head- fandom stuff dream beam - my dreams *Not all are in full use. Sometimes I tag things after posting/reblogging. ⚜*Accessibility, Image Descriptions, Video Descriptions, Captions are included in my posts. I try to make my posts clear. Reblogged posts might not have those included. If I forget to add an ID or VD or CC, comment and I'll fix. If you don't understand something, please ask, I will explain! :]

[deer-in-headlights-stare]

I posted 715 times in 2022

That's 715 more posts than 2021!

52 posts created (7%)

663 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cream-and-tea

@nicola-writes

@chaotic-queer-disaster

@wherearetheplants

@cryptid-s-wips

I tagged 537 of my posts in 2022

Only 25% of my posts had no tags

#writblr - 51 posts

#queued - 51 posts

#important - 41 posts

#inspo - 29 posts

#queer queer queer - 27 posts

#flower.txt - 25 posts

#[zombie wip] - 25 posts

#luce - 19 posts

#save for later - 18 posts

#<3 - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 101 characters

#im still going to read the rest of the series but i will complain heavily if the love triangle is bad

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

"3 Photos" Tag Game

thanks for the tag @annarts05 !

Rules: Find 3 photos/images (they can be anything at all, memes, vintage photographs, quotes, anything) that you feel describe your wip. If you want, you can tell a little bit your story, too. You can do it with or without the context. 

See the full post

10 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

#4

would anyone be interested in a sensory-processing-disorder-culture blog? I don't see a lot of representation that is specifically for spd folks but i don't know how big the community is on here.

it would be for autistic and allistic folks ofc and a nice way to connect with our community.

(non-spd folks are encouraged to boost)

14 notes - Posted July 24, 2022

#3

Writeblr Reintro :)

-> hi, welcome to my writeblr! on this corner of the internet, i go by flower, but i'm open to any nicknames as well. i'm a biracial, queer teen writer who has spd and some other mental illnesses too. now onto the actual writing stuff...

-> i tend to write science fiction and dystopian, with a dash of low fantasy and horror. i write both prose and poetry, though i talk about the prose part more often here. also, most of my work is ya/teen.

-> that being said, i'm open to reading anything! i do have a special love for sci-fi (especially post-apocalyptic or set in space) and supernatural/horror, so if your wip features that, hit me up! i'd love to learn about them. even if your wips aren't those genres, feel free to come into my ask box anytime! i need social interaction, even though i may take a little while to answer it :)

-> my wips usually have a queer/neurodivergent cast, mixed-race characters (hey, if no one else will, gotta do it yourself right?), found family and blorbos who really, really need to sleep. sometimes there are even cats.

wips under the cut!

untitled poetry

-> second draft, first person pov, multiple pov, poetry format, fantasy/horror/retelling. i don't talk about this one very often here.

-> a series of dark fairytale retellings in an interconnected universe that does not always promise a happily ever after.

the zombie wip

-> first draft, first person pov, multiple povs, prose, science fiction/dystopian.

-> four kids meet on a train, having never met each other before but all having the same goal: to leave their utopian society. set in a post-apocalyptic world rife with secrets, lies and things not quite human.

main cast:

-> liz - she/her, 19. looking for closure. finds something else.

-> cricket - she/her, 17. the heir.

-> luce - they/she, 17. for them, vengeance is no longer a waking dream.

-> ari - he/him, 15. trying to fix what is already too far gone.

tag: #[zombie wip]

comic sans wip intro

navigation!

-> #flower.txt for all of my original posts, coherent or not.

-> #flower writes for snippets and excerpts from my wips.

-> #flower answers an ask for all ask games and questions.

-> #flower does a tag (game) for all the games i have been tagged in.

16 notes - Posted October 31, 2022

#2

Writeblr Introduction

please ignore how long it took me to post this

drumroll please...

☆ hi, welcome to my blog! you can call me anything but online i usually go by flower and my pronouns are she/her. and i also have sensory processing disorder and social anxiety.

☆ i mainly write sci-fi and dystopian, with some low fantasy on the side. I write both prose and poetry, though i lean heavily toward prose. Most of my work is ya, but i want to write middle grade/childrens one day.

☆ i like being tagged in writing tag games! not the writing tag game days, though so no sts/worldbuilding wensday please!

☆ i am a minor, so don't be creepy. adults can follow, but i may not feel comfortable following back.

☆ dni's don't usually work but this blog supports mspec lesbians/gays, people with xenogenders, ace and aro folks, people with "contradicting" labels and all good faith identities. Queer is not a slur.

☆ if you mainly post fandom-related stuff, i have a fandom blog! you can check out my fandoms at @fandom-flower-shop

my wips under the cut

☆ zombie wip

Liz, Cricket, Luce and Ari have their own reasons for leaving Utopia, the only home they've ever known - and safe haven from whatever lies beyond its protective dome. Not even stumbling upon secrets about what really happened will stop them from trekking through a post-apocalyptic United States and doing what they came for. Right?

Oh, and there's zombies.

stage: first draft

tag: #[zombie wip]

comic sans wip intro

☆ untitled poetry

A series of poems that put gory, violent twists on classic fairytales such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood.

stage: second draft

18 notes - Posted June 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

my favorite character relationship is "chaotic" and "chastizes the other for being chaotic, while also being the most chaotic motherfucker here"

27 notes - Posted August 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[demi-shoggoth]

2021 Reading Log, pt. 14

66. A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Báez, translated by Alfred MacAdam. The second book about the destruction of books I��ve read this year, and also tied somewhat surprisingly to another author and book I read. Báez obviously holds Borges in great esteem, quotes him and makes reference to his fiction throughout. In a Borgesian way, the author encourages the reader to pick up the book and read from any point, to create “an anthology of possible books”. This has the effect of making there not really being a continual build of thesis or argument throughout—it’s mostly just a list of things that happened, one after the other, not even always in chronological order. There’s good information to be gleaned here, but the actual process of reading it isn’t as impactful as Burning the Books.

67. The Unnatural Order of the Three-Eyed Skull’s Field Guide, Vol. 1 by Andrew P. Barr. @andrewbarrillustrator​ has a tumblr, and I discovered him through it. This book is a collection of drawings of monsters, ghosts, killers and cryptids, each with a little bit of microfiction detailing their habits and sightings. All of them are native to Ontario, Canada, which I never thought of before as a setting for Night Vale style weirdness, but it works. The monsters are imaginative, spooky and often gross, and the book would make a great collection of plot hooks for a horror investigation RPG.

68. The B-List edited by David Sterritt and John Anderson. People who pay attention to this blog know I’m a big fan of B-movies, and this book purports to be a collection of essays on said movies by the National Board of Film Critics. Eh… sorta? The definition for B-movie, already a big tent, is so broad here as to be practically useless. Any definition of B-movie that includes Platoon and The Conversation is stretched to the breaking point. Many of the critics seem embarrassed to talk about “real” Bs, or should be more embarrassed of how much they’re willing to share in what’s supposed to be an essay about a movie (I’m thinking of the “review” of The Last Seduction that’s all about how horny the author is for Linda Fiorentino). There are a few good essays in here—on movies like Grindhouse, Eraserhead, Targets—and it’s always nice to read a review by Roger Ebert, but most of this book is skippable.

69. Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz. The book is about how cities decline, and why the idea of civilizational collapse and the “lost city” is an oversimplification. The cities covered are Çatalhöyuk, Pompeii, Angkor and Cahokia, and Newitz explains how a combination of environmental factors and political instability led to the gradual abandonment of three of them (Pompeii is a pretty obvious case of why it was abandoned). Throughout, they also talk about how cities come and go, but cultural traditions persist, and the introduction and conclusion apply this to thinking about the modern and near-future world. Maybe I’m just in a bad mood, but this book didn’t grip me the way I thought it was going to. It’s fine, but nothing special.

70. Botanical Curses and Poisons by Fez Inkwright. This book is clearly a labor of love; it has original illustrations by the author and is overall a handsome volume. Like many of the books I’ve read over the last year and a half, it is about poisonous plants, but more about their uses in society and lore than their actual toxins. As such, plants that are harmless or mostly harmless, but still associated with witchcraft and ill-luck, are also covered here. The plants and the lore are global. My one complaint is that could stand to be more rigorous in its research—some passages are awfully close to unsourced Wikipedia entries (see asphodel for an example).

[maxdimo]

This is my original content blog. My everything-else main blog is @maxillo​ . 

I primarily create science fiction and sci-fi fantasy, and I do art, writing, music, conlanging, and (rarely) game dev. My work has no specific age rating and will have content warnings on a case by case basis, but none of it is explicit.

I primarily develop my projects in a wiki format, where all of their central information is kept. Some are more developed than others.

PROJECTS

Cosmosis 🌌

ART | WIKI | OST [86 songs, 2:38:48]

Genre: Hard (ish) sci-fi

Content warnings: Profanity, mild violence, sensitive/mature topics, drug use. 

Format: Wiki documentation, illustrations, comics, animations (planned)

Year started: 2014

Total notes wordcount: 1,389,000

Tag: #cosmosis

Easily both my largest and oldest story project, and one of my primary special interests. Focused on character dynamics between a gaggle of alien species and the shenanigans they experience adapting to life on the friendly world of Waboone. The main character, Len, is the only human in the group in a time and place where humans and Earth are completely unheard of, requiring him to learn the modern trade language of standard intergalactic from the ground up.

There's not much public shit to look at yet as far as the actual story goes, but I will be gradually building up a wiki to document its settings, species, languages, and so forth. Primarily inspired by Spore and Undertale.

Focuses:

Character-driven dynamics, arcs, and plot

Worldbuilding (aliens, tech, speculative biology, planets)

Slice-of-life

Neurodiversity

Effects of/recovery from trauma

Non-romantic intimacy; primarily aromantic and asexual cast

Found family

Conlangs; standard intergalactic is the default language for in-universe content

Cryptidverse 🛣️

WIKI | OST [7 songs, 37:43]

Genre: Speculative fiction (sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural in a blender, very occasional horror elements)

Content warnings: Profanity, violence, gore, sensitive/mature topics. 

Format: Wiki documentation; short animations (planned); written narratives (planned)

Year started: 2019

Total notes wordcount: 277,000

Tag: #cryptidverse

Newer but more public worldbuilding project. A conglomeration of creature ideas I've thought of since childhood, loosely tied together in a shared setting as "cryptids", which are documented by humans and other species. Cryptids inherently defy human understanding of science and reality, making their documentation a struggle. They proliferate liminal spaces and can have wildly varying characteristics. The existential origins and traits of cryptids are a major focus, as well as the dilemmas with classifying them and their traits into any discrete categories.

Primarily inspired by Pokémon and a similarly inspired project by someone else that I haven't been able to track down in years.

Focuses:

Non-human(oid) main characters and POV (for narrative content)

Metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy

Creature design

Decentralized narratives (there is no one linear "story")

Neurodiversity

Liminal spaces

Alternate history

[antialiasis]

Worldbuilding June (Pokémon edition), Days 8-12

Whoops forgot to post these for a couple of days, too busy with a load of Things as always.

8. Who rules in your world?

TQftL never brings up government, but each region has its own human government, generally just standard representative democracies similar to what we have in the modern world. Ouen has an elected parliament and president. It's a fairly utopian world with little scarcity and politics play kind of a background role - they keep things running, they have some different parties, but there's low polarization and usually they work pretty smoothly together and have little conflict. The situation in other regions is similar - movement is very free and conflict between them is rare and minor in the grand scheme of things.

QftLverse Pokémon, once again, have their own societies and are not subject to human rule except in a limited way while they're with a trainer, as per the Agreement, an all-encompassing contract dictating how the relationship between humans and Pokémon should work. Different Pokémon species govern themselves differently, but their societies are generally based on smaller self-governing groups. The Scyther society has a single leader, who is meant to be the simply strongest in the swarm, and anyone can challenge them to a duel to the death to take their place at any time.

The Morphicverse is once again close to Earth, with different countries having different modes of government. The Poké-USA's politicical climate resembles the actual USA's political climate in ~2007, but if I ever wrote references to the current president I wouldn't make him an outright Bush expy or anything, beyond being from the conservative one of the two highly polarized parties.

9. What religions and myths/legends exist in your world?

The QftLverse's human society is basically post-religious. Legendary Pokémon are revered, but not worshipped - people don't pray to them, ascribe natural phenomena to them, expect them to watch over them personally, perform symbolic rituals associated with them, etc. That said, humans do have myths concerning them - not always accurate ones. The story describes the human myth behind one set of legendaries early on before the reality much later turns out to have been fairly different, for instance.

QftLverse Pokémon have their own myths, legends, religions and beliefs. The Scyther society explored in the spin-offs has a bit of a vague mythology going on explaining the sun, moon, stars and clouds, but it's not very important to them, more of a just-so story. Meanwhile, they live by a system of ethics known as the Code that they consider sacred and all-important, though it doesn't have a godly figure behind it as the source of it, only a philosophy. Other Pokémon might variously have straight-up religion (whether worshipping legendary Pokémon or something else), be entirely areligious, or something in between; most will have myths and legends in some form, though.

The Morphicverse has a form of Christianity, which is functionally a lot like ours; this also means they had a version of Judaism. Other specific religions don't come up, but they'd at the very least be as varied as real-world religions. Like in real life, there are many sects and variants, and as many individual interpretations of faiths as there are people. The villain cult in particular has fringe views that in no way resemble the mainstream. And like in real life, many people nominally believe but don't really practice their religion, and many are agnostic or atheist.

Legendary Pokémon in the Morphicverse are cryptids - there are myths and legends about them, and people think they're neat, write fiction and make movies about them all the time, but in the modern day, actually-for-real believing that they exist out there ranges from mildly eccentric to entirely unthinkable. Worship of legendary Pokémon exists, but in the way that modern neo-Paganism does. It's not remotely mainstream, generally seen as a weird hippie thing, and the notion of Arceus appearing in the flesh one day and declaring he created the universe is about as fantastical to most people as the notion of the Norse pantheon doing the same in our world.

10. What traditions are observed in your world?

QftLverse human traditions are mostly just secular holidays - commemorations of important days in the region's history, etc. It's tradition for most children to go out on a Pokémon journey the spring after they turn ten years old, and participate in a First-Timers' League in the autumn if they manage to stick it out for the whole journey and collect all the badges - there are kids who don't, but it's rare for them to not want to, and other kids may see them as no fun.

Every year in Green Town, there is a Pokémon Festival originally built around the legendary Pokémon Chaletwo's yearly brief visit to the outskirts of the city (which may or may not be ditched in the next revision); it hosts a number of Pokémon-themed events over several days. One of them is a starter Pokémon giveaway, where most kids go to get official starter Pokémon, who have specifically volunteered and been trained to work with beginning trainers - though many kids have had Pokémon as pets/partners since they were young and journey with them instead, or their parents otherwise get them a Pokémon who's up for a beginning trainer. (Many Pokémon kind of like the idea of journeying with a beginning trainer, in the way that many people like the idea of getting a kitten rather than an adult cat - just something special about having been with them from the start. Though getting a starter who's actually been trained to deal with kids is recommended over just finding any random enthusiastic Pokémon.)

Pokémon have all kinds of different traditions. The Scyther society as explored in the spin-offs has a number of traditions and rituals, including a sort of blood baptism of new hatchlings, the leader of the swarm teaching all the adolescent Scyther about the Code, and First Prey, where each of the adolescents is sent out to hunt prey on their own for the first time, with a male and female witness following, so they can prove their ability to kill and to feed themselves. Afterwards, they're expected to publicly offer a symbolic piece of the meat of their first prey to some members of the swarm, and doing so signals respect; you don't technically have to, but in practice everyone always offers it to the leader and not doing so would be taken as outright disrespect.

The Morphicverse is once again culturally similar to the real world and has mostly similar sorts of traditions. Pokémon training is less culturally ingrained there, but still a very common hobby for kids.

11. What are some ways people communicate with pokémon in your world, or pokémon with each other?

In the QftLverse, humans learn to understand Pokémon speech as a mandatory subject at school. Pokémon inherently understand human speech, but they speak anime-style, usually in syllables of their species' name (which is what the species are named after). They share one language, which is not based on exactly what the syllables are but the tone and the way they're combined, hence why it works regardless of the species.

In the current version of the fic, this is pure handwave worldbuilding: it's established that it happens at school at the beginning, and then we just move on to the story, where every human simply understands what Pokémon are saying at all times. In the next revision I'd give a bit more proper worldbuilding attention to it - let the language barrier be a little more present, humans vary in exactly how good they are at it (luckily it's already the main character's best subject at school), and otherwise treat it less like it's just an excuse to act like Pokémon speak English.

In the Morphicverse, Pokémon do communicate but they don't do complex communication - instead, it's closer to the sort of communication most animals do in the real world. They can express how they're feeling, draw attention to something interesting, sound the alarm about something scary, ask another Pokémon to follow, and can do this in a somewhat more efficient and intelligent way than most animals generally do. But one way or another, they don't communicate complicated abstract ideas, neither to humans nor to one another. Pokémon don't automatically understand human speech here, though they're very quick learners when it comes to commands, and they can pick up a fair amount just by being around humans, allowing them to get the gist of basic statements and requests without being explicitly taught them, though anything abstract would still be entirely lost on them. You could tell a Pokémon you've lived with for years "I lost my hat, can you help me find it" and they'll go look for your hat, but they'd be lost if you tried to ask them for anything much more complicated than that.

12. What is the gym circuit or adventuring organization like in your world?

In the QftLverse, gyms are meant to be taken on in a specific order and gym leaders are accordingly expected to keep their Pokémon below a certain level. To be officially sanctioned by the League, a gym needs to have a theme - usually a type, although Rick got away with a legendary theme because he gets away with everything because he is hypnotizing League officials with his Mewtwo super-clone I was twelve years old. Every year there's a First-Timers' League in the autumn in each region, where new trainers who have collected all eight badges of their region face off (except for the bit where I somehow made a guy who'd been training for years be part of it without thinking about it properly). There's also a global Old-Timers' League for more experienced trainers, which crowns a world champion; this doesn't involve badges and is just a tournament. Trainers are advised to stick to official routes, while Pokémon who want a trainer seek out the routes and others avoid them; going off-route has the potential to lead to run-ins with Pokémon who are more hostile to humans. It's not forbidden but it's drilled into kids' heads that you're not supposed to.

The Morphicverse's gym circuit is not too dissimilar to that, but gym leaders are expected to carry a variety of Pokémon teams to take on challengers of different skill levels, who can take on the gyms of their circuit in any order. Kid trainers are strictly meant to travel only along official routes, which are thoroughly monitored to be safe, and often take public trainer transportation; when they're eighteen they can get an adult trainer license with which they can take their Pokémon anywhere they like, at their own risk. Mostly kids do it as a hobby, and many young children dream of being professional trainers, but only a fraction are actually good enough to make money off it, so most either quit it after a few summers on realizing it's not for them (they might release their Pokémon or keep them as pets, depending on how high-maintenance they are), or continue to do it as a side hobby. There exist college-level training schools for those who really want to dedicate their lives to it, but by that point in time most people will have dropped their pro trainer dreams.

[zombeesknees]

THINKING OF READING ANGIE BEE’S FICTION?

SINK OR SWIM: THE SEARCH FOR AVELINE | Captain Harry Roberts of The Sappho and her daring crew of misfits are not for the faint of heart. A ship of strays unlike any other, they’re ready to face whatever the world throws at them — be it mermaids, kidnappings, sirens, plague, clashes with their mortal enemy Captain Wrath Drew of The Charon, a handsome merman, or good old-fashioned love.

A collection of interconnected stories featuring a diverse, predominately female cast of characters that cover the full LGBTQ spectrum. Co-written with @stephanierabig​. Available here on Amazon [ebook & paperback]. Fancasts here, here, and here.

WEIRD, USA | Fraternal twins Ben and Charlie Hawthorne inherit a fortune from their famous photographer uncle, but the money comes with a stipulation — it must be spent on an adventure. So the two set out for a cross-country road trip with friend Olivia Nettles, discovering more about themselves, their family, and just how weird the world really is. Full of cryptids, ghosts, psychic abilities, nostalgic Americana, and very colorful characters. Buy volume 1 here. Fancast here.

SORRY, WE’RE DEAD | In a town where the noises in the night aren’t always gunshots, some cases require investigators who are more than human. When a literal femme fatale, the zombie slayer Abigail Laveau, hires werepanther Virgil Meriweather to find her missing sister, it’s not long before he’s mixed up with all sorts of underworld figures — like Vodun bokors, werewolves, zombies, and even a Mexican death god… Meanwhile, vampire Warrenwick Gam has his own hands full after he saves a suicidal secretary. Are Nora Donovan’s nightmares the result of trauma, magic, or something else entirely? Can a vampire actually help a girl with the face of an angel? When things go bump in the night, Gam & Meriweather bump back.  

A paranormal noir. This extended edition includes bonus short stories, character profiles, and world-building details. Available here on Blurb. Fancast here.

THE LITO | With Olympus and their powers fading, the gods and goddesses of Greece agree to a Pact that renders them half-mortal while creating a new home amongst us: The Lito. And while they may not be the figures they once were, they still get up to plenty of their old shenanigans — there are sexcapades, grudges and rivalries, and a long game playing out behind the scenes where one of them is trying to reclaim their old power, no matter the cost...

Collections of short stories. Volume One | Volume Two | Volume Three. Fancasting here.

BALANCING ACT | In a world where even the Greek gods have to earn a paycheck, former lovers Adonis and Narcissus make a bet on who will be the first to successfully seduce the newest intern at Olympus Air: Ganymede. But seduction isn't so simple when old feelings are far from faded and new realizations come to light, leaving the two men confused as to who and what they really want.

A Lito short story featuring a LGBTQ relationship. Available here as an ebook through Less Than Three Press.

STOLEN HEART | Snow White is the heir to a vast business empire. In the wake of the sudden death of her father, Arthur "King" White, she finds herself grappling with newfound responsibilities — and a mysterious admirer. After a scandalous series of correspondence, Snow finally meets the person behind the pen: the queen of the criminal underworld, Regine. Secret meetings in smoky bars. A dangerously violent femme fatale. And several sordid details are revealed before the queens can truly claim their thrones.

A sapphic noir fairy tale retelling. Available here as an ebook through Less Than Three Press.

FAERIETALE | On the other side of a door — of many doors — lies a world where familiar figures like Snow White, Captain Hook, Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, Beauty, and the Big Bad Wolf are a little bit different from what the fairy tales would have you believe. The Prince has a harem; Red Riding Hood is a psychotic assassin; Beauty is her own Beast; and Snow White falls for Alice.  

A collaborative novel co-written with @stephanierabig​  and @airy-minotaur. Available here on Amazon [ebook & paperback].

CROSSROADS | Take all of the creatures of the night and world mythology, stick ‘em in a blender, add a crazy prophecy, and VOILA. A collaborative project, currently on hold. Here.

CRIMINAL ELEMENT | I also write meta, commentary, and reviews on genre movies, books, and TV shows. You can find those articles here.

COMMISSIONS | I’m usually available for commissions for reasonable fees: fanfiction, original stories — dealer’s choice.

[titleknown]

Advice on Making Good Creepypasta OCs

So, as it’s about to be the start of the Spookiest Time Of The Year, by which I mean the Halloween season, by which I mean the beginning of August…

Boy does Halloween season start earlier and earlier every year, and yet nobody ever complains about it like they do Christmas. I suppose that a holiday about self-expression and weirdness is probably more welcome exposure-wise than a holiday about conformity and tradition, but that’s for another post.

Anyhoo, since it’s Almost Time, I figured I might as well do an advice guide on how to make some good Creepypasta OCs. Because, when created from scratch as characters rather than emerging from a “main” creepypasta, most of them tend to be Usual Deviantart Characters + Warmed Over Slasher Movie Cliches. And while that has its charm, I think we can do better.

So, what is my advice? Follow me after the break!

One of the main problems I see is, again, there’sso much aesthetic interbreeding, hence why you see so many Deviantart-lite pasta OCs, because so many of them come from Deviantart and copy the “pattern” they see from other Pasta OCs.

Well, first off, draw directly from the source for Creepypasta inspiration. Because, despite is use widening, the term Creepypasta does bring up what I would call a “house feel,” but a lot of people don’t know where that comes from so they end up not quite understanding the core of why it feels unique.

The long and short of it is, Creepypasta draws from forteana + weird fiction. So, for the former, look at the various testimonies of IRL-type supernatural or generally strange stuff, cryptids like Mothman or the Hopkinsville Goblins; bizarre natural phenomenae like strange rains or bizarre locations; or IRL terrifying cults like the Solar Temple or the Ripping Crew, and so-on.

For the latter, Lovecraft’s always a good place to start; because despite his notoriously bad (Like, even for its day) racism, the man was always good at setting a scene and creating an atmosphere and very specific feel. And check out his contemporaries too, like William Hope Hodgson; Robert Chambers or the excellent story The Night Wire, or modern weird fiction like the manga Fourteen or the works of Junji Ito. Or check out some of the more odd horror films that fit under the lable of “weird fiction,” which I will likely eventually make their own post on, but I’ll give Phantasm; Videodrome, Tourist Trap and Suspiria as a few very good examples.

But, a lot of people draw only from fiction, so my next piece of advice would be draw from yourself. Every creator brings their particular fears and aesthetic interests to the table, it’s what makes them unique, so one might ask, “What are yours?”

To talk of other Creepypasta characters, Harmburger comes from Jonathan Wojcic’s fascination with juxtposing cartoonish whimsy with absolute nightmare with hints of social satire, and Candle Cove comes from Kris Straub’s fascination with the slippery nature of memory. Find what sorts of looks you like, but also what subject terrifies and fascinates you. Even if that results in; like; a Homestuck Troll who jumps out of toilets to grab you or a buff guy with a Jojo stand that uses illegal wrestling moves, it’s still more interesting than the usual warmed-over kinda thing.

Of course, that’s only half the battle, inspiration. The rest is thinking of the character as an isolated character, able to exist independently of a work (Which a lot of Creepypasta antagonists aren’t).

So, the advice becomes think about what makes your character different from others, rather than similar. And I’m not just talking about “Mine has a bow on it!” Look at Slender Man, Harmburger, RED, the Rake, ect. They’re all wildly different, even in terms of shillouette, so go for distinct first.

If you want a quick starting point for uniqueness, try going non-humanoid with your concept; because I’m shocked at how few non-humanoids there are as Creepypasta Ocs even though they make up a good proportion of the Iconic Creepypasta Foes. Or go even weirder and make them an abstract force; like Uzumaki’s Spirals or the eponymous “show” of Candle Cove. Tho this stretches the definition of “OC,” you’d be surprised...

And, that’s another thing, add personality; not lore. Because, a horror creature gets less scary the more is revealed about it, but that doesn’t mean that; despite what Highbrow Horror People like @afloweroutofstone say; good horror can’t come from them as characters. In fact, I’d argue that great antagonists/monsters are one of the things that makes horror great; and an area incredibly neglected by that branch of Serious Analysts who don’t love monsters, but that’s for another post.

You can give an idea of how they’d act; what they’d do in a certain situation; what their motives and possible origins are; but never fully tip your hand. Always leave a “space” in the ideas behind them to perhaps fill out later; but usually to keep a perpetual mystery. Always keep ‘em guessing, but also be sure that what they do see and what is revealed is interesting and fascinating in the way the best characters are.

And, that leads to my last idea, know what stories can be told with them. Because, as much as I love characters-as-worldbuilding-elements, when it comes to rubber hitting the road; the best way to make a character compelling is to tell the dang story with them, and given they’re meant to presumably exist in multiple stories the way the most recurring Creepypasta characters are; or heck even the most recurring characters in general like Conan or Sherelock Holmes; you need to figure out what sorts of stories they appear in and what they do in those stories.

Relevant to the point before this; there always should be enough mysterious threads that you don’t quite reveal the ends to; but in every story you use them in; the reader should have enough information to understand what’s going on in the A Plot, even if the larger world has aspects left a mystery. That’s the difference between Alien and Prometheus, and that’s one of the big differences between a good Creepypasta and a bad one...

I’ll probably be adding to this article in the future, given I’m kinda writing this in a rush via reasons of irresponsibility, so feel free to let me know what I could add or how I could do better.

And, if you want to support me, feel free to join my Patreon, where you get previews and, at the higher tiers, even polls on what you want me to do next and art commissions. I

n fact, that’s how I chose this article idea. Huzzah!

[featheredbeardog]

World Building stuff.

CoCC is a weird fantasy/urban realism story, full of both mundane and fantasy critters where werewolves are often treated as either annoying stray dogs or cryptids that need to be found. The Mundane Realm is where the urban is, while the Fantasy Realm is where the weird shit happens. The technology level is roughly late 90′s/early 2000′s. Cellphones are a thing, but are probably tiny bricks or even flip-cover phones. Laptops exist, landlines are still used, and payphones still dot the world. The weird wonky fantasy world is just a bit more timeless with weirder technology, some more advanced than others. Some technology is primitive, while others are Atlantis-leveled (watch Altantis: the lost empire if you’re confused). No vehicles in the usual sense, or lawnmowers, or ipads or tablets, but definitely weird technology and magic co-existing.

Moonscale Prophecy is a six-book series set solely in a timeless fantasy setting, with villages and castles and fortresses and weird animal gods and celestial entities. Giant beasts that can be tamed and bonded with, talking animals, diverse sapient humanoid races, and a world domination conquest! The difference between animals and beasts vary. Animals are often just simple-minded creatures, while beasts are sapient to even having their own cultures and traditions. Technology is... magical but kind of primitive.

Whispering Timberwood is weird and massive, the world of Haven filled with anthropomorphic animals one typically finds on FA (though with less books and human junk and stuff), Vildmark having a bunch of wild beasts that look nothing like modern critters, The Gray Zone being the source of every silent film’s nightmares, and the titular location just being a weird dreamworld. Vildmark is technicolored in environment a giant wild ‘after man’ kind of world, Haven has some occasional odd colors but is mostly natural in color for a giant city that looks like it was built by humans, Gray Zone is... grayscale and unsettling, and Whispering Timberwood is black and white but defies all logic.

Title Pending/Untitled/The Movement/Recovery is an alternate future/scifi/recovering humanity story. Same basic world we live in, but a catastrophic event happened on 2000, which lead to something happened which resulted in a near mass extinction. It was originally technology getting confused about the resetting clock and somehow causing a massive global power-outage that lasted for like, twenty years or something, but something else happened that caused known countries to become divided (literally), so it’s kind of like a post-apocalyptic story but somehow enough people survived the world’s changes to make a decent recovery. There was some genetic alternation experiment going on which was disrupted by supposed alien sightings, which resulted in several subjects escaping, two of these subjects becoming the future founders of a large territory that would grow into Metropolis, a highly advanced city that looks like something out of a futuristic scifi movie with a huge budget. Next to Metropolis is Camelot, a territory just as large as Metropolis but is seemingly stuck in some kind of medieval bubble, guarded by a large lake with only access being a heavily guarded bridge. However, like Metropolis, the ideals and technology in Camelot adjusted to keep up with the times Metropolis was founded by two stragglers, Alhreiks Temple and Aquilina Altaira, both young teenagers who had just escaped from a laboratory. Using their new found abilities, they worked together to turn a seemingly abandoned wasteland into a thriving community, and later into Metropolis. Unfortunately a scuffle occurred, and Camelot’s ruler King Arthur III arrived to break up the conflict. The king decided to pick the future ruler of Metropolis, and after some measuring, gave control of Metropolis to the Temple clan, leaving the Altaira clan and their supporters furious. The Altaira Clan and most of their supporters disappeared the next day, nowhere to be found, leaving Metropolis to suffer from a crippled economy since Aquilina was the one who started the trading business that got Metropolis where it was.

The Pale Lady started as a short story written for my Creative Writing class, about a fourteen year old teenager named Hunter who seeks out her dad Arcadius/Orion after her mom Artemis is supposedly killed in an unknown occurrence. The biggest issue is she hasn’t seen her dad in a decade, and her dad isn’t exactly thrilled to take care of his daughter, who he supposedly used to have a strong bond with. Things get weird when a stranger trespasses and Arcadius repetitively chases it away, and when Arcadius’s best friend Angel shows up to visit, she tells Hunter all these different stories about mythical creatures, from the crafty fox that stole the sun to the silver-eyed deer that restored the drying river, the story of the Pale Lady and even sang the song of the Scarred Bear. She had just started telling the story about the mythical Dream Walker tribe, but didn’t get to cause Arcadius is kind of skeptical. Hunter ends up running off into the woods and gets attacked by a huge black grizzly bear covered with scars, leaving her with a nasty scratch on her chest and arm, but she’s just barely saved by a white bear, and brought back to the cabin by Arcadius, who treats the wound and heads back out to find the beast to ‘take care of it’. He ends up shooting the wrong beast and is turned into a bear as punishment.

“Oh great not another Brother Bear/Brave thing.”

*shrugs* Yeah, Arcadius is turned into a bear for some reason, his body is rapidly dying of old age now, and Hunter is after him under false assumptions.

So the world that The Pale Lady is kind of modern with a hidden touch of fairy tale mixed in. Things seem normal at first, but then weird shit happens, like a skinny pale lady who’s story has been told for hundreds of years, a huge black grizzly bear appears in an area where supposedly no bears have been sighted in for years, and bear!Arcadius is very rapidly dying of old age, like he could literally watch his fur turn white slowly and his body slowly deteriorating by the hour. The world is basic. Somewhere up in the northern cascade area by Monroe in Washington, but the base mythology in the story was heavily inspired by me flipping the middle finger to some awful movies that inspired me to want to try and make something just a little bit better, but also because why not. Most of the myths and tales in this story are inspired by my various visits to Blake Island as well as one assignment we had to do in ninth grade about Native American mythology under the guise of reading Touching Spirit Bear, where at one point we had to create our own ‘totem pole’ with animal spirits we associated with ourselves. Those two things are the reason why I enjoy Native American mythologies so much, especially since there are so many variants of one story. The Pale Lady myth and all associated beings and critters were inspired by the various stories I read up on, sometimes enough inspiration where people get inspired to look it up and find the original source of inspiration for themselves. The Pale Lady was a powerful shapeshifting entity who forced Arcadius to wear one of the skins she had been wearing as a punishment for his rash action. The only other mythical beast to appear in the story is the Scarred Bear, a massive beast covered with scars and back marred with spears and arrows who seems unusually hellbent on hunting... well... Hunter. The Ash Raven, a being bent on destruction and death, ALMOST made an appearance in Part 2 of the Pale Lady short story, but was cut from the story to save on word count. The Ash Raven was basically the grim reaper of this fictional mythology and was following Hunter because her wound was infected and slowly killing her. ...I think that covers the Pale Lady for worldbuilding June.

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Yetis, Mercenaries, Crusaders, Masters of Kung Fu

Weird Western (David J. West): It was fun to reread some old Louis L’amour books and even a couple Lovecraft stories I had missed like The Strange High House in the Mist – because I have a hardly touched Lovecraftian god = Nodens making an appearance.

Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): For those that don’t know, mundane science fiction was a movement spearheaded by the Clarion Writer’s Workshop to tell writers what their imagination needs to be focused on in order to shape the future properly. You pay money for this sort of advice. The result has led to an already low selling genre bottoming out and losing to independent Space Opera series in sales. Despite being a 15 year old movement, it has yet to produce a single hit, despite having the entire Oldpub machine behind it. That’s the legacy this movement has.

Lovecraft & Cinema (Tentaclii): Hollywood-watchers report that work is underway on adapting the Hans Rodionoff / Giffen / Breccia graphic novel Lovecraft (2003). The adaptation is mooted as a possible costume horror-drama which “will take place in the 1920s”. Sounds good, though the first sixth of the 130-page book is actually set in the 1890s with Lovecraft as a boy, which would entail two sets of period costumes.

History (Men of the West): The German Emperor came to Jerusalem under the escort of the Turks, as the ally of the Turks, and solely because of the victory and supremacy of the Turks. In other words, he came to Jerusalem solely because the Crusaders had lost Jerusalem; he came there solely because the Crusaders had been routed, ruined, butchered before and after the disaster of Hattin: because the Cross had gone down in blood before the Crescent, under which alone he could ride in with safety. Under those circumstances to dress up as a Crusader, as if for a fancy dress ball, was a mixture of madness and vulgarity which literally stops the breath.

Author Interview (DMR Books): Byron A. Roberts, mastermind behind the bombastic British metal band Bal-Sagoth, is one of the most talented individuals active in the sword and sorcery field today. Although it wasn’t until the past few years that his stories saw print, he’s been developing characters and concepts for quite some time. Just take a look at a booklet of a Bal-Sagoth CD and you’ll see that the lyrics are basically short stories themselves! His latest work is a collaboration with Matthew Knight and Howie K. Bentley, written round-robin style. Let’s learn more about one of the men behind Karnov: Phantom-Clad Rider of the Cosmic Ice.

Sasquatch (Dark Worlds Quarterly): To begin with this piece is going to look at Yeti, Bigfoot and Sasquatch stories in as many mediums as we can squeeze into such a short space. Expressions like “wild men” or the more scientific “cryptid” are repellent to me so I am going to coin my own expression. Let us take the first letter of each Y for Yeti, B for Bigfoot and S for Sasquatch and come up with YBS or “YuBS”, meaning any unexplained natural humanoid between human and ape, usually living in hiding amongst us.

Comic Books (Black Gate): Master of Kung Fu Annual #1 was a reworking of what would have been Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #5 had Marvel’s short-lived line of quarterly publications not been prematurely discontinued. As it stands it was the only King-Size Annual Marvel published for the series. Marvel Annuals were generally a mixed bag and this is no exception. A few select ones offered truly special longer stories which were a delight for loyal readers, but most were either hurriedly produced or generally disappointing tryouts for aspiring Marvel writers and artists to demonstrate their handling of established properties.

Fantasy Fiction (Matthew J. Constantine): The fifth and final chapter in Taran’s adventures in Prydain, this book brings the various characters and conflicts together for one final big push.  Not since The Book of Three has the story felt more like Tolkien, for better or worse.  It’s not quite the Battle of Five Armies, but it’s in the ballpark.  And the ending…I mean, yeah. It seems pretty familiar. That said, the book is a fitting ending to the story. By this point, Taran is for all intents and purposes a young adult.  He’s commanding troops, making decisions, and generally taking charge of situations.

Art (DMR Books): Who was Nicholas Roerich? Many, many things. An explorer, a philosopher, an archaeologist and an artist. His art is what concerns us today. An exhibition of his paintings caught the eye of H.P. Lovecraft. His works are displayed in nearly seventy countries as we speak. The subjects of his paintings ranged far and wide. He painted both the Himalayas and Mohegan, Maine. However, it is his art depicting Russian subjects—plus a few that fit in, regardless—that concern us today.

History (Karavansara): We have seen how the Japanese created a Golen Bat Export brand of cigarettes with extra heroin, specifically for the Chinese market. This plan to get the Chinese smokers hooked on heroin was the brainchild of a man called Kenji Doihara, aka “Lawrence of Manchuria”. And boy was he a Grade A scumbag. Born in 1883, Doihara got out of military academy and covered a number of small-fry positions in the Japanese Army.

Cinema (Karavansara): For the uninitiated, Royal Flash sees our “hero” Harry Flashman (here portrayed by Malcolm McDowell) caught up the plan by Otto Bismark (Oliver Reed) to manipulate the local politics of a minor German state. The plot is basically The Prisoner of Zenda, with Flash Harry forced to take the place of a Danish prince to marry the German Duchess Irma (Britt Ekland). Lola Montez (Florinda Bolkan) has a part in the plot, and Flashy needs to match wits with Bismark’s accomplice, Rudi Von Sternberg (Alan Bates).

Science Fiction (PulpFest): ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE launched as a Clayton magazine with Harry Bates as editor. Its first issue was dated January 1930. Clayton paid much better rates than AMAZING and WONDER STORIES — two cents a word upon acceptance as opposed to half a cent a word — and drew better-known writers such as Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Jack Williamson, and Victor Rousseau. Although the editors’ original intent was to include stories which “forecasted scientific achievements of To-morrow,” in practice the Clayton ASTOUNDING was primarily an action/adventure pulp magazine.

Art (Pulp Flakes):  A new exhibition at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration, includes 42 original paintings and 101 Saturday Evening Post covers from the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island,  and the  American Illustrators Gallery in New York, NY., as well as other materials related to Leyendecker’s work in advertising throughout his five-decade career.

History (Mythic Scribes): From the rogue sellsword to companies of trained soldiers fighting to fill their pockets, the term mercenary can bring a lot of images to mind both from our own history and the fictional worlds we enjoy spending time in. What is the line in the sand that separates the greedy scoundrel from the professional soldier? According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, a mercenary is a “hired professional soldier who fights for any state or nation without regard to political interests or issues.”

Sensor Sweep: Yetis, Mercenaries, Crusaders, Masters of Kung Fu published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[zombeesknees]

THINKING OF READING ANGIE BEE’S FICTION?

SINK OR SWIM: THE SEARCH FOR AVELINE | Captain Harry Roberts of The Sappho and her daring crew of misfits are not for the faint of heart. A ship of strays unlike any other, they’re ready to face whatever the world throws at them — be it mermaids, kidnappings, sirens, plague, clashes with their mortal enemy Captain Wrath Drew of The Charon, a handsome merman, or good old-fashioned love.

A collection of interconnected stories featuring a diverse, predominately female cast of characters that cover the full LGBTQ spectrum. Co-written with @stephanierabig​. Available here on Amazon [ebook & paperback]. Fancasts here, here, and here.

WEIRD, USA | Fraternal twins Ben and Charlie Hawthorne inherit a fortune from their famous photographer uncle, but the money comes with a stipulation — it must be spent on an adventure. So the two set out for a cross-country road trip with friend Olivia Nettles, discovering more about themselves, their family, and just how weird the world really is. Full of cryptids, ghosts, psychic abilities, nostalgic Americana, and very colorful characters. Buy volume 1 here. Fancast here.

SORRY, WE’RE DEAD | In a town where the noises in the night aren’t always gunshots, some cases require investigators who are more than human. When a literal femme fatale, the zombie slayer Abigail Laveau, hires werepanther Virgil Meriweather to find her missing sister, it’s not long before he’s mixed up with all sorts of underworld figures — like Vodun bokors, werewolves, zombies, and even a Mexican death god… Meanwhile, vampire Warrenwick Gam has his own hands full after he saves a suicidal secretary. Are Nora Donovan’s nightmares the result of trauma, magic, or something else entirely? Can a vampire actually help a girl with the face of an angel? When things go bump in the night, Gam & Meriweather bump back.  

A paranormal noir. This extended edition includes bonus short stories, character profiles, and world-building details. Available here on Blurb. Fancast here.

THE LITO | With Olympus and their powers fading, the gods and goddesses of Greece agree to a Pact that renders them half-mortal while creating a new home amongst us: The Lito. And while they may not be the figures they once were, they still get up to plenty of their old shenanigans — there are sexcapades, grudges and rivalries, and a long game playing out behind the scenes where one of them is trying to reclaim their old power, no matter the cost...

Collections of short stories. Volume One | Volume Two | Volume Three. Fancasting here.

BALANCING ACT | In a world where even the Greek gods have to earn a paycheck, former lovers Adonis and Narcissus make a bet on who will be the first to successfully seduce the newest intern at Olympus Air: Ganymede. But seduction isn't so simple when old feelings are far from faded and new realizations come to light, leaving the two men confused as to who and what they really want.

A Lito short story featuring a LGBTQ relationship. Available here as an ebook through Less Than Three Press.

STOLEN HEART | Snow White is the heir to a vast business empire. In the wake of the sudden death of her father, Arthur "King" White, she finds herself grappling with newfound responsibilities — and a mysterious admirer. After a scandalous series of correspondence, Snow finally meets the person behind the pen: the queen of the criminal underworld, Regine. Secret meetings in smoky bars. A dangerously violent femme fatale. And several sordid details are revealed before the queens can truly claim their thrones.

A sapphic noir fairy tale retelling. Available here as an ebook through Less Than Three Press.

FAERIETALE | On the other side of a door — of many doors — lies a world where familiar figures like Snow White, Captain Hook, Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, Beauty, and the Big Bad Wolf are a little bit different from what the fairy tales would have you believe. The Prince has a harem; Red Riding Hood is a psychotic assassin; Beauty is her own Beast; and Snow White falls for Alice.  

A collaborative novel co-written with @stephanierabig​  and @airy-minotaur. Available here on Amazon [ebook & paperback].

CROSSROADS | Take all of the creatures of the night and world mythology, stick ‘em in a blender, add a crazy prophecy, and VOILA. A collaborative project, currently on hold. Here.

CRIMINAL ELEMENT | I also write meta, commentary, and reviews on genre movies, books, and TV shows. You can find those articles here.

COMMISSIONS | I’m usually available for commissions for reasonable fees: fanfiction, original stories — dealer’s choice.