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gretchensinister · 2 years

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WIP Meme: List the titles/filenames/descriptions of your WIPs and tell us a little bit about them/wail about them/beg for inspiration/whatever you want! Then tag some people for a no-obligation mutual wailing/cheering/complaining session!

I was tagged by @marypsue!

I will limit myself to talking about actually have had progress made on them...relatively recently.

1. The American Dream project--years ago I wrote a short scene for a blacksand AU where Pitch was a human woman and Sandy was an eldritch being in disguise as a human, and Pitch was just beginning to be able to admit that her husband didn’t seem human, which was a problem she did not know how to deal with. At all. Now I’m taking that scene and making it into an original story, to become my next novel. Cosima, a dancer at a nightclub in the 1920s and an amateur writer of weird tales, catches the eye of Iggy, a wealthy man with a mysterious past (actually an immortal eldritch being). They fall in love and get married, but there are some big problems that will arise: Cosima finding out her husband’s not human, Iggy being a cosmic light-being with an on-again off-again relationship with a cosmic horror who gets dangerously jealous of the humans Iggy falls in love with during their “breaks,” AND a bigger, worse eldritch horror that’s threatening Earth (kind of Iggy and his cosmic horror lover’s hometown/family of origin). I’m doing a heavy outline right now. The problem is, of course, that I don’t know much about the 1920s. YET.

2. Guilty Pleasures--yes, that’s the actual document title. I started this because I wanted to write some intense smut with tropes that I like but I know some people hate. (One character teaching another, completely blank slate ignorant character what sex is, in a hands on and mutually pleasurable way, and characters with genitals that can switch between penetrating and being-penetrated modes.) And then I couldn’t stop myself from fleshing out the world a little bit and it turned into a whole plot that’s kind of about the weird system that enabled this smut scene to happen and trying to figure out how to deal with having a fucked up job that you can’t just quit because well, ya got bills. THE SEX PARTS ARE STILL SUPPOSED TO BE HOT THOUGH.

3. Phantom Noodling--I thought if I gave the document a silly title, I would avoid rewriting the Phantom of the Opera. Cue card, “Gretchen Rewrites The Phantom of the Opera.” There are things about artistry, about seeing and being seen as a woman, trying to be normal when you’re not and you know it, etc. etc. that I want to say via a PotO fic. Erik/Christine obviously, but in a queerer way than any other E/C fic I’ve yet to find is? I have never gotten exactly what I want from PotO...but I WILL. I re-read what I have so far and I was...not structuring it as a long-form piece when I began it. Also a good portion of the writing style is making me go ???? but I know what happened, and it’s that I was reading Jane Eyre at the time and I couldn’t stop thinking in those long, 19th-century sentences. (Yeah I know it COULD be fitting but. When it comes from me. It’s not clear.)

4. My Golden Age project--well, maybe I was not as ready to start this as I thought I was. I continue to sit on this egg, which I’m sure will eventually hatch into an epic space opera.

Tagging @queerpyracy and @tejoxys and anyone else who feels like doing this. Personally I did this while procrastinating from packing up to move, so if I seem scattered...that’s why~*~*~

#rambling #meme

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welcometoels · 3 years

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Session Nineteen - A Lovely Trip To The Void

After being thrown out of The Hanging Lock for starting a fight involving dancing furniture, the gang settles down in the discounted rooms of The Burning Man. Come the following morning, and a breakfast that unexpectedly tastes like it’s supposed to, they decide to mount up and head out to Blacksand by way of Amberstall.

Kadis is naturally concerned about revisiting his hometown - a place he hasn’t returned to since the occupants were mysteriously taken away, along with his sight - but he remains stoic. As does the little horse variously known as Storm or Shadow Hellflayer, though he is mostly just enjoying the walk.

[DM’s Note: Seriously, that horse’s name shifts from session to session, and nobody can ever really be certain of which it is supposed to be. I have therefore officially renamed him StormShadow Hellflayer, because I have that power.]

Little happens on the journey, until the evening begins to fall. As the adventurers trek forth through the thinning trees, they spot a light in a glade: a campfire, with meat roasting upon it, and a thick-set man sitting beside it.

The man introduces himself as Marcus, and invites the team to join him for some rabbit, slow roasted with select herbs. Oddsock is right in before Marcus can even finish speaking, and the others get comfortable around the fire.

Marcus adds to the warmth by asking what the group has been up to on their travels. They fill him in on a few light details, but he keeps pressing them for more. Feeling a tad suspicious, Talion asks some questions of his own - specifically what Marcus has been doing.

Marcus tells them quite openly - he’s been wondering about a group of people who delivered an artefact from Thornhelm to Greysnipe, and what happened to the large amount of cash they received. Furthermore, his crossbow-and-mace-wielding pals who just emerged from the forest have also been wondering about it.

No amount of telling him that the money went with the other guy will put Marcus off the scent of cash, so there’s only one thing for it: ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!

Talion turns himself invisible just before battle commences, but Kadis leads the charge proper with a thwack of his staff and a few solid punches, putting one of Marcus’ heavies flat on his backside.

Julius casts Hold Person on two of the hefty backup lads, succeeding in restraining one of them, while Cailynn nips swiftly behind another on her Boots of the Winding Path, clonking him on the back of the head with a crowbar. Her faithful Wyvern Moo follows up with a magical assault, much to the confusion and distress of his target.

After a round of variably successful swings from the thugs, the invisible Talion uses his College of Creation skills to animate a nearby tree, which attacks with a mighty wooden swing. Oddsock does what he does best, and launches motes of fire at four of the attackers with great success, singeing flesh left and right.

Back round to Kadis, he lays out the same fella as before, who had barely got back on his feet. Julius kicks things up a notch by turning into a giant boar, taking a run at Marcus and goring him severely. Who would’ve thought he had it in him?

Cailynn repeats her crowbar ‘n’ magic approach, but also spots a familiar face in the trees. The messenger crow descends from on high, and presents her with a message from The Mau, inviting her to visit them in the northern Drow territories of Tý-En.

As this happens, the thug she is assaulting spots the tell-tale circle-and-triangles mark of The Mau, and panics. He relays this info to Marcus, who changes his tone entirely. Not wanting to displease one of the most powerful crime conglomerates in Toltirgis, he throws up his hands and beg for mercy.

The mercy is not forthcoming. We may need to revisit this group’s alignments...

Sensing further danger, the thugs flee as soon as the situation and the turn order allows. Though they take a few opportunistic strikes, they all manage to escape, leaving behind a roaring fire and the remains of a lovely rabbit supper.

The adventurers settle in for the night. Kadis has an abortive attempt at learning to juggle with a few nearby stones, but lacks the dexterity for the task. Oddsock, with typical tact, uses his Unseen Servant to show the monk how it’s done.

A comfortable night of sleep follows, broken only by the dull thud of rocks hitting dirt as the Unseen Servant dissipates. The following morning, Talion nips out early to find food, bagging a couple of rabbits and, from a nearby brook, a few small fish for Julius.

The fish goes down nicely, but the rabbit tastes of... cereal? Damnit, Oddsock...

Back on the horses and back on the road, the team rides for several hours, as the trees become thinner and thinner. Cailynn quails under the direct sun, so Talion conjures up a musical cloak for her to hide under. It is effective, though the 15 second loop of The Worst Whore In Els wears thin quickly.

The trees disappear entirely as they press on, and nothing but flat farmland lies ahead. Before too long, a sight very familiar to Kadis appears - the old Enn farmstead.

The place that once was home to Kadis, his eight siblings and his parents, now lies empty. There are no animals in the fields, the crops have given way to fields, and the farmhouse shows no sign of occupation, in either the present or the recent past.

What does appear to be occupied, though, is the little shop across the way from the farm entrance. The team heads inside to find a Dwarf names Marielle - a person that is known to Kadis, and one who, after a moment, recognises him in return.

Marielle greets Kadis warmly, and asks how he’s been doing. He fills her in on most of the details, but keeps his unusual recovery from blindness secret. He then follows up with some reasonable questions of his own, specifically pertaining to where everyone went on the day he awoke blind and alone.

Marielle is confused. As far as she was aware, Kadis and his family disappeared from the town suddenly one day. They were naturally concerned, but after a search brought up no results, they had no choice but to press on with life. Nobody took over the farm, but the little shop has sustained itself by serving travellers moving to and from Blacksand.

Kadis is uncertain how to respond. These two versions of events are completely at odds. Deciding to explore further, he leaves the shop, with Talion and Cailynn following in his wake.

Julius and Oddsock peruse the shop’s limited wares, and Marielle offers them some dried meat and fish, with a little bundle of herbs, by way of celebration of the return of Kadis. They accept gratefully, and enquire about books. Marielle has none - nor tomes, scrolls, or any other synonym for the written word. Julius leaves through the door to catch up with his friends, while Oddsock floats out through the window.

Out in the town square, Kadis encourages his more magical companions to see if they can sense anything unusual in the area. Cailynn channels her natural arcane understanding, and gets a distinct sense of... something in the area. What it is, she lacks the specific knowhow to determine, but there is definitely a feeling about this place.

Kadis also deploys his tiny beholder companion - recently dubbed Lillod - to see if it picks up anything. Lillod seems intrigued by something - his little tentacles quiver and his eye roams around in search of something unseen - but again the specifics evade them.

Frustrated, Talion investigates the nearby inn, and Oddsock lands softly upon his head on the way. They enter to find a Dwarf barman - brother to Marielle - and a warm welcome of ale. They respond in kind with a stirring musical performance, Oddsock’s harmonica accompaniment much improved from before.

Having finished their investigation, Cailynn and Kadis follow the others into the pub, but Julius opts to wander the town a little. He finds a few simple houses, a couple of which show signs of life and light within. At one, he sees a friendly Dwarfish face looking back out. Julius waves, and the Dwarf waves back. Nothing sinister there.

Inside the inn, Kadis is questioning the barman. His story is much the same as Marielle’s - Kadis and his family disappeared one day, and nobody knew why or where they went.

Kadis pushes the matter more forcefully this time, adamant that he was searching blindly through an empty town for days. Marielle’s brother - Toby (nobody asked...) - swears that this was not the case. The Enn family went away, but he remained there, along with Marielle and their little’un.

[DM’s Note: None of the players commented on this. Clearly, in a world of raccoon alchemists and mushroom druids, a little bit of incest is by-the-by.]

Clearly something is amiss, and no amount of questions or staring competitions with a hovering Golden Retriever will get to the bottom of it. Toby offers keys to the rooms upstairs - free to friends of the returning son of Amberstall - and the group considers a night’s sleep.

There is an undercurrent of mistrust within the group, though. While Kadis takes a room to himself, Talion an Julius choose to share, as they used to back in Dogwood. Cailynn goes a step further and sets herself up under a tree in the town square, with Moo and Rupert up in the branches to watch over her.

Oddsock, ever a law unto himself, hovers over the barman, waiting to see where he sleeps. After running out of levitation power after about twenty minutes, he excuses himself to the rear of the building to take care of some dog business.

In the night, moments into sleep, Kadis has a very unusual dream. He sees, from his own point of view, the door to the inn from the inside. He exits, and moves towards the barn at the edge of Enn farm. He floats up through the open hayloft door at the top, and back down to the floor of the barn, where lies a gaping hole.

Decending into the hole, he finds a tunnel of packed earth, and then - nothing. The world goes black, and it is a few moments before he realises that he is no longer asleep.

Kadis checks his blindfold, and, sure enough, Lillod is missing. As a Golden Retriever floats in through his window, Kadis rises from his bed with a sense of urgency.

Something is rotten in the town of Amberstall, and he will get to the bottom of it.

#dnd #5e #dnd homebrew

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resourcesofcolor · 4 years

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Black Sands, the Seven Kingdoms - Episode 1

Written by Manuel Godoy and illustrated by David Lenormand, Black Sands, the Seven Kingdoms is an epic tale about ancient Egyptian mythology. The story follows the young prince Ausar and his kin as he travel the world trying to prove he has what it takes to become Pharaoh. A war breaks out between seven kingdoms and the kids are dragged right into the center of it.

Patreon: blacksands

#video.#egypt.#art.#action.

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imagecomics · 5 years

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Image Comics is pleased to announce that the critically-acclaimed Daredevil writer Chip Zdarsky and beloved Runaways artists Kris Anka and Matt Wilson will team up for a tautly-woven, eye-popping new fantasy miniseries, The White Trees. The series will be comprised of two oversized issues—which will tell a complete story—with the The White Trees #1 hitting shelves this August.

“I’m beyond thrilled to be working with Kris and Matt again!” bellowed Zdarsky. “Are they thrilled to be working with me again? It really doesn’t matter as I tricked them into signing a contract by using the words ‘hot fantasy.’ Legally, they have to illustrate this tale of fraught relationships forged in war and the complexities of fatherhood.

“Or suffer the consequences."

The White Trees is set in the fantastical world of Blacksand, where peace was hard-won, and three unbending warriors carry the scars to prove it. Now, almost twenty years later, their children are missing and war is on the horizon. Can they put aside their memories of the war—and each other—for one last adventure?

Anka added: "This book has everything: action, suspense, romance, Daddies."

The White Trees #1 (Diamond Code JUN190031) will hit comic shops on Wednesday, August 14. The final order cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, July 22.

#NCBD #newcomicbookday #newcomicsday

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comicweek · 5 years

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White Trees #1: A Series of Welcome Surprises

This isn’t Your Fathers Dads on a mission story.

Written by Chip Sdarsky Illustrated by Kris Anka Colored by MAtt Wilson Lettered by Aditya Bidikar Proofreading by Allison O’Toole Production Artist Shanna Matuszak

The White Trees: A Black Sand Tale, an oversized two issue miniseries, snuck up on me. I remember it being announced and being immediately sold by the creative team of writer Chip Zdarsky, illustrator Kris Anka, colorist Matt Wilson with lettering by Aditya Bidikar. Judging by the cover it was clearly a fantasy series, not sure if I read the solicit. All of that was months ago, sure seeing Kris Anka post the occasional art piece to Instagram kept in the back of my mind, but all of a sudden it’s out this week and a real surprise. White Trees is a queer fantasy adventure about three former warriors, legends, and friends and those job histories have changed them on a quest they never expected with enough emotional baggage to fill even more oversized issues.

The lead of our cover characters is Sir Krylos the Bold, the skunk bearded one on the left. He is the one we meet on the first page and the one whose interiority is explored. For all the high fantasy aesthetics, beautifully realized with Matt Wilson’s coloring, White Trees moves like a revisionist western as it questions the efficacy of the actions from years and wars past. Krylos isn’t William Munny, but he feels apiece with John Wayne as Jacob McCandles from Big Jake as both appear to be terrible fathers with strict ideas of what is what. Throughout the journey Krylos recollects on what he’s looking for and what becomes apparent is that he never did, or no longer does, appreciate art or material objects that do not serve the task at hand; and how that materialistic pragmatism interfered with relationships. These memories are just one more thing to haunt the warrior turned farmer. White Trees #1 features three flashbacks, but that pragmatism comes through on the first page. While tending his farm Krylos picks a beautiful blue flower. He doesn’t smell it, he just looks at it before casually tossing it aside and gets back to work. Only to be interrupted by the King’s envoy.

With his beard and stoic demeanor Krylos does not have the most emotive character design. However, Kris Anka gets every ounce of expressive potential out of that mans brow and when combined with the piercing black and blue eyes from Wilson creates a haunted gaze.

Krylos isn’t the only one that has been summoned. His former comrades in arms Sir Dahvlan the Swift (the catman) and Sir Scotiar of Blacksand(the elf) also appear with immediate tension. The King informs Krylos and company that their children, Chal-Kra and Windlo, have been kidnapped by the neighboring Trilonians. Anka gives the revelation of Chal-Kra and Windlo’s relationships a Romeo & Juliet vibe with how they draw the shock and disgust on Dahvlan’s face. Their mission should the choose to except it, is enter Trilonia rescue their children, get out, and don’t start a war in the process. This is the story of a bunch of dads going to rescue the kids they don’t really know and maybe repairing old relationships along the way.

While Krylos is quite and stoic, things are more emotive and openly dysfunctional between husbands Dahvlan and Scotiar. As the latter struggles with his role as step-father and changing the way he speaks about their daughter.

As they travel emotional wounds about what they did and didn’t do during the previous war begin to reopen and forms the core interpersonal drama between them. Zdarsky and Anka let these old wounds hang over everything, allowing Dahvlan to throw plenty of petty barbs at Krylos. Despite being a first issue, Zdarsky doesn’t bother with really explaining the world, readers get a map and that is it for paratext, throwing the readers into a world everyone but them understands. This lack of information when mixed with Anka and Wilson’s art and some moments of special emphasis from Bidikar the creative team create the impression of fully formed characters from archetypes. This trio have the weight of history to them and I want to know more, but that isn’t important to the story being told.

With this weight and the emotional scarring they bring with them it conjures images of cyclical, if not constant, violence. How that violence has transformed how they act and taught them to always be fighting even if they lack arms. As Milola, Dahvlan’s ex-wife, puts it their way is like a “bloody hammer – even if you think it won’t be.” A red cloud of violence hangs over them, it becomes the panel color for Krylos’ flashbacks, but there maybe some hope for these men of violence. Consider how Krylos ultimately deals with the dragon and for all the talk of violence that propels the plot, there isn’t much of it on the page.

One of the several surprises in this book for me is how much I like Dahvlan. When I first saw him on the cover I thought he looked like a solid fantasy design. As I read on though the character started reminding me of myself. I’m not a cranky cat person like he is, but he is a tall bisexual with a bit of a gut and I’m a tall bisexual with a bit of a gut. He kinda looks like me. When I first got into (mainstream) comics there was a dearth of major male bi characters. It was like you had John Constantine – a character whose sexuality was more trivia note than explicit until recently and one I never much vibed to barring Matt Ryan on Legends of Tomorrow and the TynionIV-Doyle-Rossmo run. You find more over time, eventually I found Catman and the queer friendly Secret Six. The Gillen-McKelvie Young Avengers felt like a revelation and David “Prdigy” Alleyne’s coming out sequence is still one of the better explanations I have for my sexuality in media. But they didn’t really look like me and Dahvlan does and that is nice.

Eventually the trio make it to the forest with titular White Trees, another place scarred by war. It is said the forest was once filled with magnificent colors but after the Battle of Rosefield the trees turned white in shock at the brutality. It is in this cursed and enchanted land that White Trees goes to a place I never expected. After they make camp the fae begin to show up. And by “show up” I mean with the turn of a page the readers and Scotiar are greeted by a hunky erect, nude, devilish looking fae posed like a romanced Iron Bull. That was quite the surprise. Things quickly turn into a seductive and explicit orgy, While mostly everyone gets involved, Scotiar gets the emphasis as the devilish fae tugs and temps him with a life free of monogamy and parental roles. This would be the second explicit gay sex scene Kris Anka has done by my count, the other being ‘Summer Lovin’ with Jen Bartel and Wilson in the WicDiv Christmas Annual. You don’t really see that in mainstream comics. I’m still surprised when they let to men kiss in a big two book much less actually get physical with full frontal nudity. (The closest Big Two example would probably be the first issue of Orlando-Blanco Midnighter & Apollo and even that was PG-13 with selective paneling.) The orgy is meant to trap our trio but what Anka does with Dahvlan and how he draws the emotion on his face, you get why he might want to stay. Anka fills the panels in this 5 page sequence with all sorts of body types having a good time, something else you don’t really see in media in general.

The sudden eroticism was a welcome surprise, but it also helps to pay off Scotiar’s arc in the issue, as he is the one who breaks the spell. He turns away and accepts his role as stepparent and all the responsibilities that entails. We don’t actually get much of Scotiar and Dahvlan’s relationship outside of the mission, but with the character acting between the two, the little looks they give one another early on, earn that sense of history and commitment between the two. The reaction Dahvlan has to this turn is beautiful.

White Trees covers a lot of ground and throws readers for a loop in spots. The second issues is due out next month, but it appears Zdarsky has dodged the Part 1 of 2 curse with an issue that doesn’t end on a cliffhanger or require something else for emotional catharsis. If anything the ending is fittingly understated, moody, and ominous. The plot is simple but how it exposes the emotionally scarred nature of these characters is excellent. It did what you hope a first anything does: sell the characters. The creative team tease a fantasy world without getting sidetracked into meaningless world building and has me ready to say “Thank you sirs may I have another.”

#white trees #chip zdarsky #lgbtq comics #fantasy comic #image comics #my bi is showing #thoughts #Kris Anka

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sylphidine · 6 years

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[NDU] Your First Memory Of All - Author’s Notes

Sylph sez:

Finally finished. Will polish it a bit before I upload as a single work to AO3.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Acknowledgements to the folks whose works inspired this particular story of mine, listed in no particular order but all of whom I admire.

The now-deactivated Nightmare Dork University blog ask-purradox and the artwork in this post from that blog

A scene from VAMPIRE SCIENCE, an early Eighth Doctor novel written by Kate Orman and Johnathan Blum [it’s not a plot spoiler to say that the Doctor ran out of a burning building with his pockets full of kittens]

This fanart doodle illustrating said scene by @agent-jaselin

Conversations with @ksclaw in which she postulates that Cruella De Vil is a older cousin of Pitch and Piki Black

Uncle Gilen Russell Black was inspired by this gifset of a museum curator named Dr. Black in the television episode “Vincent and the Doctor”, played by Bill Nighy, and his middle name is a hat-tip to another of my favourite actors

Aunt Annelle Deauville-Sands Black was inspired by photos from past to present of the actress Judy Cornwell, and answers my need for an oblique BlackSand ship in the BlackIce / Pitchcest-heavy NDU universe. I think, with her height of five-foot-three compared to Bill Nighy’s six-foot-two, that she makes a lovely Sandy-analogue at any age

Pitch’s and Piki’s parents, while unseen in this piece, are very much present in the background, and their entire milieu and lifestyle is something I’m basing on my own experience of the toxic environment in which my partner grew up

This story by @ksclaw which shows just one of the ways that Pitch feels inadequate when compared to Piki when the twins were growing up

A happier story by @marypsue referencing certain other Black relatives

The headcanon that @plush-anon set up in “Fire Alarms and November Nights”, where Pitch and Pitchiner each live in a freshman dorm at NDU before they met and took the apartment together with Proto

This heartbreaking tale from @the-ink-kettle about Pitch’s college days before he met Pitchiner

Borrowing from one of my own posts

#nightmare dork university #kittylove #ndu purradox #blacksandship #blackicerotg #ndu pitch #i need to believe that there are such things as benevolent relatives #ndu headcanon #sylph writes #oops my geek is showing #in which sylph pontificates like a university professor

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pixelrelatedpodcast · 5 years

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“Or suffer the consequences.”

Anka added: “This book has everything: action, suspense, romance, Daddies.”

The White Trees #1 (Diamond Code JUN190031) will hit comic shops on Wednesday, August 14. The final order cutoff deadline for retailers is Monday, July 22.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

‘Daredevi’l Writer Chip Zdarsky Teams With ‘Runaways’ Artists Kris Anka & Matt Wilson for ‘The White Trees’ Image Comics is pleased to announce that the critically-acclaimed Daredevil writer Chip Zdarsky and beloved Runaways…

#Image Comics #The White Trees

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jose-borges · 5 years

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Finally Announced! The White Trees: A Blacksand Tale@zdarsky @COLORnMATT and I are back together for a 2 oversized issue mini series through Image, coming out this August pic.twitter.com/EWsef0bNud

— Ser Kristafer . Warden of Thirst (@kristaferanka) May 23, 2019

#IFTTT #Twitter

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gretchensinister · 3 years

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I was tagged by @marypsue Which is great because I was looking for a way to procrastinate my actual WIPs tonight!

Name: GretchenSinister, here and on AO3

Fandoms: Rise of the Guardians, mostly, with random forays into other stuff like Venom or Thor. I have a thing to say about Phantom of the Opera and I really hope I manage it. I’ve made costumes for Over the Garden Wall and the game Journey.

Two-shot: At first I was like, DO I have any two-chapter stories? I’m the kind of person who either provides like, a novel with mainstream chapter lengths, or looks at something that’s 20k, 30k words and is like “it just doesn’t split up into chapters.” (Ao3’s line break yes, I’m not that experimental.) But as it turns out I do have this two-shot, “The Magician Wife and the Heart of Lead,” which is fairy-tale styled Pitch/Sandy including elements of the Cupid and Psyche myth as well as East of the Sun and West of the Moon. It exists as two chapters on Ao3 because I posted it in two chapters on tumblr, because I wanted to post something daily for a Blacksand week, and couldn’t finish writing the whole thing in one day.

Most popular multi-chapter: Based on hits, it’s “Without Contraries There Is No Progression,” which I would call a moderate-burn movie-verse blacksand fic. Of course, the number of hits is also a function of time, since if I’m doing the math correctly this has been out for eight and a half years; it was the first fic I published on Ao3.

Actual worst part of writing: When you try to be sneaky with yourself and fail! I have had multiple instances where characters are having a conversation alluding to some secret, and I didn’t write myself a note about what they were referring to…and then I had to take a break from writing the story. And then when I came back I had to be like, “huh. sure would like to find out where this mysterious thread is leading” but I CAN’T because I’M supposed to be the one setting up the mystery! I am 100% sure plots have changed because I didn’t remember where I was going. I’ve no-spoilered my own stories to the degree that what I was hiding from myself is lost forever. I don’t put anything out there that I think is bad, but I sometimes wonder what could have been. I leave myself many more notes than I used to.

How you choose your titles: Main story element or oblique reference to a main story element/theme. Rarely poem lines or song lyrics. I like to read books where a title drop will make me go ooooooh, so I try to do that when I get a chance.

Do you outline: Sometimes, but not very effectively, as a thing I’m writing now has an “outline” where a point could take 1 paragraph and then another point could take multiple pages.

Ideas you probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: Would require some messing with dates, but—Matilda (teenage) and Miss Honey find Carrie before she dies and take her back to their place and help her heal.

Callouts @ yourself: Remember when you wrote short things? And finished them?

Best writing traits: I’ve been told that my dialogue is good. I’d also like to think I’m good at submerging a reader in a scene/image/mood but APPARENTLY the equivalent of just standing in a forest and looking at the trees for fifteen minutes is not what the people want. (This evaluation based on a couple of grad school writing workshops. I couldn’t say anything during the discussion but in my head I was like…okay you don’t like it but I 100% did that on purpose.)

Spicy tangential opinion: When it comes to queer experiences, fantastical/metaphorical representation often has a lot more power to it than literal representation that makes it into the mainstream.

No pressure tagging: @alienfuckeronmain, @incurablenecromantic @rachie-neyiea, really if you write fic feel free to claim that I tagged you (and then tag me in your reply, I’d love to read about people’s processes while putting off other things).

#meme #rambling

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gretchensinister · 3 years

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I was tagged in this meme by @marypsue who correctly predicted that I would enjoy participating! Thank you!

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous, and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

I’m going to put as much unfinished stuff here as I can find, because I DO like the thought of talking about weird projects and false starts, etc.

Guilty Pleasures (this one is! active!)

AAA Koz Story

Cosmo Joins a Club

Experiment B

How They Brought the Rain Back

Sevenstar City

Story Pages 1-22

Thousands of Tiny Lights

19thcentOT8AU

1920s AU

An Old Tale

Apocalyptic (Actually not sure if this isn’t finished or if I just didn’t publish it)

Apotheosis AU

Astronomers AU

Avenger Stuff

Backstory

Black Apples

Call Me A Scavenger

Cold Gold1

Daisy

Desert Stuff

Dr. Phantasmagoria

Elaine

Fanfic Dammit

fem blksnd

Fic for Stephanie

Fire and Water

First Story

FIX the baby

GetAlong

Giant Robots Aw Yiss

Gille Dubh

Girl Monster Hunters

Girl Prince

Golden Age Miscellany

Goose Girl Retelling

Grad School as a horror movie noodling

Hatelovestory

Helvetica and Comic Sans

Human OT8

Indulgence

Kaiju Storm Chasers

KozmotisCybeleSandy

Looney

Mindless self indulgence

Misc Blacksand

Miscellaneous 1

My Obsession

NDU Week

New Fairy Tales

Not so far this time

Not the End of the World

Nothing, Will, and Country Matters

Operation Welcome Mat

Original Superhero Stuff

OT5OT6

Penelope Engelberth

Percival

Phantom Noodling

PirateandPrisoner

Pitchinersand after the rescue

Pride and Prejudice and Symbiotes

R2D2 Memory Love Language

Raavaatu

Restoration

Rose Wall

Rose’s Return

Rosette Nebula

Sean Adler

Shipping Ships

Sleep Paralysis

Slurp

Small Town Summer

Soul Forms

Space Party

Story Sprouts

Symbrock Little Death

Tekkian Palace

The Gloaming

The Goggles

The House on Route 35

The Land of Make-Believe

The Last Two

Three Level Dream

Twelve Dancing Princesses

Valentine

Vampire AU

Venom OT4

Weird Austin

What happens on Vega

Yeah I don’t know as many people as I have unfinished documents and some of the people I would tag have already been tagged. But @alienfuckeronmain I think you might like this one

#long post (ashamed)#rambling #meme

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sylphidine · 7 years

Text

A quoted passage from a Ray Bradbury story which strikes me now as a perfect Blacksand tale, with Cavity flavouring. And / or a missed opportunity for OT+.

@tejoxys

@gretchensinister

@emeraldembers

@bowlingforgerbils

Any and all members of the Blacksand Brigade, have at it!

=============================================

"Quillan," said the young man quickly, "was in a bar one night with a fabulous redhead. The crowd parted before her like the sea before Moses. Miraculous, I thought, revivifying, beyond the senses! A week later, in Greenwich, I saw Quillan ambling along with a dumpy little woman, his own age, of course, only thirty-two, but she'd gone to seed young. Tatty, the English would say; pudgy, snouty-nosed, not enough make-up, wrinkled stockings, spider's-nest hair, and immensely quiet; she was content to walk along, it seemed, just holding Quillan's hand. Ha, I thought, here's his poor little parsnip wife who loves the earth he treads, while other nights he's out winding up that incredible robot redhead! How sad, what a shame. And I went on my way.

"A month later I met Quillan again. He was about to dart into a dark entranceway in MacDougal Street, when he saw me. 'Oh, God!' he cried, sweating. 'Don't tell on me! My wife must never know!'

"I was about to swear myself to secrecy when a woman called to Quillan from a window above.

"I glanced up. My jaw dropped.

"There in the window stood the dumpy, seedy little woman!!

"So suddenly it was clear. The beautiful redhead was his wife! She danced, she sang, she talked loud and long, a brilliant intellectual, the goddess Siva, thousand-limbed, the finest throw pillow ever sewn by mortal hand. Yet she was strangely - tiring.

"So my friend Quillan had taken this obscure Village room where, two nights a week, he could sit quietly in the mouse-brown silence or walk on the dim streets with this good homely dumpy comfortably mute woman who was not his wife at all, as I had quickly supposed, but his mistress!

"I looked from Quillan to his plump companion in the window above and wrung his hand with new warmth and understanding. 'Mum's the word!' I said. The last I saw of them, they were seated in a delicatessen, Quillan and his mistress, their eyes gently touching each other, saying nothing, eating pastrami sandwiches. He too had, if you think about it, the best of all possible worlds."

#8000 blacksand aus #pitch black #toothiana #sanderson mansnoozie

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