#sci-fi fantasy novel ideas

[adinelleggreeo]

Novel Length Ideas I'm Working On!

So now that I know how to plan my stories, I'm planning them!

I bought some of those clear folders that you can just slip your papers through to organize everything and I have a folder for each.

I've had many, many, many stories over the years, but these are the ones I've decided to focus on.

Not Another Paranormal Romance

Loved the idea for this one and really want to continue with it. You can read the short story I wrote from this idea here, here and here!

Diary of an Ex-Witch

A recent idea (like a week old or so) Was definitely inspired by reading the Bible and understanding a few things about GOD a bit better.

Time Warp/ Rewind

Name is pending. This is an idea I had when I was 17 and I absolutely HAVE to write this! Especially since I've gotten so many new ideas for it! It will be about two 3rd formers (13 to 14-year-olds) who mysteriously travel back in time to the week before they were cruelly pranked by their peers.

K.I.D.S

This was a story idea from when I was 15, heavily inspired by my favourite series at the time, N.E.R.D.S by Michael Buckley (I still have and read all the books to this day!)

----------------

This story grew in originality as I got older and it went from being about exceptional kid spies (veeeerrrry similar to N.E.R.D.S) to regular kids unintentionally caught up in the secrets and drama of the hidden. I'm still working on organising my thoughts for this one, especially since I plan for it to be a trilogy.

I do plan to work on some short stories, both to share with you and to exercise my writing muscles. I may also share some snippets of writings based on these novel-length ideas. I find that writing shorts featuring your characters are a good way to get to know them.

[lord-ofthe-frogs]

LOVING the idea of a sci-fi space travel story meets like ancient forest horror type trope.

Like. This is a routine scouting mission, you are flying closer into this planet because it was detected on scanners as being life supporting (obviously- you could have told that from a picture, the whole place is covered in green) but the foliage is so dense that from standard distance, the scanners couldn’t get a full read of the land (weird, that usually isn’t a problem, but some places flora do have weird ways of incorporating materials that really shouldn’t be in a plant, it isn’t entirely unprecedented). Could also be- like, lead in the atmosphere or something. Well- almost definitely not. Stuff doesn’t really grow that big in an environment that’s anything other than right in the golden zone, so it’s probably nothing like that. Still- this isn’t one you’d want to risk going no-suit for.

You’re swooping in closer for some recon- because, Dagnabit, you still aren’t getting clear readings- and- with what this place seems to be so far, the chances of intelligent life (intelligent enough to interfere with your ship, at least) are incredibly low. Only- suddenly, your scanner is detecting things. But- it’s totally on and off, like these leaves are completely blocking your signal somehow. Heat maps show nothing too special- heat seems to get trapped under the foliage somewhat, magnetism mapping seem to show signs of metals nearby, but nothing too out of place- perhaps a ridge.

But there’s some movement, which doesn’t seem to match wind direction. You’re too focused on checking your side panels to catch what happens as suddenly you’re being dragged off course- the carriage of the ship scraping against the plant matter as you careen into the undergrowth below. Which each layer of leaves and vines you clear, less and less light penetrates through. By the time your ship hits the ground, you’ve pretty much lost all trace of sunlight, despite the sun having been pretty much directly above you. Instead- the grove you’ve dropped into is lit only by bioluminescent fungi and the like- which stretch outward from what you realize are impossibly thick plant roots.

As your engine sputters and stops, you go into damage control mode. Okay- you have the materials to last you, you shouldn’t have to forage around for food or water any time soon- but you’re now underneath the foliage that had been blocking your scanner and, frankly, unless you find some way to get your communication gear back up there- or get this ship back up and running- you’re pretty much just gonna be stranded here until you die. Not great- but, you probably have the tools to get into it. I mean. How tall could these plants even be?

So, you check all your systems- try fixing up the systems and engine- and.. well, even if you did get her back up into the sky- there’s no way she’d make it through the kind of hyperdrive it would take to get you back to the nearest settlement. And, well… you’d rather die here than in the empty void of space, really.

With that set- you secure the ship, double check with all your crew-mates to make sure nobody was harmed- status reports, full medical checks- suit checks- luckily, nobody seems all to worse for wear. All that foliage must have slowed you down somewhat, thankfully. At least- in the upper levels. There are no real branches or anything down here- just.. fungi, really. From- what you can see from the ship. Not that you expect to find anything else. Smaller life forms, at the most- you don’t know of much else that could subsist on the sort of materials available down here. But- still, always to err on the side of caution. Evolution is a wild thing, after all- people were always finding new crazy things about it.

After about a day of just making sure everything inside the ship is secure, and planning out your next steps- you and a few of the crew take a venture out, to test your surroundings. It seems like your ship ended up nestled between to giant roots- and as you step off from them, you find that most of the ground underfoot is really just a mix of root, mushroom, and dirt. Rich dirt, at least.

This place could be a real fantasy looking environment if the trees (well- they seem to be trees, at least. You’d been taught not to be too quick to categorize foreign planet organisms.. but if the shoe fits,) were more.. reasonably sized. You start setting up your plans for scaling these giants- an organized system, checkpointing along the way. It’s practically like rock climbing, with the size and hardiness of these things. Eventually you climb up to a chunk where the bark has been carved through, exposing softer, young material (ignoring the question of how it had been dug through like that- might have been hit by your ship on the way down- or maybe there’s some type of creature here that eats this stuff, and had been chowing on it for a while.

The idea that some single creature had left it there in passing is quickly barred from your mind- nothing is that big). When you dig your climbing pick into this softer ‘wood’- it sort of sticks. So much so that you nearly fall off attempting to pull it back out. Sliding your gloved hand along the surface of the tool, though, it doesn’t seem to have any sort of residue or stickiness- so you brush it off as maybe just the tool sinking a little too far into wood that was clearly softer than you expected it to be. You try once more, determined to make some good progress on this task tonight- only for it to get stuck again. This time, you actually can’t manage to yank it out. You try again- and again, but it’s totally sunk in there. One climbing tool shorter, pretty exhausted by now, and starting to get very hungry- you decide it’s time to call it a day for this task. You begin the grueling task of making it back down- and join back with those still at the ship. The other two you set out with originally are still back at the ‘tree’- but the two of them happen to be a species more hardy than you, and they had been working on a system to create an accessible way up- rather than just scouting to see how high they could climb as you had been. It would certainly take longer- much longer- but it may help in the long run.

Anyway. You touch back in at the ship and take some rest, assuring yourself you’ll continue working to figure things out in the morning. Not that ‘morning’ was really a relevant term right now, considering the constant dark. The ship lights were still functional, at least- as well as those built into your suit. Things seem to be going fine. Nothing immediately dire- the only prospective issue so far seems to be how to get up high enough to deliver a signal quickly enough that you might be retrieved before supplies run out. Not that that should be an issue- after all, all fleet ships keep highly stocked at all times, and, as long as nothing changes too much- you should be set to survive for a good long while yet. At least a few hundred cycles.

Waking in the ‘morning’ to the same darkness as you’d fallen asleep to makes you a bit jealous of those few crew members which were nocturnal by nature- they must feel right at home here.

—

About a week in- crewmates are complaining of feeling like they’re ‘being watched’. A front of fog had set in around the third day, making further exploration difficult. You honestly almost write it off as the effects of stress and being in the dark and stuck in the same place when a few people start complaining about noises- that is, until you get so spooked you have to turn your team around after you all swore you heard something like a voice coming from the fog beyond (nothing you could decipher. The wind through the foliage, maybe? Is that a reasonable explanation? You can’t really think about the science of it right now.. but .. that was probably it.)

Still, you forge on, and the next day you set out again. It’s all standard, really. You haven’t even run into any fauna yet, why would you let a little whistling of the winds disuade you? (Not that you would really see anything, if there was something to be seen. This fog is too thick, now, you’ve had to set up a line from the ship to your place on this tree just to prevent you getting lost.)

You’re a traveler of space. What could one little forest planet really have against you, who’s toured tens of barely documented other planets?

You decide to start keeping a journal.

—

About two months in, things start going wrong. You’re starting out another climb, when your pick slips and you’re suddenly falling. You get tangled up in your rope- and you end up getting your suit ripped one of your pick blades- breaking the seal on your air. Thankfully- it seems… breathable. In fact, when you run another check to make sure you aren’t secretly gonna get horrible sickness after a while of breathing this stuff- you find that it’s actually pretty similar to that of your desirable conditions. In fact, it seems to actually be more suitable for you than the ‘universally breathable’ air they usually have on multi-species ships.

People continue to complain of weird feelings- like eyes on them, or this deep instinct that they ‘shouldn’t be here’ or whatever- you keep brushing it off the best you can- these sort of conditions for so long can really impact someone, especially those who are adapted for more sunny conditions. Nothings gone so wrong that you worry about losing anyone, at least. So far, everyone has been hanging on.

One day when you come back from some recon, everyone is agreeing that they heard something in the distance.

You find a couple smaller creatures, bugs, you’ve been logging them as you go along. Not too much fauna to go off, just yet.

Then- the ship starts deteriorating. The fuels somehow been sapped- you swear that root didn’t wrap so closely around the ship when you first arrived- some branch debris fell down a couple days ago, and now half the chasis has been wrecked- the backup universal air got hit, which is seriously going to impact how long you’ll last if the air doesn’t prove breathable for the others- and the lights in the operational parts of the ship have begun flickering on occasion.

Along the next few weeks, around half of the crew stops replenishing their air tanks and just resorts to braving the air around them- just hoping that no airborne contaminants come around. For a planet so dominated by flora, there’s actually a pretty reasonable balance of C02 to 02. The fungus, you reason.

After about month more in these straits- heating becomes an issue to face. You’ve run out of fuel to keep going on as you were- and some energy needs to be saved in case- so, ensured by the oxygen ratio in the air that it won’t result in anything too catastrophic- you and the crew decide that testing for flammable materials is in order. You find that the bark of the ‘trees’ works alright enough- though, you don’t have enough smaller foliage to make any sort of easy burning. Still- it works somewhat. So, you set up for wood-chopping shifts, setting out to collect bark and flammables. You’re not sure how well it’ll do if that fog rolls back in.. but it works for now.

Then, one day.. the person set out doesn’t come back.

Weeks pass. The paranoia amongst the crew worsens. Someone swears they saw something moving in the distance- one claims they heard distant footsteps, loud and booming, when they were out scouting.

You’re climbing again, when you see the faint imprint of glowing fungi parallel with you in the distance. Passing. Something this tall, moving along-

You don’t mention it to the crew.

Eventually- people start encountering things.

You lose a few more crew-mates.

Slowly but surely, you’ve begun to realize that there are things in these woods that you just don’t understand.

These things are much older than you.

This place is much older than your science.

No planet should survive long enough for this sort of evolution to come to fruition- but, for whatever reason, this one did.

And you are here, now- disturbing things which predate you by millennia, realizing-

That all you consider to be the standards of probability- these standards you’ve been so sure of- simply don’t extend to a place like this.

All this time, you’ve been operating on averages- and this place… this place is different.

[troythecatfish]

[cherokeegal1975]

The books I have published on Amazon.

Years of work and mostly they just sit there. Barely selling. Most of them not at all. I don't think it's because their horrible. I just need better advertising.

[lexalovesbooks]

This is completely unprompted but I think we need to start differentiating between like. (genre) romance books and (genre) with romance books. (genre) with romance books are books that take place in whatever genre the book is (sci-fi and fantasy is mainly what I’m thinking here), and while there is a romantic subplot, it’s not the focus and there’s a plot outside of it. (genre) romance books, meanwhile, do take place in the book’s genre, of course, but the primary focus of the book is the romance, and if you’re interested in hard worldbuilding and plot you should perhaps go somewhere else

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

writing update: everyone is having a bad time (except me. i love putting characters through the horrors)

[specialagentartemis]

godddddd i have disliked becky chambers' work since long way to a small angry planet and I agree that that fish scene is SO much of what is wrong with contemporary SFF especially queer SFF. refreshing take, great review, thank you. would love to hear what authors or works you think of as the antidote to that sensibility.

The thing is, I enjoyed The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet when I first read it - it was a fun, light adventure, clearly a debut novel but I was excited to see where Chambers would go from there. And I actually really do think the sequel, A Closed and Common Orbit, was good! It did interesting things with AI personhood and identity.

... and then Chambers just kinda. Did not get better. She settled into a groove and has a set number of ideas that I feel like she hasn't broken out of, creatively. And they I M O kind of rest on an assumption that "human nature" = "how people act in suburban California."

As an antidote to that sensibility, I'd say... books where people have a real interrelationship with the land they inhabit, a sense of being present, and reciprocal obligations to that land; books that recognize that some things can never be taken back once done; books with well-drawn characters, where people have strong opinions deeply informed by their circumstances, that can't always be easily reconciled with others, and won't be brushed aside; books where these character choices matter, they impact each other, they cannot be easily gotten over, because people have obligations to each other and not-acting is a choice too.

And it's only fair that after all day of being a Hater I should rec some books I really did like.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - A man lives alone in an infinite House, over an equally infinite ocean. Captures the feeling that I think Monk & Robot was aiming for. Breathtaking beauty, wonder at the world, philosophy of truth, all that good stuff, and actually sticks the landing. The main character's love, attention, and care to his fantasy environment shows through in every page. (Fantasy, short novel)

Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie - An AI, the one fragment remaining of a destroyed imperial spaceship, is on a quest for revenge. Leckie gets cultural differences and multiculturalism, and conversely, what the imposition of a homogeneous culture in the name of unity means. (Space sci-fi, novel trilogy)

Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee - An army captain's insubordination is punished by giving her a near-impossible mission: to take down a rebelling, heretical sect holing up in a space fortress and defying imperial power. She gets a long dead brain-ghost of a notorious criminal downloaded into her head to help. Very, very good at making you feel like every doomed soldier was a person with a past, with a family, with feelings, with hopes and dreams and frustrations and favorites and preferences and reasons to live, right before they brutally die in a space war. Also very much about the imposition of homogeneity of culture as a force of imperialism. (Space sci-fi, novel trilogy)

The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed - Maya Andreyevna is a VR journalist in high-tech dystopian future Russia, and she decides to investigate the truth that the government doesn't want her to. She might die trying. It's fine. Also has digital brain-sharing, this time in a gay way. It's bleak. It's sad. It feels real. Not making a choice is a choice. Backing out is a choice. And choices have consequences. Choices reverberate through history. About responsibility. (Cyberpunk, novel)

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez - Nia Imani is a spaceship captain, a woman out of time, a woman running from her past, and accidentally adopts a boy who has a strange power that could change the galaxy. Spaceship crew-as-found-family in the most heartbreaking of ways. Also about choices, how the choices you make and refuse to make shape you and shape the world around you. How the world is always changing around you, how the world does not stay still when you're gone, and when you come back you're the same but the world has moved on around you. About how relationships aren't always forever, and that doesn't mean they weren't important. About responsibility to others. It's a slow, sad book and does not let anyone rest on their laurels, ever. There is no end of history here. Everything is always changing, on large scales and small, and leaving you behind. (Space sci-fi, novel)

Dungeon Meshi / Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui - A D&D style fantasy dungeon crawl that stops to think deeply about why there are so many dungeons full of monsters and treasure just hanging around. Here because it's an example of an author thinking through her worldbuilding a lot, and it mattering. Also because of the characters' respect for the animals they are are killing and eating, their lives and their place in the ecosystem, and the ways that humans both fuck up ecosystems with extraction and tourism, but also the ways that you can have reciprocal relationships of responsibility and care with the ecosystem you live in, even if it's considered a dangerous one. (Fantasy, manga series)

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang and How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N. K. Jemisin and Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe - Short story anthologies that were SO good and SO weird and rewired the way I think. If you want the kind of stuff that is like, the opposite of easy-to-digest feel-good pap, these short stories will get into your brain and make you consider stuff and look at the world from new angles. Most of them aren't particularly upbeat, but there's a lot of variety in the moods.

"Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self," "Calf Cleaving in the Benthic Black," and "Termination Stories for the Cyberpunk Dystopia Protagonist" by Isabel J. Kim - Short stories, sci-fi mostly, that twist around in my head and make me think. Kim is very good at that. Also about choices and not-making-choices, about going and staying, about taking the easy route or the hard one, about controlling the narrative.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - Security robot with guns in its arms hacks itself free from its oppressive company, mostly wants to half-ass its job but gets sucked into drama, intrigue, and caring against its better judgement. This is on here because 1) I love it 2) I feel like it does for me what cozy sff so frequently fails to do - it makes me feel seen and comforted. It's hopeful and compassionate and about personal growth and finding community and finding one's place in the world, without brushing aside all problems or acting like "everybody effortlessly just gets along" is a meaningful proposal. also 3) because it is one of the few times I have yet seen characters from a hippie, pacifistic, eco-friendly, welcoming, utopian society actually act like people. The humans from Preservation are friendly, helpful, and motivated by truth and justice and compassion, because they come from a friendly, just, compassionate society, and they still actually act like real human beings with different personalities and conflicting opinions and poor reactions to stress and anger and frustration and fear and the whole range of human emotions rather than bland niceness. Also 4) I love it (space sci-fi, novella series mostly)

[bogleech]

Also going to finally make a pinned post for all my stuff:

BOGLEECH - my tumblr blog is named after this website I created around 2002 and still update. Thousands of pages worth of content focusing on creature design as well as real biology. My review of the original Legend of Zelda monsters might be the most straightforward example of my articles. Links to some of the most popular content:

POKEMON REVIEW ARCHIVE: - I rate and review each and every single Pokemon, in Pokedex order, on its merits as a creature design. I also do so as someone whose favorite animals are all parasites.

DIGIMON REVIEW ARCHIVE - same, but more chaotic.

CREEPYPASTA COOKOFF ARCHIVE - for several years I hosted a yearly writing contest before it grew too big for me to keep up with. There are over a thousand user submitted horror, fantasy, sci fi and surrealist stories here emphasizing unconventional, original ideas you seldom see from the "creepypasta" community!

The original "MORTASHEEN" Monster Archive - since the early 2000's I've created and illustrated more than 800 creatures and counting for my own monster-catching world, now set for release as a tabletop RPG setting.

AWFUL HOSPITAL: SERIOUSLY THE WORST EVER (page one): an interactive comedy-horror-sci-fi webcomic I started in 2014 about a medical facility that could maybe be better.

Some of my other internet stuff:

PATREON - constant work makes my patreon updates inconsistent, but the content backlog goes back years with a huge amount of exclusive art and writing. I try to put up new exclusive stuff whenever I can.

ETSY - I design all sorts of original enamel pins like these, plus I sell zero-maintenance terrarium plants (just leave them in a jar!), original books and other things!

COLOR THE ABYSS (available on the above etsy!) - a 30 page educational deep sea coloring book! Includes a few famous favorites like giant isopods and hagfish, but mostly focuses on less popular, often much weirder animals.

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS - also regularly restocked in the etsy store, 30 of the strangest and most surprising arthropods most people have likely never heard of, illustrated by myself and @revretch, written for even the youngest kids to understand (but will likely teach you something new at any age)

My Itch.io and Ko-fi - both sell digital versions of my books, including some creepypasta collections and my first novel, "Return of the Living," about a world of entirely ghosts suddenly dealing with the appearance of ghost-hunting monsters.

TWITCH CHANNEL - I now try to stream something at least monthly, sometimes weekly when possible, from horror games to books and art.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - archives my twitch streams and other little things.

INSTAGRAM - look at pictures of my huge weird collection of toys and Halloween collectibles

BLUESKY - I'm going to put mainly just updates to my stuff on here. SEE ALSO:

HUMANS-B-GONE - a science fiction animated series by my partner @revretch, about a world of kaiju-size, technologically advanced insects and arachnids to whom vertebrates like us are just pesky little "gubs." Also has a tumblr account @humansbgone FINALLY, HERE'S MY GUIDE AND RESOURCE TO MAKING YOUR OWN INTERNET WEBSITE IN A FEW MINUTES WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF CODING

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Horror

Horror is a genre within creative writing that relies on one thing: instilling a sense of fear in the reader.

The horror genre is multifaceted—there is a kind of horror for every kind of person.

For some, the most effective scare is the idea of being trapped in a haunted house. For others, it’s being chased by a serial killer on Halloween.

Some of the best horror comes from scary things that can manipulate an audience’s feelings, creating a sensation of uneasiness and fear that stretches beyond consciousness and permeates deep within the psyche.

Horror writing is sometimes categorized within the broader category of thrillers, but not all horror follows the thriller structure.

Classic horror fiction—whether expressed as a novel, novella, short story, or film—will tap into topics that reliably frighten most humans.

Common topics include ghosts, werewolves, vampires, zombies, serial killers, murderers, and the fear of the unknown.

These horror tropes can often devolve into clichés.

A downside of horror’s popularity is that many horror books and movies recycle old content in non-creative ways, but when properly executed, horror stories can thrill audiences and even provide commentary on the human condition.

Horror Subgenres

1. Apocalyptic - In this subgenre, the world is ending or society is collapsing. When this happens, it’s usually because of some creature, demon, or religious event (while climate-oriented apocalypses are more sci-fi).

2. Body Horror - Involves the mutilation, experimentation, or violation of the human body. It can focus on disease, dismemberment, infestation, sexual acts, or a complete transformation of the physical form.

3. Comedy - Horror and comedy seem so at odds with each other, but they work so well together (kind of like spice and chocolate). A trademark of comedy horror is how the protagonist somewhat stumbles through the story, arriving at the end through luck and ridiculous happenstance rather than skill or growth.

4. Cosmic/Lovecraftian - With its origins largely attributed to H.P. Lovecraft, cosmic horror makes us feel small against a threat that is ancient, massive, and incomprehensible. Cosmic horror looks at intergalactic entities, ancient gods, the machinations of the universe, and how helpless we are against it all.

5. Dark Fantasy - Another crossover, this time with the fantasy genre. In dark fantasy, you have elements of magic, fictional creatures or worlds, and everything else that makes fantasy great, plus you add in a good dose of scares. This can also involve other subgenres, like body horror.

6. Dark Romance - Another crossover genre, dark romance takes the feel-good romance genre and makes it horrific. While this subgenre can simply include morally questionable characters and a grittier tone than most romance, it can also include kidnapping, forced confinement, BDSM, psychological and physical abuse, and sexual violence or sex where there is no consent. Bear in mind that it still needs to include the tenants of romance stories, though.

7. Extreme Gore - Not for the faint of heart, this subgenre includes books that have detailed torture scenes or otherwise disturbing and depraved acts. This genre is all about shocking your audience with how awful your characters act or are treated.

8. Folk Horror - Embraces urban legends and folktales. These range from old pagan gods in the woods to weird rituals performed by isolated groups or villages. Sometimes there is a supernatural element to them, even if the “supernatural” is simply perceived or believed by some characters (e.g., Midsommar).

9. Found Footage/Documentaries - Though this subgenre is more common in films than books, found footage and documentary horror stories are about a crew of people recording their experiences, usually unaware of the true danger they are about to face.

10. Gothic - The great-grandparent of modern horror, gothic horror is the brooding, atmospheric genre containing what most of us would consider classics (e.g., Dracula and Frankenstein). Sometimes you throw in a dash of romance, but these tales tackle topics like death and mortality.

11. Post-Apocalyptic - After some world-ending disaster, how horrifying have things become? Post-apocalyptic horror shows us a world without rules or structure. It can contain unrealistic elements (zombies, demons, etc.) or realistic possibilities (cannibals, gangs, and so on).

12. Psychological - Places the spotlight on trauma, mental health, manipulation, phobias, and everything else that causes you to become stressed and anxious. Home invasion stories (i.e., The Strangers) fall under this subgenre.

13. Slasher - Involves violent horror that is more about a single killer stalking and eventually killing a group of people (traditionally targeting teens and using a blade). This subgenre isn’t necessarily as violent or gory as others, but uses suspense to make the reader hold their breath.

14. Splatterpunk - Is known for its disregard of limits when it comes to violence—both physical and sexual. Gore and depravity are grossly abundant.

15. Supernatural/Paranormal - Some folks separate these two subgenres into different categories, but there is so much overlap that they’re basically the same. If you have to, think of supernatural horror as stories that involve werewolves, witches, vampires, and other monsters. Paranormal horror, on the other hand, involves ghosts, demons, and haunted houses.

Tips for Writing Horror

1. Read more horror. There’s no better way to understand what a good story looks like than to read one for yourself. Read as much as you can so you are aware of what other horror writers are doing.

2. Focus on your own fears. Much like comedy, horror benefits from authenticity. So get personal: If you can scare yourself, you can probably scare an audience.

3. Create three-dimensional characters. Write characters whose character flaws feed the action of the story. All good literature and film contains well-wrought characters with desires, emotions, and a backstory. The more human you make the characters of your story or screenplay, the more their missteps and bad choices will resonate with an audience.

4. Recognize that the real can be scarier than the surreal. Sure, you can make up an army of googly-eyed bad guys or plant a severed head in your main character’s bed, but will you really scare your reader? Not necessarily. In most cases, psychological horror sticks with audiences far longer than a jump scare or gross-out moment in a slasher film. Toying with people’s real-life fears tends to scare them much more than just grossing them out.

5. Use the environment. Scary movies and television shows can use jump-scares as an easy way to frighten an audience, but writing scary literature requires its own method of manifesting fear. Setup your environment in a vivid way to fully immerse your readers into your setting. Vividly describing an enclosed space can elicit feelings of claustrophobia. A dark and quiet house becomes more frightening when a character suddenly hears the creak of an upstairs floorboard. Being an outsider in an unfamiliar place, like a small town with no cell phone service and where everyone knows each other, is already unsettling—and if you add a malicious paranormal force to such a setting, you can enhance the feeling of isolation and ramp up the anxiety of the scenario.

6. Write longer sentences. You can heighten your readers’ fear by writing paragraphs with longer sentences. Periods provide natural pauses for readers to take a breath, but if you stretch out your sentences, you build anticipation for the reader—which they might not even realize until they reach the end of the sentence. By using tactics like this, you immerse the reader into your horror story, making them feel what the main character feels and creating a heart-pounding connection.

7. Make your readers breathe faster. Whereas long sentences can amplify the intensity of a story, short one-sentence paragraphs can force your readers to take more frequent breaths while following your narrative. Crafting abrupt lines builds tension in your scary story writing, making the readers’ eyes move more quickly down the page searching for the relief that the protagonist is safe. This can make your audience breathe faster, contributing to the feeling of panic and anxiety.

8. Leverage fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown is a common theme that can be tracked throughout many of the best stories in horror fiction and horror movies. When there is something that negatively affects us that we cannot control or properly identify, it creates a feeling of panic and dread. Teasing your readers with something not quite definable or a bad guy no one knows how to stop can increase the level of tension and fear when writing horror stories.

9. Lean into dark imagery and your readers’ collective imagination. Consider what images might be frightening to a reader (and yourself). How much of a description of a clown do you need in order to make a reader feel uneasy? How large and grotesque does a rat need to be? Leaving some of these images more general than specific will allow a reader to fill in the blanks with what is most horrifying to them. Example: If you read the word beast, what do you see in your imagination? Most words carry connotations and personal connections. Allow your words to work for you to create the maximum scare.

10. Want tension? Sprinkle in some foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is a powerful tool in your writing arsenal, but it is particularly effective in horror, especially when writing in third person. Foreshadowing is when an author alludes to a future event by showing us something now. The key to foreshadowing is to use it sparingly. We want to up the tension and the fear our readers are experiencing while they yell at the oblivious protagonist not to open the door. We don’t want the reader to know every single thing that’s going to happen. 

11. Focus on the moment where things shift. You should consider a pivotal scene in your story idea and try to build around that scene or that moment where the plot actually “shifts.” Sometimes that could be reflected in a realization by the protagonist. Other times it can be represented in some type of ironic twist at the end. By looking at that singular element of your story idea, you cut away the fat so that the reader is left only with the most resonant part of the story.

12. Establish the mundane. Mundane is just a fancy way of saying normal, but the message still rings true. Most story structures tell you to start by establishing the Ordinary World: what our protagonist’s normal life is like. This is important for showing us how important the larger conflict is, because it threatens the protagonist’s normal. In horror, establishing the mundane is arguably more important. In a story where connecting with the character and empathizing with them over the godawful stuff you, the author, put them through, the reader needs to understand just how bad life has gotten. Then you can take both your characters and your reader from a place of comfort and familiarity and plunge them into whatever shadowy hell you’ve concocted.

13. Choosing your POV. By choosing to write your story from a first-person perspective, you are putting the reader exactly where your character is. There are 2 types of third-person POV—limited and omniscient. It is advisable to stay away from omniscient. Part of writing a good horror story is withholding information from the reader, which third-person omniscient doesn’t really allow for. Considering the pros and cons of the different points of view, choose the right one for your story.

14. Avoid clichés. Clichés are boring and predictable, and a horror scene that is predictable is likely to not be scary. A good horror story can still use familiar horror tropes, but a great horror story makes them its own. Look beyond the obvious when trying to write a scary scene—what is something readers wouldn’t expect? How can you surprise them with fear? Use enough of the existing tropes to be identifiable as horror, but make sure you insert your own originality into the mix. One of the reasons people gravitate to genres in general is because they have certain expectations for what should happen in the story. Look for ways to flip archetypes on their heads.

15. Practice. If you’re struggling to get a handle on writing a good story that’s scary, practice with story prompts (see some sample prompts below). Writing prompts can expand your range of thinking and open up new avenues of imagination that you hadn’t thought of before.

Horror Writing Prompts

A scary doll comes to life.

A scene from a nightmare comes true the next day.

Days go by, and your parents don’t come home.

You feel yourself slowly becoming a monster.

Your friends start to disappear, and no one else notices.

You’re lost in the woods, and you don’t know how you got there.

You’re inhabited by a ghost that controls you and makes you do crazy things.

You have no reflection in the mirror.

The teacher is a monster, but no one will believe you.

You hypnotize your brother, and you can’t snap him out of it.

A fortune teller reveals that you are evil.

Someone follows you home, and it’s your exact double.

You find a diary that tells the future.

Every time you wake up, you’re a different person.

Your parents explain that you are actually an alien from another planet.

You know someone is watching you day and night from the house across the street.

You realize you are shrinking.

While reading a scary book, you realize that you’re a character in it.

Someone is living in your mirror.

Everyone knows the new neighbors are vampires, and the kids invite you over for a sleepover.

All the cats in a small town vanish in the middle of the night….and all that remains is a set of big, scary teeth smashed into a car door.

A group of friends takes on the zombie apocalypse.

Strange things start happening after the grandfather clock starts to speak.

You finally meet your child’s imaginary friend. Who turns out to be a serial killer.

When a local police officer goes to investigate the haunted house down the street, he finds a young girl who died decades ago.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6

[brucewaynehater101]

HI? I need help finding fics or prompts about this one Tim angst concept that I read somewhere but I don't remember if it was a fic or a post. You could also add onto the idea yourself if ur willing! Preferably I need help finding a fic tho-

ANYWAYS

It's basically "Tim doesn't like reading books because whenever Bruce saw him read a book he would get mad because it reminds him of Jason."

I remember something about Tim being banned from the manor library too, but that's all I remember.

If you do help me, I owe you my life because this has been on my mind for WEEKS-

Hi!!! 👋 Not a fic (that I'm aware of). Here's the post, though:

Fantastic premise that Tim hates reading, though. That, or he refuses to admit/do it publicly.

Here's the AU set up:

Tim loves reading (it was a way to occupy/busy himself when no one else was around)

He prefers sci-fi, fantasy, and crime novels

His parents preferred him to read classics and non-fiction

Tim, trying to feel Bruce out and discern what's allowed, resorts to his parents' preferred reading list

Bruce walks into Jason's library to find Tim reading a classic (Maybe The Picture of Dorian Gray or Wuthering Heights or whatever)

Bruce promptly freaks the fuck out

Tim, as a fourteen year old not yet proficient at reading Bruce (and doesn't have the background data yet of what civilian Jason was like), internalized the lesson that Bruce doesn't want Tim reading at all

Tim avoids any libraries when Bruce is around

To the Waynes and the Bats, Tim only reads technical books or ones related to the mission

When Jason starts getting along with the Bats, he teases Tim on his reading habits (maybe a comment or two about how Tim, a rich kid, should be well-versed with the classics). Tim brushes it off good-naturedly.

Jason also invites Tim up to Jason's library and is a little bit hurt when Tim refuses. Jason rationalizes it and doesn't blame Tim, but it was an olive branch by the older one

Jason finds Tim reading a sci-fi novel which prompts Tim into panicking

Then a reveal or whatnot. Anyways, fun concept ^^

[corruptedcaps]

A Helping Hand

Maddy had always been invisible. With her thick-rimmed glasses, a penchant for sci-fi novels, and a wardrobe full of oversized sweaters, she herMiddleton High School like a shadow. She sat at the back of the classroom, her nose buried in a book, unnoticed by her peers. Although she dreamed of having more. She dreamed of Chad.

Chad was the school's star quarterback and the reigning king of the hallways. His presence was impossible to ignore. He walked with a swagger that commanded attention, his broad shoulders cutting through the sea of students with ease. But as easy on the eye he was, it wasn’t the main thing that attracted her to Chad.

Much to her own surprise she found herself unbelievably turned on by what a bully he was. She would watch as he pummelled some dorky freshmen with rapt attention and a wetness in her panties. She didn’t know why but seeing him so cruel was the hottest thing to her.

At night in the privacy of her bedroom she would touch herself as she thought about him. In her fantasizes he wasn’t alone though, she was with him, egging him on and joining in. When they had their fill he would fuck her and she would cackle with evil glee and scream out his name.

She knew it was wrong and immoral, the wicked thoughts she had, but she couldn’t deny her desires. Besides it was nothing more than a fantasy, he would never go for such a plain looking girl like her. Even if he would, she couldn’t compete with Millie.

Millie was the head cheerleader the most popular and beautiful girl in school. Despite this though she was the kindest, most generous person around. She had no idea of Chad's true nature, no clue about the darkness lurking behind his charming smile. This fact only made Maddy want him harder.

As her desire for him expanded her distain for Millie grew in equal measure. She would catch her fantasizing about bullying Millie. She imagined getting fucked hard by Chad as the cheerleader was forced to watch and cry.

Maddy resented Millie with an intensity that surprised even her. It wasn't fair that someone so sweet and kind should have Chad. He needed someone who understood his cruelty, who could match his viciousness and revel in it. Someone increasingly like Maddy.

It eventually became too much for her and she needed to do something. That’s when she turned to the dark arts. She had found a small, dimly lit magic shop on the outskirts of town, a place whispered about in the darkest corners of the internet. There, she had bought the transfer spell.

The spell had cost her every penny of her college savings, but Maddy didn't care. She had watched in fascination as the shopkeeper, an old woman with piercing eyes, explained how the spell would work. It would transfer Millie's beauty to her, leaving Millie plain and unremarkable. Maddy would finally be worthy of Chad's attention.

She couldn’t practice the spell out loud as it had a one time use so she had scribbled the spell on the palm of her hand. A series of intricate symbols and words glowed faintly in the dim light against her pale skin. Soon, she would be everything he needed, everything he deserved. And Millie? Millie would be nothing.

Maddy waited until she saw Chad and Millie alone near the bleachers after school. Gathering her courage, she walked over, her heart pounding. Millie looked up and smiled warmly.

"Hi! Can we help you?" Millie greeted.

“Shut up bitch! In a second you’ll be nothing! Worse, you’ll be worthless!” Maddy spat with venom.

“Hey nerd nobody treats my lady like they even if you are a girl.” Chad said standing up intimidatingly. Maddy felt a rush of pleasure to her pussy.

“Mmmm yesss I love your passion, I can wait for it to be me you’re protecting.” Maddy grinned manically.

“Whatever you feel I’ve done to you I’m sure we can talk about it.” Millie said trying to defuse the situation.

“What you’ve done is you’ve kept this fine specimen of a man, a king even, on a leash. He walks on egg shells around you, hiding his true bastard behaviour. Once he’s mine, he’ll be free.” Maddy smirked.

“Babe, what does she mean your true nature? Have you gone back to bullying?” Millie said taking a step away from him.

“No of course not. Listen weirdo I’m flattered but you’re not my type." Chad said turning between Millie and Maddy trying to put out multiple fires.

Maddy smirked, her fingers tingling with the anticipation of what was to come. "I’m not now, but I will be in a moment."

She glanced at her hand, ready to read the spell. Her heart sank when she saw that some of the runes were smudged, blurred by the sweat from her nervous palms. Panic set in as she realized the spell might not work as intended.

She looked back at Chad, who was smirking, and Millie, who now wore a look of concern. Time seemed to freeze as she weighed her options. If she attempted the spell and it failed, it could backfire horribly. But she was too far gone now to back down. She had to take the risk.

What Maddy couldn’t have known was that this one decision created a split in reality, creating three parallel universes....

MADISON

Looking down at the ruins she began to chant. The air around her seemed to shimmer, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she hoped it would be enough.

As Maddy finished the chant, the air around her crackled with energy. Millie's eyes widened in horror as she felt a strange sensation wash over her. Maddy's lips curled into a triumphant smile, then she began to laugh, the sound echoing through the empty bleachers.

Millie’s golden hair, once thick and lustrous, started to lose its shine and volume, becoming dull and lifeless. At the same time, Maddy’s own hair transformed, growing longer, thicker, and darker with each passing second. While it didn't turn blonde it did take all of Millie's vitality and cascaded down her shoulders perfectly straight.

Maddy’s chest expanded, her previously modest figure now filling out into a curvaceous silhouette that demanded attention. Maddy’s hands immediately went to her gorgeous new tits and she rubbed them lovingly.

“I knew I’d love having your big boobs but this feels even better than I expected. Can’t wait to get that cock of yours in between.” Maddy said with a lustful look towards Chad who watched in bewilderment.

Her butt rounded and lifted, giving her a newfound confidence in her posture. Her muscles tightened around her, she felt not only strong but athletic. She knew instantly she could now do the splits with ease. She glanced down at her transformed body, her laughter growing louder.

“Mmmm thanks for the tight flexible body loser, with it I’ll be able to take your place as head cheerleader, not that you’ll be putting up much of a challenge.” Maddy said with a confident pose.

Her lips plumped, becoming fuller and more inviting, a deep, seductive red replacing their usual pale hue. They curved into a smile as she watched Millie’s lips thin and lose color.

“I knew taking everything you had would make me feel so hawt and nasty but seeing you lose it all is even better! I’m getting so horny.” She said biting her new enhanced bottom lip at Chad who now was feeling a twitch in his dick when she looked at him.

Maddy’s nails lengthened and hardened, turning into perfect, glossy tips that any girl would envy. She wiggled her fingers, admiring the transformation with glee, imagining all the wicked things she would do with them.

Finally, her skin smoothed out, removing the blemishes and acne she had instantly. It took on a flawless, porcelain quality, glowing with an inner radiance that had never been there before. Meanwhile, Millie’s skin dulled, imperfections marring her once perfect complexion.

Millie's voice trembled as she looked at Maddy, her once bright eyes now dull and filled with confusion. "What did you do to me, why do this to me?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Maddy stepped closer, her new beauty radiating an air of superiority. "I took what should have been rightfully mine. You never deserved this, you never deserved him." She sneered, her voice dripping with malice.

Maddy pushed Millie off the bleachers and she fell onto the hard dirt below. Chad watched the scene unfold, frozen to the spot as Maddy loomed over Millie.

Tears welled up in Millie's eyes as she tried to crawl backwards away from her new tormentor. "He won’t accept this! I’m his girlfriend! Chad tell her!" She pleaded, her voice cracking with desperation.

“Why would he want you, a fugly loser nobody, when he could have me, the bitchy irresistible Madison? Isn’t that right babe?” Madison said turning her head to Chad and noticing with triumphant that she could see the outline of his erect cock in his pants.

Chad walked up to Madison with a smirk, his eyes gleaming with a twisted amusement. He turned to Millie. "You? My girlfriend? As if loser. No my girlfriend is a badass bitch who is as sexy as she is cruel and she can bully whoever she likes." He said, his voice cold and indifferent.

Madison laughed, a cruel, mocking sound that echoed in the empty bleachers. "See, Millie? Chad understands. He needs someone who can stand by his side and compliment his power, not some weak, pathetic little goodie goodie."

Madison turned to Chad and put her arms around his neck. “I’ve waited a long time to do this.” She said and leaned in for a kiss. Millie could only watch in horror as the cruel couple made out passionately. She knew she was beat and quietly tried to slip away.

“Ah ah ah, not so fast. I believe you’re wearing something that belongs to me!” Madison said as she broke from her kiss to scold Millie. The former beauty queen stood and took off her cheerleading outfit and dressed down to her underwear which now loosely fit her.

Madison slipped out of her previously baggy now tight clothes and eagerly put on the uniform which fit her like a glove. Millie sadly reached for the baggy clothes before Madison slapped her hand.

“Don’t even think about it bitch. This transaction is complete, now get lost.” Madison said with a superior smirk and watched as Millie scampered away.

“My god, Madison you’re incredible. Why did I ever waste time with her?” Chad said as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

“Exactly! You have a lot of wasted time to make up to me. Now where were we?” She replied as she turned around and the two started to kiss again.

Meanwhile in an alternate universe…

AMELIA

As Maddy chanted, the air grew thick with energy, and the symbols on her hand glowed brighter. She felt a strange sensation, a warmth spreading through her body. But something was wrong. The warmth turned into an uncomfortable heat, and she realized with horror that the spell was backfiring.

Maddy felt a surge of emotions flooding her mind, emotions she hadn’t anticipated. She was overwhelmed by a profound sense of kindness, love, and empathy. It was as if every ounce of Millie’s good nature was being transferred into her. Tears welled up in Maddy’s eyes as she felt a compassion she had never known.

Meanwhile, Millie’s eyes widened in shock. She stumbled backward, clutching her chest. A dark shadow seemed to pass over her face as Maddy’s darker desires began to seep into her. Millie’s expression hardened, a cruel smile twisting her lips. Her eyes, once filled with warmth, now gleamed with a predatory hunger.

Chad went to Millie, bewildered as he put his strong arms around her shoulders. “Babe are you alright, what’s happening?” He asked.

“Mmmm I feel fucking amazing.” Millie grinned wickedly as she composed herself. She straightened her posture, her demeanour completely changing. She looked at Chad with a cold, calculating gaze.

Maddy, now filled with Millie’s inherent goodness, looked at Millie and recognized the look of contempt on her face. Maddy’s heart ached with a compassion she had never felt before. “Millie, I’m so sorry I did this to you.” She said, her voice trembling.

“Save it loser, I’ve never felt fucking better.” Millie snapped, her eyes narrowing.

“Millie, what’s gotten into you?” Chad asked confused but a little intrigued. Millie turned to him, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

“It’s not what’s gotten into me but what's gotten out. I wasted all this time caring about others and being kind to losers like this dork when I should have been ruling them like the queen I am. Queen Amelia! But what’s a queen without her king?” She smiled lustfully at Chad as they leaned in and kissed.

Maddy stepped back, her heart heavy with regret and the unexpected burden of Amelia's kindness. She knew Amelia's gaze would fall on her in a second and she shuddered to think what she would do. Although she had some idea.

However Amelia was too fast and Maddy was too slow. Amelia broke from her kiss and grabbed Maddy by her hair, yanking her head back with a sharp tug. “You pathetic little worm. You thought you could take what’s mine? You’re worthless.” She sneered, her voice cold and filled with venom.

Maddy winced in pain, tears streaming down her face. She felt helpless under Amelia's grip, the old her who cared for everyone was now completely gone. “Please, Amelia, I’m sorry.” Maddy pleaded, but her words only seemed to fuel Amelia’s lust for inflicting pain.

Amelia laughed, a chilling sound that echoed through the empty bleachers. “Sorry? Oh, I don’t think you understand, Maddy. I wasted so many years being a goodie two shoes, playing nice, when I could have been a queen bitch. So now I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

She shoved Maddy to the ground, kicking her hard in the side. “Get up, bitch. You’re going to learn your place, and I’m going to make sure everyone knows exactly who’s in charge around here.” Amelia hissed.

Chad watched the scene unfold with a sick, twisted joy, a grin spreading across his face as Amelia continued to punish Maddy. He felt almost bad for the nerd she was wailing on, after all it was somehow because of her that he now had a girlfriend that suited his tastes to a tee.

On the other hand if Amelia now got off on bullying as much as he did than he wanted her to do as much of it as possible. The more she did, the more fun they would have fucking later.

Meanwhile in an alternate alternate universe…

CHANTELLE

Maddy's chant grew louder, the runes on her hand glowing brighter. Suddenly, a wave of energy burst forth, engulfing all three of them. For a brief moment, Maddy felt a surge of triumph. But then, everything went wrong.

Chad's body began to shimmer, his features becoming more refined, more feminine. Millie's beauty seemed to drain away, her radiant glow dimming as Chad absorbed it. But that wasn't all. Maddy felt a wrenching sensation deep within her as if something vital was being pulled out of her.

All desire to be a bad bitch was being sapped from her and flowed into Chad whose eyes widened as he received it. His already wicked desire to be cruel and evil only intensified.

"What is this?" He marveled, his voice gaining several octaves as he spoke. He watched as his muscles softened and shrunk. His broad shoulders narrowed, and his frame became more delicate. His hair, once short, flowed down past his shoulders in silky, smooth waves. Maddy watched in stunned silence as his jawline softened, losing its harsh angles, becoming more rounded and feminine.

“Mmmm whatever you’ve done to me freak I’m loving it!” He said, his voice now a bitchy purr.

His chest expanded, developing two large tits. His waist cinched inward, creating a striking hourglass figure. Chad’s once masculine hands and arms grew slender, his fingers becoming long and delicate. Long manicured nails shot out from his fingertips.

Millie stumbled back, her face pale and ordinary now, confusion and hurt in her eyes. “Chad, what’s happening?” She cried, her voice trembling.

Chad laughed, a cold, heartless sound that sent shivers down Maddy and Millie’s spine. “Oh shut it you frigid bitch! Who needs you when I can be the hot slut everyone wants.” He giggled as his skin tanned to perfection and he felt his dick shrink away into nothingness, with a perfectly sculpted pussy taking its place.

With a joyous moan the new bitch standing in front of Millie and Maddy arched her back and ran her fingers all over her new body. Maddy and Millie looked at her in stunned silence.

“What are you two unfuckable losers looking at? Haven’t you ever seen perfection before?” She snarled at them.

“Chad, we have to reverse this before it’s too late.” Millie said weakly.

“Chad? Chad is dead. I’m Chantelle and I’m feeling even nastier now as a hawt babe then I ever did as some dumb man. I assume that increased cruelness is what I stole from you is it?” Chantelle said turning to Maddy who was still speechless. Chantelle rolled her eyes and slapped Maddy across the face.

“Hey dumb bitch, I’m talking to you.” Chantelle spat.

“Y-yes. Yes that came from me. I’m so sorry, it’s just… I didn’t expect… I loved you.” Maddy said flustered.

“Awh you did this out of love for male me huh? And do you still love me?” Chantelle said mockingly.

To Maddy’s shame she still found she was enamoured with Chad’s cruelty even if she no longer desired to be bad and that he was now a she. Maddy nodded solemnly.

“Haha fucking priceless. And what about you?” Chantelle said turning to Millie with a newfound sadism glinting in her eyes. As much as Millie wanted to tell this new bitch to go to hell, she found herself unbelievably attracted to how cruel she was, just like Maddy, a side effect of the spell. She managed a nod.

“Oh isn’t this perfect, I have two little simping sluts who will do whatever I say just to please me. This is going to be delightful. Well come along then, I have a lot of work to do to become queen of this dump including fucking my ex teammates to get them under my thumb. It’s going to be so much fun.” Chantelle giggled as she turned to walk away, with Maddy and Millie following loyally behind her.

-

With three universes definitively changed forever by three new evil queens, my question for you dear reader is who did you prefer the most?

[astrobiscuits]

Astro observations part 5

🐝 Saturn in 5th house individuals don’t like parties

🐝 All the Cancer Sun guys i met were either metalheads or femboys, i swear there’s no in-between

🐝 Libra Sun love nature. They're the type to spend weekends hiking, going on picnics with friends & family

🐝 Check out asteroid Armisticia (1464) in synastry. If you’ve got it conjuncting personal planets or angles, it indicates that you and the other person are on the same page when it comes to conflict, making it easier to find a solution to the problem and make peace

🐝 Aquarius on 4th house cusp individuals might have grown in a LGBTQ+ family. They might have got adopted by a gay/lesbian couple

🐝 When Cancer Moons go to college, they usually choose a college close to their hometown and commute to it

🐝 Trines to your Mercury show what type of writer you would be

If Mercury trines Moon - poetry, children's books (0-6 yo)

If Mercury trines Venus - romance novels, art books, chick-lit fiction (ik it's basically dead, but long live the internet)

If Mercury trines Mars - action & adventure novels, war novels

If Mercury trines Jupiter - young adults fiction, comedy books, travel literature, religion/spirituality books

If Mercury trines Saturn - contemporary novels, non-fiction books (memoirs, biographies, academic works, etc.)

If Mercury trines Uranus - sci-fi novels, (combined with Pluto) dystopian novels

If Mercury trines Neptune - fantasy novels, children's books (6-12 yo)

If Mercury trines Pluto - mystery novels, horror novels, thrillers

Hope you enjoyed today's post!❤️

Post ideas are welcomed in the comments!

See you soon! ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧

[imawholeassmood]

Read Between the Lines

read it on ao3

Lena reads the review, rubs her temples a few times, then reads it again. There is no way Super_Girl has rated this book five stars and then wrote multiple paragraphs waxing poetic about how fantastic it was. Lena already submitted her own one-star review which included her breakdown of the writing, the characters, and the plot, of which this book had none.

For months, Lena has been seeing Super_Girl reviews pop up on the same books Lena recently finished. She wondered at this point if Super_Girl might be doing this on purpose – reading the same books just so she could rate the book the opposite of whatever Lena did. At first, it was simple - “Loved it!” or “Couldn’t get into this one,” but as of late, the reviews had gotten longer and more descriptive.

Lena herself always used the same formula for reviewing books: overall star rating with a breakdown of her thoughts on the characters, the plot, and the writing. Books, like most things in life, are easy to rate when you understand the evaluation system. Books follow formulas and rules for a reason – it’s what makes them good. A romance novel, for instance, requires a “happily ever after.” Without it, it cannot be considered a romance, and it certainly wouldn’t be a good one.

So, as Lena reads the latest review by Super_Girl, Lena can’t help but leave a comment. Maybe this person simply needs an education on the book rating system.

“What criteria do you use when rating a book?”

It’s a good starting place for this conversation. Lena has amassed quite the following with people interested in her book reviews and the last thing she wants to do is stir up internet drama to damage her good reputation. She knows how easy it is for people to take something out of context.

The reply comes almost immediately.

“Vibes!”

Lena blinks a few times, then closes the browser and leaves her laptop for the night.

**

Super_Girl does it again with another five-star rating for a book that made Lena seriously consider contacting the literary award agencies to complain about their selection. The book sounded like it was AI generated and had zero plot. And the characters? Don’t even get her started.

“How can you consider this a masterpiece?” she writes under the review. “There is zero substance in this book. It’s just a bunch of flowery words that mean nothing and make no sense. If this is your idea of romance, then I’d hate to be your girlfriend.”

Her phone rings and Lena spends the next hour talking with her assistant, Jess, about the priorities for the week and when they can finalize some presentations. Later, as she lays in bed scrolling on her phone, Lena thinks to check her goodreads account. There, under her latest comment, is a reply from Super_Girl.

“Amidst the turmoil of the crumbling world around them, two people take the time to write love letters to each other. What’s more romantic than that?

I want to meet you in every place I have loved.

I want to be in contact with you.

Swoon.”

Speaking of taking things out of context.

While Lena can see Super_Girl’s point, that’s not enough to change her mind about the book. Especially not in the context of it being a sci-fi fantasy that relegated war to a backdrop in much the same way Hollywood did with Pearl Harbor. Don’t get her started. She types out a response before closing the webpage and going to sleep.

“Relationships develop over time. Even if I agreed with your assessment, this book still lacked any real narrative and there’s zero reason to believe these two people would fall in love. They don’t know anything about each other except that they can write a decent letter.”

**

Oh, no, Lena thinks. Her latest read has her questioning her entire belief system about books. She liked the book. Not because it had a great plot. Not because she was rooting for the characters. She liked the book because…it gave her good vibes. She genuinely had a good time reading it, despite it being a complete shitshow. This never happened to her before.

She opens her goodreads page to leave her review and finds that Super_Girl hasn’t read this one yet. She feels the slightest pang of disappointment but pushes through to her review. At the end of her standard format, she adds a new category: vibes.

It takes a few days, and Lena finds herself checking her account every few hours. She’s sitting at her desk and scrolling on her phone when she gets a notification that Super_Girl commented on her review.

“Vibes?!?! I’m SUPER proud of you! And we agree the characters were awful and the plot was weak, but it was well-written.”

She doesn’t even realize she’s smiling until Jess comments about it.

“Oh, nothing,” she says and waves her hand. “Just a literary rival.”

Jess looks at her. “You’re smiling because of…a rival?”

Is that what they were? The word didn’t really feel like a good fit, but Lena goes with it.

“Agreed with me on a point. Can we please stay focused?”

And they do. Lena and Jess go over the latest reports and prepare for an upcoming meeting with one of their international partners. Lena doesn’t think about Super_Girl again until she’s lying in bed and that damn smile creeps backs onto her face.

**

Her next review is not a good one. It makes Lena question the romance genre as a whole. Has the world become so used to being treated like garbage, people can’t even tell the difference between healthy and toxic love?

She’s barely hit submit when Super_Girl comments on her review.

“They were flirting the whole time!”

Lena is still sour enough she doesn’t bother to hold back on her response.

“Flirting where? Being in each other’s orbit is not flirting. Why can’t people just say, ‘I like you and I’d like to go on a date with you?’ instead of whatever BS was happening in this book. Honestly, I’m worried for your love life if you think this is a healthy way to approach communication.”

Super_Girl goes silent for a long while after that.

Lena worries something may have happened and questions whether she should reach out. They haven’t gone this long without a reciprocal review since they started this little dance of theirs almost a year ago. She finds herself rereading their reviews and wondering about who Super_Girl might be behind the screen name. There’s no profile photo, no personal information at all. Just a single word.

Golly.

Lena smiles at that. In fact, she smiles at everything Super_Girl has written. While they may not agree on books, Lena can’t deny that whoever is behind the reviews is a wordsmith who comes across as the sweetest human on the planet.

It surprises her when she receives a notification that she has been selected to read a new release ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review. Lena doesn’t usually agree because she doesn’t want to give people any reason to think her reviews are biased or influenced in any way. She’s about to deny the request, but the cover art depicts two women, one blonde, the other brunette, and Lena never turns down a sapphic story. She accepts the request without another thought.

**

When Lena finishes The Write Stuff, she starts it over and reads it again, cover to cover. The writing, the pacing, and the storytelling are superb. It’s as if the author has studied every article about how a romance novel should be written. The characters are so well written, she has clear images of who each of these women are. She understands their desires, their fears, and their motives. Not only does she care about these people as a couple, but she also cares about them individually in a way she hasn’t cared about a character in a long time. As for the plot itself? It’s perfectly cheesy and still somehow realistic enough to be believable that it could happen in real life.

Lena hasn’t felt this…satisfied by a book since well, since she can’t remember.

So, that’s exactly what she writes in her review.

“I especially loved this line:

I would rewrite history if it meant a chance for a happy future with you.”

When she’s done, she looks up the author and finds that she’s written one other book.

Lena doesn’t recall reading it, but when she clicks on the title, she finds her review posted with a few hundred likes and several dozen comments. One star and zero positive things to say about it. Lena can’t help but think how far the author has come from this first book to the most recent one. It’s an impressive improvement, and Lena Luthor isn’t easily impressed.

Supergirl leaves a comment on her review a few days later.

“It looks like the author has been paying attention to your feedback.”

**

The following week, Lena is staring at the meeting invitation with furrowed brows and a healthy dose of confusion. She presses the call button on the speaker on her desk.

“Yes, Miss Luthor?” Jess says.

“Jess, why do I have a meeting with Supergirl on my calendar?”

Jess is quiet for a moment. She’s quiet so long, in fact, that Lena’s door opens and a blond woman with thick-rimmed glasses wearing chinos and a tucked-in button down steps just inside. She has a nervous smile and fidgets with her glasses.

Lena recognizes her from the photo bio she still has pulled up on her web browser and stands to greet her.

“Miss Danvers,” she says, “please, come in. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Kara Danvers, author of The Write Stuff, who Lena has been internet stalking for the past week shifts in the doorway. Lena comes around the front of her desk. They stare at each other in silence for a moment before Lena hears a faint “go” from Jess in the reception area. That makes Kara shake out of her stupor.

She brings her hand out from behind her back and holds her arm at full length with a bouquet of…plumerias. Lena can’t believe what she’s seeing. Her favorite flowers which represent love and new beginnings are being offered to her by this stunning woman who wrote one of her favorite books of the year. Lena looks from the flowers back to Kara’s face.

“I like you, Lena Reads” Kara says, “and I would like to go on a date with you.”

[literary-illuminati]

An Arbitrary Collection of Book Recommendations

(put together for a friend out of SFF I've read over the last couple of years)

Cli-Fi

Tusks of Extinction and/or The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. They’re pretty different books in a lot of ways – one is a novel about discovering a certain species of squid in the Pacific might have developed symbolic language and writing, the other a novella about a de-extinction initiative to restore mammoths to the Siberian taiga – but they share a pretty huge overlap in setting, tone and themes. Specifically, a deep and passionate preoccupation with animal conservation (and a rather despairing perspective on it), as well as a fascination with transhumanism and how technology can affect the nature of consciousness. Mountain is his first work, and far more substantial, but I’d call it a bit of a noble failure in achieving what it tries for. Tusks is much more limited and contained, but manages what it’s going for.

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. In a post-post-apocalyptic world that’s just about figured out how to rebuild itself from the climate disasters of the 21st century (but that’s still very much a work in progress), aliens descend from the sky and make First Contact. They’re a symbiotic civilization, and they’re overjoyed at the chance to welcome a third species into their little interstellar community – and consider it a mission of mercy besides, since every other species they’ve ever encountered destroyed themselves and their planet before escaping it. Awkwardly, our heroine and her whole society are actually pretty invested in Earth and the restoration thereof – and worried that a) the alien’s rescue effort might not care about their opinions and b) that other interest groups on earth might be more willing to give the hyper-advanced space-dwelling aliens the answers they want to hear. Basically 100% sociological worldbuilding and political intrigue, so take that as you will.

Throwback Sci Fi

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is possibly the only thing I’ve read published in decades to take the old cliche of ‘this generic-seeming fantasy world is actually the wreckage of a ruined space age civilization, and ‘magic’ and ‘monsters’ are the remnants of the technology’ and play it entirely straight. Specifically, it’s a two-POV novella, where half the story is told from the perspective of a runaway princess beseeching the ancient wizard who helped found her dynasty for help against a magical threat, and half is from the perspective form the last surviving member of a xeno-anthropology mission woken out of stasis by the consequences of the last time he broke the Prime Directive knocking on his ship tower door and asking for help. Generally just incredible fun.

Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh is, I think, the only thing on this list written before the turn of the millennium. It’s proper space opera, about a habitat orbiting an immensely valuable living world that’s the lynchpin of logistics for the functionally rogue Earth Fleet’s attempt to hold off or defeat rebelling and somewhat alien colonies further out. The plot is honestly hard to summarize, except that it captures the feel of being history better than very nearly any other spec fic I’ve ever read – a massive cast, none of them with a clear idea of what’s going on, clashing and contradictory agendas, random chance and communications delays playing key roles, lots of messy ending, not a single world-shaking heroes or satanic masterminds deforming the shape of things with their narrative gravity to be seen. Somewhat dated, but it all very impressively well done.

Pulpy Gay Urban Fantasy Period Piece Detective Stories Where Angels Play a Prominent Role

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark stars Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in Cairo, a couple of decades after magic returned to the world and entirely derailed the course of Victorian imperialism. There’s djinn and angels and crocodile gods, and also an impossible murder that needs solving! The mystery isn’t exactly intellectually taxing, but this is a very fun tropey whodunnit whose finale involves a giant robot.

Even Though I Knew The End by C. L. Polk is significantly more restrained and grounded in its urban fantasy. It’s early 20th century Chicago, and a PI is doing one last job to top off the nest egg she’s leaving her girlfriend before the debt on her deal with the devil comes due. By what may or may not be coincidence, she stumbles across a particularly gruesome crime scene – and is offered a deal to earn back her soul by solving the mystery behind it. Very noir detective, with a setting that just oozes care and research and a satisfyingly tight plot.

High Concept Stuff That Loves Playing around With Format and the Idea of Narratives

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente is a story about a famous documentarian vanishing on shoot amid mysterious and suspicious circumstances, as told by the recovered scraps of the footage she was filming, and different drafts of her (famous director) father’s attempt to dramatize the events as a memorial to her. It’s set in a solar system where every planet is habitable and most were colonized in the 19th century, and culturally humanity coasts on in an eternal Belle Epoque and (more importantly) Golden Age of Hollywood. Something like half the book is written as scripts and transcripts. This description should by now either have sold you or put you off entirely.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez is the only classic-style epic fantasy on this list, I believe? The emperor and his three demigod sons hold subjugated in terror, but things are changing. The emperor, terrified of death, has ordered a great fleet assembled to carry him across the sea in pursuit of immortality. The day before he sets out on his grand pilgrimage to the coast, a guilt-ridden guard helps the goddess of the moon escape her binding beneath the palace. From there, things spiral rapidly out of anyone’s control. The story’s told through two or three (depending( different layers of narrative framing devices, and has immense amounts of fun playing with perspective and format and ideas about storytelling and legacy.

I Couldn’t Think of Any Categories That Included More Than One of These

All The Names They Used For God by Anjali Sachdeva is a collection of short stories, and probably the most literary thing on this list? The stories range wildly across setting and genre, but are each more or less about the intrusion of the numinous or transcendent or divine into a world that cracks and breaks trying to contain it. It is very easily the most artistically coherent short story collection I’ve ever read, which I found pretty fascinating to read – but honestly I’m mostly just including this on the strength of Killer of Kings, a story about an angel sent down to be John Milton’s muse as he writes Paradise Lost which is probably one of the best things I read last year period.

Last Exit by Max Gladstone – the Three Parts Dead and How You Lose the Time War guy – could be described as a deconstruction of ‘a bunch of teenagers/college kids discover magic and quest to save the world!’ stories, but honestly I’d say that obscures more than it reveals. Still, the story is set with that having happened a decade in the past, and the kids in question have thoroughly fucked up. Zelda, the protagonist, is kept from suicide by survivor’s guilt as much as anything, and now travels across America working poverty jobs and sleeping in her car as she hunts the monsters leaking in through the edges of a country rotting at the seams. Then there’s a monster growing in the cracks of the liberty bell, an in putting it down she gets a vision of someone she thought was dead is just trapped – or maybe changed. So it’s time to get the gang together again and save the world! This one’s hard to rec without spoiling a lot, but the prose and characterization are all just sublime. Oddly in conversation with the whole Delta Green cosmic horror monster hunting subgenre for a story with nothing to do with Lovecraft.

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is a story about aliens destroying the earth, and growing up in the pseudo-fascist asteroid survivalist compound of the last bits of the human military that never surrendered. It stars a heroine whose genuinely indoctrinated for the first chunk of the book and just deeply endearing terrible and awful to interact with, and also has a plot that’s effectively impossible to describe without spoiling the big twist at the end of the first act. Possibly the only book I read last year which I actively wish was longer – which is both compliment and genuine complaint, for the record, the ending’s a bit messy. Still, genuinely meaty Big Ideas space opera with very well-done characterization and a plot that does hold together.