Latest Posts by 48lexr - Page 7

Hello,👋

I hope you are well.I am writing to urgently request your help in sharing our story and contributing to assist us.

My family is facing significant challenges to stay alive, and we urgently need our plea to reach the world.

Every small contribution from you can make a big difference in saving our family.

Could you help us by sharing our story and considering contributing to support us? 🙏❤️🙏❤️

Your support in raising our voice and your contribution can make a significant impact on our lives.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support you provide.

Best regards, 🍉⚘️🙏

Ahmed Alanqer

Hi there, Ahmed,

While I have no money to give, I can definitely share your story in the hopes that it reaches somebody who does. Take care of yourself and your family as best as you can, and I wish you the best.

ingrid sundberg's colour dictionary - writing help

Day 15 (21 in base 7) of rewriting my novel.

I hit 20,000 words today! I'm so excited. This also means that I am just over 9,000 words on Part Two, which also makes me proud.

Today I also really focused on fleshing out Odapir as a conlang, and I have a little ways to go before I finish deriving Modern Odapir from Middle Odapir.

Fun fact, by the way, Odapir is an exonym, since Odeineikō is the endonym in Middle Odapir.

As a treat for reading this far into my blog, have a description of Middle Odapir phonology:

Middle Odapir Phonology

Stops: p, b, t, d, k, g

Nasal Stops: m, n

Affricates: pf, ts, c (palatal affricate)

Fricatives: f, s, sh (palatal fricative), h

Liquids: w, j (palatal approximant)

Tap: r (alveolar tap)

Vowels

High: ī, u, ū

Mid-high: o, ō

Mid-low: e, ɜ

Low: a, ā

Diphthongs: əi, ei, əu, au, ou

That's all for now. Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!

I can see a version of this prompt being very characteristic of Lozerief's unrequited love for the Hero of Life, although the Hero of Life (henceforth Dolgof) definitely cannot read minds. I imagine their interaction would go something like this:

Dolgof: Do you still think of me after all this time?

Lozerief: No shit I still do? You led me on for nearly seven-hundred years and expect me to just, I don't know, forget about it?

Dolgof: I didn't mean it like that, I just-

Lozerief: No, no. You misunderstand me. I still don't know if you know what you did, but it took a Zenestian civil war, a fifty-foot lava monster, and the world almost exploding, to get over those grueling centuries.

The whole thing probably ends with Lozerief teleporting off in a hot rage.

It’s been many years since you’ve stopped aging. You’ve seen nations rise and fall. Met, and forgotten countless people. One day, as you’re resting your eyes in a park, dreaming of a love long past, the person on the bench next to you speaks. “You think of me after all this time?”

Day 14 (20 in base 7) of writing my novel again

Woohoo! I'm at two weeks of consistent progress!

I expanded Part Two to around 7,500 words today, which makes the whole thing around the 19,000 word count. I don't know what my original estimates for this thing were, but my newest estimates for how long this thing will be are between 70,000 and 100,000, since I'm probably only 20% of the way through and I'm already almost breaking 20,000. Definitely not a bad thing, it's just how the story I'm trying to tell is coming out.

Tomorrow will be national Odapir day (I decree it!) because I need to flesh the language and culture out. While there's already a substantial mass to work with, it's not ready to be translating anything, and I need translations.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

~WIP Intro~

What's up guys! Recently I started a new WIP and I'm honestly really vibing with it, so I thought I would take some time to do a proper introduction before I started talking about it elsewhere!

Title: Starstruck

Genres: science fiction, fantasy, action-comedy

Progress: just started first draft! (as of July 2024)

Synopsis

The story is written in first person from the perspective of a person called Miffy, a semi-organic being created to hold unimaginable amounts of energy. Via a series of unfortunate events, she is infused with the most powerful energy weapon in the universe, and finds herself at the centre of a galaxy-wide manhunt. Eventually she ends up joining a small crew of travelling adventurers dedicated to helping anyone that needs them, and becomes embroiled in a plot on a nearby planet that might be more personal than it first appears...

I got the first ideas for the story while reading Frankenstein, so there are some similarities with the creator/creation subplots. It also has kind of Treasure Planet-ish vibes, with the big 18th century pirate ship in space and all. It's a bit hard to accurately describe in a synopsis, so if you're interested, setting/characters ect are under the cut, since it's a little long :)

(oh, and. minor warning for blood, though it's only once and in a cartoon style)

Setting

The story has two main settings: the first one is a station that is essentially a space university, except only for like, really smart people. It's the main base of the Fellowship of Gifted Individuals, and the residency of those applying to graduate into the FGI. Our main character Miffy is born here, as she's the creation of one of the students as part of his thesis project.

However, she quickly joins a crew of space explorers and travels to our second location: the planet Oduseus. This planet is relatively backwater, and stays out of the galactic loophole, with somewhat outdated technology... at least, that's what the travel books say. In reality, the crew finds the planet powered by some mysterious, renewable energy, filling the city with beautiful light. But something darker lurks beneath the surface, as citizens keep dying under mysterious circumstances...

The general galaxy is obviously space and therefore draws inspiration from many traditional sci-fi tropes, but I've also tried to include some older elements to it, for example the ship they travel in, and some hints of celestial mythology as well, like the starmaids that swirl around in the vacuum.

Content/themes

In terms of adult content, the WIP is actually pretty tame. There's no sexual (or romantic) content, and minimal swearing. The only thing I would say is there's moderate violence, mostly fantasy (like, throwing magic lasers at each other and stuff) but there are a couple of deaths that might be a bit gruesome.

The main themes of the novel are finding who you are in a world that you don't recognise and choosing to help others even when you don't have to. Other themes dealt with include responsibility, loss, rebellion against an unjust monarchy, found family and unsafe scientific practices.

Cast of Characters

(I've added Picrews to this that I made a while ago, credit goes to @elena-illustration, it's her little guy maker if you're interested)

Miffy

Name: Miffed, nicknamed Miffy

Age: physically? 19. time-wise? 3 days. mentally? unclear.

Pronouns: she/they

Miffy is the main character, and the story is told from her first-person perspective. She was created in a lab by Bikuta, but soon leaves home to explore the galaxy, and satisfy her need to help others. Due to the vast amounts of energy contained within them, they are incredibly powerful, and hunted by many, especially the malicious Dark Eyes Society. She is not particularly emotive, and can be blunt, although once she discovers the concept of lying, she uses this to her full advantage. Her sense of humour is mostly only funny to her.

Strength: 20

Stealth: 6

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 8

Social Skills: 5

Fun Facts!!!!!

- she has no intestines

- she chose her own name based on a random word she heard once (because she thought it sounded cool)

- her hobbies include hitting things with a big stick and not being able to read

Cecilia

Name: Cecilia

Age: 15 (it's complicated)

Pronouns: she/her

Cecilia is the youngest member of the crew, and loves to have fun. She smiles a lot, and enjoys making friends, although I must admit, she doesn't fully understand the concept of personal boundaries. Her signature weapons are two silver daggers that she keeps on her at all times.

Strength: 14

Stealth: 17

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 9

Social Skills: 7

Fun Facts!!!!!!

- she has a teddy bear named Bookaloooka

- she enjoys stealing her crewmates' clothes (and is VERY disappointed Miffy for only having one outfit)

- whenever she feels sad for no reason, she tells herself that it's because she's been assigned to mourn the death of a stranger

North

Name: North (unclear if this is his legal name)

Age: 25

Pronouns: he/him

North is a member of the crew, and wields incredible mystical powers. He is very serious, and tends to keep himself to himself, preferring to meditate in solitude. He likes playing board games. You get the sense that he's running from something...

Strength: 18

Stealth: 12

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 10

Social Skills: 3

Fun Facts!!!!!!

- he's deathly scared of children

- occasionally he will just make the worst pun possible, because he knows that it's good to be funny he just doesn't know how

- coincidentally, said puns are the only things Miffy will laugh at

Reginald

Name: Reginald Bleaks

Age: 38

Pronouns: he/him

Reginald is another member of the crew, and their main source of information. He's very British (despite the fact that Britain doesn't exist), and is knowledgeable about the more criminal aspects of society. He can be pretty salty sometimes, but also cares deeply about his family.

Strength: 15

Stealth: 10

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 12

Social Skills: 10

Fun Facts!!!!!!

- his hair is #D2B48C

- Raven and North found him in a dive bar

- the entirety of the FGI hates his guts with a passion. They deeply loathe him. They wish he was pushing up daisies

Raven

Name: Raven Shimmerseat Hortensia Twinkle the Third

Age: 39

Pronouns: she/her

Raven is the unofficial leader of the crew, and the owner of the ship. She's very caring and empathetic, and has a special fondness for collecting strays, opening both her ship and her heart to anyone that wishes to join them. She is, however, from a very wealthy background, and can sometimes struggle to connect with others due to her wildly different upbringing.

Strength: 13

Stealth: 9

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 15

Social Skills: 9

Fun Facts!!!!!

- sometimes she and Reginald just sit on a bench throwing shade at passerbys

- she has six younger sisters

- when she was in her early twenties, she released a rap album full of songs about interstellar economics. It won a space grammy. She doesn't like to talk about it

Bikuta

Name: Bikuta Ashikaga

Age: 21

Pronouns: he/him

Bikuta is the man who created Miffy. He's working towards his acceptance into the Fellowship of Gifted Individuals, and gets very upset when Miffy leaves him, since he needs them to complete his thesis project. He is highly unethical and willing to do almost anything for science. He refers to Miffy as his sister, since he claims to be 'too young to be a dad'.

Strength: 4

Stealth: 7

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 7

Social Skills: 6

Fun Facts!!!!!!!!

- his hair is actually black, he dyes it midway through the story so that he can match Miffy

- he specialises in semi-organic matter and its potential as a vessel for renewable energy

- he unironically uses uwu when texting

Cobalt

Name: code named Cobalt

Age: 42

Pronouns: he/him

Cobalt is a bounty hunter who spends most of the book trying to kidnap Miffy. He's part of an elite Guild and highly professional, stopping at nothing to complete his assignment. While not exactly the most innocent person in the book, he's not necessarily amoral, and views Miffy as a job rather than an enemy.

Strength: 17

Stealth: 14

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 11

Social Skills: 9

Fun Facts!!!!!!!!!!

- now, dear reader, you may not have noticed this, but he is, surprisingly, a little bit fond of swords

- he has beef with not one but two feral teenagers

- these two teenagers happen to be a) his best friend's son and b) his boss

Aaand that's it! I hope y'all enjoyed :) feel free to ask me any questions, I will take literally any excuse to ramble lmao

words to use instead of ______

"Very"

Mild: clearly, decidedly, distinctly, markedly, considerably, notably, largely, recognizably, especially, indubitably Moderate: especially, surprisingly, substantially, uncommonly, chiefly, incredibly, obviously, unmistakably, considerably, awfully, wonderfully, particularly Bold: profusely, unequivocally, strikingly, astonishingly, exceedingly, absolutely, exceptionally, extremely, unquestionably, vastly, incontestably

"A Lot" (time)

Mild: often, oftentimes, sometime Moderate: frequently, usually, various, generally Bold: regularly, recurrent, persistent

"A Lot" (size)

Mild: many, much, several Moderate: numerous, bountiful, considerable Bold: multitude, profuse, vast

"Big"

Mild: sizable, ample, large, considerable, great, above average, important Moderate: ponderous, significant, crucial, vast, copious, magnificent, substantial Bold: enormous, immense, colossal, extensive, endless, paramount, boundless, prodigious, imposing, gigantic, voluminous, limitless, essential

"Small"

Mild: slight, limited, trivial, minor, light, puny, superficial, undersized, dinky, negligible, faint Moderate: scant, petite, inconsiderable, microscopic, dwarf, unsubstantial, minimum, miniature, tiny Bold: insignificant, minute, meager, infinitesimal, ineffectual, undetectable, inconsequential

"Good"

Mild: acceptable, favorable, agreeable, pleasing, satisfactory, satisfying, super, able, relevant, accomplished, efficient, reliable, ample, useful, profitable, adequate, adept Moderate: great, honorable, admirable, commendable, sound, splendid, superb, valuable, wonderful, worthy, clever, proficient, qualified, apt, skillful, thorough, wholesome Bold: excellent, exceptional, gratifying, marvelous, reputable, stupendous, superior, exemplary, virtuous, expert, solid, advantageous, flawless, extensive, perfect

"Bad"

Mild: cheap, dissatisfactory, faculty, off, mean, wrong, unpleasant, unwell, low, grim, sour, regretful Moderate: careless, defective, inferior, imperfect, deficient, rough, ill-suited, inadequate, unsatisfactory, delinquent, sinful, unruly, wicked, rancid, grave, harsh, terrible, downcast Bold: awful, unacceptable, corrupt, dreadful, putrid, erroneous, detrimental, ruinous, vile, villainous, diseased, adverse, evil

Day 13 (16 in base 7) of writing my novel again.

Today, in addition to adding about 700 words to Part Two, I also made a bunch of translations into Modern Ipol. I probably translated about two hundred words of English into Ipol, and I will post one snippit of it here:

Pijteshijv sispeen pijte sis Nistemiks sis Nurrif sis Leerf pifijz. Pijteshijv losr shise tismostijv sispeenes pijte sis leerfine sis koleerf pite, Ir Nusnijv, spuw's sis spine, por sisla's pijte sju sis koleerf ejr sotenaks sis Nistemiks piste.

Ipol is the language of the Hero of Life's Confederacy of Zeneste. It started as the dialect of the capital, Ir Nouzonif, where it diffused, becoming a standard language for Zeneste. It replaced Classical Zispoel as the language of government and official business one-hundred and fifty years ago.

A couple notes:

ij and uw are symbols for long i and long u respectively.

j before a vowel is the palatal glide /j/.

Nistemiks literally means "the states" but it's also the most natural translation for 'Zeneste.'

Maybe at a later date, I'll do a post that breaks down this translation, but that's all for now!

Day 12 (15 in base 7) of writing my novel again

Today I wrote a lot more of Part Two. It's officially >5,000 words, so the whole thing is >16,000 words now. Nice.

Have another 'bagnin'' line from my alpha-reader:

Sinezo 'na asispijenen sineen Nuwrrite piste, I thought, repeating the words of the chef in my mind. When a rice farmer has become the Emperor.

Mau sispijnen, I finished. Anything can happen.

I don't know if I've already posted this translation or not, but have at it.

My alpha reader pointed out how wonky the pacing is in the first 1,000 words. And how much of an underwriter I am. Maybe once I finish Part Two, or Three, I'll go and review the whole thing.

I still haven't figured out how to deal with the ending of the story yet, but yeah.

Day 11 (14 in base 7) of writing my novel again.

I put about 1,000 more words into Part 2 today, and 90% of it was just Izi and Hota yapping, learning about each other. More on Part 2 later.

Today I wanted to share the two lines from Part One that one of my alpha readers said were "banging." I completely agree with her. That's all for now!

I didn't remember exactly what he did. He was always meeting with high-ranking military officials in his study, which he always told me to stay out of. I remembered his smile and his quiet voice. My last few weeks with him were spent in a hospital. He made me promise to devote myself to myself. I didn't really understand what he meant then, and I had only started to understand it when the Dr. Este came for me.

And:

In Ipol, the language of Zeneste, the formal 'rr' sound already sounds like you're choking on a cherry pit, but my 'rr' sound sounded more like an 'h,' but stronger-sounding. Just thinking about taking speaking lessons made my heart drop.

Day 10 of writing my novel again. (13 in base 7).

Part 1 is done!! I stayed up late to finish it. The ending might be kind of lame so far, but that’s what my alpha readers are for! I really hope they come through because I need the feedback.

I’ll celebrate tomorrow. How, exactly? Not sure yet. I will update tomorrow.

Dear Conlangers making A Priori, Naturalistic Languages...

Specifically those that use a protolanguage... please write down your sound changes before you copy-paste them! I've been struggling for several months to remember which sound changes happened from Old Ipol -> Modern Ipol and I cannot, for the life of me, find the file where I saved them. Please write them down I'm begging you.

Day 9 (12 in base 7) of writing my novel again

I'm almost done with Part One (I think!) I should finish it tomorrow. There are about 10,000 words so far, and I need to write the final coronation scene with plot twist #1!! Izi is the Hero of Cognition!

Also, as soon as I finish that, I'll give it to some of my friends for "alpha" reading, since I'm ready for a first draft of something to get torn to shreds to help keep me motivated.

In the eventual future, I hope to flesh out Zispoel and Ytos as languages enough so that I can create "meme" translations of the novel itself into Zispoel and Ytos. A sort-of "meta-translation," if you will.

This idea was too cool not to reblog, especially from my nerdy combinatorics perspective.

Had an idea for a conlang in which instead of pronouns having the standard person/number setup (basically the cartesian product of {1, 2, 3} and {SG, PL}), it uses only the persons of the referents, not caring about how many there are (basically the powerset of {1, 2, 3}).

For example with this you would get a second person pronoun I'll gloss as just 2, but all it means is that the referents are a subset of the audience, independent of whether there are one or many people in that audience. However you'd also get another “second person” pronoun 2.3 which just means the referents include the audience but also people elsewhere (this is definitionally plural).

You'd end up with one third person pronoun (3, can be either plural or singular), two second person pronouns (see above), and four first person pronouns (1 – just singular, 1.3 – exclusive plural, 1.2 – partially inclusive plural, and 1.2.3 – inclusive plural). Additionally you'd also get an empty pronoun ∅, which could be used as an indefinite or impersonal pronoun like “one” or the dummy “it” (perhaps adding an animacy distinction to the system could help here).

It's interesting that the only thing you lose in this system compared to English at least is equivalents to the non-epicene third person singular pronouns “he/she/it”; because both “you” and “they” can refer to singular and plural they map directly to equivalents here. In first and second person you're purely gaining distinctions.

Day 8 of writing my novel, aka 1 week and 1 day. I didn’t write much today, as expected, but I let the characters remain rent free in my mind. Like yesterday, I did a lot of thinking about Part Four—mostly how to wrap up the whole story. I haven’t started writing it yet, but maybe I will start on Monday.

One week (day seven) of writing my novel again, and boy did I not do a lot of writing today. It was a lot of plotting, instead. And thinking about characters (see my post earlier today.) I likely won’t write a lot tomorrow, since I’ll be free of the chains of capitalistic studenthood (summer chinese classes for college), so I will probably keep doing more plotting in my free time.

Counterintuitively, today was a lot about thinking about the later parts of the novel: Parts 3 and 4. Those are much less thought-out than Parts 1 and 2, mostly because of how much writing I have to do to get there. Although, Pixar’s story writers (I think?) used to say, “endings are hard. Start by writing yours.”

In the coming days, I’ll consider the end of Meiste more.

Nah that’s a changeling that’s trying to steal your car. I’d say either let the poor thing have it, take them to a Burger King and buy them an order of fries to try and get them to be your friend, or dump them on the street.

You’re driving home alone in the dead of night, and you see a child in the middle of the night. Feeling sympathetic, you offer to drive them to the police station to find their parents, only you find out that thing that you picked up isn’t just a child…

Introduction to the Heroes of Meiste

I will post later about my writing progress today, too, don't worry. But right now, I thought I'd introduce the concept of Heroes in Meiste, how they relate to religion and politics, and introduce a few of them, along with their Guardians.

Before I get too deep into the weeds, every person's magic is also their soul in Meiste. Without their soul, their body and cognitive function can stay alive, but it's greatly decreased. (Foreshadowing...)

What even is a Hero?

Tl;dr: The most powerful six magic users are Heroes.

A Hero is a human who is a vessel for the rapid generation and usage of magic. Since there are only six magic types, there are only six Heroes-one for each magic type. These six, along with the Seventh Hero, Meiste itself, make up the Seven Heroes. Each Hero also has a Guardian who necessarily protects them.

Several Heroes are already known about: the Hero of Life, the Hero of Language, and the Hero of Earth. The other three remain (mostly) a mystery.

Introducing Three Heroes

Eheste Lozerief - Hero of Earth (or Meistezon)

she/her (Ipol: prijv/pijf)

"Meiste," translated as Earth, encompasses much more than just dirt in Zispoel. It also translates to the "physical" realm, where we as people reside. The (probably) Euclidean space where we type on keyboards and waste hours behind our cell phones.

Eheste Lozerief, known as Dr. Este, can manipulate space. She keeps her black pick-up truck on her keychain when she's not using it, for example. And she can teleport. Her mood is kind-of hit-or-miss when dealing with her, and while she does okay as a follower most of the time, she can only let her own needs get walked-over so much before she explodes.

Her Guardian: Tev, (or the Sensonif)

she/her (Ipol: prijv/pijf)

Sensonif literally means 'monster' in Ipol, by the way, and while her stature may be monstrous (fifty-foot tall lava-monster lady), her demeanor is anything but! She's warm-hearted (pun!) and fun.

She's one of four ancient beings called the Elementals (which aren't very relevant to the story.) She lives in a volcano and takes care of the village at the base of her volcano.

Those two end up dating each other post-canon.

In Iziser - Hero of Cognition (or Emeistezon)

he/him (Ipol: por/piste)

"Emeiste" literally means 'not-real,' so it could be translated as 'unreal,' but that may be a bit reductive. "Emeiste" encompasses everything that isn't real, but still exists. A prime example of this is the entire field of quantum physics and the wave functions that codify it. As a result, Izi can, himself, exist in a quantum superposition at will.

Izi is more assertive than Lozerief, but not quite as crabby as she can be. He and Lozerief bond over their shared nerddom, however, since they're both super interested in magic theory.

His Guardian: Pejemer

she/her

Pejemer is a seven-foot-tall swordswoman with ashen-colored goat-like horns and a sword so thin it can cut through anything. She's been wielding it for 1,100 years. Her species is also not human, like all Guardians. Instead, she's a Tawoo.

Pejemer is much more like Tev: easygoing, lighthearted, and fun. But Pejemer is more relaxed than the energetic Tev.

Hotautebz Az - Hero of Mind (or Ezispoerizon)

they/them (Ipol: pir, pirij)

"Ezisperizon" literally means "not-language," so it pretty much encompasses the subconscious. Hota, then, can control the subconscious. They can speak telepathically, influence a person's feelings, plant thoughts in their mind, or even take control of another person's mind!

They're far too timid to do any of that, though. They're six-foot-four, capable of mass-manipulation, and wouldn't hurt a fly-even if their life depended on it.

Their Guardian: Luwzrij

she/her

Luwzrij is a swamp fairy, a kind of humanoid with wings that's one of the four types of fairies, and Luwzrij is from the swamps of Eastern Zeneste. She's outgoing and charismatic, but rather clumsy (including downright destructive.)

Conclusion

Only Iziser and Lozerief are introduced by the end of Part One, but Hota is introduced very early in Part Two. None of their Guardians are present until halfway through the novel (Part Three.)

Day Six of Writing my Novel again (follow up from last night because I forgot.)

I smashed past 8600 words in Part One last night, and if my novel has 4 parts like I plan for it to, then the total word count should be somewhere along the order of 60-75,000 words. Not a lot, but good enough for draft 1!

REVERSE TROPE WRITING PROMPTS

Too many beds

Accidentally kidnapping a mafia boss

Really nice guy who hates only you

Academic rivals except it’s two teachers who compete to have the best class

Divorce of convenience

Too much communication

True hate’s kiss (only kissing your enemy can break a curse)

Dating your enemy’s sibling

Lovers to enemies

Hate at first sight

Love triangle where the two love interests get together instead

Fake amnesia

Soulmates who are fated to kill each other

Strangers to enemies

Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating

Too hot to cuddle

Love interest CEO is a himbo/bimbo who runs their company into the ground

Nursing home au

Day 5 of Writing my Novel (Again)

I actually counted this time! Today is day five.

Today I thought I could post some songs that represent character dynamics from part 1:

Dr. Este's weird past with the Hero of Life (foreshadowing):

Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul, and Mary

Izi's Song Around the Palace:

Sea Songs - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1924)

That is all for tonight.

Meet Winvyre

That's me!

Winvyre (Win-vie-r) is my pen name (I do not like to be perceived) and my pronouns are They/Them.

I'm a bit all over the place, both in terms of writing and in general. My longer stories mainly fall under the category of fantasy with horror elements and the shorter the piece the more horror dense it becomes. (Roughly: Long Stories: 25%, Short Stories: 50-70%, Poetry: 90%) It just kinda happens. When I was little, I was really good at scaring myself with the things I made and I guess I never grew out of it. While I'm not completely opposed to romance it's not something that shows up in my work very often.

I've never published anything unless you count some laminated paper stapled together into a fully illustrated book for my classroom when I was in third grade. I'd like to share some of my short stories and poetry but I'm not sure if I should post them directly on here or if there's another site I should try.

Current Projects:

Valerie's Story (no title) (WIP)- high fantasy, coming-of-age type story that I've been working on since I was twelve. This is generation six (I think). Valerie lives in a world where six powerful mages are worshipped as gods, called the Six Immortals, but haven't been seen since the White War ended over one thousand years ago. Assigned the task of defeating a grave threat against the world, Valerie must find the reincarnations of the Six Immortals and uncover their secrets buried with the truth of the war.

Hidnight (WIP)- urban fantasy, heavy trauma themes. Since moving to his new neighborhood, Connor has become very close with the Ibarra family, especially since his own is neglectful on a good day and terribly abusive the rest of the time. The Ibarras may be werewolves, but this is of little consequence to Connor... until he gets wrapped up with the Hunter's Association and their crazy experiments. Can he protect his chosen family and himself?

OC Lore Excerpt

I got the brilliant idea for this short excerpt after listening to one of my favorite songs.

This excerpt is a piece of Aito’s lore, where he lost someone he loved dearly due to his lack of acceptance for himself.

Edit note: This specific excerpt is set in 19th century England (Aito is hundreds of years old) (that’s a whole other piece of lore but whatever)

WARNING: THIS EXCERPT CONTAINS SEXUAL THEMES.

“Do you love me?”

It was morning, and the sun peeked through the drawn curtains onto his tanned face and reflected in his eyes, making them shine like a swirled caramel. I sat on the edge of the bed, in my nude, and he laid behind me with his cheek propped on his hand and the sheets covering his lower body.

I looked at him, a mild visage of bewilderment on my face. I gave a scoff as I stood and grabbed my shirt off the nearby chair. “I just had sex with you. Why wouldn’t I?”

I felt his fingers trace down my spine and stop above my rear, then he placed his hand on my lower back. I shivered as I began buttoning my white shirt.

“I don’t know. You just felt…distant the whole time,” he said softly. He tugged at the back of my shirt, and I turned to face him after I picked up my tie.

“How so?” I asked, looking down at him as I straightened the black tie around my neck. 

He slipped the covers off himself and sat off the edge of the bed in front of me. My eyes traced his figure as he looked up. He ran his hands up the sides of my thighs and stopped at my hips, massaging them. “You just looked…apathetic the whole time. As if you weren’t enjoying it.” His eyes would flit up my body, and I inhaled sharply as he ran his hands down my front. I swallowed hard and slipped my trembling fingers into his messy black hair, although gingerly.

His hands rested on the backs of my thighs as he looked up at me again, a faint, pained expression on his face. His hands dropped and clasped in his lap as he pressed his forehead into my stomach. “That. You’re hesitant. Why?”

I stared down at him, then dropped my hands as well. I felt a vise grip my chest, and I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it. After a moment, he raised his head and eyed at me expectantly. I exhaled deeply and closed my eyes. “I…I don’t know.”

I did know. But I hated that I knew. I knew it was because I still couldn’t fully approve of all the love I wanted to give.

I opened my eyes, and his expression was one of unconvinced hurt.

Gently, he placed his hands on my hips and pushed me a step back. He stood and tilted his head up at me, his voice breaking. “You hurt me so. You can’t even say you love me back.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and I stared at him silently. I felt my eyes begin to sting and gloss over.

“Cry for me,” he challenged, although it came out more as a quiet, choked beg.

I blinked away my tears.

Ipol (Conlang) Synopsis

Day 3 (? 4?) of writing my novel and I actually wrote a bunch today! But today I wanted to do something different: present on the most-used conlang in my novel: Ipol.

Ipol ['i.pol] is an Eastern Zenestian language descended from Classical Zispoel by way of Old Ipol. Ipol is actually the word used for the accent spoken in Ir Nouzonif (Ip. I Nusnif [i.'nus.nif]), the capital of Zeneste. Most other dialects, including several languages, are lumped together into Ipol Sinezo (literally: Rice-farmer Ipol.)

Phonology

Consonants

Ipol has 16 consonants:

Oral Stops: p, b, t*, d*, k, g*

* t, d > tʃ, dʒ / _ i

**Nasal Stops: **n, m

Fricatives: f, s*, h

* s > ʃ / _ {i, e}

Semivowels: j, w

Liquids: l

Rhotics*: r*, rr

r > /ɹ/ / _ {#, consonant}

r > /ɾ/ / (everywhere else)

rr is the uvular rhotic /ʀ/ found in French

Vowels

Ipol has 12 vowels.

High: i, ij, u, uw

Mid: e, ee, o, oo (/oː/), oh (/ɔː/)

Low: æ (/æː/), a, aa (/aː/)

Phonotactics

Ipol is a (C)(S)V(C)(C)(C) language:

C = any consonant

V = any vowel + r

S = semivowel + r

Translation + Teaser

Excerpt from Part One:

Dr. Este grunted, wrinkling her nose at me. "If you know what's good for you," she rephrased, "you'll stay far, far away from the attic." I gulped. Then, I shook my head. What were a bunch of sticks going to do to me when I wasn't looking. "Why? The Sensonif isn't hiding up there, is she?" I realized that the first stained glass window depicted the three Heroes: the Heroes of Life, Earth, and Language. Then the other window depicted the Hero of Earth killing the Sensonif-a monster said to be fifty-feet high and filled with lava. One touch from her is said to kill a person in seconds. My comment stiffened the Vice President, who stopped. Then, hanging her head, she gripped my shoulder and looked up into my eyes, her gaze lifeless and cold. "Nerte treste ésispijen," she whispered, "Sispoh sispijz la eheempijz." If you care about yourself, you mustn't go into the attic.

Nerte - you.ABS

Treste - you.ACC

sispijen - believe in, care about

Sispoh - must

sispijz - (negative modal verb)

la - in, into, towards

eheempijz - attic (literally house-up, or the top bit of a house)

Conclusion

Given that Dr. Este is the Hero of Earth who sailed around the world with the other two Heroes (of Life and Language,) what do you think is in the attic that she's so worried about?

Was wishing there was a positivity post for original fiction writers since I see so many about how fanfic writers are doing so much for their communities even when they're not actively writing, and then I thought:

Be the change you want to see in the world.

So this is a positivity post for the writers out here who are working very hard on stories with no established community. Who can't talk about their blorbos and plot lines and brainstorming to anyone and expect them to know what any of it means. Who don't have much to share publicly, but are hoping they will one day.

You're doing a lot of hard work, and I recognize and appreciate what you're putting into the world, even when you're resting.

Day Three of Writing my Novel, Meiste.

I didn’t write all that much today, due to obligations outside of the screen. However, I let the characters live rent-free in my head, along with letting my brother power-scale them (because he’s a hyper-nerd and it makes him happy.)

Easily the strongest (introduced) character is Dr. Este Luzrij, the Hero of Earth. She can bend space to her will, teleport, and shrink or move objects. I haven’t decided, yet, if she can do time dilation (because gravity is weird) but she’s definitely stronger than Iziser or Hotautebz.

I wrote about 2200 words of Meiste today while flying home from Albuquerque. Since I had no wifi to load up my google doc (peak writing setup, I know) I instead began working on Part 2 (out of how many? Not even I know!)

For the most part, I have a vague idea of the main characters, how they grow together, and where they end up, but part of the fun in writing is surprising myself in the moment. Like, today, the two characters who will wind up in a relationship by the end of the book, I wrote their introduction and first outing. It was glorious.

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower