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Snippet from my queer polyamorous romance novel, Community Witch - an unapologetically trope-y, cozy, and relationship-driven romance story about the healing from trauma, found family, and joyful queer relationships. (Looking to publish next year.) ---
“My life has turned into a Lifemark movie,” Aspen groaned, flopping dramatically onto their bed. “Thirty year old enby leaves the big city, including their terrible partner and the job they hate, to move to a beautiful small town, has meet cute with beautiful stranger before running into The One That Got Away.”
There was a choking sound on the other end of the line.
“You’re allowed to laugh,” Aspen grumbled. “Even I think it’s ridiculous, and I’m living it.”
Becks didn’t laugh, but Aspen could hear the grin in her voice. “I assume the beautiful stranger is Rav, but who is The One That Got Away?”
“Remember that guy I was hopelessly in love with in high school? The wholesome football player?”
“Maybe?”
“My best friend? The one that was over all the time?”
“Oh my god, that himbo you tutored, then pined for the rest of high school? The one you wanted to smash from orbit?”
“Not a himbo,” Aspen bristled, unable to argue with the rest of Becks’ description. “Anyway. She’s Nat now. I ran into her at the gym just now when I was dropping off cards around town. And we’re going to catch up when she’s done with work.”
This time, Becks did laugh – gleeful peals that made Aspen smile despite themself.
Me: Hey internet, how long should I wait before following up with an agent about their request for a full manuscript? The Internet: minimum 3 months Me:
Things I have Googled while writing fiction recently: * History of foot orthotics * When were wrist watches invented * Do lesbians hate beards * Puffin symbolism * Fancy word for sucking up * Boring historical subjects * Slutty dandy fashion * Can crows eat pizza
Snippet from my queer polyamorous romance novel, Community Witch - an unapologetically trope-y, cozy, and relationship-driven romance story about the healing from trauma, found family, and joyful queer relationships. (Looking to publish next year.) --- Aspen snorted. “What am I even going to do about tonight? I don’t know that it’s a date, but if it is… what do I do about coffee with Rav next week?”
Becks’ answering sigh was a mix of fond and exasperated. “First, it’s coffee, not a betrothal. Second, porque no los dos?”
“What?”
“It means ‘why not both’.”
“I know perfectly well what it means. But--”
Becks cut Aspen off. “You can date more than one person.”
Aspen scoffed. “I’m still not convinced I’m not too much of a disaster for one relationship, let alone two.”
“Look. Stop being a weirdo and go get dinner with the hot jock, okay?” Aspen heard Rachel yell something in the background, which Becks then repeated for Aspen’s benefit. “And send photos.”“I will not,” Aspen said firmly, then hung up.
It turns out having an agent pass on your manuscript after they've read the whole thing sucks a lot worse than getting a rejection after they've only read a couple chapters.
Past Me, when I first realized how much my writing gave away about my anxiety, neuroses, and trauma
Now Me, leaning into it and using my writing as free therapy
Snippet from my queer polyamorous romance novel, Community Witch - an unapologetically trope-y, cozy, and relationship-driven romance story about the healing from trauma, found family, and joyful queer relationships. (Looking to publish next year.) --- As they drifted back to Nat’s car, the anxiety beast clawed its way back with a vengeance, keeping Aspen from working up the nerve to take Nat’s hand. What if they had misread Nat’s interest? What if all she wanted was to be friends? Surely it couldn’t be this easy the second time around? It was only when they pulled up in front of their house that Aspen managed to wrestle their anxiety down enough to blurt out the question that had been burning in their mind the entire night.
“Was this a date?”
Nat smiled, as calmly unflappable as ever, and cocked her head. “Did you want it to be?” she asked softly.
Aspen felt their face grow suddenly, painfully warm and nodded, unwilling to trust their voice. Nat’s smile grew, and Aspen’s breath hitched as she slowly took their hand and stroked their palm with her thumb. “Then yes, it was a date.” She leaned forward slowly, looked down at their lips, then back up into their eyes. “Can I kiss you goodnight?”
Snippets from Book 2 I'm particularly proud of
Editing Book 2 right now, and the massive suck of doing a second draft is at least sometimes mitigated by those moments where you come across a really clever bit. Here are some of the ones I'm really proud of. ---
Dee shook their head, overwhelmed by the prospect of being casually told to delete a good portion of what they’d spent a lot of money learning. “That… sounds hard. And like a lot of work.”
“It is,” Rav agreed cheerfully. “But when you find what it is you love to do—”
“You never work a day in your life?” Dee finished wearily.
Rav looked offended. “Hell no. I’m here to help you, not give you Insta platitudes. I was going to say that when you love what you make, that’s inevitably what people respond to the most.”
---
They aimed for casual and landed on cringe when they responded with, “that’s what friends are for.”
Corey blue-screened, which Dee decided was their cue to make way for a paying customer. “See you at five,” they called over their shoulder as they absconded with their thank-you pastry.
Dee berated themself for being weird the entire way back to their car. That’s what friends are for? What were they, some lovable scamp from a 20’s themed Broadway musical about newspaper-selling orphans?
---
“I mean. I’m not as good as you…” they disclaimed, breaking off in dismay when Rav rolled his eyes.
“Okay, first - we’re completely different artists. Second, take the compliment, okay? I was walking around the whole time and you still captured a lot of detail and got a really good likeness.” Dee’s embarrassment only increased when he pulled out his phone and snapped a photo.
“But. You’re not..” They sputtered as they watched him send it to Aspen, only for their cousin to respond immediately with several sparkling heart emojis.
Rav gave them a quelling look. “You’re going to be praised and you’re going to like it.”
It wasn’t exactly possible to slide down in their seat while sitting on a backless stool, but Dee gave it their best shot anyway. “Um. Thank you?”
Snippet from my queer polyamorous romance novel, Community Witch - an unapologetically trope-y, cozy, and relationship-driven romance story about the healing from trauma, found family, and joyful queer relationships. (Looking to publish next year.)
---
Aspen glanced around the space but couldn’t identify anything strange. Neither were they able to sense any obvious malevolence. “Does anything here look out of place to you?”
Rav looked around, then shook his head. “Not here. But mostly it stays back in the studio.” He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door behind the register. “Which is back here.”
Aspen, who had hung out with a lot of artists in university, had expected chaos and mess. They were surprised to instead see a studio that was so immaculate and neatly organized that it barely looked as if it were in use. Even more surprising was Rav’s sudden inarticulate cry of anguish as he strode over to a painting in progress on an easel. “I wasn’t done with that!” he yelled in frustration at the ceiling.
“I take it something was moved?” Aspen asked mildly from the doorway.
“It put my paints away! And the brushes I was using!” Rav gestured in frustration at the large unit of pull-out drawers. “I left out the colors I was using so I’d be able to match them!”
“And… the ghost put them away?”
Rav held up a finger, clearly mistaking their confusion for skepticism. “I know this sounds crazy, but look.” He opened one of the drawers and started tossing tubes of paint on the floor.
Not more than a second later, the tubes lifted themselves off the floor and floated back into the drawer, which then slammed shut. Aspen blinked in shock. “Well there’s something I’ve never seen before. You have a poltergeist that cleans!”
Genres
What is a genre?
A genre is a category that your story belongs to based on form, style, or subject matter.
Action/Adventure
Your book belongs to this genre if your characters are on a quest or journey to reach a concrete goal. Take The Lighting Thief by Rick Riordan. The goal is to return the lighting bolt to Zeus before summer solstice, or there will be war.
Fantasy
Your book belongs to this genre if the world in your story has a type of magic system, or includes mythical creatures. Think of Dragons, Centaurs, Pixie dust, et cetera.
Mystery
Your book belongs to this genre if the story centers around a question(Who, What, Where, Why, and How). Think of Criminal Minds, Mondays Not Coming, Lucifer, etc.
Romance
Your book belongs to this genre if your story centers around the romantic relationship of two or more characters. Think of Five Feet Apart, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Love, Simon, etc.
(Keep in mind, your story can belong to more than one genre. There are no limitations.)
If anyone has any questions, or feels as though I’ve left something out, feel free to let me know!
The only kind of sexual tension I have, is with my google doc as my so called this-is-going-to-be-such-a-hit wip lays on the screen with 217 word count.
OMG okay so I’ve just posted a Halloween chapter of my WIP on ao3 and I love it, I was sooo proud of myself because I managed to write a chapter of entire fluff, no angst or anything, although I did end on a cliffhanger of sorts, so you know there’s that but I used the chapter just to establish some more relationships and tto show them all relaxing and having fun this Halloween, it didn’t do much for the plot but I do not care I love this little chapter. Go check it out, “A Poisoned Apple and a Red Rose” on ao3 by LilHan20. OMG okay Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates and Happy Monday to everyone who doesn’t, take care of yourself and drink some water
Reading Update
Hello everyone! I've come to update you all on my book journey!
Most recently finished book:
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, 10/10
Currently Reading:
Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
Next in line:
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
As always, I'm open for book recommendations!
RATING SCALE
~ Created for clarity and reference ~
⭐ - Hated this piece of media, never show it to me again.
⭐⭐ - Disliked this piece of media, has lots of room for improvement, would prefer to not see it again.
⭐⭐⭐ - Purely okay, has room for improvement, no strong feelings one way or the other, might recommend to others.
⭐⭐⭐⭐- Enjoyed this piece of media! Would recommend to others/see again. Minor room for improvement, overall really nice.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - The coveted "perfect" rating (very rare to give out). Truly exceptional work, no critiques to be made. Would 100% recommend and see again.
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The Abyssals Sneak Peak - Katya - 2203
~ Ekaterina ‘Katya’ Petrovna Zhigunova, originally from Earth; Deep Space Biological Systems Engineer, class one licensed; aboard the CosmoExplorer V Mission, en route to the first non-native solar system reached by humanity: tasked with helping to create a sustainable, orbital colony. ~
DISCLAIMER: ALL IMAGES, DRAWINGS, & PHOTOGRAPHY HERE ARE NOT MY OWN. ALL IMAGES WERE FOUND ON PINTEREST AND BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL CREATORS. No profit is being made from the images above, they are simply used to convey the personality/appearance/storyline of my original character.
“you’re a writer, can you explain your process?” yes. first, i panic. then i procrastinate. then, in a fit of productivity at 3 a.m., i create chaos.