2nd newsletter, on the 2nd day, of the 2nd month
with tons of pictures
Since I posted a story so recently, I wanted to let at least a few days before this update. I might do this Xth month-Xth day thing going forward.
ME, MYSELF & I.
This newsletter has caught me in a bit of a limbo when it comes to my professional life. Basically, I’m waiting to hear back from people: tutors that will (hopefully) help me prepare in the long-term for the job I want, languages courses I signed up for, a few grants I solicited for my work that I hope to obtain, my university to send me my damn certificates… depending on other people and institutions and their goodwill and judgement (and worse, their bureocracy) isn’t exactly my favourite thing in the world LOL.
Since all of that is in progress, I at least could take some free time before my schedule becomes somehow even more eclectic and intense… and I obviously used it to read and write. I also ended up going to the movies three times, all to watch films I didn’t particularly care to just to spend time with friends and family. None of them were anything I would’ve chosen to watch, but I got a laugh and a good dinner out of the experience every time, so there’s that.
(If you’re curious, the films were (1) Wonka - childish but not as soulless as most remakes, so if only because my expectations were below ground, it didn’t end up being as terrible an experience as it could’ve been; (2) Anyone But You - a modern times romantic comedy that has the nerve to say it’s based on Much Ado About Nothing and totally botches it; and (3) The Three Musketeers II: Milady - BORING. Not enough Milady)
Once everything kickstarts it’ll be a bit of a frenzy, but I hope I can I’ll still carve out just a little time for my passions.
WRITING WOES
Last month I focused on “Underground Elysium” and on the teaser I published just a few days ago about its two central characters.
It was ultimately rewarding, if at times a bit frustrating due to my half-atrophied writing muscles. The first part practically flowed out of my fingers in one single evening, I had it so clear in my mind. For the third and last part, I already had some of it written from years ago, and it was a matter of updating it according to how the story had evolved and of going deeper. The second part was an absolute pain to get through. I kept butting my head against it.
[ID: picture of a black model wearing a white dress. It’s sleeveless and made of strings of pearls sewn over a white see-through cloth.]
Correlation is not causation, but seeing pictures of this dress in tumblr, which I immediately took as inspiration for Lucretia’s election night attire, seems to have helped! The descriptions seemed to click better afterwards.
For her hair I imagined something like this (with the added white scarab jewels as decoration), although I didn’t find the reference until a couple days ago where I was looking for yet more hairstyle-inspiration (for both of us xD).
[ID: young black woman looking side-ways at the camera. Her hair is styled in a number of braids that draw the hair to the back into a low braided bun, with thin threads lacing some of the braids together.]
An aside: about halfway through the month I ended up making some picrews for my OCs, Lucretia among them, for a challenge over dreamwidth (where you guys can find me with more regularity than you’d do here, if you’re interested). After that I decided to make one for Dana as well, so here they are!
[ID: two picrews. The first one shows a black woman with ashen skin and a youthful appearance. She has red eyes and painted red lips, and her hair is black, long, in relaxed waves. She's wearing white, and she has a silver sun crown adoring her head, as well as a light golden moon behind it, and a paper with faded writing in the background. The second one shows a pale, young white woman with freckles over her cheeks and the bridge of her knows. She has red eyes in spiral shape, and very dark red, short curly hair falling over her forehead and ears, around her face. Her lips are painted dark red, and she wears two fangs as earrings and a white half moon as necklace, as well as a blue dress that shows off her shoulders. Her background is an old ocre paper, and her head is framed by the shape of golden arrows coming out of it in a circle.]
Now that the short “prequel” is done, I will continue to work primarily on “Underground Elysium”.
And for when I, inevitably, need to switch gears for a moment (if only to trick my brain into coming back to Elysium with more enthusiasm), I’ve also been thinking about retouching an old short story of mine. Its title is “Petal Decay”, and it takes place in a larger, more involved secondary world called Màthair, that I want to eventually develop in a longer series.
In said world I decided to go all out when I came up with my own magical races, and this story focuses on two of them: the Mirou (also called nymphs or blooms), and the Akulli (also called spectres or invaders).
[ID: The background of the image appears coarse, like an old book page, in a light maroon colour. On the top left and bottom right courners there are small, white vines and flowers as decoration. On the left there's a picture of the dark silouette of a young woman with branches and flowers growing in her head. The image is titled "mirou / nymphs / blooms", and underneath there's information about the species:
"Of humanoid form in their younger stages, the Mirou are a strange evolution of plant life. Their skin is as sturdy as wood and their hair is made out of flowers. As they mature, which they do at a slow pace, they reach the heigh and shape of a sequoia and lose their range of movement. Their eyes are always a golden tone, a reflection of the sap in their veins.
Of lively and idle nature, they have a tendency towards disorder, hedonism, and ambiguity. The family structure is non-existent among them, as they are raised by the community, and social norms develop accordingly.
They possess what’s been referred to as “live-bringing” capabilities. They can accelerate the growth of other plants and, depending on their age and innate talent, heal a variety of physical maladies. Their human derivatives have reached similar levels of healing abilities, but only by taking the damage onto themselves.
Of course, their most notable trait is their hearts. This manual doesn’t intend to get poetic now: the aforementioned organs are frozen stones of pure, inert lava that can turn volatile upon contact with the air. The funeral rites for the Mirou are an extremely dangerous affair only performed by those trained for decades in the matter."]
[ID: The background of the image appears coarse, like an old book page, in a light maroon colour. On the top left and bottom right courners there are small, white vines and flowers as decoration. On the left there's a picture of a humanoid creature with large horns, covered in a flimsy veil, over a black background. The image is titled "akulli / spectres / invaders", and underneath there's information about the species:
"In their physical form they are on average twice the size of a human, with a similar bipedal shape, completely sapped of all colour. They stand on hooves and possess large, deadly horns, and clear white eyes. Their body temperature is so low that prolonged physical contact will give any hot-blooded creature frostbite.
Their social structure is notoriously rigid and vertical. There are remnants of monarchy among them; albeit with notably less power than they enjoyed in the past, a blow to the chief of state can still be catastrophic.
Their biggest advantage is their ability to turn immaterial. In that form they have no noticeable shape, and in their natural environment they turn invisible to the eye. They’re just as chilly in this form. Human derivatives of this species have the ability to turn intangible; an ability that takes time to control properly and safely.
In this form, which some argue is their purest, most natural state, they can make a home out and take control of other creatures’ bodies. It appears to be a preventable invasion if you possess the strength of will and the fortitude to resist it. Those who’ve had the misfortune of suffering this ordeal often suffer lingering side-effects, ranging from complaints about never feeling warm again to frostbite in their internal organs."]
“Petal Decay” is a dark fairy tale about Gyeong, a young Mirou from the fruitful and flowery valley who’s taken to the tundra to enter an arranged marriage with an ice monster as condition for a peace treaty between their species. It’s one of my favourite WIPs, because I get to both go wild with weird descriptions, AND to disect a trope I have much to say about.
I’m not sure of whether I’ll post it here, or get feedback more privately and try my luck getting it published. But either way, I’ll share a small excerpt with you:
In primeval times, long before the apes extended their hands to the sky and walked the world on two feet, a young Mirou named Gyeong found herself an unlucky conscript in a crucial game of chance.
Determined, although embittered, she embraced the turn of fate that had selected her to be the one dragged from the rich and fruitful valley where she’d enjoyed thirty years of childhood and barely twenty more of youthful adulthood, and travelled into the sterile and frozen lands of the spectres to marry the king of her enemies and conquerors.
RECOMMENDATIONS
ONE ANIMATED SHOW: As I remain in my all-things-detective-comics era, I decided it was time to rewatch (and complete my viewing of) “Batman: The Animated Series”. It was a great decision. I’ve described the show as “baby’s first gothic” before, and that can be said for a handful of my favourite childhood shows: “Batman Beyond” (which was, actually, my first foray into the world of DC), “Gargoyles”, and “Courage, the Cowardly Dog”. I’m still on the first season, and loving the style of the show in every sense of the word. If you never got around to watch it back when it aired, I definitely encourage you to give it a shot now.
ONE BOOK: “Lud-in-the-Mist” by Hope Mirrlees. This woman has one of the best prose styles I’ve ever encountered. It’s whimsical, vivid, and absolutely beautiful. If I ever get into a writing slump, I know I could fall in love with the craft all over again just by reading one chapter of this book. I can link the summary on goodreads to you, but I can’t lie to you: the plot (which was by no means bad) was merely an excuse for me to read the marvellous way this author weaves words.
ONE SERIES: Last month I recommended the novella “The Sanguine Sorceress”, and I was bummed about how, as my paperback copy hadn’t arrived in the mail yet, I couldn’t share the pictures of the beautiful illustrations accompanying it here. The book arrived during January, and so did a special edition of the first book in Camilla Andrew’s series (TSS is a prequel), so I get to share both with you! I wholeheartedly recommend the series, and not just because of their pretty packaging & interiors.
[ID: three pictures. The first one shows a book opened on its first page, with an illustration on the left. Over a black background, there's a maiden dressed modestly, in white, drawn as in inside a white guilded cage; over her, the red shadow of a butterfly obscures her. The middle is a book cover for "The Sanguine Sorceress", with red vines over a black background that form the shape of a ribcage, with a dagger insearted in the hard encaged in it. On the left there's another illustration of the same woman, now dressed in black, inside black vines, with the same butterfly shadow; this time, she seems to have blood on her mouth.]
[ID: three pictures showing off an edition of “When The Stars Alight” with sprayed edges, alongside an illustration of its two main characters. The border a border of golden roses and some unicorn heraldry. The title is in fancy typography and a pretty blue border surrounds a vignette with a solarite in the midst of descent towards the ocean, joined by other falling stars. She is wearing a galaxy as a dress and forging herself out of it. The author name Camilla Andrew is placed on a heraldic banner. The sprayed edges show the starry night sky over the sea, just like in the cover. The illustration has Laila, the lead character, a light-skinned black woman with blonde hair with roses in her hair, dressed in white and sitting on top of Darius’s lap. He’s her love interest, a man of long curly black hair dressed in black.]
(which are very very pretty, nonetheless!)
COMING SOON…
This month I won’t be publishing original writing, but time permitting, I’ll post another type of bonus content -likely more on the media/story analysis side. Until next time!