🤍Rayne🤍

Hi there! I’m Rayne and I love to write fiction. Ask and tag game friendly!

Welcome to The Circus:

In March 2026, I started a new project: a standalone set in 1800s Europe where the poor perform in a circus designed to entertain the rich. It follows Colette de Castillon, a girl born into a rich family sold by her father after he gambles away his life fortune. In The Circus, she meets Valerie Loveday, a girl who’s been there longer than anyone else has ever survived. It follows a desperate fight by a girl who knows she deserves better and a girl who only knows how to survive, not to live, and their ensuing escape… but the longest anyone has ever escaped for was thirteen days.

This story is a romance, focused on themes of learning to love in a broken world and finding light when you only knew darkness. I love these two girls with all my heart, but I will be torturing them beyond what is holy.

So… welcome to The Circus. All is Hell.

tags: #welcome to the circus #colette de castillon #valerie loveday

total word count = 21,000

The Zavaryan trilogy:

Since February 2024 I have been working on a trilogy, with three books entitled The Twelve Blessings, The Twelve Curses, and The Thirteenth Star. At its heart, it is a story about humanity, and four broken children trying to do right in a world that constantly wrongs them. That world is called Zavarya, created by the Twelve Zodiacs, and it’s been breaking long before my characters have been able to get their hands on it… whether to help it or pull it apart further, they’re not quite sure.

This trilogy has stolen my heart because it’s a fusion of all my favourite themes: found family, corruption of power, and the nature of humanity versus the divine. I love to yap about it so please ask me questions if you have any 🫶

tags: #the twelve blessings #the twelve curses #the thirteenth star #parker odysya #roksi swyls #harlyn #zebedav #quincey quetzytav

the twelve blessings = 95,990

the twelve curses = 101,972

the thirteenth star = 66,003

total word count = 263,965

Left for Dead:

In September 2022, I began a standalone book about a dystopian world in which boys are taken to learn to fight to protect the government, who retreated into a house when the apocalypse started, never to be seen again. The main protagonist Levi Ansel earns his status as a guard after thirteen gruelling years, but finds there’s more to the house than what people say, and begins to wonder if the government are hiding secrets rather than protecting their safety.

I unfortunately lost the document to this project in 2023 and only have a couple of printed pages. I don’t usually post about it on tumblr and I’m slightly too heartbroken to go back and rewrite it, but I’m still open to answering questions if anyone has any!

total word count (was) = 82,613

About me!

I’m from England

My favourite animals are dogs and okapis

My favourite colours are pink and purple

I play bass guitar (favourite bass lines to play are Soul to Squeeze by the RHCP, Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N Roses, and Hysteria by Muse)

I adore Ancient history and literature. At any given opportunity I will geek out over the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. Some Greek theatre I’ve read includes Frogs, Bacchae, and the three Theban Plays.

My favourite books are The Grace Year, All for the Game series, Lord of the Flies, Lord of the Rings, Six of Crows, and the Song of Achilles.

My favourite video games are Legend of Zelda, In Stars and Time, Stardew Valley, and Hades.

My favourite music artists are Frank Turner, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace, Paramore, The Lottery Winners, Halestorm, PVRIS, YUNGBLUD, Sleeping With Sirens, Palaye Royale, McFly, All Time Low, Citizen Soldier, Sleep Token, The Rasmus, and Icon for Hire.

Other random things I like include Shoot from the Hip, football, Epic: the musical, and playing board games (favourite is Destinies).

they decide to sleep in separate beds because of the heatwave, but the minute after they both go to bed, roksi texts ‘i miss you’ and harlyn is simultaneously so annoyed and so endeared that she texts back, and neither of them sleep that night, not because of the heat, because they just keep texting each other that they miss each other when they’re just a room away

another day they get into an argument, probably over something petty like a board game, after which harlyn, being the physically stronger one of the two, pulls the classic move of tightening all of the jars in the house so that roksi has to come ask her for help. this plan backfires when roksi instead takes out a power saw to cut open her jar of peanut butter.

their date nights flicker between laying in bed together eating chocolate whilst watching random documentaries on netflix, and taking long drives along the coast at sunset whilst blasting their favourite music

harlyn cooks dinner for them both almost every night (if she’s not cooking they get takeout because roksi cannot be trusted in a kitchen). roksi does all the household repairs, and is also in charge of decorations

harlyn brings roksi snacks and ice cream unprompted throughout the day, and roksi gives harlyn handmade jewellery and art pieces she makes for her

also parker is just at their house more often than not being a third wheel, which makes roksi happy (to parker’s delight) and makes harlyn really annoyed (also to parker’s delight)

hi!! thank you for this! i will happily take this opportunity :D (also sorry that it’s taken me a while to get back to you!)

the first thing that comes to mind to talk about is nolan’s adaptation of the odyssey (which i mayyy have already watched three times in cinema with two more times at least lined up haha). as someone who loves the original epic poems, i’m aware the movie isn’t all that accurate, but i’m all in support of taking artistic liberties and if you can’t tell i absolutely adore this film! that is in part because of the emotion it created for me; i have left the cinema each time shaking, with chills all across my body, and with tears in my eyes

the reason i’m talking about it is because a lot of my trilogy was inspired by the odyssey in some way. i could draw a lot of parallels between the main character and odysseus (the main character’s last name does come from him after all) with how they interact with the gods, feelings of apathy they might explore, their relationships, and overall character arc. obviously none of my content was taken directly from it, but i remember encountering the story for the first time, and this one, the iliad, and the aeneid all resonated with me so much that they really inspire me to tell my own stories about humanity and gods and the relationships between them. exploring the question of what it actually means to be human is one of my main themes in writing, and it is partially inspired by ancient epics such as these :)

i was experiencing a slight motivation drop not that long ago but seeing all these beautiful pieces of art in the world (this movie in particular right now) is really inspiring me to write and tell my own stories again!

my favourite scenes in the movie adaptation are the laestrygonians, opening the gates of troy, and argos / when telemachus recognises odysseus. these are all the moments that have made me the most emotional, too. my aim in life is to one day tell my own story that is as powerful and beautiful as moments like these in the film :)

also, i have not yet written this book, but i have a planned prequel that i know i would enjoy writing in the future, and one of the main characters is called sinon! they’re named after the character from the aeneid, not the odyssey movie, but it was interesting to see a different interpretation of the character in the film

thank you so much for the ask! also i would always be happy to listen to anything you want to yap about! :D

Would you like to yap abt your WIP?

hello!! first of all thank you for the ask, and i’m sorry it’s taken me a while to respond. i would love to yap about it!

right now i’m working on the ending of my trilogy. books 1 and 2 were around 100,000 words each, and this one is currently at 72,000. i’m really loving writing it, although it is a little bit stressful as i’ve never actually written the ending to an entire story before. my first ever book got to about 80,000 words but i ended up abandoning it before finishing and my other projects haven’t gotten anywhere near the end. so although i’m very determined to stick with this one to the end, it’s a little difficult and stressful as despite all the words i’ve written i have not yet learned how to write a good ending!

this ending sequence, from about the 60k word mark to hopefully around the 100k mark, of course has to bring all the loose threads together and answer all the questions that haven’t yet been answered. i feel like i have a really massive task ahead of me, but i’m so determined to do the best job i can of pulling it together. i don’t know how many hours i’ve invested into this project, but all i want is to complete it and step back and know i can be proud of myself for writing something satisfying despite how difficult it might be.

there is a plot twist involving a character who is very close with the main protagonist. i have been setting this up literally since the beginning, as the first word alone this character says is a massive hint towards their true nature. i’ve been dropping hints throughout the whole trilogy, which the main character is blind to because of their love and admiration for this person. the reveal of this character as the villain, which i wrote last week, was literally the hardest but most satisfying thing i’ve ever written, i think. it combined all these different feelings of betrayal and hopelessness and defeat because of all this twisted cruelty they’re now having to comprehend all on their own.

fun fact, my best friend has read the first two books of the trilogy, and we were having a conversation about where all my characters would fit into the DnD alignment charts. she was suggesting this character would be lawful good, and i was just sat there trying not to laugh knowing full well they are chaotic evil. all of the hints about it are there, but i have tried to guide the reader to see this character as the main character sees them, so that when the reveal comes it can be disturbing but also have a feeling of everything falling into place. i am so excited for her to read the last book once it’s done, and i can’t wait to see her reaction to this, because everything she’s said about the character so far suggests i’ve written it in the way i want to :)

aside from this one character twist, the things i’ve been writing recently have been quite hard to write in different ways. my trilogy deals with many themes of grief and loneliness. with time, the main character becomes convinced that the power and magic they wield makes them superior to everyone else, as a way of distancing themself through all the pain they’ve experienced. however there comes a point where they have to accept that they are still human, which is also a painful realisation for them, but all in all throughout the ending i want them to learn to accept their humanity and how being alive truly is a gift.

the main character also has so much love for their closest friends, and for so long they’ve felt unable to express this to them, but (relating to the ending and the villain) their friends are ripped away from them, and all they want is to turn back time and be better towards them. they realise this can’t and won’t happen, though, so they know they have to do all they can to take down the villain and bring back harmony to the world, just to see their friends again. however they’re doing this entirely alone, and it makes them realise just how much they relied on their friends before, which causes them even more grief for throwing it away

this is most of what is in my head right now… i feel like i’ve explained it really badly, but i always do that; i’m much better at explaining what is going on actually in my writing, i promise 🤣

thank you so much for the ask though!! i really appreciate it. i don’t know loads about your own writing but i have loved what i’ve seen about it on here, and i’d be happy to learn more about it if you ever want to share more :)

And, if you do, would you be willing to share…? /nf of course

hii thank you so much for the question! i’m sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to you, life is a little crazy at the moment haha

(i am assuming you mean myths from my stories, so that’s what i’m going to talk about, my bad if i interpreted the question wrong)

i don’t really have any myths, as most of Zavarya stick very intently to the creation story they know, which is generally considered to be accurate history rather than myth. the zodiacs sacrificed their power for human life, which many humans in the modern time consider reason enough to continue honouring them and praying to them, even though they’re no longer in control of what happens. some people rebuke the zodiacs though, claiming humans should be worshipped instead, as they were the ones powerful enough to stay in the lands.

a little story context for those who don’t know: when the zodiacs sacrificed themselves, they all left behind one artefact through which their power could be channeled, intended for parker’s eventual use. however, some humans, known as ‘the traitors’ had access to a spell which could supposedly extract that power for anyone who had the mental and physical strength to withstand it. the dispute between these traitors and the faithful led to Zavarya’s first and only war, of which the faithful won. they destroyed any evidence of the old spell, and so no one in the modern times should know how to recite it

it’s less a myth than a folk-tale (or rather simply a rumour) but as they journey on the quest, parker hears stories of a mysterious cult known as the new falling star, who supposedly know the spell of power. this is a problem because they could potentially steal parker’s power, which makes them highly paranoid and determined to find all the artefacts before anyone else, creating a lot of conflict with their friends, as they become more careless, and insensitive.

this cult shouldn’t really be a problem, because technically no one can prove that they even exist. there’s been no sightings, no evidence, only rumours passed down through history. as far as parker knows, they don’t actually have a reason to be worried.

(it would be such a shame if someone very very close to parker was secretly a member of this cult haha imagine that i could never)

so yeah, an ancient spell, an ancient war, a mysterious cult that may or may not exist, and a whole lot of different people hunting for power are kind of the closest things i have to myths in my stories. hope that was interesting :)

hope you’re having a good day 💙

your requested (half of a) cookie :3

there’s…. surprisingly little filling (the previous one i bought had 60% sticky marshmallow filling, this one only has a few pockets…) :/ but it is still the best fucking chocolate cookie i’ve ever tasted, exactly the right amount of salt, so i at least am still satisfied!

when i try the other one, i’ll update you on the filling situation for it ;)

(sorry if i took your comment too seriously, please know this is sent out of friendship <3)

tagged by the brilliant @cat-esper and the words i’ve been given to use are: wind, laugh, stars, and jump. all these will be taken from draft one of book 3: the thirteenth star

if you want to join in, i’m tagging @purple-dinosaur27 @inedibleparchment @askyaphelion @asterrwritess + open tag for anyone who would like to join. your words will be: believe, run, break, and rain :)

wind:

“I will help you in whatever way I can, saviour.”

I realise then that he’s never actually asked my name. Perhaps I don’t need one anymore. As I’m mulling that over, everyone else falls into a trap into a trap just as silent, and long, and whether it’s more peaceful or less I’ll never know. Fireflies flit and the stars burn. Wind teases the water and the sands yield to my digging fingertips. Everything is dark and golden, like a fireplace, only cold as ash.

laugh:

Something flashes in the corner of my eye. It’s the prayer leader, and he seems to have snapped, running through the flames to the pedestal and The Ram’s artefact. I get there just in time, grabbing his cloak and tugging him back before he can stain it with ashen hands. He yelps, tears streaming through the murk on his face, and I pull his head close to my lips.

“Zodiacs speaking,” I say, and bite back a laugh. “We think you’re all moronic.”

stars:

The smoke plays at my hair, but doesn’t dare touch me anywhere else; it knows my strength, bows to me, yields to me. And when I leave it all behind for the next stretch of my journey, I smile knowing that it will mourn me.

…The whole world should mourn what it’s done to me. But for now, I’ll settle for the sugar of satisfaction that falls from the stars, and the quiet whispers of more they promise.

jump:

My hand goes to Iriz’s shoulder. His eyes flutter open, then confusion pulls the line of his lips like a puppet. He goes to brush his shoulder where the weight is, and hits my hand, and jumps halfway to the ceiling.

“What-?” he splutters.

my plans for the summer aren’t very big, right now i’m trying to stop doomscrolling 10 hours a day and get on with actual hobbies :) artfight helps a lot with that, i’ve been taking walks and writing a bit more, and i’m planning on learning embroidery once i get over the fear of starting something i might not be good at. it’s really hot here too but i move very little and only take walks in the evening, so i’ve been doing relatively okay :)

my writing projects are kind of scrambled? i’ve got i think nearly 30 different projects, all with on average 4 pages of writing before i got distracted, which i visit every once in a while when the fancy strikes me again. i have figured out that stories consisting of loosely connected scenes instead of one big plotline are easier for me to write, so my last few ones have been like that :)

one of my projects is about someone who was punished by an angry god, long ago, to be chained on a rock in the sea for all eternity. the character has been stuck in that punishment for so long their mind is completely scrambled. i’m playing around a lot with where the words are on the page, to show their mental state, kind of like what you’re talking about! another thing i’m working on is about a boy who sees ghosts that torment him, except the story is his diary so he mostly talks about friend problems and it’s never explained what is and isn’t real. they’re both very fun to write :) 

ahh thank you so much for saying that about my writing! it means a lot! i also love the idea you expressed; having the actual word layouts and graphology reflecting the character’s mental state sounds so interesting and clever, i know i’d love to read something like that!

i think the way we write is maybe quite different as i don’t think i could handle having that many projects going at once, but i find it really impressive that you do. i have my trilogy, a standalone novel that i started a while back but haven’t touched in a month or so, a vague idea for a spin-off of the trilogy, then the two ideas i mentioned, and it already feels like too many ideas for me to keep track of 😭

i hope you’re enjoying art fight then! i’m very jealous of artists, i think it’s a really cool thing to be able to do. also if it helps at all, i think embroidery is such a cool thing to do, and i would love to hear about any projects if you were to work on them!

i think it’ll be us and our respective evening walks against the world this summer 😅 any other time is just too hot but it’s still nice to get out and be with nature :)

it’s 12:30AM here so i’m going to bed now, but i loved hearing from you and about your writing! if you ever have anything you want to talk about, i’m here to listen (although i’m not online all the time so responses may occasionally be slow, but i’ll always get back to you eventually :D)

i don’t know if you meant things to talk about in the general sense or the vent sense, but to be honest i don’t really know what to talk about for either? i’m just feeling like i could sink into a ditch right now and no one would notice for 2 days :( now that summer holidays started i realise how isolated i actually am :’)

you can choose a topic if you’d like! the main thing we have in common is writing, and i’m not fully up to date on how your books are going? or something else, or random questions :)

🫂🫂🫂

my books are going well!! i really want to have the trilogy done by the end of the summer. one of my friends read book 1 and 2 and she seemed to really enjoy them and that made me happy! i love writing them so it’s nice to share that enjoyment :)

currently i’m working on some scenes i skipped in the first draft of book 3, and they’re quite hard to write as i’m trying to do so in a way that reflects the character’s mental state as it worsens, to then build the style back up to something healthy again as they heal. for example, using stunted and short sentences as they’re struggling, or focusing only on the negatives they see in the world, whereas when their healing journey begins i will write description in a way that is more vibrant as they can recognise the colour and good in the world around them again. i don’t think i’m describing it very well in this message, but essentially yeah i’m just trying to mirror my writing style with the way the perspective character is feeling. it’s hard but rewarding :)

last week i had a work experience placement at a primary school which was a lot of fun! they ended the week on friday with a massive water fight out on the field, which some of them wanted me to join in with. (i am choosing to believe this means they liked me and wanted to have fun rather than they hated me and wanted to throw wet sponges at me, haha). so they all brought in a sponge for the play, and i didn’t have a sponge so i was kind of defenceless, but some of them offered me theirs for a bit so that i could join in keeping them cool with the water and such. it was a lot of fun and a nice environment; it’s still really hot here right now so i’m kind of missing that :(

do you have any plans for the summer? unfortunately mine will almost all be revision for school, but writing as well. i’ve been struggling a bit with motivation recently, and found myself doomscrolling and the like more and more often, but i’ve promised myself i’m going to try and work on that and become a little more productive, even though it’s hard

i don’t really have much else going on in my life right now. school and writing are a lot of it, but for as long as i can remind myself that both are going well then it remains rewarding to put the effort in, i suppose!

i did have a couple ideas for new stories for once i’m done with my current projects; one being a time loop between three people whose attempt at saving the world reveals that the actions of their past selves that caused the world to start falling apart in the first place. and another idea where it’s six people trapped in a quarantined town during the apocalypse and it seems like the government has forgotten to come and help them, so they decide they have to venture outside for the first time in years to discover what is actually going on in the world they’ve been isolated from

again these weren’t the best descriptions of these ideas, the heat has kind of melted my brain into a puddle of goo at the moment and i’m struggling to express everything properly 😂😭i hope it made some semblance of sense, at least?

I did a few doodles and thought I’d share

AND I DO LOVE QUINCEY AND LILLIAN I WILL DRAW THEM MORE OMG

AHHHH JULIAN OMG i love these so so much

i want to see them meet so badly now, they have such a chaotic but amazing energy as a group. i love your children so much and i hope they’re being treated well and never suffer again a day in their life

plus i love these way you draw faces in particular, they’re so emotive and cool, it’s really impressive to me how you can express that

- 14 yrs old Elena would hate Parker, but 16 yrs old Elena would love them

- The other two would think Parker is cool

- They are all equally terrified of Harlyn

- Takka is also very intrigued by Harlyn (it’s a crush)

- Quincey and Lillian would get along well

- They all love Quincey

- They would love Roksi, but since she is close to Harlyn, they are equally wary of her

- They admire Roksi’s style from afar

Ok that’s all have a nice day or night :)

ahh i love this, i will offer my input too

parker could definitely bond with 16 year old elena, i think they have a lot in common with their character arcs and personalities. i’m imagining them just leaving whatever event it is that leads to them meeting and sitting outside together, not necessarily talking, but existing together with a mutual understanding

parker would be kind of wary of lillian as they’re always suspicious of kind people at first, but as soon as they learn that she likes mangoes (i swear i remember you mentioning this i hope i’m not misremembering) they would start to really like her as mangoes are their favourite food

harlyn, meanwhile, is always drawn to kind people and is very protective of them so she would act like a mean guard dog for lillian but be very nice to her; still, it’s understandable they’re all scared of her lol

harlyn would judge the life out of takka but also be very amused by it

YES QUINCEY AND LILLIAN WOULD BE BESTIES I WANT TO SEE THIS NOW AN ARTIST NEEDS TO MAKE THIS AHHH

roksi would be equally obsessed with all of them i fear, your children will never know peace again because that girl will not leave them alone. my other three are exasperated by her but it does lead to them warming up to yours a bit more too. everyone say thank you roksi :)

i love this so much, i want our children to meet now it would be so chaotic but so amazing