#cogesque

“Numerous year in the past, Anik Kadam pursue remedy to comfort Ren. I advise him Durga be partial to tiger, but no one can alleviate him. He ask me what can he do? That nighttime, Phet dream two tigers, one pale like moon, one black, night resembling. Durga speak softly my ear. She say only special girl can break curse. Phet know girl is Durga’s favored one. She struggle for tiger. I tell Anik: watch for goddess’ special girl. I give indication—girl alone, brown hair, dark eyes. She be devoted to tiger, and her utterance are powerful like goddess melody. Help tiger be free again. I tell Anik: discover Durga’s favored one and bring to me.”

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (pp. 129-130). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

happy storyday to you as well!! (even though i’m. a few days late, whooops!) & thanks so much!! i’m very proud of it!

i’m always happy to ramble talk about TMQ! :D

The Martyr Queen is the first in a series, currently planned to be about seven books (though this number could change! i am hoping that it will condense a bit, but we’ll see). The series itself, Metanoia, covers the conflict between Death’s Champion and the goddess of Fate! The Martyr Queen sets the stage---

Alinora Mynerva lost her home ten years ago. Since then, she’s been hiding out in her father’s old guild, under an alias, hoping that the people who took her home won’t come looking for her. Unfortunately... they do. Her life disrupted---grandmaster of the guild murdered and her blamed for his death---she prepares once more to flee. Before she can, however, she’s visited by Elaena, Death’s eldest daughter and the first Reaper. She tells Alinora startling news: the man who took her homeland is being manipulated by Fate, who betrayed the gods. Alinora is the only one who can stop her... because she was never meant to exist.

TMQ is currently in its revision stage :)

I’ve been working on TMQ in its current iteration for about three years now. It has, however, gone through a few different forms, and I think in total, it’s been on my mind / in progress for more like six or seven years! Long enough ago that I don’t actually remember the original inspiration D: I do remember that the early version of Alinora’s character was based on my PC in Dragon Age II xD

It’s changed a lot!! One of the few things that has remained the same is the setting---Eldora may have looked a little different at first, but the core aspects (everyone having magic, the World Tree) those are all the same! Ava’s character, too, has remained more or less the same---though she’s not the main character anymore xD Kai’os & Kaltain, the mortal antagonists, have been players since some of the early drafts as well!

The conflict between Fate and Alinora is... pretty new, lol. I only came up with that a few years ago! However, it’s something I’m extremely excited to explore, since it lets me show off some more of the worldbuilding that I wouldn’t get to otherwise :D

Ah, thank you, cog! This is from Roseli’s pov, the first time she and Brianna meet

Blood rushed through Roseli’s ears while she stared at Brianna’s face. How could she be so calm when talking about that? Roseli searched for signs of irony, a joke, anything, and found nothing. 

“Why?” Roseli asked, fighting back tears. “Why did you kill him? You have five seconds to give me a good answer or else i’ll scream. And even God won’t help you if I do.”

Five. Brianna seemed taken back because of her aggresiveness, but not surprised. Four. Roseli knew she wasn’t going to say anything. There was nothing to say, no way Brianna could defend herself. Three. The air filled her lungs, and she looked to the nearest security guard. Two. Brianna seemed to look for the right words to say, but how would she justify killing her own brother? One. Roseli was ready to scream when Brianna finally spoke.

“Because he was going to kill me for this.”

The girl took the relic of time from her pocket and Roseli felt the world crumbling around her.

the rusty quill website describes it as “a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird” which is pretty accurate, although i’d also go and add that it’s Good horror that relies on things other than jump-scares and violence, and features a cast of characters who are unabashedly diverse

also, going into it with some knowledge of the fanbase is kinda odd, as it goes from “what do you mean there’s a plot and also characters?” and evolves into “if anything happens to these characters i WILL cry” (and many things happen to them all the time) and it’s an altogether wild experience. can’t fathom going into the show thinking it’s just an anthology and then realizing “hey wtf there’s a plot and also characters”

I put together the Goddess Cycle crew in Picrew! They were so much fun to make! Clockwise from the top left, we have:

Eshe: Avid outdoors person and the Goddess of Order, who’d much rather not be as it’s slowly tearing away her humanity. Less fun than it sounds.

Laurelin: [Technical] criminal, who’s sworn vengeance against the Order Goddess - and used to be a blacksmith, though not so much anymore.

Zaire: The Righteous Goddess, who’s very tired of having to enforce that and wants everybody to leave her alone.

Nyssa: Steward of Order and never not cheerful - also has the tackiest best outfit of the entire cast.

Sunset Orange: Your personal least favourite character in your wipThomas Cunningham, due to being a bastard and not even the fun kind.

Forest Green: What’s your favourite genre to write?I really like urban fantasy, or like.... urban-fantasy-to-the-left-with-seasonings-of-other-genres. I like writing worlds where impossible things are possible, but it’s still close enough to our world to easily imagine yourself in it.Thank you for the ask!! :D