#innocuum

innocuum: a series of snapshots

a wip introduction. of my camp nanowrimo project. yeah. 

if you like 

a trans main character

feeling confused

dark personal themes 

a tragic backstory even the reader has to be a level four friend to unlock

the gays 

borderline love at first sight 

disjointed story telling 

you might like innocuum!

Excerpt: 

“Lonely?” he asks, the slightest tip of a smile curling from his mouth. He hasn’t smiled in days, he doesn’t think. It doesn’t matter. The boy shrugs again. 

“Lonely,” he agrees. “What’s your name?” The blond hair is wet enough to look an almost sandy brown, curling around the boy’s ears. He doesn’t know why he wants to touch it, find out what it feels like. 

He considers it for a moment, rolling it over in his head. What’s his name? Who is he today? Does it matter? 

“Harley,” he answers, “My name is Harley.”

Taglist: 

K&N: The Book of Lionel 

You can find the introduction here, but it’s also important to note that The Book of Lionel is the first in a four book series - Knights and Novellas. This includes The Book of Lionel, The Book of Eoin, The Book of Aniela and The Book of Pandara. 

Resembling the Stars

I’ve actually never done an introduction for Resembling the Stars. It does, however, have a section on my WIP page. If there’s an interest in me posting an introductory post for RtS, I definitely will. Resembling the Stars is the first in a duology, the second part of which is called Lost in the Universe and it centers around Rafael (the main character of Resembling the Stars)’s boss, Nathaniel Sebastian Harrington. The series in whole is called In the way of Celestial Bodies. 

Letters to Emma 

Letters to Emma isn’t a book, but rather a short story, and you can find the introduction here. It’s epistolary and intentionally off-putting, as well as already entirely planned. 

GoH: Hyacinth Rising 

The Glory of Hyacinth! Hyacinth Rising is the first book in a five book series (The Glory of Hyacinth), which also has a counterpart duology called The Web of Laceleaf, which serves as a prequel and gives a backstory for the main character Ellie’s Aunt Jillian. Hyacinth Rising is an urban fantasy mystery-adventure during which Aunt Jillian is missing, and you can find the official introduction here and the comic sans powerpoint presentation here. 

Wild Bones

Set in the same universe as Knights and Novellas - a world called Ambipacia - Wild Bones is the lesbian high fantasy revolution story you’ve been waiting for. There’s a mild, tepid introduction post right here, but if there’s hunger for a fleshed out intro, I will certainly provide. 

Innocuum: A Series of Snapshots

Realistic fiction that is meant to hurt, you can find the introduction to Innocuum here. It’s from the point of view of Harley Austin, a trans guy with a chip on his shoulder and a past that he doesn’t really talk about. The only other character that features in nearly every chapter is Thomas Sparks, his newfound best friend and confusing love interest. 

The Town That Takes Everything 

You can find the official introduction for TTTTE right here, and the comic sans powerpoint presentation right here. It’s an angst garbage fire featuring ghosts, themes of lost youth and the Gays, so it’s exactly up my alley. 

There’s Something Out There

One of my two dalliances into the land of science fiction, There’s Something Out There is an alien discovery roadtrip story that has an introduction right here. 

The Ersatz Girl 

The second of our science fiction picks! An unnamed narrator has been weaving stories for their entire life - but they’re only just now figuring that out. The children of the city’s poor were turned into power packs for their creativity, and the main character is among them. They’ve been living stories since they were three years old, nothing real, nothing with anyone outside of their head, but the world is starting to break. The characters are breaking out. The narrator doesn’t know if they want out, though, not when the love of their life is someone that only lives inside their head. There is no introduction for this yet, but there could be if asked for!

Izzy Fahey and the Village of Doors 

A fourteen book series following young Izzy Fahey, this series has it all. It has magical creatures, it has different universes, it has historical fiction, found family, familial love, sibling bonds, romantic love and loss, maturation and growing up. An introduction to this series has not happened thus far, but it can be arranged. 

Fundamentals

Fundamentals is, at best, complicated. With seven POV characters, it’s intentionally confusing, frustrating, and strange. It’s a heist story. The “main” character is Barra MacKenna, whose species isn’t revealed until most of his story is told, Mikhailo “Hail” Rahama, a vampire, Jay Juarez, a werewolf, Saxon Warner, a Shellycoat, Kai Paoa, a witch, Mariana Meridan, a sylph, and Jiro Sasaki, a kitsune. No intro has happened for the supernatural heist story, but if y’all want one, sure. 

retellings, or the tales that haven't been told

A book of short stories, retellings is a collection of gay versions of all of your favorite stories, and some stories that fit the vibe but are completely original. An orphan falls in love with a werewolf. Cinderella finds herself charmed by a faerie. Rapunzel stays in her tower waiting for the Black Lady of Bradley Woods. The Snow Maiden falls for the Spring Beauty. The Wizard King’s heart is stolen by a clever peasant. Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga keep each other safe. Queen Zurline of Wood Nymphs and her many meetings with the Fae. Jack Frost is courted by the spirit of Summer. If anyone wants a real intro to this, I’ll make one.  

Don’t Write The Ending; 

An epistolary novel centered around Mina Angliotti, the keyboardist of a small time band in the town of Mount Airy, North Carolina, the letters are penned by Jess Callahan, the drummer for the same band that’s in love with her. When the band was in a car accident and Mina went into a coma, Jess started writing letters to cope. If an intro to this is wanted, I’ll make one. 

Harlequin Series: Western Alphabetical 

So, Harlequin is looking for LGBT works. Ya boi can write a western. The first book in the series (which are all unrelated) is called An Ace-High Angelica, in which one cowgirl with a speckled past and a bit of an attitude problem meets the sheriff's daughter and has to choose between her life and her love. An introduction could be a thing if people want that? 

Tag Lists: (ask to be added to any or all if my writing strikes your fancy!)

Harley

Harley - He becomes Harley on day 1. He becomes Harley when asked for a name that doesn't have consequences in the skin that wears it and he gives the name Harley that it's not been paid for in blood, like it hasn't always been something he held behind his teeth. He gives Harley to Thomas and it feels like receiving something instead. He doesn't know how he'll ever thank Thomas for that.

Michael - He chooses Michael on day 32. When he and Thomas are collecting flowers in the marsh and Thomas says his full name to the faeries that don't exist on the bankline, Harley wants to follow and say his own. He chooses an angel that has never chosen him, but he remembers his grandmother's crepe skin fingers on his wrist, telling him about the angels that she had known in her life, telling him about her Michael, and how she could only hope her little one could find a man like him someday. He names himself after his grandfather, but also after his grandmother, also after his aunts and his uncles and all of the people in his life who will never know that he is Harley, and maybe they wouldn't have taken it well, but they're still his. They're still family.

Austin - He's always been an Austin. He has not always known what that meant. When he was small, being an Austin was a point of pride, his father's stone hands on his shoulders, lifting him up to put him onto his father's own shoulders so he could see above the sky. When things got more difficult at home, when the family collapsed and both of his parents found their hope down at the bottom of a bottle, Austin was a point of contention. Is your family really your family if they don't take care of you? If sometimes, it feels like they don't love you? Austin is just a word he says now, a period at the end of his sentence. He doesn't always know what it means.

Harley Michael Austin is a spun glass firecracker, the original glass canon, he does not know how to protect himself instead of lashing out at everyone else. He is fiendfyre, honest and horrible destruction, but only because he doesn't know how to be anything else.

Thomas

Thomas - When his mother decided to call him Thomas, it was after a father that no longer exists in Thomas's life. His father was always Tom, never Thomas or Tommy or Tim or anything else, just Tom, so Thomas is Thomas and sometimes his mom calls him Tommy, but that's it. He's never, never Tom. Thomas has two meanings: twin, and leader. Thomas has never wanted to be either.

Hayden - Hayden has always been his favorite part about his name. It's soft, sweet, kinder than Thomas knows how to be, he thinks, kinder than anything he can put his hands to without breaking apart. Hayden. It's the parts of him that have never been touched by the rougher things he's seen, and Hayden is who Thomas could be if maybe, maybe he hadn't been touched by those things either. Thomas Hayden. Maybe one day.

Sparks - His mother's surname. Thomas changed his last name when he was fourteen, didn't want to be connected to his father like that anymore, didn't want to be someone that he wasn't, just wanted to be his mother's son and his sister's brother and exactly what everyone wanted from him.

Thomas Hayden Sparks is a weaponless peacekeeper, the safety of an unloaded gun. He will protect and protect and protect until he runs himself ragged, and he just wants to spare everyone else the trauma of knowing that he was working very hard at all.

Taglist 

innocuum exists in summer in Georgia so the idea of them throwing snowballs at each other really has me 🥺🥺

"Don’t you dare throw that snowba-, goddammit!” Harley scrunches his nose at Thomas, snow falling from the curls of his hair. Fucking Thomas with his fucking snowballs and his cute laugh. Instead of just throwing one back, Harley grabs a fistfull of snow and runs at the other boy, yelling at the top of his lungs. Thomas laughs and hauls him off of the ground easily, completely uncaring of the snow that immediately goes down the back of his shirt. He’s too fucking calm all the time. 

“I’ve got you now, Harls,” Thomas says, hoisting Harley onto his shoulder, and Harley rolls his eyes. He hates how much he doesn’t hate Thomas Sparks sometimes. 

innocuum taglist: 

this is an incomplete list featuring only the wips on my wip page

strange and elegant

appeals to my sense of dramatics 

appeals to my need for things to be Dark, but hopeful 

i’ve never written dark academia-adjacent shit before 

hits me in my shakespearean bone 

the book of lionel 

appeals to my Adventurous Bullshit 

i get to write Royals and that fucks 

main character is chaotic stupid and i would die for him 

it’s about the PINING 

women,,,

hyacinth rising 

ellie could kill a man with a look and i love him 

hazel,,,

found family bitch 

a glorified missing persons case

urban fantasy,,, 

some of the easiest writing i’ve ever done

innocuum: a series of snapshots 

it’s about the THERAPY

appeals to the depressed, trans, lonely person in me 

the Romance:tm: reminds me of myself and my boyfriend and that’s pretty baller 

Soft 

These are from innocuum: a series of snapshots because strange and elegant doesn’t have much written for it yet. Because you sent four roses, and there are twelve chapters of innocuum so far, here’s quotes from chapters 3, 6, 9 and 12. 

🌹: “Puzzle pieces,” he says, “are much, much simpler than a giant death machine that hurtles down the road at killing speeds.”

🌹:  “Hey!” Thomas squeals, laughter marking his tone as he lifts the hot bag off of his crotch. Harley cackles and pulls out of the parking lot, heading for the place that feels much more like home than the one they visited this morning.

🌹:  “Hi, Harley. It’s good to meet you, kiddo. You always were a car kinda guy, weren’t you?” his father teases him.

He can’t look at Thomas when Thomas is already looking at him. He doesn’t know how to make eye contact, it’s too hard and he’s too much and not enough all at once and he looks away, looks out at the field behind Thomas’s house that has become more familiar than Harley’s own bedroom, he doesn’t look at Thomas.