#m.excerpt

She poured water from the porcelain pitcher of a mismatching set: some cups painted with irises, some with filigree moulding, and a single clear glass the color of moss. It was this last glass she placed loudly atop the bedside table for Liese’s benefit. The gloves and choker came off first. And as she slipped out of her costume gown, draping it over the footboard of her own bed, Liese grumbled something incomprehensible.  “Pardon?”  “I said your ceiling is spinning.”  “The chamberpot is in the corner if you’re going to be sick.”  Liese shook her head, still staring up with glassy eyes. “I don’t think so.”  She had not yet lit the sconces. If she kept it that way, she wouldn’t have to hide her lips with more rouge. She crossed to the other half of the room and sat at the foot of the bed by Liese’s legs.  “What’s wrong?” she asked.  Shuffling over, as if to make room for her, Liese spoke.  “I do wonder… Why do you stay with me? Are you too kind or too stupid to care? Both, maybe?”  A flash of lightning cleaved through the darkness of the small room, illuminating Liese’s features, like the pale belly of a sturgeon, snatched from the sea into the bright light of the sun. She rubbed her eyes.  Shedding her damp slippers and stockings, she lay herself atop the covers beside Liese. 

with this entry, i just wanted to say that i can't believe it's been over four (and a half) whole actually wtf years since i started writing what would become mordlust. two title changes and three drafts ago...

like.......

those of you who've been following this wip for a while, or have at least seen me talk about it in past posts, know that the idea for mordlust was actually multiple ideas frankenstein-ed together.

the first was an uncompleted short story about three frenemies(??), one of which is slowly turning into a beehive, the second was a semi-completed short story about a group of boarding school boys who were The Worst, and the last was an animal bride retelling with a political twist. it was always a point i fixated on in animal bride fairy tales: did anyone go looking for them? who were they before? were they someone important? and the rest spun off from there.

i can definitely pinpoint character traits and relationships and worldbuilding details from reading these older pieces back, it's really neat, like authorial tree rings. seeing how far mordlust has come, even from it's initial draft that i tried to brute force my way through during nano 2021, i feel like i've definitely grown not only in my craft as a writer, but also as a storyteller.

i haven't properly participated in a word crawl in years at this point, and i'm not a super big fan of sprints, so i haven't had a time to specifically dedicate to getting more words on the page. a lot of it is in between the lines/behind the scenes tweaking to make everything as coherent as possible (which is difficult, since i have to backtrack through like 3 drafts + an outdated outline & somehow make sense of it all 😮‍💨).

for anyone who's made it this far, tysm for reading & ty to all my friends who've uplifted me and my silly little wip for the past four and a half years 🙏💖

1 to 5 tag ;

rules ; follow the prompts (change one if you like) and tell us a little something about your WIP ! answers to the prompts can be in the form of quotes or anything you’d like

one word to describe your WIP ;

moldy (it's been sitting out)

two characters talking in a short excerpt ;

three chapter titles ;

chapter iv - a heart of hellebore

chapter xix - hart's gambit

chapter xxvii - spare the sword, spoil the snare

four tropes featured ;

shapeshifting lover

mirror character

from nobody to nightmare

silk hiding steel

five songs from your WIP playlist ;

i actually don't have a playlist for mordlust, so i'll just list some of the songs i've previously said would best fit its world & characters

the golden compass - alexandre desplat

crows ambushed - joseph trapanese

in stori stif and stronge - daniel hart

bird cage blue and yellow - yaelokre