#twefa

No worries! Welcome aboard! I have a lot of works and thus a lot of acronyms, so I'm not going to list them all rn. However, the most common ones you will see are:

ASMLP - A Sharper, More Lasting Pain, my sapphic fantasy dark academia novel about two Casters at a magic college and the tragedy that befalls them. This one is currently up for pre-orders ;)

ATHD - Across This Hollow Distance, my gothic fantasy novella inspired by the myth of Eros and Psyche! This one I plan to have out by April of next year.

ABTB - A Bitter-Tasting Blade, my dark fantasy novella about a monster hunter and a monster woman who are forced to work together on an escort mission.

WTSWB - When the Stars Were Brighter, my short story collection that I published! I may also refer to shorts from this collection individually, such as YANTPA (You Are Not This Person Anymore), FANS (Following A Northern Star), TTOCH (The Temple on Cicaro Hill) and WTTV (Within These Twisted Vines)

TWEfA - Those Who Emerge from Ashes, my dark fantasy novel about a Goddess, a runaway, and a Scholar from a cult whose paths all cross thanks to an 800-year old living corpse.

I’m super late for a bunch of tag shit but...

I got tagged by @asablehart, @ejsmagazine, and @nerathul for this so let’s go~!

Rules: Show the last sentence you wrote in your WIP and tag however many people as there are words in the sentence.

That was all it took for Dakota’s stomach to invert itself.

11 words, 11 people.

THOSE WHO EMERGE FROM ASHES, a Novel Intro by @authoralexharvey

GENRE — dark fantasy || adventure 

INSPIRATIONS — Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Madoka Magica, Warbreaker (Brandon Sanderson) 

POV — third person limited, alternating between three characters

TAGS AND TROPES — adventure, fallen gods, friends to lovers, gods as humans, language barriers, lgbtq, magic, queer worldbuilding, rebellion, recovery, reincarnation, religion, slow-burn, time travel, travel

WARNINGS — abuse, animal attacks, cults, mentions of genocide, murder, ptsd, religion and religious abuse, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, trauma (and lots of it), violence

STATUS — draft 8, writing the bare-bones restructure of draft 7

GOAL — ~150k words

THE DETAILS

CHARACTERS

Dakota Locke, a twenty-four-year-old attempting to become a renowned historian. Winds up becoming the Scribe of High Priest Luriel the Seventh and following him around as He tries to bring the gods back.

Maka Willards, a twenty-four-year-old godling who is new to being such a thing. Wants to get away from the Scholars but doesn’t know how—and the curse on her certainly isn’t helping things. After a harrowing event shakes her cathedral, she has her chance.

Katalin Basurto, a twenty-five-year-old Scholar of the Lost. Sharp as a tack and conniving when she has to be. Though she is originally sent as the next Scribe of Luriel, her plans change when she finds someone else has taken her place.

High Priest Luriel the Seventh, an over eight-hundred-year-old Priest. Everyone thinks he killed the old gods, but he only defied them and has taken it upon himself to bring them back at the peril of his own health, which has been rapidly deteriorating.

SUMMARY

Three women find their lives deeply entangled at the hands of an eight hundred year old High Priest as He embarks on what may be an impossible task. Dakota Locke is an aspiring historian with little money and nothing to her name. When her guardian takes her abuse too far, Dakota flees, forsaking the scant chance she has at her dreams. Then she meets a strange woman in the woods who doesn't speak and her life changes forever. Maka Willards is a god. She knows this, no matter what the Scholars of the Lost say. Despite the curse binding her powers, she knows its hold is slipping. After a harrowing event shakes the cathedral she calls home, she abandons it all to find her High Priest herself and take her place among a new era of Gods. The Scholars of the Lost devoutly follow their High Priest as he resurrects the gods, no matter the cost. Unbeknownst to everyone else, they also aim to sway Him to their own shadowed goals. No one knows this truth better than Katalin Basurto. Having trained for years to be the next Scribe, she may finally have her chance when the last Scribe meets his untimely end. For years, she's suffered under the influence of the Scholars. She won't let anyone stand in her way now.

TAGLIST (Ask to be added!)

I fuckin' did it. I hit 30k on TWEfA. I still don't think I'm going to hit 50k, considering there are *checks notes* five days left, but you never know. It'd be cool to hit 40k, even. But no matter what, I hit my actual goal that I set for myself and for that, I am happy.

I also extended the hell out of my writing playlist, bringing it from 25 hours to a respectable 44. I have since made a separate playlist specifically for TWEfA/its (very potential) sequel, which you can find [here]. It is a work in progress and I'm working on slimming down that aforementioned 44-hour playlist into only songs that fit the vibes of TWEfA, but you can check it out regardless if you really feel so inclined and watch it evolve.

Anyway. Let's talk stats!

Words wrote today: 1,518

Total words: 30,502

Excerpt:

When Dakota scanned her memories of the night prior, it was obscured in a black fog. Her tongue was fuzzy in her mouth. Her breath reeked of sickly-sweet fruit. Had she… Had she been drinking? Now that she thought on it, the fuzziest recollection of her guzzling wine came to her. She licked her lips and winced at the sour flavor which still clung to it. She wasn’t normally one to be so reckless. Why had she done so last night, then? Hand over her eyes to try to fight off the growing light in the room, Dakota rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a thud. Pain wracked her in an instant, pinning her in place for several moments. She let out a muffled, “Ow…” against the floor and fought to push herself upright, but her first attempt granted her nothing but wobbling forearms and another brutal kiss with the wood beneath her.  As she tried again to right herself, there came a soft knock at the door in the corner of the room. “Dakota Locke?”

Today, I thought a lot about Persona 2 and time loops and also book structures. No reason. No reason at all.

In other news, I'm 2/3 there for my 30k goal, and a lil less than 50% for NaNo. I may be able to catch up this weekend. Idk.

Anyway, let's talk stats.

Words wrote today: 1,323

Total words: 21,127

Excerpt (tw: discussions of physical abuse):

“I ran away from my… my mom.” Phrasing it that way felt wrong. Audette wasn’t her mother–at least, she wasn’t the person who birthed her, but Dakota didn’t feel like discussing the intimacies of her guardianship to a stranger. Dayan made another short noise. “She the one who hurt you?” “Yes.” “Give as good as you got?” “Not quite.” At last, Dayan turned back towards her. “Well, if you ever see her again, you should.” It was as though they had reached into her chest and cleared the stones within threatening to crush her. With relieved tears, Dakota let out a long, quiet exhale. She had barely told them anything at all, in the grand scheme of things. Still, it was… nice to unburden some of the truth onto someone else. The revelation made her want to cry all the harder, but she took instead to letting out breaths through puckered lips. It was confirmation all the same.

Been tagged in a few of these recently, so finally deciding to do them. Thanks to: @indecentpause, @anoelleart, and @author-a-holmes!

“Read my cards.” Dakota drummed her fingers against the pine wood box, deliberating. She had already considered consulting the cards for herself, after all, but that didn’t mean she should display her talents for free, right? “Okay.” She slid the cover free and undid the ribbon around her cards. “But first, tell me about the scar on your shoulder.”