For real, doe

Darien is the first vampire he’s ever seen. He had no idea they would be so beautiful. Daciana and Areynn had always warned him away from them, the clans in the city didn’t get along with wolves, after all.

But he couldn’t help it. He was curious.

Darien Taylor was by far the most beautiful man he had ever laid eyes on. He had long silver hair and pale greyish skin that made him look godlike. Faizeel supposed that was the point of vampires. To look pretty so they could entice their prey to come to them.

Werewolves were different. At least, in Faizeel’s experience. Instead of preying on people they generally preferred animals. Or at least he did when he was hunting. He hadn’t been a wolf long enough to consider humans prey just yet.

Hell, four months ago he was human himself. He wouldn’t want to be eaten by some giant hell beast. So he would stick to moose for now.

“Greetings,” a man’s voice said from beside him. It was low and filled with amusement.

Faizeel nearly jumped out of his skin. When had Darien gotten beside him?

“For a wolf you’re not very observant,” Darien said.

“Wh-what?” Faizeel stammered, completely caught off guard.

Darien rested his hand on the wall beside Faizeel’s face and leaned into him. His eyes were bright red with a hint of black around the iris. “What brings you out here, wolf?” Darien looked him up and down, gaze lingering on his throat a little too long.

“Isn’t your kind nocturnal?” His gaze flicked back up from Fai’s throat to meet his eyes. He bit his lip, a hint of fang poking out.

“I could say the same thing about your kind, bat.” Fai snarled.

Darien straightened up and flashed him an easy smile. “Bat!” He guffawed, almost taken aback. “I suppose I should have expected that.”

Faizeel narrowed his eyes at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret though, wolf,” Darien said, exposing his fangs, “Vampires don’t actually turn into bats. Or, at least not all species of vampires. Most turn into mist or wind or something equally as useless. Teleporting would have been so much easier.” He looked wistful.

“There’s more than one species of vampire?” Faizeel asked.

Darien chuckled. “Of course. There are also multiple species of werewolves. Different species evolve in different ways.”

Faizeel hadn’t thought of it that way. Daciana and Areynn had told him there were other wolves out there that were different from them, but he just thought it had to do with what they ate. He never thought there could be an evolutionary thing.

“Your kind of werewolf is severely allergic to both silver and wolfsbane,” Darien continued, “There are species out there immune to both of those with a severe allergy to gold or even the sun depending.”

“I thought a sun allergy was a vampire thing.” Fai said.

Darien smirked at this. “I suppose that is an issue for some vampires, but.” he paused to gesture to the sun high in the sky, “Not all of them.” His gaze settled back on Fai before he continued in a low voice, “You have much to learn, pup.”

Faizeel felt goosebumps erupt on his skin. No one other than Daciana and Areynn had ever called him that before. Something about the way Darien said it made his stomach clench and head rise up in his cheeks.

“You should run along home now,” Darien said, flashing his fangs again, his eyes darting to Faizeel’s throat.

Faizeel’s heart pounded in his chest. Logically he knew he should leave. Vampires and werewolves didn’t mix. He had learned that from TV and books even before he was part of this world. Another part of him desperately wanted to know the feeling of Darien sinking his teeth deep into his neck and draining him dry.

“Do vampires have hypnosis?” Faizeel asked, biting the inside of his cheek, fighting against whatever urge Darien seemed to be pushing on him.

The vampire took in a deep breath, leaning closer. His lips brushed against the shell of Faizeel’s ear. He stroked his fingers over Fai’s arm from his elbow all the way down to his wrist and Fai shivered.

“I wasn’t going to show you this,” Lucian said the moment she and Marjorie had come home from dinner with her parents after graduation, “but considering you managed to piss off the entire Watkins clan, I feel like I sort of have to at this point.”

Marjorie looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “Um, okay. But I’m really exhausted after today and whatever so can it wait until I’ve slept?”

Lucian crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “No.”

Marjorie let her head fall back and she groaned. “Lucian, please.”

“It won’t take long and I’ll sleep better knowing you know and everything is right with the world because holy shit has it been hard not to tell you.”

Marjorie groaned again. “Fine, but can we at least have coffee?”

“We’ll buy some on the way, my treat.”

“On the way?” Marjorie asked, “You mean we have to leave again? I don’t think either of us is okay enough to drive.”

“I’m fine.”

Marjorie eyed her suspiciously.

“What? I am.”

“Fine, whatever, but if we die because you fall asleep at the wheel I’m going to come back from the dead and kill you. I don’t care if it isn’t possible. I’ll make it possible.”

“How do you know it’s not already possible?” Lucian said quietly with a wan smile.

*

Lucian drives them to a graveyard. It’s thick with trees and shadows and almost impossible to see from the road.

Marjorie looks absolutely pissed. “A graveyard?” Her voice is almost shrill, hands clenching and unclenching by her sides as if she isn’t sure whether she should punch Lucian or not.

“Yep,” Lucian said, “a graveyard.” She parked the car. “Come on.”

Marjorie complained, but she followed anyways. She was too tired to argue.

Lucian led her through a thicket of trees to a closed off area at the back of the cemetery. There were only a few gravestones. A few giant concrete angels, a few bronze plaques on the ground, with the rest of the space made up by a mausoleum.

“Why are we here?” Marjorie asked. She looked exhausted and annoyed. After the week she’s had, Lucian can’t really blame her.

“I’m going to show you a different kind of graveyard,” Lucian said, pulling a small black skeleton key out of her pocket.

“Please tell me you’re not going to unlock that mausoleum,” Marjorie deadpanned.

“No,” Lucian says, offering the key to Marjorie, “this is for you.”

Marjorie stared at her blankly. “Why?”

“Just take it,” she said, offering the key more insistently.

Marjorie rolled her eyes. “If I take it, can we leave?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.”

Marjorie takes the key and the entire world transforms around her.

In her hand the key morphs from the simple black skeleton key to an enormous golden sword. The cemetery was no longer empty. Ghosts floated all around them, friendly smiles on their faces.

“Huh. A sword,” Lucian said at the same time Marjorie flung it onto the ground.

“What. The. Fuck!” Marjorie shrieked.

Suzuka Chiba was late making it home. She’d gone to town that morning to sell a few of their unwanted items for extra money. This had now become her job since her eldest sister, Yuki Chiba was married off last year.

Suzuka was eleven this year, which meant she was ready and willing to take on more responsibility. Even though she was currently late.

The sun was nearly set over the horizon only a sliver of red remained where it burning orb used to be. Suzuka picked up the pace, running down the enormous hill she’d just climbed up.

The ocean to the left of her roared and beat the cliffs, some of the spray shooting up into the air and raining down on her. The satchel of old items she held, the ones she couldn’t sell at the market, banged against her hip and rattled.

She was still too far from home.

After dark, the hills were nothing short of terrifying. Shadowy creatures came out and hunted the grounds for anything left outside in the dark. Suzuka had never seen any of them up close, but she didn’t need to. She’d seen the way they roamed the night and she was desperate to stay away from them.

However, she’d been foolish. Instead of returning to her home earlier, she’d been stuck in the market, desperate to sell everything she could. Yuki had been so much better at this and Suzuka didn’t want to disappoint her family by bringing back a nearly full satchel of things she couldn’t sell.

Now, though, her pride would be her undoing.

Her father had always warned her that no one was good at anything they’d just begun to do, but she was sure she would be better than this. She’d been so much better at all of her old chores. Now, she felt like a failure and, of course, her family wouldn’t say that outright, but when there was no way for them to buy extra food from their neighbors and they had to eat eggs and one of their own chickens, her failure would be there right in front of her.

She hung her head and pushed herself to run faster, lest the shadows gobble her up. Yuki never would have done something like this. She was always prompt, showing up to their home with an empty satchel and plenty of food or money for their family to survive.

Faizeel had never been so acutely aware of the moon before. He couldn’t stop staring at it, watching as it cycled through from full, to waning, to quarter, crescent, new. Each day he felt anticipation and excitement welling up inside of him. The closer he got to the next full moon, the more excitement he felt.

He stood by his bedroom window, leaning out into the pale moonlight where the waxing moon lit the dying grass of his uncle’s back garden. He felt exhilarated, a wave of excitement bubbling up inside of him and escaping as laughter.

On the day of the actual full moon, he felt euphoric; manic. He imagined his tan skin glittering in the sun and on more than one occasion he could have sworn his brown eyes flashed golden in the mirror. He felt stronger than he could ever remember feeling and more awake, more alert.

Faizeel had never really thought of himself as all that charming or attractive. He mostly kept to himself and he preferred to observe rather than socialize. Now he felt like he could do anything, talk to anyone. People smiled at him on the street, sometimes even blushing and looking away when he winked at them. He couldn’t remember any days ever being like this.

As the sun slipped down over the horizon, though, his alertness turned to something else. His skin felt tight, almost suffocating. His eyesight blurred and burned. The darker it got, the more visible the moon, the worse his symptoms became. He felt like he had waited an eternity for this moon, but now it was too much.

He withdrew into himself again, busying himself at work until his shift ended. It was still light outside when he walked out of the store and followed the familiar path home. He didn’t live far, a short trek through the woods. The path was illuminated by the moon, which hung fat and round in the sky. The sight of it was almost agony, the moonlight washing over him so brightly he could taste it.

He had barely stumbled into the woods, his skin on fire when he heard voices. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they sounded close.

He was hunched over a boulder sticking out from the ground, low groaning noises escaping his mouth. A long thick line of bloody spittle dripped from his mouth.

“The first one is always the worst.” a feminine voice said from somewhere beside him.

“It’ll be over soon,” a different voice said, she sounded louder, closer to his ear. He flinched.

Beneath his skin, his bones shifted and broke and he cried out in alarm.

“We would have been here sooner,” the first voice said, “but we had a hard time finding you, after…” He focussed on her words, trying to keep himself tethered to it. There was something about her that seemed so important.

“Also some nosy vampires we needed to evade,” the other voice said. Her tone was harsh, barking.

He had no idea what she was talking about. There was no such thing as vampires.

Fai bit his tongue to keep from screaming when his bones shifted again and he felt like he was growing. At some point he did start screaming, he thinks. Though it came out as more of a snarl, a growl, and eventually a loud eerie howl.

“Good,” the important feminine voice said, “you did good.”

Fai panted, tilting his head back and looking at the moon. He howled again, the same euphoria from earlier prickling on his skin, the fur on the back of his neck standing straight up.

1. Don’t Waste Your Reader’s Time

Dialogue is one of the most important elements to writing a story. Conversation between your characters can make or break a scene. Dialogue should never be to clunky or long-winded. Every line of dialogue needs to be presented with purpose. It needs to further your story or develop your characters.

Don’t write scenes that lead to nowhere. Dialogue that dead ends without supporting your character’s attitudes or your plot alienates your reader. It is perfectly acceptable to write stupid shit so long as it goes with the tone of your story, but make sure it has a purpose.

2. Keep Everyone in Character

Dialogue is often where writers tend to do most of their exposition and world explaining in order to avoid pesky info dumps in the narrative. Dialogue is there to support you and push you through to the next part of the story.

However, any world explaining and exposition you have your characters spouting needs to be relevant to their whole “deal”.

Don’t have someone randomly start talking about a part of your story you need explained if it doesn’t have something to do with the character explaining it. Keep all of your dialogue and talking points specific to your character’s personality so the lines don’t feel forced or out of place. Everything should run smoothly from one sentence to the next and it should be concise!

3. Writing Dialects

Generally, showin’ the way people talk is frowned upon, but I say do whateva you want, sugah. If your character has a unique voice that is easily shown by writing things like “’lo” or “’ello” or “showin” or “sugah” then go for it. Don’t let your dreams be dreams.

However, avoid things that would confuse your reader like m’no’gonnah or other weird apostrophe laded words that could drag them out of the story. Unless your character has a particularly thick accent that you're trying to convey is confusing to your main character. Then strange slang and apostrophes abound. Do whatever you need to do to get your dialogue on paper.

But for the love of god please don’t be racist.

4. The “Said” Conundrum

A lot of my writing friends swear up and down that you should only use “said” or “asked” while writing dialogue. And that you should avoid using “whispered” or “exclaimed” or “ejaculated” (okay this one you shouldn’t use. I’m watching you J.K Rowling), but I disagree.

Write what feels comfortable for you, but don’t be afraid to use “said” where you can, just not TOO often. I get myself in hot water with my editor over this a lot.

Using words like “whispered” or “exclaimed” or “growled” can bring more depth to a scene. Especially if you’re trying to keep it simple and avoid unnecessary description (like trying to figure out how to explain someone was talking softly by writing “she said in a whisper” or trying to explain how someone is growling or hissing by “she said with a growl” or “she said with a hiss”).

The point is, write it however you want and fix it later :).

5. Dialogue Should Tell a Story

Dialogue is an important part of your story. It should be able to move the scene on it’s own. If you take out all your words and descriptions, does your dialogue propel the scene forward? Does it tell people more about your characters or your world? Does it offer insight?

If not then you need to start over. Dialogue scenes are supposed to be dynamic, insightful, funny, maybe even flirty without making people groan or roll their eyes (unless it’s a pun).

Read your dialogue out loud, have other people read it out loud. If there are any parts you tune out or skip or think are too long, cut them shorter. It anything makes you put your head in your hands and sigh, make it better.

Just like I did with Bloom, I’m doing a playlist for Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society. The kicker with these is that I have one for each chapter.

So look forward to more content?

Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society soundtrack [Disk 1] the ticking clock that is destiny

New York, New York – Frank Sinatra High Hopes – Panic! At the Disco Fuqboi – Hey Violet Bury It – CHVRCHES Honey to the Bee – Billie Piper Azul – Natalia Lafourcade Triceratops Ballet – Jack Dolgen, Adam Schlesinger

Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society soundtrack [Disk 2] relationship goals

Was tagged by my bestie to post this

1. Where are you at in your writing journey?

I have 4 published novellas (Bloom, Punchline, Knavery, and Escapade), 2 published novels (Marjorie Diaz's Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society and Marjorie Diaz's Unfortunate Introduction to Ancestral Politics & Foul Play) and 108 fanfics. I also have another novella on the way (Raillery).

2. What advice would you give to young writers?

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t write every day or if you can only write 100 or 500 words a day at first.

Eventually, you’re going to sit down at your computer and be able to write without thinking about it. And eventually, the more you do it, you’ll be able to crank out 1,000 or 10,000 a day!

But it is not without hard work. Writing sometimes feels like a chore or like pulling teeth and you will be stressed out and upset and angry A LOT. But it is so rewarding to put your story out into the world at the end of all that anger and resentment.

3. Things you need daily in order to function as a writer:

-headphones -a snack -video game break -my cats

Marjorie Diaz has no idea who this guy, Patrick Watkins, is. When he saunters into her senior seminar class during her last semester of college, the last thing she expected was to fall in love with him.

Fall in love with them today!

More about Marjorie Diaz

Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy hunts girl for sport.

Marjorie Diaz has no idea who Patrick Watkins is. When he saunters into her senior seminar class during her last semester of college, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with him.

She’s swept up into a whirlwind—and often times fairytale-esque—romance. That is, until his family kidnaps her and sends her to a place she never thought she would go again.

Now, with the help of her best friend Lucian Maravalle, she has to run for her life, and try not to think too hard about the fact that everyone she loves has been keeping a dangerous secret. A secret that could cost Marjorie her life.

Book one in the Marjorie Diaz series.

Cover art by Ariel LeAnn of Cat’s Paw Media

**THIS TITLE IS LGBT WITH A FULL LGBT AND BIPOC CAST**

It’s sort of like paranormal romance, but it doesn’t have any vampires in it. I know everybody really likes vampires and stuff, but nymphs are cool too, right?

Apparently not considering a straight, white male who wrote a book from a masculine viewpoint with all straight, white male characters told me my book was too “niche”. I’m not bitter.

I never really thought of myself as the type of person to write short romance novellas, but I did write one. Shocking, right?

Now, in the book, the romance isn’t the main part of the plot. It happens, but the plot is more about the main character, Holly, coming to terms with what she wants her life to be. The romance is short and a bit fast, but in the end, it helps.

Holly ultimately determines her goals. She makes new friends, she discovers new things, and she finally, finally, gets up the courage to go off to college.

I know this is really niche (that word again) or whatever because apparently, the only paranormal creatures people wanna read about are, like, Dragon shifters and vampires, but that’s kind of the point isn’t it? Where are my other monster lovers at?

I’m tired of reading about vampires. I’m tired of reading about abnormally hot pale white dudes seducing women. It’s exhausting how heteronormative the writing world is.

So yeah, I’m a bit “out there” with writing lesbian characters and trans characters and ace characters and shit. I get that, but you have to understand that this is the kind of representation I wanted when I was growing up.

I didn’t have a supportive family, or parents who gave a shit about me, or friends who thought being gay was “a-ok”. I grew up in the Bible Belt.

I was severely mistreated by most people around me. All I had were books, and I never got to read lesbian romances that weren’t 100% tragic. There were some MLM books in my school library that were less tragic than the lesbian ones, but I liked girls. I didn’t like guys all that much. I wanted to have representation for people like me. I never found it, not until I was much older.

I just want newer generations of lgbt teens to have something to look forward to.

So I write gays in magical worlds, gays as main characters, gays as normal fucking people instead of as masturbation fodder for straight people.

No tragedy, no anti-bullshit. Just normal, every day people falling in love. That’s all I ever wanted. I hope that you guys want it too. Cause I’mma keep writing for the people who are “niche” and under-represented.

This INCLUDES POC characters. I despise that there isn’t enough representation of POC culture in the writing industry. Like, please stop writing boring white characters, thanks. It’s time for some friggin representation up in this bitch.

I also write books with more women than men because I’m tired of all the male main characters or the male love interests of female main characters (but the love interest controls the whole story, so he’s basically the main character). Like, it’s exhausting.

So support queer writers, POC writers, female writers, people who write mostly female characters, and so on, please. Especially now.

You can read my blogs, books, and other rants here on my website that I made with my own two hands.

I also have a new book coming out. It’s called Marjorie Diaz’s Unfortunate Introduction to Magical High Society to be released late July.

Holly Juniper never knew she would fall in love with a monster.

Every winter a mysterious portal appears in her family’s barn. Nothing has ever come out of it, and she barely pays it any mind. Until a woodland nymph named Nia steps through it and into her life.

Holly is vehemently opposed to her sticking around, not wanting her family play host to a monster, but eventually Nia grows on her in a way she never expected.

Over the course of three months, the two fall in love. Despite them both knowing, come spring, Nia will have to return to her world through the portal, and she can never return.

Book One in the Monster Love Novella series.

GET IT HERE, ONLY ON AMAZON.