Words Written in the Stars

For @flashfictionfridayofficial's prompt of "Wrong Sign"! When you go on a road trip out in the desert, it's important that you have a reliable navigator.

The van stopped in front of a rickety wooden sign, dust and sand screeching up under the tires. Rather pointedly, it was the wrong sign, not pointing Liza towards the town she was looking for. Instead, in faded, peeling paint, it read:

Vuelve atrás. Aquí no hay nada.

"...I think we're lost."

"Oh, yeah, we were supposed to take a left turn."

Liza blinked. She turned to Candela, still lazily eyeing the map. "When was that supposed to happen?"

"Uh..." Her cousin continued to eye the map, popping out the lollipop in her mouth. "Fifteen...Thirty miles back?"

It took all of her strength to repress the eye twitch. "...And you didn't say anything when I turned right?"

"I figured you knew what you were doing."

"...Excuse me."

Liza hopped out of the van, slamming the door shut behind her. She walked behind the van. She pulled off her hat, wincing at the feeling of the fabric against her sweaty skin, and took a moment.

A late 19th century netsuke of a meditating skeleton, made of silver set in stag antler. Meiji period, from Japan.

WHG Prompt 1: The Big Day

It’s the day of the reaping. The Capitol decided to announce that this year will be different. The Hunger Games will take place in an arena where the tributes have to fall in love in order to escape and all of the tributes will be used for entertainment after the Games are over. Nobody knows who will be reaped yet. Work has stopped for most people in the District, and school is out. People are talking about the change, how it's so much better because at least no one will die. Or in the career districts, the careers are complaining about this, that this was not what they were training for. Adults can also be reaped, even if they have a partner already, the Capitol proclaiming that their relationship in any form is null and void if they're reaped. There's an air of tension and relief in both measures as everyone waits for the reaping.

How does your character feel about the possibility of going to the Arena? How do they prepare?

WHG Prompt 2: The Reaping

Now it happens. Your character is standing in the crowd, waiting. A brightly-colored escort stands on a stage with 1 bowl and reads off the Capitol-approved speech about how gracious and merciful the Capitol is for letting the tributes live this time. Ignoring how all of the tributes will be basically puppets after the Arena. 1 or 2 names will be called. After each one, there will be a chance for anyone of any gender or age to volunteer to go in the person’s place.

The reaping begins. A name is called.

WHG Prompt 3: The Last Visit

Every tribute is given one hour for others to visit them. No cameras. Your character sits in the bare gray room of their District’s Justice Building, waiting for the door to open. Does it? Does anyone come to visit them? Just one person? Whole parties of them? No tokens are allowed, no remembrances of their past life will leave this room with them. The Capitol declares that the tributes have no past now.

And finally, they are left alone in the room.

WHG Prompt 4: The Train Ride

After a brief trek from the Justice Building to the train station, cameras flashing everywhere, your character boards the train to the Capitol. Greenery flies past the window as the sky darkens.

The other tributes are there, along with the frilly Capitol escort desperate to get your character to talk about their personalities, plus a few previous District victors who usually would be mentors but now are just there, also confused about what they're supposed to do. There is a bounty of decadent food, screens to watch recaps of the Reaping, places to sleep, and places to speak privately.

What does your character do? Where do they go?

WHG Prompt 5: Chariots

The trains arrive at the Capitol. Your character is whisked away by a prep team and stylist to give them a District-themed outfit. Then they are put atop a horse-drawn chariot and paraded between cheering Capitol crowds to the City Center, then into the shadows of the Training Center.

How does your character react to being here with these other two tributes? What are their outfits like? Do they like the outfits? The limelight? The false glory of the Capitol?

You can coordinate with your District mates on this…or not! You don’t have to match.

WHG Prompt 6: Training

Once in the Training Center, "appropriately" renamed the Romance Center, your character is assigned to lavish living quarters with food and beverages at their fingertips. An elevator ride down takes them to a room with information about the Capitol, tables for them to sit at and talk to their other tributes, "trainers" who teach them about what to expect after the Arena, and wealthy Capitol contributors who can pay for time with individual tributes while they're still single.

How does your character prepare for the Games? Mentally? Physically? What about for their interview?

Do they talk to anyone? Avoid other tributes?

The judging is instead a time where the judges make an info card for each tribute: their romance strengths and weaknesses, physical strengths and weaknesses, and likes and dislikes. They might even tell the tributes how to play their "character" in the Arena as well.

WHG Prompt 7: The Interview

Your character’s stylists have gone all-out to make the most magnificent outfit for your character, regardless of their District. Your character walks out of the tunnel towards the huge crowd seated just outside the light—human shapes are identifiable, but not faces. Only Caesar Flickerman, done up this year in a "romantic" red and pink, is in full view, sitting easily in his chair next to an empty one. It seems like every camera in Panem is pointed at the stage.

Your character gets three minutes. Time starts now.

She tried her best to keep a calm, serene expression on her face, resisting the urge to glance over and pick out Kari's face. She knew he wouldn't bother to try and keep a serene mask.

Especially not with the twist this year.

It had been a shock when the news was announced. There had been celebrations, at first- nobody would have to watch their children die, not this year. And then reality sank in. Regardless if they were still alive, they were still trapped, forced to entertain the Capitol, forced to fake a feeling that would be hard to form under such conditions. Adults had mourned their safety nets and she had seen partners indulge in "one last night" just in case for the past few days. She knew Kari had been visiting Siv, his eyes red whenever he came back home.

Kari thought it was bullshit. Helle did so as well, but kept quiet. She couldn't risk something happening to them, not before the reaping.

This year, there was just one glass bowl, tinted pink to match the hideous pink decor across the arena.

It wasn't comforting.

The escort reached inside with a dramatic wriggle of their fingers and plucked out a slip of paper. Helle didn't breathe as they lifted it up.

She knew before they said it, could practically feel her twin stiffen up before it echoed out.

"Helle Brynhildr!"

-_-

Thankfully, the pink decor hadn't reached the Hall of Justice.

Helle kept her hands folded and refused to moved. If she moved, she would do…something. She wasn't sure what, exactly, considering the room wasn't exactly full, but she kept still anyway.

The door opened.

Kari fell through. He wasted no time in scrambling for her, burying his face in her skirt as if they were little kids again and he wanted comfort from their mom. Runa and Asta hurried after him, coming on either side of her. Asta buried her face in her shoulder and let herself cry there like Kari. Runa had no shame, sniffling as tears openly ran down her face.

Thankfully, Endre didn't follow. She had heard him laughing as she walked up to the stage, glancing back to make sure Kari didn't try and volunteer for her. If he waltzed in, Helle would punch him.

Instead, Siv and Mabelle came in, the latter shutting the door. She didn't know Mabelle well, but Siv had been a fixture in their life for a while.

"…Helle…"

"Hey, come here," She held out a hand. Siv took it, and she felt her hand. Much like other people in the district, there were pinprick scars across her fingertips. "Siv, before I leave…"

"Don't." Kari said for the first time, looking up at her. His eyes shone as he glared up at her. "Don't talk like you're going to die."

"I am, in a way, so I need you guys to be prepared." It was still the Hunger Games. She was selling her soul. "Kari, you're in charge, I don't care what Endre says. Siv, I want you to move in with them."

"…I…"

"I know that it's probably not what you and Kari planned," Helle's heart ached, and for the first time, she felt a flicker of envy for her twin. Kari had found love, a true, real love, and Helle had never bothered. Now, she regretted at least not trying to find someone like that, even if it didn't pan out. She didn't have a choice now. "But I want you safe and secure. Mabelle," The other girl straightened. "You're welcome as well. If you need to kick out Endre, go ahead."

"…Helle, I…" Siv stared at her and then sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

"Why-" Asta peeled her face off her shoulder. "Why are you being so calm?!" Kari nodded. "You…you're acting like you're going to the store, not this!"

"Do you want me to scream? To cry?"

"Yes!" Three voices echoed off the walls of the room.

"You're leaving us!" Runa said, fresh tears bubbling up. "You're leaving us, and you won't be dead, but it'll be like you are!" She whacked her and Helle felt a hiss escape her at the contact. "We need you! We want you here! And you're acting like it doesn't even matter!"

"…I…" She let her mask break, briefly. "I don't want this. I don't want to be calm and I definitely don't want to lose you guys. But, to be honest, the Capitol wants me terrified, and…" She took a breath and it was shakier than she had allowed in years. "…If I'm not calm, I'm going to do something stupid."

She pulled her siblings close, even Siv, and held them.

Just…held them.

This might be the last time she could.

it turns out the secret service investigated eminem because of lyrics threatening trump and ivanka

and they really did interview him

and when one of the secret service agents started reading the threatening lyrics out loud eminem started rapping along 

@afloweroutofstone​

ROYAL PECULIAR, or THE RECOVERY OF THE BONES OF SAINT THOMAS COURTENAY - A WIP INTRO

Genre: literary, historical (well, alternate history), speculative

Demographic: adult

Form: novel, third person

Progress: first draft (31k in)

Inspiration: Western Esotericism, the life of Dr John Dee, the religious reformation, Nabokov’s Antiterra (setting of Ada or Ardour), Alasdair Gray’s works, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, the history of London, the Matter of Britain, the Grand Budapest Hotel, Moulin Rouge, and binging listening to various History Hit podcasts.

Aesthetics: Hawksmoor churches, champagne coupes, stained glass windows, gemstones, inkwells, the occult, cigarette smoke, jazz, footnotes, and, above all, severed heads.

SYNOPSIS

In St James’ Palace, King Louis-Phillipe II of Britain lies on his deathbed. The moment he takes his last breath, Perrine, student and granddaughter of the King’s beloved mistress, will lose everything.

Desperate for financial security, she reaches out to her classmate and distant relation, the flâneur Bramwell Sweetland, to find his family wealth squandered, and soon - with Bramwell’s professor and patron arrested for treason, the two devise a plan to secure their fortune: to unearth the centuries-lost remains of their ancestor, famed Occultist Thomas Courtenay, and ally themselves with the magic-obsessed new king.

But Henry IX is not like his father, and the country cannot stay as it was - and as the two manipulate their way into proximity with the crown, the more the implications of their actions are realised, and the closer the nation comes to collapse.

Content warnings: power imbalance in interpersonal relationships is the running thread, decapitation, hard drug use and religious trauma.

TL;DR: What if England never broke from Rome and now it’s the 20th century, the world wars never happened, and the new King of England is into magic and getting scammed big time by his niece who’s trying to develop the cure to syphilis and her cousin who hallucinates talking to the Plantagenets when high.

Other Riley's mouth closed from his- its?- from the gape. Mary Arden tensed, preparing for it to scream for the other version of her mom or some other horrifying monster.

"You shouldn't be here."

...huh. That was anti-climactic.

"We're here to rescue someone," she said, keeping her words vague.

It is possible to find both sapphic SFF and M/M fantasy. It is significantly harder to find, say, aro urban fantasy. Or trans romantic suspense. Or intersex mystery.

A lot of the advice above only really works for trad published or popular books and for identities/subgenres/content that aren't too niche.

So here's some advice if the advice above isn't working for you (either because you can't find books with what you want or because the books you are finding don't end up being the vibe you want), from someone who reads a few hundred books a year:

Find websites or lists dedicated to the specific thing you are looking for. They will generally have more variety and will post you to examples that don't show up in regular rec lists. (ex: aro book recs, ace book recs, intersex #ownvoices database, sapphic books). Goodreads lists can (sometimes) also be your friend.

Get comfortable reading self-published and small press books. Trad publishing has its blind spots.

Check Reddit for recommendations

Start figuring out what it is specifically that you like and then start making your searches more specific. This can be subgenre (if you want urban fantasy, you're rarely going to find it just searching "fantasy"), tropes, plot devices, vibes, etc.

Look at the "readers also bought" on Goodreads/Amazon, similar books on Storygraph, etc. if you read a book you like. Even if you don't end up reading the one you click on, it can show you similar authors (similar to looking at the blurb on a cover), especially because far fewer books have blurbs now.

What are the arts & culture like in your WIP? Do your characters have any fond memories of seeing plays/musicals, visiting art museums/sitting for a portrait, or things like that?

(~ @world-of-fire-and-flight)

(PS eeeek sorry I have answered some of yours yet! I'm having all the tech issues at work and am the person responsible for fixing them 🤣🫣)

In Bad End, Sunshine has murals.

I was trained in the dark arts of the cover letter by my mother, who is a hiring manager. And her training has paid off: I've been consistently told my cover letters are excellent. Let me pass on the wisdom.

The job of a cover letter is to give a prospective employer strictly more information than is on the resume. This is where you take the resume contents and put them into context. You look at the job requirements (you are looking at the job requirements before applying, right?) and look at your resume and ask the question (in your head) "why would a person think this candidate would be good for this job?" and your cover letter is the answer to that question. If you don't answer that question, the hiring manager is going to have to do it themselves, and you have way more information to work with than they do.

This is especially important if you're moving from one industry to another, because then the relevant connections aren't obvious. It's also very important if you're overqualified, because then you can use the letter to say "I know it looks like this job would be too entry-level for me, but I'm interested to pursue it for reasons x, y, and z". You can also use this space to explain away something that might otherwise be disqualifying, like job-hopping or a long break in employment. The tone to strike here is always matter-of-fact and constrained to topic - don't go into detail about health stuff or personal tragedy, just tell them what they need to hear: that this period of your resume was affected by [bad thing] but that it's now in the past and you're looking forward to the next chapter. Remember, one of the things they're trying to learn is whether you'd be content in this role, or whether you'd be miserable and leave after 2 months, which would force them to do all the work of hiring again. You're trying to establish that you will fit right in and not cause problems. Knowing what drew you to this job in particular (and don't just say 'money', that's true for everyone) helps with that.

Your issues matter! Growing up in a binary-centric world is traumatic, and you don't deserve that!

We adore and respect you, young fem enbies! Young masc enbies! Young androgynous enbies!

We adore and respect you, young neutral enbies! Young null enbies! Young genderless enbies!

We adore and respect you, young xenine enbies! Young outherine enbies! Young aporine enbies!

We adore and respect you, young multigender enbies! Young multitransitional and multicis enbies! Young demigender enbies!

We adore and respect you, young unlabeled enbies!

We adore and respect you, young intersex enbies! Young dysex enbies! Young ersex enbies! [Link.]

We adore and respect you, young trans enbies! Young cis enbies [link]! Young cistrans enbies!

We adore and respect you, young enbies who use modalities other than cis or trans, or no gender modalities!

We adore and respect you, young diamoric [link] enbies! Young lesbian enbies! Young uranian enbies! Young straight enbies! Young m-spec enbies! Young a-spec enbies!

We adore and respect you, young non-monogamous enbies! Young non-partnering enbies! Young paraphile enbies!

We adore and respect you, young alterhuman enbies! Young religious and spiritual enbies!

We adore and respect you, young culturally gendered enbies! Young black enbies! Young brown enbies! Young Latino enbies! Young Asian enbies! Young Indigenous enbies! Young Pacific Islander enbies! Young multiracial enbies!

We adore and respect you, young plural enbies! Young neurodivergent enbies! Young physically and sensorially disabled enbies!

Include young non-binary people in your youth liberation!

[PT: Include young non-binary people in your youth liberation!]

They were the guard of the city.

The city was under their watchful eye, even as the carts and people walked out from the gates. They stayed put, watching.

They stayed even when the carts and people stopped, and the streets fell silent. They stayed when the army rolled up, and the commander walked in, looking around the city, and laughed.

They stayed when the commander turned to the army and shouted "The cowards have fled, but let's send them a message! Burn this place to the ground!"

They stayed as the fire burned.

They were the guard.