Queer Fantasy and Weird Tales for the People
The Brothers Bright, “Blood on My Name”
Happy Monday, quite late. Moving has scrambled my schedule.
I probably won’t be streaming this week, as I have a lot of NaNo to catch up on, but the next part of Chapter Two of The Well Below the Valley will be up Wednesday. The investigators will start to learn about what they’re up against and how they’re eventually going to try to stop the cult. See you then!
…so you can probably guess how well NaNo is going for me.
I’m at 8,265 words, which means I’m only about halfway as far as I should be at this point. I’ve also moved myself, my husband, our cats, and nearly every single thing we own across town. This week has felt like several months.
I’ve still got three more weeks in November, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch up a bit. I may not get to the 50,000 word goal, but that’s okay. I’m still building a good writing routine and making progress on my projects.
I woke to find Aysulu and Khalim in the common room, Khalim with his head down on the table and his arms folded over it.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
He made a pained noise. Aysulu passed me a bowl of rice and the last of one of the cuts of dried meat.
I sat down opposite Khalim. “Couldn’t you just heal it?”
He looked up, squinting painfully. “I did this to myself. It’s a lesson I’m learning.”
“The way I see it,” I argued, “if your god doesn’t want you to heal yourself, he won’t let you. There’s no harm in giving it a try.”
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter VI”Ray LaMontagne, “Empty”
Happy Monday! Moving house is proving to be a lot more involved than I had anticipated, so I’m already a little very behind on NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I can catch up this week.
New chapter of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea will post on Wednesday. I probably won’t be streaming this week, as the gaming computer will need to be packed up and moved, but I should be back at that soon.
I hope everyone has an excellent week.
I decided yesterday morning that I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.
Now, I’m not sure how well that will work out, because my little family is moving house this month, and there will be much to do as the holidays approach, but I decided that I’d rather fail than regret not trying, so here we are.
If you’re not familiar with National Novel Writing Month, the event challenges writers to complete 50,000 words (enough for a short novel or a solid novella) within the 30 days of November. This works out to 1667 words a day, or 2380 if you take weekends off.
I’m going to be dividing these words between my manuscript and Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea. The Well Below the Valley is already written, though it continues to take some effort to format for the blog.
New chapters of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and The Well Below the Valley will continue posting on alternate Wednesdays. I will also be checking in on Fridays and tracking progress toward that 50k goal. Wish me luck! And if you have experience with NaNo, I encourage you to please tell me your wisdom. This is my first time.
(Edited to fix math fail)
The investigators have discovered the murderer of Professor Ragnarsson and brought to light the terrible cult he belongs to. They now have their next lead: the village of Oxmoor, where Ragnarsson’s former assistant is now living. She was entrusted with one of the artifacts the professor removed from the island, and has more information about the ill-fated expedition. In a stroke of phenomenally bad luck, the cult is also gathering there to seek out an artifact from the island and a mysterious text. The investigators must travel to Oxmoor, find Jasmine, and put a stop to what the cult has planned next, which seems to also be putting Eloise’s young cousin, Aurelia Westmont, in danger as well.
In this section, the investigators will visit Jasmine and find out what she knows about the cult and its practices, and have their first encounter with the dark magic of the island.
(All page numbers refer to the Seventh Edition of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook, published 2015 by Chaosium, Inc. I am in no way affiliated with Chaosium or the writers of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game system. Content notes for this chapter: mentions of sexism/racism and suicide, forced pregnancy, body horror.)
Continue reading “Chapter Two: Green Grows the Lily (Part One)”Loreena McKennitt, “The Mystic’s Dream”
Happy Monday! Today is my birthday, so I hope everyone is having a very good day. This week, we’re starting the next chapter of The Well Below the Valley, and things are about to get very serious for our intrepid investigators. I’ll also be on Twitch on Thursday.
My small family is going to be moving house in November. Hopefully, that won’t cause any disruptions to your regularly scheduled content, but I’ll be sure to post some kind of notice if I’ll be without Internet for any significant length of time.
I have a Ko-Fi! Blog content will always be free, but if you like what I do and want to help me keep doing it, please consider supporting me: https://ko-fi.com/madelinecrane
“How is it that you can do that?” I asked. I would not have believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes, and felt the heat of Jora’s fever and smelled the putrescence of his wound. He had surely been close to death, and now he walked back to his house under his own power.
“Khalim has a gift,” Reva said. “When the time is right, the people will follow him to the ends of the earth.”
Continue reading “Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea: Chapter V”Kamelot, “Temples of Gold”
Happy Monday! It’s my friend Brooke’s birthday today. I wrote something to commemorate it last week, which you can find here.
I was sick all last week, and have plenty of work to catch up on now that the powers of breathing have returned to me. Not to worry, the next chapter of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea will go up on Wednesday as scheduled. I’ll also be on Twitch on Thursday!
I hope you enjoy this beautiful late-October week!
This is my best friend, Brooke. She turns 30 on Monday, and I wanted to write something in honor of her birthday.
We met in college, almost ten years ago, and as our birthdays are exactly one week apart, we have been celebrating them jointly ever since. Over the years, we’ve lived in different cities, close together and far apart, worn a lot of costumes, changed our hair colors countless times, and signed each other’s marriage documents. She even introduced me to my husband. She’s one of the most hardworking, compassionate, and brilliant people I’ve ever met.
It’s hard to describe how much she’s meant to me over this past near-decade. I could tell you that I used to want to be her when I grew up, but I learned over the years that there will only ever be one Brooke (and of course I would be better as myself than a poor simulacrum of someone else). I could tell you that she’s taught me that it’s important to always fight for what you believe in, no matter how small you feel; that one should take any opportunity to dance when it’s given; that a multitude of problems can be helped by a nice cup of tea; and that creativity is most important in life, second only to love. I think even this, however, does not do her justice.
So I will tell you this. We grew up, and life and its hardships get in the way, and I see her as often as I can and not as often as I would like. But every time I do see her, it is like stopping at a house beside the ocean in the middle of a great journey. The road is long, a storm gathers on the far horizon, and the waves crash on the beach below, but inside there is warmth and safety. There are wildflowers hanging from the rafters to dry, and a kettle just beginning to sing, and the weary smile of a friend who has walked the same paths and climbed the same cliffs. Tomorrow, the road will still be there, but for now, all is well, and there is time to rest.
To Brooke, my best friend, birthday buddy, partner in crimes against fashion: have the most wonderful of days, and may the year ahead bring you manyfold all the blessings you have brought me.
Space Whales Press 