Hasui Kawase - Night Rain at Kawarako (ca. 1947)

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

and i wake every night

crying, “set me free”

Abbey by Mitski

happy may the fourth!!!

The light of Alderaan still travels through space and time, if you look up at the night sky it's like it never really left ✨ Happy May the 4th!

may the fourth be with you

[id: it’s a drawing of Luke and Leia, both depicted as Blasian with brown skin, based off the Hildebrant poster. Vader’s mask, which is done in a blue hue, is in the background along with the vast expanse of space and stars, and a large star is reflected in one of his helmet’s lenses. Luke is holding Anakin’s ignited lightsaber above his head, illuminating both him and his sister, and he is wearing his white tunic and grey pants from a New Hope. His hair is brown, curly, and sun bleached. Leia stands just beneath him, wearing her white dress and holding a blaster pistol in one hand. She is depicted as hijabi with her white hijab being done in buns on the side of her head. /end id]

When you're writing some shapeshifter smut, but you have to take a while to elaborate on the socio-economic political state of the modern Earth with the addition of the paranormal peoples.

Why yes, world building is my favorite part of writing, how could you tell?

A character that once excited you might now come across as too perfect, a plot point too tragic, or the worldbuilding overblown. That's okay. Media is saturated with all of these things, and that's because op protagonists and unrealistic plotlines are rad as hell.

So, before swinging the metaphorical bat at your story's kneecaps to bring it down a peg, let's take a step back.

You can make an epic storyline out of paint drying or the most monotonous tale of the fall of an empire. That's because good writing is 1% ideas and 99% execution and landing.

Write what needs to be written without fear it will land too hard, because the readers are there to feel the hit. Reigning in aspects of your work that excite and interest you pose a real danger—when the hit lands, the reader may feel nothing at all.

tl;dr: Never pull your punches.

A grammar of Japanese ornament and design - Thomas W. Cutler - 1880 - via Staatsbibliothek Berlin

Leaf-footed bug, Bitta alipes, Coreidae

Found from Nicaragua down through Ecuador

Photo 1 by pedro_alonso, 2-4 by seigmond, 5 by theo_michael_schmitt, 6 by johndeitsch, 7 by hsgzoe, 8 by stivensaldarriaga, and 9 for scale by fatroosterfarm

alizalichtxo

I hope everyone will read this and share it. I posted the full piece. Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate. I follow Hamza on X and his tweets are very important. Unfortunately, he is being blocked. In his words, “But the protesters aren’t interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.”

This cover from a Brazilian 2021 edition is my favorite for reasons that I think are obvious lol

READ! 🥰

Available as shirts and prints at gwendolynwood.com/shop !

me when i'm happy: i deserve a little treat

me when i'm sad: fuck it i deserve a little treat

me when i'm neutral: you know what'd make this day so much better........a lil treat

Hey, I'm serializing this novel. Every time I make an intro post about it, something happens, but I guess that's just a coincidence and I shouldn't be superstitious about it... right?

Genres: Gothic fantasy romance (M/M)

Azul Mamani is just a young mixed-race farmer who also happens to be a great-grandson of the Megarchon, the tyrant ruling the entire world. And secretly plotting her downfall. Before his plans go too far, however, he’s hastily summoned to the capital. For the first time, there's no successor who can wield the Imperium, the mysterious source of the Megarchon's terrifying power. Civil war looms in the horizon. Azul has no power and no allies—only a dangerous man known as Vanth Umbra, King of the Dying Sun, born to protect the living from the creatures of the Underworld. Sex is the one bargaining chip Azul has, so it's a good thing Vanth wants him—except he can’t be trusted, especially not when he appoints himself as Azul's protector. However, as Azul is caught between a murderous necromancer, an elite guard sworn to the Megarchon, and a dissenter faction with its own plans, binding himself to Vanth might be his only chance to survive. Some things you might want to know before reading: This story is intended for an adult audience. Trauma and abuse are central parts of the story, especially (past) child abuse. There's also violence, gore, and horror elements, particularly on later arcs. And dual first-person POV, in case anybody's allergic to those.

You can start reading for free right now, but I'd really appreciate it if you felt inclined to support me because I'm very much in need of rent money.

It can also be found on Tapas.

song: *has a specific intention and meaning and sequence of events completely evident making artistic interpretation pretty meaningless* me who has ocs and is willing to reach:

I was wondering this about my WIP a while ago, so I have some thoughts.

The very basic ingredients of Gothic fiction are atmosphere + the past casting a shadow on the present + decadence/corruption/death/things coming to an end. If you have those things and something scary, you probably have a Gothic horror.

Rebecca is more of a Gothic romance, but the first chapter of the book and the beginning of the movie are the best example of this I can think of.

More cynically, if you think it's good publicity and not too far off the mark, feel free to call your story anything. People will abuse tropes like enemies to lovers and slow burn until they're practically meaningless, so it's fine not to overthink things too much.

Do I dare call Brim's Bane a Gothic horror? It's definitely a Gothic inspired horror, but it probably lacks a lot of the common threads and tropes of the genre.