“The way I personally stay true to the story I started down on is to give myself permission to not teach anyone anything. I’m not writing a manual. I’m not delivering bromides. I know that a lot of people do take enormous pleasure and relief in lines or phrases or ideas from stories that ring true to their own lives, but it’s important for me that I tell a story and that I’m not writing Chicken Soup for the Necromantic Soul. It is getting harder and harder again, especially for authors from marginalised places or backgrounds, to write works where the takeaway isn’t ‘this is to succour all my marginalised people’. For anyone on the female-identified axis this is especially hard because it seems to me that most books by anyone female-adjacent have an expectation that they will comfort the uncomfortable and discomfit the comfortable etc., whereas a guy can just tell an adventure story and be done with it. This ties in with an idea that I think nowadays that good art is moral and bad art is immoral: i.e. if a story is bad it actually has to be because the lessons are bad, and if a story is good it must somehow be beautiful on the moral scale. We go looking for why the art we love is moral even if the art we love is a donut. I think this is the pressure of capitalism on time – that everything has to double or triple up in benefit compared to the time we take on it: if we’re prepared to waste eight hours on a book we had better be able to tot up at the end how that book was also feeding us in some way. That’s brand time we just used.“  (Tamsyn Muir) Holy shit, Ms. Muir, marry me.

If you’re local to the Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley area, I’ll have this drawing I did in a show at the Carter Sexton art supply store! The theme for the show was “Mythos”, so of course I had to draw a Skogsrå (aka a Huldra) a type of forest nymph from Scandinavian folklore.

Mystery

Thank you to @inklings-challenge for the daily prompts and putting together the Chesterton Challenge!

There was so much that was forever going to be a mystery to her. As much as she wanted to scream and cry and tear her hair out in frustration, she knew it would be a waste of her time and energy. Why were some people born with magic and others without? Scholars had been studying that very question for centuries and were no closer to finding the answer. 

Why was her grandfather so cruel, and her husband’s family so kind? There were a lot of different ways she could answer that question, using the history of their different Realms, their different cultures, magic, religious practices… the list could continue until she talked herself hoarse or her mind spun in circles. Which she felt like she’d done enough of both while trying to rebuild an entire Realm devastated by poverty and war. Devastated by the poverty and war her grandfather caused. 

Kazmera sighed. The mystery of how to rebuild an entire representative government was one she needed to solve sooner rather than later.

Sword

Thank you to @inklings-challenge for the daily prompts and putting together the Chesterton Challenge!

Swords weren’t much use to a magic user. When one could call the sun or wind or water into their hands, what was the point of a weapon? Or so some people and schools of thought believed. Edan knew better. He had been in too many situations where it could have been dangerous to reveal he was a fully trained witch. He was no expert duellist, but he could use a sword and a pistol about as well as any non-magic using rancher in one of the rougher Realms. 

His father was born in one such Realm. May his soul finally be at peace. The traditional blessing didn’t feel hollow. Edan meant every word, especially his addition of “finally.” As a child, he was too angry and overactive to sit still and pray, hating to be cooped up inside or even expected to wait patiently outside during religious ceremonies on his Realm’s sacred mountain. 

But now, having abdicated his role as heir to the throne, and recovering from his battle injuries, he found himself drawn to the quiet of the temple, to the peace of meditation, to praying for his father’s soul, and for all those lost so needlessly in the war. 

May all their souls find peace. 

Edan would never look at his magic, his hands, a weapon, the same way again. He prayed he would find his own peace with himself in this life.

Tradition

Thank you to @inklings-challenge for putting together this month's Chesterton Challenge!

The month before the Solstice in the Realm of Galilena was considered the first full month of summer, and it was tradition to arise early to greet the dawn on the first day of that month. There would be dancing and singing, and wine, juice, and fresh fruit would be shared, before the sun was fully out and everyone returned home in the morning’s heat to either nap or have a proper breakfast. 

Kazmera preferred to rise when the sun was fully out--too many years of her grandfather forcing her out of bed at strange hours to scry made her relish sleep--but she was excited to spend her first official season leading up to the Solstice with Edan. The summer temperatures in the Realm of Selenara were considered spring temperatures or even chilly for Galilena, so she planned to drink a lot of water and wear loose, soft dresses in colors other than her usual black. 

The morning dawned, and she found herself awake even before it was her set time to arise. She quickly braided her hair and donned her dress and colorful shawl. Edan smiled, and extended his hand when he saw her. They were silent as they headed out of the palace and down into the town square, where a crowd was already gathered. A young woman wearing a massive flower crown, ribbons flowing from it and her shoulders bare, handed them each a flower crown from a wooden tray. 

No one paid them any mind as members of the royal family. It couldn’t have been more different from Selenara, and Kazmera relished every moment. 

The sun rose, and cheers and claps joined with it. Music and dancing began, and soon, jugs and cups were being passed around, as well as bunches of grapes and fresh bread and pastries. Kazmera laughed and twirled and danced with everyone who asked her, Edan laughing at her enjoying herself so. 

She was thoroughly exhausted by the time they traipsed back up to their home in the quiet palace, without having seen any of Edan’s family at the celebration. 

“Shina went up the mountain to pray,” Edan explained between breaths. “All the dancing is overwhelming for her, and overstimulating for little Rabekaia. Danael went with them, of course, and my mother went to visit Pooja and Ameliorana for the celebration in their village. They’ll all be back for lunch.”

As a girl, suffering her grandfather’s cruel whims and demands, Kazmera never thought she’d be welcomed into a big family so different from her own, with traditions quite the opposite of theirs. She never would have guessed what her life would become, but she was grateful for every moment.

The Chesterton Challenge: Official Announcement

G.K. Chesterton was an extremely prolific writer and artist with a vast lifetime output of just about every kind of writing there is--novels, essays, articles, poems, biographies, short stories, etc.

His birthday is in May.

To honor both of these things, the Inklings Challenge blog is going to devote the month of May to hosting the Chesterton Challenge.

The Challenge

The Chesterton Challenge is an event that challenges Christian creatives of all kinds to create something every day of May--be it a story, drawing, poem, doodle, meal, sculpture, sentence, puppet, essay, scribble, portion of a project, whatever. If it involves making something, it counts.

Every day throughout May, there will be a post on the Inklings Challenge blog with a completely optional prompt to inspire creative works. People can then reblog that post either showing us or telling us about what they created that day.

Participants may interact with as many or as few days as they like, and are welcome to join in at any point during the month.

Any questions may be directed to the Inklings Challenge blog via ask or DM.

And that's the Chesterton Challenge! Now go forth and create!

Reblog so everyone can hear what they need.

writers and artists will go "this isn't good enough." my brother in christ, you're creating something new out of nothing and expressing yourself creatively. your productivity and unrealistic standards of perfection do not define you or the worth of your art. you're doing great.

SUBMISSIONS for the Disability in Fantasy short story anthology are OPEN! 💖

We want your fantasy fiction🫵

Anthology Theme: Traditional Fantasy. Think fairy tale, folk tale, myth, legend, or fable. Imagine what kind of story might be passed down from generation to generation, whose origins have been lost to time.

Word limit: 4000 words.

Click here to see submissions guidelines, info on the theme, eligibility, payment, donations, and more.

Please share to spread the word!

And the promised colored version :).

Jane Austen at work.

Drink

A daily drabble!

A mug was placed before her. She could see steam rising from its top, and it smelled fragrant. Perfect for a dark, stormy night. The room was silent, save for the crackling fire and the howling wind outside.

The old woman looked at her from across the table.

“What was it like for you?” she asked. 

“It doesn’t matter,” the old witch replied. “What matters is what you will see, what you will experience. I will take care of you while you dream.”

She nodded, meeting her gaze. She could do this.

She took her first, hesitant, drink.

Sacrifice

A daily prompt and drabble challenge from @lemonandlimefic:

Sacrifice. Duty. It was all she had ever known. Everything she did, she did for her family. To protect them, ensure their honor. She could not remember a time where these thoughts were not foremost in her mind. Had she ever played as a child, once she was no longer small enough to be tossed in the air and caught in her father’s arms? Or was it all lessons, duty, honor, a childhood sacrificed in their name? And what had it brought her, in the end? Almost all of her family was gone, and yet she remained, a living sacrifice.

I love u angry female characters. I love u deeply misunderstood and problematic female characters. I love u cold hearted and sharp female characters. I love you prideful and reckless female characters. I love u unbeautifly destructive female characters. I love u prickly and snarky female characters. not everyone understands u but I do and I'm listening

new art on @omniscientdarkness Instagram

It would mean the world to me if you guys follow and share

i hope you write (i hope we both write)

To expand on my girl sad about her arranged marriage trope post, I think the trope can be subverted (woman is happy about arranged marriage) but it can also be done well and without modern sentiments (ew, sex with someone I don't love is yucky/I want to marry for true love/I want to be a GirlbossTM)

For example, princess is sad about her arranged marriage because:

-Her nation and the prospective husband prince's nation were at war five minutes ago and many members of her own family died in the war. The marriage is designed to cap off a peace treaty but what happens if peace doesn't last and she finds herself the queen of a nation at war with her own homeland? If you want real angsty enemies to lovers, the prince himself killed her own brother in the war.

-The nation the princess is marrying into is very culturally different from her own, very far away/a dangerous journey, and she hasn't been able to learn the language. She will be bringing some of her ladies-in-waiting but fears being very homesick in a place so different from her homeland.

-The princess already married for political reasons and her husband has now died. This time she wants to make her own choice because she's paid her dues (there is historical precedent for this)

-Princess has known her future spouse since childhood and was happy to marry him, he died suddenly and now she's being asked to marry his weird younger brother whom she knows well and dislikes.

-Princess is heavily prejudiced against the nation she is marrying into because of racism/xenophobia or whatever but they have a resource her kingdom needs and a baller army, so marriage it is! She overcomes her pride and prejudice as she falls in love with her husband.

when the story is just not working, but you keep writing anyway