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1indigoisles · 6 months

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Chapter 1 - Excerpt 1

Who in their right mind would choose to ‘live’ in a graveyard of a town in Rhode Island over one of the sunniest places in the world, Flagstaff, Arizona?

Well, I did.

Lila must think I'm crazy. She definitely did.

My mother (that’s Lila) had always been a traveler, a hare-brained traveler who had once left half of her possessions in the States on an immigration to India for the winter. What happened to that half, you may imagine? Only the unknown force that made Lila my mother knows. Don’t get me wrong, Lila’s the best, but we were less mother and son and more the adventurous traveler and her wary follower.

Why would I choose to travel then, since another option was given to me? Well, I’ll get to that.

My life story was simple. I wasn’t a miracle, but I wasn’t a mistake either. I just happened, and I happened at the wrong time. My father’s name is – or was, I don’t really know – David Garamond and that was pretty much all I knew about him. Lila was efficient in cleaning up mistakes from her past. But she wasn’t the secretive type either; she didn’t mind talking about her past, and would tell me stories about her time with David. She would talk like they were fairy tales, which many real-life love stories are before they burn out into ashes of leftover feelings where the fire of love and hope used to be.

Lila Teigen and David Garamond were high school sweethearts, and were still going on strong well into college. They were a stable couple, which was saying something, considering how young they were. Young love tended to go wrong. But nothing went wrong for them, at least not then.

After completing college, David asked for her hand in marriage, even though he never got the blessing. Both Lila’s and David’s families were against it, and they promised to turn their backs on the pair if they did get married. But that didn’t matter; they were deeply in love, intent on forever happiness, and expecting a child, which was why David had proposed in the first place. Nothing had gone wrong around this part either. David was the guy fantasy talked about, the hero of the story. Lila had really thought that that would be her happily ever after.

But real life doesn’t have a happily ever after. It never did.

And we have now arrived at the part where things went wrong.

David was nowhere to be found on the day before the marriage. He’d gone out on a stormy night, saying he had some last-minute things to take care of and just... vanished.

And that was where the story ended. Lila would tell me nothing about what happened after that, about any of her struggles with being a single mother, if she ever found David again, or even why she took up the habit of travelling around when it was obviously much easier and cheaper to settle down in one place.

No. Fast-forward 16 years as a nomad named Kenneth Teigen on this planet, and I am currently scowling at the million dollar question of where our next voyage will take us while still recovering from the shock of having to answer said question. ‘Most difficult decision of my life’ hadn’t exactly been on my birthday wishlist.

And it wasn’t as though we could go just anywhere, either, which actually made things a little easier. Lila’s job as a digital marketing strategist paid well and steadily enough, but I couldn’t exactly suggest we hop on the next plane to Greenland, now could I? Not that I ever would.

No, Lila had narrowed down my choices to two places that contrasted each other so much and were so far apart that I was fairly certain Lila had just dropped the question on my head as an elaborate prank.

"Flagstaff, Arizona, or Knightville, Rhode Island?" Lila had asked me when my school year in DC was over.

"What?" I looked up from my book, The Picture of Dorian Grey.

Lila unceremoniously flopped down onto the red bean-bag chair and regarded me seriously, which would have been comical, had she not said the things she was about to say. "What would you pick," she began again, slower, "Knightville in Rhode Island, or Flagstaff in Arizona?"

I replied, surprised, "And you're asking me this because...?"

"Because this decision is officially yours," Lila said, a smile tugging on her lips as though she were giving me some good news. "You are going to decide where we stay for the next year." There was a glint in her eyes that could only be described as defiance as she pronounced her last statement.

"No," I immediately told her.

The glint died away. "Why not?" she asked, like a child asking her parent why she couldn't get candy even though she'd done her homework.

"Because I have no idea what to choose," I said bluntly.

"But I gave you only two options," she protested. "It can't be that hard!"

"Hard?" I asked incredulously. "You're asking me to choose where we're going to live for the whole of next year!"

"Between just 2 places!"

"Doesn't make it much easier, Lila!"

She looked bewildered, and a little hurt too, for which I felt a twinge of guilt.

Seeing me soften, perhaps, Lila went full-on puppy-dog mode, and while I had seen it coming and should've been able to resist it, I couldn't.

So, cursing the next several generations of Lila's bloodline (which wasn't smart, since I was one of them), I conceded to her wishes with a grumble.

Now, I don’t know why I chose Knightville. It wasn’t as though it was a good travel destination or a hot tourist spot; it was cold, constantly raining and foggy, and the only colours it ever saw were white, black and different shades of grey.

I just felt, I don't know, compelled to choose Knightville, like there was something the remote town whose name I had never heard of before had that much less remote Flagstaff didn't.

I wasn't fond of the feeling.

Nevertheless, the choice was befitting. Apparently my great-aunt Charlotte (late) had once lived in an old, slightly rickety house at the edge of town. Apartments were non-existent in small communities such as this, and it wouldn’t cost Lila a penny (except for maintenance).

Plus, the house was kind of homely.

It was a one-storey dwelling, painted a pale blue, with a brown, slanted roof. The inside was all cream-yellow walls and creaky wooden floors and the smell of good old 1950s vintage.

I didn’t dislike it, so that must have meant something.

Dinner that night consisted of Chinese take-out and ice cream for desert. I hadn’t spoken much till now, sitting in mindless silence, thinking about nothing, and staring at a small, perfectly circular hole (or was it just ink?) in the wooden floor.

“This flavour of ice cream is amazing”, commented Lila. I’d been, after all, silent for an unknown period of time, and a brooding silence of any sort from my end rang alarm-bells in Lila’s mind.

The truth was, I’d had this strange feeling ever since Lila’s car careened into Knightville. I felt... out of my own body, like I was breathing something entirely other than oxygen, that I was eating foreign food, having this foreign food with another person, that I was in another world, with alien roots that ran in alien soil. Like I was someone else. It was a creepy feeling, and it made my skin crawl.

But none of this was real. This was probably my brain’s way of punishing me because I’d intentionally forced myself to survive in a place that I didn’t like when I had total opportunity to live somewhere else.

“It’s pistachio flavoured”, I said, coming back to reality, “one of the worst ice cream flavours invented in the history of bad ice cream flavours”. I scrunched my nose with distaste.

“It is not”, insisted Lila, “you just don’t like it ‘cause it’s weird. I happen to like weird. Quite a few people do. Weird is good.”

But I would not indulge myself in the weirder aspects of life. While Lila was fawning over her god-awful ice cream, I was silently enjoying classic chocolate.

#Land of Magic #Novels #Writing #Indigo Isles #Knightville #Tumblr Novel #Tumblr Author

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bloodyquillink-blog · 4 months

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Sugar and Lemon, Chapter 4: I See Your Sweetness

First things first, I would like to say thank you to @mrshesh for their headcanon list for the Ghosts, especially the parts related to their music tastes. It really helped me write this chapter and plan for future ones. I HIGHLY recommend reading their hc’s, they are lovely. Credit goes to them for the music preferences discussed in this chapter.

mrshesh general headcanons for the ghosts

mrshesh ghosts headcanon masterlist

Okay, now, Chapter 4 of Sugar and Lemon is up on Ao3, link here. You can also find some of my other things on Ao3 @ RiversSong82, but before you do that

ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU GO!!!

#cod ghosts #cod ghosts fanfiction #sugar and lemon #ao3 author #ao3 writer #tumblr author #tumblr writer #logan walker x reader #logan walker x m!reader #logan walker x f!reader #cod logan walker #logan walker #logan walker x gn!reader #call of duty ghosts #call of duty fanfiction #call of duty fanfic #call of duty ghosts fanfic #call of duty logan walker #quill writes

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academiclolita · 1 year

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kazik-izakk · 1 year

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Chapter 17! Matthew and Yakov go on their date!

#wchb #what could have been if only in our dreams #chapter 17 #polyamory #queer bois #gay #trans #Yakov stands up to a bigot and sends him running with shit sliding down his pants #lmao #pls reblog #pls read #ao3 author #tumblr author #ao3 #ao3 link #reblog > likes #reblog if you read #please reblog #please read

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peterwknox · 2 years

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The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings by Nick Gray is now available. Buy it.

I met @nickgray over a decade ago at one of his parties. I didn’t know him, except through Tumblr and mutual friends, but that’s how everyone first knows Nick. There was juggling and the band Freelance Whales played in a corner. Later this party was written about in New York Magazine. Literally a decade later and I’m at another of Nick’s parties. Somehow they have gotten even better? There’s a book swap, lightning talks, and in walks a full on drum line. I meet people that I still see and run into and meet for lunch, others I’ll stay in touch with over email and phone calls. All because of Nick. These are not rare isolated incidents. Nick has developed, designed, and field tested an effective party format and formula that literally anyone can do (he’s tested that part!), in any city or town, with any type of group and it manages to bring out the best in host and guest alike. Trust in people. Put good ones together. Give them name tags and something to talk about and never let anyone get too settled or boring or backed into a corner. Those people will tell their friends and you’ll grow your network along with your guest list. I know, because I’ve done it, I’ve seen others do it, and you can do it too. This isn’t a dull memoir with tips - it’s literally checklists, illustrations, case studies, actionable templates, ready-made scripts, and a step by step How To guide. It’s a party playbook. By someone literally known for hosting really good ones. Nick is a great guy who likes meeting people and wants to pay that forward in this book. I can’t say I’ve read anything like it before. Invest in reading it, then doing it. You’ll see rewards in less than a month, both tangible and intangible. It’s like if Covey’s Highly Effective People got in a room with Gary V’s energy and the science and thought in The Art of Gathering. That is to say, as unique a book as its author. Only Nick could write this book, so that people who thought cocktail parties were boring and company mixers sucked and that they knew how to host amazing parties already - all could learn something new and different and their crowds would benefit from it.

Learn more on his great book website.

#party planning #Books #tumblr author

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oatmilk-vampire · 3 months

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Always the writer, never the reader.

#it's me #writers on tumblr #life of a writer #writers #writer #writer memes #writer mood #writing memes #writing #ao3 writer #fanfic #writeblr #author meme #author #writblr

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tomcruisingthroughlife · 1 month

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#funny #funny content #lol #funny memes #memes #comedy #meme #lol memes #rofl #tumblr #novel #author

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leighsartworks216 · 1 year

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Working on a chapter of a WIP rn i'm rewriting it for the third time so i got curious

#poll #polls #ao3 #ao3 author #tumblr writer #tumblr author #writer #writing #wip #work in progress

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gwen-tolios · 11 months

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It's here!!!

Written with Pride is a 100% queer-produced anthology - queer authors, queer editors, and a queer cover designer!

I'm one of 11 authors in this anthology, and all the stories are good, y'all. My own, "Isolation Training" is about an astronaut preparing for a mission to Mar and missing her supportive spouse fiercely.

Paperback | Ebook

#gwen publishes #writeblr #book release #book launch #queer books #book rec #lgbtq books #own voices #queer author #tumblr author #writing community #written with pride #not a pipe publishing #gender queer characters #queer characters

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risafeywritesdrarry · 1 month

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#writing #writing memes #writers #writers on tumblr #writing humor #meme #memes #writers life #writers and poets #author #authors of tumblr #writerscommunity #writblr #ao3 #ao3 writer #writers of ao3

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1indigoisles · 13 days

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Chapter 5 - Excerpt 2

Lila blinked in confusion. “How long have I known what?”

“How long have you known about this?” I asked, with force, gesturing to the entire room. “Knightville, Diaforians, fucking magic, the way that I am?”

I must have looked angry, because Lila wore a slightly bemused expression on her face, as if scolded. The question had taken her by surprise. “I...” Her lips parted as she trailed off.

I shoved away my immediate assumptions. “Well?” I insisted.

Her expression turned glassy in the way that suggested she wasn’t looking at me anymore, but through me, as if she saw something that existed beyond me that she couldn’t stray her attention from. Guilt. I didn’t need to assume anymore. I knew.

I grit my teeth. “Before or after I was born? I asked.

“On the night before our wedding,” she said in a low and clear voice, hiding nothing.

I nodded slowly, registering, unthinking. “Leave,” I said thoughtfully.

“Kenneth, I-” Lila began, but I cut her off.

“No, just leave. You lied to me my whole life. I can’t look at you right now.” I didn’t shout. I said it like it was a fact, which it was. She had lied, and I really couldn’t look at her. I wasn’t even sure why.

I must have sounded colder than I thought, because Lila flinched and then abruptly turned around. Adam, completely unbothered, turned right along with her, whereas Tyler James shot me a strangely concerned (worried?) look, before turning and leaving as well.

When there were only five of us left, I turned to them.

Jolene looked at me as though she’d never really seen me before, and she looked uncomfortable about it, even more so when I sent her a glance that clearly communicted, Deal with it.

Meanwhile, Rowan looked bewildered, and Desiree frowned, as though she didn’t approve. Scarlett looked a little amused, darkly so.

And then we waited.

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Jolene

“I need to take a shower,” Kenneth declared, getting up. He was very tall, and skinny in the way that made him look even taller, gangly almost. He looked almost intimidating as he waited expectantly for us to give him directions to the shower rooms, which existed on almost every floor because Hunters constantly needed to use them, if they ever wanted to get the grime and grit of battle and training off their skin.

Not to mention the expression he had worn on his face not minutes ago. At first, he had seemed to go completely expressionless, blank like he’d lost all his memories, blank like he couldn’t see anything, like a body of clear water, showing nothing because it had nothing.

Then it froze. It stilled. It expanded. It tightened. His eyes gleamed with ice, and his mouth almost curled. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it; I’d seen it one too many times. He had looked the same way Scarlett looked when she was angry, uncannily so.

That was the conundrum, the dilemma that was Kenneth Teigen, or Kenneth Garamond, I should say. He was meant to be scary (it was quite literally foretold), but when you got to know him he wasn’t so scary after all, and then when you got to know him some more, you realised he could be scary if he wanted to.

Desiree stood up. She guided Kenneth.

Rowan watched as they left, and said, “he could help, you know. With finding the cure, I mean.”

“Hell, no,” I said. “He’ll be too busy keeping the Chambers off his and his mother’s back.”

“That is, of course,” Scarlett mused, “if he lives long enough. Five bucks says he won’t live to see the far end of this week, or, maybe, if we’re all being unrealistically optimistic here, this month.”

“Scarlett-” I began.

“And also,” she interrupted (I hated it when she did that; I hated her), “I keep telling you guys to drop the idea of this ‘cure’. There is no such thing. It’s not given in any of the scripts or the Old Books. Killing my Shadow means killing me, and vice versa. There is no other solution.”

“Or,” I retorted hotly, “there is a cure, but the Chambers are so hell-bent on their old ways of killing things they deem unfixable that they didn’t even think to look. You have to admit, there’s a good possibility that a cure for you exists.” A beat passed. “Or maybe you do realise that. You know there’s a chance that you can be saved, but you’d rather die anyway. Why? You have some death wish? Or you just don’t want anyone else to help you but you? Is it pride?” I demanded.

Scarlett glared at me, witheringly, like I had no clue, like I had absolutely no idea why she did the things she did, and that I never would.

I pursed my lips. This was just one of many rotten sequel movies to a conversation that had happened too many times to count. We, as in Rowan, Desiree and I, wanted to help, she didn’t want it. We forced it on her anyway, and she would say something razor-sharp, and at least one of us would be hurt. There would be a fight, and then we would decide it was pointless to fight, since we only had each other and the truth, and then we would begin again. The cycle continued. Sometimes it slowed, sometimes is quickened, but it always rolled.

We all knew what it was. We all knew it led to nowhere, but we did it anyway, because for all our talk of finding a ‘cure’, we actually didn’t have a single lead, and Scarlett knows it, and she’s merciless with it. Many would tire of her.

I wasn’t tired yet, though. I glared at her right back in a way that was supposed to say, Yes, Scarlett, I’m dumb. I don’t know anything, and I really don’t need to. We are doing this whether you like it or not, and if you don’t like it, well, deal with it.

“Kenneth could be the breakthrough we’re looking for,” Rowan conceded, interrupting our silent argument.

“Or,” Scarlett countered, “he could be a problem that we don’t need on our backs right now.”

“You really hate him, don’t you?” he asked.

“Nothing gets past you, Frost,” she deadpanned.

“Why though?” I asked. “He’s never been rude to you, and he even helped with your Shadow situation.”

“That is exactly what makes him so shady,” Scarlett said. “He helped us, even though he wasn’t supposed to want to, even though he knew he was risking his life. He even covered for us when Forrest practically accused us of tampering with the nightglass room. And he talks to us like it’s all completely normal, like we’re normal. Which leads me to believe that either he’s really, incredibly stupid like the rest of you, or he has an ulterior motive.”

I feigned heartbreak. “You think I’m stupid?”

“Incredibly so,” Scarlett says, “but I’m sure someone will find it endearing someday.”

“Yay,” I celebrated.

“Emphasis on ‘someday’,” Scarlett rolled her eyes.

“You find it endearing,” I said, “you love me.”

“I really do,” Scarlett said, and smacked me upside the head. “But I wouldn’t push it.”

“Ow,” I said, straightening my ridiculous orange hair like a Barbie. I was really going to have to make up for her constant mocking by whooping her ass in training today.

That was, of course, if we would even have training after this...

Because things were going to change, and we all knew it because it was here, he was here, and finally everything that was supposed to happen would happen.

How long would we live after this? Would I ever see the day before I turn seventeen, would Scarlett die before the world did, how much time until we lost it all?

Or what if it was all a lie? I still can’t help but think...

Believing in the prophecies of Anna Lee Rose was like believing in god. Some people were devout believers, shaking their heads and preaching that there would never again be another Diaforian quite like her. Some people pretended not to believe, yet prayed in her name when things went bad, the way humans mocked God until they needed Him. But the majority of us believed that while she was legitimate, some of her prophecies were and could be batshit crazy.

We certainly hoped the end of the world was batshit crazy.

The Second and the First Chambers were split down the middle because of this. Some believed Kenneth Teigen needed to be killed. Others believed that problems needed to be solved not killed. Because of this debate, Kenneth could wind up surviving. But what about his life? His life would be over; it already was.

Fifteen more minutes passed in friendly banter and easy conversation. The kind of conversation where we kind of talk, but don’t talk at the same time. It was veiled with uncertainty of the future, and maybe even a little fear. Normally I would scoff at it. Fear had no place here. Fear was for those who didn’t know how to get rid of it.

But that was the thing. Fear was its own god too. We all mocked fear until we were actually scared.

It was something I’d realised when I was younger. The first time I had truly been afraid... I’d thought I was the second best thing to invincible, and I almost was. I was a good fighter, I wasn’t ashamed to boast about it, and I walked around like nothing hurt me, because nothing did. But then-

The doors creaked loudly open, and Desiree came in, Kenneth in tow. He had ditched his old clothes, and was wearing the simple ones you could find anywhere on this floor; grey t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants. They looked new and unused.

Kenneth, for his part, looked in a better mood than he had been. A tension in his shoulders that I hadn’t seen before seemed to have eased somewhat. He still wasn’t very friendly, but he didn’t need to be. He’d just proved whose side he was on.

“Man, I needed that shower,” said the boy who would end the world.

Taglist: @jeahreading, @damn-this-transgirl-hella-gay, @mayaheronthorn, @cherryblossempearl

#indigo isles #land of crooked magic #novel #tumblr novel #writers on tumblr #writerblr #writing #writing stuff #tumblr author

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