@qelizhus / qelizhus.tumblr.com
obligatory post again abt critique partners… would anyone like to be critique partners? or something? i just would like someone to ask for feedback on my short stories; i’m happy to do the same for either longer wips or short stories as well…! pls contact me if ur interested and we can try to work smth out :)
i do love listmaking…
rattling like a bag of bones:
resonating like a bright bell:
YIELD UNDER GREAT PERSUASION comes out on September 17th! It's a cozy M/M romantasy about second chances, the difficult journey to self-forgiveness, and a one-sided enemies-to-lovers situationship 👀 It's available from most book retailers in hardback, paperback, and ebook (with more retailers coming soon) -- links to most of the common ones right here. The cover art is by the amazing @holographings, check out more of his work!
SUMMARY: Tam Becket has hated Lord Lyford since they were boys. The fact that he’s also been sleeping with the man for the last ten years is irrelevant. When they were both nine years old, Lyford smashed Tam’s entry into the village’s vegetable competition. Nearly twenty years later, Tam hasn’t forgiven him. No one understands how deeply he was hurt that day, how it set a pattern of disappointments and small misfortunes that would run through the rest of his life. Now Tam has reconciled himself to the fact that love and affection are for other people, that the gods don’t care and won’t answer any of his prayers (not even the one about afflicting Lyford with a case of flesh-eating spiders to chew off his privates), and that life is inherently mundane, joyless, and drab. And then, the very last straw: Tam discovers that Lyford (of all people!) bears the divine favor of Angarat, the goddess Tam feels most betrayed and abandoned by. In his hurt and anger, Tam packs up and prepares to leave the village for good. But the journey doesn’t take him far, and Tam soon finds himself set on a quest for the most difficult of all possible prizes: Self care, forgiveness, a second chance... and somehow the unbelievably precious knowledge that there is at least one person who loves Tam for exactly who he is—and always has.
This book might be for you if:
"Alongside the sexiness and absurdity (and the sexy absurdity) in Yield Under Great Persuasion is a tender, resonant story of second and third chances and being loved when we need it most and feel we deserve it least. Evocative, emotional, and endlessly entertaining." —Jules Arbeaux, author of Lord of the Empty Isles Preorder links for most retailers are here! If you live in the US and you'd like to order a paper copy from the retailer that benefits me most (thank you!), that retailer is Allstora.
(Signal boosts are always greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!)
Comes out the day after tomorrow!!!
i may have gone ape shit ham on this prompt
If you’re interested in being able to choose the topic of the next poem, make sure to vote in the weekly Magnet Monday polls! Or if you want a commission just like it, check out my pricing sheet!
Transcript under the cut!
Magnet Monday Taglist (Check out my Google form to get added): @elegant-paper-collection @polyphonetic @qelizhus @livums @maxdamaz @auroblaze @stardustanddaffodils @thelaughingstag @ceph-the-ghost-writer @auntdarth @damageinkorporated @srjacksin @alesseia
current project goes craaaaaazy
the memory police - yoko ogawa
this was supposed to be the quick set up to a flashback about trying to understand your friends chronic illness and pain from a time when he himself didn't yet understand it, from the pov of grief and irrational guilt, where the most important moment about that is after the events of this set up, but language wise she ended up doing the most and is now holding up the entire scene and therefore doing the most for the "trying to understand chronic illness and pain and your own guilt about it" themes. i fear the prose immediately after this is falling apart in my hands as we speak
i hate school
i gave up on editing silicone heart 1 in the same doc, im starting over. maybe this will inspire more creativity
transcript under cut
A frozen lighthouse on Lake Michigan.
little sketch of a new oc - longing (for a memory). they are a herald-angel. one day, when with their friends, a gateway from the earth opened up. people wanted to drag the heavens to earth and the first part of the celestial realm brought down was longing. to prevent further destruction, longing destroyed the gateway and took all memories of how to reach the heavens. since then, they've wandered the earth on their own. their attribute is the sorrow for all that's been forgotten. but how can they feel sorrow for what's forgotten if they can remember? to take the memories of heavens' openings from humans, they took it from themself as well and so they have wandered the earth on their own, with no memory of their home but a dull heartache.
its been half a year since i edited silicone heart... im wondering whether i should just restart draft 2 on a blank doc (instead of editing the same one as draft 1... i only got to like ch2 or smth)
Text: “I need my bones read.”
“But you’re still alive,” says the young man, doubtful.
“I was hoping you could work around that.”
i’ve had this one finished for a bit, but i kept forgetting to post it ^^;
disclaimer: i know very little about the actual ancient practice of reading bones.
- 🦴-
“I need my bones read.”
The young man behind the counter doesn’t even bat an eye at her abruptness. “Sure,” he says, gesturing toward a curtained off door. “Right this way.”
Faye shakes her head. “You misunderstand. I need my bones read.” She taps her arm for good measure, and the young man’s brow furrows.
“But… you’re still alive,” he says, doubtful.
Faye grimaces. “I was hoping we could work around that.”
“How, exactly?”
She reaches into her messenger bag, pulling out a folder and shaking it lightly. “X-rays…?” When he continues to stare at her, she adds, “Look, I’m willing to pay extra if you’ll at least try.” He’s the latest in a long string of readers she’s visited. Each one turned her down, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t growing desperate.
She has questions. They have answers—if they will only deign to read them for her.
Hi I am in love with this hello- just. Yes! Yes!!! love as horror is something that can be so personal actually-
Feel free to ramble about this as much as you want anytime you want I am hooked
oleg!!!! Im so happy to have a mutual with this same type of obsession as me!!!
Ok. So like. Im actually a sucker for hananaki disease since im a big fan of flowers and flower language, also abt themes horror and/or love BUT it is also so painfully disappointing that most takes are so....alloromantic and amatonormative and arophobic, so it's been a long time since i wanted to make an aromantic perspective of the trope! I remember a post talking abt something similar, i will have to find it.
Anyways, with hananaki disease i wanted to address topic such as non romantic forms of love; how love is something inherently selfish for better or for worse; the ethical implications abt the surgery thing; unrequited love from the perspective of person who isn't in love with the another person; death in general; what is considered 'unrequited' or not; society view on the disease and its romanticism; the deathly beauty of the disease; also instead of being solely tragic it's something joyful either in a fucked up way or in a "i know my love (be it platonic romantic familial etc etc) is requited but my love for you is so big that i feel like i will bloom an entire field of flowers for you" or something nice and ok in general; also a polyam take!!!!
There so many options and opportunities and i desperately want to write about them! Again, im v sad that there is close to none takes like that....
And abt other concepts besides hananaki, like i said in the tags i want to take some sayings or romantic beliefs or general concepts to its most literal and extreme conception.
"I have butterflies in my stomach" well you have butterflies on your stomach, theyre trying to eat you inside out and your torso will be ripped apart and butterflies soaked in your blood and flesh will fly away announcing your love to the world
"They're my soulmate/my other half" well thats but as a curse. You will never be free. You will forever be imprisoned with that person, whatever it is physically or emotionally or spiritually. Your soul and self is not your own and that begs the question if your seld agency is real
"The red string of fate" you have a string of fate but instead of being tied in your pinky finger, its strangling you. Maybe it's red because it your or yours beloved's blood. The string will slowly cut and suffocate you.
"I cant help but look at their way" that but literally. If you're ever in the same room as the person you will only be able to look at them and will be unable to see anything else. (The danmei devil venerable did that and i fucking loved it)
"Love is in the air" yeah it's a deadly toxic gas that will fuck you up or straight up kill you
And also places like paris, high schools, coffee shops and other typical romantic places have a higher amount of cases like that!
There must be some more but these are the one that comes from the top of my mind.
And abt the comic thing, i had actually thought only briefly abt that and never had given a more deep thought cuz i was focusing more on my other wips. That will change from now on tho! I want to make a story with multiple pov or main characters, maybe an anthology? But it will have an aromantic protagonist/recurring character who resolves these brutal cases, even if in most cases theyre just a supporting character for the pov characters
”Oh I’m not leaving”
(siblings)
rereading all the words i've written for fantasybane and holy shit i'm the writer ever
WHAT POSSESSED ME TO WRITE THIS OPENING
Thanks to @k-v-briarwood and @the-down-upside-finch for the tags!
Context: Briar and Semira know that Achaemenes is part fey and they're trying to figure out if he's part of the disappearances happening on campus.
hello! i'm looking for at least one more beta / critique reader for my novel SUDDENCE! this is sort of a gauge of interest.
some info:
i'm looking for any type of feedback! whether it be continuity errors or confusing parts or out of character moments or plot holes, literally anything.
let me know either through the notes or dm!
