Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 27m

Ah, nice! Thanks. There was nothing to tap that would let me view it! 👀

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Ray Ingles @ringles.bsky.social · 3h

#WIPSnips 14: ultimate

Jim finds out his workday isn't going to go smoothly.

#ScienceFiction #SciFi

(I wish BlueSky would fix the bug where some people's posts aren't showing up in hashtag feeds. 😞)

Marilyn and Shaheen barged through the control room door. “Everyone out,” Marilyn called with authority. She glanced at me. “Good, Jim, you’re here. You stay.”
All we did was stare at them. Sure, Marilyn was ultimately in charge of the Time Eye, but you did not scrub a run five minutes from initiation on anyone’s say-so. Each Viewing cost an ungodly amount of computer time in precalculations alone, leaving aside the millions of Euros in prep costs.

1 5

Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 2h

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #ultimate

Vibes: at the TOP OF THE WORLD with Cerel and Jer!

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

Cerel stood on a narrow trail along a steep
cliff face. He beheld mountains around him, bare rock and alpine flowers, blue sky—in front of him, not only
above. He did not recognize the mountains, but he smelled the sharp wind. A faint, sick worry prickled his insides, tangled with a vague surprise. Behind him, on the trail, Jer laughed out loud.

"See, brother? Isn't this living?"

"Jer! How did you get here?"

"What? I've always been here! What's the
matter? Does the homelonging trouble you? Here's the trick. Look at all the beauty around you. Take a deep breath. Think about all you've learned from the effort it took you to get here. This is the very top of
the earth, brother! We are the only ones ever to crest it! Why? Because we're not at home sitting under the dripping trees. Would you have it any other way?"

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

5 17

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Charlie Delta (has been a ghost this whole time! 👻) @charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 2h

October 14th – ultimate (final)

On gambits.

Av’ry tries to convince the city guard to please investigate the temple performing the mind control ritual before it’s too late.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

“Back in interrogation, you all but admitted to owning the contraband. Why didn’t you deny it?”
Av’ry smiled, finally a question where the truth would serve him. “Exactly, why wouldn’t I deny it? Clearly, I could have. I didn’t, because I didn’t want to be released. If you send me out with R’evat, I will certainly end up just another mindless thrall. I’d rather be in prison.”
Sh’ol turned and eyed him skeptically. “You must admit that your story is hard to believe.”
The soldier was a professional; he had heard many men claim that they had been framed, many men with more believable stories than this. However, one difference was that this was a story he wanted to believe, a chance to discredit a man he resented, a chance to come out on top.
But that lure wasn’t enough to make him reckless. So, Av’ry played his final card. “You don’t need to take my word. There is a way to play this that would benefit us both and be of very low risk to you.”
Sh’ol watched him intently for a moment before finally speaking. “I’m listening.”

1 7 29

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Prof Emily but Spoopier Now @professoremily.bsky.social · 2h

#WIPSnips #amwriting #writingcommunity #writers #writesky

To violence or not to violence, that is the question...

From Book 2 of my #Atlantis trilogy.

Xa’aba closed her eyes, digging deep inside herself for patience. She smiled, but it was clearly one she didn’t want to wear.
“Young Mu’u, you know I have only the greatest respect for you and Raa Kena,” she said. “But I really can’t understand why you are so insistent about this. These cultists—these heretics—have shown us again and again that they’re willing to use violence to get their way. And you know their ultimate goal is to see you overthrown and replaced with Jasana. No matter how much mercy you show them, I promise they will not show any to you.”
“Sea Mother,” Icozoue interjected, “while it pains me to agree with Xa’aba about anything—believe me, it really does—in this case, I think she might be right.”
“Aren’t you the one always telling me that the Na’aqals are my children, Icozoue?” Mireia argued. “Well, these cultists are Na’aqals. Even if they hate me, they’re my children too.”
Xa’aba redirected her pleas toward Kena. “Sun Father, can’t you reason with her?”
“I agree with her,” he replied. “I don’t think slaughtering dozens of people in the streets is a good idea, even from a strategic view. What if the violence only gains them more sympathy? I know if I was one of them, I’d feel more determined to fight, not less.”

1 8 29

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Jan Karlsson @jangoeswriting.bsky.social · 6h

‘Eventually’ instead of ‘Ultimate’ for today.

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips

(If someone that *is* showing on tag searches could quote post this with the WiPSnips tag, I would be grateful. It only needs one. Thank you!☺️)

Through cavernous rooms and twisting corridors, dark backways used mostly by servants and the like, the man led Murple a heady path, but she took note and knew exactly where she was. Long ago she had memorised the layout of the Palace, just in case. It always paid to know where the exits were in any given place. Eventually, they returned to carpeted and furnished surroundings, the man bobbing his head in greeting to people that could very well be identical siblings, until they emerged right where Murple had surmised they would. Right outside the door of the most powerful man in Bruta(1).

It seemed she had an appointment with the current leader of the Rhug Party, member for the Borough of Vaneintern, First Counsel of the Partliment of the Kingdom of Bruta, and they were usually the biggest scoundrels of them all.

1 5 22

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

A.C. Wolfe @whitewolfe32.bsky.social · 10h

A little late, but today’s #WIPsnips word is #push. Cainen has a conversation with their aunt.

#wip #writing #queer #trans #ya #fiction #horror #family #mentalillness #writesky

White text on a black background.

"Cainen, I'm not trying to force you to do anything. I just want to help. I'm not... I'm not sure what to do to help you."
"Me neither." It feels like the first true thing
I've said all day.
"I just... you have to try something, Cainen.
You need help.
I snort.
"That's not a dig. I'm not trying to attack you or shame you. It doesn't make you weak or lesser or whatever else you think it is. That's just life. Sometimes we can't do it alone. And sometimes you need someone to push you to get better. That's my job. I don't know what I have to do to get you to accept it, but I won't stop trying. I won't stop looking."
"I know." That's what hurts.
"Do you?"
"Yes. I do. I know you won't." I'm almost done with my plate of lasagna. Almost home free.
Why does she have to cut the pieces so large?
"Do you know why I won't?"
"Well, obviously it's because you hate me."
The sarcasm masks the quiver in my voice.
I will not cry.
Aunt Tracy doesn't appreciate my sarcasm.
Shocker.
"It's because I love you, Clem - Cainen.
Because we're family. Because I want to see you happy. Because you deserve that. You deserve better than whatever it is your brain is telling you."

2 13

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Anne Welborn @wildagreenbough.bsky.social · 7h

I claim 'shove' as a variation on 'push'.
From my WIP 'The Book of Ashes' Chapt. 1.
#WIPSnips

With a ragged cry Jabbo thrust himself away from the great door clutching his bleeding hand against his threadbare robe and shoving Rabbin backwards in his haste to distance himself from the ancient Elf letters he'd be been hunched over but a moment ago.
'Gods rot you Jabbo', swore Rabbin as he drew back a hand to strike the spellsmith, but a tiny flicker of flame arising amongst the rows of Elf letters cast into the great bronze door suddenly dried up his voice in his throat and sent chill fingers running down his spine.
'See see,' said Jabbo almost triumphant, 'Jabbo said, but you would not listen.' Struggling between the desire to draw closer or run away Jabbo grinned a joyous gap tooth grin as he watched one Elf letter and then the next burst slowly into flame.

2 9

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Finn McLellan @saranadosfiction.com · 6h

#WIPSnips | ultimate

Back in Blood on the Snow this time, and Viola is not having a particularly good day

( saranadosfiction.com/2020/08/16/b... )

*What the-? Did they go to get help? Were they kidnapped? Did something happen while I was busy trying not to get shot?*

The last thought seemed to catch on something in her head. Slowly, and with a sinking, twisting feeling in her stomach, she looked down – and saw the spreading dark stain soaking through the lower leg of her trousers.

*Well… fuck.*

It didn’t hurt, which surprised her. She’d expected it to hurt.

Then again, being stabbed didn’t hurt nearly as much as she’d always thought it would either, and being shot was essentially like being stabbed with a blunt, round piece of metal, which meant… that it wasn’t anything like being stabbed at all, and that she was probably going into shock.

*Should probably tell someone about that.*

She tried to say something – she wasn’t sure what – but her face felt oddly numb, her lips wouldn’t work, and whatever words she did manage to get out were lost in the all-encompassing ringing aftermath of the shot.

*I think I’m going to faint*, she thought, with an odd, clinical detachment. And, as the world spun away into the grey, she had time for one final thought. *If he shot me… then who in the hells shot him?*

1 4 20

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

L.M. du Plessis 🇳🇦 🇺🇦📚💙 ‪✨Drafting New Project✨ @smoking-gnu.bsky.social · 6h

Morning #WIPSnips. Some shady future mutineers in Cavern Clipper discuss sowing dissent on the ship, using current events to maximum effect.
#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity

“Well I don’t fucking know! Just say… just say it drank someone’s blood to turn into the cocoon or something! A captured pirate that the Captain was keeping secret somewhere, or one of the Snipdragons while we were fighting! Anything! Just make it sound horrible!” the other male voice said, his patience sounding thin as ice.
“But why though? What will this accomplish?” the female voice asked, sounding intrigued rather than sceptical.
“We use it when the time comes! I’ve started figuring something out! We whisper to a few of the crew about these rumours and get them on our side, then I’ll take out Mildred and take her armoury keycard, and then we can stage a mutiny! We can even get Clarence in on it at the end, let him become Captain when we take over since our dear Captain seems to have let freaks and monsters take over the ship from us humans!”
“Hmm, it has merit…” the female voice mused.
“Then of course, eventually we accidentally trip Clarence over the side when he’s not wearing a belt and take the ship ourselves! Might take a while, but we’ll get to honour those damn pirate’s deal and actually survive this with our own ship! Now get to it and spread those rumours! But not all at once, make a new one every day. You know who to spread it to for maximum effect!”

5 27

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Michael Spearwater @michaelspearwater.bsky.social · 6h

#WIPSnips Oct.14, and it's time for the "ultimate"... what?

Looking through, I see that the only time that word appears for me is at the end of a villainous conversation

How appropriate.

excerpt from "Monsters Among Us : Teenage Wasteland" by Michael Spearwater
the word 'ultimate' is highlighted
---

“Again, yes. A behemoth to dwarf behemoths, a leviathan in fact. Completely unnecessary for our ultimate goals, but what do I know, I’m just the one with the brain…” The man stood calmly in the center of the room, unperturbed by shakes and cracks. “Now, I have said my piece, and you two have had a nice breather, so it is time for us to kill each other, I’m afraid.”

2 15

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

K.A. Hela ✨ Prepping for edits...again✨ @jundlife.bsky.social · 5h

The ultimate end of a day.
From 'HatWIP'
#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #WIPSnips

The golden hour has ended. The light is beginning to fade from its yellowed climax to a muted pink. Soon it will be navy blue. Then I will be forced to endure the inky blackness occupied by the vastness of space; a void, a vacuum, a place with no warmth or life. I hate the empty spaces in the world. I hate the things that call them home.

8 30

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Laken Honeycutt 💫 Editing Book 2 💫 @mycelialwriter.bsky.social · 4h

Alandiran’s scroll—ultimate testament of the Allanian people before they fled Ulli’s shores forever… #WIPSnips from SoS subbing “final” for “ultimate”

2 18

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Prof Emily but Spoopier Now @professoremily.bsky.social · 4h

#WIPSnips

Jan Karlsson @jangoeswriting.bsky.social · 6h

‘Eventually’ instead of ‘Ultimate’ for today.

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips

(If someone that *is* showing on tag searches could quote post this with the WiPSnips tag, I would be grateful. It only needs one. Thank you!☺️)

1 1 7

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Chris E. Sol @telaranrhiod.bsky.social · 4h

Following on from yesterdays story, Bill has.. thoughts…

#wordprompt
#writingcommunity

#VSS365 #Whistpr
#VSSDaily #VSSMagic
#Emoetry #WIPSnips
#BlueSkyRelay #WoTtober
#WeirdMicro

Prompts and full text in alt!

Bill’s confusion
He ducked down, #crawling through the bushes while the coach started yelling and taking Ant and Chase down. They laughed as if this was a #joke!

That visitor had the look of #ultimate evil about him. He thought he’d seen a purple haze in the man’s eyes too. Bill shook as strange sounds filled his mind, like some sort of #spectral #music present in his scull. As well as a weird #symbol he felt like he could almost see, deep inside, almost like a #flourish of Light coming from within.

Coming home, he sat down by the #hearth, trying to make sense of the events of the day. One sniff—«I need to #bathe!» he said aloud. Heading upstairs his found his sister was listening to a «Dollie #deluxe» album, «which witch». He kinda liked it and found himself humming along as he ran his bath.

#VSS365 Deluxe
#Whistpr Crawl
#VSSDaily Hearth
#VSSMagic Bathe
#Emoetry Jocular
#WIPSnips Ultimate
#BlueSkyRelay Flourish
#WoTtober Symbol
#WeirdMicro Spectral Music

1 5 22

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Erika Arivett @erikaarivett.bsky.social · 3h

I didn’t love the thesaurus’s synonyms for “ultimate,” but one was “eventual.” I went with this scene because you could in fact replace eventually with ultimately and it would still make sense.

#WIPSnips #amwriting #writesky #writingcommunity #YA #fantasy

“The nekomata is a shapeshifter,” Ryo explains. “It’s a kind of cat demon, but it can disguise itself as anything from a housecat to a human. It would have eventually possessed the old woman who was caring for it and consumed her energy.”
“The old woman…you don’t mean Honda-san? My neighbor?” My skin turns cold at the thought of my elderly neighbor so narrowly escaping such a fate. “It would have…eaten her?”

2 14

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Cassandra Hase = {Aspiring Author} @cassandrahase.bsky.social · 3h

Cora finally agreed to using the stirrups, flipping her voluminous skirts over Anvil's tail. Ruskin bounded, nipping at a cord hanging off one of Alexander's bags. Riley smiled, feeling the bunching muscles of Sugarsnap's haunches beneath her. It was the ride she had dreamed of taking.

#wipsnips

✨#WIPSnips✨ A Daily Writing Share Tag @wipsnips.bsky.social · 6h

The #WIPSnips word for October 14th is "ultimate"

#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity

#WIPSnips a bluesky writing community tag
October 14 - ultimate
Share a line from your WIP with the daily word for inspiration
Use #WIPSnips. Don't forget Alt Text for graphics
Synonyms, variation and vibes are fine.
Support others on the #WIPSnips tag!
Hosted by rosie-j-potter.bsky.social

The image behind the text is a border that is black with stars with a light blue rectangle highlighted by a fuchsia line. An illustrated caticorn holding a pencil and writing in a book with a rose behind one ear is in the lower right corner

2 15

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 3h

#WIPSnips The word for October 14 is ULTIMATE

The perfect word for a final book in a series. Because of course it's there. Here is a passage in THE RILL LORD where Hans realizes the crux of the evil he, and Dorilian, face.
#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #Triempery #epicfantasy

Screenshot of text excerpt from THE RILL LORD, sixth and final book (April 2026) of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. This snip is of Hans confronting Nammuor... and realizing something terrible.

Nammuor eyed Hans with hate and purpose. “You only think you know how strong he is; how powerful he might become. That gifted collection of cells has spent his entire life holding at arm’s length a legacy his forefathers feared to embrace. That he refuses to embrace! The Sordaneons have long sought to become mere men and in him they have nearly succeeded. I would put that legacy to far better use.”
Hans saw then the full extent of Nammuor’s evil. The Diadem was not just a device or a machine as the Aryati had sought to build. It was the Undying Crown. The compound eye jewel into which Hans looked held the core of a god and was itself an Entity, even as the Wall was, or the Rill. Nammuor, although its host, was not its ultimate form.
The lurking evil at the Diadem’s core wanted what the other Entities already possessed: the Leur birthright of the Highborn.

4 17

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Nicole "Ashrah" Hidalgo @sayaashrah.bsky.social · 3h

#WIPSnips 14. "Ultimate"

Fresh out of the oven, from "When Death Breathed Life Into Me," a new short story for #ChroniclesOfTheRealms that shows how Quan Chi became... well, Quan Chi. Might be a good "Halloween" story, too.

#ChroniclesOfTheRealms #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity

The ghoul relished every letter, every parcel of knowledge that nourished its mind and its soul. An exotic, invigorating feast this was. Not that the ghoul remembered its previous meals: they were but faded remembrances, bereft of meat. All it knew was that it had eaten, and the certainty that it had not been as delicious as this one.

But every feast had an end. The Accursed, for all the mettle in her marrow and the might in her magic, met her ultimate adversary not in the ungainly giant, but in the guile of the marrkal. The ghoul tasted the putrid poison as it chewed on what remained of the elf’s flesh, and that, too, delighted it.

End. Marrow. Guile. Poison.

5 23

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Samantha Boo-reaux @woodenvelt.bsky.social · 3h

Ultimate = Final

Spencer has landed in some serious sh!t.

From my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer

This is important. You need to focus, Spencer told his uncooperative brain.

The wooly fog was beginning to lift, but it was being replaced by something else. An angry buzzing he could feel through the soles of his feet was crowding in at the edges of his awareness. Out of instinct, Spencer reached for the Gray Lady and found the usually placid waters of her presence boiling like a tea kettle over the fire.

“Lady, bless and keep me,” he whispered on a shaky breath. He felt Her presence settle over him, a thin layer of cool gossamer tingling against his skin. The angry buzz resolved into something he could understand. It was pain and blood and fear steeped into the very stones beneath him. Every unlucky soul who’d been dragged into this cursed place and shed their last drop of blood, gasped their final dying breath upon these stones. They had not been grieved or given rites or buried. They were clamoring at Spencer all at once, crying out for him to witness them, to give voice to their pain and their suffering. The Lady’s touch upon him made it bearable, but only just.

2 7 24

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Arthur Cly-boo-rne Ghostwrites @arthurclybourne.bsky.social · 13h

Amber and Julie post tree-climbing videos so that their 100 to 200 viewers can vote on who is better at it.

Julie usually wins, since Amber isn't very athletic and often needs a boost from Julie to even get started.

#AwesomeCharacters

Charlie Delta (has been a ghost this whole time! 👻) @charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 16h

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters

For the sake of this hypothetical, your characters have social media in their world.

Do they use it? What kind of things are they posting about? Pictures, video, or text? What do they have as a profile pic?

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

1 1 10

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

pun @thelastpunicorn.bsky.social · 11h

grieving the living

#WIPSnips #WritingPrompts

He moves up onto the mattress next to her, enveloping her in his arms, cheek resting against the top of her head. His tears soak into her hair, damp traveling down the strands to her scalp. Ana burrows into his warmth but can't conjure any words. She sits and waits and lets him sob fragments of speech against her forehead, her cheek, the crook of her neck.

She isn't sure how long they sit like that but it's long enough for Ty's sobs to go silent and the quaking of his shoulders to still. Even after the crying ends he stays wrapped around her. She makes no move to push him away and he doesn't speak.

Alex isn't dead. Ana knows this. She'd told everyone as much after he'd disappeared but they'd assumed it was the trauma speaking.

2 10

Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 11h

Am I supposed to be able to read something here cuz all that happens is a message “labeled by the author” when I tap the gray bar. Or is there no snip here?

1

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Ramblings of a Wannabe Writer @kaylee-scott.bsky.social · 1d

Today’s #wipsnips word is “push”. Sometimes the universe just compels you to show up and you don’t know why until you get there. #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writersky #writesky #amwriting

I stepped out of the car and walked around the back of the house to Anne’s apartment, pushing the door handle to let myself in like always, but it didn’t budge. Anne’s door was never locked. What the hell was going on? I knocked a little louder than I’d meant to and, when the door finally opened, found Anne’s sister Patricia staring back at me. Peering past her, there were Anne’s two nieces and nephew, sound asleep in Auntie Annie’s bed.
My anger at not being invited to whatever was going on quickly subsided, replaced with panic. Anne’s sister lived in Iowa or Idaho or some other, middle of nowhere, vegetable producing state. What was she doing there? Why hadn’t Anne mentioned she was coming? Something was very wrong.

1 5 28

Reposted by Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman

Kasolka @heliosc7.bsky.social · 1d

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Word of the day. Push. WIP. The man across the water

4 27