Author | Lightnews

Keygan S. S. McClellan

@keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social

140 followers 160 following 110 posts

writer, naturalist, artist, amateur nature photographer

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 21

Makin' a little intro post for the novel I'm currently working on for anyone curious:

A renegade blood mage joins a burgeoning workers' revolution in the halls of a malevolent, organic palace. Think Gideon the Ninth x the Avalanche team from FFVII.

moodboard for work-in-progress novel: images include dripping blood, old pipes, creepy dark stairs, woods shrouded in magenta fog, and a pale-colored, grand hall

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Aug 5

This is a big deal

apnews.com/article/sea-...

Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than 5 billion sea stars

Scientists have solved the mystery of what killed over 5 billion sea stars — also known as starfish — off the Pacific coast of North America.

apnews.com

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Jun 30

Yesssss this one is so good!!!

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Reposted by Keygan S. S. McClellan

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · May 10

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

'How come I can’t breathe?': Musk's data company draws a backlash in Memphis

The company’s turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.

www.politico.com

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 8

The literal entire ending of this WRETCHED, BEAUTIFUL game (Journey) which made me sob

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 8

It is late. Please see the attached image for an unhinged list of potential audiences for THE TOWER'S BLOOD, my (querying soon) science fantasy about a fugitive blood mage who helps start a workers' revolution with the power of Heart and Bad Jokes (and flesh manipulation).

#QuestPit #Q #A #SFF

an "unhinged" list of potential audiences for the proposed book (The Tower's Blood); potential audiences include people who vibe with "eat the rich," want more mental illness rep in fantasy, vibe with "be gay do crime," want there to be something like a horror version of Howl's Moving Castle where the castle is evil, are biology nerds, want the powerful dark mage who believes he is a danger to his loved ones to cope by telling bad jokes (instead of brooding), think having cosmic horror and body horror in the same magic system sounds fun, and enjoy media such as Final Fantasy VII, Gideon the Ninth, The Bone Shard Daughter, Trigun Stampede, The Jasmine Throne, The Surviving Sky, and Nevernight

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 8

Everything from this zone in Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker. iykyk 😭

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 7

A fugitive blood mage, trying to lay low, finds a new home (an organic, malevolent palace where the world's corrupt rulers dwell) and a new family (the four young revolutionaries infiltrating it).

His power could be the revolution's salvation. His secrets could be its downfall.
#QuestPit #Q #A #SFF

list of tropes/themes (including found family, revolution, bio-magic, and eldritch horror among others) for a work-in-progress book along with comparison titles (including Gideon the Ninth, The Bone Shard Daughter, The Jasmine Throne, and The Surviving Sky)

moodboard for an unpublished novel; images include dripping blood, old pipes, a decrepit staircase, a conifer forest lit by magenta fog, grand halls, antique items, lights glimpsed through tree trunks, and a dimly lit passage

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 7

About to finish Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell!

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 6

ECCO MY BELOVED?????

(Okay I'm kind of latching onto the hype because I only ever PLAYED the ps2 spiritual successor, Defender of the Future, but I watched playthroughs of the ogs and think they're just wonderful)

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 4

I don't believe I have a choice in the matter.

A gray tabby cat napping next to a computer keyboard

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 3

I would love to transfer my desktop and plants and cats to some kind of nice cottage or office next to a woodland where I can disappear for a couple hours at a time between bouts of writing ^.^

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 2

lol yes "reward" is pretty accurate. The closer I get to whatever the next Big scene is, the easier and faster the writing flows. Do you feel that way?

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 2

o.o

"The longer he peers at the old map, the more unsettled he feels. There is a symbol he doesn’t recognize marking the Palace’s plateau, which isn’t that weird, but there’s also an identical symbol in the surrounding mountains. What could that mean?"

#CRPFireflies #CampRevPit #ScavengerHunt

Revise & Resub @reviseresub.bsky.social · May 1

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟭: #ScavengerHunt
Because no camp is complete without a scavenger hunt: share a line, an image, or an object in your story that hides a secret, easter egg, or a twist.

On a grassy green hill beneath a starry night sky, the caterpillar nibbles on a tree while the mantis and the firefly work on their stories. The mantis lays in the grass writing in her journal with a fountain pen and her very tall stack of papers beside her. The firefly sits in the branches of the tree with a laptop. The firefly’s butt is glowing brightly so the mantis can see to write.
The text "#ScavengerHunt" is at the bottom.

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 2

Well, I quite enjoy drafting very, very intense scenes. I love spectacle, and I love it even more when the accompanying character emotions are big. Writing them is exhilarating, and I CAN NOT STOP until I've finished writing the scene lol. I have two scenes in book 1 that especially fit that.

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 1

Biology nerds who love horror, angst, and the "Eat the Rich" slogan

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 1

Near the end, some Things happen. Horror-adjacent Things.

#CRPFireflies #CampRevPit #MoodboardTwist

a collage of three images on a dark maroon background: the silhouette of a man in a dark hallway, a tree trunk overtaken by fungus, and a feather lying in the dirt

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · May 1

heh I think that's me exactly. Lemme know when it's out 😄✨

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 30

Plus there's just, like, a LOT of active maintenance while the story/plant grows lol

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 29

When things are going well, it feels really nice!! I'm just vibing with my characters (the pokemon), feeling like I'm nurturing something green and growing ^.^

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 29

Angsty sessions:

a man is cutting purple flowers with a pair of scissors

ALT: a man is cutting purple flowers with a pair of scissors

media.tenor.com

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 29

#CRPFireflies #CampRevPit #GifRevisions

Good sessions:

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 29

That was more fun that I expected! Some feedback on my 1st chapter was that I didn't explain enough about what was going on, and I edited accordingly. Looking at where I put cyan for backstory, I realized how useful that feedback was! There would've been way too little cyan before

a grid of pages in a word document where text is highlighted in different colors based on whether the passages contain description, character interiority, or backstory; the three colors are present in varying amounts

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Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 27

Confident MCs are so fun! Both to read and write

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 27

Thank you! The "campfire story" version is kind of intentionally obscuring/simplifying them (ppl in-universe don't know how they work). I love fantasy worlds with deep dark secrets.

Keygan S. S. McClellan @keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social · Apr 27

Lol yes, I, too, have created magic system problems that I then also have to solve