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🕯️ El(iza)beth 🌬️ mistress 🍁 of 🕸️ spiders 🕷️ @arachnereid.bsky.social · 5h

It can be so easy to neglect ourselves on the road, and disassociate...
What self care practices do you need to stay balanced?

#WIPsnips : care

“It’s Pickle,” his jocular voice dragged morosely. “She slowed down real bad.”
Niwa inspected the beloved creature’s swollen foreleg. With all their pushing to make progress, they had overlooked the health of this important companion.
Come to think of it, she had been checking out of her own self care as well. How long had it been since she had meditated?
“We need to let her rest,” Niwa’s voice caught in her throat in a way that she wasn’t expecting. This leg injury could be life threatening.

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Kayleigh Diaz @kleighdiaz.bsky.social · 4h

#WIPSnips | to care for ✨vibes

Toying with various characters in my post-apocalyptic #WIP having complicated relationships w/ religion.

Here's a bit from Lennie's mom. Reflections on motherhood in the apocalypse.

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #amwriting

Writing snippet: They’d warned her. They said things were falling, fast. Food running out. They said, let us be the last generation. They said, why would you invite such pain? Having a child was like setting your heart on the doorstep and waiting for the boot to drop, but that wasn't right.

That would've been a quick demise.

No, having a child in this world meant baring your open chest to the elements and hoping they left you something intact, cracking open the ribs and watching the sinew stretch and snap.

But spare me my child, she prayed to the dark. Make me your example instead. Splay me wide on a table. I am Abraham's son—take me to the land of Moriah. Split my chest. Reach in.

Here I am.

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Carol Anne Shaw Books @carolanneshawbooks.bsky.social · 2h

#WipSnips #Care

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 5h

Follow your lifeline out of this despair.
Blessings.

- From Siege of the Spirit

#WIPSnips #care #WritingCommumity #fantasy #darkfantasy #hope

If the rest of the country has gone mad, if the whole broken world has soured, at least you know your purpose.
Take care. Take CARE for your life.
I would stop you if I could, but I see how that would hurt you.

Siege of tre: Spirit

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 11h

Lamictal changed my life tbh it’s been a great med for me! Hope it works for you too!

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 11h

Aspen is a great #traildog! Taking a breather at a lunch stop on a #nationalforest #trail. #tripawdog #tripoddog #dog #DogSky #WednesdayWags

Black and white husky-heeler mix named Aspen sits in a mountain meadow beside an old fallen log. Aspen and spruce trees in background.

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Author James C Struck @curioussnowflake.bsky.social · 1d

#WIPSnips for 10/14: best rather than ultimate

The only thing worst than your first day of high school? Your first day of high school when you have to contend with bullying because of burn scars on your face.

#WriteSky #YAFantasy #QueerWriters

Nervous? First day and all?" Anna took the day off from work to drop him off, and so had forgone the usual primping and preening. Dressed in a simple blouse and denim shorts, she looked both younger and older than usual.
“Yeah. A lot, actually." Despite the continuing heat, Tim still wore his long sleeves.
“Can I tell you the truth, kiddo?" She turned towards him. “High school is hell. Well,” she smiled a little, “not all of it. You are going to meet some of the most unpleasant people you will ever come across over the next four years, but you are also going to make some of the best friends you will ever have.”
“Doubt it." Friends had never been Tim’s strong suit, even before the scars.
“Count on it. Maybe not today, maybe not for a while, but you will.“ She reached out and cupped the left side of his face, her hand faintly cool against the scars. “Remember, these are not you. You are not your scars, or your fears, or your memories. You are you. And there are people in that building that will respond to that.”
“Hope so.”

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Emily Sinclair @butterflyonawheel.bsky.social · 1d

#WIPSnips | ultimate

From The Stardust of Failure, Chapter 4, in which we get insight into how Nicky experiences his music.

On the best days, Nicky felt fire consume him.

Pure, transparent flames, orange and red and touched with blue. Liquid, living fire that torched all the miserable stupidity in his world. Maybe he looked like a fool himself sometime, a fool blind to that world and deaf to everything but his own guitar, but those trances he went into were all the spirituality Nicky felt he ever would need. He'd started to call them “burning times,” and to Nicky that burn was the ultimate justification of existence. The music became flesh and the flesh became fire and the fire spilled out in torrents of sound.

He hadn't felt the burn since one moment on the Canadian tour when he'd transported himself so far away from it that he'd managed to obliterate his memory of what they were into, and had just…

Burned.

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Dan Sato @tellthestory.bsky.social · 23h

#FrankMatsura comes face-to-face with his mortality. #WIPsnips for today's and tomorrow's words. For that last sentences, I borrowed an image from Thornton Wilder's Our Town. #ulimate #care #writesky #historicalfiction #asian-american

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 1d

#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

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A.C. Wolfe @whitewolfe32.bsky.social · 19h

Today’s #WIPsnips word is #ultimate. Had to reference the old draft again, and found this scene of Cainen feeling hopeless about his mental health. Used “ultimately” instead.

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

White text on a black background.

As if I'm ever going to recover. I've read the
pamphlets. Depression has no cure. It only has treatment. It's a constant force that must be restricted, managed, controlled, and if you lose focus, lose resolve, for even a moment, it will overwhelm you. Never going away. Unlike us, it can't die. It's an abusive relationship you can't get out of. A shadow. A parasite. There are a lot of metaphors out there for depression. Ultimately, they all mean the same thing, make the same comparison: Depression is eternal.

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

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #push

During a traditionally non lethal engagement with the Sheltri, one of the the raiders changes the rules … on Rushak.

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

But it shoved in close; its red eyes and hawkish nose filled his eyes and blurred and darkened into the image of a Kudrum. It became a Kudrum, and once
again it had Lara, it had him. He gasped with terror.

His limbs quivered, softened into soaked roots. It wrestled him to the ground and pulled a knife. He grappled in vain. The thing was going to kill him.

Blue light flared. The creature leapt off him
and fled as his enraged brother menaced it.

He huddled where he had fallen. Scratches
burned on his face. He lifted a trembling hand,
dropped it, PUSHed himself upright. The horrible image flashed in his mind and flashed again before the night resolved. Drisal's hands took hold of him, pulling him to his feet. He staggered free. His jaw ached. Bracken fires glittered all around. Void of thought he plunged into the task of smothering them
one after another until he was winded, then smothered one more.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

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MeliBOO! (she/her) @melibee44.bsky.social · 1d

With Alt text:

thegingerjesus1

> Bookthreads

2h

I finished @dr_jonathan_stea's book Mind the Science. An accessible read, informative on the dangers of pseudoscience and the wellness industry.

50 MIND THE SCIENCE

Depression is not the same as having a bad day.

ADHD is not the same as being hyperactive.

PTSD is not the same thing as feeling upset.

Panic Disorder is as being afraid. not the same thing

OCD is not the same as being organized.

Anxiety Disorder is not the same as feeling stressed before an exam.

schizophrenia is not a split personality.

is not the same Bipolar Disorder as being moody.

Source: http://www.mentalhealthliteracy.org

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #hope

It’s happened. It MUST be his fault! The mob rules.

POV Cerel

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

rebuild!" Falma shouted. "Banish him! Only then can we be safe."

"No!" Drisal shouted. "I can't work without
him!" Lord Deran glanced at him and frowned. But the damage was done. Shouts of agreement had already begun. Talman glared at her as those outcries sprouted dozens more. The foolishness spread
putridly around Cerel like the contents of a spilled chamber pot.

"What a boggle of fishwits," he muttered.

"Indeed." Jer looked over the crowd. Too
many people's attention homed in on their small group, and they started to close in on Rush and Drisal.

"Stop it! Listen to Talman!" Cerel boomed, in a final, fleeting HOPE that his celebrity status as newly Named would make him heard.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 3d

#WIPSnips hope #fantasy #darkfantasy #despair #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

There was a pathetic eagerness to the way he asked the question, though he was clearly without hope.

Siege of the Spirit

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 2d

Looking down at ashy ground through the interior of a juniper snag struck by lightning and burned decades ago.
#SundaySnag #tree #nature #juniper #struckbylightning

The interior of a hollow juniper struck by lightning and burned decades ago. Looking straight down inside the trunk at an ashy floor, encircled by the partially charred interior walls of the trunk. Sunlight has made it inside, too, illuminating the floor which seems to cast the light back upward so it appears to be the thing shining.

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 3d

#WIPSnips hope #fantasy #darkfantasy #despair #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 4d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #welcome

Even a simple introduction is demeaning.

Rushak is brought to the king’s hall for the first time by his father.
POV: Chalmalch, Druid.

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

Lord Deran glanced at the slight figure on his
left as if he were a small rodent half out of its hole. “And Rushak."

The name was familiar, thorn-prick, dashing
deer familiar. A single stark word, a root that meant “songbird" with the tail of falsehood. No family designation completed it. Lord Deran's voice held a dangerous edge and Rushak flinched at hearing his name pronounced, so slightly that only the Ra'am
himself, being what he was, noticed. The word itself, so uttered, was a blow. But the false little bird remained motionless. The king shared an enigmatic smile with the princess and then offered encouragement, his voice kind, soft, his words unwontedly slow and distinct. Be WELCOME. Rise. Take
courage.

So Rushak stood, and began to speak out of a
face uplifted, as pale and still as moonlight.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

A dark scene from Siege of the Spirit, book two of my fantasy WIP.

TW: child injury

#Saturdark #darkfantasy #WritingPrompt #fantasy #WritingCommunity

"No. No. Tëryl." He knelt beside his son,
unable to stop the tears raining from his soul. Tëryl's face was so pale, his temple bloodied where he'd struck a stone. Drisal searched further, but could find no wound from the urmaugh, thankfully. Pain and tears nearly blinded him.

He did not hear Lord Shelwon's patrol
approaching until they were upon him. They hauled him to his feet and bound his wrists.

"Please. My son is hurt. My family needs me.
You, you can't do this."

The young guard's face was inscrutable and
pitiless. "We have our instructions."

Siege of the Spirit
A.C. Turek

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober
11. Snippet Saturday

The Acolytes are coming. They’ll be asking questions.
Lara and Glassa, Rushak’s aunt.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.
Another I liked for #WIPSnips #welcome so I dare share a twofer?

Fantasy Indies Spooktober prompt graphic

"So what the Acolytes have found is a knot of
quarreling women!" Lara cried. "What ails you?" She clenched her fist outside the kitchen, near the entrance to the gathering hall.

"You've never walked the line, child, between
light and dark, between black and white, between moral right and mortal wrong, have you, child?" Glassa murmured between her teeth, her voice low, accusing. "You've never seen death in its unWELCOME absoluteness. It has never taken from you or yours. You have never dashed yourself against tradition like
a fly against glass. I love my brother! Do you
understand this?"

Lara nodded. "Of course I understand."

"How can you? You're an only child!"

Lara stiffened. "They're here."

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 4d

Good morning from Lily! I think she just woke up.
#Caturday #Cat

Calico cat faces viewer. She is curled on a lap, sort of.

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 5d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #prize

Rush’s slapstick demonstration of the wrong one has finally come to an end.

A lighthearted look the dynamic between Rushak Cerel and Drisal.

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

"Hurry up," Cerel muttered under his breath.
Rushak cleaned the fish carefully so all the
children could see. "Well," he said, rinsing the knife clean. "Bey was right. Small fish, small knife. It's always important to use the right tool for the job-any job—and the biggest tool isn't necessarily the best one." That made Drisal cough, and both burst into laughter when Rushak glanced up at them along
with the children, wearing the same bemused
expression. He got to his feet amid a dozen protests. “We're done for the day." He tossed the PRIZE to Bey. “Take that to your mother. I'm sure she'll find something to do with it." The children scurried off, and Rushak joined his brother and Cerel.

"That was some performance," Cerel said,
punching him.

"At least Lyn can't say I did not contribute
anything to the feast now."

Drisal raised an eyebrow. "One tiny fish?
That's really it?"

Brother's Keeper darling outtake

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Amanda Turek👻Headless Horsewoman @acturek.bsky.social · 6d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

They were paid. Still looks like exploitation to Cerel, for … reasons.

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

Circle = #battery (a small group with purpose) AND vibe: gem power!

"You now know the Kudrum assault the
Forest. They moved in strength while we toiled here to what end we knew not. Therefore we march, even
at midnight. You have shown great courage in battle in the face of bitterness, homelonging, and death. Now show courage of another kind, for with it we can reach home in time. The Edin and the Ra'am have
given me blessing in this time of need to exercise the power manifested through me by Maledin-Iryla to open a portal." Lord Shelwon raised his fist, casting the light of his Shammeth-stone, pale for now, over the company. "Rälm-wielders, assemble!"

Drisal gasped; his eyes widened as the twelve
lords and antler chiefs formed a circle, their shining emeralds upraised. Cerel understood. Here'd be the greatest test of the brothers' arduous nights of labor.
His lips tightened. They'd get not a pinch of credit for its success, and likely all the blame if it failed.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

This is so heart-wrenching!

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Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

Oh yes! I have so much trouble with that, too! Military titles, castle parts … I have references but I can’t seem to find the time to use them!

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