Ilya Kaminsky, “Still Dancing: An Interview With Ilya Kaminsky”

I haven’t written in months. Mental health combined with a lost story ruined my joy in it. But today I’ve been writing again, and I can’t say how great it is to dive back into a story.  I really wanna vent about this new gang of desperate, lovable human beings. 

small monetary things you can do for palestine 🇵🇸

itchio currently has a bundle of 140+ games for only $10, and all proceeds benefit medical aid for palestine

click a button to send money to help palestine via ad revenue (free!)

ask for a commission from these artists, who are donating the funds to palestinian aid charities. the thread also has lots of places to donate.

other artists or creatives who are commissioning - here, here, here, here, and here

another thread of charities can be found here

Hey everybody! Just a little update. I am going abroad for a week, but afterwards I plan on publishing some more moodboards (sorry for the long wait), answering messeges and tags, and finishing up the page about my OC’s.  The last couples of weeks have rushed by me, but I look forward to getting back here!

Exploring rural forests

- Bring a flashlight. Bring an extra battery. Bring another battery. Bring your headphones. Do not bring a camera.

- Set out after rain. It cleans the air.

- If a tree falls in your peripheral, it's a warning. Be careful, you only get one.

- If a tree falls right in front of you, something is out to kill you, and something wants to protect you.

- Those hooves you hear? Don't go looking, it's not a deer.

- You might get the urge to take your shoes off. Allow yourself to give in, if you are feeling reckless. However, no matter how familiar the ground seems, don't let it touch your ankles. Make sure you remember your name. Not all trees are born from seeds.

- The man with the dog does have eyes. He just shares them.

- If you come across a field with cows, check the height of the grass. Does it grow above your knees? Make haste. Do not dwell on the question what the cows have eaten instead.

- You might hear your own steps echoed in the bushes. Looking will not help you. There is nothing there to see.

- It's not thunder, it's moaning. You are lucky their pain is keeping them occupied.

- If you visit the abandoned house, don't close the door behind you.

- You can rest on a fallen trunk, but do not eat. You can lay your bag on a picknick bench, but remain standing.

- The carved signs are not meant for you.

- Horses do not step in puddles for they fear they will break a leg. Horses do not step in puddles for they fear they will be dragged under.

- The shadow is not that big, it's just closer than you think.

- The rolling fields look wonderful. Don't stay for the sunset.

I have ephita! These small rodent-like creatures (except for their beak) have the ability to read the desires of other nearby creatures. That’s how they sense hungry predators! 

I have fjordans! They are somewhat like horses, but thinner and longer, with scales on their bellies and instead of manes. They can run incredibly fast! The little ‘wings’ on their legs help them decrease speed dramatically within seconds. Their nickname ‘cliffdiver’ stems from the fact that wild fjordans can be seen sprinting towards cliff endings. They will stop at the last moment, making it look like they are intending to jump.

 I have wren! I have mooncats (spoiler alert: they are nothing like cats)! I have coulags and sentri!  

I think the world needs more fantasy novels with completely made up animals. No more “horses.” No more “rabbits.” Deer can stay but ONLY if they’re weird. All wolves must have wings, NO exceptions. No more laziness, its time to Make Shit Up. I expect your heroes to be riding scaly civets with antlers by midnight. I demand a survey of wildlife in the nearby forest that leaves me with no idea what a single word you said meant. I want CREATURES WITH FUNKY NAMES THAT YOU MADE UP OUT OF YOUR OWN HEAD. I want to be UNABLE TO PRONOUNCE THEM. I want all of your RODENTS to be POISONOUS for NO REASON. I deeply desire GIANT BIRDS. I hereby sentence you to five hours on Wikipedia reading about the Carboniferous period and hydrothermal vents.

If you can’t be creative, at least reskin some dinosaurs. It’s time to decide what kind of man you are—the kind that would let his evil overlord ride a tyrannosaurus, or a coward.

Part of me wants to write traditional, serious fantasy with serious lines in serious situations, and the other part of me just wants to write “I really don’t feel like this is the time for a quarterly review” as one of my pov characters runs from an army of the dead who are only partially on fire when they should be ash

You know what? Maybe the iceberg on top is how much words there are on the paper. But you wrote that entire chunk of rock. Because a word is not just a word. With every sentence you weave, you are conveying a multitude of meanings, you are juggling different characters with different agenda’s, you have pages of background info rolling around in your head.  After writing, the iceberg may just be two characters having dinner together and talking about their spaghetti for a full paragraph. Yet beneath the surface you have written two characters carefully scanning each other’s reactions for any sign their dinner-date is in love, too.  The iceberg might be a stiffening of character A’s stance, a look, the balling of fists. But you know the trauma that happened when A was sixteen and you have been digging and groping for the most subtle and yet most right way to convey that.  For every action you write, you have written thoughts, discussions, motivations in your head. For every scenery you have plannend a country. Even if you only write a hundred words per hour, you are writing half a life. And your readers might not see the entirety of your work. But as they admire the iceberg, part of their awe will come from sensing something vast and enourmous underneath the water.  

working on my Sheith fantasy au and it’s… going. slowly

I’m sorry this took so long! Here’s to the bard Hedorim Tolmish, by @hawkeyesout-punks. I hope it was worth the wait!

Requests for OC aesthetics are open.

More taggames! I was tagged by the lovely @andtheotherwriter to share the first three lines of my WIP, while the wonderful @merigreenleaf tagged me to the share the last line (at least, the last I’ve written so far). This is for Elementary: He had been repeating the name in his mind for weeks. Tungsten. He muttered it when he was standing behind the counter of his father's shop, wrote it in inkt on his lower arm, whispered it into Miltons ears. Slowly, the sound had wrapped itself around him, comfortable like an old jacket.   

And the last one: Tungsten sat down and cried. He's going to be okay, I promise! I’m not tagging anyone because this has been going around for a while now and I’m not sure who’s already done it, but if you haven’t, feel free to take this note as a tag!

Rules: Go to page 7 of your WIP, go to the 7th line, share 7 sentences and tag 7 more writer-blogs to continue the challenge. 

Thanks for tagging me, @sancta-silje!

From Elementary: Maybe it was magic that triggered the memories. Walls sprung from the ground like weeds, kitchentools growing against them as fungi. A chair rose beneath him and suddenly his legs were too short to touch the ground. 'Your mother and I need to tell you something.' Eight years old: his father in front of him, kneeling so their eyes met, seemed bigger and stronger than he'd ever be. He gave his mother a quick look. She smiled with her lips tightly closed.

I’m tagging @fragrant-stars, @a-getaway-car, @greenhousewriting, @temporarysentences, @pixel-letters, @theimpossiblescheme and @hawkeyesout-punks.