For anyone interested in an #EnemiesToLovers #MediumBurn M/F #RomanticFantasy tale that reads a bit like a cross between the #vampireDiaries and #Deadwood, you *might* enjoy my tales which I make available free in a bunch of places, but I'd LOVE it if you'd consider joining me in my Ream community hub (free):

https://reamstories.com/deberelene

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#WritingWonders: 11th: MC (Llew) POV: If you had to give your best friend (Anya) one piece of advice, what would it be? Why?

Do NOT touch a dead Syaenuk. Ever.

…

What did I say?!

12th: Does Llew have prejudices? No, not particularly. Llew moved countries a couple of times growing up, and has lived in working class conditions and utter poverty. She won't judge people for doing what they must to survive.

Jonas, on the other hand, was raised loathing Aenuks and trained to kill them from a young age, believing them a danger to the rest of the world, with their power to drain life from around them

**Yeah, I'm playing catch up again. I'm full up with a winter cold this week (Southern Hemisphere represent). It's playing havoc with my creativity, or much thinking, really.**

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#WritingLife

#WritingWonders 17th July: MC POV: Who was the last person you hugged and/or kissed?

(Deadly Touch; Llew): I had to say goodbye to Anya again. We never part without a hug, and I always wish it didn't have to end, because then she's gone. And it feels like forever since I kissed and cuddled Jonas, and that was only yesterday morning. So much as happened since then. I hope we can find some time again soon …

(Wolf & Source; Anaïs): I held my toddler brother to try to soothe him after Mummeh became exhausted. Does that count?

#Fiction #Fantasy #sff #Writing #Writer #Author #WritersOfMastodon #WritingCommunity #RomanticFantasy

Here's an example of a kissing scene from one of my books for anyone curious; perhaps readers if #RomanticFantasy or #FantasyRomance.

(context: Llew's power is that she can heal by syphoning life from elsewhere through touch, and she's got a few bruises and cuts from an earlier fight)

***

“He thinks I'll kill you if we're together.” Llew took a few steps back. Her calves hit something. Her bed.

Jonas laughed. “Does he now?” His eyes grew dark as he took one last step, closing the distance between them.

“He's right. What if this was worse? Or, what if something happened to me?” She glanced at the two windows. They were on the second floor, but that wouldn't stop anyone determined enough. And anyone who came this far into Brurun looking for her would be determined. “What would you do? Right here, right now, there's nothing living in here but us?”

“First of all...” He raised his hand, knuckles curled, holding it by her cheek a moment. Llew had nowhere to go. He pressed his fingers to her cheek and sucked in a breath.

Her skin tingled beneath his touch.

She had been getting used to healing much more severe wounds, both in herself and others, she had expected to cause him much more pain. She gave him a sardonic grin, which dropped as soon as she saw the pink of the skin down the backs of his fingers. Like a mild burn.

He shook his head. “All better now,” he said, hiding his hand from view by taking her head in a gentle grip. He pressed his lips to hers. “I wouldn't let nothin' happen to you right here …” He tilted her head and kissed her chin. “… right now.” He coaxed her head back a little more and kissed under her jaw. “Second of all …” He kissed his way down her throat. “If somehow you did get hurt …” Kiss. “… Right here …” Kiss. “… Right now …” He spoke into the dip between her collarbones. Now, he straightened slowly to speak over her lips. “I'd heal you and you'd be so grateful you'd make love to me immediately.” His breath still tasted like chocolate. “I'm afraid I'd be at your mercy, weak as I'd be, but I'll forgive you.” He pressed his lips to hers, nibbling until she parted them.

They breathed each other in for a few moments and Llew's resolve melted. Let whatever would happen go right ahead and happen if she could feel like this.

Heh. And there was this from Karlani (one of the antagonists from Warrior's Touch, Book 2 of the Deadly Touch series"):

“Tell me, Karlani, how you really feel about Jonas.”

Karlani rolled her eyes and chuckled. “You want my honest opinion?”

Aris nodded deeply.

“Jonas is a spoilt man-child who doesn't take his gift seriously. He has no concept of the privilege bestowed on him and the responsibilities that go along with it. He's always known he was special, and why, yet he throws it in your face, sleeping with your sworn enemy. His own sworn enemy. He disrespects you. He doesn't know what it's like to grow up surrounded by ignorance. Children can be cruel.” She pouted, but it wasn't entirely genuine. No doubt she had looked after herself just fine from an early age. “I thought I'd never find anyone like me. The men in my village were useless. More interested in proving themselves against me than to me. When I heard about Jonas, I thought my prayers were answered, only to find out he's shacked up with that... leech.”

#RomanticFantasy #FantasyRomance #FantasySeries #Fantasy #Bookstodon

#WritingWonders 12th June: MC POV: How do you feel about marriage?

Llew: I admit, my opinion has changed. When Jonas asked me in his way, I didn't answer. I hadn't seen many happy marriages. My pa was miserable after my me went missing. But, I suppose that wasn't due to being married … But, in Cheer, women weren't well treated, married or not. I dismissed the idea of attaching myself to a man like that early on.

But, when Jonas was going into a big fight as the underdog, he said it would help to have a "soft landing" to return to. And, well, then I evaded the question.

But, a few weeks later, when Jonas needed a soft landing again …

“My answer is yes.” Llew craned her head back to look at him, as well as forcing him to stop kissing her and listen. He'd asked her to marry him at Merrid and Ard's, but Llew had been taken so by surprise she hadn't even been sure he was serious. “I never really answered you. Mainly because I never planned on getting married … to anyone. But we could, couldn't we? Maybe when we get back to Rakun. 'Cause I'll always have your back …”
“And I'll always have yours,” he murmured.
“And it would just be nice to say to the world that whatever we're doing, we're in it together, right? And you said things were always easier if you knew you had a soft place to land. And Elka said you've got to go into this thing with a plan to survive, and I don't want you going into it with anything else. And … I don't know. I feel like there are a million reasons to do it, but I can only name a few.”
They watched each other, eyes flicking across the other's face. Llew didn't know what Jonas was seeking, but she was after some sort of assurance. Sure, it had been him who asked her to marry him and her answer to give, but it had been so long since he'd asked, and so much had happened, maybe he didn't think it was a good idea now.
“You know how to light up the dark, don't you?” Jonas's mouth crooked up at one corner, and his eyes sparkled …

#RomanticFantasy #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity

#WritingWonders 10th June: How would you describe your story?

I consider it Epic, Gritty Romantic Fantasy with an underlying thread of Hope.

The Deadly Touch series goes to some dark places thanks to the nature of the magic system I developed as I wrote it. Greater magic can be achieved through blood transfusions between certain people, so it gets dark the way True Blood gets dark.

I also opted for a Wild West setting, like in Deadwood.

I started writing it just before MeToo really kicked off, and have explored misogyny (including internalised) through the pages, drawing on my own experiences, as well as, sadly, fairly universal experiences women put up with. The main character herself, Llew, learns to accept her own femineity over the course of the story, starting out finding it to be both a nuisance and dangerous.

#RomanticFantasy

A story of hidden identities, sibling rivalry, enemies to lovers, and blood magic.

#RomanticFantasy #FantasyNovel #FantasySeries #Fantasy #Romance #BoostingIsSharing #Fistion #SFF

https://deberelene.com/book/healers-touch/

"So, I had a wee epiphany that, yes, while I hope to make something of a career out of my writing and a financial contribution to my family’s future through my stories, I’m sick of trying to strategise to win at whatever algorithm is in charge on whatever platform..."

https://deberelene.com/my-way/

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Today's #microPrompt hosted by @crtaxon -

WOOD
out of #AtopTheTreesBeneathTheMountains, my #RomanticFantasy wip :)

The lord owned the kirēak mines: pits dug deeply enough to siphon Chaos-tainted waters, from which the metallic sludge of kirēak was refined. It was an essential ingredient in alchemy. The navy also needed kirēak on every swoop under Maiur Admiral control. And thus it was the only export of value in Śelasdur, making House Anrire the plushest of them all. Crystalline minerals were displayed on sung shelves, caught within the grip of wood urged to cage stone, and the husks of monstrous insects hunted by miners adorned their walls.

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#microPrompt: QUENCH

excerpt from #AtopTheTreesBeneathTheMountains (kind of a long one because I only use it once in my book, and it's in a short scene, so here's the whole thing)

***

Samej could only watch the Noldòrian soldiers leave the tower for a search, draining away until few Śelasdur guards remained. He stood on a walkway over the tower’s foyer to watch them filing out into Avie Ud’s most torrential hours.

“Only a few hundred remain now,” remarked Dak, coming to stand beside Samej. The footman seethed with equal anger. He, too, had been denied the right to seek out his master.

“Lady Kitśanve has been aching to remove the Noldòrian soldiers since we arrived,” said Samej. “She prefers loyalty among her ranks to strength in numbers.”

“Sacrificing one will not give her the other.” Dak became more agitated as he watched them. “She sends them north, and north alone, to search the distance between Śelasdur and Se. The other roads have been rendered impassable by the storm. That leaves much coast unsearched. A great amount of dying land in which the Lord Mayor could be lost.”

“It may already be too late for Esor.”

“Pray it is not.” Dak handed a waterproof pack to Samej. “Here. A few weeks’ supplies, if you can fast like a real Àlvar. Got it from the stock rooms left unguarded by Kitśanve’s redeployment.” Dak needed to protect the interests of Great House Kovemisí while Corvindë was gone, and that left Samej to shoulder the bag. “Move quickly. There’s an unholy magick on this blasted wind, and it will not be quenched until they come home or they are dead.”

***

#Fantasy #EpicFantasy #RomanticFantasy #writing #AmWriting #Excerpt #WritingCommunity #SFF

Esor awoke to find his husband seated on the opposite side of the bed. Corvin’s hair was loose down his back and his antlers were limned by moonlight. A limp hand rested on the duvet beside him, failing to grasp a bouquet of delicate blue flowers.

Corvin spoke.

“Ekatosnur supported my father. Ekatosh’s Heraldry was key to his administration, and it must be for mine too. We interwedded. I have Ekatosnur cousins who spread lies about me, and they hate the idea of me. Conditions within the Great House are fractious. The a’lvelder cannot compel her juniors’ votes; her sex means power has flagged over the centuries. I would lose all but Lady Meliel’s vote. Enough to hand the election to Enantir.

“Ekatosnur wanted nothing from me. I could not buy their vote. They were prepared to turn their vote to that weak-jawed alvelder of Enantir simply to spite me. I had to give them something.” Corvin did not look at him when he said, “My secret for their vote.”

“They will be able to hold it over you for your entire reign,” Esor said. “Your entire life, if it extends beyond your reign.”

And Corvin shuddered, his shoulders collapsing. “It is worth the humiliation. Is it not? That is surely what you wish to ask. Is my selfish hunt for power worth the abject shame of exploiting my greatest secret for power? Tell me how disgusting you find this pathetic behavior!”

“Is that what you would want from me? Would it help you?” asked Esor so gently. He sat up. The bedsheets fell around him.

“What kind of question is that?” he snarled.

Esor reached out to place a hand in the center of Corvin’s back, and the Magistrate turned abruptly to look at him, eyes wide. “What would help you?” asked Esor.

Corvin’s mouth fell open, but nothing came out—no words, no song.

***

#Excerpt #fantasy #queer #AtopTheTreesBeneathTheMountains #QueerFantasy #RomanticFantasy #writing