You know what you should do instead of just writing a woman who fights physically?
— (x)
☼
Cyn walked into the studio that morning, her camera case bouncing against her black ripped jeans and stripped lopsided t-shirt. The studio was already alive with life, her assistant Dox on a ladder as he adjusted the lights to just the right placement. Stepping down the ladder to look, then up again for another adjustment. Behind him she could see the handful of models with the make-up artists already powdering noses and painting eyelids.
One of the models in the back caught her attention. He was standing near one of the mirrors, waiting his turn and mostly blocked from sight by a large mirror, but she could see he was tall and slim, long black braids falling down his back and complimenting his dark skin which probably didn’t even need any makeup-
Cyn swore as her foot caught on the uneven warehouse floor and she stumbled, just barely catching her balance before she fell flat on her face. Dox looked down at her in question and she merely glared at him, stomping over to her section and pulling out her camera. She took a few test shots and gave him final instructions for adjusting the lights and setting.
Luckily Dox knew her well enough to not even consider bringing it up.
She was doing fine and had almost forgotten the incident until he stepped in front of her. Now he wasn’t blocked by a mirror and it was worse. Cyn swore she could feel her hand shaking as she looked over his long legs and the black leather kilt he was wearing. A simple tank top with various bracelets up one arm and a fishnet stocking on the oppisite leg - she forgot to take the pictures, just staring at him through the viewfinder until Dox lightly cleared his throat.
Cyn swore again under her breath and started taking pictures. She made a mental note to check for his name on the studio sheet once the shoot was over and maybe she could keep a couple of pictures-
Oh, and of course, she’d have to kill Fagan for selecting such a damn attractive model.
The shoot went on for longer than it should have. Honestly, she had a good photo by the second frame, but she couldn’t stop her finger from clicking away.
Snap.
Snap snap.
He was a natural, getting into poses with ease. Eyes narrowed in a seductive gaze, then wide and bright like the nice guy who carried books for his girlfriend. As he moved Cyn began to notice little details that only made him more appealing. The small dimples in his cheeks when he smiled. The way his braids moved with him at every turn of his body. The stunning marks of a tattoo on his arm that formed an ice blue dragon. The-
“Excuse me? I believe you’re out of film.”
Cyn blinked when she realized that the handsome young man in front of her was right. The last five poses hadn’t been caught on film at all. "S-sorry about that.“ Oh hell, was she actually stuttering? She was supposed to be professional.
"Was I doing that good of a job?”
“I… get lost in the moment sometimes.”
He smiled that gorgeous smile at her. Damn did it compliment his dark skin. "Any good photographer does.“ He approached her and held his hand out. "Haven.”
Ah, so that was his name. Haven. She reached forward and shook his hand. "Cyn. Nice to meet you.“
"Same to you. I hope we can shoot together again sometime.”
Before she could stop herself she smiled, suddenly feeling like a blushing schoolgirl instead of a photographer with years in the business. “Y-yeah, me too.”
“I’m also glad to see that you’re o.k. after your fall.”
“Huh?”
Haven nodded to the uneven part in the floor where Cyn had thoroughly embarrassed herself. Completely mortified, Cyn briefly considered mentally melting her body into the floor to avoid this situation.
“I… yeah, I… shit, you saw that?”
“Yeah.”
“A-ah… I’m usually not that clumsy.” Which was the truth. Clumsiness was reserved for heroines who defended the moon.
“It’s fine. It kind of distracted me anyway.”
“Distracted?”
Haven chuckled and whispered to Cyn, “I had been busy staring at you when you came in.”
Cyn would later curse herself for blushing so much, but currently, she was thanking whatever higher power above that she had remembered to put on Chapstick that morning. The worst thing about a first kiss was dry, stiff lips.
Rei 17
Anonymous
“Don’t you dare say that about him.”
Someone was talking behind Nagisa’s back, and Rei couldn’t help but physically intervene. He escaped with bruises, cuts, and broken glasses, but at least he was able to protect what was most important to him.
Thank you for requesting badass butterfly, anon!
It’s a passing comment that he hears as he walks down the hallway. It doesn’t bother him, not really. He knows that he can come off as being an annoyance. He’s loud and barely able to sit still, and to some people, that’s just unacceptable.
So it doesn’t bother him.
Not really.
“Nagisa-kun?”
That, however, pushes him over the edge. Hearing Rei’s concern makes his heart hurt. "A-ah, it’s nothing.“
Rei figures it out pretty quickly. Watery eyes. Biting of the lip. And the group of students snickering behind them.
Rei Ryugazaki isn’t known for being a violent man. He is, however, someone who can calculate anything at a frightening speed. For instance, if he turns and slams his fist into one of their faces, he knows that the impact will, indeed, break their nose. He also knows that during the initial shock, he can snap at them before landing another blow. There’s a 99.9 percent chance of Nagisa staring, a 75.2 percent chance of him telling Rei not to fight, especially since they outnumber him and will use that to their advantage. At that point he would only have to last for 15 to 20 seconds before a teacher intervenes. If he’s lucky, it’ll be Amakata-sensei, there’s a 50/50 chance.
Despite his bruises, Rei is impressed that his calculations are spot on.
And later, as Nagisa carefully dabs a towel against the wound on his face, Rei belts out a beautiful string of apologies to the swim team for not being able to practice. However, according to his calculations, the smile on Nagisa’s face is worth it.
***
Sorry, I just had to, the art is so great and the thought behind it is even better.
I swear everything I do is going to equal fat to some people.
Have a college degree in English and Women’s Studies? That’s glorifying obesity.
Get an award from my Women’s Studies Department? That’s glorifying obesity.
Get a book published? That’s glorifying obesity.
Get another book published? Double the fat.
A third? Triple cheeseburger!
Two short stories? Super-size me.
Edit books? With a side of fries!
Snuggle with my cats? That’s glorifying obesity.
Plan my wedding? Obesity.
Cosplay? Obesity.
Woodburn? OBESITY!
All these things are bringing me closer to death because everything I do is glorifying obesity and obesity kills and people are just concerned for my well being so obesity obesity OBESITY! No matter what I do there’s always going to be those people who only see the chunkiness of my size instead of my accomplishments, which is why I always say do the things that make you happy, don’t worry about these people. You could invent a way to breathe in space without a helmet and be a godsend to NASA, but these people will still tell you that you’re showing fat people how to be lazy because now they don’t have to put any effort into lifting their arms up to put on the helmet.
Just keep doing you, o.k.?
Dumbledore, notorious for giving second chances Dumbledore, let Sirius rot in Azkaban for twelve years.
He must have known Sirius well due to his time in the Order, he must have known what James meant to Sirius. Dumbledore was a member of the freaking Wizengamot yet he didn’t fight the Ministry’s horrifying trial-optional policy.
This is a man who took back Death Eater!Snape at his word, shielded him from prison, and employed him at a school for children.
But he didn’t have a use for Sirius, so he didn’t care about him.
I got 99 problems with Dumbledore and his treatment of Sirius Black accounts for like 64 of them.
To be honest, Albus Dumbledore is one of the most disturbing, terrifying characters I’ve ever found in a book, because he thought he was a good guy and so did everyone else and the books don’t really challenge it either (given that Harry forgives him for everything he did), but when you look between the lines he was profoundly, profoundly immoral and unethical.
A couple of months ago, I was talking about HP characters with a friend, and he said that Dumbledore was one of his least favorite characters of all time.
Naturally, this took me back a bit since he’s one of the heroes of the series, misguided as he was at times. Still, I was curious and asked my friend why he hated him. His answer still strikes a chord with me.
“There is never, ever a reason to leave a child in an abusive home. Never.”
As a writer I really like this, because I like characters who seem good, like really good, and then if you read between the lines and peal away the layers you realize… hmmm… and what’s even more interesting is that these characters really, really do feel like they’re doing good, and so does everyone else around them, and they might do something once or twice that’s questionable but they’re SO GOOD the others are like, “Ah well… you probably had good reason,” and… sure, maybe they did, but if you stop and think it’s like, “… well… I mean, how far is too far in the name of good?”
How can one begin a career writing and survive financially? I love story writing but not sure if I would be able to survive financially
AnonymousOh man, that is a good question and something that speaks to me on about a million levels.
Honestly, writing (and creative careers in general) are tough, not just because of finances, but because you have to sell yourself, your work, get people on board, and hope that they enjoy it. You’re pretty much relying on what other people think. Things don’t become big unless if people make them big, and you really have to put yourself out there, in front of people.
An example my partner and I have talked about before is Firefly. Firefly was one season. Just one. But fans today STILL talk about it and still hold onto the hope of a second season because they felt it was just that good. If fans didn’t love it so much, it still wouldn’t be talked about, you know? But that’s why this path is so difficult. Fans can make or break you, in an instant really. Which is why I get so irritated when someone is like, “Dur this isn’t a real job you know,” no, no it is, entertaining people is a job, a career, and its damn difficult. You really are taking a risk in the hopes of someone not only liking your work enough to publish it, but that’s just the beginning, THEN you have to get your work out there and hope that its well received.
And it takes time. It takes so much time. It’s not something that happens overnight.
I would say not to stress about finances, because if you stress about finances when it comes to this career then you’ll never even start, because you’re not going to make a ton of money right at the start. So I would suggest be smart about it because you do need to take care of yourself (food, bills, rent, ect.) I actually worked retail for a long time, the mistake I made was that I let that consume what I did and I pushed writing aside. Don’t do that. Find time to write, in any way you want, whether its books or articles or even just blog posts. I actually used to do anime and manga reviews, which kept me writing while I was working retail. I also wrote fanfiction. I wrote a LOT of fanfiction, but that still kept me writing and eventually fanfic turned into original ideas which turned into books.
Also do NaNoWriMo. That’s actually how all of the books I have out now came to be, I worked on them during NaNoWriMo and while I didn’t make the goal, it got all of my ideas going and my work went in the direction I wanted it to, and it was amazing.
This woman is amazing. She gives phenomenal advice and is as real as they get.
First of all, thank you for saying such nice things :)
Second of all, I want to add something else to what I said. I think one of the coolest things about the writing career is that, chances are, you’ve probably already started without even realizing it.
For instance, here is a picture:
What is this, you ask? Why, it’s the cover to my third book, “Seeking the Storyteller.” Now what I mean by “you probably already started your career by not realizing it” is that, honestly, you probably do write more than you realize, and are more creative than you give yourself credit for.
This book right here started waaaaaay back in college, back when I would chat with my partner (aka: the wifey/my costume maker/my coauthor) online every night. We were long distance at the time, so we would chat to talk to one another. Chatting turned into roleplaying with random anime/video game/comic book characters, making up stories, and spending hours and hours with them. At some point, those characters became our characters, because we were giving them traits that we wanted them to have, making them the gender we wanted, making up our own back stories and plots, and creating a world all on our own.
That’s what this book series is.
Now, at the time, did we realize that our nights of roleplaying would be a book series that people could purchase and read for themselves? Absolutely not. But at some point we realized, “Hey wow, this is actually pretty good, maybe we could do something with this.” And we did :)
It hasn’t been easy. It never has been or will be easy to get your stories out there and to have them be well received. Our story here has gotten its fair share of low reviews, but its also gotten some high ones. Online sales haven’t been that great, but it seems to do well enough at conventions. With writing, you really do have to keep going. The only person who is going to get your work out there is yourself. Sure, your publisher will help, but no one can be as passionate about your work as you can, and let me tell you, that is a big selling point. People can tell when you’re excited about something, and that excitement spreads. When it comes to writing you need that passion, and sometimes, it won’t always be there. You will have bad days. You will have people who just don’t like your work, for whatever reason. Sometimes your book just won’t sell when you try your hardest. But its important to remember the love you have for your work and to keep going, because that love and determination along with your creativity will get you where you want to go.
Also, don’t compare yourselves to others. Don’t look at another writer and wonder why you aren’t there yet, or how can that person be so popular when you feel that their writing is just bad. This isn’t about them, this is about you and your work. Don’t wonder why your work isn’t hailed like Harry Potter, this is a long process and takes time. Harry Potter wasn’t written in a day and it certainly didn’t become a hit right away. It might feel like it has, but if you look into it, you’ll see that everyone started somewhere, everyone got told no (sometimes several times, my first book “Treat Me Kindly” was rejected ten times), everyone felt like giving up, and everyone took a deep breath and kept going.
Writing starts when you pick up that pen and notebook (or open that Word document, most likely). Worry about the fame and money and all that later, if that’s all you’re here for then you’re just going to make yourself miserable while you wait for success to happen. Write because you love it, the fans will follow eventually, but for now, write because you want to.
We’ve been featured and interviewed over at Jeanz Book Read and Review! You should follow this link to read the interview!
Also don’t forget that we have a new side story up for Katalynne’s first day working for Fagan and Alix.
Katalynne quietly took in everything Fagan was telling her, letting it process in the back of her head.
Demons were real? Check.
There was an entire world full of them? Check.
These men hunted them down and, for some reason, wanted her to be a part of this crazy operation? Double check?
“Um… c-can I sit down?”
“There’s no chairs in this area,” Fagan frowned a bit because, shit, the least he could do was have a chair at the ready for her.
Now that the first book in our Hunters series, “Seeking the Storyteller,” is out, we’ve decided to write little side stories to go with the book(s). Here is the first one :)
“Seeking the Storyteller” can be purchased at the following:
1. Amazon ebook
2. Etsy physical copy (autographed by authors and includes a free chibi character sketch)
As I sit down at my desk I see a group of women standing at the cubicle across from mine. There’s four of them, but my attention lingers on the one sitting at the desk. Janette Peters. She brings me back to those uncomfortable times of having crushes on people who I could never obtain. In high school, such feelings can be dismissed with promises of it being just a phase or even the elegant lies of you’ll find someone, someday. Such words aren’t used on the twenty-five year old female. You still don’t have someone? What are you waiting for? Right, of course, it’s obviously me who is procrastinating on finding a girlfriend. At least I’m dodging the childbearing bullet, much to the dismay of my mother.
We’re out having breakfast and this snippet just happened.
