Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: The art gallery seemed to be the only sanctuary in the city from her hunger. The game had given Caroline exactly where she needed to be last time— down to the proper decimal code, on the proper shelf, of the proper section of psychology. But as she wandered the pallid halls and rooms of the gallery, Caroline had hoped she would know the next clue when she saw it: Searching through the glazed, cracked arms of the Renaissance for a white hare; or between the Abstract’s harsh, geometric shapes for a black circle to crawl into. And everything was too quiet. Leaving another pasted face on the wall with sealed lips, framed in glorified gold, Caroline thought the decadence would surely be better fit for something live. And royal. And loud.

In searching for the next clue in a scavenger hunt, Caroline wanders the halls of an art gallery. It's too bad she despises the imitation of people...

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Congratulations!!

I'm just happy MIKU IS CANON!!

youtu.be/Osuhh-TsM7c?...

Yes it does! 🧽

I'm interested!

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: The toll of a bell cleared out the thickening air. Dorothy got up at the beat of the rest. Skirts rustled and twirled, as the office floor turned into a dance hall for the exit. Like a mouth, the girls were stuffed, chewed, and swallowed up by the work day’s end. Caroline barely gathered herself enough to tidy her station, rise to her feet, and follow them down the gullet, herself.

Haven't been able to participate for a few days, but my current book is full of "stuffed" and many other mouth imagery...

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🍊 A strange scavenger hunt in 1949 has caused a murder, and a woman who can taste the world around her must solve puzzles to catch the killer

My debut 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 has...
📝 1 mastermind
♟ 7 players
🔪 1 murderer
🗝 A little locked box

#readsky #tbr #amreading #bookrecs #booksky #bookish 💙📚

A collage of how reading The Orange Peel Game feels like, featuring advertisements, appliances, and photographs from the 1940s. Lines from the book read: "Pith and pulp and orange peels", "dangerous", and "Everything means something in this game".

A strange scavenger hunt in 1949 has caused a murder, and a woman who can taste the world around her must solve puzzles to catch the killer 🍊

My debut 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 has...
📝 1 mastermind
♟ 7 players
🔪 1 murderer
🗝 a little locked box

#readsky #tbr #amreading #bookrecs #booksky #bookish 💙📚

I usually do my formatting by hand but for this project I've been looking forward to using Affinity

It just got to my beta readers and editor! It should have one more pass of large edits and then it'll be off to proof 🧡

Last summer! Terrible for allergies 🧡

I enjoy speculative low sci-fi, multi-POV narratives, mystery, and high-concept fiction

My current WIP is the latter three genres, that's also a period piece set post-WWII 😊

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: “Have you taken a visit to Lake Eerie recently, Ms. Caroline?” “Not lately,” she said, knowing she had never purposely visited the shore. Only had to pass it on trolleys once in a great while. The longest she had ever visited was in her office, tracing beachfront properties with her finger on a paper map. “Well, as I'm sure you've seen, in the evening, in the spring, there’s a great deal of pollen. It’s very irritating, really,” he chuckled, and quickly refocused, “but when the sun sets during then… it looks as if there are a million embers in the air. That is the only time I have ever seen air.”

Caroline's high-strung, drunk-on-life confidant begins to share why he sees the world the way he does...

🍊 Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

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This is high praise! Thank you so much 😊

This makes me so incredibly happy how accurate this is

A group murder mystery, where someone eventually drinks poison

(spoilers! 🤫) #ChaosPit #WIP #Q #M #NA #In #CS #WF #bookish #writersky #writing 💙📚

National Treasure but Nicholas Cage is a woman in the 1940's

🍊 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 coming soon 🧡

#ChaosPit #WIP #Q #M #NA #In #CS #WF #bookish #writersky #writing 💙📚

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: That made the man drop his guard. “First time I’ve seen you ‘round, and you already know of the game.” He stepped away to give her space to breathe, straightened his back, and instinctively strolled about the room in a way he had memorized every board— his scuffed shoes especially avoiding the box at its center. Caroline too straightened, and attempted to tip the scale of assertion back to her favor. “I know there are more players than just you. I know that we’re not alone, here.” His interest piqued. She started to search for exits. “And the game— I know it’s some kind of puzzle. I know that it’s dangerous. And most of all, I know that getting involved can get someone in… bad business.” The man cracked a thin smile. To Caroline’s dismay, and wavering her confidence, it was a smile that made her feel like a fool. “Huh,” he mused. “Huh?” she asked. Out of his pocket he retrieved a small box, tapped a toothpick out of it, seated it thoughtfully between his teeth, and allowed Caroline to sink and slump into the thick air. “Almost everything you said was wrong, see. But where’d you get all those little ideas?”

Caroline meets the first tricky player of an unusual scavenger hunt, and he seems to have all of her answers...

🍊 Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

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MADE ME SNORT OUT LOUD

Excerpt of The Orange Peel Game Reads: Back arched over the table and hair like a wild, bristled mane— at least, she had imagined. She never felt so wild, before. Really, Caroline looked just the same as when she dolled herself up and fled her apartment in time for her morning shift— a mid-twenty-something that could look over most girls’ heads. Even though the job demanded demoded dresses, she looked much more pleasing, in her opinion, to be slimmed with a steamed pair of trousers. So, on her days off, that was her outfit of habit. Dark, almond eyes, which she framed with a favorite smoky shade, would hold a look she didn't know could hide all of her crazed hunger and silent judgement with hooded, unflappable lashes. And behind waves of sable hair, she had much of a vulpine gaze. Caroline Caudell really looked like one of the forlorn femmes of detective films— smooth, sultry, and smoky-eyed. But she didn't know that. As she gathered up a fresh page, she did agree with part of it: She very well could have a fox-like gaze, for now. A feral and ravenous one.

Describing a young woman in 1949, contrasting how she looks with how she perceives herself...

My other many uses of "film" are very much spoilers!

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a close up of thanos from avengers infinity war holding a glowing object in his hands . ALT: a close up of thanos from avengers infinity war holding a glowing object in his hands .

When you finally share your project and people actually LIKE it

I've been getting dopamine all day 🥹🧡

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Dessert, always, and practically spelled out through the novel!

Completely opposite to me, I don't have a sweet tooth like she does

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Caroline tasted apples. Jane: Crisp and candied, like apple skin. Caroline bit deeper into the name, to find sensations of peeling and scraping and a stuffiness left sitting between her teeth. And Joyce: Bitter and hard, like accidentally choking on a seed in a slice. Jane and Joyce was an offer of glazed red and sugar and innocence, before a host of disappointing textures infected her bite. Apples— no wonder. The girls stood hand in hand, mirrored like appleseeds. And both just as sweetly deceiving.

Caroline has lexical-gustatory synesthesia, and each name she encounters has a different taste- unwittingly influencing her opinion of its owner...

The Orange Peel Game is an upcoming, high-concept mystery packed with flavor 🧡

#tbr #bookish #writingcommunity #authorsky #writersky #writing 💙📚

Tracking dates on a 1949 calendar for a writing project, listing the events of the book in chronological order. The Orange Peel Game is coming out of developmental edits!

In every project I eventually have to sit down and find the dates of events and where the weekend/weekdays fall, then edit accordingly. This was especially fun to track for my current WIP, set in 1949!

🍊 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 is on its way to you!

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Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Sparrows had gotten in, and they swooped and sang with the season’s last monarchs. Garden beds overflowed with obscure palms and strange ferns and even more irrecognizable flora. With bamboo and bramble. With flowers as large as trumpets and dripping fruit in every color. A perfume of pollen simmered inside. Nectar and sap and pome skins and everything Caroline craved, but it was instead tangible— and by sticking her tongue into the thick air she could taste it.

Caroline discovers the Krohn Conservatory, full of exotic foliage and flitting things...

(Substituting lily for "flower")

🍊 Excerpt from my soon debut, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

#tbr #readsky #mystery #amreading #bookrecs #booksky #bookish 💙📚

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Distracted all the way down to the main floor, Caroline passed the library’s study ahead of the front doors. A space of glossed walnut tables and the frosted, emerald light of banker’s lamps. A space all hushed, besides turning pages wafting buffed leather. A space cramped with crossed legs and draped figures in their chairs and buried, studying eyes behind covers.

Love the atmosphere of libraries- and the Public Library of Cleveland in 1949 could be palpable. At least, it is to Caroline...

🍊 Excerpt from my soon debut, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

#tbr #bookish #writingcommunity #authorsky #writersky #writing 💙📚

Oh no I totally get this. What if they had a different upbringing? What if they never met? What if they didn't overhear that phonecall? Changes that CAN'T happen in the original story, but are still fun to explore

That means so much, thank you!

I am absolutely dying to get this under fresh eyes, especially yours!! Have only a few items left on this draft's checklist and it'll be in your hands 😆