I spoke about Rot from #Savior71 yesterday and so i might as well share a little snippet of what that looks like for a normal person. Here, Zaray was just trying to heat some bathwater using her Forge wyrd. Unfortunately, even mundane uses of magic comes with risks.
#febchantment
Depends on the spell in #Boombride, most spells just fizzle if they're not cast properly.
#Savior71 is another story. Overuse of magic can cause one's wyrd to Rot. If it goes too far, then the spirits whose names are written there will merge with the user, but rarely cleanly. #febchantment
The most impressive ones from boombride are a bit spoilery, so here's a snippet from the start of #Savior71 that i still like.
Ashterath is still near and dear to my heart. My insane murder baby, my misunderstood villain, my island-eating kaiju (that one time) #febchantment
Wyrd is another one i used, which can mean "destiny" and typically is used to describe magical tattoos or sigils. It's like "rune" but with a bit wider use case.
These show up more in #savior71 than #boombride but we'll see as time goes on. Might bring them onboard.
Snippet of text: Five years old, tattooed from neck to toe, Ashterath knew more already than she should. The multicoloured wyrds were there from birth. Each corresponded to some law of reality or natural idea. “The idea is more important than the iteration,” her monster mentor always said. Magnet wyrds controlled magnetism, Warriors wyrds gave warriors strength and resilience, Movers moved, whether by altering trajectory, velocity or momentum. The name a concept, written so perfectly it granted power over that reality. The hue of each wyrd corresponded to its cosmic nature. Each broke the universe bit by bit with their use, as they bent rules and spoke new laws. The magical substance that emanated from their use was called ord. Sometimes ord sparked fire. Sometimes it flowed like a waterfall. Sometimes, the magic stabbed from people in spikes, or grasping arms. Each person’s ord varied in material and hue. Many made a rainbow when they showed their full powers. Armies shone like the rippling lights of night-time reefs. Cities haloed themselves with neon aurorae, made not from incandescent gas but human might and magic. Only one colour bled from Ashterath’s tattoos. Only one hue stained her skin and scarred the air. Crimson. Bright yet dark, the colour of fresh, arterial blood spilt at the break of dawn, a colour Ashterath knew well already. Ashterath’s grasp broke bones. Her glance caused flames. Her rage rent iron. Five years old and the world quaked beneath her feet.
Cos i spent years making it, i'm also going to bring up the wyrds of #Savior71. In this universe, magic is invasive, and destructive. The words of power were tattooed onto humans in the ancient past, & now are passed down hereditarily. They glow when used, & if pushed, mutate the user #febchantment
"You cut off my limbs simply to count the seconds until you could cut them again.”
“And you would do that to your own daughter?” Kashmir asked
- #Savior71
Not in boombride or magewife, but #savior71 is a metacommentary on the chosen one trope and the entire concept of destiny-as-plot. While the series never acknowledges that it's a book, the "destiny" of the chosen one is manufactured and maintained by the robot angel Machinari & the Nine
#writewich
Been a minute since I've shared a snip! This one might as well be the back blurb of the book lol #savior71 #wipsnips
From #Savior71, a bit about how the machinari and how they view humans. Jax is one of my fav characters, and chose his gender himself (tho that's not what this section is about).
#sffchat
#sffchat Hm, in #Savior71, clothing differs a lot by culture. The folk of the Wisp wear the bones of their ancestors. The people of the Skyrise Empire may wear rags or ancient synthetic threads depending on ranks. And the denizens of the Million Isles wear threads and hides made from sea creatures
Very late in the book, no spoilers tho--just a little musing on the structure of Chosen One stories and the value of Friendship. Plus Kern being calculating. #wipsnips #savior71
Easy to have a lot of "Ring" when there's a huge artificial ring station around your planet. #wipsnips #savior71
Had to go through five books to get one! And you know what, it wasn't even "feign ignorance" which i think is the only regular use of this word. #wipsnips #savior71
#Febredit day 20! What's the best change you've accomplished with a rewrite?
#Febredit day 20! What's the best (or biggest) change you've accomplished with a rewrite?
I think this one comes back to #savior71 again. I originally had this big villain/antihero show up very unnaturally. In the rewrite, she became a POV and her connection to the other 2 POVs is much neater
The febredit calendar, backed by Saturn with the rings lit up.
#Febredit day 9! Our first "revising" question. This is just a silly one for Sunday.
What's the most number of drafts you've ever done for a project?
I'm afraid to actually count for #Savior71 but I think the number is like 23 😂😭🫠
#latenightwrite Hm. In #savior71, Ashterath isn't really supposed to be funny. That's kinda difficult for me lol, so i generally had her get into Situations. She's angry, she's abused, and she's powerful. Writing her was difficult, but cathartic.
A calendar day backed by a picture of saturn, with only the rings lit up. Febredit day 3: how many drafts do you usually do for a piece?
#Febredit day 3!
How many drafts do you usually have for a piece? 3? 7? 20? An endless document folder so large it surpasses the weight of the entire earth?
For me it's like, 5 or 6. Or in #Savior71 's case, too many to count
Just got a full request for #Savior71 from #smallpitch! Now to freak out about all the things I was gonna change in yet another edit
Of course my novel about an evil god-Emperor cult has conversion. What do you take me for, some kind of normal person??
Ashterath is really nice I promise. #Savior71 #wipsnips
#latenightwrite I'm Val, & while I've talked about #boombride before now I'm gonna blab about my longrunning WIP series #Savior71.
S71 is my attempt to parody the coming-of-age YA white savior trope, critique catholicism and colonialist empires, and write about laser-breathing dragons and mecha.
I'm going to say that a placard is a kind of card lol
A little snip from an action scene from #Savior71 #wipsnips
Lol ok I gotta do this.
Name: Ashterath
I am a: War crime (F)
Looking for: That bitch who blew up my city
🟩: Able to lift mountains, cure diseases, kill gods
🟥: I will kill you. I believe my abusive father is the One True God. I have never been in love and I fear it so
#Savior71 #latenightwrite
Apparently I like paintings because there's 35 "paint"s in #savior71. Here's a bit of incredibly obvious foreshadowing. Her mother is a Seer, after all.
#wipsnips
It was Kern’s job to fill in the years before bibles got written. That boring part where the Savior learned all the stuff they needed to save the world. To have good memories—fond memories of a dear dad who got horrifically injured. Not too horrifically, Kern hoped. The Explorer’s Guild had some contingencies in place. Kern wouldn’t exactly have taken the job if it meant he had to die. He planned on making the death of the mentor a passing phrase. Deep breaths. Kern said to himself. Seventy runs had given them quite a script. He even had an app, with clean graphics and the answers to almost any question he could ask. Kern tapped in when will the Savior land?
Haha well I've got a semi-satirical sci-fantasy literally about making the whole Chosen One storyline happen (and failing), if you're interested in that? Here's a small snip. It's def adult tho, I see a lot of what you're asking for is YA. More under the #savior71 tag.
Have to share a small descriptive snip for this one. Ash is basically my dreams and traumas swirled into one tattooed demigod. She can destroy the planet but she can't be mean to her abusive parents. She's evil and good and deeply serious about all the wrong things. #pretendpanel #savior71
This is basically the synopsis of the novel lol. God sucks but how do you resist the divine? She says she wants to lesbian Jesus herself you gotta play along.
Or do you...
#Savior71 #wipsnips 🪐📚💙
You can pry my unrealistic flying animals from my cold dead hands. I'll come up with any excuse. Thicker atmosphere. Lower gravity. Because-I-Said-So.
If i want to give rays jet engine butts i will and none of you can stop me #wipsnips #savior71 🪐📚💙
For instance, BOOM Goes the Bride I shorten to #Boombride. Two words, pretty easy to say. #Savior71 is also straightforward, and could be shortened further to S71
I don't think you should base your title on ease of reference, but I think it's worth considering if your title ends up being a mouthful
