kitty-is-writing

[kitty-is-writing]

so um... I did a thing and made some of my Lost Tribes series characters 😳

it's super fun making my characters on this, even if I don't actually buy the miniatures 😀 these are from the Northern Kingdoms series

and a couple from the new Dragonmage series

#my work #fantasy #my ocs #hero forge #my characters #lost tribes series #northern kingdoms series #dragonmage series

[kitty-is-writing]

to my fellow tag game playing writeblrs:

Now that I'm back from my hiatus, I'm not 100% sure who's still around playing tag games on here. These games are one of my favorite parts of writeblr, so I'd love to get back into them, but that would be easier if I knew who to pass the games along to.

Please like and/or reblog this post to let me know that it's okay to tag you in these games!!

[kitty-is-writing]

✨ Publishing Update ✨

An article in The Table Read magazine about my latest series 😃 super excited this is finally getting out there!

#my work #writeblr #fantasy #novel #writing #northern kingdoms series #publishing

[kitty-is-writing]

Tumblr...do your thing and connect me with other writers ❤️

(Please reblog if you're an active writing blog)

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #I'm active-ish I guess? #like I'll post a whole bunch of stuff for a couple weeks then nothing for a while #pls tag me tho as I'm trying to be more involved :)

[kitty-is-writing]

📝 Short Story 📝

this is another old one, and considering my tendency to ramble somewhat it's shortness is quite an achievement 🙃

- Zombies at 6am! -

Steve looked around proudly; Jack had done well there. Everything was set out neatly, ready to go, the tools of their trade gleamed in the dawn light. “Nice work kid. I’ll open up the front,” he said, clapping the younger man on the back as he passed.

Jack smiled nervously. “Thanks boss.”

“Told ya, call me Steve,” he replied. He rolled up the old shutter at the front of the building and leant casually against the side wall, watching the ticket barriers for the shuffling, blank-eyed horde that showed up here every morning. “They’ll be swarming out in a couple of minutes. You ready, Jack?”

“Ready as I can be,” Jack answered.

Steve looked over his shoulder at the lad. It was his first day, and he had that ‘rabbit in the headlights’ look about him. Steve, on the other hand, had worked the post for the best part of ten years now, and he knew the score. “Don’t worry, kid. Just remember your training and you’ll be fine.” He heard some faint sounds of activity beyond the barriers, and turned his attention back towards them.

Moments later, the barriers opened and the flood began. “Zombies at 6am!” Steve called to Jack. He jogged back behind the counter, where Jack stood frozen, staring at the oncoming mass. “Keep it together kid, we’ve got work to do!” He turned their most important machine up full, the one that would dispense hot, aromatic mugs of the cure for these poor wretches’ condition.

As the first zombie reached the counter, groaning incomprehensibly, Jack unfroze. Training just kicked in, thought Steve, watching him out of the corner of his eye as he worked his machine. For the next twenty minutes, they sent dozens of mugs over the counter; Jack improving steadily with every zombie he served.

Eventually the flow slowed, then stopped, and the two men had a chance to catch their breath while they watched the almost miraculous recovery of the handful of zombies that remained, sipping their cure at the tables scattered around the place.

“Hey Steve,” said Jack thoughtfully, washing a used mug. “You never really explained it to me; why d’you call the morning rush ‘zombies’?”

Steve chuckled softly. “Thought that was obvious. They’re all half-conscious, incapable of rational thought, and have one thing on their minds...” He pulled a zombie face and stretched out his arms, moaning, “coooffeeeee...”

#my work #short story #writing #writeblr #zombies #coffee

[kitty-is-writing]

Here are my sentences! Good luck with your WIP :D

“Gods, I can see them dying! Everything's burning, those evil women in black are killing everyone!” Caiara looked up at them, her eyes swimming in tears. “Fire and death happened here. Innocent souls ripped apart to create that abomination of magic.”

ok I managed 5 but it just started flowing :)

Okay, I need motivation to get to my writing tonight and I'm taking y'all with me. If you're a writer and you see this on your dash, go to your WIP now and write 3 sentences.

[kitty-is-writing]

I've put some comments on the Google doc you shared with me, can't think of anything else rn 🤔

Just wanted to post the opening to my current WIP, Rose & Thorn. Any suggestions on improving it would be super helpful 🥺

####

Storms raged, both outside the walls and within Bethany’s heart. She had lost count of how often she had wished she had somewhere else to go, anywhere that she would be accepted or at least left alone. Her parents had tried, when she was younger, but since reaching adulthood even they had stepped back and turned away when others pushed her around. She was the mistake, the useless one, the worthless creature that didn’t belong here.

Using spells against another community member was forbidden, thankfully, but that had never stopped them using lies and manipulation, even the occasional fist. The leaders did nothing, choosing to take the word of more valuable people than her, telling her she deserved it if she wasn’t going to make an attempt to fit in. There was no escape, even at home, where her infinitely more talented sister went out of her way to make Bethany’s life as miserable as possible.

“Hey wretch, get out here. You know my ceremony is tonight and I won’t have you ruin it with this pathetic little tantrum. Make yourself as presentable as you can, if there’s anything in your dresser that covers up those disgusting lumps of fat.”

Of course. Kara’s ceremony of binding to her chosen life partner, Peter. Another of the generation she had grown up with, the ones who had pulled endless pranks that inevitably left her bruised, bleeding, half-drowned or dangling from a window. The actual partner bond would not happen for another two years, as tradition dictated, but tonight’s ceremony marked the beginning of their ‘trial run’, as people had taken to calling it. Two years where a couple would live as wedded, without the long term commitment. Two years where they would discover just how compatible they were, before being locked into the relationship by unbreakable bonds.

Bethany hauled herself off the bed - the same bed she had slept in since she was thirteen, which had been due for replacement for at least ten years now - and pulled a heavily altered dress out of a drawer. It didn’t matter what she wore, nobody would be looking at her during the ceremony, and Kara was going to hate it anyway. At least the dress was slightly more formal than the rest of her clothes, being the dress her mother had given her for her fourteenth birthday. Her own hand-done alterations had been necessary, thanks to her own growth, wear and tear, and Kara.

She caught her reflection in the window, a more forgiving picture than what she had seen in mirrors. The hazy glass softened her features, helped to hide some of the imperfections, and most importantly hid the bottom of the dress, which was a completely different colour and material to the rest. It had been a conscious choice for her graduation at eighteen, the first occasion when she had needed a formal outfit since her fourteenth. Her father had given her some offcuts, some of which almost matched, but she had chosen a contrasting colour thinking it might look like a deliberate fashion statement rather than a necessity. It hadn’t worked.

“Bethany, hurry up. We’re taking Kara to the Hall in five minutes, if you aren’t in the buggy then you’ll be walking. And don’t even think about missing this, I won’t have you disgrace the family with your absence.” Her father, who had the decency to use her name rather than calling her thing or wretch. She had always got the impression that he pitied her, or at the very least resented her less than the rest.

She sighed, jammed her feet into her only pair of actual shoes, and left the relative peace of her own room behind. The whole of their tower was manic, everyone rushing to get themselves prepared to be seen at the ceremony. Other families had more time to get ready, some were still in the process of fixing hair and yelling about misplaced items. Bethany was sure she would get the blame for at least some of those lost things, but that would come later. For now she was invisible, a ghost slipping through the proceedings, unseen and unimportant.

It was probably too much to hope that the whole evening would carry on that way. This might be Kara’s night, but it was always Bethany’s fault. They would probably try to blame her for the torrential downpour outside, too. Someone clattered down the stairs, bashing into her on their way, and she grabbed the rail to keep herself from falling. No apology, but then she had long since learnt not to expect one.

####

@kitty-is-writing any suggestions?

#writeblr #rose & thorn #not mine #wip #my friend's wip

[kitty-is-writing]

🖋️ WIP preview🖋️

Just felt like sharing a bit of my current WIP, book 2 of the Dragonmage series. Enjoy!

-----

A loud thud made her jump, and she looked over to see Michael had dropped his book and was staring into space. “What? Are you alright?”

“I think I’ve found something, but it shouldn’t be possible,” he whispered, scrabbling to pick the heavy book up again. “She can’t be… but it would explain a lot of… there’s no way she’s… it makes too much sense not to be, though.”

“Can you finish one of those thoughts? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Christina said.

He shoved a loose sheet of paper into the book before closing it. “Okay. There’s always been this story, an old rumour really, that Queen Philippa’s body vanished a few days after she died and was never found. It was a huge deal back then, but the state funeral went ahead as planned and people mostly wrote it off as just a rumour. Every so often it makes the rounds again, but nobody really believes it, and even when someone does, they assume it was some kind of body theft thing. This book presents that old rumour as true, and goes on to say that the death itself was faked. The body vanished because it was an illusion, or a magical construct, and the real Queen Philippa never died.”

Christina blinked rapidly, everything she had heard or read over the last year slowly piecing itself together. “So she could still be alive, and pretending to be someone else. If Tarworth could keep himself alive for thousands of years, Queen Philippa could do it for a few hundred.”

“She really was the Witch Queen, it seems. There’s not much more in here, but once I read that passage one of those other memories just hit me out of nowhere. One of Dad’s memories, I’m pretty sure, since Annabel called me Francis in it.”

She set her book down, wedging a scrap of paper in to mark her page, and reached for his hand. “Tell me about this memory. We can figure this out together.”

#my work #writing #fantasy #writeblr #dragonmage series #current wip #wip wednesday

[kitty-is-writing]

✨ Publishing Update ✨

My new series, Tales of the Northern Kingdoms, has passed all the verification checks and stuff to be available on Kindle and Google Play Books! The Kobo links are still good as well, so do take a look if you're interested 😊

All the relevant links are on my store page here

https://www.kittylewisfantasy.net/store

I'm also thinking of doing an ebook giveaway at some point. Let me know if you'd be interested in something like that!

#my work #fantasy #novel #northern kingdoms series #writeblr #ebook #kindle ebooks #kobo books #google books

[kitty-is-writing]

ooh, so 50% got it right! it was Kandrina who was exiled for heresy in The Colourless, Enkarini does defeat 4 dragons at the end of Wyld Magic 🐉🪄

2 truths 1 lie

Thanks for the tag @leahnardo-da-veggie! I'll go with my current main character since she's pretty much taken over my brain right now 🙃

I'll tag @eli-t-spoon and anyone else who feels like playing!

#poll results #my work #fantasy #writeblr #novel

[kitty-is-writing]

Heads Up 7-Up

wasn't tagged, but found this one on the writer games tag. share 7(ish) lines from one of your works, here's mine!

from the so far untitled Dragon's Teeth sequel

Soris deactivated the training shields and perched next to her on the log. “Okay, serious time. Is everything alright? Have you been struggling with magic since… you know? Josie’s still having trouble with hers, she can barely cast at all without some weird device she channels it through. It’s no shame if you need some help.”

“Yeah, I got the opposite problem. The crap Miller pulled helped me find my spark, but because it was in such a desperate situation it got out of control. Blaise and a couple of the others have been trying to teach me how to master it, but it’s running wild, and Dad’s not helping. I can feel his spark in there encouraging mine to flare up.”

“Well, that was the point of him doing that. His spark was supposed to relight yours,” Soris said. “Maybe Enkarini could help? From what she’s said, she had a similar problem with her shadow magic, it got all fierce and over the top to protect her and she couldn’t keep up with it. That’s what the whole familiar thing was about.”

“Right, I need to turn my spark into a puppy or something. That’s going to help,” Ember snapped.

“Yeah, you could teach it to sit, stay, and roll over. Might want to skip the old play dead trick, though.” He paused, watching a small smile twitch at her lips. “Seriously, it wouldn’t hurt to ask for advice. It might be useful, and you can just ignore it if it’s not.”

Ember let out a long sigh. “I guess. I hate that I got worse at doing magic though, you know? That was the one thing I knew I was good at, that nobody could argue with me about. Now I can’t even cast a simple flame without exploding half my surroundings.”

They were quiet for a moment. “Maybe you’re trying too hard. You always found magic easy before, you said, and now it’s gone all screwy on you. Do you think you’re pushing too fast, expecting too much of yourself? It’s only been four months,” Soris pointed out. “I know Josie’s situation is different, but stuff like this takes time, for anyone. Maybe you just need to go easy on yourself for a bit.”

She stood suddenly, kicking at some loose pebbles and sending them flying into the pond with a splash. “I don’t want to take it easy, I don’t want to wait, I just want things to be normal again! I want to be able to do magic without everything going wrong. I want to be able to sleep at night without waking up screaming. I want… I want my dad back!” She sat just as abruptly as she had stood, folded her arms around her knees and went quiet for a moment. “I know he’s not gone gone, his spark is right here with me, but it’s not the same.”

I'll tag @eli-t-spoon , @leahnardo-da-veggie and anyone else who wants to join in!

#my work #fantasy #novel #writeblr #dragonmage series #writer tag games #writer games #heads up 7 up

[kitty-is-writing]

📝 Short story time 📝

This is an older one called Battery Low, inspired by a car crash I had several years ago. It's a short I'm especially proud of, unrelated to any of my other work.

- Battery Low -

The car finally rolled to a stop. Alice switched off the engine, as she’d been taught to do in an accident, and pushed the door open. It was difficult, as the side of the car had buckled somehow as it had flipped over. She eventually got it open though, and staggered across the grass blindly in the dark.

“Why did I agree to go and collect him at this time of night?” she said frantically to herself. “And in this weather too. I’d better phone him and tell him I’ve wrecked the car.” She pulled her mobile out of her pocket and found her dad’s number. Before she could dial, the phone bleeped at her, with a message saying ‘Battery low.’ Thinking she would have enough to last for a quick phone call, she pressed dial.

“Alice? What’s up?” her dad said when he picked up the phone.

Alice took a deep breath. “I’m not going to be able to pick you up, dad. I’ve had an accident in the car, I think I’ve rolled or flipped it. I’m in the field somewhere,” she said, feeling her way around in the dark.

“Are you alright?” her dad asked straight away. “I’ll get in the work’s van and come to find you.”

Alice checked herself quickly. “I think I’m alright, I’m walking and nothing feels broken or anything. I’ll try and get to the road, I seem to be in the middle of a field,” she tried to find her way back to where the road was, or had been. “I’m in some trees, and I’ve just found a barbed wire fence, I can’t find where I went through it. I’ll climb through, hang on, I’m putting the phone in my pocket so I can climb through easier,” she slid her mobile into her coat pocket and clambered awkwardly through the fence, ripping her jeans. She stumbled over a little more grass before realising she was getting further from the road. She headed back through the fence.

“Alice? Alice are you there?” her dad’s voice came from her pocket. She took her phone back out. “I’m heading down the road now, I’ve just hit the crossroads… ah. You skidded on some ice, didn’t you? I’ve just hit some myself.”

“Yeah, I just lost control. I’m heading back to the car, I was going the wrong way before. I’ll try the other way, I think the car’s facing backwards.” Reaching the car, she tripped over a big lump of something on the ground, and flung a hand out to steady herself against the back of the car. Her hand went straight through an empty space where the back window had been. “The back window’s gone, I’ve just put my hand through it. And there’s a big spring thing here, I think it’s from the car,” she told her dad, picking up the thing she had tripped on.

Her dad kept talking, reassuring her. “Don’t worry about the car, the insurance will sort that out. Just worry about you. If you can’t find the road, stay by the car, I’ll find you. Where exactly are you?” he asked.

“You know the corner, just after where the speed limit changes, I’m just past there from home. So just before there from your direction,” she said. “I’ve got to the road, it’s really icy.”

“Okay, I’m almost with you. I’m going slow because of the ice, I should be there in about five minutes. I’ve just gone past the level crossing,” he replied. “I’ll put the orange lights on so you can see me coming.”

A few minutes passed, and Alice saw some flashing orange lights coming over the slight hill. The van from her dad’s garage followed shortly after, and stopped a few feet away. “Christ, you did lose it,” her dad said over the phone. “I can see the car, whereabouts are you? I can’t see you anywhere.”

“I’m standing a few feet away from the front of the van, dad,” Alice told him. “You should be able to see me, I can see you fine,” she said, as her dad got out of the van and slipped across to the car.

“Whatever road you’re on, Alice, it’s not this one. If you’re standing in front of the van you must be invisible,” he said. “I’m going to head to the car, if you head back the way you went we should meet by the car. Don’t worry, I’ll stay on the line.”

Alice watched her dad walk across to the car, and followed him. She thought he might be playing one of his silly jokes, to relax her a little. It was the sort of thing he did sometimes. She stood behind him, and said down the phone, “Turn around, I’m behind you.”

He turned. “No you’re not.”

“Dad, you’re staring right at me. This isn’t funny, stop messing about.” She stared into her dad’s eyes, and he seemed to look right through her. “Dad!” Alice tried to touch his shoulder, to get some kind of reaction. Her hand went straight through.

He turned back to the car, and seemed to look at something in the driver’s seat. “Alice?” he said softly.

“Dad, I’m scared. I’m right next to you and you can’t see me,” she said, almost crying.

“Oh Christ, Alice, you can’t be talking to me. If you’re there, you should come and look at this,” he said, moving away from the driver’s window.

Alice moved forwards, and looked through the window. She saw herself reflected back, except it wasn’t quite right. Her head was at the wrong angle, and there was something running down her face. The car door was closed, and she was sure she’d left it open when she got out. The Alice in the car window was very still, and didn’t blink at all. “Dad,” she whispered down the phone line.

“Alice,” he started to say. There was a beeping noise in Alice’s ear. She looked down at her phone, to see the message ‘Battery dead.’ The screen went black, and Alice heard no more.

#my work #short story #writing #writblr #writeblr

[kitty-is-writing]

Personality Through Quotes Tag

Thanks for the tag @leahnardo-da-veggie !

My prompt: a quote about remembering the ones they lost

This is the perfect chance to use a couple of lines I wrote ages ago but never found a place for in the Drenius novels 😊

Kandrina:

"Grief is a strange thing. No two losses are alike, just as no two people are the same. I grieved Mother, of course, but it was a simple thing then. I was so young, and the time moved so fast that her absence became normal after a while. Perlak's death seemed more of an injustice than anything else, more so because of the temples' lies about it - and about him. My brother deserved better than their slander, and even now I hear people repeating it. Perlak was kind and caring, perhaps mischievous at times but never the cruel man they painted him as. I suppose Father's death was the easiest to accept, in a way. He died to protect my little sister, and while I do miss him, I can understand that more than the others."

Enkarini:

"I miss all of them the same way, but for different reasons. Does that make sense? Perlak was always there for me, like a father but less strict, and I miss having someone like that in my life. I don't remember Mother at all, but I still miss her somehow, almost like I miss the possibility of knowing her. Father... I feel guilt, perhaps more than grief. If I had reacted quicker, if I had done better, even if I had just stayed where I was meant to instead of wandering off, he'd still be here today. Even though the reasons are different, I miss them all because I love them, and they're gone."

---

Your prompt: a quote reminiscing about their favourite childhood memory

I'll tag @eli-t-spoon, @rhiannonhgarrard and anyone else who wants to join in!

#writing #writblr #writeblr #my work #grief #quotes #tag game #writing prompts

[kitty-is-writing]

2 truths 1 lie

Thanks for the tag @leahnardo-da-veggie! I'll go with my current main character since she's pretty much taken over my brain right now 🙃

I'll tag @eli-t-spoon and anyone else who feels like playing!

[kitty-is-writing]

2 Truths, 1 Lie

Thanks for tagging me @kitkins13 :) I've picked Edric since he's one of the more interesting characters in Rose & Thorn

I don't know who to tag, so join in if you want to!

[kitty-is-writing]

2 truths 1 lie

Thanks for the tag @leahnardo-da-veggie! I'll go with my current main character since she's pretty much taken over my brain right now 🙃

I'll tag @eli-t-spoon and anyone else who feels like playing!

#fantasy #my work #polls #writer games #2 truths and a lie

[kitty-is-writing]

💠 book cover reveal 💠

I have a cover for my next book, Dragon's Teeth!

also here's my blog post about it with some more info about the book itself

#dragon's teeth #dragonmage series #cover reveal #book cover #novel #fantasy