#chrissy would be his lark | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Text

Intro/pinned post

Hello, everyone. Sarah here. This is a blog nominally for writing, but realistically for shitposting with smatterings of fandom.

Sarah - she/her - 30 - Scotland

Likes:

Fantasy, and within that, romance, slice-of-life and adventure. My WIPs range from sword-and-sorcery to magical realism and gothic horror. Somehow all of these WIPs include friends-to-lovers. Weird.

Historical fiction. I'm a consumer of period drama, a researcher of historical costuming, and European history is one of my special interests.

Queer stories and characters, especially the kind I would have liked to have seen growing up <3

Critical Role, as well as an ever-shifting collection of fandoms, arranged like a detailed hierarchy of plushies in a pre-teen's bedroom. I'm sarahlizzie on AO3.

Mature content, some of which I post on my blog. If you're a minor, please consider your follow carefully.

Tag games/ask games! Or just infodump about your WIPs and OCs in my asks! I love you!

My WIPs:

The Adventures of Sitora Lux - This is an expanded and editorialized retelling of a former D&D character who I felt like didn't get a fair enough shout in the game. Sitora is a big lesbian Paladin-to-be who is still figuring stuff out as she attends an academy for training up future peacekeepers of the realm. A high fantasy coming-of-age/romance with some mystery and drama thrown in, spread over 5 books. Currently editing book 1, currently writing book 2. Have a character intro for Sitora! feat: lovely art from @rosieartsie.

I also use the tag 'Sitoraverse' for posting about the expanded world of Mithlonde

Grey-Sky Lark - my distraction project. Based on the mind-worm of 'Hebridean Vampire', I started writing a deeply introspective, totally first-person series of vignettes/short stories about my (unnamed) vampire protagonist as fate takes him on the winds and currents of history and the North Atlantic. The story starts in 9th century Faroe Islands as they are being colonized by the Norse and goes through to modern day. At the moment I'm working on the late-Victorian/Edwardian section where he is tasked with tracking down another vampire.

Chrissie's of London - a psychedelic, high-drama adventure set in a magical version of 1920s London, starring a gregarious and irresponsible hotel owner, Silas Chrissie [character intro], his long-suffering accountant, Loretta Cramps [character intro], and his old friend, a French, shape-shifting felon called Jacques [character intro]. It's gay too because that's my brand, and it has portals to another world, monsters coming out of said portals, hotel rooftop fights, all that fun stuff. It's giving some Neil Gaiman, some Rivers of London, some Stranger Things.

Brazen Sparrow - an age-of-sail romance, featuring a sapphic navy captain/pirate enemies-to-lovers storyline. Expect maps for this one!

Til Death Do Us Part - my NaNoWriMo 2023 project. A whodunnit set in 1937 featuring the groom being killed at his wedding.

Dawn Meeting - the first in a series of interactive stories over at tell-me-a-poll-story, my second blog.

If any of these sound good to you, sign up for my taglist!

#introduction #pinned post #pinned intro #writer community #writeblr

87 notes · View notes

wildestflowrs · 2 years

Text

🌷Ronancetober Day 7 : Sapphic Senate 🎀

She’s a Sapphic

“I don’t know how much longer I can bear with this party, V,”

Robin itches and pulls at the collar of her dress. It isn’t something she would usually wear, that much is obvious; normally she’d go for some smart pants, a shirt, a waistcoat and her favorite boots, not this lacy, frilly dress with a corset that was suffocating her. At least she got to wear her favorite boots though.

“Well, once we find Chrissy we can get out of here and slope off to the gardens,” Vickie drags her by the hand, holding up her own dress in the other so as not to trip on it.

Robin groans, trudging along with her friend through the bustling bodies across the ballroom, until the entire party comes to a standstill at the sound of fanfare.

“Someone’s arriving late,” Robin mutters to Vickie, who laughs quietly in return.

“Her Highness, Crown Princess Nancy,” a servant announces as the doors open, revealing a beautiful girl in a ball gown, a glittering tiara sitting atop a halo of chestnut curls. Her gown spills out around her, a lovely shade of lavender, shimmering beneath the light of the chandeliers.

Robin stares in awe; she’d heard of the Princess of the Hawkins Dynasty’s beauty but had yet to see her in person until now. She was stunning, and though Robin hates to admit it, she was perhaps slightly less bored with the party.

“Rob, come on, I think I just saw Chris over there,” Vickie tugs at her hand again as the party comes back to life, the music strikes up again and conversations lap over each other like waves.

“Oh, hello you two,” Chrissy greets them with a mouthful of a small cake, “I thought I told you I was getting food?”

Vickie gives an exasperated sigh, though still fond, “Chris, you wandered off, darling, you must have forgotten to tell us,”

“Oh, well you must try these, they’re divine,” she picks up another cake and holds it for Vickie to take a bite. The pair smile and giggle at each other, and to any passer-by, it would look like two good friends, but Robin knows that they have something more.

Robin doesn’t hate them for it, no; in fact, she herself doesn’t wish to court any men anytime soon. However, it does hurt a little bit, seeing her two best friends being in love, and having no girl of her own to love. Knowing that there were few other girls like her out there.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Nancy hadn’t particularly planned on attending this ball, but her father made some fuss about upholding a good social reputation instead of ‘shutting herself off from the world’. So, out of spite, she arrived nearly two hours late and wore a dress with low shoulders that she knew he found outrageous.

She was eager to get the usual (un)pleasantries out of the way; greeting people, pretending to care about gossip and business proposals or whatever these pompous idiots were blathering in about this time. She just smiled and nodded along politely, commenting on this and that but not too much to seem judgemental.

Sighing in relief when she finally manages to slip away from a conversation with some Viscount’s son - James or Jason - who had been larking on about his travels warding off demons or some such nonsense. She escapes to the side of the room, and a butler passes by her and offers her a glass of wine. She’s never particularly liked wine, but takes it anyway, and barely manages one sip before making a face at the taste.

“I’m not one for wine either,” a girl beside her says. She’s slouching against the wall and has her own almost full glass of wine in one hand, “but I just feel so rude saying no when they offer you a glass, you know?”

The girl takes a sip and gags, swallowing and sticking out her tongue in disgust. Nancy laughs and takes a few steps closer, taking the girl in. She’s tall, nearly gangly, but has a faint aura of elegance and confidence that seems confined by her ballgown - which she regularly tugs at or shifts around in. Her hair is honey-brown and short, cut daringly above her shoulders, framing her face beautifully. She has freckles; faded, Nancy assumes from the shift from summer to fall, and ocean-blue eyes.

Of all the people here tonight, this girl is the only one to truly catch Nancy’s eye.

Nancy’s well aware that she has no interest in romantic endeavors with men, far favoring the idea of a beautiful woman in her future, and she’s been comfortable with this fact for a long time. Hardly anyone knows, of course; if people found out that the Crown Princess was a sapphic- the scandal! She’s only confided this part of herself in her closest friends: Steven, now Head Knight and the one who secretly trained her in sword fighting and archery; Jonathan, a border guard’s son and her best friend since childhood; and Barb, her first love, and also her first loss.

She hadn’t had much luck finding another woman like her, but she tried her best to give subtle hints that one might pick up on, such as wearing a sprig of lavender or a violet pinned to her dress, and wearing purple wherever she can.

She’s about to continue talking to the tall girl when the band strikes up into a waltz, and party guests shuffle to find a partner and head to dance. A boy walks up to the tall girl, fumbling with his words.

“H-hello, Lady Robin, would you- would you dance with me?”

The girl - Robin, what a beautiful name - looks uncomfortable, and makes eye contact with Nancy.

“I do apologize, sir,” Nancy steps forward between the two, letting her hand slip into Robin’s, “but I’m afraid Lady Robin and I were going to dance together,”

The boy looks defeated, sighs, and walks away. Well, there’s no going back now. Nancy tugs Robin along to the center of the room, gasps and hushed words of surprise following them as the Crown Princess begins to dance with another woman. Even the band slows, but after a pointed glance from the Princess they get back to playing a waltz, and Nancy begins to move, a hand around Robin’s waist and the other intertwined with one of the other woman’s hands.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Robin mumbled shyly, pink rising in her cheeks. Nancy twirls her and brings her back in, closer than before.

“I was planning to anyway,” a playful grin tugs at Nancy’s lips, “besides, you’re quite radiant,”

Robin is rendered speechless at this, opening her mouth and closing it again silently. Nancy giggles and the other girl’s ears twinge pink.

“I don’t mean to embarrass you, my dear,” Nancy whispers, “but I must say so far I find myself quite fond of you, Lady Robin,”

She dips Robin now, and the taller girl grips tighter on Nancy’s shoulder. She gives the princess a dumbfounded look before laughing quietly, raspy and sweet.

“I think you’re rather alluring yourself, your highness,” Robin’s voice is shaky, but she nibbles at her bottom lip and Nancy barely stops herself from kissing her right there and then. She brings Robin back up, spinning her and when they come back together there’s hardly any space between them.

“By the way, I adore the violet, Princess,”

Nancy flushes, internally celebrating her success. This girl must be like her, right? She hardly would have pointed out the violet or called her ‘alluring’ if she wasn’t.

She’s about to suggest that they slip away from the party when the dance calls for a partner change, and to her surprise, she ends up with a redhead girl. As they change partners, the girl seems to say something to Robin, smiling as she watches the other woman pair off with another girl she seems to know with reddish-blonde hair pulled back into a bun.

“I love the flower, your highness,” the redhead smiles, “are you-“

“Yes,” Nancy smiles sheepishly, and the other woman nods.

“Don’t worry, I am too,” the girl grins like a schoolgirl, “I’m Victoria, but I prefer Vickie,”

Nancy twirls Vickie and tries to snatch a glance at Robin, who is talking to her new dance partner.

“Don’t worry about her,” Vickie seems to have noticed Nancy’s not-so-sneaky glances, “Me and Christine - Chrissy - we’re uh,” she lowers her voice ever so slightly, “courting, if you will,”

“Oh, right,” Nancy's cheeks warm and she feels embarrassed for being so possessive over a girl she’s just met.

“However, if you hurt Robin, I won’t hesitate to break you,” Vickie’s tone takes a solemn turn, “she’s a very good friend of mine, and I don’t care that you’re royalty - she comes first,”

“I promise I have no intention to hurt her,”

Vickie smiles. “Then that’s fine by me; go get her, princess,”

Another partner switch commences, and Nancy finds herself back dancing with one Lady Robin.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Robin had spied Vickie and Chrissy dancing next to her and the princess from the beginning of the dance, and knew they must be plotting something. So, when the time came to switch partners, Robin wasn’t so shocked to find herself partnered up with Chrissy, and to see Vickie sliding in to dance with Nancy.

“Alright, what’re you two scheming?”

Chrissy fights to hold back a grin, but Robin can tell immediately that she’s onto them, “Nothing! What a coincidence we ended up dancing together though,”

Robin gives Chrissy a deadpan look and she caves.

“V saw the way you and the Princess were getting all flirtatious and decided we should let her know the ground rules,” Chrissy word vomits, talking faster with each word, “we just don’t want you to get hurt, Rob - you know what those royals are like, thinking they can pick people up and throw ‘em away just as easily-“

“Nancy’s not like that,” Robin interrupts timidly, her ears turning red.

Chrissy gives her a look. “Robin, you’ve only just met her, we’re just looking out for you is all. Plus, Vickie really wanted to give some shovel talk to the Princess,”

“Thanks for looking out for me, Chris,” Robin beams at her friend, who smiles back fondly.

“It seems about time you get back to your Princess, hm?”

And before Robin knows it she’s back in the arms of Princess Nancy.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

After the waltz ends, Robin and Nancy sneak off the Manor House’s gardens, wandering through the fresh-cut foliage in the silver moonlight. Robin looks even more gorgeous in this light, Nancy decides, the opalescent glow practically making the girl shimmer.

They sit with one of their hands each intertwined, Nancy resting her head on Robin’s chest while the girl talks animatedly. Nancy can’t help but adore the way she rambles on, so immersed in the topic she’s talking about, expressing so much passion through her hand gestures.

She looks up at Robin’s face, bathed in the moonlight, and cups her cheek in her free hand. Robin leans into the touch, a gentle smile playing at her lips and Nancy can’t take it anymore. She kisses Robin, there and then, beginning soft until she shifts herself to be sat in Robin’s lap and deepens the kiss.

When they break apart Robin gives a lopsided grin, stunned slightly. “You know, that was my first kiss,”

“How did you find it?” Nancy kisses Robin quickly on the lips again.

“Wonderful,”

#ronancetober #ronancetober day 7 #ronance #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #sapphic senate #sapphic squad #background chrickie #royalty au #ronance fanfic #wildestflowrs writes

65 notes · View notes

perexcri · 11 months

Note

twice the fool PLEASE and also idk which one is vampire byler but THAT ONE please 🤲🧎‍♀️i would like to know what ur most excited about in those ones & also if you would mayhaps like to share a line/snippet~

HI LARK thank you so much for stopping by :D 💜

twice the fool (stonathan): this is my stonathan btvs au for the upcoming stonathan week!!

i'm very excited for it because i'm taking one of my favorite btvs episode plots and applying it to stonathan! if anybody can guess which buffy episode it's from i'll give you a gold star and dedicate my next cat to you~

i'm also excited to work with the older teens from st for once, and i think it's been really nice to creatively switch things up for me this way. i've loved getting to apply some of the buffy character archetypes to st characters: Robin is basically Buffy, i've made Nancy a mixture of Willow and Faith, Hopper is Giles (💀), and Steve is kind of the Xander figure

here's a snippet because i am very excited for Chrissy's role in this fic :)

Chrissy Cunningham – The Spelling Bee! – Serving all your Hawkins High magic needs – knock three times on the table in the woods behind the football field – walk-ins only! The teachers had been mercilessly scraping her fliers off the hallways’ corkboards, and Steve had grown so used to them that he hadn’t bothered to really consider them anymore. Since the hellmouth had been opened last year thanks to Will’s disappearance, all kinds of weird shit had been attracted to Hawkins, and Hawkins’ citizens had, in turn, become more attracted to some of their town’s oddities as well. Namely, a lot of the Hawkins High students had become interested in magic, Chrissy being the most interested of them all. She’d transformed from a total popular cheerleader type to the girl who sat in class and played with crystals or read people’s palms. She was still popular as hell and had the top cheerleader spot of course, but everyone had agreed she’d grown a little…odd. But Hawkins has always been weird, just grown a bit weirder, and odd is exactly what Steve needs right now. Magic is what Steve needs right now. He knows Jonathan still feels something–he saw it in Jonathan’s eyes, in the way his fists had shook against his crossed arms. It wasn’t Jonathan’s heart that had made that decision, but his head, that infernal logic that’s been trained by years of abuse from a deadbeat father that said it was better to cut and run before you end up with a fist against your teeth.

in throes of increasing wonder: an interview with the vampire au i haven't touched in a hot second but never say never amiright lol

working on this one has been most exciting for me because it's set in New Orleans, a city i have spent a lot of time in!! i haven't really seen any byler fics where they're in the south (which like,,,i understand bc the south is The South,,,,,,but also there is some cool stuff here, and not everyone is horrible, right?). so when i have worked on it, it's been fun to incorporate my own knowledge and experiences with the city into my writing. i also will die on the hill that most US cities are largely the same and don't have much variance, but i do think New Orleans stands apart from the rest and has its own really unique vibe/culture. i know every major city will say but like,,,do they have Mardi Gras? do they have king cakes and jambalaya and beignets and a city that sits below sea level? no. they do not.

here's a snippet!

He approaches the mirror, and he examines the damage. Spots speckle all up and down his throat; when he tugs at his collar, they continue down his clavicles and shoulders. His lips are swollen and his hair is a mess, but what draws him in most is the bite. That’s all it can be–what it has to be. Teeth marks, sharp and punctuated against his skin, blood crusted around where the openings have swollen shut. He presses at them, flinches at the throbs of pain they send like shockwaves up to his head, which spins with dizzying delight. More dried blood flakes off and falls like crimson snow against his shirt, which he dutifully swipes away with a half-hearted hand.

It’s not the strangest thing, especially in a place like New Orleans. He’s seen plenty of people in the wake of a passionate night out with all sorts of discombobulation: torn clothes, patches of hair missing, teeth fillings scraped out and matching tattoos scrawled into each other’s skin. It just means he has to wait for it to heal, to cover his neck like he’d have to anyway. Damn the October warmth; the least he could’ve done is have the foresight to do this in January or February, where he could at least put on a scarf.

thanks again Lark!! i'm wishing you all the best and sending you the best of vibes for writing fantasy au pt 2 :] 💜💜💜

#ask #song of the lark!!

2 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 5 months

Note

Happy STS!

Give me the latest gossip in your story! What’s the rumour mill talking about? Are there whispers behind your characters’ backs? Just how true are the rumours?

Hi Sam! Thanks for the ask! Let's pretend I'm not answering this almost six months late...

In TAOSL, Book 2, the latest rumour is that Sitora blew up a room on the second floor of the Academy at the end of last semester. This is partially true. Somebody else made the thing that blew up the room. But Sitora did make it blow up.

In Grey-Sky Lark, there was a mysterious death in Bristol involving a man who had received a broken wrist, a broken kneecap, and was then drained of blood from the neck. Sounds about right.

In Chrissie's, the rumour is that Silas Chrissie wandered off with a married couple at the ball last night and hasn't been seen since. This is absurd. Silas would never do something like that. What actually happened is that they mind controlled him to take them to his penthouse and then they transported him to another dimension. Yep. That's definitely what happened.

#the adventures of sitora lux #grey-sky lark #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie #storyteller saturday #12 days of forgotten asks

3 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 11 months

Text

WIP Tropes Tag

@sam-glade tagged me and boy do I love a new tag game!

Tagging @islanded-in-a-stream-of-stars, @mrbexwrites, @tabswrites and anyone else who would like to!

Rules: highlight the tropes that feature in your WIP

For the Adventures of Sitora Lux:

The Adventures of Sitora Lux isn't a 'chosen one' narrative in the sense of, 'your birth was foretold and the gods chose you for your glorious purpose', but more like, 'sometimes you accidentally make yourself the chosen one, good luck buddy'

It's also sort of a villain redeemed story - if only because if you're villainous, Sitora won't let you be unredeemable.

Above all, it's definitely a coming of age story!

For Grey-Sky Lark:

My vampire boy gets his found family and his happy ever after, eventually, believe it or not!

For Chrissie's of London:

Definitely found family here too

And love triangles!

Rest assured there is no killing off the audience's fave characters! No sir! Not here! >:)

There is certainly an only one bed scene, however

6 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Text

Find the word tag

I love these! Thanks @sam-glade :D

I was asked to find the words sun, people, stone, fly.

Sun is actually the very first word of Book 1 of the Adventures of Sitora Lux!

Sun hadn’t reached this part of the city in many years. The grime and damp was perpetual, relegated to cracks and corners where no boot would tread. When they were done, the world would be flipped upside down, and the Undercity would see the sun again.

People is in the most recent scene I've been writing for Chrissie's of London:

Newspapers rustle slightly as the other patrons perk their ears towards our conversation. Tibsy gives me a deadpan look, ready with a rebuttal even though a tell-tale splotchy flush of mortification covers his face and neck. “I rarely see you here any more, Chrissie. Thought you’d fallen on hard times.” Tibberton gives a melodramatic pout, an expression that suits his face very ill. “I’ve been working, you see. Arranging glam parties. Having fashion models to stay. The usual.” I’m not usually the one to wax in public about things like this, but people like Tibsy bring out the worst in me. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t you be working right now?”

We all want to punch Tibsy.

Stone, from the Viking portion of Grey-Sky Lark:

I stand at the top of the hill by his grave for a long time, buffeted by the wind. A raven rides the thermals to glide over the ridge of the hill, soaring back down the other side. It lands on a large stone slab high up on the moor. The stone is mossy now, and covered in lichen, but what was supposed to be my resting place still lies flat against the hillside. The raven cleans its beak against it.

Fly, from the Adventures of Sitora Lux:

By the time the silver knight reached her, his swords were wider than Sitora's whole body. The knight himself was a giant in flesh and metal, still glowing as though infused with the light of a full moon. Sitora stood her ground, certain of her destruction, memorising the face of the warrior she was sure would bring her end. When he struck, the knight was twenty or thirty feet tall, and his sword struck the ground near Sitora's feet. She was sent flying, tiny and fragile among the tossed dirt and debris. She landed on her hands and knees, her sword out of sight.

I'm going to tag @ragnarokproofing, @serotoninshift, @ryns-ramblings and @late-to-the-fandom to find the words giant, flat, flush and damp.

Various tag lists below the cut, let me know if you want to be added/removed.

TAOSL TAG LIST: @mrbexwrites; Grey-Sky Lark TAG LIST: @mrbexwrites; Chrissie’s of London tag list: @novel-emma, @tabswrites, @mrbexwrites

#tag games #the adventures of sitora lux #grey sky lark #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie

4 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Text

One Song for every OC tag

Yay I was hoping I'd get tagged in this! Thanks @serotoninshift :D

Starting with Chrissie's of London:

Silas Chrissie - I guess this is a pretty bleak view of his life, but it's the way he starts the story: lonely, drinking problems, insomnia. Don't worry. Things get better. Eventually.

Two a.m., I'm on a blackout binge again You know I don't need sleep And I lost my keys, but I got so many friends

Jacques de Éloïe isn't a POV character, so his song is framed around the driving romance of the story:

Can't take much more of your hesitating Both our hands speak for us and complicate it My home is your body, how can I stay away?

Listen, this blog is one or two glasses of wine away from being a Carly Rae Jepsen fanblog, and she's on all my WIP playlists. It's the gay pining for me.

On to Grey-Sky Lark.

My protagonist has this angsty number.

I never saw What you saw in me Keep my eyes open My lips sealed My heart closed And my ears peeled

And this is his and Matthew's theme:

All your acting, your thin disguise All your perfectly delivered lines They don't fool me You've been lonely too long

Blub.

For the Adventures of Sitora Lux, I've mentioned this song before for Sitora:

I feel like I'm falling, but I'm trying to fly Where does all the good go? We're looking for answers in the highest of highs But will we ever, ever know?

Obviously a non-exhaustive list, but I want to curate and post my WIP playlists properly someday! I'm going to tag @liv-is, @captain-kraken, @sam-glade and anyone else who would like to!

#tag games #the adventures of sitora lux #grey sky lark #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie

4 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 11 months

Note

Happy STS (story teller Saturday)! What aspects of your current WIP would be difficult/impossible to translate from book to film, and how would you handle that as a creator?

Hello! Thanks for this question 😁

Both Grey-Sky Lark and Chrissie's of London are written in first person. Chrissie's, in particular I think, derives a lot of its appeal from Silas' internal monologue. He'd be pretty unrelatable and unlikeable at the start if that wasn't the case.

Anyway, there's that kind of lazy filmmaking trick with adaptations of first person stories where they just do a voice-over for the main character. Maybe it's just that it's been overdone, but it grates on me. I think getting the first person perspective across without resorting to voiceover would be the most awkward part.

Perhaps I need to work on my own ability to get the story across without his internal monologue, funny as it is!

#storyteller saturday

3 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Note

Happy STS! I hope you’ve had a great week :D If you were to create a “comfort corner” for your OC, what would you put in it? Who deserves one the most?

Hi, thanks for the ask and I hope you don't mind the super delayed response!

Sitora's comfort corner is actually on the roof of her dad's bakery. She knows very few people can follow her up there, and it offers a view over the city. There's the smell of fresh-baked bread from down below, and she has the peace and quiet to be able to think. Any 'comfort corner' for Sitora would have to be a perch, I think. XD

Silas Chrissie isn't good at self-soothing. But I know what's best for him >:) His comfort corner would be a blanket fort, with silk pillows to sit on, and sandalwood oil burners. If there was a dog napping across his lap, that wouldn't be so bad either.

My protagonist for Grey-Sky Lark would find comfort in the corner of a barn, or shed, or somewhere else secluded where he could look out onto the sea, or across a mountain range. Perhaps a bothy in the Hebrides, high up and surrounded mostly by sheep or birds, where the salt-infused breeze whipped around the wildflowers. But, his favourite armchair in the family pile in Bristol, in the library by the fire, is also suitable.

#storyteller saturday #grey sky lark #the adventures of sitora lux #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie

4 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Note

Happy STS!

If your WIP were to ever get an adaptation: Who would you want to compose the soundtrack and why? (me, for instance, I would want John Powell to compose FSF because of Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, and I would want Hanz Zimmer to do TCIO because I love all of the superhero movie scores he’s done.)

Bonus: give us some examples of the composer’s stuff you like!

Hi! Thanks for asking - this is a great question. My initial answer (and the answer that I still had even after a little while of thinking about it) was I have no clue.

I'm someone who very much imagines moving pictures when I write scenes, so picturing my WIP as an adaptation is not hard. But I never imagine the sound/music at all.

I think the Adventures of Sitora Lux would be better suited to a TV series than a movie adaptation. And you know how Daft Punk did the soundtrack for Tron? I would hire CHVRCHES to make an electro-pop soundtrack to go with the series, along with some original songs for the impactful scenes/montages.

Similar sort of thing for Chrissie's of London: when I write, I often listen to the Great Gatsby soundtrack that has a lot of elctroswing/hip hop blend covers. I think an artist like Caravan Palace would make a good soundtrack, and capture that psychedelic vibe, but also, it would be cool to hire Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox to do some vintage covers of some modern songs, a la Bridgerton.

I can't picture music for a Grey-Sky Lark adaptation at all...it covers hugely different time periods, so it would need different music to suit the vibe of each one.

#the adventures of sitora lux #grey sky lark #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie #storyteller saturday

3 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Note

Happy STS! I hope you’ve had a great week :D do any of your OCs have any sentimental items? If so, what are they and why are they sentimental?

Thank you! I've had a good week but SO glad for the long weekend.

This is a great question. I touch on this as a point in Sitora:

Sitora thought. “They have sentimental value. Some of them are old family heirlooms.” Lance chuckled to himself. “Some people have so many family heirlooms that they become less of a sentimental item and more of a burden.” That was an alien concept to Sitora, and she subconsciously reached up to stroke the soft, frayed ends of the blue ribbon holding her hair back.

Sitora has entered a world of privilege and ancient, powerful dynasties. But she's from a more humble background, and the only thing she has left of her mother's is the blue ribbon she uses to tie her hair back.

As for my other OCs, I haven't thought about it much. Raelynn, Trix and Lance come from those sort of dynasties, so they would have heritage items like weapons and armour that have been handed down.

My other MCs, by and large, actively try to forget their pasts, so they wouldn't hold on to sentimental items really. Chrissie just has 'nice stuff' in his penthouse, but in a way, his hotel is sentimental to him.

The protagonist of Grey-Sky Lark has collected little over 1500 years of existence: a Mjolnir pendant that once belonged to Lofar; a Luckenbooth brooch from his spiritual home, Scotland; and the outdated photograph of Matthew that his mother was using to look for him. He's gotten close to few people in his lifetime, but he does quietly keep memories of them close.

#storyteller saturday

3 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Note

Happy STS! I hope you’ve had a good week :) which of your characters would you be most likely to turn to when you’re feeling sad? Who would be the last person you would turn to?

Oh my gosh. That's a lovely question, thank you!

It depends on the type of cheering up I'd be looking for. Sitora would provide light-hearted distraction and make me laugh. Raelynn would listen and offer hugs and actually try to solve the problem.

Silas Chrissie would give me his undivided attention and probably mix an endless selection of quirky cocktails to cheer me up.

But the ultimate answer is Đindic:

“I’m so glad to see you,” Sitora said, running to him. She was telling the truth - nobody else in the Paintbox District would understand, but she had a feeling Đindic would. “You been crying?” Though she had tried to clear it from her face, the cool breeze on her cheeks and reddened eyes told Sitora she still showed evidence of her tears. Đindic held his arms out to her, scarred biceps as thick as tree trunks opening wide to envelop her. “Tell Đindic who made you cry and I will make them pay.” Sitora laughed, and the laugh turned into a sob as she fell into his chest and allowed herself to be swallowed by his hug.

I love my cuddle-orc.

A few of my characters are moody, navel-gazing grumps who'd have no idea how to provide comfort, like the protagonist of Grey-Sky Lark, and Jacques from Chrissie's. They'd be more likely to walk away and mope than offer any help.

#storyteller saturday #thanks for the ask!

3 notes · View notes

sarahlizziewrites · 1 year

Text

Find that Word tag

I was tagged by @mikaharuka to find:

sweet, mystery, deliberate, context, bloom, stairs, drag, surface

Here goes! cw: death of a loved one (below the cut)

Sweet: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 16)

The figure-hugging dress Trix wore accentuated the curve of her hips as she stepped towards Sitora again, the dazzling silver fabric adding to the effect on her normally boyish figure. That was to Sitora’s advantage - in her boots and breeches, she had dressed more for climbing clock towers than sweet-talking influential guests at a party.

Mystery: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 11)

“We aren’t going to be able to figure this mystery out by any…” he hesitated. “Legitimate means.” Sitora looked at him, questioning. Lance shifted himself up slightly in his seat. “Think about it. What would Master Aaren say? If you’re going to catch a criminal, you can’t think like a Paladin.” He held his hands up towards Sitora, palms framing either side of her. “You have to think like a criminal.”

Deliberate: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 3)

“Illusion -” A soft voice suddenly broke the silence, coming from the back of the classroom. The students turned all at once to see the Master standing at the rear of the room, hands clasped inside their huge sleeves. The figure by the blackboard dissolved into nothingness. “- is a powerful tool used by those wishing to deceive and hide.” Master Aaren took slow, deliberate steps towards the front of the classroom.

Context: I checked 100k+ words of writing and somehow this word isn't in it!

Bloom: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 9)

“Enchanted?” “So that they’re always in bloom. I guess the residents of this area like the spring flowers, so they infuse the orange trees with magic so they always have blossoms.” Sitora thrust her staff forward, firm foot in front. “They’re nice.” “Yeah…” Raelynn began, her own staff swinging around her body to come around for a side-swipe at her invisible opponent. “But I don’t know. I think that spring is only beautiful because of the winter that comes before it.”

BONUS: 'Blooms' from Grey-Sky Lark because this bit makes me cry and I knew it would come up as soon as I saw the word:

When he takes his last breath, I wrap him in his sheet and carry his body to the top of the hill I descended all those years ago. I bury him where he will always be able to feel the sea breeze, and look out over the valley where his sheep now roam free. Summer wildflowers grow here, and I know that soon, his grave will be overtaken by tiny pink and yellow blooms.

Stairs: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 12)

She reached the stone floor, and found she had to crouch a little in the low-ceilinged room. The space at the bottom of the stairs was a narrow atrium, lined with three of the gravestones Lance had written about in his note. She peered at the names. One of the inscriptions was entirely in elvish script. Another named ‘Birinus Harwood’; a plain, round-topped stone, decorated solely with a single carved ivy vine. None of the graves had the magical shrines that Lance had described. The rest of them must have been further in.

Drag: (Chrissie's of London)

Jacques gives a little wiggle under the suds, and my eyes dart somewhere they shouldn’t against my will. I drag my gaze back to his face, swallowing around my suddenly dry throat. “I’ve got to go to work. Don’t drown, old chap.” Best to get out of here before my body betrays me any further.

Surface: (The Adventures of Sitora Lux, Chapter 14) - I found no less than 18 instances of 'surface' in this draft! This was my favourite.

A lantern hoisted above the large wooden table lit the room, deepening the cuts in the surface of the table to canyons. Sitora set the bag of flour down on the table, casting loose flour into the air. She watched it settle rather than look at Lance as she spoke.

Tagging: @moonandris, @athemarina, @neshamahs, @islanded-in-a-stream-of-stars, and anyone else who would like to! As always, no pressure, this is a pretty time-consuming tag game lol.

Your words are: settle, wiggle, stone, years, firm, sleeves, framing, guests

#tag games #the adventures of sitora lux #grey sky lark #a man lives rent free in my head and he is called silas chrissie

3 notes · View notes