Winter Doesn’t Equal Dead and Dormant

agwitow:

I’ve seen a few things talking about how fall and winter are the time when life-driven beings/characters would struggle because everything dies and/or goes dormant. But that’s not true!

Plants that remain active during winter:

• Spruce trees (and other evergreens)
• Wintergreen boxwood
• Sweet box
• Mock rush
• Holly

Plants that bloom during the winter:

• Winterberries
• Snowdrops
• Witchhazel
• Camellia
• Christmas rose

Animals that remain active during the winter:

• Arctic fox
• Shrews and deer mice
• Caribou
• Lynx
• Polar bear
• Snow leopard
• Penguins
• North American river otter
• Chickadee

Animals that give birth during the winter:

• Bears
  
• Squirrels
• Badgers

Instead of portraying fall and winter as the time when our nature-based characters became lethargic, depressed, and/or distant, why don’t we show them being playful and incapable of sitting still? Or constantly baking, eating, and socializing. They could be extra flirty/frisky. They could be loud and jovial. Maybe they wear bright splashes of colour (like red, green, bright orange) to ‘pop’ against the snow. Maybe they get bit by the travel bug. There are lots of different ways for nature-based characters to behave!

Just something to keep in mind ^.^

NaNo Tips #1

askmoonyloonylupin:

• Word sprints and Word Wars with your regional buddies or buddies in general will save you. 
• Get as many words under your belt as you can in the first week. You’ll be thankful when things get cranky later on. 
• Never edit or delete. I MEAN IT. Editing will be for December - January - February. 
• Write something bad. Write something terrible. Keep it. Put brackets to remind yourself that it’s unfinished business if you want. DO. NOT. DELETE. IT. 
• You want to rewrite a scene? Good. Do it under the first one. 
• DO. NOT. DELETE. 
• Accept the fact that you won’t have a Novel by the end of NaNo but 50 000 words on a page that you’ll need to go over and work on. 
• On the days you don’t want to write: write anyway. Write 100 words. Or write 50. It doesn’t matter: write them.

Here’s my take on NaNo day 1, the rest will come later on, I have a word war to attend! 

(Source: whereislenny)

viragowriter:

CHARACTER NOTES

* this is how I do basic character notes, this may or may not help you get basics for your characters, I don’t know, this is just how I do them and will continue to do them unless I see something better. Obviously you can always add on to these if need be/change them to fit your story and all. It will go: TOPIC, FILLER, EXAMPLE. 

Keep reading

cawolters:

Equality in paranormal romance!! Why is it so hard??

We’ve all see them. Read about them. Glanced their way on the media. The hot paranormal lovers. Usually guys. Usually vamps or wares (maybe a futuristic God, alien or a zombie in the mix for ‘diversity’). Usually hanging on to their fucking annoying human-ish girlfriends.

True true, I haven’t actually seen that much vampy stuff since 2000 where the whole Dracula fad (which was awesome don’t get me wrong) sunk its fangs into the public.

I’m a sucker for fangs too! But the thing that always rubs me the wrong way is the equality issue, Buffy was seriously the ONLY woman who could kick ass, and did it!!

Aright. I’ll paint you the picture that you’ve probably already reconized:

He’s strong, he has to be, he’s born/made with unlimited physical power, and that’s fine. Whatever. But he is also older, rich, skilled, smart, savage and zexy!

She’s weak, gorgeous but only mortal, maybe smart or bratty but somehow always needs her paranormal lover to step in and ‘take care’ of her. Even IF/WHEN she’s actually has muscle.

Or worse, she’s suddenly this overpowered dominatrix (which is also okay, but it’s usually written so soooo poorly).

God!

So what’s my problem? My problem is that the women gets the short end of the stick. Great sex but sacrifice EVEYRHING else. Or angsty abusive relations with tons of irritating cliches. I especially see this in fan fics (Vegeta and Bulma 4eva). And what the fudge is up with that!? It’s a feminist age gaddamn!

Now. I’m not saying everything has to be politically correct all the time, especially in fiction, and not all books should strive to teach the reader its perfect moral; but the author MUST have made these thoughts and recognize their characters’ depth. If there’s inequality in the relationship, address it, and make it matter.

Also. Having ‘her’ save the day once, does not justify her having to be saved fifty times. Sigh. Just. Don’t bother.

So, what to do if you want to write/read this kind of abusive, undermining, ‘’’’MEAN’’’’ relationships? Does it make you a bad feminist??

No!!!! Not to me at least!! I personally love angst! I love the overpowered lover thing, AND equal does not mean ‘the same’. Think of SM relations! One with power, one without. Then switch, and switch again!

Tmi? Maybe, but I actually don’t mean the pg13 stuff. And definitely don’t mean the 50shades stuff. I mean the connection, the trust, and the need, and the understanding. And let’s not forget about the consent shall we!!

Rip her apart, by all means, but do it because she’s a mean bitch too, who verbally asked you for it. And pls, don’t whine about it afterwards (insert eye roll).

Yeah, I have a lot of opinions on this because I like the tropes that comes with this kind of romance —I just want to see it done right! And it’s all about balance!

In my adult fantasy series ‘Rise of the Blood Dawn’ we have this very destructive MC, Shiroin. Classic masochist. She’s constantly looking for things to break, including herself, and only once the right guy comes along is she allowed to. It’s a whole, breaking down and build it up agains thing. And though this dude is a tall dark mysterious stranger (who, yes, has fangs and is very good with a sword) he is under her employment. He’s the underdog. He’s the racial minority. And their power balance goes back and forth like that a few times.

I’m not saying my book is perfect. It has some ehhh… adult themes that might be questionable, but I do think that my FEMALE main character is killing it. She’s all for the feminist agenda in paranormal romance, and in general, and so am I.

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-ciao-

trinket-the-bear:

wild-west-wind:

wild-west-wind:

You know what fantasy writing needs? Working class wizards.

• A crew of enchanters maintaining the perpetual flames that run the turbines that generate electricity, covered in ash and grime and stinking of hot chilies and rare mushrooms used for the enchantments
• A wizard specializing in construction, casting feather fall on every worker, and enchanting every hammer to drive nails in straight, animating the living clay that makes up the core of the crane
• An elderly wizard and her apprentice who transmute fragile broken objects. From furniture, to rotten wood beams, to delicate jewelry
• A battle magician, trained with only a few rudimentary spells to solve a shortage of trained wizards on the front who uses his healing spells to help folks around town
• Wizarding shops where cheery little mages enchant wooden blocks to be hammered into the sides of homes. Hammer this into the attic and it will scare off termites, toss this in the fire and clean your chimney, throw this in the air and all dust in the room gets sucked up
• Wizard loggers who transmute cut trees into solid, square beams, reducing waste, and casting spells to speed up regrowth. The forest, they know, will not be too harsh on them if the lost tree’s children may grow in its place
• Wizard farmers who grow their crops in arcane sigils to increase yield, or produce healthier fruit
• Factory wizards who control a dozen little constructs that keep machines cleaned and operational, who cast armor to protect the hands of workers, and who, when the factory strikes for better wages, freeze the machines in place to ensure their bosses can’t bring anyone new in.

Anyway, think about it.

• Construction wizards to turn back time to root out wood worm and strengthen old buildings.
• A wizard tailors who transmutes cloth into fully made clothes without seems and leaving behind no scraps
• A wizard who works in public transit, timing out teleports with detailed schedules, time magic, and enchanted communications, sending dozens of people to far away cities for a day or work or leisure
• A team of wizard gardeners tend to trees grown far outside their native range, and ideal climate, encircled with runes and fed potions to grow none the less
• A wizard sits in their office in the aqueduct, re-casting the spells that allow its precious water to flow to the city uphill
• A wizard fisher casts water repelling spells on the sailors and the stairs, keeps the hoist on the anchor from rusting, casts balls of heat that keep everyone warm below decks. Their real job is to herd fish together so they can be caught in single huge nets, and keep them cold as the boat returns to land.

There are so many possibilities outside of “stodgy academic who wears ugly robes” and “Very good holy man who helps everyone and the fact they’ve never had a job is never brought up” and “evil wizard toiling away on great evils in his evil tower in the evil country.”

• Wizards who come out and ward your home for you, like the magical equivalent of a home security system.
  

“Are you sure this is safe?” Tina asks for the fifth time.

“Completely safe,” Newt says, cupping his hands and helping her onto the back of the hippogriff. “Now, hold on tight, but not too tight—and don’t pull out any of her feathers. She might throw you off mid flight if you do.” He grabs her hand when she nearly slips off. “Careful.”

He’d chosen Alora because of her mellow temperament, the perfect hippogriff to make a the best impression of her species. She spreads her wings at his insistence, running his hands through her feathers in a last minute check up, while watching Tina awkwardly place her hands at the base of Alora’s neck in his peripheral.

“You look like you were born riding a hippogriff.”

“Liar.”

Newt grins. “Having second thoughts?”

“No—yes. A little.” She jerks back when Alora shakes her head and Newt has to struggle not to laugh. A New Yorker, born and bred, riding a hippogriff in the English countryside.

“You’ll be fine.” He takes a step back.

Tina notices. “Aren’t you coming too?” A hint of panic begins to creep in her voice.

“As much as I’d like to, I can’t. Someone has to stay with the rest of the herd.” He waves to the field behind him. The rest of the hippogriffs linger about leisurely, the warm weather a far cry than the usual rain that it renders them complete docile.

“That’s not what I agreed to.” She attempts to slip off, only Alora is beginning to get antsy. The hippogriff stamps eagerly, underneath her chestnut coat a thousand pounds of muscle ready to get in the sky. Tina looks almost anxious. “Newt. Newt. Don’t you dare—”

“Try not to worry the entire time you’re up there—it’ll ruin the experience.” Without further ado, Newt slaps the beast’s hide. She rears, spreading her wings wide, and lets out a loud cry that nearly drowns out Tina’s cursing.

Anyone got any other magical creature I can write about? I’ve already written about Newt dealing dragons, sphinxes, yetis, and giant storm petrels.