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Matthew Siadak

@backwardsknight.com

4.1K followers 1.8K following 4.2K posts

Author of stories Eldritch, Fantasy, and Horror. Crow. Lost Boy. Dreamer of dreams. I love to cook, play TTRPGs, etc. I tinker, making jam and soap. He/him. Signed copies of books! https://backwardsknight.bigcartel.com

backwardsknight.bigcartel.com

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · Aug 5

The Backwards Knight is officially released unto the world. Pre-order campaign is over. Tentacles and all, I hope everyone enjoys this nearly-a-decade in the making novel.

Called a true fantasy gem and magnificent, I am proud of what I have wrought.

I hope you'll give it a go, #BookSky!

Image of a copy of The Backwards Knight sitting in a crumbling ruins, with a backdrop of shadowy tentacles, and eight arrows pointing to words that read: Stabby princess, a sword of nothing, potatoes, tainted magic, knight in not-so-shiny armor, farm boy with magic, Beware..., Crumbling ruins.

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 2h

Available pretty much everywhere books are sold, but you can also get them signed w/swag directly from me!

backwardsknight.bigcartel.com

Backwards Knight

Signed books and swag from indie author Matthew Siadak

backwardsknight.bigcartel.com

Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 2h

Mister Big Mouth, best friend of Mister Fish, is here to scream about how good my books are.

If you can translate from blublublublubblub, you'll hear him gushing about The Backwards Knight and The Dark Side of Super.

#BookSky #BookTok

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 2h

Every year, for the last few years, @fallenlights.net and I get pumpkins to put out with our wildlife cameras.

The process has yet to disappoint.

Night vision wildlife camera image of a raccoon with a pumpkin, staring up into the sky.

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 2h

Happy Friday, friends!

Meme image, top text reads: *the Party can't solve the Problem with diplomacy*

The barbarian:

Bottom image is a picture of Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a very wide eyed expression.

Bottom text reads: COWABUNGA IT IS

Watermark reads: Made with mematic

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 12h

That very well may fit 🙃🙃

Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 12h

Thank you! I hope I get to tell of their many and varied adventures!

Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

Five~ chapters left before I hand it to my editor. Last I checked, it was 10 or 11. I have no idea how that happened. 🙃🙃🙃

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

#WeeknightWriters Q4: The most frustrating aspect I find with character development is making them less a part of me, and working to find their own distinct voice and traits.

Sometimes too much of me bleeds over.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 13h

Q4: What aspects of character development do you find most frustrating? #WeeknightWriters

Notepad that says “#WeeknightWriters: What aspects of character development do you find most frustrating?"

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

#WeeknightWriters Q5: Current main characters are Orn and Laela, a snarky knight and a stabby princess out to save the world from dark, eldritch forces.

Whether it's a farm boy touched by magic that corrupts, or quacking ducks, they're out to do what they can...all while arguing and bickering.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 13h

Q5: Tell us about your main character. Who are they? What do they want? #WeeknightWriters

Notepad that says "#WeeknightWriters: Tell us about your main character. Who are they? What do they want?"

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

#WeeknightWriters Q3: I love fleshing out a character and their voice, their wants, desires, dislikes. I love finding out what makes them tick.

But above all of that? I love finding a song I can wrap myself in to recreate that character in my head. I love finding music that works as a languauge.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 14h

Q3: What aspects of character development do you enjoy most? What goes into making a character? #WeeknightWriters

Notepad that says “#WeeknightWriters What aspects of character development do you enjoy most?"

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

#WeeknightWriters Q2: Right now, the biggest part that helps me understand my characters and story planning process is to sit down and build an outline. That way, even if I deviate from it, I know where I plan to go and can hopefully react accordingly.

I am sold on being a plantser.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 14h

Q2: What aspects of character development do you consider most important to your story planning process? #WeeknightWriters

Notepad that says “#WeeknightWriters What aspects of character development do you consider most important to your story planning process?"

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

#WeeknightWriters Q1: I typically create characters and work out a story to fit them. I find a character, and their voice or their personality, come to me strongest and then I figure out what they need, or want.

Or do not want or do not need.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 14h

Q1: Do you typically create characters to match the story you want to tell or build your stories based on character(s) already living in your head? #WeeknightWriters

Notepad that says “#WeeknightWriters: Do you typically create characters to match the story you want to tell or build your stories based on character(s) already living in your head?"

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 13h

Goooooood evening, #WeeknightWriters! My name is Matthew and I'm currently making really good progress on self-edits/revisions/re-drafting The Forgotten Princess, sequel to my eldritch fantasy novel, The Backwards Knight.

Weeknight Writers @weeknightwriters.bsky.social · 14h

Hello #WeeknightWriters! Come on in, introduce yourself and your WIP, and let us know how your #FirstDraftFall planning is going!

Notepad that reads: #WeeknightWriters Introduce yourself and your WIP, and let us know how your writing week is going!”

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 17h

Peek-a-boo.

Close up image of a raccoon standing in front of and looking into a night vision wild life camera.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

Laura Siadak @fallenlights.net · 20h

One of my patrons requested a spider with a hat!
I remembered to take a WIP video of painting this little guy :)
www.patreon.com/posts/140842...
(There's also TWO art spaces at the branches tier if you want a little halloween drawing)
#bsnm #Halloween

Brown and teal watercolor painting of a little spider with lots of eyes and a witch's hat.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

Laura Siadak @fallenlights.net · 18h

Every year @backwardsknight.com and I set out pumpkins for our buddies. He usually makes a time lapse at the end

Photo of a pumpkin next to a cat water dish outside on the concrete patio.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

H.S. Kallinger (he/they) @xakana.bsky.social · 18h

This comes out TOMORROW!

You can pre-order the ebook pretty much anywhere you want: hskallinger.weebly.com/found-humani...

I'm so excited!!

Open cover art for 'A Demon to Save Me' by H.S. Kallinger. On the right is the cover: Title letters are rendered in fire inside a blood circle, with a bloody pentagram drawn with a finger on a hardwood floor. Some blood is scattered around it. A pair of amber eyes with thick, black eyelashes are just visible on the floor above the circle. Rainbow circles fade in and out around the image. Author name is in pink, blue, and white in the lower right corner. In white lettering at the top is "Book One of the Found Humanity series." The wrap is a picture of space with a pink and purple nebula in the center, over the spine and spilling over to the back cover and to disappear under the front cover. The back contains an expanded view of the original back cover to make the blurb more readable for screens. Pink text declares: Gabriel Belmont's life is succumbing to a downward spiral when he accidentally summons a demon. After he refuses to make a contract, something ignites within him, inspiring him to strive for a real future—a real life.

Two years later, he has everything he wanted, and his life is on track. But it's a fragile thing. A cascade of events threatens to destroy it all. He has to find it in him to not only save the people he loves, but also the demon who saved him in the first place.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

blue james @drifloons.bsky.social · 19h

:) kitty

#writersky

“I don’t understand why we can’t just sleep while we wait,” he complained, opening an eye to glare at Skalva on Derek’s other side. They had not eaten most of the food on their plate, and that which had not been stolen by their siblings was now being stolen by a cat they had let jump onto the table. Its fluffy fur was a marbled blend of true lilac and true lavender, and it had miniature, curly-Q horns the color of fresh cream. Small, vestigial wings of the same shade were folded up in the middle of its back.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

Aimee Cozza Illustration @aimeecozza.com · 19h

Oops, spoiler alert (but not for anyone who is actually watching my art lol), vampire Azra used to be a FLYING vampire actually.

#Azra #Writing #TBBPrompt #MfL

In his sleek, slim, humanoid form, there was no proof that he had ever been anything else, that he once owned colossal, feathered wings. He rested his hands on his back, closer to his hips, up on his waist. Not a bit of muscle, or a knot of vestigial bone to tell him as much, just smooth, uninterrupted skin, human-passing in shape and silhouette. Falco could have been lying to him; it would have been easy to think that he was.
But Azra knew what Falco said was true.
Because he remembered.

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Matthew Siadak @backwardsknight.com · 19h

#TBBPrompt time again! This week brings us the word vestigial, which took me no few moments to understand. I'm feeling very Not Smart™ today.

That said, I found a perfect example from a recent scene added to The Forgotten Princess.

#AmWriting #WritingPrompt #thgink

Snippet image, with the word "latent" highlighted out of the full text that reads:

“I have missed you.” Namus knelt before the table-turned-altar, where seven crystalline pedestals stood. Each, a twisting pair of columns that came together to support a golden plate. On one, there balanced a quill on its tip, slowly spinning as if guided by a small breeze. Another bore a glove splayed out across its surface. “We are almost complete, we are almost whole.”

From within an innermost pocket of his robe, Namus withdrew a small iron disc. He ran his finger over the engraving of a wagon wheel upon it, its edges long since worn away by that very action repeated over time. Not his thumb, and he tried to imagine everyone who came before him, who held the very same disc in their hands, their thumbs moving over the same pattern. From within the metal echoed the faintest reverberation, echo, of the latent power it once contained within.

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Reposted by Matthew Siadak

Laura Siadak @fallenlights.net · 23h

One of my favorites - The Gloomy Sea

Watercolor, bit of gouache for the white. Any time I feel a little homesick, I paint the ocean.

11x14in Prints can be found > fallenlights.net
#repostober