Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 13h

#Novmemeber
There are a lot of songs that vibe various parts. Today’s, I call The Marinell Anthem because it so completely resonates with the dynamics among Drisal, Rushak and Lord Deran their father. Serj even makes himself sound like three voices singing together by the end! youtu.be/CSvFpBOe8eY

2 2 14

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 18h

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity Don’t have the word, but I do have it.

The #penultimate feeding. (Supplies low in the hideout.) Drisal probably wasn’t the right person for the job.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

Five days later the clouds swept over the
mountains, oozing a frozen mist. Drisal pulled the stiff, crackling tarp from over the hay. Scooping up half, he pictured the morrow. He'd be scraping the last leaves off the icy ground with his hands. The horses were already going hungry. What would they
do—Iryla's tears! His stomach spasmed. It hurt. A ball of iron shards... He nearly crumbled. Lurching toward the horses he broke up his armful of hay, tossing little portions into the corral as he stumbled
past in his hurry to reach his brother's side.

Zephyr did not hesitate. He yanked his
half-trimmed hoof out of Virgil's grasp and raced Shalhra to their sparse breakfast, ears pinned.

"Fortune fail you, gemworker! Why didn't
you wait?" Virgil cried, brandishing his knife.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

2 8 36

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 1d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #trail

Cerel struggles to stay in the moment. But shock has the better of him.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

Drisal wrenched himself free of Cerel's gentle
grasp. "I have not made this long journey to leavehim."

Overhead, a raven swooped through the column of smoke. Thunder came nearer, and falling snow hissed on the fire as Drisal stood, his feet planted in the mud with demented stubbornness, rivulets TRAILing from his uncovered head. It occurred to Cerel to try his explanation again. What was it?

The sense of unreality clung to him, surrounding the core idea.

*He had been here before. He slogged on
cloven hooves through the blood-churned mud around the pit, his horn heavy on his head. His mane stuck to his neck in the oily rain, the frozen rain. Wet hail dropped and melted, washed the blood, while
morning sunlight made kaleidoscopes of the mist ... when was it? Words, words, strange in his mind ... he was so sad. The world disintegrated beneath his feet.*

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

2 11 41

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

SubRosa )✿( Magick (chat to book a reading) @subrosamagick.bsky.social · 2d

1 10 36

Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 2d

Hellback’s terrible creation stalks the Forest. Its new life is death.

Doing something unusual (for me) posting a regular-type snippet over here, and really late, too!

- From Siege of the Spirit

#WIPSnips #steel #fantasy #darkfantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

The creature sought a young man. His eyes
were like blinding lights, and his voice was like the singing of summer birds. His hair was golden and short, and he wore a sash about the head. He was to be found in a dwelling at the southwestern part of the Forest. It was to this dwelling the dark creature hurried, for there its purpose would be fulfilled.

But ahead, two Sheltri approached, mounted
and armed. Clumsily it ducked into the brush, but one Sheltri saw the movement in the full dark of night.

"Who's there?" They drew closer, their drawn swords invisible with the keen scent of STEEL in the air. Only their eyes shone, those terrible lights. The creature leaped to its feet.

"Breath of Iryla, what is it?"

Iryla. The creature rocked back from that
name, but held its ground. It had terrible lights of its own.

Siege of the Spirit
A.C. Turek

2 11

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 2d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #steel

On the disposal of bullies.
Drisal and Rushak

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

Drisal lowered his sword, the heat of affront
draining from him. "Good shot. But you've soiled my sharpening-stone."

"You were going to strike him," Rushak
replied, eying the blade. "I wanted the honor for myself."

Drisal nodded understanding, with a rueful
glance at his weapon as he sheathed it. "It would have been a terrible mistake. But he should've tasted STEEL for those words."

"No, Drie. You've not been yourself these last
days. A rage consumes you. I have never seen you like this. You were ready to murder him! You know their taunts have long ceased to hurt me. Their good opinion, well, we both know what it is worth."

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

1 14 43

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

Rushak
Plays harp
Is on fire
#Novmemeber

1 1 8

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

#NovemberWorldbuilders
3. Yellow/orange: Drisal and Rushak change and imprint a topaz to be used to tell friend from foe.

They make a prayer-stone of citrine quartz with a second, secret purpose that broadcasts its owner’s intention to any prey they may target.

Gold is a beacon, the color (1/2)

Kira of the Wind (Erika McCorkle) @kiraofthewind.com · 4d

It's #NovemberWorldbuilders!
We're talking about colors in our worlds! Tell me about something in your world that's YELLOW or ORANGE? I find that these two are often underrated/underused in worldbuilding, so I'd love to hear what you have. Maybe something symbolic of the sun or made of gold?

#NovemberWorldbuilders prompt card

Hosted by Kira of the Wind
Week 1: Colors
Something in your world that is YELLOW/ORANGE

The image in the background is a blurred picture of a foresty/rocky landscape with lightning and a mountain in the background

1 1 6

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Racthoh @racthoh.bsky.social · 2d

#WIPSnips Steel. I had a few I really liked for this one, but our hero's final speech as he stands emotionally broken is my favorite.

Text in the alt.

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky

“Strength is a virtue I brandish not. For a moment there was some glimmer of resistance, when sweet tranquility rekindled feelings unfelt for an eon. Her embrace only drove me further beyond saving. I am undone. I tread aimlessly in a sea of sorrows, abandoning the shore’s solace. No rest, no reprieve. I am left with one purpose: to ensure the wars, the tale, the pain I felt are absent from my people until the days when the warmth of the sun abandons them. I will unmake civilization, rupturing the core of all life from this plane. I have become you. I have become as wicked as the very worst. It is this place, the people, the Gods, all of it manufactured to make you hate and loathe one another, to make you seek power and dominion over all others! I have lived it. I have experienced it, wielded it with absolute mastery. I have reveled in the forbidden power and understood its allure. But it must end. It has to all end, to be locked away behind steel and stone without a key,” I announced as the blades began to merge before my eyes.

7 23

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Brandy O’Briant @brandyo71.bsky.social · 2d

#wipsnips
#writingcommunity
#writersofbluesky
#writesky
#booksky
#amediting
#litfic

Once, after Ali died, a kindly therapist, an older Jewish woman with a beautiful salt and pepper bob and a way of talking straight that made Helen feel seen and respected, said to Helen that she had a tiger in a box. Joan said a steel box, locked and wrapped in lengths of chains. And that Helen knew how to tame the tiger well, knew how, when it rattled its cage, to turn away from it, to turn towards movement, productivity, projects, anything distracting. The tiger would eventually settle. But someday, someday, Joan told her, that tiger would find its way out. It won’t die in there. It will force you to open the box yourself. To open the box and look it in the eye. That is the only way to find out that it can’t eat you.
Easy, tiger. Down, boy. Not today.

3 9

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 3d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #nice

Cerel is preparing for his Investiture. His brother Jer is with him.

Only 3 instances of this word!

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

"Who's that for?" Jer asked.

"Rush." A late afternoon breeze stirred leaves
and blew curly shavings through the rail. He looked out into the tree, where a little brown rushan perched on its nest, feeding a worm to its young. In a tree nearby, its mate trilled its three melodies in endless succession. "He's no love for Iryla, but I thought
maybe if he carried her symbol, even if only for me, it would afford him a little of her grace. Is that foolish?"

Jer smiled. "I've never been able to figure you
out. You have always been impossible, yet you're wise beyond your cycles. Yours is the biggest heart I have ever known."

Cerel dropped his eyes.

"What about all these others?" Jer went on.
"Are you making something for everybody?"

"Well, yes. I think for my Ritual it would be
NICE to give gifts to all who stand with me."

"That'll be a lot of carvings."

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

2 12 39

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

Revenant.

When our souls, emotions are compromised we are open to the invasion of hellish thoughts. It’s best to recognize them for what they are, just scary monsters to be banished.

- From Siege of the Spirit

#WIPSnips #monster #Halloween #WIP #fantasy #darkfantasy #undead #bipolar

Something dark groped its way through the Forest.

Though awkward, it moved silently, black rags dripping from its body like wet, rotten leaves.
It was black, hairless and two legged.

It cowered as it crept along, and stopped often to smell the air and listen, staring up into the branches of a tree or into distant a lights! Then it would sit.

Its head would fall to its knees, and it would begin rocking like a lost child or a fresh-made monster mourning the loss of its humanity.

Siege of the Spirit

Image: white text over a dark, burnt forest

1 5 18

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 4d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #cobweb

Lyn is sick of Drisal’s neglect and is poking about where she should not be.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

But all was not right here, either. The rest of
the room was in disarray. The bench had been shoved back from the table, where a trencher of partly-eaten meat sat askew. A chair lay toppled. Empty waterskins slumped on the rumpled cot and a silver plate listed against the pillow, covered in crumbs. The
tray with the trenchers lay on the floor, the meat mostly gone. On a round table beside the cot, an ewer lay overturned inside a white basin. Empty buckets lolled on the floor. From end to end the room churned
with the memory of disaster.

Worst and most puzzling of all was the heavy,
metallic sweetness hanging like COBWEBs in the air, making her shudder. She squatted beside a heap of damp linens on the floor. Driven by a compulsion she
did not understand, she lifted one from the edge of the heap. She pulled out the one beneath and then dropped it, covering her mouth.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

2 11 36

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 6d

Happy #Halloween!

Human skeleton stands in a horse trailer pulling on a skeleton horse.
Caption: She has been trying to trailer this horse since last Halloween.

#HorseSky #funny #trailhorse #skeleton #trailer #horse

1 10

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amanda Turek💎HorsebackWriter @acturek.bsky.social · 6d

#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #monster

Bráthal encounters the goddess’s judgment, as it seems to him.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.

A cold voice mocked him. Why think you?

Red eyes formed. He shrank beneath them, his back heaving against the earth. Iryla's justice, this must be. Her wrath visited upon him for his failure to wreak Her will upon the abomination. Coincidence was it, that it should take the form of a toothed, black
maelstrom? He closed his eyes to pray. Tears
squeezed out. Was he weeping? Something warmed in his palm.

It was the prayer-stone. Unconsciously he'd
gripped it when he fell, and now as he prayed a brilliant light shone through the beaded pouch and through the flesh of his fist. He slipped the shining gem out and thrust it before him, begging for
forgiveness, for his life and the lives of his kin. But for a brief flash of radiance against a gleaming fang, he could no longer see the MONSTER. But he felt it, its
chilling darkness, its hunger, so terribly close.

Brother's Keeper
A.C. Turek

3 13 42

Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

I have never been closer to rage quitting. (And I have been close.)

Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

Boss called me at home today for help pulling an activity report and didn’t say why. Of course my brain is in the worst case scenario. I was WRITING, too! & now I can’t. Whole weekend ahead to freak out and worry. 🤯😭😭 #bipolar #anxiety It’s just a monster.😅
My supportive daughter tho.

My daughter: “you've proven yourself enough times to hold your own”

Me: OMG I love you

Daughter: It's true though.

1 2

Siege of the Spirit @siegeofthespirit.bsky.social · 6d

Revenant.

When our souls, emotions are compromised we are open to the invasion of hellish thoughts. It’s best to recognize them for what they are, just scary monsters to be banished.

- From Siege of the Spirit

#WIPSnips #monster #Halloween #WIP #fantasy #darkfantasy #undead #bipolar

1 5 18

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Author James C Struck @curioussnowflake.bsky.social · 6d

#WIPSnips for Halloween! 🎃 Monster

Tim’s father has schizophrenia, and in the current day he is institutionalized. In this flashback to Tim’s childhood, he tries to tell then-seven-year-old Tim what his disease is like.

#WriteSky #UrbanFantasy #QueerWriters

I’m so sorry." Daddy is quiet for a moment. “I want to tell you something. I think you’re old enough to understand it now. Have you ever had a daydream so strong it seemed real?”
“All the time.”
“And have you ever had a daydream that scared you?”
Timmy nods his head vigorously. “Like when the shadows at night look like monsters?”
“Just like that." Daddy takes a big breath before continuing. “Timothy, I have a problem where I can't control my daydreams. They seem as real as anything to me, and I can’t make them stop.”
Timmy’s eyes grow wide at that thought. “It sounds really scary.”
“It is, buddy. It really, really is. There are special medicines I can take that help, but they have side effects. That means that they help, but they do other things too. They make me very sleepy, which isn’t that bad, but they also make it so my imagination doesn’t work right.”
“But you need that to make your stories!" Daddy had told Timmy many times how writing worked. “How can you write your stories if you can’t daydream them first?”
“Just so, and that is what I want to talk about with you.

2 18

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Amy Borgman @ireneaddie.bsky.social · 9d

still a gentle light
shines on gnarly limbs
what is there to fear?

#trees #spooktober
#haiku #nature #forest

Gnarly tree roots with a gentle sun shining into the woods.

7 15 160

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

DrNaturegirl @drnaturegirl.debbiemross.co.uk · 6d

Hello there @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk and the #poetrycommunity here’s my rough draft drop for #PoemsAbout #Blood A little fem’ rant for you! Will check in throughout the day for all the #poems. Thanks for reading, sharing, supporting. #poetry #poem

A poem by Debbie Ross entitled

Bleeding for Humanity Text as follows:

You are drenched
in your Mother’s blood.

We women bleed
our whole lives:
monthly menstruation,
parturition, the daily cuts,
the knife slices
to our hearts.

Women bleed
and men
shun us
for our impurity,
call us cursed,
or simply ignore
our suffering.
Misogyny
writ large.

Without our blood
on the earth
life
would not exist.

19 21 67

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

IrishLisa @irishlisa.bsky.social · 7d

Defeated? Sometimes.
Just long enough to breathe deep.
Then I stand again.

#Emoetry #Prompt #Defeated #Senryu #Haiku #Poetry #Micropoetry #Breathe #Hope #Resilience #Perseverance

3 8 59

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

VenetiaJane’s Garden @venetiajane.bsky.social · 7d

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

Emily Brontë #poetry #autumn

A single red autumn leaf clings to a bare twig against a softly blurred background of gold and green, evoking quiet stillness and the fading beauty of the season.

2 21 84

Reposted by Siege of the Spirit

Keyser Lauze 🇨🇦 @keyserlauze.bsky.social · 8d

Good morning my #bluesky friends! Here's it is, your morning moment of ZEN!🌊☀️💖🧡💛✨️

"Each crest a vow
that cannot last,
each fall a promise
to begin again"

- Sasha Clain, "Reliquary of the Waves"

#Waves #eastcoastkin #photography #nature #islandlife #beauty #westcoast #poetry #meditate #zen

19 23 160