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andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Andrea
@andreabrownriley.bsky.social
20 followers 16 following 80 posts
she/her 👩 twin mom 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 bookworm 📚 writer ✍️ social justice advocate ✊️
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andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Draft 3 is DONE! 🎉🎉 Time for a few days off before I dive back in for a pre beta reader polish. 🖌
November 9, 2025 at 6:42 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
This feels like me to me. No, I will not elaborate.
September 15, 2025 at 8:44 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
Taryn hadn’t returned since she’d delivered the map to me that morning. She had made a very deliberate comment about my reviewing territories ahead of the delegations arriving in two weeks for Endri’s ascension – a clever lie – and then excused herself for the rest of the afternoon. And I didn’t fault her for it. I didn’t begrudge her desire to be as far away from me as possible when I fled. The less she knew, the better – for her sake.
September 1, 2025 at 1:11 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Happy Monday! Happy September! Feeling back in my groove with draft 3 now that I got chapter 13 right. How's everyone else feeling today?? #writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky
September 1, 2025 at 1:07 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
😂😂
August 15, 2025 at 2:30 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
Disgust shivered across my skin, damp and heavy. “I think she's spent more than enough time in your room,” I sneered, and the vampire's eyes flashed. Finally, he rose to his feet – smooth, like danger uncoiling itself to bare a razor sharp edge. “While I am here, the Princess is my responsibility-” “The Princess is my responsibility,” I hissed, and the vampire snarled, low, lip pulling back just enough to expose the sharp point of a fang. To the guards I said, “Escort him back to his room.”
August 15, 2025 at 12:25 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
road I’d spent hours traveling down made sense. This had once been the entrance for any fae traveling from the direction of the Winter Provinces, from Eilyris, before the Fae Gates had been constructed. Before the realms were split. I dropped my hands to my sides and stepped back from the gate, small rocks crunching beneath my boots. I surveyed the gate, my eyes roving over the thick steel beams that criss crossed to form grates too small for anything but the smallest creature to sneak through. At the top, the gate was edged in sharp, blade-like points. Even if I’d had the energy or skill to attempt to scale the gate, even if I could push past the nausea and pain of the ward, I’d be just as likely to impale myself attempting to go over.
August 12, 2025 at 11:48 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
“The pack is just moving through. You simply made them … curious.” When I looked back at him, back to his golden eyes – more bright than the wolf's yellow gaze – I had the feeling he wasn't talking only about the unseen predators in the trees. “You can read wolves' thoughts?” I asked softly, a gentle snap, though there was no real bite behind it. “I can smell them.” “You can smell their thoughts?” I asked, incredulous. “No, Princess, the wolves,” he clarified with a laugh. “I can smell the wolves. I can smell the way their scent changes – when they're calm, curious. When instinct rises in them and calls them to the hunt. When fear chases them off.” He paused, then, “I can smell you too.”
August 11, 2025 at 10:47 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
I reached out my hand, and let my fingers brush against the hazy barrier contained inside the arch of the Gate. It was like dragging my hand through spiderwebs and warm, thick water, and sparking veins of gold and white flickered in the wake of the movement, before vanishing. I steeled myself, and sucked in a deep breath, and then, with my eyes closed tight, I stepped through.
August 9, 2025 at 12:42 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
When that slow burn starts to smolder 😏😏 #writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
Soren explained it all to me from where he sat at the end of my bed, leaning back against the post, one knee propped up. I merely nodded, silently chewing on a slice of bacon while I stared into my tea. Soren had delivered my breakfast himself, pleasantly wishing me a good morning and settling himself at the foot of the bed, before launching into the updates. And while he spoke – of extremely serious matters – all I could think about was what I had done the night before, in the dark, after he’d left me alone. The heat in my face refused to cool. I only prayed he would see the tension in my body and read it as anxiety over the information he shared, and not he fact that I was certain he could smell what had happened on this very bed.
August 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
Twilight began to fall as I continued to follow the abandoned road winding through wooded uplands and rolling hills alike. The birdsong had transitioned gradually into the soft, near silent chirp of bats as they wheeled and spun above me, beginning their nightly hunt. I had stopped several times to rest along the way, pulling off my shoes and massaging at the pain in my feet, while trying to carefully avoid the blisters that were beginning to form in earnest. I attempted several times to pull at my magic, to try to heal away some of the injury, but I was too tired, too hungry and dehydrated, and the stress of the walking too frequent for it to have any real impact. And so I made do with my rest stops, my feeble kneading, and the few tears of anger and frustration I allowed to slip out.
August 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
I went with "pattern" since "trend" is nowhere in my manuscript. #WIPSnips #writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky
Sanciel was a fae territory unlike any other. Whereas the nations bordering Eilyris seemed to follow expected climate patterns for their geographical location, Sanciel had been locked in perpetual winter since its founding. Hence its moniker: the Winter Provinces. It was Eilyris’ neighbor to the northeast, a nation whose Court, I felt, was better suited to my ideals and ambitions than my own. But alas, I had been born to a King who loved mortals.
August 4, 2025 at 12:30 AM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
“Please stop,” I muttered, feeling the full weight of his molten gold eyes on me. He hummed thoughtfully at my side, and we fell into silence for several moments while he guided us through the city, turning west along the streets now. “I was able to arrange for horses for us,” Soren said eventually, breaking the silence that was beginning to feel heavy and unpleasant. He glanced at me, and I felt the indebtedness dig a little deeper. “Oh good,” I muttered. “Yet another gift.” Soren tilted his head and lifted a brow at me. “Would you prefer to walk, Princess?” he teased. “It is a two day walk by foot, but it's of no consequence to me. I have excellent stamina.” This last he punctuated with a wink and the way heat consumed me I thought I might catch fire.
July 30, 2025 at 9:07 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky
In the silence, I allowed myself to finally survey my surroundings, the broken temple around us. The structure itself was circular, surrounded by broken archways that had once held up the destroyed domed ceiling. Faded fae runes were carved everywhere, and in some places I could still see faint traces of the gilding that had once made them shimmer and sparkle in the natural light that no doubt had poured in from the open archways. Broken stone slabs ringed the perimeter – one of them serving as Soren’s napping place – and as I looked closely, I realized they were in fact altars of a sort, with frescoed scenes of ancient fae gods celebrating nature, and life, and magic. The center of the temple was a large open circular patch of overgrown dirt, and as I looked more closely, I realized that a tangle of vines and grass hid what was once a sacred tree, but was now a petrified broken stump.
July 5, 2025 at 9:13 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
I have the absolute best people in my life. My old boss just sent me this candle and I literal tears. 😭😭😭😭💕💕💕💕💕
June 24, 2025 at 7:56 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Still trapped in the hospital -- guess this pulse ox means I'm writing from my phone.
June 19, 2025 at 12:18 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
When you've been stuck in the hospital for 2 days and are tired of sitting, so you turn the tray table into a standing desk and do your best to enjoy your clear liquid breakfast of champions while getting some writing done.

#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky
June 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
White text on black background. Text reads: I lifted my empty hand, and with a small tug on my magic, shimmering silvery trails of light emerged from my forearm, like spidersilk, and twisted and twirled up my wrist to dance around my hand and twine around my fingers. Soren's eyes slid to the magic as I strummed it with my fingers. I couldn't help the grin that pulled at my lips as I watched his near reverent expression, his gaze following the movement of my fingers, and the magic that danced softly around them. “I have a weapon already,” I said. Soren's face slid into a grin that matched my own, and his eyes shifted to meet mine. “You do,” he conceded in a low voice. “But it will be good to have options if you can't, or shouldn't, use your magic.”
June 11, 2025 at 2:42 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Mission accomplished. 😂🙃
June 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
First draft ended with about 132k. I've only revised up through chapter 5 (and not even done with that chapter yet), and have already added almost 30k words, and two chapters. Feel like this thing's gonna be a beast by the time draft 2 is done. 🙃 #AmWriting #WIP #WritingCommunity #Writesky
June 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
White text on black background. Text reads: Reaching for the knife, I pressed the point of the blade to my finger. A darkly shimmering bead of blood welled eagerly to the surface, quivering slightly, before dissolving into red-black smoke that snaked its way around my hand, my wrist, and up my arm. I set the knife down carefully, then reached for the handkerchief, pressing my palm down over the spot of dried blood stained into the fabric. I spoke the words. I named the King.
June 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky
White text on black background. The text reads: It had taken Viorica sixteen long, rage-filled hours to send a message in response to my request for a meeting, and when I had broken the seal and read her one-word answer, I could practically hear the sigh rising up off the paper: Fine. The audacity of that single word, and the wait she had subjected me to, led to the paper catching fire between my fingers, and disintegrating into ash at my feet. The word "wait" is highlighted in green.
June 3, 2025 at 12:43 PM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
🫠
June 3, 2025 at 1:26 AM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
No lies detected. 🙃🫠 #writing #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #WritingMemes
June 1, 2025 at 11:48 AM
andreabrownriley.bsky.social
Apparently I only used the word "stagger" once in my entire first draft. Interesting. #writing #WIP #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #WriteSky #WIPSnips
White text on black background. The text reads as follows: I hadn't counted on Endri's resistance, and from the growing frustration beneath Cahir's ingratiating expression, I realized he hadn't either. “Please, my King,” Cahir pleaded softly. “Before the Council forces your hand.” “The Council can go to hell,” Endri growled, and pushed himself to his feet. Cahir rose with him, and when Endri staggered slightly, he reached out his hands to steady him. The word "staggered" is highlighted in green.
June 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM