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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

Seriously enjoyed reading this ahead of release, folks. Best sum of the experience I can come up with is: it's like if Douglas Adams wrote Good Omens.

MechaniChris @chrisakins.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t mean to alarm anyone but my book GRIM PORTENTS releases in less than 24 hours!!!

Available on my personal website: www.christianakins.com/grimportents

Or you can search for it anywhere books are sold. Seriously! Isn’t that cool?

#writingcommunity #Writesky #booksky

Grim Portents banner ad featuring a skeleton hand holding a feather and emerging from an open book. The title is on a burning banner that envelops the feather and a large beast looms over it all. At the top, the tagline reads: Welcome to the first day of the end of your life…

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Reposted by Hiria Dunning

MechaniChris @chrisakins.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t mean to alarm anyone but my book GRIM PORTENTS releases in less than 24 hours!!!

Available on my personal website: www.christianakins.com/grimportents

Or you can search for it anywhere books are sold. Seriously! Isn’t that cool?

#writingcommunity #Writesky #booksky

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

territory for her. She finds herself a bit more lost than she would otherwise expect at age 35.
- Halfway through the book, we hit a major shift in status quo. This will force Iona to confront what she's been putting on hold while focussing on The Cause.

🧵end

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

- She was sent out from Erapetra at 17 to try to change things before they got this bad, so when she returns home she has to deal with her feelings of guilt and not belonging anymore
- She also has usually been quite casual about relationships in the past, so when she falls for Daphne it's new
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

- Iona has been feeling secretly guilty about all the pushing she's been doing in this direction, encouraging Kallista's reputation as the Pirate Queen. She half wonders if she's going to get her best friend killed, but also feels like she should give everything to the cause, even her friend.
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

So a lot of that feeds into why Daphne hasn't been able to look for her father, or find community outside of the dryads.

As for Iona:
- Captain Audax has, rightfully perhaps, been reluctant to emancipate Iona's home island Erapetra, because she doesn't believe they have the necessary force
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

so she hasn't even been able to leave the holy grove
- she is a weathermage, and her mother knows that if this becomes well known, the mages in Nairu will demand Daphne attend the far distant university
- there's also Iunia trying to do a colonisation out in the Isles, making travel unsafe
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

#PlotTober
Daphne has been trapped on her island by her mother for the first 28 years of her life because:
- her mother is an ancient dryad who is terrified of her mortal daughter perishing
- her father ran away from her mother, and the humans on the island don't acknowledge her as one of theirs,
🧵

Ange @gunsmile.bsky.social · 1d

#PlotTober Day 8: Conflicts for the MC

Answer the prompt on the card by quoting this post. Remember, answering a prompt is always optional. Even if you don't share it publicly, I hope the prompt encourages you to think about it privately.

#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #WriteSky

#PlotTober - a WIP plotting game by @gunsmile.bsky.social

8. What are some potential reasons the main character(s) haven't, couldn't, and/or can't pursue these goals yet? Consider other characters, backstory events, circumstances, environmental factors, etc.

Remember: Use the #PlotTober hashtag, engage with others, and have fun!

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks for this yapportunity 🙏💖

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

And like I said, there are other things happening in the same world, in 3 other written manuscripts currently drawered and 2 which are only planned for now, and I have lots more ideas besides.

But yeah hopefully that gives you some idea of the context of Kallista and Geni, and Ao Rakona generally
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

A Prayer for the Charybdian League will be the sequel, and then I'll cap it all off with a third book... (A Prayer for Iunia? Dunno, it's too far away) which will be the story of the big struggle to redeem Iunia, and will always focus on Kallista and Geni as they survive(?) and thrive(?)
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

plot of that and extending a little further after the end. It's all about Iona and Daphne's romance, and their struggles as indigenous islanders to deal with the struggles of these times.

Beyond that, there will be two more books directly following A Prayer for the Pirate Queen:
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

I had the backstories in mind for my girls while writing Prayer, but I found I just HAD to explore them in full in novel-length form, so that's what I'm doing right now.

Or...
The First Mate and the Dryad's Daughter🦜💚🌴
Which is an interquel, coming in alongside Prayer, almost halfway through the
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

as well as more colourful characters in the crew, islanders, nuns, other ship's crews, etc.

Technology level is age of sail minus gunpowder, plus magic.

You will also see me spout titles like...
Before Queens and Saints ⚓️💜🕊 which is my current 1st draft WIP, a prequel set 10 years prior
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

that's trying to subjugate the Isles and women, amongst others

Other key chacarters include First Mate Iona, Sister Adelpha who is in charge of the secret clinic, Daphne the dryad's daughter and weathermage, Geni's teenage kids Sophia and Timon, and Kallista's sworn rival Captain Nikos Heliodorus
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

Kallista and Geni fall for each other. The obstacle, at least to start with, is that Kallista doesn't sleep with crew members, so when Geni becomes the ship's doctor, a relationship is off the table. But we also of course have the wider big stakes obstacles of resisting a tyrannical government
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

has been a nun for the last ten years following her divorce. She's on the hunt for a hidden birth control herb plantation in the Isles, so she can bring a supply back to her reproductive health clinic which runs secretly under the infrastructure of the abbey's free clinic.

This is a romance, so
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

It's set in Iunia and the Iunian Isles, which are kinda Greco-Polynesian in flavour.

You have:
- Captain Kallista Audax, who turns against the Navy and becomes known as the Pirate Queen when she can stand the treaty breaking and misogyny of Iunia no longer
- Doctor Eugenia 'Geni' Philistos, who
🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

yapping about at length in #Septopolis and #MythAugust. This is a kitchen sink fantasy world in which I set my fantasy romances (R18) under my pseudonym Kara Moon

I have a bunch of first drafts in this world, but the one that has hooked me into developing it properly is Prayer.

🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

This is such a good idea and I have bookmarked this post to come back to 🙏💖

All right let's see. I have a few projects but the thing you will mostly see me posting about is:

A Prayer for the Pirate Queen🏴‍☠️💜⚓️ (currently prepping for draft 3)...

Which is set in the world of Ao Rakona, which I have 🧵

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

My practice is to run through and examine each one intentionally (filter words, filler words, adverbs, etc.). If I leave it in, I've left it in on purpose. (Especially if it's in dialogue!)

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

#prosetober hot take 🔥
Filter words have their place. You lose an element of voice if you press yourself to get rid of every last one of them. Same with adverbs. Same with telling rather than showing.

Apollonian Gasket Forge @apollonianforge.bsky.social · 1d

#Prosetober Day 7: There is rest for the wicked---what's your hot take about sentence craft?

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Reposted by Hiria Dunning

Isaac X Isaac @isaacxisaac.bsky.social · 1d

#PlotTober
Alexander burns to live a vibrant man of honor, but many avenues are closed to him. So he jumps at scraps of opportunity to prove himself heroic. Lack of long-term goals/self-preservation let him risk everything for what he judges honorable or right even on small scales.

Ange @gunsmile.bsky.social · 2d

#PlotTober Day 7: Main character motivations

Answer the prompt on the card by quoting this post. Remember, answering a prompt is always optional. Even if you don't share it publicly, I hope the prompt encourages you to think about it privately.

#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompt #WriteSky

#PlotTober - a WIP plotting game by @gunsmile.bsky.social

7. Now that you've come up with some goals for your main character, ask yourself: why do they care? What are some potential motivations for pursuing these goals, even against their better judgment or self-interest?

Remember: Use the #PlotTober hashtag, engage with others, and have fun!

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Reposted by Hiria Dunning

MechaniChris @chrisakins.bsky.social · 1d

Just found out my book is available for Pre-order on bookshop .org for over a dollar cheaper?

Anyway, get there for a discount!
#writing #books #booksky #writsky #writingcommunity

Grim Portents

Check out Grim Portents - <p>Bill Baker wants nothing more than to marry the woman he loves, but when his wedding is interrupted by a rampaging hell-beast, his life is thrown into disarray. Desperate ...

bookshop.org

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Hiria Dunning @hiriadunning.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks 💖

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