Tag: working title.

In other news, I’ve had to face the ugly, terrifying truth that by taking the genre route I currently have for my wip, I would be doing the story a complete disservice and cheating the characters out of what they could and should be.

I don’t want a saga. I don’t want an epic. I don’t want a massive world with complex plots and multiple characters and extravagant story lines. I wanted something easy and fun.

Dammit, I wanted to write a paranormal romance, not the supernatural fantasy novel that fixes all the “wrongs” I’ve seen in the entire entertainment industry concerning werewolves!

C280k Wk 2 Day 6

Memorable quote: 

“Your self-worth is not contingent on writing.”

There were a lot of quotes in today’s episode/podcast/exercise that I have saved and want to share, so I have them all stashed for the write up I have semi-planned at the end of this. But that’s the one that keeps grabbing me because it something I need to remember.

It’s hard to separate my self-worth from my writing talent. Part because writing helped grow and establish my self-worth and part because I’m so proud of it. I want to share it with everyone and I want everyone to like it. Which…isn’t going to happen. I realize this, I know this, I’ve accepted this (or tried to), but I know that knowing something is much different than experiencing something. It’ll be a future learning experience that I can hopefully be prepared for.

On another note, I love what I wrote for today’s exercise. It’s the first time I’ve touched back on my current wip since June and I explored something that isn’t related to the plot at all. I’m tempted to continue the scene and post it, but I’ll save it for now and return in a couple weeks. Time helps clear everything up, so while I hope I’ll feel the same then, I want to give myself the time to make sure.

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash.

Scents

nikkxb:

Currently Untitled
Pairing: Nathan/Anna
Rating: Teen
Summary:

Anna’s never been to New Orleans. What better way to spend her first night than at a lounge enjoying good food, good drinks, good music, and unexpected good company?

Life Swap AU for AU Yeah August.
Author’s Note: This is an AU based off the original story I’ve been working on. I’m no where close to publishing it (or even finishing the first draft), but I decided on a whim that this could be fun and I had a blast. 

If you want information: Nathan is my werewolf and you can read his current introduction here. (And here is his first introduction in my head, should you be interested.) Anna is a human, though writing this drabble helped me finalize a few things about her backstory that were previously hazy. You can find everything pertaining to this work under this tag and it’s also what I was working on when I participated in Camp Nano in April.

I think that’s all I have posted, so here you go!

She loved new cities. They held new smells, new mysteries, new creatures. In the last four of her adventures, she’d met creatures she’d only heard of and here, in the heart of New Orleans, she was hoping to do the same.

The air was musky, smelling of wet earth and marsh even though she was in the middle of the French Quarter, sitting outside a cafe and enjoying the sounds of a band as they played. The cafe — it really was a lounge with the smoky haze outside and the menu boasting beautifully mixed cocktails, but Anna had never been able to adapt the new language against what she grew up with, so because this lounge didn’t offer the company of young, single women with fluctuating morals, it was a cafe.

Funny how she could lose herself in thought when the world was standing right there for her perusal.

Keep reading

Appalachian Folklore, Wives Tales, and Superstitions

ohthewitchery:

Brought to you mostly by my grandparents, but also by my family at large. These are all things I heard growing up in the northern region of Appalachia and wanted to share with y’all. The lore and sayings may vary based on location, family tradition, and other factors, but this is just what I’m sharing from my experiences!

• Give the first pinch of a freshly baked loaf of bread to the Good Men to keep them happy.
• Deaths and births always come in threes.
• Spin around in a circle three times before you walk in the front door to confuse any spirits that are following you.
• Don’t throw your hair out! If a bird builds a nest with it, you’ll have migraines.
• “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor’s warning.”
• If the leaves on trees are flipped over with their backsides showing, rain’s coming.
• If you hear a dog howl at night, death is coming.
• If you’re giving someone a wallet or purse as a present, put money in it to ensure they’ll never financially struggle.
• Spirits can’t cross running water.
• Cats and dogs won’t enter a room where spirits are present.
• Carry an acorn in your pocket for good luck, a penny for prosperity, and a nail for protection.
• If you’re having nightmares, put a Bible under your pillow. They’ll go away.
• Take a spoonful of honey to keep your words sweet.
• Keeping a pot of coffee on ensures a happy home.
• It’s bad luck to walk over a grave.
• A horseshoe hung above a door ensures good luck.
• A horseshoe in the bedroom staves away nightmares.
• If your right hand itches, you’ll soon be receiving money. If the left itches, you’ll be paying it.
• Wishing on a star works. “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”
• When you have a random shiver, someone just walked over your grave.
• If smoke from a fire rises, expect clear skies. If it rolls along the ground, expect storms.
• Rosemary near the door provides protection. Lavender provides peace.
• “A ring around the sun or moon, rain or snow is coming soon.”
• Wind chimes and bells keep spirits away.
• Seeing a cardinal means unexpected company.
• For that matter, so does dropping silverware.
• Rubbing a bit of potato on a wart helps it to go away.
• If the soles of your feet itch, you will soon walk on strange grounds.
• Black eyed peas, greens, and/or pork and sauerkraut should be eaten on New Year’s Day to welcome good luck and good fortune.
• Driving a nail into a bedframe or crib will drive away curses.
• If your ears are burning, someone’s talking about you.
• If you dream of fish, you are or will soon be pregnant.
• Listen to the wisdom of children, they see and know more than we think.
• To dream of death means birth, to dream of birth means death.
• To cure a headache, crush some mint leaves in your hands, cup them over your mouth and nose, and breathe in a few times. It should help.
• Placing a fern or ivy on the front porch protects against curses.
• In a vegetable garden, never plant the same plants in the same spot two years in a row. Rotate where they are, and you’ll save your soil. (Note: this is a real thing called crop rotation, and is actually kind of important)
• A black bird (Raven or crow, doesn’t matter) on the roof or a windowsill is an omen for death. To avoid it, you have to scare it away without using your voice before it caws.
• Say a prayer when you pass a coal mine for the lost souls still in the mine.
• Thank the land and the Lord with every successful hunt or harvest you have, for nothing is guaranteed.

These are a few of the folklores, wives’ tales, superstitions, and sayings that I’ve heard growing up (and still living in) in Appalachia! I encourage other Appalachian witches, cunning folk, and general inhabitants of the Appalachian region (and just the mountain range at large) to share whatever bits you’ve heard over the years!

I just wanted to share a bit with y’all to give you an insight into some Appalachian lore, my own practice, and maybe give you some things to research and incorporate into your own practice! 🌿✨

Threats

She’s bleeding.

Of all the scents assaulting his nose, only one took over his thoughts. She wasn’t even the only one in the room that held that scent, that had the coppery tang linger on clothes and skin and waft every once in a while with movement. The new bartender was rubbing her heel raw, the man nursing his vodka in the corner had scratched off a scab, and a few of the sorority sisters at the front were on the tail end of their cycles.

Nathan didn’t know her name. He didn’t know of her existence before he sat down. He was two beers into his visit before she sat down five stools away and quietly gave her order. He hadn’t been listening then, wouldn’t have known what was in her glass if his nose hadn’t picked up the sweet scent of tequila, wouldn’t have cared one bit about the way her voice lilted over his ears.

But she was bleeding, smelling absolutely, utterly delightful, and it was only years upon years of control that kept him in his seat.

“I’m not surprised to find you here,” a newcomer said, his proper British accent identifying him just as distinctly as his scent. He slid onto the stool to his right, between Nathan and the woman. “You always seem to enjoy the bars.”

Finishing his drink might have been an overused avoidance tactic, but it sure didn’t stop him from using it.

“I often wonder if maybe the alcohol doesn’t dull the nose.” The man shifted as he removed his coat and draped it over the bar. “You’ve never said.”

“You’ve never asked.”

His new companion huffed out an indignant snort Nathan was almost certain he practiced, but he didn’t say anything else until they both had a filled glass of beer in front of them.

“Would you answer?”

It was a good question. The two of them had never truly seen eye to eye and rarely got along. For most of their acquaintance, only necessity kept them civilized and even then, Nathan wasn’t certain he actually liked the man or if he simply enjoyed annoying him. It was weird to think it changed, but the animosity that used to be present when Colin showed up simply wasn’t there.

“I might,” he eventually ceded. “Depends on the day.”

The answering snort was a little louder than the first.

“So why are you here?” Colin asked instead and Nathan smiled into his glass.

“I wanted a drink.”

“And yet there are countless other establishments you could find a drink.”

He shrugged under his jacket, fingering the lip of his beer. “I like this bar. Just enough people coming in and out to ignore what’s going on.”

If he looked at Colin, he would get a good glimpse of her in the background. He shouldn’t, really. She had ordered her second glass and was steadily working her way to the bottom, but everything about her sent off a very clear message. The woman wanted to be alone.

“It’s an interesting clientele.” Colin’s murmur brought Nathan back to immediate company. “Though doing nothing for my appetite.”

He froze at the words, finally realizing that all that blood he could smell was calling Colin, too, in very different ways. The poor bartender was really working through those blisters and the man’s cut had finally scabbed over, but she was still bleeding. And the thought of Colin going after that scent sent a foul unease to the pit of his stomach.

Nathan tried for nonchalance. “Anyone in particular catch your eye?”

Colin turned and he was surprised again at the hazel he saw there. Nathan always expected a darker color, one to pull in and entice, and yet was always greeted with a light wash of color reflecting out. “Why do I have a feeling that question has a wrong answer?”

Damn, he hadn’t even tried to hide that bit of information. Turning back to his drink, he figured he might as well own up to the truth. “Because it does.”

“I know it’s not the man, your tastes don’t run that way.” Colin nodded for another glass and waited until they had more privacy to continue. “And the ones up front seem a little young for you.”

“I didn’t realize you paid such close attention to my preferences.”

“I like my face free of your claws.”

They wouldn’t be claws this time.

Colin stilled next to him, almost as if he had heard the thought. Nathan waited with baited breath as he took another pull from his beer. The buzz from the alcohol was slowly building and began the dull the sharp edge of his senses. Not terribly so, but enough that he could finally take a deep breath without knowing what everyone on the block had for dinner.

He could still smell her, though, just as clear as if he hadn’t touched a single drink.

“She’s a mistake.”

A low growl rumbled from his chest on instinct, shocking both of them.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking, don’t.” That crisp accent lost some of its form, widening and hardening into the less-enunciated drawl from Colin’s home town a bit further west than he liked to claim. He took a breath and Nathan had the sudden urge to beat the scent back out of him. “Leave her alone. She’ll only bring you trouble.”

The hair on the back of his neck was standing, muscles tense and wanting to jump, but Nathan pushed it all aside. It was an unnecessary reaction, one he wouldn’t feed. He wasn’t entirely certain where it came from or why, but he knew Colin well enough to know how to attack with words alone.

Plus, he didn’t know the woman enough to warrant a fight over flippant words.

“What makes you say that?” he drawled.

“Call it a hunch.” Colin masked his next breath from a pull of his beer. “I merely suspect she could do without your complications.”

It was Nathan’s turn to snort. “She’s an innocent. You don’t waste your time concerning yourself about anything beyond your next meal when it comes to them. What’s making you start now?”

“I care enough to keep myself safe.”

“You care enough to feed.”

“And you should care enough to be smart.”

He bared his teeth at the implication. “Meaning what, exactly.”

“Meaning you should leave her alone.” Colin pinned him with a hard stare, but not one he had seen before. “I’ve come to appreciate your presence breaking up the monotony of my life, I’d rather not see that end.”

“You know her,” Nathan breathed, some pieces fitting into place. “Who is she?”

“No, I don’t know her,” came the correction. “I simply…”

The words trailed off, but Nathan was patient. Colin liked to do this, act like he was sorting his words when really he was manipulating the situation. He’d continue—his pride wouldn’t allow him to let it go—but Nathan had long learned not to play into the man’s games. It was much easier to ignore and gain the same end.

“Something isn’t sitting right,” he finally answered, his scent wavering over the truth and a lie. “Leave her alone. You’re only noticing her scent because there’s so much of it. Any other day and she wouldn’t catch your attention.”

Something deep in Nathan highly doubted that.

The man in the corner stood from his table and headed toward the bathroom. Colin’s nostrils flared. It was no surprise when he finished his drink and followed the man down the corridor. Give him ten minutes and that man would stumble back out into the bar, dazed and pleased and all set to continue his night in a better mood.

If only Nathan’s hunger was satisfied that easily.

This is Nathan and Colin’s current introduction into the story. It’s too soon to say whether or not it will stay, but I like the moment between them.