Landing Page: Dragons Next Door

Smokey Knoll is an exciting place to live, but for Aud and Sage and their kids, it’s just… life. Harpies, centaurs, and tiny people in the walls; kidnappers, magic-users, and strange poisons in black jars… Aud just wants to get through the latest parent-teacher meeting, and nevermind the mayor’s latest problem.

The ogres next door have moved out, but the new neighbors have a joyriding teen and a new infant whose cries can wake up the neighborhood. Sure, the wee little thing is adorable, but he belches fire when he’s colicky and needs asbestos diapers.

This series of short pieces follows the mostly-human family in their interactions with their magical neighbors.

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Best Places to Start
Get Off My Lawn!
Backpack Gremlins

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Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Alder's Grove Fiction.

Happy Inter-Universal Women's (Week): Eva and the Tarot

to kelkyag's prompt here:Eva and the opinionated tarot deck.

It was a quiet night.

"Too quiet," Eva muttered to herself, making her voice ominous and over-dramatic. It was silly... and it was begging trouble. She did it anyway.

Her nieces and nephews were all off doing whatever it was they did. Her aunts and great-aunts and assorted other older relatives were all off doing whatever it was they did. Her sisters and cousins were all probably taking a breath, just as she was.

Except she exhaled carefully over her most difficult deck and drew a single card.

The queen of pentacles looked at her upside-down. Eva glared at the card, and it glared back at her.

"This is my job," she informed the deck, but a guilty pang in her chest told her otherwise.

The Aunt was not usually employed, but Eva was not trying to be a normal, usual Aunt.

Origin of the Planties

I have been thinking about plant origins and variations.

Spurred by this article and lovely infographic, and the fact that when you plant 5 or 6 different Brassicae in one long garden plot, it becomes really really obvious they're the same plant (esp. Kale and Brussels sprouts! They make nearly identical plants!) and by this cute video showing plants then-and-now, it makes me wonder both about what's in our garden (right now? Dirt and last year's carrots and leeks, and one barely-surviving kale plant) and about worldbuilding plants.

And then I think about growing purple potatoes, and I think about this, Ursula Vernon's informative rant on the Potato Apocalypse, and I think about varieties.

We have such bounty, and such breadth and depth available. It's pretty awesome.

Patreon Reward Tier Profile!

I am holding a Patreon Pledge Drive in hopes of filling a slight income hole with my chosen income-garnering path, more apocalypses!

Err, I mean "more speculative fiction writing."

Probably with some apocalypses.

So if I'm going to ask you to patronize me, I ought to tell you what you're getting, oughtn't I?

By now, everyone probably knows that a $1 pledge gives you access to all the patron-only stories.

But what about the higher rewards? What else can you get from me?

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Pledge $5/month, and you get to tell me what to write, broadly:

Each month, I hold a theme poll here on DreamWidth, open to everyone. That determines the monthly theme, out of ten options.

Then I open a prompt call to my $5+ patrons! From those prompts, I write the month's flash fictions and microfictions! Sometimes I'll combine 'em, sometimes I'll go off in a strange direction, but I'll always use those prompts first.

In addition, when taking a new direction on a serial, starting a new serial, or making up a character for a serial, I will poll the $5+ patrons for feedback.

For instance:

Fill in the blanks:

Once, there was a [person or group of people(Family of Hikers)] who lived in a [setting descriptor] [place].

[Pronoun] discovered that [ITEM] was [adjective], and that it was up to them to fix it!

But first, [Proper Noun] had to [verb] [GROUP or ITEM].

And, if I reach the $245 milestone - "Spreading the Love Around" - I'll ask the $5+ patrons' input as I commission a crowdfunded artist to create a portrait of one character/month.

All that for just $5/month!

Check it out here.

Soft Target, a drabble of Cloverleaf

When the boss told him Cloverleaf was a soft target, Coty should've known better.

When the boss said the walls would come down easy with this new earth-caster, Cody really should've known better.

When the boss said that the guards at Cloverleaf were glorified paper-checkers and errand-runners and there was no military to speak of, Coty should've walked away, whatever the contract said.

When the boss screamed onward instead of retreat, Coty should've grabbed the boss and ran.

When the woman asked Coty if he wanted a ten-year jail sentence or a five-year collar...

Maybe he should've picked jail time.

The Serial Family - a Profile - posted on Patreon

I'm trying something new with the upcoming serial - essentially asking the prompter-level donors to fill in parts of the serial description (you can see it in my reward-tier profile).

clare_dragonfly filled in the first blank, so I have:

Once, there was a [person or group of people(Family of Hikers)]...

Here they are:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/serial-family-4800301