dragonlady7

via https://ift.tt/2Nv2ia7

My Favorite Moments Writing The Goblin Emperor:

torrilin:

booksandghosts:

rhetoricandlogic did you see this?

bomberqueen17

ah i’m subscribed to that newsletter and never saw this one! Maybe I hadn’t signed up yet. What a delight, thank you for tagging me!

via http://bit.ly/2HdU9nB

no, we’re not up to the fencing one yet, i’m working a tiny ways out still. let’s not contemplate how fast i’ve written this and how slow i write original stuff. c’est la vie. 

This chapter, A Hard Job, is my gateway into the society of upper-class and underworld lesbian subculture that the Archduchess Vedero presides over, and is an intro to an OC POV: Odaru Culezhin, a merchant’s daughter with training as a clerk who has just been offered a position as the Empress’s personal secretary. I do indulge in a bit of slang that I didn’t really worldbuild out, sorry. I’d initially tagged the story f/f but I took it off because I don’t know whether I’ll actually manage to work that much rep in, but here, at least, is a queer OFC. 

Also, now I really want a croissant, and this is terrible because all I have is yogurt. Get yourself a nice pastry before reading this chapter. 

*
Aisava smiled. “It will,” he said. “Edrehasivar is a wholehearted supporter of his half-sister’s cause.” He squinted one eye, distorting his pretty face into a wry, hesitant expression. “But he is also very young and… rather sheltered, so he does not… quite… fully understand, explicitly, what it is that he is supporting. He is not foolish, at all, nor is he naive, but he is… not terribly well-informed, of the details of…”

“He doesn’t know about Zhelendo,” Odaru said, amused. Zhelendo Nurevin was Vedero Drazhin’s assistant, lover, secretary, and all but wife.

“He has met her,” Aisava said. “And he may have… he has not been formally told of her exact… position.”

Odaru couldn’t help it, she smothered a laugh too late. Her position! Her position. She coughed, covering her mouth, and tried to get herself back under control, mortified.

Fortunately, Aisava laughed as well. “I am sorry,” he said, covering his mouth as well. “I didn’t mean–”

“We most likely don’t need to give him that level of detail,” Odaru said.

“As if Vedero would be aught but a top,” Aisava murmured.

Odaru gave him a sidelong look, making a show of pursing her lips; the comment had cemented for her that he was certainly marnis, because no one who wasn’t would use a term like that. He saw her look and raised his eyebrows. “No?”

“They’re both switches,” Odaru said, “please. Men always think the smaller one has to be the bottom. Art thou new?”

“Mayhap I am,” Aisava mused, marveling at himself, and like that, they were on intimate terms.

via http://bit.ly/2Vq8oP0

I have another fic update and it is almost all uhhh can we say p*rn on this website anymore? well it’s uh er*tica anyway or whatever the algorithmically correct thing to say is, so like, I have no explanation or excuse, sometimes someone just has to do this sort of thing. I know, I’ve been going on and on about social commentary sorts of things but sometimes, listen, sometimes people just have to give each other BJs and that’s how it goes. Uh I should revise the story’s tags, I’m really not sure where I thought it would go when I created it and there’s probably inaccurate stuff in there. And I’m not sure, I should tag for discussions of reproduction, there’s going to have to be earnest discussions of dynastic succession and the like. I mean, not in the slashy part at least. 

So it’s a long and uh juicy chapter anyway. Can we say juicy? Does the algorithm flag juicy?

chapter uhhh four?, Safe, on AO3, featuring Maia/Csethiro and Csevet/Beshelar, finally

*

Deret didn’t exactly throw him down onto the bed, but he put him down without a great deal of control of the descent, so that he bounced, and then Deret was atop him, shedding trousers and unlaced boots, and his shoulders were broad and his body was heavy and his hair was a mane around both of their faces, and he wasn’t exactly pinning Csevet down, but Csevet could almost pretend he was, which again he ought not to like so much but it was Beshelar, and he did.

“Thy shoulder,” Deret said, pausing to pull a chagrined face at him, “did I–”

Csevet grabbed him by the neck and pulled him down to kiss him forcefully, and Deret took that for an answer. It was a little while before Csevet had the self-possession to answer, “The key to successfully pinning me to a wall without injury is first checking for obstructions, but fortunately there’s no protruding wall molding on that bit.”

“I did look,” Beshelar said. “It’s easier when I am not dodging thy fists.”

*
(edit:) oh now the crossposter fixes itself! sorry for a double post, DW peeps!

via http://bit.ly/2GV2cVb

did i self-insert my noisy flock of sisters into a goblin emperor fic? not exactly, but sort of. listen it is canon that Csethiro has a pile of sisters, though I had to OC all of their names.

Writing Arbelan in was easier than I thought! Triumph.

Chapter 3: Family

Another chapter where Beshelar steals a baby, though most of the chapter is about other things, and Csethiro’s POV.

*

“Please,” Maia said, amused, “don’t give our First Nohecharis a toddler of his own, he gets little enough sleep as it is.”

“You’ll just have to make one for him to borrow,” Ramiro said to Csethiro.

“If thou think’st I’m not trying my absolute best,” Csethiro said, unable to resist being baited by her sister.

“Thou’lt just have to keep practicing,” Ramiro said. “I got the hang of it eventually.” 

“I am practicing, Ramiro, and thou know’st I’ve done research besides.”

“Research,” Ramiro said fondly, “of course thou hast, Csethiro, thou great bookworm. But isn’t practical experimentation more your style? An thou couldst get a child by the art of the sword somehow, thou wouldst already have done so.”

“Truth,” Csethiro said, “if the conventional method serves not, I’ll duel some other lady for her heir and steal one.”

“Lieutenant Beshelar could help,” Malino put in, and everyone laughed, including the maza. Even, Csethiro noted with delight, Maia. And, allaying her small worry, Arbelan was laughing too, shaking her head; the wound was too old, perhaps, to hurt her now, or perhaps it was finally healing, or perhaps she was just too generous of spirit to begrudge the sisters a good baiting session.

“He is very keen. One hopes I wouldn’t need his assistance for any of the various methods of getting an heir,” Csethiro said, “but there is no surfeit of privacy in the Emperor’s household, so I could doubtless rely on assistance at any time.”

“Oh-ho,” Imelzhu said, “now I know this conversation is too scandalous for me.”

*

(edit: oh no, ifttt is putting giant Image Not Found things in again? whyyyyyy sorrryyyyy)

via http://bit.ly/2DDrUN8

Now that I’m back home from the farm, I can update again, though a large part of the problem is that I ran out of my pre-written buffer, LOL. And then I spent all of the scanty free writing time I had rereading the book instead, because a commenter asked whether the text actually specifies what color Maia Drazhar’s hair is, and I was unable to find an answer. If anyone knows, please do chime in.

I do love writing fic but this is the kind of thing I sort of struggle with; as with any art form, sometimes a limitation is a great inducement to creativity, and so fanfic, with the limitation of trying to conform to canon or to subvert it, can be far more expressive than original fic in many cases. But sometimes it’s just frustrating when you have to research a truth instead of organically discovering it, the way you can with original fic. So it’s a good sign I’m chafing at that again, as my dear original solarpunk mammoths novel is now going on two weeks without an update and I’ll definitely return to it this week. But I want to at least get my hints of the fantastic lesbian subculture flourishing under Archduchess Vedero and Empress Csethiro’s patronage at the Unthelienese Court, so I’m going to have a few more chapters of Continuing Education, just possibly at a slower pace.

This is a chapter update to give you a bit of resolution about the Emperor’s dav’s interpersonal drama, though. 

Understanding, on AO3. (No warnings, not explicit)

*
“I’d expected them to be asleep,” Csevet said.

Beshelar made a wry face. “They’re young,” he said, “and apparently have a lot of energy.”

Csevet snorted. “So are we,” he said, and was rewarded with a fantastically attractive blush across the tips of Deret’s ears and the tops of his cheeks. It was beautifully alluring, and he wanted to bite the tips of those ears where they were pink. He kept being teased, though, by a hint of a memory, of touching Deret’s jaw, of kissing him, but he couldn’t think when it could possibly have happened. It had mashed itself up, in his memory, with Deret shoving him into the wall, and so, guiltily, he now had a vivid, but false, sensory memory of Deret throwing him into a wall violently and then kissing him tenderly, and it was extremely compelling and rather unlike Csevet’s usual more restrained and sensible style.

*
(Your picture was not posted)

via http://bit.ly/2INJCRn

i spent the morning wrangling children and eating bagels and sewing with my bestie, then most of the day in a car and then all the time since then packaging eggs and washing surfaces and running around at the farm, so there was no chance to update the chapter, but i figure yesterday was extra juicy so y’all were maybe tided over.

i thought about ending the story and breaking everything else out into sequels but then i was like… why would i do that, that makes sense. so. instead. here, it’s going to trail on for a little while winding up loose ends. TBD.

Today’s chapter features Bunu Telimezh’s Inconvenient And Sudden Heterosexual Awakening, and something of a development in the Saga of Whether Deret and Csevet Are Accidentally Going To Kill Each Other Or Make Out Instead. (I genuinely wasn’t sure when I started the chapter.)

*

The kitchen staff had a barrel of wine open, and everyone was drinking festively; Echelo set a cup apiece down in front of the two nohecharei, and they drank some but mostly they just sat slumped, shoulders pressed against one another, buzzing with exhaustion.

After a bit Deret realized Cala had fallen asleep there. He should get them up, should get Cala home and into bed. Dawn wasn’t far off, and they’d have to come back on duty the next day in far too few hours, because Telimezh and Kiru were on a short shift since they wouldn’t have slept at all the previous day.

He nudged Cala with his shoulder, and in response Cala slumped down lower, his head falling onto Deret’s shoulder.

“Oh come on,” Deret said.

Cala snored, readjusted position, and did not wake.

Deret was going to have to shake him awake and pull him up. First he had to get himself up. He was going to do it. In a moment. He drank a little more of his wine, first.

*
(Your picture was not posted)

via http://bit.ly/2VbbC8b

1) In case y’all missed it, the ebook of the canon source material for this fanfiction (lol that is what is important) is on sale currently for $1.99 in the US.

I am going to self-importantly claim that this is because there is just so much demand for it because everyone wants to read my fic and it was so much traffic that the publisher was like oh my gosh! time for a sale! But also, everyone should read The Goblin Emperor. So. (No, I am not sincere in this belief, but I like to tell stories.)

2) eagle-eyed reader @csevet pointed out that, duh, the Archduchess Vedero is Maia’s half-sister, but the pirate captain Shaleän, of course, is Maia’s aunt, so I had to hastily amend chapter 7 to reflect this, which gave Kiru a great deal more flailing to do and honestly enriched the conversation quite a bit so I am very glad about that. However, it does mean that I had to edit a previously posted chapter, which is a thing I don’t like to do, so I’ve put a note at the beginning of today’s chapter and am also calling it out here, chapter 7 has been revised. It was also pointed out that I have the characters’ ages all wrong, but I’ve declined to revise that; I can easily explain that by Kiru being an older woman and genuinely believing her male coworkers are all babies. 

2a) incidentally this means I get to mention something I haven’t yet had a chance to incorporate into this work: Archduchess Vedero is absolutely the social head of a fantastically rich lesbian subculture that is going to flourish like gangbusters during the reign of Edrehasivar VII and I wish I had time to write a whole novel about that but rest assured, Science Lesbians is basically canon, and at some point Maia’s aunt Sheveän is going to visit and just blow the doors off the fad of young noblewomen becoming proficient swordsmen etc. ALSO Csethiro is going to go down in history as the Empress who wore trousers at court and single-handedly revived the fashion of dueling.

3) the chapter after this is the wedding and I haven’t worked out yet how that’s gonna subdivide but y’all can rest easy, there will finally be kissing in this book… tomorrow. 

4) Today’s Chapter Update: Chapter 8, Our Business. The strain is getting to Cala.

*

Cala leaned against the wall, pressing his forehead into the flocked wallpaper, while Himself was off bathing and dressing for bed. Beshelar came up next to him and put a hand gently against his back between his shoulder blades. He’d been spending enough time with goblins, Cala thought, that he was starting to absorb some of their habits, if he was going around touching other people with his bare hands like that. It was pleasant, though; Beshelar’s hand was large and warm and comforting.

“Wilt thou survive?” Deret asked softly.

Cala laughed, no louder than the sound of his breath. “It’s just a headache,” he said. “We can meditate our way out of that and be fine by morning.”

“Should’st not have wasted thy wakefulness charms on me,” Beshelar said.

Cala shook his head slowly. “It is well, Deret. I need thee.”

Beshelar’s hand was such a welcome, grounding pressure on his back, and stayed there for a long moment. Cala opened his eyes and blinked at Deret, who was clearly casting about for words for a response to that. But Cala understood, and smiled, and Beshelar smiled back.

“We’ll make it,” Beshelar said. “It’s not long now.”

“Mm, maybe they’ll spend their whole first day married in bed,” Cala said, brightening a little.

Beshelar grinned. “Mayhap,” he said.

*
(Your picture was not posted)

via http://bit.ly/2KUuNPy

Alert Readers may have noticed that I titled two chapters “chapter 5″ in my update posts, but rest assured, AO3 numbers that shit for you, you don’t have to actually be able to count to post coherently there. A boon, for those of us who have no real gift for organization.

Chapter 7, which apparently I titled Investigations, which is not inapt now I think on it. (I tend to upload the draft chapters and let them sit a day and then proofread before posting, and sometimes I forget I’ve titled them already. Oh, my inner workings.) (Ah I see the coffee just kicked in. H E L L O!) 

In which Kiru Athmaza gets to the bottom of things, or doesn’t, in her gentle and implacable way.

*

“Beshelar explained that, in his understanding anyway, it was partly a situation of opportunity,” Himself said. “That young men without prospects of marriage turn to one another for companionship.”

“That could be a factor,” Kiru said. “And then later, those same men have attained enough social rank to marry women, and it’s not that anything about their intrinsic nature has changed, merely the opportunities that they have. But, Serenity, there are also people whose inclinations do not change with opportunity; such a young man, with prospects, surrounded by eligible young women, still would not wish to court any of them.”

“Or my half-sister,” Edrehasivar mused, “who married another woman; surely she could have found a man, had she wanted to.”

Kiru had a moment of deep confusion as she tried to piece together when she had missed that bit of news about the Archduchess Vedero, but then she remembered about the Great Avar’s bastard daughters, and the one who was a sea-captain. “Exactly,” she said.

*

Listen sometimes fanfic is wish-fulfillment, and so we sometimes gently distort the canon materials to let ourselves have these soft little worlds where pain is only really for catharsis, and where people get emotional support for things, and especially where really nice slightly-older ladies sit on the edge of our bed when we’re teenagers and gently explain the spectrum of possible sexual orientations to us so that we don’t have to figure that shit out the hard way. Shh, shh. Just let it happen. I’ve worked very hard to make it plausible. 
(Your picture was not posted)

via http://bit.ly/2VhaJLi

The chapter is not capslocked, don’t worry. 

Chapter 5, Brotherly Advice, of A Complete Education, up on AO3, still just teasing the as-yet-unearned explicit rating with discussions of masturbation, as ever. We’re up to 26,000 words, is it a novelette yet?

* 

Maia laughed, at that. “Thou hast a very specific imagination,” he said.

“If one is to adhere to one’s principles in a hypothetical,” Deret said, “one had better be damned sure of all the details of that hypothetical.”

Maia laughed again. “Only thou,” he said again.
(Your picture was not posted)

via http://bit.ly/2VpYJat

Chapter 3 update on A Complete Education, featuring Deret Beshelar: Disaster Bi, and his Inevitable Opsec Freakout Over Ciphers. 

(To be fair Deret’s more of a Disaster Demi but the meme usually says Disaster Bi so I’m rolling with it. Nobody does alignment charts for the grey-As, we just have to deal.)

*

Deret stood, desperately uncomfortable. In a moment, he finally blurted, “Cala, what must I do to earn back his trust?”

Cala blinked up at him, as if he hadn’t been expecting the question. Well, perhaps he hadn’t. “What must– I’m sure I don’t know, Deret,” he said. “He thinks thou wilt judge him because thou judgest everything that passes before thine eyes. I’m sure thy expression will never give away aught that causes him harm because that’s all thy expression normally reveals, that thou dost disapprove of everyone and everything thou ever didst see. Honestly it is a useful quality in a nohecharis and indubitably why thou wast so easily chosen for the job, but it makes thee not the best suited to the attendance of a nervous and abused youth facing so massively potentially embarrassing an ordeal as losing his virginity in more or less public spectacle.”

Deret had earnestly desired honesty from Cala, and now that he had it, it felt rather like he’d been kicked in the gut. He managed a breath, nodded blindly, and left the room, stumbling into his bedroom and sitting down heavily on the trunk that served him as a chair.

He breathed for a little while, shakily, then collected himself enough to get his boots off. He knew he’d been given this assignment to get him out of his commanding officer’s hair. He knew he hadn’t been popular; he’d never been good at making friends, and a large part of climbing the ranks of the Guard was in making connections with other officers in a way he’d just never been good at. But he’d been foolish enough to think none of that mattered here, that his devotion would be enough–

Well, it didn’t matter. His lord didn’t have to like him. Edrehasivar had more options now than he had when he’d needed Cala and Deret to accompany him during his coronation vigil.

Deret stood up and undressed himself efficiently, putting his outer clothes away and the inner ones into the laundry hamper where the staff would collect them. He took his robe out of his trunk and put it on, and went out, intending to go to the household’s bathing room. Cala was still sitting in the anteroom.

“I’m sorry,” Cala said awkwardly, “I said that more harshly than I meant to.”

“But thou toldst the truth,” Deret said, “so I thank thee.”

“It was needlessly unkind,” Cala said.

Deret looked at him. “Apparently, so am I,” he said. “I reap as I sow.” And with that, he left.
(Your picture was not posted)