I Would Say That The First Thing Coming From Agrannor Would Be, Maybe, The Magical Beasts That Lurk In

I would say that the first thing coming from Agrannor would be, maybe, the magical beasts that lurk in the many forests of the continent, though they are often corrupted by dark or twisted magic. A confused rebel human or an elf may follow soon after, and that’s all well and good. But when the Ash Queen learns about said portal, she will be keen to make our magicless world her domain very soon and would be rather likely to bring along the young Emperor Aerich, with his highly trained and magically talented army in tow. That’s when things will start to get very complicated for us normal mortals from Earth.

@writernopal

You guys seemed to like the last time I did this, so let's try another!

Say a portal from the world of your WIP just opened up on Earth; what is coming out of there? An eldritch horror? A spaceship? That pesky familiar, who you know, has no business being outside? Maybe a friendly woodland creature or a cute little robot? Or something more dangerous, like a giant or an enraged orc! Share in the reblogs or comments! I'll start 💙

The first thing coming through from Oepus is a TON of seawater. Despite being an Earth-like planet, it is more water than anything else. Now, seawater sounds benign enough, except Oepus' waters are known as the domain of Satoyev, Lord of Krakens. Perhaps he himself would come through with his loyal subjects, sirens, medusas, and sea witches in tow. 🐙

@writernopal

CALL FOR BETA READERS

hello! do you like

an all queer cast of found family

traumatic backstories

cozy fantasy romance

devoted bodyguards

pretty men and mean women

fun magic, potions, and curses

love squares

then you'll love my upcoming novel, THE RED KING'S MYSTICAL SUITORS. I am making a call for beta readers now.

What is the book about?

It is a fantasy novel romcom. Here is the summary:

King Randall III has everything one could want. power, charm, beauty, and enough diplomatic wit to earn him the nickname 'Emperor of the Continent.' The one thing he's lacking is a husband.

When Randall's sister invites men far and wide to woo him, only three make the cut: a noble sorcerer, a royal alchemist, and a mysterious easterner who reveals nothing of himself other than a name. A fourth lingers in the shadows, dreaming of the chance he's been too afraid to take for four years.

Each of them is hiding a secret, including King Randall himself, who falls victim to a beastly curse when night falls. As pasts are revealed, relationships formed, one thing becomes clear: no one will leave the Red King's court the same they entered.

What kind of feedback are you looking for?

I have a short list of questions for beta readers to answer, which will be provided along with the book document.

if you're interested, instructions are below the cut, as well as content warnings. boosts appreciated.

content warnings for THE RED KING'S MYSTICAL SUITORS are mentions of kidnapping, enslavement, as well as blood, injury, and alcohol. the book is about 80k, or 270 pages.

email lilamarybooks@gmail.com if interested. Would prefer if readers completed the book and answered the questions after a week or so--fine if not, just the faster the better. i'm looking for about five people.

RED KING TAGLIST:

@transmasc-wizard @synthesizer-dyke @magic-is-something-we-create @tc-doherty @softbroiled-doomdesire @somealienquill @sagasofazeria @super-writer-gal @ren-c-leyn @crazy-like-us @ashen-crest @shrunkupthejams @themundanemudperson @sarahlizziewrites @faithfire @hungryslothwrites

GENERAL TAGLIST: @worldbuildng @muddshadow @nikkywrites @47crayons @directionoftime @myhusbandsasemni

kinda, lol. Evie is a unwitting detective cause she wants to uncover a family mystery and like, survive, but she initially is doing it with the Force of Improvisation tm, though she gets better (like her father, the best detective in the world and her mother, an adventurous magic archeologist), Clarence isn’t much of a “fatale” in any sense, he is barely figuring out like, “How to Human” after growing up sheltered in the vampire world, but beneath his awkwardness is a very sophisticated, witty guy, so we can say that the title can works, a bit lol

(WIP - Enchanted Illusions, Gothic Victorian Fantasy)

a girl who is a noir detective man and a guy who is a femme fatale

Happy STS! What’s a random piece of backstory about one of your OCs that you’ve never shared, either in the story or elsewhere?

Ooh, this is an interesting one!

There are a few interesting things, though some of them are going to be shown in the story as parts of plot twists, so they don't count for the answer to this ask, lol! But I have plenty of other little pieces of backstory for some of my characters, that have never been shared but I find important for the overall understanding of who they currently are.

Here go a few:

Emryc Thorne's father was a magician, the kind that performs tricks and illusions and does not actually use real magic. Emryc was fascinated by those skills and wanted to grow up to be like him, but then the Blood Curse plague swept through their city, and his father died because of it. This forced Emryc to become a thief to survive, though he used the skills and tricks he'd learned from his father, something that not only made him successful in his heists but also kept him close to his memory.

Nadinne Ahmirah once had a sea monster as a pet, she named the little whale/shark monster Mister Truffles. When she was around six years old, her family's navy came across a wounded baby sea monster whose mom had died - presumably due to an attack by another sea monster - and she insisted she could keep it as a pet until it got big enough to go back to the sea. Now, more than ten years later, the enourmous whale/shark-like creature has long since been returned to the sea, but it likes to hang around a nearby bay and comes to visit Nadinne at the beach every afternoon.

When Lord Nethen Fahris was a small child, he was rather emotionally neglected by his family, who barely had time for him due to their duties and the fact that he was a bastard son (something that they kept hidden under lock and key, but which drove a wedge in his relationship with his "mom" who was unable to have children of her own). They eventually got a servant to care for him - a captive elf named Elain that was in his late teens. At first, Elain just cared for him because he didn't have much of a choice and because it was his duty, but eventually he grew to care for Nethen like his own family, something that the boy had never had before. (Elain raised him more than the boy's parents ever did, like actually taught him things, listened to him, watched over him, kept him out of trouble, played with him when the other noble kids didn't want to, supported him, made sure he was eating well, all the stuff a parent should do). They became friends, but a few years later, a mistake made by Nethen angered the Emperor and had terrible consequences. His father wanted to get in the Emperor's good graces again, and so he put the blame for the accident his son had caused (which shouldn't have been a problem, to begin with since he was a child) on the boy's tutor, Elain, who was executed. Nethen never forgave his family for this and swore he would never again allow himself to make a mistake.

Darian and Tanwin met for the first time while Darian, the human boy, was exploring the woods around his home kingdom of Ergyre looking for potion-making components. Tanwin decided to help him out and this was the start of their friendship.

Happy STS! What do you think you like the most about your villain/s in your story/ies?

Oh, this is a great one!

I have many villains in my main WIP - The Last Wrath, but also in my other smaller works in progress as well (such as Enchanted Illusions, or some others that I have yet to post), with varied roles and importance in the story, but I think that what I like the most about them is that, I try to make even the most terrible kind of person in the book have clear motives and backstory - not in a sense that it justifies their actions, absolutely not, but more as to showcase that they’re not just the typical mustache twirling evil guy archetype. They’re evil, cruel and conniving bastards, but I think I have managed (at least I hope so) to give them nuance - as in, they do the things they do, because they believe those things are right (in their twisted and sick world view). Some of them even see themselves as the heroes of their own story, others know they are cruel monsters and have embraced it, while some are just the kind of bastards that are too deep in their own self-righteousness to care, and others are deeply conflicted knowing that they have strayed from their original intentions but are too far gone to go back. But no matter what kind of villainy they enact, they believe in it due to their experiences, worldview, personality and beliefs, they see their path as the right one and are not afraid to destroy anything in the way of their goals because they see them as the ultimate choice. At least, I hope I am doing so correctly in my stories!

Thank you so much for the ask, @lassiesandiego!