ANNOUNCEMENT: I WISH YOU WOULDN’T IS RELEASING JULY 2024!

i’m thrilled to announce the publication of THE book of my heart! those of you who have followed my publication journey so far will know how much it means to have this story out in the world exactly as i intended it, and that's what you'll get this summer.

more to come!

aaaa yes i am so stoked for the next season and the book!! and sincerely hoping for more sandringham and balmoral!

i read your meta post and i do def think sandringham is trans— but i had never really thought about all the other ways in which he and maud are no longer alike! I feel like they must have been close to try and stick to the plan after so long? But i wonder how much he told her like did she know who balmoral was when he grabbed her? Did she know what it cost her brother to shoot him? i am certainly assuming that he and balmoral talk about it all (gender, sister, past, their entire relationship) and settle things, and while i know we'll probably never get to see a full detailed scene centered on them, i am crossing my fingers for more content!

as for other thoughts— i know fleet's whole thing is being kinda quiet and stoic but i absolutely love the hints of rich interiority you get every time he talks to someone and i think the one thing I'd love to see from the book is his like,,, thoughts on the whole being half mechanical thing? Cuz it feels like season 2 moves so fast that other than glimpses of the fact that he's clearly still kinda unsettled and weirded out there's not a lot of slow moments for reflection (and these are moments that are inherently easier to do in a novel than an audio drama!). Fleet is one of those prime examples of why i enjoy quiet characters cuz like you can tell a lot about his personality even though he is not the chattiest and that is a really well done thing in an audio drama of all mediums

Also because I'm like that as a writer i want to watch him unravel <3 but maybe I'll just have to write that fic myself!

new story out now!

do you like zombies? trans people? trauma and too many cigarettes? if you're in my circle of tumblr, you probably do. check out my most recent short story, published in Kaleidotrope's winter issue.

ogs know what this is about

i'm tagging for funsies some people i know have been around since this era and might remember this mf: @cannivalisms @magnus-sm-writes @nothingisliteral @sybil-writes @dahldahlbills @florraisons @unlicensedmortician @songbirdii (i think??) @mkdickson and if i could tag ari i would (if anyone knows if she's back on tumblr??? lmk?)

WRITEBLR! how are you guys? what are you all working on these days?

use this post to share a snippet of your writing you're proud of (& link to your intros -- i'll boost!)

Alex!!! I haven't posted anything here in AGES but here is a snippet from one of my current (unintroduced) projects:

Phei of the Wind | Suddenly, She Flies

Phei had come to the surface looking for answers, but even after seeing the world for herself all she found were more questions. Why did her people pull their islands into the sky, and how did they even achieve that? Is Noh’Ak telling the truth about his role in all of it? Is there still hope for the world, even after all that transpired?

She can only think of a single being capable to getting her on the right track, a being so ancient it precedes even the settling of Morkuria. A creature said to live in the furthest reaches of the eastern sky, where the air is thin and lost souls gather. The Monarch of the Sky.

Phei soars east, the light of the setting Sun caressing her back, pushing her forwards. The first thing she had done when she found herself above the clouds was glance east. There, a faint warmth pushes against the furthest edges of her spirit, the flames of a thousand scalians whom she had left behind. She wonders if she could make it there, but even with the most favourable of winds such a journey would take multiple days, a feat even Phei wouldn’t attempt.

{Excerpt continues below the cut}

—about ME

I'm elena, or beaumont (he/she), and I'm reintroducing myself again! When I'm not disappearing for months at a time to be a college student, I write mostly adult litfic novels and short stories, but I dabble in playwriting and poetry.

some things I like to put in my work — lesbians, horrible relationships, weird povs, unlikeable protagonists, retellings, historical fiction, femme fatales and evil women, transgenderism, fabulism, freaks.

—my PROJECTS

[if you'd like to be on the taglist for any of these, drop me a line!]

PAINTED TYRANT - when a brutal and secretive 1920's mob boss is found dead in his office, his hedonistic and fatally dependent long-time lover and his business-partner wife must solve his murder and reckon with the collapse of an empire—over the course of a single summer night.

[if you like: unreliable narrators, codependency, lavender marriages, trans characters, weird throuples, the great gatsby, murder mystery dinner parties] [adult historical literary fiction, third person present]

EIDOLON - an early-nineteenth-century russian socialite renowned for her beauty is coached for marriage from birth by her controlling father, caught in a complicated relationship with her twin brother, married to a man who hates her, and ascending to the role of queen of society—while slowly embracing an extraordinary gift for getting what she wants.

[if you like: family trauma, femme fatales, twins, war and peace, non-linear narrative, retellings, villain origin stories, bisexuality] [adult historical literary fiction with fabulist elements, first person retrospective + second person present]

KITCHEN WINTER - two women in a failing marriage compete to destroy the lives of their new neighbors—a middle-aged lesbian couple and their teenage children—while they themselves spiral further into illness, abuse, and decay.

[if you like: toxic relationships, awful lesbians, experimental POV, tallahassee by the mountain goats, unlikeable protagonists] [adult literary fiction, first person plural + singular present]

—what's NEXT?

Currently, I'm working on drafting Painted Tyrant, so expect to see that! And hopefully a proper wip intro. Can't promise it will be a ton, I'm a very slow writer, and just extraordinarily overbooked, but I'm excited about the project. As far as other miscellaneous projects, I might post about short fiction or my d&d characters, who's to say, it's my world. That's all for now—if you're interested in my projects, or you think I'd like your stuff, don't be shy! Also happy to be tagged in games or sent asks, would love to make some new mutuals.

🎭 THE GREAT GLAVENISEAN THEATER BETA CALL 🎭

It’s here! The time has come! With a complete and polished first draft, I am looking for betas to give reader feedback on TGGT. What I am looking for primarily are thoughts and reactions to the plot, characters, and relationship dynamics, and not line editing/grammatical work.

Before we go any further, here are the basics~

📕genre: speculative fiction in the vein of The Night Circus (fantasy elements in a historical setting) 📗audience: adult 📘wordcount: 94k 📙wip tags: #the great glavenisean theater #tggt excerpt (where you can view writing samples mostly from tag games) 📖summary: 

If you want to see if my writing style is for you, you can read the first chapter of TGGT here, (thank you very much to @theskeletonprior for formatting this!). The version of this chapter in the beta draft has undergone some minor alterations, but it’s nearly identical. The gist of it is all the same. 

Content warnings are available upon request, though I can safely assure you that there is little to nothing in TGGT that would be found outside a PG-13 movie. Gore and explicit sexual content is absent. It is friendly to teen readers, though this book is absolutely adult and not intentionally geared toward a YA audience.

If you’re interested, go ahead and fill out the google form here, and I’ll be in touch with you shortly!

ꕥ  ꕥ  ꕥ  ꕥ

TGGT taglist 🎭 Ask to be added or removed!: @sentfromwolves​ @cabaretofwords​ @antique-symbolism​ @muddshadow​ @florraisons​ @flowerprose​ @bebewrites​ @hysteriwah​ @the-void-writes​ @carrotblr​ @tananaphone​ @mr-writes​ @monstrousfreedom​ @phantomnations​ @inkingfireplace​ @saphoblin​ @theskeletonprior​ @midnight-and-his-melodiverse​ @perasperaadastrawriting​

HOMEBIRDS needs Beta readers!

Homebirds is a 88k-word YA sci-fi/fantasy novel, the first of a series, following multiple characters' POVs.

I'm finally looking for beta readers for Homebirds! I'm looking for general feedback on plot/characters/setting, very story-based more than prose/style based!

This beta will run from April 21st to May 20th, but there is wiggle room! I have details about this on the form, so if the timeline is a limit for you but you'd still like to take part, please let me know. I'm running on no deadlines here but my own, so I'm flexible!

I am offering beta reading in exchange! Any WIP up to 100k words is fine, so if you're looking for beta readers in the future, shoot me a message!

Important links:

One more week to go!

Thank you so much to everyone who’s signed up ☺️

i said i was going to arrange a list of my favorite articles/criticism about shakespeare, so here’s my first little roundup! obligatory disclaimer that i don’t necessarily agree with or endorse every single point of view in each word of these articles, but they scratch my brain. will add to this list as i continue reading, and feel free to add your own favorites in the reblogs! :]

essays

Is Shakespeare For Everyone? by Austin Tichenor (a basic examination of that question)

Interrogating the Shakespeare System by Madeline Sayet (counterpoint/parallel to the above; on Shakespeare’s place in, and status as, imperialism)

Shakespeare in the Bush by Laura Bohannan (also a good parallel to the above; on whether Shakespeare is really culturally “universal”)

The Unified Theory of Ophelia: On Women, Writing, and Mental Illness (“I was trying to make sense of the different ways men and women related to Ophelia. Women seemed to invoke her like a patron saint; men seemed mostly interested in fetishizing her flowery, waterlogged corpse.”)

Hamlet Is a Suicide Text—It’s Time to Teach It Like One (on teaching shakespeare plays about suicide to high schoolers)

Commuting With Shylock by Dara Horn (on listening to MoV with a ten-year-old son, as modern jewish people, to look at that eternal question of Is This Play Antisemitic?)

All That Glisters is Not Gold (NPR episode, on whether it’s possible to perform othello, taming of the shrew, & merchant to do good instead of harm)

academic articles

the Norton Shakespeare’s intro to the Merchant of Venice (apologies about the highlights here; they are not mine; i scanned this from my rented copy)

the Norton Shakespeare’s intro to Henry the Fourth part 1 (and apologies for the angled page scans on this one; see above)

Richard II: A Modern Perspective by Harry Berger Jr (this is the article that made me understand richard ii)

Hamlet’s Older Brother (“Hamlet and Prince Hal are in the same situation, the distinction resting roughly on the difference between the problem of killing a king and the problem of becoming one. … Hamlet is literature’s Mona Lisa, and Hal is the preliminary study for it.”)

Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony & Cleopatra Criticism (about more than just reviewers; my favorite deconstruction of shakespeare’s cleopatra in general)

misc

Elegy of Fortinbras by Zbigniew Herbert (poem that makes me fucking insane)

Dirtbag Henry IV (what it sounds like.)

ladies is it gay to hold a plasma dagger to another woman's throat while holding her hand,

or,

Zeya and Leo being So Normal about each other, Exhibit A

gemini heist wip intro | art tag | instagram

art taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @quilloftheclouds @nora-theteawriter @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @lefttigerobservation @avi-why

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @retrogayyde

Romantic Snippet Tag

I was tagged by @moondust-bard ty for the tag!

Rules: Describe the main romance of your wip in a 1-4 sentence snippet.

I'll be tagging @florraisons @memento-morri-writes @authoralexharvey @thevampireconcept

I'm going to cheat a little and share snippets for each wip

Fated:

Arcanist's Gambit:

Sign of the Times:

Bloodied Hands, Tainted Hearts:

Starcrossed:

Darkest Depths: