Hi! Welcome to Pia Foxhall’s Tumblr! (Also the Tumblr for my AO3 not_poignant / thespectaclesofthor names too)

I'm a queer writer in Western Australia who writes queer m/m fiction across genres like romance, fantasy, science fiction, omegaverse, contemporary, and literary. Almost all my fiction is FREE to read.

Feel free to scroll, look through the tags, and ask any questions you might have. This is where I'm most active online, and am happy to talk about writing, editing, upcoming stories, I also frequently share excerpts, talk characters, and more.

You can find my original and freely available Fae Tales series and Rise of the Guardians fanfic here at not_poignant, and all the rest of my fanfic over at thespectaclesofthor

I’ve published books as Pia Foxhall, and you can find the Perth Shifters series here:

Blackwood (Perth Shifters #1) - Buy links The Gentle Wolf (Perth Shifters #2) - Buy links

Please feel free to support my AO3 original serials here at Patreon or Ream (these are identical mirrors of each other, pick the one you like more!) or at my Ko-Fi account!

This is my main writing income, and the Patreon and Ream account are what allow me to write freely available serials. If you want to see these stories continue to exist and get access to extras in thanks, please feel free to sign up!

If you sign up to the Gary+Efnisien tiers or higher, you also get access to the exclusive, complete m/m romance e-book/novel Tradewinds, which is a Fae Tales Verse romance story featuring an entirely new cast of merchant trader characters!

You can also join my mailing list here! (It’s not very active, I will – at most – bother you 2-4 times a year, but at the moment it’s much, much less).

Fae Tales - The Nascent Diplomat (Gwyn/Augus)

Pairing: Augus Each Uisge/Gwyn ap Nudd

Tags: Fae politics, past child abuse, past sexual abuse, developing relationship, slow burn, mind games, Unseelie Court (See fic for more tags)

Summary: Augus is summoned by the Unseelie King of the fae to test out his hand at being a diplomat with a secretive, cave-dwelling race of fae known as the vench. He is sent to the remote region of Aethelwaters to strike up a trade deal, with the King’s Mage and executioner - Gwyn ap Nudd - as his bodyguard.

They come face to face with a closed culture largely unreceptive to newcomers, initiations to test their merit, an unusual way of feeding, and pitfalls and traps at every turn. Will it drive the shaky foundation between Gwyn and Augus further apart? Or bring them together?

Fae Tales - 43/44 - The Nascent Diplomat - Gwyn/Augus on AO3!

Chapter 44 of The Nascent Diplomat is available now for early release, for folks in the Augus & Gwyn+ tiers on Patreon and Ream!

In which Gwyn and Augus leave Aethelwaters and go back to their respective realities. Gwyn is terrified that everything will go back to normal, but sees increasing hints and signs that everything might be changing for the better.

Hi hi anon,

I honestly think he was being manipulative and he felt like doing it. Raphael does enjoy introducing moments of softness and indulgence with Astarion because a) he enjoys creature comforts himself and b) he knows Astarion does too and c) it's enjoyable to him and d) he believes (rightly) that Astarion has been starved of tender moments, and so rather than smother him, he continues to 'starve' him but provides him with tastes of something he wants more of and/or is baffled by.

I always feel like with Raphael, I'm writing him intentionally as someone who always has multiple reasons to be doing what he's doing. The times when he's most frustrated is when he can't find multiple reasons for something and/or when he gets shoved off that track by like, his father. (Even then, he still won, just not in the way he wanted).

I honestly feel like that guy has an abacus in his head constantly counting up like the 5-100 motives for any single action or line or thought and at the top is the hedonistic 'because it feels good and I wanted to' lmao

Aha, it is weird sometimes to think that like, this is something that all writers are generally doing, and then it's like 'yeah no that's... introducing conflict means ideally you feel it too, that's... that's what makes the resolution feel so good' - like that's the job.

Tbh, this is why when folks are like 'omg I can't believe they KILLED that character' or 'I can't believe THIS HORRIBLE THING HAPPENED WHY' it's like well, they wanted you to feel this way. That's why. They did it on purpose. Outside of shitty tropes like 'burying your gays' etc. when folks are genuinely bemoaning why a show has made them miserable the answer is nearly 100% of the time - they wanted you to feel miserable.

They wanted you to have the awful experience of a tragic ending. They wanted you to feel the conflict at the end of a season so that you'd be driven to the catharsis of resolution in the next season. It's an intentional move to create emotional response, catharsis, expression, frustration and resonance, to lead you through a journey that is more than just cerebral.

And when it works, it's incredible, and it's my favourite part of storytelling.

Daily excerpt from chapter 44 of The Nascent DIplomat:

To be fair, I am lucky that I type very fast! I've had an awful lot of practice writing and so I'm faster at it than someone who is starting out or even someone who is 5 years into a writing career.

That being said, I have no idea how I was doing so much work as well. Prior to 2023 it was normal for me to only be working on 2-3 stories at a time (with around 5-8 chapters a week max, and my main story updated only once every 2 weeks). Not the amount I'm doing now. Things exploded with Underline the Black and my lack of impulse control (as well as the appeal of offering side stories) meant I started up two more stories alongside it. Then calm Palmarosa and Constellations and suddenly I had a lot on my plate that I felt like I had to be regularly committed to.

I was pretty burnt out prior to getting Toby (our puppy), so on that side of things, I was a little too ambitious in thinking I'd be able to juggle everything.

I have known that like, once certain side stories finish, my schedule quietens down and I think what I've been hoping for is like 'just hold out until this finishes, and then this finishes, and then this finishes. Just hold out.' But my stories take some time to complete, and 'just holding out' means sometimes waiting 1-2 years.

So yeah instead of doing that I'm going to try something sooner. I was doing the week break from Underline the Black in 2024 but it just hasn't been enough.

So like, I am very lucky I type fast! When I'm comfortable, I'll always be prolific to the point that at least some people will be like 'I don't know how you do that' - a lot of that is just experience. My typing speed is around 120-140 words per minute and I can comfortably finish a 3,000 word chapter in about 2 hours (with room to think / imagine what is coming next etc. and pausing to reread sections for clarity). Sometimes faster. Sometimes slower if the chapter is challenging. On very good days, I can write 2 chapters in a day. The last time I had a day like that was March 11th.

Editing takes me a lot longer though, and weirdly so do things like the Birthday Spotlights. I think I really underestimated how much time each one would take to do in terms of the graphics + hyperlinks + finding quotes etc.

I'm still going to be writing here and there over the next two months. But even just an update/posting hiatus and a slow down will help an indescribably amount. The reality is I haven't actually done very much at all this April and I still feel very overwhelmed (even more so because I knew I was running down my buffer of chapters for May/June), so taking the next step, and hope that's enough!

The good news is I've taken hiatuses before and I've always come back afterwards raring to go, and I'm hoping that's the case now too. :)

Underline the Black Hiatus May-June 2024

Hi folks,

It’s with a heavy heart that I’m going on a significant hiatus off writing + posting until the beginning of July 2024.

During that time I still plan to deliver all the extras via Patreon and Ream, which means ->

* I will still be posting two chapters of Underline the Gold in May, and Gold or Blue in June.

* I will still be posting one chapter of Constellations.

* I will still post the chapter commentaries.

This will hit Underline the Black, the birthday spotlights and my fanfiction the hardest. Palmarosa may still get updated, energy permitting, but Stain is going on hiatus too.

Ideally if I can get on top of this depressive episode and burnout, I will resume a normal schedule in July. I’m hoping that a drastic step like this will let me actually start to recover. The reality is I’ve been burnt out since 2023, and it’s getting worse, and I’m alarmed at some of the things I’ve been experiencing and thinking. I wouldn’t do this unless I thought I had no other option, because it’s terrifying for me to change the schedule and go on hiatus like this, and I generally try and avoid causing myself more anxiety! But this is one of those ‘I think I have to do it anyway, if I want to get through the next two months intact.’

Happy to answer any questions in the meantime! If I do have energy to spare I plan on writing, ideally I’d like to get myself in a better position for July and August as well. The rest of April’s schedule will continue like normal.

Thanks endlessly for all your support <3

[21 April - Taurus]

Janusz Bodanowicz is our fun-loving mechanic and ride-or-die supporter of his lover, Nate Prince. Whether a singer in a choir as a side character, or the main love interest and alpha companion in Underline the Blue, Janusz' upbeat approach to life matched with his high capacity for empathy and intelligence, has made him a rockstar, especially when up against characters who are struggling against trauma.

Underline the Blue

Falling Falling Stars: Janusz first appears as a member of a queer choir that Efnisien joins. He's the tall, cheerful, friendly boyfriend of the sour and off-putting Nate Prince. Helpful without being a pushover, upbeat without being naive, Janusz navigates Nate's and Efnisien's difficult chemistry with ease.

Underline the Blue: Janusz steps up to be the main character as an alpha companion assigned to a shattered omega, Nate Prince. In Underline the Blue, Janusz gave up being a mechanic to help omegas become genuinely healthier, but he's not prepared to deal with the level of abuse Nate has suffered through, and becomes determined to do all he can to help Nate through the hell he's going through, falling in love along the way.

Underline the Blue