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Starry Sky

@starry-sky-stuff / starry-sky-stuff.tumblr.com

Writeblr. Mainly stuff about my wips, book reviews, and meta

Current WIPs

These are summaries for my three WIPs I’m currently working on.

A Flame in the Forest

In the frozen wastelands of the Ice Fields, a town struggles to survive the war that has dragged on for years. The draft has left too few hands to bring in the harvest and the stores are dwindling. Faced with starvation, Mariya volunteers to do the impossible. Journey into the forest to find the Witch in the Woods and plead for her help. But the Witch does not give aid without a price. To save her town, Mariya must complete a series of three tasks, before the stores empty and her people starve.

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Setting: The village of Turzno, in a fantasy-style Siberia with the time period roughly equivalent to the 1910s.

Main characters:

Mariya Nikolaevna Churkhova:

All her life, Mariya was told she’d be a wife. And she had been, until her wealthy husband’s death forced her to return to her childhood home. A Pozharni, with the ability to control heat, she’s the only one in the village who can survive the journey through the taiga. Now the fate of the town rests on her shoulders.

Vladimir Nurzhanovich Abaev:

All his life, Vladimir was told he’d be a soldier. And he had been, until an injury left him unfit for duty. A foreigner to the town still, now he must keep hope alive until Mariya returns. But in times of war, hope is a hard thing to keep.

Links

A Shadow on the Wall

Östenbach is a bustling metropolis and the capital of the Kingdom of Koravia/ With its king ailing it’s the First Minister who truly wields the power of government and seeks to unite all of Masuria under Koravian leadership.

For years, Zilla has worked as the First Minister’s spy. As a Shadow Walker she can move through shadows undetected, a perfect thief of secrets. But it’s the secrets of her employer which she now seeks to steal.

Genre: Adult Fantasy

Setting: Östenbach is a fantasy-style Berlin with the time period roughly equivalent to mid 19th century.

Set in the same world as A Flame in the Forest.

Main characters:

Zilla Yasbeck:

Pressed into government service after a tragic event left her in the First Minister’s debt, there is nothing Zilla wants more than her own freedom. And nothing she will not to do gain it.

Maximilian Reventlow:

An idealist and a firebrand, Maximilian has dedicated his life to his newspaper and the dispersal of his ideas. But as war looms, Maximilian must choose between the people he loves and the cause he believes in.

Wilhelm von Hohenau:

The son of a prince and his morganatic wife, Wilhelm has always straddled two worlds, never fully belonging to either. Now with war on the horizon, he finally has a chance to prove himself to his father’s family.

In Want of a Wife

Impulsive, impetuous, unthinking. Cecily Montgomery has hated Laurence Fairchild ever since the summers they spent together as children at their godmother’s estate. Even as adults, her distaste for him has not abated. Now the London Season is upon them, and Cecily’s mother is intent on her marrying the Duke of Ashfield. If only Laurence wasn’t so intent on distracting her with his antics and ruining all their carefully laid plans.

Genre: Historical Romance

Setting: 1893, London

Main characters:

Cecily Montgomery:

Cecily has spent years learning how to be the perfect bride to find the perfect husband. After a disappointing first season, Cecily’s mother is determined that she will snag the greatest prize — the Duke of Ashfield. And Cecily is determined to make her mother proud.

Laurence Fairchild:

With his family’s estates failing, Laurence is under increasing pressure to find a wealthy bride to save the estate with her dowry. And he just might, if it wasn’t for his childhood friend catching all of his interest. This new Cecily is a stranger to him, but Laurence is adamant at proving that the spirited girl of his childhood is underneath her new, cool reserve.

Links

To Marry a Duke

A marriage of convenience.

He has the title. She has the money. A perfectly suitable arrangement in every way. Of course, his title comes with a flailing estate and a meddling sister, and her money comes with a rebellious daughter in tow. What once seemed a practical, uncomplicated match soon proves anything but.

Add in a few kisses in the parlour, confessions in the garden, and trysts in the library, and you get the recipe for true love.

Genre: historical romance

Setting: 1893

Status: currently writing first draft

Tag: my wips: to marry a duke

Main characters:

Nellie Stalworth:

Marriage had never been a part of Nellie's plans. All she wanted was to conduct her experiments in peace. But when the daughter she had as a teenager is left orphaned, Nellie must marry to assure their place in society.

Edward Pemberton:

The catch of the season, Edward had his pick of heiresses, but it was the eccentric Miss Stalworth that caught his eye. With the drought ruining the harvest, Edward needs all the help he can get to save his failing estate.

Links:

The Heiress and the Rake

Isobel Steele is in search of a husband. But, despite her sizeable dowry from her wealthy father, her illegitimate birth means the only proposals she receives are the indecent kind. What she needs is a man as scandalous as her.

Dominic Beresford is in trouble. His estate is bankrupt, he’s drowning in gambling debt, and after his latest scandal his grandmother has cut him off. What he needs is an heiress desperate enough to marry him.

Genre: historical romance

Setting: 1873

Status: currently writing first draft

Tag: my wips: the heiress and the rale

Main characters:

Isobel Steele:

As the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, Isobel has always lived on the fringes of polite society, whose opinion she has scorned. In her own affairs, she has always kept her heart on a tight leash. And it’s certainly not love that she wants from a marriage now.

Dominic Beresford:

For years, Dominic has lived the life of a reckless rake. He’s drunk, gambled, engaged in scores of love affairs, never caring about the destruction he left behind in his wake. But when his grandmother cuts him off from his only income, he finds he’ll agree to reform...for the right price.

Links

Other Links Not WIP Related

top 5 most ridiculous romance heroes

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  1. Maximus Batten (Duke of Midnight): dude was fully planning to keep banging Artemis while marrying her cousin. Also definitely the most ridiculous of the three Ghosts, imo.
  2. Edward Alcott (The Earl Takes it All): I'm re-reading this now and this man is running on some insane logic. Pretending to be his dead twin brother (while secretly being in love with said dead twin brother's wife) is crazy. Also, he very much chose to interpret his brother's words that way.
  3. Ewan (Daring and the Duke): the man is fully committed to destroying his love interest's brothers (who are also his brothers), and then has to do a complete 180 when it turns out she's not dead.
  4. Ainsley (Waking Up With the Duke): he's made more ridiculous by the fact he's the level-headed one of his brothers, but also did knock up his cousin/best friend's wife out of guilt.
  5. Every single hero from the Immortals After Dark that I've read (I really need to get back into that series) is completely and utterly ridiculous. And I love them for it.

top 5 vampire characters

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  1. Caroline Forbes (TVD): my all-time favourite TVD character, the ultimate victor of Mystic Falls. Love her character arc.
  2. Klaus Mikaelson (TVD): he's such a complicated and interesting character, even if he frustrated me by the end
  3. Rosalie Hale (Twilight): if she was the protagonist Twilight would've been so much better
  4. Elena Gilbert (TVD): never particularly liked her, but I enjoy her as a character
  5. Vlad Dracula (Young Dracula): loved this tv show as a kid

top 5 plecverse men

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  1. Klaus Mikaelson - delightfully complex and definitely one of the most interesting characters.
  2. Marcel Gerard - by far the best leader and one of the better parental figures (it's a low bar admittedly)
  3. Tyler Lockwood - also a good leader and one of the more principled characters
  4. Jeremy Gilbert - also one of the more principled characters (with the exception of Klaus there's a bit of a pattern here), I enjoy how he always called out bullshit

I can't think of any more, most of the men in TVD are trash.

what draws you to the historical romance genre, and what do you dislike most about it?

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I really like how it's a character driven genre. You can have a plot-heavy romance novel, but the characters really need to carry the story. I need to fully believe these two protagonists are in love, that they're compatible, that they're helping each other to grow and become better people. As for why I like historical romance in particular, I think it's mainly my interest in history, I just like the setting.

It's also a dialogue heavy genre which I like because I'm both a dialogue reader and writer (reading Daisy Jones & the Six confirmed this for me because I really enjoyed the fact it was just dialogue).

As for what I dislike, probably how it's so white and straight and heterosexual. This is changing in recent years, but I definitely think the future of the genre lies in moving away from the ballroom setting with the upper echelons. Despite what Julia Quinn has said, people that aren't white and rich could have happy endings in the past. Also, the puritanical bent to sex wherein the heroes, and especially the heroines, can't have had healthy, fulfilling sexual/romantic relationships prior.

I know I've reblogged something like this before, but tumblr's search function being what it is...

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