Jules

@julesanew

Scientist, teacher, writer, Dodgers fan, parent, music lover. Mostly bookposting, baseball posting, a smattering of science and politics. Gender? That's a question I don't have an answer to.

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Jules@julesanew· 18d

THE SHADOWS (WIP in 3rd Draft) #W #F #A #QuestPit A middle-aged shopkeeper & retired magical con artist takes one last job to save store & family. She could end the corrupt power of the Skyborn mages. She could end up losing herself, her magic & all she holds dear. Talk about a midlife crisis.

Moodboard for The Shadows WIP. Upper left: Illustration of a crowded, cramped city alley. Upper mid: Four black-clad people with face masks in a warehouse. Upper right: Shadowed cobblestone alley with someone at the mouth sweeping. Mid left. Two memes. "A niche character trope I like is the person who is nice, a good person and acts well-adjusted, then they do something where it's like oh you're secretly a little bit insane actually. Middle: A shadowed portrait of a woman with sparks coming out of her hands. Mid right: A meme: Original poster: "80% exhaustion 10% sarcasm %20 don't care" Reply poster: "that's 110 percent". OP: "20% of me doesn't care." RP: "should've seen that coming." Bottom left: Warmly lit storefront doorway on a cobblestone street. Bottom mid: Painting of fancy buildings on islands floating well above the ground. Bottom right: Cramped thrift store with shopkeeper.

The Shadows: The Pitch

The worst day of Ania’s life was when her beloved cousin Piren was dragged off to the floating towers of the Above to serve as a source to the Skyborn mages. The second worst day was when he was returned. Discarded. Drained of his magic and broken in spirit.

Ania left behind her rebellious past to support her cousin as he once
supported her. In a city where any display of magic makes you a target
of the Skyborn, keeping your head down and your magic a secret, taking care of your friends, your family and your neighborhood is the only safe way to survive.

But now, everything she’s built over twenty years of safe, carefully
constructed life is falling apart. To recover what she’s lost, Ania takes on one last dangerous heist that strikes at the heart of the Skyborn’s power. She may end up losing herself. She may just bring the entire system crashing down.

The Shadows: Comp Titles
MA Carrick: Mask of Mirrors. Con artist MC out to save her family (and maybe the world).
Shannon Chakraborty: Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. I'm retired. Really. Okay, fine, one last job.
Robert Jackson Bennett: Foundryside. Magical technology, a corrupt ruling class and problematic heists.
Fonda Lee: Last Contract of Isako. I'm too old for this shit but no one else can do it.

“Except you can help me without bringing the bluejackets and their hunters down on my head!” Ania yelled, throwing her arms in the air. “All I’m asking you for is money. You’re asking me to risk my life! My family’s life!” She glared at him, grinding out her words through clenched teeth. “You want me to dust off magic I haven’t used in twenty years! How is that fair?” She spat the last word.
“It’s not fair!” Verasi spat back at her. “None of this is fair!” He flung a hand out. “Our people, our friends and family, our neighbors, are ripped from their homes in the middle of the night. They’re enslaved, ridden so hard they break. Maybe it takes a year. Maybe it takes five. Maybe it only takes a couple of months.” He continued in a harsh whisper. “We live in constant fear that it’ll be one of us. If not one of us, someone we know. Someone we love. Their propaganda machine is turning our own people against us. You know they’re not even testing people to see if they have any magical talent now? They’re just rounding people up at random and carting them off Above. None of them come home, not the same way they left.”

Jules@julesanew· Jun 20

It’s here! It’s here! Injecting into my veins (or ears as the case may be) now. All hail chaos!

Audiobook screen of All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Jules@julesanew· Apr 27

#CRPShrikes Bonus: I shared one snippet in response to a previous prompt, but here's another. Ania runs a secondhand shop, so donations are a big part of their business. Usually they're easier to navigate than this...

“Welcome in,” she said, putting on her best customer service smile. “Can I help you find anything?” The person looked vaguely familiar, but she saw so many people in the course of her job and her other work in the district that almost everyone looked vaguely familiar. They were short and round with an open cheerful face and dark pageboy-styled hair.

“Oh!” they said, startling. They wore a pair of eyeglasses, the lenses spotted and smudged, rimmed by tarnished metal. They nudged the glasses higher on their nose, but still squinted in Ania’s direction. “Apologies,” they said with a breathy laugh. “I wasn’t looking for anything for myself.” They leaned forward to add in a stage whisper, “Unless you have a better pair of eyeglasses.”

Ania wrestled with telling them that a good cleaning cloth might go a long way toward helping, but they went on before she could say anything. “I’m actually here to make a donation.”

“Oh!” Ania said, pleased and surprised both. “Wonderful. We always appreciate a donation.” She looked them over once again, this time with new eyes. They didn’t carry a bag or a box or any of the other things people typically brought donations in. “Is it… something you have with you?”

The customer laughed. “Oh no. Heavens no. That would be a challenge.” But they didn’t explain any further. Ania felt like she was somehow missing half the conversation. Trying to regain her balance, she settled her smile once again.

“Well then. Maybe let’s go to the counter and figure out how we can take care of it?” she said. She put her hand over the left side of her chest in greeting. “I’m Ania, the owner.” She turned to lead the way further into the store.

The customer chuckled warmly. “Oh, I know who you are,” they said as they followed, but once again, didn’t take the next step and offer their own name.

Jules@julesanew· Apr 27

#crpshrikes #camprevpit Not a moodboard, but some visual inspiration. The setting is a divided city: the Above, the former inner city ripped from the ground and set in the sky hundreds of years ago, and the Below, the remnants of the city that have built up since then, where sunlight is precious.

Concept art of a gloomy fantasy city alleyway.

The alleyway of a fantasy city, closely built buildings braced against one another, some of them beginning to fall apart.

Concept art of a fantasy city spread across floating islands.

Concept art of a fantasy city spread across islands floating in the sky.

Jules@julesanew· Apr 24

This was something from this week that really showed a fun relationship dynamic that's grown a lot in this new draft: #camprevpit #dialoguedrop #CRPShrikes

Every once in a while, everything aligned and the store was busy from opening to close. The three of them were constantly moving: helping customers, restocking shelves, cleaning up messes.

"You should sit down," Mallack said to Ania as he rehung a collection of shirts that a customer had tried on earlier.

Ania, across the rack from him, said, "I'm fine."

He didn't look at her, focusing on putting the shirts back with others of the same size. "Mm hm. That hip you're favoring would argue the point."

Ania looked up at him with exasperation. "There's too much to do." She gestured with her chin toward a new customer coming through the door. "I'll be fine."

Mallack looked up, one eye narrowing. "That's different than 'I'm fine'."

"Sun warm me, I wish I had something to throw at you right now," Ania said under her breath as she moved deliberately toward the door to greet the newcomer. Her hip was throbbing, but she certainly wasn't going to give Mallack the pleasure of seeing her limp.

Jules@julesanew· Jan 6

Getting a real "passengers on the Axiom" vibe these days.

Passengers on the Axiom spaceship from the Pixar movie Wall-E. The passengers sit in hoverchairs drinking liquid food and watching screens all day, doing nothing at all for themselves.

Jules@julesanew· Dec 21

It’s absolutely true. Just saw this yesterday. Use your library! It’s good for authors, it’s good for your community!

A screenshot of the Libby app showing that the user’s library has acquired 4 more copies of the audiobook of Alix E. Harrow’s The Everlasting since they placed their hold, with 7 copies available in total. Libraries buy books! Those are sales for the authors.

Jules@julesanew· Nov 17

I feel sometimes like I'm the only person who remembers this show. Only got 13 episodes, but I really enjoyed it.

An ad poster for the obscure and cancelled TV show Battle Creek showing the two leads (Dean Winters -- the Mayhem guy from Allstate commercials) and Josh Duhamel each holding a cup of coffee. A bullet streaks across the image, blowing a whole in Winters' cup but missing Duhamel's.

Jules@julesanew· Sep 6

Seen in the wild and faced outward. @magicariot.com

Magica Riot by Kara Buchanan on the bookstore shelf.

Jules@julesanew· Jul 10

It’s on my mind today since I spent a good amount of time talking about this book with my therapist. Thank you, @emilystjams.bsky.social for an utterly beautiful book that has changed my life in the best ways. Going to leave at that or else I’ll go all gushy fangirl and completely embarrass myself.