C A Malin
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camalin.net
C A Malin
@camalin.net
310 followers 420 following 560 posts
I'm a fledgling author, in the process of writing and self-publishing my first novel, a Regency/Fantasy crossover titled #Ellamir
🇬🇧 | He/Him | 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Ally | AI-phobic
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C A Malin @camalin.net · Sep 1
It's so exciting to be writing my first novel: #Ellamir, a #Regency adventure #romance, featuring characters exceedingly similar to some of the most memorable #JaneAusten creations, trying to maintain decorum in an increasingly chaotic high #fantasy world. Coming in 2026!

#Fiction #BookSky #Authors
On the left, a portrait of a young woman in Regency dress looks out at the viewer, while on the right, the novel's tagline reads: "Handsome, clever and rich, Miss Ellamir Oakhall lacks neither fortune nor consequence and is decidedly not in want of a husband..." Below this, the novel's title: "Ellamir" by C A Malin - the Bluesky tag @camalin.net and the hashtag #Ellamir
camalin.net
I broke through a block I'd had for weeks! And making progress again, thank goodness...
November 9, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
nehayazmin.bsky.social
so I forgot to ‘review’ the viral Fix chocolate bar! 🍜🍽️

I really like it✨Probably the tastiest🍫bar I’ve had in a long time

Obv the hype leads you to expect it to be *something else* and that’s not the product’s fault—ppl hyped it up to go viral themselves

I think it deserves the success its had😋
November 7, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
sagetgreene.bsky.social
OUT IN 4 DAYS 📣

A family of royals aims for perfection and tradition, but a series of whirlwind romances could send the veneer of perfection and desire for tradition up in flames.

🌼 cozy vibes
🤫 secret relationships
🌈 queer rep
💕💕💕 3 couples at different stages

#P NOV 9
#QuestPit #A #R #F #RF
November 5, 2025 at 5:11 PM
camalin.net
My main antagonist Lady Lamont may be overbearing, elitist, proud and haughty, but it must be admitted that she is also brave and community-spirited (so long as the community does what she wants) and won't back down from a fight, even if it means allying with her societal adversaries...

#Ellamir
sagetgreene.bsky.social Sage T. Greene, Author @sagetgreene.bsky.social · 6d
#Novmemeber 5

Yeah, your Antagonist has flaws, but what are some green flags of theirs?
🟩

Can't think of any/not applicable to your villain? What would THEY say are their green flags?

Not a person, but a construct/idea? What do proponents say?
5. Your Antagonist’s green flags A prompt game for the month of November, titled #Novmemeber (as in meme). Hosted by @sagetgreene.bsky.social . The bottom says "Have fun, interact, and remember alt text!" There is a silly emoji face with wild eyes and tongue sticking out, and some fall-style leaves in the corners.
November 5, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
tarasgeir.bsky.social
After finding two slugs in my dining room this morning, this #wipsnips seemed rather apt. The original, now archived version, of Oula’s first impressions of Cailo. #writesky #writingcommunity #writingprompts
November 5, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
jangoeswriting.bsky.social
Postal deliveries are becoming slipshod …

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips
It was another letter, which meant either they were on the right trail, or someone in the Wallows above had the strange idea that the best way to get their letters to the right destination was by posting them down the Sluice grills and hoping that some kind of divine intervention would see the letter floating to the right destination. That wasn’t likely, though, considering that the gods wouldn’t set foot down here. Not even for a Half-decent party. And the gods rarely turned down a party, half-decent or otherwise.
November 5, 2025 at 9:16 AM
camalin.net
Hi hi, WIPSnippers! Today's #WIPSnips from my WIP #Ellamir uses the synonym "path"

Ella Oakhall *says the thing* from the novel's tagline!! 😆 We get the first taste of Miss Oakhall's strong feminist feelings, and an indication of how such things are likely to be received by her polite society...
A snippet from Ellamir by C A Malin: "Are you not very curious to meet the new owner, Miss Oakhall, if he is to be your neighbour?" said Hannah, breaking in on Ella's thoughts once they had regained the path. "As his neighbour, certainly I am," said Ella. "There are sure to be ways father and I can be useful to a person entering the society of Upthorpe, and should he be found to be a sound gentleman of good breeding, we should be glad to introduce him." "But are you not… do you not wonder if he might be eligible?" "Eligible for myself, you mean?" said Ella, with a mixture of disdain and amusement in her voice. "I assure you, my dear Hannah, I have not considered any such thing. Why should I wish for matrimony? I lack neither fortune nor consequence - what need have I for a husband?" And then, in the shocked silence that followed (for Hannah had rarely heard anything so shocking in all her life), she added "No, I am not in search of a husband, Hannah. But as a neighbour, an early acquaintance is naturally of some importance. It is likely I shall call on him soon after his arrival." "You will call on him?!" said Hannah, even further surprised. "Perhaps I shall," said Ella, a little displeased with all this astonishment. "I do not like to trouble father with journeying out when I might just as easily take the carriage over myself. I will of course invite him to dine with us and be introduced to father at the earliest convenience." And then, dissatisfied with Hannah's ill-concealed look of amazement, she went on: "Really, Hannah, you must not pay so much heed to those old conventions and customs that seek to prevent women of substance from managing their own affairs. Why should it be improper that the mistress of Penmere should make the first call upon a new neighbour? I am certain it is not so. But perhaps I will take the Commander, just for the look of the thing; they will no doubt need to be acquainted and may have much business in common."
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 AM
camalin.net
'Ello again #Novmemeber!

Quite a lot of in-jokes, puns and references in #Ellamir

Emma Woodhouse/Ella Oakhall

Harriet Smith/Hannah Wright

Mr Collins/Brother Nicholls (same etymological root)

Ford's (the habadashers in Emma) becomes Morris's (both were popular car manufacturers in the 60s)
sagetgreene.bsky.social Sage T. Greene, Author @sagetgreene.bsky.social · 7d
#Novmemeber 4

Are there any inside jokes or references in your WIP? Share one (or a few)!
4. Inside jokes/references in WIP A prompt game for the month of November, titled #Novmemeber (as in meme). Hosted by @sagetgreene.bsky.social . The bottom says "Have fun, interact, and remember alt text!" There is a silly emoji face with wild eyes and tongue sticking out, and some fall-style leaves in the corners.
November 4, 2025 at 9:06 AM
camalin.net
This finding memes lark as harder than I thought! 😆 Determined to press on with #novmemeber though, cos it's a hoot!!

#Ellamir
A famous meme from the Kardiashians TV show, with... er... a Kardiashian peeking around a bush. It says "Something: *is none of her business Emma Woodhouse: ... I've crossed out Emma Woodhouse and replaced it with Ella Oakhall Really, it's not that funny even if you saw the image 🥲
November 3, 2025 at 10:33 AM
camalin.net
"Handsome, clever and rich, Miss Ellamir Oakhall lacks neither fortune nor consequence and is decidedly not in want of a husband..."

#Ellamir
November 2, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
sagetgreene.bsky.social
#Novmemeber 1

Introduce yourself using predictive text. You can try phrasing this in different ways (for example, "I'm ___ and I write about...").

Then tell us what you REALLY write about!
1. Introduce yourself w/predictive text (e.g. “I’m _ and I write about...”) A prompt game for the month of November, titled #Novmemeber (as in meme). Hosted by @sagetgreene.bsky.social . The bottom says "Have fun, interact, and remember alt text!" There is a silly emoji face with wild eyes and tongue sticking out, and some fall-style leaves in the corners.
November 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM
camalin.net
I'm not sure why you need to be in bed super early tomorrow and I write something to do with wearing a hat

Well... apparently I'm always making excuses for not going out, but I do write Regency fiction and for many, that does mean wearing a hat...

😆 This is gonna be an absurdly fun month!
sagetgreene.bsky.social Sage T. Greene, Author @sagetgreene.bsky.social · 10d
#Novmemeber 1

Introduce yourself using predictive text. You can try phrasing this in different ways (for example, "I'm ___ and I write about...").

Then tell us what you REALLY write about!
1. Introduce yourself w/predictive text (e.g. “I’m _ and I write about...”) A prompt game for the month of November, titled #Novmemeber (as in meme). Hosted by @sagetgreene.bsky.social . The bottom says "Have fun, interact, and remember alt text!" There is a silly emoji face with wild eyes and tongue sticking out, and some fall-style leaves in the corners.
November 1, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
jangoeswriting.bsky.social
Murple gets this a lot …

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips
The woman looked out of place in the way nobility always looked out of place when they weren’t surrounded by gold filigree, centuries old portraits of ancestors they were very proud of but didn’t talk about their seedier exploits, fifty foot long dining tables and horses. Often with some mixture of them all, especially the horses. Her nose maintained a permanent curl of disgust, her hands sought to find somewhere she could place them without touching anything and her eyes tried to find at least some form of tapestry that she could recognise and take some comfort in. Sadly for her, there were no tapestries, though there was a stained playbill from a local production of ‘King Ogle’. “Mistress Hurkull, I feel …” “Hurkull.” “I’m sorry?” The woman gave that kind of look. The one where she thoroughly expected someone not of the nobility to act in such an uncouth manner. “Mistress Hurkull …” “Hurkull.” “But that’s what I said. Hurkull.” It didn’t take much to confuse the nobility. Simply tell them you were a republican and their minds went blank, unable to comprehend the very thought. This interchange had a similar outcome. “It’s not ‘Hurkull’, it’s ‘Hurkull’.” Murple had to explain this practically every time and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy it on some primal level, especially with those folks that thought themselves better than everybody else. “It’s not like it’s difficult, your ladyship. All you have to do is listen to folks and I reckon as thy won’t get so confused.”
November 1, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
tarasgeir.bsky.social
No ancestor for today’s #wipsnips but some backstory in Grio and Strope’s grandfather. #writesky#writingcommunity #writingprompts
November 1, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
jangoeswriting.bsky.social
There all kinds of monsters …

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips
Still laughing at his good fortune, he didn’t hear the soft scrape of boots near the doors to the pub. The kind of soft boot scraping performed when someone tried, very hard, to show that they really were just leaving and they were only being courteous by jumping out of the way. He also missed a different kind of scraping, as one or two chairs moved, in that way that chairs moved when someone had completely forgotten they had told their wife or husband that they’s be home in time for tea. He did notice the conversation becoming a lull, but that happened, sometimes, as people prepared to pick up a chair, or a bottle, or a companion, ready to beat someone around the head with them. But he’d be fine. He was protected. For the moment. “Hello, Wakeful.” Now, to anyone else, that would have sounded like the kind of whisper made by people in the deepest dungeons, trying very hard not to awaken the horde of ravening monsters whose nest they had happened to wander into the middle of. Into Welling’s trumpets, it sounded like a war cry.
October 31, 2025 at 9:03 AM
camalin.net
I can just about squeak in with "Monstrous" for today's #WIPSnips, and we're back at Lady Lamont's morning social.

What new horror has arisen to alarm the ladies of Upthorpe Thoroughbourne's polite society?

From #Ellamir, my #JaneAusten #Regency #Romance X #Fantasy crossover WIP
A snippet from Ellamir by C A Malin: “I believe not, my dear Mrs Tinsley, not even to myself. No doubt an attorney of Mr Yates’ experience will have a legal reason for guarding the details of the conveyance with secrecy. However, with a little natural penetration, perhaps one may draw a conclusion or two, and I must tell you that I do have reason to greatly fear…” Lady Lamont paused, teacup and saucer poised beneath her imperiously pursed lips, and dutifully her audience widened their eyes and leant forwards: whatever was liable to inspire great fear in their venerable patroness was indeed a matter of significant concern and undeniable interest, or at the very least, it was their duty to appear as if it was. Certainly it was known to all that some odd stories had been circulating among the lesser residents and servants: a tale of a peculiarly large wolf killed at a farmstead not fifteen miles hence; a sighting of a party of dwarves on the High Road, armed to the teeth and bemoaning, as usual, some injustice or other; a swarthy fellow passing through the village who was rumoured by the patrons of the tavern he frequented to be a rogue; and worst of all, reports of elvish activity not far north of the parish boundary. It seemed that suddenly, threats to civilised life were being spoken of everywhere. What monstrous new horror had now been brought to Lady Lamont’s attention? "Yes, I greatly fear," she repeated, "that the abbey and its lands have been purchased with *new money*!”
October 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
emilybrand.bsky.social
Sex scene with Mr Collins, anyone?

It's the perfect time for some Austen-inspired fiction & I hugely enjoyed this heartfelt, romantic & v. funny imagining of the life of Charlotte Lucas from @rachelparris.bsky.social

(Honestly, don’t let the sex thing put you off, it’s lovely)

Out 6 Nov 📚 🌟
Book cover of 'Introducing Mrs Collins' by Rachel Parris, in green and pink, laid upon a pile of early 19th-century books
October 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
mycelialwriter.bsky.social
In my magic system, we don’t cast spells, we weave elemental threads. Though I do love and appreciate the word spell 🪄✨ #AWIPSnips from SoS subbing “weave” for “spell”.
October 30, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
tarasgeir.bsky.social
Gone through about 8 works featuring wizards, goblins, gods and familiars and not a single ‘spell’ so here is magic and here is ‘not-a-wizard’ Cailo being told he’ll barely have to use magic. #writesky #writingcommunity #wipsnips #writingprompts
October 30, 2025 at 9:42 AM
camalin.net
Several instances of "spell" to choose from in my WIP #Ellamir, a #JaneAusten style #Fantasy #Romance crossover, for today's #spooky #WIPSnips - this is my favourite!

Lady Lamont has some strong opinions on the subject of adventurers moving into the respectable village of Upthorpe Thoroughbourne
A snippet from Ellamir by C A Malin: Miss Oakhall smiled thinly, having only moments ago suffered an attack on her consequence and then waited in vain for a suitable riposte to occur to her. She had endured many a meeting where the conversation had turned to concern and outrage over such perceived threats to the peace and respectability of the villages of Upthorpe; they seemed to her greatly exaggerated, often the result of highly uncharitable prejudice, and she was minded to put forth a tolerably strong hint on the subject, but before she could interject, Lady Lamont went on. “And then, you are to understand, their gold may be of a most unwholesome nature, or the rightful property of goodness knows who. Many a thief may be found among an adventuring party - they call themselves rogues, you know - and such a person would stop at naught to enrich themselves in a most upstart manner, with never a care that the gold they so presumptuously help themselves to may be enlaid with a curse or spell." "That would never do!" said Mrs Tinsley, frowning at her teacup and reaching for a biscuit. "Certainly not. Cursed gold is a very tricky thing, and no doubt subject to additional charges and a reduced rate of interest. But that is not the worst of it, oh no! Even if it is not cursed, there is an extreme likelihood that it has, at some previous juncture, been the property of a dragon; and dragons, my dear, are known to be of a most insatiably vengeful disposition.”
October 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
katielcarroll.com
Are you in the mood for a cozy read this fall? Barnes & Noble is having a sale on Nook books through the end of October that includes my YA fantasy Elixir Bound!

#cozybooks #cozyfantasy #fantasybooks #booksky
www.barnesandnoble.com/b/favorite-c...
Favorite Cozy Reads for Fall: Starting at $2.99
www.barnesandnoble.com
October 23, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
mycelialwriter.bsky.social
✨🍃 A living, breathing world…

Here, magic doesn’t come from spells—it flows from the stars, the roots, and the land itself. 🌌

Welcome to the Lumani village of Idris.

Snippet from 💫 The Chrysillium Tree 💫
#FantasyBooks #AmWritingFantasy #BookSnippet #WritingCommunity
October 15, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by C A Malin
tarasgeir.bsky.social
From ‘an untouched journey’ about a space pilot taking her telepathic wife on a secret, galactic, anniversary trip.

Gloria tries to safely fly through a field of cast off diamonds without destroying her ship. #writingcommunity #writesky #writingprompts
October 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
camalin.net
Hi hi, WIPperSnippers! 😊

Happy to be able to use this exchange again from my #JaneAusten x #Fantasy crossover WIP #Ellamir: it's the first explicit discussion of the Elves, a race largely misunderstood and maligned by the villagers.

#WIPSnips #WritingPrompts #Romantasy #SFF #IndieAuthors #Elves
A snippet from Ellamir by C A Malin: Hannah listened, but at first she heard nothing; then suddenly, as if brought to her by the sunset breeze, she caught the softest strain of a long, high chord suspended on the air. It was joined by another; Hannah realised then that it was voices, singing somewhere in the distance. "Who is it?" she asked. "Elves," said Maqine. "Oh! goodness! What shall we do?!" Maqine looked at her quizically. "What d'ye mean, what shall we do?" she said. "Elves," said Hannah in an urgent whisper, "Are they coming? Should we run?" Maqine's puzzlement was quite reasonable: she had no fear of the elves, had a certain amount of experience of them, even called a few of them friends; but among the citizens of Upthorpe, of all the outsider creatures that surrounded them and posed a threat to their - to any - civilised community, elves were the most dreaded and reviled. They were unnatural, supernatural in fact, quite inhuman; they sought only to trouble the lives of good people, taking their livestock and even kidnapping their children; they carried magic within them, dreadful wild magic of terrible power, quite uncontrolled; it was said that they could destroy your mind if you should happen to look at them in the wrong way. "Everyone is afraid of them," Hannah explained, when Maqine seemed unconcerned, "they say they are dangerous." "Well, I suppose they can be," said Maqine, "but there's elves and elves, if you know what I mean. Most of them are quite harmless, unless you get too close to their settlements. It wouldn't do at all to wander into their world, but out here we're quite safe. Listen… isn't it beautiful?"
October 7, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by C A Malin
jangoeswriting.bsky.social
Stretchy synonym again. ‘Claws’ instead of ‘paw’. S’all I got.🤷🏻‍♂️

From ‘Prophet Hearing’.

#WiPSnips
“Well, I could always pay someone else to do it. They do say two mages are better than four.” None was better than any, but Tibias didn’t have the time. “The mage is Hugot Muckleflup. Are you going to do it, or should Cribb, here, put away this bag of Coin he happens to be bouncing on his palm in a nonchalant fashion?” He was, too. Tibias had taught the boy the technique to make it just the right amount of enticing to the right person. Of course, he’d had to have the boy steal the Coin purse earlier, but he couldn’t get around to it himself at the moment. If this were some kind of projected sequence of images, created by brilliant minds to entertain the masses, pictures of Coins would flash in Gulpor’s eyes, but it wasn’t, so they didn’t. He did lick his lips, though, fingers reaching, tentatively, like claws, toward the bouncing bag.
September 30, 2025 at 8:10 AM