Carl Ellis
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carlc75.bsky.social
Carl Ellis
@carlc75.bsky.social
350 followers 250 following 190 posts
Super amateur writer person. Talk to me about swords, sorcery, and the grinding boundary of the Meso/Neolithic. Also diving deep into my Welsh heritage!
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carlc75.bsky.social
The forlorn hope has breached the wall! And there's another slightly shorter one!

ONWARD!
Email saying I am Shortlisted for ness
October 3, 2025 at 5:59 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Trying to really let environment be its own character in my fiction, but it's hard when those environments no longer exist. Trying to imagine what a paleolithic coastline will look like, and I'm hoping these images can help get the vibe right!
A Rockpool Coastline Rockpools and tides Cliffside
June 20, 2025 at 11:33 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
I like making book covers for projects before doing them, but imagine a collection where the characters die, retire, and like the Ship of Theseus, the party continues. Heres what one could look like.

#writing #osr #swordandsorcery #litrpg
Concept book cover CARL ELLIS STONE COLD SOBER Fox Gastrell, errant farmer, hunter, drunk and in debt to the Winking Unicorn Tavern delves into the dark and dangerous underworld in search of coin, drink, and, hopefully, that big score to pull himself out of his cups and into respectability. A LitRPG adventure in the style of the Old School Renaissance, where progression is the coin you can haul from the dark. Includes: 6000 word story of Fox delving into the Dungeon Character Sheets Dungeon Map Random Encounter Tables OLD-SCHOOL ESSENTIALS A LITRPG IN THE STYLE OF THE OSR
April 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
Spring is really here now that Easter is over. Been living off homemade cake and ice cream all week 😋
Coffee and walnut cake Vanilla icecream Easter egg hunt! Apple blossom
April 23, 2025 at 3:47 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
Every break of promised bond
rotting chips of ursine oak.
Cracking cairnrocks chocking fronds
of teeth and tongues seeking folk
who dare forget our pact
that locks me twain the rods of brass.
Rules unkenned, bearing lacked,
found wanting. Gaol brittle. Glass.

#poetry #sublime #horror
3 bears. Wood. Rotten
April 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
Visited Whitby Abbey today, incredibly imposing. Enjoy that it was founded by a woman.

It would make a great backdrop for a viking siege story, weird horror, or monastic cozy romance.
Inside Whitby Abby Whitby Abbey exterior St Hild Born 614, died 680 Hild was related to Northumbrian royalty. She was born a pagan, and was baptized on Easter Day 627. After spending time in the East Anglian royal court Hild returned north to become abbess of Hartlepool. In 657 she founded the monastery here at Whitby with the support of King Oswiu. Many people admired Hild's wisdom, and it was her monastery that hosted the famous Synod of Whitby in 664. It was an important meeting of the Church which decided the method for calculating the date of Easter. Hild died in 680 and her saints feast day is 17th November, the anniversary of her death. # ENGLISH HERITAGE WHITBY ABBEY Welcome to Whitby Abbey People have lived on the headland at Whitby for at least 3,000 years. Over the centuries it has been a holy place, a seat of power, and a source of inspiration for artists and authors. St Hild founded a monastery here in the seventh century. lt became famous for its learning and culture, but in the mid-ninth century it was abandoned because of Viking raids. Monks returned here in the late 11th century. They soon adopted the Benedictine rule, and devoted each day to prayer, study and manual work Construction of a stone monastery started in the early 12ch century, but nothing of this remains above ground. The ruins you see today are from the magnificent church buile between the 13th and 15th centuries. In 1539, during Henry VIII'S Suppression of the Monasteries, the abbey was reduced to ruins and the monks dispersed. The wealthy Choimkey family became the site's new owners in 1555 turning some of the buildings into a grand house.
April 8, 2025 at 6:04 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
I've got a fun 6.5k word story about a Mesolithic hunter taking on a tribe of cheeky Neolithic colonists.

The hunter tribes revere the sea, how else are they going to eat in winter?! There's also slime, hallucinations, a religious duel with a bear, a fishing wight, and a demon-cow!

#SpearAndFang
For out to sea the eyes watched still, intense, blacker pools than the water itself, with wings of foam and arms of waves, its maw the sea itself.
February 16, 2025 at 7:16 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #adventoftinytales take on #Birth

It's finally done!
#AdventOfTinyTales 24 Birth Scorching heat drags me from the darkness, I flail fleshy tendrils as the hard rock breaks and cuts me leaking pain and fluid upon the hard prison now slick with me to slither away. Something opens and white needles burrow into my soul, fading into a landscape of black and crimson with a sky of green fire raining upon me. I move my many limbs of yellow tender flesh with their hooks and tasting mouths that feed upon the dark brackish rock. I emerge, stretch, writhe and tumble. Towards a new world with morsels and songs and people to conquer.
January 12, 2025 at 1:32 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
I'm finally emerging from post flu mental haze so here's my #adventoftinytales take on #Ink.

Determined to finish this series.
#AdventOfTinyTales 23 Ink Heat bled through their tightly wrapped fingers, slipped between the wraps of their face, and burned the metal goggles over their eyes. The shovel bit deep, ash cascading over shoulders as they dug further along an oak branch of white burning wood flaring crimson in the wind. They followed its branching paths until curling grey remnants of leaves caught the wind to join as ash. There, finally upon the end of a small burning twig was a pair of charred oak apples. For to trap magical fire within a paper scroll requires a cage of ink that burns white hot.
January 10, 2025 at 9:09 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 24 (and the FINAL day) of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Birth. Have fun everyone!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed, it's been a blast!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on BlueSky.
December 24, 2024 at 11:26 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 23 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Ink. Have fun everyone
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on BlueSky.
December 23, 2024 at 9:50 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Gift
#AdventOfTinyTales 22 Gift The doors crashed open as a dirty man fell into the temple of polished stone, candles, and obsidian relics. Blood drenched the handkerchief in his hand, thin rivulets dripped from the corner of his mouth. It was Slei, the local loan shark. "Preacher! You got to give me m' last rites! I repent for my sins on this world" At that he collapsed, and as she went to say the words her hand was guided. A sharp sickening motion and she pulled out dark black tissue from within his chest. "Slei, it looks like you have been given a gift".
December 22, 2024 at 7:51 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 22 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Gift. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on BlueSky.
December 22, 2024 at 7:48 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Star
#AdventOfTinyTales 21 Star Sea winds breathed life upon the embers of the fire, crimson glow webbing across the once wood, heating the diod which bubbled under the night sky. Other fires, other rituals, light up the great dark ocean above the clouds; ancestors, offspring, enemies, lovers; each keeping a watchful eye on each other and the shore far below. Dried pine needles and the spittle from her mouth mixed in the bubbles, the liquid turning red as a cloudy sunset. Gnaeblaelk stared upwards, weeping, as a fire of her child to be, for whom else, blazed and grew to bring an early day.
December 21, 2024 at 9:19 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 21 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Star. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on BlueSky.
December 21, 2024 at 9:16 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Ritual - also a scene that takes place after The Desert Hook
#AdventOfTinyTales 20 Ritual Talstrom thrummed their song of foreboding, of witness, as Kiara cleaned her staraxe. Ichor had dried within the engraving and she attacked with fine hairs of a stiff brush. The deep reverberations suddenly pitched up to the treble of warning, of herald, and she reverently returned the axe to its display unit. Kicking gently, she floated towards the pilot-altar, two decks up Talstron's hollow spine, lights fading behind as she travelled. At the viridian altar she knelt, the dark outside scattered with stars, warped from Talstrom's song. Darkness descended, and at her prayer they tore a hole in the universe.
December 20, 2024 at 8:48 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 20 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Ritual. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on Bluesky.
December 20, 2024 at 8:26 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Coal
#AdventOfTinyTales 19 Coal The fire burned electric blue as the coal of the shrouded archipelago was added to the brazier. Nif fed the rosemary through the flames, which did not char but burst into its own blaze of scent and flavour. Into oil of Karpathian olives before brushing the raw steak of young aurock from the floating hills. Lighting arced upon the meat which cooked in fractals; layering the ascended rosemary. Next Nif fired a coal of the deepest seam of Charnak which toasted peppercorns beyond perfection. After all, Alban Arthan was a time for self-care, for finally using that which was hoarded.
December 19, 2024 at 9:15 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 19 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Coal. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on Bluesky.
December 19, 2024 at 9:14 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Storm
#AdventOfTinyTales 18 Storm The tin cup of cocoa warmed Tas' hand as she snuggled into her blankets near the fire. It burned bright and hungrily ate the wood from her pack, yet she could not hear the crackle over the howling wind beyond the cave mouth. Trees bent sideways, their shed leaves adding to the greater mass of rain that passed before her eyes a mirror to the towering waves of the cove beneath. Giants of foam and thunder jousted there, smiting themselves upon the cliff faces with joyous shouts and laughter. She took another sip and watched the world in raw fury.
December 18, 2024 at 12:27 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 18 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Storm. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on Bluesky.
December 18, 2024 at 7:59 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Curse
#AdventOfTinyTales 17 Curse Since I blew the flames of the eighteen candles on my birthday cake l've known the last face I will see before I die. My own. For years I stopped looking into mirrors, fearing the cold breath of the reaper upon my neck, the edge of their scythe against my throat. Someone else had to tell me about the yellow pale of my skin. Now I brush my teeth staring with glad eyes and an open heart and welcome each day as the gift it is. For knowing one's end is really a curse; yet, we all suffer beneath it.
December 17, 2024 at 2:39 PM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 17 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Curse. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on Bluesky.
December 17, 2024 at 7:11 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
My #AdventOfTinyTales take on #Rose
#AdventOfTinyTales 16 Rose With digging crawling fingers that tighten their grip upon the many grounds it towers over, its thorny stem tall and deadly, a wall without end, a thin whip of steel, its crown of blood and fire infinite in its folding as it captures light and souls and worlds to feed its hidden heart of obsidian lacing its every fibre. For this being, titanic and hidden, stands proud in a vacant lot, a bed of soil, a midnight tower stretching to the heavens, a prison, a door, a salvation, a damnation, its hungry myriad roots worming into all things and consuming.
December 16, 2024 at 8:07 AM
carlc75.bsky.social
Its day 16 of #AdventOfTinyTales ! The word of the day is #Rose. Have fun everyone!
#AdventOfTinyTales Write a story 100 words or less based on the word of the day and post using the above hashtag on Bluesky.
December 16, 2024 at 8:06 AM