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dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
@dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
54 followers 42 following 79 posts
Local angst expert 🍁 #writingcommunity

https://dbgravesauthor.wordpress.com/
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dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
The beginnings of rotten little haters to "it's complicated", but I didn't feel like writing the scene at the time.

...and now I gotta do it and hope it's better than my placeholding blurb.
[Chaixos knows the rituals but performs them perfunctorily. Where is the reverence, the request, the hope/fear/uncertainty that Selvarhi will answer. There is no uncertainty. Selvarhi’s magic lives in him, sings in his veins, he carries it and wields it and breathes it without any question, any thought that one day it might not answer him. Infuriating.]
April 4, 2025 at 8:44 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Things in the back pocket of my scribble thoughts notebook:
- coffee stained timeline for an unwritten book, 3 drafts
- quotes from Andrew Pyper's Lost Girls about the Ontarian experience on a paper towel
- napkin with two vss drafts on it: one posted, one scrapped
- library slip FIC Belli + vss
Notebook with a collection of scrap paper notes laid out over it. Three lined yellow sheets slightly fanned out, the one on top has different stars doodled in the top margin, then a list of names and a number beneath each (Gerard: 32, Daniel: 21, Edwin: [18 crossed out] 17, Genevieve: 16) with a large gap before the last two where "The Begining" is written on a lower line. "Ben" in squeezed in between doodles on the top margin but no age is noted. Numbers and partially shown phrases, and coffee stains continue down the left side of the page. The other two yellow pages peeking out have "Gerard" and "32" written more neatly. The right side of the page is overlaid with a folded piece of paper towel. Written on it in messy printing "No matter where you start from, north is always so close in this country. Almost any exit taken off the highway along Lake ON after the heavy industries, warehouses, & nuclear power stations have passed & in only a couple hours it's all over you. A place where the ratio of altered to unaltered space gets shifted dramatically in the latter's favour and there is little more ahead" Below the paper towel is a scrap of paper. Written in the same printing "FIC Belli I curl up like a stone, waiting under stone [scribbled out 'to'] for fossilization/petrification or metamorphasis. But when the thaw comes, [scribbled out 'th'], these bones/limbs are [scribbled out 'the'] unchanged, but for a season of lack of care, making it much harder to unfurl" Beside that is a napkin folded in half. The top half reads in larger printing "bloodcensed; incensed anger like euphoria too deep in his veins pulse too loud a roar in his ears to know anything outside this rage/himself" Every tenth character is numbered up to 120. On the lower half in smaller writing: "Inside the amber a tiny goddess slept. We were unprepared to face the plague of her wrath when she broke free. I can only hope my words/warning will be so well preserved."
March 7, 2025 at 10:07 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Turning an old #vss into an instagram post and thought i might as well share here too.
(also if you want to follow me www.instagram.com/db.graves/ )
Black text on a semi-transparent grey rectangle, in the background behind both is a red-orange ghost that looks like draped fabric in a humanoid shape. Text reads "Not every ghost is lovelorn--most are born of rage. How bright they burned against the dying of the light, and snuffed out anyway. --DB Graves"
March 7, 2025 at 2:15 AM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
I had to take a picture of myself reading poetry in a coffee shop because I'd rather make fun of myself for doing that than having reached the point where I read poetry in a coffee shop just because and don't post about it.

Book is That Night We Were Ravenous by John Steffler.
Hand holding a book open to a page of poetry. On the table in front is a plate holding a half eaten piece of banana bread and a fork, beside is a grey coffee cup filled with black coffee. There is a window in the background showing some sidewalk and a lage snowbank. Poem is reads THE SEA GANGS IN -- darkly faceted, eager, yakking and glancing around at the jewellery-shop shelves, then, lifting arms that darken the air, sweeps everything to its chest. It opens its mouth and clearly wants food. The sea gangs in gay and pointy, weed green; the smell of it gives you hungry lungs; its thud feels good as fucking; then it drags the stones of the beach back, rattling them, all the bones people have left, skulls empty of pleasures, ownerless teeth. The sea gangs in buttered with morning light, throwing its lace hem at your bachelor's boots, and you snap photos, kneeling, panting, pen poems, and the waves, as they draw themselves up to dive, for a second, go thin and glassy,
February 20, 2025 at 1:47 AM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
If I don't like any if these I'm giving up on popular booktube/booktok recs.
Two hardcover books and an audiobook case laid out on a dark carpet. Piranessi by Susanna Clarke, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, and Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid on playaway device.
February 12, 2025 at 7:09 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Discovered the spooky pieces!
Floating block covered in spiderwebs with a wood rail fence around three sides. There is a jack-o-lantern scarecrow in the centre back with 'keep out!' signs to either side and three pumpkins in front among the spiderwebs. There is a brick half-arch right behind the scarecrow with a spiderweb and a crow on the top of it.
February 11, 2025 at 8:20 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Cloud Gardens has been exactly what my brain needs for downtime lately. Zen loneliness, beautifying apocalyptic scenes, a little bit of puzzle solving.

Also there's little guys and you can set up a tea party.
noio.itch.io/cloud-gardens
Part of a cement apartment complex floating in the air, covered in vines. On the rooftop a rubber duck, teddy bear, and garden gnome sit on chairs around a circular outdoor table. There are mugs and a teapot on the table. A small stegosaurus keeps them company, it also has a mug.
February 11, 2025 at 7:58 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Writing some flash fiction this month.*
Yes, I did pick the one image that didn't specify 28 stories because it's already day 9.

*allegedly
White text reading Creative Challenge Flash Fiction February Participant over a symmetrical geometric background in burgundy, purple, and green-grey.
February 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
If you see this post some fungi!

I don't have any art but please accept these tiny guys I saw back in September.
Two mushrooms with flat yellow tops and orange stems poking up between twigs and moss. Scalloped brown fungi growing in layers out of a mossy piece of wood. The caps are about the same size as a single cedar sprig poking up beside them.
February 13, 2024 at 8:12 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Another Shrouded Lands mood board:
Vyrzen, son of a shattered House, prince of dead city, seeks refuge in a court that views his bloodline as traitors. He's willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of the remnants of his family and his people, no matter what it costs him.
Grid of nine images mainly in grey with red tones forming a diagonal from top left to bottom right. Top row: Swirls of red and orange on black evoking smoke, fire or blood; close up of the hilts of two swords leaning against a wall, they have ornate swirling guards; dark hair with blue undertones. Middle row: The back of a person wearing black, there is a spine and ribs moldeled onto their outfit; text reading "Devotion is a bloodsport and I hate to lose" on a background of red seeping over white fur; close up on a person's hand clutching an ornate bow that has a wing carved on its frame. Bottom row: A hand streaked in dark fluid holding a match; grey leather tooled with a floral pattern; a crowd holding curved, sword-like implements aloft, they appear hazy against a red, foggy background.
February 9, 2024 at 8:01 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Advertise your account with one image.
Ben Affleck with a cigarette and a thousand yard stare.
February 7, 2024 at 11:07 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Mood board for Chaixos, one of three Shrouded Lands protagonists:
Personally blessed by his goddess, he has no reason to fix a corrupt system that benefits him. Wealth, influence, and enough wine to dull his integrity are all he needs. Until the thing that made him untouchable becomes a shackle.
Grid of nine images, with desatured colours and cool tones. Top row: blue glass jugs in front of a casement window and shelves of books, delicate crystals embroidered into white silk, scalloped blue and gold arches. Middle row: White-gold floral embroidery on deep blue velvet, frost pattern with the text "Let me be clear: every version of this story ends with you being slaughtered.", round wine cubbies holding bottles with ornate tops. Bottom row: Close up of long white hair, vial with a boar-head stopper in front of a bowl full of flames, a bare back with five hands reaching around as if to embrace or grab hold.
February 7, 2024 at 7:46 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
It'll do for now/it's better than the old one.
Mock up for a book cover in desaturated colours. A narrow band at the top depics misty mountains. The title "The Shrouded Lands" is in light grey text on very dark grey. The central image is of a woman in a lumpy white mask with a third eye and a crown of thin metal spokes. Streaks of blood come down from her mouth and there are stitches around the base of her neck. She is displaying long, claw-like nails in front of her chest. There is another very dark grey band below with the author name DB Graves. Below that is an inverted image of a coniferous forest with mist above the treetops.
February 3, 2024 at 10:50 PM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
I'm a professional now!
Screenshot of royalty earnings that reads Account Credit: $3.82
February 1, 2024 at 6:23 AM
dbgravesauthor.bsky.social
Current WIP: The Shrouded Lands
In ages past, the Selvarhinne elves were banished to the fringes of the living realm for loyalty to their monstrous goddess. When her magic and protection vanish, a rising priestess, a prince of a dead city, and a jaded young noble band together to save their people.
January 18, 2024 at 11:46 PM