Erika Arivett
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erikaarivett.bsky.social
Erika Arivett
@erikaarivett.bsky.social
140 followers 130 following 230 posts
Writer. Reader. Illustrator. Classical educator. Appalachian. Wife and mother of two. Goldendoodle mom. Anglican.

📖 Tolkien 🎌 Nihon 🥤Coke Zero

Current project:
Japan-based portal fantasy WIP
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erikaarivett.bsky.social
My first love is and will always be Lord of the Rings, but in an effort to not pick the obvious: The original Dragonlance Chronicles by Weiss and Hickman have a special place in my heart, especially the young reader edition (which is literally the same series divided into 6 books instead of 3).
November 15, 2025 at 3:08 PM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Every time I use the word “Yojimbo,” I think of the annoying summon from Final Fantasy X, and also vaguely think, “I really need to see Akira Kurosawa’s film Yojimbo.” Thanks for hearing my irrelevant thoughts on this matter. 😂

#WIPSnips #amwriting #writesky #writingcommunity #YA #fantasy
“The daimyo desires a report on your progress.” His black eyes are flat in the shadows. I can’t read his face at all, but I lower an eyebrow. I’m unsure what he means by “progress.” This is supposed to be a yojimbo and charge relationship. What unspoken thing am I meant to be doing?
November 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Ryo doesn’t laugh a lot. His inhibitions are lowered by tsuchigumo venom at the moment. He’ll be mortified about this later haha

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I stare at her blankly for a long moment. Then a chuckle rises up in my throat, sliding past my internal filters, and I start laughing—harder than I’ve laughed in weeks. My head pulses with each breath, but I can’t stop. “Ryo-kun?” I force a deep breath and rub the heel of my palm into my eye, dabbing away wetness.
November 14, 2025 at 10:05 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Rin’s ki/energy is both very powerful and very unstable. If Ryo can’t teach her to control it they’re all in trouble.

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Koji falls back against the tree in defeat. “Whatever. I still say it would be easier.” Part of me knows Koji is right. Rin isn’t my first pupil—and she’s certainly more cooperative than the other one—but this is the first time I’ve tried to train someone away from the Reikai. A frustrated huff builds up inside me, but I restrain it.
November 13, 2025 at 10:40 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
They must be experiencing the fake seasonal changes we have here in Appalachia, where there are about three rounds of fake fall followed by summer saying, “Hi, I’m still here.”

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Outside, the ocean breeze has kicked up to dispel some of the oppressive heat, but my shirt is still clinging to my back before we reach the bottom of the library stairs. It’s nearly October, but this summer heat just won’t break.
November 12, 2025 at 10:15 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
There is just nothing burger or burger adjacent lol Literally all mentions of food are pretty explicitly East Asian fare except this one time Koji was eating pizza 😂

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“Koji, what are you doing up here dressed like that?” I say, restraining an eye roll. “What?” He looks down at his clothes. “I just got back from the Ningenkai.” “And was food the main reason for your visit?” Kin asks, drumming his fingers on crossed arms. “Hey, the Ningenkai does a few things right,” Koji replies with a shrug. “Pizza is one of them.”
November 11, 2025 at 11:39 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
This was an interesting scene to write, because it’s one of the only scenes of Ryo operating in the Reikai in an ordinary way.

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The smell of smoke and stale sake drifts from the common room, where some of the locals are already deep in their cups. I won’t be able to sleep easy in a place like this. I’d rather try my warding skills against yokai in the wild than risk waking up with a knife to my throat. But this is probably the last civilized stop before the road becomes barren…and then stops being a road. If I want to gather intel about the journey ahead, this is it.
November 10, 2025 at 10:31 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Rin-chan drawn with my finger in a random whiteboard app lol The sixty seconds could have been much more efficient with a pencil 🙈

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November 9, 2025 at 7:11 PM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
I thought I posted this earlier, but I think I fell asleep in the middle of trying 🤣

Rin always thinks Ryo looks a little older than he is because he’s so serious. Surprise makes him look younger.

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“What are you talking about, Ryo-san?” Kneeling there in front of me, Ryo-san’s expression is suddenly so open, so surprised, that he looks younger. I could more easily picture this Ryo as a boy in my class, or an applicant at the restaurant.
November 9, 2025 at 12:12 PM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
It’s probably just that I have the Sunday scaries about my maternity leave coming to an end soon (so quickly?!), but I’m feeling existential about time today. There are so many things I want to do—write, read, watch, game, make, go, learn. But there just is never enough time. #amwriting #writesky
“Often we talked of the sad and somehow outrageous fact that in most lives…there isn't time for long walks and sitting on walls. We quoted a poem by W.H. Davies to the effect that it is a poor life if we have no time 'to stop and stare' as sheep and cows can do. We agreed. Nor were we cheered by the prospect of an occasional day off from an office, for with only one day there would be a sense of time at one’s back, a time too limited to 'waste' sitting on walls. How were we to contrive a life full of time—a timeful life—where we could be quiet and leisurely, where we could stop and stare? “…I saw with immense clarity that we had always been harried by time. All our dreams back there in Glenmerle had come true: the schooner Grey Goose under the wind, the far islands of Hawaii in the dark-blue rolling Pacific, the spires of Oxford. But all the fulfillments were somehow, it seemed to me, incomplete, temporary, hurried. We wished to know, to savour, to sink in—into the heart of the experience—to possess it wholly. But there was never enough time; something still eluded us.”—Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy
November 9, 2025 at 12:59 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Probably going to end up cutting at least part of this fight in revisions.

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Then a weight drops on me like a sack of bricks. “So you’re the little footpad.” A face shrouded in shadows leers over me, my arms pinned under the man’s knees. A deep purple arm band, almost invisible against his black shozoku, marks him as a servant of the Tsuchi Clan.
November 8, 2025 at 10:45 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
A raiju—a lightning wolf. They’re usually smallish, but this one got into the human world and is glutted on mundane electricity.

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Its movements are erratic, impossibly fast, my vision obscured by the torrential force of the rain. A bolt of electricity bounces off the alley wall a split second before the yokai leaps, and I stumble back to avoid the blast. Its paw catches me as I fall back, a sizzling claw raking across my shoulder.
November 7, 2025 at 9:49 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Maybe it’s actually a penultimate leap 😅😂

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Gathering my strength, I take a final leap toward the fire escape. The paint flicks away under my fingers as I swing over the railing onto the stairs. Below, I hear the quick tap of Rin’s feet coming up the lower level.
November 6, 2025 at 11:26 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
There are major “gates” between the Reikai and the Ningenkai that are guarded by various clans. Those are large and stable. But there are also a few “back doors” like this one lingering around if you know where to look.

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November 5, 2025 at 11:30 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Ryo’s second confrontation with the man in black—the man who murdered Rin’s brother.

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He draws his own katana. The blade itself is oddly dark, like the steel was treated in some way to diminish its sheen. Everything about this man is a shadow, like a non-person manifested from the twilight of the spirit world.
November 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
Ryo is recovering from exposure to tsuchigumo venom. If he weren’t disoriented, he would never allow anyone to “fuss” over him.

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“What happened to you, Ryo-kun?” She picks up the damp cloth I dropped and presses it to my forehead. My hand moves to take it from her…but I put it back down. She likes to feel useful, so I let her fuss. Besides…it’s a little nice to be looked after.
November 3, 2025 at 9:59 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
I also specifically have a lot of spider monsters. I have occasionally needed to do spider research for this, and every time they hit me with unexpected spider close ups I want to vomit 🙃 #WIPSnips #amwriting #writesky #writingcommunity #YA #fantasy
The smells here are different from the tunnels and the large chamber at the entrance. The scent of spiders and ichor is weaker, but something else wafts on the stifled air. Something distinctly more human. Strung under thick strands of spiderwebs, furniture is placed around the room, most of it looking like it hasn’t been disturbed in years. Or decades. But in one corner, a wide table has clearly been more recently utilized. Tetsuya approaches cautiously, swiping away a thin layer of dust.
November 2, 2025 at 12:33 PM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
The Reikai recognizes its own. Many of the events of this story are caused directly or indirectly by the actions of characters’ ancestors.

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“Then what did you mean before, when you said I had something of the Reikai in my veins?” “If you don’t know, we can’t be sure.” Taro answers this time, stretching his injured leg out slowly. “Probably some relative of yours spent a lot of time here. Someone you’re close to became part of this place and carried that energy with them, in their blood, their clothes, their soul. It’s often the way Outsiders are brought into the Reikai. Its energy rubs off on someone, or is inherited from an ancestor…It’s far from common, but it does happen. It’s how we came here ourselves.”
November 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
My child is waking up every hour. So here I am at 5 a.m. 😅

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I return Taro-kun’s smile, but it’s halfhearted. Oddly, it’s not the monsters lurking outside that I’m worried about. I know Ryo-kun and the others can handle yokai. It’s the thing lurking in me. The parts of myself I don’t understand—and can’t control.
October 31, 2025 at 9:38 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
I’m trying not to talk about magic too explicitly in this book, but I did have a few proverbial spells like this one!

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Her eyes snap open, like a spell is broken. She looks up at me and unexpectedly slumps into my shoulder. Her energy, dangerously close to the tipping point, deescalates slowly. “I’m sorry, Ryo-kun, I…I feel dizzy all of a sudden.” I sweep her bangs aside and press my hand to her forehead. “You’re burning up. I’m taking you home.”
October 30, 2025 at 9:30 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
A scouring brush is the absolute closest thing I have to a broomstick, and now I’m just picturing the Sanderson sisters riding around on Roombas and Swiffers.

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Before I can wonder or ask questions, a scouring brush is thrust inùto my hands and I’m forced into the row of bent backs. My head pulses with fear, dazed by the noise and the heat. I focus on breathing as I scrub, tamping down my simmering ki with each stroke of the brush.
October 29, 2025 at 9:33 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
I had uses of “disguise,” but this was too on the nose to pass up lol

Ordinary humans can’t see the Reikai and its properties, including the runes in Ryo’s shinobi shozoku. Jiro’s spiritual senses are starting to wake up.

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“Ryo?” He lifts an eyebrow, skeptically eyeing my shozoku. “What’s with that getup? You’re a little early for Halloween.” “It’s a test,” I reply, folding my arms over my chest. His energy is prickly, his posture cagey. “To find out if you can See me.” “…Is that a bad joke? Of course I can see you—I’m not blind.” I let out a long, slow sigh.
October 28, 2025 at 8:39 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
The nekomata again! We might be heavy on “vibes” this week. 😅 I do have plenty of monsters though!

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The second figure moves in the opposite direction, and a flash of something metal flies from his hand. One of the glowing purple eyes is abruptly extinguished. The monster lets out a piercing yowl. “Now!” the second man yells. The cat hisses and backs away, trying to regroup. The two tails stand up straight, as bristly as bottle brushes.
October 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
I am definitely having the kind of sleepy morning where I don’t know what to say about this #WIPSnips 🫠

#amwriting #writesky #writingcommunity #YA #fantasy
Kuro tucked his knife back into his belt, his chest loosening slightly. Then he removed two of the worn yukata from the poles, and a pair of straw hats for good measure. He was glad not to have harmed the girl. But his own needs wouldn’t wait
October 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
erikaarivett.bsky.social
No lottery or gamble so I went with “risk.”

The morning after Rin’s first trip to the Reikai. She is not even a little bit awake yet.

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My phone vibrating off the nightstand wakes me. At first, I pull my pillow over my head and try to ignore it. It rings for so long it’s halfway off the table when I finally grab it. “Moshi moshi? Hello?” “Where are you, Rin-chan?” Aiko’s voice is a whisper, barely audible over the clanging and voices in the background. She must be risking a call on the clock.
October 25, 2025 at 9:01 AM