Keygan S. S. McClellan
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keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Keygan S. S. McClellan
@keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
140 followers 160 following 110 posts
writer, naturalist, artist, amateur nature photographer
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keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
It is late. Please see the attached image for an unhinged list of potential audiences for THE TOWER'S BLOOD, my (querying soon) science fantasy about a fugitive blood mage who helps start a workers' revolution with the power of Heart and Bad Jokes (and flesh manipulation).

#QuestPit #Q #A #SFF
an "unhinged" list of potential audiences for the proposed book (The Tower's Blood); potential audiences include people who vibe with "eat the rich," want more mental illness rep in fantasy, vibe with "be gay do crime," want there to be something like a horror version of Howl's Moving Castle where the castle is evil, are biology nerds, want the powerful dark mage who believes he is a danger to his loved ones to cope by telling bad jokes (instead of brooding), think having cosmic horror and body horror in the same magic system sounds fun, and enjoy media such as Final Fantasy VII, Gideon the Ninth, The Bone Shard Daughter, Trigun Stampede, The Jasmine Throne, The Surviving Sky, and Nevernight
May 8, 2025 at 3:47 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
A fugitive blood mage, trying to lay low, finds a new home (an organic, malevolent palace where the world's corrupt rulers dwell) and a new family (the four young revolutionaries infiltrating it).

His power could be the revolution's salvation. His secrets could be its downfall.
#QuestPit #Q #A #SFF
list of tropes/themes (including found family, revolution, bio-magic, and eldritch horror among others) for a work-in-progress book along with comparison titles (including Gideon the Ninth, The Bone Shard Daughter, The Jasmine Throne, and The Surviving Sky) moodboard for an unpublished novel; images include dripping blood, old pipes, a decrepit staircase, a conifer forest lit by magenta fog, grand halls, antique items, lights glimpsed through tree trunks, and a dimly lit passage
May 7, 2025 at 6:58 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
I don't believe I have a choice in the matter.
A gray tabby cat napping next to a computer keyboard
May 4, 2025 at 4:49 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Near the end, some Things happen. Horror-adjacent Things.

#CRPFireflies #CampRevPit #MoodboardTwist
a collage of three images on a dark maroon background: the silhouette of a man in a dark hallway, a tree trunk overtaken by fungus, and a feather lying in the dirt
May 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
That was more fun that I expected! Some feedback on my 1st chapter was that I didn't explain enough about what was going on, and I edited accordingly. Looking at where I put cyan for backstory, I realized how useful that feedback was! There would've been way too little cyan before
a grid of pages in a word document where text is highlighted in different colors based on whether the passages contain description, character interiority, or backstory; the three colors are present in varying amounts
April 29, 2025 at 5:46 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
So, I didn't end up participating in #PosterPit because I got sick, but I felt like making something just for fun. I'm NOT a graphic designer, and I just used purely free-to-use elements from Canva, but I made something kinda creepy. ^.^ Adding here just for some fun vibes.
April 21, 2025 at 8:35 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Makin' a little intro post for the novel I'm currently working on for anyone curious:

A renegade blood mage joins a burgeoning workers' revolution in the halls of a malevolent, organic palace. Think Gideon the Ninth x the Avalanche team from FFVII.
moodboard for work-in-progress novel: images include dripping blood, old pipes, creepy dark stairs, woods shrouded in magenta fog, and a pale-colored, grand hall
April 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Spring is here!!!! 🌱🌸🌿

Featuring the sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)
A cluster of pale wildflowers on the forest floor A cluster of pale hepaticas on the forest floor
April 17, 2025 at 12:20 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
This was late 2023; last year, they had owlets with their mate (attaching picture of one of the goofy muppet babies). ^.^
a fluffy barred owl owlet stares out from a hollow in a large oak tree
April 15, 2025 at 7:06 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
✨ Bird protocol. Take a bird, leave a bird. Bird. ✨
a barred owl sits on a tree branch, framed by golden-yellow autumn leaves
April 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
"There are places where the skin of the world is thin. Where the atmosphere grows teeth: space can unfurl, convulse, or split like a frost-cracked tree; ghosts gather like mold. Visiting a place like that isn’t something you do unless you’re desperate or have a death wish."
#1stLinePit #F #A #Q soon
comp titles for pitched book (comp titles include Gideon the Ninth, The Jasmine Throne, The Bone Shard Daughter, and The Surviving Sky) (comparisons include lgbtq+, bio-magic, revolution, and explorations of power) mood board for pitched book (images include dripping blood, old pipes, a decrepit stairway, a forest glowing with magenta mist, and pale, ornate halls) pitch for "The Tower's Blood" (pitch describes the book as a queer, biopunk, adult science fantasy of found family, spies, eldritch horror, and class warfare)
April 5, 2025 at 8:53 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
When your first major assertion of self-identity is also your first major act of rebellion 😄

(also some world-building, all from my science fantasy manuscript)

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky
Manuscript excerpt text on a background of a dark forest shrouded in reddish mist. Text: "He is supposed to discard his youth name, ‘Cirrus,’ and take on an adult name formed from a collection of historical phonemes, each one laden with meaning and the weight of oral memory. A name burdened by human associations, human expectations, human hubris. Diverse, melodic life crowds around him, but just a little further, the metropolis of Imizen and its threaded favelas and logging camps crowds around the grove. An image comes to him: an image of his name, an image of lonely, wispy clouds voyaging the upper atmosphere, distant but still here, still part of the world. And, suddenly, desperately precious to him. Cirrus takes a step backwards. Everyone assumes that first step is a loss of balance, an uncorrected mistake, until he takes the second."
March 15, 2025 at 8:24 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Trying to submit to #RevPit but the outside is so ✨️atmospheric✨️
March 15, 2025 at 3:35 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
I'm a professional naturalist. I am a non-professional gamer and critter-keeper. (Here is one of my critters and also my current workplace ^.^)
a gray tabby cat with green eyes an autumn scene: a wooden boardwalk crosses an open wetland beneath an overcast sky; trees grow on the surrounding hillsides
March 15, 2025 at 1:22 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
A tense moment from my blood magic science fantasy.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
Novel excerpt text: "Wait... something feels... strange, below what he thought was the deepest level. Is there another passage? He gropes around with his magic, trying to understand, and thinks he feels exotic biological material and, distributed through it like stars, dully-sizzling breaker magic. Cirrus frowns. He focuses, tries to find a path to all that strange material, his awareness taking in the anima in the pipes, piles of old furniture, the paper of the record rooms, the dense strands of unknown material inside the walls - yes, it extends even this deep - until he finds a bit of complexity: blood magic nodules. A control system for a magical lock. Excited, he pushes forward, then - Gasps and recoils. Someone was there. Another blood mage."
March 2, 2025 at 11:06 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
FF7’s Avalanche x GIDEON THE NINTH
Civilization, bloated with oligarchs and corrupt mages, runs on blood. The biggest flaw in the system? Cirrus: blood mage, outlaw, wielder of bad jokes, healer of the powerless, and now—maybe—new recruit to the workers’ revolution.
#WSPitQ #A #F #SF #LGBT #WSPit
Mood-board for a novel, featuring images suggestive of decaying luxury, eldritch energies, and dripping blood list of tropes in novel: "what to expect: found family, biopunk, queer, hidden identity, spies, weird nature, tortured hero, eldritch horror"
February 26, 2025 at 6:01 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky

A little bit of ✨atmosphere✨ from my fantasy novel

Who's the better hiking buddy?

A) that guy who hikes like it's *exercise* so that by the time you get somewhere cool, you're too out of breath to enjoy it

or

B) some Weird Ghosts™️
text graphic with novel excerpt: "Deeper in the woods, shapes skitter like static between the trees, sometimes brushing against him, and each one sends a shock of heat across his skin. Cirrus keeps his sigils slowly burning, magic alight, senses alert. For now, it's just ghosts, drifting like shreds of fabric or threads of silk, forms shifting, translucent, and indistinct. Mist, reflecting a magenta glow, breaks at his feet into swirling eddies."
February 25, 2025 at 2:47 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
Upcoming Disruptive Action: 24-hour "economic blackout" (mass boycott) on February 28th, organized by the People's Union. There are planned continued actions after this. Let's see what the impact is.
screenshot of news article describing upcoming economic blackout planned for February 28th
February 19, 2025 at 2:06 AM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
FF7’s Avalanche x GIDEON THE NINTH

Thanks to his dad’s desertion from the cult-like Sanguine Order, blood mage Cirrus is an outlaw. Could he also be a revolutionary?

A job with saboteurs could be his chance to wield magic to heal instead of harm—if his past stays buried.

#2025Pit #A #F #SF #LGBTQ
January 27, 2025 at 7:07 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
FF7’s Avalanche meets GIDEON THE NINTH

An outlaw blood mage is recruited to the worker’s revolution. The job: protect his team while it infiltrates and sows chaos among the oligarchs. The problem: his enemies, the mages who power civilization, are still hunting him.

#YouDeservepIt #A #SFF #LGBT #Q
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social

2024 is the new hottest year ever, but there's something else I thought was kind of staggering.

The last 11 years are the hottest 11 years on record.

That is nearly my entire adult life.

Data from NASA's Earth Observatory
A graph depicts global temperature anomaly each year from 1880 to 2024 in degrees Celsius compared to 20th century average. As years progress, there is a trend from relatively cooler to relatively warmer, with the last two decades being the hottest.
January 10, 2025 at 11:53 PM
keyganssmcclellan.bsky.social
I want a nice first post. Here is a picture I took last July of a gray treefrog (Hyla species) on a blackberry leaf.
a small green frog rests on a large green leaf (it is a gray treefrog, Hyla species, on a blackberry leaf, Rubus allegheniensis)
January 10, 2025 at 11:47 PM