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nerdcactus.bsky.social
C Alexandra
@nerdcactus.bsky.social
510 followers 310 following 1.1K posts
I'm a #writer of the three Gs: gods, ghosts, and (usually magical) girls.

She/Her. Neurodivergent. Ace. Unapologetically leftist. I even write with my left hand.

Say nice things about Detroit!

#writingcommunity #amwriting #writesky
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nerdcactus.bsky.social
C Alexandra @nerdcactus.bsky.social · 19d
My saga on Eleanor Roosevelt continues in part 3: The White House years.

John FINALLY gets to talk Mrs Nesbitt and her legendarily awful food! We also discuss Eleanor's love interest, Lorena Hickok. And that pesky world war. #history #podcast #womenshistory

www.buzzsprout.com/1855074/epis...
Eleanor Roosevelt pt 3: "But For The Honor Of Our Country." - Mythsogyny
Continuing the epic journey into the life of the finest first lady we've ever had, C takes us through Eleanor's White House years. Detailing her tumultuous relationship with Lorena "Hick" Hickok, Mrs....
www.buzzsprout.com
nerdcactus.bsky.social
13. There's way too many books that have given me that insight. I read a ton of NF as it is, so I'm always learning something new. But the books that stuck with me were the ones from my Black History class. I'll choose the three that really stuck. #Bookvember #writingcommunity #writesky
Cover of the book The Betrayal of the Negro: from Rutherford B Hayes to Woodrow Wilson by Rayford W Logan. It is a sepia color with black letthering and a sepia picture of white men hanging a black man on a wooden scaffold. The cover of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. It is a black and white photo with a tan cast and white lettering featuring a arge group of black people. Most are in front of the front door, on the steps, while others are in upstairs balconies and windows. The cover of the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. It features a close-up of jail cell bars with a black man's hands wrapped around two of the bars. The lettering is in white.
November 13, 2025 at 11:16 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
13. In Kythe, where Rei is from, moral authority is derived from the priesthoods and the government is run by a priest elected by fellow priests (and certain very "moral" people). And civilian goodness is related entirely to one's monetary giving. #NovemberWorldbuilders #writingcommunity #writesky
kiraofthewind.com Kira of the Wind (Erika McCorkle) @kiraofthewind.com · 20h
It's #NovemberWorldbuilders time! We're talking about the concepts of GOOD and EVIL in our fictional worlds this week. Tell me: what does your world's authoritative figures say about morality? Is there a church or governing body that tells people how to live? What do they command?
#NovemberWorldbuilders prompt card Hosted by Kira of the Wind Week 2: Good and Evil Fam13. Teachings of the church/moral authority in MC's society The image in the background is a blurred picture of a foresty/rocky landscape with lightning and a mountain in the background
November 13, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
jangoeswriting.bsky.social
Nygel being Nygel, again, and Welling thinking of consequences …

From ‘The Big Feat’.

#WiPSnips
“Lissen ‘ere, copper. You don’t like me, an’ I don’t like you, but Miss Eedith’s dahn there, and M’str’ss Hurkull, too, and if’n you don’t get up off your lazy arse and …” Welling dragged Nygel away. Then pushed him further away. Nygel pointed a finger around Welling. “… I’ll give you what for, you …” Welling pressed a hand against Nygel’s mouth before he said something that only made everything worse. This was going so very badly and Welling had to wonder if it wasn’t just some exercise in futility. Maybe they were already dead? Then he’d only be wasting his time here when he could be back at the flop house to see if he’d become destitute. He’d have to start again, build up his store of information, rebuild his trust among the criminal element. Or, and this made him feel sick, get a job. “Murple Hurkull, you say?” Brohdee’s fingers drummed on the desk surface. “My, my. Murple Hurkull.”
November 13, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by C Alexandra
smoking-gnu.bsky.social
G'morning #WIPSnips! Another bit of the scene from yesterday, just before the shirt bit, from TLC. I seem to be getting a lot of snips from this particular part of the manuscript (Chapter one)

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Some of the aliens try to speak to me. “I don’t understand?” I say out loud to the nearest one, another centaur person with a more slender build. Sirens start blaring from where I came from, I think. The sirens were a much lower pitch than I’d expect and remind me of elephants for some reason. A spike of fear shoots through me and I bolt into the crowd again in the opposite direction. The aliens cry out in alarm and make way from in front of me, trying to avoid physical contact. The next handful of minutes pass by in a blur as I run. I don’t know where. I don’t know why. I just run. I run from the fountain square to strange roads loaded with alien pedestrians and even stranger plants, purple and orange and blue and anything but green, and into a new large square, this one with three statues in the middle of more alien figures.
November 13, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by C Alexandra
professoremily.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #amwriting #writingcommunity #writers #writesky

Noah just has a few questions about this place...

From chapter 1 of #Tenement, my dystopian mystery about people living in an infinite building.
“Noah Boy,” she’d say to me, pinching my ear. “They’ll really be after you. You think all those bad thoughts—makes you as tasty to them as a chocolate truffle.” I didn’t exactly know what a chocolate truffle was. (According to legend, Nan Enokido had once stumbled across one in an empty room when she was a young woman, and had spent the rest of her life hoping to find another.) But I knew what she meant. She always said things like that to me, especially when I would get into one of what my father called my “why moods.” Why hasn’t anyone ever tried going all the way to the end of the Tenement? I’d ask. Or, Why do we even have a Front Door if we’re not allowed to open it? Why don’t we ever see the Landlord? How do we know there’s really nothing outside of the Tenement? If the Tenement’ll fall apart without the Rules, then why didn’t the Landlord just build it better in the first place? “Noah.” My father would sigh at my questions. “Please stop.” I didn’t mean any harm. But those questions were always popping into my head. If someone had given me some good answers, I would have stopped asking.
November 13, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by C Alexandra
sayaashrah.bsky.social
#WIPSnips 13. "Build"

Ikalry has plans for the future... a shame Ashrah wants no part in them.

This one goes to @papadjinn.bsky.social since we were talking exactly about lovely Ikalry (voiced, in my head, by Maggie Robertson!) yesterday x)

#ChroniclesOfTheRealms #WriteSky #WritingCommunity
Ikalry clapped. “I knew I was right about you! The blood doesn’t lie, neither the one flowing inside you nor the one you spill oh so majestically! Imagine what we could do together, elbhyr. We’d build palaces with their corpses! Feed on the purest incarnation of terror! Bleed dry the veins of the Universe!” “You are insane, devil, and I want no place in your madness. Fulfil your part of the deal, and we shall never meet again.” Ikalry regarded her with a pinched mouth before clicking her tongue and striding past her, the snake tail keeping its vicious eyes on Ashrah until they disappeared around a corner.
November 13, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
acturek.bsky.social
#WIPSnips #fantasy #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #build

No time to sit and cry. The elders lay out a plan, and it’s an opportunity. A bit of how the Forest works.

- Brother’s Keeper, book one of my fantasy WIP about two brothers bound by a misunderstood power.
"We cannot afford to waste our time with anger or sorrow. Feel those things if you must, but feeling them, move on with purpose. The oldest and youngest will stay in the Marinell tree-hold. The treeshapers will live among the new trees as we shape them. We will choose assistants to help. The rest of you will BUILD shelters here upon the ground, just as they do at Halanthalas and in Mackery. Express your sorrows however you may, and in the meantime your work to BUILD a future will fill your grieving hearts with purpose. "Think of it! You have a chance no one has enjoyed in centuries. You have the opportunity to BUILD and shape a new felara, experiencing your bond with the Forest to the fullest." Brother's Keeper A.C. Turek
November 13, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
pjccahill.bsky.social
#WIPSnips - Demon King Daughter - the little kernel that blooms into attraction for Kiseki toward Hasava. This is still early, and part of developing Kiseki's inner world for the reader.
#writesky #writingcommunity #fantasy #yafiction #demon #sapphic
-Print/eBook/KU: a.co/d/c4RtAOj
Kiseki thought more on Hasava as she left her work building. A little, reflexive smile unconsciously grew. Initially, Kiseki had been too scared to offend Kyoka or her 'general' to admit how scared she was. That faded quickly, however. Hasava had become her friend. Likely a one-sided friendship, Kiseki accepted that, but the warmth was welcome. Hasava was diligent and patient. She listened intently. The way Hasava looked into Kiseki's eyes was so clear in memory. It was almost piercing, but the pure fixation and focus in it -- after Kiseki's life of being ignored, shunned, and avoided -- was deeply affirming and soothing. #WIPSnips a Bluesky Writing Community Tag Hosted by rosie-j-potter.bsky.social November 10th - November 16th. November 10 - local November 11 - burger November 12 - shirt November 13 - build November 14 - week November 15 - progress November 16 - run
November 13, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
m-walshwrites.com
#amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky
Although she knew it wouldn’t be him, she almost expected to see the Jackal. In her mind, she could only imagine someone seeking to torture her as the lowest, most disgusting and hideous creature to walk the land. A decrepit and wretched thing with a leering smile. She expected greasy hair and pock-marked skin riddled with sores and scars. Crooked yellow and black teeth and bloodshot eyes … smelling of filth and alcohol … The door creaked open, and she braced herself. She took deep breaths and pushed away her terror and tears. No matter who or what came for her, she refused to cry. No matter what he might do, he would not take her dignity from her. She was still Cassandra Synclaire, and she would not cry. The metal door shut and standing before her wasn’t the Jackal or a deformed beast. It was a man. He appeared to be in his forties, maybe fifties, and his narrow face was plain, if a little stretched looking. He had an average build, and aside from the white smock, leather apron and black gloves, an almost regal look to him. His hair was slicked back and well groomed, but thin. She could see his scalp through it. He looked like someone her father would’ve known and disliked for how boring he was.
November 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
maratearendel.bsky.social
How about a poetic surrealist vampire transformation?

#wipsnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
The body dies. Once. Twice. Many times over. It lies there trapped, feeling itself breaking and reforming itself again and again. The heart wants to sing but needs the music to feed it. The lungs want to dance but need the bricks to build it. Every single bone cries in torment. Rocks, then sand, then glass, and then rocks again. Unbreakable? No. Mortal.
November 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
rjmartinwrites.com
#WIPSnips

Dýrhildr's a bit homesick, even though she'd never admit it

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #LGBTQWriters #QueerWriters
The children in Sumargarðr would be building snow forts all around the village today, Dýrhildr thought fondly, staging mock battles and great journeys in their minds.
November 13, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
kd-moraine.bsky.social
The #WIPSnips word for November 13th is "build"

commute shenanigans 👀

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Mags stared at her, hand still on the ignition. Cass sighed, grabbed Mags’s hand and turned the key; the car purred to life, and they were off. Going from the city to the pseudo-suburb where Mags lived would be a three minute drive, as the crows fly. However, the collated efforts of urbanists, elected officials, and various building contractors transformed it into a forty-five minute obstacle course. You first had to find the one highway ramp which led in the proper direction, drive to the edge of the city, circle thirty-four degrees South, then enter the gauntlet of varied speed limits that were the suburbs until, finally, you got to the development she called home. Built quite recently, it still had no direct connection to the city itself; every election cycle, candidates outbid each other on the number of streets they’d open, circling around and around, until the count reset to zero.
November 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
skkelleywrites.bsky.social
Rereading this, it kinda reminds me of Night & Ice’s banter in Sidetracked (Part 1) before everything goes to shit.

Main difference is that Jayde & James don’t lowkey hate each other.
#WIPSnips
"Think you'll want to live on the coast one day?" I ask while he unlocks the car. "A suburb like this? Or a tiny house? A trailer park by the beach?" He kind of laughs. "Where do you wanna live?" "You know I don't care." I dip into the back seat to grab the shopping tote with all of our presents inside. "I stayed with you at Reid Manor for like two weeks. No AC. No hot water. And your dad's house? Ugh. After that, I can handle anything." He laughs harder. "Guess our future prospects depend on how much HIA decides to pay you, huh?" "You planning to be a stay-at-home housewife forever?" "Hey!" He locks the car and slams the driver door. Our eyes meet over the top of the car—he looks less offended than he sounded. "I'm still looking into trade schools. Maybe I do wanna build tiny houses for a living."
November 13, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
verosthewriter.bsky.social
#WIPSnips
A bizarre creature has joined Drohim and Seff at their campsite; despite Seff's fear, Drohim welcomed it peacefully, and it turned out to be uninterested in violence, but still scary. Seff appreciates Drohim's approach, but takes no chances.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
When we finally ate, the creature just stayed where it was, watching the fire and gurgling; Drohim offered it some meat, and it shifted its eyes up to him without raising its chin from the ground, then just looked back at the fire. When we finished eating, Drohim told it good night; what I did was go back to the little clutch of trees with a hatchet, and I came back with three times as much firewood as we’d started with. After I’d built the fire up, he and I both lay down on our respective trail mats inside the tent. It took me a lot longer than it took him, but I finally fell asleep, listening to the thing’s gurgling. And I got up to build up the fire again halfway through the night. When we woke up the next morning, the creature was gone. Once again, Drohim knew he didn’t have to say anything. After morning prayers, I broke camp and we mounted up on Valiance and Blue again. “We should reach Nysarra this afternoon,” he told me, and started riding. I was pretty sure I’d be just fine with being back in a city.
November 13, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
zprospero.bsky.social
#WIPSnips

Virgil meets angels and demons, you think he’s never met Death itself?

No. He specifically avoids them.

But, to be polite, he inquires if he should call them “My Lord.”

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity
November 13, 2025 at 1:32 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
I didn't like any of the options for 'build', so you get 'building'. I feel like everyone has experienced this kind of room at least once in their life. #WIPSnips #writingcommunity #writesky
The Glaucaster Business Council met in a building that made Brutalism look kind. It had the sort of 1970s office complex charm that had not and would never turn the corner to chic, choosing rather to actively make everyone wish they could pluck out their eyes and marry their own mother. Everyone except Edith Wainwright, who thrived on the flickering fluorescent bulbs and cardboard ceiling tiles. The dredged-up memories of school-aged misery. Everyone was always miserable, their feet stuck to the ancient carpet Beren was pretty sure had once been green but had since committed seppuku out of shame, the beleaguered groaning of the air conditioning setting their teeth on edge. No wonder Edith loved it. She could live out her Nurse Rached dreams on them all, controlling and ominous in the soul sucking environs of Meeting Room C.
November 13, 2025 at 7:24 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
12. I'm of the school that any advice kindly given is of immense use, even if not in the way it was intended. If it gets someone to think critically at all, it's useful. That said, the worst advice is prescriptive while the best encourages critical engagement. #FantasyIndiesNovember #writesky
Prompts for Fantasy Indies November writing game. Day 12 is Good and bad writing advice
November 12, 2025 at 10:20 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
12. The Praesor's objective is power, both for herself/the Morsidae and Kythe. She wants Kythe to be a world power, if not THE world power, and herself and her priesthood running Kythe. To that end, she'd destroy the world just to rule the ruins. #NovemberWorldbuilders #writingcommunity #writesky
kiraofthewind.com Kira of the Wind (Erika McCorkle) @kiraofthewind.com · 1d
Hey there, #NovemberWorldbuilders! It's GOOD and EVIL week. Today, tell me about the ethics/morals of your VILLAIN. If you don't have one of those, talk about another character, particularly one who might deviate from protagonist's moral philosophy
#NovemberWorldbuilders prompt card Hosted by Kira of the Wind Week 2: Good and Evil 12. Villain's (or other important character's) ethics The image in the background is a blurred picture of a foresty/rocky landscape with lightning and a mountain in the background
November 12, 2025 at 10:01 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
12. I'm going to go with Native American voices. Our local art museum is doing an amazing exibit on Modern Anishinaabe art, so it's been on my mind lately. The anthology Don't Whistle At NIght isn't my usual fare, but it was haunting. #Bookvember #writingcommunity #writesky
The cover of the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle At NIght. It has a black background with extremely colorful stylized flora and fauny, including flowers with eyes for centers, floating eyeballs, a death's head moth, and a snake.
November 12, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
The Epstein stuff is always so amazing to me because it's like "yes he was a sex criminal but if you can get past that, he was also an avowed eugenicist"
November 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by C Alexandra
joncooper-us.bsky.social
👇👇
November 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
11. I write fantasy and fantasy-adjacent stuff, with varying levels of myth and history influence. But what I read is another matter. I used to read TONS of fantasy, but I've been having trouble finding ones I like lately, so now I read a lot of NF and Jane Austen fanfic. #FantasyIndiesNovember
Prompts for Fantasy Indies November writing game. Day 11 is What genres do you write and read?
November 12, 2025 at 12:42 AM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
11. My MC is an interesting one. She desperately wants to be a misanthrope so she can just be left alone and not have to worry about anything or anyone. Unfortunately for her, she is deeply concerned with social justice and empathy, esp when it comes to children. #NovemberWorldbuilders #writesky
kiraofthewind.com Kira of the Wind (Erika McCorkle) @kiraofthewind.com · 2d
Greetings, #NovemberWorldbuilders. Tell me about the ethics of your MC or any character who is important in your world's lore. Are they morally good? Morally grey? Do they have a belief contrary to what others around them believe in? Are there any acts they refuse to do?
#NovemberWorldbuilders prompt card Hosted by Kira of the Wind Week 2: Good and Evil MC's (or other important character's) ethics The image in the background is a blurred picture of a foresty/rocky landscape with lightning and a mountain in the background
November 11, 2025 at 11:51 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
11. May I go with Agatha Christie? She is known to have had dysgraphia, which made writing and even fine motor skills difficult. Despite that, she is the undisputed queen of mystery. I would pick one, but I love anything Poirot, so I'll go with all of it. #Bookvember #writingcommunity #writesky
woodenvelt.bsky.social Samantha Breaux @woodenvelt.bsky.social · 2d
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 11!

Follow the directions on the prompt card and share your love of diverse voices in literature.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
November 11, 2025 at 11:42 PM
nerdcactus.bsky.social
10. Well, this is difficult. My favorite changes depending on my mood. I do enjoy an exchange between friends that reads like a Gilmore girls scene. The one in Killing Mercutio where Mercutio, Romeo, and Benvolio quip about the four humours always amuses me. #FantasyIndiesNovember #writingcommunity
Prompts for Fantasy Indies November writing game. Day 10 is Favorite line you've written.
November 11, 2025 at 1:28 AM