Terrance Blackthorn
LightNews LightNews
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Terrance Blackthorn
@terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
14 followers 7 following 170 posts
A man who has gotten tired of waiting and is now trying to realize his dream of writing about aliens being sad at each other.

I sometimes write about AIs, but I do not use GenAI.

https://books2read.com/ap/nAeykj/Terrance-Blackthorn
Posts Replies Media Videos
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
A Harsmeg warrior showing off.

#art #sci-fi #alien
December 6, 2025 at 12:36 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Been doing some #speculative sketches of fashion choices for the Illitani species so I can visualize it better, with some notes about how it works.

That I made the Extras example look like a weird Puritan is entirely accidental.
Concept sketch of a large yellow avian alien with arms and red-tipped display feathers around the neck. Example from first image of a plain light green tunic and wide brown boots. Notes include: "Basic: That's considered basic clothing. General idea is to drape on the clothes and secure with latches or belts as not to agitate feathers. "-Tunic secured in back "-Belts typically secured on the side "-Display feathers usually left bare for freedom of movement. "- a post-Crusade developement, after trade with Zarkans makes leather much more common. Going bearfoot is still common among poorer Illitani." Example wearing a richer green coat and pants of a tighter fit, with individually toed shoes to match. Notes: "Accessories - Additional common clothing features" "- Desirable features try to accent the natural display feathers, such as headdresses or stiff collars. "- Sigil of the Burning Sun - Common Amulet of holy symbol of dominent religion. Often only jewelry an Illitani may have." "- Fitted shoes a status symbol. Usually stiff clothe, even after more durable leather becomes common. "- Make-up typically elaborate paintings on beak or dark paint around eyes to make eyes stand out." "- Body modes usually inlaid gems or metal stud, done by carving out inset in beak. Sign of signicifant wealth. "- Tight clothing also status symbol, has to be tailored to manage feather agitation." Example with a long red hood that is covering the eyes, with a white tunic underneath. Notes: "Religious clothing - Clothing associated with the Burning Sun Church. Designs might become more elaborate according to the seniority of office, [yet] some features, such as the hood, are constant. "- Head is uncovered by default, but hood is pulled over head when ceremonially required. "- Red is a holy color, and only church officials and soldiers are allowed to wear it as a practice. Blue is also a taboo but for the opposite reason, though the taboo faded after the end of the Eternal Crusade."
December 3, 2025 at 3:12 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
#Writing #excerpt from a current project.

#booksky #💙📚
Superficial flattery. The inquisitor, after his initial fury when he was arrested, had addressed his counsel, in between his spiteful insinuations on Tyxren's character and intent, with insinuations that wore a paper mask of a compliment. Every word he used was full of hate, but each deployed strategically deployed to sting as much as possible. If a slur is a punch in the face, praise is like picking a fallen victim up just to knock them down again.
December 1, 2025 at 7:21 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Some of the authors I've read have been...annoying...

#booksky 📚💙
Me reading Karl Marx... -shut up about the bourgeoisie -shut up about the bourgeoisie Me reading Clark Ashton Smith... -shut up about incubi -shut up about incubi Me reading Jack L Chalker... -shut up about breasts -shut up about breasts
November 28, 2025 at 3:40 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
#Excerpt from a current project.

#writing #sci-fi #xenofiction
"Did no one show you how to use an electric lantern?" Tyxren asked. "And sully myself by basking in your devilish magic?" Okrianak sneered, as if he was trying to seer Tyxren's hair with contempt alone, "Bring me real light, one with a flame, and I might consider indulging your generousity." With a sigh that could be understood by any organism that ever had to be the caretaker of a grumpy pubescent, Tyxren solumnly closed the door of the shed, leaving him and Okrianak alone, and loped to the desk. Taking the disk in his hands, Tyxren grasped a handle one the top side and tugged, pulling a clear cylinder from the black disk that blinked to life automatically, drawing knife-edged shadows on the empty walls. Before clacking of the lock closing again on the other side of the door, Tyxren had customarily forwarded Okrianak's request to the commonality. The response couldn't have been less surprising. "Because of your former organization's conspiratorial relationship with fire," said Tyxren, "We don't feel it is wise to grant your request."
November 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Also, I guess I am really good at reading German because this look a heck of a lot like English to me.
November 23, 2025 at 6:36 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Another spoopy #excerpt from a current project, appropriate for October.

#booktok #📚💙 #scifi #xenofiction
I saw a movement in the darkness, like it was a curtain that suddenly twisted and shifted out of my range of vision. I sensed something at my feet, something I could not see yet which presence caused my supposedly dead body to tense up in anticipation. Then, as my mind struggled to comprehend what the other thing was, I could see it finally, and my heart woke inside my chest to beat anxiously. I saw a tall waggling limb, featureless except for the wound at the top of it. I could see down the hole to see the whiteness of severed bone jostling around in the writhing glistening vessels like red grass in a strong wind. At the base of this limb opened another hideous orifice, in which I could see the ribs past the brown flaps, and the dangling organs behind the ribs. The demon was not dead, and it wore its disfigurements like a lady would wear her vestiary. I wanted to scream. I tried to scream, but my beak was clamped shut in the rigor of death and no air would leave me. All I felt was my heart thudding within me as the dismembered devil loomed over me.
October 21, 2025 at 4:55 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Another writing excerpt, this one from a spooky short story I hope to have done by Halloween.

#writing #booksky #💙📚 #scifi #alien
The stain was blood. Dark blood, the kind that is deep in the body. Something, probably an Illitani soldier as surmised from the discarded spear, had been impaled on the spikes and then pulled off again. I looked down at my feet to see droplets in the snow, and then something else that froze my own heart with terror. In my short career at the fort, I had been taught how to identify an irikti-li's footprints, and that's what I had seen, two large, flat bottomed tear-shaped indentations in the snow with the narrow ends pointed towards each other, plus another smaller hole on each side. The trail of prints, and a groove in the snow with a thin twisting ribbon of red down its middle was pointed away, from the fort and to the woods. There had been no point in going after them, since there would be nothing of the ill-fated warrior to find at the end of that path.
September 26, 2025 at 9:11 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Illitani arms are supported by a breastbone instead of shoulderblades, so their backwards range of motion is actually greater than their front.

Illitani are an alien species from my fiction.

#art #alien #speculative #speculativeanatomy #📚💙 #booksky
September 13, 2025 at 8:15 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
Today's writing excerpt:

#booksky #📚💙
"And the able-bodied women?" A trickle of an idea crawled its way though the guard's neurons, yet stopped before it could reach the higher reasoning regions. It turned around and tried again, then again, like an unfortunately ungifted animal struggling to come to terms with the existence of a wall in its intended path. "This isn't really a job for women, my master," the guard finally murmured uncertainly. Tyxren sighed. This was yet another area where the Zarkan and the Illitani conceptions of reality clashed. The dichotomy of the biological sexes was trivial for fifteen out of sixteen hundred-twendays for Zarkans, only relevant for the few twendays at the beginning of the sixteeth hundred-twenday when the mating cycle began, but for Illitani it was an essential part of their identity, related to their personality, their occupations, and the roles they took in society, though there were differences of opinion between the sexes of what those roles were supposed to be. Zarka had accidentally started not a few arguments by asking a task of someone of the incorrect sex, usually a female, which would make someone of the other sex butt in and volunteer their service because they were clearly more appropriate, which would trigger an angry rebuttal from the first Illitani, and the controversy would escalate to a den of furious squawking as it dragged in every other Illitani within earshot. These verbal scrums could go on for hours, but they tended to end the same way, with the males refusing to budge, and the females marching off in a huff to do want they wanted all along while the males were too busy being pleased with themselves to interrupt. Zarka struggled to understand how they tolerated each other's company long enough to procreate.
August 12, 2025 at 4:48 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
📚💙 #booksky #lore
July 28, 2025 at 12:19 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
My book is still available for FREE through #Smashwords as part of their #SWSale2025 promotion, with a bit over a week left to go. Snag yourself a copy.

If you can't read the ePub format, message me for a PDF.

www.smashwords.com/books/view/1...

📚💙 #booksky #scifi #xenofiction
Promo image for a book called "The Mask" by Terrance Blackthorn, with a cover surrounded by a list of the books features, such as "Quick Read (>20,000 words,)" "Alien creatures, cultures, and lore," "Female protagonist," "Contemplative story-telling style," "Drama on the stage and off," "Social conflict," "Fear of the unknown," and "An unforgettable night at the theater."
July 24, 2025 at 1:28 AM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
You've all seen this image that shows the expansion of the universe.

Today I realized that this is a 2D image demonstrating a 3D metaphor about the 4D concept of spacetime.
July 23, 2025 at 9:29 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
www.smashwords.com/books/view/1...

My book is currently available for free at #Smashwords for the month of July. If you want a small book about aliens being sad at each other, consider picking up mine.

If you want a copy but you can't read the epub format, message me for a PDF.

#SWSale2025 #📚💙
Promo image of a book called "The Mask," with an excerpt reading: "Ellura’s own eyes squinted, trying to bring the dreadful silhouette into a sharper focus to see what unlucky thing or person had drawn its notice and…Sun shine mercy upon her, it was looking at her! The stories she had heard about the demons being able to freeze their victims solid, the stories she had always thought were nonsense, suddenly felt very real as all warmth left her limbs. She couldn’t move. She could only stare back in horror as the large, black spheres hanging in the darkness looked at her. The odiously shaped head turned over slowly, almost mechanically. The miserable thing, she cursed, why was it staring at her of all…she remembered she was wearing the great blue mask. The demon was looking at its own facsimile, its own insulting and hatefully made caricature. The demon was judging her costume of itself."
July 15, 2025 at 10:32 PM
terranceblackthorn.bsky.social
On a planet orbiting one of the last glowing embers of an old universe, two alien species have ended their generations-long war, and now an actress struggles to make sense of the new peace as she performs a play for her species' former predators.

books2read.com/u/4NVEDz

#scifi #booksky #💙📚
Cover of a book called "The Mask" by Terrance Blackthorn, with the cover image being a blue wooden mask of a snarling mammalian creature with three horns.
July 14, 2025 at 10:59 PM