Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Here's a handy #writing #utility: IPA Reader!

Dictionaries & other language resources often use IPA notation. IPA Reader will sound it out for you!

Also helpful for testing corrections if you use a TTS voice to help with edits like I do.

#writingcommunity #writesky

IPA Reader

Read IPA notation

ipa-reader.com

August 29, 2025 at 11:58 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Any #MassEffect fans about, interested in reading a #fanfic? Genre is sexy spy drama, and it is set about 20 years before the first game with one of the main characters being Doc Chakwas. Early days, but the first chapter is ready for initial/beta read. Would love some feedback before AO3 etc. Ty <3

July 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Hey #writingcommunity do you have any advice about strategies to cope with crushing, thoughtless comments from family?

After 6 years working on a novel, I haven't been able to even open the document for months. I've done CBT, and normally I can manage. But this time, it's too painful.

Ideas?

July 21, 2025 at 8:52 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Hope all is well. Still utterly exhausted from stupid liver.

July 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Still alive. Sick. Hope all is well.

May 4, 2025 at 2:00 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Autoimmunity really knocks you on your face for months. Or years as the case may be.

March 30, 2025 at 4:16 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

PCOS is no fun, especially stopping estradiol cold turkey due to DILI.

February 20, 2025 at 3:53 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

For those with Kindle books you want to download! #writingcommunity #writesky

Craig Mod @craigmod.com · Feb 19

In case you were looking to backup your kindle books (since Amazon is removing the option to download them on the 26th), this script works quite well in minimizing the click-pain of downloading them individually:

gist.github.com/spf13/1fee1e...

gist.github.com

February 20, 2025 at 3:53 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Hepatitis sucks. All I want to do is sleep. And I don't like being yellow. BOO. Hoping to have a swift recovery, which means only a few months instead of years of debilitation.

I have so far managed to avoid getting checked into hospital.

I have expressed my feelings in Elden Ring macro form.

Boss health bar labelled "Real Life Health Nonsense, Vanquisher of Productivity". Hepatitis sucks.

January 21, 2025 at 2:48 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

In hospital. Jaundice. No funsies. Waiting for imaging and the bloodwork.

January 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM

Reposted by Akili

Kathryn Reynolds 📚🎨

@cozykathryn.bsky.social

A tipsy note to newcomers:

We do not engage with bad faith actors here.

Block works really well.

Also, you can hide someone's comment on your posts from ALL views permanently (do so before blocking).

Don't give them attention.

Guard your peace and your piece!

P.S. Use alt text!!!

a cartoon character says you are my hero

Alt: a cartoon character says you are my hero - old school crap animation of He-man winking at the screen

media.tenor.com

January 19, 2025 at 7:42 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Still looking for help with #ancientgreek language for my book!

Are you a #linguist or #classics scholar with some time to help me out?

Do you have a friendly Greek-speaking source you could connect me with?

Please help!

#writesky #writingcommunity

Akili @winterbyrne.bsky.social · Dec 20

I am looking for help with #ancientgreek language for my book!

I need to create some ancient & medieval Greek names for a few ethnic groups, some places, 5 planets, some constellations, & some gods. I need help with translation/construction & pronunciation.

#writesky! Any friendly sources?

January 6, 2025 at 11:33 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Flareup + continued family bullshit stress had torpedoed my peace and focus.

So anyway, I beat Radahn in two attempts, but I'm kind of easymode as a caster. My strategy of "keep distance, sling rocks" has served me well.

Get the dopamine where you can, I figure.

January 4, 2025 at 12:48 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Happy New Year, y'all.

Same as always—let's hope this one is better.

Back to bed for me. Flareup.

January 1, 2025 at 2:14 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Family drama + zebrahood + generational trauma. No fun. So tired. So sore.

I beat Margit and the Ancestor Spirit in Elden Ring, and I managed to do a bit of art in the past few days. Treatment does seem to be working.

December 30, 2024 at 4:24 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Got my PC setup more favourably with my living arrangements -- i.e. adjacent my bed. I was able to draw again for the first time in 6 months! Took about an hour. Happy with it—I was getting that antsy 'are my skills quietly rotting though' anxiety.

ClipStudio. About an hour.

December 28, 2024 at 8:35 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Still looking for #ancientgreek language help for my book. #writingcommunity

Akili @winterbyrne.bsky.social · Dec 20

I am looking for help with #ancientgreek language for my book!

I need to create some ancient & medieval Greek names for a few ethnic groups, some places, 5 planets, some constellations, & some gods. I need help with translation/construction & pronunciation.

#writesky! Any friendly sources?

December 23, 2024 at 10:05 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

I am looking for help with #ancientgreek language for my book!

I need to create some ancient & medieval Greek names for a few ethnic groups, some places, 5 planets, some constellations, & some gods. I need help with translation/construction & pronunciation.

#writesky! Any friendly sources?

December 20, 2024 at 2:07 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

No spoons at all. #painday #spoonless

December 20, 2024 at 3:27 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Juraira is helped to eat while she nurses baby Nameless, & has intrusive thoughts about boys.

Word is 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦. Tricky to suggest severity of her condition 𝘢𝘯𝘥 the unnatural recovery rate, so she's caught up in sensual impressions in the moment & panics later on. #WIPsnips #BrightConstant #amwriting

WIPsnip v. TRUNCATED:

She focused on the boys. They were at least pleasant enough company.
She expected both were shy by nature. Perhaps they thought much alike, or had the same sort of attention—they exchanged particular observations, like others might exchange curious objects. Manushir described a crocus meadow he saw in the mountains, at length but charmingly so, his hands making shapes in the air, his eyes brightening as Bayar smiled & laughed in response. She saw the flush of cheeks, the swaying of shoulders & shuddering of laughs, lips like rose petals, youthful skin shining with a porcelain grain. Bayar wore a lotion she could smell sweet myrrh in, over his sweat & breath & the oils of his skin & hair.
Their liveliness was pleasing, like watching light play over the surface & substance of coloured glass & cut gems, over finely-worked silver & gold. She could see the pulse in Manushir’s neck, where his collar, stretched & slackened by sweat & wear, had sagged aside.
She wanted a lover, someone whose throat she could press her lips against, her teeth, someone she could smell & taste & touch.
“Are you hungry, Auntie?” he asked.
The boy was quiet & gentle, attentive—they both were, Bayar slipping his arm under hers when he saw her strength failing, holding her & the baby both up, his breath warm on the back of her neck, making her shiver.
“Apa said you should have the tablets for new mothers,” Manushir said. He tore the corner off a paper packet, & shook out some manner of pressed dry medicine. He gave it to her while he went for food, & Bayar took more of the weight of the baby.
He returned & took the tablet back & broke it up with a few whacks of the mortar. He had a large spoonful of broth ready to wash the pieces down.
“Here, it’s horribly bitter,” Manushir said, & he scooped more soup for her.
His eyes were like glittering emeralds as they passed over her face, or ship lanterns in the dark.
“Aren’t you a rose of a boy?” Juraira murmured. “The pair of you.”

December 18, 2024 at 4:30 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Juraira wakes up after several days unconscious due to seizure, to find an improvised shrine, & one of her courtiers waiting for her to wake up.

Today's word is 'approach'. Been wiped right out for a week. Edits, research, & planning going very, very slowly.

#BrightConstant #WIPsnips #amwriting

WIPsnip for Dec 17, truncated:

When she emerged from the curtains, dry rose petals crunched under her bare foot.
The gimbal lamps had new shades on them, but they still picked out the gleam on the rims of offering bowls and toasting cups left out on a lacquered board. The board had been painted with flowers, mostly lush, stylised tulips with streaked petals.
Dried petals had been scattered all over the board and the carpets around it, many handfuls. There were many small cakes on blue and white porcelain plates, and dewy, thawing oranges.
The scent of fine liquor wafted from the cups. Milk liquor she knew at once, and her nose wrinkled. Others were fruity, musky, smelling of herbs like wormwood, or unfamiliar entirely.
“Sis!”
Alalei sat on her bed. She had a paper ball in hand, but set it aside and approached Juraira.
“How are you?” she asked.
She fidgeted with her hands, the muscles in her neck raised by the tension in her shoulders.
“Are you afraid?” Juraira asked.
“He was here…!” Alalei whispered.
“Saikhan?” Juraira asked.
“I saw him— everyone saw him!” she breathed. “He was here, he spoke to me, Sis…! Sis, he was so big! He filled the whole ger! He was like a big bank of snow, and his eyes were like the sky! Big, like-like-like—”
She searched for a term, pressing her lips and frowning. It eluded her.
“What did he say to you?” Juraira asked.
The colour of Alalei’s eyes was so like the eyes of the golden eagle Juraira had kept with her mother, the tiny movements so lively, dancing. It was not delight, but awe, that made tears slip down her cheeks. They lay on her face like rock crystal cabochons, the grain of her skin lustrous like shining silk underlaid with a hint of ruby blood. Her lips trembled. Her breath fluttered through her nose.
Every animating movement was a ray of fire in a faceted diamond.
Juraira put her arms around Alalei, and her human warmth seemed to melt into Juraira’s body.

December 17, 2024 at 6:40 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Manushir leads Juraira & Salvi in a session of the 'prince's game', but both are used to more adversarial games. Manushir is more interested in fun & story.

My roommate & I worked out a lineage for TTRPGs in setting. 🤣 The prince's game is basically a political war game.

#WIPsnips #BrightConstant

WIPsnip for Dec 12 2024 truncated:

Juraira played the part of a pari sorceress, and Salvi a highland mercenary with a streak of div lineage and six dogs.
“Tahmine will whip the man with her crop and call him a liar and a horse thief,” Salvi said. “And her dogs will start growling.”
“For disrespect?” Juraira asked.
“It’s her div lineage,” Salvi said.
“Paniz will try to be gracious and suggest the man reconsider his response,” Juraira said. “Once Tahmine stops beating him.”
“All right, it works,” he said. “Because Tahmine has six growling dogs, and the man is not drunk enough to lose his fear of death.”
“I didn’t even mention my oil flasks yet,” Salvi said.
Manushir's eyes rolled heavenward and he half-grumbled, half-sighed.
In short order, the man confessed to finding a cave system he was using to smuggle goods and Salvi had Tahmine demand he show them. Paniz spotted secret marks on the cave wall and heard movement, and Juraira and Salvi spent about ten minutes debating whether to lose the element of surprise but have the benefit of torches, or attempt to retain the element of surprise.
“Light a second torch,” Salvi suggested. “Then you can swing one of them if needed.”
“And you are the one in armour, do you mean to send the waif of a sorceress out first?” Juraira asked.
Demna plucked some eerie strings.
Manushir sighed.
“The smuggler takes the torch and walks ahead,” he said.
“Are we being troublesome?” Juraira asked, trying to suppress a smirk.
“I think you don’t trust me yet,” Manushir said.
“We learned to play a game like this,” Juraira said.
“I did as well,” Salvi said. “The prince’s game.”
“You always presume someone is lying and out to get you,” Juraira said. “Often your top vazir.”
“Well, that’s no fun at all,” Manushir objected.
“It’s meant to make you better at leadership,” Juraira said. “It’s only fun enough to keep people playing.”
“Well, I like fun games,” Manushir said.

December 12, 2024 at 10:49 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Juraira experiences a powerful epileptic seizure triggered by trying to use her strange insight & recalls a moment from her teenage years.

Tricky to describe, but the neurology of seizure, hallucination, & dream have always fascinated me.

#WIPsnips #BrightConstant #writesky

WIPsnip for Dec 11 2024 slightly truncated:

Tiny stars like salt grains glimmered in her vision.
She saw she was wearing an embroidered shirt—Yeshei had used her sacred script again, made little calligraphic forms around the neck and over the heart, in with the yellow flowers of malaigal, black falcons diving, the gold-and-black fish of Mara, all made with as few stitches as possible, no larger than an inch and scattered all over the white linen shirt.
She looked at Vilmantas, who resolved in her vision.
At forty-seven, he looked much younger than that, especially with his light build and straight back. His Visna features stood out—his fair skin, his diamond-shaped face narrowing from cheekbones to chin. The hair from his crown tumbled to his shoulder in broad curls, the rest brushy and red like a fox’s fur, and the threading of grey made it look lighter and blonder overall. His moustache was broad but neat, with catlike curling whiskers, his chin clean-shaven. His hazel eyes were that triangular shape, large and hooded under his whiskery red eyebrows.
His embroidered shirt was sharp and clear in her mind, a finer white linen than Juraira’s own, with a keyhole neckline and sleeves pushed up on his forearms. It was covered in a particularly luxurious rendition of the branches of the Tree of the World around the neckline, growing up from his heart, its branches full of flowers and stars, its roots with skulls and coiling rivers, its trunk with birds and snakes. His broad cuffs were pushed up, covered in geometric little white mallows, the dense white linen of the rest dotted with tiny, perfect flowers in coloured threads.
The flowers swam in her vision, so he looked like the Prince of Spring in his blooming cloak.
Then rosemary came to her nose, and oils of geranium and lemongrass—insect repellent.
Ganzey stood in the doorway behind her; he passed into her vision from the periphery as if her head was turned on a screw.
A sharp pressure built behind her eyes.

December 11, 2024 at 10:46 AM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Juraira's family is considered cursed due to unusual and unlucky deaths.

Of 2 wives, 9 siblings, 4 children, 1 son-in-law, & 2 grandchildren, only she, her father, and 1 aunt survive.

Juraira was guarded against bad luck & risk w/ stifling caution unto paranoia.

#decemberworldbuilders #amwriting

December Worldbuilder prompt 10: main character's relationship with family

December 10, 2024 at 9:23 PM

Akili

@winterbyrne.bsky.social

Fruit is hard to get in winter without modern agriculture, so how does Golshan's kitchen suck up to a princess who loves fruit? Preserved fruit pulp/juice jellies (like mizu manju).

I wish mightily I had strawberry red bean mochi right now.

#WIPsnips #BrightConstant

WIPsnip for Dec 9 2024:

Merydi poured her a cup of icy, sweet red sherbet. It was vivid crimson in colour, tasting of plums and cherries, a little lemon and cinnamon, and a hint of cloves. Sweetened with sugar, it brought some lightness and wakefulness to her body.
She watched Kokoro, looking for any cues in her. She did genuinely enjoy herself when performing, Juraira knew that in her gut, and she liked to make people happy. Kokoro also paid special attention to Alalei. Ushinber focused on playing with her, his blue eyes tracking nothing in the middle distance.
Once the song was over, Juraira led the applause and Kokoro smiled and gave a little bow. Alalei poured her some sherbet as she returned to her seat. She gulped it.
“Not too fast,” Juraira cautioned. “You’ll get a headache.”
Kokoro winced and put the cup down, holding her temple. Merydi poured her some tea.
“Drink this quickly instead,” Merydi said. “It’s only lukewarm, it won’t hurt you.”
Kokoro did as she was told, draining the tea. She squinted and reeled as the pain slowly eased, her hand against her eye.
“Ahh, it’s like someone drove a nail into my head!” Kokoro said.
“Didn’t you have ice on the boat?” Merydi asked.
“We had sherbet but it wasn’t very cold,” Kokoro said. “The other girls didn’t like it very cold, they had sensitive teeth.”
“You can drink it cold, but you have to sip it,” Merydi said. “Gulping it will give you the icy nail.”
Kokoro blinked and let her hand down, squinting, one eye half shut and a grimace on her face.
“Did we wake you, Farrah?” Kokoro asked.
“No, I smelled that bread,” Juraira said. “And the grilled vegetables. I am but a mortal woman."

December 10, 2024 at 5:50 AM

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