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woodenvelt.bsky.social
Snow-mantha Breaux ❄️ ☃️
@woodenvelt.bsky.social
1K followers 300 following 2.5K posts
amateur author, professional educator, life-long artist, hobby gardener, she/her

Member of @hookandquillpress.com
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woodenvelt.bsky.social
Wren has a conversation with the big bad, Magnus Var Krugan.

From book 2 of my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
“You mean the Cult of the Undying.” “That’s an ugly name given to them by their oppressors as they tried to chisel their existence off the face of history. Hypocrites. Railing against resurrection and claiming it defies the natural order, all while they grind the bones of the dead to mortar their roads and temples and bind them with guardians who will watch from beyond the grave,” The Magnus’s face twisted into an ugly snarl that was mimicked eerily by the table guests. Then, as if suddenly remembering himself, Var Krugan slotted his frigid smile back into place. The faces around him went slack and smooth, staring idly into the middle distance once more. “No. Not a cult. They called themselves Liberie sin fin Dias, Children of the Endless Day, and they very nearly conquered death itself. I will succeed where the Children failed, because I have learned from their mistakes. In their zeal, they tried to conquer swiftly and sing their message loudly, expecting the people to flock to them. I understand that small minds fear big changes. Your priest was proof enough of that.” Var Krugan grimaced briefly. Spencer clearly hadn’t made a favorable impression on the man. “I will go slowly and quietly, building up my resources, and establishing my power base. First, I will take the Magnate’s crown from him. Once Portis is mine, I will expand my reach one border at a time.” A cause, a call to destiny, and a thirst for world domination, Wren sighed. We have completed the evil megalomaniac trifecta it seems.
December 3, 2025 at 12:27 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Spencer makes some new friends.

From book 2 of my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
There was no law of nature that said spirits only came out at night. People died at all hours, so it made sense that their shades might appear at any time. In spite of this, in Spencer’s experience, the dead seemed to favor darkness. Even if they did not appear at night, they almost exclusively preferred dimly lit tombs or darkened hallways or shadowy attics. The only spirit he knew who didn’t seem to care one way or another was Reggie. Maybe it was some deeply ingrained belief that the dead carried with them beyond the Veil, some sense the light belonged to the living. Whatever it was, it made the appearance of five ghosts before them under the gray light of day all the more unsettling. They wore robes woven with bold lines of red, yellow, and orange that intersected in intricate patterns. Wrists and necks were adorned with glittering gold torques inset with smoothly rounded gemstones and dangling with red-brown hawk feathers. Between the gaunt, grayish skin pulled tightly over their skulls, the feathers, and the way they stood in a vee formation, the spirits looked a bit like a grisly flock of very strange birds. The lead spirit sported a large headdress filled with a variety of feathers and a golden collar dripping with gems and beads. In sharp contrast to their dull skin, the spirits’ clothes and adornments were as bright and new as if they’d been freshly pulled off the loom. “This is your department,” Bruce whispered sharply, nudging his cousin with a sharp elbow in the ribs.
December 1, 2025 at 12:30 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
As per NASA recommendation, I will go everywhere with a broom, lol.
A picture of a man standing outside in a hard hat and blue coveralls holding a broom that is on fire. The caption above says A hydrogen Fire Elemental... sounds terrific. The comments below explain more and read as follows: Unless you were a tech t NASA back in the day, when one time some hydrogen a)escaped in a particular building and b) caught fire. This was extremely difficult because hydrogen does not burn on the visible spectrum for humans. Additionally, pure hydrogen burns without smoke and with so little ambient heat that you can't really sense it till you walk into it. So, per the lore, for a few days all the techs in that building just walked around brandishing brooms in front of them like lances. If your broom lit on fire, congrats! You have located more burning hydrogen. Do not proceed.
November 30, 2025 at 4:45 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
I got you, dude.
A picture of a gold star sticker with the corner peeling up that says "gif of the week!"
November 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Spencer & co are on the road in the wee hours.

From book 2 of my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
The world was awash in the gray blue shadows of predawn, that liminal time before the sun’s rays have truly begun to peek out from the cover of the horizon, but they’ve started to at least think about it. They’d been riding three hours, as Spencer judged it, and his sense of time at night was fairly sharp. Ever since they’d made the turn west onto Abbey Road, half an hour ago, the ground on either side of the roadway had given way to more and more wet pockets of marshy water dotted with little hillocks and rises. Mist clung to the water, forming little rivulets and eddying swirls of fog that could be hiding any number of dreadful things. Not that I’m imagining an alligator jumping out of the fog and biting my horse’s leg clean off, Spencer told himself for the fifth or sixth time. Never occurred to me at all. None of them had gotten a full night’s sleep and fatigue nibbled at the edges of everyone’s nerves, but it was Wren that worried him the most. Where Bruce and Molly looked weary, Wren looked haggard. Dark crescents rimmed her eyes and by Spencer's count, she’d done the tell tale bobble and jerk of someone nodding off then startling back awake three times in twice as many minutes.
November 30, 2025 at 2:40 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
If anyone's interested:
A map that shows all the discworld novels broken down by which characters they feature. They are broken down by the witches, the watch, Rincewind, Death, Ancient Civilizations, Tiffany Aching, Moist Von Lipwig, and Science Novels. They are further broke down by tpe of book, such as illustrated or short story. There are arrows and dotted lines drawing connections between books that feature cameos by other characters.
November 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
For you personally, I have 2 recommendations. Rec #1 is Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans. The worldbuilding is amazing, with a rad as hell magic system, interesting characters and politics, humor, action, and queer rep.
A book cover for Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans that shows a silhouette of a man in red coat holding a ball of flames. There are flames and arcane symbols all around him.
November 30, 2025 at 2:12 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
#Bookvember 30

So, convert is a loaded word. 🙃 I'm not banging on people's doors spreading the good word lest their semi-literate souls are damned to library hell or anything. But, if someone were receptive to trying a fantasy book, I would recommend recommend Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. 🧵
A book cover for Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Guards! Guards! which introduces readers to Sam Vimes and the Ankh Morpork City watch. The cover shows a dragon breathing fire while several men in guard uniforms cower in the corner. One has a bow, another has a sword. They are huddled around a statue of a king.
November 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 30!

Thank you to all the participants for a fun month of book discussions! Can't wait to do it again next year.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Bookvember, a book share prompt game for writers and readers by @woodenvelt.bsky.social Day 30: What’s the one book you’d recommend to convert a non-reader? #Bookvember. Use alt text for images. Have fun and interact with others!
November 30, 2025 at 9:15 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Cross to another place of death in a matter of seconds. So he can hop from graveyard to graveyard in the city. It is not a fun way to travel for living folk though.
Spencer knew the way the Veil mirrored the living world was often confusing for the dead. Indeed, the cemetery in front of him now was a near identical copy of the one they’d left. It held the same trees, the same statues, even the same tidy rows of headstones rolling out in front of him. He’d never met a living person who had been fooled by it, though, even for a second. There was no moon overhead, no stars or streetlamps. Instead, a thin mist covered the sky emitting ambient light. In the far distance, Veil wights drifted aimlessly, winking in soft colors like ponderous fireflies. There were no sounds beyond the faint whisper of Spencer and Wren breathing and the distant thudding of their hearts in their chests. The still air lay heavy against them, a weight pressing cold and hungry against their skin. “This will feel a little strange,” Spencer whispered in warning. “Stranger than it already does?” Wren smirked, daring against the darkness. Spencer concentrated, feeling his way along the hem of the Veil, looking again for the edges. His awareness caught on a familiar spot, another cemetery near the college. Morning Meadows Cemetery had been named by an academic with an unfortunate sense of humor. It was smaller and more exclusive than Serenity Lane but still carried the unmistakable mark of concentrated death. Spencer tugged at it, and the Veil moved around them. Trees, stones, and mist slid by in a blur that roiled the stomach and tingled the spine. Seconds later, the Veil jerked to an abrupt stop. Spencer recognized the larger, more elaborate marble headstones of Morning Meadows. He exhaled slowly, releasing his mental grip on the Veil, and felt it dissolve around him like mist burning off in the midday sun. The living world hardened back into focus. Spencer caught the scent of moonflowers and night phlox carried on the breeze and heard the distant baying of a hound.
November 30, 2025 at 12:08 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
If you come to Texas (within reasonably driving distance of me) I will take you on a personal tour of the nearest Buc'ee's. We'll take the traditional photo next to the giant beaver statue and everything.
A giant brass statue of a cartoon beaver wearing a t-shirt and a cap. This statue can be found outside the Texas gas station chain Buc'ee's.
November 29, 2025 at 10:23 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Spencer and Reggie are investigating the Gray Lady's realm in spirit form.

From my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
Every graveyard had its own aura, an impression left by the metaphorical footprints of the spirits who trod the ground before they crossed over. This one felt lonely and grim. A single rickety bethel devoted to the Weeper stood at its far end while meandering rows of gravestones stretched almost endlessly through the narrow yard. Dedicated to dockworkers, porters, and drovers, the burial site was wedged between long rows of warehouses, offering a place of rest conveniently near where the dead had labored their lives away. Spencer hovered in Reggie’s wake, wandering between flat stone markers laid flush with the ground and half swallowed by creeping grasses. Here and there, a broken bottle glinted in the weeds, or a scrap of wood disintegrated into the dirt. It was an unloved place. The melancholy of it weighed Spencer down, making him feel foggy and indistinct. He stared at a food tin rusting into obscurity beside a grave marker whose name had faded beyond all recognition and struggled to remember why he had come to this awful place. Surely it was better to let go, to simply fade into nonexistence rather than wallow in this hub of misery. A warning shriek buffeted him. Rasping and low like the screech of a thwarted falcon, it pierced the haze of his disjointed thoughts and brought him back to himself. Thanks, Reg. The skull nodded affirmatively and clacked his jaws shut with a loud snap.
November 29, 2025 at 7:05 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 29!

Follow the directions on the prompt card and discuss your reading habits.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Bookvember, a book share prompt game for writers and readers by @woodenvelt.bsky.social Day 29: What books are at the top of your current TBR (to be read) or TBW (to be written)? #Bookvember. Use alt text for images. Have fun and interact with others!
November 29, 2025 at 8:01 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Here is an unfinished sketch I started of her, that I am planning to redo. She has pale white skin, black wings, and a gray gown and veil covering her face with a glowing lavender halo in most depictions.
A unfinished rough sketch of a woman in a gray gown with a veil and a lavender halo.
November 29, 2025 at 12:35 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
LOL, joke away. Like, her literal grayness or her metaphorical grayness? The literal color is a medium gray, like in the tunic Elton is wearing here.
A digital sketch of a teenaged boy with wild curly brown hair, light brown skin, and gray clouded eyes. He is wearing a gray tunic, a white shirt, and a necklace with an infinity symbol on it. Character sketch drawn by author and artist Samantha Breaux.
November 29, 2025 at 12:25 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Spencer and Reggie help a ghost move on to the afterlife.

From my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
The girl stretched out her slender arm to touch Reggie’s smooth pate. The skull dodged and the girl grinned, trying again. Reggie jigged sideways, staying just out of reach as the girl attempted to tag him. As the game unfolded between the two ghosts, a sense of correctness settled in Spencer’s chest. Like a stone dropped in a still pond, certainty sank all the way through him until it rested firmly against the bedrock of his heart. Thank you, Gray Lady, for always showing me the way. Out of habit, Spencer reached for his holy symbol then felt like a fool when he remembered the twisted silver loop was still in the rectory, safe around his unconscious neck. Reggie’s eyes flickered, a question tickling at the back of Spencer’s mind. They shared a look and understanding arced like lightning between them. Had he been in his body, Spencer would have stooped over with his hands on his knees to look the girl in her eyes without looming. As it was, he attempted to hover a little lower. Are you ready, little one? The girl nodded again, solemnly this time. Follow, Reggie. Play chase with him and think of that feeling lasting forever, the fun and the joy of it never-ending. Reggie whizzed around her, a green streak, before zipping low between the tombstones. Smiling, the girl gave chase, drifting after the skull as he zigged and zagged wildly through the cemetery. On the third lap around the graveyard, a tinkle of laughter filled the stagnant air. Like tiny silver bells chiming in your very soul, the sound echoed sharply, accompanied by the sweet scent of cookies and cakes. Spencer saw a flash of white ruffles passing behind a tombstone, and then the girl was gone, off to an eternity of fun and games, he hoped.
November 28, 2025 at 2:03 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 28!

Follow the directions on the prompt card and discuss your reading habits.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Bookvember, a book share prompt game for writers and readers by @woodenvelt.bsky.social Day 28: How do you do your reading? Paperback, E-reader, audiobook? All of the above? What appeals to you about your favorite format? #Bookvember. Use alt text for images. Have fun and interact with others!
November 28, 2025 at 7:15 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
#Bookvember 27

I feel like I am more tolerant of cliffhangers in tv/movies than books. Unresolved plotlines tend to make me angry unless they are very well done, and I don't have to wait for the next book. That said, One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig does a cliffhanger very well. #Books #Writesky
Book cover for the gothic fantasy novel One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. It shows a girl in red standing on a bridge between to stone towers with a gray mist rising above her.
November 27, 2025 at 3:22 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 27!

Follow the directions on the prompt card and discuss the tropes we love and hate.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Bookvember, a book share prompt game for writers and readers by @woodenvelt.bsky.social Day 27: How do you feel about cliff hangers? Love them? Hate them? Is there a book you feel did a cliffhanger particularly well (or did it poorly)? #Bookvember. Use alt text for images. Have fun and interact with others!
November 27, 2025 at 7:15 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
My head cannon is that Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" is playing in the background.

#WritingCommunity #Quillbert4Ever #Writers
A picture of a yellow octopus plush on a train staring out a window. A deck of cards has been photoshopped into his tentacle and a fedora hat has been photoshopped onto his head. The beginning lyrics to the Kenny Roger's song The Gambler are at the bottom of the page. It reads On a warm summers evening on a train bound for nowhere I met up with a gambler and we were both too tired to sleep.
November 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
It must! I personally find endings the hardest part to write, because as far as my brain is concerned, once I know the ending I have completed the task, even if I haven't written it down yet.
A cartoon sketch of a skinny man in a mask poking a brain with a stick. The title reads Life of an ADHDer. The caption says come on, make dopamine.
November 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
impede = block

From book 2 of my romantasy wip about a priest of the dead and a thief with a heart of gold.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Wrencer
“Good morning to you, erm…” The priest hesitated in mid bow, searching for the proper term of address. “Sacerem,” Wren whispered on his left. “Sacerem Letitia,” Spencer finished, straightening to meet the shade’s fiery gaze. She inclined her head ever so slightly at the honorific. A soft grating sound rumbled behind them as the door leading outside opened. The Fain priests turned and walked in their stiff, jerking gait towards the door. They didn’t look back or slow down. Clearly they assumed their guests would follow. “Not much of a greeting,” Bruce muttered behind the Fains’ backs, slightly offended. “Well, we barely understand anything they say. Maybe they didn’t think a conversation was worth the effort,” Spencer offered in an attempt to be fair to their hosts. The quartet shuffled out onto the landing and were greeted by a wall of warm, moist air and the bright glare of unfiltered sunshine. Spencer winced and threw up an arm to block the offending light. The memory of his dream, strolling through the night time streets of Urbe Mortuos where people conducted their business at a more reasonable hour, called alluringly to the priest. “Here,” Wren’s voice prompted Spencer to lower his arm and squint in her general direction. She was holding out his hat. “Thank you,” he took the offered headgear and tugged it down over his crown to cover the foolish grin that smeared itself across his face.
November 26, 2025 at 1:03 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
#Bookvember 26

I am going with two answers here, the obvious one and a slightly lesser known one.

Obvious answer: Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett
Lesser known: Stariel by AJ Lancaster.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
A fantasy map of the fictional city of Ankh Morpork featured in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It shows different districts by color such as the Shades and Unreal Estate as well as the river winding through the town. A book cover for the romantasy novel The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster. The book cover is green with a small manor house at the bottom, wings and a star at the top, and curling vines and flowers up the sides.
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 PM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Welcome to #Bookvember Day 26!

Follow the directions on the prompt card and discuss the tropes we love and hate.

#BookSky #WriteSky #Books #Authors #WritingCommunity
Bookvember, a book share prompt game for writers and readers by @woodenvelt.bsky.social Day 26: Share a book you love where the setting is it’s own character. How does the author breathe life into the setting? #Bookvember. Use alt text for images. Have fun and interact with others!
November 26, 2025 at 7:00 AM
woodenvelt.bsky.social
Quillbert or Carmen San Diego? Same difference.
A picture of cartoon character Carmen San Diego with her trademark red hat and coat with a plush octopus photoshopped over her face.
November 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM