QuokkaMocha

floofpaldi, 5 months ago to random

I'm putting together a Christmas list for my family. It's that time of year again. So... Send me some reading recommendations! Give me links to YOUR books, guys. I'm going to bookmark this and save it for later, so I can purchase stuff throughout the year as well. I want to support everyone.

I hope everyone will check out the comments, too. Let's all support and love one another and help each other when and where we can.

#PennedPossibilities #WordWeavers #WritersCoffeeClub #WritingCommunity

QuokkaMocha, 9 months ago to Cat

Early birthday present for Frankenstein (Rassilon got one too). Next week my baby, who was going to be euthanised when he was six months old, is going to be 12 years old. And he loves his rainbow.
#Cat #CatsOfMastodon #Castodon

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to fanfiction

My new pills are making me exhausted and AO3 is being weird with my formatting all of a sudden but I have managed to post a chapter at least, which gives an excuse to finally post the little cover I made. Nardole is AWOL with the TARDIS, leaving Bill and the Doctor stranded in revolutionary France, and the Doctor is enjoying himself just a little too much. https://archiveofourown.org/works/42928764/chapters/132437347 #fanfic #fanfiction #DoctorWho #DoctorWhoFanFiction

QuokkaMocha, 6 months ago to random

#WordWeavers certain senses?

I generally favour sight and sound, because I work kind of by imagining the scenes in my head like a sort of film first. I studied set and costume design, so those elements tend to be the clearest for me. I also started out writing for the stage at college, then screenplay, so I do tend to prioritise dialogue. I have a habit of forgetting smell unless it's a plot point because I have very little of that sense. And touch again, I forget unless it's relevant.

QuokkaMocha, 24 days ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub Does your work include pictures, maps or graphics?

All my fantasy projects have maps. Blame it on being introduced to the genre by Tolkien. One short story, Wee Ginger, which will be in my upcoming Scottish spec fic anthology, has a newspaper-style comic strip at the beginning, because it's about a character from a Sunday paper. I copied the Sunday Post's style and was actually quite proud of the result!

QuokkaMocha, 6 months ago to writing

Today, according to my phone, I walked just under 5 miles, which I'm very proud of. It may not sound like much, but I was terrified I wouldn't get a few metres with this hip. Went around the Old Town mostly, going to old haunts. Tomorrow I'm planning on taking the laptop with me, as it's pleasant enough to sit outside and do some writing. #writingcommunity #writing #travel

QuokkaMocha, 29 days ago to random

#PennedPossibilities Do any of your characters have a disability?

Malásek has mobility issues after a knife attack throughout the book. He's also a bit autistic, (in his era, it wouldn't be diagnosed very readily).

"Dex", my nearly finished fantasy book, has an MC suffering the effects of a serious head injury throughout the story.

I suppose most of the disabilities I include are sort of post-trauma or post-surgery because that's what I have and so I can be accurate in my portrayals.

QuokkaMocha, 9 months ago to writing

#WritingWonders 7 - view from the window

Alice / Nat - Edinburgh's Old Town. The house is in the West Bow, their bedroom window facing the street. Below is the modern view. Though Nat would've been looking at it in 1829 and Alice in 1886, only the names of the shops and the double glazing would be different.

#writing #writingcommunity #edinburgh #amwritingfantasy

Black and White etching of the West Bow in Edinburgh, a street curving steeply upwards past tall stone buildings, one with a set of stairs up to an open doorway. A horse and cart are headed uphill.

QuokkaMocha, 7 months ago to random

#Writephant self promotion

Links, pieces of writing etc.

Of my original fiction, there's one available via Scribd if you have a sub and one in Ellery Queen which is only available as physical copies via Abebooks and the likes.

My fan fiction is on AO3, here - https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuokkaMocha

Artwise, I'm just an amateur. My stuff gets about one like per post and that's from the guy who won't leave me alone!

QuokkaMocha, 29 days ago to discworld

Happy birthday, Terry Pratchett, born 28th April 1948. I was in a B&B in Leverburgh, Harris, when the news broke of his death, and had to explain to the landlord why I was so affected, but Terry's books were some of my earliest influences. My very first "book" was pretty much an attempt at a Discworld-style universe. "Mort" is still one of my all time favourite books. #TerryPrachett #discworld #TerryPratchettDay

QuokkaMocha, 3 months ago to random

We are home! The cats moved in today. Rassilon has decided the whole house is his and has been exploring all day. Frankenstein is hiding under a chair because mummy put him in a nasty bag today for a while as he traveled (he does not appreciate the new pet carrier apparently). I was going to cook stovies but then remembered I don’t have a potato peeler or sharp knife so have ordered supplies for tomorrow, and tonight’s dinner is courtesy of the local chippy!

QuokkaMocha, 7 months ago to writing

#PennedPossibilities Introvert / Extrovert?

Malásek is about as introverted as you get. He got his job because he watches people from outside, picks up details about them from that observation.

Alice - also introverted. She lives mostly in her own head.

Nat - About half and half. Fashion-wise, he is a bit of an extrovert and he likes to be well-dressed and looked at, but socially, he's a little reserved.

#writing

QuokkaMocha, 6 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities 116 - fortune teller.

Malásek might ask them something, expecting a rubbish answer because these things don't exist, but at the same time would be afraid in case they did say something accurate, because that reinforces the superstitions he claims he doesn't have.

Alice would ask who she really is.

Varyenukha would ask them to step away from him and leave him alone.

QuokkaMocha, 29 days ago to random

#WordWeavers Do you have an irrepressibly good-humoured character?

Yes, in Rachis. Merry very rarely loses his good humour, although it is a bit of a front and it slips now and then. It's how he copes, trying to look for a bright side all the time. Needless to say it gets on the MC's nerves, but he puts up with it because he knows Merry is a genuinely kind and caring person.

Pretty much everyone in Panelák is miserable.

QuokkaMocha, 2 months ago to random

Thought this lady deserved a post to herself. I believe this is my great aunt Ellen, my maternal grandfather’s sister. She was a district nurse, and was killed in a head-on collision with a police car travelling on the wrong side of the road. Her husband tried to throw himself in front of her to save her before the impact, but by horrible fate, he survived. Turned out a senior officer was late for a function and told his driver to overtake another vehicle. There is a street named after her now.

QuokkaMocha, 2 months ago to random

Found a cache of photos in a cupboard I was clearing out. The piper is my great uncle Billy, my maternal grandfather’s brother who, by all accounts, was a bit of a spiv and was a regimental piper. The man in the flat cap is my great grandfather, my maternal grandmother’s father. I’m not sure if that’s gran he’s with or one of her sisters. No idea who the couple in Edwardian dress are but the woman is definitely related to my granddad. The other photo, no idea, but it’s dated 1928.

Man in full highland dress with a set of bagpipes under one arm.
A silver haired , middle aged man in suit and flat cap beside a young girl in a uniform of some sort. Looks WWII in period
1920s sepia photograph of a lady in Edwardian dress, a dark jacket and skirt, possibly, posing behind a chair back with elaborate carving. In a battered silver coloured frame that looks in keeping with the period.

QuokkaMocha, 7 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities What will your characters stand up for?

Malásek is the sort who stays quiet, preferring to keep out of the way and avoid conflict. That said, he will step in if he's pushed too hard, especially if it's a moral dilemma.

QuokkaMocha, 6 months ago to random

For @strangeseawolf or anyone else not on the former bird site who wants #PeterCapaldi news…

https://t.co/hOnkPYae2C

The Devil’s Hour renewed for a third season.

QuokkaMocha, 7 months ago to random

#WritersCoffeeClub 14 - is a cat necessary for a writer?

I think writing is one of the loneliest jobs out there, so having a cat does help. Although sometimes it doesn't help, for instance when the cat decides it wants to sleep on the keyboard. Frankenstein has a sixth sense for when I open the laptop. I'm surprised I've got this far in the post without him... oh, no, there he is. Across the wrists. No wonder I have carpal tunnel etc trying to type with 7kg of cat draped across my arms.

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities What part of your WIP was the most fun to write?

Panelák, probably the really creepy stuff. I enjoy trying to get that hairs standing up on your neck feeling into prose. No idea if I actually achieve this or not, but hey.

Hatter - mimicking the two styles, Carroll's mid 1800s and Nathanial's early 1800s with a Scots lilt to it.

Tbh though, I'm not having much fun with either WIP right now. thinking of taking a break and writing a bit of fantasy purely for fun.

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to random

#WordWeavers Any scenes inspired by personal experience?

Loads. I mean, I write horror, and right now I actually live in a horror novel, so I might as well use these bloody experiences! Get some good out of them. But more so than actual events, I tend to use the emotion I remember behind those events. My first ever job in theatre was on Fame the Musical and so I always get "Think Like Meryl Streep" in my head when I think about this, though.

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to random

#PennedPossibilities Music, art or reading?

Malásek - reading, mainly, though he's interested in art and architecture. Not so much music, as he likes silence more than anything.

Nat Chapel - art, probably, because he's interested in design, although he likes reading and favours philosophical texts and poetry most of all.

Varyenukha - music. He was a prodigy as a child and composer to the royal court as a young man. He still listens to music when he can now, despite his circumstances.

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to animals

5:30 on the dot, Frankenstein always comes in for his cuddle. No idea how this tradition started but it seems to now be the law. #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon #Cat

QuokkaMocha, 7 months ago to random

#WordWeavers Anything distinctive or that you're proud of?

I'm not sure if I'm proud of this, but I'm quite good at emulating particular styles. My noir-ish book I sent for critique came back with the comment, "it was evocative of Raymond Chandler" which is kind of the highest praise you can get when that's what you're aiming for.

That said, I don't really know with my own voice. I've not had enough comment, not for a long while. Any comments I have had have been plot-related. So I don't know.

QuokkaMocha, 5 months ago to random

#WordWeavers Review/message/compliment

I've never had a comment on my published work (in magazines), except from the editor at Ellery Queen, who said she'd really enjoyed it and that it reminded her of The Old Man in the Corner by Orczy.

My couple of readers on AO3 keep me going with their comments. It's things like, the other day, being told I'd got the voice of a character spot on, or someone noticing an Easter egg. Those are the ones I love!