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TaylorNicoleReed

The Fantasy Pedantic
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Heyyy...

6 min read

Awkward head scratch of shame.



So ah... life happened, I guess is the short of it? It's been two freaking years since I last looked at this, holy shit. A lot of stuff has changed, but at the same time I guess not much really has. Covid was rough, as it was for a lot of people, but we got lucky and only lost the one family member to it, though that's not the only family member we lost these last couple years, and admittedly I was only close with one of them. Our car was totaled and now we're making payments on a new one (yikes), but no one was hurt in the accident (whew). My sister in law moved in with us (yay), and we've stopped having anything to do with a different member of the family on that side (ew). I haven't touched a drawing pencil in about as long as it's been since I updated anything on here (oops), but I'm trying to get into the habit again, if slowly and sorta half-assed (i definitely suck now). And I finally cut ties for good with a toxic relationship I'd had off and on for a few years, and I don't know yet how I'm doing about that, but I've been here before and even written about it, so it's new but old news, I guess. I wrote three whole goddamn novels in the space of two years, and two full short stories, and my sister-in-law and I (she's a writer too!) are planning to publish some of our mutual and independent projects once we do the necessary edits, rereads, and all that jazz. It's been really nice to have someone I can consistently collaborate with again without fighting, and having someone else in the house to talk to has really saved my bacon during last year's shutdown. I'd have gone stir crazy if I'd spent half as much time alone as I'd been doing before (my husband's job has periods where it's super demanding and he works crazy hours, which means a lotta time home alone for me, woo...). But I guess one of the biggest changes is I sorta... fell off the wagon, so far as updates and check-ins went here. Sorry about that. I had some serious mental health spirals, and went through a substantial personality shift that (I hope) was for the better. I've quit smoking completely, though sometimes I still feel the itch, and it annoys me a little, and I can't really remember the last time I had more than a single shot of any type of alcohol. No more drunk nights and hazy mornings for me. I barely even drink mixers anymore, and I think a lot of it has to do with how much more healthy my support system is and how I've changed my routine and eating habits. I've cut way back on the bad shit, drink a shit ton more water, and I've gone back to doing my workouts and walks like I'd started after my younger son was born. I got a few comments the other day on how I look like I've lost weight, but I've finally reached the point where the unhealthy thin I used to be is no longer my goal, which is good 'cause my body's kinda shot from the neglect and stress I used to put it through. I'm doing okay, I guess. I'm still tired a lot and have those yo-yo swings between functional and wanting to hibernate, but they're not quite as drastic as they used to be, and I feel like they're only going to go up from here. But the downside to this huge upheaval is... well, I don't really know if I'll be updating this account anymore. I know if I do, it won't be nearly as often as it was there for a while. I just don't have the time, I guess. Er, more accurately I'll probably forget to make time, but still.


I found this the other day going through and deleting old accounts, and figured I'd better at least put a notice out here to the couple of friends I had that I have not, in fact, been abducted by aliens, gone screaming into the void, or been taken out by the plague (I even got my vaccine! Suck it Covid!). I'm just spastic, anxious, and a general trainwreck, and once I fell out of the habit of checking it daily, I forgot it lol. Sorry, y'all. You know how it be for ADD.


By the way, I've moved a bunch of old and shitty deviations to my storage, but I left Sanctuary and its references up, because I'm still kinda proud of my first ever finished novel, and there are a couple of one shots and little rants that I see no harm in leaving up. Some of them are even still relevant. But I don't know if there'll be anything else here anymore. Now's probably a good time to admit that The Princess And The Dragon is in fact, not going to get that full rewrite I planned on. I've basically forgotten everything about it now. But I'll pull it back out of storage and put it in a folder again, it was still kinda cute, and a few people really seemed to like it, so it's only fair to let it be read again. I've just moved on to other things now.


Thanks to everyone who's commented, favorited, and has honestly just taken the time to look at my pages and stuff over the years. You guys have been more encouraging than you can know. I've not given up writing, and i don't think I ever will, but gods only know at this point where that's gonna take me. I'd like to say I'll keep it posted up here, but you and I both know what the likelihood of me remembering is, lol. Still, wish me luck? I'm definitely wishing luck and good health for all of you.


Love you bunches,

Taylor

The Fantasy Pedantic.

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I'm not dead!

3 min read
Not-dead-yet-monty-python-650x366 by TaylorNicoleReed

    Just a quick note to say I'm not actually dead, just resting. You know, like a Norwegian Blue. I may or may not be nailed to my perch, but I am upright. 

    I've had some serious pains lately. Turns out, I've developed a benign cyst on one of my ovaries, and I'm basically just waiting for it to go away. So my right side kinda feels like it's swollen and sore aF, like I've stretched too far on one side or something. Ugh. It's made it hard to work, but I do have some sorta good news. 

    Since I can't seem to focus for more than an hour at a time (painkillers make me sleepy), I've been doing a little derpy 'D&D' style story that's basically a cross between a pathfinder module, a D&D homebrew, Arcadia Quest, and something I pulled out of my ass, and set in the Fallout Universe. Fallout: New Vegas, specifically (because it's the best. Fight me). It's been nice to have a distraction from the pain and grogginess, and it's been fun to have a collaboration with my sister (KattWinterDragon). We're using a mix of both of our characters from other projects, and really just turning them loose on the Mojave to see what happens. 

    Once we get a good bit of it finished (or maybe all of it, who knows), we're thinking we might clean it up and post it for you guys to read, if you're interested. I dunno how long it'll take to finish, exactly, but it's not really an intense project or anything. And it's been fairly relaxing to work on, surprisingly enough. Who'd'a guessed it: I actually enjoy DMing. 

    Also, because I couldn't find any ready-made modules anywhere for this, I've had to make most of the resources myself. I might post a bunch of those later too, if there's any interest in them. I can always make a folder for them and see how that goes. We've got most of the mechanics and rolls sorted out, and I've borrowed a bunch of tabletop styles to mix and match from to find something that works, but we're seven chapters in and it's doing just fine so far. 

    I don't expect to be very active online for a while, yet, I'm sorry to say. I still feel like shit and still feel tired more often than not, but I just figured I better put up a notice letting you guys know my metabolic processes are not quite history. I'm not ready to join the bleeding choir invisible yet. 

    I'm restin'. 

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Rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post 8 random facts about your character.
3. Tag 8 other creators.
4. Post their OCs name along with their creators name/avatar.

Except screw that, because 1: I don't have 8 friends with Ocs, and 2: Forced Social Interaction is bullshit. So no.
Instead, have 2 characters for your viewing whatever.
Also, you don't get character portraits for these two because I haven't finished/uploaded them yet. So have random pictures instead. 


#1. Badri Tabagari

      Image result for sketching

1. Badri's that character that looks like a cinnamon roll, and is actually a cinnamon roll, but could totally kill you.


2. Badri's god-magic is War. She fights close-range like you wouldn't believe, and can take out 30 people by herself. But she'd rather not.


3. She draws and paints incredibly well, and it's her favorite way to pass the time. Sketchbooks everywhere. She even painted her walls.


4. She struggles with language a lot, and doesn't fully understand idioms, similes, or most forms of slang. Drax-level literal.


5. The first time we told her story, Badri was a guy. She didn't like it, though. Now she's much better and more confident.


6. Other than the sex change, she's basically identical to her original conception. Same personality, interests, and favorite people.


7. Badri is my most-tattooed character in her world, sitting pretty at eighteen. Most of them she earned being a savage in Canari.


8. Badri is terrified of spiders, especially the big ones. Anything larger than a silver dollar is definitely a big NOPE. 



#2. Derek Burke

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1. Derek has an... odd, relationship with his big brother. They grew up apart, and have different moms, so don't feel like brothers. But they are? Eh.


2.  His god-magic is Death. Er, sorta. Not-dying. He accidentally cut a finger off in the forge the other day and just stuck it back on. NBD.


3. Derek's the engineer/pyro of the group. Always covered in soot, scorch marks, and has been known to keep bombs in his pocket.


4.  Riktor is absolutely his favorite adult in the entire world, and he will fight you. Riktor likes mischief, too. Best family member ever out of 10. 


5.  His best friend ever is Maggie Tilly, and they spend almost every waking moment together. She (kinda?) keeps him in line. 


6.  Derek's kinda-sister but sorta-niece Sauri (His brother's adopted daughter) calls him the Mad Scientist. He's salty, but it fits.


7.  He kinda sorta maybe taught Cieran how to make a bomb. . . but he's totally not responsible for that building that blew up he swears.


8.  His God-Dad is awesome and hilarious. Fight him. Except don't, because you'll explode. 

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Me when I realize the last two chapters of Sanctuary are corrupted and have to be rewritten.

:bademoticon:It's been forever since my last journal entry, hasn't it? Whoops. 

:bademoticon:So, Sanctuary only has two chapters left, and we'll be finished with the whole story. Just in time for the one year anniversary of these (mostly) weekly updates. And (in addition to my new format issues) I've noticed I have a new problem.

:bademoticon: What the hell am I going to do when these weekly updates are finished? I do have other things in the works, but definitely nothing that qualifies as ready-to-post. I feel like my writing style has changed a lot as well, since this story began. It's not noticeable in Sanctuary, since the story was already finished when I began posting it Halloween of last year, but I've been looking at the prose for this story in comparison to some things I've written lately, and it's almost like this older story was written by a different person. 

:bademoticon: I suppose in a way, it was. A lot of shit's happened in the last year, and not all of it good. I've got a kid in kindergarten now, we've had both money and car troubles, I've fought with anxiety and depression, and with my weight, and I barely even remember parts of this mess. 

:bademoticon: The first chapter of Sanctuary (as of the right now, while I'm writing this entry) has 322 views. Holy hells, y'all. This is especially amazing to me considering that when I look back on my old writing, I tend to wanna cringe and hide under my desk. There have definitely been points where y'all have liked this story a lot more than I have, I can tell you that. This has been one of my most frustrating projects to date, what with the slew of technology issues, the update gaps, the heavy reformatting I've had to do (TWICE) and am about to have to do again.... The frustration has been real. I'm definitely relieved it's drawing to a close. 

:bademoticon: Of course, all that rambling still doesn't tell me what I'm going to do with my life after these weekly updates are done. I won't be posting any new stories in November or December, what with NaNo and Christmas coming up, and me still not being prepared for that ever-encroaching November 1st deadline for my NaNo prep this year. I guess these next two months will tell me what my new content will be for 2018. Because right now, it's a toss-up between four different stories. 

  1. A fantasy about a mute sorceress and her talking cat.
  2. A modern fiction about a group of dysfunctional musicians and their not-always-appropriate shenanigans. 
  3. The rewrite for The Princess & The Dragon, which I'm STILL stuck on, btw.
  4. A block-breaker of (dare I say it) fanfiction, that I've been using to try and get back into the swing of writing regularly.

:bademoticon: So.... yeah. Could be anything, really. We'll see. 
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Oh my goodness

:droplet: Oh my goodness! I just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and I am still reeling from the story. The introduction to the story grabbed my attention right off. Here, read it for yourself!
"It was only a duck pond, out at the back of the farm. It wasn't very big. 
Lettie Hempstock said it was an ocean, but I knew that was silly. She said they'd come here across the ocean from the old country. 
Her mother said that Lettie didn't remember properly, and it was a long time ago, and anyway, the old country had sunk.
Old Mrs. Hempstock, Lettie's grandmother, said they were both wrong, and that the place that had sunk wasn't really the old country. She said she could remember the really old country.
She said the really old country had blown up.
 
:droplet: It's like the written account of a strong dream. Crisp and clear in the moment, but fuzzy around the edges and hazy after it's over. A seamless blend of fact and fiction, myth and reality, that kept me turning the page until it was over. Lettie is almost mythological herself, an odd mixture of ageless wisdom and magic in the form of an eleven-year-old girl with auburn hair and freckles. Her mother and grandmother are likewise a mixture of otherworldly and familiar, from their snip-and-sew to the full moon shining on the inside stairs, to the warm milk and comfort food they feed the boy when he visits. 

 :droplet:The story itself only takes place over the course of a few days, and to tell the truth I had expected a longer book. When I saw its size, I was at first disappointed, but once I began I scarcely noticed how many pages there were or what was left. There's not a moment of downtime between the opal miner's arrival and the end of the book, and it's all carefully crafted into the sometimes confused or uncomprehending retelling of a seven-year-old boy who might not understand the workings of adults, but knows a great deal about the strange goings on that he himself doesn't seem to fully remember. 

:droplet: This book absolutely entranced me. I can't believe I waited so long to read it.
  Five stars. 


Star! Star! Star! Star! Star! 

(Review also published on my Goodreads account @: The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Review)
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Featured

I'm not dead! by TaylorNicoleReed, journal

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