A Very Celestial Mix-up (or, How a Celestial Ruined Christmas)

Stories

It’s been a while since I posted anything on the blog, let alone a story. This Christmas short story popped into my head this morning, and given it’s so close to Christmas, I decided to put it here for free rather than try to sell it. Enjoy!

2792 words (~15 minute read)

CONTENT WARNING: Mild body horror.

A Very Celestial Mix-up

(or, How a Celestial Ruined Christmas)

By Gabrielle Steele

The moment I materialise on the mortal plane, I know something has gone horribly wrong. Though the clipboard-wielding woman standing before me is wearing a red dress, it isn’t as blood-red as I’d expect, and its white border is fluffy like polar bear fur. Far too hot, surely. Her sour expression is the only thing right about this situation.

We stand in a room full of lights, some of them blinking like we’re in the server room of a Tom Cruise spy thriller. But others are twinkling. Urg. It makes me want to vomit. That’s probably the worse sign of all.

“Follow me,” the woman says with no introduction. Aren’t I there to be her boss? A little respect would be nice.

I follow her across the room and out into a corridor so blindingly white I have to cover my eyes. It’s torture. We must be in the area for clients. That would make sense. All the garish ornaments strung from the ceiling and walls must be designed to remind clients of terrible childhoods and get all those buried feelings to the surface right where we need them.

But then we come to an open plan office. I pause at the end of the corridor, staring at the rows of tiny desks occupied by people in green. No, not people. Creatures. Fluffy white creatures that look like a cross between a harp seal pup and a Samoyed dog. Even their big void-like eyes can’t overcome their adorableness. I do my best not to be sick.

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Clothes of Female Characters in Fantasy

Writing Thoughts

Update 29/4/24: Thanks to the surprisingly informative platform that is TikTok, I’ve recently learnt tightlacing was a particular style for corsets that not everyone wore. I leave my woefully uneducated original article below, as some of its points still stand and it talks about my female characters’ choices of clothes.

If you follow me on social media, you may have recently seen me complaining about the availability of comfortable/practical options for girls clothing. I’ve been looking for school uniform for my daughter, who starts school in September, but the trousers from the shop we can afford (a supermarket) are all form-fitting stretch material (which gets hot in summer and cold in winter), and the shoes are mostly T-bar and Mary Jane styles, or are light up. (On a side note, why are supermarkets making light up school shoes?)

From the moment girls are born, they have pinks and frills thrust upon them. Even on underwear. Yes, gentlemen readers, the trim on young girls underwear is almost always frilled elastic, rather than the nice turned over piece of fabric boys briefs have. This kind of elastic can rub. Some find it comfortable, but for those who don’t, the only real option is to buy boys underwear, unless you can afford something other than supermarket/big chain clothes (lucky you).

But I don’t want this entire post to be a rant. I want to talk about clothing for female characters in fantasy. Women seem to have two options for clothes in fantasy: dresses or form-fitting leather trousers. Have you seen the episode of the TV show Friends where Ross wears leather trousers? Imagine wearing a tight-fitting pair of those while running around, fighting for your life. No thank you.

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5 Simple Steps to Create Fantasy Place Names

Writing Tips

World building is great fun, but it’s not always simple. Creating fantasy place names that are easy to read and flow off the tongue can be a challenge, and there is a trope, of sorts, that fantasy names are hard to read and impossible to pronounce.

In all my writing, I try my best to make names for settlements, countries, creatures, and everything else, that anyone can pronounce. I don’t use accents for one simple reason: I struggled to understand them in school.

Apostrophes are considered overdone in fantasy names, and they can make words a mouthful. I (currently) only use them in the names of dragons, which is to do with their naming conventions, and there’s only one in each name. No G’nim’iws’odil type names in my work.

But how can we create natural sounding fantasy place names without being experts in language?

I personally take the approach of using what already exists. Earth is a big place with over 7,000 languages spoken at the time of writing. These have been developed over thousands of years and have beautiful sounds, so why not make use of them?

Below are my 5 simple steps to create fantasy place names using existing languages as a base.

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Wolf Children Review (spoiler-free)

Movie Reviews

Wolf Children is one of those films that makes me want to watch it all over again straight away, despite how much I was crying at the end. With a beautiful story and music to match, you could have told me Wolf Children was a Ghibli film, and I’d have believed you. This is a must-see for any fans of quieter Studio Ghibli films like Whisper of the Heart and My Neighbour Totoro. I watched it with Japanese audio and English subs, as I usually do with anime.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness full recap review

Movie Reviews

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was, quite frankly, maddening. While my husband professes to have enjoyed the film, I found myself hating a Marvel Cinematic Universe film for the first time.

Okay, that’s a lie. I disliked Eternals, but it was an enjoyable watch. I wasn’t sat wondering when it would end like I did with Dr Strange 2. From cheesy 80s-style video overlays to horror moments that left me wondering what genre of film I was watching, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was a massive disappointment.

Needless to say, the following article will contain full (and I mean FULL) spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

It bothered me so much, I’m going to rant about it all. I warn you, this is very long, and I’ve mostly written it for my own sanity. If there are continuity mistakes, please forgive me. I don’t have the best memory. Honestly, I think I can only remember so much of this because of how often I was thinking “this sucks”.

Enjoy.

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Winner of the Ukraine charity raffle

Appeal Raffles

The winner of my charity raffle has been selected at random. We raised £50 for the British Red Cross Ukraine appeal, so thank you to everyone who took part! Without further waffling…

Congratulations to Helen O’Hara! 🥳

A one-year subscription to MasterClass is on its way!

British Red Cross appeal in aid of Ukraine

Appeal Raffles

Update 2

The winner has been selected! Please visit the announcement.

Update

The deadline has been extended by 2 weeks to midnight Friday 25th March!

Current total (15/3/22): £50

Donate to charity for chances to win a 1-year MasterClass subscription

Having seen other writers doing raffles to give support to Ukraine, I wondered what I could do to help. Then I realised I’m sitting on a year’s subscription of MasterClass. I utterly condemn Russia’s unwarranted attack on Ukraine, and I hope you will join me in supporting the British Red Cross in their appeal.

To be in with a chance to win a one-year subscription to MasterClass, worth £168, read the info below.

  • Go to the British Red Cross DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal page and proceed with a donation. For every £5 you donate, you will get one raffle ticket.
  • Once you receive the confirmation email, forward it to me at appeals@thellian.com
  • This will run until 23:59:59 GMT on Sunday 13th March 2022 DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 23:59:59 GMT FRIDAY 25th March 2022. Any emails I receive after this won’t count, but I encourage you to donate to the appeal regardless, as it’s such an urgent cause.

The fine print

  • Each entry will be assigned a number, and a random number generator will be used to select the winning ticket.
  • The winner will be announced on this blog and on my Twitter (@eldris). I will also contact the winner via the email they entered with.
  • If for any reason the winner doesn’t claim the prize within one month of being contacted, another ticket will be selected.
  • By entering, you agree for me to collect your details for the sole purpose of conducting this raffle.
  • There is no cash alternative. The prize is a one-year subscription to MasterClass. If the winner is an existing subscriber, their subscription will be extended by one year (confirmed by MasterClass support).

Thoughts after watching Don’t Look Up

Thoughts

SPOILER WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the film Don’t Look Up

The credits roll, and I don’t remember the last time I felt this anxious. My heart aches, feels cold. I suppose this is what I mean when I write about cold dread, but I’ve rarely felt it myself, thank the gods.

I’ve had vivid dreams about the end of the world before. They haunt me years later. Many of my dreams feel like I’m truly living through something, and when my fear forces me awake, I remember those snippets of other lives. I distinctly remember one about a comet’s impact. What sticks with me most is the sheer desperation I felt as I tried to get back to my family.

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Ribbon – VSS365

VSS365

5 Writing Prompts for Fantasy Authors

Fantasy Prompts

Prompts are an excellent resource for writers. Even if you have a work in progress, you can use prompts for writing exercises, or to give yourself a breather from your main project.

I’m often tweeting that I’m working on something new when I shouldn’t be. Most of these short story starts are sitting unfinished, but I never see them as a waste of time. They help me explore new ideas or try different points of view – I usually write in a close third-person perspective, yet I like to explore first person and omniscient in short stories. How can a writer find their voice if they hold themselves back from exploring all the options?

Stories can be as long or as short as you want, they just need a beginning, a middle, and an end. So, without further rambling, here are 5 fantasy prompts I hope will get your creative juices flowing, leading you to a middle and end.

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