iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

All of that to say, Honeysuckle *is* trained in shopkeeping, bookkeeping, crafting, and cooking, so in a normal, not-held-captive colony, she's on the rotation for staffing zizzun restaurants, bakeries, and shops. If she started her own, probably a bakery. This old sketch is probably her: (4/6)

Sketch of a bee (person) sitting at the sort of table you'd see at a farmer's market. On either side of her are cases full of lumpy chunks of bread. Below her is a sign that reads:

Le Pain de BZZZZ
Locally baked bee bread!

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#Sniptober Apparently, I used "belong" only once each in both of my WIPs. :'D Here's the better instance, a little bit of fun from the third chapter of Beeslingers:

Bly coughed. Then laughed. Deep and rumbling and with no actual emotion behind it. He raised both hands in what looked like a gesture of surrender.

Until, that is, he dropped, body dangling from nothing at all, like a marionette.

“You don’t know what you’re meddlin’ with,” he growled. His mouth barely moved, yet he spoke clearly, as if something hidden in his throat were speaking for him. “That bee belongs to a very powerful man. You best take her home and leave her there if you know what’s good for you.”

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#LGBTQWriteAThon Vibes today! Featuring a bit from the first draft of Beeslingers that will most certainly make it to the second, in which the antagonist reveals he actually *does* know who tried to flee his mines. #amwriting

“You know the punishment for defiance, and for hiding someone else’s crimes from my all-seeing eyes,” Doc told them, his voice sweet and smooth as buttercream.

He nodded down to Alistair, who lifted his eyes to the swarm. He did not elaborate further. He didn’t need to.

“So if you know anything about what that little bee of yours was doing, flying off to the east, it would be best if you tell me,” he said. “If it was just one little deserter who has nothing to do with you, then that’s fine! Nobody will be punished. But if any of you helped that little one escape . . .”

His eyes moved over the crowd and settled on the back. Honeysuckle did not move. She did not straighten or even twitch her antennae. She remained perfectly, resolutely still.

Yet she couldn’t deny the weight of Doc McQueen’s eyes bearing down on her.

And in return, Doc McQueen’s smile grew, enough to reveal a crescent of perfect white teeth.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FaveLineFriday Not the most exciting, I admit, but I had a lot of fun describing clothes here—more than I usually do (which is not at all, typically). Helps that I went to the MET this week and just like. Was ~inspired~. (Also, hello! I had a good time out! Thanks again for your patience, y'all!)

In the two weeks since St. Nadia, the dragons and the bees had made and given Eleanor clothing fit for a princess or a master mage: a sleeveless kaftan of deep blue velvet, embroidered with delicate flowers and tiny crystals along its hems; a dress of ivory silk, embroidered with gold flowers along the neckline and the cuffs of its bell sleeves; a leather belt around the waist of her dress, embossed with painted flowers along its edges; and closed-toe velvet slippers that matched her kaftan. As she walked, everything billowed—skirts, sleeves, edges of her kaftan—so she looked eternally like she was gliding as she walked, and that, combined with her tendency to keep her head held high, made her look absolutely divine.

By contrast, Mick had steadfastly refused the attire the dragons had offered him—trousers, military jacket, and cape made of deep crimson velvet that made him look like a king, an army general, or some kind of wanker, he couldn’t decide.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday, folks, and thanks so much for your patience while I was out! Share your favorite line that you've worked on this week, and don't forget to support your fellow authors! Bonus Q: What's the furthest your MC has been from home? #writingcommunity #writingprompt #writesky

A green, red, and cream graphic featuring a typewriter in the center. Graphic reads:

#FaveLineFriday
Share your fave line that you wrote or edited this week!
Don't forget to:
Tag your posts with #FaveLineFriday.
Use ALT text for graphics.
Support your fellow authors!

hosted by jaxdevora.bsky.social

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#Sniptober Parallel -> along today! An excerpt (that I technically shared earlier this week) from TNS chapter 1, in which Mick fights the first monster of the book.

The golem swung its head up and growled. Its head raised, and its pitted eyes scanned the sky, as if reading the music in the air. Then, with more fluidity than an eight-foot pile of rocks should have had, it swiveled around until its eyes locked onto Mick, who danced on his toes along the lip of one of the craters in the street. Mick took a breath. There was the core: an uncut citrine the size of a baseball, glowing softly with the orange light of earth magic from one of the golem’s eye sockets.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#LGBTQWriteAThon I have three, so excuse the thread. :') 1. TNS: A fantasy about a guy who turns into a dragon . . . and the chosen one of the enemy of the gods. 2. Beeslingers: A western/fantasy about a bee person who hires lesbian gunslingers to free her swarm from a mining baron. (1/2)

Moodboard of four images, all of which comes from various paintings by Alphonse Mucha:
Left: Salon des Cent. A woman conceals her mouth with a hand, her index finger curled down. She's glaring intensely at the viewer.
Middle top: The Moon. A woman wearing nothing but a navy blanket covered in stars stands against a backdrop consisting of the night sky and a crescent moon. She covers her smile with one hand.
Middle bottom: Emerald. A serpent snarls at the viewer from amidst green lilies.
Right: Poster for the 6th Sokol Festival. A woman in red, wearing a crown, sits as she clutches flower rings in her right hand and up her right arm. A ghostly, green image of a woman glares behind her.

A moodboard consisting of several images in/around a line of honeycomb.

Top: The sun sets over the buttes of Monument Valley.

In the honeycomb grid, from left to right:
- A figure in a long coat and cowboy hat stands, feet apart, with a gun at their side.
- A cowgirl sits on a white horse as she tips her hat.
- A bee gathers pollen from a pink flower.
- A woman in thick, blue fog holds up an orange, diamond-shaped lantern.
- A group of four bees exchange nectar with each other as they stand on honeycomb.
- A woman surrounded by mining equipment sits cross-legged as she tilts her head up. She's wearing a pair of large goggles.

Bottom: A row of wooden buildings from the Old West stand below a clear, blue sky.

A collage consisting of various cut out images:
- An illustration of Sherlock Holmes in his classic deerstalker cap and cloak smokes his pipe in the bottom left
- A honey bee gathers nectar from a flower in the bottom middle.
- Four macarons sit stacked in the bottom right corner.
- Up the right side is a stalk of purple foxgloves.
- The background is split between a pile of old newspapers and a dark alley lit by lamps and neon signs.
- Red stage curtains frame the entire piece.
- Five bee cut-outs (from two images of honey bees, flipped and rotated to various angles) fly around the top of the image.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

First and foremost, happy birthday month! :D That saaaaaid . . . ! To start things off, a glimpse at TNS, in which Eleanor is very ride-or-die for Mick. #Sniptober #amwriting

Lord Albert’s face turned from amused to alabaster horror in seconds. His large, crystal blue eyes fell onto Eleanor once more. “My lady, you can’t possibly be serious.”

By then, Mick realized he’d lost control of the whole shebang. So when Eleanor leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, he let his own drop to his side and took a step back, eyes flicking from Lord Albert to his best friend and back.

“I am quite serious,” Eleanor replied. “Do tell. Is it the fact that Mick is a commoner? That he’s not from a family with as vaunted a reputation in the magical arts as yours? Because I assure you, the former hardly matters, and with regards to the latter, my family paid a considerable sum to get Mick trained in multiple forms of non-magical combat. From what I understand, he’s an excellent shot with a bow and arrow.”

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#AwesomeCharacters Mick writes an ending. It's a mix of what he's already fantasized about in the book (see snip), only Eleanor is working for the Royal Archives, he's working in that bistro (or as a music teacher), and the dragons/Sanctuary zizzun are free. (Honeysuckle is in the replies!)

But oh. What if? What if he and Eleanor could find a small, quiet town in Provinciale or somewhere else far away from Champs du Sur, away from the demands of Southwind Manor and away from the Bird & Bard. They wouldn’t tell their families much, other than that they were safe and happy. They’d have a home on a street just like this—or better, perhaps a small house further out towards the countryside. He would work at a bistro just like this. She would be free to do what she wished. And they would be happy.

He flinched away from the window. What was he thinking? He couldn’t wish that for them. Eleanor was nobility, and anyway, she could do better. And would she actually want a peaceful life at the end of it all? No, she’d want excitement and Eldaven and all its smoky alleys and rowdy adventurer bars. She would work for the Royal Archives, that vaunted organization of government scholars her brother worked for, where she would study rare artifacts while going off on expeditions or whatever else the Archives did. And that was if she gave up on adventuring and exploring and never having a fixed place of her own. And even here, Mick could only ever hope to be her friend and loyal companion until he could no longer keep up with her.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Beenjamin has been adventuring a lot lately, but he's eager to come back to writing! Join us TONIGHT at 8:30 PM ET for NIGHT WRITES, a chill writing stream on YouTube. Word sprints to begin at 9. #writingcommunity

Beenjamin gazes at a row of red marigolds along a brick wall.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Spotted what I'm pretty sure is a queen on my lunchtime adventures. She was super chill and *big*. The biggest bumblebee I've seen. #invertebrates #beeposting #beesky

A big bumblebee sits on a red marigold.

By big, it must be emphasized that she is literally as big as the flower she's lying on.

Same bumblebee, from above instead of the side.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#WIPSnips From TNS draft 7, tbh. Mick's first moments as a dragon are not exactly the smoothest, no. Eleanor is not helping. (Also: Queen's Guard = elite monster hunters and the queen's personal army.) #amwriting #writingcommunity

“Well, that answers that,” she sighed. “You’re definitely you. That was exactly how Mick Martin would react to this.”

“W-what?” Mick squeaked. “What’s going on?”

Eleanor hesitated, and Mick decided he didn’t like the look she was giving him.

“Ah, well . . .” She eased herself onto her knees before him. “It’s-it’s difficult to say. What do you remember?”

He looked at her. Even if he could think straight, he couldn’t answer that question. But as it stood, he could barely cling to words, let alone put them in an order that made sense.

“Right, right.” She rubbed her lips with her fingertips in thought. “Well. To recap, there was a troll, and then there was fire, and then you . . . turned into this. It all happened too quickly for me to grasp what was going on, but when you scooped me up and blasted your way out of the cavern with that fireball—”

He did what?

“—I knew some part of you was still in there,” Eleanor continued. “Ah. And . . . you might have attacked the Queen’s Guard.”

He did what?

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#WIPSnips Decided to share something from Beeslingers this time around! Today, a bit from chapter 2, in which the gang of girl gunslingers discuss why business has been slow. #amwriting #writingcommunity

“You know,” Miri said, “it is a little odd that that’s all we’ve got. Maybe we could take a detour. Figure out where all the stronger monsters went off to. Or the stronger marks in general, for that matter.”

She had a point. There was always a rogue mage or a bandit or a monster tamer or a murderer on the run in the Territories those days, and those were the Four Kings’ real bread and butter. A single dead-or-alive brought in hundreds of crown easily.

Problem was, the well had been dried up since they rolled into Campbell City. Either this place was crawling with bounty hunters or, even less likely, competent law enforcement, or the people here were too good. Or there was something weird going on.

Jo’s pointed ears perked up at that last possibility. But Jane’s blue eyes narrowed at her.

“We ain’t investigatin’,” she said.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

UnhingedPit, I'm ready for you. :) :) :)

The bee from Bee Movie leans against a pair of chocolate bars while giving the viewer slick glance. A speech bubble coming from him reads: "Ya like lesbian gunslingers taking down capitalism?"

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#WIPSnips Prime -> first. From TNS, chapter 1, Mick sings a story about one that came before him. And, well. Engages in the first fight of the book. (Longer snip, I know! I just wanted to get in as much of the song as possible. :') ) #amwriting #writingcommunity

Instead, he touched his bow to his violin’s strings and sang.

“In the dead of the Martins’ first winter
The snows came early and hard—
The children would’ve starved that Fennyk Feast,
If not for Josiah, father and Bard.”

Quick. Loose. Add in a little bite on the downswings. That was the backbone of “The Ballad of Josiah Martin,” the story of the first Martin to set foot in Southwind, of the Bird & Bard, of the Martin family itself.

“Josiah took up his old magic
Through his fiddle’s bow
And with his familiar Chanticleer,
Opened the way to the Sunless Road.
Down, down, down, through the land of the dead
Down, down, down, where no mortal man should tread.”

The golem swung its head up and growled. Its head raised, and its pitted eyes scanned the sky, as if reading the music in the air. Then, with more fluidity than an eight-foot pile of rocks should have had, it swiveled around until its eyes locked onto Mick, who danced on his toes along the lip of one of the craters in the street. Mick took a breath. There was the core: an uncut citrine the size of a baseball, glowing softly with the orange light of earth magic from one of the golem’s eye sockets.

So now all he had to do was—

“What had he seen? Where had he gone?
Josiah couldn’t say.”

Dodge. Mick leapt to the right and landed just inches from the golem’s fist as it hammered into the pavement. He danced backwards, heels on cobblestone lending a rapid staccato to his music, as he kept his eyes on the golem. Its mouth yawned open into a cavern lined with quartz teeth as it bellowed with the deafening sound of a foghorn in a chasm.

Somehow, though Mick stumbled at the noise, he managed to keep himself upright, keep his eyes on the golem.

“But somehow, through fate and feather,
Luck changed course for him that day.”

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Also updated the wallpaper, and now my phone makes me ridiculously happy.

Phone background featuring a pencil sketch of a bee person smiling and gazing upwards as they hold a boule of (bee) bread. This sketch sits within a heart; the rest of the background is silver.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#WIPSnips Delay -> late here. A snip from TNS, literal seconds from disaster. Yes, another one. Because being attacked by a giant hunk of muscle armed with earthquake-generating powers is actually the second worst thing that can happen to Mick right now. #amwriting #writingcommunity

“Eleanor, it’s an earthquake spell!” Mick shouted. “Get back!”

For a split second, she cast a terrified look his way, then bolted for the arches at the edge of the temple. Mick started after her, but he was just a second too late. The troll’s arms came down hard onto the temple floor, and the stone beneath Mick’s feet buckled and melted to sand. He crashed onto his his side, pain splintering through his shoulder. His arrows spilled from his quiver, and his bow smashed down into stone beside him. But the shattering of his only line of defense wasn’t the worst thing he saw in that moment.

The statue was.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

But also, it's nice to get back to Mick. Editing the first chapters of TNS and writing new content for him is like coming back to an old friend. Like . . . *motions to snip* I missed you, sir.

By contrast, Mick had steadfastly refused the attire the dragons had offered him—trousers, military jacket, and cape made of deep crimson velvet that made him look like a king, army general, or some kind of wanker, he couldn’t decide—but he did accept a loose, linen shirt and a pair of canvas trousers that made him look either like a pirate or eternally rumpled.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday! Share your favorite line you've worked on this week, and don't forget to support your fellow authors! Bonus Q: What is your MC's biggest anti-talent? As in, the thing they absolutely whiff at, no matter what they do? #writingcommunity #writesky #writingsky

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday, everyone! Share your favorite line you've worked on this week, and don't forget to interact with your fellow authors! Bonus Q: For some reason, your MCs are in a baking competition, and this week's theme is cake! What do they make, and which one's booted out? #writingprompts

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Birth. :V 🎂 Also, bee in Trafalgar Square. I am absolutely using data for this. Worth it.

Beenjamin gazes over a stone barrier to one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Traded in old phone for new to ensure the battery and camera would be good overseas. Also: Upgraded my lockscreen while I was at it.

A lockscreen featuring Beenjamin peering at a sunflower on a sunny day.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Shana tova! May the coming year be sweeter than the one that's passed!

Beenjamin peers at a plate of sliced apples and a tiny jar of honey.

The photographer offers an apple slice dipped in honey to Beenjamin.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

#FaveLineFriday Actually *is* a line today! I'm proud of that analogy in the last bit, but the rest is here for context. In short, this week in Beeslingers: When a flailing bee's kicked out of the Adventurers' Guild, Jo knows something ain't right.

In short: nothing good. The whole point of the Adventurers’ Guild was to vet anything related to the freelance guns-for-hire and monster-hunters that called themselves adventurers. If a shop wanted to sell supplies and rations to adventurers, every bullet and sack of flour had to be verified as authentic, not some cheap knock-off full of tin and plaster. If a restaurant wanted to serve adventurers, its kitchen had to be inspected for sanitation.

And if somebody had something they wanted to hire adventurers for, they had to go through the guildmaster and get their story verified by mind-reading heart mages. It was red tape, sure, but it sure beat getting robbed blind by a bee’s bandit swarm after being lured in by the promise of an easy payday.

So if Sal was turning this bee away, whatever job it had to offer must’ve been fishier than a sardine cannery.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday, everyone! Post your favorite line that you've worked on this week, and don't forget to interact with others! Bonus Q: What gemstone would you associate with your MCs and why? P.S. Important announcement in the replies! #writingcommunity #writesky #writingsky

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#WIPSnips From Beeslingers, chapter one: Escaping San Valentino is not without its risks, as Honeysuckle learns. #writingcommunity #amwriting

Honeysuckle chittered and buzzed and pinwheeled through the air. The sandworm arced over her, spraying rocks and sand as it went, and Honeysuckle swooped to dodge a boulder the size of her entire body before whirling up towards the sky. Beneath her, the worm plunged into the earth, cracked the prairie, wheeled back around to spray mud and clay up at Honeysuckle’s boots. And beneath her, the air shifted, the earth yawned open, and she could feel the hot breath of the worm and smell the fish stench of its guts and hear the roar and countless clicks of its thousand teeth.

Up. Honeysuckle went up. She didn’t care about anything else—not where the worm came from or how it could see her or anything—but the sky, the stars, and the freedom of the endless air. Throwing her pack over a shoulder, she clutched the strap with one hand with the other three reached up, as if grasping for the tarsal claws of her goddess. Higher. Higher.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Beenjamin: "You haven't done any writing OR streaming in a while." Me: "I'll get to it! I just—" Beenjamin: Me: "Wait! Not the alarm pheromone! I'm going! I'm going!" (Join us tonight at 8:30 PM ET for NIGHT WRITES, a writing stream! Sprints begin at 9.) #writingcommunity #writesky #writingsky

Beenjamin, a plush bee, peers at the viewer over an open book.

Beenjamin is climbing over the open book with his butt in the air. The photographer holds up a hand in a gesture of "wait, stop!"

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

#FaveLineFriday Progress has been pretty slow-going, but at the very least, squeezed some wisdom in. Anyway, know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, and other things Jo doesn't know how to do. /old school country references (Bonus Q in replies!)

“You’re still on that? It was ages ago!” Jo protested.

“It was last week.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“You bet a month’s earnin’s on a poker game!”

“In my defense, I had a good hand.”

“You had a dead man’s hand! You’re lucky you ain’t dead!”

Jo held up her actual hands. “Hey, wasn’t it you who always says, ‘Just ‘cause you have bad cards don’t mean you got a bad hand, if you can outgun the other guy’?”

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose. “That ain’t literal! Learn the right time to walk away from a table, will you?”

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday, folks! Post your favorite line that you've worked on this week, and don't forget to browse the tag and interact with others! Bonus Q: What's your MC's zodiac sign? Use any system you wish, including your own. #writingprompt #writingprompts #writesky #writingsky

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Also including both the sketch and the full-color version of Honeysuckle, for reference, because there's a lot going on in this image. :'D

A pencil sketch of a bee person in a dress, headscarf, and boots, holding a small slingshot in one of her four hands.

A full-color version of the bee girl sketch.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm definitely going to have to commission somebody to do actual justice to the Vision, BUT! An approximation of what I had in mind for now. Important: Honeysuckle is not giant; she's just in the foreground, several feet from the fire. Still working on the whole "shadow and perspective" thing.

A bee person flies away from a burning mansion. The bee person is indeed adorable, in a green pinafore and white dress, brown boots, and a red headscarf. In one of her four hands, she's holding a slingshot.

Note: The burning house is a photo of Nottoway Plantation consumed with fire.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

🐝Dove back into Beeslingers last night and will be WIPing on my break. I'm not bringing Clara with me—rather, an appropriate replacement. (See pic.) 🐝Will also be working on that infodump of WIP/Lumina info I'd talked about. 🐝TNS is officially on backburner, but it'll be back soon! I promise!

Beenjamin cuddles his Mini Bee as he stands beside a journal with a bumblebee and flowers on the cover.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Ah man, I'm just imagining how the zizzun would react. :'D Oh, they would absolutely welcome in new wasp buddies (unlike the average honey bee's reaction to a wasp), but given how quick zizzun are to defend and help new friends, I'd imagine a kuzazu-zizzun society would be something like this:

A futuristic, utopic city with towers, domes, flying cars, and expanses of green spaces.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#Critterary Thanks so much for hosting, Serra! This was, as always, a hoot to go through. :D Here's the card for the zizzun:

Two bee-like people stand side by side, their double pairs of wings spread. One of them is wearing a straw hat, a blue shirt, gray slacks, and red suspenders. The other is wearing a white dress with a green pinafore and a red headscarf.

Text below reads:

Creature Name: Zizzun
Appearance: Four/five-foot-tall bipedal, four-armed honey bees. (Queens are six feet tall. Drones are 5.5 and built like linebackers.)
Habitat: Anywhere they can establish a colony. Swarm as part of a queen's lifecycle.
Diet: Vegetarian. Mostly honey/pollen-infused dishes.
Famous for their baked goods.
Breeding/Child Rearing: Workers mate with other workers to lay workers; queens can lay drones, workers, or queen candidates/princesses but only mate with drones. Eggs/larvae are raised in brood comb; hatchlings are communally raised.
Life Cycle: Egg -> larva -> pupa -> hatchling/adult. Princesses undergo a further metamorphosis after being fed a set of magical cakes, which infuses them with magic and turns them into queens.
Behavior: Highly and strictly communal. Live in large colonies (towns or districts) in which all tasks are shared and all members work towards supporting their community. Prefer the company of their fellow zizzun but are otherwise friendly. Will split colonies and migrate over large distances once a new queen ascends to the throne.
Element/Powers: Elemental magic (though workers possess the weakest and can only use one element of twelve). Festooning (joining hands to combine magic/magical power). Stinging. Flight. The ability to detect magic and atmospheric shifts (through ocelli/antennae, respectively). Walking across walls/ceilings.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

So anyway, I don't normally block and tell, but this account is mass-following people and sending creepy af messages to them, and it's a whole-ass nope from me. Do what you need to and block on sight if you're not interested in weird ARG-flavored messages.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

#FaveLineFriday Dragging myself into actually writing was tough this week, but it was done! We finally have the beginnings of a chapter 2 for Beeslingers! 🎉 And it's starting off great for our new co-POV character, Jo. Bonus Q in the replies!

Beside her, Leiha, picture of elegance as she was, sighed heavily. Her cat ears flattened against her blue bob, and her long fingers traced along the edge of her glass, one claw ringing against the rim.

“Jo, please make an effort to stay civil for one afternoon,” she drawled. “And Miri. You’ll ruin that screwdriver if you stab her with it.”

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday! As always, share your favorite line you've worked on this week, and don't forget to interact with your fellow authors! Bonus Q: Forget DnD classes. Which Stardew Valley NPC are your MCs romancing and why? #writingprompts #writingcommunity #writesky

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Steam's over there on my other screen, reminding me of the sins I committed when I was a teenager.

Ad for MapleStory, a cartoonish anime MMO.

It has mixed reviews.

As God intended.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Welp, time to set up and spend the rest of the workday with lofi hiphop. 8)

The interior of a library, from the new Spirit City: Lofi Sessions DLC.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

5. Other things I talk about a lot: - The zizzun, my bee-like fantasy race. - Beenjamin, my writing partner/adventuring buddy. (He has his own account! @beenjaminatlarge.bsky.social. He is also my profile banner.) If you've read all of this, excellent! Let's bee friends! Also, beehold my children:

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Genuinely amazing. :'D Form is in the thread, but very likely, I'll post on Neocities but announce that posts are up/do roundups on the newsletter.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Happy #FaveLineFriday! Post your favorite line, and don't forget to support your fellow authors with likes/reposts/replies! Bonus Q: What sort of items are in your MC's junk drawer? #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writesky #writingsky

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

If in need of a honey bee, Beenjamin would not object.

Beenjamin, a honey bee plush, pokes out of a backpack to gaze at the viewer.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Choo choo! (If anyone's wondering why I'm active right now: two hours into a ten-hour train ride.)

Beenjamin gazes out a train window at a passing train station.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#FaveLineFriday Posting this a bit late, but hello! It's time to share your favorite line you've worked on this week, and don't forget to interact with those of your fellow authors! Bonus Q: Summarize your WIP in the form of a picture book title. (For example: "Curious George Goes to the Hospital")

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Surprise! Sometimes I do poetry, especially when I can't words otherwise. Like this one, which is about spotted lanternflies and arguments you had with your parents. #writingcommunity #writesky #writingsky

What fascinates me about the term
invasive species
is that it places the blame on the organism
merely for existing:
it is the invader,
as if it had a say—
as if it laid its eggs under a foreign sun,
after careful thought,
and not because we didn’t notice
its distant ancestor
beating spotted wings against the walls
of a shipping crate.
Isn’t that just like us?
To shift the blame to anyone but ourselves
and crush the damage underfoot
rather than accept
that we might have done harm
if we think we can seek forgiveness?

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#WIPSnips From the first chapter of Beeslingers, the first glimpse of what Honeysuckle is fighting for: #amwriting #writingcommunity

Peony must have had the same thought, because she stood by Honeysuckle’s side now, eyes on the jagged, black horizon to the east. Nearly a year ago, their swarm had climbed down from that mountain, an entire stream heading west in wagons and on wings, searching for their next home. Then they came here, and a man smiled at them and agreed to help them, if their queen would just come to his city hall and hash out a peace treaty.

She never came back from that. Nor did her drones, nor the attendants who went with her. Not alive, anyway. The morning after their queen went into the city, the man sent his brother down to the zizzun’s shanty town with the limp, headless body of one drone. Honeysuckle remembered standing at the edge of town, shoulder to shoulder with her fellow zizzun, watching as the man’s emissary unraveled that drone cell by cell in front of them. And then, his men gave them all pickaxes and told them to dig silver out of the mountain.

Her swarm had been mining ever since.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

#MythAugust The First Queen looks *exactly* like a queen bee, only giant. Specifically, she's a darker queen bee, like a Carniolan, with deep red-brown stripes. As for size, rough idea (though I'm p sure this is the wrong breed) of the First Queen with a cute little worker zizzun attendant: (1/2)

Actual photo of a queen bee perched on wood, with a tiny colored pencil drawing of a bee-like person in a green dress and red headscarf hovering next to her head.

Note: Photo gleaned from Wikipedia. Pencil sketch is mine.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

65. A lot of them are. Eleanor, for example, is a dark-skinned elf. (She's mixed race, half Black/half Filipino.) Quite a few gods aren't white, including about half of the Dawnlit, and outside of TNS, you have Cedric (Black, human); Jane (half-Native); Miri (Black, gnome); and I could go on.

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Jax Devora (is writing) @jaxdevora.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

64. Weirdly, I don't often tell people IRL that I write. One person knows, and he's supportive, but it doesn't come up in conversation all that often. Something something tragic backstory, don't often share my hobbies out of self-protection, etc.

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