iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Just submitted art to a competition and regretting it immediately

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Well. Where all things began, or perhaps, where they ended. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

I would have heard it for the first time when I was pulled from the waters of the well. It was only ever known as a well to me, but it wasn't made of stacked stone, or pumped by an iron handle, as the ones I think to now. Our well was simply a shallow pool within a grove of trees. There was no path there but for the one worn down into dark, smooth clay by our feet. The water was ice cold, fed from deep underground, and in Autumn, stained umber by the leaves falling within.
It would have been spoken over me there, as names were spoken over countless other boys being given to the Mothers. Some of them thrashed beneath the surface until foam clustered at the edges. Others were lowered in the same way they were lifted out - stricken and staring - with the water turning to glass between.
I have no way of knowing what my body did in that moment. I don't remember it, or the sound of my name on the other side. All I really remember are the bony hands gripping my limbs, the shape of children huddled, watching at the bank, and the wavering white of the moon, glimpsed from underneath

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Well. Where all things began, or perhaps, where they ended. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Doing everything in my power not to write the words "pregnant pause"

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

No thoughts. Only these two. #Booksky

Antoine,
First: I've closed the account with Master Alves and his portion of the sum has been endowed to his family holdings. I've placed our contributions into a suspense account for now, until we have a chance to decide what best to do. Enclosed are copies of the transfer documentation for your records.
Second: What's gotten into you? Mallory came by this morning to ask for your whereabouts. I spent all day asking others in turn.
I understand these past few weeks have been trying, but disappearing without a word is churlish, even for you, and sends us all into a frenzy. She has enough to worry about as it is.
When you return - and I have to trust you will, soon - come out with me to the stables. We can either talk, properly, or I can strike you across the face. Whichever will help.
You'll be the death of me, going on like this. - B

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Overthinking the word "nutty" to describe artichoke meat. Every possible combination and sequence just seems... ill advised

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

my headcanon is at war with my own canon #booksky

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

My boy, what have they done to my boy...

The open tray at my side clatters, and I glance down to the array of fresh porcelain boxes, jostling against one another as the wheels take up every rut and stone along the track.

Painted upon them in lace-fine hand are daffodils with petals of pure white, graceful stems, and gold coronas limned red, as a pheasant's eye.

I would have taken joy in the beauty of those strokes, the apparent sway and bend of each flower, even some days ago. The thought of finding such skill and execution - hidden away in the fringes of town, where industry quiets away and good work resides still - it would have delighted me. The little thrill I'd have felt walking by the passing merchants at market, peddling boxes much the same but entirely different. Still white, still painted, but thick-formed, adorned with coarse strokes of a brush, brusque with repetition and the pang of hunger.
But now, after all that's happened…

They rattle again with another lurch of the carriage, and they remind me of loose teeth in a withered jaw. I look away.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Working on a little piece for an indie authors upcoming sequel... Need to add more feathers. And claws. 💙📚

Sketch of a female warrior, half fae, half siren, reaching for an arrow

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"The full force of my Dorito-build on display" - words I never thought I'd write. Click through for an old-man-yells-at-cloud post on first person POV's and character descriptions.

patreon.com

Mirror, mirror | Mona Dreth

When I was working on the early concept of Patron, I passed a few initial draft pages to a friend for a sort of sense-check. He was intrigu

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Do you know this woman? News coming soon... ✨

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

What colour hair/eyes/complexion do you see him as having? I just finished rendering - up on Patreon this week!

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

He's side-eyeing the adventurers and pursing his lips at the dirt under their fingernails. At the last place they looted, he found a bolt of silk and has taken to throwing it over his bedroll at night.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

One thing you should know about me as a GM is that I WILL kill you

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

My main character is a textile merchant. When I came across this weirdly specific, no-context post let me tell you I was ALARMED

A meme of a blonde woman with the words "I am not entering into another relationship with a rival textile merchant from any of my past lives."

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Now that I've spent 9 hours on Side Project 4, I can move back to Side Project 1.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I should probably try actually writing at some point this week

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Beta readers: God, your poor main character. He's suffering! It's horrible! Me: Yes :)

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Ok but hear me out - Bastien, his best friend, had to come next

Sketch of a man in period clothing perched against a low wall

Close up - sketch of a man in period clothing perched against a low wall

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I should be writing, reading, or doing virtually anything else, but instead I am sketching my main character, Antoine

Rough sketch of a man in a frock coat looking over his shoulder

Close up - rough sketch of a man in a frock coat looking over his shoulder

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deer @boneccrone.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Hot for Hylas

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Heartbreak, you say? There's no shortage of that in my book...! #WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

She recovers the moment lightly, as though it hadn't happened, giving both of us grace. "Well, I do hope you meet him one day soon - my Casimir. You'd take to him immediately. It's impossible not to."

Is that right.

I hadn't thought of him much - this Casimir. I know enough of the men I've met since coming to this town - my associates, my clients - to imagine him. A boy. Impetuous; senselessly driven by the heat of his own blood, ripping through the world, with his mothers and sisters and lovers carefully stitching whatever rift he tears into it, pricking their fingers. I'd seen it happen time and time again. Only Bastien seems to look where he's stepping, lest he crush something underfoot. Perhaps that's why I'd let him close.

In any case, I realise with a sense of strange gratitude, Casimir will be forced to reckon with at least one of his foolish actions soon. And if it leads him away from her, Luciole will move through the heartache, and find another. She's young.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

In good news, writing on Part II is well underway. In bad news, my MMC continues to suffer.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I pulled together some sample chapters to release but then realised this counts as previously published if I want to follow the trad route! Rip me I guess

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

My beta readers decided to RE-READ the first third of my book, and PRINTED IT OUT to take notes 🥹. I didn't ask this of them, by the way.

My printed manuscript (first part) in a clipboard with handwritten scribbles in the margins and sticky notes

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deer @boneccrone.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Times New Roman really is that bitch

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particle dogs @particledogs.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

@monadreth.bsky.social has joined our project, still room for more

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

As a writer with gothic sensibilities, I misread "QOTD" every. single. time

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

In my latest research post, I'm harping on about daffodils and my unending search for a sufficiently skanky white floral fragrance.

A card titled The Poet's Daffodil - patreon.com/monadreth
Background: John William Waterhouse "Narcissus", 1912

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Yesterday a colleague asked me how I find the energy for my writing after a working day. I said my issue is more finding the energy for work after a writing night

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I'VE WIGGED MYSELF OUT AND I'M A WEEK BEHIND

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Them: So what's your novel about? Me: Yes

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deer @boneccrone.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Another dinner with the national geographic photographer and his stories of desert tribes that breed pigeons for seven generations until their feathers gleam iridescent white; tiered gardens with one hundred and ten peacocks, and partridges fattened with almonds and fruit to win singing competitions

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I live for these two men and the words that pass between them. I can't wait to see how the reader views their relationship...

"Worn out already?" he asks, a smirk playing at his lips.

"My years weigh on me."

"And so soon."

I study him, sidelong. A soft wine flush spans his cheeks. He's loosened his collar, his legs stretched out as he looks out over the grounds. A lock of hair has slipped out from its fastening, and now keeps sliding from behind his ear, yet the shape of him reads only as elegance and ease."

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I've finished Part I of my novel! It's a triptych. Writing on Part II starts next week.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

If my characters were perfumes: The Stranger is a mossy, ancient journey into the woods. It opens green - wild and heady, slowed then, by a strange comfort at the heart. The dry-down stretches into mineralic, sensual earth.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Researching for my book lands me in some fabulous places. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

A 1777 satirical print entitled ‘Coup de Bouton’, which shows a dashing young gentleman’s buttons blinding an unlucky young lady passing by.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Should I spend the last few good hours of the week developing sun/moon/risings for my characters?

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

A one-way ticket to writers block!

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I am never writing a Petrarchan sonnet ever again

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deer @boneccrone.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Give me a bas-relief that ISN'T a squid for once

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

If my characters were perfumes, Luci is uncomplicated, sweet, hopeful.

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

The middle of my book is none of my business

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

How do I stop editing and writing at the same time I stg

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mona @monadreth.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

IF MY CHARACTERS WERE PERFUMES, i.e. I can't stop thinking about this so humour me: Opening on a the green snap of a twig, the heart nuzzles into something soft and earthy, elegant in its simplicity. It dries down to a skin-like scent - just a little warmer, a little richer.

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