iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

It’s a really interesting world!

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

A.J. Calvin @ajcalvin.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#WIPSnips The word for October 8 is LIZARD There are no lizards on Ibis 2. Other than the nomari and humans, only invertebrates inhabit the planet. But Kate recalls lizards in other places... and the reptilian cold-bloodedness is not inappropriate. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. In this snip, Kate puts together just what kind of appeasement is going on between the human kumbhs and the dominant nomari.

Kate controlled her deep surge of revulsion. Hadn’t she seen the signs? Heard the glassmakers explain it? They’d explained only a small part. A sliver. The kumbhs of Eshuun actually picked some of their sons—and maybe their daughters too—to be raised, apart and in special ways, to be mated to the nomari. Her stomach turned sour. She had thought—had hoped—the process would be more like what she had observed at the Kumbh Kaldarim, a youth gently raised in his own house, perhaps catching a queen’s eye, with matters to be arranged by his parents and people concerned for his well-being. Or had that, too, been a misplaced assumption on her part?
A sacrifice, she realized, watching the elder women of the Kumbh Pattaim as they hovered about Ureyt and the two nomari scribes who, along with two scribes from the kumbh, recorded the transaction. These women are offering the boy in return for favors from the ruling race. It made an obscene kind of sense. Young men, like cattle on Old Earth, like the twining wrist lizards of Bodette’s Planet, had become a form of currency. And the kumbhs, very clearly, traded human flesh. How far did it go? Did they offer to foster children displaying promising skills in their trades, send their own daughters or sons off for marriages of alliance, or to be bonded into the work forces of neighboring kumbhs? As for the nomari... male bodies were currency.
Stringers, she thought, I want to get out of here. I need to get to someplace clean.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

The #WIPSnips word for October 8th is "lizard" This snippet's from The Moon's Eye (book 1 in The Relics of War.) I may have taken a little inspiration for this lunchtime scene after watching an episode of Bizarre Foods... 🤭 ajcalvin.net/books/relics... #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

A warrior stands before two people as they walk slowly through ancient statuary.

Text reads:
“Do you not like fruit, Maryn?” Janna asked after a time. She seemed at once fascinated and appalled by the Felene’s midday meal.
Maryn shook his head. “We are a carnivorous people. We do not subsist on plant matter of any sort. Your fruit would cause me physical illness. Thank you for the offer, but I must decline.”
“And you eat lizards?” she pressed.
“Lizards, insects, fish, birds…” He trailed off and took another bite.
“I didn’t know people ate lizards.” Janna frowned and shook her head.
“It’s not uncommon in the desert, either,” Vardak replied. “We take meat when and where we can acquire it, just as we do water.”

The Relics of War
The Moon's Eye - The Talisman of Delucha - War of the Nameless
Available Wide
https://ajcalvin.net/books/relics-of-war/

0202

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#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 8: MC Phobias In NOMARA, Kate doesn't really have phobias. But as a shuttle pilot she does have a great fear of abandonment, of being stranded or lost and then her ship/people don't try to find or rescue her. She's seen it happen.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

#WIPSnips The word for October 7th is COMPARISON No "comparison" in NOMARA, but Kate does make a few. In this snip she "compares" sex with queens to sex with her. It's an illuminating snip and I hope a funny one. The sex-obsessed nomari can be over the top romantic. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kate discovering the Eshuuni Queen's pleasure pavilions, including the famous one Arasend built especially for claiming Kharys.

A series of pavilions, some open to the night, some enclosed in shells of wonder, each more splendid than the one before it, ringed the drone enclave like jewels. They passed them all. At their center stood a chamber that even in darkness struck hearts still with beauty. All was pale and shimmering, ghostly columns rising above floors of moonlight. A high bed commanded the dais beneath an open portal through which thin clouds scuttled across the faces of two moons. The bed’s pillars, carved of some smooth pale stone, twisted like smoke above a platform as serene and cool as marble. Silk gleamed on that bed, and precious stones spangled the unseen ceiling like stars.
The Jade Pavilion.
It’s an altar, Kate realized, astonished. They take their virgins like offerings. That profound sensuality, possessive and unyielding, assailed her. Arasend had built this place for Kharys, had taken him upon that shining bed, a youth so beautiful she had made claiming his virgin body an act of worship no less transcendent than that of a drone dying in her arms.
Kate’s heart sank. Compared to that, sex with me must be like blowing his nose.

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Thanks for offering, though I think you're seeking commissions, and I only commission artists when I'm familiar with their work. Do you have a portfolio I can look at? Right now, to be open, I'm in the middle of buying a house and don't have extra money for art.

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It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is PUSH One of my favorite characters--simply loved writing him--is Cullen. In this snip from THE KHELD KING, Cullen and Stefan are resolving a thorny issue: whether Stefan should make Cullen, a Kheld, a lord. #WritingCommunity #bookqw

Left side of image is the book cover of THE KHELD KING, second book of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Cover is blue and gray and shows a lonely figure looking up at a clifftop city crowned by magic.

Right side of image is a text excerpt from THE KHELD KING:

Cullen’s measuring gaze was followed by a frown. “If I say I’ll be your minister, you’re going to push that lordship on me, aren’t you?”
Before he was crowned, they’d talked about Stefan doing that sort of thing. Staubauns might fight him every step of the way, but Khelds craved a greater role in Stefan’s government. There was no better way to make a statement. “It will be to your advantage. Usually the king’s ministers are aristocrats, or the sons of aristocrats, or high-ranking people from the Seven Houses or guilds. I have to make you an Enlad at least.”
Cullen sighed, but nodded, his eyes again sweeping toward the river. “Then I guess I’m in. If we’re making changes, might as well go full gallop.”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 7: POV and tense preferences I write multiple POVs much of the time, so prefer third person limited for such books. I can and do write first person present/past sometimes. I'm fighting a MC right now who wants to be a first person narrator.

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#WIPSnips The word for October 6 is RICE "Rice" is a staple grain for both humans and nomari. There are many kinds of rice. In this snip Kharys has ordered food in preparation for an important conversation with Kate. With Kate he's not sure what role to assume. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kharys pondering food and his role as regards Kate:

An almost imperceptible rap at the door announced that kitchen workers had arrived with the food. Ben permitted them entry and watched as they quietly set the tray on the table. As one worker lifted the covers from the dishes, offering each for his approval, Kharys nodded, and inhaled the aromas of shell rice and kimri, stewed melon and rich tuber broth with dumplings. He was glad he had ordered all of Kath’aren’s favorites, but anxious about his new role of confidant. Being her house servant had been less threatening.
When the workers had gone, Ben sat at one end of the table to gorge on the food while Kharys and Kath’aren convened at the other end, more intent on conversation.
“Is there anything I can do to reestablish some sort of dominance?” Kath’aren apparently was not in the mood to simply eat and relate her day’s adventures.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 6: WIP Villain In NOMARA, tentatively slated for Summer 2027, the villain is an alien queen of a humanoid hive society. Oandah is fierce, intelligent, and duplicitous as she schemes her way to the top... using Terran Kate as a pawn. [Art by @hajima7.bsky.social ]

Illustration by Mara. Image shows a gold-haired nomari queen, Oandah, in the background wearing a scarlet gown with gold embroidery. In the foreground stands dark-haired Kate, a Terran. She wears a dagger and a blaster gun.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Dominique Strange @domino44maps.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When you get an idea as cool as a candelabra compass held up by skulls with the wax dripping down them like blood how can you just ignore it?

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#WIPSnips The word for October 5 is WALL In NOMARA, Kharys is a traumatized child who grows to be a traumatized man; he survives by being resilient. This snip reveals his coping techniques among the nomari, who are raising him to serve their Queen. CW: grooming #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kharys as a captive child being raised by the nomari for eventual service to their Queen. The nomari use human men for sex and companionship.

Resigned that he was safe, Kharys allowed them to teach him their ways. Their language became his own, their strangenesses became familiar. Only he was always alien, a stranger, isolated behind walls, allowed to go abroad only if he was concealed by layers of silk and veils of gauze, with spear-carrying warriors to guard him—a thing that could see and hear and think, that others must never see, or hear, or think about. After a time, he learned to regard the hated garments as a hiding place. Through his veils he observed the nomari and their world as if in a dream. They were shadows, living in a shadow world, and he alone was real. Only his own chambers, where he was allowed to walk unveiled, had harsh, clear lines and hard color.
Greater passing followed the lesser, three moons sailing the river of stars, stringing themselves into a necklace of years. Kharys learned to look for the beautiful, older Queen, recognizing that she had become his mistress. He wanted to ask her why she kept him like this, apart, for no apparent purpose. But whenever she visited the secluded chambers that were his, he found his tongue rendered mute by the same worshipful silence that made his keepers bow away, and the golden Queen of the Others would leave him as she had found him, without answers. One thing only would she do, and that was to kiss him, always gently, on the lips.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Author C B Lansdell @cblansdell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

If [these characters] could master a hobby in one day, what would it be? #LitHodgepodge 3 We have Prismer on the left and Oklas on the right, so take your pick 🤗

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Runalong Womble @fantasycon @runalongwomble.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

New Review - let’s start the week off with a a treat and The Green Man’s Debt by Juliet E McKenna is a very enjoyable entry into the series that suggests a bigger tale is about to begin… www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2026/10...

runalongtheshelves.net

The Green Man’s Debt by Juliet E McKenna — Runalong The Shelves

I would like to thank Wizard’s Tower Press for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review Publisher – Wizard’s Tower Press Published – Out Now Price – £17.00 paper...

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 5: What would my MC wear to a Halloween party? The Triempery has a version of Halloween, Second Day, and Dorilian's sole appearance at that event was as a Sorcerer, in SORDANEON. Endelarin later does fine rendition of one in SECOND STONE. Tiflan is a bard. #WritingCommunity

Left side of image is a meme of a month's worth of daily writing prompts for authors of fantasy fiction. Meme is orange and has a background of two cute ghosts.

Right side of image is a text excerpt from SORDANEON, first book of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Excerpt is of main character Dorilian wearing a costume for his City's Second Day festivities.

Dorilian had changed his garments and stood before them wearing a close-fitting body suit of emerald cloth, upon which bold designs had been embroidered with gold thread and tinsel. Panels of felt encrusted with gems in intricate patterns formed a loincloth of sorts about his hips, and covered his shoulders and chest like armor. Boots of gilded leather encased his feet, hugging his legs with painted flames to midthigh. A cloak of silken ribbons hung from his broad shoulders, and he held under his arm a headpiece with curving, gilded horns and glaring, bejeweled eyes.
“The Sorcerer.” Marc Frederick identified the deity whose guise the young man had assumed. Even saying it gave the words a sinister edge.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

#WIPSnips The word for October 4 is CONTRACT I went with legal "contact" for this snip. Nomari queens gain human males by contract with the man's kumbh, or craft hall. These contracts create key alliances. Oandah enlists Kate's aid in procuring such an alliance. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kate telling Oandah about an alliance Kate helped negotiate--and already regrets.

The youth left, as did the servants, and all but two of the kumbharaim. Their hatred lingered after them, in words of parting and final wrangling over the terms of a contract some no longer wanted. Their hatred for Kate was now even greater than for Oandah. Never again would Kate walk the cobbled streets of the kumbhs without this act following her every footfall.
But that night, when Kate presented the terms of alliance to Oandah, the Queen was pleased.
“I have heard of him, this Pattaim pearl. They say he is all silver silk, and that his wasp mother stings all who would take him from her.” Oandah’s eyes sparkled like topazes tossed in the sun. “You should take his brother for yourself, Katharine.”
“Why? Kharys is quite good enough.”
All brightness faded from Oandah’s face. Kate knew then that she was right: Oandah still desired Kharys and had taken for granted that Kate would not want him for herself.
It took Oandah a moment to recover her facade of amusement. “Is he good? I should think so. That kanar knows nothing else.” She shrugged. “I’m surprised that he could respond to you. He has known only queens.”
Only queens. Not one Queen, not just Arasend. Oandah implied that there were others, beautiful, golden creatures with whom Kate could not hope to compare. Kate recognized the battle lines of female warfare.

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The “AI or be left behind “ argument bounces off me. In what way will I be left behind? I enjoy the way I write. I map books in my head. Words flow from my brain to my fingertips into a typewriter or a computer, or onto a blank page. I don’t feel left behind. I don’t understand their anger at me.

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A.J. Calvin @ajcalvin.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 4: How do I/my MC define bravery? Confront reality, then deal with it. Do what's right, even if doing so comes with a personal cost. Courage means looking those costs in the eye and accepting them. Sometimes that means looking yourself in the eye.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 3 Saturday snippet Here's the opening from Rites of Depature (coming March 23!) ajcalvin.net/books/the-fo...

Haunting the site of your death isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The worst part? No one knows I'm here. It's bloody boring. I've been without a decent conversation in centuries.
But the best part? No one knows I'm here. It makes pranks all the more thrilling when my visitors are completely unaware of my presence.
Unfortunately, unaware is the opposite descriptor of the mage currently staring me down from the stairwell. He sees me, which is going to make our first conversation a bit awkward.
I just trashed his expensive equipment, but in my defense, I didn't know he could see me. And most people - mages included - turn tail and run when faced with the prospect of a real paranormal encounter. It looks like he's an exception.
Shit.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#WIPSnips The word for October 3 is PETAL This snip is from THICK AS THIEVES, a book I'm considering republishing. It has the very best "petal" of all my stories. Vorgell the barbarian retrieved a basilisk egg for a nasty witch... but the egg has just hatched. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #basilisk

Text excerpt from THICK AS THIEVES, a fantasy novel by L.L. Stephens (aka Tali Spencer) and being revised for reissue. Snip shows the hatching of a basilisk egg as witnessed by Vorgell the barbarian:

All at once the egg split and a hideous little head popped out. The basilisk’s beady, slitted eyes fixed on Vorgell. He recognized that gaze. The eye had looked quite a bit larger as it stared at him from the green jewel of Madd’s collar, but it was the same. He grinned a greeting and watched the slimy thing struggle to free a pink, clawed foot. He could not say for sure just what a basilisk was, save that it had very long toes and what looked like a beak for a mouth. Some sort of wet, rosy feathers plastered its skull, but the rest as it emerged appeared to be soft, scaly and green, not unlike a lizard. When it freed the last of four little legs it tumbled, tiny tail and all, into Vorgell’s waiting hand, where it quivered in the cup of his palm.
“Well, look at you,” he said, putting aside the now vacant egg and its prison of rock. He thought better of touching the poor newly hatched creature, not knowing if that would be wise, and simply cradled it against his body where it would find warmth. Now that it was free of the egg, he could see the rosy feathers continued from its head down its back and it had a cute little tuft at the end of its tail. It didn’t look quite so ugly now.
“Aren’t you pretty?” he said softly. “You’re pretty as a petal.” The basilisk strove to move forward, but he prevented it from leaving his hand and it huddled, trapped against his body, looking up at him with unblinking, jewel-like eyes. The little thing had magic in it. That much he could tell—but if it had any powers, he couldn’t say. “You don’t have a mother to name you,” he murmured, because all things that entered the world must be named to assume their proper place, “so I’ll have to do. Because you’re pretty, I’ll call you Petal and hope you’re a girl.”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 3: Saturday Snippet I just bought a house, life's changing seasons, and I'm feeling autumnal. Here's a snip from THE GOD SPEAR, my most autumnal Triempery book, about the essence of the season. #WritingCommunity

Left side of image is a meme of a month's worth of daily writing prompts for authors of fantasy fiction. Prompts sit atop a background of two cartoon ghosts.

Right side of image is a text excerpt from THE GOD SPEAR, book 4 of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Snip is of an autumn scene in an orchard:

In the warm sun that drenched the orchard, they breathed air heavy with an odor of apples decaying among fallen leaves, of summer’s passage and the structure of the orchard crumbling back into the stuff of Creation. Essera, sifting down into essential elements, struggled toward a new order and would never again be as it was. The fruits of its glory had been consumed or lay spoiling in full ferment among the ruins of what had been. And Dorilian Sordaneon refused to see it. He still saw Essera in terms of the Highborn Triempery of old, damaged but viable.

Image of the book cover of THE GOD SPEAR, book 4 of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Cover is gold, orange and red and shows a young woman walking along a country lane toward a distant hill crowned with antlers.

Tagline reads: It will take a god to awaken a god.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#WIPSnips The word for October 2 is DENT Not a lot of dents in NOMARA, but this snip has a pretty significant "gouge." Terrans think one of their ships might have crashed on the planet. And Kate is asked to assist an unauthorized search. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kate on the Terran ship, being asked by her commanding officer to do a favor:

“If you’re making last minute entries, Varros, do something for me.” Rubinsky reached into his jacket and retrieved what looked like a personal datascreen. “Take this. It contains a complete and accurate file of the Orion’s ship’s crew and research personnel. Tag it into the shuttle subsets.”
His order made no sense. The shuttle shared the Alameda’s databanks. “Are you concerned about some sort of datalock?”
“Not officially. Just a contingency.”
Kate could imagine what kind. Rubinsky wanted to look for the Orion. She’d been briefed with the landing team about the potential an unusual valley formation on the plain near where Oandah’s people lived. An anomaly picked up by hi-rez geosat could be ship gouge.
She had to give the man credit: he didn’t give up. Kate took the datascreen into her hand and weighed it. Small as it was, it carried an unwelcome suggestion of subterfuge. By doing it this way, Rubinsky bypassed the Alameda’s ship intelligence and databanks—and also bypassed the possibility of alerting bureaucratic observers on ship to his use of the expedition for an unauthorized search. It would be easy enough to refuse and let Thorne replace her with someone more willing. But to what end? Kate played by the rules, but if there was even a possibility that the Orion was down there, was it so wrong to look for it? Or survivors? Concordat regulations were sometimes the worst enemies of those who upheld them.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 2: Spooky TV show rec I don't like horror and spooky to me is more anxiety producing than fun, but... I love everything about the quasi-vampire mini-series MIDNIGHT MASS. The setting. The characters. That it explores belief and fanaticism, isolation, grief and forgiveness.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#WIPSnips The word for October 1 is INJURY Kate gets knocked about a bit in NOMARA. She's perceived as an enemy. An alien. And she tends to fight back. In this early scene from the novel, fighting back laid her out. Maybe next time she'll do things differently. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kate waking up to her new reality: she's among the nomari now.

Kate opened her eyes to midday. It had to be midday because a burning amber orb bobbed madly over her head, blazing down into her eyes. Sun. Exposed, surface-stranded, unsuited . . . her skin was cooked. Pain ballooned behind her sockets, blinding her in rush of red. With a muted groan she twisted, and tried to roll onto her side, out of that searing heat.
“Katharine.” Oandah’s voice punctured the red haze. “You are injured. Do not move too much.”
“Where—"
“You are on a litter. Be still and be glad that you can rest while others walk.”
Kate felt it now, the rough swaying of her body, the irregular motion. She was being carried. Testing her arms, she discovered her wrists lashed to the poles of the litter. After a while, feeling stronger, she opened her eyes again, turned her head only enough to look over the edge of her conveyance. Oandah walked there, head bowed. She wore her cloak again, hood covering her hair.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 1: Introduction I'm L.L. Stephens and I write epic fantasy/science fiction as well as other things. For this month's prompts I'll be drawing on my Triempery WIPs (there are two) and a science fiction novel, NOMARA, which is finished but not published.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#WIPSnips The word for September 30 is GUARD I used "unguarded" in this snip. It's a fun glimpse of early Kate vs. Oandah. Oandah has just abducted Kate and the two are in the earliest stage of their contentious alliance. Neither is happy about it. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Terran Kate and Ibisian Oandah getting to know each other:

“Fool of a Terran!” Oandah’s voice crashed down, breaking the pre-dawn stillness. “This is not Eshuun! You have landed us on the lowland plain!”
Oandah’s warriors looked her way with sudden, fiercely watchful attention, but in her anger Kate vented every measure of pent-up rage she had stored since being abducted.
“Look, sister—that shuttle had pre-compted cords. It landed exactly where it was supposed to land, even if I had to do all the coordinating to bring it down. And you may not have to abide by Concordat rules, but I do—and it is against Concordat directives to land any Class C exploration craft near a populated area! Unless invited, which you know damn well we have not been. We have standing orders to stay out of sight. I would be setting myself up for court martial if I went against those directives, as good as drum myself out of the space service—and I’m not about to ruin my career, everything I’ve worked for, for the likes of you. You told me to bring you down . . . well, you’re down! You can walk from here.”
Oandah glared at her. “Terrans do not walk when they have their machines with them. Nor do queens walk into hostile lands unguarded and bearing their burdens on their backs.” She gestured to the shuttle. “You have a land vehicle. Use it.”
Kate grasped her meaning immediately. “The sled?” she exclaimed. “You’re parafinned! I can’t give you the sled.” Even if Oandah had somehow learned how to fly a hover sled, PES would throw a hype if a piece of advanced tech fell into Ibisian hands.
“And I will not return to Eshuun impoverished, without proof of the Terrans!” Oandah told her savagely. “If I must walk, you will walk with me. Indeed, it shall be my pleasure to make at least one Terran a bearer of burdens—”
A sudden shriek curdled the pre-dawn quiet.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#FantasyIndiesSeptember 30: Monthly wrap-up Let's just say I've been busy. Steve and I have been house-hunting, moving in our older years closer to family. So I've been doing a lot of cleaning our current house for sale. And lining up our financial ducks. Writing? I'm doing it mostly for fun.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

#WIPSnips The word for September 29 is WELL In NOMARA, human captive Kharys is very, very good at being what he needs to be to survive. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip reveals the thoughts of Arasend, a nomari Queen, about her captive lover Kharys:

“No, not those,” she said when he chose one of the several garments offered by the attendants. “The gold. It suits you better.” She saw him hesitate, then obey. Settling into her chair, she watched as he dressed. Every movement was graceful, deliberate, even his stance, the angle of his limbs, executed to be pleasing. Nothing in Kharys ever jarred. Not even his lapses.
From the very first moment when Oandah had brought Kharys to Eshuun, Arasend had marked his differentness. Kharys’s coloring, with his skin of pearl and his hair like red honey, had been too rare. His innocence was not that of barbarians, but of people more refined: his body showed few signs of having been reared in harshness, he embraced cleanliness eagerly and captivity too well. Even his speech, when he did speak, lacked barbarian inflections. The Nogshari’im had never raised Kharys. He knew nothing of the nomari, not even so much as was known to the youngest child of the ri’im.
For a time Arasend had thought Kharys unintelligent, an exquisitely beautiful idiot, possibly a slave-trader’s prize the Nogsha had captured from the caravans, for he had looks even the ri’im might sell for pleasure. But within passings she knew otherwise. Her exquisite boy’s hesitancy and quiet concealed an alert mind. The speech of the nomari came quickly to his lips once he had chance to hear it; he recognized his duties without fail and soon performed even the most complex of social functions in a manner as beautiful and flawless as his person—he could and would be the consort of a Queen. Arasend had not known, when she had first taken him from Oandah, that he would so suit her purposes.

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Some people just can't help themselves.

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#WIPSnips The word for September 29 is WELL In NOMARA, human captive Kharys is very, very good at being what he needs to be to survive. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

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#FantasyIndiesSeptember 29: Introvert, extrovert, ambivert I'm so introverted people never remember I was in a room or at events. Dorilian is... probably an ambivert, but with strong introvert tendency. Hans and Aubrey are ambiverts all the way. Endelarin is an extrovert. Marenthro? Introvert.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

#WIPSnips The word for September 28 is PRIME In NOMARA "prime" is used for several things: real estate, excitement, and, as in this snip, top notch. As she becomes more deeply enmeshed with nomari and humans, Kate has become increasingly valuable... and dangerous. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #SFF

Text excerpt from NOMARA, a science fiction WIP by L.L. Stephens. Snip shows Kate with the native human Troya, with whom she has a prickly relationship:

Twice, as Kate hid among the reeds, she detected the stirring of predators, creatures that burrowed in the soft earth of riverbanks and emerged at night to feast on the mud wasps and rush beetles that nested near the water. Enormous hunting spiders also prowled the dense vegetation, intent on surprising unwary food. Although no higher than her knee, the creatures were venomous and Kate kept a wary watch, having heard that spiders sometimes took human prey. “Small children,” Troya said matter-of-factly. “We, of course, would have to be bitten several times to succumb to their webbing.”
Spiders, fortunately, were solitary hunters unlikely to attack large prey.
“Wouldn’t it be safer to camp for the night?” Kate asked. They had passed several camps of refugees where groups had banded together in the darkness. She had watched their fires blinking from the road, promising warmth and the prospect of sleep.
Moonlight played upon Troya’s dark hair so that it looked like links of silver. “No. The more distance we put between ourselves and the nom, the safer we will be. You and I would make prime captives, and Yuvan could face worse.” She glanced at Kate solemnly. “I fear for you most of all. Yuvan and I at least have the protection of our kumbh; there are queens who would be loath to transgress upon that kinship. In such uncertain times as these, queens court the kumbhs. But none will court the Terrans. I am glad you have your weapon.”

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I've taken a break but I think I'll be back.

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Adulthood isn't all it's cracked up to be.

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Human settlements, such as Urud-Eshuun, belong to the nom outside which they exist. They cannot--and would not be allowed to--have relationships with other noms unless approved by their nom. Humans may have relationships with other human settlements, though. The nomari watch these closely.

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