Tristan

I'm just imagining a serial killer incapable of empathy gutting people for their organs in order to feel something inside. I'd definitely read it. Lol

What's your magic system? I would think a murder mystery would need a low-magic setting to be feasible, so it's probably a good call.

Share them if you want some feedback! I know I'm interested in hearing about them

I'm not having a bad day, just a blah day. My epilepsy medicine makes me drowsy as I adjust to it, plus I had to take a Benadryl for allergies, and that alone will knock me out. On top of that, I woke up at 4:30am to write with a friend, and now it's just after 3pm and I'm going off of five hours of sleep (which is not a lot for someone who consistently gets 8-9). I don't know how these young whippersnappers can do this every day. Could be that I'm just an 80-year-old grandma trapped in a 26-year-old girl.

Could it be from stress? Hope it's not a migraine

I'll definitely check out these links. This seems an appropriate place to put this, so I'll just drop this off here: I love his lectures--I've watched them more than once, and will continue to watch them when I need to call upon his holy guidance and wisdom. Lol (still my author crush)

Is everything okay? What happened?

Destructive gods I imagine?

Great minds think alike! I'm calling mine the Rift for now because I haven't thought of anything else yet. Lol

@StrikerEZ It depends. There are a lot of possibilities open, and shadowlings are constantly tempted to explore those possibilities, but the more they develop new abilities, the quicker they change. I have a character who can mimic a titan voice, enabling her to summon shadow beings, if they answer her call. The stronger her resolution, the more commanding her titan voice becomes. Another character can form weapons from smoke, and since he has empathic abilities as well, the more passionate or angry he is, the stronger the weapon will be. He has to constantly check his emotions when he forges something, to make sure he's not overdoing it and accelerating the change. Titan magic amplifies a shadowling's personality and characteristics. Results may vary. Lol

Anyone else love chili? I'm craving it, but I'm making Thai chicken meatballs in a curry sauce instead. ... but my southern girl heart really wants chili...

Thank you! I'll post a snippet here and there as I continue to work out the kinks and such.

I'm extremely shy about my writing, but I'd like to share something--partially to talk it out with myself, and partially to get feedback. In my story, magic used by humans comes from titans (name is WIP), which humans think are gods. When a titan dies, its energy is dispersed into the world around it, and it leaks from the Rift (also WIP), which is a hidden shadowland where the titans and other magical beings reside. Humans who are sensitive to the dead titan's energy can use magic in two main ways: 1. Those who are sensitive to but not conscious of it just let the magic flow through them without knowing what's happening. These are mostly clairants (people whose intuition and spiritual connectedness is enhanced to a level of clairvoyance/clairaudience/clairsentience, etc), and empaths (people who can sense and slightly manipulate the emotions of other people). 2. Those who are highly sensitive to the dead titan's magic and who are also conscious of it have the ability to store it in their body and use it for more physical purposes, though they may have some of the passive traits of clairants and/or empaths as well. These people are called shadowlings, and for the most part they're very rare. Keeping and using the titan's magic for extended periods of time will deteriorate the user's humanity and/or sanity, however, and the more powerful a human becomes through exploring the new abilities, the more his/her physiology changes. Titan magic will eventually turn someone into a titan-like creature if used too long, without any trace of humanity left. This process can be slowed significantly, however, if the shadowling learns how to link to other humans. Linking to people, especially in large crowds, can be a sort of outlet to let some of the magic flow through the clairants and empaths (as it doesn't change them). Some of them call it grounding themselves. They can also steal energy from people--if someone is dreaming in R.E.M. sleep, for example, a shadowling can link to that person and essentially eat the dream, siphoning the benefits of the R.E.M. sleep so he/she can feel rested for longer periods of time. The shadowlings can see tears in the Rift and enter into them, as well, but spending time in the Rift accelerates the transformation into a titan creature. In my story, the shadowlings are noticing a huge surge of magic and many are being killed off because they don't know how to use their magic and they're changing too quickly, scaring the public. This means that titans are dying, so something in the Rift is killing them off suddenly. To save themselves the shadowlings have to find what's killing the titans and put an end to it, before the rest of the humans kill them first. Sorry that was so long-winded!

Posting for Syria.

Be like Kaladin! Continue fighting, surviving, and weathering the highstorm. Listen to all your Syls: @Left @TwiLyghtSansSparkles @Jondesu You can do this.

I just realized that I have a brother from another mother AND a sister from another mister. (Step-brother and half-sister.) This revelation counts as good news, right?

@Darkness Ascendant They woke you up for nothing?! That's gotta be cruel and unusual punishment lol

I had a dream that shadow people stole my little sister in the night.

If it makes you feel any better, sitting at a desk all day makes your back hurt! ... hm. Don't be an adult. Lol

@StrikerEZ Can someone prevent a Hivemind from invading his/her mind without avoiding skin-to-skin contact for the rest of his/her life? If not, it seems like it would be a brutal world to live in. I would think you'd either trust no one at all to a level of paranoia, or you'd develop a deep level of intimacy and vulnerability with every person you come in contact with! Are there laws against MindJumping? If so, how are they enforced? Can a Bodyjacker get DNA from someone who is currently Bodyjacking? Like if someone Bodyjacks a random dude, can another Bodyjacker Bodyjack the first Bodyjacker to look like the random dude, too? Or would the 2nd one be jacking the first one's real DNA? Can a Bodyjacker commit crimes and leave traces of the other person's DNA to frame him/her? How do people solve murders and such with Bodyjackers around? If a Bodyjacker dies, will he/she stay in that body or revert to the original DNA? This is really interesting; I'd like to hear more about it!

Sometimes I second-guess my story because a couple of fantasy cliches. I'm writing it anyway because it's fun for me (in a tedious and frustrating way). Just curious, what do you guys think about tropes and cliches in fantasy? Are there any that would make you immediately stop reading? I personally hate the strong female character who is supposed to break traditional stereotypes. The girl who prefers trousers to dresses, who hangs out with the boys, who doesn't care about her appearance or girly things, who would rather learn to fight with a sword than to go to the ball, etc. It's just as bad as the damsel-in-distress to me. It strips away all femininity and I'm basically reading about a male character who happens to look like a female. Pardon my rant.

I have breathed wretched life into clairants, silently witnessed scapers murder innocents, stole power from false gods, created an abomination, splintered a fragile peace, forged an unwilling and crooked hero, and led the shadowlings into the Rift. I'm going off of what I've written myself, since that's more my own adventure

Had an EEG and found out my epilepsy is back in full swing today. That's not good news, but I had the whole day off! The tech taught me how to read my own electrical recordings while I was there, too, which was incredibly fascinating. (She even taught me which alphanumerical characters correlated with which electrodes so I could see how something as simple as swallowing or blinking travels throughout the brain!) Plus, I changed my nose ring for the first time! And it only took me ten long minutes and a few sniffles and tears. AND it's raining, and I love the rain. It's been a good day overall!

http://www.playbuzz.com/steviefinegan10/which-brandon-sanderson-character-are-you Found this^ It's not extensive by any means, but it was kinda fun. I got Hoid

I'm just now reading Mistborn and I freakin love Vin. Alright, fictional characters in general, that's a good idea! For me those would extend to Luna Lovegood--GO RAVENCLAW--(maybe a little Hermione, I'm quite bossy)... Jonathan Strange because he empowers himself by challenging the way things are normally done, and Agnieszka from Uprooted, because she's resourceful and true to herself. Maybe Linda from Bob's Burgers, too. My boyfriend groans when I narrate my life in song. Lol