The Moon Crown

a song's wavelengths cut into clips on audacity

when one of the most beneficial things you've learned via sound design is how to cut remixes so you only get the parts that won't drive you up the wall... literally tightened it from 5:17 to 2:45. In another I cut a scream, because I listen to it on repeat for hours. No more stress every 3 minutes 💀

spies??? in MY cosmic horror romance novel?

it's more likely than you think

The book is so weird in tone. Pastel aesthetic for major parts, childlike eldritch horror, and nonstop gallows humor.

Anyway, not weird in tone, but if I write a thing, it's pretty much always going to have mental health and queer rep. The mental health discussion is sort of the point in particular

Last night I told my partner I figured out the solution to so many things for my book and he was ready for something mind blowing and I just said, "Birthday party. It solves *everything*"

btw it's a horror novel

trying to describe one of my MC's mundane lives living in a cosmic horror entity and... Finally pinned it down. "It's like a middle manager working in FiDi, commuting in NYC, but in hell."

When he's not making wet heartbeats, he can be found on The Magnus Protocol from
@rustyquill.com, @shadowsatthedoor.bsky.social, @themooncrown.bsky.social and SCP Archives. He's also the producer of Octobers Children- a jack of all trades!

Feed Derrick's Lizard: www.indiegogo.com/projects/eel...

I have a feeling when I open the finale draft (which I think is at least an hour atm) I'll have editor thoughts about things that should be cut.

TMC led to more discipline with writing novels, and writing this novel might have helped me figure out how to tell a fairly straightforward story

YUP I'm really into the audio drama spinoff of the novel I've been working on. As in, the making playlists kind of "into it".

TMC's season 1 finale will come out eventually, but I haven't been able to find my PC parts since moving. So that's the hold up on that one.

An audio drama set in the same universe would be so fun though. Just not with any of the current characters I'm working with

The world it's set in has an economy and all of this lore that would be fun to build another story around. I've learned a LOT about writing working on this novel.

Wouldn't be me if I didn't get 90% into a project and went "what if I adapted this to another medium?"

Book's nearly there and I'm out here wanting to make a pilot episode for tv for a series about of the main antagonist's arrival in "Hell" and his descent

I love the idea though

Ah, in case anyone is wondering about the lack of anything on the feed - I haven't had a working PC capable of doing much sound work at all since July last year.

I'll figure it out, and probably soon! But in the meantime, other bills must be paid 👍

If I DO delete the account from twitter, it'll have to be after I make a feed announcement to be sure listeners know that there is no longer an official account in that space.

In all honesty, I doubt anyone would care enough to use it, but I might as well be cautious. 🧍

There's a subreddit, but I really don't have (and as you can probably tell, haven't had) the mental bandwidth for focusing on TMC focused content. I'll of course still post relevant updates here as they come up!

My reasoning for leaving TMC up is just a worry about potential misuse of the handle.

Sup y'all, finally throwing something TMC related on here!

If you follow or have followed the show elsewhere, just be aware that any updates that are meant for social media will be on bsky and tumblr at the most.

Still considering removing TMC from a certain platform.

okay BUT the wild thing is, splitting this up means I'll have written three novels. Holy smokes. Kind of cool. This includes my cyberpunk novel from 2012. I didn't finish it until 2017 but it HAS been beta read and I've worked on it a tad over the years, including last month.

Hot damn

All of this is null if I'm unable to publish anyway. Promoing TMC has been a hard journey I'm too tired for self publishing 😰 I have hope

Structural changes, and potential identity changes, here we go.

I *could* do it, I have ideas, but I would have liked the journey be from point a to b.

The more I think about it, giving Nate's POV room to breathe separately might do him more justice. Focus on Sonya overcoming institutional trauma and building trust, along with Damian's bipolar and identity.

hm

As it is now he looks cruel because his story is about grappling with the idea of the soul. It's a longer burn.

And the thing is, the resolution would be a bit "did they fix everything? did they really?" and then going "NOPE! HAHA! GOTCHA!" at the beginning of book two.

It does mean hollowing him out a bit here unfortunately and saving his backstory and POV to be told in a potential part two, or another project. I have faith that his character arc would be great. And maybe it would ultimately be better if separated, I'm not sold on that but it's certainly possible.

Cutting his relationship with his ex to one book risks losing the nuance of toxic relationships. Though, I have some ideas! I guess this book can be a focus on Sonya and Damian's POVs and leave Nate as a side character. He's not here just for rep, he's a fully fledged person, so maybe that's better.

ugh there's no way anyone's going to go for a duology so I just have to forget telling Nate and Nila's perspectives. Which means giving up rep for Nate being demi and minimizing my focus on GAD. Damian's identity might need to be rewritten if I cut out everything in part two

Cut around 3k down today and placed pivotal backstory sooner so that it feels less like "plot twist, tragic past!" It's so much nicer in this chapter! It's better thematically too ahhhhh

I mean it's ALWAYS been a twisty cosmic horror katabasis but I've been taking out huge chunks of Dante references 👍

Every thousand words I cut leads to another two being written, I'm SURE there's a lot to be pared down but as it is now even a halfway split is two chonkers

I really like the new additions and things are becoming more coherent, the "solution" for the MCs is making more sense, but AHHHH

More book stuff, it's now less Inferno and more so a twisty cosmic horror katabasis

And it's looking like it has to be split in two 😭

YO I just realized you can add IMAGES to your Spotify playlists?! WHAT

today's time sink had been unlocked 👍

gotta add it into every chapter because it surprises me every time

also my favorite recurring joke is the love interest walking into the middle of a serious discussion between two characters and immediately sneezing

idk WHY that's so funny to me, but every time I edit, it makes me bust out laughing and have to explain to my partner that someone sneezed again

in typical chaotic evil writer fashion, I've been stuck with my current project, so decided to switch to writing the sequel 👍

Been trying to get my last few chapters finished but instead I've been spending my time editing finished ones instead.

Here's to the new year, time to get things done 🎉💜

idk idk, what matters is getting it done.