So sometimes I ask you “what should I write next?”  

It looks something like this.

Which, of course, leads to people asking “what do all these names mean, Lyn?”

This list is sorted into four sections: Not-writing, Writing (Current), Writing (Paused but I can be poked about it), and Writing (paused, don’t poke, argh.) I will try to update it periodically to move the writing projects between those three categories as mood suits, and I’m going to start with my current list, not with stuff that is paused and has been so for months.

Within those lists, things are sorted alphabetically.

See also Settings and Long-Form Stories.

Writing (Current)

Eralon’s Restrictions

NanoWrimo 2020 “Compendium of Completion” Story

After The Second Restriction and Eralon’s Restrictions, this story follows the oracle, Eralon, and the Lesser High Priest of Evening as they hash out the differences between the religion which has grown up around the gods of Foros and the intentions of these gods.

Fanfiction

Once Upon a Time AU Chain

Bilge Rats

Description Coming Soon

Hooked Fae Apoc

(In Need of A Title)

This is an AU of an AU of a canonical AU.

“Bilge Rats” follows the Once Upon a Time Author’s AU with a twist; this story takes Charming and Killian (Deckhand!Hook) out of that world and instead makes them fae in my Fae Apoc world, right in the middle of the apocalypse.

Charming was born & raised on Earth; Killian is an Ellehemaei from the fae world of Elle hem, come here in the invasion (“returned gods”).

They were both caught in the aftermath of bigger fae fighting overhead; they were both captured while pinned in the wreckage of a falling building and forced to agree to Belong (a fae Contract) to Ms. Regina Mills, who seems to be a local businesswoman.

And they both have a hard path ahead of them.

Hurt/comfort, heavy on the hurt in the first bit, Apocalyptic violence, m/m mostly cuddling at first.

 

F.I.B. M.A.D.

The feel of this story is Star Trek (TOS) meets Criminal Minds with a healthy dose of CSI (the original) thrown in: the  Federation Investigatory Bureau’s Mobile Analysis Division travels the Federated Space exploring the unusual and unsolvable crimes. 

Planned to be episodic in nature, the first episode follows cipher specialist Rosaliza Lanzyki (Ros) as she joins the team. 

If this is not set in my Foedus Plantarum setting, it is set in a very close facsimile.

Kith & Kin

Autumn has been travelling around the country & the continent to Ren Faires, craft shows, and the like for years. She’s also been finding knots in the Strands that connect all beings and helping them untangle them. Solving Problems. Helping out.

When a craft festival is rained out, she takes shelter in a library. There, she meets a librarian who not only knows the Strands – but has been recording information about them for decades.

Part of my NaNoWriMo 2020 Compendium of Completion, Kith & Kin began as a flash fiction several years ago, which can be found here.

Muzzled

In Avrox, everyone wears face coverings that obscure their noses, their mouths, their chins. Some are pretty, light, diaphanous; some are made of leather that fit the face; some are metal.

Nobody told Toph any of this before he visited the city, and now he’s found himself in a mess of trouble – and being sold to cover the fine for his crime – all for going without his face covered.

Why are the Avrox so intent on their damn muzzles anyway?

Meant to be a long-form story.

Muzzled Excerpt

The damn Avrox had put a muzzle on Toph.

He’d heard a lot of things about the Avrox, none of it all that good, but he’d heard that they paid well for workers, and he needed money, so he’d headed to their capital city, a forsaken place on the edge of a brine ocean, a desert, and a mountain range. 

He hadn’t been in their city three minutes before he was grabbed by two masked guards and thrown into a pen. 

Nathaen (Afterwards)

It was a one night stand that left Nathen feeling pretty lukewarm.  Great sex.. that was it. 

Except, well. 

Nathen wasn’t alone in his head, or in his body, and his “brothers” had other opinions about that one night stand. 

And, on top of that, he kept running into the guy. 

First at the same bar, over and over again. 

And then – then on TV, fighting the monsters that were taking over the planet. 

And then he rescued Nathen when one of his brothers got him into some trouble. 

And again when Nathen got between a screaming mob and a young woman. 

By the time Nathen could rescue the guy in return, it was almost a relief. 

But, of course, by that time he should’ve known it was never going to end there.

Owed a Life

He had killed the Monster whose troops had been encroaching on his home nation.  He had done his deed. He’d expected to die. There were too many of the Monster’s soldiers between him and freedom. 

An unknown archer, not one of the army he belonged to, not one of his Cause, saved his life three times (at least) on his escape. 

Now he must find that archer to repay the debt. 

And then, of course, he must convince the archer to accept the debt. 

Or save their lives, that would work, too. 

It’s going to be a long quest.

Planned to be a novella or novel, has a rough outline drawn up.

Purchase Negotiation (Keep Her Safe)

Set in the Fae Apoc ‘verse (urban fantasy), this story involves slavery, mind control, and past abuse. Leander doesn’t know what to expect when Mr. MacDiarmad buys him as a bodyguard for his daughter. His new owner thinks that something big, something apocalyptic, is coming. Leander doesn’t know what to think of that – but until or unless that arrives, he is playing boyfriend to a vivacious, opinionated woman who didn’t ask for him.

see also here in Long-Form Stories.

Rock, Hard

Arrise knows her father (probably), the king has tried to kill her and many of her siblings. She’s done a decent job up until now of staying a live and keeping as low a profile as a princess can.

However, this year, her father has given her a wounded mercenary as a gift.

Possibly he should’ve given her a tiger instead; it might have been safer.

Part of my NaNoWriMo 2020 Compendium of Completion, Rock, Hard was begun several years ago.

Tootfic

https://www.patreon.com/aldersprig/posts?filters[tag]=tootfic

Short stories — sometimes portions of a longer story — built to fit within one to three toots — a 500-character post on https://wandering.shop/@aldersprig on https://ping.the-planet.space/@aldersprig — flash fiction at, while not its flashiest or shortest, certainly short. 

Many of the stories are self-contained, but there are a few long-running toot series as well. 

Potions and the Apocalypse

Magic has always existed in the world – sometimes regulated, sometimes forbidden, often very quiet stuff.  It was taught in continuing ed classrooms and whispered between practitioners.  It smoothed the edges of life, made things a little easier. 

Then the – well, was it an attack? Was it the weirdest natural disaster ever? Nobody is quite sure. But the stuff like ash fell all over the world, and in its wake – 

It changed people, it changed animals, it changed the land.  It brought magic to the forefront where it hadn’t been and made messes where there’d been-  more or less – stability. 

Technology and science started hurrying for solutions, but while they did, magic practitioners began working. 

Written almost entirely in tootfiction.

Writing (Patreon Themes)

Every month I offer up a Patreon Theme Poll.  Each of these polls has a combination of settings, motifs, and types, one of which will dictate the content of my Patreon for the next month.  Here’s some of them; see also Settings, of course. 

Settings

Fae Apoc – Magic Effects in the Apocalypse 

This targeted sub-category of one of my biggest settings was the focus of my 2018 NanoWrimo project – (Password: pilgrims).

The apocalypse came with the returned so-called gods, the ones who came through the portals from another world. It came with magic thrown around like it was a toy, magic that collided with spells from Earth’s so-called defenders.

The residue left strange effects all over the world.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, a city is made of living glass.

Somewhere in Wyoming, the forest is made of huge predatory trees, trees which look like homes until they try to eat you.

Somewhere, the fish walk. Somewhere, the rivers light on fire.

Somewhere… you tell me. Vote for this sub-setting and tell me what the magic might be doing, in the world where the gods have come.

Stranded World 

✨

Modern fantasy .

Everything and everyone in the world is connected by lines of energy – strands. These Strands hold people together or push them apart; they can get tangled, knotted , smoothed – or even cut.

A few people in the world can read these Strands, can smooth them, can manipulate them, creating magic, which, like anything, can be used for good or ill.

Things Unspoken 

🦑

A Lovecraftian-esque empire with millions of secrets in billions of hidden corners.

From the mermaids in the south to the creatures nobody speaks of in the North Sea, from the eastern nations which aren’t yet trained, to the Western lands where the Empire has held sway for centuries, the Empire holds more whispered secrets than we will every find.

Types

Epistolary Fiction

Motifs

Writing (on Pause)

On Pause stories are likely to come back up onto the list, or you can mention (not more than once a week or so) that you’d like to see more of them.

8 page lease: 

The title for this one comes from a lease we once had for an apartment which was clearly written from the idea of “they have had too much stuff happen to them as landlords.”

Fae apoc, in the near post-apoc

She had started buying Kept [other fae, who were required by contract-with-the-universe to obey her] when she learned that there was a slave market nearby.  She had started with only one or two orders, stuff she thought was important.  

She ended up, after a few Kept,  with the equivalent of an 8-page lease. 

Inherited

Harry Potter Fanfic in the “Epilogue, what Epilogue?” category, i.e., more or less canon-compliant right up until near the end of the last book.

Severus Snape was dying, something that came as not at all of a surprise and something of a relief.

He was dying free, something he’d never really thought he’d manage to do, not since that day back when he was young(er) and stupid(er).

And then the last piece of Albus Dumbledore’s legacy – oh, Merlin’s beard, let it be the last! – came into play, and Severus was no longer dying.

Nor was he free anymore.

Neville/Severus M/m, but focused as much, or more, on potions, rebuilding reputations, rebuilding a world, and rebuilding Hogwarts as it is on their relationship.  Long-form and ongoing on AO3.

Just Stake Angel!
(Working Title)

Fanfiction, meant to be a short story, AU turning in season 1.

I am doing a re-watch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and there is a moment early in season 1 where Buffy believes that Angel attacked her mother (He’s set up) and is trying to do as she does and slay him.

I started with “what happens if she succeeds” and then by the time I got to the part where Whistler (Agent of the very annoying Powers That Be) was interfering, I’d gotten a bit squicked by a 200-year-old guy being all sadface over a 16 year old and…

Buffy succeeds in getting an arrow through Angel’s heart. Whistler intervenes. Angel gets a life lesson in another dimension (possibly working as an FBI agent) and comes back a changed man in more ways than one.

Malina and the Border Banners

(also called “Story for B”)

See the long-form stories page.

Mine Book

In our shared minecraft server, there is a very long railway. Several railways.  And in-character in-game, the Lynk (Lyn-Kit Link) system has its own guidebook.  It will tell you the nearby attractions to each stop, a little bit about the history of the lines, and which line to take to get to the interesting landmarks. Fanfic demifiction, I suppose? And as ongoing as the rail lines are, which means it’ll get new bits as I move back to working on the rails from time to time.

Paint the Prison

The war is over, and Azkaban is an unpleasant place to be or to work: drafty, full of vermin (not just the Death Eaters…), cold, damp, and dirty.   The Dementors are gone, but the ancient buildings still reek of despair. 

Then Jordan Lacewing (“Of the American Tuttle Branch of the Prewitts*”) marches in with her walking trunk (Trunky, of course) and declares that she is going to paint the prison. 

Not just paint.  Jordan Lacewing is a potions heiress, and she is going to coat every inch of the prison with layers of potions, as well as redecorating, repairing holes made in the war, and…

…bringing career and life training to the prisoners?

Seen through the eyes of a guard – Olivia – a prisoner – Blaise Zabini – and occasional others, this is about bringing prison reform to Wizarding Britain, whether it wants it or not. 

* Prewitt = Molly Weasely’s natal family. 

** Of those listed, Blaise is a canonical character.  Other canonical characters show up in the background, but this is mostly about the prison and the reform

Nano Minecraft

There is a world full of magic, but the magic belongs to people who have long since vanished. 

Sitting on the banks of the river, one fisher pulls up ancient artifacts.  Normally, they sell these to the people from the island high above, but something about the markings on them makes her want, instead, to understand the language. 

Understanding the language is going to lead to her understanding things nobody else has even considered, eventually.

Planned to be 23 -25 short stories, each about a MineCraft in-game book long, which may someday be available in a world download library. 

(As this was planned for the July camp-nanowrimo and got about 1000 words in that time… may be a defunct project.)

Writing (Completed)

This stuff is available to read somewhere.

Beers and Summer 

Beers and Summer is titled after a Darius Rucker song I heard on the way home, where I started “writing” this one by swearing at my speech to text – the title on the doc now is “Bonfires and summertime, Beers and Sunshine”

‘Cause everybody’s down in a world gone crazy
Don’t know how to fix it but I think maybe
Turn on the good times, turn off the TV
Yeah, the only BS I need is beers and sunshine

Summer helps people.  Sometimes she hexes people in a helpful manner, but she generally likes to pass around good luck. 

So what happens when someone on her campus comes to her asking for help, someone she wouldn’t normally think was worthy of help?

Short story, in theory.  

Helpers

Riffing off the second half of Mr. Rogers’ “look for the Helpers” quote. (For grown ups: Be the helpers.) (Note: I cannot source that there is a second half, but the idea is sound) – this is meant to be a short story.

Fae Apoc, and the world is ending. “Someone ought to do something. People are dying,” says one member of a crew.

They share a three-pronged look.

“Oh. That’s us, isn’t it?”

Three young 20-somethings doing their best to rescue as many people as possible as the elder fae destroy their city.

Involves flying, taking over a sanitarium, some repossession of property…

And being the helpers.

Writing (Box in the Closet)

This stuff was on the list, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to it.