2026 Writing Log, Part 32
Aug. 22nd, 2026 06:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- I finally posted the last chapter of my Tears of the Kingdom Modern AU story, The Archives of Hyrule, on AO3 (here). This is a tidy little novella, and I’m proud of myself for writing it during a super difficult year of my life. Good game!
- As I was writing, it occurred to me that this story, which is mostly a platonic adventure, would have worked much better if it were Zelda/Link. I’m starting to open myself to the possibility of Link being devious and a little scary, especially in the Tears of the Kingdom timeline where he’s at least thirty years old. It’s always good to remember that both he and Zelda are 100% down for violence and murder, canonically speaking.
- I submitted an original short story called “The Ghost Collector” to an indie horror zine called All Spirits’ Night, which is hosted on Tumblr (here) and open to submissions via a Google Form (here) until August 30. The info doc is (here), if you’re interested. I don’t know the people involved, but this looks like it might be an interesting project.
- I signed up for a local Philadelphia pitch event taking place in September, and I scheduled meetings with three literary agents. That’s not a lot, but I am very nervous and scared. I’m also kind of excited, I think! An Unfound Door is a really good book, and maybe it will be fun to talk about it with actual people instead of filling in faceless agent query forms.
- The fourth issue of The Comics Courier was published this week! I’ve got a short review of a minicomic zine called My New Hobby Craves Violence in this one, and I’ve shared a PDF of the review (here) if you’re interested in the links between postmodern social media horror and good old-fashioned botanical horror.
- Last week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about Exit 8, a prose adaptation of an indie game of the same name (on Steam here) that I wrote about a bit (here) on Dreamwidth. This novella isn’t the best piece of writing I’ve encountered, but it’s just the right length and moves quickly. If you like creepypasta, this is a tasty snack.
- I finished the base formatting for my flash fiction chapbook Hollow: Ten Tales of Fallen Knights! It looks fantastic, and I’m really proud of this one. This coming week I’ll do a final editing pass + add some graphics I’ve borrowed from actual medieval manuscripts.
- I created a design for an ornately etched Renaissance-era knight helmet to use as a graphic for the zine. The helmet is a composite of three pieces held by the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the etching is loosely based on a medieval manuscript border that I expanded outward. I think it looks really cool honestly. I posted the graphic (here) on Tumblr, and (here) is the line art, if you’re curious.
- I needed another graphic for the zine, so I drew another knight helmet. “Damn,” you may be thinking. “You just keep drawing knight helmets, don’t you?” And the answer is that hell yes I do. I posted this one on Tumblr (here) for all my fellow sickos.
- I got started on my series of drawings for this year’s Linktober art event. For the time being, I’m going to do (digital) ink with no color, with each drawing taking about three days to finish + a day-long rest in between pieces. I finished two drawings this week, and hopefully I’ll be able to maintain my energy during the next month.
The past two weeks have been really rough for me in terms of mental health. I thought maybe I would feel better if I repotted all the plants that had major growth spurts over the summer. I’m not sure this actually helped, but at least now the plants are repotted. Which isn’t nothing!
This week I also finished Tears of the Kingdom, and by “finished” I mean I completed all the shrines and sidequests. Ganondorf isn’t hurting anyone, so he can stay where he is. Meanwhile, I’d forgotten how amazing the three Lomei labyrinths are in this game, and I had a fantastic time with them. The moon gravity sections of Tears of the Kingdom are a miracle and a blessing.
- As I was writing, it occurred to me that this story, which is mostly a platonic adventure, would have worked much better if it were Zelda/Link. I’m starting to open myself to the possibility of Link being devious and a little scary, especially in the Tears of the Kingdom timeline where he’s at least thirty years old. It’s always good to remember that both he and Zelda are 100% down for violence and murder, canonically speaking.
- I submitted an original short story called “The Ghost Collector” to an indie horror zine called All Spirits’ Night, which is hosted on Tumblr (here) and open to submissions via a Google Form (here) until August 30. The info doc is (here), if you’re interested. I don’t know the people involved, but this looks like it might be an interesting project.
- I signed up for a local Philadelphia pitch event taking place in September, and I scheduled meetings with three literary agents. That’s not a lot, but I am very nervous and scared. I’m also kind of excited, I think! An Unfound Door is a really good book, and maybe it will be fun to talk about it with actual people instead of filling in faceless agent query forms.
- The fourth issue of The Comics Courier was published this week! I’ve got a short review of a minicomic zine called My New Hobby Craves Violence in this one, and I’ve shared a PDF of the review (here) if you’re interested in the links between postmodern social media horror and good old-fashioned botanical horror.
- Last week’s post on my book review blog (here) is about Exit 8, a prose adaptation of an indie game of the same name (on Steam here) that I wrote about a bit (here) on Dreamwidth. This novella isn’t the best piece of writing I’ve encountered, but it’s just the right length and moves quickly. If you like creepypasta, this is a tasty snack.
- I finished the base formatting for my flash fiction chapbook Hollow: Ten Tales of Fallen Knights! It looks fantastic, and I’m really proud of this one. This coming week I’ll do a final editing pass + add some graphics I’ve borrowed from actual medieval manuscripts.
- I created a design for an ornately etched Renaissance-era knight helmet to use as a graphic for the zine. The helmet is a composite of three pieces held by the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the etching is loosely based on a medieval manuscript border that I expanded outward. I think it looks really cool honestly. I posted the graphic (here) on Tumblr, and (here) is the line art, if you’re curious.
- I needed another graphic for the zine, so I drew another knight helmet. “Damn,” you may be thinking. “You just keep drawing knight helmets, don’t you?” And the answer is that hell yes I do. I posted this one on Tumblr (here) for all my fellow sickos.
- I got started on my series of drawings for this year’s Linktober art event. For the time being, I’m going to do (digital) ink with no color, with each drawing taking about three days to finish + a day-long rest in between pieces. I finished two drawings this week, and hopefully I’ll be able to maintain my energy during the next month.
The past two weeks have been really rough for me in terms of mental health. I thought maybe I would feel better if I repotted all the plants that had major growth spurts over the summer. I’m not sure this actually helped, but at least now the plants are repotted. Which isn’t nothing!
This week I also finished Tears of the Kingdom, and by “finished” I mean I completed all the shrines and sidequests. Ganondorf isn’t hurting anyone, so he can stay where he is. Meanwhile, I’d forgotten how amazing the three Lomei labyrinths are in this game, and I had a fantastic time with them. The moon gravity sections of Tears of the Kingdom are a miracle and a blessing.
