SeaHeart

One of my very first tattoos was the word "Storyteller" on my wrist.  It was a deeply empowering thing for me to print upon my skin, in ink, exactly who and what I was, and a reminder for those dark nights of the soul (EVERY WRITER HAS THEM), that we never lose who we really are.  Out of all of my tattoos, this is still one of my favorites, even though it's one of my smallest, and one of my first.

Since the very beginning, though, it was the start of a much larger piece.  Every inch of my body has metaphors and meanings going on in my tattoos and my tattoo plans.  My right arm is, simply, my Storyteller arm (makes sense, right?  My right hand holds the pen).  This is the arm that has the half fairy tale tattoo sleeve on it.  I wanted the lower half sleeve to also reflect stories, but to go back to the root of them.  Not necessarily specific stories, but why and how they're written.  It's, arguably, one of the parts of my body I see the most--a perfect place for constant reminders of some of the most important parts of my life.

So, in my original plans for my forearm, I knew that I wanted a quill--the tip of it connecting, or almost connecting to the curlicue on the "Storyteller" tattoo, as if it just "wrote" that word upon my skin.  I wanted a very specific quill.  I'm Pagan, and I believe that, somehow and some way, all of my stories come from the Goddess.  I've built my entire life on loving Her and listening to all of the stories in my heart.  I'm also a lesbian, and that "colors" (HAH, A PUN) everything I do.  Maddie and I have been talking about both getting quill tattoos forever...so this past Yule, she presented me with my favorite tattoo parlor's gift certificate (ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS YOU CAN EVER GET MISS SARAH), and, yesterday, it HAPPENED.  <3

So I give you my Goddess of Writing quill tattoo.  The picture was taken a few minutes after the tattoo was finished, so IT'S STILL A LITTLE MESSY, and it's hard to see the rainbow She makes, because my arm is all GAH WHY DO YOU DO THESE THINGS TO US PRECIOUS (ie, enflamed).  She covers my entire forearm--the beginning of my bottom sleeve.

THERE IS A LOT OF SYMBOLISM GOING ON.  LET ME 'SPLAIN.  NO, IS TOO MUCH.  LET ME SUM UP:  the rainbow for lesbian stories, the peacock feather as a symbol of the Goddess, the repeating hearts as adoration of Her and love in general.  The dancing and playful posture of the Goddess as joy in the craft of writing.

Moth is FINISHED. <3 <3 <3

Worked all day long. Exhausted. Sleep now. But so fucking happy. <3 On the INSIDE, I FEEL LIKE THIS:

I am almost done with Moth. Almost done in every sense, in writing, in editing, in completion.

Very few of you know what Moth is about. I haven't kept it secret, per se, but I haven't been telling everyone, either. I've held it close to my heart, this little, fluttering thing, and it's ready now. It's time now.

Almost.

Moth is my strangest baby, out of many strange babies. It has a very different life, already, than all of my others, and it has done strange things to and with me. I love it with all of my heart, but with a very different love than I have given any of my other stories. It is a patient love, and an unconditional love, because this book is very weighty and very strong and very strange. And it's going to make some people angry, and some people are going to love it, and some people are going to despise it, and I have done, as I always do, what I could by it.

I'm being cryptic, aren't I. Indulge me?

I have spent a great deal of time with this book, every day with this book, from sun up to sun down with this book. I have walked into its pages with a great deal of trust, and--oh baby--I trust all the time. But this time was different. There was a spark. There was a kiss of cool wind. There was a change in tides.

I never expected this book that came up to me, this brazen little thing, and demanded that I write it. "I don't want to write you," I told the story. But it tugged at my sleeve, insistent. "I can't write you," I told the story. But it clung to me, insistent. "But you're going to be hated," I whispered to it.

"But I need to be written anyway," it whispered back.

So I wrote it. I devoted time and love and sleepless nights to it. I nurtured it into creation, and molded it and made it, and when it was done (or, it is almost done), I took a breath. A single breath. And I thought many things, in the time it took to draw that breath, but in the end, the final thought was this:

You were meant to be. And: I am proud of you.

I am so very close to putting away the brushes, stepping back from the canvas, putting my hands to the small of my back and surveying it fully, this landscape, this storyland. I know each thumbprint of it, every line of it, and it is strange and painful and beautiful and weird, and I have put everything that I am or could be or ever was into it. I have given all that I have for it.

The last page is coming, and it requires even more of me, as any story must. When you have given all you are, it asks for one hairsbreadth more. And you give it, freely. With love.

That's how you know you were meant to write it.

"Curse Cabin Confession," by Sarah Diemer
YA/Paranormal
When Robin invites her girlfriend, Malinda, up to her family cabin for the weekend, it's not just for a romantic time. Robin has a confession to make: she's not exactly human.

Read it here!


(photo by ANDR3W A)

Welcome to Project Unicorn, a fiction project over the course of one year by both me, author Sarah Diemer, and my wife author Jennifer Diemer, to put out, twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays!), free YA stories with lesbian heroines.

Today, we release the VERY FIRST short story, "Witch Girls." Enjoy! <3

"Witch Girls" by Sarah Diemer
YA/Dark Fantasy
The wild witch girls lurk at the edge of the woods, waiting to snatch away any girl who’s less than good. Gran’s warnings are the same every day: be good, or the witch girls will take you. But what if you want to be taken?

Read it here!

THINGS OF NOTE:

My short story, "Seek" has been released today! It's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords, and will also be available in print in a few weeks, because it's part of the line-up in my first anthology, Love Devours!

What would you do to be with the love of your life? Seek, a lady knight, has asked herself this question and come to a bone-chilling conclusion: she would summon a monster from the ocean's depths. But is Lady Ella truly worth the ugly price the monster demands?

"Seek" is a dark fantasy short story about desire and how strange love can be. "Seek" is part of the forthcoming collection LOVE DEVOURS: TALES OF MONSTROUS ADORATION, Sarah Diemer's first anthology, a collection of queer dark fantasy and science fiction stories.

~*~

I wrote so much today that my eyes are actually blurry. Like, I can't see this screen type of blurry. I'm sooooooooooooo cloooooooooooooooose to finishing the last story in Love Devours, but I just don't have the energy for it. It's my favorite, out of the ENTIRE anthology (and I love all of these babies very, very much, so that's saying something!), and I'm so excited about the premise, and I love the characters, but it will HAVE TO WAIT because EYEBALLS are KIND OF IMPORTANT.

In lieu of lots of thinky thoughts that I hope to post either tomorrow or the day after, I wanted to share the covers of the rest of the short stories of LOVE DEVOURS, and--hence--the titles! You can SORT of guess what each one is about, but I'm going to keep that in the dark just a tiiiiiiiiny bit longer. :) <3



( Read more... )

- While I'm getting ready to post the Fable Tribe update, Jenn is doing something we've been trying to get set up for months: she's posting the first update in our vintage Etsy shop, A Clover and A Bee! <3 It's going to be filled with 80s paper ephemera, toys and antiques--the first update is from Jenn's childhood and teenaged sticker collection, and it's filled with utterly adorable stuff. Take a peek! <3

ACloverAndABee.Etsy.com


- We spent the weekend down with Jenn's parents, celebrating the annual Cancerian Birthday Party (I'm a Cancer, and so are both of Jenn's parents. <3). It was awesome and wonderful, though came right on the heels of another incredibly-almost-catastrophic health related issue concerning her dad. :/ So it was really wonderful to see him okay.

- The Bone Girl is being released August 28th, my first anthology Love Devours is going to be released earlier in the coming month, and Project Unicorn is starting to get a lot of press and notice and OMG EXCITEMENT, WHOAH did people want this. :D I had hoped, but really, the amount of support has been absolutely staggering. <3 So that launches not next week, but the week after it. Holy crap, you guys, it's going to be INTENSE. I love the Project Unicorn themes, but one of my FAVORITE ones is for this first month, "The Dark Woods." It also somewhat ties in to what I'm wrapping up with Love Devours, and what I've been working on with Follow the Wolf, which is part of Sappho's Fables (it's the "Little Red Riding Hood" retelling). So, in short, not surprisingly, and--as always--we're knee deep in stories and words, and there are so many exciting, shiny things coming. <3 Viva la story! <3

- Jenn and I are heading on our yearly pilgrimage to Salem/Gloucester/Rockport in two days. <3 This year, as many things in our lives have, our trip has changed. This is the first time that Jenn and I are going by ourselves (Maddie's going a week after, with her mum! <3), so there's a real feel of second-honeymoon-ness going on. <3 Also, we wanted to have the most inexpensive vacation known to mankind, so we're not staying at a m/hotel. We're camping at Winter Island in our GLORIOUS! PALATIAL! SPARKLE-TENT! We're so hella excited about camping there, words escape me. Every year, we experience the place more and more like the locals do (our hearts belong there, after all!), but this year, we're diving even deeper in that. We're not going to use the car at ALL while we're there, instead simply walking, and taking the train where applicable. We're going to spend hours and hours in coffee shops as we outline our upcoming novels, discussing stories together. We're going to spend hours and hours and hours on the beach at the campground, cavorting in the water like the mermaids we are...it's going to be an easy, relaxing vacation with absolutely nothing to do but spend time with each other, create, and be in love. <3 <3 <3 I'm over the moon. I think this trip is going to change our lives. I have a feeling.

- That's where my mind is. Stories, and going home to the most precious place in the world, to us. Being together, exploring some of our favorite haunts, inventing new trails, being embraced by the perfect blue waves. <3 Finally, going home as a free woman--it holds more meaning than I can describe, that. <3

Today, I finished The Bone Girl. For four years of my life, this beautiful creature has been with me, has stayed, curled and unfolding in my heart and head.

It's over. The last line has been written, the edits have gone through, the final edits need to be made. I feel like I stand in a castle, all built and beautiful, and now I must move out again, vagabond that I am, to move to another land, where the foundation for another castle rests, walls of stories ready and waiting to be erected. Waiting for me.

Goodbye, beloved book. I have loved you, and I have loved you fiercely. Thank you for being kind to me, your storyteller, for staying with me as I spun you. I love you. Go forth and be good and be read.

<3

The Bone Girl is coming August 28th, 2012. <3 <3 <3