The Animist

If I had the skill to make the digital paintings I wanted to make as covers for my books, instead of just a black and white raven drawing, this is what I'd do:

Book one (Dalia Ravenstone and the Vicious Circle): A picture of Dalia Ravenstone -- a black girl with her hair in locs -- wearing a witches' hat and holding her wand in both hands, point side up. Brandon would be in the picture too, in his wheelchair. Sally as well, if I could fit her in. If not, a wider version of the image in which she is in the picture, would be included in the book itself.

Book two (Vedya Ravenstone and the Forge of Ponos): Vedya Ravenstone -- who is a Dalit child with rainbow colored hair -- would be in the image with her best friend Sarah Butcher, the two girls having their arms over each others' shoulders, both hamming it up for the camera.

Book three (Chooli Ravenstone and the Corrupted Spirit): An image of Chooli Ravenstone -- whose appearance is that of a Navajo child, but zee is actually biracial (half black) -- dressed in a tunic and vest for a ren faire, standing next to Felicia Grimaldi (an Italian girl with black hair). The image looks like a professional portrait of the two, but Chooli's attention has been diverted by something not in the frame. We can still see zeer face, though.

Book four (Ressa Akamai and the Bridge Not Crossed): Ressa Akamai -- a Hawaiian¹ woman from another universe -- on the back of a motorcycle with an anonymous biker in the front, everything about their identity hidden by their gloves, bike leathers, and helmet. I'd get the second anonymous biker from that scene in the image too, if I could, on their own motorcycle. This would include having the skill to draw a very specific brand and model of motorcycle that would have to be imported from India.

Book five (Dalia Ravenstone and the Vengeful Hunter): For this one, a bit of a departure. It would be a view of a place much like the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, in the background. (The foreground is a more traditional sandy shore.) It would, in fact, be Fomor. Several Ravenstones would be in the image -- most likely Dalia, Vedya, and at least two of the adults like Nizoni and Orpheus. Morgana as well, if there's room. They would be scattered on the shore, soaking wet, clearly having just been washed ashore.

Book six (Naga Ravenstone and the Envoy of Truth): I think having Naga herself on the cover would be too confusing, even with her haircut being what it is, and her hair being pink. This is because she is a multiverse double of Vedya. So in another departure, I'd probably include the Lichters and Oxythemis Caldwell instead, or maybe just feature the LLS Oneironaut -- an airship that resembles a submarine turned into a blimp. I dunno. Point is, most of book six's important plot is centered around them. The title is not a red herring, it is relevant to the plot, just not as much as other things are. The Lichters are both blond and white and look like they're from Victorian England. They look like identical twins if one was a woman and the other a man. (They are multiverse doubles of each other, and Lady Lichter is a trans woman.)

Book seven (Vasanti Sultana and the Riddle of Hope): Probably Vasanti and Zorana standing in a group next to one or both of the Lichters. Their appearances... Vasanti is Indian. (India Indian) Zorana is a black woman.


1 = Technically Ressa is biracial as well, however her father's ethnicity doesn't really show in her appearance, which is a good thing as I'm not really clear myself what that ethnicity is, as the country he's from doesn't exist in our world, however I would say the most likely cognate for his ethnicity to ours is Mexican, because the country he's from is located in part of what is Mexico here. Mexico exists in that world, but its name is Mexica. And obviously its borders are different.

After years of being too lazy and too sentimental¹ to do so, I finally deleted all my Harry Potter fanfics off of AO3 and FF.net. It was someone commenting on one of them that triggered it for me. I realized I've been getting irritated every time one of those sites emails me about kudos or comments on Harry Potter fics because it means those people are still reading Harry Potter, still supporting a bigot who is using her money and power to make trans people's lives even harder than they already were. And finally I just had enough of it. The series were abandoned, but people kept reading them anyway.

The comment was saying that Rowling had spent time, before being published, in a women's shelter because apparently she'd been abused. And this just pissed me off so much because if true, that means an abuse victim became the worst kind of abuser, abusing trans people and others with her power and influence.² So I deleted everything off both AO3 and FanFiction dot net, with the exception on AO3 of a couple works where I left only one "chapter" up, which is just a long explanation of why I had deleted everything. Also I turned off commenting.

Oh, and I mentioned my Ravenstone series in that long explanation, and put some links in my bio/profile, to here, my website, and my BlueSky account.

Now I won't get anything from either of those sites unless I decide to write fanfic for another fandom. Which I probably won't do, because I'm too focused on my own stuff. But if I did, it would probably be one-shots. The most likely fandom for me to write for now, if I was going to do so, is the Murderbot series. Or maybe Addams Family, but not the Wednesday series. It's a good series, but the makers have gotten some very important things wrong about the family. The dynamic between Morticia and Gomez isn't right, and in season two I've heard they made Grandmama into an entirely different character, basically turning her into that one woman from "The Devil Wears Prada." Unless that's supposed to be the other grandmother of the family that never featured before. I dunno, I haven't seen season two yet.

On a side note, my wireless keyboard that has somehow gone for over a year without needing to be charged just started blinking a green light at me. So I plugged it in and the light stopped blinking. I guess it finally started running out of electricity. I wish I knew how long it's been since I last charged it, because it's been at least a year. Possibly two. It's a modern marvel, truly the eighth wonder of the world.



1 = Sentimental because writing those fics helped me polish my writing, and because my Ravenstone series wouldn't exist at all if not for them, because of the polish to my writing but mainly because the Ravenstone series started as an idea for an Addams Family/Harry Potter crossover series. Basically, it was going to be "The Addams Family are witches in the HP universe." But I didn't want to be writing a third fanfic series because it was stressful enough writing two series at once, so I filed off all the serial numbers and made it into the Ravenstone series instead. Somehow, working on that while working on two fanfics wasn't as stressful as having three fanfics. Of course I eventually gave up on the fanfics and focused instead on the Ravenstone series.

2 = It also explains how she got twisted to be a transphobe. Someone abused by men, thinking trans women are just men in dresses? Explains her bigotry but in no way excuses it. I still will celebrate her death date with a rousing rendition of "Ding Dong The Bitch Is Dead," and if someone would help me get a passport and pay my way to the UK, I still will want to take a big fat shit on her grave, and set the gravestone on fire with napalm.