Paranatellonta, Rise

Flash Fiction: Rise!

Hi!

It’s that time of the year when the stories are being announced that will be part of the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction Contest anthology. The theme this year was “Rise”, once again prompting authors to write a story of 300 words, and I’m proud to say I submitted a story called “Ace-tral Projection” and it was selected. This is the fifth year in a row I have a story in the contest anthology! Everyone who’s friends with me on Duolingo knows I do love a good long streak.

You can read the full list of anthology picks via this link – and you may notice that my friend and co-writer LS Reinholt’s story “Flood” made it in there too! *high fives*

In other news, Fie and I posted the 359th edition of Paranatellonta yesterday—remember there’s a new post on the 1st and 15th of every month. Our next edition, on August 15, will be very special, and not just because 360 is a nice round number—we will celebrate that Paranatellonta will have existed for 10 years!!! Keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, you can go read the latest editions via the main page (click on the “[time] ago and x notes” line under a post to enlarge both its photo and text, or click the “Random post” button at the top to be catapulted up to ten years back in time). As ever, everything Paranatellonta is free to read. Enjoy!

Love from rainy Germany, where I’ve been having a very cosy autumnish holiday in the middle of summer (but also some sunny hobbit adventures on mountains),

Minerva

And also, Paranatellonta

Happy 2023!

Happy New Year!!!
This was my holiday card this year. Wishing you a year of creativity, cosiness, and inspiration!

Christmas Card 2023

The first edition of Paranatellonta for 2023 is already online – click here if you’re in the mood for some gingerbread or speculaas. On to a new year of stories!

Lots of love,

Minerva

And also, Paranatellonta

Happy December!

Yes, it really is December already. And yet I’m here to talk about… the October drawing challenge that involves ink, generally known as Inktober. Oops?

Anyway, I can proudly say that I did finish Inktober now, as promised! It took me until yesterday, but that’s not what we’ll be remembering, right?

Finishing Inktober: Choose Your Battles

This piece holds the final week of Peachtober prompts: there’s a “castle”, a “robot”, “land” and “sea” coming together on the right, the ivy on the T is my “plant”, and the final prompts “whale”, “pet”, and “sleepy” all come together in this cute whale on its fluffy pillow, because who wouldn’t want to pet that?

You can find the original Peachtober22 prompts here, and my earlier Inktober pieces are all on my Instagram.

Yes, this piece is a tiny little bit ironic. And yes, I’m proud of it and will be putting it on my wall as a reminder. Thank you for following along on my Inktober journey, even if it was a little longer than intended.

Love,

Minerva

P.S. The first of the month also means a new edition of Paranatellonta! Meet our cute little ghost in number 343.

Ink, Paranatellonta, Skulls & Spells, the dragon of ynys

Quick post-holiday update

Hello!

As I was away to be surrounded by the true fairy tale forests of Germany, I’m a little behind on sharing news and thought I’d do a quick update.

 

Photo of Minerva holding up the rolling pin

Rolling pins

Rainbow Crate’s The Dragon of Ynys fandom item from their April 2021 box, the adorable rolling pin with the dragons, cupcakes, swords, and hearts print, is now available via their website until stock runs out. Shipping from the US, you can find the link here.

 

Skulls & Spells

Queer horror anthology Skulls & Spells had a successful run on Kickstarter and is fully funded! Celebrations! It even reached two stretch goals. A big thank you to everyone who supported it!

 

Cover of the Ink anthology

Ink Anthology

The cover for Ink has been revealed here. The book will release on August 10, 2021 and you can preorder your copy via Amazon, Apple, and Kobo.

 

Paranatellonta

It’s August 1, so Fie and I just posted a new photo and story combination! It’s our 311th edition and this month marks the 8th anniversary of the project. Read the newest Paranatellonta here.


Thanks for reading! Have a great day.

Paranatellonta

Paranatellonta 300

Today, Fie and I have posted the 300th edition of Paranatellonta! A real milestone for our photography-and-storytelling project, which has been going since August 2013.

To celebrate, we have both created a painting for the other to write a ten-sentence story about. You can see the paintings accompanied by their stories by following the links below:

Painting by Fie – story by Minerva: click!

Painting by Minerva – story by Fie: click!

We hope you enjoy this edition and perhaps check out some older Paranatellonta posts!

Have a great week!

Geen categorie

Happy 2021!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you’ll all have a magical, comfortable and healthy 2021.

This turns out to be my 50th post on this blog, which feels quite fitting to celebrate its third birthday.

In spite of all the 2020 weirdness, the year brought me five new publications: the re-publication of my novella The Dragon of Ynys with Atthis Arts, and short stories in anthologies Space Opera Libretti, Community of Magic Pens, Neon Horror, and Innovation.

Publications of 2020

I’ve also managed to draw and bake (of which you can see more on my Instagram), and I feel grateful for every moment I’ve been able to fill with creativity.

Of course, the first of the month also means that Fie and I have posted a new photo and story on Paranatellonta: you can read it here.

I have many plans and projects for 2021, but after the unpredictability of the past year, I’d rather not say too much about them too soon. It’s probably a good idea to keep checking this blog regularly or subscribe to new posts if you haven’t already. 🙂

For now, please enjoy these first days of a new year of possibility!

Thank you for being here!

Lots of love,

Minerva

 

Innovation anthology, Neon Horror Zine

Release of Neon Horror and a flash fiction acceptance!

Hello!

So… Since my author copies were already on the way, I was going to wait a couple of days and announce the release of the Neon Horror anthology with a selfie of me holding the book. Then the postal service decided that actually delivering packages was so 2019, and subsequently it got kind of awkward to make a release post without that selfie, because the book had already been out for 2 weeks… But now I have some other news as well, so this is the perfect time to finally write this post.

And since acting as if everything is going as planned is a 2020 mood, here we go…

Wonderful news: the beautifully printed Neon Horror: an Anthology of Terrors by Creators from the LGBTQIA+ Community is out now!!!

Neon Horror: an anthology of terrors by creators from the LGBTQIA+ community (2020)

This full-colour anthology contains art and short stories in the horror genre. The Lost by L.S. Reinholt and me (aside from having a title that the mail clearly found very inspiring) is about two travellers in space whose logs and maps have been erased. When they encounter another ship, they hope they’ve found a solution, but instead lose even more…

Buy Neon Horror in The Haunted Bouncy Castle webshop!

The same webshop also has a lot of fun and colourful queer horror objects, ranging from cups to pillows to pins to prints for on your wall, so be sure to check it out. They have a Pride sale of 10% off until the end of this month.


Then, today’s very fresh news is that my flash story The Emperor’s New Helmet is accepted in this year’s anthology of the Queer Sci Fi flash fiction contest. The theme was “Innovation” and you can see the full list of the 120 included titles here on the Queer Sci Fi website. It also includes stories by my friends E.D.E. Bell, Ava Kelly, and L.S. Reinholt!

I finished reading last year’s edition, Migration, only a few weeks ago and was surprised by the great quality of all those stories, so I look forward to reading Innovation as well. It will be out on August 8, 2020, after the honorable mentions, judges’ picks and winners have been announced. In the meantime, I certainly recommend Migration if you’re in the mood for some bite-sized stories (all under 300 words).

And for even more flash fiction, I will refer to Paranatellonta, where we posted the 284th free photo-and-story combo today for your enjoyment.

That’s all the news for now!

Love,

Minerva

Neon Horror Zine

Neon Horror Zine

Hello!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Yesterday was also the start of the crowdfunder campaign of Neon Horror Zine, a magazine full of bright and colourful LBTQIA+ horror stories, comics, and art. It will contain a short story co-written by L.S. Reinholt and me. Aside from printing costs, the campaign funds will be used for paying the creators and to support the charities Mermaids in the UK and The Tie Campaign.

Take a look here for more info and a chance to support this project! There’s a list of the other creators as well—friend Ava Kelly has a story in it too!

Campaign banner

Our story, The Lost, shows the log of Siek de Void. The agender, pansexual captain of spaceship The Kenophobe is lucky to be accompanied by their more competent, non-human partner and pilot Giri. But with the logs and maps erased, will that luck be enough to keep them safe when they encounter the abandoned ship The Alfaragh?

You’ll find out in Neon Horror Zine!

P.S. It’s the first day of the month, so of course there’s also a new edition of Paranatellonta today. Enjoy!

Hotel Stormcove, Paranatellonta, Sherlock Holmes

Second stretch goal reached & Stormcove preorders

Hi!

I’ve got a couple of small updates.

First of all, the Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk Kickstarter reached its second stretch goal! The first stretch goal was an extra story in the anthology, and now, as we’ve reached 100 backers, every one of them will get to see their name in print in a special thank you section at the end of both volumes. If that’s something you would like for yourself, or if you’re simply interested in preordering steampunk Sherlock Holmes stories, there are 4 days left to do so here. (For my non-American friends who would like paperbacks or hardcovers, it may be of note that they will be available on Amazon later once the anthology is released, so at that point shipping costs may be lower.)

Secondly, still on the subject of preorders, the Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove anthology will be up for preorder here until the end of this month. The link will be taken down on April 1. After that, print copies won’t come with an included e-book, and the limited hardcover edition will no longer be available, so be quick if you’d like to get those!

And finally, a small treat that doesn’t require any ordering at all: the new edition of Paranatellonta is online since yesterday. For my new readers: Paranatellonta is a project where my friend Fie takes a photo which inspires a 10-sentence short story written by me. We post new editions on the 1st and 15th day of every month. I don’t always announce the posts here on my blog, but I really like this newest one, so I thought I’d remind you all of the project while I was blogging anyway. ^^ You can read it here for free. Enjoy!

Banner for Guidance - 5 years of Paranatellonta
Paranatellonta

Five Years of Paranatellonta!

In 2013, Fie and I started a new project. Fie wanted a good reason to take more pictures and I wanted to find more writing inspiration, and then Fie discovered Erin Morgenstern’s Flax-golden Tales. This was a wonderful idea: one photo every week, to inspire a ten-sentence story. We decided to try it out and see how long we’d keep it up.

Five years later, we’re still going strong! Granted, after 221 stories we’ve lowered the frequency to one Para edition every 2 weeks, as Real Life – and Real Publications! – began to take up too much of our time. But it’s still a pleasure to discover a new picture every time and see in which direction imagination will take its story.

To celebrate that pleasure, we’ve got a special edition for you. Fie and I are joined by author and photographer Ava Kelly.

Ava’s publication history began over two decades ago. Starting with poetry and flash fiction, Ava has gradually moved toward lengthier works, but often returns to shorter stories. Beyond storytelling, they are an artist specializing in conceptual photography. Ava has had various live VJ performances, several art shows, and their words have been immortalized as song lyrics.

Check out the result of our collaboration!

The Firevault

Guidance

You can also read and watch all previous editions of Paranatellonta for free here. Enjoy and let us know what you think!