Britany Raine

Creator of the Sanction Universe; Dark Fantasy collides with CyberPunk.
Love, Myth, Romance, Music, Chaos & Cookies
Welcome to the madness. I’m not sorry. ☕🔥

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Just a wee little reminder that this is out and available. A bite sized Novelette to get your feet wet and your teeth sharpened on what else I have in store 📷
https://t.co/cSdGEz80kC

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

The Monthly Process of copying my "Writing Room" to back up drives 'cause I'm paranoid.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

When I asked him why I was allowed to live through so much darkness, he replied:
So that you may know the way through when leading others. And the compassion to help hold the shape of grief.

You survived long enough to become a lantern.

Sanction Street Proverb:
Those who know the dark are not made holy by suffering.They are made responsible only for the light they choose to carry.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Sharing an excerpt from the project I’m wrapping up. The few words of encouragement I got spurred me to get it wrapped up.

(Toned back for public reading.)

He had expected many things from this ancient, root-wise judge. This particular mercy had not been among them.
“I was told,” he managed, “that you turned men to stone.”
She released him —redacted— for a moment, looking up, —redacted— “I do. Eventually. I find this gets me there faster.”

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Just saying... Some ladies choos the bear for different reasons. Especially if those woman also happen to have tails.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

@Kristin_Fiction Oh my goodness. It's not X, It's Y. *rolls eyes*

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Just an excerpt from a current project that tickles me greatly. For context, Shiori is a neurosergeon and cybernetics specialist.

***

The unit below had originally been reserved for a Japanese diplomatic attaché whose primary function, as far as Shiori could determine, was moving legal ambiguities between the Shogunate, Sanction, and Blackbourne until all three parties could deny understanding the sentence.
She had taken her request to the board and the Enclave.
The attaché, a small man with dirty nails, had argued profusely. Red-faced, he explained that he had already paid for adjustments to the layout: a kiln, ventilation changes, reinforced flooring, a private pottery studio.
She had argued, precisely and correctly, that her work carried greater strategic consequence than a man professionally trained to notarize cowardice and ambiguity.
He had invoked status, tenure, diplomatic priority, and several patriarchal hierarchies he seemed to believe were still relevant in this new era.
She had countered by offering to excise several minor ‘fallacies’ so his argument could stand without embarrassing its owner.
There had been sniggering. He had gone redder. She kept her composure.
The attaché had been relocated.
Kenji had been given a clean room.
Shiori had been given quiet.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

@Timcast My brain hurts.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Feminism and progressive ideology tends to create main character energy that's only as effective and meanifuk based on how loud you can be in places that weren't meant for you.
Buy yes Barbara. Your chihuahua qualifies you to be as special and precious as say...
*counts*
Some one with a combined seven children and 4 grandkids.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Gosh I’m a crazy Bird.
People freaking out over big words, and then there’s my batty brain going deep into music theory to describe some one’s killing sequence:

Evan handled the center with the same measure and tempo.
Step, assess, fire, step.
Fire, assess, step, fire.
Not rushed. Not theatrical. Just the systematic removal of threats from the ostinato.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Editing.
Cause sometimes this:

The first one lunged.
Kad’s shotgun spoke first—
A single percussive roar that turned the lead cutter into a skidding wreck of shattered chitin and amber fluid.
The sound rolled through the canopy and came back from the hills in the valley like a delayed echo.
“Doorbell,” Kad muttered, racking another round.

Needs to be this:

The first one lunged.
Kad’s shotgun spoke first—a single percussive roar shivered the canopy and echoed off the hills.
The lead cutter shattered into a skidding wreck of chitin and amber viscera.
“Doorbell,” Kad muttered, racking another round.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Getting there~ Only 46 more to go!
Woo—
Eh…
warms up the keurig

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Blind Testing a blurb. Feedback welcome ^_^

Rensuke Kazuhira was a ronin fading to nothing before Sanction made him define what that meant.
Exiled from Japan, stripped of place, name, and future, he survives as a blade-for-hire in a city that has perfected the art of pretending men like him never existed—right up until it needs them catalogued, licensed, paid, blamed, or buried.

Saela tends flowers in a jungle of neon and concrete.
Ivory-skinned and ash-touched, with horns that make her grace impossible to ignore, she keeps a garden alive in a district where beauty is usually sold, stolen, or lied about.
In Sanction, that makes her more than rare.
It makes her visible.

And beneath the city, something ancient hunts.
A hunger threaded in silk. A widow of grief. Cursed to lust for beauty, to devour what it desires, and to turn the forgotten into art so they can never leave.

In a city of ash, rain, and old sins, petals will fall upon blades, still water, and silk.

And Rensuke, who has spent his life defending thresholds, will have to choose:
Which to deny—
Which to cross—
And which to bleed for.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Me at work:
Me: So when I get home tonight, I work on the climactic battle of the book.
Brain: Rock on. Forty chapters in. Time to make it shine.
Me: Okay, so we’ve spent the entire book making sure the bad guy is a monster. And she is. She does awful, awful things. She has a body count and a [Redacted], but how does the final battle happen between her and the [Redacted]?
Brain: I dunno. Other than “monster who feeds on [Redacted] and entertains herself with [Redacted],” who is she?
Me: You know, I’m not quite sure. But I really enjoy the idea of her having a [Redacted].
Brain: Okay, that’s cool too, but hear me out—who is she?
Me: I dunno. I’ll figure it out when I get home.

Me at home:
Brain: Ok, so who is she?
Me: Can’t I just write the battle?
Brain: We need a few extra details first for when she dies. Like, a villian monologue or something. So we need to know, who is she?
Muse: clears throat I have some ideas, but let’s check some things on the Google machine.
—3 hours later, after research, brainstorming, plotting details, and compiling a drafted history of who she is—
Brain to Muse: Why are you like this? Who hurt you?
Muse: smirks and sips coffee It’s a gift.
Me: quietly sobbing because I just did something monstrous to my characters and possibly my eventual readers

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

32 chapters deep into this book.
A line Plot is flowing smoothly.
B line plot is flowing smoothly.
C and D subplots are bobbing and weaving to keep the story deep and tie into the wider universe.
And now that I’m moving into the climax… If you don’t count the half dozen or so climaxes that happened in an earlier chapter…
sips coffee and tries to look demure and innocent
I suddenly don’t know how to make the A line plot come to a head.
And no, not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter.
sips coffee again
That comes in the B line plot climax after the A line plot climaxes anyway. I even sketched an outline, and I know what the outline says happens, but I think it’s lying all of a sudden.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Coming to the conclusion that I’ll never understand other people’s ideas of literacy, what counts as human, what doesn’t, and who can think creatively and who can’t.

I tried to watch a video on AI “tells” and one of the subjects was on metaphors and similes that make no god damned sense.

And I was like… “Alright, I’m listening.”

The example in question was describing silence.

Describing silence as “a thunderstorm folded into velvet”

And of course there was no context around it. Like… What was happening leading up to the metaphor?

Was Shadowdaddy disrobing, his turgid length on full display as she lay helpless against the satin sheets. She swallowed, the faint click in the back of her throat the only thing that dared to break the silence that felt like a thunderstorm folded into velvet?

fans self

Or in one of my own personal examples.

As he crept along the corridor, silence bore down on him, the weight of it felt like a knife trying to press between his ribs, pushing his nerves past reason till he thought he might scream.

I mean come on, last I checked, silence didn’t tip any scales and it sure as shit didn’t cut. But when you take into account the MC is walking on what he can only assume is the cieling in a science facility that’s not entirely in the mortal realm anymore and there’s things in there with him that want to wear him like a suit and consume his memories… It makes more sense.

That or the slop that was being produced before AI ever leanred to slop has destroyed creative and abstract thinking, and I should just go revise this chapter I’m editing to:

Boy bangs Girl. Girl Bangs boy back. Boy bangs girl again. Girl eats boy.

Or maybe I should just go take a nap.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Ya know... Last monday I got ome from work and I was all sweaty and gross cause it was close to 90 degrees.
I ALMOST put my coat away and started switching around my closet.
But then again, I live in Montana and went ahead and checked the weather app.
It's only snowed a couple times in the past 3 days =P

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

Ok, I take it back. I did do some counting.
30 chapters so far.
75,000 words. (Lots of stuff over written, and some gaps I need to fill back in.)
And Rensuke has finally, intentionally, reached out to hold her hand. gushes
So yes, when I said slow burn, yearning, I meant it =D
But you can’t leave out the Urban Fantasy, the Starship trooper esque bugs, the demon flower girl, the Hellhounds on motorcycles, that Yakuza. the Syndicates, the Corpos, Bad dreams, and a shiney gift(or is it a trap) from the Raven of the Silver Zodiac.
So many teasers about a book that won’t be published soon. Ugh… lol
I’ve also bee working to gather assets for a cover. Attached is the most boring snippet of it I could think of.

[Britany Raine @B_Rainewrites]

@MetamateDaz lol... Being a Gen Xer and having had to spend years explaimning it to Millenials before it ever actually became a thing.