St John Starling (evil now)

Festive tidings! 🎃 This week on Patreon, I bring you the first weekly update on my progress with A Companion in Vice of Halloween — this week: disentangling a rat's nest of plot threads.

The Best Laid Plans of Monsters and Men -> www.patreon.com/posts/best-l...

Today on Patreon: some reflections on my protagonist and the manner in which the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Lend a Hand -> www.patreon.com/posts/lend-h...

Is Father Eugene...you know? 🧚‍♂️

Hari holding a copy of the book 'night at the vampire castle' while wearing a suitably vampiric shirt with a ruffly collar - the graphic reads 'out today!'

Photo of an open copy of the book 'night at the vampire castle' where you can see the text and an illustration of an ominous castle on a stormy night

🩸 OUT TODAY 🥀
Disappear into a dark forest and get seduced, devoured, and perhaps escape your job for good, in NIGHT AT THE VAMPIRE CASTLE: A choose-your-own-romance for adult readers

✶ No experience needed
✶ Replayable
✶ Illustrated
& out now www.hari-illustration.com/natvc

I just wanted to draw some smooches ❤️

ADORABLE

This is one of the things that Disco Elysium knocks out of the park.

The more fantastic the baseline of your setting, the harder it becomes to convince your reader that they should be impressed by any particular fantastic thing in it.

I want to see the Distant Ominous Music on tour

🙇‍♂️

B&W art previews from the interiors of the book 'night at the vampire castle' by Hari - snippets of a man's hand on a battered armchair in a dark private library full of old books...

Graphic with B&W art previews from the interiors of the book 'night at the vampire castle' from the guest artist Mal Marwood, showing snippets of male characters - one seems to be bearded in a knit jumper, opening the lid of a cooking pot in a cosy scene. The other looks... wolfier

Art previews for my new vampire choose-your-own book (out 3 weeks today in the US!!) - including more romanceable NPCs, part 2 🥘🐶💦 with extra art and ending illustrations by @malacandrax.bsky.social

www.hari-illustration.com/natvc

I was such a good patient, the dentist gave me extra teeth. Just as a treat.

Survived the dentist. 👍

Shop Update!!
I just made a batch of my first paper bookmarks :) and there's new stickers, prints, and mini prints. I'm having sales on a lot of things!! There's still some shirts and prints left to help out my friend, too!

You can find it all here !
hydeangelus.bigcartel.com 💗

The first rule of unethical human experimentation is to have fun and be yourself.

Repeating firmly to myself that I can be trusted around beautiful, haunted-looking boys - I will not bind them half-naked to a tree or marble column and shoot them full of holes with my bow and arrow.

to assesses how the work would come across to you if you weren't the author. Learning how to fill the role of your own audience will make you a far better writer.

“Write for yourself” really shouldn’t be a license to write like nobody but you exists. Instead, it's a call to adopt another perspective - to step back from the process of creation and read what you've written as if someone else wrote it -

If you’re self-publishing, it’s a good idea to know what real, existing people you’re writing your novel for from the very first stages of conceiving of your story.

and slowly be dragged by the undertow of online social pressure into becoming the same as everyone else.

If you can’t bear spending time reflecting in a practical, material way on who you want to read your novel and how you’re going to get their attention, you’re likely going to fall backwards into whatever the marketing trends of the moment are-

💜💜💜💜💜

Getting people to read your novel is an undertaking almost as difficult as writing the novel itself, and it’s worth approaching with the same care and thoughtfulness. If what you’re doing feels humiliating, it’s probably not worth doing. You have more agency over this than you think.

There should be a service during heatwaves where the government sends you 2-5 scantily clad burly men to fan you with palm fronds and feed you peeled grapes

💜💜💜💜💜 The poor baby!! The two of you'll be in my thoughts.

I have long held the opinion that beautiful men with long hair and an overall style and demeanor that would get you typecast as a suspiciously effeminate villain in a black and white movie ought to be given everything their hearts desire.

And then led to the sacrificial altar.

Some boys just need to be bathed tenderly in a pool with flower petals by a host of handsome attendants, massaged with perfumes and fragrant oils until they’re limp with pleasure, given banquets of rare delights, etc.