Time period: late 1970s Location: Western setting.

A 14 year old girl who is not very cluey wakes one night with extreme gut pains, then to her horror, a gush of blood. I'm talking puddle-on-the-mattress amount of blood - probably about 500mls. ( Next bit cut for the gore. )

( Description stuff under the cut. )

If you’re sighted and have experienced a heavy nighttime snowstorm in an illuminated urban area, you know what I’m talking about: the sandwich of light between the snowy white ground and snowy white sky, infusing the landscape with the soft white light of a frosted light bulb--sometimes enough to read by, certainly enough to see by. (It must be ( Read more... )

I'm working on a character who is homeless and relies on stealing and cheating just to get by. Obviously, not having a steady/reliable source of food or income (in a small village nonetheless) means they're probably pretty malnourished (at least to the point where their ribs are somewhat visible). The problem comes with the fact that their weapon ( Read more... )

Regency romance idea. Wedding dresses ( Read more... )

The BBC and Yellowstone National Park have both recently released extensive archives of sound effects into the public domain; you never know when you might have occasion to know the exact sound of a grizzly crunching bison bones, the klaxon of a Romanian trolleybus, a shot from an 1870 17-bore twin-barrel shotgun, or the moaning of a frozen lake as ( Read more... )

Furthermore, can a criminal case ever be handled confidentially without news of their arrest being made public under a plea of guilt? I'm writing a story where a character, who committed multiple crimes including first-degree manslaughter in his teenage years, turns himself in at the age of 18. The setting of the story is Tokyo, Japan, present day ( Read more... )

Hi everyone! I was researching whether tea was known in the Emirate of Cordoba, a Medieval Islamic kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, but found info that both tea and coffee came to Europe through Islamic lands much later. What were people drinking back then, though? I'd be grateful if you pointed out where I could read about it.

https://mylordshesacactus.tumblr.com/post/619182104336613376/a-writers-guide-to-hurricanes-i-guess?is_related_post=1#notes.

This comes courtesy of Florida resident mylordshesacactus on Tumblr; here are some excerpts:

Do not think for a moment that just because you’re “only” experiencing Cat 1 winds that this storm can’t kill your ass dead. Do not ( Read more... )

Setting: London, UK circa 1904-1905

Research so far: Googled 'salaries for clerical workers, Edwardian England' and found this. It gave me median salaries, but not the range. Also, it doesn't give me a year-by-year overview, but rather looks at the salaries once every decade or so. And since my character is newly-hired, it's reasonable to presume ( Read more... )