The Pit of Snakes
A serpent rises, whiter than the root
Of some venefic bloom in darkness grown,
And gazes up with green-lit eyes that seem
Like drops of cold, congealing poison.
Clark Ashton Smith, “The Hashish-Eater, or the Apocalypse of Evil”
A den for compositions of words, sound and pixels. We've written stories and essays, drawn artwork, and composed several albums. This site hosts them all.
Notable among them:
- Black Nerve, a dark fantasy world of giant insects, blood and fungus, with strange, richly developed magic system and society. Years in the making, this is our proudest creation.
- Hostile Takeover, a murder drones fanfic, one of our longest and most successful works.
- Murder Drones Fanfic Reviews, a curated list of recommended works in the fandom.
- _prefigurations, our newest album, has a lot of bangers.
- Collected Poems because there's no where else to link it.
- Assorted Links for sites and creations by friends and adjacents.
If you enjoy what this site has to offer, please consider donating on Ko-fi or Patreon. It's nice to eat things other than lentils and rice.
To contact us, try emailing serpentsquiggle (at) proton.me, or @snuggle_squiggle@discord.com or @frozendominion@mastodon.cloud.
Novels
- A Chimerical Hope, about three bugs with grand dreams caught in grander schemes.
- Hostile Takeover, about a robot torn between her instructions and her own needs.
- Kaon Rising, about a young dragon proving himself.
- Eifre Quest, an interactive web serial.
- Endless Stars, about an exiled dragon looking for friends.
- And the Darkling Reefs Abide, about a murderous jellyfish.
Essays
- “Sensory Reifiction: or: the Advanced Lecture on ‘Show, Don't Tell’”
- “Ur-Development or: Another Unified Theory of Plot”
- “Actions are Louder: On Writing Characters”
- “Outlines as Temporarily Embarrassed Drafts”
- “Wheels Within Wheels: the Formal Art of Spinning Scenes”
- “The Twelve Prosaic Virtues”
- “Pacing Is Madness”
- “Xenodetermism: An Introduction”
- “Dissecting the False Hydra”
- “A Closer Look At Time Travel and Probability”
- “Complexity is Not Objective”
- “We Must Convey What the Video Cannot: a Big Joel Companion Piece”
Writing Advice
Worldbuilding Advice
Mu
Outlines and Worldbuilding
- Corruption Combustion, a Murder Drones alternate universe inspired by Jujutsu Kaisen.
- “Prologue” introducing the plot through an eventful day in the life of Nori Doorman.
- “Deadlocked & Thrashing” a summary of the protagonists' early involvement in the plot.
- “False Power, False Demise” detailing a confrontation with a major villain
- An Opaque Heart, a tragic Murder Drone divergence fic where J & V never breach the outpost, leaving N and Uzi to wander the icy wastes on their own. Uzi is torn between love and her need for answers. It's complete!
- “On Myconids” a creative take on how sapient mushroom biology could work.
Shorts and Teasers
- “Aurora Moonrise”, about comets and a girl who wants to fight them
- “Frozen Dominion”, a short pokemon fanfic.
- Of Waterweft, a few chapters of an abandoned novel.
- “Karamung His Blindness”, a short story about a dragon going blind.
- “The Preposterity Engine”, a flash fic with no characters.
- “Interloper”, the oldest short story I'm willing to show publically.
Blogposts
I'm often long winded, but sometimes I only have a small thought to share. These essays are only several hundred words, perhaps a thousand.
Singing songs of serpent silence
While snakes devour time and tail
As act of great defiance
Schammasch, "Serpent Silence"