✨ Surprise Drop! An Interview with Myself About Beneath the Withered Sky ✨
By Rin Nocturne – emo magical girl, hoarder of dream fragments, and literary chaos gremlin
Interviewer Rin: So… you just casually
dropped a new short story with no announcement? No preorder, no sparkly
countdown, not even a cryptic social media post?
Author Rin: Listen. Sometimes a story
doesn’t want to wait for aesthetics. It just shows up in your dreams, whispers
something like “the forest is dying,” and then demands you put everything else
aside until it’s breathing on the page. That’s what Beneath the Withered Sky
did. It hijacked my brain.
Interviewer Rin: Okay, dramatic. What’s the
story actually about?
Author Rin: Picture this: A chronically ill
young man named Malik walks out of a hospital after a decade of isolation and
pain… into a half-dead world. There’s a crumbling Victorian mansion that calls
to him. A four-eyed white wolf named Lian Zhi who speaks to him in dreams. And
a rainforest bound to the very soul of the Earth—poisoned and dying. Malik
didn’t ask to be the last hope for humanity and nature alike, but here he is,
caught in a magical, melancholic, and sometimes terrifying fight for balance.
Interviewer Rin: Sounds very “climate grief
but make it speculative fiction.” Why should readers care?
Author Rin: Because it's not just
doom and gloom. It’s about healing—grief healing, Earth healing, even body
healing. Beneath the Withered Sky is a story for people who’ve been through the
dark and are learning to bloom again, slowly and painfully and beautifully.
Also? There’s a magical talking wolf and haunting rainforest spirits. I mean,
come on.
Interviewer Rin: Why a short story? You
usually go hard on the theatrical full-length drama.
Author Rin: This one wanted to be short—but
don’t confuse short with skimpy. It’s rich. Lush. Heart-heavy. Think of it as a
single, glittering cutscene from a much larger RPG. You’ll meet Malik, fall
into this dying rainforest, and feel the emotional gut-punch of it all. It’s
digestible in one sitting but lingers like the final note of a bittersweet
song.
Interviewer Rin: What inspired Lian Zhi?
Author Rin: I’m obsessed with symbolic
names, and her Chinese name reflects that. “Lian” means lotus—graceful,
resilient, blooming in the mud. “Zhi” means wisdom. She’s nature incarnate.
She’s ancient. She’s fierce. She’s the dream guide I wish I had when I was nineteen
and terrified. Plus, I love integrating elements of Chinese culture when it
fits my stories’ spirit—and Lian Zhi is the soul of this one.
Interviewer Rin: Alright, final question:
where can people read this thing?
Author Rin: Glad you asked. 🖤
It’s FREE and available now on your favorite platforms:
📚 Smashwords
📚 Apple Books
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