#the scorpio races

Another commission, a couple books I loved, a couple I didn’t and a couple of new books to add to my tbr! Happy with how the print turned out too

The top image is the ‘this is what the actual editions look like’ version, but after checking in with the customer we decided the Saga hardback would look better with an image from the compendium added in, so I had a go at an abstract version of Fiona Staples’ wonderful art.

Visit my shop if you want a print of your own fave books

I absolutely fell in LOVE with the Capall Uisce, the carnivorous water horses of the story, as well as all things Thisby. Here’s a bunch of old sketches xoxo

Hello denizens of Thisby!

We’re really sorry for the radio silence this year. We’ve talked about it and, sad as we are to miss a year, 2021 has been really overwhelming for all of us, and we need some recovery time. 

We’ll still be monitoring the tumblr, but unfortunately this year we won’t be able to coordinate a whole festival for this Autumn. 

So- take this year to catch a new Capall and figure out if it’ll run straight. Or to nurse that finger that got bitten off. We’ll be back!

Select a coloring page below to represent a local water horse!

mare and stallion versions courtesy of @denimwingsface

mane and maneless versions courtesy of @sailingthroughemotion

rearing mane and maneless versions courtesy of @skebryna​

• Introduce yourself! Who are you, how many times have you read The Scorpio Race?
  
• Any favourite quotes from this section? Favourite scenes?
• What initial impressions do you have of our main characters? The world?
• Any favourite worldbuilding features?

As we ship out prizes and the festival comes to a close for this year, there are many thanks in order.

First off, I would like to thank @welcometothisby for starting all this wondrousness six years ago and entrusting us with it.

Second, I’d like to thank the ever-faithful @skatzaaand@wanderingthroughbooks for helping moderate for two years now, leaping into action to help me hastily plan the entirety of this year’s festival, sharing many great ideas and advice, and doing all the recordkeeping for me while real life got out of control.

I’d like to give a big thank you and a shoutout to @skaldofskarmouth for providing new artwork with the festival this year, as well as the other artists that provided our coloring pages: @skebryna@sailingthroughemotionand@denimwingsface

A huge thank you to @mounted-archerand@notpuckconnolly for contributing prizes for the giveaway.

And thank you to everyone that participated. You guys are the real reason all of this is possible. All the work you put into your writing, art, and edits is amazing. I love following all your stories from the festivals over the years.

Thank you Scorpio Races fandom. 

I can’t wait for next November
-@applecakeandchainsaw

Death and Racing

 The morning of the races, I wake to a horrible, horrible screaming. It sounds like one of the three island ponies Mom insisted on keeping- one of the little fluffy mares. It’s louder than anything I had ever heard a normal horse make, and I startle when I clamber out of the loft above their stalls. At some point, I must’ve fallen asleep after running Ki'ala- everything was just fine then.

    When I land in the hall between the stalls, I grab the gunl we keep just inside the door before following the sound out to the pasture, praying that I was wrong and it wasn’t one of the mares. Unfortunately for me, the other two are attempting to scramble into the pasture beside their’s; and the third is being pinned down to the grass by a monstrous looking copper capall. I can barely think with her shrieks and the awful sounds Ki'ala are making behind me in her stall, but I manage to cock the gun and aim it at the capall’s head. It feels heavy and gaunt in my shaking hands and the mare turns her attention on me the moment she hears it click- I squeeze my eyes shut real tight as her body swings to face me. 

    I hear her leap, and pull the trigger as hard as I can. 

    The gun jerks nearly out of my hand and the mare’s body comes crashing into mine, just by momentum. There’s a hot splash of blood that lands on my skin before I go head over heels down the slope of the pasture; forcing my body away from the copper capall and landing on my back. The sky is dreary and gray today- perfect for the races. My body hurts like hell. I can hear the island pony making these quiet sounds, almost whining, almost groaning from where she’s laying on the ground just a few feet from me. 

    I feel terrible when I see her. 

    The mare’s shoulders, haunches, and throat have horrible gashes in them that just seem like they won’t stop bleeding, and it brings tears to my eyes when I cock the gun again. She’s watching me through hazy eyes, her nostrils flaring out hard with every breath, so I lean over and press my lips to her cheek. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper to her before pressing the barrel of the gun to her head and pull the trigger. 

    Her sad sounds stop the moment I do, and everything falls silent. A few tears escape down my cheeks but I swipe them away, kicking the capall mare’s body on my limping way back to the stable.

    Not long after, the races come. I don’t have time to clean up so I’m still bloody and a bit muddy from the incident, sitting atop Ki'ala like I’m supposed to look that way. She is hot and dancing beneath me, a thick froth spilling from her lips down her chest. There is no calming her right now, not this close to the sea, not this close to the other capall. I look around for Jesse and spy his white hair amongst the crowd of riders, but I can’t see him well enough to call out to him, unfortunately.  There are already a few men losing hold of their horses, and it almost makes me laugh.

    Some of them never learn.

    The gun sounds, and we explode from the pack. Immediately, two mares tear their riders from their backs and charge into the sea, still tacked up- I have to swing Ki'ala away from them and towards the turf. The spray leaves salt on my skin and lips and hands, but I don’t mind it. It’s nearly refreshing after this morning. My aching body burns on the saddle, holding on with as much strength as I have left- really at this point I’m just praying I stay on. Everything hurts so damn bad that it’s nearly difficult to, but I won’t let us lose this. I won’t let my mom be right, and I won’t let Ki'ala go back to the ocean like this. I just can’t. 

    A few gaps between horses open up and I take the chance, pushing Ki'ala hard forward, giving her as much rein as I can. As we sneak through, a head snakes out and I feel this blazing, numbing pain in my thigh- but thank god my mare doesn’t stop. She eats up the beach, charging across the sand as we fly by the small group of almost dueling capall. I don’t even realize how empty it is by the time they’ve long disappeared behind us, how long the stretch of sand is. My muscles burn and my blood sings with the sea’s magic, with Ki'ala’s magic, and I nearly lose my grip on the reins with how much it aches. She continues pounding on, relentlessly fast, and then I realize.

    The finish line is coming up. 

    There’s only one horse ahead of us, and honestly, I’m happy with that. Second place for my first race. It makes me beam when we cross the line, and I listen to the crowd cheering as loud as ever from the cliffs. I am exhausted  by the time I get Ki'ala to halt, and nearly fall off of her when a man comes up to talk to me. My thigh is bleeding so much that my jeans around it are soaked, and I can tell the man is talking about that in particular. This is fine. I got second place. 

    I got second place

Watched The Office before going to bed. Then read The Scorpio Races while in bed. Dreamed that the characters from The Office were also in The Scorpio Races. 

News Flash: Do not let Michael Scott near the capaill uisce. 

mounted-archer:

Finally got to take my old lady to the beach

screen-bird:

the ocean says shhhhh, shhhhhh

freenarnian:

Something else I love about The Scorpio Races is how Maggie Stiefvater doesn’t romanticize animals. Actually, she does. What I mean is: she doesn’t anthropomorphize animals in order to give them intelligence, personalities, emotions, relatability, and relationships. These are things animals already have, to varying degrees, without being human. Sean loves the horses and can communicate with them, not because he has some magical ability to talk to animals, but because he understands them. He pays attention and shows respect and interacts with them in ways they can understand. He loves them for what they are, not what he wants or imagines them to be. And this is what gives him the edge. The special something that the tourists and gamblers and entrepreneurs are too self-involved to possess. It’s what draws him to George “just a horse lover” Holly despite having little else in common with him, and to Puck, herself a somewhat feral creature. I love this aspect of his characterization, and the authorial insight it denotes. It’s a rare, good thing in an animal story, and one of the features that sets this one apart in my estimation.

pawsitivevibe:

Lol my new job is predictably swinging me fully back into my longest held Special Interest: horses. Who woulda thought working with horses 5 days a week would remind me that hey I’m obsessed with horses?

Anywho, I’ve been watching horse movies I loved as a kid. So far just The Black Stallion, Secretariat, Misty, and Justin Morgan Had a Horse.

The rest of my watchlist:

• Black Beauty
• The Black Stallion Returns
• The Young Black Stallion
• National Velvet
• Ruffian
• Danny
• War Horse
• Spirit
• Seabiscuit
• Dreamer
• Virginia’s Run
• Running Free
• Hidalgo
• Miracle of the White Stallions
• Harry & Snowman

All the best horse movies are like ‘And Then He Wins The Big Race.’ Make movies about show jumping and dressage!

Any other good horse movies I should watch? There’s some I didn’t include that I don’t care for (The Horse Whisperer, Flicka), but maybe a few I’ve never seen?

I would recommend The Scorpio Races IF OUR MOVIE WOULD EVER GET FINISHED. In which case, I’ll have to suggest you read the book or listen to the audiobook.

julesblackthorns:

oh to visit a small coastal town, eat the november cakes, see the small beauties of the strange people who live there and their insular lives and loves, see their famous flesh eating water horses unable to stop themselves from running ashore to be corralled by the locals, trained beside the sea that keeps calling them home, and finally raced in a deadly tradition shared between the human and the supernatural shadow of a horse

One of my favorite books of all time at one of my favorite places of all time

ALT