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Why does the Throne of Glass fandom exist when It was one of the crappiest books ever written with every clique know to man and Mary sues written everywhere when the Elemental Trilogy was close to perfection but somehow not enough people have realized it.

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“You should not dispair now because a shadow might fall tomorrow”

— Sherry Thomas, The Immortal Heights

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“…everyone who was not Fairfax was free to try his or her luck on Atlantis. They were all going to die anyway.”

—

Sherry Thomas, “The Immortal Heights”

(I just love his carelessness for everyone who isn’t Iolanthe.)

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ANNE WITH AN E S03E01 - A Secret Which I Desired to Divine

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Ashley Weaver Interview

“The Electra McDonnell series” by Ashley Weaver blends a mystery within a spy thriller.  There are spies, murders, a tinge of romance, and some historical tidbits to entice readers. 

A Peculiar Combination is the first in the Electra McDonnell series. She was raised by her Uncle Mick and has become part of the family business, pickpocketing, opening locks and safes, to steal valuables. Unfortunately for them they were set up and caught stealing.  Because WWII is in full swing, an intelligence branch of the British government set them up to help in the war effort. They need Ellie to crack a safe open in a traitor’s house.  The government intelligence official, Major Ramsey, gives Ellie a choice, either Ellie helps him to break into a safe and retrieve blueprints critical to the war effort before they can be delivered to a German spy, or she and her uncle go to jail. Mick and Ellie are also patriots, so it is a no brainer for her to accept the challenge. From there, it becomes very enjoyable as Major Ramsey and Ellie are constantly butting heads.

The Key to Deceit is the second book of the series.  The Major once again enlists Ellie’s help in opening a locked bracelet from the arm of a dead woman found in the Thames. She is also able to provide some insight into the dead woman’s station in life from her clothing. A search reveals a camera in the bracelet, a clock key, and a bag of jewels hidden in the lining of a sable coat. Ellie and the major soon realize the dead woman was working as a spy for the Germans.  Now they must uncover the German spy ring before the Nazis get their hands on important information.

Also, back in the story is Felix Lacy, a good friend of Ellie, a possible romantic interest, and someone who forges documents.  He helped in the first book and now is enlisted by Ellie to help her with a crooked pawnshop owner.  He is also helping her in finding the truth about her mother, convicted of killing her father, even though she proclaimed her innocence.

It becomes more apparent in this book that there is a love triangle between Felix, Ellie, and the Major.  Felix wants to go beyond friends with her and become more intimate.  While the Major is trying to remain professional but does have feelings for her. 

Playing It Safe has just been released, the third book in the series. Ellie is given a new assignment by the Major. She is to travel under an assumed identity to the port city of Sunderland and once there await further instructions. After just arriving, she witnesses an unnatural death. A man falls dead in the street in front of her, with a mysterious message clutched in his hand. Ellie's instincts tell her that the man's death is connected in some way to her mission, and she goes to investigate covertly.  While searching where he lives, she and the Major are united.  They learn that a ring of counterfeiters is making both money and fake identity cards for German spies to operate in England. They find out that the printing plates are missing and know they must find them before the traitorous German assets. Ellie and the major are locked in a battle of wits and a race against time with an unknown and deadly adversary. They must also contend with the blitzkrieg where the Germans are unleashing bombs to try to break the British spirits.

Readers also learn more of the backstory about Ellie’s mother and whether she was innocent or guilty of murdering her father.  Although Felix does not make much of an appearance the love triangle is still alive and well and he does help Ellie uncover the meaning of some written notes.

This series is very engrossing.  What should upset readers is that they must wait a whole year for another installment, hopefully not the last.  Readers should want a lot more books with these wonderful characters and riveting plotlines. Ideally people should read the books in order because, even though there are different riveting espionage mysteries there are overarching plotlines.  

Elise Cooper: Did your professional experience help you to write?

Ashley Weaver:  I have worked in libraries since the age of 14. I enjoy reading non-fiction and that is where I got the idea for the series. I think being a librarian is helpful in the sense that I have all the research information and researching strategies I need at my fingertips! I am now the Technical Services Coordinator for the Parish Libraries in Louisiana. We were the first in the US to have a library built in a book mobile for rural areas. Someone can request a book and when we are in the area, they can pick it up.

EC: How did you get the idea for the series?

AW: I was reading a lot of WWII non-fiction and read a book titled Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre. It is about a petty thief imprisoned on the Chanel Islands during WWII, occupied by Germany.  They released him and trained his as a spy, parachuting him into England.  He went to the allied authorities and said, ‘the Germans think I will spy for them do you want me to spy for you instead.’  He became a double agent. This made me think how all these criminals had skills before the war that they were able to use to help the allied cause. Each book has its own caper, where the characters must solve the espionage mystery.  But there are also a few overarching plots.  

EC:  What about the books, 1 – 3?

AW:  I enjoyed finding out how criminals can open a safe and the historical background of what those in England had to endure including the German Blitzkrieg and the major rationing. With A Peculiar Combination, book 1, I knew I wanted to make the female heroine, Ellie, a safe cracker for the espionage angle.  For Playing It Safe, book 3, I read a book called The Falcon Thief about how someone smuggled and sold falcon eggs. This gave me the idea to work birding into the third book. I learned a lot about birds and decided to incorporate it into the story. I mention in the book how, during WWII, it was legal in England to shoot falcons because they were preying on the carrier pigeons, and officials worried it would interfere with messages being sent back and forth to occupied territories. 

EC:  How would you describe Uncle Mick?

AW:  He has a flair for the exaggeration, focused, jovial, spontaneous, a little bit wily.  He loves a challenge with a quick-thinking mind that can solve problems.  He is the father figure to Ellie as she grew up.

EC:  How would you describe Ellie?

AW:  Good instincts, very intelligent, as well as street smart. She can be overconfident with a slight temper, stubborn, and independent. She likes to be in control but is adaptable.  

EC: She also speaks a little about women’s rights?

AW:  In book 2, The Key to Deceit, I put in this quote by her, “Contrary to what you believe it is possible for women to know about things outside of the kitchen.”  She is sarcastic with the comments how the men in her life think they are strong and protective, for the helpless damsel.  Yet, her uncle trained her no different than her two male cousins, who are more like brothers.  During WWII a lot of women took the male jobs who were out fighting.  The way she was raised has given her this inner confidence.

EC:  Why the second plotline with her mother who gave birth to her in prison and then died?

AW:  I wanted to have something about Ellie’s backstory.  I liked the idea she has an affectionate loving family that supports her, but she does have some tragedy in her past and some questions she needs answers too. 

EC:  What about Major Ramsey?

AW:  He is secretive, bold, stoic, determined, clever, and can be devious as well as authoritarian.  He comes off as having a superior attitude. There are times he puts on a façade and comes across charming. 

EC:  Felix who is Ellie’s childhood friend also helps with the espionage?

AW:  He is polished, likes to flirt, easy going, a teaser, and can forge documents.

EC:  What about the love triangle between Felix, the Major, and Ellie?

AW:  The Major comes from a privileged background while Felix and Ellie are from a different class. It is like opposites working together. She sees the Major as disconcerting and irritating.

The Major can read her mannerisms, her moods. He wants to be intimate but is trying to be professional. Because he is a military man, he does not have the same societal views as the elite class. More of a problem is that she is a rule braker and he is a rule follower, with him expecting those working for him to obey his orders and she is not one to follow orders. Her fiery personality is what attracts him to her. There is a little give and take because both are flexible when they need to be.  

Regarding Felix he is very conscious of her feelings. He is very supportive of her. She sees him as a friend, but he is jealous of how the Major and she interact. 

EC:  Does the love triangle represent something more to Ellie?

AW: Yes.  She is not just deciding between the two men, but her two different futures. With Felix she can continue her criminal enterprises, but with the Major she knows being from different worlds she would have to adapt and change a bit. She is wondering who she wants to be when the war ends.

EC:  Next book?

AW:  There is one more, book 4, which is the last book in my contract.  I am waiting to hear back but hopefully there will be more, fingers crossed. At some point Ellie will decide between Felix and the Major. In book 4 we know who she is leaning towards. It takes place in 1941.  They are back in London.  Ellie knows of a robbery ring operating.  Because of her family ties to the criminal world, she thinks these burglaries can be tied to espionage. She tells the Major about it. The network of criminal friends will be pulled in.

THANK YOU!!

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THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987), dir Rob Reiner

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my heart would hear her and beat: an Ellie McDonnell story

Title: my heart would hear her and beat

Relationship: Electra McDonnell/Gabriel Ramsey

Rating: T

Word count: 3.3K

Work summary: Ellie and Ramsey: books, penmanship, and a gentler sort of mythology.

Notes: I fell headfirst into Ashley Weaver's Electra McDonnell series and came out with a few ideas that needed shaking loose, so to that end, here's this. If you haven't read it and you think you'd enjoy a spot of light safecracking in the service of king and country in wartime London, do yourself a favour and check it out. Cheers to @peggysrogers for the rec!

Read it on AO3

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Electra McDonnell fan fiction: A Number of Combinations (Electra McDonnell / Gabriel Ramsey)

I love this series of books. Electra McDonnell and Gabriel Ramsey are delicious. Like many of my fics, this fic will be comprised of a bunch of snippets. Some scribbles are missing scenes, some are just my own imaginings. They will be written out of order, but when I post them I'll put them in an order following book events.

If you haven't read the books, you should!

Blurb for book 1: The first in the Electra McDonnell series from Edgar-nominated author Ashley Weaver, set in England during World War II, A Peculiar Combination is a delightful mystery filled with spies, murder, romance, and the author's signature wit.

Electra McDonnell has always known that the way she and her family earn their living is slightly outside of the law. Breaking into the homes of the rich and picking the locks on their safes may not be condoned by British law enforcement, but World War II is in full swing, Ellie's cousins Colm and Toby are off fighting against Hitler, and Uncle Mick's more honorable business as a locksmith can't pay the bills any more.

So when Uncle Mick receives a tip about a safe full of jewels in the empty house of a wealthy family, he and Ellie can't resist. All goes as planned--until the pair are caught redhanded. Ellie expects them to be taken straight to prison, but instead they are delivered to a large townhouse, where government official Major Ramsey is waiting with an offer: either Ellie agrees to help him break into a safe and retrieve blueprints that will be critical to the British war effort, before they can be delivered to a German spy, or he turns her over to the police.

Ellie doesn't care for the Major's imperious manner, but she has no choice, and besides, she's eager to do her bit for king and country. She may be a thief, but she's no coward. When she and the Major break into the house in question, they find instead the purported German spy dead on the floor, the safe already open and empty. Soon, Ellie and Major Ramsey are forced to put aside their differences to unmask the double-agent, as they try to stop allied plans falling into German hands.

*

I've been trying to figure out in my head what Ellie and Major Ramsay look like, so here are some possibilities :)

Electra McDonnell:

And here are some possibilities for Major Gabriel Ramsey

Link to my fic is here. I am literally the only person who has written any fic for this fandom. Oh well.

A Number of Combinations

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Anne Shirley's pink ballgown in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel.

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ENDLESS EWAN McGREGOR (4/∞)

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The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

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christian looking at satine <3 MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) dir. BAZ LUHRMANN

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Grieve AND organize.

Good article by David Hunter on how to survive the Trump presidency, both on the personal and on the political plane.

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HENRY CAVILL as SHERLOCK HOLMES Enola Holmes (2020) | dir. Harry Bradbeer

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but a life without love, that's terrible! MOULIN ROUGE (2001) dir. BAZ LUHRMANN

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JANE EYRE (2011)

I'm the same plain kind of bird as all the rest, with my common tale of woe.