#The Hulda Trilogy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

terapsina · 3 months ago

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Let's talk books. Sorted in threes by vibes.

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I Support Women's Wrongs (murder, slaughter and body horror galore).

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How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Django Wexler - A woman from Earth is dropped into a magical realm, meant to save the Kingdom from the FoRCes of DaRKneSSss... except, unfortunately that might have been a thousand years worth of time loops ago, so it's rather time to lose one's temper and decide to become the Dark Lord herself.

Main character -> basically Deadpool (measured in sanity, humor and levels of bisexual horniness)).

Someone You Can Build a Nest In ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by John Wiswell - Shesheshen, a shapechanging monster who's rudely interrupted during her hibernation by hunters. Manages to to eat one of them, unfortunately she also gets shot by an arrow and falls off a cliff. On the bright side she meets a lovely human woman she might end up falling in love with so much... she'll want to build a nest in her (it's possible there's some Cultural Differences that need to be worked through).

Hench ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Natalie Zina Walschots - Anna's latest temp job for a villain (because even supervillains need office help) ends with her carelessly injured by a superhero, laid off and with injured mobility for the foreseeable future (because human bodies don't see much difference between getting hit by a truck and getting moved out of way by someone able to pick up a truck). Angry, disillusioned, and looking for some vengeful payback she starts compiling the statistics of exactly how much suffering gets left behind the heroes and in quick order finds a new job working for one of the worst supervillains in the neighborhood.

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Extremely Competent Women Show Up to Fix Everyone's Shit (with a whallop of romance which was actually sweet instead of irritating)

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The Witchwood Knot ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Olivia Atwater - Winifred Hall was invited to the Witchwood Manor under the pretense of being the governess for a very bratty kid, but when said boy suddenly turns into a very quiet and perfectly bland boy overnight it's very obvious her charge has been stolen by faeries (and it might have something to do with the actual reason she's there). Rescue however is complicated by some factors, one, there being something terribly dark and wrong about the house (normal houses don't have screaming faces in the walls), another, the faerie man posing as the manor's butler who would very much like to make her run screaming the way so many servants had before her (unfortunately for him, she's not even half as scared of him as she is the eyes of the father of her charge).

This one's about dealing with past trauma, and otherworldly terrors paling in comparison to mundane monsters, set in a very beautiful and dark and shiver-inducing Victorian time world where the Fair Folk are very real.

(Same world as her Regency Faerie Tales trilogy that Started with Half a Soul but it's not necessary to read that one first to enjoy this one)

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Charlie N. Holmberg - Merritt Fernsby inherits a house only to be immediately taken hostage by what turns out to be a very stubborn and opinionated magical house. Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms goes there to facilitate the relationship between the house and its new owner.

It's supposed to be a very simple job. Unfortunately there's a third POV character in this book (no, not the Whimbrel House, though I adore that house and *insert here the Rosa Diaz gif about her new puppy and how she would kill everyone in this room and then herself if anything were to happen to that dog*). Anyway, they're a bit... uhhh... let's go with Bad News.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Heather Fawcett - As one might expect from the title, Emily (a Cambridge scholar) wants to write the first ever encyclopedia of faeries. And she's brilliant enough to do it, what she's terrible at is people (*insert autistic character alert here*).

Someone else might then say it's lucky that a fellow scholar with a far easier time at charming people has stuck his toes in her reaserch trip into the Hidden Ones... that person however doesn't understand how irritating, frustrating and maddening her academic rival Wendell Bambleby actually is.

What follows is a story filled with winter snows, some terrible fae, some adorable fae, some not-very-secret fae, the goodest of good dogs, and lots and lots of squabbling. It's the best.

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Dark and Impactful Stories about Children Who Decide on Their Own Paths

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A Skinful of Shadows ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Frances Hardinge - Kate, an orphan and the illegitimate daughter of some stuffy (and evil) aristocrats runs away because being a bastard doesn't mean she didn't inherit the family magic that allows her to get possessed by the dead.

A dead bear ghost is one thing, a Get Out situation is something else entirely.

A Sorceress Comes to Call ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by T. Kingfisher - Cordelia isn't allowed friends or the privacy of closed doors, and whenever she's done something she shouldn't - a category too unpredictable to guard against - she's not allowed power over her own body.

Because her mother is an evil sorceress (think Regina and Cora... except somehow even worse). An evil sorceress that has found herself a Squire to lure into a marriage.

Hester is an old maid living with her brother, a Squire (well look at them coincidences), when said brother acquires a woman clearly set on his fortune. The plan is only to save her brother, except Hester can't help noticing how the woman's daughter keeps flinching in her mother's presence.

In The Lives of Puppets ⭐⭐⭐⭐ by TJ Klune - A family can be an android inventor, his human son (*homoromantic asexual alert*), a sadistic nurse droid, and a very emotional roomba.

And it can be a very happy family. Until one uncovers and wakes up an android that shares a very Skynet past with one's father, said father gets kidnapped, and one has to go on a journey to get him back.

(A book I like to call Sci-fi Reverse Pinocchio)

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Unraveling an Unjust System (and a hero that - on a scale from occasionally to constantly - hears a disembodied voice directly in their heads okay the connection between these three is a bit of a stretch but they're all great books so shut up)

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Hell for Hire ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ by Rachel Aaron - 5000 years ago Gilgamesh conquered the heavens, enslaved the demons and made it so that the only road to magic humanity had access, was through him.

Now, however a mercenary team made up of free demons gets hired by a Blackwood witch to protect him (and his familiar, the talking cat named Boston) while he puts down roots (literally) inside the new forest grove he's about to start so that he can stand up against the warlocks after him.

The witch quickly becomes the best client Bex and her crew have ever had (after all, warlocks under the rule of the Eternal King Gilgamesh are slavers of their kind, they are delighted at the chance to kill some).

Vespertine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ by Margaret Rogerson - In a world where the veil between the living and the dead has been kinda broken Artemisia (*another autistic character alert*) is training to be a Gray Sister (magic nun).

Until her convent gets attacked by possessed soldiers and she has no choice but to pick up a Saint's Relic containing a malevolent revenant to protect it.

Problem. Only a Vespertine is supposed to do it. Another problem. The only one "alive" who can teach her to be a Vespertine is the revenant. Another another problem. The revenant cannot be trusted and if she loses control to it, the death toll will be counted in cities.

Terminal Alliance ⭐⭐⭐⭐¾ by Jim C. Hines - Post Zombie Apocalypse, where some aliens showed up, sort of cured the zombies and took the (mostly) cured zombies into their military.

Which leads us to Marion Adamopoulos, also known as Mops, the Leutenant in charge of Shipboard Hygene and Sanitation of the Earth Mercenary Corps Ship Pufferfish.

Right up until a bioweapon turns the entire crew except her crew back into zombies. Congratulations, she's the captain now.

(Space Janitors save the universe story).

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miss-mesmerized · 3 years ago

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Ragnar Jónasson - Insel

Ragnar Jónasson – Insel

Ragnar Jónasson – Insel Hulda Hermannsdóttir muss von der isländischen Hauptstadt auf die zerklüftete Insel Elliðaey reisen, denn dort wirft der Tod einer jungen Frau Fragen auf. Gemeinsam mit drei Freunden verbrachte sie einige Tage in einem Sommerhaus. Nachts scheint Klara alleine die Hütte verlassen zu haben und an einem steilen Felsen abgestürzt zu sein. Doch die Obduktion legt anderes nahe.…

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#Elliðaey #Familie #Freunde #Hulda-Trilogie #insel #Island #Krimi #Kriminalroman #Mord #Rache #Ragnar Jónasson #Rezension #Schwester #Tod #Unfall #Vater #Vorgesetzter

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iklees · 2 years ago

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The Mage Winds / Mercedes Lackey

Deze trilogie, die volgt op Heralds of Valdemar, met het verhaal van Talia, vertelt hoe kroonprinses Elspeth op zoek gaat naar iemand die herauten kan opleiden tot magiërs. Sinds Vanyel zijn er geen heraut-magiërs meer geweest; sterker nog, het lijkt alsof heel Valdemar is vergeten dat magie ook een optie is, en dat er nog steeds, zo nu en dan, herauten beschikken over een magische gift. Maar de bescherming van Valdemar tegen magie lijkt te verminderen, terwijl hun vijand Ancar van Hardorn zich omringt met magiërs.

The next try Ancar makes is going to involve magic, I know it is — combative magic, war-magic, the kind they use south of Rethwellan. The kind the Skybolts are used to seeing. Kero says so, and I think she's right. She can talk about real magic, and I can... and that might be a clue to what I need to be doing right there. For Valdemar was not ready to cope with magic, especially not within its borders. For all the efforts to prepare the populace, for all the research that was supposed to have been done in the archives, very little had actually been accomplished. Yes, the ballads of Vanyel's time and earlier had been revived, but there was very much a feeling of "but it can't happen now" in the people Elspeth had talked to. And she wasn't the only one to have come to that conclusion. Kero had said much the same thing. The Captain was worried. Elspeth licked her bitten lip, and thought hard. Kero's told me a lot of stories she hasn't even told Mother. Some of the things the Skybolts had to deal with — and those were just minor magics. "Most of the time the major magics don't get used," she'd said more than once. That was because the major mages tended to cancel one another out. Adept-class mages tended to be in teaching, or in some otherwise less-hazardous aspect of their profession. Most mages, Adept-class or not, were unwilling to risk themselves in all-out mage-duels for the sake of a mere employer. Most employers were reluctant to antagonize them. But when the ruler himself was a mage, or backed by one —a powerful mage, at that —the rules changed. Mages could be coerced, like anyone else; or blackmailed, or bribed, if the offer was high enough. There was already evidence of coercion, magical and otherwise; outright control, like the men of his armies. And where there was a power broker, there were always those who wanted power above all else and were willing to pay any price to get it. So Valdemar wasn't protected anymore because there was someone willing to pay the price of breaking the protections.

[SPOILER ALERT] In het eerste boek, Winds of Fate, vertrekken Elspeth en Skiff op zoek naar een leermeester. Ze komen terecht in een vallei van de Tayledras, de Hawkbrothers. Darkwind, lid van deze k'Sheyna, beseft dat Elspeth een sterke magische gift heeft en niet alleen voor de veiligheid van Valdemar snel moet worden opgeleid. De vallei wordt -- zonder dat Darkwind dat al beseft -- belaagd door een zeer sterke magiër Mornelith Falconsbane, die zijn oog nu ook op Elspeth (en de Gezellen) heeft laten vallen. Met vereende krachten weten ze hem af te slaan. Maar in het tweede boek, Winds of Change, blijkt dat dit niet afdoende is geweest. Versterkt met hulp van de Shin'a'in, griffioenen, en de dochter van Falconsbane, Nyara, die aan zijn mishandelingen is ontsnapt, lukt het hen de vallei te verdedigen. Ze denken nu Falconsbane eindelijk te hebben verslagen. In Winds of Fury probeert koning Ancar tovermacht te verkrijgen die Hulda hem niet heeft willen geven. Hij bevrijdt daarbij een sterk verzwakte Falconsbane uit het niemandsland tussen de portalen waar hij was opgesloten. Elspeth en Skiff zijn met hun versterking -- Darkwind, Firesong, Nyara en de griffioenen -- teruggekeerd in Valdemar, om te ontdekken dat het een race tegen de tijd wordt om Ancar te verslaan voordat Falconsbane weer op kracht is gekomen.

#Valdemar #Mercedes Lackey

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iimmcrtalis-archive · 7 years ago

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Biography:

You don't remember you're real name. You don't remember your original face. You've spent thousands of years on plane that isn't your home, cast out and banished. Branded traitor. To what? A pathetic cause, lead by an even more pathetic being. One that could not see the potential you were going to bear. No, they deemed you traitor for having a child outside of law. Outside of your race. A giant, fire burning in their blood. Raging in your own.

You remember that day. That motion clearly. Falling. Breaking. Raging. The people looked at you with horror. Svartalfr on their plane. Dark skin, black as coal. Eyes burning like embers. Arms and legs too long to belong to you. An amalgamation of their nightmares staring them in their face. A vanguard of their end.

You remember your child living, breathing. Blending in with the other children you passed. Never staying in one spot. You remember the day they murder them. The day you came home to a blood pool and a cold corpse. You remember the rage that ignited your bones.

And then there was a bitterness in your chest. A hatred beating in your veins. You hated these people. Every single one of them. But, you could not take over without time. You blended in. Acted as a shield for them, a blade for those that paid. A dagger for those that paid you better. It was your life. That had been all you'd ever known. Death. Chaos. Control. Bred for a purpose. Trained for a cause. A weapon to be pointed at the enemy. But all things tire.

When the first people, unlike humans or better than them, starting appearing, you felt the change in the tides. In your favor. You took those that wouldn't agree, but had no other choice. Convinced those easily twisted by your pretty face to follow you. Trained and cared for ones too young to understand. Years would pass and your small group would change or grow. The Immortal ones would leave your fold but never cut the tie. To some of them, you were a god. And you acted as one. Felt like one. Immortal, undying. Changing, creating, controlling. They believed you if they didn't question. They believed you if they did. Your following grew year by year. People died in wars. People died in small battles. Pawns sacrificed for the greater cause. Drops in the bucket.

This world is not your home even five hundred years later. The one who claims to be your child wars against you. Dismantles the trust you've earned from the ones that follow you. Time has made you harsh like the world you live in. Humans will die under your thumb, whether they accept it or not. & with demons joining your ranks, your weapons taking lives for you, and pawns still strung up like the gallows.. There's no chance of losing.

Stats:

Name: ▓▓▓▓▓ Nicknames: Evie. Aliases: Grave. Evelyn Rodgers. Hulda. Puck. Lorelei. Isene. Evelyn Azar Titles: Grave. Ancient One. Age: 7,000+ Birthday: Unknown Gender: None. (she/her or they/them. Depends on threads) Sexuality: Pansexual Other: Missing right arm. Birthplace: Svartalfheimr. Residence: New York. Relatives: • Erin Rodgers-Callisto - Child • Royce Azar - Son • Sadron Rodgers – Older Brother • Urú Rodgers - Eldest Brother • Taur Rodgers – Twin • Kaleo Azar – Long term significant

Height:: 6'6 │ 7'6 Weight: ~ iunno 150-200 Character’s body build: Buff af Eye Color: Changes │ Red w/ black sclera Hair Color: Dark Brown/black │ Shock White. Type of hair: Long. Smooth. Silky. Hairstyle: Usually braided on the sides. Or worn in a tight ponytail. Scars: • Over a thousand small incisions all over her body. • Burns over her right stump, shoulder, and side. • Multiple deep scars on her face. • Burns on her wrist, throat, and ankles. Mannerisms: Tends to be pleasant and inviting. Grave tends to be cold, strict, and merciless. Usual Body Posture: Fluid like, constantly movie. Tattoos: • Tribal branding inked with white. • Runes webbed between the brands. race: Dark Elf

Abilities: Elven Magic: Decomposition Manipulation, Death-Force Manipulation, and Minor Life Force Manipulation.

Superhuman strength, stamina, durability, longevity, healing factor - can be enhanced by magic.

Heightened senses, excellent nightvision and sense of smell. Can smell pheromones.

Telekinesis- a somewhat advanced level.

Hivemind: is connected telepathically and tele-empathically with all dark elves

Lunar empowerment

Extremely stealthy, expert at throwing knives and archery, skilled combatant, extensive knowledge in different poisons and venom

Highly trained in old spells that manipulate the elements.

VERSES:

Svartalfheimr: Before she falls. Traveling the different planes.

Past: Takes place in any time period.

Future: - Tbd

Dragon Age: Ancient Elf. Devotee to Elgar'nan. One armed warrior companion w/ a big ass sword.

DC: Villain: Murderer. Superpowered fae. Amped up by elf genes. Lives in Gotham, enjoys making weapons for the other guys. Enjoys taking them back from the corpses. Hero: Detective. Former Soldier. Secret Agent once. Watched a good man die. Still not human. Tends to take care of the off the books shit.

Fallout: 4: Institute Courser probably? Or Iunno. Worse than the brotherhood of steel? Like the opposite of them? Like let everyone else live but fuck humans??? iUNNO.

Overwatch: you know how everyone has bionic prosthetics? Not her. She's decked out in a hooded cloak, half face mask. No guns just quick bursts of damage. DPS probs. She's defo Talon tbh.

Mass Effect Trilogy: man wouldn't it be cool if she was like not indoctrinated but just. Helped the reapers lmao. But nah she's probs some terrorist group or maybe she's not evil in this and is actually like. Cool iiunno we'll see.

Mass Effect: Andromeda: again. Could be kett. But also could just be some asshole. Both she'd be asari tbh. I'll post more when I figure it out.

Elder Scrolls: You know how those people always say dark elves are spies for the Thalmor? That's probably true about her. Though she's also probs apart of the Dark Brotherhood. Hireable merc too??? who kNOWS.

Other's may come out eventually. Keep an eye out for specific posts per au.

#:: Character Profiles #c: Evelyn #ask to tag #long post #the best edit i'll ever make for a character profile lmao #also the symbolism of three ppl is bc she doesnt have one face so #shes like the uh weird face thing in atl a

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stolligaseptember · 6 years ago

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What's Vidar and Hulda 👀👀👀

VIDAR AND HULDA are the protagonists of one of my fantasy novels that I started developing… 5?? 6???? Years ago. Depending on how long you’ve hung around Creating Chaos, you might have noticed me blabbering on about an aroace prince forced to marry a lesbian princess. YEAH. That’s them.

Also depending on how long you’ve been around, you might also have heard me talk about Sigfrid and Eira. Their story takes place in the same kingdom as Vidar and Hulda’s, just a good couple of hundreds of years later.

Also also, because this is technically a trilogy of sorts, there is also the short story about Ida and Amalia between the two; a short story which I basically typed out the entire first rough draft of during a fever haze this spring. And this is so much more than you asked for, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

#Anonymous #storytelling september #iosta #just in case i need a tag for this because that's the name of their file in my drive

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marypicken · 6 years ago

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I can’t begin to tell you how rich and rewarding my Edinburgh Book Festival was. Although, in the spirit of this blog, I kept in the main to crime writing sessions, you’ll see that one or two of my other personal passions crept in.

If you have ever thought about going to the Book Festival, and are not sure what to expect, Lainy’s blog here is an excellent introduction.

I loved being in the midst of so many book lovers and authors. I was bowled over by how much effort has gone into making the Book Festival a child friendly place, from the Children’s Bookshop to the Imagination Lab.

As someone with mobility issues, I found the Book Festival staff to be immensely helpful and accommodating and they made my life so much easier.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is a place you can go just to soak up the atmosphere and have an ice cream (or a gin!) and is just my favourite place in Edinburgh during Festival time. An oasis of culture in a garden square.

Friday 17th August 2018

Thomas Enger and Alex Gray chaired by Al Senter

As you’d expect from among the two gentlest crime writers I know, this was a session of reflection and positivity. Alex writes about Glasgow because (oddly for a crime writer) she wanted to address some of the bad press about her native city. Thomas Enger enjoys reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of Oslo. Both enjoy the fact that crime writing is what puts the world back together again and shows that justice can and will be served.

Thomas’ protagonist is a journalist, because he likes the old adage, write what you know and journalism was his profession. Alex likes to write about the police because she thinks that people are really curious to know what goes on behind the scenes. She has made many good contacts with (now) high ranking police officers and has been able to learn loads from them.

Both writers have quite labyrinthine plots. Alex isn’t a plotter, she finds it very hard and is envious of someone like Sophie Hannah who can deliver a 40,000 word synopsis. Alex wanted to write about people trafficking and was fortunate that this coincided with a joint Slovak-Glasgow policing operation.

Thomas also has a Balkan angle in Killed. He wanted to base his story in reality and there is a significant central and eastern European presence in Oslo.

As to advice for aspiring writers? Persist! Keep writing! It took 15 years for Thomas to become an author; his advice is never to stop writing and not to rest on your laurels.

Helen Bellany – The Restless Wave chaired by Richard Holloway

I really wanted to hear Helen Bellany. Her now deceased husband John, whom she married twice, was one of my favourite contemporary Scottish painters and I am lucky to have one of his watercolours.

Well known for his robust enjoyment of life and not a little bit of hell-raising with contemporaries Alan Bold and Alexander Moffat, John was a tremendous talent.

Bellany was 18 when he left Port Seton to go to Edinburgh College of Art. He had come from a fishing village steeped in religion and superstition – no singing or whistling for these citizens. Helen and John met at Art College. She describes him as a Janus figure. He was 2 people; immersed in religion and had respect for it, but also he was full of joie de vivre and hungry for life and these were warring factions.

Bellany visited Buchenwald with Alan Bold and Sandy Moffat and this was to have a profound impact on him as he contemplated the darker aspects of the human condition.

John was offered a position with the Royal College of Art and Helen, despite being 7 ½ months pregnant, encouraged him to go. They were poor but felt very privileged.

The years after, when Helen and John separated and John remarried were very difficult, and Helen says she felt very lonely as John became immersed not just in his painting but in the social life of artists in London.

What shone through, though, was the immutable love these two people had for each other. The immense belief Helen has in John’s talent, and the loss she feels without him today. Though I can imagine there must have been times when he was hell to live with, the joy in her face when she talks about him is worth a million words. Listening to her talk, you can tell these were two matched souls, and whatever pain they went through, they were meant to be together.

Lilja Sigurdardottir and Hawa Jande Golakai chaired by Lee Randall

My last session of Friday was a joy for different reasons. Lilja Sigurdardottir is an Icelandic crime writer in a country where the murders average out at around 1.5 per year. She entered a competition run by a big Icelandic publisher to find ‘the next Dan Brown’ and she and Ragnar Jonasson were the winners. Sadly that completion just preceded the big financial crash, so they never did discover which of them was destined to be the next household name.

Lilja’s protagonist is a woman caught in a desperate trap. Iceland has just beenhad a major financial crash. There have been two volcanic eruptions in a row and there is a sickness in the herring that is causing the industry to go into sharp decline. Iceland is experiencing unemployment like never before and people are desperate.

Lilja’s protagonist in Snare, published by Orenda is having an affair with a woman – a woman who is having difficulty accepting that she is in a lesbian relationship. Lilja wanted to contextualise a situation where people could be involved in large scale financial criminal wrongdoing and yet feel that they were doing nothing wrong and yet feel shame at being themselves in a relationship. (She succeeds brilliantly).

Hawa Jande Golakai is a crime novelist and medical immunologist from Liberia. Her novel The Lazarus Effect is the first in the Vee Johnson series and features a crime fighting investigative journalist. HJ’s work is published by Cassava Republic Press.

HJ always had an interest in the scary, the ugly, and the disgusting which is whyshe also has an interest in science. She likes to push the boundaries. So her career choices have that in common – the fact that there is a mystery to solve.

She wanted to be a forensic CSI, but found that to do that in South Africa, she was required to be an S.A. citizen. Talking about her decision to turn to crime writing, she says that in a way it could have been any genre, as women go through so much . But she sees crime as a fleshy genre and felt that a lot of it had become formulaic – like she says, one big phallus – so she was determined to write something quite different.

Asked about sexuality in crimes Lilja says she also enjoys a love story and likes to create beauty in an otherwise ugly story. She says there are so many untold stories involving race, class sexuality, gender that are new and unexplored. H.J. also has a gay woman in her novel – not as a statement or a political act, just an exploration.

Both authors have lived in a number of different countries and use these experiences when writing. H.J. enjoys phoning up the local morgue when she is in a new place and asking if she can do an autopsy….(whatever floats your boat)!

I already know and love Lilja’s writing, but of course I have had to buy The Lazarus Effect and I can’t wait to get stuck in!

Saturday 25 August 2018

Roxanne Bouchard and Ragnar Jonasson chaired by Michael J Malone

A brief return to Edinburgh today to catch a couple of authors, Roxanne Bouchard and Ragnar Jonasson. In a session chaired by Michael J Malone, Ragnar was talking about his new trilogy with protagonist Hulda Hermansdottir.

When Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavik police is forced into early retirement, at the age of 64 she is told she can investigate one last cold case of her choice – and she knows which one. The case of a refugee previously investigated by a male colleague of Hulda’s in what she regards as a pretty shoddy fashion.

Ragnar wanted a challenge after writing 6 books in his Ari Thor series, which is why he opted not just to have an older female protagonist but to write about her life story in reverse.

Roxanne used to crew on a fishing boat and was always amused by the way fishermen exaggerate their catch. She wanted to write about someone trying to find the truth in a village of liars.

Roxanne’s book We Were The Salt of the Sea, is set on Quebec’s outlying Gaspé Peninsula, where the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen’s wharves. Interviews drift into idle chit-chat, evidence floats off with the tide and the truth lingers in murky waters.

Her characters are richly described and magnificently portrayed on the page. She writes her characters with distinct verbal characteristics which means the reader always knows who is speaking without her having to continually identify the characters.

The poetry and rhythms of the sea are reflected in her book and we look forward to seeing Joaquim Morales find another dead body in the Gaspe Peninsula soon.

Ragnar’s next book goes back in time as part of his Hulda Hermansdottir trilogy. The next one is set in the 1980’s as he deals with Hulda’s life in reverse. Ragnar enjoys writing about this period because there’s none of that pesky technological innovation like mobile phones to get in the way of a good story. Before he started writing, Ragnar had Hulda’s character all mapped out from birth, so he’s done the groundwork in order to be able to write backwards chronologically.

For Ari Thor lovers, though, there is also good news and we hope for a new book in that series in the future.

Sunday 26th August 2018

Gunnar Staalesen and David Mark chaired by Russell D McLean

My penultimate Festival day. (sob) More crime to kick off the day with David Mark and Gunnar Staalesen.

Gunnar talked about his literary references. He reads Chandler for humour and dialogue and Ross McDonald for plotting. Gunnar has written 18 novels about hisP.I. Varg Veum, with a 19th to come. He likes being able to use a P.I. as his protagonist because this is someone who can reflect society and its problems through his assignments. His protagonist can also use black humour and sarcasm in the face of the absurdly rich or overly bureaucratic.

David Mark also enjoys the ability to inject humour into his work. He likes being ‘the God of my own little world’ in which he can feel free to take the piss out of anyone.

Both authors use their knowledge of their home towns to advantage and Bergen and Hull are very much characters in their own right in their books. They both have that same issue with the murder quotient though – Gunnar has written more Bergen murders than have actually occurred in the whole of Norway and David is getting a bit concerned about the Midsummer Murder effect in Hull, though he laughs when asked if he is going to portray the impact of the cultural renaissance in Hull.

Mark enjoys writing scenes where something lovely is ruined – so he is in the right place!

Gunnar and Mark talked about the genesis of their protagonists and what had brought them to write about the P.I. and the policeman respectively. Gunnar talked about the changing nature of Bergen and what happened to it when oil was discovered – how it went from being a normal town to the home of huge oil HQ’s with big villains to write about. He has always written Varg Veum chronologically so now Varg is 60 and Gunnar is writing more or less historical novels, or at least 20 years behind.

David Mark is also keen to reflect on what’s happening in society and the wider world. A feature he read in National Geographic about the plight of Mozambique farmers who had been horribly exploited has now made its way into his current novel. What makes him angry he puts into his books and kills! (note to self not to make DM angry).

But then, as Gunnar points out Sophocles Oedipus is the original murder mystery and MacBeth is a crime story. In the end, are all books not about love, death and the fight for power and money?

Since the Martin Beck books of Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, pretty much all Scandi crime fiction has been based on real life crime.

Gunnar describes Varg Veum as his best friend and says that he is Varg’s only friend.

Characters live in David Mark’a head and he says “I just imagine stuff”. His protagonist, Hector McAvoy, blotted his copy book with brother officers early on when he exposed a corrupt super cop and took him down. Mark describes him as ‘a bit of a boy scout’ with good instincts and a slightly angelic quality. But then Mark thinks writers do have a slightly childlike openness to the world.

There are more books to come from both authors, and a hint of something slightly different coming from Mark. Whatever it is, it’s bound to be fascinating!

Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman aka Ambrose Parry chaired by Sara Sheridan

The dazzling debut of Ambrose Parry’s The Way of All Flesh, was launched in this panel session with the husband and wife team of Brookmyre and Haetzman. The Way of All Flesh is based around the remarkable story of James Young Simpson who discovered the anaesthetic effects of chloroform. Simpson and his colleagues used the tried and true method of sitting round his dining room table and sniffing different concotions until they found one that worked. They were known to make themselves quite ill on occasions.

Discussing the most disturbing and graphic scenes from their book (and yes there are a couple that don’t easily disappear from the brain), Chris claims that all the really gruesome medical scenes come from Marisa.

“Is this too gruesome?” asks Marisa Haetzman of Brookmyre. “No, it’s box office,” says Chris.

It is a fantastic book, reviewed by me here. The book started with Marisa, who was doing a PhD in the history of anaesthesia (she is a consultant anaesthetist) and she was thinking about how difficult and barbaric surgery had been without it. Not only that, but there were other objections. There were those who held a biblical objection to its use in obstetric medicine, believing that the bible says that women are born to suffer in childbirth. And then there were those who felt it disinhibited women and encouraged them to use bad language.

Researching for her dissertation, Marisa was struck by the chaotic nature of Simpson’s household, but also by his warmth and humanity and his ability to transcend the Old Town and New Town divide of Edinburgh society.

Asked what they disagreed about, Marisa said that although they were using a truthful and verifiable framework for their story, she still had a bit of an issue when Chris said to her “its fiction, just make it up”. She was constantly warring between the two different perspectives of factual and imaginative.

They worked separately and together, Marisa writing the female protagonist, Sarah Fisher and Chris writing Will Raven. They would meet and discuss the book, the plot and the characters and not leave the kitchen table until they knew where the book was going. Then Chris would go off to his laptop and Marisa would take her pen and pad and each would write.

Marisa was the one who established the voice early on, getting the language right – historical but accessible.

The character of Will Raven allows Simpson to be explored and explained, while Sarah Fisher is the subject of the social hypocrisy of the time – subjected to female oppression – and she and Will are both characters that readers can identify with.

Marisa says that there are so many stories that she found during her research that they have at least a further two Ambrose Parry books to think about – and that can only be good news!

Jo Nesbo chaired by Lee Randall

Rather brilliantly chaired by Lee Randall, Nesbo was on good form talking about Macbeth, written as part of a project to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, in which contemporary authors retell the Bard’s plays in prose for a 21st century audience.

Shakespeare wasn’t that big in Norway when I was growing up, says Nesbo, but Polanski’s film version did leave its mark on the young writer.

He said he would undertake the project only if he could write Macbeth because “Macbeth felt very modern— it manipulates you. You sympathise with the character. It’s like what they do in Breaking Bad.“

He says that he likes the idea of a struggle around hard choices and that an audience is trying to understand, to make excuses for him but is constantly caught on the wrong side.

Asked how he dealt with the supernatural element of the witches, he said that “the problem with Macbeth is the 3 witches— why is there a supernatural element in the story? In my original version, I didn’t have any. But I put them in there to make things add up. Every time I tried to keep them out, it fell apart.” So in the end he pretty much followed the play act by act, scene by scene (though, of course, he added things)

He has given all the characters deep and full backstories, which helped him to explain why characters – and especially Lady – act as they do. He says that he is used to writing a long synopsis before he starts writing – it’s just that this time, William wrote the synopsis. “ I like to have the feeling when I start writing Chapter One that I have a great story and I know exactly where I am going, so you can trust me. I like that as a writer and also as a reader— that the author has a plan.”

His setting he says is a mixture of places – Bergen (where it always rains) and the Newcastle depicted in Get Carter – grey dark, industrialised rife with unemployment drugs and corruption and criminal gangs.

Does power always corrupt? Randall asks Nesbo. “I have talked to people in power, and asked them, do you get corrupted by power. Most of them say, in my case no! But in other cases definitely. It’s difficult to say exactly when and how. But it does happen.”

On the existence of evil he says that the problem is defining what evil is. Is it the absence of good? Or a passive evil – of the sort where you just follow orders. Or is evil a natural state and good is what you have to work at. “Is evil like the cold? In that it doesn’t exactly exist, it’s just an absence— cold is the natural state of molecules. And warmth is when they move. Is that what evil is like? Is evil an absence of good? I don’t know. I’m just a just a guy that writes crime novels.” “What we can do is to ask interesting questions”.

Nesbo talked a bit about his charitable foundation which supports literacy projects for children in a number of developing countries – for example putting young Indian girls through 10 years of school – a massive commitment. Education and health are his priorities and the foundation commits 5-6m euros to that purpose.

For those who need to know – Harry Hole will be back next year in The Knife.

Sunday 27th August

Kjell Ola Dahl and Denzil Meyrick chaired by Philip Ardagh

This was without doubt the most fun session I attended. Philip Ardagh was an excellent chair, managing (only just) to keep Denzil Meyrick on topic.

Kjell Ola Dahl has written 9 books in his Oslo Detective series, of which 6 have been translated into English. Gunnarstande, one of his main characters, started off as a very grumpy individual, but over time he has got nicer. Kjell likes to spend time with his characters, to get to know them better and then to see how they react under pressure.

When you write a series you are punished by the circumstances and place, he says. Oslo is my city and I like to explore it. It’s always changing. That’s very inspiring. The city becomes a character in its own right.

Denzil Meyrick writes about Campbeltown, though he calls it Kinloch. It’s one of the most unique places in Scotland—far away from the main centres of population, but still on the mainland. It has this feeling of being in the 50s or 60s. There’s a sort of otherness there, he says.

He is pretty scathing about the merger of forces into Police Scotland. He reckons it isn’t working because its run by city cops who have no idea about rural life. Homogeneity, he says, doesn’t work. “You only have to look at Campbeltown on a Saturday night v Glasgow on the same evening to see that they are completely different.

Denzil likes each of his books to come from a different perspective and Kjell has different detectives at the forefront of his books. There is Kjell says, always a different angle to the truth.

“One of the fascinating things about detection is you try to find the truth. But I am fond of things we don’t know, like the underworld, the small people who live there. I write about society and people in society. They are affected by politics and other people’s decisions.”

Kjell Ola Dahl says his influences encompass Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels and of course, Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö. Denzil is a big fan of William McIlvanney’s work.

Kjell Ola Dahl s next book is TheCourier … a stand-alone set in WW2 which will be out in 2019.

Denzil says he will shortly be starting a Brian Scott twitter feed…..

And so that’s the summary of what I attended complete. Except that I haven’t mentioned the exceptional Amnesty International sessions based around Writers in Prison – part of Freedom – a main strand of the Festival. These were moving and passionate and really well attended I’m glad to say.

Also of serious note was the astonishingly good and innovative photography of Chris Close, on display throughout the festival. I loved his imagination and the great photos he brought out of the authors. Here’s a couple by way of example. You can follow him on Instagram @author_pics

Val McDermid and Sue Black c.Chris Close

Maggie O’Farrell c.Chris Close

Also, my thanks for the company to the wonderful #teamOrenda and their fairy godmother, Karen. It was lovely to spend some time with you all as well as to see Jackie Collins, Kelly Lacey, Joanne Baird, Lainy Swanson, Olga Wojtas and so many others:) .

Of course, I may have bought the odd book while I was there…

Finally, huge thanks to the efficient, friendly and highly professional staff in the Press Yurt. Frances, Rollo, Christine & Lisa, you work so hard and seldom see daylight. Thank you!

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2018– a final round up @Edbookfest #EdBookFest I can’t begin to tell you how rich and rewarding my Edinburgh Book Festival was. Although, in the spirit of this blog, I kept in the main to crime writing sessions, you’ll see that one or two of my other personal passions crept in.

#edbookfest #scottishblogger #Crime

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amazingviralinfo · 7 years ago

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Despite having read the entirety of WebMD, we are not "pretty much a doctor now." Listening to six hours of celebrity YouTube rants does not make us an expert on vaccines. We watched Short Circuit 20 times, back-to-back, and yet our robot still can't do anything but beg for death. We like to believe we're experts in everything, but the Universe has a way of correcting us -- often in the grimmest manner possible.

A Man Claims Running Is Heart Attack Kryptonite, Dies Of A Heart Attack While Running

The next time you're trapped listening to your neighbor prattle on and on about how he's never been healthier and it's all thanks to his early morning jogs, be sure say a silent "Fuck you" to running guru Jim Fixx and his books The Complete Book Of Running and Jim Fixx's Second Book Of Running. Titles are hard. God help us, we know that all too well.

AP At this point, it's a running joke.

In the late '70s, Fixx was a severely overweight, middle-aged chain smoker whose only experience with running was when 7-Eleven announced a sale on Marlboros. Then Fixx became enamored with pathologist Tom Bassler's theory that "any nonsmoker who could run a marathon in under four hours would never die from a heart attack." Fixx dropped the Marlboros, ditto the weight, and picked up several pairs of disturbingly short shorts. The idea that running was the surest path to nigh-immortality may have originated with Tom Bassler, but Jim Fixx spread that shit to the world.

David Madison/Getty Images "I took the idea and ran with it."

And then Fixx literally ran himself to death.

As it turns out, the human body simply isn't built to handle a sudden switch from existing solely on smokes and hoagies to running daily marathons. And it sure didn't help that Fixx actively avoided going to the doctor for checkups, especially with a family history of heart problems. At the age of 52, Fixx keeled over on a Vermont back road while running. It's tragic, but at least it gives you a nice little anecdote to tell that neighbor.

A Quack "Doctor" Convinces Countless Victims That Fasting Cures All Ills, Dies While Fasting To Cure Herself

In the late 19th century, Linda Hazzard inhabited a comfy nook within the Washington state legal system. Thanks to a loophole grandfathering in those claiming to practice alternative medicine, she was both A) free to practice medicine despite her utter lack of a medical degree, and B) free from being prosecuted for malpractice while doing so. It's a circumstance any self-respecting sociopath would kill for, so Linda Hazzard did exactly that.

Pictured: Doctor Hazzard, inspiration for the DC villain of the same name.

Hazzard asserted that all illness -- and we do mean all, ranging from tuberculosis to a dropped uterus -- spawned from "impurities" built up in the digestive system. Thus, her prescribed treatment for every single patient was to check them in for a weeks-long fast. Once the patient had become sufficiently fashionable, she'd then proceed to the next stage of her treatment, which involved having them sign over their bank accounts for some reason, then enduring "massages" in which Hazzard would pummel them about the head and back with her fists while screaming "Eliminate! Eliminate!" Ah yes, Dalek therapy. Very soothing.

Thank God no one believes this stupid idea anymore.

Unsurprisingly, several patients died while in Hazzard's "care," and in 1912 she was convicted of manslaughter, for which she served two years in Washington State Penitentiary. After a brief stint in New Zealand following her release, Hazzard returned to her old stomping grounds, where she used her considerable proceeds to open up a "dream sanitarium" -- a place that locals nicknamed Starvation Heights. She continued prescribing enemas and face-punching right up until 1935, when tragedy(?) struck and Starvation Heights burned down.

Was she starving the fire extinguishers too?

Hazzard -- by then a fragile old lady -- finally and unfortunately believed her own bullshit. In 1938, she commenced a fast of her own. And get this: It totally worked! After all, "dead" is technically no longer "sick."

A Promising College Senior Rebels Against Seat Belt Laws, Dies Tragically Because He Refused To Wear His Fucking Seat Belt

21-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln senior Derek Kieper, like all 21-year-olds, thought he was all but invincible and knew everything there was to know. This is not a happy story. In particular, Derek was all riled up about the tyranny imposed upon everyday Americans in the form of seat belt laws. In a September 2004 Daily Nebraskan editorial, Derek railed against this injustice, declaring that "It is my choice what type of safety precautions I take" and that "There seems to be a die-hard group of non-wearers out there who simply do not wish to buckle up no matter what the government does. I belong to this group."

And like every college newspaper opinion piece, it of course changed the world.

In January of 2005, Derek was a passenger in his friend's Ford Explorer when it skidded off of icy Interstate 80. Driver Luke Havermann and front-seat passenger Nick Uphoff emerged from the battered SUV relatively unscathed. Derek -- the only passenger in the vehicle who chose to eschew his seat belt in favor of sticking it to The Man -- was tossed clean out of the unjust steel cage that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration built for him.

Live free then die.

In memorializing the five-major UNL senior (history, psychology, economics, sociology, and political science, in case you were wondering), Daily Nebraskan opinion page editor Erica Rogers said that Derek's "brains and intensity would be missed" -- a statement that, in light of the circumstances, probably could have been worded better.

Wesley Snipes Doesn't Believe In Paying Taxes, Goes Straight To Jail (Because You Have To Pay Taxes)

When Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," he probably didn't mean it as a challenge. Yet between 1999 and 2004, everyone's favorite Daywalker took it as precisely that. Wesley Snipes -- who, during that period, appeared in more than six movies and took in $38 million as a result -- failed to pay so much as a single penny in taxes.

He evaded the authorities by keeping a low profile.

Snipes cited the well-known (well-known to be complete horseshit, anyway) 861 argument. It's a movement in which tax protesters point to the wording of Internal Revenue Code Section 861, which states that "compensation for services" is taxable, and interpret it to mean that wages ... aren't ... compensation for services? Look, we don't get it either, but it probably makes a hell of a lot more sense if you also believe in chemtrails.

Gotta read the stuff that comes after that "if" part, man.

It's likely that Snipes's anti-tax stance came about as a result of his association with the Nuwaubians, a quasi-religious sect of black Americans who promote anti-government theories. Considering the timing, his refusal to pay may have even been in retaliation for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms rejecting his application to set up a military training compound on the Nuwaubians' land and- holy shit, Wesley Snipes. Holy shit.

A government that doesn't support black power UFO militias is not a government worth funding.

Of course, taxes don't cease to exist because one stops believing in them (that's fairies -- you were thinking of fairies, Passenger 57), and Snipes was convicted of three counts of willful failure to file income taxes. After two years of thoroughly failed appeals, he eventually reported for his three-year stay in a four-star federal prison. We hate to say "We told you so," so we'll just say "Exactamundo."

People Exploit Deadly Diseases For Profit, Succumb To Said Deadly Diseases

After being diagnosed with HIV in 1992, Christine Maggiore became a highly vocal skeptic of AIDS research. Which is understandable when y-

Wait, what? Against?

Fact: A large percentage of subjects involved in AIDS research end up infected and dead.

It started with UC Berkeley biology professor Peter Duesberg, who shared with her his theory that AIDS symptoms were caused by "recreational drug use and malnutrition." After doing some "research" of her own, Maggiore decided that HIV did not in fact cause AIDS. She sold books, presented lectures, denounced safe sex, counseled pregnant women against using drugs to prevent the transmission of the virus to their babies, and apparently developed a religious aversion to common motherfucking sense. Worst of all, she had two babies and breastfed them, claiming that when her three-year-old daughter died of AIDS complications, it was really nothing but allergies. Needless to say, Maggiore would later go on to die from those same allergies.

"DAMN YOU, GLUTEN!"

But where Maggiore leveraged complete medical ignorance into a book tour, Hulda Clark turned that shit into big business. She claimed that every disease, from AIDS to advanced cancer, was caused by parasites within the body, and that these parasites could be vanquished through the use of a "zapper" -- a device less like the Ghostbusters proton pack and more like a cash vacuum. When Clark herself came down with multiple myeloma, it became clear that her trilogy of medical books -- The Cure For All Cancers, The Cure For All Diseases, and The Cure For All Advanced Cancers -- belonged in the fiction section after all.

The zapper still sells for $800.

Then there's infamous 1950s Texas evangelist Jack Coe, who renounced medical science altogether in favor of a good old-fashioned dose of God's love. Two days after being declared cured at one of Coe's faith-healing rallies (which basically consisted of Coe yelling the sick out of people), three-year-old polio sufferer George Clark was rushed to the hospital when his (obviously still polio-stricken) legs swelled dangerously. No sooner was Coe jailed and brought up on felony charges of practicing medicine without a license than said charges were dropped because, let's face it, Coe never technically practiced medicine a day in his life.

Probably feeling like the good Lord was on his side, the renowned healer waltzed out of the courtroom and was damn near immediately stricken with polio -- thereby proving that while he may have been a flailing asshole, he wasn't entirely wrong about the power of God.

For more proof that humanity is standing on the edge of both being great and being extinct, check out 6 People Who Died In Order To Prove A (Stupid) Point and 5 Ridiculous Ancient Beliefs (That Thrive on the Internet).

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out The 5 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Kickstarter Campaigns, and other videos you won't see on the site!

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