#a passion for mushrooms

[shantismurf]

"The Mushroom Mine" sign by @shantismurf, with assistance from @tickles-ivory

As part of the celebration of the one year anniversary of the Bagginshield Book Club, we asked the lovely @chrononautintraining a few questions about this wonderful work.

June 2024 Author Q&A with Chrononautical

Q1. What name would you like us to use and what are your pronouns?

A1. Chrononautical or Chrono, She/Her

Q2. How many years have you been writing? 

A2. Most of my life, but posting publicly for about 15 years.

Q3. What do you think of as your writing style - are you a plotter or pantster?

A3. Pantster, primarily, though I've learned my lessons and do like to know where a story is going to end when I start it these days so I try to plot. 

Q4. What’s your favorite genre/trope to write? 

A4. Speculative fiction: stories about magic or science fiction, primarily. 

Q5. Is there a genre/trope you haven't written as much of yet that you're excited about for future writing?

A5. I'd like to do more comedy.

Q6. Was there an idea or scene that inspired A Passion for Mushrooms?

A6. Passion for Mushrooms is one hundred percent inspired by the quote I used for an epigraph: "Hobbits have a passion for mushrooms, surpassing even the greediest likings of Big People." - The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien. 

When I decided to write it, the fandom already had more than a few stories about Bilbo planting gardens and deciding to stay in Erebor with a miraculously alive Thorin. I was completely here for all of that, of course, but I wanted a story where the garden wasn't special because of gold or rare plants bought with gold. I wanted there to be a treasure that Bilbo could appreciate with the Baggins half of his heart, as well as the Tookish bit. And I know next to nothing about mountains, but I do know mushrooms do okay in caves, so... 

Q7. Did you do any special research before writing the work?

A7. If you're asking this because I go deep on How To Pluck A Chicken In A Medieval Kitchen during the cooking scenes, you're right and you should say it. I am a middling cook, but all of my ingredients come from grocery stores. I had to do a fair bit of research on the cooking aspects of the story that were furthest from my own experience. Fortunately, the professor already put tomatoes and potatoes in Middle-earth, so I didn't have to go Full Historical. 

Q8. Did the story change from how you originally envisioned it? Were there scenes or plot elements you had to cut out?

A8. It absolutely did. Because I am, as previously said, a pantster. I wanted a bigger bang for the ending of the story than I was set up to get. I could have stopped with Bilbo and Thorin getting together and had some simple falling action, but that didn't perfectly tie the subplot of Dis and Tauriel back to the main pairing, which I knew I wanted. Having Doron try to poison Bilbo was actually a late in the game choice. If I'd planned that from the start, I would have threaded him into more of the middle sections of the novel. 

As for cutting things out, the additional stories in the series started as deleted scenes/reader requests that I couldn't find use for. So most of what I cut didn't end up in the rubbish bin. Anything that wound up there really wasn't worth posting. 

Q9. Do you have a favorite moment from the entire series?

A9. I still really like "A Spy In The Shire" a lot. I know it's so self-indulgent to say that about a story focusing on an OC, but if the point of the Battle of Five Armies is to reclaim Erebor for the dwarves, then I want that to mean something. I want the average dwarf to be in a bad place. I want the average dwarf to need Erebor the way Thorin needs Erebor, to be willing to do anything to get back to the Lonely Mountain. Because if that's the case, then all the sacrifice means something. When I talk about this one luckless dwarf on the world's silliest quest to figure out how to help the king hook up with a hobbit, I'm talking about hope for the future. I'm talking about all the people who long for and dream of the home that Thorin was willing to die to reclaim. I think about them going back there and living better lives. It brings me peace.

[green-fifteen]

I'm so pleased to finally announce the completion of my longest podfic project! The Mushroom Mine parts 1-9 are now finished and uploaded.

I fell in love with A Passion For Mushrooms in 2020. Shortly thereafter, I started getting serious about podfic. It has always been a goal of mine to make this series accessible in audio format -- for myself and everyone else who loves it.

My heart is so glad because I get to share my favorite story with you all! Thanks to @chrononautintraining for making it all possible. Your writing delights and inspires.

Thanks also to @elany for cover design and cheerleading. 💚💚💚

[its-still-atlass]

Reading "A Passion For Mushrooms" for the first time........ When I tell you this fic is SO SCRUMPTIOUS??? I need to eat, sleep, breathe this fic. They're so oblivious? I can't believe Chrononautical is the second coming of Tolkien

[splookiee]

this fic is definitely giving me brain damage how can one be sO FUCKING DUMB

i think this fic is giving me brain damage

[layzeal]

so the publishing house Peach Flower House (who published Golden Terrace, Little Mushoom, In The Dark and other works) has announced they will be closing, and are running a closing sale until November 30 www.peachflowerhouse.com/closing

if you've been interested in their titles, this is your last chance to grab them!

[deerspherestudios]

When is our funky mushroom boy's birthday if he has one!! btw love the game! <3

Lore-wise,,,, it's difficult to pinpoint when his birthday is.

For the sake of meta it was initially 15th Feb (the date I finished designing him for the game jam) but I kinda wanna make it more personalized. For now it's undecided haha.

If anyone's interested I'd be happy to use a suggestion! Feel free to suggest a date and tell me why. (zodiac enjoyers this ones for u <3)

[tsukasa]

cute...

[draguuula]

If you like the hair braiding, I got another! Nightmares! What if MC had nightmares, while sleeping under Mychael’s roof?

nightmares!! ooh, the horror... /j /lh

if it was when mc and him first met, he'd be in a bit of a panic trying to figure out how to wake you up without being rude or suddenly scaring you. those were the last things he wanted 😅😅

if it's after a decent amount of time where he's grown fond of you, mychael would be more likely to hold your hand in his and stroke your knuckles while trying to whisper reassuring affirmations that you were okay. if you caught him in the middle of speaking, his ears would perk up and his pupils would dilate while he scratches his nape, trying to hide any tinges of blue decorating his perked ears.

if you had a hard time falling back asleep, mychael would for sure keep you company if you'd allow him to, his low purrs accompanied by the cozy cottage and forest ambience lulling you to sleep.

after all, they say a cat's purring has a healing effect.

[quinnfrankephotography]

I was away for a week and it was very nice to get back to my regular places this morning.

[green-fifteen]

Last installment of A Passion For Mushrooms is finally up!!

Thank you so much to @chrononautintraining for allowing me to read my favorite story out loud to other people who love it 💚 This is just such a fun hobby!

[gatorpond]

some pretty nature snaps from my recent walks

[mariofortress]

Excerpt from parchment: Lives of the Akunkei-hito: The Toads of the Frigid Opara Tane Shrubland

by the Human Mata Ryokiyage

I have participated now in two Oceanic Festivals among the Akunkei-hito, which, as I understand, is only a recent cultural invention in the worship of Gousai the Moist, having been conceived only fifteen years ago on this young plane-realm. Both iterations of the event spanned the birth of Limestone to the death of Timber, and were raucous beyond any reasonable human threshold of merriment. My adoration of the Toadstool-folk for their joyous nature however outweighs my chauvinism which, though mild (I want to believe), is a limitation of civilized minds which I have not exceeded despite my travels (to say nothing of the casually and often enthusiastically cruel chauvinism of the Akunkei-hito themselves).

When I arrived initially in mid-Hematite of 122, I saw a noble and crafts-minded people, and my impression of the Akunkei-hito changed only gradually and almost beneath my notice. They are still the same folk who, while I was still occupied shaking off my culture shock, brought me to The Boyish Aunt to drink with the Good King Kou and Sumi the Champion. Their neighborliness, artistry, ingenious musicality, and their advanced culinary tradition are obvious to any trader--and they are no front--but in my immersion I have gleaned a measured perspective on their vices and quirks (some concerning, some merely intriguing).

The Akunkei-hito are always fighting for their lives. I idly speculate based on their myths that this is always true for Toadstool-folk on any plane-realm, and their highly adapted way of living seems to confirm this to me. How firmly they slur the names of other peoples smacks of an animal perpetually near-cornered. They possess an expansive vocabulary of antagonistic terms for both the Children of Sorcery and the other Free Peoples (the skulking masked thieves they only describe like enlarged vermin). Sumi the Champion, who I have on many occasions had the pleasure of carousing with, freely and in jest addressed me as aya-bikou (the Toad language for "tome-buzzard") a term meant to evoke the alleged evil of the mythological Koopa Mages.

The story of their corneredness is told through their blinding ferocity in spear combat, but also through their strong tradition of Gousai worship. Her symbols evoke the Cheep-Cheep's vigilant self-defense and underdog status as well as the supposed motherly embrace of the ocean. In myth, the coast (her demesne) is imagined as a lateral springboard behind the Akunkei-hito which rallies their speartoads (this heroic recovery is said to startle and circumvent the hammers of their enemies).

This parchment is the (barely) refined contents of my journaling and pondering during my immersion. It represents the first stepping stone in what I hope will be my life's work. There are topics I plan to avoid, and pieces of knowledge which are best not written down. Importantly, I will not raise discussion about the magical and alchemical taboos of the Toadstool-folk, both because I have no worthwhile basis to speculate and because I respect that particular body of tradition and its secrecy.

Since living here, I have been deemed peer to these storied people (and I am not the only sapient non-Toadstool). My surname by birth is Thadmusda but I was given one with equivalent meaning in their language, under which I am penning this parchment.

[bil-daddy]

trick or treat!!

Treat. Have some mushrooms (platonic), @musicals-and-mushrooms

Probably wouldn't eat them, though, if I were you.

[mushroom-madness]

🍄 Round 1: Match 16 🍄

🍄 Vote for your Favorite Fungi! 🍄

Descriptions Below ⬇️

Jade Leech

“Jade is the type of guy who adores mushrooms. He's actually been banned from cooking with them since he made a restaurant's entire menu mushrooms for a whole week. He supplies mushrooms to the school cafeteria for the mushroom risotto, and all of his shrooms are grown by him upon bringing them back from foraging. He likes nothing more than to see people enjoy his mushroom concoctions.” - Submission 65

“Not inherently a mushroom but he has a deep fascination/special interest in mushrooms 🍄” - Submission 154

“he is so mushroompilled you don't even understand. he collects them, grows them, loves them, maybe even smokes them. mushrooms are so special to him. and he is so special to ME. thank you for your time.

he would love this bracket he would stare at it for hours in my opinion. thank you for your time. jabe beech.” - Submission 189

Jade Leech Propaganda

Twisted Wonderland Wiki

Night Cap

“A little mushroom who is also a ninja. Also canonically genderfluid, which cool.” - Submission 196

“Stick to the shadows with Night Cap and sneak more sneakily than you’ve ever snuck before. Then unleash the mushroom martial art, Fung Fu.

According to Kevin Hanna, the creator of Night Cap, Night Cap is genderfluid (like several species of fungi in real life). This makes them the first confirmed LGBTQ+ character in the franchise.” - Plants VS Zombies Wiki

Nightcap Propaganda

[miniaturemallow]

Oh! I took a lotta these pics while on hiatus/dwindling down to a hiatus but

Plz humor my mushroom posting now that I'm back

[atlantablack]

Started reading a fic and got about three paragraphs in and went ohno immediately which means this is going to HURT ME (it is a 90k slow burn and I am already suffering)