#and a lot are out of print charity anthologies

[the-last-teabender]

I'm realizing a lot of people on here may not know I am a published author beyond my anime journalism. Here are some anthologies I've contributed to:

Shadows Over Avalon Vol. 2: ("The Maze Will Come to Me") For if you want aggressively hopeful eldritch horror and your favorite Arthurian knight is Perceval.

Pizza Parties & Poltergeists: ("Role with Disadvantage") For if you want weird 80s D&D-centric horror/comedy that is, again, aggressively hopeful. And silly.

Sockhops & Seances: ("Son of the Wolf") Breaking my own "X meets Y" rule, this is Nancy Drew meets Scooby Doo meets Defunctland. This one won an award. o3o9

The Perennial Ms. Wildthyme: ("Dolores Smith and the Birthday Bear") My first published short story also happened to be an Iris Wildthyme.

I have also written some novellas and novels but we can save those for another time.

[ot3]

it's just weird to me because the sentiment around like professionally printed (which to be very clear is not the same as professionally published) anthology style fanzines is that they're somehow like. brutal capitalism come to infringe upon the sacred art of zinemaking. but these are also people who would simultaneously claim that they support artists getting fairly compensated for their work. but historically most zines of this type have been charity projects, and for the ones that arent charity projects i guarantee you pretty much nobody is making money even close to the number of hours they put in, especially not the moderation teams. it's strange. like nobody is getting rich off of this except grifters who steal shit and i think if every type of Web Community that had grifters in it got a bad reputation we wouldn't have any web communities left.

imo there is one very big thing that needs to be talked about wrt these kinds of zines and it's the way a lot of them rely on like, dirt cheap overseas manufacturing to produce their merchandise and you have no idea how those people are being treated. like idk i think it's insanely difficult to get a lot of types of merch made without going through these channels and im not expecting independent artists to be able to opt their work out of the exploitative systems of capitalism any more than anyone else can. but i think it's worth acknowledging

[doctornerdington]

I've been voluntold to write something to be read at my aunt's funeral. (I'll be watching the livestream; I can't afford an astronomical $1,200 plane ticket, unfortunately.)

The thing is, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about my aunt, but I don't know that I want them shared with that audience. Or perhaps, I'm not sure her funeral is the appropriate venue for them because they're just as much about me as they are about her. I'm gonna take a first stab at it here, and we'll see if anything can be made of it. Maybe I'll just decline.

My aunt was a very religious woman. She started out conservative Mennonite, and moved to the more mainstream religious right from there. And because of that (and for other reasons that involve my mom and her processing of childhood trauma in pretty disastrous and destructive ways), I was never emotionally close to my aunt. She lived three provinces away and when we went to visit, things were stilted. I felt claustrophobic and wrong-footed. Couldn't wait to get away.

My aunt strongly disapproved of most of my life choices. She wasn't okay with queer people. She wasn't okay with divorce. She was grieved until the day she died that I had left the church, and prayed, daily, that I would reconsider.

And through all of that? She wrote me letters. Faithfully. Boring, rambling letters about how many buns she baked that week and how the charity shop was getting along and whether it was raining very much and how her flowers were growing. She sent cards for every holiday and birthday. Never missed. (In fact, my brother just received a card in the mail yesterday -- 6 days after she died. I guess that will be the last one.) She always sent a card, and she always heavily underlined the pre-printed words that meant the most to her. It was so cheesy and so heartfelt. When I had kids, she started sending them cards, too, with their own special underlining. When I divorced my ex, she sent me money at Christmas to make sure I could afford gifts for my kids. When my car died, she literally bought me a car, out of the blue, because she didn't want us to be without a car in the winter.

She disproved of so many things about me so strongly, and that never stopped her from loving me, from consistently acting with kindness and generosity and love to me and my children. And I loved her too, and I hope she knew it and felt it. Even though I'm queer, and divorced, and even though I'm never returning to the church. Even though loving her felt like pressing on a bruise. She lived a life of love and integrity, in whatever way she was able, and I admire her for that. Despite the bruising.

So now she's gone. And I keep thinking about these lines from the Spoon River anthology:

Just because you no more could love me, Nor pray for me, nor write me letters, The eternal silence of you spoke instead. And somehow from that hour, I had a new vision.

And it's not like I have a new vision now or anything like that. It's just that it's so strange to think that she's not out there right now, sending unwelcome prayers my way. She'll never send me another bizarrely underlined letter. Her silence will speak instead, I guess. That's love too.

[duckprintspress]

“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: Giulia Malagoli

Hope y’all are having a lovely Thursday! I’m sure y’all have a lot going on today. What do we at Duck Prints Press have going on? Why, of course, introducing another contributor to our currently crowdfunding anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers.”

A Toast to Scars by Giulia Malagoli

About the Artist: Giulia Malagoli (she/they) got into art because of generally friendly competition with a classmate in middle school, and now she has an entire Bachelor’s Degree in Concept Art to show for it.

For about ten years, she has been hopping through fandom spaces—from video games, to comics, to movies and TV series—and has drawn inspiration from each of them for both fan and original art. The result is a passion for character design and for art that weaves a story into its visuals, with a whole lot of feelings about the role of The Narrative to boot.

To chase this passion Giulia has moved from their home country of Italy to the United Kingdom and back again. They now work as a freelance illustrator with enthusiasm, always scraping some time at the end of the day to keep up with fandom friends.

Links: ArtStation | Twitter

Only a teaser for now – you’ll have to get the book to see all of this gorgeous piece in it’s full grayscale A4-size (8 1/4 inches x 11 3/4 inches/21 cm x 30 cm) glory.

Better back the Kickstarter now so you don’t miss out!

(By the way, in case you’ve missed some other things we’ve got going on, we’re selling short story bundles and giving a portion of the proceeds to two queer charities. Read all about it!)

[animehouse-moe]

Pride Month Manga Recommendations Week 2: Yuri / Girls Love

So week number two has rolled around, which means a new focus/set for the recommendations, and a new charity! This week's theme/genre is Yuri/Girls Love, which can get a bit of a bad rap sometimes. It's absolutely true that a lot of same sex romance manga can suffer from sexualization of gender and sexual identities, but I really hope that these recommendations can be something people find interest in.

Also, a quick aside so you don't have to go all the way to the end of the post, this week's charity is GLAAD, an organization that focuses on advocacy and fair treatment of LGBTQ+ in media.

Run Away With Me Girl by Battan is a short but bittersweet story about the regrets of a pair of girls as they move forward in their adult lives. Maki drifts aimlessly through life, unable to forget the hurricane that was Midori who swept her off her feet in high school, only to leave her behind to become an "adult", while Midori finds herself trapped in an engagement to someone who who she doesn't love, burdened with the fear of becoming a mother.

The two have a chance meeting one night, years after they have last seen each other, and the facades that cover each began to crack and break apart as they spend more and more time together, rediscovering themselves, struggling with trauma and fears and hesitations, and fighting to find a way for their love to come true. It's a very beautiful story, though not without it's dark moments with things like scarily real manipulative and abusive significant others. It refuses to sugarcoat its story, but still finds its way to a rose colored end.

Bloom Into You

Our main character (right) Yuu has wanted a lovey dovey relationship like the manga she reads for as long as she can remember, but no matter where that confession comes from, it can't move her heart. She continues to turn down confessions until it's the student council president (left) Nanami that comes to her with her own confession.

It's not a series that knows exactly what it wants to do and where to go, but it matches the cadence of high school life in that stumbling. Finding the right words and approach, struggling with what love is, accepting yourself as you are, and living up to expectations. It's a tangled mess of many emotions that all find their core in love and desire, as it explores various characters and approaches to romance.

My Cute Little Kitten/Milk Morinaga

Now bear with me here, I know we're not getting the next volume until January 2024, so I want to just sort of broadly recommend Milk Morinaga's works in English. Hana and Hina After School just recently go its (print on demand) reprint, but they also have stuff like Syrup (a series of Yuri anthologies), and a good few short Yuri series that you can get digitally (most of them are oop since they're so old).

But anyways, My Cute Little Kitten. As the name implies it's cute, of course, but it's also steamy. Rena and Yuna are roommates that date all the way back to their college era, with Rena harboring a crush that slips out into words one drunken night thanks to Yuna's words spurred on by the kitten she picked up off the street. The pair end up slipping into a relationship that has them moving apartments and exploring each other while peeling back layers of themselves. It's a very comfortable story, but doesn't shy away from reminding readers that these are adults. I really enjoy that it keeps that bit of sexuality to it, but doesn't force it to coat the relationship in its entirety. There's still plenty about the characters and their anxiety that stems from their new lives.

Otherside Picnic

Ever wanted to see girls explore another world of mystery, horror, and terror while also exploring each other? Look no further than Otherside Picnic! This series is a bit different as the romance goes hand in hand with the adventure, rather than the romantic aspect spurring other pieces on. If you're not a fan of horror, you probably won't enjoy this story, but if you do, I can't recommend it enough.

Sorawo is a loner that discovered the Otherside as a way to escape from her own world, but ends up subject to the dangers of it and on the brink of dying in a puddle of water. Fate has other plans for her though, as the blonde (and Canadian) Toriko stumbles upon "Ophelia" in her puddle and saves her, setting the story in motion. The pair continue to explore the Otherside over the span of months and even years, initially for the sake of searching for Toriko's teacher Satsuki, but as their relationship deepens and they come to further understand each other, the purpose becomes more muddy.

I really just want to drive home how good this story is. I really really love it for how the characters are presented, and how the use of horror and fear is used to show how deep and strong the relationship between Toriko and Sorawo grows to be. Though do be warned, it's a bit of a slow burn, but I absolutely think it's worth it thanks to how great and unique the characters are.

Futari Escape

Now I'll level with you, this isn't a yuri romance series, there's not even many displays of affection. But still, I think it's a yuri series that countless people out there would enjoy.

It's the story of Senpai, a short girl who loves to mooch off of her mangaka roommate/girlfriend, Kouhai, and their journey(s) through life as they endeavor to enjoy the smaller things. Going on random trips, reminiscing on days gone, or getting themselves into a spot of trouble that they conveniently forget about. It's incredibly endearing and comically passionate about dodging work and responsibility. Because of that though, it's the perfect manga to take a break from life with. To find just that little bit of comedy, or a random idea you wouldn't have thought of, or to let your mind wander aimlessly as you flip the pages. It's a wonderful rest stop in the relentless onslaught that is the present reality, and on that alone it's such an easy title to recommend.

And so we find ourselves at the end of another week of recommendations, and a new charity to check out! GLAAD is a charity that focuses on advocacy and cultural change for LGBTQ+ in media. They do quite a bit and even have their own media awards. Once more, I don't want to push people to donate, but I do highly recommend everyone check out their website to see what it is that they do, and how you can get involved.

[kelmcdonald]

Getting Shit Done!

Hey hey folks!

November was mostly work focused and December will be too. This month in my discord we’re gonna watch an indie werewolf movie called Wolf of Snow Hollow. I was told it had a dry sense of humor but I haven’t seen it yet. If it interests you, pop into my discord on December 7th at 5pm PST.

Last month I finished Murky Water. It’s all done! I’m getting the whole thing proofread now. Then I’ll repost all the old pages with the typos fixed. There is still a paper shortage so I don’t know if I’m gonna print it right away. Like it would be nice to have a new book for conventions but Cautionary Fables South America will be out next year. So it might be better to hold off with it’s crowdfund until next year.

Another thing I finished is my Failure to Launch comic. Patreon backers have been seeing the pencils posted on Fridays, but I finished coloring and lettering it last weekend. It’s written by Ryan North and will appear in the anthology Failure to Launch: a Tour of Ill-Fated Futures. I’m the editor on the book and it’s gonna be a great book. It’s a light-hearted education collection of inventions and world plans that didn’t get to become reality. Some are because they were based on bad science (like my story is about a man who didn’t account for friction or physics in general) but others fell apart because of corporate greed or government interference. I especially like a story written by Harry “Hbomberguy” Brewis about the first attempt at making a union. That’s gonna crowdfund in February. I’ll make sure to let you all know when it’s up.

While doing all this work I watched a lot of TV. So much it’s a little hard to remember it all. The big stand out is probably Interview with the Vampire. While different from the books, the changes the show made really improved the source material. I especially think the show aging Claudia up a little was a good decision. Her being turned so young in the book and movie does some interesting stuff, it doesn’t quite fit with the series as a whole. Her being older lets her run off of a bit on her own and grow into someone away from Louis and Lestate in a way that she couldn’t in the source material. It makes her interesting and nuanced as a character for the show.

And the actress playing her knocks it out of the park. All the actors in the show do. I also like the reporter being older while interviewing Louis and pushing back on him in the interview more. The whole show is just really well put together. I highly recommend it. 

Since I wrapped up a lot last month, this month I’m jumping back into You are the Chosen One. So that will be back as my patreon exclusive comic next month. I’ll post pfds of the previous chapters before I start things up again. I’m sure some folks have forgotten what’s happened since the couple of month break. 

I’m also getting ready to jump into the next The City Between story. It’s titled Shards of Reflection. I’m gonna try to experiment a little with the storytelling because the main character is an unreliable narrator. It will be interesting to see how things go and I hope I can pull it off. 

And I’m really living up to the cartoon of me spinning plates on the Iron Circus Geekshow. Because this month I also need to try and finish up the graphic novel I’ve been writing, Blue Moon. That’s the werewolf YA book I’m doing with Meredith McClaren. The script is due at the end of December. Or at least the first draft is. But it’s kinda fallen to the side while working on everything else.

I’ll be doing my usual streaming this month on Twitch. With so much going on, sometimes it’s hard to focus. So those two hour streams Tues, Wed, and Thurs really help me get at least my drawing done. One streaming thing that Spike and I are planning is on Christmas day we are gonna stream rimworld. During it we’ll be raising money for charity (but haven’t picked one yet). But it will be on both the Iron Circus Youtube as well as my twitch. We are gonna start at Noon Central and 10am PST. So join us if you don’t have Christmas plans.  Also, since twitter is exploding I figured I should list all my social medias. You can follow me at these places.

https://twitter.com/kellhound

https://facebook.com/kelmcdonaldart

https://instagram.com/keldrawscomicsoninsta…

https://cohost.org/Kelmcdonald

https://pillowfort.social/kelmcdonald

https://mastodon.social/@kelmcdonald

https://kelmcdonald.tumblr.com

https://twitch.tv/kelmcdonald

Have a good one! Thanks for your support!

[medicinemane]

Get real tired of my mom

I ask her if she can like... actually do some laundry if I bring it down to her so we can store clean stuff in an organized way instead of dirty trashbags full of it

Answer is basically "I guess", though she made very sure to tell me not to put it in the middle of the dinningroom because that would be in her way for doing yoga... cause you know, the default is to assume I fuck everything up and am just kind of a selfish asshole with no forethought

(Only reason I'd do that is if I was trying to like... actually fucking make her help, but I don't tend to be that petty)

So I go and I clean out this... it's not the nastiest thing I've seen by a long shot, but it's a hamper that has a lot of some kinda powder in the bottom and a bit of fly prints around the side, and I spend like 15 minutes scrubbing it down the best I can with hydrogen peroxide and then finishing with rubbing alcohol to... to hopefully at least kill anything gross on the bits I couldn't get fully clean (cause I suck and I can never get anything totally clean)

Then, I go to eat one of the things she picked up from arby's. The other day she discovered that she could stop by the grocery store, pick up bread and meat and make herself a sandwich and have more food for home for cheaper than fast food... so she 100% is never doing that again

Whatever, she gets some and she (for once, there's plenty of times she doesn't and basically fuck me getting diner) brought me home some stuff... which as I expected I found that she ate one of, cause she can eat anything in the house, so the best thing is to always eat something I can actually stomach

But you know... that's not even the part that irritates me most with it, it's that she couldn't even throw out the fucking wrapper

Like... just take it 2 feet to the trash instead of leaving it on the stove

If it wouldn't be super disruptive and just kind of cruel, I'd legit just go tell her to get the fuck out. Like... you don't help me clean up after you, you constantly make a mess, she's legit one of the main reasons I'm constantly saying how worthless I am (and the people most responsible were her parents, who she'd literally take me over to so they'd give her money, so like she indirectly has a part in the rest of it), so... why the fuck should I keep letting you stay here?

Life would be so much fucking easier without you here, I might actually be able to clean the place up... I might be able to enjoy some quiet... I might not have to play therapist to the person who said no one could ever love me... you know?

Like 1200 bucks, that's why. Cause I'm a useless loser who doesn't have an income and can't act on any of the shit that might make me money. Legit that's a whole lot of the reason to let her stay

...the other reason is I'm not heartless and I'm not gonna kick someone out that would probably just go die if I did, but... I don't fucking know

You know, she spends money on a personal assistant for her writing... her writing which makes like... $12 some months

She makes herself miserable taking on like 3 projects every month, and every month swearing that's the end of it, she's not gonna over fill her plate again, and then doing the same thing next month. None of them are her own projects, almost none of them make money, almost all of them are trying to get into charity anthologies for exposure

Which is part of why she can't help me, cause she's always too tired because she's got all these big important projects that she... that she straight up pays money to get into and to have a PA promote

No offense to the PA, sure they do a great job, more it's offense to someone spending money we don't have... and you know... I could even deal with all this, all this, if she'd just... not spend money at walmart to buy stuff I get cheaper at costco... give me money for costco so I can do stuff like... pick up more hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol so I stop having to ration them... pick up toothpaste so I don't have to ration it... if you're gonna blow money on the writing fine, but at least don't blow money on inferior shit from shitty companies

Anyway, I'm just kinda worthless trash and need to blow my brains out already

A gun costs a lot, but frankly it would be a good investment if it got rid of me

[fuckyeahasexual]

My mom actually reminded me of this week which is quite wholesome. Since GLADD is celebrating trans awareness as well as TDOR this year, I wanted to do one of my fav things and talk about books. This post is about my fav trans books so if you are in the mood for a new read I hope this helps. :) 

All Time Favorite: 

Dreadnought (and it’s sequel) has not only the own voices quality when it comes to trans representation being included, but the plot is too intertwined with the experiences of being trans and being a part of -- or pushed -- out of a superhero community. 

Runner Up:

If I Was Your Girl is the winner of a Stonewall Book Award and several others. This contemporary book has a lot of heart, and while I don’t remember it’s plot as in detail as the last I remember feeling like it was a gift in a way. Insight to a very ‘less complicated’ (as I believe the author says in the back) trans experience I do not share. This book probably has the only acknowledgments that I remember that are incredibly important to include because they take that ‘less complicated’ narrative and reminds us that non-fictional people are so much more complicated and diverse.  

Mixed Format Honorable Mentions: 

Did you know in Watch Dogs Legion you can just find trans aces walking around doing their own things until you ask them to fight against a police state? Watch Dogs Legion’s representation is at one level very throw away text based and at another level an innovative clever choose your own adventure hero experience. I just get this little spark of joy when I see a random character and the bio is like ‘Had Gender Affirming Operation’, “Looked for Trans Friendly Therapy” or “Purchased a They/Them Pin”. It’s not Ubisoft’s first trans character but the random endless amount of trans playable/non-playable characters in WD:L reminds me how just anyone can be trans and that’s beautiful to me. 

There’s also Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver and my books that both always seem to include ace and transgender characters if not trans ace character within them all. There’s Unburied Fables which is a-spec focused charity anthology with several fairytale retelling that are about trans characters. And I wish more of Anne Chivon’s poetry was in print so I could show you really kick ass nonbinary poems too.

That fact that big and small trans awareness efforts are being done across the media landscape (including emoji now) makes me so hopeful that people will hopefully someday soon stop pretending that there’s not enough of us to matter.

Did you know the creator of the transgender flag Monica Helms also wrote novels? I haven’t read any of them, I just think that’s so cool and fantastic. I think I haven’t read them because nothing will top the listed reasoning for making the trans flag’s stripes mirrored so that no matter how you fly it the flag is still right symbolizing that there is no one way to be trans. Sorry for the longer post than planned but say can I say -- Trans is beautiful. 

[wot-tidbits]

Live Signing Session—Dragonmount Patreon Stream

SOURCE

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SERIES!

QUESTION:

It has been 13 years since you were selected by Harriet to finish the Wheel of Time. After 13 years have passed, like, has the shock worn off yet?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

Yes and no. There are times when I look back and I just I’m like that was really a surreal event in my life. Nothing quite can ever compare to getting a phone call being asked to finish the Wheel of Time. I look back and I’m like how did that even happen?

For those who don’t know, I didn’t apply for it. Harriet just called me and it’s really, really strange. At the same time the fact that I am a best-selling author has kind of settled in because I have to deal with it every day and I’m very used to it at this point. And so the public’s attention being on me, I have gotten used to that. The fact that I got that random phone call still is really weird when you look back at. I don’t know if you have things in your life like that, where you’re like: “Man, that really happened!” That is really strange, like winning the lottery, right? I always describe it as winning the lottery that you didn’t know you’d entered. It’s more like actually getting an inheritance you didn’t know you were getting, but someone you loved of course had to die for you to get the inheritance. So it’s still wrapped up in weird emotions for me.

QUESTION:

The way that Harriet became aware of you was because her friend Elise Matheson was printing out blog posts and other news clippings that were online where there was a news report or tribute to Robert Jordan and yours was on that list and Harriet read that and ran with it from there. So it almost seems to me that you’ve written some amazing things, but maybe that blog post might have been the most important of your career in some ways.

BRANDON SANDERSON:

The single most significant three paragraphs in my entire career are probably that little blog post. […] The weird thing is that I was late. I spent about a week thinking about, “What do I write?” and everybody had tributes come out like the day after and I didn’t jump on that. You see me posting things later when I do blog post reactions. I often am like, “I want to think about this.” And so if I hadn’t waited who knows if that would have come up in the search results.  First, because it was brand new when Elise was looking for things. Who knows, if I’d waited one more day it wouldn’t have popped up? If I’d written it the week before, maybe it wouldn’t have either. That’s just one of those things, right?

QUESTION:

What would you say to 2007 Brandon?  

BRANDON SANDERSON:

I have read this book where you go back in time, and it never turns out well. I would not go back in time and say anything to myself because I would end up as my own grandfather somehow. And then I would need, like, Christopher Lloyd to show up and help me fix all the problems in my life.

But if I take it non-jokingly, I don’t know. I’ve never been asked this one before. It’s usually your young writer self, what would you say? I honestly have no idea. Maybe I would say it’s gonna be alright. You’re gonna do a good job. Don’t stress this as much as you are. But maybe it’s stressing it that made me do a good job? And I haven’t stressed over a book as much as those books ever. Except maybe my very first release with Elantris. But I am not high stress person, so even that level of stress is nothing compared to what I know a lot of other people stress about.

The nice thing is that by 2007 I was confident in my writing. There were things I needed to learn. There were going to be some hard things I needed to learn and I learned them over the next five years. And it was a tough growing period of writing.

I might say take another stab at Mat once you think you got him. Listen to Jason (Denzel) when he says Mat’s off. Because you (Jason) were the first to point that out to me. I might say Padan Fain. A lot of people are going to think there needs to be a little more. Can you write like 2000 more words on the Padan Fain narrative arc for a Memory of Light? Remember to do that. Brandon, they’re gonna split into three books anyway. Stop stressing about trying to get them all into one book. They are not gonna let that happen. Tor’s not gonna throw that money away. They are going to insist on three books. So plan it that way from the beginning and maybe the timeline issues and Towers of Midnight would have been solved. I’m mostly looking at warning myself to prepare things for the future.

QUESTION:

You and I have talked about that in the past. Rand had a very climactic moment at the end of The Gathering Storm. And then you had some moments but it largely became Perrin and Mat’s book in Towers of Midnight. And then we got back to Rand again…                    

BRANDON SANDERSON:

I actually like that breakdown. I don’t think I’d change that. I think that Rand in Towers of Midnight being a little bit like Rand in the Dragon Reborn where you’re getting some distance from Rand, because he’s gone through a major change and you’re seeing him externally for a little while.

Actually, I think that’s a selling point of the Dragon Reborn and I like having echoed that in my three, where you know that distance [is there] and then you get back in his head and you’re like: “No, this is the Rand I still love”. This is the same person, he’s just developed. He’s changed a little bit. And that distance, that time with distance, it just gives you a different perspective on the character.

Like I said you are in Rand’s head in the Dragon Reborn, but he feels like a different character, and then we get our Rand back in book 4. I really like how Jim pulled that off. I wasn’t doing that intentionally, but in hindsight looking back, it feels like the right way to do that.

I would try to fix the timeline issues though.  I did a lot of work in the Gathering Storm when it was one book to overlap Perrin’s climax and Rand’s climax at the kind of center point of the story which became the two endings of Towers of Midnight and the Gathering Storm. And because those originally had been overlapping back and forth timelines and were split into two books—which again I kind of like how it went—it was clunky since it wasn’t designed that way from the get-go.

QUESTION:

About the deleted chapters you did for the charity novels and are there anymore that might appear?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

No, the only other scene I think I’ve mentioned before; I have like that brief like two-page scene where ladies weave the bridal wreath for Rand. I’ve talked about that before. That’s the only significant chunk they got cut that’s left and it’s only like two pages. The ones were like full things, so someday we’ll find a place for that. I don’t think we have yet, but someday we’ll find a place for that, but it’s only two pages. It is real short.

Did I tell you why that got cut? I should mention it. So it was actually really cool. I wanted to get Rand engaged, have the bridal wreath and have all three of them like weave it together and kind of use some Aiel tradition there and whatnot. And it was a really great scene. I enjoyed it. Everybody liked it.

Then we put the book together. Because often I will write—when I have a large number of viewpoints, I will write a chunk of viewpoints from a character’s viewpoint, and then at the end is when I really start putting things together and then I have to smooth between these things and make sure that the pacing is right. Because you don’t want all sorts of dry scenes together. You don’t want too many action scenes together, unless it’s at the end where you do want a lot of action scenes, and you want to kind of be bouncing back and forth. There’s just a rhythm and feel to it that usually I have a pretty good instinct [for] while I’m writing knowing how they’re going to fold together.

But once in a while you get something that just sticks out like a sore thumb and this was one. Because it was opposite the Talmanes’ scenes going in Caemlyn and like dramatic scenes of people getting stabbed by myrddraal and nearly dying and all this stuff. And it was more powerful stuff. It was really nice tense stuff and then you jump back and the girls were like “Tee-hee, I am like this branch that I’m weaving into the bridal wreath. It has thorns!” And it just did not work!

I’m making it sounds sillier than it was. It wasn’t that silly, but it did not fit thematically. Harriet was like “Oh, this does not match at all.” I’m like “Yeah, you are totally right.” So we cut that one up, which made me feel sad because I did want to get them engaged. I know a lot of people have been waiting for that, but it had to go just for the strength of the opening narrative. That one’s around. It’s fun. You can imagine [it] exactly as what it is. All three go out and gather different things to put into the thing and you don’t seem them gathering, they just come together and say “Here, I brought this. It’s a good match for us because of this” and they kind of weave it all together. Maybe someday we’ll get that but there’s not a whole lot left.

Getting the Perrin through the Ways out—like, I had wanted to find a place for that for a while because I really liked that sequence. I’ve mentioned before that when I look back at it, I’m like, “it needs a lot of revision,” so I actually had to spend a lot more time revising that sequence for the charity anthology than I did the other one, which I just kind of chopped up and it was good to go. Because that had lasted all the way until the last edit, but the Perrin scenes got cut out earlier after we did a bunch of just timeline rejiggering and things like that. Harriet had not been pleased with my depiction of the Ways, and looking back—I think I mentioned this in the Forward—she was right. And that took a lot of revision to make feel right, which I wasn’t planning on spending, like I spent two weeks revising that little sequence for the charity anthology, but I wanted it to be good.

It was fun because when I sent it to Maria to look through to make sure I hadn’t broken anything too big continuity-wise even though it’s not canon, she wrote back. She’s like “This was so nice, being able to actually read Wheel of Time and edit it again.” It was like a bright spot. And that’s kind of how I had felt on it. So it was nice to work on but it was way more work than I expected. The bridal scene will not get similar treatment if we find a place for it in a future Unfettered or something like that.

QUESTION:

Aside from that do you have other scenes still remaining, deleted scenes that could potentially see the light of day?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

I don’t think there is anything else at all. I don’t think there are even any scraps or fragments. Everything that Jim wrote I put in the book in some way. There is maybe some Q&A stuff that didn’t get in the book. In one of his Q&A’s with Maria in the notes he was talking about … No, no, this wasn’t from the Q&A. It was just notes from books back that they found dug in there that they were having Rand use the Choedan Kal. Jim had in the notes Rand using the male one at the end of the series but that one was destroyed. It was the access key that was destroyed. I’m like so do we find another access key or was this just old information contradicted other things? Because this was like he was writing book eight or something, he was thinking about doing that and they found a little note file for it. They’re like maybe we use these things, maybe we find another access key or whatnot.

There is stuff like that in the notes that would be fun to release. The fans could like imagine the what if because it’s entirely possible that rather than going with the Callandor solution, Jim would have gone with the Choedan Kal that he would have decided: “No, no, the right thing to do is to find another access key” or something like that or whatnot. And then you have a different twist on the ending using that. There are things like that that could be fun to see from the notes. I don’t know how much has been dug up, how much of it Harriet put in the library.

QUESTION:

Mat and Tuon are my favorite characters. Is there anything little or unknown about them that you can share with us?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

Everything I had from Jim that was in the notes I was given—now, remember, I had people look through the notes and give me the stuff that they thought was relevant, Maria and Alan did. So there’s entirely possibly like a lot of the things that are notes that I didn’t see were drafts of appendices that Robert Jordan added things to, and then taken out from like book 7 and 6 and 8 and stuff like that. And there might be things in there.

Everything I had either was in the books—or because that last scene was written by him, the one with Mat and Tuon in the epilogue—he had done a draft on that scene so I was pointing everything toward that scene to just get it in. So that I could drop it in as close as how he’d done it as possible. The only thing that I know is that Mat does go to Seanchan and that eventually he’s found in a gutter without his hat having gambled it all away. And he’s muttering “I lost it all” or “I gambled a lot away” or something like that. That’s in the notes for the outriggers.

The notes for the outriggers are three sentences and one of them is about Mat having lost it all. We can guess he goes to Seanchan. We can guess that he ruins, messes things up and then spends several books fixing them again which is how Mat basically rolls. That would be my guess.

We can guess that Perrin has to go. We think Perrin thinks he has to go to kill Mat. We don’t know but one of those sentences is Perrin is going travelling on a boat thinking about how he’s got to go kill a friend. So there’s got to be some tensions between the continents and things like that, and I would assume that hijinks ensued, but your imagination has got to go on this one. That is literally all I know about Mat and Tuon going forward.

Fun fact is that this was somewhere in the notes but they hadn’t shown it to me, I came up with a new name for Tuon and then Maria’s like: “Oh, Jim came up with one of these” and it was two letters off. We’d both come up with the like exact same new longer name for her. And that was cool, that I had been enough on the same wavelength. And we of course used his. But that’s kind of fun because I think we were both looking at the list of Old Tongue words and found something that worked together and came together and it sounds like fortune and that’s the same direction I’d gone.

Maybe he’d written something that had told me that I should go that direction but either way, that’s a fun thing. There is a little email from Maria saying: “Hey, we should use Jim’s name for this!” And then it was almost exactly the same. I felt  very cool on that day. I can’t remember what mine is because Fortuona ended up in the book but mine also started with f, o, r and then I think I had an extra syllable in there and I had Tuon in there as well but maybe my ending letters to it were different or something, I can’t remember.

QUESTION:

I know you’ve spoken a lot about that you’ve read some of these early scripts and…

BRANDON SANDERSON:

Yeah, I’ve read the first six. Still haven’t seen seven or eight.

QUESTION:

I know you’ve had a chance to talk to Rafe (Judkins). I am really curious what your take is going to be and how you’re going to be involved or how, if I can use the word “possessive” of it, that you’ll be when they hopefully get to the end of this saga. When they’re in their season seven or eight and it’s covering your books and to see how much they keep and change. And how much they’ll have to change because their previous changes will lead to, you know, have ripple effects.

BRANDON SANDERSON:

This is uncharted territory for me. And I have no idea. It could be like Game of Thrones where despite the changes they stay pretty much according to what are the big events, so what I wrote ends up there. But it could go completely different.

As I’ve said to people, I envision this as a new turning of the Wheel. It’s the same souls but in a different actual turning of the Wheel. It’s not the one that Jim and I worked on. It’s a different version of it. And so some of the same events are happening, others are different and being rearranged and so. I don’t know. Like my experience has been fantastic working with Rafe (Judkins) so far. But the sum total of my involvement is: I talked to Rafe and tell him what I felt about various scripts and things. I went on set one time and I was mostly there so they could interview me for b-roll to use in their “making of” and to actually let me meet the actors and things like that.

I am not a significant player in the series. I don’t know, maybe they will want me to be more of [one] when it gets to my books. My instincts say that I will become less and less needed. And I am not even sure how much I was needed right now because Rafe knows, has a vision, and is doing a good job with it.

I’ve been in his shoes before but it’s almost like the handoff, at least the way it’s supposed to work, between past presidents where they like leave a letter and are there for a phone call if you have a question for them, but mostly you find your own way. And that’s kind of how it is with me.

QUESTION:

Did you ask them about having a cameo?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

I didn’t ask them about having a cameo, no. Maybe eventually in my own things I want to have a cameo but in the back of my mind I was like if I do a cameo I should do it when they get to the material I wrote. That’s more appropriate and so I haven’t asked for one yet. I hope the series takes off and then they get to mine and then we stick in a Brandon cameo.

For those who haven’t heard one of the things I want to do for my books when they get made is I want to die in various different—like I show up, I’m like the Kenny from South Park of the Cosmere or whatever. In every season there’s a version of me that dies in some horrible way, you know, just like a redshirt [from Star Trek] or something like that. I think that would be a lot of fun. You need people falling off the wall, getting eaten by koloss. I’m one of those people. Stuff like that. It just feels like revenge the characters could have on me and it could be this fun little thing. Stan Lee covered the cute cameo. I could cover the gruesome death cameo role.

QUESTION:

Having been through a full three books and years of working on it, what sort of high level general advice would you offer to the people, the writers in the writing room working on the series?

BRANDON SANDERSON:

I actually talked to Rafe about some of this stuff. Number one was of course, Mat’s harder to write than he looks. I actually did say ask Jason (Denzel). Mat is harder to write than he looks.

I talked about the kind of soul of the Wheel of Time. What makes the Wheel of Time work. I remember talking to him about the interview that I heard with Jim where someone asked him summarize the Wheel of Time and he hummed and he didn’t want to do it but he eventually said what it’s like to be the normal person and be told you need to save the world. They put that burden upon you that you’ve got to save the world and you’ll probably die doing it and it’s not a burden you wanted. What do you do with that? If there’s a core theme of the Wheel of Time it is either that, or the core theme of old things become new and new things become old, used in interesting and different ways both with the characters and the world building and things like that.

I talked about some of that stuff. But really what worked for me and what anyone has to do who’s in this situation is read through the books, feel the books and then try to have that in mind when you’re working on it. Anytime I started to get lost, I just went back to the books and read what Jim had written and it pulled me back in. When I was working on—and I reread the Eye of the World when I was working on the deleted scene we talked about—it threatened to do that to me again. I was pulled in I’m like “Ooh, this and that!” and the books are just so descriptive, with lush use of language in a way that never feels like it bogs down. You just have to go to the books. He won’t do it the way I did it and that’s all right as long as he’s going to the books and he’s like feeling the soul of those books.

-------

Huge thank you to @highladyluck for being my editor.

[the-last-teabender]

FANFIC: Oxventure - Duel Destinies

RATING: G

WORDS: Just under 7k

SUMMARY: Corazón gets hit on the head.

A/N: This isn’t my first time writing fanfic, but it’s my first time in literal decades writing something that a) isn’t going into a charity anthology and b) isn’t single-sentence goofs in my Gchat window with @randomthunk. So I actually am a little nervous to just yeet my work out into the world without an editor/publisher frontline protecting me from looking foolish. I do have plans to fic more tho.

I approached this as though I was writing an official tie-in because that’s my comfort zone (and occasionally my job). Which was a little challenging because there’s a lot that’s not part of the story but is part of the viewing experience. I have not mastered it in one story but the attempt was fun. Also I haven’t smashed alt-codes this obsessively while writing since I wrote about Señor 105.

Thanks aforementioned Ginger for being my beta reader and basically sitting on me to post this instead of hide it in my writing folder.

Anyway, if you like what I’m throwing out here, I have actually a lot of stuff in print and even more coming.

----------

“Right,” Dob said, pacing the length of the deck, “before we go, let’s review. Prudence, what happened yesterday?”

“We found a bad man killing off local slimes to make slime booze.”

“Good. Corazón, what happened yesterday?”

“I began my awesome new career as a detective and threw someone out a window.”

“All right. Merilwen?”

“Mow.”

“Excellent. Egbert?”

“I set a tavern on fire and got my seal very drunk on slime gin.”

“All right, that’s us caught up.”

That wasn’t the entire catch-up, but all of them knew the events of the day before well enough. The forest outside the town of Esterwell was in turmoil, according to the wizard Binbag after he tumbled unexpectedly out of a pantry. It was suddenly bereft of slimes — the cute little blobby creatures generally used for target practice by up-and-coming adventurers. As it happened, slimes had other uses. Serving as the base for a delightful high-end alcoholic brew, for one. Serving as the base of the entire local food chain, for another. If the slime population continued to plummet, eventually the other animal populations would follow suit.

An investigation of the local slime hunters (led by DCI Jeff Crimestopper, a pseudonym Corazón was becoming increasingly attached to) turned up that they were all in the employ of the same man: one Alonzo Horgan, owner of the Horgan Distillery. One especially talkative young hunter revealed that Horgan intended to “wring all the slimes out of Esterwell Forest” before upping sticks to his next hunting ground.

The goal was, in short, to stop Horgan’s machinations before he destabilized the entire local ecosystem and went on to do the same to others. Somewhere along the way, Dob had got it into his head that the goal was to start a brewery of their own and hold a cider-making contest in the Esterwell town square… an idea the group at large now referred to as “Plan C.”

Plan A, currently underway, was to continue the detective lark and either talk sense into Horgan or (more likely) run him out of town. Plan B was burning down the distillery.

“I’m still very much in favor of bumping Plan B up to Plan A,” said Prudence, wiggling her fingers as the group made their way back into Esterwell.

“Mrow,” Merilwen the cat grumbled from Dob’s shoulder, which translated to something like, “But that doesn’t actually solve the problem of making him stop.”

“Oh, fine,” Prudence huffed. “Detectives it is.”

Corazón pumped a fist low and (he thought) out of sight. “DCI Jeff Crimestopper back on the case, bay-bee.”

They arrived at the home of Alonzo Horgan — a palatial manor in a town that really wasn’t the sort to have palatial manors. At least half a dozen residences would have to have been knocked down to make way for the place, which stood half again as high as the buildings around it that had survived.

Merilwen hopped lightly from Dob’s shoulder, turning back into an elf again, as the half-orc tapped politely on the door.

“No, no.” Egbert shoved past him, balling up one scaly fist. “You’ve gotta really punch it.” He slammed his fist against the door several times, making it bow slightly under the pressure.

“Open up!” Corazón shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. “We have a warrant!”

“Don’t just say we have a warrant!” Merilwen hissed.

The door was opened mere moments later by a tall, rail-thin man with an upturned nose and a downturned moustache. “Mmcan I help you?”

Corazón pushed past the man. “Yeah, you can take us to Alonzo Horgan. We’re taking him down to the station for questioning.”

“I’m afraid Mr. Horgan is not—” But the man was cut off as the rest of the group piled past and into the house.

“Where is he, then? Upstairs?” Corazón pointed up the stairwell, one foot on the steps.

The man at the door, to his credit, did his best to maintain his decorum. “Mr. Horgan is not taking visitors.”

“We’re not visitors,” Dob said gruffly, looming over the man, “we’re detectives.”

“Is that so? Well, I do hope you meant what you said about having a warrant. Otherwise I may have to take you to the authorities.” 

Alonzo Horgan’s voice silenced the group, but had it not, his presence would have. Fully six-foot-four, a stocky mix of fat and muscle generally only seen on back alley brawlers, stuffed into a fancy suit. His glare was imperious; his moustache was excellent.

Corazón swiveled and approached the master of the house. “Alonzo Horgan?”

“Yes, I’m… not sure who else I would be.” Horgan seemed put out for a moment, but recovered himself. “May I ask what business you have here?”

“DCI Jeff Crimestopper.” Corazón pulled a piece of paper from his coat, flashed it briefly, and put it away again. “This is my DI, Dob Tyler.”

Dob grinned toothily; had it not been Dob, it might have looked threatening. “Here to make sure my loose cannon superior does things by the book.”

Corazón gestured to the rest of the party. “DS Prudence, DC Merilwen. And, er, PC Egbert, he mostly makes the tea.”

“It’s really good tea,” Egbert piped up.

“No offense, sir…” Horgan gestured to Corazón. “But you look more like a pirate than a detective.”

“Deep cover, obviously. I wouldn’t expect a civilian to understand.”

Horgan waved a hand dismissively. “Even if I were to entertain the idea that you’re who you claim to be, I feel I’ve done nothing to warrant an investigation.”

Merilwen narrowed her eyes. “Nothing, Mr. Horgan?” Her voice was tense, hitting that slightly higher octave that her friends knew meant violence was quickly becoming an option. “Killing off an entire species for your own benefit is ‘nothing’? Allowing the local wildlife to starve is ‘nothing’?”

“Oh, it’s about the distillery, is it? I promise you, my dear, I’ve heard it all before.”

Dob gritted his teeth, giving Horgan a highly dramatic, highly knowing look. “I’d be careful if I was you, sir. DC Merilwen has a license to… er. Bear.”

Still, none of this seemed to faze Horgan. “If you think complaining about my methods is going to have any effect… let me assure you, it hasn’t yet. Now, unless you have any actual business with me…”

Prudence stepped up. “All right, look. Fine. We’re not actually detectives.”

“You don’t say,” Horgan deadpanned.

“That said… the whole slime issue is a real thing, and we really do need you to stop hunting them out completely. Or at least cut back.” Prudence looked back at Merilwen. “Cut back? Would that be good enough?”

“I prefer the idea of him stopping completely,” Merilwen seethed.

Prudence gestured to Merilwen. “Yeah, what she said. But I mean, it affects you, too. Do you like, uh… wild boar? I guess? Rabbit? Pheasant? I don’t know.” She spread her hands in an exaggerated shrug. “Screw up the food chain and you don’t get any of those.”

Horgan looked them all over, one by one. “You come into my home. You pretend to be something you’re not. And then you make demands of me that would effectively shut down my business. Give me one reason why I should even listen to what you have to say.”

Egbert had mostly detached from the scene in front of him, his eyes scanning his surroundings in search of something entertaining. They lighted on a pair of crossed swords on the wall, with a bronze plaque underneath: Esterwell Annual Fencing Championship, Second Place. Without thinking, he blurted out, “A duel.”

“I beg your pardon?” Horgan asked. The rest of the party fixed Egbert with confused looks.

“A duel,” the dragonborn repeated, with a little more confidence this time — confidence filled in a lot of blanks, in his experience. “If one of us bests you in a duel, you have to at least give us a proper audience.”

Much to the group’s surprise — including Egbert’s, truth be told — Horgan seemed to consider it. “Hmm. Well. I suppose it makes more sense than… whatever we’ve been doing.” He gestured at the room in general, then turned to Corazón. “On the condition that I fight this one.”

Corazón grinned. “Hell yeah. I’ll fight you. Prepare to have your whole scene wrecked by Corazón de Ballena.”

“I thought you said your name was Jeff Crimestopper.”

“I told you. Deep cover.”

Horgan sighed wearily and turned to his doorman. “See them out. Tomorrow at sunrise on the lawn. Come alone, whatever your name is. And pray you do not lose. I have no patience for time-wasters.”

The five were ushered out without another word.

“Not sure it’s wise to challenge a prizewinning fighter to a duel,” Merilwen noted when they were outside town again. “That sort of seems like the main thing he’ll be ready for.”

Egbert waved a hand. “Pff, it’s fine. The plaque on his wall said he was only second place. That means there’s at least one person better than him in town.”

“Still… What’s going to happen if Corazón if he loses?”

Corazón laughed. “Pff. Hah. Nothing. Because Corazón won’t lose.” He unsheathed his rapier and stopped to take a few jabs at a nearby tree. A heavy branch, near to breaking, creaked overhead. “You know what my crew used to call me?”

“Yes,” said Prudence, “you’ve complained about it several times.”

“I mean in battle. You know, when we captured ships. My swordsmanship is second to none. They used to call me Corazón the—”

There was a crash, and silence.

Egbert stopped walking, waiting for the punchline. “Corazón the what?”

“Er.” Merilwen pointed back toward the tree hesitantly. “Corazón the unconscious, apparently.”

Prudence turned and lifted away the branch, wincing at the sight of the pirate splayed out on the ground. “Oh, dear…” Then she looked up at the group. “So does this mean I’m captain now?”

---

The general consensus had been to let Corazón be once he’d been carried back to the Joyful Damnation and bundled into bed. He would likely be full of opinions and complaints as soon as he woke up. That, and he’d need his rest before dueling Horgan the next morning. 

There was no bleeding as far as they could tell. Just a big bruise that would get bruisier over the next few days. Egbert dropped a quick bit of healing on Corazón which, while it would likely be helpful in the long run, did nothing to wake him. Eventually, Dob took up a seat by the enormous bed in the captain’s quarters, keeping an eye on the patient and picking out a few chords to pass the time. Just as he was getting a good riff worked out... 

“Ow.”

“Ow?” Dob leaned over the bed. “Did you say ow?”

“Yes, I said ow. Because I’m in pain.”

Dob jumped up from his seat and threw the door open. “Guys! Guys! He’s awake!”

Prudence was the first to run in. “Is he okay?”

“Sounds like it.”

Egbert followed, with Merilwen bringing up the rear. They crowded around Corazón’s bed, realized at the same time that that would probably look weird from his vantage point, and backed off a bit.

“Corazón?” Dob leaned in slightly. “How’s your head?”

He squinted up at Dob. “What did you call me?”

“Oh, right.” Dob laughed. “Silly me. How’s your head, DCI Crimestopper?”

This just seemed to confuse him more. “Who… what are you talking about?” Then he pulled himself up to sitting, perhaps a little more quickly than he ought, and pressed a hand to the top of his head, looking around. “I feel like I’ve been beaned with an entire tree. Where the hell am I?”

“Your room,” Prudence offered. “We figured you’d want a nap after the bludgeoning.”

He shook his head, still sounding a bit dazed. “No… this isn’t my room. My room is bigger. And it doesn’t rock and creak. Are we… are we on a ship?” He looked up at the others again, as though seeing them for the first time.

“... who the hell are all of you?”

There was an awkward silence.

“He’s messing about, right?” Egbert grinned nervously at the others. 

“It’s Corazón,” Prudence said quickly, “of course he’s messing about. Just humor him, he’ll be on to something new when he’s tired of it.”

Dob was already on board at humor him. He pressed a hand to his forehead. “Oh, no! Corazón! All our precious memories, lost forever! Please say it isn’t so, old friend!”

If Corazón was acting, he was really leaning into the deadpan delivery. “Is this some sort of prank? It’s not a very good one, if…” His gaze wandered down to his hands resting on the bed sheet, his sleeves wrinkled back somewhat. His eyes went wide, and he made a sort of choking, stammering sound.

Then, again far more quickly than he probably should have, he threw himself out of bed, shoving past Egbert on the way to the largest of his mirrors. Carefully, he pulled his collar aside. And gasped.

“Oh, my God, I’ve been tattooed in my sleep!”

“Gosh,” Egbert said with an admiring smile, “he’s really devoting himself to the bit, isn’t he?”

Merilwen shook her head slightly. “I… don’t… know if it’s a bit.”

“Which one of you did this to me?!” Corazón pointed at the tentacle tattoo emerging from under his collar. “Why would you do that? Why… what happened to my hair!? How long have I been asleep!?” He grabbed the nearest person — Egbert — by the collar. “Are you trying to change my identity!? Am I going to be sold off to the highest bidder!? What’s your plan!? You have to tell me!”

Dob grabbed for his lute, a nervous grin plastered on his face. “Ooooh! Oh, dear! Looks like someone could use a nice lullaby.”

Merilwen held out a warning hand to Dob. “No? No. One second.” She waved a hand to Corazón, the way one might a skittish fox. “Hey, over here.”

“What!? What do you want now!?”

“Just. Okay. Calm down for a second. Calm…” Merilwen inhaled and exhaled slowly, guiding the breathing with her hands. Corazón, surprisingly did the same. That in itself was a sign that something was off.

“Okay, just keep your eyes on me, all right?”

“Sure.” Corazón’s voice was strained.

Merilwen rooted around in the pocket of one of Corazón’s jackets, folded neatly over a nearby chair. She found what she was looking for — a little leather pouch of gold coins — and poured the contents out into her hand. She showed them to Corazón, as though setting up a magic trick. He watched and nodded tensely, his jaw set.

“Dob,” she said with a sweet smile, opening the cabin window. “Would you do the honors?”

“Would I?” Without hesitation, he took the little handful of coins from Merilwen, slid over to the window, and chucked them out into the sea, one by one.

All eyes turned toward Corazón.

“Yes, and?” The nervousness was tinged with irritation. “What?”

Another awkward silence, this one longer. And awkwarder. As they all, in their own time, came to terms with the fact that Corazón was not, in fact, acting.

Prudence tapped him experimentally on the shoulder. He flinched away, balling his hands into fists and holding them in front of his face.

“Hey, hey, whoa! No, no, we’re your friends! It’s us!” Prudence smiled, gesturing around the room. “You know. The Oxventurers! Can’t you recognize us?”

Corazón lowered his fists. “If you mean could I pick you out of a lineup, then yes, I certainly could.”

“Corazón…”

“Hff… and stop calling me that! It’s weird!” He brushed off his sleeve where Prudence had tapped him. “If you’re my kidnappers, then I would hope you already know who I am.”

“Y-Yeah.... Sorry.” Prudence frowned, then smiled. “Percy?”

“Thank you. That’s more like it.” And Corazón made a break for the deck. 

---

“All I’m saying,” said the half-orc with the large hammer and the very nice hair, “is that we could be having a cider-making contest in the town square right now.”

“Or burning things,” said the tiefling, as a pair of ancient tomes played around her heels like rowdy puppies. “We could also be burning things right now.”

If this was a kidnapping, it was a very civilized one. Percy hadn’t had any practical experience with being kidnapped, to be fair. His father had suggested that it might happen once or twice in his youth, because that was just how life was for the children of rich and influential people. But after making it to adulthood without ever waking up in a dingy cellar surrounded by leering mercenaries, he’d just put it to the side.

He’d also been a bit disappointed, as escaping from said mercenaries could have been fun. But in retrospect, he might not have done as well at that as he liked to pretend.

He wasn’t tied up, or locked up. At worst, he had been prevented from leaping off the ship by all four of his kidnappers (and a seal, he was still contending with that information) piling themselves on top of him. They’d bundled him back into the captain’s quarters while they consulted with each other. Percy took the time to shave — the itch from his stubble was frazzling his already-frazzled brain — and change into a shirt that still had functional buttons.

The change had gotten a slight stare of disbelief from his captors, as though he’d gone and swapped heads, but no actual comments were made. And now, the dragonborn was sitting by him on the deck and handing him a cup of tea, and it smelled suspiciously like what he drank at home, and yes, this was absolutely one of his teacups.

“So!” the dragonborn said with a toothy grin. “Cora-... er, Percival. Percy? Mr. Milquetoast? Sorry, not sure what to call you now.” He had a cup of his own, but rather than sipping from it, he opened his long snout and splashed the contents inside. Judging by the reaction that followed, the tea was still very hot.

“Just, er… whichever? I guess?” Why was he sitting on a ship drinking tea with his kidnappers while they asked what to call him? Why had his father not been mentioned yet? Was that still incoming? His teacup rattled against the saucer.

“Mmmm… Percy. I’ve always thought you looked like a Percy.”

“Always?” Percy put his teacup down shakily on its saucer. “Then you’ve been spying on me? For how long?”

“No!” The dragonborn waved a hand frantically in front of himself. “No, no, I mean… we’re not…” He looked behind him, where the other three were peering at the scene thoughtfully. “Um, guys, I’m not doing great. Someone else try.”

The elf stepped in and tapped him on the shoulder, as though relieving him from duty. Good. As far as Percy could tell, she was the most logical of the group. She wasn’t panicking… not that he could see, at least.

“So you’re Good Cop, then?” Percy eyed her warily.

“No…” The elf sighed, a sort of long-suffering sigh that made him feel like this was not the first long-suffering sigh she’d issued him. “We’re your friends, really. And we’re just trying to figure out how to help you.”

Percy narrowed his eyes. “My friends.”

“Yes.”

“Not magical kidnappers looking for a piece of the Milquetoast fortune.”

“No. Not magical kidnappers looking for a piece of the family fortune. I promise.” 

“I mean, I have friends at home. I can just go home to my actual friends, and not whatever you guys are pretending to be.”

The elf’s face settled into an expression that somehow managed to be both neutral and confrontational, her lips pressed into a line. “Name four friends you have at home.”

Damn. “Uh, th-there’s, uh… there’s Steve… F-Friendsman.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s, a-um, Roger… M’buddy.”

The elf pressed a hand to her face. “Please, at least let us try to help you.”

She seemed absolutely genuine. It was making his head hurt. This was not how criminals acted. As far as he knew. “Fine, help me, or whatever it is you want to do.”

“All right, so…” The elf clasped her hands together. “It’s probably just a matter of jogging your memory. You got a little bop on the head, it shook things up, but we can help you connect things up again. Right?”

“Sure,” Percy said hesitantly, now with the added wrinkle of wondering when and how he’d been hit over the head. He considered asking, but he could already hear the answer. No, we didn’t hit you over the head intentionally. It was a love tap. Something like that.

The elf smiled. It didn’t seem like a kidnapper’s smile. But again, he had nothing to go on. Maybe kidnappers had really nice smiles. “Okay, good. So let’s just rattle out a few of the high points, and see what your brain latches onto.”

Percy nodded, taking a sip from the teacup he still held in a death grip.

“Okay. Spicy rat?” She paused, and he wasn’t sure what for. After a short silence, she picked up again. “No? Okay, that was a while ago, admittedly. Uh… baby-making watch?”

“Babies don’t come from watches,” Percy scoffed. “They come from under cabbage leaves.”

The elf ground to a halt in her questioning, but picked up again with a shake of the head. “What about the party? The one where you went dressed as a sexy nurse and made a teenage girl cry.”

Percy scowled. “I would never do that!”

The half-orc chuckled. “Oh, you very much did.”

“I will not allow you to paint me with the same brush as you, you… s-scoundrels!” Percy felt a chill down the back of his neck. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? You’re trying to convince me I’m one of you and whisk me away to do unspeakable crimes, is that it?”

“Hasn’t taken much trying so far, mate,” Merilwen grumbled.

“Waaaait wait wait wait.” The tiefling squeezed up next to the elf. “We’re coming at this from the wrong angle. He’s clearly forgotten stuff from before we met him, too, right? What we need to do is remind him of why he became a pirate.”

Percy looked around the ship. Then down at the clothes he’d woken up in. And the tattoo on his wrist. “I’m a pirate?”

“Yep, you are a pirate.”

“So… this really is my ship?”

“Er, our ship, yes.” The tiefling seemed to take a lot of pride in saying that. Well, being co-owner of a ship was something to be proud of… if it was true, he’d probably let himself feel a bit proud, too. “So, maybe if you can summon up the feelings that made you want to run away from home and be a pirate, the rest will follow. So, tell us about your dad.”

“He’s… dumb?” Percy shrugged. “He’s annoying? I don’t know, it’s a lot of effort to run away from him for being dumb and annoying. I’ve got nothing.” 

The tiefling leaned in conspiratorially. “Nothing about what a bad dad he is? How he has ridiculous expectations of you? Doesn’t want you to have fun and live your own life?” She paused. “How he’s got a stupid wig and he’s all stuffy and bossy?”

Percy leaned away from her. “You seem to have plenty against him already.”

“Oh, no, no. I don’t hate him. You do.”

“No, it really does sound like it’s you.”

The tiefling laughed, waving a hand. “Oh, no, that’s just because he bothers you. It’s a support thing. I’d totally love to live in his big ol’ house.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t like my father, but you do like his money, and that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

The tiefling’s face twisted into a confused frown. “Oh, man. Yeah, we do kinda sound like we kidnapped you for ransom, don’t we?”

Percy flinched away, nearly dropping his teacup. Oddly, the tiefling was once again trying to reassure him. “Which we didn’t?? Which we didn’t. I’m just saying.” She sighed. “I guess he forgot whatever happened that made him want to run away, too. How about you, Egbert? Got any paladin magic for him?”

“I’ve got something better!”

All eyes, Percy’s included, turned to the dragonborn — who was now swinging a mace from one clawed hand.

“So, you know how in all the stories, right? Someone gets knocked on the head and gets amnesia, but then they get hit in the same spot and all their memories come back. Let’s just do that!”

The dragonborn strode over to Percy, winding up the mace. Percy stumbled backwards, his teacup falling and shattering on the deck. “Don’t you dare!”

“Egbert, not that mace!” the elf shouted.

“Oh, it’s fiiiine. I had to hit whatsisname loads of times before he actually turned into a seal.”

Percy looked at the seal. The seal looked back.

“Eg.”

The dragonborn raised his mace over his head. Percy stumbled backwards towards the door to the captain’s quarters, eyes locked on the cursed weapon. He reached behind him for the doorknob and twisted frantically. The door wouldn’t give way.

The elf flung herself at the dragonborn, turning into an octopus in midair. The two hit the deck, the mace rolling harmlessly across the deck as the octopus held the would-be attacker in place. Percy finally managed to yank the door open, racing into the captain’s quarters and slamming the door behind him.

“I meant a spell!” Percy heard the tiefling yell from the other side of the door. “You’ve got more healing spells, don’t you?”

“Oh, riiiight…”

There was a gentle tap at the door. Percy eyed it nervously.

“Heeey, buddy. You okay?” It was the half-orc. “Can I come in?”

“No, you absolutely cannot come in. You’re all insane and there’s a seal man out there saying egg.”

“That’s cool, that’s cool. I’ll just sit out here, how’s that?”

Percy heard a gentle thump against the other side of the door. “So… you really don’t remember anything, do you? About us, or your pirate crew, or any of that?”

“Last thing I remember is going to bed at Milquetoast Manor and thinking tomorrow night’s party was going to be very boring. Then I woke up in bed on a strange boat, with all of you standing over me looking ready to dissect me or something.” Percy sat down, leaning on the other side of the door. His head still felt foggy. “So? Which one of you blackjacked me?”

“You blackjacked yourself with a tree.”

Percy frowned. “Is that the sort of thing I’m likely to do?”

“Oh, yes,” the half-orc said cheerfully. “Merilwen had a stack of tree puns ready to go, but under the circumstances it seemed, uh… bit tasteless.”

“Merilwen?”

“The elf. Don’t worry, you can hear them later. You know, when your head’s right again.” A pause. “Oh! Haha. Of course. I’m Dob, by the way. The tiefling is Prudence, and the big dragon man is Egbert. And we’re all your friends, and we all do super cool things together.”

Percy nodded, still not completely convinced. Then he realized Dob wouldn’t be able to see him on the other side of the door. “If you say so.”

“Gosh. Introducing myself to you. That brings back memories.” Dob stopped himself, fumbling, as if he’d just said something extremely offensive. “I mean… you know…”

Against his better judgment, Percy got up and opened the door. Dob, leaning heavily on it, tumbled backwards… but turned the tumble into a backwards somersault and landed lightly on his feet. He gave a little bow, and Percy felt he ought to clap. Just considering the effort.

“You ready to come out and talk to the others?”

Percy leaned to one side and looked out onto the deck. Egbert was on his feet again, with Merilwen (now an elf) still clinging to his back, as though uncertain whether the dragonborn could be trusted on his own yet. Prudence wore a friendly smile that seemed to say “I’m not going to sacrifice you to my eldritch god, but I’m also not not going to sacrifice you to my eldritch god.” His trusted friends. Apparently.

Before Percy could answer, Dob slapped him on the back and walked him out onto the deck. “All right. We’ve all had a little breather, a little think, and I think… and this is just me… we should back-burner the memory loss issue and focus on the bigger problem.”

“There’s a bigger problem?” Percy looked at Dob incredulously.

The group at large winced. “Yeah…” Dob continued to speak for the group, and no one seemed to mind being relieved of that duty for the moment. “See, Percy. Percival. Friend. Our good friend of so long…”

“Just tell me what’s going to happen to me.”

“You have to duel someone tomorrow morning.”

Percy extracted himself from Dob’s friendly side-arm. “What? Why? Why would I do that?”

“Again,” said Dob, “if it makes you feel better, it is extremely on brand.”

“Hsfd… it doesn’t make me feel better! I have to fight someone tomorrow and I’m not me! I mean, I am me, but I’m not this other me who went and did a thing I didn’t do!”

Amongst them, Percy’s friends(?) laid out the entire situation. All he managed to retain were slimes, collapse of the natural world, very large man, and imminent swordfight. The rest was a sort of blur, and one he was in no mood to attempt to figure out.

“I can’t do this.” It was a statement of fact. “Maybe this Corazón guy can do this, but I can’t. Horgan’s going to be expecting some jerk pirate who can swordfight.”

“We can try another refresher,” suggested Merilwen.

Egbert reached for his mace. “I could try—-”

“No,” said everyone, possibly even the seal.

“Look,” Dob said gently, “we’ll have puh-lenty of time to work on the memory thing, right? All we have to do is get through tomorrow, and if it hasn’t cleared up by then, we’ll find someone to help you, no problem.”

“How can you be so sure?” Percy asked, the fretting feeling coming back even stronger than before.

Egbert shrugged. “It’ll happen. That’s how it tends to go. A problem comes up, and then a couple days later someone comes along with a quest that’ll fix it. It’s really handy.”

“Okay, that’s great for after tomorrow morning. But what about me, tomorrow morning, with swords? What’s my guarantee I get past that alive? Because I’ve never actually stabbed a man.”

“Yes you have,” Prudence pointed out.

“Like a lot,” Merilwen added.

“Apparently you kicked a man to death once,” said Egbert. “I mean, I found out later, but I believe it.”

“But I don’t remember that!” Percy flailed an arm helplessly. “It’s… hds… that’s some future guy and I’m not the future guy, I’m the me guy. How is the me guy going to survive?”

The group fell silent.

“... did I actually kick a man to death?”

They all nodded.

“Oh…”

“And see? That’s why we believe in you, Cor… er, Percy.” Dob threw an arm around Percy’s shoulders again. “We know what you’re capable of. We know it’s in here.” He jabbed at Percy’s chest with one finger. “And in here.” At his head.

“Ow!”

“The head, Dob,” Merilwen hissed, “watch the head.”

“Right, right. Look. We’ve got tonight to train you up into a believable Corazón de Ballena. You’ve already got the look, you’ve already got the voice. That’s more than most people start with.”

Percy let out a weak groan.

“Hey! No, this is good! We can do this! And maybe, somewhere along the way, something will trigger the ol’ bean and the memories will just come flooding back. Right, guys?”

The rest of the team seemed to believe it about as much as Percy did. Which wasn’t much.

“Are you sure we can’t just…” Percy motioned to the anchor rope. “Leave?”

“No,” Merilwen said firmly. But her expression was still hesitant. “No, we have to stop Horgan. More than anything else, that has to happen.”

She was insistent. This was important to her. Percy groaned again.

“Come on, buddy.” Dob lifted his arm from Percy’s shoulders, grabbing him by both arms and staring him in the eyes. “Look me in the eye.”

“Yeah. Looking.”

“Now. Are you a Thieves Cant, or a Thieves Can?”

Merilwen, at least, seemed to appreciate what Dob was going for.

---

Plan B no longer stood for Burning. Plan B, as indicated by a wild-shaped Merilwen taking up a spot behind the topiaries on Horgan’s lawn, now stood for Bear. And possibly Bomb, and Blast, and Bard Casts Thunder Wave, depending on who got trigger-happy first.

No amount of swordfighting or storytelling brought Corazón’s memory back. Nor did any amount of actually insisting on calling him Corazón. Their last ditch hope — that he’d wake up the next morning acting like nothing had happened — didn’t pan out, either. Dob gave pep talk after pep talk as Corazón fretted uncharacteristically, the latter eventually wrapping the uneaten bacon sandwich he’d made for himself in a piece of paper and stowing it in a jacket pocket. Finally, though, they’d all had to take up their positions and leave the rest to luck.

Corazón was left to make the walk up the lawn alone, but the other four had formed a perimeter: Merilwen in the topiary, Dob in a nearby tree, Prudence behind a fence, and Egbert peering over a hedge. Dob promised to shoot Corazón an occasional prompt if things got hairy; but, by and large, it was all him.

As the sun began to rise, Corazón walked up the paved path to the appointed spot. He’d not quite gotten his own swagger down, instead walking slow, measured steps with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Try to look like you’re too cool for the room! Dob thought; Corazón looked up and around, surprised, then seemed to remember what Dob had said about sending mental messages. He stopped where he was, pulled his hands out of his pockets, squared his shoulders, and walked even more awkwardly up the path.

Fine. It’d have to do.

Just as the light of sunrise hit its best and most aesthetic hue, Alonzo Horgan and his servant walked out. The former wore a rapier at his belt.

“Corazón de Ballena,” Horgan said broadly, his voice dripping with fake friendliness. “Or are we going by something new today?”

“No, er, that’s me.”

Dob thought another swift message.

“I mean… that’s right! That’s me, Corazón. The mighty pirate. Here to run you through like a tasty kebab and grill… grill you on the fires of justice? What the hell does that mean?”

Just go with it, Dob thought irritably, but the moment had passed. Shame. He was rather proud of that one.

Horgan eyed Corazón with amusement. “I can wait if you need a moment.”

“No, no. Erm. Yes, that’s me.” Corazón’s hand hovered over the hilt of his rapier. He was tense. He was ready. He might have been about to faint. It was hard to tell.

Horgan’s retainer’s voice was soft. None of them could hear it from their respective points along the perimeter. Corazón didn’t look especially surprised by any of it, which hopefully meant there was nothing odd about the rules of the duel.

From their spots, separated though each of them was, they all had the same thought at the same time: what would it take? What hadn’t they done? Would they need a spell? Some sort of quest? A skilled healer? Would another bop on the head really have done it?

A shrill whistle blew. Each of them was shaken out of their thoughts to see that the duel had begun, and Corazón was already flagging quickly. It was less of a duel and more of a chase, the enormous Horgan lumbering across the lawn after his smaller opponent. Corazón, for his part, was holding his ground… though “his ground” was constantly moving backwards across the lawn in zigzags.

His heel came dangerously close to a stray root, nearly hidden by the grass.

“Look out!” Egbert shouted. Merilwen, Dob, and Prudence shushed him. Horgan looked up and around for the source of the voice. Corazón, on the other hand, missed the warning entirely. His heel caught on the root, and he windmilled backwards, landing flat on his back.

Merilwen hesitated behind the topiary, one huge, clawed paw creeping around the side of the greenery. Was it go time? The others were in the same state of indecision, poised to attack but waiting to see what happened.

Corazón lifted his head slightly. The massive form of Horgan hovering over him, blade raised threatening, blocked out the faint light of sunrise. The sword hung there for a moment… then was flung across the lawn, accompanied by a disgusted sigh from Horgan.

“How very disappointing.”

The group shot each other quick glances. The message was clear. Well, clear-ish. “Stop Horgan before he can leave” was clear enough, but what would be done with him once apprehended was likely still up in the air. Corazón, unaware of any of this, propped himself up on his elbows.

“Where are you going?” he asked weakly. “We’re not done here.”

“I rather think we are.” Horgan shook his head in… amusement? Disappointment? It was hard to tell. “What a shame. You were so full of piss and vinegar yesterday, and today you’ve got no real fight in you.”

“I’ve got fight… I’ve got plenty of… hhhh.” Corazón put a hand to his head.

“Serves me right, thinking I’d get a good fight out of some puffed-up fake pirate.”

“... what did you say?” Corazón’s voice was suddenly oddly sharp and cold.

Horgan chuckled. “You heard me. You’re less convincing than the chap I hired for my niece’s seventh birthday party.” He waved a hand to his servant. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve not had breakfast yet and I’m peckish. Think I might go to the kitchen and have a bit of a graze.”

On his next step, Horgan’s booted foot slid forward, sending him falling backwards into a puddle of grease that had absolutely not been there moments ago. Now it was his turn to look up at a looming silhouette: Corazón de Ballena, sword pointing down threateningly in one hand, bacon sandwich in the other.

“How appropriate. You fight like a cow.”

Horgan spluttered, eyes bulging. “You… what nonsense is this!?”

“It’s called the power of grease, that’s what nonsense this is. Now get up and fight me so we can have our little talk. Or would you rather we just go ahead and burn your whole scene down?”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“Yeah, you’re right, I wouldn’t. I think Prudence might, though.” Corazón shouted toward the fence. “Prudence! Plan B for burn?”

Prudence threw her hands in the air. “Plan B for buuuurn!”

Horgan had managed to pull himself up to one knee, the grease still dangerously slick beneath him. “I said to come alone!”

“Yeah, well, pirate. Don’t know what you expected.” Corazón stepped back, taking a bite of his sandwich. “So, I’m calling this a win for Team Oxventure. Which means it’s time for some negotiations concerning your, er, current business model.”

“But…” Horgan looked in the direction of his servant. He was long gone. Whether he’d run off, or whether the large bear standing where he’d stood had disposed of him, Horgan couldn’t tell.

“Oh, yes. That’s our sustainability advisor, Merilwen. She’ll be taking over from here.”

Merilwen growled.

---

“So what you’re saying,” said Egbert, “is that my plan was the best and would have worked.”

“Hff… no! Absolutely not.” Corazón was rubbing a hand over his chin, displeased with the lack of facial hair. “A one-in-six chance of being turned into an animal is not a best plan. Why did you let me shave? I hate it.”

“It’ll grow back.” Prudence poured out a mug of slime beer… the last remaining barrel, which they’d taken with them as a gratuity after aggressively convincing Horgan to discontinue his fermented slime line. She offered the mug to Merilwen, who waved a hand in front of herself emphatically.

“No, I don’t want to drink the poor baby slimes…” The rest became too high-pitched and tearful to translate.

“I’ll drink the poor baby slimes.” Dob grabbed the mug and necked half of it, much to Merilwen’s chagrin. “Anyway, what snapped you out of it? Was it hitting your head again?”

Corazón wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Don’t know. I know I got really mad when whatsisname called me a fake pirate, and I wasn’t having that.”

Prudence’s eyes lit up. “Ohh, spite! Literally the one thing we didn’t think to try!”

“Well,” said Dob, passing Corazón his mended teacup topped off with beer, “I think we’ve all had a chance to learn something about friendship and patience and being true to ourselves.”

Egbert poured himself a pint. “I haven’t learned anything.”

“I have.”

Everyone looked at Corazón. “Have you?” Dob asked.

“Yep.” Corazón took a sip of beer from the teacup. “We are absolutely terrifying.”

Merilwen nodded sagely. 

“Yeah,” Prudence said dreamily. “It’s good.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to my room, and I’m not coming out again until my good facial hair is back.” The door to the captain’s quarters slammed behind Corazón.

And that is the story of how the Oxventurers brought down a corrupt businessman with a breakfast sandwich.

[forgottenlivesobverse]

Kara Dennison Q&A

Today we have a Q&A with Forgotten Lives author Kara Dennison, whose story ‘Gauntlet of Absolution’ features the Philip Hinchcliffe Doctor.

First, the opening of the story:

‘For some, the appearance of the TARDIS from thin air on their home world was met with confusion, bemusement, or even fear. Some fled, sensing an incongruous power from the vessel as it warped and shifted to fit its surroundings. Others scoffed at the sight, believing it to be a prank and not wanting to give its perpetrator the satisfaction of a reaction. But as the TARDIS materialised on the pinkish-white earth of Idrotha, butted up just against the inside of its capital kingdom’s outer walls, the two guards nearby only watched calmly.’

FL: Tell us a little about yourself.

KD: Weird American, easily distracted, possibly too influenced by anime. My first story in print was with Obverse Books, actually – in The Perennial Miss Wildthyme. Since then I’ve shown up in the Black Archive series, a few City of the Saved anthologies, a Sherlock Holmes book, several SF/F books and charity collections, and occasionally people’s homes if they leave their tea cabinet unattended. By day I’m a journalist writing for Crunchyroll, Otaku USA, and Sci Fi Magazine. Guinea pigs are involved in this somehow.

FL: What attracted you to this project?

KD: For one thing, it was the opportunity to create a Doctor almost entirely from the ground up. I’ve written a lot of existing Doctors for charity anthologies, and written a lot about what makes a well-portrayed Doctor, but I’ve never tried it myself to any serious degree. I wanted the fun and the challenge – both of which I got.

Also, working with Philip Purser-Hallard is always a treat. He’s kind of like the Kojima of my writing circles: he calls, I drop everything and answer, no questions asked. And I always have a great time, and love the people I’ve gotten to work with and alongside because of him.

FL: Each story in the book features a different incarnation of the Doctor. Tell us about yours.

This Doctor is just so excited about his new regeneration. He’s going to live every cavalier swashbuckler dream, and he doesn’t care how ridiculous he looks doing it. Which is good, because he looks extremely ridiculous most of the time.

This is the Doctor, though, so there’s a terrifying level of competence even under his occasionally childish behaviour. It’s just a matter of whether you ever get to see it. If you do, you’re likely either a very close friend or about to get your entire situation destroyed.

FL: These Doctors only exist in a couple of photos. How did you approach the characterisation of your incarnation?

KD: To me, Doctor Who has always played like a classic adventure serial. So I wanted a classic adventure serial hero. I really pandered to myself in that regard: who would I tune in to watch every week? My version of the Hinchliffe Doctor is my answer. This is my ideal classic adventure hero. I’m not sure what that says about me.

The other big help was my habit of ‘casting’ someone as any new character I write until they’re evolved enough to stand on their own. In this Doctor’s case, it was a certain Rogue from a certain online D&D campaign. There’s still one little hold-over I left in as a hat-tip, if you know what to look for.

FL: What’s your story about?

KD: Our heroic Doctor has a fresh face and a fresh outfit, and he’s taking both to the planet Idrotha. But he’s ended up getting rolled into the planet’s outdated correctional system, which jails you for minor infractions and dangles absolution at the end of a very long competition. He’s going to run that Gauntlet – to its end, if he has his way – and might even pick up a new companion along the way. Expect political intrigue, science-fantasy antics, and no fewer than one epic arena battle.

FL: The stories are intended to represent a ‘prehistory’ of Doctor Who before 1963. How did that affect your approach?

KD: For me, as someone born in the US in 1981, I knew I’d do better approaching the ‘prehistory’ element from a literary and stylistic angle. Forgotten Lives would be taking place, if it existed, just as the revival of what we now call sword-and-planet fiction was about to hit. So I was looking to mid-century writers like Michael Moorcock and Manly Wade Wellman, and of course the writers they would have looked to (Edgar Rice Burroughs in particular).

I imagine this Doctor’s adventures as instalments in Amazing Stories, and that was the experience I wanted to give the reader: that they’re picking up the magazine and starting a new adventure series.

FL: Who would be your ideal casting for a pre-Hartnell Doctor?

KD: Gene Kelly. Stick with me here. Does his own stunts (even if you try to stop him), looks fantastic even in ridiculous clothes, can somehow make even the silliest dialogue work. I’d love to see it.

FL: What other projects are you working on at present?

KD: So much in the cooker! 2020’s compressed and expanded pretty much every writer and publisher’s schedule in crazy ways, but a lot of things are rolling out. My first book in The Chronosmith Chronicles, Eleanor’s Tears, is one cover typeset away from publication, and there are some anthologies I’m on pins and needles waiting to tell everyone about.

On the ‘now writing’ front, I’m finishing out my first YA book and a short story. There’s also a passion project on the back burner, which would be best described as ‘MR James meets PG Wodehouse.’ Whatever I do, it’ll pop up on karadennison.com in a timely fashion.

[kirikamibang]

FAQ

What is the KiriKami Mini Bang?

The KiriKami Mini Bang is a fan event dedicated to sweet rarepair of Kirishima Eijirou and Kaminari Denki from My Hero Academia! Writers who join will create a never-been-published fanfiction that is at least 3k words in length. Each writer will be paired with an artist, who will create at least one (1) full piece for their fic.

How does the pairing process work?

At the first check in, each writer will provide a title, summary, list of tags and content warnings, and a short excerpt of their fic. This information is kept secret, to make sure the claims process is totally anonymous. The mods will take this information provided by the writers and put it in an anonymous document for all the artists to read through. Artists will pick five (5) stories they would like to work on, based on the information provided by the writers. From there, the mods will do their best to match every writer with an artist. From there, they will work as a team to create content together!

How is a Bang different from a Zine?

Zines are an anthology of fanworks compiled into one PDF or bound into a physical book, that are then sold for profit or charity, and distributed to consumers. They are exclusive in nature, because printing costs require they only take a small number of contributors to fill a small number of pages with a limited number of pieces. Bangs, on the other hand, are free fandom events that anyone and everyone can participate in! We encourage everyone who believes they can create a fanwork that meets the requirements in the scheduled time-frame to join and participate. Bangs are all about community, and content creation. The heart and soul of a Bang is the love content creators have for their chosen ship, or trope, or fandom. You strive to meet a minimum word count, or a minimum art piece count, and can go above and beyond if you want to! You and your event partners get to decide what and how much you make, with no rejection emails in sight!

What is a Mini Bang? How is it different from a normal Big Bang?

Mini Bangs have a lower minimum word count than a Big Bang! Artists are also required to create a lower number of art pieces. So, while a Big Bang might require somewhere between 15k or 40k minimum words and 2-3 fully rendered art pieces, we only require a minimum of 3k and 1 fully rendered art piece. However, much like a Big Bang, there is no maximum word count or limit on the number of illustrations. We encourage our participants to have fun and get as creative as possible during the creation period! Mini Bangs are an excellent low-stress event for content creators, because the only requirements are to hit the minimum word/art count and finish a piece before the posting period begins. They're also a lot of fun!

How do beta readers fit into this?

If we have enough beta readers sign up, we will set up a separate claims document with all of the anonymous info from writers who indicated they would like to work with a beta. Betas will claim fics the same way the artists do, and will work with their writers to polish the fanfics up and make them shine before posting!

Does this Bang have a theme?

Nope! All content should focus on KiriKami, but other than that, content creators are free to create for any AU, trope, or plotline they want! We want you to be able to have fun and create something you and your partner can enjoy!

Does that mean there will be NSFW content?

Yes! However, it will be separated out from the SFW content during claims. We request that all participants provide their age (18+/-18) upon sign up. Anyone over the age of 18 will be free to create NSFW content. NSFW pitches from adult writers will be placed on an 18+ claims list with all relevant tags and warnings, and will only be available to 18+ artists and betas. Anyone who is caught lying about their age to access the NSFW claims list will be let go from the event.

How do I participate?

Once sign-ups open, fill out the appropriate Writer/Artist/Beta sign-up form, and you’re in! There is no application process, no acceptance or rejection, no limit on skill or ability. If you are passionate about KiriKami and join during the sign-up window, you are in! Once you’re in, Discord will be our primary method of contact with participants, but we will send out emails for all major deadlines. Please ensure your provided email is accurate and up to date!

Do I need Discord to participate?

While it is not absolutely mandatory, we strongly suggest you join the KiriKami Bang discord to keep on top of the deadlines and keep in touch with the mods. We will send out emails to all participants regarding all important information and deadlines, however there is always the risk that an email will be caught in a spam filter. Discord is also the fastest and easiest way to get in contact with your event partners. Your partner information will be provided via email, but it is the participant's responsibility to reach out to their teammates and begin collaborating.

Can I apply for more than one role?

As long as you are capable of handling the workload and agree to respect the anonymity of the claims process, we will be allowing participants to take a maximum of two (2) roles. For example, you could participate as a Writer and a Beta, or a Writer and an Artist, but not all three.

Why is it so important that claims are anonymous and the fanfiction is unpublished?

One of the most important (and most fun!) parts of a Bang event is the fact participants are paired based on the fic premise alone. Keeping the fic ideas a secret ensures everyone gets a fair chance at getting picked, without follower count or hits or kudos or likes factoring into the equation. Once claims have ended, some teams can choose to share small hints about their WIPs, but we discourage the sharing of snippets, screenshots, and excerpts on social media. When content creation teams choose to keep the fic and art a secret during the entire event, it also means that the people following along with the event get a wonderful surprise flood of art and fanfic during the posting period!

What’s a pinch hitter?

Should a creator drop from the project during the creation period, we will call in a pinch hitter to fill that content creator’s spot. This might mean an artist or beta will take on another fic, or it might mean a writer steps up to create a second piece with an unpartnered artist.

My question wasn’t answered here, where can I contact you?

You can contact us in a number of ways! Please feel free to DM us on Twitter or on CuriousCat! Our email is also linked in this carrd. If you are a member of the KiriKami discord server, please ask in a mod-contact channel or DM one of the mods! We will answer your question as quickly as possible!

[stevetonyzine]

Project Details

“You Gave Me a Home”

An anthology of fanworks dedicated to Steve and Tony from Marvel and Avengers. The zine will be available to purchase via pre-orders, and these funds will go into the production of the physical book as well as merch/rewards. Additional revenue will possibly be used to produce extra copies, with the goal of selling them later to donate to a charity of our choice. Our current goal is for pre-orders to open in July 2020.

REBRANDING NOTICE: After some thought, we’ve decided to “rebrand” the project and just call it “SteveTony Zine” rather than "Stony Writers Zine.” Our original purpose was to draw attention to the fact that there will be more written content than is usual for projects like these, as well as the collaborative facet to the zine. However, we realized that the title suggested writers-only and might be a deterrent for artists, thus the decision to rebrand.

Please note the following changes:

Tumblr URL: stevetonyzine.tumblr.com

E-mail: stevetonyzine@gmail.com

OVERVIEW

The project will be organized as follows:

Applications will go live for a set amount of time (around a one-month period). Once applications are open, artists and writers will be asked to share their strongest pieces and link to portfolios of their work. After applications close, the moderators will go through every single submission, deliberate, and then select a final group of contributors to participate in the zine. 

The contributors will be contacted, and are required to have a discord account. They’ll be invited to a server which will be used for all information, announcements and updates, as well as to keep track of everyone’s progress on their pieces.

During the creation period, which will span for several months, artists and writers will all work on original pieces for the zine and submit check-ins at required intervals. There will be a final deadline for pieces to be turned in by contributors.

After the deadline, the zine will be available for people to pre-order. Simultaneously, the mods will be working on designing and formatting the final zine. Once shop closes, a final number of zines will be ordered and shipped to all purchasers. Contributors and moderators will be compensated with a free copy of the zine and any merchandise. 

All products will be shipped out, and after a certain date, contributors are free to share their work in any form. Artists and writers retain all copyrights to their work.

The zine will consist of fiction, poetry, art, and comics. Fiction writers will have the option of writing a short piece (“flash fiction”) or a longer-than-average piece. Poetry can be in any form (ex: sonnets, sestinas, prose poems, haikus, free verse, etc). Most of the artwork will be collaborative; this means it’ll pair with the writing. However, the art doesn’t have to be created “big bang” style, and can also be “reverse bang” style where the written piece is created to accompany the art. Comics can be created wholly by artists, or by artist-writer collaborations. We’ll also be producing merch for the zine.

Moreover, we’ve decided that all content in the zine will be safe for work (SFW). Depending on interest, there is a possibility of adding a NSFW booklet as a supplement to the project, only available for 18+ audiences.

After looking at past projects and weighing the pros and cons of different options, we’ve decided that the pre-orders for the final zine will be done via kickstarter. The flexibility of pledges, visibility, and interface of the website are really appealing to us and we believe it’ll be the best way to fund the printing of the books.

Once the project has concluded, we will consider doing additional sales. This would be where leftover items (minus some backer-exclusives, so a smaller range of products) are sold on a storefront to those who couldn’t initially fund the project, in order to help support a charity of our choice and get rid of final stock. We are still discussing this aspect of the project; we may wait until after contributors are selected to give everyone a chance to weigh in on the decision.

Due to the amount of interest generated and the expected number of applications, we’ve come up with a way to maximize the amount of contributors that will be accepted.

Essentially, accepted contributors will be sorted into two categories: physical content, and digital-exclusive content. Those placed in the first category will be, in mod opinions, best-fitted for the zine. Those in the second category will also be amongst our top picks for the zine, but ones that we currently don’t have space for in the physical book. Thus, the digital PDF of the zine will be twice as large as the physical, with contributors from both categories. And, if we meet a certain stretch goal of orders or funds raised, we will then move digital-exclusive content to the physical book, thereby expanding it into a much larger zine.

Additionally, we’ll be accepting several “pinch-hitters,” who aren’t guaranteed a spot in the zine but may be contacted if accepted contributors drop out of the project for any reason. Consider it a wait-list of sorts.

BREAKDOWN

PHYSICAL:

This many contributors will be featured in the physical book + merchandise.

12-15 writers

17-20 artists

3 guest artists

2 guest writers

5 merch artists

DIGITAL-ONLY:

These contributors will only be present in the digital version alongside our previous physical selections. They will be added to the physical book if a stretch goal is met.

8-10 writers

10-12 artists

PINCH HITTERS:

These contributors will be selected as possible replacements if any of the previous contributors drop out.

10 writers

10 artists

So that’s our current summary of the project details discussed so far! We hope this clears up a lot of questions about how the project will be run, and how the final zine will be created and printed.

Coming soon: Mod Introductions, FAQ, and Application Information!

Meanwhile, please reblog and spread the word about this upcoming project! Thank you <3

[allthingsdarkanddirty]

★✩★ NEW RELEASE ★✩★

Together We Stand Volume 2

A Charity Anthology for Ukraine

A Multi Author Anthology

Goodreads: bit.ly/3IE9ECr

Hosted by DS Book Promotions

 99c! Limited time

Amazon getbook.at/TogetherWeStand2

Nook bit.ly/3MimcSa

Apple apple.co/3szMyra

Kobo bit.ly/35NdbA8

We are the ones who walk barefoot through hell, making it out the other side with nothing left except sheer will and a whole lot of grit in our pockets.

By losing everything, others hailed us as beacons of hope. Our journeys were by no means glamorous. Each of us left an important part of ourselves behind so that we might start anew.

We are the survivors.

This is our chance to grab happiness by the horns and make it our own.

Join 20+ USA Today, bestselling, award-winning, and up-and-coming authors as they weave tales of horror, loss, persecution, and unfair struggles, leading to new lives, new romances, and most importantly, well-deserved Happily-Ever-After endings.

With stories written by

C.A. King, USA Today Bestselling Author 

JA Lafrance

Jen Stevens 

A.L. Morrow, USA Today Bestselling Author 

AM Cosgrove 

Katia Kozar 

TL Mayhew 

C.L. Collier 

A.N. Waugh 

Ryan Grey

Rose Bak 

Jordan Leger 

A.M. Roark 

KL Fast

Zorha Redwolf Edwards & Emery LeeAnn

Pandora Snow

R.G. Angel

Skye Callahan 

Crystal St.Clair 

M.A. Abraham 

Merrie Destefano, USA Today Bestselling Author 

Jodi Fahey 

MK Moore 

Sky Purington

Tricia Daniels

Cedar Rose

All proceeds from the print and digital sales of this book will be donated to organizations providing relief to the Ukraine.

**May contain MM/FF and/or triggering situations.

#newrelease #availablenow #TogetherWeStand2 #Ukrainereleifefforts #charityanthology #multigenre #multiauthor #romance #lgbtq #dystopian #fantasy #jalafrance

#dsbookpromotions

@JA Lafrance @ThePortalProphecies @DS Book Promotions

[rohkeutta]

2017 fandom recap

Fandom-wise this year has been incredible for me, so here’s a “small” recap, mostly for myself:

18 (holy shit) new fics posted on ao3 this year. Three of them passed the astonishing, magical 1K kudos bar, and two are hovering over 900 as well.

measured in kudos, my most popular 2017 fic was Bitch better have my wedding ring, followed by Moosebumps. Moosebumps def got the most attention, though.

got my fic Until You Wear a Groove in the World printed in a book (!!!!!!), the Not Without You Anthology, and I’m so humbled and happy by all the love the book got. I also participated the NWY panel and table in Washington D.C. AwesomeCon in June, and met some amazing people thanks to it.

one of my fics was podficced (!!!), which was one of the highlights of my fandom year.

Side bitch out of your league passed 3K kudos, about which I’m still kind of screaming.

participated in three bangs - Cap Reverse Bang for which I wrote two fics, Stucky Big Bang for which I did five pieces of art in total, and Marvel bang in collaboration with the loveliest @artgroves, plus I offered works for auction in Fandom Loves Puerto Rico charity auction. I’m also currently doing MCU kink bingo and Shrunkyclunks bang.

made a bunch of art, some of it I’m even pleased with.

met with several AMAZING fandom people IRL in London, Helsinki, and U.S. - @thelittleblackfox, @misspaperjoker, @starandshield, @silentwalrus1, @dorkbait, @jukebox-head, @kurozawa46 come to mind first and foremost because my memory is bad, plus some who don’t have tumblr / whose tumblr handles I don’t know. I had a blast meeting you all, and can’t wait to see you again in 2018!

met an astonishing number of talented, lovely people online, esp in RBB slack channel - you know who you are, lots of hugs to all of you!

I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten something, but let’s go with these.

So now that the year is coming to an end, I want to thank everybody who read my fics, liked my posts, reblogged my stuff, left me kudos and amazing comments, enabled me, supported me, listened to me yowl about life and make shitty jokes, and generally interacted with me this year. You’re all awesome.

In 2018 I strive to become a better writer, meet friends old and new, develop as an artist, and participate in Reverse Bang and Cap Big Bang (so far / at least).

Happy New Year, everybody! Let’s make 2018 a good one, and pray that no moose cross Bucky’s path this year.

xoxo, Roh

[tohellandbackanthology]

Restating our commitment to transparency and accountability

Hello everyone! Given our recent update about us opening up a pop-up shop to make available more copies of our anthology, we just wanted to elaborate a little re: why we’re doing this and how we intend to remain transparent and accountable during this process, as well as how this affects the timeline for those of you who ordered a book back in May during our Indiegogo fundraiser.

We know that those of you who supported our initial fundraiser may be a little confused, given that we still haven’t shipped those books out. We totally understand this sentiment and it is something we discussed heavily before coming to this decision. To better clarify why we’re taking the steps that we are, here are three reasons why we felt this pop-up shop was needed:

* To give us a better cushion. When we first obtained a quote for the cost of printing our anthology, it was almost a year ago right before we opened up our fundraiser in March 2020 to begin funding our project. Quotes expire, and over our lengthy struggle with Indiegogo to obtain the money that we had raised, our quote did indeed do just that. Given that this is a new year, we anticipate that our updated quote will be a little higher, making the cost of our project more expensive, and we want to be sure that all those extras we promised back in May are still applicable. 

* To help us achieve our hardcover goal. We talked a lot about hardcovers over the course of our project, as we knew that if we sold enough books, we would be able to upgrade everybody’s paperback copy of the anthology to a hardcover for free. Last we spoke about this, we indicated that we were close to our hardcover stretch goal, but just a tad bit short in all likelihood. If our pop-up does well, we feel that it is feasible to afford hardcovers for all. If we still fall short, there are still benefits! As we promised earlier, leftover money will first and foremost be used to make everybody’s books more beautiful, not to mention possibly allowing us to do things like including extra bonus merch for everybody for free. Any money remaining after that will be donated to a local charity, Wish Vancouver, to help vulnerable women in our community.

* To help our fandom heal. We won’t lie. We were adamant about our fundraiser on Indiegogo being a one-time deal, and though we received numerous requests about opening up shop again, we declined every time citing our commitment to transparency and accountability. While our values have not changed, our negative experience with Indiegogo and our heartbreak after Supernatural’s series finale had us reconsider our earlier stance. Dean, Cas, Sam and all their loved ones deserved a better ending than they got, and knowing that fans always do it better, we felt the best way we could help our corner of fandom heal was to share further the many beautiful works of happiness and good endings that are enclosed within our anthology. For that reason, we felt a limited two-week long pop-up shop was the best way to do this: it gives new and old fans one last chance to get a copy! 

Please read under the cut for more information about our project timeline and how we will ensure accountability and transparency over the course of our project:

So why are we using a pop-up shop and how does this affect our transparency and accountability? As you know, despite ending our fundraiser in May 2020, Indiegogo did not disburse our funds until recently, just shortly before Christmas. We cannot emphasize what a difficult and frustrating experience we had with their customer service; by the end of November, all of us were having earnest conversations about whether we ought to refund everybody’s money. However, your support was overwhelming and we kept pushing on, and then, lo and behold, our money at last came in! We took a big sigh of relief that we could at last get on with our project, and after taking a short and much needed holiday break after our six-month long ordeal, we pulled up our sleeves and got to work once again, holding a team meeting on Dec. 28, 2020 to discuss our next steps.

At that meeting, all of us discussed the pain that we felt after the show’s finale, and the hurt it caused not only to our fandom, but Supernatural’s queer community especially. At the same time, we noted how many more requests we were getting for the anthology again, as it seemed many more people wanted our book, especially after watching Supernatural’s final episode. It became clear to us that our anthology could be a small way for us to help our community heal. We agreed to reconvene on Jan. 17, 2021 to discuss further after we conducted more research about the idea. 

Ultimately, we concluded that opening a pop-up shop would not harm us and our backers because:

* Opening up a pop-up shop will not delay our timeline. For those of you who ordered books back in May during the initial fundraiser, you can be sure that this pop-up shop will not cause your books to arrive at a later date. As we mentioned in an earlier update, we now anticipate that everybody’s books will ship in April 2021. Even if we had not done a pop-up shop, these books would still have shipped out in April regardless. The extra books sold in our pop-up shop will be printed at the same time as the books sold last May on Indiegogo, ensuring that everybody gets their books together.

* Opening up a pop-up shop will only benefit everyone who has purchased a book already; as we mentioned before, these extra books will not only provide us with an extra cushion for our finances, it will also possibly help us upgrade everybody’s copies to hardcovers for free, something we know everyone has been eager about, including us! 

As always, transparency and accountability were at the forefront of our minds during this meeting. We could not use Indiegogo as a platform again, so ultimately concluded that as long as we provided evidence of our pop-up shop’s transactions, we could still undertake our new goal in an honest way. For that reason, we will be making a detailed report of how many copies we sell and how much money we earn through this shop, and to ensure the integrity of our project, we will disable all options to purchase the anthology immediately after the two-week pop-up shop period has closed. We will never again make our anthology available for purchase after Feb. 14, 2021. We are a registered incorporated non-profit society in British Columbia, and as part of the requirements of being a part of this society, it is strictly forbidden that any member of our team make any profit from money we acquire. Furthermore, a financial statement will be released by us at the end of each month beginning in February, detailing all our expenditures.  

At this present time, we are holding another meeting on Jan. 25, 2021 to further discuss our pop-up shop and our overall project. Please keep tuned as you can now expect to hear from us more often with more details and updates about our progress and the upcoming shop!

Thank you very much for your support in this endeavour. We cannot express enough how excited we are about these books, as we know that they will be in all our hands soon! We know the journey getting here hasn’t been easy, and we are eternally grateful for your continued trust and patience and encouragement. As always, should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our team is committed to transparency and accountability at every step, and we are more than happy to share any information that will answer any thoughts that you may have about our project.

Sincerely and with much love,

your TH+B mods