#are most of these either graphic novels or novellas? yes

[cyclone-rachel]

books read in November 2022:

Mooncop by Tom Gauld

Blackbird by Sam Humphries

Bibliophile: Diverse Spines by Jamise Harper

Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas

Finna by Nino Cipri

Doctor Strange vs Dracula by Marv Wolfman

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

Alone in Space by Tillie Walden

I’d Rather be Reading by Anne Bogel

Answers to Questions You’ve Never Asked by Joseph Pisenti

Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong

Still Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton

I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider

My Ideal Bookshelf by Jane Mount

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers

Defekt by Nino Cipri

Darling Girl by Liz Michalski

Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir 1-4 by Jeremy Barlow

[vivilove-jonsa]

Hello,

Since you've published a book I was wondering if I may ask a couple question?

Does it feel different from writing fanfictions?

Do you find your self relating to GRRM's pace of writing like the long years between books?

How did you like your covers for your original works? Did it take long to pick out?

This is just crack question but any chance there's a minor red headed character with her dark haired partner? You know as a little Easter egg jk. But in all seriousness we always knew you could sell your works and I'm glad you took the chance!

Hello!

Wow, I'm flattered that you want to know this stuff so thank you for asking! I'll happily answer each one below the cut :)

Does it feel different from writing fanfictions?

Yes. The joy of writing is still very much with me but there's some major differences and things I've had to adapt to when looking to sell books as an unknown author versus writing fanfic for a pairing that people are seeking out. The biggest is the wait for validation. Can't post a chapter of an idea, see how people respond and start crafting a story from there. You write the whole damn novel with little to no input from anyone else and then put it out there for critique before publishing.

It may sound weird but I've found more freedom writing original works in some ways and more restrictions in others.

The restrictions involve more planning, outlining and plotting. I have to stay on track instead of indulging in Side-Character B's backstory or a secondary romance, etc. Also, I would hop from genre to genre with my AUs and, while there are authors doing that I'm sure, it's not a safe bet for a newbie looking to make money. So, I found a niche in contemporary romance that I enjoy reading and writing and I dove in. I'll probably tackle another niche with a new pen once I've got ten or so books under my belt with the current pen name to try it out.

The freedoms involve making my characters whoever they tell me they are. No one will scream 'that's OCC!' because these are my characters. There's no trappings of canon or expectations in that sense either although romance readers tend to have favored tropes, etc and they expect you to stick to the 'formula of romance.' Also, I miss talking fic with other writers and fans of my Jonsa works as there's more distance between me as an author and people who read my books. Don't get me wrong, I love interacting with some of them who have reached out but the gap is there and it can feel lonelier.

Do you find yourself relating to GRRM's pace of writing like the long years between books?

No, lol. This is a side hustle for me but a romance writer would starve going at his pace unless you had that miracle hit right off the bat (which is soooooo rare) and even then you need to keep producing product to keep from becoming obsolete. I started my first novel February 1st last year. I will have FIVE completed by February 1st of this year. I'm shooting to average a book every 3 months this year at least. It takes me roughly six to eight weeks to write it and the remaining time goes into editing, formatting and submitting for ARC reviews. Quality AND quantity are the name of the game to earn money. In GRRM's defense though, my books average 75k words and one of those five was a novella at 40k words. And my books are romance centering on two individuals which are far less complicated to tell than his enormous fantasy opus with a cast of hundreds.

How did you like your covers for your original works? Did it take long to pick out?

Yes, I love them! The cover of your book is the single most important part of your passive marketing and you want your book to be as to-market as possible to attract readers in your genre and niche. My niche involves hot guys in suits on the covers and my dear friend made them for me except one which I paid a graphic artist $75 to do an illustrated cover for. Anyway, we would tinker and talk about the color or font, the placement of the title, etc. but, for me at least, this was a simple process. Some self-published folks spend far more time working on theirs or might pay hundreds of dollars on them but mine seem to draw eyes just fine. Maybe once I'm making bank more steadily I'll consider farming this out to a pro.

Any chance there's a minor red headed character with her dark haired partner?

Absolutely!! In fact, my first book includes a pairing that looks suspiciously like Jonsa (I changed the eye color for her and gave him Kit's brown eyes though). Partly, that's because the original idea for the book was going to be a Jonsa story until I decided to switch gears. My third book has a guy that fits Jon's description and my novella includes elements of Sansa's love of songs and such in the female lead. It's fun to have bits of the characters I love in my books even when they're my own creations.

Thanks so much for this delicious ask! Lots of fun to answer <3

[moghedien]

So you want to start the Cosmere…

Hello I have read all of the Cosmere (multiple times in several cases!) and I have very strong opinions on the correct reading order

While I don’t have an exact order of when to read what, I definitely have very firm ideas of which books should be read before which. Not reading certain things too soon is the most important thing imo

And while yes, technically you can do whatever you want and start with Stormlight if you really really want to, I really don’t suggest it! Take it as someone who DID start with Stormlight and didn’t even know what the Cosmere was until I was like several series into it.

I’m including in my list all novellas and short stories as well, and while all of these aren’t necessary, I think some of them definitely are. If something has a number and a letter next to it (ex. 2a), it isn’t strictly necessary to read, and I’m more including it more so that you know when to read it if you so choose to do so.

1. Start with either Mistborn era 1 trilogy or Warbreaker

If you want a trilogy, read Mistborn. If you want a shorter commitment, read Warbreaker. These two are the ideal places to start imo because they do not noticeably tie into the larger Cosmere at this point and they are a better idea of what you’re going to get from the Cosmere than Elantris.

1a. Read The Eleventh Metal any time after the first Mistborn book

This isn’t something that necessarily needs to be rushed to, but it’s short so might as well read it while Mistborn is fresh in your mind

2. Once you’ve read the first Mistborn trilogy or Warbreaker, read the one you didn’t pick OR read Elantris.

Mainly I just really don’t suggest reading Elantris first, but read it anytime after your first introduction to the Cosmere.

2a. Read Hope of Elantris any time after Elantris ,

Not mandatory to read unless you’re a completionist but probably the sooner after Elantris the better just so that you remember it.

2b. Read The Emperor’s Soul anytime after Elantris

Can literally be read any time but after Elantris is best. No rush to read this one, but again it’s short.

3. Once you have read Mistborn Era 1, Warbreaker, AND Elantris, read Mistborn Era 2.

As a caveat, I’m writing this before The Lost Metal comes out, so read The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and The Bands of Mourning. I cannot yet judge when is best to read The Lost Metal but I’m guessing I’ll probably put it last on this list

3a. Read Allomancer Jack anytime after The Alloy of Law

Not mandatory by any means

3b. Read Shadows for Silence and Sixth of the Dusk any time

Technically you can read these at literally any time, but I think it’s best to wait until you have a deeper idea of the Cosmere before you do to appreciate them more.

4. Once you’ve read The Bands of Mourning, read Mistborn: Secret History

DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL YOU’VE READ THE BANDS OF MOURNING. DO NOT LOOK AT IT. DO NOT EVEN GOOGLE WHAT ITS ABOUT.

5. Read The Way of Kings

6. Read Words of Radiance

If for some reason you haven’t read Warbreaker yet, do it before you read Words of Radiance

7. Read Edgedancer

And just wrap up and read anything else in the Arcaneum Unbound that you haven’t read up until this point

8. Read Oathbringer

9. Read Dawnshard

10. Read Rhythm of War

And if for some reason you haven’t read The Bands of Mourning, do so BEFORE you read Rhythm of War

11. Read White Sand whenever you have literally nothing left and your completionist brain isn’t letting you not read it because you need to have read all the Cosmere

I don’t like White Sand the only good thing about White Sand is Khriss. Branderson isn’t good at writing graphic novels yall, I’m sorry

Ok I think that’s everything (that is currently out) let me know if I missed something by mistake, I wrote this kinda sporadically

[dragonthusiast]

Writeblr Intro and Book Masterlist

Hi, my name's Gabs, and just finished studying the riveting subject of English linguistics at university. 

I love writing, particularly fantasy and sci-fi with LGBTQ+ characters, and theoretically also drawing, though I'm really not good at that. When I either get better or stop caring, I'll probably make a graphic novel or a webcomic.

I've written several books in several series, most of which are still ongoing, which you can read more about below :) I’ve also posted most of my writing on Wattpad here if you want to check it out. Or you can go to my website to get the book files directly.

My current project is called Nightstar, a medieval-ish fantasy with people who have various powers. You can read the WIP intro post here and the character introductions here. And you can read the full first book here.

The Children of the Sun

The first series I've written, which is also complete now with 4 novel-length books.

The story is science fiction with fantasy aspects, set in an original world with somewhat more advanced technology than we have today.

It features super powers, ancient conspiracies, epic battles, awkward romantic tension between a grumpy 40-year-old  and a 400-year-old immortal ball of sunshine, angst, and dragons (which sounds random and weird, yes, and that's because it is, but it makes sense in context).

The Kingdom of Dragons

Currently an 8 book fantasy novella series, god only knows how many there will be by the end. Unlike Children of the Sun, this one is very straightforward, as it started its life as something simple for me to take a break from complex plots.

It follows two characters, Rhenor and Kazterrak, usually called Kaz (yes, I named him that, not knowing there was a very known character named Kaz already so RIP to me I guess) Most of the time an installment in this series deals with a conflict unique to each book, and the characters travel around a lot, so the locations for each book are usually unique to it as well.

My current plan is to release them in chunks, for now 4 books at once, that each include a conflict to tie them together, even while unrelated stuff is happening, usually said conflict being emotional.

This series might never end :D I already have vague brain material for at least 8 more.

The Curse of Magic

A fantasy series about elves and humans, this one includes only the first book for now, which is my latest novel. 

The series centers around two elves, called Edwyr and Feyrith. Edwyr is Cursed, meaning he was born with no magical ability, while Feyrith is brimming with talent for using it. However, when the two cross paths, a lot of things change, including the status quo for not only both of them but the elven society in general. To be extra vague about it. I want to avoid too many spoilers.

The world is basically humans living on the outskirts of a large continent with most of it covered with a dense, dangerous jungle full of strange beasts that no one has ever traversed and lived to tell about it, while the elves live on an island, separated from all of that. Also everyone rides around on squawkers, which are basically a cross between a bird and a horse. I thought that was a very important detail to include.

And finally:

Wings of Gold

This is a fantasy gay romance series, featuring a thief and a dragon (who can shapeshift into a human form, of course). There’s really not much else to say about this one :D There’s 2 relatively short books so far, and I’m not sure how long this series will get until it reaches the end, but I thought it might be a good idea to try my hand at writing romance. It’s published under a pen name because I wanted to separate my non-romance books and romance books. I hear readers don’t like it when you branch out too much and don’t stay focused on a niche or genre.

[carriagelamp]

Art of Aardman

I found myself a cheap copy of the Shaun the Sheep movie, so I was rewatching a bunch of Aardman films earlier this month and decided to hunt down some books too. For anyone that doesn’t know, Aardman is a British stop-motion studio that does fantastic work like Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run, Early Man… tons of cool stuff. They’re always quirky and funny and warm-hearted. This was just a very nice art book for anyone that’s a fan of Aardman stop motion and wants to see a bit extra; it shows some cool concept art and blows up the neat details in Aardman work, especially in their intricate stuff like The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

Asterix and the Picts (Asterix and the Chariot Race, and How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion)

I decided to try a couple of the new Asterix comics that were done by the new team, just to see if they stand up to the old ones (that and How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion cause I’d never read that one before). They were pretty decent! Asterix and the Picts was my favourite of the two though I wouldn’t say either are going to contest for my favourite Asterix comic... but still! The art looks good and the stories felt like what I would expect, they made for a pleasant couple evenings of reading especially since it’s been so long since I’ve read a new Asterix comic. If you’ve never read Asterix it’s one of the biggest name French comic series in North America, as far as I know and very worth the read. It’s about a single Gaulish village that’s holding out against the invading Romans through sheer force of will, slapstick hijinks, and a magical super-strength potion brewed by their druid. Lots of fantastic visuals and cute wordplay, even in the English translations.

Bear

I found out about this bastion of Canadian literature via tumblr post that was losing its collective mind over the fact that some bizarre bear-based erotica novella somehow won the most prestigious literary prize available in Canada. Since I too found this hilarious and unspeakably bizarre I had to give it a read, obviously. And yes, the flat surface level summary is... a librarian moves out into rural Ontario and falls in love with a literal for-real not-supernatural-not-a-joke bear. And I have to say… it is actually worthy of an award, which I was not expecting given that I was there for a laugh. It has beautiful writing, and the subtextual story is pretty interesting… it kind of makes me think of The Haunting of Hill House actually in terms of themes. (Womanhood, personhood, independence, autonomy partially achieved through escaping the male gaze by claiming non-human lovers... listen if I were still in university I would right a paper comparing the two novels).

I dunno man, it’s fucking weird. Actually a well-written book, but sure is about a woman falling in love with a literal bear. Give it a read if you want something bonkers but like… high-brow bonkers.

Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites

Best book I have read in like… a while. A long while. I am not a fast reader, and I consumed 90% of this book over a weekend. It’s not at all like Terry Pratchett, but at the same time it scratched an itch for me that I haven’t had satisfied since Pratchett’s death. A very clever, hilariously funny poly romance between a disabled werewolf, an anxious vampire lord, and an incredibly powerful woman, with heaps of social satire, political commentary, and sinister undertones. The whole thing reads a bit like fanfiction and I say that in the most flattering way possible -- it is so easy to jump right in and be immediately taken over by the characters and the world and the plot, you never feel like you’re fighting to engage even though the world-building is fascinating and expansive. It welcomes you in right away, it was the book equivalent of a quilt and a hug which is something I sorely needed with all this pandemic bullshit. If you read any of the books on this list, go read that one while I sit here in pain waiting for the sequel.

Kid Paddle

I watched the cartoon of Kid Paddle as a kid and was thinking about it recently, so I decided to hunt down some of the original comics online. They’re fun and weird, with a cute art style and fantastic monsters designs. (My favourites are always about Kid either daydreaming or playing games that involve Midam’s weird warty troll creatures. It’s like a cross between Calvin and Hobbes and Foxtrot with the fun sort of quirks that I love in Belgian comics. Unfortunately, unlike Asterix, I’ve only come across these ones in French, but if you can read French it’s totally worth popping over to The Internet Archive and reading the ones they have available.

The Last Firehawk: The Golden Temple

The lastest Firehawk book. Despite being written for quite young readers, I did enjoy the early books in this series quite a bit. They’re about a young owl and squirrel who found an egg for a magical species that was believed to be extinct. With the newly hatched firehawk, the three of them head off on a mission to find an ancient firehawk magic that could save the entire forest. Very basic adventure story but a good intro to the tropes for children. Unfortunately the quality really feels like it drops with each subsequent book; this will probably be the last one I bother reading.

Lumberjanes: The Moon Is Up

I honestly think I enjoy these Lumberjanes novels even more than the comics just because it really gives time to delve into each story and examine how the camper are really thinking and feeling about everything. (Also I’m always weak for novelizations of anything.) The Moon Is Up is a book that focuses more on Jo, and takes place during the camp’s much anticipated Galaxy Wars, a competition between cabins that goes over several days. While the campers prepare for these challenges though, they also run into a strange little creature with a penchant for cheese and theft. Roanoke cabin needs to keep ahead in Galaxy Wars and somehow deal with the fearsome Moon Pirates that a closing in...

Lumberjanes v4 (Out Of Time)

One of the Lumberjanes comics, a cool, girl-focused, queer comic series. Honestly, this is just a fun series that I never got as into as I should have. My advice is honestly to skip book one because it gets better as it continues, and I’ve really been enjoying the later books now that I’ve given it another go. It follows five campers at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types (Jo, April, Molly, Mal, and Ripley) as they handle all sorts of challenges, from friendship to crushes, camp activities to supernatural horrors, getting badges to not being brutally killed. Great if you liked the vibe of Gravity Falls but want it to be queer-er.

Mooncakes

Another queer graphic novel, but unfortunately not a very good one. It really looked appealing and I had high hopes, but the book itself really didn’t hold up… I actually couldn’t even finish it, the plot was just too… non-existent. The art is fairly mediocre once you actually look at it, especially backgrounds, and it feels very… placid. Not much conflict or excitement or even a very compelling reason to keep reading. If you just want a soft queer supernatural you may get more mileage out of it than me, but it didn’t really do it for me. There’s better queer graphic novels out there.

New Boy In Town

One of the worst books I have ever read. My girlfriend had ordered a very different book online but through a frankly stupendous error was sent this 1980s pulp romance instead. Absolutely nauseating on levels I couldn’t even begin to enumerate here. Naturally we read the whole thing out loud. Probably took us 10 times longer to finish than it warranted because I had to stop every two sentences to lose my mind. If you like bad decisions, baffling hetero courting rituals, built-in cultural Christianity without actually calling it that, and gold panning then boy howdy is this the book for you.

(seriously, you better have patience for gold-panning if you attempt this one, because I sure learn that I don’t)

Piggies

This was a picture book I enjoyed as a kid and had a reason to reread recently. Honestly it’s just very cute and simple, and the art is completely mesmerizing. Wonderful if you know a young child that would enjoy a simple goofy boardbook.

Shaun the Sheep: Tales From Mossy Bottom

Related to my Aardman fascination earlier this month. I tried reading a varieties of Shaun the Sheep books — most of which are mediocre at best — but the Tales From Mossy Bottom Farm series is genuinely good. Just chapter books, of course, but the illustrations match the series’ concept art and each story feels like it could have jumped directly out of an episode. They’re just cute and feel-good! Kinda like Footrot Flats but more for kids, and from the sheep’s perspective moreso than the dog’s.

[lesbiten]

I can't seem to read ANYTHING fiction rn that isn't DW, DW adjacent, or scifi that's been on my to read list forever BUT. Hypothetically if I am ever capable of reading anything else ever again, what's the best reading order for WC for people who were too busy rereading Percy Jackson for the 87th time to read it before. Most skippable books? Least skippable books? Will cat Ianto be enough to convince my brain that WC is DW adjacent?

first of all. yes cat ianto DOES mean wc is dw adjacent and i will die on this hill <3

anyways i would definitely start with the prophecies begin arc aka start with into the wild. i feel like all 6 books in that arc are super important for world building and understanding how clans work etc etc. the authors still didnt really know what they were going for when they wrote this arc and it makes it? better? in a weird way? also it has two of the coolest and funkiest villains in the entire series (being scourge and brokenstar)

(anything below this point is just me rambling LMFAO sorry i didnt realize how much i typed)

the second arc (the new prophecy) is kind of boring and sucks and like. yes it has very important and permanent plot stuff in it but the only book thats rly good that i remember is sunset...

the third arc (power of three) fucks ummm like every book is good i think. characters are cool the story is fun and it makes me want to eat concrete like every good book series should

the fourth arc (omen of the stars) every book is good except sign of the moon which made me stop my reread originally because its literally so fucking boring

the fifth arc (a vision of shadows) is ok..........the villains kinda make it worth it but kind of not ? shattered sky is really really good but the rest of it is kind of forgettable.....

the sixth arc (the broken code) is ongoing. however so far it is definitely my second favorite arc and its fucking insane!!!!!! really good writing compared to some of the other books imo!!!!!!!

the dawn of the clans arc is the Best and most well written arc imo!!!!!! i definitely wouldnt start with it but its kind of like a prequel for the whole series. like shows where all the clans came from etc etc and thats where clear sky is from!!! unfortunately the least likeable character is in fact the main protagonist (hes kind of just ...... boring and annoying hsdfbdshfsbd) but i think the plot and rest of the characters make up for it!!!

the super editions are very hit or miss. same w/ the novellas. here r my recommendations

good super editions: bluestar's prophecy, crookedstar's promise, tallstar's revenge, HAWKWING'S JOURNEY (this one explains a lot of whats going on in the fifth arc and imo is like.....way more fun to read than that whole arc HGDBGH),

okay super editions: firestar's quest, yellowfang's secret, moth flight's vision, tigerheart's shadow, crowfeather's trial, graystripe's vow

PLEASE GOD SKIP THESE: bramblestar's storm, skyclan's destiny

the novellas r a bit harder to assess bc some of them i really havent read since i was 11 but like. uh. tbh id say all of them are worth a shot EXCEPT for spottedleaf's heart. fuck that book and fuck everything that happens in it and fuck the authors for writing it <3. other than that i either think theyre pretty good or i just dont remember the events that take place HDBHFDBSFHSD

theres other stuff like the graphic novels and fields guides but i have already said. so much

[phoenix43song]

Little Women [2019] Film Review and Analysis

I have been reading the Little Women series since I was a child and I grew up on the 1994 film version that stars Winona Ryder. I have also watched the 1933, 1949, 2017 (mini series), and the 2018 modern film adaptation. I have watched and enjoyed the web series The March Family Letters on youTube, which is another modern adaptation take on the story, though unfinished. I have a graphic novel and a novel called Meg and Jo that are also modern adaptations. I love the songs from the musical, and I wish to play Jo one day (after I get my singing voice back). You can say I am a bit obsessed, though it has been quite awhile since I last read Little Women and did research on Louisa May Alcott. When I heard Greta Gerwig was going to be making another adapation I reread the whole series. The research I have done on Louisa, and the research that I have read from other fans and scholars has made reading Little Women all the more interesting. I try to be a writer, though I've only ever written novella's and short stories and short films. I love the theatre, acting, and now I am directing for the first time. I have so many story ideas for novels, series, and for feature films (maybe even TV). I've also always loved art, though without praticing much since adulthood my skills have dwindled. I identify with Jo and with Amy and I am really glad that this version of the book did these character justice...well Greta went wayland on Jo a bit.

The character of Jo in this adaptation is fully realized, three dimentional, however she is made to be have way more of a temper when she's an adult, unlike the book. Jo has this Peter Pan mentality where she wants to keep living in childhood and never grow up. She is in denial of her feelings, and she doesn't understand romantic love fully until the end. Greta decided to really incorporate Louisa herself into Jo. Louisa wrote the book loosely based on herself and her sisters growing up because she was pressured in writing a children's novel. She didn't want Jo to get married: she wanted Jo to remain a spinster like herself. Louisa was pressured to marry Jo off so she did. And then she continued to write two more novels after Little Women (technically Good Wives): Little Men and Jo's Boys. She created Friedrich Bhaer for Jo, who was the perfect choice for her...and most readers can't seem to see why Jo fell in love with him when, based on the research that I did and others did, Louisa created him off of men she had crushes on. Yes Louisa had crushes; she most likely had a few short lived romances, but we'll never know because if she wrote any of this down in her diary or in letters they have been destroyed.

Friedrich Bhaer in Greta's Little Women is not Friedrich Bhaer. He shares but a few qualities. Louis Garrel did an amazing job with what material he was given and he understands his characters and Frieidrich's relationship with Jo far better than Greta does. Based off of interviews and other comments that Greta has mentioned Greta hates Friedrich and can't stand that Jo married in the end. She doesn't understand him nor their relationship. She took away everything that Friedrich is, how Jo became friends with him, the courting he does, and one of the most romantic proposals in classic literature. Greta decided on an ambiguous ending for her movie and I absolutely hate it. The umbrella scene is rushed, hurried, and not romantic at all and it's edited in a way that this only happens in the novel that Jo writes because she is pressured, or somewhat forced, to marry off her heroine. Then there are cuts where we see Jo at her school for boys and girls, where her family presents a cake for Marmee's 60thbirthday and we see that Friedrich is there. This is cut where Jo is watching her book being made and she hugs it to herself: I really enjoyed this part of the ending, but the ending could have still followed the book more and not edited and written in a way where Jo's love for Friedrich and marriage isn't fiction. I mean Greta even had Amy and Meg drag Jo to go after him when Friedrich leaves and claim that Jo loves him. This is a change that...it destroys the characters in a huge way.

Friedrich isn't German in this film, though we do see him go into a German Beer Hall with his friends. I did love the dance scene in the Beer Hall and him dancing with Jo. He's French because Louis is French. Part of me wishes Greta would've gotten a German actor because Germany in it's people and culture was a huge part of Louisa's life and German is scattered all over the book. But I love Louis Garrel so this aspect of Friedrich didn't bother me that much. However...we don't get to know him and we don't get his backstory in this film. He doesn't play with the children, his immigration and carring for his orphaned nephews isn't mentioned, and him bringing Jo to intelletual gatherings isn't seen. Him giving Jo Shakespeare is in the film, but it's not done in person. He helps Jo with giving honest feedback on her stories and Jo doesn't take constructive critism well at all and yells at him. Friedrich likes Jo and you can tell. It's even shown that Jo likes him as well, but we sadly don't get to see their friendship: hell they don't really have much of a relationship in this movie. When Friedrich comes to visit Jo at the March house, we can see that Jo is surprised but pleased. I really do love how the family really likes him and gets to know him, and that they can see that the two love each other but that Jo is in denial. Except...Jo isn't really in denial in the book. She blushes when she realizes that Friedrich has come to court her. Jo in the book feels more mature by this point then she does in the movie.

Jo also tries to make herself love Laurie by writing him a letter because she's lonely. She never does this in the book. She does have one mention of a what if scenario but she stands by what she always thought: that she only loved Laurie like a brother. I really loved the scene where Jo rejects Laurie when he proposes because she's telling the truth and we even see in the movie that that have this special commarderie that's close but platonic, and not romantic. I do love how Greta explains and shows different kinds of love and growth in the sisters. But this seemed to degrade Jo a bit when it comes to actual full realized growth. I just don't understand where Greta was going with this and why she doesn't seem to understand Jo and Jo and Friedrich together. She put way too much of Louisa into Jo when Jo is a fictional character and not 100% Louisa. It's made to look like the umbrella propsal is fiction and that Jo did end a spinster. I am so upset right now at this that I will talk about what I did love and more of my analysis from a filmmaking aspect. (I doubled majored in theatre and in film in college and I do know that there will be changes in adaptations. However this doesn't mean that you can change characters and relationships to fit your own idea of how they should act and how they should end up. When you adapt a story you have to keep who the characters are and Greta doesn't do this with Friedrich nor with Jo in the end with her as a character and the relationship between the two).

So. This film is gorgeous. Beautiful cinematography, direction, costumes, acting, score, and editing. The only thing that I didn't like was how the characters read their letters to the camera. It took me out of the story and didn't fit in at all. The editing of present to past was well done, and I loved how it went with parallel themes. Each sister is three dimentional and real, and the different takes on money and love was really interesting. Beth's sickness and death was well done and so heartbreaking poignant. I loved how she got Jo to write again, and I loved the montage of Jo writing her novel. Mr. Dashwood was hilarious, and Meryl Streep had a blast playing Aunt March. Laura Dern made a capible Marmee but she didn't feel like Marmee to me sadly. Mr. March was barely in the film, but he's barely in the book so that was ok. The scenes between Mr. Lawerence and Beth were beautiful, and the scenes between Mr. Lawernce and Jo were good as well. I liked seeing Meg wanting riches, her feelings about being poor, but her love for John was a lot stronger and she made sacrifices. Amy was great, espeacially as an adult in Paris.

Laurie...I have a lot of thoughts on how Laurie was protrayed. I liked how his Italian ancestry was mentioned a lot and that Laurie could never sit still. I liked how he was represented as a drunk and ladies man until Amy talked sense into him. I like how we got to see how Amy and Laurie fell in love, and how Laurie realized that his love for Jo wasn't of the romantic nature either. He does love Jo and you can diffinitely see that, but at the same time they're best friends. Yes it's good to want to marry your best friend but at the same time you need more than just physical attraction ( and that's where Friedrich comes into the pitcuture). But there was something off about how he was represented. I honestly think it's because that Tim looks way too young for the adult version (even though he is an adult in real life), and that he's too skinny. Sorry I said it: Tim needs to put some meat on his bones.

This film does deserve awards and it bothers me that the film wasn't nominated for a Golden Globe (though Saoirse being nominated for Best Actress was a choice well deserved) or for an SAG awards. I hope the film is nominated a lot at the Oscar's at least. I would give this film somewhere between a 2.5 to a 3 out of 4 stars. This would've been a perfect 4/4...I know a lot of critics and fans love the ending, and that's there's only a minority of us that understand and love Friedrich, and Jo/Fritz together. At least we have other film adaptations and the musical – love the musical! - and I am really tempted to write my own version of a Little Women feature or mini series. I want to do more research on Louisa and write a biopic. I even have my own modern adapation ideas. This is a beloved book and I wish more people will read it, along with the rest of the series. To understand Jo/Fritz you have to read the last two books. This isn't really an essay or full on anaylsis, but more of me rambling, but let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to discuss Little Women and hear your thoughts and opinions. (Also sorry for spelling and grammar errors: I wrote this up really fast and didn’t bother to edit as I’m rather busy). 

[bettsfic]

Writing question! 1st person and 3rd-person-from-someone's-POV--what other narrator choices are there? Thoughts on 2nd person? Is there such a thing as cinematic narration--inside no one's head but shown all of the things a movie would show to get a sense of what people are thinking? Basically, what are your thoughts on perspective and narration?

what a great question! i have a whole powerpoint presentation on this!! i will copy and paste/add some info (it’s for a lecture).

First person

Singular

I coughed up a bunch of chicken bones earlier.

Default in nonfiction and YA

Good for fiction with one POV

Tip: consider first person like a very long monologue -- this is your main character’s actual voice, so it should be reflective of the way they speak

Plural

We watch the sad man eat all those chicken bones.

Generally experimental/rare

You’d write in first-plural if you have a narrator with a hive-mind, literally (sci fi, fantasy) or metaphorically (literary)

Ex: “Debbieland” by Aimee Bender (one of my favorite stories of all time!! tw for graphic bullying)

Second person

Second POV is difficult because some of these are not actual second POV; I just didn’t know where else to put them. The way I refer to them here isn’t anything fancy or official, just how I personally refer to them.

True second

You stand on the side of the road, complacent, wondering how many chicken bones you ate.

“You” is primary pronoun and functions like first or third-limited

Somewhat experimental, unfortunately frowned upon (but one of my favorites)

Used more often in poetry and lyric essays than fiction

There are lots of different reasons you’d use this. In one of my stucky fics, I use second person because Bucky is brainwashed and talking to himself at a distance. Some people think it puts the reader closer to the text; some believes it distances the reader from the text.

Ex: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny (novella, so I can’t provide the full text)

Imperative

“You” is the primary pronoun here too, but omitted; the sentences are written as commands

A writer might use this POV for a story/poem structured as a how-to guide

Ex: “How to Become a Writer” and “How to Be An Other Woman” by Lorrie Moore (I don’t have the full text of the second one, so I linked to the collection it’s in)

One of my favorite writing exercises is writing your own “how to be a ______” with a facet of identity you embody. How to be a fangirl. How to be a tumblr ancient. How to be a bisexual disaster. It’s a lot of fun, and the results are always great.

Direct address

I implore you, dear reader, please avoid the chicken bones.

Or

I miss you, Nancy, and your goblinesque gnawing of chicken bones.

Addressing the audience/another character directly

Not actually second person but often first (or you could do it in third)

I don’t have an example for this one; I’m working on a novel right now that’s first person direct address, where “you” is the woman who is the obsession of the narrator.

Epistolary

Dear Karen, go choke on a chicken bone. Love, Helen

Epistolary format is something written as a letter, so it’s like direct address, but more specific

Also not technically a POV, just a form

Third person

Limited

She thinks about buying a bucket of chicken.

Used in fiction with alternating POVs; as popular as first person

We’re only in the mind of one person, can only see/think what they do

Generally speaking, no head-hopping mid-scene

Narration is often reflective of the character’s thoughts and voice

Description/knowledge cannot go beyond the literal scope of the character’s mind, which is to say, if you’re character is blindfolded, he can’t see a door opening and closing, but he can hear it. So you wouldn’t be able to describe the stained-glass inlay of the door

Omniscient

He stares for a long moment at the fried chicken menu, then flits through his wallet. 

Either the narrator has no insights into the minds of characters (cinematic), or all insights into the minds of characters (head-hopping)

This answers one of your questions -- yes, you can write in third person without a specific narrator and without being inside the mind of any character, but it is (for me anyway) extremely difficult

Ex: (cinematic) Plainsong by Kent Haruf (novel, not full text)

Ex: (head-hopping) “A Romantic Weekend” by Mary Gaitskill and “The Hunter’s Wife” by Anthony Doerr

Narrator

He buys the chicken! They fall in love! How romantic.

The narrator has its own persona/voice but isn’t a character within the story

Often found in fairy tales, comedies, and frame stories

Ex: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (not full text)

Ex: “Tiger Palace” by Kirsty Logan

to my knowledge, this is every possible POV you can have. i’ve provided examples of fiction, but all of these can be considered for poetry and nonfiction also. note that POV is different than tense, form, and style, which are close cousins of POV (although i have provided some examples that toe the line).

how to choose a POV that is right for your piece is another task entirely. my advice is to choose what excites you most, and experiment as often as you can. if you feel overly limited by one POV over another, then go with the one you find more freeing. if you really can’t decide, write one scene in your gut instinct, then rewrite it in a different POV and see which you like better. 

all voices are created equal. there is no one voice that is worse than another, only ones that work with the piece you’re writing.

[seadramonster]

The Erins honestly aren’t to blame for every issue in Warriors and it’s time to remind the fandom of the absolute trash that are the editors. 

So the editors are the ones who decide the allegiances. They decide who dies and possibly(though I’m not entirely sure) who becomes mates with who. I’m pretty sure they also decide warrior names and mentors, although again I’m not entirely sure about that. So Brightheart never getting an apprentice after Jayfeather became a medicine cat? That might just be the editors’ doing, not the Erins’.

While the Erins write the books, the editors are the ones who, honestly, have the most control over it, being able to remove things and possibly even add them without the knowledge or consent of the authors. So yes, while you can blame the Erins for some things you don’t like, keep in mind they may not be the ones responsible for it. The editors have as much power, if not more, over the books as the authors do.

I’d also like to point out that the Erins don’t have a lot of time to plan things out. They’re stuck in a strict six month release schedule. And a lot of the time, they’re not just working on one book, either. They also have to help write novellas, graphic novels, super editions, guides and such at the same time. A lot of planning goes into writing a standalone book and even more goes into writing a series. I would not be surprised if the authors had to make some stuff as they went along simply because they didn’t have enough time to plan. If something feels rushed that’s because it probably was.

Another incredibly shitty thing the editors have done; removed an entire female pov from Dawn of the Clans without the Erins’ knowledge. I’m pretty sure there’s more stuff they’ve but it’s pretty difficult to hunt this stuff down. I only know of this stuff because another blog posted about it a long ago and I could not for the life of me track it down again. So, if there’s something I missed or was wrong about, feel free to add it in or correct me.

There’s also the issue of them not really doing their jobs as editors. Authors aren’t perfect. They make mistakes. Editors are supposed to help fix those mistakes. And yet the books still have so many inconsistencies and mistakes in them. There isn’t just one editor, either, there’s an entire team of them and yet none of them can seem to catch all these errors and mistakes?

In all the books and series I’ve read not once have I seen a series so full of inconsistencies and typos. I know the editors probably work hard and stuff, but it honestly, to me at least, seems like they focus more on playing god over these books and making decisions they think are best than doing their jobs as editors.

TLDR; The editors for warriors have more power than you think and some of the stuff you’re angry at the Erins for might not be their doing, but the editors’.

[madscientistjournal]

I Didn't Break the Lamp: Interview with E.D.E. Bell

Today, we’re talking with E.D.E. Bell, author and publisher, who has a story in I Didn’t Break the Lamp!

DV: Tell us a bit about yourself!

E.D.E. Bell: I am a fantasy author and small press editor in Ferndale, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. I arrived here by a winding road, leaving my career in government-related engineering work to do something I think is really important to our collective and individual growth and healing: create and promote art. I enjoy running our small press with my partner, best friend, and spouse–Chris Bell, and with the support and patience of our three children and resident cat. As a vegan and an often-thinker, I like to write in ways that either inspire compassion or challenge our views on harm, repression, and violence. While I’ve always enjoyed big epic fantasy, I’ve developed a real passion for short fiction. It is a tremendously powerful art form.

DV: What inspired you to write “Duality” for I Didn’t Break the Lamp?

EDEB: The idea of imaginary creatures was very inspiring to me, and rather than big adventures or meaningful friendships, I gravitated immediately to some sort of psychological insight. There were just a lot of layers to that concept, and I really enjoy fiction that can be interpreted different ways. When I wrote down the idea of knowing what someone else was thinking, my first question was, would the friend be a reliable narrator, if you will, or unreliable? In that moment, the idea of both clicked in, and from there the story just started to pour out in what I admit were very satisfying ways. Once that happened, I started to chuckle at myself how deeply “me” this story actually is. My stories often involve split worlds, conflicting identities, or the burden of not living one’s truth. So, yeah, I have issues. I know. A fun side note (another layer!): as someone who has worked with imaginary numbers in math and electrical engineering, imaginary numbers are essentially a duality to their real counterparts, that we have defined in order to understand it. Oh, I could go on.

DV: The idea of “dual friended” as you present it in your story has some parallels to the idea of an angel and a devil on ones’ shoulders, but also the riddle of one entity always telling the truth and their counterpart always lying. Do you think the dual friends are more like the former, the latter, or something altogether different?

EDEB: Engineers (even former engineers) never answer a straightforward question with a straightforward answer (“yes and no” is our refrain), and the way my brain has always functioned (or not), everything works on layers and facets and dimensions. I especially love when a story is written such that a reader can interpret it as they will. I think you’ve provided two very interesting interpretations, and I think there are many more. (Like, I’m thinking of a few major ones.) I’d love for the reader to decide what the dual friends mean to them, or what they might mean to our narrator. Or if they were even … real.

DV: Your narrator is also an artist. Were the pieces they create inspired by real world artists?

EDEB: I have always viewed writing as art (hence the name of our press) and so those lines, like many lines for me, are blurred in my mind. That said, the pieces were not inspired by visual art as they were by concepts of secrets and burdens. Once this story started forming in my mind, I landed quickly on the idea of visual art, because all the other elements of the story are inherently non-visual, and even more so, they are hidden. Imaginary friends, secrets, truth, and lies. The opposite, er, the duality to that, was the idea of those concepts being not just visual, but hugely and publicly visible. This, of course, could also be viewed as a metaphor. One thing about my writing is I love to create on many layers, and almost everything I do is designed to be viewable in facets. Honestly, my mind is a complicated place!

DV: If you had an imaginary friend growing up, what was their name, and what were they like?

EDEB: You know, I didn’t consider this until you asked it, but my parents told me I had two imaginary friends when I was very young. As my memories of them are vague, but I’m sure that they were quite complex, I will leave them in their plane of existence and not try to pull them out by giving them an inadequate description. But if they had a piece in writing this, well, hello!

DV: What’s on the horizon for you?

EDEB: We have had a very busy year! We’ve published a paranormal road trip, a ghostly thriller, a middle-grade high fantasy, a middle-grade adventure, and now a gorgeous new graphic novel set on Kickstarter (which concluded in July). There are three projects really close to my heart these days. The first, A Spatial Surprise, is a sci-fi novella written by 12-year-old Symthasree Sarojini Koganti that I hope will inspire hope and creativity in all of us. Next, Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, a collection of multi-genre short stories and flash fiction featuring, well–you, Mad Scientist Journal’s own Dawn Vogel. And then, most personal to me, is my own fantasy novella serial Diamondsong. Dime’s story focuses on themes such as non-violence and identity, so it’s a quiet and subtle story in a time where things can be very loud. It has a small but loyal following, but I’d love for more people to give it a look. We’re currently running a Kickstarter for that serial. All the links to these titles on retail sites are posted at atthisarts.com, and signed copies of Diamondsong can be ordered at edebell.com.

  I Didn’t Break the Lamp: Interview with E.D.E. Bell was originally published on Mad Scientist Journal

[thegirlwholied]

Hiya! Since you're my go-to lover of SW Extended Universe, I was wondering if you had any recs for where to start reading within the EU and/or what some of your favorites are?

I legitimately have Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion on my coffee table at the moment (since on May the 4th I grabbed a pile of visual-guides etc. from my library to rapidly study for a bar’s Star Wars trivia night) so this is inevitably going to be one of those My Time Has Come!!! posts.

Short answer is YES and there will be Choose Your Adventure Options.

Big Caveat, though, aka the cream & sugar with which to take this answer:

- Most of my Star Wars reading took place between ages 9-14 & the limited rereading I’ve done has mostly been post Rogue One & mostly skimming; this also means we’re talking Ye Olde EU here & at that mostly pre-2004 EU.

Also? A thing to know about the EU?

A lot of the “entry points” are kickoffs of 9-book series… or a 19-book series…or trilogies, including one with a sequel duology. So do you want:

Standalone?

Series Starter?

Short Stories?

Comics Instead?

Total Random Sampler if you want to go In Media Res to the nth degree?

All right, let’s go. ;D

Standalone.

Han/Leia focus?

For solid Leia characterization as well as banter-romance, some finding-out-Shmi-Skywalker-exists prequels shenanigans, & a plot about art from Alderaan (and secret Rebel codes), Tatooine Ghost.

For a Glorious Hot Mess… okay no probably don’t read Courtship of Princess Leia, but please do read this article on it.

Other focus?

Truce at Bakura - very sci-fi-y, very Imperial v. Rebel bidding for planetary political support plot-y, immediately after Return of the Jedi. Bonus for Anakin’s Force ghost visiting Leia… but I forgot more than I remember of this one so can’t vouch for much without a reread.  

Series Starter.

For ladies with lightsabers, villains who like art, and crazy clone stuff before anybody knew what the clone wars were supposed to be:

Heir to the Empire, 1st in the Thrawn Trilogy: the “It is Known” of the EU.

It was the real-life kickstarter of the main books, & the classic answer to your question. And it is hyped for reasons; while half of them are Zahn’s original creations (Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, Thrawn himself, Pellaeon, plus just New Republic & politics), a lot of it is just solidly managing a Han&Leia&Luke who feel and talk like their movie selves.

(Also, you’ve probably heard of Mara as Luke’s wife and pretty importantly? Very much not so in this trilogy, which is not to say the tension isn’t there. You could time jump the 10 years right to the Hand of Thrawn duology where the romantic tension is more Overtly There, since the in-between 10 years can be more or less handwaved as ‘New Republic & Jedi Academy Adventures Occurred’).

But my personal series pick:

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron. A 9-book series (+ a recent 10th follow-up feauring. one of Wedge’s daughters, which is on my to-read list since Allston, who wote 4 of the 9, may be my favorite EU writer).

The first 4 books are one Rogue Squadron arc; the second 3 are a separate trilogy (Wraith Squadron); next two are follow-ups but also kind of standalone adventures & I think the last, Starfighters of Adumar, may be the best beloved.

I’m a big judge-novels-by-their-first-sentence person, and the EU novels are…rarely great by that measurement. But Rogue Squadron starts with You’re good, Corran, but you’re no Luke Skywalker, which really is an excellent introduction to how this tie-in material is going to roll and to a brand-new Star Wars character (particularly as Corran’s reaction to that statement from Wedge tells us most of what we need to know about him & his biggest flaws on p. 1.)

Yes, lots of space battles; yes, almost all totally new characters aside from Wedge Antilles (but the “cameos” are great, when Luke & Leia etc. do show up); has its boys’ club feeling moments (most of our main ladies are love interests for one of the main pilots; even my beloved Wraith Squadron has The Girl™ syndrome). But the plots are about as good as the EU gets, and I have badly wanted this to be a TV series since I was small.

+, by book 2 of the X-Wing series you get 3 Star Wars ladies all in the same room talking to each other: Mirax Terrik (smuggler), Iella Wessiri (basically a detective who became an Intelligence officer), & Winter (many things, including Leia’s original BFF, but mainly undercover operative). And there’s 4 other plot-significant female characters I can think of in that book alone (2 on the good side, 2 less so), as well as a really excellent Leia cameo scene.

Alternate starting point: Just go with X-Wing #5, Wraith Squadron, as you don’t really need the first 4 to follow, & it laces much more humor in with the action, with added focus on 2 pilots from the original trilogy (Hobbie & Wes Janson, & this is why everyone loves Janson) as well as Wedge. Fewer ladies, although Tyria Sarkin is pretty darn great.  

Controversial starting point: From what I’ve seen of EU fandom, folks either love the New Jedi Order or hate it, and while (like most Star Wars books) it has Certain Things I take issue with… I mostly loved it, and Vector Prime, which kicks off the 19-book-series, was part of why.

Of the Solo kids, Jacen & Jaina had their own series (Young Jedi Knights) and Anakin had his own (Junior Jedi Knights); in the adult books, they’d mostly been little and played minor roles either a) being adorable or b) being kidnapped. Here is where they’re suddenly part of Real Galactic Shenanigans and the crisis of their generation kicks in.

It also marked the end of all’s well that end’s well era in Star Wars books, for, as Han puts it (thank you, Goodreads quotes):

“I had built this bubble around us. Around all of us-you, me, Chewie, the kids, Luke, Mara, even Lando. Heck, even the stupid droids. We were all in it, you know. In it and safe, a cozy family. Nothing could hurt us—could really hurt us.”

Also feat. Jaina Solo being the best damn up-and-coming pilot in the galaxy able to fly circles around her brothers.

Short Stories

Good option if you want a taste of the Primary EU authors’ styles without committing, and if you like shorts in general. (There’s a huge new short story anthology coming & I’m cautiously interested, since I remember these as fun):

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales from Jabba’s Palace (you can meet Mara Jade here if you don’t want to commit to the Thrawn trilogy), Tales from the New Republic (includes the novella-length “Interlude at Darkknell” briefly feat. Bail Organa’s personal messenger “Aach” and more finding-out-about-the-Death-Star-plans shenanigans)      

Comics Instead

Rogue Squadron had a comic series too, completely separate from the novels/set earlier, & while I never read all (outlet mall had a bunch of the graphic novels for $2 and I swooped them up when I was 12), I’ve reread the ones I have, plenty. Would definitely recommend.

(Rogue One feels, with this comics quote, from the best lady pilot of the comic series: “Sometimes the only way evil can be defeated is by the selfless, sacrificial efforts of good people. We can only hope that when our time comes, the cause is as noble and the need as great.”)

And I remember liking the Mara Jade: By the Emperor’s Hand graphic novel.

Crazy Sampler Option

Where *I* started: Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress, 9th birthday gift.

Surprise to me, Star Wars books exist! Surprise, Han and Leia have kids and one of them is Anakin Solo, age eleven, with the weight of being named after the ‘good man who was’ Anakin Skywalker on his shoulders & also ice blue eyes; surprise, he is now the love of my nine-year-old life.

Surprise, this is actually the 5th book in the ongoing Junior Jedi Knight series but the in media res did not phase me (helped by 90s-style reintroductions).

…in fact it made me like it better than I might have starting from the top. Maybe because I love mysteries, maybe because I’ve always gotten my books from libraries first & foremost & so would just grab whatever was available, I have started many a series, both accidentally and on purpose, with a book that was Very Much Not the First In the Series; if I like it, I usually backtrack.  

Absolutely No One suggests Junior Jedi Knights as a starting point… But. Adult!Me still gives an approving nod to some Really Nice Things here:

-this was my intro to the Luke’s Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, and I will forever love the aesthetic of his Jedi Academy being in the temple from A New Hope

-the best pseudo-Yoda-figure in the EU, with huggable Muppet-ready design.

-Immediately passes the Bechdel test thanks to conversation between Jedi instructor Tionne & Anakin’s BFF Tahiri (the Childhood Friend Romance Trope is strong in this series)

-Tionne herself, who names her ship Lore Seeker because she’s all about history and bought said ship “for a song” (traded an ancient song about the ‘very first Randoni merchants and the vaults where they hid their wealth’).

-I totally don’t still have this book and have it open in front of me at all what no

-You know how in Harry Potter Dumbledore writes a very nice letter back to Petunia explaining why she can’t come to Hogwarts? Luke… is not Dumbledore. Luke deals with Uldir, teenage son-of-two-cargo-pilots & stowaway who shows up on Yavin 4, desperate to become a Jedi despite zero Force talent, by letting him stay & participate in what training he could.  

-the plot: Vader kept Kenobi’s lightsaber (because of course) and they go to retrieve it at Vader’s Fortress.

- no lava because Mustafar wasn’t in-canon yet but yes otherwise it could basically be Vader’s Fortress from Rogue One exactly. Same aesthetic! You could consider this his Other Castle. The summer cottage.

-Anakin Solo finding Vader’s “bedroom” aka creepy sleeping cylinder, complete with tiny hologram of Luke Skywalker

So yes my randomly-ordered suggested-just-dive-the-heck-in sample pack, based more on “here are my favorite Star Wars book people and why I love them”, would include:

- Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress

- Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers (aka pay attention to what you’re doing kids or you might get your arm cut off or worse be the one to cut off the arm of the girl you like)

- the Mara comic if you’re not quite feeling All of the Thrawn 

- Rogue Squadron: Blood & Honor comic (because it is the one place you’ll get the full storyline on ‘who are these Fel people who keep coming up?’, meet Corran & Iella in their CorSec days, & Plourr gets to be great.)

- “Interlude at Darkknell” - it’s Stackpole (X-Wing writer) AND Zahn (Thrawn) co-writing, so you get a feel for them both, AND it’s short (…+ ”Aach”

X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar, if you’re only going to read one of the nine

New Jedi Order was By No Means designed for any to be read as standalones and so I think delving in out of context would be an Experience but… If I Had to Pick One… 

I would cheat like a scoundrel & pick 2 and say the Enemy Lines duology, for both plot & dialogue & the best take on the Old Guard of the Rebel Alliance At War Again, but especially the dialogue (as quotable & memorable throughout as the EU gets).

[renarinkholin]

yo so I really wanna get more into the whole Cosmere world and I was wondering if you could help me out a bit on all the books and a good order and stuff! Already read the first two Stormlight Archive books and I have the first Mistborn book on my shelf!

Ooh, well Mistborn is usually where I tell people to start, though if you’ve already read Stormlight, you might like Warbreaker, which has some Stormlight tie ins! 

Alright, I’m going to talk about the Cosmere by books that take place on the same world, because I’m a nerd. Quick intro to the Cosmere series below the cut!

World: Scadrial

Mistborn is actually two series, a trilogy and a (soon-to-be) quadrilogy set at a later era. The original trilogy is The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. It starts as kind of a magical heist novel, with some political intrigue and a scrappy group of street thieves trying to overthrow an immortal evil god emperor and spirals out into something concerning the mysteries of ancient gods and trying to prevent the end of the world. It’s a great read.

The sequel series will have four books eventually, but it currently has three: Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, and Bands of Mourning. The second series is set about 300 years after the events of the first series, with a new cast. Little bit more lighthearted to start, this series has kind of a steampunk-meets-wild-west vibe, with some cops and robbers plots as our lawman hero hunts down some interesting magic criminals. Starts out as kind of a fun romp, but by Bands of Mourning, it’s slipped back more towards the epic fantasy end of the spectrum with ancient artifacts and powerful mysteries to unravel.

Lastly, there’s a novella called Mistborn: Secret History that takes place during the events of the first series, but has some big implications (and semi-spoilers) for the second series, so it’s recommended to be read last. 

World: Nalthis

Warbreaker stands alone, and it’s available legally for free on Brandon’s website if you just want to try it out. It will eventually have a sequel, but not for a while, and it’s a fine read just on it’s own. No big cliffhanger to worry about or anything.

Warbreaker’s very colorful, about a pantheon of gods in a tropical paradise and two sister princesses who get caught up in a plot within the divine court. It’s probably one of the funniest and wittiest of the Cosmere series, with lots of great humor moments, but it’s also not afraid to bring the plot in hard and heavy when you’re least expecting it, in that true Brandon plot-twist fashion.

Swordmaster Zahel from Stormlight Archive is actually a major character in Warbreaker (though he goes by a different name over here on this one!) So keep an eye out for him!

World: Sel

So this world is the setting of Brandon’s first published book, Elantris, and is currently standalone. It’s about a city that used to grant normal people incredible magic and great powers, but has become corrupted somehow and now transforms them into barely-living magic lepers who cannot heal and cannot die. There’s some political intrigue in the neighboring kingdom and the mystery of what happened to the city to change the magic so drastically. 

As Brandon’s first work, Elantris, is a little rougher around the edges in my opinion, but it’s Cosmere canon, and it’s still good!

The other work on the world of Sel is The Emperor’s Soul, which is a novella that takes place in a totally different part of the world from Elantris and has a totally different magic. It’s one of the more poetic of Brandon’s works, concerning the nature of art and the soul, and it gives some interesting insights into the underlying mechanics of the Cosmere as a whole and how the very idea of magic on all the worlds actually works.

World: Taldain

Not a book, but a graphic novel actually! There’s a comic-book style series known as White Sand that has just started coming out. There’s only one volume out right now, but more on the way, and a long way for the plot to go. White Sand is kind of an origin story for Khriss, an awesome lady who has some ties to all the other series too. (She’s what we call a worldhopper, people who show up in multiple stories and travel around the Cosmere. There’s a few of them around!)

Other

So recently, this Other category got easier, because Brandon published a collection called Arcanum Unbounded that consists of short stories, novellas, and maps from across the Cosmere. Mistborn: Secret History and The Emperor’s Soul are included in here, as well as some other novellas about worlds that don’t have a full series:

Such as Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, which is kind of a eerie novella about an awesome bounty hunter lady who lives in a forest haunted by undead, ghostly “shades.” It takes place on a world known as Threnody. 

Another is Sixth of the Dusk, a novella about a guy who breeds magical birds known as Aviar who give magic abilities to the people who keep them. That world is known as First of the Sun. 

Arcanum Unbounded also contains the Edgedancer novella, which is set on Roshar, and takes place after Words of Radiance. It’s all about everyone’s favorite awesome dinner thief, Lift, who was one of the interlude characters in WoR, and it’s a great addition to the Stormlight Archive.

Aside from Edgedancer, which can be read right after the rest of Stormlight Archive, I’d recommend holding off on diving into most of the Arcanum Unbounded stories until after you’ve read some of the others. They tend to be more interesting when you’re already familiar with the main series they’re referencing.

Conclusion:

So that’s my mostly comprehensive guide to all the works in the Cosmere. And yes, there’s a lot of them, but the nice thing is that for the most part you don’t have to read any of them to enjoy the others. So, I’d say pick the ones that sound interesting and go for that. 

Coming off of Stormlight, Warbreaker’s going to have some of the closest tie ins, but Mistborn’s one of my favorite series in general and it’s definitely a Cosmere staple. Either would be my recommendations for your next step into the Cosmere.

After that, maybe Elantris if you want another novel, or one of the novellas if any of those sound interesting to you!

Eventually you’ll start to pick up on some of the bigger Cosmere things going on, such as the worldhoppers and things like the Three Realms (Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual), which exist everywhere in the Cosmere and influence all the magic systems.

For now, keep an eye out for Hoid. You know him as Wit from Stormlight Archive, but he shows up in just about all the Cosmere books that are out. He’s a little easter egg in most of them, but yes, he’s the same person every time. Very mysterious…

[stimtoybox]

ive noticed that a lot of people tend to divide their reviews of fidget cubes only by Legit Cube VS Knockoff Cube [at least, the last time i looked] but wont all of them be manufactured differently and be.. basically different products? especially since the price ranges from something like 3-15 dollars? sorry if this is a dumb question i just noticed that and didnt know if i missing something or if people were just generalizing

In all honesty, anon, the whole subject is a little confusing and there’s some conflicting information. The simple truth is that the idea of the fidget cube belonged to Antsy Labs, they ran a wildly successful Kickstarter (netting them over six million on pre-sales and donations) and this allowed them to turn the idea and their design into a manufactured popular fidget/stimming toy.

The problems of their Kickstarter success - including any number of media outlets carrying the story - means that a lot of people know about the cube, a lot of people can see that many people want the cube, and there’s very little stopping imitators from looking at the images on Kickstarter and attempting their own based on the fact that hundreds of thousands of people want this toy and are willing to pay for it.

(The cost of the toy varies - for the Kickstarter backers, it was $14 USD; for folks ordering now, it’s been $25 USD or, at present, $22 USD.)

In addition, Antsy Labs has so many preorders that they’re having trouble filling them. Some people are waiting months for their toy to arrive. You still can’t buy it outright; you can only preorder and wait.

Lastly, it’s an American-based company, making the toy almost prohibitively expensive for folks who need to pay conversion rates in addition to international shipping. (Something that costs a US buyer $22 USD plus shipping can cost an Aussie in total somewhere close to $50 AUD.) Another problem is that when folks here in Australia order a toy, wait three months for it to be made and shipped, the dollar rate might have changed since; that space of time is potentially costing people more money and making the toy more expensive than it might be.

It gets murkier from here.

Facts I’ve heard about the knock-off cubes include:

That the toys are made by cheaper companies wishing to cash in (and can sell the toy more cheaply because they don’t have the same degree of development costs and may be using lower-quality materials)

That some of the toys, especially the cheap ebay ones, are actually failed products from the Antsy Labs warehouse sold more cheaply

That many of the adverts for these toys that aren’t from Antsy Labs are some kind of scam (in addition to selling a product that voids intellectual property rights)

That there is a real and significant quality difference between the knock-off toys and the real ones

(By the way, I’ve collected a few posts on the fidget cube, so here’s the tag for further reading.)

The long answer is this: yes, they’re manufactured differently, especially some of the twelve-sided shapes. The cheapness, though, really does come from fewer developmental costs, lower quality materials (you don’t get the fancy storage cases the real cubes come in) and likely other factors of how much the employees of the producing warehouses are paid. In addition, they won’t have the quality and safety control expenses Antsy Labs will have, or the packaging/case expenses. All these things result in a much cheaper product.

However, the intellectual property - the design of the cube - belongs to Antsy Labs, and by using it without licensing (paying money in return for the use of the design, something that helps cover the costs of developing this to a functional product) it is theft. It is theft. They’re not using the idea to develop something new or similar (the twelve-sided shapes are closer to this); they’re trying to develop the exact same thing.

It is no different if someone took my novella, put a new cover and a new name on it, and sold it: they’re stealing my story. They are profiting or seeking to profit from my work without paying me for it. It’s also no different if someone read my story, decided to make a film or a graphic novel from it and did so without purchasing the licensing rights from me to do so (or asking my permission; I might choose to waive the licensing rights but the choice must be mine). They might be changing the form of my story, but the story is still my intellectual property. Taking it and changing it into a graphic novel is theft and I’d have every right to be upset. If I saw multiple companies doing this to my novella? I’d be well beyond upset!

I say this to be clear: imitation fidget cubes are the product of theft.

However … there are reasons why one might knowingly choose to purchase them anyway. Personally, I would buy a cheap imitation cube from ebay someday, just to see if it is a toy I’d use. I cannot afford to drop up to $50 AUD on a toy only to discover that I’ll use it once and toss it in a drawer. I’d buy a cheap one with the intention of seeing how well it works for me and then, if it’s something I do use, do the right thing and support the creator, Antsy Labs.

In summary: the cheap products are seeking to take advantage of Antsy Labs’s success and the issues with getting a fidget cube (higher costs for international buyers, delay from preorder to arrival) and they are cheaper for many reasons. They are, though, seeing to financially benefit from a design that isn’t theirs, attempting to provide the exact same product.

(Taking the idea as inspiration and developing something different is something else again.)

I know most of us don’t have money, and that’s absolutely a factor. (I’ve always said that stim toys are not an optional extra.) I’m never going to judge anyone for what cube they buy; what one chooses to do with the information above is up to them. But I don’t want anyone to not understand the situation, either, or buy a cube (there’s ads for the cubes from Introvert Palace floating around Tumblr for $15 USD, where buyers are paying almost full price for an imitation product) thinking they’re supporting the creators when they’re not.

If you want to support the creators, go direct to Antsy Labs. Maybe buy a cheap ebay knock-off to use in the meantime. Don’t support companies like Introvert Palace, which charge near-full-price for an imitation product.

If you have any more questions or need clarification, don’t hesitate to ask!

[kaysblushingbookreviews]

KE OSBORN

 K E Osborn was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. With a background in graphic design and a flair for all things creative, she felt compelled to write the story brewing in her mind. Writing gives her life purpose. It makes her feel, laugh, cry, and get completely enveloped with the characters and their story lines. She feels completely at home when writing and wouldn’t consider doing anything else.

5 Blushing Questions with KE Osborn

  What are you currently working on?

Currently, I have a club of motorcycle men invading my brain, not that I mind. They’re tough, they’re bold, but most of all they’re resilient. They are the Chicago Defiance MC, and I love them hard. I’m about to release book three, and I have in my head that there will be probably seven books in this series. So, keep an eye out for all the boys of the Defiance club.

   Who is your favorite alpha male character  that you’ve created and why?

I think for me it’s a tough choice, it’s like choosing your favorite child, lol. But if I had to choose, it would be Colter Slade. He was my first glimpse into alpha male writing, and I just loved how fragile he was even though he was macho AF. He was complex, and I had fun writing him. He’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

  Do you still blush a little when writing raunchy scenes in your books?

I don’t think I ever blush when writing a raunchy scene. For me these are hard work, I don’t enjoy writing them, and they are by far the hardest part of my job. If I could get away without doing them, I would. Where I can write anywhere from 2-10K a day, I get to a raunchy scene and it can take me literally two days to finish it because I dislike writing them that much. I think because there is approx. three scenes in each book and I’ve published thirty books, that’s a lot of hanky-panky. To me, it’s hard to write something individual to the couple that I haven’t done before. Making sure I am not using the same words and descriptions over and over again is a stressful task. So, do I blush? No. Do I become red in annoyance? Most probably, yes. Because I’m frustrated trying to come up with new ideas for my readers.

  When you’re not writing you are ?

Resting. I spend most of my time writing. For me it is a full-time job, generally taking up six to seven days a week in a nine to five type of situation. So, when I’m not writing, I’m either Netflix-ing or simply going shopping or relaxing. Having some downtime.

  Who inspires you the most in the author community?

That’s is a tough one. It would be easy to pick an author who I admire, but to me, that’s an easy way out. Instead, I admire the ‘other’ people in the author community. The editors, the proofers, the cover designers, etc. They don’t get enough credit for what they do and how they make us authors shine. Without them, our work wouldn’t stand out the way it does. Without the editing it wouldn’t be polished, without the amazing covers readers wouldn’t spot our books. So, yes, there are authors I look up to and admire, but my hat really goes off to the people behind the scenes that help us be who we need to be.

KE Osborn Social Media Links:

Newsletter – http://eepurl.com/beIMc1

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7203933.K_E_Osborn

Website – http://www.keosbornauthor.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/KEOsbornAuthor

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/keosbornauthor

Email – keosborn.author@hotmail.com

Facebook – http://facebook.com/KEOsborn

Facebook Reader Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/327200984152870/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/K-E-Osborn/e/B00F6RK2HS

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/k-e-osborn

  KE Osborns Books:

Her newest Series – The Chicago Defiance MC

Resistance: The Chicago Defiance MC Series Book 1

Amazon – https://amzn.to/2IG6PpS Aus – http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07D6Y9N4H UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D6Y9N4H Can –http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07D6Y9N4H

Penance: The Chicago Defiance MC Series Book Two Amazon – https://amzn.to/2uJPmUi Aus – http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07FT2KDS1 UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FT2KDS1 Can –http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07FT2KDS1

  Deviance The Chicago Defiance MC Series Book Three is releasing October 19th! Add to Goodreads ☞ https://bit.ly/2Rswbbu

SHATTERED HEART SERIES ►The Violet Widow ►Amazon: http://geni.us/3Iwi

►A Different Shade of Violet ►Amazon: http://geni.us/fGx

THE ROCK GOD SERIES ►Off Your Rocker? ►Amazon: http://geni.us/1Xkl

►Get Your Rocks Off ►Amazon: http://geni.us/45sI

►The Rock God Series Box Set ►Amazon: http://geni.us/5bd

  SATAN’S SAVAGES MC SERIES ►Heart of Steel: A Satan’s Savages MC Novel #1 ►Amazon: http://geni.us/42B1

►Ignite the Flame: A Satan’s Savages MC Novella #2 ►Amazon: http://geni.us/7gE

►Stung by Stealth: A Satan’s Savages MC Novel #3 ►Amazon: http://geni.us/1jJv

►Meltdown of Mad Dog: A Satan’s Savages MC Novel #4 ►Amazon: http://geni.us/37fW

►Taken by Techie: A Satan’s Savages MC Novel #5 ►Amazon: http://geni.us/fLz

Visit KE Osborn’s website to view more of her books: http://www.keosbornauthor.com/

  ** October Author of the Month** KE OSBORN  K E Osborn was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. With a background in graphic design and a flair for all things creative, she felt compelled to write the story brewing in her mind.