#i make an exception for mistmantle

[marsdetective]

hi! dana!! book asks first and foremost how do you feel about children's classic the mistmantle chronicles? second ly, 10, 11, 16, & 25!

aksdjlkskfj well, I have to say that despite never reading the mistmantle chronicles, it cannot be denied that it has contributed to the literary discussion of eugenics and genocide, through the eyes of rodents, and used this medium to examine historical and current systems of oppression. so i have to respect it for that 😌

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

My absolute favorite was Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed. If you decide to get into graphic novels, I'd really recommend this one. It was originally published in Egypt and is set in our world, except anyone can buy bottled genie wishes and use them to make what they want a reality. The author is SO clever with this concept and she uses it to explore colonialism, class, gender, religion, mental health, and more. I've thought about it all year.

I also really liked Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. It's a historical fantasy set on a wintery island with a romance that kinda reminded me of Howl's Moving Castle

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Oh, it was for sure Doomsday Book by Connie Willis! It was written in the... 80s I think? And is set in the 2030s and also the 1300s, as a time travelling historian goes back to document the time period. something goes wrong, however, and she may be stuck in the past if she and her professor aren't able to work in their different times to figure out how to get her back. it's very slow build (and also unintentionally funny, since none of the 2030s characters have cell phones or the internet), but the ending was SO emotional and impactful

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Hmmmm, already mentioned this one but probably The Thursday Murder Club. Just wasn't my thing!

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

Every year I try to read at least 2 classics, so I'd like to do that again

I also want to like. try to understand money better -_- so imma try to read a few books that don't seem like evil capitalism propaganda. just a basic 'here's how everything works and here's what you should do at certain points in your life.' we'll see how it goes

I want to try and read some old Hugo award winners/nominees! I have a list of all the books nominated for best novel, written by not men and it'd be cool to someday read all of them. but I'll just try to read like 2 or 3 this year

I'd also like to finish a couple series that I've started, that are already completely published - there's a few I'm behind on!

and I want to read at least 1 book I own per month!

[sparatus]

Writer Interview

tagged by both @teamdilf and @daisywalletchains, thanks guys!!

When did you start writing?

probably about 7th grade was where i tried to start writing as a hobby, though most of that never saw the light of day except to show the one student teacher who was really supportive and encouraging. i was inspired by all the xenofiction i was reading at the time - warrior cats and guardians of ga'hoole like most middle-grade yeah, but also the chronicles of mistmantle and david clement-davies's work - and wanted to write my own book with foxes living in their own society, i was doing research during computer lab and had a big dramatic succession crisis in the red fox kingdom and everything. maybe someday i'll dust it off and play with it again, for baby me's sake.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

mmm i suppose i tend to not mind a darker tone in what i read than my own writing, i like to have the light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes it's fun to read about things getting Bad Bad Bad with no way out too

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

david clement-davies. full stop. fire bringer was my favorite book when i was younger and i like to think you can see the influence he had on my writing if you're familiar, especially when things start sliding a little more ethereal and blurring the line between reality and spirituality, and when we're taking a minute to marvel at the natural world and our place in it. everything in tiirtias and the natural spaces of palaven? that's all DCD, baby.

also laurie halse andersen and speak is 110% where i learned to write stream-of-consciousness and intense emotional scenes so that'd also be a huge compliment

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

ehhh i don't particularly have one, i write when the mood strikes me. i'll either be on my phone at work or on my laptop in my room, usually later at night. brain works better after the sun goes down.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

music! i'm not the type to have a specific playlist for every mood or character, but i have "every sense needs to be stimulated or i can't focus" brand adhd so having music or other background noise provides enough external stimulation i can sit down and think and write, lol.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

recovery, definitely. recovery from trauma, from depression, from abuse, from any past hurts that won't go away. religion, both the traumatic and faithful. family, for better or for worse, bio and found, what makes you worthy of being considered it. who can you trust, what is real, where does the line between truth and lies blur. and, i think maybe most importantly, the choices we make, and how they shape who you are; above all else, you take a look at all of the above, and you decide who you're going to be, and it's something only you can choose, for better or for worse.

a lot of my work is very personal, for better or for worse. i use my work to explore things in my past and make my peace with them. most themes don't particularly surprise me with that context, but i suppose if anything, i'm a little surprised by how much i write characters like taeja or sparatus finding strength and power in faith despite my own very complicated relationship with religion.

What is your reason for writing?

i am tormented by visions that must be expressed. also it's cathartic, if you think there's a lot you can learn about me from my fanfic you should see how deep the original stuff goes

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

i love comments that pull out the little pieces they liked the most, the lines that struck a chord or the imagery that they found the most beautiful. i love that. tell me what you think i did well.

also honestly the ones that try to engage with the material and read into it, find the Themes or speculate on what's coming next. especially speculation. even if you're wrong i love that you're excited and want to see what's happening and it makes me want to get there faster. we are all in a car and i am driving and i am so happy that you're excited to be on this adventure with me.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i just want you to like it dude, i want them to think i'm a good enough writer for them to keep coming back to what drew them in and also trust me when i offer something new and try it out too

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

worldbuilding, and weaving that worldbuilding in in a way that feels natural. my goal is to present the world in a way that the reader simply goes "ah, of course" and follows along without needing to halt everything and ask questions, you can just jump right in and understand without needing an intro course on where we are and what's going on, and based on feedback i think i've succeeded

also see spirituality/ethereality when it counts, above

How do you feel about your own writing?

right now? i'm comfortably proud of myself. i know i still have plenty to work on and places i can improve, but i'm working on those, i'm open to learning and trying new things, and when i publish something i generally feel confident in it and letting it stand as an example of my work. sometimes i don't feel that confident but that's okay too, it's part of the process. idk dude i like my work and i'm working on not comparing myself to others as much as i used to and i think that's the best place i can be

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

i'm writing this shit for me and if the rest of yall happen to like it then that's sexy but if you don't aight then move along. there's maybe a small handful of people i want to impress and i'll toss in easter eggs here and there just for that ":D !!!" reaction but mostly i'm playing in the corner with my barbies and if anybody wants to come watch they're free to do that just don't tell me what to do

not bothering tagging people on this one brain is wandering off

[elstreem]

Finally Read The Final Mistmantle Book!

So I finally got the last book of the Mistmantle Chronicles, which is quite a journey in itself - the physical copy of the books have long since stopped appearing on any shelves where I live, and even online Urchin and The Rage Tide was being treated like gold (I think I saw a listing for it above $300 - I mean, the books are well worth that, but that was insane!)

It's only thanks to the very sharp eye of a friend that I got a copy for relatively cheap $40, and it turned out to be a hardbound edition in good condition! That was in April of this year, and since it had to be posted all the way to my side of the Pacific, it took a few months for it to happen.

So anyway. July 7, book is here, I settle down to read it around 8 pm...and proceed to cry my eyes out throughout the whole thing. I talk about media that have made me cry before, but this one made me really cry, physically tear up and keep blowing my nose and I must have been super gross to look at but I didn't care.

Spoilers for Rage Tide from here on out!:

The thing is, I already knew the plot points for this book. I already know the summary that Sepia would be swept away, and that Crisping would sacrifice himself for that. But I don't think I could have been ready for how it happened.

The first thing that made me tear up was Urchin's desperation to save Sepia. That hurt me so much after seeing how they were shown to have grown so closely since the Raven War. But wow was that only the beginning.

Everything to do with Crispin hurt my heart, my soul, and my eyes as they're stinging from all the tears. I knew he was gonna die, and it's not like the narrative goes quickly about it. Heck, his death was foreshadowed all the way back at the ending of the Raven War. But still...even while he was preparing for it, while he made his decision, all the good-byes and his final moments...it really makes one appreciate Crispin. It doesn't seem fair that such a good character has to die, and leave behind a beloved wife, children and friends, but at the same time, it was also the best, possible fitting end, to go out on sea as the stars rain down. Heart keep you, King Crispin, and sail on with the stars.

I'm still tearing up while typing this for my drafts, oh my gosh.

I can't believe that all those years ago, that day I picked up a book at the booksale with squirrels on the cover and the title "Urchin of the Riding Stars" would result in a bright, spectacular journey over seas and under stars, and end in the same vista of sea and stars. I am truly grateful to have read this masterpiece, M.I. McAllister.

[chroniclerwabba]

Ey bruv I’m not super familiar with WoW but I felt like asking; what would you do to fix the lore? Anything specific or just burn it all down & restart?

Fixing the lore at this point would be to completely rewrite BFA before it comes out, because despite not being released just yet, BFA has showcased the absolute worst lore changes in the game thus far, outshadowing all the stuff that people were originally hyped about. But that won’t happen with Blizz.

I feel like the real only way Warcraft can be salvaged is if it were rebooted into a single player RPG (something I’ve wanted for years).

I’ve been writing a fanfic about Warcraft centered around my character where the story would pan out in a way that is consistent with the lore and characterization that Blizz had established in their earlier days, but talking about that sounds too egotistical and self-indulgent. Instead, I’d go into my thought process behind the fanfic and what makes a structured and good narrative as well as how it should flow.

No reliance on expanded lore: one of Warcraft’s biggest problems is that it’s heavily reliant on expanded lore, pieces of outside media that fill in gaps in the games. Incredibly important and absolutely required pieces of characterization and storytelling aren’t told in the games but rather vaguely hinted at, with the missing parts being told in comics, manga, novels, audio dramas, online trailers, short stories on Blizz’s website, BlizzCon panels, developer tweets, and posts on the WoW forums. You know, pretty much everything except in the actual game. Expanded lore should be stuff that exists only to fluff up the universe, not replace the media itself. They should be little spin-off side adventures there for fun, not for understanding the plot. There are more Warcraft novels than there are games. Let that sink in. Warcraft’s story should be a contained mythos that doesn’t require the player to do homework or stop playing the game so they can read some 200 page novel or listen to some 3 hour long audio drama (I’m not kidding). A good example of expanded lore was the six original novels Bungie had written for their Halo games. They added backstory to the games, but they weren’t required reading to understand anything in the game because the games did a good enough job on their own with their narrative to tell you. The Halo novels were there if you really wanted to get immersed in the universe while also making sure the games’ narratives were unaffected by what happened in them.

No retcons: another major problem of Blizz is that they literally retcon a ton of stuff every expansion, and sometimes even between patches for an expansion. Retcons are a lazy writer’s way of writing oneself out of a hole by selectively deleting/rewriting information with no explanation at their convenience. If you publish a work and put it out there for purchase, you have set that story in stone. If you have rules, you have to stick to those rules. If you don’t stick to your rules, then no one is going to care about your characters or lore because if there aren’t rules, then there’s no risks or anything to lose. Consistency in your mythos shows that you’re reflecting on your work. Like, Blizzard was writing a trilogy of lore anthologies dedicated to establishing a true lore bible for Warcraft, and they started retconning things out of the second volume before the third was even available to purchase.

Consistent characterization: I could literally make a whole series of YouTube videos in the style of Mr. Plinkett analyzing all the ways Blizz botched characterization through retcons, forced plot conflicts that don’t mesh with the narrative, and disjointed narrative flow caused by expanded lore. Maiev, Jaina, Garrosh, Illidan, and Sylvanas are all horribly botched characters whose arcs could’ve panned out significantly well had it not been for how inconsistent and nonsensical they acted. Garrosh being a warmonger, Jaina wanting vengeance on the Horde, and Illidan getting a redemption story all could’ve been potentially great pieces of character development, but Blizz fudged it horribly through all the stuff listed above as well as them having a rather shallow perception of grey morality.

Faction balancing: An absolute huge gripe everyone has had with Blizz since 2010 with Cataclysm is how the Horde are unfairly railroaded into being incredibly flawed and corrupt while the Alliance are goody two-shoes who do nothing wrong. Warcraft 3 painted a well-balanced and well characterized narrative where the Alliance and Horde were both flawed in their own ways but ultimately good people that wanted to improve themselves and their homelands. In Warcraft 3 and vanilla WoW, the Alliance were plenty flawed and corrupt while the Horde preached honor and overcoming their flawed past through great effort and struggle. Now, every expansion has the Horde being the ones that do everything wrong and they have to redeem themselves. Never the Alliance. The original lore for the orcs in Warcraft was that they were a warrior-shamanistic people that lived on Draenor before the demonic army of the Burning Legion manipulated them into becoming their minions who would then savagely slaughter anyone they were ordered to. Now, Blizz has retconned and rewritten Warcraft history so that the orcs were actually bad all along even without the demons. In the lore anthology Chronicle, they attacked the draenei caravans for no reason other than paranoia despite how this hadn’t been established of them to do until the Legion showed up. And Warlords of Draenor took the players to an alternate dimension 30 years in the past where the orcs didn’t even have to drink demon blood to start slaughtering and enslaving draenei. They turned a race that was one of the major things that made Warcraft distinct from any other fantasy mythos - one whose development was loved and heralded by fans worldwide - and completely undid 15 years of writing for nothing other than because it would be edgy. Blizz also tries to frame the Horde as not being evil but rather flawed, yet they keep making the Horde do all these terrible things and constantly rewrite their lore while the Alliance’s flaws are glossed over and underwritten. The whole point of a faction conflict is that both factions should have equal weight to them in terms of characterization and motivation. The Alliance needs to be flawed and do bad things too, otherwise this shallow moral grey conflict they keep pushing only makes the series a worse departure from what Warcraft 3 did.

Focus of smaller stories to balance the larger stories: This one is a bit of a strange thing to mention, but I always think about how enjoyable Vanilla WoW’s story was. It didn’t have a major story arc and no main villain to fight, but its story was enjoyable because it focused on smaller more insignificant events that didn’t add up to some cataclysmic world saving conflict but gave the world depth. The Defias Brotherhood, the story of Stalvan Mistmantle, the Uldaman disks, Tirion’s conflict with the Scarlet Crusade, Linken’s quest. These smaller stories give more immersion and depth to the world of Azeroth and make the dire “Save the world” conflicts all the more important because you saw what was at stake with the smaller stories and the escalation of conflict. It’s like playing an RPG and just doing the main storyline without experiencing a single side quest. You’re only getting half the story and getting a less immersive and deep version of it. Newer WoW expansions do have smaller stories here and there like Runas the Shamed in Legion,  Lylia’s dad and his quest for immortality in MoP, and Fiona’s caravan in Cata, but they’re few and far between nowadays.

It’s difficult to articulate to the uninitiated with Warcraft lore and in text, but I could go ham and into greater depth with making videos on the subject (and also if I wasn’t writing this at 2 in the morning). Suffice to say, this is an annotated laundry list of how Blizz botched their own series. 

[bookshelfpassageway]

The Youtuber Cardinal West has a channel pretty much dedicated to the topic! He's got guides and recommendations and really solid analysis videos.

(Cardinal's channel got me following the Xenofiction tag, which got me into a genre Discord server, which is where I first saw the cover artist for Hunters Unlucky posting its propaganda lmao. It's a fun one with a 4-hour free audiobook sample)

Some more webcomics from my own stash:

Golden Shrike (deer with deer mythology and a big quest and demigods)

What Lurks Beneath (what if Warrior Cats was more game of thrones and had a crab cult. The comic is better than I make it sound whoops, it's one I'm honestly riveted to get new pages for every time)

Runaway to the Stars (about space aliens and accommodations. It's also pretty human heavy, but the worldbuilding Jay's done on the alien cultures is phenomenal and I would call xenofiction. There's even a short comic just set on the Avian planet with exclusively bird alien characters)

I've never played Rainworld but I also get the impression it's a video game with strong xenofiction vibes from everything I've heard.

I'm also trying to think of literally any movies other than Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron but yknow I really can't argue with it.

There's almost certainly more I'm forgetting but eh what can you do (except reblog later)

Of course there's other books I like but you've probably already heard of all of them because they're xenofiction big shots (Ga'Hoole, Wings of Fire, Rats of NIMH, Watership Down, etc), and I haven't read all that broadly outside of the YA genre mainstream (Hunters series being my main exception). If you like Anthro stuff I actually prefer the Mistmantle Chronicles over Redwall, and Cardinal also recently did a video overview on Anthro works I'm excited to go through.

Anyone got any good xenofiction recommendations? Or maybe sources that are good guides for writing xenofiction stories?

Idk... I kind of want to read xenofiction stuff-