#lymond is back on tumblr

[orangeshipper]

A rare return to Tumblr, as it's the place to go when I have too many feelings about a thing that I need to express somewhere...

I recently read a 6-part series called The Lymond Chronicles, and let me tell you, I have FEELINGS.

When I say recently read, since I hit the point about halfway through the first book of being gripped, I have been utterly consumed. I devoured the rest of them, immediately went back to the start and read the entire series again, have now started (and almost finished) the first book for a third time and am enjoying it EVEN MORE.

I've laughed. I've cried. I've slammed the books shut needing to collect myself for a minute and breathe. I've bounced with giddy enjoyment. I've curled in a ball of overwhelming Feelings and felt like I could wail with the sheer beauty of these words and these characters and their emotions. I CANNOT EVEN. There we go, I said it, and I haven't needed to say that about a thing in ages.

It's been a very strange experience really. I did not expect to enjoy them. I started reading out of sufferance due to my mother's guilt tripping. They're her favourite books, and it turns out we have wild amounts in common of what pushes our buttons.

It's not a time period I'm massively keen on (Tudor), it's very hard to follow what's going on, you need to just switch your brain off and go with it and wish yourself luck but when it finally does click... THESE BOOKS.

Francis Crawford of Lymond (etc etc), you took me by surprise and have my heart.

I don't even know if there's an active fandom - if there is, hello??

I'm off to continue my re-read and further wallow in my feelings....

[eightopals]

About Murderbot and Casting

This topic is heating up with the news of the planned Murderbot TV show.

I should know by now that 80% or more of fans don’t bother actually checking out anything authors say about the appearances of characters in written works. Instead, they just cast whatever actor they fancy at the moment, regardless of that actor’s looks. (It’s not just Murderbot. I’ve seen tons of bad fan casting for properties like the Lymond Chronicles as well.)

I’m talking about canon descriptions and clues to appearance, like specifically ethnic names.

Folks, it’s pretty plain that the majority of the Preservation Aux people are various shades of brown. There’s a great post here on tumblr that goes into the origins of their names:

I have an impression, though, that for a lot of people, these are just made-up science fiction names. They haven’t had the warm, fuzzy experience of recognizing a character’s name or other ethnic identifiers and thinking “she’s like me!”

Quite aside from Ratthi’s name, Wells said in her LiveJournal blog that “Ratthi is super hot. We're talking Sendhil Ramamurthy levels of hot.” OK, that’s not in the canon work. But she’s the author, dudes.

It’s bad enough that the series is proposing very northern European-looking Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot itself. Watching folks try to whitewash the rest of the cast too is painful.

OK, rant over, back to the usual stuff.

[veliseraptor]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @feralkwe - thank you! I feel like I've done this before but if I have it's been a minute so

1. How many works do you have on AO3? across pseuds I have 1,010 works. with my "current" one I'm at 607. that is more or less my entire oeuvre, though there's a fair number of short fics on tumblr I haven't gotten around to crossposting though I'd ostensibly like to at some point. eventually. maybe.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 4,873,723. aYIKES. but hey closing in on 5 million! wonder when I'll hit that. I bet I would if I posted my unfinished wips for the mcu tbh

3. What fandoms do you write for? ever or currently? the list of fandoms I have written at least one fic for (not counting ones where the one fic was a crossover) is [deep breath] the mcu, the untamed/mdzs, supernatural, the silmarillion, a song of ice and fire, black jewels trilogy, wheel of time, doctrine of labyrinths, death note, the caliban leandros series, avatar the last airbender, kinnporsche, doctor who, buffy the vampire slayer/angel, gentleman bastard sequence, marvel comics, harry potter, temeraire, good omens, code geass, realm of the elderlings, greek mythology, dragon age, sandman, dexter, lymond chronicles, the firekeeper saga, lucifer (the tv series), crimson peak, kushiel's legacy, the x men movies, chronicles of narnia, twilight, and a couple other small book fandoms.

i used to be a lot more multifandom than i am now in terms of what i wrote for, and have been writing fic for which is how this happened.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Not my favorite fics, for the most part. They are:

Life in Reverse (MCU)

With Absolute Splendor (The Untamed)

some good mistakes (The Untamed)

half a league onward (MCU)

The Villain Wrangler (MCU)

5. Do you respond to comments? I do not. I feel bad about it, but (a) I don't know what to say, (b) I feel unbearably self-conscious/self-important trying and (c) I already have too much I'm trying to do in my limited time/too many obligations I have placed upon myself to add another one that will just stress me out. Again, I have all kinds of guilt about this, though, which probably kind of defeats the (c) purpose of not doing it.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Almost certainly Mercy, though it's possible I could dig up others; that's the literal murder-suicide one, though, and I'm pretty sure I've only written one of those. I've written a lot where one character dies but another survives and has to live with the grief, which is arguably worse? but I still think Mercy wins. once there was a way to get back home might give it a run for its money, though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I've actually written a fair amount of fic with happy endings! just mostly they have to suffer to get there. but trying to think of fic with a straight happy ending...I feel like I wrote some fairly fluffy fic in Black Jewels Trilogy fandom that I don't want to link to because I don't think it's very good. Maybe Life in Reverse, honestly? That's a fic where I tied up most things and resolved them in a pretty happy way.

Oh, or actually With Absolute Splendor might qualify.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I have in the past! Not a lot, but it happens every so often. Usually I just delete it, tbh; it doesn't feel worth leaving it there and I'm certainly not going to respond to it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Sure do, primarily for pairings that are dysfunctional in one way or another, and for the most part I want the sex to say something about the inner life/psychology of the characters I'm writing. truly plotless smut does happen but I find it weirdly difficult. I have to do so much pre-justification work for my smut, at least in my head if not on page.

a lot of what I write at least has a little bit of kink or D/s flavor to it even if it's not explicitly written as such (and a lot of it is at least a little explicitly written as such). I also like to write about power dynamics (in sex) and sex that's sublimating some other emotion or desire, if that latter makes sense.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I used to, but not anymore, and I probably won't; I don't know why, but I'm just generally not a crossover fan these days. But I did write a Lord of the Rings/Cthulhu Mythos Morgoth/Cthulhu fic back in the day. No, I'm not going to link it, you can find it if you really want.

The Scarlet Pimpernel/Black Jewels Trilogy might be objectively weirder but it was because of an RP and therefore feels more reasonable to me.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I had forgotten about it until just now, but yes, actually. Including one that actually got reposted on AO3, which takes a particular kind of guts that's not the same as reposting on Wattpad or the like, imo. (I've also had fic scraped off AO3 and reposted on other sites.) The person took it down when I called them out on it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have been fortunate enough to have a number of fics translated into a few languages! I was curious which ones so I went and looked, and it looks like I've had fic translated into Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I've started co-writing a fic but never finished one.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Might have to give this one to xuexiao, though there's a lot of room in my heart for many ships! that's just one that hit an incredible number of my favorite things squarely on the head several times, leaving me concussed and helpless. It's so much, you guys.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There's a number of my MCU wips that I look at and am like "yeah what I have of this is good actually, too bad I'll almost certainly never finish it", among which is Dead Superheroes Walking, the fic about everyone who died in Infinity War being trapped inside the Soul Stone and having to work together to fix the ensnappening from the inside. I have about 3/4 of it written if not more and the remaining quarter will probably remain unfinished. It was Wanda POV and a lot about Wanda and Loki bonding.

another one is the one where Hela decides instead of fighting Odin to strategically back down and plan to overthrow him later, and therefore is around while Loki and Thor are growing up. I really liked what I had of this one, and really enjoyed writing Hela's POV, but again. don't think I'm going to end up finishing it.

I have a whole folder called "MCU Salvage" that's basically my MCU wips that I parsed out because I was like "these are pretty good actually, maybe someday I'll have the motivation to return to them", which is probably delusional but, well. one never knows.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm pretty good at dialogue - I love to write characters having conversations, probably to a fault - and, when it comes to fanfiction, characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Worldbuilding for sure is one. I hate it, I don't think I'm very good at it. also description - I feel like I lean heavily on dialogue in fic and tend to go light on descriptive language. this is probably partly because I'm not a very imagery-focused reader, so I don't think a lot about creating a "visual" with my writing, but also because I just don't like doing it as much as I like writing about internal thought processes and interpersonal verbal exchanges.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I almost certainly would not do it, as someone who is monolingual and has zero confidence in my ability to do it right in a way that wouldn't read absolutely awfully. The one exception to this is in Lymond fic, and that's because the canon did it first, so it is fully justifiable for me to have this guy spout off in five languages in one fic. Otherwise...not since I tried writing a fake Phantom of the Opera fic mocking bad Phantom of the Opera fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I always say Wheel of Time because that's the first fandom of my heart but technically I wrote a crack Harry Potter fic before I wrote for Wheel of Time. But in my heart it was Wheel of Time. That was certainly my first fandom in any meaningful sense of the word.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? This question is my nemesis. My favorite fic I've ever written changes at least once a month. I have a series for this on AO3 that I'm going to link to as a lazy answer to this question even though that's sort of 50 of my favorite fics, so sue me, I've written a lot of things over the years and I actually do like a fair number of them, even if you have to make me say so.

tagging uhhhh @highladyluck, @curiosity-killed, @ameliarating, @gloriousmonsters, i'm not sure how many people i'm supposed to tag for this but if you want to do it, go ahead?

[bloody-wonder]

How do you find new books to read? Most people I ask say booktok, which sorry if I'm wrong but I assumed you wouldn't use, and I haven't had good results from trying booktok.

good question!

no i don't use booktok or tiktok in general. in fact, i have a very old man yells at cloud attitude towards it lol. i do watch lots of booktube tho and get some recs from there, however it's important to remember: many people are hyping up a book >> probably not a good rec🙅‍♀️ "if so many people like it i might like it too" that's the fomo devil talking! one booktuber is swearing by a book you have never heard of and gushing about it in their every other video >> probably a good rec👍that's how i came across the aurelian cycle and the winnowing flame. idk maybe it works on booktok the same way if you follow the right people but. i don't trust that app😅

other recs i get from my trusted mutuals on tumblr bc these are people who enjoy the same type of sophisticated literature as i do so when one of them mentions they read and liked a book my interest is peaked. when they constantly mention it it has the same effect as when your mutual reblogs three gifsets of a show - now you just have to watch it bc you know from previous experience you will likely enjoy it. i think i first heard of doctrine of labyrinths in worldhoppers' underrated fantasy video but it would've sat on my goodreads tbr forlornly till the end of time had i not found out that it's popular with the lymond crowd - no rec is more reliable than that😌

finally, good book recs tend to come from obscure rec lists i perused on tumblr or on goodreads or on some old-fashioned book blog several years ago, added them to my tbr and then forgot. but bc i like to update my tbr regularly i go through the 1000+ books i have on goodreads each year in order to decide if i want to move them up my priority list and inevitably discover some hidden gems i scavenged this way back when i was getting back into reading. for example, i found the dreamhealers series and the memoirs of lady trent on the aroace characters database and i found nino cipri's litenverse on one of the numerous queer sff rec lists here on tumblr.

generally tho there is no perfect source of book recs that works all the time. understanding your own tastes and choosing books accordingly is a skill you develop by trial and error and no matter how good you get at curating your reading many books you pick up will likely disappoint you nonetheless🤷‍♀️

[etiragram]

I think it'd be neat if Midjourney prompt artists were popular in fandom. AI art has lowered the barrier to entry for personally producing an image of your textual blorbos, which is great. The democratization of blorbo visualization especially for the aphantasic. (Do you see how tumblr has damaged me forever?) I would have liked it if e.g. my Lymond fandom friends back in 2015 had shared AI-generated Lymond facecasts. Maybe someone could even have salvaged the della Robbia angels description

[snarp]

Lymond is back on Tumblr. I have reported him for ban evasion.

[notasapleasure]

Tagged by @stripedroseandsketchpads to post my comfort shows, but I have posted those already (though thanks to tumblr search I can't find the post on mobile. They were, uh.... The Terror; Utopia; Ghosts; Futurama; Detectorists; Atla; Ripper Street; Garrow's Law; Lupin...? Something like that)

So I will do another meme I saw doing the rounds, the recent media meme!

Currently reading: just today I finished Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein, as far as I can recall, the third book I've managed to finish this year. It was...compelling is the word I keep returning to. Many of the strands fascinated me: unreliable narrator filled with self-deprecation despite her clear skills and accomplishments, unspoken history of personal and intergenerational (particularly antisemitic) trauma, folkloric omens and a growing, sinister atmosphere with incestuous overtones...but ultimately it was too opaque for me. I wanted the strands to come together, or at least for the scenes with the villagers to be contextualised somehow.

Fic I'm currently reading: well, I keep going over @distressednoise 's Magaluf AU hoping there will be more :') and I really must make myself have a Lymond day and catch up with @stripedroseandsketchpads 's fic file! Also I must get on and educate myself further in @r0b0tb0y 's archive

Last song: introducing my dad to the joy of Half Man Half Biscuit - Asparagus Next Left, because there was a layby seller of holly wreaths near our new house just before Christmas, and since they ran out of wreaths they took most of the hand-written signs down so now there's just one mildly sinister arrow and the sign reading 'layby'.

Currently watching: just finished S1 of Loki, which was fun! (apart from the predictably wanky acceleration up its own MCU fundament of the Kang scenes in the last episode, now delightfully combined with the knowledge that Jonathan Majors was so bad even Marvel let him go). But I was pleasantly surprised overall, and I love Mobius. Mobius describing Loki/Sylvie for what it is was my favourite moment, because none of Mobius's pronouncements seem judgemental, just thrilled by the variety of existence, in a very Owen Wilson way :))

Though literally currently watching The Lion in Winter, which was chosen as the family NYE movie over The Green Knight.

Next on my watchlist: when I get my own telly watching schedule back I can't wait to watch Blue Eye Samurai. I should also finish Castlevania...

Current obsession: Brasso. Cassian. Brassian. I'm sorry to everyone else who is being lovely and wonderful and passionate about other fandoms and other fics in my inboxes, but they are my home right now. I've been mulling saga AU pt 2 and another canon-verse one shot today and it's made me very happy :)

Consider yourself tagged if you're reading this and want to do a meme! Say I tagged you and I will delight in reading your answers :)

[divinekangaroo]

pettiot | Archive of Our Own

GMT+8 40+

Once was: ellnyx @ livejournal & ao3 (FFXII, FFVII) pendency @ dreamwidth & tumblr & ao3 (Professionals, Dragon Age)

All (most) of my old fics can be found at the above.

My tagging is for navigation or communication. Not for warnings. My askbox is open but it can take me a while to respond. I may appear chronically online but it's in micro-fragments of time so I'm not very good at communicating effectively; contextual vague handwavy apology in advance.

I am operating very randomly (June 2024+) as back at work and study. If following for fic only, best bet is my AO3.

I do tag for fandom related reblogs, but I only use tags *consistently* if it's my original post.

Navigation links (incomplete- am still working through tagging the backlog):

My Writing My Drawing Exercises (learner plates on) Peaky Blinders Dragon Age II Dragon Age Lymond Chronicles Personal Stuff

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Someone should buy Scott Alexander a ticket to a Bernie Sanders rally. He needs to see what socialism would really be like.

[nostalgebraist]

I was wondering last night why stuff on my laptop was running slow, and I only just now discovered the cause: on Monday (?) I had randomly decided to start training char-rnn on Dunnett again, this time on the whole Lymond series instead of just the first two, and then I completely forgot about it, and now it’s done 11 full passes over the data and can produce eerie, frequently grammatical simulacra of Lymond dialogue:

‘I thought you brought her to his tale of the angle.’

‘But the planfour woman,’ he said carefully, ‘that Archie has left the treftileness of women. They have no wish to be tongues.’

‘I really didn’t want a message from his grace,’ said Sir George Douglas’s torn voice, ‘that I am told you think you have rather meant that I must blind against the King of France and for your highest banquet.’

‘I haven’t trusted them,’ Philippa said. ‘And so played to him he might prove it. It has noticed that it may have weight. Only the garrison of the Queen is dead. There’s no need to ancience whom and she had so considered what they wore rather proud to believe that she would be dead. Is it not enough of you?’

‘The company of me,’ Lymond said.

‘You would have gentlemen,’ said Jerott. ‘They have no more than in all that, in the end of the day, the young man did what he die.’

(next one’s with a lower “temperature”)

“No. Lady Culter and I shall not be able to forget him,” said Christian. “And if the sensitive information is to tell you to do the rest of the beauty of a subject of a personal six miles or the special standard of a service and because I was to be there to see the other weakness.”

“Or do you think?”

“I want to be deaded and delivered to the Somervilles. I see nothing of the tapers and the craphie, but the bloody daughter was there.”

“Oh, don’t hear that,” said Lymond, “do you want to fight to face the English out of the child?”

“I don’t recover the same time,” said Sybilla. “I didn’t know that. I should find a city, and it is a trick with a little boat in the night. It was the mother of the Constable of France, who can return home to the Tartars.”

“What do you think it would do that?” said Lymond. “As you arrived at the best, you will find it distressing on the same reason.”

“Well, if you want to recover, I shall go to the end of the river of money. It was in the same time, and I am sure you will find out if you were also a hollow man.”

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Books of 2022: June

The struggle to finish all the books I started in May continued, with limited success. Neither were several others of the books I picked up and actually finished. Maybe it’s finally time to admit I’m an at-whim reader and live with that. As with May, I’m closing out the month with several half-finished books.

Total books: 6  |  New reads: 3   |   2022 TBR completed: 2 (0 DNF) / 13/22 total   |   2022 Reading Goal: 46/60

May | July

#1 - Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card - 5/5 stars ('22 TBR)

Guess what?

I once again forgot how the prequel to an Orson Scott Card book ended.

It’s ok though. Most of the gaps got filled in through the narrative, and by the end I didn’t care too much. (My only true complaint is that Card seems to get his timeline a little mixed up. I tried searching how old the characters are and it’s vague here, and apparently gets worse through the series until Card adds about five years to one character’s age. Genetic mutations and experiments aside...sir no.)

Another hit of an Orson Scott Card book, even though most of it went over my head. Love that we got to see through Petra’s eyes here. Still laughing over having a Peter and a Petra as POV characters in the same book.

#2 - The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison - 4/5 stars

I was eager to get back into the world of The Goblin Emperor, so was very excited to grab a copy of this book from my library. As it is, it wasn’t a dull read, but something about it felt over-complicated to me. I couldn’t keep most of the side characters straight and it took me too long to read for only being 230 pages. Much as I like Addison’s writing in general and the world she’s created, I don’t think I’ll read the sequel. I think the lasting appeal of TGE is Maia, and without him I’m not half as invested.

I do enjoy Thara is a character and loved reading about his gift as a Witness for the Dead, but overall it isn’t enough to bring me back for The Grief of Stones.

#3 - The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett - 4/5 stars (’22 TBR, audio)

One of my Top Five anticipated reads of the year! This was one of the largest books on my TBR for this year, so somehow getting the audiobook felt like cheating....

I also think this is another book I learned about through Tumblr, and specifically through people who also like The Queen’s Thief. At least, my brain pointed out the coincidence; I don’t think it’s a hard-and-fast “if you like The Queen’s Thief, read this”. But that’s how I took it.

So far so that I didn’t even know for sure what the book was about. Turns out it’s historical fiction. Who knew?

The narrator was fantastic, even if I was a little confused until I adjusted to his accent. The plot was engaging, and I’m so ignorant regarding this period of history that immersion was never broken by my brain trying to reconcile fact with fiction. (I need to brush up on my history....) The characters were immediately charming, especially the ostentatious rogue Lymond, and I could see right off why people who like Gen would be drawn to him. I will say the large cast got a little unwieldy at times. This may be another case of “it would be easier to keep them all straight if I was actually reading it”.

It was a bit of a slog getting through the opening chapters and into what makes this story appealing, but it. was. worth it. I think this technically does fit the bill for a “historical epic”, not only in size but in scope. But I will need to read it again (probably twice) to really understand exactly what happened. And I’m going to have to gather a considerable store of unction if I am ever to dive into the sequels.

(That said: if anyone has recommendations for books or podcasts that provide at least an overview of history from 1500 to 1650 or so, I’m open to suggestions! I retained pretty much nothing through this reading and couldn’t even tell you what actually happened in actual history.)

#4 - Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede - 5/5 stars (reread)

It’s been at least seven years since I last read this book. It’s one I would consider formative to my young adulthood and to my writing, and it’s stuck with me since I first discovered it as a teen. Wrede is a skilled world-builder, and this alternate history of the settling of the West infused with woolly mammoths and steam dragons and magic drew me in immediately and never quite let me go.

The older I get, the more I appreciate and sympathize with Eff as she struggles to define herself when everyone around her is so eager to do that work for her. It’s a true coming-of-age story, but told in a comfortable, familiar sort of way.

#5 - The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien - 5/5 stars (reread)

The Lord of the Rings is such a...hefty..story that it’s easy to forget that the bulk of that story takes place in the space of about six months. For as long as I was stuck on Treebeard’s introductory chapter, it feels like it ought to be at least a year and a half.

I lost track of how many sections I marked (unfortunately on the ebook instead of my printed copy like I should have). There’s an aching, a longing, to this story that feels like the breathless wait for dawn to come, and the prayer that daylight reveals life instead of a wasteland. I’m definitely projecting onto this book but hey. That’s what books are for.

As a side note: I love Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn and I don’t really mind the liberties taken in adapting this epic to the screen; however, it’s interesting to me that Jackson decided to paint Aragorn as more of an unassuming and reluctant king, when in the original story Aragorn has absolutely no problem waving around Anduril and declaring himself rightful king of Gondor to anyone who will listen. The same musings apply to Faramir’s translation from book to screen.

#6 - Across the Great Barrier by Patricia C. Wrede - 4/5 stars (reread)

My memory was a little strained as far as Thirteenth Child was concerned, but I remembered almost nothing of this second book in the Frontier Magic trilogy. It goes at a different pace than Book One, while building on the foundation that book laid down. It doesn’t exactly feel like a traditional middle book, though. Almost more like an episode.

I remember loving Professor Torgeson, and I enjoyed getting to see more of Lan as a young adult. Eff begins to settle into herself in this one, making way for the sure-footed heroine of the final book. I miss William, though.

[bellaroles]

I posted 4,969 times in 2021

154 posts created (3%)

4815 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 31.3 posts.

I added 613 tags in 2021

#diana wynne jones - 150 posts

#lymond - 142 posts

#lol - 67 posts

#dorothy dunnett - 64 posts

#lymond chronicles - 45 posts

#howl's moving castle - 45 posts

#chrestomanci - 28 posts

#the lymond chronicles - 25 posts

#francis crawford - 24 posts

#lovely - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#hhmm i am skeptical it's like she either dupe these researcher by telling them about things she's afraid of that she's actually not and then

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Year of the griffin exceeds all my expectations. Will probably reread it many times in years to come.

Things that I love

Full circle plot that end up so nicely DWJ style. Idk how she did it. So many storylines happening all in one book. All of them so interesting. I never get bored as I read this.

The main thing this book try to convey "Think out of the box! There's nothing to hold you back but yourself. Be creative. Working together with your friends to achieve all thing unimaginable!"

These groups of friends from so many different backgrounds, unique magical abilities and how they form such good friendship among them helping one another when they're in troubles of many kinds, sharing ideas and magical shenanigan...aww how I wish my University life was just as fun! I love them all.

Corkoran's unraveling is such a mess! I like how absent minded and selfish he was. And Elda's disillusion!

Kit and Blade are back and everyone is so in awe of them now being two of the most powerful wizard in the world

Flurry! How he just unobtrusively become a professor at the university and solving many problems all at once. And may I add, his and Elda's budding romance...gosh! Of all the romantic couples or couple-to-be in this book (which is far too many mind you, it's like the world is filled with love spells or what lol!), I ship them the most!

There it is again. Cont. From book one. The healing of the world's magic. Though it was mentioned such in a short passage but I kinda get it is about the environment problem in our real world.

32 notes • Posted 2021-05-11 19:03:17 GMT

#4

See the full post

34 notes • Posted 2021-10-07 05:15:19 GMT

#3

Recently watch Blackadder. It's so damn funny! And the 2nd season got these beautiful elizabethan clothes. And I just want to draw Lymond in one of those. I'm not really drawing that closely to the reference. Just taking a lot of liberties here. And as usual, I gloss over the shoes and the hands lol.

Edit; Add quotes I like regarding to or spoken by Lymond from the series. Some background and highlight changes.

36 notes • Posted 2021-06-16 17:33:03 GMT

#2

All systems red is a very good read. I didn't expect to like it this much. All the good things I like about Star trek including Sci-fi, alien world exploration, friendship, teamwork, good leadership and more. Also it's funny that whenever Murderbot had an internal monologue on existential crisis, a thousand of kindle readers highlighted them. And I did too because these lines are so on point!

48 notes • Posted 2021-03-31 17:15:26 GMT

#1

Doodles of various characters from Chrestomanci series, Howl’s moving castle and Deep secret.

I love Diana Wynne Jones’ books. They’re comfort books that I reread whenever I’m down. Always make me laugh every time.

60 notes • Posted 2021-04-13 15:23:27 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[magpiefngrl]

For the book asks, 125. your favourite autumn read & 132. who is your favorite person to go to for book recs? If you don't like those or want to answer something else, choose whatever you'd like! pls and thank youuuuu! xox

Hello, hello! Thanks for the ask!

125. your favourite autumn read

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is ideal for the gothic vibes of the season. I first read it last month and was blown away.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater has a gorgeous November mood.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt also gives me an autumn vibe. It's one of the novels you could use to summon me.

132. who is your favorite person to go to for book recs?

For several years it used to be a blogger here on tumblr. I followed her first years ago because she was a Captive Prince fan and she used to do recs regularly, mainly books but also fics. In fact, it was a drarry reclist she posted back in late 2016 that got me into drarry. She's rarely around these days but I follow her on GR and it looks like we have very similar tastes. She's very into KJ Charles now, like I am, so I feel gratified.

There's no one else really right now. I'm usually the person who people go to for recs tbh. However, I do tend to trust the recs of those friends of mine who read and liked the Lymond books.

Book asks

[bloody-wonder]

Hi...... If you don't mind me asking, what are your top 10 favorite books ever (fiction)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks...

no i don’t think i have answered that before🤔 

thanks for asking! :D this is in loose most to least favorite order let's goooo

1. the lymond chronicles by dorothy dunnett. let’s get the enfant terrible out of the way. i love historical adventure stories and have a fictional crush on the mc of proportions embarrassing at my respectable old age. a gallant renaissance courtier, a cunning swashbuckler, a brilliant schemer, a queer icon, a tortured soul, a secret agent extraordinaire “whose tongue is as sharp as his rapier”, the Man, the Myth, the Legend - lymond has it all. if only i could condone the narrative tomfoolery of the last two installments, the lemon saga would’ve become my favorite series of all time. still gotta put it in the first spot bc rn i’m biased - i’m re-reading it with my bestie and hell’s own apollo is very much there, inside my mind💖

2. the secret history by donna tartt is the book that established dark academia - a lucrative subgenre of mediocre campus novels trying to imitate tsh written by authors who unfortunately don’t understand what makes it iconic. the secret special ingredient being some substance under the aesthetics and - how do i put it without sounding like a snob - literary value. this is not the main reason why i love it though, not the thing that made me binge it overnight several years ago which was how i found my way back into reading after uni drained me of any desire to do it - those were the characters. i think they’re fun and relatable in terms of qualities which i’m not necessarily proud of but which are nevertheless an integral part of my personality - such as, for example, being a snob.

3. all for the game by nora sakavic is probably the most unique book i have ever read - and that’s saying something bc i read over one hundred per year. do i dare to attempt to explain what it is about in a concise manner? no, i don’t think so. i’ll just say i love it bc it showed me what can be achieved if the author isn’t constrained by arbitrary rules of storytelling or social conventions or judgements of “good taste”, bc it inspired me to actively participate in an online fandom for the first time and to build a community of tumblr mutuals (which tbh was probably the only thing that helped me stay sane throughout 2020), bc it made so many memories and experiences click into place and made me realize i’m aroace and queer. i’m glad i discovered it at the right time in my life and i genuinely believe it’s in its rightful place next to the more “highbrow” books on this list.

4. harry potter. unlike many fans i read hp relatively late in my teens and so i don’t think i could say i’d grown up with it or that it had been an important part of my childhood. nevertheless when i read this series it captured my heart and soul and it never lost its charm on each subsequent re-read. now jkr is being rightfully condemned and the story itself viewed with increasing criticism, but still i can’t agree with people who claim it was never good in the first place. something is very special about hp, something contemporary authors apparently can’t recreate or another middle grade or ya fantasy would’ve overshadowed it by now. i used to think this special thing can’t be tainted by the discourse but to tell the truth now i’m not so certain anymore. maybe i’m just becoming more and more disillusioned with the idea of escaping from real life problems into magical fictional worlds... watch starkid’s a very potter musical on youtube if you haven’t already btw.

5. confusion by stefan zweig is a novella written in the 1920s and it follows a relationship between a young university student and his mysterious english professor who has a dark secret. this is probably (and unfortunately) the least famous book on this list and so i have made it my mission to recommend it to people as often as possible. zweig is a wonderful writer who focuses on deep dives into the characters’ psyche and interpersonal relationships that can’t be easily defined or put into boxes. i can’t really explain why this obscure short story is in my top 5 favorite books of all time without going into spoilers but i will say that i myself fully understood why it’s so important to me only after i realized i’m aroace. it doesn’t have any aroace characters - that would’ve been too galaxybrain for the time period - but the questions the protag grapples with in the story are in my opinion some quintessential aspec questions which i sadly haven’t seen explored in any aspec rep book i’ve read so far. 

6. eugene onegin by alexander pushkin. despite its immense fame and popularity in russia and all the lands it colonized, some western readers might not be familiar with this classic - i assume because it’s written in verse and so even the best translator wouldn’t be able to render this text in all its glory. i have re-read onegin countless times, far more often than any other book on this list, and each time it presented itself from a new angle: as a 12yo i thought it was a failed love story, as a 20yo i thought it was a failed friendship story and now, that i’m the same age as onegin at the end of the book, my conclusion is it’s about how some people just can’t be happy. how very byronic lol

7. a song of ice and fire by george rr martin. i used to believe this is the superior adult fantasy series bc of its complex and compelling characters - but that doesn’t seem right bc many authors offer good character work. what actually sets asoiaf apart imo is what i call “complex morality” - this is basically grey morality except as applied to the world instead of, as it commonly is, to the characters. a “morally grey character” is, especially today, a pretty uninspired narrative tool if they exist in a world where good and evil are real and absolute categories. despite the fact that many readers (but mostly, i think, the show viewers) have divided the asoiaf cast into the “good” ones, the “bad” ones and the “redeemable” ones (ugh), i believe martin succeeded in creating a world where each character will inevitably end up on the crossroads between a bad action and a worse one and their choice will be a juicy insight into the conditio humana. for some reason i like when the fiction i read for escapism reflects my cynical pessimist outlook🤷‍♂️  

8. the three musketeers by alexandre dumas. the og historical swashbuckling adventure story, the first book (series) i was ever obsessed with. can’t say much about this one bc i read it when i was 12 and haven’t re-read it since, my love for it being kept alive throughout the years by the soviet tv adaptation. i really want to re-read it soon but also i’m nervous that it won’t live up to my childhood memories. still had to put it on the list bc in many aspects it was foundational to my tastes in media and fiction.

9. the talented mr ripley by patricia highsmith. before the secret history dethroned it by offering similar themes in a more attractive package, this used to be my favorite book. no one can write a queercoded sociopath like highsmith. i remember finishing the book, then starting it again immediately bc i was just fascinated by ripley’s mind, by how subtle the writing was and how it managed to convey a sense of constant anxiety and tension. i think tom ripley is an important figure in the fictional serial killer canon and deserves more attention from fans of guys like hannibal lecter and joe goldberg. hopefully the upcoming mini-series will do him justice - as in “faithfully depict and popularize his story”. real justice being done to him is the last thing ripley wants lol 

10. a little life by hanya yanagihara. a very important novel whose broad thematic range is overshadowed by the notoriety it gets in the online book community bc of its heavy subject matter. this book wants you to witness the darkest moments of one man’s life, follow him on this tragic journey and see how the society that means to help often ends up harming further bc it fails to acknowledge many uncomfortable truths about individual mental health. honestly i could spend hours talking about all the subversive and taboo topics this book explores and why it’s important and why it’s bad that we don’t engage with them more often, but if i had to pick one it would be the idea that some of us will only get a little life to enjoy and that is okay and our experience is still worth recounting and witnessing, it’s still valuable and liberating even if it doesn’t fit into the common understanding of “happiness” which anyway is nothing but a construct that can seem misleading and oppressive depending on one’s experiences. ngl i couldn’t in good conscience “recommend” this book to anyone, as in “suggest they read it”, but i think i personally will revisit it at different stages in my life bc i’m sure it will reveal new depths. and also bc, as you should’ve gathered from this list, i like pain😅😬

other books i consider my all time favorites that didn’t make the list: the hunchback of notre dame, wuthering heights, phantom by susan kay, perfume: the story of a murderer, gentlemen and players by joanne harris, howl’s moving castle, captive prince, the grandmaster of demonic cultivation (mo dao zu shi), the history boys, crime and punishment

[erinaceina]

Opening lines meme

Thank you @notasapleasure​ and @notfromcold​ for tagging me and making me go back and look at some of my old fic.

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors.

I have no idea if these are strictly chronologically the last twenty things I wrote because tumblr was being difficult and not letting me find things that I know I have tagged. So it’s the first twenty fics I could find.

1) Bombycine, Jerott with some Francis/Philippa: ‘The pain rose up to meet Jerott Blyth, mingled with the waters of the Middle Sea, and he drowned in the scent of spikenard and jasmine, in roiling fumes and obscene kisses and all the stench and horror of battle.’

2) Muriceps, Francis/Philippa: ‘The wrath of princes waits for no mortal man.’

3) Untitled, Danny, Jerott: ‘Danny’s undistinguished face was grey with fatigue beneath its thistledown tuft of pale hair.’

4) Untitled, Francis/Philippa: ‘The chill wind whipped foam from the black waters of the loch and the miserly light of a sullen autumn dawn fell in a pallid curtain across the low Selkirk hills as the small troop of weary men drew in sight of the fortified manor of St. Mary’s, but the punishing pace set by the foremost rider never faltered.’

5) Homecoming (Part 2), Jerott, Francis/Philippa: ‘Jerott Blyth awoke to suffocating darkness.’

6) Untitled (possibly for a kiss prompt?), Francis/Philippa: ‘Francis?’

7) Untitled, Francis/Philippa: ‘Philippa came suddenly awake in the dark room, her heart hammering oddly against her breast bone beneath the fine lawn of her chemise and her breath clouded in the icy air.’

8) Untitled, Francis/Philippa: ‘Nothing moved in the barn.’

9) Untitled, Francis/Philippa: ‘The chill, unseasonal rain fell across moor and mire in endless, glassy sheets.’

10) Suffisance, Francis/Philippa: ‘‘Do I appear,’ Philippa said softly in the aftermath, her dark hair stark against the pillows like the bare autumn branches against the clear, pale autumn sky outside, ‘crazed with lust?’’

11) Untitled, Francis, Richard: ‘The porters at the Netherbow Port were accustomed to the raucous, the rowdy, and the inebriate courtiers passing to and fro on the road to the the great palace of Holyrood, even now in the depths of winter when the snow glowed on the roofs of the tall, narrow houses and lay in filthy piles in the streets and wynds.’

12) Untitled (but actually complete!), Francis: ‘Caught in a current of pain that roils and ebbs around him, Francis Crawford measures each breath in careful drops, waiting for the tide to consume him once more.’

13) Untitled, Francis/Philippa: ‘Francis Crawford surveyed the ruin of the great kitchen of St. Mary’s, blue eyes cool and assessing.’

14) Untitled (but actually complete!), Francis, Richard: ‘The burning pain in Lymond’s gut and gullet consumed him, drowning out even the sonorous clamour of his racing heartbeat, and, for a moment, all thought stopped.’

15) Homecoming, Jerott with some Francis/Philippa: ‘Jerott stared at the creature asleep in the centre of his bed, consternation kindling in his flashing dark eyes.’

16) Stoutherie, Francis/Philippa: ‘The Comtesse de Sevigny had her head in a sack of flour and one knee in its sensible woollen stocking edging precariously into a tray of cotignac when she heard the soft tap of approaching footsteps on the cool flagstones of the dry pantry.’

17) Lodsterre, Richard, Francis/Philippa: 'Richard Crawford regarded his younger brother with grave, grey eyes, his hands braced on his belt.’

18) Febricity, Richard, Francis/Philippa, the extended Crawford family: ‘Fever came to Midculter as 1558 wound itself to a dreary, a sodden, a lightless close, clad in blowing fog and gusts of leaden rain.’

19) Bryd one Brere, Francis/Philippa: ‘The slender hands held out to Francis Crawford were red to the wrists, thickly layered with crimson stains, the tapering fingers and smooth, oval nails grained with dark gore.’

20) Untitled 1920s AU, Francis/Philippa: ‘Francis Crawford of Lymond and Sevigny, lounging against the iron railings in the de Courcys lavish gardens in impeccable evening dress and a white silk scarf, felt the familiar brush of magic against his own, warm and soft as summer sunlight on this chill spring night.’

Favourites? It’s probably a toss up between #18 and #11, probably because they come closest to Dorothy Dunnett’s tone and I like the description (and not at all because they introduce angst and peril...)

Themes: I like starting with some kind of misdirection or making it seem as if something quite different is going on. I also like starting in the middle of things.

There were a couple where I really, really wanted to include the second line because the first was brief and simple (which, honestly, I didn’t expect of my writing, which tends to be verbose and arcanely structured) and the second expanded on it.

Also I have a lot of fic snippets that I’d like to do more with, but I guess that’s not a theme so much as an ongoing issue...

I really hate tagging people because I can never think of anyone to tag and/or I feel anxious about tagging them (and @notfromcold and @notasapleasure have already answered this one). But... @stripedroseandsketchpads, if you want to?

[thecrenellations]

“Warmed by the sun and cooled by the sea breeze, she was busy with her thoughts.”

“All I wanted to do was lie in the dry prickly grass with my feet in a ditch forever. I could be a convenient sort of milemarker, I thought. Get to the thief and you know you are halfway to Methana. Wherever Methana might be.”

“his thoughts circled like birds that couldn’t find a perch”

“[my thoughts] churned against one another like waves in a storm”

“Relius was left behind in the quiet room, considering a new philosophy”

“It seemed like hours that he sat on the small stool by the bed, lost in his thoughts -- or whatever he had in his head that approximated thoughts.”

“Who knows but that you will get up to find that the world has inverted itself yet again?”

on finishing Return of the Thief:

HELLO I finished rott ... several days ago, now, and I am just stopping by to say that it was a LOT, and I look forward to seeing what everyone has been thinking, feeling, and drawing ... once I’ve taken a little more time away to wrap my head around it. I hope everyone has been having the reading and discussing experience that’s right for them. I’ve been thinking of all of you/all of us this week!

I don’t really know what this post is; the first time I tried writing the note above, it turned into a ton of book-adjacent feelings, so I’ll stick some of that down below, if anyone feels like reading me being introspectively lachrymose (it’s way more about me than it is about the book).

I also drew these two moments, one we saw and one we didn’t:

L: “I saw Kamet approach Teleus, who’d propped himself against a crenellated wall.” Big shoutout to the CRENELLATIONS in this final scene! Also to Kamet’s thoughtfulness :,)

R: “I’ve arranged for them to both be in the garden at the same time, entirely alone. We’ll see which one leaves alive.” wtf Gen

......

So, so, so, I finished rott, and ... wow. It’s a lot to take in, and it was definitely the most intense reading experience of my life (mentally/emotionally and also physically, in terms of heart rate/ability to sleep and otherwise function this week, oops). It’s interesting - I’d been thinking a lot about how this would be my first and only time reading a qt book just as it came out, with everyone else, since I was suspiciously fortunate and ended up with advance copies of the last two. I’d had a month or more with both ACoK and TaT before being able to jump into discussions, and I hadn’t realized until finishing this book how that might be necessary for me. I’d though I’d be eager to return to Sounis (which I still think is great for centralized, detailed conversations) and dip my toe into Discord (which sounds very fun all around), and of course to find out what everyone thought here! Turns out I am NOT ready … even though I took notes, read much slower than that one guy’s amended army speed calculations, and got to holler along with an indispensable friend who started reading at the same time, I still need some time to attempt to wrap my head around everything this book contained.

I have problems with perfectionism and weird expectations for myself in my relationship with these books – from the moment mwt announced rott, I focused on not feeling “ready” for it to happen so quickly – I wouldn’t be able to reread the existing series infinite times, or finally read Vorkosigan and Lymond and all of Rosemary Sutcliff, or reread Dalemark. Or make the art I wanted, or be truly part of Sounis again, or move forward enough that my own life didn’t feel exactly the same as in spring 2017, just more stuck. The book is out, and while I am still a bit stuck, I am different than I was in 2017 in lots of ways, even if it’s not as obvious a difference as between 2010 and 2017. A small one is my engagement with the fandom and people here! I’m pretty sure I used to just be a series of posts occasionally floating by (a decent thing to be, don’t get me wrong), and I often wonder what I seem like as a person for those who just know me here, but now I occasionally make stuff and talk to people (and even got to meet one through a coincidence that still amazes me)!

So while I’ve made some progress letting go of some of those feelings of never being ready, it’s possible that this is part of where I’m coming from now. If I NEVER COME BACK TO TUMBLR, I will certainly have fallen into that trap, but I do think I’ll be back soon. I know that these books aren’t something a reader can ever perfectly understand, especially alone, and I know they’ve been so deeply meaningful and formative because of my interactions with others and exposure to how they experience the stories and characters. (This means YOU!) The last few months have been particularly amazing, with all the rereads and anticipation. I am so grateful for that, and a new book coming out is only the beginning… of course.

Nearly 450 pages of new qt just did a number on me, and I need to take it in for a bit, reread, fill up my Mitt notebook, and make some “so, so, so” graphs (and maybe update that Valentine’s Day post) to COPE! But I am genuinely looking forward to catching up soon, and I’m truly wishing everyone the reading/discussing experience they need right now! About the book itself, I will say: so much of it made me really, really happy, and there were a few things that I truly NEVER expected to see. Some of it made me sad, mostly in a good way, because mwt writes like she does. Some of it made my heart pound even harder as I read sentence by sentence, eyes creeping down the page with my bookmark blocking what came next. And before I started the book, I got to sit with it for a few hours in a quiet park on a gently breezy and sunny day … I’ll never be the perfect reader, but that felt right.

This totally turned into a Formal Letter of Absence, as if my presence here is vital or something, but if this isn’t an occasion to toss out some emotions for all to see, what is? And it’s also possible that typing all this up has helped me work through a lot of these feelings and I’ll be back tomorrow, lol.

You read this far, here are two hasty doodles of Sophos and a horse he has an awful lot in common with, and Pheris under the table, observing some embroidered ~foreshadowing~ with his wonderful eye for detail.

<3