#m.m fiction

[melaniem54]

Review: To The Moon and Back by N.R. Walker

Rating: 4.5 🌈 To The Moon and Back is N.R. Walker ‘s latest contemporary romance and it’s a must read for everyone who’s a fan of this author and wonderful low angst relationship stories. Located in Sydney, Australia, it brings together two men at loose tethers. One, Toby Barlow, a professional nanny, has recently returned home after a stint in the UK. His last job he cut short due to the…

[xx-reverie-xx]

Hello!

MDNI 🎠 Skye - 21 - POC -ENBY & AROACE SPEC - They/Them - Neurodivergent - Chronic Daydreamer - VERY multifandom - I love women 🎠 MDNI

REQUESTS: CLOSED

Taken Anon Emojis:

🎠🥀I am a lil’ bit of an amateur writer. I have been writing off and on for years, and now I’m confident about writing some fan fiction! I have not written fanfic in a hot minute, so I am a bit rusty. Just bear with me!

🎠🥀Most of my writings will be with a gender neutral reader and use they/them pronouns unless otherwise stated or requested :)! I will do my best to not include physical descriptions as well unless otherwise requested.

🎠🥀I will do my best to write all characters to the best of my ability. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is welcome!

RULES AND FANDOMS BELOW THE CUT

I WILL NOT WRITE:

Fetish content (bathroom stuff, feet stuff, etc), some hard kinks, pedo shit, real people.

Porn without plot. Unpopular opinion, I know. #smutwithfeelingsftw

Character x Character

I WILL WRITE:

Fluff, angst, the basic stuff. Smut if the mood takes me

One shot/drabbles, headcanons, multi-character reactions.

Platonic relationships.

Song inspired requests.

Poly relationships (or I will do my best to).

I’m down for most stuff, so just shoot your shot!

FANDOMS & CHARACTERS I WILL WRITE FOR (more to come!)

Key:

NOT MENTIONED = I will NOT write for this character

PLAIN = I’m will write for this character.

ORANGE = Character I MIGHT write for if I get a request that sparks inspiration.

PINK = Would LOVE to write for this character.

AVATAR - James Cameron Movies

Jake Sully, Neytiri, Ronal, Tonowari, Tsu’tey, Quaritch, Grace Augustine

THE BOYS

Butcher, Hughie, Annie/Starlight, M.M., Kimiko, Frenchie, Maggie/Queen Maeve, Old and New Black Noir, Reggie/A-Train

ARCANE

Sevika, Vi, Jinx/Powder, Caitlyn Kiramman, Mel Medarda, Ekko , Jayce Talis, Viktor, Vander, Silco

MARVEL

Loki, Agatha Harkness, Steve Rogers, The Wolverine/Logan Howlett

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE (remakes)

Ghost/Simon Riley, John Price, Soap/John Mactavish, Gaz/Kyle Garrick, Kate Laswell, Alejandro Vargas, Nikolai

BALDUR’S GATE III

Wyll Ravengard, Gale Dekarios, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Karlach Cliffgate, Halsin, Isobel Thorm, Aylin (honestly, there are so many characters so just feel free to request any bg3 character! the only one i will not write for is astarion.)

OVERWATCH

Moira O’Deorain, Sloan/Venture (the big two. i am down to write any overwatch character so feel free to request.)

RULES

Zero Tolerance for Minors. Minors, do NOT interact. You will be blocked immediately.

Please only submit a request ONCE, & Remember to be patient. I have a busy life outside of this blog.

Do not use my work for Character AI or anything AI related.

Do not repost my work EVER!

Just be respectful.

🎠have a lovely day🎠

[ishomieokay]

Ok, so I just made a post about Homelander having the most tragic backstory in The Boys so I want to expand a bit on that (although literally no one asked, lmao).

Look, this isn't even about Homelander having the saddest backstory ever. Being turned into a guinea pig in order to create a super weapon is literally a cliché in superhero fiction.

The difference, methinks, is that the only character in his verse with an equally horrific origin story is Soldier Boy. But, take into account: Soldier is 1) another irredeemable villain, and 2) we're basically told he ended up in that situation because he was the most violent, petty, sexist, homophobic, fucked-up man who ever lived. Homelander was litterally just... born in the lab.

For some context, look at this guy:

Magneto has one of the saddest backstories in superhero fiction. And I'm not exaggerating here. My man literally grew up in Auschwitz. But his backstory works in a way that Homelander's doesn't because we ARE supposed to sympathize with Erik. We are supposed to understand the motivations behind his actions, even if we don't condemn them. There's also many other characters in the X-Men's universe who have gone through similar ordeals, because humans being awful and ostracizing others for being different is like, A Main Theme of the comics.

Meanwhile, Homelander's backstory seems to just be an excuse for him to be insane, scary and disturbing. The show never frames it as a reason to sympathize with him. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll be the first one to admit that Homelander's fucked up psychology allows for some pretty metal scenes, and I do enjoy them. But the fact that we're just meant to laugh at that while never really contemplating the implications of what happened to him is bafling to me.

Hey, look at that guy, he was deeply traumatized from a young age, and growing up, he was neither socialized nor given the basic tools a child needs to develop a personality or form basic human connections. Now he's super disturbed, has weird kinks and doesn't really understand how to be a human. Haha, hilarious!

What makes it even worse is that the main characters, who we are supposed to be rooting for, have stories that are for the most part unsympathetic or make no sense.

The backstory of Hughie, our main guy, is that his girlfriend died. We're off to a bad start because we hate the Dead Girlfriend Trope here. He's banging a new chick like, a week later (?) and then rarely thinks about Robin again.

We have Frenchie, a guys who kills people and it makes him sad (?), but he never really stops.

Annie and M.M. have sympathetic stories with good motivations, but they are not really expanded upon. At times, it really feels like Annie is just there to have Relationship Problems with Hughie. Which, you know, doesn't make any fucking sense because she's the face of the nation-wide political movement that opposes Homelander. By all accounts, SHE should be Homelander's nemesis, not Butcher. And instead we get a rivalry with Firecracker? Seriously?

In the first seasons, M.M was literally just There. Then, we get his backstory with Soldier Boy, but for some reason his generic Divorced Dad arc is a priority over that. Great.

With Maeve we had the potential of an amazing backstory, but again, it's not really expanded upon. It's implied that she had a dysfunctional relationship with Homelander, but we don't really know what happened. Was it consensual? Was it entirely coerced? Was it abusive? If it was, what did he do to her? How did she manage to break up with him without getting killed in the process? Like, we're missing so much context with Maeve, it's not even funny.

Then, we have A-Train, who starts off on a path to redeem himself inspired by the death of his girlfriend, whom he killed himself (?). Then he realizes that Homelander Must Be Stopped because he makes fatphobic comments (?????). He gets his brother paralyzed and kills a guy to take revenge (still unsure if that was supposed to be a heroic act, tbh). And then finally he earns his redemption by taking a guy to the hospital (?????????) and that's enough for Hughie to forgive him for KILLING HIS GIRLFRIEND. Bitch, what?? It's the worst redemption arc I've ever seen and people are literally comparing it to Zuko's. Get my man out of your mouth!!!

And finally, Butcher, a guy whose entire story and motivations are based on something that happened to someone else. Why did we ever make Becca's rape about him??? And THEN it just turns into the typical Dead Girlfriend Trope. I mean, S3 was the only time when his character arc made any sense to me because it was actually dealing with interesting themes like cycles of abuse and bad parenting, but his story in other seasons is really not It.

Literally, the only exception to all of this is Kimiko. Who is also violent and unstable, who also can't stop killing and is unapologetic about it because she is what they made her. But for some reason we're supposed to sympathize her but not with Homelander. Weird take, but ok.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that you need to sympathize with the Nazi rapist. I'm just calling out the writers for being bad, lmao.

[glossykissies]

how do you feel about with soldier boy did to m.m’s family?

oh disgusting i love m.m and he was very valid. most characters in this show are awful people so when im writing i am removing those arcs from their persona because they’re fictional and i can do that !

[yourpalmickeymouse]

Hi Mickey, whats your favorite movie?

Hiya i-make-art14,

Hm... My favorite movie...

Oh boy, this is a tough one. I mean, I like a lot of the standard superhero movies, though I've kinda felt a bit burnt out on them lately. I kinda liked that very pink movie Minnie took me to, it isn't the typical movie I would see but I still enjoyed it. I don't know if I would say that it was my favorite, though.

I feel like for me, my favorite movie has to be something with a brave protagonist, loveable side characters, a great villain, a well-written story, looks amazin', and is full of comedy, drama, action, with a compellin' mystery at the center.... OH! I got it!

Well I actually got two...

The first movie I'm thinkin' of is about this detective 🕵️, heavily based on a very famous fictional detective you most likely know, who's helpin' a young girl find her missin' father after he was kidnapped. Turns out her father was kidnapped by the main villain to make a robotic queen so they could replace the actual queen with her and have the robotic queen make the main villain king. It's up to the detective, the young girl, a new companion, and the detective's dog to stop the villain and his evil plan. There is intrigue, disguises, scares, singing, and even a fight in a clock tower. There's just so much to love. It's just such a well-made movie, that I think anyone can enjoy. Though I guess it helps that the protagonist is very relatable in ways outside of bein' a detective. 🐭

The second movie I'm thinkin' about is also about a detective 🕵️ who's strugglin' with the loss of his brother. He was hired to investigate a scandal between the wife of a famous actor and another man, only for that man to be killed and the actor to be framed for it. He then has to investigate the murder only to find that it's part of a huge conspiracy by an evil judge to get rid of an entire town and put a highway through it. This movie mixes two different mediums and does it so incredibly well that it just feels so natural. I also really like the relationship between the actor and the detective as well as the actor and his wife. There's also a character who funnily enough kinda looks like me there. I swear that is not the only reason I like these movies. 😅

I would tell you the titles, but I think in the theme of these mystery movies, I'll let you figure it out on your own. But if you do figure it out and haven't seen them yet. I highly recommend both of them!!!

- M.M.

[melancholymegumi]

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ ༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ ༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆

⌗ . megumi (or melody) : she / her , 20s : 𖦹 mdni

h.y ; “sweetheart, aren't you a pretty little thing?”

1. asks are ALWAYS open for thoughts , suggestions and thirst ; I don't take requests unless I'm doing an event. I have every right to not answer and deny requests.

2. I don't write for male readers / gender neutral readers. I'm not an experienced writer for them , I'm sorry. This will be mainly female readers and gender neutral readers if I feel like it. I will also not write fordom reader..

m.m ; “you're a flirt, y'know that?”

fandoms I often write for : blue lock , hsr , genshin , windbreaker , jjk.

+ rule : I will write dark content. I separate fiction from reality. (If you fail to do so, please do not interact.) I will not respond to hate. I have limits on gross stuff (like vomit and scat). I do write for piss kink and heavy ddlg themes and especially incest. Please do not interact if you don't like it. DLDR. My blog is sometimes heavy ddne. Please put any sort of age indicator. Yes , I do check my following and likes.

all stuff and content posted are by @melancholymegumi on tumblr and only on tumblr. Do not repost or translate my works without permission.

[goose-girl]

Image by the bird noir on Flickr.

Novels have been annoying me recently. Every time I start a new one, it feels like I am pleading with it as I turn the pages, bored by dialogue that either seems fabricated or too abstract, or by interior monologues that come off predictable or unpredictable to the point of being self-important. I am pleading with the story to consume me, to overwhelm me in the way that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

I always have a book on the go, and only a few novels I read in 2022 have sufficiently overwhelmed me. Cape May by Chip Cheek, Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter, and Hummingbirds by Joshua Gaylord. In the midst of reading these books, I was salivating over every word. Long after I’ve finished them, the stories still swirl around in my head, popping up while I’m washing dishes, grocery shopping, or falling asleep. 

I studied readers’ advisory during my library science masters, and in doing so, I learned how to define my personal reading taste. I lean towards atmospheric, character-driven stories. But, not all atmospheric, character-driven stories captivate me. What set Cape May, Ugly Girls, and Hummingbirds apart is that the stories were so beautifully nuanced and detailed that they were tangible. I felt submerged within a life, and a place in time, that could never be replicated. To me, that is what makes novels captivating and consuming. The infinity of nuance can enrapture me like nothing else. 

Lately, the novels I have been choosing have fallen flat. Not because they are inherently bad books, but because I believe my reading taste has simply evolved. Subconsciously, I had decided that there was a certain sort of story that no longer interested me, but consciously, I hadn’t parsed out exactly what that was. So, I decided to read a genre I had previously thought I would never get into: memoir. 

For years, I considered myself allergic to nonfiction. It stank of textbooks, something that only belonged in the hands of stuffy, insufferable people. Interesting people, I thought, read fiction and explored the innermost chambers of hearts across time and space. Anyone could spit out a fact, but few could replicate the pangs of an unnameable emotion. It wasn’t until I started listening to podcasts and learning about the history of preppy clothes, the underbelly of fast fashion, and obscure Golden Age Hollywood films that I thought I could stomach nonfiction if I could listen to it. I started listening to nonfiction audiobooks: The Barbizon by Paulina Bren, Everybody Behaves Badly by Lesley M.M. Blume, The Real Lolita by Sarah Weinman. Suddenly, nonfiction became exciting. Whereas fiction was exciting for its invitation to untangle an author’s puzzle, nonfiction was exciting because knowing there were things that happened in life that were crazier than fiction (in The Barbizon, Paulina Bren reports that Grace Kelly used to dance topless in the halls of the Barbizon Hotel) meant that life could imitate fiction. And that gave me a bit of hope. 

I found that in memoir, nonfiction blended with the most propulsive, searing elements of fiction. In reading American Girl by Mary Cantwell, a yellowed, thrifted paperback, I was entranced by the shifting persona Cantwell embodied in order to tell her story as truthfully as she can. The prologue to American Girl is a scene of the “I,” presumably Cantwell herself, trapped in her apartment with a cruel husband. This version of Cantwell’s “I” is dreaming of her childhood in Bristol, Rhode Island, when she was dreaming of living in that exact situation. With this prologue, Cantwell sets up the lens through which the story of her childhood will be told: wistful and soft, one that magnifies the sweet, simple beauty of growing up on the ocean in the 1930s and 1940s. Although Cantwell obviously was not fully present in the days leading up to her birth, she tells the story anyway, through the point of view of her parents and grandparents. She knows of this story because of countless tellings of it in her family, and as oral history and gossip is a frequent motif in American Girl, when Cantwell is telling the story of her birth to the reader, she is making the reader privy to a cherished family story, and therefore, welcoming the reader into her childhood home before launching into her experience growing up within it. This is how Cantwell immerses the reader into the narrative, just as an author of fiction would do so by peppering scenes with details, nurturing pathos, or evoking the senses. While experiencing Cantwell’s childhood in the way she remembers it for the sake of self-comfort, the reader is comforted along with her. I found American Girl to be a profoundly comforting read. The lack of plot and abundance of home cooked meals, quirky townspeople, and summertime swims made me yearn for a childhood I would never experience, and I would re-read American Girl again just to be immersed in that world again.

Perhaps I have found such joy in reading memoir because I have reached a point in my life where I’ve crystallized my memories into narratives. I have enough distance from my teenage years to be able to sit on a perch and analyze them. I have a high enough vantage point from my early twenties to be able to trace patterns of behavior that I’ve since outgrown. At twenty-six, I know who my sixteen-year-old self was better than my sixteen-year-old self; I know exactly what my twenty-three-year-old self’s problem was, despite being clueless at the time. I often question whether these narratives I’ve spun for myself are true. They carry the kernel of truth, but sometimes I worry that I cocooned that kernel in the most flattering fluff possible, and that there is some sadder, more pitiful truth I am ignoring. But this impulse to create narratives out of memories is primal. In this essay from Creative Nonfiction called “The Narrative Impulse,” memoir is proven to be crucial to our survival:

These observations become memories, and the meanings they form transcend what we need to survive physically: They form a dynamic interplay with our emotions and thoughts that are essential to our psychological survival in a complex society. Not all of our memories teem at the surface of our conscious thoughts, that is sure, unless we actively set about recollecting them. But, taken together, our memories and perceptions form an autobiographical self, a set of personal myths and stories that give our lives meaning. In fact, people with certain brain impairments—such as occurs in Alzheimer’s patients—have lost this ability to narrate their lives and develop a sort of existential bewilderment, a loss of personhood known as dysnarrativia.

If the meanings I glean from my memories are a psychological weapon against a society flattened by disconnection, then there is no point in fretting over whether I am telling myself a perfectly true narrative. It is an act of kindness towards myself to tell stories that treat my weaknesses as avenues towards growth.

Neither are memoirists telling the most pure form of the truth. They are telling the truth from different vantage points, such as Cantwell telling the truth of her childhood as seen through the lens of her depressed adult self. This is what makes memoirs interesting. Without that vantage point, there is no story. There is no meaning in disparate facts. In “Country Girl,” Edna O’Brien’s memoir, she recounts a childhood memory in which a dog that lives on her family’s farm attacks her. Read alone, it is  simply an anecdote. But read within the context of her career, in which her home country of Ireland all but ostracized her for writing frankly about a woman’s inner life, the dog’s bite is a bloody foreshadowing of how her home will eventually wound her by banning her novels; her books were burned in her own hometown. 

While reading memoir, I am learning how to package the truths of my memories by witnessing others do the same. By retelling my own narratives, I am practicing kindness towards myself. I am learning how to be captivated by the nuances of my own life, which is something fiction could not have taught me. 

[cocktailsfairytales]

The Button Collector

by M.M. Cochran

Publication date: September 17th 2024

Genres: Adult, Psychological Thriller

Synopsis:

When Chicago journalist Jessica Knight is linked to a string of odd murders happening across the country, her life takes a turn for the worse.

She is left wondering why her relatives are the ones dropping like flies under the signature mark of a serial killer . . . why she can’t stop thinking about Michael Bradley, the appealing detective assigned to protect her . . . and most of all, why, despite being the Button Collector’s prime target, she’s still alive at all. One thing she knows for certain: the killer is always watching. As the line between truth and deception begins to blur, Jessica crumbles under the dense web of lies she’s trying to keep straight–especially once the police start questioning more than just her sanity. With pressure mounting, Jessica must navigate being under the watchful eye of the police–and the killer–while risking it all in a dangerous game to make up for the mistakes of her past.

Her days are numbered…one way or the other.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216912389-the-button-collector

Purchase:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3XIg7q0

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-button-collector-m-m-cochran/1146066598

iBooks: https://books.apple.com/ar/book/the-button-collector/id6584513931

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/br/pt/ebook/the-button-collector-2

AUTHOR BIO:

As both a self-published and traditionally published author of YA fiction and a thriller, I know how vulnerable and scary handing your manuscript to an editor can be. . . But it is my job to take care of my clients and their stories, cherishing them as my own.

My novel, Between the Ocean the Stars, was ranked #2 at the worldwide distributors center upon publication and later named a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards. My next novel, The Button Collector, releases in 2024.

Author links:

https://mmcochraneditorial.com/

https://www.instagram.com/m.m.cochran_writer/

GIVEAWAY

Blitz-wide giveaway (INT)

$20 Amazon gift card

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d04251235811/

Hosted by Xpresso Book Tours

[nomajek]

Introduction!!

My name is Nomajek!! I also go by Nomajek the Marigold Monstrum, Noma, and Nomajek M.M. I’m a furry artist, and my main sona is a silly orange rabbit-fox in a cape :3

🐾 she/her, aro/ace spec, and 19yo!

🦋 I love to do art trades! Feel free to ask :D

I may post some stuff with heavier themes. I’ll use tags like #tw blood, #tw vent, and #tw gore if you want to block

I’ll be posting about my OCs and other art stuff :) as well as general furry related things. Also, I plan on writing some thoughts about ideas, my characters, my stories, and more!

read more for details, DNI list, and other socials!

please DNI list:

- terfs and radfems

- proshipper

- zoos and feral p0rn

- pedos/MAPS/lolis/shotas

- LGBTQ+ phobic

- if you support or post AI “art” or NFTs

___________________________________________

main characters!!

Nomajek (she/her): a vibrant orange rabbit in a silly cape!! She is my fursona and she loves to draw, write, play clarinet, and make costumes.

Fiorenzo (he/him): a cheerful and soft-spoken arctic fox in clown makeup! He plays the accordion and he enjoys making sock puppets.

Cornelia (she/they): a friendly goat who enjoys woodworking, gardening, and playing the violin! She is quiet and gentle, and she’s dating Myrtle.

Elwood (they/them): a sleepy deer who works as a botanist and loves nature and tea. They enjoy comfort and familiarity, and they like long walks.

Myrtle (she/her): an outgoing raccoon who loves acting in musicals, singing, and writing poetry! She works at the library and she’s dating Cory.

✨silly space opera✨

this is a science fiction story that I’m writing :3

Switch (he/they): an energetic feline android who has gained sentience and is on the run from Mars. He is playful and mischievous, and loves building.

Mars (they/them): a famous bounty hunter ferret who was hired to track down Switch. They love comic books and they fancy themself a hero.

Kyriel (he/him): a former knight lion from a conquered kingdom. He is Tarvos’ loyal, stoic second-in-command and he mentors Mars.

Tarvos (she/her): a brilliant rat inventor who created Switch, and wants to scrap him for gaining sentience. She hires Mars to catch them.

________________________________

ToyHouse

Instagram

@nomajek_m.m

[kkecreads]

Angels in the Snow by M.M. Chouinard

Published: November 8, 2023 Bookouture Genre: Serial Killer Thrillers Pages: 378 KKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily. M.M. Chouinard is the author of the Detective Jo Fournier mystery thrillers, and the standalone mystery thriller The Vacation. Her first fiction story was published in her local paper when she was eight, and…

[glvlvukcan]

There is a book out now (fiction) that reimagines the friendship between Ella and M.M. I have it on my wish list

Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe

The story circulated in 1950 that Ella Fitzgerald was not wanted to play in the popular Hollywood club ‘Mocambo’ because of her skin color has been totally debunked.

The reality is that the club owner Charlie Morrison was reluctant to book Ella because she was more of a jazz singer and he did not consider her attractive enough. Marilyn Monroe did pressure him to bring her in and promised to make sure that many Hollywood A-list people would be there for publicity on opening night.

It turned out that Ella didn't really need the help. While the likes of Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra were in the audience, she brought the house down with her set and Morrison not only extended her run, but also booked her into the prestigious Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, where she became the first-ever jazz performer to entertain in the hotel's Venetian Room.

[themovieblogonline]

S.S. Rajamouli film 'RRR' is Glorious Indian Action Spectacle and Dance Party

If you haven’t had a chance to catch up with the action spectacular “RRR” (Rise, Roar, Revolt”) from Indian director S.S. Rajamouli yet, you are late to the party my friend. Even busy actor Jessica Chastain carved out  three hours plus from her schedule to experience what all the fuss is about and then tweeted: “Watching this film was such a party.” “RRR” features superstars Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. as friends and rivals in 1920’s India who clash but reunite in a struggle against the British colonialists. It’s a sort of bromance with lots of spectacular battle scenes and close calls with leopards, tigers, and wolves. There's a fabulous dance sequence to the “Naatu Naatu” song, where our heroes wipe the floor with racist English toffs who challenge them and win over the adoration of the ladies who join them in their exuberant moves. "RRR" is over the top for sure and best to just surrender to the energy of the film.  Last week at a screening for Guild members, the crowd laughed, cheered, and stomped. The movie inspires that reaction, especially during the “Naatu Naatu” dance sequence. (On Twitter you can see audience members turn screenings into dance parties.) https://youtu.be/bLKeLYQ5rvM Now the Tollywood film is a serious contender in the awards race. The New York Film critics gave Rajamouli the best director prize last week and composer M.M. Keeravani just received a Golden Globe for the infectious “Naatu Naatu” song, which is also Oscar shortlisted. The film is a fantasy but loosely inspired by real-life revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who battled the British colonialists but never met. Here are some takeaways from the post-screening Q&A I attended:   Where Rajamouli got the idea for the story, which is co-written by his father, veteran writer, V Vijayendra Prasad: “ I always like the idea of bringing two heroes together. Even when I was a kid, when I read two completely different stories, I would like to bring characters from the stories in my head and create my own scenes between them. Sometimes I'm a part of those scenes too. That's how I thought as a kid. And when I was reading the history of Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, the revolutionaries from my part of the country, there were very interesting coincidences. They were on around the same time, at the turn of the 20th century. And when they were in their early twenties, they left their respective homes. And we don't know what happened to them. No one knows what happened to them. And they came back after three, or four years and once they came back, they started fighting against the oppressors in the same way as in the film. I imagined… If I can take that period of time, those two, three years, and I can be a completely fictional story. So except for the fact that I named them Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju, everything else is fictional.” On the visual effects: “I have to see visual effects as a tool. Nothing more than that… Don’t treat visual effects like the star or something special.” About working with these particular stars: “They are good friends and they are friends outside their personal rivalry… Actually, the rivalry (is) between the fans of those two (actors)… when I started writing the characters with these guys in mind, they fit in so perfectly…For Charan, the way I look at him, when I look at him, his eyes seem to be as if they're holding something very painful. And when I look at Tarak (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) his eyes seem so innocent. There's a lot of strength in the eyes… That's the kind of feeling that I get when I look at those actors.” On the shooting schedule: “We shot it for 320 days. I mean, I'm not proud that I shot it for (so long)… I think my producers definitely are not proud that… I would like to do it much faster, but we don't have second unit directors and third unit directors in India. So pretty much every sequence, every scene, almost every shot, I had to direct. So because that's such a big film with such big episodes, I had to shoot one episode, take a break, prepare for the next episode, and shoot it so it is more linear.” Shooting the Naatu Naatu dance sequence:  “Both of them are exceptionally good dancers and we had a great song to showcase their dancing skills. And we had … a beautiful scene that leads up to the dance… Everything is properly put in. But still, I would give most of the credit of the success of that song for the dance choreographer, Prem Rakshith. He's my choreographer. He spent almost two months composing for that number. And just for the two, three signature steps or the hook line steps, he composed more than 100 variations. And you wouldn't believe me. He had four sets of assistants, two assistants each and he was composing the steps for 15, 20 steps, 15, 20 variations. And the assistants were having cramps in their legs and pain in the knees. He would take out one couple and bring in another couple and start composing… The third couple or fourth couple had to go to the hospital because (of injuries).  So he was relentless in getting what he wanted and once the steps were composed, Tarak and Charan, like I said, they're great dancers. They didn't need too much time to practice the steps. They got it quite fast, but they also had to practice a lot because I wanted them to do the steps in exact sync.” On the musical number at the end of the movie, which is a sort of roll call of politicians and freedom fighters:  “There are two, three reasons for that. One is, India had a long freedom struggle against the British (colonialist) for 90 years and almost 100 years before that…so many leaders laid down their lives fighting for the freedom of our country. As a kid, I read many of the stories, heard many of the stories, and some of the stories are so heart touching and I developed the kind of hero worship towards them. Even though my film is not about freedom struggle, (primarily) … it’s about friendship, I thought at the end, it would be a nice way of paying tribute to freedom fighters. But I didn't want to do that in a very sad way or something. I wanted it to be a celebratory kind of number… So all those things put together, I thought by going out of the theater, people should go out to the exuberant feeling, a high feeling.” After the Q&A I caught up with Rajamouli at the reception where he was surrounded by fans and well-wishers. He posed for endless selfies and spoke to anyone who approached. I asked him if the international global success of “RRR” caught him by surprise.  “Yes," Rajamouli told me. "But it’s a wonderful surprise." Read the full article

[melaniem54]

Review : Fathers of the Bride by Marshall Thornton

Review : Fathers of the Bride by Marshall Thornton

Rating: 5 🌈 I’ve so often associated Marshall Thornton with his outstanding but often gritty , and dark stories and series (Boystown series and Pinx Video Mysteries series, both must reads) that I forget this author also writes extremely funny, effervescent novels. Such as Fathers of the Bride, just released. Incredibly witty, often with on point dialogue so sharp you could cut a razor thin…

[thereadingcafe]

[seattlemysterybooks]

philsp

November 1926 issue 

M. M. Musselman, “Sun Dodgers”

Herbert Asbury, “The Thing Without a Name” (Part 2 of ?)

Tom Curry, “Accused"

Grover Kidwell, “Ambushed"

Arthur J. Burks, “Speed!"

Maurice Coons, “The Royal Street Riddle"

Jack Stradling, “Adventures in Graft #1″

Raoul Fauconnier Whitfield, “A Rainy Night"

Seattle Mystery Bookshop    

[rockislandadultreads]

Victorian Era: Historical Fiction Recs

The Savage Instinct by Marjorie DeLuca, M.M. DeLuca

England, 1873. Clara Blackstone has just been released after one year in a private asylum for the insane. Clara has two goals: to reunite with her husband, Henry, and to never—ever—return to the asylum. As she enters Durham, Clara finds her carriage surrounded by a mob gathered to witness the imprisonment of Mary Ann Cotton—England’s first female serial killer—accused of poisoning nearly twenty people, including her husbands and children. Clara soon finds the oppressive confinement of her marriage no less terrifying than the white-tiled walls of Hoxton. And as she grows increasingly suspicious of Henry’s intentions, her fascination with Cotton grows. Soon, Cotton is not just a notorious figure from the headlines, but an unlikely confidante, mentor—and perhaps accomplice—in Clara’s struggle to protect her money, her freedom and her life. In the lineage of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, The Savage Instinct is the chilling story of one woman's struggle for her sanity, set against the backdrop of the arrest and trial of Mary Ann Cotton, England’s first female serial killer.

The North Water by Ian McGuire

A ship sets sail with a killer on board . . . 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little option but to accept the position of ship's surgeon on this ill-fated voyage. But when, deep into the journey, a cabin boy is discovered brutally killed, Sumner finds himself forced to act. Soon he will face an evil even greater than he had encountered at the siege of Delhi, in the shape of Henry Drax: harpooner, murderer, monster . . . 'A tour de force' Hilary Mantel 'Riveting and darkly brilliant' Colm Tóibín

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry's award-winning novel, set at the end of the nineteenth century and inspired by true events. Moving between Essex and London, myth and modernity, Cora Seaborne's spirited search for the Essex Serpent encourages all around her to test their allegiance to faith or reason in an age of rapid scientific advancement. At the same time, the novel explores the boundaries of love and friendship and the allegiances that we have to one another. The depth of feeling that the inhabitants of Aldwinter share are matched by their city counterparts as they strive to find the courage to express and understand their deepest desires, and strongest fears.

The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola

Set in London in 1837, Anna Mazzola's THE UNSEEING is the story of Sarah Gale, a seamstress and mother, sentenced to hang for her role in the murder of Hannah Brown on the eve of her wedding. Perfect for any reader of Sarah Waters or Antonia Hodgson. 'With this intricately woven tale of trust, self-trust and deceit, Anna Mazzola brings a gritty realism to Victorian London. Beautifully written and cleverly plotted, this is a stunning debut, ranked amongst the best' MANDA SCOTT After Sarah petitions for mercy, Edmund Fleetwood is appointed to investigate and consider whether justice has been done. Idealistic, but struggling with his own demons, Edmund is determined to seek out the truth. Yet Sarah refuses to help him, neither lying nor adding anything to the evidence gathered in court. Edmund knows she's hiding something, but needs to discover just why she's maintaining her silence. For how can it be that someone would willingly go to their own death?