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exileseverafter · 1 year ago

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The Author of Exiles Rereads All Of Exiles Published So Far

That's right, I did it. In preparation for Book 4, I started rereading something I started writing...like...ten years ago or something. And you know what? It's pretty good! Turns out I like my stuff!

Behind the cut are a lot of rambling thoughts on each book, along with anything I might have done differently. Mild spoilers, but mostly just authorial navel-gazing.

Book One thoughts: Hey, did you know that if you're making any kind of longform work you should consider taking notes on things like character hair/eye color and background details? And also, it's good to have a beta reader? Because I don't know if I had either at the time of book one! And there are sooo many little continuity errors I noticed! They aren't things you're likely to catch unless you're looking for them, but it makes me think I want to go back at some point and not rewrite book one entirely, but just edit it a little. Fix some errors. It's still solid, and I'm pretty sure me being the author is the only reason it kind of felt like that "Spot the Errors" episode of Garfield and Friends. (Side note: If you can find it on the web, please watch the Garfield and Friends episode "Mistakes Will Happen." It's one of the funniest things ever, with far too many jokes to catch in one viewing for something that predates the internet.)

Also, it turns out that if you try to read something by downloading it in PDF form off of AO3 and putting it on your phone via Kindle, it does unholy things to the formatting. So I do not recommend reading Exiles (or anything else) like that.

Errors aside, god, this was nostalgic. One reason I started this reread was to get back into the heads of the characters, and it all started coming back to me right away. I can go oh, there's where I figured out how this would end. That's when this first comes up. Neat! Also there are some genuine accidental foreshadowing bits that lead into book three, of all things.

Book Two thoughts: Wow, this is long. It's easily the longest of the three, and I'm not sure how well the pacing holds up in retrospect. I was very much writing as a "weekly serial" rather than a novel at this point, and it shows for better or worse. There are chapters where I can tell I was just trying to get something up. Did you know if you write something with regular updates, it's a good idea to have a backlog instead of just writing week to week?

That said, this is where I started to shake off the constraints of "everything must be rooted in some preexisting fairy tale" and I think that's for the best. I started pulling inspiration from 50s pulp sci fi, Little Shop of Horrors, what people in the 90s thought VR was going to be like, and buddy cop flicks. I was figuring out my gender at the time I introduced Rem Tera, and wanted a nonbinary character whose issues were not centered around what were Nonbinary Character Tropes at the time, i.e. 'figuring out nonbinary was a thing, explaining it to others, which bathroom to use, etc.'

I also like playing with scale in unusual ways, and one thing I wanted to lean into was how to create a threatening antagonist who was a few inches tall in a world where people came in giant size. It turns out the answer is 'give him some big monsters to command and scary levels of manipulative charisma.' Lord Germain, you are the worst but I am so proud of you.

Note: I think there may be a chapter missing from the original Jukepop posting. I'll try to go through and fix it soon.

Still also very happy with the final arc, even if the story does a bit of narrative water treading to get there. This book has the most 'quiet time' with the characters, and I think in the long run it helped me flesh out the relationships established in book one and the new ones forming in book two. Especially since book three is pretty story-heavy. Speaking of! Book Three thoughts: Wow, this is like post-timeskip One Piece where one thing just leads right into another. It's unsurprising, since a lot of the plot threads laid in books one and two really activate here. Libra and Valerian have a been a presence from the beginning and Blue was hinted at as far as the Moonflower Market. So yes, I was sitting on those for a while and happy to set them off here.

No Reflection is probably the most difficult original fic work I've written so far. To give you an example, I started it too soon after finishing Of Rot and Bloom and was stalled out for years afterwards. The good news is that like any creative project that isn't made of expiring materials, you can pick a story up at any time. One day I finally decided to ditch the chapter I was stuck on, write something else and start the ball rolling again.

And it worked! I finished it. More or less. There's something of a Nona the Ninth/Alecto the Ninth "book 3 and 4 are part of a piece" feeling to the end of Book Three, but I do try to end on at least a climactic element. There are just a lot more cliffhangers this time around.

Man, I'm mean to Basil in this book and this isn't even his book! Poor guy is gonna have it rough in Book Four.

ALSO, there are at least two missing chapters, and they're important ones that reveal major plot elements. In fact, one is right in the climax. I need to fix that ASAP. Presumably AO3 lets you insert chapters? I'll figure out how.

So, what does this mean for Book Four? It means it's definitely happening, though I don't want to say it's happening immediately. Maybe after the New Year. I have some chapters prewritten for Book Four I want to revise, and this time I'm making sure I have a healthy backlog and a plot outline worked out.

For everyone who's read any part of Exiles, thanks so much for supporting me thus far! I really appreciate it. Wouldn't be able to keep up this much enthusiasm without you. And if you're thinking of writing (or drawing, or animating) your own original thing, my advice is just to do it! Just jump in. Yeah, it won't be perfect, but you'll learn by doing, and an imperfect story that exists is always better than the idealized one trapped in your head.

#The Exiles Ever After #cornet stuff #writing stuff

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hamliet · 3 years ago

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Hello good morning, I really like your CFC ask so I come here with one after today’s chapter… especially because I don’t know how to feel in regard to 203 after HY’s reveal. What do you think? I like HY, I kinda had an inkling he either had something along the lines of the ErHa flower or he was undercover, but after 203 I discarded this idea, albeit not completely and now I’m kinda conflicted cause 203 was non-con and… yeah 😓 I trust you cause you’re very eloquent and can out into words what I can’t

Hi! So... my thoughts aren't super positive, unfortunately.

I'm really strongly reminded with this present arc of what happened during the final arc of the manga Tokyo Ghoul:re. Those of you who have been with me since then already know my Strong Opinions on it, but the short of it is that the author was under so much stress and pressure that he lost the ability to taste and smell, wasn't sleeping, and feared that if he took a break he'd never finish the story, so he rushed the ending. I've always held he did the right thing for himself. Please don't think I'd ever think otherwise. He's a genius writer of unique talent.

However, that doesn't make the story itself any better. The rushed ending was done in such a way that the main theme got utterly broken. The framing was contradictory chapter to chapter, and it ultimately took its powerful message and inverted it to something I personally found triggering and offensive. Even my personal feelings and triggers aside, it was objectively not well written.

I don't know what's going on in Meatbun's personal life, and I'm not gonna speculate. But the novel itself is a thematically contradictory mess at this point, and I don't know if it is salvageable. I'm inclined to say it's not.

This is a shame, because honestly I feel like Case File Compendium started off as by far the strongest of her novels, and up until the fight scene it pretty much kept impressing me. It took themes and concepts from 2ha and Yuwu but refined them, expounded on them in ways that felt fresh and unique, and offered powerful messages on redemption and the meaning of life. The story perfectly straddled the line between realism and cyberpunk/sci-fi.

That's kind of all gone now. It feels like everything plunged into an acid vat, and I mean colloquial acid.

The framing of 203 completely contradicts the entirety of the story before it.

So let's back up a bit. Framing is what tells you how to view a plot device, character choice, moment, etc. It indicates authorial intent in some ways. For the record, I can read pretty much anything if it's framed well. I am all for those enemies to lovers who try to kill each other, have killed a loved one, kidnap each other, whatever. But, it needs to be framed in a... morally defensible way for me to enjoy it personally. Meaning, it should be dealt with.

But, you say, the story might just not be for you, Hamliet! That's very true. It's all fine to write what you want and frame it how you want. However, it's also true that no story occurs in a vacuum, and the issues CFC explores (sexual assault) are very, very serious, and often triggering. Still, competing needs are a thing, and it's not morally wrong to read or write a story that frames it as less than a horror (it's a trope in romance, and LGBT+ media for a reason--gee, it's almost like fiction aimed at people who are societally conditioned to not express sexuality might find the concept of what's initially forced sexuality leading to hope and romance and new life resonating with them).

The problem with this in CFC is that it has made the incident in the 50s one of the inciting incidents of the novel. Now, the framing of the Club Scene actually bothered me way less than, in theory, the framing of QJJ's first sex scene between Yao Wenyu/Qiao Tianya did (it wasn't consensual, but it was not framed as a violation). However, the QJJ scene is not a major scene in the novel.

The Club Scene was always the big "can we come back from this?" moment. He Yu's own arc started when he realized how wrong he'd been to treat Xie Qingcheng so, and there was such regret and suffering--think of He Yu writing I'm sorry, XQC over and over and over again over a significant length of time. We even had a repeat where He Yu goes back to the club to self-destruct and Xie Qingcheng decides he's not afraid this time and marches in to haul He Yu out. It was framed as deathly serious.

Now that's gone. Listen, maybe 203 is in retrospect supposed to be read as dubcon, if Xie Qingcheng really did know all along--it could, because I don't read Chinese, so clearly I'm limited in my understanding. But, I haven't heard anything from people who do read Chinese that indicates it was readable as dubcon. And even if that is the intention, which is my understanding at the moment... it feels icky.

Why would you bait readers with a serious topic that was previously framed as such a serious moment? Why is that the topic about which to pull a sudden switcheroo? It's not a good twist. It doesn't add anything to the story that revealing it earlier would have not added. It just makes us feel confused. There is 0 narrative point to keeping Xie Qingcheng and He Yu's situations a secret other than to just get off on noncon p*rn but then whoops, don't worry, it's fine. It doesn't work with the previous framing wherein it was seriously dealt with and gut-wrenching to read.

It undermines the previous handling of the topic. It just feels cheap. I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

#ask hamliet #cfc #bab #bing an ben #case file compendium #he yu #xie qingcheng #tw

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haveyouseenthisskeleton · 4 years ago

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what is the favorite book/film/music of the skelebro?

Undertale Sans - No big surprise here, he loves things that makes him laugh. He was stuck for too long Underground and now he has 50 years of comedy to catch up. He also loves sci-fi and fantasy books and films a lot. He even tried role play. He’s not really a music type of people, even if he still enjoys a lot films ost.

Undertale Papyrus - He loves action films and detective stories the most. He also enjoys super-hero comics, cartoons, animes and movies. And also documentaries about the human body for some reason. It’s still weird when S/O come to the room and see it passionate about human feet. For music, he’s not difficult either. He loves whatever his S/O loves. He has no ears anyway, you know.

Underswap Sans - He loves comedy, but also these romantic-thrillery TV movies of the afternoon. He loves to predict all the stories since everything is so bad playing. It’s like a puzzle. For music, he loves everything that is a bit rythmic. He listend to it while doing his jogging the morning.

Underswap Papyrus - Disney movies. Disney OST. Cartoons. And that’s it. If you let him, he can spend two days crying and laughing watching Disney movies and cartoons. He’s so into it you can sometimes hear him yell after the villain.

Underfell Sans - He’s a Netflix watcher. He doesn’t like TV a lot, since Boss never wanted him to watch it anyway in the Underground. The only thing he’s using his TV for is playing video games. God, he loves new video games. The power to kill people without doing it for real. His favorite music are his favorite video games OST. And Metal. He doesn’t like the music, but it’s pissing Edge off, so it’s his favorite music now.

Underfell Papyrus - Believe it or not, he loves Titanic. It got him everytime. He should be happy that everyone dies but he’s always crying like a baby, hugging a big pillow at the end. He is trying to watch it often so he can outpass that stupid weakness but it doesn’t work. He’s yelling after Jack’s stupidity everytime. “WHY WOULD YOU STAY IN THE WATER YOU IDIOT DUMBASS THERE’S ENOUGH PLACE FOR TWO !?”. He enjoys a lot classic music too. Since he is very angry all the time, it’s almost calming him down. Same thing for books. He read only classic books.

Horrortale Sans - Since he has a very low concentration, he’s only enjoying short films and animations, and short books too. He loves comics, strip cartoons, and mangas. It easier to read without him sleeping after two pages. He likes every type of music. He is very anxious all the time and listening to music is one way to calm him down. He has playlists to go with how he feels on the day.

Horrortale Papyrus - He loves sitcoms. He has already watch all the most known one hundred of times, but he is still enjoying it. He also have a passion for old movies and TV shows, because he finds fascinating how everything is evolving so fast in the human world. He loves reading young adult big books on everything, and mostly on fantasy and science-fiction. He actually has a Bookstagram and he is popular on it.

Swapfell Sans - He is such a boomer. He watches only author films and the ones with a deep psychological dimension. He loves reading autobiography and politics book, science and documentaries one too. But he has a deep, deep secret. Hiding in a closet, he’s got a collection of children’s album. He loves the different types of drawings more than the story, but he still scared his brother found out and mocked him about him. He is a very serious Skelly boy. He also enjoys classic music.

Swapfell Papyrus - He’s a big fan of japanese stupid shows. He loves to see how humanity is able to being crazy without being judge. And sometimes people almost die ! That’s so cool ! He also likes animes and is spoiling everything on social medias just to fight with random people, even if he doesn’t like the show. He has also a passion for bad special effects on movies. He used them to spam his brother mailbox and make him angry. His favorite movie is The Gremlins. He watched it with his brother one time. The next day, he bought 700 furbies and make him believe that was Gremlins. Sans is traumatised. He’s having panic attacks when he saw Furbies now. He doesn’t read much, except for Alphys’ fanfictions because it’s always funny. He is always dying in these. He is also a Metal listener. He loves Metal, and even more Metal concerts.

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peanutparade · 4 years ago

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Someone asked me what my process was, and I’m not sure I gave her a satisfying answer in the PM, so here I will attempt to explain how I make a game from start to finish.

*Please note the the drafts above are not for the same story, but for the purpose of illustration.

**Also please take this advice with a grain of salt. I’m not a published author (though I do know a bit about the publishing industry), and I’m definitely not a perfect writer. This is my process, and the things I try to keep in mind when I’m writing, and you may find this advice to be complete garbage.

Step one: Get an idea for a story. I can’t really give any tips on how to go about doing this. I tend to take inspiration from other works of media (classical literature is my favorite, though I have taken cues from more contemporary sources as well).

Step two: Consider who your characters are going to be. It’s okay if you only have one or two characters in mind at first. I’m pretty utilitarian about my characters, so most of them don’t get created until step three.

Step three: Open a word document and just start typing shit out. (I use Google Drive so I can access it from anywhere, and for another reason which I’ll get to later.) Don’t stop to think, don’t even breathe. Just type. Any idea that comes into your head goes in the document. Some of it won’t make sense with everything else, some of it will contradict other things, some of it will be vaguely defined. You will fix that later. This is the most important part (especially the way I write), because it’s where you’re going to get an idea of how your story starts and how it ends, as well as cement your cast of characters. If you need a scene where your main character goes to a lighthouse, then you know you’ll also need to come up with a lighthouse keeper (see my comment above about being utilitarian with characters. I’m no authority, so if you do things differently, that’s fine, but I don’t like making characters that don’t serve a purpose).

Step four: Annotation, annotation, annotation! (This is the other thing I use Google Drive for, as it has a comment feature that I heavily rely on.) Go through all your scribbling and make notes for yourself. Be a little hard on yourself here, because this is the part where you’re going to try to make everything you’ve written in Draft 1 cohesive. This will be a long process, as you need to think about how all of this is connected, as well as think about what sort of arcs your main characters are going to go through. I read somewhere once that ALL of your characters have to go through an arc, but that’s a bunch of wacky nonsense. Some characters are minor characters, and thus do not require depth. The only character arc that MUST be included is the main character’s arc. Remember: character arc ≠ character motivation. ALL major characters (protagonist(s), love interest(s), villain(s)) MUST have motivation for what they are doing. The motivation doesn’t have to be anything too complex, just so long as the audience understands why the characters are doing what they’re doing. (Minor characters with motivation can make the world feel more real and lived in, but they can also make the story feel bogged down. Brevity is key here, and sometimes less is more.)

Step five: Draft 2 All of that plotting you just did? Throw it away! Just kidding, don’t actually throw it away. BUT you’re going to rewrite your plot outline, tidier this time, and only refer back to Draft 1 when you get stuck. Feel free to come up with new ideas during this time; Draft 1 is not your story’s final form. If you think of scenes or quotes, feel free to include them in this draft, but you’re mostly just outlining right now. (As you may notice in the image above, Draft 2 is also subject to annotation.) Draft 2 is where you should be solidifying the themes of your story. Character arc(s) should tie into and support this theme. This is also the draft where you should be catching any plot holes (especially if you don’t have an editor/beta reader), as once you’ve begun actually writing the story, any problems here will only compound as you go.

Step six: Write the story It’s pretty straightforward. Follow Draft 2 (and any additional annotations you made on Draft 2), and go scene by scene and write. I never skip around, as it makes it hard to keep track of what characters know at what time, but I know of authors that do skip around, and they seem to do okay. You’ll have to figure out what works best for you.

Step seven: Edit, edit, edit! Aside from the obvious (typos and spelling errors), look out for:

Scenes that are too long or too short. Counterintuitively, these may be the result of the same problem: a lack of purpose. Ask yourself, “Does this need to be here?”

Long-winded info dumps. Consider the old adage, “show, don’t tell.” Whenever information can be conveyed through action or reaction, write it that way. If you can convey two things at the same time (i.e. something about a character and also something about the world--bonus if these two things are actually unrelated to each other), do it.

Information that your audience wouldn’t logically have being the key to resolving the plot. Especially in sci-fi and fantasy stories, if the conclusion of the story relies on knowing something--even if it’s something that the characters all know--you need to make sure your audience also knows this, or else they will be frustrated. Keep in mind the Rule of Threes.

And that’s the story portion done. If you’re making a visual novel/dating sim, there are other steps you need to do. (I usually do this stuff while writing the story so it doesn’t get tedious, but if you’re hiring people to do this other stuff, you should probably have the writing done ahead of time. If you’re hiring writers to help you, you should have Draft 1 done, at the least. Your writers can probably take it from there.)

NOTE: Any job you don’t do yourself is something that will cost you money. If you can find other aspiring creators to volunteer their time to your project, good for you, but please do not approach anyone directly unless you plan to offer to pay them (”for exposure” is not payment).

Step eight: Character sprites Major characters are going to need to be represented visually in your visual novel (go figure!), so... draw some people? I know some people make character design sheets, but I just jump right in, and then later, make microedits to the sprites as the mood strikes me. The design sheet thing is probably a smarter way to do it. I use photoshop, and I would strongly encourage keeping hair, clothing, and facial features on separate layers until you know exactly how you plan to code them into your game.

Step nine: Backgrounds Same as the sprites, except places instead of people. I’m bad at this, so I have no right to give anyone advice. I use a 3D interior design app to create a guide for what I want rooms to look like, and then I use that to get my vanishing points and furniture sizing right. This method is 50% tracing, 50% wishing I was dead. I do not recommend it.

Step ten: Audio If your game will have voice acting, get that together now. If you’re composing your own music, you’re more talented than I am. For my first game, I utilized royalty free options (incompetech and bensound), but now I hire a composer (I do still supplement my soundtrack with royalty free options if it’s for something inconsequential). I don’t use many sound effects, but when I do, I just look for free options online.

Step eleven: Coding I use Ren’py because it’s free and easy to learn (provided you don’t want to do anything too complicated). There are tons of resources online to teach you how to use Ren’py, both from official sources and unofficial sources. I’ve never posted in the forums myself, but the people there seem very kind and helpful if you get stuck. (If anyone wants to see how I code, specifically, I’ll do a Part Two for it, but I have to warn you that my games are the coding equivalent car repairs done with bubblegum and duct tape.)

Step twelve: Playtesting Make sure your game works. It’s pretty straightforward. You can even recruit some guinea pigs--I mean, friends to help you. (I don’t have any friends, so I do this part on my own.)

By this point, a year or so will have passed (give or take, depending how long your game is, how much time you have to work on it, and how much of the work you plan to do by yourself), and with any luck, you’ll have a game! Posting your game on itch.io is free, but putting your game on steam will cost you $100.

Like I said to the person on patreon who originally asked me about my process, making a visual novel is a lot of work, but I encourage everyone to at least try it and see if you like it.

I look forward to hearing your stories! ♥

#peanut parade #peanutparade #peanut parade games #indiedev #gamedev #writing #visual novel

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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Interstellar travel could make human language evolve beyond recognition, study says

https://sciencespies.com/space/interstellar-travel-could-make-human-language-evolve-beyond-recognition-study-says/

Interstellar travel could make human language evolve beyond recognition, study says

It’s a captivating idea: build an interstellar ark, fill it with people, flora, and fauna of every kind, and set your course for a distant star! The concept is not only science fiction gold, its been the subject of many scientific studies and proposals.

By building a ship that can accommodate multiple generations of human beings (aka. a Generation Ship), humans could colonize the known Universe.

But of course, there are downsides to this imaginative proposal. During such a long voyage, multiple generations of people will be born and raised inside a closed environment. This could lead to all kinds of biological issues or mutations that we simply can’t foresee.

But according to a new study by a team of linguistics professors, there’s something else that will be subject to mutation during such a voyage – language itself!

This study, “Language Development During Interstellar Travel“, appeared in the April issue of Acta Futura, the journal of the European Space Agency’s Advanced Concepts Team.

The team consisted of Andrew McKenzie, an associate professor of linguistics at the University of Kansas; and Jeffrey Punske, an assistant professor of linguistics at Southern Illinois University.

In this study, McKenzie and Punske discuss how languages evolve over time whenever communities grow isolated from one another. This would certainly be the case in the event of a long interstellar voyage and/or as a result of interplanetary colonization.

Eventually, this could mean that the language of the colonists would be unintelligible to the people of Earth, should they meet up again later.

For those who took English at the senior or college level, the story of Caxton’s “eggys” ought to be a familiar one.

In the preface to his 1490 translation of Virgil’s Aeneid (Eneydos) into Middle English, he tells a story of a group of merchants who are traveling down the Thames toward Holland. Due to poor winds, they are forced to dock in the county of Kent, just 80 kilometres (50 miles) downriver and look for something to eat:

“And one of them named Sheffield, a merchant, came into a house and asked for meat and, specifically, he asked for eggs (“eggys”). And the good wife answered that she could speak no French. And the merchant got angry for he could not speak French either, but he wanted eggs and she could not understand him. And then at last another person said that he wanted ‘eyren’. Then the good woman said that she understood him well.”

This story illustrates how people in 15th century England could travel within the same country and experience a language barrier. Well, multiply that to 4.25 light-years to the nearest star system and you can begin to see how language could be a major complication when it comes to interstellar travel.

To illustrate, McKenzie and Punske use examples of different language families on Earth and how new languages emerged due to distance and time. They then extrapolated how this same process would occur over the course of 10 generations or more of interstellar/interplanetary travel.

As McKenzie explained in a UK press release:

“If you’re on this vessel for 10 generations, new concepts will emerge, new social issues will come up, and people will create ways of talking about them, and these will become the vocabulary particular to the ship. People on Earth might never know about these words, unless there’s a reason to tell them.

“And the further away you get, the less you’re going to talk to people back home. Generations pass, and there’s no one really back home to talk to. And there’s not much you want to tell them, because they’ll only find out years later, and then you’ll hear back from them years after that.”

An example they use is the case of Polynesian sailors who populated the South Pacific islands between 3,000 and 1,000 BCE.

Though the roots of these sailors are traced to Taiwan (ca. 6000 BCE) this process of expansion led to the development of entirely new cultures by the 1st millennium BCE. The Polynesian languages that emerged bore little resemblance to the ancient Austronesia language (aka. “Formosan”) of their ancestors.

Similarly, the authors cite language changes that take place within the same language community over time, using the example of “uptalk.” Also known as “High Rising Terminal,” this phenomenon involves statements ending with a rise in intonation.

While it is often mistaken for a question by those who are unfamiliar with it, the convention is actually intended to indicate politeness or inclusion.

As the authors note, “uptalk” has only been observed in the English language within the past 40 years and its origins are unclear. Nevertheless, the spread of it has been noted, particularly by members of the Baby Boomer generation that use it today, but did not in their youth.

Another issue they identify is sign language, which will require adaptation from the crew since some crewmembers will be born hearing impaired.

Without someone keeping track of changes and trying to maintain grammatical standards, linguistic divergence will be inevitable. But as they note, that might be irrelevant, since language on Earth is going to change during that same time.

“So they may well be communicating like we’d be using Latin – communicating with this version of the language nobody uses,” said McKenzie.

Last, but not least, they address what will happen when subsequent ships from Earth reach the colonized planets and meet the locals. Without some means of preparation (like communication with the colony before they reach it), new waves of immigrants will encounter a language barrier and could find themselves being discriminated against.

Because of this, they recommend that any future interplanetary or interstellar missions include linguists or people who are trained in what to expect – translation software ain’t gonna’ cut it!

They further recommend that additional studies of likely language changes aboard interstellar spacecraft be conducted, so people know what to expect in advance. Or as they conclude in their study:

“Given the certainty that these issues will arise in scenarios such as these, and the uncertainty of exactly how they will progress, we strongly suggest that any crew exhibit strong levels of metalinguistic training in addition to simply knowing the required languages. There will be need for an informed linguistic policy on board that can be maintained without referring back to Earth-based regulations.”

Just for fun, let’s see what kinds of linguistic changes could take place.

For starters, let’s assume that a generation ship does take a full ten generations to reach its destination – in this case, Proxima b. Ten more generations pass before the next ship arrives, bringing people from Earth who still speak modern English.

Using the language evolution-simulator Onset, and an English-IPA translator, we can get a small taste of how a simple English-language greeting, and a common request (if you’re in a 50s sci-fi B movie), would change over twenty generations:

“Helluhuh fret, goot tu’uh be’yat yu. Took be’ye to’o u’ul ley’eru, pley’yaz.”

As you can see “Hello friend, good to meet you. Take me to your leader, please” comes out a little different after twenty generations of separation.

How about something more complicated, but no less familiar? Here’s a famous speech that fans of space exploration and history should recognize. After twenty years of interstellar travel, here’s how that speech would sound:

“Wu’eh cho’oz to’o go to’o too Bo’od! Wu’eh cho’oz to’o go to’o too Bood id teez dey’ich udh do’oh tey’e de uttur teedgz, dot biga’ozz tey’e ar ey’ery’eh, boot biga’ozz tey’e ar hard; biga’ozz tat goal wool surve to’o olgoodiez uhd bez’hur too bezt oov uhur eluree’iaz uhd skeelz, uhd biga’ozz tat chaludi iz wuhd tat wu’e ahr wooleet to’oh igsept, wuhd wu’e ahr udu’illid to’o postbode, ohd wuhd wu’e iddet to’o wud.”

Can you guess what speech that is? Keep in mind, this is just a basic simulation of how the English language might change for a group of colonists, never mind people here on Earth.

And when you take time to consider all of the spoken language and dialects spoke today, and that any combination of these will be brought with the colonists to the stars, you can see how confounding it all could be!

There is a reason why the myth of the Tower of Babel remains embedded in our collective unconscious. Language barriers have always been a hurdle for human interaction, especially where long stretches of time and space are concerned.

So if humanity plans to “go interstellar” (or interplanetary), we’ll be taking that hurdle to a whole new level!

In the meantime, you can check out several other articles we’ve done on the subject of generations ships, how big they would have to be, and the minimum number of crew they would need.

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

#Space

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gh0stbird · 5 years ago

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Okay Now Do The Rest

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

Bright but argumentative. I was never afraid of pointing out things I didn’t feel were fair hfhddh

When we were learning numbers kids would often write 91 for nineteen, just flip them, y’know, and Ms. Potter yelled at the class for it. Baby Generiq went into it about how it was an understandable mix up because you do say the number first. In twenty-three you write the two first, so in nineteen it’s easy to assume you would write the nine first.

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

Tired.

8. movies or tv shows?

TV shows. Every book adaptation should also be a series not a movie. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

9. favorite smell in the summer?

Honeysuckle and sunshine

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

Floor hockey! My friend and I used to be brutal and swing at each other’s shins going after the ball. Also it was reminiscent of golf, which I competed in.

12. name of your favorite playlist?

I have an untitled playlist I cycle my current music in and out of, but Newton’s Third Law is my favorite named one!

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

I don’t- I guess the yellow smarties. Don’t come for me they taste like lemonade.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

I assume this means assigned book and not the reports we got to pick for ourselves. Ah, Night was good. Lord of the Flies was fine but way overhyped. Again, don’t come for me.

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

If I can tuck my legs into the chair I am sitting in that is ideal!

18. ideal weather?

When you know it is going to rain and you get to stay home

19. sleeping position? (Skipped on accident)

I reeeally like pressure, so either against something or on my stomach.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

Phone notes and a notebook! Sometimes a blank document but I always find it strangely intimidating

21. obsession from childhood?

Warrior Cats, Percy Jackson, and Maximum Ride were my big three!

22. role model?

Aa I try to straw from people I want to copy, but there are talents I look up to. Rachel Chavkin is a brilliant director, and there are so many artists and authors I look up to and who inspire me.

24. favorite crystal?

Obsidian because it’s black like my hea- I’m kidding, I do love obsidian, but it’s Rose Quartz because it’s a very very pretty, soft pink and makes me happy.

25. first song you remember hearing?

The mobile above my crib played Imagine by John Lennon. My childhood room was themed after it as well!

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

Swim or sit in the sunshine. Ben and I usually go driving with the top down as well.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

Walking through fresh snow is amazing, so are snowball fights and building snowmen.

28. five songs to describe you?

Oh fuck yes

Hurricane - Hamilton

The Reckless and the Brave - All Time Low

Almost There - The Princess and the Frog

All This and Heaven Too - Florence + the Machine

Facade - Jekyll and Hyde: A Gothic Musical Thriller

30. places that you find sacred?

I don’t typically find places sacred, but certain headspaces are very special to me, and time spent with loved ones means more than enough to be considered sacred.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

A black blazer with a white button-down and a skirt.

32. top five favorite vines?

I am in Missouri (misery)

I love you, Bitch

I want a Church girl

Obama’s “I know because I won both of them”

I won’t hesitate, Bitch!

33. most used phrase in your phone?

“No worries”

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

That fucking PFI bandana boot sale I stg

35. average time you fall asleep?

Somewhere between 9:00 and three in the morning

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

Some girl doing bunny ears on her friend. I don’t remember what the caption was

38. lemonade or tea?

Both. Mixed together. It’s called an Arnold Palmer and it is my favorite drink

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

Lemon cake!

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

We duck taped out principal to the wall once. Also some kid broke their tray over another kid’s head at lunch one time.

41. last person you texted?

The family group chat, though Beau if Discord counts

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

I wear a lot of leggings so jacket pockets!

44. favorite scent for soap?

We had some Lily of the Valley hand soap that was amazing

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

Fantasy, I think! I’ve never done super heavy into the other two. Though I definitely don’t want to ignore sci-fi because two of my favorite stories are a little science-fiction-y

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

A t-shirt and shorts

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

A banana. Generally accepted as a fruit and kind of just rolls with it, but is actually a berry

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

I fucking hate Hamilton-ing on main, but

“And when my prayers to god were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance!”

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

That changes every time Beau and I play HetaOni together, but I have fucking lost it for at least five minutes the last two sessions.

51. current stresses?

I dunno, man, life? My hair could use a wash

52. favorite font?

Covered by your Grace and I’m a big Spectral baby. These are both google docs! I don’t know if that makes a difference.

54. what did you learn from your first job?

Patience is important when teaching material, but never be afraid to find another approach better suited to the person you’re tutoring.

55. favorite fairy tale?

Robin Hood!

56. favorite tradition?

My family does homemade Springfield cashew chicken for Christmas!

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

Uhh lots of self-acceptance shit no one really wants to read

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

I can pop the joint at the center of my foot

That’s all

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

I sort of like my role as mom friend, so maybe I could keep that role in a sort of action-based anime that followed a group of friends

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

“I am not the protégé to waste your time on; I'm complete!” Jekyll and Hyde: GMT

62. seven characters you relate to?

Haha

Lisa Carew - Jekyll and Hyde: GMT

Japan - Hetalia/Oni

Garnett - Steven Universe

Hfhddh that’s all I can say that aren’t my own characters

63. five songs that would play in your club?

I Don’t Like Clubs, but

Overwhelmed - Royal + The Serpent

Backseat Serenade - All Time Low

Go Big or Go Home - American Authors

The Nights - Avicii

Tempo - Lizzo

64. favorite website from your childhood?

Webkinz!

65. any permanent scars?

Yep - One from a bad bike wreck. My body rejected the dissolvable stitches so it’s a lot bigger than it was supposed to be

66. favorite flower(s)?

Lily of the Valley, daisies, Day Lilies, and Dandelions! I also love honeysuckles but I don’t know if those count.

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

Accidentally drank rancid milk once!

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? (Haha, nice)

The fastest, free way to fill up your potions on Wizard101 is to play Potion Motion to level three.

70. left or right handed?

Right handed

71. least favorite pattern?

On myself, animal print

72. worst subject?

I’ve never been intuitively good at History, I do think it’s interesting though.

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

I don’t like to take it until I can’t move without it.

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

Kindergarten? I had mono and then scarlet fever twice, so my baby teeth were pretty much ruined and they all fell out very fast.

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

Curly fries!

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

Kalanchoe’s, it literally Window’s Thrill. These babies are fairly temperamental outside and love partial sun, so the window is the perfect spot for them. And! If you keep them happy! They’ll bloom! My personal favorite is the pink bloom.

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

What’s wrong with coffee from a gas station? Also I don’t like seafood.

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

Earth tones!

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

Lightning bugs

82. pc or console?

PC!

84. podcasts or talk radio?

Podcasts - talk radios actually tend to get under my skin for n o reason

84. barbie or polly pocket?

Barbie, but let it be known I was brutal with mine. We did human sacrifices and the like.

85. fairy tales or mythology?

Mythology!

86. cookies or cupcakes?

Cookies, but I’m a slut for whipped frosting

87. your greatest fear?

Losing control!

88. your greatest wish?

A life beyond where I am now. Haha Stop chasing new down the hallway you’re so sexy haha

90. luckiest mistake?

Logged into Omegle in like 2015 and some rando asked me to join their Doctor Who roleplay. Luckiest moment of my gd life.

91. boxes or bags?

Bags! They’re easier to store

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

Sunlight! But in the late afternoon when everything is bathed in orange.

93. nicknames?

Mom is the most prevalent!

94. favorite season?

Fall into winter. Peak leaf crunch!

95. favorite app on your phone?

Discord or Notes

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tshepiso-reads-books · 5 years ago

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Space Polio is Terrifying | The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

Started: July 20th, 2020

Finished: July 30th, 2020

While The Relentless Moon didn’t quite reach the heights of other books in the Lady Astronaut series I enjoyed my time with this story. Mary Robinette Kowal is a fantastic character writer and easily sucked me into the world of Nicola Wargin and the story she told in this installment was compelling overall.

The third book in the Lady Astronaut series follows a friend of Elma and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicola Wargin. We follow Nicola as she works to uncover a saboteur on the Lunar Colony. Nicola deals with both this high stakes investigation, a polio outbreak on the moon, and the repercussions of her husband Kenneth’s political career.

While I had a good time with The Relentless Moon I didn’t love it as much as The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky. My biggest problem with this book was its genre. I’m not the biggest fan of mystery and suspense so the plot of the book left a lot to be desired for me personally. Stories that ask me to solve mysteries and figure out twists generally don’t work for me so a huge part of the plot of this novel was unengaging. I will say the book felt fairly well constructed so anyone who enjoys the genre may love this book, but I found it difficult to connect with the story.

The Relentless Moon also lacked on a character level for me in comparison to the previous two books in this series. Because of the investigation, Nicola doesn’t allow herself to get to know the characters surrounding her. While this logically makes sense it made all of the suspects in the mystery feel shallow. The vast majority of characters in this book felt indistinct because we spent so little time with them and even if I wanted to attempt to solve the mystery along with Nicola I couldn’t because I knew so little about our list of suspects. Spending more time with the side characters in this book could’ve made the ultimate reveal more satisfying because we would have been invested in them beforehand.

I’ll also say it felt like there was a lot more technical jargon throughout this novel compared to previous installments. While I love the science-y feel of these novels The Relentless Moon felt a lot more packed with technical jargon and said jargon felt more integral to understanding the plot of the novel. I routinely forgot what acronyms stood for and the general set up of the Lunar pods. While I wouldn’t say this was a major issue with the book it did make the reading experience less smooth.

Despite my grievances, Mary Robinette Kowal’s writing, in general, was still stellar. She goes above and beyond with her character writing and Nicola Wargin was a fantastic protagonist to follow. Kowal knows how to write distinct character voices and Nicola was equally compelling as Elma.

The issues Nicola is dealing with in this novel, being a woman over 50 and knowing your value is directly tied to your age, being a wife of a politician and having every action criticized because of it, and how her battle with anorexia affected her ability to do her job was written incredibly well. I will warn if you are particularly sensitive to portrayals of eating disorders and food aversion this may be one to avoid, but Kowal discusses in her author’s note that she tried her best to avoid triggering depictions of Nicola’s anorexia and this element of her journey comes from Kowal’s personal experiences with ED. While Nicola does have an eating disorder it doesn’t define her and Kowal takes the time to portray how an eating disorder can affect someone during times of extreme stress without falling into harmful tropes and stereotypes.

The discussions of ageing in regards to Nicola was also done incredibly well. Nicola is over 50 and has arthritis. She’s incredibly aware that unlike her male counterparts she’s very close to being completely discounted for her age. Seeing her actively deal with the physical effects of ageing and the effects like being considered “old hat” by her superiors was an interesting layer to the story. Kowal examines the harsh double standards placed on women compared to men when their competence is challenged based on their age. Nicola is routinely considered washed up while men older than her are valued for their experience. Overall I loved seeing an older woman being placed front and center in an action-packed science fiction novel.

What I loved about Nicola was how the combination of competence and confidence progressed the narrative. Nicola’s history as a trained spy meant she had a lot of clever deductive reasoning that pushed the story in interesting directions. Compared to Elma who while incredibly competent struggled with social interaction. I loved seeing the various ways Nicola manipulated the people around her to get shit done. While things like her struggle with an eating disorder did affect her judgement she was overall a badass spy who routinely came up with clever solutions to tricky situations.

Like in the first two books of this series the relationship between Nicola and her husband Kenneth is a central part of the narrative. Mary Robinette Kowal is one of the few authors writing loving and supportive marriages in the speculative world. I love that Kowal centers functioning healthy marriages in her stories and depicts what mutual respect and proper communication looks like in relationships long term. Kowal writes top tier couples that stay in my feelings. The unending support Kenneth and Nicola had for each other’s careers and the ways Kowal shows how much they know and understand each other made my heart so soft. I associate the 50s and 60s with the patriarchal nuclear family and I love that Kowal goes the extra mile to completely subvert that stereotype.

One central aspect of this story I found fascinating was the polio outbreak. I will warn that if you’re not in the mood for stories about pandemics you should definitely avoid this book but I loved the way this novel contextualized polio as a disease. I’m privileged enough to have never had to concern myself with polio or its effects and this book taught me so much about it about what this disease looked like and how it affected people before there was a widespread vaccine. Kowal described in somewhat graphic detail how sudden and unexpected polio can be often depicting how quickly it spreads and how staggering its effects, from respiratory issues and fever to partial or complete paralysis, could be. I would recommend this book to any anti-vaxxer because I can’t imagine anyone walking away from this book dismissing the importance of vaccinating against horrible diseases like polio.

Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

In the end, while The Relentless Moon is my least favourite book in the Lady Astronaut series so far it’s still a great novel. I love Mary Robinette Kowal’s writing and look forward to any and all future installments in this series. If you’re a sci-fi lover or a fan of stories about complex women being badass there is no reason not to pick up these books.

#Lady Astronauts #Mary Robinette Kowal #Sci Fi #Adult Sci Fi #Book Review

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shuflynn · 3 years ago

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Writing About Writing v3

Do you hide the fact you write?

You might raise your eyebrows at that. Maybe because you are a closet writer, or maybe because you’ve never hid it, but I believe this post will resonate with all writers.

I did hide the fact I wrote for a long time, despite taking a creative writing degree at university. I would just tell people that it was English, more or less. I’d click off Word when someone entered the room (so they probably thought I was watching porn or something), and I never told anyone, not even my girlfriend, that I wrote.

Why? For me, I think this stems from growing up with working class family and friends, who are anything but creative. I don’t resent them for it, in fact I’m like them in every other way, except for this hobby I had. Despite writing being a super-serious, viable career option for many people around the world, in my own little bubble, it felt like a guilty pleasure. Something to hide, to cringe at.

Whenever my parents asked me what I was going to do with my creative writing degree and I couldn’t reply honestly, out of embarrassment, I felt like my head was going to explode. My plan to not reveal my hobby to them until I was published with a 50 grand check in hand probably wasn’t the best option.

I think there will be many sorts of reasons writers hide their writing, but one thing I can quite confidently assume is the universal negative aspects, especially if you’re career goal is to be a writer in some form. Because, as I’m sure you know, writing is hard enough! It’s stressful, time and energy consuming. If done seriously, it consumes a large portion of your life, and the stress of trying to disguise that is going to destroy your chances before you even start... but lets flip that. When you write, you’re actively challenging your brain. You’re doing something difficult, creating something out of nothing, when you could just be watching TikTok. You’re challenging yourself to such an extreme that why, it would be a shame to not get some credit, right?

And so, speaking as writer who has come clean, I can rejoice as I talk about the positive aspects. It feels like a weight been lifted from your shoulders. From small things as to replying honestly when someone asks what career I’d want to aim for off the back of my degree (sci-fi/fantasy author, by the way!) to getting my girlfriend to proof-read my dissertation, an 8000-word short story.

‘If someone had handed me that in a book,’ she said. ‘I’d have believed it was from a professional!’

‘Great!’ I replied. ‘That’s good to hear. So, you think I should go for it? Become a writer?’

‘Yes, why not?’

‘Well,’ I say. ‘It’s probably going to take five or ten years of practice to really make it, so... will you be okay earning the money whilst I stay at home all the time? You know, practicing? I promise, once I write that book, I’ll make it all worth it!’

‘Erm...’

(523 words)

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vivypotter · 7 years ago

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Tagged by @dontneedanothertomarryblog

1: Do you/would you like to write professionally? well, I want to go into directing in theatre, so I’ll probably end up writing plays ‘n’ shit. Not a book though. Maybe. I’m 17, anything could happen.

2: Which author has influenced you the most? Probably Derek Landy? The emotional and yet irreverent shit-talking style is pretty inspirational. Skulduggery Pleasant was one of my favourite series growing up.

3: Any guilty pleasures (books/fics)? mmmm fic in general is my guilty pleasure. I read fic knowing I should be reading classic literature to try and help uni applications xD

4: What’s better (or the least bad): character over plot or plot over character? Character over plot every time. I can’t read anything badly characterised, but I’ll tolerate a shitty plot.

5: Do you think stories can change lives? Is there a story that has changed yours? Absolutely. But I can’t think of one right now.

6: What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to writing? I hate when female characters are demonised or vanished. I think that’s one of the worst things about a lot of fandom. Gimme my strong female characters.

7: Do you listen to music while you write/read? Yeah, I have a weirdly specific habit where I put on a repetitive acoustic song (dodie’s ‘Secret For The Mad’ or ‘6/10′ quite often) and put it on repeat. I get to the point where I’m not actually listening to the music, but it’s just distracting my brain. I think too loudly.

8: Favourite quotes? Well, I just read Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Sexing the Cherry’ so I’m full of quotes from that. Some of my faves: “Language always betrays us, tells the truth when we want to lie, and dissolves into formlessness when we would most like to be precise.” and “As your lover describes you, so you are.”

9: If you could wish for a new book update from any [fanfic] author, who would it be? Floater1010. They’re writing a Victuuri fic at the moment that I’m loving.

10: What’s your favorite trope? AU? I love a good AU. Specifically, Time Travel (you might have guessed).

11: What’s your (least) favorite overused trope? a/b/o. I wouldn’t completely abolish it, because there are a very small number (like, 2) that I enjoy, but I have really numerous reasons for disliking it.

12: Which trope would you absolutely abolish? mpreg. I’ve never enjoyed an mpreg fic.

13: Are there any tropes you’re embarrassed for enjoying? hmmm. I’m not really embarrassed about anything? I suppose I wouldn’t admit to reading anything smutty to people irl?

14: Do you have a go-to AU? Time Travel, as I said.

15: What kind of character do you wish you saw portrayed more often? Women! Women! Or perhaps bisexual characters who specify that they’re bi rather than identifying as gay once they date someone of the same sex.

16: What’s more frustrating: plotholes or OOC characters? OOC characters all the way.

17: What’s more draining: writing smut, fluff, or angst? Well, I never write smut, so I don’t know about that. I’d say fluff, ‘cause it’s difficult to write happiness without it getting boring, so you have to come up with witty and exciting shit. Angst means you can just cry over a keyboard.

18: Are you a ‘neatly designed outline’ writer or a ‘fuck it i’ll figure it out as i go’ writer? I have a rather detailed bulletpoint list of plot moments, but however I connect those is very improvised, and sometimes key moments get changed, moved or cut. When I actually write, I tend to go with the flow.

19: Do you think major character deaths are ever necessary? Yeah. I mean, I’ve got something coming up that means I’d be a bit hypocritical to say no. I can be merciless sometimes xD

20: If you could ‘unkill’ any character from any story, who would it be? (ORIGINALS SPOILER ALERT)

Klaus Michaelson, now the Originals finale happened. Klaroline will live on.

21: Would you like to write an alternative ending for any of your favorite shows/books/etc? Hmmm. Well, I’d quite like to just write another season for Dirk Gently, so I’d go with that. Tbh, I tend to abandon shows before the end.

Edit: I forgot Hannibal! I want my boys to be happy together <3

22: Are you more likely to be the person who starts reading a 100k slow burn fic at midnight or the person who starts writing a drabble at 4 a.m.? Reading. I don’t ever write drabbles.

pick just one:

23: fluff or angst? Angst, though I always prefer a combination of the two.

24: fantasy or sci-fi? Fantasy

25: fake dating AU or inpromptu babysitting AU? Fake dating. I don’t think I’ve ever read an impromptu babysitting fic?

26: road trip AU or high school AU? Theoretically, high school, though I find they’re rarely well done.

27: coffee shop AU or florist AU? Florist AU ftw. I mean, I’ve written one, lol.

28: stuck in an elevator AU or camping gone bad AU? Stuck in an elevator! Gimme that witty and flirty dialogue.

29: 20s AU or 50s AU? 20s gangsters and prohibition boop.

30: high school AU from a fantasy/sci-fi story or fantasy/sci fi AU from a realistic story? Fantasy/sci fi from a realistic story. There are some great space-based Victuuri fics.

31: mythological creature AU or superhero AU? Mythological creature. Ngl, superheroes bore me.

32: meet cute or meet ugly? Meet cute? What is a meet ugly? Also, the word ‘meet’ no longer looks right.

Everyone I know has been tagged :( I don’t have enough friends for this. How about, if you see this, take it as an invitation.

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thevalkyriesonline · 7 years ago

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Nine Worlds; One Valkyries Trip To London’s Inclusive Fan Convention

Conventions appeal to different fans for different reasons, whether it be comic con, a game expo, YouTube/Blogger convention or whatever the medium but one common factor in all of these conventions is the possibility to meet other like-minded fans! As well as hopefully getting the chance to meet your idols!

There is a Con though that really thrives on fans, it is called Nine Worlds (London’s Inclusive Fan Culture Convention). A Con with a difference – the difference being it is made by fans for fans to meet other fans and just enjoy and celebrate their fandom in all it’s crazy geekiness.

It has been going since 2013 when it was first set up but I only heard about it last summer (2017) when I discovered that one talk held there was titled “It’s research! Or Why it is ok to play over 100 hours of Dragon Age when you really should be writing.” This, as a huge Dragon Age fan since discovering Inquisition, spoke to me on a level that none of my immediate friends understood or appreciated. Unfortunately I was unable to attend Nine Worlds in 2017, but the fact that there was a time and place to have such a discussion on such a unique fan-based topic inspired me to endeavor to attend in 2018. So as soon as the Early Bird Tickets became available I put my money where my heart wanted me to and I began to plan and save for a big solo adventure to London for Nine Worlds 2018.

I also made another bold and brave and foolish decision to sign up as a Content Provider for Nine Worlds 2018!

Why? – because why not? I have been a mega reader, hoarder and fan of all fiction featuring, adapting or retelling Norse Mythology for years and Nine Worlds provided me with the ideal and probably only platform where I could take the chance to share my enthusiasm and passion for the genre of Norse Fantasy. The Nine Worlds Team accepted my proposal, so, on top of saving for the hotel room on-site and booking train travel I also had to plan a lecture/talk – I was both really nervous and really excited! The months, weeks and days soon dwindled down to departure day and then I was off down to London for what I hoped would be a fun and busy weekend.

Now on to the fun bit – the various sessions and events and panel discussions! These were the ones I attended but over 50 were held each day of the convention so this is just a small sample of what fandom and genres were covered.

Session One – LARP (Live Action Role Play). Speakers; Penny Jackson, Adam Dinwoodie, Mx RA Madgwick and Haplocke Spence

As I am attending my first ever LARP event, set in the world of Dragon Age in November this was a must for me! The panel was made up of experienced and new-ish LARP players and they gave a great insight into how LARP’ing works, the various types and systems involved, clothing and equipment, rules for both play and player protection and more.

Session Two – The Only Toilet in Thedas. Speakers; Sarah Gordon, Phil Dyson, Angela Cleland

Now who couldn’t resist that title? Especially when you are a Dragon age fan. This panel discussion was the most interesting because it covered not just the world of games but also of books, TV and Film. It made me realize how much in Fantasy the practical matters of hygiene from toilets to sewers to bathing are just not address yet in Sci-Fi it’s more visible. The panel discussed whether it was a taboo or simply a matter of too much detail on a very personal and private matter – for instance do you want to know how long the hero, heroine, villain or indeed any character takes on the toilet? If they wash their hands or not? – but then again social, religious and cultural practices exist even within the bathroom and so perhaps it should be represented more?

Session Three – Know Thy Enemy. Speakers; Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jeanette Ng, Ms Anna Stephens

This was a panel debate all about the nature and representation of Villains. I found it fascinating to discuss Villains and their nature, one panel member made the very good point on how it is wrong to see the Villain as the champion of Chaos and the Hero of Order for it is in fact the other way around. In many scenarios across all mediums it is the Villain that has established some type of order whether through politics, society, culturally or religious or just geographically or financially but it is the Hero who emerges to disrupt that form of order and thus bring about chaos. This made me instantly think of Katniss in the Hunger Games, she is rebelling against the ruling society and its cultural practice of the Games and thus brings war to the capital city and thus chaos. Another issue discussed was whether the viewer/reader must be sympathetic towards Villains. The panel debated hard on this topic and in the end agreed that sympathy isn’t necessary for a Villain to be a true villain or a good villain but what is necessary is that the viewer/reader gets a sense of the Villain’s journey to their villainy – they must see where, how and why the character has become the Villain, whether for good or bad, and so enjoy the Villain’s redemption or come-uppance by the hero.

Session Four – D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) for Young People. Speaker; Elizabeth Prais

In my day job as a college Librarian I had recently learned of a lunch-time Dungeons and Dragons group being set up by a teacher after some students expressed an interest. So, I was eager to learn more tips and tricks to either host such a group in the Library or pass on to my colleague. The lady who hosted this session hailed from America and was very open about how she ran her local residential D&D group for her daughter and some local children. She gave some great recommendations and advice on timing, kit, planning, preparation and how to adjust and adapt the large and complex set of rules for a younger more impatient audience.

Session Five – Philosophy and Mass Effect. Speaker; Michael Duxbury, Emily Marlow

Now this was the first session I wasn’t entirely clued up on as I myself am still stuck half way through playing Mass Effect 2 by Bioware so a lot of the moral/ethical dilemmas they talked about I hadn’t actually experienced yet, or I couldn’t remember what I chose in the ones I was familiar with. Yet it was interesting and food for thought on how the scenarios were portrayed, and the fixed set of options provided resulted in the moral and ethics becoming such a personal dilemma for players. It wasn’t always a case of choosing the lesser of two evils but how the player and indeed the character depending on their Renegade to Hero balance would pick. Some panel members and indeed people in the audience felt that more choices would improve and increase the dilemma levels instead of just A or B. The panel also discussed how often, at least amongst themselves, they would pick based on the benefit or not long term, not the short term and play with a view of working towards achieving success or a goal.

Session Six – Beyond Marvel and DC – What comics you should be reading. Speakers; Angie Wenham, Stephen Lacey, Kate Barton, Ram V

The panel mentioned a great many titles, artists, apps and webcomics that they recommended as alternatives to Marvel/DC and then invited the audience to contribute. I recommended Nimona* by Noelle Stevenson and I Hate Fairy Land by Skottie Young.

* Interested in Nimona? Check out our review!

I Hate FairyLand

Nimona

Session Seven – Disney Sing-A-Long

This was the true highlight for me as an eternal child thanks to the magic of Disney. I wasn’t the only adult in the room, it was a very popular event and there were children of all ages and their parents and even a few Disney cosplayers too. We were all able to sing-a-long via screen projecting the words, or handouts or follow a link online. A whole range of songs was sung and Frozen ‘Let It Go’ proved to be a major popular one with a member of Con Staff leading a friendly stage invasion and then everyone proudly showed off all the right moves to the lyrics. I honestly was in tears with joy as some of the most powerful songs were sung by young and old alike.

The final event I will review was the FABULOUS MMORPG SHOW. Speaker; Misha Anker, Paul Flannery

Which was a blend of audience power and D&D – we basically had the Game Master who set up a story, invited some members of the audience to join him on stage and fill in character sheets but they had to be as unconventional as possible and then he would invite the audience to provide character names, objects, powers etc. to the story narrative and the players would roll a giant D20 (20-sided dice) to determine the outcome. This was a whole lot of fun and silliness and the story involved a Bee with a Human Leg, a Swarm of Wasps and a Wizard whose greatest spell was making Jam, they had to find the Cheese Board for the Duck of Doom! You had to be there to believe the story and it was amazingly resolved within the 1 hour and a half session.

Norse Fantasy, My own presentation!

Was scheduled bright and early on a Saturday morning the night after the first big disco (alas Becky did not go dancing due to a very painful wisdom tooth spoiling things) and yet the room quickly filled up much to my delight. Despite not having the colorful presentation I spent hours on, due to not having my own laptop to plug into the screen, I was still able to explain, explore and introduce so many of my favourite authors and titles to a new audience. Some of the audience also proved to be fellow fans of many of them and a good number took photographs of my favourite title list to go away with to look at later and thanked me for the session, which was an awesome feeling. I was even complimented on my choice of t-shirt for the session – my own Valkyrie t-shirt from Redbubble. It says, “Valkyrie of Odin – Midgard Original – Since 793”. If you are interested in my presentation, I am planning on doing a written version of it for the Valkyries Blog so stay tuned!

Last but not least was the fab mini Geek Market that was on all weekend and as it was also my birthday, I indulged myself in another t-shirt from Genki Gear, some D&D themed tea, tea strainer and mug, two new bookmarks, some funky acrylic necklaces featuring a book and a fox in a bin, some super cute little clay keyrings of Flynn Rider, Thor and Pizza and of course BOOKS! Each attendee got a surprise free book in their bag, but I got two based on libraries and books, The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman and Bookworm by Christopher Nuttall – expect a review on here once I have got around to enjoying them.

Now the managing team have recently stepped down to consult with attendees and invite new members, as they are reviewing their constitution to try and make it more inclusive and representative of those who attend. Although from what I witnessed their inclusive and equality practices were out of this world compared to other cons I’ve been too. I do hope the new organizers can continue what has already been established and continue to make improvements where they feel it is needed. I for one enjoyed it all – despite my wisdom tooth being a very literal pain throughout – for I definitely would attend again.

Did you attend Nine Worlds? What did you think? What was your favourite presentation?

Purchasing through our amazon affiliate links earns us a small commission at no extra cost to yourself! Any commission earned goes to keeping the Valks in coffee!

A Valkyrie at Nineworlds! @london_geekfest #nineworlds Nine Worlds; One Valkyries Trip To London's Inclusive Fan Convention Conventions appeal to different fans for different reasons, whether it be comic con, a game expo, YouTube/Blogger convention or whatever the medium but one common factor in all of these conventions is the possibility to meet other like-minded fans!

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Animorphs: The Challenges of Adapting the Books into Graphic Novels

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If you were alive in the ’90s, you know the name Animorphs. The sci-fi book series following the adventures of a group of kids who fight a race of invading aliens using the power to morph into animals has continued to has remained a pop culture mainstay even after it finished its run in 2001. It earned a fanbase the world over which to this day still discusses the series in detail. And for 20 years, fans have had their own images of the series in their heads, imagining what the epic battles and deep characters looked like beyond the page.

This made Chris Grine’s job exceptionally difficult.

An Eisner-nominated comic book author and illustrator, Grine was given the opportunity to adapt the much beloved books into multiple graphic novels and was met with a mountain of a challenges. How could he adapt the story without including the internal narration of the novels? Should the new covers match the iconic original covers? What’s the right way to draw an Andalite? And biggest of all, how would he handle the first Tobias focus book which has long stretches of the character, stuck in the body of a hawk, talking to himself?

We spoke with Grine after the second graphic novel was announced to discuss all these challenges and more.

DEN OF GEEK: One of the bigger elements I noticed about the graphic novel is the cover. The original book covers are very iconic. Now though the morph is on the top and the main image is one from the story. For the first graphic novel, you had the shot of the kids watching the spaceship crash. With book two, it’s Rachel unmorphed. What made Scholastic go with the decision to not completely focus the cover on the morphs?

CHRIS GRINE: That was a very long ongoing conversation between several of us there. I was pretty pro nostalgia on that. I thought we should definitely not stray too far from what the original covers look like. Even if that meant just fully illustrating the character morphing, or in similar stages like the original covers. But they ultimately decided that they didn’t want to necessarily be too beholden to that. Since this was a new generation of kids that are literally coming up with these books, they decided to go with what would be considered more of a traditional cover design nowadays. But we definitely kept the morph along the top, which I thought was a really good idea by the designer, Phil Falco, who was working closely with me.

I must’ve done like 30, 35 sketch ideas for the cover. We were back and forth for months trying to figure out what the trade dress was going to look like. It was the most important obviously for the first book, because that sets the tone for the entire series. We listened to just about everybody’s perspective and ideas. Everybody was allowed; anybody who had an idea could bring it to the table and we’d weigh it, discuss it. A lot of thought went into that cover.

One of the things that I really liked about the comic was that you drew the characters to really look like kids. Even though original books made it clear they were kids, the cover models on the old books always made me think they were older. Was it a conscious decision to go, “Okay, I’m going to make sure that these look like kids?”

Yeah, it was. I have two kids and my daughter is the oldest. She just turned 13, literally like a week ago. So I have a pretty good idea of where her head’s at. I see them playing with their friends and everything so I tried to keep that in mind.

So I didn’t want the (Animorphs) kids to look too old because they were supposed to be in middle school. It’s kind of ambiguous, but I know that they’re supposed to be like 12 to 13. It was important to me that I got that part right. The danger just felt way more real when the kids were younger.

Movies

The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie

By Shamus Kelley

Avatar: The Last Airbender – What Can We Expect From the New Avatar Studios?

By Shamus Kelley

The graphic novel is set in the ’90s, but it also does feel time agnostic in a way where, okay, it is in the nineties, but if you are a kid now, it doesn’t really take you out of it by making it a ’90s period piece. How do you tow this line?

Well, I think that was a conversation we definitely had. Is this going to be contemporary? Or are we going to try to set this in the ’90s? And I think right from the beginning, we were all pretty much unanimous that it should be set in the ’90s. If for no other reason then things like cellphones. Like, if all the kids had cellphones in Stranger Things, it would have been one episode.

But even though it’s the ’90s, it feels like it’s timeless to an extent like you said. Just removing so much technology from it kind of does that on its own. It works surprisingly well. I thought there was going to be a little bit more pushback maybe from fans who wanted it to be updated a little bit. I did remove some of the pop culture references that were in the books just because they were so specific. I still thought they were funny because I got them since I was getting ready to go to college in the late ’90s when these books came out. I was very much in the pop culture at that time. But nowadays, I mean, David Letterman references and things like that? No kid is going to know what that is. I didn’t want [kids] to be thrown out of the story because they weren’t getting the references.

That’s completely understandable. It reminds me of when they did the re-releases of the first few books back in the early 2010s where they tried to take out as many references as possible.

I definitely noticed that, too. I have the original versions of the books and then they sent me copies of the re-releases because I wanted to be able to write notes and highlight stuff and everything, and just kind of write right in there. They definitely took out a lot of the references. Some of them were updated and they felt like, I don’t know, a little too forced maybe. I think it would have been better if they had just left them more ambiguous, like, instead of being on The David Letterman Show, we could have been on a late night talk show or something.

When doing your research for the graphic novels, are you desperately flipping through to find every description for the series’ aliens to make sure they’re consistent? The first few books are a little shaky in terms of what everything looks like. There are also those posters they released later in the books run with pictures of all the aliens, too.

Yeah, I am. Especially for the first book, I took a lot of time to just do research. Even getting involved in some fan fiction type stuff and fan art. After 25 years, there’s still so much fan art coming out all the time. It’s pretty easy to see what fans’ ideas of what these characters look like. What has stuck along the way. So that was stuff that I really used to inform the way I designed everything. But then there was things like Seerowpedia.

The Animorphs wiki, yeah.

People have broken down every single book on there, like to a point where it’s ridiculous what they’ve done. But it’s so incredibly helpful for what I’m doing because there’s even sections on there that focus on inconsistencies and it has a list of things that were inconsistent from books before or books that came after. That was really good for me to see because it’s allowed me to fix a few things as we go.

Yeah, I noticed that even in the first volume, where you fixed one of the most famous inconsistencies with Jake thought speaking to Tobias even though he’s not morphed.

There were so many people who had pointed that out. Number one on the inconsistencies list on book one. That was really easy for me to fix. There was another thing with the descriptions of the aliens. One of those things that I found luckily in time was the way Andalites were described. So I had basically inked the whole book, right? I was fully in color mode and people on Twitter were like, “Well, which version of Andalites did you go with?” I had no idea what they were talking about.

I come to find out that there’s the version of the Andalite that looks a little bit more like a centaur with like a regular horseback. And then there’s the version that has more of an arch back that kind of goes from about mid back, up. It makes it hard for them to be ridden, because that was something that was talked about later but that’s not in book one.

So that was something that the fans actually pointed out, and maybe they don’t realize how much they helped me with that. It helped side step some people who maybe would have been upset that I didn’t do it right. Then if I had changed it later in the later books, then it would have been inconsistent on my end.

You’ve mentioned you’ve been contracted to do the first three books. Do you hope to do all 50-plus books if it came to that?

Oh my God. I would like to. My goal for now is just like, I would love it if I could just get the first 10 books. I mean, at some point, I’m 45 years old, so at some point, I can’t do all 54 books, right? I’d be in my 80s or 90s. I love what I’m doing. I feel so kind of blessed to be part of this fandom now and kind of accepted. I just really enjoy these books.

Normally, I’d do my own stories. I prefer that, but in this situation I’m really, really loving the interaction and the stories themselves. And the original authors, Katherine [Applegate] and Michael [Grant], have just been wonderful to work with. The few times I’ve gotten to hang out with them even virtually, it’s just been a pleasure.

So if I could get to like 10 books, that to me would be great. If I could get more than that, then that’s fine, too. But I think a nice round number like that would be pretty cool.

Books

Which Star Trek Books Are Canon?

By Ryan Britt

Books

Star Wars Books: A Guide to Canon Novels in Chronological Order

By Megan Crouse

The first graphic novels are already pretty thick, but I’m just imagining how thick would a Megamorphs or an Andalite Chronicles comic be?

Oh my gosh. What I’ve noticed is once you get past about book seven or eight and maybe a little before, the page counts drop. They go down to about 170 pages or 160 some pages on average. And there’s a lot of filler. They started bringing ghost writers. There was just lots of scenes. There’d be entire chapters talking about, “Hey, remember that time when we met Visser Three at the construction site? Oh yeah. And you did this.” There’s so much of that stuff that I just skipped right over.

So the first book was 230 pages. My book, the graphic novel, and the second book clocked in at about 201 pages. I’m guessing that’s probably the sweet spot for most of them now. Probably somewhere between like 190, 200. It doesn’t feel too scary. When I start getting sub 200 pages, I start feeling a little better.

Right, and Scholastic doesn’t necessarily have to adapt every single book. I’m sure somebody out there will say, “No book 27 is my favorite book,” but not every book is critically important. To get the main plot points you could do… I’ll arbitrarily say at most two-thirds of the books.

Right. There’s even some books that I believe could probably just be adapted into one book because there’s so little actual connective tissue that you could have maybe two or three books combined in the one. But I don’t even know how we go about that because I assume you’d have to re-title the book. I don’t know. But yeah, there are options. Scholastic definitely has options. They could also do what they did with The Baby-Sitters Club and have multiple artists working on them.

I’ve had people say that about Animorphs and I’m instantly hurt. I shouldn’t be, but I’m like, “No, no more artists right now. Damn it. This is mine.” I love this. I don’t want to share just yet. I’m not at the point where I’m ready to share.

You’ve got to at least get through Ax’s first book, then you’ve covered all the main characters.

Yeah. And that’s what I’ve been saying. I’m going to be really disappointed if I don’t get to do books four and five. I’m going to be super disappointed.

Looking forward, you’ve found a lot of ways to get around the internal narration because that’s such a big part of the books. But coming up in book three you’ve got a Tobias book and he’s by himself a lot. How do you deal with long stretches where characters are just thinking?

Yeah, and I was thinking, that is going to be a terrible book. I had to figure out a way to make that interesting because I can’t just have a character constantly talking to themselves the whole book. He’s already doing thought speech to others, then internal thought speech to himself. I’m afraid it’s going to be confusing and it could get boring. I don’t want to lose the thread. So what I did visually, I grabbed a few panels from book one and two that I’d already finished up, just Tobias, whether he was on a branch or whatever when he’s a bird. I was just messing around with the panels themselves, trying to figure out, “Okay, how can I do this? Is there like a clever way I could pull this off simpler?”

I kind of figured it out, at least for now, and this could completely change, but I basically took the selection tool and I selected one half of the panel, kind of in a jagged selection. Then I went in and threw a color over that. So it would be almost like color grading on a movie or something. Just on half of it.

And so there could be a word in blue in the full color art, where maybe he’s talking to somebody or maybe he’s thinking something, but then in the same panel, but in the part that I had colored coded he’s almost having, not like split personality type of a thing, but having an internal conversation. I thought it might be a way of showing that he’s talking to himself. It seemed like it was working in the images that I did, but we’ll have to see. I’m still a little nervous about getting to book three because of that.

You made it work in the first graphic novel. You had the scene with Jake when he morphs into the lizard and you frame it as he’s telling the story to the other kids. So that works well there, it’s just getting to do that for a whole book. You can’t just have Tobias say, “Guys, I had a really rough morning. I was thinking some deep thoughts.”

And he’s had so many thoughts I don’t think he would even share with the other kids, right? About just his new reality and about maybe being slightly in love with that other Hawk or just having a personal crisis. That’s not something I’m going to be able to take care of just in dialogue alone. So I’m going to definitely have to figure that out.

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This has been looming like a dark cloud over me since I started book one. Knowing that book three is very important to a lot of people and for a lot of really good reasons. I don’t want to mess that one up too badly, so I’m going to have to figure it out.

Stay tuned for the second part of this interview where Grine will break down his process in adapting a scene from second graphic novel. The Visitor (Animorphs Graphic Novel #2) is now up for pre-order on Amazon.

The post Animorphs: The Challenges of Adapting the Books into Graphic Novels appeared first on Den of Geek.

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jedi-anakin · 7 years ago

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tag games!

tagged by @shirewalker, thank you so much!

I decided not to just pick one, so I picked four and did all of them. Of course you don’t have to do all four, or any if you don’t want to do that. 🙃

tagging @admiralsamilyn, @bellamybalke, @borntosavethedoctor, @jennalouisecolemans, @tonystarkz and anyone who would like to do that

all games under the cut

1st game! Ten Questions Tag Game

What’s the earliest story you remember writing?

It was a Jonas Brothers fanfic. I was twelve.

Which do you prefer to write? Short stories of longer ones?

Long ones. I tried the short ones, but it’s just impossible for me. I put a lot into the world building and the characters and sometimes it takes chapters for me to actually get to the main plot. Also I usually plan ahead pretty early in the story.

Do you think your writing is ready to be seen by the world?

No, dear god, no. I'm very insecure about that, mainly because I was very bad at it in primary school. And I believe it was the thing that made me work it out, but I’m still too insecure to do that.

Which OC would be the best company when writing and which would be the worst?

Hmm. I think the best would be Kenna. She is a writer herself, so she would be pretty helpful.

The worst one would be Bonnie. She is from a story I cannot really put under any genre yet and she is the type of person who doesn’t like to sit around and do something like writing. She would rather be out and protest and fight for her homeland.

Do you have a favourite world you’d give anything to visit?

I would love to visit Narnia, I mean for someone who’s favorite animal was and is a lion, meeting Aslan was goals. Also the Land of Oz. This one is still goals. I love that world so much, the whole Nonestica is just so unique and fascinating.

Any writing rituals? Special place, special time of the day, special medium to write a draft on, etc.

I like to write in the afternoon much better, but the best ideas always comes after 10 pm, so sometimes I found myself still writing at 1 am. My drafts are so messed up, I’m happy if I can manage to get a decent one. Currently I’m planning a story and even though I started writing the first chapter, I found myself planning for four years after the first chapter takes place. Gonna be a looong story.

What’s your favourite genre to read AND to write?

For reading I like sci-fi and fantasy, but lately I only read non-fiction books. For writing I’m the best drama. I do love to write sci-fi and fantasy, but I always find a big plot/story problem that stops the writing for a certain time. Lately I only wrote drama and it’s actually a lot easier than I suspected. I have two story in that genre and both are turned out to be really great. But I hope I can do some good sci-fi / fantasy too.

Do you have friends that write too?

Sadly, no. My flatmate doesn’t even likes to read. :(

If you could have a writing cottage anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I think in the Alps.

Favourite author and how have they inspired you/your writing.

I don’t remember which author made me write for the first time (I think it was Dan Wells), but then I didn’t write for years. And for the second time, it was actually a fanfiction that made realize that I have to write and I cannot give it up.

2nd game! 5 Things

5 things you’ll find in my bag: keys, calculator, wallet, pen, phone 5 things you’ll find in my room: twelfth doctor funko pop, angry birds plushes, books, surprisingly two plants, star wars calendar (with Rey this month) 5 things that make me happy: my fave webcomic updating every thursday, seeing my dog (or any dog tbh), the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, seeing the stars, listening to my favorite songs 5 things i’m currently into: giffing/editing, writing, reading, watching, eating 5 things on my to-do list: be less pessismistic, sleep more on weekdays, write something that I’m fully proud of so I can show to my fam, pass my late spring exams, be more confident

3rd game! Get To Know Me

How tall are you? 163 cm / 5'4"

What color are your eyes? Green, blue, brown, grey.

Do you wear contacts and/or glasses? No

Do you wear braces? No, but I had them for 2,5 years

What is your fashion style? Cheap??

When were you born? 11th August, 1997

Do you have any siblings? Nope

What school/college do you go to? Commerce and marketing

What kind of student are you? The tired one

What are your favorite subjects? History, English

What are your favorite movies? Anastasia, Back To The Future, Bedazzled, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, The Mummy

What are your favorite pastimes? Good old “watching some TV show or film”, writing, reading, playing some phone game which I wouldn’t like to name.

Do you have any regrets? Sure.

What’s your dream job? Never had a specific one.

Would you like to get married? Yeah, sure. It could be fun, with the right person, of course.

Do you want kids? Maybe someday.

How many countries have you visited? 5

Do you have a significant other? No.

4th Game! Another Get To Know

Age - 20

Birthplace - hungary

Current time - 11:38 pm

Drink you had last - tea

Easiest person to talk to - my dog???

Favorite song - how deep is your love

Hogwarts house - slytherin

In Love - with fictional characters, sure

Jealous of people - always

Killed someone - only bugs

Love at first sight or should I walk by you again - first sight, I only walk if I have to

Middle name - I don’t have one

Number of siblings - zero (sometimes my parents call the dog my sister or just mess up our names)

One wish - a calm week

Person you called last - my mom

Question you are always asked - “do you have a boyfriend?” also followed by “still don’t?”

Reason to smile - hello there

Song you sang last - two hearts by phil collins

Time you woke up - 6:50 am

Underwear color - black

Worst habit - thinking people are laughing at me, when they obviously not

X-rays - nope

Your favorite food - cinnamon roll

Zodiac sign - leo

#thank you so much!!!#I don't even remember when I was tagged last time #tag game

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alexsfictionaddiction · 5 years ago

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'It is not enough to be the non-racist. We must be anti-racist.’

I don’t think I need to explain too much about what has prompted this post. There may be readers of it who will feel that my sudden creation of it is performative and that I don’t REALLY care all that much about what’s going on. That I’m simply jumping on a bandwagon and cashing in on some internet clout amidst the horrors of what is happening in the world. Hopefully my regular readers will know that I actively seek out Own Voices books and that I’m constantly reviewing them or recommending them on this very blog. Hopefully my regular readers will know that this post is very much in line with my inclusive, diverse ethos and that I am simply using my white platform to amplify those of the unheard.

It’s true that I’ve never written a recommendation post dedicated to one particular marginalised group. I think this is because I’ve always felt like these are not my areas to sway into. That these posts would be better written by bloggers who have direct experience with what these books talk about. Honestly, I’m shocked and incredibly upset with myself for having long harboured this mentality. Yes, these books will affect readers who can directly relate to the characters in a way that they couldn’t ever affect me but why on Earth should that mean that I can’t give them a platform in the first place?

Of course, I’ve always known about white privilege and I’ve always used it to take down racists both on and offline. In fact, the events of the past few days have caused arguments within my own all-white British family. There are currently protests happening in central London and Manchester but we are not allowed to use public transport at the moment and we don’t have any local demonstrations, meaning actively protesting just isn’t a feasible option for most Brits right now. It does feel like movements such as Black Lives Matter are ‘an American thing’, despite the huge amount of all types of racism in the UK.

I had never realised (or perhaps never wanted to realise) the amount of extremely questionable attitudes within my own family until very recently. I have had to explain white privilege to my parents, who have actually always been reasonably liberal in their political views, so I was astonished by exactly how much they didn’t know. There is an essence of ‘things aren’t anywhere near as bad as they used to be’ and ‘the police don’t arrest or kill innocent people’. It’s honestly only in the last few days that I’ve realised and therefore had to address the internal racism within my own family and therefore in my own origins and so I think that, as well as what is happening across the Atlantic, is what has really triggered this post. Despite considering myself an ally, I can do so much better than I have been and chances are, you can too.

Because it is a global pandemic. It’s not something that is only happening in the US, it’s happening here just without the guns. It’s happening in every country of the world and I (and my fellow white people) should not be leaving it up to the victims to sort it out. We have the power to boost their blatantly unheard voices and there is so much we can do, in order to do that.

Sign petitions, donate money and help in any way you can right here. Buy from Black-owned businesses, read all you can about the Black experience and above all, call out your friends and family on their racism. Of course, if you don’t want to take the advice of a white person like me, I’d recommend you check out these fantastic Black BookTubers and book bloggers:

LaRonda @ flyingpaperbacks

Madeline @ madelinewilsonojo

Jazmen @ lit-erally black

Nox @ noxthereader

Myonna @ myonna reads

I'mogén @ Peace&Cookies

Ben @ Benreadsbooks

Lauren @ The Novel Lush

Jo @ Jo The Great

Ella @ ella’s novellas

Keeana @ Reading in the Clouds

Francina @ Francina Simone

Lucie @ LucieReads

Jesse @ Bowties & Books

Joel @ fictionalfates

Ane @ Ane Adores

Olivia @ Olivia’s Catastrophe

Cecilia @ thatdisneychik

Taylor @ PageScreenTaylor

Tori @ Medusa Reads

Justin @ Ghost Reader

Seji @ The Artisan Geek

Mina @ Mina Reads

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list and I encourage you to please search for and support more wonderful Black bookworms and creators. They will give you more insightful reviews and recommendations than I would ever be able to, so please check them out and show them some love.

Here are 50 books by Black authors that deserve your attention. While I have read a good chunk of these, I will admit that I have not personally read all of them. This list was compiled following a deep scouring of the internet and reading countless reviews and synopses. I believe I’ve found some incredible hidden gems in here that you will love and pass on to those who need them. Each of them have a link to an online retail outlet that isn’t Amazon, so you can buy these books in quarantine without lining Bezos’ already over-filled pockets. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

NON-FICTION

1. Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. This history of racism in America seeks to completely rewrite the way we think of racism and encourages change in the every-day assumptive white ally.

2. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Told in the form of a letter to his young son, Coates attempts to convey what it’s like to be black in America, using history, personal experience and the hope of liberation.

3. Redefining Realness by Janet Mock. An unapologetic powerful memoir from a trans mixed-race working class woman in America that will teach you how to be undeniably real.

4. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Possibly the most widely-read non-fiction book on racism in the UK, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book explores its links to class, white feminism and the black history we were never taught.

5. So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Highly relevant to the current situation in the US, this book talks about police brutality, BLM and the N word, answering the questions that no one ever dares to ask.

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. The winner of last year’s Women’s Prize, An American Marriage is the heartbreaking story of newlyweds torn apart by a wrongful rape conviction. Devastating, urgent storytelling.

7. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Searingly relatable and timely, you will fall madly in love with Queenie. She is flawed, overlooked and underestimated. You will laugh, cry and scream as you spend a year inside her life as a British-Jamaican.

8. Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. When straight-laced nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she vows to start living in the moment. Enter bad boy Red and you’ve got the perfect ingredients for a sweet, sexy rom-com.

9. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Joint winner of 2019′s Booker Prize and shortlister for 2020′s Women’s Prize, this is the combination of 12 very different Black-British characters that paints a very real picture of contemporary British life.

10. I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan. When Georgia Young begins to feel dissatisfied with her seemingly perfect life, she decides to shake things up. It’s the perfect reminder that it’s never too late to make big changes and start living your best life.

11. Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim. Showcasing some of America’s best black female writers, this anthology explores the importance of finding yourself in books. Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, an online book club exclusively for black women, which you can check out here.

12. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré. At 14, Adunni is a wife and commodity within her tiny Nigerian village but she is determined to get her education and her voice. Original, powerful and unbelievably inspirational.

13. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid. When Emira Tucker starts dating someone with a direct historical link to her boss, things get more than complicated. This is a very clever contemporary, driven by racial differences, that is completely unputdownable.

LITERARY FICTION

14. The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Winner of the Booker Prize 2016, The Sellout is a black comedy ringing with social satire about one man’s deceit having knock-on effects for an entire community. Controversial and weird but incredibly unique.

15. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Morrison’s debut novel focuses on our obsession with conventional beauty, fitting in and being accepted. Wonderfully written, it addresses race, gender and class in a truly captivating way.

16. Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò. Amidst the social and political turmoil of 1980s Nigeria, Yejide's husband takes a second wife when she fails to fall pregnant. It is a heartbreaking portrait of grief, fractured families and motherhood.

17. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. An epic road-trip novel with hints of supernatural and magical realism, this is the story of a young boy’s coming-of-age within a broken family told in a gorgeously lyrical style.

18. Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Set during the Nigerian Civil War, three very different characters are entwined in a story about colonialism, class, race and love. You’ll want the tissues for this one!

19. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. This strange unique novel focuses on the split selves of Ada and their gradual rise to power within her. It’s one of the most unique mental health books I’ve ever come across and will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled with finding their own inner peace.

SCI-FI AND FANTASY

20. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. Dripping in African mythology, the first in the Dark Star trilogy gets off to a gripping start with plenty of unique characters, as hunter Tracker searches for a missing boy.

21. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. When aspiring writer Dana is pulled from 1976 into 1815, she is assumed to be a slave. After saving a young man’s life, the mystery of their connection kicks off and takes them both on an incredible emotional journey. This is an amazing time travel story that is thoroughly unputdownable.

22. Rosewater by Tade Thompson. Rosewater is a town on the edges of a strange alien biodome which is rumoured to have healing powers but former criminal Kaaro knows the truth and is in no hurry to revisit it. Whilst making subtle digs at contemporary culture, Rosewater offers a fascinating view of the future.

23. Do You Dream Of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh. Ten astronauts leave a dying Earth to find another habitable planet. Set entirely aboard the ship, it’s a coming-of-age story that reaches beyond the sci-fi boundaries and focuses on human relationships and emotions. Brace yourself for tears!

24. Children Of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. Inspired by West African mythology, this magical adventure tells the story of Zélie on a quest to restore magic to the kingdom of Orisha. At the end of every chapter something happens that makes you want to keep reading, making it highly addictive.

25. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle. Hidden dark magic in the depths of New York is awakened when hustler Tom attracts its attention. With elements of classic horror and mysticism, this is one for lovers of weird speculative stories.

26. Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi. This touching story is a searing reminder of systemic racism and the violence that black Americans face at the hands of the law. When Kev finds himself in prison, it’s only the visits from his magically-gifted sister Ella that keeps him sane and gives him hope of revolution.

27. We Cast A Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Desperate to protect his son in a profoundly racist America, a man embarks on a mission to get his boy a ‘demelanization’ to make him white. It’s an original and edgy satire full of suspense and heart.

MIDDLE-GRADE

28. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. This poetic memoir charts the story of Woodson’s own childhood, growing up as an African-American in 1960s and 1970s. These are truly beautiful poems that sing a young girl’s desire to be heard and to know who she is.

29. Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Ghost is a sprinter but it’s only when Coach sees his talent that he really starts to chase his dream but his dark past is hot on his heels. Full of Reynolds’ signature humour and heart, it’s highly relatable to almost any kid from around the age of 10.

30. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste. This creepy magical middle-grade adventure sees fearless Corinne on a dangerous mission to save her home from dark forces. Steeped in Caribbean folklore, The Jumbies is a fantastic gateway into eerie fantasy.

31. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Twins Josh and Jordan are basketball stars, following in their father’s footsteps but hardship tests their brotherly bonds. Merging basketball and rap, this verse novel gives us a stark reminder of what really matters.

32. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Get set for a truly heartbreaking but horrendously timely story. Jerome was shot dead by police at the age of 12 and his ghost wanders the Earth in search of answers as to why he was killed. Not sure I need to say anymore as to why this is a highly important tearjerker.

33. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. When a plane crash brings two sisters on either side of the Atlantic together, family secrets unravel. Exploring sacrifice and identity, this verse novel is a stark reminder that most losses and tragedies are felt only by the families they directly affect.

34. Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence. Marlon has promised his mum that he won’t follow the path of his gang leader brother but when a date leaves him a hunted man, he has some impossible choices to make. Laced with musicality, this pacy urban thriller puts you directly in the shoes of an ordinary boy caught up in very real danger.

35. The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta. Struggling with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen, it’s only when he starts university that Michael gains his wings through the power of drag. Tackling both racism and homophobia, The Black Flamingo teaches acceptance and self-love.

36. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. Natasha and Daniel meet on the same day that Natasha’s family are about to be deported to Jamaica. Cue an epic quest for love to overthrow the authorities! It’s a sweet romance about fate and taking the future into your own hands.

37. Dear Martin by Nic Stone. When Ivy League-destined Justyce is arrested, he turns to the lessons of Martin Luther King to help figure things out but then shots are fired. Undeniably relevant to today’s America, Dear Martin confronts the blatant racism and injustice within the justice system.

38. On The Come Up by Angie Thomas. Aspiring rapper Bri is desperate to make it to help her family, despite all the odds being against her. Better known for her break-out debut hit The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas’ follow-up is an equally hard-hitting story of standing up and speaking out for what’s right.

HISTORICAL

39. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Escaping an extremely violent and abusive past in the 1930s American South, Celie finds the strength to be her true wonderful self. The Color Purple is considered a staple of black literature and considered one of the most mind-opening books in existence.

40. Roots by Alex Haley. Tracing the story of his own ancestors, Alex Haley’s Roots is a highly educational documentation of African American history during the Slave Trade. Published in 1976, it made a massive impact on the world and Kunta’s story is just as urgent and vital today.

41. Freedom by Catherine Johnson. This historical middle-grade story follows Jamaican slave Nat as he makes his way to London, where he has heard that slavery doesn’t exist, which he soon finds to be false. Freedom is a moving, action-packed look at British slavery that is the perfect starting point for educating pre-teens.

42. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. This classic tale follows wrestler Okonkwo, who returns from exile to discover his village has been taken over by colonials. It’s a difficult read that captures powerlessness and pain in a short, impactful burst and will no doubt force white readers to look at their own behaviours.

43. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Exploring bigotry and racism across the US, our protagonist tries his best to play by the rules but continues to be knocked down. Despite being published in 1952, Ellison’s arguments are painfully relevant to today, indicating that not much has changed at all.

44. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Life as a slave in Georgia is hell for Cora but when new arrival Caesar tells her about the Underground Railroad, escape plans are hatched. Cora’s determination and courage are hugely inspirational and her experience, which mirrors that of many real slaves, should never be forgotten.

45. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. This epic story of two sisters’ very different experiences of 1800s Ghana sprawls across generations, clearly showing how history resonates and the ripples are felt long after the original event. A stunning captivating read.

THRILLERS

46. Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas. Highly selective, isolated academy Catherine House sees teenage runaway Ines join its ranks and a strange Gothic mystery unfurls. This subtly unsettling chilly novel is a brand new debut that I devoured earlier on this month and I’m sure you will too!

47. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Korede is used to clearing up her younger sister Ayoola’s messes -and disposing of the bodies she leaves in her wake! There is a wonderfully dark tongue-in-cheek tone that makes this fast-paced thrilling celebration of sisterhood truly delightful.

48. They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall. Seven strangers find themselves in a mansion on an island with no contact with the outside world and no escape. With strong Agatha Christie vibes, it’s a highly entertaining mystery whose pages you’ll keep turning.

49. Devil In A Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. When a war veteran is pulled into a search for a mysterious woman, murder and lies are uncovered. Set in 1940s LA, Walter Mosley expertly weaves the natural fears of a Black man of the time into the smoky intrigue, making it extremely immersive.

50. Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett. Broke former actress Dayna didn’t mean to solve a hit-and-run but the reward money would definitely come in handy. Once she starts digging, she becomes determined to find the killer. I love cosy mysteries with amateur detectives and this more than fits that bill.

#black lives matter #black authors #black books #anti-racism #social justice

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iamthestrangerinmoscow · 7 years ago

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For the writing asks: 6, 9, 16, 24, 38, 42, 50

6 : What would be the biggest compliment you could hope to receive on your current WIP?

Oh god, that is kinda hard to say. I guess for the most part I really hope that, in terms of autistic representation, Before the Stardust will click with both autistic and allistic people. I want Eli to be relatable for autistic people and also be relatable to everyone, as a protagonist in a story should be.

Basically, I want people who have never knowingly interacted with an autistic person to understand what that can be like and, at the end of the book, say ‘huh, I guess we’re different, but not in a way I thought’. I’m really tired of autistic characters being portrayed as alien-like or robot-like. I’ve always wanted to see an autistic character who is visibly different but is not just their neurotype. And if I’ll manage to do just that (after I finish and edit and so on), damn that would be a good compliment.

But overall in terms of writing, for me, the biggest compliment ever is always ‘your book is my book’. Not favorite book, but the book they cherish and re-read and go to when they need comfort and adventure and a good laugh and so on. Something they don’t forget a month after finishing the book. And who knows how many novels I’ll have to write to get to that level of mastery.

9 : What do you struggle most with as a writer?

Literally sitting down and typing. I’m a pretty fast typer but a day doesn’t go by without me wishing we already had the brain-reading word-recording technology. My creative process is translation. First, translation from sensory information I see in my mind into words. Second, translation of verbal thoughts into actual text. Third, sometimes, translation of Russian words into appropriate English ones, since English is my second language. At every step, something is lost, but the transition from thoughts to typed word is the trickiest one for me, for some reason.

If I could actually record my thoughts in the raw format, that would be even better. I don’t come up with a story the way, I assume, most people do. In a sense, all the work I do is that ‘translating and editing’. I see the story happen in my mind and I just choose which parts to describe and how. That’s why dialogue is much easier for me - I hear it as it is, all I need to do is record it. Describing action and details is much harder. So yeah, the most work I do in writing is the action of typing. The rest my subconscious mind does for me.

16 : Would your story work better as a movie or tv show? Why?

Before the Stardust would definitely work better as a TV-show because it is written as a TV-show! Every chapter is a complete story on its own, with a beginning and an end, and the chapters make up a ‘series’ - the whole novel. From the very beginning, before I came up with any characters, the novel was planned as a series of short stories packed into one book. And it was planned to be Firefly-esque, because it was inspired by the iconic sci-fi series, which is why the novel will have fourteen chapters plus an epilogue - Firefly has 14 episodes and a movie.

So yeah, if in some peculiar world it will ever be picked up for adaptation, I will only agree to a TV-show format, never for a movie.

24 : When did you start considering yourself a writer?

At eleven years old, no kidding. If you would ask my 11-year-old self he would probably say he is a poet, not a writer, cause that was my crappy poetry phase, but regardless, I was already writing stories at that age and I knew it will be a big part of my life and something I want to be doing in the future. The stories I was writing were mostly PC games fanfics though. But not only that, and I truly enjoyed it. So yeah, I’ve considered myself a writer for a long time by now.

38 : What’s one piece of writing advice you try–but fail–to follow?

I don’t like writing advice, I rarely read it, and I choose not to rely on it because in a way it constricts your creative freedom. That is my opinion, of course. I like to think that all the skills and knowledge a writer needs come from reading the creations of others and taking criticism into account. The rest is highly subjective and will not work for everyone. There are very obvious writer rules that I somehow managed to grasp intuitively like ‘don’t do the bar talk trope’ or ‘don’t string together ten extremely long sentences’ and so on but I don’t consider that advice.

Take the ‘don’t write said all the time’ advice. On one hand, yeah, if your dialogue is just stuffed with the word ‘said’ it becomes dull and boring very quickly. On the other, that piece of advice is the reason people overuse dialogue descriptors and end up with something that sounds like ‘my immortal’. The truth is in the middle. Sometimes using ‘said’ is justified, especially if the dialogue is fast-paced and you want readers to skip the descriptors. Sometimes you have to substitute the adjectives with actions, which I do a lot in my writing. And that’s why I try not to stick religiously to any particular piece of writing advice. That, and, to an extent, bad memory for this sort of stuff.

42 : Do critiques motivate or discourage you?

Depends. If it is constructive and detailed, certainly motivates. I record it, I think about it when writing and I use it as much as possible. Constructive criticism means I know what I need to work on and don’t have to guess and think that everything I do is horrible - and it also means that everything the person didn’t critique is okay, at least in their mind. If it is like ‘uh your story sucks’ that just pisses me off, though it does mean the person cared enough to make a comment, so that’s something, I guess?

What discourages me is lack of feedback. When there are no comments, I can only assume that no one cares enough about the story to comment. If there’s critique, at least the person read the thing and cared enough to provide feedback. That’s a good thing. A total lack of reaction is bad, it communicates to me that I have no audience to write for. So I’ll take criticism instead of silence any day.

50 : Would you rather be remembered for your fantastic world-building or your lifelike characters?

I don’t think I will be remembered for either to be honest, but if I could choose, then worldbuilding. I grew up on sci-fi that was so lifelike and detailed and beautiful, it never really died with its author. People continue to write fanfic based on those worlds, and draw it, and make movies about it, and even with completely new characters it still works. I love my characters, but as a sci-fi fan, I’d rather create a world so rich and amazing, it will continue to live on even after I’m gone.

#oh god this is so long i'm sorry lol #also if you're wondering no you cannot read my old poetry and PC games fanfics #first of all I won't even find it that easily. I mean it exists somewhere on my external harddrives but it is probably really hard to find #second it is in Russian obviously so you won't even understand it lol #and I will not translate it!#but for those who speak Russian and are really curious I can send you a link to my ficbook acount #from when I was 13-14 #what a treat lmao #anyhoot moving on #ask

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i-am-gaylocked · 7 years ago

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Thanks so much for the tag, @brilliantorinsane !

1. First things first, what is your MBTI type? INFP, although I don’t agree with all of the description.

2. When did you learn to read? I’m not so sure, I think I was about five? I know that some time before I started school I started asking my parents about what certain words in the newspapers meant.

3. What languages can you read in? German, as it’s my first language, English, and French with a bit more effort (it’s gotten quite rusty after I dropped French classes, but I’m gonna refresh it with a course next summer)

4. What book are you currently reading or most recently read? I’m working on four books at once at the moment (nevermind systematic reading, I guess): The Book Of Dust by Philipp Pullmann, Das PARTEI Buch by Martin Sonneborn and Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello.

5. Name 3 books you never finished: I only remember two: Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer, and another one whose name I’ve forgotten (a huge fantasy book about an adolescent girl and something with wolves and magic, that’s all I remember). I have a kind of see-it-through-attitude especially when it comes to books, so I have rarely ever left books unfinished. It just feels like I’m somehow being disrespectful to the author and the story, ya know

6. What are your favorite books from childhood? That’s a tough one, because there are A LOT. I’ll try to pick a few: Die Kleine Hexe by Ottfried Preußler - It was already a childhood favourite of my mum and she passed that love on to me. She used to read it to me all the time, I just couldn’t get enough of it. Looking back I’d say it was one of my first fandoms. The whole His Dark Materials series by Philipp Pullman - read them in German when I was 9 or 10 and re-read them for the first time last year (in English). I still don’t have words for this story, and I fail to describe the special place it holds in my heart. Pure magic. Der Räuber Hotzenplotz by Ottfried Preußler - my brother’s and my special bedtime story, my dad had to read it to us every. single. night. when we were still pretty young. Loved it and still do; this story is probably what made me fall so deeply in love with nature. My Friend Flicka (and the two sequels) by Mary O’Hara - a classic but unbelievably beautiful horse story, also passed on to me by my mother. The first time I ever felt fernweh was because of these books, and just thinking of this right now makes me yearn for the rough wilds of Wyoming, even though I’ve never physically been there. Matilda by Roald Dahl - no words needed, I think. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr - read the first book when I was about as old as Anna and read the sequels a few years later, again, when I was about her age. Momo by Max Ende - we were very young when my parents read this to us as a bedtime story during one summer vacation, and I don’t really remember anything about it except a few blurred images that could be either memories of the story or just memories of dreams I once had. I never dared to touch this book again since then, but still it somehow represents my childhood. Tintenherz (inkheart) and the sequels by Cornelia Funke - my absolute favourite shortly before puberty. I was CRAZILY invested in this universe and always tried to make my own books come true as well by reading them out loud. Oh, the magic of stories. (Thank you for making me all melancholic by the way, I really missed this feeling.) And of course, all of Harry Potter. No description needed, except: home.

7. What are your current favorite books? I recently re-read all of His Dark Materials and Harry Potter for the first time, and this time in English, which made me realise even more the beauty of the stories and the language on its own, so these two series are definitely at the top of the list. Also, Bilder deiner großen Liebe by Wolfgang Herrndorf. This is THE most aesthetic (there’s no other word for it) and moving story I have EVER read, thanks to its incomparable style. A must read, although only in original language, so prep up your german for this one. Fight Club by Chuck Pahlanuik - I disagree with nearly all of the speaker’s premises, but I love one particular scene at the end and how the words manage to crawl under my skin. And last but not least Hamlet (yes, not technically a book, sorry), because you just gotta love Dat Depressed Sassy Prince.

Multiple Choice (bold as many as apply to you & add your own choice if you must)

8. Your favorite genres:

Mystery/Sci-fi/Fantasy/Chick Lit/Young Adult/Horror/Nonfiction/Memoir/Dystopia/Poetry/Self-Help/Historical Fiction/Fanfiction/Realistic Fiction/Biography/literally anything that’s not too violent if it manages to move me in whatever way

9. Your opinion on rereading books:

I do it all the time/It has to be a really good book/I can’t stand it/I haven’t done it since I was a child/I only reread my favorite sections/should be done with caution if you really love a story

10. How long does it take you to read one book on average?

1 to 3 days/a week/a few weeks/about a month/several months/one day up to several months, completely depending on how busy I am (and on the length of the book)

11. How do you typically read?

Every opportunity I get, in transit, while waiting, etc./Before bed/On the go by audiobook/When I can truly relax/When I remember to.

12. How many books do you typically read in a year?

None or 1/About 1 to 3/Maybe 4 to 10/At least more than 10/ At least 50/ Too much. I can’t keep track./varies between 5 and 50, generally

13. For school assigned books, what type of student are/were you?

I read all the books in detail/I read all but sometimes skimmed/I nearly read all, I may have skipped a few because they were too boring (5 months of school left and I’ve only skipped one so far)/I only read the interesting ones/There’s a reason why Sparknotes was made!

Thanks again for the tag, this was a great way to remember how much magic words and stories can work and how important reading actually is (I’m now definitely motivated to pick up books more often again, since lately I haven’t really given myself enough rest to do so)!

I don’t know how many people I’m supposed to tag, so I’ll just throw a few in here: @umbrellabadge @itmattersmorethanicansay @galaxy-of-johnlock @victorianwatson @bbcjohnlock @notsherlocksdivisiontea @sweetinsanityx3

#sorry everyone i would have put one of these read more bars on this post but i seriously have no clue how to do that #personal #not Sherlock

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