#they also have a few Discworld. not all the Discworld but a dozen or so

[flamagenitus]

The uni library has the Imperial Radch trilogy and, as far as I know, all the Temeraire series!! Admittedly, they're all in French, but! !!!

They certainly have a lot of Robin Hobb. I wonder if they have Aubreyad

[discworld-heritage-posts]

What do you think you add? Do you think you make a poignant post better when after scrolling down through it we see someone saying it's "official"?

I'm choosing to interpret this ask as a genuine question (albeit one that's been worded a bit rudely) instead of a hate anon, because I wouldn't want to tarnish people's dashboards with hate anons.

Now, to answer your genuine question... The "Discworld Heritage Post" tagline I add to the end of posts has as much validity as I have authority to bestow it: none. Do I think my tagline makes posts better? Of course not! And I certainly don't think I make them official, (and neither my url or my pinned post claim that I do so).

I don't know what reasons other people had to start their own Heritage Posts blogs for other fandoms, but I will gladly tell you mine: I got into Discworld. I discovered the Discworld fandom in Tumblr. And, one day, while scrolling down some Discworld related tags, the idea just popped into my head. After checking that there wasn't a Discworld Heritage Posts blog already, I decided to make one.

I personally follow a few Heritage Posts blogs, and my reason to do so is probably the same as to why many people follow this blog: I wanted to see that kind of content. Tracking tags and being up to date on the most popular posts of a fandom is doable, but doing so for the dozens upon dozens of media I'm into is impossible, so I like to follow some Heritage Posts blogs to get some of those posts directly into my dashboard (it's also worth mentioning that sometimes, some iconic posts are made when people comment stuff on them, and those don't appear in the search tags, so following blogs that post about a certain fandom is the best way to come across some of those collaborative posts, because otherwise you'd rarely get to see them). So yes, I created a blog that, had it already existed, I would have liked to follow. Also, while other blogs with this gimmick usually limit themselves to reblogging, let's call them the "greatest hits", I've said since the beginning that I didn't care about how many notes something had. Be it cool art or a funny or insightful post, if I like it, I send it to my drafts.

However, none of those reasons are the main reason why I made this blog. The main reason is that I did it for myself. After exhausting all the content that showed up in the Popular Posts tab, I couldn't help but think of all the gold and treasure that wasn't there, buried and hidden due to the way Tumblr's search engine works. If you're familiar with the Discworld concept of "lies-to-children", that's what the "top posts of all time" is in Tumblr. A 20k post from 2016 will not be there, but a six month old post with 400 notes will show up. Surely there had been amazing Discworld posts and art posted in 2015 and 2013, but I wasn't going to find most of them unless I expressly went looking for them. And this blog was the perfect excuse to do so. As of replying to this ask, there's nearly 600 posts sitting in my drafts, and if I didn't have this blog I would have never discovered 90% of them. And those are the ones I've seen. I still have dozens of places I haven't searched.

I know that if I reblog a month old post with over 2k notes, a lot of people in the fandom will have already seen it. However, a 2k notes post from 2014, or a drawing with 40 notes from 2012 is something that is less likely to have hit people's dashes recently, or at all. When you come across the "Discworld Heritage Post" tagline in a post, please don't picture me as an uppity monarch performing the Tumblr equivalent of a knighting ceremony, or a stuffy museum curator deigning a piece worthy of being included in an exhibition. Picture me as a kid enthusiastically jumping and flailing my arms around while yelling "holy shit guys check out what I just found!!", because that's how I feel running this blog.

Ultimately, whether one of my posts does better or worse is indifferent to me, because they aren't my posts, or memes, or drawings. I'm just the intermediary. That being said, of course it's not indifferent to me, because more engagement means that was a post many people hadn't seen before, or had forgotten about, and one of my goals was to run a blog that would allow people to find those hidden or long forgotten gems.

When all is said and done, Heritage Post blogs are just another one of Tumblr's gimmicks. If we're not your cup of tea, you're free to ignore or block us. If you want to reblog something and don't want the tagline, you can reblog it directly from OP (or from another reblog if OP has deactivated their account).

[incomingalbatross]

I guess the thing with Discworld reading order is like. There's a lot of variety and Pratchett does a lot of different things/offers a lot of different experiences under the umbrella of "Discworld." And Discworld fans are passionate enough about the books and aware enough of how niche/out there they might seem that it makes said fans really invested in giving new readers the right introduction to Discworld. Making sure they read the Best Stuff or the stuff most likely to appeal to them, so they'll appreciate it all.

But. But. Have a little more faith in potential readers, maybe? On this website especially - but also generally in any circles where you're likely to receive Pratchett recommendations - I feel like if you've heard the books recced once, you've heard it a couple dozen times, and in terms of very high praise. At which point, if you're interested in checking out the books, you're probably also interested enough to give them a fair shot if the first couple you try don't grab you. If you don't get the Perfect Introductory Experience you're probably still going to keep reading, right? If you're not actively turned off?

I started with Colour of Magic because it was the first book written and I like knowing that I'm not missing anything. I love Rincewind, I was intrigued and amused by the writing, and it also was definitely not High Art. I kept going because I'd been recommended Discworld, and I wasn't going to stop because the first few books were "only" clever and entertaining sword-and-sorcery parodies. I was along for the ride. I wanted to explore.

And the other thing is that the reading charts are fun, but they make it seem like the initial reading order matters so much more than it does? Every book stands well on its own, pretty much, and certainly none of them need complete context. Anything set in Ankh-Morpork is going to give general spoilers for the books before it - mostly in terms of "who's alive, who's in the Watch now, what infrastructure changes have been created" - but they don't spoil plots or book-level arcs. I read several Watch and Witches books out of order, because I got impatient waiting for access, and it didn't ruin anything significant for me.

Anyway. Discworld reading order doesn't matter and that's why there are so many options. Publication order is a fun and valid road to take. Picking up whatever you can get your hands on easily will also work. If you want to read Pratchett, then literally all there is to it is reading Pratchett.

[magpiefngrl]

hello pal! 19 and/or 25 for the book asks, please - or any that you fancy answering!

Hey there!

19. Did you use your library?

Not at all. Libraries in my country don't have a lot of new books. It's rare to find something recent :(. Also, I have been reading exclusively in English (my second language) for a while now and libraries here don't stock books in foreign languages.

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

I love setting goals for reading; it gives me a chance to daydream about all the marvellous stories waiting for me.

So, the thing I've been wanting to do for a while and I hope this is the year is to read some of the dozens of unread books that I own. The total of unread physical books on my shelves is over 65; I don't want to consider how many are waiting in my Kobo for their turn. So, I've created a wee challenge for myself (with prompts like "read a book with a purple cover" or "a book set in Australia") and I'm going to try to use it to read some of my physical books.

A thing I've been doing for a while now is start a series, read book 1, maybe 2, and then never make it to 3. My second goal of the year is to complete all the series that I've yet to finish: like Darker Shades of Magic, Temeraire, The Poppy War and so on. I've also been aiming to read a few Discworld books each year (I'm reading them in chronological order) so I'd like to make some progress there too.

Thanks for the ask!

2022 book ask

[neil-gaiman]

REALLY BLOODY EXCELLENT OMENS...

Many, many years ago (it was Hallowe'en 1989, for the curious, the year before Good Omens was published) Terry Pratchett and I were sharing a room at the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, to keep the costs down, because we were both young authors, and taking ourselves to America and conventions were expensive. It was a wonderful convention. I remember a huge Seattle second-hand bookstore in which I found a dozen or so green-bound Storisende Edition James Branch Cabell books, each signed so neatly by the author that the bookshop people assured me that the signatures were printed, and really ten dollars a book was the correct price.

I could afford books. Good Omens had just been sold to UK publishers and then to US publishers for more money than Terry or I had ever received for anything. (Terry had been incredibly worried about this, certain that receiving a healthy advance would mean the end of his career. When his career didn't end, Terry suggested to his agent that perhaps he ought to be getting that kind of advance for every book from now on, and his life changed, and he stopped having to share a hotel room to save money. But I digress.) Advance reading copies of Good Omens had not yet gone out, but a few editors had read it (ones who had bid for it but failed to buy it) and they all seemed very excited about it, and thrilled for us.

On the Saturday evening Terry left the bar quite early and headed off to bed. I stayed up talking to people and having a marvelous time, hung in there until the small hours of the morning when they closed the hotel bar and all the people went away, and then headed up to the hotel room room.

I opened the door as quietly as I could and tiptoed in the dark across the room to where my bed was located.

I'd just reached the bed when, from the far side of the room, a voice said, “What time of the night do you call this then? Your mother and I have been worried sick about you.”

Terry was wide awake. Jet lag had taken its toll.

And I was wide awake too. So we lay in our respective beds and having nothing else to do, we plotted the sequel to Good Omens. It was a good one, too. We fully intended to write it, whenever we next had three or four months free. Only I went to live in America and Terry stayed in the UK, and after Good Omens was published Sandman became SANDMAN and Discworld became DISCWORLD™ and there wasn't ever a good time.

But we never forgot it.

It's been thirty-one years since Good Omens was published, which means it's thirty-two years since Terry Pratchett and I lay in our respective beds in a Seattle hotel room at a World Fantasy Convention, and plotted the sequel. (I got to use bits of the sequel in the TV series version of Good Omens -- that's where our angels came from.)

Terry and I, in Cardiff in 2010, on the night we decided that Good Omens should become a television series.

Terry was clear on what he wanted from Good Omens on the telly. He wanted the story told, and if that worked, he wanted the rest of the story told.

So in September 2017 I sat down in St James' Park, beside the director, Douglas Mackinnon, on a chair with my name on it, as Showrunner of Good Omens. The chair slowly and elegantly lowered itself to the ground underneath me and fell apart, and I thought, that's not really a good omen. Fortunately, under Douglas's leadership, that chair was the only thing that collapsed.

The crumbled chair.

So, once Good Omens the TV series had been released by Amazon and the BBC, to global acclaim, many awards and joy, Rob Wilkins (Terry's representative on Earth) and I had the conversation with the BBC and Amazon about doing some more. And they got very excited. We talked to Michael Sheen and David Tennant about doing some more. They also got very excited. We told them a little about the plot. They got even more excited.

Rob Wilkins and David Tennant on the second day of shooting.

Me and Michael and Ash aged nearly 2.

What it was mostly like shooting Good Omens: peering into screens while something happened round the corner.

I'd been a fan of John Finnemore's for years, and had had the joy of working with him on a radio show called With Great Pleasure, where I picked passages I loved, had amazing readers read them aloud and talked about them.

(Here's a clip from that show of me talking about working with Terry Pratchett, and reading a poem by Terry: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06x3syv. Here's the whole show from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OsS_JWbzQ with John Finnemore's bits too.)

L to R: With Great Pleasure. John Finnemore, me all beardy, Nina Sosanya (Sister Mary in Good Omens) Peter Capaldi (he played Islington in the original BBC series of Neverwhere).

I asked John if he'd be willing to work with me on writing the next round of Good Omens, and was overjoyed when he said yes. We have some surprise guest collaborators too. And Douglas Mackinnon is returning to oversee the whole thing with me.

So that's the plan. We've been keeping it secret for a long time (mostly because otherwise my mail and Twitter feeds would have turned into gushing torrents of What Can You Tell Us About It? long ago) but we are now at the point where sets are being built in Scotland (which is where we're shooting, and more about filming things in Scotland soon), and we can't really keep it secret any longer.

There are so many questions people have asked about what happened next (and also, what happened before) to our favourite Angel and Demon. Here are, perhaps, some of the answers you've been hoping for.

As Good Omens continues, we will be back in Soho, and all through time and space, solving a mystery which starts with one of the angels wandering through a Soho street market with no memory of who they might be, on their way to Aziraphale's bookshop.

(Although our story actually begins about five minutes before anyone had got around to saying “Let there be Light”.)

from https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/06/really-bloody-excellent-omens.html

[avernocritics]

Opening Statement: A Big, BIG Home (Or: “The Lore Problem”)

All incoming members of the Averno Discord server are greeted with a phrase that, more than anything, is indicative of passion: “Welcome Home.” All 10,000-plus-and-counting members of the fandom gather in this central hub. Across creeds and international borders, between those who really are welcome and those who are dismissed when they try to interact.

What is the draw? Why are all these ambitious, excitable — and often socially anxious — young people lured to Averno in droves? What makes this place not just a haven, but a home? Most controversially, is it as good — or as comprehensible, lore-wise — as they make it out to be?

Maybe one of the big pull factors is the team, most of whom migrated from projects with substantial fandoms of their own, and all of whom have large social media followings. August Greenwood, for starters, composed two musicals on their own: Antonia, a historical piece about Marie Antionette, and Two Maiden Ladies, based on the true story of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Blake, two women who fell in love in the 1800s. The former was performed and met with significant acclaim, garnering them an audience. The latter was, as far we know, never completed before they migrated to the Averno project.

Sushi Soucy is a lyricist and composer who has a few albums themself: a soundtrack for a musical called InstaFamous, an EP called Sidekick of 2 Supers, and a few singles. They were not just notable, but celebrated on Instagram and TikTok for their independent music, including a musical adaptation of Stephen King’s It which never saw fruition before they also joined Averno’s team.

Future Broadway Creators was a joint effort co-created by Greenwood which was advertised as a musical theatre writing bootcamp by young, passionate instructors with experience in the industry. They promised to teach a diverse group of composers and librettists just finding their bearings how to plan their projects and see them through to the end. Many students, though, would not pursue their projects after the program had ended its four-week itinerary; instead, they’d join Averno too, under the wing of FBC’s other co-creator…

Morgan Smith is the co-creator of Future Broadway Creators, co-creator and collaborator on their musical Oceanborn, and the creator and figurehead of the Averno franchise. They single-handedly gathered the crew to make their own little home away from home, a home they share with each other as they weave dozens of strictly interconnected stories, a home big enough to share with the thousands of superfans* that consume it.

So that is, without delving into any of the actual content, what Averno is. A mesmerizing escape from reality with dozens of contributors working and projects running simultaneously. As many ways as they try to divvy up the crowd, though, is it too much? Many members of the Discord server announce their departure as they admit that the pool of stories and plotlines running concurrently by so many authors is becoming not only too many cooks in the kitchen, but way too exhausting to follow all the lore.

Lore has been a great storytelling tool since its dawn in mythos, and has even more so found popularity in modern media. We think modern lore-based stories can be divided into two categories: “Deep lore”, sporting rabbit-hole story beats, with much of the important events happening before the inciting incident (see: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings); and “Wide lore”, wherein many inciting incidents happen for many characters in cooperating stories, but — importantly — don’t go very deep to make it easier to pick up any one story (see: Marvel Comics, Discworld). The fatal flaw in many of the overambitious few who attempt the latter is that they neglect to make the stories easy to pick up. In other words, they combine Deep and Wide lore. At that point, the story becomes too vast and too dense for any average reader to enjoy comfortably — it’s simply overwhelming. The Averno team may very well be one of these overambitious few.

But it’s a golden combination of excitable young writers who have proven their capabilities in media production. They’re all passionate about making this universe as expansive and intricate as possible. They’re making a home for themselves and those who need a family. Maybe their talents can shine outside of deep, winding lore. As far as those facts are concerned, this is going to be cathartic and incredible! How exhausting can it possibly get?

We’ll just have to see…

[rallamajoop]

So, I've spent the last couple of months getting myself hooked on the Witcher franchise.

Believe me, no-one is more surprised than I am – especially when I made it through The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt mostly on the strength of the gameplay, but largely underwhelmed by the plot.

So you can imagine my surprise when I gave the Blood and Wine expansion a chance, and it hooked me, grabbed me right in the id and delivered on almost everything the base game lacked. I fell for Regis, I agonised over the endings, I have a million theories about the villains, I just... yes.

And then I tried the novels, and my god, I think I may love them even more than Blood and Wine.... but let’s start back at the beginning.

Up until earlier this year, I knew The Witcher mostly as that game that infamously gave you collectible cards for getting all the female NPCs to sleep with you – not a great first impression. I tried the Netflix series, but bounced off it quickly. And then youtube randomly recommended me Joseph Anderson's  ridiculously long videos analysing the first two games... and found myself intrigued. The complex morality, twisted fairy tale mythology, the promise of decisions with real consequences and sidequests that only deepened the world and themes... that could actually be worth a play. Nothing may have come of this, but then The Witcher 3 was on sale on Steam, and I thought, what the hell?

Over 100 hours of gameplay later, I came away disappointed. Witcher 3 may have something to recommend everywhere except its overarching plot, which... honestly, just calling it a “plot” may be giving it too much credit, when so much of the main quest feel like meaningless fetch quests for NPCs who may be able to help you find some other NPC who can tell you about the real plot, which is mostly happening to other people. Very little can really change or build organically (tension included) since the open-world structure means the player may be doing it in any order. Then, at the end, you fight a generic dark-elf final boss, who’s had less presence or dialogue than many NPCs you can meet in in utterly optional side quests, then you avert the apocalypse somehow – which I knew might be imminent mostly because it kept coming up on the loading screens (you know, between other such sage advice as "sorceresses are infertile" and "Geralt can use his crossbow underwater"). How do you fill a game up with so much unnecessary padding and still leave the core conflict feeling so underdeveloped?

Don’t get me wrong: there is some amazing material scattered through various subplots along the way, but the setup and payoff in this thing is a disaster.

Still, the Steam sale had included the game’s two expansion packs, and the core gameplay was addictive enough that I gave them a chance – starting with Blood and Wine – and fell head over heels in love.

Everything about the expansion benefits from its smaller scope, delivering something shorter and tighter, with some great twists and surprises, no clear villain, and some truly agonising decisions towards the end once you realise you're not going to be able to save everyone. While the main game left me going eh, whatever, maybe I’ll youtube the other endings at some point, hardly I finished Blood and Wine once before I was reloading a save from the last obvious decision point and replaying the final chapter again (twice, in the same evening) because I so desperately wanted to see what else could have happened. Plus, Blood and Wine included Regis (Geralt's ridiculously mild-mannered uber-powerful-vampire BFF), whom I adored, and whose presence works wonders to tie the story and the mythology together.

(No, he doesn’t look like much, but his voice actor is perfect and his attitude to life and his friendship with Geralt only got me more the longer I spent with him.)

The base game’s inability to pull its plot together was all the greater shame considering how many genuinely brilliant characters you meet along the way (YENNEFER! Dijkstra, Thaler, Phillipa, the Bloody Baron, the Crones – the list goes on), but there were none I fell for the way I fell for Regis (and yes, I ship him with Geralt something awful, so help me).

(If you're curious, I found the a lot of the same strengths in the other expansion pack, Hearts of Stone, but felt it ended weakly, and was frustrated by how hard it pushed Geralt to romance Shani, who did nothing for me. Look, game, my Geralt already has Yennefer and his vampire boyfriend, there is no room for Shani in his busy schedule!)

Curious about the backstory (though certainly also tempted by the promise of more Regis), I gave the novels a try... and fell in love all over again. The first book (by far the weakest) is a bit of an introductory hurdle, but the second quickly sucked me in with its wit and humour, then ended with a series of magnificent gut-punches that ensured I was well and truly hooked – and hooked I remained, through the five more novels that followed.

This is not a series I can say much more about without also telling you how the ending broke my heart – suffice to say that it's not for nothing that so few of Geralt's companions from the last three books ever appear in the games, or that the world thinks Geralt and Yennefer are dead before Witcher 1 (they aren't, even ignoring the games, but whether they ever see Ciri or any of their surviving friends again is left hanging). But the games, for all their flaws, certainly do their bit to offer happier endings, and having got this far, I found myself almost immediately buying that one last prequel novel I'd skipped (Season of Storms), because I just wanted to spent more time in this world, with these characters (even knowing so many faves from the later novels wouldn't be present). And I think that's the sincerest rec I can give the series: I earnestly cannot remember the last time any fantasy novel series sucked me in nearly so hard. I’m left comparing its characters and world-building to Discworld, and that’s about as high as my literary compliments go.

I could ramble on for ages about everything that does and doesn't work about the games, and their convoluted relationship with their source material (so much of the story is woefully under-explained without the books as context, so much expands on leftover plot points that the books never properly resolved – while so much more contradicts the books in wildly irreconcilable ways). I have as much to say about all the great and fascinating things in the books that didn't make it into the games. And I probably will at some point, given what an absolute sucker I am for all that kind of analysis, but that's fodder for other posts (and competing for priority with half a dozen different Geralt/Regis fic I seem to have already started. Or possibly Geralt/Yennefer, or Geralt/Yennefer/Regis, or even Geralt/Dandelion – look, dude is shippable, I don’t know what to tell you).

In the meantime... I may have already started rereading the novels from the beginning again. And Blood and Wine ain’t gonna replay itself.

[script-a-world]

Do you have any suggestions for how to treat the setting like a character? I’ve heard that advice a few times, and I have a hunch that that might be what my current project needs in order to maintain a cohesive sense of place, but I’m a little unsure how to do it.

Constablewrites: It’s possible to have a [setting that is an actual character], but I don’t think that’s what the advice is generally about. Rather, it’s about giving your setting some of the qualities that characters have, rather than treating it as static set dressing.

Characters interact. One of my favorite quick-and-dirty tricks for building mood in a story is the weather. Not in the “it was raining” sense--someone enjoying a pleasant spring rain or hunched against freezing wind and sleet. Even a seemingly neutral partly cloudy day can affect a person, especially when there are fluctuations like the sun going behind a cloud or the wind picking up. Beyond weather, other elements of your world can be actively complicating a character’s life, like its traffic patterns or its legal system (even if embodied in a character, this is still tied to setting).

Characters do stuff when they’re not on screen. Settings start to feel small and inorganic when every element of them is tied to something the characters are doing. Even in a tiny town, there are going to be all sorts of things that keep it running that your characters never see or think about. This is why a lot of world building exercises include questions like “Who gets rid of the trash?” and “Where is the food grown?” It’s not that you need to have this stuff on the page, but understanding it as the writer will inform other choices you make (like the level of technology you’d need to fully automate those things, or the social implications of having people do that work).

Characters are shaped by their pasts. If a character is terrified of ostriches or snappish with everyone except small children, there’s probably some sort of story there. Like with your trash pickup, it might not be something that ever needs to get laid out on the page, but understanding that background as an author helps you paint a more rounded, nuanced portrait of that character.

Ultimately, this last one is a lot of the work we do here at script-a-world: it’s not just about “can you have this cool thing in your setting” but “what is it about your setting that allows this cool thing to be possible?” It’s about thinking through the way various systems interconnect, the way that people think and act and want, the unforeseen ripple effects of small changes.

@scriptstructure might be able to weigh in more on specific methods for getting this onto the page, but one thing you can do is pay attention to the things that make you aware of the world around you: sounds, sensations, events, etc. Then look for ways for your characters to do the same thing.

Brainstormed: This is a good question, and not the easiest one to answer. I’d say look at the masters, like Tolkien (of course) and Terry Pratchett, both of whom created very distinct, personality filled worlds with very different tones. Let’s look at them for a minute.

First, their writing styles. Tolkien, in writing Middle-earth, used high flowery fantasy language that’s become a staple of every vaguely medieval story written since. It recalls the eddas and epics of older civilizations like Beowulf or the story of Ragnarok, which Tolkien actually used as inspiration. The way people speak and the way things are described gets the reader into a very firm mindset about how this world is. Pratchett, on the other hand, denotes Discworld with about as much respect as he had for a normal use of the English language, that is, very little! His way with words is almost nonsensical at points, but vivid, and charming, and just a bit left of weird and straight into magical. The comic tone of the series is encapsulated perfectly by the very words used to build the world, and the serious undertones are brought out in starker contrast when they appear. So think about your world’s personality and your own writing style. If your world could speak, would it do so in the way that you do? Would it use your vocabulary? Would it follow proper grammar or throw around run-on sentences and contractions like no tomorrow? Treat your descriptions of the world in the same way you should be treating a character’s manner of speech: ensure it has a deliberate flair that communicates a personality simply in the writing style used.

Second, their breadth, or scope. This one is a little more difficult to pin down, and you need to figure out where your limit is, unless you don’t mind driving yourself into the ground with a bunch of details that won’t ever show up in your story. Middle-earth is probably the biggest example of this, with its multiple complete languages with their own histories and migrations, with dozens of kingdoms living and dying long before The Lord of the Rings takes place, with its genealogies and appendices and timelines and cosmology! Tolkien went whole ham. But the Discworld series, meandering about with no set first or last book, skipping across characters and settings for the fun of it, accomplishes similar scope with none of the structure. The looseness of the worldbuilding is in fact one of the things that contributes to the worldbuilding. You ought to have a general idea of your world’s entirety, I think, but that should only serve to provide context and richness to the more specific setting your story takes place in. If personality is flavor, then a five star chef laboring over a professional meal will give one taste, a homecooked comfort food with simple ingredients will give another, and they are equally tasty, but very different meals.

Third, the tiny details, perhaps what you’d find if you took the second point and held it up to a magnifying glass. Tolkien barely even bothered to tell us what many of his main characters looked like! He does give us some details, like how the hobbits have an informal speaking style, even when talking to royalty, which led many people to believe they were royalty themselves. That ties in to his language worldbuilding, but it also gives us a sense of how this world works, which lends it a personality. Pratchett finagles such descriptions of small habits and quirks, in both characters and world, that I feel as if I’ve been there already. The ridiculousness found throughout his world is presented so normally that the idiosyncrasies in Discworld give it delightful character instead of confusing the reader. If there’s small details about your world that give it a certain personality, find a way to finagle those in! Make a Pinterest board or an aesthetic folder of some sort, to save the bits and bobs that you know you want your readers to visualize, and try to work backwards from there. The little things will sell it.

[morporkian-cryptid]

Discworld x MorMor crossover, anyone?

The amazing @cheshiresden asked me the other day what would happen if Jim Moriarty and Sebastian Moran lived in Ankh-Morpork, and I’ve been obsessed with this idea ever since. Here’s an extract of the 8 pages of headcanons I currently have, I’ll post more later if y’all are interested!

Note: I’ve included definitions and explanations for the characters, places and weird concepts of the Disc. If I’ve missed some, or there is something you don’t understand, don’t hesitate to ask me, or to look it up on the L-Space Wiki.

Massive thanks to @cheshiresden for this genius idea and for brainstorming the headcanons with me.

Moran and Moriarty in Ankh-Morpork

Jim and Sebastian are newcomers in Ankh-Morpork. They come from the neighbouring town of Pseudopolis and want to start a new life in the capital city of progress. Their goal is to take over the criminal underworld of Ankh-Morpork, and if possible, take over the city.

They didn’t come unprepared, like too many immigrants, and they are aware of all the dangers of the city. They know how the Guilds work, they know how to avoid the Watch, they know how the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, runs the city. They settle in the Shades, the notorious cut-throat neighbourhood of Ankh-Morpork, and after some time and a lot of work, they are at the head of the most powerful gang/criminal network of the city. They have passed accords with the Breccia (troll mafia) and with the dwarves, with all the petty criminals, they own half of the bars, clubs and weird crime hotspots of the city.  The Watch (Ankh-Morpork’s police force) knows something is up but they don’t know what exactly, nor how large this organisation is. And Vetinari refuses to give Commander Vimes further information about them.

Vetinari has been watching Moriarty’s business ever since he and Moran arrived in town. But they’re both too good at keeping their identity secret, and no matter how many dark clerks (the Patrician’s secret services) Vetinari puts on the matter, he can’t figure out who’s running the network. He is more intrigued and amused by Moriarty’s plans than worried, because for now he seems to be controlling himself and he doesn’t mess too much with the city’s balance. Vimes doesn’t share that opinion, but he can only take down small branches of Moriarty’s network and can’t follow them back to Jim. Jim kind of wants to reveal his real identity to Vetinari, but Sebastian has convinced him not to: as soon as Vetinari knows who Moriarty is, so will Vimes, and Vimes will find the slightest excuse to arrest Jim and then tear down his network.

That said, Sebastian is having a lot of fun pestering the Watch, and regularly gets himself arrested just so he can butt heads with Vimes. He thinks they have a lot in common. Vimes disagrees. The Assassins’ Guild isn’t too pleased with Moriarty’s business either, since he offers the same kind of services as them, but under the table. Vetinari has to calm them with the promise that “he is doing something about it”. What exactly he’s doing remains to be seen. The Thieves’ Guild don’t like him very much either, but they’re not too vocal about it since he’s not really in the same line of business as them. The Seamstresses are a bit divided; Rosy Palm isn’t opposed to doing business with Moriarty’s Firm, but doesn’t voice it too loudly, since her loyalty has always been to Vetinari and to the City. The Beggars’ Guild, on the other hand, are engaged in a very successful collaboration with Moriarty, and they aren’t about to stop.

(Notes for Discworld newbies: a lot of Ankh-Morpork’s Guilds are a bit unconventional. The Assassins’ Guild was originally a school, and later extended its activities, and is one of the oldest and the most respected establishment in the city. They also provide the best education to the noble class. The Thieves’ Guild was created by Vetinari, on the principle that crime would always exist and it would be easier to control if it were organized. The Seamstresses are a euphemism for “ladies of negotiable affection” and are also an old profession that only acquired the status of Guild when Vetinari came into power. The Beggars’ Guild is THE oldest Guild in the city, and the richest.)

Once they’ve got the criminal underworld under their thumb, Jim and Sebastian go for the Guilds. Jim thinks that the Assassins’ Guild is too old and traditional and should be modernised, and that the Thieves’ Guild is slow and heavy and could be much more efficient if it was in better hands. The better hands, of course, are his own. Becoming president of the Assassin’s Guild when you haven’t studied there is pretty much impossible (unless you falsify the records and kill anyone who could testify that you’re not an alumni, but that would include Vetinari, and he’s unkillable), and the president of the Thieves’ Guild is basically just the tax collector, a role that doesn’t interest Jim much. Instead of running for Guild president, he sends Sebastian to pick out people who could work for them on the inside and influence the Guilds’ decisions – including in the Beggars’ and the Seamstresses’ Guilds and a few more strategic ones. In the same time, he gets openly involved in the political scene of Ankh-Morpork, finally meeting Vetinari, Vimes, Lipwig (the Post Master and later the owner of the president of the Royal Bank) and the others in person. Unbeknownst to Sebastian, Jim wants to become Patrician himself. He attempts an assassination on Vetinari, but fails. Not just once, but at least half a dozen times. With each new failure, his admiration for the Patrician grows stronger, and he eventually gives up on his plans of becoming the city’s ruler. Instead, he starts playing mind games with Vetinari, trying to disrupt the city’s balance, plotting against him (in one or two occasions, Vetinari had infiltrated the plot and managed to use it to further his own interests). Vetinari doesn’t actively try to stop him, because at this point Moriarty’s network has become an important part in the city’s criminal balance, and destroying him would create a vacuum. Additionally, he quite enjoys his little games with Jim (his friend Lady Margolotta is getting jealous back in Überwald because the distraction make Vetinari frequently forget their ongoing game of Thud), he’s certain he can use Moriarty’s network in a way that would benefit the city (even though he’d have to be much more subtle than he was with Lipwig), and he doesn’t actually know how to get rid of Jim permanently. He’s even starting to wonder whether Jim did study at the Assassins’ Guild.

[mylonelyangel]

Good Omens: A Study in Comedy

A couple years ago in my senior year of high school, my English teacher had told us for our last essay of the year, to pick any novel by any notable author, and write about it. I picked Good Omens cause i happened to be reading it at the time, but this essay was legit the most fun I’ve ever had writing an essay. I figured with the show coming out at @neil-gaiman being on tumblr, I might as well post it here were people might enjoy it.

Its about why Good Omens is successful as a comedy. It’s kinda long so it’s gonna go beneath a cut. But yeah here it is. (Also apologies for the formatting I cant figure out how to make this thing readable. rn it looks a lot better on desktop than mobile. Any suggestions on that are welcome)

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In the world of entertainment-- be that film, TV, literature, etc. -- comedy is hard. It’s hard to act, it’s hard to write, and it takes real talent to do comedy well. Often, comedy goes underappreciated in the professional world; however, Good Omens seems to be an exception. In writing the forward to their book, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman describe the many well-read and deteriorating copies of Good Omens that they have had the pleasure of signing. From books dropped in bathtubs and puddles, to pages being held together by packing tape, clearly, the book is well loved by many. The unique quality of this novel is that rather than a “laugh-out-loud” humor, Pratchett and Gaiman aimed for a more subtle, ironic humor adding up to a satire that teaches a lesson on the importance of humanity and compassion. All in all, Good Omens is a delightfully witty and entertaining book that is sure to please any avid reader.

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Biography

It was the year 1989 when Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett decided to combine efforts in writing Good Omens. At the time, Gaiman was 29. He was born in Hampshire UK in 1960 and grew up frequently visiting his local library, developing a life-long love for reading. After briefly pursuing a career in journalism, he soon became interested in writing comic books. The Sandman is one of Gaiman’s most notable graphic novel works. It won several awards including three Harvey Awards, nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, becoming the first comic to every receive a literary award.  After gaining this success, Gaiman has gone on to expand his resume by working in film and television. He’s written and directed two films: A Short Film About John Bolton (2002) and Statueque (2009). Most recently, Gaiman is writing for the television series adaption of his book, American Gods, set to premier on April 30, 2017 on Starz.

Gaiman’s writing companion, Terry Pratchett, was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire in 1948. He had a passion for writing from a young age, publishing his first story, “The Hades Business” in his school magazine at age thirteen. Four years later at age seventeen, Pratchett dropped out of school to pursue journalism. It was in this line of work that he came into contact with his first publisher, Colin Smythe, and through him published his first book in 1971, The Carpet People. Smythe remained a close friend of Pratchett and in 1983 published the first book of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful series: Discworld. At this time, Pratchett worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board as a press officer. Four books into his Discworld series, Pratchett decided to become a full time writer. After a long and successful career, unfortunately in 2007 Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s called Posterior Cortical Atrophy. He lived the last years of his life very well; in 2009, he was knighted by the Queen for his services to literature and in 2013 he presented a documentary discussing the controversial topic of assisted dying. Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die won both an Emmy and a BAFTA. Despite campaigning for assisted dying, Terry did not choose to take his own life and died peacefully surrounded by family in March 2015.

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Extended Analysis

The comedy collaboration Good Omens has been deemed by many to be a great novel. Critics praise the unique blend of writing styles for making this novel a success, but to understand what makes the comedic genius of Good Omens, one must ask what precisely makes it funny. This novel is a satire; it comments on existentialist ideas surrounding humanity and the responsibility humans have over their own actions for better or for worse. In order to emphasize their novel as an unexpectedly witty and socially relevant satire, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett use several literary devices such as repetition, mood, and irony. In a remarkable world belonging to angels and demons who wish to bring about the apocalypse, the air of abnormality must be maintained throughout the novel; comedy only follows naturally.  

In order to emphasize the absurdity of the events in Good Omens, the authors often used repetition in describing people or events. Given that this book revolves around the events of Armageddon, absurdity is not hard to come by; it is precisely what enforces the satire nature of the novel. For instance, the Antichrist is first described to the reader as “a golden haired male baby we will call the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of this World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness” (Gaiman 27). Not only does the baby have this long list of titles, but he is referred to as such several more times in the next few pages. This description is a means to bring attention to the oddness of the situation and the repetition serves to emphasize it. Another interesting use of repetition is a scene in which the events of the evening are being narrated by an irritable man named R. P. Tyler; a man who not only believes himself to be the sole decider of right and wrong in the world, but that it is his responsibility to pronounce his wisdom unto others via the letter column of the Tadfield Adviser. This man is the epitome of arrogant old men and on the afternoon of Armageddon, finds himself directing several parties of odd people to the same location. In the eyes of the reader, all of the characters introduced thus far are arriving to the small English town of Tadfield for the start of the apocalypse. The events are rumored to take place at the Lower Tadfield Air Base and in succession, R. P. Tyler encounters four groups of people going to the Airfield within a span of 30 minutes (Gaiman 325-336). The result is a comedic effect that brings all separate storylines back to the same page. The repetition of events is what brought to R. P. Tyler’s attention to the odd occurrences in Tadfield. As the man met group after group, he quickly becomes more flustered and his figurative bubble of normality is cracking until Crowley’s arrival: “There was a large once-black car on fire in the lane and a man in sunglasses was leaning out the window, saying through the smoke “I’m sorry, I’ve managed to get a little lost. Can you direct me to the Lower Tadfield Air Base? I know it’s around here somewhere”” (Gaiman 334). One can safely say that after this event, R. P. Tyler no longer has a figurative bubble of normality.

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One of the highlights of Good Omens is the comical language in which it is written, setting an air for the absurd to be normalized and the mundane to receive an exaggerated retelling. An ambiance of abnormality is maintained throughout the entire novel through methods of over-explaining minute details. For instance, as the first proceedings of Armageddon are set into motion, the scene is set with the following depiction:

“It wasn’t a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that’s the weather for you. For every mad scientist who’s had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is finished and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who’s sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime” (Gaiman 14).

This description of the setting contributes to a lighthearted mood despite the impending apocalypse. It feels as though the authors are making polite conversation as the story progresses, and this style of writing is used throughout the novel. Later on, a scene occurs in which a demon kills a room full of telemarketers and the aftermath is described as follows: “. . . a wave of low-grade goodness started to spread exponentially through the population and millions of people who ultimately would not have suffered minor bruises of the soul did not in fact do so” (Gaiman 308). The elegance in which that sentence is written gives the reader a sense of understanding in that the authors are not technically wrong in their description. The line is satirical and for many readers, felt on a personal level. The witty line does not fail in upholding the absurd and exceedingly nonchalant atmosphere. This style brings to light underlying truths of humanity that one may not acknowledge in a day to day basis, but are true nonetheless. Through this recognition of distinctly human emotions and struggles, Gaiman and Pratchett succeed in creating an engaging environment in which the reader is both reflective and entertained by their story.

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The irony in Good Omens lies within the ongoing discussion of humanity and the importance of free will. As Heaven and Hell prepare for Armageddon, the key to its commencement lies in the hands of the Antichrist. However, the Antichrist ends up being much more human than either side predicted. As usual, the demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale come to this conclusion long before their superiors:

““Because if I know anything,” said Crowley urgently, “it’s that the birth is just the start. It’s the upbringing that’s important. It’s the influences. Otherwise it will never learn to use its powers.” . . .

“You’re saying the child isn’t evil of itself?” [Aziraphale] said slowly.

“Potentially evil.  Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped.” said Crowley” (Gaiman 58).  

Given that Adam the Antichrist grew up in the absence of any supernatural influence, he naturally became a very pure and innocent child who only wanted save the environment and read conspiracy theory magazines. In fact, unaware of his power and heritage, he was involuntarily at fault for the rise of Atlantis and the visitations of aliens. His deep love for the planet also allowed for his subconscious to grow rain forests in the thick of cities and to turn 500 tons of Uranium into a lemon drop. In a book that satirizes the meanings of good and evil, it is very ironic that the Antichrist has the greatest amount of love to give. As observed by local witch, Anathema: “Something or someone loves this place. Loves every inch of it so powerfully that it shields and protects it. A deep-down, huge, fierce love. How can anything bad start here?” (Gaiman 229). It is reiterated several times throughout the book that humans are their own worst enemy. They are the ones who have free will, therefore they choose whether to act good or evil. Demons and angels have no choice in this respect. Gaiman and Pratchett make clear to their audience that humans must value their free will, spread love and live life to its fullest. If the Antichrist can do it, so can you.

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When reflecting on the comedic success of Good Omens, one can conclude that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are masters at their craft. This wonderfully composed work of fiction succeeds in satirizing the inner workings of human nature in that the supernatural can do no worse to humans than humans already do to themselves. Stylistically, Gaiman and Pratchett create a casual environment that highlights the absurd events by using techniques such as irony, mood, and repetition. The result is a clever and profound lesson on the importance of love in the human experience taught not by those who are human, but those who act with the most humanity.

[taz-writes]

10 Questions Tag Game

@micastarsandmirrors tagged me on my main blog for this, but I’m posting it here because it seemed more appropriate. :>

1. Which author(s) inspires you the most?

Oof, hard question! Recently I’ve been really inspired by Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series--I love how he deconstructs fantasy as a genre. Guards! Guards! is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. 

2. Someone from a different world asks you, “Show me the song of your people” which earth song would you play for them?

Madeon’s Pop Culture. It’s such a genius reimagining of SO many other songs, and it encapsulates modern pop musical culture in a way that’s really fantastic. I love it. It’s not actually my favorite song, but as an example to an alien of what Earth music is, it’s a pretty good case study. 

3. How did you get the idea for your current WIP?

Feilan is drawn from the mythology of a recess game I used to play with my friends in elementary school. My friends and I would team up and LARP as our super cool powerful fairy avatars and fight the annoying boys from the classroom next door evil! As we grew up, the lore of Fairyland grew darker and more complicated, and I borrowed bits and pieces of dozens of other stories to glue them to my self insert and my friends’. We grew out of the game, but the paracosm we’d created stuck with me. Around sixth grade, I started putting those old recess games into writing! 

4. Which of your characters is a lover not a fighter and which is a fighter not a lover?

Honestly, most of my characters are both! Feilan is an action story and the majority of the cast is prepared to throw down at any time. I think Lavender is the lover-not-a-fighter. She’s a healer, after all, and she prefers to avoid conflict. The fighter is definitely Amalie. 

5. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you listen to?

Sometimes! It depends on my mood, and what kind of scene I’m trying to write. Usually, I prefer instrumental music. I have a class at school where the homework is just listening to a few hours of classical music, so I’ll do that a lot while I write. Otherwise... video game music is the way to go. Undertale has a freaking amazing soundtrack. Also, I’m still quite fond of the Homestuck music albums.... They have a lot of great songs for setting a mood. 

6. What’s the best way to piss off your main OC?

Tell her she’s not good enough to be worthy of something. Bonus points if you imply her opinions don’t matter, or bring up her birth status. That’ll get her riled up in half a second flat. 

7. What inspired you to write your current WIP(S)?

Oh boy here we go, here’s the novel. Feilan’s backstory is long and very emotional.

When I was growing up, I could never find stories to read that actually gave me what I wanted. I was raised on that early-2000s strand of Girl Power(tm) that was really obsessed with characters who are girls fighting the patriarchy and everyone cares that they’re girls because there’s clearly nothing more important about their characters........ Either that or they were just straight up annoying. I adored Winx Club but every time the girls went shopping another piece of me died. I had a well-established Not Like Other Girls complex but at the same time reading characters who thought like that was really annoying? There were a lot of things I hated in the stories I read growing up: inescapable love interests, tiny sparkly boring fairies, the anti-sue genre of Plain Modest Protagonists who aren’t allowed to be powerful or even aware that they could be, female characters who can’t do anything without reminding us that they’re girls and girls can’t normally do this but I can and look how special that is!!, the inevitable Girl Media Shopping Montage... et cetera. 

I didn’t want that. I wanted Lord of the Rings, but with girls, and maybe a cute boy!Galadriel. I wanted a story where girls being heroes wasn’t a big deal, or even worth questioning. I couldn’t find those things, so I decided I’d make my own, drawn out of my shameless childhood power fantasies. Feilan is an aggressive defiance of pretty much all the tropes in the last paragraph. I’ve stuck to it so doggedly because even now, I still have trouble finding stories with the kinds of characters I want to read about. I’ve always been super invested in stories about characters who are Like Me, who are girls with feminine and masculine interests, who have ADHD but are still smart anyways, who are short and built strong instead of slender. I used to refuse to watch cartoons unless there was at least one blonde girl that I could latch onto who wasn’t a stereotype Popular Girl. More recently, I want to see characters who are bi like me, where nobody makes a big deal out of it. I don’t even like romance stories, I don’t understand why it has to matter if X likes girls and boys! Just let her do that and get her girlfriend and get back to saving the world! And I fucking hate stories that pretend to be progressive by driving in over and over again how X character is a girl, X character is so gay--the ultimate result is just reminding me that I’m weird somehow. By... being a person, I guess. I hate those narratives so much but especially in mainstream YA, they’re practically inevitable? 

So I wanted to write Feilan so I could have the story I wanted to read but never found, about characters who are like me and dealing with my problems and my strengths and my fears. And I’ve kept writing it because I still want that, and I want Feilan to be that story for other people too, because I don’t think I’m alone here. It’s also a major outlet for my emotions. 

This is a long answer, but I think it’s pretty clear why. :)

8. What is the last book/series you finished reading?

The last book I read was an English translation of Ghost Opera by Mercedes Roffe, which I read for a class I’m taking right now in the art of translation. It’s very far away from my usual fantasy genre, but I really enjoyed it! If you like neat artsy poetry, give it a look sometime, especially if you speak Spanish and can experience it in the original language. 

9. What finally made you say, “Wow! I really like writing, I’m gonna keep doing this”?

When I was in fourth grade I won a local writing contest with a cute little poem about nature, and I got to go to a book fair event and read it out loud in a fancy auditorium, and I was SO UNBELIEVABLY STOKED. My mom was really proud of me, too. A couple people complimented the poem to me afterwards and it made my year. I decided that I wanted to win again the next year, and started taking poetry more seriously. 

10. What’s your favorite thing about writing?

Rereading my work. It’s so incredible to me sometimes, because I can and will cry over events in my own story, and I get so happy reading over the triumphs of my own OCs that I wrote out with my own hands and there’s something so beautiful and powerful about seeing these ideas that I created in my brain grow wings and fly. I cried a lot, when I printed out the first draft of Feilan’s book 1 and held it in my hands. That’s mine! I did that! I did all of that, and now I can hold it and see it and show people! 

I’m now tagging @pumapauus @greenhousewriting @jaidynwrites @hklunethewriter and anyone else who’s interested to answer these 10 questions, then write your own and pass it on! Feel free to ignore if you don’t have the time :) Anyone else who sees this and is interested, you’re welcome to answer too and say I tagged you!

1. What does your workspace look like? Do you have a designated ‘writing area’? 

2. Do you prefer to write solo heroes or ensemble casts? 

3. Which of your characters reminds you the most of yourself?

4. What’s one trait your main OC has that you wish you had, too?

5. Have you changed or removed any major elements of your current WIP since its original draft/concept? What was the biggest change, and why did you make it? 

6. If you had to give your main WIP a theme song, what would it be?

7. What’s your favorite non-writing-related hobby?

8. What are some of your favorite books? 

9. What’s your favorite trope to read and/or write? What’s your least favorite? 

10. What do you love most about your own work and why? 

[wendynerdwrites]

A Notable Bi-Magical Union

My contribution to @jonxsansafanfiction‘s Twelve Days of Shipping. 

Dec 30th Hogwarts or Magic Au ❖ Bed Sharing Trope 

Because I’m me, I went with a Discworld AU with Jon as an Unseen University Professor, Sansa as a Witch and Nac Mac Feegle Hag/Duchess, featuring Arya as a Fairy Godmother, witch, and wizard. To stay true to Sir Terry’s writing style, this includes footnotes which will be designated by asterisks. 

Beware: Utter farce, drunk pictsies, and the Stark sisters being ALL OF THE EXTRA below:

The Ankh-Morpork Times had run its first engagement announcement in the liner notes of the ‘Society’ Section in the year of the Mongoose, an act which kick-started a trend among the aspiring aristocrats of the city to declare the impending nuptials of their sons and daughters through the press, paying a modest fee to see their children’s names in small print. These announcements were restrained to small blurbs of no more than fifty words apiece, as there was only so much any writer was willing to do for ten pence and two delusional strangers. The founding editors of the Times, William de Worde and Miss Sacharissa Cripslock, had Views on the matter of publicizing one’s private life (these Views, coincidentally, were the same reason that Miss Cripslock refused to be addressed as Mrs. de Worde).

The Society pages of the Times were usually more concerned with public events and exhibitions than people and whatever nonsense they got up to with their Favors. Even the marriage of the Right Honorable Samuel Vimes II, son of Their Graces Ser Samuel Vimes and Lady Sybil Ramkin Vimes, the Duke and Duchess of Ankh, to Princess Tiffany With Two F’s Please Don’t Say This Part Aloud Oh Bugger of Lancre* got the same space as Miss Muffy Butcher and Mr. Jiminy Stronginthearm.

There was one wedding, however, which even the intractable de Worde-Cripslocks admitted was newsworthy enough to earn a proper article.

“Notable Bi-Magical Union! Acting Wizard Legally Marries Witch!”

This was deemed newsworthy for three reasons.

The first was that by law and custom, acting Wizards (with few exceptions) were celibate, as certain accidents of wizarding genetics had a tendency to… snowball. An eighth son of an eighth son (or, in one accidental case, an eighth child of an eighth son) was an automatic wizard. The eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son was a global catastrophe colloquially known as a Sourcerer. Thus, if a wizard did take it upon himself to wed, he was required to surrender his staff and magic to the Unseen University and retire.

Professor Jon Snow, DThau., DMS., DCM., and Her Grace Lady Sansa Tully-Whent**, Duchess of Genua, Hag o’ the Waters***, received a special dispensation for the marriage from Archchancellor Lannister for a whole other newsworthy reason: that being that they, along with the Her Grace’s sister, had rescued the Main Continent from a hoard of dragons and Ice Demons led by the bastard son of the Wintersmith and the Disc’s first ever Sourceress.

The third reason this event was deemed relevant had to do with the events of the wedding itself. The Duchess, mindful of the historic significance of the occasion, had reportedly summoned over four dozen witches from all across the main continent and employed over a thousand Pictsies, gnomes, and golems in order to create the perfect magical wedding. The Archchancellor himself was to officiate the ceremony, which would consist of over an hour of ancient rituals from nearly every major nation of the Main Continent, for the purposes of cultural sensitivity. The bride was to fly down the aisle on her broomstick, which had been refurbished and gilded with white gold, sapphires, and opals by the dwarves of Uberwald, who had also crafted over fifty ornate centerpieces for the reception. The gown had a thirty-foot train of Klatchian silk.

Professor Snow, rarely seen wearing anything but his severe black robe and hat, agreed to all of this on the condition that he not be required to take the courtesy title of “Duke of Genua” upon their marriage.

Unfortunately for the bride, things did not quite go as planned. The Duchess’s sister, Dr. Arya Tully-Whent, DThau., DMn., DMS., BEIL., F.G, was a notable bi-magical union in her own right, being only the second woman in history to master Wizarding magic and attend the Unseen University, a reluctant witch, and, thanks to her guardian’s sense of irony****, a most reluctant fairy godmother.

The good Dr. Arya was the Maid of Honor  and tasked with following her sister on her own broom and carrying a portion of the bride’s train. Prior to the wedding, the Duchess made the mistake of enchanting her sister’s broom to sprout roses. The furious wizard proceeded to attempt to undo the spell as they flew down the aisle of U.U’s Great Hall, resulting in a mishap in which the bride’s skirts burst into violet and emerald flames. A panic erupted, more as a result of the “help” the bride received from her guests. Many of which, unfortunately, were witches and wizards. The Great Hall of the University erupted in blasts of stray magic.

The Duchess was thankfully unharmed, having the good sense to avoid spells altogether and simply tear off her skirts and fly towards the nearest mop-bucket, which she immediately had to empty onto her bridegroom, who had been struck by a poorly-cast Luthsome’s UN-cinerater. By the time most of the guests fled and the ash and thaumaturgy had settled, the Great Hall was in a shambles and the Duchess’s once-glorious Klatchian silk gown had been reduced to what amounted to some conveniently-placed bandages.

Dr. Arya chose this moment to start another fire, this one smaller and more contained, at the center of the Hall. She then grabbed her dazed sister and brother-in-law by the wrists and rushed them towards the flames, yelling, “Leap, Knave! Jump, Whore! Be married now forevermore!”

The Times was lucky enough that their Chief Iconographer, Otto Chriek, was there at precisely the right moment to capture the happy moment. The Duchess had envisioned a more elegant public wedding portrait. She was later crowned ‘Best Legs on The Disc’ by Ankh-Morpork Masculine on the basis of the image, an honor which became less dubious to her when she continued to receive fan-mail from gentleman admirers well into her golden years. She was spared some humiliation at the reception, when her loyal Pictsie Companions decided to steal everyone else’s clothes and present the garments to their beloved Hag. The entire affair would go down in history and legend as “The Nude Wedding.”*****

For her part, the Duchess got revenge on her sister by casting a new spell on Arya’s broom to sprout roses, daffodils, lilies, hyacinths, and azaleas. Arya took her vehicle to every broom-maker and magical authority on the Disc and never managed to reverse it. To her extreme annoyance, she eventually earned the nickname ‘The Flower Fairy.’

Even well after their literally-explosive wedding, the marriage of Professor Snow and Her Grace attracted plenty of interest and attention from the gossips of the Disc. Professor Snow had famously refused to cast the final anti-sourcery sequence during the Battle for the Dawn until Archchancellor Lannister granted him a dispensation to wed the Duchess******.

The passion the two had for each other was mystery on its own to those who took interest in such things, as they were deemed ‘ill suited’ for one another. The Duchess had inherited her position in Genua from her elderly Aunt, the Baroness Ella Saturday. Not content with being a mere ‘Baroness’, she had herself upgraded within the peerage to the rank of Duchess. She was known as a passionate supporter of artists and up-and-coming magical talent, eventually starting the Genua Home for Magical Ladies, a halfway house for displaced witches, and a high-profile advocate of Female Dwarf Awareness. Under her rule, Genua became the art and fashion capital of The Disc.

Professor Snow, on the other hand, was a student of the legendary Ponder Stibbons, the founder of the University’s High Energy Magical Department. He’d received his basic education in the Assassin’s Guild as one of the charity cases, but declined his Black Syllabus on the basis of it being “Too Posh” and transferred to the University instead. After acquiring his Doctorate in Thaumaturgy, he was granted a Professorship in the field of Magical Avoidance. While professors at the Unseen University were famous for acquiring the body mass index of an adolescent whale, Professor Snow was one of the few faculty who could keep up with the hunting schedule of the resident ghost of the late Archchancellor Ridcully, and was Captain of U.U.’s official Foot-the-Ball team. Under his leadership, the school’s team gained its first legal win.

The two had met through Arya, and no one knows exactly where it went from there. Only that on three separate occasions at three separate society functions, Professor Snow was caught hiding beneath the Duchess’s voluminous gowns.*******

Furthermore, despite the great pains the two went to in order to wed, they lived surprisingly separate lives, mostly visiting one another on the weekends, flying back and forth between Genua and Ankh-Morpork. Despite this, the two managed to produce six daughters and were known to openly adore each other. When asked about the secrets of their success on their sixtieth wedding anniversary, Professor Snow replied, “Distance, affection, and very big skirts.”

*Youngest Sister of Queen Esmeralda Margaret Note Spelling I of Lancre

**Daughter of Catelyn Tully-Whent, who was Daughter of Minisa Whent. Witches aren’t really interested in their male forebears.

***The Duchess was the official witch or ‘Hag’ of the Genuan Clan of the Nac Mac Feegle. Despite the seemingly incompatible personalities of Her Grace and the Pictsies, she is credited as mastering the dreaded arts of “the crossin’ o’ the arms”, “the tappin’ of the feets”, and ‘“the knowin’ of the speakin’”. She was affectionately referred to as ‘The Fancy Hag’ by the Disc’s population of Feegle in general before eventually ascending to senior witch status as a ‘Hag o’ Hags.’

****Said Guardian was the Tully-Whents’ elderly aunt, the Baroness Ella Saturday, who had helped raise the girls after their parents’ death. Both girls were witches and their similarities ended there. Sansa had always yearned to be a magical fairy godmother and noblewoman. Arya, on the other hand, wanted to be a wizard and the next “Hag” to Genua’s Clan of Nac Mac Feegle. The Baroness, who had no small amount of experience with witches and fairy godmothers, arranged in her will for the girls to get some of what they wanted, but mostly what they needed. Arya got to go to the Unseen University and study under her idol Eskarina Smith. However, instead of being designated as the next ‘Hag o’ The Waters’, she was left the recovered Fairy Godmother’s wand instead. Sansa, as the elder sister, did inherit rule of Genua, but that also came with the deed to the Nac Mac Feegle’s mound, making her the new Hag (Hag being the Feegle term for ‘witch’). Thus it happened that in the annals of history, the tomboyish, staff-wielding Arya eventually became known as The Flower Fairy, while ladylike, delicate, class-conscious Sansa ascended to the revered position of ‘Hag o’ Hags’

***** “I wish,” sighed many a reader of Ankh-Morpork Masculine.

****** In order to ensure that the dispensation was honored, the dispensation was drafted by Her Grace’s clan of Feegles, for whom the concepts of law and the written word are weapons. It is a good idea "neever te sign a feegle contract; six inch high people write verra small print".

*******The Duchess’s dresses, and their thick, heavy skirts would acquire a legend of their own. It has been speculated that Her Grace popularized the trend of “poofy” skirts for the express purpose of having a place to hide her husband, who had been caught beneath them twice during the War for the Dawn and at at least three different foot-the-ball games. So frequent were these incidents that it became a running joke among the UU student body to reply to any inquiry about the Professor’s whereabouts to “check the Duchess’s skirts.” Others claim she kept to the seemingly-impractical style in order to house her Feegle companions, who she’d unleash upon any guests she found distasteful. The most famous incident involving her use of the Feegles in this manner was during a ball in Genua, when Lord Rust was overheard making a bigoted comment about Her Grace inviting goblins to the event and referring to the dwarf guests as ‘Lawn Ornaments’. The Duchess demanded an apology and, when that was refused, lifted her hemline and cried out “Alrae, Lads, gets dis Scuggan Offski!” Lord Rust was allowed to remain in Genua only long enough to collect all of his teeth.

[purpleshirtminion-blog]

Tragedy of Adult Animation

 At least in America.  When I say “Adult” I don’t mean porn,  I mean animation made for older audiences.  There is a trope called  “All Adult Animation Is South Park” and it’s a trope very firmly based in reality. (With a few exceptions)

And I think it’s become a problem.  I finally watched the trailer for the upcoming animated series Bigmouth and while I was obviously disgusted,  I was also heartbroken.  Is this what American animation is going to be known for?  Is this what American audiences will settle for?  Gross out humor with no substance?

Do studios think they can’t do better?

Samurai Jack finally came to it’s conclusion earlier this year and while I wasn’t thrilled with the finale,   the first three episodes were absolutely breathtaking!  Beautiful, bloody, tragic, suspenseful and hopeful, it took full advantage of it’s medium as well as the age of it’s audience and created true art!  And knowing this, what have studios done?  They create MORE animated sitcoms based on shock humor!

I can’t be the only one who’s bothered by this.  And it’s not even the trashy content, it’s the fact that they won’t do anything else!  But why?  They’re showing a close up of a 12 year old girls bloody pad, so it can’t be because they’re afraid to take risks!  And it’s not even as though they’d have to be 100% creative with their content either!  I can think of dozens of already existing properties that would look amazing animated!

Anne Rices’ Interview With a Vampire,  The Discworld series, The Last Guardian,  Shadow of Mordor, the Cthulhu Mythos,  ET, or even Steven Kings IT!  Or  you can teach science or history in whatever way you want!  I don’t know about you guys, but I’d watch the story of Washington crossing the Delaware as told by Monty Python!  It would still be stupid, but at least it would be a change of pace!

Adult Animation is being wasted!  Can we start holding animation studios to higher standards?  Please?

[uberniftacular]

ODDS

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

About equal? I think it probably works out to being more cereal than milk volume-wise, but it’s not like I measure it?

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

I mostly don’t use random things as bookmarks, actually. I’m very rarely reading more than one book at a time, and I’ve got a leather bookmark I’ve had for probably 20 years by now that’s what I always use. If I’m reading something else and that bookmark is in use already, then generally whatever envelope or receipt is closest.

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

Not particularly, unless I’ve been eating spinach recently.

7: do you name your plants?

I don’t have plants (but I don’t think I’d name them if I did have them).

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

All the damn time.

11: what's an inner joke you have with your friends?

“Neurons in party hats!”

13: what's something that made you smile today?

My cat dozing off next to me.

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

Honestly I got bored before I found one weird enough to be worth telling, so instead I present to you: DUDE, NO EDGE.

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

Purple! And conveniently, I’m a grown-ass adult, so I have actually been doing exactly that for well over a year now.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

Nope. I’ve tried on and off over the years, but mostly I get a few days/pages in and then get either super bored or super distracted, so I give up.

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that's been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

I don’t honestly think I have a favorite bag. *shrugs*

23: what's your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

INTERNET. FOREVER.

25: what's the weirdest place you've ever broken into?

That’s making the assumption that I’ve ever broken into a place, which as a matter of fact, I have not.

27: what's your favorite bubblegum flavor?

I don’t actually chew gum.

29: what's something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

A couple of my friends have basically their own accent that they speak in, but mostly only to each other, and it’s really super cute.

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

TALL SOCK LIFE IS BEST LIFE. Y’all, I recently acquired a pair of rainbow thigh-high socks and they’re fucking awesome. I love patterns on socks in general, though I confine myself to white-cotton-sock hell when I’m working out.

33: what's your fave pastry?

ALL OF THEM. OMG, pastry is the goddamn best.

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

I love pretty pens and office supplies in general, but I very rarely actually use them.

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

Clean, mostly so that I can actually find things and also not trip over anything (well, besides the cats) when I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee.

39: what color do you wear the most?

Purple or red, probably. I also wear a ton of black, but just because it goes with everything.

41: what's the last book you remember really, really loving?

Basically everything Tamora Pierce has ever written, really.

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

Hmm. Probably my bestie, E, if I had to guess. I don’t spend a lot of time stargazing.

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

Sure.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

Jalapenos. I JUST WANT TO EAT GUACAMOLE WITHOUT BURNING MY FACE OFF GODFUCKINGDAMNIT.

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

I haven’t bought a physical CD in YEARS. The most recent one was...probably one of Hank Green’s albums, and that would’ve been like 4 years ago. (Well, that’s the most recent on purpose one anyway. My ticket to Kesha’s tour this fall came with a copy of the album, so that’s the most recent CD I’ve *acquired*.)

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

Within Temptation’s “Aquarius” for my husband.

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

I think Heathers is the only one of those I haven’t seen, but I’ve only seen each of the others once, and I don’t think I was particularly impressed by any of them.

55: what's the most dramatic thing you've ever done to prove a point?

I have absolutely no idea, tbh.

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

I genuinely don’t have the energy for Bohemian Rhapsody right now. Because it *requires* a full sing-along, and I’m just not capable of that today.

59: what's your favorite myth?

Hades and Persephone, probably.

61: what's the stupidest gift you've ever given? the stupidest one you've ever received?

I honestly can’t remember the stupidest gift I’ve given (unless you count the cringe-worthy ones I gave to crushes in high school, but we’re not talking about those). And as for stupidest I’ve received, it wasn’t *intended* to be a stupid gift, but a year or two ago I was given a Loki dress for Christmas or something and LIKE SERIOUSLY, YOU HAVE MERCH FOR LITERALLY ALL THE AVENGERS AND YOU GIVE ME FUCKING LOKI?

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

I’m pretty organized about them.

65: is there anyone you haven't seen in a long time who you'd love to hang out with?

@the-wordbutler!

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

Tired

69: what are your favorite board games?

Mysterium, Dixit, Castle Panic, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork. And, while not technically a board game, CodeNames.

71: what's your favorite kind of tea?

I don’t drink tea

73: what are some of your worst habits?

Avoiding shit that makes me sad or uncomfortable even if I need to deal with it

75: tell us about your pets!

I have 2 cats! Girlcat is a calico who’s a little over 8 years old; we basically got her as a wedding present (a bridesmaid’s cat had kittens the day before our wedding, and she was like “hey you want one?” and we were like YES KITTY). She’s mostly antisocial except when I’m sitting at my desk and she’ll tap me on the arm to ask me for pettings. Boycat is an orange tabby who was a rescue, so we don’t know exactly old he is, but we’ve had him for 3 years and at the time they estimated he was about 10. He has exactly 0 teeth and is the most talkative cat I’ve ever met.

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

Both!

79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

Back when we were dating, in high school, hubby gave me a rose at school. There was another one on my car’s windshield at the end of the day, and he was waiting with the rest of the dozen on my porch when I got home. I think that was Valentine’s Day? But it may have been asking-me-to-prom, I don’t actually remember.

81: describe one of your friend's eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

Hey, here’s a thing I really don’t have the brainpower for right now.

83: what's some of your favorite album art?

I honestly can’t think of any off the top of my head. Album art isn’t something I pay a lot of attention to most of the time.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

I wish I did, but I have a lot of trouble parsing them a lot of the time.

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

Wonder Woman! The first Harry Potter film. Um. I honestly don’t know.

89: are you close to your parents?

Reasonably, though less so now than I used to be.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

Gonna go visit my little sister in Ireland!

93: what's the hairstyle you wear the most?

It’s in a bob so honestly I don’t do anything with it ever, just try to make sure it’s clean and combed.

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

This weekend is almost over already, so let’s talk about the upcoming weekend! I’m finally going to see Last Jedi on Saturday with a group of friends, and then Sunday and Monday, @snarkasaurus and @vagabondsandconventgirls are coming over and we’re going to spend like 48 hours watching movies and eating gallons of spaghetti.

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

IDGAF, Pisces, and Hufflepuff!

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

I answered this one already!

[ladylycorine]

RULES: answer 20 questions + tag 20 10 of your followers you’d like to know better.

TAGGED BY: @condamnexaetrelibre TAGGING: fuck it I’m not tagging anyone because I’ve really only just starting putting this blog (back) together so I’ve only got like four people around yet that I’ve even spoken to so yeah -- tag yourself if you want and say it's from me how's that?

NAME: Nicole NICKNAME: Nicky SIGN: Sagittarius  HEIGHT: 5′6 NATIONALITY: ughhhhh the worst; my president is the hate cheeto :( ORIENTATION: Aromantic Asexual FAVOURITE FRUIT: Durian! But I’ve only had it like, less than a dozen times so also: honeydew FAVOURITE SEASON: Ehhh...spring I guess? Or fall. Basically whenever I can have the windows open in the house and be comfortable! FAVOURITE FLOWER(S): uhhhhh........? Drawing a blank sorry. (I should say daffodils to be thematic with my blog shouldn’t I?) FAVOURITE SCENT(S): hot tea, particularly strong flavored black blends; also snow FAVOURITE BOOK(S): Oh fuck does tumblr has a character limit on posts? Shit let’s just go with a few at random...and we’re going to do series instead of individual books where applicable, okay? Otherwise I really will be here all night. So: Wayward Children, Good Omens, Wraith Squadron, EVERYTHING BY TAMORA PIERCE EVER, Lucifer (Mike Carey), Star Wars: Bloodlines, Alien Secrets, Discworld, Rogues of the Republic, Lumberjanes, All-New Wolverine... FAVOURITE COLOUR(S): Purple FAVOURITE ANIMAL: CATS YES ABSOLUTELY CATS COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: Tea! Hot chocolate is nice too, sure, but TEA IS LIFE AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: Ha ha ha ha nope. I wish. CATS OR DOGS: I don’t like dogs. I don’t trust dogs. Bad childhood experience, don’t worry about it. Cats on the other hand, cats are fantastic cuddle beasts of adorableness! NUMBER OF BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH: One to four, depending on the season. DREAM TRIP: back to Provence, France, only I can actually speak the language for real instead of being a dumb-ass monolingual American shitwaffle (it said dream trip right?) and it will involve a side-trip to Angoulême for comic festival, of course! And also a side-trip to Paris and the Louvre okay and a hundred thousand chestnut street crêpes  mmmmm... BLOG CREATED: shit man idk this is the second go-round with this blog so I have no idea when I made it the first time...is there a way to figure that out in settings or something? NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: 33...but let’s be real most of those blogs are from the first time I did this thing, and I bet at least 90% of them are either defunct or at least in limbo these days!

[thatgirlonstage]

I have read, watched, and listened to a vast number of stories in my life. I have been devouring books since I was old enough to understand my parents reading them to me. I have binged my way through dozens of TV shows. I have seen more films and plays than I can possibly count or remember. In recent years, I discovered podcasts and added a handful of them to my diet of stories as well. If I pictured the vast collection of every story I have ever consumed in my life as a massive library, there would probably be only a single, relatively small shelf, high up at the back, that contains a collection of media that I have FELT change me - as a storyteller, and also probably as a person. Every story has an effect, of course, but there are a few that have caused a sort of tectonic shift, noticeable before I'd even finished the story. There are a few that transcend the typical boundaries of storytelling to become something more than what they are. Lord of the Rings is up there. I think Bleak House by Charles Dickens is up there. Shakespeare's body of work as a whole is probably in the center of the shelf. There are many stories I love dearly, that mean something very special to me, but aren't quite THAT kind of story, not for me. Harry Potter occupies a very special and very important place in my life, but I don't think it's on that shelf. Neither are the Disney films I cherished as a child, although that may be only because I can't remember watching them the first time. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is there. So is Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, I think, is Gravity Falls. They are stories that make me want to be better, to do better, especially as a writer and an actor. They make me reconsider the way I tell stories and the way I bring them to the people around me. Every story does that - if only to say, "I hated that and I never want to put it in my own writing" - but there's something almost unquantifiable about the way these stories touch and shape me. I can't explain it, only that THESE are what I go back to when I need a reminder of the way that stories should be told. These remind me of everything I aspire to do. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is up there. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is there, next to at least one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. A performance of Hamlet I saw at the American Shakespeare Center is represented by a program or a ticket, as is a production of Taming of the Shrew at the Globe, and a production of Arcadia I saw in New York some years back. And honestly, while I'm probably forgetting a couple things, that's... pretty close to all of it. For all the many stories I have heard in my life, not many have hit me this way. If they had, it wouldn't be as significant. The shelves around it are occupied by all sorts of stories that hold extraordinary importance to me, for one reason or another. Harry Potter, Mulan and the Lion King and the Little Mermaid, Steven Universe, Rick Riordan's books, Sense8, the rest of Dickens' and Pratchett's and Gaiman's books, Moonlight, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Welcome to Night Vale, the Temeraire series, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Aeschylus's Oresteia, a book called Mara: Daughter of the Nile... this list could stretch out for miles. But it comes down to this idea of the stories I go back to - not for comfort or love or appreciation, because that's everything I just listed, but for INSPIRATION. To be reminded of just how deeply a story can move me. I can't make this judgement for sure just yet. I have to wait, and recover a bit emotionally from the finale, and see where I land when I can look at it with clear eyes. But The Adventure Zone FEELS like one of these stories that changes me. It feels like the kind of story that leaves me a better person than it found me. It makes me want to just sit quietly and watch the world for a while, because the journey it took me on mattered. I feel INSPIRED, so much so that I almost want to write the McElroys a thank you note for giving us this show. Perhaps I'm being overdramatic. Perhaps with a day or two of emotional recovery TAZ will join the giant bookcase of stories I love and cherish, but no more. But the feeling I got listening to the closing music is the same feeling I got closing Neverwhere the first time, or watching the credits roll on the last episode of Avatar. This show was something DIFFERENT than normal. Something that mattered tremendously. And I am so, so grateful that it exists.