#Emelan-core

[practicaleffects]

Okay I saw this and the first thing I thought was "oh these folks would be powerful new wizards in MisMag"

Because fiber is material. Holding a design or pattern in your mind is intention. Spinning and twisting and knotting are all performed, repetitive movements. Making anything by hand takes significant time. And anyone who crafts knows the rare power of a location that has both good light and enough surface area to keep all your scraps and tools and snacks within arm's reach.

Like, imagine waking up one day to the realization that your niche (and probably undervalued!!) skill in tatting lace or spinning yarn or knitting mittens means you're now an advanced wizard capable of deep, cosmic magic.

(Anyway @quiddie is a genius and I truly cannot stop thinking about systems of magic now)

hands crafting by by merton doss, california, 1980s.

[pocketfulofrecs]

Our first Author Spotlight is finally here! And the first author in the spotlight is justdoityoufucker!

They have published 31k+ words on mdzs fic on ao3 - 7 works and 1 series. You can find them on @whiteflowercrimsonparasol on tumblr and @justdoityoufucker on twitter.

Their fics:

i’ll keep on walking (our post) - [teen | 2.6k | wen qing time travels and changes things]

violent delights - [teen | 4.3k | no golden core transfer]

i had to abandon myself (you took all of me) - [mature | 10k | wip | everything changes after the staged fight]

the world wags on (our post) - [teen | 3.4k | wei changze is alive]

in payment, a hand (series) - [teen | 10k | yzy cuts off wwx’s hand]:

and there was a new voice (which you slowly recognized as your own)

moved through my heart (like the thinnest of blades)

such music (you stood stock still)

Dee’s favourite: Honestly, violent delights is just so sweet? I love all of their works, but violent delights has a special place in my heart. The sheer hilarity of WWX’s Golden Core just refusing to reside in JC’s body made me cackle. Also, it ended so sweetly. I really love it!

Ju’s favourite: This was hard, but I’m between “i’ll keep walking” because I love time travel and Wen Qing, and she is so badass on this one, and fixes everything, and in the end she has her family safe, including her new brother Wei Wuxian. And “in payment, a hand”, that is a very interesting series, and Wei Wuxian gets a family that he deserves, and the Jiangs also get what they deserve. It’s sad in the beginning, but it gets so soft at the end, and we can see wangxian intimacy, and how they love each other. It’s just really lovely, okay?

The interview:

Q. When did you start writing fics? Did you have fandoms before this one?

A. I started around 2009. My first fanfiction attempts were for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime and movie and pretty quickly petered off, but I really got into fanfiction when I reread and finished watching Naruto around 2016. It’s still the fandom I’ve produced the most published (and unpublished) fanfiction for, but I’ve also written some works in the Voltron: Legendary Defender and Bleach fandoms.

Q. What made you start writing for MDZS?

A. I actually wasn’t planning on writing for MDZS! I wanted to write SVSSS fanfiction when I first got into danmei and c-novels! But I found some really thoughtful meta posts on characterization in MDZS and the MDZS fandom, as well as some fics that I felt were really good and showed really good characterization, which made me lose most of my self-control. And then I found some prompts that were going around, and I lost the rest of my self control and now, well, here we are.

Q. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

A. For MDZS, it’s a work-in-progress, but i had to abandon myself (you took all of me). It’s allowing me to explore philosophy for the first time in a few years, and it’s given me a reason to really research what the setting of MDZS might have been like and how cultivation (in the context of xianxia novels) works and could work.

Q. What’s your favourite type of fics to read?

A. I love love love fluff fics in general! I also have been really enjoying canon-divergence fics for MDZS, there’s some writers in this fandom who do those “what if?” kind of scenarios really well. Honorary mention, also, to fics where Wei Wuxian is raised in another sect

Q. What’s your favourite comment? Or type of comment?

A. Any comment!! Honestly, the entire idea that people like my writing enough to tell me will always boggle my mind, especially if it allows for me (as the author) to engage with my readers.

Q. What motivates you to write?

A. Most of the time, just the simple need to get an idea down and tell a story. I’ve been writing fiction since I was in fourth grade and fanfiction has been a really good outlet for me in that regard. Occasionally I’ll dive back into original fiction, but fanfiction in particular already has a basis for characterization which makes it easier, for me, to write.

Q. Who’s your favorite author?

A. I honestly can’t choose a favorite fan author because there are soooooo many who are incredibly talented, but in terms of professional authors I love MXTX (of course) and Tamora Pierce! If you like historical fantasy, I highly recommend her Tortall and Emelan books.

Q. What is your favorite trope to read and/or write?

A. I loooooove soulmate AUs (as evidenced by how many of them I’ve written for other fandoms)! I also really love, in the MDZS fandom, to read and write time travel AUs. They allow for really cool exploration of what could happen and how one person’s actions could change the whole course of the story.

Q. Do you have any advice for new authors?

A. You don’t need to finish everything you start. I have folders just full of WIPs that I’m probably never going to finish, but all of those words and all of that plotting and planning still contributed to where I am today! Also, I highly recommend keeping those unfinished works because one day you might use them! I’ve reused ideas, dialogue, and even actual passages from my WIP when writing something new.

Q. What do you think is the most important element in writing? Plot, characterization, relationship?

A. Of course, all elements are important, but characterization! Characters usually drive every other aspect of the plot, the setting, and are usually make-or-break for me as a reader.

~

Check out their stories on ao3 and remember...

Comments and kudos feed the author’s soul.

[nimblermortal]

@unfavorableinstigation, comfort reads from my shelf:

before we get into the alphabetization by last author, it’s mostly classics, but I would argue that How to Bake Pi by Eugenia Cheng could be a comfort read just because it’s Food and Math and Goodness, but that is definitely debatable and I have only read it through once. On to the alphabetization!

Franny Billingsley: Chime, The Folk Keeper. I tried to get a copy of Robber Girl today but the store didn’t have it :(

Bujold: Vorkosigan. Five Gods is not exactly comfort reading depending on the mood you are in.

Duane: Young Wizards is comfort reading. (Door Into is not, for me.)

Rachel Hartman: Serafina is comfort reading in German, and somewhat close in English. Note that again, this is math AND dragons AND music and so it is maybe more of comfort reading if you are into all of those things, but this one is at its core YA.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman: A Fistful of Sky. I want to acquire more Hoffman but so far I have not succeeded.

Diana Wynne Jones. Opus.

Ellen Kushner: The Privilege of the Sword is comfort reading. Swordspoint and Thomas the Rhymer are not.

LeGuin is not comfort reading for me. Some of that is because I’m still working on having adult opinions about Earthsea and making those opinions is work.

Laurie Marks: Elemental Logic, as discussed, except not Air Logic because I have decided to vehemently deny Air Logic exists on the grounds that all of a sudden everyone hates Norina for no reason when obviously the correct response to Norina’s presence is pie.

McKillip and McKinley are not comfort reading. Monette is definitely not comfort reading, however, The Goblin Emperor can be, insofar as it is the miracle book that I can start reading at any time. (Usually I need to wait 6 months before rereading a book, Goblin Emperor I can start literally at any time. A few weeks after reading, the minute I finish it, half way through... I guess that makes it comfort reading?)

Garth Nix should be comfort reading but isn’t. I’m not sure what sort of reading the Old Kingdom books are, they’re important to have on the shelf but I haven’t read them... since I lived with Kupo?

Tamora Pierce is absolutely full-on comfort reading, whether it’s Emelan or Tortall, but Emelan is more comfort reading than Tortall is. I tend to skip Briar’s books even though he’s my favorite because they have plague in them and plague is NOT comfort reading at any time, least of all in a pandemic.

Terry Pratchett is not comfort reading, Terry Pratchett is joy reading. Sherwood Smith and Megan Whalen Turner are not comfort reading. Elizabeth Wein is emphatically NOT comfort reading.

Murderbot is, as we have discussed, a package of frozen burritos.

Jessamyn West is comfort reading, extremely strongly so. I have family reasons for saying so that you are privileged to ask after if you are so inclined.

Connie Willis is not comfort reading, Connie Willis requires joy. (Unless the comfort you need is corporate, in which case, Bellwether is comfort reading. every so often I get a step further forward in putting that one list on the wall of my work space.)

Patricia Wrede: Enchanted Forest is absolutely comfort reading, 100%. Mairelon the Magician might be depending. Other things written before these are dangerous lies about how much quality to expect (and perhaps more solidly representative of the genre at the time).

[moonminho]

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Founded through The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten is about showcasing a list of some of our favorite things. August 8, 2017, we’ll talk about our Top Ten Series I Know I Should Read. 

Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan I loved Percy Jackson. I mean, L-O-V-E. Not on a Harry Potter level. Or maybe. I'm not sure. I actually read Percy Jackson when I was in college so I don't know what's stopping me from reading about HOO. I feel like it's because I haven't read a middle-grade in so very long and I just never found the intense desire to jump back into it - but Percy Jackson was so near and dear to my heart. I started reading HOO with the first book, but then MARK OF ATHENA came out and then I don't know what happened. I bought the book. I was gonna read it. And then it ended up in my TBR pile for years! I want to revisit this world. Seriously. 

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes Falling Kingdoms is a series that I am hesitant to dive into now, especially because there are so many books out. How many are there? Seven including the companion series? GEEZ. And the next one is coming out soon, too, right? I've heard nothing but good things about Falling Kingdoms and I'm so in love with the covers. I think that another thing that has thrown me off is that there are lots of characters and I'm hesitant to try to keep track of them, especially because I love being able to watch development in the core ones. There's JUST SO MANY, but it's set in a historical period with magic and unrest and ALL THE GOOD STUFF. 

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh I need to read this on the sole reason that the food descriptions in it are just simply scrumptious. I've heard nothing is more scintillating than how Ahdieh describes food (except her extravagant storytelling). Plus, I love a good love story and I've been told time and time again that this is a beautiful and gut-wrenching one. I love angst.

Villains by V.E. Schwab This is just a an automatic given to me. I mean, come on. V.E. Schwab is just one of my auto-buys. But I have taken my sweet time to read VICIOUS, but I know I need to hurry my ass up because the second book, VENGEFUL, is coming out soon! I like the synopsis of these two ambitious friends turned rivals and it reminds me of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr from X-Men. There's this big conflict that surrounds and guides the protagonists, Victor and Eli and I want to know what comes from it! I know from other readers that it definitely reads towards the mature and I guess that's what's thrown me off about it - that it's closer to adult than it is young adult. Nevertheless, I know Schwab is a fantastic writing so I need to write it ASAP.

Newsoul by Jodi Meadows I only very recently read Meadows's duology, THE ORPHAN QUEEN and man what was I waiting for? So, naturally I had to scour back to her first series, Newsoul and see what that was about. Reading through the synopsis for INCARNATE has got me really interested. I love the idea of reincarnation and surprisingly, I have not read a lot of YA about the subject. In this series where it is first used to introduce a star-crossed lovers angle is pretty intriguing. Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan VivianIf you have followed me on Instagram or Tumblr, then you will know how much I adore Jenny Han's writing. I have the Burn for Burn series on my shelf, all beautiful in their pastel jacket covers. And they menacingly stare at me with their spines. I've been told that it's got an interesting plot - one that I might or might not like, but I like books where there is a core three, especially when they seem to be close friends like the girls are in Burn for Burn. It's got notes of supernatural, contemporary, and girl-power charm. How can I not be into that?

The Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce Tamora Pierce is a required read for any fantasy fan, but her Emelan series is the BEST.  Not only does it have strong female characters, magic, an amazing adoptive family, but the world is so breathtaking.  I want to live there.  Each character is unique, and the relationships between them all has me unable to even pick a favorite. 

Graceling Realm by Kristin Cashore I feel like this is one of those series where I will get my ass kicked because I have not read it I vaguely remember starting to read GRACELING and felt like it wasn't the book for me - but it was when it first came out in 2008 and my reading tastes have completely changed since then. I know that this series trios together some kickass heroines that have really inspired and changed the views of females in YA. I cannot believe it's been so long since I've acknowledged the series, but I really want to get into the world of Graceling, knowing there is always room for females to look up to. 

Firebird by Claudia Gray I recently fell in love with Claudia Gray's DEFY THE STARS so I knew that I had to really go back and read one of her more famous and recent finished series, FIREBIRD. I don't know why I thought I knew the synopsis of this series. I guess I got it completely confused with something else because I was just reading it on Goodreads and it sounds SO GOOD. Science, fantasy, ROMANCE??? A girl chasing a boy through dimensions to avenge her parents? SIGN ME UP. Plus, the covers are blindingly gorgeous. I am seriously in love. 

Penryn & the End of Days by Susan Ee I have heard so much about this trilogy. It's such an old one, but I feel like it has a big cult following. I don't know why I've never actually picked up ANGELFALL, especially since it's such a pretty cover. I guess in the back of my mind, I know it's always there and it's a finished series that it'll always be there for me to pick up in my TBR pile. But really, what is intriguing me is not just the cool angel aspect, but the romance that seems to really capture people who have read it. I've seen so many edits of the series and the relationship between the two mains kind of gets to me.

The Curse Workers by Holly Black Who can resist con-men, magical powers, and mobster intrigue? No one, that's who.  That's why you have to read the Curse Workers series by Holly Black.  Moral ambiguity at it's finest, Cassel Sharpe is a guy that just wants to be normal and never will be.  The voice and plot are to die for, realistic and catching.  Plus, the audiobook is narrated by Jesse Eisenberg which was weirdly wonderful to listen to.