astolat

[astolat]

I am really proud of the typesetting here :)

A Game of Thrones Anthology with works by @astolat

These are some of my favourite astolat Game of Thrones fics in book form.

(I've included "Gifts", "Pretty", "Traveling Far", "The Next Time", "Raised by Wolves" and "Let The River Run")

More pictures and me yappin' under the cut

Each work begins with a title page that not only shows the fic's title but also includes a small illustration (mostly medieval-style heraldry) based on the pairing(s) of that particular story (e.g. a lion for House Lannister, a sun and moon for Tarth, ...). These images were sourced from rawpixel and further edited and combined.

I also picked the title color for each fic from a medieval frame I used on the following page. It is from a ca. 1450 Bible, which you can view here: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RTN#full-artwork-details. I cleaned it up so that the background and original text are gone and I could use just the frame.

The little b/w chapter start illustrations also appear in the header of each body text page. like this:

and on the cover like this:

The font used for the body text is EB Garamond, for dropcaps Initials TFB and for titles 2013 Albertus. (Better visible in this screenshot of a spread.)

I really love how this came out - especially how using that medieval frame makes it look like a book of fairytales.

As always: Many thanks to the Renegade Bindery Discord Server @renegadeguild for opening up the world of fanbinding to me. And thanks to astolat for writing such beauties!

[astolat]

Royal Flush by @astolat

My next astolat bind! Royal Flush got it's own book :)

This bind looks intentionally very similar to the Game of Thrones Anthology I already posted. The design elements used in the typeset are mostly the same.

More images under the cut :)

Each chapter beginning includes that gorgeous frame from a ca. 1450 bible, which you can view here: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RTN#full-artwork-details. I cleaned it up so that the background and original text are gone and I could use just the frame.

I also made a little scene divider from that frame :)

I'm really happy with how this turned out.

And here you can see it next to the anthology! The anthology is a folio (paper folded once), while Royal Flush is a quarto (paper folded twice, meaning it's half the size and there were four pages per side of sheet).

As always: Many thanks to the Renegade Bindery Discord Server @renegadeguild for opening up the world of fanbinding to me. And thanks to astolat for sharing this beauty.

[astolat]

hey, I really love in your GOT fics especially your sense of military strategy and idk... kingdom building for lack of a better word? and I was wondering if there's any particular sources or histories you read that helped you develop how a sense of that would work.

Aw, thank you!

A caveat here: I have spent literally decades reading history for both research and for fun, and I am terrible at remembering titles, so I wouldn't say these are particular sources. Also, I note that as a storyteller, I'm not especially interested in realism. I read history for illumination and inspiration, not to use as a model.

All that said, here are a handful of sources that I love and happen to remember as I type:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (many versions out of copyright and available via project gutenberg).

Everything written by Barbara Tuchman who is probably my single favorite writer of history.

A Military History & Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars -- I think this will be tough to process if you don't first read several histories of the Napoleonic era to give you an understanding of the period and events, but it's a peerless book for learning how to translate historical descriptions of battles into a more grounded understanding of where and how the soldiers involved actually were and how they moved and interacted.

Nelson's Navy is also a great reference work for Age of Sail, as is the period source A Young Sea-Officer's Sheet Anchor, which is also out of copyright but worth getting in a printed version for the illustrations.

Podcasts/videos: Fall of Civilizations is fantastic, The History of English (as in, the history of the English language) & The History of Rome are also great. If you're willing to shell out for a membership to Great Courses for long enough, the 48-episode History of Egypt by Bob Brier is also wonderful.

I also highly recommend the heavily moderated AskHistorians subreddit which is a great rabbit hole in which to lose three days where you should have been writing. :P

I invite other people to chime in with useful sources that I can go read!

[astolat]

D E V O T I O N

[astolat]

Title: The Next Time Writer: @astolat Reader: Opalsong Fandom: Game of Thrones Relationships: Robb/Jaime Rating: Explicit Length: 01:17:22 Size: 53.4MB Music: I have to Go North by Ramin Djawadi Cover: Opalsong Summary:

Jaime looked back at Robb with rage blazing through him and said, low and utterly flat, “The next time I see you, Stark, I’ll kill you.”

“The next time I see you, Ser Jaime,” Robb said, “if you ask nicely, I’ll do it again.”

Links: AO3 Link Dreamwidth Link

Thanks to Paraka for hosting!!

[astolat]

I've been dying to ask this: in Raised by Wolves, is the Red Lake campaign Jamie mentions based on the Battle of Lake Trasimene? Infinite kudos either way

No, I just made that one up out of whole cloth, but that would have been a great idea! 😂

[astolat]

Aw, sorry to disappoint but no fic from me for the foreseeable! My brain is too full of the current monstrous pro project which is at 250K and has another ~500k to go. I'm not even letting myself install Veilguard. 😭 In 2026 maybe? 😅 Hope you all have a happy holiday anyway and there's always something great to read on the AO3!

I can't stop checking AO3 to see if @astolat has posted a Christmas story for this year. I'm more excited for the possibility than for my actual Christmas plans tbh

[astolat]

Heal Thyself by @astolat

DAY 1 ✨ @hprecfest ✨ First fic I remember reading

[astolat]

I think there's something that needs to be said about encouraging readers to leave feedback.

For me it's not about "tell me my writing is amazing and stroke my ego"

It's more about "please engage with me so that I can experience your joy secondhand and foster a connection with you"

I understand that not everyone wants this in their reading experience, some people are shy and a million other reasons why maybe someone wouldn't want to engage and that's perfectly fine!

But what I'm trying to steer away from is being a passive content creator with passive consumers. What I want to steer toward is fostering a community that is essential to fandom. I want to see your reactions because it makes me feel like I'm a part of something.

On encouraging reblogs —

I understand that not everyone is comfortable reblogging, especially explicit content. This is ok!

But just consider that the only reason you were able to enjoy a fic or fanart is because someone else shared it, and by not sharing it yourself you are potentially robbing someone else of the opportunity to enjoy it as much as you did.

As OPs our reach only goes so far and this website relies on reblogs in order for anything to truly get seen by a wider audience.

So that's really it! That's why I encourage these two things at the end of every story I post. Not because I'm trying to be demanding and "make people feel bad" if they don't do it.

I know most other social media sites encourage mindless content consumption and that's just the way of the world nowadays, but I am from a time when community was at the heart of fandom and I just don't want to lose that.

[astolat]

The Pack Survives by @astolat.

My second bind had to be this Robb Stark centric masterpiece that has lived rent free in my brain since December 2023. I wanted to get this finished before the year anniversary hit in December.

I love this bind and she is my beloved second born but holy hell I’m glad she is done.

In all honesty, this bind was cursed from the off. Everything that could have gone wrong with this bind went wrong. I had to resew the signatures because wood oil, I made my design slightly too big so adding it to the cover was wonky and I melted parts of the black vinyl adding my silver vinyl to the book cloth to name but a few mistakes. I didn’t dare try to trim her edges, lord knows where I would have ended up.

All that said I’m still proud of her and wanted to share. Done is better than perfect and I hope I look back in a year and see how far I have truly come.

The Pack Survives can be read for free on AO3.

[astolat]

[astolat]

oh how awesome! <3 <3 <3

prime and protector fanart for @astolat's story, fool's hope on ao3

[astolat]

You shall seek out and enjoy art (which fanfic is) that gives you pleasure

You shall not feel guilty for spending time on art

You shall comment when you can with joy

You shall share the art you find that makes you happy

You shall not envy the size of your neighbor's fandom or pairing

You shall support your fellow fans in making art that makes them happy even if it is not to your own taste

You shall make art of your own to your own taste

You shall love your art however imperfect because it is yours

You shall share your art in whatever way you can with joy

You shall not covet your neighbor's hits or comments or kudos

My best stab! lol

[astolat]

I love this one so much. :D

My first full-sized bookbind!! This is Heal Thyself by @astolat; ie the fic I loved so much that I decided to take up bookbinding just so I could have a physical copy of it! It was definitely one hell of a learning curve, and while it certainly isn't perfect I'm super happy with how it came out <3 I've uploaded the cover/spine/back PNGs here! Feel free to use, though credit would be appreciated :D

[astolat]

<3 <3 <3

Continuing my Astolat bookbinding collection, I bound Royal Flush by @astolat!! My favorite Game of Thrones fic, and one that's I've gone back to re-read more times than I can count!! I'm super happy with how this bind turned out; I had learned a lot in binding Heal Thyself that made binding this one much easier. Also have I mentioned that I've fallen in LOVE with holographic foil??? I've uploaded the cover/spine/back PNGs here! Feel free to use, though credit would be appreciated <3

[astolat]

these are so beautiful!

Astolat’s Complete Person of Interest Fic!

I am continuing on my quest to bind all of @astolat ‘s fic in the fandoms I read. This is a two volume set of all of her Person of Interest fic, taking my collection of her works to 9 volumes. I decided to title each volume after one story—and how could I resist the bookbinding pun of “Dangerous if Unbound”?

These books have been two or three months in the works. I did the typeset way back over the summer, printed it in early September, and had to leave the folded pages sitting in my press for weeks because I didn’t have time to even do the sewing. Then I had a week where I had to make time for bookbinding or I was going to go insane, and was able to get them done AND teach myself how to make slip cases.

Books and case are all bound in black buckram. Foil decorations on the books. Endpapers are painted textured paper. Silk endbands. Inside of the box has homemade paste papers.

[astolat]

Aww, lovely! 💐

🌸