crysieofwoodsbeyond - Tumblr blog

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

Currently working on getting the equipment to start my SGE podcast. I've wanted to start this podcast for a while now because I felt like I needed to better express my thoughts and opinions. I hope the podcast will allow the fandom to discuss some of the issues in the books and the fandom at large as well as being a source of fun and entertainment 😁

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

Realized I never posted the link for The Young Wizard (the second part of my Nicola fanfic series.) So have fun and enjoy if you'd like to see how the story goes:

The Young Wizard (second part):

The Princess Knight (first part):

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

Do you happen to know any other sge blogs I can follow? I just got into the fandom!

hmm @ndlesswoods @witchesl0vingwitches @finalgirlagatha @maidenvales @witchofrvnswood @cosmoshungers-sge-specials are a few I can think off of the top of my head, but everyone else sound off in rbs/replies!

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

I have awaken from my tumblr slumber to discuss my thoughts on the movie. My heart is honestly broken because I was really rooting for the movie. There were parts I enjoyed but I was mostly angered by some many things that wasn't handled with care. It's like all of my issues with books were dialed up to 100 with antisemitism added on top of the poop cake that is the movie's issues 😡. This is coming from someone who loves the books and still is engaged with the SGE fandom in several ways. As much respect I have for the production team why did no one say anything about "those" scenes? The thing that makes me the most mad is that the long history of antisemitism in fairytales was continued in the movie. Like why did this not get called out by someone on set before it was released? I honestly don't think they should go forward with adapting the rest of the books if they don't recognize the harm and hurt that was caused with this movie

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Young Wizard has so many heartfelt moments. I'm having a blast writing it 😁. I'm including Agatha's and Nicola's friendship which is feeling the void in my heart that I had from TCY. TYW is definitely going to be something special for me.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

Posting this to Tumblr: We're back at it with The Young Wizard. First, I must thank @pumpkinpaperweight for always being the first to root for my babies. I cannot put into words how much you mean to the continuation of this story. Now I'm going to tell y'all now The Young Wizard will be VERY cheesy but I promise it's worth it for what the future holds. If you haven't read The Princess Knight now is the time to do so because The Young Wizard will make you feel like you jumped off a cliff without it.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

nia sioux in paris.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

TPK Q&A: Author and Editor Edition with @pumpkinpaperweight

Questions for Kate from Crystal

1.) What were your first thoughts of the first few chapters?

Was nice to see some of Nicola in Gavaldon bc that’s something we never saw for ourselves in the series, anything about Nicola’s past was either mentioned in passing or through another character, so good to see it directly! Also appreciate that we get right back into School stuff, I appreciate it not messing around too much lol.

2.) What drew you to the story?

I always like fics where people pick a side character and give them their dues, and Nicola was so damn hard done by in the series that I really think she deserves a fic or several with her as the main focus! Also I like seeing people play around in the sandbox of the school, there’s a lot of potential there with talents and so on.

3.) Do you have a favorite character in TPK so far?

Very fond of Lakim! Also not exactly a new character but I like Professor Espada’s increasein prominence, that’s fun since he’s not around much in the books.

4.) Do you have a favorite chapter in TPK?

Chapter 7 was nice; I really like extra worldbuilding and trivia about SGE stuff so all the historical bits you made up about other kingdoms were super interesting. Also the Circus of Talents was interesting to see what everyone was competing with, I find talents really hard to come up with but there was a massive variety which was really fun.

5.) If you had to choose one of the special talents shown in TPK, which would you choose and why?

Etain’s talent to manipulate shadows of others to attack them was super cool, really liked that one! Spooky. Realistically I think I would probably actually manage to blow myself up somehow but it sounds cool in theory lol.

6.) What else would you like to see explored in the TPK series?

Anything further than first year is of interest to me, since no one often gets past that! The internships and stuff could be really good to play around with.

7.) Any final thoughts for Crystal or the audience?

Enjoyed editing this, thank you!! Really enjoyed the creativity w the talents and backstories and worldbuilding, the type of thing I always go in for, so great to see!

Questions for Crystal:

Have you been planning on writing this for a long time, or was it a more spontaneous thing?

 TPK was the combination of my desire for Nicola to have a story of her own and a dream that introduced me to Lakim and his backstory.

How did you come up with the OCs for this fic? Or are they previous characters you already had?

 If you would believe it most of the Odd Evers came from dreams I had around the time I contemplated writing TPK

How have you found writing a multi-chapter fic, since they’re notorious for being a bit difficult? 

I would say it was of medium difficulty. I find writing papers much harder and they have outlines!

Who’s your favourite of your OCs? (if you can pick!)

 Lakim and Natasha would be tied for me. Lakim because he is everything I wanted to be represented as a black boy in this world. He is caring, loyal, expressive and fully enjoys his interests even if some would say it’s “girly” he would say “and what’s wrong with that?” Natasha is a lot like me in many ways. She’s reserved and knowledgeable but when she’s excited she’ll be so loud most people would be surprised how high her voice can be.

What’s something in the future you’d like to explore in the SGE world / the Woods? Could be a place or a concept or another character, anything. 

I’m setting up to thoroughly explore the politics of the Woods because I feel it wasn’t well utilized in the series. This question has a lot of room for me to give spoilers but what I can say is TPK holds quite a few secrets to Lakim’s past.

Are there other fandoms you’d like to write fic for in the future? If not, are there other SGE fics you’d wanna do?

I’m actually planning to post original works through ao3 just to get practice. When the PJO series comes out I’ll probably write short stories for it. I would love to write some Tagatha stories, especially ones that tie into TPK.

What were the most difficult (and easiest!) bits of writing TPK?

The most difficult bits would have to be the descriptions and dialogue. The descriptions were very hard for me to put in words though I knew exactly what I wanted to describe. A lot of times, Kate would edit chapters I wrote at night and I would be so embarrassed by it. The dialogue was hard because I really wanted to make sure it was understandable and sounded like something each character would say.

Any other comments or things you wanna say that you’ve not had a chance to?

There is far more TPK in store as the story continues the Odd Evers will enter their second year at the School for Good and Evil. If you have The Ever Never Handbook that will give you some ideas of what to expect but don’t get too comfortable as a story comes with quite a few twists.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 6 Commentary

Boys Bomding in a Pool came from wanting Lakim and Willam to connect after their uneasy introduction. I really loved Willam being overprotective of Nicola because I felt like after being in the Tale of Sophie and Agatha together they would develop a close friendship. This was a really hard chapter for me to write because I wanted it to be believable that two guys were having this conversation but I've heard guys don't usually have open conversations like this. I worried a lot before deciding on writing a conversation these two characters would have and that made it easier. I really wanted to highlight Lakim being caught of guard by Willam thinking he was hitting on Nicola. I always felt somewhat disappointed in the original series for not building up the romantic interests for the students in a way that felt reasonable or giving enough clues that the audience can pick up. One of my favorite mediums to enjoy fairytales as a child was the HBO show "Happily Ever After: Fairytales for Every Child" and many of the fairytales were interpreted to include diverse characters who would often find true love through forming a relationship which blew my mind as a kid.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 5 Commentary

An Eventful Afternoon lived up to it's title in my opinion. I really enjoyed writing the Odd Evers friendship dynamic. I always liked playful teasing my own friends so I wrote that in between Nicola and Willam. After rereading this chapter I realized this was the chapter I forgot to correct Willam's name 😅. I hope I accomplished showing that Marianna is the extrovert in the group because she gets straight to the point in this chapter. Having Lakim stand up for himself and his new friends in the middle of the Clearing was inspired from a thought I had when I was thinking about my school years. I had never really seen a guy admit what type of people he wanted to be around in school most of them just went with the flew but it never ended up good.

Aside from the characters, I loved writing about the food. The food in SGE was always so creative to me so I had a doozy creating different ideas for the menu.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 4 Commentary

With Damage Control I really wanted to start to build a relationship between Professor Espada, Lakim and Nicola. I thought of all the teachers he had the most potential to be a silly father figure. I also wanted to show Anemone being a capable dean because I always felt she was just used as the butt of a joke instead of someone who worked their butt of to get to their position. Maybe I took it too seriously but hey what can I say I'm writing fanfiction for Nicola so of course I take certain things seriously. Also writing Lakim admitting that he was the reason Nathaniel went flying was just my way of planting seeds that Lakim is a really Good guy. A cut above the rest if you will.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 3 Commentary

Chapter 3: Sword Fight with a Wizard

Lakim has finally been properly introduced!

I knew there would be an explosion in this chapter but I couldn't figure out how to bring everything I wanted to add together until I remembered Lakim is a wizard. So I had to figure out how Lakim would cause the explosion so why not have him duel with Nicola.

Also I just want to rant about how much I love Lakim. I honestly can not wait to write more of his character so more people can be on the Lakim train.

I'm glad I was able to write Nicola being confident in Swordplay because I really wanted to utilize her being good in sports plus she was a knight.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 2 Commentary

Chapter 2: Who Am I? I wanted to explore how the Tale of Sophie and Agatha would affect Nicola's self-esteem and school life. The characters that I was really concerned about were Marianna and Natasha. I already had their characters mapped out in my head but I was worried that they would come of as just Nicola clones. So I did my best to write them as genuine friends of Nicola's that share similar interests. Nathaniel my favorite jerk I have a lot more that I want to share about him but that will come later.

[crysieofwoodsbeyond]

The Princess Knight Chapter 1 Commentary

Chapter One: The Truth and The Past was exciting and nerve wracking to write. I had the idea to tell a story from Nicola's perspective for a while but I didn't know what direction to go in until I finished writing the first chapter. Nicola was the first visibly black character in a fantasy story that I read who really felt like a character and not someone written in to prove the author wasn't racist. (At least in QFG.) I related to Nicola not only because she was a black girl but also her intelligence, how she escaped the harsh reality of her everyday life by reading fairytales, and many more qualities that I saw between the lines that stuck out to me as a black girl. When I finished reading the entirety of the Camelot Years I was frustrated that Nicola's ending wasn't a true ending. She was treated as only a stepping stone for Hophie instead a full-fledged character that she was presented to be in the Handbook.

While writing The Truth and The Past I was rather depressed myself so I decided to write a heartfelt scene with Nicola to help myself process my emotions. I always imagined Papa Pipp being a doting father to Nicola considering how highly she thinks of him. Her brothers were basically jerks so that was easy enough. Hunter fun because I had to create an image for him and show off their friendship dynamic. Overall I still feel proud of the first chapter.