#I wrote my debut when I was 19 that book has too many flaws to count

[skekheck]

30 Days of the Dark Crystal Challenge

Decided to do poultry-blocks Dark Crystal challenge because it looks like a lot of fun to do. However I’m cheating and I wrote all of this within a couple of days. Warning: fairly large post with pictures and fan ramblings. 

EDIT: I FORGOT TO INCLUDE DAY 16 WHOOP. It’s in there now. 

Day 1. Your favorite skeksis

Idiot, feral, wildman who stole my heart. How? Why? Who knows. *chef kisses* Beautiful stinky bastard.

Day 2: Your favorite gelfling

Bless her and her skeksis cosplay. What a queen.

Day 3: A character that you love that everyone seems to hate.

The tides are changing for her it seems. I think people are appreciating her more, but she still faces her fair share of controversies. Not that I don’t think it warrants discussion nor am I excusing her actions. But she’s way more complex than what a lot of people are making her out to be.

Day 4: A character that you hate that everyone seems to love. 

Hate is a strong word as I don’t hate him, but I don’t really care for Amri. He feels like a bootleg Deet mixed with a little bit of Kylan and Gurjin. Wasted potential and honestly shouldn’t have been the POV for Tides of the Dark Crystal. Seems I’m alone in this opinion, though. Maybe the book warrants rereading?

Day 5: Movie or TV Show? Why?

TV Show by miles! I think the series accomplishes way more than the movie does, like establishing lore,  better written characters, and a more engaging story. I actually cared about the gelfling and it really fleshed out the skeksis in an interesting way outside of “oh they do evil things because they’re evil!”. Doesn’t mean it does everything right, but I’ll get into that later.  

Day 6: Something you wish that happened in the series but didn’t.

Just a few things. I miss the gelfling intermingling with the mystics, particularly urVa. I love everything that happens with urGoh and skekGra, but some of the bonding moments Naia had with urVa are precious and I wish we had more of that. I also wished the gelfling got the message out to the other clans like they did in the book where Kylan dreametched their message onto the Santuary Tree’s blossoms and scattered them all throughout Thra. I also wished Tavra and Onica were an established couple, but maybe it’s not too late for that.

Day 7: Favorite gelfling clan

The Sifa! It was the Dousan at first, but the more I learned about the Sifa the more I grew to love the clan. If I were a gelfling I would probably be a sifa myself LOL. 

Day 8: You opinion on Aughra

She’s a fun and fascinating character! Aughra puts a unique spin on the whole beautiful, wise earth goddess trope by making her ugly, old, and cranky. She’s also a character with her own flaws, even having a mini arc about neglecting to take care of her planet and doing whatever she can to make amends. Not to mention she’s wildly entertaining. Much love for Aughra!

Day 9: Skeksis or Gelfling?

Both!

Day 10: Your opinion on podlings?

They’re just funky little potato people who just want to have fun, dance, and drink all day and I respect them for that. They’re great. Also Hup exists and he’s just an amazing character so there’s that.

Day 11: Your The Dark Crystal unpopular opinion

I think it’s okay to sympathize with the skeksis as long as one is not excusing their actions. I see a lot of people say you shouldn’t because they’re evil and they commit atrocities. Which, yes, it’s true, but I think both can co-exist. I mean, skekTek’s whole cycle of abuse is written very sympathetically yet the show doesn’t coddle him. It shows the ugliness of his character and what happens when someone isn’t capable of cutting off from said cycle. Also the writers consider the skeksis as tragic characters due to their broken nature so I don’t think it’s wrong to be a little sympathetic. But once again with great emphasis, sympathy is fine as long as their actions are judged. They are awful bastards and no amount of sympathy will change that. 

Day 12: Something you dislike about the series

I think the stuff I don’t like about the show is a result of its pacing and cluttered cast. There are so many stories going on and while I liked how they handled it for the most part, you can also see how the show rushes to get through all of them. A lot of important moments where a character should reflect or something that should simmer more is pushed aside for the next thing. Maybe if the show was given more episodes and time to breath it would have been better off. 

Day 13: Most disappointing thing about the series

SkekMal and urVa didn’t have enough screen time and we were honestly ROBBED. 

Day 14: Your OTP

Speaking of which... . Its a crack ship, but I’m all about that allegory for self love (and I just want these two to be alive). Day 15: Favorite quote

Listed plenty of my favorite quotes before, but I’ll pick this one:

“ Life is my paint. Death is my canvas”

Day 16: Rate the skeksis from least favorite to favorite OR rate the gelfling from lest favorite to favorite [or both!]

And if you want my gelfling hot takes, here’s this list (just backwards in context to this post)

Day 17: Opinion on Raunip?

Raunip is a fantastic character. I loved him in Creation Myths and I can’t wait to see what role he’d play in the resistance. And I absolutely love the parallels between him and the urskeks it’s great. 

Day 18: A character that is most similar to you.

I too am a dark-dwelling gremlin who constantly forgets where I put things and crack a few dark jokes at my expense. 

Day 19: Which character do you strongly dislike, why?

This is entirely based on the books, but I find Mera to be awful.  I think it’s because she’s so fake and condescending? When Naia arrived in Sami Thicket, she was acting nice and polite but when the Drenchen asked her why the skeksis never visited Sog Mera responded  “It’s only worth counting what’s valuable”. She continuously disrespects her by calling her pet names even when Naia became maudra. It doesn’t come off as cute, it’s gross. I don’t recall Mera ever apologizing for any of the shit she did to Naia... or Kylan for that matter. She was a pretty neglectful step-mother to him. She doesn’t have an excuse being busy with Maudra stuff because Laesid was a kickass mom to her kids. So in conclusion, fuck this bitch.

Day 20: What do you like so much about the Dark Crystal?

The better question what’s not to love about the Dark Crystal? It has amazing creature design, an expansive world that feels real and alien from our own, having complex and interesting characters as well as villains, the fact that it relies heavily on practical effects a.k.a puppetry... . There’s nothing like it and that’s what makes it so wonderful and unique. It needs to be appreciated more. 

Day 21: Favorite music piece from the soundtrack?

Can’t beat that opening theme. 

Day 22: Your opinion on the sequel comics [Power/Beneath the Dark Crystal]

They have cool concepts and ideas, but they’re not written well. Power is just the movie if it was put into a blender and shredded and ignoring a large portion of established lore for the sake of plot. And Beneath is just a generic fantasy story with the Dark Crystal logo slapped on it. 

Day 23: Which character from the YA novels/comics do you wish we would see more of?

There are plenty of characters that are a given to appear in the series at some point (skekSa, skekLi, urSan, etc). And of course I want to see them, but I really hope Periss shows up (and his brother too). He is one of my favorite characters from the book series and we could use some more Dousan rep!

Day 24: Your opinion on the Age of Resistance comic?

I have yet to read the comics. I’m waiting on them to be part of a collection so I don’t have to buy all of the volumes at once (I prefer owning physical copies). I’ve heard good things about them, especially the story with Hup and the current Mayrin arc. I’m excited to get my hands on them. 

Day 25: The best moment/scene in the series?

There are a lot of great moments, but Rian and Ordon’s fight with skekMal is still my favorite in the entire series. The "Speak For the Dead” scene is a close second.

Day 26: The death of a character that hurt you the most?

He did not deserve this. Fuck you, skekMal. 

Day 27: Your favorite episode from the series?

It’s got to be 4. Not just because a number of my favorite characters debut in this episode, but it’s an important one for the plot. Stakes are being raised, we’re seeing set ups to major story elements and character arcs, and events that impact the rest of the series. It also has a handful of my favorite character moments and interactions. 

Day 28: Your favorite non-skeksis and non-gelfling character? Why?

I’ve come to realize the reasons why I love urVa are the same as why I love skekMal (incredibly appropriate I might say). There’s enough information about him that we get a good understanding on who he is as a character, but still mysterious enough that there’s interest in wanting to know more. Much like his skeksis, he’s unique from the other mystics and thus giving him unique experiences that are fun to speculate. However, the YA novels are responsible for my current fondness of him. 

Day 29: Do you like the urru and skeksis apart or like them as urSkeks together?

A main theme of the Dark Crystal is unity and balance. The main conflict of the franchise are the skeksis, the broken fragments of their urskek self who, according to the writers, “...[have] a dire need for the qualities they lack”. Their only salvation is to become urskeks again and unfortunately many of the pairs never achieve this.  They’re basically a giant allegory for the self and self-love. While we don’t really know what they were like when they were an urskek (aside from SilSol perhaps), we can get some understanding when we look at their pairs and see what traits they share. Speculation is also fun! So as much as I love the skeksis and mystics as individuals, I prefer them to be whole again.

Day 30: What are your wishes for a possible season 2?

A whole bunch of things. I want to see them explore more about the mystics and their lifestyle, having Raunip play a big part in the plot, seeing more of skekSa’s fall from grace from her perspective, the beginning of the Garthim Wars, and more. 

[ogmosis]

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER INTERVIEW: ALLIE REYNOLDS

2021 is a weird time for everyone right now with debut authors hit by the lack of a traditional marketing window for their precious first book out the gate. Despite that, Allie Reynolds and her Headline publishing team managed to get her big publisher auction debut Shiver widespread coverage leading into its UK release two weeks ago. High-profile author blurbs and Waterstones promotion, amongst other activity, has given this fresh take on the psychological thriller genre a good chance of emerging from the pack which it deserves for its finely paced story and atmospheric snowy setting. I spoke with Allie at the back end of 2020 from her Gold Coast home in Australia to find out more about the former British snowboarder's career switch, inspirations and what the future holds.

Are you still pinching yourself with how the last couple of years has gone?

It has been an absolute dream. I suppose when I was writing it, I never knew if I would find a publisher. I kind of thought it was a niche book that might just be of interest to snowboarders and there weren’t that many thrillers set in ski resorts. I have heard from a lot of readers so far, who enjoy the insight into this world that they didn't know about.

How much tweaking did you have to do in order to bring the snowboarding side of it to life?

I had to add in about 20,000 words, partly because my US editor had never been to a ski resort and wanted explanation and clarification of what a halfpipe and tow lift was, in case readers couldn't visualise them.

Where have your biggest writing style influences come from?

Lee Child is a big influence. I am a massive fan. There is something really addictive about his thrillers. He tends to write in very short, sharp sentences. He writes in very simple language, there's no fancy bits or frilly bits or pretentious bits - it is just all about the story and I love that as I don't want to be pretentious in my language. You can absorb his words easily and that is the writing style that I try to emulate. I seem to mainly read female psychological thriller authors like Jane Harper, Erica Ferencik, Ruth Ware and Clare Mackintosh, a lot of the British authors. I love debut thrillers as they often have high concepts that are different to anything that you have seen before. Clare's books seem to have characters that feel things quite deeply and you care about them. I am trying hard to do that, because that is what I like reading.

The emotional depth of the characters in Shiver is one of the things that I picked up on, so where did the light-bulb moment come for that?

I never read any craft books until the last few years. I was a foreign languages nerd, and I didn't study English literature past the age of 15. I was just trying to write novels without knowing anything about the theory and struggling massively. Some of the craft books contradict the others, so I don't follow them rigorously, but I take the bits that I like from each one and form my own little note file of what I want to use. The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by Donald Maass is one I really love and looks at emotion separately and the psychology of what readers might feel, even though it is challenging to understand. Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham is a little bit dated, but he talks about the scene and the sequel when the characters are processing what has happened and formulating a new path. Everything is about pace in thrillers these days and this part often gets cut out. He explains about writing in scenes, not chapters. Get in late to a scene and finish early on a cliffhanger. It is quite strange the process of how I came up with the characters. When I started out, I was researching snowboarders by watching YouTube videos of current top athletes, their mannerisms, the way they speak and just trying to get inspiration. Two of them started out as real, pro snowboarders but then they morphed as I wrote into something completely different. With Milla, there is a lot of me in there but hopefully not as competitive. I wanted to overhype that flaw of hers as it kind of drives the whole story in the end. I am a massive fan of John Truby and he always talks about how your main character must be an underdog. Another of his big focuses is how the character's flaw should drive the story. Almost every event that happens in the book happens because Milla is competitive. I liked the idea of Curtis being a hero with strong morals. Robert McKee talks about having characters that you would like to be or admire and look up to. Having a pull for the reader. I guess Saskia is the shadow side of Milla. The villain should have some aspects of the heroine, but then they take something too far.

Were you worried some readers might get put off by the snowboard circuit romance part of it?

I did wonder how the romance would go down as I had heard that UK readers do not especially like romance with their thrillers unlike Australia and the USA, where romantic suspense is a bigger genre. I was trying to get the fact that everybody knows everybody in that winter resort scene. Relationships might make or break and the following year somebody is seeing somebody else.

Did you also have it in the back of your mind that the women's psychological thriller genre boom might fade before your book even got out there?

I did worry that the psychological thriller boom would finish while I was writing it, but it seems to be going on longer than anyone anticipated. You always wonder when a dark situation like COVID-19 happens that people might look for something uplifting instead, but I see Shiver at the lighter end of that spectrum. I shy away from anything really dark or violent. It has been called a locked room mystery because the characters at the reunion play an icebreaker game, and whoever created the game clearly knows the dark secrets of their past. They are stranded in a closed environment. And Then There Were None was a big inspiration. The way they are invited by false pretences and realise early on they are not sure who it was.

It felt very cinematic reading it, so I assume screen rights have been snapped up?

The TV option was sold to Firebird Pictures straight after the publisher auction and, fingers crossed, it gets made. Julian, at my agency Blake Friedmann, really took care of rights. I got really lucky with my agent Kate Burke too.

What can we expect next now you have your foot firmly in the door?

I need silence at the starting phase of the book and time to think, so it was impossible trying to write the second book during lockdown homeschooling with my kids, but I am trying hard to finish it soon. It is quite a strange process compared to Shiver as I didn't know if anyone would read it. I was unselfconscious and sort of feeling my way along. This time it is very different as I have constant promotion work going on for Shiver. My next book is set here in Australia on a beach in a totally different environment with a fresh set of characters, so it is quite hard switching back and forth. You hear about second book syndrome. It is terrifying writing to a contract full stop, where you have to write the same but different. You are trying to capture everything they liked about your first book but trying to make it different enough. It has a sports focus in this second book a little bit as well, as athletes interest me, and we haven't seen them much in fiction.

Find out more about Allie and buy Shiver HERE.

[foxvilla320]

Best Macbook Model

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Best Macbook Air Model

Best Macbook Models

Best Macbook Model Reddit

In loving memory of the mid-2015 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro: 5/19/2015 - 7/12/2018

May 06, 2019. Jul 02, 2020.

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Today, Apple announced a big update to its Macbook Pro line of computers. The company really souped-up the specs of the latest Macbook Pro model, the one that debuted in 2016 with the controversial butterfly keyboard, 4 sole USB-C ports, and Touch Bar in place of the function keys.

Best Macbook Air Model

As Apple updated its website with the newest additions to the Macbook Pro family, something just as noteworthy came to light. Apple removed the mid-2015 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro model from its online store, officially killing off what some consider to be the best laptop ever made.

Wait.. Did Apple just announce they discontinued the 2015 15' MacBook? It's the best version they've made. I would pay money to put 32 gigs of ram in it..

— Nemoy Rau (@NRaush) July 12, 2018

My 2015 baseline MacBook Pro has honestly been killing it, definitely think the '15 models are the best on the market right now (I wouldn't work with the 16-17 dongle models..) Exporting 1080p 60fps video, hours of photoshop maintaining 80% battery etc.

— Andrew Falchook (@falchook) November 26, 2017

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On the wrong side of things, the 15’’ 2015 MacBook Pro ( @marcoarment ‘s favourite) isn’t available anymore.

— Alessandro (@alsoknownasale) July 12, 2018

In November of last year, Marco Arment, the co-founder of Tumblr and developer behind popular apps like Instapaper and Overcast, wrote a post that spread like wildfire, expressing how many Macbook Pro users felt when Apple announced the new Touch Bar model with its 2016 Macbook Pro refresh. Arment argued that the entire 2012-2015 Retina Macbook Pro model was the best laptop Apple ever created, with the mid-2015 one being its peak. The sentiments shared in his post about the 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro model – titled “The best laptop ever made” – were echoedacrossthe web.

Before Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, he was involved in the design of the Retina Macbook Pro line of Apple computers that came out 8 months later in June of 2012. This model was continuously updated and upgraded with the latest specs until May 2015 with the mid-2015 model. This Macbook Pro model was heralded for its sleek design, light weight, fast processing power, its array of ports ranging from HDMI to two Thunderbolt ports, and MagSafe power adapter among other things. Even what the Retina Macbook Pro was missing, an internal CD/DVD Superdrive for example, was a well-timed move in response to where the industry was in terms of the lifecycle of that specific technology.

Even with last year’s 2017 Touch Bar Macbook Pro roll out replacing the original 2016 Touch Bar model, Apple kept the mid-2015 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro in stock to satiate those who believed it to be the last great Macbook Pro model. Up until yesterday, you could purchase a brand new mid-2015 15-inch Macbook Pro, with fully maxed out specs (note that in the past year Apple removed the option to add a dedicated AMD Radeon R9 M370X GPU to the mid-2015 Macbook Pro), for just a little more than the low-end base model of the 2017 Touch Bars.

Unfortunately, with the launch of the 2018 Macbook pro model, you can no longer purchase a brand new 2015 15-inch Retina Macbook Pro from Apple. If you really want “the best laptop ever,” you’ll have to try your luck with used or refurbished models on eBay.

For those who hate the newest – and now only – Macbook Pro line, thanks to its lack of ports, annoying and flawed butterfly keyboard, and gimmicky Touch Bar; this discontinuation of the 2015 model is Apple’s way of saying too bad, this is just the way things are now.

UPDATE: July 12, 2018, 2:56 p.m. EDT: Apple appears to have moved the 2015 Macbook Pro to the Apple store clearance page. This may be your last chance to snag a brand new one, so get them while they last!