#because assuming ones likes any women characters that i like (it means including linda); how could you not liking wally. they're an item.

[wallyslinda]

not to anyone in particular but it's okay to follow (me) if you don't like any male characters on my character list btw but you need to go away if you don't like the girls

[sireneia-a]

this happens every time i pull up the love growths and the jealousy rates in genealogy so i’m unpacking that too but for all my fe4 muses. going in roster order for this. why am i doing this?? cause i love storytelling via game mechanics and think more games should do it. not necessarily in relation to romance though, like leif’s arc is pretty amazingly displayed through mechanics in both his game appearances but i can ramble about that another time.

for the record, i’m assuming a love growth of +2 as what a “normal” pace for falling in love is since it’s the most common growth rate in the game. the format that this reads as is 0+2 then which translates to “a love base of zero, a love growth of two.” 

under the cut cause i still have no idea how to be succinct and also i’m talking about eight characters so yknow

lene: 

almost every guy has 0+2 for her. she doesn’t have any particular attraction to any guy as a result, though she’s open to falling in love with any of them with no biases. the only exception to this trend is ares who is set at 300+1. this is one of the highest love bases in the entire game if not THE highest. 

even disregarding their canon dialogue making me believe they are in a “more than friends, less than lovers” situation, this love base alone hints towards that too. 300 love points makes the game register the two as having taken a fancy to one another, 400 points is when they’re officially “well and truly in love” with one another, and 500 is when they’re literally married.

the fact that lene’s growth is at +1 with ares makes me think that although she has a high love base with him, she’s slow to realize her own feelings for him and would take a while to actually transition into being ACTUAL lovers. she would take a while to believe she should make a move. this is supported by the fact that she is at the low end of ares’s jealousy spectrum. she just doesn’t easily get jealous over other girls spending time with him.

interestingly enough, the people that she’s more easy to become jealous over are ced, oifey, and iucharba. 

leif: 

leif has a 0+2 for everyone except julia, nanna, jeanne, tine and linda. julia is set at 0+0 for everyone except seliph so that’s why there. nanna and jeanne both are set to 100+2 which means he has yet to even think about either of them in a romantic way. 

200 points is when the characters are thinking more frequently about the person for reference. however, leif’s shared childhood with nanna and jeanne undeniably has a foundation for him to see either of them in a romantic light and them growing up together is likely the reason behind his falling in love eventually. despite this, he goes at a normal pace with either of them still. 

the interesting thing is that he is set to 0+3 with tine and linda. whilst he has no foundation with either of them, this tells me that he is quicker to fall in love with them and his relationship might be likened more to a whirlwind romance. it’s also interesting to me because linda and tine are... nothing like nanna and jeanne KGHFKFHKFS 

i guess leif’s taste in women might be more like linda and tine but he’s just got more backstory with nanna and jeanne to build upon. either that or leif probably interacts more with tine and linda then and has more opportunity to fall in love with either of them mid-war. 

leif also has an equal jealousy rate with all girls which just means nobody ever gets jealous over him. Ever. what that means?? hell if i know how to dissect that

dew: 

hi token first gen! he has a more unique spread, so i’ll just write it down first here.

edain 0+2 / ayra 0+2 / lachesis 50+2 / erinys 50+2 / silvia 0+3 / brigid 50+2 / tailtiu 120+3

due to his backstory and how he didn’t know any of these people until the war, i’m going to interpret a higher love base to mean he’s more strongly attracted to those characters upon a first impression.

but... why those four? that’s a tricky one. i can’t just say he likes women who can kick his ass cause ayra isn’t included. i was going to say it’s strong-willed women, but again ayra would’ve been included. i can’t say he’s just attracted to longer hair cause all of them have long hair, and i can’t say it’s that he thinks lighter colored hair is gorgeous because erinys with her trademark silessian green hair is there. 

i might still say though he’s attracted to women who he immediately understands their convictions and motivations. by the time he meets ayra, presumably he would not be able to witness her devotion to shannan as strongly as, say, sigurd would have. but lachesis he’d see her desire to be strong for her brother, erinys her love for her homeland and proper strict attitude, brigid her backstory as a rare female captain amongst pirates, and tailtiu her desire to follow claud no matter where. he’s less certain with ayra for reasons explained, edain because he just meets her in jail and his mind is fixated solely on getting out, and silvia because he only interprets her as a dancer and probably doesn’t immediately catch onto her attraction to lewyn.

tailtiu is the highest, so i’m going to interpret that as him either thinking thunder magic is extremely intimidating and awesome or because he just likes girls in ponytails. him having a higher growth with silvia and tailtiu tells me he gets along better with girls who are upbeat but have a sadness underneath it, and he might just naturally feel more for them as time goes on.

his jealousy rates are complicated cause genealogy separates priority for first gen hardcore based on whether or not you’ve turned your console on and off again yet. a shared theme between the two versions though is that edain and ayra more easily get jealous over dew. also interesting is that dew’s jealousy rates post-resetting are identical to jamke’s -- a fact i choose to believe because dew and jamke likely hang out a lot around one another in the game, solidified by their ch5 convo having dew getting uncharacteristically sentimental on the archer prince before running off.

iuchar:

iuchar’s rates are mostly 0+2 so standard fare but the unique stuff comes to predictably larcei and more unpredictably tine. 

larcei is set to 200+2 which i think makes sense considering he literally gets recruited under the pretense that he’s so in love with larcei that he’s willing to betray his family for her. i know the rate is set lower because he’s recruited in the first chapter of the first gen, but i want to believe that it’s a nod to the fact that he’s not as head over heels for larcei as he claims to be. again, 200 means he’s thinking about her but not necessarily in love with her. the fact that they have a growth of 2 points per turn makes me believe that them developing a romantic relationship would be at a normal pace, just in general normal and not affected by his supposed affections for her. he wouldn’t be pushing things aggressively as a result, but also neither of them are necessarily extremely opposed to it.

tine is set to 0+3. this... i’m going to unpack when i get to her because i thought at first this was something specific to leif since leif and tine are predestined lovers ( a fancy term used to describe pairings the game recommends or otherwise they have conversations with one another ) but i’m beginning to realize there’s something else here. 

i can’t analyze iuchar’s jealousy rates because i can only see iucharba’s, and although the two have identical love growths and bases with one another, i don’t feel right just assuming their jealousy rates are the same. if they ARE though, it’s a wild time cause it’s:

nanna > larcei > fee > tine > lene > lana > patty > altena

tine:

i promised to deliver on analyzing iuchar’s rate with her here and yeah. 

tine’s set to 0+3 with EVERYONE. EVERYONE. NO EXCEPTIONS. thank you for consistency for starters but oh boy.

so since i’m running on the idea that +2 is normal for love growths, i have no choice but to recognize that tine just falls in love really quickly. a +4 growth DOES exist though it’s basically for brigid only. the only other weirdly high love growth rate to be featured in game is finn who has a +10 with brigid and tailtiu because finn has only 50 turns to fall in love with either of those two so good luck and hope those jealousy rates don’t kill you if that’s your aim. regardless, all of tine’s romances edge on whirlwind romances. but why?

well, i have a feeling it ties into the fact that tine is supposed to be the second gen deirdre equivalent. this is showcased by her lover’s convo with seliph where she remarks that she doesn’t want to end up just like deirdre. this does not happen in any other lovers convo with seliph, so i’m pretty sure that’s just her role. her having silver hair, being associated with purple, a mage, and also a sheltered girl also helps the connections further.

tine’s fast rates ensure that no matter whom she falls in love with, it’ll be fast-paced in a way similar to how deirdre’s relationship with sigurd went. there’s nothing to make someone fall in love at first sight with tine, but she’s quick to fall in love with and reciprocate.

her jealousy rates are a bit more complicated to look at, but a general note is that she’s the girl that gets the most jealous easily over ced hinting at her own preference to him. behind that, in order, are ulster, diarmuid, oifey and iucharba equally, shannan and ares equally, and then every other guy. i don’t really know how to interpret that except that barring ced, i guess she just. favors the tirnanog gang i guess???

febail:

febail apparently ALSO HAS A 0+3 WITH EVERYONE except julia and lene. i have literally no explanation for this the way i did tine, but i’m going to try.

i’m going to interpret this to mean that febail falls in love easier than he lets on. this might be a byproduct of him being a sensitive person at heart, something shown and exemplified by how he serves as a father figure to all the orphans in conote. hell, he even has a card where they’re all crying as they’re rushing to hug him.

febail indiscriminately falls in love, and perhaps him being kind of bad at hiding how sentimental and compassionate he is towards the orphans is what helps others fall in love with him quickly too. 

except lene and julia. lmao. i get why julia is the exception, but i just think it’s really funny that lene also isn’t falling for this dude easily either. which might just say something about lene’s maturity and inability to just recklessly develop affections for others.

febail has the MOST confusing jealousy rates in my opinion because his is just. altena > everybody else. the reason why it’s weird that altena gets jealous over him easily is because altena shouldn’t be falling in love with anyone. it’s not even like julia’s case where julia is 0+0 for everyone except seliph. altena has NO rates or bases. 

febail how did you do it,

coirpre:

i already kinda talked about his love growths and bases in this post but i’ll talk more about it cause there’s definitely stuff i missed.

coirpre’s spread is like this:

julia 0+0 / lana 220+3 / muirne 220+3 / larcei 0+2 / creidne 0+2 / nanna 0+2 / jeanne 0+0 / fee 0+2 / hermina 0+2 / patty 200+3 / daisy 0+3 i think / tine 0+3 / linda 0+3

him being lategame can help explain some of these but i don’t think that’s the right assumption to make? mostly because his bases and growths aren’t all across the board like how tailtiu’s are, and she’s in your army for around the same amount of time that coirpre is in yours. but they also still let him fall in love unlike altena who, as said before, should logically not fall in love but also you can rig jealousy rates i guess.

it’s also interesting because coirpre is one of the few instances where he differentiates between substitutes considering he will express absolute zero interest in jeanne no matter what but he’s open to falling in love with nanna.

there’s not really much of a common thread between all of the notable rates here, but minus tine and linda, you could say he’s taken a bias towards other characters seen as support units in a way. lana, muirne, patty, and daisy are not intended to be frontline soldiers. however, nanna and jeanne are out of the running for this, so it’s not a hard-pressed rule for him. it still makes sense that he probably hangs out more with other support units considering he himself is one.

his dynamic with patty and his dynamic with lana would probably be extremely different since lana is the more soft-spoken and sweet character whilst patty openly bickers with him. hence why i can’t say it’s a personality thing tying him to any biases.

coirpre has some of the highest bases in the game because of his being 200 or more with some of the characters. this implies he’s definitely taken a fancy to lana, muirne and patty upon first meeting them. if it weren’t muirne and nanna, i’d just say he has a preference for blondes and be done with it but of course things are Complicated.

coirpre has jealousy rates too, with his being patty > lana > altena > other girls. this gives insight to how girls feel about HIM and he’s not actually the least complicated scale, his having more people ranked than lester, febail, seliph and leif. he’s more attracted to lana at first sight but patty is more likely to feel things for him.

also altena is there for some reason. i’m DOUBLY confused on account of her not supposed to be falling in love and also the fact that coirpre sees her as a mother figure.

deimne:

deimne’s rates are identical to lester’s, not really surprising considering that he serves as lester’s substitute but only a bit surprising to me considering he has different lover’s conversations. regardless, his are pretty lackluster too, being 0+2 for everyone except julia, tine and linda.

tine and linda are at 0+3 again and julia is at 0+0. i don’t have much to add besides what’s already been said in tine’s section, but these bases DO reflect his lack of desire to interact with the nobles. doesn’t really apply that way to the substitutes though but eh. he’s still not really rejecting anyone though since he’s at +2 as opposed to +1 or +0.

i’m going to assume deimne’s jealousy rates are also identical to lester’s which means his is patty and daisy > altena > other girls. daisy and patty definitely makes sense to me since he has lover convos with them. altena is once again a wild card crashing in out of nowhere.

cause why avoid hanging out with nobles when you can have a princess of TWO houses getting jealous over you i guess.

only other notable thing is that deimne has an arc that i find sweet with his childhood friend karen who is not playable. it’s implied that she has feelings for him but he doesn’t really notice. this isn’t reflected in mechanics, but it’s a tangentially related subject.

[rebel-princess-rock-blog]

Annotated Bibliography

I’ve decided to post my full, updated, bibliography to this blog. 

Ali , Nadia. “What Disney's 'Frozen' Can Each Us about Mental Illness .” The Washington Post , 13 May 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/05/13/what-disneys-frozen-teach-us-about-mental-illness/?utm_term=.fae7b449bc45.

One of Frozen’s main characters Elsa has often been seen as someone who represents mental illness. According to The Washington Post, the writer of the article Nadia Ali is “a health psychologist on faculty at Emory University’s School of Medicine, in the Department of Human Genetics. She has over 15 years experience providing psychological care with medically ill populations. She is also an Op Ed Project Public Voices Fellow.” I trust her insight on the character of Elsa and how she represents mental illness. Much like the patients Ali has helped, Elsa tries to hide who she really is and what she struggles with and becomes isolated because of it. Ali examines the song “Let it Go” and how it represents how society views mental illness and doesn’t accept those with mental illnesses. I feel its a huge breakthrough for disney to portray mental illness in any of their films, especially with their princess franchise. Elsa herself even takes on the role of queen early on in the film, being the first in the franchise to go by the title of queen.

———

Brave. Directed by: Brenda Chapman, Mark Andrews. Walt Disney Pictures. Pixar. 2012.  

Brave is the first Disney princess film, possibly first Disney film in general, where the heroine does not find true love or get married. Although I suppose she has some potential love interests in the suitors from the three other kingdoms, Merida isn’t at all concerned with romance. Merida is also the only Disney princess who doesn’t look like she is wearing makeup. None of her features are enhanced to emphasize beauty, she’s not ugly by any means but she isn’t as traditionally attractive as any other princess that came before or after her. Merida’s mother wants her to conform to the life of a princess and take on the role she was assigned from birth. Her mother has good reasoning for this, as she knows their kingdom is at stake. While Merida’s traditional mother is initially seen as an antagonist, they do come together in the end. The film is ultimately about Merida’s relationship with her mother, and they do reach a compromise so that Merida does take on the responsibility of her role while also breaking traciontion. But that compromise isn’t perfect as Merida still has to eventually choose a husband from the three suitors, but she at least has time to know them. Whether she wants to or not, Merida will still have to eventually take a husband. There’s also the issue with how Disney markets Merida after her film, they dress her doll up as a beauty queen when in the film she’s against typical gender norms. Disney's marketing team devalues the message of the filmmakers.

—-

Bruce, Alexander M. “The Role of the ‘Princess’ in Walt Disney's Animated Films: Reactions of College Students.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 30, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–25. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23416195.

Bruce starts by examining the princess and princes of the films and how Disney markets them. He talks about what qualities princesses are supposed to have according to Disney’s book publications, and according to their own films. He then talks to several college students about the princess phenomena. He shows the data of which Disney films the subjects have seen and which they owned or consider princess movies. He then talks about the responses the subjects had to their questioning in the princesses and the franchise as a whole. I think it’s important to examine the response of educated college students to Disney’s princess franchise in 2007 compared to now. Things were different back then as the differing princess films had yet to come out, and from what I’ve seen now, many more college students seem to enjoy Disney and talk about it.

—-

Guo, Jeff. “Researchers Have Found a Major Problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and Other Disney Movies.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 25 Jan. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers-have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-disney-movies/?utm_term=.94bd15be3fa7.

In this piece, Jeff Guo discusses the research of two linguists studying Disney princess movies. The researchers share their data on who talks more in the film men or women, the amount of speaking roles per gender, and what kind of compliments women receive in the films, about their physical beauty vs their skills. It’s interesting to look at this data and see what progressive and regressive steps the newer films have taken.

——

Lingerfelt, Tabatha. “Marvels & Tales.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 26, no. 1, 2012, pp. 133–135. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41702502.

Tiana is a princess who, like Mulan, did not initially dream of romance. The review touches on this, that she is a working poor black woman who didn’t even think of marriage. Tiana and her white, rich friend Charlotte have differing life goals, Charlotte wants to live a life of fairytale, like a typical old fashioned Disney princess. Tiana only dreams of and works hard to try and open her own restaurant. While it is good to see a Disney heroine work hard for her own self motivated goal, Lingerfelt does point out the problem with the film in her review. The movie often puts Tiana in a position where she has to choose between love and her career path and ultimately she choose love over what she always wanted. Although she does end up with both love and her career, the movie reinforces the idea that she needed love far more than her restaurant and that ultimately her prince Naveen was more important.

—-

Moana

Moana is a very progressive film for Disney. It starts a non-white princess protagonist who has no love interest whatsoever. In fact, despite her family wanting her to remain on their island and follow orders, they don’t put any pressure on her to marry. It can be assumed that Moana would be able to rule as chief without a husband, making the society of her people rather progressive. Moana is determined to help her people, and to do what she has to in order to return the heart of Tafiti, which was stolen by Maui, a man who made the initial mistake that leads to the events of the film. Although Moana is at first overwhelmed by her mission, as someone who has never sailed nor been off her island, Maui helps her become a great “way-finder.” I did not view Maui teaching her as him being superior because of his gender, but rather because he is more experienced. Moana ultimately saves the day despite doubting herself, she becomes empowered by believing in herself and her abilities as a “chosen one” as the song I Am Moana indicates. Moana also has far more realistic proportions than the princesses before her, she isn’t chubby or fat but her waist is not as thin as past princesses. She is the thickest princess in the line up.

——

Mulan. Directed by: Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook. Walt Disney Pictures. 1998.

Mulan’s motivation to pose as a man, save her father from war was extremely noble and self sacrificial. While the decision was not self serving, it did allow her to break out of the role she was assigned in order to free herself from societal expectations of women, only to fall into the societal expectations of men. While Mulan is certainly a progressive princess, as she learns to fight in the army, taking on the Huns and even accumulating a body count, the film still gets held back by gender norms. The men are gross and pigheaded at times and Mulan ultimately must have a romance as all princesses before her. Mulan does change the minds of at least some of the men around her, including the empower of China, about women. The film doesn’t make it clear whether or not this change lasts, as in real life we know it didn’t but in the fictional Disney timeline it may have. Ultimately, at the end of the film Mulan only seeks the validation of one person, her father, who she feels she has dishonored in the past. Without his acceptance she would most likely still see her actions as a mistake rather than a noble and honorable thing. She still seeks the approval of man.

—-

O, / Kyle. “Breaking Down Disney’s ‘Dark Age’: Aftermath and Conclusion.” Kyle Loves Animation and More..., 8 Aug. 2016, kylelovesanimationnmore.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/breaking-down-disneys-dark-age-aftermath-and-conclusion/.

This article discusses the Disney Dark Age, a time period in Disney’s history after Walt’s death when they weren’t making a lot of money with their animated films. It’s important to look at this period despite its lack of princess films as it ties into the Disney renaissance, which relaunched Disney animated films back into popularity. It also reintroduced the idea of the Disney princess in popular culture. Looking at the dark age before that can shed light onto why Disney changed its strategies in film.

—-

Pershing, Linda, et al. “Disney’s Enchanted: Patriarchal Backlash and Nostalgia in a Fairy Tale Film.” Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity, edited by Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix, University Press of Colorado, 2010, pp. 137–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt4cgn37.12.

This piece examines the issues with the Disney film Enchanted, which was supposed to be a parody of Disney’s previous work and princess franchise as a whole. But, this film falls into the same heteronormative patriarchal problems of the films is mocks, just in different ways. Giselle has to clean Robert’s apartment for him because he’s apparently incapable of doing it himself as a single father. Nancy, a modern woman, gives up on her career and life in our world to run off with a prince she barely and have a fairytale wedding, something the movie tries to reinforce as a bad thing for Giselle. Perishing takes a closer look at the premiere of the film as well talking about the problematic princess setup outside the film. She goes on to talk about Disney’s manipulative marketing strategy, Michael Eisner’s own words while C.E.O of Disney, and why the film doesn’t deliver on what it promises.  

—-

ScreenPrism. “Cinderella: Stop Blaming the Victim.” Video, YouTube.com. November 11 2017. Web. https://youtu.be/huLSdm6IH0g

The video presents an interesting counter argument to those who say disney’s Cinderella has an anti-feminist message. The video argues that people shouldn’t blame Cinderella for being a victim of abuse. Cinderella herself doesn’t initially dream of a prince, just a life away from her abusive step family. She has been conditioned to act the way she does and be passive to her own mistreatment. They argue that Cinderella earns her happy ending through her kindness. The video has a more detailed argument, but I personally feel that Cinderella could have been more active in her story. The Disney film romanticizes the fairytale life and true love once it comes into play. I think Cinderella’s character is great well-defended in this piece but the film as a whole is not free from feminist criticism.

——

Sleeping Beauty. Directed by: Clyde Geronimi. Walt Disney Pictures. 1959.

To me, the best example of the passive princess Disney is often criticized for is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. In the film everything just happens to or around her without Aurora having any real effect on the events of her life. She dreams of a man and then immediately falls in love with one when they sing together, though she doesn’t. When the fairies tell her of her royal lineage that she never knew before, her only concern is that, through misunderstanding she thinks she will never be allowed to see her true love again. Aurora doesn’t even care about the real family she missed out on or the fact that her guardians have lied to her, all she cares about is a boy she just met. Aurora is saved by the prince in the end, as he does all the work for their happy ending. On top of that, the main motivation of the female villain is extremely petty. Maleficent curses the entire kingdom because she was snubbed an invitation for a party, making this female villain vain, petty, and cruel without proper cause.

——

The Little Mermaid. Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker. Walt Disney Pictures. 1989.

To me, Ariel is the first Disney princess to really be proactive in her story. She took a risk and signed Ursula’s contract to get what she wanted, taking an active role. The princess who came before her, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora were passive and for the most part the events that took place in their films were not a result of any of their individual decisions. Ariel also outright argued with her father and stood up for herself, something none of the three princesses before her did. While I think Ariel was a good step forward for Disney in terms of an active heroine, she still did everything in the pursuit of a man she “fell in love with at first sight.” I feel Disney was holding themselves back by following this trope.

——

Wohlwend, Karen E. “Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts through Disney Princess Play.” Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1, 2009, pp. 57–83. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20304573.

Wohlwend’s piece examines how the Disney princess franchise has affcted the young girls who consume it. The girls are taught from a young age about what type of peron they should be and how they should fit into gender norms. Girls dream of finding a Prince Charming and living happily ever after instead of forming their own dreams separate from a man. I think it’s important to examine the effects of Disney’s princess films and marketing to see how they’re changing, at least within their films. It opens up criticism in how Disney shapes young women.

[cover2covermom]

On Saturday April 8th, I attended the 10th annual Ohioana Book Festival.  This event takes place in Columbus Ohio (about 1-1.5 hours north of where I live) every year, and focuses on featuring & promoting Ohio authors.

Continue on to read about my experience, which books I hauled, and which author I had an “awkward encounter” with…

I ended up flying solo to this event.  There are pros and cons to going to a book event alone…

Pros: you are the boss • you can come/go when you please • you can listen to an audiobook on the commute…

Cons: no one to fangirl with • no one to take your picture with the authors • no one to watch your crap while you use the restroom • you have to pay for all of the gas/parking • no one to discuss panels with • no one to people watch with • no one to sit next to you and ward off creepy men (this actually happened) • you look like a loser without any friends…

Basically going solo was fine, but I would have preferred to have my bookish partner in crime with me.

Source: Ohioana Library Twitter

I spent the majority of my time at the festival attending the author panels.  I find author panels absolutely fascinating.  I love that each author typically has such different writing processes, motivations, inspirations, etc.  I also enjoy getting new insights into books I’ve read or plan to read.   I am going to be giving a little snippet of each of the panels I attended, however I am going to limit it to the authors that drew me to the panel in the first place.  This is not to say that I was not interested in what the other authors had to say, but in the spirit of keeping this post relatively short I can only include a few authors.

I started my day off with my first panel, Masters of Mystery.  This eneded up being an all male author panel that comprised of Dan Andriacco, John Hegenberger, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Robin Yocum.  Now, this may come as a big shock, but I am not a big mystery reader.  So why did I attend this panel?  I wasn’t really interested in any of the other panels during this time slot, so I figured why not?  The only author I had heard of in this panel was Robin Yocum.  I had heard good things about his book A Brilliant Death. 

*Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this panel because I didn’t have a good vantage point #BookBloggerFail

Robin Yocum

» The first thing I have to get off my chest about Robin is that he resembles Sylvester Stallone with a touch of Mel Gibson.  Basically, he is Sylvester & Mel’s love child.  I thought about telling this to him when I visited his booth after the panel, but I didn’t want him to think I was a werido… which it totally true, but he doesn’t need to know that :)

» It generally takes him 8 months to 1 year to write a book.

» He knows how the book is going to end before he begins so he can write towards that ending.

» He writes everyday and shoots for at least 500 words minimum.

» He likes to utilize the voice to text app on his phone to dictate notes, ideas, plot points, etc. while he is driving in the car.  The app then emails him the notes.

*This is brilliant!  Take note all you aspiring authors!

» “The first 10,000 and the last 10,000 words are easy.  It’s the middle 80,000 words that are hard.”

» A Brilliant Death, A Welcome Murder, and one other book (yet to be published) actually sat in his closet for 15 years before they were published.  He wrote these books 15 years ago!

See what I mean?  He is totally Sylvester & Mel’s love child

  My next panel, Out of the Past: Historical Fiction, was my favorite panel of the day.  Authors Jennifer Chiaverini, Linda Kass, Mary Doria Russell, and David Selcer sat on the panel.  This was actually a “record breaking” panel for the Ohioana Book Fest, as there were over 70 people packed into one small room, which is the most in the history of the event.

Source: Ohioana Library Facebook Page

  *Can you spot me in the front row? I’m on the right hand side of the room to the left of the lady in the long braid.

As you can tell from the picture, this audience was an older demographic.  I was probably the only person under the age of 40 in attendance… BUT if you know me, then you know that historical fiction is my favorite genre.  I went into this panel specifically for Jennifer Chiaverini and Mary Doria Russell.

*I would like to note that the pictures I took at the actual event are not the best quality because they are taken on my phone.  Sorry in advance :)

Jennifer Chiaverini

» Personal observation: this woman is ridiculously pretty.  She is one of those naturally beautiful women we all wish we were.

» She was inspired to write Fates and Traitors by all the gun violence in society today.

» She fangirled hard core over Mary Doria Russell.

» She wanted to write Fates and Traitors from the view points of the women who knew and loved him best, as they were the first ones to be judged.

» In historical fiction, oral histories are crucial sources of info as personal experiences vary.

» She loves that in historical fiction, you have the added gift of emotion and can evoke empathy in readers.

» She recommends Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell

Mary Doria Russell

» Mary is such a character.  She was very charismatic and FUNNY!  I also found it hilarious she was wearing a planet necklace… That isn’t some type of brand name, she was wearing our solar system on her neck.

» Once shared a taxi with David Mcullough.

» Recommends A Friend of Mr. Lincoln by Stephen Harrigan.

» She starts with research BEFORE she decides any characters, plot points, etc.

» She has to be in love with the characters, or she will not write the story.  She had contemplated writing about Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe, but didn’t because she doesn’t like them.

I did have a rather awkward encounter with Mary.  I pondered about if I should mention it or not, but it is my blog, so I’ll do what I want :)

Since Mary had a stack of her books (multiple copies of a few of her books) with her during the panel, I went up to the table after the panel was over to enquire if I could just get the books I wanted now (as opposed to going upstairs and potentially waiting in line).  Mary seemed very hesitant and slightly annoyed with this request, not really looking at me or trying to engage me in conversation.  I quickly said that I could just wait and get the books upstairs, but she was already signing her name into the two books I had pointed to.  At this point she then handed them to me and said “I’m going to trust that you are going to pay for these.”   I was a little taken aback by this comment.  I assured her that I would, and quickly left the room feeling a little embarrassed.  It had never crossed my mind that this was the reason that she was hesitant to give me the books she had brought with her to the panel… I guess I just assumed that the reason she brought multiple copies of each of her books was in hopes of selling some to those who attended the panel.

I would be lying if I said that this situation didn’t upset me, HOWEVER I am going to give Mary the benefit of the doubt here.  The panels were held downstairs (near the exits) and the check out registers were upstairs… Maybe she has had books stolen at festivals before?  Maybe the festival had some type of strict rule not to give people books at the panels? Was it the fact that I look younger than I am (despite the fact that I’m now 30 and officially old) and was wearing ripped jeans and a t-shirt?  Did I look suspicious?   I really hate to have a bad taste in my mouth over this, as I really enjoyed listening to Mary on the panel and was so excited to read her books.  Is it possible that I completely misjudged the situation?  Maybe.  Do I really believe that?  Not really.

Just for clarification I did go upstairs and pay for the two books at FULL price.

My next panel, Writing and Publishing for Young Readers, included David FitzSimmons, Anne Vittur Kennedy, Edith Pattou, and Carmella Van Vleet.  This panel included the author of my favorite book that I read for the Ohioana book festival, East by Edith Pattou.

Edith Pattou

» Well first off I would like to brag that Edith Pattou remembered my name from when I had gone to her booth earlier in the day to pick up a copy of East to get signed.  When she had arrived at the panel, she had forgotten to bring a copy of one of her books to put on display.  She saw me sitting in the front row and said “Amanda..” (I’m assuming to ask to borrow the copy of her book she knew I had) but the moderator cut her off and produced a copy of East for Edith.  That’s right, Edith and I are basically BFFs now.

» Edith just finished revisions on a SEQUEL to East!  I had no idea this was in the works.  Anyone want to take a stab at what the title is?  If you guessed West, then you are correct! ((Edith- I’m totally available to read an ARC of West in exchange for a review… call me!))

» She writes for 4-6 hours a day.  She has to get out of the house to write, so she goes to her local library.

» Her favorite childhood book is A Wrinkle in Time

» She lucked out in the publishing process: she pitched her first book and the first publisher picked it up.  This is NOT the norm in the publishing world.

» She doesn’t write with a specific audience in mind, she just writes the story that speaks to her.

My final panel, Submitted for Your Approval: Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror, included Gary Buettner, Mark Dawidziak, Terry W. Ervin II, and Leanna Renee Hieber.  Not going to lie, I had never heard of any of these authors before, but I figured why not?  This ended up being the most entertaining panel.  I laughed the entire time.

» “If you read only within one genre, you’re inbreeding.” -Gary Buettner.  Obviously you needed to be there to understand the context of this comment, but Gary was a hoot!

» Mark Dawidziak is totally Mark Twain.  Mark hates labeling.  He feels that labeling minimizes authors: Not a “horror writer,” just a writer.

» Terry Ervin writes the books that he would like to find on the shelf and read.  Advises aspiring authors to write for themselves, not with the intent to make millions.

» Shirley Jackson is such a fascinating woman!  She walked into the room in full on Victorian era get-up, complete with a feather headpiece.  I really wish I had gotten a picture of her outfit.  She looked stunning.  I was even more intrigued when she said that it wasn’t a costume, it is how she normally dresses.  Shirley writes “gothic Victorian fantasy” for a female forward audience.  She was heavily influenced by the Brontë sisters and Edgar Allan Poe.

»  Book recs from the panel: The Shinning by Stephen King (and many more by Stephen King), The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

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» The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

» East by Edith Pattou

» A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

» A Brilliant Death by Robin Yocum

» The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

» Fates and Traitors by Jennifer Chiaverini

Would you (or have you) ever attend(ed) a book festival solo?

Have you ever had a “awkward” encounter with an author?

Have you read any of the books I hauled?  What did you think?

Comment below and let me know :)

I talk about attending the #OhioanaBookFestival and share my #BookHaul. #BookBlogger #Bookworm On Saturday April 8th, I attended the 10th annual Ohioana Book Festival.  This event takes place in Columbus Ohio (about 1-1.5 hours north of where I live) every year, and focuses on featuring & promoting Ohio authors.