#for one my copy of The Silmarillion is currently missing

[morvith]

I stumbled on this post by @velvet4510 : "If Míriel had lived, would Fëanor still have followed the same dark path?"

I voted "no" because so much of Fëanor was shaped by his abandonment issues.

...pause for a moment as I contemplate Fëanor growing up well-adjusted.

But, let us imagine for a moment a perfect word.

A world where Miriel doesn't die after giving birth to Fëanor and Finwë still gets his large family (The other children of Finwë will maintain their original name for clarity’s sake)

So Miriel does not die, but the birth still leaves her fragile. It takes her a long time to recover and decide that she wants to try again, so much that there is a big age difference between Fëanor and Fingolfin

Which, not that unusual among Elves, I bet it's not uncommon for siblings to have about a century between them.

However, when Fingolfin comes along, Fëanor isn't just of age, he is fully established: he has found his craft, maybe he is not a master yet but at the very least he is well on his way to it.

He definitely panics at the idea of his mother being pregnant again, since he remembers his early years when mother was recovering - how weak and wan she looked, how easily she tired. There are arguments about it, but eventually Miriel puts her foot down and points out that this is her decision, she wouldn’t do it if she did not want to or feel up to it, and that's final.

But, perfect word: Miriel's second pregnancy is much, much, much easier than her first one.

Same for the pregnancies that follow. Her difficult first pregnancy becomes something to tease Fëanor about - within the family only, of course, but still. Imagine that.

Fëanor does not go down the same dark path. That  does not mean that there is no dark path, or that it's not somebody else who takes it.

Maybe in this universe Melkor can't get his claws into Fëanor because he simply feels zero resentment for his younger siblings. Why would he?

It's not like his parents do not give him attention and if one of them is busy, he can always count on the other. 

Did he get some jealousy pangs? Yes, sure. He is not perfect. But he probably kept them to himself and thoroughly regretted them once he had his own children and got to see parenting from the other side.

But what about Fingolfin, the second son? The one who grows up in the shadow of his oldest brother?

The one who is still doing all the paperwork because Fëanor is off creating and can't be bothered. The one who is taken for granted, the one who will never be considered for Crown Prince because....well, why would he? He is the second born, after all. 

And he is Not Fëanor.

But perhaps that doesn’t work, either. 

Perhaps in this world, because Fëanor and Fingolfin are similar, they end up being close. Perhaps Fëanor here does appreciate all of Fingolfin's hard work, and since this is Fëanor we are talking about, you know he would not be quiet about it.

Imagine Fëanor taking Maitimo to meet Baby Makalaurë and whispering, "I hope you will grow up to be great friends, like me and your Uncle Nolofinwë."

So Fingolfin is out. What about Finarfin? The third son, the last child, the one overshadowed by both his older brothers? 

What about Findis? Or Irimë?

Maybe it's Fëanor who dies trying to defend his masterpieces. 

Maybe it's Finwë who, mad with grief, stands before the Valar and swears a terrible oath.

(with many thanks to @wings-of-indigo)

[conundrumoftime]

Twenty questions for fic writers

From a few people!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

At the moment 59 under my name, plus a couple of anonymous ones for fic exchanges that haven’t hit the author reveal date yet.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

345,058

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment: Rings of Power, Silmarillion and LOTR. My other big fandom is Babylon 5, although my much-loved WIP for that one is currently on hiatus.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I don’t think these are my top 5 fics by a metric I care about given my love for small fandoms and obscure niche content alongside the Haladriel juggernaut stuff, but with that in mind:

- Shadow-Bride, my big Haladriel WIP, my baby, my love, my precious;

- A man is a god in ruins, my first multi-chapter Haladriel, which started life as a short ficlet to be the ‘+1’ of a 5 Things fic and took on something of a life of its own;

- Silver Queen, my first half-Maia Celebrian story - really I just wanted to give her enough half-Maia powers to blast ambushing orcs down a mountain;

- Five times Halbrand’s secret got revealed, my second (I think?) fic for Rings of Power. One of the scenarios turned into Shadow-Bride, and the +1 scenario in which Galadriel doesn’t learn his secret (well… arguably…) is ‘A man is a god in ruins’.

- Lady of the Seas, second part of a Haladriel two-parter; Haladriel smut with Sauron doing a lot of thinking about Ossë and Uinen.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I got behind at one point and had to declare temporary amnesty. I am so grateful for almost all (see answer to q8) the comments I get, and I love responding to either discuss things or just say ‘thank you’. I never manage to find time to do it as soon as I would like.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This would probably be one of my Babylon 5 ones - either ‘A spirit haunts the year’s last hours’, an AU drabble where the Minbari took Valen prisoner and now Delenn has her own pet god figure; or ‘MIssing’, about Delenn searching for Lennier after s5 and not finding him.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

‘Tar-Mairon of the Shire’, a Rings of Power AU where the Harfoots really did find Sauron. Does what it says on the tin. My summary for this one is ‘Hobbits make everything better, including Dark Lords’ and I stand by that.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yes! A ridiculous amount! I have had multiple comments inviting me to harm myself in various graphic ways over making the wrong fictional characters kiss. I get the most hate for writing Celeborn in a way the haters have decided is mean to him (?? he’s fine!) and particularly on my G-rated baby ficlets. Who can even fathom this, honestly.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, and mostly the ‘overly wordy’ kind.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I was going to say yes but apparently nothing I have on AO3 is a crossover and I can’t remember what I’ve written in my pre-AO3 days. So: yes I think so! once! But alas, can’t remember what.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not the whole fic in a copy/paste sense, but: yes. I won’t lie, it was pretty weird and unpleasant to discover, but once I’d got over the initial “?!” reaction I saw it a little differently - that kind of plagiarism was obviously coming from an author who was insecure in their own abilities, was deeply jealous of mine, and who ultimately was missing out on much of the actual fun of writing. What’s even the point of fanfic if you aren’t coming up with your own work? It’s not like we’re getting paid! How unsatisfying must it be to have readers like your work and know it’s actually someone else’s thing they’re liking anyway, right? So I ended up in a place of taking it as a compliment in the ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness’ sense.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes - one of my Rings of Power fics got translated into Russian. I am very happy, and very impressed by the translator’s work.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes and it didn’t go well and I nearly fell out with my co-writer friend over it because we had different schedules and different takes on the story, so: never again.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

It’s probably one I haven’t even written for: Jack and Irina in Alias. It’s got everything I love about ships! They’re enemies working for rival organisations, they’re married, they try to kill each other, they can’t quite bear to do it, they have to sort out awkward co-parenting arrangements, they plot, they dance, there are stabbing attempts… honestly, SpyParents forever.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I plan to finish all my WIPs! I only have three at the moment: Shadow-Bride; Set Fire to the Stars (Babylon 5 pre-series Minbari worldbuilding with Branmer, who I love); and All The Kinds of Alive You Can Be (Rings of Power Sauron/Celeborn where Sauron shapechanges into Galadriel).

16. What are your writing strengths?

Especially these days (I’m a fandom old) I like that I’m happy to try writing new things based on thinking it would be interesting and I’d like to go with it, and not being intimidated by finding the fandom too scary or writing in a different direction to popular fanon or getting a baffled “that’s… nice… I guess?” reaction from my usual readers. I love writing Rings of Power Celeborn; I love writing fics about him raising half-Maia Celebrian; I get untold fury about this from a lot of the Twitter fandom youth, but I continue to have fun :)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have tons about my actual writing (dialogue, endings, failure to come up with titles I’m happy with) but along the lines of the above answer: I wish I was better at doing long multi-part fics, because the ones I’ve done I have had loads of fun with but I usually stick to one-shots because I don’t feel like the energy of the story will keep going long enough.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

A few of my fics across fandoms have language as important, and specifically, different languages belonging to different people/who’s speaking and what they’re speaking in. My Silm-LOTR Galadriel/Celeborn fic ‘Softest of Tongues’ is a lot about Quenya and Sindarin, and how inadequate translation can be - one of the tags is ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as a metaphor for the pain at the heart of your marriage’.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Poltergeist: the Legacy, back in the late 1990s. Fandom OLD. (I am glad none of those stories nor the forums they were written in have survived the ravages of internet time, I tell you.)

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

I have a few and the thing they all have in common is ‘I am really pleased I was able to make this thing I like work’. So:

- Tar-Mairon of the Shire (Rings of Power), for combining hope and Hobbits and History of Middle-earth, in a way that is both fluff and also genuinely sincerely written Sauron redemption;

- Civil Twilight (Rings of Power), for getting Haladriel and Galadriel/Celeborn into the same fic and for a take on Celeborn I’m really happy with;

- Softest of Tongues (LOTR and Silm), for writing Galadriel/Celeborn in a way that got the exact right language-as-symbolism and the tone of sadness and love and hope and grief that I was trying to hit;

- Deceptions (Babylon 5), for being a short fic that still captures Lennier going from protective to horrified in realising how terrifying his boss is (and also for Delenn making Neroon bow to her)

- Things That Go Bump In The Night (Ghosts), because I was not sure if I could write comedy fic for a comedy, and it turns out I could!

Tagging: @bad-surprise @stitchingatthecircuitboard @liminal-zone @myrsinemezzo @ophidion @formerlyir @hazelmaines @wyrd-syster and anyone else who wants to do it!

[mareenavee]

Talking about writing and advice on it got the wheels in my brain churning, and now I'm curious! So! If you're so inclined to answer:

Are there any writers who have served as an inspiration to you? (Whether through specific advice or just the stories/poems/music/etc that they have written.) If so I'd love to read some examples of how their words have inspired you!

Hi!! Thank you so much for this ask. It means a lot, actually.

I talked about this a tiny bit on how this specific writer inspired my fic, but honestly, they've inspired my entire writing career! It's not my only influence, but for sure is the most significant one as it's the earliest example I can remember that had me itching to write.

That writer is JRR Tolkien.

When I was a wee child, I read so much and so often that I was above my "reading grade" in no time at all. When I was about 7 years old (so a long, long while ago now lol) my uncle gave me his copies of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. The Hobbit was missing its front cover. Me being a child, I ignored it for a while, and tried to read the Silmarillion...and it didn't go well. So I shelved it and tried the Hobbit instead. (:

I flew through that book so quickly. I had never, by that point, read anything quite so cool and complicated. There were stories within the story itself and a sense that there was more to the world than just what was being said. I don't of course remember anything of what I actually thought at that specific moment, but I DO know and have proof of from old journals that I immediately set about trying to write after that. My first story was kind of derivative. I turned my friends into characters on an adventure with me where I was the wizard (or witch, as it happens) instead. It was maybe 12 or so pages in a little hardback journal.

Years later, I read The Hobbit as my first read of the year to kind of remind myself of that initial enthusiasm that jumpstarted my journey. Every year, without fail, my first book completed is this one. Maybe at this point I could probably recite it word for word LOL (okay that's an exaggeration.) Whether I read it aloud or I read to myself, it's super dear to my heart.

My current project, as I noted in the link above, has a specific quote from The Silmarillion that I wrote the entire thing around (: There's another specifically from The Hobbit that I keep in general to remind myself of why I do what I do.

“The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with weary feet, Until it joins some larger way, Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Road Goes Ever On; The Hobbit

It relates a bit to my advice from a tag game I posted earlier, if you were wondering (:

[thebirdandhersong]

I was tagged by @called-kept (thank you so much!!!) to share 5 things about myself, and tag 10 people. 

1. I read 4-5 books at a time: usually a mix of few classics, new books, and old favourites. At the moment most of the books I’m reading are the light, bright, and beautiful sort (because exam season and also I needed a bit of consolation after Notre-Dame de Paris): Wodehouse’s Thank You, Jeeves, D.E. Stevenson’s Miss Buncle’s Book, and Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo (and just finished the EXCELLENT Adventures of Sally).

2. My current writing project is slowly chugging along!! When school is out I’ll spend hours scribbling away in my notebook. My goal is to add links here on tumblr, finish the whole story by mid-May, and have physical copies printed for my incredibly patient high school teacher before the school year ends!

3. I love my siblings :) I mention mostly my little sister (affectionately nicknamed Muffin. Out of the options we came up with she likes Muffin the most, for some unfathomable reason) but I also love my not-so-little brother (nicknamed Froglet here, because it’s cute and I know it’ll annoy him if he ever finds out).

4. I cannot watch horror movies, or anything made specifically to evoke  feelings of horror, fear, disgust to the extreme. I used to be able to handle that sort of thing, but now I find the violence level in Marvel movies hard to stomach. I still enjoy the stories (or at least I LOVED Agent Carter when I watched it this year) but blood and people in distress keep me up at night. That stuff stays in my head.

5. My childhood crush (or fictional beau, I guess) was Glorfindel. I loved him. I had the fall of Gondolin chapter bookmarked in my copy of The Silmarillion, and whenever we visited any bookstore I would make a beeline to the fantasy section JUST to find a copy of The Silmarillion, flip to the Glorfindel chapter, read his name, and mentally wave at him.

If your favourite season is spring/you’ve seen at least one flower or squirrel in the past week/you’ve been listening to Fearless/you would like to, consider yourself tagged!!

[partyinthemysterymachine]

🌻

my dad read me and my brother The Hobbit as a bedtime story. naturally i remembered jack shit about it but since dad is a Tolkien nerd he was able to give me the rundown. when the movies came out he gave me his trilogy box set. i didn’t take it with me on my moves. it’s still on the bookshelf at base camp. i did, however, take his copy of The Silmarillion. that is not with me currently, as i left it at my Chicago checkpoint (where i intend to eventually return to).

he likes to give me books to read. a lot of his recommendations aren’t really my jive, but i’m sure one day i’ll get around to reading one of the more recent recommendations. 

because he wants to share the things he likes with his kids and honestly you guys have no idea how much i love my dad even tho every time i talk about i’m i gush so much, he gave me his Clan of the Cave Bear series.

i read Clan of the Cave Bear and began Mammoth Hunters but at that point i think i was dealing iwth other things so i didn’t continue. (also i was trying to reread Aubreyad to advance in the books and i tell you hwhut, Aubreyad is one of those series you gotta start from the fucking beginning again to remember and digest what the hell is going on and Patrick O’Brien sure was dedicated to writing like a classic author as well as throwing in naval jargon like a stripper with beads at a Mardi Gras parade so like i love you but also fuck you dude)

i really enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear and even made a little post here on tumblr looking for other people who’d read and enjoyed it. but it is one of those books with some delicate topics and is not for everyone. however, it IS fucking hysterical and the things that were, were played so fucking straight and serious that i was losing my goddamn mind. the naming conventions were nonexistent, if i remember correctly. she just wrote whatever the hell she wanted and i respect that.

someday i’d like to pick it up and get through Mammoth Hunters at least. but i have a few books ahead of it. one day i’ll even read my Naval Surgeon book. don’t fucking @ me i know already ok

and just to tack on my self-callouts, i took up the cello in high school because of Stephen Maturin. and i miss it like crazy. i fucking loved playing the cello. i really, really fucking miss it.

[pawsnread]

Untamed Winter Fest Day 6: Warmth

The cold is a little more tolerable for Xiao Xingchen when he can hear the sound of a beloved voice.

A modern AU take and an expansion of a scene from Second Intentions chapter 3.

Also posted to AO3 here.

Cold was not Xiao Xingchen’s friend. He was very grateful for that fact that both Jia and Yaqin kept their respective practice spaces a nice, comfortable, and warm temperature during the winter months. His fingers tended to ache with the cold, sometimes sending a biting pain up his forearms making it difficult to hold his épée or maneuver his arms during dance. He enjoyed watching falling snow and frosty mornings - so long as he could be nice and warm indoors.

Which was why Xingchen could not figure out how he let his siblings convince him that a winter ski trip to Lake Placid was such a good idea. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they would have let him stay in the ski lodge next to the large fireplace, but no, they had to shake him awake and drag him out into the cold every single day. Even all bundled up in ski gear and base layers, he was still freezing.

Still, skiing had its own little delight. Being the more athletic of his siblings, Xingchen took to the sport pretty quickly, able to race down and maneuver obstacles in no time. He wouldn’t admit it to them, but there was a certain thrill at the prospect of speeding down hills with little friction and high velocity. After he beat them down the slopes for the third time that day, Lian and Qiang joked that they’d make a winter Olympian of him yet. But Xingchen’s heart was till with a particular summer sport.

As evening approached, Xingchen had stretched out on a couch near the roaring lodge fire wearing black sweatpants, a cream colored sweater, and thick woolen socks. A sherpa lined blanket was draped over his shoulders as he wrapped his fingers around a hot mug of tea. Much to his siblings’ chagrin, he had snuck a book with him on this trip. While sipping his drink, he slowly flipped through his well worn copy of The Silmarillion; he had just started the chapter Of the Sindar with the birth of Lúthien when his phone began to trill. A soft smile formed when Xingchen noted the caller ID. Flipping his book over to mark his page, he accepted the call.

“Zichen,” he greeted, his tone light.

“I have made a colossal mistake,” Song Lan’s voice said, a hint of exasperation and annoyance in his speech.

“Oh? What have you done?” 

“Would you please tell your siblings to stop texting me?”

“Why?”

“They are trying to murder me.”

A sudden apprehension began to build in Xingchen’s chest. “What are they saying?”

“They aren’t saying anything.”

Even though Song Lan couldn’t see him, Xingchen still tilted his head in that confused way he had, brow furrowing. “I don’t understand.”

“They keep sending me pictures of you. Honestly, Xingchen, you have no right being that gorgeous in ski gear. It’s not doing good things to my health.”

Xingchen couldn’t help the quiet but amused laughter that escaped him as he drew up his knees and wrapped the blanket tighter around his shoulders. “You asked for photos.”

“I asked for one photo,” Song Lan corrected. “I wasn’t expecting to be bombarded with a snapshot of you every five minutes.” His voice seemed to drop, taking on a contemplative tone. “Is your brother a photographer?”

“Qiang? Yes. He mostly does landscapes and architecture, but he dabbles in fashion photography on the side.”

“That explains so much.” The line went silent so long Xingchen had to check that the call was still connected. When Song Lan next spoke, his voice was low and wistful sounding. “It’s strange.”

“What is?”

“It’s only been a few days, but I miss you. Terribly.”

He felt his heart skip at the words, at the affection behind them. “I miss you too,” Xingchen replied. He burrowed further into the blanket and caught the scent of pine, a smell that tended to linger around the person he was currently speaking with. Flashes of memory, of Song Lan’s laughter and smile, came to mind. “I wish you were here.” 

“Me too.” 

Xingchen closed his eyes and tried to imagine having his boyfriend with him, arm wrapped around his shoulders in an attempt to keep him warm. A pinging sound reached his ears followed by Song Lan’s sharp curse, bringing him out of his reverie. 

“I swear, my tombstone is going to read ‘death by beautiful boyfriend’.”

He tried to muffle his laughter in the blanket but the sound of Xingchen’s amusement could still be heard in the lodge as he listened to Song Lan’s tirade regarding meddling siblings and fallen angels for boyfriends.

[lesbiankiliel]

reading meme

I got tagged by my senpai @determamfidd and right now I’m casually distracting myself from writing lmao

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

out of my own books, probably Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (I got it when I was seven so it’s been on my shelf... 16 years I guess) out of the books I’ve got from my mum, I’d say the LotR trilogy from seventies

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

currently reading Magnus Chase and the Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan, last read was probably Koiramäen lasten Suomen historia by Mauri Kunnas (a children’s book about Finnish history, all characters are dogs + an occasional cat and goat) and the next book I’ll read is probably Beren and Lúthien by Tolkien

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

everyone makes a big deal out of Catcher in the Rye but I hated it so much

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

lmao I’ve been trying to read Silmarillion for at least the past decade and I’m not even half-way through

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

I’m 23 ain’t no one got time for that

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

wait till the end

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

they’re okay

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Thalia Grace or Gimli

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

my super worn down copy of Prisoner of Azkaban. it’s always been my favourite book and it was the one I took with me to this meet and greet with the Phelps twins, and got both of their autographs in it

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

Fair Play by Tove Jansson. I got it from Gay’s the Word in London. I was looking through the lesbian book section and by a chance I noticed it. It was at the top of the shelf and I’m quite short, so if I hadn’t looked up, I would’ve missed it entirely. The shopkeepers had even marked it as “we recommend”, and given that Jansson was Finnish I just had to buy it (plus I love her books)

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

No. I buy people books for present and sometimes get rid of books I no longer like.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

probably Prisoner of Azkaban, I used to take it everywhere with me when I was in elementary school

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

honestly cannot remember

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

some old bookmark my mum made at school, I guess

15. Used or brand new?

both is good, but I’d like my books to be in okay condition when I buy them (like I prefer that no leaves fall out)

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

never read anything from him and I honestly don’t really have an opinion of him

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

The Hobbit trilogy, and I’ve no qualms in admitting it (for real, aside from Bilbo and Thorin the Company is just a list of funny names and I always disliked that there were no female characters in it) (when I read it for the first time when I was 13 I pretended Dori and Nori were girls)

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

I was immensely disappointed with the Percy Jackson adaptations. Also I hate the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice (viva the 1995 BBC miniseries forever!!!!!)

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

can’t remember, but then again I’m pretty much always hungry

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

my mum^^

okay and I’m tagging @bagginshieldisreal, @lovelylilpup, @euseevius, @jeizaya, @hobbitunderthemountain, @nzagul, @starlightwalking, and everyone who wants to do this^^

[ancient-trees]

Reading Meme

(Sorry for taking forever on these, guys...!  I got tagged for a lot of memes at once, and this one is long. I apparently have a lot of things to say about books... who knew?) 

Tagged by @theticklishpear​. Thank you again!

(Tag-ees, btw, don’t feel obligated to read my long rambly answers if you just want to copy/paste the questions.)

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

I have a picture book of St George and the Dragon whose illustrations are BEAUTIFUL (it’s this one). Technically hasn’t been on MY shelves longest - a while ago I found it in our shelves of books from when my brother and I were kids and repossessed it because I love the art so much.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

Currently in the middle of Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. Also in the pile are The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson (whom I love) and Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill (which is ...okay, but more of a slightly-more-opinionated refresher on what I learned in college than anything new). I’m also most of the way through a reread of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (one of my favorite books). 

Last thing I finished was Shadowheart, the last book in Tad Williams’s Shadowmarch series. (It’s not without its problems, but overall I really enjoyed that series. It’s got the ensemble-cast-and-unlikely-heroes thing going on.)

I’m not sure what’s next. Fiction might be American Gods by Neil Gaiman or Aftermath by Chuck Wendig... or I might need to keep going with the series and track down the second October Daye book. We’ll see when I get there.  Nonfiction - been meaning to start The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson or Writings from Ancient Egypt (translations from original sources, by the same). But I also have a book about pirates off the coast of Virginia my mom got on a recent trip to Jamestown... and a book about the Silk Road I happened upon in Barnes and Noble the other week, which MIGHT have edged its way to the top of the list... (this is why I’m all for brick-and-mortar bookstores. Search algorithms are great, but they don’t accomplish quite the same thing as wandering the shelves.)

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

Ehh, I’m not sure what “everyone” likes, but a lot of the series my high school friends loved I could never get into. I remember really liking the first Wheel of Time book, but got bored of the series pretty quickly after the first one. Same with Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth. I tried to like Dragonriders of Pern, but didn’t get far with that one either. And I hear the series gets better after the overenthusiastic-Tolkien-fanboying of the first book, but I really didn’t enjoy The Sword of Shannara.

Oh.. and I never read any Discworld JUST because in high school I knew a guy who EXTOLLED ITS VIRTUES TO THE HEAVENS. Constantly. Now that I’ve learned more about the series and the author I will definitely have to read some someday, though.

(I’m not a big fan of most “~Literature~” either, Pear.)

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

I don’t know. My TBR list is pretty ridiculous, and anything’s possible, so I hate to relegate anything to “probably won’t read” status. Finishing A Song of Ice and Fire might be close. I received the whole series as a birthday gift from a friend (long before the TV show existed), read the first two back-to-back at a time when I really wasn’t in a great place, and got burned out on the grimdark rocksfalleveryonedies of it all. I did enjoy the books, and I’ll probably dive back into it someday, but it’s not really high on my Fun Things to Read list right now.

I also come home with an armload of unexpected finds every time the local college has a charity used book fair... most of which end up sitting on my shelves for a long time, still unread...

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

Nothing really, but I’ve got a big stack of novels from Japan that I’ve been saving for “once I’ve brushed up on my kanji” - since reading is excruciatingly slow when I have to look up every other word. I’m being optimistic and not putting them under the “probably won’t read” heading, though.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

noo, wait till the end! I will confess that sometimes I’ll flip ahead if I’m at a really slow point, or I know I don’t have time for another chapter but can’t quite bring myself to put the book down yet... but I’m trying to get better about it. I always regret it when I accidentally spoil the book for myself.

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

There should ABSOLUTELY be acknowledgements. The ones that involve stories or interesting background info are cool, but even the ones that are just lists of names 110% should be there - they’re for those people, not the reader, and after all the sweat and tears that go into putting a book together they deserve that place of honor.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

When I was a kid this question would always trip me up - it would be so cool to be a character in the books I read and have awesome adventures... but at the same time, being in a book-world would mean giving up all the other book-worlds... unless you had access to an interdimensional library and spare time for reading while you weren’t busy saving the world...

If I’m being honest, though, I’d probably end up being Ged from A Wizard of Earthsea. I can relate pretty intensely to a lot of his journey.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Quite a few books remind me of a certain school librarian who was always ready with a recommendation and frequently asked the student library aides what books the library should add to their shelves. She was really cool.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

My copy of the first Harry Potter book was given to me (right after it was first published in the US) by a good friend whose last name happened to be Potter.. along with a message that said “Wow, Harry Potter has such a cool name! I wish I had a cool name like that! OH WAIT...!”

I also seem to inherit a lot of manga from friends who want to free up shelf space.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I give books as presents a lot, so nothing specific really stands out. For some reason I keep losing copies of The Silmarillion to people I lend it to who never return it...

Come to think of it, I gave a copy of Howl’s Moving Castle to one of my students in Japan before I left - since she’d been doing extra English language work just for fun, and she was a fan of the Ghibli movie.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

I don’t know, offhand. This might be more a Question #9 story, but I remember reading Shadowmarch during downtime between classes in the teachers’ room of my schools in Japan. The other teachers kept exclaiming over how HUGE the book was (~800 pages in mass-market paperback). In Japan novels are pocket-sized - words in Japanese take up less space to print than English, they use thinner paper, and they separate books into Part 1/Part 2 etc if they’re too long.

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

The Hobbit, actually. I’d read it probably in middle school/jr high or so and thought it was kind of silly and childish. Then when it was assigned representing the fantasy genre in high school lit class, I was annoyed enough that I didn’t bother rereading it - just skimmed it well enough to answer test questions. Once I’d read The Lord of the Rings and gotten into the Tolkien mythos I could appreciate The Hobbit a lot more.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

In used books and library books I’ve found bookmarks, old receipts, the usual stuff... I think I found a pressed flower once or twice. A friend of mine used to hide money in her books (to be found as a surprise for herself later, after she’d forgotten about it), so once in a while I’d borrow one and find a random $10 bill or so in it. (I left them there, of course!)

15. Used or brand new?

Either one. New is good for supporting authors, but my town has a really good used book store that I’ll check for older series.

And Book Off (huge Japanese used book chain) is a thing of beauty. So much manga is published so quickly over there that people don’t tend to hang onto their tankobon copies once they’ve finished reading them (they don’t have the space to keep them all), so you can get a ton of books for really cheap. I spent way more shipping them home than I did buying the actual books.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

I haven’t read much Stephen King, apart from The Gunslinger (which I wasn’t really a fan of at the time) and his On Writing.  I admire his work ethic, at any rate.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

I think there have been a few, but I can’t think of them now. I grew up with the Neverending Story movie, so I was a little thrown off when the second half of the book continued in such a different direction, but I liked them both. The book doesn’t have quite the same place in my heart that the movie does, though. And I enjoyed the Shannara Chronicles TV show a lot more than the first book in the series (see #3 above), but I haven’t read the specific books the show was based on, so I can’t really say there. (Though “Elessedil” still makes me cringe every time I hear it...)

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

oh god. The Scifi Channel Earthsea miniseries had me laughing-slash-crying within the first five minutes, it was such a garbage fire and breathtaking masterpiece of missing the point. I remember having a similar reaction to Disney’s version of The Black Cauldron, though that was a much longer time ago, and that was less bewildered rage and more a disappointed “what did you do to my Prydain?? And what is this talking schnauzer?”

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Not that I can recall. For some reason reading about Tom Bombadil’s always makes me want bread and honey, though.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Hah, I don’t know. The friend who gave me the Harry Potter book was a huge influence on what I read as a kid, but I lost touch with her a long time ago, so I don’t know what she’s reading these days.

Tagging: @possiblyelven, @taskitron, @whitherling, @arionwind, @december-soulstice, @byjillianmaria, @eggletine if you guys want to do it!

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen

Fiction (DMR Books): I have a real attachment to the supernatural tales that appeared in what is often called the golden age of the English ghost story.  Ranging from around 1880 to somewhere in the 1920s its boundaries are as vague as its achievements are remarkable.  For a time, in that difficult to imagine world in which fiction had yet to solidify into specific genres, any author might try his or her hand at a tale of the supernatural, writing primarily motivated by the desire, as M.R. James put it, to make the reader feel “pleasantly uncomfortable.”  While dozens of authors who would later distinguish themselves

  Genre (Perilous Worlds): Sometimes it seems like the myriad sub-divisions of the fantasy genre cause more confusion than clarity. Terms like Epic and High Fantasy are often used interchangeably, labels like Sword-and-Sorcery and Dark Fantasy are commonly applied indiscriminately, and books with seemingly nothing in common can be found right next to one another in the fantasy section. A novel set in modern times featuring a heroic, magic-wielding protagonist and one set in a medieval-flavored secondary world devoid of the supernatural and concerned with the selfish adventures of an amoral rogue are both works of fantasy – but if only one of those sounds like a book you’d want to read, it helps to be familiar with the broad categories of contemporary fantasy.

  Weapons (Future War Stories): Any leap forward in design, fashion, and/or technology can be greeted as the harbinger of the future or a laughing stock by the masses. While this can be applied to personal electronics, clothing, and architecture; it can also be applied to firearms. During the 1980’s, the western nations invested heavily in advancing weapons technology to overcome the numerical superior of the Warsaw Pact. This was the time of cutting edge weapon system like the Apache attack helicopter, the M1 Abrams, the Steyr AUG, night vision, laser sights, and the H&K G11.

  Weapons (DMR Books): Hank Reinhardt would have turned eighty-five today. Though I never knew him personally, Hank affected my life in some unique ways and he shall receive due honor from me for that. If you don’t know who Hank Reinhardt was, check out the hyperlink above or read on.

I first learned of Mr. Reinhardt when I bought the DAW sword and sorcery anthology–quite possibly the greatest ever published–Heroic Fantasy. Hank was co-editor of that book along with Gerald W. Page.

  Art (CBC News): Semi-nude women, sadistic soldiers, and animal attacks aren’t exactly high art.

Yet those were themes that appealed to the millions of men who read “sweat magazines” — adventure digests sold across North America from the 1940s to the 1970s​.

Publications like Man’s Story, World of Men, and Man’s Epic weren’t exactly pornographic — but were the opposite of politically correct.

  Authors (Socialist Jazz): Theodore Sturgeon was by all accounts a confounding personality, genial, personally irresponsible, questioning many of the more basic matters of human relations, perception and emotion, and a man who could certainly write a sentence…and then be hung up by how badly he’d done so for years-long writer’s blocks. And yet managed to be very prolific over a long if troubled career.

          Art (Mens Pulp Mags): Simply put, Samson Pollen was one of the greatest of the many artists who provided illustrations for the men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) that flourished from the early 1950s to the late 1970s.

My publishing partner Wyatt Doyle and I had the good fortune and the honor of working with Sam on two books featuring his artwork before he passed away in December of 2018.

The first, POLLEN’S WOMEN: THE ART OF SAMSON POLLENwas published last year. It quickly became one of the best-selling books in our Men’s Adventure Library series, which features classic MAM stories and artwork.

  Fiction (Perilous Worlds): If you love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ringsand want to follow the third road of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy triad, these first words of The Silmarillion might trick you into putting the book back on the “May Read … Someday” shelf, right beside War and Peace and Les Misérables.

I’m making a plea for you not to shelve it. Or for you to reach up to the shelf and take down Professor Tolkien’s 1977 volume of the Elder Days of Middle-Earth and try again. Too many people have let The Silmarillion’s reputation for difficulty—and its actual difficulty—keep them away from discovering what may be one of their favorite works of fantasy.

  Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): A month ago I wrote about Vikings and other medieval subjects on the cover ofWeird Tales, and out of that I received a couple of comments from readers about Viking fantasy stories. That got me thinking that there may be a missed sub-sub-genre of fantasy and science fiction dealing with those men and women of the north, with their winged and horned helmets, long, braided hair, conical breastplates, and raiments of hide and fur. So here is a first shot at stories of Vikings and Norsemen, with some also of Saxons, Geats, Goths, and other early northern Europeans thrown into the mix.

  History (Men of the West): The Turk has long been known as the “sick man of Europe,” and the story of the Ottoman Empire for a hundred years has been a tale of gradual dismemberment. Thus it is no easy matter for us to realize that for centuries the Ottoman power was the terror of the civilized world.

It was in 1358 that the Ottomans seized Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles, and thus obtained their first footing in Europe. They soon made themselves masters of Philippopolis and Adrianople. A crusading army, gathered to drive the Asiatic horde from Europe, was cut to pieces by the Sultan Bajazet at Nicopolis in 1396. On the day after the battle ten thousand Christian prisoners were massacred before the Sultan, the slaughter going on from daybreak till late in the afternoon. The Turk had become the terror of Europe.

  Authors (A Shiver in the Archives): The legend* has altered in the retelling, from a slip found in Robert E. Howard’s wallet after his suicide in June 1936, to it being the last thing Howard typed on his typewriter before going out to his car where he shot himself in the head. The couplet is now legendary:

All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire.

Rusty Burke published an article “All Fled, All Done” in The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies (Winter 2001), in which he identified Howard’s source for the final line of the couplet, a poem titled “The House of Cæsar” by Viola Garvin, which appeared in a poetry anthology Songs of Adventure (1926), edited by Robert Frothingham.  Each of the five stanzas of the poem ends with the line “The Feast is over and the lamps expire!”

  Gaming (Table Top Gaming News): These little gems are one of my favorite things, and so when Skullsplitter Dice asked if I’d like to review one of their sets, and not only that, their first-ever limited edition set, I was like, “(censored) YEAH!!” So, they sent me some dice. I rolled them around a bit, and I’m here to let you know about it.

It’s time for another TGN Review. This time, it’s the Huntress Limited Edition Dice from Skullsplitter Dice.

  Cinema (Kairos): In my work as a freelance editor, I’ve noticed a common tendency among the current crop of science fiction authors to write books as if they’re writing movies. That practice is understandable since most science fiction and fantasy novels published after 1980 suck, and therefore today’s authors are disproportionately influenced by film.

However, writing a novel by playing a little movie in your head and transcribing what you see in your mind’s eye hobbles the final product. Because this generation of authors don’t read as much as their forebears did, few of them realize the storytelling advantages that books have over movies.

  Fiction (Cirsova): Per Michael Tierney, the original fragment that Burroughs wrote was just found this morning.

Apparently, Danton Burroughs had sent it to be transcribed by Bill Hillman of ERBzine.com, who has announced today in a thread on the ERBzine facebook group that it is still in his possession!

Danton sent me this ERB handwritten script. I typed it out and returned the typed copy to him. He offered it to a few writers to see if they would be interested in finishing it. I still have the handwritten copy plus my transcription.

We have updated the copy in the original piece.

Cirsova’s spring issue featuring Young Tarzan and the Mysterious She is available for digital pre-order now and physical pre-order in February.

  Fiction (Glorious Trash): I had a tough time with this third volume of Conan. In fact I read it over a year ago, but at the time I found myself skimming the collected stories, to the point that when I “finished” the book I didn’t have any idea how to review it! So I waited a while until getting back to the series, only to find my interest again sagging at times.

    Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames