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idolomantises · 2 years ago

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talking abt that one thing in velma thats on my mind a lot for the past few days (that turned into a big incoherent rambling about gay rep in media)

i'm seeing jokes about how the queer representation in mystery inc being so much better than the queer representation in velma and honestly it makes me want to go on a whole tangent about my thoughts on queer representation nowadays vs the more subtle examples decades prior.

There's this weird debate that goes on online about what is "good" queer representation, and one of the most notable and honestly annoying examples is that queer representation has to be so subtle that you could easily miss it/ignore it. i've always hated that take because its a claim mostly said by straight people who are uncomfortable with seeing characters who are openly queer and/or state their identity, but they present it as some sort of push for subtle and nuanced writing. personally i do prefer it when a character just, identifies as how they are without explaining their identity, but that doesn't mean flat out explaining your orientation is inherently bad representation. its why i will always defend the very clunky and awkward high guardian spice scene. it is absolutely poorly directed and written, but that doesn't make it "bad representation". however, I do consider the character who explains that he's trans bad representation because he is flat, uninteresting and very clearly a creator self insert. he doesn't feel like a well rounded character who's also a trans man, but just an incredibly sanitized example of trans representation.

i have many, many issues with helluva boss/hazbin hotel and i do genuinely find some depictions of queer characters just flat out offensive (you can argue with me about how angel dust being written like your average 90s gay stereotype is woke actually because he has trauma, i dont care), but i do admire and appreciate that the series doesn't want to sanitize its queer characters, even if its done poorly. though i could go into a whole rant about how i find it very telling that female characters that are queer are far less sexualized or allowed to be problematic compared to their queer male counterparts.

anyways back to velma. that show does something that i've always found pretty irritating in queer representation which is just this weird lack of faith in its audience. characters can't have a slow burn anymore. internalized thoughts, anger, frustration, longing. you have to immediately know that two characters are gay for each other, even if they're lifelong enemies. its like when modern horror movies open with the gore because they're scared people are going to be bored or leave early. there's no subtlety or chemistry between daphne and velma, they're just lovers because idk, its two girls who hate each other and who doesn't love that.

then i think about how mystery inc handled velma and her sexuality, how she was allowed to be well rounded and nuanced before you slowly realize that "oh, she doesn't like boys". i know her whole thing with shaggy is controversial among fans but i always loved how she does do something pretty unlikable but not immoral. yeah, it is shitty to force shaggy to choose between her and his dog, but i can understand her line of thinking and empathize with her. and i do like how they become friends in the end despite their awkward break up. It's always fun rewatching it and realizing that their incredibly awkward and cringe relationship was meant to be awkward and cringe. it was supposed to be weird and difficult to watch, because those two weren't meant to date each other. you could see how hard velma was trying to make the relationship work despite the fact that you never get the vibe that either character was full invested in it, unlike daphne and fred's relationship.

then you had velma and her relationship with marcie, which started off as sort of a catty rivalry (not full on attempted murder, i mean holy shit hbo velma) that slowly grows to where you're completely convinced that these two did gradually like each other. and i do really enjoy stuff like that, more subtle writing like that. which doesn't just apply to queer rep btw, my favorite ships are relationships that feel understated, something you have to really dig for and pay attention to. its why i consider bubbline the best f/f representation in cartoon. because its subtle, but not too subtle where it feels out of no where when they kiss, and nuanced in ways that enhances the relationship AND characters.

there's a good amount of relationships i see in cartoons where the creator, who is usually queer themselves, often wants to depict queer relationships, but is weirdly adverse to depicting the uglier aspects of that character, and refuses to add subtlety to it. steven universe is a show i've always felt conflicted on its handling of queer representation because on the one hand i appreciate writing lesbians that are messy, traumatized and make constant mistakes. but on the other hand, the show goes out of its way to ignore these issues and/or make excuses for it, making the decision to make these characters messy and complicated genuinely baffling (this is also one of the big issues i have with catradora and stolitz).

it makes me think back to my own work too. i really enjoy making fluffy, easily digestible gay content for my followers and myself because it puts me in a good headspace. But even now and then i like exploring those little nuances too, because i don't really enjoy stories with little conflict. Because of that acknowledgement of how satisfying it is to write fluffy, queer rep, you end up putting yourself in other creator's shoes. you're so used to media that either dehumanizes gay people or tells people that they don't exist that you push yourself to make the most in your face queer rep you can but its at the cost of an interesting and subtle characters. characters that don't really have arcs or places to learn and grow.

With bugtopia i made a joke about how i want some of my queer rep to feel like you're being queerbaited. It's not literal, obviously, but mixed in with characters who are already married and in same gender relationships, i really want to write dynamics that feel subtle enough for a bit of a slow burn. even if you know they're going to end up together, to at least value the characters on their own before centering them on their relationships. queerbaiting is something that deserves all the criticism it can get, but it is embarrassing when queerbaiting feels genuinely more interesting than actual queer rep because queerbaiting has that factor of "maybe they won't get together" that adds that bit of intrigue, vs so many shows that repeatedly hammer in your head "don't worry guys, they're gonna be lesbian lovers".

mystery inc (and many other shows) being forced to keep a relationship obvious while subtle to get through censorship really forced creators to be creative with their storytelling and not center characters around their relationship and identity. but nowadays i think shows like to take the easy way out. for me, i always thought the most impactful example of queer representation in steven universe is "Rose's Scabbard". I genuinely don't enjoy that episode because it's a good example of the show thinking that trauma is an excuse for shitty behavior, but i cant deny that an entire episode of pearl breaking down and finally accepting that she wasn't the center of rose's world. it's the crew being forced to be creative and push through censors to telling a compelling story about a traumatized lesbian slowly realizing that she basically deluded herself into thinking she was someone's savior.

I think it's silly to try to place good queer representation in one box. like subtle queer rep is good, but also queer rep where a character flat out states that their gay. where I think it falls apart is when it either reinforces stereotypes without properly deconstructing or expanding on them, makes the characters so overly kind and non-controversial that the relationship is just boring, or try to make your messy and complicated characters but the narrative refuses to hold them accountable or at least acknowledge that they're doing something wrong. and to clarify on that last part, i'm not asking for some hays code nonsense where every bad person goes to prison and/or promises to stop being a bad person again. i mean the narrative doesnt just fucking sugarcoat their behavior. i don't want to see helluva boss ignore the fact that stolas made blitzo call him out for only using him for sex and then pathetically rush to justify their relationship by giving them a bizarrely sanitized and sweet backstory. and i don't want to see catra literally end the fucking universe and only do something good because she's straight up out of options and the show just decides that that was her redemption and she doesn't need to do anything to atone for what she did (including repeatedly abusing and verbally berating adora).

anyways velma has none of those interesting qualities and i'm pretty sure daphne and velma kissed because the creator is a weird pervert who thinks two girls kissing is hot.

#txt #i was thinking abt knocking off some of my longer posts on my tumblr but ya know its tumblr. its made for a blog #twitter isnt really a good place to write think pieces because its not really made for thinkpieces #i really enjoy expressing my thoughts on discourse and media but i don't want to over do it because ya know. you guys followed me for my ar #not my 2434334th post about why i think helluva boss is a bad show #but i've been thinking about sometimes prioritizing what i want to do vs what people want to see from me. so now you're getting #a long ass rant about why i think velma showing two teenagers kissing by episode 2 #encapsulates the overall issue with modern queer rep

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kinessie · 4 years ago

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Newer player here (tarted last year). What's your opinion on the current state of the game's lore?

i’ve always had mixed feelings about how they handle the lore, but i assume most of that is nostalgia from the time where there wasnt any lore at all and the community made their own connections, those were the good days!

this is gonna get very long so i’ll put it under a readmore

the game has been notorious for ignoring the lore of older champions and instead focusing on the stories which fuel the main story going forward, which is both a good and a bad thing.

its a bad thing because me and many other players have favourite characters who were added to the game during its beta and alpha stages really havent gotten much spotlight or exploration of their part of the story, and personally it leaves me pretty indifferent towards the new champions. if i had it my way there would be events about certain past events, or comics, or short videos, literally anything to give background to the world and characters theyve already created. i feel that the lack of this has made the worldbuilding in paladins quite poor? the best thing that happened in regards to the lore was the ‘a realm divided’ video which gave us that background, but it kinda ended there.

theres a lot of questions to be answered that i think would benefit the worldbuilding, such as more info on a lot of the nonhuman characters, the stallaga, the vulpin, the summer court. to be honest a good handful of champions mention nature as a big source of power but that just hasnt been touched on yet?

a problem that i’ve talked about for years is the way they haphazardly throw random, and sometimes quite important pieces of lore, at us on places like twitter or discord. only a few weeks ago was mal’damba revealled to be a ska’drin in a reply to a tweet by the community manager, which now that we know that, is a major piece of his character. other examples include buck being confirmed a past member of the thousand hand guild in a lore question on twitter. as someone whos been following paladins for years, the only place i trust to get all the paladins lore knowledge i need is myself, because i’ve kept up to date with everything from everywhere, and there isnt really a place where its all accurately recorded. and thats a major problem.

in regards to the current continuing story, it feels to me that conflicts and storylines are never really resolved? we jump to one threat to another without any real conclusion. gods and incredibly powerful keep coming to the mortal realm and you’d think that would be a major thing but it seems to happen so fucking often that nobody bats an eyelid. hell, corvus summoned raum who is a literal destructive demon from hell and...... then what? we just jumped to story about the darkness. from a marketing standpoint, this continuting story and constant conflict is good for the game because it gets new players interested in the next big action packed event, but honestly its really overwhelming.

octavia’s addition has been a momentary breath of relief because shes the first champion in a year who hasnt been associated with a god or a higher power, shes just a woman with a gun, and i missed that so much. i think if the game’s story continued with the conflict brought on by the crystal war then it would have been beneficial to the worldbuilding, older characters, and story as a whole. presenting the resistance and magistrate as both morally grey sides in the debate would make for a very interesting point of exploration (if you want a story that handles grey morality of opposing factions fantastically, i recommend picking up arknights).

overall, i understand why the lore is like this. they need to release these big, powerful, crazy looking characters because at the end of the day paladins is a free-to-play game that needs engagement and characters like the huge abyss worm yagorath bring that engagement. i get it. but viewing the lore as it is, it is messy, poorly handled, and the only reason i’m still indulging in it is because i’ve been here too long and i want to see how it ends.

sorry this got so long! i didnt know how many problems i had with the lore until i started writing lol. tumblr user kinessie is not dead she is here and will always be here even if i dont post as much as i used to.

#answer #Anonymous

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n-ugg · 4 years ago

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I didn't expect to get tagged but here we are. As you all will be able to tell in a bit, I am a massive Quackity fan

Thank you for tagging me @skeetlehands!

who is your favourite member on the smp?

Look, I love them all but these have a special place in my heart.

Quackity, Slimecicle (I am fully aware he just joined but I still love him), Schlatt, Tubbo, Eret, AweSamdude, and Ponk.

They're just great in and out of character and just have comforting vibes.

when did you first start watching the smp and what made you get into it?

I gotten in during the Pogtopia era since it took me a while to get access to the streams.

I mainly gotten in with the Sad-ist War animatics along with me trying to catch up on Quackity's VODS. Just someone that I was already familiar with being an easier shift into story and learning others through him

what is your favourite part about watching the smp?

Just watching everyone interact with other and just seeing the plot progress in real time. Its literally just dnd but with extra steps but I enjoy it so much

The improv that they all do is amazing and how everyone have different approaches to their characters makes my writer's side so happy with dissecting everything.

What piece of cursed lore is your favourite

That Wilbur canonically fucked a fish and Philza canonically fucked a Samasung fridge and just seeing the fanbase try to change into something that will at least make a bit more sense.

Im included in this, I basically joined the side that has Sally being a mermaid shapeshifting pirate. Mainly because of pirate Fundy

Who is your favorite duo on the smp

Slimecicle and Ranboo: They're the same person but in different fonts, you can convince me otherwise

Schlatt and Quackity: They managed to be super funny together with all of the jokes and balanced with making a very realistic abusive relationship work. It was always fun seeing them flirt with each other for a joke then get hit with whiplash when canon comes in to remind me that this isnt healthy

Tubbo and Tommy: They're two dumbasses who share the same braincell but then they constantly lose it and Tubbo mainly has custody of it

Wilbur and Schlatt: I just enjoy seeing Schlatt messing with Wilbur and occasionally flirts with him to get Wilbur more pissed off

Who are your comfort streamers

Quackity and Slimecicle are comfort streamers

Eret, Fundy, and AweSamdude are my comfort people (meaning I dont watch them as much but I find comfort in their presence. And the other two are also under this category)

Who is your favorite character

Quackity due to how complex his character is and yet how it looks so simple

Schlatt because is just a villian who knows how to play the game without getting caught

Tubbo, watching him trying to be hopeful with everything destroy around him and he just slowly become used to everything going wrong

AweSamdude because he is just trying his best to be a father figure others and I just got family issues

Who do you think the best actor(s) on the smp

Imma skip over the ones that we all already said and get into the ones that dont get enough praise

Quackity: Just how he managed to make his character seem so basic but in reality its really complex. And just seeing the shift from him being a chaotic force of nature to being a serious character that is trying his best to reach something that has been hanging over his head is just *chefs kiss* and he always delivers amazing lines on the spot.

BadBoyHalo: He is doing great right now, even though he is a bit rusty with starting he still manages to get into character and stay in character the entire time. When slowly easing in, you can tell its a bit forced but once he finds his footing, he knows how to deliver his lines.

AweSamdude: His entire bit where he was getting rescued from the egg fucking hurt. How he sounded weak from the entire thing and tired to where he just wanted to rest was so well. And I know he can act more energetic when he was accidentally dragged into playing a cop during Quackity's and Bad's date

Fundy: You guys need to give him more praise for his acting because he is fucking amazing at it. The little touches to how he voice when speaks is so good along with his body language in game. He knows what he's fucking doing and I love him for that. And when he snapped, it made complete sense if you payed attention to his character

I didnt add Ranboo because he's automatically at the top section due to him being a dnd player. Same goes to Slimecicle even though he hasnt acted yet. I dont make the rules. You play dnd, you know how to act

What are your favorite quotes

I dont have favorite quotes, just dialog heavy scenes.

Before Doomsday, Quackity going to take his horse far away from L'Manberg, it being the one thing he cares about. It was just so good

The entire Schlatt and Quackity argument in front of the white house

The meeting between Schlatt and Quackity with Schlatt yelling out to him in a taunting way to where Tommy and Quackity are trying to figure out what happened to the tnt. I constantly rewatch it to feel the adrinaline pumping to feel something

Wilbur's slow descend into insanity and talking to Tommy. Just showing his paranoia and fears consuming him, him projecting his fears into Tommy as an attempt of manipulation, and his hero complex shift into villian one

Schlatt's winning speech of him projecting it as something that was bound to happen no matter what. The amount of charisma and confidence that was in his voice as I was watching Tommy hiding underground in fear was just a perfect scene

Tommy's argument with Dream when everyone is protecting Tommy. Its the small details of Tommy taunting Dream to kill him, knowing he wont no matter what. Him telling everyone to protect Tubbo and everyone listening without hesitation.

The debate that Quackity and Dream had for like 11 or 14 minutes. All of that was completely unprompted unscripted, it was just so satisfying seeing someone stand up against Dream for the first time and actually beating him. Sure it was in a verble conflict but it still counts as a defeat

Be honest, who do you simp for? (Ayo if anyone says Tommy or Tubbo I will🗡)

Schlatt, Quackity, and Slimecicle

Its pretty obvious, I dont really try to hide it

Whats your favorite stream

Uhhhh I dont exactly have one so none I guess

Whats your least favorite streams

Im sorry, but all of the Jackbox stream. You need a specific group of people to play together in order to actually make it funny and keeping the energy throughout the entire thing.

After a bit later, everyone has a tendency of pandering to the audience and repeat jokes. They managed to beat jokes to the ground faster than Tiktok AND Twitter.

Dont get me started with DreamTeam being in there. They're funny in thier own rights but the shipping jokes get so unfunny so quick and they dont know how bounce off of others well. The only exception to this is when Quackity, Velvet, and Ant were playing with Sapnap and Dream. And thats because they decided to mess with the straight white guys into accidently saying offensive shit and seeing those two suffer with trying tiptoe around was so amusing

Whats something about the smp fandom thay makes you sad

This doesnt get me sad, just frustrated and its mostly towards dsmptok and dsmptwt but sometimes this fandom doesnt fucking know how to analyze characters. Like when everyone jumped on Tubbo on being the bad guy when he was a kid trying to use old tatics that knows that worked before and stand up for himself

How when one person decides to do something that they believe is right, everyone just throws the term villian arc around

When one person does one good thing the suddenly everyone accepts into them being good and not ever looking into it.

For fucks sakes, I saw people keep saying that Quackity was turning into Dream or Wilbur and I just sat there being confused on how they conntected those dots that were in different books.

Its so frustrating to read through. But here on dsmpblr, you guys actually understand character analysis, are able to critique them and able to love whoever you enjoy.

Another thing is how this fanbase really puts everyone on a pedestal or objectify them. Just completely forgetting that they're human and treat the streamer as a character. Like, yeah they're playing up a persona whenever they're making content but theres a difference and you shouldn't hold them up like that.

You cant use the argument of "They're young, they dont know any better", when I first entered my first fandom (I was like 11/12), I fully understood that theres a boundary between me and the creator. What they are on screen is a persona but they're still human and I should treat them as such. Its just something that bugs me and its unnerving to see whenever people start getting wierd about it

Final bit is just how the twitch chat acts. They all force the streamer to follow the 'main' plot of it being Tommy or Techno or whoever the fandom chooses to have a favorite, completely ignoring the fact that they are their own character. No one wants to meta game because where is the fun in that but the fucking chat gets so annoying when the streamer goes against fanfavorite of the week. It drains the fun of it being multiple pov's and different characters.

When Slimecicle was barely starting stream I saw so many people spam "Go with Ranboo" and not let him even get into lore first. I hated that I knew it was coming but it was still so fucking frustrating seeing them try to boss him around. Please just let people live outside of the 'main' plot, not everything revolves around your favorites. Now shut the fuck up and let them play

What about the smp fandom that makes you happy?

The people that create art, animatics, theories, playlist, or write oneshots

All of you creators are great and deserve so much more respect then what the fandom gives you because jesus fucking christ they're all so fucking rude. You guys are the ones that are carrying this fandom on your backs and I fucking respect yall for that

________________

Time for da spead: @nixavia @dambette404 and @mocha-is-lost yall dont need to join.....unless😳😳😳

#this is long as hell #sorry #ALSO THANK YOU SKETTLE FOR TAGGING ME #I THOUGHT I WAS MOSTLY AN ANNOYANCE TO YOU FOR CONSTANTLY SENDING IN SOME LONG ASS ASK #dream smp #mcyt

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poetic-beats · 6 years ago

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Hello. Please Read.

Hi,

As you will notice my blog has changed up recently. I have neglected it over the past 8-9 months and just recently got back onto posting my musings and works on here. I never stopped writing I just didnt come onto this tumblr to share.

I am amazed at how many followers I have thank you all I am so ever grateful to have such amazing caring followers who will message me and reach out to me.

I am always here for you too anon or private messaging its cool and if you ever wanna talk off tumblr that can happen to i have a discord an insta and twitter.

I have recently been posting about my teespring and now my patreon i created late last night.

I don’t want to spam you all with SUPPORT ME links and such too much. I really don’t.

I am waiting on getting a new psychiatrist my old one laughed at my GP when he asked me to be referred back to her as she discharged me on the 3rd appointment with her. (my old amazing psychiatrist retired).

Long story short I’ve gotta complain to PALS escalate complaints GP has to meet with me and write a referral form and reasoning as to why I need to go to a whole other psychiatrists place outside of my village catchment area.

She also sent the most awful horrible final discharge letter knowing that we’d discussed I’d need PIP (DLA) because I am not able to work rn. I am mentally unstable I believe I am in the midst of a big Bipolar depressive relapse and my periods have started again (implant) making my BPD and in general emotions all over the place. I need to get medication besides my anti depressants FOR the bipolar.

I need therapy. I need PIP. But I would have to present a letter and the letter would be my discharge one. In which she is unprofessional and trashes me to pieces. I’d never get PIP with it no one would.

I am also being referred to a specialist in London for FND testing google FND HOPE for more info on that if you dont know what it is.

I also was diagnosed in march after a trip to the hospital and 3 months bed bound with FGID. I have just got a referral letter in to see a dietician. It may sound mild but it left me in agonising pain dizziness blurry vision and i couldnt even keep liquids down hence i ended up in hospital on fluids)

This is not a pity story nor a sob story. I just wanted to clarify and add background as to why I am attempting a more flexible online business model for myself aka merch on teespring....patreon rewards such as commission pieces and now Ko-fi.

I can barely stand for longer than 10 mins still and if im out walking I can just about manage 30mins on a good day before i get severe uncontrollable movements usually in my arms. Legit was in Holland and Barrett getting the white vego bars and my hand jerked and the chocolate went flying with force and hit the back of the display shelf. I struggle to even grip things such as knife and fork. I shake badly in my hands like tremors etc. My mind is fuzzy..i was scared i’d lose my ability to write i literally forgot the word for ‘window’ and ‘coaster’ ive also misread words entirely. Like i came out of a shop thinking i’d got my mum salmon and cream cheese it was salmon and cucumber. Like what??

I also go catatonic i wasnt aware of this til my mum witnessed it multiple times over easter bank holiday. This could either be my Bipolar or a symptom of the FND i dont really know tbh. Ive been dissociating a lot too. And just today i had an hour or so of on and off full body shock like feeling jerks. Oh and sometimes i cannot even swallow my own saliva. In fact this happens a lot. and often leads to me gagging and puking if i cant get to a bin or toilet to stand and spit it out until my body decides it’ll let me swallow again.

My balance and spatial awareness is off too last week i hit into the door twice and now have a giant ass bruise all the way up my arm. it was one day after the other. So that probs made it bruise worse.

Okay this is a long ass post I apologise.

Again I guess ultimately i am explaining this all to you. Because of my anxiety. I always feel like being a writer or creator. Isnt a ‘real’job. or that people will send me hate and nasty comments. Like when around a year ago i was doing comissions some people would message me asking about it. I’d tell them it was a £1 for 5 poems (really undersold my work) and they’d shout at me in caps telling me it should be free or tell me to get a real job. I mean if you’d pay for a poetry book or novel why shouldnt you pay for effecitvely what would have been an ebook of an independent writer?

I just dont want any hate. And i know this post could go either of two ways. Either hate even more for me because it could be seen as a sob story pity guilty trip thing which I REALLY AM NOT trying to do.

Or it could deter potential nasty messages or comments because people might realise oh okay shes legit unable to work rn at least. and she cant even get benefits because my ex psychiatrist is a twothole who hates me and the mentally ill in general.

But who knows.

Link for my Ko-fi is in this whole ass text post just click some where and it’ll show ya.

#please read #read #long post #poetry #poet #poets of tumblr #prsnl #not poetry #support #ko-fi #commissions #comissions #commission #poetry community

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claeriekavanaugh · 7 years ago

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Intro: What is your name, what do you write, and where can readers find you on social media? And just for fun, if you could be any mythical being or creature, who or what would you be?

Hello, I’m M. K. Wiseman and I’ve found my groove penning YA historical fantasy (a short hop over from my steampunk entry into the publishing world.) Social-wise, I positively live over on Twitter but also have more recently discovered the fun that is Instagram and Pinterest. My handle on all three is @FaublesFables – come say “hi!”

As for a mythical being or creature: dragon all the way! (Closer to the Japanese concept of the beast, however, than the European idea.)

In the past, you’ve written steampunk and your most recent release is a Christian fantasy. Which do you like more and what drew you to each genre?

The kind of historical fantasy I write and steampunk are, for me, sort of one and the same…? (Is that a cheat answer?) Clearing that up a bit: for my fantasies, I simply adore writing from the corner where the premise is that maybe maybe history, as written, has simply erased the magical side of the story. That’s a pretty ‘steampunk’ way to see things, I think. Overall, what I write is largely similar in flavor due to it coming from ‘reader me’ + my particular world view. I like to read “clean” fiction—a.k.a. anything 9-year-old me would have read without blushing. And a part of me has always burned with the desire to use my writing to do “good” in the world.

More pointedly to your question, the Christian fantasy genre is an interesting demographic of stories. It’s a very wide, if sometimes very specific, genre. For example, in “Bookminder” there is no Christ allegory (a la C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books.) But I have made a concentrated effort to put a Catholic priest as a character in books 1 and 2 of the trilogy, simply because that is a part of my life and I want it “in” my world building—specifically as the story occurs in a real time and place where religion would have impacted the lives of wizards such as Nagarath and Liara.

YA is such a wide-open category. What type of YA do you enjoy the most and why?

I love good, clean, (old fashioned?) YA fantasy. Give me a story between 80-120K words where I can escape from Here and Now but still get a relevant message to take “home” with me when I close the cover and I am so there. I prefer an omni narrator. (Yep, this reader is out of fashion and I don’t care!) I like puzzles, riddles, and songs so long as they aren’t ‘check the box’ included into the story. Also, I want a magic system that checks out. (Tolkien, you get a ‘Pass’ on this last, because you are a class unto yourself).

Le Guin’s Earthsea books, L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time, any of Brian Jacques’ Redwall stories—all are swoon-worthy reads over and over for me.

Do you find there are central themes or elements that are unique to your books? (For example, are you drawn to anti-heroes, antagonists, certain settings etc.) Why do those things stand out to you?

Character-wise, I absolutely adore a broken hero. I still wish Hamlet had found a happy end, you know? (Watch this space, wink wink.)

But, per my love of alternate history or, more specifically, ‘hidden histories,’ I really like to write about places you can actually go visit. Which makes research a beast, more often than not. The moon phases in The Bookminder? They’re accurate as I can make them. My Google search history is the typical author landmine of discovery to the unwary.

What inspired your book?

In 2004 I just so happened to have a very vivid splash of a dream. Just one scene. Short, but poignant and mysterious. I was recovering from a major surgery at that time, so I had a lot of down time to ponder a.) who the girl was in my dream, b.) what she was doing . . . Something clicked in my head as “this is important” and that’s essentially where I began writing The Bookminder from. Just one little scene; one odd thought. The “books/library” through line actually comes from my job in collection preservation at the time. The real history and places all crept in later.

What is the book about?

Ah, The Question; every author’s nightmare. (Does it show that I am currently working on cover copy for the blurb of Book 2?) Totally kidding, here goes:

The Bookminder is, at its heart, the story of Liara of Dvigrad (town in 17th century Istria) who was conceived via magick when the town is attacked, casualty of a larger conflict. Nearly 17 years later, she’s kicked out of the village (ostensibly for thieving but actually due to her magickal tendencies) and immediately takes up with the local wizard, Nagarath. He, of course, has publicly promised not to apprentice her—having reasons of his own for such an edict. Needless to say, this does not sit well with Liara and, well, the rest you just have to read for yourself, yes?

What are the characters like?

I’ve had folks say Liara acts every inch a petulant teenager. To which I say “thank you!” Because she absolutely is. And she believes herself entitled to all the grand plans she’s formed in her head.

In contrast, we have Nagarath. Self-hermited away to the quiet Limska Draga valley, he just wants to retire (at the grand old age of 28) in peace and work whatever magicks he feels like doing at whatever pace he wants. He is, in effect, hiding from the world that Liara wants to conquer. And he’s a huge bookworm. And a bit absentminded.

These two . . . I’m still not sure if I intended for them to drive each other bonkers but I have grand fun orchestrating their interactions. In the end, each is quite good for the other, though.

What is/are one or two pieces of advice that you learned from publishing your earlier books that you wish you had known before you started?

Editing is hard. Don’t fall in love with your words, a specific turn of phrase here and there. But absolutely fight for what you know deep down you must keep. The give and take line? Where that lies is a bit tougher to explain. It’s an instinct you develop, especially if you’re lucky enough to work with the same team each time around.

Publishing is a long game. Years. Thousands upon thousands of words—many of which get tossed in the putting-to-print of the “good stuff” (see editing comment above). You hear it over and over, come in prepared for the long haul and yet it still comes as a surprise how long things can take.

Traditional or self-publishing? Why?

For me, traditional. I’ve landed with an exceptional publisher who has great instinct and wonderful folks. They get me out of my head when I’m too close to a project, something I’d have a hard time doing on my own. And, on my gosh, considering how much non-writing takes up my time already, I’d not want to have more on my plate. But I know both are great options for authors. The benefits and drawbacks of each are really dependent on one’s work style/process.

What do you think authors can do to help make editors and publishers interested in their manuscripts?

Keep writing. Don’t rush it. Be patient with your story. Your characters are people, treat them as such. (Okay, that is quite possibly the oddest thing I have said with regards writing. You’re welcome?) Be authentic. Be available. Be open to critique but also have that backbone when your instinct kicks in. Gosh this is getting advice-y, isn’t it? But I cannot leave off without adding: Read. Read widely.

This is random but fun one, if you could pick any time period to live in, when would you live and why?

This is actually a tough question because I tend to be hyper practical when it comes to such things. (And am a Whovian who has dreamed widely on this very topic.) While living further back in time would be interesting, I don’t know how I’d do without indoor plumbing at the least. I’ve said recently that far far distant future might be interesting. Kinda goes with my tendency to read ahead.

What is one book you think every YA writer should read at least once?

I’d say Katherine Paterson’s “Bridge to Terabithia” is a must.

If you can read it young, let it sit for years and then go back to it, even better!

Thanks for the great interview M.K! Check out her books and don’t forget to say hi on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest @FaublesFables!

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As always, keep making magic, word weavers!