Faye Jerod

Fantasy writer, tea drinker, and witch living in the Pacific Northwest.

[bubonickitten]

one of the most frustrating moods is Desperate Need to Create Something, Anything + persistent lack of motivation/attention/ability/time/inspiration/energy to do so 

[viragowriter-archive]

I hope everyone out there that has a passion, whether it be writing, cooking, drawing- whatever it is, I hope they know that it’s lovely. Your passion is nothing to be embarrassed about. If you love doing it, then it doesn’t matter what other people think. You enjoy yourself and have fun.

[faye-jerod]

How to use runes to create a name

I recently decided to change my fiction writing name. I hate thinking of new names, but the method I used to come up with the name Faye Jerod was actually kind of fun. 

There are a lot of people following this blog who are writers and/or might not appreciate the name they were given at birth, so I thought this might be helpful. 

You will need:

A set of rune stones (or make your own with scraps of paper) with the vowels removed

A list of rune names, meanings, and associated letter. (This one is pretty alright.)

A bag or box or something to randomly draw runes from.

A flat surface (such as a table) to lay the runes out on. 

1. Draw some number of runes. I chose five, but go with whatever number feels right to you. 

2. Lay the runes out in a line in front of you. 

3. Flip over any runes that are facing down (or decide you don’t want to and ignore them). 

4. Play with putting different vowels between the runes until you get something that sounds good. 

x. If you don’t like what you got, you can substitute different letters based on sound or meaning.

When I used this method, I drew Fehu (F), Pertho (P), Jera (J), Raido (R), Dagaz (D). I settled pretty quickly on Jerod as a last name, but I didn’t like the initials F.P., and I was feeling kind of fishy about Pertho because it came out reversed when I lay it down, which can be read as “death by starvation,” which was not something I wanted associated with my name. Fehu means “wealth and abundance,” so I asked, “What do I want wealth and abundance for?” Since I’m a writer, Ansuz (A, words, communication, cleverness) felt like the obvious choice. Then I realized that F.A. can be pronounced “Fay,” which means fairy (with etymological connections to “fate”), which felt appropriate for a fantasy writer. Fay became Faye, and I had Faye Jerod. 

I haven’t tried it, but I would guess this method would work with other meaning-based alphabets (Eg. Hebrew), as well. 

[fj-stories]

Why no new stories? And other tales

I should probably address the name thing first for those of you who are wondering who this is. I’ve decided to stop writing stories as Mara Colleen Banks and have started using the name Faye Jerod instead. 

The story behind the change is long and boring. 

tl;dr: I created the name with someone I’m not in relationship with anymore and I’d like to stop thinking about them whenever someone calls me Mara.

But what about the stories?! 

It’s been a bit since I posted any new fiction, hasn’t it? 

The reason is *drum roll* I’m writing something long. 

I’m not quite sure what it is yet. (I’m a non-linear writer who starts with absolutely no plan, which works for Diana Gabaldon, so what could possibly go wrong? (Lots, actually, but I’m convinced a writer has as much choice in their process as they do in their nose. (And if they can afford to do something about either their process or their nose, their process must be working out pretty well for them and they should leave it alone. (And the nose, too.) (Probably.))))) This quickly not quickly enough growing beastie started as a thought that “Whose Woods These Are” has kind of a crappy ending and could maybe stand to be a bit longer and…well…now it’s a novella…and growing…and schlorping up all of the other Pandemonium stories I’ve written into it’s giant mushroomy gills and whispering, “Soon, soon, all of this will be mine.” By which it means the contents of my mind, of course, and not Pandemonium itself because I’ve heard a certain blue eyed protagonist has a sword and a sword can totally take on a mushroom or a novella in the Sword, Mushroom, Novella game. 

Wait. Is that fair? Now I have to map out the rules of Rock, Paper, Scissors write. I will write more story. Relax, giant mushroom novella thing. 

[geminaked]

the struggle of being into astrology

[faye-jerod]

This is the thing I miss the least about being a professional astrologer. You would think that someone who knew enough about astrology to find an astrology blogger on the internet, someone who was willing to spend money on a reading would know what info is needed to cast a birth chart, but no. Almost every time I asked a new client for the information, the response was, “You need what?!”

[annmarcellino]

[faye-jerod]

@sorentycho

[dajo42]

proposed new holiday: valoween. combination valentines and halloween. take a monster on a date

[i-am-loki-locked]

Guillermo Del Toro we know that’s you

[thelittleblackfox]

Wait, let him speak

[aslowyear]

[carasidhe]

The Fae Agenda

This was written tongue in cheek.  Maybe

the Fae Agenda revealed: 1. normalize selling teeth to make kids think dealing with the fey is fun and lucrative 2. slowly convince humans to replace steel with alternative metals until steel and iron become very hard to find 3. flood entertainment media with images of fey folk as twee, harmless, and helpful to get people off guard (phase 2 sexualize all of it) 4. normalize fey portals and traps including swirling coloured water, glittering air, free samples, and fairy doors. 5. World domination

[andreii-tarkovsky]

when you are that very witch

[aprilwitching-deactivated201808]

candles are how we keep fires as pets

[annabellioncourt]

this is unnecessarily adorable

[terminalpolitics]

Academic writing

When you read articles and books and (God help us) philosophy directed at an academic audience, you might notice it’s often hard to know quite what the author is trying to say.

Usually, we declare this “bad writing” and move on, but “bad writing” serves a purpose. When an author makes their writing dense and hard to understand we shouldn’t assume it was just an accident. Most “bad” academic writing is intentionally inscrutable.

What purpose does bad writing serve in academic contexts?

1. If you make your writing hard to understand and pepper it with big words and flourishes, some readers will assume that they are struggling with the text because they aren’t “smart enough to get it.” 2. Making writing needlessly esoteric is a form of gatekeeping. 3. If the reader can’t be 100% sure of what you are saying, it makes it harder for them to rebut your argument.

If an idea could be presented in a clearer and more direct form, then when it is presented in a hazy and convoluted way we need to assume it is intentional – and we need to ask how does adding noise to the piece benefit the author?

Time and again, you will see torturous or opaque writing celebrated, but if you stripped it down to its basic message the content would be laughably banal.

Let us remember that “jargon” exists so that specificity and nuance can be increased between correspondents familiar with the terms involved. Jargon is meant to allow more precise communication. Too often, it is used to exclude people from dialogue or it is used to obscure meaning – as when an author coins a neologism that only he is allowed to define.

So next time you have a hard time with a text, ask “could this have been presented more clearly?” If the answer is “yes” then follow-up by asking what purpose was served by muddying the writing? Was the author hiding a bad argument? A week idea? Was he trying to increase his cultural capital by looking “deep” – or was he trying to push people out of the discourse?

It isn’t enough to recognize that a lot of academic writing is bad writing, we need to recognize that a lot of bad writing is intentional and serves a hidden purpose.

[art-thropologist]

It isn’t enough to recognize that a lot of academic writing is bad writing, we need to recognize that a lot of bad writing is intentional and serves a hidden purpose.

[archaeologysucks]

I try to explain things in simple, everyday language as much as possible on this blog. I want everyone to be able to understand what I’m talking about. I want kids to understand. I want people who don’t speak English as a first language to understand. I want people who weren’t able to graduate from high school to understand. I want people with learning and developmental disabilities to understand.

You cannot educate people or share information if you hide your meaning behind intentionally obscure or highly-specialized language. Good writers should be able to get their ideas across by using clear, simple language.

If there is ever anything on my blog that is unclear to you, or that you want me to break down into simpler concepts, don’t hesitate to say so. I try to be mindful that not everyone has the same knowledge base, but sometimes I forget. I’m always happy to answer anon asks, private asks, or messages.

[faye-jerod]

When I was in undergrad, I had a professor who was the editor of an academic journal. One day she brought in an article that someone had submitted to her journal, and she read the first couple of paragraphs to the class. In retrospect, I can say that the writing was convoluted and barely made sense. At the time, all I could think was, “I don’t understand a word of that. I don’t deserve to be here.” 

She paused after she was done reading and looked around at the class. I followed her eyes, and I’m glad I did. If I hadn’t, I would have thought I was the only one too stupid to understand. Instead, I saw that everyone in the class was looking at their hands red-faced like they wanted to crawl under the table and die. 

My professor slapped the article on the lectern, pointed at it, and said, “Don’t. Ever. Do. This. Don’t ever try to intimidate your way into a journal.”

“What are you going to do?” one of my classmates asked. 

“Usually, I give the authors of badly written papers a chance to revise,” she said. “This one will be sent back, and I will never consider a paper from that author again.”

[girlsunderground-deactivated201]

The Girls Underground Story Oracle

A divination card deck based on the Girls Underground story archetype.

Calling all Girls Underground (and Companions)! My Kickstarter is now just shy of 75% funded! With 16 days left to go. If you haven’t backed already, take a look and consider being part of making something special with me. 

[faye-jerod]

80% funded with 12 days to go now. 

[faye-jerod]

Book Review: Consorting with Dragons by Sera Trevor

A fantasy novel is supposed to be an escape from the real world. In a fantasy romance you expect the escapism to center around relationships. People fall in love. They work through their problems, and they live happily ever after. 

Consorting with Dragons delivers on all of these points, but it also delivers in another way that made all the difference: It takes place in a world in which being gay isn't a source of drama. Not once in the entire book does anyone make an issue of the fact that the protagonist is gay. In a scene where potential suitors meet, everyone participates in the setting's version of the hankie code to broadcast their preferences, and that’s it. There are no heartbroken women, crushed because the protagonist isn't on the market for them. The protagonist isn't punished in any way for being gay. It's just part of life. 

It's sad that this qualifies as escapism, but, as of the writing of this review, it does, and it was a delight to escape into Consorting with Dragons.

[faye-jerod]

Book Review: Our New King by TJ Land

The characters were what drew me to this book. King Sigbert felt real right from the beginning, and I wanted to know what happened to him even though "person put in a position of power they aren't prepared for" is a common trope. 

What I remember most about this book three months after I read it is the way that magic was used in a surprising way. So often in fantasy, magic is just an aesthetic alternative to guns, but magic in Our New King is something entirely Other. It has the ability to bend time and the nature of reality itself. 

I also appreciated that the m/m pairing wasn't your typical pretty-boy/pretty-boy pairing where the two hotties are only kept apart because they fall on opposite sides of an invisible dividing line. True to the promise of the first few pages, the characters in Our New King were people, and their struggles were the struggles real people have. This book was a surprise in so many ways, in the best sense.

[faye-jerod]

Help me get out of my reading filter bubble.

After reading three M/M romance books in four months--while reading lots of other things in other genres--Amazon has decided that M/M romance is all I will read forever and ever. I like M/M books, but I also like many other things that don’t fit into the M/M romance box, and I’d like to get out of this filter bubble.

Maybe this is my punishment for letting Amazon tell me what to read, but I prefer to support indie/small press authors, and Amazon used to make that easy, so the list of book bloggers I follow is...well...not.

So! I would really appreciate book recommendations that involve some of the following: 

Indie/small press fantasy

Secondary worlds that aren’t medieval Europe in disguise (other historical periods are fine, especially if there are pretty dresses)

Magic that isn’t a weapon with unusual special/side effects (bonus if there’s some connection to real-world magical traditions)

Romances (preferably in a fantastical setting) whose plots don’t revolve around bad communication, stupid misunderstandings, and drama over the “fact” that people can’t possibly love more than one person at a time *clutches pearls* 

Diverse characters from mature societies (i.e. characters don’t have to constantly deal with people freaking out about the fact that people have different abilities, partner preferences, skin colors, cultures, genders, bodies, and brains)

Lovable monsters

Utopian experiments

Unusual paranormal/supernatural characters that don’t follow the standard vampire/werewolf/fuzzy bunny tropes

If you are a book blogger or author who blogs about indie/small press fantasy, please, like/reblog this post, so I can follow you and let you tell me what to read instead of Amazon.

[faye-jerod]

Book Review: King Perry by Edmond Manning

I never highlight quotes in fiction. Never. For me, fiction is all about the story, and if I'm stepping out of the story enough to want to highlight something, that generally means something is wrong.

King Perry made me reconsider this personal rule for two reasons:

1. When I stopped to reach for the highlighter, it wasn't because I wanted to gush about the pretty, pretty prose. It was because of a drive-by comment that I had to stop and think about. Immediately.

2. It made sense for the character--a kinky life coach--to say things like, "Forgive each breath because, although it abandons you every single time, it also brings you life. A man who cannot forgive the air has no chance of living." When I reached for the highlighter, I wasn't being pulled out of the story. It was part of the joke. While Vin was narrating the process of working on Perry's issues, he was also pushing the reader's buttons, as if he wanted to wake us up, too.

The above quote might make it sound like King Perry is a novel-length therapy session. Technically, it was, but only if your definition of therapy includes ducks and ski masks. The humor more than balanced out the emotional intensity, and the pacing was so good, I whined more than Perry when I had to put it down.

For those who have lived in the Bay Area, this novel is a special treat. The details are spot on, which means he did his research homework, but Manning also clearly knows San Francisco. He knows the truth and the theater and isn't afraid to tell the truth while appreciating the show.