Mags' Magical Bookblr

Pictures, reviews, thoughts, quotes .... if it's book related it'll be here! Obviously all books are magical - each one opening a door into a different world, idea or time - but since I'm a Diviner, Witch and Druid as well as a bibliophile, you'll find some of my posts feature books that are magical in the most literal sense of the term. My main blog is glarawelmagolben

[kathrynhoward]

the time travel agency seamstress (that one Tumblr post) |  Karolina Żebrowska

[void-tiger]

For those who haven’t watched the masterpiece for themselves:

[saintcranky]

Terry Pratchett was made an honorary Brownie and this pleases me to no end.

[persephinae]

“ Not many men can say this,’ Terry says, proudly, ‘but as a result of The Wee Free Men I was made an honorary Brownie for writing a proper girl in a book. I’ve got a woggle and everything. No kidding. ‘Anyway, the Brownies wanted to kidnap someone famous and they decided on me because they liked Tiffany Aching. But they didn’t know how to go about it. And I thought, “All we need is a signing queue, two little girls and a yellow rubber chicken.” (I don’t know why it hasn’t been established before, but a yellow rubber chicken is the secret of all humour.)’ ‘So, it’s all set up and I tell the two little Brownies, “You stand on one side of me and you on the other and just look at the camera, all sweet and innocent. Then without looking at me, one of you must raise my hat and the other has to hit me over the head with the rubber chicken. Then the first Brownie should place my hat back on my head as I slump down in the chair.” ‘The only problem was that people saw me apparently doing a signing and a massive queue built up. So then we had to explain to everyone that I wasn’t in fact doing a signing, but I would sign their books if they wouldn’t mind waiting until these two little girls had knocked me out. It was one of those surreal moments that you just treasure.’ “  (x)

[macrolit]

How many have you read?

The BBC estimates that most people will only read 6 books out of the 100 listed below. Reblog this and bold the titles you’ve read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkein 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger 20 Middlemarch – George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh 27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis 34 Emma – Jane Austen 35 Persuasion – Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne 41 Animal Farm – George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding 50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel 52 Dune – Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding 69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens 72 Dracula – Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses – James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal – Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession – AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel 83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks 94 Watership Down – Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

[earlsgrey]

not to flex but I’ve only read six (6) of these books and I’m an English lit student lmao 

[bennyboy721]

6 lmao they were spot on

[whovianacefan]

17, and most were while I was in high school taking advaced classes.

[msfehrwight]

45!

[systlin]

44.

[lady-boa]

4,8,11,14,29,36,41,49,59,61,65,71,73,87,89,92,98,99

so 18 of these, and I’m 16. 8 of these are required reading for school. I’m doing my english exam on one of these.

[missalexgreenturtle]

48. I got more to read!

[novas-grimoire]

17.

Most of them I don’t care enough to read, honestly.

[one-of-the-birds]

39

I’m a book worm.

[magsmagicalbookblr]

59. There are about 5 on top of that which I intend to read at some point but I’m not at all interested in the rest.

[lotrmusical]

alright folks. it’s time to find out which lotr poem you are. this quiz has 33 potential answers and only one of them is tom bombadil, so your odds are pretty good

[lotrmusical]

tumblr is a website. link should be working now but if not, go here https://uquiz.com/hWsOtT 

[rannadylin]

Alliterative verse is indeed my favorite (and it’s Tolkien that got me interested in it so I approve this result :-D)

[magsmagicalbookblr]

I think I was feeling quite gloomy when I took the quiz because I’m really not like this at all.

[randombrethren-deactivated20231]

Happy International Sir Terry Pratchett Day! Quote from (x) Art by Paul Kidby

[marlynnofmany]

Extended deadline, anyone??

The Humans Are Weird anthology may just live after all, thanks to the sudden crowd of interested writers!

For those of you scrambling to put something together by the end of June, you’ll be happy to hear that you get two more weeks: the deadline is now end-of-day July 15th.  

Details are here!

(Now to tag everyone in the notes bemoaning the short timeframe.  Feel free to help me spread the word!)

Keep reading

[christinaroseandrews]

While we love this idea of this anthology we do have a bunch of questions that really need to be answered before we would feel comfortable boosting this And they’re questions that you, as authors, should be asking of any contest, anthology, or publisher.

For those who haven’t looked at the website here’s all the information about this:

[IMAGE ID]

How This Works * Submission period: from May 1st to July 15th, 2020 (extended from June 30th) * Rights: non-exclusive (previously published works are acceptable) * Word count: aim for between 1,500 and 5,000 words * Compensation: $25 per story (one story per author), paid on acceptance * Standard manuscript format: Times New Roman, 12 pt font, 1” margins, double spaced * Submit entries and questions to MaraLynnJohnstone (at) gmail.com * I will be happy to talk about it on any social media!

—-

As someone who has participated in 10 or so anthologies and has run their own anthology that info is remarkably sparse.

Here’s the info that needs to be addressed as I see it, and I may be missing things.

1. Rights. While it states non-exclusive, that’s really not informative. Regarding rights we need to know the following: What rights are you getting? (E-book? Paperback? Hardcover? Audiobook? Movie rights? Screenplays? Merchandising? etc.) There are a whole slew of rights regarding a piece of intellectual property. What rights are you asking for?

2. Duration. How long will you have these rights? Most legitimate and reputable publishers have a time limit on how long they have the rights to your property for. Right now it reads that if you submit to this the publisher will have your rights in perpetuity. Which means that the story you have can NEVER be published in KU, and that if you chose to expand it or do something with it you could run into a “someone else holds the rights to this” battle.

3. Reversion of rights/Get me out of this anthology? Are there options for an author to remove their work from the anthology? Is there a cancellation clause?

4. Contract. Is there a contract for this anthology. Can we see a sample? (For reference this is the contract that we had for the “Weird & Wonderful Holiday Romance Anthology” with all of the identifying information taken out.)

5. Compensation: This states that authors get $25 upon acceptance. Is this an advance or a full payment? What happens to the royalties from the anthology? Again if the rights are in perpetuity there is nothing stopping the publisher of this anthology from taking and publishing your story over and over again and getting all sorts of royalties from it. It also means they could feasibly submit your stories to other anthologies and be paid for them - after all they have the rights to them.

6. What happens to the work if you are not accepted into the anthology? Because in some contests/anthologies just by submitting to them you are now granting them the rights to do with it whatever they want.

Some contests and anthologies are sleazy rights grabbers. Now, do I think that is what is happening here? No. I don’t.

I think this author thought that the idea was kind of awesome, saw that there were lots of great “Humans are weird” posts on tumblr and started running with the idea.

But there are publishers and contests out there who aren’t so benign. Do you wonder why there are often so many movies with the same plots/beats? That’s because they were taken from spec scripts or scripts from the slush pile and many times the author of said script isn’t even paid for their work.

This is a cool idea. But guard your rights and ask questions. And the publisher should be transparent with this info. Especially since this is your work that you are granting them.

– Lark

[marlynnofmany]

Yes, do your research.   No, I’m not out to steal anyone’s work.

The only rights I’m asking for are the right to publish this book now, in paperback and ebook formats.  The authors are free to have their work published elsewhere, and reprints are accepted.  I do not claim anything in perpetuity.  I apologize if the wording was unclear.

Any contributing author is free to pull their work from the anthology if they so choose.  If they make such a decision once it’s already printed, that would be awkward, but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.

I’m working on making the contract as clear and simple as possible.  I will happily share it when I’ve finished.

I decided on an up-front payment because I honestly don’t expect the book to earn significant royalties.  I’ll be happy if I get back the thousands of dollars I’ll be spending to make the anthology happen — paying authors, printer, cover artist etc.  I don’t want a dozen authors to be waiting anxiously for a check, only to get a few dollars each.  And again, I will absolutely not be stealing anyone else’s work to publish elsewhere.  Nothing happens to the stories that aren’t accepted.  

I have plenty of my own ideas and short stories and unpublished novels.  It would have been easier to publish an anthology of just my own work, but that’s not the goal here.  The goal is multiple people’s ideas on the same theme, a collection we can all be proud of.  

I hope that answers your questions.  

[christinaroseandrews]

Thank you for answering the majority of my questions.

There’s one big question that you didn’t answer. How long will you have the rights to publish these submitted stories? One year? Two years? Ten Years? In Perpetuity? Because if you don’t spell that out, people have to assume it’s in perpetuity. I have literally seen people lose their rights to their stories because they signed a contract with no exit date. This is important to spell out right from the word go.

I’m concerned with your costs analysis and that you are adding difficulty where you don’t need to.

What price are you planning on offering this anthology at – knowing that for small press and indie-pubbed books that the point where people stop buying is $4.99 per ebook?

How many authors are you looking for? Because last I checked Amazon only allowed for 24 names (it could have changed).

So let’s do the math:

25 Authors = at $25 per submission = $625

E-book formatting – if you can’t do it yourself is about $25

Paperback formatting – if you can’t do it yourself is about $50

Editing – Extremely variable – this is why most anthologies require that work being submitted has already been edited so only proofreading is required… say $100 to do the proofread if you can’t do it yourself.

Cover Art – If you can’t do it yourself is anywhere from $5 (through fiverr) and $500… Most average between $50-200 though… so let’s say a cover for both e-book and paperback is $300 (JSYK this is on the high end).

Marketing – the people who have submitted will be doing some legwork for you. And you do have Patreon supporters. You can also get a ton of traction doing newsletter swaps. We got the anthology in front of over 750,000 people by doing newsletter swaps with three of our authors mailing lists. And there are people here on tumblr who will boost you… so let’s do with $500.

Printing costs – Why in the hell are you paying for printing? Go through KDP and Ingram Spark. While Ingram Spark has a $50 set up fee you can find a code for it easily… like super easily… that will knock it down to $0 - you can even use the same code to make changes like if say… an author asks you to pull their work from the book.  If you want physical copies for giveaways or to sell you can order author copies through Ingram Spark for at-cost printing – but I really don’t recommend this since as soon as you do then you start getting into having to pay sales tax to the state. 

So you’re looking at a total cost of $1600 give or take. (Marketing and editing are the two big variables) and this is assuming you get nothing on patreon to offset the costs.

As a note, The Weird & Wonderful anthology had a total budget of $900, and we doubled it in our 6 month run. Most of that was spent on Marketing. If you’re savvy, and have at least a year or two run, you can definitely make back way more than what you’re putting in.

For goodness sakes, we made back EVERYTHING we spent on the Language of Flowers from editing, cover, formatting, and marketing in the first month. EVERYTHING. Now every sale, every page read is pure profit for us (not much of one since we don’t really promote it as much as we should since we’re still building up backlist).

But this is why I am asking how long you have the rights for. Because feasibly you could be selling this book for years to come and still making money off of it.

I get it, publishing an anthology is hard. I’ve done it. So has @caitlynlynch​ (who did 5 anthologies). We took the Weird and Wonderful Anthology to Bestseller on Amazon not once, but three times. We cracked the top 300 in the store. We also went to number one in our categories on Kobo and Barnes & Noble. And we did it in a little over 6 months. I have faith with the authors that you are getting and their audiences that you can do the same. That’s why I’m asking.

I was hella transparent about what I was doing for the anthology… the authors participating could see a running list of every penny spent. Most anthologies I’ve participated in have been the same.

I’m not trying to attack you, I want this anthology to succeed. But I also want to make sure you’ve thought things through and that your potential authors also know the realities of what they’re getting into. And that you too know what you’re getting into. ^_^

–Lark

[caitlynlynch]

Even if OP is as well-intentioned as they claim, what Lark has pointed out here shows that they don’t have the publishing knowledge they need to put behind this anthology. And it’s not like there aren’t people they can ask.

Ignorance can be as bad as malice, folks. If you’ve already submitted, make sure you get these questions answered CLEARLY before you sign any contract. And if you aren’t accepted, ask for something in writing which says all rights to your story remain yours.

[marlynnofmany]

I’ve said that the authors are free to have their stories reprinted elsewhere; the rights are non-exclusive.  There’s no need for this kind of hostility.

The goal is to publish a book that will remain in print and available for people to read, without limiting the authors’ ability to submit the stories elsewhere.  

Thank you for the suggestions, @christinaroseandrews.  I will look into those.  Reducing the startup cost would be grand.  

My only question is what answer you’re looking for, since it sounds like you would prefer that the anthology go out of print after a short run, and that does no one any favors.  

[christinaroseandrews]

While the rights are non-exclusive for you, that isn’t necessarily so for other publishers. Particularly if the author of any of the short stories wanted to also submit it to a book that was going into Kindle Unlimited/KDP Select.  KU requires that no part of the book be available in ebook format anywhere else. This includes newsletter freebies, samples, and in the strictest interpretation of the rules ARCs.

So the anthology doesn’t need to go out of print after a short run. But, all rights need to revert to the author after a period of time with the possibility of them being extended. You could even write in an option of having the right of first refusal if you wanted. Even the big five do this – Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, and others have all gotten the rights back to their books to have them published elsewhere. Most publishers (especially the big 5) will not sign non-exclusive contracts - they want the exclusive rights to the world and characters. So if, say, one of the authors in your anthology wanted to take the short story that they wrote for this and expand on it, they would have a harder time shopping it around.

There is a reason why books go out of print. And that is because the rights have reverted to the author. This is normal and acceptable in publishing. The contract can be for a long time… but frankly anything longer than 10 years is highly unusual. The fact that you are not willing to have ALL rights revert to the author is what has me so concerned.

If authors are willing to let you pocket all royalties, that is up to them. You are putting a lot of your own money into things. But the rights issue is the one I am so concerned about. Especially since it’s so very different from the industry best standards and practices. This is the kind of thing that could put you on Author Beware.

And the people who are all being concerned know the industry, we all work in the industry and have contacts who work in the industry. @caitlynlynch​ has worked with several different anthologies and is a USA today best selling author. @thebibliosphere has worked for a medium-press publishing house. I worked for a major Christian publishing house. My other half has friends who work for Tor, Penguin/Random House, & Simon & Schuster. We know what we’re talking about.

We’re not being hostile. We’re trying to help you. We’re trying to help authors.

It’s your reputation. It’s their stories. The authors get to decide if they want to work with you. And you get to decide what kind of reputation you have. 

Everyone has a choice. We’re trying to make sure everyone is making an informed one.

[marlynnofmany]

I appreciate the effort to help.  Not fond of the insistence that I’m doing something immoral.  We appear to be talking past each other:

Me: “Non-exclusive rights; the authors are free to publish elsewhere; I’m only using the stories in this one anthology.”

You: “You need to give the rights back!”

Me: “…What rights??”

I hope you can see my confusion.  The authors maintain their copyrights.  They can submit the stories to other non-exclusive anthologies, or put them to any other use they see fit.  If it is more acceptable to you, I can specify in the contract that the anthology will be available via print-on-demand for three years, and renewed based on sales.  

I claim nothing other than the ability to make this book.  

[christinaroseandrews]

Okay I see your confusion, but I don’t think you understand exactly how publishing works in the reality. You say non-exclusive… that’s fine. the author can publish their story elsewhere EXCEPT for places and publishers that require Exclusive contracts. You are limiting their options. That’s why you have to have an end date.

What you need to put in the contract is the following:

[Image ID

I. Grant of Rights:

Author hereby grants the Publisher, during the first terms of the United States copyright, and any renewals thereof, in The Work

The NON-EXCLUSIVE right to “publish” (i.e., print, publish, and sell) The Work in paperback and/or electronic and/or audio book form in English and in all countries for the duration of the contract;

The NON-EXCLUSIVE authorization to license The Work on The Author’s behalf in English and in all countries for the duration of the contract; and

The NON-EXCLUSIVE right to serialize in periodicals, newspapers, and magazines The Work by means of excerpts from The Work and identify them as such for the duration of the contract.

The Publisher shall provide The Author with copies of any licenses granted under (b) above.

Rights granted under (a) and (b) above are granted for the sole use of The Work as included in any book edition licensed by The Publisher; rights granted under © above are granted for the sole purpose of excerpting or representing The Work.

The Author grants NON-EXCLUSIVE permission to The Publisher to publish The Work as part of The Anthology as a pre-order for up to a 3 month period and as a Live Publication for a period to conclude no later than December 31, 2024. 

The Author agrees that The Publisher shall hold exclusive rights to publish The Work until December 31, 2024, at which time all rights shall revert to The Author. 

The Publisher does not hold any rights not specifically named in this agreement. 

The Author does not grant any rights not specifically named in this agreement. 

The Author retains Copyright Ownership of The Work at all times.]

This is an example I took from an actual contract. At the end of the date state (the hypothetical December 31, 2024) you must pull the book from publication. AKA no more print-on-demand, no ebooks, no distribution. On Amazon, it’s easy… just hit a button to delist the book. For Ingram Spark, you just have to email them and they will pull it. For Draft2Digital (which is a distribution site that handles a lot of other distributors including Libraries) it’s also as simple as hitting a button.

You can decide the end date it can be far in the future, but it does need to exist. You shouldn’t be allowed to keep publishing the book for all eternity. You also need to account for what will happen if you die, for instance. Or if the company that you own goes out of business. The rights are still technically with you and your heirs unless you give them back to the author with the contract. There are publishing houses that went out of business and the IP didn’t revert to the authors so they are stuck in limbo where they can’t sign with someone else. I also know of at least one Anime that people wanted to get but couldn’t because the animation company folded and no one knows who holds the rights. (I work in the Anime Convention Industry in Guest and Industry Relations so I know a lot about the rights there.)

You also need to allow an author to come to you and say “I want to be out of this anthology” you and the authors can negotiate the terms of this exit clause. But you’ll want a way to also drop an author’s work if, say for instance, they end up being outed as a pedophile or rapist or whatever.

Finally after the end date, you will need to send what is called a “Rights Reversion Letter.” The letter will affirm that you have pulled the book from sale but that you aren’t responsible for already printed copies, second hand dealers, and pirates who may still be distributing the book. AKA you’ve done your due diligence. This is because Amazon and other Publishers will want to know that the IP is available and not held by anyone else other than the author and while the contract can be used, the letter is better. If you need a template, I have one.

We’re still talking about this because it’s important. Intellectual Property Rights matter. People get screwed all the time. I’ve seen authors sign away their rights for pittance. I’ve seen the lawsuits. I’ve seen the hurt. I’ve seen what happens when a company folds leaving the authors in a lurch. This is why I am speaking up. I’ve been in and out of the publishing industry since I was in college.

I know that rights stealing isn’t your intention, but you need to listen to those who have more experience than you. I get that you’re confused, but literally all you need to do is in your call for submissions have a line that reads:

DURATION OF PUBLICATION: X Years from date of release (and then have a projected release date (Side Note: don’t release in Late November/December unless you have a huge audience… the big names all put books around then and you’ll get buried))

And then something in your contract that echoes the same info as on your website.

It’s really that easy. That’s what I’ve been pushing for. You don’t have to do a short time… that X can be 5, 10, or even 25 years. But there has to be an end date. There has to be a way for the author to get their full rights back so they can negotiate an exclusive contract if the opportunity presents itself.

It’s not that hard.

[marlynnofmany]

Thank you for clarifying that by “rights reverting” you meant “going out of print.”

I’ll have the relevant wording in the contract, and I’ve already added it to the official info page.  In print for three years, with the option to renegotiate with the authors afterward, to see if they want to continue or if they have other exclusive uses to put their works toward.

And @rosefyrefyre, I’m only offering an up-front payment because this book is almost certain to not earn out its startup costs.  Anthologies aren’t big sellers, especially niche ones, especially in a pandemic when no one has money.  I would have liked to offer a bigger payment, and if the crowdfunding had gone as well as I’d hoped, then things would be different.  But this is all I can afford.  

[magsmagicalbookblr]

If you’d answered @rosefyrefyre with her response visible it would have been much better because the it would be entirely clear to everyone that your response is a non-answer.

She’s clearly explained to you how you’d need to properly deal with the issue of the anthology earning out and you’ve just said “I don’t think that will happen so I won’t plan for it”. That isn’t fair or acceptable to either yourself or the other authors - your set up and contracts should be clear and should deal with all eventualities that are conceivable. Earning out may not be likely but it might happen - you can’t just ignore that.

I’m getting the impression from reading all the notes on this post (not just this thread) that you didn’t know what publishing an anthology really entailed and now it’s becoming clear because people are taking the time to tell you, you simply want to hand wave the issues because it’s such a massive undertaking. I understand the impulse but you need to either accept the full responsibilities that go with making this happen or you need to step away and accept that this project isn’t something you can reasonably do. Half arsing it isn’t really an option here if you value your reputation and the work of the authors who contribute.

[winebrightruby]

Have you any fiction book recs? I hope that doesn't fall under the "no book rec" post from earlier which seemed just to be aimed at books to learn witchcraft from, I just think you'd have cool fun reading taste! Please ignore and excuse my misunderstanding if that post including fiction recs!!

I have a lot of books I like in a very narrow range lol. I read a lot of fantasy, especially YA fantasy, and I’ve only read like three new books in the past two years because the monster child takes up all my time.

At this point it’s probably easiest for me to just name the authors whose books I keep and reread and lend to my students: Tamora Pierce, Diane Duane, Fiona Patton, Tanya Huff, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Jacqueline Carey, Madeleine L’Engle, Phillip Pullman, Patricia C. Wrede’ Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising quintet, the Dune novels (but I haven’t read any of the spinoffs, just the core series), Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and just a truly ridiculous amount of Star Wars novels. I also read and love all of the Ender’s Game series, but Orson Scott Card is a garbage person so I won’t buy his books anymore. I also read and have feelings about Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels novels, but they are not what I’d call good lol. (Same for Sarah J Maas’s novels, which are basically Anne Bishop fanfic anyway.) Oh, and Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Chronicles. I haven’t read her other books; I’m told they’re also enjoyable.

Darth Poeticus contributes Kevin J. Anderson, Brandon Sanderson, Karen Miller, N. K. Jemisin, and Brent Weeks.

I hope some of that’s helpful!

[wherekizzialives]

On the Glorious 25th May we remember John Keel, Dai Dickens, Ned Coates, Horace Nancyball, Billy Wiglet, Cecil Clapman, and (sort of) Reg Shoe.

“They did the job they didn’t have to do, and they died doing it”

#gnuterrypratchett #speakhisname #theglorious25may #HowDoTheyRiseUp

[wondersmith-and-sons]

Every year he forgot. Well, no. He never forgot. He just put the memories away, like old silverware that you didn’t want to tarnish. And every year they came back, sharp and sparkling, and stabbed him in the heart. – Night Watch

[saphore]

your last words before you die are the 3rd line of the last song you listened to. what are we saying ladies?

[securityunit-ese]

Okay so like…A few weeks ago I saw this in a dollar store and thought it was pretty neat so I bought it

and now I’m wondering if I jinxed myself because like a couple of weeks after, I  bought this:

[securityunit-ese]

he’s looking more and more like the plate every day, i think i did accidentally buy a prophetic plate

[securityunit-ese]

I think the brown is taking over purposely so he can match the plate???

[securityunit-ese]

getting entirely too similar for comfort

possibly he is growing to match the plate?

[mindfulwrath]

the portrait of Doggian Gray

[magsmagicalbookblr]

Or possible The Porcelain of Doggian Gray

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

So...I never really finished watching BBC Merlin (stopped around the start of the Third Season) but....is anyone else bitter Pellinore? Demoting him to just a knight in Uther's Court....not to mention the Questing Beast stuff...

I guess I'm just really bitter since an episode with King Pellinore and his search for the Questing Beast possibly with Percival and Palomedes in tow (I assume Percival shows up later in the show...but I digress) really seems like it would have fit very well with like...the whole tone of the first season (and some of the second season) of Merlin....I mean...I know Arthurian legend is a grab bag of plot points ideas and characters, and it's a minor thing to be annoyed about....but...and I'm fairly certain I'm using this phrase correctly

King Pellinore deserved better. (Also killed Bedivere off screen? what?).

It's been ages since I've watched Merlin and that has still stuck with me.

Make of this what you will.

Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming

[lucrezianoin]

Well... Bedivere died in season 1 and he was just named dropped.

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

He was just named dropped. It just seemed like an odd choice to do so with one of the (to my recollection) relatively younger Knights of the round table rather than have him as a sort of entourage with Arthur later. Though any such things with Bedivere(who admittedly I don’t know or care much about from other Arthur media) is relatively small to the waste and demotion of King Pellinore. But I’m likely getting too overworked on the matter. I digress.

[lucrezianoin]

I am not sure the age of Bedivere is known, he seems to be there since the beginning (if we take the Welsh stuff as one of the sources) and then at the end (from Malory), but because of his prominent role at the end... they just cut him out (they wanted to gave the role to Merlin).

Pellinore usually doesn’t have as big of a role as Bedivere in written texts.... a part from raping Tor’s mother, and being generally a questing beast hunter, before being murdered by Mordred. But then I highly dislike him, haha, because... of the Tor thing.

They cut Kay too, poor baby Kay, my fav. 

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

Right, right. Given that Bedivere’s role of returning Excalibur is taken by Merlin and all the other ending stuff I’m guessing that Bedivere would have done that makes sense to cut him. I’ll admit I completely forgot the raping of Tor’s mother. Was that in Mallory or other sources? The thoughts with Pellinore and his wasted potential mostly being two fold. First, all the stuff with the Questing Beast which brings in the Magical aspect for Merlin’s stuff. And second, in...I think Malory there was that thing where the sword in the stone was broken when Arthur fought dishonorably against Pellinore...so on Arthur’s side of things you could have the two come across Pellinore as he’s after the Questing Beast (possibly accompanied by his Son Percival and Sir Palomedes)...fight with Arthur...have Pellinore as an almost Don Quixote like figure...only it’s all true. Potentially even have Pellinore serve as something of a Kingly foil to Uther potentially...but I digress. I’ll admit, my perception of King Pellinore is mostly clouded by (for lack of a better phrase) viewing him as something of a comic figure going by his appearances in Arthurian based media beyond Mallory, De Troyes, or the Welsh stuff (which admittedly I still need to read at some point or another) and somehow forgetting the Tor thing (though if it was in Malory I had quite the difficulty getting through most of Malory. Only so many times I can read about so and so unhorsing so and so). Mainly his appearance the Indigo King (third book of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, and my introduction to Pellinore. Also a recommended series) and solidified in his characterization in T.H. White’s the Once and Future King particularly the first two books, how the relationship between Pellinore and the beast is...and the whole Fake Questing Beast episode. Can’t recall if the Tor unpleasantness was mentioned in Once and Future King. Might have been lost in him bashing me over the head with War being bad(good message, if occasionally very heavy handed). Just having Pellinore being a knight in Uther’s court and killed off by Zombie Knight and bringing the Questing Beast up after the fact...just seemed like such a waste when looking at his stuff with the Questing Beast was done in other stuff....especially since a more comic Pellinore chasing after the Questing Beast would have fit fairly well with the tone of early seasons of Merlin as it appeared. Besides whatever potential as a maybe sorta mentor to Arthur or just a foil to Uther. Can’t for the life of me recall if any of the other Kings ever were okay with Sorcery and stuff.... And of course the constant potential of another confidant for Merlin because that’s always fun to ponder. A nice breather episode maybe... but I digress. The fact they cut Kay makes so little sense to me. It did seem weird that none of the knights that would have hung out with Arthur seemingly got no development or anything. Focus on Merlin yes...but if Geoffrey Chaucer (nice touch) can get some character, You’d think they’d try to give a smidge of character to the other knights like Kay, or Bedivere or heck, if you have Uther as King...you’d think developing Ector and Kay would be a thing to do or what have you. Come to think of it, forgive me for going back to White, but you had that whole adventure where Kay and Wart took down a Griffin...and wait...wasn’t there an episode about a Griffin? Could have had introduced Kay there, nice nod/reference to previous Arthurian media and develop more of the Nights besides just ‘Introduce Knight for an episode have them show up later (like I know Gawain shows back up at some point after his introductory episode)’. Have more of a constant tertiary cast. I mean yeah you have a bunch of other characters like Gwen, Morgana, Gaius, John Hurt Dragon (can’t remember how to spell his name), bringing Kay in would have been nice? But again (apologies for my repetition of this phrase), I digress. All hindsight I suppose.

[lucrezianoin]

It should be in the after of the Post-Vulgate stuff, so I suppose the Post Vulgate itself and Malory.

Pellinore as an almost Don Quixote picture is definitely Sword in the Stone/White inspired, as he decided to make him into an adorable fool. And I suppose later sources got inspired from White because of the once and future king popularity.

What I meant to say is that there are a bunch of very prominent characters removed from Merlin BBC. I don't remember where the Questing Beast was presented in merlin BBC, I really disliked that show, but I feel like maybe they have done the same as with Bedivere? Decided to attach it to a character they preferred.

I think the Geoffrey from Merlin was Geoffrey of Monmouth? If they god Geoffrey Chaucer instead of Monmouth then my respect for that show is ever lower XD

Also, I don't think Merlin BBC decided to take inspiration specifically from once and future king, so it is understandable that they would not adapt scenes from it. And I can accept that Kay is not present, because they decided to go with "arthur is actually still in uther family"... but I don't like it.

It is like the whole Grail thing without Galahad or Percival or Bors. I think they just took the name of the things they wanted and attached them to Arthur and Merlin.

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

It does seem odd to have removed so many prominent characters then add in as much as they did. Like, on the one hand I do get it. You want to focus on Merlin and company...and Gaius and John Hurt Dragon are very enjoyable (the performances and voice work at least. Always a sucker for John Hurt in stuff), but with so many characters, especially with ones that have even less established stuff then the big names, there’s potential...but that’s neither here nor there. From what I recall, the Questing Beast showed up, poisoned Arthur in the last episode of the First Season then immediately was killed by Merlin...at which point I really wondered the point was of having it be the Questing Beast then? Tons of Poisonous beasties and just...I’m admittedly obsessing over minutiae a bit much I suppose. Oh no yeah, I understand that it’s not directly adapting from White. I merely meant to bring it up as a point of comparison on how Kay, or a Pellinore like figure would have fit into Early Merlin. Apologies for my lack of clarification there. They’re clearly drawing from...I’m not sure...a sort of Cultural osmosis of Arthurian Legend? Like, you’ve got Geoffrey of Monmouth as a character, some bits of Malory, and of course original stuff in feel tone, characters both recurring and one off antagonists and the like... Oh no, it was Geoffrey of Monmouth. Don’t know why I put Chaucer down. That’s not right at all. No it’s Geoffrey of Monmouth. Got wires crossed (I think that’s the right phrase) some how. Weird. Definitely agree on the Grail Stuff. I know there’s the whole precursors to the Grail...but seems like such an odd thing to reduce to Grail to more of a MacGuffin than it normally is. It’s like, yeah...here’s the Holy grail nothing too special. Like...the Holy Grail or this stand in for the Holy Grail just...what? Though an odd thing with the show was the Old Religion thing...I get what they’re going for...but I do have to wonder at times like...okay...does the New Religion have anything going for it? Anything? No? Huh....alright then moving on I guess. Like you’ve got Witch Hunters and other stuff yet the presence of the new religion still seemed...bizarrely absent in a way? Though, that might just be my poor memory. Really the show kind of baffles me when it pulls from other Arthurian stuff...like its original drawn from folklore stuff is generally fairly interesting and neat...a nice monster of the week vibe...it’s just when other Arthurian characters (outside the main cast in Camelot) I kinda tilt my head. Like the characters themselves are fairly good and fun...mostly. Wonderful performances all around. It’s just in the name dropping with Pellinore, the Questing Beast, Bedivere, or the Holy Grail...when I sort of wonder what the point was? I don’t know... It’s like...they have these signs, and are clearly aware of the significance and meaning of those signs all semiotic and what not...but then the signifiers are....strangely hollow? Like with the Grail? I mean there’s no strict Cannon for things of course. A big grab bag of stuff yet...ah I’ve lost my point. I might not be make sense. Enjoyable show just....frustrating and confusing at times I suppose...maybe I’m being a snob or some such. Oh! Before I forget, I do thank you for such interesting and thought provoking replies and such.

[lucrezianoin]

I agree that there’s no point at all, the way Merlin BBC works is finding the most famous themes an checking them, like in a list. The same happens to the Guinevere and Lancelot relationship, and the betrayal. They are thrown together, and giant plot holes emerge just because the show really wanted to see Arthur sending Guinevere away like in the "canon".THE OLD RELIGION... that was so bad. They clearly got that from Mists or something but;... what is the new religion? How old is the new religion? Why is it called old??

[magsmagicalbookblr]

The Questing Beast was the final episode of Series 1. It had a fatal, incurable, bite and Arthur got bitten (quelle surprise) so Merlin went off to Nimue and got water from the Holy Grail cup of life, to cure him. Then there were shenanigans because “a life for a life” which ended with Merlin killing Nimue to “restore the balance”. It was this episode Bedievere died off screen in, I think.

[speakfriendandenter]

okay guys, we need to talk about a movie called Big Eden

It’s about this dude Henry who’s an artist living in New York,

and he has to go back to his hometown in Montana to take care of his grandfather who just recently had a stroke and is wheelchair-bound.

Things are all fine and dandy until Henry finds out that his old best friend from high school, as well as object of his unrequited affections that he’s never really been able to let go of is also back in town. His name is Dean. He’s there with his two sons to recoup from a recent divorce from his wife. 

Henry is extremely frazzled by seeing his long-time crush after so many years, but they spend a lot of time together over the passing weeks and seem to fall into their old friendship very easily. Perhaps a little too easily….??? hmmm???

And with everything with Dean happening, Henry can’t be blamed that he’s entirely oblivious to Pike, the man who runs the local general goods store.

It’s obvious to us (and the whole damn town) that Pike’s been head over heels for Henry since high school, but is painfully shy. He can barely talk to Henry at all and it’s the cuTEST GODDAMN THING oh lord help me from this movie.

Throughout the movie, Pike can’t seem to help himself from wanting nothing more than to make Henry happy from afar. He’s supposed to be delivering food cooked by one of the older ladies in town to Henry and his grandfather’s house to eat every night, but Pike cooks his own, exceptionally better meals, and delivers those instead and tells no one.

Now, Henry does notice Pike, and something about him catches his attention. Even if he doesn’t understand why yet. He tries to invite him to stay for dinner almost every night in an attempt to get him to open up, but Pike only becomes more closed off when he notices what’s going on between Henry and Dean. 

I’ll stop there, as I don’t want to give the whole thing away, but I can’t leave this without talking about the town’s residents in this movie. This place is 100% one of those little towns where everyone knows each other as well as their business, you have nosy little old ladies, dudes who do nothing all day but sit on the porch of the corner store and smoke a pipe, and they all go to church on Sundays.

AND YET, not only is this movie void of any homophobia from any character, basically the whole freaking town is all up in this whole love triangle. They support Pike so much that there’s even scenes where they all play matchmaker with him and Henry. They root for them in the goofiest, most loveable way. 

SO BASICALLY, this is a silly romantic comedy, except gay. It’s all super  lighthearted comedy with tiny bits of drama thrown in. No one dies!!!! No one is killed or commits suicide and has a 100% happy ending!!! The three main guys are just normal guys!!! There’s not a stereotype to be found here!! anD ONE OF THEM IS NATIVE AMERICAN. No seriously guys it hurts me that not everybody knows about this movie. I discovered it when I was in middle school in our video store’s tiny little LGBTQ section, and must have rented it 20 times throughout the years before I finally bought it. I know this movie almost frame by frame I’ve watched it so many times because it’s just so disgustingly cute and always makes me happy. NOW, this movie isn’t perfect. It’s got some clunky acting, weird.. I guess artsy moments that don’t make sense, and crosses into the line of cheesy quite a few times, BUT, that’s really not important. This is treated exactly as if it were a het romantic comedy. Their being gay has nothing to do with the overall story, and is never brought up save for a small plotline where Henry is guilty with himself for never coming out to his grandfather. But overall, more LGBTQ movies need to be like this, it’s just way too rare.

GO WATCH IT YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID. Sadly, the only way I know to get ahold of it is to just buy the DVD. But it’s fairly cheap on Amazon! And even cheaper if you buy it used on there, but either way I promise it’s worth it to own. Like I said, I think I kept our video store in business from my renting it so many times.

Oh, and I hope you enjoy country music to some extent because this has the countriest soundtrack of all time.

[expatgirl]

I want to see this so freaking bad but last I checked it’s not on UK Netflix! :( :( :(

[magsmagicalbookblr]

It’s free with Prime video in the UK if you have that.

[thewitchersdaily]

Who wants to know what those herbs are really good for?

[cacen]

fantasy writers have a thing for using Welsh as inspiration for their world’s languages but usually they at least vaguely change the words a bit or at least mix them with other languages, but the author of the Witcher just straight up took rhwydwaith carthion, thought ‘fuck it, that sounds vaguely like something you’d find in a potion’, chucked it into the series and just left it there for unsuspecting Welsh speakers to suddenly listen to Yennefer talk about how the best acid trip of her life came from eating a sewage system

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Oh my god THANK YOU, use of Welsh in the Witcher has absolutely blindsided me

[janeymac-ie]

Oh, then you’ll sympathise with my utter bemusement at a man named Listen Tired. Because that’s what Éist Tuirseach means, folks!

[shadows-and-starlight]

listen, he was tired

[frislander-deactivated20220305]

Gee it’s almost like people want that Celtic aesthetic without properly understanding what comes with that.

[allthingslinguistic]

toss a coin to your translator

[magsmagicalbookblr]

It’s been a long time since I managed to snap a shot for @bibliophilicwitch’s tomes and tea but today I remembered! Coffee and Tim Dee’s Greenery, which arrived earlier in the week.

[glumshoe]

I’ve only read a couple of Discworld books, but I have a question about the afterlife. You get what you expect to get, right?

If there are three brothers, the first brother dies an atheist and simply ceases to exist. The second brother dies with a guilty conscience and is punished for eternity for his sins. The third brother dies an optimist and expects to ascend to a heavenly state surrounded by his friends and family.

Are the other two brothers absent from the third brother’s afterlife? Are their souls/essences/consciousnesses cloned so that they can satisfy both their brother’s expectations and their own? Or is the third brother alone in his heavenly existence and surrounded only by soulless simulacra of his loved ones?

If one of the brothers dies uncertain and doubtful, hopeful for heaven but nervously expecting the worst, are his fears or his hopes validated? Is his anxiety and uncertainty reflected in his afterlife? If so, it sounds like the whole spiritual universe is heavily biased against people with anxiety.

Terry Pratchett come back I have questions and I don’t have enough Audible credits to answer them.

[discworld-headcanons]

I think the equalizing element is that after you die you lose all your illusions and often what you earnestly believed about the afterlife suddenly seems foolish.

The premise is that all your emotions (and if you were cruel, all your delusions about how you justified your actions) are tied to your body. So after you die you see things clearly. If you were anxious and thought you should go to hell you would wake up after death and realize you were basically a decent person and don’t deserve to be punished.

The third brother in your story would probably feel at peace with the idea of moving on alone.

[magsmagicalbookblr]

This. Entirely this.

[neil-gaiman]

Free short stories, essays, audio and video all by me at

https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff

[neil-gaiman]

Because last night the vicar insisted I try on the old priest's hat a dead priest had left him, I'm using two photos of me from last night to remind you all that there are all sorts of free things to read and listen to and watch on my site...

And if you had problems getting into it before the bandwidth has been boosted so it should be fine.