Sarah Rees Brennan

A perpetrator of great cruelty against innocent words. Yes, that's right! Author of IN OTHER LANDS, TELL THE WIND & FIRE, and the #1 Sunday Times and USA Today bestselling meta portal fantasy LONG LIVE EVIL and sequel ALL HAIL CHAOS.

[zisurru]

all I do is collect bastards and empathize with them

[endiness]

i've said this before and i'll say it again: i think lestat's empathy and capacity for forgiveness is a core part of his character and if you remove that, like, what character are you even writing.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Remember when Lil Nas X beautifully explored his sexuality, seduced and killed the devil to the banger of all time, and instead of cheering on this openly gay and proud Black artist for his artistry and fighting back against respectability politics, suddenly said respectability politics was all the Queerest Place on the Internet cared about? Hm. Wonder what happened there.

Anyway I miss him and hope he's doing better with his mental health 🙏🏾

[creatingblackcharacters]

Like say what you want about "bad queer representation", but this was the song that made me openly and happily accept that I was bisexual. To see him up there Black and beautiful, making music that I love, absolutely killing it? Yeah. You couldn't tell me shit. This man made me proud to be out. "This will make them think we're evil for being gay" hey newsflash dawg-

[alwaysfallingdizzy]

When I think of The Golden Cobra, Eric Mitchell, I think of Lil Nas X.

[sarahreesbrennan]

You are a hundred per cent right to do so! I was thinking about him as well. Both his dress sense (I mean, behold the fan) and general attitude.

There is also a reason I have Eric gracefully deploying a literal fan Rae is unsure about holding - and he’s the one who has in-depth correct knowledge about canon, though he’s working with an outdated text.

Lil Nas X ran a popular Nicki Minaj fan account on twitter back in the day. People have a notion in their mind about who fans are, what they look like, that they can’t be creators themselves, and I wanted to build a character who was all those things - cool, Black, queer, gender non-conforming, genre savvy, an intense fan, a celebrated creator and supporter of the arts, someone who embraced the villain aesthetic out of exuberant defiance but always went his own way. It is rough to be loudly joyfully yourself in a world that doesn’t want you to be even quietly yourself, and artistic depiction is discussion, not endorsement.

The week in which I did nothing but read up on the origins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and gnc fashion spanning from the 12th to the 19th century to find overlap was not Lil Nas X’s fault.

Anyway, I’m a fan.

[goodgrammaritan]

Treating everybody in the world as if they mattered would be disastrous for the economy.

All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan

[dduane]

Fabulous editor, favorite houseguest: see you later, old friend. 😢

[sarahreesbrennan]

I’m sorry for your loss. 💔

[goodgrammaritan]

"Hands off!" Rae snapped.

p.3

Rae snapped, "Hands off."

p. 225

"Hands off," Key said simply.

p. 343

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

Aaaaaah the repetition the protectiveness the picking up of each other's phrases aaaaaaah

Bonus:

"I am your king!"

"Hands off, Your Majesty."

p. 343

[sarahreesbrennan]

it goes in threes (well I guess Key said it twice…)

Twice Rae protected a little sister figure (Alice, Lia)

And once someone protected her.

Thank you for noticing.

[marrogerson]

Hello :o)

I just finished my 4th? 5th? Read-through of Sorcery of Thorns and Mysteries of Thorn Manor. I have middling memory issues and with books I forget enough that I can reread them every once in a while and a lot of it is brand new to me. That being said, every single time I read these they just get better and better. Silas just permanently lives in the back of my brain, I think about him so often. To love something that cannot love you back, but does all the same in its own way... There is nothing more that I love about being a human than this, and I adore how much of it is contained in your writing.

Deepest respects

Hi anon,

Thank you so much for taking the time to send this. It's the kind of message that keeps me writing in my darkest hours. If you haven't seen already, there's a short story from Silas's POV available here, because he lives permanently in the back of my brain too. I doubt it's any secret at this point that his character is the reason why I wrote Sorcery, and for me, he's the book's soul. For some reason I never expected so many readers to agree, and it always means a lot to me to hear.

Since @sarahreesbrennan is on my mind right now, I want to give her a shout-out for her Demon's Lexicon series, which fertilized the soil in my brain that eventually gave root to Silas. I read the books during college, and one of the many things I loved about them was that I had never before seen an author write a demon (or similar looks-human-but-isn't character) who legitimately isn't capable of feeling emotions like love, guilt, etc, and explore what that might look like in the context of close relationships with humans, without ever copping out and softening that character for the sake of making him more conventionally relatable or sympathetic. The way Sarah wrote him was formative to my personal taste, and I'm not sure I've seen anyone do it better in my many years of reading since.

[sarahreesbrennan]

While some time later my beloved Holly would put Sorcery into my hands and say ‘you have to read this. This character is SO your bag.’ Said character was Silas, and lo, it was even so.

Stories are our bridges to each other and the moving waters below. Stories are connection. I wrote a book about the kind of thing I like to read, and in time a book came to me that was my kind of book. I did feel pressure to cop out, but I didn’t, and if I had I wouldn’t have received this sincere honour. We never know whether the ripples of change we make might become waves.

Thanks for telling me.

[imaginaryhat]

[aribaran]

This is the spicy gay hockey romance book to read after 'Heated Rivalry'

Queer and nonbinary author Ari Baran just released the cover art for their fifth steamy M/M hockey romance.

hello???? my guys are in out magazine???

[transvestat]

lestat having a musical written about his life by elton john which got negative critiques all across the board and only had a 2 month run on broadway before closing is the most lestat thing that could happen to him

[sarahreesbrennan]

sometimes I think about the fact I am one of very few people who watched it in the flesh

sometimes I think about how many people left during the interval because let me tell you it was easily half the audience and that theatre was not full to start with

[mcfif]

Bürger's "Lenore" mentioned!!!!

I only now realized how fitting that is since it's about a girl and her undead fiancé...

[sarahreesbrennan]

and I knew it first because of Bram Stoker.

Layers within layers. The dead travel fast because they travel by word of mouth and page.

[sarahreesbrennan]

ALL HAIL CHAOS LAUNCH

I haven’t posted properly about my ALL HAIL CHAOS launch yet because I become overcome every time I think about it.

Listen, my meta fantasy with gang of chaos gremlin bisexuals criminals etc and there’s a musical book went over better than I could have dreamed but sequels are tricky and I know I made you guys wait - I was sick but also I knew the book could be better!

But people came! People flew in to come and brought me flowers and one reader said something very insightful about Glacia and Diane Duane came (!!!) and Sarah Maria Griffin did an introduction so sincere and beautiful it made me wish to cry. I’m not very good at being sincere without cracking jokes but I tried to be in this blog post.

Chaos Out In the World

with all my chaotic gratitude

I did try to give a reader a skull. Mistakes were made.

I am so grateful, for those who came and those who were there in spirit.

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

good.store just passed $13,000,000 raised for charity, which is both a lot and an amount that sometimes comes out when billionaires cough really hard.

anyway, why buy your household cleaning supplies, socks, soap, coffee, tea, and more at a regular store that enriches the few when you could buy it at good store and support vulnerable people and ecosystems?

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[mcfif]

Is this...? 🤨

[sarahreesbrennan]

Indeed. :)

I want this series to be a modern metatextual extravaganza so I try to keep my pop culture and literary references pretty balanced as I sprinkle them through the layers. One for you Hozier, one for you Shirley Jackson, one for you Leigh Bardugo, one for you Tennyson.

[theexhaustedmermaid]

I expected to laugh a lot when reading Long Live Evil, but I wasn't expecting that it'd make me sob like that

[sarahreesbrennan]

thank you for your tears

villainously I will not be paying for your therapist

[wolfhill213]

Meaning Of Character Names in Long Live Evil

One of my favorite things to do while reading any book is searching for the symbolic meaning behind whatever I think can have some. Most of the time it's about flowers and names and today I decided to look into the second one. And I think what I found is quite interesting so here you have meaning of some character names 

Disclaimer: I didn't include any names that came from objects (like Key) because their meaning is pretty obvious. Also it would require diving into more etymology and language history study and I’m not a scholar in either of these

Starting of with the main cast:

Rae - short form of Rachel but also can be used as a feminine form of Ray. On its own Ray coincides with an English word meaning "beam of light" but it's also a short form of Raymond and its meaning is kinda interesting. Raymond came from the Germanic name Raginmund, composed of the elements reign "advice, counsel, decision" and munt "protection".

Lia - Italian, Portuguese, Georgian and Greek form of Leath. From the Hebrew name לֵאָה (Leʾa), which was probably derived from word לָאָה (laʾa) meaning "weary, grieved". In the Old Testament Leah is the first wife of Jacob and the mother of seven of his children. Her younger sister Rachel also was Jacob’s.

Emer - The meaning of this name is unknown. It belonged to wife of Irish legendary hero Cúchulainn. In said legends Emer was stated to possess the six gifts of womanhood: beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, wisdom, skill at needlework and chastity.

Eric - Means "ever ruler", from the Old Norse name Eiríkr, derived from the elements ei "ever, always" and ríkr "ruler, king". One of the most famous bearers of this name was Eiríkr inn Rauda (Eric the Red in English), a 10th-century navigator and explorer who discovered Greenland. In England it was popularized in the 19th century due to a children's novel by Frederic William Farrar “Eric, or Little by Little”. I think nothing would describe what the story of this novel is better when author’s own words: “The story of 'Eric' was written with but one single object—the vivid inculcation of inward purity and moral purpose, by the history of a boy who, in spite of the inherent nobility of his disposition, falls into all folly and wickedness, until he has learnt to seek help from above.”

Marius - Ancient Roman name derived from the Roman god of war Mars. It can also come from the latin word mare “sea”. Interestingly in Old English mare means “nightmare, monster”. Also in some old european beliefs variations of these word is used as name to some demons or evil spirits.  

Some other characters:

Rahela - is Romanian, Croatian and Serbian form of Rachel which came from the Hebrew name רָחֵל (Raḥel) meaning "ewe", that in case you don't know is word for female sheep. In the Old Testament Rachel is the favourite wife of Jacob. He was tricked by her father Laban into marrying her older sister Leah first, though in exchange for seven years of work was allowed to marry Rachel too. Initially barren and facing her husband's anger, she offered her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob to bear him children. Eventually she was herself able to conceive, becoming the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.

Alice - From the Old French name Aalis, that is a short form of Adelais, which itself a short form of the Germanic name Adalheidis. Adal means “noble”, and the suffix heit "kind, sort, type". In French the name means "nobleness, nobility".

Vasilisa - Meaning “king”. It’s Russian name derived either from name Basil, that is derived from Greek Βασίλειος (Basileios), or directly from feminine form βασίλισσα (Basilissa) Originally it was a title and term for monarchs. There is a popular east slavic/russian folktale whose main character is called Vasilisa The Beauty.

Hortensia - Feminine form of the Roman family name Hortensius, possibly derived from Latin hortus meaning "garden". Hortensia flowers symbolise: gratitude, understanding, sincere emotions, apology and abundance. Each of these is assigned to different colors.

Horatia - Feminine form of Roman family name Horatius. It was possibly derived from Latin hora meaning "hour, time, season".

Amelia - came from Germanic Amalia which was used as a short form for names starting with amal meaning "unceasing, vigorous, brave, work".

Katalin - Hungarian and Basque form of Katherine. It came from Greek name Αἰκατερίνη (Aikaterine) witch origins are debatable. It could either be derived from Hecate (greek goddess of magic and witchcraft) witch itself probably came from word ἑκάς (hekas) meaning "far off". It can also be derived from an earlier Greek name Ἑκατερινη  (Hekaterine) that came from ἑκάτερος (hekateros) meaning "each of the two". In early days of Christianity name became associated with Greek καθαρός (katharos) from which came its popular meaning “pure”.

Octavian - Ancient Roman name derived from Octavianus, which was derived from Octavius, derived from Latin octavus which means “eight”.

Lucius - Roman name derived from Latin lux meaning “light”.

Ivor - from Old Norse Ívarr, probably came from two elements  ýw meaning "yew tree, bow" and herr "army, warrior". Yew tree itself is a symbol of death and rebirth as well as transition to afterlife, eternity, protection, strength and perseverance. Depending on regional myths and legends it also connect to:

 - ancestral wisdom and continuity of life in Celtic legends

 - Hecate in Greek mythology

Fabianus - derived either from Latin faber, that was a word for a different kind of artisans, or from Fabius derived from latin faba meaning “bean”.

Tycho - Meaning “luck, fortune”. Latinized form of Tyge, a Danish form of Tóki, an Old Norse short form of names containing the element Þórr, from the name of the Norse god of thunder, storms and strength, Thor. It can also come from Tyche, Greek goddess of fortune.

Bonus 

Family names:

Valerius -  Roman family name that was derived from Latin valeo "to be strong". Valerius' family belonged to the patricians, a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome.  

Nemeth - Russian variation of Hungarian surname Németh. It came from német “German” and derives from néma “does not speak, mute”. 

Domitia - Femmine version of Roman family name Domitius. It probably derives from Latin domitus meaning "having been tamed".

As I said at the beginning I’m not a scholar, nor any other kind of expert in matter of language, so if you find something wrong feel free to comment and correct me on that

[sarahreesbrennan]

what’s in a name?

Well, consider the meaning of ‘Nemeth’ in light of All Hail Chaos spoilers.