#I seem to be completely incapable of producing a post that is a reasonable length

[void-occupation]

Whatever you do, don't think about how the song "Remember Everything" by Five Finger Death Punch fits Halt and his childhood trauma to a T.

I'm not going to go into a full analysis. I'm not going to go into a full analysis. I'm not going to go into a full-

FULL ANALYSIS AHEAD (disclaimer: "Remember Everything" does not belong to me)

"Dear mother, I love you. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough. Dear father, forgive me. Cause in your eyes, I just never added up. In my heart I know I failed you, but you left me here alone."

Halt talks about how Ferris was the favorite child, and how his parents fought all the time. We all know by now about Halt's tendency to blame himself for things (as seen in "The Battle for Skandia" and "Erak's Ransom"). He probably blamed himself for his parents arguing all the time - hell, he literally said that he refused to tell his parents that Ferris was actively trying to kill him because he thought that Ferris was the only thing they cared about and he didn't want to take that away from them. Even though it was his choice, Halt was a kid. He probably felt at least a little bit abandoned and betrayed that his parents didn't seem to even notice anything amiss before Halt ran away.

"If I could hold back the rain, would you numb the pain? Cause I remember everything."

Something else that is touched on in the fourth book is Halt's tendency to deflect conversations that confront him on his fears and such. It's a fairly offhand note, but it has some pretty big implications. Halt has this need to make sure that everyone else is okay, while simultaneously ensuring that no one ever sees his suffering. He is constantly shielding other people, and feels guilty when he requires that same protection.

"Dear brother, just don't hate me for never standing by you, or being by your side."

I refuse to believe that Ferris was the murderous evil twin from the start. There was probably a very large portion of heir childhood where Halt and Ferris were close, before Ferris became obsessed with the crown. That would be a good reason why Halt only suspected Ferris later on. I feel like Halt would spend a lot of time telling himself that it was something he did that sent Ferris over the edge, and he would blame himself for the betrayal.

"Dear sister, please don't blame me. I only did what I thought was truly right."

I can't be the only one who thinks that Halt always regretted leaving Caitlyn behind, but he knew it was either that or kill Ferris, which is something I don't think he would ever be capable of doing. He loved his twin too much.

"It's a long and lonely road when you know you walk alone."

I know that Halt wasn't technically alone, and he became part of a massive found family, but not being able to tell anyone about the things he went though, and the people he left behind as well as his reasoning would have been isolating - if not crushing - for anyone. Hell, no one knew his real last name or anything about his past for just about 24 years. Not even mentioning the fact that when he finally admits it, he is 41 years old, so he has hidden this for well over half his life, not counting the 17 years he actually lived in Clonmel. That is a long time to carry around huge amounts of trauma without telling anyone who cares about you.

"I feel like running away, I'm still so far from home."

This one is fairly obvious. However, it is not talked about nearly enough that Halt is a runaway. Let that sink in for a second. What do you think of when you hear the term 'runaway' in reference to a child? For most, it's the thought of a kid escaping an abusive household and living on the streets with nothing but a backpack filled with belongings. That was what Halt did at 17. Except he had to go all the way to a foreign country to escape his situation. And the only person he ever saw from home again was the person who had made him leave in the first place.

"I'll burn it all to the ground before I let you in."

This is pretty much Halt's whole philosophy on showing any sort of emotion to people. He didn't smile around Will until months into his apprenticeship, and it took years until he was able to summon the courage to tell Will the truth about his mother. And again, the whole 24 years of absolute secrecy about his childhood doesn't exactly show someone that is willing to open themselves up to others.

"Please forgive me, I can't forgive you now."

Halt still blames himself for the rift between himself and Ferris, but he is also consumed by hurt and betrayal over the fact that Ferris cared more for the crown then he did his own brother, and I can't blame him even a little bit for feeling that way. Especially considering that when they do finally meet up again, Ferris shows no real sign of regret for his actions.

All-in-all, this just feels like a violently Halt-esque song. The pain and regret is something I think his character suffers a lot of, and this captures that really well.

If you made it to the end of that ungodly ramble, kudos to you because holy hell, I think I was temporarily possessed by the god of angst.

#halt o'carrick #ferris o'carrick #caitlyn o'carrick #halt's parents #there's seriously no tag for that?? #ranger's apprentice #will treaty #five finger death punch #I seem to be completely incapable of producing a post that is a reasonable length #someone take tumblr away from me #character study #“Halt Go To Therapy” Challenge: fucking failed #What The Hell Are You Talking About I Am Completely Normal About This Character

[princip1914]

A few thoughts on writing longfic

I’ve had this post brewing for a while and I figured since today is a Friday I might as well let it out into the wild. 

First off, this is not writing advice. I don’t feel qualified to give writing advice. This is a few observations I’ve made over the course of trying to write something that feels, well, long. Fandom is full of excellent authors writing long chaptered fic, but I don’t see a lot of people talking about how they go about producing such fics. I remember feeling like long fic was really out of reach for me when I started writing again in the summer of 2019 after not writing for years and years and I wanted to talk a bit about how that changed for me. Of course, this post comes with all the caveats that there is no need to ever write long fic if you’re not feeling it. Some of my favorite authors write mostly or only oneshots! But, if you are interested, here’s my lengthy, self indulgent, and entirely personal take on ~the longfic process~ below the cut. 

First, to get this out of the way: long fic is anything that feels long or complicated to you, the author. “I’m working on my long fic” can mean that you’re branching out from microfiction to write something that’s 2k long, or it can mean you’ve got a multi-part 800k epic. There’s no objective measure of if something is “long fic,” Your own personal definitions can also change as you grow in confidence or change your focus as a writer (a little over a year ago when I finished Doubt Thou the Stars are Fire topping out at 31k, that felt very very long to me. Now it feels….still long, but not very very long.) 

Here are a few specific things that helped me write something long. I don’t know if they will be interesting for anyone else, but at the very least writing these down has been a fun way for me to reflect on my own process. 

Practice exercises. Ok, this is going to sound exceedingly obvious, but writing one shots prepares you for writing chaptered fic. Here’s what I mean more specifically: if you know you want to write (as a totally hypothetical example) a chaptered fic set in America in the summer that relies heavily on a nature metaphors, is written out of chronological order, and features a melancholy tone--it helps to write a few one shots like that before you embark on the Big Fic. Just like artists tend to do sketches before starting a big piece, it’s very helpful to write something small that gives you a feel for the ~vibe~ of what you’re trying to do in the long fic. It’s helpful for all the usual reasons--you get to know a specific version of the characters which helps plan out a character driven plot for the long fic--but it’s also helpful because you will learn if the tone and mood of the fic has enough staying power to capture your interest for the long haul. For instance, I have a few unfinished chaptered fics that have a humorous tone. I wish I had done more short humorous fics before starting them, because I would have realized that I don’t currently have the mental stamina to hold up a humorous tone for the length of a chaptered fic (hopefully that will change and I will finish Last Days some time this century!). 

Plan it out ahead of time. I used google sheets for The False and the Fair. I do not think God intended google sheets to be used for fiction, but that was not going to stop me. On a more serious note, I think the best tool for planning fiction is the one you’re the most comfortable with--the notes app in your phone, handwriting, word, google drive, sheets, chalk board, summoning circle, the blood of your enemies, etc. The reason I chose to use sheets is that I knew from the very beginning that I wanted certain things to happen at specific places in the story--for instance, I wanted the first kiss to happen at the end of the first third of the story and I wanted the “reveal” about the mine accident to happen at the end of the second third of the story. But, I didn’t know what was supposed to go in between those elements. A traditional outline for a story at this point in development might have looked like: 

Meet cute

Kiss

Reveal 

Ending 

But, what my brain needed was to preserve the blank spaces in between these story elements, and specifically to preserve the right amount of blank space between these story elements so that it didn’t end up, for instance, that the first kiss was halfway through rather than a third of the way through. In this way, I found google sheets an invaluable tool for pacing in the early parts of the planning process. I simply made 30 rows assuming 30 chapters, and started plugging in the elements I knew I wanted in the locations I wanted them. Then I filled in the blank spaces by asking myself “how do we get from X plot element to Y plot element in Z amount of chapters.” I’m not a mountain climber, but I’ve often thought about the first things that go into the spreadsheet in terms of mountain climbing terminology.  In climbing, a crux move, which can be anywhere along the route, is the most difficult move of the route: if you can’t do it, you can’t do the route. I think of the first things that go into the planning spreadsheet as the crux moves of the story, the most important pieces around which everything else turns. It was not an accident that those were also all the first scenes of the fic that I wrote; if I couldn’t do those scenes, I couldn’t do the story the way I planned it so I wanted to know early on if I needed to make changes.

Make changes if you have to: even though it helps to have things planned in advance, don’t resist the story if it tries to change on you while you’re writing it. Usually the feeling that you have to make changes stems from having a plot that is not entirely character driven. As you write the story, the characters reveal themselves and sometimes the plot has to change to change with the characters’ motivations. Here’s an area where fanfic writers have a leg up on everyone else: if you write fic, you already know the characters really well. That means, (in my experience anyway) it’s less likely that you’ll have a surprise character development which leads to a rethinking of the whole plot. Less likely, but not completely unlikely, unfortunately.

Lie to yourself: The False and the Fair was supposed to be 90k words. I thought that sounded reasonable, a little less than 3x the longest fic I had ever written. Now it's 161k and will probably top out a little over 170k. Ooops. But I never would have set out to write something that long. I wouldn’t have thought I could do it, even though anyone more experienced looking at my plans for the fic probably would have laughed at the idea I could cover all those plot points in 90k. Ignorance is bliss. Protect your ignorance.

Scrivener: Long fic for me means “fic that is long enough you can’t hold all the parts of it in your head at once.” That’s where Scrivener comes in (or another app if you’d rather, but I really like Scrivener for the ability to see the project either linearly or as condensed notecards). You can put together an organizational scaffold in Scrivener that allows you to move back and forth between the forest and the trees. So, for instance, you might be going for a jog and come up with the perfect line of dialogue for chapter 27 when you’re only up to chapter 5 in terms of writing progress. With Scrivener, you can go home, and put that dialogue in the “bucket”/index card/whatever for chapter 27 without compromising your ability to see chapter 5 clearly or muddying up your google doc. You can then use the fact that you’ve started writing bits and pieces of the later chapters in conjunction with the tool of lying to yourself that, actually, you’ve written a lot more of the fic than you realize and that when you get to chapter 27 it won’t be as hard as chapter 5 because you’ve put in the groundwork already. In my experience, this lie turns out to be true about 50% of the time, which is better than 0% of the time.

Digestible mini arcs: The False and the Fair was originally broken up into thirds. I thought it would be 90k and 30k was the longest I had written, so thirds seemed to make sense. Also, 3 is a nice, time honored storytelling number. I think it’s good to give yourself seemingly achievable milestones along the way to completion. These milestones (for me anyway) lined up well with the “crux moments” I’ve described. If you’re someone who likes to write out of order, writing your way to an already written milestone can feel like sailing to an island where you get to rest for a bit from the stormy seas before setting out for the next island in the archipelago.

“It's all part of the process”: I’m categorically incapable of describing things without resorting to running metaphors, and so I apologize in advance, but I am now going to do the insufferable thing of comparing writing a long fic to running a marathon. Here’s the thing with a marathon. You are not going to feel good every step of the way. We all know this. It’s a marathon, it’s supposed to hurt a little bit, especially at the end. In the same way you literally cannot write something novel length or even novella or long short story length without, at least at some point, feeling bad about yourself and your writing. But you also can’t run a marathon if the whole thing is agony, and for most people, it’s not--your meat sack shuffling along the course is subjected to the slings and arrows of all sorts of weird body chemistry that only happens when you push it to its limits. So, you’ll be in agony and then the endorphins will kick in for a while and you’ll be thinking “this isn’t nearly as bad as everyone said,” and then you’ll drink some water at a rest stop and feel like a God for half a mile before you crash and you’re in agony again until that one perfect song comes up on the playlist...and you get the idea. Writing something long, for me at least, is a bit like that. There are massive ups and downs. The key for me is to just understand it’s all part of the process, a necessary step on the way to the finish line. If the fic is 10 chapters long, at some point you have to write chapter 5. Just like you have to write chapter 5, at some point you also have to go through a bit of despair before reaching the end. It is unfortunately non-optional. In fact, despairing is something you can check off your list each time you’ve done it. Cut dialogue tags, check. Feel awful about my writing for thirty minutes, check. Write ending section, check. Often I feel that the stress and shame and fear that come with bad emotions while writing are worse than the bad emotions themselves. It really helps me to remember these emotions are all part of the process and nothing to worry about. If I didn’t have them, then I would worry! 

I certainly have plenty more to say about writing, but this ramble has gone on long enough. If you’re interested in any of this stuff, please feel free to send me an ask. 

I would also love to know more about everyone else’s writing processes, so feel free to pop into my ask box to talk about your own approach too! I am very interested in this stuff! 

#long post #writing #fic #princip's fic #princip writes #princip's musings #longfic #how make words go

[ts-unpopular-opinions]

if you don’t mind me asking why don’t you respect thomas as a person anymore? i’m not trying to be rude or jump to anyone’s defense, i’m just genuinely curious.

I have been getting a lot of asks like these since I mentioned that I’m still upset with Thomas and although I’ve covered it multiple times on this blog, I will go ahead an explain it again because I’m tired of people telling me how to feel.

Here I will complie a list of all of the reasons why Thomas just does not rub me the right way sometimes. That being said, i recognize that Thomas is a very good actor and is a very talented man. He may have things going on in his life that I don’t know about, but the opinion I’ve formed of him is simply based on what I’ve observed and I am willing to change that if he shows reasons for the things that he does. I’m in no way trying to “demonize” Thomas here or make him out to be some crazy, rutheless being. I simply just dont vibe with some of the choices he makes and things he does. So here we go...

1) Thomas appears to have a pretty big ego. He constantly posts pictures of himself on his social media instead of using the platforms as most youtubers would: to communicate with fans about his content. He is okay with fans contantly worshipping him like a god and living off his every word. Even during his birthday he would retweet videos of people literally cellebratig his birthday with cake and candles, and that is just so odd to me... Theres nothing wrong with having a lot of confidence in yourself, but its simply something that rubs me the wrong way.

2) Thomas is a really awful business man. As I have mentioned time and time again, Thomas is running a business here, just like most youtubers with his level of fame. He has merch, a huge following, and a membership program. Despite this, Thomas continues to act as if his youtube channel is just a fun past time for him. His schedule for video releases is atrocious and I’d be surpised to find out that the team even schedules dates for things at this point. To an outside fan it just seems like they release a video whenever they want to or whenever they finish it, with no prior end goal in mind. Thomas treats his job as if it is an opinional past time, and as someone who is in college, works in a fast food job, and has an internship I cannot respect that. The man has no work-life/personal-life separation and it shows... He’s hired all of his friends to work for him and gets work done at a snails pace because of it. He always says that the team is working hard and getting things done, but never has anything to show for it...

3) Thomas is very bad at communicating with his fans. For having such an outstanding and die-hard fanbase, Thomas takes them for granted. Instead of giving fans insight on video release dates and production, he opts to say nothing simply because he doesnt “want people to get mad at him for being wrong”. I don’t know about anyone else, but that is just so messed up to me... You keep all of your adoring fans in the dark simply because you dont want to face the concequences of you not getting your work done is a timely manner? This bothers me a lot... especially when a lot of fanders are paying to get “extra information” when in fact the livestreams are simple Joan and Thomas hanging out and joking around with a very rare, almost completely absent mention of future videos.

4) The babying issue. Thomas has to recognize that his fans baby him and treat him like a breakable doll all the time. This not only makes him incapable of taking and responding to criticism, but it makes him shrug off responsibility all together. If his fans never give him concequences for his actions and simply praise him to no end, then he just keeps going what he’s doing and ignores any ouce of negativity because of it. The fanbase has babied thomas into thinking that he can do no wrong and will never be criticized, and it shows. Never once has he formally sat down and just talked about the concerns people like me and the anons that come to my blog have.

5) This is a newer one I realized with the most recent episode. The whole Trump joke threw me off guard because, while I don’t support Trump, I KNOW there must be fanders who do. And Thomas must have known this when allowing the joke into the show. It’s very inconsiderate to subtly manipulate your fans like that when this show has frankly nothing to do with politics. Had a fan been watching that who has their reasons to support trump, they may have felt alienated and hated by Thomas and that just insnt cool. This isnt the only instance of Thomas being manipulative with his fanbase. He constantly thanks and praises those of his fans who baby him and worship him while ignoring and never talking about those who have criticisms. This make fans who have concerns feel as though their worries make them terrible people and they shouldnt say them. Is this blog is anything to show for it, fanders are scared to speak about how they feel. Thi has created an extremely toxic environment for open discussion, but thomas continues to let it go on.

6) Money. Everyone, believe it or not, but Thomas makes a LOT of money. He is not an independent creator that films and edits videos all by himself simply for the fun of it and not for the money. This is his career. He is a business man and the owner of this company. His goal is to not only produce content, but to make money. And boy does he make a lot of it... Here is some math i did on my own to figure out just how much (granted it is not perfect, but it should give everyone a realization that Thomas is nowhere near the independent artists and authors that they constantly compare him to...):

-The average youtuber with 1m subscribers makes $57,200 a year from ad revenue. Thomas has 3.36 million subscribers so 3.36*57,200 is $192,192.

-The last member livestream has 1.5k views and each member is giving thomas $5.29 per month. So per month thomas is making 5.29*1,500 from members, or $7,935. Per year, Thomas the recieves 7,935*12 from members, or $95220 (obviously this number could be a little smaller because I’m sure youtube takes some of that money)

-Apart from this, Thomas also sponsors nearly every video on his channel that is a decent length. (I’ll admit that the math for this part is up to a lot of interpretation because I have no idea how Thomas sponsorships are handled, but I will do my best). Alright so, youtubers charge brands anywhere from $10 to $50 per 1,000 views, to be forgiving I’ll do the math using the lowest price. On Thomas’ most recent blooper video, he had 736k views. If we divide that by 1000 thats 736. So 736*10 is 7,360. And that is just one sponsorship at the lowest price. I’m not really sure how many sponsorships thomas has done, but in the last year it seems like about 5 (the blooper, asides episode, gay disney prince, intrisive thoughts, and SvS). So that is 5 sponsorships per year, 7,350*5 or $36,800.

-So total income before considering merch sales and by assuming the lowest numbers for some areas is $36,800 + $95,220 + $192,192 = $324,212

Now with all of this in mind... Thomas makes so much money. Money that I could never even dream of coming by. And he does this with minimal uploads and scamming his members into continuing to pay him even through month long periods of no content. Thomas doesn’t even need to make videos at this point, the money that he drags out of his fans is already plenty. And then, not only does he have all of this money, but he uses it for fun trips and adventures those of which he brags about on his social media. He went to new york and saw three broadway shows, he went to vidcon and took a weeklong vaction there. He bought from what I saw, at least three playstations and games for different friend and family members. He is in no way struggling for money... and instead takes money from his adoring fans when he has no content to show for it.

#thomas sanders #ts unpopular opinions #ts unpopular answers #ts discourse

[cathygeha]

Bree’s orderly scientific life turned upside-down the day she discovered her first body…learned her co-worker was a spy…and accepted the mission of tracking down an international terrorist.

Out January 15, 2019 – The Tiger’s Tale by Kelle Z. Riley

Follow the tour and enter to win one of 10 backlist ebooks!

Enter at: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b050ef29602/?

Title: The Tiger’s Tale

Series: The Undercover Cats Series

Author: Kelle Z. Riley

Genre: Cozy Mystery with Romantic Elements

Publisher: Curtis Brown Unlimited

Length: 350 Pages

Release Date: January 15, 2019

  Synopsis:

Is she hitting her stride? Or going nowhere fast?

Fresh from a successful undercover operation, scientist/spy-in-training Bree Watson should feel on top of the world. Instead, the ground is shifting under her feet. When her handler abandons her to follow a lead with his sexy ex-partner, Bree must choose between a normal life, or proving her worth as a spy. Not an easy choice, when she factors in:

A police detective’s amorous intentions

Her handler’s mixed signals

A teaching post at a university filled with intrigue

A dead administrator with a sordid past

A timid tiger and her tenacious trainer—both being framed for murder

Combined with fanatic football fans, beatnik poets, an orphaned monkey, a demanding boss, quirky colleagues, and her angry cat, the result may be a recipe for disaster.

Can she take the heat? Or will she get burned?

Find out more at: Website | Goodreads | Amazon

Early Praise for The Tiger’s Tale

“With unique, intelligent and captivating storylines, and best of all, relatable characters who you find are quite easy to develop an emotional attachment to, I can’t turn the pages fast enough.” ~ Goodreads Reviewer

EXCERPT ONE:

Six months ago, Bree had been a confirmed dog person—until she'd inherited a cat from her murdered boss. Now, she held a tiger by the tail. Or rather, by a leash. But when it came to tigers, the difference was just splitting hairs.

Bree scrambled, following the energetic cub over the dusty, rock-strewn flatlands of the Thailand Tiger Sanctuary. It tugged on the leash, intent on exploring. Sweat trickled down her back. Her foot caught on a rock and she stumbled when the wayward cub pulled her forward.

A strong male hand grabbed the leash and jerked the tiger back onto the path. Bree suppressed a shiver of awareness and turned to Matthew Tugood, both grateful for—and irritated by—his presence.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” he grumbled. “Why are we here again?”

Bree resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. “You know my sorority is donating a rescued cub to the Terrance U animal clinic.”

He scowled at her. Or maybe the sun was in his eyes. “I cut through the red tape for the donation. Not your sorority. Not Terrance University. Not the exotic animal clinic. Me.”

She ignored him and focused on her tiger cub. Tugood slowed, widening the gap between them and the tour group. “Let me rephrase. Why are we spending the day in a tourist trap?”

“I wanted to meet the cub’s trainer and get firsthand experience.”

Matthew answered with a grunt. His mouth firmed into a tight line as he scanned the horizon, squinting against the bright sunlight. “You’re wasting time you could spend preparing for your assignment.” His voice dropped low and he kept his eyes trained on the distance. After a slow pivot, he leaned close, his breath warm on her ear despite his harsh tone. “Or have you forgotten about your mission?”

Bree disentangled the leash from his hands. “I liked you better before I knew you were a spy.”

“No, you liked my cover story.” His voice softened, and he glanced her way. “That’s not the same thing. And you do like me now. I happen to like you too.” Despite the ninety-degree heat, a shiver raced down Bree’s spine as if he’d touched her.

“What I don’t like is that you never stop thinking about your mission. Not for a minute.”

“Lower your voice. We don’t want to be overheard.”

Bree eyed the terrain, wondering if the clumps of scrub grass and rocks were cleverly disguised surveillance devices. She dismissed the idea. “Can’t you think about something besides the mission?”

“May I remind you that my single-minded focus on the mission saved your life on more than one occasion?”

Bree dropped the argument. For one thing, his interference had saved her life when a murderer—make that two murderers—had wanted her out of the picture. On the other hand, she hadn’t found a single dead body before she met Matthew. So, in her mind, it was a toss-up.

“I need you to focus on our mission.”

“Fine. You’ve made yourself clear.” Bree shrugged. “Next topic.” Beside her, Matthew bristled and Bree took secret delight in being able to needle him the same way he constantly needled her.

“Our target is convinced you’re a brilliant researcher with access to cutting-edge technology.”

Bree stopped in her tracks so fast, the tiger cub did a backflip at the end of his leash. She whirled on Matthew. “In case you’ve forgotten, I am a real researcher, complete with a PhD in science. Just because my cover story involves a fictional company doesn’t negate my real experience.” Behind her, the tiger cub let out a noise—between a growl and a whine—as if to support Bree’s statement.

“Your science degree isn’t the only reason you’re an asset to the Sci-Spy organization.”

Another yowl accompanied by a tug on the leash made Bree turn back to her tiger cub and hurry to catch up with the group. Tugood kept pace, his voice low and insistent. “Like it or not, your days as a simple researcher ended when you signed on with Sci-Spy.”

Bree stopped at the edge of the tour group and turned to Matthew. “Please. I need a day to do something fun. Something…normal.”

Across the clearing, a tiger roared, shaking the ground under her feet. Soon she’d be photographed with the massive animal.

Bree held Matthew’s gaze. When he nodded in reluctant agreement, she turned to the group, but all thoughts of fun—and normal—had fled at Matthew’s mention of their target. Tomorrow, she’d confront a terrorist and try to uncover his network of associates.

Compared to that, even the quarter-ton tiger seemed docile.

EXCERPT TWO

“Hey, beautiful. Welcome home.” A familiar voice interrupted her trek to the exit. James O’Neil stood by the doors, his thousand-watt grin almost hidden behind the bouquet of flowers he held. She must have smiled in return, because he moved in and wrapped her in a bear hug, crushing a few sprigs of baby’s breath between them. “I’ve missed you.”

James wasn’t pretending when he offered her affection. And after months of keeping the handsome detective at arm’s length while believing her relationship with her spy handler went beyond pretend, maybe it was time to rethink her decisions. Having something—someone—in her life that wasn’t complicated tempted her more than she cared to admit.

“I can offer a ride home, American comfort food, and anything else you desire. But for starters—” James bent close and his lips captured hers.

Bree didn’t pull away. For years, she’d fought to be smarter, tougher, and more driven than her male colleagues just to be taken seriously. Not giving up when the going got tough was ingrained in her DNA. Even so, the process severely limited moments where she could let her guard down. Being a spy was even worse, because it kept her constantly—

Damn. James stiffened and drew away, as if sensing her wandering thoughts. The look on his face sent a prickle of unease down Bree’s spine.

“What’s wrong?”

“We seem to have gathered an entourage.”

EXCERPT THREE

“How—” James paused and rubbed his forehead, wincing as his fingers dug into the inflamed sinus area. Across his desk, Bree sat, notebook in hand, looking at him with an expectant gaze. “How on earth do you get involved in these things? You’re like the angel of death, finding murder wherever you go.” He mentally kicked himself for the accusatory tone in his voice.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to assume it was murder until after a thorough examination of the evidence.” Bree lightened the mood with a wink and a smile.

James grunted. “A man is found dead in his office with claw marks on his chest and a dented skull. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t an accident.”

“You do know Lucky isn’t responsible, don’t you?”

“The tiger?” That’s what she was worried about? She and a student were found with the body and her first thought was for the tiger? “I doubt malice aforethought is part of a tiger’s attack plan, if that’s what you mean. Even so, we’ll probably have to put the cub down.” He reached across the desk and covered Bree’s hand with his own. “I’m sorry. For both you and Ning.”

Bree gripped his hand with her free one, tightening her fingers in a demand for his attention. “No, you won’t have to put her down. Lucky is incapable of producing those claw marks.”

“I know you think the girl had her under control, but the scratches are consistent with—”

“With something else. James.”

Shit. After listening to Bree’s explanation, his hopes for a quick resolution to the case disappeared faster than witnesses at a mugging. James pulled his hand from Bree’s grip and opened a steno pad. “Things are not always what they appear to be,” he murmured as he scribbled.

Author Bio:

Kelle Z. Riley, writer, speaker, global traveler, Ph.D. chemist and martial artist weaves bits of her real life into the Undercover Cat Series books. The series features a scientist-turned-sleuth who juggles mystery, romance and the search for a perfect cupcake recipe.

By day Kelle is a full time chemist working in water treatment with multiple U.S. patents. At night she turns into an author whose accolades include finals in the RWA Golden Heart and numerous chapter contests. More information on her workshops can be found on her website. You can also visit her online at the following places: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | BookBub | Instagram | Goodreads | Pinterest

1/14/19

Sofia Loves Books - Review

OrangeCountyReaders - Spotlight

Oh Hey! Books - Spotlight

Joyfully Reviewed - Spotlight

Ladytechie’s Book Musings - Spotlight

Reads All the Books - Spotlight

TBR Book Blog - Spotlight

We All Make Mistakes in Books - Spotlight

1/15/19

Just Books - Spotlight

Always Reiding - Spotlight

Cathy's World - Spotlight

Delish, Devine and All Mine - Spotlight

Natasha's Book Nook - Spotlight

Reese's Review - Spotlight

Teatime and Books - Spotlight

Yearwood La Novela - Spotlight

1/16/19

A Chick Who Reads - Spotlight

Book Lovers Reviews and Recommendations - Spotlight

Cat's Guilty Pleasure - Spotlight

Dog Eared Pages - Spotlight

Nikki's book nook - Spotlight

Romance Reviews Today Blog - Spotlight

The Power of Three Readers - Spotlight

1/17/19

A Soccer Mom's Book Blog - Spotlight

Books,Dreams,Life - Spotlight

Celticlady's Reviews - Spotlight

I Love Romance - Spotlight

OMGReads - Spotlight

Sea's Nod - Spotlight

The Reading Diaries - Spotlight

1/18/19

Paulette's Papers - Spotlight

Triple A - Review

Cuz I'm A Nerd - Spotlight

I Need to Read That - Spotlight

Once Upon a Book Blog - Spotlight

Tangled Hearts Book Reviews - Spotlight

THE WORLD AS I SEE IT - Spotlight

http://www.barclaypublicity.com/

#Kelley Z. Riley #Barclay Publicity #Undercover Cats Mystery #Cozy Mystery #Romantic Elements

[canonicallyanxious]

2016 fanfic year in review thing???

I was tagged by @accioinvisibilitycloak. Thank you very much! I can never say no to the opportunity to egotistically brag about my own writing lol. I tag any fic writer who follows me and feels like doing this shiz. Especially @rumpelsnorcack and @boxesfullofthoughts. But everyone else too!

Total Number of Stories Completed: According to AO3, 13

Total Word Count: AO3 says 325,198 [AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OH MY GOD]. Again, slightly skewed because 1. The longest fic i wrote on my own, is it the right word?, was mostly written in 2015 and 2. Anywhere between 80-100k [idk though???] was actually written by Lyds as part of our collabs, most notably one lifetime with you [again, a good chunk of which was written in 2015] and everybody begs to be redeemed [but also including our amazing hersula fic all but the brightest stars which is still lowkey one of my fave things we’ve written together]. Still, taking all of that into account this puts me, like, solidly in the 100-200k range which. Like. holy shit. What even am i doing with my life

Fandoms Written In: nmtd/lll, Voltron, the get down, check please!

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected? WAY MORE HOLY SHIT??????? I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW I WAS CAPABLE OF PUMPING OUT THIS MANY WORDS WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING WITH MYSELF WHERE DID I EVEN FIND THE TIME I HAVE NO MEMORY OF WRITING ANY OF THIS

What’s Your Own Favorite Story of the Year? This is!! Very difficult!!! I wrote many things that I am proud of!!! Obviously anything i write with Lyds [olwy, ebtbr] is going to top the list because i just feel like writing with them really brings out the best in me [cue the cheese]. Iitrw I’m proud of because it is, in my estimation, the best novel-length thing I’ve produced in my life. And I’m super proud of i will implode with you (‘cause everything will be all right) because, like, i love holsom with all of my soul and being and i think that fic has some of my best characterization

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year? Uhhh i think i spent the whole year like pushing myself in terms of trying out different voices, different tones, different atmospheres… So on that front I’m pretty happy with the risks i took because like i tried my hand at a lot of different kinds of fic and i think it really helped me feel more confident in my versatility as a writer but also in my ability to sound like -myself- across different styles. Also I definitely took some risks in terms of the really out-there tropes/au ideas, writing things that I was interested in rather than what the fandom at large might be into. Some of which were more successful [ebtbr, all of olwyverse; do you see a trend here in terms of what I’m most proud of lol] than others [iitrw], but I’m proud of myself for taking that jump anyway.

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year? Ideally I would like to step away a little from fic this year but realistically, considering I’ve told myself for like over a year I’ll step away from fic, who knows if that will actually happen lol. Regardless i am probably going to continue writing fic but i would like to see if i can keep my projects on the shorter end [by which i mean, like, fewer than 50k words. I have high expectations for myself] so i can focus more on school, the future, etc. [aha oh boy……..]

As for profic, i do actually have some concrete goals for this year! I have an original story I’ve affectionately dubbed “delinquent lesbians” [though it’s a bit of a misnomer considering neither character involved is really a delinquent, and at least one of them is not a lesbian; i will not talk about it here but like if anyone is curious i will not object to rambling about them you just have to be Prepared for how much i can talk about them lol] that’s been tossing and turning in my head for the better part of a year i would really love to bring to life at some point. Also! I will not say too much on this topic yet because we don’t know if it will pan out, but Lydia and I are cooking up some of our own original collabs!! I am really excited, guys!!!

Best Story Of The Year? Isn’t this the same as favorite story of the year lol. I guess it’ll have to go to olwy because, like, how can it not go to my and lydia’s 130k word epic monster of a child

Most Popular Story Of The Year? the advantage of withholding your honesty zimbits soulmate au by a long shot

Story of Mine Most Under-Appreciated by The Universe, IMO: iitrw mostly just because i put over a year of work into that bad boy and happened to post it when the fandom shriveled up and died, every femslash thing I’ve ever written in my life

Most Fun Story to Write: olwy!!!! Most of my other projects were absolute hell to get through at one point or another tbqh

Story with The Single Sexiest Moment: Errr i don’t really write “sexy moments”. I guess like the closest I’ve come to is the make out scene i wrote in the fourth part of i will implode with you?? It’s, like, a paragraph lol

Most Sweet Story: I um don’t usually associate myself with “sweet” stories [see: the 130k words of magical angst in olwy, the 78k words of clone angst in iitrw, the 40k words of pacific rim angst in ebtbr; not only am i apparently incapable of writing anything other than heart wrenching tragedy, i write a whole fucking lot of it] but i guess this one would have to go to sing me, baby, home which is probably the fluffiest thing I’ve ever managed to write in my life [i still can’t believe i did something like that lol]

“Holy Crap, That’s Wrong, Even For You!” Story: No spoilers but this would probably have to go to what lydia and i did to Holster at the end of ebtbr [TO BE FAIR IT WAS THEIR IDEA but i wrote it so… yeah…]

And uh also iitrw is based on a pretty fucked up book so like. It’s a pretty fucked up fic just by nature of the beast

Story That Shifted My Own Perceptions Of The Characters: Hm. Well I’d say pretty much every fic i write changes the way i see the characters, especially if it’s the first time I’m writing them. If only because inevitably i will find a way that i can write the POV character as anxious in some capacity lol

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: Okay this is kind of not specific to 2016 but honestly the fact that there are a handful of tropes i keep on beating the hell out of [STARGAZING; long distance relationship; summer romance] probably says a lot about me as a person [that i like soft night time content?? That i like things with twinges of melancholy and sadness and wistfulness?? That i grossly overuse night time/day time/star/sun imagery??? All of the above?????]. Also… i put a lot of myself and my anxiety into olwy!balth so… it might not seem like it but he’s probably the [version of the] character I’ve allowed myself to write the most like myself because i have serious problems with projecting on my faves lol. I was going to answer “the fact that i lowkey hate soulmate au’s even though i actually wrote one” but, like, that was 100% intentional and I kind of want everyone to know that

Hardest Story To Write: this is actually a hard question to answer because i struggled with, like, every single one of my major projects last year. I think in general i struggled the most with omgcp fic for some reason because like the characters’ voices are so incredibly distinct it’s hard to really capture them imo?? There was a point i almost gave up writing the soulmate au’s because they were so hard to do lol

Biggest Disappointment: That lyds and i will never be able to finish our plans for olwy verse. That we probably won’t be able to get to the sequel to ebtbr we were planning either. That I don’t have the time to turn my zimbits pride and prejudice AU into the Austen novel-length clusterfuck it was always meant to be [i hope i can expand on it at least a little more in the future though!]. That i will never write the 10 things i hate about you rosa/jaquie epic the lll fandom deserves. That i didn’t write, like, any original fic??? Seriously dude what are you doing =[

Biggest Surprise: Mostly that i was physically capable of putting out this much writing like completely for free lol. If only i could be this productive in my own real life endeavors

#sarah does writing #sure i'll do a thing #geez i can't shut up about my own writing lol i'm sorry

[yan-li-chiang-blog]

Walking vs. the Internet

(By Chiang, Yan Li)

Simply put, Jack and Jill went up the hill.

Hills may be crossed with roads.

Roads involve slicing b r o w n, bashing

g r e e n.

Simply put, there they go round the mulberry bush,

The mulberry bush,

The mulberry bush.

There they go round the mulberry bush,

Path winding, nonconforming.

A dune, nor Jill’s hill, nor mulberry shrubbery—

A dune begins with an obstacle heavy enough so it may resist movement by natural forces such as rain and wind. Air currents swivel around the obstacle creating eddies, such that air within the sand load moves with lower speed and weaker force, while air without moves at higher velocity and with greater intensity. This creates a load of sand that accumulates around the area, further entrapping more sand by creating a greater eddy in the air currents. Formations with undulating ridges and depressions are formed, known as dunes.

The 3 Dunes Challenge at the Indiana Dunes is a 1.5-mile loop where 3 of our tallest dunes, Mt. Tom, Mt. Holden, and Mt. Jackson, greet you. If you are lucky, you may see much of the wildlife in our dunes, and look beyond the coast for a wondrous view of the Lake Michigan!

If you peeped @ Tom

Holden & Jackson, they are crescents of a lop-

sided silver-studded wing

a sliver of

a keratin cuticle too deformed to fly.

All this sand fluttering

grain

by grain

by grain by grain

by grain by grain by grain;

more than the $cales of Aileron of the dead

taking flight under the Invisible Hand

of the wind economy.

April continues with another snow storm.

The blue snowflakes of the Midwest

Are no more.

I run out of quarters for laundry.

Nature runs out of inch-long wingspans.

    As of 2015, the endangered Karner Blue butterfly has not been found during springtime at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which has sparked worry amongst officials that they might be extinct. Alongside roadsides power lines, and paths, the Karner Blue or a while was spotted to live “in a fenced-off three-and-a-half acre patch of sand in the parking lot of a shopping mall.” Nature Conservancy Karner blue expert Dale Schweitzer in 1994 wrote that only in the dunes had he seen Karner blues “in pristine habitats (prairie like openings on or at the base of steep slopes).”

On behalf of the Karner blue army,

        for whom the savannah lupine and only

                this savannah lupine would do.

In support of the Karner blue kaleidoscope,

        for whom the dunes provides

                a sandy and flowery little paradise.

I would like to thank you for all your                Continued Sanction

of our national parks as places

that must be preserved

and protected

for every generation.

====

Working Notes

I wanted to experience with mixing media (pictures, text, and also textual forms of presentation) as inspired partly by Paterson but also by the BARGE project in which a good mix of non-fictional research information, history, and site pictures are intermingled with perspective poetry and imaginative narratives of Treasure Island. In particular, I was interested in looking at how the Indiana Sand Dunes that I visited was a natural habitat that was also preserved for the enjoyment of human beings, and how the difficulty of preserving wildlife species is a consistent struggle what with ignorant visitors and natural conditions seeming to conspire against the survival of certain species.

My main concern in this piece is whether the mixed media used is too confusing to be effective. I also wonder if I had strayed too far from the assignment by moving beyond a place to touch on other elements of the place such as its wildlife, and specifically the Karner blue butterflies and caterpillars that I did not manage to spot in the fields while in the sand dunes. Unsurprisingly so, since they have been missing from the state park (previously in high abundance) since 2015. Yet I feel like the 3 Dunes map, in looking like a deformed butterfly that is possibly incapable of surviving in the wild and of procreating due to its geometrical asymmetry, is almost too good of a comparison to the Karner blue species and its struggle for survival.

Furthermore, I found it hard to remain factual and comprehensive while also connoting emotion. However, the preservation of Karner blue butterflies involves a fine balance between excessive human interference and complete negligence, both of which can decimate the Karner blue population. Perhaps it is an issue that I would need a greater page length and some non-fictional context (such as in the beginning of an anthology for my final project) to put into perspective. I would like to explore adding more research elements into the assignment by working on other possible media formats, such as newspaper articles, lists, etc.

For now, there are two things that I felt happy about in this assignment. Firstly, I liked that interpreting a geometric delineation helped me to draw connections between the shape of the Dunes and that of the very species that faces endangerment in the Dunes, although the effectiveness of this parallel in the poem section, leaves much to be desired. Secondly, I like my last stanza in which I employ the words “Continued Sanction,” where “Continued” is preceded by an almost contradictory break so as to force readers to stop and consider if such a generous statement is true of human beings’ contribution to the environment, or if we are really self-serving in conservation efforts. Is anything that human activity does ever contiguous or consistent as a whole? I particularly like the word “sanction” since I feel like it means both one thing and its opposite, and this ambiguity lends some shade to the final stanza in terms of its critique of human responsibility and contribution/burden to the environment.

PRIOR TO FIELD VISIT

I wanted to start planning for my final project upon advice that it would be timely to begin putting together a concrete writing plan so as to angle my subsequent mid- to late-quarter writings my final project. In particular, I am interested in exploring the environmental impact and significance of the endangered Karner Blue butterfly. I find this topic apt for fieldwork and also for my final project for several reasons. Firstly, the Karner Blue butterfly was once found in significant numbers in the Indiana Dunes National Park, which is local enough for me to access via Chicago’s trains. This makes for feasible fieldwork. Secondly, almost serendipitously, the Karner Blue has a subspecies discovered and named by the writer Vladimir Nabokov, which then appears either as a metaphor or as actual fieldwork segments integrated into a story plot in his creative works (Pnin, arguably Lolita). To have a writer and on-the-side lepidopterist who takes great interest in a species now facing an ecological crisis, and a writer whom I greatly admire at that, has compelled me to focus on the issue at hand with much severity. To begin my final project research, I find that using this assignment as a launchpad for exploring the natural habitat of the Karner Blue, that of the Indiana Sand Dunes, is perfect.

FIELD NOTES

The nature of the sand dunes, and that of the sanctity of a national park, meant that I did not want to disrupt the natural environment as far as was possible. The sand dunes, then, demanded that I record their geometrics with my footprints (following trails to prevent soil erosion!). In particular, I started off from the tourist center and chose to embark on the 3 Dunes Challenge as recommended by the guide on duty that day. This would give me opportunities to come into contact with the shorefront, but also explore a good part of the sand dunes and revel in some of its geographical undulations.

(Photographs of my field notes have been made available via the hard copy submission. I also have a .pdf of the writings, but that I was unable to upload here due to size constraints.)

POST-FIELD VISIT RESEARCH

I have uploaded the post-field visit research notes on a working document that I will consistently update throughout this quarter so as to accumulate enough knowledge to produce my final creative project. They are too long to be reproduced here for this assignment alone:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E3dXb66KUXJcnvPKR6oRUZihDygnTjsIPW4hkPkwltk/edit?usp=sharing

This section extracts information regarding the Indiana Sand Dunes Park:

The Indiana Sand Dunes National Lakeshore “hugs 15 miles of the southern shore of Lake Michigan” and is 15,000 acres wide with 50 miles of trails over dunes, wetlands, prairies, rivers and forests. It may be accessed by and is bordered by the Highway 12.

The Dunes refers to the area of the state park as well as that of the national lakeshore. The sand is known as “singing sand” due to the way it whistles under the feet. They were formed by the recession of glaciers around 14, 000 years ago. Lake currents, glacier deposits and wind contributed to the formation of the sand dunes around 2000 years ago. The dunes are held together against soil erosion by plant roots. When human activity is too invasive off the dune trails, blowouts of the sand by wind may occur.

Amongst featured wildlife, the oak savanna areas of the sand dunes sustains the Karner blue caterpillars and their highly restrictive diet for survival.

Inland from the beaches, sand dunes are almost 200 feet tall with wetlands filling depressions between the dune ridges. The biological diversity is amongst the highest per unit area of USA’s national parks with over 1100 flowering plant species and more than 350 species of birds.

The interesting connection of the dunes region to surrounding borders can be described by its two other non-Dune distinct landscapes, that of the Morraine and Kankakee regions. The Wisconsin Ice Sheet pushed south from Canada grinding against the land 14000 years ago. As the climate warmed the glacier melted back to the north and so its debris forms the hills of the Morraine region. The waterway region evolved eventually to the St. Lawrence continental seaway divide. Water on east of the Morraine flows into Lake Michigan and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. The opposite side flows in the Kankakee River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.

There are also Kettle Lakes that are remnants of glacier ice that melted and settled into the landscape, as well as marshes and bogs that formed as result of glacial retreat that left sand deposits that were semi-wet.

Source:

https://www.nps.gov/indu/learn/nature/index.htm

http://www.indianadunes.com/video-podcasts/#indiana-dunes-orientation

http://www.indianadunes.com/video-podcasts/#environment-and-ecology

#yanli #week5 #dunes #finalproj

[projectsuminda]

World Building June 2017 - Day 23: The Sky (Orenya)

Yes, I did do this for Solevaille - look at the post directly before this one for that.  However, I decided that since there is so much to say about Orenya’s sky (due to it being its own planet with a lot of strange cosmic phenomena going on), it required its own post.  Here goes...

As I mentioned in last year's Geography prompt, the magisphere tints the sky a slight purple, and that plus the fact that the sun is red means that in Rumia, the hue of the sky ranges from a light periwinkle in Drenlin to lilac in Hakushiari to a deep lavender above the Three Sisters to mauve in Sharun and a dark indigo in Azuhala (remember that the latter two are in the twilight region of the planet).  Only above the Angry Sea at the very center of Rumia is it a sky blue in hue, and even then there are purple wisps floating about.

Because Orenya has a very thick atmosphere (which is vital in making the temperatures more stable in its tidally locked state), most stars are invisible even from the darkest parts of Zurem.  In western Zurem where heat flows from either Taburoi or eastern Rumia, the magisphere clouds the sky further, making it appear a very dark and smooth purple.  While this does not happen as much in eastern and northern Zurem (the Aurora Mountains block this effect), instead it has auroras to obscure the sky.

Auroras result from Moredriva's solar wind reacting with the magisphere, and given how strong this solar wind is what with how close Moredriva is to Orenya (remember that Moredriva is much dimmer and smaller than Earth's sun), the reaction produces energy pulses in the sky that may be many colors or barely perceptible.  But even more stunning is the aural patterns, which may even form shapes in the sky.  For millennia, sunestre mystics have employed this as a form of divination, particularly for predicting world-wide events.  Nowadays this is one key job of the Miamin.  Even in Rumia an aurora-like effect produces similar distortions in the sky, though given the overwhelming presence of sunlight, these are less noticeable.

As was also mentioned in last year's Geography prompt, the Void in the middle of Zurem is an ideal stargazing spot.  This is because it is so sheltered from Moredriva's light that the aurora does not reach it, meaning that when there are no moons in the sky, especially when the bright star Reimindra is also absent, the place lies in almost complete darkness and the other stars become more visible.  Notably, unlike on Earth, there are no fixed constellations, as they are not visible on other parts of the planet anyway.  However, during a "dark night" (no moons or Reimindra in the sky), there is a festival held on the Lonely Hill at the edge of the Void where people create sketches or even photographs of a sort of the sky (the latter involves spells that mimic the effect of a magic pen) and draw their own constellations with them, coming up with stories and legends behind the one they saw.  The festival has a very unique name: the Constellation Festival (yes, I know, I'm such a genius when it comes to names).

What is perhaps most important about the Orenyan sky is the movement of its four moons (and Reimindra to a lesser extent) across it.  Of the moons, the silvery Telwenthe, which is about the same size as Moredriva in the Rumic sky, moves the fastest, its orbit lasting about 21 Earth days.  Eldarien, the verdant "forest moon", is the second-fastest, taking approximately 27 Earth days to orbit the planet.  Next is the metallic not-quite-round Parushai, with its orbit of 58 Earth days (about twice as long as an Earth month).  And the big, slow, blue-mist-covered Kalena really takes its time, its month lasting 216 Earth days, or seven Earth months.  Fun fact: its orbit is also the exact length of most pregnancies among land folk, or time as an egg among the fylin, and thus the position of Kalena in the sky at the time of birth has a great astrological significance.

Here is some other data about the moons: Smallest to largest (as seen in the sky): Parushai, Telwenthe, Eldarien, Kalena Smallest to largest (actual size): Parushai, Eldarien, Telwenthe, Kalena Distance from Orenya (closest to farthest): Eldarien, Parushai, Telwenthe, Kalena Brightest to dimmest: Parushai, Telwenthe, Eldarien, Kalena

The distortions in the magisphere also slightly affect how the moons appear in the sky.  In most cases this merely manifests as a rippling effect around its edges, such that unlike on Earth, new moons are perfectly visible in most of Rumia, as people will see a bright purple "halo" around its edges caused by this.  The brightness of this halo is especially evident in Eldarien, given its closeness to the planet. However, Telwenthe and especially Kalena produce weaker halos, due to their gaseous surface.  But since Telwenthe's mists are so thin, the halo affects the surface of the planet as well, leading to an interesting array of colors, especially to the sumiri given their partial perception of ultraviolet light.  Though Kalena produces a weak aura if any, it still remains visible as a hole in the aural disturbances in the sky, as it forms a shield against the solar wind. The moon is especially visible if it passes close to Moredriva.  And finally, Parushai produces the most stunning halos due to its reflective surface, such that it looks like a multi-colored star rivaling Reimindra in its brightness (yes, Reimindra is bright enough to be visible even there; it is the only star that is so).

In Zurem, though, these halos are not as prominent, since more of their visible surface is seen.  (The moons are always at least half full in Zurem, whereas they are only crescents of varying thickness in Rumia.)  The aural disturbances, even the aurora, do not affect the appearance of these moons much, but they can interfere with the moonlight absorbed into the magical herbs of Zurem.  Therefore, dedicated herbalists learn to coordinate their herb growth and harvests with celestial activity.

But perhaps the most stunning phenomena seen in the Orenyan sky are eclipses.  With so many celestial bodies present in close proximity, these are much more common than on Earth.  While we're still on the topic of Zurem, let's talk about lunar eclipses first, involving a moon passing through Orenya's umbra.  This is the only way for any of the moons to appear less than full, and in fact, partial eclipses are very common among the moons.  Even Kalena, which is incapable of a total lunar eclipse due to its size and distance, will occasionally have the umbra pass across it as a round shadow.  On the opposite side of the planet, the same thing will happen with partial solar eclipses, and due to the relative dimness of Moredriva compared to Earth's sun, the obscuring of its surface is more apparent.  Oh yeah, that's another thing I forgot to mention: unlike on Earth, it is perfectly safe to look directly at the sun here, even in Drenlin where it's at its brightest, without worrying about eye damage.  Unless you're a sunestre anyway, as they are particularly sensitive to sunlight.

Total eclipses, as you might imagine, are the most spectacular of all.  Now, on Earth, a lunar eclipse appears reddish due to the way sunlight bends around the atmosphere.  A similar phenomenon occurs on Orenya, and this is evident in the rarest total lunar eclipse of all: that of Telwenthe, which turns a very bright shade of scarlet, magenta, or even crimson.  Total lunar eclipses of Telwenthe are so rare because the moon is just barely small enough to be completely obscured by Orenya's umbra.  And since it moves very quickly across the sky, the eclipse is also very brief, lasting the equivalent of only a few Earth minutes.  More common are eclipses of Eldarien, given how it's smaller than Telwenthe and closer to Orenya. During such eclipses, Eldarien usually turns a shade of brown due to its natural green hue mixing with the red light, and in myth, this leads to a legend of a great dark force killing off all of his forests so that they can be renewed (when Eldarien emerges from the umbra). Parushai, notably, all but disappears during a lunar eclipse, due to his small size.  Partial eclipses with him are actually rarer than total ones because of this.  However, flashes of red may glisten on his reflective surface.  In myth, this is seen as him getting into mischief in his mother's (Moredriva's) absence.

Now on to solar eclipses. Remember how I said that Telwenthe looks about the same size as Moredriva in the sky?  Therefore, its eclipses (also brief and rare for the same reason as the lunar ones, though not as much) allow a stunning view of Moredriva's corona, which may appear a very bright pink or yellow due to its deep red hue.  Many red and purple flashes of light fly across this corona, leading to the myth of him getting into a violent fight with his mother during this time.  Also, because of his thin misty surface, the outer edges appear a dark reddish-purple. Eldarien's solar eclipses also allow a view of the corona, but a much fainter one since he is somewhat larger than Telwenthe and Moredriva in the sky.  However, the eclipse causes the sky to darken more, and also lasts longer.  But it doesn't last nearly as long as Kalena's solar eclipses, the most drastic of all due to how large and slow he is. Moredriva's corona is only visible at the very start and end of the eclipse, during which only a very faint and very dark purple halo surrounds the moon as the sky becomes as dark as that in Zurem.  These eclipses are also a good stargazing opportunity, but not for seeing more stars in the sky - rather, for seeing strange patterns that the magisphere seems to draw among them.  Certain Zuremic herbs are said to induce powerful prophetic visions in people which can be seen in the sky at this time... and so, the economy all but shuts down here, forming an extended "night holiday" lasting anywhere from one to seven Earth days (the longest being when Moredriva passes behind the very center of the moon).  On the other side of the spectrum is Parushai, which is too small to eclipse the sun completely... but does produce a stunning light show when in front of her, featuring bright flashes of amber and gold.

Here is a summary on the frequency of eclipses: Frequency of solar eclipse (most to least): Eldarien, Kalena, Telwenthe, Parushai* Frequency of lunar eclipse (most to least): Eldarien, Parushai, Telwenthe, Kalena* * Incapable of such an eclipse.

But the cosmic phenomena do not end there.  Oh no.  One notably strange type of phenomenon unique to Orenya (and other multi-mooned planets) is the existence of intralunar eclipses, made when the moons shadow each other in the sky.  There are many different types of these, and I could write an entire ten-page essay on them if given the chance, so I'll try to describe these as succintly as possible here.  Some of these occur in tandem with lunar or solar eclipses; for example, when Parushai moves in front of another moon during a solar eclipse, it produces its most stunning light shows yet, and according to myth, said to "tease" his brothers when their mother is not looking.  With lunar eclipses, sometimes more than one moon will cause one at once, leading to said moon obscuring the other.  One notable time in history, Eldarien happened to eclipse at the same time that Telwenthe did, which caused much disappointment as it hid the latter from view.  But when Telwenthe was still visible, its surface glowed in a blue to magenta gradient in Eldarien's umbra... a perfect example of a "pure" intralunar eclipse where the sun and the planet are not involved at all.

#world building june #wbj2017 #orenya

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Why some people crave goodies extra than others

It’s that time of the night time once more: it’s been some hours since dinner and now your belly is starting to rumble. Your hunger senses are tingling and those insatiable cravings pressure your thoughts to wander into the world Extensive Net of snacks.

Crave Goodies 

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But what are you craving: is it candy or is it savory? Have you ever wondered why a few people have an aversion to candies while others seem to devour, stay and breathe sugar? Curiously sufficient, the answer lies in our genetic makeup.

Earlier than we delve into understanding why a few human beings have more of a sweet tooth than others, we need to speak about why we have a “sweet tooth” in the first place.

The reason why humans like sweet ingredients stem from our instinctual senses. For animals, sweet meals are attractive because the sugar inside goodies is high in energy, which then interprets to a chemical signal for nutrients. extra nutrients then correlate to a creature’s survival. Furthermore, animals can come across those ingredients as a sign of protection because sweet things in nature typically are not poisonous.

Animals, humans blanketed, make use of this candy sense as a means of survival. This then increases a query about the inconsistency among humans having a large sweet enamel and those who don’t as an awful lot.

A latest have a look at performed by way of Monell and the QIMR Berghofer Research Institute indicates that an unmarried set of genes in each person impacts his or her belief of sweet tastes. A lead researcher in the look at, Danielle Reed, compares one’s genetic inclinations toward sweets as similar to someone born with a listening to the obstacle.

Simply as a person who’s born with a hearing impediment may also want to concentrate on music at a better volume, someone with a weaker flavor for goodies may also crave added sugars in their weight loss plan because they aren’t as sensitive to them.

Certain people are clearly born with the incapability to meet his or her taste for sweets. these people then need to devour more to satisfy their cravings. The versions in people’s taste receptor genes rationalize why a few people select candies than others.

But while senses vary from character to character, they also range between one of a kind age businesses. A one not unusual piece of know-how is that youngsters generally tend to like sweeter ingredients more than adults do. This concept is likewise based on genetics.

youngsters’ robust options in the direction of ingredients extremely high in sugar are connected to their development. Related to the survival instincts that reason animals to crave sugar for its excessive caloric and nutrient intake, children desire sugars because they are nevertheless developing. From an evolutionary point of view, youngsters with a higher caloric consumption are much more likely to survive thanks to receiving enough nutrients.

The Monell study also located that there is not tons proof that hyperlinks environmental influence with someone’s belief of sweetness. This finding discredits the perception that individuals who are exposed to extra candies are more likely to have a bigger “sweet tooth.”

With all of this new fact discovered about our sugar consumption, scientists were gaining knowledge of ways in which people can fight an excessive amount of sugar in their diets. There are numerous dangerous consequences of ingesting an excessive amount of sugar which can have an effect on your frame each externally and internally. The human yearning for sugar, still innate as a result of our evolution, now not serves us the identical cause that it did inside the beyond, at least not the massive quantity that Americans devour on average.

The sugar within meals nowadays is not the identical natural and helpful sugar as turned into present inside the environmental fruits and such. The synthetic sugars within meals today probably have cancer-causing sellers and are not healthy resources of nutrients. With this new information, scientists now have the hazard to higher apprehend human cravings and pioneer approaches to pacify those senses for the betterment of our fitness.

Yearning candies? Weaning Your self Off Sugar

Inside Edition

One of the hardest conduct to interrupt is the addition to learning goodies. Pressure, vacations, vacations, weekends, fatigue, emotional highs or lows are all distinctive reasons that I start to crave cookies, chocolate, donuts, ice cream or soda. Yum! Yes, I may be a sugar-catholic and mainly around the holidays, boy does I pay a rate! From my candy indulgences, no matter how small, it sets up the cycle for yearning sugar. Consuming sugar compromises the immune machine and the waistline so getting lower back into exact Eating behavior and getting the sugar out of the residence is constantly a difficult However top precedence! Our brains and our bodies are mind-blowing machines and as soon as we intoxicate our flavor buds with these types of terrific goodies, our cells and our brain start a cycle of yearning sweets!

Humans clearly crave sweet flavors and while we do it’s simplest to reach for a sweet bar or a cookie. it is compact, it’s brief and it’s fulfilling! yearning goodies stand up out of our bodies need for electricity. While you feel worn-out and you consume sugar, your body converts the sugar to glucose which fuels our cells and offers a lift. This rush of electricity is often followed via a crash and we feel tired, hence sending us on a roller coaster ride of learning extra sugar to create short strength, accompanied by every other crash.

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate. while we consume sugar, our pancreas secretes insulin and converts it to glucose, which receives stored in our cells for energy. while our cells are full and don’t want extra, it receives stored as fats. So one can convert the glucose to fats, the frame produces greater insulin. those regular spikes in our blood sugar tiers motive the sugar molecules to connect to proteins, that can harm cellular walls. The damage ends in irritation and irritation compromises the immune machine. This cycle can leave us feeling lethargic, worn-out, and hungry. It additionally units the frame up for an entire host of sicknesses.

Now carbohydrates have actually gotten a bad rap over the past decade as excessive protein, low carb diets have come to be the rage. However, not all carbs are alike! simple carbs are located in processed food, white bread, pasta, candy, cookies, pie, soda, fruit drinks, and so forth. easy carbs also are found in fruit. But, end result also is high in fiber. Fiber slows digestion and the quantity of sugar that flows into our cells. Fruit is likewise complete of micronutrients that work synergistically inside our-our bodies to produce a bunch of different blessings, especially inside the usage and absorption of vitamins and minerals. the end result, specifical berries, are also excessive in antioxidants.

Complicated carbohydrates are found in veggies and complete profits. The sugar is sure in the meals’ fiber. The body approaches the sugar by means of breaking down the fiber. This takes time allowing the sugars to be absorbed into the bloodstream at a regular rate. This affords the durable energy you want to get through your day!

crave definition

To wean Yourself off the sugar, you need to be prepared with something to attain for when the yearning hits you. Under is my pass to recipe for something pleasing whilst I’m trying to quell my sugar urges. Try to contain a few sweeter vegetables into your eating regimen I.E. organic corn, carrots, beets, candy potatoes, butternut squash. Get some fruit inside the house, and reduce it into chunk length slices. Apple slices with some almond butter are delicious and easy. Blend your almond butter or peanut butter with chocolate protein powder for a Nutella-like treat. You can update your sweetener with stevia, coconut sugar or crystalline fructose from beets, rice or low glycemic fruit. You could also devour high-quality darkish chocolate (70% cocoa), which has less sugar than regular chocolate. Freeze chunk size bananas or berries and eat them as opposed to dessert after dinner. I have also observed that one or dates are very pleasant. I’m a massive fan of protein smoothies for breakfast or an afternoon picks out me up with clean fruit and almond milk. You may even add a shot of coffee in your vanilla or chocolate protein smoothie! Below is a recipe for protein truffle balls. I make these in batches and freeze them. That is what I attain for while I’m craving candies.