#fantasy

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Finished Lois Mcmaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion yesterday. Awesome book! The work building supports the story in a great way. She didn't have to invent new words for King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Governor etc. and those annoyed me a little, but it's possible that choice to actually served a purpose. I expected good, having read her space opera and another fantasy trilogy before, and I got great. Now I just have to decide whether I have the emotional energy to read the sequel immediately or not.

[P] Just FYI. Sexism and gender essentialism isn't as hard to spot ae some "genius" auteurs think it is. It isn't big, funny, or clever. And no, "It's not sexist if she isn't human!" isn't an argument, it's friggin' neckbearded incel cringe.

Sooo ... There's a good chance I will lose my job by the end of the year so I'm going to ask all the good people on mastodon if they could share this post as much as possible please!

I have lots of open slots for commissions available: Portraits & Busts, Full Body, Illustration, Other

My style is more semi-realistic/comics oriented so I can do cellshading or painterly, from artistic nudity to character sheet turnaround and various pose

https://artistree.io/yoannart

A scene showing a fantasy rock band, comprised of a sheep-like humanoid bard playing the luth, a halfling ranger playing drums and a human cleric playing the triangle. In the center there's a jumping hedgehog wearing a hat
A character turn-around sheet featuring a humanoid tree with a glowing core in their chest and 4 colored gems (white, blue, red and green)
an illustration of a sligthtly goth-like girl with blue hair in a bun, sitting on a bench and holding some boba tea
a black and white drawing of a woman with thin horn laying-sitting in front of a full moon

Book Quote Wednesday's word is 'old'
Dan Mackmain has learned the hard way to take the advice in traditional stories seriously.
Modern fantasy rooted in British myths and folklore from Wizard's Tower Press.

For a wide choice of purchase options
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-juliet-e-mckenna/the-green-mans-gift/

Cover art by Ben Baldwin shows an otherworldly woman with pale skin, dark hair and opaque black eyes. Mysterious, misshapen creatures lurk in the shadows behind her. Book extract reads: ‘You should still leave well alone,’ Frai insisted. ‘These waifs and strays are no kin to you, or to the swan maidens.’ Before I could ask what she meant by that, the old dryad disappeared. ‘Daniel.’ Asca raised a hand to get my attention. ‘Never set foot in a fairy ring.’ From her expression, that was advice to equal ‘Never start a land war in Asia’. Then she disappeared as well. ‘Fairy rings.’ I looked at Eleanor. ‘More mushrooms.’ I tried to think if I’d ever seen a fairy ring in the pastures around Blithehurst, where the rare-breed cattle graze. I didn’t think I had. I’d never thought about that before. Eleanor looked startled. ‘Frai really doesn’t want us tangling with whoever these people are, does she?’ I had to admit that was unnerving. There couldn’t be much that scared the old dryad. ‘We know iron keeps us safe most of the time. Nothing can get at me when I’m inside the Land Rover. I know where to find rowan trees around here, and there are yew trees in the churchyard in the village. I can follow Asca’s advice and take some more protection with me.’ Eleanor didn’t look convinced.

The Sir Yaden books is a series of novels set in a future universe dominated by the Virasana Empire created by Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus.

They follow Sir Yaden, a young “Lotus Knght” with powerful psionic powers to manipulate planets. In the first book, “The Demon of Hagermarsh,” Yaden meets his future husband, Colin, and in the second, “The Windmines of Bora Bora,” his sidekick Ivan. Yaden assembles more of a family in many of the other books, which now number more than six. The books need to be read in order, as there is an overarching plot about an ancient enemy of mankind returning.

https://michaeljoseph.info/series/sir-yaden/?ref=mastodon

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TymeStarwitch
Audiobook: https://owentyme.bandcamp.com/album/the-book-of-newts-starwitch

The undead queen of the space pirates kidnapped Amelia’s sisters and damaged her ship, leaving her with little fuel. Amelia’s a dead woman without her sisters, forced to attack the pirate’s mountain-sized star ship, despite how slim the odds are…

@bookstodon

(Left) The cover of Starwitch, by Owen Tyme. In the background is a red, orange and white nebula. In the foreground is a line drawing of a red spotted newt, in white. The lines of the newt are outlined in black, to help it stand out. The interior is red, with an appearance similar to stained glass. (Right) In the background is a red and orange galaxy, with a blue core, which bears a resemblance to an eye. It has the following text over it: “First you turn my dog against me, then you steal my ship’s core? What’s next, pulling my teeth?” “We didn’t ask for this! You attacked us! Why don’t you just let us go?” “I might as well cover myself in tartar sauce, then go swimming in shark infested waters! My lieutenants would tear me to shreds, just the same!” (Bottom) https://books2read.com/TymeStarwitch

01

Nothing like an eclectic day after months of editing Book-5.

Yesterday, I setup my journal for April and at last made a diagram of the Brick Palace, which I should’ve done five years ago.

Using the diagram, I’m making fixes to the novella before its targeted edit. What a difference that’ll make, instead of the characters seemingly always in the same room.

I’m already happier.

Be everwell.

BLACK AND WHITE TREMJARA MAP The continent is roughly oval with notable exceptions, the oval tilted southwest to northeast. In the far north are the Frozen Lands, but otherwise the continent is surrounded by three oceans, the Para-Equa in the west, Terminus in the south, and Titania to the east. A long, slim peninsula, along with multiple islands, exists in the northwest. In the west and south are multiple, large islands. The southeastern peninsula is a barren wasteland with some volcanic islands off its coast. There are scattered islands up the eastern coast, most notably Pannulus, a roughly circular archipelago. The continent is roughly divided in half by mountain chains, some more extensive than others. Mountains also exist in other locations, especially the southwest. The west is heavily forested, the east a mix of forests and grasslands. The south desert. The east coast is dominated by the Brillica Cataclysm Region that prevents east and west travel. Some notable locations follow. Mythwyll in the southwest was the elfin homeland. In the west, Forstava is still the ora’ean homeland. In the east, Emprensa was once the home province of an empire. In the northeast, Draskrith is the realm of the shadow lords. Below that, and as noted, is Pannulus. At the continent’s center is nation of Carrdia. It’s surrounded by mountains, except in the west along its border with Forstava, and in the northeast. The continent’s biggest lake is located there, as is the mighty Key River.

Excerpt from my latest edited chapter "Disrespecting the afterlife".

In this scene Lyeasrakardsul finds out why the Knomes don't mind the fumes surrounding their caverns... 😁

@reading @books @fantasy @bookstodon @worldbuilding @humor@fedigroups.social @humor@lemmy.world @aiop






The Last Philosopher: https://books2read.com/b/m0pJYA

Spotting him, the small creatures both jumped up, falling over themselves to fold up a couple of chair-contraptions while waving excitedly at the same time. He had seen less entertaining comedy troupes. Once he was close enough, he saw they were wearing weird dark glasses, which looked even more bizarre than their regular eyes. “Get back in the cave, someone might see!” He made shooing motions, and they obediently scurried off. Close to the entrance, a bird flying overhead all of a sudden dropped out of the sky. “What happened?” “Is fumes master,” the shorter one answered, picking it up. “What are you going to do with it?” He had forgotten this one’s name. “Lunch!” “Oh...eww.” “Bird not important. We wait for master. Good Knomes sorry master upset we wait.” The taller one, Isath, came up and removed his glasses. “Why were you waiting outside, and what’s with all the waving? People might get the wrong idea, you know!” “We keep watch for master, give good news!” “Have you been watching since I left?” “Yes, master.” “What if I didn’t return?” “Good master leave note. Isath trust master.” “It said ‘TF’! “If” things went well!” He was shouting; he hadn’t meant to shout.

Let your imagination gallop with these speculative horse stories. From spaceships bearing gifts to a little girl's wish gone awry, enjoy these tales.

📚💙🪐🐴

https://books2read.com/horsesaremagic