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queensthiefHello! I’ve been an intermittent lurker here for a couple years, I guess, mostly I just silently drop by when I need a fix :)
I was introduced to MWT’s books (and this community too I think) by my sister who is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mortalasabee back when the only one published was The Thief. Of maybe Queen was out but we didn’t know about it right away? Anyway, I have a very distinct memory of reading it in the car on a family vacation and that night trying to sneak out of the camper without getting caught. My sister caught me, of course, and said that after she’d read the book the first time she also spent lots of time sneaking around the house. We are nothing if not dedicated fans!
One of the best days of my life was the day Conspiracy came out. My sister and her best friend and I took the day off, went to a specialty grocery to stock up on fancy cheese and bread and olives, and sat outside, taking turns to read the chapters out loud. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed so hard as when Ty got to the part where Sophos says “I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say, ‘We eat the chicken now!’”
So, yeah. That’s me as a fan. Beyond that my name is Rose, I’m somewhere in my upper 20s and live in the lovely midwestern USA.
Oh wait I’m not done talking about The Thief. Or myself. On my way up to a writing conference this summer I got the audiobooks, which I’d never listened to, and fell back in love with them as deeply as I’d ever been before, and spent most of my time not in workshops sitting in my car and listening, laughing, and even crying a couple times. The second night there I had a dream about two characters having an argument that, when I woke up, I thought was an upcoming scene from King that I’d just forgotten about, and later in the day realized was a scene I’d written myself several years ago in a fantasy story that never really got off the ground.
Since then I’ve gotten inspired to re-work that story because I realized that I failed the first time before because I didn’t like the style I was writing in, too high-fantasy-fake-Tolkien-BS, where what I really like to read is Megan Whalen Turner’s very spare but very precise style. So while my story is very different from hers, it’s been really helpful to me to keep the Queen’s Thief series in mind and try to emulate her style somewhat, because I think with fantasy it’s really easy to get overblown and long-winded.
So…with brevity in mind I’m going to stop talking. But I’m wondering if anyone else here is a writer, and/or planning to do NaNoWriMo this year? My handle over there is gentlest_sin and I’m always looking for new writing buddies :)
Be blessed in your endeavors! -Rose
I was introduced to MWT’s books (and this community too I think) by my sister who is
mortalasabee back when the only one published was The Thief. Of maybe Queen was out but we didn’t know about it right away? Anyway, I have a very distinct memory of reading it in the car on a family vacation and that night trying to sneak out of the camper without getting caught. My sister caught me, of course, and said that after she’d read the book the first time she also spent lots of time sneaking around the house. We are nothing if not dedicated fans!One of the best days of my life was the day Conspiracy came out. My sister and her best friend and I took the day off, went to a specialty grocery to stock up on fancy cheese and bread and olives, and sat outside, taking turns to read the chapters out loud. I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed so hard as when Ty got to the part where Sophos says “I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say, ‘We eat the chicken now!’”
So, yeah. That’s me as a fan. Beyond that my name is Rose, I’m somewhere in my upper 20s and live in the lovely midwestern USA.
Oh wait I’m not done talking about The Thief. Or myself. On my way up to a writing conference this summer I got the audiobooks, which I’d never listened to, and fell back in love with them as deeply as I’d ever been before, and spent most of my time not in workshops sitting in my car and listening, laughing, and even crying a couple times. The second night there I had a dream about two characters having an argument that, when I woke up, I thought was an upcoming scene from King that I’d just forgotten about, and later in the day realized was a scene I’d written myself several years ago in a fantasy story that never really got off the ground.
Since then I’ve gotten inspired to re-work that story because I realized that I failed the first time before because I didn’t like the style I was writing in, too high-fantasy-fake-Tolkien-BS, where what I really like to read is Megan Whalen Turner’s very spare but very precise style. So while my story is very different from hers, it’s been really helpful to me to keep the Queen’s Thief series in mind and try to emulate her style somewhat, because I think with fantasy it’s really easy to get overblown and long-winded.
So…with brevity in mind I’m going to stop talking. But I’m wondering if anyone else here is a writer, and/or planning to do NaNoWriMo this year? My handle over there is gentlest_sin and I’m always looking for new writing buddies :)
Be blessed in your endeavors! -Rose
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Date: 10/23/13 05:19 pm (UTC)I was nodding through your whole description of developing your writing style. I was never much good with Tolkienesque high fantasy (much as I adore it) and realized early on that it really can't be imitated. Well, it can, but you end up with Eragon. (For the record, I loved that book when it was the Next Big Thing and still feel fondly toward it, never mind the rest of the series.) Anyway, I was a teen when I discovered MWT's books and yes, she really has been influential in more ways than even I probably realize. I know her writing philosophy (which I absorbed like a happy little sponge) is partly to thank for the successful completion of my first 'real' novel. Prior to that, I was mostly imitating writers like Robin McKinley or Patricia C. Wrede. But C. S. Lewis was my favorite author, and now that I go back and re-read his books in a more analytical manner, I realize that he too had a down-to-earth, sometimes spartan method of conveying deep themes and rich world-building. I'm still rattling around in my writer box a bit, but I think my unique style is starting, at last, to emerge, and it's somewhere between the lush prose of the authors I read in my childhood and the more focused (but no less complex) storytelling of writers like MWT. What I've treasured most, of all the things I've taken away from her writing, is the freedom to break away from traditional settings and plot devices and have fun with whichever cultures/legends/whatever stir up my imagination. Yay amphorae and pocket-watches!
I've never done NaNoWriMo (too busy with the 90,000 word novel that took me 2 whole years to write) (no knittings were darned in the making of this novel), but I watched some of my friends participate and it looks like fun!
But enough writer babble. 0:) So glad you introduced yourself!
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Date: 10/24/13 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/24/13 03:05 am (UTC)Rose seems to be a popular name hereabouts. Just sayin'.
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Date: 10/24/13 01:35 pm (UTC)I could see why someone might not like them (I really enjoyed it, but don't think my sister did), there seems to be a style of doing voices that doesn't resonate with everyone, and I straddled the line on thinking his Gen-voice (in The Thief) was awesome or obnoxious. But I tend to get way more into books when I hear them read aloud than when I read them, and rarely has a narration style kept me from enjoying a book, even when I don't like the reader particularly. I recently got an Audible account which is the best thing ever (but which doesn't have TT! What!)
if your library doesn't have them I may have a solution for you which would best be spoken of over private message...let me know :)
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Date: 10/24/13 01:36 pm (UTC)Thank you! It's good to be here :)
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Date: 10/24/13 01:53 pm (UTC)Yes, NaNo is really fantastic, the website is great (and you don't have to participate in the actual writing to participate on the site!); there are forums for all manner of things, including "how the heck does this work" where you can post questions on any subject and usually an expert (or at least someone with a strong opinion) will reply back to you really quickly, from really specific, scientific questions to more like crowd-sourcing info-gathering like "My main characters walk into a bar dressed like [X], if you were there how would you react?" I find it useful to have the support and accountability for taking on a project most people in my "real" life don't quite understand or know how to react to.
And yeah speaking of the Midwest - possibly my favorite moment in movie history ever is in Love, Actually when Collin goes to America to meet Exotic American Girls(tm) and ends up...wait for it...in Wisconsin. Hee!
Anyway....hijacking my own post 0:) Nice to meet you!
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