JJ's comments
(member since Nov 16, 2008)
JJ's comments from the Fantasy Book Club group.
(showing 1-20 of 176)
Yes its funny how when reading a long book, you can be sometimes influenced by what the characters eat or drink. I know this happened to me while reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings as my consumption of tea increased dramatically during this time. They always seemed to have tea to relax and talk, so I did likewise.
As far as alcohol is concerned, the Gor series by John Norman had much details of wines and other beverages and even how they were made. Many of these were based on drinks from Greece or Rome, which apparently could be as high as 80% alcohol, but usually watered down. You can make many of these drinks yourself.
The best example i have seen of a drink becoming available was from a game called Eve Online. In the game could be seen fantasy advertising for a drink called Quafe. The game company did eventually market this drink for a short time from their website for $1.50 (USD) for a single bottle. The drink had a lemon-lime taste.
Maybe one day a novel will have a alcholic beverage marketed to the public.
Have read The Hobbit 3 times, with the most recent being last year.
Welcome Sierra, great to hear that your school has a Fantasy Writers Club and that your the President. It's a fantastic idea to have school writing groups for the writers of the future.
Hi Donna, series can become a addiction. Terry Brooks has a long series so expect you will be reading them for awhile. Great to have you with us.
Welcome to the group Josh, John and Amelia.
Josh i did visit Michigan about 8 years ago and stayed in Petoskey. Really enjoyed my stay there at this very old hotel on Little Traverse Bay. I did go and look at Hemingway's old holiday house, where he was inspired to write his Nick Adams stories.
John, I remember when Stephen Donaldsons Thomas the Unbeliever was first released. Nearly every backpacker travelling around Australia seemed to be reading it, which is why it caught my attention.
Amelia good to hear you have an English major and like Intellectual discussions. So maybe you will be interested in Maria's discussion of the Hobbit next month, as she is a Lecturer in Creative Writing.
Happy 30th Birthday too !
Welcome to the group Maria. Am looking forward to your discussion of the Hobbit during December, it should be very interesting.
Welcome also to Jim and hope you find our group enjoyable.
I am happy to announce that Maria Arena shall be leading our December discussion for The Hobbit. Maria is a University Lecturer, Tutor and Course Co-ordinator for Creative Writing. Her third novel is soon to be published.
So a warm thanks in advance to Maria for leading this discussion.
Thats very funny Viktoria !
I found this interesting article about a boy 9 who has published his first fantasy book. Manuel Alguacil from Madrid, Spain read the Lord of the Rings at 6 in 2 weeks, then read the entire Harry Potter series. His story is called 'Thok, the Vain Dragon' and sold 1000 copies on its launch.
Christopher Beale is the worlds youngest author at age 6 with his story This and Last Season's Excursions.
Manuel Alguacil, 9, publishes his first book Thok, the Vain Dragon
lol it would be. I like how she always had a great love for reading and met her husband while he was building bookcases for her. They married and bought a bookshop together.
I am keen to hear the views of members in regards to the quality of writing in the fantasy genre. These days you can see a fantasy author write one novel and if it becomes a success, suddenly it may spawn into an extra large series of many paged novels. This may be due to publisher’s requests and the saying 'if you’re on a good thing stick to it'. But is the quality of the writing being compromised with extended volumes filled with drawn out words and plots that are only to keep readers buying more books in the series once they are hooked.
The fantasy genre has been a very successful one of late with the Lord of the Rings being declared by some as the book of the twentieth century and then the start of this century we have seen the great success of the Harry Potter series of novels. Fantasy tales of giants and monsters have been around from the beginning of time and now it has started to become seen as a genre worthy of value to publishers. Authors are now self publishing and becoming successful and daily we see new authors spring up and sell in large quantities. The fantasy genre once had a very small space on the book store shelves stuck in amongst the science fiction novels, now it has grown and slowly is being seen as a genre worthy to stand alone.
Does fantasy writing need to be of a high literature standard or is just a good story no matter how well written, all that is needed?
Some links of interest on this subject:
Reflections on Fantasy writing
Effective Fantasy Writing
"Fantasy opens the door to experiencing the magic that is in the world around us and more importantly the magic in ourselves. As a genre, fantasy is about moving from our world into the world of experiences beyond. By tapping into those experiences we come to know more about ourselves." - T.A. Barron
Christy, what makes you suspect that John Twelve Hawks could actually be Nora Roberts ? Am interested to know as some have said it could be Dan Brown or even Stephen Hawkings. From an interview i read Twelve Hawks claimed he was a first time published author.
Those links still dont work so will repost them here plus a few others that may be of interest:
John Twelve Hawks Homepage
John Twelve Hawks would like YOU to be John Twelve Hawks
Cryptic 'Traveler' has book world buzzing - from www.usatoday.com
Interview with John Twelve Hawks - from www.sffworld.com
Very Interesting ! So who is John Twelve Hawks ? :-)
You have many to choose from but i shall add another.
Australian author Ian Irvine has many strong female characters who take lead roles in his series 'The Three Worlds' of which the first book is A Shadow on the Glass. The series is now 11 large volumes and he intends to write more.
Well worth a read of the first book in the series.
From
Chapter One: Tears from Steel
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose around the alabaster spire known as the White Tower. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
The complete Chapter One is now available online at:
Chapter One: Tears from Steel
Audio is also available.
Tor now has the first chapter of 'The Gathering Storm' 'Chapter One: Tears from Steel' available for viewing online at their website for registered members. There is also a audio version available.
'The Gathering Storm' - 'Chapter One: Tears from Steel' at Tor
I will put forward two suggestions which have won recent awards, both are considered Young Adult Fantasy.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Winner of the recent 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Newbery Medal Winner (2009)
Locus Award, Young-Adult Book (2009)
Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fantasy & Science Fiction (2008)
British Fantasy Award Finalists (2009)
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
Printz Honor Book, 2009.
Nominated for the World Fantasy Award 2009, yet to be decided on for winner.
Winner Best Novel at the Ditmar Awards 2009
Shortlisted for the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Great to see you have taken over as Pollster Mod, Chris and a big thanks goes out to Becky for all the work she done for the group as the previous Pollster Mod.
Great to see an Australian author is in the running, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. I know the book has received a lot of controversy for various reasons, such as the gang rape scene. So will be interested to see how it goes.
I found that interesting the site you posted Louise, as always wondered how payments were made to Authors whose books were loaned from a library.
From that site:
Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right for authors to receive payment under PLR legislation for the loans of their books by public libraries. To qualify for payment, applicants must apply to register their books with us. Payments are made annually on the basis of loans data collected from a sample of public libraries in the UK.
The two main methods of calculation are as follows: (a) payment on the basis of how often an author’s works are lent out; and (b) payment per copy of an author’s work held in libraries.
I also found these additional links for PLR.
Australian PLR
International PLR
There are no PLR systems in the United States, South America, Asia or Africa.
With all the interesting postings from Janny Wurts book of the month The Curse of the Mistwraith, i have decided to read this novel instead. Only wish i had started earlier before the discussions began.
Fantasy Book Club
