Marie Brennan's Blog, page 111
September 22, 2016
Lisez-vous dragons en français?
That’s right, the second book of the Memoirs of Lady Trent is out now in French! Merci beaucoup to Sylvie Denis, my translator, for all her splendid work, and to my publisher L’Atalante.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
This entry was also posted at http://swan-tower.dreamwidth.org/775558.html. Comment here or there.
September 20, 2016
Let’s have a giveaway!
I’ve got all these copies of Cold-Forged Flame sitting around, and I’ve got a conundrum I’ve been stuck on for, uh, more than a year.
So, in the great tradition of the game Unexploded Cow, let’s use the one problem to solve the other!
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to suggest to me a title that would be suitable for a collection of my secondary-world fantasy short stories. I know I don’t want to call it “[Reasonably Well-Known Item from the Table of Contents] and Other Stories”; I know that every quotation I’ve unearthed and phrase I’ve come up with that implies secondary-world-ness sounds trite; I know that I’m perfectly willing to use a random evocative-sounding phrase, but I haven’t thought of one I like for this purpose. Therefore I put it to you, the Great Internets, to help me figure out what to call a collection that will probably be putting out in 2017.
You have one week: from now until this time next Tuesday (or Wednesday, if you’re on that side of the planet), suggest titles to me. You can suggest more than one. You can suggest them on any version of this post, on Twitter, or by email. I will take them all into account. If I choose your title, you get a signed copy of Cold-Forged Flame! If I don’t find a title that clicks, I will choose one recipient at random! If I choose a title from someone who already has a copy of Cold-Forged Flame, I’ll choose a recipient at random anyway!
Lay ’em on me! Because I am well and truly stuck. >_<
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
This entry was also posted at http://swan-tower.dreamwidth.org/775171.html. Comment here or there.
Dear Yuletide Writer
The optional details below are optional; they are also, shall we say, a bit long. Please do not be put off by this. It's mostly me babbling about why I like the sources, and then offering a variety of tidbits that I hope will be useful to you. Basically, I'm just trying to feed the plotbunnies. (There are also more general notes about my tastes at the bottom.) (Also, way too many parenthetical asides.)
My username on AO3 is russian_blue, if you're the sort of Yuletider who looks through previous gifts and/or fics for data before you start writing. :-)
***
Fandom: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
Characters: Christopher Chant, Cat Chant, Gabriel de Witt
What I love about the source: Unlike most people, I read The Lives of Christopher Chant first, and so I always view this series through a Christopher lens, rather than a Cat one. I have a biiiiiig weak spot for characters whose power occasionally outstrips their ability to figure out what they're doing with it, and I really liked watching Christopher mature.
What I'd love to get: While writing my Yuletide letter in a previous season, I came up with an idea that made me bounce in excitement at the mere thought of it. We know from the short story "Stealer of Souls" that Christopher took over as Chrestomanci and Cat arrived at the castle while Gabriel was still alive, which means that for a while there, you had no less than three nine-lived enchanters running around at once. How badass would it be if all three of them worked together on something? Especially given the wild differences in their personalities -- Cat earnest and young, Christopher sarcastic and adult, and Gabriel strict and old -- but all of them throwing around gobsmackingly large amounts of power, often in casual ways. I have no particular vision of what incident would involve all three of them; you can run with whatever suits your fancy. But I love the idea of seeing three Chrestomancis go to town on some problem, especially since it would give us a chance to see Christopher and Gabriel interacting when Christopher has grown out of being a twelve-year-old snot. :-P
I also have a (very optional!) crossover request involving this series, which is an idea that has really just possessed my brain and not let go. A passing reference in "Warlock at the Wheel" makes it clear that Chrestomanci's multiverse is the same as that in The Homeward Bounders. Which means that it's possible for Christopher to meet up with Jamie Hamilton.
What would Christopher (as an adult and Chrestomanci, not, I think, as a kid) say to Jamie? How long has Jamie been wandering, by the time the two of them run into each other? Do they meet up in Christopher's world, or somewhere out in the Anywheres? It isn't the sort of encounter that could fix anything, I imagine, though Christopher would probably offer to try; the anchor has to keep moving, and even Chrestomanci can't change that. But the encounter could be really intense. For all his sarcasm and flaws, I think Christopher would have a deep empathy for what Jamie's going through, and why. If that fires your imagination the way it did mine, then I'd love to read the result. (Cat and Gabriel don't have to appear, if you go this route.)
***
Fandom: Elfquest
Characters: any
A repeat request, because this is a fandom I adore so much, I don't think I could ever get tired of it.
What I love about the source: Oh god, where do I start? This was, for many years, the only comic book I had ever read. It's still one of the deep foundational stories in my mind. I love how well-realized the characters are, and the capacity for the narrative to be about the ensemble and subsets thereof, rather than being just Cutter's story with everybody else playing bit parts. I love the way conflict is handled, never being casually dismissed, or treated as if violence is a get-out-of-jail-free card for everything. I love the consequences, and the fact that the characters experience both real losses and real victories. And I've got a big ol' soft spot for the soul-names thing, and the various bonds that can be created from that, both voluntary and not, both good and bad.
If you need to refresh your memory or want to get in on this awesome series, virtually all of it is available for free online.
What I'd love to get: If you're willing to tackle something that isn't character-specific, I would love to get anything expanding the setting, whether geographically or historically. I've read possibly everything there is -- certainly I've read most of it, including the far-future Jink stuff, and the first volume of the Final Quest -- though nothing after Kings of the Broken Wheel hit me quite as deeply. There's so much richness there, and also so much open space to develop new things. Possible angles include:
1) A story about a tribe of your own devising, either meeting one of the canonical groups or off doing their own thing. This could explore an environment not already covered (previous gifts have included subterranean volcanic elves, polar-bear-riding elves, and arctic aquatic elves), or be your own take on something the canon already touched on. (I love the idea of sea elves, for example, but the actual canonical Wavedancers didn't really do it for me.) My academic background is in anthropology, so elves adapting socially and physically to different environments is really interesting to me -- which sounds high-falutin', but really what I mean is yay cool stuff!
2) A historical incident for any of the canonical groups. Life under a past Wolfrider chief, early days of the Sun Village, Go-Backs vs. trolls, the Gliders before they fell into decadence and apathy -- a story about any of those would be cool. The High Ones right after the fall. Etc. Whatever strikes your fancy.
3) Human contact. This one could combine with any of the other prompts. Maybe your invented tribe runs into humans, or has even learned to co-exist with them in (non-warped-Glider-style) peace. Or maybe there were other contacts that we haven't been told about, for the canonical tribes or individual characters therefrom. We've already had a few examples of how that could go, but there's room for a lot more variety.
4) If you'd prefer to stick closer to the actual series rather than haring off into the wild blue yonder with your own ideas, I am cool with any of the nominated characters! (One of the reasons I can ask for Elfquest every year is, there are basically no characters I don't like.) Very brief rundowns on what I like about the ones from this year's tagset: [[[Nightfall and Redlance, the way they reverse standard gender roles, and chose to forge their own bond rather than waiting for it to happen by chance. Strongbow and Moonshade, the way they stand up for tradition -- and how that gets treated as a good and necessary thing, rather than them being hidebound reactionaries that should be ignored. Skywise, his choice to give up his wolf blood and the effects that has on him and his relationships with others. We don't know as much about Huntress Skyfire and Rahnee the She-Wolf, but I've loved Skyfire since I saw that image of her in the very first volume, and Rahnee offers a really interesting angle on the Wolfriders when they were still in transition from being High Ones. If you offered "any" and want to narrow the field, I'm fond of Strongbow (two incidents in particular: his reaction to Timmain, and his bonding with Clearbrook over One-Eye and Kureel), and Skyfire would be a great entry point to my second prompt above. I'm especially interested in the individual characters of the various tribes and how they approach different situations, the things that are unique to being an elf (long life, soul name, magical gifts) and how they handle those things culturally or psychologically, etc.]]]
Really, I just want MOAR ELFQUEST DAMMIT, whether it's following the existing material somewhere new or breaking fresh ground entirely. Whatever idea you have, if you think I'll like it, then go for it!
***
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Alexandra "Kitty" Climpson
What I love about this source: I recently went on a binge of re-reading the Wimsey mysteries, and I was struck by how much Miss Climpson entertains me. In fact, it had been so long since I read the books that I found myself thinking, wouldn't it be cool if Miss Climpson set up her own agency where she teaches women to be private detectives? . . . then I got to Strong Poison and oh, hey, look -- the Cattery! I love Miss Climpson getting Miss Murchison into the lawyer's office to be their inside woman, I love Lord Peter taking her off to learn the art of safecracking, and I love the whole set up for "superfluous" women (and the criticisms of that term). As for Miss Climpson herself, I find her hilarious, especially the way she justifies the things she does in pursuit of justice.
What I'd love to get: A day (or more than one) in the life of the Cattery. I adore competent people, and I adore even more people who are a lot more competent than the world would expect them to be, so watching Miss Climpson run her "typing bureau" would be lovely. Interviewing new prospective employees, dispatching her ladies to various tasks, taking in reports on the prosecution and conviction of their targets, phoning up Scotland Yard, fielding twelve things at once and being awesome while she does it. :-D Appearances by Lord Peter fine but optional; mostly I'm interested in the internal dynamics of the Cattery, Miss Climpson and all the other women getting the job done.
If you have the energy and interest to put an actual case in the fic, that would be fabulous! If not, though, I'm fine with just seeing slices and corners of the various cases the Cattery has underway at any given time. There's a certain entertainment in the type of story that isn't so much about a plot (or more than one) as the stuff happening on the fringes of the plot, if you know the kind of thing I mean.
Completely 110% optional suggestion: I don't know why my plan to request this fandom made my brain catch fire with not one but two crossover possibilities -- but, well, it did. First, I am a huge fan of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, and the third series ended with Phryne flying off to England. I don't imagine that Miss Climpson would entirely approve of Phryne's lifestyle, but there is so. much. hilarity. to be had in the two of them meeting up . . . And second, I've just read Mary Robinette Kowal's Ghost Talkers, with spiritualists participating in World War I. And, y'know, there's that seance in Strong Poison. What if Miss Climpson were in the Spirit Corps? And I seem to recall there was a Major Wimsey in the army around that time . . . Anyway, like I said, these are both 110% optional, i.e. even more optional than the usual run of optional details. But if you know one of those other fandoms and want to run with it, go right ahead!
***
Fandom: Sengoku Avengers
Characters: any
(If you recall my letters from previous years, I've left out Jidaigeki X-Men because I'm shaking up my requests a bit.)
What I love about the source: How awesome is this? Superheroes reinvented in a historical Japanese context! Okay, okay, I am a very special kind of nerd, and I know it. But I adore the way the artist worked in details of the time periods and the folklore, with things like Kaibutsu's ofuda or the Imperial Regalia of Japan.
What I'm looking for: Dude. ANYTHING. Anything at all that plays around with superpowered people in historical Japan. If there's a specific event or historical person or cultural detail you happen to know pretty well, and you want to use that as the basis for your story, GO FOR IT. I would be especially delighted to devour anything that makes use of Japanese folklore; that's already woven into a number of the characters' backgrounds, so if you want to do more like that (with religion or yokai or superstitions or what have you), I fall at your feet in glee. :-)
Character-wise, I'm totally cool with you using any of the characters, in any combination you like. You can also port other suitable characters in, if you have a brilliant idea for how to historical-Japanese-ify someone else from comics canon. (I am wildly ignorant of comics canon, so don't worry about whether your adaptation might seem off to me.) And don't feel obliged to stick to every single detail of the backstories, either; in general I think they're cool and would love to see what a writer could do with them, but there are lots of ways they could be tweaked while still keeping to the original spirit of the thing.
Pretty much the only thing I don't want is the usual continuity personalities with a historical Japanese paint job slapped on top. If I want normal Avengers fic, there is an endless ocean of it out there for me to read. Which is awesome, but the reason I'm asking for these versions is because I find the reinvention of the core concepts fascinating. I will eat that up with a spoon.
(Minor nitpicky note: the romanization of Takajyō's name annoys me. So please, if you include him, write it as Takajō or Takajou. Or Takazyō/Takazyou, which is at least still consistent -- but JSL kind of makes my eyeballs bleed, so.)
***
Fandom: Seven Souls in Skull Castle
Character: Tayu
What I love about this source: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, WHERE DO I START. :-D My sister took me to see it, and I think I fell in love about ten minutes in. Possibly less. It does my favorite thing in the world, which is excellent humor paired with some really moving drama, and the characters are fabulous -- eighty different kinds of fabulous, all at once. Ranbei's angst, Tayu's whole crew, Sagiri being the Secret Architectural Master, Gantetsusai and her ridiculous swords, Tenmao chewing scenery right left and center, Hyogo's ridiculousness, Sango turning the fact that he can't figure out which side he's on into his superpower, all the layers of Sutennosuke's behavior. I love the way the movie uses Japanese history, the amazing fight choreography (I used to do stage combat; what they pull off here is really impressive for theatre), the sheer epic scope of it, and more.
What I'd love to get: I generally try to write the type of Yuletide letter I like to receive, so I told myself I wouldn't request this unless I could come up with something to say other than <kermitflail> THIS MOVIE.
After much reflection, I've settled on Tayu as the focus of my request. She's interesting enough as the madam of the Mukai brothel . . . but then you get the second layer, the one where her ladies haul out an arsenal that looks like they're ready to conquer Japan, and I was SOLD.
I'd love to see backstory for her. If she and the other women are the widows of the Saika fusiliers, how did they get from "we have no more husbands but we sure do have a lot of guns" to running Japan's Most Feminist Brothel? How did Ranmaru/Ranbei come into the picture -- does Tayu have any idea who he used to be? (I can't remember whether the movie gives us a clear answer as to whether she does or not.) Or you could write about when Sagiri came to them as Mina; I don't recall any indication that Tayu knows she's from the Kumaki, but I don't think it would contradict canon to say that she did, which could be interesting.
Alternatively, something post-canon? I don't ship her with Hyogo, but I might very well friendship them. And there's a part of me that would like to see some kind of denouement for her and Ranbei, with him showing up as a ghost. He lived for years with the profound regret that he failed to die with Nobunaga; going out the way he did is, according to his principles, the resolution he needed. But of course Tayu obviously had feelings for him, and I'd like to see one last conversation between the two of them. I don't think Ranbei ever reciprocated her affection, per se, but I do think he respected her.
Having said all that -- since my underlying feeling here really is <kermitflail> THIS MOVIE, if you want to write something else, go ahead! Doesn't even have to be about Tayu. My only request is that you stick to canon ships: Sutennosuke/Sagiri, Tayu/Ranbei, Gantetsusai/her late husband, Ranbei/Tenmao (it's close enough to canon for me).
Super-cracky crossover option: if you happen to be familiar with Legend of the Five Rings, this thing AUs itself to L5R without even trying. Tayu is a Daidoji, Sagiri is a Kaiu, Gantetsusai is a Tsi, Hyogo and Isohei are Mantis brothers (they even use kama!), and then the only real question is which way you want to spin Nobunaga and his followers: 1) what clan did he belong to (there's an argument to be made for both Lion and Scorpion), and 2) were all three of Ranmaru, Sutennosuke, and Tenmao of the same clan, or was he the Shogun or Emerald Champion or whatever and his retainers came from multiple clans? Anyway, I certainly don't expect you to rewrite the whole movie as an L5R fic, but if you get bitten by a fusion plotbunny, go for it!
***
Fandom: Songs for a New World
Character: King of the World
I knew five minutes after listening to this song for the first time that I wanted to request it in Yuletide -- that's how awesome it is. :-D
What I love about the source: It's allllllmost the sort of song you've heard before, energetic and determined and hopeful, only the piano sounds ever so slightly off-kilter, and then you start listening to what the guy is saying -- and then you start listening to what he isn't saying . . . .
What I'm looking for: I am dying to know this guy's backstory -- some kind of explanation of who he is and what happened to him. I don't have a specific idea as to what form that explanation should take; you're free to do pretty much whatever you like. The rest of what follows here is me rambling about the things I hear in the song and what they make me think of, in case that helps give you a direction, but don't feel that you have to treat those thoughts as a straitjacket.
More than anything, the singer strikes me as a deeply unreliable narrator. He says over and over again that he had good intentions, etc, and he talks about how much people loved him, but I can't help but feel his perception of that doesn't exactly match reality. Did he take over by force? Or did they welcome him in at first, and then it went sour? He keeps acting like there's no good reason for him to be locked up, but yeeeeeah, I somehow doubt that. So what went wrong?
Did he actually have supernatural powers? I could see that being the case, but it could also just be poetic exaggeration. I sort of imagine this as a fantasy setting anyway, whether he has powers or not -- like he's the tyrannical ruler the Chosen One has to overthrow. Or maybe he's the Chosen One, and he took a wrong turn somewhere. Or maybe he's the Chosen One, and he didn't really take a wrong turn per se, but there's a problem with the whole concept of Chosen-ness to begin with. It also makes me think of the French Revolution, and the way that people can take their lofty ideals in absolutely horrible directions.
I keep being struck by the emotion that breaks through when he speaks of his son, his family. Who are they? I get the impression that whoever they are, he really does care about them. (Maybe they're the only thing he really cares about.) Doesn't mean they return the sentiment, though, especially depending on what he did to get thrown in prison.
The only firm request I'll make here is that you not present him as a totally ordinary guy locked up in a mental hospital. I am not at all a fan of the sort of "fantasy" where it's just the viewpoint character's delusions, so please don't take the source in that direction. I believe the singer really did do something; he had genuine power and it went genuinely wrong.
***
More generally: These days I try to split my general commments into clear divisions, on the grounds that it might be more convenient for my writer. These are grouped in descending order of how much I want them, with DNWs at the bottom.
Things That Are Yay: plot! (Casefic, etc. If you have the time and energy -- I know it can be a lot of work.) Exploration of character motivations, exploration/expansion of the setting. Fic that could fit into canon. Drama, up to and including aaaaaangst. Characters getting whumped on and being comforted afterward. Witty humour, especially if it's used as the jab to set up the dramatic roundhouse that follows. Unshakeable loyalty. Enemies having to work together for a good reason. Characters revealing a hidden layer. Siblings, or people with equally close relationships even if they don't share blood.
Things That Are A-okay: violence, up to a point (see below). Non-explicit sex. AUs of the "what if this event went differently?" sort. Inclusion of nominated characters I didn't request. Inclusion of canonical characters who haven't been nominated. Original characters as needed for the story (in the case of my Elfquest prompt, the whole story can be OCs if you like). Most povs, tenses, narrative formats, etc.
Things That Are Meh: straight-up character introspection. Nonfiction-style worldbuilding. Second person pov without a really good reason. Non-canonical ships unless specifically requested.
Things That Are Nay: radical AUs like coffee shop, genderswaps, a/b/o, etc. Explicit smut and its associated kinks/tropes. "Five Things"-type stories (I've read some good ones, but that format rarely does it for me; I strongly prefer one continuous tale). Requested characters having only a cameo in the story, unless otherwise specified in the prompt. Gross-out humour. Humiliation. Characters being flat-out stupid. Bashing characters or canonical relationships. Torture porn, especially with female victims: go ahead and hurt characters, but don't make gore and suffering the whole point.
***
As mentioned before, I'm russian_blue on AO3, so feel free to rummage around in the entrails of what I’ve got there if you need more data on what I like. And above all: have fun!
September 19, 2016
Dice Tales duo
The two most recent Dice Tales posts are “Breathing Room,” on the necessity of downtime and “filler” in games, and “Best-Laid Plans,” on what you do when the story goes in a different direction than you expected.
Comment over there!
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
This entry was also posted at http://swan-tower.dreamwidth.org/775021.html. Comment here or there.
September 16, 2016
for the edification of others
The other day at the dojo, our sensei had us punching bare-handed against bags (the flat pad type that another person holds onto). I wound up punching mine a few more times with a little more force than was strictly wise — because of course I did; I’m a writer and I was curious to see what it felt like, and I’m unlikely to go around getting into fist-fights just for research.
Since my hand is still complaining at me a little bit today, I figure I should share what I learned with others, so they don’t have to do the same thing.
September 15, 2016
And now for a disturbing question
I have reached new heights — or possibly depths — in asking for research recommendations.
Because I need stuff to read on the subject of torture.
(Consider that a trigger warning for the rest of this post, because yeah. It’s gonna be like that.)
For the purposes of the story I’m working on, what I need to look into are a) methods used and b) the short- and long-term effects of those methods. Discussions of the intel value or lack thereof are irrelevant for this project; the torture is being carried out for reasons other than the gathering of information. Ditto anything about the legality of such things, because this isn’t taking place in the real world. I’m focused on what the bad guys would be doing to the character (including considerations like “if they don’t want their victim to die from shock, how should they pace their actions”), how the character would plausibly respond to what’s happening (i.e. offering information they don’t care about, going catatonic, etc), and what kind of physical and emotional scars the victim would be left with afterward.
This is one of those cases where I almost certainly will not get graphic within the story itself about what’s being done, but I very much need to work out the graphic details so that I’ll know how to write everything around it. If you can recommend a book or web resource to me that will help me do this right, I’d be very grateful. My knowledge of the subject all derives from early modern witchcraft trials, which is long on ways of maiming people for life but short on the details of how it affected the victims during and after. I’m sure people have written about this in recent times; I just don’t know how to find what I need.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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September 14, 2016
more on COLD-FORGED FLAME
Fans of Dice Tales may be interested to hear that I have a post up at Tor.com today on adapting game material into fiction. (With specific reference to Cold-Forged Flame, of course.)
I’ve also been interviewed at My Life, My Books, My Escape on the novella and the process of writing it.
And for those who are interested in these kinds of things, I’ve put up the soundtrack for the novella on my site. It’s shorter than a novel soundtrack, of course, because a novella is shorter than a novel, but there are still six pieces of music I associate with it — all of them, unsurprisingly, drawn from my old game soundtrack for Ree.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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Adventures of a Tin Chef
I am very far from Iron Chef status. But I’m starting to feel like I might at least have graduated to some form of metal.
September 13, 2016
It’s a twofer day: COLD-FORGED FLAME and A STAR SHALL FALL!
PLEASE NOTE: this is a novella. Which is shorter than a novel. I already anticipate there will be reviews to the effect of “I thought I was getting a whole book but I wasn’t” — novellas are making a comeback, but they’re not yet so widespread that the occasional reader won’t be blindsided by the shorter length.
But if you want a whole novel’s worth of stuff, I got you covered there, too!
That’s right — at long last, A Star Shall Fall is out in the UK! Unlike the previous two Onyx Court books, this one has never been published in that country before. Only one more to go, and you can collect a full matched set . . .
(And if you think this is a big day, wait until April 25th of next year, when you’ll get Within the Sanctuary of Wings [Memoirs of Lady Trent #5] and Lightning in the Blood [Varekai #2] on the same day!)
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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September 11, 2016
Winter Soup
As requested by many, the recipe:
2 lbs ground chuck
2 med. onions, chopped
1 can tomatoes, cut up
1 can stewed tomatoes, cut up
1 can tomato soup and 1 can water
1 can beef consomme and 1 can water
1 beef bouillon cube (or 1 tsp granulated)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 can Vegall (mixed vegetables)
1 small can kernel corn
3 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Brown and salt beef, drain off fat. Add rest and cook for several hours in a large pot.
***
I’m not fast at chopping things, so prep time for me tends to be half an hour, maybe a bit more. By “large pot” I mean a stock pot; by “cook for several hours” I mean simmer at a relatively low setting for three hours or so. My recipe card doesn’t specify that the pot should be covered, but I’m pretty sure that’s just an oversight; I do put a lid on. Vegall brand mixed vegetables are not required, but someday that company will go under and then as far as I’m concerned winter soup will never taste right again.
This serves six people moderately well, or two people with a lot of leftovers. It can be frozen and then thawed again later, though it tends to get thicker when you do so.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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