Book Discussion: Shadow Road by A.E. Pennymaker

Hello hello reader and writer friends, 

Today I'm beginning a new series, simply called "book discussion", in which I can discuss individual books. If that wasn't obvious enough already. 

This is different from reviews in the sense that I go into more detail about my thoughts and whatnot than I do on my Goodreads/StoryGraph/etc. reviews. My reviews are meant for helping someone decide if they want to read something or not, my discussions are for just talking about the book in general. Then at the end, after my sign-off, there will be information regarding the author.

So without further ado, let's talk about this book. 

(Okay with a little bit further ado, here's a description (by me, it's not the official one) of what the story is about so you're not totally lost as to what I'm talking about: 

Shadow Road by A.E. Pennymaker is a steampunk adventure novel following a young woman, Bren, as she accidentally embarks on an adventure thanks to her senile father. Disaster finds them, and her father is presumed dead while Bren finds herself in unfavorable circumstances with two seafaring gents (well not quite gents, we'll get to that in a bit) who both need something from each other, from her, and from her now-gone father.)

The Action 

The action in this story was so good. All too often I read a story where the action just work out. It isn't bad and not necessarily poorly written, it just doesn't really work. It doesn't carry the intensity, imagery, or conviction that good action scenes have, and they often drone on or fizzle out fast. 

A.E. Pennymaker's do. Maybe I've just never read a battle between ships before (come to think of it, I actually don't think I have), but the battle sequences in this story were very good and gripping with real consequences, and I stayed up many a late night to see them through to their end. 

The POV Choice

The author decided to deliver this story from the written perspective of the main character, Bren. That is to say, she "wrote it", and we're reading her writing the events in her journal. This is an okay thing, I don't take any serious issue with it, but I didn't realize this is what she was doing for quite some time in reading it, until Bren directly referred to writing the previous events down. 

That's not a huge deal, I probably just missed something that would have clued me in earlier on, but it did make less interested in reading because of the endnotes. 
I've not read a lot of stories that use endnotes from this century, much less from a fantasy, but I'm not a big fan of them. I much prefer world building to be implemented throughout the story, shown and not told, instead of being given it via endnotes or a glossary. I digest and understand it much more in practice than in instruction, so to speak. 

In this particular case, the endnotes weren't really "mandatory reading"; you could just skip past them and still get the gist of what the situation or item in mention was, so it wasn't a huge deal, just wasn't something that I was enjoying. 

But once I realized that this story was being told through Bren's journal entries, I understood the author's decision better. It made the story feel more real,  because in real life we don't think "I reached into the plastic bag and drew out a bagel - a rounded piece of bread split horizontally and with a hole in the center - for breakfast," we'd be much more likely to think (if one was narrating their own actions) "I reached into the plastic bag and got a bagel". 

The same goes for fictional characters in other worlds. Bren knows what a... *flips through the book* ... "Starkaelle", is. So it makes sense that she wouldn't explain that to herself (although, on the rare occasion that I journal, I usually to over explain things just in case someone from the distant future reads it and has no idea what I'm talking about) and I can thus see why Pennymaker chose to go about telling the story in this way. 

However. 

The footnotes and endnotes were incomplete. There were times where she said some thing and then there was no explanation, so I just went on pretending I knew (which, if I'm honest, I did for quite a few of the noted subjects). 

So that is whatever it is. Not really an issue, but also not my favorite thing. 

Writing Style

The writing style was fairly good. It was never in-your-face with prose, but when it did venture out be more profound, it succeeded. I didn't cringe at it, which was very nice, because cringey prose are a great way to pull me out of the story, and I also can't remember finding any typos or bad grammar. 

There were some repeat phrases, though, that began to lose their touch after the first few times. And these were in regards to Captain Arramy. 

"He nodded. Once." 

"A muscle in his jaw ticked."

These two phrases are used constantly in regards to the captain. As far as I can remember they are the only repeat phrases, but they were used quite a lot. 

Another thing I noticed about the writing style is that it's portrayed almost like a historical fiction and less as a steampunk fantasy. The most fantasy-esque part is that it takes place in a different world, and the most steampunk part is the electricity and a couple of other things. The story being written in the form of journal entries, the world building, the settings, the character types, the plot, the lack of info dumps, these are all things I associate with historical fiction.

This isn't a problem at all, in fact I found it really interesting and think  it'd be a good book for historical fiction fans that are wanting to try out a new genre. But for someone looking for a loudly steampunk story, this might not be the best option. 

  

Pacing

Pennymaker's pacing was pretty good throughout the story. The beginning was a bit slow, but the chapters were short and by chapter seven I was invested. 
When disaster and dark moments struck, the author did a good job at not leaving the reader in a puddle of depression. She made it realistically emotional and gloomy, but then carried on in a way that didn't negate the weight of the circumstance and also didn't crush the reader with it. 
That's something that I absolutely can't stand in reading: the nonstop gloom-and-doom. 

The Characters

This one's going to have some sub...subjects. Sub-subjects. Yeah that makes sense. 
Anyways, it's going to have sub-subjects, there's three main characters and a bunch of side characters and I have thoughts on all of them. 

Bren

Bren was okay. I wasn't a fan of hers early on, and that was in large because of the prologue. The whole "I-love-him-but-he-doesn't-love-me-back" thing has never been something I've enjoyed reading, and that is the exact impression I got from the prologue. 
But I stuck with it and by chapter nine, she was okay (for the earlier chapters, her reactions to her father's state and neglecting what he said frustrated me greatly, though I did know why the author was showing and what she was portraying). Her reactions to various events and her thought process seemed realistic, though at times it could be frustrating, and she had humorous and relatable thoughts and actions. Generally speaking she was likable, but there's a certain something that happened that was really not likable which is mild spoilers and we will discuss it after talking about the next two gents.

NaVarre

NaVarre hit some dashing-pirate-whose-an-okay-guy cliches, but I really liked him, that aside (or perhaps that's just a likable cliche). Think Hook from Once Upon A Time, but he has both hands and is not in an annoying romance predicament. Had he had the aforementioned romance predicament, he might've been the exact same character minus one hook. 

His dialogue with the other characters was interesting and of course [spoiler spoiler spoiler] which does set him apart from Hook in OUAT (he was also a bit less dramatic), so he's pretty good all things considered and I quite liked him. 

Arramy

This guy. 
I don't even know what to say about this guy. 

When he was first introduced, I really really liked him. I was like "yesssss strong older stern-but-caring honor-bound yet careful-rule-breaking military characterrr". Because yes. And when Bren kept commenting about him in a more negative way, saying things that generally painted him out to be a big oaf, I was very confused because I was getting a stern-serous-kinda-gruff-but-still-gentlemanly-do-the-right-thing-er kind of man, not a big impolite oaf. 
Every time she would mentally say one of those things, I was greatly confused. 

But then, he did start being that, in so many words, and it was weird because he really hadn't seemed that way at all, but once she started thinking it he did. It was indeed very strange. Stranger still was when she began to think "why do I want him to like me" thoughts. Which I put down to "well, he is an authority figure that is respectable, anyone would want him to respect them back, plus Bren is young and impressionable" and whatnot. 

But, I still liked the lad. He was still a respectable captain who was looking after those under his care, which is always an appealing character type.

And then this thing happened. 

((Mild spoilers ahead, skip ahead to the next bold lettering if you wish to not have this mildly spoiled.))

.

.

.

.

This whole time, I was dreading the potential of a love triangle between the three leads, but figured it probably wouldn't happen because A. the prologue already mentioned a lad that Bren fancied after all of this and B. Arramy is noted to be older than Bren, + NaVarre implies Bren's youth in contrast to both of them, saying she's likely "just out of finishing school" or something of the sort to depict how naive and young she would be in the context of secret conversation and whatnot. 

Keep that in mind a moment.

They're trying to create a diversion. Bren notices an older couple eyeing her and Arramy, thinking about how odd the circumstance must look as she was too old to be his daughter and too young to be his wife. The diversion consists of Arramy spontaneously kissing Bren full on the mouth and "deepening it" when she didn't pull back, to play the part of the overbearing male companion. Bren slapped him, and the situation passed, Bren getting on him for it and him saying "oh don't worry it'll never happen again *glaring at her as if he was the one who was spontaneously kissed on the mouth in public by someone too old to be kissing him*"
Honestly the circumstance made me laugh at parts. The improvised argument they had was pretty great and her embarrassment was funny, so I did enjoy it. Still, this began my dread of the love triangle once more.

NaVarre never made any romantic fuss, though, thankfully. I'm still confused because the prologue described a lad who matched his description, so I figured those two were the sailing ship, but there's a whole sequel I've yet to read so perhaps that just isn't resolved yet. 
So no triangle so far. However Arramy kept saying and doing things that seem to suggest he is legitimately interested in Bren, and Bren keeps thinking about Arramy. Which I put down to hyper-fixated embarrassment over the kiss (which would be understandable), plus the fact that it was her first kiss (by the by I really liked that detail; though it was just a passing mention, her being upset even briefly about losing her first kiss like that made me empathize with Bren in a way I didn't expect to),  and I'm hoping that it will remain that way. 

Because honestly, while I do see that this story has room for a romance, I would enjoy it more if it were just these three characters, none quite trusting the other but all needing something from them anyways so they're working together, eyeing each other out of the corner of their eyes the whole time while trying to solve this mystery. 
Though at the same time, Pennymaker has opened that door and I don't see how she could get out of it if she wanted to. So if she does continue on with this odd circumstance of romance(? I'm still not positive that's what it is), I hope that it doesn't result in a love triangle. Because while I can still like NaVarre despite his cliches, the love triangle between a dashing pirate, the female protagonist, and a handsome officer is a bit far for me.

.

.

.

.

((End of spoilers))

The side characters

As I've now said, I liked each of the three main characters fairly well. They weren't perfect, but characters aren't supposed to be, so that's okay. They had a lot of great spots, too. But the characters that A.E. Pennymaker did a very good job on are the side and background characters (mainly Raggan; he was absolutely wonderful; 10/10 favorite character, barely Laffa (she had me genuinely laughing out loud) and the doctor (who is amazing)).
They all felt very real and realistic and they made the incredibly long amount of time spent at sea interesting, whereas it otherwise could've been horribly boring seeing as there's only so much that can happen. 

Conclusion

This was a quick read with great action, humor, and pretty good characters and storyline. It's not a book I full on loved, but I did really enjoy it and I definetly plan on picking up the next book (I just placed an order for it today, along with "Held Captive" by Grace A. Johnson), hopefully in time for the novella coming out in May and the third novel coming in June. 

I recommend it for pretty to people into lower fantasy and lower sci-fi, as well as low steampunk if that's even a genre, but I (as a primarily high-fantasy reader) really enjoyed it so whose to say you won't as well? Give it a go if you're interested, and if you've already read it I'd love to hear your thoughts (just be sure to give spoiler warnings when needed). 

This novel will be added to my Independent Book Recommendation page and I hope the other books in the series will follow it shortly. My actual review of this book can be found on both StoryGraph and Goodreads at some point: I'm posting this before those, so who knows when they'll be up. 

Until next time,

- Edna Pellen 

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A.E. Pennymaker's website: www.aepennymaker.com

Shadow Road: Purchase link

Help Wanted

Greetings!

I am doing something that I am very excited about (and have had to wait for a long time to talk about); I am adding a page to this blog devoted to independent authors (you can go see it now!).

It's rather simple; an indie author can comment on that page with their story title and author name (links to where the story can be purchased and their website (if they have one) need to be included, as well as a content rating), I add it to my indie TBR, I buy it, read it, write a review, and if I like it I'll include it on the list of indie books I recommend (on the Indie Recommendations page).

The point of this is to support these writers and to give anyone from anywhere a chance to get their story told.

Are you an aspiring author? Save this for later! 
Come back here whenever you're published and post it on the Indie Recommendations page! I'm rooting for you! 

Are you an indie author? Go comment your published work on my Independent Authors page! 
Make sure you follow the guidelines I listed on that page, too. 

Are you a blog reader/indie author reader? Excellent, this is where you come in:
Please help me make this post spread around by sharing it to your published friends, favorite bloggers, and favorite indie authors! And maybe go the extra mile and post it on writing and reading forums, and social media. Tell them that Edna Pellen wants to support them, and link back to this post and/or the Indie Author's page.

My goal here is to reach as many indie authors and as many potential indie authors as possible (teenage authors in particular), from better known ones like Hope Ann and the Phoenix Fiction Writers, to the ones in a dark corner of the internet that nobody knows (who I cannot name because no one knows them).


So if you find the time, please share this post and/or the page. If you don't know any authors, post it publicly. If you don't have a means to do that, send the link on a piece of parchment by carrier pigeon to every one you know.


Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you have a wonderful day,


Best wishes,

 
               ~ Edna Pellen

P.S. I have no specific time frame for buying and reading the books, given that I have to have money in order to buy them, and time in order to read them. I also may not read all of them in some cases, particularly if they don't follow my guidelines. But don't let that discourage you from posting your book details on the Indie Recs page! If you follow my guidelines, I'll do what I can to read your book in a timely manner.

oh, look, it's been another year (more importantly: updates on "Roslyn" and a new page to BI)

 

Hello reader,

Yet again, I have forgotten that Bleeding Ink's anniversary exists (well, more accurately the anniversary of when I first posted; I can't remember the day that I officially considered the construction of the site"done"). It was back on December first. 

I am quite late. 

And I am still not doing anything to celebrate it. But I'll wear a party hat while writing this to pretend that I am. 

Instead of doing anything festive (because I don't see reason to), I want to have an intellectual conversation regarding various events this year that are related to Bleeding Ink. 

A Book Collection + Recent Indie Reads

Early last year, I began an exciting adventure to collect all of the books from certain indie authors. Those authors include...

-Miranda Marie

-Mattie May

-Melody Jackson

-R.M. Archer

And I did it. Almost. I got all but two. And I didn't just get them, I read them. I read all of them. Which isn't saying too much, as that's only nine books, but I still did it. And a fair amount of those books were books that had been on my TBR for years before hand, so this is quite the personal accomplishment. 

These writers all have very different styles and themes and genres, but in good ways. I enjoyed all of them, and I'm very happy to have been able to support them. I also acquired the respective signature for almost every one of them. I only have one that's yet to be signed and I hope to remedy that erelong. I also intend on getting those last two books quite soon. 

I highly recommend you read as many of their books as possible, starting with any one of these authors and with any of their books (though if it is in a series of some sort please for all things decent start with the first book). 

Another indie author I've really been enjoying (thanks to R.M. Archer's recommendation) is Hannah Heath. I've read all of her The Terebinth Tree Chronicles, and I absolutely loved them! I also read her short story Skies of Dripping Gold, which was also very good. 

I also read Healer's Bane by Hope Ann recently, and it was pretty good as well. I did a review on Goodreads, but I may do a more thorough one here explaining why I wasn't a huge fan of Kynet's. Maybe. I don't want it to seem as though I'm dogging on Hope Ann, because I really enjoyed the story, but I think it would make for an interesting discussion. 

A New Page to Bleeding Ink

I was going to hold off sharing this one until I'd read all of the indie books on my TBR, but it's been over a year since I dreamed up this idea and so I'm going to share it now. It's a birthday (sort of) after all. 

The new page will be called "Independent Book Recommendations" and (if you couldn't tell) it'll be a page of indie recs. I'm going to update it every time I have a new indie book that I recommend, and you will be able to give me recommendations, which I will read, and if I like it I will add it to the list in the proper genre and whatnot. 

The goal of this page is to support indie authors, especially (but not limited to) younger authors. So, that page will be up no later than a half hour after this post if it isn't up already. Then tomorrow I will release a post concerning it that I'd appreciate your help with.

Booktube?

A family member suggested that I start a booktube channel (a YouTube channel in which the host talks about books, reviews, releases, interviews, and in some cases their own books). As you can likely tell, I have a hard time keeping up with posting here, so I'm not sure if I'd be consistent on booktube. 

But it might be fun. So I'm tossing the idea around. If you've got any thoughts on this, please do voice them. Well don't voice them, because I can't hear you, but write them. 

The Path to Publication

Would you believe it, I actually have made genuine progress. My novel Roslyn is officially in its second draft! I didn't finish the story all the way through in the first one - so much had changed that it was driving me crazy to continue on. 

So, per a certain wonderful writer's advice, I said "forgeteth this" and promptly began the second draft. Now my alpha is no longer swamped with 119,648-ish words that she has to plow through, and is instead taking it scene by scene as I write it. Which is more fun for me personally, because it's easier to talk about that way. It's also helping me stay accountable with writing, because I'm supposed to have a new scene for her every day. Which is much easier than writing the first draft, because I have something to go off of (though as I said, many things have changed). 

With the momentum I've been carrying, I believe that I may have the rewrite portion of the draft done a little over a month. For finishing the actual story, I'm not sure, but I'm hoping it won't be over a few weeks. For the sake of having something to work towards, I'm going to try to have it done in two months and one week. 

Before we move on to the next subject, here's a comparison of word counts between the first and current drafts as of chapter four:

Draft One: 19,749

Draft Two: 23,144

That's an extra 3,395 words. They literally grow up so fast.

Another Anniversary

Recently, it was also Maple Quill Penning Magic's birthday! So go check that out and wish Maple a happy-belated blog birthday, *or else! 

(*Or else I will be very sad that you didn't because Maple is wonderful and her posts are always lovely and deserving of attention.)

Other Bloggers:

Last year (well actually not "last year" because we're in the new year, but the last anniversary), my anniversary post said something along the lines of

"So let the day go on, and if you can find a spare moment, think of this humble page and use it to remember and appreciate all the writers and authors who started small, and all the writers authors who are, now, still small."

(actually it wasn't "something along the lines of" this, this is exactly what I said, typos and all.)

Well this time I'm not asking you to think about them. I'm asking you to actually go support them. By buying their books (when applicable and if you can), by sharing their blogs, and even just by leaving them a nice comment on their blogs. 

So for that, here's a list of writing bloggers worth your time.

Sarah at The Sarcastic Elf

Christine at Bright Words In Darkened Worlds

Julia at LitAFlame 

Mary at Wild Writing Dreams 

Ariel at Scribes & Archers

Maple at Maple Quill Penning Magic 

Allie at Rainy Days and Stardust Veins 

Adria at The Works of Adria Avalon

Elyra at A Beautiful Journey (Wandering To Find My Way Home)

Mattie at The Blossoming Writer

Jane Maree at Jane Maree Author

A Surprise 

There's something BIG - *clears throat* sorry, I meant BIG - coming this July! July 1st, to be exact. So please do make sure to come back then (or possibly the day before), because I mean it, it really is a pretty big thing (for this Bleeding Ink, at least), you may benefit from it, and I really truly am going to post it on July 1st. 

So.

Come back then if you don't come back tomorrow. 

Conclusion

So I actually didn't wear a party hat while writing this because I did not have a party hat. I did try balancing something on my head for a bit to pretend that was a hat, but it didn't work. So this anniversary goes very much so uncelebrated on my end. Oh well! 

Do you have any thoughts about the above matters? Do you also forget/don't care enough to celebrate birthdays/anniversaries? Do you follow any of those writers I mentioned?  (*eyes you suspiciously* Are you one of those writers I mentioned? If so, you are a good writer/blogger human! Carry on being your awesome self!) If so, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Ever, 

- Edna Pellen (author of Bleeding Ink for two uneventful years)

P.S. I sadly didn't get any spam comments this year (not one), so I don't have any of those to go over. Please share this blog and post and whatnot so that we can get the attention of scam companies and bots so we can review their comments next anniversary.

Update: Path to Publication

 

Hey there, 

In my last post I mentioned I would (probably) be releasing a update on The Path to Publication. Here it is, plus other updates. Huzzah.  

Path to Publication

It looks like the original plan is all being pushed back by a month or two. I'm not giving up on it in the slightest, and have no issue following this plan through some extra months. 

The hardest part with Roslyn, story-wise, is the fact that it's so very... big. The first draft is around 106,893 words and yet the story still feels very young. I have a whole other part of the book that will likely take that count to 200k or so, but I'm not entierly sure how that will go. 

Given that fantasies are known to be bigger, this is a first draft, I refuse to split this into two books, and this will be self-published, I'm not too stressed over the word count (though I am still endlessly confused as to how it's that big) so much as I am the pacing. Pacing is something I need to work on, for sure.  

After the holidays I will (hopefully) get back into full swing with writing Roslyn, and may even share some excerpts some time soon. Maybe. We'll see. 

In the mean time, I'll continue writing little bits here and there.

NaNo

As you may recall, I didn't do Roslyn for NaNoWriMo. I had been pressing myself to finish the draft by October so I could read it through during Oct. and then write the second draft during NaNo. But I talked to some friends and listened to common sense and decided not to do that and switched to another story for the month. 

So how did I do on that story? 

Well, it wasn't good. 

Daily tracker:

As you can see, I was doing really well for eight days, and then the struggles began. Then my motivation chord was pulled and I flatlined. Yaaaaay. 

Stats:

Story experience:

MoTWW was alright. I enjoyed the parts that I actually wrote, but I really wasn't feeling it. Writing just hasn't been the most fun of late, but that's okay. This story is fun, and I know I'll enjoy it when I'm more in the swing of things.  

Final word count:

In the end, my final word count was 16, 481. Some of that may have been for another story, too (because I ended up missing Roslyn too much and would occasionally work on it instead), but the majority of it was for MoTWW. 

General Writing

My overall writing lately has been nonexistent. I've written a few poems and worked a very small amount on a short story for a secret Santa swap in my writing group, but outside of that I've written nothing. 

I have edited Roslyn a bit, as well as some other stories of mine that have never and likely never will see the light of day. 

Reading

I have been reading a lot today, which is wonderful. Currently my leading reads are...

Healer's Bane by Hope Ann

It's very short, but due to the next book I've yet to finish it.

I'm really enjoying it so far, especially the atmosphere of the story, and look forward to writing a review for it. 

Dragons' Hope by Melody Jackson

I recently finished re-reading Dragons' Bane and Dragons' Might by Melody Jackson in preparation for the third book. DH (Dragons' Hope) has been out for two years as of the 15th, but I'm only just now able to read it. 

So far I'm loving it as much as I do the first two books, and really look froward to getting deeper into it (as right now I'm not even a third of the way in). 

My minor reads:

The Naming by Alison Groggon

I'm a little deeper in this than I am DH, but have halted it for DH. It's a great story so far and I'm really enjoying the world building (from what I can tell, it's wonderfully vast). 

The Icebound Land by John Flanagan

This is book three in The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (aka one of my favorite series every even though I'm only three books in). I'm over halfway through with it, and absolutely loving it.

This is a minor read because I'm buddy-reading it with a friend of mine, and we aren't in the same timezone so finding a time to read it together can be a bit tricky. 

The next books on my list: 

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

This book has been pretty high up on my TBR for a while, so I was thrilled to finally get my hands on a copy. It's a pretty thin book, so I imagine it won't take me too long to read. 

Echos by Miranda Marie

This book is a thick one, so it may take me some time. But Echos has been on my TBR for years now and it's high time I read it. I've also heard amazing things about it, and Marie's other works (The Fire Rain Chronicles) were wonderful, so I'm sure I'm going to love this one. 

Though I hear it's a really painful read, so we'll see if I survive. 

The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan

This is book four in The Ranger's Apprentice,  and if the name is anything to go off of... I fear how book three will end. 

Bleeding Ink 

Lastly comes Bleeding Ink. I have one change coming to it soon, which I'm really excited for. It may take me until around January to make public, given the holidays and that I have a few more things I need to do before it's ready, but I'll get it up here as soon as I can. 

This update is something I'm really excited for, and I hope will be a great benefit to my audience and writer friends.

Other than that, BI is staying the same, inconsistent, messy corner of the world that it is.

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Alright, I think that's everything.  That's my writing/reading life right now. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, etc., I'd love to hear from you. 

 - Edna

P.S. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have a GoodReads now. 

The Writerly Sibling Tag

Hello there,

Yep, I disappeared. NaNo was weird. I'm momentarily back. I'll be posting a Path to Publication update soon. Maybe. I'll also hopefully be adding a banner to this post at some point in the future to make this easier to pin on Pinterest but as of now cannot. 

Meanwhile, I've been tagged in The Writerly Sibling Tag. Thanks, R.M. Archer, for tagging me! 

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who tagged you and provide a link. 

2. Answer the inquires, including any ones added by means of rule six.

3. Always use your own characters. No exception, unless you don't actually have sibling characters (in which case you need to go write up some) or you don't write (in which case you need to start ASAP). 

4. Tag three other bloggers. 

5. If you happen to have any siblings who blog, they are automatically tagged and cannot count towards your three.

6. Add one question or prompt to the list of questions that the person before you answered relating to siblings and/or characters. Answer the question, and provide a list of all the questions that you answered so far.

7. Close out the post making some statement or other glorifying the King of kings.

Questions: 

(well they aren't actually all questions, only four of them are, the rest of them are more like demanding statements but yeah anyways)

Name the most annoying sibling character in any of your stories (Either annoying to you as the author or to any other characters).

That would likely be Torin, from my leading story Roslyn. But he isn't annoying to his actual sibling (well, he kind of is, but they don't interact much) so much as he is to his two basically-younger-siblings. They're in no way blood related, but at this point they are all siblings in my head. 

So that's a bit of a cheat, but oh well. 

Name the most caring sibling character of any of your stories.

Again, technically not actually a sibling to anyone but basically is, Michael (also from Roslyn). The lad is such a thoughtful and caring basically-big-brother and I love him. So do his basically-siblings. 

Name the most entertaining sibling character in any of your stories.

Hm. Most of them are entertaining when they're together, when they all have each other to ride off of and poke fun at and such. 

But, I can only cheat so much, so I'm going to say it's Bayron (whose last name is apparently "Rees" even though I have a distinct memory of his last name having the meaning of "lettuce", and "Rees" does not mean lettuce), a supporting character in another novel of mine, Paradox. He's a good-guy arsonist and a softy, despite his tendencies to light stuff on fire and blow stuff up. 

Name a sibling character who was inspired in some way by an actual sibling.

Another character from Paradox, who is unnamed. Like, I haven't forgotten to name him, but he is literally nameless in the story. He's based off of my oldest brother, who helped me come up with this story and continues to do so.

Name the largest character family (talking family, not family tree) in any of your stories.

Weirdly enough for someone who is one of eight siblings, the families in my work are all rather small. The biggest would be Bayron Lettuce (yeah we're just going to call him that for now because "Rees" makes me uncomfortable, given that I know it isn't the right name), which is a family of four.

If I can count the basically-family in Roslyn, it would be them, which is a family of five (if you could the wolf that Torin adopted).

Provide one to three excerpts from your sibling characters' dialog from any of your stories.

Ohh I had the perfect one for this but it's too spoiler-y. 

So I'll settle for this small one instead:

“Will it be too heavy for the horse?” Clare looked over the beautiful creature, her brow furrowing. 

“Not at all. This is a (strong horse), he can take far more weight than this. Besides, you’re a stick, you won’t be a heavy burden for him.” Torin held his hand out to her to help her up on the steed. 

Grumbling, “I’m not a stick,” Clare accepted his help up and swung her leg over the other side in an awkward movement.  

“Sorry, my bad. You’re not a stick, you’re a twig.” Torin winked and patted the horse’s neck, then headed over to Sebastian. 

(Yes I know "strong horse" is terribly specific, but this is a first draft. I still need to world build more and rename horse breeds and all that.)

Name three published books which have an amazing portrayal of siblings or family.

1. The Dragons Bane by Melody Jackson trilogy for siblings; there's several sets of siblings, I think, and they each show a different type of relationship from the others, it's great.

2. The Fire-Rain Chronicles by Miranda Marie for siblings and families in general (yes I know Archer already did this one but it's a good one so I'm using it anyways). 

3. The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan, because Halt is the best dad, Gilan is the best sometimes-annoying but awesome big brother, Will is the best baby brother, and pretty much every character somehow works its way into being part of what I call the "Arrow fam". I ship them as a family and I will go down with this ship.

But as none of them are actually related, my alternative would be The Hunger Games, because the whole thing is Katniss trying to protect her sister. But, that comes second to TRA because actual sibling/family content is not very common in it.

Name another author's character family that you wouldn't mind jumping into.

The aforementioned Arrow Fam. All the way. Without a doubt. Although I kind of wouldn't want to join it because it would crash the broship-ness of it by adding a female. Also it would be weird to hang out with them because I love watching them all interact, so I'd just be sitting in the corner, giddily watching, and being totally weird and potentially creepy in their eyes. 

But again, they're not family by blood or even adoption. So, I would have to say... Maybe the Pevensies from The Chronicles of Narnia. I haven't actually read Narnia, but I have seen the movies (I know, I'm terrible, but I have no regrets as the movies were a vital part of my childhood), and if they're anything like the books than the siblings are a lot like how my siblings and I were when we were younger. 

OH, or I would also love to be part of Anne's family from Anne of Green Gables. Not the family at Gables, but a family later on in the series which I will specify below, but if you have not read the magical series in its entirety, please kindly scroll on to the next question thing.

So, it's in Rainbow Valley, when Anne and Gilbert have started their own family. I'm not sure if I would want to be Anne or Gil's sister/sister in law (in no particular order) or their kids' sister. Because on one hand I think Anne and Gil and I would get along pretty well, and I'd also get to hang out with Diana and Fred occasionally, and I'd love to be an aunt to the kids.

But I also would love to be a kid growing up in Rainbow Valley, playing with the other Blythe kids and imagining and making up stories and all. 

And then that would carry over into Rilla of Ingleside, when they're all older. Which would be bittersweet given the war and all, but it would still be nice (though I don't think Rilla and I would get along too well). 

Provide an excerpt of sibling drama or camaraderie from any title (though be sure to credit it).

Supposing we're disregarding Rule Three and that this is not a trap to see if I paid attention to the rules or not, this excerpt from Dragons' Bane by Melody Jackson. 

"Blaze Montego!"

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked over at the little redhead standing there with her hands on her hips, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"That's my name, yes."

Elle frowned, apparently not amused by his joke. 

"How could you do something so stupid?" 

He lifted his sword, inspecting the edge with an almost lazy air. "And what 'something' are you referring to this time?"

I just love it. It's wonderful. Even more once you've reread the book. 

Name two characters from two unrelated books that you feel would make for great literary siblings (whether in terms of getting along, or being a constant head-to-head combat)

Yorsh from The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari and Will from The Ranger's Apprentice. Why? I have no idea. I suppose they're a good balance between different and alike, and Will would be a good big brother to Yorsh (be it to Yorsh when he is but a wee elf baby or when he is a adorkable teen elf; either way Will would definitely be the big brother).

I can also see Will getting frustrated with the ignorance of Yorsh. Lots of hilarious things would pop up, subtly but beautifully, maybe a few fights, and if my two favorite lads met I would so be there for it.

What sibling trope would you like to write in the future?

Well, so far I've covered quite a few of them. However, I haven't official writing the one that goes with Bayron and his sister, so I guess that counts. That one would be the sibling-who-hurt-the-family vs. sibling-who-hates-him-for-it. Their relationship and history and everything is really interesting and really warrants its own book, but that's kinda the point of it so that's okay (kind of hard to explain; if I ever publish it you'll see what I mean). 

Which one of your own sibling groups would you love to join?

None. Because as much as I adore these kiddos, I adore them from the outside. Being a part of their sibling group would feel so weird. Especially so when you consider that, though many of my characters are a fair deal older than me, I'm the authoritative one (hahaha get it because, because author, and authoritative? because I'm the author and have authority? hahahahhaaa) and being stripped of that power and placed as anyone's little sister would frustrate me greatly.  

But if I had to, it would be my not-literal-sibling group in Roslyn, which is composed of Michael, Torin, Clare, and Sebastian. 

If you could adopt only one of your fictional siblings as your own sibling, who would it be?

Like I said, I really wouldn't want to be siblings with my characters. But if I have to, it would be Torin. Michael and Clare are both two extreme extensions of myself, so being Michael's little sister would be weird, and being Clare's sister would be really weird because we're so alike. And Sebastian and I would communicate in wry humor that would end up being exhausting. 

But Torin is very not-like-me, except for in one area and in this case having that in common would be beneficial. He's also got a lot of traits from my real siblings, so I would know how to handle his Torin-ness. And I know that, despite his Torin-ness, he'd be a good big brother. Even if him being the older, in-charge one would make me angry because I literally made him. 

And now for my added question...

If you had to mix-match your sibling-characters, who would you swap with who and why?

I would swap Sebastian from his not-literal-siblings with Torin's literal sister, Serfena (so technically I'm cheating my own question because I'm swapping Torin and Sebastian even though Torin is one of the not-literal-siblings, but oh well).

(Maple, if you're reading this, skip to the conclusion because I want your first impression of Serfena to be when you meet her on the page.) 

I'm choosing this swap because Sebastian is a wry, sarcastic lad who is easily and openly annoyed. Serfena is a manipulative, conniving, and just overall rude character that not even Michael, my golden-hearted son, likes. 

Seeing these two deal with each other like siblings would be maddening and hilarious and really I'm choosing it simply because I would love to see Serfena get what's coming to her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag-ees:

1. Adria from The Works of Adria Avalon

2. Julia from Lit Aflame

3. Mary from Wild Writing Dreams

List of the questions for the above blogger's convenience:

-Name the most annoying sibling character in any of your stories (Either annoying to you as the author or to any other characters).

-Name the most caring sibling character of any of your stories.

-Name the most entertaining sibling character in any of your stories.

-Name a sibling character who was inspired in some way by an actual sibling.

-Name the largest character family (talking family, not family tree) in any of your stories.

-Provide one to three excerpts from your sibling characters' dialog from any of your stories.

-Name three published books which have an amazing portrayal of siblings or family.

-Name another author's character family that you wouldn't mind jumping into.

-Provide an excerpt of sibling drama or camaraderie from any title (though be sure to credit it).

-Name two characters from two unrelated books that you feel would make for great literary siblings (whether in terms of getting along, or being a constant head-to-head combat)

-What sibling trope would you like to write in the future?

-Which one of your own sibling groups would you love to join?

-If you could adopt only one of your fictional siblings as your own sibling, who would it be?

-If you had to mix-match your sibling-characters, who would you swap with who and why?

Conclusion: 

Siblings are wonderful, some times aggravating, hilarious, treasured humans that I wouldn't trade for anything. I'm incredibly grateful to have all seven of them. And to show how grateful I am and how much I love them, I'll give them each a shoutout now (except I'm going to give them fake names because you know, safety or something. I'll give them Narnia-esque titles to make up for it.) 

Shout out to...

Black-Jelly-Bean B., the Generous and Sassy. 

Kiwi-wei, the Swift and Determined. 

Lamp, the Genie and Hip. 

Frodo, the Fighter and Poofy (if you saw his hair you'd agree). 

Liana (you get to keep your original fake name because the readers already know it), the Empathetic and Creative.

TKTKTKTKTKTKKTKTK, the Humorous and Kind. 

Nay-Nay, the Smol and Witty.

You all are really something. God assembled quite the squad, didn't He? 

Lastly, may all glory be to God, Who was and is and is to come, the Creator of all things, and the redeemer of all those who are willing. 

Brothers and sisters, both by blood and by species, please remember that He loves you, that He has made a way for you to be forgiven, and that no matter what you have done or will do, He will take you back.

That's all for now, folks. See you later maybe

- Edna Pellen