I can finally reveal the cover of our GORGEOUS edition of MORTAL FOLLIES by Alexis Hall.

You can pre-order this phenomenal sapphic regency fantasy romance now!

Acquired this bad boy in December, have been making memes to restrain myself from SHOUTING ABOUT IT ever since. (Graphic design is my passion)

SO excited to be working with @makana-yama to bring this book to you - it's fun, sexy, chaotic and most of all full of shenanigans in space. Edie is the buff NB chaos bae you always wanted, Angel is the sexy genius who overdresses for every occasion, and the two of them are constantly bullied for being Old by their crew. And then they go a take out Space Elon Musk while kicking ass and taking names.

1000/10, wonderful book.

That is one of the best descriptions I have ever read omg

Yaaassss! Amazing! Love the sound of ALL those! Thanks for adding to my TBR list!!

AMA

On the late train after an event, happy to answer questions about SFF, publishing, or whatever burning philosophical quandary you may have.

I have watched this on repeat like twelve times. I can't stop laughing.

For context, the very mild mannered gentleman who looks like Count Rugen might if he got to enjoy retirement is Christian Cameron. He writes historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction, and does a series of videos on how to write accurate historical combat. He's an expert in this because he is a prolific re-enactor, and makes a lot of his own historical clothes using traditional methods. He ran a massive re-enactment in Greece last year, recreating the Battle of Plataea.

He's an absolute delight, the conversations you have with this man will never go the way you expect. And when I ask for promo photos from him, instead of sending me things like this:

He send me things like this:

THANKS CHRISTIAN. VERY HELPFUL. NOTHING TO PROVE YOU'RE IN THERE BUT I'M SURE THAT'S FINE. MARKETING CAN WORK WITH THAT.

Anyway he's a hoot but I also love that his videos are just him and his buddies pleasantly attempting to murder each other in slow motion to explain how it works.

2021 Tumblr Editing Package

My name is Claire, and I am a science fiction, fantasy and horror editor.

I have been working in publishing since 2018, editing fiction, non-fiction and academic work both with publishing companies and freelance. Since October 2020, I have been an editorial assistant at one of the UK’s leading SFF publishers, working and training with the editors for some of the biggest names in SFF and Horror fiction. I am also a member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading.

I completed a Master’s degree in publishing, several courses in copy editing and proofreading, and I have many years of experience as a beta reader in my spare time, offering as required structural editing advice, line and copy editing, and enthusiastic cheerleading. One of my independent authors has reached the final, full manuscript request stage of Pitch Wars two years running. I also have experience writing for publication, as I wrote a number of non-fiction books in my previous role.

You can find more information about me at my blog. Please find the appropriate links in the reblog below!

Christmas is coming up, and train fares are expensive, so I’m opening up my freelance editing services again, and I’m excited!!

Why do I need an editor? What do you do?

Editing is not a mystical art, but it is hard work. You’ve done so much work getting your story written, but now you’ve got to READ IT and FIX IT. And when you’re so close into the story, when you know it so intimately, it can be hard to know where to start. This is where having an outside pair of eyes can really help - to give a fresh look at the plot structure, the pacing, the characters, and take it from this:

to this:

But I have good news - you don’t have to go it alone! I can help you, and I have the experience of editing, the experience of structuring a book, and the can-do attitude to help you knock your work into shape. I am excited to read your work and try to help you work out how to make it really shine! I can tell you whether your message is coming across as strongly and effectively as you would like, I can help you to refine your ideas and make sure your story really pops!

The first draft of a story is always the hardest, but it’s the most fantastic starting point for an incredible work of art.

For £50, I will:

- Read the first three chapters or 15,000 words of your later draft, and a complete synopsis of the whole work OR Read up to 50,000 words of your first manuscript draft (please add an addition £10 for every 10,000 words on top of this)

- Provide overall feedback on your tone, story structure, plot, and characters, focusing on any areas of particular concern to you, but with additional notes based on my experience

- Provide resources I have made to help with planning, writing, editing and submitting your work.

For a further £20, I will also arrange to have a call with you to discuss your feedback in detail and brainstorm any future plans for your work.

 I want to work with you to make sure you’re telling the story you REALLY want to tell, and that it does everything you want it to do! An author-editor relationship is all about teamwork.

You can contact me through tumblr, or through my website, and I am happy to provide more information if you are curious about my qualifications or experience.

You can send me your documents once you have a slot, and we can arrange payment and feedback as necessary.

I love working with stories and writers, and making books the best they can be, so I hope you’ll be happy to work with me, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Please note that this is primarily for structural editing, however if you are looking for a proofreader, or have other editorial needs please get in touch and we can discuss your requirements.

Want to learn more about the business of books?

If you don’t need editorial help, but fancy pitching in and have any questions about publishing or writing, I’ve opened up a Ko-Fi, and will happily take requests for blog posts on any subject you’re curious about, or provide custom book recommendations through there!

Why should you hire me?

I’m a helpful sort of person! If you’re not sure, here’s some feedback - I’d love to work with you on your stories, original or fanfiction, so please get in contact!

Reblogs and boosts are super appreciated!!

Find herewithin my most magical and pertinent LINKS:

My Website

My Ko-Fi

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading

Claire spent the better part of the last year hand-holding my WHOB fic, A Heart Worth Loving, which is now my longest work to date and one of the fics I am most proud of writing ever. It is over 80k words, and she did me the immense service of not only beta/proof reading it but also plot picking, helping me isolate and emphasize key story themes, improving my characterization, and also she made me a meme. 

Additionally, she has helped me with editing formal school papers at the Master’s level, and I have never had a paper returned with less than an A on anything she’s assisted me with. 

She is, furthermore, a fantastic cheerleader, who will never tell you your idea is crap, but will instead cheerlead you into believing you can write, actually despite the fact what you sent was a 2 page doc that hardly constituted an idea and also was crap and encourage you into 60k words of ridiculous shenanigans that you will love in the end. 

You really could not ask for a better person to help you, I promise. 

Reblog if you’ve made amazing friends online and are grateful for their existence

The Endgame we deserved, I said what I said

So this feels… unreal. 

I am deeply uncomfortable asking for help, but between school expenses, injuring my back and having to cut back my work hours, and this unexpected death of someone near and dear to me, I am asking for support if anyone can help. If not, I understand, but I appreciate anything, even if it’s just kind words

Trust

Artwork in collaboration with @maevemauvaise​ for @hopelessly-me​’s WHOB fic “You’re the song that sings to my soul”, a fic about Clint and Bucky falling in love, obviously. Plot twist, Bucky is a siren!

Thanks to @winterhawk-olympic-bang​ for hosting the event, please be sure you go check out all the great fic and art that’s being produced! 

Thess vs Fae Geasa

So … re-reading The Winter Long, and something that’s been sitting in my head about the Toby Daye series in general pretty much screamed at me to pay some more attention to it:

The Luidaeg says she can’t lie … except to blood of her blood. Mostly she frames that as the Selkies, because they’re technically hers because of them being what they are by virtue of the skins of her children, the Roane. But … “blood of my blood” is a little more general than that. I mean, it literally means “we share the same blood”.

The Luidaeg is the first born daughter of Oberon and Maeve. Amandine the Liar is the daughter of Oberon and Janet … and Amandine is Toby’s mother. The Luidaeg has claimed Toby as her niece time and time again. This means they share blood. “Blood of my blood”. Technically, she can lie to Toby … especially when you consider how much Faerie loves its loopholes. Sure, most of Faerie has the blood of Oberon or Maeve in them somewhere, but it’s noted to be so diluted by now that tracking descendant lines is difficult. Toby’s the daughter of a Firstborn, and claimed as a blood-relation in a way that August never was. And strictly speaking, the Luidaeg did lie to Amandine; she made a liar of herself when she went to get a look at Toby, when Toby was a little girl. She shouldn’t have been able to do that … unless lying to Amandine was okay.

More to the point, in The Winter Long, the Luidaeg says, “I don’t lie to you”. Not “can’t”; “don’t”. When she stresses that she can’t lie, she keeps it general … and usually she’s in the presence of others - Quentin, Tybalt, Janet / Miranda, Poppy, whoever. People she can’t lie around. (Arguably she can lie to Poppy too, since pixies are reputed to be literally formed of Maeve’s blood, but that’s another thing.) She has also, in several conversations with Toby, flagged up the very strong differences between “can’t”, “don’t”, and “won’t”, especially when it comes to the Luidaeg and her dealings with people on the verbal end.

So that’s one of two ways that Toby could get out of the Luidaeg killing her without lifting the geas Titania laid on her. The other - or at least the thing that could buy some damn time - is the debt. Toby literally brought the Luidaeg back from the dead in The Winter Long, and the Luidaeg made damn sure that Toby acknowledged how much that debt was worth. Doing the accounting, Toby asked for a lot of favours of the Luidaeg over the years, but by the Luidaeg’s own admission (in front of witnesses that she literally can’t lie to), those were entirely paid by her actions at the end of The Unkindest Tide. And at the end of Night and Silence, the Luidaeg said that Toby owed her nothing for saving Gillian. Sure, she could claim she was lying, but she doesn’t lie to Toby, and Toby could affirm that in front of witnesses, pointing out that a) Gillian being a Selkie made her transformation of the Selkie to Roane easier, and b) Gillian gave the Luidaeg the impetus she needed to share the Lost Skins, leaving more Roane - more of her own children, in a way - to be returned to her, so what the Luidaeg did for Gillian was way more for the Luidaeg than for Toby. And, waaaaaaay back at the very beginning in Rosemary and Rue, the Luidaeg said that she would not - could not - kill Toby with debts unpaid between them. So long as the Luidaeg owes Toby that hugely unpayable debt, the Luidaeg can’t kill Toby.

And if they can figure out the bloodline thing - which shouldn’t be too hard - the Luidaeg won’t have to, because lying to blood of her blood is allowed.

Look, sometimes I just think too much. Especially when the Fae are concerned. I like the Fae. I like the fun one can have with Blue and Orange Morality. So I pick and twist and turn at the bargains and rules to see where the loopholes are and how far they can be bent. This is why basically all of the things @seananmcguire writes fascinate me; there’s always so much to prod at.

Ohhhh yes!!! Love this! I just kind of figured that she absolutely will kill Toby but like either it's a weird play of words like 'Sir daye is now dead - severed from knightdom' kind of thing or her human self dies (aka no more human blood) or that she does actually die but then comes back somehow someway because of weird fae magic lol

Just a reminder that all fics need to be shared with the relevant artists by Tuesday, one week after the Claims process was finalised.

This is to make sure that the artists have enough time to produce their art, and gain whichever art medals they are going for.

Claims: Round One Is Open!

Round One of the Artist Claims for the Winterhawk Olympic Big Bang is officially open!! Get EXCITED!!

Artists, the Round One Form is here.

Please remember that for this round of Claims, you will be allowed to claim one fic, and each fic will only be claimed by one artist. The form will ask you for your top three preferences, and you will be assigned the highest preference that is still unclaimed at the time your form comes in. You will need to know the numbers of the fics you want to choose, rather than their titles. Artists and Writers, if you want to see what has been claimed and who has which fic, you can look at this spreadsheet of responses. The Mods will be highlighting in yellow which of their preferences each artist has claimed, so it should be easy to see.

If you see a row highlighted in red, that means that all of your preferences have already been claimed, and you will need to submit a new form with another three fic choices. We will contact any artist this applies to as soon as possible, but feel free not to wait for us and just resubmit when you see that.

If you want to know more about the process, or about future rounds, please have a look at this Tumblr post: Artist Claims Info Post.

Happy Claiming!!

If you need assistance during Claims: 

The Mod Team will all be focused on the Claims forms and spreadsheets themselves during Claims, and depending on how intense it is, we may not be readily available on social media. If you need immediate assistance (such as your Claim form not submitting or something equally important) we suggest that you Tag A Mod on the Discord server for fastest response - one member of the Team is dedicated to Communications. 

If you find Discord too much or aren’t on the server, please do email the blog at winterhawkolympicbang@gmail.com

Round One is Now Closed!! Stand by for Round Two!!

One Day Left For Artist Sign-Ups!

If you are interested in creating art for the Winterhawk Olympic Bang, you only have more day to sign up, as we will be closing the sign-up sheet at the end of tomorrow, the 14th.

Sign up sheet is here if you are interested in taking part.

All artists who sign up will receive an email with a slideshow of all the fics available for Claims as soon as the Mods can get it to them, and in advance of Claims opening on the 15th at 8pm GMT.

If nothing in the slideshow tickles your fancy, you are by no means obligated to Claim a fic (though we feel confident there’s a bit of something for everyone), so signing up is no risk!

All art that can be consumed visually online (digital media, traditional media which has been scanned or photographed for posting, photosets, etc.) are all welcome. Unfortunately, due to the way our Olympic Medal reward system is designed, we cannot accept other forms of art such as playlists or podfic at this time.

If you would like to be a pinch-hitter artist for the Bang, please go ahead and sign up as an artist - there will be multiple rounds of Claims so that every fic has an opportunity to receive art!

Interested in a copy of the 2021 Rhythm Generation Gundam Wing fan zine, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon?” REGISTER HERE THROUGH OUR MAILING LIST!

The 2021 Rhythm Generation Gundam Wing fandom zine—East of the Sun, West of the Moon—will feature canon-compliant, canon-divergent, and alternative universe explorations and retellings of classic fairytales, folklore, mythology, vast epics, urban legends, and even cryptids. The anthology will include a wide variety of both SFW and NSFW fan content—to include stories, art, and other fanwork.

The zine will be released as a two-part, FREE PDF but we encourage fellow fans to consider donating to our chosen charity, the World Literacy Foundation.

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Of all the redemption arcs in popular fantasy media, I feel like Theoden's in The Lord of the Rings is the most overlooked.

The movies emphasize the magical control that the evil powers exercise over Theoden, but in the books, it's more obviously a depiction of bad kingship, in the British medieval sense. Theoden takes bad advice; he neglects his family; he fails to reward his knights; and he leaves his people vulnerable to attack. He also does not honor his kingdom's promises to help nearby kingdoms, as we can tell from Boromir's account of what Gondor has been going through.

Gandalf doesn't just cast out the curse and magically fix everything. He encourages Theoden to free himself from his bad advisor, but Theoden has to take all the subsequent steps. And those choices are not easy; after so much neglect, his knights are scattered, and his only option for defending his people is to gather them at Helm's Deep. The siege does not go well. His people are afraid and despairing. But nevertheless, he holds firm and charges out to meet the enemy -- and Gandalf literally meets him halfway, bringing with him the lost knights, whom Theoden welcomes and rewards after the battle.

Theoden could have just gone home after that. But when Gondor calls for aid, Theoden proves his worth by honoring his promises. He keeps his oaths not only to his people but to his allies.

And the climax of his redemption in the book is not his death, but his leadership. The ride of the Rohirrim against Sauron's armies is described in lavish detail, with an uncharacteristically heated pace: Theoden leads the entire line of Rohan, his banner streaming behind him in the wind as they race toward their foe. And that's the end of the chapter.

I love Theoden's arc so much, and especially that moment so much, because the message is not that he has to win battles or seek power. He just has to keep fighting. Theoden's greatest enemy isn't really Sauron: it's despair. And over the course of the book, he keeps choosing hope and action over despair and hesitation, until finally he can lead his people with courage.

As someone who struggles a lot with despair, I really needed to hear that story.

and it’s contrasted against Denethor’s arc; who also struggles against despair, and doesn’t overcome it.

yooooo. so I literally wrote a 20 page english paper about the Hope/Despair theme in Tolkien’s work once. It was like ten years ago and I don’t think I have it anymore, but oh boy do I have feeeeeeelings about this topic. And I have drunk a little bit of wine tonight! So here are my unasked for thoughts:

Yes, Theoden’s greatest enemy is despair! Everyone’s greatest enemy is despair. It’s the biggest fucking theme of the series IMO and it makes me crazy how often it gets overlooked.

lord of the rings is a story written by a man whose experience of war was crouching in the bottom of a trench. People like to make a lot of hay about the charge of the light brigade and it’s similarity to the ride of the rohirrim, but no. Tolkien’s experience of war was getting fucking trench fever, not watching cavalry charges. Tolkien’s experience of war was listening to the shells fall around him, knowing that death could come at any moment. He experienced war in a way where the soldiers on the other side of the line were a faceless threat, and the closest and most present enemy was his own fear.

this is the hill I will die on. This is why I hate it when people talk about LotR as a morally cowardly story about fighting mindless orcs that exist to be cannon fodder. No. Lord of the Rings is about seeing the dark coming on the horizon, and fighting yourself. Fighting the fear and despair that rise up inside you. Struggling with your own terror and powerlessness, knowing that you are small, and nothing you do will matter in the face of this massive conflict—  you’re just here, one more meaningless soul to feed into the machine guns. Lord of the Rings is about taking a deep breath, and bracing yourself, and deciding that if nothing you do matters, all that matters is how you do it. The ring can’t possibly be destroyed— we choose to form a fellowship anyway. Helms deep will surely fall by morning— we still choose to fight. The quest can’t possibly succeed— and yet we choose to march into the teeth of mordor to distract the enemy. It’s not hope, exactly? But’s it’s not not hope.

I did at one point have twenty pages written about this. Tolkien was a deeply christian man— he believed in eucatastrophe. Salvation. A better world to come, after suffering, if you bore your suffering well. But he was also a world-class Beowulf scholar with a kinda viking-warrior-type view of the world. And do you know what the vikings believed? (Pls don’t anybody @ me for saying viking, I know it’s a verb and not a culture). The vikings believed that the time of your death was preordained, and that all you had control over was how you met it.

And that is some seriously Rohirric shit!! Like, we’re all mortals doomed to die, Ragnarok is coming, and this whole world is an inevitable grind down into oblivion… but if we’re fighting a long defeat, all the more reason to fight it gloriously!! That’s epic. Eomer approves the hell out of that message.

I’m gonna be a real nerd now, and quote from a poem called the Battle of Maldon.

That’s a translation from an Old English poem that’s literally a thousand years old, but it always gets me how much it sounds like something Tolkien would write. Theoden and Eowyn are practically leaping out of that poem: We’re all going to die, I choose to meet my end fiercely. We’re all going to die, so I want to die beside my king.

It’s an acceptance of death, and even of failure, but not of defeat. Because— to get back to what I was talking about earlier— Lord of the Rings isn’t actually a story about battlefields. It’s a story about being at war with your own heart. Despair or faith? Hope or defeat? Tolkien wants you to know that even if your city is overrun by orcs, or you’re killed in a meaningless push for another 50 feet of french mud, you can still hold on to your courage with both hands and not cede up your soul to despair-- and that’s the battle Tolkien thinks is really worth writing about.

It’s a battle that every major character in the story fights. Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Theoden, Denethor, Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Galadriel, Eowyn, Faramir, Eomer, Saruman, Gollum, Aragorn. Some of them hold onto hope through everything. Some of them break utterly. Some of them are defeated, and then with help find their footing again, and make a redeeming last stand.  

But the point that Tolkien hammers home again and again is: Death and failure are natural parts of life, and should be accepted. Despair shouldn’t be.

Tolkien says: hope is hard, actually. Fuck that Game of Thrones grimdark bullshit. Hope is hard fucking work. And even if you don’t have hope? Fight like you do. Because the world needs people working to make it better. Do the best you can with what you have, and whether you can see the mark you’re making on the world or not, the simple fact that you’re trying means the world is a better place.

Anyway, I fucking love these books. I am going to stop drinking wine, and go to bed now. :)