Kingdom of Knuffel

The last book I finished reading was the end of the 'Fairyland' series. It was alright. I think the author was trying a little too hard to make a strong and realistic girl character. Before that, I reread the old 'Wishsong of Shannara', or however it's spelled. I loved it as a kid, now I'm amused picking out the LoTR style tropes from it. The setting's interesting, though, at least in theory. It's a fantasy world that came about after a nuclear holocaust.

Bunnei wrote:Tam I am: Yeah they always seem kinda ill witted on horror shoes and it's annoying! I wish that stopped me from having bad dreams about shows like that but i can't help it. lol

Awww. *sympathy* Yeah, best to stay away. What do you feel about environmental disaster movies?

Mikael Hart wrote:But I feel like a lot of folks can relate to being frustrated about female characters; too often it feels like they're being misrepresented, are sending the wrong message, or are written up to be ridiculously unrealistic.

Horror, on the other hand, is something that I find too disturbing and unpleasant. I don't even like most suspense because of the level of paranoia I develop.

Part of why I focus on female characters (other than being female and knowing better how to make 'em tick). I want to make good ones. I found the woman on 'Jurassic World' ridiculous, but realistic to an extent.

Yeeeah. I don't get paranoia from suspense, but I can get a headache. So I agree with you about that.

Mikael Hart wrote:I believe that characters should have a deeper goal for themselves than getting with someone, especially since I know some folks who emulate that. *facehands* There's more to life than romance.

*nearly bawls after reading that* I'm aromantic and platonic. Seeing someone else say something like this makes my day, after the flack I've gotten.

Firn wrote:Right now I am reading the Last Herald-Mage series by Mercedes Lackey, also something I bought based on good Goodreads reviews, but so far I am rather disappointed. The main character seems to be a contantly whining spoiled brat, extremely dependant on others and even though I am almost finished with the first volume there hasn't really happend much story-wise and I have no clue where the story wants to take the readers, or what it really is about.

Mercedes Lackey is very popular, and I thought I liked her books as a kid, but the last time I tried one I had a very similar reaction to you to her main character. Except that this one was a manipulative *BEEP*. Not fun to read about. And she was supposed to be Beauty from the fairy tale.

What do you mean by trying too hard to make a strong and realistic girl character? Was she not written well? Was it too forceful?

Aha, I think the actress in Jurassic World actually practiced running in her heels. I can't say much for her character one way or the other, but that bit was impressive.

And I'm not good at writing for female characters myself, but recently, I've been practicing with female side characters. The world is made up of both genders (and then some) after all, so even if I have a preference for writing from a male perspective, at least I can try and balance what I've got with women and girls in their lives as well.

*hugs* Dude, man, you be you. I think we're pretty accepting of that here. XD

Which Lackey book have you read? My childhood author was largely Tamora Pierce.

Oh no. That's the funny part, she was fairly well written, a likeable character. I thought I could just tell by a lot of the side characters about the trying, and her own expressing of the wish to write a girl empowering book. Maybe it was just me being unfamiliar with the chatty narrator style of story telling, because most books done that way scare me off. But I finished this whole series, and plan to reread them sometime. And I usually shy away from serieses.

Yeah, I can't even walk in the things. Thing is, I'm not so green out in the wild as her, but I can be just as much of a ditz sometimes, without being a coward. Just like her. And I've been the maiden aunt in charge of kids. It IS easy to sometimes think they can amuse themselves and have that backfire.

*nod nod* People seem to like my guys, especially the grandfather and the young shuttle from my second and third NaNo stories, and the sentient cats and the unicorn boy from the third one. I just tend to write female leads because, yeah, girl here (okay, old woman. XD), and also there aren't enough good lady leads in the genres I like. I'm told it's hard to have people identify with non human and non humanoid characters, but many of mine aren't. ...That, and the lack of romance could be why I sometimes have to bribe people to read 'em, since once they do, they think they're good. LOL!

*hug* Thanks.

Some fantasy series with minstrels that had a griffon-like guy in one of 'em. And I think some set with white fairy horses... but I'm not sure that was hers. And the recent one was 'Belle and the Beast'. As a kid I read a lot of Terry Brooks. 'Shannara' (sp?) and LoTR were the backbones of my dream world, with 'Star Trek' and a few other things thrown in.

So you liked it more than not. XD

There are plenty of non-human characters that folks relate to though. I mean, Lion King was a hit, and personally, I was a fan of the Brave Little Toaster growing up (and the protagonists aren't even living things). Maybe part of it depends on the story, and part of it depends on how willing people are to relate to a character that isn't like them. Buuut I was a pretty empathetic kid. I always cried when people or things got hurt on TV (like in Short Circuit or Robo-Cop).

Nice. I was big on fantasy, but delved into mythology and the Arthurian legends as well. I read some Donna Jo Napoli, some Gerald Morris, Cynthia Voigt, and Robin McKinley. Then there were TA Barron and Mary Stewart; once I enjoyed a book, I tended to search for others by the same author.

Yuuup.

Hmm. That's true. So I wonder what that writing guide writer had crawled out of. Chewbacca and R2D2 have LOTS of fans. And R2 looks like a trash can. I wanna watch 'Short Circuit' again.

I have Robin McKinley's 'Beauty', and her Robin Hood book, after loving them when I was young. The others didn't really stick with me because of parts that I didn't like. I did my mythology and Arthur too (and have a book about archaeology and trying to find the real king Arthur behind me on the blanket chest). Had a little Mary Sue girl Robin Hood type character that I would sometimes play as a kid, now I just like reading some of the novels old and newer (haven't looked at any of the really new ones). I've been reading some YA novelizations of popular fairy tales, but I can't read the author's name on the spine from here, and I'm too absent minded to remember it. She's also got a sixgun Snow White that I'm planning on reading, since I myself have written a cowboy Cinderella (humour story that's terrible, but people seem happily amused by the cheese), and a goldrush era Snow White from the Kootenies in BC (which is a good story idea, but choppy as heck and needs rewriting badly).

Aha, I'm surprised you recognized the movie! I remember when Wally first hit the theater, and all I could think of was that he looked like the Short Circuit robot. Johnny 5?

Oh, I have Beauty too; not sure about the Robin Hood one, though. I really liked her version of Sleeping Beauty.

I remember reading a lot of Gail Carson Levine too --she did pretty good with Ella Enchanted, but I'm less impressed with her other stories.

I think the only time I dived into the Arthurian legends was with Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon books. Her books seemed to have been very popular in Germany at some time, at least you could buy them everywhere. But I never really got into it.

I don't think I have ever read anyone's take on Fairy tales or faily tale characters. But since I always found the originals to be rather gross and scary, it wasn't ever really tempting. I feel like a lot of people in other countries think of the Disney characters first when it comes to fairytales, or at least of some interpretation similar to it, but since the Brothers Grimm were German, every kid (at least when I was a child) gets to read the originals as a child and they are really not kind stories. They were written mostly to scare children into good behavior and usually have some really cruel twist to it. Like in Rapunzel the prince actually falls down the tower when he attempts to climb it and there are rose bushes with thorns underneat the tower and the thorns poke out his eyes. Or in Cinderella her step-sisters cut off their toes so they can fit in her shoe and stuff like this. It was always rather scary and I never enjoyed the stories as a child. Seriously, if books had an age restriction, they would be at least PG 12, or even PG 16 as back when I was a child, movies were rated much stricter than they are now.

I'm curious, but I'm not particularly familiar with that author myself.

Ooh, you make a good point about fairy tale origins, Firn. I grew up with them, and in college (way, way back, to the point that I don't remember anything), we studied them, and I read the translated versions and retellings and I liked them. But I liked them the way I like myths and legends and folk lore in general. There may be dark parts, but they're still intriguing stories.

Ah yeah, I remember those bits of those fairy tales. Also something about rape in Sleeping Beauty (or something like) and how they cut off a horse's head and nailed in to wall in the Goose Girl. I read these when I was older, so I probably see them in a different light than you do.

Btw, I read the NPC info again, and I've gotta say, you've expanded the cast quite nicely! I really like the variety of characters that you've come up with. Also very curious about getting to know more about our little princess Walla. D:

I don't think they would bother me much right now, but as a child of maybe 6 I thought it was really scary.

The rape in Sleeping Beuaty was actually not by the Brothers Grimm, but by some italien authors. I just read it up, as I could not really remember the Grimm version well. Aparently there were different takes at the same fairytales by different authors in different countries (as the origins of the tales were much older) and the Italian rape version was by some guy called Pentamerone. There are even worse versions like by some guy named Giambattista Basile, where Sleeping Beauty's mother wants some kids cooked and eaten? It's all really gross...

I am glad you like them. I am say I don't get to do as much with our NPCs as I liked to, because I would love to include them more in some site's features. Where you here for last Halloween Event? I think we had some pretty neat Wuffel action going on there. I was rather proud of that event.

Whooo! I finally have a face!