Well hello there!

[Sheity Williams she/her]

Hi! 

How are you all doing? As you may be able to tell, I'm a newbie, but incredibly excited to get started here. I've been lurking around for a few days, being overwhelmed by the sheer size of this place before I decided I HAD to give it a try and sign up. I've been in a few forums before, but none as big as this one! There are just so many things to do and talk and post! I don't know where to go first. Any advice? 

Anyway, I'll talk a bit about myself, since I was supposed to do that from the beginning. 

I am a 20-year-old, Spaniard, still a student, I'm afraid, but I also work in a lab, which is awesome. I discovered Brandon Sanderson last year and fell in love with his books. The first one I read was the Stormlight Archive (btw, am I the only one who LOVES books that long? The longer the better. Yup. I just said that.), followed by Mistborn, Reckoners and Elantris. I gotta say, Arcanum Unbounded blew my mind; those moments when you see some small dots connect... best thing ever. I still have a few of his books to read, but I decided to take a break for a while (I read only Brandon Sanderson for... months, so yeah... xD). 

Outside of this, my favorite book genres are fantasy and sci-fi, but I read almost anything thrown my way. I play videogames, too, ever since I was little. I am a writer, not a professional one, though. I write in English, even though I am a native from Spain (which sucks, because I've gotten better at my English than my Spanish. Somehow. And here in Spain you can hardly find anyone who speaks good enough English). I would love to learn drawing. I love sports but I'm horrible at them all. Aaaaand that's pretty much it.

Hopefully I'll see you all around!

[Erandeni he/him]

Welcome to the Shard!! take an upvote.I am from Spain too, it's nice to meet someone here that shares my time zone,.I am from Sevilla Where in Spain are you from? If you need something feel free to PM me.

Besides, I think it is mandatory to warn you against the cookies.

[Zennix he/him]

Welcome to the Shard! Have a cookie and an upvote! The cookies are delicious. I love looooong books and series too. Stormlight Archive was the first BS book series I read (it became my all-time favorite). You will enjoy the Shard. 

[CaptainRyan he/him]

Welcome to the 17th Shard @Sheity Williams! I completely agree that the longer a (good) book is, the better! Besides the Stormlight Archive, I absolutely love the unabridged version of "the Count of Monte Cristo". Sooooo good and sooooo big haha. 

I know how cliche it sounds to compliment a non-native speaker on their English skills but I must say that I am super impressed with your English!

[StrikerEZ he/him]

Hey, welcome to the Shard, @Sheity Williams! Have an upvote and a free spiked delicious cookie!

Spoiler

DISCLAIMER: Side effects include, but are not limited to, hearing voices, gaining supernatural powers, having the sudden urge to kill everyone, and completely losing control over your mind and body. The Dark Alley™ claims no liability for any damage done to/by the eater of this cookie.

Also, I never realized how much I loved long books until I started reading Sanderson's books. It's scary when you first start them, but then you get sucked into the story and the book flies by before you can even realize it.

If you're wondering which Cosmere books you still need to read, I'd recommend reading Warbreaker next. You can find it for free on Brandon's website. It's a really good book all by itself, but the main reason I recommend it is that there's some Cosmere secrets in it that will make some events/characters in SA make more sense. Also, have you read the second Era of Mistborn books? Those start with Alloy of Law. If you haven't read those yet, I'd really recommend reading those as well. They're really good. 

Also, I hope you avoided all of the spoiler-y short stories from Arcanum Unbounded, like Secret History.

Once you've finished all of the Cosmere books, I'd recommend doing a reread of the Stormlight Archive, as there's some cool Cosmere hints in there. Plus, Oathbringer, the third book, is coming out soon as well.

Anyway, welcome again, and I hope you enjoy the site!

[Gavin-son-son-Odegard he/him]

6 hours ago, Sheity Williams said:

Hi! 

How are you all doing? As you may be able to tell, I'm a newbie, but incredibly excited to get started here. I've been lurking around for a few days, being overwhelmed by the sheer size of this place before I decided I HAD to give it a try and sign up. I've been in a few forums before, but none as big as this one! There are just so many things to do and talk and post! I don't know where to go first. Any advice? 

Anyway, I'll talk a bit about myself, since I was supposed to do that from the beginning. 

I am a 20-year-old, Spaniard, still a student, I'm afraid, but I also work in a lab, which is awesome. I discovered Brandon Sanderson last year and fell in love with his books. The first one I read was the Stormlight Archive (btw, am I the only one who LOVES books that long? The longer the better. Yup. I just said that.), followed by Mistborn, Reckoners and Elantris. I gotta say, Arcanum Unbounded blew my mind; those moments when you see some small dots connect... best thing ever. I still have a few of his books to read, but I decided to take a break for a while (I read only Brandon Sanderson for... months, so yeah... xD). 

Hi there Sheity and welcome to our little crazy corner of the Cosmere 

I love big books too (as long as they're well-written and engaging), a longer book means more time to spend in the world, immersed in the story and enjoying it. Like, when I finished Words of Radiance I was like why can't this book be longer? I would've happily read on if it went on for another 1000 pages. 

Seems you only have Warbreaker and White Sand to read in terms of Cosmere books. Warbreaker is really really good, and you can read it for free on Brandon's website. I've just started reading White Sand myself, we'll see how it turns out.  

Quote

Outside of this, my favorite book genres are fantasy and sci-fi, but I read almost anything thrown my way. I play videogames, too, ever since I was little. I am a writer, not a professional one, though. I write in English, even though I am a native from Spain (which sucks, because I've gotten better at my English than my Spanish. Somehow. And here in Spain you can hardly find anyone who speaks good enough English). I would love to learn drawing.

Yay a fellow writer! I've been working on a book for years now, it's a dark fantasy which I hope to finish and publish someday soon. Do you intend to publish at all or is it more of a hobby?

Like you I'm not a native English speaker, but I write in English as well, it's just more natural to me and besides I wanna publish in English-speaking countries where the fantasy market is huge.

Quote

I love sports but I'm horrible at them all. Aaaaand that's pretty much it.

 Yet another thing we have in common . Though I only follow football (Soccor for the Americans in the forum), which club do you support if you don't mind me asking? I'm a huge FC Barcelona fan, one of the top items on my bucket list is travelling to Barcelona and watching an El Clasico match in Camp Nou. 

Anyway welcome again, oh and don't forget to eat the cookies, they're yummmmy 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Gavin-son-son-Odegard

[Sami she/her]

Welcome to the Shard! I haven't read White Sands either. Is the non-graphic version available? Because I always find graphic novels kinda confusing. 

[Calderis he/him]

2 minutes ago, Sami said:

Welcome to the Shard! I haven't read White Sands either. Is the non-graphic version available? Because I always find graphic novels kinda confusing. 

Are you on Brandon's mailing list? There's a link in his monthly newsletter to download the prose version for free 

[Sami she/her]

Oh awesome. I'll check it out

[Sheity Williams she/her]

Thank you for the heartwarming welcome, everyone. You're all so nice!

16 hours ago, Idealistic said:

Welcome to the Shard!! take an upvote.I am from Spain too, it's nice to meet someone here that shares my time zone,.I am from Sevilla Where in Spain are you from? If you need something feel free to PM me.

Besides, I think it is mandatory to warn you against the cookies.

Another Spaniard, color me surprised! Glad to know I'm not the only one from here. I'm from Madrid, thankfully, because I cannot stand how hot it is in Andalucia. Seriously, how do you do it? xD. I'll be sure to message you sometime! 

Oh boy, everyone offering cookies and now you're telling me they're bad. What am I missing? xD

16 hours ago, Zennix said:

Welcome to the Shard! Have a cookie and an upvote! The cookies are delicious. I love looooong books and series too. Stormlight Archive was the first BS book series I read (it became my all-time favorite). You will enjoy the Shard. 

Thank you! Yup, Stormlight is still my all-time favorite as well, even after reading several of his books. It's just so gooooood!

16 hours ago, CaptainRyan said:

Welcome to the 17th Shard @Sheity Williams! I completely agree that the longer a (good) book is, the better! Besides the Stormlight Archive, I absolutely love the unabridged version of "the Count of Monte Cristo". Sooooo good and sooooo big haha. 

I know how cliche it sounds to compliment a non-native speaker on their English skills but I must say that I am super impressed with your English!

Uuuuuh, is that another long book? I'll admit I have yet to go through many classic books. I'll be sure to add that one to my TBR list. Unfortunately, nowadays it's hard to find good books over a thousand pages. If you have any other recommendations, I'd love to hear them. 

Thank you for the compliment! Indeed, it is cliche, but I still appreciate it xD. I've been going at it for nine years and counting. Some skill had to come out of that xD.

15 hours ago, StrikerEZ said:

Hey, welcome to the Shard, @Sheity Williams! Have an upvote and a free spiked delicious cookie!

  Reveal hidden contents

DISCLAIMER: Side effects include, but are not limited to, hearing voices, gaining supernatural powers, having the sudden urge to kill everyone, and completely losing control over your mind and body. The Dark Alley™ claims no liability for any damage done to/by the eater of this cookie.

Also, I never realized how much I loved long books until I started reading Sanderson's books. It's scary when you first start them, but then you get sucked into the story and the book flies by before you can even realize it.

If you're wondering which Cosmere books you still need to read, I'd recommend reading Warbreaker next. You can find it for free on Brandon's website. It's a really good book all by itself, but the main reason I recommend it is that there's some Cosmere secrets in it that will make some events/characters in SA make more sense. Also, have you read the second Era of Mistborn books? Those start with Alloy of Law. If you haven't read those yet, I'd really recommend reading those as well. They're really good. 

Also, I hope you avoided all of the spoiler-y short stories from Arcanum Unbounded, like Secret History.

Once you've finished all of the Cosmere books, I'd recommend doing a reread of the Stormlight Archive, as there's some cool Cosmere hints in there. Plus, Oathbringer, the third book, is coming out soon as well.

Anyway, welcome again, and I hope you enjoy the site!

As much as I would love to take your cookie and start gaining supernatural powers and whatnot, I'm gonna have to decline xDDDD. (Do you always give out hazardous cookies? Because it's awesome)

I didn't know Warbreaker was available for free. Thank you for telling me, I'll make sure to pick it up. And I'll also make sure to get into it ASAP, what you just said about secrets got my hype to spike sky high. Yes, I have read the second Era and I still have a hard time deciding whether it's as good as the first one or even better. I am somewhat disappointed about the lack of full mistborn individuals. It would have been so cool! Even more, I mean. Also, since I read the second Era, I read Secret History, and it was soooo gooooooood! One of the reasons Arcanum Unbounded blew my mind. 

I'll take you up on that suggestion of reading the Archive again. Just a few more months for Oathbringer, though. Too long!

15 hours ago, Gavin-son-son-Odegard said:

Hi there Sheity and welcome to our little crazy corner of the Cosmere 

I love big books too (as long as they're well-written and engaging), a longer book means more time to spend in the world, immersed in the story and enjoying it. Like, when I finished Words of Radiance I was like why can't this book be longer? I would've happily read on if it went on for another 1000 pages. 

Seems you only have Warbreaker and White Sand to read in terms of Cosmere books. Warbreaker is really really good, and you can read it for free on Brandon's website. I've just started reading White Sand myself, we'll see how it turns out.  

Yay a fellow writer! I've been working on a book for years now, it's a dark fantasy which I hope to finish and publish someday soon. Do you intend to publish at all or is it more of a hobby?

Like you I'm not a native English speaker, but I write in English as well, it's just more natural to me and besides I wanna publish in English-speaking countries where the fantasy market is huge.

 Yet another thing we have in common . Though I only follow football (Soccor for the Americans in the forum), which club do you support if you don't mind me asking? I'm a huge FC Barcelona fan, one of the top items on my bucket list is travelling to Barcelona and watching an El Clasico match in Camp Nou. 

Anyway welcome again, oh and don't forget to eat the cookies, they're yummmmy 

I knoooow! 2000 pages of WoR would have been a dream come true, but I'm told it's very hard to have books that thick due to publishers having equipment problems.

Nice to meet another writer! I love dark fantasy, so if you do publish, I'll gladly purchase your book! I would also love to publish myself and I'm hoping to start sending my novel everywhere once I've finished editing it. Such a tedious process. I'd say it's the worst part of it all! Also, glad to know I'm not the only non-native writing in English! I've always thought I was the odd one out. Keep writing and you'll finish before you know it!

Sports, ah yes, a lot of people assumes I like watching soccer, since I'm Spanish, but I don't like it that much xD I prefer to play it among friends. How cool that you want to come here! I'm sure you'll like the experience. If I had to choose a team, I'd say Real Madrid, (Sorry xDDDDD. I'm told we must now be enemies to death because of that xD), simply because I'm from Madrid, but I really do not care much for it. I actually prefer basketball and keep up to date with the latest NBA news. I'm a Toronto Raptors fan. I know, I know, never won playoffs... but we will someday xD.

Should I eat the cookies? I have mixed feelings by now xD

14 hours ago, Sami said:

Welcome to the Shard! I haven't read White Sands either. Is the non-graphic version available? Because I always find graphic novels kinda confusing. 

Thank you! I only read the beginning of White Sands, so I still have to get to it, too.

[Erandeni he/him]

1 hour ago, Sheity Williams said:

I cannot stand how hot it is in Andalucia. Seriously, how do you do it?

The secret is not going outside before the sunset, or after if you want to be sure XD.

[Gavin-son-son-Odegard he/him]

2 hours ago, Sheity Williams said:

 

Nice to meet another writer! I love dark fantasy, so if you do publish, I'll gladly purchase your book! I would also love to publish myself and I'm hoping to start sending my novel everywhere once I've finished editing it. Such a tedious process. I'd say it's the worst part of it all! Also, glad to know I'm not the only non-native writing in English! I've always thought I was the odd one out. Keep writing and you'll finish before you know it!

Thanks! though it's gonna be a while before it's ready for publishing. And yeah editing is not fun but it's necessary *sigh. Non-natives writing in English is not uncommon at all, I'm a a member of this really great writing forum and there are a lot of non-native writers who write in English there.

Btw in case you didn't know, Brandon Sanderson does this really great podcast called Writing Excuses where he and three other writers talk about all things writing, it's really useful, they cover all aspects of writing fiction, from characters development to plot to POVs and all the techniques that a writer needs to know, it's really really helpful if you wanna listen to it. They're on season 12 now, but you only need to start with season 10 and go from there.

Good luck with your novel 

2 hours ago, Sheity Williams said:

Sports, ah yes, a lot of people assumes I like watching soccer, since I'm Spanish, but I don't like it that much xD I prefer to play it among friends. How cool that you want to come here! I'm sure you'll like the experience. If I had to choose a team, I'd say Real Madrid, (Sorry xDDDDD. I'm told we must now be enemies to death because of that xD), simply because I'm from Madrid, but I really do not care much for it. I actually prefer basketball and keep up to date with the latest NBA news. I'm a Toronto Raptors fan. I know, I know, never won playoffs... but we will someday xD.

Basketball is a cool sport but I could never get into it they way I do soccer/football. I just love soccer, it excites me in a way that no other sport can and part of it may be because I'm Iranian, soccer is really huge in Iran so it's kinda in my blood, I guess. Btw you may be interested to know that both Barcelona and Real Madrid have huge fan bases in Iran. Seriously it's crazy, I used to have so many heated arguments with my friends over Barca- Real Madrid games back when I still lived in Iran. Fun times!

Anyway I hope you don't mind me passionately rooting for Barca come the next Clasico . 

2 hours ago, Sheity Williams said:

Should I eat the cookies? I have mixed feelings by now xD

17 hours ago, Sami said:

You totally should, they're soft and chocolaty and full of tiny delicious spikes walnuts, they´re so good they´ll Ruin your taste for anything else 

Oh since you like long books, have you read the A Song of Ice and Fire series (the books that Game of Thrones is based of)? If not give 'em a try when you have the time, they're really really good and and they're huge books, so it should be right up your alley.