Sunbird

@Djarskublar I too found that trilogy very lolworthy. Since you enjoyed it so much, I recommend checking out James Riley's other series, Story Thieves. It also makes a lot of fun of storytelling tropes and breaks the fourth wall in an almost Alcatraz-esque style at times.

Okay, more good news to share So way back in October of 2016, the author Michael Darling posted on his Facebook that he was looking for alpha readers for his second novel, which was the sequel to his first one, Got Luck. (Some of you may recall me praising it here on the Shard.) Long story short, I got to alpha read and Got Hope is now live on Amazon Kindle with my name in the acknowledgements!

In brief, since I gotta go to bed soon, I got into birdwatching as a kid after my mom put up a seed feeder in our backyard and we started watching them out the window. That was like 14 years ago, and the years and years and practice are a huge contributor to how much I know about it now. Talking to and hanging out with experienced birders is also way helpful. My advice for getting started is to find some local people who have birding experience and talk to them, find out good spots in your area to find birds, what field guides are the most helpful for beginners, and methods for IDing. As a North American birder, I won't be much help teaching you about Australian birds, but Australian birders would be a big help. You might find a good group to join on Facebook that could help you learn from home.

@Djarskublar See, I have no problem with the post you just made in reply to mine because you presented an argument without attacking the person on the other side of the debate. The point I was trying to make was just that it's not okay to talk down to people whose book tastes are different than yours. I realize now that you weren't intending to do that, so I'm content to agree to disagree on whether Beyonders was a good series or not. As you said, this thread is about Dragonwatch, not Beyonders. Unfortunately I won't really have much else to contribute to the discussion here until I actually finish reading Dragonwatch, so I might just bow out until I have finished it. XD

I have had a fantastic week. =) I mentioned earlier in the thread that I got see a bunch of owls last Saturday night (March 11), and I got to see a bunch more cool birds this Thursday, including an ADORABLE tiny falcon called a Merlin, the same pair of nesting Great Horned Owls from the 11th, several Western Meadowlarks and a Horned Lark (all of whom were singing loudly), and three American Avocets in their beautiful summer colors! Here, some photos (mostly not taken by me) of the birds I mentioned. Merlin, courtesy of Google: My 3 best photos of papa Great Horned Owl standing guard near the nest where his lady friend was hunkered down inside. (Taken March 11, 2017) Western Meadowlark, courtesy of Google: Horned Lark, courtesy of Google: American Avocet, courtesy of Google: I have more good stuff to share, but it's late here so it'll have to wait.

First, a disclaimer: I've bought a copy of Dragonwatch but have not read it yet. @Captains Domon Here's what I've heard Brandon Mull say about Dragonwatch at signings/panels: It will be a five-book series, just like the original run of Fablehaven, that will read like Fablehaven books 6-10 because it's still about Kendra and Seth and there's not a huge time gap between the events at the end of Keys to the Demon Prison and the start of Dragonwatch. He has also said that the events of all 5 books of Dragonwatch will probably span about a year of in-story time. This is not a good attitude to have if you want to make friends. Sure, debate the pros and cons of any given book/series, but don't act like you have any right to put someone down for liking something that you don't. I enjoyed Beyonders immensely, and one of the big reasons for that is one of the reasons you keep dissing it--the improbability of the heroes succeeding. It's fun to see characters I care about accomplish a good thing that's nearly impossible. It sounds to me like you're chafing at the fact that Brandon Mull aims his books toward middle-grade readers and is therefore sort of required to have a mostly happy ending and a lot less required to write a "gritty" story to make it "realistic."

I looooove this series! I've saved so many funny quotes from it.

Being a vampire is a recurring thing in my dreams. Usually I end up biting someone either in self-defense or for revenge, but it's like my subconscious knows I'm not really a vampire because my dream-self doesn't usually manage to actually draw any blood. XD Sometimes I do too. Not always, but sometimes.

Congrats on your successful Lasik, @Kaymyth!!

@A Budgie That looks incredible!! @Erunion New album?! Must listen ASAP! Thanks for sharing that news!

You get a failed intelligence check and spend the next two hours drooling and staring into space. *inserts a handful of peanuts*

More than once, my band director threw his baton at us accidentally during class. XD

@Djarskublar I also love most of what I've heard of Nightwish even though I've only been able to get my hands on two albums so far. I like how different their sound is from the normal pop type of stuff that plays on most radio stations, and how great it is for headbanging.

I've heard about these before. Sounds really fun, but I'm not sure whether it's good for the owls. But on the funny side, one of those pictures had a falcon in it. XD

No joke, I had to act fast to keep from getting a mosquito bite today. But in all seriousness, how are our Sharders out east? Has anyone been severely affected by the snow? @bleeder What's it like right now in Tennessee? Also, everyone please enjoy a few memes I made tonight: Introducing Bad Pun Owl, the meme for all your bird-related wordplay (made the template myself):

You get a pile of smashed pottery shards. *inserts giant land snail*

Count me in!

Sunbird approves! I just played "Bohemian Rhapsody" on my laptop while reading your lyrics and it's SO EPIC.

This is true!

Actually, Brandon purposely gave them those names as a tongue-in-cheek joke about the fact that Scadrial has no moon.

@Quiver they're not my art (I just found them via Google), so I'm the wrong one to ask. The artist goes by the name iguanamouth on Tumblr. Speaking of which, I should credit them in my sig.

Oh my gosh. I just found an bunch of art of gryphons created from unusual cat/bird combos and it's awesome! You can see the whole collection here, but here are some of my favorites: Cheetah/Peregrine Falcon: Hummingbird/Ocelot: Potoo/Pallas Cat: I seriously cannot stop laughing at the Pallas-Potoo.

I had a very funny but also very impractical idea. Now that the Cosmere has been optioned for film, what if Stan Lee did Hoid's cameos? I know it wouldn't work because Hoid doesn't look like Stan Lee and has a significant role in the Stormlight books and changes appearances often and so on, but just think how hilarious it would be to have the king of cameos popping up in all the Cosmere films!