Draginon

That's how I feel after reading that! The strangest book I ever read was Lost by Gregory Maguire. I had already read Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror Mirror so I wanted to see his modern Christmas Carol. It was just bizarre and I stopped after the protagonist started talking about a cat stuck in the wall for no apparent reason during the Marley door knocker moment.

I kind of agree on the points brought up about Rick Riordon's books. I like the mythology books, but it almost feels forced with the diversity. In Percy Jackson he doesn't mention anyone at the camp who is not white. Suddenly in Heroes of Olympus everyone is non-white, the first person mortal Apollo meets is an abuse case suffering from Stockholm syndrome and Magnus Chase has a weird explanation for how a Middle Eastern family is connected to the Nords that is just as contrived as a Greek going to China and later having descendants that moved to Canada to become Romans. Despite my complaints there my favorite characters are Piper, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Samirah, Blitz and Hearth.

Now that'd be a clone war everyone would love. He could set one team to write Mistborn, one to write Stormlight, a crew to write 'short stories' and a team to write YA.

I actually read that as sci-fi finger story and kept wondering what a finger story was. Funnily I like sci-fi but I don't get that many story ideas for them. Well it was done because I didn't want to try squishing in a big old 'escape the prison' into the word count I had to work with and the story was already pretty streamlined to begin with up to that point. Word count restrictions are the worst!

But isn't that what the cloning machine for, so that he has time for both?

This would be close to a 4 hour drive for me depending on traffic. I've never been to a book signing before so it would be exciting to go. It's also during my vacation time and two days before my birthday so it'd be an early birthday present to myself. For the 3 max I might bring Alcatraz 1, Elantris 10th and Arcanum Unbounded since I'd rather bring a big paperback and hardcover for signing. If I'm there maybe we'd both play House War, though I've never played before.

A finger story? It's hard keeping it small when you have worldbuilding to do without the characters being dumb about something they should. My first real short story I managed to keep short was about a biomechanical robot. I had submitted it to Writers of the Future and coincidentally that year Brandon was one of the judges. I didn't qualify sadly. But I still struggled to keep that one short so I had to cheat (had the robot suffer a blackout moment) a little to do so. If I ever publish that one I'll most likely rewrite it without the cheating ending. You should give that another attempt to see if you do a better job unless you think it's lame. The merchant story I'm doing the magic there was partially inspired by ASMR, since that's where I first got the idea for it, and that means the magic users have to find their specific triggers to activate it.

Funnily I have a hard with short stories as well. I had one turn into a novella when I finished the draft so I couldn't submit it to the short story contest I was going to enter at the time. That was a story about holidays personified and the main character was based on All Hallows' Eve. That one is another subversion by having the people around him change since he's already a nice guy, the others just don't see it because of his nature.

Now you see the dilemma. You should also check how many books you can bring to sign since Murder is allowing 3 past books.

This peeve is on the personal side, when I'm talking to my mom calmly or neutral and for some reason she thinks I'm irritated or angry. And no, I don't have Asperger's.

Except that Murder by the Book, the one I would go, requires buying from them the day of the tour in order to get it signed.

Who's daughter is that? Peter's?

You know you're a fan when you can't decide between getting the newest book day of or during the book tour. The struggle is real!

Now I'll have to decide between a possible midnight release at B&N or wait a week for Murder by the Book

I don't get it either. It's weirder when you meet people who only enjoy one book or series and those are usually Harry Potter, Hunger Games or Twilight. I like imagining what the characters look and sound like, though I sometimes have a problem with teens sounding either too young or too old.

I'm also writing a short story, planned to be a series of short stories, about a merchant. The main intent is to show his world evolving the same way the people from the turn of the century experienced it, like seeing the introduction of the telephone, less dependence on magic (something he laments since his niece is a witch) and other technological advances. Speaking of pirates, after seeing the new Pirates film I remembered a character I created years ago named Captain Stubble. I'm thinking of reviving him for a children's book series. I'm thinking the world is a world made of islands so boat travel is the main mode of transport, though these are more sci-fi style ships that still look like traditional pirate vessels, because there isn't enough consistent land for other modes of transport. I want him to be a kind of Robin Hood of pirates, meaning he's more honest than the other pirates, and his crew is unconventional like having a woman as his first mate, a man doing the clothes repairs, bringing in those who have miserable lives, etc... But my little twist on these people is they look half human and half animal. Captain Stubble and his first mate are part monkey, that's because they're siblings, and the crew would be different species as well like a chameleon, a snake and even a wolf. I want it fun enough for kids to enjoy but risqué enough for older readers as well since these are pirates. If I get around to this series I would have each book have a flashback showing how each member of the crew came to join.

A lot of my stories are still just ideas at this point, like Mistborn Era 4 is at this point. To kind of clarify mine prophecies in the story aren't a well known thing, usually just something the prophet themself knows and no one else. In this case it's a world saving one, but when he saw it he was just a child so it didn't mean a lot to him. Now that he's older and things start heading towards that vision he shares it with the resistance and everyone immediately assumes it's the main character because the person in the vision has a very specific hair color, the people of this world have exotic hair colors, and the main characters hair was affected by the magic of the world to never settle on one shade. You can figure out why they think it's him at this point. Also have another story where I've written first drafts for and there is a prophecy there as well, but I had that one suffer translation error because it was originally spoken in Ancient Greek and transliterated into different languages over the centuries to the point each has a different wording and meaning so no one is sure which wording is right, not even the villains are quite sure. Because of circumstances by the time the story happens the male lead is seemingly the only person it applies to, pretty much this is an alternate earth where angels are evil but demons are good but the angels have manipulated events and records to the point that the reputations of the two races is how it is in real life, because he's the last demon. Technically he was born human but inherited his demon powers from an actual demon that saved his life as a kid, effectively making him half demon half human. The prophecy says something about one born of human and demon will save the world. So because he's the only demon around he has to be the one... until his girlfriend becomes pregnant If I get this story published you will be shocked by the ending of the second book since it's shocking and nearly made me cry when I first thought of it. It was hard to do it but the story needed a harsh ending to that part.

@Sunbird I was trying to think of one for Steelheart earlier but couldn't. Glad someone made one. The Dark Tower= the Night Skyscraper Kidnap (that new Halle Berry film)= Childsleep Game of Thrones= Play of Seats Kingdom Hearts= Empire Kidneys The Cuckoo's Calling= The Clock's Phone Power Rangers= Energy Troopers

I love Toddy's covers.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer= Roids, the Twilight Killer

Well you'll be getting three books of that one. I also have a prophecy, but the person who sees it doesn't see the full picture and is unsure who it was depicting, but assumes that it's the main character since they meet during the first book and he sees other things involving him, but you know what they say about assuming I always try for a twist or alternative POV, like one where the time of war between the races has long since passed and is a relatively peaceful time so the world is closer to Victorian times than medieval, while another I got an inkling of an idea is to tell the traditional hero story but have it seen from the eyes of the people he meets so one chapter would be from a shopkeeper who sells him his first sword, another chapter would be from a mystic who heals the hero, etc... I even posted one of my story ideas in the creators corner where I defy the 'mighty whitey' and 'here comes America to save us all' tropes by having the 12 main characters be multinational and multiethnic. One other story I have is an ice planet where I plan on writing 10 books for it with each book shown from the POV of a different character and all of them are different races, yes I did 10 races for the story and most are brand new for it, and the story involves the planet starting to warm up and the heroes are trying to stop the planet from melting completely since the 10 races have adapted to life on a cold world. There will also be an extra book showing the whole story from a character who is kind of like Hoid where he manages to show up wherever the heroes are but always looking like a different race altogether.

Well my story ideas tend to go in the same category as Brandon does, except much more subversive. I try coming up with stories where fighting isn't the point of it and the heroes try to be smart about it. But pretty much this one is supposed to look like the typical fare but I try not to go the typical route by building them up to be something larger than life and instead don't go on to become kings, unless they were royal to begin with, so expect more of a macguffin quest, like Frodo's story, instead of something like Rand or Aragorn. Heck I even have a fake out ending planned for the middle book that will be resolved in the third book.

My years of playing fantasy games has come through Seriously though I understood it mostly because that's something I'm planning on doing for the main character of the epic fantasy I'm writing. He's a farmer but he's not going to be the type where he's used farm equipment all his life and 'obviously' knows how to use a sword. I'm having it where when he does get into battle he uses sickles, scythes and other sharp implements that a farmer would use on a regular basis. This was done kind of as a subversion of the 'inexperienced farmer becomes greatest sword master ever!' trope. I like your idea and hope you get to publish it someday.

Yeah I want to write as well, do have a couple first drafts laying around plus one I'm in the middle of writing along with a few short stories/novellas, but there are some days I find myself unable to get anything written. It's really bad if I have a writing day and get one of my migraines. Heck most of the time I can't write because my mom drops a surprise shopping trip on me so I'm left with very few days to write anything anymore.

Just like how Malinda Kathleen Reese has been doing Google Translate songs that have alternate words that are technically correct, how about giving alternate titles to all pieces of media? Here's mine: The Bands of Mourning= Musicians of Extreme Sadness Mistborn= Fogbirth Harry Potter= William Silversmith Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians= Prison Fights the Bad Publishers