Snakenaps

I could easily take another season or two. There's just so much they could cover.

Dang! This looks promising!

Absolutely agree! It flew by in an instant! Although, if they are going to vary episode length...maybe we will get longer episodes for the last four?

Hahahaha, I got a good chuckle out of this!

Oh no XD As a DM, I always fear slightly when I hear "very memorable!" There's nothing like leaving your mark in DnD! I, unfortunately, am "very memorable" for accidentally killing one of my players when I set 13 sharks on them in an enclosed trap room... Whoops! I hope the name "Killersquid" has to do with your battle prowess, and not an unfortunate accident!

Welcome! As you have already discovered, the 17th Shard is amazing for discussing anything Sanderson-related!

This morning the World Fantasy Convention sent out at update email saying that Writing Excuses will be recording live during the event in late October! I am incredibly excited for the chance to listen and watch in person, as I have already registered for the event!

For those not aware, Brandon as well as his Writing Excuses crew are coming to the World Fantasy Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brandon was announced as a special guest in January, but this morning an update email was sent out by the World Fantasy Convention: I myself registered for attendance in December. Is anyone else planning to attend?

Project Gutenburg is incredible. What a wealth of knowledge and history.

Recently, for me, it was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. It was one of last year's top fantasy books and I waited two months for my hold at the library. Finally got the book, dived in...and got a quarter of the way through this chunker when I realized I just didn't care about anyone or anything. There were cool elements, but nothing sucked me in. I am an incredibly fast reader, and when a good book has its claws in me, I can't put it down. It took me two weeks to get a quarter of a way through this book, and I realized I was never going to finish this book before the due date. So I just returned it.

Whenever I stumble across anything with three wishes, my brain immediately goes to a incredibly dumb joke I stumbled across on Reddit once: (Edited for language and content) Three men are hiking through the woods when they come across a lamp. One of them picks it up, rubs it, and out pops a Genie. It booms, "You have finally freed me after all these years, so I'll grant each one of you 3 wishes." The first guy immediately blurts out "I want a billion dollars." POOF, he's holding a printout that shows his account balance is now in fact 1,000,000,003.50 The second man thinks for a bit, then says "I want to be the richest man alive." POOF, he's holding papers showing his net worth is now well over 100 billion. The third guy thinks even longer about his wish, then says "I want my left arm to rotate clockwise for the rest of my life." POOF, his arm starts rotating. The Genie tells them it's time for their second wish. First guy says: "I want to be married to the most beautiful woman on earth." POOF, a stunning beauty wraps herself around his arm. Second guy says "I want to be good-looking and charismatic, so I can have every girl I want." POOF, his looks change and the first guy's wife immediately starts flirting with him. Third guy says "I want my right arm to rotate counter-clockwise until I die." POOF, now both his arms are rotating, in opposite directions. The genie tells them to think very carefully about their third wish. First guy does, and after a while says "I never want to become sick or injured, I want to stay healthy until I die." POOF, his complexion improves, his acne is gone and his knees don't bother him any more. Second guy says "I never want to grow old. I want to stay 29 forever." POOF, he looks younger already. Third guy smiles triumphantly and says "My last wish is for my head to nod back and forth." POOF, he's now nodding his head and still flailing his arms around. The genie wishes them good luck, disappears, and the men soon go their separate ways. Many years later they meet again and chat about how things have been going. First guy is ecstatic: "I've invested the money and multiplied it many times over, so me and my family will be among the richest of the rich pretty much forever. My wife is incredible, and I've never gotten so much as a cold in all these years." Second guy smiles and says "Well, I built charities worldwide with a fraction of my wealth, I'm still the richest guy alive and also revered for my good deeds. I haven't aged a day since we last met, and yes, your wife is pretty dang incredible." Third guy walks in, flailing his arms around and nodding his head, and says: "Guys, I think I screwed up."

I have absolutely no experience with neopronouns. I'm familiar with using they/them, but I can understand how this wouldn't work for your species. I haven't read any books with neopronouns, so I'm excited to give it a try! Glad that my critique was helpful, especially since I haven't read the previous two books.

This is my second critique for Reading Excuses, so tell me if I break any rules. I obviously have not read any previous chapters, so let's see what I get out of this. I'm going to copy @Mandamon above me and do page numbers. I purposefully did not read her critique, because I don't want it to influence mine, but I saw the page numbers and liked that. Thoughts As I Go Along: Pg 3: Okay, we have M. in a onsie (I am picturing a onsie from Walmart) with a Glock. I get a chuckle from this visual and want to keep reading. Pg 3: Velociraptors, people with peculiar names, a girl with a onsie and a Glock, in a warzone. I have absolutely no clue what is going on, but I'm ready to dive into this madness. D.'s words about the G. system remind me I am missing an entire book. So, hey, not sure if you are going to get anything out of this, but I get to practice critiquing! Pg. 5: I have no clue what the TF is and can't guess from the abbreviation. Not sure if this is common knowledge or not. Keep talking. Curses. Excellent. It is tense, I am worried for this character I have just met shimming towards this madness looking for a manhole. And yet, I get to have a chuckle at the...inventiveness of the curses. Pg. 6: I have noticed how much you vary the length in your sentences and I like it. It keeps things interesting and you have a clear style. Pg. 7: M. is okay! - M. is not okay, nobody is okay, there are mad beasts about. Out of the frying pan and into the oil. Pg. 7: Wait, the velociraptors are controlled by an app? Like, a phone app? Confusion. Pg 8: It was M. yelling "Ahhh!" Right? Pg 10: Abbreviations. VL's are our dino buddies, while MT's are the slavering dog beasts from hell? Pg.10: Pseudo-dinosaurs controlled by an app. I want to know more. Are we talking little velociraptors, or are we talking Jurassic Park style velociraptors? Pg. 10: "Kill! Kill!" M., I don't know you, but I like you, you feisty girl. Pg. 11: I didn't know the source of conflict, but I know that there are hostages, somebody bad that rhymes with Norton and his buddy T., and that the government is incompetent, just like always. Pg. 11: "Pogram" Do you mean program? Pg. 15: Cliffhanger! Noooooo! Overall: Not sure how useful this is going to be, since I haven't read any of the previous chapters. I'm not going to dive into what I understand of the world, because by the time any other reader gets to this point, they are going to know the world, the conflict, and the characters, unlike me. So I'm just going to give my impressions, as if I am some random reader at Barnes and Noble who chooses books by flipping to a random section. I don't know if M. is in a literal onsie (I'm guessing more of a military, useful onsie, now), but I was immediately interested by a trash-talking woman with a voice-activated Glock and app-controlled velociraptors. Despite not knowing what the conflict is about, or even who the characters are, the action was easy to follow and tense. M.'s remarks allowed me a moment to breath without losing the intensity of the situation. This chapter flew by, but I am sitting here immediately wanting to know what happens next, despite having no previous emotion attachment or really understanding of the situation. I wish I was actually at Barnes and Noble flipping through this book, so I could purchase it and go back to the beginning.

Okay, this is my first critique on Reading Excuses, so please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong. I did not know of your books and your universe until this very morning, so now I am very eager to download the prequel on your website. I'm hoping that my local library carries the Seeds book (see, this is where I'm stumped. Can I say the name of already published works, or does that go against the rule of using abbreviations???). So, as someone who has had the misfortune of not reading any of your other works, here is were my thoughts as I read: By the first paragraph, I knew that we weren't on earth, there were several different species, and that S. has a hard time with being the center of attention. I was not 100% sure if this was a fantasy or a sci-fi book at this point, because the world made me believe this was fantasy, while the species hinted sci-fi. Judging off of this chapter and your website, it appears that this universe is both sci-fi (in the fact that it is intergalactic) and fantasy (fascinating magic system!). I am totally down for this. Pronouns: Had to reread the second paragraph because at first I thought xyr was a name. Realized it was a pronoun on my second read through. "Cool," I thought to myself, before instantly looking up how to pronounce said pronouns on Google. When S. closes the portal, I began to suspect that this was a sequel or a book in a series, due to the lack of explanation on what the notes were. I immediately became interested. Music? Magic? Smashed together? Introduction of the twins: what I initially believed to be their last name is actually their specie, correct? Girldfriend. Boyfriend. Poly relationship? A poly relationship in a world with alien-like creatures, fluid pronouns, and a music-based magic system? Sweet, I'm down. That just means there's more to love. When it said that they were finally together again was when I was sure I was reading a sequel or a book in a series. Next paragraph mentions A. species form. This was when I began to suspect if the twins weren't human/weren't all the way human. I spent the next several paragraphs trying to dissect what was going on, due to having no prior knowledge. Stumbled on S.'s italicized thoughts because I first thought W.W. was speaking with telepathy (don't know if the world has telepathy, so). Reread it in S.'s voice, then continued on. When S. wanted to melt on the floor, I didn't blame him. Being the bearer of bad news is never fun. Weird gap of words on first line of page 4? Or at least on my side. What is the mysterious diadem? What are the protrusions? What did it used to represent, before the E. specie? I loved the two paragraph's of S. reaching into the magic system. I immediately became intrigued and jealous. If I'm thinking, Ah, man, I wish I came up with that idea, it means for me that it really captured my attention and interest. This is a sign of a good book. Whoops, stuck in the N. world. Can't travel. Something's wrong. What's wrong? When the green of the I.'s House is mentioned, I began to wonder, do different Houses have different colors? When S. thinks with italicized words again, I do not mistake this for telepathy this time. E. has a yelling match. I do not know E. but I want to give her a hug. Even if she is not human/all the way human. Poor girl obviously has some trauma to deal with. Curious about the eye. Ends with character going unconscious. This is bad. What happened? What I Know: S., I., E. are in a relationship, with I. and E. being twins. I. has long hair, E. has a purple eye. E. did not have a good time recently. I don't know what S. looks like, but haven't read any previous work. S. does not do well in crowds or having attention drawn on him. Poor dude, not a good trait in a hero, but makes for a compelling flaw. We've all been there before. A number of interesting species that have Houses, prophets, and titles that begin with M. Their world is being destroyed by Drains that are breaking apart the music magic system. That's bad. Specie A is surrounded by conflict, both in the worlds and by the characters. There is a mysterious crystal diadem and an unconscious character that needs help. Overall: I am heavily intrigued and want to go find the Seed book to see if I can catch up. There is a hero with a compelling flaw, there is a peculiar world with alien beings, and there is a magic system that is making me jealous. I hope I get to find out what happens soon.

My friend is truly the one with all of the weird talents (jack-of-all-trades kinda fellow), and one of the most useless but wonderful skills he taught me is how to punch out a candle. Makes me feel like a firebender. I can also draw 30 horse heads in 5 minutes. A talent I developed in high school as a TA while grading.

I absolutely adored that entire sequence. I feel bad for poor Rex caught in the middle!

Welcome! You'll find people of all ages and walks of life here, all eager to share our love of the same books!

You can't reply to individual comments like on Reddit, but you can quote the person you are interested in replying to. Or you can @ them, like @Leiliel

I second that suggestion! Delightful characters, incredible magic system, beautiful worldbuilding, fantastic storytelling - you can't go wrong with Warbreaker!

Welcome! You'll discover lore - and theories - here deeper than you ever thought existed!

Welcome! The Mistborn trilogy is how many of us fell down the rabbithole...

Thank you! I will definitely have more questions about finding agents and such as October approaches...probably during the summer. Right now, it won't matter how much I know about the submission processes and etiquette if I have nothing to submit! Although, admittedly, I have been learning a bit. I picked the brain of the author of the children's Tapestry books, Henry H. Neff since he successfully did what I want to do: write and illustrate his own books. Of course, I am aiming for a more mature audience, but I'm hoping to persuade for chapter art. Again, won't matter if I can't convince anyone to take a look at the book first. And I have to have a book for that! Small steps, small steps...

My local library also has a booksale every Saturday. Surprisingly good selection, and I can usually pick up the books for $1 or less. My favorite is every season they have these $1 brown paper bags - fill the bag with as many paperbacks as you want for a buck! This Saturday they are doing buy four, get one free, which isn't much when a large coffee table book is $2 - but, hey, a free book is a free book! I lived next to that library for a year...it was very bad for my wallet and my shelves.

I certainly like finding books for $4 instead of $8 or $10. One of my favorite games is "how many books did I buy for the cost of one paperback or hardcover at Barnes and Noble?"

The local thift stores around me vary in selection, but our Goodwill is surprisingly well-stocked in books. Or at least compared to my childhood Goodwill. It's an absolute goldmine in books about education, due to the revolving number of college students coming to the city to get a degree in teaching. Not great for fantasy, though. Mostly Twilight-style books, which teenage me would have been thrilled about. We have a great, local thrift store for clothing, but I'd kill for a better selection for furniture. Nobody ever has shelves at a good price that can withstand the weight of my collection...