I’ve been to the MoPop several times since 2015 and this past week was the first time that the Name of the Wind manuscript was not on display (big bummer). Struck me as kind of strange, haven’t found anything online explaining it (like “temporarily removed for cleaning,” or some such).

Anyone have any thoughts or info on this?

Current crackpot theories include:

• Rothfuss wanted it back to reference it
• Rothfuss realized it had something revealing in it about book 3 (unlikely but I want this to be true)
• Nic Cage stole it

Discuss:

Most readers wrongly fear that the Winds of Winter will never see the light of day in any form. Even before George R. R. Martin reached retirement age, they wondered: what about the books after his death? And sooner or later some falsehoods were spread about what will happen, such as the claim that George R. R. Martin will destroy all the unfinished material. Below, I want to show that just the opposite is true: in that case, George actually wants his unfinished manuscripts, notes, and other material to be made accessible to the public after a possible death.

George R. R. Martin, as we all know, is very protective of his literary work. He is an absolute opponent of fanfiction, as he has made clear on several occasions. According to him, fanfiction in his day was something you called fiction written by fans, rather than what it's come to mean now, which is fiction that uses characters and worlds invented by other authors. George R. R. Martin made his two objections about fanfiction clear during an interview in Chicago. I will list them here.

1. "I don’t think it’s a good way to train to be a professional writer when you’re borrowing everybody else’s world and characters. That’s like riding a bike with training wheels. And then when I took the training wheels off, I fell over a lot, but at some point you have to take the training wheels off here. You have to invent your own characters, you have to do your own world-building, you can’t just borrow from Gene Roddenberry or George Lucas or me or whoever."
2. “The other thing is there are all sorts of copyright issues when you’re using other people’s work…My understanding of the law is that if I knew about I would have to try to stop it, so just don’t tell me about it and do what you want there.”

He stated in a comment on his NotABlog in 2015 that he will not let anyone else work on his books, not even Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (Martin's friends, assistants and writing partners) . His response, "I don't see anyone else ever writing (legally) in that universe."

He also explained why during an interview in Brisbane:

>“I don’t think my wife, if she survives me, will allow that either. But one thing that history has shown us is eventually these literary rights pass to grandchildren or collateral descendants, or people who didn’t actually know the writer and don’t care about his wishes. It’s just a cash cow to them. And then we get abominations to my mind like Scarlett, the Gone with the Wind sequel.”

I wouldn't call myself a Christian, one big reason is that I find the variances in the Resurrection narratives too big a problem. However, even though I don't see the Bible as the inspired Word of God, I can't get over all the evidence that the New Testament is a historically accurate portrayal of Jesus. The fact that there are 4 gospels telling the same things about him, AND the historical impact that Jesus had in his time. It can only be accepted as a reliable historical account. Thoughts?

I haven't run the numbers on which one made more money overall (counting the money made by the book publisher, I mean, as their cut is what I'm considering) but you can also weigh this against the potential long term merch and toy money that an amazing ST that captured the hearts of a generation would've eventually brought in.

So who screwed up worse?

View Poll

I'm going to post a fuller review of this excellent publication, Necromancy in the Medici Library but for now I'd like to share some superb snippits that are absent in the Goetia but this text provides. Specifically, towards the back of this book is a spirit register like that of the Goetia with many familiar names like Astaroth (spelled Ascaroth in this text), Belial, Gomeris (Gremory) and so on. However there are many new names in this book as well like Torcha or Ras.

Probably the most significant portion details additional timing constraints for evoking the spirits. I'll provide an excerpt:

"Dukes cannot be bound except in the seventh, ninth, and thirteenth hours: thus if in the first instance they do not come, they will come in another..."

Also,

"Therefore the exorcist must know the days and hours of the week and take note of the invocations of all the kings; and this is so as much of the kings as the demons bound under them, that in the first hour they are drowsy, for either before or after it will be in vain to labor: for as much as anyone else, experimenters are apt to wish to arrive at their goal easily and without exertion but the demons will delay as much as they can before coming to the exorcist."

Here it makes it exquisitely clear that the hours to bind these spirits are the times they are most weak and tired. But if we foolish try another hour or time, they may be at full strength. Also, it shows clearly that demons will resist tooth and nail. Therefore, use the hours wisely and get them while they're weak and off guard. This is different from an idea I and many others have assumed which is that the hours make it easier for the spirit - it's the same result either way so I don't think it's too critical.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. There's excellent love spells in here along with new spirit names and specific astrological and planetary hours to abide by with specific spirits like Astaroth.

You can find the text on amazon: Necromancy in the Medici Library by Brian Johnson, if you're interested.

I've not seen it mentioned but The Bean was a little sneaky with his manuscript title. This makes things a little clear about a neat reference

Man Ray

Small tip from someone who does a decent amount of beta reading.

It's so easy while spending months (or more likely years) working on a novel to not notice trends in your writing style.

I highly recommend giving your MS a pass where, if you see the same word or description more than a few times in the first 20 pages, you use Ctrl-F on the document to see how many times you say it.

Recently beta read a novel where the characters "smiled" over 75 times in under 300 pages. Another where every time the character walked outside she took in a "deep breath."

Highly recommend a "ctrl-F" edit where you read the first couple chapters and see if you notice any repetition throughout the entire MS.

Your 12-minute Friday report in 2933 words.

##Armenology projects by Austrian expert Jasmine Dum-Tragut / horses / Artsakh dialects / west-east cultural exchange

Education Ministry report: in 2019 we increased funding for the promotion of the Armenian language and Armenology abroad. Projects were launched in new countries and schools, including one with the University of Salzburg.

The director of Salzburg's Center for the Study of the Christian East department Dr. Jasmine Dum-Tragut initiated two important research projects related to the Armenian cultural heritage.

One is a 6-month-long project about the Armenian language in Artsakh. It'll study the history of the Armenian language in Artsakh, its changes in a multilingual society, its history of becoming the official language, Artsakh dialects, etc. It's being financed by Salzburg.

The second project will last 4 years and is titled "Horse's body as a meeting place: Cultural exchanges and transfer of knowledge between the Christian West and the Muslim East in late medieval Armenian horsebooks [ձիագրքեր]". It will have a €1m budget. They will cooperate with Matenadaran, Yerevan State University, Frankfurt University, Vienna Veterinary University, etc.

This second program is based on a lost medieval Armenian manuscript about healing horses, the existence of which is known only from the memoir of another manuscript. There is also another Armenian medical manuscript of the 6th century, which was revealed in 2008 and will be used during the studies.

This is an uncharted territory that can help shed light on the exchange of information between the Christian West and the Muslim East. How Armenians received information about healing horses and their future contribution to the field will be analyzed in detail for the first time.

Relevant Armenian manuscripts translated into Arabic and Georgian will be examined for the first time. These manuscripts were written in Cilicia in 1298 before being taken to Sebastia (1504), Tbilisi (1791), Isfahan (19th century), and finally Yerevan (2008). [how about NFT on blockchain???]

This project will unite an unprecedented group of scientists. Jasmine Dum-Tragut has formed her team consisted of linguists, historians, manuscript experts, and veterinarians.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1050885.html

##Carrefour supermarket chain to expand in Armenia citing "favorable investment climate"

The French supermarket giant operates in Armenia under the franchise

Long time lurker, first time poster.

This sub was instrumental in helping me land my lovely agent who took my first book out on sub where it...well, didn't sell. But that's okay! Now I'm working on book 2 and my agent is eager to see the manuscript. I talked to her about the idea before starting, so it won't come as a surprise to her, but here's my question for all you agented folks out there:

When do you show your agent a draft of the new ms?

Obviously, when I queried, ms #1 was *polished*, think extremely refined. Am I now okay to send her something where I know the writing is a bit clunky and the tone needs to be evened out? Or should I wait? It's not the first draft, more like draft 3 I'm considering sharing. Even so, I usually go 6-8 drafts before I feel like something is *done*, so yes, still lots of work to do.

How do you handle this with your agent? How do you get over the fear of: I know this draft is imperfect, and god, I hope they don't drop me when they read this mess. Or, do you not show it to them at all when it's messy. Halp! I need advice!

After five years of trying and failing to write a novel, today I finally wrote the last word of my first completed draft. Suffice to say, I am utterly elated right now and want to tell the world. But I also thought this might be a good opportunity to record some of the things I learned along the way. Perhaps some of this writing advice might help others who may have struggled as I did. So, while I enjoy this excellent glass of cask strength Laphroaig in celebration, let's chat and reflect a bit. Feel free to imagine a roaring fireplace and a comfortable leather armchair if it pleases you.

I think I'll start with writing advice itself, and the approach to it which wound up giving me the most value. Writing advice, I have found, is incredibly, deeply individual. The exact same advice given to one writer can be actively harmful to another. The classic example I will use is the difference between the outline writer and the discovery writer, and that analog gradient between. Early on in my writing attempts, I found a great deal of advice online exhorting me to outline. To build the bones of my story and then fill in the flesh and veins. For some, I am sure this is extremely effective and useful advice. For me, it turned out to be utterly counterproductive. I am, as it turns out, very much the Stephen King and George R.R. Martin breed of discovery writer. The kind of person for whom outlining a story is the surest way to euthanize it. I tried outlining a few times, and soon discovered that my outline became the barn to the proverbial bad gunman. The surest way to ensure a story was not what I would write was to write it into an outline, as as soon as I settled in to write the actual story, the very existence of the outline guaranteed I would meander off to write something else which, to my mind, seemed better and more interesting. Worse, the outline ensured I would never actually finish the story, because it ingrained a sense of perfectionism and compulsive editing that, I am sure, has robbed many other writers of this forum of what once was a promising and lovely yarn.

Writing groups were another tool that, while exhorted by some, proved utterly my undoing. Nothing discouraged me more than feedback on a fragmentary work undone, and where some find great encouragement in such an exercise, I found only the surest road to failure and regret. Regret, particularly, has been a motif in the symphony of my failures. I quickly learned that anythi

I am a short story writer who has stories in literary magazines, two in an anthology, and am working on my first collection right now. Writing has always been a huge part of my life. I joined a MFA program, but had to leave due to finances.

One of my coworkers is also a writer. We talk about how hard writing can be, the fun parts, stories and sentences and ideas strewn on papers around our homes. Lately she’s opened up to me about trying to snag a literary agent. This coworker writes young adult fantasy, so it’s a very different experience and scene.

She asked me if I would read her manuscript and give notes. I told her that there is a big difference in what we write, and while I’m sure her manuscript is great, it’s YA genre fiction, which is not my thing. She said “Are you saying it’s beneath you to read YA or something?”

I said no, the craft of writing genre fiction and literary fiction is different. Add to that the age category layer. I said it would be the same if she’d asked me to read and give notes about an adult romance. She said I sounded stuck up and she could “smell the MFA” on me.

And then I saw her Twitter where she went into this whole rant about how literary fiction authors have huge egos, how YA fiction is derided because it’s such a female/woman-heavy industry and especially since its biggest readers are young women. She kept referring to me as “asshole coworker” and had a bunch of people ripping apart pieces of my writing based on a short story that I wrote back in college.

I saw all this because she sent me a link, telling me that I’m the “twitter main character” and should probably apologize to her for insulting her book when it’s obvious no one cares about mine. I told her that what she did was ridiculously childish bullying, so it’s no wonder she’s writing young adult fantasy, she probably feels right at home with its main audience. This pissed her off even more, so she blocked me on Twitter.

I don’t think what I did was bad. I don't really read a lot of YA, so I wouldn't be able to help her. But AITA?

Not sure how relevant this is, but I'm a woman. Not a man.

Hi everyone! With Easter coming up and lock-down happening across the globe, I figure this is a great time to test my manuscript with other people. I want as many people as possible to read it and (hopefully) give some feedback, so if you're interested, please read on.

The book, titled "A Hunger For More", is a fast-paced adult fantasy set in a fictional world. It follows Zetho, a young lynk refusing to believe that his powers are as limited as he's told, and Emna, a Storian desperate to escape the constant hunger, cold and loneliness of her existence.

In world with huge tidal difference and roaming monsters, humankind is forced to live in cities built on large plateaus separated by a giant wasteland and protected by tall walls. For those on the outside, like Emna, such cities are a tantalizing goal and a promise of a better life. For some on the inside, like Zetho, the walls and plateaus are a prison.

Here's a link to the prologue so you can decide whether or not the story is for you. If want a few more chapters to decide, let me know and I'll compile and upload the first three chapters for you. I'll also include a map of the world for those who want it.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CiDTZ4Dpp7-Ap6HZgD3CvX0muD5lCG3X/view?usp=sharing

If the book caught your interest and you want to be a beta reader, great! I'll be working on another project for the coming three months, so you'll have plenty of time to read it.

Also, I'd like to add that anyone who wants to do this can jump off whenever they want. I don't expect everyone to finish, nor to give several pages of feedback. It is perfectly acceptable to jump off after five chapters if you think the writing is crap.

So even if you're not entirely sold and isn't sure whether or not you'll finish the entire thing, don't be afraid to give it a try.

Edit: Wow, I'm delighted so many people are interested in beta reading this! Thank you so much.

In this video i'm going to take a look into one of the world’s most mysterious books, why so many scientists and scholars have been obsessed about it and what we do know about the Voynich Manuscript, a very old codex that hasn’t been deciphered.

During the first and second world war the best cryptographers and codebreakers have worked tirelessly to figure out what was written in it, without success. Countless cryptologists, linguistics, astronomers and even computer programs have tried to decipher the manuscript and although many deciphering claims have been made in the past 100+ years after it’s discovery, it still remains a mystery for the most part.

On one hand it seems like the manuscript is written in an unknown language, but some scholars have suggested it has been written in a cypher or code. Many different types of cyphers have been used to try and decipher the book, although this yielded no results..

Of course this led to the suggestion that the manuscript is a 15th century hoax and many hoax theories have been created over time. Although there are many scholars who claim that the text seems too sophisticated to be a hoax, algorithms have been created in hope to one day solve this mystery.

https://youtu.be/ua6jDHhmJKA

LET'S GOOOOOO!!!

SHINZOU WO SASAGEYO!!!

https://twitter.com/ShingekiKyojin/status/1376932267679907843

Hey all,

Backstory:

First time poster looking for advice on submitting my first manuscript. I've gone through a few years of edits and have it down to a place where it feels polished and finished, however through this the word count has shrunk to 58,000 words.

The past weeks, I've been preparing for submission, but now I'm stressed that the word count is too low (the genre is LitFic/Drama, maybe could submit as Mystery). I have tried to figure out where to add, but every place I do feels like I would be adding filler and thus taking away from the story (IMHO).

TLDR: I guess my questions to you Reddit are:

Is it possible to get my manuscript even looked at with this word count? (58,000) Is it worth sacrificing a bit of the story to ensure agents even look at it?
Does anyone have any experience submitting novels under 60,000 words?

Thanks everyone for your help, if not now then through these boards in general. Lurking has given me optimism. Good luck to you all!

I'd like to get some solid feedback about this conundrum I find myself in, if at all possible. I recently submitted my first academic article for publication and received peer reviewer comments asking for a major revision. Despite this, the comments were positive and the changes were doable. I agreed with what they were asking, so I made the changes and resubmitted. I've just received another round of comments from an entirely new reviewer - this time the comments are way harsher. They've asked for major revisions but it honestly sounds like they don't like the manuscript at all. I'd have to rewrite the entire thing to meet their requests. I'm really disappointed that my revised manuscript didn't go back to the original reviewer, which is what I expected to happen. I now just feel like I've wasted a lot of time as now I'm dealing with entirely new comments that are the opposite of what was suggested in the first round. The changes made in my revised manuscript were not raised at all, so it honestly feels like I'm at the beginning again. Is this normal?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your feedback, it's all super helpful. The thing that adds insult to injury, I suppose, is that the editor hasn't acknowledged that this is another round of revisions, which I thought to be quite bizarre. Their email just stated 'here are the reviewer comments' with no mention of the past changes. I'll have a good think about what to do based on your feedback, thank you.

Hey everyone,

I hope it's all right to post this, since I've seen some posts ask a similar question. However, most of the other posts are regarding stories with more than two POVs. My story has two POVs and the characters already know each other when the story starts, but it's only a business relationship. They meet once in the very first chapter and after the inciting incident (at 13% of the manuscript) they are permanently around each other.

Everything was fine so far, nobody mentioned this in any criqitue, I didn't even know this was a thing -- but now I received one (1) critique that said to just cocentrate on the one character, and now I'm super insecure about what I should do.

As of now, this is my query structure:

Character 1 introduction. These are his goals and problems. Inciting incident happens.

Character 2 introduction. These are his goals and problems.

Characters meet, bad things happen. One character is struggling with this problem, the other with that problem, but both are struggling with this other problem also.

Stakes.

(I've posted my query also. You can look at it here, just note that I've already made some revisions I couldn't post yet. The structure, however, is still the same.)

I've seen some of you post the two examples from QueryShark, but it wasn't really insightful to my specific problem. Janet suggests to either concentrate on one POV and mention that there are more in the housekeeping -- or that introducing two characters is fine, as long as they appear in that order in the novel. That's about it, right?

I could drop the second paragraph entirely and the query would still be good, imho, but (1) I feel like my query is good with the two POVs, too, and (2), the novel starts with the POV of Character 2. I feel like if I drop his POV in the query (I'd still mention him of course), it could be disruptive when an agent proceeds to reading the pages. I wouldn't write the query from Character 2's POV, though, because Character 1 triggers the inciting incident.

What would you suggest? Thanks in advance for any replies! :-)