Tag Archives: blogparade

#Blogvent2020: Nikolaus

Ein weiteres Türchen des Adventskalenders öffnet sich und vielleicht hattet ihr auch eine kleine Süßigkeit im Schuh? In Lexa’s (Meergedanken) #Blogvent2020 geht es heute um genau dieses Thema.

Instagram Grafik des #Blogvent2020: Alle Daten und Themen sind vor einem weihnachtlichen Hintergrund zweireihig aufgelistet - welche das sind findet ihr im verlinkten Blogbeitrag.

Nikolaus

Da alle heute vermutlich von bunt gefüllten Stiefeln und Traditionen sprechen, möchte ich die Chance nutzen, um ein bisschen über die Weihnachtsfamilie aus meinem Adventskalender 2017 und dem darauf aufbauenden Projekt #Eishörnchen zu sprechen. Denn die hat eine ganz besondere – oder nervige, je nachdem, wen man fragt – Tradition: Jedes Familienmitglied, dass in die Familie hineingeboren wird hat einen Namen, der an „Nikolaus“ bzw. „Santa C/Klaus“ angelehnt wurde. Wann genau das beschlossen wurde, kann man eigentlich nur noch mit einem das ist „historisch gewachsen“ abtun.

Somit heißen die Geschwister meines Protagonisten Nicholas aus dem #Eishörnchen: Nicole, Klaus und Nick. In wievielter Generation sie diese Namen tragen wird nicht verraten, aber es wird schon einige Kläuse gegeben haben. Allerdings wird auch immer mal geschummelt, wenn es aktive Doppelungen gibt, z.B. beim Bibliothekar des Weihnachtsdorfes Joulky, der nur bei seinem Zweitnamen, Ephraim, genannt wird. Er ist übrigens der Neffe des alten Familienoberhauptes Nikolaus, und somit der Cousin des aktuellen, Nikolai. Verwirrt? Ich auch. 😀 Und nun stellt euch vor ihr wärt in den Schuhen einer Person, die sich in eine:n dieser geborenen Santas verguckt – oder auch nur im Dorf anfängt zu arbeiten. Chaos vorprogrammiert! Vermutlich haben alle Mitarbeitenden insgeheim einen Spickzettel im Zimmer, wo sie sich abends immer die Namen einprägen.

Aber Nicholas erklärt das viel passender:

“Nikolai, Nicholas, Klaus, das klingt nach Absicht”, vermutete Katrin und drehte sich zu ihm, woraufhin Nicholas auflachte.
“Ja, es ist Absicht. Irgendwann wurde mal festgelegt, dass unsere Namen alle ähnlich klingen sollen, um die Tradition zu wahren”, erklärte er, “Mein Großvater heißt sogar Nikolaus.”
“Das ist doch albern”, lachte Katrin.
“Wirklich? Was meinst du wie es ist damit aufzuwachsen gerufen zu werden und erstmal abzuwarten, ob es bei Nick bleibt oder noch weiter geht?”, scherzte Nicholas.
“Warum macht ihr es dann?”, wollte Katrin wissen.
“Weil es Tradition ist”, zuckte Nicholas mit den Schultern, “wir haben eine Weile versucht auch Jack-Varianten als Vornamen zu nehmen, als Jack Frost beliebt war, aber das hat sich nicht wirklich gehalten. Nur Claudia konnte sich bisher durchsetzen, dass ihre Kinder nicht dem Namensschema folgen. Das war ein Kampf mit Großvater …aber sie hat ihn gewonnen”, ergänzte er beeindruckt.
“Warte. Heißt dein Bruder dann Klaus Claus?”
“Claus?”, Nicholas lachte. “Nein, wir heißen nicht Claus, wir haben vor Ewigkeiten unseren Namen an das russische Väterchen Frost angepasst.” Als Katrin ihn verwirrt ansah, ergänzte er: “Djed Moros heißt es im Original und wir haben Maros daraus gemacht.”
“Nicholas Maros, also”, schlussfolgerte Katrin daraus und wurde etwas rot. Es war ihr peinlich, auch hier wieder auf die amerikanischen Filme hereingefallen zu sein.
“Genau.”

Kapitel 11 – Die alten Santas

Der andere Nikolaus

Wusstet ihr eigentlich, dass es in einigen Orten neben bzw. anstatt des Nikolaus-Brauchs auch einen Krampus-Brauch gibt? Der soll sich die unartigen Kinder schnappen und verspeisen. Ein bisschen habe ich in der Kurzgeschichte „Krampus“ aus meinem Adventskalender 2014 damit gespielt.

Auch im #Eishörnchen spielt er eine ganz besondere Rolle, welche das ist, wäre allerdings ein zu großer Spoiler für die Geschichte. Also wer jetzt neugierig geworden ist, und das am 1. Dezember noch nicht gemacht hat, kann hier den kompletten Adventskalender lesen: Adventskalender 2017

Weitere Beiträge zum heutigen Thema findet ihr zum Beispiel bei die Trotzphase, die die Nikolausgeschichte erzählt. Und natürlich mehr auf der Übersichtsseite.

Anne/Poisonpainter

#Blogvent2020: Adventskalender

Da ich auch in diesem Jahr keinen eigenen Adventskalender mache, nutze ich die Chance ich Lexa’s (Meergedanken) #Blogvent2020, um euch ein bisschen durch die Weihnachtszeit zu begleiten. Bis zum 24. gibt es Thementage zu denen Blogger:innen Beiträge beisteuern können. Ich habe mir ein paar herausgesucht zu denen ich etwas sagen kann und bin schon gespannt, was die anderen Teilnehmenden schreiben werden.

Instagram Grafik des #Blogvent2020: Alle Daten und Themen sind vor einem weihnachtlichen Hintergrund zweireihig aufgelistet - welche das sind findet ihr im verlinkten Blogbeitrag.

Natürlich macht den Anfang das Thema

Adventskalender

Wie eingangs erwähnt, habe ich selbst Adventskalender geschrieben und ich kann mit Fug und Recht behaupten, dass ich keinen von ihnen bis Dezember fertig hatte.

Aber lasst uns mal einen Blick zurückwerfen.

Poisons Adventskalender #1: Alles begann in 2014 mit der Idee einen Adventskalender zu Bildern zu erstellen. Es hat auch ganz gut geklappt, ich hatte bald mehr als 24 Bilder zusammen, die wir z.T. später für die Aktion Dein Bild – Eine Geschichte weiterverwendet habe. Die entstandenen Geschichten habe ich damals sogar mal zu einem Verlag in Neubrandenburg gebracht, nur um festzustellen, dass es ein DKZ-Verlag ist. Dennoch habe ich sie mir lektorieren lassen – damals noch ohne vorher Testlesende drübergeschickt zu haben, jetzt bin ich schlauer – und vor allem einschätzen lassen, was davon tatsächlich Kurzgeschichten und was Fragmente sind. Ich habe Pläne für die Fragmente, aber wann ich sie tatsächlich umsetzten werden, tja, wir werden sehen …

Poisons Adventskalender #2: Weiter ging es in 2015, ich wurde ambitioniert, versuchte mich nicht nur an einer Folge-dem-Charakter Geschichte, sondern vor allem an einer Figur, die kein Geschlecht hat. Dafür half mir Hannes Laumeier bei der Entwicklung eines passenden Pronomen. Das diese Neopronomen heißen, lernte ich erst später. Da die Geschichte auf einem kleinen Cliffhänger endet, wollte ich sie eigentlich immer mal fortsetzen, aber mir ist bisher nichts passendes eingefallen, vor allem, da die Charaktere auch erstmal gemeinsam unterwegs sein werden und eine Aufspaltung wenig Sinn ergibt. Aber vielleicht habe ich ja irgendwann mal die zündende Idee.

Poisons Adventskalender #3: Nach Folge-dem-Charakter hieß es 2016 dann: Wähle-dein-eigenes-Abenteuer oder wie ich es gerne spaßhaft beschreibe: 6 1/2 Wege zu sterben. Könnten auch 7 1/2 gewesen sein, ich verzähle mich da regelmäßig. Auch hier habe ich eigentlich vor, dass mal in ein Spielbuch umzuwandeln, zwei Testlesende hatten mir schon Anmerkungen zugearbeitet, umgesetzt habe ich davon aber noch nicht viel … aber irgendwann kann die Berg-Quest dann auch mal in Buchform nachgelesen werden!

Poisons Adventskalender #4: Erschöpft vom Planungsaufwand der vorherigen Jahre und mitten in einer Mandelentzündung suchte ich mir 2017 Hilfe, um die 24 Tage zu füllen. Aus verschiedenen Ecken kamen sie und übernahmen Kapitel oder Abschnitte aus der Geschichte rund um den Weihnachtsmann Nicholas und seine Familie, aber davon werde ich euch an den anderen Tagen noch ein bisschen mehr erzählen. Bleibt also gespannt.

Poisons Adventskalender #5: Nach vier Jahren ging mir die Puste aus. Ich wollte die Adventskalender abrunden, hatte aber keine Energie oder Ideen um eine neue Geschichte zu verwesen. Also habe ich einen Schnipsel-Adventskalender gemacht, in dem ich meine verschiedenen offenen Projekte vorstelle und Einblicke darin gewähre. Das ganze gespickt mit Kurzgeschichten von Gastautor:innen. Von Cupric Art habe ich dafür noch extra diese wunderschöne Grafik bekommen, die seither nicht mehr benutzt wurde:

Poisons Adventskalender Grafik. Auf hölzernem Untergrund liegen abgerissene Ecken aus einem Tagesplaner mit Dezemberdaten, darüber liegt der Schriftzug "Poisons Adventskalender" und ein Leuchtpunkte-Filter. Unten in der Ecke ist mein Logo.

Über die Jahre hinweg, habe ich aber nicht nur meine eigenen Adventskalender bestückt, sondern auch bei anderen mitgemacht:

Nornennetz

Bücherstadt Kurier

Die Krippe – Literarischer Adventskalender 2016, in dem eine sehr interessante Weihnachtskrippe beschrieben wird.

[#RACVillainz] Operation „Joker“ eine Kooperation mit June Is – #litkalender 2018, bei der es Cosplayer ein bisschen zu ernst nehmen mit ihrer Rolle.

[#RACVillainz] Unter dem Mistelzweig #litadvent 2019, Fortsetzung von Operation „Joker“ als Weihnachtsspecial.

Tintenfleck-Blog #Projekt24

Blind Date – Mein Beitrag zur Anthologie „Dinner for Two“ von fruehstuecksflocke auf dem Tintenfleck-Blog, bei der zwei sehr unterschiedliche Wesen sich gezwungenermaßen kennen lernen (müssen).

In diesem Jahr

Da ich keinen eigenen Kalender ausrichte wird es dieses Jahr in erster Linie die Beiträge zum #Blogvent2020 geben, mit denen ich euch ein bisschen auf die Reise durch meinen Blog mitnehme – und am Bastel-Tag auch einen kleinen Gabentisch für euch aufbauen werde.

Das Nornennetz hat sich dieses Jahr entschieden keinen Adventskalender, sondern einen Rauhnächte-Kalender zu machen, diesen eröffne ich am 25.12.

An einem der Adventssonntage wird auch eine weitere Geschichte von mir im Bücherstadt Kurier erscheinen, aber ich verrate noch nicht an welchem.

Ansonsten wünsche ich euch einen guten Start in die Adventszeit.

Weitere Beiträge zum heutigen Thema findet ihr auch bei:

und vor allem auf der Übersichtsseite.

Anne/Poisonpainter

Blogparade: Aus Freizeit wird Freuzeit

Da sie, wie so vieles in diesem Jahr nicht stattfindet, hat die modell-hobby-spiel zu einer Blogparade aufgerufen, an der ich gerne teilnehme. Das wurde mir von einem Buchfink zugezwitschert, aus dessen Team ebenfalls einen Beitrag dazu geschrieben wurde.

Die Prämisse ist dabei Folgende:

Logo der Blogparade unterlegt mit bunten Linien und Formen

2020: das Jahr der Hobbys. Weniger Reisen, mehr Zeit zu Hause und damit jede Menge Freiraum fürs eigene Hobby. Zeit, um neue Hobbys zu entdecken; alte wiederzuentdecken oder einfach nur das geliebte Hobby in Ruhe auszuleben. […]

Wir wollen wissen, welche Hobbys dir dieses Jahr die freie Zeit versüßt und in Freuzeit verwandelt haben.

Für mich hat sich in den vergangenen Monaten was meine Freizeit angeht wenig geändert, da ich immer noch Vollzeit im Home Office arbeite. Dadurch, dass allerdings alle Messen und Reisen ausfallen, für die ich sonst meine Wochenenden und Urlaubstage verwende, musste auch ich mich etwas umorientieren.

Binge doch mal

Zuhause bleiben ist für mich eher der Normalzustand als die Ausnahme, daher ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass ich wieder vermehrt Serien und Filme schaue. Dabei ist mir aufgefallen, das wenn ich sonst eher mal zu einem Drama oder Krimi greife, ich nun mehrere durchgeschaut habe, die eher unter „seichte Kost“ fallen. Der Babysitter Club, Diebische Elstern, aber besonders Mr. Iglesias waren Serien, die ich sehr genossen habe. Zwar behandeln sie auch ernste Themen wie den Verlust eines Elternteils, Rassismus oder Konzentrationslager, aber sie verpacken sie in leicht verdauliche, humorvolle Happen, die die Stimmung nicht zu sehr senken. Und das tut gerade doch irgendwie gut. Ich muss aber auch gestehen, dass ich anstatt neue Dinge zu erkunden, tatsächlich noch ein oder zwei weitere Male (mein Zeitgefühl ist mir mittlerweile vollständig abhanden gekommen, tut mir Leid) Good Omens angesehen habe, einfach weil es eine großartige Umsetzung des Romans ist. Und natürlich zeigt die Serie, dass man eine Apokalypse durch Köpfchen, Zusammenarbeit und gute Argumente abwenden kann. Wäre das doch nicht nur fiktiv …

Als Film ist übrigens The Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting sehr zu empfehlen. Wer besser als ich darin war, zu erkennen, wer sich hinter der Maske des Bösewichts verbirgt, möge sich bitte bei mir melden.

Vermutlich werde ich mir demnächst auch die ein oder andere Weihnachtsschnulze ansehen für das Wohlgefühl, oder zumindest den Spaß, wenn ich mich darüber lustig mache, wie albern die verwendeten Klischees doch alle sind.

Die andere Art des Zuschauens

Wenn nichts live stattfindet, muss man die Dinge eben online verlegen. Viele Messen und Veranstaltungen nutzen dafür nicht nur Discord, sondern vor allem Twitch, um Panel und Workshops für die Leute zugängig zu machen. Doch auch außerhalb gibt es ein breit gefächertes Angebot.

Dadurch habe ich Twitch für mich entdeckt. Zumindest als Zuschauer. Anderen Leute mit der digitalen Anwesenheit in den Kommentaren dabei zu unterstützen ihre Projekte voranzubringen – sich vielleicht selbst auch zu den eigenen motivieren zu lassen – oder Spiele zu bestreiten, hat was. Und je regelmäßiger die Leute streamen, umso besser kann man es auch im Alltag unterbringen.

Gerne und regelmäßig bin ich vor allem bei Elenor Avelle (Schreib- und Zeichenstream, Gaming und wissenswertes) und Michaela Harich (Schreib- und Lektoratsstreams, gelegentlich Gaming) bzw. ihrem Verlag Alea Libris (Lesungen, Verlagsgeplauder, Lektorat, Spielerunden) dabei, aber das sind noch längst nicht alle, denen ich folge.

Um euch nicht zu sehr zu beeinflussen, benenne ich aber nicht noch mehr. Schaut euch doch selbst ein bisschen in der noch immer wachsenden Deutschen Twitch-Szene um, ob vielleicht auch was für euch dabei ist. Vor allem für Schreibende findet sich mehr und mehr.

In kleinen Schritten vorwärts

Wo wir gerade dabei sind. Ein weiteres Hobby, dem ich zur Zeit wieder vermehrt nachgehe ist das Schreiben. Vor allem durch den Schreibstreams am Mittwoch von Elenor in dem wir gemeinsam vor der Kamera sitzen und an unseren Projekten #Schneerot und #Neubrandenwolf arbeiten. Na gut, in erster Linie liegt es an den dafür geschaffenen Motivationswaschbären …

Waschbären? Wie bekommt man denn Waschbären?

Es gib mehrere Möglichkeiten einen digitalen Waschbären zu bekommen, um sich ein bisschen Motivation mitzunehmen. Vor allem für Leute, die ein Bullet Journal über ihre Schreibtätigkeit führen, dürfte das interessant sein, denn Ausdrucken und als Sticker einkleben kann man sie nämlich auch.

Diese sind:

  • Arbeitet man am Tag mindestens 15 Minuten an einem Schreibprojekt, verdient man sich einen Waschbären, den man sich auf Twitter bei Elenor or mir abholen kann.
  • Schreibt man während des Streams in einer 15-Minuten-Einheit mit, verdient man einen Waschbären, nimmt man noch vier weitere mit, dann sind es sogar zwei für den Mittwoch.
  • Sammelt man von Schreibstream zu Schreibstream fünf davon, bekommt man eine Waschbären-La Ola, die man sich im Stream abholen kann.

Das könnt ihr auch nochmal hier nachschauen:

Manche nutzen die Motivationsmonster, andere die Pomodoro-Methodik oder Apps mit denen man virtuell Bäume pflanzt. Wir nutzen Waschbären und zumindest mir macht es sehr viel Spaß. Auch wenn ich unter der Woche gelegentlich damit „schummele“, dass mein Schreibprojekt nicht der Neubrandenwolf, sondern eine Fanfiction ist. Manchmal will der Kopf nach einem langen Arbeitstag aber auch nicht mehr und wenn man die La Ola dann trotzdem möchte, dann muss man sich anderweitig darum bemühen.

Und die La Ola ist wirklich toll … schaut gerne mal zu Streambeginn (17 Uhr) am kommenden Mittwoch vorbei und freut euch mit uns über erreichte Schreibziele.

Lesen in „einfach“

Wie ich schon im August schrieb, habe ich momentan nicht wirklich die Muße zu lesen. Dadurch, dass mir meine Busstrecke wegfällt, die ich morgens und abends sonst immer gependelt bin, fehlt mir schlichtweg der Rahmen um zu lesen. Bücher gehen dadurch nur beschwerlich wenige Seiten vorwärts, wenn ich mich dann doch einmal an eines setze.

Was ich aber feststellen musste, ist, dass ich Comics momentan wesentlich besser lesen kann. So habe ich zumindest ein paar Bände von meinem SuB nehmen können und vermutlich wird meine Lesestatistik in diesem Jahr auch weiterhin sehr Comic-lastig bleiben. Es ärgert mich ein wenig, dass ich reine Textgeschichten zur Zeit schwer verarbeiten kann – wenn es nicht gerade digitales Testlesen oder, nun ja, Fanfictions sind – aber irgendwann werde ich wieder Busfahren können, dann wird das nachgeholt. Wäre nicht das erste Jahr, dass lesetechnisch etwas flautig ist. Abgesehen davon bedeutet eine gezeichnete Unterlegung einer Geschichte noch lange nicht, dass sie weniger anspruchsvoll ist. Mein aktueller Comic ist Unerschrocken Band 1, eine Sammlung von kurzen Lebensgeschichten bedeutender und beeindruckender Frauen der Weltgeschichte. Da habe ich zum Beispiel gelernt, dass die Schauspielerin Margaret Hamilton, die „Wicked Witch of the West“ aus den alten Zauberer von Oz-Filmen, zum Teil mit Verbrennungen die Dreharbeiten beendete. Oder das Tove Jansson, die Mumin-Erschafferin, sich in regelrechten Mumin-Hass reingearbeitet hat, bis sie ihre Lebensgefährtin kennenlernte und sie dank ihr mit einer neuen Figur ihrer Welt neues Leben einhauchte. Und viele andere faszinierende Persönlichkeiten, die Teils als Kuriositäten (Frau mit Bart, Meerjungfrau) abgestempelt wurden, teils Errungenschaften erzielten, die man Frauen in der damaligen Zeit nicht zutraute und dennoch sich ihren ganz eigenen Erfolg erarbeitet haben. Mindestens die Kaiserin von China erwartet mich noch in diesem Band und ein weiteres Dutzend im Zweiten. Es bleibt also interessant.

Und mit was habt ihr euch vermehrt beschäftigt?

Anne/Poisonpainter

Weitere Beiträge zur Blogparade findet ihr hier: Blogparade modell-hobby-spiel

#Buchpassion: Literary Readings

Through the Nornennetz (Nornnetwork) (where I’m a norn, too 😉 ) I learned about the #Buchpassion, a promotion event for readers, authors and publishers celebrating books together, organized by Janine of kapri-zioes.
This years topic is „Favourite Authors“, but as I can’t decide which one I’d choose, I’ve instead decided to talk a bit about some of the more unusual Literary Reading Sessions (Lesungen) I participated in over the years. Because what’s better than having someone – maybe even the author – read a book to you? 😉

A completely moronic reading

I do believe it was my eighteenth birthday when my Mum and I went to the Reading Session of Tommy Jaud’s „Vollidiot“ (Moron) as read by actor Christoph-Maria Herbst (e.g. Loki from Mara and the Firebringer). It was fun, even though I still haven’t read the book yet (or saw the movie), but the thing I remember most about it was afterwards at the autograph table.
He was signing a picture card when I asked him if I could get a second one in the book because it was my birthday. As reply he gave me a Kinderriegel (chocolate bar by Kinder) and offhandedly told me that no one had had told him about it, otherwise he would have brought something more. I doubt the sincerity of the words, as he was quite busy, but it’s a fun gesture in a hectic situation – and it’s my own fault for bringing it up anyway.
I never ate the Riegel, it might even still lie somewhere in a shelve …

Outdoor reading

Back when The Forum was still a thing the self-made publisher Torsten Low announced that his reading tour would make a stop in Zislow, a village more or less nearby. So I took a friend from school with me and off we went trying to find it somewhere in the wilderness of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern…
It was nice meeting Torsten in person and have him read from the anthology Lichtbringer (Lightbringer) and watch him bind a book and talk about it. They only had a small table with their products and it was only the two of us sitting on the wooden benches before it, listening to him, but with the medieval-ish market around us and the phantastical stories it was a great atmosphere.
During the encounter I interviewed Torsten and it later appeared on Literatopia, a German literature portal: Interview with Torsten Low.

Back then the Verlag Torsten Low, was still relatively small. His series Dunkel über Daingistan (Darkness over Daingistan) and Lichtbringer were more or less the whole program. By now they won several Deutsche Phantastik Preise (German Phantastic Prices), have several novels and anthologies, even regular authors and a lot of authors know about him and his publishing company. It’s pretty cool to have been a part of that, even a minuscule one as a listener and reader.

Exclusive Reading

Another quite exclusive Reading Session was by Boris Koch and Michael Tillmann at the Weekend of Horrors:

Their reading session was in the cafeteria of the building, only separated from it through a more or less thick, black curtain. So you heard the rustling and dulled noises from outside.
It still was fun as we were the only two attending their session and they read some quite interesting stories. I will never look at lady bugs the same way…

Six years later I still remember the story mentioned in the other post and the feeling of dreadfulness Boris created through reading it.

Spontaneous Reading

One of our Christmas traditions is to go the the Christmas market in Neubrandenburg at least once. After one of those times, I read messages between Anice and Black Kat about a Reading Session of Letzte Instanz‘ (Last Instance) Holly Loose. In our local English Pub he was to read stories from the fan-anthology (fans wrote stories for their songs) „Weiße Geschichten“ (White Stories). Of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity.
Although I still haven’t gotten around to read the volume I got at the session (again…), the stories he read were quite emotional and well chosen. It’s always fascinating what music can inspire you to write, even if you’re not entirely following the lyrics. It was also nice to hear short acoustic versions of some of them.
We got to chat a little with the woman who organized it and Holly himself and it was a really nice evening.

A Game of what now?

One of the largest Reading Sessions I ever attended was when bookstore-chain Thalia invited Tom Wlaschiha, known as Jaqen H’ghar from Game of Thrones to read part of book two (A Clash of Kings). He chose the part, where Arya tells Jaqen the names of the people he should kill and he read it amazingly. He also talked a bit about filming and teaching Maisie Williams German between takes (according to him her favourite word is „Bahnhof“ – train station 😀 ).
But the most hilarious thing about it was the audience and especially that one guy not capable of pronouncing Game of Thrones correctly. As is more or less commonly known do Germans have problems with the English „th“, but what some make of the word „thrones“ is weird even for German ears. I mean Game of Trons makes for an entirely different franchise…

Lesebühne

As I’ve mentioned before did I attend a couple of Lesebühnen, Reading Stages, these past few years. And as this is about authors, why not talk about those that stand in front of an audience and read their works to them?
Doing that is thrilling and terrifying and fun and brilliant and every person ever daring to do something like this deserves the utmost respect, be they professionals like the people mentioned above or more or less amateurs like the people from the Lesebühne I occasionally attend.

This particular Lesebühne in Neubrandenburg (in the pub mentioned above) is organized by local students and is without any kind of judgement, everyone gets applause for simply going on stage and reading. Therefore it’s not as strict as a Poetry Slam, even if lots of the readers participate in those as well and sometimes read their texts from those. Other stages only allow members of certain groups or a registration long beforehand, but here you can appear on time and your name gets added to the list, or you can even use the open mic afterwards.

I’m one of a few that reads short stories, mostly from the Your Picture – A Story project and I’m always nervous when I do it and am barely able to look up from my sheet of paper. My heart is pounding like crazy and it makes breathing while reading quite difficult at times. But I’m getting better, I guess, I even manage to get a few more words out before and after the texts, even if they sometimes sound way better in my head … I still have a lot to learn.
Still, it’s incredible to read for someone else or to be able to listen to others read a story to you. The most annoying thing for the person sitting on the stage is an audience that won’t shut up. It’s rude and disrespectful, and makes them question themselves even more then they already do.

So, iff you ever attend a Reading Session, be it professional or amateurish: Be quiet and listen!

And maybe among those you will find your favourite author. 😉

PoiSonPaiNter

My Blog and I

Back in June angetearz started a blogparade called „Du und dein Blog“ (You and your Blog) where Bloggers were asked to talk a bit about themselves and their blogs(, duh). I discovered this a while back on Twitter and it sounded interesting enough to answer the given questions for myself – and maybe draw some more attention to this place. 😉
Anyway, let’s begin…

The Questions*

 1. Who are you? Introduce yourself!

I’m PoiSonPaiNter, or Anne in real life, I’m a Reader, Writer, Nerd, Blogger, Metalhead and Traveller, but most of all Teller of Stories and an advocate for puns and alliterations. 😀
Oh, and I’m horrible at introducing myself, as you might have noticed, so I’ll just quietly nod towards my about page. 😉

2. Since when are you blogging? And how did it all start?

Officially I started this Blog back in February 2012, but I barely used it (one post per month was the average). The initial reason was that I wanted a place to collect my stories, improve my English and use it for some obscure other project I can’t remember any more. I had been thinking about a Homepage or Blog for a while back then, but when I came up with the name „Random Poison“ I just started it, without much of a plan – though, it’s not like I have one now, but well.
This changed around the end of 2013 and it really took a turn for the better starting 2014. (Curiously, August 2012 is the only month I didn’t post anything at all). Since then the average got up at least a little. 😉

3. Does your environment know you’re blogging? If so, what are they saying? If not, why not?

Yes and no. It’s not that I’m keeping it a secret, it just doesn’t come up that often – or the other party is just not interested in details more than „I wrote about that on my Blog“. 😉
The most sceptic about it though is my Dad, who thinks I blurt out all my secrets, but he’s wary of anything technological, so…

4. Are you using Social Media? And how can one follow you?

I am indeed. You could follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter where I’m most active. But I also have a few others you can find in the menu „Other Pages of Mine“ below.

5. Is there something that bothers you about the blogging world? And what would you wish for? (Dare to be honest)

Apart from the fact that I rarely get any reactions – a like now and again, but comments? They are scarce – is it hard as German Blogger to blog in English. So regardless of how many (German) Blog Parades I participate in, there is barely any feedback from other people than the creators. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the German readers don’t feel like reading something in English, sometimes because they lack the language knowledge, and push the site away without a second glance, without noticing that there indeed are bilingual posts here (like the Märchensommer/Fairy Tale Summer or my Advent Calendars) and even German Short Stories or that they can comment in German and always ask for help if they struggle with a translation…
Well, it’s not like my English reader are any better at this, they are probably scared when the title is German and the post starts in German, regardless of the „Read in English“ Link to the translation…
A part of me is thinking about changing my Blog language to German, the other part enjoys writing in English far too much and doesn’t want to change it – both parts know I’d be too lazy to constantly have bilingual posts…
Other than that: Even if I make a comment somewhere, which is rare as I prefer to actually say something with my comments, it’s not always that I get a reply, though I’m not sure if my comments are just not interesting enough or formulated in a way that no further, decent, comment is possible…but I don’t know, as no one tells me. 😉
What is most frustrating though is that Blogger and WordPress don’t share a comment-notification system…it’s so annoying to check back with Blogger-blogs to see if anyone replied – not to mention the double bot-check… can’t they just do something about that? XD So my wish would be something that properly connects those two, without you having to make two accounts for it…

6. And what do you like about the blogging world?

The uniqueness of each Blogger. It’s amazing how two (and many more) people can write about the same topic, but from a completely different point of view. Take the Guest posts for the Fairy Tale Summer for example: At their core they all talked about Fairy Tales, but they all found a different aspect to it. Or all these Blogs dealing with writing itself. They always find something else to write about and even if they write about the same thing there is no guarantee that they come to the same conclusion. Sure it can be annoying at times when one person tells you one thing and another the complete opposite, but isn’t that the beauty of free speech? That all these opinions can exist and be read and you yourself can put together your own world view?
I also like the interactions over the Social Media and to discover things that I probably wouldn’t even have thought about. 🙂

7. Are you reading outside of your „Blog area“ or are you, as e.g. book blogger, only reading book blogs?

As I don’t really have a „Blog area“ (hence its name „Random“ 😉 ), I’m always reading outside of it. Though I am kind of tired of reading book blogs, probably because everyone is doing it and because it reminds me of my far too long To Read List…

8. Networking is important. Do you have favourite Blogs? Show them!

There are indeed a few

German Blogs

I enjoy reading.
It seems like Joseph of What’s best in Life? and I are on a similar wavelength regarding different nerdy movies/series and it’s always interesting to read his reviews. Afterwards I don’t feel like writing my own, because he already said everything I’d want to say. 😉
Then there is the Weltenschmiede (World Smithy) which always has interesting articles about world building by fruehstuecksflocke and Evanesca – who’s Blogs in turn are also quite interesting, especially today as Evanesca is celebrating the release of „Zarin Saltan“ (Tzaritza Saltan) as part of the Märchenspinnerei, her adaptation of the Russian Fairy Tale „Tzar Saltan“.
As for writing stuff I like the posts by the Schreibmeer (literally Writing Ocean, though it’s probably a pun on Write More – as more and ocean are only a letter apart in German: mehr/Meer), they usually give you something to mull over. Same goes for Frau Schreibseele (Ms Writingsoul) and some of the other Blogs I discovered through the Nornennetz (Nornnetwork).
But as I’m writing in English, I also read some

English Blogs

though apparently most of the ones I enjoy(ed) reading went on indefinite hiatus…
I love(d) the tales Ed told his readers about his ruin huntings in Ireland on Ed Mooney Photography, all accompanied by his amazing photographs.
I enjoy(ed) the different essays about books, readers and reading the girls of BiblioSmile’s wrote – and yes I still haven’t finished their reading challenge from 2014
The one who is still, albeit randomly, updating is Eve Estelle with her collection of self written poetry and fiction.
And some others still in my Blog Roll „Where I enjoy reading“ the bottom…
But, I guess that’s enough for some exploring. 😉
Those were the questions!
Hope you had fun reading them. 🙂

Greetings from Vienna, where I don’t really have access to my Blog and probably can’t accept your comments until I return.
PoiSonPaiNter
* Questions were translated by me.

Comics: The Beginning

And another post that has nothing to do with the Fairy Tale Summer, but that I wanted to write because of its topic: „Me and Comics. How it all began. Blogparade.Booknapping and GeschichtenAgentin created this Blogparade for all those readers, who not just like the written word but also the picture accompanying them and that’s something I can talk about a lot (especially as Booknapping postponed the ending of the parade so I could still participate).

Let’s take a look at the beginning…

As you might know did I already talk about this, at least in terms of Webcomics, in my Introduction to Webcomics:

I can’t really remember how it happened, but I think that on one of my trips to the Book Store to buy a new Manga, I discovered a book-like collection of Comic Strips that I just had to look at.
But who wouldn’t do that with a bright red book that had a clown on the cover, who had just cut off his own leg with an axe, while its titled claimed the content of the “book” to be “Notfunny”?
I certainly couldn’t resist picking it up and I still do not regret that I did.

But that’s not entire beginning is it?

For as long as I remember did I enjoy reading the small comics and cartoons in newspapers and magazines. I never actually followed any series (except Bummi maybe, but that was more due to my mum buying it for me), but I read them whenever I got my hands on them. Still discovering that this is a thing took me a while.
When I was twelfth, I think, I got into Anime and wanted to read/collect the Manga they portrayed. I still remember that I would have had the chance to buy an entire set of the Dragonball Manga series at a flee market, but my grandpa and my mother argued against it, because it was too expensive and just some books with pictures. I kind of still regret giving in to them, but that didn’t keep me from collecting the series regardless, even if it was more expensive that way. 😉

As this was my first series – and I really liked both Anime – I also collected the magazine with new stories and additional info. Unfortunately did my mum (and I) decide that I don’t need them any more and gave them away. Still regret it, never found such a great time line of the Dragonball (Z) universe again, as the one in those magazines…

Anyway, this is about Comics not Manga (which even became a topic for my oral English exam during studying). 😉
Because of reasons I can’t remember I stopped reading for a while and didn’t care about my nerd stuff; which resulted in regretful sales. During my A-Levels I got back into it, mostly because of different Manga, but also because of Webcomics, which I told you about in the different parts of category I linked above – and will tell you more about when I get around to adding to the series.

Where did it go from there?

I think 2012 was the first time I ever was in a proper Comic book store and they’ve fascinated me ever since. Unfortunately there is only a small one in Rostock, but that ones mostly for card and table top games. The closest proper ones for me are in Lübeck or Berlin.
Since I’m able to go to (I prefer looking through stuff before buying, instead of just ordering it online) proper Comic book stores I’ve started to collect anthology albums of different series I like. Buffy for one thing, because I want to know how the series continues, but also mostly Marvel-stuff and I recently bought the first volume of Preacher.
For four years, I think, I’m attending the German Free Comic Book Day now and I always use it to fill up my (Manga) series and discover new things. I’m not really picky, if something sounds interesting and looks good I’ll check it out, though buying it might not be part of that equation. It’ll probably stay that way simply because I don’t want to go through the trouble of collecting old stuff, though I’d love to visit someone’s Comic library of complete Marvel volumes and spent a couple of days in there. Let me know if you’d be willing to let me. 😉

That is also why my book collection (and manga collection, simply because I chose to collect long series) is much larger than my Comic collection, counting physical volumes and bookmarks. But one thing is for sure (to quote the introduction again):

[Notfunny] was my entrance into the world of Comics and I haven’t started looking for the exit yet. Quite the opposite. Since I started using the Internet more frequently, I discovered many more Comics to enjoy.

And I certainly will continue to read and also write about the Webcomics I’m reading. 😉

See you around!

PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Everything about Writing

And with this, week four, we already reached the end of the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. Scary how a month flies by without anything getting done…
(For more information see the introduction post.)

Week 4

This weeks theme is Everything about Writing and as I wouldn’t have that much to say about the different topics, I’ve decided to put them all into one post again.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Plotted-Pantsed driven Worldbuilding

From the Inspiration week I do believe one can figure that I’m a pantser. I have an idea and then just sit down and write. Everything else then comes when I start to edit (or lengthen) it and think about what things actually make sense.

Though that doesn’t mean plot isn’t involved. I usually have a few markers that I want to reach, but what I write to get there or for them is then pantsed or dictated by the characters involved. Usually these markers are rough ideas/scenes that I want to see in a chapter or part of the story, so I make notes about them and fill them out when I’ve got time to pantse it. 😉

This graphic from Tumblr, even if it is for Fanfiction, still describes my process quite well:

Other than that are there only a few occasions where I think about the world beforehand. Usually this is done, when I actually write a Fanfic, as I always try my best to have the story fit into the given narrative. When it’s my own world it’s mostly in the editing phase that I think about things in the grander scheme.
E.g. for The Queen’s Wish, which is the story I’m writing for Projekt Myra, I had to adjust the idea I had for the layout of the land, so it would fit onto an island in the Myra world, (though I’m still not sure, whether it will really work for them, but that’s just my insecurity talking again…).

Selfpublishing vs Publishing House

I’m a no-name. That’s a fact. So for me to even try my luck at a publishing house I’d have to write extremely well or so mainstream that the bigger ones would like it. I don’t do either. That leaves the smaller ones, which either are busy with their own brilliant authors or turn out to be DKZ (Druckkostenzuschuss – Print Cost Grant) publishers and so on.
Plus, I’m really insecure when it comes to my writings, so I will either one day try my luck with selfpublishing or stick to just putting stuff on my Blog, because I think no one would want to read it anyway. 😉

Weird Research

There certainly was strange research I had do make over the years, but I don’t really remember what it was. I only remember that one of the last „weird“ things I had to google was: Is it possible to kill a bear with a knife? Those who thoroughly read my Advent Calendar last year, know why I had to research that. 😉

Interestingly: I only do research when I’m in the editing process to check if what I thought up (pantsing, remember?) does even make sense. While just writing down stuff I find research to be far too distracting and counter productive…

My very first Story

was written, in second grade (together with a classmate, but I did most of the work, I think), at least I have no memory of other stories. It was filled with spelling mistakes and handwritten on small (A7 maybe?), glued together pages with little scribbles of the characters. It also has an incredible twist [/sarcasm], because somehow, as a seven year old, I thought it very plausible that people from Australia talked backwards because they lived on the other side of the planet…
I still have it somewhere, so I could photograph it, but for now, have this German transcript of „How Horse and Kangaroo [became] friends“ (Warning: Please keep tissues at hand, you might cry):

Wie Pferd und Kängeruh Freunde [wurden]
Es war einmal vor langer, langer Zeit. Im fernen Lande Australien dort wonte ein kleines Kängeruh. Eines Tages wurde das kleine Kängeruh nach Deutschland verfrachtet.

In Deutschland angekommen blieb es erst einmal in einem Reiterhof. Im Reiterhof gab es ser viele Pferde so ca 40 stück, zwischen disen 40 war auch das schwarze Pferd Robert.

Er war nicht nur das einzigste schwarze Pferd sondern auch das schnellste Pferd im Hof. Die anderen 39 fragten Robert: „Wie machst du das du so schnell bist?“ „Ich teile meine kraft ein“. Es wuselte nur so durch den Stall. Alle dachten leise: kraft einteilen, kraft einteilen, dachten sie die ganze Nacht.

Robert konnte diese Nacht gut schlaffen.
Bei dem nesten Renen war es wie verhekst. Ein Kopf an Kopf Renen. Aber Robert gewonn trotzdem. Die Anderen Pferde wahren total neidisch auf Robert.
Der ausrit aus dem Stall war eine woltat für Röbert.
Die Reiter sprachen wun einem Kängeruh. Ein Kängeruh im Stall dachte Robert.

Er wuste was ein Kängeruh ist. Als sie wieder im Stall waren machte Robert sich auf die suche nach dem Kängeruh. Robert suchte hir und suchte da, aber er fand es nicht. Aber im lestem gang fand er es. Das Kängeruh sang immer wieder „Kleine Maus komm aus dem Haus. Sonst holt dich di Katze raus und dann ist es aus.“ Sang es immer wider.
Das hörte Robert und ging sofort hin. Er sag es und fragte wie er heiße. Das Kängeruh antwortete „Hci eßieh Lrak“, Robert verhstand nicht was er sagte. Johannes das war sein Johkej. Er hörte Roberts gejammer und rannte sofort hin. Johannes fragte Robert: „Was ist los?“ Robert Antwortete: „Dieses Kängeruh hat eine undäutliche ausschbrache.“ Was hat es den gesagt.“ „Ich habe in gefragt wie er heist. Und er hat gesagt: „Hci eßieh Lrak.“ „Also du verschtestin nicht, aber ich.“ „Was hat er gesagt Johannes?“ „Er hat gesagt „Ich heiße Karl.“ „In Australien spricht mann so. Das ist rückwertz.“

I really hope you didn’t forget the tissue, I always have tears in my eyes when I read this. :’D
It’s just so…I don’t even have words for it.
(The song was from my classmate I think, no idea why that wasn’t in „Australian“…)

At least I can proudly say: I’ve come a loooong way since then or so I think. 😀

My stories in five words

For this I focused on the three stories I told you about in the Character-week.
I’m not entirely satisfies with the words, but well, it’s all I could think of.

The Unnamed One: Werwolf, Vampire, Family, Prejudices, Life

The Queen’s Wish: Intrigues, Magic, Family, Change, Compassion

Neubrandenwolf: Werwolf, Change, Full Moon*, Life, Running

Well, this concludes the challenge.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my different projects, I certainly enjoyed writing about them.

See you around

PoiSonPaiNter

* I know I cheated with this, but Full Moon in German is Vollmond and that’s one word. 😉

#LoveWritingChallenge – Themes

And week three of the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

Week 3

This weeks theme is Themes and as I would just be repeating myself with the sub-themes, I’ve decided to put them all into one post again.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Loving and losing your family and friends

For some reason do I always end up creating families in my longer projects. I can’t figure out why that is. Part of me thinks it’s far too cheesy to give everyone a more or less happy end or at least someone that cares deeply for them, but another feels like it’s important for those characters, that it fits for them and their story to have someone in their lives. They just wouldn’t be the same without their families. I mean, Andrew would barely survive on his own…
Though that doesn’t mean all my families are the same. As I have mentioned in the character-week posts does not everyone of my characters fall into the usual sexual spectrum, so their love-lives are equally different from the norm. It feels like I have several kinds of couples on various levels, even if the majority is still the „traditional“ female/male relationship. Apart from that, does, even if they have kids, barely anyone get married in my stories…
There is one couple from The Unnamed One that’s had an on-and-off relationship for over twenty years, including kids and different partners in the meantime, before they finally tie the knot (twice if you count human and wolf wedding 😉 ).
Another couple has a very unhealthy, kind of co-dependant, relationship that’s mostly based on lust and the thrill of being with something that is able to kill you and of course the outdated thought of having to make it work with the father of your child/ren.
But love isn’t only between couples, it’s between parent and child, siblings and friends. It’s about caring for one another, about being with someone if they need you and about kicking their butts if they’re being stupid. In short terms. 😉
With friends and families comes tragedies and the more I think about it, the more I’m certain my subconscious wanted to prepare me for losing my own Mum. There is no other reason I could use to explain why so many of my characters have lost their mothers (at a young age). Though, I could blame Disney…
Just like in real life, do I try to keep the reactions realistic and differing from character to character. As I said does, e.g., Andrew not deal well with loss. He sinks into a very deep hole that he can’t get out of by himself. Others have it a bit easier to move on.
Dying isn’t the only way you can lose someone, so obviously I also have a few characters just drifting apart, breaking up or just losing sight of each other.
Describing this part of the human condition is fun for me, but I’m never sure if it’s too much, too detailed or just enough to get invested in the characters…
Curiously: In my short stories the characters rarely talk about their families and only occasionally have friends (mentioned). 😀

Tempting Courage and Fear

Temptation in the meaning of forbidden love is something I certainly use as a theme in variations (age-/status-gap, existing relationships, species), even if I don’t like the term. Love isn’t something a law can dictate it just happens, even if it’s sometimes creepy and/or weird – or biologically questionable/unhealthy, if you want to go down that road.
Besides with werwolves and vampires there is a different kind of temptation at play. 😉
But there is also the temptation of power that a few characters have to face (I wrote a short story a couple of years ago about the Tree of Knowledge that I feel I should link here: Knowledge is Power (German), be warned: It’s old!). My antagonists usually succumb to this, but at least one main character dips into it pretty badly until he realizes what he’d become.
I couldn’t say if any of them is particularly brave or frightened in a situation, but there are of course different ways to be either. It’s part of a person to succumb to/overcome fear, but overcoming fear isn’t necessarily courage, just as not being brave doesn’t mean you’re afraid. It’s a thin line between all these things and I think it’s interesting to play with it and „throw“ the characters into uncomfortable situations. 😉
Though there are short stories where I intentionally played with fear, which was fun:

Just to name a few.
Courage on the other hand doesn’t seem to be one of the themes I focus on. The Christmas Light is pretty much the only thing I can think of, where a character displays some kind of courage (the moving on-kind).

My own theme

In short stories a reoccurring theme is running (away) or flying from something. In the longer ones it’s „life“ and what troubles it and the setting in general throws your way. Other than that is I think „being different“ one of the main topics in my writings.
Sometimes I include stuff to discuss it or work through it myself (like a death-scene in the 2015 Advent Calendar), at other times I just write something without much thought behind it and someone else interprets it completely different and pretty deeply (happened with Blind Date (German), though Evanesca has yet to tell me about all the layers she discovered. 😀 Though I can’t find where we talked about it… =/).
Well, it’s not much and I didn’t really go into that much detail, but I’ve already covered some of it in the first week and other things would give too much away, soo….let’s just say: I try to keep an open mind to how my characters would react in a given theme, even if I have to push it onto them at times. 😉
See you with the next theme next week (or hopefully on Sunday with the update of Neubrandenwolf)!
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Inspiration

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

Week 2

This weeks theme is Inspiration and as I wont be able to write proper length posts about the different sub-themes I’ve decided to put them all into one post.

For stuff about Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Inspiration

Inspiration for me is a tricky thing. I might not be too dependent on a muse any more, meaning I can sit down and write, when I’m up for it, but that doesn’t mean I’m always up for it. And even if I’m up for it, it doesn’t mean I’m working on the stuff that I need to be doing and instead write something entirely different. I have so many unfinished projects and ideas floating around it’s annoying. I know this would be easy to change, but there is also the whole thing with the writing mood. 😉
I’m fairly certain that most of the time the thing that gets me to write is a deadline. 😀 Due to this I try to set them for myself and with the Advent Calendars or writing contests it works, more or less(, with a regular posting schedule it doesn’t…). Still, that doesn’t mean my head isn’t constantly working on something. I’m just too lazy to write it down…and of course there is this thing, that I talked about in my Update on Writing:

[M]otivation plays a rather huge part in my process and when the voice in the back of my head tells me something is not worth doing, then I have the tendency to listen to it, which is awful and counterproductive and absolutely annoying.

Regardless of all that do I technically only need to let my mind wander to find a new idea for a story. Different media help here as well. As I’ve mentioned on the Blog before, did I go to an organ concert a couple of years ago and during the concert I simply closed my eyes and let my imagination show me scenes that fit the music. The Queen’s Wish, whose characters I talked about last week, was one of those ideas/scenes. Though it turned out different from what I originally expected…
When I want to focus my writing I mostly listen to the same (more or less fitting) song(s) over and over again until I’m done with the scene. I primarily do this for my different Fanfiction projects, but Winter Moon, and the re-work I made for it, got the same treatment. Recently I also tried instrumental playlists for TQW, but that felt more like background music instead of focus. The music helps me to imagine (visual writer, remember?) the scenes a bit more clearly. I can just concentrate on watching the scene unfold without any distractions and then write it down, even if it will never be 100% the same.
Watching movies and tv shows makes me think about how my characters would react to certain situations, but more often than it makes me think about creating crossovers for different tv shows with the same actors instead… >_ < (recently happened again during my Buffy-re-watch…). The same goes for other authors. Just as I do with my spoken language, where I sometimes pick up other peoples way of speaking, do I pick up similar stuff from other stories (ideas, format, expressions, …). I don’t set out to copy anyone, but I guess it is possible to see their influence in my writings, even if I myself couldn’t put a finger on it. I might not have read as many books as others, but I do know what I want and especially what I don’t want in a book/story, so I know what I want to/wont add to my own stuff.

Something that gets me writing quite easily are pictures. Back in The Forum there was a challenge where you had to write a story for a picture and I was always fascinated by it, but never dared to participate. Then back in 2014 I decided to give it a try and the idea for my first Advent Calendar was born. In the end it consisted of 24 stories I wrote for pictures friends and others sent me. We later picked up that idea for Your Picture – A Story on DF.PP Entertainment. I don’t know what it is about pictures that makes it easy for me to think something up, even if not right away for every picture, but it’s always a fun way to try out new short stories. Titles or topics or prompts/quotes or clues aren’t as easy for me though. Sometimes it clicks and I just know what I want to write about, sometimes there is nothing. [The titles-story is another first person narrator that I wasn’t sure about but forgot to check, but it still kind of falls into the same category as the other two…]
As for inspiration from everyday Real Life and stuff: I wouldn’t have started writing the Neubrandenwolf if watching the full moon wouldn’t have inspired me. 😉
By the way: A new chapter will hopefully be published on Sunday!
See you next week for the next theme!
PoiSonPaiNter

#LoveWritingChallenge – Favourite Characters

I’m participating in the #LoveWritingChallenge by Katie Kling. For more information see the introduction post.

This weeks theme are Characters and today is all about Favourite Characters.
To make things easier for myself I will focus on the characters in three of my longer stories:

Though I might add more from other stories.
For stuff about our characters from Warlords feel free to check out our Facebook Page.

Favouritism

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like picking favourites? No? Then let it be known now… Alas, I need to pick favourites her, so let’s take a look at them…
Top on this list should probably be Michael and Andrew from TUO. I just like exploring their characters and their stories. I really like their interaction with each other and the other characters and stuff… A close second this this would be „their“ mum (Andrew’s biological, Michael’s adopted mother). Haven’t talked about her, but I throw a lot of crap her way(, just as I do with her boys), but she gets out on top anyway. Sometimes thanks to them, sometimes thanks to her own strength. Besides: She was one of my first OCs …

For some reason did Emry not just weasel his way into TQW(, where he was only supposed to be a passing mention), but also became quite dear to me very fast. I have no idea why … It might be his compassion, his humour, his loyalty or of course his magic, but really, why would anyone like that combination? 😀

Same with Rasha and Nina, but this might be due to their real life counterparts. 😉

Other than that do I enjoy writing pretty much all my characters and they’re all special in their own way, but that’s probably the same for every author …

Do you have a favourite character from one of my stories?

Anyway, see you next week when I’ll talk about inspiration … that’ll be hard …

PoiSonPaiNter