Tag Archives: tag

#Buchmagie – Part 2

Another diversion from the Fairy Tale Summer with the second part of Blue Siren’s #Buchmagie (Bookmagic) tag. You can find part one here: #Buchmagie – Part 1.
And these questions are quite a bit trickier…

16. If you could send yourself into a bookworld, which one would you want to visit?

I’m hovering between post-war Hogwarts and the Pages of the World, maybe even the Inkworld…I don’t know. They sound incredible and I’d really like to be able to use the portrayed magic, even if that’s pretty unlikely.

17. Which gem would you choose? (German/English)

Seems like I’d have to choose the Kunzite…at least from the German meaning. o.O Star sign wise it’d be the Malachite. So I guess both?

18. Which magic-cliché do you consider ghastfully-dreadful?

The warts on witches or that evil witches are generally portrayed as ugly. Good looking people can be just as cruel…

19. Do you prefer reading about good or bad Sorcerer/Sorceresses?

I don’t like people because their bad or good, I like reading about people that are funny, snarky, different. If the character is great I’ll like them and if they happen to be a good or bad sorcerer/sorceress than that’s that. 😀

20. Healing, Fight-Magic or Summonings? What would you/your character use to protect the group in an adventure and why?

If I had magic I’d try to do bit of all, I don’t like being a burden and I’m really fond of helping others. My characters are different though, they use whatever they’re capable of. I told you about Mara and Andres from The Queen’s Wish in the previous part who can use healing and empathic magic, but are pretty useless when it comes to attacking someone, defence is a bit more likely. Emry on the other hand has offensive, shield and illusion spells.

21. Which witch brew do you prefer drinking the most while reading/writing (black bean juice, herb-infusion, spring water?)

If I drink anything at all I’m proud of myself. 😀 Usually it’s water though or whatever else is available EXCEPT coffee. I don’t drink coffee. And I shouldn’t I’m not doing well with the caffeine…

22. Which book has great ideas for modern/unique magic? Alternative: What new ideas does magic need in books?

The first thing that comes to mind is the new Strowlers universe by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment. It’s a world where magic is real and where its users are persecuted and held down. It’s an open world where everyone can add their own thoughts and stories and if the creators like them, they might become canon.

Other than that do I really like the book magic from The Pages of the World.

23. Are there moments in your every day life, that can really enchant you?

Nature is generally enchanting to me. I can sit quiet and just stare at trees waving their leaves in the wind. I enjoy watching water in all kinds of variations (rain, river, lake, ocean, …, clouds 😉 ). Just as the flickering flames of a candle or bone fire can keep me entertained.

24. Did you ever read a book that dealt with witches/Wizards, but without any magic? (e.g. non-fiction, medieval novel in the times of the inquisition)

I read a few books about the witch hunts or taking place at the time of it. Like Elmar Bereuters „Hexenhammer“ (Hammer of the witches) and „Lichtfänger“ (Lightcatcher). In addition to that some non-fiction stuff and I still want to read the Maleus Maleficarum…

25. Which character poured a love potion into you and conquered your heart?

There have been a few characters I liked and whose traits I wouldn’t mind having in a real life partner, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they conquered my heart. If I gained a connection to a character I suffer with them – this is especially horrible when I’m the one writing their demises, but I don’t think there is one I’d defend at all cost, like I’d do for a real life person.

26. Show us a quote that’s so full of magic and wisdom that it might as well be a spell!

I’m horrible with quotes…Does this count?

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”

– Rick Cook, Wizardry Compiled

Just realized: This is another book for Question 8.

27. Hands down! Do you believe Magic really exists? And if so in which form?

I do. There is magic in nature, in a smile and in the way we interact with each other; the emotions we share, the thoughts that drive us, the ideas running through peoples minds.

If there wasn’t any magic, how would we even think up something like magic and write incredible stories about it? 😉

28. Show us a magical book that unfortunately did not spark anything for you!

Mad Merlin by J. Robert King. It sounded like an interesting re-telling of the known Arthurian legend, but turned into something quite disappointing. Sure Merlin’s Madness was fun in the beginning and it felt like it could become a great book, but then it made a turn for the worst. Merlin turned out to be someone entirely different and the story started dragging on quite a bit. For a book with ~600 pages this was not fun to finish…

Another example is Tiger, Tiger by Melvin Burgess, where he uses a magical tigress as a protagonist, but it lost a lot of potential along the way…

29. Which magical book series should be read by everyone?

Have you heard of Harry Potter? No, I didn’t think so. Me neither, so I won’t tell you what you should have read. 😉

30. Which author (not-magical too) has enchanted your heart?

If this question refers to authors whose books I buy without second thought: That would be the brilliant Terry Pratchett. His ideas for the Discworld are just so…I don’t even have words for it. But everyone who likes his books probably knows what I mean. 😉

That’s it, folks!

I hope you had fun reading the answers.

See ya.

PoiSonPaiNter

#Buchmagie – Part 1

Fairy Tales have magic, so I decided, it was okay to participate in the #Buchmagie (Bookmagic) tag alongside my Fairy Tale Summer. 🙂

You can obviously participate as well using my translated or the original questions. Though, just to be clear: This doesn’t count towards the Fairy Tale Summer Challenge. 😉

The tag was created by Blue Siren over at Babsi taucht ab and is about different magical topics regarding books – be it about witches/wizards or just magical experiences while reading. She put together thirty questions that you can answer on any social media channel you like. I decided to answer them in two parts on here. Today you’ll get the first fifteen questions. 🙂

1. What is your Hogwarts House? Alternatively: Would you want to attend a Wizardry School or rather learn to use Magic by yourself?

I was sorted into Slytherin on the Beta-Version of Pottermore, which let me to an quite fascinating experiment. As I had anticipated from the first try, the new version then put me in Ravenclaw. By now I had accepted being a Slytherin and will always remain one at heart. 😉 (In Ilvermorny, the American school, I’d be a Pudwudgie, you know, those creatures that generally don’t like people. 😉 )

As for learning magic: I think a school would be the better idea for me, as I otherwise might be too lazy…

2. Who is your favourite witch/sorceress from a book and why? (For Authors: Introduce a sorceress from your book!)

That would be Hermione from the Harry Potter series. She’s smart, funny and manages to excel in this new world, she had never heard of before. I didn’t really mind studying in school, so through her I learned it was okay to know stuff.
Though, it was, and still is, hard for me to add the „o“ to her name, for me she’ll always only be Hermine. 😉 (Took me quite a while to realize it was NOT a spelling mistake, but the original spelling…)

As for my own characters: Meet Mara from The Queen’s Wish. 🙂

Mara is another apprentice of Emry’s master and a really good Healer. She’s rather shy, but that doesn’t keep her from helping out whenever and however she can. With compassion and empathy and a vast knowledge of Healing Spells and Herbology, she makes her patients feel better in no time.

3. Your favourite three magical books (one per series 😉 )

I would say….

The Prisoner of Azkaban is definitely on this list, though I haven’t read it in a while. But back in the day I really liked this one.

If book-magic counts, then I’d say: Die Seiten der Welt by Kai Meyer, though I’m not sure which one I’d choose they’re all pretty great… As I said in the review: The world and the way their „magic“, their bibliomancy works is just so fascinating.

As for the last one…maybe the first part (The Wizard of Earthsea) of the Earthsee Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin? I like the description of the school and the idea that names are a very powerful thing.

4. What is your favourite Mythical Creature?

Who doesn’t like Dragons? I mean they are pretty awesome. Fire breathing, flying and stuff 😉 By now I also got a liking for Griffins, but that’s basically because it’s in our town’s/state’s coat of arms.

And of course there is this weird relationship I have with Unicorns…

5. Spells, Wands or inner Power? Which form of Magic do you like most?

I kind of like inner power the most. Doing something with just a thought/look/hand gesture feels way more epic than waving around a wand. Though spells are nice too, they seem to focus all the above a bit better.

6. Your favourite Sorcerer/Mage from a book and why? (For Authors: Introduce a sorcerer from your book!)

I have to go with Harry Potter again: Remus Lupin. He just seems like such an incredible teacher and person…

Another one from The Queen’s Wish: Meet Andres

Also an apprentice of the aforementioned master who excels in sensory Magic. He can sense Magic and its purpose from far away and figure out what charms were used on people and things. He is fiercely loyal to his friends, but still somewhat of a loner. Not willing to settle down, he is always on the move across the land, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come running when he is needed.

7. Which magical discipline would you like to master and what would you do with it? (e.g. Alchemy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Herbology, Flying, mastering elements?)

I’d go with teleportation. It would make travelling SO MUCH easier….I’d just have to master it enough to take things and people with me. 😉

8. Which books about Magic would you like to read/are still amongst your unread books?

Well, Cursed Child is still on my reading list, but so far I just haven’t felt like reading a play again.

Other than that am I more or less interested in reading a bit more about Arthurian legends and through that more about Merlin, but that’s a rather low priority.

9. Which Rune would you choose? (z.B. Runen (German) – e.g. Runes (English))

I decided to choose Isa. It just fits well for several things going on right now, or rather not going…

10. Your favourite EVIL wizard/witch in a book?

Puh…I usually have quite a liking for the darker characters, but I can’t remember any good EVIL wizards I rooted for…(and no, I didn’t even do that for Snape).

The only bad guy I can think of right now is one of the antagonists from The Queen’s Wish, but I won’t tell you about him yet… 😉

11. What would be your Familiar or Accompanying Creature and why? (e.g. Raven, black Cat, Toad)

Maybe a Raven? It could scout ahead and let me know what’s going on, but I don’t have to take care of it that much? I really don’t know…

12. Which children’s book has fired your fondness for magical things?

If you count them as children’s books then definitely the Harry Potter series, it’s the series that shaped me the most after all. 😉

13. Which Tarot card would you choose? (Tarotkarten – Tarot cards)

As I’m too lazy to look through all of them I decided to go by looks and names to read through a few.
What I came up with is The Moon, though the English description I found sounds quite different from the German one… It has to do with imagination and inner stuff and it has a wolf and the moon on it. No idea why that sounds familiar. 😀

14. Which Covers are just magical?

Hmm…the only one I could think of right now would be The Hunter’s Moon by O.R. Melling.

But in general I’d say covers that are playful and show scenery and maybe characters.

15. Whom would you wish to have as your Magic teacher?

If it counts: BBC Merlin, he just seems like the lessons would be fun . 😀 If not: Definitely Lupin, see Question 6.

To be continued…

PoiSonPaiNter

Liebster Award #2

Okay, so I skipped three weeks of posting something (with good reasons, I assure you!) and you just get a measly tag instead. Sorry, I guess, but let me explain before I get further into it.
Skip-Week #1: On Monday I could finally move back into my flat, well my furniture at least. I still had to get a new fridge (Hugo III. moved in on Wednesday) and carpet and basically clean everything. As I still commuted I was too exhausted to write anything.
Skip-Week #2: Cue the unpacking! I still have a long way to go as I took some liberties in my break-schedule, but that’s basically what I did.
Skip-Week #3: We’re currently in it, and you should get the long overdue WWW, but as I got down with a flue-thingy – that is kind of improving by now – I really didn’t feel like concentrating too much.
Instead I thought I dig up this old thing from a tag back in August 2015 (yes, last year) by Fissel to at least give you something to read on here. So, thank you Fissel and sorry for the delay. 😉
As the title suggests is this my second Liebster Award, so I’m just quoting the first one to tell you what the Award is about – if you don’t already know it:

It is used for getting out the word for unknown Blogs.
Liebster is [also] the German word for beloved partner or darling, in the Blogging sense, to me, it means a Blog you hold dear and greatly enjoy reading. So for me it is an honour to be granted this award and be able to give it to other Blogs I like.

Now for the Rules:

Thank the Blogger who nominated you.
Link to the Blogger who nominated you.
Add one of the „Liebster-Blog-Award“ Buttons to your post.
Answer the Questions.
Create 11 new Questions for the Bloggers you nominate.
Nominate 5-11 new Blogger with less than 300 Followers.
Inform the Blogger in a comment about their nomination

Fissel’s Questions*

(* as translated from her Blog)

Why is it so hard for me to come up with a first question? Is it the same for you?
The first question is probably always the hardest, because you have to get into the whole spirit of „What do I want to ask this other person?“. It’s the ice-breaker to start a conversation that gets the whole thing rolling. You put pressure on yourself to make it interesting, but in the end that doesn’t always work out, so you go back to what you feel comfortable with (in this case, asking others why it’s hard for you 😉 ). Am I close?I prefer setting the entire tone of a series of questions first before starting on individual ones, so it’s not that hard for me, I think…
What do you like doing in public, that you’re not serious about, only because you’re amused by other people’s reaction?
Hmm…good question… Probably my very dry/sarcastic jokes, even if they are only semi-public as I only tell them to the people I’m interacting with at that moment. At least most people don’t get I’m making a joke when they don’t know me that well and the reactions are always quite fun…
What was the worst pick-up line you’ve ever heard/read?
I don’t remember…pick-up lines are generally quite stupid, so all of them?
You’re part of an accident/get sick. What would be the worst that could happen to you?
I hope I understood this question correctly. Aside from the obvious „being responsible for someone else’s death“ and dying, is losing my eye sight or sense of hearing probably the worst that could happen to me.
Your ex starts a relationship with one of your friends shortly after you broke up. How would you react?
Depends I guess. If it is sudden and without warning that those two were already attracted to each other while we were dating, I’d probably be very shocked and feel betrayed. If all parties talked about the situation beforehand, I think I might even be the one pushing them to try it…
What’s your opinion on friends who’d do something like Question 5? Would that be okay, not okay or okay under certain circumstances?
Again, depends. If it’s a consensual decision from all parties, I’d probably stay friends. If they just up and did it, I’d end the friendship with both parties. Unless I’m not part of this then I usually stick with the party that’s left behind, if it’s the second kind of split up.
Would you study the same/get the same job again?
No, I’d probably study proper Computer Science and not Computer Science and Business Management…or something entirely different…
Your pet can suddenly talk to you. Do you think you’re on drugs or do you simply consider it to be awesome?
Probably both – apart from the fact that I don’t have a pet. I’d be highly confused where that voice came from at first, but if it kept happening I’d accept it quite fast and feel very privileged and awesome about it. 😀
What do you think was the first word you ever said?
Mama or Papa probably, I think I had this conversation with my Mum, but I forgot which one it was…
Which might be your last words?
I don’t really want to know. Those words could give me a clue as to what happens, so no spoilers, please. 😉
And last but not least: How would you describe the mood I was in while coming up with the questions?
You were in a very complicated mood. Potentially someone dumped you in a very harsh way and you were still not over it, in addition to that did you want to finish a post for your Blog, but weren’t really in the mood for it so you churned out a few standard questions in addition to getting an opinion on your situation and called it a day. So, basically your mind was all over the place. 🙂

And the Nominees are…

As I’m seeing the Liebster-Award as something to give to people, who’s writing I enjoy I nominate Blogs that I enjoy reading, even if they probably already met the 300 Followers count.

Eve Estelle – Edge of Night: Fascinating poems, prompts and ideas and a great partner for discussions. After winning her writing competition twice and following her journey as a poet, I think, it’s time about to give something back.
Joseph – What’s Best In Life?: Want to read interesting and honest reviews on different media? Look right here! Well, if your German is good enough. 😉
Wren Collins – Cobweb Queen: In her vivisecting Supernatural-series we had a lot of interesting discussions. She has a great eye for details and connections and doesn’t stray from sharing them in a very fascinating way.

And that’s basically it. I’m not really a fan of the whole „nominating“ thing – especially as I can’t remember if anyone ever accepted one of my tags. These of course are not the only Blogs I follow, but some Bloggers were already nominated with other tags and for another tag, I still have lying around, I have a few other people in mind.

My Questions:

Okay, I admit I’m lazy again, but as none of my nominees from last time ever reacted, I’ll just recycle the questions and add an eleventh one, as I really like them…

What is the best experience you ever had on a concert/at a festival/convention or any other social gathering?
What is the strangest decoration you have at home?
Are you collecting something? If so: What and why?
What was your favourite plushy when you were a kid and what happened to it?
If you had the choice: Would you start Blogging again and about the same topics you cover/ed?
What do you prefer: A handwritten letter, a long e-mail or a short message on the phone/a social network?
Which of your posts/categories you write in is dearest to you?
Which movie/book/series/etc. would you like to read/watch/etc. again for the first time?
What is the place you’ve always wanted to travel to, but so far hadn’t had the chance to do so?
How much time could you spent without using any kind of digital formats/mediums? (Internet, mp3s, e-books, etc.)
What is more frustrating? Discovering an incredible story/show only to find out that it was discontinued/cancelled or following a story/show (for years) that concludes in a very unsatisfying ending/finale?

Have fun, I know I’d like answering those questions. 😉
PoiSonPaiNter
P.S. I know I posted two buttons, but I simply took the picture from Fissel’s Blog, so it’s her fault… 😉

Into the Autumn

During the last few months I received several tags by both DarkFairy and Fissel and I’ll try to get them done one after the other without boring you too much with them. As the days are getting darker and colder I decided to start with this one that was forwarded to me by Fairy.
The Tag – originally called Ab in den Herbst* – was created by Corly and like all Tags brings Rules with them:

Link your post below Corly’s Original-Tag
Say thank you for the nomination: Thanks Fairy!
Answer the questions
Tag more Bloggers and tell them

The Questions

Which books remind you of autumn? (Be it due to the cover or because they take place in autumn)

Honestly? I have no idea. I barely remember any covers – even though they might influence my decision to buy the book – or take notice of the Season’s within a book – as they barely play a role.
Corly included the German version of Suzanne Collins Mockingjay in her list and I have to admit, that I am not sure if the thingies are supposed to be flames (German subtitle: Flaming Wrath) or autumn leaves…
Thinking a bit more on it, I guess Der Königsschlüssel (The King’s Key) by Boris Koch reminds me a bit of autumn, too, due to the colour of the cover, but I don’t think it was hinted at in the story…
Story-wise I’d say Terry Pratchett’s Reaper Man reminds me of autumn, simply because DEATH is bringing in the corn…

What do you associate with autumn?

Colourful leaves/trees, rain and wind are the major associations I have with autumn, but there are also a couple of other things. The days are getting darker, all the stuff from the garden is harvested and there are a few things that are celebrated in this Season – and I don’t mean Halloween – St. Martin’s Day was a huge thing when I was a kid – especially the lantern procession. By now the focus of the 11th November is more on the beginning of the carnival Season where we get the traditional Pfannkuchen from our bosses. Also in autumn are the change of the daylight saving time and the Eternity Sunday or Sunday of the Dead (Ewigkeitssonntag or Totensonntag) that I talked about back in 2013 over at the Fairytale Traveler. This year that day will be quite difficult….

What do you especially like about autumn?

I’m not really sure, but I guess I like that the weather now allows me to not feel guilty about staying in all day. 😉 And I really love passing by or driving through alleys full of colourful trees…oh and tramping through the fallen leaves and kicking them into the air is also great. 😀

What is your favourite Halloween-movie?

This thing is filed with difficult questions…
I guess my favourite Halloween-movie is Halloweentown and its sequels. They’re just so much fun… and of course Nightmare before Christmas, but you can never be sure if this movie fits into the category Halloween- or Christmas-movie 😉
[Author’s Note: I just re-read Fairy’s post after completing mine: I did not mean to copy these from you, but it’s not surprising to me that we picked the same movies. >_<]

Are you an autumn-child (meaning: Were you born in autumn)?

Nope, Winter is my Season. 😀

What do you say about the season autumn in general? Do you like autumn?

It depends, some days, especially when the sun shines and illuminates all those colourful leaves, autumn is awesome. On others when the fog is hanging low or it is raining, you just want to wrap a blanket around yourself and shut out the world, which isn’t an entirely bad thing, but sometimes it can drag you down and that’s not so great. But I generally like autumn as a season.

What kind of holiday destinations do you like most in autumn?

The majority of my travellings take place in summer, so the only times I am actually on tour in autumn is for concerts, maybe an MPS or things like last years trip on Halloween or this year the TimeLash. This also means that I barely use any vacation days in autumn anyway and therefore don’t have a destination – other than getting home, I guess. Though I do still want to actually participate in an American Halloween celebration or actually be able to follow some Irish traditions…

Are there animals that you associate with autumn?

Deer, I guess? And crows and brants and cranes probably, as those are the ones you mostly see either standing on the (empty) fields or noisily flying above you to their wintering grounds.

Your most beautiful autumn-picture? (Can be a private one)

Tough one again… I think most pictures that include colourful leaves are beautiful, so… (yes, I’m a big fan of colourful leaves…). I’m most fascinated by pictures that depict trees or forests throughout the Seasons, where they have like one picture for each Season. Those are great….

Do you have a special autumn experience?

Hmm…I guess you can count all those Halloween experiences I had so far into this, other than that…no idea…

Last thoughts

Okay, so this probably weren’t the most interesting answers to these question, but I still wanted to do it. I think it helps one to learn a bit more about oneself if you try thinking about certain things, you haven’t thought about before and tags like this one help with that.
As I don’t know whom to tag, I will skip that part of the rules. If you want to answer the questions anyway, because you think autumn is awesome or otherwise then go ahead and feel tagged! 😀
You can obviously use my translated questions or Corly’s original (German) ones.
Don’t slip on any fallen leaves. 😉
PoiSonPaiNter
* I obviously translated the rules and questions.

Blogger Recognition Award

I should write sooo many different things and my fingers are itching to type my latest chapter for my newest addition on Fanfiction.net/Animexx – that I have yet to put on here. Alas, I want to be patient and instead write about this instead.
Yesterday I checked my Reader for new posts from the Blogs I’m following and discovered that wrencollins nominated my for the Blogger Recognition Award.

I’m really flattered for receiving this. It feels like I’m doing something right, if people I don’t know personally are willing to nominate me for such things. 🙂

The Award

Unlike the Liebster Award this one is not bound by the number of followers or anything. It simply is there to show the Bloggers you nominate that you appreciate what they are doing. Or to put it in the words of the awards‘ creator Eve from Edge of Night:

When you say, „Hey! I’ve nominated you for so-and-so award! Congrats!“ and give one of these simple little pictures to a fellow blogger, you’ve probably just made that person’s day. You’ve inspired them to keep writing posts. You’ve given their confidence a little boost, and helped to make them feel that they are a part of this community. You’ve made them happy by being generous and showing your appreciation. There’s nothing better than that.

So, let’s see what this award brings with it:
Rules:

Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.

Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog. List who you’ve nominated in the post. Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).
Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.

Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing.

In the Beginnings…

I had many thoughts and contemplated for quite some time if I should actually create a Blog for myself. When I learned how to do it I tried my luck with a homepage for different topics, but it just wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I scrapped it and went on. Then in 2007 I found The Forum and enjoyed sharing my thoughts in the discussions there. It was a lot of fun until it closed thanks to the then weird admin. Early 2008 I re-discovered its new version, now run by a different admin, and the discussion began anew. I met new people, even made some good friends – Fairy, Nazgul, Liathano, I’m looking at you 😉 – and a lot of interesting acquaintances. Then I started studying and the thoughts of a Blog came back slowly but surely. In 2011 I released my first story on Fanfiction.net, but that wasn’t my first story written by far. I already had some original short stories published in The Forum and I wanted to have a place where I could collect them all. So when I started discussing a project with my then beta reader I decided to create this Blog back in 2012.
And here I am now three years later and non the wiser. 😀

Advice?

Puh…I think I’m not that good at giving advice and usually people look for advice that tells them how to do things to be successful and with not even 200 followers (on WP alone) after three years, I wouldn’t consider myself to be a successful Blogger…
But what I can tell you is this:

Try not to be bothered by others being better than you. There will always be someone who has more followers, has the better design and the more read posts. Be happy for them instead, they worked hard for it and deserve it.
Try not to push yourself to write THE successful story. Write what YOU want to write about, not what everyone else deems popular!
Try not to feel bad if you don’t have a regular schedule. It helps a lot to get a reader base if you regularly post something, but things happen and you can’t always write something in time.
Most importantly: HAVE FUN! Don’t push yourself to do things you don’t feel like doing and take time off to try something different if you’re stuck. Half-assed posts aren’t fun for everyone involved.

And the Award goes tooo….

Obviously I have to nominate people myself and whoops I can’t count apparently, as I only nominated those that I haven’t nominated before – I think…

Have fun my dears and thanks for being part of the Blogosphere!
PoiSonPaiNter

The Seven Deadly Sins concerning Books

I was tagged, by DarkFairy, to think about the Seven Deadly Sins when it comes to books.
Each sin has at least one question and you’ll find my answers (and the translated questions) below.
And I know this is a horrible introduction, but I got lazy, so let’s start with:

Acedia – Sloth

Which book do you ignore to read because of Laziness?
Until recently that was Lord of the Rings, but I’m slowly fighting against my own laziness and reading it one by one for last years Summer Book Challenge by BiblioSmiles. But it still isn’t the thick version we own, but the split English ones I got from the library…and I only just finished Part One…
Aside from that do I believe every book I haven’t read yet falls into this category…
Which book influenced your life?
Somehow I think Faust, as I learned to appreciate literature in a different way through the teacher that gave us additional lessons for this book.
Other than that, I think I’ll go for the usual suspect: Harry Potter that taught me (amongst other things) that being smart/different isn’t that big of a deal.

Superbia – Pride

Which book gives you the feeling to be more literate/knowledgeable than your fellow human beings?
So far none really, unless you count conversations with non-readers were you can smart off about the books you’ve read. Though I think I’m proud of having read some of the German classics (Faust, Nathan the Wise) and went through the more scientific Discworld books (The Science of the Discworld).

Avaritia – Greed

Which one was your cheapest book?
Logically, is every book that I got as a gift my cheapest book, as I did not have to pay any money for them. 😉 (Kinder des Judas was a gift for example)
Which one was your most expensive book?
Several books were quite expensive and I do shy away from paying too much for a book, but I can’t give you any prices as I cannot or do not want to remember them, as that would be depressing…

Invidia – Envy

Which book would you love to get as a present?
For quite some time I wanted to have „Ein überdimensionales Meerschweinchen frisst die Erde auf“ (An oversized guinea pig devours the world) the biography of the German band Die Ärzte (The Doctors), but with a price of about 50€ it was a bit too cheap for my taste and I wouldn’t have minded to get it as a present. By now I read the book thanks to our library and the „Own-Effect“ settled down. Other than that am I happy about every book I get as a present – unless I already have it. 😉

Ira – Wrath

For which book do you feel love and hate at the same time?
Hmm…I do believe the books in the Anita Blake series fall into this category. I like the cases and the side characters are great and stuff, but I absolutely cannot stand her…
Apart from that are most books either Hate-books, where hate is more like utter dislike (The Catcher in the Rye, Kabale und Liebe/Love and Intrigue) or Love (Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire) or a simple lack of care, which kind of falls into the Sloth-category again.
Which book was the hardest to get?
Let’s put it this way: If I can’t find a book through the usual means (store, internet, library) I give up quite soon and stop looking for it. And what I feel in moments like that is more disappointment then wrath. 😉

Gula – Glottony

Which book makes you hungry?
I guess like Fairy and Fissel already wrote: Cookbooks.
Though in general do the descriptions of feasts sound quite tasty and interesting at times. (The cookbook for AsoIaF sound especially interesting…)

Luxuria – Lust

Which book has the most attractive hero?
Richard Zeeman from the Anita Blake series sounds quite nice, but I don’t care about that in general, let alone remember it most of the time…

Your turn!

Well, as far as tags go, you keep spreading them, but as I don’t feel like doing that:
Feel free to use the translated or the original version of the questions to write about this yourself!
And I’m now off to the Reading Stage (Lesebühne) again, let’s see how I’ll cope this time…
PoiSonPaiNter

Liebster Award

About a month ago DarkFairy nominated me for the Liebster Award, but back then I didn’t really have the time to accept it. Regardless of that: Thank you!

The Award

Now let’s have a look as to what I have to do for this:

Write a Blog post with this award, add the award picture and link to the person who awarded you.

Answer the 10 questions.

Think up 10 new questions.

Nominate 10 Bloggers with less than 200 readers (occasionally it is said below 1000, so you can nominate whomever you like). You are not allowed to nominate your nominator.

Tell the Bloggers that you nominated them.

This sounds pretty similar to the simple tag-thing Fairy gave me last year and it is also used for getting out the word for unknown Blogs. Still, the name of the award, Liebster, turns this into something different.

Liebster is the German word for beloved partner or darling, in the Blogging sense, to me, it means a Blog you hold dear and greatly enjoy reading. So for me it is an honour to be granted this award and be able to give it to other Blogs I like.

Fairys Questions*

*(as translated from her Blog.)

Have you been at a festival before? If so, which one?
Those who follow me for some time now know that I have been at several Festivals, including: the Wacken Open Air (5 times), the Metalfest Loreley (twice) and the Wave Gotik Treffen with already some finished reviews and the M’era Luna (twice), Out&Loud and Rockharz where I still have to write them.
What is your worst trait?
I think my worst trait is my pessimism. My thoughts can get pretty gloomy and dark at times and you can call yourself lucky that I refrain from Blogging when I’m in a digging mood (meaning: I’m already in a dark pit and manage to dig myself even deeper).
And your best?
I like to believe it is my sense of humour, as I do indeed make people laugh on occasion. If that doesn’t count, maybe my readiness to help others.
Which book is exactly in the middle of your lowest book shelve?
When I was first nominated I was at home and as there is stuff in front of the book shelf I couldn’t have answered the question. In my flat the lowest shelve doesn’t really contain books, so I move one up and that one is full of Manga.
The ones in the middle are Nurarihyon No Mago’s volume 3 and 4, with more volumes and some of Ao No Excorcist on top of them. But they are currently blocked by several comics I acquired on Free Comic Book Day, some other Manga (Deathnote and Bleach) and a book I won at the Expedition Grimm. My book shelve is too small…
What is the ring tone of your mobile phone? .oO(I hope not everyone has a standard ring tone..)
For a couple of years now I’m stuck with a snippet from Edguy’s Speedhoven. When I first heard the song I just knew I wanted it as that, as it has a fast and abrupt start and is therefore quite recognizable. Just so you know: I also have Alestorm’s Heavy Metal Pirates; Happy People from the Bleach soundtrack and a standard called Rogue as alarm tones and the aptly called „message signal 3“ that sounds like someone pulling a few guitar strings, tells me about new messages.
PC-, console- or better yet boardgames?
As the last consoles I had were N64 and a Gameboy Color and I usually only play short games on the laptop, do I go for boardgames with this one. It’s much more fun to see whom you can blame for losing anyway. 😉
Which movie was the last you’ve seen in the cinema?
When I got the nomination it was X-Men: Days of Future Past, as I had just re-watched it with Fairy. By now I’ve also seen Wacken 3D, a semi-documentation on the festival that I still have to review.
I had to occupy myself with so much art, now its your turn: Who is your favourite artist and why?
As I am horrible with names anyway I can’t even think of that many. I just know I prefer art that is more like a picture than a painting, like the way Da Vinci drew. As Whovian do I also have a connection to Van Gogh, but I wouldn’t call him one of my favourites. Well, and as the inspiration for some of his most famous paintings is just a short ride away from were I live/grew up, I have to also name Caspar David Friedrich, but I really don’t have a favourite artist.
Would you choose your job again or if you don’t have one yet, which did you decide to take? For both: Why?
I have a job/profession I’ve been working in for a couple of years now. I’m not sure if I would make the same decision again to take up this job, I just know I would not partake in a dual-mode course of studying again…
I chose it, because I had similar lessons in grammar school and thought I would have something more substantial with Computer Science and Business Management than by studying English and/or German language and literature studies… Yeah, I know it’s quite a jump from one to the other.
Still, I enjoy programming, creating algorithms and finding out about different techniques and technologies, so my choice wasn’t that bad. 🙂
What is the answer to Everything? 😉
42 😀 And it’s only a matter of time until I finally start with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…

My Questions

When you receive the award from me you have to answer to the following questions:

What is the best experience you ever had on a concert/at a festival/convention or an other social gathering?
What is the strangest decoration you have at home?
Are you collecting something? If so: What and why?
What was your favourite plushy when you were a kid and what happened to it?
If you had the choice: Would you start Blogging again and about the same topics you cover/ed?
What do you prefer: A handwritten letter, a long e-mail or a short message on the phone/a social network?
Which of your post/categories you write in is dearest to you?
Which movie/book/series/etc. would you like to read/watch/etc. again for the first time?
What is the place you’ve always wanted to travel to, but so far hadn’t had the chance to do so?
How much time could you spent without using any kind of digital formats/mediums? (Internet, mp3s, e-books, etc.)

My nominees

The Blogs I am nominating have most likely already managed to get their 200 readers, if not even the 1000th, but I still enjoy reading them and want them to know that – and again I didn’t manage to find 10 Blogs, but I might add them later.
In alphabetical order:

#1 BiblioSmiles:
A Blog for book reviews, tips on reading and other interesting essays and posts, like their Summerbook Challenge, that I am participating in.
It’s a really interesting page and I still can’t believe that’s only been online for a couple of months…

#2 Ed Mooney Photography:
You might remember me talking about Ed’s Blog on Halloween or during my Re-Wri-Day’s. His posts are an incredible mix of history, ruin photography (pay attention to the clouds, they are awesome!) and storytelling that even caused me to buy a book.
Warning: If you are as easily suffering from Fernweh as I am, you might start planning a trip to Ireland after reading some of his Blog…(I am still wavering between using my remaining vacation days to get over there for Halloween or doing something different with them…)

#5 Geekritique:
This Blog provides you with reviews on books, movies and series, but also grants you a good overview on what is currently going on in the geek-verse and gives you inspiration on what to tackle next on your list.

#4 Piccadilly 1819:
Stephanie writes really interesting posts about series and movies regarding the portrayal of women in them. We already had quite some interesting discussions on some of her posts and I’m sure there will be more to follow them.

#5 WriteTheWhite:
Sherri tries to help her readers to lose the fear of the white page and she does so in an incredible way. I have participated in one of her activities and another one is already drafted. I currently don’t dare to look into more of her posts as it would probably animate me to write about stuff I am not supposed to write about, instead of the stuff I already need to finish…

Well, that’s it for my nominees and questions.
Try having a look at those Blogs, maybe you find something you like as well. 🙂

As for those five: Thanks for many great posts to enjoy, I hope you don’t mind the questions. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter

The Soundtrack of my life – excerpt

Instead of the 20th Weekend Guess, I wanted to finally cover something Fairy posted over at Darkfairy’s Senf a couple of months ago:

Which song stands for which chapter of your life and why?
(translated from the post)

As I already contemplated the different chapters of my life in a couple of posts and am able to think of a few songs, I guess I might as well do her the favour and write about it – instead of so many other things that are still unfinished, again.

Though instead of choosing a song that would best describe that part of my life in retrospective I chose the songs that have affected me at at those times, which is also why this is only an excerpt as I can’t remember all of them.

Live, PoiSonPaiNter

During my time in the Secondary School (Realschule) I was one of the most avoided people around, but as I described here, was there one song in particular that made me rethink my behaviour: Leb (Live) by Schandmaul.
In particular the lines were they describe a person barely straying away from the flock, unable to lift their head from the road before them and not seeing the nice things that life provides for them. I rarely looked up or went out on my own during that time as the few people I considered friends back then usually had to ask me out. It’s probably not a surprise that I know more about cartoons and anime from that time than about parties and celebrities.

When I changed to Grammar School (Fachgymnasium) my soundtrack changed as well. The defining songs that created my alias (see: link) became more and more important to me. Edguy’s Wash away the Poison and Painting on the Wall became synonyms for how I felt when nearly no one around even thought of interacting with me. During this time the interest for Metal that was spurred shortly before I learned about Leb was broadened to new bands, including Avantasia. This resulted into one of my favourite concerts at the Wacken 2008, my very first festival.

With Avantasia came new songs, most prominent amoungst them Memories. This song accompanied me into the beginning of my studying years, just as the instrumental song Reqiuem for a Dream and Invasion, Treachery and other songs from the Bleach soundtrack frequented my player. The epic-like scoring of the songs just made me re-listen to them over and over again. It just felt like with this „background“ music I could accomplish anything. Even though, in Invasions case, it is still misspelled in the play-list and I still mishear the lyrics …

Fear, Anger, Mighty Canines and Knight Shoes

Towards the end of studying more Metal came into my focus due to me attending a couple of more Wacken (2010, 2011, 2012) and the Metalfest. Through this I re-learned about Powerwolf and Sabaton, but also about Letzte Instanz that would provide me with a song that I can no longer listen to while thinking. For many people their studying years become the best years of their life, I can’t say the same for several reasons. One of which is the fear of losing my mum when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, which made Ohne Dich (Without You) such an emotional song for me.

On the opposite emotional scale did Alestorm’s Keelhauled provide me with the needed stress-/anger-relief whenever I turned up the volume while driving and sang along just as loudly.

Powerwolf and Sabaton on the other hand gave me songs that just grabbed me and took me along with so much energy that I do not grow tired of hearing them, even after seeing each band live for several times (six and four times respectively).
Prayer in the Dark and Saturday Satan also managed to get into the Soundtrack for the book project of Fairy and me: Warlords (its own Blog: dfppentertainment.wordpress.com), but the most defining one is Sabaton’s Carolus Rex. It not just perfectly portrays our Nameless King, the whole album reminded me of something I had forgotten for some time: My home town used to be Swedish during the reign of Karl XII. (aka Carolus Rex). 😀 Regardless of that do the songs of both bands, like Ruina Imperi and Amen & Attack, still hold enough power without additional (personal) meaning to them.

Currently my new soundtrack is still in progress, but To Hell and Back and Resist and Bite are some of the songs I currently can’t skip when they start playing.
In a way did my Soundtrack change from moody and relatively slow to fast power numbers with strong lyrics and rhythms. This is also portrayed in the way I am now, as I became more outgoing than I used to be a couple of years ago. I am no longer bound to a flock, I travel or attend concerts on my own and pretty much do things the way I want to do them. And I am fairly certain that music played a major role in this development.

PoiSonPaiNter

P.S. If you are interested to have a go at this again, feel free to use my translation, but don’t forget to mention Fairy as original Blogger.

Answering Questions from being Tagged

As I am a great fan of procrastination I thought I might as well use DarkFairy’s tagging to write something completely different…again….
But what’s this tagging about?
The tagging is used for small Blogs to enlarge their readership and Fairy tried to do this with her own and mine. It is quite like a chain letter, but this has better and more useful side effects. 😉
The rules for the tagging are:

You are asked 10 Questions by the tagger. Answer them in your post.
Think of 10 Questions you want to ask the Bloggers you are going to tag.
You tag 10 Blogs with below 200 followers.
You of course have to tell the people that you tagged them.
Tagging the person that tagged you isn’t allowed.

Now to Fairy’s questions (translated from her side, see link above):

Do you like mustard or do you prefer ketchup?
Ketchup, definitely ketchup.
But if the mustard is needed as ingredient for dishes like Rinderrouladen or in Hot Dogs I can live with it, otherwise I can’t stand the smell and taste of it.
Funny side story: When I first watched the Doctor Who Episode „The Eleventh Hour“ I honestly mistook „custard“ for „mustard“ when Eleven ate his famous fishfingers and custard…
The Zombie apocalypse is happening. What is now the most important thing and with what are you arming yourself?
Well….the most important thing is of course my family and I’d do anything to protect them. What I’d arm myself with would however be quite difficult. We don’t really have anything here that would count as a useful weapon in a zombie apocalypse…though wait…Hyundai recently made it possible to build a Zombie Killing Machine maybe I’d just tune up my trusted car to become a weapon. 😀
Are you pro Elves or pro Dwarf?
I don’t really care about either of them, but from what I’ve learned so far dwarves hold my sympathy as I already mentioned in this post: Dwarves.
Elves are just too arrogant and „perfect“ for my taste…except Fairy’s Odokè who sounds quite interesting. 😉
What is your favourite dish?
I’d say most dishes with potatoes or noodles. But if I had to pick one, I guess it would be potato in the skin (Pellkartoffeln). Grilled meat – or meat in any kind of variation – also belongs among my favourites.
What is your favourite animal?
It is always a tie between wolves, bats and owls. All of them are fascinating animals and I don’t want to decide for a winner here.
In which sports would you like to be really good at?
As I am horrible at sports in general, I really don’t know. The only one I irregularly play is volleyball and I’m not too dissatisfied with my abilities there.
What can you not live without?
Currently I think the answer would be my parents. But as I know that I will lose them one day, I’d say: Without someone I can confine in or simply be myself around.
As someone who spends a high amount of time in front of a laptop I could also say that I couldn’t live without it, but I clearly can live without checking in on stuff and I have enough unread books to keep me entertained for a while. 😉
Which fictional character (e.g. from a book or movie) would you like to meet?
I honestly have no idea…There are so many great characters and meeting them would in my opinion only be possible in the regulations of the story, so talking to me would change the actions if I so much as let any information of future events slip and so on. But the fact that I am an author of one or the other fanfiction shows that I do think about changing or adding story lines and possibly being involved somehow at times. I also wrote about this in one of my (German) short stories about the unknown worlds that lie within books. (The story was first referred to in this post about libraries, btw.)
Open the cabinet door or drawer nearest to you. What do you see at first?
As I am too lazy to get up and actually do that, I will tell you what I see in the shelf next to me: A pile of books (some novels from the Anita Blake-series by Laurell K. Hamilton, Terry Pratchett’s The Colours of Magic and Cujo by Stephen King) that I most likely have not read yet…No, I actually did read most of them (The exception being Cujo)…Nice to know…
If you would live in a fantasy world, would you be a mage or a warrior?
In MMO’s and the like I mostly play warriors, because they simply have the better stats. But as magic always fascinated me and my physical form is far from it’s best (see question 6.) I think I’d actually be a mage/sorceress/witch. Also I prefer to keep my distance towards threats and enemies, so magic would come in quite handy with this. Besides I am currently finally watching the episodes of Merlin that I could not see before and I clearly do not wish to follow all those disposable knights…I’m certain they have a nest of those somewhere below Camelot…

Now for my questions:

What is the first thing that springs to your mind when you hear the word „Eclipse“?
(Unrelated Note in my defence: My first thought is related to what I wrote in this post: „Hello World„)
When you write a story, what kind of Feedback would you like to get? (E.g. constructive, flattering, honest, etc.)
What is your favourite TV show?
The age old question: Werwolves or Vampires?
(Fairy started it with the Elves and the Dwarves and I already mentioned Eclipse, it’s a totally reasonable question, right? >_<)
Would you like to be immortal?
Do you prefer the city side or the countryside?
What song holds the most emotions for you and which emotion is it?
What was the scariest thing that you ever experienced?
If you met a Jinn or a Fairy that grants you 3 wishes, what would they be?
What attribute would cause you to judge a person by its appearance?

Well…and now I have to think of who I am going to tag…
So far amoung the Blogs I follow and the ones in my Blogroll (and those that are not already tagged), only two fulfil the criteria:

~~Joaninja~~ [Edit 07.01.16: The Blog no longer exists]
Icewolf

This post will be updated as soon as I find missing Blogs for the needed amount.
But if you want to tag yourself, feel free to send me a note and let me make it official. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter