AGoT Read-Along: A Peek Inside the Mind of Sansa

I'm still working on transcribing all the panels and stuff from Phoenix Comicon last weekend, so only one chapter up this week!

“No, no, stop it, stop it both of you. You’re spoiling it, you’re spoiling everything!”

Sansa 1

Scene opens on Sansa having breakfast at an inn with her septa (nun/governess lady), and sneaking bacon to her direwolf Lady, who is very sweet and well-behaved. Sansa and Arya are supposed to be riding with Queen Cersei and Princess Myrcella in the wheelhouse today, and Sansa is very excited about tea, lemon cakes, and the possibility of seeing Prince Joffrey (not necessarily in that order). Arya is not at breakfast with them, so Septa Mordane sends Sansa to find her and make sure she’s acceptable to be admitted to the queen’s presence.

She finds Arya on the banks of the Trident (a convergence of rivers in the shape of, well, I’m sure you can guess), brushing mud out of her direwolf Nymeria’s fur. She tells Arya she needs to get dressed up for the royal wheelhouse ride, and Arya states she’s not going. She’s going to go search the river for the rubies Robert whacked off of Prince Rhaegar’s armor when he killed him at the Trident back during the rebellion. Additionally, she doesn’t want to go in the wheelhouse because it doesn’t have windows and you can’t see anything as you’re traveling. Sansa can’t believe her sister would rather go treasure hunting than ride with the princess and queen. And she has a point: it’s probably not very polite to reject a royal invitation. And yet, Arya also has a point: who wants to ride in a stuffy box without windows, with no Dramamine in sight?

PHXCC 2013 Report: Cherie Priest Spotlight Panel

Hi guys! More Phoenix Comicon coming your way. I’m proceeding in chronological order, so the next booksy-authory panel I attended was for the lovely Cherie Priest!

This is Cherie Priest:

Here are some books she has written:

I first heard of her because of the popularity of her Clockwork Century series (that’d be the first four pictured above), and I think she is probably most famous for these steampunk/alternate history books. She had her very own spotlight panel at Phoenix Comicon on Friday morning, and I was there to record, take notes, and have fun (she’s a very funny person, so lots of laughter).

The panel was pretty much Q&A for an hour, with lots of digression (the good kind!) in between Qs—as Cherie herself said, “I can ramble about anything for like an hour…just point me in a direction, I’m like a bottle rocket of nonsense!” Here were some of the highlights of the panel, in eyeball-friendly bulleted format.

• An audience member asked, why zombies in Boneshaker? To which she replied, “I really like zombies.” She continued on to talk about the inspiration behind the gas that turns people into zombies in the book, which she explains as Mt. Rainier being right there (the book is set in Seattle), and it’s a volcano, so the idea of the underground gas came from that.

• Another author, Charles Stross, made a post online about how steampunk shouldn’t be categorized as science fiction because it isn’t really scientific, and said, “I’m looking at you, Cherie Priest, with your gas-powered zombies” (she assured us that he is a lovely man, and the way she was telling the story it was clear that she didn’t take any offense). She told us how she had made a response post stating that it had been called to her attention that her zombies were unscientific, and said “Charlie’s right, and I am so embarrassed. If only I had consulted more zombie scientists! I need your help, then. I need for you people to buy my books and read my books and tell me what I’ve done wrong so that I can fix it in the future.” She said most of the commenters on the post saw the humor in it, but a few did leap to her defense. :)

PHXCC 2013 Report: Books & Authors Kickoff Panel 5/23/2013

So Phoenix Comicon was super fun. Not that I didn’t expect it to be! It just ended up being way more fun than I could have hoped. It was also rather exhausting! But it was extra awesome because we didn’t really have to wait in line for much of anything, as I worried we might. The one thing we did wait in line for (Wil Wheaton’s standup hour) we didn’t really need to, since there were tons of seats and we had bought tickets since it was a special event, and the thing we might’ve needed to wait in line for (John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton talking back and forth on a panel) we managed to avoid by attending the panel held in the same room right before it. All in all, it was great value for what we paid for a weekend of fun.

Thursday was the preview day of the convention, and the only book-author-y event we attended that night was the Books and Authors Kickoff panel, featuring Cherie Priest, Brandon Sanderson, Peter Orullian, Terry Brooks, and Timothy Zahn. To give you a quick rundown: Cherie Priest is most famous for her steampunk Clockwork Century series, which began with Boneshaker. Brandon Sanderson is famous in his own right as a fantasy author with the added fame of having finished Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series after RJ’s death. Terry Brooks writes the long running Shannara fantasy series. Timothy Zahn writes in the Star Wars universe and other sci-fi. And Peter Orullian, with whom I was not familiar before this, writes fantasy.

This panel was just a sort of fun, low-key roundtable discussion led by Orullian. He introduced everyone and then asked some questions of each author to get the discussion going and prod it along when it lulled. Here are some of the funny and/or interesting things that were discussed:

• In Orullian’s introduction of Brandon Sanderson, he mentioned that the first Wheel of Time book that Sanderson wrote knocked Dan Brown off the number one spot (of I’m assuming the New York Times), to which Sanderson replied, “It’s a little like sauntering in after someone’s been boxing for, y’know, 6 hours and defeated 12 opponents, and you’re like, ‘Hey!’ Bam, suckerpunch.”

• Timothy Zahn has a BS in physics from Michigan State. Not University of Michigan! A very important distinction that both Zahn and the audience noted and laughed about.

• Terry Brooks has written 35 or so NYT bestsellers, and Orullian asked, “What gets you up to write book 36?” To which Brooks jokingly (or not, who knows!) replied, “Fear of creditors?” In a more serious vein, he noted that he has been writing for 50 years, and it does get to a point where you ask yourself if you can do it anymore. If the passion isn’t there, readers will pick up on it, but he believes that in this business, you’re a writer because that’s what you do, what you were born to do. And if he is not writing or working on a project in a serious way, then he is not a good person to be around (“Just ask my wife,” he added). Writing is essential to his happiness and that’s what gets him to wake up and write each day.

• Brandon Sanderson talked about instinct and writing—that for him, the more he writes the more instinct he develops for knowing when something is wrong or right, or works or not (he related it to a baseball player swinging the bat and either hitting or missing the ball—something you develop with practice and instinct).

• Cherie Priest moved around a lot as a kid, and she talked about how because of that she quickly learned the importance of sounding like a local for fitting in in a new place. People have told her that characters in her books have very distinct voices, which she really appreciates, and thinks maybe that has to do with the skills she developed for fitting in and quite literally sounding like the locals when she moved from place to place.

• Orullian asked Zahn if, as a physicist, he ever reads speculative fiction novels and just cringes, but Zahn said that he actually has more problems with movies these days. “At least in novels there is an editor who may be actually knowing something about physics, or knows someone who knows something about physics and can run it by that person…I don’t think anyone in Hollywood knows anything about physics.” (much laughter ensued)

• Terry Brooks was a lawyer before he was an author, and at the time it never occurred to him to write a legal thriller. “Why I didn’t think this at the time, I don’t know, because I could be John Grisham by now!” (more laughter ensues)

• Brandon Sanderson is a gamer, and his favorite video game is Final Fantasy X

• Cherie Priest and her cousin once convinced her sister she was being haunted by a poltergeist—they recorded spooky stuff, silly rhymes, etc. on a cassette tape, and hid it under her bed

• Brandon Sanderson talked about Hollywood vs. publishing—Hollywood starts with “Great news!” before telling you not-so-great news, whereas publishing starts with “Your book is terrible!” before you find out that they actually like it. XD

• Cherie Priest talked about the spooky family legend that inspired her to write Those Who Went Remain There Still.

Many other things were discussed as well, but these were some of the tidbits I found particularly interesting or amusing. I’ve finished importing all my recordings, so more panel reports coming soon!

Read and Watch: Sanditon

Title: Sanditon
Author: Jane Austen
Publication Year: 1925, but written in 1817
Read: May 2013 Genre: Classic, as in old (not classic, as in everyone should have read it in high school)

I was a major Pride and Prejudice fan throughout high school. I started with the 1995 miniseries, went to the book, and then lived on the DWG fanfic site. The elderly Harvard alumni were very confused about what fanficiton was when I was interviewing with them, and at the time I was foolish enough to explain to them that I wasn’t spending every minute of my free time analyzing Jane Austen’s prose. (Later, at home, I was able to put together a list of reasons why my real interest was as noble as the one they hoped I had. Check it out at the end of this post, especially if you foresee the need to justify a fanfiction hobby.)

Even though my enthusiasm for Pride and Prejudice has reasonably abated since high school, I was still eagerly checking the Lizzie Bennet Diaries twice a week this past year, and I’m following the team’s new Welcome to Sanditon.

Sanditon

Sanditon is the novel Jane Austen started to write a few months before she died, and what we can read of it today is only the first 12 chapters. In the world of Austen academia, there seems to be an impressive amount of debate over this little fragment of a novel. Questions the scholars have been asking include:

• Who is the heroine? Who is the hero?
• Does the plot contained within the fragment suggest Austen’s intended length for it?
• Is there any indication of what was likely to happen in the plot?
• What was Austen’s emotional state while writing the book?
• Was the book an original story, or was it a reworking of Austen’s previous writings or ideas?
• What is Austen’s attitude towards the speculative seaside resort culture?

I personally love scholarly debate like this. Making educated guesses about fragmented literary works is delicious, so I will butt in with my less-than-PhD-worthy opinions about some of them.

The heroine of the book was meant to be Charlotte Heywood. Unlike the editor (Margaret Drabble) of the Penguin Classics edition I was reading, I like Charlotte as a main character. Of the twelve characters I can think of off the top of my head, fully seven of them talk nonsense, but Charlotte is the most clear-headed heroine I’ve seen in all of Austen. Charlotte listens politely to people as they babble, yet she’s fully aware that they’re ridiculous. Here is Charlotte after a young man drones on and on about Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns, using words like “hyper-criticism” and “pseudo-philosophy.” Another Austen heroine might be cowed by this talk, (cough Catherine Morland and Anne Eliot), but here’s Charlotte’s response:

She began to think him downright silly. – His choosing to walk with her, she had learnt to understand. It was done to pique Miss Brereton. She had read it, in an anxious glance or two on his side – but why he should talk so much nonsense, unless he could do no better was un-intelligible. – He seemed very sentimental, very full of some feelings or other, and very much addicted to all the newest-fashioned hard words – had not a very clear brain she presumed, and talked a good deal by rote. – The future might explain him further – but when there was a proposition for going into the library she felt that she had had quite enough of Sir Edward for one morning, and very gladly accepted Lady Denham’s invitation of remaining on the Terrace with her.

So clear-headed is Charlotte that Austen doesn’t expend any effort on an omniscient and biting narration to describe most of her characters. Charlotte does all the work the narration usually does. Everyone wants to be Elizabeth Bennet for her wit and ability to tease, but there is certainly a lot to admire in a heroine who sees the ridiculous and finds an extremely polite way of handling the circumstances.

The hero of the book is slightly more difficult to place because the best guess is that it’s the character who literally has arrived one page before Austen stopped working on the manuscript. Based on the three paragraphs about Mr. Sidney Parker, it seems like he would be a perfect match for Charlotte. He is the only sensible person out of five adult siblings, which says enough of his charms for me. (He’s also so handsome that his siblings are convinced his very presence will attract young ladies to Sanditon like moths to flames.)

As for how long the book was going to be, all I can say is that based on this chart I assembled, there is no way to tell. In fact, the only reason I am showing you the chart is that I love to see the word-count pairs, and figure someone else might like to see them too.

I’ve started to sketch a plot summary of the book fragment for everyone who’s curious about it, but not curious enough to actually read it. This one covers almost half of the chapters, while omitting almost everything about Sanditon. (I like characters more than setting.) As I post the remainder of the existing story, I'll speculate on the direction of the plot (as long as you bear in mind that there is no evidence that my theory is more or less accurate than another).

Welcome to Sanditon

Armed with my plot summary sketch, you have enough information to join me in wondering where the Welcome to Sanditon writers are going with their adaptation (which has four episodes currently, and is a summer venture for the creative team). Apparently, they are in the Margaret Drabble camp that hates on Charlotte Heywood, because the main character of Sanditon is not even a character in Welcome to Sanditon.

It seems that Georgiana Darcy is taking Charlotte Heywood’s place as an observer on the zany characters of the town, but that is a bit of an awkward substitution. Gigi Darcy is an impulsive character in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries universe, whereas Charlotte Heywood is a sedate but smart one. My best guess for this change is that the actress who played Charlotte Lu in the LBD was unavailable for WtS, because how much more natural would it have been for the writers to substitute one calm and clever Charlotte with another?

The Georgiana Darcy factor should also change Mrs. Denham’s plans for Edward Denham. In the book Lady Denham, while considering leaving thousands of pounds to Sir Edward, is hopeful that Sir Edward can find a rich heiress to marry, and thus make his own fortune (in the uniquely gentrified way of making a fortune). Thus, she initially is worried that Sir Edward may throw away his chances by marrying Charlotte, who, as one of fourteen children, is not wealthy enough to do him any good. But Gigi Darcy in WtS is a promising prospect for any aunt with ambitions for her nephew. Rather than seek to throw him into the path of the Caribbean heiress, this Mrs. Denham should be hoping that Gigi really will pull strings to get Edward a job at Pemberley Digital (already suggested in Episode 3).

The logical theory I can propose about this series is that most of the creative team is uninterested in being faithful to the limited text available. They found an Austen they could use without alienating a large fandom, and they’re using a few names and the general premise of a growing health community as a way of encouraging fan-participation in vlogging.

And the interactive vlogging and tweeting thing is a cool premise, so I can’t be particularly upset. But part of me still regrets that with almost any direction possible from the text (I’ll mull about Clara Brereton another time), this adaptation seems to be throwing away most of the interesting foundation.

Episodes of Welcome to Sanditon are uploaded to Youtube on Mondays and Thursdays.

Legitimate Benefits of a Fanfiction Obsession

1. Participating in a fanfiction forum is a way of analyzing experiments with writing. After reading enough, you can gauge which parts of Austen make Austen unique. Is it the vocabulary? Nope. Some fanfics have archaic words that clunk. Characters? Possibly. But since 90% of the writers are using Darcy and Elizabeth in some form, that’s not what really makes it. Ironic observations? Yes. I never read a fanfic that matched Austen in this aspect.
2. By reading works-in-progress, you have the opportunity to critique authors and see if the changes you suggest get made or make a difference.
3. By spending so much time seeing variations, you learn the difference between the Canonical source material and the fan memes that make their way through stories. (Case in point is Colonel Fitzwilliam’s first name.)
4. There’s actually a fair amount of literary criticism implicit in fanfiction. Rather than exploring the onset of Darcy’s love through an analytic essay, authors will make variations to the original plot or its timeline, and show how slight changes could have affected the story. Thus you can begin to determine if the Netherfield Ball is the necessary catalyst for Darcy’s feelings, or if he was on the path to proposing as far back as the Assembly when he rejects asking Elizabeth to dance.

Just a reminder...

Live-tweeting Phoenix Comicon today through Sunday, with panel reports to come later! Check out our feed or follow us @ReadThisEatThat on Twitter to vicariously experience all the geeky goings-on. (We're prioritizing the book-and author-related events, but might sneak in a zombie walk or My Little Pony screening.)

(I hope you know I'm joking about the My Little Pony thing.)

Recipe Challenge: Strawberry Basil Tart-Pouches

In our recent fascination with Kiera Cass’ The Selection, we came across a mention of strawberry tarts:

I picked up a strawberry tart from the basket in the center of the table. [other random thoughts] I mulled this over as I bit into the strawberry tart. It was so sweet and the dough was so flaky, every millimeter of my mouth was engaged, taking over the rest of my senses entirely. I didn’t mean to make the little moan, but it was by far the best thing I had ever tasted. I took another bite before I even swallowed the first. (135)

I don’t think we were necessarily inspired by the description, but Susan and I were talking and decided we needed more recipes on the blog, and wanted to do another challenge, and were both in possession of strawberries at the time, and remembered there were strawberry tarts in a book we had read recently. Ergo, we both invent strawberry tart recipes!

I decided I wanted to make little ones (since in the book the prince sends a bunch of them to the heroine’s family—doesn’t make much sense to send lots of full-size tarts, so I interpreted that to mean that they were mini), and quickly decided on a dough-purse construction rather than the traditional tart crust. I also remembered I have basil plants proliferating in the garden, and thought basil would add a little something different to the strawberries.

I realized this was probably going to end up being a little apple dumpling-like (only with strawberries) and I wanted to have a nice, flaky crust reminiscent of the family shortcake, only in dough form. I adapted the dough from this Cook’s Country apple dumpling recipe to surround the strawberry-basil filling. The result is 8 cute little strawberry tart-dumpling-turnover-shortcake-pouches! They taste nice with, a) extra strawberries added on top, (b) a little milk poured over them, (c) some whipped cream, or (d) all of the above.

Excitement on the horizon!

In addition to some awesome dueling strawberry tart recipes making their way to a computer near you, there is EVEN MORE excitement coming in the near future! Now that it's (nearly) (or already has been, if you live in AZ) summer, there are all sorts of exciting book-y events on the way, and Susan and I will be attending/reporting on some of them for our own edification and for yours as well. Susan will be attending the very exciting Book Expo America 2013, learning more about the book blog trade and meeting some cool authors, and I will be going to Phoenix Comicon and getting my nerd on with some heavy-hitter science fiction/fantasy authors. Not sure if anyone reading this is into the SFF scene, but here are some of the authors who will be speaking at Phoenix Comicon: Cherie Priest (of Clockwork Century fame), Brandon Sanderson, Terry Brooks, John Scalzi, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Wil Wheaton (more famous geek than AUTHOR author perhaps, but I do think he has written some things and he definitely read for the Ready Player One audiobook)...if you have any questions you're just dying to ask any of these people, let me know and I can pipe up during a panel if I'm feeling brave. At any rate, I will be posting reports on the author events and panels after they happen. Woot! Join us for live-blogging and -tweeting fun!

#excited