Today is Wednesday!
In addition to it being Pot Pie day at KFC, it is also Top Five Wednesday!

This week's topic is:  Top 5 fictional cities

hmmm
Okay, well I got my Top 4...the 5th one, well I'll explain it when I get there.

At Number One, we have: Tai-tastigon the Holy city from P.C. Hodgell's "God Stalk". The first book in the Chronicles of the Kencyrath series.

This is the place where we meet our main character Jame. She has amnesia and is wandering the streets on the day that the spirits are walking the town. Luckily she is brought into an inn, and our adventure begins.

Tai-tastigon was a very interesting city, an inspiration for my own city/series which I am still working on. The Cloudies who live above everything and laugh at the the landed's efforts. The Temple district, full of temples to all sorts of gods. And the Thieves Guild.
I loved this place. I loved all the trouble and adventures Jame got into here. I would love to be able to enter into the book, into that world, and go to the market places. Wander around the streets, and hopefully not get robbed blind.

Number Two: Rhiminee the capital city from Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series

This is the base of operations for Seregil a man of many talents, most of those best performed in the dark with dark clothes on. In other words he's a thief. And a bard, and related the the royal family. Seregil's companion in his adventures is a young man named Alec. It is through Alec's eyes that we see Rhiminee and explore the different sections for the first time. In one rather nice chapter, Mrs. Flewelling  has Alec ride around the city through the different gates/sections. We, as readers, get to be educated on the different sections. It is actually quite a clever way of showing us where we will be conducting our adventures.

Rhiminee is also another city that I would love to be a citizen of. To join the salons, and be at the markets, and worship at the temples. To see or have my future read by an oracle. To visit the Oreska- the citadel of the wizards.  Maybe to be taken on as an apprentice? :D

Number Three:  Constantinople from Judith Tarr's "The Golden Horn" part two of the Hound and the Falcon series.

I know that Constantinople is a real place, but it carries a aura of mystery and mysticism. Hence it has a special place in fantasy fiction writing and as a setting in romance novels, and historical fiction. Since the current writers (at least the ones I read) have never been there in the time periods of which they write it, I consider it a fictional city. hee hee hee.

The Constantinople of Judith Tarr's world may be in a sense the most realistic, since she is a student of history. Set in A.D. 1203 at the onset of the conquest of the city there is a cloud that hangs over the city, and the unfolding action involving our main character of Alfred and his companion Thea. However Constantinople is a very rich city, and even as it sits at the edge of being plundered and pillaged, it is the Golden City of legend.  Judith Tarr brings such life and vibrancy to the city that it makes for an exceptional setting for something fantastical.

Number Four:  Actually this is kind of two in one. First is Ruatha Hold and Second is Benden Weyr of Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" novel.

What a cool concept! A dragon rider...and IT MADE SENSE! Telepathic dragons which helped their chosen riders fight "Thread" from the alien red star. Upon reading this book for the first time as a teenager, it was so cool and fulfilled so many dreams of mine. I wanted to be chosen as a dragon rider, although I am deathly afraid of heights and would probably never be able to ride on one for fear of falling off. *laughs*

Still this world was very rich and teeming with life. The histories, the songs, the medieval-ness of the world and yet, always a secret somewhere in the depths of their history that they had lost eons ago.
Ruatha Hold, when we first go there is cold and overrun; a shell of what it used to be.  However as Pern turns, it slowly begins to regain the beauty and respect it used to have 400 years ago. It is a vivacious medieval hold and doesn't seem like a bad place to visit...AFTER the Lord Fax has been dispatched.

Benden Weyr is where most of our action takes place. Where our Weyr leader resides and of course the dragons. We live in the rocky, mountainous, bowl that is the Weyr. With it's ledges for the sunning dragons, the "pastures" for the cattle, and it's pond/lake for the dragons to bathe in. It was such a different, yet interesting place. A hard life for a woman who wasn't a dragon rider, but probably more interesting than one in a hold.

Number Five: Now, most of my books are held in grey containers outside. Many of the fantasy and science fiction ones are out there, and I couldn't remember titles, lands, or planets. So suffice it to say, this one goes to those futuristic cities with their computers who talk to you. Where you can just plug yourself into the system and be apart of all that knowledge and technology.

If it wasn't for the fact that I HAVE to go outside, I think I would love to be plugged into my computer 24/7. Might be a strange way to live, and my mind might deteriorate faster and I may die, but what a way to go. So to futuristic cities on far flung planets with space ships, space docks, and space pirates I want to go there and live in your cities. :D

Those are my Top 5 Fictional Cities, what are yours?

Hello fellow writerly peoples!

I have been very bad. At the start of the year, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't reading enough. You know the old adage that:  to be a good writer you must read. Well, I was reading, just not published material. I was reading lots and lots and LOTS of scanlated manga and fanfiction.  I save the fanfiction offline, and put it on my Kindle. 

While I do enjoy fanfiction, and some fanfic authors are exceptional, I had the suspicion that this was NOT what they meant when they said you should read. IN MY DEFENSE, they also say: read within the genre that you will write in. Read everything! 
I was reading in my genre.  I consider it research and analyzing the market.
That is my story, and I am sticking to it.
But I digress. 

In January I set up a To Be Read Jar. I was pretty good at pulling out paper tags and searching for the books, and reading them, and then review them.  I was reading up to two books a month.
One of the books I pulled out of the jar was:  Mr. Penumbra's 24-hr Bookstore by Robin Sloan. That was a good book. It is set in San Francisco (a city I ALWAYS wanted to live in - I went to college up there so I can check that off my list of things to do) and it is in a BOOKSTORE! What is not to love about that?! I really liked that book. So mysterious.

That book was (luckily for me) available through the local county free library system. One of the members of my writing group just happens to work at the library and brought me the book. The only "bad" part was that I had to fill out a library card.
And anyone who is a bibliophile understands that you give a book lover a library card, it is like giving them a free sample of a hard drug. Book lovers are already addicts, give us a place where we can get our fix for free?
Yeah...

I was good! The nice lady actually brought the book to the writing group. I didn't have to even GO to the library.  But sooner or later I was going to have to return it. That is when I got into B.I.G T.R.O.U.B.L.E. I had to go inside the building.

Now you must understand, it had been FIVE YEARS since the last time I actually stepped inside of a library. It was like the books sang a chorus of welcome home! Their voices tempted me inside, and into the stacks.
The only reason I left was because my arms were so full I was having trouble seeing around the books I was holding.

I was very very bad.

I would say, it's better now. But it is not.
I renewed the library card for my city's library, and traveled to a second county free library. I currently have 11 items in that system on hold. I have to return three books to the city library, but I renewed 4 in my possession. They aren't getting them back! NEVER!!!!  Okay, I'll give them back, but they will be remembered and placed on my Amazon wish list just in case I have money again and I can buy them.

Oh I love books, and I am thankful for the treasure that is the free library loaning system.
So happy.

Suffice it to say, I haven't pulled another paper from the TBR jar. So I missed April, May, June, and July. However I was reading! Just not from those books in the jar. I'll have to continue that. Maybe next month I'll continue.

Tomorrow is Wednesday! I have started watching BookTube videos, and have decided to jump into the Top Five Wednesday group. I joined the group on Goodreads, and will post my responses here. I am all ready for tomorrow too. I have covers and everything.
So, that is something to look forward to.

See you manana!