Rock Reading Tuesdays

Hello welcome back to Rock Reading Tuesdays and welcome to any newcomers,

This week I want to speak about one of my favorite series Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas, here we follow the street kid Connwaer and his journey to becoming a wizard. This is not your average wizard story where you are born or gifted with your powers. This story does not use wands, nor does it use the ideology that force of will and power alone can change the environment, no to be a wizard you must discover your locus magicalicus. A locus magicalicus is a stone or jewel that can only be used by its designated user. It is something most people find by chance it can be something as ordinary as a pebble or as extravagant as a ruby. The key to this tale is that wizards are born with only one stone most people can live their whole lives unaware that they have a stone, and not every person is born with a stone either which makes wizards very rare elite people.

This book reflects some of our current issues with prejudice because if your locus magicalicus is nothing more than a common ordinary stone you are looked down upon. If it is a small weak stone that can shatter at the mere idea of a spell you are also looked down upon it is a classist society. Connwaer is at the lowest rung being a runaway orphan pick pocket kid-thief stealing to survive the days. He is the best underdog character I have seen; he is quick on his feet both mentally and physically he is always able to think of a way out of a situation. He is as slippery as an eel and as cunning as a cat, but he is also the kindest person you will ever meet. This entire series grabs your attention from the first page and holds it until the last page. Sarah Prineas never gives too much away so the reader is left guessing how the story will turn out, shocking discoveries and even more shocking reveals can be found in this book.

One of the most interesting things about this book is in the backs of each of them they contain the iconic recipes of the food seen in the book. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to taste foods that were made in the novels I have read; this book allows readers to get immersed in every aspect of this novel. Even up to and including eating the main character’s favorite foods. Please give this series a read it is beautifully written, funny, and suspenseful.

This concludes this week’s Rock Reading Tuesday, hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Thomas Benke: Looking Around In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, in the Chapter “Looking Around,” says this: Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And it’s your fault, you did this …” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it, finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong. She goes on to speak about empathy for other people and also, as an extension empathy for yourself. So, in a sense as you try to write believable, relatable characters, you will come to forgive people their trespasses—because no one believes they are the villain of their story, so you have to write “bad,” or “evil” characters from a point of view where they rationalize what they are doing in such a way that it is the right or only way they see is possible. By extrapolation, then, if you begin to forgive and withhold judgment from your less-than-desirable, or annoying characters, perhaps you can extend the same courtesy to yourself and forgive your own trespasses and sins. This, for me, starts to enter the realm of “writing as therapy,” and though I am a firm believer in that—I practice it to this very day—I think I would caution anyone who thinks that simply writing through things is going to lead you to a place of light and love. I am not saying it can’t by any means. What I am saying is I have wrote through my thoughts and my problems and my desperation and depression for decades and I still had enough baggage on my shoulders to supply an army platoon with rations for a year. In any case, when thinking about craft, it is very important to step into the shoes of all of your characters, especially those characters that you see as antagonists and villians. I believe there are very few universal maxims in writing but one thing is virtually certain: every character you write is your version of that human being. Confucius said “everywhere I go, there I am,” and that is never more true than when you are writing. So if you are writing a character that is distasteful to you, it might be effective for you to ask yourself why that is the case. I wrote a blog for Obscura last semester titled, “The Puppy Had It Coming.” The gist of the article was to pose a puzzle to writers. How can you write a scene where an adult human kicks a puppy across the room and the reader at least understands why. I am not saying there is any way to justify the action or for the readers to be on the human’s side unless they are sociopaths. I am saying you need let the reader know how dark the place is in the character’s mind that he is capable of doing that.

Rock Reading Tuesdays

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