Tortall Twenty Fanfic Project

[peroxidepirate]

In case there's anybody on my f-list who'd be interested in this, and hasn't already heard about it via the Goldenlake message board, I'm pimping the new community I started:

The Tortall Twenty Fanfic Project

This is dedicated to fan fiction based on the books of Tamora Pierce. We'll start out with a set of 20 prompts, organized around a particular theme. You can claim a character, situation, or pairing. Your challenge is to write fics/ ficlets/ drabbles for all of the prompts in the set. There's no time limit, and it's not competitive, it's just for kicks. It's called "Tortall Twenty," but claims based on Tamora Pierce's other universe, Emelan, are equally welcome.

Follow the link above for more details & to stake your claim. The prompt list will (I hope) be up by this weekend. Membership is open to anybody.

Comments

[erimthar.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to read something by Tamora Pierce. Any recommendations of a good starting point?

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Hey, sorry for the delayed reply. Short answer: anything that's "Book 1" in a quartet, duology, or trilogy is a good place to start. Long answer follows, if you wanted that level of detail...

The Tortall universe -- the one I seem to be writing for lately -- starts with Alanna: The First Adventure, from the Song of the Lioness Quartet. Alanna disguises herself as a boy to become a knight; swashbuckling ensues. Unfortunately, the first two books pretty much fail the Bechdel test, and I keep meaning to write an essay pondering whether that makes them un-feminist or not. But the swashbuckling is first-rate!

Then there are two other quartets, and a duet, that take place over the next 30 years or so. So you get this thing where, by "Tortall present," the characters who were teenagers in Alanna's books are middle-aged but still very much present and involved. And there are a lot of minor characters, which feeds the fandom. :)

The second universe, Emelan, starts with the Circle of Magic Quartet, which begins with Sandry's Book (in the US; I forget the other title). Four kids, all outcasts for various reasons, end up in a temple city and move into a cottage run by two female dedicates. The kids end up having serious magic ability, and have to learn to control it.

The Circle of Magic books are aimed at slightly younger readers, but they're very feminist, in the sense of having strong, interesting, diverse female characters. The sequel quartet (called The Circle Opens) is a neat fantasy/"true crime" (but fictional) combination.

Finally, the newest books are Terrier and Bloodhound, which take place a couple hundred years before "Tortall present" and don't require knowledge of anything else. Terrier has this triple-prologue thing, but you could totally skip that and go straight to the story itself.

Er, that's probably way more information than you wanted... but let me know if you have any more questions. Happy reading!