BRBC week 26: The Throne Warden and the Bully

What did you love best in this week's reading? The caving? The snickbuzzard (woe!)? The new puppy? I loved all of those things. And I also loved seeing Janner struggle with, and abandon, his own desires in order to serve his brother. Is this what you would've done? I don't know that I would. Was it the best way to handle the situation? Sometimes it can be hard to know. (Come talk about that in the forum if you like.)

Janner’s heart shrank. He had hoped there would be at least a little time before he had to act, but Bunge was waiting. ...He prayed for strength even in his rage, for he swung not in his own defense but his brother’s, his sister’s, and his mother’s. He fought not over a petty insult but for their honor and even their freedom. Grigory Bunge, whether he knew it or not, was doing more than bullying— he was waging war with the Jewels of Anniera, children of the king.Janner knew nothing but a white hot anger for a while, then he felt Kalmar’s claws dragging him off the bewildered bully. A crowd had gathered and stood in the rain watching Janner writhe in his brother’s grip.“Leave my brother alone!” Janner shouted. “I don’t want to fight you, but I will if I have to, Grigory Bunge! And that goes for the rest of you!” Janner hurled his defiance at every guildling in the courtyard. He shook loose of Kalmar’s grip and strode forward, beating his chest with a fist and shouting, “I’m the Throne Warden of Anniera, and Kalmar is my charge. Do you hear me? I’ve battled Fangs and trolls! I’ve walked the Stony Mountains and sailed the Dark Sea! I’ve stood in Yurgen’s shadow and looked the dragon in the eye!” Lightning scraped the clouds as Janner stood in the rain and screamed. He flung a finger in Grigory’s terrified face. “The Maker has brought us safe this far, Grigory Bunge, and I will fear no guildling of the Green Hollows. If you insult the High King or the Song Maiden, you will reckon with the Throne Warden. Do you understand?”Grigory glanced at the other children.Janner leapt forward and put his face in Grigory’s. He knew that the boy could beat him into the mud if he had a chance to gather his wits, so Janner’s only weapon was his madness.“Do you understand?” Janner said through clenched teeth.
Post your favorite passage below! Then come talk to us in the forum. This week we're discussing movies we enjoy, Andrew's sly sneakery, dealing with bullies, and more.

Wingfeather film soundtrack!

Huzzah! The soundtrack is here! You can purchase it at the Rabbit Room, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Amazon, and more. We're so thrilled for you to hear it! Huge thanks to Chris for his hard work in making the soundtrack (and the film!) possible; to The Arcadian Wild, who co-wrote the songs with Andrew and performed them; and to Kurt Heinecke, who along with The Arcadian Wild scored the film.Click the cover art below for the official lyric video for the film version of "My Love Has Gone Across the Sea," featuring Skye Peterson, who also sings "Yurgen's Tune" on the soundtrack.ps. Skye also released a brand-new single this weekend! Check that out here.

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 30-34 of The Monster in the Hollows. Check back on Friday for an excerpt and discussion-starters! Meanwhile, come hang out with us in the forum. We're talking about things like our favorite movies, Andrew's sly sneakery, and books that tell us who we are.

BRBC week 25: Get the Boot

Even though I've overseen the Great Library and know its every corner by heart, I still shiver with delight every time I read Andrew's description of the place through Janner's eyes. There is really no better place on Aerwiar. And I don't know about you, but I cried over the last pages of chapter 29. What Kal and Janner are going through will get harder even than this, but it is already so hard.This excerpt, though, is from the part of the reading that made me laugh out loud. It's one of the many passages that's even better when you listen to it, if your reader has a good Hollish accent or you're listening to Andrew's audiobook.

As soon as Janner stepped onto the field, he was knocked to the ground.To be fair, the person who smashed into him didn’t mean to. She was hugging a boot to her chest and running from a riot of other guildlings. She yelled, “Sorry!” over her shoulder and left Janner to scramble out of the way of the stampede.As Kalmar pulled Janner to his feet and brushed him off, a stocky man and a stocky woman approached, leading two stocky dogs.“You’ll want to keep a watch out for whoever’s got the boot,” said the stocky man, introducing himself and his wife as the Guildmaster Pwaffe and Guildmadam Pwaffe. They seemed as wide as they were tall, but without an ounce of fat. Their arms were short and thick, their necks were as wide as their heads, and their fingers looked like sausages.“Oy,” the woman said. “That’s basically all there is to Get the Boot. That’s what we call the game. Get the Boot. Someone has the boot and everyone’s supposed to get the boot. And when you’ve got the boot, everyone else is trying to get the boot. So you have to keep the boot. That guy over there is timing how long each guildling has the boot. Any questions?”Janner had lots of questions, but before he could ask a single one, Guildmaster Pwaffe said, “Oy, guildlings. Off you go. Get the boot.”Janner, Kal, and Leeli looked at one another.“Now?” Kalmar asked.“That’s what I said.” The man pointed across the field at the herd of children still chasing the girl, who appeared to be having the time of her life.“But what do we do when we get the boot?” Kalmar asked.“Keep the boot. It isn’t hard.” Guildmadam Pwaffe shook her head sadly. “Not too smart, these, eh, Wimble?”“The whole game is right there in the title,” the man said. “‘ Get the Boot.’ That’s it. So get the boot.”
Discussion: Which passages this week made you laugh, or cry, or shiver with delight?Have you ever read a book of your family's history, or heard stories from an elderly relative? What was it like to imagine your parents (or even grandparents) as children?Are there books that tell you who you are? (Discuss here)What do you say when someone you care about is struggling with feelings of guilt?Which section of the library would you most like to visit? (Discuss here)Activity: Play Get the Boot! :-)

A hero among heroes

Fans of the Florid Sword, Shadowblade, and comic books: I have no update for you on the progress of the comic book. But! I do have a new Florid Sword sketch for you! Mr. Jay Myers, our comic's illustrator, has been playing around in Procreate (the same app Nicholas Kole uses) and posted these the other day.https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk6o9o1Bovt/?taken-by=mrjaymyersScroll through and you'll see a certain masked man we all know from Dugtown. When I saw him I commented "Florid Sword!" and Jay replied "Hero with heroes." :-)

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 26-29 of The Monster in the Hollows. See you in the forum—and here on Friday for an excerpt!

BRBC week 24: After Durgan training, day one

You remember that last week (chapters 17-20) there was a heated disagreement about what guild Janner and Kal would join. Janner felt all the unfairness of not being allowed to do the thing he most wanted to do, of having to put good desires aside to serve his brother, and resented Kal and Nia both for it. This week (chapters 21-25) we read about that first lesson and how it hurt. And how love helps.

As they rode back to Chimney Hill in the wagon, Janner’s insides felt as dark as the bruises already coloring his arms. For a fleeting moment before the class began, he thought Kalmar had chosen the better guild, but now he felt he had been treated unfairly and he wanted his mother, brother, and sister to know it. He chose to sit on the back bench of the carriage, where he slumped in his seat and pouted, hoping they would notice his silence, and all but dared them to speak to him.Leeli, of course, was the one to do it. She turned around and said, “Is there anything I can do?”It was the only thing she could have said that he couldn’t answer with anger, which frustrated Janner even more. If she had asked what was wrong, he would have hurled a perfectly sassy reply right back at her. If she had told him to cheer up, he would have grouched something about how cheery he’d be if he had played with puppies all day. If she had tried to be silly to cheer him up, he would have barked that he was sorry he wasn’t in the mood for games.But “Is there anything I can do?” poured cool water on his fire. It told him that she cared. It told him that she saw he needed something, even if she didn’t know what. It told him that she hurt with him.He just said, “No. But thanks.”... Podo cheered when the children entered, raised his mug in a toast, and then returned to his conversation.“Get cleaned up, then come down for supper,” Nia said. Leeli hopped up the stairs, and Kalmar chased after her, growling like a puppy. Janner turned to follow but Nia pulled him close and squeezed. Somehow, she knew to squeeze just tight enough that Janner felt her love, but not so tight that she hurt him.“You’re the bravest boy I know,” she whispered.
Discussion: How would you have fared in the Durgan guild?Have you ever felt the way Janner did? What helped?What passage jumped out at you this week?

Nicholas Kole interview, part 4

We're back with more goodness from Nicholas Kole! Here are parts one, two, and three to get you caught up on our conversation. Stay tuned for part five!

Madame Sidler: Um, so here’s a question from Danniby—not that Danniby; the other Danniby—I assume not that Danniby—“How do you create compelling color schemes for environments and scenes within the limitationss of realistic colors? I can’t seem to make them coexist. To clarify, when I try to stick to believable colors I end up breaking my color scheme. How do you avoid this?”

Nicholas Kole: I would say to Danniby, I am not the biggest believer in the importance of realism.

[laughter]

MS: As a fictional character, I’m with you.

NK: Yeah, I just—visually... how do I say this? The fullest answer would be a long artistic conversation over coffee. But in short, I think for storytelling and for things like the Wingfeather Saga, our priority with color was to tell the story. The secondary priority was a sense of realism in grounding it. We didn’t want to go so wacky and wild, but we really did want to set up the colors and make them dynamic and powerful in a way that emphasized the moment narratively. For instance, when the Black Carriage is racing through the streets of Glipwood, it’s not writ anywhere that it must have a lantern on it, but it must. There’s got to be a pop of orange light, because you’re looking at the space, it’s nighttime, so you’re going to create a space that’s largely blue and green. A contrast in complementary color has got to be an orange glow. So, to track this object we want you be to looking at, we’re going to add a lantern or some sort of source of light that’s going to draw your eye, your attention. Likewise, with the dragon, we’re trying to create these scenes where your attention stays exactly where it ought to stay—you’re not looking off to the side of the screen and paying too much attention to the blades of grass, or the tree branches or whatever. Later you can if you want, but we want you to feel as you move through the story that you’re locked in.

A big thing that I wanted to do—that was definitely a point of some contention, we sort of argued it back and forth as we went—but I created a color script for the whole pieces before we went in, which is basically just a really rough pass on the color scheme of each scene. We start in the dark of the night but then we break to morning, it’s breakfast, it’s a warm family time, so the colors are very natural. But over the course of the short the peril increases, and I wanted that to be mirrored by a shift in the color. So, the sunset. And basically we try to get the passage of time through the short to work such that by the time the dragon appears it’s just the right moment for the sky to be as dramatic as we can make it. So it’s just that moment when the sun’s still at the horizon, it’s sunset but it’s kind of twilight, the moon’s in the sky, and things are quite dark and the shadows pool and stuff like that. My sense was that the dragon moment would be most powerful in that framing than in the middle of the afternoon. Does that make sense?

MS: Yeah. Definitely, as the story gets more intense the colors also get more intense.

NK: Yeah. So I would say it’s about sussing out what your priorities are for the scene. If you’re trying to create a scene of warmth and comfort, you’re going to create your color scheme in a particular way, and if you’re looking for dynamic perilous action, then you might approach it very differently. And not being tethered too much to realism but sort of allowing things to move emotionally with your priorities, that's the way I prefer to work.

MS: Yeah. That makes sense. I’m thinking about the scene around the breakfast table where there’s a lot less contrast in the colors, everything’s sort of at the same level, everything’s light and the colors are not as deep and they’re not as intense, and then you’ve got those really rich sky colors, and the black-black and the very magenta-magentas and all of that later in those more dangerous scenes.

NK: Yeah, for sure.

MS: Very cool. I love it, by the way.

Here's the color script for the Wingfeather Saga animated short film. Click through for more art!

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 21-25 of The Monster in the Hollows. To weigh in on any of the conversations currently happening in the forum (a quote game, books we love, guildling signups, the short film's animation style, and more), dive on in. :-) We'll see you on Friday for an excerpt from this week's reading!

BRBC week 23: The Houndry

Oy! In this week's reading (chapters 17-20) we visited the Guildling Hall for the first time, which brought back many memories. The Wingfeather kids were nervous on their first day, and so was I. I like dogs and fruit (FRUIT!) as much as any Hollowsfolk, and I was good at tree-climbing and sneakery, but I was hopeless at pummelry. Like Janner, I wanted real book-loving friends to talk to. In a brash and loud world, the Bookbindery felt like it was created exactly for me—just as, I imagine, the Houndry felt for Leeli. :-)

“Leeli, your mother tells me you’re going to like this,” said Olumphia. “Brimstone, as you can see, is already excited about it.”The dog barked and bolted ahead of them to the next stone building. The shingle hanging over the door was carved with the silhouette of a dog; HOUNDRY, it read. Brimstone wagged her tail and pawed at the entrance.Olumphia pushed open the heavy door, and a chorus of barks, whines, and howls poured out. With the noise came the smell of dog and hay, tinged with the odor of animal waste. Kalmar winced and covered his face, but Leeli’s eyes widened. She looked at Nia in disbelief. Guildmadam Groundwich’s dog bolted through the door, and Leeli hurried after.The inside of the chamber was as full of dogs as the Guildling Hall was full of children. But unlike the students, the dogs were glad to see them. They barked happy barks and circled the Wingfeathers, wagging tails and sniffing at boots and whining to be petted. Leeli dropped her crutch and hugged the first dog that approached her. It put a paw as big as a saucer on her shoulder and panted in her face. Another dog nosed his way under her other arm, and she stood supported between them, smiling so wide that her face turned pink. Then the dogs trotted forward and dragged her along. Leeli squealed with delight as they paraded her around the room, pursued by a train of barking dogs, most of which were as tall as Leeli.Janner and Kalmar laughed. It was as if the Maker had prepared a place just for their sister.
Discussion: What guild would you most want to join? Sign up here. :-)What was your favorite passage this week?

Artham, afraid

This drawing reminds me of a passage we read a couple of weeks ago. Look at the detail on the wings. Look at Artham's dear fearful face.Thanks for sending this in, Sandra! We're so glad your kids love the Wingfeathers.

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 17-20 of The Monster in the Hollows, and you're welcome to read along. We'll see you on Friday for an excerpt—and all week in the forum!p.s. Andrew and his family are abroad right now! If you live in the UK, check out his music page for dates and ticket info. He'd love to meet you.

The stories are true.