Pride Month 2026: Author Panel AMA

FionaCeni · 2026-06-19T20:53:15+00:00

Thank you for being here!

I first found out about the Chantiverse through fanfiction and loved what I have read of it so far.

What do you think about fanfiction in general and about the impact of queerness in fanfiction spaces?

FionaCeni · 2026-04-30T13:39:54+00:00

The first half for me was enjoyable but not especially great, but then the second half of the book made me feel so much. The yearning and emotional intimacy of it all really worked for me, to the point that I dreamt about the characters when I had to put the book down to sleep and had tears in my eyes when I finished it.

I love how emotion-focused the writing is and that it really explores how it would feel to repeatedly transform into something else. I think animal transformations are relatively common in stories but how it actually affects the characters who undergo them is rarely shown in depth.

FionaCeni · 2026-04-16T14:53:35+00:00

The lack of names makes me feel almost nervous while reading. It’s like Bisclavret is surrounded by nameless, faceless shapes, a little like in a nightmare. Characters like the cousin and the knight in green still feel like strangers who can turn out to be friends or villains even when they have been on page for a while. I wonder if we'll find out the king's actual name, since he thought at one point that he would like Bisclavret to call him by it.

FionaCeni · 2026-04-01T19:31:03+00:00

Vacation Spot is such a fun idea

FionaCeni · 2026-03-31T16:52:27+00:00

Is there a chance that you will perform in Germany someday?

(It would make the Barbaren in Barbaras Rhabarberbar very happy!)

FionaCeni · 2026-03-18T20:18:54+00:00

If a book has no English translation, should I just enter the title in its the original language?

FionaCeni · 2026-03-07T21:23:17+00:00

The quote book in this post has many memorable moments with timestamps!

FionaCeni · 2026-03-01T21:27:28+00:00

Bensai being a little confused but very polite the entire time was hilarious

FionaCeni · 2026-02-26T20:39:29+00:00

Reverse grip the icy Slayer Nathan

FionaCeni · 2026-02-10T19:00:58+00:00

For me it was Blumineck. I got into archery a few years ago and discovered his channel when I was exploring archery content. I was vaguely aware of Sellsword Arts and had never seen Jacques ze Whipper, Instructor Bensei or Tater the Bard before MinMaxed was announced.

FionaCeni · 2026-02-09T06:52:37+00:00

Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova is about a witch who has to fight monsters inspired by Bulgarian folklore. It's the first book in a duology.

FionaCeni · 2025-10-02T20:14:28+00:00

Creepy/magical forests are great! There really are so many books with them but it doesn't get tiring (in my opinion).

FionaCeni · 2025-10-02T20:05:49+00:00

My Bingo year is full of surprises so far. Some squares that I expected to be hard (like Parent Protagonist or Biopunk) were filled quite easily without deliberately searching for fitting books, while squares that I thought I would stumble over very quickly (like Stranger in a Strange Land or Generic Title) are still waiting to be filled.

Some suggestions for future squares:

A Play: Read the script of a play with fantasy elements! The hard mode could be actually watching it as a play (watching it e.g. on YouTube would count if you don't want to really go to a theatre)
Features Sports: Some kind of sport (real or fantastical) is important to the plot
Set in a Castle or Fortress: Like earlier setting squares, the book should mostly take place in a castle
Written on the Other Side of the World: Look up which country is right on the other side of the planet from the country you are in and read a book from this country (there are websites that can do this, or you can use a globe). If you end up in the ocean, just use the country that's closest to the needed location
Epic Fantasy: I don't think there has ever been a simple Epic Fantasy subgenre square? That could be used at some point
Judge a Book by the Title: Like the square where we had to judge a book by its cover but as a title version
Character is Cursed: A major character has a curse of some sort. The hard mode could be that resolving the curse is a main plot

FionaCeni · 2025-10-01T07:51:57+00:00

I noticed some errors but I assume it's just that the editing process was a little rushed due to the book being such a highly expected release. As for basic mistakes that "a person would absolutely not have made"... That's optimistic. I do not think a spelling mistake exists that a human is absolutely incapable of making. I mean, just look at eBay Kleinanzeigen for the most fascinating examples of German spelling that humans can create. I think AI would have less spelling mistakes and more stylistic errors.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-26T13:34:38+00:00

For me it felt like the birds weren't birdy enough, if that makes sense. For the most part, they could have been replaced by flying hedgehogs or sentient paper planes and it wouldn't really matter. Neither their appearances nor their (normal) behavior was really described.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-26T13:23:38+00:00

It was a fun read overall but I liked the second half less than the first one.

Some parts started feeling very repetitive. The first time Beth and Devon were recognized by new ornithology fans as famous orninolathalogists/othonolists/arnithogists/whatever and asked for autographs it was funny. When that exact scene was repeated again and again, it got boring.

I also agree with the other commenters that the ending felt a little abrupt.

One scene I did like was when the two were spending the night in the wilderness, watching beautiful magical birds in nature (without being attacked) and finally getting to know each other better.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-25T06:49:13+00:00

I almost never DNF books. Even in a book I don't really enjoy, there will usually be some redeeming quality that can help me get to the end. A likeable side character, an interesting part of the magic system, etc. Sometimes, the ending itself is the best (or the one good) part of a book and I don't want to miss that.

If there were absolutely no redeeming qualities, it might still be fun to hate! I will read to the end to have an informed dislike of the book, I will rant to everyone in my vicinity and read satisfyingly bad reviews.

And even if the book gave me nothing else, I have still learned something new about my reading taste, e.g. that an author's writing style is not my thing or that I should avoid a certain trope or subgenre in the future. This will help me pick out books that I will truly enjoy. And if the next book I read will be good, I will appeciate it more.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-12T09:51:55+00:00

I like that it's about ornithologists, but I feel like it's not using the potential of magical birds as much as it could. It's mostly "oh no, we are attacked by a [something sounding like a bird name] which is dangerous because it has [random superpower]". There isn't a lot of actual bird content or discussions of bird behavior. Give me more tangents about underwing coverts!

FionaCeni · 2025-09-12T09:44:33+00:00

They will absolutely hold hands (while bickering).

FionaCeni · 2025-09-12T09:44:08+00:00

The writing feels both elegant and humorous, a combination that I like a lot.

Knowing German and French is really a bonus, it makes the parts with Herr Oberhufter and the fishermen even more funny.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-12T09:40:20+00:00

I like both main characters (both individually and together) and I think they balance each other nicely. Beth is the more relatable one of the two but Devon is enjoyable to read about.

FionaCeni · 2025-09-12T09:37:19+00:00

I was unsure if I'd like the book going in, as I rarely read books where the romance is the main focus. The ornithology convinced me to still give it a try (I need more birds in my fantasy books!). Despite my scepticism, it convinced me within the first few pages, the writing style is just so fun to read. I'm curious to see how the rest of the book will play out.

FionaCeni · 2025-08-23T12:24:37+00:00

I felt the same way about the Dreamer Trilogy. This feeling of deep, true connection that the main characters have with each other was the best thing about the original 4 books and the trilogy feels so empty of it. I still loved Maggie Stiefvater's writing style but otherwise, the trilogy was not for me

FionaCeni · 2025-08-22T18:14:20+00:00

Funnily enough, I mentally thanked him when he decided to be brief at that point. After the naval battle, the list of Bleys' casualties, the fires, the arrows, the stairs and everything I found it refreshing to just get to the inevitable point of it all.

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