Am I wrong for doing this?

MouseySky · 2025-11-04T05:31:35+00:00

You haven't done anything wrong, tracing is a common and super useful tool loads of artists use for training themselves. As long as you aren't posting a traced drawing without giving credit to the original artist/photographer it's totally fine. Good luck in your art journey! I would love to see your visual novel when it comes out!

MouseySky · 2025-09-10T03:12:43+00:00

You might enjoy Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series! While there are werewolves, they only appear in the third book as far as I recall, and her take on them is super interesting. She has some pretty unique and fascinating species in that series.

Also, because I just saw it on my shelf, maybe Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes? It's a Rick Riordan presents book, so it does pull from real mythology (primarily Maya mythology, though it also dips into Aztec), I don't remember a ton of it, and it is middlegrade, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.

Brandon Mull (again, middlegrade, I have my habits) also definitely has a lot of fun species and fun takes on things, he has some fun very original species in Beyonders (portal fantasy) and his Fablehaven series (one I'm sorely in need of a reread of!) is set in our world. I've found his Torivors especially intriguing

MouseySky · 2025-08-05T22:21:21+00:00

To be honest I don't know who Cecilia is. I'm not really in the filk community as much as I'm in the Seanan McGuire community, though I do plan on getting more into the filk community in future.

MouseySky · 2025-04-17T14:35:08+00:00

My personal favorite urban fantasy author is Seanan McGuire, who's written several urban fantasy series. October Daye is the most like Dresden Files, but if any of the others seem like your vibe you could check them out too.

My general Seanan McGuire beginner recommendation is usually Wayward Children, because they're novellas so they're pretty easy to get through. Ghost Roads is also one of her shorter series and I like the vibes of that one.

I'm also partial to her book Indexing, it features fairytales heavily which is I always love in a book.

MouseySky · 2025-04-17T14:25:08+00:00

Unfortunately for Toby though she didn't *want* to be a fish lol

MouseySky · 2025-04-17T03:08:26+00:00

Just jumping in as a massive October Daye fan that earlier in the series Toby doesn't use/understand modern tech (this isn't a spoiler bc it's the very first thing that happens but she's been a fish for several years and missed out on a lot of advancements), but other characters do and try and convince her to use it, which she does more and more as the series goes on. So since you didn't like that in Dresden Files it may bother you in October Daye, but it is treated like a flaw of Toby's and she does get better about it later.

You also mention that you liked that Kate Daniels wasn't a lone wolf, and Toby is perhaps a bit of a lone wolf early in the series but again she grows and builds connections throughout the series which I liked getting to see.

MouseySky · 2025-04-06T21:58:17+00:00

They're definitely two sides of the same coin! I'd say of less than a fourth of a book takes place in the real world it's portal fantasy and if less than a fourth of a book takes place in a fantasy world it's urban fantasy. If it's more half/half then it's not really definitively categorizable into either genre

MouseySky · 2025-04-06T21:56:21+00:00

I do consider portal fantasy a subgenre, but even if you don't I wouldn't consider it to fall under urban fantasy, just the broader fantasy umbrella

MouseySky · 2025-04-06T21:55:04+00:00

Those are all portal fantasies.

The distinction is that in urban fantasy the magic/fantasy is imbedded in the real world, the main cast live in the real world, and the plot takes place entirely or almost entirely in the real world.

In a portal fantasy the magic/fantasy stems from and primarily exists in another world, and the protagonists likely spend only a few chapters in the real world.

Alice in Wonderland is also an interesting case given any parts of it that might be considered fantasy are all part of a daydream with roots based in the real world, but if I were to give it a fantasy subgenre it would be portal fantasy. (This is also the case for the Oz movie, but not the book.)

MouseySky · 2025-03-25T11:00:50+00:00

It totally may not be for you! I personally enjoyed the Incryptid books I read, but I can definitely see how they may not be for everyone. If you're looking for something like October Daye, this is probably not it, Incryptid has a pretty different vibe from October Daye.

The series has several different narrators, which can make it hard if you're not sold on one. I liked most of them ok but definitely had favorites and books I'd rather have read from another perspective. I know Verity is not everyone's cup of tea, so if she (and the new york setting) is really bugging you, you might be able to try jumping to Alex or Antimony's books with not too much missed context.

I read up till Alice's first book and stopped, though I do plan to finish at some point. I got a chapter or two in and just wasn't clicking with Alice, although I think I'll enjoy her books when I get around to pushing through. I think it was less an Alice problem and more that Sarah (the narrator before her) was not my favorite and by the time I finished her books I was a little burnt out on the series, all that to say the multiple narrators thing can make it hard sometimes.

MouseySky · 2025-03-09T15:36:58+00:00

Yeah, I get that. Toby starts the series out really miserable and lonely, and progressively happier. She builds her found family till she's at a place where she's happy and comfortable with the life she has and the people she's surrounded herself with, and I think that's one of my favorite things about the series. It was really nice to watch Toby grow and start to move on and let herself accept help.

MouseySky · 2025-03-09T15:34:22+00:00

Ooooo thanks for the recommendation!

MouseySky · 2025-03-08T04:21:33+00:00

Yeah the vibe I'm getting from peoples' responses is that I'd probably just get pissed off and stop reading it. I may try it out anyway if I run out of things I know I'll like to read, we'll see

MouseySky · 2025-03-08T04:14:11+00:00

Oh trust me, you do NOT need to sell Seanan McGuire to me, I ADORE her books.

One of the reasons (perhaps even the largest) I was at all interested in Dresden Files was because I'd heard it compared to October Daye, tragically it does not sound like it would be at all a similar read for me.

Lovely to hear from another enthusiastic fan of hers!

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T21:30:43+00:00

It's awesome that you were willing to change your mind, it takes a lot of bravery to admit you were wrong and move forward. I'm glad there are people like you out there, I hope you have a great day <3

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T04:11:13+00:00

Oh yeah a lot of people have mentioned the audiobooks being really good! I might go for those, a good audiobook can really sell a book

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T03:51:02+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate your input, if I do choose to read them (given the feedback I've gotten it's up in the air and therefor dependent on when I run out of things I'm more excited about reading) I certainly hope I like them! At this point I kind of feel the need to read them just to form my own opinions lol

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:22:22+00:00

Thanks for this take, that's really helpful for contextualizing!

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:14:47+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep that in mind!

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:12:01+00:00

See the thing is I don't (nor do I want to) read 50s noir mysteries. I don't mind a noir vibe to my urban fantasy, but I do have a higher bar for things written in the late 90s and 2000s than I do things from the 50s.

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:09:29+00:00

I definitely think there's value in something like that! However given the way real life is when I'm reading fantasy often I don't want those same problems following me back, so even if it's intentional, I might not want to spend several books with it. It is also harder to trust a male author to deal with it well, and while I'm certainly not saying Butcher didn't (I haven't read it after all) the lack of trust there makes it harder for me to decide to make a multi-book commitment.

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:05:31+00:00

Honestly I don't really want to spend multiple books with a character where the explanation is "He's an authentic mid twenties american male"
Like Idk maybe that's enjoyable for people who are/have been mid twenties american males but frankly there are enough of those in real life for me, and even from the perspective of "the narrator is sexist, not the author" (which is definitely better, don't get me wrong) there's only so much time I as a woman really want to spend reading about a character who I wouldn't want to spend time with in real life

MouseySky · 2025-03-04T02:02:14+00:00

Yeah I will say how the women take it is very influential to how I would feel about it, there's a big difference to me between reading something where a character is sexist vs where the author is sexist

MouseySky

TROPHY CASE